Masses Today

6.30 Seán Giblin, (Anniv)
11.00 Mary Moran, (Anniv)
6.30 Emile Scruben, (Anniv)



Events This Week






AS I WAS SAYING...

Today is 'Vocations Sunday'. It would take a uniquely acrobatic ecclesiastical ostrich to let today pass without comment. From a vocations point of view, the Church in western Europe is in deep crisis. We Irish Augustinians exemplify that crisis in microcosm: Our last ordination was in 1992, eleven years ago. (Actually we had one man ordained later, but he has since left the ministry). More seriously, we haven't one student preparing for ordination. In the unlikely event of someone joining our ranks in the near future, a 20-year gap will separate him from his most proximate peer!

The same story applies all over the ship. The diocesan clergy in the west have also been ravished by the same famine. For example, Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe -despite the fact that he still has six years to serve as bishop- presided over his last ordination on Sunday last. We are witnessing nothing less that a radical 'greying of the clerical church'.

The factors behind this drastic decline are incredibly complex. The clerical scandals have not helped, but the decline had set in long before the scandals emerged. There are other elements at work, not all of them negative. For example, young people today have such a range of career options open to them! The choice is almost infinite. A generation or two ago, circumstances were very different in this regard. In the 1940s and 1950s, for example, hundreds of young Irish people entered seminaries and convents annually. Vocations were so plentiful that bishops literally didn't know what to do with those coming forward for priesthood. Many today would attribute this massive increase in vocations to a lack of alternative outlets. The availability of so many alternatives today is surely a welcome development.

Mandatory celibacy too has to be a factor in this recent decline. Discussion of celibacy down the years has always been coloured by the cultural norms and religious perspective of those engaged in this discussion. Indeed celibacy had its origins in a world that saw sexuality in a very negative light. (This aspect is not unrelated to John O'Connell's article below). St. Augustine's negative views on sexuality (and indeed women!) have been enormously influential in Church up to relatively recent times. However, in the last decades of the 20th century, the behavioural sciences (with a little help from the tabloid journals) flushed sexuality out of the bedrooms and enthroned it on the rooftops! Many regard this development as the trivialisation of something sacred and mysterious. However, we must not confuse 'mystery' with 'secrecy'. This openness regarding sexuality has been one of the more welcome developments of modern Ireland.

Of course the Church has been caught in an almost impossible dilemma: how does one present an elevating view of sexuality without at the same time downgrading celibacy? The exact opposite was once the case: celibacy was elevated at the expense of marriage. All of these factors, and many more besides, have conspired to bring about the massive decline in clerical vocations. But we must not conclude that the Church itself is in decline. A new church is coming to birth. We should welcome and encourage this delicate plant!

-Dick Lyng.




PREACHING ON SEX

Does anybody preach about sex anymore? In forty-five years I have no memory of ever having done so myself. So, a few weeks ago, I decided to have a go in the following fashion.

A story about Fr Maurice Brown of Ballymore Eustace when he was ninety years of age: during a card game he was asked by a younger priest: at what age do you find that women are no longer sexually attractive? He continued to deal out the cards, paused for a moment and then said: 'Sean, you should ask an older man!' We joke about sex and yet it is a topic that deserves serious thought and reflection.

We are all sexual beings whether married or single, priest or lay person, male or female, old or young, gay or hetero. Many would say it is God's greatest gift to humanity.

Without sexuality there would be no such thing as falling in love, no such thing as holding a new born baby in your arms, no such thing as grandparents doting over their grandchildren, no love stories, no romance. Would we take the bother to dress and titivate ourselves? And I am not just talking about women! When a young man (or indeed and older man) who up to now has been slovenly begins to be particular about his appearance, you know that he has met somebody interesting!

The very power of our sexuality makes it a force for love, life and blessing, but also a force for broken hearts and broken bodies, for betrayal, unfaithfulness, hate, murder and suicide. It is the most powerful of all fires, the best of all fires and the most dangerous of all fires.

Sometimes people say that the only thing the Catholic Church talks about is sex. This is not true. In forty five years this is the first time I have given a homily on the subject. The bishops can write about justice, the environment, refugees or whatever and, by and large, they will be ignored by the media, but any mention of a sex-related subject and it hits the headlines.

The Church has struggled to accept that sex is good and a God-given gift. In the past nearly everything concerned with sex was seen as a sin. On the other hand, the culture of the day tells us that sex can be casual, neutral and no big deal. I once heard a person on a chat show asking: 'Who has ever been hurt by sex?' The answer of course is that irresponsible sex has destroyed many a life.

Many parents worry about the fact that their children are bombarded by sexual images. Survey after survey shows that sexually transmitted diseases (and not just AIDS) are increasing at a frightening rate. 25% of children between the ages of 8 and 17 accidentally encountered pornography while surfing the net. What are parents to do? Many parents have made the decision to regain control of their children's development and not leave it to chance or to the values promoted by the soaps. A gentle but firm supervision of what they watch on television and who they mix with is nowadays demanded.

The Church must learn not to be so negative about sex and let go of some of its fears. But the people who most influence public opinion must accept responsibility and tell the full story, namely, that sex has a tag.


-Fr John O'Connell, is Parish Priest at the Church of the Holy Redeemer, Bray, Co. Wicklow. Published first in the Furrow, May 2003.




A LONG DISTANCE RUNNER!

Pope John Paul II's pontificate has become the fourth-longest in Church history. On April 24, the Pope surpassed the papacy of Pope Pius VI, who ruled for 24 years, six months and one week in the late 1700s. The event went unmentioned by Vatican officials and the Vatican newspaper, and the Pope has always avoided public comment about such milestones.

On October 16, Pope John Paul II will mark the 25th anniversary of his 1978 election and next March, his pontificate would exceed that of Pope Leo XIII, who reigned for 25 years and 5 months, 1878-1903. The second-longest papacy is that of Pope Pius IX, which lasted 31 years, seven months and three weeks, from 1846 to 1878. Pope John Paul II would surpass that in May 2010 - shortly after his 90th birthday.

By tradition, the Church's longest pontificate was that of St Peter, the first pope. Historians have established no official dates of his papacy, but he is believed to have reigned between 34 and 37 years.






"Quote, unquote..."






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