On Berlin's Spree with a West Kerry family

The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane

At the beginning of June I spent a week on holidays in Berlin. In so many ways it was a-once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I went with a family - mum, dad and three school-going children. They kindly invited me along. I had lived in Berlin before the Wall came down, so they thought that I might be able to show them around and maybe even do some interpreting for them if it were ever necessary.

I’m sure I was more of a nuisance than a help. But it turned out a great week, one of the best holidays I can remember.

We did all the touristy things, a jaunt on the river Spree, took the ever-so-fast lift to the top of the television tower at Alexander Platz. We spent over three hours at the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, which was a shocking experience. 

We saw Angela Merkel’s office and a fine building it is too.

Train anorak that I am I took great delight in showing them around the architectural delight, which is the central rail station right in the heart of Berlin. It’s on the site of old Lehrter Station and is a magnificent structure with its glass panes. Spotting the Warsaw Express I thought of Patrick Kavanagh taking great delight in seeing barges on the Grand Canal coming from far off places. We took a day trip to Frankfurt-an-der Oder and walked into Poland.

It so happened that we were in the city the day of the Champions League final and were under strict instructions from one of the family members to travel out to the Olympic Stadium to get a feel of the atmosphere. In my innocence I made some enquiries about buying tickets for the game. On the day they were selling tickets on the street for €900. But we did get to see a ticket and indeed, the footballer in the party managed to hold one in his hands.

The new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport has not yet been opened. It’s been dogged with all sorts of problems, design issues, political cock-ups and simple inefficiencies. When flying in and out of Schönefeld passengers can see the new unopened airport. In the meantime Aer Lingus and Ryanair have been using the grotty Schönefeld, though it seems Aer Lingus is moving, on a temporary basis, to the posher airport at Tegel later in the year.

I’m home now, back at work. I’ve been thinking about the holiday, wishing I were back clowning about, maybe even showing off, in the German capital.

Something has struck me about the week’s experience. I know one can never generalise, it’s always dangerous to come up with universal principles based on short experiences.

All during the week, living in close quarters with three young children and a mum and dad, I was simply struck with their native goodness. Just good kindly people.

It set me thinking about the Ireland I inhabit. It set me thinking about the doom and gloom merchants, who might lead one to believe that we are on the road to perdition. It stopped me in my step when I began to think about the whole notion of priests ‘preaching’ to people. It confirmed for me the nonsense of priests doling out lists of dos and don’ts on how people should live their lives.

A priest has a greater chance of becoming selfish than a man living with his children, supporting and loving them.

Marlene Dietrich sings a song about leaving a bag in Berlin – it means she has to go back to the great city. “Ich hab’ noch einen Koffer in Berlin”.

Preach the Gospel always and if necessary use words

From the NCR

Pope Francis gave a forceful message to the world’s newest Catholic archbishops today, telling prelates who had travelled from around the globe for a special Mass in their honor that they should live lives “coherent” with what they preach to Catholics in their dioceses.

In a homily in St. Peter’s Basilica to 46 new archbishops installed in different global cities in the past year, Francis told them bluntly: “The church wants you to be men of witness.”

“There is no witness without a coherent life,” the pontiff continued, quoting St. Francis of Assisi’s admonition to his followers: “Preach the Gospel always and, if necessary, use words.”

“The thing is so easy!” said the pope. “The most effective and authentic witness is that of not contradicting, with your behavior and your life, what is preached with the word and taught to others!”

“Teach prayer by praying, announce the faith by believing; offer witness by living!” Francis exhorted the prelates.

The pope was speaking Monday during a solemn Mass celebrating the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Catholic liturgical event that recognizes the martyrdom of the two apostles and the foundation of the Roman church.

A centerpiece of the Mass was the pope’s blessing of a liturgical vestment for each of the new archbishops, a long piece of woolen cloth called a pallium that signifies their role as shepherds and their ties to each other and the pope.

Two of the 46 new archbishops present for the Mass were Americans: Chicago’s new archbishop Blase Cupich and the new leader of the church in Santa Fe, N.M., John Wester. Among others were archbishops recently named from every part of the world, including: Greece, Spain, the Philippines; Japan, Niger, Haiti, Mexico, and Slovenia.

Francis offered his message to the prelates by speaking to them directly at the end of his homily for the occasion, which focused on how the Christian life is a call to prayer, faith, and witness.

The pope was reflecting on the Bible readings of the day, the first of which sees Peter freed from prison and certain death by an Angel of God. The Gospel for the day, taken from Matthew, sees Jesus tell Peter: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.”

Addressing them as “dear archbishops,” Francis first told the prelates the church wants them to be “men of prayer, masters of prayer” that teach their people they are liberated by God from every form of imprisonment. He also asked: “For those most in need, may you be angels and messengers of charity.”

“The church wants you to be men of faith, masters of faith, that teach the faithful to not have fear of the many Herods that afflict them with persecutions, with crosses of every type,” the pope told the archbishops.

“No Herod is able to extinguish the light of hope, faith, and love of the one who believes in Christ,” he said.

Earlier in the homily, Francis again called for a church that is always going forth. He said that being at prayer is to be always be moving ahead, being assured of the protection of God.

“The community of Peter and Paul teaches us that a Church in prayer is a Church on her feet, strong, on the path!” said the pope. “Indeed, a Christian who prays is a Christian who is protected, guarded and sustained, and above all, who is never alone.”

The pontiff also asked for a church that is always giving testimony to the Christian life.

“A church or a Christian without witness is sterile: A dead person who thinks they are alive, a dry tree that does not give fruit, an empty well that does not give water!” said Francis.

Monday’s Mass was marked by a change in ceremony for the pope’s yearly gift of the palliums to the new archbishops, signifying the emphasis Francis puts on decentralizing church authority.

Where in past years the pope vested each archbishop with the liturgical cloth during the Mass, this year Francis only blessed each of the palliums. The archbishops will instead be vested with the cloth at a ceremony in their dioceses by the apostolic nuncio to their country.

The pallium is one of the oldest liturgical vestments, believed to date from the fourth century. It is a 12-inch-long band of wool decorated by crosses worn by archbishops over their vestments during Masses in their archdioceses as a sign of their authority, particularly over dioceses in their ecclesiastical provinces.

Cupich has been leading a delegation of pilgrims in Rome from the Chicago archdiocese for his receiving of the pallium. The archbishop also had a private meeting with the pope, the first personal encounter between the two, on Friday afternoon.

Also attending the Mass Monday was a representative of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas. At the end of the ceremony, John and Francis prayed together at the tomb in the Basilica believed to be that of Peter.

[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @joshjmac.]

Ali's No to Vietnam

On June 28, 1970 Muhammed Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay, stood before the United States Supreme Court regarding his refusal of induction into the US Army during the Vietnam War. 

Back then, while considered the world's greatest heavyweight boxer, he was looked upon as something of a political illiterate.

He was anything but. A wise and brave man. Had thousands of others taken his example the lives that could have been spared.

Seven Sleepers Day (Siebenschläfertag)

Tradition has it in Ireland and England that if it rains on St Swithun's Day, July 15, it will rain for the next 40 days.

The Germans have a similar tradition. Whatever the weather conditions are on Seven Sleepers Day (Siebenschläfertag) today June 27, those conditions will last for seven weeks.

It's overcast in many parts of Germany today. And the sun shines, at least early morning, in Dublin today.

An old boy's network that needs urgent change

The piece below is from the  US Catholic publication, NCR. It's well worth a read and certainly applies to leadership in the Irish Catholic Church.

How much of the current dysfunction within the Catholic Church finds its genesis in Pope John Paul ll's management of the church?

Certain Catholics love to repeat ad nauseam that the church is not a democracy, especially when it comes to decision-making and the selection of leadership.

And thank God it is not.

Nor should it aspire to be if the democratic model is the dysfunctional political and electoral system at work in places like the United States.

But that doesn't mean all is well with the way the Roman church makes its pastoral-administrative decisions, discerns the call of the Spirit, or chooses its bishops.

Quite the contrar. The inadequate leadership displayed by too many bishops in the United States and other parts of the world the past couple of decades has made that point painfully clear. One wonders how some of these men were ever put in a position of such weighty responsibility.

The most recent case that has American Catholics scratching their heads is that of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

The 68-year-old Detroit native resigned June 15 after seven disastrous years as the head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese. (He had an extra year there as the coadjutor archbishop.)

Some may think it uncharitable, but, no, it is not unfair to call his time in the Twin Cities a true disaster. And one that ended even worse.

Just about anyone in New Ulm could have predicted this. That's the smaller Minnesota diocese where the Vatican sent Nienstedt in 2001 to prepare him for promotion to the state's major see. His task was to "clean up the mess" (a favorite expression of conservative American monsignors in the Roman Curia) that Bishop Raymond Lucker left behind.

Lucker was a St. Paul native and was auxiliary bishop in the Twin Cities when he was appointed to New Ulm in 1975. Lucker was named when Belgian Archbishop Jean Jadot was apostolic delegate to Washington, and he came to be seen as one of the leading Second Vatican Council progressives in the U.S. hierarchy.

But within a few years after the election of John Paul II in 1978, he and other so-called "Jadot bishops" were being replaced by a more conservative crop of priests.

During Jadot's tenure (1973-1980), the tendency was to appoint "homegrown" bishops; that is, men who were natives of the diocese or area they were sent to be ordinary.

But when Archbishop Pio Laghi followed him as papal delegate (and then nuncio), that trend was gradually reversed. With all but rare exceptions, new bishops were appointed to dioceses that many of them had never even visited before and in states in other parts of the country.

It was a deliberate and, some say, cynical policy decision made by the cabal of cardinal-members and other officials of the Congregation for Bishops to keep the new "shepherds" more loyal to their masters in Rome than the unknown people they were sent to rule as if on a foreign mission.

Only a tiny minority of the priests and an even more miniscule section of the people in these dioceses were ever consulted about the candidates to be their new bishops. That trend has continued right up to the present. Who in New Ulm had ever heard of John Nienstedt? He was from Detroit, in a totally different ecclesiastical region, where he had been auxiliary bishop since 1996.

"Imported" to New Ulm and then to the Twin Cities, he was typical of most of the bishops in the United States.

In fact, only four of the 32 Latin Rite metropolitan archbishops in the country are "homegrown." The situation is similar in other parts of the world. Pope Francis was one of those who actually led his home diocese when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In any case, this is only one and perhaps the least bad feature of a very problematic episcopal appointment system.

While the apostolic nuncio is supposed to make discreet inquiries among a representation of the diocesan clergy and respected laypeople when he draws up the terna (or list of three names) of candidates that he submits to Rome, the process is extremely subjective and arbitrary.

There is an old boys' network of current bishops that tends to act as a self-preservation dynasty by promoting their protégés and friends to the episcopacy. Cardinals, especially those who are members of the Congregation for Bishops, are fundamental in pushing forward a candidate, especially for promotion to major posts.

Cardinal Edmund Szoka, for example, was largely responsible for making Nienstedt (his former secretary) a bishop. The late cardinal was known to have catapulted a number of other Michigan priests into the episcopacy, as well, including the current archbishops in Detroit and Hartford.

When Nienstedt resigned last week, the Vatican appointed Archbishop Bernard Hebda as temporary administrator of St. Paul and Minnesota. The mechanisms surrounding this appointment make it problematic, too. Hebda, a church centrist with degrees in both civil and canon law, not even two years ago was named coadjutor to the embattled Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J. With some sort of acrobatics, he evidently intends to make frequent three-hour flights each way and do both jobs.

Perhaps Hebda, who was bishop of Gaylord, Mich., from 2009-2013, has become the Vatican's new troubleshooter to sort out problematic situations. But is he the only and wisest choice?

It certainly follows the same familiar pattern of the old boys' network.

Hebda, 55, is a priest from Pittsburgh, where he was personal secretary to then-Bishop Donald Wuerl (Rome classmate of Myers, who is originally from Illinois). Well aware that loaning a priest to the Vatican is an investment for a future dividend, Wuerl sent Hebda to Rome, where he worked for more than a dozen years at the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. Incidentally, Myers was a member of that council.

And Wuerl is now Cardinal Wuerl, the latest (transplanted) archbishop of Washington and a member of the Congregation for Bishops.

How many priests and other baptized faithful had a voice in any of these appointments? Where are the concerns of any of them listened to seriously? The "election" of bishops (that's what the Holy See calls such appointments, underlining the more ancient practice) need not be done by widespread popular vote. In fact, that would be disaster.

But there should be a more serious and involved process that involves a significant representation of the entire community in identifying the most qualified and gifted leaders. And it should be the rule, not the exception, that the choice (or recommendation) of candidate generally be from the local clergy, especially in long-established dioceses.

Such an "election process" needs to be re-established, albeit with provisions for changed modern-day situations. While it is true that the church is not democracy, neither is it an oligarchy.

[Robert Mickens is editor-in-chief of Global Pulse. Since 1986, he has lived in Rome, where he studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University before working 11 years at Vatican Radio and then another decade as correspondent for The Tablet of London.]

Party at the Áras

President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina hosted a garden party at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday for multi cultural groups.

The house and gardens were open and a buffet was served in a marquee in the garden.

In an address to the group the President spoke of how important it is to welcome the stranger.

He spent some time talking about the present global movement of so many refugees.

The President referred to the small but important work that the Irish Navy is doing in the Mediterranean and that shortly the LÉ Aoife will replace the LÈ Eithne.

Concern Worldwide staff at the Áras. From left:
Gearoid Loibhead, Anne O'Mahony, Angela
Whyte and Michael Commane.

Reminder of another era.

Eight years later

This blog marks its eighth year this month. It began in mid-summer 2007 and now attempts to publish on a daily basis.

At present it is read in over 180 cities around the world, including Novocherkassk in Russia. Today the blog was read in 50 Russian cities. Unfortunately it has not yet been read in the great city of Volgograd (Волгогра́д).

The blog is eclectic. It republishes the blogger's Irish Times Thinking Anew column. The Irish Times has a readership of 314,000. It also republishes the blogger's column in the INM Irish regional newspapers, which have a combined readership of approximately of 50,000.

Fr Brendan Smyth

It is difficult to see and hear  the unfolding news about paedophile priest, the late Fr Brendan Smyth.

The Norbertines were aware of his proclivity before he was ordained a priest and they went on and ordained him.

Had he been in a relationship with a woman would they have allowed him be ordained?

"The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"

The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane
RTE’s Sunday Game presenter Michael Lyster has been in the news of late. He had a close shave with death. He had been playing golf on the day with journalist Vincent Hogan.  On returning home his heart stopped beating and but for his wife applying cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) he was gone.

He wrote about his experience: “When something like this happens you are left with no doubt in your mind but that there is a thin line between dying and surviving. If it wasn’t for a set of circumstances I would not be here today.”

And if one is not ‘here’ then one is dead. It’s as stark as that. It’s the only thing we can ever predict about anyone – they will die. We all do.

I set aside Monday afternoon to visit people I know who are in hospital. It meant first going to Dublin’s Mater Hospital and then out to Tallaght Hospital.

The man I visited in the Mater was a year behind me in school. He has had his larynx removed and is in recovery mode at present. I was in a tiny way able to empathise or sort of understand his situation as my own mother also had a laryngectomy. I have been greatly impressed with his positive attitude towards his illness.

Travelling from the Mater to Tallaght by bus I kept thinking of that thin line between health and illness. When we are healthy and well we can easily think we are indestructible and yet anything can happen any day and at any age.

In Tallaght Hospital I called to a 96-year-old man whom I know for a long time. He is frail and weak. Over the years we have had great chats and I know he likes me. I even managed to get a smile out of him when I called. He has lived a healthy life but at 96 it is unlikely that he is going to bounce back to good health.

And then I called to another man. Yes, on this day it was all men I visited. That’s just a coincidence. 

This man is in his late 70s. He was in terrible pain. It seems he had broken his hip. I stayed less than a minute with him. He was in no mood for visitors. There was terrible pain etched on his face. But this man, a highly intelligent person, has been plagued with mental illness all his life. I know him over 40 years and in that time he has been a regular visitor to hospitals.

What at all must his pain be like? Impossible for me to imagine.

In the past people would often refer to this life of ours as ‘a valley of tears’. It’s not something one hears too often these days. But whether or not we hear it, when we see first-hand the suffering that people experience we have no alternative but to stop and wonder. Why do some people suffer so much?

I know an elderly man who had a serious stroke over a year ago. He has a reputation for being sharp with his tongue. Indeed, on many occasions I have been at the end of his tough words. As a result of the stroke he is now greatly incapacitated and can do little or nothing for himself. Yet, I have never once heard him complain or get annoyed or angry with his situation. It’s truly inspirational.

Maybe I’m getting a hint of what Shakespeare meant when he said “…the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..”

What sort of lottery is it at all?  

Schalck-Golodkowski dies

Former East German and SED functionary Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski has died from prostate cancer at home in Tegernsee.

Alongside Erich Honecker and his economics secretary Günter Mittag, Schalck-Golodowski was one of the most powerful men in the former German Democratic Republic.

In 1983 he did a famous/infamous deal with CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß, which saved the GDR from bankruptcy.

His paternal grandfather was a senior Russian official in the Depatment of Finance in Gomel, Belarus.

Golodkowski's father was an offficer in the army of the Tsar before fleeing from the Bolsheviks and later he was in charge of the Wehrmacht Russian language translation school at Berlin-Moabit, close to the Dominican priory in Oldenburger Straße.

And he nearly made it to becoming Secretary of the SED and the man in charge of the GDR. The Wall fell and Germany was reunited.

Archbishop's resignation letter not a hint of apology

Below is John Nienstedt's letter of resignaiton.

Not a hint of an apology, not a hint of saying anything close to 'sorry'.

Who are these people? What's the mindset of these men? Who appoints them to these jobs?

And it goes on and on and not a sign of a change.

Once something happens they run to their lawyers.

Is it all a monstrous game?

From Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

In order to give the Archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face, I have submitted my resignation as Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and I have just received word that he has accepted it. The Catholic Church is not our Church, but Christ’s Church, and we are merely stewards for a time. My leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them. Thus, my decision to step down.

It has been my privilege the last seven years to serve this local Church. I have come to appreciate deeply the vitality of the 187 parishes that make up the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. I am grateful for the support I have received from priests, deacons, religious men and women and lay leaders, especially those who have collaborated with me in the oversight of this local Church.

I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults.

I ask for continued prayers for the well-being of this Archdiocese and its future leaders. I also ask for your continued prayers for me.

More church nonsense

There is much coverage in the media this weekend on the shenanigans in the Catholic Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis.

The archbishop, who has 'resigned', is also under investigation for his own sexual behaviour.

It gets more embarrassing and annoying with  the passing of every day.

Not attempting to underestimate the terrible hurt, pain and wrong that is being done,  what goes on is simply 'laughable.

See June 15 post on this blog.

Varoufakis praises Noonan

Yesterday's Irish Times carries an article written by the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

In the piece he give an insight intoThursday's eurogroup meeting and praises Irish finance minister Michael Noonan.

The article is well worth a read.

Heading for Kippure

Tess back on the mountain after a short break.

Straddling the Wicklow Dublin border on her way to Kippure (757 metres) via the Eagle's Crag.

Down below Lough Bray Upper and Lower.

A great day in the hills. Panocramic views, the sea to the east and the hills everwhere else.

Within 15 minutes of being down off the mountain and back on the road the rain arrives.

Panic makes us moribund

Below is today's Irish Times  'Thinking Anew' column.

Michael Commane

Tomorrow’s Gospel could well be used as some sort of advice or mission statement for those of us who find it so easy to panic.

It’s a relatively well known passage, the story of Jesus travelling with his disciples in a boat in stormy waters. Jesus falls asleep while on the boat and the disciples are scared of their lives. They get cross with him for not helping them in their hour of need.

“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4: 40)

It’s easy to advise people not to panic. It’s another story to move away from panic. And I know that first-hand. At 48 I moved from teaching to journalism. I worked as a sub-editor at a provincial newspaper and enjoyed every moment of it, well almost every moment.

My main job was designing pages, then editing text and placing in on the page. While I learned some of the craft in the journalist course I did, no course ever fully equips you for the job. It’s always a matter of learning on the job.

The production of any newspaper is always concerned with deadlines and speed. Sube-ditors have to be nifty people. They have to be able to move things around at great speed, responding to new information,  all the time being accurate.

Doing that job I learned how easily I panic. Once under any sort of extended pressure I found myself racing into panic mode. And once the panic button had been pressed it became impossible to do anything. It became impossible to put a full stop at the end of a sentence. Panic means being moribund.

Maybe over time it was possible to avoid that panic but I certainly learned the hard way that panic is disastrous for every situation and eventuality.

In tomorrow’s Gospel those closest to Jesus began to panic; they lost their nerve and rebuked him for not helping them in their moment of great need.

He calmly and quietly assures them that all is in order, they all will be well and he suggests to them that their faith may not be the strongest.

None of us, no matter how strong we think we are, is ever too far away from uncertainty or doubt. And that applies to so many aspects of our daily lives, the things we do, all those tangible aspects associated with our daily lives.

When it comes to belief or faith in God everything surely becomes so much more nebulous and yes, uncertain. If the disciples found themselves doubting the word of Jesus, is it any wonder that we too would doubt and be sceptical about placing our trust in God?

There are those who will say that we are living in a “godless society”, they will argue that we exclude God from our daily lives. Is that not a form of panic? Is that not some sort of scare mentality, in which we do not have the vocabulary or vision to see God and God’s reality in the world in which we live.

When Pope Benedict walked through the gates of the  Auschwitz death camp he made a reference to how difficult it must have been to see or believe in God. And yet just there, in that depravity people did see God.

As believing Christians it’s our challenge to experience the presence of God right where we are and in the times in which we live. To say anything else is a form of panic. And panic makes us moribund. Faith in God is a source of energy. 

We too can relax and be assured in the calming quality of God.

Replies to Vincent Twomey

Letters in yesterday Irish Times in response to Vincent Twomey's opinion piece. earlier in the week.

Sir, – The Rev Dr Twomey’s opinion piece contained many offensive implications – the No voters had “reason” on their side, the Yes voter lacked “critical thinking and moral courage”, the Yes voter was influenced by a postcolonial inferiority complex, the Yes voter was a sentimental buffoon, “too kind-hearted for one’s own good”, as the French, apparently, say (“Sentiment subdued reason in marriage referendum”, (Opinion & Analysis, June 15th). However, what is most apparent to me is the irony that an article which questions the intellectual capacity of the majority of voters in this country could be so incoherently argued. 

Reasons as to why the Yes voter was wrong are pitched at the reader with the grace and style of a game of pin the tail on the donkey. The opening sentence reads, “The marriage referendum was paradoxically won/lost thanks to the best in Irish Catholicism”. What? Later we read, “in the end, the heart triumphed, thanks to what is best in Irish Catholicism”. But then we read, “Honesty, truthfulness and endurance in the face of the majority who think differently are more associated with Irish Protestants than with Irish Catholics.” I was confused. Is it good to be a Catholic, or bad? 

We are told that our postcolonial inferiority rendered us subject to flattery and/or intimidation, but later, praise for our physical courage comes from “observers” who “have noted that when it comes to physical courage (as in sport or soldiers) few can beat us”. Who are these observers? Are they the same outsiders from whom we seek approval? Or different outsiders?

Threaded through the spurious justification that the minority No voters have the intellectual and moral higher ground is a more insidious suggestion that victims and relatives of clerical abuse were shocked into a sympathetic gesture in solidarity with their gay children.

The author puts the word “gay” in inverted commas so we can understand that it’s not really a genuine condition, I presume.

We are also informed that Pope Francis is prone to an “easily misunderstood quip”.

Dr Twomey’s piece is offensive for many reasons, but one would at least hope for an intellectual, articulate defence of his opinion and not a piece in which scattergun meanderings and contradictory statements abound. – Yours, etc,

NIAMH HAMILL,

Bundoran,

Co Donegal.

A chara, – Seven longish critical letters (June 16th) responding to the Rev Dr Vincent Twomey. Might I restore some balance? Dr Twomey expressed a reasonable, well-stated opinion on the referendum result. When everyone is agreeing, the truth often suffers. – Is mise, 

S O’CUINN,

An Charraig Dhubh,

Baile Átha Cliath.

Sir, – On Tuesday, your letter page facilitated a seven to nil unfavourable to favourable response to Prof Twomey’s analysis, whose verdict was that sentiment trumped reason in the marriage referendum. The instinct for damage limitation displayed reminded me of nothing as much as the resort to packed defences in favour with some Ulster GAA teams. And evidence, if needed, of the media partisanship intimated by the professor!

The best that can be said for the Yes defenders is that they sniped around the edges of the professor’s balanced and objective take on the campaign. This is reminiscent, indeed, of the Yes strategy in the campaign of appealing to the personal and the emotional to the near exclusion of the rational and the objective.

The heart’s concerns are fair game for manipulation when there are many who have every cause not to rely on reason. But pity the country that spurns a mindful evaluation in favour of emotivism. – Yours, etc,

J O’DONOGHUE,

Killarney, Co Kerry.

Sir, – David Harte (June 16th) rightly criticises The Irish Times for allowing Vincent Twomey to place the words gay, out, equality and human rights in quotation marks. The effect was to delegitimise those terms. – Yours, etc,

OLIVER McGRANE,

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

Sir, – The “Reverend” Vincent Twomey, “moral” theologian. Strange effect those inverted commas have, isn’t it? – Yours, etc,

GARETH COLGAN,

Kilmacud,

Co Dublin.

Obama criticised for comments on killings

A presenter on right-wing US 'Patriot Radio' criticised President Barack Obama for the comments he made on hearing of the shooting in the church in Charleston.

The President criticised US laws on gun ownership and how they are so different from those in other developed countries.

The presenter on 'Patriot Radio' jeered the President for his comments and assured listeners that Obama was using it as political opportunism.

One is tempted to ask what influence the right-wing US Catholic Church has on worldwide Catholicism.

Ay ay Sir

The atmosphere inside St Kevin's Church Harrington Street in Dublin.

It's difficult to appreciate the 'honour system' with such a CCTV surveillance in operation.

Like something one would see in the former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen.

A relief that those days are over. 

Alleluia.

Pope's encyclical blames the inidifference on the powerful

From today's Guardian online. 

"Pope Francis has called on the world’s rich nations to begin paying their “grave social debt” to the poor and take concrete steps on climate change, saying failure to do so presents an undeniable risk to humanity.

The pope’s 180-page encyclical on the environment is not only a moral call for action on phasing out the use of fossil fuels, as was expected. It is also a document infused with an activist anger and concern for the poor, casting blame at the indifference of the powerful."

How time passes

Have you ever noticed when you buy a food product, say milk, and notice the sell-by-date? It seems far away. Then suddenly the date comes and then it's gone. The wise person will have consumed all the milk.

Have you noticed how when scrolling down to find your date-of-birth on a computer screen, you find yourself scrolling down further and further. And it only seems like yesterday since you were top of the list.

The era of the selfie

Today's Gospel reading (Mt 6: 1 - 6, 16 - 18) is surely a clever antidote to a world of superlatives. Last week Frank McNally in his Irishman's Diary wrote about how these days we constantly use superlatives about ourselves.

The era of the selfie.

The late Tom Woulfe was a long-time cyclist

Saturday's Irish Times carried an obituary of Tom Woulfe.

Mr Woulfe lived in Rathgar and came to Mass in the Three Patrons Church in Rathgar right up to his final days. He was 99 when he died.  

The paragraph below is from Saturday's Irish Times.

"In 1978, he retired , celebrating by cycling across Ireland, on an old “High Nelly” bike. He continued to cycle until he was 88; his last trip to Kerry, when he was 79, took him two days."

Another archbishop resigns

Today's 'New York Times' reports the resignation of the Catholic Archbishop of St Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt.

It is a chronicle of mismanagement and arrogance.

Who at all appoints these people bishops?

And it goes on and on. Or is it all about to collapse?

An incident in Lidl

Yesterday afternoon in a Lidl store in Dublin a security man spoke in a loud voice to a lady wearing a long dress. She appeared not to be a native of Ireland.

The security man observed that she had small change in her hand and remonstrated with her not to pay with small change as it held up the queue.

The woman said nothing, simply cowered. Thankfully people in the queue objected to the man's behaviour.

It was shocking. The cashier looked embarrassed.

A day in the life.....

Not the priest's job to tell people how to live their lives

The first lines from today's Gospel from Mark:

Jesus also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."  

The idea of priests telling people how to live their lives would seem to be out of sync with these lines from St Mark.

The idea of priests ever telling people how to live their lives seems absurd.

Poor hospital signage

There are regular complaints about signage on Irish roads, its up there with the potholes on our secondary roads.

Have you ever noticed how bad signage is in Irish hospitals?

Take Tallaght Hospital, it seems they have gone out of their way to make the signs as small as possible. Also as scarce as possible.

The hospital is about to begin a project in imporving the system. Why did they not have an 'improved system' the first day?

Then floor designations. Is it level or floor. When the lift stops at a floor or level it is close to impossible to see what floor/level you are on.

In Tallaght there is a sign tucked away at one side of the lift, which is not visible if you leave the lift from certain doors.

But it's not just Tallaght hospital. It's right across the entire system.

Again, who is or was the 'management class' who designed this mess?

Lift doors at Tallaght Hospital

Freesheet 'Alive!' pickings

A headline in the June issue of the freesheet 'Alive!' runs:

"More UK teenagers have a smartphone than a father"

Does that mean there are no smart phones in the UK?

Another headline goes:

"No peace in society without faith in God"

A work colleague, who saw this headline and who does not believe in God, was greatly offended.

And then there is the picture on the front page, which is referred to in a comment on this blog and has received national news. It is alledged the picture was used without permission of the artist.

In the same issue soothing words for the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government. At the same time the Guardian newspaper gets a lashing as does President Obama.

Then there are stories about Sharing Joy and Opening ourselves to mercy.

P45s for members of episcopal conference

Today's Irish Examiner carries a page-long open letter to Pope Francis by Ballyfermot priest Joe McDonald.

In the letter he talks about issuing P45s to members of the episcopal conference. But no mention of P45s for provincials. Why?

See http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/help-us-holy-father-the-church-is-dying-336226.html

Is the cat out of the bag?

Priestly celibacy

It seems more and more bishops are now asking for conversation about priestly celibacy.

Is that now the 'expedient' thing to do?

Has it all to do with power, control and fashion?

It's a 'funny old world' and a 'funnier old church'.

What bishops were asking for such discussion when  John Paul II and Benedict were popes?

Is everything always a question of following the leader in charge on the day?

New Berlin archbishop

Heiner Koch, current bishop in Dresden-Meissen has been appointed Archbishop of Berlin.

Koch was born in Düsseldorf in 1954, studied theology at Bonn and was ordained a priest for the diocese of Cologne in 1980.

He was appointed an auxiliary bishop in Cologne in 2006 and moved to Dresden in 2013.

A sober reminder

The Berlin Senate some years ago began a project marking the pavements outside the doors of people, mainly Jews, who were taken from their homes by the Nazis and deported to the camps.

That project has now been extended to other cities, including Frankfurt-an-der Oder.

Below is a picture of the plates outside a door in the German border city.

The men who dragged these people out of their homes were 'ordinary' people. They did what they were told. And so many of the upper echelons were 'respectable' people.

Mercedes Benz supplied Hitler with a customised vehicle. IG Farben supplied the gas to the camps. After the war IG Farben was divided up into new companies, including BASF and Hoechst.

On the other hand it s now well established that many of those who joined the Nazi party were deviants and miscreants. 

Being careful funny too

Certainy a funny headline in the Guardian.

Bee forces Flybe BE384 to turn back

Keane on Delaney

Assistant manager of the Irish soccer team, Roy Keane was asked on Friday if Mr Delaney's revelation about the 'hush hush' money that the FAI received was a distraction? Keane laughed: "Isn't he always?" he said.

Being blessed

Below an extract from Psalm 67. Imagine if we relaxed in the graciousness of God.

O God, be gracious and bless us *
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth *
and all nations learn your saving help.

Sachsenhausen and evil

Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, is a site of evil, a place where one sees and touches evil.

Here too was a brothel.

And so many of the perpetrators got away with it.

In the current issue of Spirituality there is an article written by a former Dominican priest, who was physically and sexually abused by a priest.

The abuser priest is three years dead.

In 1977 he verbally abused me. And from then until his death it was as clear as day he hated me.

Years later at a provincial meeting he sneered at me and attempted to humiliate me.

We lived in the same community from 1989 until approximately 2010.

I was removed from the community on the grounds that I was not a 'good influence' on the young men studying for priesthood. The man who physically, sexually and verbally abused, lived in the same building. Indeed, he lived there as a privileged person until his death as an old man.

That removal  is a badge of honour to me, especially sitting here  in Sachsenhausen. But it was a savage attack on my good name.

I write these words at the end of a two-hour visit to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

I can feel and smell the evil of this place.

And we can all do this.

The public knows the tricks

“How to please the public - that's the test.

But nowadays I find I'm in a fix; 

I know they're not accustomed to the best

But they've all read so much they know the tricks.
How can we give then something fresh and new
That's serious, but entertaining too."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

God and the universe

Schilller keeping an eye on Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt on a sun-drenched day in June.

"The universe is one of God's thoughts." - Schiller.