It is inevitable and understandable that many Germans are surprised with the pope's actions.
Respect must be accorded to Cardinals Lehmann and Kasper.
This article appears in today's Irish Times.
CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel has asked Pope Benedict XVI to clarify the Catholic Church’s position over the rehabilitation of the Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson.
Dr Merkel’s intervention follows an admission by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, former head of the German bishops’ conference, that the episode was a “catastrophe”.
The German leader said she was taking the unusual step of commenting on internal church matters because it involved a “question of principle, that through a decision of the Vatican the impression is created that denial of the Holocaust is permissible”.
“That cannot be left without consequences,” she said yesterday. In her view, the Vatican had “not done enough to date” to clarify its position on Holocaust denial and its relations with Judaism.
The German leader suggested that the Bavarian-born pontiff “make very clear that there can be no denial”.
After Swedish television broadcast an interview with Bishop Williamson, in which he questioned the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust and denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers, leaders of Germany’s Jewish community put relations with the Vatican on ice.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, Vatican co-ordinator of Jewish-Catholic relations, has admitted the pope’s decision to lift the excommunication of several bishops including Bishop Williamson was “badly mishandled”.
“There wasn’t enough talking with each other in the Vatican and there are no longer checks to see where problems could arise,” said Cardinal Kasper on Vatican Radio’s German-language service.
In a frank interview, Cardinal Kasper said the debate filled him with “great concern” and blamed “misunderstandings and management errors in the curia”.
No senior church figures in Germany have dared criticise the Bavarian-born pontiff directly, but many bishops suggest in public that he was poorly advised.
They spoke out over the weekend, calling for swift action to prevent permanent damage to the church’s credibility.
Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart called the rehabilitation a “betrayal of trust, especially for our Jewish sisters and brothers in their relationship to the church”.
“As a Protestant Christian,” said Dr Merkel, “it is encouraging to see many voices from the Catholic church demanding clarification.”
Leading conservatives in the German church point out that the pope’s decree is the start and not the conclusion of a Vatican reconciliation with the followers of Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the modernising reforms of the Second Vatican Council and are members of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).
Bishop Williamson has described the pope’s decree to lift the excommunication as “a great step forward for the church without being a betrayal on the part of the SSPX”.
Fr Eberhard von Gemmingen, head of the Vatican’s German service, has described the episode as a “misunderstanding and debacle”. He urged listeners to “pray for the pope and his staff”.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Merkel asks Vatican for explanation
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked Pope Benedict to clarify Vatican thinking resulting from the rehabilitation of Bishop Williamson.
The bishop, who is a member of the Pius X Society has denied aspects of the nazi atrocities.
Merkel points out that she does not normally comment on inner church affairs but on this occasion because of the gravity of the issue she was left with no alternative.
The following article was published by Stern yesterday.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel hat Papst Benedikt XVI. zu einer deutlichen Stellungnahme zum Umgang mit dem Holocaust aufgefordert.
Es gehe darum, eindeutig klarzustellen, dass es keine Leugnung geben könne, sagte sie. Indes wächst die Kritik deutscher Theologen am Papst wegen der Rehabilitierung von vier Bischöfen der erzkonservativen Pius-Bruderschaft. Papst Benedikt XVI. gerät wegen der Rehabilitierung eines Holocaust-Leugners in den eigenen Reihen zunehmend unter Druck.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel forderte ihn zu einer deutlichen Position in der Diskussion über den Umgang mit dem Holocaust auf.
"Es geht darum, dass von Seiten des Papstes und des Vatikans sehr eindeutig klargestellt wird, dass es hier keine Leugnung geben kann", sagte sie.
"Diese Klarstellungen sind aus meiner Sicht noch nicht ausreichend erfolgt", so Merkel am Dienstag bei einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin. Merkel betonte, dass sie normalerweise innerkirchliche Entscheidungen nicht bewerte oder kommentiere.
"Allerdings ist das anders, wenn es um Grundsatzfragen geht", sagte Merkel. "Und ich glaube, das ist schon eine Grundsatzfrage, wenn durch eine Entscheidung des Vatikan der Eindruck entsteht, dass es die Leugnung des Holocaust geben könnte, dass es um grundsätzliche Fragen auch des Umgangs mit dem Judentum insgesamt geht", sagte Merkel.
The bishop, who is a member of the Pius X Society has denied aspects of the nazi atrocities.
Merkel points out that she does not normally comment on inner church affairs but on this occasion because of the gravity of the issue she was left with no alternative.
The following article was published by Stern yesterday.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel hat Papst Benedikt XVI. zu einer deutlichen Stellungnahme zum Umgang mit dem Holocaust aufgefordert.
Es gehe darum, eindeutig klarzustellen, dass es keine Leugnung geben könne, sagte sie. Indes wächst die Kritik deutscher Theologen am Papst wegen der Rehabilitierung von vier Bischöfen der erzkonservativen Pius-Bruderschaft. Papst Benedikt XVI. gerät wegen der Rehabilitierung eines Holocaust-Leugners in den eigenen Reihen zunehmend unter Druck.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel forderte ihn zu einer deutlichen Position in der Diskussion über den Umgang mit dem Holocaust auf.
"Es geht darum, dass von Seiten des Papstes und des Vatikans sehr eindeutig klargestellt wird, dass es hier keine Leugnung geben kann", sagte sie.
"Diese Klarstellungen sind aus meiner Sicht noch nicht ausreichend erfolgt", so Merkel am Dienstag bei einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin. Merkel betonte, dass sie normalerweise innerkirchliche Entscheidungen nicht bewerte oder kommentiere.
"Allerdings ist das anders, wenn es um Grundsatzfragen geht", sagte Merkel. "Und ich glaube, das ist schon eine Grundsatzfrage, wenn durch eine Entscheidung des Vatikan der Eindruck entsteht, dass es die Leugnung des Holocaust geben könnte, dass es um grundsätzliche Fragen auch des Umgangs mit dem Judentum insgesamt geht", sagte Merkel.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
German Catholics express concern
The German media is giving large-scale coverage to the news of Pope Benedict rehabilitating members of the Pius X Society.
Last evening the Archbishop of Mainz, Cardinal Lehmann expressed concern on the the latest Vatican move and the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Marx, came close to expressing worry.
Among those rehabilitated is Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied aspects of the Holocaust.
Last evening the Archbishop of Mainz, Cardinal Lehmann expressed concern on the the latest Vatican move and the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Marx, came close to expressing worry.
Among those rehabilitated is Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied aspects of the Holocaust.
Snow balls
This photograph appears as the lead picture on the front page of today's Irish Times.
The caption reads:First- and second-year international seminarians play in the snow before attending Mass at the novitiate of Legionaries of Christ in Leopardstown yesterday.
Before the advent of technology there was some truth in the adage that a picture never lies. That certainly is no longer true. Photoshop has put paid to that.
Nevertheless this picture has a great story behind it.
What young men in their 20s in the developed world in 2009 play snowballs wearing long dress-style clothing with immaculate coiffured hair, highly polished shoes with gleaming white cuffs and cuff links?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Whether to excommunicate or not
Maybe it is that it is there somewhere and this writer cannot find it. But is the decree on the remission of excommunication latae sententiae of bishops of the Fraternity of St Pius X (January 21, 2009) in English on the Vatican web site?
Surely one is bound to think again and wonder about all of this. How come just some few short years ago someone is excommunicated and then 'hey presto' the excommunication is lifted?
And what is the truth about the bishop and his statements about the Holocaust?
Surely one is bound to think again and wonder about all of this. How come just some few short years ago someone is excommunicated and then 'hey presto' the excommunication is lifted?
And what is the truth about the bishop and his statements about the Holocaust?
Treating cyclists with contempt
It's sometimes easy to get the impression that the civil authorities in Ireland treat citizens in a most disrespectful manner. Anyone who has cycled from Templeogue to Tallaght since Christmas will understand.
There are cycle ways on both sides of the roundabout on the Templeogue Tallagh road over the M50. Should you take the cycle path to the left side of the roundabout then you are assured of running into difficulties. As soon as you are over the motorway you meet an iron fence prohibiting you to go any further in the direction of Tallaght.
This cyclist decided to follow the cycle way to the left and ended up in Firhouse. Not a funny story at 21.30 on a winter's evening.
Why could South Dublin Council not erect signposts for cyclists using the route? Not at all. Who cares about people on bicycles? Certainly not South Dublin Council if one is to judge them by their actions
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Catholic school identity
The article below appears in Tuesday's Irish Times.
The archbishop makes some interesting comments. The teaching of religion in our schools is a little akin to the Irish programme. We spend years at Irish and religion and what do we know at the end of it?
But can someone explain, what is a 'catholic education'? A
Anytime one hears the expression there is always the fear that it is an introduction to a right-wing attack on modern catholic catechesis.
Does a myth exist in Ireland which attempts to portray middle class religious run schools as 'Catholic'?
Why is it that so few schools have picked up on the programme offered for both Junior and Leaving Cert students at examination level. These programmes at least introduce young people into the history of religions. It makes available to them some sort of explanation of the various world religions. And yet far too few schools, Catholic schools avail of the programme.
Is it true to say that when it comes to talking about a 'Catholic education' it is far too easy to be glib in what we say.
How can one explain to a 15-year-old the idea of the incarnation or the resurrection. And what does one say on a Monday morning at 09.00 in a third year class about infallibility? How can one comment about how one day someone is excommunicated and some years later the excommunication is lifted?
While there are excellent religious books available, teaching religion in the school context is not an easy task.
What sense does it make to talk or use the word 'God' in the current climate to young people in an academic setting?
Archbishop Martin says Catholic school identity at risk
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS must not water down their identity to conform with a more pluralist society, the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.
At a conference to mark the first Catholic Schools Week in the Republic, Dr Martin said the Catholic school system had its rightful place within a multicultural society.
“Pluralism does not mean watering down identity. Indeed, a Catholic school which waters down its identity waters down its real contribution to society and renders itself useless,” he said.
“The survival of Catholic education in Ireland will not depend on it fitting in to an overall pluralist secularist philosophy, but on it being fully Catholic, bringing that specific contribution of the message of Jesus Christ to society.”
He said it was not about a Catholic school system attempting to dominate an entire system. It was “a temptation which was, and I think we have to say, still is there, due to the historical development of the Irish education model”.
Dr Martin said a Catholic school must never be “just a narrow Catholic ghetto, cut off from or worse still hostile to the world around it. Christianity can never be exclusivist or elitist.”.
The archbishop also questioned the success of Catholic schools in passing on the faith to young people.
“What are we to say about a Catholic school system and catechetical programmes which have produced the numerically largest cohort of unchurched young people in recent Irish history?” he asked.
“Irish young people are among the most catechised in western Europe, with religious instruction right through primary and secondary school, and yet we cannot say that they are among the most evangelised.
“Indeed, the biggest challenge that I, as archbishop, see for the church in Dublin is precisely that of the evangelisation of young people and their insertion as true and committed members of a believing and worshipping community.”
Dr Martin also encouraged parents and teachers to speak about faith to their children when they began to challenge issues.
“Rather than engaging in that dialogue, parents and teachers can be tempted to think that it is best to leave it up the young person alone to find his or her way regarding faith,” he said.
“And I think parents lose their nerve, perhaps because the church has let them down by providing very few services to help them in their task as religious educators.”
While this is the first time Catholic Schools Week has been celebrated in the Republic, it has been marked in the North in recent years. In a homily prepared for the week, Fr Martin Delaney of the diocese of Ossory noted that the special week was more common in countries where the Catholic Church and Catholic schools were in a minority. “Traditionally, nearly all schools in Ireland were either Catholic or at least were religious-run schools,” he said.
Bishop Leo O’Reilly, chair of the Bishops Commission for Education, said it was important that Catholic schools became more conscious of their identity as the schools system became more pluralist.
Catholic Schools Week, which has the theme: Catholic Schools – A Vision for Life, continues until Sunday. Events have been organised in schools around the State to mark the week which concludes on Sunday with a special Mass in Lucan which will be televised by RTÉ.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
The archbishop makes some interesting comments. The teaching of religion in our schools is a little akin to the Irish programme. We spend years at Irish and religion and what do we know at the end of it?
But can someone explain, what is a 'catholic education'? A
Anytime one hears the expression there is always the fear that it is an introduction to a right-wing attack on modern catholic catechesis.
Does a myth exist in Ireland which attempts to portray middle class religious run schools as 'Catholic'?
Why is it that so few schools have picked up on the programme offered for both Junior and Leaving Cert students at examination level. These programmes at least introduce young people into the history of religions. It makes available to them some sort of explanation of the various world religions. And yet far too few schools, Catholic schools avail of the programme.
Is it true to say that when it comes to talking about a 'Catholic education' it is far too easy to be glib in what we say.
How can one explain to a 15-year-old the idea of the incarnation or the resurrection. And what does one say on a Monday morning at 09.00 in a third year class about infallibility? How can one comment about how one day someone is excommunicated and some years later the excommunication is lifted?
While there are excellent religious books available, teaching religion in the school context is not an easy task.
What sense does it make to talk or use the word 'God' in the current climate to young people in an academic setting?
Archbishop Martin says Catholic school identity at risk
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS must not water down their identity to conform with a more pluralist society, the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.
At a conference to mark the first Catholic Schools Week in the Republic, Dr Martin said the Catholic school system had its rightful place within a multicultural society.
“Pluralism does not mean watering down identity. Indeed, a Catholic school which waters down its identity waters down its real contribution to society and renders itself useless,” he said.
“The survival of Catholic education in Ireland will not depend on it fitting in to an overall pluralist secularist philosophy, but on it being fully Catholic, bringing that specific contribution of the message of Jesus Christ to society.”
He said it was not about a Catholic school system attempting to dominate an entire system. It was “a temptation which was, and I think we have to say, still is there, due to the historical development of the Irish education model”.
Dr Martin said a Catholic school must never be “just a narrow Catholic ghetto, cut off from or worse still hostile to the world around it. Christianity can never be exclusivist or elitist.”.
The archbishop also questioned the success of Catholic schools in passing on the faith to young people.
“What are we to say about a Catholic school system and catechetical programmes which have produced the numerically largest cohort of unchurched young people in recent Irish history?” he asked.
“Irish young people are among the most catechised in western Europe, with religious instruction right through primary and secondary school, and yet we cannot say that they are among the most evangelised.
“Indeed, the biggest challenge that I, as archbishop, see for the church in Dublin is precisely that of the evangelisation of young people and their insertion as true and committed members of a believing and worshipping community.”
Dr Martin also encouraged parents and teachers to speak about faith to their children when they began to challenge issues.
“Rather than engaging in that dialogue, parents and teachers can be tempted to think that it is best to leave it up the young person alone to find his or her way regarding faith,” he said.
“And I think parents lose their nerve, perhaps because the church has let them down by providing very few services to help them in their task as religious educators.”
While this is the first time Catholic Schools Week has been celebrated in the Republic, it has been marked in the North in recent years. In a homily prepared for the week, Fr Martin Delaney of the diocese of Ossory noted that the special week was more common in countries where the Catholic Church and Catholic schools were in a minority. “Traditionally, nearly all schools in Ireland were either Catholic or at least were religious-run schools,” he said.
Bishop Leo O’Reilly, chair of the Bishops Commission for Education, said it was important that Catholic schools became more conscious of their identity as the schools system became more pluralist.
Catholic Schools Week, which has the theme: Catholic Schools – A Vision for Life, continues until Sunday. Events have been organised in schools around the State to mark the week which concludes on Sunday with a special Mass in Lucan which will be televised by RTÉ.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Bus and rail fares have increased by 10 per cent since January 1. That means a monthly return fare from Tralee to Dublin is now €81.50 and a single bus journey from Tallaght to the city centre is €2.20.
Dublin Bus is considering cutting back on services having just bought a fleet of new buses.
Irish Rail is building new track between Dublin and Hazel Hatch and has opened a number of very styling rail stations on their southern line out of Dublin. Was there need for such lavish stations? And as for the new double track, is it now necessary? Could they have eased their capacity problems by introducing reversible running as far as Newbridge. Such a system would have needed new signalling but it would have been far cheaper than the current programme.
Surely an underground to the airport is a madness. Why not build a spur from the Malahide line to the airport?
The rail station at Farranfore is approximately one kilometre from Kerry Airport. There has never been a murmur of building a line right to the door of the airport. Such a project could entice passengers from Cork and Tipperary to use the airport.
Ireland has paid its managers and politicians high salaries. The ten per cent transport increases will have little effect on the top earners.
The line on the Jim Larkin statue in Dublin's O'Connell Street is surely a piece of universal wisdom; "The great seem great because we are on our knees. Let us arise".
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
'Quiet fidelity'
Cardinal Sean Brady has rejected calls for the resignation of Bishop John Magee.
The archbishop said in Killarney yesterday that he knows John Magee for almost 50 years and has found him reliable and dependable.
In a wide-ranging talk he said, "Our first thoughts should always be for those who have suffered abuse. The scandalous behaviour of some clergy has caused immense pain to them and their families".
Had it not been for the "quiet fidelity of thousands priests and religious in the last years the impact of the scandals would have been even more damaging than they have undoubtedly been," he went on to say.
Archbishop Brady is a most kind and friendly man. While working on The Irish News this writer interviewed him and found him most gracious and pleasant. So in that context the above quote is somewhat puzzling.
How could the damage done to victims been 'less damaging'? And the expression 'quiet fidelity' is most worrying. If it refers to the truth that's fine, but if it refers to the hierarchical institutional church it is worrying.
Has there not been far too much 'quiet fidelity' to the church? Is it not exactly that 'quiet fidelity' that has caused so much pain and suffering.
When John Magee was appointed bishop in Cloyne there was much controversy about his nomination. Indeed, at the time many people asked pertinent questions to which there were never any satisfactory answers.
The archbishop said in Killarney yesterday that he knows John Magee for almost 50 years and has found him reliable and dependable.
In a wide-ranging talk he said, "Our first thoughts should always be for those who have suffered abuse. The scandalous behaviour of some clergy has caused immense pain to them and their families".
Had it not been for the "quiet fidelity of thousands priests and religious in the last years the impact of the scandals would have been even more damaging than they have undoubtedly been," he went on to say.
Archbishop Brady is a most kind and friendly man. While working on The Irish News this writer interviewed him and found him most gracious and pleasant. So in that context the above quote is somewhat puzzling.
How could the damage done to victims been 'less damaging'? And the expression 'quiet fidelity' is most worrying. If it refers to the truth that's fine, but if it refers to the hierarchical institutional church it is worrying.
Has there not been far too much 'quiet fidelity' to the church? Is it not exactly that 'quiet fidelity' that has caused so much pain and suffering.
When John Magee was appointed bishop in Cloyne there was much controversy about his nomination. Indeed, at the time many people asked pertinent questions to which there were never any satisfactory answers.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Snooze time almost over
On December 10 this blog began a snooze period.
The snooze is about to end and the blog is due to be back in publication some time next week.
Happy New Year to all readers.
The snooze is about to end and the blog is due to be back in publication some time next week.
Happy New Year to all readers.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Fr Michael O'Leary RIP
Fr Michael O'Leary, a priest of the Kerry diocese, died last evening.
Fr Michael, a native of Castlegregory in West Kerry, was in his 90th year. Some years ago he retired as parish priest in Moyvane and went to live in Tralee.
He was a kindly man, who had the great ability of listening to people and being with them in times of joy and tribulation.
Some years ago Fr Michael was extremely kind and helpful to me and as a result of our encounter on that occasion we kept in touch.
Last Sunday week I visited him in Kerry General Hospital where we prayed a Psalm together.
Just as we finished the prayer a woman from Moyvane came to visit him. In our brief few words she expressed how kind Fr O'Leary had been to her family while he was pp in Moyvane.
He was a priest, who genuinely cared for people and what finer tribute can be paid to a priest than to acknowledge that he was a kind man.
Fr O'Leary's requiem Mass will take place in Moyvane parish church on Thursday at midday
May he rest in peace.
Fr Michael, a native of Castlegregory in West Kerry, was in his 90th year. Some years ago he retired as parish priest in Moyvane and went to live in Tralee.
He was a kindly man, who had the great ability of listening to people and being with them in times of joy and tribulation.
Some years ago Fr Michael was extremely kind and helpful to me and as a result of our encounter on that occasion we kept in touch.
Last Sunday week I visited him in Kerry General Hospital where we prayed a Psalm together.
Just as we finished the prayer a woman from Moyvane came to visit him. In our brief few words she expressed how kind Fr O'Leary had been to her family while he was pp in Moyvane.
He was a priest, who genuinely cared for people and what finer tribute can be paid to a priest than to acknowledge that he was a kind man.
Fr O'Leary's requiem Mass will take place in Moyvane parish church on Thursday at midday
May he rest in peace.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Murdoch's influence in Ireland
From time to time there is an opinion expressed within church circles that the media do not give a fair hearing to church issues.
Print, TV and radio attempt to tell the story as it is. Columnists express opinions.
There is no doubt that Irish newspapers give wide coverage to church issues. A day hardly goes by without some church story receiving coverage in the media.
Fortunately the media is not obeisant to the church in a way that it was three, four decades ago.
Print, TV and radio attempt to tell the story as it is. Columnists express opinions.
There is no doubt that Irish newspapers give wide coverage to church issues. A day hardly goes by without some church story receiving coverage in the media.
Fortunately the media is not obeisant to the church in a way that it was three, four decades ago.
In today's Irish Times Sarah Carey writes how she was forbidden to write in favour of the Lisbon Treaty when she was working with the Irish edition of The Sunday Times.
She argues that is is always important to ask 'Who is behind this and what is there agenda?'.
It is a most forthright article, worrying too.
It is interesting to note how right-wing church groups now seem to be in bed with Rupert Murdoch publications. And frightening too.
Sarah Carey asks in whose interests did the Sunday Times campaign against the Lisbon Treaty to the exclusion of all favourable comment.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The God question
The article below appears in today's Irish Times. It makes for an interesting read.
MAURICE MANNING
RITE AND REASON: TP O'MAHONY is a fine journalist. He learned his trade at the Irish Press and began covering religious affairs in 1967, in the aftermath of Vatican II.
Over the years he did the lot - papal visits, conclaves, synods and religious conferences not to mention the niggling scandals that were beginning to emerge.
But while immersed in both the minutiae and the grand scheme of ecclesiastical politics O'Mahony was finding his own conventional faith coming under increasing strain. It wasn't, however, a question of Christianity, or which brand of Christianity but something more fundamental - the very existence of God. Mid-life crises of belief are nothing new, and those so visited usually find their own way of "muddling through".
O'Mahony, however, is different. He has a burning curiosity and capacity to worry at a problem. When he left journalism, having moved from the Irish Press to the then Cork Examiner , he began to study law at UCC, all the while trying to figure out where he personally stood on the "God Question".
What's new? Not much except that the "God" debate has sharpened and maybe even soured in recent times with books by Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. Has God Logged Off? is the result of O'Mahony's own personal quest.
He revisits the famous five proofs of St Thomas Aquinas, produced in the 13th century, and examines the major philosophical arguments pro and con theism since then. Drawing not only on what creative artists such as Beckett, Buñuel and Morris West have to say about the presence or absence of God, but also on the experiences of modern-day well-known Irish people including actor Mick Lally, writer Mary Kenny and Cork character Bernie Murphy, he manages to bring fascinating and sometimes novel insights to this age-old debate.
The strength of O'Mahony's book is its simplicity. He makes his case clearly; his aim is not to show how clever he is but to bring his reader with him on his journey.
O'Mahony starts from obvious points that religious faith, of its nature, tends to be personal, just like its opposite. Beyond the person, however, there is a wider cultural dimension. For centuries, especially in the West, religious belief and the concept of God have been fundamental to our system of meaning.
O'Mahony quotes Patrick Masterson's 1974 book Atheism and Alienation on the proposition that the affirmation of God is one of the most noteworthy of human achievements. Theism, he sees as a defining characteristic of the western tradition. But Masterson also insists that while the affirmation of God is a major achievement, scarcely less remarkable is man's repudiation of this affirmation of God.
So while theism is a defining characteristic of the western tradition, atheism in its various forms is also a significant expression of man's quest for meaning.
O'Mahony seeks to remind us that struggling with the seductive appeal of both is an inescapable element of the human condition.
And where does that leave the author? Not surprisingly, perhaps, with Pascal: "If there is a God he is infinitely beyond our comprehension." He finds comfort and relief (escape?) in Pascal's wager: "exercising a particularly blind form of faith" that God actually does exist.
"I've done just that and called heads like my friend Bernie Murphy. I'll find out one of these days whether I wagered wisely."
Eloquent but not necessarily the most persuasive or weighty of conclusions. I'm not sure that the author himself is fully convinced. Be that as it may, this is a charming and thought-provoking book, written with clarity and honesty.
• Maurice Manning is president of the Irish Human Rights Commission Has God Logged Off? - the quest for meaning in the 21st century , Columba Press, €12.99
MAURICE MANNING
RITE AND REASON: TP O'MAHONY is a fine journalist. He learned his trade at the Irish Press and began covering religious affairs in 1967, in the aftermath of Vatican II.
Over the years he did the lot - papal visits, conclaves, synods and religious conferences not to mention the niggling scandals that were beginning to emerge.
But while immersed in both the minutiae and the grand scheme of ecclesiastical politics O'Mahony was finding his own conventional faith coming under increasing strain. It wasn't, however, a question of Christianity, or which brand of Christianity but something more fundamental - the very existence of God. Mid-life crises of belief are nothing new, and those so visited usually find their own way of "muddling through".
O'Mahony, however, is different. He has a burning curiosity and capacity to worry at a problem. When he left journalism, having moved from the Irish Press to the then Cork Examiner , he began to study law at UCC, all the while trying to figure out where he personally stood on the "God Question".
What's new? Not much except that the "God" debate has sharpened and maybe even soured in recent times with books by Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. Has God Logged Off? is the result of O'Mahony's own personal quest.
He revisits the famous five proofs of St Thomas Aquinas, produced in the 13th century, and examines the major philosophical arguments pro and con theism since then. Drawing not only on what creative artists such as Beckett, Buñuel and Morris West have to say about the presence or absence of God, but also on the experiences of modern-day well-known Irish people including actor Mick Lally, writer Mary Kenny and Cork character Bernie Murphy, he manages to bring fascinating and sometimes novel insights to this age-old debate.
The strength of O'Mahony's book is its simplicity. He makes his case clearly; his aim is not to show how clever he is but to bring his reader with him on his journey.
O'Mahony starts from obvious points that religious faith, of its nature, tends to be personal, just like its opposite. Beyond the person, however, there is a wider cultural dimension. For centuries, especially in the West, religious belief and the concept of God have been fundamental to our system of meaning.
O'Mahony quotes Patrick Masterson's 1974 book Atheism and Alienation on the proposition that the affirmation of God is one of the most noteworthy of human achievements. Theism, he sees as a defining characteristic of the western tradition. But Masterson also insists that while the affirmation of God is a major achievement, scarcely less remarkable is man's repudiation of this affirmation of God.
So while theism is a defining characteristic of the western tradition, atheism in its various forms is also a significant expression of man's quest for meaning.
O'Mahony seeks to remind us that struggling with the seductive appeal of both is an inescapable element of the human condition.
And where does that leave the author? Not surprisingly, perhaps, with Pascal: "If there is a God he is infinitely beyond our comprehension." He finds comfort and relief (escape?) in Pascal's wager: "exercising a particularly blind form of faith" that God actually does exist.
"I've done just that and called heads like my friend Bernie Murphy. I'll find out one of these days whether I wagered wisely."
Eloquent but not necessarily the most persuasive or weighty of conclusions. I'm not sure that the author himself is fully convinced. Be that as it may, this is a charming and thought-provoking book, written with clarity and honesty.
• Maurice Manning is president of the Irish Human Rights Commission Has God Logged Off? - the quest for meaning in the 21st century , Columba Press, €12.99
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The art of compromising
Below is a report in today's Irish Times.
How come people who are at the vanguard of speaking out against abortion say so little when it comes to capital punishment?
Many right wing religious groups campaigned forcefully against the Obama campaign on grounds of his stand on abortion and there was not a whimper from them on capital punishment.
Has the Catholic Church praised the president-elect for his intention of closing down Guantanamo Bay?
The comment of Bishop W Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware makes for interesting reading.
The article as it appears in today's Irish Times
US CATHOLIC bishops have pledged forcefully to confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights, saying the church would not compromise on its firm stand on the issue.
At their biannual meeting in Baltimore, several bishops criticised Catholics who had argued it was morally acceptable to support Barack Obama because he said he would reduce abortion rates. The gathering of 220 clergymen took place a week after the election of a Democratic ticket that supports abortion rights and includes vice-president-elect Joe Biden, who is Catholic.
The head of the bishops group said Obama's election should be celebrated but he made it clear the church would not compromise on Catholic teachings.
Obama's election "is a moment that touches more than our history when a country that once enshrined race slavery in its very constitutional order should come to elect an African-American to the presidency," said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
"In this, I truly believe, we must all rejoice," the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops told the meeting on Tuesday.
Cardinal George said the country may have reached a point where "all races are safely within the American consensus", but he voiced concern that Catholics faced political pressure when seeking office to compromise on "fundamental Catholic teachings".
The bishops issued a general statement before the election, urging voters to consider all life issues in casting ballots, including war and capital punishment.
Some bishops still came out against Obama during the campaign over his stance on abortion rights. Abortion opponents are concerned that possible Supreme Court appointments by Obama could undo efforts to reverse the court's Roe v Wade decision, which legalised abortion in 1973.
Many bishops urged Catholics to make opposition to abortion a priority when they voted, but exit polls showed Obama won 54 per cent of the Catholic vote.
Although the church leadership remains committed to outlawing it, a poll carried out in August by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that almost half of American Catholics think abortion should be legal in all or nearly all cases.
While the bishops agree on the goal of ending abortion, they differ on how they should persuade lawmakers - of Catholic and other faiths - to agree.
A few bishops have said Biden should not receive Holy Communion, but Bishop W Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden's home diocese, said he and the Democrat had agreed to meet when scheduling allows to discuss Catholic teaching. The bishop said he did not advise Biden to refrain from Communion.
"I won't politicise the Eucharist," the bishop said. "I don't want to alienate people. I want to change their hearts and minds."
John Podesta, the head of Obama's transition team, has said the president-elect is considering reversing President George Bush's limit on federal spending for embryonic stem cell research.
Catholic leaders are staunchly opposed. Cardinal George said expanding embryonic stem cell research would "alienate tens of millions of people, not just Catholics, and militates against the type of unity the administration hopes to achieve."
Obama and Pope Benedict had their first telephone call on Tuesday, but a Vatican spokesman said the stem cell issue was not raised during the conversation.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Staggering sums of money and great pain
According to a report in today's Irish Times the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin has paid out to date more than €12.4 million in claims of child sex abuse and another €3.3 million in legal fees.
That is just one diocese in Ireland. It needs to be said again, €12.4 million plus €3.3 million. And this in a church which has claimed to be the owner of sexual morality. It really is staggering.
What is more astonishing is that so many of its spokespeople claim they were not aware of the damage that was being done. This from an organisation which for centuries claims to know God's last word on sexual matters.
It is extraordinary and mind boggling.
What of the damage done to so many.
That is just one diocese in Ireland. It needs to be said again, €12.4 million plus €3.3 million. And this in a church which has claimed to be the owner of sexual morality. It really is staggering.
What is more astonishing is that so many of its spokespeople claim they were not aware of the damage that was being done. This from an organisation which for centuries claims to know God's last word on sexual matters.
It is extraordinary and mind boggling.
What of the damage done to so many.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Austin Flannery OP
There is an appreci-ation of Austin Flannery in today's Irish Times. But it seems it is not on their digital version, so this blog is unable to upload it.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Weimar and Lisbon
Anyone who visits the German Historical Museum on Berlin's Unter den Linden has to be struck with some of the similarities between the present situation in Europe and the time between the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of Hitler.
In the run-up to the referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty the No campaigners spoke about Ireland losing its 'identity', fears that Ireland would be 'over-controlled' by powers away from Dublin. And the far right Christian groups' attempt to instill fear in the minds of people that Ireland could lose its Christian identity
All the time there was an evident 'sneer' that 'we' know best and should protect our 'nationalism' at all costs.
A visit to the Berlin museum should be a must for anyone who is interested in seeing our world in the context of history.
Where would our economy be today if we were not in the euro zone? In a much worse situation than Iceland.
In the run-up to the referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty the No campaigners spoke about Ireland losing its 'identity', fears that Ireland would be 'over-controlled' by powers away from Dublin. And the far right Christian groups' attempt to instill fear in the minds of people that Ireland could lose its Christian identity
All the time there was an evident 'sneer' that 'we' know best and should protect our 'nationalism' at all costs.
A visit to the Berlin museum should be a must for anyone who is interested in seeing our world in the context of history.
Where would our economy be today if we were not in the euro zone? In a much worse situation than Iceland.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
West Kerry to Dublin on two wheels
A break from the serious world for a few moments.
This blog makes great effort to write all its material in the third person. An interlude today.
On Monday afternoon I left West Kerry at 13.50 on my Honda 680. Destination was Dublin, a distance of circa 380 kilometres.
It was one of the few clear Mondays since early June so the possibility of getting to Dublin without rain made the adventure tempting.
And off I set.
Still at novice stage every moment on the bike requires 120 per cent attention and concentration. The Kerry scenery is spectacular but there is little time to admire it from the seat of my Honda.
The relatively new Tralee Castleisland road offers the first signs of the big road. It brings an element of relaxation but also one of fear and terror. The level of concentration tires me.
Out of the Kingdom and into Limerick. First signs of cramp so a two-minute stop in Newcastle West to stretch and relax and off again. With the clocks gone back it seems a terrible waste of daylight time to spend any time off the bike before dark descends.
The semi-permanent road works on the Nenagh bypass make for scary driving but you just have to keep going. It's getting dark now and a strange sense of isolation and 'worry' sets in.
Nobody out there knows I am a novice.
Mountrath offers the hope of the motorway ahead but the punishment of the roads leading to the town certainly put a great damper on any hope of freedom ahead. Bollards and cones, gravel and muck are hell on a motorbike.
And then the motorway. Instead of it being a terrifying experience it offers openness and freedom. But it has its moments. A convoy of trucks ahead and need to pass them. But they are travelling at speed and suddenly as I am passing them I check the speed I am doing. The clock is at 140 km/h. What happens if I lose my grip on the handlebars or I hit a heap of gravel. I keep going and then move in to the slower lane and stay there. Relaxation.
The three-lane approach to Newlands Cross can cause confusion as most of the traffic, slow and fast, seems to stay in the middle lane. Where to stay? Keep going. And straight.
Arrival at Tallaght and the gear hides my identity. Job done. First time to drive to the capital. To work on it the next day. More fear but the second day it seems a little easier.
All a practice-run for the planned trip to Berlin and then on to Volgograd.
Maybe longer away than I had imagined!
This blog makes great effort to write all its material in the third person. An interlude today.
On Monday afternoon I left West Kerry at 13.50 on my Honda 680. Destination was Dublin, a distance of circa 380 kilometres.
It was one of the few clear Mondays since early June so the possibility of getting to Dublin without rain made the adventure tempting.
And off I set.
Still at novice stage every moment on the bike requires 120 per cent attention and concentration. The Kerry scenery is spectacular but there is little time to admire it from the seat of my Honda.
The relatively new Tralee Castleisland road offers the first signs of the big road. It brings an element of relaxation but also one of fear and terror. The level of concentration tires me.
Out of the Kingdom and into Limerick. First signs of cramp so a two-minute stop in Newcastle West to stretch and relax and off again. With the clocks gone back it seems a terrible waste of daylight time to spend any time off the bike before dark descends.
The semi-permanent road works on the Nenagh bypass make for scary driving but you just have to keep going. It's getting dark now and a strange sense of isolation and 'worry' sets in.
Nobody out there knows I am a novice.
Mountrath offers the hope of the motorway ahead but the punishment of the roads leading to the town certainly put a great damper on any hope of freedom ahead. Bollards and cones, gravel and muck are hell on a motorbike.
And then the motorway. Instead of it being a terrifying experience it offers openness and freedom. But it has its moments. A convoy of trucks ahead and need to pass them. But they are travelling at speed and suddenly as I am passing them I check the speed I am doing. The clock is at 140 km/h. What happens if I lose my grip on the handlebars or I hit a heap of gravel. I keep going and then move in to the slower lane and stay there. Relaxation.
The three-lane approach to Newlands Cross can cause confusion as most of the traffic, slow and fast, seems to stay in the middle lane. Where to stay? Keep going. And straight.
Arrival at Tallaght and the gear hides my identity. Job done. First time to drive to the capital. To work on it the next day. More fear but the second day it seems a little easier.
All a practice-run for the planned trip to Berlin and then on to Volgograd.
Maybe longer away than I had imagined!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Vatican suggests psychological evaluations
The article below appears in yesterday's issue of The Irish Times.
The heading, Church defends Vatican, is amazingly odd. Something akin to telling readers Tuesday follows Monday.
As reported in the article below, the Vatican document seems most confusing.
The Irish Catholic Church's national co-ordinator for diocesan vocations, Fr Patrick Rushe says, 'clericalism is not as prominent now'. The veracitiy and accuracy of this comment needs serious questioning. Fr Rushe also says that, 'Many of the seminarians were also of 'better quality' than in the past. What does that mean? Is there scientific evidence to show this or is it another clever statement of obfuscation, hoping that the serious problems will go away?
He also says that 'such matters are being taken seriously by the church'. Is this so?
The document, according to the IT article says that if men have 'difficulty with the celibate life the path of formation will have to be interupted'.
What a nonsense is this?
And then the document, again according to the IT, says that men with 'deep-seated homosexual tendencies' should also have their formation interrupted.
Any chance the Vatican could come clean on all this and be prophetic and visionary. Even tell the truth.
A question for those in the Vatican who are responsible for formation of men studying for the priesthood: what happens if those in charge of student formation are homosexual and misogynistic?
Hopefully the Vatican document is not as silly as what is reported in yesterday's Irish Times. Then again, maybe it just is.
And then the final comment in the art of gobbledygook, this sentence appears:
At a news conference in the Vatican, prefect for Catholic education Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, said the use of psychological tests should become neither "obligatory" nor "ordinary practice".
The recent death and subsequent media coverage of Jorg Haider is a most interesting metaphor.
And now the article in yesterday's Irish Times.
Church defends Vatican document
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
A VATICAN document issued last week, which recommended that seminary candidates undergo "psychological evaluations", was as much about reassuring the laity that such matters are being taken seriously by the church, Fr Patrick Rushe has said.
The Irish Catholic Church's national co-ordinator for diocesan vocations said the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education was more broadly focused than just on sexual issues.
"It encourages psychological profiling in the broader sense, as a help" in assisting candidates for the priesthood, he said.
"We find that most guys coming to us need development of some kind, though not as it was say 20 years ago."
More often, these days, seminarians were men who had come through ''their own journey of faith. They may have been non-practising for a period. They may have gone from fervour to non-practise, only to find fervour again.They may be older, with a wider experience. They are all the better for that in many cases," he said.
Most seminaries "now encourage a period of reflection", where such men are concerned. It is part of a process, and issues dealt with were "much broader than sex or orientation", he said.
He felt that today's seminarians were more realistic. "They may have had other professions and been in relationships. They know what life is like."
But, he also felt, you could not replace the idealism of youth. Many of today's seminarians were also of "better quality" than in the past, and had "a deeper sense of service. Clericalism is not as prominent now [among seminarians]".
Currently there are 87 men training to become priests in Ireland at seminaries in Rome, Spain, Britain and Maynooth.
This year 14 men were ordained to serve as Catholic priests in Ireland, compared to nine in 2007.
Fr Rushe was commenting in the context of a document issued by the Vatican's congregation last Thursday.
It recommended that seminarians undergo "psychological evaluations" with regard to potential personality disturbances as well as to their ability to live a celibate life. It followed on from another document issued by the congregation in 2005 which said the Catholic Church cannot ordain men who are active homosexuals or who have "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies.
The new document argued that if seminary students demonstrated areas of grave immaturity, then "the path of formation will have to be interrupted". Such areas of "immaturity" it indicated included deep-seated homosexual tendencies, unclear sexual identity, difficulty with the celibate life, excessive rigidity of character and lack of freedom in relations.
It said special attention should be given to ensuring that celibacy was not "a burden so heavy" that it compromised a candidate's affective and relational equilibrium.
As for assessing a candidate's ability to live a celibate life, it suggested that "it is not enough to be sure that he is capable of abstaining from genital activity" but that it is also necessary "to evaluate his sexual orientation".
The document said that psychological tests could be useful with a view not only to identifying troubled candidates but also in helping seminarians through their vocational journey, especially if the candidate needs to overcome psychological wounds.
At a news conference in the Vatican, prefect for Catholic education Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, said the use of psychological tests should become neither "obligatory" nor "ordinary practice".
The heading, Church defends Vatican, is amazingly odd. Something akin to telling readers Tuesday follows Monday.
As reported in the article below, the Vatican document seems most confusing.
The Irish Catholic Church's national co-ordinator for diocesan vocations, Fr Patrick Rushe says, 'clericalism is not as prominent now'. The veracitiy and accuracy of this comment needs serious questioning. Fr Rushe also says that, 'Many of the seminarians were also of 'better quality' than in the past. What does that mean? Is there scientific evidence to show this or is it another clever statement of obfuscation, hoping that the serious problems will go away?
He also says that 'such matters are being taken seriously by the church'. Is this so?
The document, according to the IT article says that if men have 'difficulty with the celibate life the path of formation will have to be interupted'.
What a nonsense is this?
And then the document, again according to the IT, says that men with 'deep-seated homosexual tendencies' should also have their formation interrupted.
Any chance the Vatican could come clean on all this and be prophetic and visionary. Even tell the truth.
A question for those in the Vatican who are responsible for formation of men studying for the priesthood: what happens if those in charge of student formation are homosexual and misogynistic?
Hopefully the Vatican document is not as silly as what is reported in yesterday's Irish Times. Then again, maybe it just is.
And then the final comment in the art of gobbledygook, this sentence appears:
At a news conference in the Vatican, prefect for Catholic education Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, said the use of psychological tests should become neither "obligatory" nor "ordinary practice".
The recent death and subsequent media coverage of Jorg Haider is a most interesting metaphor.
And now the article in yesterday's Irish Times.
Church defends Vatican document
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
A VATICAN document issued last week, which recommended that seminary candidates undergo "psychological evaluations", was as much about reassuring the laity that such matters are being taken seriously by the church, Fr Patrick Rushe has said.
The Irish Catholic Church's national co-ordinator for diocesan vocations said the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education was more broadly focused than just on sexual issues.
"It encourages psychological profiling in the broader sense, as a help" in assisting candidates for the priesthood, he said.
"We find that most guys coming to us need development of some kind, though not as it was say 20 years ago."
More often, these days, seminarians were men who had come through ''their own journey of faith. They may have been non-practising for a period. They may have gone from fervour to non-practise, only to find fervour again.They may be older, with a wider experience. They are all the better for that in many cases," he said.
Most seminaries "now encourage a period of reflection", where such men are concerned. It is part of a process, and issues dealt with were "much broader than sex or orientation", he said.
He felt that today's seminarians were more realistic. "They may have had other professions and been in relationships. They know what life is like."
But, he also felt, you could not replace the idealism of youth. Many of today's seminarians were also of "better quality" than in the past, and had "a deeper sense of service. Clericalism is not as prominent now [among seminarians]".
Currently there are 87 men training to become priests in Ireland at seminaries in Rome, Spain, Britain and Maynooth.
This year 14 men were ordained to serve as Catholic priests in Ireland, compared to nine in 2007.
Fr Rushe was commenting in the context of a document issued by the Vatican's congregation last Thursday.
It recommended that seminarians undergo "psychological evaluations" with regard to potential personality disturbances as well as to their ability to live a celibate life. It followed on from another document issued by the congregation in 2005 which said the Catholic Church cannot ordain men who are active homosexuals or who have "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies.
The new document argued that if seminary students demonstrated areas of grave immaturity, then "the path of formation will have to be interrupted". Such areas of "immaturity" it indicated included deep-seated homosexual tendencies, unclear sexual identity, difficulty with the celibate life, excessive rigidity of character and lack of freedom in relations.
It said special attention should be given to ensuring that celibacy was not "a burden so heavy" that it compromised a candidate's affective and relational equilibrium.
As for assessing a candidate's ability to live a celibate life, it suggested that "it is not enough to be sure that he is capable of abstaining from genital activity" but that it is also necessary "to evaluate his sexual orientation".
The document said that psychological tests could be useful with a view not only to identifying troubled candidates but also in helping seminarians through their vocational journey, especially if the candidate needs to overcome psychological wounds.
At a news conference in the Vatican, prefect for Catholic education Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, said the use of psychological tests should become neither "obligatory" nor "ordinary practice".
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Direct copy of what appeared on this blog
Imitation is said to be the best form of flattery. Then again copying is simply plagiarism.
The website 'Clerical Whispers' has an obit of the late Fr Austin Flannery. Here it is.
See it anywhere before? It is of course lifted verbatim from what appeared here on Tuesday.
It is worth noting that under the web title, 'Clerical Whispers' are the words, Fides, Libertas, Fides.
It is the perfect example of how words can mean nothing even when it comes to church issues. Maybe, specifically when they are 'church words'.
Fr Austin Flannery OP died of a heart attack Tuesday 21st October 2008, at Kiltipper Woods Care Centre, Dublin 24.Austin was born in Tipperary on January 10, 1925.
He joined the Dominican Order in 1943 and ordained a priest in June 1950.Immediately after the War he studied in Oxford with Dominicans from other European countries, including Dominicans from Germany.
This was an attempt at reconciliation by the Order and the English Dominican Province. Also with Austin in Oxford was Fr Finbar Matthew Kelly, who is now in the Dominican Priory in Kilkenny.Austin was one of the most well-known Irish Dominicans of his time.During and after the Vatican Council he made available in English all the documents from the event.
At the helm of Dominican Publications, he was in a position to make available a wide range of religious publications to the general public.He broke away from the clerical mind set of his time and spoke in a language that was appealing and made sense in a changing Ireland.
Austin had the great ability of making life-long friends with people across a wide spectrum of beliefs and ideas.He had a great love for the Order and felt at home at St Saviour's in Dublin where he spent most of his Dominican life.Some years ago German Railways named one of their InterCity trains after St Albert The Great.
It was something Austin took great pride in and any time he met anyone with German connections he would make it his business to tell them about it.Austin was well respected by his Dominican colleagues and those who lived with him speak fondly of a man, who was gracious and kind.
May he rest in peace.
The website 'Clerical Whispers' has an obit of the late Fr Austin Flannery. Here it is.
See it anywhere before? It is of course lifted verbatim from what appeared here on Tuesday.
It is worth noting that under the web title, 'Clerical Whispers' are the words, Fides, Libertas, Fides.
It is the perfect example of how words can mean nothing even when it comes to church issues. Maybe, specifically when they are 'church words'.
Fr Austin Flannery OP died of a heart attack Tuesday 21st October 2008, at Kiltipper Woods Care Centre, Dublin 24.Austin was born in Tipperary on January 10, 1925.
He joined the Dominican Order in 1943 and ordained a priest in June 1950.Immediately after the War he studied in Oxford with Dominicans from other European countries, including Dominicans from Germany.
This was an attempt at reconciliation by the Order and the English Dominican Province. Also with Austin in Oxford was Fr Finbar Matthew Kelly, who is now in the Dominican Priory in Kilkenny.Austin was one of the most well-known Irish Dominicans of his time.During and after the Vatican Council he made available in English all the documents from the event.
At the helm of Dominican Publications, he was in a position to make available a wide range of religious publications to the general public.He broke away from the clerical mind set of his time and spoke in a language that was appealing and made sense in a changing Ireland.
Austin had the great ability of making life-long friends with people across a wide spectrum of beliefs and ideas.He had a great love for the Order and felt at home at St Saviour's in Dublin where he spent most of his Dominican life.Some years ago German Railways named one of their InterCity trains after St Albert The Great.
It was something Austin took great pride in and any time he met anyone with German connections he would make it his business to tell them about it.Austin was well respected by his Dominican colleagues and those who lived with him speak fondly of a man, who was gracious and kind.
May he rest in peace.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Fr Austin Flannery OP
Fr Austin Flannery OP died of a heart attack today at Kiltipper Woods Care Centre, Dublin 24.
Austin was born in Tipperary on January 1, 1925. He joined the Dominican Order in 1943 and ordained a priest in June 1950.
Immediately after the War he studied in Oxford with Dominicans from other European countries, including Dominicans from Germany. This was an attempt at reconciliation by the Order and the English Dominican Province. Also with Austin in Oxford was Fr Finbar Matthew Kelly, who is now in the Dominican Priory in Kilkenny.
Austin was one of the most well-known Irish Dominicans of his time.
During and after the Vatican Council he made available in English all the documents from the event.
At the helm of Dominican Publications, he was in a position to make available a wide range of religious publications to the general public.
He broke away from the clerical mind set of his time and spoke in a language that was appealing and made sense in a changing Ireland.
Austin had the great ability of making life-long friends with people across a wide spectrum of beliefs and ideas.
He had a great love for the Order and felt at home at St Saviour's in Dublin where he spent most of his Dominican life.
Some years ago German Railways named one of their InterCity trains after St Albert The Great. It was something Austin took great pride in and any time he met anyone with German connections he would make it his business to tell them about it.
Austin was well respected by his Dominican colleagues and those who lived with him speak fondly of a man, who was gracious and kind.
May he rest in peace.
Apologies that there is not a picture of Austin posted with this blog.
Austin was born in Tipperary on January 1, 1925. He joined the Dominican Order in 1943 and ordained a priest in June 1950.
Immediately after the War he studied in Oxford with Dominicans from other European countries, including Dominicans from Germany. This was an attempt at reconciliation by the Order and the English Dominican Province. Also with Austin in Oxford was Fr Finbar Matthew Kelly, who is now in the Dominican Priory in Kilkenny.
Austin was one of the most well-known Irish Dominicans of his time.
During and after the Vatican Council he made available in English all the documents from the event.
At the helm of Dominican Publications, he was in a position to make available a wide range of religious publications to the general public.
He broke away from the clerical mind set of his time and spoke in a language that was appealing and made sense in a changing Ireland.
Austin had the great ability of making life-long friends with people across a wide spectrum of beliefs and ideas.
He had a great love for the Order and felt at home at St Saviour's in Dublin where he spent most of his Dominican life.
Some years ago German Railways named one of their InterCity trains after St Albert The Great. It was something Austin took great pride in and any time he met anyone with German connections he would make it his business to tell them about it.
Austin was well respected by his Dominican colleagues and those who lived with him speak fondly of a man, who was gracious and kind.
May he rest in peace.
Apologies that there is not a picture of Austin posted with this blog.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
On the margins of a conference
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan addressed a conference at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on world hunger organised by Concern Worldwide today.
Also speaking at the conference were former Irish President, Mary Robinson and world famous economist Jeff Sachs. Concern's CEO Tom Arnold introduced the speakers and Taoiseach Brian Cowen addressed the conference via a video link. He was unable to attend because of EU commitments in Brussels. The Minister for Overseas Development, Peter Power also spoke.
He told the conference that the bonuses paid to Wall Street bankers last year was more than the sum of all money spent in the same year to help alleviate poverty in the developing world.
This is Concern's 40th year in operation and the conference was part of the year-long activities organised to mark the special year.
Among the attendants at the conference were two young school-going students. Kate Nevin and Ryan Woolley were winners of an essay-writing competition and part of their prize was meeting Kofi Annan at the Royal Hospital earlier in the morning.
They were at the fringes of the conference, but were two amazingly bright young people, full of enthusiasm and with such a zest for life. Their intelligence and goodness was radiant and inspiring.
Their contributions will not make the national headlines. They had no advisers or speech writers with them. Their accompaniers were their proud parents.
Also present was businessman Deni O'Brien and he was able to take time out to say some nice words in private about an Irish Dominican, Stephen Doyle, who died some months ago. Mr O'Brien stepped in and was of great help to Stephen at one stage during his illness.
The stories that add value to all our lives. They are on the margins with no fanfares attached.
Also speaking at the conference were former Irish President, Mary Robinson and world famous economist Jeff Sachs. Concern's CEO Tom Arnold introduced the speakers and Taoiseach Brian Cowen addressed the conference via a video link. He was unable to attend because of EU commitments in Brussels. The Minister for Overseas Development, Peter Power also spoke.
He told the conference that the bonuses paid to Wall Street bankers last year was more than the sum of all money spent in the same year to help alleviate poverty in the developing world.
This is Concern's 40th year in operation and the conference was part of the year-long activities organised to mark the special year.
Among the attendants at the conference were two young school-going students. Kate Nevin and Ryan Woolley were winners of an essay-writing competition and part of their prize was meeting Kofi Annan at the Royal Hospital earlier in the morning.
They were at the fringes of the conference, but were two amazingly bright young people, full of enthusiasm and with such a zest for life. Their intelligence and goodness was radiant and inspiring.
Their contributions will not make the national headlines. They had no advisers or speech writers with them. Their accompaniers were their proud parents.
Also present was businessman Deni O'Brien and he was able to take time out to say some nice words in private about an Irish Dominican, Stephen Doyle, who died some months ago. Mr O'Brien stepped in and was of great help to Stephen at one stage during his illness.
The stories that add value to all our lives. They are on the margins with no fanfares attached.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Comments of an African bishop
A leading Catholic bishop in Africa says he'd obviously vote for the Democrat. The National Catholic Reporter describes Bishop Onaiyekan thus:
A past president of the African bishops’ conference, Onaiyekan is widely seen as a spokesperson for Catholicism in Africa. During the synod, he was tapped to deliver a continental report on behalf of the African bishops.
Via Rocco, here's his statement on pro-lifers and Obama:
“Of course I believe that abortion is wrong, that it’s killing innocent life,” he said. “I also believe, however, that those who are against abortion should be consistent.
“If my choice is between a person who makes room for abortion, but who is really pro-life in terms of justice in the world, peace in the world, I will prefer him to somebody who doesn’t support abortion but who is driving millions of people in the world to death,” Onaiyekan said.
“It’s a whole package, and you never get a politician who will please you in everything,” he said.
“You always have to pick and choose.”
A past president of the African bishops’ conference, Onaiyekan is widely seen as a spokesperson for Catholicism in Africa. During the synod, he was tapped to deliver a continental report on behalf of the African bishops.
Via Rocco, here's his statement on pro-lifers and Obama:
“Of course I believe that abortion is wrong, that it’s killing innocent life,” he said. “I also believe, however, that those who are against abortion should be consistent.
“If my choice is between a person who makes room for abortion, but who is really pro-life in terms of justice in the world, peace in the world, I will prefer him to somebody who doesn’t support abortion but who is driving millions of people in the world to death,” Onaiyekan said.
“It’s a whole package, and you never get a politician who will please you in everything,” he said.
“You always have to pick and choose.”
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Some questions make no sense
On Tuesday in 'The Rite and Reason' column of The Irish Times, Fr David Keating, chaplain at Waterford IT argues that there is no need for concern over a shortfall of priests in Ireland.
The Letters to the Editor page of The Irish Times today carries a number of letters on the topic.
Is there a shortage of accountants, solicitors, engineers in Ireland at present? The engineering industry has been saying that there is a worry re the number of young people studying honours maths and physics in our schools.
Is there a shortage of poets, novelists, writers in Ireland today?
Even the question makes little sense. Maybe if we compare Ireland to the 1950s and 1960s when priests had to be exported, there is a shortage. But to that comparison we should be most grateful.
Back in the 1960s it was impossible to walk down Dublin's O'Connell Street without bumping into a bevvy of roman collars. It was a madness.
Sacramental priesthood can never be a numbers game. But anything that helps dismantle clericalism has to be a gift from God.
I have spent many years teaching at post-primary level. Last year and this year is my first occasion teaching in a post-primary school that is not managed by the Irish ecclesiastical church and where the principal is not a priest or a sister. I don't miss the absence of priest or sister.
My school principal is a good man and a good principal. Indeed, I would put him in the list of best principals, with whom I have worked. And what is most striking is that there is none of the terms such as 'Christian ethos' or 'Catholic school', which I heard so much about in other schools but never really understood and maybe seldom saw.
He and a Jesuit school-principal are top of my list.
What is always needed is a presence of good and moral people.
The Letters to the Editor page of The Irish Times today carries a number of letters on the topic.
Is there a shortage of accountants, solicitors, engineers in Ireland at present? The engineering industry has been saying that there is a worry re the number of young people studying honours maths and physics in our schools.
Is there a shortage of poets, novelists, writers in Ireland today?
Even the question makes little sense. Maybe if we compare Ireland to the 1950s and 1960s when priests had to be exported, there is a shortage. But to that comparison we should be most grateful.
Back in the 1960s it was impossible to walk down Dublin's O'Connell Street without bumping into a bevvy of roman collars. It was a madness.
Sacramental priesthood can never be a numbers game. But anything that helps dismantle clericalism has to be a gift from God.
I have spent many years teaching at post-primary level. Last year and this year is my first occasion teaching in a post-primary school that is not managed by the Irish ecclesiastical church and where the principal is not a priest or a sister. I don't miss the absence of priest or sister.
My school principal is a good man and a good principal. Indeed, I would put him in the list of best principals, with whom I have worked. And what is most striking is that there is none of the terms such as 'Christian ethos' or 'Catholic school', which I heard so much about in other schools but never really understood and maybe seldom saw.
He and a Jesuit school-principal are top of my list.
What is always needed is a presence of good and moral people.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Happy Days at the Abbey
Beckett's Happy Days, at present running in the Abbey Theatre as part of the Dublin Theatre festival, is superb.
Fiona Shaw leaves you with no opportunity but to listen and wonder at every word Beckett writes.
The stage scenery is perfect.
The emptiness, the bleak waiting, the nothingness of reality, the making fun of anything that might seem important has to jolt anyone who ever attempts to talk about reality or God.
Sitting through the play I was forced to laugh at all the certitudes I have ever heard from a pulpit. Beckett paints a frightening but great picture of reality. And in that context how can anyone ever say a word about God?
Can one dare say a word about God through the eyes of faith, but is that a cop-out?
Fiona Shaw leaves you with no opportunity but to listen and wonder at every word Beckett writes.
The stage scenery is perfect.
The emptiness, the bleak waiting, the nothingness of reality, the making fun of anything that might seem important has to jolt anyone who ever attempts to talk about reality or God.
Sitting through the play I was forced to laugh at all the certitudes I have ever heard from a pulpit. Beckett paints a frightening but great picture of reality. And in that context how can anyone ever say a word about God?
Can one dare say a word about God through the eyes of faith, but is that a cop-out?
Worshipping false gods
OPINION: The events of recent times require us all to reconsider the economic choices facing us, writes DAVID BEGG
FOR THE last 25 years we have been told that the twin phenomena of globalisation and the financial system underpinning it are unalterable. Free markets, we were told, are possessed of an inherent and irresistible logic and the state must not interfere. Economists, politicians, academics, commentators and business people of the neoliberal persuasion foreclosed all debate about the subject.
But that liberal dogma has now been turned on its head by the need for massive state intervention in the banking system, not least in the United States, the very citadel of capitalism.
Let us be absolutely clear. This crisis was caused by greed and recklessness in our own country, on Wall Street, in London and in other major financial centres. Senior executives permitted speculation on a huge scale on investments they ill understood. Speculators have exacerbated the serious rises in fuel, food and raw materials.
The losers are many and include workers in the industry and, more generally, pensioners, families, firms seeking investment capital, and all of us as taxpayers now bailing out banks. It will take years to recover the money - if we manage to do so - and our future ability to fund high-quality public services is now jeopardised.
Friedrich Hayek, widely recognised as the progenitor of neoliberalism, published his most famous book, The Road to Serfdom , in 1944. By coincidence a Hungarian socialist, Karl Polanyi, published The Great Transformation in the same year. While Polanyi's work celebrated the New Deal in the US precisely because it placed limits on the influence of market forces, Hayek's book insisted that the New Deal was the road to perdition.
Although he identified himself as a socialist, Polanyi had profound differences with economic determinism of all varieties, including Marxism. In the cold war era there was little room for Polanyi's nuanced and complex arguments.
Hayek, on the other hand, went on to be a tireless advocate of market liberalism in Britain and the US. He inspired such influential followers as Milton Friedman and was responsible for the policies of deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation pursued by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Over time, they deconstructed the last vestiges of the New Deal, leaving us with the catastrophe we have today.
Polanyi's central thesis is that self-regulating markets never work. To his mind their deficiencies are so great that government intervention becomes necessary, and that the pace of change is of central importance in determining these consequences.
Polanyi's great attraction lies in his concern to advance both freedom and social justice. He believes that allowing the market to control the economic system was a fundamental error because it meant no less than the running of society as an adjunct to the market. Instead of economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are then embedded in the economic system.
The most obvious manifestation of this in practice is the treatment of labour, which is really human beings, as a commodity. Polanyi points out that human beings are not a product made for sale. Nevertheless, upon the fiction that labour is a commodity is the whole market system organised. It is therefore based on a lie.
Unfortunately, under the pressure of globalisation, Europe has been moving in the direction of the US model and, in truth, Ireland and Britain are part of that Anglo-Saxon construct. But the events of recent times require us all to reconsider.
The problem we have to transcend is that many intelligent people have put their faith in the idea of self-regulating markets as piously as others put their trust in God.
Now that this god has failed, perhaps people will have the freedom to see things more clearly again, reclaim responsibility and organise the future in more promising terms.
• David Begg is deneral secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and is a governor of The Irish Times Trust
© 2008 The Irish Times
FOR THE last 25 years we have been told that the twin phenomena of globalisation and the financial system underpinning it are unalterable. Free markets, we were told, are possessed of an inherent and irresistible logic and the state must not interfere. Economists, politicians, academics, commentators and business people of the neoliberal persuasion foreclosed all debate about the subject.
But that liberal dogma has now been turned on its head by the need for massive state intervention in the banking system, not least in the United States, the very citadel of capitalism.
Let us be absolutely clear. This crisis was caused by greed and recklessness in our own country, on Wall Street, in London and in other major financial centres. Senior executives permitted speculation on a huge scale on investments they ill understood. Speculators have exacerbated the serious rises in fuel, food and raw materials.
The losers are many and include workers in the industry and, more generally, pensioners, families, firms seeking investment capital, and all of us as taxpayers now bailing out banks. It will take years to recover the money - if we manage to do so - and our future ability to fund high-quality public services is now jeopardised.
Friedrich Hayek, widely recognised as the progenitor of neoliberalism, published his most famous book, The Road to Serfdom , in 1944. By coincidence a Hungarian socialist, Karl Polanyi, published The Great Transformation in the same year. While Polanyi's work celebrated the New Deal in the US precisely because it placed limits on the influence of market forces, Hayek's book insisted that the New Deal was the road to perdition.
Although he identified himself as a socialist, Polanyi had profound differences with economic determinism of all varieties, including Marxism. In the cold war era there was little room for Polanyi's nuanced and complex arguments.
Hayek, on the other hand, went on to be a tireless advocate of market liberalism in Britain and the US. He inspired such influential followers as Milton Friedman and was responsible for the policies of deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation pursued by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Over time, they deconstructed the last vestiges of the New Deal, leaving us with the catastrophe we have today.
Polanyi's central thesis is that self-regulating markets never work. To his mind their deficiencies are so great that government intervention becomes necessary, and that the pace of change is of central importance in determining these consequences.
Polanyi's great attraction lies in his concern to advance both freedom and social justice. He believes that allowing the market to control the economic system was a fundamental error because it meant no less than the running of society as an adjunct to the market. Instead of economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are then embedded in the economic system.
The most obvious manifestation of this in practice is the treatment of labour, which is really human beings, as a commodity. Polanyi points out that human beings are not a product made for sale. Nevertheless, upon the fiction that labour is a commodity is the whole market system organised. It is therefore based on a lie.
Unfortunately, under the pressure of globalisation, Europe has been moving in the direction of the US model and, in truth, Ireland and Britain are part of that Anglo-Saxon construct. But the events of recent times require us all to reconsider.
The problem we have to transcend is that many intelligent people have put their faith in the idea of self-regulating markets as piously as others put their trust in God.
Now that this god has failed, perhaps people will have the freedom to see things more clearly again, reclaim responsibility and organise the future in more promising terms.
• David Begg is deneral secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and is a governor of The Irish Times Trust
© 2008 The Irish Times
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Beckett at the Abbey
This article is in today's Irish Times.
The author of this blog was at university in Cork with Fiona Shaw and has the distinction of giving her a cross bar on one occasion to an English lecture at the college!
Living with Beckett and his words for 18 months, in performances from London to Greece to New York to London, forces one to go beyond language to the silence we all must face, writes Fiona Shaw
A WOMAN, "about 50, well-preserved", is how Samuel Beckett suggests Winnie, the heroine of his play Happy Days , should appear. So when the part was proposed to me 18 months ago, I was appalled, thinking at 48 that I was a woman "about 40". It is in these vanities, the gap between our self-preservatory illusions and reality that Beckett's genius captures actor and audience alike.
I struggled to meet Winnie, feeling that I was not allied to Beckett's sensibility. The writing reared up and resisted what normally happens when I make friends with a text. Usually I can find a line, a phrase or an image that reminds me of the poetry of my own life. I often find my childhood in plays and, no matter how far away the story or period, I hear my early self in the words, like a noise from a cave, but this was hard to learn - Beckett has taken phrases that sound like real speech, yet they disintegrate just as the images form. The effect on the hearer is genius: instead of frustrating the audience, he keeps them on tenterhooks hoping that the launch of the next phrase will make sense of what has gone before. The play's form and content are the same - pointless hope - so the audience rides the play in the very rhythm of its telling.
Every morning before rehearsals I met our stage manager, who drilled me inch by inch before the painstaking rehearsal period began. We played badminton in the coffee breaks so that my circulation would not prematurely seize up, and I spent Christmas Day in Cork drilling lines.
By the time we opened at Britain's National Theatre I was a thing of worry.
There began Beckett's first gracious revenge - to my surprise, the audience responded with so much humour, full of recognition of Winnie's plight, and she began to graft on to me.
The play has since travelled the world, a privileged way to develop the work and test its qualities against different cultures. We began in Epidaurus, Greece, by which time I had acquired a puppy who was taking over my life. He attended rehearsals and entertained us with his tilting head and earnest attempts to cope with me buried up to my waist in the mound. There was fierce debate in the Greek press as to whether a modern play should be performed on that ancient monument. At the time, I was more concerned with the difficulties of playing to a huge audience.
We anticipated 5,000 people, the population of a small town. But the ancients thought of everything. The acoustic of this remarkable amphitheatre is famous - an actor can stand on the stage and be heard whispering some hundred rows back, due, they think, to giant jars that sit under the orchestra.
My enthusiasm for the architecture was only tempered by the alignment between the burning images in Happy Days and the fires raging through Greece that week. During the press conference a helicopter flew over carrying a giant sack of water to quell yet another forest fire, and I thought of Winnie's lines: "Is it not possible, with the sun beating down, and so much fiercer down, things to go on fire never known to do so in this way, I mean spontaneous like."
That night, the ancient theatre had the quality of an etching of the human brain, a tiered slice that fills the eye. I felt the slide rule of time did not apply. I was entirely in the past and in the present at the same time - all the people who had sat there, in togas two millennia ago, now in T-shirts and jeans - but I felt the frisson as I hit the lines: "Might I myself not melt in the end, or burn, I do not mean burst into flames, but little by little be charred to a black cinder, all this visible flesh."
The following morning, in the hotel, local tourists were weeping. The hills outside Athens were burning, and within an hour our second performance was cancelled, as were all performances in Greece. Official mourning was declared. Theatrical tragedy had given way to the real thing. We promised to return.
On to Paris, where the French vie for the ownership of Beckett, then Madrid in the giant old slaughterhouses lit with the neon blue the new Spain has made its own - and despite the surtitles, the Spanish laughed. I stood under the statue of Lorca and thought there is nothing we can teach these folk about the incremental catastrophe.
Then to Washington and on to New York after Christmas, where the play came into its own. I had wanted from the start to go there. Americans have always been attuned to rhythm, having absorbed so many languages, and I felt that the ease with which they had taken the dark humour of Medea might again be there. Sure enough, they were so quick it allowed me to widen the gaping abyss in the play without having to underline it.
Then Amsterdam, where the first night was a sombre evening when Queen Beatrix came (a woman I had known only from stamp collecting!), but the following day the commoners seemed to enjoy it.
THIS SUMMER, we returned to Epidaurus. We drove past the healing scalps of mountains, past verdant forest saved by man-made scars cut into the land. I thought, if only we could do the same and limit damage in ourselves: the burned mind of Winnie making less and less sense ("This . . . Charlie . . . kisses . . .this . . . all that"). Where before I had embraced the play's universal significance, this year I was more personally chastened by it. Near the end of the play, Winnie has a revelation: "I used to say Winnie you are changeless because there is never any difference between one fraction of a second and the next."
For many years I might have said the same thing: most of the dramas in my life have been of my own making. But something of the play has caught up with me. I have suffered losses this year, among them a young Greek member of our team. Last June I went to the funeral of our director Deborah Warner's father, and in the same week my own father suffered a stroke, and after New York my little dog was killed. Winnie refers to these "little . . . sunderings, little falls . . . apart", and now I am chilled by the lines: "To have been always what I am - and so changed from what I was."
I learned this year that the theatre at Epidaurus was a later addition to a site that had been a healing place. The sick climbed the mountain, slept the night in tents, and in the morning could diagnose their own illness, the god Asclepius having visited them in the night to inspire them. The climb was part of the healing process, the acknowledgment that something was wrong. Perhaps this is what drives us to a theatre, to hear the sounds of our own mortality - and yet laugh.
We performed to 6,000 people. Beckett takes us beyond language to silence, the silence we all will and must face. We may find it holds desolation, but one feels that, against all odds, it holds promise. A week later I turned 50. Winnie and I have met.
• Fiona Shaw appears at the Abbey in the British National Theatre production of Happy Days , directed by Deborah Warner, from tomorrow until Oct 25 as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival. Booking: 01-8787222
The author of this blog was at university in Cork with Fiona Shaw and has the distinction of giving her a cross bar on one occasion to an English lecture at the college!
Living with Beckett and his words for 18 months, in performances from London to Greece to New York to London, forces one to go beyond language to the silence we all must face, writes Fiona Shaw
A WOMAN, "about 50, well-preserved", is how Samuel Beckett suggests Winnie, the heroine of his play Happy Days , should appear. So when the part was proposed to me 18 months ago, I was appalled, thinking at 48 that I was a woman "about 40". It is in these vanities, the gap between our self-preservatory illusions and reality that Beckett's genius captures actor and audience alike.
I struggled to meet Winnie, feeling that I was not allied to Beckett's sensibility. The writing reared up and resisted what normally happens when I make friends with a text. Usually I can find a line, a phrase or an image that reminds me of the poetry of my own life. I often find my childhood in plays and, no matter how far away the story or period, I hear my early self in the words, like a noise from a cave, but this was hard to learn - Beckett has taken phrases that sound like real speech, yet they disintegrate just as the images form. The effect on the hearer is genius: instead of frustrating the audience, he keeps them on tenterhooks hoping that the launch of the next phrase will make sense of what has gone before. The play's form and content are the same - pointless hope - so the audience rides the play in the very rhythm of its telling.
Every morning before rehearsals I met our stage manager, who drilled me inch by inch before the painstaking rehearsal period began. We played badminton in the coffee breaks so that my circulation would not prematurely seize up, and I spent Christmas Day in Cork drilling lines.
By the time we opened at Britain's National Theatre I was a thing of worry.
There began Beckett's first gracious revenge - to my surprise, the audience responded with so much humour, full of recognition of Winnie's plight, and she began to graft on to me.
The play has since travelled the world, a privileged way to develop the work and test its qualities against different cultures. We began in Epidaurus, Greece, by which time I had acquired a puppy who was taking over my life. He attended rehearsals and entertained us with his tilting head and earnest attempts to cope with me buried up to my waist in the mound. There was fierce debate in the Greek press as to whether a modern play should be performed on that ancient monument. At the time, I was more concerned with the difficulties of playing to a huge audience.
We anticipated 5,000 people, the population of a small town. But the ancients thought of everything. The acoustic of this remarkable amphitheatre is famous - an actor can stand on the stage and be heard whispering some hundred rows back, due, they think, to giant jars that sit under the orchestra.
My enthusiasm for the architecture was only tempered by the alignment between the burning images in Happy Days and the fires raging through Greece that week. During the press conference a helicopter flew over carrying a giant sack of water to quell yet another forest fire, and I thought of Winnie's lines: "Is it not possible, with the sun beating down, and so much fiercer down, things to go on fire never known to do so in this way, I mean spontaneous like."
That night, the ancient theatre had the quality of an etching of the human brain, a tiered slice that fills the eye. I felt the slide rule of time did not apply. I was entirely in the past and in the present at the same time - all the people who had sat there, in togas two millennia ago, now in T-shirts and jeans - but I felt the frisson as I hit the lines: "Might I myself not melt in the end, or burn, I do not mean burst into flames, but little by little be charred to a black cinder, all this visible flesh."
The following morning, in the hotel, local tourists were weeping. The hills outside Athens were burning, and within an hour our second performance was cancelled, as were all performances in Greece. Official mourning was declared. Theatrical tragedy had given way to the real thing. We promised to return.
On to Paris, where the French vie for the ownership of Beckett, then Madrid in the giant old slaughterhouses lit with the neon blue the new Spain has made its own - and despite the surtitles, the Spanish laughed. I stood under the statue of Lorca and thought there is nothing we can teach these folk about the incremental catastrophe.
Then to Washington and on to New York after Christmas, where the play came into its own. I had wanted from the start to go there. Americans have always been attuned to rhythm, having absorbed so many languages, and I felt that the ease with which they had taken the dark humour of Medea might again be there. Sure enough, they were so quick it allowed me to widen the gaping abyss in the play without having to underline it.
Then Amsterdam, where the first night was a sombre evening when Queen Beatrix came (a woman I had known only from stamp collecting!), but the following day the commoners seemed to enjoy it.
THIS SUMMER, we returned to Epidaurus. We drove past the healing scalps of mountains, past verdant forest saved by man-made scars cut into the land. I thought, if only we could do the same and limit damage in ourselves: the burned mind of Winnie making less and less sense ("This . . . Charlie . . . kisses . . .this . . . all that"). Where before I had embraced the play's universal significance, this year I was more personally chastened by it. Near the end of the play, Winnie has a revelation: "I used to say Winnie you are changeless because there is never any difference between one fraction of a second and the next."
For many years I might have said the same thing: most of the dramas in my life have been of my own making. But something of the play has caught up with me. I have suffered losses this year, among them a young Greek member of our team. Last June I went to the funeral of our director Deborah Warner's father, and in the same week my own father suffered a stroke, and after New York my little dog was killed. Winnie refers to these "little . . . sunderings, little falls . . . apart", and now I am chilled by the lines: "To have been always what I am - and so changed from what I was."
I learned this year that the theatre at Epidaurus was a later addition to a site that had been a healing place. The sick climbed the mountain, slept the night in tents, and in the morning could diagnose their own illness, the god Asclepius having visited them in the night to inspire them. The climb was part of the healing process, the acknowledgment that something was wrong. Perhaps this is what drives us to a theatre, to hear the sounds of our own mortality - and yet laugh.
We performed to 6,000 people. Beckett takes us beyond language to silence, the silence we all will and must face. We may find it holds desolation, but one feels that, against all odds, it holds promise. A week later I turned 50. Winnie and I have met.
• Fiona Shaw appears at the Abbey in the British National Theatre production of Happy Days , directed by Deborah Warner, from tomorrow until Oct 25 as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival. Booking: 01-8787222
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
And still not a word
On Tuesday, September 23 this blog contacted the Holy Faith Sisters asking them if they had made any comment on the late Eileen Flynn-Roche case.
The blog was told that there would be no-one available until the following Friday. The congregation so far has made no contact.
The blog was told that there would be no-one available until the following Friday. The congregation so far has made no contact.
The banker and the priest
Eighteen years ago this Friday the two German states were united. October 3 is a public holiday in Germany to celebrate the date of unification. Some refer to it as 're-unification'.
It happened as a result of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. 20 years ago the world saw the fall of communism. Is the world now experiencing the collapse of capitalism?
In the East German city of Görlitz in summer 1985 a Protestant priest commented to me that the GDR was in collapse and that it was just a matter of time before it was all over. At the time I did not believe him
That same year in discussion with a senior banker in Ireland I raised the question what if the bank - his bank - collapsed. I was told it was impossible. At the time I did not believe him.
It happened as a result of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. 20 years ago the world saw the fall of communism. Is the world now experiencing the collapse of capitalism?
In the East German city of Görlitz in summer 1985 a Protestant priest commented to me that the GDR was in collapse and that it was just a matter of time before it was all over. At the time I did not believe him
That same year in discussion with a senior banker in Ireland I raised the question what if the bank - his bank - collapsed. I was told it was impossible. At the time I did not believe him.
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