This German Interior Minister sacked the head of the German police today.
No reason given.
German newspapers carried the story at the weekend.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sentences out of our reach
"We have neglected the tiny sentences of life and now the big ones are beyond our reach."
That's a quote from Seabastian Barry's 'Secret Scripture'. Dr Grene is talking about his relationship with his wife.
But the sentence has a perfect fit in the context of priesthood and religious life where men and women say so little of meaning or worth to one another.
What real words do priests say in their parishes, to their parishioners?
Is it not as clear as day that priesthood in Ireland today is simply dysfunctional?
What to do?
That's a quote from Seabastian Barry's 'Secret Scripture'. Dr Grene is talking about his relationship with his wife.
But the sentence has a perfect fit in the context of priesthood and religious life where men and women say so little of meaning or worth to one another.
What real words do priests say in their parishes, to their parishioners?
Is it not as clear as day that priesthood in Ireland today is simply dysfunctional?
What to do?
Sunday, July 29, 2012
We owe our loyalty to the truth
Surely and especially as Dominicans we owe our loyalty to the truth and not to the institution.
If someone is unjusty treated then is it not our obligation to support the offended party?
The institutional Catholic Church seems to refuse to learn from its recent sad history.
If someone is unjusty treated then is it not our obligation to support the offended party?
The institutional Catholic Church seems to refuse to learn from its recent sad history.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Archbishop Martin's wise but gentle comments
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said at the MacGill Summer School yesterday, "It is not just that the number of candidates (for priesthood) is low.
"It is also that many of those who present themselves are fragile and some are much more traditional than those who went before them.
"There is a danger that superficial attatchment to the externals of tradition may well be a sign of fearfulness and flight from changed realities."
In many respects that is sensational coming from an archbishop. But is is succintly accurate. And the archbishop has only said the gentlest and kindest words about the current phenomenon.
Last week in a church a lady referring to a young man in his mid-20s studying for priesthood said, "the young boy is so good looking".
Is that the language or the sentiment that a woman would usually use when referring to a man in his mid-20s?
Older men express their embarrassment at the external behaviour of many of the young men studying for priesthood.
And the archbishop did not say a word about the real elephant in the room.
Is it not glaringingly obvious what is happening?
"It is also that many of those who present themselves are fragile and some are much more traditional than those who went before them.
"There is a danger that superficial attatchment to the externals of tradition may well be a sign of fearfulness and flight from changed realities."
In many respects that is sensational coming from an archbishop. But is is succintly accurate. And the archbishop has only said the gentlest and kindest words about the current phenomenon.
Last week in a church a lady referring to a young man in his mid-20s studying for priesthood said, "the young boy is so good looking".
Is that the language or the sentiment that a woman would usually use when referring to a man in his mid-20s?
Older men express their embarrassment at the external behaviour of many of the young men studying for priesthood.
And the archbishop did not say a word about the real elephant in the room.
Is it not glaringingly obvious what is happening?
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Ireland's dental disgrace
The column below appears in this week's INM regional newspapers.
By Michael Commane
On Friday I gave a talk at a summer seminar organised by the Irish Dominican Sisters. The seminar was to mark 50 years since Vatican II. I was asked to talk on the media in Ireland. I argued that the primary purpose of newspapers is to make money for their shareholders and if they don’t do that, customers will not buy their product. Good business means you survive and make a profit.
In the days approaching the talk I was nervous and apprehensive.
And then on the Wednesday before the talk while washing my teeth I noticed a piece of a tooth had broken away. The tooth had been a source of pain for the previous few days. But it was nothing serious and really not causing me any bother. But once it broke I became quite anxious. The last thing I wanted to happen was to wake up on Friday morning before the talk with a throbbing toothache. Those of you who have experienced bad toothaches will know exactly what I mean.
I called my dentist in Tralee who kindly arranged for me to visit a dentist in Dublin, who did some temporary repair work on the tooth. It meant it was not going to cause me any added worry for my Friday talk.
It set me thinking about all sorts of things. How privileged I am to have the financial resources to be able to pay for work on my teeth. What must it be like for someone who has no spare cash to get their teeth fixed.
Talk to any dentist and they will quickly tell you that the Irish Government has given up on the dental health of the nation.
If I did not have the money to pay for dental treatment last week PRSI contribibutions would not cover any repair work on my broken tooth. The possession of the medical card would entitle me to have the tooth extracted. I don't have a medical card.
GMS (medical card) patients are entitled to one check up, two fillings and as many extractions as they want per calendar year. PRSI patients are entitled to one examination only per year. The self-employed are entitled to nothing.
Isn’t that really a wonderful State. PRSI patients are entiled to no corrective work and GMS patients are allowed two fillings per year.
Any dentist I have spoken to in recent times is most critical of Government dental policy. Well, that’s not really the correct way to say it as the Government has no dental policy outside extraction.
It seems this Government has no problem with a toothless society.
When the Minister for Health was in a hurry to get back to the Dáil from Cyprus to try to justify or explain, whatever, his financial situation regarding his ownership of a nursing home, he can summon the Government jet to get him home on time.
Just think of it, a Government that incentivises tooth extractions has the money to fly a Government minister home from Cyprus to talk in riddles in the Dáil.
GUBU has risen from the ashes.
I doubt if any of our politicians, top Civil Servants, the bankers who are paid loads of money, give a second thought about going to a dentist. They just pay.
That’s what I did last week. But I'm ashamed of the society in which I am a citizen.
Of course, it’s not just dental care – it’s right across the board. We give lip service to treating all the children of the nation equally. It’s quite clear we don’t.
Last week Social Justice Ireland issued a report which shows how the gap between rich and poor is widening.
We all know that we are in recession but isn’t it odd that the top earners are now in a better position than they were before the crisis hit. And isn’t that ironic as it’s the top earners who are the ladies and gentlemen, who nodded their heads to the gurus and nomenclature of the day and did nothing about stopping the disaster.
Were we not paying them such top salaries so as to do good jobs and ultimately improve the conditions of all the citizens of this little republic?
The Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn keeps reminding us that we are in receivership and I understand that. But I don't understand how we can pay the salaries we do to Government ministers and the panoply of people around them and at the same time have not a care in the world in ripping out people's teeth.
What do GMS/PRSI patients with no spare cash do when they and their children need dental work?
It is shocking. And as long as the current Government 's 'extraction policy' is in place, every Government minister should walk about with his/her head bowed in shame.
How dare they fly in Government jets.
By Michael Commane
On Friday I gave a talk at a summer seminar organised by the Irish Dominican Sisters. The seminar was to mark 50 years since Vatican II. I was asked to talk on the media in Ireland. I argued that the primary purpose of newspapers is to make money for their shareholders and if they don’t do that, customers will not buy their product. Good business means you survive and make a profit.
In the days approaching the talk I was nervous and apprehensive.
And then on the Wednesday before the talk while washing my teeth I noticed a piece of a tooth had broken away. The tooth had been a source of pain for the previous few days. But it was nothing serious and really not causing me any bother. But once it broke I became quite anxious. The last thing I wanted to happen was to wake up on Friday morning before the talk with a throbbing toothache. Those of you who have experienced bad toothaches will know exactly what I mean.
I called my dentist in Tralee who kindly arranged for me to visit a dentist in Dublin, who did some temporary repair work on the tooth. It meant it was not going to cause me any added worry for my Friday talk.
It set me thinking about all sorts of things. How privileged I am to have the financial resources to be able to pay for work on my teeth. What must it be like for someone who has no spare cash to get their teeth fixed.
Talk to any dentist and they will quickly tell you that the Irish Government has given up on the dental health of the nation.
If I did not have the money to pay for dental treatment last week PRSI contribibutions would not cover any repair work on my broken tooth. The possession of the medical card would entitle me to have the tooth extracted. I don't have a medical card.
GMS (medical card) patients are entitled to one check up, two fillings and as many extractions as they want per calendar year. PRSI patients are entitled to one examination only per year. The self-employed are entitled to nothing.
Isn’t that really a wonderful State. PRSI patients are entiled to no corrective work and GMS patients are allowed two fillings per year.
Any dentist I have spoken to in recent times is most critical of Government dental policy. Well, that’s not really the correct way to say it as the Government has no dental policy outside extraction.
It seems this Government has no problem with a toothless society.
When the Minister for Health was in a hurry to get back to the Dáil from Cyprus to try to justify or explain, whatever, his financial situation regarding his ownership of a nursing home, he can summon the Government jet to get him home on time.
Just think of it, a Government that incentivises tooth extractions has the money to fly a Government minister home from Cyprus to talk in riddles in the Dáil.
GUBU has risen from the ashes.
I doubt if any of our politicians, top Civil Servants, the bankers who are paid loads of money, give a second thought about going to a dentist. They just pay.
That’s what I did last week. But I'm ashamed of the society in which I am a citizen.
Of course, it’s not just dental care – it’s right across the board. We give lip service to treating all the children of the nation equally. It’s quite clear we don’t.
Last week Social Justice Ireland issued a report which shows how the gap between rich and poor is widening.
We all know that we are in recession but isn’t it odd that the top earners are now in a better position than they were before the crisis hit. And isn’t that ironic as it’s the top earners who are the ladies and gentlemen, who nodded their heads to the gurus and nomenclature of the day and did nothing about stopping the disaster.
Were we not paying them such top salaries so as to do good jobs and ultimately improve the conditions of all the citizens of this little republic?
The Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn keeps reminding us that we are in receivership and I understand that. But I don't understand how we can pay the salaries we do to Government ministers and the panoply of people around them and at the same time have not a care in the world in ripping out people's teeth.
What do GMS/PRSI patients with no spare cash do when they and their children need dental work?
It is shocking. And as long as the current Government 's 'extraction policy' is in place, every Government minister should walk about with his/her head bowed in shame.
How dare they fly in Government jets.
Monday, July 23, 2012
If this is true it's time to move on
A man who goes to daily Mass in a Dominican church in Ireland said today that the Dominicans in his town are not interested in people. He went on, "They are only interested in God. No, that's not right. It's all about self-glorification."
A wise man, who made a simple and amazingly profound and accurate comment.
A wise man, who made a simple and amazingly profound and accurate comment.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Bringing redemption
Below is the Thinking Anew column in today's Irish Times.
By Michael Commane
A few months ago I went to a recycling centre with a wheelie bin full of
newspapers. I had walked about a kilometer pushing the wheelie bin in front of me, and with my dog on a lead. I know I looked odd.
Just as I began to throw the papers into the large container at the bring
centre, a man on duty approached and told me that wheelie bins were not
allowed on the premises.
I was astonished. It was difficult and embarrassing coming this far with
the wheelie bin. Heading back home with a full wheelie bin was not an
attractive idea.
The two of us had a set-to. I raised my voice and remonstrated that I
thought the ruling was crazy. He countered by saying he would call the
police. He also ordered me off the premises and to take my wheelie bin with me. I invited him to go ahead and call the Garda.
I cooled down a little and suggested I leave the bin outside and carry the
paper by hand into the large container. He was having none of it. He
telephoned his supervisor.
Eventually I was allowed bring in the wheelie bin and unload my papers.
When I was leaving I went up to the man and apologised for raising my
voice. We parted on ungracious terms. There were many aspects to the
encounter and it certainly had pantomime characteristics. At least I walked home with a lighter load.
Two weeks ago I was back at the bring centre, this time with a handful of
papers to dump. I approached the attendant. He didn’t recognise me. I
reminded him of our previous encounter.
Then he remembered, put his hand on my shoulder and smiled and we had a friendly chat. We exchanged pleasantries, a few laughs and I headed off to work on my bicycle.
He was so nice and friendly to me and I hope, I to him. I have no problem
calling it a moment of grace. A silly bad tempered altercation, which turned into something positive because of the protagonists backing off and using conciliatory words and gestures.
In tomorrow’s Gospel (Mark 6: 30 - 34) we read how Jesus, who had decided
to head off to a quiet place, relented, had pity on the people and went
back to be with them. The Gospel tells us he had ‘pity’ on them.
The word ‘pity’ might well evoke an expression or an attitude of being
patronising. But nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus through his
words and deeds was showing compassion.
In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 23: 1 - 6) we
read how Yahweh declares that none of the people will be lost.
It’s easy to get bowed down under rules and regulations. It is always
tempting to formalise our religious practice in such a way that we lose
touch with the essentials. It can become a game. But surely at the very
centre of any religion or faith system is our relationships with other people?
My experience at the bring centre was a reminder how rules can sometimes
get in the way and how human wisdom wins out in the end. And that too is
something about which Jesus was aware.
It is impossible to be a Christian in the exclusive company of oneself.
Christianity is about people. We believe that God joined the human race and
became one of us. We have been raised to a new reality. The Sacraments help bridge the gap between people and God.
The theology of priesthood regularly talks about how the ordained priest
carries out the work of God. But it must never be forgotten that the priest
above all else must be a people’s person. The priest can only be a priest
in the context of other people, all the time showing interest, compassion
and true interest in people. And listening and learning too from people.
Over the last few weeks the Gospel readings have concentrated on the
kindness and compassion of Jesus.
They are an important reminder to all of
us. Our words and deeds should show kindness and compassion.
How can we talk about loving God if we do not show kindness to our fellow
sisters and brothers?
My wheelie bin experience brought home to me the importance of being kind and gentle, even if it all gets off to a bad start. There is always the
possibility of healing.
We might well call it redemption.
By Michael Commane
A few months ago I went to a recycling centre with a wheelie bin full of
newspapers. I had walked about a kilometer pushing the wheelie bin in front of me, and with my dog on a lead. I know I looked odd.
Just as I began to throw the papers into the large container at the bring
centre, a man on duty approached and told me that wheelie bins were not
allowed on the premises.
I was astonished. It was difficult and embarrassing coming this far with
the wheelie bin. Heading back home with a full wheelie bin was not an
attractive idea.
The two of us had a set-to. I raised my voice and remonstrated that I
thought the ruling was crazy. He countered by saying he would call the
police. He also ordered me off the premises and to take my wheelie bin with me. I invited him to go ahead and call the Garda.
I cooled down a little and suggested I leave the bin outside and carry the
paper by hand into the large container. He was having none of it. He
telephoned his supervisor.
Eventually I was allowed bring in the wheelie bin and unload my papers.
When I was leaving I went up to the man and apologised for raising my
voice. We parted on ungracious terms. There were many aspects to the
encounter and it certainly had pantomime characteristics. At least I walked home with a lighter load.
Two weeks ago I was back at the bring centre, this time with a handful of
papers to dump. I approached the attendant. He didn’t recognise me. I
reminded him of our previous encounter.
Then he remembered, put his hand on my shoulder and smiled and we had a friendly chat. We exchanged pleasantries, a few laughs and I headed off to work on my bicycle.
He was so nice and friendly to me and I hope, I to him. I have no problem
calling it a moment of grace. A silly bad tempered altercation, which turned into something positive because of the protagonists backing off and using conciliatory words and gestures.
In tomorrow’s Gospel (Mark 6: 30 - 34) we read how Jesus, who had decided
to head off to a quiet place, relented, had pity on the people and went
back to be with them. The Gospel tells us he had ‘pity’ on them.
The word ‘pity’ might well evoke an expression or an attitude of being
patronising. But nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus through his
words and deeds was showing compassion.
In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 23: 1 - 6) we
read how Yahweh declares that none of the people will be lost.
It’s easy to get bowed down under rules and regulations. It is always
tempting to formalise our religious practice in such a way that we lose
touch with the essentials. It can become a game. But surely at the very
centre of any religion or faith system is our relationships with other people?
My experience at the bring centre was a reminder how rules can sometimes
get in the way and how human wisdom wins out in the end. And that too is
something about which Jesus was aware.
It is impossible to be a Christian in the exclusive company of oneself.
Christianity is about people. We believe that God joined the human race and
became one of us. We have been raised to a new reality. The Sacraments help bridge the gap between people and God.
The theology of priesthood regularly talks about how the ordained priest
carries out the work of God. But it must never be forgotten that the priest
above all else must be a people’s person. The priest can only be a priest
in the context of other people, all the time showing interest, compassion
and true interest in people. And listening and learning too from people.
Over the last few weeks the Gospel readings have concentrated on the
kindness and compassion of Jesus.
They are an important reminder to all of
us. Our words and deeds should show kindness and compassion.
How can we talk about loving God if we do not show kindness to our fellow
sisters and brothers?
My wheelie bin experience brought home to me the importance of being kind and gentle, even if it all gets off to a bad start. There is always the
possibility of healing.
We might well call it redemption.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Newspapers in business to make money
Talk below was given by Michael Commane today at the Irish Dominican Sisters summer seminar.
My first link with the world of newspapers was in the late 1950s when my uncle, John D Hickey, would come back to my aunt’s house in Thurles having covered a Munster final. He had to file his report back to Abbey Street and I was given the job of turning the handle on the telephone to get through to the operator to call Independent Newspapers in Dublin.
Ever since Sister Helen Mary invited me to give this talk on the media I have been amazed at the number of articles in the Irish newspapers on media affairs.
Indeed at one stage I began keeping newspapers that carried articles on the media but soon realised that I would quickly run out of space if I were to keep all the newspapers that carried relevant articles.
I have been working as a journalist since 1998. Let me stress, my area of competency is with the print media. I am not terribly familiar with radio and television. I do some work with pitching stories to local radio stations and I had column on Radio Kerry for about 12 months.
When the late Fr Paul Hynes was editor of Intercom he asked me to do a piece for him about my experience of the church in Germany. The previous summer I had cycled from Ostend to the parish where I was working. It was between the cities of Frankfurt-am-Main and Wuerzburg. When it appeared I was so excited as it was the theme of the cover page, which showed a picture of the cathedral in Cologne.
Then later Tom Jordan asked me to edit ‘Far and Near’. I cannot express to you how I enjoyed doing that. It was at the beginning of the new technology. And I did the lay out and a parishioner in St Saviour’s did the graphics. I would mail the copy-ready disk to the printers in Cork O’Learys. And if I missed the post I would cycle up to Heuston Station and
put it on the mail train to Cork. Mail trains have gone and when did anyone last use a floppy disk?
In 1997 I went back to school and did a post graduate course in journalism at DIT. From there I spent three months working in The Irish News in Belfast, then six months at the Newry Democrat.
I saw an ad in the Sunday Independent for a journalist at the Kerryman and got the job. I spent the next six years working as a sub editor in Tralee at the Kerryman.
They were great years. I cannot express to you how happy I was there, how happy I was that I was working for Independent News and Media - doing a mix of jobs laying out pages and writing a column. I loved it and miss it
terribly.
There is no job in the world as good as being a newspaperman or woman. Being a journalist is great fun and a great honour too.
Driving back to Castlegregory in West Kerry on a summer’s evening with the sun in my face I would say out loud. Michael you work on a newspaper.
While there I was also property editor - God love us and letters editor too. A very tricky job as so much libel can happen on that page, especially in a regional paper.
Libel has to do with the written word, slander with the spoken word. The broad definition of libel is that if in the common estimation of the ordinary person someone’s character is unjustly damaged then we have libelled that person.
When I first went to The Kerryman Jim Farrelly was managing director and he had worked with my uncle in the Independent. I remember one day he praised me on something I had written.
Whether he meant it or not, how chuffed I was at his comment. It made me think of the management skills of the Irish Dominicans.
Ger Colleran was editor and he had employed me. When reading my CV he presumed I was a former priest and threw the CV on the floor, passing a smart comment to his wife Siobhan. She made him pick it up and read it. Subsequently he called me for interview and gave me the job. We have remained good friends. I am baptizing his grandchild tomorrow in Tralee.
Ger is now managing director of The Star. The Phoenix carried a profile in late May on Ger suggesting that he will soon be editor of either the Sunday Independent or the daily paper.
These days I write a column twice a month for INM regionals that's 13 Irish regional newspapers and I also write a little column once a month for the Irish Times. I have a readership of close to a million. I work in the press office of Concern Worldwide.
The primary function or purpose of newspapers is to make money for their shareholders. That’s good business. They are serving their customers and if they don’t practise good business, people will not buy their product. There is always the danger that they be taken over by elites – the really mega rich. Government might be tempted to intervene.
I don’t believe they have an anti church agenda. Maybe there are people who
see them as opinion formers and leaders. But they are not. Their job is to tell the story. We could argue that point: The Guardian tells a different story than The Times or Telegraph. But have you ever noticed how journalists move from one newspaper to another and it’s a seamless change.
But it is also important to stress that we all see reality through our own eyes. Can there be such a thing as a completely objective ‘story telling. We all see reality through our own eyes. Have you ever watched Press TV?
I regularly wrote the editorial at The Kerryman and only once was it spiked and that was when I took the side of the then Irish Locomotive Drivers Association, ILDA and their leader Brendan Ogle. I supported their strike. The editor said no. He was right and I was wrong.
By the way, when using an acronym always spell the word out in full when using for the first time
The piece on ILDA was spiked and just this year I was told I could not write a column comparing the money Independent News and Media pays me for my column with how much Baby Jesus received when he stepped down from the top job at INM.
Do you know who Baby Jesus is? See, they call/called Sir Anthony God, so then they had to think up a name for his son Gavin. But it looks as if God has gone from this throne.
I don't believe there is a newspaper conspiracy against the church. Yes, owners of newspapers and journalists are angry with the church and of course they express their anger with the institutional church. There is one thing journalists hate and that is humbug and they perceive the leadership of the church to be past masters in the art of humbug.
During the war in Vietnam Richard Nixon once said, “it would be so much easier to run this war in a dictatorial way, kill the journalists and carryon the war”. Nixon hated the media with a passion. If people hate the
media, it’s important to ask, why?
In June in The Irish Times Vincent Browne dedicated a column to explaining
how the media is biased against working class people and shows a bias in favour of the rich and famous - the people who help sell newspapers.
He compared the coverage the murder of Breda Waters in January 2011 received compared to the coverage that the murder of Michaela McAreavey received. He argues sales and ratings are what it’s all about.
The Waters murder case is on at present in Ennis. Who knows about it? Whereas the McAreavy trial had journalists in Mauritius for weeks
There is a great parable there. I don’t believe the media is anti church and even if it is, it is not per se but rather by being so they believe they can sell more newspapers.
So often one hears Catholics complain that such and such a story gets no coverage because it is a good news Catholic story and the media try to silence it. The only reason it does not get coverage is because the media does not think it will sell papers.
We are not at all as important as we think we are. And remember, whether we like it or not, good news is no news.
And I know that first hand. I work in the press office in Concern where I spend my day trying to pitch stories to newspapers. Thousands of people might be dying in Sub Saharan Africa and we have a graphic account from an eyewitness.
Yet the newspapers will most likely go with some ephemeral topic that is forgotten tomorrow. And don’t think that’s the sole prerogative of the tabloid press.
This year Concern is spending €160 million in the 25 countries where we are working and we are spending €500,000 on our communications this year in Ireland so that we can sell our story to the Irish public in as accurate and attractive a package as possible.
After the inquiry into the Prime Time Investigates libel on Fr Kevin Reynolds it was much bandied about that RTE suffered from the disease of Group-think. I have no doubt it does. But we all suffer that particular ailment and I think no one more so than right wing groups within the church. They genuinely believe that the media is out to get them. I believe they are wrong.
The newspaper industry is in serious crisis – maybe that is something it shares with the institutional church. Modern technology means that newspapers are in a daily battle to keep abreast of the latest developments in social media.
In the last few months INM newspapers have introduced new technology that allows sub editors to lay out pages in any location in the company network. It means for example that The Kerryman can be laid out in Wexford, Sligo or Drogheda.
Last month in Australia three top editors at the Fairfax Media Group resigned, sending gasps through the newsrooms of the country’s two oldest broadsheets, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age. The London based Independent newspaper stopped printing and distributing its daily and Sunday titles in Ireland on July 2,
There are things going on in journalism which as Dominicans we need to understand. Print journalism is with very few exceptions losing money hand over fist. The internet has taken advertising and circulation. Staff is being cut, and quality is suffering. Worse than that there is cut throat competition between surviving print outlets. And that means that corners are being cut, and quality suffers even more.
Why send a skilled photographer and reporter to deal with a complex problem when you can get a vivid albeit one-sided view of it by recording the Joe Duffy show on radio and adding in some - probably fictional quotes.
If they can pick a good salacious story up off the web [far too often] they will do it. It costs money to do their own research. It costs money to send journalists to do stories, it costs money to send photographers to events.
Most regional newspapers now have no staff photographers.
Here let me stop to say something important.
Warning: if the person quoted is not identified, you are not getting the whole truth. Far too often the person quoted is only identified as a ‘source’. Some popular publications have discovered the way to retain readers is to scare the life out of them. So there is a barrage of the horrors that immigrants bring stories, of hopelessly exaggerated crime stories as the
Daily Beast tries to out sell the Daily Brute, in convincing readers that they will wake up dead in their beds if something is not done, lock up whoever the latest hate figure is or send them home. Then TV takes its cue from print, and constructs compelling narratives which reinforce the half truths. And up pops your politician in waiting - saying vote for me and I will rid you of these pestilences. And politics then joins the race to the bottom started by the print media.
That's an apocalyptic and crude version of the damage to politics and public discourse caused by the problems of the print media.
No doubt many of you have followed the Leveson Inquiry. It could happen here. I’m not sure I feel as smug about the Irish Media as does John Horgan. Mr Horgan spoke at the Leveson Inquiry last week.
Remember that the Irish Sun is published by News International which publishes the Sunday Times in Ireland. The Irish Daily Mail is owned by the UK Daily Mail, and 50 per cent of the Irish Star is owned by Richard Desmond who refuses to join the existing flawed UK regulation scheme.
You can be quite sure that phones have been hacked in Ireland, and each one of you should change the pin number on your mobile phone today if you have not already done so.
Talking about politicians - they have realised that newspaper staff is cut to the bone. So if they have a well-written short story they know it has a great chance of being published. That’s why politicians use journalists to write their stories for them. Just look at the number of former journalists Government ministers use in their press offices.
We should also know that and be doing similar tricks. We need people with media skills who can put across our values in a convincing way. Look at how former Mountjoy governor John Lonergan put a human face on the prison service. He answered questions, told the truth in plain language and people trusted him. Do we have a John Lonergan in the Dominican Order? Do we?
People have no idea the sweat and tears that goes into producing a newspaper. It is hectic frenetic, insane but above all the most satisfying job in the world.
Every Tuesday in the Kerryman I began work at 09.30 and worked until midnight.
Did you know that INM made a decision to stop using full points in all abbreviations in all its publications? Anyone guess why? To save ink and hence save money. It’s money, stupid Clinton.
Do you know what papers INM own in Ireland?
They own 13 regional newspapers.Sligo, Dundalk/Drogheda, Wexford, Wicklow, Bray, Kerry and Cork. The Sunday Independent, The Irish Independent, The Evening Herald, The Sunday World, 49 per cent of The Irish Daily Star, Ireland's Own, The Belfast Telegraph.
Most regional newspapers are owned by INM, Crosby group, Johnston Press and the Alpha Newspaper Group owned by John Taylor – Lord Kilclooney
The NUJ will say it is not a good idea that regional newspapers are owned by four large conglomerates.
Last month the Offaly Independent closed and NUJ’s Seamus Dooley pointed out that what had happened in the newspaper trade has been a dark day for journalism. He pointed out that local newspapers were never a cash cow but during the years of the Celtic Tiger, big
business moved in and bought up most of the regional media. The Clare Champion is still in family hands.
The Leinster Leader has halved its circulation in the last five years. Johnston Press bought it and if they were to recoup their money they would have to put a cover price of €10 on the paper.
The crass obeisance that Irish society gave to the church in Ireland for all my childhood and youth was unusual, to say the least. Certainly not healthy.
Go to your local library and look through old editions of your local newspapers and see how the newspapers were cap in hand with the church. And newspapers always capture the mood of the time. Just look at The Kerryman I
have here from 1953.
That was Ireland.
I think it is worth noting that the Vatican Council ran from 1962 to 1965 and during that time, RTE television was born. So this year we are celebrating 50 years of the Council and RTE Television.
Maybe some of you have read Robert Kaiser’s definitive work on the Vatican Council. In that book Kaiser clearly and in the most descriptive way possible explains that when it comes to being media savvy in any sort of normal way the Vatican was lost. It seemed the Vatican had not got the tools to deal with the modern media.
Redemptorist Francis X Murphy, who used the pseudonym Xavier Rynne revealed the inner workings of the Vatican Council to The New Yorker. He is credited with setting the tone for the popular view of the council, depicting it as conservative versus liberal.
But it is worth noting that the first two documents of Vatican II, from 1963, were the ones on liturgy and on social communication. Vivian Boland said to me that the church has always been very conscious and aware of methods of communication, uses them but also sees itself in rivalry with other 'communicators'. But why the rivalry? The church’s mission is to disseminate the Word of God in the here and now - the world in which we live.
Pope JohnXXlll saw in his election the commission to love the world in a special way, to minister to it and serve it.
The French Dominican Chenu said that the love of truth was more efficacious, more true in the intrepid witness of dialogue than in the protectionism of interdicts and defensive bulwarks.
I saw in a recent edition of the Tablet Archbishop DiNoia says it’s okay to criticise Chenu, Congar and deLubac now.
Karl Barth spoke about a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
So why is the church so scared of an open and free media? Last month they appointed Opus Dei man, Greg Burke to a newly created position of media adviser. Mr Burke has been working for Fox News for the last 10 years!
Fox is owned by the Murdoch [News] Corp. And Rupert Murdoch is a Papal Knight. He received his knighthood in 1998, the year before he married his third wife, Wendi Deng.
In June Rowan Williams commented how poor the Anglican Communion is in disseminating the good news stories it has.
The Vatican Council came and gave a great opportunity to people like Austin Flannery, Sean Mac Reamonn, John Horgan and Louis McRedmond. They were given the opportunity of reporting the workings of the Council, its reports and procedures. They were also able to convey the gossip and magic that surrounds the Vatican. It was a great opportunity for newspapers. But it also allowed some aspects of theological discussion to appear on Irish newspapers.
And Austin Flannery used the opportunity to perfection. He was there at the right moment and he deserves great praise for what he did.
Archbishop McQuaid set up his Radharc team and the Dominicans sent off Rom Dodd and TP McInerney to study radio and TV. When writing the obituary on TP for the Irish Times I contacted Claire Duignan MD of RTE Radio - her respect and praise for Tom really struck me
But the Council document on Communications was actually very different from the ecumenical spirit and practice of Vatican ll. It deals primarily with one church rather than with Christianity at large; it relied on outdated Catholic misconceptions rather than upon creative achievements of the secular mass communication profession and practice.
It falls far short of the high standard established by other documents. One Catholic editor at the time said about it, “it is not only
pre-aggiornamento but definitely pre-Pius Xll.
Isn’t ironic that back then a commentator said that the Decree might one day be cited as a classic example of how Vatican ll failed to come to grips with the world around it.
Of course the Council had its limitations but its efforts meant that the church could never go back to the old ways. Or could it? But certainly it allowed the media to have a less exaggerated opinion or understanding of the church.
Anyone who has been following the current Vatileaks one has to be struck by the tone and the language that the Vatican uses. I for one find their tone alienating.
Cardinal Bertone has spoken of a conspiracy against the church. I’m sure there’s not, but even if there is, to use the word ‘conspiracy’ is immediately setting a bad tone.
Time never stands still and certainly the media carnival never stands still. It is constantly moving from one story to another. News needs to be new. It is voracious for news and sensation. And that too applies to the newspapers of record.
And what better sensational stories, than what has been going on in Mother Church year after year. The mix of the secrecy of the church, its stringent views on all matters dealing with sexuality, makes it so inviting for newspapers.
And may I say the church’s apparent incompetence when it comes to dealing with the media has left the media with no alternative but to behave as it does.
The church considers itself above the ephemeral world of newspapers and that’s why we are where we are.
Never forget that the newspaper of today is used tomorrow as fish and chip wrapper. Of course it is an ephemeral world, a moving vision but it is a medium that people have to use and the church has seldom if ever used it in any sort of professional way.
The church always and ever seems to give the impression that it knows best. Newspapers hate that and so will make it their business to take them down a peg or two.
I remember when I was a novice Fr Basil Prendergast was alleged to have been involved in a coven in England. I think at the time I thought he had married a witch!
It’s a long time ago but I can still remember all the talk was that the provincial had managed to keep it out of the Irish papers but could not keep it out of the News of the World. There was a feeling that we were protecting Ireland by keeping the story out of the papers.
And isn’t that interesting - the church always uses that word SCANDAL. Everything must be kept quiet for fear of scandalising people. Of course papers love SCANDAL
May I jump forward to 2002. I was working in the Kerryman. We received a call at the office from an upset mother. Her son had been convicted of drink driving and she wanted to know would we keep it out of the paper.
It so happened that we did not have a reporter in court on the day. Had she not called we would never have known about it. But once she called we made it our business to get the story and publish it.
That’s how newspapers work. And it is a lesson well worth learning.
I have to admit that I have been ‘damaged’ by journalism. If Helen, Mary and I were walking down the road and we came on a road accident, I imagine Helen Mary’s first reaction would be what to do. Mine might well be to ask where are they from and is there a story in it.
I think what is happening with the Catholic press at present is not at all helpful to the long-term mission of the church. I sometimes get the impression that if it could go back to the old days it would jump at the opportunity.
It’s the small things that catch them out.
Regularly, indeed far too often the Irish Catholic will publish photographs. Every cleric will have his name and title and not a name or title for the non clerics in the same photo. Every week I notice they do that.
When I was with The Kerryman a picture could simply not appear without the name of every single person noted. I spotted a religious publication recently and every single picture
was captionless. That is simply insulting to the reader and crass unprofessionalism.
Take the simplest mistake - how often do we use the word church as if the Catholic church is the only church in the world? Think for a moment of the insult and hurt to people of other Christian denominations. We don’t need to say Catholic church every time, but the first mention in any piece of writing or broadcasting must include it - good manners alone requires that.
I believe we priests have terribly inflated ideas about our own skills. And guess what newspaper editors notice that.
Newspapers owe us nothing, nothing at all.
The church really needs to come down off its high horse and realise that.
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin’s Russia they are in the game of attempting to control media and get media to say nice things about them. We are the church telling the story of the marginalised.
Of course none of us wants to read bad news about ourselves in the newspaper and anyone with a grain of sense would do all in her or his power to keep bad news out of the paper.
When I finish this talk some of you might well say that I have been too harsh. Personally, I think I am being mild mannered and avoiding all hyperbole. And yes I know my long-suffering superiors have me down as a
fully-paid up member of the Awkward Squad.
There are some things I have learned over the years.
When you send something to a newspaper it must be well written, concise. Write it in such a way that after one paragraph the sub editor wants to read on. Presume nothing. One of the great skills I learned as a sub editor was to be able after the first paragraph to know whether or not the person could write.
Be clear, Re read it many times, using the scalpel generously. As a school teacher, I have noticed the improvement students make when they re-read their essays, especially, weaker students. I gave grinds to a young boy who is dyslexic and re-reading work has transformed the boy.
Don’t think that your words are the most important and greatest words ever written. Presume nothing.
Don’t be pompous. Watch out for the little things that might indeed prove far more important than you think. For example, why upper case Priest, Bishop, Cardinal? Only upper case in titles, Doctor Murphy, Bishop Murphy, Cardinal Daly.
Have you ever made it your business to get a copy of a newspaper’s style guide? Have you ever checked out The Guardian’s Style
Guide on the web?
Use simple everyday words. Be truthful. And when you have sent your story by email make sure to follow it up with a telephone call.
I also think it is important for an order or congregation to have a dedicated person who will deal with the media. And by that I mean someone who is a good networker and gets to know journalists.
In the past the networking might have been with editors as it was a power and authoritative relationship. But today it’s important that we get to know the journalists on the ground.
I wonder when last did an Irish Dominican go for lunch or coffee with a journalist.
In my job in the press office in Concern I deal with the regional Irish media and I cannot stress the importance of networking. You cannot imagine how easy my job is as a result of knowing journalists in newspapers.
I have never seen the Irish Media Contacts Directory in any of our priories. I find that strange for an order that says it is dedicated to preaching the Word.
I can well imagine that the art of networking has proved most beneficial for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. No doubt you know his brother. Seamus Martin is a former Irish Times journalist. Ireland is a small place and one journalist knows another and the word spread very fast. And to his credit the archbishop has used his own media savvy and his networking to great benefit.
I think when it comes to dealing with the media and getting across the message of the Gospel it is essential we are gentle and kind, easy with other people. Far too often we give the silly impression of being proud and
arrogant, knowing it all.
And that’s so strange because we all know so little about God.
But I remain convinced that the Church has an amazing privilege and indeed obligation always to stay engaged with the world.
A Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, or at least the electronic versions.
Are we as Dominicans convinced of our message. What is our message? Surely it is one of Good News and hope in a country, in a world that so needs hope.
Do we believe in the importance of our story?
In my job in Concern I hear how people see that our work is worthy but maybe dull. How do we go that extra step to show that our work is yes worthy but also dynamic?
The Good News surely is worthy and dynamic.
What a privilege it is to tell the world.
Thank you.
My first link with the world of newspapers was in the late 1950s when my uncle, John D Hickey, would come back to my aunt’s house in Thurles having covered a Munster final. He had to file his report back to Abbey Street and I was given the job of turning the handle on the telephone to get through to the operator to call Independent Newspapers in Dublin.
Ever since Sister Helen Mary invited me to give this talk on the media I have been amazed at the number of articles in the Irish newspapers on media affairs.
Indeed at one stage I began keeping newspapers that carried articles on the media but soon realised that I would quickly run out of space if I were to keep all the newspapers that carried relevant articles.
I have been working as a journalist since 1998. Let me stress, my area of competency is with the print media. I am not terribly familiar with radio and television. I do some work with pitching stories to local radio stations and I had column on Radio Kerry for about 12 months.
When the late Fr Paul Hynes was editor of Intercom he asked me to do a piece for him about my experience of the church in Germany. The previous summer I had cycled from Ostend to the parish where I was working. It was between the cities of Frankfurt-am-Main and Wuerzburg. When it appeared I was so excited as it was the theme of the cover page, which showed a picture of the cathedral in Cologne.
Then later Tom Jordan asked me to edit ‘Far and Near’. I cannot express to you how I enjoyed doing that. It was at the beginning of the new technology. And I did the lay out and a parishioner in St Saviour’s did the graphics. I would mail the copy-ready disk to the printers in Cork O’Learys. And if I missed the post I would cycle up to Heuston Station and
put it on the mail train to Cork. Mail trains have gone and when did anyone last use a floppy disk?
In 1997 I went back to school and did a post graduate course in journalism at DIT. From there I spent three months working in The Irish News in Belfast, then six months at the Newry Democrat.
I saw an ad in the Sunday Independent for a journalist at the Kerryman and got the job. I spent the next six years working as a sub editor in Tralee at the Kerryman.
They were great years. I cannot express to you how happy I was there, how happy I was that I was working for Independent News and Media - doing a mix of jobs laying out pages and writing a column. I loved it and miss it
terribly.
There is no job in the world as good as being a newspaperman or woman. Being a journalist is great fun and a great honour too.
Driving back to Castlegregory in West Kerry on a summer’s evening with the sun in my face I would say out loud. Michael you work on a newspaper.
While there I was also property editor - God love us and letters editor too. A very tricky job as so much libel can happen on that page, especially in a regional paper.
Libel has to do with the written word, slander with the spoken word. The broad definition of libel is that if in the common estimation of the ordinary person someone’s character is unjustly damaged then we have libelled that person.
When I first went to The Kerryman Jim Farrelly was managing director and he had worked with my uncle in the Independent. I remember one day he praised me on something I had written.
Whether he meant it or not, how chuffed I was at his comment. It made me think of the management skills of the Irish Dominicans.
Ger Colleran was editor and he had employed me. When reading my CV he presumed I was a former priest and threw the CV on the floor, passing a smart comment to his wife Siobhan. She made him pick it up and read it. Subsequently he called me for interview and gave me the job. We have remained good friends. I am baptizing his grandchild tomorrow in Tralee.
Ger is now managing director of The Star. The Phoenix carried a profile in late May on Ger suggesting that he will soon be editor of either the Sunday Independent or the daily paper.
These days I write a column twice a month for INM regionals that's 13 Irish regional newspapers and I also write a little column once a month for the Irish Times. I have a readership of close to a million. I work in the press office of Concern Worldwide.
The primary function or purpose of newspapers is to make money for their shareholders. That’s good business. They are serving their customers and if they don’t practise good business, people will not buy their product. There is always the danger that they be taken over by elites – the really mega rich. Government might be tempted to intervene.
I don’t believe they have an anti church agenda. Maybe there are people who
see them as opinion formers and leaders. But they are not. Their job is to tell the story. We could argue that point: The Guardian tells a different story than The Times or Telegraph. But have you ever noticed how journalists move from one newspaper to another and it’s a seamless change.
But it is also important to stress that we all see reality through our own eyes. Can there be such a thing as a completely objective ‘story telling. We all see reality through our own eyes. Have you ever watched Press TV?
I regularly wrote the editorial at The Kerryman and only once was it spiked and that was when I took the side of the then Irish Locomotive Drivers Association, ILDA and their leader Brendan Ogle. I supported their strike. The editor said no. He was right and I was wrong.
By the way, when using an acronym always spell the word out in full when using for the first time
The piece on ILDA was spiked and just this year I was told I could not write a column comparing the money Independent News and Media pays me for my column with how much Baby Jesus received when he stepped down from the top job at INM.
Do you know who Baby Jesus is? See, they call/called Sir Anthony God, so then they had to think up a name for his son Gavin. But it looks as if God has gone from this throne.
I don't believe there is a newspaper conspiracy against the church. Yes, owners of newspapers and journalists are angry with the church and of course they express their anger with the institutional church. There is one thing journalists hate and that is humbug and they perceive the leadership of the church to be past masters in the art of humbug.
During the war in Vietnam Richard Nixon once said, “it would be so much easier to run this war in a dictatorial way, kill the journalists and carryon the war”. Nixon hated the media with a passion. If people hate the
media, it’s important to ask, why?
In June in The Irish Times Vincent Browne dedicated a column to explaining
how the media is biased against working class people and shows a bias in favour of the rich and famous - the people who help sell newspapers.
He compared the coverage the murder of Breda Waters in January 2011 received compared to the coverage that the murder of Michaela McAreavey received. He argues sales and ratings are what it’s all about.
The Waters murder case is on at present in Ennis. Who knows about it? Whereas the McAreavy trial had journalists in Mauritius for weeks
There is a great parable there. I don’t believe the media is anti church and even if it is, it is not per se but rather by being so they believe they can sell more newspapers.
So often one hears Catholics complain that such and such a story gets no coverage because it is a good news Catholic story and the media try to silence it. The only reason it does not get coverage is because the media does not think it will sell papers.
We are not at all as important as we think we are. And remember, whether we like it or not, good news is no news.
And I know that first hand. I work in the press office in Concern where I spend my day trying to pitch stories to newspapers. Thousands of people might be dying in Sub Saharan Africa and we have a graphic account from an eyewitness.
Yet the newspapers will most likely go with some ephemeral topic that is forgotten tomorrow. And don’t think that’s the sole prerogative of the tabloid press.
This year Concern is spending €160 million in the 25 countries where we are working and we are spending €500,000 on our communications this year in Ireland so that we can sell our story to the Irish public in as accurate and attractive a package as possible.
After the inquiry into the Prime Time Investigates libel on Fr Kevin Reynolds it was much bandied about that RTE suffered from the disease of Group-think. I have no doubt it does. But we all suffer that particular ailment and I think no one more so than right wing groups within the church. They genuinely believe that the media is out to get them. I believe they are wrong.
The newspaper industry is in serious crisis – maybe that is something it shares with the institutional church. Modern technology means that newspapers are in a daily battle to keep abreast of the latest developments in social media.
In the last few months INM newspapers have introduced new technology that allows sub editors to lay out pages in any location in the company network. It means for example that The Kerryman can be laid out in Wexford, Sligo or Drogheda.
Last month in Australia three top editors at the Fairfax Media Group resigned, sending gasps through the newsrooms of the country’s two oldest broadsheets, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age. The London based Independent newspaper stopped printing and distributing its daily and Sunday titles in Ireland on July 2,
There are things going on in journalism which as Dominicans we need to understand. Print journalism is with very few exceptions losing money hand over fist. The internet has taken advertising and circulation. Staff is being cut, and quality is suffering. Worse than that there is cut throat competition between surviving print outlets. And that means that corners are being cut, and quality suffers even more.
Why send a skilled photographer and reporter to deal with a complex problem when you can get a vivid albeit one-sided view of it by recording the Joe Duffy show on radio and adding in some - probably fictional quotes.
If they can pick a good salacious story up off the web [far too often] they will do it. It costs money to do their own research. It costs money to send journalists to do stories, it costs money to send photographers to events.
Most regional newspapers now have no staff photographers.
Here let me stop to say something important.
Warning: if the person quoted is not identified, you are not getting the whole truth. Far too often the person quoted is only identified as a ‘source’. Some popular publications have discovered the way to retain readers is to scare the life out of them. So there is a barrage of the horrors that immigrants bring stories, of hopelessly exaggerated crime stories as the
Daily Beast tries to out sell the Daily Brute, in convincing readers that they will wake up dead in their beds if something is not done, lock up whoever the latest hate figure is or send them home. Then TV takes its cue from print, and constructs compelling narratives which reinforce the half truths. And up pops your politician in waiting - saying vote for me and I will rid you of these pestilences. And politics then joins the race to the bottom started by the print media.
That's an apocalyptic and crude version of the damage to politics and public discourse caused by the problems of the print media.
No doubt many of you have followed the Leveson Inquiry. It could happen here. I’m not sure I feel as smug about the Irish Media as does John Horgan. Mr Horgan spoke at the Leveson Inquiry last week.
Remember that the Irish Sun is published by News International which publishes the Sunday Times in Ireland. The Irish Daily Mail is owned by the UK Daily Mail, and 50 per cent of the Irish Star is owned by Richard Desmond who refuses to join the existing flawed UK regulation scheme.
You can be quite sure that phones have been hacked in Ireland, and each one of you should change the pin number on your mobile phone today if you have not already done so.
Talking about politicians - they have realised that newspaper staff is cut to the bone. So if they have a well-written short story they know it has a great chance of being published. That’s why politicians use journalists to write their stories for them. Just look at the number of former journalists Government ministers use in their press offices.
We should also know that and be doing similar tricks. We need people with media skills who can put across our values in a convincing way. Look at how former Mountjoy governor John Lonergan put a human face on the prison service. He answered questions, told the truth in plain language and people trusted him. Do we have a John Lonergan in the Dominican Order? Do we?
People have no idea the sweat and tears that goes into producing a newspaper. It is hectic frenetic, insane but above all the most satisfying job in the world.
Every Tuesday in the Kerryman I began work at 09.30 and worked until midnight.
Did you know that INM made a decision to stop using full points in all abbreviations in all its publications? Anyone guess why? To save ink and hence save money. It’s money, stupid Clinton.
Do you know what papers INM own in Ireland?
They own 13 regional newspapers.Sligo, Dundalk/Drogheda, Wexford, Wicklow, Bray, Kerry and Cork. The Sunday Independent, The Irish Independent, The Evening Herald, The Sunday World, 49 per cent of The Irish Daily Star, Ireland's Own, The Belfast Telegraph.
Most regional newspapers are owned by INM, Crosby group, Johnston Press and the Alpha Newspaper Group owned by John Taylor – Lord Kilclooney
The NUJ will say it is not a good idea that regional newspapers are owned by four large conglomerates.
Last month the Offaly Independent closed and NUJ’s Seamus Dooley pointed out that what had happened in the newspaper trade has been a dark day for journalism. He pointed out that local newspapers were never a cash cow but during the years of the Celtic Tiger, big
business moved in and bought up most of the regional media. The Clare Champion is still in family hands.
The Leinster Leader has halved its circulation in the last five years. Johnston Press bought it and if they were to recoup their money they would have to put a cover price of €10 on the paper.
The crass obeisance that Irish society gave to the church in Ireland for all my childhood and youth was unusual, to say the least. Certainly not healthy.
Go to your local library and look through old editions of your local newspapers and see how the newspapers were cap in hand with the church. And newspapers always capture the mood of the time. Just look at The Kerryman I
have here from 1953.
That was Ireland.
I think it is worth noting that the Vatican Council ran from 1962 to 1965 and during that time, RTE television was born. So this year we are celebrating 50 years of the Council and RTE Television.
Maybe some of you have read Robert Kaiser’s definitive work on the Vatican Council. In that book Kaiser clearly and in the most descriptive way possible explains that when it comes to being media savvy in any sort of normal way the Vatican was lost. It seemed the Vatican had not got the tools to deal with the modern media.
Redemptorist Francis X Murphy, who used the pseudonym Xavier Rynne revealed the inner workings of the Vatican Council to The New Yorker. He is credited with setting the tone for the popular view of the council, depicting it as conservative versus liberal.
But it is worth noting that the first two documents of Vatican II, from 1963, were the ones on liturgy and on social communication. Vivian Boland said to me that the church has always been very conscious and aware of methods of communication, uses them but also sees itself in rivalry with other 'communicators'. But why the rivalry? The church’s mission is to disseminate the Word of God in the here and now - the world in which we live.
Pope JohnXXlll saw in his election the commission to love the world in a special way, to minister to it and serve it.
The French Dominican Chenu said that the love of truth was more efficacious, more true in the intrepid witness of dialogue than in the protectionism of interdicts and defensive bulwarks.
I saw in a recent edition of the Tablet Archbishop DiNoia says it’s okay to criticise Chenu, Congar and deLubac now.
Karl Barth spoke about a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
So why is the church so scared of an open and free media? Last month they appointed Opus Dei man, Greg Burke to a newly created position of media adviser. Mr Burke has been working for Fox News for the last 10 years!
Fox is owned by the Murdoch [News] Corp. And Rupert Murdoch is a Papal Knight. He received his knighthood in 1998, the year before he married his third wife, Wendi Deng.
In June Rowan Williams commented how poor the Anglican Communion is in disseminating the good news stories it has.
The Vatican Council came and gave a great opportunity to people like Austin Flannery, Sean Mac Reamonn, John Horgan and Louis McRedmond. They were given the opportunity of reporting the workings of the Council, its reports and procedures. They were also able to convey the gossip and magic that surrounds the Vatican. It was a great opportunity for newspapers. But it also allowed some aspects of theological discussion to appear on Irish newspapers.
And Austin Flannery used the opportunity to perfection. He was there at the right moment and he deserves great praise for what he did.
Archbishop McQuaid set up his Radharc team and the Dominicans sent off Rom Dodd and TP McInerney to study radio and TV. When writing the obituary on TP for the Irish Times I contacted Claire Duignan MD of RTE Radio - her respect and praise for Tom really struck me
But the Council document on Communications was actually very different from the ecumenical spirit and practice of Vatican ll. It deals primarily with one church rather than with Christianity at large; it relied on outdated Catholic misconceptions rather than upon creative achievements of the secular mass communication profession and practice.
It falls far short of the high standard established by other documents. One Catholic editor at the time said about it, “it is not only
pre-aggiornamento but definitely pre-Pius Xll.
Isn’t ironic that back then a commentator said that the Decree might one day be cited as a classic example of how Vatican ll failed to come to grips with the world around it.
Of course the Council had its limitations but its efforts meant that the church could never go back to the old ways. Or could it? But certainly it allowed the media to have a less exaggerated opinion or understanding of the church.
Anyone who has been following the current Vatileaks one has to be struck by the tone and the language that the Vatican uses. I for one find their tone alienating.
Cardinal Bertone has spoken of a conspiracy against the church. I’m sure there’s not, but even if there is, to use the word ‘conspiracy’ is immediately setting a bad tone.
Time never stands still and certainly the media carnival never stands still. It is constantly moving from one story to another. News needs to be new. It is voracious for news and sensation. And that too applies to the newspapers of record.
And what better sensational stories, than what has been going on in Mother Church year after year. The mix of the secrecy of the church, its stringent views on all matters dealing with sexuality, makes it so inviting for newspapers.
And may I say the church’s apparent incompetence when it comes to dealing with the media has left the media with no alternative but to behave as it does.
The church considers itself above the ephemeral world of newspapers and that’s why we are where we are.
Never forget that the newspaper of today is used tomorrow as fish and chip wrapper. Of course it is an ephemeral world, a moving vision but it is a medium that people have to use and the church has seldom if ever used it in any sort of professional way.
The church always and ever seems to give the impression that it knows best. Newspapers hate that and so will make it their business to take them down a peg or two.
I remember when I was a novice Fr Basil Prendergast was alleged to have been involved in a coven in England. I think at the time I thought he had married a witch!
It’s a long time ago but I can still remember all the talk was that the provincial had managed to keep it out of the Irish papers but could not keep it out of the News of the World. There was a feeling that we were protecting Ireland by keeping the story out of the papers.
And isn’t that interesting - the church always uses that word SCANDAL. Everything must be kept quiet for fear of scandalising people. Of course papers love SCANDAL
May I jump forward to 2002. I was working in the Kerryman. We received a call at the office from an upset mother. Her son had been convicted of drink driving and she wanted to know would we keep it out of the paper.
It so happened that we did not have a reporter in court on the day. Had she not called we would never have known about it. But once she called we made it our business to get the story and publish it.
That’s how newspapers work. And it is a lesson well worth learning.
I have to admit that I have been ‘damaged’ by journalism. If Helen, Mary and I were walking down the road and we came on a road accident, I imagine Helen Mary’s first reaction would be what to do. Mine might well be to ask where are they from and is there a story in it.
I think what is happening with the Catholic press at present is not at all helpful to the long-term mission of the church. I sometimes get the impression that if it could go back to the old days it would jump at the opportunity.
It’s the small things that catch them out.
Regularly, indeed far too often the Irish Catholic will publish photographs. Every cleric will have his name and title and not a name or title for the non clerics in the same photo. Every week I notice they do that.
When I was with The Kerryman a picture could simply not appear without the name of every single person noted. I spotted a religious publication recently and every single picture
was captionless. That is simply insulting to the reader and crass unprofessionalism.
Take the simplest mistake - how often do we use the word church as if the Catholic church is the only church in the world? Think for a moment of the insult and hurt to people of other Christian denominations. We don’t need to say Catholic church every time, but the first mention in any piece of writing or broadcasting must include it - good manners alone requires that.
I believe we priests have terribly inflated ideas about our own skills. And guess what newspaper editors notice that.
Newspapers owe us nothing, nothing at all.
The church really needs to come down off its high horse and realise that.
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin’s Russia they are in the game of attempting to control media and get media to say nice things about them. We are the church telling the story of the marginalised.
Of course none of us wants to read bad news about ourselves in the newspaper and anyone with a grain of sense would do all in her or his power to keep bad news out of the paper.
When I finish this talk some of you might well say that I have been too harsh. Personally, I think I am being mild mannered and avoiding all hyperbole. And yes I know my long-suffering superiors have me down as a
fully-paid up member of the Awkward Squad.
There are some things I have learned over the years.
When you send something to a newspaper it must be well written, concise. Write it in such a way that after one paragraph the sub editor wants to read on. Presume nothing. One of the great skills I learned as a sub editor was to be able after the first paragraph to know whether or not the person could write.
Be clear, Re read it many times, using the scalpel generously. As a school teacher, I have noticed the improvement students make when they re-read their essays, especially, weaker students. I gave grinds to a young boy who is dyslexic and re-reading work has transformed the boy.
Don’t think that your words are the most important and greatest words ever written. Presume nothing.
Don’t be pompous. Watch out for the little things that might indeed prove far more important than you think. For example, why upper case Priest, Bishop, Cardinal? Only upper case in titles, Doctor Murphy, Bishop Murphy, Cardinal Daly.
Have you ever made it your business to get a copy of a newspaper’s style guide? Have you ever checked out The Guardian’s Style
Guide on the web?
Use simple everyday words. Be truthful. And when you have sent your story by email make sure to follow it up with a telephone call.
I also think it is important for an order or congregation to have a dedicated person who will deal with the media. And by that I mean someone who is a good networker and gets to know journalists.
In the past the networking might have been with editors as it was a power and authoritative relationship. But today it’s important that we get to know the journalists on the ground.
I wonder when last did an Irish Dominican go for lunch or coffee with a journalist.
In my job in the press office in Concern I deal with the regional Irish media and I cannot stress the importance of networking. You cannot imagine how easy my job is as a result of knowing journalists in newspapers.
I have never seen the Irish Media Contacts Directory in any of our priories. I find that strange for an order that says it is dedicated to preaching the Word.
I can well imagine that the art of networking has proved most beneficial for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. No doubt you know his brother. Seamus Martin is a former Irish Times journalist. Ireland is a small place and one journalist knows another and the word spread very fast. And to his credit the archbishop has used his own media savvy and his networking to great benefit.
I think when it comes to dealing with the media and getting across the message of the Gospel it is essential we are gentle and kind, easy with other people. Far too often we give the silly impression of being proud and
arrogant, knowing it all.
And that’s so strange because we all know so little about God.
But I remain convinced that the Church has an amazing privilege and indeed obligation always to stay engaged with the world.
A Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, or at least the electronic versions.
Are we as Dominicans convinced of our message. What is our message? Surely it is one of Good News and hope in a country, in a world that so needs hope.
Do we believe in the importance of our story?
In my job in Concern I hear how people see that our work is worthy but maybe dull. How do we go that extra step to show that our work is yes worthy but also dynamic?
The Good News surely is worthy and dynamic.
What a privilege it is to tell the world.
Thank you.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Dominican Sisters' three day summer seminar
The Irish Dominican Sisters are hosting a three day seminar in Dublin this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The theme is, Vatican II Remembering, Reclaiming, Proclaiming.
Among those speaking are Helen Mary Harmey, Margaret MacCurtain, Bernard Treacy, Seamus Tuohy and Bishop Richard Clarke.
The writer of this blog is speaking tomorrow on the media. The theme of the talk is that the primary purpose of newspapers is to make money for shareholders and that there is not a media agenda against the Catholic Church.
Among those speaking are Helen Mary Harmey, Margaret MacCurtain, Bernard Treacy, Seamus Tuohy and Bishop Richard Clarke.
The writer of this blog is speaking tomorrow on the media. The theme of the talk is that the primary purpose of newspapers is to make money for shareholders and that there is not a media agenda against the Catholic Church.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
ACP assemblies in Galway and Mallow
The Association of Catholic Priests has announced regional assemblies for Galway and Mallow.
The Galway assembly is planned for October 6 in Galway's Clayton Hotel and the Mallow assembly is in the Commons Inn on October 13.
Over 1,000 people attended the meeting in Dublin in May.
The Galway assembly is planned for October 6 in Galway's Clayton Hotel and the Mallow assembly is in the Commons Inn on October 13.
Over 1,000 people attended the meeting in Dublin in May.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
It was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany
 |
| Georgi Zhukov |
 |
| Friedrich Paulus |
Seventy years ago today the battle of Stalingrad began.
It lasted until the following February.
Zhukov told Paulus he would see him again in Berlin
He did.
Zhukov went on to be the Soviet man in charge of Berlin after the war.
He became Soviet Defence Minister. Stalin fired him and he was later rehabilitated.
His two daughters became well-known personalities travelling all over Russia speaking about their famous father.
Paulus lived out his life in Dresden and was an adviser to the East German army.His two daughters became well-known personalities travelling all over Russia speaking about their famous father.
His body was brought for burial in Baden, in the then West Germany, next to that of his wife, who had died in 1949 having not seen her husband since his departure for the Eastern front in the summer of 1942.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Two articles, one neutral, one nasty
Saturday's 'Irish Times' Weekend Supplement carried a feature on gay marriage. The page-long feature was titled 'How gay marriage went mainstream'.
The article was written by Kathy Sheridan.
There was nothing nasty or sneering about the piece. It told the story of what has happened in Ireland over the last few years and how people now accept the phenomenon of civil partnerships, whether a couple is tying the knot in Longford or Enniscorthy.
In the current issue of 'Alive' there is an editorial on the same topic. The anger and nastiness in the piece screams out at the reader.
What does that mean? Is it saying something?
The article was written by Kathy Sheridan.
There was nothing nasty or sneering about the piece. It told the story of what has happened in Ireland over the last few years and how people now accept the phenomenon of civil partnerships, whether a couple is tying the knot in Longford or Enniscorthy.
In the current issue of 'Alive' there is an editorial on the same topic. The anger and nastiness in the piece screams out at the reader.
What does that mean? Is it saying something?
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Irish don't like to talk about sex
Mentioned on this blog last week, Dil Wickremasinghe writes again this week in The Irish Times.
She blames the Catholic Church for the fact that Irish people don't like to talk about sex.
What would she write if she spent two or three years living in a religious community, especially a place where men 'train' to be priests.
It would be interesting to know what she would write about those who 'form' the 'trainees'.
Of course Dil Wickremasinghe has not the definitive word on the topic. But surely those who think they have, certainly don't.
She blames the Catholic Church for the fact that Irish people don't like to talk about sex.
What would she write if she spent two or three years living in a religious community, especially a place where men 'train' to be priests.
It would be interesting to know what she would write about those who 'form' the 'trainees'.
Of course Dil Wickremasinghe has not the definitive word on the topic. But surely those who think they have, certainly don't.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Even the Germans need to work harder
Every thing is relative.
Today General Motors announced a change at their Opel plant in Rüsselsheim in Germany.
The current MD is being replaced by GM's US vice president.
German car industry commentators point out that the new man from the US is 'tough' and the Germans are in for harsh times.
Today General Motors announced a change at their Opel plant in Rüsselsheim in Germany.
The current MD is being replaced by GM's US vice president.
German car industry commentators point out that the new man from the US is 'tough' and the Germans are in for harsh times.
Kind and easy words go a long way
Of course it's tempting to read our own interpretation ino the Bible. But the Gospel reading today gives the impression of someone who tells his disciples to go easy on other people. If they are not interested in what you are saying then head off somewhere else.
There is something gentle and nice about that. There is certainly nothing strident or fanatical about it.
How lucky we are to live in a system that, more or less, allows people to be.
Being trenchant about anything seems unattractive.
How can anyone ever be trenchant when it comes to do with God? Is that not heading towards idolatry?
There is something gentle and nice about that. There is certainly nothing strident or fanatical about it.
How lucky we are to live in a system that, more or less, allows people to be.
Being trenchant about anything seems unattractive.
How can anyone ever be trenchant when it comes to do with God? Is that not heading towards idolatry?
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Dominican gives thumbs up to criticise French brothers
 |
| Archbishop Di Noia talks of retreat. |
US Dominican Archbishop Gus DiNoia, has told an American Catholic paper he believes "the dominant progressivism reading of the Second Vatican Council is in retreat" and this should make it easier to reconcile the so-called Lefebvrists with Rome.
Archbishop DiNoia said he was "sympathetic" towards the Lefebvrists and some of their concerns.
DiNoia was in the past elected provinical of his Dominican province in the US but the election was not upheld by the then Master of the Order, Timothy Radcliffe.
At the time there was much speculation as to why the worldwide head of the Dominican Order had not sanctioned DiNoia's election.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
A woman who finds freedom in Dublin
Dil Wickremasinghe writes a piece in today's Irish Times on last Saturday's Gay Pride parade in Dublin, which attracted an estimated 30,000 people.
She writes about her own sexual discovery growing up in Sri Lanka and how life was 'incredibly hard' for her.
The theme of last Saturday's Dublin parade was, 'Show your true colours'.
Were there any Catholic priests present in the parade?
The story of Dil Wickremasinghe is interesting and sad too - her mother threw her out and her father suggested she kill herself. Horrific.
So what happens gay men who are priests? What would have happened gay priests had they marched last Saturday? Would they be asked not to march? Would they be asked to retire from their priesthood? Would they be asked to hide or deny their sexual orientation?
Why is it that priests, who are gay, appear to be misogynysts, unlike open gay men?
Why is it that gay priests, in the norm, are trenchant in their conservatism?
Why is it that closet gay priests place such great emphasis on ritual and liturgy?
What happens in a religious communiity when the number of gay men outnumbers those who are heterosexual?
Does it matter?
Is it more healthy for it all to be swept under the carpet?
Reading Dil Wickremasinghe, it would seem the role of silence and denial is not healthy.
Anyone with a close expereince with the institutional church must be forced to agree with Dil Wickremasinghe.
She writes about her own sexual discovery growing up in Sri Lanka and how life was 'incredibly hard' for her.
The theme of last Saturday's Dublin parade was, 'Show your true colours'.
Were there any Catholic priests present in the parade?
The story of Dil Wickremasinghe is interesting and sad too - her mother threw her out and her father suggested she kill herself. Horrific.
So what happens gay men who are priests? What would have happened gay priests had they marched last Saturday? Would they be asked not to march? Would they be asked to retire from their priesthood? Would they be asked to hide or deny their sexual orientation?
Why is it that priests, who are gay, appear to be misogynysts, unlike open gay men?
Why is it that gay priests, in the norm, are trenchant in their conservatism?
Why is it that closet gay priests place such great emphasis on ritual and liturgy?
What happens in a religious communiity when the number of gay men outnumbers those who are heterosexual?
Does it matter?
Is it more healthy for it all to be swept under the carpet?
Reading Dil Wickremasinghe, it would seem the role of silence and denial is not healthy.
Anyone with a close expereince with the institutional church must be forced to agree with Dil Wickremasinghe.
Amos - a prophet for our time
The first reading at Mass today is from the prophet Amos.
Amos lived between 783 and 743. It was a period of prosperity in the Northern Kingdom but it was also a time when the wealthy exploited the poor.
A quote from the Jerusalem Bible: "Fine liturgical show disguised the lack of sound religion."
Amos was surely a man of our time.
And guess what he was expelled from Israel.
Among the things he condemned was the deceitful consolation of insincere ceremonial.
Amos lived between 783 and 743. It was a period of prosperity in the Northern Kingdom but it was also a time when the wealthy exploited the poor.
A quote from the Jerusalem Bible: "Fine liturgical show disguised the lack of sound religion."
Amos was surely a man of our time.
And guess what he was expelled from Israel.
Among the things he condemned was the deceitful consolation of insincere ceremonial.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Brave words of von Galen
This is an excerpt of a sermon by Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral, in which he risked his life by openly condemning the Nazi euthanasia programme.
Fellow Christians! In the pastoral letter of the German bishops of June 26, 1941, which was read out in all the Catholic churches in Germany on July 6, 1941, it states among other things: It is true that there are definite commandments in Catholic moral doctrine which are no longer applicable if their fulfillment involves too many difficulties.
However, there are sacred obligations of conscience from which no one has the power to release us and which we must fulfil even if it costs us our lives. Never under any circumstances may a human being kill an innocent person apart from war and legitimate self-defense. On July 6, I already had cause to add to the pastoral letter the following explanation: for some months we have been hearing reports that, on the orders of Berlin, patients from mental asylums who have been ill for a long time and may appear incurable, are being compulsorily removed. Then, after a short time, the relatives are regularly informed that the corpse has been burnt and the ashes can be delivered. There is a general suspicion verging on certainty, that these numerous unexpected deaths of mentally ill people do not occur of themselves but are deliberately brought about, that the doctrine is being followed, according to which one may destroy so-called 'worthless life,' that is, kill innocent people if one considers that their lives are of no further value for the nation and the state.
I am reliably informed that lists are also being drawn up in the asylums of the province of Westphalia as well of those patients who are to be taken away as so-called 'unproductive national comrades' and shortly to be killed. The first transport left the Marienthal institution near Münster during this past week.
German men and women, section 211 of the Reich Penal Code is still valid. It states: 'He who deliberately kills another person will be punished by death for murder if the killing is premeditated.'
Those patients who are destined to be killed are transported away from home to a distant asylum presumably in order to protect those who deliberately kill those poor people, members of our families, from this legal punishment. Some illness is then given as the cause of death. Since the corpse has been burnt straight away, the relatives and also the criminal police are unable to establish whether the illness really occurred and what the cause of death was.
However, I have been assured that the Reich Interior Ministry and the office of the Reich Doctors' Leader, Dr. Conti, make no bones about the fact that in reality a large number of mentally ill people in Germany have been deliberately killed and more will be killed in the future.
The Penal Code lays down in section 139: 'He who receives credible information concerning the intention to commit a crime against life and neglects to alert the authorities or the person who is threatened in time...will be punished.'
When I learned of the intention to transport patients from Marienthal in order to kill them, I brought a formal charge at the State Court in Münster and with the Police President in Münster by means of a registered letter which read as follows: "According to information which I have received, in the course of this week a large number of patients from the Marienthal Provincial Asylum near Münster are to be transported to the Eichberg asylum as so-called 'unproductive national comrades' and will then soon be deliberately killed, as is generally believed has occurred with such transports from other asylums. Since such an action is not only contrary to the moral laws of God and Nature but also is punishable with death as murder under section 211 of the Penal Code, I hereby bring a charge in accordance with my duty under section 139 of the Penal Code, and request you to provide immediate protection for the national comrades threatened in this way by taking action against those agencies who are intending their removal and murder, and that you inform me of the steps that have been taken."
I have received no news concerning intervention by the Prosecutor's Office or by the police...Thus we must assume that the poor helpless patients will soon be killed.
For what reason?
Not because they have committed a crime worthy of death. Not because they attacked their nurses or orderlies so that the latter had no other choice but to use legitimate force to defend their lives against their attackers. Those are cases where, in addition to the killing of an armed enemy in a just war, the use of force to the point of killing is allowed and is often required.
No, it is not for such reasons that these unfortunate patients must die but rather because, in the opinion of some department, on the testimony of some commission, they have become 'worthless life' because according to this testimony they are 'unproductive national comrades.' The argument goes: they can no longer produce commodities, they are like an old machine that no longer works, they are like an old horse which has become incurably lame, they are like a cow which no longer gives milk.
What does one do with such an old machine? It is thrown on the scrap heap. What does one do with a lame horse, with such an unproductive cow?
No, I do not want to continue the comparison to the end--however fearful the justification for it and the symbolic force of it are. We are not dealing with machines, horses and cows whose only function is to serve mankind, to produce goods for man. One may smash them, one may slaughter them as soon as they no longer fulfil this function.
No, we are dealing with human beings, our fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters. With poor people, sick people, if you like unproductive people.
But have they for that reason forfeited the right to life?
Have you, have I the right to live only so long as we are productive, so long as we are recognized by others as productive?
If you establish and apply the principle that you can kill 'unproductive' fellow human beings then woe betide us all when we become old and frail! If one is allowed to kill the unproductive people then woe betide the invalids who have used up, sacrificed and lost their health and strength in the productive process. If one is allowed forcibly to remove one's unproductive fellow human beings then woe betide loyal soldiers who return to the homeland seriously disabled, as cripples, as invalids. If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill 'unproductive' fellow humans--and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill--then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive.
Then, it is only necessary for some secret edict to order that the method developed for the mentally ill should be extended to other 'unproductive' people, that it should be applied to those suffering from incurable lung disease, to the elderly who are frail or invalids, to the severely disabled soldiers. Then none of our lives will be safe any more. Some commission can put us on the list of the 'unproductive,' who in their opinion have become worthless life. And no police force will protect us and no court will investigate our murder and give the murderer the punishment he deserves.
Who will be able to trust his doctor any more?
He may report his patient as 'unproductive' and receive instructions to kill him. It is impossible to imagine the degree of moral depravity, of general mistrust that would then spread even through families if this dreadful doctrine is tolerated, accepted and followed.
Woe to mankind, woe to our German nation if God's Holy Commandment 'Thou shalt not kill,' which God proclaimed on Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning, which God our Creator inscribed in the conscience of mankind from the very beginning, is not only broken, but if this transgression is actually tolerated and permitted to go unpunished.
Cardinal Clemens von Galen - August 3, 1941
The sermon sent a shockwave through the Nazi leadership all the way up to Hitler. As a result, on August 23, 1941, Hitler suspended Aktion T4.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Vatican first state to recognise Franco
The piece below appears in this week's Independent News and Media Irish regional newspapers. INM has 14 regional newspapers in Ireland. Audited readership figures for INM regionals is 440,000
By Michael Commane
As a result of what I wrote in last week’s column about Cardinal Dolan and clerical dress a local radio station invited me to discuss the topic on a
lunchtime programme.
And then the following day I received a text message from an elderly lady,
who is a friend of mine and very kind to me. But she always tells it as it is.
In her text message she wrote: “Why r U always giving out about the
Catholic Church? What it needs now is support?”
Of course I listened to what she said. I always do. Indeed, I telephoned
her but in the meantime something else had happened within the church that
had annoyed me and her too, I think.
I take my friend’s point. But I certainly would hate to belong to a church
of sycophants and ‘yes-men’.
Intercom is a pastoral and liturgical resource magazine published by
Veritas Group, an agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Commission on
Communications.
The magazine appears 10 times a year. Many priests use it as a help in
preparing their liturgies and sermons.
In a short question and answer section on topics for last Sunday’s Mass Fr
Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap writes: “Open debate is one thing but open
dissent is another. There are enough critics outside the Church without
critics from within tearing it apart”.
Had I not come across that comment I might well have taken the advice of my
elderly friend and covered over the cracks and be ‘real nice’ in the column
this week.
I think Fr O’Flynn expresses a terrible ghetto mentality. I don’t believe
the church, the people of God, should see itself as being attacked from
outside. Surely the message of the Gospel is one of kindness, love,
persuasion and gentleness. The church is not an organisation, surrounded by
watchtowers, protecting itself from the world. Any cursory reading of the
Gospel will rid the reader of such banal ideas.
Some weeks ago I heard a commentator on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) claiming that the church had every reason to be triumphalistic.
That sounds horrible to me. Surely the church founded by Jesus Christ is a
church for the marginalised and always in support of the weak, the fragile,
those who are poor and in need of care, love and support.
So it is in that context that I spotted a church related topic during the
week that made me wonder about the church into which I was ordained a
priest 38 years ago on Saturday next.
The Vatican became the first foreign state to recognise the hastily
installed Federico Franco as President of Paraguay, after Fernando Lugo, a
former bishop, was forced from office.
Experts say Lugo’s removal from power is both a ‘coup’ and a ‘legal act’.
In his four years as president Lugo had established free health care,
extended free education by three years, given increased funding to schools
and introduced financial support for families whose children were begging
on the streets.
In a letter written by the Dominican Order from Asuncion, the capital of
Paraguay, we are told that: “The Senate removed Lugo in a political
judgement totally rejected by the citizens, who are in favour of those
social changes which were opening a way towards a more dignified life for
all.” The letter goes on to say that fortunately: “In the midst of the
unacceptable situation taking place in Paraguay, we have the support of the
international community”.
The foreign secretaries of 12 countries, which form the Union of South
American Nations (Unasur) were present in Asuncion and expressed their complete solidarity for the people of Paraguay, and they back
constitutional President Fernando Lugo.
MERCOSUR, a trading partnership of four South American countries meeting
last weekend suspended Paraguay from participation in support of ousted
President Fernando Lugo.
The Dominican letter finishes, thanking fellow Dominicans around the world
who have shown them solidarity and support.
And then we learn of how the Vatican is the first state to recognise the
new man. This is followed by a picture in the international press of a
bishop warmly embracing the new president, Federico Franco.
In last week’s Tablet, which is a an International Catholic weekly
magazine, published in the UK, Irish Dominican Larry Kelly, who spent many
years working in South America, writes a succinct and clear letter arguing
that the ‘coup’ must not be allowed succeed.
Now according to Fr Silvester O’Flynn, criticism from ‘within’ tears the
church apart’.
Mmm, I’m not sure about that. Indeed, I would have thought dialogue has to
be part of any institution or organisation that would ever claim to mention
the name of Jesus Christ.
By Michael Commane
As a result of what I wrote in last week’s column about Cardinal Dolan and clerical dress a local radio station invited me to discuss the topic on a
lunchtime programme.
And then the following day I received a text message from an elderly lady,
who is a friend of mine and very kind to me. But she always tells it as it is.
In her text message she wrote: “Why r U always giving out about the
Catholic Church? What it needs now is support?”
Of course I listened to what she said. I always do. Indeed, I telephoned
her but in the meantime something else had happened within the church that
had annoyed me and her too, I think.
I take my friend’s point. But I certainly would hate to belong to a church
of sycophants and ‘yes-men’.
Intercom is a pastoral and liturgical resource magazine published by
Veritas Group, an agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Commission on
Communications.
The magazine appears 10 times a year. Many priests use it as a help in
preparing their liturgies and sermons.
In a short question and answer section on topics for last Sunday’s Mass Fr
Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap writes: “Open debate is one thing but open
dissent is another. There are enough critics outside the Church without
critics from within tearing it apart”.
Had I not come across that comment I might well have taken the advice of my
elderly friend and covered over the cracks and be ‘real nice’ in the column
this week.
I think Fr O’Flynn expresses a terrible ghetto mentality. I don’t believe
the church, the people of God, should see itself as being attacked from
outside. Surely the message of the Gospel is one of kindness, love,
persuasion and gentleness. The church is not an organisation, surrounded by
watchtowers, protecting itself from the world. Any cursory reading of the
Gospel will rid the reader of such banal ideas.
Some weeks ago I heard a commentator on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) claiming that the church had every reason to be triumphalistic.
That sounds horrible to me. Surely the church founded by Jesus Christ is a
church for the marginalised and always in support of the weak, the fragile,
those who are poor and in need of care, love and support.
So it is in that context that I spotted a church related topic during the
week that made me wonder about the church into which I was ordained a
priest 38 years ago on Saturday next.
The Vatican became the first foreign state to recognise the hastily
installed Federico Franco as President of Paraguay, after Fernando Lugo, a
former bishop, was forced from office.
Experts say Lugo’s removal from power is both a ‘coup’ and a ‘legal act’.
In his four years as president Lugo had established free health care,
extended free education by three years, given increased funding to schools
and introduced financial support for families whose children were begging
on the streets.
In a letter written by the Dominican Order from Asuncion, the capital of
Paraguay, we are told that: “The Senate removed Lugo in a political
judgement totally rejected by the citizens, who are in favour of those
social changes which were opening a way towards a more dignified life for
all.” The letter goes on to say that fortunately: “In the midst of the
unacceptable situation taking place in Paraguay, we have the support of the
international community”.
The foreign secretaries of 12 countries, which form the Union of South
American Nations (Unasur) were present in Asuncion and expressed their complete solidarity for the people of Paraguay, and they back
constitutional President Fernando Lugo.
MERCOSUR, a trading partnership of four South American countries meeting
last weekend suspended Paraguay from participation in support of ousted
President Fernando Lugo.
The Dominican letter finishes, thanking fellow Dominicans around the world
who have shown them solidarity and support.
And then we learn of how the Vatican is the first state to recognise the
new man. This is followed by a picture in the international press of a
bishop warmly embracing the new president, Federico Franco.
In last week’s Tablet, which is a an International Catholic weekly
magazine, published in the UK, Irish Dominican Larry Kelly, who spent many
years working in South America, writes a succinct and clear letter arguing
that the ‘coup’ must not be allowed succeed.
Now according to Fr Silvester O’Flynn, criticism from ‘within’ tears the
church apart’.
Mmm, I’m not sure about that. Indeed, I would have thought dialogue has to
be part of any institution or organisation that would ever claim to mention
the name of Jesus Christ.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Church sides with well dressed right wing
The Vatican has appointed Greg Burke from Fox News to its press office.
Fox News is owned by Murdoch Corp, which has been found to have behaved in a most dishonourable and illegal fashion in the UK.
The Vatican is the first foreign state to recognise Federico Franco as President of Paraguay.
Vatican appointed Cardinal Dolan on reporting on the state of the Irish church criticises the 'sloppy dress' of clerics and clerical students in the Irish College in Rome.
It would seem the Vatican puts great importance on style and dress.
Sad days and the future looks bleak.
Irish Dominican Larry Kelly has to be a flicker of light in these dark days in the church.
In the current issue of The Tablet Fr Kelly has a letter standing in solidarity with the deposed legitimately elected President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo.
Fox News is owned by Murdoch Corp, which has been found to have behaved in a most dishonourable and illegal fashion in the UK.
The Vatican is the first foreign state to recognise Federico Franco as President of Paraguay.
Vatican appointed Cardinal Dolan on reporting on the state of the Irish church criticises the 'sloppy dress' of clerics and clerical students in the Irish College in Rome.
It would seem the Vatican puts great importance on style and dress.
Sad days and the future looks bleak.
Irish Dominican Larry Kelly has to be a flicker of light in these dark days in the church.
In the current issue of The Tablet Fr Kelly has a letter standing in solidarity with the deposed legitimately elected President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Dominicans oppose 'coup' in Paraguay
The piece below is a letter from the Dominicans in Paraguay about current political developments in the country.
International newspapers carried a photograph last week of the new man in Paraguay being embraced by a bishop!
The Dominicans are to be commended.
Asunción June 22nd, 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Dominican Family,
I write to you from Asunción, where the brothers of the Vicariate Council are meeting.
As you probably all know, the meeting coincides with something which has happened here, a ´coup ´disguised as a political trial, against the President, Fernando Lugo. Not only has this one person been put through this process in a lamentable and unjust way, but above all a democratic process, which has tried to revert the history of Paraguay in favor of the excluded and the poorest of its society, has suffered the consequences. We have had nearly four years in which the dreams of many men and women have begun to be realized. They are dreams of justice and equality in a country where health, education, land, work - human dignity - were not to be empty words but concrete realities which made for a more dignified life for the whole Paraguayan people.
Many of our Dominican brothers – Jorge, Pedro, Toni, Leo, Ramón, Gabriel, Rubén, Francisco and Pedro are committed to the realization of these dreams. They are Friars who live and work in places like the Bañado, Roque, María Antonia, La Crucita, and the University; who accompany married people, and other people on their personal journeys. In the same way, some of our Paraguayan brothers in Uruguay and Argentina – Cristino, Edgar, Felipe, Edgar Rubén, Cirilo and Felix – accompany their compatriots who have emigrated to these countries, through their pastoral work.
We are filled by a great sense of frustration and powerlessness after so many efforts made by the brothers so that the Kingdom would become a reality. Once more, the politicians who defend the interests of the wealthy, seize the heritage of the weak. With an unjust judgement, Ahab and Jezebel seized the vineyard of Naboth, and ended up killing him (1 Kings 21) Today in the Senate, history is repeated. The words of God through the prophet Elijah could be repeated to the members of the Senate : ¨In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth´s blood, they will lick up your blood ! ¨ No one can hold back the process of the Kingdom. We believe in it, and we live for it, as preachers.
Our brothers of Paraguay will continue to be committed to it. We pray to the Lord for all of them, and also for the lay men and women of the Lay Fraternities, and for the Sisters of the Dominican Congregations who work in Paraguay. We pray that they do not fall away from their commitment to the poorest and the most needy of their society. May they be able to sense our solidarity and close fraternal support in these difficult moments.
Your brother,
Rafael Colome Angelats
rcolomeop@gmail.com
International newspapers carried a photograph last week of the new man in Paraguay being embraced by a bishop!
The Dominicans are to be commended.
Asunción June 22nd, 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Dominican Family,
I write to you from Asunción, where the brothers of the Vicariate Council are meeting.
As you probably all know, the meeting coincides with something which has happened here, a ´coup ´disguised as a political trial, against the President, Fernando Lugo. Not only has this one person been put through this process in a lamentable and unjust way, but above all a democratic process, which has tried to revert the history of Paraguay in favor of the excluded and the poorest of its society, has suffered the consequences. We have had nearly four years in which the dreams of many men and women have begun to be realized. They are dreams of justice and equality in a country where health, education, land, work - human dignity - were not to be empty words but concrete realities which made for a more dignified life for the whole Paraguayan people.
Many of our Dominican brothers – Jorge, Pedro, Toni, Leo, Ramón, Gabriel, Rubén, Francisco and Pedro are committed to the realization of these dreams. They are Friars who live and work in places like the Bañado, Roque, María Antonia, La Crucita, and the University; who accompany married people, and other people on their personal journeys. In the same way, some of our Paraguayan brothers in Uruguay and Argentina – Cristino, Edgar, Felipe, Edgar Rubén, Cirilo and Felix – accompany their compatriots who have emigrated to these countries, through their pastoral work.
We are filled by a great sense of frustration and powerlessness after so many efforts made by the brothers so that the Kingdom would become a reality. Once more, the politicians who defend the interests of the wealthy, seize the heritage of the weak. With an unjust judgement, Ahab and Jezebel seized the vineyard of Naboth, and ended up killing him (1 Kings 21) Today in the Senate, history is repeated. The words of God through the prophet Elijah could be repeated to the members of the Senate : ¨In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth´s blood, they will lick up your blood ! ¨ No one can hold back the process of the Kingdom. We believe in it, and we live for it, as preachers.
Our brothers of Paraguay will continue to be committed to it. We pray to the Lord for all of them, and also for the lay men and women of the Lay Fraternities, and for the Sisters of the Dominican Congregations who work in Paraguay. We pray that they do not fall away from their commitment to the poorest and the most needy of their society. May they be able to sense our solidarity and close fraternal support in these difficult moments.
Your brother,
Rafael Colome Angelats
rcolomeop@gmail.com
There is little 'mystery' about being nasty and petty
Pope Benedict in his address to the pilgrms at Croke Park used the word 'mystery' when referring to the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
It is difficult to know what he meant.
But the entire issue has been clouded by the institutional church.
There may well be a problem within priesthood that has played a role in all that has happened. But the basic and primary issue is the cover up that the institutional church has perpetrated.
It's the nastiness, jealousy, the petiness, the stupidity of elements within the hierarchical church that has alienated so many people from the church.
And there is no process in place to try to change things. And all the time more good people say adieu to the church they wish to love and serve.
It is difficult to know what he meant.
But the entire issue has been clouded by the institutional church.
There may well be a problem within priesthood that has played a role in all that has happened. But the basic and primary issue is the cover up that the institutional church has perpetrated.
It's the nastiness, jealousy, the petiness, the stupidity of elements within the hierarchical church that has alienated so many people from the church.
And there is no process in place to try to change things. And all the time more good people say adieu to the church they wish to love and serve.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Just how important is clerical dress?
This column appears in this week's Independent News and Media Irish regional newspapers.
And then on the Friday of the International Eucharistic Congress I read in the Irish Times that Cardinal Dolan is concerned about the ‘sloppy’ dress of priests and seminarians in the Irish College in Rome.
Really, what an amazing comment. Imagine if there were an examination of Irish universities and the report commented on the dress of teachers and students. We would all laugh.
I’d like to laugh at what I read but I’m much more inclined to cry and let me try to explain why.
In all my years as a Dominican I have found the clerical dress business, interesting, to say the least.
I certainly am much happier to see a priest dressed in a ‘sloppy’ way than like a mannequin, perfectly groomed.
Please don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with a person wearing clerical garb, especially older men, who grew up in that world.
Yes, a priest can wear his collar and be the finest of men and an inspiring spiritual leader. But that is because of the man that he is, not the collar he is wearing.
Clothing is neither here nor there. It certainly shouldn't be important now, just as it won't be important in the end: “for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. (Luke 12:15), nor - I feel - in the appearance of one’s attire.
And why anyway, the Roman collar? Why should a priest dress in such a way to separate himself at once from other people? Why prance around looking so different from other people. What in God's name has it got to do with the mercy and love of God?
By Michael Commane
 |
| Legionaries of Christ founder Marcial Maciel with Pope John Paul ll |
It must have been sometime in the winter that I took a bus out to the Dominican Priory in Tallaght to meet two of the Roman ‘Visitators’.
It was part of the Roman examination into the Irish church. We were told it was an attempt to get some sort of understanding of what had gone wrong.
The two people who interviewed me were polite. I felt they listened to me and I certainly was impressed with them. One was a priest from the US and the other person was a religious sister from Ireland.
I had less than ten minutes with them. On leaving the room I commented that I was sure nothing I said would be taken seriously. They assured me it would and that they had taken note of everything I said.
So far I have not seen or heard a word of the report except what I have read in the newspapers.
I would think that if I take part in an investigation, then the least I might expect would be that I’d see the finished report.
And then on the Friday of the International Eucharistic Congress I read in the Irish Times that Cardinal Dolan is concerned about the ‘sloppy’ dress of priests and seminarians in the Irish College in Rome.
Really, what an amazing comment. Imagine if there were an examination of Irish universities and the report commented on the dress of teachers and students. We would all laugh.
I’d like to laugh at what I read but I’m much more inclined to cry and let me try to explain why.
In all my years as a Dominican I have found the clerical dress business, interesting, to say the least.
I certainly am much happier to see a priest dressed in a ‘sloppy’ way than like a mannequin, perfectly groomed.
Please don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with a person wearing clerical garb, especially older men, who grew up in that world.
Yes, a priest can wear his collar and be the finest of men and an inspiring spiritual leader. But that is because of the man that he is, not the collar he is wearing.
Clothing is neither here nor there. It certainly shouldn't be important now, just as it won't be important in the end: “for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. (Luke 12:15), nor - I feel - in the appearance of one’s attire.
And why anyway, the Roman collar? Why should a priest dress in such a way to separate himself at once from other people? Why prance around looking so different from other people. What in God's name has it got to do with the mercy and love of God?
Is it clever trick for people to set themselves apart, especially people who are scared of their own personal identities?
I went to the Eucharistic Congress on the Thursday. I went primarily to hear the English Dominican, Fr Timothy Radcliffe.
That same day I saw so many men prancing about in habits as if screaming out –‘here I am, am I not wonderful, I’m different, I have a great message to convey’. I did not know whether to cry or laugh. And mind you, clerical accessories can be very expensive brands.
That same day I met Bishop Willie Walsh, walking about, dressed like a ‘normal man’. He was so gentle, unassuming, funny too. Apart from Fr Radcliffe's words on being present to the sick, Willie Walsh was the one who left me with some sanity, some purpose in being a priest in times which seem to be getting very worrying.
And then I'm reminded of living in Rome in the mid 1970s and observing the clothing of young men who were members of the Legionaries of Christ. They were dressed so perfectly and all in similar style suits. They all carried similar briefcases. They looked so ‘clerical’. Quite silly too.
I imagine Cardinal Dolan would consider them a great example of how to dress. And just at that time the congregation was led by Fr Marcial Maciel. He founded the congregation. He and his congregation were much praised by the Vatican. Maybe their clothes impressed the people in the Vatican.
Since then the Reverend Maciel, who had the ear of popes, cardinals, the entire panoply of the Vatican bureaucracy, has been discovered for what he was.
And in the meantime I’d like to see the full Vatican report on the Irish Catholic Church.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
The hand of the Lord is with us
The piece below is the 'Thinking Anew' column in today's Irish Times.
My father was 95 when he died. He was swimming in the sea until he was 92 and it was only in the last five months or so of his life that his mind began to falter.
Any time I asked him what were the best years of his life, he always gave
me the same answer; "When you were all small".
It is something I never forget. When I am in the company of young people
with children I always quote my late father's comment about the best years
of his life.
Next month I am baptising a new-born baby and I'm sure I'll quote my Dad to
them.
Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, the one who prepared
the way for Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.
Luke's gospel tells us of the events surrounding John's birth, how his
father's speech is returned to him on giving his child the name of John,
“And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned
and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and
the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judea."
(Luke 1: 63 - 65)
Christians believe that everything surrounding the incarnation involves an
extraordinary divine intervention. God touches the world in a unique way.
There is always the temptation to over-concentrate on the spectacular, and
when we do that there is the possibility that we might take our attention
off the daily routine, the life and world around us, the things we do,
experience and see every day.
Scripture tells us that the birth of John the Baptist is surrounded by
extraordinary events.
But John the Baptist's birth, the birth of Jesus, we believe have lifted
all human reality to a new and really spectacular level. Those events have
made even more extraordinary everything to do with life, birth and living.
It's easy to take the everyday for granted, almost to pass it by as if
there were nothing extraordinary about it. But when out of the ordinary
events happen, unexpected personal tragedy happens, we suddenly ask why and certainly we are forced to ask what at all is life about.
It is also the case when some great event happens we stand back and wonder at the mystery of it all. The astonishing joy the birth of a child gives is one of those special moments that lift our souls to great joy. But far too
often the great dreams at birth do not translate into reality. Far too many
children are the first to suffer in war, economic downturn, family
disharmony. And every time we help improve the life of a child we are
acknowledging the miracle of the birth of John the Baptist. We are helping
fulfil his mission of preparing the way for the presence of God in the
world.
If only we could allow ourselves to be surprised by the wonder of the world
that is around us. Of course it is not always easy. But there is something
in the human spirit that challenges us to see the wonder, the mystery, and
the sadness and the pain – that too is part of our fate.
We get on with it. We have an astonishing ability to cope. We call on God's name to help us. We listen to God's word and try to live it.
There are good times and bad times. And I can well see why my father said
the best years were when we were small. Birth is sensational. It's the
beginning of an astonishing adventure, an adventure of which we should
never get tired.
By living it to the full, in all its strange and mysterious ways, we are
acknowledging that the hand of the Lord is with us.
Michael Commane OP
My father was 95 when he died. He was swimming in the sea until he was 92 and it was only in the last five months or so of his life that his mind began to falter.
Any time I asked him what were the best years of his life, he always gave
me the same answer; "When you were all small".
It is something I never forget. When I am in the company of young people
with children I always quote my late father's comment about the best years
of his life.
Next month I am baptising a new-born baby and I'm sure I'll quote my Dad to
them.
Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, the one who prepared
the way for Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.
Luke's gospel tells us of the events surrounding John's birth, how his
father's speech is returned to him on giving his child the name of John,
“And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned
and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and
the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judea."
(Luke 1: 63 - 65)
Christians believe that everything surrounding the incarnation involves an
extraordinary divine intervention. God touches the world in a unique way.
There is always the temptation to over-concentrate on the spectacular, and
when we do that there is the possibility that we might take our attention
off the daily routine, the life and world around us, the things we do,
experience and see every day.
Scripture tells us that the birth of John the Baptist is surrounded by
extraordinary events.
But John the Baptist's birth, the birth of Jesus, we believe have lifted
all human reality to a new and really spectacular level. Those events have
made even more extraordinary everything to do with life, birth and living.
It's easy to take the everyday for granted, almost to pass it by as if
there were nothing extraordinary about it. But when out of the ordinary
events happen, unexpected personal tragedy happens, we suddenly ask why and certainly we are forced to ask what at all is life about.
It is also the case when some great event happens we stand back and wonder at the mystery of it all. The astonishing joy the birth of a child gives is one of those special moments that lift our souls to great joy. But far too
often the great dreams at birth do not translate into reality. Far too many
children are the first to suffer in war, economic downturn, family
disharmony. And every time we help improve the life of a child we are
acknowledging the miracle of the birth of John the Baptist. We are helping
fulfil his mission of preparing the way for the presence of God in the
world.
If only we could allow ourselves to be surprised by the wonder of the world
that is around us. Of course it is not always easy. But there is something
in the human spirit that challenges us to see the wonder, the mystery, and
the sadness and the pain – that too is part of our fate.
We get on with it. We have an astonishing ability to cope. We call on God's name to help us. We listen to God's word and try to live it.
There are good times and bad times. And I can well see why my father said
the best years were when we were small. Birth is sensational. It's the
beginning of an astonishing adventure, an adventure of which we should
never get tired.
By living it to the full, in all its strange and mysterious ways, we are
acknowledging that the hand of the Lord is with us.
Michael Commane OP
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Neither excessive formalism or extreme casualness
Celebration of unity in fraternity
 |
| Bruno Cadoré |
Below is a letter from the Master of the Dominican Order, Bruno Cadoré, to Dominicans around the world.
This medium is probably not the place for such a long letter, nevertheless, some readers may find it interesting. It has not been edited to house style. 'Zs' insttead of 'Ss', upper case letters where this blog would normally use lower case. Apologies.
"Where are you going, Sir Henry?" "I am going to the house of Bethany, he replied."
As Blessed Jordan of Saxony recounts: When Brother Henry left his lodgings and one of his companions asked him where he was going he answered, "To Bethany." He did not understand Henry's reply after posing this question to him. Only later on did he understand, when he saw Henry enter Bethany, which means "the house of obedience." It was Ash Wednesday and Brothers Henry, Leo and Jordan were entering the Order, the "house of obedience."
At that moment and in that place, while the brethren were chanting, they presented themselves before them, much to their surprise, and putting off the old man, they put on the new, thus fitting their actions to what the friars were singing. (Libellus 75) In this way, our brothers situated their vocation as Friars Preachers within the Paschal mystery and
the journey towards Easter and rooted it in the common celebration of the liturgy.
I am writing this letter to you about our common celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours (ACG Rome 2010 n° 79). In so doing, I am mindful of this moment in the life of our first brothers and of our own experience as we begin that part of "Ordinary Time" which follows the great Feasts of Easter and Pentecost. I shall neither dwell upon the necessity of our celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours together, nor upon our promise to do so.
Each of us knows the Constitutions of the Order and the Letters of Promulgation for the different liturgical books of the Proprium OP. What is more, each of us is aware of what it means when there is a lack of commitment to our common prayer. It is by building our regular life, personally and communally, upon this common celebration that we choose patiently to build the unity of our communities rather than to submit to the arbitrary subjectivism of the individual. Also, I have no wish to dictate the form of this celebration.
Travelling around the Order the last year and a half, I can see how our customs differ. And yet, I can also see how much the unity of a community and a province can be fostered when care is given to our liturgical prayer. There is no doubt that we need well-prepared celebrations. We all know the delight of a beautiful liturgy, even when it is simple. At the same time, we all are painfully
aware of the exhaustion, disappointment and tension that arise when our prayer is celebrated
with excessive formalism or extreme casualness. At such times, the heart and reason for our
celebration risks being displaced, causing us to turn our focus away from Christ and toward
ourselves.
Instead, I would like to make two simple, yet radical points. The first is that our common celebration of the Hours is like a series of landmarks that direct our lives as we seek to give them over to our mission of preaching. Our prayer orients us on our journey of conversion, from Ash Wednesday to the Light of the Resurrection where we pass from the "old man to a man born anew" through the grace of that Breath of Life given by the Risen Lord. The second point recalls the expression used by Blessed Jordan: our common celebration of the liturgy allows us to encounter the source of our obedience and to draw from it.
This obedience is to the mystery of the Word who comes to "configure himself' to humanity, so that humanity might become configured to God. Our common celebration unites us in obedience to the Word to whom we have prayed for the grace of consecration ("Consecrate them in the Truth. Your Word is truth"). The liturgical celebration thus clearly leads us to the source of our obedience to the One who calls us to preach the Word of God and to participate in the work of evangelisation.
As a "house of obedience", our liturgical celebration invites us again and again to approach this call to unity, which I wish to consider from three points of view.
Celebration of unity in the Word
No doubt when each of us was moved by the deep conviction that we wanted to give our life over to preaching in the Order, we were also delighted by the joy of being able to pray with brothers and sisters. Together in listening to the Word of God, we become aware that this Word gradually comes to live in our own words. We bless and praise Him who unceasingl enters into the heart of humanity. Most often we pray in the choir which is arranged around a central empty and open space, open specifically to receive the One who comes. We do not go to the choir primarily to fulfil an obligation which we have assumed; but rrather we assemble in choir to await together Him who comes, to welcome Him and, above all, to learn to recognise Him.
The liturgical celebration of the Hours, repeated several times a day in community, must be a time when the Word of God, and not ourselves, comes to be our center. It is when we allow the Word to seize us, to take hold of our desire to give our life and enable this desire to do far more that we could ever do ourselves. This celebration repeated each day and in each liturgical Hour gives us the courage to expose ourselves to the Word; to listen to the words of Scripture and the prayers of the tradition; to become accustomed to the familiarity that the Word wants to have with us; to discern through the words of Scripture the face of the Son that is revealed and who is the very source of obedience. We need constantly to regain our strength, to take heart. It is in this mystery of the liturgy that we learn how to do this, or better, in the liturgy we can implore the Lord to do it in us.
What is the work of grace that operates in us, both individually and communally, through the liturgy? I would venture to say first of all, that each celebration of the Office leads us once more to anchor our lives in those gestures of our profession. "What do you seek?" "God's mercy and yours." Who among us has not been touched to the core at the beginning of Compline, when placing ourselves in the presence of God, we echo that question and response by which we announced our desire to make profession? In the presence of our brothers, each of us is helped once again to receive assurance of that mercy and forgiveness which gives us the courage to raise our eyes.
Each of the other Hours begins with the cry for assistance to Him who alone can support our life, our fraternity and our preaching. We all know those days of which we are least proud; the days when we would have liked to have been more just, more caring, more attentive, less complacent; those days in which we no longer expected anything from the Lord; those days when our enthusiasm to begin anew, the radicalism of response and the generosity of the gift of self were not brought to this daily encounter with Him.
The Daily Office, the "sanctification of the hours", is an act of faith for us that, despite our failings, brings us always into the Presence of God. It is this promise that we celebrate, doxology after doxology, bow after bow. "Rise, brothers", is the response to us on the day of profession. "Rise", heard Blessed Jordan, "and put off the old man in order to be clothed in that new man."
The intuition of these young men going to the house at Bethany shows us the way that opened on the day of our profession, a way that leads to Easter. The liturgical celebration of the Hours writes this mystery of Easter on our heart even in the most ordinary part of our day.
It envelops our own personal histories into a time that goes beyond us, and yet brings us into our true selves. It is the time of the promised covenant, heard in Scripture and sung in the Psalms, which gives us the words to tame and to be tamed by this Presence in every issue that confronts us and so enables us to respond to this call. It is the time of Christ present and recognised by those who were the first witnesses of his Presence and his mystery. It is the time of humanity who, recognising the Risen One, dares with the brothers of Emmaus to implore Him to stay with them. If we celebrate the liturgy of the Hours day after day and throughout the course of each day, it is so that our time is really, strongly, seized by this Presence and becomes a place to recall this mystery. To be clothed in the new man, it is best to let the mystery of Christ take the place of the clothes of the old man.
We know that the tradition of the Order stresses (and the Constitutions ask) that, at the heart of this celebration of the Hours, the brothers celebrate the Eucharist and that they do so together in the Conventual Mass. We must consider once more the strength of this demand, which many of us would emphasise in our retreat talks for religious communities. Fraternal communion is rooted and finds its vigour and joy in the communal Eucharistic celebration.
On account of their ministry it may well be that brothers must offer Mass in their parishes or for particular groups. Nevertheless the communal Eucharistic celebration must not remain for us merely an occasion for each priest to celebrate Mass when he has not already said his Masssomewhere else. Rather, it should be a pressing invitation to each brother, priest or not, to
receive the Lord's life in the Eucharistic sharing among his brothers. "Stay with us Lord ... "
we say together like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, and make our hearts bum,
impatient to follow you in our apostolic journey! Our communal celebration of the Eucharist
should make us impatient to live truly together, rooting our preaching in the unity of our
community of brothers. This we receive day after day in the broken Bread and the shared
Cup.
The liturgical celebration of the Hours must be a fraternal event. With the passing years
and centuries, perhaps the liturgical celebration has gradually taken on the appearance of an
observance, an aspect of the regular life in which we are engaged, a formal rite that we must
fulfil like ticking off an item on our daily check-list. But, if when celebrating the Hours we
celebrate the approach to Easter, then we are far from formalism or an obligation to fulfil a
rite, to 'say our office'. (Think of when we place the body of a brother who has died among
us in the choir until his funeral. We do this less to indicate that the brother is still with us,
than to return this brother, precisely because he is no longer with us, to Him who comes into
our midst in order that He might bring this brother into His Easter.) It is Easter that urges us
to hurry to the Office. It is the mystery of life always newly given that must make us
impatient for this encounter. It is the joy of fraternity, sealed by the Eucharistic sharing, that
unites us to celebrate together the hope of the coming of the Word of salvation.
Fundamentally, we celebrate the coming of the Word as that unseen source and foundation of our fraternity. Does not our coming together in choir several times a day give us the opportunity to recall the unfathomable mystery of grace? He comes to speak to the world and to us, giving us the strength and the words to dare to speak in our tum to Him. We let go of our own discourse and wisdom and everything we think we know in order to let Him speak.
Several times a day we should ponder the joyful mystery of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple: He alone is the teacher who opens the meaning of Scripture! Liturgical celebration is a constant thread running through our days so that we might be woven in our 'consecration to the truth, which is the Word'. It is a consecration that we recall together, by which we are sustained together, and through which we are offered together. The liturgy of the Hours, tradition says, sanctifies our chronological time to God; in its repetition and duration, the liturgy consecrates our own interior "duration" to the truth that is the Word who comes.
It is in this perspective that our Constitutions invite us to base our communities around the common celebration of the Eucharistic mystery (LCO 3). We might have been particularly generous at the first or the sixth hour; we could have confronted apostolic or personal discouragement at the third or the ninth hour. But there is one hour, always favourable, when it is the right time to draw strength and joy from the source of life. There is the favourable hour to give in our turn the life that we have received with a firm heartfelt desire for the salvation of the world.
Once again, of course, one can raise objections, such as the number of masses to be celebrated in certain apostolic and pastoral places, or the question of the rite one would like to celebrate. The Order is based upon the communal celebration of the mystery at the heart of all mystery and must lead us to renounce, absolutely, all temptation to relativism, which would favour our own work, choices or preferences over and above the One who is the source of our unity and the foundation of our community.
There is a single unity between the celebration of the Liturgy that sanctifies the Hours and the Eucharistic celebration that brings communion. In the same way, when we live the apostolic life, there is a unity between our preaching about the issues we encounter in the world and the service of charity we give to the world. There is a single, profound unity that enables us to live within
the liturgical celebration of the Hours our apostolic work and patient study. For it is always a
question of our being ready to recognise and welcome the Word that comes. By seeking to
live together in this unity, we celebrate the presence among us of Him in whose name we
offer as the hope of salvation.
Celebration of a unity received for the salvation of the world
Into the heart of the community gathered for and through the celebration, it is not only
Christ who comes, but also the world. The celebration is in fact the moment when love for
the world is nourished in fraternity. We say of Dominic that he spoke either of God or to
God; speaking of people to God or of God to people. We say of him, that he never ceased to
intercede for the world. The liturgical celebration of the Hours is the place par excellence
where our communities bring into the presence of God our aspirations for the world to which we are sent as Preachers.
We already bring these aspirations to Him by proclaiming the words of the Psalms that express man's desires with so much insistence, his longings for salvation, and his frequent incomprehension at what makes up his story. We bring these aspirations for the world when,
by singing the Psalms, we make the story of the people chosen by God our own story. It is in
being in the world in this way that we are a sign of the promise that the world can become a
'world for God'. Dare we say that, by singing the story of a people for God in the midst of
the world, we can open a breach in our contemporary history? A breach that allows us to
raise our eyes beyond what seems to be the limits of our destiny and beyond what appears as a
'dead end' or an absurd barrier from a worldly perspective? We sing of the promise of a
Presence and a Coming that does not accept 'dead ends' from a human point of view, but on
the contrary, projects the Light of a promise of eternity onto ordinary situations.
To sing the liturgy hour after hour calls us to be convinced that the world is saved and heard even in the midst of its own noise. For Preachers, therefore, the world is placed hour after hour under that sign which enlivens our consecration to the Word, namely, our desire for its salvation.
Of course, we again bring these aspirations for the world into the prayers of intercession, which are so important in our tradition. Since Dominic first cried "what will become of sinners" intercession has been a specific aspect of our spiritual tradition. The choice of the apostolic life brings with it as a consequence our acceptance of the sorrows and the joys of the world: its hopes and fears, certainties and doubts. Just as consecration to the Word invites us to let the Word take our lives, transform them and raise them up to the Father so our shared destiny with the world must dwell in us and constantly invite us to new understandings of the Promise. It must teach us to raise our eyes to the Father, presenting him with the needs and concerns of the world. 'I do not pray for them only, but for all those who have believed through them'.
This is a double movement: the Word takes hold of us and in tum we speak a human word to God which recalls Christ's concern for the world. This double movement "conforms" us to Him who has opened the way to apostolic life. It is one and the same thing to speak to the world the Word of God in which we want it to be consecrated and to speak to God the words of the world with its hopes and fears.
Sometimes we are fairly timid in our intercessory prayer, or even quite formal. We should dare to engage more fully in intercessory prayer which is an essential aspect of the spiritual school of
Dominic, because it was the prayer of the Lord whom Dominic wished to follow as a preacher.
Dominic asked his friars to celebrate the Hours publically. During the course of each day our communities are invited to open their prayer to the world. We recall in the presence of God the joys, hopes, pains and fears of the world. Liturgical celebration is thus a compelling part of our mission of evangelisation (to spread the Church to the ends of the earth). It is an aspect of our office of preaching.
Glorify God and give thanks for the extraordinary love that He gave the world and by which, without ceasing, He sustains Creation. Humbly receive the grace God gives us to intercede with Him for the world and to speak to him of those whom we commend in our prayer. Accept as well that grace by which God touches our lives when we ask Him for the world's salvation. Dare to believe that day after day through intercessory prayer the Spirit conforms us to the true image of the Son's praying to the Father, despite the clumsiness and indignity of our words. 'Father I desire also that those whom you have given me may be with me where I am.'
By our ordinary work being interrupted, by our 'leaving' the world to break into prayer, we give thanks for the sanctifying Presence of God who broke into our world. Are we not established as a
community of preachers through the Spirit who patiently conforms us to the image of Him who is the only Preacher? Do we not allow Him to bring our awkward prayer to the Father and place in us that desire for salvation for which He gave his life and for which we wish in our tum to be preachers?
And so, with Him, let us proceed further each day towards Easter and let us ask for the Spirit, in order to preach.
On the Feast of the Visitation
Fr Bruno Cadore, op
Master of the Order of Preachers
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