The Priests

8th October 2008

Father Eugene’s Diary / Blog #5

The flight to Rome from Belfast on Sunday 28th September was as smooth as anyone could ever have wanted. By chance, a clerical student well known to Fr Martin was also flying to Rome and got a welcome taxi ride with us into the city to be safely deposited at the Venerable English College for another year of study prior to his Ordination to the Deacon ate. We wish him, his classmates and colleagues in the English College, Scots College and, of course, our alma later, the Irish College every blessing in this important year.

As for the three of us, we were returning to a familiar and much loved city not to continue our studies but to complete what we had begun in April; the recording of our debut album of sacred music. When we embarked on this exciting but daunting project a few months ago we never, even for a minute, thought that what had started with a short “demo tape” in the Good Shepherd Centre, Belfast, would lead us back to Rome and the much loved Basilica of St Peter where each of us had previously sung at many liturgies celebrated by the late Pope John Paul II during the overlapping years of study for the priesthood.  In many ways, St Peter’s Basilica and, more specifically, the Cappella del Coro, where the choir of the Cappella Guilia regularly sings morning prayer and evening prayer, was a fitting place in which to conclude the recording of the album. This was all made possible by the kind and generous permission of the Basilica’s Archpriest, His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Comastri, and the musical help of Spanish born Mons Pablo Colino, a Canon of St Peter’s and, until recently, director of the Cappella Guilia choir who continues, even in retirement, to direct the Choir of the Academia Filarmonica di Roma which, when you buy your copy of the CD (hint, hint) you will have the pleasure to hear on the completed album.

Prior to the three evenings of recording we were involved in interviews with representatives from several foreign newspapers, TV and radio stations.  We have been amazed at the interest this musical venture has generated in countries around the world and, perhaps more significantly, the interest the media has in our everyday lives as priests in a part of the world that has, until very recently, been known for all the wrong reasons; for the bombings, indiscriminate murder and sectarianism of “The Troubles” in N. Ireland. Music is a powerful means of communication in itself. Even during the darker years of The Troubles it has beer our shared personal experience that music and singing in various places has played a significant role in helping to change attitudes and demolish some of the walls of prejudice supported by our lack of understanding and lack of respect in both political and religious spheres of life. If our album can contribute, even in a small way to the efforts of those many people who have worked for peace and reconciliation in our fractured society, and those who continue to do the same elsewhere, we will be very happy.

After the third evening of recording in the empty Basilica we had the privilege of praying before the tomb of St Peter, protected by Bernini’s glorious baldachino and High Altar. There, as promised, in private prayer, we remembered our families, friends and parishioners’ intentions and we gave thanks. What a fitting climax to an unbelievable journey thus far during which we have met incredibly gifted people, many of whom, it must be said and by their own admission, have never met a Catholic priest let alone spoken to one at length. This has been a privileged time for us in many unexpected ways. We are, each of us, mindful of the exhortation of the late Pope John Paul II to, “put out into the deep” where, leaving the security of the familiar shoreline, we may have the chance of helping those at risk of being swept along by perilous currents and tides mindful to avoid being caught up in them ourselves. This is a challenge made to every follower of Christ in every era and no
less urgent in today’s modern world where wealth, personal and financial independence can neither guarantee happiness nor be guaranteed by Banks or Governments in the face of economic meltdown. 

Before returning home to N. Ireland, after three of the most demanding days in the recording schedule, we got the chance to hear the final compilations of the tracks that will now feature on the album. In a modern bespoke recording studio, somewhat incongruously but, for all concerned, happily located beneath the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a suburb of Rome… there’s an idea for vacant ecclesiastical space if you have any… we sat and listened to the music we have all worked on over the past few months. This too was a privileged moment for all of us; we knew it would probably be the last time we would be in the recording studio together, we would go our separate ways, each returning to unfinished projects or about to take up new ones, and, in a very significant way, we were, all of us, deeply affected by what we had experienced together over the last six months even though we did not articulate it as such… the odd stray tear did that for us. To paraphrase the words of a song we often sang in seminary days, it is indeed, “a journey ended” but it is also, “a journey just begun”.