Short Notices

• Much satisfaction has been expressed by members of the Milltown Park community with the quality of the facilities in the new building into which they moved just before Christmas. In the photo, standing in front of the new community house, are (from left to right): Seamus Duggan, Joe Starr (both Duggan Brothers, the builders), Eileen Ellis, Kevin Bates (architect), Kevin O’Rourke, Vince Cunningham & Pat Gibson (both Duggan Brothers). Currently the new Curia offices are being prepared on the first floor of the former community house.
• The March 2010 issue of Working Notes, published by the Jesuit |Centre for Faith and Justice has just been published. Under the title  ‘A New Economic Paradigm’, it presents different aspects of the quest for alternative forms of recovery in Ireland – not merely a return to the consumption-driven and environmentally-damaging form of growth which emerged during the Celtic Tiger. The full contents will be made available on the JCFJ website shortly.
• The Irish Jesuit Province has recently sent €44,300 to aid the earthquake victims in Haiti. This sum comes from Province funds, communities, and various donations, including from pupils in Jesuit schools.
• Michael Paul Gallagher SJ returns to Dublin from Rome to give the annual Accord lecture on the role of the imagination in faith, in Maynooth , Sat, 15 March. Whilst here he will record a ‘Dialogue’ programme with Andy O’ Mahony on RTE radio 1.
• At the end of a week of tragic stories about the deaths of children in State care, Peter McVerry SJ discussed the problems and the solutions with Richard Crowley on the This Week programme, on RTE Radio 1, Sunday 7 March.
• Ian Fahey and Mark A Kelly of  Belvedere College have qualified as one of three teams from the Irish round of the Mayor Brown Oxford Union Mace. They will speak in the finals of the competition in Oxford University, 13 March. It’s Belvedere’s first time in the Senior Competition and they will face tough English competition for one of four places in the grand final.

Integrating migrants in Limerick

‘Integrating Limerick’, a two-year plan for the city and county drawn up by the Limerick Integration Working Group, was launched on Friday 5 May by Minister for Integration John Curran TD. Eugene Quinn, Director of JRS Ireland and Joint Chair of the Group, explained the need for the plan at the launch: “The rapidly changing face, and indeed faces, of Limerick City and County present significant opportunities but also significant challenges. Integration is a very important issue for the region as the estimated 16,000 migrants that have located here form an important part of our labour market and local economy and are key to the continued growth of the region. This Plan seeks to enable them to fully participate in society, by promoting an inclusive and dynamic environment in Limerick in which all residents are valued, regardless of their nationality, religion or ethnic background.” See the full press release below. Read more »

News from the Noviciate

Ronan McCoy, currently studying in the Jesuit Novitiate in Birmingham, has sent us the following update. “We would like to thank you all for your prayers during our Spiritual Exercises. The retreat was, for each of us, a wonderful experience, which will shape our futures in different ways, and we six novices who made it were privilaged to share it with each other, our novice-master Paul and the four other retreatants who took the 30 days from hectic lives to look to God for direction and motivation. So now to the world and our next experiments; the three second years have been on their long experiments for over a month now: Samuel Overloop (BSE) and Mick O’Connor (BRI) in Guyana and Shane Daly (HIB) in Lusaka, Zambia. They’ve been in touch and seem to be settling in to those other worlds and enjoying their work. Read more »

Trekking for the homeless

A 60-kilometer trek across the rough terrain of Iceland - that is the challenge which the Peter McVerry Trust is posing to anyone who would like to help them raise money for homeless services in Dublin. Seán Connolly and Lesley Hanna (pictured here) are former trekkers for this cause, and they remember the event with great fondness. The trek took them past volcanoes, cliffs, glaciers, thundering waterfalls, steaming lava fields, boiling mud pools, and spouting geysers! Says Seán, ““I have wonderful memories of the trek I did for the Trust. Our group was made up of people of all ages and I made great friends with all of them. I would encourage anyone to take part in the charity’s Iceland Trek – it really will be the experience of a lifetime!” For further details, see the Peter McVerry Trust website.

Forthcoming events

• 11 March: ‘Clerical sex abuse - moving on’, lecture by Prof. Patricia Casey in St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, 8pm
• 11 March: ‘The Recession and God: Where do we go from here?’ - speakers are Gerry O’Hanlon SJ and Dr Nat O’Connor, in Manresa, 8pm. Free admission.
• 15 March and every Monday: Soul Journey - weekly guided prayer in Gardiner Street Church, 6-6.30pm
• 16 March: ‘Luke in art’ - how some passages in St Luke’s Gospel are portrayed in art, by Eileen Kane, Gardiner Street Church, 8pm
• 26-28 March: Slí Eile’s Kairos retreat, in Clongowes Wood College. Cost: €100. For more details, email terry.howard@sli-eile.com.

Nine days of grace

There has been a great turn-out so far for the annual Novena of Grace, taking place in many churches throughout Dublin, Galway, Limerick and the rest of the country. Some parishes have guest Jesuit speakers for the nine days (March 4-12). In the Church of the Three Patrons, Rathgar, curate Fr Frank Sammon SJ invited John Callanan SJ, Peter McVerry SJ and Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Communication Centre to give short reflections. In St Francis Xavier’s Church in Gardiner St pictured here), the Novena has been prayed annually since 1831. This year Fr Joe Keaney SJ, now a missionary in Lusaka, Zambia, has been preaching to the biggest novena congregations the church has seen. Donal Neary SJ, Parish Priest of Gardiner St, has made a short video about the importance of the Novena for people in his parish and around the country. You can watch it on www.jesuit.ie.

Studies on power and accountability

‘Power and Accountability in Ireland’ is the theme of the spring edition of Studies, the Jesuit quarterly journal. According to editor Fergus O Donoghue SJ, “It’s time for us to stop agonising over the past and make a calm analysis of the present, with the aim of defining our national goals and setting a course for the future”. This edition of Studies contibutes to that analysis with articles on ‘Repairing Irish Society - Beyond Ecomonics’ (by  journalist Marc Coleman), ‘McGahern and the Murphy Report’ (by academic Peter Guy), and ‘Political Power and Accountability’ (by Dr Eoin O’Malley, DCU).  Former Taoiseach John Bruton examines whether the European Union is a cold place for Christians and how the Catholic Church might contribute to the European project.

Belvedere -’Focus’ on homeless

RTE presenter Aidan Power went back to school recently to team up with students at Belvedere College and launch Focus Ireland’s new education module for secondary schools. The aim of the free learning resource is to break down stereotypes and inform students about homelessness and housing needs in Ireland. The charity said Belvedere College was the perfect venue to launch the pack as the students hold an annual sleep-out to raise vital funds for homeless charities. Speaking at the launch, Belvedere headmaster Gerard Foley said, ”This type of learning is a key part of our school’s ethos. It helps students develop as more rounded people, aware of others in need, understanding social justice issues. Todays’ students are tomorrows’ leaders, so it’s vital they know how to empathise with people who need support in society.”

UCD chaplaincy celebrates all religions

UCD chaplaincy opened its doors and its heart to the variety of religions represented on campus as part of International Week, on Monday 22 February. Christians of various denominations, along with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Baha’is, gathered to share on the essence of their belief. According to UCD Chaplain Leon O Giollain SJ, the atmosphere was one of mutual appreciation and respect, and points of convergence quickly appeared, such as “acknowledgement of a transcendent reality, the link between one’s behaviour on earth and the afterlife, values such as love, justice, peace, concern for the poor, the unity of all peoples, prayer”. Over twenty participants attended the event and agreed to meet again soon. “We enjoyed informal chat and fellowship over a cup of tea and home-made scones rounding off the event - a first in UCD, it seems.”

Sli Eíle’s marathon man!

Padraig Swan, Director of Sli Eíle, is on the run again! Last year he raised over €100,000 running various marathons. In 2010, though, he wants to clock even more miles and raise even more money for Sli Eíle’s work with the homeless, prisoners and youth. According to Padraig, “I have entered the race of my life on May 30th when I will run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban [South Africa], a winding and sometimes very hilly distance of 90kms - that’s a simple 56 miles!” And he has a few warm-up marathons beforehand, one in Connemara (April 11th - 39.3 miles) and one in Belfast (May 3rd, 26miles). After a short break in the summer and a few 10k runs he will run the Dingle Marathon in September and the Causeway Marathon in October. The intrepid voyager will finally finish the challenge with his seventh Dublin Marathon in October.

‘New economic model needed’ - Jesuit theologian

“What would have to change in the economy if we valued employment over economic growth?” Just one of the questions to be addressed by Jesuit theologian Gerry O’Hanlon SJ and policy analyst Nat O’Connor, from the independent think-tank TASC, at a seminar on ‘A New Economic Model for Irish Society’, Thursday 11 March at 8pm in Manresa Centre for Spirituality, Clontarf, Dublin 3. These and other issues will be debated in front of an open audience. The event is a follow-on to the Manresa winter seminar, when over a hundred people gathered to examine what a social justice/Christian response to the current economic crisis might entail. Dearbhail McDonald, legal editor of the Irish Independent, will chair the event. All are welcome. Read the full press release below. Read more »

The Jes goes hi-tech

Catherine Hickey of Coláiste Iognáid has been invited by Hewlett Packard (HP) and the International Society for Technology in Education to attend the HP Innovations in Education Worldwide Summit in San Francisco later this month. In May 2009 the school won a HP Innovation in Education Grant Award, as the result of the application which Catherine submitted. They received a roaming computer suite, comprising 22 HP Elite Tablet PCs, widescreen LCD Monitors, and two wireless printers, all integrated in a specially-designed Internet trolley. It is hoped that this e-classroom will enable the school to integrate ICT across the school curricula. Already, through fruitful links with the Maths Department in University College Galway, new software has been installed on the tablets, which are being used as a teaching tool in the classroom.

A pen portrait of Peter

John O’Rourke of Trinity News wrote the following interview-based article on Peter Sexton SJ, once the music co-ordinator in John’s school and now a chaplain in his college, TCD. “Fr Peter Sexton SJ is a formidable man. My own earliest memory of Trinity’s latest recruit to the burgeoning chaplaincy team is of him in his role as music coordinator for Mass in my secondary school. On my first day in boarding school, I remember him at the pulpit intoning the arcane words of a Latin hymn for us to chime in and repeat. Nervous looks darted around the church as the new brood of overwhelmed twelve year olds wondered how much enthusiasm could be feigned without looking too “uncool,” before Fr Sexton launched into what we were soon to realise would be his trademark move. [Read on...] Read more »