Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Mary O'Loughlin & son Pat, (Anniv).
11.00: John Murray, (Anniv).
6.30: Eddie Reynolds, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

The World Cup continues.

Germany sent the Brits packing in a convincing manner. But failure to award a perfectly legitimate goal to England shifted the focus away from the team's absolutely awful display. Instead we found ourselves debating the need for technology to 'revisit' controversial decisions. Football has always been a trendsetter in a sport. Long before cricket or rugby could dream it, the football authorities started a World Cup in 1930. But other sports have since overtaken football. For example, in rugby the video replay is used very effectively in judging the validity or otherwise of claims for a try. But FIFA has so far rejected technological assistance, despite some blaring blunders that marred important games. As we all know, Ireland suffered at the hands of Thierry Henry, literally! The 'technology debate' is likely to rumble on. One official said he was against it as 'it would change the nature of the game'.

Whatever the impact it may have on football, there is growing evidence that our own use of technology can change the way in which our brains work. The constant use of the internet, mobile phones and video games, can lead to a loss of the ability to focus properly on a single task like reading a book, or saying a prayer. (I find the ringing mobile in Church so annoying!)

Extensive research carried out by neuroscientists at one of the top universities in America has reached the conclusion that, despite what we may think, it's impossible to focus fully on two things at the same time because our brains have a limited capacity for processing information - in other words we're not wired to multitask.

An 18th century French Jesuit writer, Jean Pierre de Caussade, wrote extensively on the need to focus entirely on the present moment, to the exclusion of all else. He described this exercise as 'a sacrament.' Only in this way, he claimed, can we have a real encounter with the divine. Only through engaging fully with the present moment can we discover the God-given purpose for our lives and our full human potential. "The present moment", he wrote, "holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams".

The challenge, as he saw, was not to allow those human tendencies such as weariness, irritability, jealously, distrust, or prejudice to get in the way and to rob us of the opportunity the present moment can offer. For him such feelings were like clouds that we had to soar above like an eagle, with our eyes fixed on the sun and its rays. This is easier said than done. Such insight and vision run totally contrary to our new obsession of wanting to keep in touch with what's happening elsewhere. Knowing when to switch off our mobile would be a good start on the road of discovering the sacrament or opportunities that arise when we learn to be fully present wherever we are.

So, one thing at a time! Switch off that phone when saying the rosary! Imagine a goalie answering his mobile during a game! Thierry Henry notwithstanding, technology does have its downside.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Considerable Interest

Who Can Mock This Church?

Maybe the Catholic Church should be turned upside down. Jesus wasn't known for pontificating from palaces, covering up scandals, or issuing edicts on social issues. Yet if the top of the church has strayed from its roots, much of its base is still deeply inspiring. I came here to impoverished southern Sudan to write about Sudanese problems, not the Catholic Church's. Yet once again, I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world's neediest are lowly nuns and priests - notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for the grandness of their compassion.

There seem to be two Catholic Churches, the old boys' club of the Vatican and the grass-roots network of humble priests, nuns and laity in places like Sudan. Some bishops and cardinals are exemplary, but overwhelmingly it's at the grass roots that I find the great soul of the Catholic Church.

No organization has done more to elevate the moral stature of the Catholic Church in the United States than The Boston Globe. Its groundbreaking 2002 coverage of abuse by priests led to reforms and a significant reduction in abuse. Catholic kids are safer today not because of the cardinals' leadership, but because of The Boston Globe's.

Yet the church leaders are right about one thing: there is often a liberal and secular snobbishness toward the church as a whole - and that is unfair.

It may be easy at a New York cocktail party to sniff derisively at a church whose apex is male chauvinist, homophobic and so out of touch that it bars the use of condoms even to curb AIDS. But what about Father Michael Barton, a Catholic priest from Indianapolis? I met Father Michael in the remote village of Nyamlell, 150 miles from any paved road here in southern Sudan. He runs four schools for children who would otherwise go without an education, and his graduates score at the top of statewide examinations.

Father Michael came to southern Sudan in 1978 and chatters fluently in Dinka and other local languages. To keep his schools alive, he persevered through civil war, imprisonment and beatings, and disease. Anybody scorn him? Anybody think he's a self-righteous hypocrite? On the contrary, he would make a great pope.

In the city of Juba, I met Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who spent years working with battered women in Appalachia. She and others are fighting hunger not with handouts but with help for villagers to improve agricultural techniques. They are also establishing a school for health workers, with a special focus on midwifery to reduce deaths in childbirth. She would make a great pope, too.

There are so many more like them. It's because of brave souls like these that I honor the Catholic Church. I understand why many Americans disdain a church whose leaders are linked to cover-ups - but the Catholic Church is far larger than the Vatican. And unless we're willing to endure beatings alongside Father Michael, unless we're willing to stand up to warlords with Sister Cathy, we have no right to disparage them or their true church.

-Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, May 2, 2010.

Art Competition Winners

We had a record number of entrances for this years Children's Art Competition. We judged 75 entries (some children submitted more than one installation (!) which was permitted). We had three categories. The results were as follows:

The winners of the 9-13 years:

1st Megan O'Reilly;

2nd Thomas Hayes;

joint 3rd Cian Lynam and Breffani O'Reilly:

Highly commended: Michael Hayes, Miriam Lacey, Helen Lacey, Peter Don Pedro

The winners of the 4-8 years:

1st Beth Whelan;

2nd Becky Byrne;

joint 3rd Diarmuid Hayes and Mei Ling Staunton.

Highly commended: Ben O'Sullivan, John Morrison, Ursula Carroll

Winner of Under 4:
Anna Ostheimer

Congratulations to all our artists.

Football Quotes

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