Welcomes and farewells at feastday Mass

The Mass for the 31 July feast of St Ignatius, at Gardiner St church, celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, was the occasion for the handover of service from Fr John Dardis (left in photo) to Fr Tom Layden (right) as the Provincial of the Irish Jesuits. A short letter of appointment from Fr General Adolfo Nicolas was read by Fr John, after which the new Provincial responded, asking for prayers for his term of office. He noted that, as well as being ordained in Gardiner St church, he had worked there a few times – as a novice lighting the lamps for the Novena of Grace, and later as the preacher of that novena and of the novena to the Sacred Heart. He was also involved in linking the Gardiner St church with Belvedere College when he worked there as chaplain. The congregation warmly responded to his words and to the congratulations of Archbishop Martin.

Peace in Portadown

AMDG Express seldom features the small Jesuit community in Churchill Park, Portadown, which was started in the days when Garvaghy Road and Drumcree were synonyms for sectarian tensions. Quiet, sustained ecumenical work on both sides has brought real change. Good relations have developed between Jesuits and leaders from the mainline churches who meet regularly. They held joint ceremonies at Christmas, Easter, Church Unity Week and a day of quiet and prayer together. Summer recess was declared at a shared meal hosted by the Catholic parish priest. Michael Bingham SJ devotes a lot of time to the prisoners in Maghaberry, which houses more than 1,000 people, rife with political dramas and personal tragedies. Davy Byrne SJ keeps in touch with the local people especially in times of distress and ill health.

100 years on Leeson Street

The Leeson Street community celebrated its centenary happily. Bruce Bradley, who started St Ignatius’ Day in Farm Street, London, dashed over to give a carefully researched and memorable homily to Jesuits and a houseful of friends at Mass in University Church. Then Fergus O’Donoghue launched the congregation on an SJ-themed tour of Newman House, where, over wine and finger food, Fr Tom Layden introduced the centenary book (pictured here). It was a memorable day, the fruit of excellent planning, and it all came together nicely. To mark the birthday the house has been renovated in a dozen ways, and the Messenger Office rewired. Apart from the book, with its illustrations both of our history and present state, the archives inherit a visual record of the community, in the shape of interviews on camera with each of the brethren.

Versatile Jim

With the death of Brother Jim Sutton last week, the Irish Jesuits lost a quiet man of multiple talents. Born in Glasnevin, and schooled by the Christian Brothers in Scoil Mhuire, Marino, he was bright enough to win a scholarship into the ESB. Having trained as an electrician he entered the Society at 22. That was his most familiar role in the Province: he wired, rewired, fixed and constructed and maintained plant in most of our houses, leaving a precious legacy behind him. His other talents were less well known. He ran with Donore Harriers, played brilliant hurling with St Vincent’s Club, and could bring a party to life with his banjo. In this last year he pulled himself back from a life-threatening sickness to brighten the surrounds of Cherryfield with its brilliant flower beds. He is remembered with great affection.

The Centenary Cluster

Alan McGuckian SJ in Belfast has joined a group of Unionist Protestants looking ahead to the Centenary Cluster – the set of centenary commemorations starting in 1912 with the Ulster Covenant, through the foundation of the Ulster Volunteers and the gun-running in Larne, and the foundation of the Irish Volunteers with the gun-running in Howth, Jim Larkin and the Lock-out, through to the Battle of the Somme, the 1916 Rising, and all the tensions of that extraordinary decade. In the Republic Brian Cowen has urged Irish people to prepare for these centenaries in a way that transcends divisions. As the only Catholic and Nationalist in a group of Protestants with differing perspectives, Alan finds it a moving and significant experience.

MP Gallagher on ‘Newman for today’

John Henry Newman is one of the ten people selected for exploration by Michael Paul Gallagher SJ in his latest book, Faith Maps, and on Wed 1 Sept, 7.30pm, the well-known author will give a lecture entitled ‘Translating Newman for Today’, in St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner St, Dublin 1. Newman crossed the Irish sea many times, and while he was living in Dorset Street he attended Mass in the Gardiner St church and ate with the Jesuit Community there. According to Michael Paul, Newman was an intellectual and spiritual giant and his obituaries in liberal and even atheist papers showed the esteem in which he was held, with one paper claiming he was ‘the true leader of England’. Listen here to his interview with Pat Coyle of the Jesuit Communication Centre on his upcoming lecture (all welcome, admission free).

Beginnings

As AMDG Express returns to production after the summer break, it makes a fresh start in more ways than one. The JCC’s beautiful room in Leeson Street is piled with boxes ready for the move to offices in Milltown Park. This will be a new beginning, rubbing shoulders with the Provincial’s team. Dermot Roantree, the coeditor of AMDG Express, has made a new beginning of his own. Jacob, the first child of Dermot and his wife Liz Mullins (formerly assistant archivist of the Irish Province, now a college lecturer in UCD), was born on 18 July. He is a gorgeous boy, alert, energetic, hungry, ignoring all timetables as he demands to be fed or changed. As Dermot staggers baggy-eyed in to work, he resonates with Ralph Emerson: “There was  never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep” – and his father too.

Hurray for Hopkins

On the first day of the 23rd Gerard Manley Hopkins Festival, Paul Andrews SJ stood on the grave of GMH (Fergus O’Donoghue marked the spot in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin), and invoked the Lord’s blessing on the international gathering. The 7-day event unfolded as the biggest and best yet, thanks to the dynamic trio who organise it, Desmond and Viv Egan and Elaine Murphy; thanks also to the Newbridge Dominicans who hosted many of the sessions. Next year’s event will include a visit to Clongowes, where Hopkins spent more time outside Dublin than anywhere else, and where he wrote some important poems.

JESUITICA: A man of vision

One of the treasures in Dublin’s Marsh’s Library is an early edition of  Oculus, hoc est, by Christoph Scheiner (1575-1650), a German Jesuit who showed for the first time a diagram of the optic nerve entering the eyeball at one side. He constructed a model which represented the eye by a camera obscura with a spherical glass retina, a lens and cornea and aqueous and vitreous humours. He described the principle of accommodation (by which the focal length of the eye changes) in a way that has remained fundamentally unchanged since his time. Even before this pioneering work on the eye, Scheiner was famous as the inventor of the Pantograph (an early duplicating machine), and as a meteorologist who wrote the standard work on sunspots.

Forthcoming Events

• 17 August: Conall O’Cuinn is guest speaker at Knock Novena
• 16-25 August: Eight-day retreat will be held in Manresa House, Clontarf Road, Dollymount.  For details, contact 01 8331352
• 24-28 August: Social week in Brussels – attending are Gerry O’Hanlon SJ, Eoin Carroll and Brendan McPartlin SJ
• 1 September: Public lecture by Michael Paul Gallagher SJ in St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street at 7:30pm: ‘Translating Newman for today’
• 11 September: Oliver Rafferty SJ speaking at the Catholic Historical Society of Ireland annual conference: ‘Catholic chaplains to the British Forces in the First World War’
• 15 September: ‘Studies’ conference, entitled ‘Healing a broken Church? Catholicism after the Reports’, will be held in Milltown Park, Sandford Road at 6pm
• 16 September: ‘Soul Journey’, guided meditation and prayer, continues each Monday at 6pm at Gardiner St. Church. For further information, contact the parish office at 01 8363477

Short Notices

• Eyes on Olympics: Sam Watson and Barry McStay, who both left Clongowes in 2004, are training hard for the 3-Day Event in the  London Olympics of 2012. Sam rides Hoyo, a horse co-owned by Barry. Sam (left) and Barry are pictured here at the recent Tattersall International 3-Day Event, where Sam came fourth in an international field.
• Riding the waves: Colaiste Iognaid, Galway, is proud of its past pupil, Ray Carroll, who has just rowed West to East across the Atlantic, cutting eleven days off the record. He learned his rowing in the Jes, starting as an 11-year-old.
• Marathon Pioneers: This year, for the first time, the Pioneer Association will enter a designated race team in the Dublin City Marathon. They are hoping that other people associated with Jesuit apostolates will sign up for or support the Association’s entry for the 2010 Dublin City Marathon. 2010 Registration for the marathon is now open. The closing date for entries is Monday, 4 October.
• Suffering: In Tokyo Bill Johnston SJ has been in bed for two years, paralysed, fed through a tube, unable to speak, read or write. Mostly he is sleeping. Heinz, his friend in the same house, writes: “My only hope is that he will not go to purgatory, but, on the contrary, will get a beautiful reward for saving so many souls thru his suffering. Sad not to be able to give you good news.”
• Parish Listening Nights: Together with Nuala O’Loan, Alan McGuckian visits Belfast parishes where Nuala presents the bones of the Murphy Report (on clerical abuse in Dublin Archdiocese), and Alan presents the Pope’s Letter to the Irish Church. That is enough to trigger a lively conversation among the people gathered, while Alan and Nuala listen.
• Exposure: Brian Grogan’s voice and face have been aired a lot this month. He spoke about renewal in the Irish Church, on RTE’s programme Would You Believe? The following day he felt famous when a friendly lady recognised and greeted him on the street. He talked about the Irish Church on The World Tonight, a BBC Radio 4 programme. Vatican Radio interviewed him on the relevance of Ignatius Loyola for today: this was broadcast on 31 July.