Brendan O’ReganBrendan O’Regan is moved by a “touching piece about the late Fr Michael Paul Gallagher SJ”
It’s the time of year when we can expect various series on radio and TV to come to an end as the summer season kicks in and so it was with the last episode of The Leap of Faith, RTÉ Radio 1 last Friday night.
The main item on the show was a touching piece about the late Fr Michael Paul Gallagher SJ, and I’m sad even writing this as I had the benefit of his lectures in UCD and later got to meet up with him at conferences in Dublin.
I particularly remember an enthusiastic presentation he gave on Pope Francis at the RE Congress some two years ago. On the show he was remembered by his friend and fellow Jesuit Fr Donal Neary, who journeyed with him on the final months of his terminal cancer, a time captured in his final book of reflections, Into Extra Time, described by presenter Michael Comyn as being an “intimate read” and like a “mini-retreat”.
Fr Neary felt that his friend had lots more to give, but at the end he was definitely “ready to go”. One of his main concerns was the question of faith.
He often reflected on “atheism Irish style”, which, he thought was more a case of “angst, alienation and anger” and of course these “A Words” leave room for hope. He was also deeply interested in the interplay between faith and culture, and was inspired by Cardinal Newman’s ideas on imagination. Fr Neary’s most touching tribute to him was when he said that his friend played to people’s strengths.
Two of Fr Gallagher’s great passions were imagination and literature and I’m with him on both fronts. So I was glad to hear an engaging interview with children’s author Megan McDonald on The World Over Live with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN last Monday morning.
She has written the ‘Judy Moody’ and ‘Stink’ series, and is also a librarian and spokesperson for school libraries in the USA.
Insistent
She was so insistent on the importance of books for children in this screen-focused age and was convinced that children still want “the tactile experience of real books”, and noticed how they even hug the books they make their own.
Even more so she stressed how important it was for parents to read aloud to children, in spite of how busy we may have become. Her own father had little formal education but inspired his children with his own stories. Her mother gave her the simple present of a notebook for her to write her thoughts, and in this way she began to find her own distinctive voice.
I was surprised to learn that presenter Raymond Arroyo was also a children’s writer (check out Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls), and delighted to find that EWTN (the US Catholic channel) was involved in a literacy initiative, ‘Storyented’. At storyented.com you can find previous interviews with well-known authors and lots of encouragement to read!
The Irish are great at telling stories and as a nation we punch way above our weight when it comes to literature, music and film making – no shortage of imagination around here! It saddens and frustrates me that many of our creative people these days are so dismissive of or antagonistic to faith and the Church.
Maybe it’s back to Fr Michael Paul Gallagher’s “angst, alienation and anger”.
I was looking forward to last week’s bank holiday movie on RTÉ One – the trailers for Life’s a Breeze suggested a bright and breezy screwball family comedy, with various eccentrics chasing a lost mattress full of cash.
It could have been good, but Irish imagination and literacy didn’t deliver the goods this time. It was trying too hard to be funny, the tone was inconsistent and the foul language and profanity were, gratuitous, adding nothing but a sour taste to the story.
Most of the characters weren’t even likeable.
Promising newcomer Kelly Thornton and veteran Fionnuala Flanagan made for an interesting pairing, but were ill served. The old lady played by Flanagan, under questioning from her granddaughter (Thornton) was fashionably dismissive of any possibility of afterlife, though she did engage in some banter about reincarnation.
Apart from that religion had no place in this vision of modern Ireland, full of cursing, swearing, vanity, sentimentality and materialism – how telling that the plot centred on people rooting around in dumps for money.
Pick of the Week
Mass
RTÉ 1, Sunday, May 15, 10am
Bishops Peter van der Weide and Jan Alferink concelebrate Mass for Pentecost from the Netherlands, with music led by St Cecilia’s Choir and commentary from The Irish Catholic’s Michael Kelly.
Catholic Enlightenment: Gifts of Catholicism to Civilisation
EWTN, Monday, May 16, 8.30pm
Fr Marcus Holden and Fr Andrew Pinsent explore how Catholics influenced educational systems, pioneered women’s roles in teaching and politics, and revolutionised theories in ethics and philosophy.
Youth and Culture with Jean Vanier (Part 1)
EWTN, Monday, May 16, 9pm, and Tues 8am (Part 2 Tuesday, 9pm)
L’Arche founder, Jean Vanier discusses the challenges young people face.