Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: William Mitchell, (Anniv).
11.00: Marie Moten & Michael Mac Namara, (Anniv).
6.30: Gerry Gilmore, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

In the post-Easter clean-up, I came across a copy of the Galway Advertiser dated April 4, 1974. An 'Easter in the Galway Churches' notice informed the faithful that Confessions would be heard in the Augustinian on Spy Wednesday, from 9.00 to 9.00. In all probability two priests were 'hearing' at all times. Many regard those days as the 'Golden Age' of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Church attendance was almost 100% and the confession queues seemed endless! Yet, as we now know, clerical child abuse was widespread at the same time, and no one said a word! It is my own hunch that Victorian respectability masqueraded as Catholic morality. Appearances alone mattered!

We had no Confessions here on Spy Wednesday this year. And nobody noticed! Contrast that confessional fall-off with the proliferation of self-help groups, where members readily seek out the help of others who "know what I'm going through" and can offer concrete advice or support.

Church leaders have been asking 'where have all the confession queues gone?' Instead they should really be asking why were the people there in the first place. Ritual is not the sacrament. The sacrament is the actual healing and reconciliation itself. Typically, we got 'hung up' on the ritual, on the externals. The ritual of Confession as we know it today was unknown for many centuries. But sacramental reconciliation (in whatever form) was a constant feature.

But irrational 'guilt feelings' were often mistaken for moral culpability. And this 'pathology' was encouraged by frightful preaching, literally! This sent them towards the confession box, where all their guilty fears were confirmed. The more people came to confession, the more the confessors' own existence was justified!

Today, thank God, all of that has gone. But confessional practices have experienced a new lease of life in secular society. Matters that our parents wouldn't dare mention to a close friend are now spoken about openly in the media.

But many people still seek outside help, be it through counselling, psychotherapy, or through 'peer ministry'. Alcoholics Anonymous is a good example here. 'Sin' is confessed in a communal context; the need for 'higher assistance' is acknowledged and a firm purpose of amendment is sincerely stated. The focus here is in keeping with the practice of the early church: people doing penance so that they might be reformed in the image of God. Who is to say no sacrament is present when this healing and reconciliation happens between baptized people?

Regardless of Papal Letters, the long lines at the confessionals will never return. This leaves a gap, obviously. We stand in the same position as the Christians of the early Middle Ages: the older form of reconciliation is dying out, and what shape the newer form will take is not clear. In the meantime, reconciliation is taking place daily, and in a variety of forms. We must not get fixated on ritual. The Church must now think outside the box, literally!

-Dick Lyng

Items of Great Interest

Count me in!

A website (countmeout.ie) has been set up to facilitate those who wish to leave the Church. But, why go? Some people feel that they can no longer remain associated with an institution that is so corrupt and dangerous for children. Nothing that I will write is intended in any way to lessen our horror at the evil of sexual abuse. But the statistics for the US, from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004, suggest that Catholic clergy do not offend more than the married clergy of other Churches.

Some surveys even give a lower level of offence for Catholic priests. They are less likely to offend than lay school teachers, and perhaps half as likely as the general population. Celibacy does not push people to abuse children. It is simply untrue to imagine that leaving the Church for another denomination would make one's children safer. We must face the terrible fact that the abuse of children is widespread in every part of society. To make the Church the scapegoat would be a cover-up.

Why stay? I must lay my cards on the table; even if the Church were obviously worse than other Churches, I still would not go. I am not a Catholic because our Church is the best, or even because I like Catholicism. I do love much about my Church but there are aspects of it which I dislike. I am not a Catholic because of a consumer option for an ecclesiastical Aldi rather than Tesco, but because I believe that it embodies something which is essential to the Christian witness to the Resurrection, visible unity.

When Jesus died, his community fell apart. He had been betrayed, denied, and most of his disciples fled. It was chiefly the women who accompanied him to the end. On Easter Day, he appeared to the disciples. This was more than the physical resuscitation of a dead corpse.

All Christians are one in the Body of Christ. I have deepest respect and affection for Christians from other Churches. But this unity in Christ needs some visible embodiment. Christianity is not a vague spirituality but a religion of incarnation, in which the deepest truths take the physical and sometimes institutional form. Historically this unity has found its focus in Peter, the Rock.

From the beginning and throughout history, Peter has often been a wobbly rock, a source of scandal, corrupt, and yet this is the one - and his successors - whose task is to hold us together so that we may witness to Christ's defeat on Easter Day of sin's power to divide. And so the Church is stuck with me whatever happens. We may be embarrassed to admit that we are Catholics, but Jesus kept shameful company from the beginning.

-Rev. Timothy Radcliff, OP (former Master General).

Wedding Bells!

The wedding of Niamh Staunton and Matthew Wilson took place in the Augustinian yesterday (while the Aintree Grand National was in progress!).

Matthew is from Scotland and Niamh is of course daughter of Gerry Staunton (choir) and Catherine. They met in London where Niamh dabbles in financial matters. The Augustinian Choir raised the roof during the ceremony! We wish the couple every happiness.

Lourdes Pilgrimage

Led by Bishop Martin Drennan, (1-6th July). Fare €725. (Special arrangements for the sick: €585). All bookings through Fahy Travel, Bridge St. (594747) ASAP.

"Quotable quotes..."

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