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A Worship Service With Celtic Atmosphere

Cynthia DeDakis, minister of music at St. Thomas.

Scratch the surface of any one of us Celts, and underneath you might find a pagan.

Many of those who are card-carrying Christians now are descended from an ancient people who looked for the sacred in the natural world. They plumbed the depths of mysticism. Fire was their friend.

Of course, we’ve come a long way since then. Our beliefs have matured. But for those of us whose people came from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany, the old beliefs—or more likely, the trappings of the old beliefs—still hold some appeal.

If Celtic spirituality speaks to your inner Celt, you might find a comfortable home at St. Thomas’s Church in Whitemarsh, where Celtic worship services are held monthly through March.

Cynthia DeDakis, minister of music at the elegant old Episcopal church at Bethlehem Pike and Church Road, isn’t surprised that Celtic spirituality continues to appeal to many of us.

“The earliest flowering of Christianity in the Celtic countries was very much adapted,” she notes. “The Christians who came in to evangelize where there had been pagan religions before used a lot of the forms and sensibilities of the pagan religions. There’s a close connection with nature and seeing all nature as sacred. I think it appeals to people for a number of reasons, and that’s one. I think Celtic culture is attuned to feeling more connected to the earth. We do try to emphasize that to a certain amount.”

In all the liturgically important respects, the service is Christian. There’s an opening prayer, a reading from Scripture, a homily and a Eucharist. Where does the “Celtic” come in? Many of the prayers come from Celtic sources, some of them ancient, but it’s really more in the atmosphere.

First, there’s the music—near and dear to this classically trained musician, who also plays hammer dulcimer. “Last year, and the first two services this year, we’ve been using harp,” DeDakis says. “I try the best I can to use legitimate Celtic music in the services. People really appreciate and enjoy that style of music. I’ve been working on adapting it somewhat and trying to make it more truly Celtic. It’s a work in progress.”

There’s candlelight. And there are long stretches of silence and reflection. It’s an earthier, less structured occasion of prayer. That’s what the folks at St. Thomas are going for. They’ve been at it since 2005.

“There’s a kind of spirituality that moves into the mystic when you bring in the candles, silence and simple, quiet music,” DeDakis says. “It’s not as demanding in terms of participation. People tend to spread out. We are hoping to build the service and draw people who don’t come to St. Thomas on a regular basis but who are looking to find something like this that feeds them spiritually.”

There’s a Celtic worship service at St. Thomas this Sunday at 5:30—look for it to have a special Christmas theme—and once each month through March. (Consult our calendar.) And if you’d like to go beyond merely attending, DeDakis is on the lookout for traditional musicians who might want to help set the tone. Contact DeDakis by e-mail at cdedakis@stthomaswhitemarsh.org.

December 9, 2009 by Jeff Meade

People

Five Questions for Sister Briege McKenna

Sister Briege McKenna, O.S.C., believes in miracles. And she should know.

Born in County Armagh, Sister Briege joined the Sisters of St. Clare when she was 15. In 1970, at age 24, and by then a teacher in Tampa, Florida, she says she was healed of crippling rheumatoid arthritis during the celebration of the Eucharist. More, she says she was given the gift of healing.

The experience, not surprisingly, changed her life. She believes God told her to take her newfound gift and use it to minister to priests. And that she has been doing for nearly 40 years, taking her message of healing to priests throughout the world.

Recognizing her great contribution, the Catholic Leadership Institute of Exton selected her to receive its 2009 Award for Outstanding Catholic Leadership. (She was slated to be recognized Friday, November 13.)

We caught up with Sister Briege just a day after her return from one of her many whirlwind tours. Jet-lagged but somehow still full of energy, she talked with us about her life and ministry.

Q. How do you define a miracle? It sometimes seems that we’re surrounded by them all the time, but don’t recognize them as such.

A. The title of my book is “Miracles do Happen.” (But) I dont believe physical healing is the most important. Many people have perfect health and they’re miserable; others are ill but filled with joy. But a miracle is something that cannot be explained through medical terms. An example: Around last Christmas, a friend of mine brought me a doctor who was very critically ill with leukemia. I think he was a Methodist. I talked with him and prayed with him. (Since then,) he’s been cured. His doctors say there’s no evidence he ever had the disease. That’s a miracle.

Q. What do you think about Christ’s admonition to Thomas, to believe what he can’t see. I sometimes think that, if you need miracles to believe, then that’s not faith. Or is that asking too much of people?

A. Thomas was wonderful. If you think about it, you can see how it would be hard for Thomas to believe. You cannot understand mysteries with your head. I don’t have to see a miracle to believe in the Eucharist. People who believe don’t need miracles. And many people who see miracles still don’t believe them.

Q. Why minister to priests?

A. In 1972, the Lord gave me a five-hour vision in the chapel. He said I was to speak to people about the priesthood as God’s gift to us. He said I want you to speak to priests and bishops (and say that) the priesthood is not a gift just tothem. I remember saying to the Lord, “I can’t do this, I’m a teacher.” And the Lord said, just be obedient. I’ll speak through you.

People say priests are skeptical of a nun, but if something is a gift from God, you don’t have to prove yourself. It’s about them and bringing them to the realization of what the priesthood is.

Q. You’re from Ireland. How much of a change do you see in the Catholic church in Ireland?

A. I see a very big change since I left Ireland 42 years ago. Throughout society, I see a great falling away. Ireland became more prosperous, that’s what’s happening. But there’s great faith still in Ireland. There’s still a lot of beautiful faith in Ireland.

Q. Irish religious have had a big impact on Catholicism in the United States and elsewhere. Do you feel like you’re part of a great tradition?

A. When I came here 42 years ago, practically every sister and priest around here (Florida) was Irish. Ireland is one of the greatest missionary countries. That was up until 20 years ago; now we don’t have vocations. Seminaries have closed down. Worldwide, every place we go, the Irish have left a powerful impact and have sowed the seeds of the Catholic Church. Please God, it’ll come back.

NOTE TO READERS

Sister Briege McKenna does not read the comments on this page. To contact Sister Briege, please click on this link:

http://www.sisterbriege.com/

November 12, 2009 by Jeff Meade

News, People

Ireland’s “Immigration Bishop” Visits Philadelphia

Derry Bishop Seamus Hegarty with his Phillies shirt, a gift from the Philadelphia Derry Society.

As he prepared to say a Requiem Mass for the souls of the faithful departed at Philadelphia’s Irish Center on Tuesday night, Dr. Seamus Hegarty, the Bishop of Derry, Ireland, paused to acknowledge the living who are far from peace.

The chairman of the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants, in Philadelphia briefly on a multi-city tour to meet with immigrants, was clearly moved by the stories he heard from undocumented Irish who had lost loved ones in Ireland and were forced to grieve alone, far from family and friends, because they could not return home. Illegal aliens can’t risk returning to their country of origin for fear that they will not be allowed back in the United States where they may have American-born children.

“It’s one of the things that really got to me,” said the Bishop, who has served the Derry diocese since 1994. “It’s a double tragedy for people who have lost someone and then aren’t able to go home and grieve with their families. I lost my own mother when I was seven, so I know how they feel.”

Bishop Hegarty spent part of the day at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby. But not far from his mind were the immigrants he’d met in Boston. “They’re hurting very badly there,” he said. “I met many people who were bereaved and unable to go home and they were just devastated.”

He used the message of the Gospel to urge those in attendance to put pressure on the political powers-that-be to pass comprehensive immigration reform bills that would create legal pathways for the undocumented to become citizens. In Matthew 25:31-45, Jesus promised that those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited those in prison will sit to the right of him in heaven “because whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

“The attitude that ‘as long as I’m allright, I don’t care about you, is not the Irish way,” he said in his homily. “We had nothing and we shared our nothingness with each other. You need to forge a community here that carries out the message that the interest of one is the interest of all. Reaching out to people is a gift and certainly will not go unrewarded.”

The Philadelphia Donegal Association and the Derry Society participated in the Mass and the reception that followed. Bishop Hegarty also renewed old acquaintances, including Mary McHugh of Lindenwold, NJ, who knew the bishop as a youngster in Kilcar, County Donegal, where he was born. “I was born and raised in Scotland, but my mother grew up in Kilcar and my father was from the next village, so I spent my summers there,” she said. “The bishop is actually related to me through my mother. When you grow up in these little towns and villages, you keep the connections.”

Bishop Hegarty was on his way to Washington, DC, to meet with US legislators about immigration issues and was clearly aware of the effect the visit of one Irish bishop would have. “I’m sure they’ll be very gracious and as soon as I’m gone they’ll forget all about it,” he said to laughter. “That’s why you need to pressurize them. . . You can do something. We are all responsible for one another’s welfare. Use your voice in a responsible and constructive way to try to improve the welfare of immigrants.”

Siobhan Lyons, executive director of the Philadelphia Irish Immigration Center, was Bishop Hegarty’s host for much of the day.

“We were delighted to welcome Bishop Hegarty to Philadelphia.,” she says. “The Irish Apostolate has been a strong supporter of the Irish diaspora and we deeply appreciate the work they do on behalf of the Irish community in the United States. I particularly welcome their efforts in the campaign for comprehensive immigration reform and wish the bishop the best of luck in Washington DC.

“But Bishop Hegarty is right when he says we can’t sit back and wait for other people to solve our problems,” Lyons says. “We must use our voices and our votes to advocate for the most vulnerable in our community, and that includes the undocumented. I hope everyone will listen to his message and make sure their representatives know that the Irish community supports comprehensive immigration reform. “

November 4, 2009 by Denise Foley

News

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Speaks on Church Reform

By Diane Dugan

On a cool October night when the Fightin’ Phils were facing down the Dodgers in the game that would clinch the National League title, members of Voice of the Faithful/Greater Philadelphia and interested members of the public gathered in the Church on the Mall in Plymouth Meeting to meet with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Democratic lieutenant governor of Maryland.

Since leaving office in 2003, Kennedy Townsend has served on a number of non-profit boards and currently is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy. Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), an international organization of 35,000 founded in 2002 in response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal, had invited Kennedy Townsend to discuss some of the issues in her 2007 book, “Failing America’s Faithful: How Today’s Churches Are Mixing God With Politics and Losing Their Way.”

The eldest daughter of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy and a lifelong active Catholic, Kennedy Townsend began writing her book about seven years ago because, as she says, she had seen the relationship between church and politics change. Religion has come to be associated with the political right-wing, and by focusing so much on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and stem-cell research—which are “important, but not the only issues”—the Catholic Church has risked appearing “too partisan.”

She feels that the election of Barack Obama has helped the Catholic Church, explaining that the Vatican actually likes a lot of his positions (e.g., global poverty, climate change), and that he’s enormously popular in areas of the world where the Church wants to succeed. (A case in point is Africa, whose Catholic bishops just delivered a scathing denunciation of corrupt regimes in Angola and Uganda.)

“Reading the tea leaves” in her journeys around the world, Kennedy Townsend says, she perceives a shift going on in the Vatican, its recent aggressive bid for traditional Anglicans being what she calls a “desperate gasp.”

Kennedy Townsend was raised to believe in the importance of giving back, her parents often quoting St. Luke’s “To whom much has been given, much is expected.” She told of being taken to the Senate Rackets Committee hearings as a child when her father was investigating the corrupt Teamsters’ union, and the physical threats to her and her siblings as a result of his work. And she shared one of my favorite “Bobby” anecdotes: RFK speaking to a crowd of African-Americans in Indianapolis on the night of Martin Luther King’s murder, about the pain of losing a beloved brother to a violent death, and the necessity of meeting violence not with more of the same, but “with love, and wisdom, and compassion.” While many American cities erupted in riots that night, there were none in Indianapolis. These and other experiences taught her two things, she says: that doing good often comes at great personal cost; and that our God must be one of compassion and love.

Kennedy Townsend spoke movingly of the critical importance of the Church throughout her life, not just in terms of spiritual consolation but also its long, admirable record in support of human rights and social justice. She acknowledged that “the Roman Catholic Church has had problems with me” because of her stands on various issues, denying her speaking engagements at Catholic schools in her home diocese of Baltimore. Professing herself a big supporter of VOTF and their work (their mission is “Keep the Faith; Change the Church”), she feels reform-minded Catholics need to focus on positives, citing current Church involvement in issues like health care, climate change and immigration.

Internally, however, there’s much work to be done. Kennedy Townsend made a comparison between the role of Poland’s Solidarity movement, which laid the groundwork for the eventual collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, and that of the laity. The laity have a responsibility, she says, to create alternatives, such as the election of bishops and economic transparency. There are many ways to make a difference.

Two of the biggest mistakes the Church has made in recent times, Kennedy Townsend thinks, were the encyclical Humanae Vitae (banning the use of artificial contraceptives) and the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Both events had the unintended effect of making many faithful Catholics rebel. She closed by urging her audience to “write to the Pope! He’s been listening to the right wing; get him used to hearing from the left.”

October 29, 2009 by Guest

People

Marching To a Different Drummer

Kevin Hughes, lower right, with fellow seminarians.

There was a time when it seemed like every Irish family sent a boy into the seminary. It was a point of pride within families and within the Irish-American community, which once sent more of its sons into the Catholic priesthood than any other nationality.

That was then. Now, people perhaps are more mystified than proud when a young man they know wants to take that momentous step. Why would anyone commit to such a life?

I’m thinking now of Kevin Hughes, my friend. I first came to know Kevin when he joined the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band. I was a drummer. Kevin was a student at LaSalle and a piper with lungs of steel and fingers that moved in a blur. No one could keep up with him.

When you belong to a competition pipe band, you get to know people pretty well. Competitions usually are not close, so you have to share long rides out to Long Island, Southern Maryland and the like, and back again. (It’s an even longer ride home if you’ve lost.)

That’s how I got to know Kevin. I can still remember him sacking out in the passenger seat of my car on our way back from a competition venue, maybe the Long Island Scottish Games at Old Westbury Gardens. He snored.

It’s been clear for years that Kevin was bound for the priesthood—the Jesuits in particular, thanks to four years of exposure at St. Joe’s Prep. A lot of us probably have a fixed idea of what a young man with his sights set on the priesthood is supposed to be like. You might picture the holy card poster boy, eyes permanently fixed on the heavens. You might not picture the husky dude with lungs of steel, sitting on the Irish Center bar stool next to you, trading wise cracks after band practice.

That’s our Kevin—bright, hugely talented, and, in my estimation, a pretty good match for an order known for intellectual rigor and spiritual integrity.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder, was a knight before he became a priest. Today, I’d like to think he might have been a piper.

We tracked Kevin down by e-mail at the Novitiate of St. Andrew Hall in Syracuse, N.Y. Here’s what he had to say.

Q. How old are you? What was your degree at LaSalle?

A. I am 23 years old and my degree from La Salle University is in biology, Bachelors of Arts. I am the third youngest man in the novitiate.

Q. I want to go back to a question I asked you before: Why? Why the priesthood? Why the Jesuits?

A. Why does anyone fall in love? You just know, it’s like being called to something. That is how I feel, like I am being called by God to something larger than myself. I feel like the Jesuit charism is compatible with my own desires to serve the people of God, specifically to see God in all things and to be a man for others.

Q. I’ll also note that no one asks incredulous-sounding questions when someone says they’re going to med school or law school. I wonder what goes through your head when someone asks that question, as if you’ve just announced that you’re planning to be the first astronaut to walk on the surface of Mercury or you’re hoping to open a chain of cat-waxing facilities.

A. I certainly realize that a lot fewer people, especially young people, are desiring to enter religious life, so I don’t mind at all when people ask me what I am thinking. In fact, I welcome the questions because it gives me a chance to tell people that someone can be happy with a life devoted to the love and service of God and His people.

Another thing I tell people, when they ask about why I have to take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, is that I don’t have to take them, I don’t have to be a member of a religious order, no one is forcing me: I could go to med or grad school, but I am choosing to take these vows and to live a life in a religious order to study for the priesthood.

Q. Tell us a bit about your everyday life. How has the reality of the novitiate compared to your expectations?

A. Well, getting up at 5:30 a.m. has taken some getting used to, as well as going to bed around 9:30 p.m.

My day begins with an hour of private prayer, followed by communal Morning Prayer, and then some classes about church and Jesuit history, then about the Gospel. We have Mass every day and communal dinner and night prayer.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work at an Apostolate volunteer job from 8:30 to 2:30. I work in Cathedral Emergency Services, a local Syracuse food pantry. IT IS GREAT, I love it. The other novices there are really good guys and they are easy to get along with.

Q. What’s the career path beyond the novitiate? How long before you’re ordained? Tell me again what you hope to do as a Jesuit?

A. The career path beyond the novitiate is still unknown. God willing, after taking vows we are sent to first studies. This can be one of four places: Toronto, St. Louis, Chicago or Manhattan. We really don’t know where we will be sent until right before we go; they like to keep us in suspense.

Again, God willing, I will be ordained after the 11-year program—two years novitiate, three years first studies, three years Regency, three years theology studies.

As a Jesuit I don’t really want to limit myself to any “career” within the Society, but at some point I would certainly like to do some teaching.

Q. Do you think you’ll get the chance to play pipes any time soon? Or is your schedule and your training just that demanding?

A. I do still have a chance to play the pipes, however not nearly as much time as I had before joining. My playing is limited to practicing and occasionally playing the pipes for the guys.

I had the opportunity to go to McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, N.Y., and played my pipes there, while the superior of the Jesuit community did some Irish step dancing. He’s very good, he used to teach Irish Step.

December 16, 2008 by Jeff Meade

News

Prayerfully Celebrating the Irish Center’s 50th

Sr. James Anne does a reading.

Father Joseph McLoone looked around the Philadelphia Irish Center’s Barry Room. Noting that the place was packed to the rafters for the Irish Center’s Lady of Knock Mass, he quipped: “Every pastor whose parish you belong to is probably mad at me today.”

The Knock Mass, commemorating the appearance of the Blessed Mother in a little town in County Mayo in August 1879, seemed an appropriate way to kick off an afternoon and evening of festivities in honor of the Irish Center’s 50th anniversary.

In his homily, Father McLoone touched on a theme near and dear to practically every heart in the room. Taking his cue from the Gospel reading—the story of the Canaanite woman, an outsider who persisted in her belief in Jesus even as he appeared to rebuff her—Father McLoone noted that, in American society, we mostly hail from immigrant stick and are, therefore, all outsiders.

“We are all foreigners in this country,” he said. “All of us, in one sense, are not native to this country. We should see no distinction in who comes early or who comes late.”

We took a few photos of the service.

August 22, 2008 by Jeff Meade

News

Memorial Mass Honors St. Pat’s Parade Chaplain

New parade chaplains, from left, Father Kevin Gallagher, Bishop Joseph McFadden, and Father Chris Walsh.

The late Father Kevin Trautner, for 30 years the chaplain of Philadelphia’s St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association, was remembered at a memorial mass on Sunday, October 14, as a dedicated priest whose “smile was infectious and whose eyes would light up” when he talked to people, said Bishop Joseph McFadden.

“The last weekend I saw him he was so full of joy. He lived for the mass on St. Patrick’s Day,” said the bishop, who officiated at the special mass held in the ballroom at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy. Instead, in the ultimate irony, Father Trautner, 57, and pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Norristown, was laid to rest on St. Patrick’s day last year. He died of a massive heart attack while jogging in Valley Forge Park just days after marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

“We will miss his joy and happiness,” Bishop McFadden told the more than 60 people who gathered at the memorial service. “But we know that he is truly with us here today.”

And if he was, said parade director Michael Bradley, he was surely thrilled to see that he was replaced by not one chaplain, but three, including Bishop McFadden, who was named emeritus chaplain of the organization that runs what is the second oldest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country, now more than 235 years old. “He would have loved the idea that he could only be replaced by two priests and a bishop,” Bradley joked with fondness.

Father Chris Walsh, chaplain and church history teacher at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, will be sharing parade chaplain duties with Father Kevin Gallagher, parochial vicar at St. Denis Church in Havertown. “Having two of us will make life easier for both of us,” said Father Walsh, who participated in the memorial mass along with Father Gallagher. “One of us will always be there for meetings.”

Philadelphia’s 2008 St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held on Sunday, March 8.

October 17, 2007 by Denise Foley

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