This is the Saviour of the world said the shop assistant referring to Obama as the radio brought the Presidential inauguration in Washington into the local chemist’s shop. For a moment I found myself agreeing! Such has been the momentum generated by the rhetoric and the welcome distraction it afforded from the chill economic winds that are blowing that there was a strong temptation to buy into it – lock, stock and barrel.

Barack Hussein Obama carries with him into the Presidential office the hopes of a fairer society in the US and justice for the rest of the world. Perhaps never has one man had had so much expectation placed upon his shoulders. Perhaps never have such flimsy shoulders appeared to carry the burden so lightly. But then this is only the first week in office!

The traditional oath of allegiance, taken in God’s name and sworn on the Bible, demonstrates the dependence t ... Read More »

It is easier, Jesus said, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God could be updated and how hard, we respond, for the Religious to show humility to the Laity.

The rich? They have got it made. Their security is in their riches.

The Religious? They have an “in” with God. Their security is in the establishment.

As events unfolded of negligence in handling child abuse cases in the Diocese of Cloyne the hierarchical ranks closed this week with the oft repeated statement that lessons have been learned and the sense of denial was palpable.

The sight of a lone Priest doing his walk of atonement from Cork to Dublin spoke volumes of the solitary walk of those who would like to speak out but are trapped within the system.

I wrote the undernoted Blog in Nov.05 following the publication of the Report on Child Abuse in the Ferns Dioceses catalogued something of the horror many young people experienced at the hands of ... Read More »

There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind and for Israel the 20^th January could be it! The change in the US administration may well close the “window of opportunity” for their equivalent of a fatwa on Hamas. The rain of rockets had to be halted. You cannot live in a bomb shelter for ever. With an election looming, Israel had to do what Israel had to do.

Hamas, with a little help from Iran, has been increasing her rocket range, now reaching Ashkelon with Jerusalem next stop. The last Palestinian election saw Hamas elected signalling that the majority agreed with its 1988 charter. This states, among other things, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”.

With such sentiments it must be difficult to “love your neighbour”!

< ... Read More »

I have never heard of anyone making a resolution to be converted to Jesus Christ. In fact I have never heard of anyone resolving to feed the hungry or heal the sick. Usually what I hear is focussed on “low fat diet” or to stay “off the drink”. Our resolutions tend to have a self-centered aspect!

The good intentions of 1^st January usually end up in tatters by 1^st February. Even on those occasions where we seriously intend to keep our resolution we find that “old habits die hard” and we are forced to join the others and make a joke of our efforts to mask the disappointment.

When it comes to following Jesus many of us have been led down the religious route where church baptism provides an entry point to the church and subsequent renewal of these vows at a later date are said to establish one in membership of the church. Read More »

“They’re bringing religion into Christmas Cards” she said to her neighbour as they looked at a card with the nativity scene! The comment is probably apocryphal but the cards of winter scenes, Robins and berries to say nothing of Santa far outweigh the “religious” cards. So what does the Bible say about the “religious” bit?

It has become popular to speak about Jesus birthday on the 25^th December but there was never a time when Jesus did not exist. He was with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the councils of eternity when Creation and Redemption of humankind was planned. True he did have a birth day when he took flesh and entered our universe via the womb of a virgin and was made in all respects like us except he was without sin.

Athanasius in the 4^th century put it clearly when he said that “Jesus became what he was not without ever ceasing to be what he always was”.

He was, is and always will be God.

Isaiah put it pro ... Read More »

Last week, Sky’s digital channel, Real Lives, showed the Oscar-winning documentary, “Right to Die” featuring Craig Ewert’s assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic. Craig had been suffering from motor neurone disease and died in the presence of his wife following a lethal doze of barbiturates.

As film directors take their craft into increasingly sensitive areas of human existence we are asked to confront matters previous generations were only vaguely aware of. The Hippocratic Oath bound the medical profession to heal not harm. The crucial clause states, “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my judgement and ability, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them”.

With advances in medical science comes the ability to sustain the life of the dying until the problem becomes an ethical rather than a medical one.

The poet has written;

Thou shalt ... Read More »

News of food contamination in the developed world travels fast. Sophisticated food testing in a number of European countries detected dioxins in pork fat as far back as September. Towards the end of November the source was traced to an animal food recycling plant in Ireland.

When confirmation of high levels of contamination was obtained from the UK laboratory last Saturday the Government acted swiftly to recall all Irish pork products produced from pigs slaughtered in the State.

Consumers emptied their fridges, retailers emptied their shelves and the process was repeated in our export markets as far away as Japan.

There have been reassurances from “experts” that there is unlikely to be any health issues occurring to those whose diet contained pork since September but they sound hollow in the face of total product recall.

The fear factor where food is concerned becomes paramount.& ... Read More »

The internal audit report into the corporate affairs of the state training agency FAS has produced evidence of profligate spending by a largely unsupervised public official during the years of plenty, which have now come to an end. The public official has a very different version of the events, showing that he was being given kudos for his actions which were being hailed as a great success. Two “truths”, which one is the true truth?

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the affluence existing in the early years of the 3^rd millennium no longer exists and what was “normal” then may well be looked at very differently today! Expenditure rules were treated as guidelines and budget over-runs did not attract the appropriate sanctions. Instead of amending the rules to legitimise the excesses they were simply waived and truth became a victim of prosperity.

Coming to terms with the truth was a problem even in Bible tim ... Read More »

The case of asylum seeker Pamela Izevbekhai who lost her appeal against deportation to Nigeria in the High Court last week was given a reprieve when the European Court of Human Rights intervened, delaying the deportation for 3 weeks, while they review the case to see whither or not the grounds for deportation were warranted.

The reason Pamela came to Ireland in 2004 with her two daughters Naomi and Jemima now aged 7 and 6 was to avoid female genital mutilation. Apparently her husband’s family observes this rite and insisted that she have the procedure carried out on her two daughters.

Pamela had a daughter called Elizabeth who had this procedure carried out by a cousin when she was 18 months old in 1994. Unfortunately she died when the bleeding could not be stopped and Pamela, not wishing to risk the same fate for her two remaining daughters, with the aid of her husband, applied for asylum in Ireland.

Presumably the Minister for Justice is afraid to permit one case which wo ... Read More »

Drugs have been in the news for all the wrong reasons this last week.

We had almost 2 tonnes of cocaine removed from the yacht “Dancing with Waves” when the customs seized her in the Atlantic.

Then came the death of Shane Geoghegan, a tragic case of mistaken identity, at the hand of a hit-man hired by a Limerick gang involved in a drug related feud.

The week ended with a similar incident in Finglas which left a man in hospital fighting for his life.

The street value of the yacht’s cargo of €500 million did not make the headlines but it does provide a clue to the size of the rewards accruing to the dealers. The craving of the addict provides an increasing market which has penetrated every strata of society. The admission by the Minister for Justice that we cannot police our coastline is stating the obvious whilst reliance on increased surveillance, phone tapping and information fr ... Read More »