Unsurprisingly, quite a few Lent related items featured in the media last week.
The News in Depth (EWTN, Friday) covered Pope Leo’s Lenten Message, with its striking call for a worthy type of abstinence – refraining “from words that offend and hurt.” He called for a “disarming” of language, “avoiding harsh words and rash judgement.” Certain high-ranking politicians and many low ranking keyboard warriors should take note! Fr Rob Hagen, a friend of the Pope and a fellow Augustinian, called this a “wonderful invitation” and thought the old “sticks and stones” saying was untrue – “words hurt, words matter, words divide”. He thought there would be plenty of Augustinian themes highlighted during this, the Holy Father’s first Lent as Pope. There was talk of us all being peacemakers, of building bridges with people who vote different, who look different, and a recommitment to prayer, to contemplation combined with action, and the “gift of true conversion of heart”.
I also caught a part of The View (ABC, Wednesday), a US talk show that featured two Catholic actors Mark Wahlberg (Father Stu) and Jonathan Roumie (Jesus in The Chosen) – with the cross of ashes on their foreheads. They spoke of the Hallow App on which both of them are prominent contributors. Another past contributor to Hallow is actress Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Middle) who is not afraid to wear her Catholic faith on her sleeve. Actually, she also wore it on her forehead for Ash Wednesday, in an online promo for an upcoming interview on Catholics and Cappuccino (EWTN+, YouTube), a new show hosted by another Catholic actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan. The interview with Patricia Heaton was really interesting, though I thought the host did too much of the talking in the early stages – I suppose it’s her bubbly personality. Heaton spoke of her family’s faith, how she drifted especially after the breakup of an early marriage (since annulled) – after the divorce she attended a Presbyterian church and became involved in charity work in Mexico, as she was torn between that work and her acting career, which wasn’t going well at that stage. She left it to God and ended up doing both, which she saw as a gift.
She credited an Opus Dei priest with bringing her back to the Catholic Church, and another Opus Dei priest with bringing her back to the sacraments. She described a “world so crazy now” where “you’re meant to believe … stuff that isn’t true”, like in the old Soviet Union. Both actresses agreed that there were issues about what scripts Catholic actors felt they had to turn down but that it was easier now to identify as Catholic than at the start of their careers, that it was even regarded as “cool”.
That’s hardly true in Ireland yet. On the Tonight Show (Virgin Media 1, Wednesday) political commentator Fionnán Sheahan of the Irish Independent also sported the ashes and wrote later in that paper about the stick he got online as a result. As the poet once said, “The prophets of tolerance can’t tolerate opposition to their point of view”. Of course, certain online platforms specialise in stick and so the reaction wasn’t that surprising. I’d suspect the Pope’s Lenten exhortation about hurtful words was motivated largely by online abuse of people. Sheahan wrote that he wore the ashes in memory of his late father, for whom it was an important ritual, and described himself as Catholic, but lapsed.
Rock group U2 also had ashes on their minds if not on their foreheads (maybe they did for all I know). They surprised the fans by launching a new EP, ‘Days of Ash’ on Ash Wednesday. The song that garnered most attention was ‘American Obituary’, a hard-hitting, justice-thirsting tribute to Renée Goode, shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis. One commentator on radio that day described the song as “brave”. I’m not convinced. Fear of a US tour ban? Brave would have been releasing a song against the violence of abortion.
More traditional Lenten music featured on Songs of Praise (BBC One, Sunday). I liked ‘Forty Days and Forty Nights’ and St John Henry Newman’s ‘Lead Kindly Light’. Aled Jones sang a beautiful rendition of ‘I Need Thee Every Hour’ and a contemporary gospel group impressed and inspired with ‘As the Deer Panteth for the Water’.
We could employ such music to assist and accompany us on our Lenten journey.
PICKOFTHEWEEK
THE CONVERSATION EWTN, Wednesday, March 4, 10.30am Sinéad Strong, founder of Catholic Mothers Ireland, shares the organisation’s mission to support women as they gain a deeper understanding of the Faith and draw closer to Jesus.
FILM: A HIDDEN LIFE Film 4, Wednesday, March 4, 11.40pm (2019) Epic, critically acclaimed World War II drama, written and directed by Terrence Malick, set in rural Austria and following the life story of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector.
DIVINE SPARKS RTE Radio 1, Friday, March 6, 10.05pm Topical religious and ethical topics with Áine Lawlor.
