Taking to the hills

Martina Madden and Anne-Marie Connolly (Peter McVerry Trust fundraisers, pictured here) are taking on a charity challenge this October to raise money for homeless services in Dublin. They are going to trek across Morocco for five days, with the summit of Mount Toubkal as their goal. Mount Toubkal is the highest mountain in North Africa – more than 4,000 metres high! And the good news is that they are currently looking for other brave souls to join them. Fellow-trekkers are promised a fascinating journey – meeting the local Berber people, eating traditional Moroccan cuisine, and visiting the exotic markets of Marrakech – and spectacular views of the Sahara from the mountain top. Registration for the event closes on 5th May, and the trek itself takes place 1st-5th October. For more information, visit www.pmvtrust.ie or telephone Peter McVerry Trust Fundraising Office 01-8230776.

Short Notices

• Clongownian Philip Flahavan (Rhetoric), won a Silver Medal in the Irish Science Olympiad Physics section. (This is the second year that Clongowes have been in the medals.) Philip will partake in further studies at Easter, and may end up going to Mexico in July to represent Ireland. Well done to Philip, the Science department and to Mr Stephen O’Hara, his physics teacher.
• Schools Senior Rugby Competitions: Belvedere beat St Gerard’s 19-0; Clongowes beat Newbridge 33-20; Gonzaga beat Kings Hospital 20-10; Crescent lost to Glenstal 16-23; Coláiste Iognáid beat Calasanctius 34-8; Connaught Schools Senior Hockey Semi-final; Coláiste Iognáid beat Salerno 2-0. For a longer write-up, go to AMDG.ie.
• Correction to last week’s note on Socius: There have been two instances in living memory of Irish Jesuits moving from the job of Socius to that of Provincial. Fr Brendan Barry was Socius from 1959 to 1962, and Provincial from 1965 to 1958. Fr Joe Dargan was simultaneously Socius and Rector of Clongowes from 1979-80, going on to be Provincial in 1980.

World Day of Migrants

‘Floods of refugees’, ‘waves of migrants’, ‘immigration flow’… In an incisive article for World Day of Migrants and Refugees (18 January), Eugene Quinn, director of JRS Ireland, identifies a dehumanising tendency in our use of such “hydraulic metaphors”. “It is as if refugees and migrants are a wave that might drown us,” he writes. Taking his cue from the Pope’s message for the day of commemoration, he addresses the pivotal question: “How can we fail to take charge of all those, particularly refugees and displaced people, who are in conditions of difficulty and hardship?” Read the full text below.

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Spirituality for a time of bewilderment

Theologian Gerry O’Hanlon SJ works at the Centre for Faith and Justice, and lives in a corporation estate in Cherry Orchard, at the far end of Ballyfermot. He sees the signs of change this Christmas in the housefront decorations. The recession is kicking in and many people are left bewildered by the rapidity and the intensity of the change. There is a change of mood everywhere. For the full reflection, click on ‘Read more’ below. Read more »

Short notices

• An Inter-Institutional Centre for Spirituality and Social Transformation has been launched in Waterford Institute of Technology, through the participation (pictured here) of Michael O’Sullivan SJ (Milltown Institute), Sister Bernadette Flanagan (All Hallows) and Michael Howlett (Waterford IT).
• The current Irish Catholic reports how ChurchServices.tv, part of CatholicIreland.net, is broadcasting Masses live to a growing audience, including some beleaguered Christians in Kenya. The site is an offshoot of Sacred Space, “The fire that lights other fires”.
• On 20 December, 3 to 5 p.m., girls and boys (with parent/adult supervision) are invited to join the Manresa Team, together with Mr. Paul McGuire (Belgrove Junior Boys School, Clontarf), for an afternoon of carol singing and reflection on the meaning of Christmas, followed by a little party at Manresa, 426 Clontarf Road.
• Noelle Fitzpatrick and Padraig Swan of Sli Eile Jesuit Centre for Young Adults were interviewed on Tuesday Dec 16th, on the Mooney Goes Wild programme on RTE Radio One. They spoke about their weekend pilgrimage in the Midlands without food or money and you can listen to the interview here.

Fr Joseph A. Kelly SJ

“Some people become priests because they love God, some because they love talking about God, and some, like Fr Joe Kelly, because they love people.” Joe had moved from Dublin to Jersey City in 1968, and worked in particular with students, and later actors – he played a Catholic priest in City Hall with Al Pacino. The crowds who attended Joe’s funeral in Jersey City, and the memorial Mass in Milltown Chapel, showed the affection he inspired, and the impact he made during his 59 years as a Jesuit.

JRS leads the way with migrants

Both JRS Ireland and Belvedere College received visits on 5 December from representatives of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD is currently conducting a thematic review of migrant education provision in Europe. Eugene Quinn, director of JRS Ireland, and Elizabeth O’Rourke were able to present the services and activities which they carry out in the area of intercultural education. The OECD team was very interested in the collaboration with Jesuit schools, Belvedere and Clongowes, in the provision of language classes for migrants (see photo). And they were particularly impressed with the JRS’s Intercultural and Interfaith Calendar and School Resource Folder  – even asking for extra copies to show to other countries as models of best practice.

Making news

Three Jesuits were in the national news last week. John Dardis, on RTE’s News at One, talked to Sean O’Rourke about the two Jesuits murdered in Moscow. Edmond Grace has held his line in an exchange of letters to the Irish Times. Richard Leonard (pictured right) from Australia gave radio interviews on the dangers of internet addiction, to Newstalk and to Aonghus MacAnally on the Mooney programme. Richard also gave excellent 3-minute reviews of four important films, on camera for JCC – they will appear presently.

New assistant to Socius appointed

While Fr John Dunne (pictured here) is ill, Fr Liam O’Connell will be fulfilling the functions of Socius to the Jesuit Provincial in Ireland. He will be based part-time at the Curia Office, IMI, Sandyford Road. Liam can be contacted at socius@jesuit.ie. What is a Socius? Paul Andrews SJ explains below. Click on ‘Read more’. Read more »

Paddy Lavery SJ: a special jubilee

Among the many personal jubilees celebrated in the Irish Jesuit province this year, Paddy Lavery’s (60 years a Jesuit) had a special flavour. His Clongowes brethren gathered round him in Cherryfield where he has lived since 1993, and pictured him holding the Schools Junior rugby cup (Clongowes won it this year): a poignant reminder of the chalice of suffering which Paddy has offered the Lord all these years.

The death of Fr Paddy Doyle SJ

Former Irish Jesuit Provincial Fr Paddy Doyle SJ died in Cherryfield in the early hours of Sunday morning. His body was in respose at Cherryfield on Tuesday Sept 16 at 2.30pm followed by prayers at 4pm. His funeral mass will take place in Milltown Park chapel on Wed Sept 17th at 11am. As he had worked for peace on the frontiers, he crossed the final frontier peacefully. God be good to him. Read more »

Short notices

• After a summer of refurbishment, Campion House in Hatch Street is opening its doors again this week to a community of three: John Dardis, Patrick Hume (pictured right, in a window in Campion House) and John O’Keeffe.
• The Gardiner St Gospel Choir will recommence on Sunday 14 Sept at 7.30pm.  It will be led by the new musical director, Mr Aidan Greene. All are welcome.
• Dermot Brangan reports from Tokyo: “Bill Johnston has now spent two months in a hospital bed. His doctor detected some irregularity in Bill’s heart and has asked for and been given leave to insert a pacemaker. It’s a small operation and the doctor anticipates no complications. Frankly, I can see no change in Bill’s condition.”
• Number 44 Sandford Road (almost opposite Loyola), known as The Annex for accommodating Jesuit visitors to Dublin this summer, has served its purpose and we have moved out of it.
• As the Milltown Institute starts lectures this week, after orientation last week, it rejoices in a new acting president. Fr Conn Casey, former Vincentian Provincial, has just taken over from Finbarr Clancy.
• Studies and The Iona Institute are sponsoring a third Public Lecture at 8 p.m. on Thursday, October at the Davenport Hotel, Merrion Square, Dublin 2. Professor Keith Ward, an Anglican priest and fellow of the British Academy, will speak on: Is Religion Dangerous? (the title of one of his twenty books). Admission free. If you wish to attend the lecture please email or phone 01-6619204.
• Walt Kilroy, Jesuit Solidarity Scholar based at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, is making a field trip to Sierra Leone for the month of September, to look at the reintegration of former combatants following the civil war there. Readers can look forward to a report on Walt’s return.
• Two corrections to items in last week’s AMDG Express. We underestimated the worldwide membership of Christian Life Communities: the actual number is over 30,000 – with apologies to Michaael O. Gallagher. And we saluted Brendan McManus as a Track Tutor, when in fact he is a Class Tutor. Sorry, Brendan.

Ignatian Pilgrims

Last month Fergus O’Donoghue SJ led a group of 34 Irish prilgrims to Spain. He writes:

“The pilgrimage is based on St. Ignatius’s Autobiography and is intended to bring pilgrims to the places in which the significant events in his life occurred. So we stayed at Loyola for four nights, which gave plenty of time for prayer in the house where he was born and where he experienced a spiritual reawakening many years later. We visited the buildings he would have known in the nearby town of Azpeitia and even arranged a group photograph outside his mother’s birthplace in Azcoitia (ignoring the bemused gazes of a large crowd of Basque-speaking teenagers). We went to the Franciscan shrine at Arantzazu, high in the mountains, where Ignatius made his first pilgrimage. Read more »