Short notices

• Two Coláiste Iognáid brothers captain Connacht teams: Shane Conneely, who captained the Jes to win the senior cup has captained the Connacht U20′s in their recent victory over Munster. His brother Aaron, currently in sixth year has captained Connacht U18 Youths team. They have won the series.
• On 1 July all the phone numbers in the Jesuit community in Leeson Street were changed. The new numbers are provided below for reference:

• P. Andrews: 7758585	K. Laheen: 7758592
  G. Bourke: 7758586	J. Looby: 7758595
  J. Fitzgerald: 7758583	J. Moran: 7758593
  P. Fogarty: 7758588	F. O’Donoghue: 7758594
  M.O. Gallagher: 7758589	B. O’Leary: 7758584
  E. Grace: 7758591	F. Sammon: 7758587
  B. Grogan: 7758590	Kitchen: 7758580
  Visitor 1: 7758582	Visitor 2: 7758581
  Mgt Dixon (Admin): 7758599

• Audio CDs of Father General’s address at Gonzaga, homily at Milltown Park, and homily at Gardiner Street are now available from the Jesuit Communication Centre. Email jcc@jesuit.ie or phone 01-6768408. These will also be made available as podcasts on Jesuit.ie in the coming week.

Persecutions in Orissa

Like any newsletter, AMDG Express has to be selective in what it publishes from the quantity of reports that come in; generally there is some Jesuit involvement in the stories. Oliver Rafferty SJ, the Belfast historian in the British Province, visited the Indian Province of Orissa this summer and brought back a tale of tragedies. When a Hindu Swami and four companions were murdered by Maoists (who openly claimed the murder), Hindu fundamentalists made it a pretext for attacking Christians. Click on ‘Read more’ below for Archbishop Raphael Cheenath SVD’s telegraphic report on the scale of the persecution over the last two years: Read more »

Taking a taxi to heaven

The Irish Times on 23 September noticed Brenda Niall’s “Riddle of Father Hackett”, a wonderful book. William Hackett, the son of a  Kilkenny doctor, moved into the Jesuits after schooling in Clongowes. Through a network of friendships, Thomas McDonagh and Erskine Childers among them, he became a passionately anti-Treaty Republican at a time when such sympathies were rare in Irish Jesuits. In 1922, at the height of the Civil War, he was assigned to Australia and never saw Ireland again, but his friendships and influence left their mark in both Ireland and Australia. After being knocked down and fatally injured by a taxi while crossing a Melbourne street at night, he joked on his death-bed: “I never thought I’d have a taxi to take me to heaven.”

Volunteer tourism?

The Irish Aid Responsible Volunteering Fair took place in the Irish Aid offices in O’Connell St on Saturday September 26th,2009.   John Guiney SJ  and Deirdre Brady of the Mission Office and Debbie Moore of Sli Eile manned the Jesuit volunteer desk, which offered possibilities of short term and long term volunteering. Our picture shows John with Mesmour, born in Ethiopia, Irish raised and raised in Ireland. Hundreds of people turned up to seek information from the 23 organizations present.  The majority were women inquirers and it is remarkable how the humanitarian world, like the Church world, has a majority women enthusiasts. Read more »

Forthcoming events

• Professor JJ Haldane, a distinguished philosopher and papal adviser, will give a lecture in St Mary’s Haddington Road Dublin on Thursday October 1st at 8pm on the topic “A response to the challenge of secularism”.
• At the Spiritual Directors International meeting in Dublin Oct 16-18, Brian Grogan SJ will lead a Workshop on Discernment in the Public Forum. 
• 10 October: Crescent College Comprehensive will host a  Celebración de Música, a competition for choirs and orchestras  featuring the Irish Jesuit colleges and schools from Limerick. Enquiries to Roisin Lavery: 087 2474714.
• Bookings can be made through www.belvounion.ie  for the 2009 Dinner of the Belvedere College Past Pupils Union, which will be held at the College on Friday November 6th. This year’s Guest Speaker is Sir Terry Wogan (Class of ’56).

O’Hanlon draws Manresa crowds

On 24 September over a hundred people gathered in Manresa to hear Gerry O’Hanlon SJ talk on God and the recession, and field questions in a lively session. Convinced of the relevance of theological thought for practical living, Fr. O’Hanlon offered an analysis of the socio-economic crisis pervading Ireland. Quoting Bishop Rowan Williams he said there was a role for ‘awkward amateurs’ who would radically refound the vision which would move us forward. “Rescue without reform will only create further crises. The new vision should be founded on the notion of  ‘the common good’ and the principles  of  Catholic Social teaching.”  Many present expressed the wish to continue the debate, begun that night, on the shape of the reform.

JESUITICA: First musical textbook

The first musical textbook in the English language, A brief introduction to the true art of musicke (1584), was the work of William Bathe, born in County Dublin, who became a Jesuit in 1596. A genuine polymath, he had by that stage already taught mnemonics to Queen Elizabeth I, presented her with a harp designed by himself, and studied at Oxford, Gray’s Inn and Louvain. He invented a simple form of musical notation (presently being researched in Trinity by Sean Doherty), and as a Jesuit wrote a seminal book on linguistics, and was an important pioneer in popularising the Spiritual Exercises.

Christians for Europe

The launch of ‘Christians for Europe’ took place in Leeson Street on 19 September. This new movement takes as its foundation three statements about the basic values of the European Union as presented in the Lisbon Treaty. Those values are ‘human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law’. The statements are as follows: ‘These values are Christian’; ‘Christianity has shaped them’; and ‘Christianity has a role to play in Europe’s future’. Forty people attended the launch. After each of the contributions there was a lively discussion, opening up many issues for discussion. The session could easily have been an all-day one. By the end of the meeting there was clear agreement that this kind of forum was badly needed. The intention now is to schedule further meetings and to throw them open to broader participation. Read more »

Media coverage of Fr General’s visit

The visit of Fr General Adolfo Nicolás last week attracted considerable media attention at both national and local level. In the lead-up, Nick Cuddihy, headmaster of Crescent College, was interviewed by Limerick Live 95 News about plans for the visit to the college. The Limerick Leader gave extensive coverage to that visit, and in a later edition they ran an article about Fr Nicolás launching the Jesuit Refugee Centre annual report. The Irish Times also carried the story of the launch. The Irish Catholic had an exclusive interview with Fr Nicolás, which they illustrated with a good number of photos. Two papers which went for the local angle were the Leitrim Observer, which had a photo of Jesuit scholastic Eddie Cosgrove, from Drumahair, with Fr Nicolás in Milltown, and the Fermanagh Herald, which carried a shot of local boy Brendan McManus SJ with the Father General in Limerick.

JUST reaches 100

Jesuit University Support and Training (JUST) in Ballymun, which began with 20 students in 2006, has now 100 on its list. Local newspaper Northside People West gives an enthusiastic account of the benefits JUST offers to Ballymun students. Con MacGib, for example, had fortnightly one-to-one sessions with Fr Paddy Greene. “It helped me a lot”, says Con. “Paddy introduced assignment topics by giving me options, yet he encouraged me to do the research. Then when I completed the work, he would help me correct essay layout and grammar. They weren’t serious sessions, they were laid back, and it made my experience more enjoyable. I’d recommend anyone thinking about college to go and talk to JUST.” It is designed to help students training in any learning programme.

JCC multimedia splash

The Jesuit Communication Centre has made a raft of rich media relating to Fr Adolfo Nicolás’s visit available on the new Jesuit.ie. As well as news stories, the homepage currently showcases a photo-story of the visit as well as a video clip of part of Garry O’Sullivan’s interview with the Father General for the Irish Catholic. Also, by using the top-bar menu (‘Podcasts‘), visitors can access and play audio files of both Fr Nicolás’s homily and his address on education, both in Limerick; and they can download PDFs of a number of the addresses which the Father General delivered during his visit (click on ‘Documents‘ in top-bar menu). Other resources are made available offsite, in the Irish Jesuit pages on various social networking websites. Most notable, there are many photos of the visit in Flickr. More of all these media will be uploaded shortly.

Two Jesuit encounters

Fr Martin Tierney wrote movingly of his battle with cancer in the Irish Catholic of 17 September: “50 years ago I won a medal in the Leinster swimming championships, only to have it thrown out a classroom window by an irate Jesuit who decided I wasn’t paying attention in class! His self-indulgent juvenile action hasn’t lessened my respect for the Jesuits… It was in hospital I appreciated the ministry of the wonderful Jesuit chaplain (this was Brendan Staunton) – was that God sending me an angel of light to compensate for his brother-Jesuit of fifty years ago? The gift of compassionate listening is sacramental.  You may not think you are doing much by just listening. In fact, it is one of the best ways to help.”

JESUITICA: Arizona hero

Since 1864 each US state can display statues of two of its heroes in the US Capitol. There are two Jesuits included, Michigan’s Jacques Marquette (see last week’s Express) and Arizona’s Eusebio Francisco Kino, an Italian Jesuit who in the spring of 1687 started work among a group of Indians on the far northwest frontier of New Spain. The region where Kino worked, which he called the “Pimería Alta,” or “Upper Pima Country,” is now divided between the Mexican state of Sonora and the U.S. state of Arizona. Father Kino and his successors changed the face of the Pimería Alta forever. They brought with them a new religion, a new political system, and new crops and domesticated animals.