Jesus: social revolutionary?

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice (JCFJ) has announced the publication of Jesus: social revolutionary? This new book is written by one of the JCFJ team, Peter McVerry SJ, and published by Veritas. Tony O’Riordan SJ, director of the JCFJ, states that the book is “an attempt to open a debate about the meaning of our faith and the Christian obligation to question how a society that, though incredible wealthy, continues to tolerate immense poverty and inequality.” The JCFJ have set up a special section on their website, www.jcfj.ie, which contains extracts of the book and an interview with the author, Peter McVerry, on the background to the book. Read more »

Murphy in Mexican mission

The Irish Province financial officer, Peter Murphy and his wife, Breda, took time out from their recent holiday in Mexico to visited the Station Mission Pedro Fabro in Mexico. After a request from the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), the Irish Province send funds to a Jesuit mission led by Fr. Pedro Arriaga Alarcon SJ, which works with displaced indigenous people in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Click on ‘read more‘ to read Peter’s account of his visit while he was on holidays in the area.

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Coming up this week:

9 April, Veale Public Lecture, Discernment for the Church of our Times by Prof. Elizabeth Liebert, Milltown Park, 7.30pm.

12-13 April, Enneagram weekend in Galway: Contact Fr. John Humphreys (091) 863394 or jhumphreys@jesuit.ie.

Jesuit Centre questions Thornton Hall prison move

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has just published the April 2008 issue of Working Notes entitled Thornton Hall Prison – A Progressive Move?. It focuses on concerns about the proposed relocation of both the Central Mental Hospital and the Dóchas Centre, the women’s prison in Mountjoy, to the controversial new prison complex at Thornton Hall, north county Dublin. The Central Mental Hospital Carers Group, which represents relatives and friends of patients in the hospital, argues that there are no possible therapeutic reasons for locating the hospital beside the prison. Read more »

Blessed Columba Marmion Commemorated

Donal Neary SJ and Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Commuication Centre were guests at a special commemoration ceremony on Sunday April 6, to mark the 150th anniversary of Blessed Columbia Marmion in St Paul’s Church, Arran Quay, the church where he was baptised. Columba Marmion went to school in Belvedere before becoming a diocesean priest and, finally, a Benedictine monk. He was renowned in his day for his great sense of humour and his spiritual wisdom. A film of his life first broadcast in 1965 on RTE was shown on Sunday night, and Fr Columba McCann from Glenstal gave a talk about Dom Columba’s life and spirituality. Bishop Eamon Walshe, himself a former Belvedere pupil, was the main celebrant of the mass which followed. Fr Jim Caffrey, rector of St Paul’s, gave the homily. Columba Marmion was beatified by Pope John Paul  II in 2000 and his cause for canonization is in its final stages.