In 2003, The Furrow published Father Thomas O’Connor’s homily about how the Christian belief that God is with us has been challenged by ‘hard evidence’. He cites as examples the “alcohol-lubricated violence at home and in the streets”, abandonment of the family, desolation in times of personal struggles, environmental crisis, moral decadence, sexual scandals in the Church, dwindling attendance at Mass and confession and particularly the declining social status of the Church in contemporary Ireland. Fifteen years later, not only is there no sign of improvement, the situation seems to have deteriorated further. Almost half a million people have perished in the Syrian war.  Mass shootings in the United States continue with undiminished force and have claimed an increasing number of innocent lives.