Why we need a new golden age of European rail

This is a lovely read on rail travel with special reference to the iron ways of Deutsche Bahn, German Rail.

The article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday.

The author seems not to be aware of how both Austrian Rail ÖBB and German Rail DB are in the process of reintroducing sleeper trains. And isn’t there a night sleeper, the Caledonian Sleep, from London to Scotland?

It’s worth noting that most European rail companies are wholly owned and operated State enterprises.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/27/why-we-need-a-new-golden-age-of-european-rail?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The Pope, Biden and the picture

A comment made by a reader of this blog.

Just happened to switch to CNN for a few minutes  and saw live coverage of Biden arriving at the Vatican to meet the pope. There were around thirty people there, maybe 40 if you include the Swiss Guards. The vast majority of them from the Vatican side.

In the whole affair there was only one woman present, Jill Biden.

Do any of the Catholic Church leadership even see what's wrong with this picture?

Protons, neutrons, and electrons and the missing piece

A reader sent this in for publication.

Scientists say the universe is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons.

But they forgot to mention morons.

Synod must bring women’s stories to the fore

This article appeared in The Irish Times on Tuesday. It is by Soline Humbert.

How do you respond to a call to “journey together” with people who, in Christ’s name, proclaim your non-existence? This is what I asked myself when I heard the Irish Catholic bishops calling for participation in a five-year synodal pathway.

Pope Francis has also launched a two-year worldwide synodal process, so we are now doubly exhorted to be a listening church where everyone can speak freely. I have heard that before.

My first experience of formal consultation in the church was three decades ago, as a member of the women in the church subcommittee, in the Dublin archdiocese.

The Dublin Council of Priests wanted to listen to women’s pain and set up a sub-committee of four priests and four women. Our subcommittee met for more than a year. Soon there was pressure to censor ourselves and not to mention women’s ordination for fear of episcopal anger.

On February 23rd, 1994, we gathered in a large room in Clonliffe College, with the archbishop, the auxiliary bishops and all the priests on the council. It took me all the courage I could muster to be vulnerable and share the very deep spiritual pain I felt about the sense of calling to the presbyterate/priesthood I had experienced since my teens.

The response was mostly silence and no further contact.

Physically sick Months later, I was contacted by a journalist from the Tablet, in London. Margaret Hebblethwaite was puzzled at seeing my name among the women’s names attached to a report ruling out women’s ordination.

The report of the council on women in the church had been written up, approved by the archbishop and press releases sent far and wide. I had never seen it.

As Hebblethwaite read out the content of the report to me over the phone, I felt physically sick. It stated: “The fact that the priesthood was given only to men did not prevent women from taking their full part in the life of the church.’’

I wrote to the chairman of the council who replied that this was a report of the council, of which I was not a member. I was only on the subcommittee, I had no grounds for complaint. The women’s names were attached to it because we had been consulted. I felt betrayed, my trust violated.

A month later, the pope shut the door to women’s ordination. Gagging all discussion, it was designed to crush any hope in women like me. Buried alive with a vocation that would not die.

We are now invited “to trust that this synodal pathway is a sincere effort to bring about real transformation and renewal in the church guided by the Spirit”, and at the same time we are warned by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference that “Pope Francis has been clear that synods are not instruments to change church teachings but rather help to apply church teaching more pastorally”.

I do not believe this much-needed renewal can happen while insisting all church teachings (of various degrees of authority) remain in place. Many render the gospel message inaudible.

Dr Nicola Brady, the chairwoman of the steering committee of the Irish Synodal Pathway, has said that “we are seeking to acknowledge the hurts that exist within our church community and work to heal those relationships”. The stark reality is that male dominance in the church has been sacralised for centuries and distorts relationships. Women must be under the control of men, who alone can represent Christ.

Gender-apartheid The structures and theology, including papal teachings, which underpin the church version of gender-apartheid perpetuate the violence of inequality and exclusion.

They are truly a scandalous counter-witness to the foundational baptismal affirmation that, “In Christ there is no longer male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”(Galatians 3:28) and Christ’s prayer “that all may be one” (John 17).

In his recent blog post, entitled The Taliban Within, Gerry O’Hanlon SJ starts with a letter published in the Tablet on September 11th, 2021, from Dr Anne Inman: “What does the Catholic Church have to say about the Taliban announcement that women can work for the government, since almost half of the workers are women, but ‘in the top posts . . . there may not be a woman?’’’

O’Hanlon doesn’t answer directly but concludes : “. . . when women in the Catholic Church are now so conscious of not being taken seriously for so long, their feelings and thoughts not given equal value, then there is a real crisis, a time of discernment”.

Can the pope open himself to an encounter with women with a calling like mine and listen to our stories, something his predecessors have never done? What if the vocations we bear are of the Spirit?

The first-century church could dispense with male circumcision; can we dispense with a male-only priesthood? With the help of that same Spirit.

Soline Humbert is a spiritual guide and an advocate for women’s ordination

 

German parliament elects new Ceann Comhairle

The German parliament, the Bundestag met yesterday and elected a new Ceann Comhairle or Bundestagspräsidentin.

The parliament elected SPD member Bärbel Bas as its new president or speaker. She is the third woman to hold the position.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier formally dismissed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet, but they will  stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new chancellor is elected and a government is in place.

This, the 20th Bundestag is the largest ever, with 736 members. It is the first time in its history that a black woman is a member. Awet Tesfaiesus is a member of the Green Party.

Below is the link to Bärbel Bas’s first speech as President of the German Parliament.

A fine parliamentarian speech.

https://youtu.be/x9dAck3NZNE

UCD and Fáilte Ireland ads on far-right US radio station

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

We’re a small country and I think it’s fair to say that our national and local radio stations offer us a reasonably good service. Of course there is always room for improvement.

The world of radio, like so much in our lives has changed beyond belief in my lifetime.

Today at the press of a button you can listen to radio stations from every corner of the globe. You can tune in on many devices, including an internet radio. 

With the internet radio you can preset stations, which means you can listen in at the press of a button. Some years ago I bought myself one and I’ve been travelling all around the world with it, without leaving my house.

By accident, scrolling through US stations I came across Patriot Radio. It broadcasts out of Phoenix, Arizona and has millions of listeners all across the United States.

To my ears it is unbelievable radio. Monday to Friday, at least any time I listen to it, it is non-stop attack against everything and everyone who is not at least as right wing as the Republican Party. 

All its presenters hurl extraordinary abuse at those who have different opinions than they. Currently President Joe Biden is the focus of their attack. 

According to the Patriot rulebook Biden and his entire team in the White House and all Democrat Senators and House members are staunch communists who want to overthrow the US way of life. In their attacking of the Democrats they use foul and abusive terms. 

Early weekday mornings, Irish time, presenter Mark Levin hurls the vilest of insults at Biden. He tells his listeners that the president is dumb, his brain has stopped functioning and he is simply the front man for dark people in the background, who are directing the US to the evil ways of communism. It’s as mad and crazy as that. 

And of course it is the darling voice of anti-maskers and gun-touting citizens. Only last week there was someone explaining the advantages of one type of gun silencer over another. The presenter of that particular programme was British-born Sebastian Gorka, who worked in the Trump White House for seven months.

The station is also a supporter of far-right Christian groups. Presenters constantly sneer and ridicule at anyone whom they deem has different opinions than they.

I have to admit the station intrigues me. Is there something about violence and raw hatred that attracts? And that sure is worrying.

But what I have heard in the last weeks has set my ears on fire. To my astonishment, Irish companies are now advertising on the station. Not only companies but also State agencies. 

To my horror I have heard ads for Fáilte Ireland and UCD. That tax payers money is being spent on ads on Patriot Radio is nothing less than scandalous.

Does the UCD president or the CEO of Fáilte Ireland know about this?

I doubt there are many right-thinking people who would be impressed.

Advertising with Patriot Radio sullies the names and reputations of good decent Irish State agencies.

Lara Marlowe writes about her former husband Robert Fisk

The Irish Times correspondent in Paris, Lara Marlow writes most tenderly about her former husband, Robert Fisk in her new book Love in a Time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk. It will be released by Head of Zeus, London on October 28th.

I had the good fortune to interview Lara while I was working with Concern Worldwide. It was a memorable moment and Lara could not have been more helpful and understanding. She was a joy to meet and interview.

Below is an extract from her new book. The extract is taken from The Irish Times of Saturday.

Hopelessness is today the common denominator of the countries where I lived and worked with Robert. Lebanon is on the verge of total collapse, with 78 per cent of its population living in poverty. Gaza has been cut off from the world by Israeli blockade since 2007. The West Bank remains under occupation and talk of Palestinian statehood has virtually ceased.

The hardliners have consolidated power in Tehran. Sanctions impoverish that country, and attempts to resurrect the Iran nuclear accord are going badly. Iraq is dominated by Iran and fragmented between Shia, Sunni and Kurds. Algerian youths despair more than ever. Bosnia, Kosovo, and Serbia languish in the waiting room of Europe. The 9/11 atrocities precipitated George W Bush’s “War on Terror” and two decades of extremist attacks.

The turn of the century was a cruel time, which coincided with the slow disintegration of our marriage. At the end of 2001, Robert was severely beaten by Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who with his wife, Mariane, nursed Robert’s wounds, was decapitated by al-Qaeda. Then Juan Carlos Gumucio, the Bolivian journalist and Robert’s compañero from the kidnapping days in Beirut, took his own life.

“What in God’s name, I have been asking myself, have we done to deserve this?” Robert wrote to me. He expressed nostalgia for what he called the “blithe and oddly happy years of innocence amid danger” when he and Juan Carlos were close.

I too felt nostalgic for our early years together, when we felt indestructible. Writing this book, I relived our progression from passionate youth to disabused middle age. I watched love flower and then falter. I realise now that it was not a tragedy. It was my life, and a good one. I remember everything that Robert taught me. Something remains.

Obama and Springsteen speak with ARD’s Ingo Zamperoni

German television ARD’s Ingo Zamperoni interviews President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen.

It’s great television. Here it is.

https://youtu.be/aV7BarD0Ick 

Rude and insulting words of Reverend Ivan Foster

Reverend Ivan Foster of the Free Presbyterian Church on the Queen of England:

"She is not a Free Presbyterian. The queen is not someone who has sat up and said ‘I believe in the doctrines of the Free Presbyterian Church'.

“She’s the head of the Church of England, which is a dogsbody for every form of filthiness.”

Rude and insulting.

What is it about right-wing fanatical people of religion? And they are in every religious grouping.

Does the far left insult people in such a manner? It doesn’t seem so.

Bus Éireann and Irish Rail don’t understand integrated travel

Letter writer Dominic Gallagher in The Irish Times yesterday bemoans how there is no joined-up thinking when it comes  to rail and bus service in the West of Ireland.

He should travel to Kerry.

There are eight weekday trains a day between Dublin/Cork and Tralee,  and intermediate towns, and there are 10 weekday buses from Tralee to Dingle.

Trains arrive in Tralee at 08.26, 10.58, 12.58, 14.58, 16.58, 18.58, 21.00 and 22.55. 

Buses leave from Tralee to Dingle at, 06.00, 08.00, 09.00, 11.15, 12.30,14.00, 16.15,m18.00, 19.30 and 22.00

Trains depart from Tralee 04.40 (Monday only), 05.10 (Tuesday to Friday), 07.05, 09.05, 11.05, 13.05, 1505, 17.05 and 19.05. 

Buses from Dingle arrive in Tralee at 08.14, 10.03, 11.33, 13.33, 15.03, 16.33, 18.33, 20.29 and 21.59.

Yes Bus Éireann and Irish Rail are two separate companies but what’s happened the concept of an integrated bus and rail service.

This timetable means there is only one rail bus connection between Dublin/Cork and West Kerry.

There are two daily services linking West Kerry with Dublin/Cork, with both connections with less than an hour’s waiting.

French philosopher who did not want to be institutionalised

On this day, October 22, 1964 French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He refused to accept the award . He said he always refused official distinctions and did not want to be institutionalised. He believed it would limit the impact of his writing.

How many people are prisoners to institutions?

Does it matter?

Covid-19 vaccination facts and figures

47.9 per cent of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccination.

6.72 billion doses have been administered globally and 19.91 million people are administered every day.

2.8 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.

Approximately 34 per cent of the Russian population has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine. The rate of fully vaccinated people in Russia is approximately 31 per cent.

Yesterday 1,000 Covid-19 deaths were recorded in Russia.

89.2 per cent of the Irish population over 12 have been doubly vaccinated.

Life is characterised by change

Opening words of Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s reflections in Dublin’s pro-cathedral on Sunday to launch the opening of the diocesan phase of the synod.

Life is alive!  When we reflect on our lives, we see that human life is characterised by change: that which does not change has either never been alive, or is no longer alive.   

Stones do not change, and unfortunately, life can become like that: life can become fossilized—very beautiful, but no longer alive, a stunning relic of another age, but no longer alive: “dry bones,” (Ezekiel  37:1-14) to use Ezekiel’s powerful image. The way the Church lives out its mission—the way we live out our mission continually needs revitalisation; just as the dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley of death need to be invigorated.  

As proclaimed by the prophet Ezekiel, Israel’s restoration is not meant to be a mere political change, but an occasion of profound spiritual renewal, requiring a new heart and a new spirit.

How close can we get to another person?

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Since lockdown regulations were eased and we are back out and about travelling on buses and rail, a friend asked me on a number of occasions to book a rail ticket for her. She is well familiar with using her computer, uses WhatsApp and indeed has an Instagram account. 

But when it came to the rail booking, every time she did it she could not manage how to negotiate the Free Travel Pass or Valid Ticket tab. And we all know that it can get very frustrating when we get into an argument with our tablets, phones or computer screens.

On the last occasion I did it for her we decided she would watch and then do the next one herself, with my overseeing her. And that’s exactly what she did and she’s off on her own now and can easily do it for herself. 

The experience set me thinking. It’s only when we do something for ourselves that we appreciate and understand how to do it and how to handle the issues that arise.

I think most people will agree, a month in a classroom is the equivalent to a year or two learning how to become a teacher. At least I can speak for myself and readily admit I learned my teaching trade from being with the students in the classroom and listening to the advice and stories of fellow teachers.

With most aspects of our lives it’s only when we ourselves are personally and intimately involved with the situation, that we fully appreciate what is happening.

In other words, we never know what’s going on in the mind and body of another person.

Elvis Presley’s ‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’ includes the line: ‘If we could find a way to get inside each other’s minds….’ Is a brilliant piece of wisdom.

And that’s what empathy is all about. The dictionary definition of the word is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

I’m inclined to think we can never over score when it comes to empathy.

When someone close to us dies no-one but we actually understands the pain and grief that is involved. Yes, we sympathise with people, we mean what we say but there is always a gulf between what we say and what the other person is feeling.

 

And it’s similar when it comes to illness. It’s only the person who is actually experiencing that trauma who knows the real story, and knows it in its most intimate way. Certainly those closest get some sort of hint, but again, they never know the exact story.

The finality of the death of someone close to us gives us a hint of the mystery that makes it so difficult for us to feel for and understand the other person.

There are times when words break down and we acknowledge that, in our moments of silence. I remember a lecturer saying that we can never take back our words.

Antonie de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince gets close when he writes: ‘I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him... The land of tears is so mysterious.’

 

Is there a change of policy at Dublin Bus?

Has anyone noticed a change on the destination boards on Dublin Bus vehicles?

For example has anyone seen ‘Wear a face covering’ in the Irish language on Dublin Bus vehicles? 

Also, it would seem the Irish place names appear for shorter times on the vehicle destination boards.

Murdoch has helped make Britain a malevolent place

A quote from film producer David Putnam in conversation with The Irish Times

 “Mirroring the anxieties of many of those angry Brexiteers in 2016, I feel I’ve had my country of birth, and the values I believed it to represent, stolen from me.

“It’s worse than that, I find myself embarrassed by what, on an almost daily basis, I see it becoming – my old enemy Rupert Murdoch’s dream made real. He never liked Britain, and he’s kind of won; he’s helped remake it in his own malevolent image,” he said.

“Given all of this and more, at 80 I no longer find myself with sufficient patience to treat mendacious political inanity with the appearance of courtesy.”

On this day, October 16, 1946 10 Germans found guilty at the International Military Tribunal at Nürnberg were executed by hanging.

Twenty seven years earlier to the day, October 16, 1919 Adolf Hitler gave his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers Party.

Imagine, on the first night that Nazis called to people’s doors to take them away had their neighbours said you can’t to this, what might not have happened?

Had the locomotive drivers said no, we are not going to drive the trains to the concentration camps, what might not have happened?

When we see evil happening we all have the privilege and responsibility to call it out for what it is and say stop.

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Today is World Food Day. It marks the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945.

People who resist are those who choose to think

Hannah Arendt was born on October 14, 1906 near Hannover in the German Empire. When she was a child, the family moved to Königsberg in East Prussia, now Kaliningrad, in Russia.

Joe Humphreys wrote an interesting piece on her in The Irish Times yesterday. 

It was Arendt who coined the phrase the “banality of evil” when she was overing the trial of Adolf Eichmann. 

But she was also concerned with everyday human activities and believed “unthinking” to be a factor in general unhappiness and alienation in society.

Samantha Rose Hill writes: "In 1933, after the burning of the Reichstag, Arendt broke with the so-called ‘professional thinkers’. She left the world of academic philosophy, because she was horrified watching friends, colleagues and professors going along with the Nazification of German social, cultural, political and educational institutions.

“The people who spent their whole lives thinking about the good, about morality and ethics, were no better equipped to deal with the rise of fascism than anybody else.

“In her essay on Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship she doesn’t mince her words. She says, the difference between those who went along and those who resisted was that those who resisted chose to think. That is, they realised they wouldn’t be able to live with themselves if they did nothing.

Cardinal on spiritual time out continues to draw salary

Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne Rainer Maria Woelki, who is currently on a six-month 'spiritual time-out’, in other words suspension, for his mishandling of clerical child sex abuse cases, continues to receive his salary.

According to German Spiegel magazine the archbishop’s salary works out at €13,800 per month. It’s a similar salary to that paid to a city mayor.

A man who had no great idea what he wanted to do

A thought or two from recently retired Chief Justice Frank Clarke in an interview with The Irish Times:

“It’s partly about public service and partly because doing exactly the same thing for too long is not necessarily a good idea. It was nice within a single career box to maybe reinvent yourself every decade or so, to do something slightly different.

“I have absolutely enjoyed it, there have been days that were not so enjoyable, but, in the round, yes. I had no great idea what I wanted to do, but I think I found the hole that suited the shape of my peg, as it were, by luck more than anything else. I’m just very glad it happened to work out that way.”

Remembering a story well told 62 years ago

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

I can imagine most people are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan.

It’s a lovely New Testament story. A man is travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he is attacked by a group of bandits. They take all he has and leave him for dead on the side of the road.

A priest and a Levite arrive on the scene. What do they do? Nothing. They pass over to the other side of the road and completely ignore the poor man.

Sometime later a Samaritan arrives. He realises what has happened the man. He has great sympathy for him and does what he can to relieve the man’s pain. He puts him on his mount and carries him to a nearby inn, where he asks them to care for him until he returns. And he pays for any expenses accrued.

It’s a great story. The two establishment figures turn up their noses and do nothing for the poor man. The Samaritan, who is considered a nobody by the ruling class, is the one who comes to the rescue.

It is the Gospel story read at Mass on Monday, October 4 and is taken from St Luke, chapter 10, verses 30 to 37.

Every time I read it I am reminded of an event that happened when I was nine or 10 years of age.

It was third class and the teacher was a Christian Brother. Back then I had no idea what age he was. In later years I discovered he was 20, 10 years older than I.

He was a great teacher. I do remember having difficulties on one occasion with him when I could not get how many inches were in a yard. 

But I can still vividly remember the day he read the Good Samaritan story in religion class. Whatever way he explained and spoke about it, it has stayed with me for 62/63 years. That’s a long time in anyone’s reckoning.

He concentrated on the kindness of the Samaritan and how he helped bandage his wounds, how he brought him on his horse from the side of the road to the inn. It was probably not a horse, but does that matter, of course not. He spent some time explaining how the Samaritan chatted with the innkeeper before he set off on his journey.

I relished every moment of the story and I can even remember how he told us about the white cloth that was wrapped ever so gently around the head of the man who had been brutalised.

And you can imagine the teacher had no time whatsoever for the priest and the Levite, who ignored the plight of the man and simply went over to the other side of the road so as to avoid him.

Isn’t it strange the aspects of our past that we remember? That man that day left an indelible mark on my psyche. Indeed, most likely we never have any idea how our words and actions influence other people. 

But certainly a kind word or gesture, a good deed never does anyone any harm. And so often it can be the most insignificant moments that leave lasting impressions.

Ok, I had trouble with the inches and yards. Come to think about it, there are no longer feet and inches but there sure is kindness. And it so happens, the teacher later went on to study mathematics.

Another shameful Catholic Church story, this time France

 A report published in France on Tuesday estimated that 330,000 children in France were sexually abused over the past 70 years, providing the country’s first accounting of the worldwide phenomenon.

The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and an unknown number of other people involved in the church — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé.

The 2,500-page document was issued as the Catholic Church in France seeks to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up. Victims welcomed the report as long overdue and the head of the French bishops’ conference asked for their forgiveness. 

The report said the tally of 330,000 victims includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics, and the rest by church figures such as scout leaders or camp counsellors. 

The estimates are based on a broader research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse of children in the country. 

Martin Niemöller’s words are always apt

RTE 2 last evening screened Countdown to Surrender - the Last 100 days. It is about the final days of World War ll.

When the concentration camp in Buchenwald was liberated the inhabitants of nearby Weimar were forced to visit the camp to see and smell for themselves what had happened.

The narrator commented that all during the Hitler years no one said anything and no one wanted to know.

How often that’s the story that allows evil to prevail.

When one sees evil first-hand it is a shocking experience. And it does not have to be anything like the scale of what Hitler did.

And then to observe the collaborators, and those who refuse to say a word, those who don’t want to know. The officials and line managers who allow evil to happen.

It is awful. But the day of reckoning comes like day following night. And then.

Martin Niemöller’s words

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

The gift of wisdom

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

Michael Commane 

This newspaper last Saturday published  an obituary of Mervyn Taylor, who was a cabinet minister in the 1990s and also served as chairman of the Labour Party and the party’s chief whip. 

The obituary gave a detailed account of his Polish ancestry, including family members  who were murdered in the Holocaust. On hearing of his death, President Michael D Higgins said that he was “one of the most gracious, unselfish and kindest members ever to serve in the Dáil”.

Coincidentally on that same Saturday I was talking to a friend, who knew Mervyn for 40 years and had always been impressed by his ability to listen to the views of other people. 

Our conversation moved on to talk about the meaning of the word wisdom and he felt that his ability to listen and absorb what people told him  allowed one to say that he was a wise person. 

Isn’t one of the finest qualities or characteristics that one can attribute to someone to say that they are wise. To know a wise person is surely a great gift. And I imagine for most of us we have in the course of our lives have had the good fortune to encounter a wise person.

But what is wisdom? Yes, it’s linked to knowledge and intelligence but it is much more. The  wise person knows himself or herself, sees the broader picture, and can apply  knowledge and understanding to specific situations. 

The wise person reads the signs of the times, does not claim to know it all and will readily admit that we are all on a journey of self-awareness. When we see and experience wisdom we know where have encountered it. Christians talk about wisdom as being a gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Hebrew Scriptures, which are central to the Jewish faith, the faith of Mervyn Taylor, have much to say to us about wisdom. In the first reading in tomorrow’s liturgy from the Book of Wisdom (7: 7 - 11) we read: “I loved her more than health or beauty,/preferred her to the light/since her radiance never sleeps./In her company all good things came to me/at her hands riches not to be numbered.” Note the feminine pronoun, she, not he nor it.  

Those words were written towards the middle of the first century BCE/BC. The authorship is attributed to Solomon. And we are all aware of the phrase; the wisdom of Solomon. Solomon was a Jew devoted to God. He is hoping by his writing to lead Jew and pagan to God, who is the lover of all peoples.

In tomorrow’s Gospel reading Mark (10: 17 - 30) writes about the upstanding man who, lives an exemplary life but when he asked Jesus how is he going to inherit eternal life, he is told  to sell everything he has and give the money to the poor.

“You will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.” Both the man and the disciples were aghast at  this reply  from Jesus, but he goes on to explain to them that through their own efforts “it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.” Surely that is a fundamental difference between God and us. I like to think that our lives bring us on a trajectory, that is never fulfilled here in this life, but reaches fulfilment in the company of God after our death.

When Jesus tells the rich man to give up his money,  he is hinting to him that nothing in this world is ever going to bring us to ultimate fulfilment, as that is only found in God. I think it is in order to say that our lives are like a pilgrimage. We are constantly in process, and hopefully we  progress.  

In Psalm 4 of the Psalter, which is more Jewish literature, we read: “O men, how long will your hearts be closed,/will you love what is futile and seek what is false?”

How often do we chase rainbows, how often do we place our trust and hope in all that is passing and ephemeral? And it’s so easy to think we are the masters of the human race. 

No matter how often we learn that such is not the case we seem to find it so easy to be overconfident in our own ability.

In moments of self-doubt, in times of dejection and rejection, as in periods of success and triumph, we should remind ourselves that our efforts are always limited. We are finite beings, whereas God is all about the infinite.

Mervyn Taylor said to his children close to his death: “I’ve had a wonderful life, a wonderful wife, wonderful grandchildren, wonderful friends and a wonderful career.”

Wise words indeed, and praising God for being so fortunate. All of that wonder is to be fully realised in perfect harmony and unity in the company of God.

Rainer Maria Woelki on spiritual time-out aka suspended

Rainer Maria Woelki the

Archbishop of Cologne is currently taking “spiritual time-out”. In the language of the ordinary person he has been suspended for six months.

He will return to the cathedral in Cologne, the famous Kölner Dom in March.

He faced criticism for his handling of allegations of past child sex abuse, in particular for shelving a report into wrongdoing by priests. 

It has been a long-running scandal that has caused pain and stress in Germany’s wealthiest archdiocese.

The Vatican said that there was no evidence that Woelki had broken the law in relation to the cases of sexual abuse.

“Nonetheless, he committed grave errors in his approach to the question of dealing with this question, above all in the area of communication,” it said. 

Woelki was an auxiliary bishop in Cologne when conservative Joachim Meisner was archbishop.

Woelki went on to be archbishop in Berlin before returning to Cologne.

In the Dáil TDs can be suspended but does it ever happen that a government minister is suspended? Does it ever happen anywhere across industry that a CEO is suspended?

But Cardinal Woelki is not technically suspended he has been told to take "spiritual time-out”.

Mother Church.

Nothing lasts and hopefully goodness wins out

On this day, October 7, 1949 The German Democratic was established. Almost to the day, October 3, 1990 it was dissolved and the territory became part of the Federal Republic of Germany.

And on another October 7, this time 1944, Jewish prisoners at Birkenau burned down a crematorium. 

Just three months later, January 27 the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz Birkenau and liberated those who were still alive.

Nothing lasts and it often happens those who do wrong and commit evil deeds are stopped in their tracks.

And so often evil can be dressed up to look extremely refined, sophisticated, urbane and even gentle.

It happens.

Staggering scale of clerical abuse revealed

Lara Marlowe reports in The Irish Times today on clerical child sex abuse revelations. It is a horrifying read.

The words ‘scandal, hidden and silent’ resonate strongly.

Lara Marlowe

The president of the French conference of bishops, Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, has expressed his “shame and horror” at the staggering scale of clerical abuse revealed by a 2,500-page report released yesterday.

Jean-Marc Sauvé, president of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, known by the French acronym Ciase, said that 216,000 children had been sexually abused by clergy since 1950, a much higher figure than earlier estimated. When abuse committed by lay persons in religious settings such as schools and summer camps was factored in, the total rose to 330,000, he said.

Four-fifths of the victims were boys, most aged 10-13. Mr Sauvé said 60 per cent of the men and women who experienced sexual abuse in childhood subsequently encountered emotional or sexual difficulties.

The number of clerical predators in France since 1950 is estimated at 2,900-3,200, says the report, which is the result of nearly three years of investigation.

Msgr de Moulins-Beaufort received the report directly from Mr Sauvé at a press conference that was broadcast live on YouTube and on the Catholic television channel KTO. The bishop said the testimony and number of victims were overwhelming, “beyond what we could have imagined . . . My wish this day is to ask forgiveness from each and every one of you”. French bishops are to respond formally to the report next month.

Mr Sauvé said the green-bound volumes were “a heavy burden, literally and figuratively”.

Sr Véronique Margron, president of the Corref grouping of religious orders, which co-commissioned the report with the bishops’ conference, spoke of “a physical shame, absolute shame . . . before massive crimes committed in my church”.

Vatican response

A few hours after the report was released, the Vatican said Pope Francis “learned of its contents with pain” and expressed “immense grief” for the wounds of the victims and “gratitude for their courage” in coming forward. Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See press office, said the pope expected the French church, “having become aware of this horrible reality”, to “take the path of redemption.”

François Devaux, a co-founder of La parole libérée (Speech freed), a group of victims of the paedophile priest Bernard Preynat, was the first victim interviewed by Ciase. He delivered an angry diatribe against Catholic authorities at yesterday’s presentation.

“You must pay for all these crimes,” Mr Devaux said. “There were atrocious crimes and offences, the betrayal of confidence, of morality, of childhood, innocence and the Gospel. There was cowardice, weakness, and dissimulation . . . I have no doubt about what the report will reveal. You, members of the commission, have been to hell and back. You have explored the darkest, most abject details . . . in what resembles a mass grave of the shredded souls of the church.”

The report recounts the evolution of the church’s attitude towards paedophilia in its ranks. In the 1950s and 1960s, when more than half the crimes took place, church officials sought “to protect it from scandal” and “asked the victims to remain silent”. What happened to them was “hidden”. It was not until the 1990s that the church timidly began “to take account of the existence of victims” whom it began to “recognise” in the 2010s.

The report condemns the “inadequate” response of the church and demands that it recognise its responsibility for “massive” and “systemic” abuse. “Outside family circles, the Catholic church is the milieu with the highest rate of sexual abuse,” it notes.

Last March, the bishops’ conference advocated “contributions” to the victims of clerical abuse, which would be financed by the faithful. They avoided using the words “compensation” or “reparations”.

The report states clearly that victims must be compensated individually through an independent body outside the church, and that the funds must come from French Catholic church holdings.

Clerical abuse began declining from the 1970s and had levelled off, Mr Sauvé said. But the diminution was due to lower numbers of priests and decreased attendance of church and related institutions. “We must do away with the idea that sexual abuse in the Catholic church has been completely eradicated and that the problem is behind us. The problem continues.”

 

Encouraging leadership roles in the church

This article appeared in the Right and Reason column in The Irish Times yesterday.

Nicola Brady

The initial phase of the synodal pathway for the Catholic Church in Ireland, announced by the Bishops’ Conference during its spring general meeting in March of this year, is now under way.

The focus of this phase will be prayer, listening, consultation and discernment, as we seek to lay the foundations for a national synodal assembly (or assemblies) for the church across our island to be held within the next five years.

To start the process a steering committee has been appointed to oversee its work, carry out some initial listening, analysis and awareness-raising and to offer recommendations about how this might be carried forward into the next stages of the process.

This committee is supported in its work by a task group to help co-ordinate engagement at local level and ensure that what happens nationally is shaped and informed by the learning from recent and current processes of listening and consultation.

At the heart of our work is this question: “What is God saying to the Irish church at this time?”

We will be exploring this through a process of discernment which, in a Christian context, is understood as a decision-making process in which discovery leads to action, guided by the Holy Spirit.

Challenges

An important task before the steering committee will be to identify the challenges that have inhibited the practice of discernment in the church up to now, and discouraged people from taking a more active leadership role in the life of the church.

One of the first challenges we face is that the language of

“synod” and “synodality” is unfamiliar to many people in the Catholic Church.

The term synod, meaning assembly, has its roots in the Greek language for “together on the way”.

In describing this new focus for the Catholic Church in Ireland as a synodal pathway, the Irish bishops, similarly to other Bishops’ Conferences around the world, have sought to convey this image of being on a journey together.

Misunderstandings

Among the most common misunderstandings we encounter in our work is the idea that synodal assemblies are parliamentary-style debates where the objective is to win votes for particular decisions.

Rather, synodal processes create space for different views, and different visions for the future, but in a spirit of sharing, respectful listening and discernment, rather than argument.

A priority for this initial phase will be to help people understand how this might work in practice and attempt to address any fears and apprehension they may have about the process.

Submissions

As part of their preparatory work, bishops invited submissions by way of a public consultation undertaken between Easter and Pentecost this year. More than 500 submissions were received.

Unsurprisingly, we see from the consultation submissions that there are clear tensions we will have to navigate throughout this process.

Some people are fearful that the process will lead to the secularising of the church and that it will devalue elements of their faith and local parish community that are so precious to them.

Others are concerned that it will fail to take sufficient account of the changing social context, or to engage in a meaningful way with those who feel alienated from the church.

The initial phase of the synodal pathway for the church in Ireland coincides with the preparations for the 2023 Ordinary General Assembly of Bishops in Rome, which will focus on the similar theme of “For a synodal church: communion, participation and mission”.

While the process under way in Ireland will create space to explore the questions that arise specifically in an Irish context, it will also take account of the wider global developments, with particular emphasis on the example of Pope Francis, who has consistently prioritised a focus on those who are marginalised, and those who have been made to feel “discarded”.

How we frame our invitation to people to participate in the synodal pathway will be crucial.

We are asking people to join us on a journey without knowing all the detail of the final destination, but to trust that this is a sincere effort to bring about real transformation and renewal in the church guided by the Holy Spirit.

Through the process of the synodal pathway we are seeking to acknowledge the hurts that exist within our church community and work to heal those relationships, so that the Catholic Church in Ireland can fully live out its calling to serve the wider society as a wounded healer.

Dr Nicola Brady is chairwoman of the Synod Steering Committee

A faith-filled First Holy Communion ceremony in Cloghane

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

If you are a regular reader of this column you must know that I am something of a train buff.

Covid meant I have been away from the iron ways for far too long. My witty friend assures me I’ve been off the rails for too long. How true that is.

On Friday, September 24 I travelled on the 17.05 Heuston Tralee service. While there are seven trains a day, the 17.05 is the only direct service linking Dublin with the Kerry capital.

There is no longer social distancing on public transport and I was surprised to see how busy the train was. Leaving Heuston there was just a handful of empty seats. 

There’s a world of difference between an early morning empty train and a busy Friday evening train. Shortly after Mallow, darkness set in and much of the charm of rail travel is dissipated by the absence of daylight.

We arrived in Tralee at 9pm and my bus to Camp was at 10. An hour is a long time sitting outside a closed bus station. But I managed to be entertained. 

A small number of passengers were attempting to board a bus. It would seem they were intoxicated or else did not have the appropriate ticket or pass to travel. I was impressed with the patience of the bus driver.

Eventually, some 10 minutes late the bus rolled off into the night. It was an interesting cameo to while away the time before my departure time. 

The Dingle bus, a new 211-registered vehicle in the new Transport for Ireland livery, departed two minutes late. Four passengers on the large single-deck bus and two of us getting off at Camp. There are 10 buses a day between Tralee and Dingle. I must admit that is something of a mystery to me.

The weekend in West Kerry was a break from much stress I am currently experiencing, but also to attend a First Holy Communion ceremony in Cloghane, which was all so well done by the community. You can almost see America from Cloghane and that entire neck of the woods is spectacularly beautiful.

There were seven children receiving their First Holy Communion. I baptised one of them and her parents kindly invited me to the Holy Communion ceremony.

The liturgy was part in Irish and part in English. It was a lovely prayerful child-orientated ceremony and it was so impressive to see the work teachers, parents and priest had put into the day.

There was nothing fancy or over-the top about it. I even felt a genuine sense of faith at the ceremony. There was something easy and gentle about it all.

Walking out of the church at the end of Mass I kept saying to myself, I was so happy that I turned up for the day.

I was trying to recall my own First Holy Communion. All I can remember is something remote and serious. 

I hope these seven children will remember theirs. There was a kindness about it all.

I’m wondering is the faith environment in which I received my First Holy Communion any different from that of today. Were people closer to God then than they are now? I doubt it. Might it have been that people behaved in a subservient way towards ministers of religion? And that surely was unhealthy.

Another shameful Catholic Church story, this time France

A report published in France on Tuesday estimated that 330,000 children in France were sexually abused over the past 70 years, providing the country’s first accounting of the worldwide phenomenon.

The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and an unknown number of other people involved in the church — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé.

The 2,500-page document was issued as the Catholic Church in France seeks to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up. 

Victims welcomed the report as long overdue and the head of the French bishops’ conference asked for their forgiveness. 

The report said the tally of 330,000 victims includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics, and the rest by church figures such as scout leaders or camp counsellors. 

The estimates are based on a broader research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse of children in the country.