This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Michael Commane
I lived in Rome between 1974 and 1976. It sounds a long time ago, actually it is and if the truth be told it scares me to think about it; it’s half a century ago, ouch.
I’ve been back twice on short visits during which time I visited some old haunts.
I’ve forgotten most of the events in my life during those two years, though I can still remember an old Dominican, Fr Michael Heuston. He was the brother of Sean Heuston of 1916 fame. Fr Michael was an extraordinary genius and to add to his charm he was eccentric; maybe that’s why the two of us got on so well.
And something else I can remember was a group of young Augustinian priests I had the good fortune to meet. They stood out in the midst of so many strange men inhabiting the clerical world of Rome at the time.
The Irish Augustinians have a house in Rome. Back then it was where their young men lived while studying in the pontifical universities in the city.
They were great fun, ordinary young men, who had a great sense of humour, enjoyed life and were well able to behave as normal young students do. I was shocked to see the numbers of odd people preparing for priesthood. In contrast, the Augustinians stood out; normal people, who obviously came from typical ordinary Irish families.
The moment I heard Augustinian cardinal Robert Prevost had been elected pope I breathed a sigh of relief, though it would have been great to have had fellow Dominican Timothy Radcliffe elected.
From day one I’ve been keeping a close eye on Prevost.
Back in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s Irish Dominicans were working across the world. When any of these men came home on holiday or to stay home, it was so clear to see they had a very different understanding of church. They had been impressed with what they had seen and lived. They insisted on working and living much closer with the people and learning from them too.
When I heard Robert Prevost had worked in Peru, where he was later a bishop, and then read that he had taken out Peruvian citizenship I knew the church, through the grace of God, had elected a special person as our pope.
Prevost did not take out Peruvian citizenship so that he could skip the queues at airports; he did it as a sign of his love and solidarity with the people of Peru, especially the poor and marginalised. He is also a highly intelligent man; his primary degree is in mathematics and he’s a polyglot.
He’ll be in the job a year next month and already he has made his mark. His bye-bye to the cardinal archbishop in New York, Timothy Dolan and appointing the charismatic Ronald Hicks, who is a protege of Cardinal Blase Cupich, as his successor has been a major statement about Pope Leo’s thinking.
And we all now know what he thinks of tyrants.
In The Irish Times on Saturday, author and columnist, Mark O’Connell wrote a powerful piece on Leo.
In these times of great upset, war and division, the world is fortunate that Augustinian Robert Prevost is pope in Rome.
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