Mary Kenny
When it was reported in a London newspaper that Catholic priests can feel hurt and dismayed when the Faithful compare and judge their sermons – via internet live-stream Masses – the BBC commentator Nick Robinson remarked smartly: “Join the club!” Those guys and gals in the media are used to both brickbats and bouquets for their public performances.
And since Mass became available online during the Covid lockdowns, there may indeed be a tendency to assess different Mass deliveries on a “rate-my-priest” basis. The original statement that some priests were upset by this trend came from the Association of Catholic Priests.
On this subject, I entertain mixed feelings. It is pointed out that Mass is essentially about the Eucharist – it’s not about the quality of oratory or delivery by the priest in the pulpit. That is true. And it seems mean-spirited to sit in front of a screen at home and award points to a cleric for liturgical performance, as though it were an episode of Strictly Come Dancing. Most priests are doing their best, and it can be a lonely and difficult calling, especially in these times when there can be hostility to faith – and, it sometimes seems, so little affirmative leadership by some of the bishops.
On the other hand, like Nick Robinson, I’ve worked all my life in a milieu where competition was considered a positive service for the public. If you don’t like one newspaper’s politics, you can choose another. When you turn the radio dial, or switch on the TV, the choice of programmes delivers criteria of comparison. In the world of commerce, competition often gives the public more accessible prices. Aer Lingus reduced its prices once Ryanair came into the field.
Job interviews, like auditions, are based on a competitive test: who is best for the role?
So, isn’t an element of ‘compare and contrast’ perhaps quite a healthy thing, and a stimulus to the skill of preaching – where there must be an element of performance? And while criticism can indeed be hurtful – ask any actor who has met with a cruel barb from an acid-tongued reviewer – it also improves artistic standards. Shouldn’t we all welcome a chance to do better what we do all the time?
Live-streaming Mass permits a wide choice of location as well as style, so there are bound to be comparisons. It’s inevitable that some Masses will be celebrated in a quiet mode, with an austere setting – those streamed from monasteries – while others will be approached in a chattier way, with a more decorative background. That’s fine, and different people will be drawn to different styles.
Last Sunday I livestreamed 11am Mass from St Teresa’s Clarendon Street, Dublin: the altar and stained-glass windows provided a stunning background for a concelebrated Mass, led by Father Michael Brown, a Donegal priest. He gave an excellent sermon on the parable of the talents. He reflected on the theme of “fulfilment”, and what it is. He considered “God’s plan for us”, but recommended that “we ought to do the best we can with what we have”.
He quoted the poet Browning: “A man’s reach must exceed his grasp.” In a way, this was an apt commentary on any performance – just do our best – and I was grateful to be able to be virtually present to hear Fr Brown from Clarendon Street.
A lightbulb moment
There was this little boy called Al who exasperated his teachers: he questioned everything and had an obsession with the poem ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, by Thomas Gray, which he’d recite over and over again. One teacher described Al’s brain as “addled”. By the time he reached secondary school, his mother had to remove him from the classroom as he just didn’t “fit in”.
But Al had his own way of understanding the world, and his own sense of order. Retrospectively, the neurologist Simon Baron-Cohen (cousin of the more famous Sacha Baron-Cohen of ‘Borat’) has diagnosed Al as autistic. But he did achieve quite a lot in his adult life, too: Al came to be renowned as Thomas Alva Edison, subsequently known as “America’s greatest inventor”, who pioneered electric power, sound recording and gave us the light bulb. Kids who think differently may be thinking with originality.