Late last week it was announced that Bishop John Magee would not be confirming children in his diocese. The reason given by church authorities was that he was a busy man dealing with all the paper work involved in the current child sex abuse cases in his diocese.
Rumour on the ground is that the parents of some children due for Confirmation made it known to church authorities that they did not want their children confirmed by Bishop John Magee.
Then at the weekend it was announced that Archbishop Dermot Clifford had been appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese of Cloyne.
Why has this action been taken now? Just some few weeks ago Bishop Magee received the support of three archbishops and many bishops in Ireland. Do these same men now support and approve the most recent action?
Bewildering actions in a bewildering time by bewildering and maybe even bewildered people.
Is it possible to discern the workings of the Spirit in all this obfuscation?
Truth, transparency, openness, faith?
Power, control, fear, clericalism?
Can church figures not understand the importance of admitting guilt and asking for forgiveness?
There has to be something ironic about all this spinning and obfuscation.
Theory and practice.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Dominican websites
It may well be a problem of this blogger but it seems impossible to log on to the home page of the Irish Dominicans at present.
The home page of the Dominican Order has the following as an opening paragraph.
"Dominicans preach in churches and on the street, in universities and in mass media to the faithful as well as dissidents; we break open Scripture to different audiences and pursue works of justice and peace; we give retreats to nuns, visit the sick, console, listen, confess, forgive, and ultimately desire to go as far as need be to preach the Word of God to those who do not yet know it or need to hear it."
If you are a 'dissident' can you not be a member of the 'faithful'? It seems an odd idea. Obviously the word is being used in the narrower sense as opposed to the now more commonly accepted meaning of the word - someone who dissents from the opinion of the majority.
It seems difficult to navigate around the website of the Dominican Order.
The home page of the Dominican Order has the following as an opening paragraph.
"Dominicans preach in churches and on the street, in universities and in mass media to the faithful as well as dissidents; we break open Scripture to different audiences and pursue works of justice and peace; we give retreats to nuns, visit the sick, console, listen, confess, forgive, and ultimately desire to go as far as need be to preach the Word of God to those who do not yet know it or need to hear it."
If you are a 'dissident' can you not be a member of the 'faithful'? It seems an odd idea. Obviously the word is being used in the narrower sense as opposed to the now more commonly accepted meaning of the word - someone who dissents from the opinion of the majority.
It seems difficult to navigate around the website of the Dominican Order.
We're Irish they're German
Back in 1972 I visited Germany for the first time. I was on a two-month language course in Cologne. It was a different world from Ireland. Everything about it was different. Fresh rolls in the morning, sleek trains running on time, motorways that crisscrossed the country.
And then we got rolls, sleek trains and motorways.
But back then it was clear to see that there was 'something' behind the German economy. They made things. They made their own rolls, built their own trains and supplied all the steel for the bridges over and under their motorways, with correct median barriers to boot.
And their business people seldom gave the impression of being slick 'merchant princes'. They never seemed to be arrogant or full of their own importance.
The Germans have a tradition of treating their tradespeople with respect, their teachers too and their locomotive drivers.
The vast majority of their schools are state run and funded.
They have universal medical insurance. Universal medical care too.
You could say it is a secular state that tries to care for all its citizens. It avoids playing games with people and tries to tell the truth.
Take a look at what they have done in Dresden, Chemnitz and Weimar. And in Berlin too. All in 20 years.
Thirty-seven years later there still seem to be great differences between Germany and Ireland.
Will Irish managers, business people, politicians, who have brought us to where we are today pay the price for their lack of vision, arrogance and greed?
Oh and by the way, the Germans make their own sugar, glass and paper. They are doing it right now - producing and manufacturing. They were never stupid enough to believe that it made sense to close down sugar factories and glass factories and paper factories. And their managers never had the arrogance/stupidity/greed to tell them the cock and bull stories we were fed.
The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
BERLIN LETTER: GERMAN PUBLIC broadcaster ZDF treats its viewers on Sunday evenings to a bracing dose of time-warp television called Our Farm in Ireland .
It’s the story of Martin Winter, a German doctor and widower who moves to the fictional town of Ballymara with his three daughters. There he eventually falls in love with local girl Erin O’Toole, described by producers as an “attractive shepherdess”.
Not much happens and the dialogue is witless, but over six million Germans tune in for the sheer escapist value and the beautiful Irish scenery.
In short, Our Farm is the latest incarnation of the idealised Ireland Germans have cherished for decades.
In this world view, Ireland is a wild, romantic place closer to “the nature”, as Germans call it, than, say, the Ruhr or Frankfurt.
The Irish are friendly bordering on manic, loveable but wholly unreliable people who would sell one of their many children for a drink.
A newspaper headline over a recent interview with writer Anne Enright summed it up nicely: “The Irish drink, the Irish fight, the Irish are funny”. In the last decade and a half, though, this consensus view of Ireland has been sorely tested by the march of modernity in the Grüne Insel or Green Isle.
First Ireland’s economy took off, then emigrants returned, immigrants arrived and something resembling modern infrastructure began to stretch its tentacles across the country.
Older Germans with fixed notions of the country would return from holidays and complain to the first Irish person they encountered that the place had finally succumbed to the curse of motorways.
It was doubly galling for many of these Germans – truly, madly, deeply in love with “the nature” in Ireland – to hear that it was probably their tax money that had built the motorways.
Modern Dublin was a mystery – in particular the IFSC, a mysterious place of smoked glass and mirrors that seemed to be beating Frankfurt at its own game, generating vast sums of money after luring over big banks with low corporate tax rates.
As German economic growth hovered near zero, the Irish economy appeared to roar ahead. The beige-wearing Germans with their 12- year-old Mercedes had been overtaken by the sharp-suited Irish in their new BMWs.
Irish economists decided that the German economic model of slow, steady growth had had its day.
They had no qualms in telling Germany that Ireland had seen the future and it was all leverage and Louis Vuitton.
The peak of this Irish confidence-cum-cockiness came with the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
No one here really cares for complicated explanations when a simple one will do: the “No” vote was Ireland thumbing its nose at the rest of the EU after pocketing its billions.
The final drop of goodwill towards the Irish evaporated last September when Berlin, through gritted teeth, signed loans and guarantees to prop up the Dublin-based Depfa bank, a subsidiary of Munich property investor Hypo Real Estate. Today that bill has reached €102 billion and counting.
“Technically speaking we didn’t have to do that,” one leading finance official fumed to this paper last month. “We could have left that in Ireland’s lap.”
Irish financial experts would disagree, saying the highly illiquid bank was Germany’s problem, even if it operated from Ireland.
Regardless of who was responsible for the mess, it stuck in the craw of the Berlin finance ministry to have to bail out a bank that had deprived Germany of billions in tax revenue by moving to Ireland.
And what was this Ireland, financial officials in Berlin asked, except an economic basket case of fictitious money and very real debts, and regulation so light to the touch that it amounted to a “regulation-free zone”.
After previous banking dramas in 2007, the Depfa episode confirmed many German suspicions that modernity and Ireland don’t mix.
German newspaper reports of the Irish meltdown confirm that view. The Frankfurter Allgemeine headlined its article on Ireland “For They Know Not What They Do”.
After a disorienting decade and a half, many Germans have decided that Ireland is once again a chaotic island run by chancers, a people who are a little too fond of the drink and not the best with money.
That much seemed to be confirmed last week when news reached Berlin that Dublin was dusting off its begging bowl, hoping that Angela would consider a dig-out for her Irish pals.
“If we take responsibility for ourselves, we may obtain some European assistance, especially in connection with our banking sector,” said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to a journalist from the German weekly Die Zeit.
“Clearly our banking sector is under threat. That is something our European friends recognise.”
It was like a real-life version of the parable of the prodigal son: after squandering the inheritance he had been given, the son returns home, barefoot and penniless.
There is a cold-eyed realisation here that if something has to be done for Ireland, then something will have indeed to be done.
Talking to Chancellor Merkel’s senior advisers, however, it is clear that no one in Berlin is rushing to prepare the fatted lamb for the Irish prodigal.
A leading government official explained last week, wearing a wintry smile, that Berlin “assumes the Taoiseach will be successful with his cost-cutting programme”. It sounded like the traditional vote of confidence in a football manager.
Watching the unravelling of the Irish economy from Germany, it’s hard not to wonder if perhaps there was more than a grain of truth in the stereotypical view of the Irish as a chaotic, irresponsible bunch.
On ZDF’s Our Farm in Ireland , life is golden and the Germans still love us.
“In the real world, however, we have exhausted Germany’s good will and reverted to type as a nation of loveable rogues who are no longer so loveable.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
And then we got rolls, sleek trains and motorways.
But back then it was clear to see that there was 'something' behind the German economy. They made things. They made their own rolls, built their own trains and supplied all the steel for the bridges over and under their motorways, with correct median barriers to boot.
And their business people seldom gave the impression of being slick 'merchant princes'. They never seemed to be arrogant or full of their own importance.
The Germans have a tradition of treating their tradespeople with respect, their teachers too and their locomotive drivers.
The vast majority of their schools are state run and funded.
They have universal medical insurance. Universal medical care too.
You could say it is a secular state that tries to care for all its citizens. It avoids playing games with people and tries to tell the truth.
Take a look at what they have done in Dresden, Chemnitz and Weimar. And in Berlin too. All in 20 years.
Thirty-seven years later there still seem to be great differences between Germany and Ireland.
Will Irish managers, business people, politicians, who have brought us to where we are today pay the price for their lack of vision, arrogance and greed?
Oh and by the way, the Germans make their own sugar, glass and paper. They are doing it right now - producing and manufacturing. They were never stupid enough to believe that it made sense to close down sugar factories and glass factories and paper factories. And their managers never had the arrogance/stupidity/greed to tell them the cock and bull stories we were fed.
The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
BERLIN LETTER: GERMAN PUBLIC broadcaster ZDF treats its viewers on Sunday evenings to a bracing dose of time-warp television called Our Farm in Ireland .
It’s the story of Martin Winter, a German doctor and widower who moves to the fictional town of Ballymara with his three daughters. There he eventually falls in love with local girl Erin O’Toole, described by producers as an “attractive shepherdess”.
Not much happens and the dialogue is witless, but over six million Germans tune in for the sheer escapist value and the beautiful Irish scenery.
In short, Our Farm is the latest incarnation of the idealised Ireland Germans have cherished for decades.
In this world view, Ireland is a wild, romantic place closer to “the nature”, as Germans call it, than, say, the Ruhr or Frankfurt.
The Irish are friendly bordering on manic, loveable but wholly unreliable people who would sell one of their many children for a drink.
A newspaper headline over a recent interview with writer Anne Enright summed it up nicely: “The Irish drink, the Irish fight, the Irish are funny”. In the last decade and a half, though, this consensus view of Ireland has been sorely tested by the march of modernity in the Grüne Insel or Green Isle.
First Ireland’s economy took off, then emigrants returned, immigrants arrived and something resembling modern infrastructure began to stretch its tentacles across the country.
Older Germans with fixed notions of the country would return from holidays and complain to the first Irish person they encountered that the place had finally succumbed to the curse of motorways.
It was doubly galling for many of these Germans – truly, madly, deeply in love with “the nature” in Ireland – to hear that it was probably their tax money that had built the motorways.
Modern Dublin was a mystery – in particular the IFSC, a mysterious place of smoked glass and mirrors that seemed to be beating Frankfurt at its own game, generating vast sums of money after luring over big banks with low corporate tax rates.
As German economic growth hovered near zero, the Irish economy appeared to roar ahead. The beige-wearing Germans with their 12- year-old Mercedes had been overtaken by the sharp-suited Irish in their new BMWs.
Irish economists decided that the German economic model of slow, steady growth had had its day.
They had no qualms in telling Germany that Ireland had seen the future and it was all leverage and Louis Vuitton.
The peak of this Irish confidence-cum-cockiness came with the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
No one here really cares for complicated explanations when a simple one will do: the “No” vote was Ireland thumbing its nose at the rest of the EU after pocketing its billions.
The final drop of goodwill towards the Irish evaporated last September when Berlin, through gritted teeth, signed loans and guarantees to prop up the Dublin-based Depfa bank, a subsidiary of Munich property investor Hypo Real Estate. Today that bill has reached €102 billion and counting.
“Technically speaking we didn’t have to do that,” one leading finance official fumed to this paper last month. “We could have left that in Ireland’s lap.”
Irish financial experts would disagree, saying the highly illiquid bank was Germany’s problem, even if it operated from Ireland.
Regardless of who was responsible for the mess, it stuck in the craw of the Berlin finance ministry to have to bail out a bank that had deprived Germany of billions in tax revenue by moving to Ireland.
And what was this Ireland, financial officials in Berlin asked, except an economic basket case of fictitious money and very real debts, and regulation so light to the touch that it amounted to a “regulation-free zone”.
After previous banking dramas in 2007, the Depfa episode confirmed many German suspicions that modernity and Ireland don’t mix.
German newspaper reports of the Irish meltdown confirm that view. The Frankfurter Allgemeine headlined its article on Ireland “For They Know Not What They Do”.
After a disorienting decade and a half, many Germans have decided that Ireland is once again a chaotic island run by chancers, a people who are a little too fond of the drink and not the best with money.
That much seemed to be confirmed last week when news reached Berlin that Dublin was dusting off its begging bowl, hoping that Angela would consider a dig-out for her Irish pals.
“If we take responsibility for ourselves, we may obtain some European assistance, especially in connection with our banking sector,” said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to a journalist from the German weekly Die Zeit.
“Clearly our banking sector is under threat. That is something our European friends recognise.”
It was like a real-life version of the parable of the prodigal son: after squandering the inheritance he had been given, the son returns home, barefoot and penniless.
There is a cold-eyed realisation here that if something has to be done for Ireland, then something will have indeed to be done.
Talking to Chancellor Merkel’s senior advisers, however, it is clear that no one in Berlin is rushing to prepare the fatted lamb for the Irish prodigal.
A leading government official explained last week, wearing a wintry smile, that Berlin “assumes the Taoiseach will be successful with his cost-cutting programme”. It sounded like the traditional vote of confidence in a football manager.
Watching the unravelling of the Irish economy from Germany, it’s hard not to wonder if perhaps there was more than a grain of truth in the stereotypical view of the Irish as a chaotic, irresponsible bunch.
On ZDF’s Our Farm in Ireland , life is golden and the Germans still love us.
“In the real world, however, we have exhausted Germany’s good will and reverted to type as a nation of loveable rogues who are no longer so loveable.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A collapsing economy
Every news bulletin every day is ladened with horrible economic news. Where is it all going to end? It now seems so dreadful that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today.
It is a sobering and worrying experience to observe the faces on those standing outside the ever-lengthening dole queues.
It certainly seems that matters are worse in Ireland than in many other EU countries, especially those in the western part of the Union.
The economists and captains of industry and the politicians who took their advice all seem to be at sea.
If communism had not collapsed would this have happened?
Does it make sense that in Ireland we no longer make sugar, paper or glass? The three facilities lie idle in Mallow, Clonskeagh and Ringsend.
Does it make sense that an island nation has such an ill-equipped fishing fleet?
The taoiseach missed an opportunity at the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis on Saturday to make an apology for the mistakes his party has made in their years in government. It is not too long ago since Mr Cowen reprimanded people for 'talking down' the economy. Maybe it was during the election campaign that he made his comment.
In his Ard Fheis speech Mr Cowen referred to Ireland 'as a brand'. Is it not that use of PR language that has helped us lose the run of ourselves?
Where would we be if we did not have the euro?
What next?
It is a sobering and worrying experience to observe the faces on those standing outside the ever-lengthening dole queues.
It certainly seems that matters are worse in Ireland than in many other EU countries, especially those in the western part of the Union.
The economists and captains of industry and the politicians who took their advice all seem to be at sea.
If communism had not collapsed would this have happened?
Does it make sense that in Ireland we no longer make sugar, paper or glass? The three facilities lie idle in Mallow, Clonskeagh and Ringsend.
Does it make sense that an island nation has such an ill-equipped fishing fleet?
The taoiseach missed an opportunity at the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis on Saturday to make an apology for the mistakes his party has made in their years in government. It is not too long ago since Mr Cowen reprimanded people for 'talking down' the economy. Maybe it was during the election campaign that he made his comment.
In his Ard Fheis speech Mr Cowen referred to Ireland 'as a brand'. Is it not that use of PR language that has helped us lose the run of ourselves?
Where would we be if we did not have the euro?
What next?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Mass cards
The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
A serious discussion on all aspects of Mass cards is long overdue within the church. The pity is that these issues seem to be discussed in a reactive sense rather than the hierarchical church giving the lead on the subject.
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
A SECTION of the Charities Bill may be unconstitutional because it makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop, according to a former attorney general. The Bill went to President Mary McAleese for signing earlier this week.
The section in question was inserted into the Bill by the Seanad on February 11th last to deal with a problem of the sale of “bogus Mass cards”, which purport to be signed by a priest, but where the signature is not genuine and no Mass is actually said.
The Government amendment was put forward following the earlier proposal of a similar amendment by Senator Ronan Mullen.
Former attorney general John Rogers SC has provided an opinion on it to the solicitor for a man who sells genuine Mass cards, signed by a priest in the Philippines by arrangement with a bishop there. The money raised goes to build churches there. He fears shops may feel pressure on them not to sell if the Bill becomes law.
During the Seanad debate, Senator David Norris read from Mr Rogers’s opinion, which stated that section 96 was “an unjustified restriction on the Article 44 guarantee of the free profession and practise of religion.” The section provides that a person who sells a Mass card “other than pursuant to arrangement with a recognised person” is guilty of an offence. A “recognised person” who can authorise the sale of such Mass cards is defined as a bishop of the church, or the head of an order recognised by it.
The section defines a Mass card as a card that indicates that “the holy sacrifice of the Mass” will be offered for a person’s intentions. In any proceedings it will be presumed, unless proved to the contrary, that an offence has been committed.
In his opinion Mr Rogers says this goes further than is reasonably required to deal with the problem of the sale of a Mass card not properly signed by a priest, where no Mass is said, or where the purchaser thinks it is for a charitable purpose and it is not.
“The narrow categories of persons is arbitrary and unfair and represents a serious interference with the religious practice of some priests and others who are members of non-Catholic churches and religious communities in this State,” he states.
He also points out that it presumes an offence has been committed until the contrary is proven. “The criminalisation of the sale of Mass cards is another aspect of the disproportionate nature of this piece of legislation,” he says.
A serious discussion on all aspects of Mass cards is long overdue within the church. The pity is that these issues seem to be discussed in a reactive sense rather than the hierarchical church giving the lead on the subject.
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
A SECTION of the Charities Bill may be unconstitutional because it makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop, according to a former attorney general. The Bill went to President Mary McAleese for signing earlier this week.
The section in question was inserted into the Bill by the Seanad on February 11th last to deal with a problem of the sale of “bogus Mass cards”, which purport to be signed by a priest, but where the signature is not genuine and no Mass is actually said.
The Government amendment was put forward following the earlier proposal of a similar amendment by Senator Ronan Mullen.
Former attorney general John Rogers SC has provided an opinion on it to the solicitor for a man who sells genuine Mass cards, signed by a priest in the Philippines by arrangement with a bishop there. The money raised goes to build churches there. He fears shops may feel pressure on them not to sell if the Bill becomes law.
During the Seanad debate, Senator David Norris read from Mr Rogers’s opinion, which stated that section 96 was “an unjustified restriction on the Article 44 guarantee of the free profession and practise of religion.” The section provides that a person who sells a Mass card “other than pursuant to arrangement with a recognised person” is guilty of an offence. A “recognised person” who can authorise the sale of such Mass cards is defined as a bishop of the church, or the head of an order recognised by it.
The section defines a Mass card as a card that indicates that “the holy sacrifice of the Mass” will be offered for a person’s intentions. In any proceedings it will be presumed, unless proved to the contrary, that an offence has been committed.
In his opinion Mr Rogers says this goes further than is reasonably required to deal with the problem of the sale of a Mass card not properly signed by a priest, where no Mass is said, or where the purchaser thinks it is for a charitable purpose and it is not.
“The narrow categories of persons is arbitrary and unfair and represents a serious interference with the religious practice of some priests and others who are members of non-Catholic churches and religious communities in this State,” he states.
He also points out that it presumes an offence has been committed until the contrary is proven. “The criminalisation of the sale of Mass cards is another aspect of the disproportionate nature of this piece of legislation,” he says.
An apology
Apologies re the banner in Tallaght. Delighted to know that it means the opposite to what was said on this blog. Again, apologies and good luck.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Banner attack
There is a large banner poster in Tallaght village which proclaims 'Daddys are for life and not for Saturdays'.
At the bottom of the banner there is the web address www.usfi.ie.
The insult and the arrogance that such a poster represents surely can have nothing at all to do with the Christian message.
What must it be like for a man walking or driving past that sign who has been separated from his children? No one ever knows why someone is not with their children.
Men separated from their children need to be inspired and given hope, not attacked.
At the bottom of the banner there is the web address www.usfi.ie.
The insult and the arrogance that such a poster represents surely can have nothing at all to do with the Christian message.
What must it be like for a man walking or driving past that sign who has been separated from his children? No one ever knows why someone is not with their children.
Men separated from their children need to be inspired and given hope, not attacked.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Worrying words from bishop
The quote below is taken from an internet site. If the quote is accurate it is another insight into the direction the church is currently taking.
The alleged quote fits into a pattern and raises the most serious of issues for the church. And especially in the present climate.
Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of The Society of Saint Pius X, has been making news since his excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in January. On January 21, 2009, in a nearly six minute interview Williamson told a television news program in Sweden that "I believe that history is strongly against, is hugely against, six million Jews having been gassed in gas chamber as a deliberate policy" during the Holocaust. In 2001, the bishop wrote "That girls should not be in universities flows from the nature of universities and from the nature of girls: true universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, so true universities are not for true girls." The Vatican is now repudiating the Holocaust denials. And Bishop Williamson has claimed he will reconsider the issue of Nazi gas chambers by reading the book of a former Holocaust doubter.
The alleged quote fits into a pattern and raises the most serious of issues for the church. And especially in the present climate.
Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of The Society of Saint Pius X, has been making news since his excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in January. On January 21, 2009, in a nearly six minute interview Williamson told a television news program in Sweden that "I believe that history is strongly against, is hugely against, six million Jews having been gassed in gas chamber as a deliberate policy" during the Holocaust. In 2001, the bishop wrote "That girls should not be in universities flows from the nature of universities and from the nature of girls: true universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, so true universities are not for true girls." The Vatican is now repudiating the Holocaust denials. And Bishop Williamson has claimed he will reconsider the issue of Nazi gas chambers by reading the book of a former Holocaust doubter.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Cork fishing port
During a class in Religious Studies in West Kerry on Monday there was a discussion on our present economic situation.
A student who comes from a fishing background commented that the busiest fishing port in Ireland is Cork airport because of its large business in fish importation.
Who are the politicians, economists and 'wise men' who have allowed this to happen? The absurdity of allowing this nonsense in an island nation is bewildering.
Seemingly we are the biggest 'exporters' of bananas in Europe.
The economy is in such a serious situation it seems that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today.
How close are we to civil unrest and the arrival of a demagogue? Hopefully our political class are taking wise and good decisions so as to keep at bay any such disaster.
A student who comes from a fishing background commented that the busiest fishing port in Ireland is Cork airport because of its large business in fish importation.
Who are the politicians, economists and 'wise men' who have allowed this to happen? The absurdity of allowing this nonsense in an island nation is bewildering.
Seemingly we are the biggest 'exporters' of bananas in Europe.
The economy is in such a serious situation it seems that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant today.
How close are we to civil unrest and the arrival of a demagogue? Hopefully our political class are taking wise and good decisions so as to keep at bay any such disaster.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Irish Rail and its crazy timetable
Both Dublin Bus and Irish Bus are in the process of laying off close to 600 workers. Irish Rail will most likely follow suit.
Last month Irish Rail introduced a new timetable on its Dublin Tralee service. The new timetable means that passengers travelling on the 20.00 ex Heuton Cork train arrive in Mallow at 22.19 and are obliged to wait 31 minutes for their connection to Tralee.
What surer way to drive people away from the railway and anger and annoy those who wait the long 31 minutes on cold wet and windy nights in Mallow station!
A decision such as this is obviously made at managerial level. You don't need to know anything about the railway to know that this timetable alteration is absolute nonsense. And it must make any ordinary person lose trust in a management class that could do something like this.
There are many stories circulating as to why passengers have to wait. They are of course anecdotal but each story is sillier than the next.
It is the same manager class who decide who will join the dole queues in the coming weeks and months.
Maybe someone needs to ask who exactly are these people and how have they been running the railway up to now.
Last month Irish Rail introduced a new timetable on its Dublin Tralee service. The new timetable means that passengers travelling on the 20.00 ex Heuton Cork train arrive in Mallow at 22.19 and are obliged to wait 31 minutes for their connection to Tralee.
What surer way to drive people away from the railway and anger and annoy those who wait the long 31 minutes on cold wet and windy nights in Mallow station!
A decision such as this is obviously made at managerial level. You don't need to know anything about the railway to know that this timetable alteration is absolute nonsense. And it must make any ordinary person lose trust in a management class that could do something like this.
There are many stories circulating as to why passengers have to wait. They are of course anecdotal but each story is sillier than the next.
It is the same manager class who decide who will join the dole queues in the coming weeks and months.
Maybe someone needs to ask who exactly are these people and how have they been running the railway up to now.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Flannery criticises CORI
The article below, written by Fr Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist priest, appears in yesterday's Irish Times.
In the article Fr Flannery is critical of the direction in which CORI is moving. He is of the opinion that CORI has 'become part of an exclusive and powerful body and so has lost its ability to critique what is happening'.
Over the years CORI has brought important issues to public notice. It is still doing that today.
But reading the article one is forced to ask the question is it ever possible for anyone who is part of a world-wide multi billion euro organisation to empathise or understand the plight of those who experience any form of poverty, insecurity or marginalisation?
In the current climate of economic upheaval, where people are genuinely greatly concerned about their livelihoods, is there a sister, bishop, priest, who needs to be concerned about their financial situation?
When one is protected or isolated from the daily shenanigans of the world where people live, can their words ever have any significant meaning?
That is a genuine question and in no way a flippant or any type of snide comment.
Anyone who becomes institutionalised surely inevitably loses some sense of much of what happens and exists outside the institution.
What follows is the article in The Irish Times
CORI, THE Conference of Religious of Ireland, an umbrella body for all Roman Catholic religious congregations in this country, has been in existence for over 30 years. It is probably best known for its justice section, which has played an active part in social partnership.
I believe this was a big mistake. Cori became part of a ruling elite and so lost its ability to truly represent the interests of the poor and marginalised in society.
The dramatic collapse of our economy in the recent past has caused people to examine many of the assumptions we had taken for granted. One of those assumptions was that social partnership is a good thing. It was argued that it created industrial peace and, as a result, productivity increased.
That begs the question as to whether it was social partnership or prosperity that allowed for consistent and substantial increases in wages, year to year, leading in turn to industrial peace.
The main criticism of social partnership is that it created what one commentator called a cosy consensus which worked to the benefit of the better paid. Examples include benchmarking in the public service, a scheme that masqueraded as reform involving increased levels of efficiency and productivity.
In fact it meant substantial pay increases for the better off to a far greater extent than for those in more lowly paid jobs. Something of the same happened in other professions. For instance there was an increase in posts of responsibility for teachers which often involved a rise in salary with nominal increase in responsibility.
All of this contributed to the inflated, inefficient and in some cases overpaid public service that we have in this country and which we can no longer afford. This happened under the auspices of social partnership. It could be argued that the social partners became the real governing body in the land, and that decisions were made at this level rather than in the Dáil.
Revelations, particularly relating to abuses of public money at Fás and other State bodies, brought another aspect of this cosy consensus to the fore. It was one I, and I assume many others, would not have been aware of – the presence of so many members of the different social partnership groups on State boards.
This is of great concern, because it suggests a clique of people had a stranglehold on policy-making while being ultimately answerable to nobody, since they had become so closely aligned to the government of the day. This group of people got perks, unavailable to ordinary members of society.
I do not have the expertise to make an economic judgment on all of this. My concern as a religious is that the body representing Irish religious is a member of this partnership. Cori states that its aim is the same as that of its constituent groups – to promote the message of Jesus Christ.
It would be hard to think of anybody who was less part of the consensus than Jesus Christ. He stood outside of, and radically criticised, both the social and religious thinking of his time. Anybody representing religious should be, at least to some extent, on the margins rather than at the centre of power.
Cori justice desk, by allowing itself to become part of an exclusive and powerful body, lost its ability to critique what was happening, and is now unfortunately seen as a contributor to the problem rather than being in a position to propose a real alternative. In its early days it was a strong voice for the poor but, somewhere along the line, it got sucked into the complicity that promoted inequality.
I am not suggesting that religious should not be involved in political and social action. I think of people like the late Michael Sweetman and Austin Flannery, and, in our own times, Peter McVerry. Equally there have been many religious sisters who have given a lifetime of service to the less well off.
I cannot imagine any of them talking about “T16” (Toward 2016, for those outside the in-group) which became shorthand for the plan for Ireland worked out, not in the public arena but in late-night negotiations that were the preserve of the few.
I would hope that Cori can free itself from the shackles of power and become again a voice for the voiceless.
Fr Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest and columnist with Reality magazine
In the article Fr Flannery is critical of the direction in which CORI is moving. He is of the opinion that CORI has 'become part of an exclusive and powerful body and so has lost its ability to critique what is happening'.
Over the years CORI has brought important issues to public notice. It is still doing that today.
But reading the article one is forced to ask the question is it ever possible for anyone who is part of a world-wide multi billion euro organisation to empathise or understand the plight of those who experience any form of poverty, insecurity or marginalisation?
In the current climate of economic upheaval, where people are genuinely greatly concerned about their livelihoods, is there a sister, bishop, priest, who needs to be concerned about their financial situation?
When one is protected or isolated from the daily shenanigans of the world where people live, can their words ever have any significant meaning?
That is a genuine question and in no way a flippant or any type of snide comment.
Anyone who becomes institutionalised surely inevitably loses some sense of much of what happens and exists outside the institution.
What follows is the article in The Irish Times
CORI, THE Conference of Religious of Ireland, an umbrella body for all Roman Catholic religious congregations in this country, has been in existence for over 30 years. It is probably best known for its justice section, which has played an active part in social partnership.
I believe this was a big mistake. Cori became part of a ruling elite and so lost its ability to truly represent the interests of the poor and marginalised in society.
The dramatic collapse of our economy in the recent past has caused people to examine many of the assumptions we had taken for granted. One of those assumptions was that social partnership is a good thing. It was argued that it created industrial peace and, as a result, productivity increased.
That begs the question as to whether it was social partnership or prosperity that allowed for consistent and substantial increases in wages, year to year, leading in turn to industrial peace.
The main criticism of social partnership is that it created what one commentator called a cosy consensus which worked to the benefit of the better paid. Examples include benchmarking in the public service, a scheme that masqueraded as reform involving increased levels of efficiency and productivity.
In fact it meant substantial pay increases for the better off to a far greater extent than for those in more lowly paid jobs. Something of the same happened in other professions. For instance there was an increase in posts of responsibility for teachers which often involved a rise in salary with nominal increase in responsibility.
All of this contributed to the inflated, inefficient and in some cases overpaid public service that we have in this country and which we can no longer afford. This happened under the auspices of social partnership. It could be argued that the social partners became the real governing body in the land, and that decisions were made at this level rather than in the Dáil.
Revelations, particularly relating to abuses of public money at Fás and other State bodies, brought another aspect of this cosy consensus to the fore. It was one I, and I assume many others, would not have been aware of – the presence of so many members of the different social partnership groups on State boards.
This is of great concern, because it suggests a clique of people had a stranglehold on policy-making while being ultimately answerable to nobody, since they had become so closely aligned to the government of the day. This group of people got perks, unavailable to ordinary members of society.
I do not have the expertise to make an economic judgment on all of this. My concern as a religious is that the body representing Irish religious is a member of this partnership. Cori states that its aim is the same as that of its constituent groups – to promote the message of Jesus Christ.
It would be hard to think of anybody who was less part of the consensus than Jesus Christ. He stood outside of, and radically criticised, both the social and religious thinking of his time. Anybody representing religious should be, at least to some extent, on the margins rather than at the centre of power.
Cori justice desk, by allowing itself to become part of an exclusive and powerful body, lost its ability to critique what was happening, and is now unfortunately seen as a contributor to the problem rather than being in a position to propose a real alternative. In its early days it was a strong voice for the poor but, somewhere along the line, it got sucked into the complicity that promoted inequality.
I am not suggesting that religious should not be involved in political and social action. I think of people like the late Michael Sweetman and Austin Flannery, and, in our own times, Peter McVerry. Equally there have been many religious sisters who have given a lifetime of service to the less well off.
I cannot imagine any of them talking about “T16” (Toward 2016, for those outside the in-group) which became shorthand for the plan for Ireland worked out, not in the public arena but in late-night negotiations that were the preserve of the few.
I would hope that Cori can free itself from the shackles of power and become again a voice for the voiceless.
Fr Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest and columnist with Reality magazine
German bishops call pope's action a catastrophe and a betrayal of trust
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”.
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”.
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".
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An interesting quote from Napoleon Bonaparte: “The honest man never doubts the existence of God’.
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This is a worrying story. It’s written by Conor Pope and appeared in The Irish Times on Monday. It becomes ever more worrying how large org...
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Former Dominican priest Tom Tom Brodie Brodie died in a nursing home in Galway yesterday. He had been ailing for some time. He was born in C...