Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Peter & Bridie Berry; Tierney family; (RIP).
11.00: Anne & James Sharkey, (Anniv).
6.30: Michael Murray, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

The little white 'Crosses of Remembrance' in the Church provoked great interest. They bring to mind the continental 'war cemeteries'. Understandably then, the display provoked even greater interest among the people of St. Nicholas'.

World War One meant devastation for the already small Church of Ireland community. 49,400 Irishmen lost their lives, with a greatly disproportionate number coming from the Protestant community. Until recent times, political circumstances prevented the nationalist community of this island from recognising the unselfish sacrifices made by those who lost their lives in that conflict. November is the 'Month of Remembering', and not just for religious reasons. In Catholic folklore, it is the 'Month of the Dead'. But, as we shall see, very often, the act of remembering has a sharp political edge to it.

According to the late Pat Sheeran of UCG, we Irish are a truly 'funereal people', obsessed with death and the trappings of death. Funerals are still 'popular' here. Die in England and the chances are you will have a lonely exit, ritually speaking at least. There, and in the States, death has been 'privatised'. But Irish society has insisted on publicly acknowledging the reality of death. The funeral is woven into our way of life. Irish society still remains a highly personalised web, where 'who you belong to' is of greater interest than 'what you work at'. This reality, rather than any inherent morbid psychic strand, explains why our dead are central to our social and our personal concerns.

In support of his thesis that the Irish are an excessively morbid people, Pat Sheeran pointed to the politicisation of death through the hunger strikes in the Republican tradition. 'What other culture has attached such political symbolism to the coffin?', he asked. This politicisation of death and dying could not have taken place without the morbid predisposition of the Irish psyche. Sheeran may well have a point. Traditionally the Hunger Strike has been a potent weapon in the Irish Republican arsenal. Death was (and still is) used as a immensely effective weapon in the ongoing propaganda war.

According to this school, Irish psyche functioned as a fertile infrastructure for a particular type of Catholicism, a Catholicism of the 'Valley of Tears' variety. The importance accorded by Catholicism to the Holy Souls fits neatly into our supposed psychic patterns. Catholicism does indeed have the ritual resources and flexibility to address the profound mystery of death and dying.

But Catholicism's effectiveness in this regard surely has its source in universal human longing rather than in any localised cultural need. It is not just a sentimental or morbid reminiscence. No matter how brutally and systematically religion is suppressed, the belief in an afterlife persists. This is so obvious in Chinese history. The human heart needs 'to remember in hope'. The spirits of the ancestors are central there.

'Remembrance' has a stronger grip still on the British imagination. Remembrance Sunday is a sombre, sacred day. The Cenotaph is as central to British iconography as is the coffin to Republican imagination. The need to remember with pride is common to every culture. The act of 'remembering in hope' is profoundly Christian. This distinction is crucial.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Great Interest

The late Fr. Mike McCormack

Fr Mike McCormack, a native of Ballinasloe, died on Sunday last, aged 44. He was diagnosed with cancer in recent times and, obviously, died very quickly. He was parish priest of Holy Spirit Church in Halton Brook.

Mike worked with Fr. Gerry Ryan in No. 4 Augustine Steet during the 1980s, and joined the Augustinian Order for a time, but was ordained for the diocese of Shrewsbury in 1994.

Ironically, Mike was a fitness fanatic. He loved walking, running and keeping fit. In 2003, he cycled 1000km across the mountains, from Seville to Campostella. He followed the Adalucian footsteps of St. James, on a mountain bike, to help poverty stricken families in the Third World.

His funeral Mass will be celebrated in Ballinsloe on Thursday next. He is survived by his father Patrick, and three brothers, Fr. Christy, Padraig and Brendan. May he rest in peace.

Science, God and Trouble

I occasionally write my column on the relationship between science and religion, and no other topic excites as much reaction from readers. My last article was published on October 11th. The reaction was interesting.

Some correspondents think I write very often on science and religion, but I do not. Over the period from November 30th, 2006, to October 18th, 2007, I wrote two articles on this topic out of a total of 50 articles. Reaction to my science and religion columns comes mainly in the form of letters to the editor and as letters and e-mails sent to me personally. The letters to the editor seem to divide into two-thirds critical of my efforts and one-third approving. Threequarters of the personal letters and e-mails are positive and onequarter are negative. The tone of the negative reaction is often emotional, mainly angry.

Some hold that a scientist must not write on religion. But, I write on the INTERACTION between science and religion. Why should I ignore this important topic? But, the real problem for many is that I do not condemn religion as a nonsense. In fact, I approve of mainline Christianity. Those who object to my addressing this topic would see no problem if I condemned religion.

I am convinced it is possible for a scientist to believe in God without insulting reason and at the same time to accept all that science reveals about the world. I do, of course, concede that belief cannot rest wholly on reason, it also requires faith. I accept that agnosticism, which claims that the evidence is not strong enough to decide either way on the God question, is reasonable.

Atheism claims there is no evidence for God and concludes there is no God. But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and is certainly insufficient grounds on which to base a conclusion of absence. I therefore conclude such a position to be unreasonable.

However, an atheist who says: "I find no evidence for God, which goes a long way towards persuading me that there is no God and I am prepared to go the whole way by making an act of faith", is reaching a conclusion without insulting reason.

The central theme of my column of October 11th, which none of my detractors refers to, warned of the danger of overloading science with expectations it cannot fulfil, as Richard Dawkins and his likes would do. It seems to me that if we put all our eggs in the basket of science we will eventually reap the whirlwind of a big backlash against science when it "betrays" us by failing to lift the impossible loads we would ask it to bear.

I noted in my recent article that atheism is in an aggressive proselytising mode. It is certainly getting lots of attention considering the tiny fraction of the population it represents. According to the Census figures for 2006, 92.14 per cent of the population is Christian. Those proclaiming 'No Religion', including the atheists, are in a tiny minority (4.2 per cent). But when you listen to public debate on various ethical issues you could be pardoned for thinking that it is the Christians who are in a tiny minority.

-Dr. William Reville, UCC & The Irish Times.

Neil Warner's Offer

As you know, Neil Warner is a regular patron in the Augustinian here and he is a photographer by profession. During the Christmas period last year he made a generous offer to the Augustinian. But, the Christmas period itself was not the best time as for this as it is filled with seasonal distractions and we were not properly organised to avail fully of the offer.

So we will repeat the exercise this year, but we will allow more time. Vouchers will be available at the back of the Church on Sunday next. Neil is offering a full studio shoot for the special price of a €35 donation to the Augustinian Church Project. 100% of this goes to the church fund. (The normal price is €65).

This shoot can be for one person or as many as you like. It is aimed at families, really. So the vouchers will be available here next Sunday. Also, some paid the money last year and didn't avail of the shoot. You are now invited to cash in the voucher this year.

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