Wise words of a Jesuit

Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column for Tuesday, January 16.

Michael Commane

Two Irish Jesuits died within hours of each other last week.

Fr Kennedy O’Brien and Fr Joe Brennan had a long association with the Jesuit-run school Gonzaga College in Dublin.

I knew neither man but since their deaths I have heard and read a number of comments in praise of them.

I spent some time teaching German in Belvedere College, a Jesuit-run school. The Jesuit principal at the time was impressive. It was pleasant and interesting to be in his company. He was the sort of boss you liked to see about the place. He gave one a sense of importance and that’s a great talent. There was nothing phoney about him. He was inspirational, he certainly inspired me. He had that great talent of getting the best out of people.

The short time I taught at the school I had a sense of being part of a great team. I was proud of being associated with the school.

Over my teaching career I worked in a number of schools and my principal in Belvedere was one of the best teaching bosses I ever had.

Brian Flannery, a spokesperson for the Irish Jesuits, quoted a famous line from the late Fr Brennan:

‘If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything’

Mr Flannery then went on to say about Fr Brennan: ‘He was one of nature’s gentlemen – accomplished but modest, wise but humorous, religious but never a ‘holy Joe’.’ Talking about Fr O’Brien he said: ‘He made a profound impression wherever he taught and was respected by the boys, staff and parents.’

I’d like to have asked Fr Brennan how do you know what to stand for? But it’s a brilliant one-liner and I can imagine how it would captivate a classroom.

It’s easy to remark that in the times in which we live we have no authority figures, and that people say and do as they like. And at times it does seem that anything goes. If you are slick, have good PR tricks, use some sort of focus group to tell you the way the wind is blowing, you might well be on the road to success.

The days of doffing the cap are well gone. We are manipulated into believing that the era of authoritarian leadership is over. And that sounds good. But we are also aware that crass individualism leads to an unhealthy society. Margaret Thatcher’s infamous comment that there is no such thing as society has not been of much help to the common good.

One would want to be a fool not to admit that we need good leadership. We need wise, kind and good people to be in positions of authority.

Dictators might keep the trains running on time but those same trains always end up going to nasty places.

Albert Einstein while living in Switzerland as a young man wrote to Professor Jost Winteler: ‘Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth’.

Being in any position of authority is a difficult job, especially in these days when so many boundaries have been blurred and crossed.

It is now over a week since I read that quote from the late Fr Brennan: ‘If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.’

Are we ‘falling for anything’? Are we being manipulated out of our minds? Has PC gone mad? And is that what is currently giving us a new style of leadership?

Truth, goodness and kindness must always win out. They’re the lynchpins that give meaning and purpose to authority. Any other sort of authority is a sham.