African Immersion Experience III

Michael Sheil SJ has just returned from Lesotho with a group of Clongowes boys, the third group to take on  the African Immersion Experience since it started in 2007. This project is the brainchild of Australian Frank Clarke, Clongowes’ Director of Ethos. And ethos is central to the project. The motivation for the team springs from their faith; they go essentially as servants and students, to listen and learn and help. Belfast-born Michael Sheil, who has worked in Clongowes for years as man and boy, has always given time in the summer to pastoral projects such as handicapped children in Lourdes. It is clear from his African reflections that the Lesotho project hit him hard.

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Fr Provincial in Asia

Mission Office Director John Guiney and Provincial John Dardis (right in photo, Freddie Deignan SJ on left) have just returned from a visit to Irish Jesuits working in Japan, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Singapore. AMDG Express has already featured their meeting with Fr Bill Johnston in Tokyo, and with Belvedere students in Hong Kong. John Dardis looks bandbox fresh and energetic after all those thousands of flying miles, and has plunged into a series of visitations this week, but he found time to share his impressions below. He notes in particular the vibrancy of the work being done by Jesuits throughout the continent, and the great hospitality which they extended to their brothers from Ireland.

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Unmissable: BBC on Caravaggio

Last November, AMDG Update reported the activity of a TV crew in Leeson Street preparing a documentary on the house’s Caravaggio painting, The Taking of Christ, which was a major art find in the early 1990s. The programme, entitled ‘Private life of an Easter masterpiece’, appeared on BBC 2 on Holy Saturday, and it deserved every superlative in the book. It told a gripping story with an art that concealed deep scholarship, looking at both the planning and execution of the painting, and the extraordinary ups and downs of its subsequent history, from Cardinal Mattei’s generous payment of the artist in 1602 to its disposal at a minor auction in Edinburgh for eight guineas in 1921 – when it was described not as a Caravaggio but “after Honthorst”.

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Spreading the good news

Media-wise it was a fruitful Lent and Easter for Jesuits and their colleagues. Gerry O’Hanlon SJ entered the fray of the economic downturn, discussing his book ‘God and the Recession’ on TV3, BBC’s Sunday Sequence, and RTE TV’s Nationwide. Indeed, the same Nationwide’s ten-minute package broadcast on Spy Wednesday featured young people from various Jesuit works living out a faith that does justice with the homeless and those in prison (Slí Eile), migrants (Jesuit Refugee Service and Clongowes students) and the Jesuit University Support Trust in Ballymun. See it here: click on ‘Youthful Faith’. It was watched by over 400,000 viewers - an amazing 30.6% audience share – and stirred real Easter hope in the hearts of many viewers. Read more »

Short Notices

• Sacred Space welcomes Richard McCarthy (pictured here), a Tralee man married to a Brazilian, who has joined Piaras Jackson SJ and Patrick Muldoon as the team’s web developer, after experience of website work in finance and in business settings in Dublin.
• Gonzaga’s rugby footballers notched up a real achievement by reaching the Junior B league final for the first time in the school’s history, only to be beaten by Blackrock College.
• Fr. Richard O’Donovan OMI, the brother of Fr. Jack Donovan SJ, has compiled a book of Jack’s life.  In Loving Memory traces Jack’s 77 years – from brith in Co Galway in 1931 to his requiem Mass at St. Margaret’s Church in Canning Town last October – and contains a generous selection of photographs and tributes, not least from the Filipino community to whom Jack ministered.
• OCIPE, the Conference of European Provincials, has prepared a  memorandum in view of the forthcoming European elections. It focuses briefly on certain themes that deserve voters’ particular attention. You can view the document as a PDF here. 

Notices and upcoming events

• Steps2Serenity, a weekend retreat for people on a 12-step programme of recovery, will take place from 17-19 April in Manresa, the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality, Dollymount. Participants are asked to book in advance by contacting Manresa at (01) 8331352, by email at manresa@jesuit.ie or through the website www.manresa.ie.  Cost: €140 (Residential) or €70 (Non-residential).  Concessions available. Directors: Fr. Ciary Quirke, S.J., and Sr. Avril O’Regan, RLR.
• To celebrate the year of St. Paul, Manresa will host seven evening talks on the life, letters and theology of St. Paul. These talks will examine the issues and problems which prompted these letters and will give an overview of Paul’s theology.  Talks will take place from 8.00pm to 9.30pm on Wednesday evenings, 22 and 29 April; 6, 13, 20 and 27 May; and 3 June.  No advance booking is required and contributions are discretionary. Speaker: Fr. Brendan Comerford, S.J.
• Brian Grogan SJ has been helping the Slí Eile team over the last six weeks to consider, discuss and digest the contents of the 6 Decrees from the 35th General Congregation. The objective was to learn more about The Society of Jesus and to see what light the decrees might throw on the meaning of collaboration between lay people and Jesuits.
• Slí Eile is holding a ‘Surfing and Turfing’ Ecumenical Retreat at the Old Rectory, Camp Village, Co. Kerry on 24th-26th April. “The intensity of surfing,” they say, “forces you to be in the moment, live in the present and let go of any cares of worries. It is also a sport that cannot be ventured alone, so it is a community experience.”  Cost: €100 incl full board & accommodation (Early booking is essential). For application form please contact debbie.moore@sli-eile.com  Tel; 01 8943165
• Crescent College Comprehensive are celebrating 150 years of Jesuit Education in Limerick. As part of this Sesquicentenary year, Most Reverend Donal Murray Bishop of Limerick will Celebrate Mass in St. John’s Cathedral in Limerick on Sunday 26th April at 3.00pm. Fr. Provincial John Dardis S.J. will preach the homily. Everyone is welcome. The School Chaplain, Gráinne Delaney would be grateful to hear if people intend to be there. Email her at gradelgee@eircom.net.
• The Irish Times had a lengthy obituary for John Dunne SJ on Saturday 4 April under the headline ‘A Jesuit of learning who chose a life of love and service’. Read it online.

A respectable scholar

When Denis Leonard (pictured left) was a student at Crescent in the 1950s, his mother received a letter from Fr O’Beirne, Prefect of Studies, noting that Denis had improved of late, but remarking that “being the ordinary boy with his usual faults of inattention and disinclination to work, I have to use every weapon with him and his likes to get all I can out of him”. “Between us,” he concluded, “we will make him a respectable scholar”. On his final day at school Denis took the risk of ‘borrowing’ the sign ‘Prefect of Studies’ from Fr. O’Beirne’s door. He recently returned it to Dermot Cowhey of the Crescent Sesquicentenary Committee. Earlier this year the University of Limerick presented Denis with a Doctorate in recognition of his scholarly work at the Limerick Civic Trust, and Fr. O’Beirne’s wish was thus fulfilled.

Crescent celebrates on the double

Limerick’s Crescent College Comprehensive SJ had double cause for celebration on the weekend of 28th and 29th March, 2009. As it continued its celebrations for its sesquicentenary, it also emerged dominant in the Under-14 Rugby competition and was crowned champions receiving the Murray cup for its endeavours. The competition featured all the Jesuit colleges in the country, with Belvedere and Gonzaga travelling from Dublin. Clongowes, from Kildare, was the eventual winner of the second division competition, while Colaiste Iognáid represented Connacht. Cistercian College from Roscrea and Glenstal from Co. Limerick also participated while Ard Scoil Rís offered local support. In the photo here, Dermot Murray SJ presents the cup. Read on for a fuller description of the event. Read more »

Young people and Jesuits go ‘Nationwide’

RTE 1 TV will broadcast a special Holy Week feature on their popular Nationwide programme on Wed 8 April ’09 at 7pm. Young people working on Jesuit projects with prisoners, immigrants, the homeless and people going back to college are interviewed in the programme which explores how they are living out their faith in modern Ireland. Slí Eile, Jesuit University Support & Training (JUST) in Ballymun, and students from Clongowes who are teaching English to immigrants as part of a Jesuit Refugee Service project all feature. Gerry O’Hanlon SJ, acting director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, gives an overview of the work of the young adults in the context of a ‘faith that does justice, finding God in all things’.

From ‘Sir’ with love

Five hundred people turned up in Croagh Park on Wednesday 1 April to enjoy an evening with Sir Alex Ferguson and raise funds for the Belvedere Social Integration Scheme. The SIS covers the costs of secondary school education for boys not otherwise in a position to attend.  The Manchester United manager gave his time (and wonderful anecdotes and insights from down the years) free of charge, so financially the evening was a great success. The first rugby jersey signed by every member of the Grand Slam team ’09 was presented by former Belvedere student and rugby great, Ollie Campbell. It raised  a further €13,000 at auction. To top it all off, those present watched Ireland beat Italy one-all (!)  in the World Cup qualifier match shown on big screens at either end of the dining hall.  ’The boys done good!”

Lisburn Churches come together

More than thirty lay people and clergy from the Church of Ireland, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Catholic parish, and the Plymouth Brethren in Lisburn, Co Antrim, have been on a five-week programme of getting to know and understand each other better. Michael Bingham SJ, a member of the Portadown Jesuit community, was one of three facilitators from the churches mediation group. The programme was supported by the Lisburn branch of Churches Together, and Lisburn City Council provided facilities and funding. One feature of the course was personal testimonies on faith and politics from SDLP, Ulster Unionist, DUP and Alliance city councillors. There was also a session on forgiveness and a conversation with community centre leaders from YMCA and a republican area. The course ended with a meal together – pictured here.

JRS Homework Club in Clondalkin

To mark the end of its second term, Jesuit Refugee Service (Ireland) held a quiz last Thursday for asylum-seeking children who attend the JRS Homework Club. The Club is held in Clondalkin Towers, a state-provided accommodation centre for people seeking asylum, and is available to the students on two afternoons each week. Proceedings start with a chat and a snack; then the children are given assistance with school work for an hour; and the afternoon is usually rounded off with some board games. It is coordinated by JRS Ireland’s Integration Officer, Elizabeth O’Rourke (pictured here), upon whom it falls to be the disciplinarian, and co-lead by JVC Volunteer Steve Hayes, who can afford to be the fun-guy. Three other volunteers help out with the education and the crowd control. Read more »

JESUITICA: A brilliant botanist

Georg Kamel (1661-1706), a Moravian Jesuit, worked as a missionary-pharmacist in the Philippines, and would send newly discovered plant specimens back to Europe to be studied and classified. The great Carl Linnaeus, in recognition of Kamel’s contribution to botany, named the camellia after him. And as the plant from which tea leaves are taken is of the camellia genus (Camellia Sinensis), this Jesuit brother of high renown might be respectfully remembered as we wash down our morning toast with a hot cuppa. The camellia pictured here was planted in the Crescent, Limerick, in 1969 by William Troddyn SJ.