Masses Today

6.30 Freda Giblin, (Anniv)
11.00 Brega & Paddy Kelly, (Anniv)
6.30 Sadie Joyce, (Anniv)



Events This Week






AS I WAS SAYING...

So Ireland is back on track for the European finals in Portugal next year. Its amazing the transformation that a couple of games can bring about. One week the country has lost all interest. Five days and two games later, all the talk is of the 2004 Summer holidays in Portugal! Sport is like that. It can make or break the human spirit. It can knit together our most colourful dreams, or else unravel as our greatest nightmare. However we look at it, sport adds an extra dimension to life. It is impossible to quantify its contribution, but it has been enormous. At the most basic level, it enhances health and fitness. On a communal level, it binds communities together and provides them with a sense of identity and a common purpose.

The basic sociological unit in Ireland has been (and indeed still is) the local parish. The GAA, rather than the Catholic Church, has been largely responsible for forging this sense of identity and belonging. And loyalty to the locality is the glue that holds the whole thing together. The GAA as an organisation has often been criticised. And rightly so! In maintaining the ban on 'foreign games' for so long, it betrayed nasty streaks of sectarianism and mean-mindedness. Yet, despite this, the organisation and its members did fantastic work down the years. So many people have given so generously of their time and energy! God only knows how many fellows would have wasted away in jail were it not for the diversion offered by the GAA!

At another level of course sport is big business indeed today. Men like Roy Keane and David Beckham are capable of commanding salaries in excess of £50,000 per week. And that's not counting their more lucrative 'pickings' from sponsorship and endorsements! Should a distinction to be drawn between sportsman and entertainer? A considerable body of opinion would hold that such earnings are obscene. Naked consumerism, rather then any 'love of the game' loyalty to the club drives this 'industry'. The highest bidder bags the brightest talent. The only loyalty here is loyalty to one's own bank balance.

In the coming weeks I guarantee you that sport will be elevated to a whole new pitch in this country. I don't think we are quite prepared for what we are about to witness! I am writing of course of the forthcoming Special Olympics. 7,000 athletes with special abilities will descend upon the country. They will come from every corner of the earth and will be hosted by the large and small towns of Ireland. (The UK are being hosted by Galway; Ecuador by Athenry). The primary emphasis will be on participation rather than victory. This is of course the original Olympian ideal. And that ideal will be visibly written on the beaming faces of the delightful participants.

The Church has consistently advocated that all people should be defined by their abilities rather than their needs. Consumerism must not be allowed dictate the value of a person's contribution, be it industrial, social or sporting. But it is one thing to advocate a cause. It is an entirely different matter to do something about it. Sport is holding up a bright torch, literally. Everyone should take note.

-Dick Lyng.




THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY...

Irish society has an obsession with blaming young people for drinking too much alcohol. The irony is that these same young people are just responding to the environment around them, a culture of alcohol that has been created for them by adult men and women. They have been born into a society where the alcohol industry is an immensely lucrative one, where the drink lobby is powerful and has a hold on public policy. Irish culture is advertised across the world as a drinking culture and Irishness is now practically synonymous with alcohol.

The World Drink Trends Survey, published earlier this year, found that the Irish spend more on alcohol in pubs and restaurants than any other country in the world. Consumption rose 41% in 10 years compared with a drop in other European countries. The research found that the average person living in Ireland drinks almost 13 litres of pure alcohol a year, 2.5 litres more than France and Germany and almost four times as much as the UK. The Irish Association of Suicidology has stated that in countries where the per capita consumption of alcohol is lowered, suicide levels have gone down. Where it is rising, suicide levels also rise. The richer we get, the greater the problem. Pubs are by far the most popular venue for socialising for young people aged between 15 and 35.

Alcohol contributes to the making of lonely decisions. Too much alcohol lowers the consciousness in a person making it impossible or at least more difficult to think and decide in a rational and clear way. Constant alcohol leads to increased confusion and lower motivation to want to do anything and most importantly, a rational way of feeling is gone. Researchers at the National Suicide Research Foundation in Cork state that in cases of 'impulse' suicide, where apparently well-adjusted youths kill themselves for no obvious reason, alcohol consumption plays a significant role because 'alcohol has a huge impact on how impulsive young people are'.

Ireland now accepts excessive consumption of alcohol - one could say a 'mentality' of alcohol exists - where drinking is more than just an occasional way to celebrate or socialize. For many young people the culture of drink created for them is now the primary way in which to sense a belonging to life and to other people. This is where an identity and sense of self is formed and expressed.

-Fr. David Keating, Chaplain, Waterford IT.



THE SICK

Liam O'Connell and Willie Andrew are both out of hospital and recovering well from their respective complaints. Fr Pearse Mahoney is undergoing a course of treatment in the Regional hospital. He is in very good spirits.






SOMETHING 'COOL'

An increasing number of young people now view a death by suicide as just one way of dying, no different from other ways of dying. There appears to be an acceptance of the 'choice' of a dying by suicide and some writers describe this acceptance as a growing trend to view suicide as 'cool'.

There is now a greater prevalence of suicide being romanticised in music, song-writing and film as an 'appropriate response' to stressful or unhappy situations and this leads to much suicide ideation and to an acceptance of suicide as a way of dying. For some, suicide is becoming a 'vertical leap' to heaven and personal peace by completely avoiding life. It can also be disconcerting to observe the funeral service following a suicide death being glorified in a similar way.

Surely this world is the one that matters and the one which finds our focus. Suicide should never be a socially acceptable way to die under any circumstances because without socially acceptable reasons for a suicide death, how can the loss be socially acceptable?






THE 'ME' CULTURE

Our present culture applauds the beautiful, the talented, the powerful and the clever. Although this may be a 'real' culture to many people is it a genuine culture? We have a culture encouraging self-interest and materialism. It is a culture of more and of now 'more is good' ... more things. .. more property. .. more wealth, I want it 'now' and why can't I have it 'now'? Young people find it difficult to see through the fog of the 'me' culture and to have a perspective on what is really important. They get no chance to build an inner strength to critique advertised values that are superficial and passing. This leads to huge disillusionment, not just with themselves but also with this confused world around them.

This is not to say that there are no improvements in the society. But one suspects that the improvements taking place are more for women than men. With men it is more a sense of not knowing exactly what to be or where to fit in and this can be unsettling to someone who feels a lack of identity in everything that's happening around him.

-Fr. David Keating, Chaplain, Waterford IT.




"Quote, Unquote........ "






BISHOPS' LETTER

The Catholic bishops have issued a pastoral letter which has pointed out that "Jesus's love for humanity should be reflected in our relationships with others" and that "every human life is sacred because it is created in the image of God".

The letter, Life in all its fullness, has been issued to mark the European Year of People with Disabilities and the Special Olympics. It will be distributed in parishes this week.

The bishops have said "it is important that we, as a Church community, acknowledge the innate value and unique mission of all our members", and that "the Church community is not complete without those with disabilities".

The Special Olympics were "a magnificent symbol of what may be achieved when we focus on the abilities and skills of people rather than on their disabilities.

"The athletes will teach us much about motivation and determination, and will bring enormous enjoyment to a world-wide audience."

A prayer for the Special Olympics will also be distributed in parishes this weekend. It asks for blessings on the athletes, their families and everyone involved in the games.






UNCLE PHILLIP

Uncle Philip was hopeless at waterpolo
it just wasn't the game for him
for starters he was colourblind
and besides he couldn't swim.

Banned from English swimming pools
for disobeying basic rules
he emigrated to Eire
where officials were fairer.

From Donegal to Bantry Bay
audiences he astounded
until one fateful Galway day
when his polopony drownded.

-Roger McGough.





Home