Learning from refugees

Six Transition Year students from Gonzaga visited the JRS Ireland office on 28 May, as part of a two-day visitation programme to Jesuit works. Elizabeth O’Rourke provided an overview of JRS Ireland’s activities in the cause of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. Eight asylum seekers (from Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Cameroon) met the boys to talk about their homeland, their lives in direct provision in Ireland and their experiences of the asylum process. Sport plays an important role in facilitating integration and social interaction between host and migrant communities. In this spirit the Gonzaga students, the asylum seekers and three students from Belvedere enjoyed a game of football on the roof of Belvedere College. The match could not have gone ahead without the generous assistance of Helen Bardem and Jan from Belvedere.

Issues in Alicante

Michael Gallagher SJ, the Ecclesiastical Assistant (EA) for the Irish Christian Life Community (CLC), has just returned from a European Assembly – some 70 delegates from 17 countries – in Alicante, Spain. The Jesuit EAs arrived a day early, to clarify the central issue of Commitment: what does CLC commitment (less clear-cut, more nuanced than Religious vows) mean for a layperson with a full-time job? As part of a bigger group, the Irish team (two women delegates with Michael) also tackled the difficult and long-standing issue of the preponderance of women in CLC. In the picture and (left to right): Barbara (President, CLC Ireland), May (Eurolink), Evelyn (CLC England and Wales, and new co-ordinator for Europe), and Michael.

Overlooked in Irish History

The Summer number of Studies has appeared, on the theme: Overlooked in Irish History. The basket of the overlooked holds two women (Nagle and Hayden), four men (Redmond, Sheehan, McCullough and Hobson), and two groups (Southern Unionists and Protestant identities). Because these were people of principle and some nobility, their vision has weathered the years surprisingly well. Earlier editors of Studies helped some of them to articulate their vision. Fergus O’Donoghue, increasingly well known not just as editor but as blogger, has helped a new generation of writers to articulate what has endured from these half-forgotten Irish, despite the frustrations and failures they suffered.

Shower of red roses

Writing from Rome, Tom Casey SJ describes a fascinating and moving annual tradition which marks the end of the Pentecost Mass in Saint Mary of the Martyrs, more famously known as the Pantheon. “Roman fire fighters positioned themselves high up around the 30-foot wide oculus or hole in the dome of the Pantheon, and at noon began throwing thousands upon thousands of red rose petals through this giant opening in the roof. We all gasped in joy and astonishment as the red rose petals appeared from a circle of cloudy sky and slowly wafted their way down onto the marble floor beneath.” Known as ”the rain of the red rose petals”, it spoke, as Tom says, “ better than any words could of the Spirit flaming forth and dancing in a thousand unexpected places”. Read more »

Belvedere athletes crowned

On 23 May Belvedere athletes were crowned All Ireland champions for boys’ schools when they won the College of Science Cup for a record 11th consecutive time. Belvedere amassed more points in the track & field events than any other boys’ school in Ireland.  Belvedere college athletics captain is pictured here with the College of Science Cup. Fr Jim Cullitan S.J  said much credit must go to the former Olympian and legendry athletics coach Phil Conway who has coached athletics at Belvedere College for many years, and is due to retire this year, handing over the reins to his assistant Colin McCarthy

Pentecost in the Sudan

In his latest missive from the Sudan, Richard O’Dwyer SJ describes his efforts to engage the services of a US group which is committed to low-capital technology in farming. He was looking for training courses for oxen drivers! Also, once again he takes to the rough terrain outside Lobone, in a bid to reach a remote mountain community in Lomarati to say Pentecost Mass for them. No journey in Southern Sudan, it seems, is without its adventures, and Richard describes his well. Lomarati iself he describes as “one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen”, and he was overcome by the warmth of the welcome he received. Read more »

JESUITICA: Jumping Jesuits

Travellers in the Beara Peninsula will remember the Priest’s Leap, a mountain cliff in the townland of Cummeenshrule, where (around 1600 AD) a priest on horseback escaped from pursuing soldiers by a miraculous leap, which landed him on a rock near Bantry. Was the lepper a Jesuit? One tradition claims him as James Archer SJ; another as Blessed (Brother) Dominic Collins. In view of some dating difficulties, one can only say: pie creditur – a common phrase in Latin hagiographies, meaning “It is piously believed…”!

Short notices

• Sixth year Jes student, Eoin Griffin, presents his Irish Rugby jersey to school principal, Bernie O’Connell, accompanied by senior rugby coach, Paul Kilraine, on Tuesday 26th May 2009. Eoin was selected for the Irish team and has won a Connaught under-19 award.
• Following from his increasingly popular blog, and the quiet media work of Pat Coyle, Fergus O’Donoghue has been invited by the London Tablet to expand his comments on Religious life in Ireland, against the background of the Ryan Report. Watch for the article in the issue of Friday, 5 June.
• In the Bellarmino College, Rome, an exceptionally warm welcome greeted the announcement that Ireland’s Michael Paul Gallagher SJ is to be the new Rector there. He takes over on the feast of St Robert Bellarmine, 17 September, and looks forward to ” a long summer of quiet in Ireland” before that. He will be in Gardiner Street for a week from 6 June,  for a Charles Taylor conference at Mater Dei and part of the novena to the Sacred Heart.

Pilgrimage in the West

Slí Eile, the Jesuit initiative which accompanies and empowers young adults in their search to find ‘God in all things’, organised a highly successful pilgrimage at Easter to Ballintubber and Croagh Patrick (pictured here). This was one of many activities which Slí Eile has run in an effort to engage young people around the core values of Ignatian spirituality, community and social justice. It does this through a creative range of programmes of self-discovery, retreats, spirituality courses, pilgrimages, gospel choir masses and justice and community initiatives at home and abroad. Read below for the essay of one Galway pilgrim, Roisin NicGhruagáin, who captures the flavour of the Croagh Patrick experience, stemming as much from personal need as from piety. Read more »

Forthcoming events

• The Annual Belvedere Block-Pull will take place from Thursday 11 June to Sunday 21 June. Over this period, students will spend three days in the Dublin area, then walk to Galway, raising funds for Irish Guide Dogs for The Blind and for The Temple Street Children’s Hospital. All support is hugely appreciated as they look to break their record on this event which currently stands at €70,000. Cheques can be made payable to “Belvedere College Charity Walk” and can be sent to Tom Doyle, Belvedere College, Gt Denmark St, Dublin 1.
• The Ballymun Gospel Choir will perform at Sunday Mass in Mountjoy Prison on 7 June. This is part of Slí Eile’s ongoing Prison Mass project.
• The Gardiner Street Gospel Choir will play in The Helix on 6 June. Buy tickets online at the Helix website.