Mary Kenny
“helping the refugee is a Christian duty and an essential part of the message of the New Testament”, writes Mary Kenny
It is evident that Ireland, in the coming times, will be increasingly a country open to asylum for refugees. There will almost certainly be considerably more regular immigration too.
The Department of Justice has already issued a statement saying that this country will soon experience “a significant increase” of people coming here as part of the European refugee programme. Many of the refugees will be Syrians, and God knows they have had to travel far to escape the torments that stalk their land.
I think we can also predict that Ireland will be an increasing route for the free movement of peoples from the European Union – especially when ‘Brexit’ means that there will be tougher controls to enter Britain from the EU. Ireland will then be a main point of entry for those already within the remaining 27.
Attitude
The Catholic Church would surely insist that helping the refugee is a Christian duty and an essential part of the message of the New Testament.
I am certain that Angela Merkel’s original open-door attitude to refugees was rooted in her own Christian formation, as the daughter of a Lutheran pastor.
However, Ireland needs to conduct a national conversation about preparing for this changing landscape which is obviously headed our way. Preparation is everything, and when a society begins to absorb new cultural elements, there needs to be some psychological (as well as practical) preparation.
Religion will be a key factor with the new configuration of the Irish population – most migrants are religious – and the Christian churches should take the lead, now, in starting that conversation about the way Irish society is about to change. They should also be present at the table when the political issue is being discussed.
The arts for everyone
Cora Sherlock, of the Pro Life Campaign, says that “the Project Arts Centre should belong to everyone” – in response to Dublin’s Project Theatre displaying a wall mural ‘Repeal the 8th’ (removed for reasons of planning permission).
The arts should be for everyone, but it is seldom that they are. A secular elite dominates the arts world and I think it would be pretty difficult for anyone with a pro-life viewpoint to get their work accepted or produced in Dublin today.
The Project Theatre was, in truth, only advertising their own attitude of exclusiveness. They might as well go all the way and add the coda to their job applications for theatre or artistic productions – ‘No Catholics need apply’.
Remembering Mary Magdalene
Surprisingly, St Mary Magdalene was officially honoured on a feast day for the first time this year, on July 22, which previously was classed as a ‘memorial’. She has been a revered figure since early Christianity, and some of the loveliest churches have been in her name.
Perhaps the most famous is the Madeleine in Paris, situated at the top of the Rue de Rivoli, near the Place de la Concorde. A stunning church, inside and out; when the fashion designer Coco Chanel died in 1971, her mannequins carried her coffin out of the Madeleine after the Requiem Mass.
St Mary Magdalene has also given her name to the little sponge cake which Marcel Proust dipped into his tea, its taste conjuring up a raft of memories from childhood. The cookie was called a ‘Madeleine’ after the patissiere who invented it in 1845, Madeleine Paulmier.
And there is an expression in French – “to weep like a Madeleine” (“pleurer comme une Madeleine”) which refers to the tears with which Mary Magdalene washed the feet of Jesus.
Mary Magdalene is a character embedded in painting, literature and church architecture, and now, at last, she has an official feast day.