Top Gear

Nice gear if you can afford it. These were the vestments specially designed for the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in June 2012. There was a holy sea of them to be seen when the bishops turned out for the major formal occasions.

While they may have been pleasing to the eye and, to an extent, conveyed the image of a church triumphant or at least a colourful communion, they did, in no uncertain terms answer a question posed by Fr. Tony Flannery in October 2011 and reported on this blog.

Of the proposed final Congress mass in Croke Park, he said:

... it should be penitential in character. Rather than ceremonial dress, we ask for some modern, imaginative equivalent of the ‘sackcloth and ashes’ of the Old Testament, so that the celebration would be simple and humble, asking forgiveness not just for the abuse of children, but for the other abuses of power perpetrated by Church people in the past.

I know where he was coming from. I have always said myself that I will allow that the Roman Catholic Church might have something to offer when I see a Pope Mendicant rather than the current Emperor (with his new clothes) surrounded by lackeys who would effortlessly grace any catwalk in the world.

Perhaps it was this justifiable barb from Fr. Tony that broke the cross-dressing camels' backs, so annoying them that they immediately set the thought police after him.

Well, they have now found him wanting and stripped him of his ministry. Condemned without a trial in incense filled rooms. They have deprived him of not just his living but of his life. No doubt they, and their merry band of adherents here, would be happy to see him join the "heretics" in one of the local Protestant Churches on the grounds that if you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen.

But they have clearly got the wrong man if this is what they expect to happen. Fr. Tony loves his church, hijacked and all as it has been post Vatican 2, and he has no intention of leaving despite continued spiritual waterboarding by the CDF.

Listen to his recent interview with Canadian radio and then make up your mind who are the real heretics here.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

A Particular God

Hover the cursor

I have been particularly disturbed at not having been invited to present my paper (below) to the IEC2012 Theology Symposium in Maynooth this week, despite my posting my availability in plenty of time.

Perhaps it was felt that the theology or the physics were too advanced or obscure for a gathering that would include non-theologians and non-physicists.

I have therefore tried to circumvent the complexity by constructing the image above.

Moving the cursor over and away from the image gives an idea of the dynamics involved.

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My Paper

Transubstantiation and the Higgs Boson particle
by Benny

In what may be a vain attempt to update the concept of transubstantiation I thought I might explore it in conjunction with the Higgs Boson particle, or the God particle as it is sometimes known.

As an Atheist I am a firm believer in the "God of the Gaps". When the gaps in our knowledge of how the world worked were large, God was big. With advancing science s/he is now reduced to a single particle, admittedly one which fills the whole of space.

As an increasing proportion of the working of nature is explained by science, the scope for a personal interfering God has diminished. Those occasions when the rules of nature are broken or stretched by the Divine Being to facilitate mankind are few and far between. The sun stopping in the sky at Fatima in 1917 is one such occasion and the miracle is, of course, not that the sun stopped, but that we didn't all fall off the earth and into deep space.

There are a few areas, though, where the tabloid theology on which I was brought up still subsists. The RC church has its head in the sand on many issues, not least of which are contraception and homosexuality. But, in general, it has tried to adapt to modern science within the limitations imposed by its premature and foolish declaration of papal infallibility and the abusive way in which that dogma has been put to use.

However, the most glaring area in which the RC church is stuck in a tabloid theological timewarp is transubstantiation. The Protestants have cleverly never allowed themselves to be trapped in this one. Communion for them is a commemoration in which Christ participates in spirit. Can't be proven but equally can't be contradicted.

The RC version has been that Christ is physically present but has taken the form of bread and wine. That is the meaning of the real presence. But it surely wears a bit thin when you get down to the subatomic particle level. The area remaining for the real presence to hide in has got infinitesmally small and may soon not exist at all.

And at the housekeeping level there has always been the problem of what to do with the crumbs and the water in which the holy containers have been washed.

But the RC church is hoisted on its own pétard and the likelihood is that the Higgs Boson will kill off the real presence once and for all. One positive effect might be that an issue which has, unnecessarily and scandalously, divided Protestant and Catholic may be no more.

If this happens, and the idea of the Holy Spirit working through the people rather than through papal infallibility takes hold, then Catholics and Protestants will have to find something else to fight about.

It looked for a brief instant in time, at Vatican II, that this was about to happen. But the Holy Hijack put an end to all that sort of nonsense.

Nearly half a century after Vatican II, it looks like some of the ideas then rubbished by the Curial elements in the Vatican, may be coming round again. If that is the case, it might behove RC adherants to join with their siblings in the House of Israel and beyond, stop the squabbling and work for a better, more tolerant and rational world.

Amen.

Benny was brought up a Roman Catholic but somewhere along the way he lost the faith and didn't bother trying to find it again. He though of submitting the above thoughts in response to a call by the Hierarchy for papers for the International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin in June 2012, but eventually thought the better of it.

He lives, by choice, on Dublin's Northside from which Bono migrated to Killiney, an area where Benny resided for many years before Bono's arrival.

He holds an MA in Economics (UCD 1967) which he considers fits him perfectly to discuss the many issues currently facing the Church to which he formerly owed allegiance.

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L'Ultima Cena

Given the identity of the Eucharist and the Last Supper, I am surprised that nobody has drawn attention, in the context of the Eucharistic Congress, to the mural (above) in Blooms Lane, in the Italian Quarter of Dublin.

Might this have anything to do with the current misfortunes of developer Mick Wallace TD? Or might it be the uncomfortably secular nature of this particular rendering of that meal.

The characters are based on real people, invited in off the street, so to speak, and as such represent a cross section of Dublin passers by. An ideal image for a congress structured around the theme of "communion", you might think. There is even the resonance with the wedding feast of the Gospels.

Well, just to redress the imbalance I thought I'd mention John Byrne's Last Supper located slap bang in the middle of Mick Wallace's development.

While I'm at it I notice that Pat Igoldsby has not been included in the list of speakers for the Congress. I assume he was not invited, but have to admit I don't know whether or not he would have accepted such an invitation. Pat is as much a part of Dublin as the GPO and way more articulate than your average postage stamp.

As a modest contribution to redressing that imbalance, I have reproduced his poem "The Last Supper" below. I'm sure Pat won't mind. He's sort of laid back about some of this stuff.

LAST SUPPER

The man with nowhere to go
stood under
the cold petrified
night-time tree
in the middle of
O'Connell Street.
Because he had nothing
else to do
he joined up
all the white dots
which the birds
had dropped
onto the pavement
and he created
a perfect picture
of The Last Supper.
He wandered into it
and ate the bread
and drank the wine
and fell asleep
on the pavement
deep frozen
into the shape
of a cross.

Those were the days

After the 1932 Eucharistic Congress the Irish Independent brought out a pictorial record which became a treasured possession in many homes. It was a very impressive volume which contained pictures of the main events and of everybody associated with the Congress, cardinals, abbots, committees of every conceivable function. It also had a huge collection of press cuttings on the Congress from around the world.

I have my granny's copy and thought people might like to have a peek at a few pictures which contrast then with now.

These are the Lord Mayor's heralds. Whatever about army trumpeters, could you imagine these guys turning out for real today?

The Governor General, James McNeill, brother of Eoin McNeill (see below) arrives at the Pro-Cathedral for the opening ceremony. One of the things that strikes you looking through the photos is the extent to which the trappings of the ancien régime were still around. Add to this the various papal insignia and uniforms and you might almost be living in a full blown monarchy.

When it came to the civil powers there was no question as to who outranked whom. This famous picture of the Lord Mayor "welcoming" the papal legate at the city gates (in Booterstown) says it all. In fact, on a subsequent visit to the Pope, the Lord Mayor tendered "the homage and the unalterable fidelity of the Citizens of Dublin to the Apostolic See". Note that this included all citizens irrespective of religion.

Another thing that struck me, and reminded me of a monarchy, was the way the legate, and other senior churchmen, seemed to constantly dispense blessings like fairy dust as they passed along the way. It reminded me of the monarch's wave from the royal coach or the rich showering coins on the grateful paupers lining the route.

I mentioned that there were loads of photos of people. I am just including two, which struck me as particularly interesting in view of our more usual historical view of the people concerned. First (above) is Eoin McNeill, the leader who cancelled 1916 and was subsequently Minister for Education in the first Free State Government. He was a speaker at the 1932 Congress.

Eoin O'Duffy, then still Police Commissioner, was the Chief Marshall of the Congress.

I'm sure people will discover other contrasts with this year's upcoming Congress.

I hope that one of the most striking contrasts will be between the pomp and triumphalism of 1932 and the humility, repentance and equality of this year's Congress. We'll just have to wait until after 17 June next to see what lessons have been learned and the nature of today's RC church in Ireland.

ACP and all that

The relatively recently formed Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) is a most interesting development in the tortured history of Irish Catholicism.

It could not have happened in John Charles's day, and more's the pity. But the "moral authority" of the RC Church, for which read "clerical hellfire", has weakened in recent times for obvious reasons.

It is also now fifty years since the calling of Vatican II and it is all too obvious that the inspiration and hope of renewal sparked by that Council have not only petered out (scuse the pun) but have been actively traduced by a centrist power clique who place the continuity and supremacy of the institution above the welfare of its flock (scuse the mutton metaphor).

In pulling up the drawbridge, the Vatican has forbidden even discussion of a number of controversial issues, and in response to reasoned attempts to raise these issues in a way seen as vital to a healthy community, has called down holy fire and brimstone on the heads of those who have dared to raise them above the parapet.

The ACP, which now numbers around a thousand priests, is attempting to initiate this discussion within the RC church in the long term interest of the church itself (defined as the people of God rather than the Roman Curia).

Their site is well worth a visit, as is Fr. Hoban's brief exposé of their raison d'être. You will find many thoughtful posts and comments.

The discussion is on much more polite lines than I am normally given to myself, and it is conducted in a context of caring and of loyalty to what might best be described as the Church of Christ. That does not in any way inhibit those who feel the ACP itself is a source of heresy and potential schism from forcefully expressing their views.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the emergence of the ACP is the deafening silence of the Irish hierarchy. The emergence of the ACP has certainly put it up to the bishops, but these have so far been found wanting. The recent posting by the ACP of Hans Küng's letter to the bishops worldwide may be an indication of their impatience at the lack of response of the Irish bishops to ACP invitations to dialogue. You could be forgiven for thinking the bishops are busy circling the wagons.

This is all the more surprising as Ireland launches into the Fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this month. The theme of the Congress is "communion". Communion with whom?

First Class Relic IEC1932

This is a First Class Relic. A large metal logo from the 1932 Eucharistic Congress, permanently and prominently on display on a Dublin Street. So where is it?

A clue. It is directly outside a church in the north city centre.

A church whose donation box is set in concrete and boasts security every bit as strong as your local ATM.

You got it. Or did you? Berkeley Road church just around the corner from the Mater Hospital.

This view from the Blessington Street Basin. So you can contemplate physical sustenance via the public water supply and divine sustenance via the church. What more could you ask for on a fine day? And it wasn't even on the Dublin Pilgrim Walk for this year's Congress.

Extreme Unction

This is part of a poster I saw in my bus today.

In an apparent teaser for the grand finale of the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC2012) in Croke Park on 17 June next, the poster advertises a religious gathering in Croke Park on 20 May at which there will be a free bottle of Psalm oil for everyone in the audience.

The organisers are the United Church of the Kingdom of God, which boasts 500 members in Ireland. The Psalm oil seems to be their version of Holy Water and the poster claims that the oil has successfully treated alcoholism and even silenced unwanted voices (a useful Curial adjunct in these troublesome times).

The scriptural basis for using this oil is Psalm 23 - [The Lord is my Shepherd ... You prepare a table before me/ in the presence of my enemies./ You anoint my head with oil;/ my cup overflows. ...]

So the Eucharistic Congress's grand finale, Statio Orbis (loosely translated as "Stop the World, I want to get off"), will need to look to its laurels.

The full UCKG poster is reproduced below. Clicking on the image will show a larger version.

Tantum Ergo Sum

This is Clanbrassil Street during Dublin's last Eucharistic Congress in 1932.


And this is a recent Tweet from the current Congress Organisers inviting people to decorate their street. No doubt they are hoping for something approaching the 1932 Bunting Blitz.The link in the Tweet brings you to the Congress shop from where you can order flags and bunting.

There appears to me to be one big gap here. People are not being advised to consult their neighbours on whether they wish to be engulfed in this blaze of triumphalist flagwaving or not.



In 1932 Clanbrassil Street was the main Jewish shopping street in Dublin. Each golden pin above represents a Jewish shop, between Leonard's Corner and St. Kevin's Parade.

It is most unlikely that the Jews were consulted on their views on that particular triumphalist outpouring. That was not how it was done then. In fact the Lord Mayor of the Day, Alfie Byrne, pledged the loyalty of all the citizens of Dublin to the Pope, both during the Congress and in the course of his subsequent audience in the Vatican.

And, had they been asked, it is unlikely the Jews of the day, crucifiers of Christ as they still were then, would have had the nerve or the inclination to question the bunting, the procession or anything else which might have been proposed for the Congress. Of course, since 1969 we have all become much more sensitive to these matters on this island.

Today most of the Jews are gone. Some left the country after WWII for more favourable economic climes or to participate in establishing the State of Israel. Others transferred to the leafy glades of Terenure. And such few ethnic shops as are now left in Clanbrassil Street are Halal rather than Kosher.

Today we have an ethnically more diverse community across the city, and, even within the "Roman Catholic" population, there are many to whom such an outpouring of zealotry would be offensive in the wake of the clerical abuse scandals and the recent retreat of the Vatican into the theological and pastoral Bunker.

This Congress promises to be a very interesting one indeed.

Papabile

Cardinal Marc Ouellet has been named by the Vatican as Papal legate to the Eucharistic Congress.

He is one among three cardinals described as "papabili" by John Allen, who writes for the National Catholic Reporter and is a commentator on CNN.

Whatever about the likely turmoil on the fringes of the Congress, the legate is clearly prepared for any climatic contingencies in this volatile land of ours.

For whom the bell tolls

As I said, I will be keeping an eye on the upcoming Eucharistic Congress.

For the last while the Congress Bell has been travelling around the country drumming up (if you'll excuse the term) enthusiasm for the Congress. It has now made its way to Rome where it has been rung by no less a person than the Pope himself.

I was interested, therefore, to see a tweet (above) in the IEC stream saying that Minister Pat Rabbitte had rung the bell, in no less a place than Rome itself, and inviting us to view this happening. Unfortunately when I pressed "view photo" a cloak of invisibility seemed to descend and all I got was a blank space.

Not to be discouraged I clicked on the link given in the tweet only to be met by a firmly locked door (below).


What, I wondered was going on. Had the Minister taken fright at the dissemination of a photo showing him in cahoots with the church in these delicate times when even the Angelus bell on RTÉ is provoking apoplexy in some quarters.


Or perhaps he suddendly remembered the ammunition provided by the above photo to those critising the symbiosis of Church and State at the time of the last Congress in 1932.

If any of this is the case, the Minister is on a hiding to nothing. The internet is like the elephant, once it has seen something it never forgets. So I tapped into the elephant's memory, in this case the site of the Irish Franciscans who run St. Isidore's College in Rome, and bingo, there was Minister Pat doing the needful (below). [Note: Franciscan link no longer works since the Order revamped their website. See comments below.]


Enjoy

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Hoc est enim ...

Despite the participation of Professor William Reville in the Eucharistic Theological Symposium in Maynooth during the forthcoming Eucharistic Congress, and despite my own lack of sufficient formal theological qualifications to submit a paper, I thought I should write one anyway.

I toyed with the title "Mission: Climax and Consummation of the Eucharist" which sounds terribly exciting and positively erotic, but I see that has already been bagged by two eminent clerics.

So I am thrown back on my latest favourite topic: "Transubstantiation and the Higgs Boson Particle". My paper can be found here. I sincerely believe it to be a signal contribution to the science and future understanding of this divine process. In it I also point out how the march of science in this area may facilitate the rapprochement of the Christian churches.

For those who find the content too taxing I would suggest they bring with them to the Symposium a copy of my variation of the popular Catholicopoly which is available here for free and is offered as a contribution to the deeper understanding of pre-Conciliar theology.

Enjoy.

Under one Roof

Logo of the 2012 Congress
As BULLS has happily been restored from the bowels of deletion, this blog will no longer need to inherit the mantle nor keep the home fire burning. However, I have taken a fancy to the very nice template and to the blog's quirky title, so I have no intention of giving it up.

So now we're left with a blog in search of a mission.

As the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress is to be held in Dublin in June, I think I'll devote this blog to following it's progress, at least until then. And is not the title so appropriate for such a mission?

There are lots of interesting aspects to this upcoming Congress:

• how well will it be attended, and with what degree of enthusiasm, compared to its 1932 predecessor?
  
• to what degree will the State be involved in what is essentially a private function?
  
• after the closure of the Irish embassy in Rome, following the standoff between the State and the Vatican, is there any chance the Pope might risk a visit to the Congress, and if so, how would he be received, by the State, and by the people?
  
• will the RC Church, now on the verge of bankruptcy, be able to raise enough funding to put on a reasonable show?
  
• how will the Church handle the participation of its "separated brethern", particularly when it is the "real presence" itself which divides it from other Christian Churches?
  
• how will the "dramatis personae" be constructed. Front of house bishops à la Casey and clerics à la Cleary will have to be carefully avoided.
  
• will it become clearer at Congress time whether Dublin's Archbishop Martin has full Vatican backing in his efforts to modernise the monolith, or not?
  
• What role will the Nuncio play, given his ambiguous roles as an official diplomat on the one hand and a purely apostolic functionary on the other.
  
• will the choice of specific papal legate to the Congress give any indication of how the power struggle is progressing inside the Vatican?
  
• will the Congress exacerbate the divisions within Government over the closing of the embassy in Rome?
  
• will there be anyone from the State sector available to kiss Bishops' rings or will the whole sector get a stiff "belt of a crozier" at the appropriate moment?
  
• will there be any special indulgences allocated for participants in the Congress and, if so, will these be in any way related to financial contributions?
  
• ditto in relation to masses?

In short, will we end up with the Pope's head on a coin or on a plate.

Stay tuned. Who said we didn't live in interesting times?


Logo of the 1932 Congress

Some further thoughts from last Summer.

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