Built in the 1850s the Archbishop’s Palace, as it is often called, is a unique part of Perth’s Catholic history. As St Mary’s Cathedral draws within sight of completion across the road, the ‘Palace’ is also being lovingly renovated - Page 4
the Parish. the Nation. the World.
“Be indefatigable in your purpose and with undaunted spirit resist iniquity and try to conquer evil with good, having before your eyes the reward of those who combat for Christ.” -Bishop Matthew Gibney 1874
The archdiocese of Melbourne will be the Catholic Church’s gateway for aid to devastated Victorian towns, regions.
■ By Anthony Barich
THE Archdiocese of Melbourne has prepared an almost unprecedented mobilisation of its resources to help victims of the Victoria firestorm.
In a letter to all priests in the Archdiocese last week laying out the blueprint for helping fellow Victorians, Vicar General Monsignor Les Tomlinson appealed for priests to assist
with counselling and chaplaincy services; the Church expects to be overwhelmed with demand once devastated towns are opened up and people start rebuilding their lives.
“The parish priests and pastoral teams in the areas of greatest needs have indicated that they were managing at the moment; but as the affected areas are opened up and as people seek to resettle into some sort of normal life, many material, emotional and pastoral needs are likely to emerge,” Mgr Tomlinson said early last week.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has appointed Fr Greg Bourke, parish priest of St Peter the Apostle in Hoppers Crossing, to the newly-created position of Bushfire Recovery Chaplain. Fr Thang Vu, supported by Father Continued - Page 6
Archbishop Barry Hickey and Perth priests joined with Chinese Catholics to welcome the lunar New Year Vista 4
is almost here! Read Archbishop Barry Hickey’s Pastoral Letter on Vista 4 Caritas - how you can give Page 10
Pro-Cathedral - Bishop Sproxton Personal Advocacy Missioning Celebration - Bishop Sproxton Scouts’ Association Founders Day Service - Fr Dat Vuong
24 Annual Dinner for Southern Cross Care & Knights of the Southern Cross - Fr Brian O’Loughlin
Mass
1 Farewell Mass Fr Kevin Long, Rector, St Thomas More College - Archbishop Hickey Mass and Procession for Our Lady of Grace, Pickering Brook - Bishop Sproxton
3 Farewell Mass Fr Don Hughes OMI, Rector, St Charles’ Seminary - Archbishop Hickey
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.”
From the Second Letter to Timothy, 4: 1-2 This prime piece of advertising space could be yours. Small Really is Beautiful. (And affordable).
Call Justine on (08) 9227 7080 or contact her via email: production@therecord.com.au
Chinese authorities confine bishop to limits of his parish.
■ By Catholic News ServiceXIWANZI, China - Auxiliary Bishop Leo Yao Liang of Xiwanzi was released after being detained since July 2006, but Chinese authorities warned him not to exercise his episcopal authority or preside at large-scale church activities.
Bishop Yao was detained in part for consecrating a large new church in Guyuan county in 2006, the Asian church news agency UCA News reported on February 13.
Sources who visited the 85-year-old bishop upon hearing of his release on January 25 told UCA News that his health and physical condition seemed "quite good."
Public security officers sent the bishop back to his church in Xiwanzi, in northern Hebei province.
A source said officers informed a few parish workers in advance about Bishop Yao's release but forbade them to hold any welcome gathering.
Prelate is one of only two living Vietnamese bishops who attended Vatican Council.
LONG XUYEN, Vietnam (CNS) - The oldest Catholic bishop in Vietnam, who recently turned 100, is known for his simplicity and accomplishments in building up the church in his southern diocese.
Bishop Michel Nguyen Khac Ngu, retired bishop of Long Xuyen, celebrated his birthday February 2 with a Mass at the diocesan bishop's house, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.
In 1954 when communists in the North defeated colonial French troops and limited church activities - a time when foreign missionaries were expelled and many local priests were killed - Bishop Ngu gathered Catholics and led them to the South.
On November 24, 1960, the Long Xuyen Diocese was erected and Bishop Ngu was named its first bishop.
A diocesan official told UCA News on February 9 that Bishop Ngu is known for living a simple life and still uses a blanket he brought with him in 1954. He also built the local seminary, the cathedral, churches and mission stations in remote areas.
Today he walks with difficulty but continues to read newspapers and books every day.
The source quoted Bishop Yao as saying officers treated him well during his 30-month detention in different locations, although he was forbidden to contact anybody.
Bishop Yao, who is not registered with the government and whom the government recognises only as a priest, said laypeople are free to visit him, although he thinks public security officers will keep an eye on him. He is not allowed to travel outside his parish area, UCA News reported. China requires that church leaders be registered with the government. Unregistered priests must concelebrate Mass with a registered bishop.
Registered church officials must profess support for the "independent, autonomous and self-management" principle that the government insists on for the church. Because of this, some bishops and priests have refused to register.
Bishop Yao has been detained several times by public security officers since he was ordained clandestinely as a bishop in 2002.
Perth Chinese Catholics celebrate - Page 3
MYSORE, India (CNS) - The apostolic nuncio to India has urged the country’s Latin-rite bishops not to let persecution discourage India’s Catholics.
Use the growing persecutions and violence against the Church as a positive call for strengthening faith at all levels, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, the nuncio, told the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India.
Archbishop Lopez acknowledged that the Church is being tested by a period of suffering and confusion, but he urged the bishops to personify the word of God through personal witness. The nuncio said the Gospel, the source of Christian life, should inspire Christians to live in hope amid such trials.
The archbishop urged India’s bishops to train seminarians to face persecuting forces with faith and spirituality. He also encouraged the church to form laity through small Christian communities, Catholic charismatic renewal and other programs.
“An integral faith formation at all levels is the only answer to the anti-Church violence in India,” the archbishop said.
Bishop Ngu was born in 1909 in the northern Diocese of Thai Binh. He entered Saint Therese Minor Seminary in the Diocese of Lang Son in 1922. He went for further studies in France, where he was ordained a priest in 1934. After returning to Vietnam, he taught at a minor seminary, cared for two parishes and served as secretary of the apostolic delegation then based in Hue, in central Vietnam.
Bishop Ngu is not the oldest living Vietnamese bishop. Retired Bishop Antoine Nguyen Van Thien of Vinh Long, who now lives in France, is 102; his birthday is March 13. The two centenarians are the only living Vietnamese bishops to have attended the Second Vatican Council. -CNS
Hindu fanatic violence against Christians erupted in several places across India in 2008. The worst brutality was in Orissa state, in eastern India, where seven weeks of violence claimed at least 60 lives and displaced another 50,000 people, mostly Christians. In September, Hindu extremists also attacked at least 24 churches in Karnataka.
The meeting is only for Latin-rite bishops, who head 128 of India’s 160 dioceses. The other dioceses belong to the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches, which are among the 22 Eastern Catholic churches. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India is comprised of prelates from all three rites.
Firecrackers, lion dances, red packets all part and parcel of event showcasing diversity of the Church in Perth.
CHINESE Catholics in Perth gathered at Holy Family Church in Como in early February to celebrate the beginning of the lunar new year which, this year, is the Year of the Ox.
Mass concelebrated by Archbishop Barry Hickey and several clergy was followed by firecrackers, lion dancing performances and a performance of traditional Chinese music conducted in the Church hall.
After Mass, Archbishop Barry Hickey and other priests offered their wishes for the New Year and presented younger members of the congregation with traditional red packets, envelopes containing a gold coin. The packets, symbolising one’s wish for long life, peace and prosperity for the receiver, were eagerly received by one and all.
Sin is what puts distance between the believer and God, and it’s the sacrament of confession that brings the two back together, says Benedict XVI.
Speaking on February 15, the Pope reflected on Mark’s account of the healed leper, which he delivered before praying the Angelus with those gathered in
St Peter’s Square. According to ancient Jewish law “Leprosy... constituted a kind of religious and civil death, and its healing was a kind of resurrection. We might see in leprosy a symbol of sin, which is the true impurity of heart, distancing us from God.
“It is not, in effect, physical malady that distances us from him, as the ancient norms supposed, but sin, the spiritual and moral evil.” If sins “are not hum-
bly confessed, trusting in the divine mercy, they will finally bring about the death of the soul. This miracle thus has powerful symbolic value.
“In the Sacrament of Penance Christ crucified and risen, through his ministers, purifies us with his infinite mercy, restores us to communion with the heavenly Father and our brothers, and makes a gift of his love, joy and peace to us.” - ZENIT
“We are a friendly and efficient company, trading with
and determined
DEEPLY saddened by the crisis engulfing Christianity in the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI has asked the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to provide urgent help.
In many parts of the land Our Lord Jesus Christ knew so well, the faithful now live in fear as increasing poverty and growing extremism threaten the survival of these ancient communities.
A mass exodus of Christians from the Middle East is now taking place. For some it is a question of escaping bloody persecution. In the Holy Land for example, the proportion of Christians has plummeted from 20% to as little as 1.4% in the last 40 years.
ACN is helping to keep faith and hope alive throughout the region by providing urgent aid to priests, religious and lay people, offering subsistence help to refugees and building and repairing Churches and convents. Please help us strengthen and rebuild the Church in the land of Christ’s birth.
A beautiful, olive wood crucifix, handcrafted in Bethlehem, will be sent to all those who give a donation of $20.00 or more to help this campaign. Please tick the box below if you like to receive the little olive wood crucifix*.
I/We enclose $.................. to help keep Christianity alive in the Middle East.
to help wherever the need is greatest.”
Yes please send me the little olive wood crucifix* Made of olive wood from the Holy Land, this small crucifix is powerfully evocative of Christ’s passion and death. The crucifixes are lovingly handcrafted by poverty stricken families in Bethlehem and your donation helps them survive. Comes in a display box with accompanying religious image.
(Size 12cm x 7cm)
Archdiocese embarks on another major project.
■ By Anthony BarichTHE Cathedral Presbytery in Victoria Square is getting a muchneeded makeover, with a new glass elevator and underground carpark to be installed.
The Archdiocese of Perth has begun a project to conserve the existing heritage-listed building, refurbish the residential portions and adapt the southern grounds to form a basement-level car park and introduce a new steel-framed glass lift. Asbestos is also being removed.
The renovations will also allow the Dean of the Cathedral and resident priests personal outdoor space on the property for the first time. It will be completed by 2010. It will be the first major works done to the building in over 40 years. Patrick Griffiths is the architect of the renovations.
The existing building was developed over three phases – 1855-56, 1911 and 1938.
The building is over 150 years old and is a good example of the Federation Academic Classical style of architecture by the prominent architect, Michael Cavanagh, who did the 1911 work. It has been restyled over the years on a couple of occasions.
When the parish office was added on in 1938-39 as a standalone building, the ceiling was not connected, causing water leakage, most notably into the archives office. One main ceiling will be installed now.
The telecommunications, plumbing and electrical wiring also need to be updated, and a new Archbishop’s residence will be installed where the old one was – where Bishops Joseph Serra and Martin Griver, among others, lived.
It was in this old room that Dean Tierney - site manager for Colgan Industries who are undertaking the conservation, restoration and additional work - found a ticket from the January 29, 1865 opening of St Mary’s Cathedral.
Fr Robert Cross - the archaeologist responsible for unearthing the surprising finds of Bishops Griver and Matthew Gibney in 2006 – said that the ticket was one of the more intriguing finds of the redevelopment process of the cathedral and the presbytery. The ticket has the person’s name and ‘class’, as they paid for a specific seat to attend the event; they could then be used to trace their involvement in the community and the diocese at the time. Only two whole tickets have been found – one in the cathedral and the other in the bishop’s residence. The Cathedral ticket, Fr Cross said, must have just been left on the seat and fallen through the cracks in the floorboards, which were just laid over sand.
They were preserved perfectly, he said, as the area was dry with no moisture allowed in from the roof.
Fr Cross has also excavated pieces out of a well on the southern side of the presbytery, in which a series of columns previously erect had been put some years ago. It is unknown how deep the well goes, though he went four metres down.
The building will continue to be used as a residence for the Archbishop, the Dean of the Cathedral and the Assistant Priests who work at the Cathedral. It will also be the Church Offices for the Archbishop, Auxiliary Bishop, Dean and Vicar General.
Parents initiate fundraisers for Victorian firestorm victims.
■ By Anthony BarichFAMILY and community are at the heart of the charism of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and their school, Our Lady of Grace, in North Beach.
So it is no surprise that the school community has been moved to action in response to the Victorian bushfires tragedy. Coincidentally, one student’s father, a WA fireman, has travelled East to help fight the fires.
At the request of parents, the school conducted a free dress day on February 13, and parents and children arriving at school that morning were invited to make additional donations to the cause.
Parents shaking tins at the school gates reaped $2000 alone.
When the students embraced the idea it soon it took on a life of its own. Quite independently from the parents, a group of Year 6 students had asked permission to run a number of stalls and raffles to raise money for the cause. Set up at recess and lunch breaks, they proved popular with students.
Over $3380 was raised in total for the Australian Red Cross helping the bushfire victims. A local business also promised to double whatever the school fundraises.
“Aside from the fundraising, this was a useful initiative,” Mr Kenworthy said, “as it builds a sense of community, which this school is quite renowned for.
“It’s in keeping with the ethos of the school students looking beyond themselves and promoting generosity of spirit.”
The school also supports a school in a poor area in the Philippines run by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the Religious Order who have a convent adjacent to the North Beach school.
Sr Mary Joseph CSFN, who helped organ-
Generous acts of philanthropy benefit Laws/Commerce student who wins two scholarships.
FOURTH year Laws/Commerce student, Neal Kok, is the recipient of two major scholarships awarded by The University of Notre Dame Australia’s Fremantle campus.
Mr Kok has received the John O’Halloran Scholarship from the School of Law and the Mannkal Scholarship from the School of Business.
Dean of Business, Associate Professor Sonja Bogunovich, said the Mr Kok is an exceptional student.
vides financial support for a full-time law student who not only is academically outstanding but who also demonstrates a commitment to the wider community.
Dean of the School of Law, Associate Professor Jane Power, said that it was an outstanding achievement for a student to receive two scholarships such as these, based not only on excellent academic results but their commitment to social justice and other community interests.
“Notre Dame has strongly encouraged the act of philanthropy since its beginning,” Prof. Power told The Record
ise the fundraising event with the Year 6 students, was impressed that the parents and students could mobilise such an effort in just the second week since school started after the Christmas holidays.
She also set up a wall of prayer posters for display in the school assembly area, which many students contributed to. One student summed up their intentions, “to express solidarity with the fire victims in Victoria through our prayers and donations”.
Bunbury Catholic College also set up an appeal on behalf of the students, teachers and parents to help the Victorian community affected by the bushfires.
On February 17, the college held an assembly to remember those who have lost their lives in the Victorian fires.
This assembly included a liturgy followed by a ‘Money Chain’, designed so that students, teachers and parents could donate generously during the assembly.
The collected money was put into one of the four chains (according to the students’ and teachers’ Houses), and at the end of the assembly, the house with the longest chain of money and the house with the most money raised was awarded points that go towards the end of year House Shield.
The event was designed to involve students as much as possible and to give something to those who have nothing. All money raised will go directly to two Mercy Schools located in the Yarra Valley, that have been directly affected by the deadly fires.
The Catholic Education Office of WA is also donating $110 000 to assist with the disaster relief. This amount represents $1.50 per student and employee in Catholic education in WA.
As The Record went to print, an ecumenical Memorial Service was be held for the victims of the Victorian bush fires in St Mary’s Church Bunbury on February 18, at which a retiring collection would be taken up for survivors. Bunbury Bishop Gerard Holohan said: “Many in our community are affected by the tragedy, and it is our hope to be of service to these people at this time.”
“Neal is a quiet achiever who appears to have found just the right balance between his interests and academia. He is a wonderful ambassador for the School of Business and a most worthy recipient of the Mannkal Scholarship,” Prof. Bogunovich said.
“The School of Business is very grateful for the support of the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation, founded by Perth businessman, Ron Manners.”
As a condition of the scholarship, Mr Kok will be required to undertake a Directed Business Project, conducting economic research in the area of freemarket or libertarian concepts, investigating and reporting on how these concepts relate to business and industry.
The John O’Halloran Scholarship pro-
“Not only do students benefit greatly from these generous acts by organisations and individuals but we believe that the wider community also benefits from their success.”
Mr Kok said that he was extremely grateful for the generosity offered by the scholarships, adding that it will make life much easier for him.
“I feel very privileged to receive these honours,” he said.
“I also have a real sense of relief and gratitude, as I have encountered a number of difficulties over the past five years in pursuit of my higher education goals, and this award will make it much easier for me to complete my degree. It will also make a significant difference to my family.
“We all would like to express our sincere appreciation to the O'Halloran family and to the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation,” said Mr Kok.
MONKS at a Cistercian Abbey in the Yarra Valley in country Victoria who live by a centuriesold Benedictine Rule are counting their blessings after narrowly avoiding being savaged by the firestorm that destroyed much of the State last week.
The quiet, austere life of the Cistercian monks at Tarrawarra Abbey in the heart of the Yarra Valley was shattered by the firestorm that cut a swathe through the Victorian countryside on February 7, destroying entire towns.
Life at Tarrawarra Abbey is a contemporary version of the ancient tradition of Cistercian monasticism with an Australian accent, designed to “foster the experience of God and growth in prayerfulness and love”.
Their simple lifestyle gives priority to liturgical and personal prayer as well as sacred reading, balanced by community living, work, and study.
But all that changed on that fateful Saturday afternoon. As the temperature climbed over 45C, hundreds of fires torched houses and farms across the State. Despite this, the monastery seemed to be safe, except for strong, gusty northerlies blowing from the direction of the Kilmore fires.
Embers and debris were falling so heavily that some at the monastery thought it was raining on the roof, but it seemed they’d been spared the worst of it.
Then at 4.30pm sirens were heard and a long line of fire trucks roared past the monastery headed for Yarra Glen.
The monks braced themselves for the worst, but they had barely half an hour to do so as a fire started in the paddocks below the guest cottage at 5pm. Staff from
the neighbouring Tarrawarra Vineyard helped “almost” bring it under control.
Then, they said, the wind changed from north to south west and the embers “roared to life”, shooting up a gully along a row of trees bordering a dam towards the enclosure around Sister Diana’s hermitage nearby, setting alight the grass on both sides, “storming up through the paddocks right up to the road, catching in its destructive wake” 64 quality heifers not far from calving, setting alight thousands of new trees planted beside the road and setting much of the fences ablaze on the Cistercian property.
“It all happened so quickly,” said Brother Bernard Redden, Prior of Tarrawarra Abbey that houses 18 monks aged from one in his late 20s to the eldest aged 88.
“You see smoke 15km away then all of a sudden it’s right on your own backyard. “We got off fairly lightly compared to others who had lost a lot.”
The 24-hour power outage meant their phones were out too, so they had some redirected to a mobile phone.
By the time the landlines were reconnected just hours before The Record spoke to the Prior on February 11, the monks were “overwhelmed” with messages, including one from Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne who was checking if they were OK.
Br Redden said that some 150 acres and over 300 breeding cattle was consumed in the blaze, but all their buildings and the monks who live there are fine.
But it was a close call. Later on that Saturday afternoon, the monks reported, a spot-fire erupted from a falling ember less than 100 metres from the monastery’s church and library, though it was hindered by a service road. But
flames about half a metre high and generating fierce heat were moving inexorably east towards the monastery, fed by dry grass and detritus and threatening to set the tall trees alight.
The blaze was controlled only when a monk patrolling nearby gave the alert, though it continued to smoulder overnight.
The economy of the monastery was not crippled by the event, Br Bernard said, as much of their income derives from producing altar wine and bread. Some 80 acres was spared at time of writing last week, so the monks are relieved they did not cop the brunt of the firestorm.
“The impact on us compared to others is fairly minimal given that we haven’t lost the whole farm or anything and none of the buildings,” he said.
“We’ve taken in a couple of visitors who got caught, a couple of properties near us were burnt out.”
Tarrawarra Abbey Abbot David Tomlins said that the monks’ overwhelming sense is “one of immense
gratitude to God for His palpable protection”.
“Despite the loss of some stock, fencing and tree plantations, we know that the blessing of preservation from injury or death in the chaotic conditions of Saturday was pure gift,” he said.
“Our deep sympathy and prayers are with all those who have suffered so much loss. We continue to pray for all the wonderful volunteers who have been out there giving themselves so totally for others in these tragic circumstances.”
Since the worst is over they’ve been checking their neighbours, trying to help out in the immediate area, ever weary of more wind changes, but the roadblocks set up on Sunday morning prevented anyone from getting into the area.
The immediate crisis quickly passed on the Saturday, the monks reported, but the danger remained high.
“All around the property fires were glowing in the darkness, only a narrow girth of the Yarra separated us from the fires burning on the opposite bank; to the north,
fire was creeping towards us from the other side of the road,” the monks reported.
Mopping up continued until after midnight and the whole area was constantly patrolled until dawn. Life will go on at the Monastery, though a keen vigil will be kept up. Cattle numbers can be stocked up by either buying more or breeding them. But there’s no doubt their lifestyle was dramatically changed over the past fortnight.
“Our lives are centred here but are not enclosed,” Br Redden said.
“We have contact with the local community with our farm.
“We know our own neighbours, but this makes you more aware of your relationship with all your neigbours in the community.”
continued from page 1
Donald Lorenz, will attend to pastoral responsibilities in Fr Bourke’s parish.
Fr Bourke will be the ‘go to’ person for state and civil authorities for the co-ordination and provision of pastoral care to emergency and recovery services personnel working in the fire affected areas and will liaise with key Diocesan and church agencies including the Catholic Education Office, Cenatcare Family Services and the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
He will also liaise with parishes throughout the Archdiocese where bushfire victims may be billetted or staying with family and friends.
Fr Bourke will also arrange assistance on request to parishes in the affected areas which may need assistance in providing pastoral care and funeral services in the initial recovery phase. He will develop and manage a list of priests offfering to assist their fellow priests in the fire affected areas.
In making the appointment, Archbishop Hart said that the Catholic Church's presence during the initial crisis and recovery stages will need to go beyond its normal and ongoing presence as represented by the faithful and committed parish communities, their priests, pastoral associates and religious who are there for the long haul.
The appointment is for an initial period of eight weeks with possible extension.
immediate crisis passes there will also be need for counselling, and support for many of those affected by the fires, Mgr Tomlinson said.
Centacare Catholic Family Services offered the Department of Human Services professional social workers and psychologists to help to meet some of these demands in the Recovery Centres, and also provided clinical supervision and support if required to parish workers in the areas affected by the fires.
A spokesman from the Archdiocese said that the day the fires hit, the Melbourne church office was swamped with calls from people asking what they can do to help.
As two Victorian radio stations dedicated constant coverage of the tragedy, the spokesman said callers reported houses simply exploding, while most people who gathered at the recovery centres were clueless as to whether their properties survived, and in many cases had missing friends and family.
The Vicar General confirmed to priests that St Mary’s Church in Kinglake and Our Lady of the Snows Church at Marysville were destroyed, while psychologists and counsellors of the Pastoral Care Unit of the Catholic Education Office in Melbourne were on hand to support school students and teachers of Catholic schools in the affected areas. He also put the word out to Catholics in the Archdiocese to offer accommodation for those who had lost their homes.
Canon Graeme Winterton, the state co-ordinator for the joint Department of Human Services/Victorian Council of Churches' emergencies ministry, advised the Archdiocese that beyond the immediate crisis which was being well managed there was likely to be a great demand for pastoral support and chaplaincy in the coming weeks and months.
Recovery Centres were established where the services of pastoral care and chaplaincy services are in great demand, but as the
Archbishop Hart asked for a special collection in all parishes over February 14-15 for the Catholic Archbishop’s Charitable Fund – Bushfire Appeal that he launched on February 9. The prelate said he had rarely witnessed the level of community anxiety and concern for people and communities through which the fires had passed. He also encouraged those who can give blood to do so, and urged others to respond generously to established appeals to assist fellow Victorians to help rebuild their lives.
THOUGH the church has burnt down and the town has been devastated by bushfire, the parish community of St Mary's, Kinglake, will continue to celebrate Sunday Mass as usual – albeit in a restaurant.
In a notice to Diocesan parish communities, St Mary's parish priest Fr Grant O'Neill said Mass would be held in a local restaurant until power is restored to the site where the St Mary's church once stood.
"Fortunately we have the use of a temporary church (ie, a portable classroom). As soon as power is restored to our church site, this classroom will be moved onto the site to provide a visible focal point and place for worship," Fr O'Neill said.
The Kinglake church has been the victim of fire twice before. It was destroyed in bushfire in February 1926, was rebuilt and destroyed by arson on Good Friday, 1995. The church was rebuilt and opened in 1998.
Fr Joe Caddy, chief executive of Centacare, told The Record that Fr Grant is one of several local priests and many lay Catholics who have become “heroes” over the past week, and that even though the initial period of devastation is over, life in country Victoria is still on edge.
Fr Caddy, who is in regular contact with priests in key areas affected by the bushfires, says the priests and lay Catholics are “doing a mighty job”, though “they’re still very much uncovering the full extent of the disaster; each day, each hour new things are com-
ing to light”. He said priests are leading the charge, putting their own sorrow on hold as they focus on helping others.
“Like so many people helping, the priests are being quite heroic, but there are some cases,” Fr Caddy says, “where some priests are at times feeling overwhelmed. But at the same time, people are looking after them. “There is a constant reminder of the fires as in many communities there’s still fire danger. In towns like Yea and Healesville, it’s a week out but the smoke is still in the air and they’re often on alert for embers.
“There’s a constant danger that flare-ups could start again, but by and large it is a lot more settled.”
“There is a faithful presence of the parishes – they are suffering with the community
and rolling their sleeves up with the community.
“That’s the great thing about our Church - we’re already on the ground and in with the people. Local parishioners are at the recovery centres, volunteering with Country Fire Authority (CFA), and working in the communities. Priests themselves in those places are known generally through the towns through the regions.
“The St Vincent de Paul Society will be doing an enormous amount to rebuild communities. Organisations like Centacare are already providing crisis management, critical incident counselling, a greater need down the track when people are working through their issues of grief and loss.”
As the towns are re-opened and life starts anew, there will be several phases of recovery,
Fr Caddy says: “First there is emergency relief – providing toiletries and packets of fresh clothes to survivors in recovery centres… but there’s nowhere to put it...
“Then, people have to settle somewhere, so we need to help them with that.
“Next, they’re going to need more than one set of clothes, plus furniture and other basic things where they’re staying. Then we start planning rebuilding houses, and provide temporary housing as people are accommodated and billeted into families and other areas. They’re even opening up a couple of military camps to house people.
“Next, people are bringing portables and caravans as temporary accommodation as people start to physically rebuild.”
Vinnies WA works with West Australian businesses to provide aid
IT’S times like this that Australians need to join together and help one another.
Thanks to the goodwill of WA Container Services in Maddington and BCR Australia in Willetton and their generous offers of sea containers and freight, the St Vincent de Paul Society in WA is currently working hard to fill them with much needed donations for victims of the fires in Victoria.
Both companies will fund the transport of the filled container to Victoria’s St Vincent de Paul Society’s Victorian Disaster Appeal headquarters, where goods will be distributed as part of the Society’s long-term recovery efforts assisting those affected by the Victorian bushfires to rebuild their lives.
THE FOLLOWING DONATIONS ARE NEEDED:
● Underwear & Socks
● Pyjamas
● Personal Hygiene Items – shampoo/conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap etc
● Baby Items - disposable nappies, bottles, rattles, dummies
● Kitchen Utensils – no crockery or pots and pans
● Torches – no batteries
● Children’s Books
● Pens and Notebooks
● School Supplies
● Carry Bags, Backpacks, Handbags, Wallets, Purses
● Mobile Phone Chargers - second hand is acceptable as long as charger is in good working condition.
The Society is urging the public that all donations need to be brand new and packaged properly for transportation - sealed in bags/boxes.
Material donations listed above can be dropped off between 9am-4pm Monday to Friday at:
St Vincent de Paul Society WA Ozanam House 76 Abernethy Road, BELMONT WA 6104
SVDP Victoria will assist in the longterm recovery of the communities. To donate to the Victorian Disaster Appeal visit www.vinnies.org.au/vic or phone 13 18 12.
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Lent is a privileged time of spiritual renewal and is part of our journey towards Easter. When we accompany Jesus from his long fast in the wilderness, through his confrontation with the religious leaders who opposed him, to his death on Calvary, we are ready to celebrate his resurrection at Easter.
The Holy Father calls this time of Lent “an itinerary of more intense spiritual training”.
This spiritual growth is made possible through self-discipline and prayer and attracts Christians to enter more fully into the Lenten spirit.
Let us then resolve to make significant adjustments to our daily life to allow the Holy Spirit to work within us and draw us closer to Christ our Redeemer in this time of Lent.
Spiritual Benefits
The spiritual benefits of Lent are many:
● a deeper spirit of prayer
● victory over sinful habits
● greater self discipline
● a deeper relationship with the Saviour
● a mind set on the things of God not our worldly comforts
● greater love for neighbour, especially the poor
● a better knowledge of Holy Scripture
Three Penitential Practices
Following the biblical tradition the Church calls us to pray, to fast and to give alms.
1. Prayer
Let us during this Lent take time to pray. This will mean finding the time and making real adjustments to our daily routine. A family may well decide to come together regularly to read a passage from Holy Scripture, perhaps the readings of the Sundays of Lent. After a brief discussion spontaneous prayers could conclude the prayer time.
Individuals could do something similar, and join with others in the Lenten discussions or the penitential rites at Parish level to show solidarity with others.
2. Fasting
Fasting from food is profoundly biblical.
Moses fasted before he received the Tablets of Stone from God.
Fasting was central to the celebration of many of the Jewish Feasts, even in the desert.
John the Baptist spent years of fasting and penance before announcing that the Messiah had come.
Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before his saving mission began.
St Paul after his conversion fasted for three days before his baptism by Ananias in Damascus.
Fasting from food finds an echo in Genesis when Adam was forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. While there are many ascetic practices, and while life gives us personal crosses heavy enough to be truly penitential, avoidance of food has a certain traditional and biblical relevance. Fasting and self denial attack selfishness and exaggerated attachment to things. They also free us to grow in love of God and neighbour.
3. Almsgiving
There can be no spiritual growth without a growth in love. Generosity to others, especially to the poor, the homeless and those burdened with grief, illness and anxiety helps us grow not only in the spirit of the Good Samaritan but in the spirit of Jesus himself who said “come to me all you who labour and are heavily burdened and I will give you rest”. (Mt 11:28)
Let us remember the admonition Jesus gave to the Pharisees who fasted to obey the law but whose hearts were far from God.
True fasting, said Jesus, is to do the Will of the Heavenly Father. Unless our fasting is based on a desire to follow Jesus faithfully it is an empty gesture.
In the early Church Lent was a time of intense preparation for catechumens. This has now been fully restored in the Church. Please pray for all those who are preparing for Baptism or full communion with the Church during Lent and welcome them with love at the Easter Vigil.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI had asked us to call on the Blessed Virgin Mary to help free our hearts from attachment to sin and listen to her Son, Jesus.
May we all, Bishops, Clergy, Religious and God’s Holy People journey together through Lent with faith and hope, to a glorious Easter.
Although hugely successful, her novels have often been dismissed by literary critics as mere airport fodder. But since returning to her childhood Catholic Faith, Anne Rice has overcome being pigeon-holed as an authoress of pulp fiction with a trilogy based on the life of Jesus - and told in the first person. Not only do they avoid trivialising the life of the Christ, they are, says Patricia Snow, good. Very good. As a result many are beginning to re-think Anne Rice’s capacities as an authoress of serious fiction.
When Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt was published in 2005, my initial reaction was a succinct dismissal: Ridiculous. Who does she think she is, writing a life of Jesus Christ in the first person? There are four gospels, I argued to myself, and everything else is testimony. Does St Paul tell us what Jesus wore, where he went, what he ate, or how he felt? No, he tells us about his own conversion and ongoing formation, his tribulations and lofty goals. St Paul’s soaring theology is firmly grounded in his own experiences in the world. As Luigi Giussani declared, “It is the Church that is the concrete prolongation of the presence of Christ in this world.”
A week later, I picked up Rice’s book again and noticed the author’s note at the end. I read it straight through, interested in spite of myself in the autobiographical details and impressed both by the scope of Rice’s research and her understated, unanswerable conclusions. All I knew about Anne Rice at this point was that she had written best-selling books about vampires. But this was a serious person, I had to admit as I put her new book down, a person entirely in earnest and capable of discerning the truth.
Three years later, in spring 2008, Knopf published Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, a sequel to Out of Egypt, and six months after that, Rice’s memoir, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession The Road to Cana I initially ignored, but, since becoming a Catholic myself, I am incapable of resisting a conversion story. What Karl Rahner says about the saints — that each “creates a new style, proves that a certain form of life is possible, shows that one can be a Christian even in ‘this’ way” — applies equally to converts, because each blazes a unique and exemplary path to the Church.
To be precise, Anne Rice is not a convert but a revert. Nearly half of Called Out of Darkness is a loving reconstruction of the pre–Vatican II Church of the 1940s and 1950s, in which Rice was immersed as a child in New Orleans, much as an illiterate peasant was immersed in the medieval Church. A late and slow reader, Rice soaked up her faith from her mother and from intensely beautiful, iconic experiences of Mass and Benediction, novenas and liturgical music.
This was the Golden Age of American Catholicism, when seminaries were full and Fulton Sheen was a household word, and Rice takes pains to demonstrate that religion in this world of her childhood included the world. Whether she is describing the inquiring intellectualism of her bohemian Catholic parents, the confident professionalism of the nuns in her Catholic school, the night parades of Mardi Gras, or the movies of Cecil B. DeMille, she is describing a world that, in rich and effective ways, extended the sacred space of the Church.
“The fabric is unbroken,” she says at one point, adding later: “Christian faith was in no way opposed to the world in which I grew up.” In those days before air conditioning, the windows were always open. Churches were never locked. As for her schooling, “there was nothing defensive or especially protective about our Catholic education.” Far from being repressive or dour, the nuns were “exquisitely dressed,” “ebullient,” “intensely interested in their charges,” and “effortlessly grand.” At Christmastime, a season of seemingly universal celebration, residents of the city constructed “enormous and elaborate outdoor manger scenes which drew crowds during the evening by car and on foot.”
Life was a “tapestry,” a “wondrous stream” in which one could thrive, and under it all, justifying the pervasive sense of the sacred in the world, was the Real Presence of Jesus on the altars of the Catholic churches, a presence that the young Anne grasped as concretely as she grasped everything else. “I was as certain that Jesus was there as I was that the streetcars passed our house.” No wonder that when she finds her way back to the Church a lifetime later, it is her mother’s voice that she hears,
waking her for early Mass: “He’s on that altar. He’s three blocks away. Now get up and go.”
It is impossible not to grieve when this coherent world of Rice’s childhood breaks up. When she is in high school, her mother dies of alcoholism. Her family moves to arid, Protestant Dallas — “We might as well have been entering America for the first time” — where Rice attends Mass in a high school cafeteria and her father marries a divorced Baptist.
Still, her faith holds. But then, unable to afford a Catholic education, she matriculates at Texas Women’s University, where there isn’t another Catholic among her classmates and teachers. Her Catholic universe disappears at the same time that the arts she loves are sliding into decadence. Growing up, there was the occasional forbidden book or film, but “this was not particularly upsetting because there were so many interesting films that we could see.”
The Church of Rice’s childhood was embedded in a world it could largely affirm, but now, as Rice stands in her college bookstore and gazes at paperbacks by Heidegger and Sartre, Kant and Nabokov, everything that interests her is suddenly and expressly forbidden under pain of mortal sin. The index looms, not only the specific Index of Forbidden Books but the general index that governs any book that might lead a Catholic astray. Everywhere she turns, she encounters frustration and impossibility, as the Church ceases to be for her a beautiful open door, and becomes instead a wall against which she breaks.
Years later, living in San Francisco and grieving for her lost faith, Rice watches The Nun’s Story again and again, a film about a young woman who tries and fails to become a nun. Thinking about the woman’s life, and by extension about her own, Rice says: “She was guilty of the sin we imputed to Martin Luther. Because she could not be perfect according to the system, she left the system.”
By her own description, Rice was a young person of rampant enthusiasms and profane ambitions. She was also a person of almost terrifying integrity and perfectionism. If her Church was intransigent, she was a child of her Church. There was no shading or compromising for her, and seemingly no one to help her find a way to live faithfully with Absolutes. If the Church forbade her to read books she felt she had to read, then she couldn’t be a Catholic. She couldn’t even be a Christian. “My religious mind was an authoritarian mind, and when I found myself at odds with God, I couldn’t speak to Him.” Not only that, she couldn’t separate her relationship with God from her relationship with the Church. In this respect she was a true Catholic, though even now she seems not to grasp the orthodoxy of her intuition. As St Augustine expressed it, “The Church is the whole Christ”; or in Giussani’s words, “The Church is the Host of the Absolute through time.”
So she becomes an atheist, in what she calls a “catastrophe of the mind and heart,” and she tries to find in atheism a discipline and moral compass comparable to what she had known as a Catholic. This is painful reading, and it is followed by an interminable exile: decades away from the Church, described in bleak, impoverished prose. The advertisements for Rice’s book claim that she writes “movingly” about the deaths of her daughter and
husband, and about her “spectacular” career and “explosive” success. This is misleading. Rice writes movingly about the Church. But about the deaths of her mother and husband she says almost nothing, and about the death of her young daughter, even less.
As for her career: “It’s pointless to describe my whole life as an atheist, or attempt a memoir of how I became a published writer.”
In short, this is not a book about worldly success or private tragedy. Nor is it sensational. On the contrary, it is as if sensationalism and transgressive curiosity have been entirely burned out of Anne Rice. Of her secular books — books about creatures “shut out of life, doomed to marginality or darkness”—she says flatly, “These books transparently reflect a journey through atheism and back to God. It is impossible not to see this.”
During those years away from the Church, struggling with alcoholism and depression, Rice clings to the residua of Christianity still adrift in the popular culture. Every year at Christmastime, she anxiously awaits the television showings of It’s a Wonderful Life and Scrooge. Similarly, in her present life she demurs when people rail against the commercialisation of Christmas. Such people, she says, “fail to understand how precious and comforting [to people of no religion] the shop displays and music can be.”
Finally, in 1988 she moves back to New Orleans, where she and her family are welcomed with revelatory love by her extended Catholic family. From this point, her return to the Church is inevitable. There are the familiar signposts: pilgrimages; coincidences; the sensation of being pursued. But there are also unusual features. Years before returning to the Church, she begins to support it financially. Then, as inner-city churches close across America, she begins buying religious artifacts—life-size statues and other treasures—and also buildings to house them. Before she is done, she has bought up the real estate of her Catholic childhood: a childhood home that was previously a convent; a defunct Catholic orphanage, with a chapel that she lovingly restores; the mansion that housed both her mother’s Catholic high school and the Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel where she prayed as a child.
“These books transparently reflect a journey through atheism and back to God. It is impossible not to see this.”
It is as if she is creating a stage set, or trying to fashion a body out of dust. She reminds me of the man in the parable who finds a treasure in a field and buys that field, except in Rice’s case she buys her fields before the treasure of faith returns. In extravagant, painfully literal ways she tries to recover the world she has lost, but “every step is marked by sadness, and a grief on the edge of despair.” Faith itself, the priceless treasure that would make sense of her purchases, is beyond her. Her chapels and mansions are museums. Where is the living flame?
Where it always was: on the altars of the consecrated churches that still survive in the city.
When she realises this—when her childhood belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist reasserts itself—her return is sealed.
events in Scripture fit together. For example, in the gospels, Jesus simply appears at the Jordan to be baptised. Rice has decided that he would have traveled there with his family.
All of Judea, we remember as we read, went out to John to be baptised, and in The Road to Cana the family of Jesus travels with everyone else, sleeping in tents and eating with strangers, arguing about politics and the meaning of the baptism. It is the end of Jesus’ hidden life, but only Jesus and Mary realise this. Mary is sad; Jesus is sympathetic but relieved. As for Joseph - a brilliant stroke on Rice’s part - Joseph, whose work is complete, is dying. Later, when Jesus is driven into the desert by the Spirit, Satan will taunt him with the fact that he wasn’t there when Joseph died.
All of this is wonderfully done. It is a tour de force of crossreferencing, a dazzling pulling together of disparate elements. One of the tax collectors at the Jordan turns out to be Matthew. Even Herod makes an appearance, and the gauntlet is thrown down between him and John.
The very principle that drove her out - the indissolubility of Christ and his Churchbrings her back. And, as she comes back, questions and impossibilities that tormented her for years subside.
But by the end of The Road to Cana, the second book in Rice’s proposed trilogy, I became aware of a difficulty that I’m not sure the author can overcome. At the wedding at Cana, when Jesus emerges from obscurity, he is the mature Christ whose voice we have already heard. In Out of Egypt the child Jesus watches and ponders, wonders and dreams. He says little. Similarly, for most of the second book, Jesus is waiting and renouncing, and when he speaks — with patience and restraint — he is still not precisely the Jesus we know. But once he turns the water into wine, he is manifestly the Messiah who has spoken particular words to us all. And my question is, can it work, at this juncture, to add to his words in the gospels? Is it possible for anyone to speak as the mature Jesus spoke, without profanation or debasement?
In a First Things interview with Father Dwight Longenecker, Rice said about her work: “I have to never stop being afraid.”
This is reassuring if it means that she is exercising great restraint.
“He might have used the falling rain to call me back,” says Rice; “he might have used the music of Vivaldi. But no, he used the doctrine of the Real Presence.” Can she be serious? By the logic of her whole life, he could have used nothing else. The very principle that drove her out - the indissolubility of Christ and his Church - brings her back. And, as she comes back, questions and impossibilities that tormented her for years subside. There was the sense that if he knew everything, I did not have to know everything. No social paradox, no historic disaster no torment over the fate of this or that atheist or gay friend should stand between me and him. . The reason? It was magnificently simple. He knew how or why everything happened; he knew the disposition of every single soul. He wasn’t going to let anything happen by accident! Nobody was going to hell by mistake. Nowhere in this part of the book does Rice mention her daughter who died before her sixth birthday. The girl is not even named in the book, so reticent is Rice about her loss. And yet, as it lifts off her, Rice’s deep anguish over the fate of this small daughter, dying outside the Church, is unmistakable. By my estimation, her daughter died in 1973. Two years later — “It was the most deliberate thing I ever did” — Rice published Interview with a Vampire, a novel in which a six-year-old girl is bitten and ultimately destroyed by a vampire named Lestat, whom Rice has called “the voice of my soul” and “my dark search engine.” On this evidence, one can propose that the whole edifice of Rice’s vampire fiction had its origin in a terrifying anxiety: that the author herself was a kind of vampire, who had infected her daughter with atheism.
If this is true, the great grace of Rice’s conversion is that this nightmarish sense of responsibility subsides. She is not the author of life or death.
“In this great world that was [God’s] creation, he knew every plot, every character.” Not only is God omniscient, he is capable of righting every wrong. Twenty-five years and twenty-one books after the death of her daughter, Rice entrusts both herself and the people she loves to God. Freed from a lonely circle of hell, she comes back to the Church. Four years later, she confirms the choice she has made: Leaving Lestat behind, she consecrates her writing to Christ. Once Rice is back in the Church, she decides she will write a life of Jesus Christ. For years, she realises, she has been obsessed with this man. And she is long accustomed to doing historical research. So she begins to read — everything she can find that has to do with Jesus. The Index is long gone; there are no bars to her inquiry. She reads not
knowing what she will find: “Having started with the skeptical critics, I expected to discover that their arguments were frighteningly strong. . . . Surely [Jesus] was a liberal, married, a homosexual, and who knew what?”
In her childhood Rice heard talk of people “reading themselves out of the Church.” How satisfying, instead, to watch her read her way to the Truth. And for those of us who have suffered the misapplications of Vatican II, how valuable to be reminded that there were windows in the Church that did need to be opened. Even John Paul II opened his pontificate with “Be not afraid!” and “Open wide the doors to Christ!”
Preparing for her project, Rice reads not only skeptical and orthodox criticism, ancient and modern history, but Scripture itself, especially the gospels, again and again, until they cease to be a “collection of quotations” and the life of Jesus “flows through chapter and verse.” She writes about crossing a barrier in her studies, and “coaxing the gospels to life.” She says that every new examination of the text produced fresh insights, “cascades of connections,” and startling links to other parts of the canon—and all of this I can believe. When I read Out of Egypt and The Road to Cana, setting aside my prejudices and forgiving the occasional false note, something similar happened to me. Christ’s early life ceased to be a series of discrete events and familiar tableaux, and became instead a living account.
How does Rice accomplish this? Chiefly by embedding Jesus, not in a small, holy household but in a messy extended family, whose elders know things about Jesus that he doesn’t know and is trying to find out. (What happened in Bethlehem? Who is his father?) These elders are entrusted with the task of protecting and raising Jesus, even as they struggle with their individual reservations and fears.
From the trope of the hidden years, Rice has inferred that someone was hiding him, and, by the logic of first-century living, this would have been a clan, a web of individuals who have been in Egypt together and are returning to Nazareth.
There is Mary’s brother, Cleopas, loquacious and imprudent, feverish and risible. (“‘Why do you laugh?’ [Jesus asks him.] He shrugged. ‘I am still amused. . . Did I see an angel? No. I did not. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t laugh, but then again maybe I would laugh all the more.’”) There is Cleopas’ wife, Mary, crazed with anxiety when Cleopas appears to be dying, cornering the young Jesus and pulling him around hard to look at her. “Can you cure him!” she asked, her voice thick, her face glittering with tears. My mother tried to pull her away. “You can’t ask this of him. He’s a child and you know it!” Aunt Mary sobbed. There are also the Jews outside the immediate family: the rabbis at the synagogue in Nazareth, for example, who are wary of impostors and sin and reluctant to admit the young Jesus to their midst, even as Jesus’ male relatives step up behind him in strength. When critics object that these books aren’t sufficiently literary, or that their prose is naive, they miss the point. The value of the books lies in their psychological realism, in Rice’s achievement in imagining a human, fallible family, entrusted with the One who has been awaited for centuries, but entrusted with him uncertainly, ambiguously, hidden under the ordinary
aspect of a child. How would an ordinary family have handled such a responsibility? How would they have borne the strain? As for the books’ straightforward prose, what Rice is trying to convey is so complex, the simpler the prose the better. Because of Christ’s hypostatic union, there are layers and depth charges in every scene. There are wonderfully subtle passages where the family reads Scripture together, Scripture that points to Jesus; or there is the moment when Jesus, the immortal God, encounters death for the first time; or there is the scene in the Temple when James confesses his envy of Jesus, crying as he hands his birds to the blood-splashed priest.
Every sin, in an ultimate sense, is a sin against God, and the ritual of the Temple existed to atone for sin. But in this scene, James’ sin against his brother is literally a sin against God, against the great High Priest who will ultimately cancel his debt. Moreover, his sin - envy - hearkens back to the original sin. Rice doesn’t draw attention to these implications; the prose is neutral and unadorned. But the scene is not simple.
Christ’s early life ceased to be a series of discrete events and familiar tableaux, and became instead a living account.
Sometimes the tension in the books follows from the different levels of understanding of different characters, or their different approaches: the loquacity of Cleopas, for example, set against the reticence of Joseph. Other times, the depth charge is for the reader alone, as when the family passes the crucified rebels outside the walls of Sepphoris.
Again, Rice has been criticised for making use of miracles from the apocryphal infancy gospels, and I suppose a casual browser can be excused for thinking that because Out of Egypt opens with such a miracle, the rest of the book will be a string of sensational events. But this isn’t the case. Rice’s solution to the thorny problem of kenosis - What powers does the human Jesus have, and what does he know? - is both consistent and elegant. She gives us a Jesus who is groping towards an understanding that on one level he already possesses, and, at the same time, a Jesus who is learning to discipline and set aside powers that have been his from the beginning.
There are two movements in Out of Egypt in other words: one in the direction of self-knowledge, and the other in the direction of self-mastery. By the beginning of The Road to Cana, these twin tasks have been accomplished for so long that people in Nazareth are beginning to wonder if any of the old stories are true. Again, we have the human reactions to the strain of waiting and not knowing. “Where are your mighty deeds?” one character asks Jesus scornfully. And another, in secret: “Are you ever afraid that it’s all - lies?”
But Rice does more in these books than provide Jesus with a believable family. She also makes persuasive decisions about how
My hope is that in her third book she can avoid the kind of mistakes she makes at the end of The Road to Cana where a note of airy sentimentality and a few discomfiting anachronisms creep into the speech of Jesus. (“What will you do now?” Cleopas asks him. “I will go on,” Jesus says, “from surprise to surprise.”) Still, Rice has surprised me before, and, while I want her to be afraid, I am aware that it is her daring that has given us a fully human Jesus, a prodigy as alarming as it is inspiring or sweet.
When I first read Out of Egypt it was the intense fear felt by the young Jesus that most disconcerted me. What is she doing? I kept wondering. Can this possibly be right? Then I remembered the icon that hung in the chapel where Rice prayed as a child, the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, which shows a small, frightened Jesus clinging to his mother for comfort, while hovering angels show him the instruments of his passion.
The icon is attributed to St Luke, who was in the confidence of Mary, and, here as elsewhere, Rice takes tradition at its word.
Moreover, she makes fear in general, and fear of death in particular, almost the defining mark of our fallen humanity, the proof that Jesus has come in flesh. As St Paul writes, “He himself partook of the same nature, that through death he might deliver all those who through fear of death were subjected to lifelong bondage.”
In The Road to Cana it isn’t fear but love that alarms the reader: romantic, human love; the love of a man for a woman. On the second page of the book, we learn that Jesus loves his young kinswoman, Avigail. Again, I felt afraid. Where is she going with this? Be assured: Rice goes nowhere in the book that isn’t orthodox. Jesus is celibate. He doesn’t marry. Where he is going, no one can go with him. But in the meantime, he loves Avigail. Then he tells us, “It fell hard on me suddenly that I would sometime soon be standing among the torchbearers at her wedding.” Again, I was taken aback, this time pleasurably. This was artful and almost thrilling: So the wedding at Cana will turn out to be Avigail’s wedding. Then I realised something else. This means that when Jesus changes the water into wine, he will do it for a person whom he loves.The personal is political, the saying goes. For the Christian, the personal is theological, or more accurately, the theological is always, at the deepest level, personal. Jesus comes for all humanity, but he comes for us as individuals. He loves us as individuals, suffers for us as individuals, works miracles for us as individuals, dies for us as individuals. There is nothing remote or abstract about it, because in order to redeem us, he became a human being - as close to us as the small boy who stands at James’ side in the Temple, as close as a lover. This is our faith, but how hard it can sometimes be to believe. When Jesus eventually lets Avigail go, comforts her, redeems her reputation that has been damaged in an unrelated event, and even provides for her future with another man by giving her the treasure from the magi as a dowry, Avigail says sadly,
“You’re really the child of angels.” “No, my beloved,” he says. “I’m a man. Believe me, I am.”
husband, and about her “spectacular” career and “explosive” success. This is misleading. Rice writes movingly about the Church. But about the deaths of her mother and husband she says almost nothing, and about the death of her young daughter, even less. As for her career: “It’s pointless to describe my whole life as an atheist, or attempt a memoir of how I became a published writer.”
In short, this is not a book about worldly success or private tragedy. Nor is it sensational. On the contrary, it is as if sensationalism and transgressive curiosity have been entirely burned out of Anne Rice. Of her secular books — books about creatures “shut out of life, doomed to marginality or darkness”—she says flatly, “These books transparently reflect a journey through atheism and back to God. It is impossible not to see this.”
During those years away from the Church, struggling with alcoholism and depression, Rice clings to the residua of Christianity still adrift in the popular culture. Every year at Christmastime, she anxiously awaits the television showings of It’s a Wonderful Life and Scrooge. Similarly, in her present life she demurs when people rail against the commercialisation of Christmas. Such people, she says, “fail to understand how precious and comforting [to people of no religion] the shop displays and music can be.”
Finally, in 1988 she moves back to New Orleans, where she and her family are welcomed with revelatory love by her extended Catholic family. From this point, her return to the Church is inevitable. There are the familiar signposts: pilgrimages; coincidences; the sensation of being pursued. But there are also unusual features. Years before returning to the Church, she begins to support it financially. Then, as inner-city churches close across America, she begins buying religious artifacts—life-size statues and other treasures—and also buildings to house them. Before she is done, she has bought up the real estate of her Catholic childhood: a childhood home that was previously a convent; a defunct Catholic orphanage, with a chapel that she lovingly restores; the mansion that housed both her mother’s Catholic high school and the Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel where she prayed as a child.
“These books transparently reflect a journey through atheism and back to God. It is impossible not to see this.”
It is as if she is creating a stage set, or trying to fashion a body out of dust. She reminds me of the man in the parable who finds a treasure in a field and buys that field, except in Rice’s case she buys her fields before the treasure of faith returns. In extravagant, painfully literal ways she tries to recover the world she has lost, but “every step is marked by sadness, and a grief on the edge of despair.” Faith itself, the priceless treasure that would make sense of her purchases, is beyond her. Her chapels and mansions are museums. Where is the living flame?
Where it always was: on the altars of the consecrated churches that still survive in the city.
When she realises this—when her childhood belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist reasserts itself—her return is sealed.
“He might have used the falling rain to call me back,” says Rice; “he might have used the music of Vivaldi. But no, he used the doctrine of the Real Presence.” Can she be serious? By the logic of her whole life, he could have used nothing else. The very principle that drove her out - the indissolubility of Christ and his Church - brings her back. And, as she comes back, questions and impossibilities that tormented her for years subside.
There was the sense that if he knew everything, I did not have to know everything. . . . No social paradox, no historic disaster . . . no torment over the fate of this or that atheist or gay friend should stand between me and him. . . . The reason? It was magnificently simple. He knew how or why everything happened; he knew the disposition of every single soul. . . . He wasn’t going to let anything happen by accident! Nobody was going to hell by mistake. Nowhere in this part of the book does Rice mention her daughter who died before her sixth birthday. The girl is not even named in the book, so reticent is Rice about her loss. And yet, as it lifts off her, Rice’s deep anguish over the fate of this small daughter, dying outside the Church, is unmistakable.
By my estimation, her daughter died in 1973. Two years later — “It was the most deliberate thing I ever did” — Rice published Interview with a Vampire, a novel in which a six-year-old girl is bitten and ultimately destroyed by a vampire named Lestat, whom Rice has called “the voice of my soul” and “my dark search engine.” On this evidence, one can propose that the whole edifice of Rice’s vampire fiction had its origin in a terrifying anxiety: that the author herself was a kind of vampire, who had infected her daughter with atheism.
If this is true, the great grace of Rice’s conversion is that this nightmarish sense of responsibility subsides. She is not the author of life or death. “In this great world that was [God’s] creation, he knew every plot, every character.” Not only is God omniscient, he is capable of righting every wrong. Twenty-five years and twenty-one books after the death of her daughter, Rice entrusts both herself and the people she loves to God. Freed from a lonely circle of hell, she comes back to the Church. Four years later, she confirms the choice she has made: Leaving Lestat behind, she consecrates her writing to Christ. Once Rice is back in the Church, she decides she will write a life of Jesus Christ. For years, she realises, she has been obsessed with this man. And she is long accustomed to doing historical research. So she begins to read — everything she can find that has to do with Jesus. The Index is long gone; there are no bars to her inquiry. She reads not knowing what she will find: “Having started with the skeptical
critics, I expected to discover that their arguments were frighteningly strong. . . . Surely [Jesus] was a liberal, married, a homosexual, and who knew what?”
In her childhood Rice heard talk of people “reading themselves out of the Church.” How satisfying, instead, to watch her read her way to the Truth. And for those of us who have suffered the misapplications of Vatican II, how valuable to be reminded that there were windows in the Church that did need to be opened. Even John Paul II opened his pontificate with “Be not afraid!” and “Open wide the doors to Christ!”
Preparing for her project, Rice reads not only skeptical and orthodox criticism, ancient and modern history, but Scripture itself, especially the gospels, again and again, until they cease to be a “collection of quotations” and the life of Jesus “flows through chapter and verse.” She writes about crossing a barrier in her studies, and “coaxing the gospels to life.” She says that every new examination of the text produced fresh insights, “cascades of connections,” and startling links to other parts of the canon—and all of this I can believe. When I read Out of Egypt and The Road to Cana, setting aside my prejudices and forgiving the occasional false note, something similar happened to me. Christ’s early life ceased to be a series of discrete events and familiar tableaux, and became instead a living account.
How does Rice accomplish this? Chiefly by embedding Jesus, not in a small, holy household but in a messy extended family, whose elders know things about Jesus that he doesn’t know and is trying to find out. (What happened in Bethlehem? Who is his father?) These elders are entrusted with the task of protecting and raising Jesus, even as they struggle with their individual reservations and fears.
From the trope of the hidden years, Rice has inferred that someone was hiding him, and, by the logic of first-century living, this would have been a clan, a web of individuals who have been in Egypt together and are returning to Nazareth.
There is Mary’s brother, Cleopas, loquacious and imprudent, feverish and risible. (“‘Why do you laugh?’ [Jesus asks him.] He shrugged. ‘I am still amused. . . . Did I see an angel? No. I did not. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t laugh, but then again maybe I would laugh all the more.’”) There is Cleopas’ wife, Mary, crazed with anxiety when Cleopas appears to be dying, cornering the young Jesus and pulling him around hard to look at her.
“Can you cure him!” she asked, her voice thick, her face glittering with tears.
My mother tried to pull her away. . . .
“You can’t ask this of him. . . . He’s a child and you know it!”
Aunt Mary sobbed.
There are also the Jews outside the immediate family: the rabbis at the synagogue in Nazareth, for example, who are wary of impostors and sin and reluctant to admit the young Jesus to their midst, even as Jesus’ male relatives step up behind him in strength. When critics object that these books aren’t sufficiently literary, or that their prose is naive, they miss the point. The value of the books lies in their psychological realism, in Rice’s
achievement in im with the One who with him uncertain aspect of a child. H such a responsibili As for the books convey is so compl of Christ’s hyposta in every scene. Th family reads Script there is the momen death for the first James confesses hi the blood-splashed Every sin, in an ritual of the Templ James’ sin against against the great H Moreover, his sindoesn’t draw attent and unadorned. Bu
Christ’s ear discrete even became inste
Sometimes the t levels of understan approaches: the loq the reticence of Jos reader alone, as wh side the walls of Se Again, Rice has from the apocryph browser can be exc opens with such a of sensational even thorny problem of have, and what do She gives us a Jesu that on one level h Jesus who is learni been his from the
There are two m in the direction of tion of self-master twin tasks have be Nazareth are begin true. Again, we hav and not knowing. asks Jesus
magining a human, fallible family, entrusted has been awaited for centuries, but entrusted nly, ambiguously, hidden under the ordinary How would an ordinary family have handled ity? How would they have borne the strain?
s’ straightforward prose, what Rice is trying to lex, the simpler the prose the better. Because atic union, there are layers and depth charges ere are wonderfully subtle passages where the ture together, Scripture that points to Jesus; or nt when Jesus, the immortal God, encounters time; or there is the scene in the Temple when is envy of Jesus, crying as he hands his birds to d priest. ultimate sense, is a sin against God, and the le existed to atone for sin. But in this scene, his brother is literally a sin against God, High Priest who will ultimately cancel his debt. - envy - hearkens back to the original sin. Rice tion to these implications; the prose is neutral ut the scene is not simple.
rly life ceased to be a series of nts and familiar tableaux, and ead a living account.
tension in the books follows from the different nding of different characters, or their different quacity of Cleopas, for example, set against seph. Other times, the depth charge is for the hen the family passes the crucified rebels outepphoris. been criticised for making use of miracles hal infancy gospels, and I suppose a casual cused for thinking that because Out of Egypt miracle, the rest of the book will be a string nts. But this isn’t the case. Rice’s solution to the kenosis - What powers does the human Jesus es he know? - is both consistent and elegant. us who is groping towards an understanding he already possesses, and, at the same time, a ing to discipline and set aside powers that have beginning. movements in Out of Egypt, in other words: one fself-knowledge, and the other in the direcry. By the beginning of The Road to Cana, these en accomplished for so long that people in nning to wonder if any of the old stories are ve the human reactions to the strain of waiting “Where are your mighty deeds?” one character lly. And another, in secret: “Are you ever afraid
that it’s all - lies?”
But Rice does more in these books than provide Jesus with a believable family. She also makes persuasive decisions about how events in Scripture fit together. For example, in the gospels, Jesus simply appears at the Jordan to be baptised. Rice has decided that he would have traveled there with his family.
All of Judea, we remember as we read, went out to John to be baptised, and in The Road to Cana the family of Jesus travels with everyone else, sleeping in tents and eating with strangers, arguing about politics and the meaning of the baptism. It is the end of Jesus’ hidden life, but only Jesus and Mary realise this. Mary is sad; Jesus is sympathetic but relieved. As for Joseph - a brilliant stroke on Rice’s part - Joseph, whose work is complete, is dying. Later, when Jesus is driven into the desert by the Spirit, Satan will taunt him with the fact that he wasn’t there when Joseph died.
All of this is wonderfully done. It is a tour de force of crossreferencing, a dazzling pulling together of disparate elements. One of the tax collectors at the Jordan turns out to be Matthew. Even Herod makes an appearance, and the gauntlet is thrown down between him and John.
The very principle that drove her out - the indissolubility of Christ and his Churchbrings her back. And, as she comes back, questions and impossibilities that tormented her for years subside.
But by the end of The Road to Cana, the second book in Rice’s proposed trilogy, I became aware of a difficulty that I’m not sure the author can overcome. At the wedding at Cana, when Jesus emerges from obscurity, he is the mature Christ whose voice we have already heard. In Out of Egypt, the child Jesus watches and ponders, wonders and dreams. He says little. Similarly, for most of the second book, Jesus is waiting and renouncing, and when he speaks — with patience and restraint — he is still not precisely the Jesus we know. But once he turns the water into wine, he is manifestly the Messiah who has spoken particular words to us all. And my question is, can it work, at this juncture, to add to his words in the gospels? Is it possible for anyone to speak as the mature Jesus spoke, without profanation or debasement?
In a First Things interview with Father Dwight Longenecker, Rice said about her work: “I have to never stop being afraid.”
This is reassuring if it means that she is exercising great restraint. My hope is that in her third book she can avoid the kind of mistakes she makes at the end of The Road to Cana, where a note of airy sentimentality and a few discomfiting anachronisms creep into the speech of Jesus. (“What will you do now?” Cleopas asks him. “I will go on,” Jesus says, “from surprise to surprise.”) Still, Rice has surprised me before, and, while I want her to be afraid, I am aware that it is her daring that has given us a fully human Jesus, a prodigy as alarming as it is inspiring or sweet.
When I first read Out of Egypt, it was the intense fear felt by the young Jesus that most disconcerted me. What is she doing? I kept wondering. Can this possibly be right? Then I remembered the icon that hung in the chapel where Rice prayed as a child, the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, which shows a small, frightened Jesus clinging to his mother for comfort, while hovering angels show him the instruments of his passion.
The icon is attributed to St Luke, who was in the confidence of Mary, and, here as elsewhere, Rice takes tradition at its word. Moreover, she makes fear in general, and fear of death in particular, almost the defining mark of our fallen humanity, the proof that Jesus has come in flesh. As St Paul writes, “He himself partook of the same nature, that through death he might deliver all those who through fear of death were subjected to lifelong bondage.”
In The Road to Cana, it isn’t fear but love that alarms the reader: romantic, human love; the love of a man for a woman. On the second page of the book, we learn that Jesus loves his young kinswoman, Avigail. Again, I felt afraid. Where is she going with this? Be assured: Rice goes nowhere in the book that isn’t orthodox. Jesus is celibate. He doesn’t marry. Where he is going, no one can go with him. But in the meantime, he loves Avigail. Then he tells us, “It fell hard on me suddenly that I would sometime soon be standing among the torchbearers at her wedding.” Again, I was taken aback, this time pleasurably. This was artful and almost thrilling: So the wedding at Cana will turn out to be Avigail’s wedding. Then I realised something else. This means that when Jesus changes the water into wine, he will do it for a person whom he loves.The personal is political, the saying goes. For the Christian, the personal is theological, or more accurately, the theological is always, at the deepest level, personal. Jesus comes for all humanity, but he comes for us as individuals. He loves us as individuals, suffers for us as individuals, works miracles for us as individuals, dies for us as individuals.
There is nothing remote or abstract about it, because in order to redeem us, he became a human being - as close to us as the small boy who stands at James’ side in the Temple, as close as a lover. This is our faith, but how hard it can sometimes be to believe. When Jesus eventually lets Avigail go, comforts her, redeems her reputation that has been damaged in an unrelated event, and even provides for her future with another man by giving her the treasure from the magi as a dowry, Avigail says sadly, “You’re really the child of angels.”
“No, my beloved,” he says. “I’m a man. Believe me, I am.”
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“What takes away your peace of soul cannot come from God.”– St Josemaria
Escriva
The news that Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel lived a “double life…not appropriate for a Catholic priest” shocked me. Of course, the details of Father Maciel’s crimes – at least one child, a mistress, multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against seminarians - floored Catholics all over the world, not least those thousands who found in Maciel’s spirituality and witness something worthy, and true.
By John Heard
I have had next to nothing to do with Maciel’s movements, but they have touched my life. The respected newspaper National Catholic Register is published in the United States by individual members of the Legionaries of Christ, and its editorial board has endorsed my online outreach to other same sex attracted Catholics.
There are also many other good, holy men and women who operate under the banner of the groups Maciel founded. Today, their grief must be great indeed.
The Legionaries, however, will try to go on, and they must have our prayers during this time of trial. The details of the reckoning, cleansing, and re-ordering they face will become clear in the years ahead. There is an opportunity for institutional reform, and there will be a time for personal and public accounting.
In the meantime, however, I want to echo and explore the sentiments of Father Owen Kearns LC, the publisher of the National Catholic Register, who wrote that he was “saddened and humbled” by the revelations. Saddened, sure, but why humbled?
That word, the very idea that someone associated with Maciel, but otherwise unaware of his failings, would be humbled nonetheless, is important. I might submit that it is extremely important, for it tells us something about Christianity.
Indeed, to go further, I might even reveal that I was deeply humbled by this news. Not, of course, because I had spent time – like Father Kearns – defending Maciel against the mounting accusations. Rather becauseagain like Kearns, I’m guessing - I must recognise in Maciel’s failings something like the mystery of evil (mysterium iniquitatis) that Pope John Paul the Great discussed in 2002.
I am humbled because that recognition cannot save me from a linked understanding. This is the Christian’s acknowledgement that he is always a flawed servant of Christ, and that my sins are as real and terrible as any other man’s. God help me, indeed, they might be worse.
Certainly, those who defend the Church and work for her good have need for caution, and we must cultivate prudence. A revelation like this gives all of us cause to re-interrogate ourselves.
For, even laymen can come to think that as long as our public statements are doctrinally correct, and our witness is appropriately Catholic, it doesn’t matter so much what we do “off the record”. The truth is, of course, that our private actions, and our personal lives – while not properly the focus of prurient public interest – obviously will count for or against us when the general account of our lives is rendered before God.
In my line of work, face-to-face with my same sex attracted brothers and sisters, the requisite disclaimers – “of course, I am no saint”; “we are all sinners”; “I am no better than anyone else” – can come too easily to hand. What begins as an honest acknowledgement of personal weakness, a necessary reckoning with one’s failures and sinfulness - what was solidarity and love –too often becomes a near-impenetrable shield.
I am guilty of using this shield to delay, suppress, or otherwise thwart a more profound personal reconversion to the standard of the Gospel.
Worse, I am guilty of using this shield to dismiss, silence, and pre-empt those who would call me to a more enlightened discipleship.
I am guilty, my friends, of some variation of Maciel’s sin, if only entertaining the idea that a Christian’s life can be compartmentalised - for Christ here, and for something else there - as though He has not come to save us totally, as if He doesn’t demand our whole lives, for Him.
In this time of reckoning, experienced across the Catholic world, may we come to the peace that St Josemaria Escriva (the leader of another recent Catholic movement – albeit a mercifully untainted one) extolled. May we have right relations with a jealous God. In death, may Father Maciel come to that same peace.
John Heard is a Melbourne writer.
I say I say
By MarkReidy
Astrange thing has happened to me recently – I have become inspired by my own inadequacy.
My metamorphosis from reasonably self-assured citizen has probably been a lifetime in the making, but it became more pronounced during a recent viewing of the movie Valkyrie, the story of WWII German Colonel, Claus von Stauffenberg.
Stauffenberg was a husband and father of five children who knew that treason equated to death under Nazi rule, yet he chose to be the primary instigator of Adolph Hitler’s assassination.
Not long before the attempt, the 36-year old colonel had said that when faced with an evil regime one had to choose between action and inaction and he believed there could be only one choice. He paid for that choice with his life.
I left the cinema inspired by his courage, but there was also an itch of discomfort within me as I wondered how I would have responded in his situation.
This awareness of my shortcomings was confirmed soon after, when I read an article by an overseas Bishop, who suggested that any Christian who did not feel the pain of every single abortion, did not truly know the heart of
In the course of a quite bizarre diatribe against historian Andrew Roberts’s fascinating book A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, a reviewer called RJ Stove sneers that Mr Roberts evidently does not know that: “the sole universally obeyed moral law [is that] there are no universally obeyed moral laws.”
If Mr Stove is claiming that no-one obeys all moral laws all the time, he is being, to put it mildly, unoriginal.
The Christian Church has always taught that we are all sinners and noone keeps the moral law perfectly. Christianity exists to redeem sinful Mankind and if Mankind obeyed all moral laws Christianity would not be necessary.
However, if Mr Stove is actually trying to say that there are no generally acknowledged moral laws, this is just plain wrong.
The major religious and ethical systems of Mankind, arising in all manner of differing societies throughout history, have very close agreement both on the fact that there are moral laws and what these laws specifically contain, althoughthere may be differences of emphasis. When one examines the codes of Ancient Egypt or Babylon, of the Vikings or Buddhists or Confuscians, or of remote indigenous tribespeople, one finds extraordinarily similar injunctions: to be honest and tell the truth, to honour one’s parents, to be charitable to the old, to children, to the poor and sick and so forth. These
God. Among other things, it made me realise how impassive I had become to the increasing number of children who were killed before they had even been born.
I had been able to successfully translate lives into statistics so that I could emotionally distance myself from the horrific reality.
“I read an article by an overseas bishop who suggested that any Christian who did not feel the pain of every single abortion did not truly know the heart of God.”
It made me think that there was a good chance that I would have been among those in Nazi Germany who allowed themselves to be carried along by the tsunami of evil, and justified my inaction with facades of ignorance or powerlessness. Because this is the same rationale that allows me to alienate my mind from those who die from starvation and thirst each day, those who have been traded into sexual slavery, those who are victims of abuse as well as from the plight of single mothers and fatherless children and the list goes on.
It allows me to excuse myself from the burdens of those who are suffering every day.
I can bury their existence in the deep recesses of my mind so that I do not have to deal with the reality of their pain. So why am I so inspired by this
humiliating self-discovery? Because it reminds me of how much I need God. It reminds me of how my heart is hardened when I take my eyes from Him and focus only on the world around me. It reminds me that my life will become self-absorbed if I do not continually seek to know the heart of God. But most of all, it gives me hope to know that when I am faced with the choice between action and inaction, I will know what God requires of me, and by His grace I will be able to transcend my own inadequacies.
mark_reidy@hotmail.com
appear to be immutably necessary for any viable society, and receive lipservice even when they are not always obeyed.
The questions asked to test the soul’s righteousness in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead are instantly recognisable to us.
In 621 BC, the Indian ruler Asoka, horrified by the suffering of war in the Kalinga Campaign, came to desire for all animated things: “security, self-control, peace of mind and joyousness.”
“The questions asked to test the soul’s righteousness in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead...”
Examples could be multiplied without difficulty. Many are to be found in the appendix to C. S. Lewis’s wonderful little book, The Abolition of Man
The often blood-thirsty Vikings still had the Elder Edda say: “Man is man’s delight,” and Confucius said the people should be multiplied, enriched and instructed. These values are part of the intrinsic shape of human nature and civilisation.
When the first skeleton of Neanderthal Man was examined, scientists came to the conclusion that Neanderthals were a brutish, utterly sub-human race with hideously twisted limbs.
Later examination showed the skeleton was that of a crippled and abnormal individual, unable to walk, who must have been cared for by others until dying at an advanced age.
Christianity was not an innovation. It took the more-or-less universallyaccepted moral code already the common property of Mankind and extended it.
To the negative: “do not harm your
neighbour” it added the positive “love and help your neighbour” – plainly not an innovation but a development further in same direction.
C. S. Lewis said of this that of course the morals of Christianity were not novelties and that “our faith is not pinned on a crank.”
The Apostles were able to convert Jews, Greeks, Romans and other peoples of the ancient world with a promise of redemption from sin because they all spoke a common moral language: their hearers already knew perfectly well what sin and redemption were, and understood why the gospel was “good news.”
Even people who break the moral law pretend to obey it by appealing to some special aspect of it which they claim takes precedence over the rest. There is a common moral law, and all mankind is bound to it. To believe otherwise is to lead to horror.
Guy Crouchback: production@therecord.com.au
Fr Anthony Paganoni, Scalabrinian, continues this week with the second of a series of articles on a fascinating story, a long-running successful initiative in youth ministry in the province of Lombardy, Italy
Tony Paganoni, Scalabrinian
Intriguing developments in Youth Ministry
In the beginning there was St Philip Neri, the historical founder of the Oratorio (1515-1595). Then there came Maddalena Gabriella di Canossa, the foundress of the Canossian Sisters (1774-1835). Finally, John Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, came onto the scene (1815-1888).
In no time, the Oratorio came to be identified with youth ministry, a good way of keeping the dialogue going between the local parish community and its youth.
In spite of recent ups and downs, it remains the cornerstone of the Church’s presence among young people, particularly in the north of Italy.
“Leave him alone, don’t you see that he’s one of my friends?”, remarked the young St John Bosco to an over-zealous sacristan about to rebuke a delinquent adolescent at the back of the church.
It was December 8, 1841 in the church in Turin named after St Francis of Assisi.
The boy did not quit the church and a few of his friends, orphans without family, decided to join him. St John Bosco befriended them, giving them schooling and instruction in the faith. These are still the basic ingredients of the Oratorio’s program. Today the Oratorio caters for both boys and girls without distinction.
Earlier, in the middle of the 16th century, St Philip Neri had founded a religious community, with the two fold objective of studying the Bible and looking after youth.
In the early years of the 19th century, Magdalen of Canossa welcomed some street children into her convent, to the amazement of a good number of people, in the cities of Verona and Venice.
The oratorio which is usually a physical structure, sometimes but not always connected to the Church building, has been and still is the beehive of a local parish community for its youth.
There are about six thousand of them in the whole of Italy, with about 3000 in the region of Lombardy. It is not a question of providing structures or physical
space for youth activities. It is far more.
Fr Maximilian Sabbadini, President of the Italian Oratori Forum (FOI), remarks: “Facilities such as a cinema, playing fields, recreation rooms and rooms for religious instruction are important, but young and mature leaders are at the heart of it.”
“And the youth respond. At the moment, there are a million and a half young people participating regularly in the Oratorio activities.”
In Italy there are about 250,000 volunteers continually and actively engaged in the oratori, contributing their time,
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energy and educational skills. “The mainstay of any oratorio is the daily presence of catechists, sports enthusiasts, people responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of facilities”.
And the youth respond. At the moment, there are a million and a half young people participating regularly in the Oratorio activities.
That reaches three million if we include the many who come and go, with variable degrees of commitment. This census reflects the placement of the FOI under the pastoral leadership of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
The FOI brings together 40 leaders in the field, representing lay and religious associations running youth ministries. Its main purpose is to monitor developments within the vast number of oratori and facilitate the cross-fertilising of the experiences gained.
To be continued...
The Holy Spirit really exploded into my life when I first attended a Set My People on Fire Seminar. The seminar was run by Flame Ministries International (FMI). The following year I joined FMI and was invited to be the moderator for intercessory prayer in 1996. During that time I was still running my own business. At work I often received requests for prayers for special intentions. It was a very fertile time of growth for me.
That same year my son Glen left Perth to live overseas. I somehow knew that he was never going to come home to live again. The only way a mother can let her child go is to just offer him up to Our Lady. I also asked the Lord to let me know if ever he was in trouble so I could pray. Glen moved to England in January and that April I had a compelling urge to pray. I prayed throughout the night. I came out of that prayer knowing that Glen’s life had been saved. There was an inner understanding of the power and magnitude of God’s love. I was also aware of my smallness compared to God and my dependence on Him.
with Debbie Warrier
Later I found out that Glen’s life had been in danger. He had a severe case of bronchial pneumonia. To add to his misfortune, someone had stolen his money whilst he was ill. We managed to get him back to England for treatment and he was very sick for three weeks. However, the main thing was he was alive.
Later that same year I travelled to Europe. While I was there I nearly died. I was in Rome where I became so sick I needed to be hospitalised. During that hospital admission I had this sense of standing before Jesus and knew that I could step over the line into His arms.
To almost die is the most wonderful experience. There was no fear, just a sense of peace. I knew I could leave everything behind and that my loved ones would be OK. Jesus was present. He smiled but He didn’t hold out His arms to me and I knew that I was supposed to return.
In that instance there was no pain. However, following that experience my recovery was very painful. I had some sort of anaphylactic shock and finished up with bronchial pneumonia as well. I wasn’t well enough to come home but I was well enough to go to Florence. Florence is the most wonderful place to recuperate! It was marvellous.
I do remember one night my lips were very swollen and I had a painful rash. It was itchy too. For some reason I had the urge to praise God. During this I felt my lips deflate as if someone had stuck a pin into them. From that point on I began to get
I came back to Perth and sold my business to devote my life to the Lord. I was able to set up an intercessory prayer seminar. I have run this seminar in Western Australia, England, and Singapore. I have a passion for prayer. I believe that God can do what He says He can do because I have had proof of it in my own life.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -
When people control their passions and desires, they can direct their energy toward total love of God and serving others, Pope Benedict XVI said.
“Passions are not bad in themselves” but can lead to bad behaviour if they are not controlled, the Pope said on February 11 during his weekly general audience.
The pope’s talk focused on St John Climacus, the sixth-century author of “Scala Paradisi” (“Ladder of Paradise”), a stepby-step explanation of how to grow and mature in the spiritual life.
The audience talk marked a return to the Pope’s audience series on the great Christian writers of early Christianity.
Once the year of St Paul began last June, Pope Benedict interrupted the series to dedicate 20 audience talks to the life and writings of the apostle.
Pope Benedict said St John Climacus’ work divides the Christian spiritual journey into three phases: cultivating “spiritual infancy,” or the attitude of a child totally dependent on God; “spiritual combat” against human passions through the cultivation of spiritual virtues; and obtaining “Christian perfection” through faith, hope and love.
For St John Climacus, he said, spiritual combat is not a negative exercise in the sense of ridding one’s life of desires, but rather takes the positive approach of cultivating virtues so that passion becomes a source of energy and of true longing for union with God.
“According to St John, passions are not bad in themselves. They only become so because of the negative way people with their freedom use them. If they are purified, passions set people energetically on the path toward God,” the Pope said.
Pope Benedict said it was legitimate to ask, “Can the writing of a hermit and monk who lived 1,500 years ago say something to us today?”
“At first, it would seem that the answer must be ‘no, he is too far removed from us.’ But if we look more closely we see that his monastic life is simply a great sign for the baptismal life of every Christian written in capital letters while we write each day with lowercase letters,” the Pope said.
The Pope told the estimated 8,000 people at his audience that, in reading the work of St John, “For me it is particularly important that the highest point of the ladder, the top rungs, are at the same time the basic, initial, most simple virtues: faith, hope and love. They aren’t virtues that are accessible only to moral heroes. They are virtues that are gifts of God and in which our life grows.”
Faith obviously comes first because it is through faith that people renounce their arrogance and self-centeredness, recognising that God is the creator and ruler of all, he said.
Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on February 25, begins the season of Lent.
Each year, thousands of Australians forego what they want in order to give to others who need. One important way you can do this is by supporting Caritas Australia’s annual Project Compassion appeal, writes Jack de Groot.
THE devastation of the Victorian bushfires is utterly horrifying.
Hundreds of people lost their lives, thousands of other lives have been irrevocably changed. Australia is in mourning and the recovery will take many years.
Insurance companies can put a figure on the lives lost, houses burnt and people affected by the bushfires but we cannot, and will never be able to quantify the horror, the loss, the sadness and the emotional scars.
Nothing can lessen or diminish the significance of these bushfires in the history of Australia – this weekend will be remembered forever. The intensity of feelings – loss, pain and sadness - can never be measured.
Communities have been torn apart by the savagery of nature.
The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 claimed the lives of around 300,000 people. More than 120,000 people were killed in the province of Aceh alone. Last year when Cyclone Nargis struck landfall in Burma over 80,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people were directly affected.
Every single day 27,000 children die from poverty related causes, succumbing to pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, HIV/ AIDS, neonatal complications and other illnesses. At least two thirds of these deaths are entirely preventable.
Whilst in Australia we grieve our lost family members and friends and attempt to piece together so many fractured lives, we get an understanding of the personal impacts that the statistics can never convey.
As the ripples of each family member or friend that has been lost in the fires reverberate out across our community, so too do the impacts of poverty, so often reduced to inhuman numbers, gain their full meaning.
Just as those who lost their lives in the fires were daughters or sons, brothers or sisters, fathers or mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and community members, so too were the people in Aceh, Burma and everywhere else where poverty claims lives every day.
The outpouring of generosity for those affected by the bushfires is so typical of Australians. When people are in desperate need we dig deep, regardless of our own economic concerns.
It is easy to forget those who we cannot see who are suffering so much. Yet we must never lose sight of the way in which, despite our own hardships, we can help others. It is in our interests to create a just world for everyone.
Currently, with over one billion people living on less than US$1 a day, extreme poverty is a harsh and devastating reality for far too many families and communities.
At Caritas Australia, we continue to respond to disasters that occur around the world and importantly we also implement long term development projects in poor communities.
Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion gives all Australians an opportunity to help improve the lot of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. In this way they are then able to protect themselves against preventable loss and damage well into the future.
This year’s Project Compassion theme, ‘an environment to grow in’ highlights how important it is to have positive and healthy surroundings in order to lead a better life.
In Uganda, Caritas Australia is supporting a Caritas Lugazi sustainable agriculture project which gives subsistence farmers the opportunity to manage their land sustainably and improve household food security.
Before joining the program Teopista found it difficult to feed her family, let alone pay the school
fees for her children. But she has learnt to make the most of her small plot of land and through organic farming, a cow and a goat from a loan system, water tanks and facilities to ensure better hygiene and sanitation, Teopista now produces enough from her farm to feed her family, pay the school fees and sell her excess produce.
When Teopista and other rural farmers saw improvements in their own lives, they chose to support vulnerable members of their community by creating Good Samaritan Clubs.
Farmers visit people who are elderly or those suffering from HIV/AIDS, and tend their farms or take them food.
This spirit of sharing with and caring for others, despite the difficulties we may face ourselves, is a powerful one that encapsulates the very essence of the work of Caritas and our annual Lenten appeal, Project Compassion. We thank you for your compassion for the most vulnerable in our world. In many ways, this is the true expression of our humanity.
Jack de Groot is the CEO of Caritas Australia, the aid and development agency of the Catholic Church in Australia.
Spanish artist hopes her art opens people’s hearts to God’s love.
■ By Jackie TaylorWASHINGTON (CNS)Contemporary artist Maria Tarruella hopes her first US exhibit can open the hearts of people around her to the love of God.
“He knows who he has to communicate to. I hope I’m humble enough and open enough to hear his voice and listen to where he wants to take me,” she stated.
“In my work, I ask the Lord to come bless me and use me.
The art comes from a conversation between us,” Tarruella said in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service from Philadelphia. Her exhibition, titled “Hope,” contains 13 layered collage pieces
depicting images of God’s presence in our daily lives. The exhibition will debut on February 27 at White Stone Gallery in Philadelphia.
St Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century mystic, served as an inspiration for Tarruella’s art. She said she admired the saint’s ability to combine mysticism and a businesslike attitude in her life.
“We always have our daily fights and it’s about seeing how we can give our day-to-day lives to the Lord and let him come into our minute, little paths in life,” said Tarruella.
Living in the US for a little more than a year, Tarruella said she noticed a different attitude toward religion in the States.
“People in Europe are much more reserved about their faith. Speaking about religion is quite personal and private. People are taken aback if you speak openly about God,” she noted.
Tarruella admires the fact that Americans speak much more can-
didly about faith in God. Born in the predominantly Catholic country of Spain, Tarruella rarely practised her faith growing up.
She experienced a renewal of her faith during a 1989 encounter with the late Pope John Paul II in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Hearing the Pope’s words, Tarruella felt an intense heat in her heart and recognised the sensation as a sign to communicate God’s message to others.
For the “Hope” exhibit, Tarruella created layered pieces, using wax, acrylic paint, metallic paint, tissue paper, iron powder and ashes on raw linen canvas. Each material is symbolic of Tarruella’s faith.
“Our daily life is filled with information, junk mail, bills, papers and notes. I would get a pile of coupons from the cashier at the grocery store and just crumple them up and throw them away. Then I thought that cashier had cared enough and taken time to give those coupons to me. I should
not be throwing them away,” said Tarruella.
So, instead, she used the newspaper clippings, receipts and coupons in her art. Tarruella placed the papers on a canvas, praying for everyone that made it possible for those things to reach her hands, she said.
Tarruella created her own paint to cover the collage. She “applied the Holy Spirit” to her work, she said, by gently placing tissue paper over the paint, which gave a “sense of peace” to the art. Applied over the tissue paper, wax acts as a symbol of God’s action in our lives, she said. “Like God’s love, the wax is burning, but it is also tender.”
“Hope” will be installed in gallery rooms with lights that can be turned on or off when visitors are viewing the art. Tarruella uses a bright fluorescent paint hidden beneath several layers. When the lights are off, the concealed paint becomes visible, giving further
Most people think the Vatican is centuries or milenniums old. But how many Catholics know that the world’s smallest state is only 80?
■ By Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) - The smallest nation in the world is celebrating a relatively young 80th birthday this year.
Although the Catholic Church has a 2000-year history, Vatican City State was established on February 11, 1929, to guarantee that the Holy See and the Pope could freely carry out their spiritual mission of confirming Christians in the faith and guiding the universal Church. The transition from the Papal States to nationhood was a long and bumpy road.
Starting in the eighth century, the Church wielded temporal power over what was known as the Papal States, a shifting group of territories across parts of modernday Italy.
The popes at the time were territorial sovereigns and, as such, had to deal with the unpleasant risks
and worries of foreign powers bent on invasion, rival Roman emperors and powerful Roman families vying for control of the papacy.
In the 19th century, revolutionaries fought against papal control in their struggle to unify Italy and the Papal States dissolved in 1870 after Rome and the surrounding territories were annexed to a unified country covering the entire peninsula.
A dispute with the Italian government over the sovereignty of the Holy See kept popes confined inside the walls of the Vatican from 1870 to 1929.
The dispute, which became known as the Roman Question, did not seem to have a quick and easy answer.
On the one hand, Italy had legitimate aspirations “to finally achieve its own state unity and, among other things, to designate as its capital Rome, which had been its point of reference for millennia,” said a front-page article in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, on February 11.
But on the other hand, it said, Rome was the see of Peter and his successors. The Holy See legitimately needed a formal and effective guarantee of its independence and freedom, “which are absolutely necessary for the pontiff in order to
meaning and dimension to the work.
“Even in the darkness, there is always light. God will guide you through the dark to where Jesus is,” Tarruella said.
People around the world have responded positively to her art, she
said, regardless of their religion or background.
“One time a lady saw my painting from the street and came into the gallery. She stood in front of the painting and looked at it. She suddenly began to cry because she was so moved by the painting. She had heard a voice calling her to open her heart,” said Tarruella.
Tarruella was born in Madrid and moved to London at the age of 9. She graduated from American University in Paris with a bachelor’s degree in European cultural studies and a concentration in art history. She attended the University of Bellas Artes in Barcelona, Spain, to study fine arts. Tarruella also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.
Tarruella has worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, and in London and Madrid for Sotheby’s Auction House, one of the world’s oldest
houses.
pope and Vatican seminaries were razed to make way for the building of a governor’s office.
The administrative office would come to coordinate the functions of some 20 agencies today, including the Vatican Museums and the offices responsible for security, personnel and building maintenance throughout the territory.
The governor’s office continues to oversee all the new buildings that were erected under Pope Pius’ direction, including the Vatican’s railway station, electrical generating plant and radio.
While building a nation out of hilly fields and gardens may have seemed daunting, the Vatican did receive some technical and material help from Italy and even the United States.
The US Western Electric Company and Bell Telephone Laboratories built and supplied the shortwave radio receiver that was used by the newly founded Vatican Radio.
The receiver still works and is turned on so visitors to the exhibition can hear, amid a lot of static, Vatican Radio programming.
ROME (CNS) - In preparation for opening the sainthood cause of the late Vietnamese Cardinal Francois Nguyen Van Thuan, the Diocese of Rome is looking for letters, manuscripts, diaries and anything else written by him.
carry out his spiritual mission on a universal level,” the paper said.
No pope wanted to compromise his task as shepherd of the universal Church by being under the control and authority of a sovereign leader.
Years of negotiations under Pope Pius XI finally resulted in a resolution. Vatican officials and Italy’s Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed the Lateran Pacts of 1929 in which the Vatican and the Italian state recognised each other as sovereign nations.
Pope Pius, who is considered the founder of the new nation, now had an enormous, nonspiritual task before him: planning and building all the infrastructure that would be needed for the smooth functioning of an independent state on 109 acres of land.
How Vatican City State was built up nearly from scratch is at the centre of a new exhibit open in the Braccio di Carlo Magno hall in St Peter’s Square until May 10.
With wall-sized photographic displays and original artifacts from that period, the exhibit aims to send the visitor back in time to witness the birth of a unique nation.
Old maps show how, behind St Peter’s Basilica, acres of vineyards and vegetable gardens that had supplied homegrown goods to the
Pope Pius had invited the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, to build the radio broadcasting station, which was inaugurated in 1931. The exhibit shows a medium wave antenna, a carbon microphone and other instruments Marconi designed for Vatican Radio.
The US International Telephone and Telegraph Corp., known as ITT, published the Vatican’s first telephone book in 1930 and the church in the United States provided the Vatican with state-of-the-art equipment and technology for setting up its first central telephone exchange that same year.
A 1931 census report in the exhibit shows 711 people held Vatican citizenship and another 283 noncitizens were resident within its walls, for a total population of 994.
The vast majority of citizens and residents were Italians. The second largest group was formed by the Swiss, almost all of whom were members of the Swiss Guard protecting the pope.
The residents included 23 women, many of whom were married to members of the Swiss Guard. The census that year registered the births of five boys and six girls, who, by virtue of being born on Vatican territory, automatically became Vatican citizens.
In the February 12 edition of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, the diocese published a notice asking anyone who has something written by the cardinal or has information “favourable or contrary to the reputation of holiness” of the cardinal to contact the diocesan tribunal.
Silvia Monica Correale, the official promoter of Cardinal Thuan’s cause, told Catholic News Service that she was not certain when the diocese formally would open the process for his beatification and canonisation, but collecting and analyzing his writings was an important preparatory step.
Vietnam’s communist regime jailed the cardinal in 1975 when he was the newly named coadjutor archbishop of Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City. He was never tried or sentenced and spent nine of his 13 years of detention in solitary confinement. His uncle was South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic who was assassinated in 1963.
After Cardinal Thuan’s release in 1988, the communist authorities refused to let him resume his post or to be reassigned to the Archdiocese of Hanoi. The prelate fled to Rome in 1991.
Yet another WA Catholic school has been swift to act to help Victorian bushfire victims.
THE families and students of La Salle College in Middle Swan have donated 93 boxes of goods to the victims of Victoria’s bushfires for families who have lost everything.
The total collection came to three pallets and was freighted to Melbourne by college parent Tim Hawdon through his company Exportair.
The pallets were due to arrive in Melbourne about the time The Record went to press on Tuesday.
The college’s outstanding effort came after a letter was sent by school authorities home to families on February 10.
Two days later everything was ready.
Liaising with the St Vincent de Paul Society in Melbourne the collection was divided into House groups.
Students from Benildus House collected toothpaste and tooth brushes; those from La Salle House collected baby food and bottles; students from MacKillop House collected underwear; McCormack House students and families collected socks; those from Mutien House provided toiletries; and students from Solomon House collected baby clothes.
Students also wrote letters of support, encouragement and offering prayers to those who would be receiving the college’s donations.
Year 8 student Thomas Dodds said: "I have experienced in recent times sadness through loss and felt nobody else should have to deal with their loss, even essential material possessions.”
“I have been listening to the news and saddened by the loss of so many homes. By donating the baby products hopefully it will help families who are in need.”
Year 12 Head Boy Luke Zaffino said the school’s generosity had not surprised him.
“When it comes to helping those in need La Salle really digs deep. The families will always be in our prayers. This tragedy has taught us not to take things for granted."
Year 9 student Joseph Iannolo said the experience of helping others through their difficult time was something he would never forget. “Just donating and packing items was a small gesture of our support for those in need. I wish the families all the best,” he said.
St Norbert’s College community gather for Mass to kick off the new school year, sharing in a key reminder of the sharing of one faith.
ON February 15 the St Norbert College community gathered on the school oval at 6.30pm to celebrate the beginning of another school year for its students.
The College currently has 730 students; so when students, staff, immediate and close family gather together it becomes a wonderful celebration of well over one thousand people. The Mass reminds us that we are all one with common goals and common beliefs. Above all, we are a supportive, loving community for one another.
St Norbert College is a Catholic coeducational college (Years 8 to 12) with a proud tradition, strong values and sense of community. Founded in 1965, the College operates under the auspices of the Norbertine Canons, a religious order of priests and brothers.
They educate our students in a caring and friendly environment on a campus which features spacious grounds and modern facilities. Located near the border of Queens Park and Cannington, the College offers affordable, quality education and pastoral care.
Picture and words from The life of
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Prayer: Jesus, even when I think that my parents or friends are upset with me, I know you will welcome me. Amen
Jesus always had a special love for children. He always welcomed them and gave them his special blessing, He held them close to his heart
Crowds always gathered around Jesus wherever he went. Most people did not understand how Jesus healed and performed other miracles, but they knew he was special, and they hoped he would help with their needs.
After Jesus returned to Capernaum, such a large crowd came to see him that they surrounded the house where he was staying. Rather than try to find a quiet place where he could pray, Jesus preached to the people.
Pushing their way through the crowd were four men who were carrying one of their friends who was paralyzed. The men could not get near Jesus, so they tried a different route. They climbed up onto the roof of the house. They made a hole in the roof that was large enough for the cot their friend was on to fit through. Then they lowered the cot down with ropes.
When Jesus saw the cot coming down into the house, he was impressed by the faith and determination of the men. He said to their paralyzed friend, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Week with this beautiful colouring in. Congratulations! Your FREE gift will be posted to you.
St Tarasius
Tarasius (d. 806) served as the chief secretary to Emperor Constantine VI and was nominated to become the patriarch of Constantinople. He had access to all the comforts his position provided, yet he chose to live very simply.
After a time when religious images were forbidden by the empress, Tarasius met with the members of an ecumenical council in Nicea in 787. The council decided religious images would be allowed if the images were not worshiped. Rather, they said, the people portrayed in the images could be honoured.
Later in his life, Tarasius refused to consent to the divorce and remarriage of the emperor. The emperor tried many tricks to force Tarasius to change his mind, but he failed. The emperor eventually was replaced by Nicephorus, who allowed Tarasius to live in peace.
We honour Tarasius on February 25.
According to Mark 2, who were the first two apostles chosen by Jesus?
Simon (Peter) and Andrew.
After the following books of the New Testament, write G if it is a Gospel or E if it is an epistle (letter):
There were scribes in the crowd who saw what Jesus did and heard what he said. They said to each other, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus knew what the scribes were saying, so he said to them, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?”
Jesus paused so the scribes could think about what he had just said.
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth,” Jesus said, looking down at the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat and go home.”
Immediately the crippled man stood up, carried the mat he was carried in on and headed for home. Everyone who saw what happened was amazed. Many people praised God for his goodness.
Others said, “We have never seen anything like this.”
After that Jesus went to be near the sea. Crowds followed him there as well, and he preached to them too.
READ MORE ABOUT IT: Mark 2
1. Why did the men climb up on the roof?
2. What did Jesus tell the paralytic to do?
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Saturday February 21
50 YEARS CELEBRATION OF DOMINICAN EDUCATION
6.30pm at Holy Rosary School, Doubleview; Mass followed by picnic tea in the school grounds. Enq: www. holyrosarydblv.wa.edu.au, follow link to Golden Jubilee, or 9446 4558.
Sunday February 22
CARITAS AUSTRALIA
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF PROJECT COMPASSION
11am Mass at St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral, corner Shepperton Road and Harper Street, Victoria Park, Celebrant: Bishop Don Sproxton.
Monday February 23
TLW OPEN SESSION
7.30pm at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary Street, Highgate; join us for our free monthly seminar on understanding and living chastity particularly for young people. Featuring an inspiring and convincing DVD presentation, Romance without regret, summarising why chastity makes sense. Enq: Julie Anne 0438 447 708.
Monday February 23
CATHOLIC PASTORAL WORKERS ASSOCIATION
EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
5.30pm at St Catherine’s House of Hospitality, 113 Tyler Street, Tuart Hill, celebrant Fr Paschal Kearney followed by dinner. Cost $12. RSVP by February 19 to Margaret on 9390 8365 or Maranatha 6380 5160.
Tuesday February 24
CARITAS AUSTRALIA
SHROVE TUESDAY – PANCAKE LUNCH
12noon to 1.30 pm at Catholic Pastoral Centre Seminar Room, 40A Mary Street, Highgate - Parking off Harold Street, Guest Speaker, Dr Haridas from Caritas India. Cost: Gold coin donation, RSVP Essential 9422 7925.
Thursday February 26
ALAN AMES HEALING MINISTRY
7pm St Bernadette’s Catholic Church, Jugan Street, Glendalough, Mass followed by talk and healing service. Enq: Loretta 9444 4409.
Friday February 27
MEDJUGORJE - EVENING OF PRAYER
7pm at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Scarborough Beach Road, Scarborough. An evening of Prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace, commencing with Adoration, Rosary, Benediction followed by Holy Mass. Evening concludes at 9pm. Free DVD’s on Fr Donald Calloways conversion available on night. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480.
Friday February 27
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY
CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS
7pm at St Gerard Majella, 37 Changton Way, Mirrabooka; praise and worship, 7.30pm Stations of the Cross. A time to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.
Saturday February 28
NOVENA DEVOTIONS TO OUR LADY OF GOOD HEALTH, VAILANKANNI
5pm at Holy Trinity Church, Embleton followed at 6pm by Vigil Mass. Enq: 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.
Saturday February 28 to Sunday March 1
A LENTEN JOURNEY WITH ST PAUL
9am at Redemptorist Retreat Centre, North Perth. In search of inner peace and quiet this Lent? Come and be inspired and enlightened by St Paul’s conversion and his call to be an apostle of Christ with Fr Hugh Thomas. Residential or Non-residential: Cost includes all meals and accommodation. Registration: Hilda 9354 8568 Gertrude 9455 6576 / 0411 262 221, Rose 0403 300 720.
Saturday February 28
ST PADRE PIO DAY OF PRAYER
8.30am at St Peter The Apostle, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. St Padre Pio DVD, 10am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy Adoration and
Benediction. 11am Mass, using St Padre Pio liturgy, celebrant Archbishop Barry Hickey and attending priests welcome to concelebrate.12noon bring plate for shared lunch, tea and coffee provided. Enq: 6278 1540.
Saturday February 28
INNER HEALING RETREAT FOR YOUTHS
9am-5pm St Aloysius Church, 84 Keightley Road, West Shenton Park. Prayers for inner and physical healing led by the Vincentian Fathers. Prior registration required and is free. Lunch and tea provided. Enq: vcparackal@rediffmail.com or 9381 5383.
Sunday March 1
DIVINE MERCY
1.30pm at St Joachim’s Church Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. Holy Rosary, and Reconciliation. Sermon on St Joseph, by Fr Tiziano Bogoni, followed by Divine Mercy Prayers and Benediction. Refreshments, followed by DVD/Video on ‘Surrender is not an option’ with Fr John Corapi. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.
Sunday March 1 to Thursday March 5
LENTEN MINI MISSION - ONE HOUR SESSIONS
SUCCESS: FULL LIVING
7pm, March 1 and 7.30pm March 2-5 sessions commence and sessions repeated from 9.30am on March 2-5, at Our Lady of the Mission Parish, Whitford, with Fr Justin Belitz, OFM. Experience God’s healing love in ListeningSilence-Music, all welcome. Refreshments provided. Enq: 9307 2776.
Wednesday March 4
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY
CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS
7pm at St Brigid, Aberdeen Street, Northbridge. Praise and worship, 7.30pm Stations of the Cross. A time to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you, reconciliation and healing Service. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.
Friday March 6
PRO-LIFE WITNESS
9.30am, Mass at St Brigid’s, Midland, followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.
Friday March 6 to Sunday March 8
ALL NEW AUTUMN WEEKEND RETREAT
7.30pm, Dardanup Retreat House. A time to reflect on God’s creation, and the passage of time, in a new season. Enquiries and bookings: Sr Shelley Barlow, 9271 3873.
Friday March 6 to Sunday March 8
SEPARATED, DIVORCED, WIDOWED
7pm at Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne. Beginning Experience is running a program designed to assist and support people in learning to close the door gently on a relationship that has ended in order to get on with living. Enq: Helen 6246 5150 or Maureen 9537 1915.
Saturday March 7
WITNESS FOR LIFE
8.30am, Mass at St Augustine’s, Gladstone Road, Rivervale followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic, led by Fr Paul Carey SSC. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.
Saturday March 7
DAY WITH MARY
9am to 5pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 265 Flinders Street, Nollamara; 9am Video on Fatima. Day of prayer and instruction based upon the Fatima message. Reconciliation, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.
Friday March 13
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY
CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS
7pm at St Gerard Majella, 37 Changton Way, Mirrabooka; praise and worship, 7.30pm Stations of the Cross. A time
to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.
Sunday 15 March
150TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
ST PATRICK YORK – ORIGINAL CHURCH
10.30am Mass concelebrated by Archbishop Barry Hickey followed by launch of the Parish history - Glorious Apostle - and a luncheon picnic, bring lunch and a chair. Please join in the solemnities and festivities. Drinks provided and Parish history book will be on sale. Enq: 9641 1477.
Wednesday March 18
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY
CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS
7pm at St Brigid, Aberdeen Street, Northbridge, praise and worship, 7.30pm Stations of the Cross. A time to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you, reconciliation and healing Service. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.
FRIDAY MARCH 20
MEDJUGORJE - EVENING OF PRAYER
7pm at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Square, 77 St.George’s Terrace, Perth. An evening of Prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace, commencing with Adoration, Rosary and Benediction followed by Holy Mass. Evening concludes at 9pm. Free DVD’s on Fr Donald Calloway’s conversion available on night. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480.
Friday March 20 to Sunday March 22
SAINT PAUL’S RETREAT
7pm at God’s Farm, Fr Tony Chiera VG, weekend Retreat Master, on St Paul. Luxurious bus hired, direct from Perth and return, limited seats. God’s Farm is 40km south of Busselton. Bookings to PO Box 24, Cowaramup, WA 6284, or Betty 9755 6212, or Yvonne 9343 1897.
Saturday March 21
PRAYER VIGIL FOR PEACE
6pm-9.30pm at Redemptorist Monastery, 190 Vincent Street, North Perth. Spend some time with us in prayer for peace in war torn countries, peace in our local communities, peace in our home and peace within ourselves. Enq: Jeanette 9370 4690.
Friday March 27
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY
CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS
7pm at Santa Clara, Corner Coolgardie and Pollock Street, Bentley, Stations of the Cross. A time to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.
Every 1st and 3rd Sunday of Each Month
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL SINGERS CHOIR
9.30am at St Joachim’s Pro Cathedral, Victoria Park. We are seeking new members to join us – be part of singing at the refurbished St Mary’s Cathedral. Full training provided. Enq: Michael 041 429 4338 or michael@ michaelpeters.id.au
Every Tuesday
THE GOSPEL OF ST MATTHEW - BIBLE COURSE
7.30pm St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepparton Road, Victoria Park. Exciting revelations with meaningful applications that will change your life. Meetings incorporate a Novena to God the Father. Light refreshments will follow. Bring along your Bible, a notebook and a friend. Enq: Jan 9284 1662.
Every Tuesday
THEOLOGY OF THE BODY FOR TEENS
6.30pm to 7.30pm beginning 24 February at Holy Spirit, City Beach DVD by Christopher West will be shown for 12 weeks, with breaks over Easter. Young and experienced facilitators will assist discussion in small groups following each DVD viewing. Cost, free. Intended age group, 16-18. Enq: 9341 3079, HolySpirit.Parish@perthcatholic.org.au
Every Wednesday THE JULIAN SINGERS
7.30pm to 9.30 at the Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor Street, East Perth. Inviting any interested people for rehearsals to see if they may like to join the choir. We are a liturgical choir and also perform an annual charity concert. Enq: Chris 9276 2736 or Angela 9275 2066.
Every First Friday of the month ST PADRE PIO - LATIN MASS
7.30pm at St Joseph’s Church, 22 Hamilton Street, Bassendean. Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered in honour of St Padre Pio. The Latin Mass is also offered every Monday evening - except the third week of the month at 7.30pm. All welcome.
Third Sunday of the Month OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT
2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York Street, South Perth. Oblates affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey New Norcia welcome all who are interested in studying the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude meetings. Enq: 9457 5758.
Every Sunday DIVINE MERCY PRAYER AS NOVENA
3pm St Aloysius Church, 84 Keightley Road, West Shenton Park. An opportunity for all to gather once a week and say the powerful Divine Mercy, Eucharistic Adoration, healing prayers followed by Holy Mass at 4pm. Enq: 9381 5383.
Every 1st Thursday of the Month PRAYER AND MEDITATION SERVICE USING SONGS FROM TAIZE
7.30pm at Our Lady of Grace, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. The service is a prayerful meditation in which we sing beautiful chants from Taize together, spend time in prayerful, meditative silence, bathed in candlelight reflecting upon themed readings. Enq: Beth 9447 0061.
MEMORIES OF AFRICA CHOIR
Calling all to come and join this small but vibrant group. Come let us sing and praise God with the African melody and rhythm. Enq: Bibiana, 9451 6602 after 6pm.
Every First Friday and Saturday of month COMMUNION OF REPARATION – ALL NIGHT VIGIL 7pm Friday at Corpus Christi Church, Mosman Park, 47 Lochee Road. Mass with Fr Bogoni and concluding with midnight Mass. Confessions, Rosaries, prayers and silent hourly adoration. Please join us for reparation to Two Hearts according to the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357.
Every First Friday
HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE
7pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins Street, Glendalough. Mass celebrated by Fr Saminedi. 7.30pm, Adoration with Fr Don Kettle. All welcome. Refreshments provided.
Every Sunday LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT
The Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered every Sunday at 2pm at the Good Shepherd Parish, 40-42 Streich Avenue, Kelmscott, with Rosary preceding. All welcome.
Every 4th Sunday of the Month
HOLY HOUR PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE
2-3pm at Infant Jesus Church, Wellington Road, Morley. The hour includes exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Let us implore God to pour an abundance of new life into our Church, open our hearts and those of the young people of the world to hear His Word for us now, today. All welcome! Enq: 9276 8500.
LEPROSY is not a thing of the past. It still affects millions of people worldwide. The Leprosy Mission is working to bring hope and a future to people affected by leprosy as it works to help them to integrate back into their community and live with peace, dignity and feeling of self-worth.
Leprosy…the facts
• Leprosy is medical condition that is curable today. The myths, social stigma and fear which still surround leprosy make it more of a problem than just a medical condition.
• Leprosy can be cured with Multi
– Drug Therapy (MDT) in 6 – 24 months, (WHO recommendations) depending on an individual’s immunity and the number of bacilli present - but many need to be treated for longer.
• MDT renders even the most severe cases non-infectious within 48 hours of treatment.
• Between 450,000 and 700,000 new cases of leprosy are still being diagnosed each year.
• While research is integral in seeking answers to today’s dilemmas to provide better care tomorrow, especially in the areas of disability prevention, leprosy researchers worldwide have still not been able to produce an effective vaccine.
• Over three million people worldwide already have serious disabilities such as permanent loss of feeling in their limbs or severely disabled feet, hands or faces due to nerve damage.
Most countries have integrated leprosy work into government primary health services. This has improved accessibility for patients, although busy health workers strain to address multiple health issues, which often means non-urgent leprosy cases do not get the attention they require.
TLM supports government health services by providing training and technical expertise to improve standards of treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment should prevent irreversible disability and associated stigma.
SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
In this last Sunday before the beginning of the Lenten season, the gospel depicts Jesus continuing his healing ministry. A paralytic is placed on a pallet and lowered through a roof in order to get near Jesus. Jesus rewards the man’s trust in him by forgiving his sins first and then healing his physical disability. Jesus makes a connection between spiritual healing and physical healing, and in doing so, proclaims the kingdom of God in a unique way. In what unique ways, given the divine gifts bestowed on us, have we proclaimed the kingdom of God?
For further information on how stewardship can build your parish community, call Brian Stephens on 9422 7924.
22 S 7TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Gr Isa 43:18-19.21-22.24-25 Forget the past
Ps 40:2-5.13-14 Heal my soul
2Cor 1:18-22 In Jesus always Yes Mk 2:1-12 Jesus forgives
23 M ST POLYCARP, BISHOP, MARTYR (M)
Red Sir 1:1-10 Wisdom from the Lord
Ps 92:1-2.5 The Lord is king
Mk 9:14-29 Disciples and scribes
24 T Sir 2:1-11
Compassionate Lord
Ps 36:3-4.18-19.27-28.39-40 God will help Mk 9:30-37 Disciples afraid
25 W ASH WEDNESDAY Vio Joel 2:12-18 Come back to me
Ps 50:3-6.12-14.17 Spirit of fervour
2Cor 5:20-6:2 Favourite time
Mt 6:1-6.16-18 The Father rewards
26 TH Vio Deut 30:15-20 Life or death
Ps 1:1-4.6 Winnowed chaff Lk 9:22-25 Christ’s followers
27 F Vio Isa 58:1-9 What type of fast?
Ps 50:3-6.18-19 Have mercy on me Mt 9:14-15 Feasting and fasting
28 S Vio Isa 58:9-14 The clenched fist
Ps 85:1-6 You are my God Lk 5:27-32 A great reception
■ AVAILABLE
Willetton single room for female student in family home, on bus to Curtin or Murdoch uni.
$150.00 Ph: 0416 815 804.
■ DUNSBOROUGH
Beach cottage, 3 bedrooms, sleeps 7, 300m to Quindalup beach. Great price for Dunsborough! Tel: Sheila 9309 5071 / 0408 866 593 or email: shannons3s@optusnet.com.au.
■ BRICK RE-POINTING Phone Nigel 9242 2952.
■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD
For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 9444 1200.
■ BRICKLAYING
20 years exp. Quality work. Ph 9405 7333 or 0409 296 598.
■ PICASSO PAINTING Top service. Phone 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.
BOOK REPAIRS
■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS
General repairs to books, old bibles & missals. 2ndhand Catholic books avail. Tydewi Bindery 9293 3092.
■ CHRISTIAN SINGLES
Widowed, divorced or never married. All age groups. Meet-for-Drinks, Dinner Seminars and Individual Dates. Phone 9472 8218. Tues-Fri 10am - 6pm. www.figtrees.com.au
Notice is hereby given that Joanna Lisa Lawson of 6 Sewell Place, Hillarys, WA 6025, being duly authorised by the Branches Project intends to apply to the Commissioner for Consumer Protection on 9.02.2009 for the incorporation of The Branches Project Inc. The Association is formed for the purpose of educating, employing and empowering the exploited working poor.
English/tutor, primary specialist, reading/writing, spelling and comprehension. Single/group, limit of four. Diagnostic placement test. Maggie 9272 8263 or 0438 946 621.
■ CATHOLICS CORNER
Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for baptism, communion and confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.
■ RICH HARVEST – YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP
Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, baptism/communion apparel, religious vestments, etc? Visit us at 39 Hulme Court (off McCoy St), Myaree, 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve.
■ OTTIMO
Shop 108 TRINITY ARCADE (Terrace Level) Hay St, Perth Ph 9322 4520. Convenient city location for a good selection of Christian products/ gifts. We also have handbags, fashion accessories. Opening hours Monday-Friday 9am-6pm.
EFFECTIVE LEGAL, family owned law firm focusing on property settlements and wills. If
Missionary reflections on this Sunday’s Gospel; Mark 2: 5
“…My child, your sins are forgiven…”
Being welcomed by people with no home of their own, being invited to be with them, sharing with them what little they had, being accepted by them, it was all such a privilege for me during my seven years of mission service in the refugee camps of Africa. But it was much more than that. I was made to feel at home by people who had no home, and in a way I cannot clearly explain or even fully understand, I felt forgiven. Interested in overseas missionary experience, then call Catholic Mission on 9422 7933
A Popular overview of the Catholic Faith
By Leonard Foley, OFMThe Best-selling Believing in Jesus cap- tures the Christian’s continuing journey of faith, ever new, ever alive-yet always founded on God’s steadfast love for us. In 27 chapters written in a lively style, Foley covers the complete spectrum of Catholic faith, leading the reader from early Old Testament times through a world “starting over” in Jesus to the end- time, when Jesus will come again and we will share fully in his life.
$19.95 + P/H
Archbishop Sheen compares each of Our Lord’s seven words with Our Blessed Mother’s chronologically corresponding words, reflecting the secret of sanctity, confidence, the search for religious meaning, the purpose of life, and more.
$13.95 + P/H
Dismantling Dawkins Case Against God
By Dr Scott Hahn & Dr Benjamin Wiker
In a lively and fair analysis, Hahn and Wiker expose the shoddy reasoning, logical blunders, and factual errors of Dawkins’ bestseller The God Delusion. Along the way, Hahn and Wiker offer a cogent and convincing argument for God’s existence.
$26.95 + P/H
The Everlasting Story
By Lois RockThis retelling faithfully draws together the moving episodes recounted in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark Luke and John. The pictures have been specially adapted from The Lion Bible: Everlasting Stories, which received widespread acclaim.
$16.95 + P/H
By Rev. Norm Langenbrunner Father Langenbrunner, a gifted homilist and pastor, provides thoughtful insights and practical guidance for moving for- ward each day this Lent. He challenges us to read the Scriptures for Mass each day, memorise a verse from the Bible, reflect on the readings, pray and act.
$5.95 + P/H
Year Round Activities for Catholic Families
By Mary Cronk FarrellThis book seeks to provide you with practical help in teaching your children Christian val- ues and fostering faith in everyday family life. Chapters offer ways to celebrate the church’s liturgical year, as well as secular holidays. You will find simple explanations of the church sea- sons and major holy days. Scripture readings, simple prayers, rituals and activities are sug- gested throughout, as well as true stories from family life meant to inspire, encourage and offer food for thought.
$24.95 + P/H
A Saint for Our Time
By Joan MonahanMartin de Porres is often summed up with flew sweet words about his healing powers and love of animals. Four hundred years again, the illegitimate son of a freed slave and a Spanish nobleman, Martin challenged society’s ideas about humanity, social justice, and the love of God. This new biography paints and in-depth por- trait the Dominican lay brother, revealing his steel will, endless compassion, and intense love of God.
$19.95 + P/H
In this moving retelling, Bob Hartman gets right to the heart of the Easter story evoking both its sorrow and its expected joy. Luminous illustrations mirror the story’s changing moods, from the murky shadows of darkness to the sparkling exuberance of life and light. The Easter Angel is a memorable book to return to year after year..
$16.95 + P/H
