Death of Columban Fr Patrick Clarke

 

Fr Patrick Clarke

22 March 1931 - 26 April 2022

Remember in your prayers the soul of Columban Fr Patrick 'Paddy' Clarke who died peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday 26 April.

Father Paddy worked for thirty years in Japan and when he came back to Ireland spent eleven years in St Jude's Parish, Templeogue, Dublin, not far from where he grew up. He was much loved there  for his gentleness and kindness and many of the parishioners attended his funeral here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, this morning.

A unique experience for me at Father Paddy's funeral Mass was that he had written the homily himself, based on Deuteronomy 6:4-7, the First Reading, and Mark 12:28-34, the Gospel, both of which he had chosen for his funeral Mass. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Father Paddy's obituary is on the website of the Columbans in Ireland here. May he rest in peace.

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Composed by JS Bach, transcribed for piano by Myra Hess

played by Daniil Trifonov

Father Paddy loved classical music, piano music in particular.

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland

Darkest Day in Irish History

The Holy Night (The Nativity), Carlo Maratti [Web Gallery of Art]

Today, New Year's Day 2019, is the darkest day in the history of the independent Ireland (the Republic of Ireland) that came into being in 1922. Starting today, it is now legal in Ireland to kill an unborn baby for any reason whatever up to 12 weeks. After that the unborn child may be killed for specific reasons related to the health of the mother or to the perceived chances of a baby being born dead or not likely to live more than 28 days after birth.

It will still be a serious crime to take the life of a child after 12 weeks except within the circumstances where the law allows abortion, though not in the case of a woman ending her own pregnancy.

Early abortions will be carried out mainly by General Practitioners (GPs) who are willing to do them.

Doctors and other medical personnel may refuse to carry out abortions but, as far as I know, doctors will be expected to refer the mother to a doctor who is willing. Many GPs have said that they will refuse to do that.

A referendum last May removed the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution. This had forbidden abortions except in extremely limited situations. The referendum result paved the way for the new legislation. What shocked many people was the sight of so many dancing and rejoicing over the result of the referendum, in effect rejoicing at the prospect of unborn children having their lives taken. This celebrating took place mainly at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British administration in Ireland, an administration that persecuted Catholics in Ireland for centuries and that opposed the independence of Ireland. The new persecutors of the Irish are the Irish themselves. 

A report last week, showed that the birth rate in Ireland is continuing to fall. Though it's not mentioned there, the birth rate was said to be 1.8 children per woman of childbearing age, the third highest in the European Union but way below the maintenance rate of 2.1 children. In the early 1960s the rate was more than 4.0 children per woman of childbearing age. While the population will continue to rise it will lead to a far higher percentage of elderly people, as has happened in countries such as Japan. In other words, Ireland has now opted for a slow demographic suicide, now to be accelerated by abortion on demand.

I feel utterly sickened by all of this and I feel helpless. (One area where I'm not utterly helpless and can do something is by not voting in the next general election for the three TDs - members of parliament - who represent the area where I live.) I feel a sense of rage also at the corruption of language in the whole campaign of those promoting abortion. The new law has been described as 'care and compassion' and the taking of the life of an unborn human being as a 'service'. Fathers don't enter into the picture at all. They have no rights or responsibilities for their children. This is a 'health service' for women, even though the health of the mother is not an issue at all for early abortions. According to one journalist Ireland has shown itself to be a more enlightened place.

Ireland is no longer a Christian country, though Irish people are still remarkably helpful and generous, as I have experienced on many occasions since I came back to live in Ireland in 2017. 

But when it comes to the basic human rights of unborn children there is a blindness, a blindness that I believe is very deliberate in many cases, particularly in the case of the politicians who have pushed for abortion, of journalists who have campaigned for it and doctors who are willing to take life.

A recent article on thecatholicthing.org by David Carlin compares the collapse of the Catholic Christian faith in Quebec a few decades ago with that in Ireland more recently. 

There is something perverse when a country where more than 80 percent of the people in the 2016 census described themselves as Christians and 78.8 percent specifically as Catholics introduces abortion on demand on the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, in the middle of the Christmas Season. There is something almost blasphemous about this.

Pope Francis in Laudato Si' No 120 states (my emphasis added): Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? 'If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away'.

This paragraph has been largely ignored by many concerned about care for the earth and social justice. The new law in Ireland is anti-care for the earth and a rejection of social justice.

The Irish word gin (hard 'g') means 'begetting' or 'birth'. The Irish word for a procured abortion is ginmhilleadh, which literally means the destruction of what has been begotten, a very accurate term.

Please pray for us in Ireland, especially for women who find themselves in pregnancies that, for whatever reason, are difficult for them and that they and their children will find practical help. Pray too that fathers will stand up for their rights and take full responsibility for their children before and after birth, as St Joseph does for Mary his wife and her unborn child, the Son of God, in the painting below.

The Census at Bethlehem (detail)

Peter Bruegel the Elder [Web Gallery of Art]

Ireland rejects life

The Nativity, Federico Fiori Barocci [Web Gallery of Art]

After I celebrated Mass yesterday in a Dublin parish a number of women approached me to tell me how devastated they were by the overwhelming majority that voted in the Republic of Ireland on Friday 25 May in favour of removing the Eighth Amendment from the Irish Constitution that protected the right to life of both the life of a pregnant mother and of the child she was carrying. The voters chose to replace this with a sentence that will allow the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature, to legalise abortion.

The government plans to introduce legislation that will allow for abortion for any reason up to twelve weeks and in limited circumstances thereafter.

The women who spoke to me were shell-shocked, as I was myself with the 67 percent to 33 percent in favour of change. One of them told me that she had felt very depressed going to Mass but that my homily had given her some hope. I had simply emphasised, without referring directly to the referendum, that the Holy Trinity is the source of all life, that only God can give life and end our earthly life and that the Holy Trinity wants us to share their life for all eternity. This woman's words were very similar to what my father had said to me after my mother's funeral Mass in 1970.

A friend from overseas who is married to an Irishman here in Ireland emailed me to express her disappointment at what she saw as the lack of leadership from bishops, priests and religious on the matter. Most of the bishops, as far as I know, had issued letters to their people and those I read were clear and charitable.

But because of the scandals caused in the last few decades in Ireland of priests abusing children, of religious treating some children with cruelty in homes they were managing, in many cases on behalf of the State for children seen to be 'in trouble' or 'troublesome', bishops, priests and religious no longer have any moral authority, or very little at the most, even if they have had no connection whatever with what happened in the past.

The pro-repeal movement, who wanted abortion to be legalised widely - it was made legal in very limited circumstances in 2013 - made great use of the word 'compassion'. They emphasised the many women 'forced' to go to England for abortions because they could not have one in Ireland. They emphasised certain cases that were, without any doubt, very difficult and distressing for the parents involved and where they judged that the better thing was to have their child aborted. Some of these spoke specifically of the child they loved.

One of the main emphases of the pro-repeal group was 'healthcare for women'. It would seem that this includes the abortion of a healthy baby being carried by a healthy mother. Yet there are hundreds of patients in Irish hospitals in need of genuine medical care who are lying on trolleys, sometimes for days.

There was no mention by the pro-repealers of the rights of the unborn child, no compassion whatever. And there was no mention of the responsibilities and rights of fathers. They can simply walk away from the mother of their child and from the child. Or their desire to take care of the child can be simply ignored.

In the Philippines I found myself a number of times helping young women who found themselves with an unplanned pregnancy. There were always others willing to help in very practical, loving ways, caring both for the young mother and the child before and after birth. Not one of these mothers every regretted giving birth to their child. And some of the mothers I knew who were not married were welcomed as teachers in Catholic schools.

What disturbs me right now is that some legislators in Ireland who very publicly opposed the change are now saying that they will not oppose the proposed legislation, though as far as I know none have said that they will support it. At least one, Senator Rónán Mullen, whom I know personally, has said that he would work 'to try and curb the worst excesses of what the Government is proposing'. I have no doubt whatever that he will but some other pro-life politicians may need some encouragement so as not to lose heart.

Breda O'Brien, a teacher, columnist and patron of Iona Institute, reflects on the aftermath of the referendum in The Irish Times today: Anti-abortion movement has not given up and will not disappear.


John Waters, another strongly pro-life Irish writer, reflects on the vote in  First Things, an American review: Ireland: An Obituary.

The Visitation, El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Blessed is the fruit of your womb (Luke 1: 42)

Del Verbo Divino

San Juan de la Cruz

Del Verbo divino

la Virgen preñada

viene de camino:

¡ si les dais posada !

Concerning the Divine Word

St John of the Cross

With the divinest Word, the Virgin

Made pregnant, down the road

Comes walking, if you'll grant her

A room in your abode. 

Translation by Roy Campbell

+++

Rachel's Vineyard

One of a number of ministries to both women and men who have been directly affected by abortion is Rachel's Vineyard. I have connections with Rachel's Vineyard, Ireland, which has brought its healing retreat to such places as the Faroe Islands, South Korea and Lebanon.

'You will be my witnesses . . .' Sunday Reflections, The Ascension of the Lord, Year B

The Ascension of Christ, Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

The Ascension of the Lord, Year  B

The Solemnity of the Ascension is celebrated on Ascension Thursday in England and Wales, in Scotland and in parts of the USA.  In these regions the Ascenson is a holy day of obligation. In other countries, including Australia, Ireland, Philippines and parts of the USA, the solemnity is observed on the Sunday after Ascension Thursday.

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel Mark 16:15-20 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.’

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B

These readings are used in countries/jurisdictions that observe the solemnity on Ascension Thursday.

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

The Ascension, Theophanes the Cretan [Web Gallery of Art]

Fr Giuseppe Raviolo SJ (1923 - 1998) was a Pope St John XXIII-like figure, physically and spiritually, from Italy who spent most of his priestly life in Mindanao, Philippines, where I came to know him. He was the first rector of St John Vianney Major Seminary in Cagayan de Oro City. But he also spent nine years in Vietnam and was rector of the major seminary in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, during the Vietnam War. He once told me an extraordinary story from that period.

The North Vietnamese Army was advancing on Saigon. The soldiers were divided into groups of three. The standing order was that if one tried to surrender the other two were to shoot him. One particular group found themselves surrounded by American soldiers and one of them surrendered. The other two did not shoot their companion and were captured along with him. Later they asked their companion why he had taken such a risk. He answered, I knew you were Christians and that you would not shoot me. The two were in fact Catholics and had discussed the matter and had decided that, as Christians, they could not shoot their companion if that particular situation arose.

These were soldiers in the army of a Communist country, an army without any chaplains, and their companion, who was not a Christian, took it for granted that they would not take his life because he knew that they were Christians.

In the First Reading today, the opening verses of the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus says to his disciples, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Those two Catholic soldiers in the North Vietnamese  army were powerful witnesses of Jesus to their companion. They chose to live their faith in Jesus.

In the Republic of Ireland citizens will be voting on 25 May on whether to retain a provision in the Constitution that protects both the life of an unborn child and that of its mother or to replace it with a provision that will allow the parliament to legislate for abortion. The current government has stated that if the Constitution is changed they will introduce legislation that would allow abortion up to twelve weeks for no reason whatever.

Please pray that we in Ireland will have the same respect for human life that the two soldiers in Vietnam had and that we will exercise our responsibility as citizens by being witnesses of Jesus not only in Ireland but to the ends of the earth.

St Domitilla with Sts Nereus and Achilleus

Pomarancio [Web Gallery of Art]

Sts Nereus and Achilleus, whose feast is observed on 12 May, were Roman soldiers who were martyred for being Christians.

Entrance Antiphon  Acts 1:11  Antiphona ad introitum

Men of Galilee, why gaze in wonder at the heavens?

Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in caelum?
This Jesus whom you saw ascending into heaven
Quemadmodum vidisti eum ascendentem in caelum,
will return as you saw him go, alleluia.
ita veniet, alleluia.

Palestrina's setting uses a slightly different Latin translation along with a verse that is not in the Entrance Antiphon in the current Roman Missal:

Viri Galilaei, quid statis aspicientes in coelum? Hic Jesus, qui assumptus est a vobis in coelum, sic veniet, quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in coelum. Alleluia. Ascendit Deus in jubilatione, et Dominus in voce tubae. Alleluia. Dominus in coelo paravit sedem suam. Alleluia.

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]

'Peregrinari pro Christo' - 'To be an exile/pilgrim for Christ'. Sunday Reflections, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Calling of St Matthew (detail), Caravaggio [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 Matthew 10:37-42 (New Revised  Standard Version, Anglicised CatholicEdition) 

Jesus said to his Apostles:

^‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

Post-World War II Japan [Source]

Whoever loves father or mother . . . son or daughter more than me . . . and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

These words of Jesus in today's Gospel speak to the hearts of missionaries who leave their homelands and who give up the right to have their own families. Up to maybe a hundred years or so ago it was not uncommon for missionaries, and emigrants, never to return home. When I entered the Columban seminary in Ireland in 1961 our priests came home only after seven years. And they travelled by ship across the Atlantic and Pacific. We were, and are, inspired by our patron saint, St Columban, whose motto was Peregrinari pro Christo, 'To be an exile/pilgrim for Christ'.

Times have changed and long-distance travel by plane has replaced journeys on ocean liners and freighters and is much cheaper. People fly across the Atlantic for weekends. And people are living much longer, which has led to many missionaries spending their latter days in the country of their birth. For some, this is a second experience of going into exile.

My Columban confrere Fr Eamonn Horgan went to Japan as a young priest in 1954 and came back to Ireland for good in 2013. He writes about these two experiences in his article Two Sorrows.

Fr Eamonn Horgan with Japanese friends

Father Eamonn writes: The months since my ordination the previous December (1953) had been pleasantly spent finishing my seminary course and visiting friends and relatives. My mission destination was to be Japan, where, God willing, I would spend the rest of my active life as a Columban missionary.  

But then: The year since ordination had slipped by without much concern on my part about facing the ordeal of leaving kin, friends and country. Exile was something I had only read about, but here I was about to embark on my own. I’m afraid that during those final months before leaving, the missionary spirit in me had noticeably faded. Any tint of glamour attached to a missionary career suddenly grew dim. I had heard many tales of missionaries who, through accident, sickness or even martyrdom, had never come home. Would I someday find myself joining that brave company?

However, his experience in Japan gradually lifted his spirits: Little by little the clouds of melancholy began to lift. It has been said that Japanese have difficulty understanding foreigners. My experience of them belies that opinion. On so many occasions I have found the Japanese understanding my peculiarities and idiosyncrasies better than I understood them myself. Their loyalty was inspiring and the virtues they displayed at every turn would match or surpass those of many ‘official’ Christians.

A farewell party

Father Eamonn gradually found that he had a new homeland: Time and again, when overseas folk came to visit me, local friends or mere acquaintances insisted that I bring them to their homes. The welcome was ever genuine, the hospitality lavish. Over the years as Japan ‘grew on me’, I learned to appreciate more and more how kind the Lord had been to me, in bringing me to so charming a land and so loving a people. Almost imperceptibly I found myself feeling more and more at home among them. They seemed to reciprocate the feeling.

Minimata Railway Station [Wikipedia]

But then came the second sorrow, 'exile' once again: Forward to April 2013: the scene, a train station in Minamata City, South Japan. A group of 40 or so Japanese, men and women, baptised and non-baptised, bidding farewell to their pastor as he departs for retirement to the land of his birth. As the train pulls out, copious tears, theirs and mine, flow freely.

This scene is similar to that in Acts 20:36-37, When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him.

Another farewell

The pain, though mixed with joy, continues: The heartbreak of separation still persists, not just on my side but on theirs too I think. Frequent letters and emails, genuinely nostalgic, continue to arrive here. January 1, 2016 brought two members of an English conversation group of mine [Father Eamonn used to teach English to adults] who had sacrificed their Japan New Year festivities, the biggest of the year, to fly all the way here to visit their departed friend.

Irish airmail stamp, 1948-9 [Wikipedia]

Richard King's set of four Irish airmail stamps published in 1948-9 feature the Angel Victor over four sacred sites bringing the 'Voice of Ireland' to St Patrick asking him to come among the Irish once again as an exile, this time freely as a missionary unlike his first six years in Ireland when he was kidnapped and brought there as a slave. The great saint let go of all the pain of his first exile and embraced the pain of his second at the call of Jesus in order to bring the Gospel to the Irish people.

Crypt of St Columban, Bobbio, Italy [Wikipedia]

St Columban for many years begged his abbot in Bangor, Ireland, to allow him to go into exile to the European continent. His abbot finally relented and twelve other monks, including St Gall went with the great missionary. St Columban was driven out of a number of places by various authorities who did not like the demands of the Gospel. But he brought a renewal of the Catholic Christian faith to much of western Europe because he had embraced the grace of the call to be an exile/pilgrim for Christ.

Father Eamonn followed the example of the patron saint of the Missionary Society of St Columban in embracing his first exile from Ireland in going to Japan and his second 59 years later when leaving Japan in order to return to the land of his birth.

Please pray for all overseas missionaries and for the millions of people who have been forced from their home places by war or by economic necessity. We missionaries have been able to make a choice and accept or reject God's invitation. For far too many refugees there has been no choice.

Kim Jung-hae, Roberta, a Korean, served in Japan as a Columban lay missionary.