Masses Today

6.30 Michael & Catherine McCormack, (Anniv)
11.00 Ita Mitchell, (Anniv)
6.30 Joe Coyne, (Anniv)



EVENTS THIS WEEK






AS I WAS SAYING...

The glare of the world's media has been trained on Rome this week, and on John Paul II in particular. His frailty is now so painfully obvious that questions concerning his ability to continue in office are being asked with a new urgency. Ironically, the office of Pope, as we know it today, has been remoulded entirely by its present occupant. That remoulding has been achieved -in the main- through his incessant travels. He has made 102 overseas pilgrimages, each day of each journey filled with its own punishing programme. Remember how packed his three-day Irish visit was, and multiply it by whatever number you wish to choose! That will give some idea of his work-rate. It has been truly astounding.

We tend now to forget the fact that, in the pre-Wojtyla days, popes confined themselves to the Vatican itself. (Paul VI did visit the United Nations and the Philippines, but papal journeys were still the exception rather than the rule). Now, because of Wojtyla's style and efforts, universal travel is intrinsic to the office itself. Could you imagine a future pope opting to remain behind the Vatican walls? But this 'new' style of papacy creates its own difficulties.

Many of John Paul's predecessors were more incapacitated than he; yet their resignation was never an issue. Reasons for this contrast are not too difficult to come by. First, many of them were rarely seen in public. But, apart from that, the Tridentine liturgy was not as demanding on the person of the celebrant. For instance, Mass was said largely in silence, and with one's back to the congregation. The physical or mental condition of the celebrant, while not irrelevant, was not as central to 'right liturgy' as would be the case today. John Paul's facial distortion and shaking hands would hardly be noticed in celebrating the old liturgy.

This present pope is never off the world stage. As a young, energetic man, he lay down the parameters of the office. Now, as an old, frail man he finds himself struggling to ensure that those same parameters retain their original broad shape. Regardless of all this debate, it now appears that John Paul has long ago made his decision to 'die in harness'. Dr. Seán Brady of Armagh made an interesting comment in this connection:
There was something providential about an old, ill man being pope. It shows that you don't have to be physically well to make a significant contribution to society. This is a relevant, modern message for a culture that thinks once you are old and unwell you no longer have any contribution to make. The pope's illness is counter-cultural.
Dr. Brady has a point. The western world is dominated by a 'culture of youth'. For many, the gym has replaced the church at the centre of the cosmos. Illness, old age and death are banished to the margins. Perhaps John Paul, through his refusal to step down, is making an important point. Through his failing, battered body he is saying: "Look, illness and old age are intrinsic to the human condition also. This is a road you will all travel. With help, you can do it with dignity." This would be entirely consistent with his insistence on the dignity of every human being, from the womb to the tomb, regardless of their station or condition.
-Dick Lyng.




INTERNATIONAL DUTIES

Over the years, the people who attend the Augie here in Galway have contributed funds to various projects in Ecuador. I suppose we did so because Noel Hession was known to us. Now that he is coming to the end of his time in Ecuador he was anxious that someone would come out to put a face on the money that came from that remote island that seems so far away from Ecuador. Enda Egan came from Dublin and his group there, collected money down through the years. Concilia Whyte and myself came from Galway and there is no doubt that we were eagerly awaited and we received a wonderful welcome wherever we went with Noel.

When you consider that the average weekly wage in Ecuador is $25, you can see that the donations from Ireland went a long way. Some of the money went to relieve flood damage from the dreaded El Ninho and even three years later we could see signs of the damage all around the city of Chone. Way out in the campo, we visited a new school which was a replacement for a school which just disappeared in an earthquake.

Our visit at this time was particularly focused on the official opening of the new community hall in Ricaurte. The village is about 15 miles from Chone. It is laid out around a public park and basketball court. Two shops, a primary and secondary school and a small chapel are the only public buildings in the place. Now they have a fine community hall built with the aid of Irish money. Downstairs there are four large rooms which will serve many functions including a library. Upstairs is a large hall with kitchen with a PA. system.

The Saturday of the opening was a gala day for the village. In the morning was an official commemorative day for the setting up Ricaurte as a parroquia. Lots of elected representatives there and every school in the parroquia was represented in the big parade which passed in front of the reviewing platform. Four of us carried flags representing the new centre-one of the flags was the Irish tricolour which we had brought out with us from Galway. The flag is now hanging outside the balcony of the new hall.

The afternoon was set aside for the opening of the hall and about four hundred people attended. We recognised many familiar faces from villages away out in the Campo. There was speechmaking and singing all directed by teenagers from Ricaurte. One of the big moments was the official unveiling of the plaque from Galway-it is hanging in a place of honour at the top of the hall. We in turn were presented with a set of altar cloths for our renovated Church.

P.S. One memory from attending Mass in various locations was of the Kiss of Peace. People shook hands just like in Ireland though they did leave their seats more freely. While all this was going on all the children ran up behind the altar to shake hands with Noel.

-Gerry Ferguson.
This is the final part of Gerry's report on the pilgrimage.)





HUNGER AWARENESS

The Augustinian Order has joined with the United Nations in promoting a Hunger Awareness Campaign.




MEASURING PRAYER

There is something richly comic about the spectacle of a group of scientists attempting to measure the power of prayer and, by implication, to monitor the workings of the mind of God. Such a group has been labouringly away for the past three years at the Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina.

In an experiment that might have been dreamt up for satirical purposes by Jonathan Swift, cardiologists at the centre recruited 12 prayer groups - some Christian, some Buddhist, some Sufi Muslim - to pray like billy-oh for a control group of heart patients in hospitals throughout America. The idea was to compare the progress of patients who had been prayed for with that of those who had not. Unsurprisingly, the study concluded that there was no discernible difference between the recovery rates of the two groups.

Perhaps it did not occur to the cardiologists that God might not wish to be mocked in this way, like a sort of Father Christmas figure. After all, a deity's ways are supposed to be mysterious. Perhaps, He might wish to keep them like that. He might even have taken pity on those unprayed-for patients, whose doctors were prepared to see them die in order to satisfy their curiosity. Another possibility is that He had no wish to give prayer groups ideas above their station. Imagine what a fortune could be made by professional supplicants if it could be proved that prayer could deliver the health and wealth that governments cannot.

What is quite clear is that the cardiologists at Duke University were too busy staring at their heart monitors to look out of the window at the march of the seasons and the daily miracle of sunrise and sunset. No doubt they imagine that the Earth is obeying no higher authority than Newton's laws of motion and gravity. They should get down on their knees and pray that those laws carry on applying.

-(The Daily Telegraph, 14 October, 2003)




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