Making the News

The Pathé newsreels, short movies shown before the main feature in cinemas, are an excellent source of social history. Three Bishops of Kildare and Leighlin from the early twentieth century made the news.

The first is Bishop Patrick Foley. A native of the Diocese, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin (and titular Bishop of Amyclae) at the relatively young age of 38 in 1895. He became Ordinary only a year later on the death of Bishop Lynch. Bishop Foley was to occupy the See of Kildare and Leighlin for thirty years, through the struggle for Home Rule, the First World War, the War of Independence and the Civil War. The image above, a still from the newsreel report of the sod-turning ceremony of the Carlow Sugar Factory in 1926.

The second is Bishop Matthew Cullen, also a native of the Diocese. He became bishop in 1927, following the untimely death of Bishop Foley a year earlier. Although his episcopate was relatively short, not quite nine years in fact, he made an outstanding contribution to the Country through his support for Gaelic athletics and language, and also to the Church through his support for the newly founded Saint Patrick's Missionary Society with its headquarters in his own native Parish at Kiltegan. The still above is taken from the newsreel report of the blessing the foundation of the new buildings at Clongowes Wood College in 1929.

The third is Bishop Thomas Keogh, another native of the Diocese, who became Bishop in 1936 in succession to Bishop Cullen. He remained as Bishop until 1967, when he became the first Irish Bishop to resign in accordance with the novel rules that had been established by Pope Paul VI's Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae in August, 1966. (Please note: sometimes Motu Proprios are taken seriously!)

Bishop Keogh can be seen in the newsreel report of the opening of the Portarlington Power Station in 1950. The newsreel report from which the stills image above is taken is a report of the centenary celebrations of the Dominican College, Newbridge, in 1952. Bishop Keogh is seen standing to the camera's right of Archbishop O'Hara who was then Papal Nuncio to Ireland. After his retirement Bishop Keogh was created titular Bishop of Turris Tamalleni and lived a further two years. The fortieth anniversary of his death (and the centenary of his ordination) were marked by St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association with a Requiem Mass in his native Parish.

Annual General Assembly 2009

"A statutory General Assembly of all the members of the Association shall be held every year about the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross." Article 10, Statutes of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association

The Annual General Assembly of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association will take place on Friday, 4th September, 2009, at 7.30 p.m. in St. Anne's Parish Centre, Station Road, Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

The guest speaker this year will be noted local historian, Mr. Mario Corrigan, who has kindly agreed to speak about the Abbeys of Kildare (illustrated above).

The Annual General Assembly will be preceeded by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Gregorian Rite celebrated at 6 p.m. in Cill Mhuire, Ballymany, Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

St. Manman of Clonaslee

The village of Clonaslee, nestled in the Slieve Bloom Mountains of County Laois, was the site of two seventh century monasteries founded by St. Manman. One was Carrigeen, meaning hermitage of the rocks, and the second, almost two miles north of the village, is Kilmanman, meaning the Church of Manman.

Carrigeen, also know as Lanchoil or Lahoil, is said to have been the hermitage of the Saint. Kilmanman was the larger of the two foundations and is the site of considerable remains of a later fifteenth century Church. Nearby, there is a Holy Well called St. Manman's Well.

Information upon the life of St. Manman is so scarce that even Dr. Comerford in his Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, Vol. 3, 1886, gives the mere fact of his existence and passes on to later times for which more material was available. Likewise, Canon O'Hanlon's History of Queen's County gives but passing information.

His name, at least in the form in which it is known today, does not appear on any of the ancient Irish Calendars but local tradition establishes his pattern day as 5th August. However, that his name survives and that his memory holds the respect that it does is a lesson to us to remember, however dimly, our holy Fathers in the Faith.

St. Manman of Clonaslee, pray for us!

Forthcoming Masses (September & October)

St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association is organising two Masses in the Kildare area in the near future. Both Masses will be offered for Priests.

The first is in Cill Mhuire, Ballymany, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, on Friday, 4th September, at 6 p.m.


The second is in the Church of the Assumption and St. Patrick, Rathangan, Co. Kildare, on Saturday, 31st October, at 2 p.m.

The Portrayal of Priests - Part III

As the Boys' Town series ended, another pair of films portraying Priests was released, namely Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of Saint Mary's (1945). In both, the character of Fr. 'Chuck' O'Malley, the somewhat too up-to-date troubleshooter for a Parish in trouble, is played by Bing Crosby. The role came in the middle of the 'Road Movies', a series of comedic films in which he starred. The contrast is distinct and uncomfortable. On the other hand, Crosby was the biggest box office draw during these years and his portrayal of a Priest, while less than dogmatic, can only be regarded as sympathetic.

His relationship with Fr. Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald) must be one of the most human and generous portrayals of the Priesthood in film. In the clip above, Fr. O'Malley sings the ill and elderly Fr. Fitzgibbon to sleep.

A third Priest, the avuncular Fr. O'Dowd played by Frank McHugh (who played the same character again in 1952 in another Leo McCarey production My Son John), is a classmate of Fr. O'Malley. The pair are engaged in a 'generation gap' plotline in contrast to Fr. Fitzgibbon, although the youngsters are shown taking matters of religion quite as seriously. Golf, of which Crosby was famously fond, is the first testing ground - nothing but a poolroom moved outdoors as Fr. Fitzgibbon has it. Nevertheless, the fraternal charity of brother Priests wins out in the end.

Even the question of Priestly celibacy is dealt with in the film. Genevieve Linden, a star of the Metropolitan Opera in New York (played by Risë Stevens, who was actually a star of the Met and whose famous 'Carmen' is reprised on screen), whose career has interrupted a romance between her and Chuck O'Malley (before he entered the Seminary, mind you), meets O'Malley again without realising that he is a Priest. However, once she realised that he is a Priest she never drops the title 'Father' when addressing him.

In the end, Fr. Fitzgibbon settles the matter: "We're separated by many years, Fr. O'Malley, which may be the reason we haven't seen eye-to-eye in many instances, but 'though we've had many differences, we never differed in fundamentals. 'twas only in method... but never in our hearts." That it might ever be so.

In the second film, Fr. O'Malley crosses wits with another set-in-their ways individual. This time Sr. M. Benedict, played by Ingrid Bergman, who would go on the play St. Joan of Arc a few years later. The dramatic structure is essentially the same - conflict, crisis, resolution.

To traditionalist eyes looking in hindsight, the portrayal of Priests in these films seems to be very close to modernist vs. traditionalist, with the modernist having all the best songs - and the writer on his side. Viewed in that light, they are offensive to pious eyes. However, viewed with a certain artistic license and with a suspension of dis-disbelief, they portray the Priest as a human with sympathy and as a Priest of God with due respect.

The Priest in these films is always put into context. His relationships with layfolk, with brother Priests, with women, and even with himself and with God are balanced, articulated and decent. These relationships are not always easy but are always portrayed in a proper and reverent way.

Fota II - Summary Report

The following Summary of the proceedings of the Second Fota International Liturgy Conference organised by St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy on 12th and 13th July, 2009, was received recently.

A word is also in order about the superlatively well organised and well executed liturgies in the Gregorian Rite in Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Cork City, and in Cobh Cathedral during the weekend.

Part of the Te Deum in Ss. Peter and Paul's

The Summary is reproduced here in full:

SUMMARY REPORT

The Second Fota International Liturgy Conference was held in Fota, Co. Cork, from 12 – 13 July 2009 on the topic: “Benedict XVI on Church Art and Architecture”. It was organized by the St Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy. His Eminence, George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney gave the keynote address.

In his introduction, Prof. D. Vincent Twomey, SVD (Maynooth, Ireland), who chaired conference, decried the iconoclasm that wrought havoc on so many church buildings in the name of the conciliar reform of the liturgy and suggested a number of theological causes. He pointed to the difference between treating beauty as something peripheral, a matter of taste or a decoration, and (following Ratzinger) seeing beauty as being as integral to liturgy as truth and goodness are. The utilitarianism of the age favours the former, as was manifest in the reform. Benedict XVI, on the other hand, is acutely aware of the necessity for reason to combine with aesthetic and intuitive sensibility, both in liturgy and art. Twomey also pointed to the profound theological implications of the reordering of the liturgical space in the wake of the recent liturgical reforms, something that few adverted to at the time. To quote the English philosopher, Roger Scruton: “Changes in the liturgy take on a momentous significance for the believer, for they are changes in his experience of God …” Once such change was the removal of the tabernacle from its former position on the altar to a side-altar. The theory of Francis Rowland, mentioned by Twomey, that the post-conciliar liturgical reforms, with their stress on reducing everything to the essentials, were inspired a kind of neo-Scholasticism that was a historical and a cultural was hotly disputed later in the discussion.

All the papers were inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s aesthetics, i.e. his understanding of the nature of beauty. This was the topic of the opening paper by Monsignor Joseph Murphy (Rome) and the keynote address by Cardinal Pell. Mons. Murphy’s paper was entitled: “The Fairest and the Formless: The Face of Christ as Criterion for Christian Beauty according to Joseph Ratzinger”. For the Pope, the most persuasive proof of the truth of the Christian message, offsetting everything that may appear negative, “are the saints on the one hand, and the beauty that the faith has generated, on the other”. Hence, for faith to grow today, “we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to come in contact with the beautiful”. After outlining the patristic debate with regard to how Jesus Christ could be said to be beautiful, Murphy describes the way beauty wounds the soul and so awakens man to his higher destiny. The beauty of truth appears in Christ, the beauty of God himself, who powerfully draws us and inflicts on us the wound of Love, as it were, “a holy Eros that enables us to go forth, with and in the Church, his Bride, to meet the Love who calls us.” His beauty is the manifestation of his love, a love poured out for others. Finally, addressing one of Ratzinger’s favourite themes, seeking the face of God, itself one of the primordial themes of Scripture, Murphy points out how seeing Christ is only possible to those who follow Him. As in much else, here Ratzinger takes his inspiration from the Fathers of the Church.

Cardinal Pell, in his paper entitled: “Benedict XVI on Beauty: Issues in the Tradition of Christian Aesthetics” took up several of the themes mentioned by Murphy and developed them. He stress that, for Ratzinger, the truth of love can transform the ugliness of the world – manifested in its extreme on the Cross – into the beauty of the Resurrection. According to Plato beauty is profoundly realistic: it wounds man and so makes him desire the Transcendent. Thus beauty causes a painful longing of the human heart for God. By way of contrast, falsehood suggests that reality is ugly and so promotes either a cult of the ugly or the craving for transient pleasure to escape from the ugliness. Addressing the question of the interaction of the Gospel and culture, Ratzinger argues that the Logos purifies and heals all cultures – and so enables them to achieve their full potential as culture. Though the Hebrew and Greek cultures retain their unique significance for the faith – as the linguistic vehicles of Salvation History – the Gospel itself transcends all cultures. Pell also examined Ratzinger’s theology of music. One of the points he makes is that music is the place where the clash between good and evil is played out at a certain level of society. Ratzinger rejects pop-music, the music equivalent of kitsch, because through it the soul is swallowed up in the senses. Finally, Pell pointed out that, for Ratzinger, there must be a proper understanding of Church, of liturgy, and of music. The Church is not simply the local community but is always Catholic, that is, the whole Church universal, including the cosmic dimension of salvation. Liturgy must be understood as the work of God, not some human fabrication or action. Each rite, therefore, is an objective form of the Church’s worship. And when the languages of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic are put to music, they should evoke awe and receptivity for what is beyond sense. Sacred music should be a synthesis of sense, sensibility and sound. Finally, Cardinal Pell stressed that simple, orthodox faith remains the single most important factor in the celebration of the liturgy.

The philosophical implications of the above understanding of beauty were the subject of Fr Daniel Gallagher (Rome) paper: “The Liturgical Consequences of Thomistic Aesthetics: exploring some philosophical aspects of Joseph Ratzinger’s Aesthetics.” Gallagher formulated the basic question as follows: “what has reason to do with beauty”. This led to a discussion of Thomistic aesthetics (is beauty for Thomas a transcendental?) and the subsequent theory of Emmanuel Kant. For Thomas, beauty, though originating in subjective experience, is a form of objective knowledge. Kant sets out to find what he considered to be objective criteria to determine the validity of the subjective experience of beauty. The basic question was resolved with the help of Jacques Maritain (in the Thomist tradition) and in opposition to Umberto Eco (in the Kantian tradition). “Maritain seamlessly connects aesthetic beauty to transcendental beauty, whereas Eco despairs of finding a passage from transcendental beauty to aesthetic beauty.” Gallagher drew out some of the implications of this for liturgy: Beauty is not instrumental, but the very way of experiencing the Triune God in the liturgy. Thus beauty engages the intellect such that God’s Word and life are apprehended in a way that transcends the imparting of information. Most importantly, if beauty is most especially related to the good, then the beauty of the liturgy is directly connected with moral life – and thus concerned with culture as the context for the promotion of virtue. This paper provoked perhaps the most lively discussion of all the papers.

Dr Janet Rutherford (Castelpollard, Co. Westmeath, Ireland) in her paper, “Eastern Iconoclasm and the Defence of Divine Beauty” outlined the turbulent political background to, and profound theological issues at stake in, the first major iconoclastic controversy in the Church, which culminated in the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Nicaea (AD 787). At stake was nothing less than the unity of divine-human nature of Christ as defended above all by St Maximus the Confessor. For the latter, the icon was not a sign of absent realities; the realities themselves were made present to the beholder of the icon. The icons are thus for the believer windows onto eternity. For the East, Second Nicaea is the “orthodox” Council par excellence, an indication not only of their appreciation for the teaching of the Council but also of the centrality of the icon in the life, liturgy, and theology of Easter Christians. According to Maximus, icons, by stressing the humanity of Christ, evoke the possibility of our humanity being divinized, theosis, whereby, according to Rutherford, the Greek notion of theosis is other than the Western notion of divinization. With deft strokes of the brush Rutherford sketched the rich theology of the icon developed by medieval Orthodox theologians such as Nicholas Cabasilas and modern theologians like Paul Evdokimov. These were inspired by the great Fathers of the Church, such as St John of Damascus, who stressed that the Incarnation restored material humanity to its original innocence, and St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who defended the veneration of images and paid for it by resigning and going into exile to die in obscurity – until his reputation was restored at Second Nicaea. Rutherford eloquently demonstrated what Ratzinger once claimed in one of his writings, when he wrote that, with regard to the liturgy, we have a lot to learn from the East.

Tu Es Petrus at the Mass in Ss. Peter and Paul's

One of the most fascinating papers was delivered by Dr Helen Ratner Dietz (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A): “The Nuptial Meaning of Classic Church Architecture”. She described how, after Constantine, the Roman basilica was transformed by the inheritance of Judaism. The main influence here reached back to Sinai, which was understood in terms of the bridal covenant between God and Israel. This in turn led to Israel’s expectation that, in the final days, God the Bridegroom would consummate his union with Israel, His Bride. This final consummation was anticipated in the Temple liturgy, which determined the architecture of the Temple of Solomon. There the Holy of Holies was understood in terms of the Bridal Chamber – in imitation of the wedding canopy used in the Jewish wedding ceremonies (as was used up to the Christian Middle Ages). The High Priest represented not only the Bridegroom, but, when he entered the Holy of Holies, the Bride, Israel. The Jerusalem Temple was divided into three, with three sets of steps leading up to the Holy of Holies. The Temple Veil represented this world, or rather the whole of creation, symbolized by the colours of the elements (white, blue, red and purple), which also have bridal significance. These colours were likewise those of external vestments of the High Priest who represented Israel’s God, the Creator of heaven and earth. The Holy of Holies was a perfect cube, symbol of the spiritual world, the heavens above the heavens. As in the Jewish tradition, the bridegroom takes on the vulnerability of the bride to protect her from the dangers inherent in child-bearing (and is vested accordingly), the High Priest, divesting himself of his glorious vestments and clad in a simply linen tunic, takes on the vulnerability of the Bride Israel when he entered the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kippur (cf. Is 61:10).. Christ called himself the Bridegroom and so claimed to be the High Priest. What is less noticed is that, when he took on the vulnerability of humanity in the incarnation, he identified Himself with the Bride when he into the Temple not made of human hands through his Death on the Cross. Dietz stressed that for the Jewish – and later the Christian – tradition God is totally hetero, other, and Israel is hetero to God. Only in this way, can we understand the “role-exchange” between bridegroom and bride that is characteristic of both Jewish nuptial ceremonies and the Temple liturgy. The form of Christian church-buildings was profoundly shaped by this Jewish tradition, which itself was rooted in the pagan Semitic traditions of the ancient Near East. The Church took over the tripartite division of the Temple and, in the place of the Holy of Holies, the wedding canopy or baldachin over the altar that, like the nuptial chamber, was surrounded by curtains that were only opened to reveal the elevated Host and Chalice. Like the Temple it faced east, but now with a new meaning: the rising sun represented the return of the Bridegroom in glory at the end of time for the final consummation now anticipated each time the Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated on the altar.

Perhaps one of the most radical changes in the liturgy after the Council – though not recommended, or even mentioned, by Sacrosanctum concilium – was the change in the position of the celebrant, who now faces the congregation, instead of facing East with the congregation. Facing East was the common practice (with some notable exceptions, such as St Peter’s in Rome due to space problems caused by building the Constantinian basilica over the tomb of Peter) at least since the second century. Christian worship was in the direction of the Rising Sun and no longer in the direction of the Jerusalem Temple, as in the Jewish synagogue. This was a central topic taken up Dr Michael Uwe Lang, Cong. Or., in his paper entitled: “Louis Bouyer and Church Architecture: Resourcing Benedict XVI’s Introduction to the Spirit of the Liturgy”. Lang showed both the indebtedness of Ratzinger to Bouyer but also the selective use the former made of the latter by avoiding Bouyer’s more controversial and polemical points. Lang showed how Ratzinger took up and developed Bouyer’s insight into the cosmic and eschatological significance of the liturgical call after the liturgy of the Word around the bema (a raised platform for the liturgy of the Word in the centre of the basilica): “Conversi ad orientem”. Moving to the altar in the apse, priest and people faced the East, acknowledging the cosmic dimension of Christian worship. But in the first place, the rising sun symbolizes the final Return of the Risen Lord now anticipated in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Lang pointed out that celebrating the Sacrifice facing the people tends to eclipse the transcendental dimension of the liturgy. God tends to be absorbed into the community whereas in facing East what is expressed is the dialogue between the People of God and God Himself. Further, the sacrificial character of the Mass tends to be downplayed while the Mass tends to be seen primarily as a sacred banquet. In the discussion, the Chair pointed out that, according to the English anthropologist, Mary Douglas, in her book, Natural Symbols, one of the reasons why this radical change found immediate acceptance was because it found a resonance in the contemporary culture which, in terms of the different categories of cultural expression, has a close affinity to the culture of nomads, for whom the focus of their gatherings is the fire. Huddled around the fire, they find comfort from the darkness and alienation of the surrounding world.

Dr Alcuin Reid (London, England) read a though-provoking paper entitled “Noble Simplicity Revisited” on one of the central recommendation of the Sacrosanctum concilium for the reform of the liturgy (SC 34). He traced the origins of the term “noble simplicity” back to Edmund Bishop (1899) who described the genius of the Roman Rite in terms of sobriety, simplicity and austerity. This was further developed by Dr Adrian Fortescue (1912), though modified significantly in 1945, by the Anglican Dom Gregory Dix. According to the latter, there was no squalor in the pre-Nicene liturgy (as we know from Eusebius), which in fact was marked dignity and splendour. Reid concludes that there was “noble simplicity” should not be understood as distaste for ritual itself or its later embellishments. Though some liturgist called for “a certain spiritual unction” in the Rites, the reference to the didactic and pastoral nature of the liturgy became one of the central preoccupations of the Bugnini Commission, which was primarily concerned with the principle of what Reid claims was the translation of participatio actuosa as “active participation” instead of “actual participation”. The latter implies interiority and promotes contemplation. In this context, “noble simplicity”, which is a practical policy and not a dogmatic statement (and thus open to disagreement), takes on a rather more radical meaning that that perhaps originally intended. Is this principle not in need of a critical reappraisal? According to McManus, the principle should be evangelical and not render the liturgy banal. Unfortunately, some, perhaps influenced by Jungmann’s theory of the corruption of the liturgical tradition and his distinction between the essentials and the non-essentials, understand “noble simplicity” to mean a rupture with tradition. Thus a new Puritanism arose (K. Flanagan). The irony is that the reforms satisfied none of the constituents which the reforms were supposed to appeal to (youth, educated, etc.), who find the liturgy mostly boring. Katherine Pipstock and David Torvelle have produced trenchant criticisms of the reforms. Interestingly, Sacramentum caritatis does not even mention the terms “noble simplicity”. The main question today is; to what extent do the rites contribute to the true “actual participation” of the faithful in worship.

Mr Ethan Anthony (Boston, USA), a practicing church architect in the tradition established by Ralph Adams Cram (1889-1942), gave an illustrated talk on the topic: “The Third Revival: New Gothic and Romanesque Catholic Architecture in North America”. Cram’s basic policy as an architect was summed up in his statement: “I want people who come into church to be taken out of themselves”. For him, beauty is a manifestation of the divine. We simply need beauty to be human. However, as in all art so too with architecture, inspiration can only be received not fabricated. “We need architects who see though the eyes of faith”. According to Anthony, the First Revival was inspired by Newman and Pugin. The Second was under the influence of Willam Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Under the influence of Gropius and the Bauhaus movement that flourished in the Weimar Republic and came to the USA from 1939, there was a period in the 1950s in the suburban Catholic Church when concrete-block churches became fashionable. The Third Revival began with work on the restoration of older churches, which in turn required the re-learning of older skills more akin to the building of the medieval churches. Soon congregations wanted new churches built in the older style, a more distinctly sacral style than found in the modern buildings. The question was raised: could we build churches in the traditional styles, where faith was expressed through the medium of stone and glass. In dialogue with the pastors and their congregations, architects began to design new church buildings under the inspiration of those medieval masterpieces scattered around Europe and using new materials that were both cost-effective and, in terms of design, modern. Anthony’s power-point presentation of many of these magnificent churches of the Third Revival captivated the audience.

In another fascinating power-point presentation, Professor Duncan G. Stroik (Notre Dame, USA) addressed the topic “All the great works of art are a manifestation of God: Pope Benedict XVI and the Architecture of Beauty”. Stroik used the magnificent church buildings of Bavaria that formed the background to Ratzinger’s theory of beauty and gave it its existential depth. Here in particular the meaning of the Baroque period was made accessible to an audience that has little experience of that style – and indeed are often rather sceptical of its value.

All of the papers highlighted new aspects of the theme. However the final paper was the most surprising of all. Dr Neil J. Roy (Peterborough, Canada) discussed the topic “The Galilee Chapel: A Medieval Notion Comes of Age”, which certainly opened up new vistas for the participants. The Galilee Chapel has its origins in the Cluniac monasteries, where it formed the place where processions started in memory of the beginning of the public ministry of Our Lord in Galilee. From thence, the procession moved to Jerusalem, the sanctuary area. Using Durham’s monastic Cathedral as his starting point, Roy described the development of the Galilee Chapel, in particular in Cluny, before making some important suggestions about restoring the institution – and with it the baptistery – to the front of the church and decorating it with suitable motives. With this paper, the conference looked to the future and the possibility if innovation based on the inspiration taken from the Cluniac tradition.

The Portrayal of Priests - Part II

Two years after San Francisco and the same year as Boys' Town, Angels with Dirty Faces was released, starring Jimmy Cagney as gangster Rocky Sullivan, Pat O'Brien as his boyhood friend, Fr. Jerry Connolly, Anne Sheridan as Laury Ferguson, Cagney/Sullivan's childhood sweetheart, and Humphrey Bogart as James Frazier, Cagney/Sullivan's partner in crime and general villain of the piece.

The plot bears striking resemblance to that in San Francisco as regards the relationships between the three principal characters. However, the portrayal of the Priest is now deeper and the spiritual conflict stronger. This is a fight for souls, not only for the soul of Cagney but also for the young hoodlums who idolize him. It should also be noted that Hollywood makes some amends in this film for the glorification of violence in so many of its other films - especially those starring Cagney himself.

At the climax of the film, Cagney faces the death penalty. Unrepentent and hard-nosed to the end, he refuses O'Briens plea to 'turn yellow', that is, to show cowardice as he goes to the chair to break the heroic image the young hoodlums have of him. He remains unrepentant to the end... almost. In the end, it seems, he met eternity making a sacrifice of his own reputation for the sake of others.

Pat O'Brien was known as 'the Irishman in residence' in Hollywood. He was also a regular in the role of a Priest, most famously as the eponimous Fighting Father Dunne. The plot, based upon the true story of a Fr. Dunne of St. Louis, MO, the founder of a Paperboys' Home, is in the mould of Boys' Town, and similarly portrays the Priest as friend of the poor and hero of the children abandoned by Society. He would also go on to play Fr. Francis P. Duffy next to Cagney in The Fighting 69th. O'Brien was part of the so-called Hollywood Irish Mafia, which also included Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Cagney and Frank McHugh.

Tenth Monthly Mass in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin

The tenth monthly Mass organised by the FSSP took place this afternoon in Cill Mhuire, Ballymany, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland. A congregation of 13 was present, including three young children with their parents, that is, only joint second lowest attendance with February.


The FSSP's English newsletter for Summer 2009 (pages 12/13) presents an optimistic outlook on their journeys in the "Irish Republic" of "Eire", including stopping off at "Ballimany" along the way. No doubt Erse will become ever more commonplace on its pages in years to come.

The Portrayal of Priests - Part I

Mention of Fr. Edward J. Flanagan and the film Boys' Town brings to mind the portrayal of Catholic Priests in popular culture. During what was known as 'the golden age of Hollywood', that portrayal was generally sympathetic. While the addage that Hollywood consisted of Jews making Catholic films for Protestants must be taken with a grain of salt, the grain of truth is there already. We must exercise a critical faculty with such movies, and exercise right judgement both with the work itself and in regard to those who appeared in and worked on it, generally there is much edification in many of them.

Spencer Tracy, himself a Catholic, although not always an exemplary one, played the part of a Priest four times. First in San Francisco in 1936 and then in Boys' Town in 1938 and its sequal, Men of Boys' Town, in 1941, as well as in The Devil at 4 o'clock, in 1961.

San Francisco is set in that city about the time of the Great Earthquake and consequent Great Fire of 1906. The plot follows a familiar pattern of two childhood friends, one who has chosen a life of goodness (Tracy as Fr. Tim Mullen), the other a life of wickedness (Clarke Gable as 'Blackie' Norton, together with the lady (Jeanette MacDonald as Mary Blake) who helps to reawaken the good that was always within him.

In the first clip, we see MacDonald/Blake singing in Church at Christmas. The second clip, the final scene, shows Gable/Norton's final conversion in thanksgiving for the survival of MacDonald/Blake. The admixture of piety and materialism can be viewed in a favourable or an unfavourable light. One is tempted to see Americanism there, except that these movies are the world glancing at the Faith rather than the other way around.

Although they can be seen with a Catholic eye, the themes are not overtly Catholic. However, the film is essentially respectful, edifying and, which is not to be dismissed, a good opportunity to see Jeanette MacDonald at the peak of her talent!

Interest in the Gregorian Rite in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin

Table 1 - Actual to June 2009

Over the past fifteen years, St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association has campaigned ceaselessly for the provision of the Gregorian Rite in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Hardly a month went by without a letter falling on the mat at Bishop's House. It wasn't unknown for dozens of letters to have fallen on that mat over the course of some of those months. Writing letters and signing petitions is one thing but a genuine interest in - and a pastoral need for - the Gregorian Rite is another.

Over the past year, this blog has traced the actual state of interest in the Gregorian Rite in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. The picture is not one of universal success, but it is also not a picture without some basis for hope.

The monthly Masses that the Diocese has organised have faced their difficulties. 1 p.m. isn't an ideal time (although there seems no difficulty in filling a much larger Church in the same parish for a Mass at 12.30 p.m.). The Church isn't of a traditional design. The Parish has only a population of c. 30,000 and Mass attendances seem to be lower than the National average. However, those difficulties do not entirely explain a constantly falling attendance.

On the other hand, the monthly Masses have had immense support from the Diocese and the Parish. It hasn't always been easy - nor is it always easy - nor will it always be easy - to love the Gregorian Rite and to work for its provision in this Diocese. Nevertheless, publicity, facilities, and practical support are all given generously and extensively to the monthly Masses by the Diocese and the Parish. In this regard, the Diocese and the Parish have covered themselves in glory - and this is no hyperbole. In hoc laudo.

Likewise, the occasional Masses organised by St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association have had their difficulties too. The locations have often been rural. The sacristy was occasionally locked. Publicity was informal and sporadic in most cases. The Masses were once-off events.

On the other hand, the locals always turned out in force to join us in prayer. This is the strongest basis for hope. There is prayerful interest in the Gregorian Rite in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Time after time, when people have the opportunity to attend this form of Mass in their own Parish, they take that opportunity.

We must take into account the artificially high attendance at the first monthly Mass in Newbridge. The attendance at that first Mass (including a Bishop, celebrant, four servers, and a professional choir of 11, as well as a bus party from Dublin), was 57. This raises the average monthly attendance at the nine monthly Masses to 24. Excluding the first Mass, the average attendance at the remaining eight monthly Masses was 19.

If we exclude those coming from other Dioceses, notably Dublin, which has several Gregorian Rite locations, including one more-than-daily-Mass location, the average attendance of people from the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin (that is, the indicator for pastoral need within the Diocese) at those nine Masses was 14. Excluding the first Mass, the average attendance of local people at the remaining either monthly Masses was 12. However, it wouldn't be unusual to see a similar number of locals from Kildare and Leighlin at Sunday Masses in the Gregorian Rite in Dublin.

On the other hand, the average attendance at the six occasional Masses organised by St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association during the Holy Year of St. Paul was 58. The average attendance of local people, each in their own locality, excluding members of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association, at the six occasional Masses was 45.

Table 2 - Trends to June 2009

It could be suggested that there is greater interest for the Gregorian Rite in rural areas (Emo, Vicarstown, Skeoghvosteen) than in more urban areas (Newbridge, Arran Quay, Kilcock). The figures bear this interpretation. It could equally be suggested that the Gregorian Rite has novelty value in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin and people will attend once for mixed motives but that their interest is not sustained or sustainable.

However, it is equally tenable to argue that one failure, albeit a fairly clear one, in the face of increasing attendances elsewhere in the Diocese, doesn't justify the condemnation of the Gregorian Rite to the history books of the Diocese for a second time.

Table 3 - Trends at May 2010

[UPDATE MAY 2010] Lies, dashed lies and statistics. To be sure, statistics only tell us one side of the story. Since this post was composed in July, 2009, eleven further monthly Masses have been held and a mere five occasional Masses have been held in that time. The occasional Masses in Vicarstown, Newbridge, Rathangan, Arran Quay, Kildare Town and Carlow Town were a mixed bag in terms of attendances. The attendance in Carlow in May, 2010, exceeding 200 persons, was, even by the limited standards of these surveys, an exception. However, what has, at least, been demonstrated is that there is a consistent appetite for the provision of the Gregorian Rite within the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.

St. Conleth of Kildare, pray for us!

Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman

DECREES OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS

VATICAN CITY, 3 JUL 2009 (VIS) - Today, during a private audience with Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees:

- Servant of God John Henry Newman, English cardinal and founder of the Oratories of St. Philip Neri in England (1801-1890).

Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman, pray for us!

Some were different...

Fr. Edward J. Flanagan

(1886-1948)

The Ryan Report, released in May, opened a window into a shameful part of our heritage as Catholics, the abuse of children in so many institutions run by Catholic Religious Orders. However, it is as much a part of our Catholic heritage as any other. It is part of what makes us what we are and we must ensure that we learn from it in order to become what we should be - and what we should have been all along.

To say that some were different should not minimize the sufferings of children or the wrongs of abusers. It should show us that we can always choose what is right, even in the midst of wrongdoing.

Father Edward J. Flanagan was different. He was the world-famous founder of 'Boys' Town' in Nebraska. It was not because of his fame that he was different but because of his sense of goodness and his courage to live up to that sense. Because he was different, President Harry S. Truman asked him to undertake a tour of Asia and Europe in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War to assess the plight of children - and to assess what might be done to alleviate that plight.

While travelling, he stopped off in Ireland. His visit to Ireland wasn't part of the official itinerary. It was simply a visit to the land of his birth, as he passed through Europe. However, because he was different, because he could not be indifferent to the situation of children, while in Ireland, he visited some of the institutions that housed them. His reaction was a stark condemnation of those institutions and the system that controlled them.

Because of the Hollywood film Boys' Town, released in 1938, ten years before this mission, Fr. Flanagan was treated like a National hero and a media celebrity - at first. Addressing a packed auditorium in Cork's Savoy Cinema, Fr. Flanagan said: "You are the people who permit your children and the children of your communities to go into these institutions of punishment. You can do something about it."

He called Ireland’s penal institutions "a disgrace to the nation," and later said "I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child’s character." He also condemned the Industrial School system as “a scandal, un-Christlike, and wrong,” adding that the Christian Brothers had lost its way.

The Irish Minister for Justice later stated: “I am not disposed to take any notice of what Monsignor Flanagan said while he was in this country, because his statements were so exaggerated that I did not think people would attach any importance to them.” Sadly, in that last point, he was correct.

Fr. Flanagan died in Berlin in 1948 while on this mission for the children of the world.

Some were different from the men and women who abused children under the veil of Religion or who hid that abuse under the same veil. The rest, the rest of us, it seems, were indifferent at best.

We participate in the sin of another: by counsel; by command; by consent; by provocation; by praise or flattery; by concealment; by partaking; by silence; by defense of the ill done.

We are forgiven our sins: by acknowledging our fault; by confessing our guilt; by our sorrow and our repentence; by purposing amendment; by reparation for the harm done.

Our Lady, Comfort of the Afflicted, pray for us!

Blessed Peter O'Higgins, O.P.

Blessed Peter O'Higgins, O.P.

The Dominican Peter O'Higgins, of the Priory of Yeomanstown between Newbridge and Naas, on the banks of the River Liffey, was beatified with 16 other Irish Martyrs on 27th September, 1991. Today is their collective feast day.

In his Historical Sketch of the Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of Ireland Under the Rule of Cromwell and the Puritans, Rev. Dr. Patrick Francis Moran as he then was, Vice Rector of the Irish College in Rome and later Cardinal Archbishop of Sidney, gives the following account of the martyrdom of Blessed Peter O'Higgins:

F. Peter O'Higgins belonged to the order of St Dominick and in 1641 he was led to the scaffold for the Catholic faith in the court yard of Dublin Castle. We will allow father Dominick O'Daly to describe the scene of his suffering:- "This pious and eloquent man," thus writes O'Daly, in 1655, "was arrested and brought before the lords Justices of Ireland on a charge of endeavouring to seduce the Protestants from their religion. When his accusers failed to sustain any capital charge against him, the men in power sent to inform him that if he abandoned his faith he might expect many and great privileges; but all depended on his embracing the Protestant religion. From the first he knew well that they had resolved on his death; but it was on the morning of the day fixed for his execution that the messenger came to him with the above terms."

"O'Higgins in reply desired to have those proposals made to him under the signature of the Justices, and requested, moreover, that it should be handed to him in sight of the gibbet. The lords Justices hearing this, together with the order for his execution, sent the written document for pardon on the aforesaid condition. Now when the intrepid martyr had ascended the first step of the ladder leading to the gibbet the executioner placed the paper in his hand. He bowed courteously on receiving it, and loud was the exultation of the heretical mob who thought he was about to renounce the Catholic faith; but he standing on the scaffold, exposed to the view of God and man, exhibited to all about him the document he had received, and commenting with warmth on it, convicted his impious judges of their own avowed iniquity."

"Knowing well that there were Catholics in the crowd, he said addressing them:- 'My brethren, God hath so willed that I shonld fall into the hands of our relentless persecutors. They have not been able, however, to convict me of any crime against the laws of the realm; but my religion is an abomination in their sight, and I am here to-day to protest, in the sight of God and man, that I am condemned for my faith. For some time, I was in doubt as to the charge on which they would ground my condemnation; but, thanks to Heaven! it is no longer so, and I am about to suffer for my attachment to the Catholic faith. See you here the condition on which I might save my life. Apostacy is all they require but, before high Heaven I spurn their offers and, with my last breath, will glorify God for the honour He has done me in allowing me thus to suffer for His Name.' Then, turning to the executioner, after having cast the Justices autograph to the crowd, he told him to perform his office, and the by-standers heard him returning thanks to God, even with his latest breath. Thus did iniqnity lie unto itself - thus did the martyr's constancy triumph." (From History of the Geraldines by Dominick de Rosario O'Daly, O.P., originally written in Latin, and printed at Lisbon in 1655; translated by Rev. C.P. Meehan, and printed in Dublin in 1847. See also De Burgh's Hib. Dom., page 561.)

In the aforementioned The Geraldines, Earls of Desmond, and the Persecution of the Irish Catholics, translated from the original latin, with notes and illustrations, by Rev. C. P. Meehan, in the footnote to page 251, where the martyrdom of another Dominican in 1651 in Clonmel is recounted, we read:

Thomas O Higgins was put to death in the year 1651. In the Hib. Dom. p 561 there is mention made of Peter O Higgins, who was slain for no other crime than that of being a Dominican Friar. His death took place in the year 1641, immediately after the rising of the Catholics. The mortal remains of this victim were denied sepulture in the city of Dublin; and as the friends of the murdered priest were carrying him to a burial place outside the walls, the partisans of the Lords Justices shattered the lifeless head with their muskets. Acta Capituli Generalissimi. Romae, 1644. p. 119.

Blessed Peter O'Higgins, pray for us!

Opening of the New Holy Year

The Holy Year announced by the Holy Father in March for Priests begins today. In preparation, St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association has distributed copies of a prayer written by Revd. Fr. William Doyle, S.J., M.C.

That prayer runs thus:

O my God, pour out in abundance Thy spirit of sacrifice upon Thy priests. It is both their glory and their duty to become victims, to be burnt up for souls, to live without ordinary joys, to be often the objects of distrust, injustice, and persecution.

The words they say every day at the altar, "This is my Body, this is my Blood," grant them to apply to themselves: "I am no longer myself, I am Jesus, Jesus crucified. I am, like the bread and wine, a substance no longer itself, but by consecration another."

O my God, I burn with desire for the sanctification of Thy priests. I wish all the priestly hands which touch Thee were hands whose touch is gentle and pleasing to Thee, that all the mouths uttering such sublime words at the altar should never descend to speaking trivialities.

Let priests in all their person stay at the level of their lofty functions, let every man find them simple and great, like the Holy Eucharist, accessible to all yet above the rest of men. O my God, grant them to carry with them from the Mass of today, a thirst for the Mass of tomorrow, and grant them, ladened themselves with gifts, to share these abundantly with their fellow men. Amen.

The Life of Fr. Doyle, written by Prof. Alfred O'Rahilly, is available here.

Ninth Monthly Mass in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin

The ninth monthly Mass in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin took place today. The congregation numbered 10, including one young toddler. The celebrant, one server and the sacristan were also there.

The Ecumenical Value of the Gregorian Rite

A letter to the President of the International Una Voce Federation from a representative of one of the Orthodox Churches has just been posted.

UPDATE: Another view.

The Holy Father's Homily for Corpus Christi

Last Thursday, at the Mass at the Latern Basilica in advance of the Blessed Sacrament Procession through the streets of Rome to the Liberian Basilica, Our Holy Father the Pope gave a homily in Italian of which this is a translated extract:

"St. Leo the Great reminds us that "our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ leads to nothing other than to become that which we receive" (sermo 12, De Passione, 2,7, PL54). If this is true for every Christian, it is so for an even greater reason for us priests. To be the Eucharist! Let this very thing be our constant desire and task, so that at the offering of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we accomplish on the altar, there comes also the sacrifice of our existence. Every day, we draw from the Body and Blood of the Lord that free and pure love which makes us worthy minister of Christ and witnesses to His joy. And this is what the faithful are waiting for from the priest: the example, indeed, of an authentic devotion for the Eucharist; the love to see him spend time in long pauses of silence and of adoration before Jesus as did the Cure of Ars, whom we will remember in a special way during this now imminent Priestly Year."

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!

The Sequence of Corpus Christi

As is well-known, the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted at the request of Our Lord to St. Juliana of Liège on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Pope Unban IV, who instituted the feast, had been Archdeacon of Liège before his election. It is also well known that St. Thomas Aquinas, the Doctor Angelicus, was asked to compose the Mass and Office of the feast. His compositions were not only theological and artistic masterpieces but they have provided the Church and the Christian Faithful with several of the most universally popular hymns in honour of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Among those compositions, is the Adoro Te Devote, Pange Lingua, Sacris Solemnis and Verbum Supernum. Sadly, not as universally popular is the Sequence of the Mass of Corpus Christi Lauda Sion Salvatorem. Indeed, perhaps the only part of it that has entered the popular repertoire are the few lines Ecce Panis Angelorum, factus cibus viatorum: vere panis filiorum, non mittendus canibus that have frequently been set to music independently of the rest of the Sequence.

This is also true in the case of the Pange Lingua, which, although the full hymn is memorably used on Holy Thursday, the last two verses form the Benediction hymn Tantum Ergo, which is a stock favourite. Likewise, in Sacris Solemnis, the sixth verse gives us the famous Panis Angelicus, and the hymn of Benediction O Salutaris is found towards the end of Verbum Supernum.

The second video clip is the popular and most common version of Ecce Panis Angelorum, while the third is the setting by the famed Don Lorenzo Perosi.

In speaking of the Sequences of the Roman Missal, the Catholic Encyclopedia says: Each of the five has its own special beauty; but the "Lauda Sion" is peculiar in its combination of rhythmic flow, dogmatic precision, phraseal condensation."

In common with the other Sequences, Lauda Sion is double strophed. That is, it repeats the same melody in two lines before moving to another melody for the next two lines. This doubled strophing, or strophe and counter-strophe pattern that sets the Sequence apart from the hymn. Effectively, each strophe/counter-strophe would have been sung alternately by the two liturgical choirs. Such double strophing is found frequently in the Books of the Old Testament, particularly in the non-Major Prophetic Books, Hosea, Amos and Job being particular examples.

St. Coca of Kilcock

Dr. Comerford's entry on the Parish of Kilcock begins thus:

"Derives its name from St. Coca, virgin, whose chief feast was celebrated on the 6th of June. We find her name calendared in the Martyrology of Donegal also, at the 8th January: "Cuach, virgin, of Cil-Cuaigh in Cairbre na Ciardha;" and again, in the same, under date April 29th : "Coningen, i. Cuach i. Ci Finn Maighi." A gloss on this passage states that the maiden Coinengean, or Cuach, was the pupil or Daltha of Mac Tail, Bishop of Kilcullen. She is stated to have been sister of St. Kevin of Glendalough, of St. Attracta, and other saints. (See Loca Patr.,p. 150.note.) Colgan, it should be added, considers that this was a different person from the Patron Saint of Kilcock. In the life of St. Ciaran of Saighir, it is stated that "he used to go to the sea rock that was far distant in the sea (where his nurse, i,e., Coca, was), without ship or boat, and used to return again." St. Coca was identified with this locality from a very early date... The Holy Well of the Saint, called Tubbermohocca, stood in what is now an enclosed yard in the town."

The well of St. Coca, which appears to have been in the yard of what was the Christian Brothers' Monastery in the Square, seems to have been covered over some time in the nineteenth century.

Tradition has it that St. Coca embroidered vestments for Saint Colmcille.

St. Coca of Kilcock, pray for us!

One Year On...

Today, as well as being the feast of St. Coca of Kilcock, is also the first anniversary of this blog. In the past year, 4 contributers have published 100 posts. 12,092 visits have been made to the blog by 7,099 unique visitors.

Of the last 500 visitors, 35.9% were from Ireland, 22.4% were from the United States, 16.2% were from Britain, 5.2% were from Canada, 2.9% were from Sweden, 2.8% were from France, 2.4% were from Italy, 2.1% were from Australia, and a delightful 2% from the Holy See!

Among our most faithful returning visitors have been from Portlaoise (Ireland), Preston (England), Pisa (Italy), Paris (France) with no less than three such, Justice-equality-lawreform-ireland (Ireland), Toulouse (France), Dept Of Environment Dr Allocation (Ireland), Dublin (Ireland), and Mountmellick (Ireland), each with more than 20 recent visits.

Google was the search engine for 90.1% of recent visitors by search engine, with AOL, Bing and Yahoo about equal. Vodafone-ireland-mobile-isp was the mobile server of our most frequent mobile visitors, followed closely by Eircom Ltd. (Ireland), both with over 40 recent visits each. The Hermenutic of Continuity, Forest Murmers and Brendan Allen were the source of a great number of the most recent guests.

Indicentally, our two associated blogs had reached 21,357 (http://www.fsspvocations.blogspot.com/) and 81,514 (http://www.tradvocations.blogspot.com/) by this morning.

St. Brigid, St. Conleth and St. Coca pray for the contributers, for the visitors and for the friends who showed them the way! May everything they publish and every internet visit they make redound to the Greater Glory of God, the honour of His Blessed Mother and the good of souls!