My Dad born 95 years ago today

My Dad, John, who died in 1987, was born on Easter Thursday the last time Easter fell on 23 March - 1913. (Or it might have been Easter Wednesday. He was never quite sure if it was the 26th or 27th but we settled for the latter). So he would have been 95 today had he lived.

Here's a photo I took of my parents, John and Mary, in the summer of 1968. Mam died less than two years later. At the time of the photo Dad was 55 and Mam 53.

I inherited my Dad's taste in popular music. He liked a good tune, particularly when played on the piano. His favourite pianist was Charlie Kunz, an American who made his home in England and who died on 16 March 1958. I found this video of Charlie playing one of his medleys in 1934. Note how immaculately dressed he is.

One of the most popular singers in Britain in the 1930s, when Dad was a young man, was Al Bowlly, born of Greek and Lebanese parents in Mozambique. One of the bands he sang with in London in the late 1920s was that of Fred Elizalde from Manila, a member of a wealthy Spanish-Filipino family. When I came to the Philippines in 1971 Fred had a regular programme on TV.

Here's Al Bowlly singing a Ray Noble song that has been recorded by many singers, 'The Very Thought of You'.



Al Bowlly recorded another Ray Noble song with Ray's orchestra in 1931, 'Goodnight Sweetheart'. Someone put footage of a Charlie Chaplin movie to it with amusing results. Sadly, Al was killed during the Blitz in London in 1941, aged only 39.

We lived about 20 minutes walk from Dalymount Park, the main soccer stadium in Dublin, and Dad often brought me there. On big occasions the St James's Brass and Reed Band would be there and one of their standbies was 'Old Comrades', 'Alte Kameraden'. Their figure-marching wasn't quite as good as this:

The sporting highlight of Dad's life was the 1948 FA Cup Final in Wembley Stadium when Manchester Untied beat Blackpool 4-2 in what was said to be the greatest final ever until then. It's a tradition to sing 'Abide With Me' before the FA Cup Final and also before the Rugby League Cup Final in Wembley. We sang it at the end of Dad's funeral Mass.

Dad went to Mass every day of his life right until the day of his sudden death. He had a heart attack while watching cricket on TV. I wonder if he was the first to have had that experience! Someone said that when the English stopped believing in eternity they invented cricket. In Dad's case I truly believe that that final cricket match was but the prelude to eternal life.

Thank you, Dad!

Colombian President prays Rosary to avert war with neighbours

'The President is a man of faith, he always carries with him a wooden Cross and a Rosary. I have heard him pray several times in the motorcade or on the presidential airplane. He always tries to be coherent with his faith in his work, pleasing God with what he does.' Thus El Tiempo, a Colombian newspaper, quotes Fr Julio Solórzano, Chaplain of Colombia’s Presidential Palace.

The story of how Colombian President Alvaro Uribe recently prayed the Rosary with his staff and members of his cabinet to avert war with neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador is carried by Catholic News Agency. The crisis started on 1 March when Colombian soldiers went after Marxist rebels just over the border in Ecuador, having been ordered to do so by President Uribe.

The president insisted that the Rosary be prayed to Mary under her titles as patroness of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador : Our Lady of Chiquinquira, Our Lady of Coromoto and Our Lady of Mercy, respectively. Clearly he had the good of the people of the three nations in his heart, praying to the Mother of All.

The report seems to be a translation from Spanish but the English, though inelegant, is clear. You can read more here, in Spanish, in El Tiempo.

'One-hour friends'

I came across an article on the spiritual needs of persons with intellectual disabilities. Among other things, it speaks of 'one-hour friends', persons who genuinely welcome someone with an intellectual disability to their church, for example, but who invite everyone except that particular person to social functions. There's no malice whatever - rather the contrary - but the one left out can be deeply hurt.

Jean Vanier, through L'Arche and through Faith and Light is very consicous of this. This time seven years ago I was in Lourdes on the International Faith and Light Pilgrimage that takes place every ten years. Faith and Light grew out of a special pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1971 for persons with intellectual disabilities. It had been organized because of the experience of some such persons and their families not being allowed to join other groups of pilgrims.

Many old people with various forms of dementia can also be unnecessarily isolated, as I discovered when involved between 2000 and 2002 with the Pastoral Care Project, founded in 1995 by Frances Molloy in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England.

Every human being is made to 'know, love and serve God', is unique, has something to give that no one else can give and has unique needs. Many are born with learning disabilities. Many others, when they grow, old lose to some degree their mental faculties. But they have their personal history, their memories. The latter may be dormant but can be awakened by a piece of music, for example, that stirs up emotional memories.

Death of Chiara Lubich, Foundress of Focolare

Chiara Lubich, foundress of Focolare, died on Friday, 14 March, at the age of 88. The Focolare Movement has had a profound affect on the lives of many Catholics and other Christians.

You can read about Chiara and Focolare here.

'The Master of the House Washed My Feet!'

Here is a story from The Far East, the magazine of the Columbans in Australia and New Zealand about a Hindu, Nomo, who proclaimed the gospel after a Holy Thursday experience. What struck me is its similarity to the story of the Samaratan woman at the well, who also became a missionary by telling the people in her town that she had discovered the Messiah. Father Walker is editor of The Far East.

Pray for the soul of Nomo.

The Master of the house washed my feet

By Father Gary Walker

An Easter story comes from Sindh province in Pakistan where the Columban Fathers work. The extraordinary experience of a Hindu man who was caught up in the Holy Thursday liturgy and had his feet washed by the parish priest, Irish Columban Father Tomas King.

Matli is a town in Sindh where the Columbans have worked for over 30 years. At Easter Catholics come to town from many areas to celebrate the Easter Triduum; they stay in the Catholic compound while they are in the town. At the same time a Hindu man by the name of Nomo came to Matli to visit his relatives from Nagar Parkar a town right on the eastern extreme of Pakistan near its border with India. These are tribal people, Parkar Kholi people, who are Hindu and Christian as well as Muslim.

Nomo was several hundred kilometers from home and invited to the Holy Thursday night liturgy by a Catholic friend. Fr Tomas King the resident priest at that time randomly arranged for some men to have their feet washed at the altar. It just happened that Nomo was chosen and totally unaware of what was going to take place sat up in front of the altar with the other men. But when he saw that Fr Tomas was washing their feet, the poor fellow tried to run away - but they managed to persuade him to stay and Fr Tomas washed his feet.

This ritual washing had an extraordinary effect on him and he told others after Mass, " Now I have seen a true religion - I came into this house, a total stranger and the master of the house has washed my feet! Imagine the master of the house washing a stranger's feet."

He returned to Nagar Parkar and related this story, not only to his family but also his neighbors and friends. Nomo was a well known figure and a prominent person in the Hindu community in Nagar Parkar. Even though he was not baptized he proclaimed this message of love and service as he experienced it at the hands of a Catholic priest.

Sadly he died in questionable circumstances. Some Catholics in the area believe that he was poisoned while trying to bring peace and reconciliation between two parties that were at odds with one another. He had accepted the gospel as his way of life.

'The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified'

Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Oregon, concludes his weekly column in the Catholic Sentinel dated 21 March in with these words:

There are some who are very reluctant to equate the teaching of the Church with the “will of God.” Yet, for myself, I find it very difficult to assert that God’s will for me in a particular matter, and perhaps even in a very small matter, is directly opposed to the manifestation of “His will” through the Church. Even when, or perhaps especially when the “will of God” as expressed by the Magisterial Church seems to run contrary to what I personally feel or desire I must strive to submit my own will and desire to that manifest will of God. When the teachings of the Church bump up against my own will and my own desires then what am I to say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’ or ‘Father, this teaching is unacceptable’ or ‘Father, you are simply wrong’?

As a part of our Easter celebration we focus on the Creed in a slightly different form. We take up that creedal dialogue connected with Baptism and answer a personal, ‘I do’, to each tenet of our Creed. To the question: “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting?” we answer, “I do.”

Included in that answer, included in our weekly Profession of Faith is a commitment to accept the teachings of the Church as a part of the manifest will of God for us.

More and more I'm convinced of the truth of what Bishop Vasa says. We can never go wrong by accepting the official teaching of the Church. Bishop Vasa's words on God's will remind me of the that great spiritual classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ.

You can find the book online here. John Beevers's more recent translation is available in a number of editions. Kitty Muggeridge, wife of Malcolm, published a translation under the title The Sacrament of the Present Moment, a term associated very much with De Caussade. Blessed Charles de Foucauld said of it, ‘It’s one of the books that most influences my life’.

'Good Friday People'

Juan L. Mercado is a Cebu-based columnist who is published in a number of Filipino newspapers. He is the uncle of Fr Jun Mercado OMI, whose reflections on the Seven Last Words I've just posted. Though we've never met, Johnny, as he is known, and I have been exchanging occasional emails since I contacted him about a reference in the Irish Examiner in 2005 to something he wrote. I came across that while on the internet in Haines Junction, a small town in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The wonders of modern communications!

Johnny writes from the perspective of his Catholic faith, though not as a spokesman for the Catholic Church. We desperately need more people like him.

Dr Sheila Cassidy, an Englishwoman quoted by Johnny as the one who coined in phrase 'Good Friday People', was in the Columban house in Santiago, Chile, during the early days of the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s when soldiers or police broke in and shot dead the housekeeper. They took away Dr Cassidy and tortured her. (Interesting that former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher befriended Pinochet.)

Juan Mercado's Viewpoint in Wednesday's Philippine Daily Inquirer begins:

INQUIRER captioned the photo: "The unbearable wait." It depicted two gaunt women staring at an exhumed coffin sealed in blue plastic. "Mothers of missing UP students Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño view the casket containing the remains of a female," the caption explains. DNA testing at the Philippine General Hospital may show if she was one of their daughters.

"'Good Friday People" is a phrase I coined for those who find themselves called to powerlessness and suffering," writes Sheila Cassidy in her book which bears the same title. A hospice director in England today, she was tortured by Chilean soldiers for treating wounded rebels. "(These) are men and women, broken in body and assaulted in mind--deprived not merely of things we take for granted," she adds. "God calls them to walk the same road that His Son (trod)."

Juan Mercado's column for me links Calvary with torture and murder in Chile, in the Philippines and in Nazi Germany. Some perpetrators have been punished but many not. Here in the Philippines it is clear that all kinds of crimes are being carried out with impunity by people in power and nobody is being punished.

Viewpoint recalls the experience of Elie Wiesel witnessing a child being hanged in a Nazi camp and someone asking, 'Where is God?' Wiesel says, 'And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Here He is - hanging on these gallows."'

Read the whole article, which is one of the hope that Good Friday/Easter brings.