We Must be Talking

Fr. O'Leary and Clerical Celibacy     Gerry O'Shea Fr. Daniel O'Leary was born in the village of Rathmore   County Kerry, close to the Cork border, in 1937. He died in January of this year after a short battle with cancer. Fr. Donal, as he was called by his friends, served as a parish priest in the Diocese of Leeds in England   for the first thirty years of his ministry. After that he worked for   two decades teaching theology in St. Mary's University College in London.   He authored a dozen books on spirituality and was well-known as a leader of parish and diocesan   retreats. He was a regular columnist in the prestigious international Catholic   news weekly, The Tablet. In his final column for that publication he stated that he wanted to be "free of fear and bitterness and full of love and desire as I step up for the final inspection."   He goes on to argue in the major theme of his parting essay that forced clerical ce...

Vincent Carmody's Listowel       Gerry O'Shea In the bar area of the Kerry Hall in Yonkers there are portraits displayed   of five well-known Kerry writers, and three of the five come from the town of Listowel or its hinterland:   Maurice Walsh from Ballybunion, author of The Quiet Man , John Moriarty, poet and philosopher from Moyvane and, of course, John B Keane from the town itself. The management of the bar would find it hard to explain why the marvelous Bryan McMahon is not on display or Brendan Kennelly from Ballylongford or George Fitzmaurice, a noted dramatist and short story writer in the 19th century or Fergal Keane of current BBC fame. I have no idea why a small and - at first walk-through - an   unimposing town accounts for so much exuberant artistic talent. And now we have local historian, Vincent Carmody,   producing an excellent and intriguing communal history : Listowel: A Printer's Legacy . The title is further e...

The New Socialism in America          Gerry O'Shea In his recent State of the Union message President Trump warned against those who were pushing socialism as the best approach to solving the problems the country faces. This message was highlighted by many others on the political Right who pointed to the mess in Venezuela as the contemporary example of the disasters accompanying the hated "S" word. Yet in a 2017 study   44% of millennials, citizens in their 20's and   30's, favor a socialist approach to government with, rather surprisingly, just 42% opting for the present capitalist system in America. A more recent Gallup poll found that 57% of Democrats expressed a preference for the   socialist system while the percentage identifying with that party favoring capitalism registered in the low 40's. Even a few years ago, at the turn of the century, the numbers declaring for such radical policies would barely break single...

Abortion - A Different Perspective            Gerry O'Shea The issue of abortion came up in a recent Friday night PBS News Hour program when David Brooks and Mark Shields were reviewing the events of the week. Shields began his comments on the subject by noting the ambivalence of most Americans about this emotive issue. He pointed out how studies show that while people recoil from approving abortion, they also   favor maintaining the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that permits a woman to decide whether or not to end her pregnancy. About 25% of American women have an abortion during their lives. Polls show that close to 60% of Americans   favor maintaining the legal status quo, but that leaves more than 40% demanding the reversal of that controversial court decision. Incidentally, despite repeated   strong condemnation of abortion by the Catholic bishops, polling results reveal   little difference between their co...

Review of McCarten's Book on the Two Popes         Gerry O'Shea Anthony McCarten, a distinguished   novelist and screenwriter from New Zealand, is best known for his celebration of the genius of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything , and   for highlighting the crucial importance of Winston Churchill's   eloquence in   defeating the Nazis in The Darkest Hour .   His latest work The Pope: Francis, Benedict and the Decision that Shook the World   attempts to explain the ramifications of having two popes, one in his early 80's and the other ten years older, both active within the narrow confines of the Vatican. These two men, Joseph Ratzinger or as he is now titled emeritus Pope Benedict and   Jorge Bergoglio , Pope Francis, represent two different approaches to the Roman version of Christianity. Ratzinger is a brilliant German theologian, a rather dour and introverted academic with little pastoral expe...