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St Matthew , El Greco,1610-14 Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)  Gospel   Matthew 21:28-32  ( New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition : Canada Jesus said to the chief priest and the elders of the people: “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’   He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went.   The father   went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go.   Which of the two did the will of his father?” continue> The above scene, at the Coliseum in Rome, comes shortly before the end of the 1983 made-for-TV move,  The Scarlet and the Black , which tells the true World War II story of Vatican-based Irish priest Monsignor Hugh O'Fla...

Wing Commander Brendan 'Paddy' Finucane (16 October 1920 - 15 July 1942) I'm not sure when or how I first came to know of Brendan Finucane, one of the greatest 'aces' in the Royal Air Force during World War II and whose 70th death anniversary occurs on Sunday. Maybe it was in reading English 'comics' when I was in primary school. Weeklies such as The Rover , Adventure , The Hotspur , The Wizard ,  featured adventure stories for boys and sometimes had real-life stories. My Uncle Joe Kiernan drove a delivery van for Easons newsagents in Dublin and kept me well supplied. At some stage I discovered that this airman, known in England as 'Paddy', had become the youngest ever Wing Commander - equivalent to Lieutenant colonel - in the RAF and that he had studied in the same school as myself, O'Connell Christian Brothers' School, Dublin. By the time I began in secondary school there (I was in primary from 1951 to 1956 and in ...