The Public Square

Archbishop Richard Clarke of Armagh
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Another in the excellent Patrick Finn Lecture Series in St. Mary's in Haddington Road. This time the title was "The Church in the Irish Public Square". It was a pretty provocative title and the talk certainly lived up to it.

The speaker was Archbishop Richard Clarke of Armagh and he didn't waste any time putting it up to his audience. He kicked off by deploring the way the media, in response to commercial pressures, were effectively dumbing down content to mere soundbytes and thus depriving us of the possibility of any sort of subtle conversations in that forum. And when it came to social media the content became more aggressive and nasty.

So far so good. But if you thought this was going to develop into a rant about how the media are not paying due attention to the teaching and views of the church you were in for a shock.

The church, he said, had no God given right to be heard in the Irish public square. It had to earn that right by putting its views in a way that appealed to both reason and emotion and it had to do this with more than a pinch of passion.

The days of preaching at civil society from the pulpit were gone. The case had to be argued in terms of the common good and, perish the thought, the church had to listen respectfully to the views of others and, in the heel of the hunt, be prepared to change its own views where the argument could not be sustained.

That is not to say that the ramblings of every idiot out there had to be given the same weight as reasoned and considered views. There had to be some element of discrimination as well and this was unfortunately lacking in much of current media coverage.

Pointing out that the Christian traditions agreed on more that they disputed, he felt there was a lot to be said in them coordinating their views in advance when it came to presenting them in the public square. He mentioned a recent presentation he did, along with RC Archbishop Eamon Martin, on the Flesh and Blood campaign. This was about organ and blood donation and it didn't get a lot of media coverage. He figured that if the two Archbishops had instead ended up with fisticuffs the coverage would have been extensive, as the media thrive on confrontation but find the good news lacking in appeal.

The above is only a small part of what the Archbishop had to say and it is in my own paraphrasing. His presentation was compelling and well crafted and the content was inspiring. Definitely one of the highlights of this already excellent lecture series.

Hopefully, the text will appear soon in an issue of Doctrine and Life and you will be able to judge for yourself.

Souvenir poster

Hell & High Water

John Horgan
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John Horgan treated us to another talk in the Patrick Flynn Lecture Series on last Thursday evening (19/2/2015). His theme was the church and the media with particular reference to the Furrow magazine under the editorship of its founder Canon J G McGarry. His chosen title was "Between Hell and High Water" which well reflects that turbulent period and the delicate path navigated by a progressive priest operating in the hinterland of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.

The sub-title for the talk was "the Furrow and its context 1950-1977". This period began with Canon McGarry's founding of The Furrow and ended with his death in a motor accident. Horgan's description of the Canon:

McGarry himself could have passed, at first glance, for a run-of-the-mill rural parish priest. But behind a craggy exterior, which could well have fitted into a vacant slot on Mount Rushmore, there lurked a keen intelligence, a highly developed sense of strategy, a gift for language, and an utterly authentic humility which operated, at times, to surprise and even disarm his critics.

I am only too aware of the oppressiveness of this period, and particularly the earlier part of it. In his book "The Irish and Catholic Power", Paul Blanshard documents the extent to which the Roman Catholic Church dictated to the State, and, of course, within the church itself that dictatorship was absolute. In that regard, I was interested to hear Horgan mention the three bêtes noirs bishops of my day. John Charles McQuaid, the conservative control freak who used his excellent organisational skills to capture for the church the civil organisation of his diocese, and to some extent that of the whole country. Then there was Connie Lucey, the gatekeeper, who ensured the highest level of theological orthodoxy imaginable. And finally Michael Browne, former Professor of Moral Theology in Maynooth and subsequently Bishop of Galway, from where he succeeded in annoying the nation. He wasn't known as Cross Michael for nothing.

I was also interested to hear Horgan mention, among others, the progressive theologian Gregory Baum, who had to skirt the Dublin diocese on his visit to this country in the sixties. I mentioned most of these people myself when I was guest speaker at UCD's L&H at a time when there was still some hope that the Vatican Council was opening up the Roman Catholic Church and allowing it to catch up on some four hundred years of missed opportunities.

In those days material published under church auspices or by clerics had to be vetted by church censors. The Nihil Obstat was the first step and the process culminated with an Imprimatur. The Furrow carried such stamps of ecclesiastical vetting and permissions up to 1976 when, having consulted the editors of other similar publications, McGarry just dropped the practice, thus declaring, albeit sotto voce, The Furrow's independence. Mind you, I was never impressed with those labels after I saw them on a ridiculous novena to St. Joseph.

McGarry effectively got away with murder in the context of his time. When Horgan asked him how he managed to do this, his answer was: "the thing is you can say almost anything you want as long as you say it with style".

Canon J G McGarry presents the President's Birthday gift
of £100 to Mrs. Bridget Maughan, Lisbane,
on the occasion of her 100th birthday.
(Photo: by courtesy of the McGuire family
Source: Annagh Magazine, Christmas 1978)

McGarry left Maynooth in 1969 to become parish priest of Ballyhaunis (my own father's birthplace) where he was held in high regard for his pastoral care of, and his respect for his parishioners. An appreciation, written by Aine McEvoy in 1978, on the first anniversary of his death, is replete with tributes from sorrowing and grateful parishioners, particularly the old and the infirm. And the thing that comes across most in them is McGarry's caring and his genuine humility.

These tributes reminded me of those that poured in for Fr. Tony Flannery when the Vatican's Inquisition (CDF to you) silenced him. I wondered if the two men might have a lot in common.

Felix Larkin

John Horgan was introduced by Felix Larkin. Felix is co-editor of a recently published book "Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth Century Ireland - Writing Against the Grain" to which Horgan has contributed a well crafted essay on "The Furrow: navigating the rapids, 1950-77". The essay details a number of McGarry's run ins with the hierarchy, but interestingly enough, a lot of the efforts at censoring The Furrow's clerical contributors came from those contributors' own superiors. Horgan touched on a number of these in his talk.

Both the essay and the talk are a massive tribute to McGarry, a giant of his times, but a man who doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

Souvenir poster

An appreciation by Louis McRedmond August 1977 2nd item on page.

Beating the Odds

Bishop Pat Storey
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Last evening saw the first talk in the current session of the excellent Patrick Finn Lecture Series in St. Mary's church, Haddington Road, Dublin. I have blogged some of the earlier talks in this series, which was started in 2006 by the then parish priest. The series was named in his honour after his death. Speakers have ranged through bishops, priests, nuns, politicians, academics and philosophers. The standard has been high and the contents no-holds-barred.

This talk was a piece of history of itself. The first mainstream female bishop on these islands talking about her life, hopes and faith in one of the most prestigious Roman Catholic churches in town.

And Bishop Pat Storey didn't disappoint. She recounted her story to a very enthusiastic audience who all clearly appreciated the significance of the occasion.

She originally wanted to be an air hostess like her glamorous aunt, but then she married Rev Earl Storey, vicar of Crinken in Bray, became an Anglican priest herself, commuting to Ballymena, and ended up ministering and living in Derry which she grew to love.

Then she got elected Bishop of Meath and, as she related it, was the only such electee to ever ask for time to consider the offer. It was a big wrench for the family. She would be moving to Maynooth with her husband and they would be leaving their, now adult, children behind in Derry. She took the job and hasn't looked back during the year since she joined "the management" of the Church of Ireland.

Almost eclipsed by the Holy Spirit

She sees herself as an ordinary person devoid of pomposity and dedicated to helping to reverse the church's decline in fortunes and fall in attendances. This is not an end in itself, but she sees it as a necessary element in bringing Jesus's message into people's lives and improving their lot.

She asks the question: why have a church at all? What does it bring to the table? Her answer goes back to basics, to the early church and even that of her own youth. Community. And that is the challenge for today's church - to foster real communities across all age groups.

She gave examples of particular programmes that have been successful in attracting new members, or bringing back lapsed members, to the church. Some of them are based on sharing activities which are not necessarily religious or spiritual as such, but they bring people together in a conducive atmosphere. Spiritual growth can then come further along the road.

The talk was followed by a vigorous Q&A session in which she was asked her views on the appeal of Islam, the training of young clerics, the need for equal participation of women in the power structures of the church, and the lack of protest by Western Christian hierarchies at the legality of burning the Bible in Malaya. Her answers were generally to the point but nonetheless diplomatic.

I was almost tempted to sponsor her for membership of the Association of Catholic Priests, but that would be a bit cheeky coming from someone who, at the age of four, had aspirations to becoming a bishop but now finds himself in the ranks of the unbelievers.

St. Mary's magnificent interior

Souvenir poster of this historic occasion