Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: (Vigil) Della Bowen (Month's Mind)
11.00: Tom Drinkwater; Richard & Jeanne Byrne (Anniv).
6.30: Joan Murphy, Nicholas Ave. (Month's Mind).

As I Was Saying...

It is customary at this time to 'read the tea-leaves', to ask what the future might hold for us. While the future may be unknown, the manner in which it unfolds will not be a total surprise. It can be helpful to view the future as simply 'the rolling out' of a process that has already been largely determined. To put it another way, the seeds of the future have long been sown.

Catholic reporter, John Allen, has identified six influential "mega trends" in the history of the Catholic church, trends that are already shaping our future.

(1) The North/South Shift

In 1900, 54% of the Catholic population of the world lived in Europe and North America. By 2000, there had been a major demographic shift: now a mere 34% lived in Europe and the US, while 66% lived in the Third World . The Eurocentric Church is dead. For the first time, it has elected two non-Latin popes in succession. This trend will accelerate.

(2) The Rise of Islam

In the wake of 9/11, Islam is coming to play the role for Catholicism once occupied by communism - the church's chief ideological rival on the world stage, the great question mark around which many debates revolve. We can expect this debate to intensify. And we can expect Benedict XVI to revisit the eye of this particular storm on a regular basis.

(3) The Biotech Revolution

Given the rapid pace of scientific change, Catholicism faces a whole new series of ethical headaches. What are the limits to genetic manipulation of human beings? Which breakthroughs in stem-cell research pass doctrinal muster, such as "altered nuclear transfer"? What about calls for "embryo adoption", meaning allowing women (even unwed women, or women in same-sex relationships) to bring embryos to term which would otherwise be destroyed?

(4) The Wojtyla Revolution

Despite his death, John Paul II remains the most influential post-Vatican II personality. From his point of view, public debate on Church doctrine and morals was a luxury indulged in by 'soft' European Catholics. He inhabited a very different world: "End the navel gazing, stop tinkering with church teachings and structures and get on with evangelising the world." He was not Euro-friendly!

(5) Globalisation

As Third World voices become more vocal within Catholicism, concern for what John Paul II called the "globalisation of solidarity" a well as markets will become an increasingly central Catholic theme.

(6) The Sexual Abuse Crisis

Clerical sex abuse has been an absolute nightmare. It has irreparably damaged innocent children, caused a loss of credibility in Church leaders, injured relationships between bishops and priests, and hindered the preaching of the Gospel. The repercussions will continue for generations.

These six factors will continue to shape the relationship between the Church and the world for decades to come. To quote Mao, 'We are cursed to live in interesting times!' So be it.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Some Interest

"Herod the Great {Tyrant}..."

Herod the Great (74BC-4BC approx.) plays a central role in the Nativity account of Matthew's gospel. He is associated in Christian tradition with the Coming of the Magi and the 'Slaughter of the Innocents'. The birth of Jesus coincides with the final years of his reign, by which time the old king had degenerated into total paranoia and insanity.

While the contemporary Jewish historian Josephus makes no reference to these events, the picture he paints of Herod is even more bloody and tyrannical than the biblical one. Herod was not a Jew, but a native of the Land of Edom, a desert region of nomads to the south of Judaea. He was a trusted lackey of the Romans and they made him military prefect of Galilee. He secured his foot on the political ladder when he divorced his wife to marry the reigning Kings' grand-daughter Miramne.

In 40BC civil war broke out; Herod and his family did a runner to Rome. While there he persuaded the Roman senate to give him the title, 'King of the Jews', in return for a pledge to regain Judaea for the Romans. He returned to the Palestine region and, starting from Galilee, he slowly, if brutally, made good his pledge.

He tried to keep the local Jews sweet by rebuilding the temple. However, he caused great offence by erecting a Golden Eagle, symbol of Imperial Rome, in the Holy of Holies. He established new towns and harbours and brought neighbouring regions into his own kingdom and in alliance to Rome. He was entirely ruthless. Although he practiced Judaism, he used the religion as a 'flag of convenience'. In modern terms he was a multi-faith enthusiast, giving credence to other religious ideas which in Jewish eyes diluted his allegiance to the faith!

As he aged be became more and more paranoid. He first killed his brother-in-law and high priest, Aristobulus. His uncle Joseph was next for the axe. He then suspected his wife Mariamne of conducting an affair and he promptly executed her. He immediately fell gravely ill. Thinking that Herod was about to die, Mariamne's mother arranged to have the grandchild (Mariamne's son) crowned king. When the king discovered this he had her executed for her presumption!

Herod had 10 wives altogether. In the final year of his life, he suspected three of his sons of being over-enthusiastic to inherit the throne! So he had these three executed. When signing the death warrant for one of them, Antipater, Augustus Caesar remarked that he would rather be Herod's pig than Herod's son!

Just before his death, Herod, realising that when he died there would be no great mourning, sent letters to the heads of every family in Judaism demanding their presence on pain of death. Herod then ordered them to be locked up in the horse-racing ground. He then gave the orders to his sister that upon his death they were all to be executed. Thus making sure that the whole nation would mourn when he died, albeit not for him. Fortunately, when Herod died, his sister released the imprisoned Jews and allowed them to return home.

Herod died in Jericho in 4BC, 37 years after being declared 'King of the Jews.' In very few instances does reality live up to the legend. But in the case of Herod, the reality actually surpassed in ferocity the legend.

The Journey of the Magi

"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The was deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty, and charging high prices.
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

-T.S. Eliot.

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