Evangelisation: the time is now

Evangelisation: the time is now

By Ronnie Convery

Now is the hour … that was the message delivered to priests and lay people from across the Archdiocese by one of the UK’s leading experts in evangelisation.

Monsignor John Armitage (pictured), who is based in London, spoke at events for clergy and parishioners last month and urged them to seize this ‘favourable hour’ to spread the faith.

He pointed to a series of signs which show people are more open to the Catholic faith than at any period in our lifetimes.

— The large growth in adult baptisms over the last year

— A new surge of interest in Catholicism especially among young men

—Huge media interest in the Church following the election of the new Pope

He said: “Evangelisation is not about our efforts so much as giving people what we have. It’s natural to feel inadequate. None of us has an answer to every question that a person inquiring about the faith might have.

“But we don’t need to have all the answers. We just need to be prepared to reach out, be available, avoid getting stuck in our ‘safe routines’ of piety when people around us are asking for help.”

And he urged parishioners to ‘read the signs of the times’ by keeping abreast of what’s happening in wider society, in the news, and in current trends.

He said: “Society has slowly rid itself of what we might call ‘Christendom’ – the symbols and language of Christianity – so we are now in a new ‘apostolic age’ where the people we meet have no knowledge of the faith and are hungry to learn more.

“We need to be aware too that we are living not just in an era of change, but a change of era.

“The digital revolution has changed the way people engage with each other and with institutions. Skills of life which served us in the past no longer serve us.

“We need to read again the signs of the times and show that the Church has something to offer to the men and women of our time which is more than they can achieve in this life.”

Joy and emotion as Michelle sings for the Pope

By Ronnie Convery

Glasgow singer Michelle McManus has had a few high points in her career… winning Pop Idol, topping the UK charts with a debut single among them.

But last month saw the best moment of all as the Baillieston girl sang solo for the Pope.

As revealed in last month’s Flourish, Michelle has recorded a new hymn for SCIAF’s 60th anniversary recalling the words of Pope Francis in his encyclical about care for creation, Laudato Si.

And now she has had the amazing honour of singing the hymn for Pope Leo at a special conference in Castelgandolfo.

Michelle told Flourish: “I hadn’t slept for a month ahead of the event. I was so worried about all the organisation and whether we would make it in the end.

“So when I got the confirmation that I was to sing for the Holy Father I was tearful.

“It was the experience of a lifetime. My first time in Rome, my first visit to St Peter’s Basilica and then the honour of singing for the Holy Father… just amazing.”

And the good news is that the story of the SCIAF hymn and Michelle, from composition to first recording in St Andrew’s Cathedral, to sharing a stage with the Pope, has been captured by a BBC film crew for a special documentary which will be aired across the UK next Easter.

Documentary

Produced by Glasgow-based Solus Productions, the documentary will contain behind the scenes footage of the ‘pilgrimage of hope’ along with Michelle’s performance for the Holy Father.

Producer/Director Tony Kearney said: “It’s been a joy working with Michelle on this remarkable BBC documentary.

“Watching her combine faith, humour and that incredible voice as she takes SCIAF’s new hymn from its Scottish roots all the way to Rome has been truly special.

“Seeing her perform it for Pope Leo was the perfect uplifting finale to this extraordinary journey.”

Pope Leo’s first encyclical prioritises care for the poor

I share the desire of my beloved predecessor that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ’s love and his summons to care for the poor.

I too consider it essential to insist on this path to holiness … Contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history. In the poor, he continues to speak to us.

I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry.

There are many forms of poverty: the poverty of those who lack material means of subsistence, the poverty of those who are socially marginalized and lack the means to give voice to their dignity and abilities, moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a condition of personal or social weakness or fragility, poverty of those who have no rights, no space, no freedom.

The illusion of happiness derived from a comfortable life pushes many people towards a vision of life centered on the accumulation of wealth and social success at all costs, even at the expense of others and by taking advantage of unjust social ideals and political-economic systems that favor the strongest. Thus, in a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.

A culture still persists – sometimes well disguised – that discards others without even realizing it and tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings. A few years ago, the photo of a lifeless child lying on a Mediterranean beach caused an uproar; unfortunately, apart from some momentary outcry, similar events are becoming increasingly irrelevant and seen as marginal news items.

The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty.

The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.

We must continue, then, to denounce the “dictatorship of an economy that kills,” and to recognize that “while the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.

No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem; they are part of our “family.” They are “one of us.”

If I encounter a person sleeping outdoors on a cold night, I can view him or her as an annoyance, an idler, an obstacle in my path, a troubling sight, a problem for politicians to sort out, or even a piece of refuse cluttering a public space. Or I can respond with faith and charity, and see in this person a human being with a dignity identical to my own, a creature infinitely loved by the Father, an image of God, a brother.

The worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care… Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care.

The most important way to help the disadvantaged is to assist them in finding a good job, so that they can lead a more dignified life by developing their abilities and contributing their fair share.

We Christians must not abandon almsgiving. It can be done in different ways, and surely more effectively, but it must continue to be done. It is always better at least to do something rather than nothing. Whatever form it may take, almsgiving will touch and soften our hardened hearts. It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility.

Almsgiving offers us a chance to halt before the poor, to look into their eyes, to touch them and to share something of ourselves with them. In any event, almsgiving, however modest, brings a touch of pietas into a society otherwise marked by the frenetic pursuit of personal gain.

Rediscovering Glasgow’s ‘forgotten’ migration

By Brian Swanson

Visitors are flocking to a travelling photographic exhibition from Donegal which gives an intimate insight into the lives of Irish families who left their homes in the post war period to settle in Glasgow.

And the event is a powerful testimony to the Catholic faith of the city’s Irish community.

Entitled ‘Working Over By’ it is a treasure trove of nostalgia told in the words of those who took a step into the unknown and whose influence still shapes the cultural landscape of Glasgow and the West of Scotland to this day.

Illustrated with precious family photographs it is the story of young men and women, the grandparents of today’s generation, who swapped a familiar rural life in Ireland in the 1940s, 50s and 60s for an uncertain urban one on the banks of the Clyde.

Their arrival in Glasgow boosted the so-called ‘Catholic revival’ in the city which had been sustained by the early Irish migrants fleeing hunger 100 years earlier.

The Irish migrants featured in the new exhibition made that journey on the fondly remembered ‘Scotch Boat’, often better known as the Cattle Boat where many teenage romances first flourished many leading to marriage in the years to come.

Men took seasonal jobs as tattie howkers while young women, little more than teenagers, gutted herring – both back-breaking and poorly paid jobs which showed scant regard for health and safety.

Meanwhile they sought solace, company and support in the city’s Catholic parishes including St Andrew’s Cathedral, St Mary’s Calton, St Francis in the Gorbals, St Michael’s Parkhead and St Patrick’s in Anderston.

Elsewhere women found permanent jobs as factory workers, nurses, domestic servants, and ‘clippies’ on the trams. Outside of working hours their social lives revolved around the parish with its steady rhythms of devotions and dances, May processions and St Patrick’s night celebrations.

Speaking at the launch of the Exhibition in the Mitchell Library, Dr Joseph Gallagher, County Donegal Heritage Officer said:

“In the 20th century, Scotland was a familiar destination for people leaving County Donegal in search of work.  In recent years, the stories of some of their experiences and successes have been documented but, for a long time, they have been overlooked or considered too ordinary to be recorded.”

The free exhibition will be at the Mitchell Library until the end of January, with plans underway to take it to other centres in Scotland next year.