Cathal the priest

They came from North, South, East and West, led by an Inishowen bus full of Cathal’s kith and kin, to celebrate Cathal Doherty’s ordination to the priesthood in Gardiner Street. France and Austria were well represented on the altar. A phalanx of Irish Jesuits concelebrated from the aisle of the church, and at the central point of the ceremony, following the Archbishop, they invoked the Holy Spirit on Cathal by the laying on of hands. The classically reverent liturgy bore the marks of Cathal’s careful choices. Afterwards there was a reception in Milltown Park at which Bernard O’Connell, Principal of Coláiste Iognáid, made a presentation to Cathal on behalf of colleagues and companions working with the Society in Ireland (se pictures below). Cathal will join the staff of Colaiste Iognaid for the coming academic year. (Ordination photos credit: John McElroy) Read more »

Child protection seminar

Directors of Jesuit works in Ireland participated in a ‘Safeguarding children’ seminar at Milltown Park on 27 June. Led by Sr Evelyn Green CHF and Sr Goretti Butler DC, the group contributed to the process of refining a new draft policy document. The Province’s Safeguarding Children Policy is based on the Catholic Church document Our Children, Our Church (2005) as well as on current legislation. It has been updated to reflect the Standards and Guidance Document for the Catholic Church in Ireland published in February 2009 by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church and also by the recommendations of the Ryan report. The team working on this project, Mike Drennan SJ (Delegate for Safeguarding Children) and Deirdre Soffe and Joe Greenan of the Partners in Mission Office will shortly circulate dates for training for people designated to assist in implementing the policy.

Sound sense

For the last two years a Czech-born sound artist has been working with the children of St Declan’s school, taking each class for half an hour a week. “I’m not teaching them anything. In fact, it’s the opposite. I’m creating a space where they can explore,” explains Kwi, whose gentle manner and passion about sound is palpable. Initially it sounds like a din, a cacophony of different sounds that don’t make sense. But, then gradually you begin to hear a musical conversation – a drum beat in response to another, a whistle calling someone’s attention almost like one bird calling out to another and the longer you listen, the more you hear. It’s a confidence-building exercise that has to be seen to be believed. Read Sylvia Thompson’s article in Irish Times.

Moment of Grace

Farmleigh House was the venue for an event which Edmond Grace SJ, helped by Declan Kearney, Dee O’Donnell, Des O’Mahony and Michael Kenny, organised for the Conversation on Democracy in Ireland. In recent months, groups or Juries connected to four different Local Authorities (Cork City, Dublin City, Galway County and Louth County) have been meeting to reflect on their experience of policy-making and public life. On 29 June thirty people from all four groups came together, along with members of the Council of the Conversation, and enjoyed the hospitality of Farmleigh, courtesy of the Department of the Taoiseach. After three short talks, the main work of the day was in the extended interactions between the participants themselves. Read more »

Nativity School visits Galway

Czech Nativity School in Galway: Director Josef Horehled SJ along with students and staff from the Nativity school in Prague were on holidays in Galway from 22-27 June 2009. Brendan McManus SJ helped to find them a holiday house and accompanied them on a hike in the Mamturk mountains in Connemara. Nativity schools reach out to the children of poor minority families who remain on the margins of society. Since its beginnings in New York City more than 30 years ago, the model has spread throughout the United States, and now to the Czech Republic, offering quality education to boys and girls from low-income backgrounds. The schools keep classes small, seldom with more than 12 students, and emphasize not only academics but also spiritual development.

Covering the country

June, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart, proved the continuing vitality of the Messenger. People wonder what makes the Messenger the most widely read religious magazine in Ireland, with a bigger circulation than almost any publication – and that without advertising. The secret is the system of distribution which has served it from the beginning.  Local promoters receive a quota of copies,  from 3 to over 200, which they in turn distribute to subscribers in their area, collect their annual subscription and act as the point of contact with the Dublin office. This is a voluntary role which served at first by religious, but today is as equally managed by lay-people.  What gives this countrywide network its vitality? Read on. Read more »

JESUITICA: Moon-gazers

“That orbèd maiden with white fire laden, whom mortals call the Moon” has at least 35 craters named after Jesuit astronomers. And one of the earliest maps of the moon’s surface (pictured here) appeared in Almagestum novum, the work of two Jesuits, Giambattista Riccioli and Francesco Grimaldi. A large copy of that map adorns the Moon exhibition in the Smithsonian. Written in Latin across the top appears a curious clarification: “Neither do men inhabit the moon nor do souls migrate there”. And in more recent times a Filipino astronomer, Fr Victor Badillo SJ, was honoured by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) by having an asteroid named after him.

Short notices and forthcoming events

• The denizens of Cherryfield Lodge made full use of the sunny and cloudless weather on Tuesday 23 June. On an outing to Wicklow they took inboth the Jesuit holiday house at Thornhill, near Brittas Bay, and Tinnakilly House Hotel, near Rathnew, where they (as pictured here) had the dining room all to themselves for lunch.
• Starting in September 2009, Manresa is offering a Practicum in Retreat Direction to those who have successfully completed the two-year Course in Spiritual Direction. Participants will have a personal mentor for the year, and will direct several retreats of different kinds, under supervision. Some guided reading will be required, and for those who have not made the full Spiritual Exercises, an opportunity will be offered to make them in the form of the Exercises in Daily Life (EDL). For further information, contact Fr. Paddy Carberry, S.J., at Manresa (01) 833 1352.
• Fergus O’Donoghue SJ, the blogging editor of Studies, faces stiff competition for public attention.Statistics published this week show that a mere 9% of all registered blogs are currently active.That 9%, however, amounts to 7.4 million! Fergus, of course, is still very active, producing daily posts on journalists, bishops, papal nuncios, politicians and others – even getting online when he is abroad to get his word out there.

The Status for the year ahead

The ‘Status’ for the Irish Jesuit Province was posted this week. It is the list of assignments for Jesuits  for the coming year. Did it connote a centrifugal or a centripetal movement within the Province? — a movement to or away from Dublin? Clongowes would say centripetal, since it has lost two precious men to the capital. Peter Sexton, after many years teaching in Clongowes, has been appointed Chaplain in Trinity College (pictured here); and Conor Harper goes as curate to Donnybrook parish. Gardiner Street and Milltown have lost one of our most articulate philosophers in the move of James Murphy to teach in Chicago, USA. There is some evidence of a flow-back from what were missionary countries to the Irish church.  R. Rozario from Calcutta is coming to serve part of his Regency in Sacred Space and Sli Eile. Read more »

Judges and the levy

The exemption of Irish judges from the new pension levy has made front-page news in recent days. Would the independence of the judiciary be compromised if judges’ salaries were subject to the same levy as all other public servants? In the May issue of the Law Society Gazette (p.18-19), Patrick Hume SJ gave an outline of the law and argued that the problem regarding salaries lies not in the constitution or with the judiciary but in recent legislation. This legislation of the government is not unlike a Decree of 1974 by President Idi Amin in Uganda, where Patrick worked recently with refugees from Sudan. Perhaps, he contends, the solution also lies not with the judiciary but with the legislators.

Latest word from DR Congo

The plight of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still critical, according to Gerry Clarke SJ. Gerry works with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Goma, a city on the border between DRC and Rwanda in the east of the country. The ordinary civilians have been repeatedly terrorised by rebel militias who operate along the DRC-Rwanda border, leading to huge numbers of internally displaced people, many of whom have taken refuge in the five camps in the vicinity of Goma. In four of these camps the JRS runs a series of educational programmes in everything from hairdressing and bicycle repair to tailoring, baking and literacy training. They provide particular support for women victims of sexual violence, teaching them income-generating activities. One of these – weaving ‘basket-schoolbags’ – has been a great success. Read more »

JRS seminar on asylum procedure

Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland hosted an internal seminar in Milltown Park on 17 June. Senior policymakers from the Department of Justice –  Mr. Joe Keaney of the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, Ms. Rhea Bohan of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Services, and Ms. Maria Cassidy – gave presentations on the current asylum procedure and changes in the process for protection applicants arising from the Immigration, Residency and Protection Bill 2008. JRS staff and volunteers were in attendance as well as participants from the Mission Office, Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, Slí Eile and the Province Curia. The seminar was conducted under Chatham House rules which enabled a very energetic and robust debate to follow the presentations. Below is the text of the JRS press release for World Refugee Day, 20 June 2009. Read more »

Pioneers go global

The US-based Catholic network, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), will broadcast an interview with Fr Barney McGuckian, S.J., spiritual director of the Pioneer Association on Thursday 25 June at 1.00am Irish time. Fr Barney will be in conversation with EWTN’s Fr. Mitch Pacwa, and will offer viewers from across the globe a history of the Pioneer Association and an update on the Association’s current work. He will also outline the importance of the Pioneers’ devotion to the Sacred Heart. EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world, transmitting programmes 24 hours a day to more than 148 million homes in 144 countries.