Position Papers - October 2015

A review of Catholic affairs

Planned Parenthood's industrialised slaughter

by Michael Kirke

• Brave New Ireland • Silent action of the heart • The Church’s social contribution • A gentleman’s guide to pro tennis (and life) • Hard Times

Number 492 October 2015

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Number 492, October 2015

Editorial

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In Passing: “Those are babies that are being killed. Millions of them” Michael Kirke

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Brave New Ireland Mons. Cormac Burke

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Silent action of the heart Cardinal Robert Sarah

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The Church’s social contribution Tim O’Sullivan

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A gentleman’s guide to pro tennis (and life) Trent Beattie

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Hard Times Seán Hurley

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Book review: Life Under Compulsion Rev. C.J. McCloskey

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Film review: The Visit John P. McCarthy

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Editor: Assistant editors: Subscription manager: Secretary: Design:

Rev. Gavan Jennings Michael Kirke, Pat Hanratty, Brenda McGann Liam Ó hAlmhain Dick Kearns Víctor Díaz

Contact us The editor, Position Papers, P.O. Box 4948, Rathmines, Dublin 6 email: editor@positionpapers.ie; website: www.positionpapers.ie Tel.+ 353 86065 2313 For new or renewed subscriptions contact: info@positionpapers.ie Articles ©Position Papers, who normally will on application give permission to reproduce gratis subject only to a credit in this form: ‘Reprinted, with permission from Position Papers, Dublin’. Please note: the opinions expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect those of the editor nor of the Opus Dei Prelature of which he is a priest.

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As

I write Pope Francis is coming to the end of his visit to Cuba and the USA. Once again he has shown his great capacity to win over hearts in such disparate cultural settings as these two countries represent. Three phrases of the Holy Father have struck me from his homilies and addresses during the trip.

A “revolution of tenderness"

Editorial

In the homily of his Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba (September 22) Pope Francis called for a “revolution of tenderness” – a very novel kind of revolution in a country so long subject to the bitterness of the Marxist kind of revolution. We need, he preached, "to leave our homes as did Mary at the Visitation, and to 'to open our eyes and hearts to others’”. This revolution "comes about through tenderness, through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion, and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the life of others".

How we all need to hear this message in a world so devoid of tenderness. We are almost inured to the stories and images of savage brutality which continue to come out from ISIS held territories. The terrible sufferings of countless thousands of men, women and children fleeing to the borders of Europe from the hopeless situation in the Middle East engineered at least in part by Western powers might likewise leave us cold.

And then there is the even more callous, sanitised brutality of the wine sipping, smooth talking salespersons hawking human body parts harvested by Planned Parenthood.

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The “culture of waste” In his Address to the United Nations General Assembly the Holy Father returned to the theme of waste which he has written about in the recent Encyclical Laudato Si: The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion. In effect, a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either because they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political action. Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offence against human rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most from such offences, for three serious reasons: they are cast off by society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today’s widespread and quietly growing “culture of waste”.

Editorial

The Pope has often repeated that the culture of waste eventually excludes weaker human beings from society and ultimately consigns them to the scrap heap. In this we see that the Pope is an environmentalist first and foremost because he is a (Christian) humanist.

The “school of encounter" In the homily at Mass in Madison Square Garden the Pope spoke of the “second-class citizens” in the large, busy cities of the world:

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But big cities also conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong, or are second-class citizens.

In big cities, beneath the roar of traffic, beneath “the rapid pace of change”, so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no “right” to be there, no right to be part of the city. They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly.

What is needed is that Christ, the Prince of Peace would bring us to learn the lesson of encounter: He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others, that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters.

Editorial

The papacy of Pope Francis has been marked by what might be termed “a charism of mercy”: a special tenderness towards those who have been marginalised in society through poverty, sickness or vulnerability. It is moving to see how he so eloquently but authoritatively brings their plight before the most powerful men and women in the world.

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In Passing: “Those are babies that are being killed. Millions of them”

by Michael Kirke

come the forces of evil which these epochs embodied.

As the Reign of Terror into which the French Revolution descended progressed, with the tumbrils carting their victims – men, women and children - to the guillotine day after day, did the onlookers who were not part of the cheering mob think, “Will this evil ever end? What is there that can stop it?” Similarly, the African American victims of slavery in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries must have helplessly asked the same question.

Their’s was a longer ordeal.

As the horror of the Planned Parenthood's exposure in the USA gathers momentum we wonder if this might not be the Harriet Beecher Stowe / Frederick Douglass moment which will lead to the end of the mass killing of human beings which what we call our civilization has not only condoned but has also massively funded for the past few generations.

"Care no matter what" is this organization’s mantra. We now know that a great deal of things matter to Planned Parenthood, and that they have nothing to do with “care” for anyone. It's a big business, stark and simple.

The victims – as well as the onlookers – of any human cataclysm must always surely feel this way, hoping for a better time. But these ordeals did end.

Good men and women did over-

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We all thought the movie, The Matrix, was a flight of scientific fantasy in which intelligent machines created by mankind eventually turned on them and began to harvest the humans' bioelectricity as a power source for themselves. As we listen - on the videos being released by David Daleiden’s organization to the apparatchiks of Planned Parenthood explain their procedures for harvesting the body parts of the innocent human beings whom they kill in the womb it is hard not to hear echoes of The Matrix.

In his angry post in the New York Times when this story began to break, Ross Douthat does not mince his words in calling Planned Parenthood’s fellow travellers to order, shaming them for their little better than infantile efforts to defend the indefensible. What Douthat essentially did was call ‘halt!’ to those double thinkers who say that they are pro life but also pro choice.

These are the people whose case for Planned Parenthood is that because of the “good” they do providing contraceptive and other “caring” services – and everything that goes with them – you have to tolerate the continued funding of their abortion services and the grisly practices now being revealed.

Might this be the moment, the turning point in the history of this inhuman saga, when the wheels will come off the tumbrils of this reign of chilling slaughter which is embodied in the abortion industry?

So let’s be clear about what’s really going on here, he writes.

The poison generated by this evil is nowhere more evident than in the total lack of moral coherence - not to mention logical coherence - in the scramble to defend this extraordinarily callous organisation by its liberal camp followers in recent weeks.

This is Planned Parenthood’s choice; it is liberalism’s choice; it is the respectable centre-left of Dana Milbank and Ruth Marcus (Washington Post columnists) and Will Saletan (of Slate.com) that’s telling pro-life and pro-

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ch

Ar

choice Americans alike that contraceptive access and fetal dismemberment are just a package deal, that if you want to fund an institution that makes contraception widely available then you just have to live with those “it’s another boy!” fetal corpses in said institution’s freezer, that’s just the price of women’s health care and contraceptive access, and who are you to complain about paying it, since after all the abortion arm of Planned Parenthood is actually pretty profitable and doesn’t need your tax dollars? bi

sh

op

C

ha

rle

s

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ha pu

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ically – no, spare me. Spare me.

Tell the allegedly “pro-life” institution you support to set down the forceps, put away the vacuum, and then we’ll talk about what kind of family planning programs deserve funding.

But don’t bring your worldview’s bloody hands to me and demand my dollars to pay for soap enough to maybe wash a few flecks off.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia had to engage in a somewhat similar exercise as Douthat last month. Some Catholic voices seemed to be watering down the crime of abortion by drawing attention to the wider spectrum of Catholic morality.

But to concede that pro-lifers might be somewhat right to be troubled by abortion, to shudder along with us just a little bit at the crushing of the unborn human body, and then turn around and still demand the funding of an institution that actually does the quease-inducing killing on the grounds that what’s being funded will help stop that organization from having to crush quite so often, kill quite so prolif-

He presented a simple exercise in basic reasoning: On a spectrum of bad things to do, theft is bad, assault is worse and murder is worst. There's a similar texture of ill will connecting all three crimes, but only a very confused conscience would

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equate thieving and homicide.

Both are serious matters. But there is no equivalence. The deliberate killing of innocent life is a uniquely wicked act. No amount of contextualizing or deflecting our attention to other issues can obscure that.

Archbishop Chaput asked American Catholics to reaffirm their commitment to their Church’s social teaching, “a seamless garment of respect for human life, from conception to natural death”. Ireland’s bishops are asking for nothing less.

Catholics do not have a onetrack morality. Sexual morality is not their only ethical concern.

Catholic morality is multi-layered and penetrates every aspect of human behaviour in the demands it makes on Catholic consciences.

This is a paraphrase of what the Archbishop wrote in his diocesan website last month. It is helpful, very helpful. With a bit of luck it will help clear the muddled minds of those who see something evil but fail to recognise it as such because a politically correct world’s group think has clouded their vision.

Of course it makes no sense, Chaput says, to champion the cause of unborn children if we ignore their basic needs once they're born. Thus, he points out, it's no surprise that - year in and year out - nearly all Catholic dioceses in the United States... devote far more time, personnel and material resources to providing social services to the poor, to education and to young people, than to opposing abortion.

His words are also a helpful antidote for the Irish electorate now being softened up for the kill by the advocates of abortion on demand. Ireland’s media, fresh from its same-sex marriage victory at the polls, has again abandoned all pretence of objectivity as day after day, article after article, programme after programme, it argues for the destruction of the unborn who might be deemed an inconvenience to their progenitors in a self-centred society.

But that does not mean, he went on to argue, that objectively and on the scale of personal wilful-

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ness there is not a ranking of stages renders suspect any evil which every person has to claims to the 'rightness' of posiattend to. “Children need to surtions in other matters affecting vive the womb before they can the poorest and least powerful of have needs like food, shelter, the human community. If we unimmigration counselling derstand the human perand good health son as the 'temple of care. Humanity's the Holy Spirit' -But being 'right' in priority right - the the living house of such matters can one that underGod -- then these never excuse a wrong girds all other latter issues fall choice regarding direct rights - is the logically into attacks on innocent right to life.” He place as the human life. quotes the Americrossbeams and can bishops of 1998: walls of that house.

Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care . . . But being 'right' in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.

All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person's most fundamental right -- the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand.

Like Douthat, Chaput attacks double-thinkers. He questions the logic – and that’s the least of it - of those who say that abortion is mainly a cultural and moral issue, and politics is a poor solution to the problem. He finds it curious that some of the same voices that argue against

Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable

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political action on the abortion issue seem quite comfortable urging vigorous political engagement on issues like health care, homelessness and the environment. He defines politics in practice, as the application of moral conviction to public discourse and the process of lawmaking.

to his senses on the issue when his pro-life wife said to him: Those are babies that are being killed. Millions of them. And you need to use your voice to protect them. That's what a man does.

He protects children - his own children, and other children.

That's what it means to be a man.

He points out: Law not only constrains and defends; it also teaches and forms.

Law not only reflects culture; it shapes and reshapes it. That's why Christians can't avoid political engagement. Politics is never the main content of Christian faith. It can never provide perfect solutions. But no Christian can avoid the duty to work for more justice and charity in our life as a nation, a task that inescapably involves politics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Kirke is a freelance writer, a regular contributor to Position Papers, and a widely read blogger at Garvan Hill (www.garvan.wordpress. com). His views can be responded to at mjgkirke@gmail.com.

Ruben Navarrette, Jr., is a veteran "pro-choice" voice. But in his August 10 column on the Daily Beast website he expresses his revulsion at the whole, ugly, system-wide barbarism of Planned Parenthood's fetal trafficking. Navarrette was brought

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Brave New Ireland

by Mons. Cormac Burke

For the last forty years we have been forming a generation to think that the fewer ties or commitments one has, the freer one is. This is just not so. Freedom is useless unless it ends in a choice. And perhaps it is worse than useless if one has been taught that all choices must be temporary, because nothing can give more than a passing satisfaction, nothing in fact is worth a definitive or binding choice. Always keep yourself “free” for something or someone else.

That is the philosophy our new generations are being taught.

It reminds one of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s prophetic novel of 1931, where social engineering and technology have destroyed all natural human ties and supports, and each disconnected individual enjoys the effortless happiness guaran-

teed by sex and drugs. In Huxley’s world, marriage is obsolete; “Everyone belongs to everyone else”, a main motto of Brave New World, is now becoming our motto.

Marriage is out – that is what Ireland’s recent referendum really signifies (homosexual marriages are simply not marriages; we have in fact voted to make marriage meaningless). Don’t bind yourself to anyone else; don’t compromise yourself by setting up a home.

Home is out. “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. … Something you somehow haven’t to deserve”(Robert Frost). But in our Brave New World there will be no home.

Deserving or undeserving, there will be no home, no place where

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they have to take you in. You will be on your own.

This has been the world trend since Huxley’s time. Some want it. Most don’t, or wouldn’t if they had some clear idea of where we are heading. But they have no such idea. Misled by heavily financed propaganda from abroad, misled by our own government and political parties as well as the media, a majority of our people has now voted to put Ireland in the vanguard of the road that leads straight into this Brave New World.

In this brave (or cowardly? or simply selfish?) New World no one will have to care for any one else, all will be free from any definitive commitment: free from the challenge of creating bonds of faithful love, of loyal friends, of a welcoming home.… One marries (or “marries” – under the new definition), and one walks out at any moment, dumping the other. It is all a matter of each one on his or her own. One creates a family that is not a home because no one can count on it always being there. The main thing is that you must be your own Number One.

And all in the name of freedom.

There is nothing like freedom.

You can choose what you like and keep on being free... – Not if what you choose shrinks you, eats away your freedom to choose anything really worthwhile, and leads you into addiction.

“Everyone belongs to everyone else”; and no one cares for anyone else, except maybe for a brief time, and never to the point of having to make a real sacrifice for them. “Everybody’s happy now” is another maxim of Brave New World, for everybody has been taught to rejoice that no one has any permanent bonds. That is happiness. deep roots, permanent bonds or relationships, make for unhappiness…. – And so we are left literally rootless, with each individual divested of any experience or memories of unbreakable ties of lasting love, tenderness, generosity, dedication.

People are being swept down ways of personal emptiness.

Young people don’t realise this, especially since their education has been completely geared to thinking of present “freedoms” and not of future consequences. (“Freedom to do what you like”

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so often ends as “not liking what you do”, and do compulsively).

But older people should realise it, especially if they have been entrusted with the good of society. If they do not know in what that good consists – what can achieve it and what can destroy it – , they should at least have the honesty to say to the people “we just don't know where we are going, but it seems to be downhill and very fast”. And then resign from the job for which they are incompetent.

Or perhaps they do know. Then let them declare it publicly. We are leading you into Brave New World and tell people what that means. In Huxley’s novel, Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, explains his political philosophy: “Self-indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygiene and economics”; and his appealing message to those he is “governing”: individual happiness guaranteed because no one is “plagued with mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about”. That's the formula; it makes for easily managed economic and political stability. And easily managed – but not selfgoverned or truly free – individuals.

Brave New World was banned in Ireland in the 1930s. The recent referendum might suggest that it now become required reading in all secondary schools. If their teachers were competent and the students capable of critical thought, it could help them think twice about where our – their – society is heading.

To say No to a process of disintegration is no doubt to contradict – because it says we are on the wrong way, humanly too, and we need to change direction. But to say so is positive, not negative! In this sense the Church today is especially called to be a “sign of contradiction”, bringing to people’s minds what is still buried deep in their hearts: the falseness of this Brave New World philosophy.

For it is false, as well as destructive and dehumanising.

– Put yourself at the centre of your own life, seek yourself... – And, it is Our Lord who tells us, you will lose yourself (Lk 17:33).

– Keep your freedom... – Even if it is taking you into enslaved addiction.

– Reject all ties and loyalties, cut yourself loose from all commit-

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ments.… – And then you will drift off on your own, as the tide takes you, into solitude and ever-increasing loneliness.

capable of leading man beyond the frontier of death. Indeed at this frontier those programmes have no answer to all man's questionings about the value and meaning of life.”

To the pagans of two thousand years ago, St Paul preached the “unknown God” (Acts 17:23).

Today it is the “unknown man” that must also be preached, for many around us appear to have lost true self-knowledge. They seem not to know their own capacity for self-centredness, which can lead to utter disconnection and isolation. The Church needs to preach the real possibility for each one of shrinking into that tight little ball of eternal solitude which is the very substance of hell.

The deeper questionings, the only ones that really matter, are these: Life after death? Or death after death? That “second death” of Revelation (Rev 2: 11), the eternal fire of which Our Lord speaks so seriously. So he presents himself indeed as a contradiction and a stumbling block, a scandal. And yet he remains the only Saviour and hope of the world.

It was from that possibility that Christ came to save us. He came to stir those deeper questionings about the meaning of life and death that always remain in the heart of each man or woman. Pope John Paul II put it forcefully in his 1985 Letter to the Youth of the World: “Christ is the ‘good teacher’ who shows the paths of life on earth. He is the witness to man’s immortality... In his Resurrection Christ has also become the permanent ‘sign of contradiction’ before all programmes in-

In his recent Encyclical, Laudato sì, Pope Francis speaks of “our irresponsible behaviour” in relation to the nature of the world and to the nature of man. Both, he says come from “the same evil: the notion that there are no indisputable truths to guide our lives, and hence human freedom is limitless.” (no. 6). And he adds: “Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble” (no.

117).

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If the Church is to be both faithful to Our Lord and loyal to the world, it must confidently preach as never before the clear message: life is much more than a mere something to be played with. Life is not a passing game or an eternal amusement park or a constant over-night disco that leaves one more and more worn out and empty. Life, real life, begins when one comes out of self and falls in love. Life consists in this: learning to love here on earth, and enjoying limitless and eternal Love in heaven. That is the message of positive contradiction and transcendent hope we have to present to our world.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR A Professor of Modern Languages and Doctor in Canon Law, as well as a civil lawyer and member of the Irish Bar, Cormac Burke was ordained a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature in 1955.

He worked as Judge of the Roman Rota. He has written widely on marriage and related matters. Among his best known books are: Man and Values (Scepter, 2007), The Lawless People of God? (Scepter Kenya, 2nd Edition, 2009) and Covenanted Happiness (Scepter, 3rd Edition, 2009).

His works have been translated into many languages. Much of his work can be consulted at: www.cormacburke.or.ke.

In 1999, after retirement from the Rota, he returned to Africa where he has been teaching at Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya.

He continues to lecture worldwide.

Silent action of the heart

by Cardinal Robert Sarah

Fifty years after its promulgation

by Pope Paul VI, will the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy finally be read? Sacrosanctum Concilium is actually not just a catalogue of “recipes” for reform, but a veritable Magna Carta of all liturgical action.

In it the Ecumenical Council gives us a magisterial lesson in methodology. Indeed, far from being content with a disciplinary, external approach to the liturgy, the Council wishes to have us contemplate what it is in its essence. The Church’s practice always results from what she receives and contemplates in

revelation. Pastoral ministry cannot be detached from doctrine.

In the Church “action is directed to contemplation” (cf. no. 2). The conciliar Constitution invites us to rediscover the Trinitarian origin of the liturgical work. Indeed, the Council determines that there is a continuity between the mission of Christ the Redeemer and the liturgical mission of the Church. “Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also He sent the apostles,” so that “by means of sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life revolves” they might “ac-

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complish the work of salvation” (no. 6).

Carrying out the liturgy therefore is the same as accomplishing the work of Christ. The liturgy is essentially “actio Christi”: “the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God” (no. 5). He is the great high priest, the true subject, the true protagonist of the liturgy (cf. no. 7). If this vitally important principle is not accepted in faith, we run the risk of making the liturgy a human work, the community’s celebration of itself.

On the contrary, the Church’s real work is to enter into Christ’s action, to join in the work for which He has been commissioned by the Father. Therefore “the fullness of divine worship was given to us,” because “His humanity, united with the person of the Word, was the instrument of our salvation” (no. 5). The Church, the Body of Christ, must therefore become in turn an instrument in the hands of the Word.

This is the ultimate meaning of the key concept of the conciliar

Constitution: “participatio actuosa”. For the Church, this participation consists of becoming the instrument of Christ the Priest, for the purpose of participating in His Trinitarian mission. The Church actively participates in Christ’s liturgical work insofar as she is the instrument thereof. In this sense, language about the “celebrating community” has its ambiguities and requires true caution (cf. the Instruction Redemptoris sacramentum, no.

42). Therefore this “participatio actuosa” should not be understood as the need to do something. On this point the Council’s teaching has often been distorted. Instead it is a matter of letting Christ take us and associate us with His sacrifice.

Liturgical “participatio” must therefore be understood as a grace from Christ who “always associates the Church with Himself” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7). He is the one who has the initiative and the primacy. The Church “calls to her Lord, and through Him offers worship to the Eternal Father” (no. 7).

The priest must therefore become this instrument that allows

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Christ to shine through. As our Holy Father Pope Francis recalled recently, the celebrant is not the host of a show, he must not look for sympathy from the assembly by setting himself in front of it as its main speaker. To enter into the spirit of the Council means, on the contrary, to be self-effacing, to refuse to be the center of attention.

only purpose of this face-to-face is to lead to a tête-à-tête with God which, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, will become a heart-to-heart conversation. The Council thus proposes other means of promoting participation: “acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes” (no. 30).

Contrary to what has sometimes been maintained, and quite in keeping with the conciliar Constitution, it is altogether appropriate, during the penitential rite, the singing of the Gloria, the orations and the Eucharistic prayer, that everyone, priest and faithful, turn together toward the East, so as to express their intention to participate in the work of worship and redemption accomplished by Christ. This way of celebrating could possibly be implemented in cathedrals, where the liturgical life must be exemplary (cf. no. 41).

An over-hasty and all-too-human interpretation has led some to conclude that it was necessary to make sure that the faithful were constantly busy. The contemporary Western mentality, shaped by technology and fascinated by the media, tried to make the liturgy a work of effective, rewarding instruction. In this spirit, many have tried to make liturgical celebrations convivial. Liturgical ministers, prompted by pastoral motives, sometimes try to instruct by introducing profane, show-business elements into liturgical celebrations. Don’t we sometimes see a proliferation of testimonies, scenery and applause?

They think that this will foster the participation of the faithful, whereas in fact it reduces the liturgy to a human game.

Of course, there are other parts of the Mass in which the priest, acting “in persona Christi Capitis” [“in the person of Christ the Head”] enters into a nuptial dialogue with the assembly. But the

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“Silence is not a virtue, noise is not a sin, it is true,” says Thomas Merton, “but the turmoil and confusion and constant noise of modern society,” or of some African Eucharistic liturgies, “are the expression of the ambiance of its greatest sins – its godlessness, its despair. A world of propaganda, of endless argument, vituperation, criticism, or simply of chatter, is a world without anything to live for....

Mass becomes racket and confusion; prayers – an exterior or interior noise” (Thomas Merton The Sign of Jonas [San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1953, 1981], passim).

We run the real risk of leaving no room for God in our celebrations. We fall into the temptation of the Hebrews in the desert.

They sought to create for themselves a form of worship on their own scale and of their own stature, and let us not forget that they ended up prostrate before an idol, the golden calf.

It is time to start listening to the Council. The liturgy is “above all things the worship of the divine majesty” (no. 33). It has instructional value to the extent to

which it is completely ordered to the glorification of God and to divine worship. Liturgy really places us in the presence of divine transcendence. True participation means renewing in ourselves that “amazement” that Saint John Paul II held in high regard (cf. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 6). This sacred wonder, this joyful fear, requires our silence before the divine majesty.

We often forget that sacred silence is one of the means noted by the Council for promoting participation.

If the liturgy is Christ’s work, is it necessary for the celebrant to interject his own comments? We should remember that, when the missal authorizes an intervention, this must not become a profane, human speech, a more or less subtle commentary on current events, or a worldly greeting to the persons present, but rather a very brief exhortation to enter into the mystery (cf. General Introduction of the Roman Missal, no. 50). As for the homily, in itself it is always a liturgical act that has its own rules. “Participatio actuosa” in Christ’s work presupposes that we leave the profane world so

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as to enter into the “sacred action surpassing all others” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7). In fact, “we claim somewhat arrogantly to remain in the human sphere so as to enter into the divine” (Robert Sarah, God or Nothing [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015], chapter IV).

(cf. no. 34), and at the same time prescribes that “the faithful ... be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them” (no. 54).

In this regard it is deplorable that the sanctuary in our churches is not a place strictly reserved for divine worship, that people enter it in worldly garb, and that the sacred space is not clearly delimited by the architecture.

Since, as the Council teaches, Christ is present in His word when it is proclaimed, it is likewise harmful that lectors do not have proper attire that shows that they are not pronouncing human words but a divine word.

The liturgy is a fundamentally mystical, contemplative reality, and consequently beyond the reach of our human action; even our “participatio” is a grace from God. Therefore it presupposes on our part openness to the mystery being celebrated. Thus, the Constitution recommends the full understanding of the rites

Indeed, understanding the rite is not the work of unaided human reason, which would have to grasp everything, understand everything, master everything.

The understanding of the sacred rites is that of the “sensus fidei”, which practices a living faith through the symbol and knows by being attuned more than through concepts. This understanding presupposes that one approaches the mystery with humility.

But will people have the courage to follow the Council this far?

Such an interpretation, illuminated by the faith, is fundamental however for evangelization.

Indeed, “the liturgy ... shows forth the Church to those who are outside as a sign lifted up among the nations, under which the scattered children of God may be gathered together” (no.

2). It must stop being a place of disobedience to the Church’s prescriptions.

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More specifically, it cannot be an occasion for divisions among Christians. Dialectical interpretations of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the hermeneutics of rupture in one direction or the other, are not the fruit of a spirit of faith.

The Council did not intend to break with the liturgical forms inherited from Tradition, but rather intended to appreciate them in greater depth. The Constitution declares that “any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing” (no. 23).

each other, in continuity and without opposition.

If we live in this spirit, then the liturgy will stop being a place of rivalries and critiques, so as finally to make us participate actively in that liturgy “which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle” (no. 8).

In this regard, it is necessary that some should celebrate according to the “usus antiquior” [older usage] and should do so without any spirit of opposition, and therefore in the spirit of Sacrosanctum Concilium. Similarly, it would be a mistake to consider the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite as coming from some other theology which is not that of the reformed liturgy. It would also be desirable in a future edition of the Missal to insert the penitential rite and the offertory of the “usus antiquior” for the purpose of emphasizing that the two liturgical forms illuminate

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cardinal Robert Sarah was born in French Guinea. He was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014.

The Church’s social contribution

by Tim O’Sullivan

Last August, in the This Week RTÉ radio programme, Fr Michael Drumm, chairperson of the Catholic Schools Partnership, was quizzed repeatedly by Richard Crowley, one of RTÉ’s best interviewers, as to why more progress had not been made in the ‘divestment’ of patronage by Catholic schools – that is, in the reduction in the number of Catholic schools in the context of the decline in the number of practising Catholics in Ireland.

Beyond passing references to ‘fear of the unknown’, Crowley did not pursue the arguably more interesting question of why, in spite of all the recent

controversy and criticism surrounding the Catholic Church in this country, and an undeniable decline in religious practice, so many communities around Ireland remain deeply attached to their local Catholic schools.

What is it about Catholic schools that continues to attract so many Irish parents in 2015?

Without wishing to idealize all such schools, the attachment to Catholic schools must be related to the sense of respect for persons, rooted in faith, which they communicate, the quality of education they offer and their attention to the individual pupil.

UK Labour Party leadership candidate Andy Burnham MP, though not now a practising

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Catholic himself, sends his children to a Catholic school, he recently told the Huffington Post UK, because ‘I still believe in the values and the grounding it gives you.’

As the RTÉ interview suggests, the Catholic contribution to Irish society is insufficiently emphasised today. This is partly because of the grave abuse scandals that have happened and that should not be forgotten or downplayed. It’s partly because the media and some politicians have focused to a great extent on those scandals and have devoted much less attention to the many positive Catholic contributions to the common good. Another factor is a simplistic and negative understanding of subsidiarity, which is influenced by the current preference for socialist frameworks in Irish academic reflection.

Healthcare contribution Some voices from academia have nevertheless been raised to remind us of the Catholic social contribution to the nation.

Last August, in a letter to the Irish Catholic, Professor Ray Kinsella highlighted the huge

contribution of the Catholic Church, and particularly of the religious nursing orders, from the 19th century on, to the care of the sick and to the training of Irish healthcare professionals.

His letter brought to my mind a plaque in St Teresa’s Church in Dublin’s Clarendon Street, which honours the first thirteen Sisters of Mercy who are buried in the Church’s crypt and who died between 1831 and 1840, often at a relatively young age, while serving the poor of Dublin during a period of cholera and other epidemics. The work of these early Sisters of Mercy is covered in Mary C Sullivan’s excellent biography of their founder, Catherine McAuley: The Path of Mercy, Four Courts Press, 2012.

In areas such as acute hospital services, disability and care of the elderly, Catholic religious contributed hugely to service provision at a time when statutory provision was often patchy.

Many became active here in the decades following Catholic Emancipation in 1829. In 2012, an Irish Church publication listed as follows the congregations consulted about a healthcare document: the Brothers of Chari-

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ty, Sisters of Mercy, Daughters of Charity, Little Company of Mary, Little Sisters of the Poor, Medical Missionaries of Mary, Religious Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Bon Secours, Sisters of St John of God and St John of God Services. While the list does not cover all congregations past and present engaged in healthcare, it nevertheless gives some sense of the sheer dimensions of the Catholic contribution to Irish healthcare.

An important factor preventing proper understanding of the Catholic contribution to the common good in Ireland is the defective understanding of subsidiarity here. Subsidiarity provides an important justification for charitable or voluntary effort but is too often seen through a socialist prism as a narrowly conservative principle, which over-emphasises the family and voluntary organisations and offers a very negative perspective on state involvement or the promotion of equality.

In August, for example, a letter to the Irish Times from an Irish educationalist offered a negative view of subsidiarity while championing the equality principle.

The letter suggested that subsidiarity is ‘the practice of the State devolving delivery of services (especially health and education) to non-statutory bodies’ and was an ‘ideological hallmark’ of the new Irish State.

Moreover, our State had recently allowed subsidiarity to ‘spiral’ to a point where there were at least fourteen patrons vying for the education space in Ireland.

There was now a need for the State to take ‘full control’ of the nation’s schools. Other writers have argued that there is no place for sacramental preparation during school hours in ‘publicly funded’ schools – implying in effect that fully Catholic schools should not receive public funding, even though that funding ultimately comes from Catholic as well as other citizens.

In defence of subsidiarity In response to such arguments, it should be acknowledged that grave problems did arise historically in Ireland in some services run by Catholic religious, particularly in institutional childcare.

Church leaders have also signalled their support for some degree of ‘divestment’ of

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Catholic schools in the changed Ireland of today. Nevertheless, arguments critical of subsidiarity are open to question on several grounds.

First, subsidiarity-based arguments today do not deny the legitimate stewardship role of the State in social provision or its duty to guarantee basic services and standards for its citizens.

Second, the implication that the State itself should monopolise the delivery of education or other public services – as distinct from funding them or monitoring their quality – is arguably quite dated in 2015 after many decades of extensive reflection across the world about problems and issues associated with State delivery.

Third, the argument that charitable bodies got involved in welfare because the State ‘devolved’ services to them is historically flawed. On the contrary, across Europe and over many centuries, Church bodies pioneered social responses to the care of the sick and the poor

and the education of the young.

In more recent times, in areas such as disability, Catholic charities pioneered service delivery and it was only quite gradually that the Irish State began to provide some financial support to such services. Hospice care is another recent example of a vitally important religious contribution to service development.

It was not so much a question of the State ‘devolving’ services to charitable bodies, including the religious orders, but of such groups or charities organising themselves in response to need at local level and of receiving, in time, support from the State.

Moreover, while some argue that only State bodies have a public purpose, subsidiarity theorists today point out that Church-run and other non-profit bodies carry out significant tasks in the public interest and thus merit public funding.

Arguments critical of subsidiarity also fail to take account of the positive philosophical arguments underpinning this concept1.

1 I examined the subsidiarity concept in more detail in the April 2014 is-

sue of Position Papers

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These arguments stress the dignity of the human person and his or her capacity to give something to others, see human freedom as necessary for self-fulfilment and suggest that that freedom is expressed particularly in the voluntary associations or charitable endeavours which human persons set up together in response to need – and which can themselves be seen as a ‘gift’ to the whole community.

Current ‘one-size-fits-all’ arguments for full State control of education or other key sectors and against a plurality of providers seem depressingly dated. By contrast, there is something dynamic and positive about the support in Catholic social thought, through the principle of subsidiarity, for a plurality of social groups between the individual and the State, a plurality that safeguards the freedom of such groups to act and to take initiatives in the service of the community and in accordance with their own ethos.

and the wider world. More specifically, we need to re-develop an appreciation in Ireland of what religious, and the Church in general, have contributed to the common good here. This doesn’t mean dismissing the role of the State or ignoring the contribution of charitable bodies with a different ethos. But, in a context where there has been an excessive focus on the negative, it surely does mean re-acquainting ourselves with a precious heritage of Catholic service, self-sacrifice and dynamism.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In conclusion, as Archbishop Eamon Martin put it in August 2015 at Knock, we should not forget the ‘immense contribution’ of Irish religious to this country

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Tim O’Sullivan has carried out doctoral research on the subsidiarity principle and is a regular contributor to Position Papers.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Pro Tennis (and Life)

by Trent Beattie

many others have been. He considers it routine, since his parents only allowed him to pursue a professional tennis career on the condition that he conduct himself as a gentleman on court.

After battling 14-time Grand Slam singles champion Rafael Nadal for more than four hours in the second round of this year’s Australian Open, Tim Smyczek did something no one expected him to do. He was down 5-6, 0-30, in the fifth set, when Nadal missed a first serve badly during a verbal outburst from the crowd. This prompted Smyzek to allow Nadal to take his first serve over, and Nadal soon won the set 7-5, and along with it, the match.

Smyczek, who has been ranked as high as No. 68 in the world in singles (he is currently ranked 95), spoke with Register correspondent Trent Beattie before the U.S. Open, which runs Aug. 31-Sept. 13 in New York City.

Smyczek’s sportsmanship drew praise from the crowd and attention from the media, but he isn’t as impressed at his move as so

You got a lot of credit for being a good sport earlier this year during an intense match with Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.

What are your thoughts on that?

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We had been going toe-to-toe for four hours in a tough, second-round match. Rafa was ahead 6-5, 30-0, when someone in the stands yelled during his serve. He missed it by a few feet — something he hadn’t done all match. I let him do it over, and then he won the match.

I would have loved to have beaten Rafa, but the do-over was the fair thing to do. This would have been true whether the match was starting or ending and whether I was ahead or behind. It’s just part of something my parents required from me before I started to play tennis seriously. No matter what else happened, they wanted me to be a gentleman on the court.

Lots of people cheered for me, and the do-over got a lot of attention in the press. It might be a good thing for younger athletes to see that sportsmanship is possible even in tight situations like that, but I think getting so much attention for what I did is a sad commentary on where sports are today. People are amazed when someone does something like that with a lot on the line.

You’ve invested a lot of time and effort into your tennis career, even in your teenage years.

Was it tough to move away from your family in Wisconsin in order to play more tennis in Florida?

It might sound terrible, but it wasn’t tough to do that at the time. I loved playing tennis, and at 16 or 17, you get a kick out of having more freedom and branching out in to the world. It’s not that I didn’t like my family, but at that age, you’re not really concerned about being able to see them every day when you can talk on the phone.

My main concern was not having a car, which sometimes made it difficult to get to places. I always made the effort to go to Sunday Mass, though. That was ingrained in me from childhood, so it was kind of automatic, even 1,300 miles away from home.

It’s something that has stayed with me through the years. It’s been a constant in a fast-paced, ever-changing life of tennis.

Today, as I travel all over the world, I miss my family more than when I first moved out. My parents do get to see some of my matches, but most of the

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time, I’m on my own or with my coach, Billy Heiser. He’s only one year older than I am, and we actually competed against each other many years ago in junior tournaments, so he is kind of like family.

Even though you’ve always attended Mass, was there a specific time that your faith deepened?

Even though Scott was a convert and already married, the parallels in our lives were similar enough that I could see how being a practicing Catholic was an unsurpassed blessing. Even if it meant I would lose a friend or potential spouse, I just had to remember that a Christ-centered, Church-empowered life should be my top priority.

What do you think is the most empowering aspect of the Church?

About four years ago, I had a pretty serious girlfriend. We were considering marriage, but the problem was that she didn’t practice her faith. She was a fallen-away Catholic, which would have made our married life together complicated. We would have had conflicting beliefs and practices, which wouldn’t have been an ideal environment for raising kids.

It was a tough thing to do, but I made it clear to her that if we were going to be married, she would have to take her faith seriously. She didn’t accept the challenge, so we broke up. What made that unpleasant experience easier was hearing Scott Hahn’s conversion story, which I had picked up at a Lighthouse Catholic Media kiosk.

It’s probably something that Scott Hahn has spoken about in a CD called The Healing Power of Confession. As Catholics, we can take this sacrament for granted, but we really shouldn’t.

It’s a hugely empowering thing, because we’re made right with God and given the grace to avoid sin in the future.

If we didn’t have confession, we would probably go from bad to worse, because the guilt and sinful momentum would build.

Confession removes the guilt, stops the sinful momentum and pushes us in the other direction of virtue. It’s truly a healing sacrament, so I make an effort

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to go at regular intervals, even when I don’t feel like going.

maría, who wanted people to treasure, share and live out their religious beliefs rather than hide them.

It’s funny how some people might think that if you go to confession regularly you must have tons of serious sins to confess.

The opposite is actually true.

The more you go, the less you usually have to say; but the less you go, the more you usually have to say. The closer you are to a source of grace, the more you get, and the further you are, the less you get, so it makes sense.

What’s really encouraging, though, is that no matter how badly off you are spiritually, you always have the mercy of God nearby in confession, where any sin can be forgiven. The whole point is forgiveness, so you shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for it.

Do you have a favorite Catholic book?

I carry around little books like The Way and The Forge from St. Josemaría Escrivá. They are very handy while traveling, because they don’t take up much space at all. What they lack in size, they more than make up for in wisdom from St. Jose-

One way to make this happen is by praying the Rosary, which I try to do every day. The Rosary is a very effective means of making the mysteries of the life of Christ more real to the individual. You see things through an incarnational lens, because you’re calling on the Blessed Mother for help. She knows the Incarnation better than anyone, so she’s in a unique position to help others understand it.

The Rosary helps me in a very real-life, tennis-specific way.

When I was competing on the Challenger’s Tour, which is the equivalent of the minor leagues in pro baseball, I had almost constant anxiety about whether I’d make it to the main ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals] tour. When I stated praying the Rosary regularly, it helped to give a sense of routine and structure, which lessened the anxiety. Then I could approach tennis with a healthier mindset.

Speaking of the Rosary reminds me of a story from earlier this

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year. I was invited on a Protestant radio program to talk about being a Christian in pro tennis.

The interview went okay, and at the end, the host asked me to lead the audience in prayer. I’m not used to leading spontaneous public prayer, so the first thing I thought of was a Hail Mary, the most-recited prayer of the Rosary. I think the host was shocked when I prayed it, but the Hail Mary is very biblical, as seen in Luke, Chapter 2, so maybe that one Hail Mary will get some people to consider being Catholic.

What are your personal expectations going into the U.S. Open, and which players do you think have the best shot at winning it?

One of my top memories so far in tennis was at the 2012 U.S. Open. I made it to the third round, and I was the last American male left in the singles draw.

That got the New York crowd heavily on my side, and they almost pushed me to a victory. It was a close, five-set match at night on the Grandstand [Court].

matches in the summer heat. I hope to win some matches and do some damage, but as far as a favorite to win, that status goes to Novak Djokovic. It’s hard to bet against him. He’s ranked No. 1, was victorious at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, and won the U.S. Open in 2011.

Aside from Djokovic, it would be fun to see Roger Federer win, who, even at 34, is still playing great tennis. Others have a shot at it, but those are clearly the top two guys, so we’ll see what takes place.

Whatever happens in New York, I’m looking forward to getting married in November. After my tough but faith-building experience related earlier, I did find a good Catholic woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.

She’s the daughter of a tournament sponsor I had known for years. I’m very happy I met her, especially because she helps me to be a better Catholic.

That’s what matters most.

This year, I’m just going to try to peak at the U.S. Open, after a tough series of hard-court

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Reprinted with Permission from the National Catholic Register, www.ncregister.com.

Hard Times

by Seán Hurley

“Now, what I want is, Facts.

Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.

This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!”

Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times The bone chilling opening words of the rationalist schoolmaster in Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times spring to mind as I reflect on my time spent as a Leaving Cert student. Throughout the last two years, the absorption and processing of Facts has be-

come my raison d’etre. Many nights, I have spent hunched over my desk, with my brow furrowed, as I attempted to decipher the mystery that is the Modh Coinníollach in Irish and / or the black hole that is Suspense Accounts. Facts have been exalted to such an esteemed position in our education system, to the extent that the closest thing we get to catechism classes every week is our Physics teacher’s discourse on the “Holy Trinity” that is Newton’s three laws of motion. For us students, the “Promised Land” consists of the Leaving Cert exam hall where we’re given the chance to regurgitate these endless reams of Facts.

Whilst admitting, that I personally relished the challenge of the Leaving Cert and that I wrote the last paragraph with a hint of irony, it is no joke to say that a

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high percentage of students in this country see the Leaving Cert as the be-all and end-all.

This to me is a very worrying thought. I like to think that I was sheltered from the brunt of the Leaving Cert hysteria due to the strong Catholic faith with whichh I have been gifted. At the end of the day, it helped me to put into perspective that the Leaving Cert is only a set of the exams and nothing more. For a lot of my classmates who don’t hold the same conviction of faith, however, the Leaving Cert can seem like a lot more malevolent process. For many students, results day is akin to Judgement Day with the CAO playing the role of the omnipotent being. But unlike Christ who is infinitely merciful and just, the CAO is a cruel judge bestowing courses upon people by virtue of the points they garnered, non-withstanding the effort they put in.

Often it is a mere 5 points which is the difference between ecstasy and despair. My heart goes out to students who fall into a spiral of depression on failing to obtain their course and to those who feel they are defined by the grades they receive.

This sympathy however, quickly turns to anger as I ponder how the education system and media have allowed these simple exams swell into the golden calf of society today. The Leaving Cert

has been given so much saturation by the incessant media coverage in recent years, it is difficult for students to avoid falling into the trap of viewing the exams as a god in itself. The book Hard Times which I mentioned above, is a harrowing tale of the damage that an education system can wreak on the youth in particular, when Facts are given celestial status (to the extent Dickens feels the need to capitalise the word) and when ideals such as faith and creativity are treated as taboo. Dickens illustrates the perils of such a system through the cataclysmic downfall of the principal’s son and daughter from ideal archetypes of the system to a felon on the run and a stunted emotional wreck respectively. Once Gradgrind (quoted above) realised the calamitous effect his ideology was having on his children he was immediately contrite and realised that from then on his now debunked facts and figures must always be subservient to “Faith, Hope and Charity”.

Catholic schools in Ireland today would do well to heed Dickens’ advice: indeed it is a grave responsibility and if I may I’d like to venture a few suggestions about how these theological virtues can be fostered and cultivated.

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Charity

Faith

“If I … have not charity” says the Apostle, “I am nothing”. Since it’s the greatest of all virtues, charity is the natural place to begin. In the consumer driven, individualistic society in which we live today, where corporate multinationals rule the roost, charity can often seem in very short supply. And for that reason it is increasingly vital that it is fostered in schools. I have to admit my school has done a stellar job in imbuing this virtue in their students. Countless times over the past six years, I’ve been moved by the schools response in the face of tragedy.

This charity could manifest itself through everything from a spontaneous fundraising drive in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake to a Hail Mary recited on the intercom on hearing of a personal tragedy that has struck one of the students in the school. The school also has a proud tradition of enlisting Transition Year students into community work and I also am personally in debt to the school for giving me the means to serve as a volunteer on the Lourdes pilgrimage last year. Along with promoting academia, charity must be at the heart of all Catholic schools.

A common neurosis which I believe spreads across the majority of Catholic schools on this isle today is the prevalence of inept faith formation. Apart from the occasional Mass or perhaps a one day retreat in fifth year, any talk of faith or belief is firmly cordoned off. For many schools the superficiality of a school’s Catholic ethos becomes apparent during “Religion” class (and I emphasise the air quotes). Instead of learning about the truths of the Catholic doctrine, students are taught a politically sanitised, banal morality where nothing is right or wrong and where relativism is key. Whilst subjects such as prayer are off limits, I’ve sat through many religion classes listening to teachers exhort the uses of contraception. Despite being a practising Catholic, there’s many times I wished I attended a non- denominational school as it would excuse me of the burden of having to sit through such “Religion” classes. Before proponents of these classes argue I’m an exception to the rule, it’s interesting to note that the atheists and agnostics of the class harboured a similar disillusionment as these classes impinged on the amount of time we had available for something more worthwhile, such as our extra subject Applied Maths.

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With the vultures circling over the devolvement of Catholic schools, it’s clear we’ve reached the Rubicon regarding Catholic education in Ireland as we know it. The passing of the gay marriage referendum and the recent lobbying by Amnesty International for a repeal of Ireland’s abortion laws mean it is more vital than ever for teachers to proclaim the beauty of the Catholic faith. If schools are not prepared to pick up their cross and follow Christ through teaching the hard truths such as the unborn child’s right to life and the truths about human sexuality contained in Humanae Vitae, I think they would be best served to devolve their Catholic ethos.

Teachers may be tentative to do this on the grounds that they may expect a backlash from parents or even the government but the bottom line is, it’s the students that count. To quote Archbishop Timothy Dolan on the hunger he sees in young people for a more authoritative church voice in education, particularly regarding sexualityThey will be quick to say, 'By the way, we want you to know that we might not be able to obey it…. But we want to hear it. And in justice, you as our pastors need to tell us, and you need to challenge us.'’

Hope Whilst the challenges that Catholic schools face may seem insurmountable, it is important to remember that as Christians we must always be people of indefatigable hope. I believe that if we have constant recourse to Our Lady and the other patrons of education in Ireland it won’t be long until hope becomes airborne again in our schools. And whenever that happens, maybe the Leaving Cert won’t seem like such a big deal after all.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Seán Hurley is a first year student in University College Dublin.

Book review: Life Under Compulsion

by Rev. C.J. McCloskey

Life Under Compulsion by Anthony Esolen (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2015)

With his most recent book, Anthony Esolen follows up on Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. In this new book, he also draws on the great thinkers of the Western tradition, from Aristotle and Cicero to Dante, Shakespeare, John Adams and C.S. Lewis.

This is a book that restates the importance of concepts so often dismissed: truth, beauty, goodness, love, faith and virtue.

It is countercultural, in the best sense of the term. In fact, it is an indispensable gift for any parent who wants to help a child enjoy a truly free and full life.

For Esolen, what matters is raising children who can sit with a good book and read, who delight in innocence, who can walk outdoors and enjoy the beauty of God's creation. Esolen wants to free children to be lovers of both humanity and the humanities.

He is looking to help parents resist in a healthy way the reigning culture. You name it, he covers it — with wit and understanding — whether it's Common Core, smartphones, video games, sex education, popular music, advertising and even politicians and their promises. He also elegantly writes about the wisdom of education, parenting, literature, music, art, philosophy and leisure.

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Esolen's cogent observations on all of these topics make for a book that is a great value not only for parents, but for grandparents or anyone who cares about children. This includes teachers, who bear such great responsibility to steer students toward the good. Finally, this book also can be of great service to Catholic priests, who by the nature of their vocation also have a role in helping the children not to become victims of our culture of death.

struggle in the culture wars of our time. With his help, we can raise our children in a way that frees them from the mediocrity of our present culture and brings them wisdom that is God-given.

Despite the title, Life Under Compulsion is in some respects a hope-filled book, because it champions a natural-law vision of the human person. Such a vision inspires us because it is true to the reality God created.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author, who is the father of several children and a professor of English at Providence College, has guided many people in the university and has spoken at conferences. He is already a great treasure for the Church in this country; and through his work, no doubt, has saved many souls from perdition. In fact, he can help us in our ongoing

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Rev C. John McCloskey III is a Catholic priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and member of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. He is the former director of the Catholic Information Center of the Archdiocese of Washington.

Website: www.frmccloskey.com.

This review first appeared on The National Catholic Register in May, 2015.

Film review: The Visit

by John P. McCarthy

Humor is not the first thing one associates with an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Since he captivated audiences in 1999 with the supernatural puzzler The Sixth Sense, the writerdirector has specialized in deadly serious tales involving paranormal phenomena.

Although a sense of playfulness is detectable in his best efforts, the adjective ponderous springs to mind when considering his body of work.

Which is why it's so surprising that The Visit (Universal) elicits abundant laughter, most of it by design. As expected, the film is quite spooky, offering ample opportunity for viewers to be startled and shriek. But the comedy is integral and more than a relief valve. Unfortunately, because it

triggers a significant amount of unintended laughter as well, Shyamalan's latest can also feel like a parody of a horror-comedy. Too often viewers will find themselves caught between laughing with the movie and laughing at it.

Thanks to its multiple tones and inability to fully coalesce, The Visit is a head-scratcher, albeit an entertaining one. On the horror side of the equation, while not especially gruesome or graphic, the scares are effective.

There's enough other material to render it inappropriate for most adolescents, however.

Two talented young actors play the lead roles. Olivia DeJonge is 15-year-old Becca, a budding moviemaker who tries to gain insight into her broken family by

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filming a documentary. Her mother (Kathryn Hahn) left home at 19 after falling for an older man, whom she married and with whom she had two children. After Becca came Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), now an aspiring rapper with a germ phobia.

Five years ago, their father took off and their parents subsequently divorced.

Their mother has never reconciled with her parents, but has agreed to send the children for a weeklong visit to the Pennsylvania farmhouse where she was raised. A keen student of film, Becca wants answers and is committed to documenting the trip, with Tyler's sometimes-reluctant help. Armed with cameras, a laptop computer and other equipment, they meet their grandparents for the first time.

While warm and welcoming, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) exhibit peculiar behavior from the outset. Nana, who plies them with delicious food and baked goods, is prone to night terrors and sudden mood swings. In addition to hiding something mysterious in his shed, Pop Pop insists the kids avoid the base-

ment and never leave their room after 9:30 p.m.

Attributing their strange conduct to the mental and physical infirmities brought by old age won't suffice. The atmosphere of dread and menace is heightened by the wintertime locale, the neatness of the colonial-era home, and the existence of a health care facility nearby where Nana and Pop Pop volunteer as counselors.

Tyler, who has adopted the persona of an inner-city rapper, is responsible for the lion's share of levity and Oxenbould does an excellent job of mining the wit in Shyamalan's script. Both actors superbly convey the rapport between the siblings.

Becca's movie-within-the-movie is not an original device (see The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity series). Yet the jumpy hand-held photography it occasions is well executed and the technical work overall is unimpeachable. If only Shyamalan didn't try to cover so many bases and focused more on his screenplay. The big twist is functional yet lacks sufficient explanatory power, even allow-

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ing for the genre's low plausibility standards.

In his attempt to avoid presenting a run-of-the-mill horror-comedy, Shyamalan weaves in several weighty themes. The Visit can be read as a mild critique of the dangerous allure of storytelling -- of getting so caught up in communicating a narrative that one ignores real life's actual perils and predicaments. More specifically, he draws attention to our obsession with experiencing life through a lens, screen or other electronic device. Becca is so absorbed in the process of creating her documentary that she's blind to the fact that something is horribly amiss with her elderly relations.

language and one rough gesture, some crude and crass language, several instances of profanity, brief rear female nudity, a drug reference, a suicidal character, and some sexual banter, mostly contained in rap music lyrics. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Shyamalan also tacks on a laudatory message about the power of forgiveness and the necessity of overcoming anger.

Nevertheless, any lesson or earnest sentiment is eclipsed by the humor and scare quotients of The Visit. Presumably, that bodes well for its commercial prospects.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The film contains much terrifying behavior and some nongraphic violence, an instance of rough

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John P. McCarthy is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.

Copyright (c) 2015 Catholic News Service.

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Interdiocesan Retreats For Priests 23 Nov (9pm) - 27 Nov (10am) 2015

7 Mar (9pm) - 11 Mar (10am) 2016 25 Apr (9pm) - 29 Apr (10am) 2016

The$retreat$will$be$preached$by$$ a$priest$of$the$Opus$Dei$Prelature$and$$ will$also$include$plenty$of$8me$for$silence$ and$private$prayer.$ Book$online$at:$www.lismullin.ie

Nazareth Family Institute Pre-marriage preparation.

Marriage enrichment, restoration & healing.

Dates of marriage preparation weekends: 13-14 November 2015 Venue: Avila retreat centre, Donnybrook, Dublin.

Extended course: A seven week course by arrangement with the course directors Course directors, Peter and Fiona Perrem 01-2896647 For more information see: www.nazarethfamilyinstitute.net