Welcome to the 13 men who have joined the Dominican noviciate in Pope’s Quay in Cork.
It must be the largest number joining the Irish province in 50 years.
42 years, also on September 14 , I joined the province.
There were eight of us and we spent the first two years in Cork before moving to Tallaght, which was then almost still a village on the outskirts of Dublin.
I spent five years living in the Dominican Priory in Cork, those first two years and then again between 1976 and 1979 while I was attending UCC.
And probably because of those interesting and challenging years I still shout for Cork.
Back in the late ’60s early ’70s the Western world was on fire with new ideas and the church too was a-stirring.
Gradually but surely people were being appointed to jobs who were simply ‘different’ to their predecessors. The safe pair of hands was being replaced by the imaginative, and what we considered, prophetic people.
The church was touching people in a new and vibrant way. Maybe all young people think their time is magic, ours certainly was.
Before the 1960s it was ‘unusual’ for men to leave priesthood but once the ‘changes’ began to fall into place, more and more priests began to look outside their worlds. Many fine and vibrant Dominicans left. Many of them would fall in love and marry.
These days few young men are leaving priesthood. Few men are leaving. Men have had to retire from ministry, men have been in prison. And still there is no serious discussion to ask the most pertinent questions.
At 60 I have taken leave of absence for a myriad reasons. Yes, I have met a woman but I am certain she is not the reason but the catalyst for my break from orders.
I am concerned about a dispensation that is finding a wide and popular currency within the church at present.
The blog below in italics causes me great concern and reinforces my ‘suspicions’ and worries. It prompted me to write the comments below.
The recent publication of the survey for the National Religious Vocations Conference in the USA has attracted much attention in the United States and also in this part of the world. The study and survey has confirmed what many are realising and can verify - namely that those following a religious vocation are becoming more traditional - in the positive sense of the word. The survey suggests that two-thirds of the new religious (male and female) chose orders who have maintained their unique identities, have chosen to wear their religious habit and who follow a traditional communal prayer life. This along with fidelity to the Church and its teaching are cited as very important. In contrast, the survey also finds that those religious orders who have opted not to wear their religious habits, who have abandoned their monasteries, priories and convents and in some cases have diluted their charisms and become akin to social workers are those congregations and orders that are not attracting vocations.
[End of blog]
The text above is a sentiment/idea/thought/reflection that is appearing more an more regularly of late. At a first glance it might make sense but for this writer it really is appalling double think. And nonsense too. Probably humbug. I am inclined to call it a lie or a great sham.
There is an underlying message in the sentiment that young people are being attracted to orders and congregations that are true to the spirit of their founders. And being true to the founder is being linked with wearing 'their religious habits and those who follow a traditional communal prayer life'.
I believe this is an issue that needs to be challenged at its source. Of course it is fine and noble to see people being true to the message of the founder of their institution. But simply because a person does not wear a habit or give lip service to a 'traditional life style' does not mean they are not being authentic.
Can someone who avails of all the best attributes of a modern materialistic capitalist State really say anything about 'traditional values'.
There is no problem with men wearing habits but there is a problem when these same men take off the habits and dine and wine in most expensive restaurants.
There is no problem with men talking about poverty but there is a problem when these same men can swan about not knowing what it means to do a day's work while benefitting from top of the range medical insurance, frequent international travel, top class accommodation in the most sought after areas in the capital cities of the world and when not in the air, travelling in fuel guzzlers.
It really is a lie and unfortunately it seems most of those who shout loudest about 'traditional values' are the ones most likely to live this phoney life of a rosary beads in one hand and a glass of fine wine in the other.
Whereas the men at the coal face, whose work would dirty their habits never seem to speak about 'traditional values'. They live it. They are the women and men who live 'fidelity'.
They have neither the time nor the inclination to swan about in perfectly ironed habits. Surely these words are pure spoof, thought up by men who have more sun holidays in a year than there are beads on a traditional Rosary.
The Rosaries may well be evident but the car park zapper and credit card take pride of place. No doubt the Rosary is in full view while the zapper and credit card are tucked carefully away - even in the pocket of the traditional habit.
Please, stop talking dangerous codology. The people who write this cant, cannot believe it. Or is it that they are delusional? Enough damage has been perpetrated in the name of delusion in the Irish church.
If a comparable nonsense were being spoken by people of a liberal persuasion, it would long ago have been shown for what it is worth. But seemingly when it comes to 'understanding' and sympathy', superiors within the Catholic Church are slow to speak out against madcap ideas when they come from those who talk about 'traditional values'.
Enjoy your novitiate.
Your novice master is a great man and a holy man too, who believes in what he says and does. You could not be in better hands.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteThank you for an excellent post. I agree with everything you write here. I too was disturbed when I read the section you quoted in your post. I wonder what the Dominican Sisters, or any female religious order, would make of such condescending comments. Most religious sisters nowadays do not wear the traditional religious habit, yet, in most situations, they are far more effective in proclaiming the gospel, than those male religious who parade around in their religious habits.I think you are not the only Dominican who has concerns about the current direction of the formation programme.
You seem to be banging your head off a wall. The blog you quote simply reports a fact. Would it not be more useful from a Dominican priest, dedicated to Veritas, to hear his interpretation of this fact rather than simply a protest about it? Why do you think the younger people are moving in the direction they are? Are they not simply doing what you and your generation did in the 60s/70s, i.e. find their elders inadequate and morally compromised and want to try to do better themselves? Presumably the wheel of human life will continue to turn and they too will find themselves enmeshed in the difficulties of life. As the wisest of all of us said, 'by their fruits you shall know them'.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the two comments.
ReplyDeleteA pity they are anonymous.
Later last evening I was having second thoughts about writing what I wrote - I still have. But I am tired and weary listening to words that seem to have little meaning.
The comment from the anonymous person who says that the people of the '60s and '70s found their 'elders inadequate and morally compromised' shocks me to my foundation.
Never for one moment in my life did I find my parents 'inadeuate' or 'morally compromised'. Indeed at my ordination Mass I pointed out I could never live up to the standards of my parents. I still know that today.
And if that were the case, is that really a reason to join a religious order?
Might one argue that sort of thinking sows the first seed of clericalism?
I'd like to write more, but I'll leave it at that.
My name is out there and there never has been anything anonymous about me. And all that anonymity is a primary reason in my taking leave of absence from the province. I have also seen too much insidious anonymity among clerical groups that worries me greatly. I have seen the sneers and the double talk. And I think the story is so important it needs to be told.
I say that conscious of the wonderful and truly great men I have had the privilege to meet, know and work with within the province.
Yes, I believe that religious women in Ireland today are at the vanguard when it comes to witness and preaching and living the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I personally have heard some of those who speak loudly for a return to 'traditional values' refer to the Irish Dominican Sisters, who are called the Cabra Congregation, as the 'Cobras'.
You write: "Gradually but surely people were being appointed to jobs who were simply ‘different’ to their predecessors. The safe pair of hands was being replaced by the imaginative, and what we considered, prophetic people." Isn't there a huge self-righteousness and moral superiority in those who consider themselves more imaginative and prophetic than others?
ReplyDeleteValid point.
ReplyDeleteMichael, it has been a while since I have seen the blog. You have the support of my prayers in your leave. I have also noticed the recurrence of the anonymous messages. It would be interesting to look at all of those over the life of the blog to see what commonalities emerge. I wonder if the preponderance of them come in relation to posts about the Dominicans, and more specifically, posts that are critical of clericalism?
ReplyDelete