I am attracted to religious books and just by chance, a few days before Christmas, I came across a new book of reflections by Fr Bryan Shortall, entitled, ‘Tired of all the Bad News’. The title caught my eye. Bryan is a Capuchin (Franciscan) Friar, still quite young and working in St Michan’s parish, Halston St. Dublin. His interests include history, art, music, politics, aviation, photography and Man United. Apart from that last one we would have a lot in common.
In the Introduction, Bryan puts forward his main contention: ‘From time to time I’ve heard people sigh, “I’m tired of all the bad news. Too much negativity plays havoc with our spirit. We need to hear good news. We need that shot of positivity in the arm every day; it’s good for us. Exposure to wall-to-wall bad news puts us in bad form and it shows to those around us. Perhaps it was easier in the past to hide from it all because we had to make a conscious decision to turn on the news on the radio or the television. Since the 1980s with the 24 hour news channels, hearing of tragedies and disasters, bad news became more difficult to avoid. We all remember where we were when we heard about the dreadful attack on New York on 11 September 2001. I got a text from my brother to turn on Sky News.”
Bryan has a very serious point to make and he makes it very simply and clearly in a number of chapters dealing with day-to-day life in the parish, the feast days of the Church, the devotions and good works of the people and the promptings of Pope Francis to priests to become shepherds and to be people of joy bringing good news.
That is not to say we ignore the news about the tragedies and cruelty in our world and in our society. It is to say we should consider putting it in context. We should offer young people especially more chances to hear and see good news. The world and the young badly need to hear good news and so do we in this country. People are really tired of the constant bad news. I am glad to say that most of the good news we hear these days seems to be coming from Pope Francis.
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