Peter Costello
In his Master’s Footsteps: The Way of the Cross in the Company of St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop and Martyr (St Paul’s Publishing, €5.50 / £4.60)
This aid to making the Stations of the Cross has been written by Canon Benedict Fee, the parish priest of Clonoe, in Co. Tyrone. It is built around the example of St Oliver Plunkett. The martyred Archbishop of Armagh was the victim of the sort of “hate speech” which has become too much an element in recent decades on the internet.
Admirable
If Oliver Plunkett is an admirable and inspiring figure, Titus Oates whose lies and intrigues brought about Plunkett’s death, is one of those vicious creatures that always emerge in times of stress and conflict – large numbers of them are now at large in parts of Western culture.
Reflecting on the Resurrection Canon Fee remarks near the end of his text that St Oliver being in these islands “the last person to die publicly for the faith”, in the aftermath of which “it was then time for a new understanding, and a new way of respect, tolerance and peace”. This is sentiment very much for our times.
Cannot forget
Yet we cannot forget too as the Pope said on his visit to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in Bagdad last year where 50 worshippers had been killed the previous year in a terrorist attack: “Christians are called upon to bear witness to the love of Christ in every time and place.”
An interesting feature is the inclusion of a brief account of three Armagh people in missionary service who gave their lives for their faith. We seem to hear little of these modern martyrs, more recent followers of the Way of the Cross that Canon Fee illuminates in this little booklet.
Benedict Fee is also the compiler and editor of Not Force nor Might: The Gift of the Martyrs (also from St Paul’s), a collection of prayers and reflections issued to mark the 350th anniversary of Oliver Plunkett’s death. His shrine in St Peter’s Church in Drogheda is one of the most popular places of devotion in the country.