Position Papers - November 2014

A review of Catholic affairs

A Tale of Two Synods In passing: our absolute corruption is all but inevitable Church history and evangelization There is no future for a society of self-absorbed individuals Praying for the dead in November

Number 481 November 2014

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Number 481 November 2014

Editorial

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Message of the Synod of bishops to families Vatican Press Office

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Pope Francis speech at the conclusion of the Synod Vatican Radio

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A Tale of Two Synods D. Vincent Twomey SVD

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In Passing: our absolute corruption is all but inevitable Michael Kirke

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Church History and Evangelization Fr. John McCloskey

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There is no future for a society of self-absorbed individuals Cormac Burke

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Praying for the dead in November Fr. Eugene O'Neill

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Film review: Fury John Mulderig

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Editor: Assistant editors: Subscription manager: Secretary: Design:

Rev. Gavan Jennings Michael Kirke, Pat Hanratty, Brenda McGann Liam Ó hAlmhain Dick Kearns Víctor Díaz

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his month in our lead article Rev. Vincent Twomey clarifies for us some of the issues connected with the recently concluded extraordinary synod on the family. This synod has caused quite a stir in the media and has at times been greatly confusing for many Catholics. Ambiguous declarations regarding sexuality in general and homosexual activity in particular have been noised abroad a lot over the past weeks, giving some the impression that the Holy Father was on the point of significantly altering the Church’s perennial teaching on sexual morality.

This highlights the pressing need for Catholics to be both media savvy and to have a lot of faith. A media savvy person is aware that the media necessarily “frames” its news reports.

Framing, in the words of the experts, is:

Editorial

…the way an issue is defined, packaged, and presented in the story. When covering stories, journalists select certain arguments, examples, images, messages, and sources to create a picture of the issue. This selection -– or omission – of arguments and voices functions similar to a frame around a photograph, telling us what information is important and what information we can ignore (Berkeley Media Studies Group). !

Pope Francis has, almost from the outset of his papacy, been framed by the Western media as a reforming, liberal (especially in contrast with his predecessor). Obviously the frame is not without a foundation in reality: the Pope is very clearly moved by a particular charism of mercy to reach out to those

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on the peripheries of the Church’s life. However the frame simplifies the picture, and is always to some degree a distortion, and this is especially true of stories relating to Church matters. (And this is not inevitably malicious.) The frame invariably distorts Church stories for the simple reason that the secular media will, understandably, always omit from the frame supernatural elements as unimportant and irrelevant. In other words, a divine institution, such as the Catholic Church is, can never really be accurately reported on through the lens of the secular media.

Editorial

But Catholic must look on these matters with a different lens: through the eyes of supernatural faith. Faith gives us the capacity to assess events according to a divine logic often at variance with purely human logic. For the person who has supernatural faith (and who knows his catechism), the story (of the synod in this case) simply makes no sense with the supernatural element absent. The Catholic knows – with the certainty of faith – that the Roman Pontiff, is infallible “in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful – who confirms his brethren in the faith – he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.891). He will not, and simply cannot, lead his flock astray. And to say differently may sell newspapers, but Catholics should not buy it.

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Message of the Synod of bishops to families Vatican Press Office (October 18, 2014)

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e, Synod Fathers, gathered in Rome together with Pope Francis in the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, greet all families of the different continents and in particular all who follow Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We admire and are grateful for the daily witness which you offer us and the world with your fidelity, faith, hope, and love.

us the saga of their joys and their difficulties.

The preparation for this synod assembly, beginning with the questionnaire sent to the Churches around the world, has given us the opportunity to listen to the experience of many families. Our dialogue during the Synod has been mutually enriching, helping us to look at the complex situations which face families today.

Each of us, pastors of the Church, grew up in a family, and we come from a great variety of backgrounds and experiences.

As priests and bishops we have lived alongside families who have spoken to us and shown

We offer you the words of Christ: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I

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will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me� (Rev 3:20). On his journeys along the roads of the Holy Land, Jesus would enter village houses. He continues to pass even today along the streets of our cities. In yourself homes there are light and shadow. Challenges often present themselves and at times even great trials. The darkness can grow deep to the point of becoming a dense shadow when evil and sin work into the heart of the family.

where the Christian choice is not obvious.

We think also of the burden imposed by life in the suffering that can arise with a child with special needs, with grave illness, in deterioration of old age, or in the death of a loved one. We admire the fidelity of so many families who endure these trials with courage, faith, and love. They see them not as a burden inflicted on them, but as something in which they themselves give, seeing the suffering Christ in the weakness of the flesh.

We recognise the great challenge to remain faithful in conjugal love. Enfeebled faith and indifference to true values, individualism, impoverishment of relationships, and stress that excludes reflection leave their mark on family life. There are often crises in marriage, often confronted in haste and without the courage to have patience and reflect, to make sacrifices and to forgive one another. Failures give rise to new relationships, new couples, new civil unions, and new marriages, creating family situations which are complex and problematic,

We recall the difficulties caused by economic systems, by the “the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose� (Evangelii gaudium 55) which weakens the dignity of people. We remember unemployed parents who are powerless to provide basic needs for their families, and youth who see before them days of empty expectation, who are prey to drugs and crime.

We think of so many poor families, of those who cling to boats

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in order to reach a shore of surChrist wanted his Church to be vival, of refugees wandering a house with doors always open without hope in the desert, of to welcome everyone. We those persecuted because of warmly thank our pastors, lay their faith and the human faithful, and communities and spiritual values who accompany couwhich they hold. ples and families and “The culture of These are strickcare for their prosperity deadens en by the bruwounds. us… all those lives stunttality of war ed for lack of opportunity There is a n d o pseem a mere spectacle; they fail also the pression. to move us” evening light We remembehind the winber the women Evangelii gaudium dowpanes in the w h o s u ff e r v i ohouses of the cities, in lence and exploitamodest residences of tion, victims of human suburbs and villages, and trafficking, children abused even in mere shacks, which by those who ought to have shines out brightly, warming protected them and fostered bodies and souls. This light – their development, and the the light of a wedding story – members of so many families shines from the encounter bewho have been degraded and tween spouses: it is a gift, a burdened with difficulties. “The grace expressed, as the Book of culture of prosperity deadens us Genesis says (2:18), when the … all those lives stunted for lack two are “face to face” as equal of opportunity seem a mere and mutual helpers. The love of spectacle; they fail to move man and woman teaches us us” (Evangelii gaudium 54). We that each needs the other in orcall on governments and inder to be truly self. Each reternational organisations to mains different from the other promote the rights of the family that opens self and is revealed for the common good. in the reciprocal gift. It is this that the bride of the Song of

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Songs sings in her canticle: “My beloved is mine and I am his… I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song of Songs 2:16; 6:3).

those who have not been able to bear children. Families who live this light-filled adventure become a sign for all, especially for young people.

This authentic encounter begins with courtship, a time of waiting and preparation. It is realised in the sacrament where God sets his seal, his presence, and grace. This path also includes sexual relationship, tenderness, intimacy, and beauty capable of lasting longer than the vigour and freshness of youth. Such love, of its nature, strives to be forever to the point of laying down one’s life for the beloved (cf Jn 15:13). In this light conjugal love, which is unique and indissoluble, endures despite many difficulties. It is one of the most beautiful of all miracles and the most common.

This journey is sometimes a mountainous trek with hardships and falls. God is always there to accompany us. The family experiences his presence in affection and dialogue between husband and wife, parents and children, sisters and brothers. They embrace him in family prayer and listening to the Word of God – a small, daily oasis of the spirit.

They discover him every day as they educate their children in the faith and in the beauty of a life lived according to the Gospel, a life of holiness.

Grandparents also share in this task with great affection and dedication. The family is thus an authentic domestic Church that expands to become the family of families which is the ecclesial community. Christian spouses are called to become teachers of faith and of love for young couples as well.

This love spreads through fertility and generativity, which involves not only the procreation of children but also the gift of divine life in baptism, their catechesis, and their education. It includes the capacity to offer life, affection, and values – an experience possible even for

Another expression of fraternal communion is charity, giving,

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nearness to those who are last, marginalised, poor, lonely, sick, strangers, and families in crisis, aware of the Lord’s word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). It is a gift of goods, of fellowship, of love and mercy, and also a witness to the truth, to light, and to the meaning of life.

Nazareth, we raise to the Father of all our petition for the families of the world: Father, grant to all families the presence of strong and wise spouses who may be the source of a free and united family.

Father, grant that parents may have a home in which to live in peace with their families.

The high point which sums up all the threads of communion with God and neighbour is the Sunday Eucharist when the family and the whole Church sits at table with the Lord. He gives himself to all of us, pilgrims through history towards the goal of the final encounter when “Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:11). In the first stage of our Synod itinerary, therefore, we have reflected on how to accompany those who have been divorced and remarried and on their participation in the sacraments.

Father, grant that children may be a sign of trust and hope and that young people may have the courage to forge life-long, faithful commitments.

Father, grant to all that they may be able to earn bread with their hands, that they may enjoy serenity of spirit and that they may keep aflame the torch of faith even in periods of darkness.

Father, grant that we may all see flourish a Church that is ever more faithful and credible, a just and humane city, a world that loves truth, justice and mercy.

We Synod Fathers ask you walk with us towards the next Synod.

The presence of the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you.

United to the Family of

Vatican Press Office, October 18, 2014

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Pope Francis speech at the conclusion of the Synod

by Vatican Radio (2014-10-19)

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t the conclusion of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, Pope Francis addressed the assembled Fathers, thanking them for their efforts and encouraging them to continue to journey.

Below, please find Vatican Radio's provisional translation of Pope Francis' address to the Synod Fathers: Dear Eminences, Beatitudes, Excellencies, Brothers and Sisters, With a heart full of appreciation and gratitude I want to thank, along with you, the Lord who has accompanied and guided us in the past days, with the light of the Holy Spirit.

From the heart I thank Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, Bishop Fabio Fabene, under-secretary, and with them I thank the Relators, Cardinal Peter Erdo, who has worked so much in these days of family mourning, and the Special Secretary Bishop Bruno Forte, the three President delegates, the transcribers, the consultors, the translators and

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the unknown workers, all those who have worked with true fidelity and total dedication behind the scenes and without rest. Thank you so much from the heart.

I thank all of you as well, dear Synod fathers, Fraternal Delegates, Auditors, and Assessors, for your active and fruitful participation. I will keep you in prayer asking the Lord to reward you with the abundance of His gifts of grace!

I can happily say that – with a spirit of collegiality and of synodality – we have truly lived the experience of “Synod,” a path of solidarity, a “journey together.”

And it has been “a journey” – and like every journey there were moments of running fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting to say “enough”; other moments of enthusiasm and ardour. There were moments of profound consolation listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry in their hearts the joys and

the tears of their faithful people.

Moments of consolation and grace and comfort hearing the testimonies of the families who have participated in the Synod and have shared with us the beauty and the joy of their married life. A journey where the stronger feel compelled to help the less strong, where the more experienced are led to serve others, even through confrontations. And since it is a journey of human beings, with the consolations there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations, of which a few possibilities could be mentioned:

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One, a temptation to hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written word, (the letter) and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God, by the God of surprises, (the spirit); within the law, within the certitude of what we know and not of what we still need to learn and to achieve. From the time of Christ, it is the temptation of the zealous, of the scrupulous, of the solicitous and of the so-called – today

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– “traditionalists” and also of the intellectuals.

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The temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness [it. buonismo], that in the name of a deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the roots.

It is the temptation of the “dogooders,” of the fearful, and also of the so-called “progressives and liberals”.

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The temptation to transform stones into bread to break the long, heavy, and painful fast (cf. Lk 4:1-4); and also to transform the bread into a stone and cast it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick (cf Jn 8:7), that is, to transform it into unbearable burdens (Lk 11:46).

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The temptation to come down off the Cross, to please the people, and not stay there, in order to fulfil the will of the Father; to bow down to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God.

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The temptation to neglect the “depositum fidei” [the deposit of faith], not thinking of themselves as guardians but as owners or masters [of it]; or, on the other hand, the temptation to neglect reality, making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing!

They call them “byzantinisms,” I think, these things…

Ignatius called it (Spiritual Exercises, 6), if all were in a state of agreement, or silent in a false and quietist peace. Instead, I have seen and I have heard – with joy and appreciation – speeches and interventions full of faith, of pastoral and doctrinal zeal, of wisdom, of frankness and of courage: and of parresia.

And I have felt that what was set before our eyes was the good of the Church, of families, and the “supreme law,” the “good of souls” (cf. Can. 1752).

Dear brothers and And this always – we sisters, the temptahave said it here, in This is the tions must not the Hall – without Church, One, frighten or disever putting into Holy, Catholic, concert us, or question the Apostolic and even discourage fundamental composed of us, because no t ruths of the sinners, needful of God’s mercy. disciple is greater Sacrament of than his master; so marriage: the indisif Jesus Himself was solubility, the unity, tempted – and even called the faithfulness, the fruitBeelzebul (cf. Mt 12:24) – His fulness, that openness to life (cf. disciples should not expect betCann. 1055, 1056; and Gauditer treatment. um et spes, 48).

Personally I would be very worried and saddened if it were not for these temptations and these animated discussions; this movement of the spirits, as St

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And this is the Church, the vineyard of the Lord, the fertile Mother and the caring Teacher, who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves to pour oil and wine on

people’s wound; who doesn’t see humanity as a house of glass to judge or categorize people. This is the Church, One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and composed of sinners, needful of God’s mercy. This is the Church, the true bride of Christ, who seeks to be faithful to her spouse and to her doctrine. It is the Church that is not afraid to eat and drink with prostitutes and publicans. The Church that has the doors wide open to receive the needy, the penitent, and not only the just or those who believe they are perfect!

The Church that is not ashamed of the fallen brother and pretends not to see him, but on the contrary feels involved and almost obliged to lift him up and to encourage him to take up the journey again and accompany him toward a definitive encounter with her Spouse, in the heavenly Jerusalem.

The is the Church, our Mother!

And when the Church, in the variety of her charisms, expresses herself in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the strength of the sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense

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of the faith which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit so that, together, we can all enter into the heart of the Gospel and learn to follow Jesus in our life. And this should never be seen as a source of confusion and discord.

Many commentators, or people who talk, have imagined that they see a disputatious Church where one part is against the other, doubting even the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of the unity and harmony of the Church – the Holy Spirit who throughout history has always guided the barque, through her Ministers, even when the sea was rough and choppy, and the ministers unfaithful and sinners.

And, as I have dared to tell you , [as] I told you from the beginning of the Synod, it was necessary to live through all this with tranquillity, and with interior peace, so that the Synod would take place cum Petro and sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.

We will speak a little bit about the Pope, now, in relation to the Bishops [laughing]. So, the duty of the Pope is that of guaranteeing the unity of the Church; it is that of reminding the faithful of their duty to faithfully follow the Gospel of Christ; it is that of reminding the pastors that their first duty is to nourish the flock – to nourish the flock – that the Lord has entrusted to them, and to seek to welcome – with fatherly care and mercy, and without false fears – the lost sheep.

I made a mistake here. I said welcome: [rather] to go out and find them.

His duty is to remind everyone that authority in the Church is a service, as Pope Benedict XVI clearly explained, with words I cite verbatim: “The Church is called and commits herself to exercise this kind of authority which is service and exercises it not in her own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ… through the Pastors of the Church, in fact: it is he who guides, protects and corrects them, because he loves them deeply. But the Lord Jesus, the supreme Shepherd of our souls, has

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willed that the Apostolic College, today the Bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter… to participate in his mission of taking care of God's People, of educating them in the faith and of guiding, inspiring and sustaining the Christian community, or, as the Council puts it, ‘to see to it... that each member of the faithful shall be led in the Holy Spirit to the full development of his own vocation in accordance with Gospel preaching, and to sincere and active charity’ and to exercise that liberty with which Christ has set us free (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 6)… and it is through us,” Pope Benedict continues, that the Lord reaches souls, instructs, guards and guides them. St Augustine, in his Commentary on the Gospel of St John, says: ‘let it therefore be a commitment of love to feed the flock of the Lord’ (cf. 123, 5); this is the supreme rule of conduct for the ministers of God, an unconditional love, like that of the Good Shepherd, full of joy, given to all, attentive to those close to us and solici-

tous for those who are distant (cf. St Augustine, Discourse 340, 1; Discourse 46, 15), gentle towards the weakest, the little ones, the simple, the sinners, to manifest the infinite mercy of God with the reassuring words of hope (cf. ibid., Epistle, 95, 1).

Dear brothers and sisters, now we still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must confront; to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and suffocate families.

So, the Church is Christ’s – she is His bride – and all the bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter, have the task and the duty of guarding her and serving her, not as masters but as servants. The Pope, in this context, is not the supreme lord but rather the supreme servant – the “servant of the servants of God”; the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim, despite being – by the will of Christ Himself – the “supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful” (Can. 749) and despite enjoying “supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church” (cf. Cann. 331-334).

One year to work on the “Synodal Relatio” which is the faithful and clear summary of everything that has been said and discussed in this hall and in the small groups. It is presented to the Episcopal Conferences as “lineamenta” [guidelines].

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May the Lord accompany us, and guide us in this journey for the glory of His Name, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Saint Joseph.

And please, do not forget to pray for me! Thank you!

[The hymn Te Deum was sung, and Benediction given.]

Thank you, and rest well, eh?

From Vatican Radio

A Tale of Two Synods D. Vincent Twomey SVD

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ast Saturday, the synod closed with the voting on the final report and with a final address by the Pope, which was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation. The week of high drama ended with a great sigh of relief: schism, which seemed imminent, had been avoided.

On most issues, a near unanimity had been established. The final report, with the exception of three paragraphs out of 62, had been approved by an overwhelming majority. The report is a impressive document, considering that is was the product not just of one but of several committees. Even more impressive was the closing message from

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the synod fathers to families, which is almost poetic at times.

It is Franciscan in tone. Both it and the main content of the final report were almost totally ignored by the media.

Instead, the secular media highlighted the three paragraphs that did not achieve the required two thirds majority: in particular, the one dealing with same-sex relations (number 55). Some media coverage gave the impression that the extraordinary synod was primarily devoted to same-sex relations. The one paragraph that did mention the topic rejected discrimination, as could be expected, and rightly called for sensitivity in dealing with persons in such relation-

ships, but it also reiterated Church teaching on the matter, including the rejection of any attempt to equate same-sex unions even remotely with marriage.

What the media ignored was paragraph 56, which was approved by an overwhelming majority. It rejected, in effect, the attempt to intimidate Church pastors with regard to this question, as well as taking international organisations to task for linking aid to poor countries with legislation for so-called “marriage” of people of the same sex.

In a sense, there were two synods taking place over the past week, one inside the Synod Hall and the other in the media. And the media, whether secular or Catholic, cannot be entirely blamed for this. They had to interpret the selectively leaked information from what should have been an open synod – and naturally each side chose whatever fitted their own particular agenda or concern. Catholicism and sex is a heady mixture that fascinates the western media.

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Media coverage can be like a hall of distorting mirrors. The distorted images of the Synod deliberations fed into the public’s expectations and/or fears.

They fuelled the initial confusion caused by the way the first week of the synod was manipulated by those who were convinced that they were acting according to the mind of Pope Francis. Inside the synod, things were, by all accounts, quite different.

The actual situation was summed up by the Pope in his closing address. The synod was an exercise in real collegiality and rare frankness. He referred to the ups and downs, the tensions and excitement of a sometimes very heated debate between committed pastors, albeit coming from different perspectives, some radically different. It was a battle of the titans. Some of the drama leaked out and made the headlines. The final report came as a real surprise. It is not a great literary masterpiece, but it is a document rooted in good theology and sensitive to the myriad problems that

beset marriage, the family, children, and single people today.

Pope Francis concluded his address by quoting his immediate predecessor extensively. The supreme rule of conduct for all the ministers of God is, Benedict XVI wrote, “an unconditional love, like that of the Good Shepherd, full of joy, given to all, attentive to those close to us and solicitous for those who are distant [...], gentle towards the weakest, the little ones, the simple, the sinners, to manifest the infinite mercy of God with the reassuring words of hope [quoting St Augustine].” The Pope, in Francis’s own words, “is not the supreme lord, but rather the supreme servant the servant of the servants of God; the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim, despite being by the will of Christ Himself the supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful [...] and despite enjoying supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church

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[quoting Canon Law].”[All quotations from Zenit, October 19, 2014].

He had prefaced his remarks on the Papacy with the following comment on the Church, Bride of Christ, Mother of the afflicted, which provides their correct theological context: "[...] And when the Church, in the variety of her charisms, expresses herself in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the strength of the sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of the faith which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit so that, together, we can all enter into the heart of the Gospel and learn to follow Jesus in our life." And then he added the most telling sentence of all: “And this should never be seen as a source of confusion and discord.” But it was.

The well-meaning campaign by Cardinal Walter Kasper, backed by most (but certainly not all) German and Italian bishops, to promote his own novel proposal to grant (some) remarried divorcees admission to the sacraments was the cause of that confusion and discord. The

cardinal claimed that he had Pope Francis’s backing. That campaign and the media coverage it received, particularly by more so-called “progressive” Catholics, caused acute distress to those others, who, at no little personal cost, try to remain true to the Magisterium. They feel that they are the ones who are marginalised in the Church. One priest confided to me that his faith has been severely tested over the past 18 months. He was not alone.

Yet there must be some truth to Cardinal Kasper’s assertion.

And I think it is to be found in the Holy Father’s intense desire to embrace the sinner as Christ did. His whole pontificate manifests that love. It is the love of the anxious father waiting for the Prodigal Son to return to his loving embrace. Many who went astray, and who for years felt lost and abandoned by the Church, or many outside the Church, who (falsely but understandably) perceived her moral teaching as rigorous, have come back to receive forgiveness and absolution in Confession. Considering this alone, the

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price those who have tried to remain true to the Magisterium of the recent popes have had to pay, in terms of being marginalised within the Church, has been worth it.

The final report quotes from the Magisterium of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It is also more faithful to Humanae Vitae than the mid-term report. At the beatification last Sunday, Francis praised Paul VI’s courage.

He said: “When we look to this great pope, this courageous Christian, this tireless apostle, we cannot but say in the sight of God a word as simple as it is heartfelt and important: thanks!”

And then he exclaimed, as the faithful applauded: “Thank you, our dear and beloved Pope Paul VI! Thank you for your humble and prophetic witness of love for Christ and his Church!” That was the only reference to Humanae Vitae, but, oblique though it was, it was hugely significant.

Pope Francis, it seems, is aware of the tendency to selfrighteousness and rigourism in those who, at times all too vo-

ciferously, defend the Church's highly contentious moral teaching and so he uses every opportunity to exercise fraternal correction towards them, as he did in his concluding address to the Synod. He also seems to be aware of the tendency among priests and bishops who, out of sympathy for hard cases, reject the recent Papal Magisterium. In the same concluding address, Pope Francis warned them of "[t]he temptation to come down off the Cross, to please the people, and not stay there [on the Cross], in order to fulfil the will of the Father", and he further warns them about the tendency "to bow down to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God." The special Petrine mission of the present Holy Father could be summed up in Jesus' High Priestly Prayer: “That they all may be one" (Jn 17:21). And that is the purpose of the whole process of this unique Synod of Bishops extending over twelve months, which, paradoxically, thanks to the media, has now involved the whole Church in a way that can only be dramatic

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and risky. But it is a risk that is worth taking.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rev. Vincent Twomey is Professor Emeritus at Pontifical University, St. Patrick's College Maynooth. He did his doctoral studies in the University of Regensburg under the then Prof. Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. Since 1978, he has been a member of the Ratzinger circle of doctoral and post-doctoral students that meets once a year for a week-end seminar. In 1986, he founded The Patristic Symposium, at Maynooth.

In Passing: our absolute corruption is all but inevitable Michael Kirke

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uppressing anger was the most difficult thing – anger about injustice, dishonesty and manipulation of people and the truth itself.

Generating hope was the second – not that the thrust of the conference was ignoring the vital need we all have to sustain our hope.

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he conference in question was the recent think – in of Ireland's Pro Life Campaign on the greatest evil of our time – the wholesale slaughter of the innocent, already a reality across much of the globe. Forget ISIS, forget the local spat in Ukraine, forget the untold evil being perpetrated in North Korea. No, don't forget them. That would also be evil. But do get them in perspective. The loss of life being inflicted through the world's abortion agencies has now put Genghis Khan in sec-

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ond place. Despite the denials of abortionists we are talking about loss of life. The irrationality of those who try to maintain that the creature awaiting delivery from its mother’s womb is an inanimate collection of tissue is astounding. They offer nothing more than slogans and mantras in answer to the wealth of scientific evidence showing that what is awaiting birth is a human being. Their repeated use of the word foetus is just one example of their attempt to brain-wash t h e t r u t h a w a y. N o t o n l y are they the enemies of the unborn. They are also the enemies of reason.

The Dublin conference was told that Ireland's politically correct power-elite has now injected one of the most virulent strains of this evil into the country's

laws. Ireland had already been infected with this virus – with between three and four thousand babies being shipped for termination to Great Britain every year by abortion counselling agencies – euphemistically called family planning clinics of one kind or another. But Ireland's new abortion law – which will forever be known as Kenny's Law after the wise and wonderful Taoiseach, Enda Kenny – is potentially among the most lethal in the world, permitting the termination of a baby's life right up to the moment before its natural birth.

It was hard not to be angry listening to descriptions of this injustice and the catalogue of political shenanigans which went into its perpetration. But there was hope. It came in the form of some human stories. Essentially they were redemptive stories of conversion and the transformative power of simple reflection and contemplation on the treasure that is human life, seen in the face of a new-born baby, seen in the ultrasound image of a baby's beating heart, even perceived through the painful

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experience of the loss of a child at the hands of manipulating and selfish third parties.

This latter story came from Julia Holcomb. It is a harrowing story of family dysfunction, child abuse at the hands of a rock star, attempted murder and forced abortion – but ultimately of conversion and forgiveness.

Julia's story – available to view and read on the Internet on the LifeSiteNews website – tells us not just a story of abortion but shows us the trail of unhappiness, disorder, and pain left by a society given over to selfishness and the untrammelled pursuit of pleasure.

An Irish story, less traumatic but equally moving, was that of Jennifer O'Farrell. Jennifer is a young Dublin professional who shortly after the break-up with her then-boyfriend found she was pregnant. Just when she thought she was on top of the world, independent, new apartment, a good job all in the frame, this hammer-blow fell on her.

Pro-choice as a teenager, she had marched on the streets of Dublin with the advocates for abortion-on-demand. Now she was faced with the problem of making her own choice. She attended a pre-natal clinic in the city's Rotunda Hospital. Abortion was not on the cards there but the option of going to Britain for it was. But then the visit to the Rotunda brought a dramatic change. Suddenly it became very clear to her that choice was not an issue any more, indeed the very idea of making a choice between valid options became unthinkable. She looked at the ultrasound image on the screen and saw a little heart flashing.

"In the flash of that little star", she said,

“my problem, my unplanned pregnancy became a human being. At that moment I realised that nothing compares to being a mother.�

She added that the experience, that revelation, that epiphany, showed her that the deceit and lies which lay behind the slo-

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gans of the pro-choice movement were really the narrative of "the vanguard of a misogynistic society." Clearly for her the abortion movement is not about the rights of women but about the power of men over the lives of women so that they can be the objects of their wilful pursuit of their own pleasure – as Julia Holcomb had become for her feckless rockstar lover.

Then came anger again. This was a roller-coaster of a conference. The vice-chair of the ProLife Campaign, Cora Sherlock, was upbeat and optimistic in outlining the achievements and plans of the movement. But when she got around to talking of what she saw as the single biggest challenge facing them in their struggle for the unborn, anger and frustration began to mount. The number-one enemy of the unborn in Ireland is the country's mainstream media.

From playing a role as an evenhanded communicator of the facts and opinions of both sides in this undoubtedly divisive debate, it has become the numberone advocate in the campaign

to bring abortion into Ireland. I have a Google alert set up for news stories on the topic. About 90% of what is flagged to me from Irish media is pro-abortion.

On the day following this conference I could find no report of it in the main Sunday paper – but there was a feature by one of its specialist writers arguing for a change in legislation to allow the killing of babies with "fatal foetal abnormalities". We know what that has led to in other jurisdictions – the wholesale killing of babies with Down syndrome.

Clearly the mainstream media in Ireland has set its face against life and has espoused, lock, stock, and barrel, the culture of death – firstly death for the unborn whom any among those already born, with a say in the matter, wish to dispose of; secondly, death as a valid choice for any who wish to terminate their own lives. That is not where we are yet, but what reason is there to think that this is not where we are headed?

All this is, sadly, the inevitable conclusion of any philosophy

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which sees man as the measure of all things and at the centre of the material world – for there is no other world for anyone espousing this belief. This is the dominant vision in mainstream media – and it is fast conquering public opinion. While it would behove public representatives to think hard and long about where this is leading us, they are not doing so. Public representatives and so-called public intellectuals are in thrall to the advocates of this philosophy. They are all getting on the same bandwagon and leading the people, bit by bit, away from a society where the dominant vision is one preoccupied with the common good, virtue as a value, life as a gift given by a greater power and something which, once given, we are obliged to treasure and care for.

The words of wisdom uttered recently by that towering Irish public intellectual, Gay Byrne, represent the latest example of the salvos being fired in the softening-up strategy of moving our culture of life slowly but surely to a culture of death. The veteran broadcaster has said

that he would "have to consider" assisted suicide if he was faced with "a drawn-out illness of great pain". Pro-choice rules the roost, OK? The power now in the hands of mankind in so many fields of human endeavour is truly awesome. In relation to human life and the issue of our entry and our exit from the stage we now seem unprepared to brook any interference from the dramatist.

With regard to our coming into the world we are at the mercy of the whims of those who should welcome us and care for us in the delicate stages of gestation and birth. They now select at will who may and who may not come through those stages. We are also fast moving to an exit strategy offering the same freedom of choice. Today we are being offered the option of making our exit when we chose to.

Tomorrow – indeed it is already there in some jurisdictions, where terminally ill children may be euthanized – others will be making the decision for us.

Remember the words of Harold Acton – "all power corrupts and

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absolute power corrupts absolutely".How could we forget, when we have seen the principle fulfilled in so many terrifying instances throughout history?

Why should we exclude ourselves from its operation.

Our assumption of the powers which modern technology, modern medicine and a truly perverse modern philosophy have put in our hands, while not quite absolute is still unrestrained to the point where our absolute corruption is all but inevitable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michael Kirke is a freelance writer, a regular contributor to Position Papers, and a widely read blogger at Garvan Hill (www.garvan.wordpress.com).

His views can be responded to at mjgkirke@gmail.com.

Church History and Evangelization Fr. John McCloskey

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s a priest writer and with a pontifical Doctorate in Church History – who also once managed a Catholic book store a few blocks away from the White House – I am frequently asked what books are simply indispensable for a serious Catholic to have always close at hand, whether in hard copies on the bookshelf or nightstand (some of us still remember books with spines made of real paper), or more commonly now on Kindles or iPads.

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I reply simply: 1) the best version you can find of the New Testament, and 2) almost as important, the latest version of The Catechism of the Catholic Church – this later being arguably the greatest product of the Second Vatican Council. Although it was very long in coming (St. John Paul II promulgated it in 1992, which is to say twenty-seven years after the close of the Council), it was well worth the wait.

The result is that now, any serious Catholic can simply look up,

in print or online, the answers they need to crucial questions.

The Catechism is indispensable for one's own knowledge and practice and growth in the Faith.

But it is equally important to enable us to do what should come naturally, i.e., to share our joyful Faith with the many thousands of people with whom we will come in contact over the course of a whole lifetime.

After all, do you want to face the Lord at your particular judgment with empty hands when he asks, "how many souls did you bring to me or how many did you bring back to me? Ask yourself seriously: How will I respond? Where you will wind up in the next life may depend upon your zeal and generosity in sharing Jesus and His Church with others, when you had the opportunity to do so.

Given the challenges involved in that task in our day, there are other things we need. A neglected dimension of the crucial knowledge every Catholic should have is deep immersion in Church History. George Santayana, the American philoso-

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pher, famously remarked that those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. This is an especially important warning for us in the United States.

The widespread ignorance of U.S. history is both a national scandal and a sad joke, particularly given the relatively short time of America's existence in comparison to so many other countries throughout the world.

Knowing our own past helps give direction and meaning to our present and guides us into the future.

This is even more true when it comes to the millennia-long history of the Catholic Church with its deep roots in the history of Israel, through the birth, death, and Resurrection of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, the growth and travails of the Faith over the centuries, which will only cease at the end of time and the Last Judgment.

What other history is so varied and exciting? Catholicism boasts: victories and defeats, saints and sinners, founders and fathers. We have warriors,

peacemakers, monks, martyrs, heretics, hermits, virgins, mystics, scientists, and apparitions.

Catholics have created great religious painting and sculpture, and magnificent cathedrals. In music there are soaring liturgical composition, chants, and hymns. In poetry and literature, we have given the world Dante, C h a u c e r, S h a k e s p e a r e , Chesterton, Belloc, Waugh, Knox, Bernanos, Mauriac, Gilson, and Maritain. And we have the beauty of the Latin Mass And now we're in the wonderful position of having effective means of bringing the history of the Faith to the whole world via Vatican Radio, EWTN, and the Internet. But to stick with books for a moment, just a few further suggestions the Church's history and teaching:

1.

Every Catholic school in the country, without exception and at whatever level (including colleges and universities), should have mandatory and appropriate courses in the history of the Catholic Church.

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2.

3.

For adults, I have many favourites, beginning with anything by the late Warren Carroll of Christendom College, who is the best Catholic Church historian of our time.

And I encourage reading anything by Diane Moczar, especially What Every Catholic Wants to Know.

Also, take a look at The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges to understand how the introduction of Christianity into the ancient world changed everything. And we now have a simple, clear, and recent History of the Church by the American historian James Hitchcock – a good starter for the beginner.

As for spiritual reading, the field is vast and incredibly rich. Let me just suggest that you look up my Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan. I have about 100 titles there and constantly add and update as seems appropriate, so that you may easily find classic works as well recent texts that help guide you through the many mansions of our long tradition.

Happy readings.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Father C. John McCloskey, III, STD is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei. He currently is Research Fellow of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington DC. From 1985 to 1990, he was a chaplain at Princeton University. He is perhaps best known for guiding into the Church such luminaries as Dr. Bernard Nathanson, Lawrence Kudlow, Robert Novak, Judge Robert Bork and Senator Sam Brownback.

There is no future for a society of self-absorbed individuals Cormac Burke

Photo: The Ojeda extended family of Spain, 2007. Flickr Ojedamd via Wikimedia

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n a lecture given in Nairobi earlier this year, Catholic priest and theologian Cormac Burke questioned the heritage parents today are handing on to their children.

Despite their good intentions, he suggested, many couples are transmitting the anti-values of consumerism, instant gratification and a proud assertion of autonomy that are dominant in society.

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But, he argued, “there is no real future for a society of self-absorbed individuals.

Without any true and shared values held in common, there is less collective glue to hold it together. It ends in disintegration.� This begs the question: how can things change, in and through the family?

Here are his suggestions.

The challenge of rebuilding the home

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he change has to begin among young people in their approach to marriage. The thrust of modern life is to put self first, and others second.

Yet, the more you live for yourself, the more alone you will find yourself. It is not good for man or woman to be alone, or to seek company in shared selfishness. Man needs to build for others, for others whom he can love. He needs to build a home.

The married couple who don't come out of themselves and live both for each other and for their children, will sink back into themselves, back into their more and more separate selves; and the few children they may have will be even more self-centered, and even more alone. That is why few ambitions are more noble – for the present and the future – than that of creating authentic families, authentic homes, that can be the model and seed of a more generous and happier future.

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The basis for a home that can create and transmit positive values

true home can only be based on love. And love itself is true only if it has ideals and is generous. A young couple about to marry are truly in love if they share ideals: to make each other happy and to pass on their shared love to their children – the family that should be born of their generous love.

Husband and wife are the first who need to learn generous love: the love that refuses to dwell on the defects of the other, that learns rather to understand, to forgive, to ask forgiveness.

That is the only way spousal love can last and grow. The spouses' own learning experience will help them become good and patient teachers of the same love to their children.

The first need of very young children is to be given love gratuitously. If they are given that, later on they will begin to realise that this gratuitous love took an effort; and that they too need to make similar effort, to overcome their natural self-centeredness, so as to learn to love their parents in return, and not only their parents, but also their siblings,

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each one of them in a special way.

Marriage and the family are a first, natural school. And the first subject taught there is love. The parents have to learn it first, and then be the main teachers of their children. Learning to love, to grow gradually in mutual understanding, to forgive and forget, to discover that one cannot always have one's own way...

If the home is a demanding school of love, the children will learn many other things too. A specially important point today is to learn the uses of freedom.

Our age is one where few things are more highly prized than freedom; yet few people are taught the first truth about freedom: that it can be exercised well or badly, that it can grow or be lost, that one does not truly love freedom if one loves only one's own freedom and has no regard for the freedom of others.

Again, the family offers the first natural introduction to the mystery of sexuality. There brothers and sisters, in an atmosphere undisturbed by physical attraction, gradually begin to sense some of the deeper and truly human differences and com-

plementarities between the sexes – and so to appreciate and respect the different way of being a man or a woman.

Still again: only in the family is it possible to learn that authority can come from love, and that obedience to authority can be an act of love.

The treasure of family memories

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ife is not just living in the present. It is working for the future – for a future that can last. One needs hope; and hope is buttressed by good memories from the past.

Dostoyevsky's famous novel, The Brothers Karamazov, closes with the remarks of one of the three brothers. He addresses them to a group of young friends, after the death of one of their companions: There is nothing more powerful, nor more healthy nor more useful later on in life than some good memory, and particularly one that has been borne from childhood, from one's parents' home. Much is said to you about your education, but a beautiful, sacred memory like that, one

preserved from childhood, is possibly the very best education of all. If he gather many such memories in his life, a man is saved for all of it. And even if only one good memory remains within our heart, then even it may serve some day for our salvation. (Epilogue).

Getting back home

“O

nce there was a way to get back home"; so goes a line from the Beatles' song, "Golden Slumbers". But today, even if one knows the way, there is less and less urge to go back home, because it simply is not there; a place may be left but there never was a home. Few, if any, cherished memories remain of one's childhood and upbringing; fewer supports for one's hope and salvation.

The real inheritance handed on by a good family are the memories it creates: memories of Mom's and Dad's goodness, of a place where one could take refuge, where one felt understood and learned to understand others, of quarrelling with one's siblings and making up, of for-

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giving and being forgiven. That is a school for life.

Those already married, as well as those intending to marry, could ask themselves no more important question than this: are our children – will our children be – really grateful for what they receive from us, their parents?

Do I, do we, give them of our best? And the best is not comfort nor money nor job prospects, but love. Love in the constant little things that build true family life and, later on, make up the family memories that keep us going.

There is a large family, precisely in the West, that I have known for a long time. A family rich in children and very rich in love. A few years ago the mother died; all were present at the funeral.

After her burial the father and children gathered at the family home, and reminisced together about the memories each one had of her. The father told me later that no stranger coming in could have imagined what a loss they had just suffered. On the contrary, the whole atmosphere was one of joy – though mixed with tears. Joy

and tears of gratitude. That is richness; that is an inheritance!

The sorrow and the tears pass; the joy remains. And if, with the passage of the years, the memories still bring some tears, they will be tears of not-forgotten joy.

There lies the root and promise of happiness. Perhaps we still have to learn from one of Christ’s most fundamental teachings: "It is happier to give than to receive". Further, in giving, one receives: that is how true happiness begins here, and reaches its fullness afterwards.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Cormac Burke is a priest and theologian living in Nairobi, Kenya. His latest book, The Theology of Marriage: Personalism, Doctrine and Canon Law, is being published in Autumn 2014 by the Catholic University of America Press. The above article is an excerpt from “The Home – Principal Heritage of Humanity”, a lecture given at Strathmore University, Nairobi, in May 2014. The full lecture can be accessed on his website.

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Praying for the dead in November Fr. Eugene O'Neill

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wo of the most moving experiences you can have as a person are to be present when someone is born and when someone dies.

I have never been present at a birth but I have at death – many of them. There is something awe-filling about that.

Whatever form the dying takes – drawn-out or swift, difficult or gentle – whoever it is, I never witness that moment without the same sense: a sense of privilege; of the great drama of a unique human life on earth being completed; a feeling of the individual narrative of a unique human existence – with all its complexity and movement – reaching conclusion.

last sacraments – Holy Anointing and the Blessed Sacrament; and to say the prayers of commendation. When Holy Communion is given to a dying person for the last time, it is called “Viaticum” –a Latin word which means, “food for the journey.”

And instead of the phrase, “Body of Christ”, the words spoken are, “May the Body of Christ protect you and lead you to eternal life.” When Holy Anointing is given, we say: “through this holy anointing, may the Lord raise you up.” At the point of death: “Go forth faithful Christian, may your home this day be with God.” Once the person has died: “Saints of God come to his aide, come to meet him angels of the Lord.”

One of the most moving experiences you can have as a priest is to accompany someone towards death and to bring the

Why do we Catholics think of these things in the wet autumn season?

Because with the Feast of All Saints and All Souls,

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the Church begins the month of November when we remember those who have gone before us from this world. We recall the saints – the anonymous saints to whom no churches or special feast days are dedicated but who are saints because they are in heaven. It’s good to remember that we are certainly individually related by blood to many such people. And we recall those whom we often refer to as “the Holy Souls” – those who have died and will be in heaven when all that clings to them of this earth has been melted away in the purifying gaze of God’s love.

On All Saints Day, All Souls Day and the days of November – traditionally referred to as the month of the Holy Souls – the readings from the scriptures will be full of references to death.

That is because the Church is reminding us of Jesus’ teaching on the meaning of death. And on each day of the month of November, in every Catholic parish, a Mass is offered specifically for the souls of the faithful departed. It’s customary to take a November Dead list; write the

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names of family members and friends on it, and seal it in an envelope with an offering. And each one of these name-covered sheets of paper is placed on the altar to symbolise the prayers of the Church for those who have died. Remember: the lists are not to remind God – in case he has forgotten any of the souls he created. How could God forget? They are to remind us of our ongoing connection to those souls; our communion with them; our obligation to pray for them so that for them, so that when they are saints in heaven they will pray for us.

And to remind us that one day we will join them, on that part of our Christian journey into the arms of God. Remembering the departed members of our community and praying for them is an ancient Catholic custom, going right back to the beginning. It is a teaching captured in the Scripture; a faith suffusing our ancient prayers for the dead, and a practice expressed so many of our customs such as those journeys to the burial places of family and ancestors we call Ceme-

tery Sundays, and in the month of the Holy Souls.

Even after two thousand years of Catholic Christianity, I think we Christians still find difficulty really accepting the teaching of Christ on death. At its bluntest that teaching is that death is not the end, that something comes next and that that something is better.

One of the early saints compared this life to the time in the womb – preparing for the real life which comes later. And so it is.

Yet the first thing death evokes for us is “the end”. We talk of it as “a tragedy” – and it’s often tragic let’s not deny it; we describe doctors as having failed if someone dies.

It is easy to see dying solely as much of contemporary culture does and as the Old Testament puts it – “the extinction of the living.” That’s natural: we humans experience any absence acutely – even temporary absence. How much more sharp is the absence caused by the death of someone we love or relied on? But we need to remind ourselves that, for us,

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there is a deeper reality beyond the human loss and the horizon of death. We Catholic Christians have to always look deeper to see the real meaning of what is going on beneath the surface of events. That’s what Jesus meant by the miraculous raising of Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus in the scriptures. Not simply compassionate responses to two tragic events. He did not after all raise every dead person he met.

Whenever in the Scriptures, Jesus raised someone from death – Jairus’ daughter or Lazarus – he was not just choosing a random person. He is teaching us something. He is showing his watchers at the time that there would be something beyond death by his power. And giving us, who watch him in the Scriptures, a foretaste of what would be available to all later…if we keep faith.

That is why at baptisms there are so many references to dying. In baptism, we are grafted to the life of Christ in heaven.

And he pledges to take us there after this brief life on earth.

These truths are repeated year after year in November and at every Requiem Mass.

They have been repeated and retold now for almost two thousand years. To let them sink in gradually.

And those prayers too – to let them sink in to us and bring us hope: “may you live in paradise this day”; “may your home be with God”; “may angels of God come to meet you.”

They are words whose meaning lies open only to the eyes of faith. But words – remember – that, one day, each of us will hear – either from a priest bearing the Sacraments or from Christ himself, if no priest is there – since all a sacrament is the presence of Christ in an outward form. Viaticum – food for the journey. A journey one day all of us will take.

On this pause on our journey, let’s remind ourselves of Our Lord’s promise and the promise of our faith, let’s allow the scriptures, the sacraments and our ancient customs bring us hope – that our final destination after the great drama of our unique human life on earth, long or

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short, with all its complexity, movement and colour, is not extinction but birth into paradise.

This is our faith, our hope and our confidence; and it is the spirit in which we pray for those who have died at every person’s Requiem Mass, in our own prayers for friends and relatives, and, with special strength in November, for everyone who has died.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rev. Eugene O’Neill is parish priest of Kilmore and Killyleagh, Co.Down and is a regular contributor to A Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Ulster.

Film review: Fury

John Mulderig

(Catholic News Service)

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rutal realism in the depiction of combat and scripturally inspired spirituality hardly make an obvious pairing.

Yet, by bringing them together in Fury (Sony), writer-director David Ayer crafts a powerful – albeit disturbing – study of the psychological effects of combat.

In addition to a willingness to subject themselves to sometimes repellent images, those few grown-ups for whom the film makes suitable viewing also will require ethical subtlety to work their way through the script's thicket of moral complexity.

Those not appropriately equipped to navigate this challenging terrain may find themselves as bewildered as Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman),

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the young GI in whose company we primarily traverse it.

With the European phase of World War II reaching its final stages, and American troops rolling ever deeper into Germany, Norman finds himself assigned to replace a fallen crew member on the tank whose nickname serves as the movie's title.

This comes as unwelcome news to the vehicle's hard-bitten commander, Don Collier (Brad Pitt) – all the more so after Norman protests that he has only been trained for a desk job, and that his current orders must be a mix-up.

Snafu or not, however, there's no undoing the transfer. So Norman is forced to settle in to his new surroundings under the

hostile gaze of a trio of unwilling comrades: Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini Garcia (Michael Pena) and Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal).

Boyd, a born-again Christian whose moniker is "Bible," introduces the movie's religious theme by asking hapless Norman if he is saved. When Norman, an Episcopalian, replies that he has been baptized, Boyd only scoffs.

Novice gunner Norman soon has a much bigger problem than this lack of ecumenical understanding. Totally unschooled for his military task, he has difficulty bringing himself to kill enemy soldiers.

Since Norman's delicacy could end up costing lives, Collier resorts to a savage measure, attempting to force Norman to shoot a German prisoner in cold blood. Yet we soon see other aspects of Collier's character that prove he has not given way entirely to such barbarism.

As Norman struggles to adapt to the kill-or-be-killed environment into which he's been thrown, he gradually learns to follow Collier's example – suspending some tenets of basic morality while keeping other facets of his humanity intact.

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Mature moviegoers will need sound judgment to assess the terms of that bargain as well as a high tolerance for harsh visuals to endure the graphically portrayed circumstances which lead Norman to imitate Collier by adopting it.

A margin of compensation comes in the more serious treatment of faith to which Boyd's biblical literacy eventually leads. But for some Christian viewers, at least, this blend of theologies will seem irredeemably out of place amid the much more prominent slaughter by which it's surrounded.

The film contains pervasive wartime violence with much gore, an off-screen non-marital bedroom encounter, numerous uses of profanity and relentless rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is L – limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Copyright (c) 2014 Catholic News Service Reprinted with permission from CNS. www.catholicnews.com

The retreat will be preached by
 a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature and will also include plenty of time for silence and private prayer.

See www.lismullin.ie for further information.

PROGRAMMES EACH YEAR IN FEBRUARY & OCTOBER. See website.