Grants for Africa

Murt Curry SJ and John Guiney SJ give a lot of time and care to preparing applications for funding for projects in Jesuit missions, mostly in Africa. They are happy enough that despite the recession, three of their recent five applications were successful. All that careful paperwork and negotiations will soon be translated into projects that will improve the life of people in South Sudan, Kenya and Zambia.  Applications for funding from Misean Cara to the tune of €148,000 have recently been approved through the Irish Jesuit Mission Office.  Of the three grants, one is for construction work in South Sudan, the other two for skills training in Nairobi and Lusaka. Read more »

Brian Lennon’s book on Forgiving

Brian Lennon’s book So You Can’t Forgive…? is now on its second printing. Recently he and Nuala O’Loan (former Police Ombudsman) were the speakers at a recent launch of it in Omagh. Over 100 attended. Several years ago Nuala suffered a miscarriage after being injured in a bomb. It took her 18 years to recognise that she `had not walked in the shoes of the men who took the life of my unborn baby…I could not know how I might have behaved if I had lived their lives, and so at the end of the day all I could do was to leave them to God’. Read more »

Easter in Sudan

Richard O’Dwyer SJ in South Sudan is still registering first impressions with the freshness of a new arrival.  Here is his Easter message: “Just after I had shaken the last hand and wished the last of the congregation Happy Easter after our Holy Saturday Vigil, I was informed that the mothers of our newly baptised infants wanted to meet me in the afternoon of Easter Sunday. Feeling pretty tired and not quite knowing what to expect, I groaned inwardly and muttered something to myself, if I am to be perfectly honest!  However, on Easter Sunday morning I discovered that the “meeting” was a party to celebrate the baptism of the children.” Read more »

What is a saint?

Since AMDG Express often mentions book-launches, it should also be allowed to mention books that are not launched, which slip into the shops without benefit of wine, cheese or speeches – and who is to say they do any less good for that? One such is an attractive volume published by Veritas at Easter called So great a cloud. It is Stephen Redmond SJ’s collection of stories about great Christians who he believes are in heaven, and whose witness impressed him. Celebrity sits uneasily on Stephen, but his writings and music over the years deserve celebration, especially the compliment of being enjoyed.

Why care about social justice?

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice  launched “‘Why Care?’ – Social Justice Unit for Schools” on Wednesday 13 May in the JCFJ office, Upper Sherrard Street, at 2.00pm. This new web-based unit was developed through a collaboration between the Centre and a number of teachers from Jesuit schools. It was designed for second-level students, more specifically those in Transition, Fifth and Sixth Year, to explore such questions as ‘What is Social Justice?’ and ‘Why Should I Care?’. Focusing on housing and homelessness and on crime and prisons, the unit provides a step-by-step introduction to these subject areas. The material presented draws on the work of the Centre in highlighting these issues and advocating policy change in relation to them.

University chaplains on in-service day

CN3 (Chaplains Network at Third Level) had its Spring in-service day at St. Stephen’s chaplaincy, UCD Belfield, on Friday 8 May. The topic: how to communicate, to an increasingly secular and often sceptical audience, the uniqueness and specificity of the chaplain’s role. This theme echoes a concern among chaplains, voiced at CN3’s AGM in January, that their role is often narrowly conceived and perceived (‘Call in the chaplain when someone dies’) and that therefore there is a need to better communicate, to staff and students alike, their message and the breadth and depth of their service. Pat Coyle, Manager of JCC, ably assisted the chaplains in this task. Leon Ó Giollain SJ (pictured here), a chaplain in UCD, reports on the day below. Read more »

Not-so-final curtain!

Kevin Laheen SJ was in fine form for the launch of the second volume of his history of The Jesuits in Tullabeg. Dr Pat Donlan, director of the Tyrone-Gutherie Centre in Annamacharraig, Co. Monaghan was guest speaker at the event in the Milltown Park Institute on Wednesday, May 7th. She praised the historical  detail and anecdotal entertainment that she believed characterised the book and her enthusisam and admiration for Kevin’s work ensured many copies went home safely tucked under attendees’ arms. Before they departed, the author, who celebrated his ninetieth birthday in February, extended another invitation for next year. With three chapters already completed, he hopes to launch the last volume in the series in 2010. The Jesuits in Tullabeg-The Final Curtain will mark a fitting end to a significant era in Irish Jesuit history.

Words, words, words

Classical Jesuit education aimed at giving the learner a copia verborum, an ample supply of words. That tradition is still strong. It is hard to pinpoint any time in the Province’s history when so much was being published. The last three months have seen five books brought out by Irish Jesuits: Brian Lennon (Armagh) on forgiveness; Gerry O’Hanlon (Cherry Orchard) on God and the Recession; Kevin Laheen (Leeson Street) on Tullabeg; Stephen Redmond (NCR) on Christian witnesses; and (tonight) Todd Morrissey (Manresa) on John Sullivan. That is only the start of it. Read more »

Twelve-step workshop

‘Twelve Steps – America’s Contribution to the History of Spirituality’ was the theme of a day-long workshop given by Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Communication Centre last Saturday 9 May in the Mount St Anne’s retreat centre in Killenard, Portarlington. Addiction and the related twelve-step recovery programme has been one of the issues on the agenda of the Manresa Centre for Spirituality, and Pat Coyle was part of the organising team for their summer seminar on addiction. She herself has attended the twelve-step prayer evenings given by Ciary Quirke SJ in Manresa. For further information on these evenings visit www.manresa.ie.

JESUITICA: Early ecumenism

In 1687 a multi-denominational Jesuit school in Edinburgh described its ethos: “There shall be all freedom for everyone to practise what Religion he shall please. None shall upbraid or reproach anyone on account of Religion; and when any exercise of Religion shall be practised, as hearing Mass, catechising, or preaching, or any other, it shall be lawful for any Protestant without any molestation or trouble to absent himself from such public exercise if he please.”

Short notices

• On Monday May 11, Colaiste Iognaid students in Galway were privileged to hear in person one of the few existing Holocaust survivors, Tomas Reichental, who is currently living in Ireland. Tomas held students spell-bound with his life story: he was born in 1935 in Piestany, Slovakia, and was captured and sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944 when he was only nine years old. He survived it along with his mother, brother, aunt and cousin, but he lost thirty-five members of his family in the Holocaust.
• In a week when the Sunday Times distributed a free DVD of The Killing Fields, that harrowing film about the genocide in Cambodia, Provincial John Dardis, writing in the Irish Catholic,  drew attention to the Church’s role in rebuilding a shattered  society, and to the work of Irish Jesuit Ashley Evans in Phnom Penh.

Forthcoming events

• The 50th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Dublin in 2012. Fr Kevin Doran of Glendalough will look after the organisation.
• Slí Eile will run an introduction to Ignatian Spirituality, Experiential prayer & Music, on Saturday May 23rd from  10.30am – 4.30pm  Facilitators: Therese Larkin IBVM & Debbie Moore, MA. Cost €25: contact Debbie at 01 8943165 or email debbie.moore@sli-eile.com
• Today, Tuesday 12 May, at 7.30 p.m. in Gardiner Street Ignatian Room, Bertie Ahern TD will launch Todd Morrissey’s new book: Where two traditions meet: John Sullivan SJ.