Dear Friends and Benefactors,
I am
late in sending you the letter of May, not because of neglect but as
a result of one of those incomprehensible strikes of the An Post
(the Irish postal services), which has delayed the delivery of the
mail. I did not want mine to end perpetually in some leprechaun's
lair, but to reach safely its destination; hence the postponement of
my otherwise regular monthly mailing.
Our
readers abroad, mainly in the United States and in Australia, ask me
to continue with my practice of including in every letter a
reference to Irish culture or news, and I am happy to comply. Many
trace their lineage to our Emerald Island and they enjoy hearing
from Traditional Catholics back home. One of our Irish readers in
Melbourne, a charming (and –when she decides it- formidable) 87
year-old great-grandmother, still prays her daily rosary in Gaelic,
as her excellent parents taught her to do, but she has never been
able to find the written words; she wants me to copy them for her
sake. What could be more appropriate at the end of May than to
remind us all of the Angelic Salutation in Irish?
Here they are, the euphonic and mysterious words, like an ancient
sacred melody from the old dear Country:
Sé do bheatha, a Mhuire, atá lán de
ghrásta, tá an Tiarna leat; is beannaithe thú idir mná agus is
beannaithe toradh do bhroinne, Íosa. A Naomh Mhuire, a mháthair Dé,
guigh orainn, na peacaigh, anois agus ar uair ár mbáis. Amen.
My choir master in
Dún Laoghaire, a
scholarly and staunch promoter of the Irish language, will find the
way to argue convincingly that these are the original words used by
the Archangel St. Gabriel!
I read recently an
essay on semantics and religion written by a professor at Cape Town
University. He begins his dissertation by stating: An Irish
friend of mine, not a religious man, was visiting
Cape Town and he commented: "There's
not a soul on the beach." It was the first time I heard any such
expression in English, but then he came from a Catholic culture...
Indeed, the Irish language and therefore
its nourishing psyche are imbued with Catholic meaning. Its
terminology and idioms are an infallible indication that Irish
expresses a religious view of the world. If this "Catholic encoding"
is still applicable to a certain extent in Roman languages such as
Spanish, Italian, and my native Catalan, what makes Irish
exceptional is that it retains the pristine spirituality of its
origins, protected by the isolation and the persecutions, which
impeded mixing with and borrowing from other languages. This
semiotic quality by which language expresses a complete vision of
civilization, a holistic way of life including every facet of human
activity, was quickly understood by the Protestant invaders, who
tried to eradicate Gaelic with the same fury with which they
persecuted the Faith in
Ireland.
The story of Ireland's colonial
period is a long and harrowing one. For eons, the Irish have battled
everyone from the Vikings to the Normans, and finally the British.
Every one of these groups tried to "tame the Irish". The efforts
were strenuous to lackadaisical, depending on the amount of
frustration. But the worse invasion was the one which tried to
dismantle at any cost the Catholic identity of Ireland.
The first official
restriction of the Irish language came in 1366 in the statutes of
Kilkenny,
from which I copy the particularly vicious section III:
"Also, it is ordained
and established, that every Englishman do use the English language,
and be named by an English name, leaving off entirely the manner of
naming used by the Irish; and that every Englishman use the English
custom, fashion, mode of riding and apparel, according to his
estate; and if any English, or Irish living amongst the English, use
the Irish language amongst themselves, contrary to the ordinance,
and thereof be attainted, his lands and tenements, if he have any,
shall be seized into the hands of his immediate lord, until he shall
come to one of the places of our lord the king, and find sufficient
surety to adopt and use the English language, and then he shall have
restitution of his said lands or tenements, his body shall be taken
by any of the officers of our lord the king, and committed to the
next gaol,
there to remain until he, or some other in his name, shall find
sufficient surety in the manner aforesaid."
Hard to believe, isn't
it? The invaders did not want any problems of rebellion from the
Irish. Therefore, if their national identity were stripped away by
forbidding their language, it would be easy to crush their Catholic
character, integrating them in the Lutheran orbit. This treatment
would last on and off for the entire time of Protestant control in
Ireland.
Such an intimate
association of the Gaelic culture with the Catholic religion
constitues one of the most fascinating aspects of this historical
and theological conflict, hence my interest in these apparently
scholastic issues.
Our patron, St. Pius X,
inaugurated his pontificate with the Encyclical Letter E Supremi
Apostolatus, October 4, 1903, unveiling the leading motto for
his plan of
action: We
proclaim that We have no other
programme
in the Supreme
Pontificate but that "of restoring all things in Christ"
(Ephesians I, 10), so that "Christ may be all and in all"
(Colossians III, 2).
And Archbishop Lefebvre echoed:
We have to build, while the others are demolishing. The
crumbled citadels have to be rebuilt, the bastions of Faith have to
be reconstructed; firstly the holy sacrifice of the Mass of all
times, which forms saints; then our chapels, our monas-teries, our
large families, our enterprises faithful to the social politics of
the Church, our politicians determined to make the politics of Jesus
Christ -- this is a whole tissue of Christian social life, Christian
customs, Christian reflexes, which we have to restore.
It is for me an honour to
work, along with my fellow priests of the Society of St. Pius X in
Ireland, towards this holy goal: to restore Christian civilization.
Let us remain steadfastly anchored to the sane traditions of our
forefathers, in the certainty that the triumph of Christ through
Mary is near.
And let us not be
discouraged in the battle for the Kingdom of
Jesus and Mary, but more alert
and enthusiastic than ever: For our wrestling is not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the
rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of
wickedness in the high places (Ephesians VI, 12).
Pray many Rosaries
for our humble apostolate in Ireland, and help us with your
donations. It seems that we will finally receive another priest this
coming summer, which will permit me to open a second priory in
Athlone, rationally organizing our work . Deo gratias!
Sincerely in Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph,
Father Ramón
Anglés
