Masses Today

6.30: Joyce & Peggy Giblin, (Anniv).
11.00: Fr Pearse O'Mahony, (Anniv)
6.30: Martin & Kate Cleary, (Anniv)

AS I WAS SAYING...

Willie Walsh is 10 years bishop of Killaloe this week. He came to the job at the worst time possible for the Catholic Church in modern Ireland: attendances were in free-fall; its influence on public policy had, for all practical purposes, evaporated; and, most disastrously of all, it was brought low by some terrible scandals. Worst of all, of course, was the succession of child abuse scandals. These were compounded further by the 'cover-ups' and the widespread evasions of the truth. November 1994 was not a very promising time to take up the crozier in Ireland!

The bishops reacted in various ways to the crisis. Under the present Holy Father, 'a safe pair of hands' is seen to be the first requirement of aspiring bishops. When the storm broke, the 'safe hands' were found to be of little use. Out of a wrong-headed sense of loyalty to the institution, some concealed the real truth for as long as they could. Some attributed the entire child abuse phenomenon to a dark conspiracy of the media! The majority of them just 'ran for cover', leaving a vacuum at the very highest level in the Irish Catholic Church.

The one exception was Willie Walsh. He has been uncompromising in his honesty, his integrity and his humanity. Despite Roman disapproval, he has not been afraid to take on some contentious issues and to encourage open debate. Among the issues he addressed were married clergy, women priests, church recognition of second unions, civil recognition for those in same-sex relationships, the treatment of Travellers, and of course the whole issue of child sexual abuse. He has described the latter as 'the nightmare that has brought most sadness into my life':

"We're dealing now with an issue that has been there but hasn't been dealt with for 40 or 50 years and probably longer. Certainly it has had a serious impact on my life and I don't have any doubt the same applies to the lives of each of my colleague bishops."

In addressing the real problems at the heart of the Church, he states the need to look again at issues such as clerical celibacy and women priests. Nothing should get in the way of the gospel message:

"I think if there are bricks in the Church which are not serving the gospel, let them be taken apart. The church is not an end in itself. It is there to serve the gospel and those structures that are not seen to be serving the gospel should be dismantled brick by brick, and good riddance to them."

He has never comfortable with the official policy of withholding the sacraments from those in 'irregular unions'. He described their treatment by the Church as 'less than Christian'. His years with the CMAC left him with a deep appreciation of the complexity and fragility of marriage. And, of course, it hasn't been all talk! When the Travellers could find nowhere to settle, he offered them the hospitality of his own front lawn! He has been a courageous witness to gospel values and we have been blessed by his presence. May he never falter!

-Dick Lyng.

EVENTS THIS WEEK

A NEW LOW

We have grown weary of war. Thirty years of terrible atrocities in the north of Ireland have left us numbed, immune, shock-proofed. Then something happens sufficiently enormous to blast us out of our deep indifference. Of such enormity was the cruel murder of that fine caring Dublin born woman, Margaret Hassan. Her husband and family waited with a dreadful dignity for news of her, and now her husband pleads simply for the return of her body, the one he promised 'to have and to hold - til death us do part' .

And the poor and the sick, and the children will grieve for this child of God who devoted her life to them. As I thought of their mourning for her, words culled from a Middle Eastern prophet came to mind.

a voice was heard in Rama
wailing and loud lamentation
children weeping for Margaret
They refused to be consoled
because she was no more

Of course, such cruelty goes on all the time, and all over the world too. Only a few capture the headlines and the imagination of so many. I was on this programme only weeks ago, together with the leader of the Muslim community in Liverpool, pleading for the life of poor Ken Bigley. We appealed for mercy in the name of God, the Merciful One. But our pleas, and those for Margaret Hassan, could not penetrate the darkness, shrouding the imagination of the kidnappers.

Deaf, they could not hear the emotion in the voices of their loved ones.

Blind, they could not see that here was a person loved - by the poor, by the children, by the God of love and mercy.

The callous brutality of the executions reveals a calloused heart and a stunted imagination. Here are human beings unable to place themselves in the shoes of those they kidnap and kill. For how could they possibly do what they do if they could actually feel the screaming agony of their captives? Their imaginations must have died on them, before they dealt death to their victims. This is strangely both depressing and helpful. The depravity of humanity has left its fingerprints on every page of our history. But written on the same page are the stories of people who have changed and turned; those whose imaginations have come alive and begun to see the world differently, to feel love, not hatred, to seek peace, not turmoil.

That's why Jesus told us to pray for those who treat us cruelly, so that the eyes of their imagination might be opened to see that whatever they did to the least of these his brothers and sisters they did, in fact, to him.

-The Rt Rev. James Jones, Thought for the Day, BBC4

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS

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