Pope Leo stresses the importance of peace this Christmas

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

I overheard a young woman at a rail station on Monday morning talking to someone on the phone, she seemed to be worried about what she was going to buy her sister for Christmas. And then went on telling her that she had most of her presents bought but was still worried about a pullover she was buying for someone. The poor woman was in a state and looked almost distraught.

I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping. I have to admit it was an interesting spectacle and a fabulous distraction on an early morning in December on the way to work.

The Christmas madness turns our roads into car parks. It’s akin to sardine-land on trams, trains and buses with people loaded down with Christmas ware.

Am I being Scrooge before he saw the light? Maybe.

As a child I loved Christmas; I remember the toys I played with when I must have been only five or six; the bus I pushed along the floor, which had real battery operated lights. 

Even in later years Christmas could be great fun, but with both my parents dead, not being married and having no children, there’s something about it which makes me feel an outsider and maybe that’s why I look on at some of the frenetic activity, scratch my head and wonder what’s it all about.

You hear people say it’s for children, and in fear of being excoriated, only yesterday I heard someone say it was ‘a woman’s thing’. Not my words, rather those of ‘an enlightened man’ or at least, so he considers himself.

The very word Christmas seems to set us into a frenzy. And business knows all the right buttons to press to relieve us of our money. It’s a bonanza time for the sellers and hawkers; they know every trick in the book on how to seduce us to empty our pockets. 

And then the day after it’s over the sales begin. It’s a never ending hamster-like wheel that never stops turning, with it reaching a crescendo on Christmas Day.

Might it be that the feast of Christmas has been hijacked?

Our emotions sure are strange things; they can play havoc with us. Christmas is a time when we are all swallowed up by emotional fervour, maybe even fever. There are great aspects to it; it’s paradise for children. It can make for wonderful downtime for families and friends but it can also be a time of loneliness, violence and brutality.

What we are celebrating is the birth of Jesus Christ, the man Christians believe is the Son of God. And to get your head around that is as difficult as understanding the frenzy it causes in all of us. Pope 

Leo on Saturday emphasised the importance of peace in the story of Christmas.

It might do us no harm to take some time out, relax in the now, even think of what it means to say there is a God, what it means to say Jesus Christ is God. Christmas is a great sign of hope.

I wish you all a blessed and peaceful Christmas. 

Thank you for being a reader. It’s a privilege to have this space every week in this great newspaper.

A decisive moment at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942

On this day, December 23, 1945 all attempts to relieve the embattle German troops at Stalingrad were abandoned.

Soviet General Georgy Zhukov said of the action: "The military and political leadership of Nazi Germany sought not to relieve them, but to get them to fight on for as long possible so as to tie up the Soviet forces. The aim was to win as much time as possible to withdraw forces from the Caucasus (Army Group A) and to rush troops from other Fronts to form a new front that would be able in some measure to check our counter-offensive.”

It was all in vain the tactics and determination of the Red Army proved too strong for the Germans.

December 23 was a decisive moment on the Volga. In just over a month Stalingrad was liberated; the first major defeat for Germany.

In summer 1942 Hitler ordered the annihilation of Stalingrad's population, declaring that after its capture, all male citizens would be killed and women and children deported due to their "thoroughly communistic” nature.

Between one and three million people lost their lives at Stalingrad.

It must never happen again.

US openly admits to killing people in the name of vengeance

Last week  US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strikes in Syria targeted  "ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites" and said the mission was named Operation Hawkeye Strike.

"This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance," Hegseth said. "Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.”

In recent days there is talk in the US of regime change in Venezuela. They argue that the current president is a dictator, causing mayhem in the country.

On that logic why does the US no plan regime change in Russia and China.

It’s now public the US kills in the name of vengeance.

The hopes and dreams of the 1980s/‘90s turning to dust

On this day, December 22, 1989 the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin was reopened. It heralded the coming together of millions of Germans after years of division and disharmony.

On the same day in Romania the government of Nicolae Ceaușecu was overthrown.

The following year, 1990 on the same date, December 22 Lech Walęsa was elected president of Poland.

The world was full of hope. Three decades later we are in a different space; a world full of fear and uncertainty.

Pope Leo keeps calling on us to be people of peace, the importance of reconciling with each other. 

On his visit to Türkiye he used the bridge in Istanbul to stress the importance of us all building bridges and attempting to listen to the other.

Out goes Vincent Nichols in comes Richard Moth

From the BBC website

The Vatican has announced that Richard Moth will be the new Archbishop of Westminster, making him the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

He succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has held the role since 2009 and has stepped down aged 80.

For the past 10 years Richard Moth has been Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, and before that served as Bishop of the Forces.

As Archbishop of Westminster he will become president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and lead an estimated four million Catholics.

Richard Moth, newly appointed as Archbishop of Westminster, speaks at a press conference at the Archbishop's House, in London

Cardinal Nichols reached retirement age when he was 75, but was asked to stay on by Pope Francis. In May he took part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

The search for a replacement for Cardinal Nichols was led by the Apostolic Nuncio, or papal ambassador to the UK, who presented a list of potential candidates to Pope Leo.

Earlier this week, Archbishop Moth released a joint statement calling for empathy for "those who come to this country for their safety", reminding Catholics that Jesus's family fled to Egypt as refugees.

He has been one of the bishops leading the Church's response to social justice issues in the UK, including praising the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, outgoing Cardinal Nichols said his successor would bring "experience and practical wisdom to the life of the diocese".

Archbishop Moth said: "My first task here is to get to know everybody... to get to know priests and people, to get to know schools, to get to know the life of this wonderful diocese here in Westminster".

He said his focus had "consistently been in the area of social justice", adding he had a "particular concern for prisons".

Archbishop Moth will face the challenge of declining numbers of people attending churches nationally, though there is growth in some churches with immigrant Catholics.

In response to the growing use of Christian symbols at, for example, rallies organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, Bishop Moth has talked of his concern.

Last weekend, Robinson held an event in London saying he wanted to "reclaim" the country's heritage and Christian identity.

"We are concerned about the tensions that are growing in society and the desire by some groups to sow seeds of division within our communities. This does not reflect the spirit or message of Christmas," Bishop Moth said in a statement with the Archbishop of Birmingham.

The Catholic Church has been heavily involved in providing assistance to those who have suffered in the cost of living crisis.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols is stepping down having held the role since 2009

As archbishop, Richard Moth will also lead the church's constant challenge of dealing with safeguarding issues.

In 2020, a wide-ranging inquiry into child sexual abuse found that between 1970 and 2015 the Catholic Church in England and Wales received more than 3,000 complaints of child sexual abuse against more than 900 individuals connected to the church.

In fact, the leadership of Archbishop Moth's predecessor, Cardinal Nichols, was criticised in the inquiry report, which said he cared more about the impact of abuse on the Church's reputation than on the victims.

At the time, Cardinal Nichols apologised and said he accepted the report, adding: "That so many suffered is a terrible shame with which I must live and from which I must learn."

Cardinal Nichols retires having led the church in England and Wales for 16 years, during which it faced enormous change.

He is the son of two teachers and was born in Crosby. 

The lifelong Liverpool FC fan took up his first role as a priest in Wigan.

In 2010, he welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to England on an official visit.

International Human Solidarity Day

December 20 is celebrated as International Human Solidarity Day, a UN observance promoting unity in diversity, and marks cultural events like Iran's Yaldā (winter solstice eve) and Macau's establishment day. Historically, it's known for events like the 1812 publication of Grimm's Fairy Tales, the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause), and Queen Elizabeth II becoming the longest-living British monarch in 2007, with notable birthdays including John Steinbeck and Harvey Firestone. 

Out goes Cardinal Dolan and in comes Bishop Hicks

Bishop Hicks

From RTÉ News

Pope Leo XIV has replaced Cardinal

Timothy Dolan as leader of the Catholic Church in New York, the Vatican announced, sidelining a prominent US Church figure in a major shake-up of the country's Catholic leadership.

Leo, the first US pope, appointed a relatively unknown cleric from Illinois, Bishop Ronald Hicks, to replace Cardinal Dolan as leader of the nation's second-largest Catholic diocese.

The cardinal, Archbishop of New York since 2009 and a former president of the US Catholic bishops' conference, offered to resign in February upon turning 75, as required by church law. Cardinals often serve until 80, the mandatory retirement age.

"Hicks represents not just a new chapter for New York but for the American church as a whole," said David Gibson, a US church expert.

Bishop Hicks, 58, has been leader of the Church in Joliet, seat of Will County in Illinois, since 2020. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop, or deputy, under Chicago's Cardinal Blase Cupich.

His biography has several similarities to the pontiff's.

They are both originally from south Chicago suburbs but spent years as missionaries in Latin America - Leo in Peru while Bishop Hicks in El Salvador.

"(Leo) is elevating to the most prominent American see an Illinois native very much like himself," said Mr Gibson, director of Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture.

The Archdiocese of New York is a sprawling and influential institution, serving Catholics across Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island and in seven counties to the north across 296 parishes and hundreds of Catholic schools and hospitals.

Pope Leo's replacement of Dolan comes as the archdiocese is struggling to raise more than $300 million for expected settlements with survivors of clerical abuse.

The archdiocese has entered mediation with some 1,300 alleged survivors, with Cardinal Dolan announcing on 8 December the archdiocese would cut its operating budget by 10 per cent, lay off staff and sell properties as it sought to raise funds for settlements.

Bishop Hicks will be installed in his new role on  February 6, the New York archdiocese said in a statement. Cardinal Dolan will remain as temporary leader in the interim.

Mr Gibson said Bishop Hicks is "a soft-spoken Midwesterner who embraces the reformist line of Pope Francis and who is respected by many across the divides in a polarised church."

The late Pope Francis pursued a reform agenda and tried to make the church more inclusive of a diverse range of viewpoints, sometimes creating pushback from conservative cardinals.

In an October pastoral letter to the roughly 520,000 Catholics in Joliet, Bishop Hicks did not address political issues or church reforms and instead urged his people to focus on their prayer lives and to spread their faith among others.

Cardinal Dolan is seen as a leading conservative among the US bishops, who have become more divided in recent years amid deepening political polarisation in the country.

The cardinal delivered one of the invocations at US President Donald Trump's second inauguration and praised right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk as a "modern-day S .Paul", sparking online criticism from a range of Catholics.

Cardinal Dolan, known for a gregarious personality, is a frequent guest on the conservative Fox & Friends talk show and hosts his own weekly programme on SiriusXM's The Catholic Channel.

Not a word in training on how to deal with passengers

A Dublin Bus driver said this

A PA registered hybrid bus.

week that during his training for the job there was no psychological preparation or mentoring on how to deal with passengers.

He also said that the first day he drove a passenger bus after his training he realised the difference there was between driving an empty bus and a bus filled with passengers. “We were never once told about this important issue and how it matters when it comes to braking.”

In the lead-up to Christmas bus drivers have an even more difficult time bringing passengers to their destinations.

There is a lovely custom in Ireland whereby we thank the driver on leaving the bus. Keep it going.

The ups and downs on a winter’s day commute

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

Commuting is an art form, it’s special. We might read about commuting but you have to be in the middle of it to get a handle on what it’s like. It’s a great place for people-watching.

Watching people jump off buses and making a beeline for trams when it is still dark in the morning is a sobering experience. Crowded trains, buses and trams, and complete silence, most people either staring into their phones or working them hard with their fingers. 

Young people use two fingers to work their phones whereas the older folk use one and are far more clumsy at it. These days has anyone anywhere spotted a passenger reading a newspaper on bus, train or tram? They have to be an endangered species.

It’s not permissible to take a bicycle on tram or bus; one can take a bicycle on trains at designated times if there be space available. But it’s permissible to take a fold-up bicycle on bus, train and tram at all times. 

I boarded a Luas in Broombridge with my fold-up; I partially folded and secured it to a bar on the tram. It took up less space than had it been completely folded. 

En route a tall sophisticated-looking man and another man, less sophisticated- looking boarded the tram. They were strangers to each other but agreed the bicycle should not be on the tram. I owned up, said it was my bicycle and explained fold-ups were allowed. The sophisticated man, with a small black book in one hand and a phone in the other launched into a major attack, accusing me of being selfish with no regard for other passengers. 

He kept going, telling me he lived 20 years abroad. It was that that made me react; with a smile and in a loud voice I told everyone within hearing distance that this gentleman had lived 20 years abroad, how sophisticated he must be and how lucky we were to have him on our tram. 

He was not pleased, which led him to use a vulgar expletive. I jumped at the opportunity and explained to him that his sophistication was skin deep. He exited at the next stop. Was I glad to see the back of him. My, was he pompous and so full of himself.

But so far it’s only been a once-off incident. The commuting public seem a grand lot, getting on with their business, going to work, earning a few bob, coming home, doing the things that people and families do. And then back to work the next day.

We are made up of all shapes, sizes, ages, nationalities, beliefs; in many ways it’s a ginormous hodgepodge of human beings. But isn’t that what society is all about. How at all is it held together? I’m scared that we are living in times when that hodgepodge could be so easily manipulated and controlled by dictatorial forces or mega companies that have far too much power. 

It’s great to be a member of the commuting public, indeed part of the hodgepodge that we call democracy.

And guess what, Sunday is the shortest day of the year. After that it’s upwards and onwards. Great news.

Politicians should at least try to be consistent

Spotted on a laneway off

Fitzwilliam Square. Has anyone called for the name of the laneway to be changed?

What about Grafton Street, Westmoreland Street, D’Olier Street, Henry Street, Gardiner Street, et al.

Why change the name of Herzog Park? Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty TD said it was the will of the people that the park’s name should be changed. Who in the area was asked, does Mr Doherty know? Doubtful

The unspeakable horrors taking place in the world

The horror of our world.

In Sydney people of the Jewish faith are murdered.

On this date, December 15, 1941 Germans murdered over 15,000 people of the Jewish faith a Drobytsky Yar, a place made infamous by the savagery of the Germans. The place lies south east of Kharkiv.

Today in Berlin Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues his talks with the US team and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in an attempt to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, the war Mr Trump said he would end in a day.

Talking about the massacre in Sydney a resident of Brisbane commented that it makes little sense calling the perpetrators ‘terrorists’; it gives them a status, a weird type of pseudo importance. Just as with the Germans in Drobytsky Yar; by calling them troops we give them a pseudo importance.

The Middle East, Africa, South America.

Is there anyone about who can help stop the world heading for disaster? The pope?

Pope Leo calls for amnesty for prisoners

 From Crux

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2025/12/pope-leo-calls-on-governments-to-grant-pardons-for-prisoners-during-jubilee-year/

Bet Fr Byrne and Tiernan would have much in common

Tommy Tiernan was guest on

Tommy Tiernan

RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor show yesterday and as always he made for easy listening. He said some very funny things, including what he does at midnight on Christmas Eve.

He came out with a gem; he said that as a ‘young fella’ he told his father in no uncertain terms that he no longer needed him. Years later the two were having a pint in a pub and he reminded his father what he had said as a teenager. His father replied that it was the best thing he had ever heard.

The new series of the show begins in January on RTÉ 1.

When Fr Damian Byrne was Master of the Dominican Order on one occasion he told a group of fellow Dominicans that the time comes when a good teacher is no longer needed.  He went on to say that too applies to good missioners, when their work is done is time to let go. Wise words.

Bet Damian and Tommy would have much in common.

The seldom-seen Dee Forbes continues to influence RTÉ

Below is Justine McCarthy’s opinion piece in The Irish Times yesterday. She’s somewhat tough on Dee Forbes but it makes great sense. Surely managers have to be held to account for their stewardship, especially in the public sector.

If Ms Forbes is unable to attend or give account for herself why not have someone represent her at hearings.

RTÉ’s corridors were throbbing with joy last Friday afternoon. Children skipped and squealed with excitement in the countdown to curtain-up for the Toy Show. Workers in the television building watched on and wondered if they were witnessing the final act.

Plans to outsource the Late Late Show are in train. The move could be a fait accompli by Christmas next year. Fair City is for dispatch to the private commercial sector too, along with Lotto draws and religious services.

The TV documentary unit behind exposés such as Leathered: Violence in Irish Schools and Trackers: The People v The Banks is being shut down. Claire Byrne, one of the country’s best current affairs broadcasters, has decamped to Newstalk where, unlike at RTÉ, presenters’ pay is not capped.

Up to 400 other employees are being urged to go with voluntary redundancy packages. Among them are make-up artists, wardrobe-keepers, sound engineers, riggers and technicians who have kept the studio lights on during the bleakest times. Tumbleweed on a John Wayne scale is coming for Montrose.

The Oireachtas media committee’s meeting with RTÉ on Wednesday was more Shakespeare than cowboys-and-injuns. Dee Forbes was not on the list to appear.

Like Banquo’s ghost, RTÉ’s director general and board member quit after news of undisclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy detonated a scandal involving barter accounts, false figures and fancy flip-flops. She has hardly been seen in public in the 2½ years since then but her legacy continues to influence Montrose and its television schedule, which is littered with programme repeats. The State’s purse is €725 million the poorer from the broadcaster’s annualised bailout by the Government.

While RTÉ workers and viewers are forced to pay the price for poor administration, Forbes has eluded accountability. By resigning – albeit reluctantly – following the revelation of Tubridy’s €120,000 “consultancy” fees, she was automatically exempted from the Broadcasting Act’s requirement that the DG must answer to the Oireachtas committee. Since then, she has consistently refused the committee’s invitations to appear before it, citing medical grounds.

Exit package

When asked to appear remotely or to submit a written statement her lawyers replied that she was unfit to do either. Eight independent reports have examined RTÉ’s finances, governance and culture. It is unknown how many – if any – she co-operated with because most are anonymised, although McCann Fitzgerald’s report on voluntary exit schemes does note that Forbes was unavailable for interview “for medical reasons”.While we can only accept that she is afflicted by a medical condition, the public are still being denied access to information that the person who ran the place has about the crisis that befell it on her watch.

“We believe there should be accountability, and to a certain extent there has been, for the events covered in our review,” states the examination team chaired by Niamh Brennan. However, it adds, “several RTÉ executives” did not attend the nine Oireachtas committee hearings that had been conducted by the time the report was written “and therefore could not be held to account”.

Forbes was the first external DG appointee in half a century when she left Discovery Networks to take up the job in 2016. Perhaps her government taskmasters hoped an outsider would be more ruthless in implementing cost-cutting measures in an admittedly bloated organisation. Instead, some parts of it got even cushier. Money poured like molten gold into the production of Toy Show: The Musical at the Convention Centre in Dublin. The extravaganza bombed, culminating in losses of €2.2 million. Forbes has never explained why the doomed show was not brought to the RTÉ board for final approval.

The Brennan Report states there are “several examples of the former director general not providing RTÉ’s board and others with information”. Another glaring omission was the €450,000 exit package for chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe in 2020. A report by McCann Fitzgerald states that Moya Doherty, the then-chair, was not informed in advance of O’Keeffe’s departure despite it having been agreed three years earlier and, reportedly, with Forbes’s imprimatur.

Section three of the Broadcasting Act requires the DG to prepare the organisation’s annual accounts. One of three reports on RTÉ by Mazars said expenditure through barter media agencies went unreported in financial statements until 2019 and that credit balances with such agencies were not recorded on the balance sheet until 2022.

Even if she bears no legal obligation to explain these decisions, Forbes has an ethical obligation to RTÉ’S workforce and its audience to fill in the gaps in public knowledge. Why, for instance, did the organisation not have a chief compliance officer from 2018 until this year?

Poisoned chalice

The answers to these questions matter. They matter to workers loyal to RTÉ who fear it is being stripped of essential assets. They matter to RTÉ viewers who should not be subjected to the same episodes of Cheap Irish Homes, Scannal and Room to Improve on a loop. They matter to democracy, when the absence of a dedicated security correspondent arguably undermines RTÉ’s public service while hostile drones and ships are skulking in Irish territory. And they matter to Kevin Bakhurst, Forbes’s successor handed the poisoned chalice of cutbacks, who must while away more time in front of the Oireachtas committee than in front of the telly.

He did a good PR job at Wednesday’s committee hearing when, like a Wise Man at Christmas, he brought great tidings that the broadcaster has emerged from financial deficit. But at what cost? RTÉ is an important crucible of information, culture and heritage. Its welcome decision to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest because of Israel’s involvement is testament to its seminal role in Irish life.

RTÉ has not been helped by incomplete information in the process of addressing its travails. For an organisation duty-bound to reveal national truths, this deficit is as significant as any monetary one.