HOW HAS IT COME TO THIS? - Pioneer Total … · 4 Jubilee Reflections Fr Jim O'Halloran 6 The Greening of Inchicore Susan Gately 8 The McVerry Approach Peter McVerry SJ 12 Ten Year

PIONEERVOLUME LXVI NO.1 JANUARY 2014 E1.55

HOW HAS IT COME

TO THIS?

JANUARY 2014Volume LXVI Number 1

The Official Publication of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association

of the Sacred Heart Telephone: 01 874 94 64

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Founded at the Church of St Francis Xavier, Dublin

by Fr James A. Cullen, SJ on 28 DECEMBER 1898

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Fr Peter McVerry, SJ speaks on the Christian’s Response to our social ills

(See Pages 8-11)

Waiting for Jesus I feel happy and blessed by God. Things are changing for me. Before, I had plenty of energy, now a lot less. My limbs tire easily. I walk more slowly and I stop to sit down and rest. And, of course, I go to bed earlier and get up later, and I take a siesta after the midday meal. Before, my prayers were more active and I was able to kneel or stand whenever I wanted, during the Eucharist. Now I sit. In conversations, I try to understand what is being said and I no longer need to intervene, or to have the last word. Everything has become slower. As there is less to do, there are moments where I can just stay sitting there, looking and listening. Now I have more time to stop and look all around me and rejoice in the beauty of creation. Everything is in the hands of God.

Now, sometimes, I sit in my armchair, comfortable, and I put my hand in the hand of Jesus. I smile for Him and He smiles in return. Just a gentle presence, his heart in mine and mine in His. Nothing glorious, nothing mystical, no great emotions, no words. I cannot say that I say my prayers or recite the Rosary of the psalms. I do nothing. I am just there with Jesus and I love to be with Him. It is so simple, so gentle, so restful.

At other times, not so restful, I feel alone and empty interiorly. Nothing to do. It is not so easy to remain seated and to wait. Wait for what? I don’t know. My prayer then becomes a little cry. I make my own the last words of the Bible: ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come’ (rev. 22.20). It is not a cry for the final meeting, only a cry of solitude and emptiness. To wait for a moment of peace, to wait for Jesus. If I can repeat, again and again, ‘come, Lord Jesus, come’, then a moment of peace arrives. The cry becomes a presence. I discover new ways of praying which are born from life, from my lack of energy, even from my weakness. (Letter written by Jean Vanier to the communities of l’Arche and Faith and Light. In it he gives a witness which could find an echo in our own lives as we age.)

Jean Vanier shaking hands with one of the core members of L'Arche Daybreak, John Smeltzer.

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4 Jubilee Reflections Fr Jim O'Halloran 6 The Greening of Inchicore Susan Gately 8 The McVerry Approach Peter McVerry SJ 12 Ten Year Emblem Launch 13 Golden Jubilarian Receives Second Papal Award 14 A Burning Heart for Bauchi Frank Burke 16 Gateway to the Land of Opportunity Sinead Molloy 18 Wise Owl Things 19 Sound Bytes 20 Stories of Fr Willie Doyle: Dublin and Proud of it 22 A Visit to the Pearl of the North Br Benedict Delarmi 24 Do You Believe in God? James Kelly SJ 26 Cookery 27 Obituaries and Crossword 28 Pioneers: Here, There and Everywhere

PIONEER OFFERING “For Thy greater glory and consolation, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for Thy sake to give good example, to practise self-denial, to make reparation to Thee for the sins of intemperance, and for the conversion of excessive drinkers, I will abstain for life from all intoxicating drink.”

CON

TEN

TS

The Greening of Inchicore. Page 6-7

Fr Mathew took a pledge of total abstinence from alcohol on 10 April, 1838, in the City of Cork. His decision to do so had an ecumenical dimension. He was encouraged to take this initial step by William Martin, a Quaker with a social conscience, who saw the potential in the young Capuchin friar. In his wildest dreams, Fr Mathew could not have envisaged what Divine Providence had in store for him. Before long, he would find himself addressing even greater crowds than the Liberator of Ireland himself, Daniel O’Connell. Over the next eighteen years until his death in 1856, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people of all the Christian denominations in Ireland, Britain and United States would hear his exhortations to take the pledge. In Ireland, his efforts led to such widespread sobriety that one commentator noted that “the constabulary idled through lack of crime”. When he visited London, Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister, suspended an afternoon session of the House of Lords so that the peers could attend his big rally. When in the United States, he received an honour only once before conferred on a foreigner – the Marquis de Lafayette. He was allowed ‘a seat within the bar of the United States Senate during his sojourn in Washington’.

When Gregory XVI, the Pope of the time, heard about the work of Fr Mathew, he said that God would surely bless the Irish people for the way they had responded to the call of the Apostle of Temperance. In founding the Pioneers, Fr Cullen saw himself as carrying on where Fr Mathew had left off. His work, in turn, would receive the blessings of subsequent Popes. In sending his blessing to the Pioneers on the occasion of the recent All Hallows Pioneer Conference, Pope Francis was placing himself in the line of his great predecessors.

Given the current widespread abuse of alcohol, especially among the young, the poignant words of Pius XII to the Pioneers in 1956, the centenary year of the death of Fr Mathew, have a contemporary relevance.

‘Proverbially Ireland is a land that combines the smile and the tear. And alas, what a flood of tears, drowning out the joy and laughter of home and hearth, has poured through the shattered dyke of temperance. Your Pioneer Association of the Sacred Heart is a valiant attempt, fortified by a genuinely Pauline spirit of self-denial for the spiritual advantage and need of one’s neighbours, to repair and strengthen that indispensably necessary dyke, and we have only words of praise for your generous charity’.

Bernard J McGuckian SJ, Editor

THE SHATTERED DYKE OF TEMPERANCE

“Promoting Sobriety for a Better Society”

4 Pioneer, January 2014

LoveWhat is love? John Lennon sang about it, but doesn’t really resolve it. First of all, there is the love of God. It is a mystery that we never get to the bottom of, even if John tells us quite simply that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8). It is as simple and as complicated as that. The words are clear, but the content is complicated. It is complicated because, as Thomas Aquinas tells us, we are using human language to describe what is infinite – without beginning or end – and it falls far short. God is infinitely loving, compassionate and forgiving. God doesn’t say,’ I will love you, if you are good, not if you are bad.’ Whether we are good or bad, God loves us and works for our salvation; He cannot do otherwise for He is love and it is His nature to love unconditionally. Our love has to be patterned on God’s. To be genuine it has to be plugged into God’s. If it is, we will always love sensitively and well.

Thérèse of Lisieux tells us that Jesus asks us to love one another, as He loves us (John 15:12), but goes on to say that we cannot do this, since His love has no bounds whereas ours is limited. She then says that He must lend us His love to complete ours. I think we can only do the best we can, which is to reach out to a brother or sister in need and give them something to eat if they are hungry, or console them if they’ve lost a relative, and greet them with a smile when we meet them. If your smile comes from deep within you, or more importantly, if it is inspired by the Trinity who lives in your heart, it will move them.

Small Christian CommunityFollowing the death and resurrection of Jesus, Christians did two things: they met in small communities in their homes, reflecting on the life of Jesus and on his words, recalling them until they were written down, and celebrating the Eucharist. And they didn’t just recall his words, they strove to put them into practice. They fed

the hungry, took care of the widows and orphans, gave shelter to the homeless, visited the sick and imprisoned, and so forth.

And on the Sabbath, they met in the courtyard of the temple and at Solomon’s Gate and formed a communion of these communities. So for a full experience of church, there was first the small intimate community and then the wider community of communities. The communities flowed together and shared fellowship. Therefore, they received a full experience of church through the combination of the intimate group and wider community. In both these expressions of church, the sharing was crowned by deeds.

This was the pattern of the early church. It faded, particularly after Constantine. However, it has been revived in our own times throughout the world, especially in the poorer nations of the South. Vatican II has proved a great spur to this development. Statistics aren’t universally available, yet Fr Joe M Healey, who had done a doctorate on these communities has told me that there are some seven-hundred of them in Nairobi and 110,000 in the nine AMECEA (Association Member Episcopal Conference of Eastern Africa) countries of East and Central Africa. The words of Tertullian, a Father of the church, are relevant here: ‘Where there are three a church exists, although they be laity’ (Exhortation to Chastity 7.3).

The Kingdom of God‘See ye first the kingdom of God and His justice and all other things will be added on to you.’ If I were to ask you what was the most important thing for Jesus, you might say the church. This would be partly correct, because the church is an expression of the kingdom and should be a powerful witness to it, yet it is not the whole of it. Briefly, the kingdom is wherever we find goodness; it doesn’t matter who is doing it, be they Moslem, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheist, or whoever. Wherever we

FR JAMES O’HALLORAN SDB, recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. As he looks back over those fifty years, he discovered three things that life had taught him.

Firstly, about love, then about small Christian community and finally, about the kingdom of God.

JUBILEE REFLECTIONS

Pioneer, January 2014 5

find goodness, we will acknowledge and support it as a priority. Jesus said: ‘Seek ye first …’ Jesus includes everybody. He is inclusive. Christian missionaries did not take God or Christ to anyone; they were there before them. How were they there? That is the question. We know that the world is enveloped in love, or God, but we need theologians and the church to spell this out for us in more detail.

There are small Christian communities in India. There are also small human communities there. The small human communities are composed of people of various religions (all the great religions are to be found in that country) and people meet to deal with ordinary human problems. Largely they are women-driven. The Christians, at the urging of the bishops, are encouraged to be part of the basic human communities as well as their own Christian communities. What they do, for example, is to assess and slowly collect the rupees that will enable them to build a village toilet, or construct a concrete vat to ensure that they will have water in the dry season. I think this is to be praised in terms of development, for it is an initiative of the people themselves.

Building a village toilet may seem a simple exercise, but it is a matter of life and death. I was in India in November/December 2008 and a child was attacked by a leopard as it was going into the forest for toilet purposes. The mother of the child ran screaming towards the leopard and, amazingly, the leopard fled, leaving the child mauled but alive. Four such attacks were reported in the papers while I was there – not all ending as happily.

Incidentally, Pope Francis endorsed small human and Christian communities in an interview while still Archbishop Bergoglio. He thought the use of small human and Christian communities is ‘an important element for humanity and for the church of the future.’ He believes that ‘the key is the trend to a small community as a place of religious belonging. It responds to a need for identity, not only a religious identity but also a cultural identity’ (The Furrow, September 2013, p. 484).

As a vision for the world, I would love to see people promoting small Christian communities and Christian youth communities open to each other and forming communions of communities (the parish could be ideal for this). In addition, however, I would have them foster groups of all kinds, whether religious or civic, that are doing anything to build a better world (the kingdom), and I would have them link up with and support one another in their endeavours.

James O’Halloran SDB is the author of A Christmas Truce Carol, the story of the truce declared by the ordinary troops in the First World War at Christmas 1914, though opposed by the generals. Published by Currach Press, 55A Spruce Avenue, Stillorgan Industrial Park, Backrock, Co Dublin, it is available in shops now.

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“Christian tradition has this environmental dimension going back to the early Fathers and Mothers of the Church. It needs to be recognised and revived,” says Catherine Brennan, a sister of St Louis who is passionate about care for the environment.

“In the Old Testament, the first covenant God made was not just with the human community, but with all living beings,” she tells me as we walk around the grounds of Inchicore church in Dublin, the first Catholic parish to receive an Eco Award.

According to Sister Catherine, early Church fathers like saints Basil and Gregory, Irenaeus and Athanatius spoke of creation being “infused by the spirit of God”. In the Middle Ages, St Bonaventure said that each thing in creation was a “self-expression of the Trinity”. Somehow, this whole legacy of care for creation seems to have been lost, particularly in the Catholic Church, she says. “We’ve really fallen behind.” Sister Catherine is the Catholic representative of an ecumenical group called ‘Eco Congregations Ireland’ which promotes an eco-approach to worship, lifestyle, property and finance management in parishes and churches, with an outreach to community and the developing world.

To parishes, they propose, as a first step, a ‘Churches’ Environmental Check Up’. This can be downloaded from their website (www.ecocongregationsireland.com under resources) and consists of a series of questions. Module one, for example looks at prayer and worship, asking questions like: “In your church’s prayer life do you – Praise God the creator? Say sorry for the harm done to the environment?” Respondents can answer: ‘never’,’ sometimes’, ‘frequently’. The questionnaire works through to practical issues like energy, purchasing, recycling, water meters, community and overseas concerns.

Often churches are agreeably surprised when they go through the ‘Check-up’ says Sister Catherine. “They’re actually doing some of the things already, and then it helps them look at other areas.”

Parishes that take the ‘Check list’ and its suggestions for improvement seriously can apply for an Eco Award. So far ten Eco awards have been presented in Ireland – two to Church of Ireland parishes, two to Methodist, two to Presbyterian, one to a Quaker church, and one to a Catholic parish - Inchicore. Not a great record, but on the bright side, the Catholic diocese of Kerry was first in Ireland to win a diocesan Eco award, followed by the

A new year brings a new start and new resolutions. Hundreds of schools in Ireland proudly display

Green flags. But what about churches? Do we take care for the environment seriously? Just how

green are our parishes, asks SUSAN GATELY

The Greening of Inchicore

Left: Fr Tom McCabe OMI and Sister Agnes Coll RSM from Inchicore holding their Eco Congregations, Care for Creation award.

Right: Church of Mary Immaculate Inchicore, Dublin.

7Pioneer, January 2014

Church of Ireland diocese of Cashel and Ossary. To win an eco-award a parish must include creation

in prayer and worship; do something practical like growing, recycling or developing an allotment, and have a community and overseas outreach.

Inchicore parish, which is run by the Oblate Fathers, got its Eco Award in 2012. “We were some way along the road towards the award, before we knew it existed,” says Fr Tom McCabe OMI. “We started organic gardening, and training people to develop town gardens.”

The Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation group in the parish, was in touch with another group – Pachamama Alliance and through them ran an environment awareness programme in the parish called Be the Change. It had a profound effect. “We studied the wise experience of indigenous people, and compared it to the absence of wisdom in our western world,” said Fr Tom.

So powerful was this programme that a group brought it to other parishes. “It’s a programme that can’t be ignored. You go away with a determination to do what you can to change your mindset and the way you live.”

The Inchicore parish buildings are old so opportunities are limited, but they’ve tried to find other ways of heating water to electricity, and enforced simple changes. “We’ve abolished polystyrene cups for all our parish meetings, and gone back to re-usable cups and saucers, even if we have to wash them,” says Fr Tom with a smile.

Where the parish has scored though is through its Oblate links to the Third World. “We link with a little island off Indonesia which had its tropical forest destroyed by illegal logging for many years. We are trying to restore the

original forest and the original animals that were in the forest,” Fr Tom tells me. They devised a €5.00 ‘tree card’, which is promoted for all occasions. Each card purchases a couple of trees.

Neri Kalemi, from the nearby Mercy Secondary School, is selling the card outside the church and at school. “The trees help the environment and they help to support people there because they are living off the food the tree provides. It is great for the environment and for the people as well,” she tells me enthusiastically. Faith Ecology is very attractive to young people. “Children have such an interest when they’re given a taste of this,” says Fr Tom. “It is the big moral issue of our time - the fact that our earth, God’s creation is being treated so badly. We have this little window of opportunity to try and change minds and hearts. And being involved in that is satisfying for people.”

Eco Congregations Ireland is deeply concerned about the latest findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, describing it as “wake-up call” to churches, governments, corporations and individuals.

Co2 emissions in the EU are running at 9.79 tonnes per capita. In Ghana, the figure is 1.08 tonnes. Ireland is 10th worst in the developed world at 13.9 tonnes. What would St Francis do were he alive? “He’d be talking about how what we are doing in this part of the world, is impacting the environment and future generations of all species, and in particular impacting the poor of the world,” says Sister Catherine. “He’d be preaching biodiversity and perhaps he would quote the ancient poet: ‘The Holy Spirit sleeps in a stone, dreams in a flower and awakens to life in humanity’.”


The McVerry ApproachFrom my experiences of working with homeless

people, some of them have a drug dependency, but not all of them, by any means. Those that I

work with tend to be young, have left school early, come from dysfunctional families, live in deprived communities where drugs are readily available, are unemployed and live in the hope of finding employment, have low self-esteem and perhaps a myriad of other personal problems.

Drugs in Ireland from the 70s to the 90sWhile I speak about drugs, much of what I say also applies to alcohol. When I started working in inner city Dublin in 1974, we never heard of a drug. I supposed some people smoked a little bit of cannabis, but they tended to be kind of middle class hippie-type people. However, our biggest problem in the 1970s was the local off licence, which was selling cider to children. Then in the 1980s, heroin came into the inner city. Heroin lasted a couple of years in the inner city and then it died away again. It devastated the inner city during those few years, but it died away because one or two families controlled the heroin trade. Once they were locked up, the heroin disappeared.

But it came back in the 1990s – with a vengeance. It started again in the inner city but it spread to other deprived areas. After heroin came a variety of other drugs. The drug of choice now for many young people is no longer heroin, but cocaine or crack cocaine. Then the drug problem moved on and the head shop drugs became the dominant drug of choice for many drug users, particularly mephedrone, also known as snow blow, became the drug of choice. They only lasted a short time before they were declared illegal, but they caused enormous damage. First of all because the mephadrone type of drugs, the synthetic drug, did far more damage to people’s health than any of the illegal drugs. It made people psychotic and paranoid. I know a number of people on remand in custody now on very serious charges who would never have come to the attention of the guards.

The most recent drug of choice has been crystal meth. That is beginning to surface in Dublin and, in five years’ time, I think it will be the predominant drug we will have to worry about. Crystal meth has destroyed communities in the United States and it is going to destroy communities here. Today, we have a serious drug problem and a growing heroin problem in every city and town in Ireland. Now the drug users we come into contact with are, what

we call, poly-drug users. They are not just using one drug. They are not just using heroin. They are using a cocktail of drugs. They may be on methadone; they are also using heroin. They may be using crack cocaine; they are taking valium, smoking cannabis, all at the same time. That makes the problem extraordinarily difficult. What we are currently doing to deal with the drug problem isn’t working.

Fear of the Problem Drugs and more and more drugs and a wider availability of drugs is growing around Ireland. We need to have a long, hard look at how we, as a society, address the drug problem. It is almost impossible to have a rational, objective discussion about drugs in Ireland. Most parents and most people are scared to death of drugs; scared to death of their loved ones becoming addicted to drugs and they just wish the problem would go away.

Ironically, the reaction of most parents to alcohol is very different, despite the fact that alcohol causes far more damage to families and society in general than all of the illegal drugs put together.

Don’t Preach Differentiating drugs on the bases of legality or illegality makes it difficult to discuss the issue with young people, except to say ‘no’. And saying ‘no’ just doesn’t work. Drugs are bad; drugs are illegal. We have to say ‘no’, and there is no middle ground. The reality is that drugs are not going to go away. Most young people growing up today are going to experiment with drugs, either out of curiosity or out of peer pressure. Every party they go to, every disco they go to, a wide selection of drugs will be available and plentiful. I am not unduly concerned about young people taking drugs out of peer pressure or to experiment. Some 95% of them will come through this phase in their life unscathed. Just as 90% of young people who drink alcohol will not go on to become alcoholics, provided we, as adults, don’t panic and over react.

About ten years ago, it was estimated that there were 15,000 heroin users in Ireland. If you add cocaine and cannabis to that, you get probably a majority of the population who have tried drugs and you get a very sizeable minority who are still using drugs. So drug use is not confined to a small little marginalised group of people in our society.

Social Justice Campaigner Peter McVerry SJ, speaks of his experiences with the homeless and how addiction has

devastated so many young lives.


Overcoming AddictionThe Annual Recovery Walk took place in Dublin in September last. This is an event, which is celebrated worldwide. It brings together all those in recovery from addiction, their family and their friends and elected officials and civic leaders. It seeks to remind us that there is life after addiction and that there are thousands of people are successfully battling and overcoming their addiction. It also offers hope and encouragement to those who are still struggling and who may feel discouraged.

So there is life after drugs. Many thousands of people overcome their addiction and I think we have to acknowledge that. The Recovery Walk seeks to debunk the notion that drug users are a different species, and that drug misuse is, inevitably, a lifelong disaster. To isolate illegal drugs is to suggest that those who use illegal drugs have a different motivation and a different pattern of behaviour to those who use legal drugs like alcohol. If you want to find out why young people take illegal drugs, go down to the pub any night of the week and ask the adults what they are doing there. What would they say? They would say they take alcohol in order to relax, as a focus for socialising, in order to escape for a while from the pressures of life and to alter their moods. We take alcohol because we enjoy it. Young people take drugs for exactly the same reasons.

When Drugs Become a ProblemYoung people take drugs because they enjoy taking them. Drugs help them relax, alter their moods and to escape from the pressures they feel in their life or in their head. Taking drugs is a pleasurable experience. We adults tend to forget that. Some of those who take drugs because they find them enjoyable will continue taking them until they are addicted. But most, having tried them, will give up using them as they are aware of the consequences. So I would say to parents, if you have a drinks cabinet in your home and for every visitor that comes to the house the drinks are brought out, what message is that giving to young people who have access to drugs? They are getting the message that to socialise, to enjoy yourself and relax you have to have a drug.

However, some take drugs (and these are the ones that we need to worry about) in order to escape from memories, experiences, or pressures with which they cannot cope. Included with this group are the many homeless people with whom I work. Many, not all, were abused, experienced violence, or neglected childhood. I can understand why they take drugs. Their lives are full of pressures with which they cannot cope. ‘My head is melted’ is a phrase I hear repeatedly each day. They have so little self-esteem. They feel so badly about themselves. The only moments of happiness in their days are those

Peter McVerry SJ


when they are stoned. Their choice is to feel miserable twenty-four hours a day or to feel miserable only sixteen hours a day and feel great for the other eight hours when they are stoned. Which is the rational choice?

Others grow up with a very negative self-image - the self-image that may have been created by constant criticism and rejection. Some may be trying to escape bullying at school or in the neighbourhood. Some may be trying to avoid the pressures of having to achieve. People who use drugs to run away from something are at very high risk of abusing drugs. Drugs put feelings into cold storage so that one no longer have to cope with them.

As a society, we have to stop demonising drug users. Most people want nothing to do with them except to keep them as far away as possible. However, marginalising drug users makes recovery a lot more difficult.

Support for the AddictI would like to talk about support for drug users. Drugs are like a Rottweiler. Once they get a grip on you, it is very hard to get them to let go. The difficultly in overcoming an addiction leads to a sense of powerlessness, hopelessness and a sense often of despair. The most important thing in any drug user’s life - if they are going to give up drugs - is the support of someone close to them. Faith in God is not a substitute for faith in someone close to them.

If giving up drugs is hard, supporting a drug user is even harder. It is really a heroic task for a parent, a close relative or a close friend. It is extraordinarily difficult and it requires knowledge, a knowledge that most adults do not possess. Children know far more about drugs than most of their parents. To support a drug user without enabling their drug use is a very difficult line to draw. The problem is that most parents and close family members are experiencing this problem for the first time. They are at a total loss as to know how to respond. They too are victims and they too feel trapped by the situation in which they find themselves.

Many parents ring me up looking for a quick fix for their child’s addiction. The hardest thing I have to say is that if a son, daughter or close relative is not ready to give up their addiction, there is nothing the parent can do.

Those who are addicted are experts at manipulating, scamming and lying. They learn how to extract money and get what they want from those who love them by manipulating that relationship.

Those who are addicted feel the pain of being a manipulator. They know they are destroying the relationship and trust with those they love and those who love them. The greatest pain of many drug users is to know that they are hurting their parents and their families.

Recovery to Relapse to Recovery AgainOne of the hardest things a parent has to suffer is to see their child relapse. They have succeeded, maybe, in coming off drugs and the parents feel over the moon. But then, the young person relapses. Often the parents want to give up – they cannot go on. Coping with relapse is one of the hardest things to bear - the thought of having to start all over again, wondering if the person will ever succeed? Yet, we have to support the person who relapses. Relapse is part of recovery.

International research suggests that people have to go through recovery between four and nine times before they might succeed in staying off drugs for a long period of time. That is every parent’s nightmare. So there are two problems here – there is the drug user’s problem and there is the parents’ problem. The parents may not be able

to do anything about the drug user’s problem.

Support for the SupportersThe parents, too, need counselling.

If parents ring me up and tell me that their son or daughter is taking drugs, the first thing I want to know is what the level of communication is between the parent and the young person. If there is good

communication, I tell the parents not to worry. Good communication

is the best protection for our young people against becoming addicted to

drugs and the best response when we find that, unfortunately, they have (taken drugs). If young

people feel free enough to talk to their parents, or some other adults who they trust, about what they are doing, and if parents can discuss the young person’s drug use calmly and without panic, there will often be no lasting damage done.

Nevertheless, if the young person has to battle their addiction on their own, their chances of recovery are much slimmer. Drug misuse often arises and continues when communication and support is non-existent or poor. Therefore, our reaction as parents and adults to those who use drugs will determine whether that line of communication will remain open or not. A reaction of panic may destroy the possibility of the young person communicating on this issue with any other adult in their life, such as a teacher or a youth worker, fearing that their reaction will be the same as their parent’s reaction.

The Christian ResponseSo I would just like to suggest that we, as a society in general, in this area of addiction have to examine our own faith and our own spirituality. I would suggest that we have been promoting values, which promote addiction and inhibit the recovery of those in addiction. Uncomfortable as it is, we have to accept some of the

What we are currently doing to deal with the drug problem isn't

working


responsibility for the addiction that exists amongst us. I am not just thinking of – but I would include it - the sponsorship of drink at sporting and musical festivals and our failure to tackle the powerful drugs lobby.

I am also mindful of the fact that drug users are often shunned by society, rejected and made to feel unwanted which, of course inhibits recovery. But at a deeper level, some of the pressures which contribute to a low self-image and sense of rejection are imposed on young people by the values which dominate our society today and which we, as faith people, have failed to challenge.

False Values - MaterialismFirst, the belief that our happiness and fulfilment is to be found in what we possess. It was in having the big house, the new car, the foreign holidays, the latest gadgets that would bring us happiness. Even worse, such possessions became the measure by which we value people. The ‘more’, the ‘bigger’ and the ‘newer’ determined the value and respect that society placed on a person. In a society with such values, image becomes more important than the person does. Society promotes the idea that each person should aspire to the good life defined as a good job, a good salary, a good house and a materially successful lifestyle. Those who cannot succeed in those terms are made to feel like failures.

Young people today are searching for meaning but not finding it. In the absence of meaning, they create their own meaning. I find that the young people I work with are all of the unanimous agreement that life is about seeking pleasure. Some are willing to postpone that pleasure until they are finished their education and have started their career. Others seek it now for there may be no tomorrow.

If life is about seeking pleasure then drugs are not far behind. Our faith tells us what every teenager in love knows, namely, that our happiness and fulfilment comes from giving and not from getting. It is in giving love and receiving love that we find happiness.

False Sense of SecurityThe second value that I would look at is the belief that our security is to be found in our assets. Purchasing our own home, building up our bank balance, expanding our shares is essential to escape from the insecurity with which the future threatens us. A lot of young people today feel very insecure. They worry whether the future has anything to offer them. They fear they will be left behind in the race to accumulate. Again, this value absorbed by us form the economic model in which

we live, move and have our being, promotes drugs or alcohol as an escape from those feelings of insecurity and inhibits those who seek recovery.

However, in the Christian vision, our security is not to be measured in material possessions, but in community. Our security is to be found in the knowledge that there are those who love us and who will be in solidarity with us in good times and in bad. In community, we will share in good times with those who have little, while in bad times others will share with us. Our security is to be found in building community, not bank balances. In sharing, we find both fulfilment and security. We people of faith have not only failed to challenge this value but we have often absorbed it ourselves.

The Attraction of Individualism Thirdly and finally, our society promotes an

excessive individualism. We are all pushed into a competitive struggle with other

human beings, to accumulate the material benefits of capitalism,

which we are promised guarantee our security. Others become not the source of our fulfilment but a threat to that fulfilment. That individualism leaves people feeling very isolated and alone

when problems arise in their lives. Again, such feelings promote

addiction and inhibit recovery. In the Christian vision, the antidote to an

excessive individualism is solidarity. A society that over emphasises individualism diminishes or

even destroys any solidarity. The ‘NIMBY’ attitude that has grown so strong in our society, where we don’t want anybody near us who is different, the prevalence of gated communities to keep out people who are different, the increase in racism in our society all reflect a breakdown in solidarity.

Conclusion The attitudes of many towards those with addictions are often to blame for them being addicted. There is an attempt to avoid them at all costs, to throw the total responsibility for their overcoming their addiction back onto themselves. We, as a society, has to face up to the values that we are promoting, values which promote addiction and inhibit recovery and we have to accept the extraordinarily difficult challenge of trying to respond positively to those who are addicted without marginalising them or without making them feel that they are unwanted.

Abridged version of the speech delivered by Fr Peter McVerry, SJ, at the International Conference hosted by the PTAA in All Hallows College in September 2013

Young people today are searching for meaning

but not finding it


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Completed Order Form and payment should be sent to: Pioneer Association, 27 Upper Sherrard Street, Dublin 1.

At our International Conference in September last, The Pioneer Association launched the Ten Year Emblem and Certificate for Pioneers who have completed ten years unbroken membership from

the time of enrolment in the Full/Life Pioneer Membership category. Pioneers eligible to wear this emblem should be at least twenty-six years of age.

The emblem was struck to mark the ‘Year of Faith’ that coincided with the Association’s 115th anniversary and the International Gathering Conference hosted by the Pioneer Association as part of the government’s Gathering 2013 initiative.

The first two awardees of the Ten-Year Emblem and Certificate on Saturday 28 September 2013 in All Hallows College, Dublin, were Patricia Gallagher, Chairperson of the National Youth Committee, and John Dowling, Mountmellick Pioneer Centre, Chairperson of the Leinster Provincial Activities Committee and member of the Board of Management of the PTAA.

The emblem and certificate are now available from Central Office. The emblem is €15.00 and the certificate is €1.50.

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Golden Jubilarian Receives Second Papal Award William Gallagher, of the parish of St Thomas à Becket Wandsworth, receiving his

Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontfice from Rt Revd Paul Hendricks, Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Southwark.

William Gallagher was born in the Parish of Balla, County Mayo where he joined the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association some fifty-four years ago. For the last fifty years, he has lived in Wandsworth, London SW in the Parish of St Thomas à Becket. During a special presentation Mass in St Thomas a’Becket church, William was presented with the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontfice by Rt Revd Paul Hendricks, Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Southwark. This papal decoration had been awarded to him by HH Pope Benedict XVI.

William has been closely associated with the parish during the intervening fifty years. He has given very generously of his time as a member of the Knight of St Columba since 1965, a member of the Board of Directors since 1996 (the last twelve years as Supreme Chancellor), a member of the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom since 1969 and served on the Archdiocese of Southwark Laity Commission. Commissioned as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion in1987, he is Local Secretary of the Propagation of the Faith [MISSIO] since 1990 and a Life Member of the Catholic Union.

Since his retirement William became a founding- member of a Circle of the Catenian Association. He also participates in the parish branch of the Ascent Movement. In 1988 he was awarded the Bene Merenti Medal by HH Pope John Paul II. Three years ago William received his PTAA Golden Jubilee emblem and certificate at the Carmelite Priory, Aylesford. Kent. His other interests include politics, genealogy and history, both church and local. He is a long-standing member of the Wandsworth Historical Society. He is also involved with the Civil Service Benevolent Society and with the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship.

The PRO ECCLESIA ET PONTIFICE (for the Church and the Pope)

This medal is an award of the Roman Catholic Church. It is also known as the ‘Cross of Honour’. The medal was established by Leo XIII on 17 July 1888, to commemorate his golden sacerdotal jubilee and was originally bestowed on those men and women who had aided and promoted the jubilee, and by other means assisted in making the jubilee and the Vatican Exposition successful. It is currently given for distinguished service to the Church by lay people and clergy. It is the highest medal that can be awarded to the laity by the Papacy.

THE BENE MERENTI MEDALThe Benemerenti Medal was first awarded by Pope Pius VI (1717-1799) to recognise military merit. In 1831, under Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846) a special Benemerenti medal was struck to reward those who fought courageously in the papal army at Ferrara, Bologna, and Vienna. In 1925, the concept of awarding this medal as a mark of recognition to persons in service of the Church, both civil and military, lay and clergy alike, became acceptable.


Monday 20 January 2014 marks the fourth anniversary of the death of one of Ireland’s

unheralded missionary heroes, Bishop John Moore, SMA, Bishop of Bauchi, in North Eastern

Nigeria. FRANK BURKE recalls Moore’s life of service in the vineyard of the Lord.

Bauchi became a diocese ten years ago next March and its eighty-five thousand Catholics represent two per cent of its population of five million people. It is the fifth largest of Nigeria’s thirty-six states and its population ranks the eleventh largest of Nigeria’s 170 million citizens. It was formed on 3 February 1976 when the former North Eastern Province of Nigeria was broken up.

John Moore was born on 12 January 1942 in 74 Shanid Road, Harold’s Cross, on the south-side of Dublin, approximately five miles from the city centre. He was one of three children, Gerard, John and Mary. His sister, Mary, lives with her husband in Johannesburg, while his brother, Gerard, resides with his wife, Joan, in Ballyroan. Gerard and John became Pioneers in 1956 and 1958 while attending Synge Street CBS, when their maths teacher, Brother Michael Ryle, was spiritual director. I took charge of the school branch shortly after the late Brother Ryle moved to Drimnagh Castle CBS.

While at school both Gerard and John were altar boys in the relatively new parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Harold’s Cross. The Rosary church recently celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary to coincide with the feast of the Most Holy Rosary on 7 October, and part of its celebration devised by Fr Gerry Kane PP, was an exhibition of the life of Bishop John Moore of Bauchi. Gerard was amongst the large attendance with the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown also present. The parish raised over five thousand Euro to give financial support towards the building of a new roof on a church in Bishop Moore’s former diocese.

The close association of the parish with the Pioneers

has been a fruitful one with the local branch meeting every third Thursday of the month. Fr Ronnie Neville, former parish priest, Limerick hurler and spiritual director of the parish Pioneer Council died on St Patrick’s Day last, leaving a rich harvest similar to the deep well of Christian heritage that Bishop John Moore left to the twenty parishes after him in Bauchi.

John entered the Society of African Missions (SMA) after he had sat his leaving certificate exam in 1959. He studied at the SMA seminary in Cloughballymore, Kilcolgan, County Galway and was ordained a priest on 20 December 1965 by Bishop Eugene Doherty, Bishop of Dromore, at St Colman’s Cathedral, Newry, County Down. His first Mass was celebrated in his home parish in Harold’s Cross.

Claremorris native and writer Christina Lynch lived in Nigeria from 1988 to 2003 as the wife of the Irish ambassador Joe Lynch. Her book ‘Beyond Faith and Adventure’ published in May 2006, records the contribution of Irish missionaries in Nigeria. Bishop Moore spoke to her about his vocation. “I am very clear about my reasons for becoming a missionary priest. My becoming one was a huge surprise to everybody else. Growing up I wasn’t the least bit pious, in fact I was quite the opposite. When I told my father of my decision, he couldn’t believe it. He thought if anyone were going to make a mess of the priesthood, it would be me. There were sterling priests in my parish at home but I knew their type of life was not for me. I felt that the far more rugged life of the missionary priest engaged in primary evangelisation might suit me better. I felt that Christ

A Burning Heart for BauchiBishop John Moore

BIshop John Moore with friends in Bauchi


First Prize: €1200Name: B Boles, Sligo ..................................................... Card: 11; Line: 7Second Prize: €400Name: C Claffey, Ferbane, Co Offaly .............................. Card: 64; Line: 2Third Prize: €200Name: Y Rogers, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 ......................... Card: 11; Line: 2Fourth Prize: €100Name: D Walsh, Oughterard, Co Galway ........................ Card: 37; Line: 4

PTAA Private Members’ Draw Results Wednesday, 20 November, 2013

Thank you to all the promoters and subscribers of the Private Members’ Draw for 2013/2014.

Six Promoters’ Prizes of €40 Each Name: S O Kane, Cookstown, Co Tyrone. .............. Card No. 54Name: J Halligan, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. Card No. 26Name: V Fegan, Burren, Co Down. .......................Card No. 86Name: O Bermingham, Glasnevin, Dublin 11........Card No. 99Name: S Farrell, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. ..............Card No. 41Name: A Henehan, Kiltoom, Co Roscommon. .......Card No. 49

would speak to me in this type of environment.”When I spoke to his brother Gerard recently, he

surprised me, given his brother’s mastery of tribal languages when he said he would describe John as an ‘average student but a voracious reader and used to enjoy books on foreign countries and different peoples.’ Characters like Stanley and Livingstone and all these types fascinated him. He had a very special interest in Africa, so when he decided to join a missionary society, it had to be one that only sent men to Africa.

Blood, sweat, tears, dust and monsoon rains may be the lot of our Irish missionaries who work in Africa and add trekking across mountains and rivers; such was the landscape the twenty-four-year-old Dublin born and bred young SMA missionary priest embarked on his boat journey to Nigeria. In that same year England won the world cup, Arkle his third Gold Cup and only seven thousand students sat for their Leaving certificate examination.

Fr John Moore was appointed to the diocese of Jos, Nigeria, and for the next forty-four years he was to work in the parishes of Akwanga, Kwa, Shendam, Kafanchan, Kwande, Pankshin and the parish of Jos itself. From 1983 to 1984 he was SMA Superior in Jos, about four miles drive from the Nigerian capital city, Abuja. Bauchi state has fifty-five tribal groups and, as a priest, he possessed a fluency in Hausa and Fulani as both tribes are amongst the major dozen tribes in Bauchi. In 1996, Bauchi was given the ecclesiastical title of Vicariate Apostolic and John Moore was ordained a bishop on 7 November 1996. Within eight years of his stewardship, the vicariate was raised in status to a diocese on Thursday, 11 March 2004 (the date of the Madrid bombing) in the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Bauchi.

One of his SMA missionary colleagues is Fr Joe Maguire, who spent fifty years working in Nigeria. Another Dubliner, Fr Joe, aged ninety-two, is now retired and living in Blackrock, County Cork. Fr Joe still retains all his great missionary zeal and has, in recent years, accepted my invitation to speak to my students about life as a missionary in Jos. Speaking to me recently

about Bishop Moore, he spoke of him as an inspiration with a boundless energy and drive in his love and commitment in improving parish structures for his beloved community. Fr Joe spoke of his good humour, his leadership qualities in pastoral missionary ministry, building churches, schools and clinics while digging wells in developing the area. He also developed close relations with the Muslim community in the mainly Islamic State.

During his interview with Irene Christina Lynch, Bishop Moore spoke of his experience of the priests arriving at a little village, cooking on stone, wondering where to put their beds, usually in the mud of softened ground from the rain. “The harder it was, the less it mattered. The more rugged the place, the more I thrived,” adding, “I think God fits the back to the burden”.

He returned to Dublin for medical tests over Christmas in 2009. Many of us will recall the heavy snowfall in early January, 2010. It was Bishop John’s first experience of snow in over forty years. His health began to

cause concern as his temperature began to rise despite finishing a course of antibiotics. In hospital, in Dublin, he developed pneumonia and he got the MRSA bug along with other complications. Just eight days following his sixty-eighth birthday, he died on Thursday, 20 January in St Vincent’s Hospital. Bishop John Moore was buried in the SMA community cemetery the following Sunday. The Nigerian ambassador was present at his requiem Mass.

On Thursday, 20 May, four months after his passing, a memorial Mass was held in the school field of the Immaculate Conception School, Bauchi, as the cathedral of St John the Evangelist could not accommodate the large crowd. The Papal Nuncio, the Irish Ambassador, Kyle O’Sullivan, and Gerard Moore were present that morning as three hundred priests, six bishops and two archbishops offered a Mass of thanksgiving to a unique Irish missionary who committed his life to his beloved Nigeria and it’s people. Gerard who was at his brother’s bedside when he died, said in his moving address, “his heart was always focused on Bauchi, right up to the end.”


SINEAD MOLLOY looks at the history of Ellis Island, which opened on the

first day of January, 1892 and whose first processed immigrant to the New World

happened to be a young Irish colleen.

The history of immigration to the United States of America over the past four centuries witnessed the exodus of people from Europe, Asia and

Africa across the choppy and often treacherous waters of the Atlantic Ocean to settle along the East Coast of America where they first landed. Many of the African migrants were sold into slavery, while the wealthier British and Dutch became even more affluent and dominant once they landed in America. Over the years, the mass arrival of strangers has created periods of favour as well as opposition towards those in quest of a better or different life with greater opportunities in a new land.

Nations Under One UnionFrom around 1626, the colonisers of New Amsterdam (familiar to us today as New York), occupied a mud bank in Upper New York Bay close to the shoreline of New Jersey. Settlers in the colony called this mud-bank of less than four acres Oyster Island because of the bountiful supply of oysters and other shellfish that was their main staple for generations. The Indians named it Gull Island because of the overabundance of same feathered inhabitants on the muddy bank of the Hudson River. In the 1700s, the islet was known as Dyre’s Island, though it was to be retitled many times to Bucking Island, Anderson’s Island and Gibbet Island, when its meagre amount of trees served as makeshift gallows for criminals and pirates.

By 1776, the island was purchased by Samuel Ellis,

who managed a small tavern that catered to fishermen trawling the Hudson River. He died in 1794, having tried unsuccessfully to sell the island that still bears his name today. In 1808, Samuel Ellis’s family sold the island to New York State before it was purchased again by the Federal Government. During the Anglo-American war of 1812, often referred to as the ‘Second War of Independence’, the island was used as a stronghold where guns and ammunitions were stored in a provisional barracks constructed on the site. Ellis Island and the nearby Bedloe’s Island (later to become Liberty Island in 1956 and location for the Statue of Liberty) were declared part of New York State by the mid-1800s, irrespective of their closer proximity to the New Jersey Shoreline.

Opening Day at Ellis IslandThe first Federal immigration station was built on Ellis Island to the tune of seventy-five thousand dollars, using landfill from the subway tunnels under construction and ballast from ships, almost doubling the size of the original island to more than six acres. The Ellis Island Immigration Station was officially opened on the first day of January 1892. Immigrants arrived mainly from Europe and Scandinavia, fleeing the problems in their own countries that were many and varied – political unrest, religious persecution and economic difficulties being the main. The lure to America was with the promise that these people could live in freedom and, most temptingly, own a piece of land.

Gateway to the Land of Opportunity


Razed to the GroundThe Georgia Pine used in the construction of the immigration station building fuelled the fire in 1897 that destroyed the Ellis Island immigration station and most of the records kept there dating back to 1840. Fortunately, none of the two hundred people on the island when the fire broke out lost their lives. Soon after, construction began on a new redbrick building of French renaissance revival design. This main building, now fireproofed, opened in 1900 and was upgraded to process thousands of immigrants per day. Over the next few years, additions and improvements were made to the main building to accommodate a greater capacity of immigrants. A Kosher Kitchen was added in 1911 to meet the dietary requirements of the growing population of Jewish immigrants fleeing Eastern Europe.

The War YearsTowards the end of World War I, the US Army and the Navy stationed themselves on Ellis Island to tend sick and injured service members returning from battle in Europe. Predictably, immigration into the United States had greatly declined during this period. The borders of many European countries were closed and travel by sea was too dangerous. Aside from this, unemployment in America was on the up. Restrictions to immigration were introduced in 1921, after the war, when numbers entering America began to rise again. The immigration Act of 1942 implemented further constraints on entrants and the numbers migrating to America dropped greatly. The Ellis Island Station became the point from where immigrants whose status was questionable were detained and some of them deported back to their birth countries if they had not met the criteria set down by the government for legal entry into the States.

During the 1930s, additions were made to the island to include areas of recreation comprising of landscaped grassy areas, beautiful gardens and playgrounds for those detained on the island awaiting their applications for entry to be approved or denied. The extra land created extended the island to twenty-seven-and-a-half acres, which has remained its size to this day.

By the end of World War II, there were approximately seven thousand people stationed on Ellis Island, which was also being used as a hospital base for up to sixty-thousand servicemen there. By 1950, the centre needed upgrading to accommodate the detainees who numbered up to fifteen hundred at a time. Four years later in 1954, Ellis Island, with its thirty-three buildings and annexes, was closed.

Ellis Island: A New AttractionIn 1965, a proclamation was issued declaring that Ellis Island would be placed under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service, thus joining the other great symbol of freedom, the Statue of Liberty national monument. Just over ten years later, the island opened to the public a tourist attraction, seeing 500,000 tourists and natives visit the island in its first year of re-opening in 1976. Development of this visitors’ site was funded by private citizens and corporate groups through the not-for-profit Statue of Liberty – Elis Island Foundation Inc., in the 1980s. In 1998, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the State of New Jersey had authority over the south side of Ellis Island, with New York keeping ownership of the original three-and-a-half acres of the island.

First Among EqualsThe first immigrant be processed at Ellis Station was Annie Moore, a young teenage girl from Cork, arriving in New York Harbour aboard the steam ship SS Nevada with her two younger brothers, Philip and Anthony. Their parents and older siblings had gone ahead of them

to America in 1888 and had settled in Manhattan. Millions of Irish people followed in the

footsteps of Annie Moore, but none had the marked privilege of having two

statues dedicated to them – one in Cork, the city from where she departed for America and the other on Ellis Island where she disembarked onto an unknown land into an indefinite future.

Annie Moore lived out her life in America, marrying a German

immigrant and bearing eleven children. She died in 1924 from heart

failure.

Gone But Not Forgotten It is considered that the majority of the population of the United States today are descendants of millions of immigrants that settled in America over the centuries. It was, indeed, a land of opportunity for those whose native lands had nothing to offer them beyond a lifetime of uncertainty, misery and hardship. The annals of the US immigration have not been consigned to some underground vaults, left to gather dust. The Ellis Island Immigration Museum, which was opened on 10 September 1990, houses records of more than twenty-five million passengers who entered the US through Ellis Island and the port of New York. One of the most iconic images associated with the history of American immigration stories is the American Immigrant Wall of Honour – an exhibit featuring 700,000 engraved names of individual and families of almost every nationality who have passed through the island drawn to the promise of a better life in the New World.

The first immigrant to be processed

at Ellis Station was Annie Moore, a young

teenage girl from Cork

Wise Owl ThingsTRUE OR FALSE

LAUGH A MINUTE

ANSWERS: 1. False – It’s in Italy; 2. False- it measure temperature; 3. True; 4. True; 5. True.

1. The leaning tower of Pisa is in Wales.

2. A thermometer measures blood pressure.

4. A squirrel is from the order of rodents.

3. Silver is a precious metal.

What’s yellow on the inside and green on the outside?

A banana disguised as a cucumber.Where does a dog go

when he loses his tail?To A Re-tailer.

What can you not do if you put 200 hundred melons

in the fridge?Close the fridge door.

What did the saucer say to the cup?

None of your lip.

HAPPY NEW YEARWe have left the old year behind and started a new one. Hopefully 2014 will be full of nice

surprises for you. This month we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, on 6 January, when the

wise men visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, and brought Him presents of gold,

frankincense and myrrh – gifts fit for a King. Wishing you all a very happy

New Year.

5. John Adams was a President of America

SMILE-A-WHILEMr and Mrs Johnson had just arrived at the airport just in time to catch their flight to Tenerife, where they were going on holiday for a week. “Oh Dear,” Mr Johnson said to his wife. “I wish we had brought the fridge with us.”“What on earth for?” asked his wife.“I left the plane tickets on top of it!”

NEON Neon is a rare gas found in the atmosphere. When an electric current is passed through it, the neon glows red. Different gases produce different colours. If the gas is sealed in a glass tube, it will glow brightly when the electricity is switched on. The tubes can be shaped into all kinds of various letters to make advertising signs. These signs are very popular because they are cheap and easy to make. Because neon was the first gas to be used, most signs, whatever gas is used, are usually called ‘neon signs.’

Sound Bytes


How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. Marcus Aurelius

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. Helen Keller

Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible. Albert Einstein

This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays. Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done. Vincent van Gogh

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. Kahlil Gibran

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” Mother Teresa

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is. Albert Camus

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words. Elbert Hubbard

More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Alfred Tennyson

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. Helen Keller

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think. Aristotle

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. Rumi

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. Abraham Lincoln

Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable. Amos Bronson Alcott

Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the Divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true. Thomas Merton


I had the privilege last summer of visiting Nicaragua in Central America. At first, when I was asked to go I was a little hesitant. Arriving at Managua airport, (Managua is one of the biggest cities in Nicaragua), the majority of people in the airport were American coming to stay for a couple of weeks on missions from their local churches. They would build houses and help with whatever they could do for the people of Nicaragua.

Leaving the airport, my first impressions were that it was like nowhere I could relate to. I could have described it as a little like Mexico, but nothing like a European city or country. Poverty was very real – horses and carts, dirt roads, little fires outside shops. As I arrived late in

the evening, I did not get a proper look at the city. We travelled for an hour-and-a-half to the friary from the airport. Most of the journey was in pitch darkness – no streetlights to guide our way. However, the stars were really bright in the sky and on the way to Matagalpa, I could see the mountains silhouetted in the distance.

When I retired to bed, I lay in the deafening silence, silence I had not experienced before living in a city – no cars or music. The only sound that broke the night silence was the insects. The next morning, I looked around outside and this was a truly beautiful country – coloured birds were flying in the air and the friary was surrounded by fruit trees. As the friary is on the side of a

A Visit To the Pearl of the North

BR BENEDICT JOSEPH MARIA DELARMI, of the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal,

Bradford, England, relates his experience of visiting Matagalpa in Nicaragua, South America


mountain, I could see clearly into the valley. Dominating the view, was a magnificent cathedral, bright and very prominent. This cathedral is the jewel in the crown of Matagalpa. My fellow brothers told me that the local people paint it every year because of the atmosphere of the tropical conditions affects the paintwork, but more so for the love of God and wanting to keep God’s house in pristine condition.

The friary grounds had many beautiful and unusual plants; mango trees are very common in this part of the world. I could pick a mango to eat from the tree outside my window. The friary is called San Antonio and it resembles a Spanish mission or hacienda, similar to one we would see in the western movies with its sandy coloured building and high arch over the front door on which was mounted a cross.

The brothers at San Antonio friary have a beautiful vegetable garden with almost every type of plant and tree growing in it. The brothers also breed rabbits and keep a type of animal called a pelegwe. A pelegwe looks like a cross between a sheep and a goat and are very common in Central America.

Coffee, a big industry in Matagalpa, is grown all over Nicaragua. The people grow the coffee in the rich mountain soil because of the warm, damp conditions coffee plants needs to flourish. In between the coffee plants, bananas grow and shade the coffee plants from the sun. The brothers and I went to the mountain to see the plantations. Beyond the plantations are tropical rainforests and howling monkeys jumping from tree to tree. It was a magnificent sight to behold.

On my first excursion outside the friary, we travelled down the mountain in an old jeep, passing many people doing their daily chores. I was struck by the joy these people had. I spent the journey waving to all the people I saw and they returned the compliment with massive smiles; enough to brighten my day. The homes in which the people of Matagalpa live are made of either tin or breeze blocks. The doors are open all day. There is a real sense of community – trusting each other and helping each other in all areas of their lives. I received so much from them – their apparent love and joy spoke volumes. Their welcoming outlook made me feel at home. They possess a deep faith and trust in God. They know He is guiding and protecting them. Financially, they have little to nothing, but their faith

is immense and I could see that peace reigns in the hearts of the people of Matagalpa.

One of the projects undertaken by the brothers was to build a chapel on the side of the hospital. It is a beautiful little annex where Mass can be celebrated, the sacrament of reconciliation received and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can take place. This is a huge consolation for the locals to be near our Lord in testing

times that accompany health problems.

We visited the hospital three times during my stay. Hospitals in developing countries like Nicaragua are not places us westerners would care to be admitted to. I’m sure the natives feel the same, but it is a place where they go to be cured from illness. I found the hospital standards well below what would be expected in a first world country - from a hygiene point of view. It is common for patients to contract more serious and life-threatening illnesses while staying in the hospitals here. This does not ease the mind when

entering this supposed place of healing. Another place I visited was the prison, which

resembled an aircraft hangar – three of them to be exact. They were mere wooden buildings where the prisoners slept in bunk beds. Here, the brothers celebrate Mass once a week and talk to the inmates. I gave my testimony through an interpreter. One thing the prisoners love is to sing and play instruments for the Lord – some of them play professionally. It was a great blessing to see these men creating beautiful music for the Lord.

The special highlight I experienced in Matagalpa was visiting the homes of some friends I had made and eating a meal together. Enjoying time with people who love to prepare and serve a meal to others was inspiring. The houses I visited were poor, but their faith and devotion was evident by the Sacred Heart pictures on the walls and, on the shelves, statues of various saints. The people here hold a deep trust in God, resulting in their special relationship with Him. I was blessed to be able to come here and experience this first hand – seeing our faith truly lived out in a faraway country. My hesitance to travel to Nicaragua was taken away and my own joy was complete by having the privilege of spending time with the people of Matagalpa.

I thank God for my time here, and I hope that one day I will have the same level of hope and faith in God’s providence as the new friends I made in Matagalpa.

n Matagalpa is Nicaragua's sixth largest city and one of its most commercially active outside of its capital, Managua.n The province of Matagalpa has some twelve different protected forest areas, which preserve a great variety of birds and orchids and a variety of wild life.n Saint Peter´s Cathedral is the major building of the city, built by the Jesuits, beginning in 1874, and completed in 1895.n Traditional Matagalpa cuisine include ‘Nacatamal’ a banana leaf wrap filled with boiled Indian corn dough, a piece of chicken or pork flavoured with raisins, olives, onions, tomatoes and chili.n Coffee growing was introduced to Matagalpa by Katharina Braun Elster and her husband, Ludwig from Germany at the end of the nineteenth century.

FACTS ABOUT MATAGALPA


Bullets snapped and whined; shells screamed overhead, the air swayed in the frightful tempest of rushing metal, the ground reeled under the

tremendous thuds that smote it. The young officer hugged more closely the side of the shell-hole in which he crouched. “My God,” he groaned, “this is awful, will it ever stop?” Suddenly there was a roaring whirlwind, a deafening crash and the earth seemed to throw itself at the skies as a huge shell tore a cavern for itself in the ground close by, and disappeared in a cloud of flame and smoke.

“That’s hot stuff,” said a cheery voice. The young officer looked up and saw an army chaplain smiling down at him from the edge of a shell-hole. The apparition was startling. “In the name of heaven, Padre, where did you drop from?” exclaimed the officer. “Did you come out of that shell? Anyway, hop down or you will be blown to bits.”

“Well, any port in a storm,” said the priest, as he lowered himself into the shell-hole.

“I was up the line looking after some of the boys who got hit and ran into this ‘liveliness’ on my way back. But we are safe enough here, for isn’t it a point of honour among shells not to drop twice into the same hole?”

His companion laughed.“I’m afraid,” he said, “that is one of the many truths out

here that is perfectly untrue. But I’m glad you have come, Padre. This inferno was getting on my nerves for want of company. I’m Captain D… of the Liverpools. I see you are 16th Division. Do you happen to be Father Doyle?”

“Yes, that’s my name,” answered the priest.“I thought so,” said the officer, “I have often heard of

you, Padre, and how fond you are of the shells.”“Indeed, no,” said Father Doyle, “The coward is too

strong in me for that. But when I have my bit to do, I know I can count on God’s protection, and that gives me courage.”

“I wish I had a little of that kind of courage,” said the other wistfully.

“Why shouldn’t you? You’re Irish, aren’t you?”“Yes,” answered Captain D…, “Dublin and proud of it.” “I’m Dublin too,” said Father Doyle. “That is to say,

Dalkey, which is Dublin enough, isn’t it?”“Dear old Dublin!” sighed his companion, “I wish I was

safely back there. I have a young wife. I got married a month ago. She’s waiting for me, yet I have a feeling I am never going to see her again.”

“Feelings don’t count for much,” replied the priest,

True Stories of Fr Willie Doyle, SJ, from World War I

Dublin, and proud of it


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“especially when they are out of tune, as they are bound to be in this racket. You are in God’s hands, He knows what is best for you, and He will do what is best for you. Since you’re Dublin, you’re probably a Catholic.”

“I am, a sort of one,” was the reply.“Which means, I suppose,” said Father Doyle, with a

smile, “that you pray little, go to Mass less, and to the sacraments not at all.”

Captain D… laughed. “That’s my soul’s portrait fairly accurately,” he said. “Not a pretty one, is it?” said the priest, “and not a safe one these days.”

“Look here Padre,” replied the man, “I don’t suppose I’m any worse than other chaps, but somehow I’ve grown careless and got off the track in my religion.”

Father Doyle nodded.“I know,’ he said, “and God has sent me across your

path, to lift you on again. Will you go to confession? I’ll run you through.”

The young officer’s face lit up as the grace of God touched him.

“Yes, Father, I will,” he said, “just give me a few moments to prepare.”

“All right,” answered the priest, “three minutes on your knees before the execution!’…Ego te absolvo…I absolve you from your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen”.

As the words of absolution fell from the priest’s lips, and the precious blood washed away the sins of years, the terrifying rushes and crashing explosions around rose to a deafening torrent of sound as though satan

was raging furiously at a soul being snatched from his grip. Suddenly the tumult stopped; there came a great stillness, into which crept the song of a lark high up in the sky. “The music outside seems to be over,” said Father Doyle. “I think I’ll be pushing on. Some of the boys may want me. Good-bye Captain, and God bless you.”

“God bless you, Father!” exclaimed Captain D…, grasping the priest’s outstretched hand. “You have made me wonderfully happy. I have no fear of the future now. I am ready for whatever God sends me. May He reward you for what you have done for me. I’m Dublin and doubly proud of it now since I have met you, Father.”

Later that evening, Father Doyle, hungry and weary, was making his way back to his dugout when he stumbled over a corpse in the dusk.

“Another poor fellow gone home,” he thought. As he peeped into the face of the dead man, he was startled.

“My God,” he exclaimed, “Captain D…! So soon! Shot through the head and killed instantly, most probably. Poor boy. Well, he was ready to go. How good God is to have sent me to him to prepare him for death! The mercies of the Lord, I shall sing forever. How peaceful and happy he looks.”

Reverently, Father Doyle laid the body in a shell-hole, and read the burial service over it, and covered it with earth. From a piece of duckboard, he fashioned a cross, on which he wrote,’Captain D…, Liverpool Regiment. R.I.P,’ and put it up over the grave. He turned to go, then stopped, and bending over the cross he scribbled under it’s inscription the words, ‘Dublin, and proud of it!’


James Kelly, SJ

This question is, in one sense, a very dry one. It’s like asking, do you believe that there is a place called Hawaii? – when you, like me, may not have been there. It is a skeleton-like one – with little emotion in it. It is far richer, when it is put this way. Do you believe in a God, who is all loving, all good, all-powerful, and all wise? If the answer is ‘yes’, then it is made, and has to be, in humility and in a spirit of adoration. A negative answer is the shutting out of a vast amount – the whole spiritual world.

Huge SignificanceBelief in such an immense God, the Almighty, is more striking for us, when we recognise that he has made known so much about himself, and when we listen to him. But he also makes clear to us how totally we depend on him – even for our very existence. We are completely in his hand – whether we accept this or not. He has outlined the way of life that we ought to embark on – how we should conduct ourselves in all situations and what demands are made on us. However, the path set out for us is not easy. Due to something having gone wrong at the beginning of the human race, there is reluctance in all to obey what the Almighty wants. True and upright living is a struggle.

Have We A Choice?Many feel that they are free to believe in God or not. They regard this as a purely personal decision for themselves. Yet, if actually they are owned by the Almighty and

are totally under his control, how can they in any way be independent of him? The more an individual thinks about this, the more pressing it is to recognise that there is no scope for not consenting to what is there – the reality of God.

Life No Guarantee If we look at the lives of people, we don’t find any clear proof that God exists – since we come across those who firmly believe in the Creator, and others who don’t. If we ask which group are the happier, we really cannot assess this. Yet one thing seems to be true and evident: those with faith can face adverse circumstances better than those without it! They find in themselves an inner strength that the others lack. But people are, to a large extent, concerned with their daily existence.

Brightness Living without God is regarded, in the Bible, as being in darkness. However, Christ has changed all this: ‘He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son’ (Col 1.

The recent encyclical, The Light of Faith, begins by seeing faith as a light. It quotes Jesus as saying: ‘I have come into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness’ (Jn 12.46). He must be seen as all light. When we are confused and find ourselves in any kind of darkness, we need to look towards his brightness.

Belief is an inner light given to us that enables us to accept God, and his true vision of reality. It is the most

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?

BequestPlease remember the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association

of the Sacred Heart in your will.x“I gIve and bequeath to the PIoneer total abstInence assocIatIon of the sacred heart, 27 uPPer sherrard street, dublIn 1, Ireland the sum of E__________ for the

general charItable PurPoses In Ireland of the saId assocIatIon. the receIPt of the saId assocIatIon shall be suffIcIent evIdence of Payment of the saId sum.”


DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?

constructive light that we can have, since it, in general, makes known to us how we ought to live. It is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. In its absence, people become confused. Without it, as the Encyclical says, ‘it is impossible to tell good from evil or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere’. Without the guidance of faith, we cannot be sure that we know what is right from what is wrong. We then easily go astray, following paths that seem right to us, but in the end do not advance us.

The importance of this light cannot be overstated. It ensures that we be bright or light in every sense. ‘Once the light of faith dies out, all other lights die out’ – that

of wisdom, sureness, uprightness. Darkness then sets in - into our thinking and acting, and we grope or twist in unsure ways. Such a light can only come from God. The Encyclical briefly states the greatness and power of such brightness or faith: It ‘is born from an encounter with the living God, who calls us, and reveals his love for us – a love which precedes us and on which we can lean for security and for building our lives’. We depend on it for wisely developing our lives.

Belief, which is a gift from God, is a light for our path - guiding our journey here on earth. God’s love surrounds us and embraces us on all sides. We have to develop in life within its scope. Only faith gives us the vision to perceive this.


There’s nothing like homemade bread and soup to warm the insides on a cold winter evening. It is nutritious, filling and cost efficient. Try out these recipes to feed the hungry brood at home. Happy New Year!

TERRI JONES

POTATO AND LEEK SOUP250g potatoes3 medium sized leeks2 tablespoon vegetable oil2 medium sized onions1.2 litres vegetable stock150ml double cream Salt and black pepper

Method: Prepare the vegetables by dicing the potatoes, chopping the onions finely and slicing the leeks lengthwise. In a large pan, heat the oil. Add in the vegetables. Cook for five minutes or until the onions begin to soften. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Season the soup with salt and pepper and simmer for approximately twenty minutes

until the vegetables are tender. Using a hand blender, blend the soup until it is smooth. Transfer the soup to another saucepan and heat. Pour in the double cream, still stirring until it is blended thoroughly. Serve with homemade brown bread.

TRADITIONAL BROWN BREAD250g coarse wholemeal flour170g plain flour20g butter/margarine1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon salt350ml buttermilk1 large egg

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Sieve together the flours and salt. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Beat together the egg and the buttermilk. Make a well in the centre of the flour and bread crumbs. Pour in the beaten buttermilk and egg until strong dough is made. On a floured surface, knead the dough. Fashion it into a circular shape. Bake in the oven for forty-five minutes. Remove from the heat. Tap the base of the underside of the bread. If it is cooked through, it should sound hollow. Serve with hot soup.

Winter Time: Bread & SoupCookery

ACROSS:1. Quasi prefix (6)4. Split (6)9. Thinly boiled cereal, especially oatmeal (5)10. Accuses (7)11. Lace mates for plates (7)12. Composer of the opera, La Traviata (5)13. Blood plasma (5)15. Stomach lining of a cow or sheep (5) 20. Edible powder like chocolate (5)22. Someone who snares animals (7)24. Undermine (7)25. Beneficiary of money (5)26. Title of a Georges Bizet opera in four acts (6)27. A cup or goblet especially used for spirits (6)

DOWN:1. Buddhist temple with projecting roof (6)2. Mysterious (7)3. Metropolitan region in India (5)5. Corpse (7)6. Acquire (5)7. Resin (6)8. Initial (5)14. Offense (7)16. Large, spherical tropical fruits eaten fresh or in salads (7)17. Bitter (6)18. Condition (5)19. Cool to ice (6)21. Palindromic blade (5)23. First letter of the Greek alphabet (5)

PIONEER X-WORD

NAME: ...................................................................................................................................................................................

ADDRESS: ............................................................................................................................................................................

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JANUARY OBITUARIES The holy sacrifice of the Mass

has been offered and your

prayers are requested for the

happy repose of the souls of :

Joseph Cassidy, Cluain Barron, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.

Mary Alice Clarke, St Patrick’s Church, Lower Badoney, Gortin, Co Tyrone. (Golden Jub).

Martin Crosby, Lusk, Co Dublin. (Silver Jub).Elsie Doyle, Kilbeggan Pioneer Centre, Co

Westmeath. (Golden Jub).Eddie Deihy, Killucan Pioneer Centre, Co

Westmeath. Ronan Farrell, Cushinstown, Curraha, Co

Meath. (Golden Jub).Cecil Geoghan, Johnstown, Navan, Co Meath.

(Silver Jub).Sr Assumpta Guinan, Presentation Convent,

Mullingar, Co Westmeath. (Golden Jub).Tom Hartigan, Wexford. (70 years

membership).Bridie Kenneally, Gortboy, Kilmallock, Co

Limerick. (Golden Jub).Tommie Lyng, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

(Golden Jub).John Mohan, St Mary’s Pioneer Centre,

Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone. (Golden Jub).Thomas McKeogh, Raharney, Co Westmeath. Jack McSwiggan, St Patrick’s Church, Lower

Badoney, Gortin, Co Tyrone. (Golden Jub).Mary Moloney, Castletown-Geoghegan, Co

Westmeath. (Golden Jub).John Moran, Carraroe, Lanesboro, Longford.

(Golden Jub). Mary O’Callaghan, Sacred Heart Parish Pioneer

Centre, Roscommon. (Golden Jub).Delia O’Connor, Feenagh/Kilmeedy Pioneer

Centre, Co Limerick. (Fr Cullen Medal Recipient).

Eileen O’Malley, Cushlough Pioneer Centre, Westport, Co Mayo. (Fr Cullen Medal Recipient).

Joe O’Neill, Main Street, Bundoran, Co Donegal (late of Ballyshannon). (Golden Jub).

Rose Reynolds, Castletown-Geoghegan, Co Westmeath. (Golden Jub).

Sheila Rodgers, Kilmegan Pioneer Centre, Castlewellan, Co Down. (Golden Jub).

Winners of Crossword No. 730M Harvey, Mountcharles, Co Donegal.

L Maunsell, Tralee, Co Kerry.

Sr Martina, Mohill, Co Leitrim.

THREE PRIZES OF E40 EACH are offered for the first three correct solutions opened.

All entries must be submitted before 21st of this month.

The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning the competition is final. Do not send correspondence on any other subject with your entry,

which should be addressed to:PIONEER CROSSWORD No. 732

27 Upper Sherrard Street, Dublin 1

Solutions to Crossword No. 730ACROSS: 1. Superb; 4. Peddle; 9. Rodeo; 10. Respect; 11. Eponyms; 12. Nadir; 13. Skulk; 15. Leads; 20. Cadet; 22. Scruple; 24. Realise; 25. Delve; 26. Dancer; 27. Exodus.DOWN: Sorbet; 2. Padlock; 3. Roomy; 5. Essence; 6. Dread; 7. Entire; 8. Brass; 14. Lattice; 16. Dappled; 17. Scared; 18. Usher; 19. Recess; 21. Drain; 23. Radix.

Pioneers: Here,

GALWAY: Committee members and guests at the Galway Regional Pioneer Social. Seated are Pat Conroy, Ballinfoyle, Canon Joseph Delaney, Mary Boyle (Sec), Mai Connole, Maree, Fr Barry Horan, Guest Speaker). Standing are Eddie O Hara, Clarenbridge, Padraic Heneghan, Castlegar, Fr Charles Davy, SJ (Chair, PTAA Board), Frank Kelly, Moycullen, Paul Stewart, Oughterard, Noel Boyle (Pres), Ciaran Audley, Moycullen, Willie Cannon, Clarenbridge and Pat Devitt (Treas), Salthill.


DERRY: Congratulations to Maureen McCloskey, Faughanvale parish, who was presented with the golden emblem and certificate by Fr Noel McDermott.

CLARE: Seamus McEvoy of the Shannon Centre extends his congratulations to Dick Dundon who received his Pioneer emblem and certificate for full membership.

Pioneers: Here, There and Everywhere

ANTRIM: Students from St Mary’s PS, Portglenone, who received their Young Pioneer emblems and cards are pictured with the teachers and Fr McCann, PP.

ANTRIM: Pioneers from St Mary’s parish, Portglenone, who received their golden jubilarian emblems and certificates.


CORK: Members of the Mitchelstown Centre, who travelled to Dublin to receive the Gradam Pennant and Certificate. They are Caitriona Fox (Youth Officer), Catherine Hanley, Robert Shannon (Nat. Pres. PTAA), John Casey (Treas) who received the Award on behalf of Rathcormac Centre, Cecelia Casey, Peggy Hennessy, John Hennessy.

ANTRIM: Golden and Silver jublilarians from St Mary’s, Portglenone, are pictured with Fr McCann, PP and John McLarnon (Pres), who has been a Pioneer for over sixty years.


NEW YORK, USA: Fr Terence Lee MHM (native of Co Cavan), presented Mary Keenan (nee Curtin, from Kerry) with her golden emblem and certificate. Also pictured is Michael O Sullivan originally from Bantry, Co Cork, and now President of the Visitation Centre, Bronx, New York. NEW YORK, USA: Young and Younger Members of the Visitation Centre, in New York.

DONEGAL: Silver Jubilarians from Buncrana Centre who received their emblems and certificates. Pictured are Patrick Crossan (Council), Margaret Friel, Fr John Walsh, PP and Sue Doherty.

DONEGAL: Staying in Donegal, pictured are Brian Curristin, Margaret McAree, Packie Martin, Mairead Gallagher, Fr Shane Gallagher (Dioc Sp Dir), Anna Marie Kelly (Brooklyn), Mary Gorman. Missing from the photograph is Anna Curristin, from St Brgiid’s Centre, Ballintra.

DONEGAL: Golden Jubilarians from Buncrana Centre. Pcitured here are (Back): Patrick Crossan (Council), Gerard O Donnell, Hugh Henderson, Rosaleen Henderson. (Front): Margaret Lynch, Fr John Walsh, PP (sp Dir), Sean McHugh, Lily Doherty. LIMERICK: From the Fedamore Centre, the O Donnell Family are

pictured here with Fr Michael Cussen (Sp Dir). Unavoidably absent is Patrick (snr) who is a silver jubilarian.

LIMERICK: Generations of the Flynn family from Fedamore Centre came together for the presentation to silver jubilarian, John Flynn, who received his emblems and certificate from Fr Michael Cussen (Sp Dir). Included in the picture is John’s wife, Phil, Mary, his mother and his uncle Billy, himself a golden jubilarian.


ROSCOMMON: Nonagenarian Tom Croghan, Galway Road, Roscommon who was presented with the Fr Cullen Medal on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday by Mons. C Travers, CC, is pictured here with his wife Joan and family, including Paul, Donal, Niall, Anne Maie, Emer, Alan, Gerard, Kiernan and Dermot.

LOUTH: Young people from St Paul’s NS, Drogheda, with their prizes as a result of a Poster Competition based on Temperance with Council Members of the Holy Family Centre.

LOUTH: Members of the Holy Family Centre, Drogheda receiving the Gradam Award in St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin.

MEATH: To Hill of Down where the Centre held their seventy years celebrations, pictured here are Pauline O Reilly, Carmel Burke, M Gilsenan and Una Ward, all from Killyon.

MEATH: Cutting the special 70th anniversary cake in Hill of Down Centre are Christy Mitchell, ‘chief cake-cutter’, Vincent and Marie Smyth, Michael Ayres, Mary Gilsenan and Olive Cahill on standby to lend Christy a hand.

Pioneer Association / Apostleship of Prayer Pilgrimage 2014

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES TO NORTH AMERICASHRINES OF QUEBEC, CANADA & AURIESVILLE USA

Including St Anne de Beaupre, Cap de la Madeline, Grosse Ille, Montreal, Kahnawake, Toronto, Auriesville USA & Niagara Falls

Spiritual Director: Fr Bernard J McGuckian SJ

11 – 19 September 2014COST PER PERSON SHARING: €1,695Insurance extra €55 (if you don’t have your own)

Full itinerary and booking forms are available from Pioneer Central Office, 27 Upper Sherrard Street, Dublin 1

Telephone (00 353 1) 8749464

PROVISIONAL ITINERARY: Departing Dublin direct to Montreal. Visiting the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, a place of pilgrimage for the past 350 years; Grosse Ille, an island sacred

to the memory of 6,000 Irish Famine exiles buried there, and where an estimated 500,000 Irish passed

through this quarantine station between 1832 and 1932 on their way to Canada and the US; Montreal,

to visit the shrine of St Joseph, Basilica of Notre Dame, the Basilica of St Patrick, among other significant

places; The Shrine of St Kateri Tekakwitha, ‘Lily of the Mohawks’.

Crossing the border into the US to Auriesville, site of the martyrdom of St Isaac Jogues and

other Jesuits. A full day in Niagara to enjoy a memorable trip on the ‘Maid of the Mist’ below the

Falls. Final evening, dinner in the Skylon Tower, overlooking the famous Falls. Enjoy a brief panoramic

tour of Toronto and spend the afternoon shopping in the famous Eaton Centre. Check-in at

Toronto airport for return overnight flight to Dublin. COST INCLUDES: Flights Dublin/Montreal/Toronto/Dublin; 7 nights hotel, bed & breakfast; Grosse Ille ferry and picnic; all coach tours and transfers; Adm. to Cyclorama, St Joseph’s & Notre Dame, Maid of the Mist, Dinner in Skylon Tower; Local guides; Marian Pilgrimages Rep; Airport, hotel and city taxes.

Documents

HOW HAS IT COME TO THIS? - Pioneer Total … · 4 Jubilee Reflections Fr Jim O'Halloran 6 The Greening of Inchicore Susan Gately 8 The McVerry Approach Peter McVerry SJ 12 Ten Year