Parish Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Deceased members of the Joyce family.
12.00: Catherine Barrett, Middle St. (1st Anniv).
6.30: Larry O'Donnell, (Anniv).

AS I WAS SAYING.....

The terms 'fundamentalist' or 'fundamentalism' are used generally today as terms of disparagement, in both a religious and political context. All sorts of dangerous concepts clutter around the this notion: fanaticism, great arrogance, blind certainty, and the adoption of unyielding positions, either in the religious or the political sphere. Dr. Ian Paisley is an outstanding example of a fundamentalist at work in both worlds.

(Incidentally, the Oxford Dictionary provides both a primary and a secondary definition of 'fundamentalism':

  1. strict maintenance of traditional Protestant beliefs such as the inerrancy of Scripture and literal acceptance of the creeds as fundamentals of Christianity.
  2. strict maintenance of ancient or fundamental doctrines of any religion, especially Islam.)

Perhaps Catholic fundamentalism could be defined as 'strict maintenance of traditional Catholic beliefs such as the infallibility of the Pope and a literal acceptance of all papal documents as fundamentals of Catholicism.' I stress again that this is Catholic fundamentalism in the pejorative sense (i.e. as seen by its enemies!) But today, as also happened to the great pejorative term of the 20th century, 'fascist', fundamentalist is now used so indiscriminately as to render it almost meaningless. For example, the present Pope, and his immediate predecessor, are often dubbed 'fundamentalist' by those who strongly disagree with them. It is at that stage that the precise meaning of the term becomes blurred.

Both fundamental positions referred to above (Protestant and Catholic) are external to the individual - in a sense, based as they are on Scriptural inerrancy and Papal infallibility. I referred last week to the five fundamental questions that every Christian must address if our religion is to become (or remain) authentic. A number of you asked me to return to these questions. They were posed originally by the late Cardinal Hume, and he called them 'fundamental questions' in the sense that he regarded them as foundational to any lived experience of Christianity today. His five questions are as follows:

  1. Whether there is life after death?
  2. Whether life has a purpose and meaning?
  3. Whether there is anything beyond what my senses can discover and know?
  4. Why we are so often disappointed in the pursuit of happiness?
  5. Whether the experience of loving another person can point to the love of God?

We live in a world which gives primacy to personal experience. The experience of authority has been usurped by the authority of experience, to paraphrase the Jesuit M.P. Gallagher. We may regret this subjectivism, but we still have to work with it. The 'external' fundamental forms already referred to are sterile. Hume's fundamental questions are of a different order. They are based on a keen understanding of the 'modern person.' Because 'right questions' can be more important than 'right answers' in the search for truth.

-Dick Lyng.

THE LATE CHARLIE MacDERMOTT

A great patron and friend of the Augustinian here, Charlie MacDermott, Dalysfort Road, passed away on Tuesday last. He had been ailing for about five months.

Charlie was born 75 years ago in Oranmore. He attended Primary School in 'The Old Mon' on Market Street (now The Connaught Tribune offices). Unusual for the time, he really loved school and his teachers there. The natural 'graduation' for the lads in the Mon was to move on for their secondary education to the Patrician secondary school, 'The Bish'. But Charlie's mother had other ideas! She sent him as a boarder to St. Mary's. These were the most miserably two years of the young boy's life. However, he was to make his way back to 'The Bish' again for his final years. He often spoke of the great joy of linking up again with his old classmates and teachers.

After secondary school, Charlie went straight into the Post Office, a natural move for a young lad from a 'Post Office family' such as his. He married Philomena Brady on June 1st, 1960. They were fortunate in that their love for one another stood the test of time. For the first couple of years of their marriage they lived quite close to the Augustinian Church. The relationship between Charlie and the Augustinian also stood the test of time. He was a daily Mass goer there, after which he bought The Irish Times, wandered up the town for a cup of coffee or, preferably, in search of some to chat with.

I knew Charlie for over 15 years. Obviously, his our first meeting point was the Augustinian. But we also shared a passing interest in hurling. According to Jimmy Duggan, Charlie was a more than useful hurler in his younger days. (What would Jimmy know about hurling!) He played for Oranmore when Oranmore was an independent club. Charlie was ecumenical in that he was also a loyal member of Corinthians Rugby Club. But no all were so ecumenical and Charlie was excommunicated by the G.A.A. I think Charlie revelled in his status of victimhood for many years. To my knowledge, the GAA never approached him to act as their Press Officer!

Those who knew Charlie well will know that he was a man of polarities. His relationship with Mary's and 'The Bish' would tell a lot about Charile's subsequent life. He was a passionate man of very strong likes and dislikes. He hated Mary's with a passion; he loved the 'Bish' and 'Old Mon' with a passion. If you wanted a man to sit on a fence for a day or two, you'd really have to look elsewhere. Charlie wasn't a great fence-sitter in any field. He 'called it as he saw it!' If he was interested in something, he was intensely interested in it. It engaged him fully, entirely.

And his four great passions were: Music, sport, politics and family, but not necessarily in that order. He loved his music and he though that Lyric FM was one of the very few valuable products of the Celtic Tiger. His political interests covered the whole civil-ecclesiastical spectrum. He wasn't really enamoured with the recent developments in the Catholic Church. He was a Vatican II critical Catholic and he hadn't much time for the current 'restorationists'. Let's say that, had he a vote in the recent papal conclave, the outcome might have been different!

So this morning, we take leave of this decent, generous and interesting human being, Charlie MacDermott. His presence certainly made our lives more interesting, less bland. He lived a very fulfilled life and his suffering was mercifully brief. May he now rest in peace.

HAPPENINGS THIS WEEK

By the way.........

DISENGAGEMENT

Eight years ago the National Catholic Reporter in the US reported on a survey of Roman Catholic parishioners. They were asked if they approved of inter-parish co-operation; parishes combining to undertake jointly what they could not effectively do on their own. Some 96% of the respondents approved of inter-parish activities. The follow-up question was, 'Would you be prepared to help in setting up these initiatives?'

Only 17% said they would. I think that underlines a widespread modem phenomenon, believing but not belonging; emoting but not involving, articulating but not committing. Clearly this creates great difficulties for people in the Churches who have to minister to the half-believing or more widely for those who try to provide social and community leadership to the half-committed. All of us have found ourselves in a situation where we have had to try to work out appropriate strategies for this continuing shifting and ill-defined context.

Contemporary Irish society is more divided than it has been for a long time. There is no single social philosophy or civic vision that the vast majority subscribe to and which would spur us on to social action. In the so-called post-modern world of the recent past the dominant values seem to have been individualism, self-fulfilment and self-determination, personal autonomy and instant gratification.

-Fr. Walter Forde (Ferns).