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Irish Examiner
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Kneecap join O'Connor in hall of fame for calling out injustices
If you didn't know who they were before, you almost certainly know about Kneecap now. The panic, the wringing of the hands, the headlines, and now a terror charge — all coming off a performance at Coachella and a video from gigs almost a year ago. Their performance at one of the largest US festivals made headlines after clips went viral of their members — Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Próvaí — calling out the Israeli genocide of Gaza. Among other things, they were filmed asking the festival attendees: 'If you're not calling it a genocide, what the fuck are you calling it?' In a previous Instagram statement, the band have alleged they had 'faced a co-ordinated smear campaign'. They said that their shows have previously 'called out' the conflict in Gaza. 'Let us be absolutely clear: The reason Kneecap is being targeted is simple — we are telling the truth, and our audience is growing,' they said. 'Those attacking us want to silence criticism of a mass slaughter. They weaponise false accusations of antisemitism to distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide.' Israel has long been sly about how and when they decide to attack I wrote in these pages before about how they carried an extensive bombardment of Rafah, killing an estimated 100 civilians — including children — in what became known as the 'Rafah massacre', while most Americans were distracted by the bright lights of the Super Bowel. Sinéad O'Connor knew all about smear campaigns and distractions. When she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II during an appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL), one of the biggest shows in American TV history, she knew there would be anger. There were 4,400 complaints to NBC overnight. The then archbishop of Boston, Bernard Francis Law, said it was a 'gesture of hate'. Within one week, you had Joe Pesci threatening her by saying he would have 'grabbed her by the eyebrows' and 'given her such a smack' while hosting SNL. Sinead O'Connor rips up a photo of Pope John Paul II on 'SNL' in 1992. Then you had the always-virtuous and right-about-everything Madonna mocking her fellow singer weeks later. She would be booed off stage two weeks after that at a Bob Dylan tribute show in Madison Square Garden, and her overall lack of success in the American market can be somewhat pinpointed down to the SNL incident. It would take just over a decade for O'Connor to be fully vindicated. Ferns, Murphy, Cloyne, Tuam, Limerick, Ossory, Ryan. All places and names that come straight to the tip of your tongue when talking about clerical abuse in Ireland. The haunting cries of the late mayor of Clonmel, Michael O'Brien, on Questions and Answers have been seared into my memory since I first watched it live in 2009. That's before you even take a global look at clerical abuse. As an example, Mr 'gesture of hate' Bernard Francis Law resigned in 2002 for his role in covering up abuse in Boston. Anyone who knew anything about Sinead O'Connor wouldn't have seen the picture-ripping as a surprise. Months prior, she had threatened to chain herself to the gates surrounding the Dáil over the infamous X Case. So why is there such shock and anger around Kneecap's actions? They are literally named after a Troubles-era paramilitary tactic of targeting knees in so-called punishment attacks. DJ Próvaí wears a tricoloured balaclava. They have consistently began every single performance in the last three years highlighting the oppression of the Palestinian people and the actions of Israel, including at Electric Picnic last year. Anyone who has listened to their music, watched any interview, or has seen their excellent self-titled film will be fully aware that they use hyperbole and humour while performing. Festivals Now, there are calls to take them away from major festivals after their shouting of 'up Hamas and up Hezbollah' at a performance in London in 2023. There's even a charge of terror against Mo Chara over the alleged waving of a Hezbollah flag during a gig in the same city last November. My fellow Irish Examiner writer Suzanne Harrington was at that performance in 2023, and she outright rejected the assertion that the group are 'pro-violence' as a result. Another reason there is such uproar in the House of Commons and Britian in general is down to Kneecap having previously taken on the powers that be — and winning. Even more specifically, they took the Conservative government to court last summer after the then business secretary and current party leader, Kemi Badenoch, blocked an arts grant of £14,250 being awarded to the band. She had claimed that the government did not want to give taxpayers' money to 'people that oppose the United Kingdom itself'. In a Belfast court in November, that move was found to be 'unlawful and procedurally unfair'. What did big evil Kneecap do with the funds? Donated it between two organisations in Belfast that work with both Catholic and Protestant communities. The band stated: 'They have tried to silence us and they have failed.' Sharon Osborne, herself a vocal supporter of Israel, has called for their US visas to be revoked after they performed at Coachella. However, 'making it big' in America isn't quite as important as it was in 1992 for modern musicians. If there's one thing that younger generations love, it's being told who they can and can't listen to by stuffy politicians and washed-up X-Factor judges. Besides, Kneecap won't care one bit if they don't make it stateside given that they have correctly been highlighting the US government's complicity in the murder of thousands of children in Gaza Móglaí Bap said as much in the group's appearance on RTÉ's Unchartered earlier this month. What was everyone talking about in the immediate aftermath of that infamous SNL show? Sinéad ripping the photo. What weren't they talking about? The global clerical abuse in the Catholic Church. What is everyone talking about now? Are people talking about how there hasn't been aid allowed into Gaza for three months? That Palestinian children are running after empty water tanks that are being driven away because they are so desperate for something to drink? That we are watching a genocide on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and everywhere else as Israel drops 100,000 tonnes of explosives on an area? Are they talking about how, hours before the Met police confirmed the terror charge, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) shot at diplomats (including two from Ireland) visiting the Jenin refugee camp to observe the humanitarian situation? No. They're talking about a clip featuring three lads from Belfast some 18 months ago. It took just over two decades, until her sad death in July 2023, for many to acknowledge that Sinéad O'Connor was on the right side of history when ripping up the picture of the pope. Is is really going to take two decades for the same to be acknowledged for Kneecap when it comes to Gaza? Read More Colin Sheridan: We quibble over words as children burn in Gaza
Mail & Guardian
17-05-2025
- Health
- Mail & Guardian
Will the new pope continue support for ethical organ donation?
South Africa's Catholics should to know that the church approves of organ donations Low organ donor rates are a global concern. In South Africa, only 0.2% to 0.3% of the population are registered donors who have committed to donating organs at death or on being declared medically brain dead. More than 5 000 people in the country are on the waiting list for organs, many for kidneys, but others for livers, lungs and hearts, as well as skin tissue, corneas and other body parts. With the ushering in of a new pope, there is concern among Catholics as to whether he will uphold Pope Francis's support for ethical organ donation as an act of mercy. Francis was known for being liberal but each successive pope has their own set of norms. For my PhD, for which I graduated in April, I researched the concepts and practices of organ donation in the Catholic Church. In Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, I interviewed a diverse range of practising Catholics from five churches to investigate the socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-demographic factors that could affect conceptions of, and practices of, organ donation to understand if these factors, in addition to their Catholic beliefs, would affect their willingness to become a donor. As a medical anthropologist with an interest in public health, and as a Catholic, I established that organ donation has been approved by the Roman Catholic Church since John Paul II who was pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. He said it was a gift of human love but he made it clear that there should be no payment for organs and, if it is a live donation, it cannot bring harm to the person donating the organ and neither can there be harm to the recipient. Donation is the only option to save someone's life if they are suffering from end-stage organ failure. The high level of non-communicable diseases in South Africa, such as hypertension and diabetes, often leads to heart disease and failure, and kidney or multiple organ failure, respectively. The low transplant rates in our country necessitated investigating how knowledge, values and beliefs influence organ donation acceptance or rejection in the Catholic community in South Africa, which comprises approximately 3.8 million people from a wide range of cultures. My research was also motivated by my personal experience. In 2014, at the age of 19, I had the first of several episodes of chronic kidney stones. It put me in hospital every six months and the situation was distressing but, fortunately, the chronic medication I was put on worked. During this time, I started questioning my beliefs and values in relation to organ donation and, if it came to it, whether it would be permissible for me, as a Catholic, to receive an organ. I was relieved to know the pope had given his blessing for this, while not mandating organ donation as a must. Despite the church having approved organ donation — and it being something for which Pope Francis issued encyclicals (papal letters) — my research showed that this is not widely known and donation remains something of a taboo subject. If we look at the Bible, it speaks about the body being a temple and says that we are created in the image of God, so there is a lot of sacredness about the body. Some of the people I interviewed felt that organ donation is too invasive and ruins the image of holiness. One Catholic interviewee, who was from a 'traditional' African background, said that he could not be a donor because, in his traditional belief system, the body must be whole for the spirit to transition to the ancestral plane. In this instance, the traditional belief system took precedence. Other interviewees from African, and other 'traditional' and 'Western' backgrounds, said that, because of the Catholic Church's approval of organ donation, they supported it. Some said they would be prepared to be donors on death; others said they would also be prepared to be live donors, particularly if a family member needed this. Several of the interviewees questioned the definition of 'brain death'. The official definition is that two medical doctors have to declare a person brain dead, in other words, that there is absolutely no brain activity and the only reason the body looks alive is because the patient is on a ventilator. However, because of the belief in miracles, several interviewees said they were against the brain dead declaration, and questioned whether this really is death. A few of the interviewees also voiced their concern about organ trafficking, which has become a commercial enterprise in Africa and globally, as highlighted in Mariana van Zeller's documentary Trafficked . Ultimately, as my research established, across the socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-demographic spectrum, people's religious, traditional and personal beliefs can influence whether they support organ donation. However, it is very important for Catholics to know that the church supports it, should they be considering it. As a Catholic, I support organ donation but I want to see if the new pope supports it too, as the rites of a Catholic burial are very important to us. For those who would like to find out more about organ donation, South Africa has the Organ Donation Foundation, and becoming a donor is a simple process. You need to be 18 and above and in good health and, usually, below 65. The law also specifies that you have to get familial consent — in writing is best. I am now pursuing postdoctoral research on organ donation and will be including interviews with medical doctors in the public and private sector who deal with organ transplants and a diverse range of people across the belief and non-belief spectrum. Contact the Organ Donor Foundation on 0800 22 66 11 or at Dr Terry Adams is a medical anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Nelson Mandela University.
New York Post
13-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Pope Leo XIV can minister to world desperate for spiritual healing
Following the death of Pope Francis, the conclave of cardinals that gathered at the Vatican wasted little time choosing a new pope: Robert Prevost, 69, astoundingly a Chicago-born American, who assumed the name of Leo XIV. As often happens with the Catholic Church, magnificent ritual and the weight of tradition has obscured the importance of the occasion. A new pope isn't just the chief executive of a little country or the supreme pontiff of a big denomination. Advertisement He personifies a fresh take on ancient values that will be transmitted to the faithful in every corner of the earth. Because we live in a political age, a great deal of interest will be focused on Pope Leo's political orientation. Will he be another trendy semi-progressive, like Francis, or has the church tacked in the opposite direction? Advertisement Before his election, some had called for the second coming of John Paul II, the bold conservative whose convictions challenged the power of dictatorial regimes. Power of personality I am not a Catholic, nor particularly religious — but if an outsider may be allowed an opinion, I would say that the world doesn't need a political pope. We have more than enough political nonsense, at the moment, buzzing inside our heads. We are sick unto death with politics. Advertisement We desperately need a man of the spirit. Historically, popes have been churchmen rather than God-men. In 476 AD, Pope Leo I faced the frightful and barbaric Attila the Hun and somehow persuaded him to turn away from Rome. Six hundred years later, Pope Gregory VII forced the brilliant monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry IV, to walk barefoot in the snow for miles before granting him forgiveness at Canossa, Italy. Advertisement Nine hundred years later, John Paul II traveled to Poland and sparked the fire that was to consume European communism to its foundations. These were mighty personalities who believed that the church, as an institution, embodied the teachings of Christ and had to be protected against the usurpations and corruptions of secular power. Pope Celestine V, on the other hand, was a saintly man who persuaded himself that the papacy would damn his soul and resigned in 1294, less than six months after assuming the office. We encounter Celestine in Dante's 'Inferno,' tormented by wasps and hornets, among those whose lives were so worthless that they aren't even allowed inside the gates of hell. What can I say? Times have changed. Changing institutions The value and purpose of institutions have changed. Advertisement They are no longer conduits of top-down information or thrones for the ample posteriors of high authority, but a receptacle for the remnants of community. Institutions are where we gather in a time of dispersion. Like every institution in our century, the Catholic Church has been battered and diminished by changes in the surrounding society. In the United States, Mass attendance has declined sharply. Advertisement The vultures of the news media are interested in church activities only when they can discover a scandal. The church's traditional role as interpreter and intermediary has been made redundant by immediate, searchable communications. Members of the congregation who wish to learn Pope Leo's views won't need the parish priest to explain them. They'll just look him up on YouTube and make up their own minds. Advertisement The new pope will speak from a digital pulpit in an immense basilica filled with the entire human race. That's why the spirituality of his words and character are of such tremendous importance. What we tend to call our 'culture' is sick at heart. Our way of life has been thoroughly disenchanted — divorced from the mysterious and the sacred. Advertisement We are quite literally obese with material consumption but starved for meaning. A peculiar trait of humans as symbolic animals is that we wish to live above ourselves. We demand explanations and justifications of the universe, connected to something better and higher than we are. When the universe is disenchanted and our demands are met with silence, we feel cosmically disinherited. We belong to nothing. We have no idea of who or what we are. The current obsession with identity can take root only among people with no identity, who experience life as a doomed struggle against disintegration. Cosmic disorientation Our great-grandparents — primitive creatures — never gave a thought to their identities. Adrift in a great void, unplugged from the spirit of things, we suffer deaths of despair — suicide, overdose, murderous violence. The young stop reproducing because the end is always near. The only article of faith depressive Zoomers have retained from Christianity is an unshakeable belief in a Last Judgment. What of our secular values — justice, equality and so on? Can't we forge a framework of existential meaning around these ideals? We can, but only if these connect to something higher than human law. Our rights and freedoms, let's recall, depend on 'the laws of Nature and Nature's God,' according to the Declaration of Independence. The secular values we espouse today descend directly from Christian virtues. If the original is obliterated, we are back to that feeling of cosmic disorientation. We are lost in space. Why should I respect anyone's freedom but my own? Why should great power be accompanied by great responsibility? The answers to such questions arise spontaneously from long-standing habits and traditions, and can't be deduced from a utilitarian calculus. There are some who would point to science as an irrefutable source of meaning. More than once, I've heard clever individuals say, 'I believe in science.' In a general sense, of course, we all believe in science. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters But science portrays organic evolution as a struggle among selfish genes to replicate themselves. If this is true, the perfect human life would be the imitation, not of Christ, but of Genghis Khan. Finally, techno-utopians imagine they can sidestep the whole problem of meaning by achieving the Singularity. Rather than seek after God, they will acquire the necessary technological enhancements to become God. In our feeble spiritual state, however, we are more likely to become slaves than masters to new technology. Look at what transpired with the smartphone. The singularity, among our kind, will rather resemble that 'Star Trek' episode in which a supercomputer ruled a planet and was worshipped as a divine being. Technology has built a brave new world but the human condition is old. We feel there's more to life than living, but we've forgotten the language to attain it. Meaningful legacy We are orphans in the storm, hoping for rescue. The last thing we need is for spirituality to be updated, modernized, 'made relevant' to our alienated souls. Since modernity has made us poor in spirit, it's hardly likely to be the cure. Insisting that profound and inexplicable mysteries be made relevant to our transient fashions is a particularly shallow form of narcissism. All we can change is ourselves. All we can hope is to awaken from the dead-end despair of materialism to the possibility of connection with ineffable things. But we need guides on this journey. The popes hark back in a line to Saint Peter, a Galilean fisherman who was told by Jesus to be a fisher of men. We need the new pope to be less about the institution of the church and more about spiritual leadership — to be a fisher of souls. So let's get the formalities out of the way. Let's congratulate Robert Prevost, Chicago's own, on his becoming Pope Leo XIV — though congratulations may not really be in order given the heavy burden that has been placed on his shoulders. Let's feel proud, for strictly tribal reasons, that an American has been chosen to head the oldest hierarchy on the planet — one that commands no divisions, as Stalin once observed, but endures on the faith of millions even in this unbelieving age. And let's hope Pope Leo will excel not in power but in spirit — that he will assist us in the long sojourn out the valley of the shadow toward higher ground, where we will see, at last, in the clear light of day, that every moment of life is infused with significance.
CBS News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
CBS Chicago Vault: Pope John Paul II enthralls Chicagoans in 1979 visit
Before last week, the highlight of recent Chicago history involving a pope dated back more than 45 years. Pope John Paul II visited Chicago in October 1979, about a year after he was elected. The Archdiocese of Chicago called John Paul II's visit "an extraordinary event which saw an outpouring of devotion and excitement throughout the city" — and not just for Roman Catholics. As the Chicago Archdiocese notes, Pope John Paul II was not the first pope to visit the United States — Pope Paul VI visited in 1965, but only went to New York City. John Paul II had been to Chicago before too, having visited Chicago's Polish neighborhoods as Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła in 1969 and 1976. But no pope had visited Chicago while in office before. Pope John Paul II arrived in the U.S. on Monday, Oct. 1, 1979 — touching down in Boston, and stopping in New York, Philadelphia, and Des Moines before arriving in Chicago on Thursday, Oct. 4. CBS Chicago was there for it all, with live Channel 2 News team coverage that is preserved in our video library. Despite cold temperatures in Chicago that day, a crowd of people gathered at O'Hare International Airport to await the pope's arrival. A crowd as many as six people deep also assembled along Milwaukee Avenue at Raven Street in the heavily Polish Norwood Park East neighborhood ahead of the arrival of the first Polish pope's motorcade. "The holiness aspect of it is being felt by this crowd," Channel 2 reporter Bob Wallace said as he reported live at the scene. "A lot of people—there's a lot of pride about being Polish, a lot of pride about being Catholic here." John Paul II was received by Gov. Jim Thompson and Mayor Jane Byrne when he did indeed arrive at O'Hare. The crowd assembled on Milwaukee Avenue was as thrilled as expected when the pope's motorcade passed. John Paul II went on to Holy Name Cathedral for a prayer service. Luciano Pavarotti sang "Ave Maria" for the occasion, which Channel 2 carried live. The pope then had dinner at the Cardinal's Residence, at 1555 N. State Pkwy. in the Gold Coast, and made a stop to address more than 1,000 Catholic religious brothers at St. Peter's Church at 110 W. Madison St. downtown, the Archdiocese recalled. The following day, Pope John Paul II visited Providence of God Church, a predominantly Mexican parish at 717 W. 18th St. in the Pilsen neighborhood, where the Archdiocese notes the crowd cheered as he spoke to them in Spanish. The pope went on to Five Holy Martyrs Church, at 4327 S. Richmond St. in the then-predominantly Polish Brighton Park neighborhood, toured predominantly Black Chicago parishes on the city's South Side, and visited Quigley Preparatory Seminary South at 7740 S. Western Ave.—the present-day site of St. Rita of Cascia High School. The culmination of the pope's visit was a 3 p.m. open-air mass at the Petrillo Band Shell at Grant Park. The pope was running half an hour late, and by the time he arrived, more than 1 million people had amassed. He took the opportunity to celebrate the diversity of Chicago and the unity that developed as people came together: "And so, looking at you, I see people who have thrown their destinies together and now write a common history. Different as you are, you have come to accept each other, at times imperfectly and even to the point of subjecting each other to various forms of discrimination: at times only after a long period of misunderstanding and rejection; even now still growing in understanding and appreciation of each other's differences. In expressing gratitude for the many blessings you have received, you also become aware of the duty you have towards the less favored in your own midst and in the rest of the world—a duty of sharing, of loving, of serving. As a people, you recognize God as the source of your many blessings, and you are open to his love and his law." John Paul II also gave Communion to 150 people chosen from the six Vicarates of the Chicago Archdiocese, while more than 600 priests and deacons administered the Eucharist to the full crowd. Pope John Paul II gives mass in Grant Park on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 1979. Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis via Getty Images The Archdiocese noted that the altar used for the Grant Park mass was built specially at a cost of more than $200,000. John Paul II returned to Holy Name Cathedral afterward and attended a concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Solti, the Archdiocese recalled. He then took off and left Chicago for Washington, D.C., before heading back to Rome. Pope John Paul II remained in office until his death in 2005. He made more visits to the U.S., but did not make another trip to Chicago after that 1979 visit. Pope Benedict XVI made one visit to the U.S. in 2008. Pope Francis visited the U.S. in 2015 — stopping in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, and drawing a massive crowd that assembled hours ahead of time just to see the popemobile pass by in New York's Central Park. But neither pope visited Chicago on those trips. But in a surprise to many on Thursday, May 8, 2025, Chicago native Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV. Pope Leo was born in Chicago, grew up in south suburban Dolton, and attended the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago in city's Hyde Park neighborhood. He also taught at Mendel Catholic High School on Chicago's Roseland neighborhood and Tolentine College in south suburban Olympia Fields. The new pope, of course, has yet to visit Chicago as pope. But many are excited at the prospect that he will.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Secret Conclave Exposé Reveals Who Almost Beat Leo
The papal conclave was moving toward crowning someone else Pope—until a turn of support vaulted Leo XIV to the top, a dramatic behind-the-scenes report has revealed. Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, claimed over 40 votes from the 133 cardinals in the first round of voting after the conclave began on Wednesday, according to an exposé on the process in The Wall Street Journal. His support was bolstered by Italian cardinals, who made up the largest voting bloc of any country, with 17 electors. Many Italian cardinals reportedly felt that it was once again time for a Pope from Italy. Italian popes held the papacy for 455 consecutive years until the election of Polish Pope John Paul II started a trend of three consecutive foreign pontiffs. On the first day of the conclave, betting markets around the world listed Parolin as the favorite, with Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, a Filipino cardinal known as the 'Asian Francis' because of his similar commitments to social justice, coming in second. But by Thursday morning, Robert Prevost, a Chicago-born cardinal, began to gain momentum, while Parolin's vote count stagnated in the high 40s. To secure the papacy, a candidate would need to win a two-thirds majority—at least 89 of the 133 votes cast by the cardinal electors. Parolin, who spent nearly his entire career in the Vatican's diplomatic service before becoming Pope Francis' second-in-command, lacked the hands-on pastoral experience that many cardinals sought, according to the Journal's report. Some of Parolin's detractors reportedly worked to undermine his candidacy by scattering their votes among multiple contenders. By the time the cardinals took a break from deliberating in the Sistine Chapel, it was clear that Prevost—who'd spent two decades as a missionary in Peru—was the new favorite. 'At lunch, things were getting clarified,' American Cardinal Blase Cupich told the Journal. In Thursday afternoon's vote, Prevost garnered over 100 votes—more than enough to become Pope. Ironically, it fell upon Parolin, the highest-ranking cardinal in the room, to ask Prevost: 'Do you accept your canonical election as the supreme pontiff?' 'I accept,' Prevost said. He took the name Leo XIV. Prevost had odds of less than 1 percent on the online betting site Kalshi, so some of those who placed longshot bets on Prevost becoming pope saw massive payouts. One bettor who took the gamble turned a $526 wager into $52,641. Yet, as surprising as Prevost's rise may have seemed to outsiders, a sizable faction of cardinals reportedly saw him from the outset as the ideal choice to uphold Francis' vision of an inclusive church while shifting focus back to traditional doctrine. He was also seen as capable of tackling the Vatican's financial challenges. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, told the Journal that a cardinal asked him, 'Do you know this 'Roberto?'' as Prevost's name began circulating in pre-conclave conversations.
