Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Interior of St Colman's Cathedral, Cobh, County Cork, Diocese of Cloyne
The main story in the Irish media today is the publication yesterday by the Irish Government on the Cloyne Report. The Commission that carried out the Dublin Report published in November 2009 was asked by the government to make a similar report on 'all complaints, allegations, concerns and suspicions of child sexual abuse made to the diocesan and other Catholic Church authorities and public and State authorities in the period 1 January 1996 - 1 February 2009'.
The homepage of the website of the Diocese of Cloyne carries links to the full text of the Report and has statements by the former bishop, Bishop John Magee, the Apostolic Administrator, Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel and other diocesan officials.
I haven't read the Report yet but the newspapers report that it is scathing about Bishop Magee and also highly critical of the Vatican. The Irish Times says Papal nuncio 'distressed' by report. The Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, met Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore at the latter's request today.
In the wake of the report into the Catholic Church’s response to allegations of abuse in the diocese of Cloyne, Enda Kenny warned new laws would not be stopped by canon rules. The Taoiseach said the Government’s concerns must now be dealt with. “I think this is absolutely disgraceful that the Vatican took the view that it did in respect of something that’s as sensitive and as personal with such long-lasting difficulties for persons involved,” he said.
"The law of the land should not be stopped by a collar or a crozier," Mr Kenny said. Full report here.
I would say that by this stage apologies from Church leaders ring hollow with many people, including myself, even if they are sincere. Enormous damage has been done to the many individuals abused. Enormous damage has been done to the Church's ability to preach the Gospel. One of the most striking things in the Gospels is the people's response to Jesus: 'Here is a man who speaks with authority'. He had no position of authority. The people were comparing the inner authority that Jesus had to the lack of it that the 'authorities' had. For many Irish people, including those who have remained faithful, the bishops no longer have any authority.
Maybe part of the way forward is for all of the bishops to offer their resignations. The Church in Ireland needs radical surgery. Those who have been abused need our prayers.
If we take seriously that the priest by virtue of his ordination is an alter Christus, 'another Christ', the implication of that is victims can see themselves as having been abused by Christ himself.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1:8 RSV-CE).
I was really struck by these words at the beginning of the first reading in today's Mass. Last week we were listening to parts of the moving story of how Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, was later reunited with them and their father Jacob when famine brought them to Egypt where, unknown to them, he had become governor. The descendants of Jacob, grandson of 'Abraham, our father in faith', as the Roman Canon describes him, became the Hebrew people, the Israelites, the Jewish people. The story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph is our story.
But 'there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph'. At Mass this morning I reminded the Sisters and aspirants of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family that our faith is a gift, a gift that can be lost by an individual and by a whole community. When I entered the seminary in Ireland 50 years ago almost everyone went to Sunday Mass. The Columban seminary had nearly 200 students. It has long since closed, as have all but one of the country's seminaries. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has reminded us more that once that in the archdiocese only around 18 percent attend Sunday Mass and as few as 2 percent in some parishes.
Quebec was similar to Ireland in many ways, an almost totally Catholic society. (About 95 percent of the people of Republic of Ireland and about 75 percent of the population of the whole of Ireland were Catholics 50 years ago. In the 1970s the Church in Quebec collapsed.It has taken somewhat longer in Ireland. A few years ago I was in Canada taking care of a small parish in Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, for the month of June. On CBC Radio, the national service, I heard a young woman who worked for the Province of Quebec being interviewed on Quebec's National Day, 24 June, the Birthday of St John the Baptist. The interviewer asked her to say something about the saint. All she could say was 'He's the patron of Quebec'. She knew nothing else about him.
Some of the Church's greatest bishops and theologians were from the flourishing Church in North Africa in the early centuries of Christianity. St Augustince (354-430) was perhaps the greatest of them. In less than 400 years after his death Islam had replaced Christianity in that whole area and has continued to be the dominant faith there. Apart from the Coptic Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, significant minorities in Egypt and Ethiopia, there are hardly any Christians in that vast territory. The Catholics of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya, for example, are nearly all foreign workers, many from from such places as the Philippines and India.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Now there arose a new generation in Quebec, in Ireland and throughout Europe, who did not know Jesus.
We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (Col 1:9-12).
Readings(New American Bible version, used in the Philippines and the USA)
Gospel: Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9 (Jerusalem Bible version, used in Australia, England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland)
Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables.
He said, 'Imagine a sower going out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth; but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away. Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen, anyone who has ears!'
[Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?' 'Because' he replied 'the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not revealed to them. For anyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. So in their case this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled:
You will listen and listen again, but not understand,
see and see again, but not perceive.
For the heart of this nation has grown coarse,
their ears are dull of hearing, and they have shut their eyes,
for fear they should see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and be converted
and be healed by me.
'But happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear! I tell you solemnly, many prophets and holy men longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.
'You, therefore, are to hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path. The one who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy. But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at once. The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces nothing. And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.']
Soiscéal: Matha 13:1-23 ó 13:1-9 (Gaeilge, Irish)
Tháinig Íosa amach as an teach an lá sin agus chuaigh ina shuí cois na farraige, agus tháinig sluaite chomh mór sin le chéile ag triall air go ndeachaigh sé isteach i mbád agus gur shuigh inti, agus an slua go léir ina seasamh ar an gcladach. Agus rinne sé mórán cainte leo i bparabail.
Dúirt: “Chuaigh an síoladóir amach ag cur an tsíl. Agus sa síolchur dó, thit cuid den ghrán le hais an bhóthair, agus tháinig an éanlaith á ithe suas. Thit cuid eile de ar na creaga, áit nach raibh mórán ithreach ann dó, agus nuair nach raibh an ithir dhomhain aige, d’eascair sé gan mhoill. Ar éirí don ghrian, áfach, loisceadh é, agus d’fheoigh sé de cheal fréimhe. Cuid eile fós de, thit sé i measc an deilgnigh, agus d’fhás an deilgneach aníos agus phlúch é. Ach bhí cuid eile de a thit ar an talamh maith agus thug sé toradh uaidh, toradh faoi chéad in áit, faoi sheasca in áit eile, faoi thríocha in áit eile. An té a bhfuil cluasa air, éisteadh sé!”
[Tháinig na deisceabail chuige á rá: “Cén fáth ar i bparabail atá tú ag caint leo?” Dúirt sé leo á bhfreagairt: “Is é fáth é, mar tá sé tugtha daoibhse eolas a bheith agaibh ar rúndiamhra ríocht na bhflaitheas, ach níl sé tugtha dóibh siúd. Óir, duine ar bith a mbíonn ní aige, tabharfar dó agus beidh fuílleach aige; ach duine ar bith a bhíonn gan ní, fiú amháin a mbíonn aige bainfear de é. Agus sin é an fáth a bhfuilim ag caint i bparabail leo, mar feiceann siad gan feiceáil agus cluineann siad gan cloisteáil agus gan tuiscint. Agus sin mar atá á comhlíonadh iontu an tairngreacht a rinne Íseáia:
‘Beidh sibh ag cloisteáil go deimhin ach ní thuigfidh sibh, beidh sibh ag breathnú go deimhin, ach ní fheicfidh sibh, óir chuaigh croí an phobail seo chun raimhre, d’éist siad le cluasa bodhránta, d’iaigh siad a súile, d’eagla go mbeadh radharc na súl acu, ná clos na gcluas, ná tuiscint an chroí, agus go n-iompóidís agus go leigheasfainn iad.’ “
Ach is méanar do bhur súilese mar go bhfeiceann said agus do bhur gcluasa mar go n-éisteann siad. Deirim libh go fírinneach, b’é ba mhian le mórán fáithe agus fíréan na nithe a fheiceáil a fheiceann sibhse agus ní fhaca siad iad, agus na nithe a chloisteáil a chluineann sibhse agus níor chuala siad iad.”
“Sibhse mar sin, éistigí le parabal an tsíoladóra. Duine ar bith a chluineann briathar na ríochta agus nach dtuigeann é, tagann Fear an Oilc agus sciobann sé leis an ní a cuireadh ina chroí: agus sin é an duine a ghlac an síol le hais an bhóthair. An duine a ghlac an síol ar na creaga, sin é an duine a chluineann an briathar agus a ghabhann chuige le háthas é láithreach, ach ní bhíonn fréamh aige ann féin, ach é neamhbhuan; an túisce is a thagann trioblóid nó géarleanúint mar gheall ar an mbriathar, cliseann air. An duine a ghlac an síol sa deilgneach, sin é an duine a chluineann an briathar, ach go mbíonn cúram an tsaoil agus mealladh an tsaibhris ag plúchadh an bhriathair agus fágtar gan toradh a thabhairt é. Ach an duine a ghlac an síol ar an talamh maith, sin é an duine a chluineann an briathar agus a thuigeann é; agus tugann sé sin toradh uaidh gan teip, faoi chéad nó faoi sheasca, nó faoi thríocha de réir mar a bhíonn.”]
Communion antiphon
Qui mandúcat meam carnem et bibit meum sánguinem, in me manet et ego in eo, dicit Dóminus (John 6:57).Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (In some translations the reference is John 6:56).
Someone I knew well was deeply hurt by her father-in-law, then recently widowed, early on in her marriage and wouldn’t speak to him for about 14 years. She allowed him to visit her home in his latter years and was polite to him. But the hurt and anger remained even after he died, to the extent that she still refused to speak to her husband’s relatives, who had nothing to do with the original hurt and who had no hard feelings whatever towards her.
One afternoon she was having a cup of tea with her adult son who brought up the subject, with some trepidation because on previous occasions she had reacted angrily. This time she was pensive and recalled what her own father, long since deceased, had said to her many years before: ‘Never hold a grudge against anyone’. As if she was hearing these words for the first time, she let go of her anger and hurt and shortly after visited her husband’s relatives whom she counted among her dearest friends for the rest of her life.
‘Imagine a sower going out to sow . . . Listen, anyone who has ears!’ (JB)
‘Chuaigh an síoladóir amach ag cur an tsíl . . . an té a bhfuil cluasa air, éisteadh sé!’
LifeSiteNews carries a report by Thaddeus Baklinski on 4 July on a pro-life rally in my native city last Saturday.
DUBLIN, July 4. 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Saturday’s pro-life rally in Dublin was a smash success, with organizers estimating a turnout of more than 7,000 - more than double the attendance at the last Dublin rally in 2009.
Organizers of the All-Ireland Rally for Life said that the huge turnout served as a warning to the majority Fine Gael party that plans by the minority Labour Party to introduce legislation to legalize abortion in Ireland are unacceptable to the majority of Irish people.
The rally was composed of more young people than ever before and included the Bishop of Derry, Séamus Hegarty. Participants began at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Park and marched down O’Connell Street, with open-top busses, music and balloons lending a festive atmosphere; the march concluded at Dáil Éireann, where participants heard from former MEP, Dana Rosemary Scallon. Read full report.
Monday's edition of The Irish Times carried a report by Cían Nihill under the headingPro-choice and anti-abortionists rally in Dublin. Today's edition has letters by two participants thanking the paper for its coverage of the event. The only quibble I would have is with the headline which describes those who are pro-abortion as 'pro-choice', a misleading term which even ardent pro-lifers have come to use. One might question 'anti-abortionist' but it's not inaccurate, though less comprehensive than 'pro-lifers'.
The Republic of Ireland, where abortion is illegal, has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, 6 deaths per 100,000 births, compared to 170 in the Philippines and 8 in the USA. The three countries with the worst record, 1,100 per 100,000 births are the Central African Republic, Malawi and Mozambique. Chile, where abortion is illegal, has the lowest rate in South America, 23. Greece and Grenada have the lowest in the world, 1.
I found this video on CathNews, Australia. I've been to Preston, which means 'Priest town', a number of times while based in Britain from 2000 to 2002, doing mission appeals. Most of the town is in the Archdiocese of Liverpool but part of it is in the Diocese of Lancaster.
I made a friend in another part of the Diocese of Lancaster who was seriously contemplating suicide. But one Good Friday the local Catholic parish held a Way of the Cross. She happened to see it and it led her away from her depression and eventually into the Catholic Church.
What the Capuchin Friars in Preston did on Ascension Thursday this year is a variation on the traditional Corpus Christi processions that used to be so common in many parts of the world. The processions were expressions of faith by the community. This was partly so but also a form of evangelisation, raising questions in people's minds. The Friars run a chaplaincy at the University of Central Lancashire.
At the chaplaincy
One person commenting on CathNews expressed some concern for the safety of the Blessed Sacrament being carried in a duffle bag. But I don't think there was any irreverence whatever.
Seán Ó Leocháin wrote in Irish Gaelic about the priest making his First Friday Communion visit to his father.
Nuair a tháinig an sagart When the priest came
chuig m’athair inniu, to my father today
mar a thagann de ghnáth as he usually comes i dtús na míosa, at the beginning of the month, le lón na beatha with the food of life a thabhairt d’fhear to give to a man nach bhfágann an chlúid who’s been bed-ridden in aon chor le tamall, for some time now, ní hé an gnás ab ait liom féin. it wasn’t the custom that was strange to me.
Ní hé ba mhó What really ba bhun le m’iontas caused my wonder wasn't fear dá chlú, a man of such repute, dá chleacht, dá éirim such experience, such intelligence ar cuairt na sean visiting the sick i dtús na míosa at the beginning of the month le comhairle a leasa with good advice a chur ar dhream to give to those nach bhfágfadh clúid na haithrí choíche, who would never leave the cover of repentance again,
ach Críost a theacht but Christ coming i gcarr athláimhe in a second-hand car a cheannaigh an sagart the priest bought ó fhear i Ros Comáin. from a man in Roscommon.
I think there's a connection between Christ being present to the people in High Street, Preston, and his going in a second-hand car to a sick man in the Irish midlands. The Irishman knew Who was coming to him as the Bread of Life. Some of those in Preston knew Who was among them. Maybe others, as a result of this, will come to know Him too.
One of the great contributions of the USA to popular culture is the Broadway/Hollywood musical. Among the masters at writing these were composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Most of their works were produced first on stage and later made into movies. The exception was State Fair, a 1945 film for which they wrote the score. It Might as Well Be Spring, from that production, won the Oscar that year for best song.
I doubt that there is a better version than that of Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel in the video above. The words of Lorenzo in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice could surely be applied to anyone who doesn't enjoy this performance with its great melody, words and arrangement and a singer clearly enjoying himself:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
(Apologies on behalf of the Bard of Avon for the 'non-inclusive' 'man'!)
Hammerstein was a superb lyricist and it's only as an adult that I've come to appreciate this. The dry humour of rhyming 'mope' and 'dope'. The line 'or a robin on the wing', though not original, reminds me of the immortal words of 'Anon' from Brooklyn:
De spring is sprung, De grass is riz; I wunneh wear de flowers is. De boid is on de wing --
Absoid! De wing is on de boid!
Another great contribution of Americans to popular culture is the Western. One of the classics is the 1953 movie Shane, the music for which was written by Victor Young. The opening line of Jack Schaefer's novel of the same title captures the reader from the start: He rode into our valley in the summer of '89, a slim man, dressed in black. Though the film follows the book closely Shane, played by Alan Ladd, doesn't wear black. The novel and movie, like To Kill Mockingbird, tells a story narrated by an adult from the vantage point of his childhood.
I studied in the United States for three years, 1968-71, shortly after my ordination in Ireland. They were three blessed years. I made many friends there and grew in the faith. I managed to do quite a bit of travelling, especially during the summer of 1970. I travelled through some of the beautiful wide open spaces that Victor Young's music evokes.
Today, as I thank you, Mother, for this presence of yours in the midst of the men and women of this land—a presence which has lasted two hundred years—giving a new form to their social and civic lives in the United States, I commend them all to your Immaculate Heart.
With gratitude and joy I recall that you have been honored as Patroness of the United States, under the title of your Immaculate Conception, since the days of the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1846.
I commend to you, Mother of Christ, and I entrust to you the Catholic Church: the Bishops, priests, deacons, individual religious and religious institutes, the seminarians, vocations, and the apostolate of the laity in its various aspects.
In a special way, I entrust to you the well-being of the Christian families of this country, the innocence of children, the future of the young, the vocation of single men and women. I ask you to communicate to all the women of the United States a deep sharing in the joy that you experienced in your closeness to Jesus Christ, your Son. I ask you to preserve all of them in freedom from sin and evil, like the freedom which was yours in a unique way from that moment of supreme liberation in your Immaculate Conception.
Readings(New American Bible, used in the Philippines and the USA)
Gospel Matthew 11:25-30 (Jerusalem Bible, used in Australia, England &Wales, Ireland, Scotland)
Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'
AN SOISCÉAL: Matha 11:25-30 (Gaeilge, Irish)
San am sin labhair Íosa agus dúirt: “Tugaim buíochas duit, a Athair, a Thiarna neimhe agus talún, de chionn mar a cheil tú na nithe seo ar lucht eagna agus éirime agus mar a d’fhoilsigh tú do naíonáin iad. Sea, a Athair, óir is amhlaidh sin ba mhaith leat é. Tá gach aon ní tugtha domsa ag m’Athair. Agus níl aithne ag aon neach ar an Mac ach amháin ag an Athair, ná níl aithne ag aon neach ar an Athair ach amháin ag an Mac agus an té ar toil leis an Mac a fhoilsiú dó.
“Tagaigí chugam, sibhse uile a bhfuil saothar agus tromualach oraibh, agus tabharfaidh mé faoiseamh daoibh. Tógaigí oraibh mo chuing agus tagaigí ar scoil chugamsa, mar táim ceansa uiríseal ó chroí, agus gheobhaidh sibh faoiseamh do bhur n-anamacha; óir tá mo chuing so-iompair agus m’ualach éadrom.”
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‘Come to me, all you . . .’ From the 1977 production of Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth. (Jesus played by Robert Powell). Texts from different parts of the Gospel.
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We have been back to Ordinary Time since 13 June but this is the first Sunday since 6 March to use a Mass of Ordinary Time. In recent weeks we've had the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christ,, the Sacred Heart, not to mention the Birthday of St John the Baptist and the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, all major liturgical celebrations.
Today's Mass is in the 'afterglow' of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart just two days earlier, using the same gospel.
About 30 years ago when I was in charge of a formation house for diocesan seminarians in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, I used to visit the local hospitals almost daily. On one occasion I met a 16-year-old girl from across the bay who had been very badly burned in an accident in her home. Her father was looking after her in the hospital. Here in the Philippines it is the practice for a 'watcher' or two, usually family members, to stay with a patient, usually in somewhat overcrowded conditions. The girl's condition wasn't critical but serious and very painful. Tangub, despite its status as a city, was a rather small place. When the father heard I was going to nearby Ozamiz City he asked me to try to find a certain ointment that the doctor had prescribed for his daughter but that was unavailable in Tangub.
I went to every pharmacy in Ozamiz but none had the ointment in stock. I felt disappointed for the young woman and her father as I returned to Tangub with the bad news. Indeed, I felt quite 'down'. But when I met the girl's father he just smiled and said, 'Well, we tried'.
I was struck by the deep faith behind the man's statement. He was expressing implicitly that he believed the words of Jesus in today's gospel: Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
If I may add as an aside, the stereotype of the carer is the loving mother. As a man, I was blessed to meet such a tenderly loving father, taking care of his badly hurt daughter, and doing so with cheerfulness.
We must never forget that behind the tenderness of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is his Passion and death. I saw too that behind the tender love of that father for his suffering daughter in the hospital was his own deep pain as he suffered with her.
