Volunteers celebrate successful South Africa challenge

75 volunteers joined the Slí Eile South Africa Challenge this summer. They were mainly 6th year graduates of the Jesuit schools, but they were joined by volunteers from Terenure College and a host of friends and partners of the Jesuits in Ireland. They raised €45,000, which funded the materials and local labour for the construction of an orphan house in the Franklin Township, and every two weeks a new group went out to work on the construction. The orphan house has since been completed. On Saturday afternoon, in Belvedere Hotel, the Slí Eile South Africa Volunteers gather to celebrate their achievement and to present John Clarke, of Friends in Ireland, with a cheque for €45,000.

Guest lecture at Milltown inauguration

Professor Paul Locatelli SJ, President and Professor of Accounting, Santa Clara University, California. USA, will be the guest speaker at the Inauguration of the Academic Year at Milltown Institute on Wednesday 24th September 2008. He will speak on the place of theology in the contemporary university. Professor Locatelli recently announced his intention to resign from Santa Clara during the coming academic year and work in Rome as Secretary for Jesuit Higher Education, promoting cooperation among Jesuit higher education institutions.

Paddy Doyle and the ISE

Many others besides Jesuits have felt the loss of Paddy Doyle SJ, former Irish Provincial, who passed away recently. Below is a piece from Robin Boyd, the second director of the Irish School of Ecumenics, who offers an intriguing perspective on Paddy’s contribution to the school at a crucial stage of its development.   “Slight in stature but strong in presence,” Boyd comments, “Paddy was a man of warmth and quiet friendliness, sometimes few in words, but the words were worth waiting for.” Read more »

Coláiste Iognáid students retreat to sea

With the help of a number of Colaiste Iognaid teachers, Brendan McManus SJ began the school retreat programme last week. Each class in the school has a day away at a retreat centre run by the Sisters of the Asumption in Inverin, Co. Galway. The Ignatian-style retreats work with the students’ self awareness, their desires and goals for life, and their support for one another.

Artwork for Tertianship building

A bronze and glass sculpture which was commissioned for the Tertianship building in Manresa was unveiled and blessed on Monday, 22 September, by John Dardis SJ. The artist is Corkman Eoin Turner. He was approached by Joe Dargan SJ and asked to design a sculpture which would be inspired by the motif of the Blessed Trinity, especially as seen in the famous icon of Andrei Rublev, and by the theme of Jesuits taking the Gospel to all parts of the world. Eoin Turner spoke at the unveiling of his work. Read more »

Personnel changes at Slí Eile

Gerry Clarke SJ is giving up his Slí Eile duties in order to work with the Jesuit Refugee Service in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He leaves for Africa on 17 October. Gerry will be based in Goma, in eastern Congo, where the JRS works mainly at organising educational activities in camps for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). While they will miss Gerry greatly, Sli Eile are delighted to welcome Terry Howard SJ (see photo) to the team. After many years working in Coláiste Iognáid, Galway, Terry will now take on as new ministries the Gospel Choir Mass at Gardiner Street, the Slí Eile Discover Groups, and the Kairos Retreats.

“Is religion dangerous?” – public lecture

The question to which the third public lecture of Studies Quarterly Review and The Iona Institute will be addressed is ‘Is religion dangerous?’ This is the title of one of the books written by the guest lecturer, Professor Keith Ward, and will form the premise for his remarks at the event on Thursday 2 October in the Davenport Hotel, Dublin 2, at 8.00pm. Professor Ward was a distinguished academic at both Oxford and Cambridge, a fellow of the British Academy, and an Anglican priest. Without religion, he will argue, the human race would be considerably worse off and have little hope for the future.

Seventy years a Jesuit

Fr Kevin Laheen SJ celebrated seventy years as a Jesuit on Sept 16, with his family, friends and Jesuit community in Leeson St, Dublin 2.  Born on Feb 18, 1919 he has lived and continues to live a full and generous life. Many of his years as a Jesuit were spent giving missions all over Ireland as well as overseas.  He has written many books, and has kept alive the memory of Jesuit history in Tullabeg with  his latest, The Jesuits in Tullabeg 1810-1860.  Not a man to rest on his laurels, Fr Laheen is putting  the finishing touches to the sequel of Tullabeg, which will be published later this year.

Short notices

• Gerry Clarke SJ will celebrate his last Gardiner St Mass at 7.30pm on 28 September, as he is moving to the Democratic Republic of Congo on 17 October. Slí Eile are having a farewell gathering for Gerry afterwards – light refreshments from 8.30pm in The Belvedere Hotel Great Denmark St.
• Fr Ciary Quirke SJ will lead six reflective evenings to help those recovering from alcohol addiction to hand over their lives to God: in Manresa Jesuit Centre of Sprituality: 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. on successive Wednesdays from 24 September to 29 October inclusive.
• The construction of the new Cherryfield building is advancing swiftly. The move is expected to take place on 20 October.
• Readers may have noticed a distinctive Jesuit pen in recent weeks: Brendan Staunton of Gardiner Street contributed a long letter to The Tablet (20 September); a substantial review in the Irish Theological Quarterly, and a piece in The Pioneer on Mother Mary Aikenhead.
• St Declan’s School, Northumberland Road, Dublin 4, will commemorate fifty years of providing special education at a Jubilee Mass on Saturday 27 September at 12.00am in St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, Dublin 4. Fr John Dardis SJ, Irish jesuit Provincial, will say the Mass.