Two significant Dominican ordinations in Ireland and Australia

Last Saturday, 8 July, Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia OP, Assistant Secretary at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, ordained Fr Philip Mulryne OP to the priesthood in St Saviour's Church in the heart of Dublin.

Archbishop Di Noia and Fr Philip [Irish Dominicans' website]

The new priest has an unusual, though not unique, background in that he is a former professional footballer, having played for Manchester United and a number of other British soccer clubs between 1997 and 2009, and for Northern Ireland 27 times during that period.

Father Philip entered St Malachy's Seminary in his native Belfast in 2009 to study philosophy in preparation for becoming a priest in the Diocese of Down and Connor, which includes that city. But while studying theology in Rome he felt a call to the Dominican Order and joined their novitiate in Cork in 2012.

Brother Robert Krishna OP [Source]

On Saturday 15 July Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP will ordain his fellow Dominican, Brother Robert Krishna, to the priesthood. Brother Robert's story is a little more unusual than that of his newly-ordained confrere. He is from India and his journey led him from Hinduism to atheism to agnosticism to Anglicanism in Australia and, finally to Catholicism. 

The Catholic Weekly report [my emphases added] says:

Around this time, Br Robert encountered some Catholics at Sydney University.

One thing which impressed him was the fact that there were many young Catholics who were happy in living what the Church teaches.

“I was converted through their example and conversations, rather than through their arguments” he said.

Of the latter, one which sticks out was the exasperated comment of the chaplaincy convenor at the time, Robert Haddad: “You’re never going to get all the answers to all your objections, and at some stage, you need to make a leap of faith.”

It was a throwaway line, but it contains a truth which bothered Br Robert until it ended up convincing him. He was received into the Church in 2003 and confirmed a year later by then-Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, who had just been ordained a Bishop. Robert Haddad was his confirmation sponsor.

God always speaks to us through those happy in living what the Church teaches. And so often God speaks to us through a throwaway line. I remember one such line by Brother Finn, a Christian Brother, in religion class one day when I was in secondary school. Only the best fellows join the Columbans, he said. He had no idea that I was considering becoming a Columban priest. He was referring to former students of his who had taken that step. His throwaway line encouraged me.

St Saviour's Church, Dominick St, Dublin [Wikimedia]

The seed of my own vocation to the priesthood was perhaps sown in this church, where Fr Mulryne was ordained last Saturday. My father loved the solemnity of the High Mass and often took me to one on days such as Easter Monday and Whit (Pentecost) Monday, sometimes to the Dominican church in Dominick Street and sometimes to the Capuchin church in Church Street (St Mary of the Angels). Dubliners usually refer to their churches by the name of the street that they are on rather than on the patronal name. As a child I did not particularly appreciate the High Mass.

Whenever my mother took us 'into town' - the city centre - we usually went by Church Street and would drop in to say a prayer. Occasionally she would take the longer walk and go by Dominick Street where we would also drop in and say a prayer. I remember when I was six or seven being attracted by the white habit of the Dominican friars I saw. Looking back I know that the seed of my vocation was being sown there, though I wasn't aware of it. However when at 13 and 14 I began to seriously think of the priesthood I never considered the Dominicans. But I am grateful to God for the part that they, and my parents, played in my own faith and vocation journey.

A year ago Archbishop Robert Rivas OP of the Diocese of Castries in the Caribbean ordained eight Dominican priests in St Saviour's Church.

Fr Gerard Dunne OP, the vocation director of the Dominicans for many years, gives some ideas on why the Order is attracting men leading successful professional lives in an article by Doreen Carvajal published in The New York Times in 2013, For Friars, Finding Renewal by Sticking to Tradition.

'Sticking to Tradition' did not preclude the Irish Dominicans from being ahead of almost every other order and congregation in Ireland in evangelising 'this digital continent', as Pope Benedict called the internet. May God continue to bless them and, through them, the Church, especially in Ireland and in Australia.

St Dominic Adoring the Crucifixion

Fra Angelico OP [Web Gallery of Art]

'Because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is.' Sunday Reflections, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Christ, El Greco, c.1606

Cathedral, Toledo, Spain [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

   

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;  and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Silver Torah Case [Wikipedia]

Moses said to the people: 'So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.' (First Reading).

A silver cup for for netilat yadayim, the Jewish ritual washing of hands [Wikipedia]

Because of lack of time I shall use, with adaptations, some of the material I used for this Sunday three years ago.

The Indian Rupees 9,000 monthly rent mentioned in the video is the equivalent of about US$135 or Php6,000.

More than three years ago I was speaking to a Filipino seminarian who had worked in Dubai for some years. He had been quite involved in his parish at home and wanted to visit a group of Catholics from Kerala, India, who lived in a labour camp in Dubai. His friends thought he was crazy but he went anyway. He simply wanted to befriend these men whose living conditions he had heard about.

What he described was what I've found subsequently in videos such as the one above, which is from an Indian TV station, except that in my imagination I had pictured World War II-type wooden huts instead of big buildings not unlike apartment blocks in large cities.

The men made him most welcome. The air inside was just as the reporter in the video described. His hosts were preparing a meal outside their crowded bedroom. They didn't see much need to wash their hands or their utensils and what they were preparing was somewhat more spicy than what Filipinos normally eat.

But the young Filipino enjoyed being with his fellow Catholics, whom he knew were his brothers. He could see clearly their living conditions and was able to understand some of their stories. But what struck him most of all was their hospitality.

The Pharisees and scribes in today's gospel ask Jesus, Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?

Louis Pasteur in his laboratory, Albert Ederfelt, 1885

[Wikipedia]

I don't think that Jesus is telling us to be careless with food, in preparing it or eating it. Scientists such as Louis Pasteur have shown us the importance of doctors washing their hands and equipment before surgery, a connection that hadn't been seen before. But what Jesus is on about, I think, is the attitude of someone who would notice that the workers from Kerala in a 'villa' in Dubai didn't wash their hands before cooking and eating and would be critical of them - instead of asking why the washing facilities they shared with so many others were lacking. Someone who would fail to see the overcrowded living quarters and the underpaid workers, separated from their families, being exploited by their employers and by recruiting agencies in their own countries.

The situation my young Filipino friend came across in Dubai can be found in many countries. The term 'OFW' is widely used here in the Philippines. It means 'Overseas Filipino Worker'. OFWs are often described by politicians as modern-day heroes. But too few politicians and others are asking why so many, probably a minority in the overall picture but yet a large number of individual real persons, are exploited by some agencies at home and by employers abroad. In reality, these are treated as anything but heroes.

Nor is Jesus opposing tradition or traditions. He was a faithful Jew, as were Joseph and Mary and understood their importance. Tradition and traditions, even if we don't know their origins, are basically life-giving. The Pharisees and scribes  in today's gospel - not all Pharisees and scribes were like these - have turned them into ways of sucking the lifeblood out of people.

Reb Tevye in the extract from Fiddler on the Roof below says, And because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is. The exploited workers from Kerala carried with them the tradition of hospitality they had inherited from their ancestors and welcomed a stranger from the Philippines in Dubai. Despite their appalling conditions they knew who they were. They lacked freedom in so many ways but they had the freedom to be welcoming. Hospitality is one of the most cherished experiences in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. It is cherished in every culture and it is at the heart of following Jesus, who showed hospitality to others, rich and poor, and who graciously accepted it from others, rich and poor. Indeed, he was sometimes criticised for eating with the poor, as he is in today's gospel because his companions didn't wash their hands.

I don't know if the workers from Kerala whom my friend met had a chance to go to Mass - he did as he lived very near a church. But the Prayer after Communion today fits in with their meeting in Dubai.

Renewed by this bread from the heavenly table, 
we beseech you, Lord, 
that, being the food of charity, 
it may confirm our hearts 
and stir us to serve you in our neighbour. 
Through Christ our Lord.

Antiphona ad introitum     Entrance Antiphon  Ct Ps 85 [86]: 3, 5

Miserere mihi Domine, 

Have mercy on me, OLord,

quoniam ad te clamavi tota die:

for I cry to you all the day long.

quia tu Domine suavis ac mitis es,

O Lord, you are good and forgiving,

et copiosus in misericordia omnibus invocantibus te.

full of mercy to all who call on you.

Violence against women in India and elsewhere

.

This video presents the newly-launched campaign by the Archdiocese of Bombay to raise awareness and initiate change in the attitude toward and the treatment of women in India, in the aftermath of a horrific gang-rape of a young woman in December last year.

This video and report were posted by UCANews on 28 January. A diya is an oil lamp, usually made from clay, widely used in India, especially during certain religious festivals.

Nature seems to provide 103 - 108 boys to 100 girls at birth. The video gives figures for three locations in India:

Delhi: 866 girls / 1,000 boys;

Haryana: 877 girls / 1,000 boys;

Chanidgarh: 818 girls / 1,000 boys. 

It is thought that sex-selection abortion and the killing of newborn girls are factors in skewing the natural proportion between males and females in India and in some other countries.

The '37,000,000 Diyas' campaign of the Archdiocese of Bombay - it retains the old name for 'Mumbai' - is for the excess of 37,000,000 males over females in India in 2011.

However, violence towards women and children is universal but seems to be made worse where there isn't a natural proportion between males and females.

A now deceased Columban priest once told me that years ago a young Protestant man here in the Philippines preparing to marry a Catholic girl told him that his Catholic male friends had advised him, 'Beat her up a few times and you'll have no problems'. I've no idea how prevalent this attitude is here or elsewhere. But it is very wrong.

Indian priest donates kidney to Hindu stranger

AsiaNews carried a remarkable story yesterday about 49-year-old Fr Davis Chiramel from Kerala, India, who is giving one of his kidneys to a married Hindu man whom he doesn't know.It reminds me of the story of St Maximilian Kolbe OFMConv who gave his life in a Nazi concentration camp to save the life of a young, married Polish soldier whom he did not know.

I have highlighted some parts of the report.

INDIA

Catholic priest donates kidney to save Hindu man

by Nirmala Carvalho

In Kerala, Father Chiramel offers one of his kidneys to an unknown recipient. The priest said he was inspired by the ‘Year for Priest’. “For me donating an organ is a unique and privileged opportunity to share in Christ’s suffering.”

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Fr Davis Chiramel, a 49-year-old Catholic priest from Kerala, donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger. The clergyman is parish priest at St Francis Xavier Church in Vadanapally (Kerala). Earlier this year he decided to help a Hindu father of two, a complete stranger who was suffering from renal failure.

Father Chiramel is also the general secretary of the Accident Care and Transport Services (ACTS) in Thrissur. On 15 February, volunteers in the organisation were at his church. They
talked about a Hindu man named Gopinath who had suffered renal failure. Because of that, he was being forced to go to the Jubilee Mission Hospital in Thrissur every three days for dialysis treatment. He needed a transplant but the volunteers did not know how to go about getting one, suggesting that it might cost a million rupees (US$ 21,000), but above all wondering how they could find a donor. In India, there is one donor per million.

When Father Chiramel heard the ACTS volunteers discuss the matter, he rebuked them because “I realised they were talking about finding someone from whom to buy a kidney.”

In India as in Pakistan and Nepal, organ trafficking, especially in kidneys, is big business. Indian authorities are hard pressed to stop such commerce that sees the poor sell their organs for
little money whilst rich but sick people unscrupulously pay a lot to improve their health.

Given the situation, Father Chiramel decided to donate the organ himself. Hospital tests followed to determine computability; administrative steps began to get the necessary authorisation.

The clergyman told AsiaNews that for him “donating a kidney was a blessing, which began in February. However, I only realised what I was doing on 19 June. On that day the Pope opened the ‘Year for Priests’ and I was in the hospital for the necessary tests for the transplant. Everything happened in an instant. I realised that I had been blessed with the possibility of offering my body to save a man.”

Father Chiramel uses words like “joy”, “gift” and “treasure” to describe what happened to him. “Christ is the source and origin of every good action; it is He who gives the strength and
courage to act,” the priest said. “I never thought I could donate my kidney, even less to a total stranger.”

Gopinath and Father Chiramel will meet for the first time on 30 September, when the transplant will be performed at the Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi. For the clergyman, this will be the fulfillment of something that “changed my life.”

“Christ gives of himself every day for the world’s salvation. In the Mass, priests offer the sacrifice of His body and His blood, but they do it without sharing in our Lord’s pain and
suffering,” Father Chiramel said. “For me the possibility of donating an organ to someone I did not know is a unique and privileged opportunity to share in Christ’s suffering.”

Priest martyred in India

INDIA

Indian Church remembers Fr. Bernard Digal, martyr of the faith in Orissa

by Nirmala Carvalho

Archbishop Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar emphasizes his "tireless" work on behalf of "persecuted Christians," and his devotion to the Virgin Mary. His fellow religious stress his "virtues and ability to forgive his persecutors." Friday October 31, the community's last goodbye to the slain priest.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - "Fr. Digal was the treasurer of the diocese, an extremely sensitive priest, always considering the needs of other priests before his own, seeking always fraternal communion." This is how Rapheel Cheenath, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, remembers Fr. Bernard Digal, who died on the evening of October 28 at St. Thomas Hospital in Chennai.

Fr. Digal was attacked by a group of Hindu fundamentalists on the night of August 25, in the first days of persecution against the Christians of Orissa. In spite of the medical treatment he received, his health continued to worsen. On Saturday, October 25, he was taken to the hospital of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, where he underwent an operation to remove a blood clot that formed in his brain following his beating by the fundamentalists on the night of the attack. On October 27, his lungs collapsed, and he fell into a serious respiratory crisis, following which he was put on a respirator. He received the anointing of the sick at 9:25 on October 28, in the presence of Archbishop Cheenath, and died.

"Fr. Bernard has been given the martyr's crown, he has received the palm of victory from the saints in heaven," says the archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. "Ever since the violence against the Christian erupted in December '07, Fr. Bernard hardly ever rested, continously coordinating efforts to rehabilitate the people - through peace initiatives, and providing all assistance to the people to avail of the compensation and seeking all measures to bring the lives of the people derailed by the carnage on track. Fr .Bernard was deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother and the rosary and often shared with us how he sought refugee in the Madonna in moments of despair.

"The Kandhamal Chrsitains now have a powerful intercessor in heaven, Fr. Bernard will now continue his work for our people from his heavenly home. His final commitment culminated in a kenosis of total surrender, he was completely immersed in the Passion of our Crucified Lord, and now we hope in the glory of the Ressurection. Our belief in the victory won by the resurrected Christ is reason for hope - the hope that heaven lies beyond death."

Fr. Bernard met with AsiaNews last September 10, during his convalescence at Holy Spirit Hospital in Mumbai (see photo). He was 48 years old, and was ordained on May 29, 1992. He was a native of the village of Tiangia in Kandhamal, one of the areas most severely affected by the recent anti-Christian violence perpetrated by Hindu fundamentalists. He recounted the dramatic moments of the attack, following which "for an entire night, he remained unconscious and half naked in the forest." His funeral will be celebrated the day after tomorrow, Friday, October 31.

Fr. Ajay Singh, director of the Jan Vikas, a social assistance center of the diocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, recalls the "holiness" of Fr. Digal, his "missionary zeal," his "service to the people," his words of "forgiveness" toward those responsible for the violence, and his constant work aimed at "their rehabilitation." Fr. Manoj Digal, a cousin of the victim and a native of the same village, recalls that "since December, Fr. Bernard worked tirelessly with the Kandhamal Christians who were suffering violence and humiliation, His virtues of humility, forgiveness, inherent justice, goodness and self-sacrificing love will nourish the faith of our people."

Church Suffers in India

Two stories from UCAN show how Christians, especially Catholics, are suffering in central India right now due to the actions of some fundamentalist Hindus. Please pray for all who are affected.

INDIA Nun Says Police Beating Helped Her Appreciate Her Faith
By T.S. Thomas

September 19, 2008 MANGALORE, India (UCAN) -- Sister Selma (photo) says the beating she endured at the hands of policemen has helped her appreciate the persecution her forefathers suffered for their Catholic faith.

Bethany Sister Selma in a hospital in Mangalore, India, on Sept. 18, after police beat her for protecting a church from attacks by Hindu fanatics.

The Bethany nun and eight other members of her congregation were among some 40 women injured on Sept. 15 when policemen baton-charged Catholics at two separate gatherings in Mangalore, Karnataka state. The Catholic men and women were protecting their churches from attack by Hindu fanatics while protesting earlier attacks on other churches in this southern Indian state.

During the past month, Hindu militants in Karnataka have vandalized churches and prayer halls, destroyed bibles, prayer books, crosses and crucifixes, and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. Hindu radical groups accuse Christians of converting Hindus through force and allurement. Full story.

+++

INDIA Christians Protest Arson Attack On Central Indian Cathedral

September 19, 2008 JABALPUR, India (UCAN) -- Christians in central India have taken to the streets in protest after some people tried to set their cathedral ablaze.

The damaged Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral altar in Jabalpur, central India, that arsonists set fire to on Sept. 18.

Two unidentified men entered 120-year-old Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Jabalpur, a town in Madhya Pradesh state, and set fire to its altar on the evening of Sept. 18, Father Joseph Christuraj told UCA News. The priest, spokesperson for Jabalpur diocese, said the fire was put out before it could spread to other areas.

Several hours later, in protest, Christians peacefully blocked traffic on a main street in the town, 815 kilometers south of New Delhi. Christian schools there did not open on Sept. 19. Full story.