JACK-IN-THE-BOOTH, JILL-IN-THE-BOOTH
With only a year to the General Election in May/June 2006, Fianna Fail and the PDs are both battling to avoid public meltdown. In Fianna Fail the backbenchers are revolting-I know, I know the joke, the front benchers are also repellent. But what's worrying the backbenchers, and the political strategists and election managers, is that what the front bench are repelling is the voters. It's the same with the PDs. The PD's trustees have lost their trust in the PD's front bench-more a kitchen stool, really than a bench-for the same reason. The wiser heads in both parties are anxious about the widening disconnect they sense between the words and actions of the Government Ministers and the ethical sensibility of the general public.
One of the most mysterious forces in politics is electorate fatigue-they just get fed up with a government and vote for change. It may not be rational, but that's politics. So in the run-up to an election, a government has to make sure not to do or say anything that will create one of those unforgettable political images that stick in voters' memories like flies on flypaper, and hover over their heads in that last moment of private pondering with the pencil in the privacy of the polling booths around the land. As the political adage has it, "whatever you say, say nothing memorable".
But not this Government. They seem to have opted instead for a new round of political Russian roulette. Like the ad with the guys who do crazy things because they're listening to a loopy inner voice. The Government's inner loon seems to be telling them: "Vote at the EU to spend EU taxpayers' money on destroying human embryos. Then they'll surely vote for us next May/June."
Eh, I don't think so. The Government seems to feel it is enough to make a few pro-life noises on the eve of an election and then they're assured of the pro-life vote. Perhaps they believe that in the end pro-life voters will say, well, at least they are better than the other lot. The problem with that particular pipe-dream is that whatever else you may say about pro-life voters, forgetting and forgiving are not their strong points. Cod me once, your fault. Cod me twice, my fault.
Now that the European Parliament has voted for EU funding to spend our money on embryo-destructive research, and the issue goes on to the EU Council for Ministers, here at home the spotlight turns on the person who will be casting that vote on our behalf, Minister Micheal Martin.
What is he going to do? What seems to make him reluctant to oppose EU funding for embryo-destructive research is that it would be "absolutist", telling others what to do instead of maintaining an ethical neutrality. He also seems inclined to support EU funding for the destruction of human embryos to extract their stem cells because medical cures might result. He calls this "ethical subsidiarity". But in Ethics, it already has a well-recognised name, it's called "the end justifies the means", and it's the default rationalisation of every political absolutist.
I would invite Minister Martin to consider that neither phrase, "absolutist" or "ethical subsidiarity", gets him off the hook of having to take a stand in public on a plain matter of justice when he comes to vote on our behalf at the EU Council of Ministers meeting.
Jack says it is OK to destroy human embryos to get stem cells to find cures with, down the line: Jill says it is not. No matter which way you go you are imposing your views on one side or the other. Is there any way out of this impasse? Yes. Bring in those whom you're leaving out of the picture-the embryos.
They are human beings too. That's why the researchers want to destroy them to extract their stem cells-elephant stem cells won't do. But they did not give their consent to being destroyed. And it is unethical to put a human subject through a dangerous, let alone a lethal, procedure without their consent. It would indeed be "absolutist" to impose a view on a vulnerable, voiceless embryo which entailed their destruction. It would be unethical and clearly self-serving and self-deluding to presume that a human embryo would conveniently want to be destroyed in order to provide stem cells for my research that might benefit other people. I'm with Jill on this one, and I want the law to be too.
Isn't it true that sometimes, you have to take sides in order to be fair? Aren't there some things that are so wrong that all right-thinking, ethically decent people are absolutely against them?
Jack says rape is OK, as a war tactic, as a means to the end of peace, down the road a while; Jill says it is not. Is anyone seriously suggesting that, because there is a disagreement, therefore we do not have any law on that matter? I'm with Jill here. Justice means taking sides, not hovering above the debate as if distance gave immunity from responsibility. Neutrality between the strong and the weak is siding with the strong as they exploit the weak.
Jack says killing Jill the Pawnbroker is not wrong because he is going to donate part of the loot to medical research that may bear fruit in new cures down the line. And that makes it OK? I don't think so. I'm with Jill on this one also, and again I want the backing of the law on it as well. We have a rule of law, not because Jack and Jill never disagree, but precisely because they do.
One of the reasons for having a rule of law in the first place is to protect the vulnerable, the weaker ones in each situation, the ones unable to raise their voice on their own behalf. That's the secret of democracy-universal equality before the law. That's why statues of Justice show her not only holding a balance in her hand, but blindfolded, so she cannot be overawed and swayed by the powerfulness of one side. Come to think of it, she's a woman, probably called Jill. Equality before the law is what stays the hand of the absolutist who otherwise would use the weak as a means for his own ends.
When Micheal Martin comes to cast Ireland's vote at the Council of Ministers' meeting maybe in September, I hope he will be conscious that in votes like this, when the EU makes a formal shared decision on the principles that will govern how it spends public money, it is bringing to birth the ethical substance of the EU as a community. If he votes to legitimise the spending of our money on embryo-destructive research, he will further alienate people like me in Ireland who feel a society that stands by and allows, or worse, encourages or even legalises, embryo-destructive research is walking into the Abyss.
I believe this vote is one of those political events that will stick in the mind, an inner companion that will silently accompany us into the ballot box next May/June, there, perhaps to pop out and influence us when we cast our vote.
I hope Micheal Martin will find the light and statesmanship to oppose EU funding for embryo-destructive research at the upcoming Council of Ministers meeting.
by Joe McCarroll
THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OF IRELAND'S CATECHESIS
For more than 30 years Irish Catholics have had one unchanged complaint-the failure of the "new catechetics" to teach their children the basics of the Faith. After 40 years of post-conciliar renewal we have a major catechetical problem in the schools. The current catechetical series in use in primary schools, Alive-O, is a manifestation of a deeply flawed programme of "faith development", yet those in charge show little desire to recognise this failure or do anything about it. How did this disastrous problem come about?
The new catechetics didn't start at the Second Vatican Council, but, since the bishops called for "the renewal" of just about everything in the Church, it was that event that gave the green light to the new "methodologies". Within a decade the new catechetics had swept away the traditional method of religious instruction. Since the days of the Counter Reformation and St Peter Canisius, Catholic teachers had emphasised the "cognitive" transmission of the Faith, epitomised by the question-and-answer Penny Catechism.
The "renewed" catechetics criticised this method for being too abstract and mere memory work, divorced from children's life and experience, and a by-product of Tridentine Catholicism. Led by the Lumen Vitae Institute of Catechesis in Brussels, a new breed of religious educators took charge, and soon Catholic school-teachers, especially at primary level, were urged to engage and activate children's experience of religion rather than induce boredom by rattling on about transubstantiation or proofs of God's existence. In Ireland an episcopally-imposed programme, the Children of God series, evicted the Maynooth Catechism and Sheehan's Apologetics.
Today's catechetical problem is related to another post-conciliar development, the burgeoning of Church bureaucracy and the erosion of the individual bishop's authority in favour of experts and consensus. On one level, the national bishops' conference assumed an overall, if uncanonical, corporate leadership that-again uncanonically-put a premium on consensus and frowned on individual bishops "breaking ranks". Here too, the role of "expert" committees took on an indispensable function in the corporate work of the conference.
On a lower level each diocese had its "experts", especially in the now seemingly technical fields of liturgy and catechetics. They too assumed an authority in their own specialised fields. Too often, bishops pleaded ignorance of the "new catechetics", and allowed their "experts" a free rein, or felt inhibited by the decisions of the national conference.
Slowly the Vatican has struggled to recall Catholic schools to their proper task of teaching the Faith. In 1985 the Synod of Bishops reversed a decision of the Vatican Council, and asked Pope John Paul II for a universal catechism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church appeared in 1992, and was received by most of the catechetical apparat with unconcealed hostility. In 1997 the Vatican published an updated General Directory for Catechesis (GDC), and requested every bishops' conference to produce its own national directory. While this would cover national features and deal with special needs, it would have to conform to the GDC on essentials.
The bishops of the United States updated their national directory by 2004-after a process of wide and genuine consultation that included sending a draft copy to all who sought it and a four-month period for responses-and Rome approved it in early 2005. In contrast, the Irish Bishops' Conference only commenced work in 2005, instructing its Catechetical Commission to produce a draft National Directory for Catechesis (NDC) after a "national consultation".
In the twelve months since then, this committee has acted like some undercover state agency. Its terms of reference remain unrevealed, and its only known member is Fr Gareth Byrne of Mater Dei Institute, Dublin, who is advertised on its far-from-active website as "seconded to write the Directory". Not only has the committee refused to reveal its membership, it chose to consult the public in a manner that almost guaranteed few responses. By so doing, it missed an opportunity to involve those best able to catechise children-the parents. It also appeared to have neglected the experience of the parish clergy, surely another valuable source.
The Committee placed a public advertisement about "Catechetics-the deepening of faith" in May 2005, and, without adequately explaining the issues or supplying a list of questions, invited "interested parties" to reply to this vague request within a month, limiting their replies to 500 words. In February 2006 the committee sent a draft directory to about 200 selected people and groups. It gave individuals less than two weeks to read and comment on a nearly-200 page work. There was no feedback about the submissions received in 2005, or what were the criteria for selecting the chosen few who received the draft. Even persons who had sent detailed submissions were denied the draft. These manoeverings of the Catechetical Committee made a mockery of its proclaimed "new vision in shared partnership in catechesis" in its press release in 2005.
The essential flaw in the draft NDC (and Alive-O) is the concept of "religious education". The meaning of this apparently innocuous phrase only becomes clear when you compare a "religious education" programme like Alive-O with Catholic catechesis as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
For a comprehensive analysis of Alive-O, Books 1-4, go to www.eannajohnson.org
"Religious education" aims to give children (and adults) an appreciation of religion as a universal human experience. This approach assumes that all religions are of equal value since they all are expressions of the same human search for the Divine. The concept of objective truths revealed by God is replaced by a relativist and neo-modernist approach to doctrine and morals. This manner of "teaching religion" is much favoured in secular and inclusive circles-for obvious reasons. The student, after studying this mishmash of "religion", can then proceed to study individual religions including Christianity, and them makes his "informed choices".
If you think that I exaggerate, consider the following definition from the draft NDC:
Religious education is a process which has its foundations in both religion and education. Religious education, whatever the context, helps adults and young people develop religious modes of thinking, feeling and doing, which give expression to the spiritual, moral and transcendent dimensions of life and can lead to personal and social transformation. Religious education also teaches people to think critically about religion, allowing them to make free and consistent choices in the way they live their religious and other commitments (p. 60).
Maybe this could be defended, for example, in a British state school but it is a far cry from what should exist in a Catholic school. In direct contrast to "religious education", true Catholic catechesis must be directed by what Rome calls "the pedagogy of God", the one and only pedagogy that can never be omitted or replaced (General Directory for Catechesis, ß 139f). God revealed himself in words and deeds recorded in the history of Israel, and then in a final manner in the life and person of Jesus Christ. The Church imitates the Divine Teacher in her catechesis, and every local catechesis must follow this model in its wholeness. A Catholic catechesis starts, not with human experience, but with God's historical revelation. It is not surprising the "the pedagogy of God" is barely mentioned in Ireland's draft directory and barely figures in Alive-O, since both are built on the central idea of "religious education".
It should be noted that the phrase and meaning of "religious education" is nowhere mentioned in the Vatican documents, including-most significantly-the GDC. Yet Fr Byrne and his committee propose to replace "Catholic teaching" with a new programme of "religious education" in all Catholic primary schools (See p. 188 of draft NDC).
My enquiries to the secretary of the Catechetical Committee met with little enlightenment. He stated that I could not see the draft directory because the bishops themselves were now writing the final version, and the process of consultation had ended. This was a trifle misleading. The draft is back with Fr Byrne and his shadowy colleagues, and the final date for the completed draft, originally planned for this June, is uncertain.
What appears to have happened is this. The major criticisms of the draft NDC have derailed the project, at least briefly. It was sent to a group of theologians for comment. No doubt the committee is unhappy with a catechesis based on Christian revelation, yet know that Rome will return any draft that makes "religious education" instead of "the divine pedagogy" the dominant principle.
In Ireland, the Children of God programme of religious education evicted the Maynooth Catechism, and in turn was updated by Alive-O. As so ably explained by Eanna Johnson for Books 1-4, this catechetical programme does not teach the Catholic Faith. Period. Many parents have been fobbed off by catechetical advisors who dismissed them and the old methods as out-of-date. Thanks to Eanna Johnson, we now can recognise that the problem is more than a matter of age or method. It has a conceptual basis that is incompatible with the Gospel.
So, what does the future hold? A sound directory, approved by Rome, will not change the current school programme overnight. Yet, it will be an important step towards future reform. On the other hand, a directory for "religious education" in Catholic schools would be a nail in the coffin of the Irish Church.
The dominance of the "religious education" experts must end, and bishops have to recover their role as guardians of the Faith. This requires prayer as well as pressure, and, like the end of the Babylonian Captivity, will not come about easily.
by David Manly
THE BRANDSMA REVIEW - THE WAY AHEAD
Once every few years we take stock of the present position and probable future of the Brandsma. When we launched the magazine way back in 1992 we had no idea that 14 years later it would still be, if not going strong, at least still ticking over quite manfully. This is entirely due to the loyalty of our readers, nearly all of whom renew their subscriptions promptly when reminded. One can only conclude that there is more demand for our brand of slightly gung-ho unapologetic traditional Catholicism than for the kind of wimpy progressivism dished out by the late unlamented CEide and Alpha.
We have, however, recently been hit by a massive hike in postal charges. To post one copy of the Brandsma to a subscriber in Ireland used to cost EUR0.60. An Post has suddenly bumped it up to EUR0.90-an increase of 50 per cent. I thought for a while about increasing our subscription, now EUR19.80 for six issues, to EUR21.60-but then decided that we won't do that unless we are really in danger of going under. So for the time being our price will remain at EUR3.30 per issue, or EUR19.80 for the year. But would readers please see if they can get their brothers, sisters or old school-fellows-to whom they now pass on their used copies-to take out their own subscriptions? It would make such a difference to us.
Now about the future: should we just continue producing the Brandsma indefinitely, or should we set a time limit? I am now 69 years old, and while I can probably expect quite a few more years of active life, that is not to be taken for granted. The good Lord could call me any time, or I could find myself incapable of carrying on as editor. In either event, as things stand the Brandsma would suddenly fold.
I would very much like the magazine to carry on well into the 21st century, as I think it fulfils a need. No one else in Ireland is doing quite what we are doing. The Neo-Modernists are always describing themselves as "the loyal opposition"-but they're not loyal at all. We are loyal-even though we frequently find it necessary to point out the shortcomings of our pastors. The Neo-Mods attack them when they do their duty; we criticise them when they neglect their duty, or toady to the media.
We have now produced 84 issues. I have decided, very tentatively, that I may retire when we reach 100 issues. That is another 16, which will take us up to January 2009. I hope that in the meantime, I can find a younger person who can take over and run the magazine on roughly the same principles-pro Vita, pro Ecclesia Dei, et pro Hibernia.
by Nick Lowry
VIVE CHAVAGNES!-A GENUINE CATHOLIC SCHOOL
By MARY O'REGAN
ONE may rightly ask why a small village in the
far west of France has brought so much joy and consolation to varying members of the Catholic community-the school teacher writing this piece being one.
Chavagnes-en-Paillers, referred to by most people as "Chavagnes" (pronounced "shav-ang-ya"; the ending is like the ending in lasagne) is host to a burgeoning Catholic school for boys called Chavagnes International College and a sister school for girls called Notre Dame de la Bonne Nouvelle.
The schools offer an unashamedly Catholic education and lifestyle to pupils from the ages of nine to 18. Primarily a British-run establishment, the first language of both schools is English. From the start, the school has received no State funding and hence we are not subject to State dictates. The school fees are very reasonable and family rates apply.
For the past school year I have been a teacher at both schools and what follows is my personal testimony of how enriching an authentically-Catholic school can be.
Consistent moral guidance
I first heard about Chavagnes International College from the editor of this publication when I graduated from university. Mr Lowry spoke of the school in glowing terms and aroused my interest. Could it be, I asked myself, that a good Catholic school exists relatively near home, where teachers bless themselves in front of students without seeming archaic? My mind raced. Mr Lowry understood the qualms I felt about teaching in most State schools (Irish or otherwise) where on a personal basis I might have had little in common with my more secular colleagues and invariably had to teach children largely ignorant of their faith.
I didn't want to teach in a school with a permissive attitude towards "health" programmes and spurious religious education. I believe that so-called health programmes, whether they are sex-ed or the insidious self-esteem building variety, act like strong acid upon the pupils' moral fabric, causing them to question true morality. Would this school have conditioning forces acting on the students' moral fabric?
I got in touch with the Principal of the girls' school and discussed the possibility of taking a position in her school.
When I was being interviewed the most important influence in their decision to hire me was my faith. Could I envisage going to Mass every day (accompanying girls from the girls' school to and from the church)? Could I lead the girls in daily Rosary and novenas? Would I show good example and offer consistent moral guidance?
I formed an immediate friendship with the girls' school principal, Mrs Christine Lloyd who listened patiently to my queries and agreed to help me in any way she could, such is her selfless, pioneering spirit. Needless to say I accepted the challenge and for my first year of pedagogical endeavours, hurried into the VendEe Region of Western France in September 2005.
Happy and jovial
On my first day, I arrived just as the students were spilling out of Mass in the school chapel. The boys and girls are schooled separately but attend Mass together. Groups of boys in smart navy blazers were walking around the front yard, blessing themselves as they passed the church. The boys all seemed a very happy and jovial bunch. They seemed very much at ease with themselves and their surroundings. I was astonished at their level of
good manners; the students hold doors open and speak in respectful tones to members of staff as a matter of course.
The occupants of Chavagnes were enjoying an Indian summer when I arrived and the school buildings were bathed in a golden autumnal glow. Chavagnes International College is the defining landmark of the village, sitting opposite the parish church, facing the main street. Collectively, the school buildings form a rather neat H-shape. On the extreme right hand side of the H one finds the school chapel.
The school was originally a junior seminary, founded by the Venerable Louis-Marie Baudouin in 1802 and a chapel named in his honour is situated at a right angle to the main chapel. The school chapel could only be described as unpretentiously beautiful. It is lined in luminous stained glass windows and the altar is surrounded by stained glass, the centre-piece being a magnificent portrayal of the Coronation of Our Lady, dressed in light blue and pink.
There are simple, relatively high altar rails facing the altar with cushioned kneelers. The altar itself is bedecked in tidy bunches of flowers native to the area. The figurative Stations of the Cross, which run on both sides of the chapel, were executed by the celebrated artist Alfred Sauvage. A statue of Our Lady with a very life-like face is found at the back of the church, in front of which is a kneeler.
The first day I arrived it didn't escape my attention that the boys stop there on there way out of Mass and bow or kneel in front of it.
Concentration and precision
An atmosphere of a continual retreat pervades both schools. Regardless of what may be happening, daily Mass is strictly observed and morning and night prayers are mandatory. Any new-comer is always overcome by the students who scramble out of their classes to go to Mass before lunch. The boys participate actively in the Mass by serving or reading. Traditional black cassock and white surplice are worn by the altar boys. Often, when I am teaching a lesson before Mass a boy will put up his hand and ask to be let out early to prepare for serving at Mass. The concentration and precision the altar boys apply to their task is seraphic. There's no clumsiness when they are shaking the incense, no smirking when they kneel in their cassocks and no chatting among themselves as they listen to the Gospel.
The college chaplain, Fr Pilon, a native of Canada and of French-Canadian background has found boys contesting about who will serve. Fr Pilon is on hand to offer spiritual guidance and confession to the pupils and staff in either French or English. Many of the pupils form a very positive relationship with the chaplain. Fr Pilon demonstrates a sterling example of the priesthood to all the pupils. Apart from his frequent cups of coffee and liking for the occasional cigar, no worldly trappings besiege him. He continually stresses the need for prayer and humility. Caring for the students' spiritual welfare in our establishment, where boys embrace the sacrament of Confession very regularly, is time-consuming work and hence it is not unusual to hear of Father getting up in the early hours to say his Breviary.
Fr Pilon was a seminarian with the Fraternity of St Peter and has an unreserved love for the old Latin Rite and of traditional Catholic worship, most particularly Gregorian chant. The "old Latin Rite" is celebrated on an occasional basis when permission is granted by our local bishop. A daily Novus Ordo Mass is the staple Mass of our day at Chavagnes.
The Mass is the most traditionally-celebrated Novus Ordo Mass I have ever been to. People often mistake it for the old rite, because Fr Pilon faces the altar and the words of the Mass are in Latin. More or less everyone receives the Host on their tongue whilst kneeling. The Eucharistic prayer is the more traditional number one: Te igitur, clementissime Pater.
One might question the benefit of having a Mass in Latin in today's liberated times. I feel it contributes to the atmosphere of cohesion in Chavagnes, if for no other reason than diplomacy. Many here do not share the same mother tongue. In an international school students and staff alike may come from a plethora of different linguistic backgrounds (French, Spanish or German for example). Using Latin as our liturgical language does not create a bias towards any other language. Latin is a universal language of high cultural appeal and it is fitting for an international school to extol its virtues. Latin is also one of the core academic subjects and students have done extremely well in formal Latin exams.
The chapel boasts excellent acoustics and Sunday Mass is extremely edifying.The spirit of the Mass is accentuated by rousing Latin and vernacular hymns. At Eastertide, our daily Mass was ended by singing the Regina Coeli in its original plain song. The boy's choir sings at Mass on Sundays and on feast days. Benediction is available on Friday and both Vespers and Benediction are available Sunday evening, something the girls in the girls' school never miss because they are aware an indulgence can be sought should they go to Benediction and fulfill the necessary conditions.
Proper history taught
It's funny how the practice of getting an indulgence has become so obsolete among modern Catholics, partly because of the anti-Catholic teaching of the Reformation in secondary school history books. Students are taught how before the glorious Reformation, the selling of so-called indulgences was becoming excessive among the Catholic faithful.
A slow deterioration of any Christian moral fabric is at work in a lot of schools and not just confined to the confusing RE classes. I for one remember learning a definition of an indulgence as being "a process where you bought your way into Heaven". The history course always in some way carried an insidious anti-Catholic agenda.
We were told of the many popes in the past who were guilty of debauchery and how dubious the infallibility of the pope is. I recall how one of the supreme bastions of the Catholic faith in Ireland during the last century-Eamonn de Valera-was described as someone who "let his faith decide all his bad decisions". Thank heavens, no such propaganda is fed to the souls in the classrooms at Chavagnes!
Individual tuition
My last point leads me on to discussing academia at Chavagnes. Every effort is made to halt the flow of anti-Christian rhetoric which seeps into the textbooks and syllabi. I had the difficult job of selecting appropriate English literature material for my classes. For the A-Level students I avoided doing Katherine Mansfield's short stories which all manage in some form or another to give a positive slant to lesbianism, and chose George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, which is not altogether pro-Catholic, but is not damaging either.
Both schools share teachers to some degree. The A-Level students were put together during this school year for Biology, Chemistry and English, since it would have been a waste of teachers' time to teach two small groups separately. Both schools have small numbers of pupils and individual tuition is taken as standard practice. The English students' fluency in French is helped enormously by mixing with French students-and vice versa.
The school is distinguished by some of the most conscientious teachers I have met. The headmaster of the boys' school Dr Conlon who, like me, is native to Ireland is an impeccable latinist and mathematician. Dr Conlon doesn't stint on giving individual academic tuition. When the weather started to get fine during April, it was a common sight to see Dr Conlon walking in the front yard of the school revising Latin vocabulary with individual boys. Dr Conlon covered the A-Level Latin course (a two-year course) with one student in one year-and the student got an A.
The headmistress of the girls' school (Mrs Lloyd) is completely tri-lingual in firstly German and French,and now English. She is a qualified veterinary surgeon and teaches biology with some panache in both schools. Mrs Lloyd often knows the tiniest detail of any area of biology from the root system of a daisy to the oil gland on a duck's back!
Both schools are blessed with an Oxford-educated maths teacher, Mr Hayes. Mr Hayes has remarkable patience and perseverance. A weekend before a maths exam, he spent four hours revising the course with a pupil from the girls' school.
Worthwhile sacrifice
As a community the school does rely on the generosity of the Catholic community to a large extent. The staff could receive much higher remuneration elsewhere, but choose to live and work with the students at Chavagnes for a modest salary. I myself could have earned substantially greater sums of money in a State school, but chose to remain at Chavagnes because I have felt my faith begin to blossom, and have gained more confidence here. I enjoy teaching here very much. My A-Level students were particularly hard-working and astute. One of them entered the Young Catholic Writer of the Year competition and won first prize for his reflections on papal authority.
I find discipline problems are easily eradicated because the schools emphasize manners and how a Catholic should behave. I can wholeheartedly say that it is the one school I have worked in where there is virtually no bullying. Sensitive, vulnerable boys who would be despised in most modern schools are allowed a space to grow and develop here without warring gangs infringing upon them as would be the case in other schools. The students in both schools adopt a caring attitude towards each other which is very important since they are living so far from home. The expression "home-sickness" is never even mentioned.
THE TRUE MEANING OF VIRTUE
This is the personal testimony of GREG MORRISON, who was a pupil at Chavagnes for two years.
He is currently studying history and theology at Lampeter University, Wales. His younger brother and sister are students in Chavagnes.
MY faith before Chavagnes had been one of loy-
alty rather than belief. All of us Morrison children had always been taken to church by Mum and Dad, and they brought us up to understand the Faith as well as we could. There were no excuses for missing Mass, and my brothers and I had been serving at the altar from five or six years of age-about the same time that we received our first Holy Communion.
Catholicism was something I was not proud of, but as it was not something I could give up, I simply became very pugnacious about it, rather than denying it. Pride meant that although I never really stood up for the Faith in public or to my school friends, if had anyone ever questioned me on it, mockingly, I would have knocked him down rather than deny that I went to Mass and "believed" all the moral and religious teachings of the Church.
Although both of my parents have always been devout and brought us up well, as a child I always had the lingering feeling that all the teachings of Catholicism were just old hat and had been proved wrong long ago-whatever Mum thought, however much I loved and trusted her and Dad, however much I longed to believe them. I felt that belief itself was futile; there was no hope.
I agree with Georges Bernanos, author of The Diary of a Country Priest, who made his character write: "One does not lose the Faith...one simply stops living one's life according to it." I think that was the stage I was at before I went to Chavagnes. I desperately wanted to believe the Church, and in saints and angels and the Real Presence and Heaven, perhaps simply because these things had made my childhood seem safer and more loving-in the same way that a child of 11 or 12 might desperately want to go on believing in Santa Claus. It would make everything warm and cuddly again-and yet the cold futility of the world seems the only reality.
Deep impression
The liturgy at Chavagnes, the reverence in which it was carried out, and the sort of music that accompanied it all made a deep impression on me quite quickly. Here was a set of people unafraid of affirming their faith, and actively living their lives in accordance with it. I had always had this example from my parents, but it was somehow very helpful to see it in teachers and fellow students; boys becoming young men at the same time as me. There was none of the attitude found in so many Catholic parishes today which silently screams: "Youth! We must attract youth at all costs! Let us make everything easier for them to swallow!"
Young men often despise this sort of thing. At secondary school, I remember my schoolmates deriding the way our teachers sang songs like Shine, Jesus, Shine with a drum kit and electric guitars, in a desperate attempt to rouse some response from a congregation of uninterested and uncatechised boys and girls. I missed Mass on several important feast days because my friends and I would rather go and smoke than attend a Mass we had no respect for or belief in, one that made us feel incredibly uncomfortable.
A reasonable faith
Not so at Chavagnes. We were taught the faith, and slowly but surely I learned that there were plenty of arguments to bolster the faith I desperately wanted to hold, showing it to be strong and manly, and reasonable. Virtue was not something effeminate to be laughed at by tough men; the idea of "toughness" we boys had been fed on through Hollywood and the thug culture was a complete lie. Virtue, I realised, truly was manlier than any other way of life. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the word came from the Latin virtus, meaning "manliness".
The words of Christ commanding us to "turn the other cheek", long considered by me to be the way of perfection, but definitely not the manly way, slowly dawned on me as in fact the truly manly way. This is quite a difficult concept for a boy to really believe, but I learned it at Chavagnes in a thoroughly "boyish" environment. We were taught to be real men, men striving to be more like Christ, not simply falling for the pathetic image of manhood with which secular society had all but seduced us.
I read decent literature, both Catholic and non-Catholic, and was encouraged to watch fewer films, but ones with morality and deeper meaning than just the tripe that so attracts and addicts those children allowed to watch TV whenever they want. In the literary club we read poetry and listened to good music-of all genres-and learnt the manners and etiquette of the old world, a chivalry which is far deeper than charm because it is an honest concern for one's neighbour, not simply an attempt to be "nice".
I learned that being nice is only right if it is practised in the pursuit of good-for example, good manners, polite conversation, avoidance of argument. However, if the choice came between being good or being "nice" as society views it, one should choose to do good.
Weathering the storm
Chavagnes is very much the only reason I still attend Mass, and follow the moral teachings of the Church in my life. My experience there taught me true reverence, true courage and also that our Faith is the only one which makes sense: the Catholic Church is not simply a church, it is The Church. It is not simply a religion on a par with any other, but the only one which conforms beautifully to what we already know of reality and perfection from reason and experience of the created world-it is The Religion.
Chavagnes is the reason I am truly proud to be a Catholic, not just clinging to the Faith like a drowning sailor not too sure whether to just let go of the raft and abandon the fight, but weathering the storm in the conviction that there is an end, and the struggle is not futile. I am willing more than ever in my life to engage in discussions about the faith with non-believers, not simply in defiance but because I truly believe, and because I understand the difficulties of the unbeliever and have read the arguments back and forth. I now argue less to prove "others wrong and me right" in a prideful attempt to prove that I do have a reasonable Faith and cannot be mocked into believing the contrary, and more to show people where the truth abides, and where they can find fulfilment and peace, instead of believing that they are merely animals, and that sin does not exist, as the world tries to teach.
The example of the teachers, the chaplains, and other people connected to the College have given me the strength to continue more independently along the path my parents set me on as a child, that of Christian Faith and morality as safeguarded by the teachings of the Catholic Church. They taught me to trust and have faith, they taught me to pray in a deeper way than I had done before, and to have a healthy respect, shown by reverence, for the Sacraments and sacramentals offered to me by Christ. My parents did their duty in teaching me to do all the above as a child. The College taught me to do them as a man.
This is not to say, of course, that I am not a sinner. I am a work in progress! It is to say that I firmly believe my two brief years at Chavagnes International College have been instrumental in making me the young man I am: an informed and orthodox Roman Catholic, striving to be a better one. That is all Christ asks.
I have much to thank the College for and much to thank God for what He gave me during my time there, through the good work of my teachers.
WOLVES IN SHEPHERDS' CLOTHING?
The plight of Catholics in England and Wales is becoming desperate, as DAPHNE McLEOD reports. Irish readers can judge for themselves to what extent her strictures might apply in this country.
FROM her very beginning the whole Holy Ro-
man Catholic and Apostolic Church has recognised the God-given authority of the Bishop of Rome. "Rome has spoken, the matter is closed" (Roma locutus est, causa finita est) has long been our safeguard in times of confusion.
That is, until now. Today in England and Wales the bishops appear to be in open rebellion against the See of Rome. This rebellion first consisted of ignoring, and sometimes ridiculing, solemn Vatican Documents.
We all know the sad history of the Papal Encyclical Humanae Vitae and the price we are paying for ignoring it. More recently the documents which have also sunk without trace in England and Wales, include the Instructions for the Laity approved by Pope John Paul II in 1997, which forbids the laity being designated chaplains; preaching the homily at Sunday Mass; cleansing the chalice after Mass; or distributing Holy Communion when a priest who can distribute it is present.
However, because they have been ignored by our bishops, these rules are continuously flouted,-sometimes even by the bishops themselves. For example, Bishop Dunn of Hexham and Newcastle recently invited a layman (who is also a Protestant, the Anglican "Bishop" Wright) to preach at a Mass he was celebrating! The beautiful Encyclical on the Blessed Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, written in 2003 to correct "unacceptable doctrine and practice" has also been ignored. As a result, we still have Catholics receiving "communion" at non-Catholic services; attending Sunday ecumenical services in place of Mass, and going to lay-led Communion services on Sundays when they could travel to a Church where Mass is being offered. And all because they have not been given the teaching from Rome.
Redemptionis Sacramentum ends by warning the bishops they have the responsibility to "issue norms" enforcing these liturgical rules, to "carefully investigate" any notice received of their violation and "that they are to be observed immediately by all concerned". But sadly, two years later, we are still waiting for any of this to be enforced. We all remember how Instrumentum Laboris was buried in 2005 and we have yet to see whether the Concluding Document of the October Synod of Bishops will be implemented.
Vatican undermined
But our bishops have now taken another, even more drastic step away from Rome. They have started to produce their own documents which, regrettably, undermine or even contradict Vatican documents and teaching.
Here are just a few examples:
In 2005 Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, gave us an excellent booklet available in English explaining the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal. However, our bishops' response was to produce their own booklet entitled Celebrating the Mass. Among many serious discrepancies this booklet changes Cardinal Arinze's instruction that Communicants must: "make an appropriate sign of reverence before receiving" to: "In England and Wales the act of walking in procession [i.e,. queuing up] is a sufficient sign of reverence"; the rubric that the words of Consecration should be spoken especially clearly and distinctly is altered so they will be proclaimed in no special manner-a change which has deep theological significance; the word Consecration, frequently used by Cardinal Arinze, is mentioned only once by our bishops and then only in a heading; and the communion plate, which Rome said must be used, doesn't even warrant a mention.
In November 2005 the Sacred Congregation for Education in Rome issued an important document on the criteria for discerning vocations for those with homosexual tendencies. Our bishops response was a "comment" which contradicts the document on several important points, the most serious being that homosexual activity is merely "disordered".
Also in 2005 the bishops of England and Wales produced Diversity and Equality Guidelines. This document is more politically correct than Catholic. So it fails to support other European Conferences of Bishops who are trying to defend Catholic teaching in the face of recent legislation on "gay marriages" etc. Sadly, this same document was used by the European Community's Commission of Experts to undermine the Slovak Bishops' attempts to secure a right of conscientious objection for Catholics in their country.
Recently the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, together with the Bishops' Conference of Scotland have produced, jointly, a teaching document called The Gift of Scripture. The most charitable comment we can make about this publication is that in earlier times it would surely have been placed on the Index of Forbidden Books! Even The Times greeted it with the headline: "Catholic Church no longer swears by Truth of the Bible" whilst the publication Evangelicals Now mocked us for having a "holey Bible"!
The Gift of Scripture was written to commemorate the anniversary of the Vatican II Document on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum. But, at times, it even misquotes the very Document it is commemorating. For example, when it says that the "Bible teaches the truth God wished set down" instead of "....the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully and without error teach the truth God wished...." (Dei Verbum 11). Then, of course, The Gift of Scripture goes on to list the errors our bishops see in the Bible, replacing Catholic teaching with the Protestant higher criticism which Pope Leo XIII warned us in his Encyclical Providentissimus Deus could have such "evil consequences". This latest document is so outrageous it has attracted criticism from faithful Catholics around the world.
Several American scholars have reviewed the book, notably Professor Ronald Conte (www.catholicplanet.com) whose 28-page critique, listing the numerous Papal Encyclicals contradicted by The Gift of Scripture, ends with these desperately sad words:
How did it happen that two Bishops' Conferences and two Cardinals published a so-called "teaching document" which promotes outright heresy, is poorly written, is poorly documented, offers no new insights and does not criticise or rebuke any of the errors in modern Biblical scholarship?
It is clear that Professor Conte does not realise how serious the situation in this country is-and of course, he knows that the American Conference of Bishops could never have approved The Gift of Scripture as a teaching document.
Because the writers apparently received a letter from someone in the Congregation for Bishops giving them permission to publish, they claim to "have the approval of the Holy See". On the strength of this, Mgr Andrew Summerskill, General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, insists that the document "fully conforms to the teaching of the Magisterium". Our Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Faustino Sainz Munoz, is also assuring correspondents that this revolutionary new teaching on the Bible "has the approval of the Holy See."
However, informed Catholics know that a document which contradicts truths which the official Magisterium of the Church has taught universally and consistently for centuries, cannot also come from the Magisterium. The Holy Spirit does not contradict Himself! As Mgr John McCarthy, JCD., STD, editor of Living Tradition, published by the Roman Theological Forum, writes at the conclusion of his seven-page critique, www.rtforum.org.
The Gift of Scripture...depends largely on sources...that do not represent the teaching of the Church...The Document seems to me to represent the current opinions of a select group of Catholic biblical scholars who have the confidence of the teaching office of the Episcopal Conferences of England and Wales, and Scotland, but which opinions do not represent the perennial teaching of the Universal Church.
How has this disaster happened ? There are probably several contributory causes. It could be partly the "widespread religious ignorance" the Pope speaks about so fervently, combined with a misplaced zeal for ecumenism which dumbs down Catholic truths in an attempt to put us all on the same level. When this leads to playing down the teaching that Catholics must have close ties to Rome, it tends to make our bishops feel closer to their Protestant friends than they are to their Catholic brothers in Rome.
Putting it in context
All this is in addition to the bishops' silence in the face of media attacks; their support for CAFOD (the English equivalent of Trocaire-ed.) in spite of its stance on condoms; their efforts to cut the number of Masses offered in our parishes, even before this becomes necessary-efforts most noticeable in the diocese of Middlesbrough where Bishop Crowley has been reported as saying, "There are vastly too many Masses in my diocese"; and, most worrying of all, their absolute refusal to allow the Catholic Faith in its fullness to be taught in their schools.
Considering such a sad catalogue of rebellion, is it any wonder that we find ourselves asking if they are wolves in shepherds' clothing ?
And the consequences are...
Inevitably such serious betrayal by our leaders is bound to have consequences for their flocks. Statistics show just how far-reaching and various these consequences are. There is not space here to cover them all, so we will mention just two which cause major concern.
One is that dissent within the Church is allowed to continue uncorrected, even when it will cause scandal, confusion and serious sin. No matter how damaging dissent within the Church is now, no bishop anywhere will bother to correct it.
For instance, on January 15th 2006 The Catholic Times published a report that Father Kevin Kelly, a priest of Liverpool Archdiocese, had written an article teaching that it is no longer a sin for couples to live together as man and wife without being married. Although we and others have written to the Most Reverend Patrick Kelly, Archbishop of Liverpool, neither he nor His Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio has corrected this false teaching publicly. This means that our poorly-instructed young people will go badly astray and good priests, parents and teachers will be unable to guide them correctly.
When we obtained the text of Fr Kelly's article we found that he considered living in sin could even be an "occasion of grace". He obtained his authority for this revolutionary idea from the writings of two Protestants and his own feelings! So much for the natural law, and the universally consistent teaching of the Church for two thousand years.
Then again, a Redemptorist priest, Father Tony Flannery (59) has written a book demanding that General Absolution be given to everyone twice a year because people no longer go to Confession as they did for so many centuries. The revealing title of his book is: Keeping the Faith-Church of Rome or Church of Christ?
And here is another instance of blatant poison being fed to their sheep without any hindrance from our shepherds. The leaflet which accompanies the Miraculous Medal once quoted 17 words from the Papal definition, Ineffabilis Deus, explaining what Our Lady's Immaculate Conception means. Now, the leaflet merely states that it means: "she was full of all the graces that are especially a woman's-graciousness, refinement, warmth, sympathy and understanding and generosity..." We are sure she is, but the point Our Lady was making, repeated later to St Bernadette, was that she is unique in being immaculately conceived and no-one has the right to deny this, even implicitly.
It seems that no matter how damaging dissent within the Church is now, no bishop anywhere will bother to correct it, which leaves well-intentioned but poorly instructed Catholics confused and divided. If we allow this situation to continue, the Catholic Church will eventually be split into 30,000 factions all believing and behaving differently, just as Protestant bodies do today.
False catechetics
The other particularly tragic instance is that the bishops' gross dereliction of duty over the religious instruction in Catholic schools has produced such an unprecedented scarcity of priestly vocations. Youngsters who are taught a vague set of ideas, instead of the revealed truths of the Faith, will not be inspired or even equipped to live Catholic lives, let alone become priests. The bishops are reaping the famine they themselves caused, from the late 1960s onwards, by consistently enforcing false catechetics on their schools.
Every diocese is now planning for 2010 when we will have far fewer priests and many that we do have will be elderly. The diocese of Arundel and Brighton is probably fairly typical. Fifty years ago, when it was part of Southwark archdiocese, it was served by 836 priests and their numbers were then steadily rising, reaching a peak in the mid 1960s. It is predicted that, by 2010, the Arundel and Brighton diocese will be reduced from 112 priests to 92, many of whom will be elderly. The response to this is "clustering" of parishes.
But other dioceses are even worse off. Bishop Crowley has announced that in Middlesbrough diocese he is closing two-thirds of his present parishes and drastically reducing the number of Masses offered. Perhaps the most disturbing instance is the Archdiocese of Liverpool. It was here that "modern catechetics" was first fully implemented under Father Anthony Bullen and it is here that the crisis in priestly vocations and corresponding "cuts" are most drastic. The plan is to divide Liverpool up into "pastoral centres"-each with four priests and 20,000 Catholics. As one worried priest confided to us, this will mean a funeral every day and, with the travelling involved, not much time for anything else.
Unless firm action is taken now, every other diocese will follow Liverpool down this road to extinction, but there is a solution. A very simple solution...
Our bishops could bring Catholic priests from Eastern Europe, Africa or Asia who would stay for a while before being replaced by others. Alternatively, they could use English-speaking priests from the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, or the Institute of Christ the King, as America has done. Sadly, however, our bishops have steadfastly refused to do either.
Unbelievably, our Shepherds would rather deprive their flocks of the Holy Mass and the Sacraments than make use of good Catholic priests who are anxious and ready to help. They must be made to see that without these priests the outlook for us, our children and our grandchildren is very bleak. Our only hope is that Rome will intervene and insist that such priests are brought in. But Rome will intervene only if we all implore their help. It is the duty and responsibility of each and every one of us to do so-without delay!
Let us be under no illusion about the outcome if we fail to act now!
With acknowledgements and thanks to The Flock, newsletter of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.
Book Reviews
AN INSULAR LOOK AT IRISH CATHOLICISM
By By PEADAR LAIGHLEIS
IRISH AND CATHOLIC? Towards an understanding of identity. Edited by Louise Fuller, John Littleton and Eamon Maher. The Columba Press, Dublin, 2006. 256pp. (No price given)
A CAMEL could be a horse designed by a com
mittee. One would think that 16 academics and commentators might do better on the topic of Irish Catholic identity.
The phrase "Irish Catholic" rolls off the tongue easily, but neither word necessarily follows from the other. As the universal faith, Catholicism does not mix with any particular ethnicity. It is the very contrary of what Judaism is to the Jews or the Armenian Apostolic Church is to Armenians. Nevertheless, Catholicism has left its mark on a great many nations, regions and peoples globally-of which Ireland is one.
This is why I find the book very puzzling. Why is France the only other model of a Catholic nation/culture with which Ireland is compared? It is probably true that most Irish Catholics, if asked to name a number of Catholic countries, would mention France, Spain, Portugal, Italy or Poland. Though Ireland has much in common with each of these, they are not the best comparisons. Four have long histories as sovereign Catholic states, whose Catholic communities have had to learn to live with major anti-Catholic influence since the 19th century. The fifth was so big that none of its occupiers tried to impose another faith upon it and its 45 years of Communist persecution did not come near what its neighbours suffered.
Netherlands and Quebec
The better models are less obvious. For example, the Netherlands. The Dutch Church was a minority that withstood centuries of persecution, to be one of the most religious societies in Europe in the 1940s, producing more missionaries in absolute terms than any other country. The Dutch Church collapsed in the 1960s. Outside Europe, Quebec was a similar example-an oasis of Catholicism in North America until the "Quiet Revolution" of the 1960s. This saw Quebec go from being one of the most Catholic cultures on earth to one of the most secular.
Where is the contrast? Irish Catholicism, like Dutch and Quebecois Catholicism, is a case of a persecuted people who collectively and successfully resist that persecution. But the resistance is based on strong community effort-and when the people collectively fail, that is it. It will be very interesting, maybe terrifying, to see how Lithuania copes with western secularisation. Further removed are Bavaria and Slovakia, where Catholicism was a strong regional badge of identity in the face of oppression (Prussia and the Czech lands respectively), but this was not sustained for such a long time in either case.
That is personal opinion-the contributors don't deal in such analysis. So their response to the particular crisis in Irish Catholicism, or the relationship between Ireland or the Irish and Catholicism is made in isolation. Ireland is not even properly defined. It appears to me that most contributors use it to mean the territory of the independent Irish state, ignoring the Catholics in the North, for whom identity as Irish Catholics is a lot more important than south of the border.
Mother and Child Scheme
In respect of the Catholics in the South, there are many question marks. I would ask the next commentator who refers to the Mother and Child Scheme two questions:
Why was this piece of legislation passed without substantial amendment in the administration immediately following the First Inter-party Government? (Yes, I mean the Fianna Fail administration led by Eamon de Valera).
Why do commentators, particularly liberal churchmen, never mention that NoÎl Browne had a theological advisor-Rev. Professor P. Francis Cremin?
I could add more. For example, one of the reasons de Valera lost power in 1948 was the manner in which Fianna Fail handled the striking National teachers. This group normally supported Fianna Fail. In the course of the dispute, the government ignored entreaties by John Charles McQuaid.
Similarly, the 1937 Bunreacht na hEireann is presented as an unequivocally Catholic document. It is nothing of the sort. Essentially, it is the application of the Anglo-American constitutional tradition to Ireland. It does contain some very theological-sounding language in its human rights clauses. But there are secular schools of natural law which use similar language. The American Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, all of which had a huge influence on de Valera's republican movement, often used the same sort of language.
Landmark Supreme Court cases draw on American precedents in constitutional cases-not on Apostolic Signatura judgements. Right now, the United States Supreme Court, with its Catholic majority, probably takes more from Thomism and the Irish Supreme Court probably looks more to the Enlightenment. The Constitution in each country is what their respective Supreme Court says it is. I offer this as a criticism of the view that the constitution is ipso facto a Catholic document.
Example to other countries
The Constitution is a document in which we ought to take a great deal of pride. It is the oldest constitution in use in any state in which the human rights articles are part of the original document. In 1949, Adenauer looked to the Irish Constitution as one of the models for the German Federal Constitution. At roughly the same time, Nehru used it as an important model for the Constitution of India. Somehow, I think this needs to be pointed out.
If the contributors do not see the constitution in context, neither do they see other facets of Irish and/or Catholic life in context. More than a few contributors refer to the problems of sexual and physical abuse by priests and religious. I deny neither that this is a major problem nor that the response of dioceses and religious congregations has been inadequate to say the least.
However, if one were to do a vox pop on the streets of major Irish cities, I would bet that many people perceive paedophilia as exclusively a problem of Catholic clergy and religious. In fact the rate of offence is pretty consistent across all religious denominations, and offence by clergy (including rabbis, imams, bonzes etc.) is but a small percentage of the total. This is something opinion makers should point out.
I suppose the most fatuous remark in the book comes from Dr Colum Kenny:
It is my belief that there is little evidence that the media in general was ever hostile to the Catholic Church in Ireland... (p.98)
I cannot accept this-though I would agree with Dr Kenny's thesis that the media cannot be primarily blamed for the current crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland. When Mrs Margaret Heckler was stepping down as United States ambassador to Ireland in January 1989, she singled out the manner in which the Irish media dealt with the Church for special mention. Others have repeated this: Damien Kiberd, former editor of The Sunday Business Post; and Dr Desmond Fennell come to mind. Father Brian McKevitt, OP has concerned himself with this problem for more than 20 years.
There were two Opinion pieces in The Irish Times about the Drogheda Mass by another contributor to this book, Patsy McGarry-one after the Mass and then again after the apology. This sort of partisan approach is seen across the whole media. Views of people like David Quinn are the exception which proves the rule. Mr McGarry's own contribution essentially makes the point that the Catholic Church was nice and liberal until the Famine, but that then it became overly prudish and controlling.
Political correctness
What academics do to appear sophisticated is too predictable. So when Eugene O'Brien deals with Father Ted and deconstruction, he seems to derive pleasure in repeating a four-letter word. The comedy was discussed in this Review by Joe McCarroll, who pointed out it was little more than a rehash of the drunken Irishman and the idiotic Irishmen, but that they put on clerical collars to make it more politically correct.
There is nothing new about satirising clergy. Even Dermot Morgan had an earlier clerical persona, Father Brian Trendy. Some of us remember the insufferable Leave it to Mrs O'Brien, in which the central character was a priest's housekeeper. The parish priest there was played by Pat Daly, who himself featured in Hall's Pictorial Weekly as Canon Romulus O'Dowd.
Long before the advent of electronic media, priests featured in jokes and folktales. Not all were complimentary and some even had teeth. But the extent to which these academics would rely on folklorists and/or anthropologists to demonstrate the evolution of Father Ted... I would have thought deconstructionists would have an interest in this.
In relation to literary criticism, what the contributors are determined to see in a selection of second-rate writers, I am not sure. It is true that good points are made by three of the analysed writers-John Broderick is noted as having hated the new Mass; Brian Moore wrote a novel, Catholics, about a monastery off the south-west coast continuing to use the old Mass, but the novel is a vehicle to express the disappointment of Ireland's Massgoers at the liturgical changes. This would be a very interesting point to examine: in particular why, in spite of much discontent, no formal traditional movement emerged in Ireland until much later.
Patsy McGarry makes a very fair point, which needs development, that the changes initiated by the Second Vatican Council shook the older generations' faith. They continued to practice out of cultural habit, but the younger people detected the shock. I believe this was true, and I am waiting for some analysis of the monies spent on re-ordering churches in the face of widespread objection-in spite of the fact that the Second Vatican Council provided no mandate for such changes. I think this, rather than HumanÊ VitÊ, ate into religious practice. It is true that reaction to HumanÊ VitÊ kicked in later, but not immediately.
This brings me to a third author in the survey-Dermot Bolger. There is no doubt that Dermot Bolger is a liberal who broadly accepts the sexual revolution as a good thing. But he also loves to shock. In his earlier writings, he attacked Catholic icons. Now, he uses religion to make his secular audiences uncomfortable. But he does raise questions about the present direction of Irish society. The only other contributor who raises this question is Father Patrick Claffey, SVD. Father Claffey gives a reminiscence of his formative years in Co. Roscommon prior to joining the Divine Word Missionaries and leaving Ireland, and then his experience on return. Father Claffey gives no nostalgic account of the past, but does give a critical view of the present.
Missed opportunities
This book is filled with missed opportunities. It is easy, and even popular, to dismiss the past. It is a lot more important to criticise the present. The contributors fail to do this. They fail to address the question of Catholic identity in general and the world-wide crisis of identity among Latin-rite Catholics. This is because they approach Irish Catholicism in isolation.
Though it is true that the concept of Irish identity which was popular between independence and the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict was very narrow or even flawed, the contributors fail to criticise the absence of a common view of Irish identity ever since, or how patriotism devolved into following the triumphs (or otherwise) of international sports contestants.
Northern Ireland need not exist for all the attention it gets in this volume. And if you thought the book was directed at an educated readership, Father John Littleton gives a translation of all the Latin terms he quotes in his article.
One of the contributors adapts a line from Frank McGuinness's play Innocence, about the artist Caravaggio: "I have looked on God and found him lacking." To paraphrase both, I read the book...and found it lacking.
CLEARING THE MEDJUGORJE MINEFIELD
By NICK LOWRY
Many religious and people in the world have made progress in the spiritual life without much prayer, but without obedience they have never made a single step.
-St Francis de Sales
He who follows his own ideas in opposition to the direction of his superiors needs no devil to tempt him for he is a devil to himself.
-St Joseph Climacus
God is never the cause of things that are useless, futile, frivolous or impertinent. When His Spirit moves a soul it is always for something serious and beneficial.
-Fr Jordan Aumann OP, Spiritual Theology
UNDERSTANDING MEDJUGORJE: Heavenly Visions or Religious Illusion?
Donal Anthony Foley. Theotokos Books, Nottingham, England. 310pp. Price EUR22.95, £14.95 or $22.95. ISBN 0955074606.
AS Professor Arpad Szakolczai of the Sociology
Department in University College, Cork says in his preface to this book: "Whether one agrees or not with the conclusions of Donal Foley, one thing cannot be doubted: this book is the product of a serious, genuine search for the truth." I would challenge any fair-minded proponent of Medjugorje to disagree.
Foley's previous work, Marian Apparitions and the Modern World (Gracewing, 2002) examined the major Marian apparitions of the past five centuries, showing how each apparition is connected with the scriptural types of Mary found in the Bible. This earlier book-as Fr Aidan Nichols OP pointed out in the foreword-avoided the opposing extremes of scepticism and credulity. Foley is well qualified to enter the Medjugorje minefield. He is no lightweight, having degrees in Humanities and Theology, and his work has appeared in the orthodox American publication The Homiletic and Pastoral Review.
The most notable aspect of Foley's work is the gentle tone he maintains throughout. Without fudging or playing down manifest absurdities, he never puts the boot in, as Michael Davies and E. Michael Jones were inclined to do in their respective accounts of the alleged apparitions. Understanding Medjugorje is all the more devastating for his charitable forbearance.
Probably the worst thing about Medjugorje, believes Foley, is the way it has obscured the message of Fatima, which is still absolutely crucial for our times. "It [Fatima] represents an unprecedented intervention on the part of the Blessed Virgin in order to bring back to Christ a world which is increasingly denying and rejecting the Gospel of eternal salvation..."
As Foley pointed out in his earlier work, the devotion to Mary proposed at Fatima is both a guarantee of individual salvation and a necessity for the world if there is to be true peace. The main problem with Medjugorje is that it is diverting the faithful away from Fatima, and risking their estrangement from the true life of the Church.
Chequered history
Foley begins by setting the historical background of Medjugorje. I had never fully appreciated just what a cocktail of powerful competing forces went to make up present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina-the point at which Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam collided. Here is the briefest possible summary: first you had the Bogomils, the curious medieval heretics (allied to the Cathars of southern France) whose religion was mixed with a form of paganism which survived at least until the 1920s; then the Franciscans who made many converts in the area; then the Ottoman Turks, who at first persecuted the Church with great cruelty but after numerous rebellions eventually allowed the Franciscans to remain with their people, for the sake of peace. The Turks were expelled in the 19th century. After World War I the victorious allies invented Yugoslavia, of which Bosnia-Herzegovina was a part. Around Medjugorje the Serbs who dominated Yugoslavia stole land from the Croats, which led to a series of massacres, carried out with unbelievable savagery by both sides. These only ended in the late 1940s with the imposition of Communism under the dictator Marshal Tito. Communism, here as everywhere, brought its own moral and intellectual degradation.
In the 1920s the Franciscans, who had heroically stayed with their people during the centuries-long Turkish occupation, refused to hand over their parishes to the local Ordinary, even when ordered by Rome. They were still in a state of active disobedience by the time the visions began in the early 1980s. The revolt culminated in 1995 with a physical attack on the local Ordinary, Bishop Ratko Peric by a mob sympathetic to the Franciscans.
So, as Foley says, this is not a normal Catholic culture, "but one with a strange and chequered history, comprising heretical sects, pagan religion, seemingly endless violence, and a long-running dispute between the official Church and the Franciscans".
In his third chapter, Foley tackles the question whether the visions are genuine or not. Most testimonies are based on interviews which took place about 18 months after the first alleged visits of the Blessed Virgin, when memories could well be at fault. He goes to the little-known primary source material, taped during the first few days of the apparitions. As he points out, they are a severe embarrassment to proponents of Medjugorje; it emerges that the apparitions, which have now been going on for a quarter of a century, were supposed to end after three more days-on July 3rd, 1981.
So what did happen? Foley believes the visionaries certainly saw something on that bleak hillside outside Medjugorje-at least in the earliest days-but not the Blessed Virgin. The whole thing is so bizarre, indeed "tacky", that one would have to agree that it cannot have been Our Lady. First, there is evidence that some of the visionaries may have been on drugs. They had certainly been smoking. The testimonies of Ivan Dragicevic and Vicka Ivancovic are particularly strange. Ivan said the hands of the vision were "trembling", while Vicka reported: "We kept touching her and kissing her, and she kept laughing." But at that stage she didn't speak. As Foley says:
None of this accords with the supreme, calm presence of the Blessed Virgin, speaking words of reassurance to those who have been favoured with her presence, that one finds in her recently recognised apparitions. But conversely, it does seem that some people did see strange lights, and so we do not appear to be dealing with hallucinations. It appeared that something was happening up there on Podbrdo, but the exact nature of that "something" had still to be determined.
It is interesting, too, that the "Gospa" gradually appeared in an indistinct form out of a cloud or mist. That is not a mark of genuine Marian visions, but is one of the main characteristics of false or suspect visions-such as those which followed the genuine apparitions at Lourdes.
Diabolical origin?
He then asks the disturbing question: whether what the visionaries saw in the early days was in fact of diabolical origin? The strange phenomena, untypical of Marian apparitions would point to this possibility in the early days, but Foley believes the later ecstasies, which took place in the church, were more likely self-induced trances. There is also a very strong possibility that the later manifestations have been to a large extent stage-managed by the Franciscans.
As news of the visions spread, pilgrims began flocking to Medjugorje, and the seers would spend quite a lot of time laying hands on them or "blessing" pious objects for them. What a contrast to Fatima, where young Francisco told an old woman: "I could not give a blessing....Only priests do that." It appears, in fact that a mixture of magic and Christian rituals has grown up around the Medjugorje visionaries, who are being treated by some as pseudo-priests or folk doctors with special powers. Foley points out that for generations people in Medjugorje have been living in a primitive spiritual universe, believing in a "middle field" between good and evil which could be influenced by occult practices.
Dottiness and banality
Perhaps the most telling evidence against the authenticity of Medjugorje is the sheer dottiness of some of the things Our Lady is alleged to have said (leaving aside the utter banality of the daily messages). For instance, there is the so-called, "bloody handkerchief" incident, written by Vicka in her diary. This concerned a meeting between a "driver" and a man covered in blood-apparently Our Lord Himself-who ordered that a handkerchief soaked in blood should be thrown into a river:
This driver then met Mary who asked for the handkerchief, although he was apparently reluctant to hand it over. Then the Blessed Virgin reportedly said, "If you had not given it to me that would have been the end of the world. Vicka stated categorically that: "The Gospa said that was the truth."
To swallow anything like that you would need not simple faith, but the digestion of an ostrich. One does not need to consult theological experts in order to discern nonsense. In these interminable messages, the "Gospa" repeatedly signs off by saying: "Thank you for having responded to my call." As Foley notes, this suggests that people are conferring a favour on Our Lady. It is without precedent in any approved apparitions. Sometimes the encounters with the "Gospa " descend to the level of farce. In the early 1980s one of the visionaries, Jakov, asked her how his favourite football team had fared in a match-causing the others to burst out laughing.
Yet in spite of all the difficulties-involving both the seers themselves and the Franciscans most involved with them-from the publicity surrounding Medjugorje you would think it was all perfectly acceptable in a religious sense.
Foley devotes a chapter to the propaganda offensive mounted by numerous clerics, most notably by the renowned mariologist Fr RenE Laurentin, without whose backing Medjugorje would never have attained such an important role in the Church. He believes Fr Laurentin became so personally entangled in Medjugorje that he lost the ability to discern the visions in an objective and impartial manner. The writings of Fr Robert Faricy SJ and the Irish Holy Ghost Father Michael O'Carroll also helped considerably to promote the apparitions-in the teeth of opposition from the local Ordinaries Bishops Zanic and Peric-and indeed from the entire Yugoslav hierarchy save one.
There has even been a smear campaign against Bishop Zanic, who was falsely accused in the film Gospa, starring Martin Sheen, of being a Communist collaborator. Foley asks the pertinent question: "Would the supporters of a genuine apparition of Mary have resorted to such methods?" As he says, it appears that some Medjugorje supporters are determined to force their subjective views on the whole Catholic world, without respecting the authority of the Church to decide such matters.
Bishops' ruling rejected
The complicated tale of the various episcopal commissions looking into the phenomena over the years is also dealt with. Medjugorje supporters refused to accept the bishops' conclusion, non constat de supernaturalitate-that is, there is no direct evidence of the supernatural, as closing the matter. Foley says that in theory, the formula could allow for further developments; but surely not when one had already dealt with three thousand alleged visions over 10 years? How many more, and how much longer might be required?
It is also quite untrue, as some have claimed, that the Vatican has deprived the present Bishop of Mostar, Ratko Peric of jurisdiction over matters connected with Medjugorje. One correspondent even assured me that Bishop Peric had been treated to a "diplomatic squelch".
Foley acknowledges that there have been some good fruits from Medjugorje (for instance, the tens of thousands of Confessions) but insists that these cannot be used-as they so frequently are-as the sole criteria for assessing the truth of the visions. There have been so many bad fruits. Evidence of miraculous healings is examined and found wanting. The activities of some of the Franciscans involved in Medjugorje have been sadly disedifying. (Foley does not go into the details of the worst of these.) In the early 1990s, when pilgrims were absent because of the Yugoslav civil war, there was a horrific outbreak of inter-clan violence. If Our Lady had been truly appearing there, could this have happened?
Why has Medjugorje been such a runaway success? Apart from the propaganda offensive of influential theologians referred to above, Foley points to two other crucial factors:
The Church in the West has still not recovered from the aftermath of the cultural revolution which, in the wake of Vatican II, threatened to overwhelm it. Catechesis has largely collapsed, and the result has been large numbers of ill-informed Catholics, who have turned out to be easy prey for those promoting suspect visions. Similarly, the loss of a sense of the sacred which followed the changes in the liturgy has left many Catholics looking for spiritual solace elsewhere.
Foley covers in some detail the attitude of Rome to the phenomena. The maxim salus animarum suprema lex-the salvation of souls is the highest law-comes into play, and that is why the Church has proceeded with such caution. It has after all to deal with the pastoral needs of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims going to Medjugorje in good faith.
He believes Pope John Paul-and now Pope Benedict-found themselves in a position very like that outlined by Our Lord in the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13: 24-30) The landowner would not grub up the weeds because this might mean pulling out the wheat as well:
The point of the parable is that in the beginning, when both the weeds and wheat sprout, they are very difficult to distinguish. In the same way, at the beginning, many of the signs associated with Medjugorje seemed good. Thus it had to be given time to develop. But having been given that time, it is now clear that the weeds are largely just that, weeds. They have grown up and are threatening to overwhelm the good seed, that is, the message of Fatima. Unfortunately Medjugorje is proving to be a long-lasting plant, and it does not look as though it will wither away by itself; rather, some negative declaration coming from the highest levels of the Church will be necessary. But the "harvest" is surely approaching, the time when Medjugorje will have to be uprooted from the Church, regardless of the difficulties this will involve.
And difficulties there will certainly be. He agrees with Michael Davies, who wrote in Medjugorje After 15 Years that the longer the announcement-which must inevitably come-is delayed, the greater the number of devotees and the greater their disappointment. Davies thought that many souls will be lost to the Church, as they prefer the authority of the spurious messages to the authority of the Magisterium.
The only rational conclusion about Medjugorje, Foley believes, is that it has indeed turned out to be a vast, if captivating, religious illusion. I know this judgement will cause an outcry, but I am not reopening a correspondence on the subject.
In some ways Donal Foley is a David to the Goliath of the lucrative Medjugorje industry. Week after week in the Irish and British Catholic press, Medjugorje generates considerable revenue in the form of travel ads for pilgrimages, often accompanied by favourable articles. Recently the Irish Catholic even carried an advertising feature for apartments in Medjugorje. It has been extremely difficult to obtain a hearing for the other side-though thanks partly to Understanding Medjugorje, that may be beginning to change. There have been several favourable reviews.
I would not recommend that you beg, steal or borrow Understanding Medjugorje: I would suggest that you buy it! You won't find it on the shelves of Veritas or Cathedral Books, although they would probably order it for you. It may be obtained from Theotokos Books at PO Box 8570, Nottingham NG10 9AB, England. For those in Ireland the best way to pay-unless you use a credit card-is by a sterling draft to the equivalent of EUR25.95, which includes postage and handling. Further details on the Theotokos Books website: www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/books/medjbook/medjbook.html
As I know from setting up Brandsma Books Ltd., it is far from easy to establish a publishing firm dedicated to promoting undiluted Catholicism. Theotokos Books has gone about marketing Understanding Medjugorje in a thoroughly professional way, which is sensible but expensive. If you can spare a few extra Euros with each copy you buy, I am sure Donal Foley would be most grateful.
FATHER STANDUN'S OBSESSION
By SEAN O hEANACHAIN
SOBAL SAOL. By Padraig Standun. Clo Iar-Chonnachta. 224pp. Price EUR12.00
IN this novel we see more of the constant occupation of Padraig Standun with sexual mores. This time we are dealing with a separated couple in the Gaeltacht.
Mairtin Mac Cormaic, a writer for a soap opera, is constantly under pressure to find new themes for Beal an Chuain; if he fails he will lose his job. Justine, his separated wife also features. The only thing they agree on is their love for their son Cian.
The contemporary life of the Gaeltacht is contrasted with the lifestyle in times gone by, now on its last legs. We see further evidence of Standun's obsession with the sexual theme in the description of both Mairtin-who has a one-night stand with Sinead after a night's binge drinking-and Justine's weekend trip to Cork with James Mc Gill. To say the least this recurring theme is not edifying. It is ironic that it should come from a celibate male priest who should uphold the teaching of the Church.
The pub is used as a social instrument to give a glimpse into the lives of the characters. These are not developed, however, and function solely to perpetuate the main theme of the novel. Mairtin manages to pick up some themes for the soap opera by buying a senile old man some drink.
The teaching of the Church is challenged, with Mairtin's mother Brid committing suicide because of her fear of ending up in a nursing home. So the current lifestyle in the Gaeltacht is contrasted with the old-fashioned values now only left among the old people-and even this ebbs away with Brid's suicide.
The whole work is another variation of the writer's usual tune.
TALK OF THE DEVIL-AND SAINT MICHAEL
By PASTOR EMERITUS
THE church was packed for the Easter Vigil of
2006. I felt privileged indeed to be one of the concelebrants up on the sanctuary. I had a full view of the huge congregation, a sight to lift the heart in these dangerous times.
The chief celebrant invited us to renew our baptismal promises. He began: "Do you renounce Satan?" A thunderous "I do" rang out. And at that moment I had a distraction. Perhaps he had skipped the first question that should have been asked at "this moment in time" to use a saying common today. For there is a valid question for our time: Do you believe that a personal Satan exists as a threat to your faith and salvation?
Recently the future Bishop of Ferns was asked to explain why it was that that diocese had most of the problems related to clerical sex abuse. He said that they were working on that question but had yet to find an answer. I wonder if he had thought to himself: "If I say 'it is the work of Satan' I will be thought a fool by the media, or seen to be avoiding my responsibilities".
But surely a bishop's prime responsibility lies in his efforts to bring his people to an awareness that:
We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6: 12, RSV).
In other words, Satan and his minions.
A rallying point
The congregation at the vigil may well have thought, when asked by the celebrant to reject Satan: "Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? He's a priest, and has to read that out. But he knows, as we do, that 'in this day and age' talk of the devil is out of date. Psychology has done away with all that weird scary stuff. But we know what he means; probably gang warfare and that kind of thing, because it is socially divisive."
God help us. At this time Satan has succeeded in finding a means by which to divide priests from their bishops (read the March issue of The Furrow) and alienate thousands of members of the Church from their priests-and from the Church itself-and yet escapes without being charged with that infamy.
Should he be so charged, it would prove to be a rallying point for all the members of the Church, binding bishops, priests and people as one in their opposition to Satan, re-establishing the priority of the spiritual over the legal and the psychological approaches to the crisis.
One way to do that would be to replace the platitude at the end of Mass, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord", with the prayer of gratitude to God, "The Mass is ended" (Ite Missa est); "Thanks be to God" (Deo gratias), and then to have the prayer to St Michael recited.
That would send the priest and people out into the world to face the trials and tribulations of life, knowing that they will never be on their own in the battle against the evil one. Satan has the Church and its priesthood in his sights as from a submarine's periscope. But St Michael charges him with depth and precision when we ask him to do so.
St Michael, the archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust down to hell Satan and all the wicked spirits that wander through the world for the ruin of souls.
PRAYERS AT THE FOOT OF THE ALTAR - REORDERED
Anonymous: translated from the demotic Californian by Sr. Marie-Eugenie de l'Assomption, SL.
I come to the coffee-table of the Lord
To God who giveth joy to my youth.
Ploughs are tacky, but I love a beaten sword;
So strum the harp, and pour the sweet
Vermouth!
Let us rise, uproot our oaken pews,
And cast them in the Lake of Innisfree:
Then build (in deference to a younger Muse)
Unstructured space for worship/ministry.
O hang the walls with bead-work from
Malaya,
Beneath my feet a lilac carpet lay.
Lava me a romanitate mea
Et a machismo meo munda me!
Put thou a watch before my lips, O Lord,
A Rolex by the gatehouse of my mouth,
That we might hymn (in liberal accord)
The macro-economics of the South.
Incline thy ear to this my tongue's oblation;
Spurn not inclusive liturgy resources;
For I sing a song of human maturation
In words our campus Worship Team endorses.
A polyester ephod weave for me
To grace thy courts on ferials and festals.
And might we laud thy Domesticity
With earthenware, and more-than-earthen Vestals.
Deliver us from Krakows and from Galways
-Benighted ghettos blind to their mistake;
Enlightened minds cry, "Give us this bread,
always,
And let the peasants starve, for pitta's sake!"
STRAWS FOR THE CAMEL'S BACK
By STRAMENTARIUS
Facilitation and the Irish Times
In the Irish Times recently, Kate Holmquist issued a solemn warning against telling schoolchildren what to think. In the course of a rave review of The War for Children's Minds by Stephen Law of Heythrop College (now, where have I heard of that place before?) she says:
...[T]he danger of turning our backs on liberalism and returning to the black-and-white era before TV, the Pill and Women's Lib is that it could lead us straight back to the kinds of society dominated by Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler.
Leaving aside the fact that liberals bear much of the responsibility for the rise of such monsters, the idea that these pedagogical facilitators don't try to persuade children what to think is a complete cod. Of course they do. They just want to indoctrinate the children with their own ideas, rather than those of parents or churches.
In these oh-so-open class-room debates, what do you think happens if a little smart-Alec convinces a majority of his class-mates that capital punishment may sometimes be a good thing? Or perhaps that large-scale immigration is, on balance, not such a good idea? Teacher will, of course, step in and straighten the young minds out. Just as he used to do in the bad old days of the penny catechism, when heterodox ideas emerged. Now, as then, some ideas are "acceptable" and others are not. In those days, no one pretended otherwise. Nowadays, while Political Correctness is de rigueur, one has to pretend that freedom of opinion prevails in our schools. It's all done with considerable subtlety, as described in the first chapters of The Facilitators (Brandsma Books, 1986) .
Of course, if a reasonably intelligent teenager is given to understand that his own opinions must be paramount, he will conclude that in the realm of ideas there is no such thing as demonstrable, objective truth-and that will quickly turn him into an agnostic. Perhaps that's what these facilitators really want.
In a side-bar to her review, Ms Holmquist interviews three different people, all of whom broadly share her own progressive outlook. One of these, Barbara Johnston, delivers this gem: "I think that schools should have a religious ethos, even though I'm a pagan. It's not the particular ethos that's important, it's the fact that there is one." Ms Johnston, we are told, is public relations officer of the Catholic Secondary School Parents' Association.
Well, my Lord Bishop, what do you think about that?
Incidentally, I have just carried out a most informative Google search for Heythrop College and for Stephen Law. Heythrop is a former Jesuit institution, now a constituent college of London University. It still has a fairly strong Jesuit presence (which I do not find at all reassuring). Law, a former postman, has written a rather clever but quite blasphemous apologia for buggery, entitled What's Wrong with Gay Sex? I wouldn't like him anywhere near my children's minds.
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Poking Fun at PCness
This PC business has now gone so far that it's impossible to tell from the titles of many organisations what they are actually for. For example, you probably know that Accord used to be the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council, and Crosscare was formerly called the Catholic Social Service Conference. The titles were changed presumably because these outfits are ashamed of being Catholic. But did you know that Inclusion Ireland used to be the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland; that Enable Ireland is for cerebral palsy; GROW is for those with mental health problems; and Footprints is for Down's Syndrome?
I am sure there are many more. Of course, it's intended to spare people's feelings-but it's totally confusing all the same.
A very forthright Protestant friend-whom I shall call Hazel-absolutely refuses to play along with the new respectability and emphasis on feelings. Shortly before she had to leave her little house and go into care, I found her sitting in a chair in the butcher's shop with blood pouring from a cut head, after a nasty fall brought on by a dizzy spell. A lifelong abstainer, she remarked: "I shall really have to take more water with it, won't I?"
Last time I met her was in the company of a minder. "Hello," said Hazel in loud jolly hockey-sticks tones, "they've put me into a lunatic asylum, you know." The minder tut-tutted, and pointed out that it was a home for senior citizens. Ignoring her, Hazel added: "Of course, I'm the battiest of the lot of them!"
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'Othercotting' Da Vinci Code
Several people have asked if the Brandsma is going to review The Da Vinci Code. What would be the point? Any generation of Irish Catholics in the past 200 years, with the exception of the present one, would have been well-instructed enough, and had a strong enough faith, to laugh the thing out of court. So why are so many Catholics taking it seriously? Ask our bishops.
The American film critic Barbara Nicolosi had the right attitude, I think. She said don't boycott it, but don't go and see it either. Instead, people should "othercott" it.:
On DVC's opening weekend-May 19-21-you should go to the movies. Just go to another movie. That's your way of casting your vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend. The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the Dream Works animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let's all go see it.
As for The Da Vinci Code, don't go see this stupid movie. Don't pay money to have the insidious lies of the enemy introduced into your heart and mind.
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Plagiarising Protocols
A friend sent me this fantasy, which I think is no more far-fetched than DVC:
The entire world eagerly awaits the opening of Ron Howard's new movie, Zion's Elders' Protocols, based on the best-selling book of the same name by author Dan Brown. The book is a thriller that claims a global Jewish conspiracy is attempting to take control of the world.
The book and movie are not without controversy, however. A recent lawsuit by the Russian heirs of the writer of the book, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, claimed that Brown stole his idea for his bestseller from this 19th century work. "Poppycock," said Brown, "can anyone name one person who has actually sat down and read this tedious piece of trash? [Brown was presumably referring to the earlier work-ed.]. My novel, while admittedly sharing some basic ideas, is quite different in presentation and was in no way influenced by anything other than my own amazing writing style and copious research."
But plagiarism charges are not the only problems Protocols has faced. Many Jewish organizations are claiming that Brown's work is anti-Semitic. "To claim that the world's economy is controlled by a Jewish cabal, well, if that isn't anti-Semitism, I don't know what is," said Chaim Schwartz of the Anti-Defamation League. But Brown is unrepentant. "Hey, it's only fiction, so all these people getting bent out of shape should just lighten up."
Brown notes, however, that while his work is fiction, "90 per cent of it" is based on fact. "I think that if people really knew about the history of Judaism, they would be in for a lot of surprises," Brown said, quickly adding, as he winked his eye and nudged the interviewer, that nothing in his book should be construed as being offensive to anyone ever at any place or any time.
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Father Gerry Pigs Out
If you've been reading the Brandsma for the past 10 years you may recall an editorial entitled "Willie Walsh's Chocolate Factory" in our Issue 25. In this we criticised the Bishop of Killaloe for an article in The Furrow in which he said the Church should show a show a more "loving face...to people who find themselves in conflict with rules and regulations-people in second unions, people who feel unable to accept our teaching with regard to family planning, those whose sexual orientation does not conform with what we believe to be 'normal'".
We expressed the view that while Bishop Walsh fairly bubbled with the full cream milk of human kindness, his article contained hidden dangers and contained little proper nourishment for the spiritually starving.
Now Fr Gerry Moloney, the hip Redemptorist with the cool jeans and the charity wristband who edits the teenage magazine Face Up confesses to "a weekness [sic] for chocolate and chips"-though not, mercifully, together. Father says:
My taste in chocolate changes all the time. I used to pig out on kit-kats, then it was flakes. Now I love dairy milk. There are few things nicer than the taste of a square of dairy milk melting on your tongue.
That is by way of introduction to a feature on "eating disorders". I don't think any youngster struggling to overcome the vice of gluttony would find it particularly helpful. Not so long ago, any Redemptorist missioner would have advised fasting, other methods of self-discipline, and frequent reception of the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.
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Caliphs' Cover-up?
Curiously, the British Spectator came up with another fantasy, this time involving Islam. The history of Christianity has been bloody enough as it is, says the Spectator : imagine what it would have been like if Christ had really had children:
Actually, you don't need to imagine it-you can simply study the history of Islam. Because Mohammed had many wives and many children (though no surviving son), there was, almost from the beginning, a dispute about who was his rightful successor (caliph). That is why Sunnis and Shias fight one another to this day.
For his next novel, Brown should "uncover" an amazing Muslim conspiracy to conceal the fact that Mohammed had no children and that the early caliphs made it up. That should do a roaring trade at airport bookstalls.
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Don't Miss the Crack...
...(of my camel's back). This-if you please-is from the Catholic parish Newsletter of Kilquade, Co. Wicklow:
LUISNE EVENTS:
Earth Day Celebrations will take place at St Brigid's National School, Kilcoole, on Saturday May 6th...We need to celebrate the gift of our planet at a time when so many exploit it...
The Institute for Feminism and religion is running a summer event-Celebrating the landscapes of woman-soul. It will be held at An Grianan, Termonfeckin, Co. Louth and will run from July 1st to 7th. Speakers/facilitators include Nuala Ahern, Mary Condren, Margaret MacCurtain, Noirin Ni Riain and from abroad, Kathleen McPhillips, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Peggy Reeves Sanday. Cost EUR770. Don't miss this exciting event!
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God's Call Girl
Question: Who said the following?
From a student's lecture notes on a course for a Diploma of Religious Education at a Sydney campus of Australian Catholic University:
Suggested reading: God's Call Girl by Carla Van Raay, a story about the author's life as a nun and then later as a prostitute. The book was said to serve as an example for anyone inspired by the search for truth and self-appreciation.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Catechetical Revolution
Sir,
It was a mistake on the part of Sister Finola Cunnane to take Gabriel Moran as her mentor in matters catechetical (see Eanna Johnson's article in Issue 81).
For Moran was a member of a group of American experts who were waving the flag for what one of their number, Gerard Sloyan, has described as the "catechetical revolution" in his article on catechetics in the New Catholic Encyclopaedia. This revolution was launched by Fr Jungmann, Professor of Homiletics and Catechetics in the University of Innsbruck. It had, he claimed, achieved its object, which was to secure the abolition of doctrinal catechesis and put kerygmatic catechesis in its place. He seems to have envisaged this as a kind of spiritual osmosis whereby the pupil would absorb a Catholic outlook on life by immersion in the Catholic life of his family, his parish and his school.
His project did succeed to the extent of persuading many experts to get rid of standard texts such as the penny catechism and the Baltimore catechism. These-properly used-had ensured that pupils knew, at least in outline, the teaching of the Church, which is expounded more fully in the official Catechism, issued in 1991. The new, kerygmatic, catechesis has not produced the same result, admirable (however limited) it may be.
I am, sir
Yours faithfully
Fr G.H Duggan SM
Silverstream, New Zealand
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We made his day
Dear Editor,
If I could give prizes for headlines, your Iggy the Auggie and His Ecumaniac Gesture over the editorial in your March-April issue would walk away with one. It gave me one good loud hearty laugh and so-as Clint Eastwood said in one of his westerns-you made my day.
Thank you for that, for the editorial and for lots of other stimulating stuff, right through to the Dalai Lama's bull's eye and Archbishop Martin's backhanded admission that the Church's Vatican II catechetical programme has been one big disastrous flop.
Yours sincerely
John Davis
Merrion Road, Dublin
FRANCIS BOOK SALES
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. HERMANN AND DOROTHEA. German, in Gothic script. With introduction and notes in English. Cambridge University Press (1884) 198pp. (EUR5.50)
Goubert, J., and Cristiani, L. LES PLUS BEAUX TEXTES SUR L'AU-DELA. Texts from the Fathers, theologians, preachers and Catholic writers on the Four Last things. All in French. La Colombe, Paris (1950) 417pp. Strongly rebound in hard covers. Covers a bit grubby, pages rather roughly cut; otherwise fair. (EUR7.00)
Goudareau, Mme. WINGS OF CHARITY: THE PERNETTES AND THEIR MISSION. Written for children. Burns Oates and Washbourne, London (1938) 188pp. (EUR4.50)
Gowans. Adam, (ed.). THE HUNDRED BEST POEMS (LYRICAL) in the English Language. Second series. Includes works by Arnold, Browning, Burns, Coleridge, Keats, Milton, Scott, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Wordsworth. Covers missing, some foxing, text complete. Brimley Johnson and Ince, London (1905) 144pp. (EUR1.00)
Graf, Dom Ernest OSB. ABBOT OF BUCKFAST: A Study of Anscar Vonier. With Some Account of the Restoration of the Abbey and its Church. Burns and Oates, London (1963) 154pp. Pbk. (EUR2.50)
DeGrandis, Fr Robert SJ. THE GIFT OF MIRACLES. "Experiencing God's Extraordinary Power in Your Life". Mercier, Cork (1991) 159pp. Pbk. (EUR1.50)
De Guerin, EugEnie. JOURNAL ET FRAGMENTS. Reflections (in French) of a young Catholic lady who lived from 1805-1848. Didier, Paris (1864) 447pp. Rebound in hard covers. Pages roughly cut. Foxing and evidence of damp. (EUR6.00)
Guichou, Pierre. LOS SALMOS Comentados por la Biblia. All in Spanish. Sigueme, Salamanca (1966) 694pp. Pbk. Back cover missing, otherwise complete. (EUR1.50)
Hadow, Sir W.H. RICHARD WAGNER. Thornton Butterworth, London (1934) First edition. Damp damage to covers. Text and binding sound. 256pp. (EUR3.00)
Hammond, J.L., and Hammond, Barbara. THE BLEAK AGE. The problems of industrial Victorian England. Penguin, London (1947) 255pp. Rebound in hard covers. Evidence of past damp damage. (EUR3.00)
Hardy, Thomas. JUDE THE OBSCURE. Penguin, London (1994) One of the Wessex novels. 490pp. A bit dog-eared. Front cover a bit creased. (EUR2.50)
Hardy, Thomas J. HOW I CAME TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE POPE. Burns Oates and Washbourne, London (1940) 55pp. Pbk. (EUR5.00)
Harris, Fr Timothy. MARY THE BLESSED THE BELOVED. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin (1949) 119pp. (EUR2.50)
Hatch, Alden and Walshe, Seamus. CROWN OF GLORY: the Life of Pope Pius XII. "...graphic, very readable, full of colour..." Catholic Book Club, London (1958) 253pp. With dust jacket. (EUR2.50)
Haworth-Booth, Michael FLS. EFFECTIVE FLOWERING SHRUBS. With 47 plates in colour photography by the author. Collins, London (1951) 350pp. Back end papers grubby. (EUR3.00)
Heinisch, Paul. HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota (1952) 457pp. Large bk. With maps. (EUR5.50)
Heinisch, Paul. CHRIST IN PROPHECY. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota (1956) 279pp. Large pbk. (EUR3.00)
Henderson, Larry. THE HOT SEAT. Memoirs: 1973-1986. By the editor of the Catholic Register. Published by the Catholic Register, Toronto (1986) 239pp. (EUR2.00)
Herklots, G.A.C. THE BIRDS OF HONG KONG and the New Territories. Field Identification and Field Note Book. Illustrated by 74 line drawings. Written and illustrated during 43 months' internment at Stanley during World War II. In notebook section, previous owner has painted Chinese greenfinch and South China grey tit. First edition. South China Morning Post, Hong Kong (1946) 77 + 12pp. (EUR20.00)
Hettinger, Fr Franz. NATURAL RELIGION. "By 'natural religion' is meant the relation of man to God as taught by reason alone, apart from any supernatural source." Fr Hettinger was Professor of Theology at the University of W¸rzburg. Edited, with an introduction on Certainty by Fr Henry Sebastian Bowden of the Oratory. Burns and Oates, London (1892) 302pp. (EUR6.50)
Hogan, Frances. WORDS OF LIFE FROM LUKE. Inscribed by author. Fount, London (1990) 320pp. Pbk. (EUR2.00)
Hogan, Frances. WORDS OF LIFE FROM LUKE. Fount, London (1990) 320pp. Pbk. (EUR1.50)
Hogben, Lancelot. MATHEMATICS FOR THE MILLION: A Popular Self Educator. Allen and Unwin, London (1937) 657pp. (EUR3.00)
Hollis, Christopher. THE CHURCH AND ECONOMICS. Burns and Oates, London (1961) 111pp. (EUR3.00)
Holloway, Fr Edward, STL. CATHOLICISM: A New Synthesis. Looks thoroughly orthodox, despite the title and the date of publication. Faith Keyway, Surrey. (1976) 514pp. (EUR3.00)
Houart, Victor. THE OPEN HEART. "The Inspiring and Moving Story of Father Georges Pire." Souvenir Press, London (1959) 202pp. With 21 photos. With dj. (EUR4.50)
Howell, Fr Clifford, S.J. PREPARING FOR EASTER. Helped priests to implement and explain the Holy Week liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII. Burns and Oates, London (1957) 142pp. Pbk. (EUR2.00)
Hubert, Father, OFM Cap. THE MYSTICAL ROSE. Mercier, Cork (1947) 79pp. (EUR3.00)
de Hueck, Catherine. POUSTINIA: Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man. Fountain, London (1978) 216pp. Pbk. (EUR1.50)
Hurley, Fr Thomas, S.J. FATHER MICHAEL BROWNE, SJ: A Man Who Took Christ at His Word. The life of the Limerick-born spiritual director and conductor of retreats. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin (1949) 242pp. Wrapped in plastic. (EUR3.00)
Hurley, Fr Thomas, S.J. FATHER MICHAEL BROWNE, SJ: A Man Who Took Christ at His Word. The life of the Limerick-born spiritual director and conductor of retreats. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin (1949) 242pp. Wrapped in plastic. (EUR3.00)
Husenbeth, Provost F.C. THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT REV. JOHN MILNER, D.D., Bishop of Castabala, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District of England (1752-1826). An enjoyable biography of one of the great characters of the period just before Catholic emancipation. Duffy, Dublin (1862) 586pp. Spine bumped, some foxing, condition otherwise fair to good for age. (EUR17.50)
Husenbeth, Fr F.C. THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT REVEREND MONSIGNOR WEEDALL, DD, President of St Mary's College, Oscott, Including Incidentally the Early History of St Mary's College, Oscott. Longman and Green, London (1860) 317pp. Spine bumped, condition otherwise fair. (EUR9.50)
Huxley, Elspeth. FOUR GUINEAS. A Journey through West Africa. Reprint Society, London (1955) 320pp. (EUR2.50)
Inglis, J. Gall. THE NEW EXPRESS INTEREST RECKONER, Vol. 4A. Gall and Inglis, Edinburgh (1937) (EUR2.00)
Jacks, L.V. THE TURQUOISE ROSARY. An adventure story for children of 10 years and older. ..."a great deal of interesting historical detail about true Catholic history in the early Southwest [USA]. And the meaning of a very special rosary is blended into the plot in the most appealing way". Bruce, Milwaukee (1960) 153pp. Illustrated. With dj. (EUR5.00)
James, Fr, O.F.M. Cap. THE MOTHER OF JESUS. Gill, Dublin (1944) 159pp. With dust jacket. (EUR2.50)
Jenks, Edward. A HISTORY OF POLITICS. Dent, London (1910) 164pp.(EUR5.00)
John XIII, Pope. JOURNAL OF A SOUL. "My soul is in these pages." Chapman, London (1965) 521pp. Pbk. (EUR2.50)
John Paul II, Pope. MARY MOTHER OF THE REDEEMER. His encyclical Redemptoris Mater. Veritas, Dublin (1987) 118pp. (EUR2.00)
ESSAYS ON THE BIBLE. Mgr Kissane was President of Maynooth from 1942-59. Gill, Dublin (1959) 123pp. Rebound in hard covers. (EUR5.00)
Kitson, C.H. ELEMENTARY HARMONY Parts I and II. Clarendon, Oxford (1951 and 1955) 214pp. (EUR6.00)
Kittler, Glenn. THE WHITE FATHERS. "A chronicle of nearly a hundred years of saintly heroism in Africa." Allen, London (1957) 319pp. Illustrated. With dust jacket. (EUR5.50)
Klinger, Kurt. A POPE LAUGHS. "For everyone who loved Pope John, of all religions or none." Collins, London (1964) 160pp. Pbk. (EUR2.00)
Knox, Mgr Ronald. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH: Vol. 1., Genesis-Esther. Burns Oates and Washbourne (1949) 739pp. (EUR6.00)
Knox, Mgr Ronald. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH: Vol. 1., Genesis-Esther. Burns Oates and Washbourne (1949) 739pp. (EUR5.00)
Knox, Mgr Ronald. THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH. His purpose was "to secure, as far as possible, that the Reader of 2150, if my version is still obtainable then, shall not find it hopelessly dated." Burns Oates and Washbourne, London (1945) 605pp. In rather battered leather sleeve with popper. (EUR4.00)
Knox, Mgr Ronald, and Cox, Fr Ronald, C.M. THE GOSPEL STORY. Based on the translation of the Four Gospels by Mgr Knox; arranged in a continuous narrative with explanations by Fr Cox. "You cannot live like a Christian, if you think like a pagan; you cannot think like a Christian until you think like Christ." Burns and Oates, London (1958) 437pp. (EUR5.00)
Lacordaire, Fr Henri-Dominique OP. THE INNER LIFE. Washbourne, London (1878) 530pp. Leather spine, cloth on boards. Gilt title. Bound by Dollard of Dublin. (EUR7.50)
Lagrange, Fr Marie-Joseph, OP. THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST: Vol. I. Translated from the French by members of the English Dominican Province. Burns Oates and Washbourne, London (1947) 350pp. (EUR3.00)
Laski, Professor Harold. COMMUNISM. A sympathetic portrayal. Thornton Butterworth, London (1936) 256pp. (EUR2.50)
Last, Joan. THE YOUNG PIANIST: A New Approach for Teachers and Students. Oxford University Press (1966) 155pp. With dj. (EUR5.00)
Lattey, Fr Cuthbert, S.J. (ed.) THE PSALTER in the Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures. Sands, London (1944) 281pp. (EUR3.50)
Laurentin, Fr RenE. QUEEN OF HEAVEN: A Short Treatise on Marian Theology. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin (1956) With dust jacket. 142pp. (EUR4.50)
Laveille, Mgr. ST THERESE DE L'ENFANT JESUS (1873-1897) The Definitive Biography According to the Official Documents of the Carmel of Lisieux. Burns, Oates and Washbourne, London (1928) 447pp. First edition in English. Foxing. (EUR8.50)
Lawler, Fr Ronald, OFM Cap., Wuerl, Donald, and Lawler, Thomas Comerford. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST: A Catholic Catechism for Adults. Looks quite orthodox. Veritas, Dublin (1976) 640pp. Pbk. (EUR3.50)
Leen, Fr Edward, CSSp. and Kearney, Fr John, CSSp. OUR BLESSED MOTHER: Talks on Our Lady. With a foreword by Fr Bernard Fennelly, CSSp. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin (1947) 156pp. (EUR2.50)
Leen, Fr Edward, CSSp. and Kearney, Fr John, CSSp. OUR BLESSED MOTHER: Talks on Our Lady. With a foreword by Fr Bernard Fennelly, CSSp. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin (1947) 156pp. (EUR2.50)
Lefevre, Theodore (ed.) FABLES DE LA FONTAINE. Illustrated by Desandre and Hadamard (engravings). Paris (undated, prob. c.1860). All in French. Hinges weak. Foxing 248pp. (EUR7.50)
LEGIO MARIAE: The Official Handbook of the Legion of Mary. Concilium Legionis Mariae (1969) 288pp. (EUR2.00)
Lehodey, Abbot Vitalis, OCR. THE WAYS OF MENTAL PRAYER. Translated from the French by a monk of Mount Melleray. Gill, Dublin (1930) 390pp. (EUR5.50)
LemaÓtre, Jules. LES CONTEMPORAINS: Etudes et Portraits Litteraires-PremiËre Serie. (All in French). Critical essays, including ones on works by Ernest Renan, Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant. LecËne, Paris (1890) 355pp. (Lemaitre became a Catholic in 1897.) (EUR5.00)
LemaÓtre, Jules. LES CONTEMPORAINS: Etudes et Portraits Litteraires-TroisiËme Serie. (All in French). Critical essays, including ones on works by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Pierre Loti, le Duc d'Aumale and Jean Richepin. LecËne, Paris (1889) 364pp. (EUR5.00)
LEpicier, Cardinal Alexis. BEHOLD THY MOTHER. Nine discourses illustrative of the Hail Mary. Burns Oates and Washbourne, London (1935) 167pp. Rare. (EUR7.00)
Leslie, Shane. HENRY EDWARD MANNING: His Life and Labours. Burns Oates and Washbourne, London (1921) 520pp. With five illustrations. Titles on spine scuffed. Pages rather roughly cut. (EUR5.00)
Lewis, C.S. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS: Letters from a senior to a junior devil. Collins, London (1956) 160pp. Pbk. (EUR2.00)
Lewis, C.S. SCREWTAPE PROPOSES A TOAST. Collins, London (1970) 126pp. Pbk. (EUR2.00)
Lewis, C.S. THE PROBLEM OF PAIN. Collins, London (1957) 148pp. (EUR1.50)
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