Interpreting the news

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

Michael Commane

What percentage of news is entertainment? I listen to RTE’s Morning Ireland most days. Why? Is it to be informed, entertained or both?

Over the last few months we have been Brexited-to-death. It’s been wall-to-wall and even the most avid news nerds have had a surfeit of it.

Naturally local news will be quicker to attract our attention than news about something that happens far away. A train crash at Cherryville Junction will mean more to us than one at Eschede in Germany.

In the days leading up to Easter there was wall-to-wall coverage reporting on the findings of the interim report of the Commission of Investigation of the Mother and Baby Homes.

I got to the stage where I could not take any more and simply turned off the radio. I often get angry with State agencies and the institutional church. I think of all the nonsense the church can spout and then this behaviour.

Its concentration on matters sexual when it itself has enormous problems and issues at its own hall door is annoying.

When we are familiar with some news item we are naturally interested on the take it is given by the media.

Before Easter Ryan Tubridy on his radio show made a reference to the historicity of Jesus and within two minutes he was talking about the fire at Nortre Dame and mentioned ‘Louis XIX’. 

It came across as if he might be doubting the historical Jesus but in the same breath he associated a non-existent ‘Louis XIX’ with Nortre Dame. I have to admit that he quickly spotted he may have been incorrectly reading his cue, checked himself and spoke of Louis IX.

So much news washes over our heads. Sometimes we get annoyed, other times we laugh, more times our curiosity forces us to pay attention.

Minister for Health, Simon Harris is seldom out of the news. 

He has some stock words and phrases that I find irritating. 

Maybe I’m jealous of his youth. But most times I have no particular or personal reason to be interested in matters of health. Fortunately, I am a relatively healthy person and seldom visit hospitals or consultants.

In the last few days I have had to make an appointment to see a medical consultant.

One of the first questions I was asked when making the appointment was if I had personal medical insurance.

The phone conversation I had with the doctor’s consultant went pear-shaped but happily it got back to an even keel and we both ended up sharing a joke and laughing.

On that phone call it came home to me the terror of what it must be like in Ireland if citizens of this republic do not have private medical insurance.

Imagine to learn that if you have private medical insurance you can be seen within weeks but alas if you do not have private medical insurance, one would have to wait until 2020. I was so incensed with that, that I have forgotten what month in 2020 it would be.

I am back thinking of Simon Harris strutting about and giving the impression that this is a great little republic where everything is fine and dandy.

We were terrible blackguards in the past but we are super-great now. Back then we were cave-people, now we are sophisticates. We know it all now. What a nonsense.

News is a funny old thing. But when the news is relevant to us we sure can react and sometimes get very angry.   

€1.61 trillion spent on weaponry in 2018

The world spent more money on weaponry in 2018 than was spent the previous year.

There was an increase in weaponry spending of 2.6 per cent, accounting for an increase of €1.64 bilion.

The world spent €1.61 trillion on arms last year.

One billion people have not enough food to eat.

Christians are most oppressed faith group on earth.

Christians are the most oppressed faith group on the planet.

In 2015 they were the most widely targeted body of believers in 144 countries.

In the North and Middle Belt of Nigeria 3,700 Christians were killed.

The plight of Christians has worsened most dramatically in India and China.

Drawing courage from an apostle’s doubt

The ‘Thinking Anew’ column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

The expression 'Doubting Thomas' has its origins in tomorrow's Gospel? (John 20: 19 - 31)

It's the Gospel that records how Thomas, who was one of the apostles, one of Jesus' inner circle, was slow to believe. He wanted concrete evidence before he was prepared to believe that the risen Jesus had appeared to his fellow apostles.

It's a Gospel that gives solace to those of us who never stop doubting.

Another interesting aspect of this Gospel is St John's recording how the disciples were so afraid and nervous of the Jews that they had  closed the doors to the room where they had gathered.

All the various forms of fear and doubt can easily and often bedevil our lives. And yet there is an important role for doubting and fearing.

I'm always nervous of people who are certain. Self-confidence has its place but it can also be a superficial mechanism for hiding a multitude.

There's a place for a healthy scepticism in our lives.

The Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh captures the damage that a 'know-all' environment can cause. In his poem 'Advent' he begins: "We have tested and tasted too much, lover,/Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder." And later in that verse he talks of "The knowledge we stole but could not use."

Certainty about anything in the physical or material world requires an element of scepticism, a spoonful of care. So what happens when we begin to try to talk about God, the God of the incarnation, the God of the resurrection? What at all have we to say, what can we say, indeed, what dare we say about God?

These days we often hear people who say they do not believe in God admit that they envy those who do. They go on to say they would like to have the certainty of their believing friends or that steadfast faith that their parents had. 

On the other hand we meet people who have no doubt whatsoever about God, resurrection and eternal life. But I think it's more than fair to say that for most of us ordinary mortals there are always moments of doubt during our spiritual journey.

Some weeks ago when we saw the pictures of a Black Hole there was nothing to do but stand back in awe and wonder at the incredible vastness of the universe. To think that the Black Hole is 65 billion times bigger than our sun. 

Light, that travels at approximately 3,000 kilometres per second, cannot penetrate the Black Hole. And this is just a black hole in our galaxy.

And then we mention God's name. The more that I see and learn about the vastness of the world about me, the more I think how important it is to be careful and measured mentioning God's name.

Might it be that many people have been unimpressed with how we can so easily hijack God to suit our own desires and foibles. Has an overzealous piety cliched God out of existence for many people?

God is beyond the grasp of our human minds. The fact that God becomes man helps in our discovery of God but that too is a lifelong journey.

The vastness of reality must surely tempt us to wonder about our own significance. And then there is God, the almighty being. Through the Scriptures, through the various forms of revelation we can get tiny glimpses of the reality of God. In Jesus, God is revealed most fully to us. 

And that too might help us in seeing our uniqueness and importance in God's eyes

Thomas' doubting gives me great comfort, hope too and also helps me get some understanding of God's mercy and kindness.

The disciples were also afraid, so much so that they kept the doors closed to protect themselves from the Jews.

I often look back at my schooldays and how afraid I was. As a result, my learning ability greatly suffered. Later as a teacher I saw so clearly that fear plays a major role in inhibiting people from learning.

And again, maybe we have over-concentrated in warning people about God.

Tomorrow's Gospel is the perfect reading for those of us who are inclined to doubt the existence of God and are forever suspect of any and all forms of brainwashing.

Australian Jesuit priest  Richard Leonard in an article in The Tablet quoted the early church father Irenaeus: "The glory of God is humanity fully alive."

Leonard is convinced that Easter glory allows us to be the most loving people we can possibly be. And that happens in the context of all our doubting and fear.

Elizabeth Warren tilts left

This debunks that idea that line about being a socialist in youth and a conservative in adulthood.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/24/elizabeth-warren-conservative-heading-left-bernie-sanders-arwa-mahdawi?CMP=share_btn_link

Diarmuid Martin on 'culture warriors’

The piece below is an extract from The Irish Times of Monday. It was an interview with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

In case you can't read it, here it is: 

He [Diarmuid Martin] is concerned about those "cultural warriors" in the church who are resistant to change. "Saying. 'Let's restore what we had before and let's be there, let's be aggressive and let's close our ranks' - that isn't the answer."

Maybe it would not have been possible, but it would have been great if the archbishop named some of the perpetrators.

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A Jesuit view versus a Dominican view

Two interesting quotes, one from an Australian Jesuit, the other from an Irish Dominican.

The glory of God is humanity fully alive - the words of an Australian Jesuit.

I don't mean to bring it down to a human level - the words of an Irish Dominican.

It's dangerous to hijack God

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

Michael Commane

It is Easter Week, the schools are closed and those preparing for public exams have a short term ahead of them because Easter is late this year.

There is regularly a discussion about making Easter a fixed date in the calendar.

At present Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

And please don’t misspeak the Saturday before Easter Sunday as it is Holy Saturday. Easter Saturday is this coming Saturday, the Saturday of Easter Week.

It sounds as if there is nothing easy and simple about Easter. Then again, is there anything simple about our lives?

Easter Sunday is one of the days in the year when Christian churches are relatively full. It is the most important feast in the Christian calendar. It’s the celebration of the resurrection and our belief in that event.

Isn’t it an amazing thing to say - that Jesus Christ rises from the dead. Everything about God to the human mind is amazing.

How easy we can use the word God without actually thinking about the enormity of it all.

Earlier this month we saw the first ever pictures of a Black Hole. The pictures had been taken by means of a number of high-powered telescopes around the world.

This Black Hole is 500 billion billion kilometres distant from us and it is 65 billion times bigger than the sun.

Light, which travels at the speed of 300,000 kilometres per second or 186,000 miles per second, is incapable of penetrating a Black Hole.

Extraordinary facts and for most of us, ordinary mortals, facts away beyond our comprehension.

These pictures support what Einstein was saying.

Einstein considered himself an agnostic but admitted that he was not an atheist.

When I was reading and listening to the news stories about the Black Hole the word God came to mind. What do we know about God?

Christians say that God becomes man and that Jesus Christ is both God and man.

Christian philosophers and theologians say that one of the great differences between us and God is that God is existence whereas we have existence.

The idea of existence is exciting. Before we can say anything else about a thing, the most basic statement we can make about something is that it is.

And then I am off thinking about how little discussion or debate there is about the notion of God. All our scraps and disagreements in matters of religion are about issues of far less importance, indeed, most of them dealing with matters sexual.

We have just celebrated the biggest feast in the Christian calendar but what actually does it mean to say Christ rises from the dead? What does it mean to say that we are destined for resurrection? Of course these are major matters of faith but surely there is only one reality so what’s true in the realm of the supernatural must also be true in the natural word.

The story of the Black Hole is extraordinary, and wonderful too and so too the story of God.

But don’t we need to be especially careful saying anything about God.

Might it be that it is extremely easy with pious words to cliché God out of existence?

God’s greatness is far beyond any trite easy words. Is it that so often we create our own image of God? Isn’t that what idolatry is?

It’s dangerous, unholy too, to hijack God.

Paul VI knew John Paul II knew and Benedict XVI knew

This is an extract from an article in the current issue of The National Catholic Reporter.

One need not resort to theological debates or social analysis nor consult apocalyptic literature to understand what went on. In the late 1940s — long before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the 1960s — a U.S. priest learned of the sexual abuse of children by priests. His name was Gerald Fitzgerald, a Boston priest who founded the Servants of the Paraclete to deal with problem clerics, primarily those dealing with alcoholism. It wasn't long after he opened a center in New Mexico that bishops from around the United States began sending sex offenders.

Fitzgerald was so appalled by the assaults on children and so revolted by the perpetrators that in the 1950s he placed a down payment on an island in the Caribbean with the intent of isolating the abusive priests. That idea never became reality, but he knew they couldn't be cured. He wrote about the sexual abuse of children to multiple U.S bishops; he recommended against transferring them to new parishes or dioceses; he was asked by the Holy Office at the Vatican to explain what he knew, and he delivered a five-page response in 1962; the following year he had a personal meeting with Pope Paul VI to discuss the matter.

Paul VI knew. John Paul II knew. Benedict XVI knew. Vatican officials knew.

Enough. We've said it before and it bears saying again: It's over. Denial no longer works. Trying to blame crime and cover-up on everything and everyone except those who were actually involved is no longer persuasive.

Benedict had his opportunities as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and as pope to call the hierarchical culture to account. He took some personally courageous action, not least of which was to bring the case against the notorious pedophile and favorite of John Paul II, Marcial Maciel Degollado, head of the Legion of Christ. But he failed to hold the leadership of the church accountable.

His current meddling is neither sound analysis nor helpful to a pope making unprecedented efforts to reform the clergy culture. Benedict should follow his initial instinct and be prayerfully silent.

Colombo archbishop calls for merciless punishment.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith yesterday asked the government to catch the criminals and 'punish them mercilessly'.

Are they not odd words from an archbishop?

Joe Bergin

Joe Bergin was born in 1935. He attended Newbridge College as a boarder and joined the Dominican Order in 1953 and ordained a priest in 1960.

In 1976 I was assigned to the Dominican Priory in Pope's Quay, Cork, where Joe Bergin was prior of the community.

He was prior during my three years there while I was attending UCC.

Joe was an impressive figure, kind and a fine public speaker. A man who was open to the world.

At university with me at the time was a fellow Dominican, Gerard B Skelly, who was a past pupil of Newbridge College, where, like Joe, he had been a boarder.

On wet winter days while cycling the short distance from the Lee to UCC it was not an umcommon practice for Gerard to pass me, driving the community car. Back in the day there were only two community cars.

Gerard had broken his theology studies in Tallaght to attend university, where he studied English and French

It was always Gerard's skill to have the ear of the boss and well he managed it with Joe Bergin.

I can still remember remonstrating with Joe and as young 27-year-old telling him that he was a lazy man. The cheek of me.

Gerard Skelly tragically died in the late 1990s.

Joe Bergin left the Dominicans, married, moved to the United States and became an Episcopalian priest, working first in Canada and then later in upstate New York.

We stayed in touch over the years. I met him and his wife on many occasions when they came to Ireland on holiday.

Approximately two years ago he emailed me to tell me his wife had died and he was a broken man. I replied twice but no response from Joe. Eventually I presumed he had died.

Three weeks ago talking to friends of a patient in St Luke's Hospital we came to talk about the Dominicans. It so happened that I had taught the brother of one of the visitors. The following day they told me that they had another Dominican link.

They asked me did I know Joe Bergin.

Yesterday, Holy Saturday, I visited Joe in a nursing home in Cavan.

Though suffering from dementia, he recognised me and we had a delightful conversation. 

All the Dominican names that came up for mention. And all our cross-referencing. I could tell him many a story, criticise some of his appointments, those Dominicans we both agreed were great men. And then the others.

I was able to tell him the direction in which the Irish Dominican were going.
Joe still has his impish style, his roguish comments and I'm as abrasive and cheeky as back in the day in Cork.

Was it a better organisation then than it is now? An easy answer to that question.

We cried and laughed a lot too. More laughs than tears.
He, whom I thought was dead, is alive. Alleluia.

And all that on Holy Saturday, 2019.

Easter greetings to all readers.

Is Benedict correct in blaming 1960s for abuse crisis?

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has blamed the 1960s as the decade at the root of the clerical sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

In an essay he has written for Klerusblatt he writes: "It could be said that in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose that has by now been the subject of laborious attempts at distruption."

Nothing in life is that simple and certainly nothing in areas of  sexuality, celibacy, clerical paedophelia is at all that simple.

1920, 1922, 1922, the years of birth of three priests, all three alledged notorious paedophiles.

Dates picked with little or no effort.

Benedict also blames a breakdown in 'preparation for priestly ministry in seminaries'.

Preparation for priesthood cannot have been that great in the 1940s and indeed, earlier.

What happens when alleged notorious paedophiles, now deceased, were vocation directors?

Material for an interesting tale.

Ireland

Is Ireland a strange place?

Deutschlandfunk, BBC Radio 4 are playing appropriate music on this Good Friday. 

RTE Radio 1 is giving tips on what to cook.

And the main news on Deutschlandfunk is the shooting dead of a young journalist in Derry.

Trump is 'whimsical and uninformed'

A powerful read in today's Guardian on the retiring French ambassador to Washington.

A great line: "To be right early is to be wrong."

It's not what you might think it is. But how correct it is. Considered 'wrong' by whom?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/19/whimsical-uninformed-french-ambassadors-parting-verdict-on-trump?CMP=share_btn_link

From Bonn to Berlin

On this date, April 19, 1999 the Bundestag, the German Parliament moved from Bonn on the Rhine back to Berlin.

Since the end of the war Bonn had always been considered a provisional capital.

Bonn had been chosen by Konrad Adenauer, West Germany's first Chancellor. Adenauer was a Rhinelander, born at Rhöndorf.

There was much discussion as to whether or not the parliament should return to the old Prussian capital (1701 - 1947).

Berlin was capital city for Nazi Germany and for the SED  regime, both dictatorships.

 Bonn, the birthplace of Beethoven, steered West Germany through peaceful and altruistic times. A gentler and safer world? Probably.

On the buses

This symbol is on the floor at the back door on the newest fleet of Dublin Bus vehicles.

Presumably it means opening doors but it is ambiguous. It looks like someone on a bicycle.

Surely a symbol should be unambiguously clear. This symbol is not.

A German crane at Nortre Dame

A German crane, operated by a German commpany, at work at Nortre Dame yesterday.

Peoples and nations working in partnership.

In May 1940, a short 79 years ago the German Army invaded France.

Our peace, our partnership is the fruit of the European Union.

Holy Week retreat at prioryinstitute.com

The Priory Institute is hosting an online Holy Week retreat.

In order to listen in one has to register. All details at www.prioryinstitute.com

Registration is free.

Ryan Tubridy on Jesus and Louis

Ryan Tubridy on his show this morning made some questioning comments about the historicity of Jesus before he went on to talk about 'King Louis XIX'.

His Loius comment put his Jesus comment in context.

And not a word of shame or embarrassment.

So much to see on a busy Friiday train

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

Michael Commane

Irish trains and buses are extremely busy these days.

And certainly all trains out of Dublin Heuston Station any time after 11.00 on Fridays are extremely busy, in other words filled to the gills.

I travelled on a Dublin Cork train after 11.00 on a Friday. No specifics, as under no circumstances dare I identify any of the protagonists in this story.

The coach is full, bums on every seat.

I’m sitting in one of those four-seaters, two seats on either side of a table.

I’m lucky to get a seat as I arrive approximately 10 minutes before departure and have to fold and load my fold-up bicycle.

Train leaves on time, indeed, it keeps to the timetable with meticulous punctuality. Most impressive.

Somewhere between Heuston and Inchicore the man sitting diagonally across from me is shouting down his phone asking the person with whom he is talking if he can hear him. He explains that he is on a train to Cork and that we are going under a number of bridges so maybe that’s why they can’t hear each other.

Whatever about his phone partner, all the rest of us in the coach hear the nonsense he’s talking. Eventually he allows good sense to prevail and puts his phone away.

Sitting opposite me is a young woman. Somewhere near ‘The Hatch’ she begins to remove her makeup gear from her bag.

It’s interesting how railway personnel have their own names for places. No self-respecting Irish Rail staff member would dare call it Hazelhatch. So too with Ballybrophy, in railway parlance it’s ‘Bally’.

My neighbour begins the task of placing all her makeup material on our dividing table. Carefully she places her false eyelashes on the table. Between ‘The Hatch’ and close to Limerick Junction she spends the one hour 18 minutes working on her makeup and inserting her eyelashes. It was all a revelation for me. But what fascinated me was that I did not notice any improvement in the woman’s appearance. She looked just the same at Limerick Junction as she did at ‘The Hatch’. For the entire 127-minute journey between Dublin and Mallow there is not a word spoken between the four of us. 

At Limerick Junction I was going to point out that the new platform being built is almost reaching completion but I decide to say nothing.

The woman beside me, probably in her late 70s, is busy with her tablet, digital version. I take a peek and discover that she is spending most of the journey playing patience. She’s irritating me as she insists on hogging the armrest, which both of us are sharing. Any time she vacates the space I place my elbow at the edge of the armrest, but she wins the cat-and-mouse game.

I change trains at Mallow for my Kerry connection. Sitting in front of me a group of young women are sharing a bottle of sparkling wine. I notice they leave their wine glasses on the train on detraining in Killarney.

My train arrives on time in Tralee.

US novelist, Donna Tartt always carries a notebook with her when travelling.

‘As a writer, I think I’m more an eye than an ear — the world comes mainly in for me at the eye,’ she says.

There’s so much to see right in front of our eyes. It’s a real gift to appreciate the now, the magic of the world about us.

And no better place to see it than on a busy InterCity train. 

Remembering those killed in Belfast

On this date, April 15, 1941 the Germans bombed Belfast killing approximately 1,000 people.

And it seems we in the South never give mention to such an horrific event or mark the day with a commemoration in honour of those who were killed.

Not the word of a rabid anti-Catholic but of Diarmuid Martin

Diarmuid Martin, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin told of his shock at finding serial paedophile priests are unable to confirm conclusively  newly reported cases of abuse they were involved in because they had so many victims.

Dr Martin made the disturbing revelation in an RTÉ documentary detailing how the Vatican came to exert control over almost every aspect of Irish life since the foundation of the State.

In the 'Rome v Republic' programme, Dr Martin talks frankly about the scale of abuse, expressing his deep concern paedophile priests can often be unsure if they abused a victim or not when a new case comes to light.

He said: "Any organisation has to ask how is it that at a particular time, there was a large number of serial paedophiles. I'm talking serious paedophiles, we're talking about hundreds."

The above is from The Irish Independent of yesterday.

That's not being said by a rabid anti-Catholic person. They are the words of the Archbishop of Dublin.

And then to celibacy. The time, energy and damage that it can and does cause. 

Why all the fuss about it? It's considered at the centre of priesthood. How or why can that be so?

How can young people promise to take vows of celibacy for the entirety of their lives? 

Is priestly training as it works today a form of 'radicalisation'?

What are the qualities required of those who are 'responsible' for the 'training' of young and not-so-young men for priesthood and religious life?

So often they seem to resemble the old Soviet apparatchiks.

This is Psalm Sunday, Holy Week lies ahead. How come there is so little discussion about incarnation, resurrection, Trinity, God?

It seems all the concentration is wasted on anything and everything but the mystery and wonder of God.

The IDSs, Rees-Moggs and the Borises in church too

This is a brilliant piece about the Brexiteers. It appeard in yesterday's Guardian.

It refers to the dress of Ian Duncan Smith, the buffoonery of Boris Johnson and best of all, 'Jacob Rees-Mogg dresses like both the corpse and the undertaker'.

It's a great article on the state of Brexit but it is unknowingly/unwittingly a brilliant comment on what's happening in the clerical caste of the Catholic Church at present, although there are Christian references in the piece.

The Rees-Mogg attire, the Halloween-style hats of IDS and then the flowing habits, the cassocks, the hats, the long black coats. The similarities are hilarious if not disturbing.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/12/brexit-halloween-rees-mogg-fear-far-right?CMP=share_btn_link

The Black Hole

The pictures we have seen of the Black Hole in the last days are amazing.

It is 500 billion billion kilometres away, 65 billion times bigger than our sun.

It means Newton and Einstein were correct.

It makes the idea of God exciting.

But surely it makes so much of our words about God with little or no meaning.

What at all are we?

Britiains waste 720 million eggs every year

The British throw away 720 million eggs every year. And nothing rotten about them.

This article is from the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/09/britons-throw-away-720m-eggs-a-year-over-best-before-date-fears?CMP=share_btn_link

Filling Roman potholes in the dark

This is a great yarn in today's Guardian.

Any takers in Ireland, any road, any town or city?

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/apr/10/filling-a-gap-the-clandestine-gang-fixing-rome-illegally?CMP=share_btn_link

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of German theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He was hanged from a butcher's meat-hook at the concentration camp at Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945.

Earlier he had been a prisoner at Tegel in Berlin and from there was transferred to the concentration camp at Buchenwald outside Weimar before being sent to Flossenbürg, in Bavaria and on the border with the then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic.

Trump dismisses Thunberg while Robinson lauds her

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

Michael Commane

The name and the face have turned up on a number of occasions. I think the first time I heard her name mentioned was by President Donald Trump. He was jeering her and questioning how a teenager could have such strong opinions.

Then I heard her name mentioned in the context of Irish school children staging a strike to protect our environment.

Dermot A Lane is a priest of the Dublin archdiocese. He has been involved in academia most of his life, was parish priest in Balally in Dublin. These days he is placing much emphasis on ecology and the importance of caring for all of God’s creation.

At the end of March, I went along to a talk he gave on the environment and the need for dialogue between science and theology.

And whose name pops up yet again? Greta Thunberg. Whereas Donald Trump dismissed her as a silly young girl, Dermot Lane sang her praises.

Greta Thunberg is the 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl, who has hit the world stage speaking clearly and convincingly about the climate crisis. It is Greta who started the first school strike pleading with adults and political leaders to address the crisis. 

She has addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference and at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January she told world leaders that she did not want their hope, ‘I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house was on fire because it is.’

Dermot Lane is a big fan of Greta. In the talk that I attended he pointed out that there is a 98 per cent agreement among scientists that climate change is manmade and that we have 10 years to change it.

He was most critical of the Irish Government reneging on the commitment it gave when signing up to the Paris Climate Agreement. It is generally accepted that we are the laggards of Europe when it comes to protecting our climate.

Dermot Lane referred to President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement but was heartened to see how mayors in many US cities have decided to keep to the agreement.

‘There is a silver lining in President Trump’s decision as it has strengthened the resolve of many authorities in the US to abide by the resolutions decided at the Paris Climate Conference,’ Dermot explained.

Climate change affects everyone but hurts the poor most of all. Cyclone Idai, which hit Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe last month severely affected the lives of two million people. And these are the poorest of the poor on our planet, who have contributed least to causing climate change in the first place.

Having spent 10 years working with Concern Worldwide I’ve seen first-hand how climate change is causing such hardship to the weakest and the most fragile on earth.

Pope Francis in his encyclical letter ‘Laudato Si’/ ‘Praised Be’ writes: ‘Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change. A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.’

Pope Francis reminds us how the Book of Genesis suggests that human life is grounded in three closely intertwined relationships: with God, our neighbour and with the earth itself.

Mary Robinson is correct when she calls Greta Thunberg a ‘superstar’ and insists the time for action is now. Political leaders, industry, you and I are duty-bound to save our planet.

Chinese bulldozing Uighur culture

This article in today’s ‘Guardian’ tells a frightening story.

If it is accurate, and it appears to be, what is the world doing about it?

The Irish Government takes pride in its entry to China. Irish agriculture boasts of its sales in the Peoples Republic of China.

It’s almost a badge of honour to break into the world of China and then this.

Bulldozing mosques: the latest tactic in China’s war against Uighur culture
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/07/bulldozing-mosques-china-war-uighur-culture-xinjiang?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A saint too soon?

A letter in the current issue of The Tablet.