Volume 50 CONTENTS Number 7

Intercom magazine is a Catholic pastoral and liturgical resource of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference © Veritas Publications, 2020

Cover photograph: Season of Creation © istockphotos.com.

ARTICLES

Covid-19 and an Ordinary Life 8-9 Mental Health 18 Orla Walsh Fr John Cullen The Cry of the Earth and 10-11 Post-lockdown, can the Church 20 the Cry of the Poor return to ‘business as usual’? Council for Justice and Peace Dr Aoife McGrath World Day of Migrants 12-13 Never Let a Crisis go to Waste 23 and Refugees Fr Michael Murtagh Fr Willie Purcell Belonging, Believing, Behaving 24-25 The End of Civil War Politics 14-15 Fr Billy Swan Barbara Walshe Radio Maria – Ministering 28 ‘Blessed are you when people 16-17 to a Digital Community insult you, persecute you and Fr Eamon McCarthy falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me’ Fr Paul Murphy

REGULARS Apologetics: Dr Sean O’Leary 30-31 Lectio Divina: Fr Kieran O’Mahony 29 Book Review 19 Liturgy Preparation (including newsletter resources) 32-41 Crossword 21 Milestones 26-27 Editorial 5 New Resources: Fr Paul Clayton-Lea 46 Gazette and Mart 44-45 Parish Resource: Fr Chris Hayden 32 Get Connected 7 Prayers and Reflections for September 6 Leathanach don Cheiliuraí 42-43 The Liturgy Page: Fr Paddy Jones 33

Intercom • September 2020 3

Editorial Fr John Cullen A Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Shame Editor

Intercom is a Catholic pastoral and Photos: istockphoto.com liturgical resource magazine published by Veritas, an agency established by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Some of the content of Intercom, along with occasional resources not published in the printed edition, can be accessed for free, on www.intercommagazine.ie. A full digital subscription is also available. (Ten issues per year, including double issues for July-August and December-January.) Correspondence for the editorial board should be sent to the Chairperson, c/o Columba Centre, Maynooth, Co Kildare. The views expressed in the features, letters and book reviews are not necessarily those of the editor, nor do they necessarily express the official views of the Irish Catholic Hiroshima Peace Memorial Bishops’ Conference. ugust 2020 marked 75 years since nuclear bombs were detonated over Editor Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombs, eerily codenamed Little Boy and Fat Fr John Cullen AMan devastated these cities, seared thousands of people to death and caused Email [email protected] life-long radiation damage. The bombing was called ‘a rain of ruin from the air’ by the Assistant to the Editor United States President, Harry Truman. Oisín Walsh Several countries continue to maintain, develop and enhance their nuclear Email [email protected] capability. The United States alone spent $35.4 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019. Catholic Communications Office, Pope John XXIII called for the disarmament of nuclear weapons in his 1963 Pacem in Columba Centre, Maynooth, Terris encyclical. Pope Francis firmly condemned the possession of Nuclear Weapons Co Kildare, Ireland Tel +353 (0) 1 505 3055 during a special Vatican conference on Nuclear Disarmament in 2017, saying that they Fax +353 (0) 1 601 6401 delayed and prevented peace on earth. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us how our health, environment and economics Design & Typesetting have suffered. The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki give us a glimpse of the Colette Dower, Veritas Publications horror and consequences of the use of these weapons of mass destruction. Unlike the Printing: Walsh Colour Print, Kerry pandemic, we know what we have to do to prevent a nuclear attack. We are dilatory on this perilous issue. Circulation The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by the United Subscriptions and change of address notifications should be sent to: Nations. 193 countries are members of the United Nations. 38 countries have signed Intercom Subscriptions and ratified the Treaty. Ireland joined the UN in 1958 and signed this Treaty in 2017, but 7/8 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland has said that it will ratify it sometime in the future. This is unnecessary Email [email protected] procrastination. Ratifying this Treaty is Ireland’s call to stand tall with honour and Tel +353 (0) 1 878 8177 continue its unique contribution to world peace. Fax +353 (0) 1 878 6507 It requires that fiy countries ratify the treaty to have a normative standard of Annual subscription International Law against the possession and the development of nuclear weapons. Ireland: €70.00 (Each additional annual Maybe Ireland’s new role on the United Nations Security Council will be a voice of € subscription 24.50) influence on the necessity for nuclear disarmament in the world. Banks and financial € UK: stg £69.00 ( 77) (Each additional institutions also need to divest from supporting the huge network of companies that annual subscription stg£24.50/€27.25) produce or maintain nuclear weapons. Churches and all faith groups have a pivotal role Airmail: €87.00/US$90 (Each additional annual subscription €36.50/US$38) here as instruments of peace. ‘Whoever has ears to hear – let them listen’ (Mt 11:15). We Please make cheques payable to have failed this hearing test so many times … Veritas Company DAC Pope Francis visited Japan in 2019. He met two survivors of the Hiroshima nuclear attack at the Peace Memorial Park. The eloquent silence of his encounter with Yoshiko Advertising enquiries to Kasimoto and Kojí Hosokawo was profound. Pope Francis spoke a prophetic message [email protected] to an apparent deaf world: ‘The use of atomic energy for the purposes of war is a crime not Notices for Gazette to only against the dignity of human beings, but against any possible future for our common Email [email protected] home.’ 7/8 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland Tel +353 (0) 1 878 8177 Fax +353 (0) 1 878 6507

Intercom • September 2020 5 Prayer for Grandparents

Prayers and Reflections Photo: istockphoto.com for September

Pope’s Intention for September Universal: we pray that the planet’s resources will not be plundered, but shared in a just and respectful manner

Photo: istockphoto.com

Lord Jesus, help families and society to value the presence and roles of grandparents. May they never be ignored or excluded, but always encounter respect and love. Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed in all the years of life you give them. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – 8 September From the prayer composed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 ‘Let all creation sing and dance and unite to make worthy for the Catholic Grandparents Association contribution to the celebration of this day. Let there be one common festival for saints in heaven and people on earth. Let 3 3 3 everything, mundane things and those above, join in festive celebration. Today this created world is raised up to the dignity Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Archangels – (John 1:47-51) – of a holy place for him who made all things. The creature is 29 September newly placed to be a divine dwelling space for the Creator.’ The three names of the Archangels end with the word ‘EL’ which St Andrew of Crete (650-740). Office of Readings means God. God is inscribed in their name and nature. They are God’s messengers. They bring God to us. 3 3 3 They remind us that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Angels always address us: Do Not Be Afraid. The Holy Name of Mary, (Luke 6:43-49) ‘A church that is a mother goes along the path of tenderness. It Photos: istockphoto.com knows the language of caresses and the gaze that knows compassion. Without this dimension it is solely a masculine church that sadly becomes a church of old bachelors, who live in isolation, incapable of love, incapable of fecundity. Without the woman, the church does not advance. This attitude of woman comes from Mary because Jesus willed it so.’ Pope Francis when he announced the new feast in 2018 of Mary, Mother of the Church

3 3 3 3 3 3

Photo: istockphoto.com The Exaltation of the Holy Cross – (John 3:13-17) – St Jerome – (Luke 9:57-62) – 14 September 30 September O faithful Cross you stand unmoved Jerome centred his life on God’s while ages run their course; Word. Jerome said: ‘Ignorance of foundation of the universe, the Scriptures is ignorance of Creations binding force. Christ.’ By carrying the Word of Liturgy of the Hours, hymn for the Feast, third verse God within us, we also carry eternity. Jerome said: ‘Seek to The Motto of the Carthusians learn on earth those truths founded in 1084 which will remain valid in Stat Crux dum in volvitur orbis . heaven.’ The Cross is steady while the world is turning.

6 Intercom • September 2020 Ms Brenda Drumm Communications Officer Catholic Communications Office Get Connected Columba Centre Maynooth Co Kildare Pointers on Being Parish on Social Media Email [email protected]

ho is looking aer your parish social media and are you Wconfident that they know what they are doing? This is a question I have addressed in the past in this column but some recent postings on some parish social media accounts have promoted me to revisit the question again. When did you last take a look at your parish social media accounts? Do you check what content is being posted in the name of your parish? Do you have a posting policy for the platforms that your parish is on? Do those managing your Facebook page understand Church safeguarding policies when it comes to posting images of children? The reason I am coming back to this issue is because I have noticed a trend on some parish social media accounts in recent weeks and months. The issues range from using parish social media to promote personal agendas to the sharing of photos of primary school children It might be timely as we return from 8. Check Spelling and Grammar and DO giving their name, school name and the the Summer break and as the parish gets NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE names of their parents and busy again aer the Covid-19 lockdown THAT TRANSLATES ONLINE AS grandparents! In other incidences you to offer some pointers on being parish SHOUTING! wonder if you are following a faith on social media and setting some 9. Don’t add people to groups without account or just another community guidelines in place. their permission. account posting updates about local Firstly, a quick 10 point checklist for 10. Use tagging and hashtags #wisely road closures. Where has the faith gone? those managing parish social media and #sparingly and don’t tweet all at These issues are thankfully few and accounts: once – schedule or space your posts far between and may simply be because over the day/week. the person or persons looking aer your 1. Ponder before you post. Think before A Posting Policy for Facebook accounts have not received guidelines you Tweet. Think inspiration before Creating a dedicated Posting Policy for and/or training on how to be parish on sharing on Instagram Facebook is also something well worth social media. 2. You are what you share – be careful considering. There are lots of examples This is a really wonderful definition of how you represent yourself online if available online of what these look like. parish: The parish is where the Church you are a parish, diocese, etc. 3. Do not be someone who creates or Your policy should have a short lives. Parishes are communities of faith, message of welcome, a disclaimer about spreads fake news – this includes fake of action, and of hope. They are where comments le on your page. A list of virus warnings, fake hacking claims the gospel is proclaimed and celebrated, actions that are unacceptable. Ideally the etc. where believers are formed and sent to guidelines should go live as the page 4. Share without expectations of renew the earth. Parishes are the home goes live but it is never too late to put a of the Christian community; they are the Retweets or Likes. Don’t be tempted posting policy in place. The policy should heart of our Church. Parishes are the to spam or overshare. It takes time to end with a disclaimer. place where God's people meet Jesus in build your community and less is You don’t want to discourage word and sacrament and come in touch always more. interaction on your Facebook Page but with the source of the Church's life. 5. Give guidelines and training to those you do have a responsibility to those If you look through your parish social managing your accounts. using your page to ensure that their media posts over the last few weeks and 6. Share digital smiles, engage calmly experience on the page is one of months – can you honestly tick many/ and respectfully. welcome and positivity. any of the above boxes? Are those 7. Examine all aspects of a photograph Training and guidelines are the way to people following your parish Facebook before hitting share. Be aware of go when you hand over responsibility for and Twitter accounts ‘meeting Jesus in safeguarding policies on sharing your parish social media to an individual word and sacrament’ in what is being images of children on a parish social or a team. Also, be sure to check in with shared online? media account. them regularly to offer support!

Intercom • September 2020 7 Dr Orla Walsh is Deputy Principal of COVID-19 Mount Sackville Secondary School, Sisters of Cluny, and an Ordinary Life Chapelizod, Dublin

‘Someone I loved Photos: istockphoto.com once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was Gi.’

hese lines are from Mary Oliver’s poem, ‘The Uses of Sorrow.’ They Thave come to my mind many times since the day we learned that Covid-19 was a dangerous disease. I am an ordinary person, living an ordinary life. Each day, I try to do something extra-ordinary that is authentic as well as rooted in integrity. Something, maybe just one thing. Many of one’s daily dialogues can be inauthentic and lacking in integrity, perhaps for no particular reason, nevertheless they are. Since Covid-19, I have worked to change this. Intention and purpose have become two of my most internalised words. For example, I now eat with intention, I now run with purpose. This may sound trivial, but I wonderful school community has pulled realised that an ordinary life can be extra- have learned that these perhaps- together and managed well. ordinary without a thing being sourced mundane acts, when practiced with Being at home, as one of five, all day on Amazon, fitted by a fitter, applied or intent and purpose, can lead one’s every day, posed a different type of attached by anyone or anything. It is mindset and ‘soulset’ to scaffold the less challenge. I hadn’t realised that the one- simply a most beautiful gi for the mind mundane and ordinary practices. The hour commute to and from work gave me and soul to realise that God has given us enforced stopping has helped me to what I have come to label as ‘preparation everything we need to be fulfilled and to embrace the art of stillness, being still and process hours’. I don’t have those any experience the extra. Jesus told us many and finding the sacred. This has been more, as it takes less than one minute to times: be still and know that I am God. Fr managed on a daily basis and I am walk down the stairs and another in the Richard Rohr writes that stillness and purposelessly and intently working on evening to get up from the laptop and silence become intermingled with the mastering it. walk into the kitchen. From the very early experience of God; it is in that place that Covid-19 has been a devastating blow stages of lockdown, I realised I was we experience the most profound reality for the world. It has brought intense loss missing something: yes the pain of of the sacred. It is in that space that I and pain for many. As I write this, my commuting. That quiet time in the car have learned the following truths: father’s only living sibling, at 99 years of had le a void for me. age, has just been taken into hospital. So, I filled the void. I now get up and • The birds are beautiful to watch and to God bless her, what a terrible illness to run first thing, or simply sit outside and hear. They sing to each other and to have to endure in your 100th year. listen. I’ve experienced an ‘Aha’ moment you. They are exquisite in their flight But I am writing this article about the with both of these activities. The running and they are bold with their ambitions. changes it has effected within my life to is a beautiful thing as my companion is I should have listened earlier but am date. March 12 was an ordinary day, and our cockapoo, Ozzy, who is strapped to grateful I am listening now. we were going about the busyness of the my waist, while together we tear through school day. The Taoiseach spoke from the ruins of Trim. The sitting and listening • I need to breathe through the day and Washington DC to tell us that school was is also with Ozzy, as we sit outside and not breeze through the day. Last year, about to close and we had a few hours to listen to the birds. All my life, my mother Fr Tony Coote died of motor neurone leave, with all that we needed to take up has asked me to listen to the birds, I have disease. He lived approximately residence in our ‘home school’. This always agreed but never got around to it. eighteen months aer being happened and although we have Now I am completing both of these diagnosed. He said that it was in those experienced teething and tension, our practices with intent and purpose. I have months that he worked the hardest

8 Intercom • September 2020 and experienced the most during live, all-day every-day, with those I • I am not an accident. I have learned each day, because every minute of love most in the world. Apart from the that I was created on purpose, with every day now really mattered. food bills, the messiness, the protein- purpose and for purpose. God has shake necessity, and the fact that the created me for a reason. How • God’s DNA is in everything. Outside, I hot water is hardly ever available for wonderful to embrace this reality. have found myself pondering all sorts me, I am filled with gratitude for my What I do on purpose today will be of things: Does an ant have a tongue? family. involved in my future. So now I try to How do the poppies turn to face the live with great purpose. sun each day? The beauty of each • The Rosary can change a life. On creature carries the DNA of the Mother’s day, I visited the Blessed • ‘Thy will be done’. A summary of psalm creator. In Genesis 1:3, God said: ‘Let Sacrament chapel to pray for my 91: ‘The will of God will not take you there be light, and there was mother. While inside and alone, it where the grace of God will not light. God saw that the light was dawned on me to call her. I asked her protect and sustain you.’ Alleluia. good, and he separated the light from to put her phone on speaker. With her the darkness.’ God gave us light to see brother, we prayed the rosary The great Saint John Henry Newman said: from the very beginning, and we oen together. This began and offered so ‘to be human is to change, to be perfect is choose to remain in the darkness. much comfort to each of us that we to change many times.’ It is now time to kept it up. This is seven weeks later. change in the pursuit of perfection. • We are all in different boats but We have now prayed forty-nine Covid-19 has caused us to try and recover fighting the same storm. When I meet rosaries together, and we name one something that was lost in our world a a neighbour, I speak with intent. We hundred and twenty-two family, long time ago; to break free from the look at each other, we converse about neighbours and friends in our daily hurriedness and heave of life that causes this and that, nothing really, but this prayer. It is an honour and a privilege I us to live in the darkness, consciously or gives a sense of the communal, more am filled with gratitude for. The gi of subconsciously saying a definite ‘No’ to than it ever did before. peace and prayer with my eighty-three the light God gied us with from the year old mother is sacred. beginning of time. • Family time is precious time. Covid-19 has afforded me the opportunity to

Intercom • September 2020 9 The Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor Photo: istockphoto.com

n the 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si’ On The entire material universe speaks of migration in the natural world, and the Care for Our Common Home Pope God’s love ebb and flow of the seasons. Those who IFrancis was emphatic that ‘a true Climate Justice is therefore a question of have little money or resources to fall back ecological approach always becomes a justice more generally, not an optional on if crops fail or rains don’t come. Those social approach; it must integrate module for those with a special interest. who suffer from the effects of dirty air questions of justice in debates on the In striving to care for the planet, we are and water. We have a responsibility to environment, so as to hear both the cry of acting justly to our fellow creatures and recognise that the earth and all its the earth and the cry of the poor.’1 In the to the environment, but also to future wonders are a gi from God. We have a 2020 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation generations and to the most vulnerable responsibility to care for that gi in to the ‘beloved Amazon’, Querida communities in the world who will suffer harmony with nature to ensure it survival. Amazonia, Pope Francis’ first dream is a most from the devastating effects of Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate social one: ‘I dream of an Amazon region climate change. We are also acting justly explains: [N]ature speaks to us of the that fights for the rights of the poor, the toward our God who has created this Creator (cf. Rm 1:20) and his love for original peoples and the least of our beautiful world in which we live. In a humanity. It is destined to be brothers and sisters, where their voices sermon to agriculturalists, Saint John Paul ‘recapitulated’ in Christ at the end of time can be heard and their dignity II said: ‘Within the movement of nature, (cf. Eph 1:9-10; Col 1:19-20). Thus it too is advanced.’2 In fact, he emphasises as tranquil and silent but rich in life, there a ‘vocation’. Nature is at our disposal not essential the link between the ecological continues to palpitate the original delight as a heap of scattered refuse, but as a gi and the social, stating: ‘We do not need of the Creator.’6 The poet Gerard Manley of the Creator who has given it an inbuilt an environmentalism “that is concerned Hopkins expressed it in these words: ‘The order, enabling man … ‘to till it and keep for the biome but ignores the Amazonian world is charged with the grandeur of it’ (Gn 2:15).9 peoples”.’3 Environmental degradation God.’7 Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ and human rights abuses oen go hand- expounded that ‘Our insistence that each Back to Business as usual? in-hand. Pope Francis describes this human being is an image of God should In recent times we have seen all too practice in the Amazon region where the not make us overlook the fact that each clearly that how we act in our local ‘colonizing interests that have continued creature has its own purpose. None is context affects the world in our to expand – legally and illegally – the superfluous. The entire material universe increasingly globalised reality. The timber and mining industries, and have speaks of God’s love, his boundless coronavirus pandemic also causes us to expelled or marginalised the indigenous affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: reflect on our ‘old normal’ to see if it peoples, the river people and those of everything is, as it were, a caress of God.’8 really was working for all. Pre-pandemic African descent, are provoking a cry that In a world where natural resources risk Ireland was considered a developed rises up to heaven’.4 Trócaire’s Business becoming privatised we must remember country with a successful economy yet it and Human Rights campaign has also that the beauty and bounty of the earth had a housing and homelessness crisis, drawn attention to the big businesses was made by God for all, not for an poverty and in-work poverty, was not who oen deny the rights of local exclusive few. We know that the climate fulfilling its climate justice targets, was peoples as well as damage the change is, even now, affecting the seeing the demise of rural areas, the environment through acquiring – legally poorest and most vulnerable in our world majority of those with a disability were and illegally – land for mining or growing the most. Those who live in small coastal excluded from work, marginalised groups valuable crops large-scale, goods that villages and those whose livelihoods remained ‘outside’ such as the Traveller end up with us as the consumer.5 depend on agriculture, patterns of community, and there was a mental

10 Intercom • September 2020 health and suicide crisis. Were we Photo: istockphoto.com succeeding in terms of authentic human development and integral ecology? The arrival of the coronavirus to the island of Ireland was a devastating turn of events that resulted in suffering and loss of life. Some of the most marginalised in our society suffered most, including and most especially the elderly and vulnerable. The public health measures brought in to tackle the crisis urgently made us look anew at what is possible, made us see more clearly the parts of society that may normally be ignored and made us value the really important things in life. We were also forced to radically change our normal ways and routines and Governments too were forced to make sweeping, unprecedented changes to the delivery of public services, some of which may have been unimaginable before. Before we rush then to reclaim what we deem normal, let us reflect on what we can learn from this crisis and see the opportunities not for returning to, but for moving forward into a new way of living not; and what we refused to change, we play. Every action taken in favour of a just where we strive to value all creation. had to change. and more sustainable environment, no Pope Francis has called attention in matter how small, has an intrinsic value. A new way of living Laudato Si’ to Saint Francis as ‘the Action at a global level, as well as every Simplicity, moderation, discipline have example par excellence of care for the individual action which contributes to always been valued by our Christian faith vulnerable and of an integral ecology integral human development and global which reminds us that we are more than lived out joyfully and authentically … He solidarity, helps to construct a more what we have or the material goods that shows us just how inseparable the bond sustainable environment and, therefore, a we possess. As the 2014 Pastoral is between concern for nature, justice for better world.’12 Let us begin then, today. Reflection on Climate Change from the the poor, commitment to society, and NOTES Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, The interior peace.’10 In his 1990 World Day of 1 http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ Cry of the Earth, reminds us, by living a encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_ Peace message, Saint John Paul II also life of greater detachment from material enciclica-laudato-si.html, n. 49. reflected on the link between certain 2 goods and in making even small sacrifices http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ approaches to affluence and ecological apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_ for the good of others and of our planet, devastation and human deprivation: esortazione-ap_20200202_querida- we may find that we are more, not less amazonia.html, n. 7. ‘Modern society will find no solution to 3 content. With having to travel less or http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ the ecological problem unless it takes a apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_ consume less goods, we are no longer serious look at its lifestyle. In many parts esortazione-ap_20200202_ enslaved to our happiness depending on querida-amazonia.html#_n2, n. 8. the next purchase or trip. We may find a of the world, society is given to instant 4 http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ slower pace of life leads to less stress and gratification and consumerism while apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_ esortazione-ap_20200202_ more time to focus on others, ourselves remaining indifferent to the damage which these cause … If an appreciation of querida-amazonia.html#_n2, n. 9. and our faith. Many people’s experiences 5 https://www.trocaire.org/business-and- in the difficulties of the last few months the value of the human person and human-rights. have also illuminated this reality. human life is lacking, we will also lose 6 https://www.catholicbishops.ie/wp-content/ interest in others and the earth itself. uploads/2014/09/The-Cry-of-the-Earth-A-Call-to- In the darkness and suffering which this Action-for-Climate-Justice-2014.pdf, p. 14. pandemic has wrought and continues to Simplicity, moderation and discipline, as 7 Ibid. wreak, let us not lose sight of some of the well as a spirit of sacrifice, must become 8 http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ learnings and lessons; We are global part of everyday life, lest all suffer the encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_ enciclica-laudato-si.html, n. 84. citizens interconnected like never before negative consequence of the careless 9 11 http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/ and this applies to our impact on the habits of a few.’ encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_ environment, our buying habits, the We must learn to examine our 20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html, n. 48. 10 businesses we engage with and the consciences over our decisions in the http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_ standards we hold; We are all vulnerable; simplest acts of daily life. Simplicity of enciclica-laudato-si.html, n. 10. Some of our most important fields of living might be our route back to wonder 11 http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/ work and workers are paid least and and awe – one of the gis of the Holy messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_ Spirit – to return to ‘the newness that 19891208_xxiii-world-day-for-peace.html, n. 13. experience difficult or precarious 12 https://www.catholicbishops.ie/wp-content/ working conditions including those was in every stale thing when we looked uploads/2014/09/The-Cry-of-the-Earth-A-Call-to- involved in agriculture and food at it as children: the spirit-shocking Action-for-Climate-Justice-2014.pdf, p. 4. production; Many of our countries rely on wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill’ as The role of the Council for Justice and Peace is to migration and migrants who positively Kavanagh put it in his poem Advent. support the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference in benefit our societies and work in our In The Cry of the Earth Cardinal Brady promoting the social teaching of the Church and health system, our food supply chains wrote that ‘In addressing the challenge of to advise on issues of social concern, both and so on; What we deemed impossible is climate change, everyone has a part to nationally and internationally.

Intercom • September 2020 11 World Day of Migrants and Refugees Photo: istockphoto.com 27 September 2020

‘Like Jesus Christ, forced to flee. Welcoming, to conflict and violence and 5.1 million ‘But it is not about statistics, it is about protecting, promoting and integrating who were forced to move because of real people!’ he said. ‘If we encounter internally displaced persons’ disasters. them, we will get to know more about In his message, the pope said the them. And knowing their stories, we will e have been celebrating the sufferings endured by internally be able to understand them.’ World Day of Migrants and displaced persons have only been To be close to displaced persons, WRefugees since 1914. It is an exacerbated by the coronavirus means to serve them and not turn them opportunity and an occasion to express pandemic. away due to fear and prejudices that concern for different vulnerable people ‘In the light of the tragic events that ‘oen prevent us from becoming on the move; to pray for them as they have marked 2020, I would like this neighbours.’ face many challenges; and to increase message, although concerned with Sharing, an essential element of awareness about the opportunities that internally displaced persons, to embrace Christian life, is another important aspect migration offers. all those who are experiencing situations that allows for men and women to ‘grow The 106th World Day of Migrants and of precariousness, abandonment, together, leaving no one behind,’ the Refugees will be celebrated on 27 marginalization and rejection as a result pope said. September 2020. As the title for his of COVID-19,’ ‘The pandemic has reminded us how annual message, Pope Francis has chosen Recalling the day’s theme, the pope we are all in the same boat,’ ‘Realizing ‘like Jesus Christ forced to flee’. The said that Jesus, Mary and Joseph that we have the same concerns and fears message focuses on the pastoral care of experienced the same ‘tragic fate’ of the has shown us once more that no one can internally displaced people who currently displaced and refugees, a fate ‘marked by be saved alone,’ number over 41 million worldwide. fear, uncertainty and unease.’ Pope Francis said the coronavirus The title makes clear the message of Displaced people, ‘offer us this pandemic also serves as a reminder of the Pope Francis, originating in the opportunity to meet the Lord, even importance of co-responsibility and that experience of the young Jesus and his though our eyes find it hard to recognize in order ‘to promote those whom we family as displaced persons and refugees. him: his clothing in tatters, his feet dirty, assist, we must involve them and make This experience provides a specific his face disfigured, his body wounded, his them agents in their own redemption.’ Christological grounding for the tongue unable to speak our language.’ ‘To preserve our common home and Christian action of welcome or As we reflect on the pastoral challenge make it conform more and more to God’s hospitality. to ‘welcome, protect, promote and original plan, we must commit ourselves The message ‘is an invitation to integrate’ migrants, we are encouraged to ensuring international cooperation, discover them, to discover that they exist to expand on those verbs to further global solidarity and local commitment, and that they are here among us; in our explain the church’s mission. leaving no one excluded,’ own country, in our own diocese, in our Pope Francis said that the * * * own parish,’ precariousness experienced by many According to the 2020 Global Report today due to the pandemic ‘is a constant The Holy Fathers message reminds us on Internal Displacement, there are an in the lives of displaced people,’ and ‘all that as Catholics we are called to stand estimated 50.8 million internally too oen we stop at statistics’ and fail to with immigrants and refugees as our displaced persons worldwide. Among understand the suffering of those on the brothers and sisters. This is what we as them, there are 45.7 million displaced due margins. Catholics do.

12 Intercom • September 2020 • Pope Francis invites us to be part of a Photo: istockphoto.com culture of encounter as we welcome, protect, integrate, and promote immigrants and refugees in our midst. • Immigration is about real people who are trying to find a better life and a new beginning. It’s about families. As Pope Francis stated, ‘Each migrant has a name, a face and a story.’ • Welcoming immigrants is part of Catholic Social Teaching and reflects the Biblical tradition to welcome the stranger. * * * Dear Jesus, Our journey through life is long and hard. We cannot make this trip alone; we must walk together on the journey. You promised to send us a speak of Christ. Hear our prayers for Father, you entrusted to Saint Joseph helper, your Spirit. Help us to see your necessary, just, and comprehensive what you held most precious: the child Spirit in those you send to journey with immigration reform. Make us strong in Jesus and his Mother, in order to protect us. In the refugee family, seeking safety the work for immigrant justice and them from the dangers and threats of the from violence, Let us see your Spirit. In remind us that our work is no easier than wicked. the migrant worker, bringing food to our the everyday work of our immigrant Grant that we may experience his tables, Let us see your Spirit. In the sisters and brothers. We ask this through protection and help. May he, who shared asylum-seeker, seeking justice for himself Christ our Lord. Amen. (adapted from in the sufferings of those who flee from and his family, Let us see your Spirit. In Justiceforimmigrants.org) the hatred of the powerful, console and the unaccompanied child, traveling in a protect all our brothers and sisters driven * * * dangerous world, Let us see your Spirit. by war, poverty and necessity to leave Teach us to recognize that as we walk A Prayer for Immigrant Children their homes and their lands to set out as with each other, You are present. Teach us Loving Father, in your infinite refugees for safer places. to welcome not only the strangers in our compassion, we seek your divine Help them, through the intercession of midst but the gis they bring as well: the protection for refugee children who are Saint Joseph, to find the strength to invitation to conversion, communion, oen alone and afraid. Provide solace to persevere, give them comfort in sorrows and solidarity. This is the help you have those who have been witnesses to and courage amid their trials. sent: we are not alone. We are together violence and destruction, who have lost Grant to those who welcome them on the journey, and for this we give you parents, family, friends, home, and all some of the tender love of this just and thanks. Amen. they cherish due to war or persecution. wise father, who loved Jesus as a true son You are the God who bears the brunt Comfort them in their sorrow, and bring and sustained Mary at every step of the of the question, ‘Why didn’t you stay help in their time of need. Show mercy to way. where you belong?’ You feel the red- unaccompanied migrant children, too, May he, who earned his bread by the faced embarrassment when we hear, Lord. Reunite them with their families work of his hands, watch over those who ‘Keep your distance, you foreigner, with and loved ones. Guide those children have seen everything in life taken away your different-coloured skin and your who are strangers in a foreign land to a and obtain for them the dignity of a job strange-sounding speech, with your place of peace and safety. Comfort them and the serenity of a home. culture, food, religion, and clothing that in their sorrow, and bring help in their We ask this through Jesus Christ, your are inferior to my own.’ You are the God time of need. Show us how we might Son, whom Saint Joseph saved by fleeing who sits alongside of us who work in reach out to these precious and to Egypt, and trusting in the intercession sweatshops, with our bloodshot eyes and vulnerable children. Open our hearts to of the Virgin Mary, whom he loved as a aching fingers squinting under the soul- migrant and refugee children in need, so faithful husband in accordance with your less glare of a florescent light. You are the that we might see in them your own will. Amen. God who rises early in the morning with migrant Son. Give us courage to stand up us as we go to harvest fresh vegetables in their defence against those who would and fruits picked with fingers stained by do them harm. For this we pray through the pesticides and fungicides that our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and penetrate our skin. You are the God who reigns with you in the unity of the Holy stands with us in the chill of the morning Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen in the parking lot at Home Depot, with * * * Fr Willie Purcell anxious stomachs hoping that we too Immigrant Council of the would be picked to work just for that one Pope Francis’ Prayer suggested by the Irish Bishops’ Conference day. Loving God, as we stand before you example of Saint Joseph at the time he today, help us to remember that when we was forced to flee to Egypt to save the speak of immigrants and refugees, we child Jesus.

Intercom • September 2020 13 The End of Civil War Politics: Una O’Higgins O’Malley, founder of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation

grew up in East Clare, then known as Photos courtesy of the author ‘De Valera country.’ Some of my earliest Irecollections were fights on a fair day, where civil war politics were played out in the street, between those who were for and against the treaty which caused the partition of the island. My family weren’t political. My mother was a war widow, an Irish emigrant, who became a nurse and midwife during the Second World War, and met and married a Canadian in the British Army, who was killed outside Rome in a trucking accident in the last days of the war. I never knew that my mother had married previously until much later in my own life. Silence! My mother eventually married my father, and our main preoccupation then was economic survival. The advent of free education gave many of us, like me, a route out of poverty and more opportunities. I went to school in a classroom with a green map of Ireland on the wall, which had a large orange blob on the top right- hand corner. Heroic history stories always Above: Glencree involved dying for your country; living for In July 2005, my Centre for it was not part of the narrative. At the Peace and youngest son William was Reconciliation bottom of the hill in the small town on his way to work as a where I grew up, I passed a crumbling young architect in London. Protestant church on my way to school; On the tube, somewhere Left: Una as I moved into my late teenage years, it between Aldgate and O’Higgins disappeared altogether. I never heard Liverpool Street, a bomb O’Malley anyone talk about the people who went exploded in the carriage to church there. Who were they and where he was sitting. where did they go? Did they decide to Although seven people in leave? Were they forced to go? Or was it the carriage were killed, he too cold a place to stay aer the new managed to get out with State was formed? More silence! extensive but not life- Like all young people then, I had a threatening burns. His life passing interest in the past and listened was changed forever and to stories that defined and solidified a mine took another turn sense of identity which was not oen also. The personal became questioned. I watched the Northern political. Ireland conflict, like many in the Republic, Asked by a gentle Northerner, I joined loss of skilled staff and international through the lens of a black and white the Board of the Glencree Centre for volunteers, and the threatened shut- television, glad that it was ‘up there’ and Peace and Reconciliation, a peace centre down of the Centre. In time, things not ‘down here.’ Much later, I learnt that had been in existence since 1974, set stabilised and I discovered many about discrimination, toxic theologies, up as a response to the outbreak of remarkable women and men, from and the fear, misunderstanding and violent conflict in the north. different faiths and none, who were humiliation that made up the complexity As newly-elected chair, I was appalled by the violence oen – to quote the late Seamus Mallon – of preoccupied with the devastating impact perpetrated in the name of religion, and our Shared Home. of the 2009 recession on the Centre, the who, as a result, decided to take a stand

14 Intercom • September 2020 for peace. They worked together to Photo: istockphoto.com transform a ramshackle collection of buildings that had served as a military barracks, a reformatory for boys and young men, and a centre for German refugee children. It was now a peace centre with the mission of reconciling divisions and political conflicts which were a legacy of the partition of the island of Ireland and the subsequent Civil War. Among these remarkable women and men, I encountered Una O’Higgins O’Malley. Una O’Higgins O’Malley was the daughter of Kevin O’Higgins, the first Minister for Justice of the Free State Executive aer partition. Although she was only five months old when her father was assassinated in 1927, the loss of her father and his legacy of forgiveness were the dominant influence that explains much of her public life. A relative of her father’s assassin reported his dying words: ‘I know who you are and I know why you have done it and I forgive you but this will have to be the end of the killing.’ Her daughter Iseult remembered Garda misconduct required her to take a peace, dealing with the legacy of a being told by her mother that as a child stand. She was also a strong believer in violent past, the implications of the UK she found herself having to console total the ecumenical movement. decision to leave the European Union, strangers who would start weeping for However, it was the peace movement and the resulting constitutional question. her father on being introduced to her. In that eventually came to absorb most of Our recent work with refugees and an interview with the late Marian Una’s efforts. From the early days of asylum-seekers who have made Ireland Finucane to celebrate thirty years of protesting against the IRA outside the their home is new, but much needed to Glencree’s work for peace, Una talked Sinn Fein offices, through the running of combat racism and xenophobia. about the ‘black lava’ that came over her holidays in Newbridge for pensioners Global peace and security are serious when she heard that one of the assassins from Northern Ireland, to the challenges for governments, multilateral had danced on her father’s grave, and establishment and development of the organisations, societies, and peoples of which dissipated when she was inspired Glencree Centre, the abiding theme was the world. Glencree has reflected on its on Good Friday to have a Mass said for always the necessity for the people of global responsibilities for peace, and is her father, those who killed him, and this island to learn to forgive and accept working toward the development of a both of the Civil War political traditions. each other. Global Peace Campus, a place that would A committed Catholic, reconciliation Before the words ‘so power’ or ‘so welcome countries in conflict, a place to and justice were deep themes in Una’s diplomacy’ were ever spoken, Una learn about Glencree’s experience and life. While the peace movement was practiced it, bringing together political dynamic dialogue process, and to learn central to her life’s work, her involvement leaders and influencers not just from the new ways of addressing violent conflict in always stemmed from a feeling that North but from Britain, to have quiet collaboration with others. injustice was happening and something conversations, away from the media, on Una’s favourite quotation from her should be done. She was involved in contentious issues. These conversations father came from one of his letters: ‘…but helping to get Meals on Wheels going in had the aim of leading to greater we carried our brick and we laid it fair and the Mater Hospital, and she campaigned understanding of the ‘other.’ square and as well as we knew how.’ The on the appalling state of housing and Before the United Nations ever same can be said of her and Glencree. conditions for travellers in Dublin. She decided (through UN Resolution 1325 on Learn more about our work and support it also assisted in the production of the Women, Peace and Security) to recognise www.glencree.ie; #Glencree4peace MacBride Commission on penal policy, the crucial role that women play in and campaigned for the Irish Council for peacebuilding, women have been at the Civil Liberties. Her decision to run as an heart of building peace on this island and Barbara Walshe is a independent in the 1977 general election in many areas of conflict around the restorative practitioner campaign, on a reconciliation and justice world. and chairs the Board at platform, put her in direct conflict with Una died in 2005, and today, the Glencree Centre for the party representing her family facilitated dialogue is at the heart of the Peace and tradition, but she was convinced that the work of Glencree, where we continue to Reconciliation issues of reconciliation, social justice and work towards the creation of all-island #glencree4peace

Intercom • September 2020 15 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me

rom 1936 until 1939 the unfolding Photo: Juan Guzmán, wikipedia.org horrors of civil war pierced like a Fbayonet the wounded and bleeding heart of Spain. Atrocities, mindless destruction, and revenge further tore a fractured and divided people apart and the legacy of this bloodshed remains a delicate and sensitive subject. In the midst of bullet shots, scattered propaganda leaflets and crumbling masonry, a German born Mexican photographer was busy friezing history in black and white. Hans Gutmann (later Juan Guzmán) had joined the International Brigade in 1936 and throughout the three year duration of the conflict would capture over 1,300 photographs, providing an invaluable historical account. One in particular, a photograph has been taken he will be interrupted by a passersby screaming portrait of Marina Ginestá I Coloma, a shot dead in cold blood, and still he into my face ‘when will we be rid of you?’ reporter, activitist and member of Unified smiles. For years unpleasant words and phrases Socialist Youth won him international Fr Martin Martinez Pascual was a (which do not merit publication) have recognition. Revolution never looked so Diocesan Labourer Priest of the Sacred been shouted on occasion with such good! Marina stands imperiously on top Heart of Jesus. He taught Latin in the venom, even during the liturgy, that it of the Plaza de Cataluña. A rifle is seminary in San Fulgencio and was can leave you disorientated, even shaken. strapped in cavalier fashion across her prefect of St Joseph’s College in Murcia And a socially acceptable attitude of shoulder and her upturned chin and until the outbreak of war when he went ridicule and belittlement has begun to windswept visage appear in victorious into hiding to remain close to his family seep even into the occasional wake contrast to the fire blackened silhouette and the people of God. Eventually he was house, which prompts you to wonder of Barcelona Cathedral behind her. The forced to reveal himself so as to attempt why the relatives asked for you to come image is an impressive one, but not quite to speak to a judge on behalf of his father at all. One thing is clear, the more accurate. Marina was a reporter, not a who had been arrested simply for being ‘freedom’ Ireland seems to attain, the fighter, and her weapon is only artistically the father of a priest. Thus he was angrier its people seem to become. Our symbolic. This pose for the camera would captured. When he was shot by firing Lord awaits us in our house oratories, and be the only time during the war that she squad at the cemetery in Valdealgorfa he there in the refuge of his sanctuary he would ever carry a gun. was only twenty five years old. His crime: whispers the Beatitudes. ‘Blessed are you There is another portrait taken by when people insult you, persecute you Gutmann that is worthy of our attention. his anointed hands and a heart To my mind it is far more powerful, more consecrated in Holy Orders. I keep an and falsely say all kinds of evil against abiding and authentic than the reporter image of this Blessed’s photograph on my you because of me.’ with her rifle. The viewer beholds a close desk in the study at the presbytery, It is difficult to feel ‘blessed’ let alone up, intimate study not of a face, but of a because I can think of no other portrait ‘happy’ as other translations describe, in soul. A young man stands in scrubland. which communicates not simply the such a culture, and yet that is what Jesus His clothes are dirty. His white shirt is countenance of the subject, but also the instructs us to be. God’s logic is different missing buttons and completely out of miracle of martyrdom itself. His eyes burn from that of humanity, and our standards place in the fields. His sleeves are rolled incandescently with the grace of God, of success or failure are not His. For just above the elbow. He is many weeks and when you return his gaze from a desk instance, Jesus doesn’t ask us to be unshaven and his temples are a tousled piled high with folders, letters and rotas popular. What a relief when that sinks in! mess of corkscrew curls. Despite an you realise that Gutmann has provided He doesn’t caution us to be nice and unkempt and dishevelled appearance he the world, not with a photograph of a inoffensive. He doesn’t mandate that we carries the noble bearing of a gentleman, murdered political enemy, but with an take an active part in secular, social and albeit one in need of a bath. He stares icon of a saint. sporting life. Of course there is nothing directly into the camera with an Blessed are you … Working in an urban wrong with being community oriented, incredible expression of calm and parish I have come across hostility with well mannered and sociable, as long as dignified resistance. This young priest increasing familiarity. One recent the price of fitting in isn’t leaving Our knows that the second the last conversation on the street was Lord at home. How many colleagues of

16 Intercom • September 2020 mine have sat through hours of cultural Photos: Juan Guzmán, wikipedia.org pastimes in which they have neither the slightest interest nor inclination simply to be with their people? And they are to be commended; they have much more patience than me! The theology of presence is still felt by Irish clergy, but now more and more of ‘our people’ feel uncomfortable around us. Collars irritate them, but so do public manifestations of prayer, and Christian values. In that environment why should we want to fit in? The Beatitudes reassure us, comfort us, and encourage us that we are not failing when we do not attain earthly success. Jesus whispers to us that when certain people despise us because of our faith in Him, we should be happy. That means we’re actually Christians. What an important teaching of Jesus this is, and yet it is not one I ever recall having Above: Marina Ginestà at the preached upon, nor indeed heard from friend, and the final top of Hotel Colón in the pulpit. portrait, eyes front, Barcelona, by Juan Guzmán How beaten up we can feel. How chest out and hands Left: Blessed Martin Martinez useless, and unsuccessful in our on hips; a veritable Pascual by Juan Guzmán Below: Martin Martinez endeavours, like the young priest from pin-up of Catholic Pascual, before the Civil War Bernanos’ novel, and we think this is all martyrdom. Did new. By the standards of the world are we Gutmann grieve I not failing? And yet we can work in wonder when the relative freedom, we have our safe guard pulled the houses in our parishes; we enjoy the trigger? He certainly good will of many parents, grandparents preserved the and the enduring people of God. We can photographs which forget that actually we still have it quite so easily could have easy. I have never had to go into hiding been lost forever, and like Fr Martinez Pascual. I have never seen Fr Martin’s name churches razed to the ground like those would have dissolved people of Madrid, watching the black anonymously among smoke of convents, monasteries and those of 6,800 murdered clergy and recreate heroic Catholic witness than churches choke the skyline of their religious from those bloody three years of with the right choice of model? If it is Bl. smouldering, riotous metropolis in 1931. war. Martin the Church rejoices in historical What are a few swear words by And yet, can we be sure that it is evidence. If it is not, the true account of comparison? What is a little social actually him? Was Gutmann there at all? Bl. Martin has been made more marginalization? Did Our Lord not suffer A recent documentary on the BBC argued widespread courtesy of an iconic retelling as much? Did his own neighbours not try against such a possibility, but this hardly of an historical event. to throw him from a cliff? Should we not surprises me. Aer all, Catholic’s aren’t Whatever his own private intentions prepare ourselves to be treated like he really allowed ‘heroes’ anymore in Gutmann may be likened to a modern day was? popular culture. If we regard the portrait icon writer, providing the people of God Nothing enkindles the imagination less as a work of history and more as a with a portrait of a saint; and for a very quite like a photograph. How did Hans work of art it does not matter. Consider average priest working in an Irish town Gutmann come to find himself at an the painting of the great Florentine artist his photographs remind me that no obscure cemetery in Valdealgorfa? He Fra Filippo Lippi. No one has ever matter what the day may have in store, to was a man of strong political conviction. captured, to my mind, a more tender count my blessings. We can deduce that by not absenting depiction of the Blessed Mother of God himself from the execution, he either than he. The fact that his model was one Note: See link to BBC documentary: tacitly approved of the young priest’s Lucrezia Buti, religious sister, the artist’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_EO_8P0pdQ murder, or at least he deferred to the mistress and mother of his child does not workings of civil war ‘justice’. In the scandalise the student of the History of moments leading up to the death of Fr Art, nor challenge venerable Marian Martin there are three surviving devotion. Naturally the artist would Fr Paul Murphy photographs of which I am aware that choose the most beautiful woman in his St Peter’s, have been attributed to him. In one he is world to sit for the Italian Renaissance’s Drogheda, Co Louth smiling, in one laughing heartily with a premier role! The depiction of our guard, which out of context could easily Classics scholar-priest friend is no be misconstrued as his brother and different. How best could a photographer

Intercom • September 2020 17 Mental Health by John Cullen, Editor Photo: istockphoto.com

f people were falling and breaking legs straightforward solution. A mystery is length of social distancing, but comes and shoulders across the county, unique. It is one of a kind that you have among us, humbly entering and sharing Ieditorials would be demanding an never managed before. It has multiple our mystery. inquiry. Health and safety requirements origins and you cannot understand it Mental illness can seldom be fixed in would change with newly adopted from outside. You need to bring your an instant. The language of problem and protocols and policies. But when reviews whole life experience to enter it. Oen it solution can lead to stigmatising and about mental health issues affecting is the flip-side of something good and labelling people in unhelpful ways. Amid many people of all ages – with the wonderful. multiple policy and community instance of prescription drugs, there are Mental Health is oen treated like a strategies, we need patience and reserved reactions and sluggish problem. But I wonder if it might be endurance, a sense of awe and discovery responses to this stark reality. better understood as a mystery. The mind to be aware – to borrow from a line – by One GP’s comment is insightful: The is a physical thing – but it is not like a leg, W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) ‘that I being poor’ patients we see don’t really have arm or rib cage. Its trials are seldom ones need to ‘tread soly’ and enter the depressive illness, they have ‘rotten life that medicine alone can fix. Such mystery or our own mind before tip- syndrome.’ Amid chronic pain, anxiety struggles are unique to each person’s toeing into the mind of another lest I and social isolated alienation, story. ‘tread on their dreams.’ dependency on pills becomes a constant I saw a graffiti message spayed on a William Shakespeare (1564-1616) fuses companion in the darkness of wall in London which was a quote from mind and heart together with this deprivation. The Covid-19 pandemic Gandhi (1869-1948): relevant question: brought to the surface the need for mental health support for those who I will not let anyone walk through my Canst thou not minister to a mind were in hospital with the virus as well as mind with their dirty feet. diseased; those who were front-line carers Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow. entrusted with looking aer those Perhaps it is helpful to reconsider most of Raze out the written troubles of the hospitalised with the virus. the world’s woes as mysteries rather than brain. The philosopher Gabriel Marcel (1889- problems. The core of our faith teaches And with some oblivious antidote 1973) distinguishes between a problem us that God sees the world – not as a cleanse the stuffed bosom of that and a mystery. A problem is generic. You problem to be solved – but as a mystery perilous stuff see a broken window or a computer to be entered into. Christianity maintains which weighs upon the heart? glitch and it needs fixing. It is a that Jesus doesn’t fix everything at arms- (Macbeth Act 5, scene 3)

18 Intercom • September 2020 Fr Chris Hayden Former Editor Book Review of Intercom

RAPHAEL’S WORLD 9781788121231 • €19.95 Michael Collins Messenger Publications, 2020

s the title suggests, this is not simply a biography, but a work which locates Raphael of Urbino (1483-1520) in his Abroad historical and cultural context. The publication is nicely timed for the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. When, in 1420, aer its century-long exile in Avignon, the papacy returned to Rome, the Eternal City was in a poor state; the Forum was, Collins notes. ‘little more than a field of felled columns and a farmyard of pigs, cattle and chickens.’ The city cried out to be restored and not, of course, for reason of pomp or vainglory, but for the consolidation of the papacy and the edification of the faithful! The project of restoration would not be properly underway until the papacy of Sixtus IV, which began in 1471. Sixtus, the Renovator Urbis, built a new chapel – the Sistine Chapel, later to be so stunningly decorated by da Vinci and Peter’s Basilica supported by the sale of indulgences, a policy Raphael – on the foundation of the Cappella Magna of the which, as Collins notes, ‘unwittingly supplied the pivotal point Apostolic Palace. In the same period, the rise of the Florentine that would lead to the Reformation just a decade later.’ Indeed, there can hardly be a student of ecclesiastical history who has banking family, the de’Medici, meant that generous not heard, in some translation or other, Cardinal Tetzel’s sponsorship of the arts was available. Add the wealth beginning infamous indulgence-campaign slogan: ‘As the money in the to flow in from the New World (Columbus had set sail in 1492), chest rings, then the soul from the fire springs.’ and the funds available for ‘edification and consolidation’ were There is a grim if somewhat amusing juxtaposition between virtually limitless. Raphael working feverishly at his art, while his patron, Pope The career of Raphael coincided not only with the availability Julius, wars with similar zeal against various states to the north. of funds, but also with developments in artistic technique, Even Julius’ failures worked in Raphael’s favour: in 1511, notably the shi from egg to oil, in which tempura gave way to returning from an unsuccessful campaign, Julius commissioned oil-based paints that allowed for greater shadow and depth. In plenty of art to show that he was still in command! addition, being much slower to dry, the oil-based media When Julius II died, in 1513, he was succeeded by Giovanni allowed the artist greater scope to correct and modify as he de’Medici, as Pope Leo X, also a great patron of the arts. The worked. year aer his coronation, Leo appointed Raphael as chief Raphael’s genius was evident from early on, although like architect of St Peter’s Basilica, a position which would be taken other apprentices, he was required to imitate faithfully the style over by Michelangelo on Raphael’s death in 1520. In 1514, Pope of his master before being allowed to pursue his own style. Leo commissioned Raphael to design a set of sixteen tapestries Interestingly in this time of Coronavirus, Raphael’s first for the Sistine chapel. The tapestries were executed in Flanders commission, which was for a banner, followed an outbreak of from the artist’s cartoons – detailed drawings the actual size of plague. The banner depicted, among others, St Rocco (Roch), the projected work. This geographical development helped to patron of those afflicted by plague. spread the artist’s fame in northern Europe. Fr Collins’ description of the surge in art and building also – The most amusing sentence in Fr Collins’ book – at least in and perhaps unintentionally – points to an ambivalence in the the impression of this reader – is: ‘In the summer of 1516, High Renaissance glories of Rome. The artistic glories reached Annone, the pope’s elephant, became ill.’ The unfortunate their zenith in a short enough time, and that zenith sadly creature died aer suffering the indignity of being administered coincided with a nadir in the lived faith of the Church. Given the gold suppositories by Pope Leo’s personal physician. This wealth, ambition and intrigue which were never far in the episode, hardly central to any major developments, captures background, that coincidence was as predictable as it was sad. something of the frivolity and waste that would soon catalyse But for all that, the glories have outlived the intrigue, and we truly epochal change, in the Reformation and its wake. are the beneficiaries. This short and most worthwhile book conveys the artistic At the papal court, Raphael enjoyed the patronage of Pope brilliance of Raphael. It also, less directly, shows him as a player Julius II, a patronage which launched him to new heights of in the profligate cultural bubble which was to burst in 1517, with fame, while also consolidating Julius’s standing as a patron of permanent consequences for Europe. And yet, to repeat, the the arts. The same Pope was happy to have the building of St glories have outlived the intrigue, and we are the beneficiaries.

Intercom • September 2020 19 Covid-19 Pandemic and the Church – Dr Aoife McGrath is Director of Pastoral Theology Reflections from at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth

Faculty members (Philosophy and Theology) at the Pontifical University, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co Kildare have been reflecting on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic from its social, human, philosophical and theological perspectives. We present the first in this series.

Post-lockdown, can the Church return to ‘business as usual’?

s we move tentatively through the whether this pandemic was our ‘vast and connectedness, mutuality, solidarity, and phases of Ireland’s Roadmap for dreadful wilderness,’ meant to humble cooperation in the face of common AReopening Society and Business, us, not just for God to know our inner adversity, and simultaneously an church doors are reopening for in- most hearts, but for us to know awakening of divisions and gross person, socially distanced liturgies. ourselves. inequalities, competition for essential While for many this is a long-anticipated The feast usually speaks to me of our supplies, and survival of the fittest in moment, we should ask ourselves are we relationship with Christ and with all his failing economies. truly ready? Our focus may well be to get baptised followers; of a food that Where is the Church as a sign, back to ‘business as usual,’ but to what nourishes us, his disciples, co-heirs of – instrument, and advocate of communion ‘business’ are we returning? and co-responsible for – Christ’s mission in such a world? The ‘newsworthy’ impact of the throughout the world. This meaning is When Pope John Paul II spoke of a COVID-19 pandemic on the life of the made tangible in our companionship, ‘spirituality of communion’ he meant the Church has been centred on the through our physical presence together, ability to think of others in faith as ‘those sacraments. This year Easter was in our mutual sharing in the Eucharistic who are part of me’; the ability to share celebrated remotely, and the sacraments meal, and our collective sending forth. the joys and sufferings of others, to offer of Holy Communion and Confirmation This year, however, I felt only absence: them ‘deep and genuine friendship,’ and were postponed until late the isolation of one individual facing ‘make room’ for them in our lives. The summer/autumn. Baptisms and another who could neither see me nor great challenge of this millennium, he Weddings were likewise delayed. The know that I was present with him. Our said, was ‘to make the Church the home most radical and tangible transformation dissonance was compounded by his and the school of communion’ (Novo has been to Funeral ceremonies and the inadvertently leaving insufficient time for Millennio Ineunte, 43). His words have daily or weekly celebration of the me to respond to the prayers; my silent taken on new meaning in 2020. Eucharist. watching while he ate and drank. For the majority of Catholics, phase In the era of lockdown, priests As I recited the Spiritual Communion three reopening will be the first (sometimes with a few lay ministers) prayer, I reacted strongly to its words: this opportunity to participate in Mass and continued to serve their communities by absence was not just about me and my receive Eucharist since lockdown began. I celebrating Masses remotely, for the heart, nor only about me being united wonder, following our experience of intentions of the faithful, either from wholly with Christ. I remembered the ‘church’ and Mass over these past four empty churches or their own homes. The words of Pope Benedict XVI, ‘I cannot months, what meaning will the Mass came into our homes via radios, possess Christ just for myself; I can sacraments hold for us now? Will televisions, smartphones and computers. belong to him only in union with all those laypeople fall into the habit of We watched, waited and prayed, in who have become, or who will become, watching/observing, while the priest is anticipation of being re-admitted to his own. Communion draws me out of active/doing? communal worship. myself towards him, and thus also Will we fear spreading the virus so For some, these past months have towards unity with all Christians.’ (Deus much, and be so used to our isolation, been a fruitful time for creative and Caritas est, 14). that our companionship is weakened? revitalised personal prayer practices. In this vision, love of God and love of Will the Eucharist be nourishment for our However for the majority, the absence of neighbour cannot be separated. Being individual spirituality, rather than communal prayer and receiving the present together for the Eucharistic meal nourishment of the Body of the Church sacrament of Communion has been helps to nourish our relationships with for its wider mission? sorely felt. each other, so that we can truly be united Will we choose to live a spirituality of As a lay theologian, I found the feast with God. But our living communion communion, not just when we are of Corpus Christi, on 14 June, particularly faces new challenges because of the gathered for Eucharist, but every day? challenging. I sat alone in my house coronavirus. How do we take responsibility for our facing a screen, watching, as a priest This evolving world we live in has share in this business? Can we give celebrated Mass alone from his home. As opened up what some have called a ‘twin communion a home, and share our he read from Deuteronomy, I wondered consciousness,’ at once a feeling of learning with others?

20 Intercom • September 2020 INTERCOM CROSSWORD

NO 227 BY GINGER SPONSORED BY VERITAS

ACROSS 1 Get head of protocol to speak for club (6) 4 Abbreviate a covenant (8) 10 Bury yield and mediate (9) 11 Biblical town in profile, we hear (5) 12 Pamphlet on stretch of land (5) 13 Evangeliser proving more sin is wrong (9) 14 Con shows old breviary section (7) 16 Bad demon decapitated (4) 19 Peel sound fruit (4) 21 Peter is troubled, gets a pause for rest (7) 24 Air beacon collapses through lacking oxygen (9) 25 Parking by a row of soldiers as a practical joke (5) 26 Picture of string and broken harp (5) 27 Reptile or ice-cold variety (9) 28 Remaining is ruled a mistake (8) 29 Relaxes after a century, and stops completely (6) DOWN 1 Priest in trouble, though sanitised (8) 2 Aimless chatter takes in right Roman ruler (8) 3 Rue headless bird (5) 5 S upervise bishop's position (7) 6 Verifies if site set for construction (9) 7 Burning paintings around the study (6) 8 Poor tuner gets point for term of office (6) 9 Sunday talk seen in browser Monday (6) 15 Disinterred fragmented heated urn (9) 17 Lie saint revealed about prayers [1909] (8) 18 Ken seems beaten into submission (8) 20 Biblical mother finds ancient stringed instrument near California (7) 21 Cleric in Politically-Correct Order (6) 22 Animal and evil European man missing (6) Name...... 23 As it’s up to boys to provide dishes (6) Address ...... 25 Examination to be headed by professional (5) ...... JULY/AUGUST SOLUTION ...... Across: 1 Good Samaritan, 8 Gobi, 9 Andalusian, 10 Atoned, 11 Listener, 12 Schoolboy, 14 Melt, 15 Begs, 16 Stressful, 20 Ordnance, 21 Unwell, 23 Stronghold, 24 Acne, 25 Arts and crafts. Down: 1 Gnostic, 2 Onion, 3 Scandal, 4 Middle-of-the- VERITAS GIFT TOKENS road, 5 Relish, 6 Tasteless, 7 Nearest, 13 Organ loft, 15 Biretta, 17 Ecuador, 18 Uplands, 19 Enigma, 22 Wharf. FOR THE FIRST THREE CORRECT ENTRIES DRAWN

Crossword to be returned by 10 September to September 2020 Crossword, Intercom Editor, Catholic Communications Office, Columba Centre, Maynooth, Co Kildare. One entry per person. Photocopies acceptable with a satisfactory explanation – at the Editor’s discretion. Airmail subscribers may send by fax to Int + 353-1-6016401. Please give full postal address. Correct solution in October 2020 Intercom. Winners announced in November 2020 edition.

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22 Intercom • September 2020 Never Let a Crisis go to Waste

here is inevitably a moment when Photo: istockphoto.com the penny drops. The instructors in Tthe leisure centre pulled over the covers on the twin Jacuzzis just as I climbed out of the pool, and just then I knew things were about to change. Thankfully, I got to stretch out one last time in the sauna before the curtain finally fell. I dropped into the supermarket next door before beginning my journey home. There were five tills open and queues were forming. The madness had begun. An obstruction had fallen into the river of life. The extraordinary was about to become, rapidly, part of our natural routine. Our daily lives were diverted into what was to be revealed for many as a cul-de-sac from which there was no immediate reverse. Strange and unprecedented things began to take narcissistic language of individualism and always find good in the face of adversity, place. Life was and remains convulsed. selfism to the rhetoric of fraternal but an ordeal is a very real thing and it There is a well-attested capacity concern. Solidarity suddenly became our remains an ordeal. Meantime, we are all within nature and within humanity to principal shield. A sense of unity quickly skippers in our little cabins, steering our heal what has been wounded and to coalesced. Standing apart, we learned to way through the unmapped and piece together the fragmented shards of stand together. We developed a new unknown. Our inner resources and life. We rest from meeting the demands respect for the army of all-but-invisible creativity have been harnessed. of others; our solitariness can become a servants who keep the wheels of civilised Emergencies spark ingenuity in some source of restorative renewal; the living turning. The under-the-radar, instances. Many people have re- compass is being re-set. Life is a powerful easily forgotten, have become the heroes discovered the great indoors. Our force that creates and re-creates, awareness and identity as a nation state of the drama. We have discovered the constantly renewing the face of the and as distinct families has been raised. saints who live next door. earth. Our hope is well-grounded. People The trauma of the moment has, in some The over-blown speeches that mark are naturally resilient and cultures that instances, allowed the big questions to adapt are the ones that survive. the beginning and oen the end of such break through. Our principal weapon during the catastrophes have, as always, been le to Despite the silence of the empty Covid-19 pandemic has been solidarity. the public figures and politicians. Will churches, the echoing Word is being Like a lightning flash suddenly there be a normal to return to? Has too heard. The vanities and nonsense of the illuminating the landscape with intensity, much now changed for us to return to the entertainment world have been stilled. we have been revealed to ourselves. The status quo ante? ‘The time is out of joint,’ Our spiritual emaciation is exposed. This pandemic has been both an eye-opener as Hamlet famously said. Our habitual may even be a gi that providence has and a rebuke. We moved rapidly from the calendars have been shredded. We can granted us. ‘The scourge that assails you raises you up and shows you the way,’ according to Pere Paneloux in Camus’ Virgin Mary, turn your merciful eyes towards us amid this coronavirus pandemic. novel, The Plague. It is in moments of Comfort those who are distraught and mourn their loved ones who have died, and at misfortune that we can become times are buried in a way that grieves them deeply. Be close to those who are accustomed to the truth, and the truth, concerned for their loved ones who are sick and who, in order to prevent the spread of as the evangelist John famously reminded the disease, cannot be close to them. Fill with hope those who are troubled by the us, will set us free. uncertainty of the future and the consequences for the economy and employment. Support national leaders, that with wisdom, solicitude and generosity they may come to the aid of those lacking the basic necessities of life and may devise social and economic solutions inspired by farsightedness and solidarity. Beloved Mother, help us to realise that we are all members of one great family and to Fr Michael Murtagh recognise the bond that unites us, so that, in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity, we Dunleer can help to alleviate countless situations of poverty and need. Make us strong in faith, Co Louth persevering in service, constant in prayer. Pope Francis, from his Prayer for the Month of May 2020

Intercom • September 2020 23 Belonging, Believing, Behaving Photo: istockphoto.com

s I look back on the development Jewish life of sacrifice and worship ultimately belonged to the Father, and of my faith while I was growing up, celebrated the faith of Israel that God was the Father’s mission to him was to save AI notice there was a certain order. still the sovereign owner of all the the whole world (Mk 3:31-35; Mat 12:48- First came believing – in God, in Jesus, created order, including humans 50; Lk 2:41-50, 8:19-21). Then, in and in the Holy Spirit. Then behaving – themselves. fulfilment of the Old Testament where believing required that you had to behave Furthermore, a key part of God’s plan God chooses a people as a sign and in a certain way: do this but don’t do that. to save all creation was to choose for instrument of salvation, Jesus the Good Lastly came belonging – faith gave you a himself a people who would be a sign and Shepherd gathers this people, declaring sense of belonging to family, to a faith instrument of his saving love that unites that ‘the sheep that belong to me listen community and yes, even to God himself. all things. This chosen people would be a to my voice’ (Jn 10:27). Christ is the This was the order of priority: believing, people who belong to God Himself: ‘For shepherd who gathers the people who behaving and lastly, belonging. The older you are a people holy to the Lord your belong to the Father. I get, the more convinced I am that a God; the Lord your God has chosen you to The theme of belonging was taken up sense of belonging to God comes first, be a people for his own possession out of strongly by St Paul. He reminds the not last. Only when we realise that we all the peoples that are on the face of the Christians in Rome that ‘by his call you belong to the God who created us and earth’ (Deut 7:6-8). This was the heart of belong to Jesus Christ’ (Rom 1:6). To have who loves us can we come to believe and the covenant God established with Israel. the Holy Spirit is to belong to God, for see how both belonging and believing This theme of belonging finds its ‘anyone who does not have the Spirit of shape behaving. fulfilment in the New Testament, Christ does not belong to him’ (Rom 8:9). In the Jewish life of worship in the Old beginning with the Gospels. In the Paul reminds the Corinthians: ‘you belong Testament, priests like Abraham and accounts of Jesus’ baptism in the river to Christ and Christ belongs to God’ (1Cor Moses offered sacrifice to God as an Jordan, the Father’s voice declared Jesus 3:23). For Paul, Christ’s claim of us is expression of the faith that although as his beloved Son ‘in whom I am well greater than that of any other group, humans were stewards of creation, all pleased’ (Mt 3:17; Mk 1:8). Therefore, from body or person. That is why he identifies God had made still belonged to Him: the very outset of his public ministry, belonging as the core issue behind unity: ‘Look, to the LORD your God belong Jesus’ life was claimed by his Father. the Corinthian Christians did not ‘belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the When he was found in the Temple, and to Paul’ or ‘belong to Peter’ but to Christ earth and everything on it’ (Deut 10:14); later in the Gospels, Mary learned the (cf. 1 Cor 1:12). ‘Arise, O God. Judge the world, for all painful lesson that although Jesus This Scriptural theme of belonging to nations belong to you’ (Ps. 82:8). The belonged to her, his mother, as Son he Christ is seen at the beginning and end of

24 Intercom • September 2020 the life of a Christian. As a priest, I am Photo: wikipedia commons always struck by the words at the beginning of the rite of baptism, when I trace the sign of the cross on the child’s forehead with the words: ‘I claim you for Christ our Saviour by the sign of the cross and I invite your parents and godparents to do the same.’ This claiming by Christ of the life of the child takes place through the Church. It is through the Church as the Body of Christ that this belonging is lived out. In baptism, we can say that while God claims us as Father, the Church claims us as Mother. Fast forward to the end of life, and the funeral of the baptised Christian. As the body of the deceased is brought into the church, the priest or deacon prays: ‘May the Lord claim you as one of his flock.’ Therefore, at the beginning of life and at the very end, the Christian is someone whose life is claimed and belongs to another, namely to God. How extraordinary and counter- cultural this is! We might protest: ‘no one claims my life but me,’ ‘My life belongs only to myself.’ Our culture tends to define identity in terms of what we possess rather than who possesses us. Yet this truth of belonging is the faith of the Church; it is a pivotal truth, one which Bishop Robert Barron reminds us of in his series ‘Untold Blessings: Three Paths to Holiness’ (see www.wordonfire.org). Bishop Barron states that we are called to ‘find the centre’ who is Christ; he urges us: ‘know you are a sinner,’ and insists: ‘your life is not about you but about God’s purposes The Baptism of Christ by jacopo tintoretto for you.’ This last pillar prepares us for mission and reminds us that we don’t our long-ing. This is why it is so Belonging, believing, behaving. I have belong to ourselves but first to God our important to belong. come to realise that this is the right order. Father. In the light of this belonging to God, We believe in the One who claims us and This message is in continuity with believing in him becomes clearer. we behave according to what we believe. examples from some of the greatest Believing becomes our ‘yes’ to God’s prior So if you read these words and wonder saints, who knew this truth in their what your life is all about, perhaps the bones. A key moment in the life of St ‘yes,’ God’s ‘yes’ to us. Faith becomes an real question is not ‘who am I?’ but Francis of Assisi was when he realized he acceptance of the truth that we are God’s, that we belong to him and he ‘whose am I?’ As this question surfaces in belonged not to his earthly father but his your heart, remember that you were heavenly one: ‘From now on I want to say claims us as his own. Faith in Jesus gathers us together as the sheep that marked by the sign of the cross at your ‘Our Father who art in heaven,’ not ‘My baptism and claimed for Christ as one of father Peter Bernadone’.’ Similarly, St belong to him and who listen to his voice. Gathered in the family of the Church, his own. In prayer, may you hear the Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, gentle whisper of the Father’s voice: ‘You every other belonging is subordinate to came to realized: ‘I no longer belong to belong to me. You are mine.’ myself, I am totally surrendered to Jesus, our belonging together, to him and in so He is free to do with me as He wills.’ him. Together with St Francis and St Then comes behaving. Evangelisation Fr Billy Swan, Therese, a slow realisation unfolds in us doesn’t lead with what we should or St Aidan’s Cathedral, shouldn’t do. Discipleship is not simply a Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, that we are not orphans in this world, but is Vocations Director for are claimed as God’s own. We belong to code of ethics; rather, it is a way of life the Diocese of Ferns and a Him. To be human is to belong, for that flows from a living relationship with regular contributor to the belonging ties together both our our loving Father who claims us as a son ‘Word on Fire’ website. existence, our be-ing, and our desires, or daughter.

Intercom • September 2020 25 milestones • milestones • milestones

Our new editor, John Cullen Statement from Fr Paul Dempsey,

Photo: Editor John Cullen is a Bishop-elect of Achonry Diocese

priest from the Photo: Brenda Drumm Diocese of Elphin. It is his hope that Intercom will be a welcoming space that encourages us together to find, feed and further the awareness of God’s presence in all our lives. ‘Intercom is a door, wide open to all, especially to the people who sense that they do not belong or feel at home in our Church’ (John Cullen).

Fr Paul Dempsey (left), with Fr Dermot Meehan, Administrator of Achonry Diocese Father Paul Dempsey, Parish Priest of Newbridge and Fr Danny Murphy finishes Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Achonry issued the following statement on Wednesday 17 June: term as Liturgy Secretary ‘It is a source of joy for me to know that we now have a rescheduled date of Sunday 30 August for my Episcopal Fr Danny Murphy Ordination as Bishop of Achonry. completed his term as I requested the postponement of the ceremony, which the Episcopal Conference was originally scheduled for 19 April, in light of the Secretary for Liturgy and coronavirus pandemic. It was a difficult decision but I felt Director of the National it would not have been appropriate to proceed with the Centre for Liturgy at the ordination at that time. end of August 2020. I am grateful to Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Bishop Francis Duffy, as Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, and to the priests, religious chairman of the Council and faithful of the Diocese of Achonry for their patience for Liturgy, thanked Fr and understanding as we have been dealing with the Danny for his excellent unprecedented consequences of Covid-19 in our country work as Secretary and and in our world. I am especially grateful for the support Director over the last seven years. of Father Dermot Meehan who has administered the Fr Danny, a native of Macroom, Co Cork, was ordained diocese over these challenging weeks and months. in 1991. He served as curate at St Colman’s Cathedral, As I prepare to leave Kildare & Leighlin Diocese I offer Cobh and as Diocesan Master of Ceremonies before my renewed thanks to Bishop Denis Nulty and to the studying at St John’s University, Collegeville. people and priests of the diocese, especially the people of On completing an MA in Liturgical Studies in 2000, he Newbridge Parish for their support at this time. became Cloyne Diocesan Director of Liturgy. I ask for your prayers as I prepare to take on the role of He has served on the Council for Liturgy since 1999. We shepherd in the Diocese of Achonry.’ wish him well as he returns to the Diocese of Cloyne. New Secretary for Liturgy The Bishops have appointed Fr Neil Xavier O’Donoghue as the Episcopal Conference Secretary for Liturgy. A native of Ballincollig, Co. Cork, Fr Neil studied at Seton Hall, NJ, Crossword winners ordained 2000, followed by liturgical studies at St Vladimir Orthodox Seminary, NY and University of Notre The winners of the June 2020 Crossword competition: Dame. He was awarded PhD from the Pontifical University 1. Maureen Boland, Avondale, Waterford of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth in 2006. He has been 2. Kathleen O'Grady, Dalkey, Co Dublin vice rector of Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dundalk and has worked in parishes in the diocese of Armagh 3. Sr Catherine Maguire, Tramore, Co Waterford before appointed lecturer in systematic theology at Maynooth in September 2018.

26 Intercom • September 2020 milestones • milestones • milestones

Pope Francis appoints Photos: John McElroy Fr Martin Hayes as New Bishop of Kilmore

On 29 June, Pope Francis appointed Fr Martin Hayes, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cashel & Emly, as new Bishop of Kilmore. A celebration of Mass in the cathedral of St Patrick and St Felim in Cavan town took place with Papal Nuncio Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Fr Martin Hayes and priests of the Kilmore Diocese in attendance. ‘The Church of the future is about the increased involvement of lay people; of people and priests working together. My brief, initially, will be to listen, learn and draw upon my recent experience of pastoral planning’ – Bishop-elect Hayes Photos: Newly appointed Fr Martin Hayes (at Mass – top) and being congratulated aer by parishioners aer Mass (below).

World Mission Sunday, 18 October – Save the Date!

This year, World Mission Sunday will take place over the weekend of 18 October. Similar to the Good Friday Collection for the Holy Land and Peter’s Pence, it is one of the three yearly Universal Church collections. Over the weekend of the 18th, all World Mission Sunday Mass collections and donations, including those from the most impoverished churches in the developing world, will be offered to support the Holy Father’s Universal Solidarity Fund. This Fund is a lifeline, not only for missionaries, but also for the future of the Church, as it supports missionary activities in over 1,100 mission dioceses, mostly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This year’s theme ‘Together We Can Do More – Blessed are the Peacemakers’, is highlighting that our Church is a global community that must stand together, if it is to do more. It also recognises our missionaries as peacemakers, who, like Jesus, the Prince of Peace, emulate love and harmony as they reconcile fragile people, from fractured communities, with God and with each other. World Missions Ireland, the Church’s official charity for overseas mission, coordinates World Mission Sunday activities throughout Ireland. Each year, they prepare the Mission Month Pack, which all parishes and congregations will receive in late September. The Pack will help guide communities to enrich daily liturgies and celebrations, for the entire month, and not just on World Mission Sunday. So, keep an eye on your letterbox! For more information about this vital celebration, contact World Missions Ireland on 01 497 2035 or go to www.wmi.ie.

Intercom • September 2020 27