Weinsteining is everywhere

Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column of Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Michael Commane

Tom Hanks has been talking about his book, 'Uncommon Type'.

During an interview on BBC Television when asked about Harvey Weinstein he said that it was such a sensational story that in the years ahead there would be a verb 'to weinstein and a noun too, 'the weinstein'

When I mentioned to a friend I was going to write a column on 'weinsteining' and bullying she said: "Bullying occurs everywhere.  In marriage especially; parents, children. Reins are kept on money, sex, etc. As for the church, don't get me started. It happens to the elderly, in banks, nursing homes, everywhere."

The women who have spoken about Weinstein deserve great praise.

People have spoken about how he sexually molested and bullied them, how he conveyed an aura about him that seemed to make him special, as if he were some sort of genius. His demeanour screamed ‘how dare anyone challenge or say boo to me’. He felt he was omnipotent. He had power. It's that aura thing that is intriguing.

When I was a young priest attending University College Cork I experienced first-hand how bullying seems to be linked with this phoney aura. And somewhere in that mix too you could add devious sexual behaviour.

On one occasion, I was with a group of novices, who were discussing what it was like to live in religious community. There was an older man present. He had spent most of his priesthood in positions of authority in the Order. He was arguing that religious life was similar to a family. I disagreed with him and said so in a forthright manner.

The following day he arrived at my room, screaming and roaring at me. It happened between 1976 and 1979. I can still see the rage and anger in his face. 

He warned me that unless I apologised to him he would have me removed from the house where I was living immediately. I was scared and to my great shame I apologised.

Over the years I observed this man, who is now dead. It's said you should never speak ill of the dead. Why not?

I discovered things about him, things that are nasty and vile. But it all fitted perfectly with my experience of him that morning.

He had an aura about him. He gave the impression of being superior, cultivated, gentle, knowledgeable. He was ever so suave. He may well have been knowledgeable, but he certainly was not superior nor cultivated. Nor was he gentle. He was a brute, a brute like Weinstein.

And as with Weinstein there were always rumours about him but nobody ever enunciated words which made it clear that he was not a nice person.

Every time I hear people talk about Weinstein I'm reminded of this man. I get angry with myself that I did not challenge him that morning, that I did not tell him to take a hike. There would have been no point in reporting him because he had all the power stacked in his hands. No one would have believed me. 

In the intervening years I never said anything to him. He intimidated me. I am ready now to scream it from the rooftops, his name too, but the damage has been done.

When people question why no one stood up to Harvey Weinstein earlier, I know exactly why they didn't. And so too do all those innocent victims who have been bullied and terrorised by the Weinsteins of this world. And there are many of them and they are everywhere.

Tom Hanks is right, it’s a verb okay – to weinstein.

 

Thatcher is icon for AfD

Alice Weidel, a leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has said the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is her political role model, saying Thatcher got Britain back on its feet when it was facing economic ruin.

Weidel told  Bild am Sonntag that her party, which won seats in the Bundestag for the first time after capturing nearly 13 per cent of the vote, aimed to be ready to join a coalition government by 2021.

Defence minister's courage

Politicians have a skill for mangling words.

On RTE's 'This Week' programme today the Minister of State with reposnibility for the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe when talking about the Defence Forces said at one stage ".... The courageous courage of the ........."

The Phoenix Hospital

It has been announced that the new children's hospital is to be called the Phoenix Children's Hospital.

Could anyone have chosen a more spectacularly nonsensical name?

Already the Phoenix Children's Hospital  in Arizona has expressed concnerns about plans to adopt a similar name for the new hospital.

Historian Diarmaid Ferriter in his  column in The Irish Times  yesterday suggested it be called after Dr Kathleen Lynn.

She served as a medical officer to the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Rising. She was also elected to the Dáil in 1923 as an anti-treaty candidate.

With Madeline ffrench-Mullem she established St Ultan's Hospital for infants in Dublin's Charlemont Street.

Everything about The Lynn Hospital is and sounds better than the Phoenix Hospital.

The war against Pope Francis within the church

The piece below appeared in yesterday's Guardian.

It may at times sound superficial to 'insiders' but it tells a true story.

The viciousness, nastiness, indeed hatred that exists within different factions in the Catholic Church.

It is happening in front of our eyes and in the Irish church too.

People despising one another, and doing it in silence. It is a shocking scenario and one gets a sense of it reading the Guardian article.

There is a nastiness, a slyness within the conservative camp and Pope Francis seems to have raised their shackles to such an extent that they now see him as a 'heretic'.

If it weren't so sad it would be hilariously funny.

The piece is factual, it's true, it's real. It's a great read.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/oct/27/the-war-against-pope-francis?CMP=share_btn_link

New bus and rail fares

A spokesperson for the National Transport Authority said on radio this afternoon that all the new rail and bus fares are posted on its website.

Where?

They can't be found.

On the same website readers are told that 20 per cent of all passengers travel free.

Is Irish Rail's chairman agreeing with NBRU boss?

The piece below appeared in The Irish Times yesterday.

It seems that Frank Allen, chairman of Irish Rail is agreeing with comments made by the General Secretary of the Natinal Bus and Rail Workers Union the day following the breakdown of talks between railway managers and trade union representatives.

NBRU general secretary Dermot O'Leary said on RTE's Morning Ireland that an agreement was on the verge of being made but that the talks were scuppered by Irish Rail ceo, who was not present at the talks.

Yesterday's newspaper report on the comments of Irish Rail chairman would seem to be nothing less than sensational.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/iarnr%C3%B3d-%C3%A9ireann-chairman-hopes-strikes-can-still-be-averted-1.3268500#.WfI93viVL8Q.mailto

Playing golf

The following appeared in 'The Tablet' of 50 years ago, the edition of October 21 1967:

"One of the great arguments for clerical celibacy is that it leads to a very high standard of golf among the Catholic clergy.

"I saw something of this for myself last week on the Ayrshire coast, at the close of the Universe Annual Golf Competition, when Plymouth diocese beat Shrewsbury at a play-off, and it was astonishing how high the average skill is, on a broad steady average of four strokes to a hole, or 72 holes for under rather than over three hundred stokes."

Everything has its place and time.

When that was written golf was part of the liturgical calendar of many clerics.

A recent study shows that golf is losing its appeal among younger people, inlcuding millennials.

Terence MacSwiney

On this day, October 25, 1920 the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney died in Brixton Prison.

He had been on hunger strike for 74 days.

First day of new Bundestag

The new German parliament sat yesterday for the first time.

The new Bundestag president is Wolfgang Schäuble, who first entered parliament in 1972. He is the former German finance minister.

This is the largest ever Bundestag with 709 members.

Storytelling on the catwalk

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

On Friday my attention was caught by a young man at the door of a pharmacy.

It seemed as if he had been barred from the pharmacy and wanted to get into the shop. He looked like a man who was in a terrible state of mind and body. Drug addiction was written all over his face.

Drug addiction is a scourge and does extraordinary damage to the lives of too many people.

On Thursday October 12 there was a fashion show in Dublin's Little Green Street organised by SAOL, a community project focusing on improving the lives of women affected by addiction and poverty. 

SAOL is the Irish word for life and the acronym stands for Seasamhacht, Ábaltacht, Obair, Léann; in English, Stability, Ability, Work, Learn.

SAOL provides creative and education programmes for women and their children.

It empowers women to highlight issues of social justice and equality, and gives them ways of coping that most people take for granted.

The fashion show, to which I was invited, was a chronology of the lives of poor women in the 20th century. Every decade of the 1900s was portrayed on the catwalk with models wearing clothes of the time. All the clothes for the show were sourced from second-hand shops.

The project was a history lesson for the recovering addicts in that they were able to learn so much about the past from the clothes they modelled.

The clothes were modelled by recovering addicts and staff members and students.

Anytime we hear the word catwalk we immediately think of famous models in front of the world's glitterati and media.

For the women on the Little Green Street catwalk it was no easy task, indeed they are heroes. Many of them are victims of hardship and suffering and have not often been at the receiving end of positive comment.

It was my first time to attend a fashion show. Everything was in place, the lights dimmed, with spotlights beaming down on the catwalk.

The models elegantly told the story of the lives, times and hardships of 20th century women.

The fashion show highlighted themes of inequality, discrimination and mental health, through a range of clothes designed and made specially for the show.

As late as the 1970s a woman could not sit on a jury unless she was over 30, or was a landowner; she could not collect children's allowance, the form had to be signed by her husband; she could not own her own home, nor could she obtain a restraining order, and she could not drink a pint in a pub. They are some of the issues that divided men and women. We still have a long way to go.

This catwalk may not have had the world's top models on it but the women who did model the clothes managed in a powerful way to paint a picture of the suffering that poorer women experienced.

I was sitting beside a young woman with her 18-month-old child. While a recovering drug-addict she got help from SAOL. She has won the battle against drugs, did a sociology and social policy degree at Trinity College and is now back at SAOL supporting and working with women, who are recovering from addiction.

I hope that man I saw outside the pharmacy will find his way to a support group.

There are people and resources out there to help him. I saw it with my own eyes in Little Green Street.

Well done to all.

The SAOL website is, www.saolproject.ie. You can contact them at 58 Amiens Street, Dublin 1. Phone, 01 – 855 3391.

To weinstein/the weinstein

As Tom Hanks has said, in years to come there will be a verb and noun from the name 'Weinstein'.

Most likely.

The women who have spoken out about what happened have to be lauded for their bravery.

A number of people have spoken about his bullying behaviour and that 'aura' about him that he exuded.

People were afraid to say a word against him. 'It wasn't done.'

The Weinstein phenomenon exists right across all society, in every grouping, inevery occupation.

That 'aura' that some bullies manage to create, carry with them, that makes people so afraid. It's a 'dark talent'.

The bullying teacher, engineer, garda, doctor, plumber, priest, who gives off that 'aura'. No one can ever put a finger on it or why but everyone is afraid to say a word.

Is it always linked to sexauality?

It might well be. 

Maybe more anon.

Lies and more lies

An interesting piece in The New Yorker on Friday.

How politicians, even those who sometimes seem honest, manage the truth.

The White House chief of staff, John Kelly, is the latest example of how President Trump sullies the reputations of those who work with and for him.

Worryng times.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/john-kelly-and-the-dangerous-moral-calculus-of-working-for-trump

Comrade tram passenger

Below is today's ' An Irishman's Diary' by Irish Times journalist Frank McNally.

It's a lovely piece, informative too.

Still three weeks to go until the centenary of the Russian Revolution, commemorations of which will be interesting. But in the meantime I see that John Reed, the man who so famously reported it, was born on this date in 1887. So to mark his 130th birthday, I’m reopening the case of a small literary mystery that has long baffled me, namely this: When he wrote Ten Days that Shook the World, which 10 days did he have in mind?

Yes, it’s one of the great titles, worthy of a classic. It’s also much catchier than most of the text, and must have contributed greatly to the work’s success.

But I have read both the book, which covers a period of about two months, and the timeline of events that accompanies it.

And I’m at a loss to identify any 10-day period therein, or even a nine or 11-day one, that explains the number.

As for the world-shaking bit, that would be true, eventually. At the time, though, the events barely shook Petrograd. 

Much of Reed’s book is about people having meetings: occasionally dramatic, if only for their epic nature, as when he describes sessions of the Petrograd Soviet that had “delegates falling down asleep on the floor and rising again to take part on the debate [...] speaking six, eight, twelve hours a day.”

Like many foreign reporters in trouble zones, he had to cover much of what he thought was going on from his hotel room, studying local newspapers and other clues. But he wasn’t missing much. 

Even on the actual night of the revolution – November 7th in the western calendar – Petrograd was resolutely unshaken.

As AJP Taylor wrote in an introduction: “Most people [...] did not even know that a revolution was taking place. The trams were running, the fashionable restaurants were crowded, the theatres were crowded and Chaliapin was singing at the Opera. The Red Guards kept away from the smart quarter or walked modestly in the gutter.”

Then came the takeover of the Winter Palace in the early hours of the 8th.

This is usually described as a “storming”. But Ophelia it wasn’t.

Taylor again: “Red Guards filtered in through the kitchen entrance and took over the palace without a struggle. At 2.25am [one of the Bolshevik leaders] broke into the room where the provisional government was still sitting and shouted: ‘In the name of the Military Revolutionary Committee I declare you all under arrest’. Such was the end of old Russia.”

Not being witness to such key moments, Reed often had to make do with first-hand reportage of what people in the streets were saying. But that provides some of the best detail in the book. Reflecting the disquiet of the local bourgeoisie, for example, a friend’s daughter is described as coming home “in hysterics” one day after a tram conductor addressed her as “comrade”.

Workers in general were getting uppity: “The waiters and hotel servants were organised and refused tips. On the walls of restaurants they put up signs which read ‘No tips taken here’ or “Just because a man has to make his living waiting on table is no reason to insult him by offering a tip’.”

Maybe the title of his book was suggested by the frenzy in which it was written.

Astonishingly, that took little more than 10 days and must have shook the author, if no-one else.

It was a year later, in New York. The writing had been delayed by confiscation of his papers.

But when he finally got them back, he locked himself away like a hermit.

One morning in late 1918, his friend Max Eastman met him on the street, “unshaven, greasy-skinned, a stark sleepless half-crazy look on his slightly potato-like face”.

Eastman afterwards recalled his explanation: “I’m writing the Russian Revolution in a book. I’ve got all the placards and papers up there in a little room, and I’m working all day and night. I haven’t shut my eyes in thirty-six hours. I’ll finish the whole thing in two weeks. And I’ve got a name for it too – Ten Days That Shook the World. Goodbye, I’ve gotta go get some coffee. Don’t for God’s sake tell anyone where I am.”

Reed lived long enough to see it published and a success, but only just. Three years after the revolution, back in Russia, he contracted typhus and died, not quite 33.

His end was probably hastened by a lack of medicines caused by the allied blockade.

But he was given a hero’s burial in the necropolis in front of the Kremlin Wall – one of few westerners granted that distinction.

Death penalty inadmissable

Pope Francis talking on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church  by Pope John Paul II said that it was time for offical church teaching to be revised to make the death penalty "inadmissable".

The change, he said, did not make a "change in doctrine" but the recognition that "doctrine cannot be preserved without allowing it to develop".

Barack Obama back talking

Barack Obama was out on the stump on Thursday.

The piece below is from today's Guardian. A lovely story.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/19/barack-obama-

trump-attack-speech-virginia-hope?CMP=share_btn_link

Bullies among the clergy

In the digital version The Irish Times on Tuesday October 10 Patsy McGarry commented on the editorial in the current issue of Spirituality.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/bullies-among-clergy-contributed-most-to-fall-of-catholic-church-in-ireland-says-priest-1.3251434

RTE's past participle

Presenter on RTE's Morning Ireland at 07.42 today discussing a telephone scam said:

.......  if I had rang back.

Clinton on partnership

Former US President Bill Clinton was in Ireland, North and South on Tuesday.

At Dublin City University, where he was conferred with an honorary doctorate, he said:

All partnerships that are community based are held together not because everybody agrees with everybody else but because co-operation is better than conflict.

Germans say no to Missal

The German bishops have decided to abandon the new German translation of the Missal.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, pesident of the German bishops' conference said that several English bishops had appealed to him for help and he himself had tried to pray some of the newly translated English prayers but found the language "simply unacceptable".

The Opening Prayer in yesterday's Mass, the feast of St Ignatius of Antioch is a case in point. The opening sentence has 41 words and is close to gobbledegook.

The Irish bishops accepted this Missal without a whimper. It tells its own story.

John H Newman believed in an inclusive church

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Monday October 8 in Catholic liturgy was the feast of John Henry Newman.

The Englishman has links with Ireland in that he was the brains behind the Catholic University of Ireland, which later morphed into University College Dublin.

He was born in 1801 into an English Anglican family, taught at Oxford and ordained an Anglican priest in 1825.

In 1845 he converted to Catholicism, ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and later made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

Many unusual aspects to his life, one being that he became a cardinal without being ordained a bishop. But did you know that a cardinal does not have to be an ordained priest, or indeed, a man.

Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham in 2010.

Reading up a little about Newman last week I discovered that he was a strong believer in the laity having a far greater say in the life of the church. Indeed, he was not just referring to practical matters but he also felt that on issues of dogma laypeople had a role to play.

Interesting indeed. Apologies for using the term ‘laypeople’ I think it is a horrible word. A layperson is normally someone who knows nothing about a specific subject. 

When it comes to medicine or electronics I’m a layperson as I have no qualifications or accreditation in those areas. So, why in heaven’s name do we call Catholics who are not ordained ministers ‘laypeople’?

It often occurs to me that far too much in the Catholic Church depends on a small group of clerics who have inordinate power and control.

Take for instance an Irish parish: if the parish priest is a hard-working, good and holy man then it is most likely that the parish will be a living Christian community, where people play an active role in the life of the parish.

On the other hand, take a parish where the priest has lost interest, is tired, has not got the skills to deal with people and then on Sunday has not the ability to hold the attention of the congregation. Priests, like anyone else can annoy people.

It is inevitable and as natural as day following night that people will say bye-bye church. And that happens, it has been happening for a long time in Ireland.

Once the parish priest is not rocking the boat, it is most unlikely that a bishop will do anything to try to change the situation.

A parish council can and does help parish life. But the trouble with many parish councils is that they are made up of people who are slow to challenge the parish priest. 

Bishops usually visit parishes for confirmations and then the custom is that they meet a selected group of parishioners.

There is need for far greater communication between priests and their bishops or provincials. And between bishops, priests and people. I mean real talking and listening. 

If a priest is not interested in people, then what at all is he doing in the job?

We have a fabulous network of parishes in Ireland. We have great people living in them. I can’t help but believe that far too often a clerical church has helped hijack too many Christian communities. Eventually people speak with their feet and say bye-bye.

Communities thrive when people genuinely feel a sense of belonging. Solutions are staring us in the face. The answer lies on the ground, not in dogma.

Being kind, offering a genuine listening ear, a willingness to be part of a team goes a long way in building community.

Trains running or not?

Did Irish Rail run or not run trains this afternoon?

These pages from Irish Rail's timetable page and their Real time ap appear to tell conflicting stories.

As can be seen, both screenshots were taken at 17.28.

But compliments to all the services that helped ameliorate the damage of Ophelia.

On Channel 4's 7.00 News  RTE's Ciaran Mullooly said that the authorities " took 80,000 out of  the city [Galway] today". Did he really say that? It seems he did. Maybe he meant took them off the streets.

World Food Day

Today is World Food Day.

A third of all food produced in the world is wasted.

Every household in Ireland wastes €700 worth of food per annum. The country bins one millions tonnes of food every year.

Forty four per cent of the food the United States produces is not eaten.

One billion people or one in seven of the world's population have not enough food to eat.

An Ireland of inequality

Web Summit founder Patrick Cosgrave said yesterday that when it comes to income inequality Ireland is at the top of the list in the developed world, ahead of Chile.

According to Cosgrave figures of two years ago show that only five per cent of Irish people have a gross salary of €74,000 and one per cent earn a gross salary of €144,000 or more.

Approximately 1.2 million people in Ireland earn less than €30,000 per annum.

The promise of hope

The 'Thinking Anew' column in today's Irish Times.

Michael Commane

Right now, in the UK Theresa May is trying to outdo Jeremy Corbyn in the promises she is making to the electorate and stay in power.

It's the nature of politics to woo voters and offer them new horizons, promising the sun moon and stars. 'New politics' claims it's different but when it comes down to winning seats in a parliament, political parties always offer hope. There are times when that hope can be realised but, often, political parties offer a hope that is not and never can be fully realised.

It goes with the territory of being young to be idealistic. All of us have hope for the future but young people especially have an all-conquering ability to hope. 

In the first reading tomorrow (Isaiah 25: 6 - 9) from the Prophet Isaiah, who was born in about 765 BC/BCE the prophet tells us that "The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek; he will take away his people's shame everywhere on earth, for the Lord has said so."

And elsewhere in that reading we are told that "the Lord is the one in whom we hoped."

Placing our hope in the Lord - is that wishful thinking or is the Lord the only 'person' in whom all hope resides? One of those imponderable questions. Yet people of faith accept that in God our salvation is found.

October 3 was a public holiday in Germany. It's the day the country celebrates German unification. This year the country's president Frank Walter Steinmeier in an address in Mainz spoke of how since the fall of the Berlin Wall less visible 'walls' now divide the country.

He said that September's election had exposed walls "without barbed wire and death-strips but walls that stand in the way of our common sense of 'us' ".

When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down 28 years ago followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union the world for a short while genuinely believed that we were heading for halcyon times. At least I did.

Borders were thrown open; indeed, it was the cutting down of the barbed wire border between Austria and Hungary that in many ways symbolised the beginning of the end of the division of Europe. That broken border ultimately meant the collapse of the Cold War.

The miserable cynic, the most unconvertible pessimist had to be excited, had to have hope for the future. We were certainly heading for new and positive times.

Twenty-eight years later it all seems like a dream gone bad.

And 24 years before the Berlin Wall fell, the Second Vatican Council concluded. In the years that followed the Council, Catholics were promised and hoped for an open and living church with love and mercy replacing rules and control.

The post-Vatican church was a vibrant place to be a young Christian and a young priest. There was no limit to the possibilities of the journeys that lay ahead.

Slowly but surely that hope was in so many ways extinguished. And the church of today is limping along, influenced by a new breed of “culture warriors” for whom the number of candles on an altar is far more important than a real and imaginative dialogue with people who see no worthwhile purpose in believing or hoping in God.

Pope Francis is trying his best to get back to the spirit of the Council but he is encountering powerful opposition.

It's part of the human psyche to live in hope, to believe that better times are ahead. Alas, even when it does happen, it all seems ephemeral and certainly never lasts too long.

In tomorrow's reading Isaiah tells us: "See this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation; the Lord is the one in whom we hoped."

It seems putting all our hope or too much hope in any human organisation eventually is doomed to failure.

On this the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 theses it's worth quoting the man: "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that one could stake one's life on it a thousand times."

That certainly is assuring and gives one purpose, confidence too to hope in God.

Vladimir Putin's Russia

BBC Two is currently screening 'Russia with Simon Reeve'.

In last evening's programme Simon travelled from Crimea to St Petersburg via Moscow.

An ardent Russian supporter in Crimea is now beginning to have second thoughts about the annexation of Crimea.

In Moscow he spoke with a young woman whose apartment is about to be demolished. She is objecting and as a result of her peaceful activity has lost her State job.

Reeve said that since the collapse of the Soviet Union every day three villages across Russia are abandoned.

It sounds an extraordinary statistic. 

Orthodox Church views are on the rise in Russia and Reeve believes that Putin has been a big player in returning the church to its position of power.

The programme ended at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, which was stormed during the 1917 October Revolution.

Reeve concluded the programme pointing out that maybe nothing has changed in Russia as there is an all-powerful tsar, in the name of Vladimir Putin, in charge of this vast country.

Dealing in billions

Ireland's interest bill on borrowings is down from €7.5 billion in 2014 to €6.1 billion.

How much is a billion, is it a thousand million or a million million?

These days it seems Ireland and the UK have moved away from the million million to a thousand million for an understanding of a billion.

So, Ireland's interest bill is down from €7000,5000,000 to €6000,1000,000.

The Telephone Support Allowance, which comes into effect in June 2018, is €2.50. It will be given to people with State Pensions, who receive a fuel allowance. In other words, pensioners, whom the State considers to be financially vulnerable.

Can an organisation or a person who deals in €1000,000,000s, really understand what €2.50 might mean to a poor person?

Face-to-face

Two friends chatting in a  porch at a Dublin church.

Steinmeier at San Clemente

German President Frank Walter Steinmeier visited the Irish Dominican church and excavations on the Via Labicana in Rome yesterday.

Fr Tom McCarthy, prior at the Dominican Priory in Rome, greeting
German President Frank Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke,
who visited the excavations at San Clemente.

Ireland wastes one million tonnes of food every year

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Have you noticed the advertisements that Tesco are currently running on food waste?

They are eye-catching.

Tesco is promising in its adverts that by 2020 'no good food will go to waste in Tesco Ireland stores'.

In another advert they tell the reader that they became the founding partner of FoodCloud in 2013 and have since then donated four million meals to those in need. That works out at the company donating 40,000 meals each week from their stores.

Tesco are not the only food outlet involved in making customers aware of the scandal of food waste.

Aldi have partnered with FoodCloud, a not-for-profit organisation which aims at addressing the problem of food waste and food poverty. By partnering with FoodCloud, Aldi stores donate surplus food to charities and community organisations. Other supermarkets too are championing the cause.

On Tuesday of the week before last there was a sentence in the Gospel reading at Mass which read: 

'Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor haversack, nor bread, nor money; and do not have a spare tunic'. (Lk 9: 3)

It set me thinking about the amount of food we waste. The statistics are shocking. So it was great to see those Tesco ads.

In Ireland every year we throw out one million tonnes of good food. It means that every household wastes €700 worth of food on an annual basis.

It's worth noting that one in eight people in Ireland experiences food poverty.

Across the European Union 100 million tonnes of food is binned.

Not for me to interfere in the internal affairs of the United States of America, still it's worth noting that forty four per cent of all the food they produce is never eaten.

While we in the developed world waste obscene quantities of food, of the seven billion people on the planet, one billion have not got enough to eat. It sounds crazy and it is crazy.

These figures are simply shocking and scandalous. What are we doing about it? What am I doing about it?

While it is great to see the supermarkets being concerned about food waste it seems there is some ambiguity about how they market their produce.

How often  do we see advertising campaigns offering buy-one-get one-free or buy €X amount of groceries and you get a 'free-gift'. It's as if the supermarkets ignite a behaviour in us that wants us to fill our fridges and shelves and really they're not too worried what we do with it.

Of course they want to make profits for their companies/shareholders. Still, supermarkets need to be more responsible in their marketing and how they go about selling their produce.

Have you ever noticed how supermarkets design their stores in such a way that so much of the 'rubbish food' is displayed in the most strategic areas?

Shoppers are easy prey in supermarkets.

We never have a problem blaming someone else for all our woes. But if this column makes one person waste less food this week then honestly I'll be chuffed with myself.

Do you know how much food you waste? When did you last bin food because it was gone bad?

We should be wasting nothing. Imagine the hullabaloo that would emerge if every household was ordered to pay euro-for-euro for the food they waste? There would be national outcry. Yet these same households quietly and easily bin €700 worth of food on an annual basis. And even pay to bin it.

Wise words from Pope Francis: 'Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry.'

GDR national anthem

Below is a link to the anthem of the former German Democratic Republic.

Fine words and ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1CyPjQQTAM&sns=em

It might be apt in this the month of the 100th anniversary of the October revolution.

A personal encounter

The editorial in the current issue of The Tablet.

The original disciples did not come to recognise the divinity of Jesus Christ as a result of reading a theological textbook. 

They did so by reflecting prayerfully on their personal experience of his life and discussing (and no doubt arguing) amongst themselves about what he had said and how and why he had died – and what came after. 

Their example is still valid and effective today. People come to faith in Jesus Christ by encountering him through the reading of Scripture and in the life of the Church, and asking themselves, in prayerful humility – who is this man? 

In reaching their answer they are helped by other people’s similar experiences and other people’s responses. This grounding of faith in a personal encounter is central to the message of Pope Francis, and indeed of the Second Vatican Council.

It is an insight which brings to life the familiar words of the council’s decree Gaudium et Spes, which declares that “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” 

It is our human experience and our encounter with Jesus Christ that gives the Church its agenda. This is especially relevant to moral teaching. And that is where friction occurs between faith handed down and faith interpreted through the lens of experience.

This friction is well illustrated by the gradual but fundamental shift in Catholic perceptions of homosexuality. It also applies to the vexed issues surrounding the admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to Holy Communion. 

The faith as handed down, for instance by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, describes homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered”. But ordinary Catholics have come to realise – by experience – that homosexual men and women are normal human beings with the normal human need for intimacy and love. 

This experience says that to label them “intrinsically disordered” is insulting, demeaning, and not true. There is nothing wrong with them, but something wrong with a theological account that requires Catholics to set aside what their sincere moral intuition and observation of creation tells them.

The traditional distrust of experience sometimes causes Catholics to question the faith “handed down”, as over church teaching on contraception. Better understood, the point of intersection between faith shaped by tradition and faith moulded by experience could remake Catholic teaching on sexuality into something affirmative rather than negative. 

This is what Pope Francis was aiming to do with his two synods on family life and the resulting papal document Amoris Laetitia, where he warns against “an attitude that would solve everything by applying general rules or deriving undue conclusions from particular theological considerations”.

As the theologian Richard Gaillardetz writes in this week’s Tablet, the neo-scholastic logic-chopping of the pre-Vatican II era, still favoured by some theologians, provides the basis for the allegation that Pope Francis’s teaching is leading people into heresy. 

Yet, as he points out, “divine revelation, the Council taught, comes to us not as a set of propositions but as a person, Jesus Christ, and is given to all the people of God. Its discovery is the task of all believers...”

Three Dominicans

Today is the anniversary of the death of three Irish Dominicans.

Patrick McCarroll died in Cork in 1978, Raymond Maher in Waterford in 1980 and Bertrand Farrell in Dublin in 1997.

All three men were characters, each in his own individual manner.

Pat McCarroll was killed while driving his Honda 50 in Fermoy heading back to the priory in Pope's Quay in Cork city. There was torrential rain on the evening the accident happened.

Pat, who was from Northern Ireland, was by trade an engineer and before joining the Dominicans had acquired his pilot's licence.

He spent many years teaching theology in Tallaght before being exiled to Cork.

In his years in Pope's Quay he gave all his energy, time, skill and kindness to the weak and poor.

He was a great man who was extremely kind.

New Luas line

The cross city Luas line will shortly be in operation.

While it will be technically possible to travel from Saggart to Broombridge or Sandyford and onwards passengers will have to change at Jervis or O'Connell Street.

Why was it decided not to run through trams?

And surely it should have been so designed that passengers could transfer from one line to the other at the same stop. Could a common stop not have been built on Abbey Street, or indeed a stop at the junction of Abbey and O'Connel Street?

The current design means that people will have to walk some metres to change trams.

Ignored and disrespected by those elected to lead

An excerpt from the editorial in the current issue of 'Spirituality'.

An interesting read indeed.

One of the glaring deficiencies of Church practice in recent times is the failure of leadership to respect the individual. Consider the number of priests silenced or removed from office because of their expressed views, and without being afforded an opportunity of defending themselves.

There are also memebrs of religious orders, who profess obedience to a fraternal and democratic way of living, ignored and disrespected by those elected to lead.

Failure to respect the individual undermines the whole organisation and leads to paralysis of mission, and weakens the mandate and witness of the Church.

Liam Cosgrave

Liam Cosgrave, who died yesterday at the venerable age of 97, was a kind man.

To observe the attention he gave to his wife in the final stages of her life was inspirational.

He regularly attended religious services in The Dominican Priory in Tallaght.

Over the years he got to know a number of Dominicans and would often speak with great warmth about the late Fr Jerome Toner.

He had a great sense of humour.  On one occasion after the financial crisis and politicians were in the doghouse after shaking his hand he suggested I go and straightaway wash it.

Finbar Kelly OP, RIP

Domincan priest Finbar Kelly died in a nursing home in Kilkenny on Tuesday.

Finbar was the quintessential gentleman.

He was born in Kilcullen, Co Kildare in1925, joined the Dominicans in 1944 and ordained a priest in 1951

Finbar was one of four Irish Dominicans who studied in Oxford after World War ll. They were joined by a  number of German Dominican students including Rüdiger Ortmeyer and Germanus Lensker. Lensker served on the Russian front. Having been wounded near Moscow he made his way back to Germany, walking long distances. He later experienced a flattened Cologne. The city had been so severely bombed that he was unable to find or recognise familar streets.

The other Irish Dominicans with Finbar in Oxford were Leonard Boyle, Austin Flannery and Fergal O'Connor.

The project was to heal wounds and help bring people on opposing sides together.

Finbar studied at University College Cork and began his priestly ministry teaching in Newbridge College from where he also attended Maynooth College where he obtained his Higher Diploma in Education.

He spent a number of years in the Dominican Priory in the Australian capital Canberra, where he was chaplain at the Dominican-run university residence.

In the early 1970s he was prior at Holy Cross Dominican Priory in Tralee.

Fr Finbar Kelly was brother of the late Jimmy Kelly who was CEO of the Electricity Supply Board.

Jimmy joined the ESB by chance, having gone down to the Pigeon House Power Station with a pal for a spin and was offered a job on the spot. He became CEO in 1970.

Finbar had that great ability of making one feel at home in his company. He was genuinely interested in people.

Being kind and gracious came naturally to him.

At the time of his death he was assigned to the Dominican community at the Black Abbey in Kilkenny where he had lived and worked for 27 years.

May he rest in peace.

Theresa May's bracelet

Who's the face on the bracelet Theresa May wore during her never-to-be forgotten speech in Manchester today?

Feast of St Francis

Today, the feast of St Francis is World Animal Day.

Steinmeier talks about new walls appearing in Germany

Germany celebrated yesterday the Day of German Unification.

Twenty-seven years ago the former German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany.

The main event of yesterday's celebrations took place in Mainz where German President Frank Walter Steinmeier spoke.

He said that since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, less visible "walls" now divide the country.

The election exposed "large and small cracks" in German society, he said, calling on lawmakers to work together to fight any return to nationalism.

"On September 24, it became clear that other walls have arisen, less visible, without barbed wire and death-strips, but walls that stand in the way of our common sense of 'us'," Steinmeier said.

Steinmeier a former leading member of the SPD was foreign minister before being elected German president in March. 

He said that "behind these walls, a deep distrust in democracy and its representatives is being fomented."

The president also called for a national discussion on migration — one of the main issues that arose during the election — adding that this would mean creating new guidelines.

"In my view, this means not simply wishing away migration but ... defining legal admission to Germany, which regulates and controls migration by our stipulations," Steinmeier noted.

Our fragility is scary

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

It’s just a little over a year since I started working as a hospital chaplain. It’s been a life-changing experience and every day there is something new to learn. The kindness, the goodness, the love that I get a glimpse of on a daily basis gives me a little insight into the potential of the human spirit. People do amazing things.

But I have also come face-to-face with how fragile we are. Things can change at the blink of an eye.

We can easily think we are masters of our lives. What a silly thought. Our lives hang by a thread.

Earlier this month a friend recounted how he had come across a motorbike accident. He arrived on the scene shortly after it had happened and saw the dead man on the ground with his leg sheared off. 

It was a horrific experience for him. As he spoke to me I was aghast with the event. It forcibly brought home to me our fragility. And yet we can easily distance ourselves from such horror, thinking that it could never happen to us. I was close to being that man.

Monday September 25 was a fabulous day in Dublin. The perfect Indian summer type of day.

Full tide in Dublin was at 14.15 so I decided to head for a swim at Seapoint. I hadn’t been on my motorbike for some time so decided to don the gear and bike it to the sea.

Getting there by motorbike makes it so easy, no traffic jams and then when you arrive you can park the bike right beside the water.

Okay, that initial getting into the water requires a moment of bravery/madness but once in, honestly the water was balmy. It was a perfect September day for a swim. Indeed, my father always believed that September was the best month to swim in the sea as the water still has the heat of the summer in it. There’s something in that.

Back into the motorbike gear and heading home. I was a little nervous as the bike had done some ‘spluttering’ on the way out and I had to be home for an appointment later in the day.

It would take me about 20 minutes to get home. I’m no Evil Knievel so with the bike sounding a bit dodgy all I wanted was to get home. Perish the thought of the bike breaking down in the middle of the road.

On the way home I pushed the visor on the helmet up over my head.

At a busy junction the lights turned to green and I pulled off, which meant accelerating and just as I did the visor fell back down on to my face. It slipped in such a way that the perspex part was not flush with my eyes so I was left completely blinded. 

I had to stop the bike immediately, not having a clue if there was a car right behind me and no idea where I was on the road. It was an unbelievable moment of horror and for a second or two I was sure I was a ‘gonner’.

I later saw there was a car right behind me and luckily she or he was driving carefully and slowly. 

Even now, a week later thinking about it, I am scared. I was incredibly lucky – unlike the unfortunate man whom my friend saw.

In the blink of an eye our lives can be changed for ever. It’s as if we hang on by a thread, and most of the time never realising it.

Bishop apologises

I wish to apologise for contributing to any misinformation, or indeed for causing upset to anyone, concerning use of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines.

My intervention was in response to concerns which I had received about HPV vaccines from parents wishing to make the best health decision on behalf of their children, and from young people alike.  My intention was solely motivated to protect people from the HPV.

I was not fully informed about the vaccination programme and I can see now how HPV vaccines can contribute greatly to lowering the rate of cervical cancer.  As I have learnt, possession of full information is paramount on this vital health issue.

Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan is Bishop of Waterford & Lismore.                                                       

Catholic Communications Office Maynooth:

Berlin's Opera House reopens on Wednesday

Berlin's Staatsoper opens its doors on Wednesday with a production of Schumann's 'Scenes from Goethe's Faust.

The building on Unter der Linden was originally completed in 1742 by architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff.

The opera house was modelled on the style of an ancient temple and was at that time the largest opera house in Europe.

It burned almost to the ground in 1843 and was subsequently rebuilt in the original style.

During the Second World War, it was severely damaged on two occasions.

After the 1945 bombing, architect Richard Paulink was tasked with restoring it to match the original 1742 version. The result was an unusually opulent building for the then capital city of the German Democratic Republic.

For both the 1942 and 1955 premieres, the Staatsoper selected Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg" – a fitting musical ode to the venue.

The renovation this time, which took four years longer than planned, cost €400 million.

More Labour voters in UK

From yesterday's Guardian.

More than twice as many voters under the age of 45 think Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party is now “on their side”, compared with those who believe the same about Theresa May’s Tories, according to new polling that will send shockwaves through the Conservative party.

The survey for the Social Market Foundation (SMF) by Opinium shows it is not just voters in their teens and 20s but also those in their 30s and young middle age who now believe that the Tories do not speak for them.

The data, published as the Tory conference opens in Manchester, comes as senior ministers and MPs call for a fundamental rethink of the party’s offering to younger parts of the electorate following its catastrophic result in the snap general election called by the prime minister in June.