Walking with saints

Walking 400 miles in 6 weeks, on a budget of £4 a day for food and accommodation, Eddie Cosgrove, a Jesuit novice from the Irish Province, together with Kensy Joseph of the British Province, have just completed their pilgrimage experiment in Britain. Retracing the footsteps of the Northern Saints, including St Columcille, St Aidan, St Cuthbert and St Hilda, they began their pilgrimage at York, walked to Lindisfarne (Holy Island), and ended on the island of Iona. From sleeping in farmers’ sheds, strangers’ beds, and even a free night in a hotel, Eddie shared some of their experiences of providence, the kindness of strangers, and a simple lifestyle on this adventure.

Moodling

Moodle, as every schoolboy knows, stands for Modular Organic Online Dynamic Learning Environment. To moodle also means to meander, wander about aimlessly. But there was nothing aimless about the day spent by the Provincial and some twenty of his more boffiny brethren and sisters in Belvedere on 18th July. A large Brummie (native of Birmingham) called Luke Sweeney, with the voice of a sergeant major and an inexplicable attachment to a soccer team called Aston Villa, led them with enormous energy through the intricacies of Moodle. He was a good teacher, and the whole operation was interactive, with everyone working at their own computers, but in immediate touch with everyone else through Moodle. What remains is to extend that level of communication to larger groups in and beyond the Province.

Meeting CLC President

The World President of Christian Life Communities (CLC), Daniela Frank, visited Ireland on Sunday 13 July on NGO business, and took the opportunity to meet members of the Irish National Community. Six members of the Executive Committee, including the Irish delegation who will attend the World Assembly in Fatima from 11 to 24 August, met Daniela over lunch. CLC is a worldwide lay organisation, lived out in small groups of 6-10 people who strive to live a common way of life based on the Exercises of St Ignatius. This helps members from all walks of life to integrate prayer and action in daily life and to respond more fully to God’s loving desire for them. For further details see the CLC website.

Belvedere: change and preservation

Paul Andrews SJ introduced a special meeting of the North Great George’s Street Preservation Society in Belvedere on 8 July:

Good evening, North Great George’s Street Preservation Society. Preservation is about continuity with the past, and energy for the present – and I think money comes into it somewhere. Linking energy with continuity is not always easy. Read more »

Publicity for Peter

Patrick Costello, reviewing Peter McVerry’s new book (Jesus, Social Revolutionary? ) in the Irish Catholic, writes of Peter’s career “from a young priest in the community to one of the most vocal social critics in Ireland today”. In the next three weeks Peter will be promoting the book in Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny and Naas, including a debate with someone who disagrees with his reading of the Gospel. This public debate is precisely what Peter hoped for from the publication. It is selling well.

Launch of JCFJ’s Oireachtas Watch

On Wednesday 9 July, in Buswells Hotel, An Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue TD formally launched the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice’s ‘Oireachtas Watch’ website. (www.jcfj.ie/pqs) This initiative contains a database of Written Parliamentary Questions asked of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the 30th Dáil. JCFJ Communications Intern, Lena Jacobs, who has developed the site gave a demonstration to the TDs, civil servants and representatives of NGOs and many Jesuits who attended the launch. An Ceann Comhairle commended the Centre for its work and said the website would become a valuable resource for those interested in Department of Justice related matters. Read more »

Pioneer pilgrimage to Knock

The Pioneer Association’s pilgrimage to Knock takes place on Sunday 20 July. Bishop Colm O’Reilly of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise will be the chief celebrant. Barney McGuckian SJ, spiritual director of the Pioneers, will also be there. This annual event is also an occasion for Pioneers to remember Matt Talbot especially and to pray for his canonisation. For more details about this pilgrimage, contact Noreen Brady through the Pioneer office: phone 01 8749464 or email enquiries@pioneertotal.ie.

New Working Notes out

A new issue of Working Notes, a regular publication of the Jesuit Centre of Faith and Justice, is now out. The title of the issue is ‘Time for Justice’, and it opens with an edited version of the address which Baroness Jean Corston delivered at the JCFJ’s seminar on women in prison last May. In other articles Brian Grogan SJ and Gerry O’Hanlon SJ both write about crime and prisons from a faith-based perspective, and Peter McVerry SJ looks at housing policy and sustainable communities. A PDF of the issue can be downloaded from the JCFJ website.

Mitres and croziers

For the first time since St Robert Bellarmine a Jesuit has been coopted as secretary of a Roman Congregation. The Pope has named Father Luis Ladaria, a 64-year-old Spaniard, as secretary of the Congregation of the Faith. Though it is not normal for Jesuits to be ordained bishops, Luis becomes, as is customary in such posts, a titular archbishop. He joins an important body headed by the Californian who took over the job from Joseph Ratzinger. Although we feel the grievous loss to the Gregorian University, where Luis lectured on the Trinity and was seen as the outstanding theologian on the staff, the appointment is a sign of Pope Benedict’s confidence in him. Fr General, in communicating this news, nudged all Provinces to maintain their generous sharing of good theologians with the Gregorian University. Read more »

Friends of Hopkins gather in Kildare

“I am in Ireland now,” Gerard Manley Hopkins laments in one of his ‘terrible sonnets’, reflecting on his baneful “life among strangers”. And yet, the many times he left Dublin to enjoy “the delicious bog air of Monasterevin”, Co. Kildare, the Jesuit poet was happy to acknowledge that he found himself among friends. How apt then that Monasterevin has hosted a Hopkins literary festival every summer since 1987. This year’s festival runs from 19 to 25 July. There will be lectures, readings, concerts, and receptions. Fergus O’Donoghue SJ will say the opening Mass; Joseph Feeney SJ will give a lecture; and Peter Milward SJ’s book, A Lifetime with Hopkins, will be launched.

Anniversary celebrations for St Declan’s

2008 marks the 50th anniversary of St Declan’s School, a remarkable venture begun by the Jesuits in 1958. With premises on Northumberland Road, Dublin 4, it helps children who, for personal or emotional reasons, are achieving below their potential in mainstream primary schools. For a full description of its remarkable work, see its newly launched website. Currently St Declan’s is running a summer school for its pupils, which involves games and day trips. Anniversary celebrations are planned for the autumn, including a Mass in Haddington Road Church on 27 September, which will be celebrated by the Irish Provincial, John Dardis SJ.

JCFJ keeps tabs on justice and reform

An Ceann Comhairle, John O’Donoghue, will launch the Jesuit Centre of Faith and Justice’s web-based Oireachtas Watch service. The launch will take place on Wednesday 9 July at 7.00pm in Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2. Oireachtas Watch is an internet database of answers to written parliamentary questions asked of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the 30th Dáil. Dr Muiris MacCártaigh of the Institute of Public Administration will deliver an address at the event.

Youth festival with a difference

It’s summertime, and young people’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of festivals. There’s Oxegen and the Electric Picnic, of course; but a surprise attraction for as many as 1,000 young people this year is the Knock Summer Youth Festival. The brainchild of the Knock Youth Ministry, it will take place from 24 to 27 July. It aims “to help people get back in touch with what is really important in life. Are they happy?”  Michael Paul Gallagher SJ will speak to the gathering about ‘faith, unbelief, culture and spirituality’. For more details, see the website.