Lux Occulta

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See also: Priests and People in Ireland

The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting in Dublin in 1611 by the four Protestant Archbishops of Ireland. This Spanish transcript was sent to the Irish Colleges in Spain by Fr Richard Conway (1573-1626) and is translated here by Fr William McDonald, Rector at the Irish College of Salamanca from 1871 until 1876. The report is headed with the (long!) title of this post. (Note that there is an English equivalent of this statement which does not differ from the following except in its antiquated phraseology.)

In as much as the king our lord [this refers to the Stuart King James I, first monarch of the newly united Kingdom of Great Britain and much hated by Catholics in Ireland at the time for his ruthless policy of confiscation and plantation - shane], with his usual care and religious zeal for the advancement of the true faith and religion in this kingdom of Ireland, has commanded us, the archbishops and bishops of said kingdom, by his royal letters of the 12th of last April, to come together to confer and treat about the means to carry out and put in execution his Majesty’s will on this head; we, the four archbishops of this kingdom, summoned by the viceroy according to the directions he had from his Majesty for this purpose, having met here in Dublin in discharge of our consciences before God Almighty, and in compliance with the sacred royal commands of his Majesty, to whom we owe loyalty and obedience in temporal and spiritual things according to our oaths, after due deliberation, do swear and undertake, in order to realize the end his Majesty has in view, as far as in us lies, to procure the observance as well in our dioceses as in those of our suffragans the following statutes and ordinances:

1. That as far as possible we observe conformity in the order of uprooting papistry, and planting in its place the true religion, and spare no kind of labour of body or mind to carry this into execution.

2. That for this purpose we reside each of us in his own diocese and district, nor leave it without the express permission of the viceroy: remarking that we understand by district all the tract of country where we have command and authority, as in the instance of the archbishop of Cashel, who has two other dioceses annexed to his by the king’s favour.

3. That each of us, as also of our suffragans, annually visit in person all the deaneries and divisions of our jurisdiction, summoning all the pastors and ministers to appear before him to give an account of themselves and their ministry, and of the flocks they have under them, and receive instructions for the good government and proper conduct as well of themselves as of their parishioners.

4. That no one be acknowledged as pastor, minister, or priest, whose title is not confirmed by the royal authority and seal.

5. That the oath of allegiance and supremacy be offered to and required from all classes of people, and that said prelate give faith and testimony to the lord viceroy of all those who would not take it.

6. That we undertake and promise not to admit any person to promotion or ecclesiastical dignities in our dioceses who will not first willingly take the oath of supremacy, and publicly conform with all the laws of the king, and that we will give said benefices in reward to those who display zeal in this particular.

7. That each of us and of our suffragans will make diligent inquiry after such persons as may entertain or lodge vagabond clerics, Jesuits, seminarists, friars, and such like, forming a list of the parties receiving them, as also of those they receive, which shall be sent in due time to the viceroy, together with our opinion of how they may be come at, and offering at the same time our aid and assistance.

8. That we will do everything possible to repair and rebuild all the parochial churches of our dioceses; and wherever our authority is not strong enough to effect it, we will with all submission ask the favour and assistance of the viceroy.

9. That we will take special care that there be established in each of our dioceses public schools, in which freely and without any payment the natives may be taught conformably to the order of his Majesty to that purpose; and that we will not consent that any papist master may have a school and teach either publicly or in secret; and any remissness in this matter must be denounced to the viceroy.

10. That we will spare no kind of labour or diligence to withdraw the papists from their superstitions and idolateries. We will also employ all diligence and care in instructing them in the principal points of our true religion, imitating in this the zeal of the prelates of England, with whose mode of proceeding we are well acquainted.

Finally, we resolve to meet here in this capital, we the four archbishops with our suffragan bishops, at Easter of next year, that his Majesty may know and understand the diligence employed by each of us in carrying out these holy and salutary ordinances.

Attached to the report, Fr Richard Conway gave a commentary on the resolutions and their implementation. The following is an extract and translated from the Spanish by Fr William McDonald: (Father Conway subsequently goes on to quote authorities to show the holiness and intellectual vibrancy of the early Irish Church, quoting St. Bernard, Jocelyre, Theodosius, Baronius, and Jonas Abbas, among others.)

For the fulfilment and observance of these resolutions the viceroy gave them certain furious and diabolical ministers, called constables, who are Englishmen and who go about with power to rob and despoil whomever they like, without respect to person or quality; and also companies of horse and foot, who live on the Catholics, and act, some as setter dogs, others as gripers to seize and maltreat, and others to glut on these servants of God their mad fanaticism with unheard-of cruelty and tyranny.

One night they travelled an immense distance with the intention of seizing certain Jesuit priests, who were to meet in a particular place, and although they found the house-directly, our Lord was pleased to send some impediment so that there was no meeting that day, and their wicked intentions were thus frustrated; but they wreaked their vengeance on the people of the house, plundering everything they could lay hands on. All priests keep out of sight: by day they do not dare to go out in public even disguised, because for them there is no place secure, nor village, nor town, nor even the woods and mountains, for these infernal ministers leave no corner unsearched.

They have their Inquisition which goes from place to place to inquire and discover, to condemn and chastise, those who were not at their heretical meetings and sermons, or who harbour Catholic priests, or hear Mass, or wear a rosary beads, agnus Deis, crosses, images or medallions, or go to confession and communion. They also inquire who married them, baptized their children, or buried their dead; who has in his house a Bull or Brief, or any document emanating from the Pope and the holy Church of Rome. All these things have their penalty and chastisement, and the informer his reward.

In the month of August last there was a judicial inquiry in Drogheda after priests in the form customarily employed in the discovery of the perpetrators of great crimes, obliging those summoned to inform on them on oath; but the Lord gave His own in this difficulty os et sapientiam cui non poterant resistere adversarii. One said his own occupations did not allow him time to look after the affairs of his neighbours; another, that an humble man like him could not be expected to know anything of matters so far above him; another, that he wondered people so learned as the members of the Inquisition should be, could want to know anything from him who had never studied a word; and the beauty of it all was that they could never get anything else from them; and such was the confusion of the Inquisitors that they thought well to close the business and get away as quick as they could, without effecting their purpose.

They are making all haste in rebuilding the churches, which were destroyed by the heretics themselves, perhaps by the will of heaven, which desires the Catholic Faith, when restored, to find its churches ready built, though this is far from the thoughts of those engaged in the work. All is done at the cost of the Catholics, even to the expenses of the inspectors appointed to oversee the building. In the course of one year over 100 parochial churches have been repaired in the archdiocese of Dublin alone, to which a great number of heretical Englishmen have been appointed.

The greatest injury they have done, and one of most serious consequences, was the prohibition of all Catholic schools in our nation, naturally so inclined to learning, except an odd infant school in the principal cities and towns, where only reading, writing, and a little grammar are taught, with the object of sinking our people to degradation, or filling the universities of England with the children of those who had any means to educate them, where they might become more dependent on the heretics and contaminated with their errors. They have also taken singular care that all children be taught English, and chastise them if they hear them speak their own native tongue. But as these crafty heretics saw that all their efforts did not produce the desired effect, and that the natives not only did not go to England, but rather preferred to remain in ignorance than run the risk of their faith and religion by doing so, or went secretly and quietly to many foreign parts, but particularly to Spain, where his Catholic Majesty [King Philip III of Spain --- shane] protected them, and gave them some colleges, and by his example in allotting a subscription for the support of a certain number, encouraged his vassals to assist them, and placed them under the direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus; and as they also found that from these colleges came a crowd of priests in a very short time, full of virtue and learning, who boldly opposed them, discovered their designs, brought back the erring, and pointed out the way of truth to the ignorant, prohibiting them at the same time from attending the sacrilegious meetings of the Protestants, which maddened them completely, they determined, in order to stop the ravages these colleges were committing, to found a University in the capital of the kingdom, in which they put heretical masters to teach their pestiferous doctrines, and uproot the desire of the Catholics to cross the sea. But the active diligence of our evangelical labourers frustrated their intent, and induced many more to come to Spain than formerly, so that the heretics were left without more hearers than their own children and relatives.

Convinced in the end that none of their plans produced the desired effect, they commenced to publish the fierce edicts issued against the Catholics, in which, besides what is stated above, it is commanded that no one send his son to these colleges under penalty of incurring the serious indignation of the king, confiscation of property and imprisonment. When their sons come home priests, if their fathers admit them into their house, they incur the same penalty, so that fathers whose sons at any time became seminarists run risks and are exposed to trouble all their life; and when the fathers suffer so, what will be the fate of the children if caught? We may guess what it will be from the cruelty of the heretics to Dermot Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, who, after various torments in prison, was put into boots filled with boiling pitch, butter, salt, and vinegar, which in an instant consumed his flesh to the bones, and was then brought to the scaffold and hanged with a rope of osiers to make his death more cruel and prolonged. The venerable abbot, Gelasius O’Cullenan, will tell us, whom they hung up by the feet and robbed of life with musket shots, shortly after he had finished his studies in Salamanca. [Gelasius O'Cullenan, after completing his studies in the prestigious University of Salamanca, joined the Cisterians, passed his novitiate in Paris, and became Superior of the monastery of Boyle. Henriquez refers to him as: "Ordinis Cisterciensis decor, saeculi nostri splendor et totius Hiberniae gloria." He was martyred on 21st November, 1580. The only response he made while being tortured in prison, and offered bribes to convert to the Protestant religion, was thus: "Though you should offer me the crown of England, I will not forfeit my reward." - shane] The Blessed Cornelius O’Duvena, bishop of Down and Connor, will also tell us, who, on the 5th of February of this present year, 1612, suffered glorious martyrdom in this form: They took him from the prison at a horse’s tail to the gallows, where they half hanged him, and then cut off his head, tore out and burned his bowels, and cut his body into quarters; as also Bishop O’Gallagher, who being unable to ride on account of his great age he was over eighty was supported on horseback with the points of their lances, so that the poor old man’s body was covered with blood on the way to the scaffold, which they found he was unable to reach, and they cut off his head and threw him into a ditch.

This new website was officially launched today in the National Musuem of Ireland (incidentally if you’ve never been there before, you really must go) and asks its readers to send in stories, memories, snapshots, research and observations of life from across Ireland. Anyone is free to contribute.

Already some very promising material has gone up, including a fascinating piece regarding the Mámean pilgrim site and this wonderful article on Admiral William Brown, who is still celebrated by Argentines as a national hero.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been posting a lot less over the last week. This is due to sickness, which I (wrongly) thought would have subsided by now. I think I’m going to take some time off from blogging. I don’t know how long, but hopefully not any longer than a few days. In the meantime you’re entirely welcome to leave comments on existing posts but please don’t be surprised or offended if it takes a while for them to be approved. Prayers for my health are always appreciated.

Many thanks for your patience.

The Irish hierarchy issued the following statement in 1960 at their October meeting in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth:

With a view to a uniform practice at public Masses on Sundays and Holy Days in availing of the concessions granted by the Holy See in regard to the omission of the Leonine Prayers (A.A.S., vol. LII, n. 5, p. 360), it was agreed that, as far as possible, the Leonine Prayers should be retained in the last Masses on those days.

and adopted the following resolution:

Beginning with 1 February 1961, the new tri-lingual Latin-Vernacular Ritual, approved by the Holy See, is to be the received Ritual for Ireland and, subject to the instructions of individual bishops, is to be used by the clergy in the administration of the sacraments and sacramentals.

Paddy Agnew has a very interesting article in today’s Irish Times on the decision to close Ireland’s embassy to the Holy See, ostensibly for economic reasons: (See also reaction from Fr Lombardi, Cardinal Brady and Garry O’Sullivan, editor of the Irish Catholic.)

ANALYSIS: Decision to close our Vatican Embassy represents a major “cooling” in the once close and intimate Dublin-Rome relations

THE DECISION to close the Irish Embassy to the Holy See clearly represents good housekeeping but, equally, it has huge historical and political significance.

At the end of a summer marked by unprecedented tensions between Ireland and the Vatican over the Cloyne report, the decision represents a significant “cooling” in the once close and intimate Dublin-Rome relations.

Asked last night if the Holy See considered itself “offended” by the Government’s decision, senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi declined to comment. Such decisions, he said, were a matter for the Government. While the Vatican spokesman went out of his way to acknowledge the economic considerations underpinning the Irish decision, the reality is this is a move that has serious political implications.

In practice, there are two types of Holy See ambassadors – those who have their own embassies in Rome and those who work out of the embassy in a neighbouring country such as France, Switzerland or Malta.

Senior Vatican diplomats point out that as far as the Holy See is concerned, the former are Serie A ambassadors, while the latter are most distinctly Serie B. Put simply, if you want to show some proper respect and courtesy to the Holy See, then you had better maintain a separate embassy to the Vatican in Rome.

Ever since the 1929 concordat, the Vatican has mounted a zealous guard on the independence of its 100-acre, landlocked sovereign city-state enclave in the heart of Rome. First time Irish visitors, on discovering the Irish State runs (or ran) two diplomatic missions in the city – one to the Holy See and the other to the Italian state – often express surprise. Surely, they ask, a small country such as Ireland could make do with just one embassy which would handle relations with both the Vatican and Italy?

However, the point about the dual missions in Rome (and many other countries have two embassies here) is that they owe their existence to the Holy See’s desire to separate itself from the Italian state. It is the Holy See that refuses to accept an ambassador who is working out of the same building as the ambassador to Italy.

To some extent, the question goes back to first World War days when there was only one national embassy in Rome. When both Austria and Germany, then at war with Italy, withdrew their diplomatic representation, the Holy See found itself without German or Austrian interlocutors. In its finely tuned Jesuitical thinking, the Holy See objected to ambassadors being withdrawn because, while Italy might have been at war with Austria and Germany, the Holy See was not.

Countries which, whether through political choice or financial constraint, opt not to have a separate Vatican embassy usually end up “tagging on” Holy See responsibilities to their ambassador in a neighbouring country. The Holy See takes a dim view of this practice and the ambassador in question is very much a second-class citizen on the Vatican diplomatic circuit.

All of this was something the post-war Irish ambassador to the Holy See, Joseph Walshe, understood all too clearly. He inherited an embassy close to the central railway station where lorries, trams and trolley buses trundled by on a 24-hour basis. Mr Walshe in 1946 reported to Dublin that Ireland should upgrade its quarters, quoting the opinion of then US special representative, Myron Taylor, who said: “Ireland has a very special position in the Catholic world and in Rome and should have an Embassy worthy of Ireland.”

Given the green light, Mr Walshe came up with the goods in the shape of the splendid, 17th-century Villa Spada on the Gianicolo hill overlooking Rome. It has played its part in some intriguing chapters in Italian history, given that Garibaldi had used it briefly as his headquarters in 1849 while in more recent years it was home to the Agnelli (Fiat) family during the second World War.

Bought for $150,000 in 1946, Villa Spada is now worth millions. It functions not just as the residence of the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See but also houses the mission’s offices.

Logic decrees the Embassy to the Italian state would move into Villa Spada, thus saving on the heavy rent paid for the premises rented for that embassy. This move was confirmed last night, along with a decision to have the secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs act as Ambassador to the Vatican, servicing it from Dublin.

Other European countries, including Sweden and Estonia, have their ambassadors to the Vatican based in their national capitals.

In answer to a parliamentary question in 2009, minister for foreign affairs Micheál Martin reported that the two Embassies in 2008 had cost €2.4 million (Italian state) and €800,000 (Holy See). The much greater expenses incurred by the State Embassy are explained by the rent, while Villa Spada’s expenses are limited to personnel and upkeep.

This cost cutting measure, however, comes at a price. Not only does it highlight a cooling in relations with the Holy See but it also means Ireland is cutting itself off from one of the modern world’s best “listening posts”, given that the Vatican has an unparalleled and extensive worldwide network of contacts, intelligence and information.

In the current economic climate, however, the Government clearly feels that this is a regrettable, but acceptable sacrifice.

The Thirsty Gargoyle has an excellent post on this: The End of an Era: Squandering Our Influence for a Million Euro.

Many thanks to my Mexican friend Roberto O’Farrill for sending me these two wonderful photos below. Roberto tells me that Mexico commemorates the Batallion of St. Patrick every year on 13th September (top photo) and that John Riley (bottom photo) is today revered as a national hero by Mexicans.

The history of the Irish in Mexico is absolutely fascinating. It’s always struck me as a tragedy that we’ve so neglected our once very strong ties with Latin America, particularly Mexico and Argentina.

The following letter was sent by Fr Richard Conway SJ (1573-1626) to Fr Thomas White SJ. It was originally written in Spanish and comes from the wonderful archives of the Irish College of Salamanca (now hosted at Maynooth, but soon to go online). The translation below is by Fr William McDonald, who was Rector at Salamanca from 1871 until 1876 and was responsible for sorting the College’s archives.

The letter gives a fascinating insight into the persecution of Irish Catholics in the reign of King James I, which took a really furious shape after 1605. James I was the first Stuart monarch of the newly formed Kingdom of Great Britain. His most mementous policy in Ireland was the Plantation of Ulster, which saw the confiscated lands of the exiled Gaelic princes awarded to Protestant settlers from England and the Scottish lowlands. The section entitled ‘On the State of Civil Affairs’ refers to this.

Waterford,
22nd September, 1611.

A True Report of the Present State of Things in Ireland

Although from the first moment heresy entered into this kingdom, and while gradually establishing itself in it through the industry, arts, and craft of its partisans, the Catholics have suffered various calamities, extortions, and miseries, yet in these latter days, that is, from the year 1605 to the present 1611, we have suffered much more than ever, and the Catholic Apostolic Faith, which we inherited from our ancestors, was never before so combated, as our enemies have made war on it with fire and sword through public edicts, in which they command all Jesuits, seminarists, and other priests, and finally the bishops, to quit forever, as malefactors, this kingdom and all the territories and possessions belonging to the crown of England. But as it would be a long task to relate all that occurred in the persecution of the last seven years, and as it is generally known in Rome and the rest of the Christian world, I will content myself with briefly stating what has happened since July last of the present year, and indicating something of the purpose and designs of these adversaries of God, which though they try to conceal them, are plainly enough visible.

Of the Miserable Condition of the Ecclesiastical State.

There arrived in this kingdom a short time ago a Scotch minister named Knox [Andrew Knox was the Protestant Bishop of Raphoe and was particularly notorious for his cruelty to Irish Catholics - shane] who came from England with the title of bishop, and brought messages for our governors, by which they were commanded to renew and promulgate, in the king’s name, the edict issued some years past, with the same expressions and sentences as then, without subtracting a single one. On the contrary, they added some as well at the beginning as at the end: at the beginning, ‘that zeal for God’s honor was what moved his majesty to do this’; and at the end, ‘that all true and loyal subjects of his majesty should fear his indignation, and promptly obey whatever his edicts contained; and for this it was quite enough to hear they were promulgated by him and had his name signed to them.’

This last edict has appeared to us much more rigorous than the former one, and has given us much more to think about, because in it we were allowed five months from the day of its publication to get away, and provide necessaries for our journey; but now they don’t give us a day, or an hour, or a ship, nor is any means provided for our departure: they simply tell us to be off immediately from the kingdom. But I cannot conceive how the thing is to be done, unless they expect us to take wings, and fly through the air, or to swim through the sea; and I suppose if we only get drowned in the deep, our adversaries will be quite content.

In the same edict it is also commanded, under most severe pecuniary penalties, loss of property, and the weight of his majesty’s indignation, that all men and women, who have arrived at the years of discretion, must go on all Sundays and feast days to the Protestant synagogues, and be present at their sacrifices and ceremonies; and in the meantime, till this be put in execution, they have to pay the ordinary pecuniary fine established for all recusants (they call the Catholics thus who won’t attend their meetings and heretical rites). The priests are all on their guard, and none of them dares to go out of the house by day lest he might be recognised, and no place is secure for them there are so many nets and snares laid for them by their enemies, whose maddening thirst no liquor can satiate but the blood of the priests of Christ.

Item, they command all those who have sons studying in foreign parts, to call and compel them to come home at once within a fixed time, which will soon be up, and threatening severe penalties on those who will not comply with his majesty’s edict in this particular. Whence it may be gathered that their intention is none other but to completely extinguish the seed of Abraham; but the God of Abraham and of his children liveth, in whom we fix our trust, and we feel confident He would sooner convert the rocks and stones of Ireland into faithful children of Abraham than see our nation wanting in infinite numbers to succeed Abraham in his inheritance, and in priests zealous of God’s honour, to resist the power and machinations of hell by bravely following the standard of the Cross of our sweet Jesus, to the shedding of their blood, and the loss of their lives in the contest. Salve O bona Crux, salve, crimina pelle, tenebrasque fugeto. Exurgat ergo Rex iste, et Abrahae filius, et disipentur inimici ejus; et fugiant qui oderunt eum a facie ejus. Amen.

In the cities of Dublin and Drogheda an inquisition was held for the discovery of priests, and the same was done in Limerick at the last assizes held there by the judges in the month of August, where also twelve men were appointed to inquire after the lay persons who absented themselves from the Protestant churches.

A lawsuit has been commenced against all those of our nation who possessed monasteries, although they have legal possession of them in the manner and form prescribed by the law, and have been in peaceful occupation of them since the time of Henry VIII. And as regards all dignities, bishoprics, prebendaryships, and ecclesiastical benefices, they have ordained that no native can possess or enjoy them. Even one Miler [Miler Magrath was Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor but subsequently apostatized and became the Protestant Archbishop of Cashel - shane], who was formerly a friar, and for the last thirty-six years has been the pseudo Archbishop of Cashel, of whom they always made much, has had to receive an Englishman as coadjutor and companion in his dignity.

Item, it is ordained that all parochial churches, wherever situated, whether knocked down by the heretics themselves, or fallen to ruin through lapse of time and the want of care, be repaired and rebuilt at the cost of the Catholics, and they have actually commenced to do so. From which you may see if God does not aid us with His all-powerful arm from on high, to what dangers and calamities the Catholic Church is exposed in this kingdom, and the terrible risks the faithful natives run.

On the State of Civil Affairs.

The whole kingdom is filled and thronged with Englishmen, who daily come over like swarms of bees, so that very shortly this island will be quite unable to contain, much less support, such a crowd. Wherever they appear, the first thing they do is to drive the natives from the lands and possessions inherited from their grandfathers and great grandfathers, and can be proved to have been held peacefully by them for the last 500 or 600 years; and even though possession be immemorial, nay even though it be by new favour and confirmation of the king made in legal form, and as the laws and statutes of these kingdoms require, notwithstanding all, if an Englishman pleases he can enter a lawsuit and take all per fas aut per nefas, and the poor native must give it up, and look out for himself somewhere else.

And what I here state, besides being of regular and daily occurrence, comprehends not only gentlemen of the ordinary class, but others also of much higher rank, and lords of title who see themselves despoiled of lordships and whole counties, and large and extensive inheritances and possessions; so that the natives have not a single foot of ground secure, and the English have everything at their will.

As to the cities, the principal ones, such as Dublin, Waterford, and Galway, which enjoyed many and great privileges, exemptions, and immunities, granted and confirmed by the present king’s predecessors, have been deprived and stripped of all without the slightest observance of law, or compensation of any sort; whence the inhabitants have become a prey to sadness and dejection of mind, believing that these are only the forerunners of much greater evils. Besides they have appointed a certain number of English constables with power and authority to strip of his garments any Irishman they might fall in with dressed in the ordinary style of the country; and so rigorously do they execute this commission, that whenever they meet with natives not dressed in the English fashion, they immediately tear off all the clothes they have on, and the very shepherds and pigherds caring their flocks in the woods and unfrequented places do not escape them: in a word, there is no evil nor misery they do not try to inflict on the natives of this kingdom. May God deign to open the eyes of these blind men, and cure their madness, converting their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

Of the Coming Parliament.

In a short time we expect the meeting of Parliament, and the heretics who have authority and the command of everything, are arranging matters so that no one shall be in it who is not to their taste.

And for this purpose they have already despatched their letters to the cities and important towns not to elect anyone as mayor for the coming year, nor hand over the authority to him, unless he first on oath recognise the Serene King of England as Primate and Supreme Head of the Church.

In all the counties they have also placed sheriffs of their own sort, except in one, and these can do a great deal with their authority and power, in arranging the affairs of Parliament well or ill.

And as the Parliament has to consist of four sorts of persons, the Upper House, as they call it, of the lords temporal and spiritual, and the Lower House of two representatives for each town, and two others for each county, it is easy to see the Protestants must necessarily be much more numerous than the Catholics; and this is the object of all the plotting and schemes of our adversaries.

From all which can be seen the miserable state to which not only the ecclesiastical but the civil affairs of this kingdom are reduced, and to what evils, calamities, and miseries its inhabitants are exposed, if the Almighty does not, in pity of our afflictions, look on us with an eye of mercy, and have regard to His people. As for us, we will endeavour, with the favour of our Lord, let the tempests of persecution and suffering be what they may, while His Divine Majesty [this is, needless to say, a reference to Jesus Christ, not James I - shane] gives us life and strength, never to be wanting to His honour nor that of the Catholic Church, and the spiritual good of our nation; and that we may be able to do so, let your Reverences aid us through charity with your sacrifices and prayers, for you see the great and manifest necessity we have of them.

Finally, the bishops of Limerick and Waterford have received power and faculties to summon to their presence all those who have been married in these dioceses since the day the present king took possession of the crown of these kingdoms, that they may inform before what minister they have been married, who baptized their children, and who buried their dead.

May the Lord, through His infinite mercy, grant us some relief, and protect your Reverences.

Today is presidential election day and I am quite conflicted. I find all the candidates unappealing.

Dana — I think I’ll put her number 1. I admire her strong pro-life stance, and I think she would make an excellent representative of the country in dealings abroad (except with Europe, which is now crucial). I dislike her seemingly uncritical opposition to the European Union.

Michael D. Higgins — I like his strong support for neutrality but his views on some issues are not to my tastes. His strong opinions on some conflicts abroad (some of which I agree with, some of which I strongly disagree with) could arouse resentment. I don’t really want to give what could be interpreted as an endorsement to the (horrible) Labour Party, prominent members of which want to rip up the constitution and replace it with something necessarily worse.

Mary Davis — I don’t know much about her but she seems very decent so I’ll probably give her my second preference.

Martin McGuinness — I don’t know much about his policy views but I tend to naturally sympathize with anyone the odious Sindo strongly opposes. I think I will give him my third preference.

David Norris — He strikes me as a fundamentally decent man and I thought he was very unfairly treated by the media in the recent controversy. However, his views on important social issues are obviously not in accordance with mine. I admire his support for neutrality and opposition to Irish participation in NATO. But he said some nasty things about the Pope. Would be a terrible representative for Ireland abroad.

Gay Mitchell — I will give him my fourth preference – solely for his strong pro-life convictions. But he is a member of a now clearly anti-Catholic political party and did not criticise Enda Kenny’s tirade against the Pope. He also suggests rejoining the Commonwealth, which would be a disgraceful and embarrassing step backwards and would do nothing whatsoever to mollify northern Unionists. (My friend Luke Scully also said that this lost Mitchell his first preference.) Seems to have a very dull personality.

Séan Gallagher — That this man could be associated (rightly or wrongly) with the party of De Valera is a sad reflection of how far Fianna Fáil has declined. He also wants to ‘modernize’ the national anthem. What nonsense!

I will also vote ‘no’ to both referenda.

The Irish Episcopal Conference issued the following statement on 3rd July, 1970:

As from tomorrow the only days in the year on which meat will be forbidden will be Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

We are aware that many Irish Catholics will be saddened by this decision, for historical as well as religious reasons.
Read the rest of this entry →

A few weeks ago, TG4 broadcast a fascinating hour-long documentary on the history of the Irish wake. To view go here, click ‘Documentaries’ on the right-hand side (under ‘Archive’) and scroll down to the Anamnocht episode dated 05.10.11.

“Film Footage is from the 1973 film Catholics, later renamed Conflict. Based on the book by Brian Moore who also wrote Black Robe.”

 Two months later – Burning of Cork City Centre by British Forces, December 1920. Over 5 acres of the city were destroyed.

The Irish hierarchy issued the following statement in 1920 at their October meeting in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth:

It is not easy for the Pastors of the Flock to uphold the Law of God and secure its observance when oppression is rampant in a country. Where terrorism, partiality, and failure to apply the principles which its members have proclaimed, are the characteristic of government, the task is rendered well-nigh impossible. And, unhappily, by such means as these, in a most aggravated form, Ireland is now reduced to a state of anarchy.

With no feeling of complacency do we recall the fact that when the country was still crimeless we warned the Government that the oppressive measures, which they were substituting for their professions of freedom, would lead to the most deplorable consequences. The warning was in vain; and never in living memory has the country been in such disorder as it is now.
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The following report was presented to the Irish hierarchy in 1966 by the Very Rev. James A. Kielt, Superior General of the Maynooth Mission to China:

Your Eminence, Your Graces and My Lord Bishops,

In Maynooth, on 10 October 1916, the bishops of Ireland gave their blessing and approval to the project of an Irish missionary Society destined for China. On that day, in everything except juridical structure, the Maynooth Mission to China came into being. Now, fifty years later, I come to report on the Society thus created by your predecessors half a century ago.
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Excellent letter by Fr Pádraig McCarthy in today’s Irish Times  — a newspaper which gave prominent coverage to the Prime Time documentary but has been irritatingly mute about RTÉ’s recent apology to Fr Kevin Reynolds. Patsy McGarry, that newspaper’s religious affairs correspondent, has not published anything about the apology at all — despite this being an explosive news item, and despite having authored that aforelinked report about the documentary following its broadcast (but he can still find time for the comparatively trivial “Pioneers thank public for group’s survival“.)

A chara, – On October 6th and 7th October, RTÉ broadcast on television and radio an apology to Fr Kevin Reynolds for allegations made in its Prime Time Investigates programme of May 23rd of this year entitled A Mission to Prey . The apology, as given on its website, is 352 words. This is the longest apology from any media organisation that I can remember, and yet still unequal to the original broadcast.

Coming less than five months after the programme, the apology seems unusually swift, following assistance of a legal team through the Association of Catholic Priests. If Fr Kevin Reynolds did not have that assistance, would he have been left at the mercy of the might of a large corporate body and its legal team, with little hope of redress, or only after a lapse of years?

Abuse can never be undone. There is a saying about false reports that the bell cannot be unrung. I have no knowledge of the other cases covered by the programme. Any abuse of another, whether child or adult, is seriously sinful, to use an old-fashioned word. There are, however, answers still to be sought about this case at least.

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From one of the Irish Church’s most original thinkers.

I am pleasantly surprised that this got published in the Furrow. (See also his 1962 article, Will the Irish Stay Christian?, which he kindly allowed me to republish.)

(NB: Read the comments here and here for background.)

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1006/apology.html

On the evening of the 23rd May 2011, RTÉ broadcast a Prime Time Investigates programme entitled “A Mission to Prey”.

The following is an extract from an article (‘Laylines’) by Seán Mac Réamoinn in Doctrine and Life, April, 1996:

An old friend who died last month had made it clear to his family that he wanted a sung Requiem in Latin for his funeral. Fortunately, with more than a little help from the Dominicans, his wish was granted. And I know that all who were present were considerably moved by the liturgy. For many of us it was a reminder not just of old ways, but of the power of plainsong to shape our worship. And for those to whom it was a new experience it was, I believe, no less affecting, if at times more obscurely so…

Some of us who joined in the singing were out of practice, to put it very kindly. I hope we didn’t damage the ensemble too seriously. And I believe we didn’t for, though the Gregorian discipline demands as much careful respect, if not more, than other musical forms, it can cover a multitude of imperfections…

[L]ast month’s experience was a sharp reminder of what we have lost, or rather mislaid or thrown aside. I have written here before about the appalling philistinism which has allowed us to neglect so much of our western Catholic heritage: it is as if the Orthodox world had suddenly decided to embrace iconoclasm as a way of living and praying, and thrown all those images — which are plainsong’s rival in their deep and direct communication of the spiritual — on the ecclesiastical scrap heap. And I shudder to think what the more enthusiastic among them would have adopted as substitutes, what glossy meretricious essays in neo-sentimentality would have paralleled some of our recent hymns, post-modern effusions of sentimental pietism…

When we ignore plainsong, or for that matter, classical polyphony, to the point of banishing this great music from our churches and denying it to our younger people, we are depriving them and us of a spiritual enrichment whose value is more, far more, than aesthetic — important as that may be. It reminds me of nothing so much as the pathetic way so many of our great-(great-) grandparents believed that they must not pass the Irish language on to their children….such was the crazy logic of the time, they thought that a knowledge of Irish and of English were mutually exclusive. We now realise, or at least I hope we do, what an injustice was done in those days, from the best of motives.

Mind you, it is harder to see what has been the motivation of ‘getting rid of the oul’ Latin’ over the past thirty years or so. How can anyone have possibly seen such stupidity as an aid to liturgical renewal? Certainly the composition of vernacular settings was, and is, to be encouraged, but not to the exclusion of work of a standard which it would be difficult to emulate or approach overnight. And interestingly, the simple O’Riada Cúil Aodha Mass seems to be the most generally popular of all the new settings, not least among congregations who would be hard put to it to provide translations of the texts…The ‘poetry’ seems to get through, in spite of any verbal problems. Is there a moral here?

Some clips below from One Man’s Hero, which tells the story of the St. Patrick’s Batallion — Irish troops who defected from the US Army to the Mexican side in the Mexican-American War. Irish Catholic immigrants suffered horrible discimination in the very Protestant, nativist climate of 19th century America, and the prospect of a fellow-Catholic nation (Mexico) loosing territory to Protestant Anglo-Saxon expansionism aroused considerable sympathy among many Irish troops, who viewed it in terms of the Irish situation. There is an excellent essay here on the Batallion at the Catholic Culture site by Michael Hogan.

The San Patricios are still revered as hereos in Mexico today, though tragically forgotten in their native homeland. (It is testimony to the poverty of modern Irish foreign policy, insomuch as such a thing exists these days, that we aren’t developing our once very strong links with Latin America.)

¡Viva México!

“The need to recover a sense of ourselves is imperative. The demonization of our past has to stop, as does the cycle of blame about everything that has gone wrong in Ireland in the past hundred years. We have many important anniversaries planned between 2011 and 2016. They could be occasions of yet more recrimination, but, with good leadership in every aspect of Irish life, they will be times to begin healing, forgiveness and self-acceptance in a small island on the Atlantic edge of Europe.”

— Studies editorial, Autumn, 2011

The following account by Captain Count Roussel de Killough was first published in Revue du Monde Catholique and subsequently republished in translation in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, December, 1869:

(For background, read this)
 
It was worthy of Catholic Ireland, that noble daughter of the church, which has preserved intact the faith of St. Patrick in the midst of struggles, trials, and persecutions of every kind, to send to the pope a legion of her sons to fight beside the generous volunteers whom every vessel brought from France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. As my thoughts revert, after an interval of eight years, to this noble band, whose organization I superintended temporarily, I love to recall the great natural qualities which redeemed their defects, and, despite their disorders and uproar, and their incessant quarrels, won for the Irish the admiration of Lamoriciére, and merited the approval of the pope, who, after the crisis, desired to form around him a guard of these valiant soldiers, these indomitable heroes, these Catholics faithful to deaths.

Unfortunately, in the midst of the fatigues and excitement of this period, amid marches and countermarches, orders and countermands, it was impossible for me to keep a journal of the thousand and one strange incidents, daily events, interesting or amusing, of which I was a witness; indeed, they would furnish Alexander Dumas abundant matter for dramas and endless tales. I must limit myself to those scenes which have left the deepest impression on my memory.
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The follow advertisement appeared in America magazine, 15th February, 1969:

LATIN MASS

The beauty of the Latin Mass can still be yours — on record. “Missa Ave Verum,” sung by the Columbians, famous male choir, Mater Dei Council, Knights of Columbus. RCA’s finest quality 33⅓ LP, mono. 40 min. in length.

THE COMPLETE MASS SUNG IN LATIN

Appreciated by shut-ins
A wonderful gift

For prepaid delivery, send $3.50 ($3.00 each, for 5 or more) to:

LATIN MASS, Dept. L
P.O. Box 1777
Indianapolis, Ind. 46206

The Irish hierarchy resolved to send a letter of solidarity to the Church in France in 1906 at their October meeting in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. The following is the text of the letter (in translation) sent to Cardinal François-Marie-Benjamin Richard de la Vergne (in photo above), Archbishop of Paris:

Maynooth,
October 10^th, 1906.

Your Eminence,

The warm friendship which has always bound the Catholics of Ireland to their brethren in France and the signal favours which we have often received from the great and generous French nation, make it a special duty for us to share in your cares and sorrows, as you shared in ours in the days of our struggles for the faith of Jesus Christ.

We take occasion, therefore, at our annual meeting to express to Your Eminence, to the venerable Episcopate of France, to the clergy and the Catholic people of your country, our deep and most fraternal sympathy in the midst of the bitter trials through which you are passing today.

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http://www.irishcollege.org/2011/09/appointment-rector/

Many congratulations to Father Ciarán O’Carroll on his appointment as Rector of the Pontifical Irish College in Rome (founded 1628). Fr O’Carroll is an ecclesiastical historian — I found his book on Cardinal Cullen very impressive and think it challenges some of the received wisdom about that prelate’s life, legacy and attitudes towards movements for political reform. Well worth reading.

This is from today’s Irish News (click to zoom in) — a northern nationalist paper not always sold in the south, but whose religious coverage is generally much more informed and balanced than that of its Dublin counterparts. (Incidentally, if you’re fed up with the increasing fatuity of the Irish Times and Irish Independent, it may be worth considering as an alternative.)

See also the current editorial of the Irish Catholic. Fr Gabriel Burke and Fr John Horgan also make some very good points.

See also the Thirsty Gargoyle’s excellent analysis of the response.

Maynooth,
January 25^th, 1881.

Most Holy Father,

The bishops of Ireland assembled in Maynooth College to transact business connected with its administration deem it their duty to approach Your Holiness with the expression of love and reverence which have always animated the Irish episcopate towards the Apostolic See, and to thank Your Holiness for the fatherly letter which you have lately addressed to them through the Archbishop of Dublin.

It is needless to assure Your Holiness again that every word of counsel and advice coming from the successor of St. Peter will always receive a cheerful and prompt obedience from the children of St. Patrick; for the deepest devotion to the Roman See is Ireland’s special glory, and the proudest page of our history is that which records the unconquerable firmness and constancy with which our predecessors persevered, amid the fiercest storms of persecution, an unbroken union with the successor of Peter. That the love of the father has equalled the devotion of his children is fully attested by the vigilant and truly paternal care with which the Sovereign Pontiffs have in every age constantly watched over the interests of our country. In the letter received by us we find another proof of that fatherly solicitude, and that not the first which Your Holiness has afforded to our afflicted country.
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Here is David Quinn’s take (listen here) on the Holy See’s response to the Cloyne Report (worth reading in full).

The Irish hierarchy issued the following appeal in 1954 at their October meeting in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth:

Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers and dearly beloved brethren:

We desire to draw your attention to the wretched condition, especially from the spiritual standpoint, of the millions of Catholic refugees now in Western Germany.

The Potsdam Agreement in 1945 permitted the Russians to expel 14,000,000 people, mostly Germans, from the territories which came under their control at the end of the war; and of these about 9,000,000 made their way to Western Germany. This number has since been increased by a further 2,000,000, so that there are altogether in Western Germany about 11,000,000 refugees, of whom half are Catholics. The material conditions under which these refugees have to live are indeed wretched, but even more pitiable is the plight, from the spiritual standpoint, of those of them who are Catholics. Considerably more than half their priests died from the hardships which they had to endure during the period of migration, and of those that remain many are old or in delicate health and all are without material resources. The result is that large numbers of these poor Catholics are deprived of the ministrations of religion and of the consolations which Holy Mass and the sacraments could bring them.

Belgian and other Catholics have already done much to alleviate the needs of their refugee brethren in Germany; and we too, deeply sensible of their pitiable condition, have undertaken to help in founding a Mission House in Western Germany, from which priests will go out to celebrate Mass for refugees, to administer the sacraments to them and to give them sermons and instructions.

We ask you, Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers and dearly beloved brethren, to co-operate with us in this charitable work. These refugee Catholics are our brothers in Christ, they are bound to us by a bond more sacred and precious than that of humanity or fatherland; and they are in dire distress. We appeal to you then to pray that God may alleviate their condition, material as well as spiritual, and join with us in helping towards the establishment of a Mission House. Contributions for this purpose may be given to the parochial clergy or sent directly to the bishop of the diocese. No formal collection will be made.

The following is the text of a circular letter (in translation) issued by Monsignor Pedro Ladislao González y Estrada, Bishop of Havana (Cuba), on 22nd May, 1921:

Extraordinary circular letter urging the faithful to plead Almighty God so that the sad situation of Ireland may cease.

Ireland! The country that has so justly merited the name of “Isle of Saints,” the Catholic nation by excellence, the self-denied mother of noble and heroic martyrs, finds herself to-day in great tribulation, such as has had no precedent in the history of civilised countries.

That country, chosen by the Divine Providence to bear the foundations of the fervent and glorious churches of North America and Australia, mourns at present the persecution of its religious faith.

That free and supreme country is now crushed by the most odious tyranny, while her unquestionable rights, trampled now and again, are not vindicated by the nations that recently proclaimed themselves before the world to be the support of helpless and feeble countries.
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