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LAST UPDATE | 21 Apr
ON THAT FATEFUL day in 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio walked out on the balcony as the newly elected Pope, I knew almost nothing about him, but the fact that he was from South America gave me hope of a change after the long years of authoritarianism coming from the throne of Peter.
My enquiries with Jesuit friends produced mixed reviews. But we quickly saw indications of somebody different. He dressed more simply, he stayed in the guesthouse rather than taking up residence in the Papal quarters. It was the beginning of a period of considerable change. I loved it.
Francis was not perfect. He tended to speak off the cuff, and often contradicted himself. But he had a vision of where he wanted to lead the Church, and that vision gradually began to develop both in his writings and his actions.
His press conferences on the plane as he returned from his various journeys were often dramatic. None more so than when a journalist asked him about the relationship between LGBTQ+ people, and he replied ‘Who am I to judge’. This was such a contrast to his predecessor, who described such relationships as ‘intrinsically evil’. Clearly, we were in a new era in the Church.
Four things will stand out for me in my memory of this great man. First, when he called for people to ‘speak freely and without fear’. We had lived through many years when speaking freely was dangerous and contained significant fear.
The effect of this change was that under Francis the Church became a place of discussion, debate, study and freedom of expression. The benefits of that, I believe, have been enormous, though I am aware that others were disturbed by this new atmosphere, which they interpreted as a threat to ancient doctrines which were seen to be unchangeable.
Secondly, his idea of the Church as a ‘field hospital’ where everyone was welcome. In previous years the impression was of a Church for the faithful few, and the message went out to certain sections of people that they weren’t welcome, for example, people in second relationships.
Francis made it clear that he welcomed everyone.
Thirdly, his stance on the environment and climate change. Laudato Si — the papal encyclical he released in 2015 which focused heavily on the environment — was a groundbreaking document. He became, and continued to be, the strongest and clearest voice for making the changes necessary for the future of the planet. His legacy in this area will remain as the destruction of so many aspects of life on Earth continues and accelerates.
Fourthly, his love for the poor and especially the migrants. In that, maybe more than in any other aspect of his leadership, he showed how seriously he had taken the Gospel message. It testified to his conviction that all are equal in God’s eyes.
Finally, there was his attempt to make Synodality central to church life. This was the most radical, but also the most difficult, of all that he tried to do. The aim here was to radically change the way the Church operated and was governed. He particularly railed against what he called ‘clericalism’, by which he meant the control exercised by the ordained over the laity.
He envisioned a structure where all the believers were equal, each having a voice in the way the Church operated. In this, he was looking for major change, and it remains to be seen if the seeds sown have taken strong enough roots for its survival following his departure.
His successor will be watched very closely. People have called Francis divisive. Certainly, he had many opponents, even enemies, within the Church, some from the highest level, cardinals and bishops.
Some of these men had positions of power and prestige within the church structure, positions that implied that they knew what was best for the person in the pew. Frances’ vision of equality, his vision of a community of believers, did not suit them. Sadly, there is a perception that they are relieved that he is gone.
He had weaknesses. Maybe most of all his attitude to women. This may have been a product of the macho culture that formed him. His misfortune was that he was pope at a time when the inequality of women was a major issue in the Church. He came across to many women as patronising, and he remained vehemently opposed to giving them access to any form of ministerial function. Often the arguments he used to justify this position were embarrassing.
But nobody is perfect and in summary, I would say that Francis was a great gift to the Church at a time when we were desperate for good leadership and a new vision. To use a biblical image he led us out of the wilderness and illustrated in his own person the incomparable love of Jesus Christ for all humanity.
I loved that man and that Pope. I will miss him.
Fr Tony Flannery is a Redemptorist priest who was forbidden to practice by his superiors in Rome in 2012 for speaking up on many issues. This continues to this day. More at TonyFlannery.com.
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I’m an Irish programmer, living abroad, and would like to work remotely for an Irish company. (It’s always a good excuse for visiting home every now and then.) Even with the skills shortage, it seems that no employer is interested.
I’m also in a similar position (living/working in the UK), I like to check in every now and then with job opportunities in Ireland and it’s always 3-5 years industry experience. It seems to be case (to me at least) that you have to move abroad to get your experience before you can come back and apply for these jobs.
I think everyone can agree (having myself being in a similar position) that there is NO SKILLS SHORTAGE.
It is a shortage of desired experience.
Every company requires 3-5 years it seems. None are interested in investing in staff to train/mentor them.
My advice would be similar to other posters for those with no experience: learn how to build a phone app, or try to improve a piece of software from the likes of Sourceforge.net Then put that at the top of your CV.
Exactly – nobody cares if you got 86% in second year in Software Systems – they just want to know what you can do.
I don’t blame companies for wanting experience though – why take on a 22 year old when you can take on a 32 year old? Not like in 30 years time you’ll regret that the older guy is retiring sooner than the younger guy, in the software industry :-P
In my own case I have six years of industry experience with Java, but no one is taking the bait.
Spot on. If you don’t have a github.com account with some interesting projects or contributions, don’t bother.
Software engineering is one of the few jobs that you can MAKE your own experience. As someone who hires developers, I’d sooner hire someone with an interesting github portfolio than someone with more qualifications than you can shake a stick at.
It’s pretty easy to spot people interested in building cool things.
You’re a dying breed Dave. Outside of google very few companies are looking for software developers who are in any way creative. However, they are increasingly looking for staff who are multidisciplinary. Agile is pushing things that way… especially devops.
Software companies want experienced engineers so there is the catch how can you have a constant flow of graduates when they can’t get jobs becuase companies want experienced people.
The other flip side the money is crap starting off.
Money isn’t crap starting off – it’s in line with most other jobs of similar expertise. Companies wanting experienced people is a nuisance though, but I’m not sure how to resolve that.
Software is one of those fields though where you can gain expertise without experience. If your CV has a link to your website, your GitHub profile or some mobile app you’ve worked on they shouldn’t care how long you’ve been working at it.
If you’re passionate about software and have the skills to match, you have the ability to convey this to an employer :-)
Sofware developers are the highest paid graduates of any field. They are even paid more than intern doctors and graduate engineers. Of course those fields catch up fairly quickly.
Is there a list of these vacancies/job specifications?
There is no skills shortage. There is however a bias towards 25-35 year olds, with 5 years experience in a very specific and narrow skill set.
The employers (HR departments) have absolutely no comprehension that a programmer is a programmer, that’s the “skill”, the programming language is usually pretty irrelevant.
If you are over 45 years old, then the employers pretty much ignore you and your wealth of experience.
Irish companies have become very Americanised in the practice of promoting (very) young people to managerial positions, who are then biased towards hiring people their own age.
So what skills are we short of? If it’s technical that’s something to work towards for our universities and students, if it’s language of course it’s going to be easier for people of other nationalities.
So half are picked by Irish residents !
Very poor CV screening, interviewing and technical tests result in a lot of false negatives. I was recently made redundant, and have just been through the process. I picked up a job pretty quickly, but I am genuinely surprised by the lack of opportunities for some of the more junior guys, given that I would be happy to work with all of them again and they have access to great references from everyone at the company.
I constantly see companies that are doing web-development asking about program complexity and solving scalability problems that they more than likely don’t have. If they do have these problems, they are self inflicted by people reinventing the wheel rather than using something off the shelf. Another thing I noticed is the asking of questions assuming knowledge of specific tools. Web summit insisted on degrees from Universities only, with a clear bias towards Trinity college.
I personally would prefer to hire someone with less experience of these kind of things, and the simple ability to do simple things correctly and take direction. I don’t think I would have a problem hiring in the current environment.
Given that we are in the middle of a tech bubble, we should not spend too much time trying to correct these problems at the expense of the exchequer and let the companies who have the problem deal with these self inflicted problems themselves.
I’m an Irish IT graduate with over 10 yrs experience. I’ve taken time out to raise my child. I’ve been trying to get back to work for the last couple of years & companies are unwilling to even respond to my CV. I understand the concepts, am easily retrained & willing to work. It’s not a shortage of skills, I think it’s that companies want an exact set of skills & aren’t willing to re-train people. I know I’m not the only one in this position.
You’re right. as an employer, it’s not efficient to hire someone that will take weeks or months to retrain. The onus is on you to skill up. Not your employer. Ad I’ve stated before, in IT, it’s very VERY easy to upskill and create your own experience in the form of personal projects.
I’m still shocked at those who don’t understand this. Nobody owes you a job and being out of work for 10 years means you’re practically starting from scratch anyway. But that doesn’t matter, it’s very easy to start and build something yourself to modernise your skill set.
I’d sooner hire a 17 year old who just finished their leaving with a decent github profile then someone with 3 masters and no effort put into keeping themselves relevant.
Too few jobseekers actualky put themselves in the shoes of a potential employer.
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