Recently during a general election the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar insisted that Ireland was now a more compassionate, more inclusive place and more in tune with the rest of the world. All this despite more murders, more violence, more drug use, more suicides, more fear in the countryside, more divorce and now government funding for abortions.
Amazingly there is still a sizeable remnant of St. Patrick’s flock flying their flag in Irish society. Chesterton observed that the Irish are incurably Catholic. They are constantly under attack from the secular-atheists who tell them that they want to be done with all this Catholic-bothering so as to live in “truthfulness,” unsupported by “superstition.”
When people say around funerals that they envy people of simple faith – implying that they themselves have become too clever for such thinking – one wonders if they are certain they have considered all the evidence. Is it possible that the skeptics, agnostics, and pessimists have missed something – maybe even close to everything – about human life; especially our sacred origin and destiny?
Births, marriages and deaths: there are no secular rituals which can invest such moments with the same perspective as the Church does. Secular funerals are random affairs, and secular weddings ring hollow – lacking prayer and mystery which the old Irish love. Baptism for many is a day out for the family and a welcome party for the newborn. It is not because God is absent – that cannot be helped – but because a fake effort is made to keep up the trappings of religiosity where the promises of faith do not apply.
The Church somehow remains strong in the soul of the poor, salt of the earth Irish. Deep down, people intuit that without these Catholic understandings, and the customs and ceremonies that go with them, they would be lost in confronting the implications of birth, marriage, and death. How else might they face the future afterwards?
Can Ireland regain again her Catholic faith enlightened freedom from the claws of the modern world? Applied, even at the most simple level of understanding, to our human life, the proposal of St. Patrick to the Irish soul brought joy, motivation, forgiveness, the practice of confession, inner peace, respect for neighbour, a sense of humour, and a hundred other qualities that can scarcely be imagined otherwise.
In his memoirs, entitled Confessions, St. Patrick wrote: “when you reflect on my work with the Irish, let your conclusion be that my success was a work of God.” Commenting on the visit of Pope Francis in 2018, the Middle East correspondent for Al Jazeera observed: “it was a time of great celebration for many – and also “consternation” for others. It would be wrong to say Ireland is a post-Catholic country.”
Father Harry Clarke
Diocese of Nelson
Regarding “Bikes from ‘anti-LGBTQ+’ Knights not welcome” (B.C. Catholic, March 9):
I am surprised the article does not mention the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states those with same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
This would show PEDAL that the Knights’ being Catholic means they would respect the PEDAL Community Agreement, which says “we believe that everyone deserves respect and ask people using their resources to respect the diversity of folks who use that space and treat each other with care and dignity.”
Karen Magee
West Vancouver
I actually volunteer at Kickstand Community Bikes, which partners with PEDAL, and it’s sad that it has come to this. I also volunteered with the Knights in Burnaby in one of their bike drive events and enjoyed the fellowship with them.
There are other organizations that will take bike donations and send them people in other countries who need them most, such as Bicycles for Humanity, which has chapters in B.C. Their website is bicycles-for-humanity.org.
Hermes Banico
Coquitlam
As an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, I am greatly concerned about administering Communion on the tongue.
The minister’s fingers come in regular contact with the person’s saliva, those those same fingers then give Communion to the next people, in their hand or on their tongue.
This can’t be best practice. It is much easier to give Communion in the hand without contact.
Claudette Rice
Langley
(As of March 11, communicants in the Archdiocese of Vancouver are being asked to receive in the hand – Editor).
Re “Burnaby L’Arche Community ‘grieving’ over Vanier allegations (B.C. Catholic, March 2):
I share in the L’Arche Community’s grief and disappointment.
The Globe and Mail reported that Vanier at the age of 22 travelled with his famous parents George and Pauline Vanier to visit their friend, the future Pope John XXIII in Rome. “Mr. Vanier said he wanted to be a priest. The future pontiff replied that he would have to cut his ties with Pere Thomas.”
Both men were spiritual advisers to volunteers.
The testimonial of an abuse victim (volunteer) of Pere Thomas Philip said living at L’Arche could be a “very difficult life. There was a lack of intellectual stimulation and no outlet for my own creative expression.” This lifestyle can and did contribute to a sense of malaise that can result in depression.
Further investigation is needed to determine how this spiritual adviser relationship (Philip and Vanier) was allowed to thrive for so long. As well, new policies and procedures need to be put in place, so the role of spiritual advisor has some much-needed parameters.
Randy Castellarin
Vancouver
Thank you for the March 2 article, “First Nations reconciliation at risk, groups warn,” by Brian Dryden.
I’d like to suggest a correction and a few comments, as I have been closely following and supporting the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ stance.
The article says many First Nation band councils “actually support the project.” This is incorrect. These elected councils have signed benefits agreements with Coastal Gas Link, which does not constitute consent or support. They do this out of sheer desperation for needed financial support.
Next, the difference between hereditary and elected chiefs and councils must be recognized. As Doug George-Kanentiio of the Akwasasne Mohawk nation said in the Toronto Star, “band councils were created from the 1876 Indian Act and designed to undermine and replace centuries of traditional governments across Canada. They were and are extremely limited in their authority and entirely subject to officials in the federal government.”
Regarding the ongoing protests and direct actions, and amid media spin and hype that is full of inaccurate information, people must understand that the agreements among the federal and provincial representatives and the hereditary chiefs dealt only with the realization of the need for governments to deal with aboriginal rights and title issues, and not with a specific pipeline project.
As such, and since 200-plus years of soft, polite activity has produced absolutely no results for native peoples, the actions must continue.
I sincerely hope readers will find it in their hearts – and prayers – to understand and assist in this most vital process!
Penny Oyama
Burnaby
David Baird’s Feb. 24 look at “The Vatican’s top film list, 25 years later” includes the 1959 version of Ben-Hur.
While certainly an epic film, I found the film disturbing on two counts:
First is the level of violence in the film and the usual Hollywood-esque plot whereby the bad guy gets dispatched in a particularly gruesome fashion.
Second is that Jesus is a quaint miracle worker whose mere shadow would heal the afflicted, without requiring any prior or subsequent commitment to his mission.
This is simply poor theology. To my knowledge, all the healings performed by Jesus were in response to some articulation of belief in the identity of the Holy One of Israel.
Ben-Hur might provide entertainment at some level, but it is spiritually shallow and certainly not worthy of a Vatican Top 25 list of “worthwhile productions.”
Kevin O’Mahony
North Vancouver