Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30 (Vigil) Margaret Conneely, Merchant's Road, (1st Anniv) & Mario (Tom) Ward (Anniv).
11.00:Larry Carter (Long Walk), (Anniv).
6.30: Ann Curran, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

Tomorrow morning, the last of the schools will reopen, and the Summer of 2006 will be no more. And what a wonderful Summer it was! In Kilkenny for example, late July saw temperatures exceed 30°C on five successive days, the highest temperatures recorded since the record-breaking month of August 1995. (But then, as you will learn this afternoon, Kilkenny is exceptional!)

However, all that is now a memory. All the children will have resumed their normal routines by tomorrow morning. And, despite the warm, wonderful memories, 'normal living' has its redemptive attractions. We settle into our routine rather easily, a routine that will not be seriously interrupted again until Christmas.

A shocking story emerged in Austria recently that may serve to warns us against taking 'normal living' and childhood in particular, for granted. In 1998, a 10-year-old Austrian girl name Natascha Kampusch was snatched from a Vienna street as she walked to school. For eight long years, she was held in a cellar she believed to be rigged with explosives.

Her only human contact was with her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, who effectively brought her up. He provided her with clothes, food, helped her with her studies. It is not yet clear if he sexually abused her. But last week, Natascha escaped while cleaning Priklopil's car. Within the hour, her captor was found dead on a railway track.

He was part of my life. That is why in a certain way I mourn him. Of course it is true that my youth was different from that of many others, but in principle I do not have the feeling that I have missed out on anything. I have been saved from some things, from starting to smoke or drink, or from having bad friends.

These are shocking words from a girl whose youth had been stolen from her in an unimaginably cruel manner. Like the Summer sunshine for us now, normality was for her just a blurred memory. Natascha has seen her parents just once since her release. She doesn't yet want to see them again. Perhaps they present too painful a challenge to her belief that in the past eight years her life has not lacked anything. Extreme experiences trigger psychological coping mechanisms which enable people to survive their ordeal.

Psychologists say she is probably suffering from 'Stockholm syndrome'. Apparently, over time, captives become sympathetic to their captors. The name derives from a 1973 hostage incident in Stockholm, Sweden. At the end of six days of captivity in a bank, several kidnap victims actually resisted rescue attempts, and afterwards refused to testify against their captors.

Of course these symptoms occur under tremendous emotional and often physical duress. The behaviour has also been observed in battered spouses, abused children, prisoners of war, and concentration camp survivors. Apparently, through sympathising with her captor, the captive is denying the awfulness of her present reality until such time as her mind is strong enough to deal with it.

So, as your children set out for school tomorrow, thank God for normality restored! It's a great blessing.

-Dick Lyng

Steering Committee Meeting

The Steering Committee will hold its monthly meeting in the Priory dining room on Monday night next, September 4th at 7.30. The main item on the agenda will be the pending 'Fund Raising Auction'. Once again, the team will line out as follows: Hedy Gibbons, Cathal Cunningham, Peter Cunnane, Anne McDonagh, Mairead Conneely, Bernadette Whyte, Annamarie Heanue, Gerry Ferguson, Tim Roe, Paschal Leahy, Niall Coghlan, and Dick Lyng.

Al-Anon

The fellowship of Al-Anon (support Group for relatives & friends of problem drinkers) are pleased to announce that we will be starting a new Alateen meeting (for 12-18 year olds) affected by anybody's drinking. New meeting will take place on Monday 25th September, 2006 (and every Monday thereafter) at 8.15 p.m in New Conference room, Holy Family School, Renmore, (across from Bradley's Garage & Esso Station) Dublin Road, Galway. An Al-Anon meeting takes place at same time (same venue). Meetings are anonymous, but professionally supervised.

GETTING DRESSED FOR SCHOOL

I must have been too sleepy
getting dressed for school today.
I tried to tuck my shirt in,
but I couldn't make it stay.

I also couldn't tie my shoes.
I fumbled with the laces.
I snagged my scarf, and now some yarn
is dangling from my braces.

My socks are different colours,
and my pants are inside out.
My sweater from the hamper left me
smelling like a trout.

I thought I put a hat on
to control my crazy hair.
The hat turned out to be a pair
of purple underwear.

I spilled my breakfast on my clothes
and headed into school.
My friends, of course, were all impressed.
I'd never looked so cool.

-Kenn Nesbitt.

Auction in October

As announced last weekend, we are holding our 'Fundraising Auction' on Sunday, October 1st at 3.00pm. (Provision will be made for the viewing of Lots beforehand.) It will be held at Ross Castle, courtesy of George and Elizabeth McLoughlin.

We held a meeting on connection with this event on Tuesday night last in the Priory here. As you will see from the list below, the meeting was very well attended. We explored the logistics involved in staging such an event and we came to the unanimous conclusion that this venture involves a heck of a lot of work indeed! But we all agreed (with ourselves) that we were up to the task.

The auction will involve 'every item imaginable, but usable and serviceable'. Furniture, electrical goods (only new), household items, jewellery, fuel, market garden 'stuff', and anything else you can come up with. The auction, to be conducted by auctioneer Peter Flanagan. But of course our first job is to collect 'every item imaginable'. This is going to be the most intimidating aspect of the whole venture. So we badly need more active and interested people.

We will have a meeting again on Tuesday night next, September 6th in the Priory at 8.00pm. If you are unable to attend the meeting, but would still like to help, perhaps you might contact one of the following: Jim Kent, Rosemary Kent, Noel O'Rourke, Gerry Ferguson, Betty Ferguson, Brigid Headon, Pascal Leahy, Padraig O Gormaille, Patricia Dooley, Cathal Cunningham, Peter Cunnane, Dick Lyng, AnnaMarie Heanue, Nuala Brannigan and Mary Taylor. We'll see you all on Tuesday night.

Brian Cody: Defensor Fidei

Each Pope sets his own individual stamp on his Pontificate. And papal opposition to cloning is but one reason. The last Pope was a prolific 'saintmaker'. However, since the Bavarian Pontiff took over, there has been little activity in the 'dug out'. In fact those few who 'got the nod' had warmed up during the previous Pontificate. John Paul was himself, famously, 'a player's player'. While growing up in Wadowice, he played in goal for his local team. (The fact that he stopped the Italians, on their way to an unprecedented 47-in-a-row, did him no harm on the terraces).

However, Pope Benedict's experience has been very different. As Head of the Holy Office, he was clearly a 'Manager's Manager' and unpopular with the players. He showed the red card to some of the more stylish ones. He favoured defenders, regarding flamboyant attackers with suspicion. He abhors solo-runs, especially down the left wing.

Joseph Ratzinger admired Cody at full-back in the 1970s. Pope Benedict admires Cody's 'hands-on' managerial ruthlessness today. When Cody dropped McEvoy, Larkin and Carter, Ratzinger recognised a kindred spirit. Cody had a message from the Holy Office: "Martyrs are so necessary! Had same trouble myself with Hans Kung and Leonard Boff." Expect Cody to join the Papal Panel for Canonisation later this afternoon.

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