UK's Brexit chaos

Guardian columnist Zoe Williams explains why Brexit means chaos for the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/27/brexit-chaos-britain-homelessness-prisons-welfare?CMP=share_btn_link

Pope Francis criticises those who take advantage of pain

Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column. February 27.

Michael Commane
On Ash Wednesday Pope Francis went to Santa Sabina in Rome, which is the worldwide headquarters of the Dominican Order.

Popes have been going to Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday since the fourth century.

The pope first calls to San Anselmo, which is the HQ of the Benedictines, and then he, with Benedictines and Dominicans, walks in procession to the nearby Santa Sabina.

Pope Francis celebrated Mass and distributed blessed ashes at Santa Sabina. As a Dominican I always keep an eye out to see what the pope says at Santa Sabina.

The sermon he preached on this Ash Wednesday is a gem and has some fabulous ideas in it. It is masterly constructed. He suggests that during the season of Lent we pause, see and return.

Early in his sermon he says:

‘We are subject to numerous temptations. Each of us knows the difficulties we have to face. And it is sad to note that, when faced with the ever-varying circumstances of our daily lives, there are voices raised that take advantage of pain and uncertainty; the only thing they aim to do is sow distrust. 

'If the fruit of faith is charity – as Mother Teresa often used to say – then the fruit of distrust is apathy and resignation. Distrust, apathy and resignation: these are demons that deaden and paralyse the soul of a believing people.’

I’m wondering what public figures he has in mind who take advantage of pain and uncertainty? But they are out there roaring and screaming at us.

Pope Francis suggests we pause for a moment and ‘refrain from haughty looks, from fleeting and pejorative comments that arise from forgetting tenderness, compassion and reverence for the encounter with others, particularly those who are vulnerable.’

Of course we all try the tricks of being haughty with our looks and nasty with our comments. For the Christian, Lent affords us the perfect space and time, at least to try to be more compassionate and tender with people, but especially with those who are vulnerable and marginalised.

Reading Pope Francis’ words I couldn’t help but think of the nasty and horrible words that the far-right is spewing out every day.

On the same day that Pope Francis spoke about being compassionate and tender, a leading member of the far-right German political party, the AfD, said nasty things about Muslims. He referred to them, as being ‘riff-raff’ who are ‘camel drivers’.

Every day President Trump and his UK disciple Nigel Farage say the nastiest and most unpleasant things about those they consider to be their opponents. They spew out the vilest of comments. 

Last week President Trump had a go at Oprah Winfrey, screaming that her facts were incorrect. Donald, doesn’t seem to know that facts of their nature are true and correct. His poor use of English complements his berating of those with whom he disagrees. 

Maybe I should go easy on both of them and their like and listen to what Pope Francis is saying. Still, it seems to becoming the norm to scream out the nastiest things about those whose opinions and views differ from ours. The pope is simply asking us all to calm down and try to understand the other person, especially those who are marginalised and vulnerable.

But he also puts great hope in the good that people do, ‘to see the gestures that prevent the extinguishing of charity, that keep the flame of faith and hope alive.’

Towards the end of the sermon he asks us ‘to return without fear, to experience the healing and reconciling tenderness of God.’

It’s well worth a read.

 

Advice from Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett was interviewed today on CNBC.

He commented that if someone is unhappy with a million dollars, they will remain unhappy with two million dollars.

At one stage in the interview, when talking about the stock market, he quipped: " Three sure ways of losing your money - liquor, ladies and leverage."

Merkel names her team

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced yesterday the names of the six CDU politicians who will join her in the next grand coalition should the rank-and-file SPD members agree to join in government.

Their decision will be made known at the weekend.

Among the six names there are some new faces and Merkel will be the only CDU cabinet minister who will be over 60.

There will be no CDU cabinet minister from east Germany.

President is a draft dodger

It's interesting to see how President Trump so often honours the American flag and praises the country's military.

And all these words of praise and respect from a draft dodger, who managed to avoid going to Vietnam.

It's doubtful he was a conscientious objector to the war or a Communist supporter of North Vietnam.

Strange times indeed.

Christopher O'Brien OP, RIP

Dominican priest Humbert Christopher O'Brien died in Moore Hill Lodge in Drogheda on Wednesday, February 21.

His funeral Mass was celebrated today in St Magdalen's Priory church in Drogheda. Christopher was a member of the Dominican community in Drogheda before moving to the nursing home.

He was born in Limerick in 1928 and made his first profession in the Dominican Order in1946.

Christopher spent his first 35 years in the Order as a co-operator brother. He was ordained a priest in 1981.

He belonged to that generation of Dominicans who were given a different name at Baptism and he was known in the Order as Brother Humbert.

Later in life he returned to his baptismal name, which meant he was known both as Christopher and Humbert.

He was a quiet gentle person, who had a strong Marian devotion.

In the early years of the Priory Institute between 2003 and 2007, he was one of the coordinators of support for students on the distance learning theology programme.

He lived in Vatican City for a number of years in the 1960s and '70s where he was personal assistant to Dominican Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi, who was Master of the Sacred Palace.

He was superior in the Dominican community in Lisbon in the 1990s.On his return to Ireland from Lisbon he was a curate in St Martin's in Old Bawn, Tallaght.

Christopher gave over 73 years of loyal service to the Irish Dominican Province.

He deserves our prayers and graditude.

May he rest in peace.

The teacher threw his schoolwork out the window

The piece by Richard Keegan-Bull in The Tablet this week is a lovely read, indeed, it's a fantastic read.

When I was about a year old, in 1972, the therapist who had been seeing my older brother realised that I too had a learning disability. 

My mum and dad took us to a genetic counsellor who said he didn’t think we would ever be able to achieve very much. But my mum’s a strong character, and she and my dad just encouraged us in every way.

I went to a normal school for a couple of years, but the headmaster said I couldn’t be taught. He threw my schoolwork out the window. So from the age of eight I went into special needs education. I went to a special needs college in Shropshire, and I stayed there 17 years.

My mum first heard about L’Arche on Woman’s Hour. She heard how it had been started by Jean Vanier, an ex-naval officer who had invited two men with mental disabilities to leave the institutions where they were living and to come and share his life. 

Now there are communities all over the world – people with learning disabilities sharing their lives with “normal” people.

We visited L’Arche in Kent and in London. I liked it in London and I came to live here. Because my learning difficulty is not as bad as some, I am able to live in my own flat, but as part of the community. 

If I want to explain what L’Arche is like, I’d say there is always room at the table. I can go to one of the community houses for dinner, or to the workshops to have a chat. L’Arche isn’t a nine-to-five job for the assistants, and they aren’t superior. We often gather together for birthdays to tell stories and listen to each other. We like to celebrate.

Everybody deserves to be loved. Everybody has a gift. My gift is that I’m quite good at standing on a stage and making speeches. I can tell the story of L’Arche and spread the word about it. 

Being an ambassador for L’Arche has taken me to Calcutta, Canada, Italy and Belgium. Others might not be able to talk like me, but perhaps they’re good at dancing, singing, painting. The beauty of Jean Vanier is that he saw that everybody has a gift, and everybody should be able to shine their light.

At L’Arche, you become part of an international community. When the sun’s setting on our communities in Europe, it’s rising on the communities in Australia and New Zealand. 

Ten years ago, I went with Caroline from Germany and Jacek from Poland to visit Auschwitz. I found it very moving, just walking around and looking at some of the things there. What shocked me the most was that everyone had labels pinned to their prison uniforms, and I asked Jacek what label I would have had.

I don’t think I would have been here today, nor none of my friends. I think that if I were there they might have decided to do some tests on me in their so-called “hospital room”. 

And I was just so pleased that there was me from England, Jacek from Poland and Caroline from Germany all standing there together, and I just ask that we try to learn from our mistakes and that this never happens again.

Last summer, the Queen saw the film about L’Arche, Summer in the Forest, and she asked whether she could meet Jean Vanier to talk to him. 

She had known him 70 years ago when he was in the Navy and he had looked after her and Princess Margaret on a trip to South Africa. So Jean came over to Buckingham Palace, dressed in the blue coat he always wears, and when the Queen saw him she had tears in her eyes. 

Jean said he could see something really special in the Queen. I bet she saw something special in him too.

Guns and leathers

Overheard - two men in their 60s educated by the Christian Brothers:

'See Trump is going to give guns to teachers.' Reply -'Gosh, it was bad enough with our teachers using their leathers.'

The White Rose

On this date, February 22, 1943 Sophie and Hans Scholl with their friend Christph Probst were executed by German authorities.

They were members of the White Rose, who began a resistance to the German government after the defeat of German forces at Stalingrad.

In recent weeks historians have unhearthed information on one of the members to suggest at an earlier stage he was a strong supporter of the Nazis.

A shoddy Luas

The story of the current Dublin traffic chaos must say something about Dublin city planners.

Ever before the first Cross City trams rolled planners and politicians should have had the road space prepared for Luas.

But there is another serious issue with the trams: the interior design is not fit for purpose.

There are far too many seats prohibitng more open space.

Extra ceiling straps are needed immediately. Wider door space might also help.

Time's a curious thing

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

Michael Commane

There’s a stretch in the day. It’s bright now before 07.30 and there is still light in the sky after 18.00. At least so is the state of play on the east coast. In Kerry it’s 10 minutes later in the morning, but then the Kingdom has those extra few minutes of daylight in the evening.

The first day my father came home from work in the daylight my mother would be ecstatic. He would arrive home at 4.45pm and the fact that it was bright was a topic of animated discussion between my parents. 

I was reminded of my mother’s ecstasy when I was cycling home from work some days ago. I spotted snowdrops in the garden of St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin’s Rathgar.

Things are beginning to happen all around us. It might be cold; the dark is still in the dominant position in the 24 hours but it too is being slowly but surely pushed aside.

I’m an early riser, most weekdays I’m up at 06.00. Three weeks ago I got something of a shock when I left the house to be greeted by a surprise brightness. It was that blue moon that people were talking about. There was a cloudless sky and the power of the blue moon significantly brightened the darkness. For a second or two my imagination ran away with me and I thought spring was happening faster than usual.

Of course it wasn’t. All through February we are daily gaining approximately an extra four minutes of daylight.

On February 8 MEPs voted to call on the EU Commission to propose ending the twice-yearly switch between summer and winter time.

The resolution won approval at a vote held at the parliament in Strasbourg. It would mean the ending of Daylight Saving Time.

If the European Parliament proposition is adopted does that mean that we would be an hour behind Northern Ireland during the summer? It sounds daft, then again doesn’t everything to do with Brexit sound insular and regressive?

Up to 1916 Ireland was 25 minutes behind the UK and when the times were synchronised, Countess Markievicz was among those who objected to the change.

In 1968 Ireland adopted Summer Time the whole year round and that system stayed in place until 1971.

Time is an interesting concept. A minute is always 60 seconds, a year 365 days when it’s not a leap year and yet the older we get it would appear time goes faster. 

February 12 was the anniversary of my mother’s death. She died in her 79^th year 30 years ago and I find myself saying: ‘where has the time gone?’ It has been going so quickly for me that I regularly jump from 1999 to 2010, skipping an entire decade.

It’s an old cliché but like all clichés it’s true – ‘time stops for no one’. Nor does it.

All we have is the now. It’s wise to make the best of it, especially in these the first days of spring. 

There’s magic right in front of our eyes and it’s such a pity that so often we take for granted what’s familiar. We all go chasing rainbows in the sky. A silly practice.

Look out for the first daffodils. These are the best of days, with everything to look forward to.

Whatever about the shenanigans of the hands of the clock and how we move them, let the beauty of nature seep into our veins and relish every moment of it.

Darwin said: ‘A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.’

Family opportunities

Families are not problems that we have to bring solutions to, but rather opportunities for us to see what God is doing.

Blaise Cupich is cardinal archbishop in Chicago.

Francis at Santa Sabina

Words spoken by Pope in Francis in the church of the Dominican priory, Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday.

It is customary that the pope visits Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday.

The season of Lent is a favourable time to remedy the dissonant chords of our Christian life and to receive the ever new, joyful and hope-filled proclamation of the Lord’s Passover. The Church in her maternal wisdom invites us to pay special attention to anything that could dampen or even corrode our believing heart.

We are subject to numerous temptations. Each of us knows the difficulties we have to face. And it is sad to note that, when faced with the ever-varying circumstances of our daily lives, there are voices raised that take advantage of pain and uncertainty; the only thing they aim to do is sow distrust. If the fruit of faith is charity – as Mother Teresa often used to say – then the fruit of distrust is apathy and resignation. Distrust, apathy and resignation: these are demons that deaden and paralyze the soul of a believing people.

Lent is the ideal time to unmask these and other temptations, to allow our hearts to beat once more in tune with the vibrant heart of Jesus. The whole of the Lenten season is imbued with this conviction, which we could say is echoed by three words offered to us in order to rekindle the heart of the believer: pause, see and return.

Pause a little, leave behind the unrest and commotion that fill the soul with bitter feelings which never get us anywhere. Pause from this compulsion to a fast-paced life that scatters, divides and ultimately destroys time with family, with friends, with children, with grandparents, and time as a gift… time with God.

Pause for a little while, refrain from the need to show off and be seen by all, to continually appear on the “noticeboard” that makes us forget the value of intimacy and recollection.

Pause for a little while, refrain from haughty looks, from fleeting and pejorative comments that arise from forgetting tenderness, compassion and reverence for the encounter with others, particularly those who are vulnerable, hurt and even immersed in sin and error.

Pause for a little while, refrain from the urge to want to control everything, know everything, destroy everything; this comes from overlooking gratitude for the gift of life and all the good we receive.

Pause for a little while, refrain from the deafening noise that weakens and confuses our hearing, that makes us forget the fruitful and creative power of silence.

Pause for a little while, refrain from the attitude which promotes sterile and unproductive thoughts that arise from isolation and self-pity, and that cause us to forget going out to encounter others to share their burdens and suffering.

Pause for a little while, refrain from the emptiness of everything that is instantaneous, momentary and fleeting, that deprives us of our roots, our ties, of the value of continuity and the awareness of our ongoing journey.

Pause in order to look and contemplate!

See the gestures that prevent the extinguishing of charity, that keep the flame of faith and hope alive. Look at faces alive with God’s tenderness and goodness working in our midst.

See the face of our families who continue striving, day by day, with great effort, in order to move forward in life, and who, despite many concerns and much hardship, are committed to making their homes a school of love.

See the faces of our children and young people filled with yearning for the future and hope, filled with “tomorrows” and opportunities that demand dedication and protection. Living shoots of love and life that always open up a path in the midst of our selfish and meagre calculations.

See our elderly whose faces are marked by the passage of time, faces that reveal the living memory of our people. Faces that reflect God’s wisdom at work.

See the faces of our sick people and the many who take care of them; faces which in their vulnerability and service remind us that the value of each person can never be reduced to a question of calculation or utility.

See the remorseful faces of so many who try to repair their errors and mistakes, and who from their misfortune and suffering fight to transform their situations and move forward.

See and contemplate the face of Crucified Love, who today from the cross continues to bring us hope, his hand held out to those who feel crucified, who experience in their lives the burden of failure, disappointment and heartbreak.

See and contemplate the real face of Christ crucified out of love for everyone, without exception. For everyone? Yes, for everyone. To see his face is an invitation filled with hope for this Lenten time, in order to defeat the demons of distrust, apathy and resignation. The face that invites us to cry out: “The Kingdom of God is possible!”

Pause, see and return. Return to the house of your Father. Return without fear to those outstretched, eager arms of your Father, who is rich in mercy (cf. Eph 2:4), who awaits you.

Return without fear, for this is the favourable time to come home, to the home of my Father and your Father (cf. Jn 20:17). It is the time for allowing one’s heart to be touched… Persisting on the path of evil only gives rise to disappointment and sadness. True life is something quite distinct and our heart indeed knows this. God does not tire, nor will he tire, of holding out his hand (cf. Misericordiae Vultus, 19).

Return without fear, to join in the celebration of those who are forgiven.

Return without fear, to experience the healing and reconciling tenderness of God. Let the Lord heal the wounds of sin and fulfil the prophecy made to our fathers: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36: 26).

Pause, see and return!

The best of times

Last week it was snowdrops in the garden of St Luke's Hospital in Rathgar, this week it's daffodils.

And in Dublin it's bright before 07.25.

The best of times.

Polish Dominican blasts Polish Catholic Church

From the National Catholic Reporter.

CZESTOCHOWA, POLAND — At the center of this city of 227,000 people, the Avenue of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary cuts a wide swath past shops, restaurants, bars and offices. Uphill in the distance, beyond the trees, the baroque spire of the Jasna Gora monastery points triumphantly towards heaven above a rambling maze of high walls and battlements.

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Most Poles have personal memories of visits to their country's national sanctuary, whether in hushed school and parish groups, or among vast crowds welcoming the Polish pope, St. John Paul II. Throughout Poland's turbulent history, it's expressed more than anything else the influence of the Catholic Church.

Yet today, that influence is being challenged — and when, in late January, a top Dominican priest penned a scathing attack on Poland's church and government, it brought pent-up frustrations into the open. 

The occasion for Fr. Ludwik Wisniewski's onslaught, in Poland's weekly magazine Tygodnik Powszechny, was the release of new data confirming a sharp drop in Sunday Mass attendance. But it gained a political edge by coinciding with criticisms of the church's ties with Poland's center-right government, which faces European Union sanctions over a controversial reform program.  

Some Poles think Wisniewski's article presented a one-sided view of the church, which has already been thrown on the defensive by skewed media reporting.

"Much as I respect him, I don't support his claims," said professor Jan Zaryn, a senior contemporary historian. "The statistics certainly show laicization is underway here, as it's been for decades in Western Europe. But there's no firm evidence this is linked with our church's conservativism or any government actions."

Related: Europe's church creatively rethinks as numbers plummet

The critique by 81-year-old Wisniewski, dramatically titled "Oskarzam" ("I accuse"), was significant for appearing in a Catholic newspaper, and for coming from a veteran of the church's communist-era struggle for human rights. The latest attendance figures, Wisniewski lamented, were the worst in modern times, and showed how Poles were now deserting the church because of distortions of the Catholic faith. 

He singled out right-wing parliamentarians who claimed to be devout Catholics while inciting fear of refugees and migrants, as well as Poland's controversial Redemptorist-run Radio Maryja, which had "for years pumped out hatred and division." 

He also attacked Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who heads the governing Law and Justice Party, for "promoting enmity and resentment in religious packaging," and unnamed priests who spent their time "tolerating and praising nationalism."

The time had come, the Dominican declared, for Poland's Catholic bishops to "enter the public arena" and speak out — as "the only force retaining any authority." 

"Before our eyes, Christianity is dying in Poland — while our bishops are sadly silent," Wisniewski went on. "You can now spit on people, deride and trample on them, groundlessly accusing them of wickedness, even crimes — while invoking the Gospel, decking yourself out as a defender of Christian values and making pilgrimages to Jasna Gora."

Related: Silenced priest speaks against Catholic Church's cozy relationship with Polish government

Figures from the church's Statistics Office of the Catholic Church, run by the Pallotine order in Warsaw, show attendance has dropped by 3.1 percent in just a year, with 36.7 percent of Poles now coming regularly, compared to more than half two decades ago. Admissions to Poland's 83 Catholic seminaries are still falling as well, along with vocations to its 104 female religious congregations, raising fears of a future clergy shortage. 

What made Wisniewski's article controversial was his attempt to pin the blame on "passivity" by Poland's bishops, who've been accused of being too close to Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party-led government.

Since winning an election landslide in October 2015, the Law and Justice Party has been under heaviest fire for reforms to Poland's judicial system and state media.

Government supporters insist the replacement of judges and media directors was needed to ensure greater accountability. However, the reform package has sparked protests from the liberal opposition Civic Platform Party and sanction threats from the European Union, where Law and Justice Party's former arch-opponent, Donald Tusk, is president of the intergovernmental European Council. 

In a November resolution, the EU's Parliament voted to invoke Article 7 of the 2007 Treaty on European Union and demand Poland's suspension from decision-making unless it cancelled the reforms. 

The 750-seat European Parliament has criticized Poland in three other resolutions since Law and Justice Party entered government, and the party's backers insist the dispute has been blown out of all proportion.

Members of the Law and Justice Party blamed pro-opposition media such as Poland's daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, which warned in January that Kaczynski had long "wanted a showdown" with the EU, and the weekly magazine Polityka, which cautioned that the Law and Justice Party was reimposing censorship and taking Poland back to an era of "total single-party power."     

But the Law and Justice Party also accused European politicians of pushing their own agendas, and ostracizing Poland for defying permissive EU values. 

Zdzislaw Krasnodebski, a Law and Justice Party member of the European Parliament, says previous Polish governments have made parallel reforms without provoking international controversy. To present this government's efforts as an attack on democracy and legality represents a "cartoon version of events," he insists. 

It also ignores the Law and Justice Party government's tough pro-Western stance on defense and security, and the economic and social advances currently underway in Poland, which were on display when Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki appeared at the World Economic Forum in late January at Davos.   

20160728T1040-0725-CNS-POPE-POLAND-JASNA-GORA_770.jpg

President Andrzej Duda of Poland, second from left, and his wife, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, attend Pope Francis' celebration of a Mass to mark the 1,050th anniversary of the baptism of Poland near the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa, Poland, July 28, 2016. (CNS/Paul Haring) 

"A good opposition should criticize government — but it should also challenge fake news about its own country," Krasnodebski told NCR. "Instead, this absurd, alarmist picture has been allowed to emerge, that fundamental rights are being violated. In reality, there's no difference between Poland, Germany and other Western countries." 

Krasnodebski blames the Civic Platform Party for refusing to accept its 2015 election defeat, and predicts the EU's sanctions threat will founder as Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria and other countries oppose intervention — against a government which, despite the pressures, still enjoys a big lead in opinion polls. 

As for the church, Krasnodebski dismisses claims about its close ties with Law and Justice Party as another "media confabulation." In reality, Poland's bishops have kept a careful distance from Kaczynski's party, knowing Polish opinion won't tolerate a politicized church and, on several occasions, they've harshly criticized it. 

Last September, when Law and Justice Party leaders backed calls for new war reparations from Germany, church leaders warned against "thoughtless decisions and rashly spoken words." And when the Israeli government and Jewish organizations condemned a new Law and Justice Party-backed law in late January, criminalizing claims about Polish complicity in the Holocaust, most bishops maintained a studied silence.   

Zaryn agrees church-government links have been exaggerated. Given the party's supportive attitude to the church, most bishops will naturally prefer this party to others, he concedes.

In its November resolution, the European Parliament also threatened action if Polish members voted for a bill to curb abortions on handicapped fetuses — an initiative backed by 830,000 people in a petition to the Sejm lower house. 

That the Law and Justice Party has vowed to resist such outside pressure will clearly win the bishops' favor, Zaryn concedes. But they'd favor other parties equally if they similarly defended Poland's Christian heritage. 

"The church doesn't have a duty of loyalty to any political force — and there are certainly contrasting political sympathies and antipathies within the bishops' conference," Zaryn said. "But while the impression remains that EU officials are trying to steer developments in Poland and muzzle Catholic views, it's obvious there'll be areas of agreement."

Malgorzata Glabisz-Pniewska, a senior Catholic presenter with Polish Radio, concurs that current discussions ignore the pluralism now evident in the church — of which Wisniewski's Tygodnik Powszechny tirade was one example. While all Polish bishops are united around key issues such as abortion, euthanasia and faith in the public sphere, she says, they differ in other areas. 

Even in the two Catholic dioceses making up the Polish capital, the recently retired Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga has backed the Law and Justice Party's reform package, while Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz of central Warsaw has opposed parts of it.

In this changing environment, phrases like "the church says" or "the church thinks" no longer carry much meaning.  

Wisniewski's criticism of church leaders' "passivity" was rejected as "groundless and hurtful" by Fr. Pawel Rytel-Adrianik, spokesman for the Polish bishops' conference.  

The bishops had urged "all possible help" for migrants and refugees during special Masses in mid-January, the priest recalled, while just two days later, for the church's annual Day of Judaism, the bishops' conference president, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, issued a document carefully distinguishing patriotism from nationalism.   

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Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, president of the Polish bishops' conference, leaves a session of the Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican Oct. 14, 2015. (CNS/Paul Haring) 

In December, the conference launched a glossy Twitter feed to counter criticisms of the church, while its Catholic Information Agency (KAI) ran an inventory of previous appeals for unity and harmony by Gadecki and others. 

Although the latest church data confirmed falling Mass attendance, they also showed higher numbers receiving sacraments, including a 10 percent increase in first Communions. Participation rates vary widely around Poland's 44 Catholic dioceses, with 67 percent attending church in southeastern Tarnow, compared to less than a quarter in more secularized western dioceses. But 61 percent of Poland's 10,000 parishes now have their own internet sites, or soon will have, suggesting the church is keeping up with technical innovations. 

As in the rest of Europe, fewer people appear to be participating now out of tradition or social obligation, and more for genuinely religious reasons. But at 36.7 percent, Polish Mass attendance is still the envy of the church in other countries. 

Fr. Wojciech Sadlon, the director of the Statistics Office of the Catholic Church, agrees Polish Catholicism is witnessing a transition from quantity to quality, as falling numbers combine with deeper commitment. 

"These figures shouldn't fuel a sense of guilt that things were better before — the church remains itself, whatever its size and strength," Sadlon told the KAI agency. "Of course, it doesn't always fulfill its apostolic mission perfectly, and often lacks evangelical witness both from priests, religious and lay faithful. But its responsibility lies in being able to spot its weaknesses and make improvements."  

Those "improvements" will certainly include seeing problems and challenges in a calmer, more rational and less emotional way, and moving away from rhetorical simplifications and stereotypes. While these are still resorted to by some Polish bishops, they abound in other quarters too — and made a strident appearance, some argue, in Wisniewski's recent critique.

"Though certain processes are driving laicization here, Polish Catholics are still propping up church life in many parts of the world," Zaryn told NCR. "We have to get used to knowing there's room for various tendencies and preferences in the church, and that priests and bishops, like all citizens, have different views and ways of expressing them."

None of this will be of prime concern to the huge numbers still converging daily on Czestochowa's Jasna Gora sanctuary, where Poland's fabled Black Madonna icon hangs amid glittering lights in the Lady Chapel, amid a mass of rosaries and crucifixes left by pilgrims over centuries. 

Over four million people visited the hilltop monastery in 2017 according to the Pauline order which runs Jasna Gora, including thousands of U.S. Catholics, and 123,000 made the journey on foot, while 2.8 million Holy Communions were dispensed at 68,000 Masses before Jasna Gora's various altars. 

In some places at least, Poland's Catholic devotions seem as strong as ever. 

[Jonathan Luxmoore covers church news from Oxford and Warsaw. His two-volume study of communist-era martyrs, The God of the Gulag, is published by Gracewing in the U.K.]

Limerick Dominicans

The Cabinet is in Sligo today to announce the new National Development Framework.

The project is to boost infrastructure across the country, giving special attention to regional towns and cities outside the capital.

One of the places earmarked for development is Limerick.

Limerick has a number of third level colleges, including a university. The late John O'Gorman OP taught computer science at the University of Limerick and art works of another Dominican, the late Aengus Buckley are to be seen on the walls of the college.

The Irish Dominicans in recent years closed the doors of their priory, which was in the city centre, walking distance from the main rail station.

The Irish Dominicans had been in Limerick since 1227.

Clearly it was an unwise decision. There are sufficient numbers of Dominicans in Ireland to have kept the priory open. All that was needed was two or three active men.

At present there are Dominican sisters from the United States living in the priory. They are members of the Congregation of St Cecilia, headquartered in Nashville,Tennessee in the United States.

They come from a different culture, live a different lifestyle to the people in the area where they are living and most likely, difficult for them to appreciate and assimilate culture on Glentworth Street.

That Irish Dominicans would walk away from a university city can't be in keeping with the tradition of the Order.

Oxford Comma costs $5m

From The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/oxford-comma-maine.html

The far right

Excellent column in The Irsh Times today about the advance of the far right across western democracies.

Alexandra Senfft, a German journalist, whose father experienced the Hitler horror, writes about how we are forgetting what happened.

Her grandfather, Hans Ludin was Hitler's ambassador to Slovakia. He was later executed for war crimes.

She singles out Germany's AfD party. But it's happening everywhere. Happening in the churches too, a palpable arrogance that 'we know best'.

Tomi Reichental features in an RTE Television documentary this evening.

Bombing of Dresden

These days, February 13 to 15, remind the world of the madness and badness of war.

Yesterday people came together in Dresden and formed a human chain in the name of peace.

On these dates in 1945 the RAF and USAF bombed Dresden into smithereens.

No one knows how many people were killed. The original numbers of dead were said to have been in the region of 26,000. Since then experts have estimated that as many as 200,000 may lost their lives in the capital of Saxony.

The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed over 6.5 square kilometres of the city centre.

1,249 US and RAF bombers were used in the bombing.

They went back to carry out further bombing raids in Dresden on March 2 and April 17.

Church and media

Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column. February 13.

Michael Commane
Last week the story was that people should not receive Holy Communion on the tongue as it might lead to the spread of influenza. The week before people were being advised not to offer the sign of peace at Mass as it too could help spread the current flu virus.

The stories received national news attention and were also discussed on a number of radio shows.

It really is laughable. According to experts the rails on buses and Luas trams are covered in faecal deposits. Only last week I saw a euro coin in a drain and yes, I put it in my pocket.

These ‘health warnings’ have an extra level of hilarity about them: the conservatives will be delighted about ‘banning’ the sign of peace and the liberals will think that’s a smart way to get people to receive Communion in the hand.

Managing news is an art form. It was probably in the era of Tony Blair that we first heard the expression spin doctors and it was Peter Mandelson, known by his detractors as the ‘Prince of Darkness’, who had the ability to turn the story in his favour.

Who is responsible for media affairs in the Irish Catholic Church? There is a national communications office but it seems to keep a very low profile. Does each diocese have its own press office, do bishops or provincials go directly to the media or do they go through their respective press offices?

The Communion and sign of peace issues are perfect examples of how an organisation is simply not at the races when it comes to media presentation.

When last did you see a catchy or attractive news item about the church that would make you stop and think?

The hierarchical church will criticise the ‘secular media’ for having an agenda against it. It is always easy to blame the messenger. Isn’t that what Trump and dictators do with great skill. 

Working as a journalist I have often had the occasion to contact diocesan offices for information. With one exception it has always been a nightmare. They can’t give you a straight answer, they feed you with bits of boring information but most of the time I get the impression they are speaking down to you, they know best. I remember on one occasion phoning a bishop and the man began to lecture me in the most imperious of tones. 

Of course it is dangerous to generalise but when it comes to media skills the Irish Catholic Church has little to offer. Bishop Willie Walsh is now retired but I remember once phoning him for information. It was such a delight to deal with him. He gave me the information I requested and spoke to me in the friendliest of tones.

When last has there been a discussion in Ireland on anything to do with the community of Christians or what actually it means to say that Christ is present in the Eucharist?

Some media outlets love to get church stories because they know they can make them into silly issues.

The Irish Catholic Church needs a professionally-run press office with dioceses, pastoral councils, religious congregations feeding into it.

Then again, there is such dysfunctionality across the church is it possible for it to run a modern, efficient press office?

The manner in which it handles communications is in many ways akin to how it manages its people and how it lives in the 21st century.

A dose of real charity and honesty could work wonders. It might even allow the Holy Spirit to play a role.

St Luke's in early spring

It's now bright just before 07.30 in Dublin these mornings and then in the evening it is close to 18.00 before darkness hits.

This from the garden in St Luke's Hospital in Dublin's Rathgar.

It must have one of Europe's finest hospital gardens. It receives great professional attention and all done with such loving care.

Benedict writes about his pilgrimage towards home

On this date, February 11, 2013, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes the Vatican confirmd that Pope Benedict XVl would resign as pope on February 28.

In a letter last week in the Corriere della Sera Benedict said he was on the last phase of his 'pilgrimage towards home'.

He wrote:

“I am moved that so many readers want to know how I spend my days in this, the last period of the life.

“I can only say that with the slow withering of my physical forces, interiorly, I am on a pilgrimage towards home.”

While the SPD, CDU and CSU quibble AfD wait

There's a lot happening in Germany's SPD party.

Short-term leader Martin Schulz has nominated the woman from the Eifel Andrea Nahles to be the next leader of the party.

Schulz was to have been the next foreign minister but it now seems Sigmar Gabriel will hold on to the position.

But before the SPD become part of the next German Grand Coalition, rank and file members of the party have to vote yes or no to coalition.

In the meantime a younger generation of SPD members are snapping at the heels of the current leadership. It would seem they have little time or regard for them. They certainly do not want the SPD to enter coalition with the CDU/CSU.

And while the SPD, CDU and CSU quibble among themselves and jockey for seats at the next cabinet, the AfD wait in the sides.

If the SPD enter coalition then the AfD will be the main opposition party.

The AfD is a dangerous party. When they are not outrageous and bombastic, they are sly and nasty.

No country can afford an AfD-style party as the main parliamentary opposition, least of all Germany.

Time may stop springing forward and falling back

MEPs are to call on the EU Commission to propose ending the twice-yearly switch between summer and winter time.

The resolution won approval at a vote held at the parliament in Strasbourg yesterday.

From four to five rings

Gerhard Schröder was German chancellor from 1998 to 2005.

During his chancellorship he was married to Doris Schröder Köpf. Doris was his fourth wife. He was known as Mr Audi. 

Mr Schröder has now married for the fifth time.

Are they calling him Mr Olympics?

It's education, stupid

This from the lead story of yesterday's Irish Times.

Just over half of prisoners dropped out of school before the Junior Certificate, according to an unpublished survey by the Irish Prison Service. 

The study, based on more than 800 inmates at Midlands and Limerick Prisons and Wheatfield Place of Detention, in west Dublin, between 2015 and 2017, provides a stark insight into the link between poor education and the prison population.

Overall, four out of five prisoners (80 per cent) left school before their Leaving Cert, more than half (52 per cent) left before their Junior Cert, and just over a quarter (26 per cent) never attended secondary school. 

These rates are multiples of those in the wider population, where, for example, 90 per of students now complete their Leaving Certificate.

Punch-drunk with Garda vetting rigmarole

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

Michael Commane 

I have completed at least three Garda vetting forms.

It’s a tedious exercise and there are aspects about the form that leave much to be desired. 

For readers who are not familiar with the vetting form, the applicant is requested to give the address of every place she/he has lived since birth.

In my case that works out at 13 addresses, including four outside the State.

Some years ago when completing one of these forms I omitted the house number of the address. I subsequently received a letter from The National Vetting Bureau of An Garda Síochána requesting the number of the house. I had lived at that address in West Berlin between 1984 and 1986.

The Garda Vetting Bureau does not check addresses outside the State.

Current law requires that if someone’s job involves contact with children they must be Garda vetted. 

That makes sense. But it is annoying that every time one takes up a position, which may involve contact with children, they have to be Garda vetted anew.

Say on a Monday you begin work as a hospital chaplain you have to be Garda vetted and then on Tuesday you volunteer to work with the St Vincent de Paul Society you have to be Garda vetted again.

Is it the perfect example of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?

On Monday I spoke to a garda sergeant from the Garda Vetting Bureau.

Why is there not a system in place that once a person is Garda vetted they then have universal vetting for a specific period of time?

The garda sergeant with whom I spoke explained that every organisation and employer has its own rules and regulations concerning Garda vetting.

Nevertheless, I still don’t understand why my Garda vetting clearance could not be on my Public Services Card.  

I also do not understand why the Garda Vetting Bureau does not allow return applicants to update their details in a simpler way. 

The current system requires that the applicant has to start from the beginning and repeat all the information given on previous forms. When I put that question to the garda sergeant his reply was that it would involve extra storage on IT systems.

Garda vetting is in place to protect people, which means it’s necessary. I can’t help but think that for big corporate organisations what matters most to them is their image.

My underlying annoyance with all this vetting is because back in the mid-1980s I suggested at a meeting that there was a tendency in the Catholic Church to brush certain issues dealing with deviant behaviour under the carpet and that there was need for greater transparency. I can still remember the silence there was in the hall after my suggestion. And certainly nothing was done, indeed one man told me that everything was fine. He imperiously dismissed me.

It has left an indelible mark on me. 

These days when I hear people talking about ‘hindsight’ I try to bite my lip and say nothing. But guess what, it’s not easy and I’m weary of ‘establishment speak’.

Organisations are for the benefit of the individual. Too often that’s turned on its head. And the churches have that added ‘certitude’ believing that they know exactly what God is thinking. When you think you have God on your side you might well believe that you can do anything. 

Church authorities can easily delude themselves into believing that they always know best. That always means that the organisation has to be protected, whatever the cost. I wonder what the Holy Spirit thinks of that?