Remember that we’re all in jails of our own making
TODAY the Church marks Prisoners’ Sunday, when we remember in prayer prisoners and recognise those who pastorally support their innate dignity in circumstances that can sometimes be devoid of humanity.
In her well-received publication Unheard Voices, former prison chaplain Sister Imelda Wickham PBVM speaks on behalf of prisoner experience, saying ‘we are all on the same journey of life, with its ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses, and all in need of redemption’.
Sister Imelda states that prison chaplaincy has had a significant impact on her life and that she has been most changed by those who visited prisons on a weekly basis for many years: the families and friends of prisoners, ‘the greatest learning was to be in touch with the experience of the people I was sent to serve’.
While being imprisoned is an experience most of us will never have, Sister Imelda emphasises it is not just the incarcerated that serve the sentence.
She rightly praises the gifts and skills of those in the prison system who help keep it operational, wisely reflecting ‘in all my years I have never met an evil person. People do evil things and we are all capable of that’.
Policymakers, in particular, can learn from Sister Imelda who points to addiction as the greatest disease and cause of destruction in people’s lives, leading to crime and prison: ‘addiction is not a crime. It is a health issue that needs to be attended to medically and psychologically.’
In ensuring that the unheard voices of prisoners are heard, Sister Imelda calls attention to the loneliness of the prisoner.
On this Prisoners’ Sunday, I invite you to join me in prayer for all prisoners, their families, prison staff and chaplains, whose work is vital but unheralded within the prison services throughout the world.
Bishop Martin Hayes Liaison bishop for prisoners, Irish Bishops’ Conference,
Maynooth, Co Kildare
Beyond clerical pale
IT’S undoubtedly a free country where people are entitled to hold their own personal opinions.
One, however, senses that it was injudicious of Fr Seán Sheehy, the Listowel cleric who preached such a very divisive homily.
To attack the LGBT community in such a condescending manner is to me beyond the pale.
I say that based on the palpable transgressions perpetrated by this institution in areas such as child abuse, mother and baby homes etc. I have heard very few condemnatory sermons being preached on such abuses.
It might be argued that his sermon may have been in line with Catholic teaching but yet the Pope has recently spoken out about compassion and love for members of our LGBT family.
It’s very difficult to process such an egregious sermon when the Catholic Church itself has been a metaphorical breeding ground of sin. To condemn those poor souls who have done him or society no harm is staggering.
It was refreshing that the
Bishop of Kerry, Dr Ray Browne, has shown real spiritual leadership in apologising for Fr Sheehy’s homily and the deep upset and hurt it has caused.
Fr Sheehy has to remember the kernel of the Gospel’s message is love and respect for every human being. These values trump the extreme rantings of this priest.
John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
… Fr Sheehy was carrying out his duty as a Catholic priest by warning his congregation that Catholic teaching (which has been constant for 2,000 years) is that – as St Paul writes – ‘Those who do these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God’.
It is reported he had just met a mother whose daughter, 17, had showed her mother a condom that was (it seems) given to her in the street from a HSE van in Tralee.
I think that this is what initiated the sermon. It is newsworthy only because so few priests (and bishops) are doing their job. Micheál Ó Fearghail
Glanmore, Cork.
… I’m not a theologian but in view of the hysterical reaction to Fr Sheehy’s homily in Listowel, I decided to check the Catechism.
This is the source of official Catholic teaching. What I found was that Fr Sheehy’s remarks were in tune with the Catechism.
One can quibble with their tone/ tenor but, in essence, his homily was consistent with Catholic teaching.
The reaction of the ‘liberal’ commentariat proves just how shallow their boast of a pluralist/ diverse society really is.
Eric Conway, Navan, Co. Meath.