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Columban Fr Desmond Quinn RIP

Fr Desmond Quinn
(1931 – 2015)

Fr Desmond Quinn was born at Quignashee, Ballina, County Mayo on 14 December 1931. He was educated at Behymór National School, and St Muredach’s College, Ballina. He came to St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Navan in September 1948 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1954.

St Muredach’s Cathedral, Ballina [Wikipedia]
After two years of post-graduate study at Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, he was appointed to the Philippines and to the island of Negros. From 1957 to 1962 he served in Cauayan, La Castellana and Binalbagan.
Cauayan Municipal Hall [Wikipedia]
After his first home vacation he was assigned to promotion work in Britain where he would spend the following ten years.  In 1969 he was appointed Rector of the new London House at Hampstead, London.
In October 1973, Father Des was reassigned to the Philippines. During the years that followed, he served in Isabela, Himamaylan and Binalbagan. all in Negros Occidental. There followed a two-year assignment to Vocations Ministry in the USA, working from Quincy MA.  From 1981-1987 he was pastor of Hinoba-an, and became District Superior of Negros from 1987 to 1991, residing at Batang, Himamaylan.
Part of Isabela [Wikipedia]
In September 1991 he was assigned to Manila on Mission Awareness and Promotion. From 1993 to 1999 he served two terms as Vice-Director of the Philippine Region. After a year as assistant in Malate Parish, he was appointed Regional Bursar of the Region of Ireland where he served until 2008.
Coat of arms of County Mayo. [Wikipedia]
The motto is the Irish for ‘God and Mary with us’.
Father Des will be remembered as a man of integrity and efficiency. Cheerful, good-humoured, unfailingly friendly, courteous and obliging, he was a familiar figure on his daily walks in the Dalgan grounds. He had suffered a couple of minor strokes in recent years, yet the suddenness of his final illness took us by surprise. He died in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, on 20 September 2015. We mourn the death of this great-hearted and loyal Columban colleague.
May he rest in peace.
Fr Des Quinn in Manila with his classmate Fr Michael Sinnott on 12 November 2009 after the latter was released by those who had kidnapped him in Mindanao.
 
Father Des is survived by four siblings, Sr Josephine FMM, Father Peter, Pat and Jerry. Father Peter was ordained as a Columban priest in December 1950. He too was assigned to Negros Occidental and left Ireland for the Philippines after helping Mayo win the All-Ireland Football Final on 23 September 1951, the last time that the county has won the championship. He later became a priest in the Diocese of Orlando, Florida, and is now retired.
 
 

 

‘Those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’ Sunday Reflections, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Apostle Peter in Prison, Rembrandt, 1631

Israel Museum, Jerusalem [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Mark 8:27-35 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

This Sunday Benedict Daswa will be beatified in South Africa, the first South African to be formally recognized by the Church as a martyr. He was martyred on 2 February 1990, the day that Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

Blessed Benedict – he took that name when he became a Catholic in 1963 – was 43 when he died, a husband and father of eight children and a school principal. He was killed because of his opposition to witchcraft, which was widespread in his community, practised, out of fear, even by some Catholics.

The beatification ceremony takes place on a day when the First Reading and the Gospel focus on the cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI visited Lebanon three years ago, 14-16 September. The 16th was the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, the same as this Sunday.

During his times as pontiff Benedict XVI constantly emphasised that our faith as Catholic Christians is in the person of Jesus Christ, something that Pope Francis often does too.

Pope Benedict’s homily at the Sunday Mass at the Beirut City Center Waterfront was based on the readings of the day, as a homily should be, and he focused mainly on the gospel. Here are some extracts from that homily, with some parts highlighted.

St George Maronite Cathedral and Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, side by side in Beirut

[Photo: Wikipedia]

On this Sunday when the Gospel asks us about the true identity of Jesus, we find ourselves transported with the disciples to the road leading to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asks them: “Who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29). The moment he chose to ask this question is not insignificant. Jesus was facing a decisive turning-point in his life. He was going up to Jerusalem, to the place where the central events of our salvation would take place: his crucifixion and resurrection. In Jerusalem too, following these events, the Church would be born. 

And at this decisive moment, Jesus first asks his disciples: “Who do men say that I am?” (Mk 8:27). They give very different answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets! Today, as down the centuries, those who encounter Jesus along their own way give their own answers. These are approaches which can be helpful in finding the way to truth. But while not necessarily false, they remain insufficient, for they do not go to the heart of who Jesus is. Only those willing to follow him on his path, to live in fellowship with him in the community of his disciples, can truly know who he is. 

Finally, Peter, who had dwelt with Jesus for some time, gives his answer: “You are the Christ” (Mk 8:29). It is the right answer, of course, but it is still not enough, since Jesus feels the need to clarify it. He realizes that people could use this answer to advance agendas which are not his, to raise false temporal hopes in his regard.  He does not let himself be confined to the attributes of the human saviour which many were expecting.

By telling his disciples that he must suffer and be put to death, and then rise again, Jesus wants to make them understand his true identity. He is a Messiah who suffers, a Messiah who serves, and not some triumphant political saviour. He is the Servant who obeys his Father’s will, even to giving up his life. This had already been foretold by the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading. Jesus thus contradicts the expectations of many. What he says is shocking and disturbing. We can understand the reaction of Peter who rebukes him, refusing to accept that his Master should suffer and die! Jesus is stern with Peter; he makes him realize that anyone who would be his disciple must become a servant, just as he became Servant. 

Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter, Perugino,1481-82

Sistine Chapel, Vatican [Web Gallery of Art]

Following Jesus means taking up one’s cross and walking in his footsteps, along a difficult path which leads not to earthly power or glory but, if necessary, to self-abandonment, to losing one’s life for Christ and the Gospel in order to save it. We are assured that this is the way to the resurrection, to true and definitive life with God.

Choosing to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who made himself the Servant of all, requires drawing ever closer to him, attentively listening to his word and drawing from it the inspiration for all that we do. 

Blessed Benedict Daswa

(16 June 1946 – 2 February 1990)

The final verse of today’s Responsorial Psalm, which includes the response, has been surely fulfilled in the life of Blessed Benedict Daswa:

For he has freed my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

Responsorial Psalm (Philippines, USA)

Antiphona at introitum       

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Sirach 36:18

Da pacem, Domine sustinentibus te,

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you,

ut prophetae tui fideles inveniantur,

that your prophets be found true.

exaudi preces servi tui, et plebis tuae Israel.

Hear the prayers of your servants, and of your people Israel.

(Ps 122 [121]: 1) Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi:

I was glad when they said to me,

in domum Domini ibimus.

‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever will be,

et in saecula saecolorum. Amen.

world without end. Amen.

Da pacem, Domine sustinentibus te,

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you,

ut prophetae tui fideles inveniantur,

that your prophets be found true.

exaudi preces servi tui, et plebis tuae Israel.

Hear the prayers of your servants, and of your people Israel.

The text above in bold is the Entrance Antiphon for this Sunday in the Ordinary Form of the Mass. The complete text is the Entrance Antiphon or Introit used on the 18th Sunday after Pentecost in the Extraordinary Form.

Internally displaced persons in northern Myanmar

Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam
Diocese of Banmaw, Myanmar

The link to ‘Diocese of Banmaw’ above gives an excellent summary of the Church in northern Burma, now known as Myanmar, and of the involvement of the Columbans there since 1936. [Thanks to UCANews.com]

The letter below was sent by Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam of Banmaw (formerly Bhamo), a diocese created in 2006 when separated from the Diocese of Myitkyina. The two dioceses cover the Kachin State, the very mountainous and northernmost part of the country, an area a little larger than Ireland and a little smaller than Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines.

To put some perspective on the situation the bishop is writing about, the population of the Kachin State, which the Dioceses of Myitkyina and Banmaw cover, in 2012/2013 was around 1,450,000 and the Catholic population around 117,000, or 8.1 percent of the total. As recently as 2006 the population was around 2,400,000. (Statistics from Catholic-hierarchy.org).

The term ‘IDPs’ means ‘Internally Displaced Persons’, that is refugees in their own country.

St Patrick’s Cathedral, Banmaw [Source]

August 26, 2015

Dear All,

It has been over 4 years since the renewed armed conflict between the government troops and the Kachin Independence Army broke out in Kachin State. To date there are more than 12000 IDPs in Kachin State and northern Shan State. No peace agreement has been reached between government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in spite of several rounds of peace negotiation between the two parties. The number of the IDPs continues increasing due to sporadic fighting between the Government Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Recently the events of fierce battles between the two parties took place near Sumpyi Yang and and Htingbai Yang, Mali Yang in Putao and Sumpra Bum townships. It is reported that the Government Army is launching offensive attack against KIA deploying thousands of soldiers. These are provoking the displacement of several thousands of people in the areas affected by the battles. No funding agencies or even local organizations are allowed to go into the areas to help the IDPs.

The Church in Myanmar through Karuna (Caritas) Myanmar has been taking care of 75% of the IDPs in Kachin State and northern Shan State with the help of partners and funding agencies. Now, UN Organizations and other major funding agencies are cutting off 20 % of the support they were giving to the IDPs previously. Therefore, the church is very much concerned for the future of the IDPs and the Bishops, Priests, Religious and the laity met together on June 20, 2015 in Lashio and issued a Statement (Issues and Directions) on the conflict and the IDPs.

Therefore, I would like to invite all those people and organizations of good will to join with us in praying for the victims of the armed conflict and in the efforts of building durable peace in our country.

Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam

Bishop of Banmaw

Fr Jehoon Augustine Lee, Bishop Francis Daw Tang of Myitkyina, Fr Euikyun Carlo Jung at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church, Tanghpre

Fathers Jehoon and Euikyun are from Korea and were ordained last year. They are now based in Myanmar, Father Euikyun being the Spokesperson of a the Columban mission team there which consists of four priests, two from Ireland and two from Korea, and three lay missionaries, two form Korea and one from the Philippines.

One of a number of videos commemorating the Golden Jubilee of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Banmaw, in 2012. It includes photos of the Columbans who worked in the Kachin State between 1936 and 1977.

‘They brought to him a deaf man . . .’ Sunday Reflections, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Mark 7:31-37 in Filipino Sign Language

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Mark 7:31-37 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Then Jesus returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Old Man in Sorrow, Van Gogh, April-May 1890

Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands [Web Gallery of Art]

In the Second Reading today St James asks in his blunt way, If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

More than 30 years ago I spent three months working in a hospital in a city in the the US Midwest. I noticed that a particular nurse always wore a pro-life badge, for which I admired her. But in the three months I was there as chaplain to patients and staff on the floor we both worked on she never spoke to me except at a weekly staff meeting. I was curious rather than hurt by this and before I finished I asked her if we could meet. I told her what I had noticed and expressed my admiration for her quiet pro-life stand. She was quite taken aback, as she had never been conscious of ignoring me. It turned out that she had once had a bad experience with a priest and had ‘tuned out’ on all priests. We had a very good conversation and ended up hugging each other.

The nurse had been making distinctions but was far from being a judge with evil thoughts. We can be such, by deliberately shutting out another person or group of persons from our life. But very often we are unaware of others or of their needs.

Fr Joseph Coyle 

(28 February 1937 – 18 December 1991)

One group of persons that is largely ignored in the Church, especially here in the Philippines, is the Deaf. Those who are profoundly deaf refer to themselves as a group as ‘The Deaf’, with an upper-case ‘D’. One of my late Columban colleagues, Fr Joseph Coyle from the city of Derry in Northern Ireland, worked for many years in what is now the Diocese of Kabankalan, in the southern part of the province of Negros Occidental. Early in his time in remote parishes he became aware of the needs of persons who had lost limbs. He helped many to get artificial limbs.

But later he noticed that there were persons who were more or less totally isolated, even from their own families – persons who were profoundly deaf from birth or from early childhood. They did not even have a common language with their parents or siblings. Their deafness was experienced as an affliction by themselves and their families. They all felt a sense of powerlessness.

In English the word ‘dumb’ has come to mean ‘stupid’ because of the perception in the past that those who used to be described as ‘deaf and dumb’ were stupid.

Fr Joe Coyle then focused his ministry on the Deaf. Nearly 30 years ago he set up a residence in Bacolod City, Welcome Home, for out-of-town students so that they could attend schools with special education programmes for the Deaf. That particular need is now being met more and more in public schools in other cities and towns.

One of the services of Welcome Home Foundation, Inc. today is to send catechists to local public schools where there are profoundly deaf students. Some of these catechists are themselves profoundly deaf. Welcome Home also strongly encourages parents of profoundly deaf children to learn Sign Language and holds classes for them.

On the first Sunday of the month, during the academic year, the Deaf in Bacolod City are especially welcome at Sunday Mass in the public chapel of the University of Negros Occidental – Recoletos (UNO-R). On the second Sunday they have Mass in the public chapel attached to the Diocesan seminary. On the last Sunday they participate in one of the Masses at the Cathedral. On other Sundays they have Mass at Welcome Home. Quite often I celebrate that Mass, using my limited Sign Language and with the help of interpreters, some of them profoundly deaf.

But I know that there have been times when parishioners and priests in various places have complained that signing interpreters were a ‘distraction’. In some instances the Deaf have been made clearly unwelcome at Mass. Maybe some of those who made them feel such are already in ‘St James territory’.

I do not know the source of the sorrow of the old man in Van Gogh’s painting, which expresses  very painful isolation. But isolation is what many profoundly deaf persons feel, especially if they are seen as ‘dumb’ in the modern sense. And what must deaf persons feel if some don’t even want to welcome them at the celebration of Holy Mass, our most important act of worship as Catholic Christians to our loving Father?

As in so many of the healing stories in the Gospel, we see Jesus giving his full attention to the person in need. We see him engaging physically with that person, using his very spittle in the act of enabling the man to hear and to speak clearly.

Again, as in so many of the healing stories, Jesus is bringing someone back into the circle. The man’s deafness and speech impediment, a direct result of the former, isolated him to a large degree from his own family and community. Now he was fully part of it again.

I remember seeing the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestial with a young friend, Glenn, who is profoundly, though not totally deaf, due to Usher’s Syndrome, which also affects his sight. At the time he was about the same age as Elliott, the boy in the clip above. I watched the movie through Glenn’s eyes, with a deeper appreciation of what is involved when a profoundly deaf person and a hearing person are trying to communicate. It can be very hard work, but rewarding.

More than twenty years ago I saw something very beautiful at the Home of Joy in Tayuman, Tondo, Manila, a home for children run by the Missionaries of Charity. I was looking for a particular girl who was profoundly deaf. I’ll call her Maria. I found her playing with a group of other girls, all of them using Sign Language. But only Maria was deaf. Without being aware of it, she had invited her friends into her world of silence – and they, without being aware of it, had invited her into their world of sound. All were equal.

A very important detail in the gospel is that not only did the deaf man’s friends bring him to Jesus but they begged him to lay his hand on him.

Many churches in the western world have what is called a ‘loop system’ whereby those who are hard of hearing and use hearing aids can participate fully in Mass and other services. Being hard of hearing is something that very often comes with growing old, and I am experiencing that myself now. but it is a very different reality from profound deafness, especially if that deafness has been since birth or early childhood.

Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God; my soul is thirsting for God, the living God (Cf. Psalm 41 [42]:2-3). These are the words of the Communion Antiphon from the Old Testament in today’s Mass. The soul of a profoundly deaf person yearns for the living God just as much as the soul of a hearing person. But do we, the majority who are hearing, really allow the Deaf to slake that thirst by enabling them to participate fully in the Holy Mass?

Sicut cervus by Palestrina

Sung by Poznańskie Słowiki, The Poznań Nightingales

Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum,

Like the deer that yearns for running streams,

ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus.

so my soul is yearning for you, my God.

‘O Lord, how manifold are your works!’ World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

 
O Lord, how manifold are your works! 
Psalm 104 [103]:24 [Tagaytay, Philippines]
 
In a letter dated 6 August 2015, the Feast of the Transfiguration, Pope Francis established the First of September each year as World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. He stated that the Catholic Church will be following what the Orthodox Church has been doing for some time.
 
The letter states: The ecological crisis thus summons us to a profound spiritual conversion: Christians are called to ‘an ecological conversion whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them’. For ‘living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience’. The quotations are from the Pope’s recent encyclical Laudato Si’, Nos 216 and 217 respectively.
 
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
    they flow between the hills.
Psalm 104 [103]: 10. [Ballachulish, Scotland]
 
At the end of Laudato Si’ , No 246, Pope Francis gives two prayers, with this introduction: At the conclusion of this lengthy reflection which has been both joyful and troubling, I propose that we offer two prayers. The first we can share with all who believe in a God who is the all-powerful Creator, while in the other we Christians ask for inspiration to take up the commitment to creation set before us by the Gospel of Jesus. Both echo the magnificent and tender Psalm 104 [103]. 
 
Laudato Si’ and the Pope’s letter establishing World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation are both written in the context of our relationship with the Blessed Trinity and with Jesus Christ, God who became Man. Here is the second of those prayers.
 
A Christian prayer in union with creation
 
Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand;
they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!
Son of God, Jesus,
through you all things were made.
You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother,
you became part of this earth,
and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.
Today you are alive in every creature
in your risen glory.
Praise be to you!
 
Holy Spirit, by your light
you guide this world towards the Father’s love
and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you!
 
Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love,
teach us to contemplate you
in the beauty of the universe,
for all things speak of you.
Awaken our praise and thankfulness
for every being that you have made.
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined
to everything that is.
God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth,
for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money
that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!
Amen.
 
 
A wonderfully vibrant setting of Psalm 104 [103] produced by Psalm Project Africa, based in Uganda.
 
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‘The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ Sunday Reflections, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

From The Gospel of John (2003)  Directed by Philip Saville. Jesus played by Henry Ian Cusick; narrator, Christopher Plummer.

[Today’s gospel runs from 1:31 to 2:54]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 6:51-58 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus said to the crowds:

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Mass in the Trenches, The Great War (1914-18)

During his homily in St Peter’s Basilica on 26 April this year at the ordination Mass of 19 new priests Pope Francis said: Indeed, in being configured to Christ the eternal High Priest, and joined to the priesthood of their Bishop, they will be consecrated as true priests of the New Testament, to preach the Gospel, to shepherd God’s people, to preside at worship, and especially to celebrate the Lord’s Sacrifice.

In using the words ‘being configured to Christ’ Pope Francis was echoing what both St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI taught.

Pope Francis also spoke to the young men of the importance of being ministers of God’s mercy, especially through the Sacrament of Penance and the Sacrament of the Sick: Through the Sacrament of Penance you forgive sins in the name of Christ and the Church. And I, in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord and of his Spouse, the Holy Church, ask you all to never tire of being merciful. You are in the confessional to forgive, not to condemn! Imitate the Father who never tires of forgiving. With Chrism oil you will comfort the sick; in celebrating the sacred rites and raising up the prayer of praise and supplication at various hours of the day, you will become the voice of the People of God and of all humanity.

Sometimes being configured to Christ can mean for a priest that, like Jesus himself, he is called to the extent of living those same words in his own life, The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. One such priest was Fr William Doyle SJ whose 98th death anniversary is observed this Sunday.

Fr William Doyle SJ

3 March 1873 – 16 August 1917

I am grateful to Pat Kenny, owner of the blog Remembering Fr William Doyle SJ for the information below.
Here is an account of the death of Fr Doyle, which took place in Belgium during the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as The Third Battle of Ypres, from the biography by Alfred O’Rahilly, a university professor who later became a priest:

Fr. Doyle had been engaged from early morning in the front line, cheering and consoling his men, and attending to the many wounded. Soon after 3 p.m. he made his way back to the Regimental Aid Post which was in charge of a Corporal Raitt, the doctor having gone back to the rear some hours before. Whilst here word came in that an officer of the Dublins [editor’s note: Royal Dublin Fusiliers, known as the ‘Dubs’] had been badly hit, and was lying out in an exposed position. Fr. Doyle at once decided to go out to him, and left the Aid Post with his runner, Private Mclnespie, and a Lieutenant Grant. Some twenty minutes later, at about a quarter to four, Mclnespie staggered into the Aid Post and fell down in a state of collapse from shell shock. Corporal Raitt went to his assistance and after considerable difficulty managed to revive him. His first words on coming back to consciousness were: “Fr. Doyle has been killed!” Then bit by bit the whole story was told. Fr. Doyle had found the wounded officer lying far out in a shell crater. He crawled out to him, absolved and anointed him, and then, half dragging, half carrying the dying man, managed to get him within the line. Three officers came up at this moment, and Mclnespie was sent for some water. This he got and was handing it to Fr. Doyle when a shell burst in the midst of the group, killing Fr. Doyle and the three officers instantaneously, and hurling Mclnespie violently to the ground. Later in the day some of the Dublins when retiring came across the bodies of all four. Recognising Fr. Doyle, they placed him and a Private Meehan, whom they were carrying back dead, behind a portion of the Frezenberg Redoubt and covered the bodies with sods and stones.

Stretcher bearers, Passchendaele [Wikipedia]

Christmas Midnight Mass 1916

O’Rahilly gives an account of the last Christmas Midnight Mass that Fr Doyle would celebrate, an account that shows the Irish Jesuit carrying out two of the responsibilities that Pope Francis spoke about in his homily above to those he was about to ordain: especially to celebrate the Lord’s Sacrifice and Through the Sacrament of Penance . . . to never tire of being merciful. 

Christmas itself Fr. Doyle had the good luck of spending in billets. He got permission from General Hickie to have Midnight Mass for his men in the Convent. The chapel was a fine large one, as in pre-war times over three hundred boarders and orphans were resident in the Convent; and by opening folding-doors the refectory was added to the chapel and thus doubled the available room. An hour before Mass every inch of space was filled, even inside the altar rails and in the corridor, while numbers had to remain in the open. Word had in fact gone round about the Mass, and men from other battalions came to hear it, some having walked several miles from another village. 

Before the Mass there was strenuous Confession-work. “We were kept hard at work hearing confessions all the evening till nine o’clock” writes Fr. Doyle, “the sort of Confessions you would like, the real serious business, no nonsense and no trimmings. As I was leaving the village church, a big soldier stopped me to know, like our Gardiner Street [editor’s note: where the Jesuit church in Dublin is located] friend, ‘if the Fathers would be sittin’ any more that night.’  He was soon polished off, poor chap, and then insisted on escorting me home. He was one of my old boys, and having had a couple of glasses of beer — ‘It wouldn’t scratch the back of your throat, Father, that French stuff’ — was in the mood to be complimentary. ‘We miss you sorely, Father, in the battalion’, he said, ‘we do be always talking about you’. Then in a tone of great confidence: ‘Look, Father, there isn’t a man who wouldn’t give the whole of the world, if he had it, for your little toe! That’s the truth’. The poor fellow meant well, but ‘the stuff that would not scratch his throat’ certainly helped his imagination and eloquence. 

I reached the Convent a bit tired, intending to have a rest before Mass, but found a string of the boys awaiting my arrival, determined that they at least would not be left out in the cold. I was kept hard at it hearing Confessions till the stroke of twelve and seldom had a more fruitful or consoling couple of hours’ work, the love of the little Babe of Bethlehem softening hearts which all the terrors of war had failed to touch.”

The Mass itself was a great success and brought consolation and spiritual peace to many a war-weary exile. This is what Fr. Doyle says:

“I sang the Mass, the girls’ choir doing the needful. One of the Tommies [editor’s note: ‘Tommy’ was the generic nickname for the ordinary British soldier], from Dolphin’s Barn, sang the Adeste beautifully with just a touch of the sweet Dublin accent to remind us of home, sweet home, the whole congregation joining in the chorus. It was a curious contrast: the chapel packed with men and officers, almost strangely quiet and reverent (the nuns were particularly struck by this), praying .and singing most devoutly, while the big tears ran down many a rough cheek: outside the cannon boomed and the machine-guns spat out a hail of lead: peace and good will — hatred and bloodshed!

“It was a Midnight Mass none of us will ever forget. A good 500 men came to Holy Communion, so that I was more than rewarded for my work.”

Royal Irish Rifles in trench at the Somme, France, July 1916 [Wikipedia]

Six days before he was killed Fr Doyle wrote to his father about an incident in which he carried out another priestly responsibility mentioned by Pope Francis in his homily: With Chrism oil you will comfort the sick.

A sad morning as casualties were heavy and many men came in dreadfully wounded. One man was the bravest I ever met. He was in dreadful agony, for both legs had been blown off at the knee But never a complaint fell from his lips, even while they dressed his wounds, and he tried to make light of his injuries. Thank God, Father, he said, I am able to stick it out to the end. Is it not all for little Belgium? The Extreme Unction, as I have noticed time and again, eased his bodily pain. I am much better now and easier, God bless you, he said, as I left him to attend a dying man. He opened his eyes as I knelt beside him: Ah! Fr. Doyle, Fr. Doyle, he whispered faintly, and then motioned me to bend lower as if he had some message to give. As I did so, he put his two arms round my neck and kissed me. It was all the poor fellow could do to show his gratitude that he had not been left to die alone and that he would have the consolation of receiving the Last Sacraments before he went to God. Sitting a little way off I saw a hideous bleeding object, a man with his face smashed by a shell, with one if not both eyes torn out. He raised his head as I spoke. Is that the priest? Thank God, I am all right now. I took his blood-covered hands in mine as I searched his face for some whole spot on which to anoint him. I think I know better now why Pilate said Behold the Man when he showed our Lord to the people.

In the afternoon, while going my rounds, I was forced to take shelter in the dug-out of a young officer belonging to another regiment. For nearly two hours I was a prisoner and found out he was a Catholic from Dublin, and had been married just a month. Was this a chance visit, or did God send me there to prepare him for death, for I had not long left the spot when a shell burst and killed him? I carried his body out the next day and buried him in a shell hole, and once again I blessed that protecting Hand which had shielded me from his fate.

The trench warfare of World War I was a form of hell, where evil was present. But Jesus Christ the Risen Lord was present there too – and recognised by so many soldiers, particularly at the moment of death, through the presence of priests such as Fr Willie Doyle SJ, whose inspiring life I first learned about in kindergarten in the late 1940s. In celebrating Mass, in hearing confessions, in anointing dying soldiers, in burying those who had died in battle, priests were bringing hope and light, the hope and light that is Jesus himself, into the midst of an awful darkness. And in some cases these priests were called to be configured literally to the dying Christ so that they could say: the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Today please pray for all priests, without whom we could not have the Bread of Life.

 

‘I am the bread of life.’ Sunday Reflections, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

From The Gospel of John (2003)  Directed by Philip Saville. Jesus played by Henry Ian Cusick; narrator, Christopher Plummer.

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 6:41-51 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

Then the Jews began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Prophet Elijah in the Desert 

Dieric Bouts the Elder, 1464-68. 

Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, Belgium [Web Gallery of Art]

‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you’ (1 Kings 19:7 – from First Reading).

Sto Niño Church, Lianga, Surigao del Sur [Photo: Benjie Otagan]

More than twenty years ago when I was parish priest in Lianga in the Diocese of Tandag, which covers the province of Surigao del Sur on the east coast of Mindanao, one of our voluteer catechists came to me on a Saturday afternoon and told me that her father, who was gravely ill, had asked to receive ‘the Bread of Life’. I discovered that Mario, as I’ll call him, had been married three times, having been widowed twice.

When I arrived at the house there were children from his three marriages there, many of them with their own children. There was a palpable sense of joy  in the home and Mario was fully alert. After hearing his confession I invited his family to join us as we celebrated the Sacrament of the Sick before giving him Holy Communion.

After a period of silence and the closing prayers of the rite I asked those closest to their father/grandfather to place their hands on him. My idea was that we would have some spontaneous prayer. However, Mario changed this into something far more beautiful. He took one of his grandchildren, only a few months old, into his arms, embraced and kissed the child. Then he embraced each of his children and grandchildren and kissed them. Almost everyone, particularly Mario himself, was aware that he had not long to live. He was making a joyful farewell to his family, full of hope because he had received God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation followed by the nourishment of God himself in the Bread of Life.

In the First Reading an angel wakes up the weary prophet Elijah twice with the command ‘Get up and eat’. On this occasion Mario’s family in effect said the same to me, even though I wasn’t weary like Elijah, as they had prepared a snack for me, which is not usual when the priest makes a sick call. However, on this occasion I thought it ‘truly right and just’ as the joy of the Lord was clearly evident in Mario and his family. He knew that ‘the journey’ would not ‘be too much for’ him.

The bread that I will give, says the Lord, is my flesh for the life of the world (Cf John 6:51, Communon Antiphon).


Ego sum panis vivus by Palestrina
Sung by Amici Cantores

Ego sum panis vivus. Patres vestri manducaverunt manna in deserto, et mortui sunt. Hic est panis de coelo descendens: si quis ex ipso manducaverit, non morietur.

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die (John 6:48-50 – from today’s Gospel).

 

Responsorial Psalm (Philippines, USA)

Columban General Council Welcomes Encyclical Laudato Si’ On Care for our Common Home

Yesterday, 18 June 2015, the Vatican released Laudato Si’ , the encyclical letter of Pope Francis On Care for our Common Home. The date on which the Holy Father signed the encyclical is 24 May, Pentecost Sunday.

 
As is the tradition with papal documents it gets its title from its opening words:

“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs”. 

Unusually, the opening words are in Italian rather than Latin, though it’s not the first encyclical to deviate from the norm. Mit Brennender Sorge, the encyclical of Pope Pius XI in 1937 addressing the situation in Nazi Germany, has always been know by its German title, which means “With deep anxiety” and was written in German.
 
The General Council of the Missionary Society issued the following statement in Hong Kong yesterday.
 
Columban Missionaries Welcome Pope
Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment
HONG KONG, June 18, 2015.   Columban
Missionaries welcome and celebrate Pope Francis’ newly released encyclical on
the environment, Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home.  This encyclical marks a historic
moment in the Church as the first encyclical addressing the human relationship
with all of God’s creation.  Laudato Si deepens
the contributions of previous papal statements and documents which have
addressed the relationship between humans and the natural world. 
Columban Superior General, Fr.
Kevin O’Neill says of Laudato Si, “We thank Pope Francis for his visionary and
pastoral leadership which invites us as faithful disciples of Jesus to an
ongoing ecological conversion. Our lived experience speaks to us as we see the
impacts of the exploited Earth and exploited peoples. We believe, as stated in
our 2012 General Assembly, ‘that we are called to solidarity with marginalized
people and the exploited Earth [which] are ways we participate in God’s mission’.”
Pope Francis invites us to new
understandings, reflections, and actions when he says, “I urgently
appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our
planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental
challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”[1] 
We are reminded in Laudato Si
of the interconnectedness of the human and natural worlds in these words, “Today,
however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a
social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the
environment, so as to hear both the cry
of the earth and the cry of the poor.”[2]  For Columbans this interconnectedness and
solidarity can be found in our own Constitutions which say, “The biblical
perspective of stewardship inspires our attitudes and challenges our use of
material resources.  It should lead to a
lifestyle in keeping with Gospel values.”[3]
As pastoral leader Pope Francis
calls us into communion when he says, “The human person grows more, matures more
and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships,
going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with
all creatures. In this way, they make their own that Trinitarian dynamism which
God imprinted in them when they were created. Everything is interconnected, and
this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows
from the mystery of the Trinity.”[4]
Internationally
recognized eco-theologian, Columban Fr.
Sean McDonagh says, “Laudato Si is an important step in the Church’s
understanding of our human relationship with both the Creator and all of
creation. We must continually learn from science, evolve our theology, and
humbly situate ourselves in the wider creation story that began with the
initial flaring forth 13.7 billion years ago to the world in which we live now
and in to the future.  We must be open to
encounter creation and learn from it.”

 

 

[1] Pope Francis. Laudato Si, par.14
[2] Ibid. par. 49.
[3] Missionary Society of St. Columban. Constitutions and Directory.
C.401.
[4]Pope Francis. Laudato Si. par. 240. 
 
The Blue Marble [Wikipedia]
Photo of earth by crew of Apollo 17, 7 December 1972
 
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. 
[Genesis 1:26-31, NRSV, Catholic Edition]
The Heavens are Telling
from The Creation by Joseph Haydn
The Heavens are telling the glory of God,
The
wonder of his work displays the firmament.

 

 

Today that is coming speaks it the day,
The night that is gone to following night.
The Heavens are telling the glory of God,
The wonder of his work displays the firmament.

In all the lands resounds the word,
Never unperceived, ever understood.
The Heavens are telling the glory of God, 
The wonder of his work displays the firmament.

Marriage Referendum in Republic of Ireland; pre-referendum novena

Peasant Wedding, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c.1567
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna [Web Gallery of Art]

On Friday 22 May voters in the Republic of Ireland will go to polling stations to decided whether or not to amend the Constitution by re-defining marriage: Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.

This is a consequence of the passing of The Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015.

Anyone in the Republic of Ireland is free to marry in accordance with law – anyone. Some choose not to marry, for different reasons. Some who would like to marry don’t because perhaps no one has asked them to be a partner in life until death do us part.

This referendum is allegedly about ‘equality’ but is in reality an attempt to re-define marriage to make it something that has never existed in any society from the beginning of time.

Though I will be in Ireland on 22 May having arrived there the day before, carrying my Irish passport, the only one I have, I will not be eligible to vote on this attempt to radically change society in my country, despite being a natural-born citizen. Because I live outside Ireland I am not considered equal to citizens who live there. This is not an election for a new parliament. I can understand why I cannot vote in that. This is an attempt to re-define the society to which I belong, to change the Constitution of my country.

So much for ‘equality’.

In today’s Irish Independent Ger Brennan, who plays for the Dublin Gaelic Football team, explains Why I’m voting No. Some of his points:


  • For a start, this isn’t a referendum on whether we like gay people or whether they should be equal citizens according to the Constitution. They already are equal citizens. Article 40.1, which deals with equality, declares that all citizens shall be held equal before the law. We are not being asked to amend Article 40. We are instead being asked to amend Article 41, which deals with the family and with marriage.
  • All legislation is derived from the Constitution and its principles. So it seems pretty clear that if we redefine marriage and the family by making marriage genderless we will be denying that there is any special value in a child having both a mother and a father. We will be denying that children have any kind of a legal right to a mother and father where possible, like when it comes to laws relating to adoption and surrogacy.
  • I very nearly decided not to write this piece. I know I’ll be targeted for it and labeled for it. It would have been easier to keep my mouth shut and not rock the boat. But I’m sick of the accusations being flung around that if you vote ‘No’ you are homophobic. I know I’m not homophobic; my gay friends and family can attest to that. I am voting ‘No’ because I don’t want our Constitution to deny that it is a good thing for a child to have a mother and a father.
  • The Universal Declaration on Human Rights proclaims that everybody is equal in dignity and it holds that marriage is a male-female union. I don’t think the Declaration of Human Rights is homophobic. I’m voting ‘No’.
Many of those who are pushing for ‘Yes’, ie for change, try to make this a ‘Catholic’ issue in the sense that they make out the old-fashioned, ‘conservative’ Catholic Church to be holding back progress. Nowhere in his article does Ger Brennan indicate his faith or religion, if any. Nowhere does he refer to the Catholic Church. No society in history has ever seen marriage as other than a union between man and woman, in some societies with polygamous or polyandrous variations on this but always male and female, with the probability of their producing children. The wider society has always been seen as having some responsibility in enabling parents to raise their children, have them educated and so on. That is the only reason the State should have any interest in the union of husband and wife and their children, the family.

Bruce Arnold is an English journalist who has lived and worked in Ireland since 1957. He has argued strongly on his blog against the proposed change. In anything I have read there I don’t find any reference to faith or religion or to the sacrament of marriage. Catholics give a special meaning to the sacrament but what we believe is in full harmony with what every society in history until now has believed: that marriage involves man and woman and, as nature teaches us, it is only a man and a woman together who can bring another human being into existence.. And any of the artificial/unnatural means used today to produce a child still need a man and a woman. 

The Holy Family, Sisto Badalocchio, c.1610
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, USA [Web Gallery of Art]

Today, Wednesday 13 May, a novena has begun for the people of the Republic of Ireland as they prepare for this important vote. One does not need to be a Christian to understand that family has always meant husband and wife and, in most cases, children. But Christians have a great responsibility to work for justice. Justice includes working to ensure that children should never be commodities, as so many are in today’s world.


Novena Prayer
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Holy Family of Nazareth,
we bless and venerate you.
We commend to your care and protection
the cause of marriage and family life.
May the peace which reigned in your home
take possession of all hearts and abide in all families.
Confirm all men and women in the truth
so we may recognise what is good and right
and reject all that hinders life
and the true flourishing of humanity.
Guide the hearts of all citizens
that we may witness to the truth
in forming the laws governing our society.
Bless those who work for the protection
of marriage, family and life.
O Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Holy Family of Nazareth,
We entrust our hearts and our lives to you.
Amen

George Clooney on how to celebrate Mass

Maybe the heading to this post is slightly misleading, since George Clooney is talking about his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, as a singer, not about the Mass. But what he says about her (0:21 – 0:33) is something that we priests can take to heart: She served the song probably better than any singer I’ve ever seen. At some point in her career she decided she didn’t have to show off as a singer and she would just serve the song. And that’s what she does.
When I was a child growing up in Aughrim Street Parish in Dublin, newly-ordained priests from Kimmage Manor would often say the later Masses on Sunday morning. People would say, One of the Holy Ghost Fathers (now known as ‘The Spiritans’) said the eleven o’clock Mass yesterday’. It didn’t matter who he was or what his name was. What was important was that he had celebrated Mass. That’s what mattered.
Each priest in those days had his own ‘style’, which he was probably not conscious of. Some tended to celebrate Mass quickly, some slowly. But every Mass was essentially the same and there were no ‘surprises’. A young altar-boy in Scotland two years ago said to me, It’s hard serving at Mass since each priest is so different. I don’t think he was referring to anything weird or off-the-wall. But there is more room for ‘surprises’ in the Mass now than in the old days. And some of these can drive and have driven people away from the Church, and maybe even away from the Faith.
Rosemary Clooney surely serves the beautiful 1938 song by Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal (lyrics), I’ll Be Seeing You, in the video above, even though her voice wasn’t as fresh or as supple as when she was younger. But she brings something of the experience of the difficult life that her nephew refers to in his introduction to her interpretation of the song, with only a pianist to accompany her. He in turn serves the singer and the song. Rosemary doesn’t have to show off as a singer.
And neither do we priests have to show off when we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
A much younger Rosemary Clooney (1928 – 2002) singing the same song, without its introduction, on a TV show in the 1950s. Clearly she had already decided that she didn’t have to show off as a singer and she would just serve the song.