Reality Magazine December 2022

Redemptorist Communications are proud to present this new book from Jim Deeds, A Look of Love – Witnesses to Jesus. Deeds brings the stories of Jesus and his early followers to life. Through a series of imagined conversations, stories and poems, he invites the reader to experience familiar Gospel stories through the lens of various characters who witnessed Jesus’ ministry first-hand. Jim’s love of the Gospels shines through, while his gift for storytelling imbues each of these unique stories with emotion and gentle humour. With questions to encourage further reflection and prayer, this book is the ideal companion for anyone looking for a fresh approach to the Gospels.

By Ruth Sheehy

By Colm Meaney CSsR

REALITY BITES

CATHOLIC LEADERS WANT A LATIN AMERICAN CHURCH THAT’S SYNODAL LIMA, PERU

The church in Latin America and the Caribbean is called to be a missionary church that heeds the cry of the poor and excluded; a synodal church where women, young people, and laypeople have greater roles; and a church that is evangelised even as it evangelises, according to the final document of the church’s First Ecclesial Assembly held a year ago in Mexico.

The document of reflections and pastoral challenges resulting from the assembly was released by leaders of the Latin American bishops’ council, CELAM, on October 31 during a news conference at the Vatican.

The publication reflects a desire for a church

that “goes out to the periphery … a Samaritan church … a church that builds fraternity, which is grounded in love, in the encounter with those who suffer most,” Archbishop José Luis Azuaje of Maracaibo, Venezuela, president of Caritas in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a video message at the presentation.

The document is the fruit of a months long process that included a “listening” period from April to August 2021, during which some 70,000 people throughout the region provided input, followed by the weeklong assembly on Nov. 21-28.

That process made the ecclesial assembly

“a practical laboratory” for the Synod of Bishops on synodality, which began with listening sessions this year, to be followed by meetings in Rome in 2023 and 2024, said Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos of Trujillo, Peru, CELAM president.

SYNOD REPORTS SHOW ENTHUSIASM FOR MISSION, BUT ALSO IDENTIFY OBSTACLES

Catholics around the globe long to share the Gospel with a world in need, but they see situations and tensions within the church that challenge their ability to do so, said one of the drafters of the document for the continental phase of the Synod of Bishops.

The reports sent to the Vatican from local and national listening sessions show “a deep, deep hunger for a new confidence in the church, a confidence in its ability to proclaim the Gospel to a world so deeply in need,” said Anna Rowlands, a professor of Catholic social thought and practice at Durham University in England.

Rowlands, who read many of the contributions to the synod before helping draft the new document, told reporters at the Vatican on October 27 that the reports showed that confidence is challenged by internal church problems, especially the

clerical abuse scandal.

With “just as much” focus on mission, she said, the reports ask, “What condition does the church have to be in in its own internal life and relationships to be able to carry that message to the world? To meet Christ in the world and bring Christ to the world in a Spirit-led way?”

In talking about exclusion and clericalism and a lack of listening to each other, “the reports are saying there are aspects of our own relationships, our capacity for genuine unity in diversity,” that stand in the way, Rowlands said. The reports acknowledge that it is difficult to speak authoritatively to the world of reconciliation in Christ “if we cannot ourselves be brothers and sisters, if we can’t heal our own divisions, our mutual suspicions, our lack of fundamental trust.”

The synod document is titled “Enlarge the

Space of Your Tent,” a quotation of the Lord’s command to the people of Israel in the Book of Isaiah.

“Enlarging the tent requires welcoming others into it, making room for their diversity,” the document said. But echoing the submissions to the synod’s Vatican office, the document listed people and groups who often feel excluded or are seen to be excluded: women, young people, people with disabilities, the poor, those who are divorced and civilly remarried, single parents, those in polygamous marriages and members of the LGBTQ communities.

VATICAN CITY

NAIROBI, KENYA

AFRICAN BISHOPS: NO CLIMATE JUSTICE WITHOUT LAND JUSTICE

As the U.N climate change conference unfolded in the Egyptian city of Sharm elSheikh, Catholic bishops in Africa warned that there cannot be climate justice without land justice.

The bishops of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar said on November 8 that land, natural resources, and the ecosystem were the main sources of subsistence for the people in Africa, but many did not have access to land due to perverse commercial relations and ownership.

At the same time, as the people struggled against the current global climate crisis,

they were victims of land and water grabs, experienced pollution of their water and soil by pesticides, and were losing biodiversity and traditional seeds, according to the bishops.

“Communities share the experience that, as they claim their rights to land, they are being persecuted, which is leading to more violent conflicts, despair, and instability,” Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of SECAM’s Justice, Peace and Development Commission, said in a statement titled, “No climate justice without land justice.”

The cardinal said it was clear the communities would be better if their resources were not

captured by powerful people and corporations and given away by weak public institutions.

“We are denouncing false solutions that deprive local communities of their livelihoods, their land rights, and tenure. We join communities in mobilising against ill-advised large-scale land acquisition investments and their struggle against land grabs,” said Cardinal Ambongo Besungu, archbishop of Kinshasa.

The statement listed multinational companies it said were involved in land grabs in Congo, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Uganda, and Tanzania.

REALITY BITES

VATICAN CITY

VATICAN CONFIRMS IT IS OPENING ABUSE INVESTIGATION OF FRENCH CARDINAL

The Vatican has decided to open an investigation into French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, the retired archbishop of Bordeaux, who admitted in a public letter that he had abused a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.

“As a result of the elements that have emerged in the last few days and the statement made by the cardinal, in order to complete the examination of what happened, it has been decided to initiate an ‘investigatio praevia,’” or preliminary investigation, Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said on November 11.

Bruni would not say if the decision was made by Pope Francis, although because the case involves a cardinal who is a member of Vatican dicasteries and who, at 78, is still eligible to participate in a conclave, people

familiar with the workings of the Vatican assume the pope had to agree.

The person “best suited” to conduct the investigation “with the necessary autonomy, impartiality and experience is now being evaluated, also in view of the fact that the French judicial authorities have an open file on the case,” Bruni said.

The Vatican’s customary practice, he said, would be to wait until the French civil authorities have closed their case to begin any kind of canonical procedure, in which case the Vatican could request documentation from the judicial authorities to use in their process as well.

During the French bishops’ autumn meeting in Lourdes on November 7, Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of

the bishops’ conference, read a letter from Cardinal Ricard admitting to the abuse.

Later, the archbishop said he had been informed in February of Cardinal Ricard’s past and that he had been in communication with the victim, who did not want to be identified publicly.

The Marseille public prosecutor’s office also heard of the allegations before Cardinal Ricard’s letter was read; it opened an investigation of Cardinal Ricard on suspected “aggravated sexual assault” in late October.

In his letter, Cardinal Ricard admitted to engaging in “reprehensible” conduct against the girl when he was a priest. He said his behaviour “has necessarily caused serious and lasting consequences for this person.”

LIVE THE GOSPEL BY TREATING OTHERS AS A BROTHER OR

Treating everyone as a brother or sister is the clearest, most simple way to live the Gospel each day, Pope Francis has said.

“It is an invitation without exclusion: brothers and sisters all in humanity and love,” the pope wrote in a message to members of FOCSIV, a federation of mostly Italy-based Catholic volunteer organisations that work internationally.

Representatives of the federation met the pope at the Vatican on November. 14 as part of their celebration of the organisation’s 50th anniversary. Twenty organisations founded the group in 1972; today it includes 94 organisations working in 80 countries.

Ivana Borsotto, the group’s president, told Pope Francis, “We seek to be a neighbour

in the most abandoned peripheries, in the most remote villages, in the most inhumane prisons, along the cruelest migratory routes, in the most crowded refugee camps and in war-torn countries.”

In his prepared text, Pope Francis said development work, like what FOCSIV members promote in many of the world’s poorest countries, is the only real response to concerns about migration.

“Think of how many young people today are forced to leave their land in search of a dignified existence; how many men, women and children face inhumane journeys and violence of all kinds in order to seek a better tomorrow; how many continue to die on the routes of despair, while their fate is discussed

SISTER, POPE SAYS

or we turn away,” the pope wrote.

“Forced migration — to escape war, hunger, persecution or climate change — is one of the great evils of this age,” he said, and “we will only be able to address at its root by ensuring real development in every country.”

VATICAN CITY

MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS

IN BAHRAIN, THE POPE CALLS FOR FULL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, NO DEATH PENALTY

archipelago nation in the Persian Gulf.

On his first day, he focused on addressing local authorities and diplomats, touching on both national and global concerns, and how everyone, especially governing leaders, must respond in ways that serve the common good.

“I am here,” he said, “as a sower of peace.”

Commitments to protect tolerance and religious freedom need to be put into practice constantly so that these rights may be fully experienced, Pope Francis said during his visit to Bahrain.

This is important “so that religious freedom will be complete and not limited to freedom of worship; that equal dignity and equal opportunities will be concretely recognised for each group and every individual; that no forms of discrimination exist; and that

fundamental human rights are not violated but promoted,” he said on November 3, addressing King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, other government authorities and diplomats serving in Bahrain.

The meeting with political and cultural leaders in the vast marble-paved courtyard of the royal family’s Sakhir Palace in Awali came shortly after the pope landed in Bahrain for his 39th international trip in his nearly 10-year papacy. He is the first pope to visit this

LOVE THE LORD BY LOVING THE POOR, POPE SAYS AT MASS

Wars, famine, and calamities of every kind can tempt Christians to a paralysing fear that the world is about to end; instead, they must act, even in a small way, to make the world a better place, Pope Francis has said.

Loved by God, “let us love his most discarded children. The Lord is there,” the pope said on November 13, celebrating Mass for the World Day of the Poor.

In Italian villages and other places, too, there is a tradition at Christmas to set an extra place at the table “for the Lord who will surely knock on the door in the person of someone who is poor and in need,” the pope said.

“And your heart, does it always have a free place for those people?” he asked those at Mass. “My heart, does it have a vacancy for those people? Or are we so busy with friends, social events, and obligations that we never

have room for them?”

After Mass and the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the Vatican set a place for 1,300 people to share a festive meal in the Vatican audience hall. Pope Francis joined them for lunch.

And, thanks to a donation from a supermarket chain, the Vatican sent 5,000 boxes of pasta, rice, flour, sugar, salt, coffee, milk, and oil to Rome parishes for distribution.

In addition, with the help of volunteer doctors, nurses, and technicians, the Vatican set up a free medical clinic in St Peter’s Square for the week, offering physical exams and blood tests to anyone in need. And, with the price of electricity more than doubling in Italy over the past year, the Vatican also was helping low-income families with their utility bills, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican organiser of the world day.

He came to this Muslim-majority nation, whose residents are predominantly foreign workers from many parts of the world, to nurture a firmer commitment to human fraternity and peaceful coexistence.

People need to offer and embrace every opportunity for “encounter between civilizations, religions, and cultures,” he said. “Let us work together” to serve “togetheress and hope.”

The pope praised the many conferences and initiatives the Kingdom of Bahrain promotes for bringing people together on the themes of respect, tolerance, and religious freedom.

SAINTS IN THE CELTIC TRADITION

The name Marianus is a smooth Latinised form of the Irish surname Maelbrigte, meaning ‘Devotee of Brigid,’ and ‘Marianus Scotus’ simply means ‘Marianus the Irishman.’ To distinguish him from other Irish monks and scholars such as John Scotus, Sedulius Scotus, and Marianus Scotus the abbot, the subject of this notice is ‘Marianus the Chronicler.’ Born in 1028, he entered the monastery of Moville, Co Down, in 1052. Four years later, abbot Tigernach punished him with permanent exile for some minor offence. In his Chronicle under the year 1056, Marianus wrote, ‘I, Marianus, left my native country this year, having become a pilgrim for the Kingdom of God.’

On arrival on the Continent, Marianus first settled in the Irish monastery of St Martin in Cologne, and it was here that the young man found his feet, as it were. Two years later, he moved east to the Benedictine monastery in Fulda, which Marianus maintained was an Irish foundation, and of which the Italian historian Vincenzo Berardis wrote, ‘In the complicated network of monastic foundations the Irish always occupied the most advanced outposts of that volunteer militia owing to their outstanding capacity to deepen the faith and intensify the culture of a converted people.’

In the 11th century, Irish monks were still on the age-old quest for a ‘desert,’ a remote spot on mainland or island where they could devote themselves wholly to the Lord. In the absence of such ideal conditions, a considerable number of desert-seeking Irish attached themselves to existing German monasteries as ‘inclusi,’ which meant having themselves solemnly interned in isolation cells. It was as such an inclusus that Marianus lived.

It was here in Fulda, albeit two centuries earlier, that the 18-year-old Walafrid Strabo, who later wrote a life of our own St Gall, complained of the bitter winter cold. Marianus endured it without complaint in his 12-foot-square cell, where he devoted himself to a life of prayer, penance, study, and writing. He went to Wurzburg to be ordained near the tomb of St Killian in 1059. For the following ten years in Fulda, he lived as a recluse, continuing his penitential regime and celebrating Mass over the tomb of a holy man named Anmchadh, who had been exiled by the abbot of Iniscaltra on the Lower Shannon, for having given a little food to the brethren without permission.

When Siegfried, abbot of Fulda, was appointed archbishop of Mainz in 1069, he arranged for the transfer of Marianus to his episcopal see. It was here in the Franco-German border city that the saint wrote his most famous work, the Chronology of the World, which purported to cover world history from creation to 1082 – the year of his own death. The work was highly acclaimed throughout the Middle Ages and ran into several editions. One of the two 11th-century manuscript editions of the Chronicle is in the Vatican. His feast day on December 22nd celebrates the holiness and intercessory power of St Marianus the Chronicler.

Volume 88. No. 10 December 2022

A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960

Published by The Irish Redemptorists, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC

Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Acting-Editor Gerard Moloney CSsR editor@redcoms.org

Design & Layout Tanika Design

Sales & Marketing sales@redcoms.org

Accounts Dearbhla Cooney accounts@redcoms.org

Printed by W&G Baird Printers, Belfast

Photo Credits

Shutterstock, Trócaire, Wikimedia Commons, National Gallery of Ireland

ADVERTISING

Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them.

When you have finished with this magazine, please pass it on or recycle it. Thank you.

John J. Ó Ríordáin CSsR

REFLECTIONS

One of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God, we are with God all along, that while we need to be reassured of God’s arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home. While we wait, we have to trust, to have faith, but it is God’s grace that gives us that faith. As with all spiritual knowledge, two things are true, and equally true, at once. The mind can’t grasp paradox; it is the knowledge of the soul.”

MICHELLE BLAKE

What did Adam say on the day before Christmas? “It’s Christmas, Eve!”

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.

OREN ARNOLD

The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.

JOHNNY CARSON

There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.

ERMA BOMBECK

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes...and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, 1943

The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.

AGNES M. PAHRO

Advent: the time to listen for footsteps - you can’t hear footsteps when you’re running yourself.

BILL MCKIBBEN

Three wise women would have... asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought practical gifts, and there would be peace on Earth.

Christmas has lost its meaning for us because we have lost the spirit of expectancy. We cannot prepare for an observance. We must prepare for an experience.

HANDEL BROWN

One of the nice things about Christmas is that you can forget the past with a present.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas lights.

MAYA ANGELOU

UP FRONT GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

TIME TO SAY A SAD FAREWELL

Sadly,

the time has come to say goodbye. After almost nine decades of publication, this is the last issue of Reality. The writing had been on the wall for some time. Circulation had been falling; promoters were retiring or dying; finding replacements for them was almost impossible; postage and fulfilment costs continued to increase. The covid-19 crisis made the situation even more precarious. Still, it is with profound sadness that we made the painful decision to close.

In many ways, Reality’s fate reflects the state of the church in Ireland today. The picture is bleak. Church attendance, even outside the towns and cities, has declined precipitously; priests are ageing, vocations have dried up, religious orders are closing houses and pulling back from more and more areas of ministry.

It is a similar story regarding the religious press. When I started as editor 30 years ago, the Religious Press Association had more than 40 member publications, ranging from national newspapers and magazines to inhouse periodicals. Most major religious congregations and dioceses had a magazine or journal. Production standards varied, as did circulation figures and frequency of publication, but the Association appeared robust. The future seemed bright.

Today the Religious Press Association is moribund and its few remaining members face similar challenges to those which confronted Reality ; challenges which, of course, also face the secular press.

As we look back over the 86 years of Reality’s existence, we do so with considerable pride. It has been quite a ride.

At the launch of what was then called The Redemptorist Record in November 1936, its editor, Fr Tom Murphy, was clear as to its purpose: to communicate the Good News of

Christ the Redeemer in a world that was at that time confronting the twin challenges of communism and fascism; to continue the writing tradition passed on to his followers by St Alphonsus, and to promote the Irish Redemptorists’ missionary work.

Thirty years later, in October 1966, The Redemptorist Record became Reality magazine. One reason for the change of title was so that its readers would not think it was the official mouthpiece of the Irish Redemptorists or reflected the views of all Irish Redemptorists.

But a second, more important reason was in response to the tremendous changes that had taken place in the Catholic Church as a result of the Second Vatican Council. The new reality that existed in the church was now reflected in the pages of the new Reality

It was an exciting time, and its then editor, Fr Michael O’Connor, still happily with us (see his fascinating account of his time at the editor’s desk on page 15), set out to make this magazine a forum that promoted the renewal and reform that were at the heart of the Council.

Indeed, the quality of contributors and contributions to the magazine during those years is striking. Associate Editors like Louis McRedmond, Maeve Binchy, John Horgan, Miriam Hederman, and Michael Viney ensured Reality was topical, intelligent, and lively. The magazine played a significant role in bringing the vision and promise of Vatican II to the Irish faithful, even while the editor had to contend not just with one archdiocesan-appointed censor but with three! John Charles McQuaid may not have been a devoted reader of this magazine, but he certainly kept an eye on it and was no fan.

Decades after John Charles’ departure, Reality’s mission to inform, inspire and

challenge its readers continued to ruffle episcopal feathers, as Fr Tony Flannery’s confrontation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith so poignantly highlights. It was clear that some in church authority did not want Reality to address the reality facing the church in the modern world.

As we sign off for the last time, all of us in Redemptorist Communications and in the Irish Redemptorist Province wish to thank our readers and promoters for your steadfast support and loyalty over the years. We also thank our office staff, editors, designers, and writers. You will be forever in our prayers.

Even as we say goodbye, it is clear that we need a robust religious press in Ireland now more than ever. We need an intelligent Catholic media to champion the Catholic perspective and to which Catholics can turn for support, information, and guidance. We hope to use the opportunities provided by the world wide web and social media to continue to do our bit.

PS. In our October 2022 issue, Brother John Long’s name was inadvertently omitted from the list of Redemptorists buried in Esker cemetery. We apologise to his family for this oversight.

Gerard Molonry CSsR Acting Editor

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

BY SALVADOR RYAN

Irememberbeing at a history conference many years ago and listening to a speaker refer to the Sacred Heart Messenger publication, employing a title by which it had become affectionately known to many, namely, “the little red Messenger.” However, in this instance, a double entendre was intended, which provoked a titter from the audience, who realised that the speaker had meant them to hear “the little-read Messenger.” The jibe was not necessarily malicious; it was employed to generate a cheap laugh. But the irony was that the same publication had a decent circulation at the time, being one of the most successful religious magazines in Ireland, and it certainly did not merit the epithet “little-read.” Nonetheless, the joke only worked to the extent that the audience was predisposed to believing that Irish religious magazines, more generally, could no longer boast of large readerships and could, therefore, be easily dismissed.

There is little doubt that the readership of such magazines has, indeed, fallen considerably in recent decades. Still, their impact

and visibility, even to this day, should not be underestimated (I’m thinking, for example, of how many times I still spot the Saint Martin magazine at supermarket checkouts). Other publications, such as Bible Alive, or Spirituality, can still be found in some leading newsagents, as can magazines such as the Medjugorje Messenger. Among these publications has also been Reality magazine.

or not, it was difficult not to be transfixed by stories of Irish men and women working in remote locations across the globe, living cheek by jowl with large wild animals, and recounting tales of hitherto unknown peoples, with their array of popular beliefs, rituals, and traditions. For many of us, missionary magazines such as Africa and the Far East were our first introduction to anthropology and interreligious

Religious magazines have played a hugely important role in Irish cultural life over much of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although they are fewer in number than they once were, they certainly punched above their weight in their heyday. Many of us will remember receiving free samples of religious magazines in primary school, distributed by visiting missionaries, full of tall tales about far-off lands. These always had more than a whiff of the exotic about them. Whether one was interested in faith life

dialogue, even if we didn’t necessarily have this terminology to hand. They also taught us much about Christianity as a global religion, and reminded us that how things were done in our own parish wasn’t quite the last word.

IMPACT

Reality magazine was always notable for the impact it had; indeed, far beyond its own readership. One can get some sense of this by searching the archives of the national and

provincial newspapers and discovering how often Reality articles get mentioned (in fact, provincial newspapers often drew attention to the table of contents of the latest issue). These also demonstrate how the editors of Reality made courageous choices in the subjects they chose to cover and the contributors they invited to write for the magazine. These choices often placed Reality at the cutting edge of theological and pastoral reflection in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. It played a significant role in communicating to a lay readership what Vatican II achieved and what it meant for their everyday faith lives. While not many Irish Catholic men and women would ever pick up a copy of the documents of the Council, their essence could be successfully distilled in other ways, and the articles in Reality magazine certainly helped with that.

And now to a flavour of some of the references to the magazine and its contents in the national and provincial papers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Westmeath Examiner of 2 March 1968 records how, in the latest

REALITY MAGAZINE HAS PLAYED A HUGELY IMPORTANT ROLE IN IRISH CULTURAL LIFE OVER ALMOST EIGHT DECADES

Reality magazine was always notable for the impact it had; indeed, far beyond its own readership.

Reality issue, Fr David Bowman SJ, in an article on ecumenism, makes a plea for occasional common eucharist, arguing that “an annual common eucharist seems not only possible theologically, but desirable ecclesially.” In the same issue, Fr Harry Walsh describes a “dialogue between an Archbishop and his people in Detroit,” noting how some of the feedback recommended that priests should own only moderately priced cars; that clergy should meet the people more in their homes; that the laity should have a say in the examination of candidates for ordination, and give their opinions on their fitness for ministry; and that, furthermore, laymen should help with the distribution of Holy Communion on Sunday. Meanwhile, Fr Paul Grassland gave a personal account of his experience as a dishwasher in a seaside hotel as a part of the worker-priest movement in France. This issue alone underlines the outward-looking approach of the magazine, taking its readers far from the experience of their own parishes and their local clergy.

The Nationalist and Leinster Times for 29 August 1969, meanwhile, previewed the September 1969 issue of Reality, which included Fr Brian Power communicating the results of a survey of UCD students on how well Irish clergy did their job. At least one-third of the participants thought Irish clergy were somehow out of touch with at least some section of the people they ministered to. They also criticised clerical conservatism, whether sincerely held by individual priests themselves

or as a result of being inhibited by ecclesiastical authority. Meanwhile, Sr Angelice Seibert, an Ursuline nun from Louisville, Kentucky, who lectured for a time in biochemistry at UCG, conducted a survey of the attitude of the laity to the role of nuns. She found that respondents were in unison in urging religious to bring the gospel of Christ to people through ‘closer identification’ with them.

In the same issue, Father Anthony McHugh discusses James Plunkett’s portrayal of the clergy in Strumpet City. He regrets that Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum largely fell on deaf ears and that, therefore, the following situation obtained: “The clergy at times were so anxious to reject the condemned form of socialism that they ended up unwittingly also condemning the forms that were good. The unhappy impression given was that Dublin’s downtrodden might starve, but at least it would be in orthodoxy.”

The Donegal Democrat, on 24 December 1971, in its preview for the January 1972 issue of Reality, mentions an article on ‘Priests and Politics. Religious as Revolutionaries?’ in which Fr Sean O’Riordan considers the situation of the priest who, because of his very deep dedication to Christianity, feels he must be a revolutionary. As a practical example of this, it continues, Fr Anthony McHugh relates the story of Camilo Torres, priest revolutionary, who “made the ultimate sacrifice and died as a guerrilla fighter.”

More prosaically, but no less importantly, the Tipperary Star on 10 October 1970 highlights

a recent article in Reality. “Two into one won’t go,” written by Larry Sheedy, editor of the Irish Farmer’s Journal, discusses the problem of two families living together in one house, including the following piece of domestic wisdom: “Sure, you can live with your mother-in-law. But only if you are both angels and guaranteed to remain that way. Otherwise, the odds are bad.”

WOMEN’S LIB

Meanwhile, the Waterford News and Star commented on the May 1971 issue of Reality, particularly its discussion of the Women’s Liberation movement. Mary Salmon, a secondary school teacher, opined in one article, “Women are different, happily for the human race …”. In the same issue, it continues, Rita Canton, a Dublin mother of five, penned an article on “Should mothers go out to work?” It also details how Father Sean O’Loughlin, C.Ss.R. “faces up to the question: ‘Is devotion to Mary out of date?’”, and, making little effort to mask its editorial stance, the Waterford News and Star concludes that he “comes down on the side of the angels – and thinking Christians.”

The Irish Independent of 29 May 1971 reports on a Reality article by Rev. Dr James Good, who reports how, all over the world, the Church-controlled school system is dying, and presciently concludes that “It would be unrealistic of us to think that Ireland was not going to be affected.”

TOPICAL CONTENT

This is but a flavour of some of the stories that got picked up in the wider press in the years

immediately following Vatican II. The topical nature of Reality’s contents would remain strong in the decades following, retaining its thoughtfulness and generating conversation and, at times, controversy. One thing it never was, was dull.

On a personal note, I consider myself very fortunate to have been a regular contributor to Reality for many years under the excellent editorships of Fr Gerard Moloney, Fr Brendan McConvery, and, more recently, Triona Doherty. My first contribution comprised some reflections on attending the Solemn Novena in Holycross Abbey for the first time since childhood and an effort to better understand the enduring attraction of novenas. Other subjects I wrote on included: Christmas traditions in biblical and extra-biblical sources; Martin Luther; Pope Paul III and the Council of Trent; the Synod of Thurles and the Devotional Revolution; the “forgotten” Pope Benedict XV; the faith (and doubt) of Thomas McDonagh; Irish folklore; Pope Paul VI; the Legion of Mary’s work in Russia; the mountain shrine of Our Lady of Letnica, Kosovo; and many more. In each case, I ended up learning something new. I hope I also managed to share that excitement of learning new things with others.

Reality will be much missed. May Redemptorist Communications succeed in finding new ways of continuing its valuable mission into the future.

Salvador Ryan is professor of ecclesiastical history at St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth.

AN EDITOR LOOKS BACK

A WORD OF THANKS

BY BRENDAN MCCONVERY CSsR

My memories of Reality go back to long before I was an editor. It goes back to the 1950s when I was a mere altar boy serving on the altar in Clonard Monastery, Belfast.

First published in November 1936 as The Redemptorist Record , Reality describes its mission as being to “inform, inspire, and challenge today’s Catholic.”

It evolved from a magazine that, in the 1950s, had a reputation for its stringent line on sexual matters to one that by the mid-1960s had become so ‘dangerous’ that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid felt it required three diocesan-appointed censors. We have had a fantastic, if, at times, colourful history.

The magazine was particularly proud of the part it played in trying to bring the vision and promise of Vatican II to the Irish faithful and of being a facility that allowed people to reflect on the myriad issues facing the Church at home and abroad – uncomfortable though some of these issues may sometimes have been.

Let us recall some of the early editors, Fr T A Murphy, who was the first editor; Frs Raphael Gallagher, Liam O Carroll; Brian Boyle; and Fr Gerard Moloney, to name but a few. Many had been on the foreign missions. Others began editing after other academic careers.

This year marks the end of an era for Reality and the Irish Redemptorists. It leaves behind many fine memories of people who have contributed to it over the decades. My thanks to all who played a part in its development and those who supported us over the years.

A native of Belfast, Brendan McConvery was editor of Reality from 2014-2020.

A FOND FAREWELL

BY TRIONA DOHERTY

The first article I ever wrote for Reality was titled ‘Goodbye to all that: Why young Catholics are leaving the church.’ It was May 2007, and I interviewed young people from primary school age up to young adults for the piece. I remember expecting to hear that they were disillusioned or angry with the church, that the abuse scandals of the preceding years had turned them off. Instead, the prevailing attitude was a kind of benign indifference. Many of them spoke of Mass being ‘boring’ and they didn’t appreciate being ‘forced’ to attend. Several predicted that they would reengage with the church at a later stage, perhaps when they got married or started a family. I wonder if this has turned out to be the case. I wonder, too, what trends a similar article would uncover today; I suspect things would look very different. Fifteen years ago, social media was in its infancy. The climate movement had yet to become widespread. Few people had heard of Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and in Ireland we had not yet voted in the referenda on same-sex marriage and the Eighth Amendment. But the article shed light on the sense of crisis in the Irish church at the time, and on some ways in which parishes were reaching out to young people.

In another piece in the summer 2010 issue, a quote from a parish priest captured something of the mood: “The church exists on a lot of levels. There’s the institutional church that no one is in love with at the moment… But at the parish level the experience of church is a different thing.”

RANGE OF TOPICS

During my years as a Reality contributor, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to clergy and parishioners, theologians and activists across the island of Ireland on a broad range of topics – vocations, human trafficking,

Catholic education, weddings, funerals, the environment, the challenges facing priests and parishioners, to name a few. With each interviewee, another rich layer of church life was uncovered. I always hoped that readers found comfort and hope in these discoveries, as I did. Some standout moments for me were interviews with Rev Ken Newell about his peace ministry in Northern Ireland, and more recently with Fr Roman Lahish about the efforts of the Redemptorist community in Novoiavorivsk, Ukraine to support victims of the war. I’m indebted to both Gerard Moloney and Brendan McConvery for kindly inviting me to write.

The example and guidance of both these editors served me well when I was asked to step in temporarily as acting editor in 2017, and then to take up the role again from March 2022. As the first lay editor, I was eager to live up to the legacy encapsulated in Reality’s tagline of ‘Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic,’ while introducing some fresh voices into the mix (and ensuring a gender balance on the ‘Reflections’ page!).

In recent months, we’ve been following the synodal process currently underway in the global and local church. The Irish Synodal Pathway is posing the question: ‘What does God want from the church in Ireland at this time?’ For many Catholics, this marks the first time their voices have been sought and listened to. It will take time for the ‘journeying together’ model to become ingrained in the life of the church, but there is a sense of opportunity.

Another green shoot that has been explored in the pages of Reality is the mobilisation of Christians worldwide in response to the call of Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ to care for our common home and work for climate justice. It’s also been a pleasure in recent editions to feature the reflections of former editor Raphael Gallagher in collaboration with Aoife McGrath,

HEAD ON

as they tease out moral questions around issues like political correctness and gender.

NOT SHY

Reality has never shied away from meeting the challenges of the age head on. Irish society has a unique and sometimes contradictory relationship with the Catholic Church. There have been huge changes since the turn of the millennium. While the numbers availing of the sacraments remain high, this is no longer reflected in Mass attendance and participation in church life. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed religious habits in ways we might not yet fully appreciate, and the church’s role in our rapidly evolving society is unclear. Reality has been at the forefront of these and countless other discussions over the past 86 years.

As we say a fond farewell in this December edition, it’s a sad and emotional time for all who have been involved in the magazine’s production. Since the decision was made to cease publication, we’ve been hearing from readers and contributors about what it has meant to them over the years and how much it will be missed. While of course some excellent religious publications are still available, the unfortunate reality is that the numbers are dwindling. However, religious publishing is thriving in other forms, with new avenues being explored by Redemptorist Communications as it continues the vital work of spreading the Gospel.

On a personal note, I’d like to warmly thank the editors, designers, contributors, readers and all the extended members of the Redemptorist family with whom I’ve worked over the years. I wish you every blessing and hope our paths will cross again in the future.

Tríona Doherty is a former editor of Reality and co-author, with Jane Mellett, of The Deep End series of Gospel reflections.

REALITY HAS NEVER SHIED AWAY FROM MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF THE AGE

VATICAN II, A NEW-LOOK MAG, AND JOHN CHARLES MCQUAID

BY FR MICHAEL O’CONNOR, CSsR

From the beginning of John XXIII’s pontificate, significant developments began to happen in my life as a young priest and Redemptorist. I was a member of the Esker, Athenry community at the time Cardinal Giuseppe Roncalli was elected to the chair of Peter. A few months later, in January 1959, John XXIII announced a General Council of the church. In due time he formally closed the first Vatican Council and declared the new Council would be Vatican II. Nothing has been quite the same in the life of the church, or my life, since then. Soon afterwards, I was transferred to Clonard monastery, Belfast, where I joined the staff of Redemptorist Record , our Redemptorist monthly publication. Father Liam O’Carroll was editor, Fr Tom Ring, was his assistant, and I was the staff! Before long, Fr Tom became editor, and I was his assistant.

After about a year, Redemptorist Publications moved to Rathgar in Dublin. By the time we were settled in our new accommodation, preparations for the Council were nearing completion, and I had been appointed editor of Redemptorist Record and director of publications, with Fr Gerry Reynolds as assistant editor.

The joyous optimism and Pentecostal spirit of Saint John XXIII permeated every corner of the church and indeed the world - the corridors and offices of the curia being the only possible exception. During the Council’s early months, we carried a regular conciliar column by Gary McEoin, a founding member

of the National Catholic Reporter newspaper in the US, and we published regular commentary on the Council’s proceedings written especially for us by Archbishop Angelo Fernandez of Delhi. Columns by Irish journalists in Rome for the Council also appeared regularly in our pages.

TIME OF FERMENT

More and more, Redemptorist Record was taking on the mission of bringing the teaching of the Council to our readers. It was, of course, a time of ferment and controversy not only among scholars and commentators

but also among bishops, depending on their comfort zone on the continuum between Tridentine conservatives on the right and the liberal scholarly but sometimes leftleaning progressives on the other side. In his remarks at the opening of the Council, Pope John said: “We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand.” And he went on: “In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which by (human) efforts and even by (our) very expectations, are

Vatican II in session

directed towards the fulfilment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, lead to the greater good of the church.”

As the Council progressed, we tried to keep our readers informed by publishing commentaries on its documents as they were published. These were written mainly by Fr Sean Kelleher, C.Ss.R., Professor of Systematic Theology at the Redemptorist seminary in Bangalore. Frs Sean O’Riordan, Gerry Crotty, and Joe Murphy were among other Redemptorists who kept readers informed on the Council.

CHANGE OF PURPOSE

Traditionally, our magazine had been an extension of our Redemptorist missions and articulated our vocation as parish missioners and preachers of the Gospel. It was an effective way of staying in touch with the congregations who attended our parish missions and keeping them informed of our work in Australia, the Philippines, India, and Brazil. It had served its purpose well, but in the fervour of the Conciliar sessions, we felt called to refocus the purpose of Redemptorist Publications into a more direct commitment to renew the life of the church.

Between the Council’s first and second sessions, after discussions

with some Irish journalists who had covered the opening session, we decided to publish a new magazine primarily concerned with promoting the renewal of church according to the teaching of the Council. These experienced journalists offered to organise a dedicated lay board of associate editors who would ensure the high standard of publication that we desired. During the years that I continued as editor of what we called Reality, we were privileged to have distinguished journalists of the calibre of John Horgan, Louis McRedmond, Michael

Between the Council’s first and second sessions, after discussions with some Irish journalists who had covered the opening session, we decided to publish a new magazine primarily concerned with promoting the renewal of church according to the teaching of the Council.

CENSORED

To the best of my recollection, the announcement of Reality as a project to propagate the renewal that the Council called for was welcomed by many bishops as well as by the vast majority of our readers. Cardinal Conway and Archbishop Walsh of Tuam wrote letters of welcome and encouragement in the first issue of Reality.

The situation in Dublin was different. Archbishop John Charles McQuaid tolerated but did not approve of the project. Since our arrival in the archdiocese, although a Redemptorist’s name appeared in each issue of the magazine as the “censor theol. dep.,” everything had to be approved by the diocesan censor. Msgr Michael O’Connell was our

diocesan censor, and he informed me that Archbishop McQuaid was not happy with the project.

The archbishop was not pleased that laypeople were deciding the magazine’s content, he was not pleased that we had invited women on the board of associate editors, and he was not pleased that we had invited as associate editors some who were not Roman Catholics. To show his displeasure, he appointed three censors - two operated in secretto ensure the orthodoxy of what would be published. Only Msgr. O’Connell was known to me, and I had to give him three copies of all material we intended to publish.

Needless to say, that was not a happy situation. Often when permission to publish was refused, the only reason given was that his Grace would not like to see that material in print. When I objected that that was

Viney, Maeve Binchy, Miriam Hederman, Andy Hamilton, and others as our collaborators.

Bronze relief by Carmelo Puzzolo representing the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Gabriel the Archangel

not a canonical reason, I was told merely that I had been refused permission to publish—end of discussion.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

One year, in preparation for Christmas, I invited scripture scholar Fr Michael Bailey, C.Ss.R., to write some articles on the new interpretations of the infancy narratives. His first article, which focused mainly on Joseph’s role in Matthew’s infancy narrative, passed the “gimlet eyes” of the three censors and appeared in the November issue. His second article, which dealt mainly with Mary, was refused permission to be published.

In the ensuing controversy, Msgr O’Connell informed me that Fr Bailey’s translation of the archangel’s words to Mary rejected the church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception. The problem was that Fr Bailey used what was then a new translation, “Hail, thou highly favoured daughter,” and not the traditional, “Hail, full of grace,” which the censors took to prove the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Michael O’Connell wouldn’t listen to any argument and told me simply the article could not be published.

An added irony was that Time magazine that December carried a story on the three wise men which questioned and undermined the entire infancy narratives. Would it not have been a wiser pastoral decision to allow a Catholic scripture scholar to have discussed the new insights and understandings in our commentary on the infancy narratives than to have Irish people be confronted by

the dismissive article in Time? But that was how it was back then when some churchmen were doggedly refusing to face reality.

This way of operating frustrated our efforts to produce the kind of magazine we had envisioned. The board of editors met quarterly to plan the three issues for the coming quarter. Then individual associate editors would take responsibility for inviting competent authors to write the lead articles. But we found ourselves in the embarrassing situation where we could not guarantee publication

about the requirement that children’s Masses in the Dublin archdiocese be celebrated not in English, their actual mother tongue, as was requested by Vatican II, but in Irish, a language in which unfortunately they had little fluency. These were children who, in the mid 60s, were emigrating in great numbers to the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, at the request of those primarily interested in the revival of the Irish language, the Archbishop of Dublin had required that such children’s Masses should be celebrated throughout the diocese in the

their pastoral work.”

Archbishop McQuaid was not amused at having this pointed out to him. He accused me of usurping his episcopal authority. When I requested an interview to explain my position, he replied that it would serve no purpose. He informed me that my major religious superior was dealing with the matter. The concept of dialogue so characteristic of the church in the immediate postVatican II era did not exist in the Dublin archdiocese of the time.

EXILE

because of this unreasonable and arrogant form of diocesan censorship.

This was an especially sensitive matter in the area of ecumenism. Looking back, it is amazing that we succeeded as well as we did in the face of such highhanded hierarchical control. Our circulation had topped 50 thousand in those years. Despite the frustrations, our associate editors gave us nothing but loyal support, encouragement, and cooperation, for which I will always be most grateful.

BEGINNING OF THE END

The beginning of the end came for me after some men and women religious and some parents expressed concern

Irish language.

I pointed out in an editorial that this was neither according to the mind nor the intention of the Second Vatican Council. When Vatican II called for the reform and renewal of the liturgy, it recommended celebrating the Mass in the vernacular, the spoken language of the people. In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, the Council said that “(the) full, conscious and active participation by all the people is to be considered before all else; for it is a primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit, and therefore, pastors of souls must strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all

A few months later, I found myself proclaiming the Gospel and the joyous renewal of the Second Vatican Council to the priests and wonderful people of the West Indies. My life as a priest and Redemptorist had taken on a new reality but was still inspired by the optimism of Saint John XXIII, who said: “Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

That spirit of Johannine optimism has continued to inspire me during my years as a university teacher and as a psychotherapist in the USA, and as a priest in residence at St Thomas More parish in Kansas City, Missouri.

A Kerry native, Fr Michael O’Connor is a member of the Redemptorist community, Mt St Alphonsus, Limerick.

This article originally appeared in the November 2011 issue of Reality

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

MY BRUISING ENCOUNTER WITH THE VATICAN

MY ENCOUNTER WITH THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH LEFT ME SHOCKED AND SHAKEN

BY GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

My life changed on a sunny afternoon in May 2011. My Redemptorist provincial superior invited me for a quick chat. What he reported left me flabbergasted.

He said a discussion had been ongoing for some time about my position as editor of Reality magazine. People in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the chief enforcer of orthodoxy in the Vatican, were unhappy with some of the magazine’s content. The Redemptorist superior general in Rome had been instructed to have me removed as editor.

My superior went on to say that he and the superior general had lobbied hard on my behalf and had been able to hammer out a compromise. I could remain as editor subject to five conditions: I could not publish anything that was 1) supportive of the ordination of women, 2) critical of mandatory celibacy, 3) advocated general absolution, 4) opposed to the church’s stance on homosexuality, and 5) could be seen as disrespectful of the person of the Holy Father. Furthermore, each issue would have to be approved by a censor before publication. (Later, of course, they targeted Fr Tony Flannery whose Reality column caused them much agitation).

I was told this had been negotiated in talks at the highest level over the previous several weeks. I was being informed now because the superior general was coming to Dublin to see me in a couple of days’ time.

I was also instructed to keep this information to myself, that it was highly confidential, and

I shouldn’t talk about it even to my family.

And that was it. I left the meeting with my head spinning.

The superior general did visit soon after and told me the story from scratch, how one day a file landed on his desk from the CDF with a list of allegations/findings against me in my capacity as editor of Reality magazine. The superior general could not have been friendlier and expressed amazement at the shoddy case the CDF had put together. He had met several times with Cardinal Levada, head of the CDF, and the best compromise they could reach was to leave me in office but under the restrictions outlined above.

Again the importance of secrecy was emphasised. It was not a matter for public consumption. I was not to talk to anyone about it.

And that was it.

During those first few days, I felt numb. It was almost as if they were talking about someone else, not me. I found it extraordinary that people in the Vatican were getting worked up about an insignificant magazine published on the periphery of Europe. I couldn’t believe people would spend time trawling through back issues looking for evidence to build or substantiate a case against me. I found it hard to credit that the head of the CDF would become personally involved.

It took a while for the enormity of what happened to sink in. I grant that a tiny bit of me was chuffed that the Vatican had noticed our magazine and got themselves in a lather over it. But then I began to feel

angry and betrayed. I was angry not so much that self-appointed defenders of the faith had reported me to the Vatican but that they had been given such credence. I was angry that the authorities would begin a process against me without letting me know I was being investigated.

How can you defend yourself if you don’t know you are on trial? How can you defend yourself if you don’t know who your accusers are? How can you defend yourself when your fate has been decided before you discover you have been on trial?

I found it hard to believe I had been walking around for weeks, doing my regular work while my future was being discussed without my knowledge. It demonstrates how unjust the CDF process is.

All communication was through my superiors. The CDF never communicates directly with the person under investigation. They knew my address, they knew my email, they could find my phone number, but they always go through higher channels. They never dignify the culprit with a direct and personal response. It’s not how Jesus would have done it.

It’s been more than eight years since I woke up with chronic lower back pain that has never gone away. I wonder how much of it is due to my bruising encounter with the CDF.

A native of Co Limerick, Gerard Moloney was editor of Reality for more than 20 years. He is based in Mt St Alphonsus, Limerick.

WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS

SOMETHING NEW THIS CHRISTMAS?

BECAUSE OF THE DIFFICULTIES CURRENTLY FACING US, CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

When we were young children, Christmas was absolutely the most exciting time of the year. Looking back, I think that as well as the Christmas presents we were to receive, it was the newness that surrounded the whole time of year that excited my siblings and me. We used to get some new decorations each year to replace the older ones that had given us joy for years before. As opposed to the high-tech decorations nowadays, we had paper hanging decorations and simple lanterns and lights.

As well as this, we kids all got some new item or clothes at Christmas. A shiny pair of shoes or new pair of trousers for the boys and a new dress for my sister. Christmas clothes, as we called them, were special. Even now, getting new clothes is a big deal for children in the run-up to Christmas.

I remember the feeling of putting on new clothes back then. It made me feel new myself. I felt as shiny as the Christmas decorations hanging around the house. I felt loved. I felt optimistic. And, sure, isn’t that what the whole message of Christmas is about? We are made new each year. We are reminded of the love of God. And we are called to be optimistic.

That last one can be a stretch, though, can’t it? We find ourselves this Christmas in a particular moment in history, a moment of real instability almost everywhere we look. Across the island of Ireland, politics

is in disarray, with politicians scrambling to work out how to govern. In the North, we have our own twist on instability, as it seems we always do. Our politicians haven’t yet worked out how to share power and govern together.

Globally, we face into war on our doorstep on mainland Europe as well as a global economic downturn caused by that war, among other things. We see our planet suffering under the

who suffer this Christmas. It is the same cry of the adult Jesus on the cross, crying out in pain but knowing that pain and even death are not the end of the story.

The baby, born in a manger, is a picture of vulnerability, innocence, and love. Will we allow it to draw us in this Christmas? I hope we will. I know people are seeking such love in the midst of their own vulnerability. I met many such

joyful feeling of the occasion. The Redemptorists excel at creating community, providing welcome, and encouraging lay people to be involved in the church’s mission. As I dressed each day, I felt like that child putting on his Christmas clothes and feeling brand new again. I am sure many people felt the same as they came to the novena.

The church in Ireland needs to put on new clothes. It needs to feel new, loved, and optimistic again. Where should we look? How do we go forward? I am reminded of a phrase that Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, uses about where we tend to find the wisest voices, pointing the right way forward. He says that they are at ‘the edge of the centre.’

weight of human consumption of its natural resources.

And we are called to put on new clothes and feel optimistic this Christmas? Well, yes. We are. Because of, rather than despite, these great difficulties, Christmas this year and the message it brings is even more important than ever. The Christmas message, the Christian message, is the only message that can speak hope and optimism into disaster, worry, and grief. The cry of the infant Jesus, born into poverty, political turmoil, and violence, is one that cries out in solidarity with all those

seekers earlier in the year, back in October, in St Joseph’s, Dundalk, where I was one of the guest preachers at the Novena to St Gerard Majella. People came in their thousands each day - young and old. They came to petition St Gerard to intercede for them in their needs. They came to thank God for things that had turned out well in their lives. They came just to be there, gathered with others in song, prayer, and worship of the God who came as a wee baby to tell us we are loved.

As the novena went on and I returned over my three-day stint, I became caught up in the

The Redemptorists, and all religious orders, find themselves at the edge of the centre of the church, often with an ability to reach those traditional parishes and dioceses struggle to reach. The Irish church would do well to look at how the novena to St Gerard Majella created newness, hope, and community as a model for how we could all be in Ireland. This is my Christmas wish.

As I sign off on my last Reality article, I do so with sadness at something so precious ending and in the hope that the newborn Jesus will guide us all to newness, love, and optimism in 2023 and beyond.

Belfast man Jim Deeds is a poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat-giver working across Ireland.

FROM MOYVANE TO THE AMAZON BASIN: THE STORY OF BISHOP COLLINS CSsR

INTERVIEW BY ANNE STAUNTON AND PAT O’SULLIVAN

Ribeiro grew up on a farm about 250 kilometres from Pedro Afonso, a parish served by Redemptorists since establishing their mission in Brazil in 1960.

Luciene

The farm was the last outpost on one of annual mule-back journeys the missionaries made to the vast hinterland of their parish.

Luciene later became Diocesan Secretary and worked with Bishop Collins for five years. Recently, she wrote a Master’s dissertation in the post-graduate History of Amazonian

Peoples Programme at the University of Tocantins, entitled An historical analysis of the Episcopacy of Bishop Collins in the North of Goias (1960-1999). She talks of her gratitude to the Redemptorists and Bishop Collins’ family for providing access to sources in places as far-flung as Moyvane, Co Kerry and Fortaleza, Brazil.

Anne Staunton and Pat O’Sullivan, who worked in Bishop Collins’ diocese, interviewed Luciene.

IN AN INTERVIEW FOR REALITY , BRAZILIAN HISTORIAN LUCIENE RIBEIRO DESCRIBES THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF KERRY-BORN REDEMPTORUST BISHOP JAMES COLLINS

Bishop Collins

Luciene at lunch with Irish Ambassador to Brazil, Mr. Sean Hoy Luciene autographing her book at the launch

Tell us about Bishop Collins’ life before his arrival in Brazil.

The first Irish Redemptorists, Frs James Collins, Sean Myers, Michael Kirwan, and Jim McGrath, arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in May 1960. The Redemptorists had been invited by Dom Alano du Noday, the Frenchborn bishop of a vast region on the edge of the Amazon basin, with a backup letter from Dom Helder Camara, Secretary General of the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference.

Fr Collins was leader of the new mission. He was born in February 1921 in Moyvane, Co. Kerry, youngest son of Michael and Catherine Collins. Sadly, James’ mother died in childbirth when he was one year old. Two of the eight Collins children became priests, and one became a religious sister. James attended two primary schools, St Michael’s in Moyvane and the CBS in Listowel. As a 12-year-old, he went to the Redemptorist Minor Seminary in Limerick, where he completed his secondary education.

On 3 September 1944, aged 23, he was ordained priest, after which he spent 18 months working on the Redemptorist Record. From 1947 to 1960, he was part of the Redemptorist mission to the Philippines.

He was then recalled to Ireland to lead the Redemptorist’s new mission to Brazil, where he remained for 39 years. In 1999, having retired as bishop, health reasons forced him to return to Ireland, where he died on 4 October 2002.

Describe life in the Brazilian mission in the early days.

In August 1960, the four missionaries arrived in Pedro Afonso, where F. Collins was appointed parish priest. Their routine initially followed the traditional monastic pattern, waking at 5 am, meditation in the parish church, followed by individual celebration of the Latin Mass. Afterwards, they did their parish work and studied Portuguese. According to the 1960 census, their parish covered an area of 37,000 kilometres – about half the size of Ireland - with a population of 34,279 or one inhabitant per square kilometre. Eighty-five percent of the population lived in the sprawling countryside. As they were far from Brazil’s political turmoil in the early sixties, the missionaries’ lives were largely unmarked by the intense polarisation between the political left and right, which eventually led to the 1964 military coup. One memorable story of that time about Fr Collins and the military coup was a telegram he sent to the communities to “tóg an t-airgead amach, tá an banc briste,” as word spread of the currency’s collapse.

The pastoral praxis of the time was to celebrate Mass and hear confessions in the towns and villages on Sundays and feast days and visit the rural areas once a year in what was known as a ‘desobriga’ or helping the faithful fulfil their obligation to confess once a year. They travelled on horseback or mules to get to know their parish.

After listening to the people’s expectations, they decided to increase the intake of students at the local secondary school in Pedro Afonso. Fr Joe Hanrahan joined the mission as college headmaster and teacher. An agricultural college was also built in the parish in partnership with the state government. It later gained the status of a State Agricultural College and is now known as the Pedro Afonso Advanced Campus of the Institute of Technology, offering degrees in Agronomy.

Fr Collins was keen on living in a city with greater ease of communication with Ireland and where Redemptorist vocations could be fostered, so the vice provincial headquarters moved to Fortaleza in north-eastern Brazil, then considered the “breadbasket of religious vocations.” The Vice Province of Fortaleza was founded with Fr Collins as its first vice provincial.

Bishop Collins with his sister and brother Collins homestead in Moyvane

Church in Pedro Afonso

One memorable story of that time about Fr Collins and the military coup was a telegram he sent to the communities to “tóg an t-airgead amach, tá an banc briste,” as word spread of the currency’s collapse.

While still vice provincial, he was nominated Bishop of the Prelacy of Miracema by Pope Paul VI in October 1966. In his inaugural sermon, he indicated that he planned to work to “promote a church in the image of Vatican II and put himself at the service of the people of the prelacy.” He already knew the region and was conscious of the problems it faced, so he pledged to strive for the spiritual and material welfare of its people.

The new Prelacy of Miracema had been part of the extensive Diocese of Porto Nacional. Three Brazilian diocesan priests opted to remain in this new prelacy. The Redemptorist parish of Pedro Afonso, with four priests, was also located within it, and there were two congregations of religious sisters.

That year three more Irish Redemptorists, including Br Paschal Doherty, arrived in Brazil. The following year, Br Paschal and Fr Sean Lawlor were appointed to the new prelacy to collaborate directly with Bishop Collins. Initially, they lived at the parish house, with few creature comforts as the region had no electricity, running water, or paved roads.

With the enormous pastoral challenge now facing him, Bishop Collins decided to try to expand his team. He set about inviting Irish diocesan priests to join his prelacy. He also wrote to superiors of religious congregations throughout Brazil, requesting priests and sisters to help in health, education, and pastoral care.

The presence of two indigenous tribes, the Xerente and the Krahô, presented a challenge in developing “indigenous pastoral care.” From 1970 onwards, two

religious and some lay volunteers made up the Indigenous Pastoral team, with Sr Silvia ministering to the Xerente reservation and Fr Valber, a Brazilian Redemptorist, living with the Krahô. They reported to the annual diocesan assembly and presented the case for defending indigenous culture and the right of the indigenous to their ancestral lands. Other pastoral agents, including Bishop Collins, visited the reservations on special indigenous festive days.

He also began to think about formation for priests, seminarians, sisters, and laity. The bishop’s house, the Centre for Leadership Formation (CTL), churches, parish houses, and community centres were built through grant aid from German and Irish funding agencies and with the knowledge and skills of Br Paschal. As regards Br Paschal’s role, Bishop Collins later wrote: “When Br Paschal began with ‘If I were you Dom Jaime, I’d…,’ I would sit up and listen, because it was always sound advice.”

As the military regime’s repression intensified in the early seventies, the Brazilian bishops took a more courageous stand against it. One such event in Bishop Collins’ diocese illustrates the extreme violence and the church’s response. During a football game in Guarai, soldiers shot dead

a spectator they suspected of participating in the Cuban-style Araguaia guerrilla war in a neighbouring diocese. Bishop Collins wrote a letter denouncing the atrocity, which became national news.

When was Fr Collins ordained bishop, and what were his priorities?

Lining up for food at a CEBs Assembly

During a football game in Guarai, soldiers shot dead a spectator they suspected of participating in the Cuban-style Araguaia guerrilla war in a neighbouring diocese. Bishop Collins wrote a letter denouncing the atrocity, which became national news.

What was the contribution of religious sisters to his diocese?

In the Prelacy of Miracema, religious sisters were protagonists in implementing the Vatican II’s decisions at a time when patriarchy was the order of the day. Sisters ran parishes with liturgy, catechesis, baptism and marriage preparation teams, bible groups, and Basic Christian Communities, and celebrated the Sunday Liturgy of the Word with communion. They took over parishes based on Canon Law 1112, which states that “where there is a lack of priests and deacons, the diocesan bishop … can delegate lay people to preside at marriages.” On Holy Thursdays, parishes run by sisters received the Holy Oils just like the priest-led parishes. When asked about sisters administering the Sacrament of the Sick, Bishop Collins replied: “You have the oils!” The sisters took him at his word and were able to bring the comfort of the Sacrament of the Sick to many parishioners.

In 1981, the prelacy was elevated to the status of diocese. By 1983, it had six diocesan priests, four Redemptorists, and six congregations of sisters, and consisted of 15 parishes, eight run by priests and seven by sisters. Before sisters were appointed as extraordinary ministers,

all parishes depended on the priests’ visits to administer the sacraments. For marriages, they had to travel long distances to a priestrun parish, incurring great expense. The new arrangement facilitated the people’s lives, brought the church closer to them, and was readily accepted by the faithful, who felt that the feminine touch considerably enhanced their wedding celebrations.

Sisters in charge of parishes have always affirmed that their experience was a very significant moment in their lives as they felt they were making an important contribution to the life of the diocese. Most were from the south and southeast of Brazil. The one exception were the St Louis Sisters from California and Ireland, who ran two of the parishes.

Name some highlights of Bishop Collins’ time as bishop.

Basic Christian Communities (BCC) were a landmark in the history of the Catholic Church in Brazil, as they were a space for the participation of the poor. Through them, poor lay people acquired a new sense of self and mission and assumed their role as Christians in the struggle for common

interests, such as health, education, and political representation. BCCs provided a space for the poor to grow as a community empowered by their faith to transform unjust political and social structures. In 1979, the Latin American Bishops’ Conference in Puebla underlined God’s preferential option for the poor and insisted that the BCCs helped the church discover ‘the evangelising potential of the poor.’

In Miracema, from 1975 onwards, a small BCC team helped organise the annual assembly of these communities, always attended by Bishop Collins. The Redemptorist diocesan missionary team also visited these communities throughout the diocese and helped to animate and encourage them.

While sectors of the church had supported the 1964 military coup, within nine years, the attitude had changed. Nineteen bishops in northeastern Brazil and six in the Amazonian region denounced the military dictatorship as acting contrary to the church’s social teaching. In the early seventies, the state of Goias handed over the title deeds to huge tracts of land, occupied for generations by squatter farmers, to powerful politicians and outside land grabbers. When these land ‘owners’ arrived to evict those living on the land, using violence when they met resistance, the cry of the poor inevitably provoked a response from the church. A Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) team was formed in each diocese, including Miracema, which tried to respond to evictions with solidarity and legal support.

Bishop Collins was aware of the power of the people and always tried to collect signatures for letters to draw attention to their plight. One example was a letter signed by Bishop Collins and hundreds of others

A group meeting at a CEBs Assembly

Bishop Collins was aware of the power of the people and always tried to collect signatures for letters to draw attention to their plight.

in 1985, denouncing: i) the expulsion of 37 tenants from their land in Colmeia and two beaten by police and forced to renounce their right to their land, and 35 imprisoned by a force of 100 police; ii) the invasion by a local rancher and the police of a chapel in Lizarda when people had gathered for prayer. They had come from the squatters’ houses, picked up all their meagre belongings, and then deposited them at the chapel door; iii) conflicts in Miracema, where tension was high because of evictions and the presence of armed hitmen.

On the feast of Corpus Christi 1987, in the parish run by Fr Martin Murray, C.Ss.R., Bishop Collins called for land reform and protection against land grabbers. Later he was accused of backing Fr Martin and Frei Henrique of the CPT in their support for squatters who supposedly had ‘invaded

private land.’ The bishop challenged these lies, and in 1988 with growing publicity and severe pressure from the National Bishops’ Conference, the Supreme Court ordered the cancelation of the false land titles in favour of the squatters. This was one of the few victories the people of that region were able to celebrate.

The CPT also argued for the formation of Rural Workers’ Unions and Associations of Small Landholders in each municipality. Many of these were formed and live on today, helping organise farmers and squatters. The associations established cooperatives to help improve members living conditions.

Jose Edgar, a former director of the Agricultural College, saw Bishop Collins as “a missionary who loved action. He didn’t just talk; he practiced what he preached. He was obsessed with getting things done.” He supported the CEBs as a new way of being church. In defending smallholders, he revealed his own origins as a small farmer and felt deeply the injustices heaped upon them by the state and judicial system. Above all, he was committed to the formation of his pastoral agents and, in his later years, could see the fruits of his labours in the fine team of highly dedicated priests, sisters, and laity.

GRATITUDE TO REDEMPTORISTS

On the occasion of their 25 years of mission in his diocese, Bishop Collins paid tribute to his Redemptorist confreres:

“It was a very happy experience. They very naturally accepted the dimension of co-responsibility and collaborated in everything aimed at the good of the people of God and the organisation of the diocese. They were pioneers in listening to God’s call in the formation of Basic Christian Communities and the organisation of the CPT in rural areas, and the pastoral care of marginalised women in urban areas. The Diocese of Miracema owes much to the generous and dedicated collaboration of the Redemptorists.”

Anne Staunton, originally from Mayo, and Limerick-born Pat O’Sullivan are retired teachers, translators and former missionaries in Midwest, Brazil.

“He was a missionary who loved action. He didn’t just talk; he practiced what he preached. He was obsessed with getting things done.”

Bishop Collins with Pat O Sullivan at a court hearing

Bishop Collins and Pat O’Sullivan with a squatter

IN MEMORY OF ORLA

SHE WAS GONE BEFORE WE EVER GOT TO HOLD HER

BY MAJELLA SHEEHAN

She was tiny and petite, exquisite and perfect. She was so beautiful. “An álainn ar fad.” Very beautiful, indeed. I could see her mum’s eyes, her dad’s nose, her long elegant fingers. She took my breath away. She arrived too early, so this little girl was in that horribly named “non-viable” category. With the most savage cruelty, the universe was instructing her distraught mum and dad to say goodbye to her from the moment they said hello.

I watched as the pink woolly hooded little jacket which delicately dressed her would never fulfil its function of keeping her warm. That first time looking into her hospital crib, the powerlessness overwhelmed me. A tsunami of emotions flooded. Screaming panic, bereft isolation, confusion, bewilderment. A ferocious need to protect her parents, knowing instantly that it is futile. Then the need to sob, convulse, away from everyone in a quiet place. Maybe that would take the pain away? But it just caused exhaustion.

They had started calling her by her name before this day. They had chosen Orla, meaning Golden Princess. There were so many strange experiences from

those strange days. Nothing made sense. Today we might be able to ask the pertinent questions. The lonely little Chapel of Rest stands in pastel, restful shades on the hospital grounds. Is that long walk to reach it really that long, or was it our grief that slowed us down?

This was a second-trimester bereavement. The Early Pregnancy Loss section carries

leaning on the iron railings outside the mortuary, running on empty but still holding up to keep it together for his beloved daughter. The other grandad at the bottom of the beautiful garden, ashen pallor, hands in face trying to find strength from somewhere to keep going for his beloved son. Her granny, my counterpart, strong and selflessly determined to do all

tenderly carried by her dad in a little white coffin and brought into the House of God.

All are so kind; all are so sad. It’s not right. It’s not the correct order of things. There is not a single word or sentence that will make it easy. It will always sear our hearts. Why did this happen? What God could be so cruel? Why snatch her away from us before we even got to hold her? “Is féidir leis an saol a bheith an-chrua uaireanta.” Life can be very cruel sometimes.

the full story in its name. Pain and heartache saturate it. The gaunt faces of mums emerge, dulled and numbed from shock. Dads also looking awkward and unsure. Shattered dreams. “Tread softly for you tread on my dreams,” wrote WB Yeats.

There are images that will never be erased. Orla’s dad being so brave and stoic, but I know him, my son, and he is crumbling inside. Orla’s mum, looking at her baby with such pride and such pain. Her heart breaks into a thousand little pieces as we watch and witness. The grandads. One grandad

in her power to comfort her girl, knowing it’s not possible. The uncles, three grown men, tall and proud, tear-stained faces. A grand-uncle who went through this many, many years ago and who is reliving it all, looking on. Then there is the kindness of strangers, the Bereavement Midwife and chaplain who would do anything for you. The sensitive priest who celebrated the Mass of the Angels for us. The sacristan who prepared the little country church which gave us such privacy. The workers on the road who stopped and fell silent as our little girl was

In my dreams, she is full of life and vibrancy. Always running, always chuckling, but out of my reach. Still petite, exquisite, perfect. She has come into our lives, and we love her with a love that will never end – a tiny little girl who packed an enormous punch.

Know how much you are loved, Orla. Know how strong your place is in our family. To the moon and back a thousand times, baby girl. We love you, and we always will.

She has come into our lives, and we love her with a love that will never end – a tiny little girl who packed an enormous punch.

Majella Sheehan taught with the FCJ Sisters in Bruff, Co Limerick and is retired. She lives in Meelick, Co Clare.

MAINIE JELLETT AND THE VIRGIN OF ÉIRE

THE VIRGIN OF ÉIRE AND OTHER DEPICTIONS OF THE VIRGIN AND CHILD

BY MAINIE JELLETT IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND

BY RUTH SHEEHY

Mainie

Jellett (1897-1944), who was a major figure in Irish art during the 1930s and 40s, was trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art from 1914-17, where she studied under William Orpen (18781931). She later attended The Westminster School of Art, London from 1917-20, which was ‘then run by Walter Sickert’ (1860-1942). (Bruce Arnold, ‘Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland’ in Gill Tipton (ed.), Mainie Jellett 18971944, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 1991-92, 16). She was a member of The Church of Ireland and not a liturgical artist like her fellow artist Evie Hone (1894-1955), but an independent painter who produced autonomous religious works. (Gesa Thiessen, Theology and Modern Irish Art, (Dublin: Columba Press, 1999, 39). Jellett’s interest in modernism led her and Evie Hone (1894-1955) to

study cubism in Paris under André Lhote (1885-1962) and Albert Gleizes (1881-1953) in 1921. (Ibid., 37-38). The influence of modernism enabled Jellett to reinterpret traditional religious subjects which would stimulate the viewer to meditate on the meaning of the Christian mysteries and draw him/her into the religious experience. Her works on these themes were painted in a cubist-abstract manner, which combined expressive colour, form and shape. This resulted in contrasting tones of light and shade and an indirect mediation of religious meaning. Her religious works from the late 1920s to early 40s, executed in oils on canvas and gouache on paper, blended figuration with abstraction. Some were almost completely non-figurative.

The Virgin of Éire needs to be understood within the context of Jellett’s other late religious works, executed in oils

on canvas, such as Deposition (1939), (Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane) The Nativity (1940), (London, Pyms Gallery), The Ninth Hour (1941) (Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane) and I have Trodden the Winepress Alone (1943) (National Gallery of Ireland). These paintings, like The Virgin of Éire, are meditative images of religious themes where cubist-abstract form and expressive symbolic colour, convey the mood and pathos in a profound way. Jellett’s late religious works are imbued with a deep spirituality, that was due to her commitment to Christian faith and to her artistic and stylistic development. (Ibid., 40-45). She was influenced by the religious art of the modern French artist George Rouault (1871-1958). According to Bruce Arnold:

‘Rouault had achieved in his art that integration of pre-Renaissance spiritual directness and simplicity with

Jellett

modernism, which she herself was increasingly concerned to resolve in her later paintings, a growing number of which had been on religious themes, and all of which were concerned with visual re-interpretation, as were those of Rouault.’ (Bruce Arnold, Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland , (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991,192).

THE VIRGIN OF ÉIRE IN THE CONTEXT OF IRISH IDENTITY AND NATIONALISM IN IRELAND DURING THE 1930S AND 40S.

The painting of The Virgin of Éire (1943) (NGI.4319), (Plate 1), (sometimes referred to as The Madonna of Éire), is executed in oil on canvas, 64cm x 92cm, and was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1978. This

work which is unsigned, reveals the connection between Irish identity and Christianity, or particularly Catholicism, during the 1940s in Ireland. Painted in 1943, it is one of Jellett’s last works and was exhibited in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, in the same year.

The work shows The Virgin Mary in the centre with the Christ-child lying horizontally

in her arms. She is depicted with two of Ireland’s patron saints on either side of her, who are St Patrick on the left and St Brigid on the right. Among the drawings for the composition in the National Gallery Prints and Drawings Collection, is (NGI.18249), in graphite on paper, which shows St Brigid, originally on the left and St Patrick on the right of the Virgin and Child, in the centre. However, this was ultimately reversed in other drawings and in the final painted work. Bruce Arnold discussing Jellett’s love of Irish Celtic art, acknowledges: ‘the close relationship between the form of abstract Cubism she had practiced and the art of Celtic Ireland she so admired.’ (Ibid., 180)

Mentioning the Irish and nationalistic dimension of The Virgin of Éire, Kenneth McConkey states that:

‘In later years, Jellett tacked more complex abstractions. In The Virgin of Eire , (sic), (figure 59) she almost reverts to the antiquated visual language of Victorians like Maclise who essayed grand themes like ‘the spirit of chivalry’ or ‘the spirit of justice.’ But here in Jellett’s Erin there was a new language for a new concept. The national spirit was more than a wind-blown Cathleen ni (sic) Houlihan, if only it could be realised.’ (Kenneth McConkey, A Free Spirit Irish Art 1860-1960, (London: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1991), 76).

The Virgin and Child with two of Ireland’s patron saints, Patrick and Brigid, is a traditional Irish iconographical theme. Due to the Celtic Revival during the early twentieth century, the Virgin and Child with SS Patrick and Brigid was depicted in a lunette stained glass window (1932-33) by Irish

artist Richard King (1907-74) for St Mary’s Church, Knockbridge, County Louth. (Nicola Gordon Bowe, David Caron and Michael Wynne, (eds.), Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, Revised New Edition, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2021, 189). However, in The Virgin of Éire, by Jellett, the Celtic imagery of the Virgin and Child flanked by SS Patrick and Brigid is painted in a modernist idiom, as indicated by the composition, shapes, colour and figures, depicted in a cubist-abstract style.

The connection between Irish identity and religion is revealed in Irish art of the twentieth century by the female figure of Éire depicted occasionally as an Irish woman with a shawl and also as the Virgin and Child. This is exemplified by Eire, (sic) (1907), by Beatrice Elvery, in oils on canvas, that shows ‘an

Plate 2 Mainie Jellett (1897-1944)

Drawing for The Virgin of Éire, 1943 Ink, pencil and wash on paper

40.4 x 49.6 cm

NGI.18251

National Gallery of Ireland Collection Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

Plate 3 Mainie Jellett (1897-1944)

The Virgin and Child Enthroned Gouache on paper

20.5 x 16.5 cm

NGI.7842

National Gallery of Ireland Collection

Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

allegorical picture’ of ‘Cathleen Ní Houlihan’ seen ‘with a child on her knee, ‘presumably Young Ireland.’ This iconography also alludes to the Virgin and Child. (Nicola Gordon Bowe, ‘The Art of Beatrice Elvery, Lady Glenavy (1883-1970)’, in Irish Arts Review Yearbook , 1995, 169-175). As Ireland was a predominantly Catholic country, the Virgin Mary with the Christ-child, as a symbol of Catholic motherhood, was a salient Pre-Vatican II theme, and was a prevalent image in Irish art, during this period.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE VIRGIN OF ÉIRE (1943) AND OTHER EARLIER DRAWINGS OF THE VIRGIN AND CHILD BY MAINIE JELLETT IN THE PRINTS AND

DRAWINGS COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND.

There are four drawings for The Virgin of Éire in the Prints and Drawings collection of The National Gallery of Ireland. These works show the composition divided into three parts to accommodate the three figures. These drawings also demonstrate Jellett’s understanding of design and the relationship of the three figures to one another. The religious theme is conveyed by dramatic light and dark contrasts such as in a drawing for the painting NGI.18251 (Plate 2), (1943), 40.4 x 49.6cm, executed in ink, pencil and wash on paper. Jellett’s thoughts on colour for the painting is indicated by another drawing for the work which is NGI.18249, executed

in graphite on paper where the words ‘Blue’ and ‘Seagreen’ are written by her. The drawing NGI.18250, in graphite on paper, divided into three parts, is squared up for transfer, which indicates Jellett’s knowledge of art historical tradition.

Due to the Irish theme of The Virgin of Éire , the dominant colour in the painting is a vibrant green, which is also apparent in the figure of St Patrick, shown on the left, with an upraised right hand. Blue is the other principal colour, used for the Virgin and Christ-child. Red is visible with some blue, purple and white for St Brigid, on the right. White is also mixed in with these stronger primary colours to bring contrasts of light and shade. Indeed, a restricted colourrange, which is a characteristic of this work, also applies to other Drawings of the Virgin and Child by Jellett in the National Gallery Prints and Drawings collection. Repetition of a limited range of primary and secondary symbolic colours reflects Jellett’s knowledge of modernism in Ireland and Europe.

Apart from the three religious figures, the spiritual dimension of The Virgin of Éire is suggested by rays from heaven at the top and on either side, which add light, radiance and movement to the composition. Luminosity surrounds the halos of the three figures, which also evokes the spiritual. According to Daire O’ Connell: ‘The figures are enclosed in a carefully structured symmetrical composition.’ (Gill Tipton (ed.), Mainie Jellett 1897-1944, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin: The Irish Museum of Modern Art,

1991-92, op. cit., 92). Visual harmony distinguishes this work which is inspiring and transcendent. Although this painting is figurative, the style is a combination of expressionism, cubism and abstraction, which shows a meditative approach to the visual interpretation of the religious theme. This draws the viewer into the experience in a reflective manner. The composition is distinguished by curved and circular shapes. The cubist interest in surface texture is shown by the pointillist dots at the bottom of the image.

Among the other earlier Drawings of the Virgin and Child by Jellett in the National Gallery Prints and Drawings collection is The Virgin and Child Enthroned (NGI.7842) 20.5cm x 16.5cm, that is executed in gouache on paper. This drawing is signed ‘M. Jellett’ and undated. (Plate 3) This moving work reveals the tenderness of motherhood, shown by the close relationship between the Virgin and the Christ-child in the centre. The innocence and vulnerability of the Christ-child as a baby are clearly seen. The restricted symbolic colour scheme, limited to blue, white, yellow, red, green and dark grey, focuses on the mystery of the incarnation and the completion of the Christevent, by prefiguring the Passion and Resurrection. These indirect references to the passion are made by symbolic colours red, orange, dark grey and brown tones in the lower part of the image. The promise of hope and resurrection is shown by blue, white and yellow in the upper part of the composition. This symbolism is based on Jellett’s

knowledge of earlier religious paintings from the history of art, where works devoted to the infancy of Christ prefigure his passion in a poignant manner. In this regard, some of the compositions of Jellett’s images of the Virgin and Child such as this one demonstrate an awareness of altarpieces from early Italian and North European painting from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Bruce Arnold mentions Jellett’s knowledge of the art of Fra Angelico, Botticelli and Titian. (Bruce Arnold, Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland, op. cit., 181.) The colour blue in this work, symbolically associated with the Virgin Mary, also indicates the figures of the

Virgin and Child surrounded by heaven and the presence of the divine. The faces of the two central figures confront the viewer in a manner which is arresting and moving. Although the two figures are clearly visible in the centre of the composition, the work is painted in a cubistabstract manner with contrasts of colour and light and dark tones. Hence the overall effect is to draw the viewer into the meaning of the incarnation and redemption. The meditative mood of the work, suggested by the interaction of the forms and shapes, conveys a rhythmical movement to the composition.

Another version of The Virgin and Child Enthroned (NGI.7847), dated 1929, and executed

Plate 4 Mainie Jellett (1897-1944)

The Virgin and Child, 1936

Gouache and graphite on paper 27.5 x 20 cm

NGI.7840

National Gallery of Ireland Collection

Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

in gouache and graphite on squared paper, 37.5cm x 49cm, is signed ‘M. Jellett 29.’ This work is more abstract with the figures of the Virgin and Child barely discernible in the centre. The cubist-abstract style here is more developed with layering of shapes and differences in surface texture, such as the pointillist dots, all of which are usually visible in Jellett’s earlier paintings entitled Abstract Composition. The pointillist areas in this drawing, surrounding the Virgin and Child and the abstract shapes on either side, may signify the religious dimension of the work. (Bruce Arnold, Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland, op. cit., 116, 166-167.

The Virgin and Child , (NGI.7840), (Plate 4), (1936), executed in gouache and graphite on paper, 27.5 x 20cm, and signed ‘M. H. Jellett 36’ is a later work where the blend of cubism and abstraction is very evident. The position of the two central figures of the Virgin and Child seen within circular shapes indicates Jellett’s use of ‘Abstraction-Création and ‘Translation-Rotation,’ originally derived from Gleizes. (Ibid., 139144). The faces of the Virgin and Christ-child look out at the viewer as in the undated version of The Madonna and Child Enthroned, NGI.7842 , already mentioned. The mystery of the incarnation is mediated by the harmonious arrangement of colour, movement, light and dark tones, and by the circular shapes. Although speculative, the colour green, surrounding the Virgin and Child and at the top and bottom of the image, may symbolise ‘hope and

promise’ with which the colour is associated. (Ruth Sheehy, The Life and Work of Richard King: Religion, Nationalism and Modernism, Reimagining Ireland series, (Oxford: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2020, 25). The pointillist areas framing the two central figures provide visual texture to the cubist composition. Another almost identical version of The Virgin and Child , in oils on canvas c. 1936, 61cm x 46cm, (private collection), for which the drawing (NGI.7840), may be a study, also includes pointillist areas in the border. Gesa Thiessen, discussing these aspects of the version of The Virgin and Child, c. 1936, in oils on canvas, notes transcendence and the divine. She remarks on: ‘Jellett’s choice of pointillist spaces that serve like a frame around the circles and semicircles that enclose the figures. These spaces contribute to the sense of the sacred as they remind the viewer of the incisions used in icons and Early Renaissance altarpieces, or the dotting technique which was applied in Irish illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow.’ (Gesa Thiessen, Theology and Modern Irish Art, op. cit., 127-128))

CONCLUSION

Although the three versions of the Virgin and Child already discussed are earlier than The Virgin of Éire, they nevertheless reveal how the theme was developed by Jellett from the late 1920s to early 40s, and how it preoccupied her. In The Virgin of Éire , as a late

work, there is an invitation to the viewer to recognise the relationship between Ireland and Christianity in a manner which is Celtic, contemplative and modern. The reinterpretation of the Celtic Revival theme of the Virgin and Child flanked by SS Patrick and Brigid in a cubist-abstract style testifies to European artistic modernist influences on Irish artists such as Mainie Jellett during the early part of the twentieth century. Hence this vibrant, harmonious and spiritual religious work is an authentic expression of the Irish soul during this time.

Ruth Sheehy MLitt is an Art Historian and Slide and Photographic Librarian emerita, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College, Dublin.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks are due to Niamh McNally, Curator of the Prints and Drawings Study Room, National Gallery of Ireland and to Anna Gavigan, Library, National Gallery of Ireland for all their help with research for this article.

HOW SHOULD A CATHOLIC VOTE?

BY AOIFE M cGRATH AND RAPHAEL GALLAGHER CSsR

Weare coming to the end of a Decade of Centenaries (2012-2023) when important events in Irish history were remembered and commemorated. At local and national levels, we have marked, among other important events, the struggle for independence, the foundation of the Irish Free State, and the Irish Civil War. These have given us an opportunity to learn from the past, to look at how our country has evolved, and consider what contribution we can make to the nation we share today. Our present Constitution – Bunreacht na hÉireann, enacted on 1 July 1937 – speaks about the ‘fundamental political duties’ of all citizens to be faithful to the nation and loyal to the State (Article 9.3). Here we think through one aspect of this important political duty: voting. Should I vote? What difference could my individual vote make? If the personal convictions of my faith clash with those of political candidates or parties, how should I vote?

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

To understand the significance of voting, it is helpful to consider the values that were important for our ancestors a century ago. Our first constitution came into law on 6 December 1922. It sets out clearly the rights of citizens: the liberty of the person and the home of each citizen were inviolable. Freedom of conscience was guaranteed, as was the free profession and practice of religion. All citizens had the right to free expression and to assemble peacefully. Without the distinction of sex, the right to vote for members of Dáil

Éireann – when aged over 21 years – or to vote for members of Seanad Éireann – when over 30 years. Given the turbulent times, this constitution is a significant defence of how the rights of Irish citizens were to be protected in the newly established State.

These rights are not something we can take for granted in Ireland today. Rights need to be continually protected. We are experiencing a national housing crisis. Increasingly, individuals and families are becoming homeless, and there are fewer places to rent at ever-increasing rates. Some will never be able to afford to buy their own home. Students must commute long distances. Growing numbers live for lengthy periods in poor-quality emergency accommodation and direct provision. We are, in theory, happy to receive refugees in Ireland. If they come here, will they then be forced live on the street?

Reforms are subject to our current Constitution. It asserts that the people of Ireland seek ‘to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations…’ When we are voting, we should not be thinking selfishly. It is not about ‘what’s in this for me?’ When we vote, we are making a judgment on whom and what party we judge best to promote the vision of the Constitution, protecting the rights of Irish citizens and serving the common good of Irish society.

LOOKING AT THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

We are reminded daily by the media of the value of social order and cohesion. Protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, which authorities have tried to suppress by force, resulted in the deaths of protestors by security forces. Iranian ‘kamikaze drones’ are being used by Russia in Ukraine to destroy essential energy infrastructure, killing civilians, and depriving people of water, electricity, and heat as winter beckons. Peace and social order are not something that can be taken for granted.

Nor should we think that voting does not matter. Brexit has had a direct impact on the island of Ireland. 55.8 percent of those who voted in Northern Ireland wanted to remain in the EU. However, 51.9 percent of the votes cast in the UK were in favour of leaving the EU. As part of Brexit, the EU and UK agreed on a Northern Ireland Protocol that there would be no new checks on goods crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The Protocol became a focal point of political crisis in the North. It may well need another round of voting to restore the devolved government.

Consider what happens when people decide not to vote. The risk is that a country is governed by a vocal group that presents itself as a majority. In fact, it may be a small percentage of a passive electorate. When too many people abstain, ideology can take over. Giorgia Meloni told reporters following her victory in Italy’s general election that ‘Italians have sent a clear message in

of a right-wing government led by Brothers of Italy.’ A far-right party – Sweden Democrats – became the second largest party in the Swedish government because issues around immigration and violent crime put the party’s agenda at the heart of Sweden’s politics. Xenophobic rhetoric also formed a significant part of the pro-Brexit campaign. There was a sudden spike in hate crime following the vote. We should welcome the opportunity we are given when we vote. Voters should, of course, assess the party manifestos published at election time. We also consider the personalities and values of the candidates. However, we should always remember the constitutional basis of voting for parties/ people that we judge best capable of promoting the common good and the dignity of individual citizens.

DIGNITY FROM THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE

The preamble of our Constitution begins with the words ‘In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity.’ It is controversial for many citizens today. However, it speaks to the time and place and the beliefs that were central to the generation who drafted the Constitution. This belief in a Triune God is fundamental to the Christian faith – God’s very being is relational. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the love among these three is permanent. For Christians, this God took the initiative, and out of love, created us in the divine image of the Trinity. We are thus social beings, created for relationship. God’s love bestows dignity on each human person. We respond to that love not just by loving God but by loving others and acting in a way that respects their dignity. This may seem a long way from going into a booth and voting. It is not, because when we vote, we demonstrate how we care for our fellow citizens. Elections and referenda impact others’ lives. By voting, we ‘have our say’ in how the dignity of others should be recognised and protected.

CATHOLICS AND VOTING

Catholics will have their own convictions formed by their belief in basic Christian values.

As citizens, their convictions are also shaped by and respond to the society where they live. Today’s society is more critically aware of the agendas at play – the ‘politics at work’ – in the public sphere. Critics of the church have argued that church leadership in Ireland has sought to exercise external control over the state and its citizens, through the assertion of ultimate reward or punishment, heaven or hell. These critics argue strongly for a total separation of church and state.

Leo Varadkar, as Taoiseach, during the 2018 papal visit, spoke about ‘a new relationship between church and state in Ireland – a new covenant for the 21st century.’ Arguably, little overt progress has been made in developing such a covenant. In the meantime, Catholics continue to vote (or not) in conscience and freedom. More is needed. It is important to think through what it means to vote before the heat of an election or referendum campaign.

Should the church remain silent coming up to election time? That would be a mistake because it would consolidate an impression that religion is only a private matter with no consequences for society. The Catholic faith tradition has much to contribute to the burning issues of our time. Not only should Catholics bring their convictions with them to the voting booth, we would expect people of other religions to do the same. It is not a question of one religion winning over another one. That is the type of sectarianism that has done so much damage in the past.

What can the church contribute to thinking out what way we should vote? First and foremost, an insistence on social justice in our society. The church’s social teaching has been called ‘the best-kept secret of the church.’ We should become proactive on this. Some political parties can act as if there is no such thing as society: there is only a catalogue of ‘individuals’ who are competing to use their ‘rights’ as the trump card in any potential clash. Individuals have their dignity and rights, certainly. Our position is that a person’s dignity can only be fully understood in relationship with others. According to our Constitution, it is best guaranteed by a view of the common good nourished by the values of prudence,

justice, and charity.

SHOULD I VOTE?

It is a temptation to remain silent. A recent book by retired Judge Gillian Hussey (Lessons from the Bench) is a very candid assessment of how Ireland has changed in her time. Her book argues how only by breaking the silence of the past has a more tolerant Ireland emerged. It is difficult to disagree with this assessment. She is very direct in her criticism of the harm done by an authoritarian and clerical church to Irish society. In a way, her book is a chronicle of how ‘breaking the silence’ was essential. It was only when the secrets of a silent Ireland were exposed that victims had some dignity restored. She says that ‘silence allows people to do terrible things, providing the conditions in which evil can thrive’ (page 225). Being silent is not an option. There are new issues in modern Ireland. Are we being too silent about them?

To have a chance to vote is a privilege. When we vote, we are exercising our right as a citizen. The Irish Constitution gives us a framework to understand this. We are also exercising our Christian calling – to care for the dignity of others. There are issues where our faith convictions clash with the political programme of the party we vote for. It is unrealistic to think that the church’s moral teaching will automatically translate into law. Participating meaningfully in public debate, promoting social justice, and ‘having our say’ in the polling booths form an essential part of our political duty.

Now is the time to be thinking through what a privilege it is to be able to vote and shape our society. What does it mean to share a common home on the planet? How can we contribute to a society where social justice is essential, not optional? The Catholic tradition of social thinking is the type of contribution we should be making to the new covenant between state and church hoped for by Mr Varadkar.

a

Aoife McGrath is director of pastoral theology at St Patrick’s Pontifical University Maynooth.

Raphael Gallagher CSsR is

Redemptorist who taught moral theology in Rome for 20 years. He now lives in Limerick.

BACK TO REALITY

AUTHOR JOHN MACKENNA CREDITS TWO REDEMPTORISTS WITH NURTURING HIS LOVE OF WRITING

INTERVIEW: JOHN SCALLY

For years Reality magazine has provided a sounding board for many people to articulate their feelings about religion and spirituality. But what is not so well known is that it also provided the launching pad for the career of one of Ireland’s most distinguished writers, John MacKenna.

MacKenna is a former head of religious programmes at RTE Radio. His early publications were about local history. The publication of his first collection of short stories, The Fallen and Other Stories, catapulted him to the forefront of Irish writing - a status confirmed when the book won the prestigious The Irish Times first fiction award in 1992. His second collection of short stories, A Year of Our Lives, came three years later, further advancing his reputation. His first novel, Clare, was based on the life of the English Romantic poet John Clare. His other novels include The Last Fine Summer and A Haunted Heart.

It all started though while he was still at school.

“I attended secondary school with the Redemptorists as a boarder at St Clement’s College, Limerick. I had two wonderful teachers there who were Redemptorist priests that had a profound effect on me. One of them was my English teacher, Ray Kearns. He had a great passion for English literature which he passed on to his students. I always remember that every Friday, when he gave us an essay for the weekend, he would give us a list of essays and then say that if there was any other topic we wanted to write about, we should pick that. I found that approach inspiring and encouraged

me to be more creative. He would always talk about books he read himself and constantly encourage us to read a wide range of books.

“I still remember the shiver I got down my back one evening when the headmaster came into the dining room and presented me with a copy of Reality magazine, which featured a poem I had written. It was about how we live in a society of haves and have-nots and how poverty can cause people to be denied all joy. To this day, whenever I get a book published and hold the first copy, I get an echo of the feeling I experienced that night. Even winning The Irish Times prize couldn’t match the thrill I felt seeing my first poem in Reality!

“The other teacher who had a profound impact on me was Fr Brendan Meagher. He was an incredible man for encouraging young people to find an answer that fitted the particular questions they were raising. We always had brilliant debates in his class. He had a great gift for opening up people’s minds and getting them to ask questions. The last I heard, Brendan was doing missionary work in Brazil, but I still carry that sense of questioning from his classes.”

SPIRITUAL QUEST

In his twenties, John became a Quaker.

“I was in England and picked up a book in Oxford called Quaker by Convincement. As I read it, I thought, wow, this is interesting. When I got back to Ireland, I started to look around to see if there were any meetings of the Society of Friends near my home in Kildare. The nearest at the time was a meeting held in Edenderry, County Offaly. I started to attend,

and I found the people there very friendly and encouraging. It’s hard to put your finger on it exactly, but I found my spiritual hunger satisfied as a Quaker.”

John’s religious convictions express themselves in his writing. One of his earliest projects was to edit the diaries of the Quaker Mary Leadbeater, who wrote wonderful accounts of one the most famous events in Irish history, the 1798 rebellion. His most recent project is a one-woman play about Mary Leadbeater, The Woman at the Window, which is about to begin a national tour.

His acclaimed novel The Last Fine Summer focuses on a character reliving the past with a proliferation of missed opportunities and secret griefs. The narrator, Tim, wanders between two worlds via two stories of love and loss from his past, both of which end in violent death.

A fascinating area of exploration in the novel is how love and death both inspire and drain hope. Indeed, the opening of the book has many parallels with the prologue to Romeo and Juliet.

MacKenna would probably agree with the old adage that religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell but spirituality is for those who have been there already!

MacKenna is also the natural successor to the late Leitrim writer John McGahern in terms of themes and style. For example, his writing on nature mirrors McGahern: “His breath comes out like diamonds. The sun is genial in the gaps between the trees. It’s glint and haze and glint and haze up through the trees to the brilliance of the hilltop.”

A CLOSE FRIENDSHIP

John MacKenna is famous for his close friendship with the late singer Leonard Cohen. Having learned of many deaths in tragic circumstances in May 2016, John emailed Leonard and asked whether they might create a work to remember those who were lost.

“The reply came within an hour: I’m a Jewish Buddhist, you’re an agnostic Quaker, where do we begin? Over the following weeks, I outlined my idea in greater detail: a requiem for stage, shaped on the liturgy of the Mass but using only Leonard’s words and music to create that liturgy. I had spent days and nights listening and re-listening to his songs and reading through his poetry collections, particularly Book of Mercy. I sent him an outline of what I had in mind, and over the following months, the emails came and went with suggestions and recommendations.

Leonard sent me a poem I hadn’t seen before. The text began to take shape, as did the central roles of the mother and father of the dead child and the celebrant who, despite his loss of faith, must celebrate this final, heartbreakingly important Mass.

“It seemed to me that Leonard’s music and words were ideal for these subjects. His work is littered with religious and spiritual imagery; with hope and sanguinity, yet it’s also strewn with doubt, human weakness and uncertainty.”

By mid-October 2016, the work was complete but a few weeks later Cohen died. Suddenly, the importance of staging the

requiem took on a new urgency. What had been a requiem by Leonard also became, in an unexpected way, a requiem for Leonard.

“The closing of the requiem was the most challenging part: how to leave the audience with a sense of the depth of the suffering endured by families while, at the same time, lifting the spirit to a sense of hope, a reminder that life continues – radically altered but even more important now – for those who remain.

In the end, we settled on one of Leonard’s

lesser-known songs, You Got Me Singing. The lyrics seemed particularly apposite: ‘You got me singing even though the world is gone/ you got me thinking I’d like to carry on./You got me singing even though it all looks grim/ you got me singing the Hallelujah hymn.’ But, most of all, this work is about reflecting on the loss of parents whose children have accidentally or intentionally stepped out of this life.”

“It seemed to me that Leonard’s music and words were ideal for these subjects. His work is littered with religious and spiritual imagery; with hope and sanguinity, yet it’s also strewn with doubt, human weakness and uncertainty.”

THE RIPPLES WITHIN

MY SENSE OF THE SPIRITUAL HAS HELPED ME COPE WITH MY DAD’S DEATH

BY MARGARET GRAHAM

The November 2021 issue of Reality

focused on grief and loss and explored Irish rituals and traditions, including family experiences during Covid-19. I, too, have written about my personal and professional experiences of the death of my dad, Jim, from hospital-acquired Covid-19. I now wish to share my experiences surrounding my dad’s death and how an understanding of spirituality ripples forth and sustains me. Such reflective writing is beyond traditional journa constraints, so I write here.

I begin with a glimpse of Jim, a treasured dad, brother, grandfather, and friend. My parents, Jim and Nuala, were married for over 60 years until Nuala’s death in 2018. Jim, 91 years old, lived alone and kept a positive outlook. Yet, his sadness was reflected in comments such as, ‘The walls can’t talk to you,’ a view akin to CS Lewis’s, ‘I dread the moments when the house is empty.’

Jim followed isolation rules. He communicated with us via the world wide web as his hearing loss became challenging. He had a deep Christian faith and signed off many emails with, ‘God bless, take care.’

In the bleak midwinter Christmas 2020, Jim was hospitalised following a fall and there contracted Covid-19. Telephone updates from staff. No visitors allowed. He kept in touch via email until a final: ”The nurses are fantastic; enjoy yourselves. Don’t worry about the old codger; will keep fighting this. Love you heaps, Jim.”

DREADED PHONE CALL

Christmas 2020. I help as an usher at Mount St Alphonsus church, Limerick. It is a simple task, welcoming and reminding people about Covid-19 safe practices, mask-wearing, and guiding people to designated seats.

Every day I walk with my husband, Dan,

across Limerick’s three bridges. We notice the Christmas hustle and bustle, twinkling lights, ever-changing skylines, the birds, the sounds and flow of the river.

Walking on New Year’s Eve, the dreaded phone call from my brother Gerry tells us Jim is struggling and has made his choice. No more interventions. Jim is dying. Gerry is permitted to stay with him.

During Jim’s last hours, the hospital chaplain administers the Last Rites. WhatsApp messages flow to and fro, sending last calls from family across the world. Slowly, quietly, time passes.

We wait as dusk falls, and Dan and I visit Mount St Alphonsus. The soft glow cocoons as we light candles at St Gerard’s Shrine, a family tradition.

Later at home, waiting for the inevitable, a candle lights the night. Strange times, strange happenings, running counter to my beliefs as expressed by Irish philosopher Richard Kearney (2021): ‘The last thing we do when dying is to reach for another hand, something that the pandemic has made impossible.’

JIM’S FAREWELL

Jim reached his 92nd birthday early on New Year’s Eve; his final words: “Nuala is waiting for me. We will pray for you all. God bless.”

We find comfort in the limited celebration of Jim’s life at the funeral Mass and crematorium service, ending with Ode to Joy, composed by Beethoven when profoundly deaf. I was reminded of this music from Fr Gerry Moloney’s reference in his Christmas homily to hearing loss, hence the choice.

In my work as an educator, I facilitate learning about death and dying. Margaret Haughton, writing in Reality (2021), likens responses to grief to a tsunami of emotions such as anger, bargaining, and denial. In my grief, I don’t have

such feelings but rather a calmness, a sense of my spirituality as a touchstone for life. I have learned, as Irish scholar John O’Donohue notes, ‘You lose the balance of your soul if you do not learn to take care of yourself.’

Self-care sees me acknowledge emotions but without distress and is life-enhancing. Becoming more mindful guides this process. Eastern philosophies hold mindfulness at the core of spiritual practice. A Celtic spirituality of the divine as revealed in nature, weather, and seasonal imagery, creates a space for stillness and calmness integral to my spiritual being. The beauty and peace of the soul space at Mount St Alphonsus is a newfound wonder. Working through my grief, I am aware of taking a moment to pause to see nature in daily life, integrating mind, body, and spirit to take care of self. I am at peace.

I find solace in writing. I did not know how this article would shape up. Thinking and writing help me craft ideas. I am privileged to be connected at Jim’s death and dying from afar. I know that Jim was one of over 6,500 people who have died from Covid-19 in Ireland. Others may have different experiences and are without a voice. I am privileged to have been a bystander to dad’s serenity and faith during his last moments on this earth.

Writing about my understanding of the concept of spirituality sustains me as part of a healing process as ripples of sadness, joy, and memories ebb and flow.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to my friends at the Redemptorists who stood beside me, asked about Jim, prayed for him, and rang me. All these simple acts of kindness help my grieving.

Margaret Graham is a lecturer at the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Limerick.

FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

FAMILY DISAGREEMENTS ARE NORMAL AT CHRISTMAS

Perfect

families do not exist. If a conversation takes a turn we don’t like, most of us believe we are reacting to something that was said to us. Sometimes that is true but what may equally be true is that the other person was reacting to something we said, did, or didn’t do.

Isn’t it strange how just one word or even the smallest, seemingly insignificant remark can spark an argument that may develop into a row? Who or what introduced the note of contention is seldom clear because people have such different perceptions. Whether we respond positively or react negatively to what we hear reflects what we assume to be true about the speaker’s motivation.

Having the courage to say what we feel at the time someone reacts badly is one way to avoid a contentious issue becoming a problem that is bound to be more difficult to resolve later. It’s easy to forget that, in some ways, our family members see us as the person we used to be, not the mature and capable adult we have become.

Parents who offer advice may be hurt when they get a negative response to an offer of help or even a simple suggestion. For adult children, unsolicited advice from a parent suggests a need for improvement. If this is interpreted as you’re not doing it right, my way is better, it’s reacted to as a critical judgement.

Almost everyone has witnessed

or been part of a situation where a pleasant, amiable conversation turned into an angry exchange in the blink of an eye. Research shows that one in six families have disagreements over Christmas dinner preparation. Other issues that spark arguments are fighting over TV channels, squabbling over board games, drinking too much, and decisions about entertaining the in-laws.

At any large family gathering, at

have a great many unfinished situations with our families and many unexpressed feelings towards them. Some people are so burdened with the past that they cannot let go of painful memories.” Even though our memories of past events are very real for us, they are not accurate records of the events and incidents that actually happened. There is a widely held belief that because people love us, they

is taken up the wrong way, alters the tone of a conversation, and totally changes the atmosphere in the room. A comment from family members that would have no effect if said by colleagues can generate deeply felt emotional hurt when it is heard as a criticism, judgement, or put down.

Family members are good at predicting what will happen when a touchy subject is raised or some old disagreements that will lead to an argument are resurrected. An angry exchange that clears the air has less of a disruptive influence on the season of goodwill and happiness than the sullen silence of someone who withdraws emotionally. The biggest joy killer in any group is the fault finder who rarely expresses a word of appreciation and has been known to complain that gifts were too cheap or lacked thought.

least one person will likely feel like s/he is walking on eggshells. At family gatherings during Christmas, it’s harder to disengage, walk away and avoid impending disagreements than at other times of the year. In a utopian world, sibling rivalry would disappear when sisters and brothers become adults. In the real world, it’s estimated that about one in five children who feel jealous and harbour resentment against each other carry their competition, disagreements, and rivalry with them into adulthood.

Gestalt therapist John O. Stevens says, “Almost all of us

should understand us in ways that we do not expect from others. Studies show that mothers and daughters expect more of each other than fathers and sons. Irish people are not good at talking openly and honestly about their feelings. Rather than have a conversation about the real issue, they complain about something small and trivial. The trouble with this is that the trivial issue gets sorted, but the main issue remains unresolved. The longer this goes on, the more easily triggered to anger the person with the issue becomes.

Unresolved issues are usually behind an innocent remark that

When a conversation takes a wrong turn, it’s helpful to remember that if we change, if we say or do something different from what we usually do, the other person will have to react differently also. I love this advice from Hal Elrod, an American author, speaker, and success coach: “The moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the day you claim the power to change anything in your life.”

Carmel Wynne is a life coach, crossprofessional supervisor and author based in Dublin. For more information go to www.carmelwynne.org

WHEN A CONVERSATION TAKES A WRONG TURN, IT’S HELPFUL TO REMEMBER THAT IF WE CHANGE, THE OTHER PERSON WILL HAVE TO REACT DIFFERENTLY ALSO

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

As my final Letter from the Philippines, I offer some impressions of the culture that struck me during my years there.

I begin with an aspect of life that I find somewhat disturbing and proceed to what I have found memorable and, finally, that I found satisfying.

I was sitting on the porch of a house in the rural Philippines, and my companion was the woman of the house, a placid woman in her late-50s. The village had seen its share of violence. Just before I arrived, a single woman in her 50s was raped and subsequently died. Some time later, two friends were drinking, but the atmosphere soon turned sour. One died of machete blows while the other was taken to hospital. (This last incident exhibited a colour I hadn’t seen before: the deceased’s family painted his coffin red to signify that the blood feud continues). So now some police and village militia are present at the weekly market, which draws quite a crowd from neighbouring villages.

As a militia man passed by, I asked the housewife what weapon was slung over his shoulder. Without hesitation, she said, “It looks like an Uzi, with a

silencer.” Well, I was flabbergasted. Not because a farmer-militia with almost zero training in firearms was carrying such a weapon (I only know the name from the movies. No, I was shocked that a housewife who not only hasn’t a violent bone in her body but who has never even entertained a violent thought would be so instantly familiar with such tools of destruction. No woman in Ireland of any generation (apart from paramilitaries) knows what an Uzi is. Jacuzzi, yes, Uzi, no. And a silencer is what goes on a motorbike to dull the sound of the engine. The other silencer is limited to slick Hollywood assassins.

This is a country saturated with weaponry and with everyday incidents of violence – from alcohol-fuelled domestic disturbances to a constant reporting of killings nationwide. This dark side of Filipino culture, coupled with our being followers of the Lord who shunned violence,

makes it urgent that we should live peaceable lives. In a culture where calm enjoyment between friends can, in the blink of an eye, and the clink of a glass, turn to seething, manic resentment, and deadly bloodshed, any effort at peace-building is to be lauded.

I myself had a brush with violence, or possible violence, at any rate. I was going uphill on a motorbike with two lay companions. The road was very

we did, and we walked in among some nearby houses and made our way to our destination on foot.

muddy, and progress was slow. As we rounded a bend, a fellow flagged down our bike. He asked to be driven somewhere. I said that we were heading further uphill and couldn’t delay. He then brandished a homemade gun, remarking on my talking back to him (he clearly had been drinking). The gun was made of wood, with the live bullet held in tension using strong elastic bands. Pressing on the trigger would release the round. My male companion whispered to me that we should get off the bike, which

It turns out that the lad with the homemade gun was something of a local troublemaker, but we had met him at a time when he was acutely upset. His father had died that very day. He had requested the use of the village truck for various tasks but had been turned down as the muddy conditions prevented any such use. To be fair to him, he was at the parish house the next morning when I arrived and was most apologetic for his behaviour. We parted amicably. Some of my most memorable experiences were the various processions held at different times of the year. I wrote regarding our Advent procession: “And for children walking in “The Way of the Crib,” with their parents and friends, holding their candle, looking with eyes full of wonder at the crib held aloft on the men’s shoulders, with blinking Christmas lights draped over the figurines in the crib - all this is like an acorn of happiness and contentment which will grow into an oak of gentle, serene memories, to soothe them when life has lost that lovely childhood

A TIME TO LOOK BACK

THE DISTURBING, THE MEMORABLE, AND THE SATISFYING

The support for the scholars is based on the old adage: if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

aura of endless excitement, adventure, and ever-new delights, and instead treads the somewhat wearier, more serious path of adulthood.”

An incident touched me deeply during a similar procession. Using Redemptorist funds, I had been helping a young mother called Jenafe to get treatment for cancer. She was from a southern island and had come to Cebu for treatment and to be with her husband, Michael, who worked there. They had one child. The procession wound along the city streets, and various families were tasked to prepare altars at certain points. Many put great effort into their altar, seeing it as an honour, and Jenafe and Michael had accepted the task. I could hardly hold back the tears when we reached the location of their altar because Jenafe, Michael, and their baby formed a live tableau of the scene of the crib in Bethlehem. They stood there stoically as the prayers were recited. Then the hymn-singing resumed, and the procession continued. Jenafe continued her treatment, but the insidious cancer had ravaged her young body. She died some months later.

Mind you, even the more sombre atmosphere of holy week has produced gem-like memories. In previous years, I had always had 12 male apostles for the holy week ceremonies, but one year I found myself asking, “Why focus on gender?” If we are to be literally true to the gospels, then our apostles should be fluent in Hebrew and have among them a few fishermen, a former tax-gatherer, a traitor, and a denier (among other traits). I didn’t think the good folk in the

Philippine hills would be too literal on all those points, so we ended up with more female than male apostles. And it was a superb group! Not only did they participate with solemn dignity in all the ceremonies, wearing their named sashes and carrying their bamboo torches with a touching formality, but each day of holy week (from Palm Sunday until Holy Thursday morning), they visited practically every home in the barrio (and the barrio is 7000+ acres).

like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. And they would return, tired but satisfied, mission accomplished.

Finally, among the very many satisfying moments during my years in the Philippines, one of the choicest is the knowledge of the scholars I am helping to complete their courses, whether secondary school or university (through the generosity of donors in Ireland). The support for the scholars is based on the old adage: if you give a man a fish, you feed him

out.” In the October 2022 issue of Reality, I wrote about “Operation Second Chance,” a government program to help youngsters in trouble with the law. Most encouragingly, one of the current batch of scholars was recently part of that very programme. His future looks bright.

The other two beneficiaries of my fund are easier to summarise. First are people in a crisis: either medical or resulting from some natural calamity (e.g., typhoon). These can often be most pitiful: people, already in dire circumstances, run up against a wall of almost hellish proportions – whether through accident, natural catastrophe, or just random fate. In these cases, emergency support is needed to help rebuild a home or provide medical help. And fortunately, the funds are there, as well as a trusted friend to administer them.

I found them to be a tremendously inspiring group. I knew them all: simple housewives, hardy farmers, and every day, there was not a single protest as they set out in pairs, in sauna-like heat, to go from house to house, reading their prayerblessing, then sprinkling holy water on the family members. We’d meet for lunch, and there would be mighty laughter as they recounted their adventures: how, for instance, one fellow had to jump, with lightning speed, up on a fence to avoid ferocious dogs. They’d set out like post-modern apostles, the women with eyecatching earrings and lipstick, the men with shades, looking

for a day; if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Surely, a solid education is a good preparation for these youngsters as they face an uncertain future.

These recent trying times (pandemics and so on) might have weakened lesser mortals, but this current group of scholars seems to have been inspired by the various trials. While still attending their classes virtually, many managed to hold down a part-time job to earn pocket money for themselves and income to help their families. These are valiant warriors, so any help my fund gives them is, to use a phrase from The Big Issue magazine, “a hand up, not a hand

The fund is also used to give an occasional “bundle of joy” to certain families in need. This is the equivalent of our “Christmas hamper,” but it is far simpler and less costly. It consists of a collection of the basics (rice, sardines, noodles, coffee) and a rarity (an apple or a few grapes for the new year). Filipinos believe you should have 12 rounded fruits in the house on New Year’s Eve to ward off any evil influences and prepare for a prosperous year ahead; hence the grapes and apples (both imported).

A native of Limerick city where he went to school in St Clement’s College, Fr Colm Meaney CSsR first went to the Philippines as a student and has spent most of his priestly life there.

CELEBRATING LITURGY AND FEASTING

CHRISTMAS RITUALS AND TRADITIONS ARE ALL INTENDED TO REMIND US OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SEASON

BY MARIA HALL

IMPORTANCE OF MEALS

Food and drink are essential for any festivity. From the 4th century, when the date for Christmas was set, celebrations emerged, many from already existing mid-winter pagan practices. As Christianity spread throughout Europe (from Ireland in the 5th century to Hungry in the 10th), each country established its own Christmas traditions and customs, but all involved food.

There is an inextricable link between the family meal and Eucharist, and much has been written on the subject. The domestic rituals of preparation, gathering and welcoming guests, giving thanks, celebrating, eating, drinking, and sharing with others are mirrored in the Mass. Welcoming others and providing hospitality is a wonderful thing to do at Christmas, and food always tastes better when shared. Here are some stories from history and some ideas that are Christian in origin, which might add to our spiritual enrichment as well as being very delicious.

IN THE PAST

In the Middle Ages, Advent fasting was taken very seriously. Over half of the days in the year were days of fasting. The elderly and sick were exempt, but you could also buy your way free if you had the money. The ‘butter tower’ of Rouen cathedral was built in the 15th century using donations from people who were given a dispensation to eat butter and milk butter

during Lent and Advent. For most people, fasting meant eating fish and abstaining from meat (some unusual foods, such as beavers tails, puffins, and seals, counted as fish). For most people, the harshness of winter and the end of fasting during Advent were excellent reasons for partying and feasting.

For the rich, eating was a large-scale affair. In England in 1215, King John’s Christmas order included 24 hogshead of wine, 200 head of pork, 1,000 hens, 500lbs of wax, 50lbs of pepper, 2lbs of saffron, and 100lbs of almonds, along with other spices. In 1289 the Bishop of Hereford invited 40 guests who managed to eat their way through two carcasses and three-quarters of beef, two calves, four does, four pigs, 60 fowls, eight partridges, and two geese, along with bread and cheese. They also drank 40 gallons of red wine!

In 1226, St Francis of Assisi declared that animals should share in the Christmas festivities. He said that all creation should celebrate and that the only way for animals to do so was to be comfortable and enjoy better food. He said, ‘If ever I speak with the Emperor, I will beg him to issue a general decree that all who can should throw wheat and grain along the roads so that on the day of such a great solemnity the birds may have an abundance, especially our sisters the larks.’

Feeding the poor was a significant part of a wealthy Christmas. In 1624, the Archbishop of York fed hundreds of his parishioners by

holding six feasts. Many other landowners also sent their leftovers to the poor.

By the 16th century, Christmas was synonymous with gluttony and excess (if you could afford it!). The Puritan revolution sought to do away with what it saw as nothing more than pagan revelry (it had a point!). But feasting continued in private, at a more subdued pace. Thank goodness we haven’t returned to the extravagances of medieval partying, but many of our current traditions have little religious significance. Here are a few ideas that might inspire you and make Christmas feel spiritual.

ST LUCY CAKES

In Sweden, the feast of St Lucy on 13 December is a celebration of light. Lucy was known for taking food to the Christians in the catacombs. Travelling through the dark tunnels, she would wear a wreath of candles on her head. She died for her faith in 304AD. This lovely tradition is a way of anticipating the season. The eldest girl in the house serves a breakfast of coffee and these saffron buns to her parents. The ‘s’ shape of the cake is supposed to represent a curled-up cat.

Recipe at: www.catholicculture.org/culture/ liturgicalyear

MINCE PIES

One name for these pies in the Middle Ages was ‘crib cakes.’ They were a sweet treat offered to visitors. The mincemeat was made on Stirrup

Sunday, along with the Christmas pudding mixture. Originally, the recipe included chopped meat with the fruit and spices, but it became a purely sweet pie over time. It was essential to stir clockwise to bring good luck to the household, and everyone made sure to take their turn. You were assured good health and happiness if you ate a pie on each of the 12 days of Christmas. The spices in the recipe symbolised the gifts the Wise Men gave, and the shape was often oval, resembling the crib in which Christ slept. The Puritans denounced mince pies as a Catholic custom, but happily, their popularity ensured their survival.

STOLLEN

Stollen was originally a plain bread and part of a monastic meal. It was first mentioned in 1474, where at the hospital of St Bartholomew in Dresden, it was eaten during times of fasting. The famous Dresden Stollen came about as the result of a competition. The Bishop of Nauruburg loved the bread containing butter, sugar, raisins, spices, and other fruits, and reserved grain especially for its production. The shape of the bread resembled Christ in his swaddling clothes, and so it was known as Christstollen. Some of these loaves were enormous, being five feet long and weighing up to 30 pounds. Originally, Advent fasting rules meant that milk butter couldn’t be used, which greatly affected the flavour. In 1650, the bakers of Dresden petitioned Pope Urban VIII to lift these restrictions, which he did, especially for them.

PLUM CHRISTMAS PUDDING

One of the pudding’s origins is that 13 ingredients were used to represent Christ and the 12 apostles. Stirring clockwise also represented east to west, the journey made by the Wise Men. This pudding has no plums because it was the original word for raisins! Putting holly on the top represented the crown of thorns, and setting it on fire represented Christ’s passion.

CHRISTMAS EVE FISH

Because of the Advent fast, fish was a popular meal to eat on the eve of Christmas. In countries with abundant fish, this has turned into quite a feast. In Italy, it is known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Possibly seven because it is the number of God’s fulfillment, or days in the week, or even the number of days it took Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem! Some other traditions serve nine fish (the number of the Holy Trinity multiplied by three) or 12, the number of apostles. That’s a lot of fish! But a modest fish feast is a lovely idea with a religious origin.

www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/ christmas-ideas www.foodandwine.com/holidays

CHESTNUTS

It’s a festive and warming thing to buy chestnuts at a Christmas market. The tradition associated with these takes place on 11 November, the feast of St Martin. Martin was a Roman soldier who cut his cloak in half and gave it to a poor man who was freezing to death. That night, in a dream, Martin realised the man was Chris, and he was converted. On this feast, chestnuts are on the menu in countries such as Portugal, Germany, and Austria. You might like to try making candied chestnuts. www.thespruceeats.com.

TWELFTH NIGHT CAKE

For so many people, Christmas ends on St Stephen’s Day. But we know the feast lives on till Candlemas. While that much feasting might be a little excessive, celebrating the Octave or up to the Epiphany would be a great thing to do. Epiphany was a bigger feast than Christmas

in the Middle Ages, and a rich fruit cake was part of the celebrations. When Christmas became more popular in Victorian times, it became a Christmas cake. But what a lovely idea to mark the close of the religious festivities with something special, maybe even two cakes!

DRINK AND BE MERRY!

Mary and Jesus being present at the marriage feast at Cana is enough endorsement for enjoying a glass or two of wine at a celebration. In his article entitled ‘How to drink like a saint,’ Michael Foley says that we should drink with gratitude, moderation, memory, merriment, and ritual. Wise advice! (Drinking with St Nick: Christmas Cocktails for saints and Sinners. Michael P. Foley).

LITURGY AND FEASTING

To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. Rev. 2:7

God made us to eat, and God chooses food as a metaphor for eternal happiness. The Tree of Life is waiting to feed us in our heavenly home. None of us would complain about that!

In the same way, we can’t separate Eucharist and our own meals. At home, we receive earthly nourishment; at Mass, our souls are fed with the Bread of Life. Both are necessary.

Christmas rituals and traditions are all meant to remind us of the significance of the season. Eating and drinking with friends and family are rituals just like liturgical celebrations. They are a reason for us to gather together. Their repetition marks the passing of time and gives meaning to our lives. In a fast-food culture, we would do well to remember the importance of dining together. As Christians, we can never be complacent and must always think of others, but we are allowed to rejoice and celebrate and be happy.

A very Happy Christmas to all!

Maria Hall is a music director at St Wilfred’s Church, Preston, England. A qualified teacher, she has a Master’s degree from the Liturgy Centre, Maynooth. She is a consultant on liturgical matters for schools and parishes. www.mariahall.org

NEW CYCLES OF ABUSES ARE HAPPENING AGAIN IN GUATEMALA

MAUDI TZAY PATAL IS AN INDIGENOUS MAYAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER FROM GUATEMALA. SHE WORKS AS THE GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE PROGRAMME COORDINATOR WITH TRÓCAIRE PARTNER ECAP, A WELL-KNOWN GUATEMALAN ORGANISATION THAT PROVIDES PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT TO SURVIVORS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. SHE SAYS THAT THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY OF GUATEMALA, WHO HAVE BEEN UNDER ATTACK FOR GENERATIONS FOR THEIR LANDS AND NATURAL RESOURCES, ARE NOW FACING NEW HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AS IMPUNITY CONTINUES FOR MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS.

BY DAVID O’HARE

It is a very difficult time to be a human rights defender in Guatemala. Our country lived through 30 years of internal armed conflict, where we saw a very high rate of human rights violations against the Guatemalan population. We are seeing new cycles of abuses happening again.

Today, Guatemala has one of the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition in Latin America. More than 70 percent of people are living in extreme poverty and one in every two children is suffering from chronic malnutrition. This is especially the case in rural areas and among the indigenous population. Large business projects have led to environmental destruction and land grabs, while attacks against human rights defenders are common. Violence against women is a serious problem in

the country. Guatemala is also vulnerable to natural and climate related disasters.

I worry with the elections next year for the presidential positions and local mayors, that human rights abuses will continue to rise. Candidates who are favoured in the opinion polls are not leaders or politicians who support human rights but have been complicit in cases of corruption and human rights violations. There is a sense of a lack of hope and a deep worry that the human rights abuses that were committed during the armed conflict could begin to take place again.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE

A high proportion of human rights abuses have been committed against land and territorial defenders, and against women. During the 36-year-long

Guatemalan civil war (1960–96), indigenous women were systematically raped and enslaved by the military in a small community near the Sepur Zarco outpost in Polochic Valley. What happened to them then was not unique, but what happened next, changed history.

From 2011–16, 15 women survivors fought for justice at the highest court of Guatemala. The ground-breaking case resulted in the conviction of two former military officers of crimes against humanity and granted 18 reparation measures to the women survivors and their community. The women are now waiting to experience justice, including education for the children of their community, access to land, a health-care clinic and poverty-reduction measures.

It is very worrying to me, that while sexual violence is often

used as a weapon of war, we are now also seeing it being used in times of peace in Guatemala.

In 2007, there was a violent eviction of an indigenous community called Lote Ocho also in Polochic Valley by a Canadian Nickel company. During that eviction, the security forces burned houses and crops and 11 women were raped. The soldiers were private security staff for the mining company and the Guatemalan national police.

In all contexts of war, men and women don’t have the same experience. My experience in this area has been accompanying women in this process with psychological support and supporting women to break their silence and be able to name their crime. The impunity for crimes of sexual violence has normalised it.

The women of Lote Ocho, by naming publicly the sexual

violence that happened, are making a political statement to break the silence. It’s a huge challenge to bring justice to this case so it doesn’t end in impunity like so many other cases. It is a very brave act and it’s important to support them through this process.

The women brought a civil case against the company in Canada because they had a real fear they wouldn’t be able to access justice in Guatemala and they wanted the Canadian nickel company to be brought to justice for the abuses they carried out in other countries. The company didn’t recognise the testimony of the women and used all the strategies it could to slow down the case, so unfortunately it is not progressing very fast.

In 2019, the women brought a criminal case within Guatemala, which hasn’t moved forward

either. Access to justice for indigenous women is extremely complicated. This Lote Ocho case needs to be heard and a ruling issued because cases of sexual abuse will continue if this is not addressed.

The state of Guatemala has done nothing in terms of reparations and is making crimes against women invisible. It continues to be racist and patriarchal in denying women access to their rights. Justice is still very far away.

POST-CONFLICT

In this post-conflict context, it’s been very difficult to build the rule of law, but the victims and civil society are convinced that it is possible to build a different reality for the Guatemalan population. Our one source of hope is our work with the younger generation. We’re seeing

generational change where sons and daughters of victims of the armed conflict and youth in general are continuing the fight for justice for indigenous communities.

Thanks to your support, Trócaire and ECAP are helping communities in Guatemala to protect their land in the face of corporate greed. Our work helps to tackle violence against women and to support female survivors of abuse. We are also saving lives by supporting communities to prepare for and respond to disasters.

In 2021, Trócaire supported 21,000 people with humanitarian assistance; 15,000 were supported through human rights programmes, 5,000 were supported through women’s empowerment and 11,000 people were helped through resource rights projects.

Trócaire would like to thank the editors and readers of Reality Magazine for your amazing support throughout the years of our working together.

FIND OUT MORE

To find out more about Trócaire’s work visit www.trocaire.org

THEOLOGY AND MUSIC

‘CAN’T MAKE IT ALL ALONE…’

LOVE AND HOPE IN THE POGUES’ FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK

BY MICHAEL SHERMAN

Fairytale of New York was released as a single 35 years ago, in November 1987, just in time to compete for the highly coveted Christmas No.1 spot in the UK music charts. Since then, the song has been enduringly popular and reached the UK top 20 on 18 separate occasions. It has curiously never reached the top of the charts, and it was ‘pipped at the post’ in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of Always on My Mind. Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan wrote the song, and it features the singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. It was the first single from The Pogues’ third album, ‘If I Should Fall from Grace with God.’ The song captures, with kindness, the fragility of human life and relationships. It offers an unflinching picture of addiction, unfulfilled dreams, and damaged relationships, but it is the depiction of kindness and love in the song that offers comfort and hope.

The album’s original cover displayed a photo of nine men (eight of whom are members of the band) wearing the same

clothes, facing the same way, and striking the same pose. The ninth member, situated in the middle beside MacGowan, is James Joyce. As author Kevin Farrell points out, the album cover playfully suggested that ‘not only is Joyce a Pogue, but The Pogues are themselves a Joycean band.’ Indeed, some scholars have argued that the band saw Joyce as a kindred spirit, someone not unlike themselves with a perceptive ability to lay bare the ambivalences about Irish identity – particularly that of expatriates. In its own bittersweet way, Fairytale of New York hauntingly captures the dreams and disappointments of so many Irish people who left Ireland in search of a better life.

The song is a tale of an Irish immigrant’s trip down memory lane on Christmas Eve. The singer begins by recalling a night he spent in a New York drunk tank sleeping off a heavy drinking binge. As an old man beside him starts to sing the well-known Irish ballad The Rare Old Mountain Dew, the singer (MacGowan) begins to dream of, and talk to, his lover.

(MacGowan)

It was Christmas Eve babe

In the drunk tank

An old man said to me, won’t see another one And then he sang a song The Rare Old Mountain Dew I turned my face away And dreamed about you.

The remainder of the song is a conversation between the singer and his lover (or it could be a conversation he is having with her in his head) about their dreams that never came to fruition. After winning big on the horses, they had high hopes of success in the city that never sleeps. But now they can’t find sleep or happiness in a city that is no place for old people.

(MacColl)

They’ve got cars big as bars

They’ve got rivers of gold But the wind goes right through you

It’s no place for the old When you first took my hand On a cold Christmas Eve You promised me Broadway was waiting for me.

The couple’s conversation turns from sugar to vinegar, and we

quickly hear of the hard times that they went through from their alcoholism and drug addiction as they bicker and reminisce. And yet, almost miraculously, the song ends with love and hope as MacGowan’s character tells MacColl’s that his life revolved and revolves around her.

(MacGowan)

I could have been someone (MacColl) Well so could anyone You took my dreams from me When I first found you (MacGowan)

I kept them with me babe

I put them with my own Can’t make it all alone

I’ve built my dreams around you. Despite all they have been through, they still have each other on Christmas Day (a lonely day for many expatriates) as church bells ring out and the police choir sings another Irish classic ballad, Galway Bay. Even though they did not achieve their hopes and dreams, the couple still find themselves together for better or worse and, against all the odds, are alive and telling their story to the only people

Shane MacGowan

that need to hear it, each other.

I cannot help wondering why this song has such enduring popularity. It’s as if it’s not Christmas until we hear it on the radio! MacGowan has often been credited with having an enormous ability to capture so much about the human condition in his songs: desire and excess, love and hate, success and failure.

In his new book Faith, Hope, and Carnage, Nick Cave (in conversation with Seán O’Hagan) talks about his love and respect for MacGowan’s ability to write so compassionately about people’s stories in his songs. Cave and McGowan have a friendship that goes back over 30 years, and they have recorded several songs together. But it was relatively recently that Cave started

to understand MacGowan’s brilliance. He says that he only understood MacGowan’s writing style after his own teenage son died on a family holiday.

I always heard that kind of compassion in Shane’s songs and his music, and I loved him for it, but at the same time, I never fully understood it. The genuine love he felt for people. I never understood it, but I do now. And I believe that is because I became a person after my son died. Not part of a person, a more complete person.

This is an extraordinary and deeply personal statement by Cave about his own story of grief and MacGowan’s songwriting ability. Through his grief and suffering, he became a more complete person. In a similar way, the couple in Fairytale of New York are realising who they

are and what they have. Through their desires and excesses, dreams and realities, and as they go over and back in their bittersweet exchange about the life they have and could have had, there is the tough talk of love and hope that they still have for each other. For Cave, many of McGowan’s songs perceptively capture the way people deal with their hardships.

Nick Cave, for his own part, maintains that this is the job of the creative artist – to capture that which is unavoidable in life – what he calls a ‘deconstruction of the known self.’ According to Cave, we will, all of us, experience some kind of devastation in our lives. It might be a death, or a relationship breakdown, an illness, or a betrayal. It may be a shattering experience and one from which it feels like there is no coming back. Cave argues that people who go through such devastation (and he is referring specifically to his own experience of his son’s death) can gradually ‘put themselves back together’.

And the thing is, when they do that, they often find that they

are a different person, a changed, more complete, more realised, more clearly drawn person. I think that’s what it is to live. , really – to die in a way and to be reborn. And sometimes it can happen many times over, that complex reordering of ourselves.

By the end of Fairyrtale of New York, the singer (MacGowan) realises that, in the end, it is the dreams of another (his partner’s) that he has held close to his own, that have kept him going. And he is still in a relationship with her despite the addictions and bickering comments. There is obvious affection in their wish of happy Christmas to each other.

But it was relatively recently that Cave started to understand MacGowan’s brilliance. He says that he only understood MacGowan’s writing style after his own teenage son died on a family holiday.

Michael Sherman teaches theology at Carlow College, St Patrick’s.

REALITY CHECK

PETER McVERRY SJ

THE REVOLUTION OF CHRISTMAS DAY

Revolutions

change both the way we think and the way we act. They have changed the course of events in many countries, such as France, Russia, the US, and Ireland. But they are generally pretty violent, seeking to overthrow the established order and replace it with a new one.

The birth of Jesus was a revolution, but a revolution like no other. This insignificant child, of poor parents, from a town that was a source of ridicule to many (“Can anything good come out of Galilee?”), who preached non-violence and love of enemies, has changed both our understanding of religion and our politics forever.

In Jesus, God became a human being: the human and divine have become one, inseparable. That is the revolution that the birth of Jesus brought about. Other religions might tell us that we encounter God in sacred places, in temples, mosques, and churches. But we Christians believe that we encounter God in other human beings. Other religions might tell us to worship God with sacrifices and prayers, but we Christians worship God by loving God in each other, by caring, reaching out to fellow human beings.

In our western societies, the dominant mindset is a neoliberal ideology with its excessive individualism. It seeks to persuade us that each individual is solely responsible

for the life they lead. All should strive to become self-sufficient, independent human beings. Selfsufficiency is the ideal human state, and independence is a sign of maturity and growth. This virus of excessive individualism has often infected our spirituality, which then becomes focused exclusively on the relationship between God and me, and on what I have to do to gain a place in heaven.

then we must oppose and challenge them. Our spirituality must be political.

This neoliberal mindset also creates a league table of meritocracy. It tries to persuade us that those who do well in life have achieved their success by themselves and so deserve to be respected and looked up to, while those who have not achieved have only themselves to blame and are not worthy

be out doing good, creating wealth, or helping others and making a positive contribution to our world, instead of spending their lives in useless isolation. However, it is precisely because their lives are “useless,” as many would judge, that they are important, as they remind us that our value does not depend on what we do but on the fact that we are. Each human being, the secluded monk and the activist priest, the billionaire and the homeless person sleeping on the street, the person who is paralysed, and the marathon runner, all have the same dignity and value simply because they exist. Hence, the promotion of equality, along with human rights, must also be an integral part of our faith.

The Christmas revolution, then, is a time to reaffirm our responsibility to create a society where all are equally loved and valued, and where the human rights of all are respected.

Since we encounter God in other human beings, my spirituality must be concerned with their lives, and so upholding human rights must be an integral part of the faith we profess. Hence this revolution that the birth of Jesus brought about is not just a spiritual revolution but also a political revolution. We affirm the basic human rights of all people, and when secular political policies and structures deny those rights to anyone,

of the same esteem. It values people differently. But if every human being is the presence of God to us, then our faith requires us to value every human being equally.

Those monks and nuns who live in cloistered monasteries, cut off from the world, praying and tending their gardens, do us a great service. In the eyes of the neoliberal mindset, they are unproductive, and therefore their lives are wasted. They could

Christmas is not a day in the year; Christmas is an attitude in our hearts.

Those who seek to build such a society can, like Jesus, expect persecution, ridicule, and opposition. There are those who do not respect the human rights of all and who think equality is naïve idealism. We Christians should expect to be crucified.

For more information or to support the Peter McVerry Trust: www.pmvtrust.ie info@pmvtrust.ie +353(0)1 823 0776

CHRISTMAS IS A TIME TO REAFFIRM OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CREATE A SOCIETY WHERE ALL ARE EQUALLY LOVED AND VALUED, AND WHERE THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL ARE RESPECTED

ADVENT EXTRA 2022 Your Journey to Christmas

Advent Extra 2022 has the joint theme of promise and hope because they are inseparable. We follow a promise, hoping for better times ahead. We all need hope. Quoting the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”.

With it’s insightful articles and 28 daily reflections Advent Extra is the perfect companion this season.

JOURNEYING WITH JESUS IN ADVENT

Fr Denis Mc Bride CSsR

In this insightful and inspiring book, Fr. Denis Mc Bride guides us through the Advent season towards the celebration of the birth of Christ. Suitable for private reading or for use in groups, this book invites us to journey together towards a deeper appreciation of the true meaning of Christmas.

CELEBRATE: ADVENT Follow the Star to Christmas

A magazine for Catholic kids full of cool activities and fun quizzes, Perfect for 7-12 year olds it will encourage them to think about and grow in their faith while they have loads of fun! Twenty-two pages jam-packed with puzzles and facts – adults might learn something too!

Celebrate: Advent comes with our bestselling Advent calendar and activity sheet for even more things to do. This year there’s an easy way to refocus on the real meaning of Christmas as we Celebrate: Advent.

Fr. Denis Mc Bride CSsR

What are the core values that guide you through life? Our core values ar qualities in our heart, shaping the choices we make, the way we relate with other people and the roads we decide to travel in life. What about Jesus’ values? What shaped the choices he made and the roads he decided to take? In this 2023 Diary, Th ugh the with 12 Values of Jesus, Fr Denis Mc Bride C.Ss.R. tries to answer those questions by sharing and what he considers to be the twelve core values of Jesus. Our 2023 diary is A5 in size and has practical full week to view across a double page spread. It includes an introduction from Fr. Denis, year planners for both 2023 and 2024, key dates and feast days, notes pages, and a ribbon marker. All of these features make it the ideal faith companion, appointment organiser and thoughtful gift

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 9

DIARY 2023 Through the Year with 12 Values of Jesus