Pope Leo talking to prisoners in Barcelona

When Pope Leo was in Spain earlier this year he visited a prison in Barcelona.

Below are some extracts from what he said when speaking with the inmates.

“Let us make room for the Lord in our hearts and seek his face,” he said. “Let us allow his love to guide us. Let us cling to him, who continually invites us to hope and shows us a wonderful horizon that no physical barrier can prevent us from reaching.”

God, he added, “continues to speak to us in the depths of our consciences, helping us discover that he dwells among us. He is only waiting for us to give him a chance.”

Pope Leo concluded his address by encouraging the inmates to “keep dreaming God’s dream” and that while God loves them as they are, “he dreams of you being even better.”

“The Lord allows us all to start anew, for being human and being Christian does not mean never making mistakes, but rather growing in the ability to convert, repent, make amends and, above all, to reconcile and forgive,” the pope said. 

He added: "Even if anxiety and sadness mark certain moments of your journey, remember that life’s mistakes do not define a person’s identity,” 

Never underestimate the power of every word we say

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

On Thursday a young woman with two children passed me on the street; I imagine the children were both under five. Their mother was engaged in chit chat with them. As I passed them I said to myself, there she is talking baby talk to her children but nevertheless, real words. 

Two days later a family of six were descending on a lifelong friend of mine; his daughter, her husband and their four children were coming to Kerry to spend a few days with him. He had bought a tent for the children and the plan was they would construct it and then sleep in it for two nights. The children range in age from eight to 15. 

The making of the tent was great fun, laughing and joking and maybe even a little bit of crying too. But they got the job done. Slept in it the first night but the second night the younger two abandoned ship as it was too cold. 

Little eight-year-old Rory wanted to know why they did not have heating in it. It was all great fun and of course a lot of child talk went on between adults and children. It’s part of nature, indeed, part of the fun of nature.

The previous Sunday I was at lunch with a small group of people. All of them had been to Mass earlier that day. They are not priests but are chaplains. I forget how, but for sometime we spoke about our faith, what it meant to believe in God. At one stage someone asked the question how was Christ present in the Eucharist. Surely Christ is not present in the Eucharist the way we were sitting at the table. During that discussion someone referred to the Eucharist as Holy Bread.

It was interesting what we all had to say; someone asked about how we interpret the readings at Mass. 

The discussion wandered off to talk about organised religion versus spirituality. It was interesting how we all had differing views and opinions. I came away from the discussion impressed, asking myself many questions. 

Between the mother talking to her children, the tent builders, and my lunchtime chat I was struck how important it is to make ourselves understandable to one another; to be real with each other.

It has often struck me in the company of priests how seldom it is we talk openly and honestly with each other; a lot of game playing goes on. Far too often we are slow to speak our minds; so much shadow boxing takes place. What priest ever speaks his mind to his bishop or provincial?

We are experts on clerical gossip, but I have seldom if ever heard a conversation on the Eucharist or what it means to say there are three persons in the one God. I often wonder what actually do we share with each other.

A friend has pointed out to me that’s the way of the world; it’s not only priests who do not speak their minds. True, but I think priests have it down to a fine art form. 

On the other hand I am blessed to have some close priest friends with whom I can speak my mind.

Best policy to deal with Donald Trump is to ignore him

Last March two weeks into the Iran war US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that US attacks had “destroyed” Iran’s military and air defences, making it incapable of engaging in combat.

"Never before has a modern, capable military, which Iran used to have, been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective," Hegseth said during a press briefing with reporters. 

What's the man saying today? Did no one have the courage to tell this silly person that he was talking nonsense? And then the swagger of him.

It has been announced that President Trump will be visiting Ireland in September.

Yes, the Irish President and Taoiseach are obliged to meet him but what about simply ignoring his visit; no demonstrations, minimum media coverage. No fuss at all.

'No prison can separate a person from God's love'

This is well worth a read.

Pope to Cardinal Simoni: No prison can separate a person from God's love - Vatican News:

https://share.google/yWvzzqotfurutg5H0

Worrying words spoken today at Auschwitz Birkenau

Today is European Holocaust Day, honouring the memory of the thousands of Roma and Sinti women, men, and children who were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust.

On the night of August 2 to August 3, 1944, the remaining, approximately 4,000 Sinti and Roma prisoners, mostly women, children, and elderly people, were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz Birkenau.

An elderly man, whose family was wiped out at Auschwitz Birkenau, spoke today on the site of the slaughter, the fears and worries he has of the current trend to the far right and how people in minorities are worried and anxious about their future.

Maria Alyokhina's warning: Europe faces military collapse

Lara Marlowe's column in The Irish Times on Friday.

This blog has been a supporter of the rock group Pussy Riots since 2013.

Maria Alyokhina is a powerful woman and deserves great support. Remember when President Putin and Patriarch Kirill  called the group's behaviour in the Moscow church sacrilegious?

---

When I met Maria “Masha” Alyokhina at the Borris festival earlier this summer, the Russian dissident and founding member of the feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot wore a Ukrainian T-shirt showing the Kremlin in flames.

If she could, Alyokhina (38) really would burn down the Kremlin. “If I had a missile and I could fire it at Putin, I would do that,” she says, laughing.

In February 2012, in the run-up to Vladimir Putin’s third presidential election (of five so far), Pussy Riot filmed a performance art clip inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Wearing fluorescent balaclavas, they screamed lines that included “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, chase Putin out.”

For this they spent 22 months in Russian penal colonies. “The prison system is a legacy of the Soviet labour camps,” Alyokhina tells me over a video call this week. She speaks in the telegraphic style she used to write two memoirs, Riot Days and Political Girl.

“People live in barracks, 100 people in each room. We sewed police and army uniforms. No medicine. No human rights. No complaints allowed. I spent four months in solitary confinement because I asked questions.”

It is night-time and Alyokhina is somewhere in Montenegro, pacing around a shadowy apartment. She chain-smokes, has an impish smile and laces her conversation with laughter and expletives. A dog howls outside.

Alyokhina remembers March 8th, international women’s day, in 2012. Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny came to Nizhny Novgorod, where she and two other members of Pussy Riot were imprisoned. “It was our first week. They came to the jail to support us with words, statements and placards. They were famous opposition leaders, and we were just the girls from the church. It was super important to me.”

Nemtsov was assassinated near the Kremlin in February 2015. Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in August 2020 and died in a penal colony inside the Arctic Circle in February 2024. “Yes, I was upset,” Alyokhina admits. “You can understand stuff in your head, but when it happens it’s an emotional shock.”

Assaults

Alyokhina and her fellow Pussy Riots – she uses the name as a descriptor for individual members – encountered Putin’s goons, known as gopniks or titushky, many times. She says Putin followed the example of his Ukrainian protege Viktor Yanukovych in employing young, often drunken men to beat up protesters. At the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games the Pussy Riots were attacked by Cossacks with horsewhips. The following month, they were assaulted in a McDonald’s restaurant by young men who squirted zelenka or green ethyl alcohol into their eyes to blind them.

Alyokhina would be arrested a half dozen more times, but she never stopped protesting. In April 2022 she fled Russia, making her way to Iceland, where she was given a passport. Last September, a Moscow court sentenced five Pussy Riot members in absentia to prison terms of eight to 13 years. Alyokhina received the heaviest sentence: 13 years and 15 days.

Russian opinion polls indicate that more than two-thirds of Russians still support Putin. Alyokhina does not believe it. “If you say you don’t support Putin, you go to prison for eight years,” she says. “How can you trust polls or statistics in a totalitarian country where there is military censorship, where you can be imprisoned for saying there is a war? There were and are millions of Russians who wanted to be part of Europe. Nobody wanted to be citizens of this barbarian, terrorist, crazy state.”

Fearlessness is Alyokhina’s most impressive trait. “I am not afraid of you,” she told judges at her 2012 trial. “I am not afraid of lies and fiction, of the thinly disguised fraud in the sentence of this so-called court ... Nobody can take away my inner freedom.”

Alyokhina says protest must be “desperate, sudden and joyous”. She has testified on Capitol Hill, shared a stage with Madonna and appeared in an episode of the Netflix series House of Cards.

When she was a teenager, Alyokhina left home to live with hippies and punks in Moscow. “I want to live interestingly. To change the world. How, exactly is unclear,” she writes in Political Girl. Twenty years later, she still has no fixed abode. But she is no longer a hippie. “I am calling for guns and weapons for Ukraine, so you can’t say I’m a hippie,” she laughs.

Alyokhina travels often to Ukraine. Pussy Riot raised €200,000 for Okhmatdyt, the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, after a Russian missile strike in July 2024 destroyed 60 per cent of it.

My Ukrainian friends are very distrustful of Russians, even those who have sided with Ukraine. “I met many Ukrainians and nobody judged me,” Alyokhina says. “Everyone said ‘thank you’ and it was heartbreaking.”

Alumina exports

The Irish Government wants to believe the fiction that alumina, which is used to manufacture drones, missiles and fuselages of warplanes, is not a fungible resource; that if alumina exported from Aughinish is used to wrap chocolate, there will be less metal for weapons production.

“Ireland is not the only EU country that maintains connections with Russian oligarchs,” Alyokhina says. “Most European countries continue to do business with Putin’s Russia.” The Financial Times reported on July 19th that Greece, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Portugal all demanded exceptions for their businesses in the EU’s most recent, 21st package of sanctions against Russia.

Alyokhina does not believe Donald Trump will protect Europe and says that Europe is in a state of virtual military collapse: “Why is it only right-wing politicians talk about it? What the hell? Like leftwing people don’t understand that this war is going on? Or they will give several more regions of Ukraine to Russia and for the next two years, maybe they will live in peace? And then what?

“Europe should be prepared. Even if it’s not possible to make a united Europe, each country should understand what is going on. Now only the Baltic countries are aware and preparing.”

Thomas Simeon O Floinn OP (1944 - 2026) - an obituary

 Fr Thomas S O Floinn, second back row, third from left. Tehran, 1970.

Tomás Simeon O Floinn was born in Rathdowney, Co Laois in 1944, where the family ran the local pharmacy. Thomas, known in the Order as Tom, was a boarder at Newbridge College. In his final year in the school he was head boy or school captain. 

On completion of his Leaving Cert in 1962 he joined the Dominican Order that September, where he spent his noviciate year in St Mary's Priory, Pope's Quay, Cork.

The following  year Tom moved

Tom Flynn OP

to the Dominican House of Studies in Tallaght, where he completed his institutional programme in philosophy and theology.

A fellow student of Tom on hearing of his death said that he 'floated through Tallaght and had a great interest in history.'  At the time there would have been approximately 70 students in Tallaght. He also noted how he worked hand-in-hand with the late Fr Philip McShane, who had been a schoolmate of Tom in Newbridge. Back in the day, on joining the Dominicans, young men were given religious names and Tom was given the name Eugene. His school mate Bernard McShane was given the name Philip 

For the following 60 years Tom always called Philip by his baptismal name, Bernard, who was always known in the province by Philip.

Tom had a 'thing'; about names. In the 2009 directory of the province he is recorded as TSR O Floinn and in the directory of 2019 he is TSR O Flynn. Elsewhere he is registered as Tomás Simeon R O Floinn. He was  known throughout the province as Tom Flynn.  It seems he was given the name Eugene on receiving the Dominican habit. On RIP.ie he is referred to as Thomas O Flynn.

He was ordained a priest by The Most Rev. Patrick J. Dunne, Titular Bishop of Narra & Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, in St Patrick's College  Drumcondra on July 6, 1969.

After ordination he did post graduate studies at the University of St Thomas in Rome.

He was a historiographer specialising in Christian Persia and the Middle East; he was a member of the British Institute of Persian Studies. Tom was a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society; the Royal Historical Society; the Historical Institute of the Dominican Order; member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland; contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Tom had two doctorates, one from Trinity College Dublin, the other from Oxford University.

Both doctorates were subsequently published in book form. And the second of those books received an award of excellence from an American academy.

He was a historian, who had many books to his name.

His close friend  'Bernard', the late Fr Philip McShane, assisted him greatly in his scholarship as did fellow Dominican, Martin Cogan.

Tom spent a number years in St Abraham's Dominican Priory at Jamalzadeh Shomali in Tehran.

The Irish Dominicans went to Iran in 1966 to help in fostering good relations with the Muslim community and also to minister to the Filipinos, who had married local Iranians. The priory and church are still standing but there is no one currently living in the priory, and the church is closed.

In his early years Tom was a very ordered person; a fellow Dominican colleague added that he was also opinionated. He made it his business to dress well and was precise in how he appeared.

I lived in Rome for a year with Tom while he was engaged in his studies. I can still remember him as a polite and friendly man, a gentle person.

During those years the late Fr John O'Gorman was bursar in the community; John was careful with money; there were those who might say he was parsimonious. He and Tom had different ideas about how money should be spent. I was friendly with both men, as a result of which, I had firsthand knowledge of their different views, in other words I had a ringside seat in the regular financial skirmishes.

Tom was interested in the world of ecumenics, indeed during his early studies and in the years following his priestly ordination he was at the vanguard in building up relations with people of other faiths and none. He had many friends who were Anglican priests.

In later years he did some type of summersault on his ecumenical thinking.

Tom saw himself as being a polite and courteous person, which he was but there were occasions when he could arrive unannounced at a priory door anywhere in the world and expect to be greeted with open arms. It worked sometimes but not always.

Approximately 30 years ago Tom fell victim to severe ill health, something that caused him great pain and had consequences for those with whom he lived.

At one stage he stopped talking to me. Eventually I picked up the courage to ask him why; he explained that the provincial had asked me to tail him; an absurd possibility. How could anyone ever believe that? Then again if the US accused Harry Dexter White of being a spy, anything is possible.

Fortunately, I visited Tom when he was a resident in Highfield Nursing Home in Drumcondra. His face lit up when I appeared.

I have fond memories of the year I spent with Tom and because of that experience I am fortunate to have known the man he really was before he was inflicted with a way of life, that was caused due to his ill health.

May he rest in peace.

Tom's body will be lying in state in the big parlour, St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, on Sunday August 2, from 3pm; prayers at 5pm. Requiem Mass at 11am the following day, Monday, August 3 in the priory church. Burial afterwards in the community cemetery.

Fr Thomas SR O Flynn OP, RIP

Fr Thomas SR O Flynn OP died yesterday in Dublin’s Mater Hospital.

An obituary to follow. 

May he rest in peace. 

Significant events that took place on August 31.

1939: Germany carries out a false flag attack at the Gleiwitz radio station as an excuse to attack Poland the following day. On September 1 World War begins.

1991: Krygystan declares independence from the Soviet Union.

1993: Russia removes its last troops from Lithuania.

1994: The last Russian troops depart Estonia.

_______

In a 90-minute interview in recent days with the Economist Elon Musk states that it is unthinkable that Russia will be forced to return to Ukraine the territory it has so far  gained in the east. 

Kerry’s lesson in grace was the GAA at its most sublime

Kathy Sheridan in The Irish Times yesterday. It's a great piece. Is there any chance that Trump and his team might read it. Wonder what the many Kerry people, who live in the US and are now Trump supporters, would say about it. They certainly should read it.

In an era of losing ugly, the full-time scene at Croke Park on Sunday was a cleansing balm. When tears of relief coursed down Mayo faces and eyes were raised to the heavens in wistful communion with absent friends, thousands of losing Kerry supporters grasped the solemnity of the moment. There was no swift, sullen exodus at the final whistle. They stayed for the speeches and watched the lifting of the Sam Maguire. Some even embraced their euphoric, sobbing rivals. We watched in real time as a clash of extraordinary athleticism, mythology and heart-stopping tension suddenly gave way to grace, gratitude and civility.

It was the 141-year-old Gaelic Athletic Association at its most sublime. No quarter was given, yet both sides made every part of it a gift to us all. There was a pathos about it, perhaps because it felt old-fashioned.

This was never a given. It’s only a couple of months since Kerry were condemned to play (and lose) with a 14-man team after a mass brawl with Donegal. One of Mayo’s stars on Sunday, 27-year-old Jordan Flynn, has spoken about his lowest point when he was sent off during the 2018 under-20s All Ireland final and gave the referee a shove as he left the field.

An 18-week suspension and a lot of partying ended with some kind of epiphany, but in the meantime, there was another kind of social punishment. Some asked questions about Flynn’s family, his character and how he was raised. For a player of his age, that could have gone one of two ways. This week he is an All-Ireland champion, about to be married. It’s the kind of role modelling any organisation could identify with and cherish.

The arts of losing and winning pretty are deeply undervalued. A poor mastery of them can amount to national self-sabotage. Argentina’s implosion into juvenile scuffles and tantrums after their decisive loss to Spain in the World Cup final, capped by their decision to turn their backs on the trophy presentation, was a textbook example of losing ugly.

The legend of the great Lionel Messi will be forever tainted by those events, but so, importantly, will Argentina itself. The furious intensity of their players’ singing of the national anthem and the ill-judged Las Malvinas banner on the pitch during the semi-final win over England might have told us something about a ferocious patriotism. Instead, it sent a message about a great nation’s struggle to cope with loss and conflict.

Privileged access

Donald Trump’s earlier intervention to have USA striker Folarin Balogun’s red card suspended had a similar impact. Predictably, his abuse of privileged access fired up Belgium and swung world support behind them as they beat the USA 4-1. But beyond sport, it highlighted the contrasts between US and European culture.

Americans are used to interventions by team owners and executives to protect theirs and sports’ co-mingled business interests; Europeans rely on the independence of governing bodies and consistency of rules. Outcome versus process.

For many Americans, Trump was not abusing his power but correcting an injustice. For shocked Europeans it was the spectacle of a head of government exercising brazen influence over a supposedly independent governing body – and succeeding with lightning speed. Anyone still deluded enough to think sport can be separated from real life might think again.

The World Cup’s biggest controversy was triggered by a man who is himself the embodiment of losing ugly in another sphere. Since sport and democratic politics rely (theoretically anyway) on the shared belief that the rules apply equally to everyone, someone who blithely breaks them in one sphere will most likely break them in another.

Yet some of the best examples of losing pretty come from concession speeches after US presidential elections. Had Republicans heeded senator John McCain’s remarkable generosity towards Barack Obama in 2008, the US might be a very different country now. In 2016, a devastated Hillary Clinton managed to rise above the repellent Trump “lock her up” campaign to urge Americans to accept the result. “Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”

Some sports fans will argue that all this is self-evidently losers’ talk from people who fail to understand the sheer intensity, the unique talent and commitment of a true competitor. But the fact is that for every John McEnroe, there is a Roger Federer, an all-time great beloved for his generosity towards winning opponents. For every Diego Maradona – notorious for ugly outbursts and shouting abuse at referees – there is a Bobby Charlton. For every embarrassing, trash-talking Conor McGregor, there is a Stephen Thompson, a Robert Whittaker, a Charles Oliveira, a Brandon Moreno.

What brings the near-unbearable tension to both sport and political campaigns is the immutable human law that everyone has their dog days. It’s when those days arrive that people remember the grace or the gouging, the trash-talking or the camaraderie, the losing ugly or losing pretty. On that score, Kerry followers begin the next campaign with several two-pointers already on the board.

We are caught in a society that thinks it’s cool to waste

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

There has been construction work happening where I live; it means there have been skips coming and going. 

On one occasion I spotted an electrical extension lead on the top of the pile. I asked the builder could I take it and of course he consented. I commented on the amount we waste across the board. Not only did he agree but added that he is paying to dump material that is still usable. 

To add to the stupidity of our throwaway society I was embarrassed taking the extension lead and did not want anyone to see me removing it from the skip. Why should I be ashamed of utilising material that still works?

I don’t remember much from my student days but I still recall someone say that the advent of the skip heralded the advent of the throwaway society.

We are living in a society that worships waste.

Everyone knows how the price of electricity has soared since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The cost of a kW/h of electricity in Ireland is one of the highest in the European Union. I’m at a loss to know how poorer people are paying for their energy. 

There is a Scottish proverb that says if you clean outside your own hall door the entire street will be clean. I’m not sure it’s as simple as that but I am certain that we can all play our part in protecting our pockets and the environment by making the tiniest of changes to our lifestyles.

How careful are you with your usage of electricity? Do you make sure to fill your washing machine every time you use it? Could you be more careful with the use of your immersion heater? What about filling the kettle when there is only need to heat half that amount of water? 

What about if you made a decision to reduce your use of  electricity by five units(kW/h) of electricity  in your next monthly billing period? With the vast majority of houses now fitted with smart meters it’s easy to control and observe your usage of electricity. 

The unit of electricity is approximately 36 cent. Over a two month period that would work out at a saving of €3.60. And don’t turn up your nose at that saving. The new UK prime minister has made a big deal of removing VAT from electricity; it works out at a saving of less than £1 a month for the average user. But here’s my idea: if the electricity suppliers agreed to credit you for every five units you save. Say you save 10 units over two months, they credit you with five units in your next two-month bill. 

What about the Minister for Finance introducing such a scheme? It’s well beyond time for our leaders to think imaginatively and outside the box.

There is always hope; chatting with a 16-year-old on Saturday he told me the shirt he was wearing was second hand, bought on the net. He thought my electricity idea was clever.

And yes the electrical extension is in good working order.

‘I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.’ -Mother Teresa.

Venue for Mayo team celebrations looked sad

Across the world everyone is talking about the Mayo All Ireland win and Sam finding its way to County Mayo.

Did anyone notice the after match celebrations screened by RTÉ on Sunday evening?

It all seemed to happen in shoddy place; the background looked as if it were all taking place in a work canteen.

Not impressive. But what was impressive were the words spoken by team manager and team members.

A pity the venue did not complement the greatness and talent of the winning team and staff.

Can the God of love be involved in any type of warfare?

It takes all shapes and sizes to form any community, organisation, and that applies to all the various churches too.

Most Christian churches in the western world are currently in crisis.  

Last week American priest Mike Schmitz spoke at the National Stadium. It attracted a certain section of society but what have his words to say to the vast majority of Irish people?

The temptation to return to a former vocabulary and style is not going to work and it is not healthy.

The idea of running an event for Father and Son runs counter to the times in which we are living. Is the Catholic Church not man-centred enough?

A woman who saw this ad yesterday commented with one word: 'toxic'.

An organisation with the name 'The Angelic Warfare Confraternity' is alien to the modern ear. Can the God that the Vatican Council and Popes Leo and Francis speak about be a player in a war? When I think of war I think of two World Wars, the Vietnam War. The word Warfare sounds awful. Anyway, using the words confraternity and warfare in the one sentence is surely an oxymoron.

It's not popular or easy to criticise projects in an organisation where one belongs. But a time comes in everyone's life where they have to speak what they believe and think, and hope too. Indeed, it's profoundly sad that so many people within the church, who are uneasy with what is happening, are so silent.

The Dominican Order has been renowned for centuries in preaching and living the Word of  God in a language and style in a contemporary manner. But there have been times when it got it wrong and very wrong.

All part of the history of the Order. It is also the Dominican tradition that people can speak their mind, something that is respected and treasured. Truth is the motto of the Dominican Order.

_______________

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

- Martin Niemöller