- The collection last Sunday was €1,772.00.
- Remember in your prayers Christina Skelton, Castlegar, who died on Thursday last. She was mother of Ray who (together with his wife Angela Silke) is a regular presence at the 11.00 Mass here on Sunday morning. R.I.P.
Events This Week and Last
- ANNUAL NOVENA: Our Annual Novena will begin this Saturday evening, April 17th, at 7.30 and continue until the feast itself, April 26th at 7.30 each evening. Offering and Petition envelopes are now available. The director once again is Fr. Jackie Power, OSA.
- PADDY RYAN, R.I.P. Paddy died suddenly on Tuesday morning last at his home in Forster Street in his 85th year. He was next door neighbour to the Augustinian all his life and very few days passed that he didn' t drop into the church here to say a few prayers. For almost 50 years he seemed to be central to everything that was happening in the city here, be it the Chamber of Commerce, the Races, the Tidy Towns, Heritage Trust. He had a very active finger in an awful lot of pies. Yet he was a very active chairman of the restoration committee when the community here was putting the new roof on the church in the late 1970s. It required a huge fund-raising drive for that time and Paddy was unsparing in the time and effort he dedicated to the project. The old adage held true: 'If you want a difficult job done, then ask a busy man!' Paddy will be greatly missed by the people of Galway, but especially of course by Breda and his family. His civic and commercial contribution was enormous. May he rest in peace
AS I WAS SAYING...
The bishop of Kerry, Bill Murphy, is a mild-mannered, pipe-smoking Kerryman who doesn't normally throw his weight around. Yet he cooked up a bit of a storm during Holy Week by calling attention to what he saw as 'abuse of the sacraments'. But Bill Murphy is a pragmatist. I guess he is under no illusion that his words will change anything. In fact he prefaced his series of questions with the following remark: "I am really speaking to those who are not here and who don't come to church very much." Obviously, he was more intent on fomenting a debate than in laying down the law (whatever that means or does any more in ecclesiastical terms!).
He had in mind in particular those who use the church as an ecclesiastical backdrop to their family or social occasions. He asked a few obvious and rhetorical questions: Should those who rarely, if ever, attend church expect to be accommodated when they request a Church wedding? If Mass is not sufficiently important to merit their regular attendance, is it fair or honest to demand it on a special occasion? Do couples actually arrange a Church wedding to enhance the photographs and the video? The same questions can be applied other sacraments. "We have to ask ourselves if it makes any sense if parents who do not share the faith of the church, or parents who do not go to Mass, present their children for the sacraments?" the bishop asks.
How authentic (or honest) is the baptism of the child of a couple who no longer practice? Is First Holy Communion primarily a social occasion rather then a religious one? Confirmation too? These sacraments (in our Irish context) are built into the rhythm of school life. Does that constitute social pressure on the parents? All of these questions, and more, merit attention, if not answers! Indeed we have often raised these very issues in this humble organ. Discussion and debate, if conducted in the right spirit, can often be informative and sometimes helpful.
But some of the 'secular bishops' didn't take such a benign view of matters. Some, notably those occupying pulpits in The Examiner and The Sunday Independent, just could not quite contain their fury. Bishop Murphy was 'dictating to the flock', as in the days of yore. 'How dare he tell us what to do' was the angry flavour of quite a few of the hostile contributions. 'We thought these days had long gone.' A few contributions operated from an ill-concealed sub-text: 'After all the clerical sex abuse, how dare this bishop berate us for our harmless omissions!" Some even expressed that sentiment explicitly.
The logic of the last position escapes me. If the Church were to suspend all preaching until every last member were squeaky-clean, then it would have fallen silent from the beginning. It would never have spoken or written a single word! Surely every Christian (even bishops) has the right (the duty?) to challenge their fellow Christians. If our religion does not challenge us, then the chances are that we are not following the gospel of the preacher from Galilee. For a bishop to make the case that the sacraments are sacred and worthy of reverence should really come as no surprise. Perhaps those who affected surprise at this have lost touch with the Church, rather than the bishop of Kerry losing touch with the world? Kerrymen are cute. The latter is a much safer bet!
-Dick Lyng.
THE IRISH CHURCH AND THE WEB
Just as the invention of 'moveable type' by Johannes Gutenberg in the printing press transformed evangelism, communication and learning, laying the foundations for the Renaissance, the Arts, Sciences and the world as we know it today, so too is the digital revolution set to bring about a similar huge change in preaching the gospel, in ways which we are only just beginning to understand. The World Wide Web is now a very powerful communication tool.
Increasingly, people use the Internet as a starting place for information, help, communication, friendship, fun and leisure. It is used by academics in research and businessmen to conduct business transactions; by governments to publicise legislation, policy proposals and strategies; by many organizations as a means of communicating with their members. It is also used as a medium to portray the values, philosophies and standpoints of tens of thousands of organizations, to audiences chosen by those organizations.
In its recent publications, the Pontifical Council in Rome is unequivocal. It encourages Church leaders to receive media education themselves. It proposes that priests, deacons, religious, and lay pastoral workers should have media education. Catholic schools should train communicators. Parents must learn and practise the skills of discerning viewers and listeners and readers. To what extent is the Irish Catholic Church prepared for this? Has it heard that message? How does the Irish Catholic Church seek to use the World Wide Web to preach the gospel world-wide?
My review of a large sample of the websites referred to by the Catholic Communications Office brought the following observations:I concluded that Irish Church websites focus quite a bit on the location, structure and organization used for the delivery of the services by the Church in Ireland. By contrast lay Catholic websites focus on the services provided by those organizations themselves, the people providing the services and the audience to whom they are being delivered.
- The main focus of a lot of the websites is on Church buildings without much focus on the laity who frequent those buildings. There appeared to be a strong focus on priests to the exclusion of the laity.
- There was a distinct absence of creative or argued writing on important topics like ethics, morality, social justice, global political issues.
- Issues relating to the needs of the poor were few and far between.
- A strong focus on liturgical services was evident.
- With a few exceptions there was little focus on prayer or spirituality.
- Those web sites created and managed by lay people tended to be of better quality in terms of design, content, accessibility and being user-friendly.
-Paul Cummins, in The Furrow, April, 2004. Page 214.
TRÓCAIRE CAMPAIGN, 2004
The Galway 'Augustinians Against Hunger' group wish to express their sincere thanks to all who contributed to the Trócaire Lenten Campaign, whether through the Lenten Family Fast Box, or through the Trócaire church collection on Sunday week last. Total funds raised were as follows (last year's figures in brackets):
Trócaire Boxes: €1,700 (€1,280)
Church collection: €670 (€519)
24-hour fast: €436 (none last year).
This represents an overall increase of 56% on last year's figures. This money is destined mainly for Rwanda this year where it will help in a small way towards the rebuilding of that country after the devastation of ten years ago when over one million people died in 100 days. (The little girl on your Trócaire boxes this year is 12 year old Josienne, a survivor of the massacre). It was the most intense campaign of genocide since the Second World War.
Since 1994, Trócaire has constructed 233 new homes for genocide survivors and has rehabilitated and re-constructed 29 primary schools. Trócaire has also rehabilitated and provided teacher training for 15 secondary and technical schools. A unique Trauma Counselling Service was set up to support some of the psychologically damaged people. Resources were invested in rebuilding the health care services and the decimated Justice system to allow the trials of genocide suspects to proceed. Agricultural training was organised for widows and child headed households as well as income generation programmes. Peace building programmes have also received significant funding.
Today, 120,000 people are still in prison awaiting trial. Some 40% of the people of Rwanda are living in poverty. An estimated three out of four children experienced a violent episode during the genocide. Today, 70% of the population is under the age of 14 years.
The Hunger Awareness Group will meet on Monday night next at the later time of 8.30 (due to Novena). There a new project, which is now in the pipeline, will be discussed.
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