'Irish church not listening to Pope Francis'

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

Michael Commane

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) organised four regional meetings ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland.

The theme of the meetings was: ‘What do we need to say to Pope Francis about the Irish church?’

I attended the eastern meeting, which was held on Wednesday, July 18 in the DCU St Patrick’s Campus.

Brendan Hoban, a priest of the Killala diocese and a founding member of the ACP gave a 10-minute talk at the Dublin meeting before opening it to the floor and inviting people to verbalise what they would say to Pope Francis about the Irish church if they met him on the street.

People were encouraged to speak openly and honestly.

A summary of each meeting is being prepared and a press release will be issued with the main topics highlighted.

A synopsis of what was said at the four meetings will be forwarded to Pope Francis.

In his introductory remarks Fr Hoban asked why the Irish church was not listening to Pope Francis.

He pointed out that the Irish church was in a crisis and at such a time it was opportune for people to share their hopes and dreams, indeed, they had a duty of loyalty to the Gospel.

Fr Hoban said that the current leadership in the Irish Catholic Church does not encourage people to speak and that sometimes their voices are resented.

He stressed how we are living in changing times. He finds it interesting that Pope Francis and the people want the same kind of church.

Brendan referred to a recent survey carried out in the Killala diocese, in which 69 per cent of respondents are in favour of women priests, 81 per cent would like to see married priests and men who had resigned from priesthood should be invited to return to ministry should they so wish.

He told the meeting there are between 15 and 20 men studying in Maynooth for priesthood and that the archdiocese of Dublin, with over one million Catholics in name, has three men studying for priesthood.

He believes that in the midst of these huge problems there are reasons for hope.

The questions people had for Pope Francis from the floor were as varied and as disparate as imaginable. Some interesting, some wise, and there were one or two people who wanted to make statements.

It did strike me that the church is a wide panoply of people. But it was evident from the meeting that many people are angry and in pain and that there is no real platform to deal with that pain and anger.

The old world is disintegrating in front of our eyes, something that has positive and negative aspects, but is there an Irish church leader, who is seriously addressing the current crisis?

Brendan Hoban on the ACP website cogently writes:

‘Part of the problem we have in the Irish Catholic Church is that little respect was given to the critical voices that time and again warned against the icebergs stalking our voyage. A lack of vision, a failure in leadership and an inability to cope with the complexities of a changing world meant that the uncritical voices, especially those that echoed official thinking, were given an inordinate influence in the last few decades. And anyone who didn’t subscribe to the old conservatism was taken out in some shape or form. As it was in the beginning . . . was the way it would always be.’

Wise words. I hope Pope Francis hears them.

Fifty eight words in one sentence to be read in public

The Opening Prayer at yesterday's Mass was made up of one sentence with 58 words.

It is close to impossible to read in public one sentence with 58 words.

How many sub clauses, what was the main verb.

Is this really the best they can do?

It is awful.

Then again, it's no longer the Opening Prayer, rather the Collect.

Maybe that explains it.

Also, is God not the protector of all?

This behaviour reminds one of how the government of the former GDR introduced new words into the German spoken east of the Elbe.

One is reminded of the words of Jesuit priest and author Richard Leonard: Ideology is the enemy of true discernment. 

Spotting sings of hope

From this week's Sunday Message at the church of The Three Patrons, Rathgar.

Michael Commane

Two Sundays ago there was no music at the 18.15 Mass. It is only when there is not music at Mass one realises how it plays such an uplifting role in the celebration of the Eucharist.

On that particular Sunday only one of the musicians was available and we decided there would be no music. May I take this opportunity to compliment the women who give of their music talents every week at the Sunday evening Mass. Indeed, all our musicians, who add to our Sunday liturgy, deserve high commendation for what they do.

Even I, who has not a note in my head, greatly appreciate the value of having music at Mass. I remember when I first went to Germany discovering that the Germans sing at every Mass, even at a 06.30 weekday Mass. 

Back to two weeks ago when we had no musicians at Mass. Before the final blessing I suggested/asked/coaxed the congregation if we would all try to sing the hymn on the Sunday leaflet as our final parting. 

Not being a singer myself I could not lead. It turned out that there was a powerful response and I got the impression everyone in the church was singing. 

It makes such a difference when people join in during the celebration of the Eucharist. With the slightest of invitations or promptings, people are only too willing to join in and become part of the ceremony.

And that does not just apply to music. It goes right across the spectrum with everything to do with all church celebrations.

Whether it is Eucharistic ministers, readers of the Word, people bringing gifts to the altar, whatever the task is, the more people, who actively participate in our Sunday and weekday liturgies, the more meaningful and prayerful it is for all of us.

More and more people appear to be joining in in the prayers we say at Mass. It makes such a difference when the prayer responses are acclaimed aloud. So too, with the Gloria and the Creed, it makes far more sense when we all join in in a public manner in praying these prayers.

Nobody at Mass is an anonymous spectator. The Mass is the community coming together to pray the greatest of prayers. It is communion at its best.

Every day I come to this church I am noticing shoots of great hope.

What do you think?

The art of listening

"Until I met my wife, I didn't know what listening really was.

"My marriage has taught me that what I thought of as listening really isn't listening. Like a lot of people, I thought that listening involved sitting silently as someone else talked, and then perceiving what they say.

"I was wrong. True listening is actually that period of silence and allowing someone's words to reach your conscious brain, but it also includes something else that's a little weird: with your posture, your face, and your sounds, you signal to someone, 'I want what you have, I need to know what you know, and I want you to keep telling me.'"

James  Comey in A Higher Reality, page 146, 147.

'Priestly dress is an identity strengthening factor'

From the current issue of The Tablet.

A senior theologian who teaches on the permanent diaconate programmes of Birmingham and Clifton dioceses has lamented the growth of “an increasingly ritualistic priesthood” which he has warned is “unhealthy”.

Dr David McLoughlin has trained young priests for the priesthood for 25 years and taught theology at Oscott College and at Newman University. He has also been a consulter to the Vatican and the Bishops Conference of England and Wales.

Speaking to The Tablet after he gave an address to the National Justice and Peace Network conference in Derbyshire, he said many of today’s seminarians “are caught up in the rituals of the sacramental process in a way that I would regard as unhealthy” because its sense of holiness was focused in a very limited way.

“I don’t know where we have gone wrong. They are all lovely guys ...  But when you see a young man on Sunday in a big Roman collar with a cassock with 33 buttons and a cummerbund and he is telling people off for taking the host in their hand – what on earth is going on?

“I think for some of them, the formal elements in religion and the formal elements of priestly dress, is a sort of bolstering and an identity strengthening factor.”

Referring to the Vatican II document on priesthood, "Presbyterorum Ordinis", he said the use of the two words – presbyter and sacerdos – had resulted in two models and that the tension between the two remained unresolved.

“Some priests have settled for a much more ritualistic sacerdotal model. I think a number of our younger priests have gone in that direction because it seems to be purer and more holy.” 

According to Dr McLoughlin the most important thing is that the church continues the reconciling work of Christ in the world and reconciling men and women to each other and to God.

“If there is anything gets in the way of that, we should go beyond it. So, if we have a lack of ordained ministers because we settled for celibate priests from the second millennia on, which is only true of the western half of the church not the eastern orthodox, why shouldn’t we change it? There is no profound theological reason why priests have to be celibate, it is just custom.”

He described CDF chief, Cardinal Luis Ladaria’s recent comments on the commission on women deacons as “a damage limitation job” and suggested that the Jesuit was “trying to manage expectations” and manage the conservatives. “A lot of them are in the States and they provide the central church with a lot of money,” he said.

Hugh Fenning OP, RIP

Dominican priest Hugh Fenning died early on Wednesday morning in Kiltipper nursing home, Tallaght. 

He was born in 1935, joined the Dominicans in 1953, made his first profession the following year and was ordained a priest in 1960.

Hugh was an accomplished historian, spent many years living in Rome as a member of the historical  institute of the Dominican Order.

During his time as a member of the historical institute he lived at the Dominican HQ at Santa Sabina. When it was decided to move the institute out of Santa Sabina, Hugh was not pleased having to leave and had no difficulty airing his views. He spent a number of years living at the Irish Dominican priory at San Clemente in Rome. People still recall some of his Roman one-liners.

He was for a long period of time the archivist of the Irish province of the Order and wrote many books and pamphlets on the historical background to Dominican priories in Ireland.

In 2012 he suffered a stroke, which left him greatly incapacitated. It meant he was semi-paralysed and yet he never once complained about his illness and situation. And that from a man who was sharp and quick with his tongue. He was confident that his faith had been a great support to him in his illness.

He had a wonderful capacity with words, words which could be most incisive and direct. He could enliven any conversation with a quiet, clever throw-away comment, but would it be sharp and indeed, cutting when required.

Hugh once said of me that I would never say anything about a person behind their back, instead I would say it straight to their face.

Like his father before him he had a special interest in rare books.

He was an ornithologist and had a large collection of books on birds. Hugh could give you detailed information on every bird he saw. How he enjoyed observing birds while in the priory garden in Tallaght or in the garden of the Black Abbey in Kilkenny. On his regular field trips he always went armed with his binoculars.

He attended CBS Synge Street. Another Synge Street student, Andrew John Kane joined the Dominicans the same day as Hugh. Hugh told many funny stories about how their academic abilities did a turn-around when they joined the Order. The stories always at his own expense.

He joined the Dominicans in a world of seeming certainty, a certainty in which he felt at home and enjoyed its environs. It meant he could be cleverly critical of 'new-fangled ways' for which he would always have the perfect comment.

Hugh Fenning was a large personality in the Irish Dominicans. He told it as he saw it and sometimes that could hurt.

He was a kind man, loyal to his friends.

Hugh Fenning was a towering character in the Irish Dominican province.

Buried pain never gets better with age

Transparency is almost always the best course.

Getting problems, pain, hopes out on the table so we can talk honestly about them and work to improve is the best way to lead.

By acknowldging our issues, we have the best chance of resolving them in a healthy way.

Buried pain never gets better with age.

And by remembering and being open and truthful about our mistakes, we reduce the chance we will repeat them.

From James Comey's book 'A Higher Loyalty', pp 137, 138.

He is talking about the FBI shortly after becoming director of the Bureau.

If only..........

Come On Home at The Peacock

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

Michael Commane

Last week en route to a play in Dublin’s Peacock Theatre I went into town by bus, upper deck.

A chance to see the world pass by. A few stops before getting off I spotted two men, probably in their 30s holding hands. It was something of a foreword to the play I was about to see.

‘Come On Home’ is written by Phillip McMahon and directed by Rachel O’Riordan.

McMahon, as he explains in the programme, has been making theatre at the Abbey for over 20 years.

‘Come On Home’ is about family, faith and desire. While travelling abroad, the 20-year-old Mc Mahon, met a gay couple who happened to be two Catholic priests. The three of them became friends and had ‘amazing conversations about faith and sexuality’.

The subject matter might well sound a cliché at this stage in ‘modern Ireland’. But the overall impression the play left with me was one of people living their lives in the here and now, grappling with the cards they had been dealt.

The main character in the play, Michael comes home from England to attend the funeral of his mother in rural Ireland. The family had a hair salon in the village and Michael’s brother Ray inherited the business from his late father but is now about to close shop and head off to Manchester with his pregnant partner. The other brother Brian is loud and often drunk.

There is a lot of drinking, foul language but there’s honesty, respect and love too.

From the outset Michael is different, shades of sophistication about him. There are early hints that he is ‘different’.

Michael is gay, had spent some time in a seminary studying to be a priest. It seems he was asked to leave because he was ‘too creative’.

All the conversations, the arguing, the drinking, the disclosures take place in the living room with their dead mother lying in the open coffin. It’s there too the crudest and foulest of language is uttered, no holds barred. 

In the midst of bereavement, elements of comedy, raw anger and expressions of dreams, two priests enter the plot. One, in a cameo role, an older man, probably not in touch with ‘modern Ireland’. They offer him a glass of whiskey, which he graciously accepts.

Then there is the younger priest, who was in the seminary with Michael. And now the hinting is over. They had had a sexual relationship and Fr Aidan Cleary tells Michael how he says his name every day to himself. Michael is confused, experiences emotions of love and hate.

It also transpires that Michael’s older brother Brian was sexually abused at school by a Christian Brother.

You can imagine the anger.

Would one theme have been adequate on the night?

Coming back home, again on the bus, this time with two friends, who were at the play, we were naturally talking about it.

In the midst of all that is happening and being revealed in ‘modern Ireland’ is there any serious and helpful conversation going on among priests about sexuality?

One hears many esoteric theories but a misguided sense of orthodoxy stymies any discerning, real and authentic debate.

And fear is never too far away.

As novices we were told celibacy was a sign of sacrifice for the Kingdom of God. A sign of what in ‘modern Ireland’?

‘Come On Home’ is probably raw. But isn’t so much of the human condition raw, confusing, painful.

There is no perfect way, no perfect life.

 

Mesut Özil resigns from German squad

I'm a German when we win but an immigrant when we lose.

Mesut Özil who has resgned from the German national football team.

Brendan Hoban on bullying by strange people

The piece below is by Fr Brendan Hoban and appears on the Associaiton of Catholic Priests' website.

Archbishop should have faced down bullies.

After the Abortion referendum, a consensus of sorts developed around the idea that the Catholic Church in Ireland is in ‘a new place’. As two thirds of the voters, most of whom would happily designate themselves as ‘Catholics’, rejected the advice of the Irish Catholic bishops, it seemed an obvious conclusion to draw.

What made it easier was that such a conclusion suited the agenda of a variety of different and very disparate groups, across the broad spectrum of Irish society – from the anti-Catholic hate squad who now had a stick to beat the Catholic Church with in further debates to the very traditional and conservative Catholic pressure groups who want the Catholic Church to become the equivalent of a sect, creating an ultra brand of Catholicism conspicuously and determinedly at odds with the bad, bad world out there.

Suddenly an unexpected consensus had emerged between those whose antipathy to Catholicism led to an effort to undermine the Pope’s visit by applying for tickets to the papal Mass in Croke Park so that fewer Catholics could attend – a strategy described by Taoiseach Varadkar as ‘wrong, petty and mean-spirited’ – and the flaky world of the far reaches of the Catholic press.

The more difficult truth is that the Catholic Church in Ireland is not in ‘a new place’ because of the result of the recent referendum. It’s being there for some time. What’s different now is that we’ve been given strong evidence of where we are. The abortion referendum has just helped us to join the dots.

For some years, possibly decades, we played a silly game. No matter what the evidence suggested, we pretended that really nothing had changed. 

‘Denial’ is a technical term for those who can’t see the elephant in the room but this was denial on a grand scale. 

While the gap between what the Catholic Church said and what people believed was growing ever-wider, while the authority of bishops was diminishing before our eyes, while the scaffolding that held together outdated church structures was collapsing, while so many (and so accurately) pointed to the realities of modern Irish life and their implication for a tired Church, those who inhabited a clerical bubble continued to reassure themselves that there was a turn on the road somewhere just ahead of us when all would be well.

Many didn’t see because they didn’t want to see or couldn’t bring themselves to see. Archbishop John Charles McQuaid when he arrived back from the Second Vatican Council in 1965 memorably reassured the faithful Catholics of Ireland that nothing going on in Rome would upset ‘the tranquillity of your Christian lives’. 

Now, in retrospect, that comment is widely viewed as wishful thinking. McQuaid imagined that he could keep out the tide of the modern world, but didn’t advert to the influence of education, growing prosperity, television and a desire for personal freedom.

Leaders of the Catholic Church have less excuse than McQuaid for not knowing how the wind of change has been blowing for years. And less excuse for the kind of wishful thinking in absurd rallying calls to raise the morale of the troops, like imagining that there are fresh green shoots of growth appearing when everyone can see that the desert is encroaching by the week. 

Or thinking that they can keep change at bay by dismissing anyone who doesn’t sing from their hymn-sheet of ‘negativity’. It’s as if the captain of the Titanic was singing an optimistic tune while the sea water was creeping above his knees.

Part of the problem we have in the Irish Catholic Church is that little respect was given to the critical voices that time and again warned against the icebergs stalking our voyage. 

A lack of vision, a failure in leadership and an inability to cope with the complexities of a changing world meant that the uncritical voices, especially those that echoed official thinking, were given an inordinate influence in the last few decades. And anyone who didn’t subscribe to the old conservatism was taken out in some shape or form. As it was in the beginning . . . was the way it would always be.

Over the last few decades, as a series of crises emerged, the Catholic Church was in thrall to a small, conservative and traditional elite who urged bishops to return to the bunker of a pre-Vatican Two Church and who bullied their way into the heart of the Irish Church, punching (as we say) way above their weight and their numbers.

Some bishops agreed with them and clearly urged them on, giving them a platform in their dioceses at every opportunity. Other bishops who didn’t toe the line were harrassed and bullied into submission. 

And bishops who gave any indication that they disagreed with them were liable to be set upon in an orchestrated negative campaign against them.

A bishop told me recently that he had no problem in dealing with pressure from what were deemed liberal groups, like the Association of Catholic Priests, but his real difficulty was the avalanche of pressure from a small group of very traditional Catholics.

I wonder could that explain the uncharacteristic reaction of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to government Minister, Josepha Madigan’s recent intervention in her parish church in Mount Merrion. Madigan, who led the Fine Gael campaign for a Yes vote in the recent referendum, is a reader in Mount Merrion. 

When no priest turned up for Mass, she did the readings and it seems part of the Eucharistic prayer and the story was widely reported in the press.

Most commentators were surprised by Archbishop Martin’s reaction, given that on the occasion in question the congregation was supportive of Madigan’s intervention and that services akin to what Madigan led are now taken for granted in churches all over Ireland.

What instigated Martin’s strong, even unnecessarily strong reaction? Someone referred me to a message on Twitter giving the archbishop’s number and encouraging people to ring to complain about the Madigan incident!

We’ve paid a high price as a Church for conceding so much influence to a small, loud, bullying cadre, who are spectacularly out of sync with vast numbers of Irish Catholics today, and some of whom are very strange people. Numerically they hardly represent anyone but themselves.

Trump tweets

President Trump tweeted this in the early hours, all in caps. He was addressing President Hassan of Iran.

But should he discover during the day that it was not a good idea he can easily hold a press conference and tell us he omitted the letter n in ever or find some other reason to say he meant the opposite.

Though, in the midst of all the nasty hilarity, the man is powerfully dangerous.

'CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED'

'Come On Home'

On this date, July 23, 1992 a Vatican commission, led Josef Ratzinger established that limiting certain rights of homosexual people and non-married couples is not equivalent to discrimination on grounds of race or gender.

'Come On Home' is a play running in The Peacock at present.

The following quote is from the play:

Being gay in a seminary is like being  a Swede in Sweden.

Far too many people are excluded

This week's Three Patrons' newsletter.

By Michael Commane

The teacher’s pet has a ring to it. It’s always annoying and irritating when a teacher shows a preference for one student over another. But it happens, always did and always will.

It occurs right across the spectrum of human life. Some people are preferred over others. It’s not always on grounds of talent, ability, intelligence, qualifications. Often it is on a whim. People sidle up to those they think may be important.

In recent years there has been a number of politicians, who have seen a gap in the market. They have spotted that many people feel alienated, forgotten. The cute politicians blame all our woes on the ‘current elite’ and then slip into their roles. It seems to be a clever ploy of the far-right. And unfortunately, it’s working for them.

But their instinct is spot on.

Too many people feel alienated and not significant within their group or their society.

It happens everywhere and we allow it to happen.

It happens in the church.

I mentioned here two weeks ago about how at the 07.30 Mass on Wednesday mornings someone speaks for two minutes on the Gospel of the day.

I have been blown over by the quality of the content and how it is delivered. Faith in action.

Only two rules: the person has to speak on the Gospel of the day and there is a two-minute time-limit.

The Wednesday talk has been in operation since February 14. No one is excluded, everyone is welcome. I pick people randomly. If they prefer not to speak that too is fine.

It is sensational how well it is working, indeed only last week someone suggested that the content should be collected and published.

To think of the faith, the talent, the goodness, everything, that we miss out on when we don’t open our hearts and minds to every human being.

Every person has a tale to tell. Imagine, if we took the time and sense to listen.

 

A time for solidarity and mercy

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

Michael Commane

At a Mass earlier this month in Rome, Pope Francis said:

“The only reasonable response to the challenges presented by contemporary migration is solidarity and mercy. Governments must be less concerned with political calculations and more with an equitable distribution of responsibilities. Many of the poor are trampled on today."

Powerful and indeed provocative words from the pope, and they have more or less gone unnoticed in the world's press.

An Italian priest, Gianfranco Formento, in 2015 posted a notice on the church where he ministers saying: "Racists are forbidden from entering. Go home.”

The Umbrian priest is currently in dispute with the new Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini of the far-right Northern League party over his migration policy.

 Fr  Formento said: “There is an evil force of racism, and Salvini has contributed to this. He’s been a magician in cultivating hate and manipulating anger. People of all ages have become racist because of the climate we’re living in."

 And then there is Donald Trump and his daily rant about migration. Add the names Orban, Farage, Salvini and some more and one quickly sees that the migration issue is a most serious problem.

 Some weeks ago, the former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble wisely stressed how important it is for the EU to solve the migration problem because, he argued, it could well cause serious destabilisation within the European Union.

In tomorrow's Gospel we see how Jesus has pity on a large crowd. He has pity on them because "they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length." (Mark 6: 34)

In the first reading we read from the prophet Jeremiah: "Doom for the shepherds who allow the flock of my pasture to be destroyed and scattered - it is the Lord who speaks." (Jeremiah 23: 1)

Far too often and far too easily we can be inclined to dismiss as out-of-date, pious and irrelevant to our lives the wise words of the Bible, the words we hear in church.

These words will be read in churches around the world tomorrow.

They remain dramatically relevant, straight-talking words that apply to the appalling suffering, which is being experienced by the poorest of the poor as they go to great lengths to make better lives for themselves and their children.

Of course, it is important that there are rules and regulations on how people gain entry to a country. 

The world is in crisis and migration is one of the symptoms or signs of what is happening. But how is there such silence about the disparity of the world's richest?

An Oxfam study carried out earlier this year shows that the wealth of the nine richest people in the world is equivalent to the wealth of half the world's population.

Think about it: nine people own what four billion people share among themselves.

It is intolerable to see how some politicians are cultivating hate and manipulating anger around the issue of migration.

Is there a word spoken how the developed world colonised and plundered the developing world for generations? It's the descendants of those who were colonised and brutally treated, who are today landing on our shores.

The Trumps, the Salvinis and Farages have no problem with the super-rich from the developing world living next door to them. It's the poor they want to keep out or send home.

Tomorrow's scripture readings tell us a different story and one that is far more noble and life-enriching.

Right now, the dominant voice is that of the powerful and vested interests. They have found the perfect scapegoat on whom to blame all our woes and pain.

It's such a grace and joy to hear voices like those of Pope Francis and Fr Formento.

Another Italian priest Alex Zanotelli calls on journalists to write more on the difficulties people experience in Africa and points out that they are fleeing disaster.

Remember, nine people on the planet own the same wealth as the poorest four billion. Remember too, that Jesus took pity on the crowd.

Remembering the von Staufenberg plot

It was on this date, July 20, 1944 that the Staufenberg assassination plot against Adolf Hitler failed.

It took place at what was then Rastenburg in East Prussia, now called Kętrzyn, Warmia-Masuria in Poland.

There are those who argue that had Paulus' Sixth Army not been defeated by thr Red Army under the command of Marshal Georgii Zhukov at Stalingrad the Rastenburg plot might never have taken place.

Obama on liars

Barack Obama speaking earlier this week in South Africa.

“People just make stuff up. They just make stuff up. We see it in the growth of state-sponsored propaganda. We see it in internet fabrications. We see it in the blurring of lines between news and entertainment.

"we see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they’re caught in a lie and they just double down and they lie some more. It used to be that if you caught them lying, they’d be like, ‘Oh, man’— now they just keep on lying.”

RTE and the past participle

Dave Fanning standing in for Ryan Tubridy this morning:

".......he has ran...."

Someone at RTE should explain the perfect tense and how to use the past participle to their highly-paid presenters.

Ideology is the enemy of discernment

Wise words from Australian Jesuit priest and author Richard Leonard:

Ideology is the enemy of true discernment. 

It predetermines the outcome to every conversation, cuts across a spirit of curiosity and humility towards new opportunities, and leaves no room for the Holy Spirit to prompt and move us to new responses to new contexts and issues.

Dublin to West Kerry on a motorbike

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

Michael Commane

Have you ever driven a motorbike?

Last Friday week, more or less on a whim, I jumped up on my motorbike in Dublin at 17.15, destination Castlegregory in West Kerry.

It was sort of crazy as I had to return the following day. It meant covering approximately 700 kilometres in 24 hours.

Leaving Dublin at peak rush hour was unwise. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper, which was made worse with road widening works between Naas and Newbridge.

No doubt you have seen motorbikes zoom in and out between cars in long traffic jams. They make it look easy and are the envy of those sitting in stationary cars. 

I tried doing that on Friday but failed miserably. I attempted zigzagging but quickly grew scared and decided to drive sedately right on the edge of the hard shoulder. I’d say I looked sort of pathetic. I’m no Evel Knievel.

South of Newbridge it all changed and I was as free as a bird. But a motorway is always a motorway, it’s boring. There is the mouth-watering countryside to be seen and on a motorbike the vantage point is much better than in a car but a motorway always remains a motorway. 

No, not to save the toll fee, rather for the peace and quiet of slower roads, I left the motorway before Portlaoise. It was surprisingly quiet with little or no traffic. It made for perfect motorbiking. I could sit up on the bike and scan the fabulous Irish scenery, though it was striking how burned the countryside looked. That lush greenness was not in evidence.

I had been dreading how hot and uncomfortable it would be wearing all that motorbike gear. But I was surprised, once out on the open road with my jacket partly open, how fresh and cool it was. I am reminded of this anonymous quote: ‘Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.’

South of Limerick panic sets in. Petrol gauge is off the red. That sensation of running out of petrol on a motorbike in late evening is not pleasant. You look at the gauge and shout out an expletive. 

With your head encased in a helmet all your words remain silent. 

I was in a bit of a fix. A car pulls up outside a shop. I drive up to the parked car, raise the visor of my helmet and ask the driver how far away is the next petrol station. For a millisecond or so he looks at me, then smiles and says ‘two or three miles, in Clarina’. 

Sounding apprehensive I ask him is it two or three. He gets the message and realises that I’m nervous. At that he says: ‘You drive off and I’ll follow you.’ I was flabbergasted. I got to the filling station, the man turned around and drove back to where I met him. What a lovely act of kindness.

The views along the Shannon were spectacular. I could see over to Clare, the stacks at Moneypoint power station. There is an elegance about wind turbines that adds to the makeup of the Irish landscape. 

All the different smells, something you miss in a car. And then the setting sun. It was sensational. And certainly an experience of living in the now. 

It was my first time to see a cruise ship at Foynes.

With a few stops en route I arrived in Castlegregory close to 22.15 as high as a kite. Great fun and highly recommended.

 

Trump and his empty gestures

This is a briliant piece on President Trump and all he stand for.

It appears in The New Yorker.

The Trump-Putin summit, a meeting without an agenda, is the latest example of the ultimate innovation of the Trump Presidency: the deliberately empty gesture. 

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-and-the-triumph-of-nothing-over-everyone

'Many of the poor are trampled on today'

The Three Patrons' newsletter for this week.

By Michael Commane

There was an interesting article in last week’s English newspaper The Guardian. 

An Italian priest, Gianfranco Formento, has crossed swords with the new Italian interior minister and leader of the far-right Northern League Matteo Salvini.

Back in 2015 the priest placed a sign on the church in Spoletto in Umbria, where he ministers, saying: “Racists are forbidden from entering. Go home.”

Salvini saw it and wrote on his Twitter account: “Perhaps the priest prefers smugglers, slaveholders and terrorists? Pity Spoleto and this church, if this man calls himself a priest.”

“There is an evil force of racism, and Salvini has contributed to this. He’s been a magician in cultivating hate and manipulating anger. People of all ages have become racist because of the climate we’re living in,” Fr Formento has said.

At a Mass earlier this month in Rome Pope Francis said:

“The only reasonable response to the challenges presented by contemporary migration is solidarity and mercy. Governments must be less concerned with political calculations and more with an equitable distribution of responsibilities.

“Many of the poor are trampled on today. How many of the poor are being brought to ruin! All are the victims of that culture of waste that has been denounced time and time again, including migrants and refugees who continue to knock at the door of nations that enjoy greater prosperity.”

Another Italian priest, Alex Zanotelli, has called on journalists to write more on the difficulties people experience in Africa. He argues that migrants are not the parasites and invaders the far-right want us to think they are. They are fleeing from disaster, he says.

Is anyone asking who colonised and plundered the developing world?

Closer to home it was interesting to read the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty speak out last week about energy price rises, which are soon to be introduced.

He said: “The huge poverty in Ireland is energy poverty and I’m afraid a lot of people are missing it.

“The government needs to look at the price increases and think about how the poor in society can be supported, otherwise the poor are going to get even poorer.”

And that’s good lead-in to remind readers that the St Vincent de Paul collection takes place this Sunday outside the church after Mass.