The Record Newspaper 02 March 2011

Como Ordinariate Festival attracts strong interest

Catholics and Anglicans tell large audience at Catholic parish why the new Anglican Ordinariate is such a progressive step

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

TWO Perth Catholics explained the personal significance of the new Anglican Ordinariate in Australia to an audience at Holy Family parish in Como last Saturday, 26 February.

Many of those gathered were Traditional Anglicans who will soon be members of the Catholic Church’s Anglican Ordinariate.

The festival launching the Anglican Ordinariate (a nongeographical diocese) in Perth was hosted by Perth Traditional Anglican Communion Bishop Harry Entwistle as a measure to

explain the details of the new structure.

Robert Andrews, a PhD student at The University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle who wrestled with becoming a Catholic for ten years, said the Apostolic Constitution is one of a number of Pope Benedict XVI’s moves to attempt to unify the Body of Christ.

“I’ve often emphasised to people who have some criticism of the Anglican Ordinariates that this ‘Anglican spirituality’ is Please turn to Page 16.

Anglican Ordinariate Festival related coverage: Pages 15-17.

Christchurch earthquake kills workers who restored St Mary’s Cathedral organs

BY ANTHONY BARICH

TWO workers who worked onsite in Perth to restore and install the Dodd and Hobday organs in St Mary’s Cathedral in the lead up to its December 2009 completion were killed during the 22 February earthquake that devastated Christchurch.

A third worker from the South Island Organ Company, who had not worked in Perth, was also killed.

Dead are company co-founder Neil Stocker and factory employee Scott Lucy who were part of a team of eight dismantling an organ at the Durham St Methodist Mission

Church in Christchurch which had been damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake when the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck at lunchtime on 22 February. Both had worked on the St Mary’s organs.

Also killed was company worker Paul Dunlop, who had not worked in Perth on the Cathedral organs. Their bodies were recovered on 23 February after search teams, first with sniffer dogs and later heavy equipment, worked through the night of 22 February searching the debris for them.

South Island Organ Company

restored and rebuilt St Mary’s Cathedral’s Dodd and Hobday organs during 2008-2009, installing both organs in the Cathedral from September in readiness for the Cathedral’s opening on 8 December 2009.

Mr Stocker had been with the company for 42 years.

“As factory foreman, Neil made a very significant contribution to the St Mary’s Cathedral organ restorations, working extensively both in the factory in New Zealand and here in Perth at the Cathedral during the installation,” Director Please turn to Page 3

Peter Hannon, a ‘cradle Catholic,’ tells listeners at the Anglican Ordinariate Festival at Holy Family parish, Como last Saturday why he is excited about the new Church structure soon to be a reality in Australia.

PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

Neil Stocker, at far right, who was killed in the 22 February earthquake that devastated Christchurch, pictured in midSeptember 2009 when the Dodd organ was being installed in St Mary’s Cathedral’s choir-loft. The organ’s windchests and frames are seen.

PHOTO: COURTESY JACINTA JAKOVCEVIC

Medjugorje phenomenon packs out

BY MAT DE SOUSA

HUNDREDS packed out St Mary’s Cathedral to pray the Rosary on 22 February with Ivan Dragicevic, one of six people from Medjugorje in BosniaHerzegovina who claim Mary has spoken to them hundreds of times since 1981.

Perth Frs Tiziano Bogoni, Tim Deeter, Andrew Nahas, Paul Carey and Doug Harris concelebrated a Mass with NSW priest Fr Andrew Grace, during which the latter gave a homily on his personal experience and conversion in Medjugorje and the importance of Mary to the thousands of Catholics who travel there annually.

These priests also heard Confessions throughout the event.

alleged apparition to occur. There was no grand spectacle; in fact most people did not know who Ivan was until he got up from his seat and started his talk later on in the evening. Fr Andrew’s homily touched upon the many conversions and stories of lifechanging encounters reported by people at Medjugorje.

After Mass, Ivan was introduced to the congregation and he asked the congregation to join him in the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary.

His hour long talk was encapsulated in three major themes – the first that Our Lady comes to us not as a bearer of grave news, nor the bearer of an apocalyptic message, but as a mother.

This was one of the most prominent themes as it could be seen in the way Ivan referred to Our Lady and the tone and manner of the messages, as Ivan says that “every time Our Lady appears to us she says ‘Dear children of mine’”.

Ivan talked about how Our Lady comes to him as a mother looking out for her children, a mother who loves us all as Ivan repeats and who wants to take us on the right path when we are heading towards no good.

In the alleged apparitions, Our Lady

After the Rosary, it was time for the

This action was a testimony to what was not a talk on the alleged apparitions of Our Lady but a plea to the congregation to listen to the messages that she has given to mankind through him as an “instrument in her hands and in God’s hands”.

Continued on Page 3

Catechesis on the Mass Workshop

Classifieds/Panoramas/Subscriptions

These evenings will offer an opportunity to reflect on the spiritual and theological understanding of the Mass using the “Become One Body, One Spirit in Christ” DVD resource. 2 Hour workshops from 7.30PM—9.30PM

Tuesday 1st March St Simon Peter Parish, Ocean Reef. (Northern Zone)

Tuesday 5th April St Cecilia’s Parish, Floreat. (Claremont Zone)

Wednesday 6th April Sacred Heart Parish, Thornlie (Queens Park Zone)

Tuesday 3rd May St John Paul Parish, Willetton. (Canning Zone)

Tuesday 21st June St Anthony’s Parish, Greenmount. (Guildford Zone)

Thursday 14th July St Mary’s Parish, Leederville. (Central Zone)

Tuesday 2nd August Our Lady of Lourdes, Rockingham. (Fremantle Zone)

St Mary’s Cathedral

Continued from Page 2 radiates the name of “queen of peace” as she thanks “my dear children” for having responded to her call.

He said that though God has given him much, He expects much back and it is the responsibility of this “great gift” that he says he deals with every day.

The second theme of Ivan’s talk was one of peace - how Our Lady reminds him repeatedly of how

peace must reign among mankind, how peace is only God and we must open ourselves to that peace.

The third theme focused on prayer. Ivan explained with great emotion how in this world there is a destruction of morals due to the fact that prayer has left the family and is no longer said daily.

The next Medjugorje evening of prayer will be on Friday, 25 March at All Saints Chapel, 77 St George’s Terrace, Perth, from 7-9pm.

Organ workers killed in quake

Continued from Page 1 of Cathedral Music and Principal Organist Jacinta Jakovcevic said. Mr Lucy was also briefly in Perth at the Cathedral during the installation.

“Neil Stocker’s great dedication to his work on the Cathedral’s organ restoration and the genuine care with which he approached his work is an example of the great care and dedication with which he approached all of his work – the result of this is apparent each time

we hear and sing with these two great instruments,” Miss Jakovcevic told The Record

“He will be so sadly missed.”

The organ in the church was being removed to be stored in Timaru while a decision on the church’s future was being made.

South Island Organ Company director John Hargraves told the Timaru Herald that the job was not rushed into, and they had waited for the building to be thoroughly checked and given clearance before the removal started.

Ivan Dragicevic, who reportedly received daily visits from Our Lady, addresses an attentive audience via a translator in St Mary’s Cathedral on 22 February. Several clergy of the Archdiocese, below, concelebrated Mass for the evening as well.

German-born Thomas ordained Deacon at Whitfords

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

ARCHBISHOP Barry Hickey

ordained Thomas Zureich to the Diaconate for Perth Archdiocese on 24 February at Our Lady of the Mission parish, Whitford. In his

homily, Archbishop Hickey stressed that the first lesson anyone in Holy Orders must learn is to be of service to those in need, to those who are hungry, both physically and spiritually. He said that those who receive

the gifts of Holy Orders and the priesthood are not to lord it over others but to serve, following the example of Jesus Christ who washed the soiled feet of the Apostles and said He wanted them to do the same. “Service is funda-

Odhran and Jade tie the knot

Special Pilgrimage in 2011 RWANDA AND KENYA

Departing 11 August 2011 (12 days)

Enjoy a pilgrimage that will change your life forever.

Experience a spiritual renewal as we visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho, visit holy places and the ruins of the genocide. Learn about the Rwandan culture with Immaculée as your personal guide.

Come and join Immaculée Ilibagiza on a very special spiritual journey to Rwanda! You’ll be in Kibeho for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, spending eight days in Rwanda including a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho. You will also have two nights in Nairobi, Kenya.

Inclusions will be three days in Kigali, five days in Kibeho and two nights in Nairobi.

You will visit and experience the Genocide memorials, the National Museum, The Orphanage, Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho, School for the Blind and the Cana Centre with Fr Leszek. Immaculée will introduce you to traditional Rwanadan dancers and much more ... There will be a chaplain (TBA) for this special pilgrimage which will be led by Jane Pike from Australia. The Leader in Rwanda will be Immaculée Ilibagiza.

mental, otherwise it’s the way of the world,” Archbishop Hickey said.

As a Deacon, Thomas will be called to baptise, to assist the celebrant of Mass, assist with the distribution of Holy Communion and take Holy Communion to the sick and to assist the Bishop in a special way. But he is also called to be of service.

“One of the tasks of the Deacon is to preach the Word of God; to offer the Good News to those who are hungry for it,” he said.

Archbishop Hickey also stressed that the Deacon is to offer the Good News of Salvation to those who need it most, the sheep without a shepherd.

The Deacon needs to understand when he is preaching that what he is offering is the Word of God which is the nourishment of people’s spiritual needs. “Salvation is all about

liberating people from oppression, from evil, from violence, from all the things that crush them, that hold them back; and that is material and spiritual. Sometimes it is the result of one’s own sins ... or it could be the result of the sins of others. There’s so much oppression, so much trafficking of women, so much child abuse, so much harm done by the sins of others,” he said.

“The Deacon is to preach not just to the converted - or even just to those like all of us on the way to conversion - but to those who have not heard the Good News of Salvation, that they can be lifted up. The world is full of them,” he said.

Thomas joins eight transitional Deacons in the Perth Archdiocese who are on their way to the priesthood. Five of these will be ordained to the priesthood on 4 March at St Mary’s Cathedral.

O’Connor

ABN

Jesus,holyandbeloved, holdmealwaysinyour‘yes’.

Givemeyourtrustinour lovingFather whenI,too,amswampedin darknessandpain.

GivemeyourstrengthtoloveGod willallmyheart,soul,life, andtolovemyneighbourasmyself. Emptymeofpride,powerandself-deceit andfillmewithhumility,openess, honesty.

Thus,dearJesus,withinthisgiftofmy life,makemelikeyou holyandbelovedandlivingalifeof‘yes’, toyourFatherandmyFather. Amen.

Sunday SaturdayVigil5.30pm

Sunday:7.30&9.30am &6.30pm

Monday Mass,Reconciliation& NightPrayer8pm

Tuesday-Saturday Mass12.35pmwith Reconciliationat12pm

FirstFriday 5.30pmMass, Convent,ReserveStreet (additionalMass)

FirstSaturday HealingMass12.35pm

O’Connor Travel World is a pilgrimage apostolate consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Best selling author of Left to Tell, Led by Faith and Our Lady of Kibeho.

PRAYERBEFORETHECRUCIFIX OFSTTHOMAS,CLAREMONT

God is Love: Odhran O’Brien and Jade Doering were joined in holy matrimony by archaeologist and Perth priest Fr Robert Cross on 26 February in St Mary’s Cathedral. The newlyweds first met four years ago while exhuming Perth Bishops Griver and Gibney from the 1865 part of St Mary’s Cathedral. They will fly to Spain for their honeymoon to visit the birthplace and living relatives of Bishop Griver in Granollers before travelling on to Amélie-Les-Bains in southern France to help exhume the remains of Perth’s first Bishop Brady.

PHOTO: BRIDGET SPINKS

Newly-vested Deacon Thomas Zureich kneels before Archbishop Barry Hickey during the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate. Deacon Zureich is now one of eight transitional deacons journeying towards ordination to the priesthood in Perth, signalling strong continuing interest in priestly vocations in WA.

PHOTO: BRIDGET SPINKS

THE St Alexis osm Building and St John Porro osm Library at Servite College in Tuart Hill were officially opened and blessed on 18 February, the Feast of St Alexis.

The event was marked by a full school Mass in the school gym during which new student leaders and Eucharistic Ministers were blessed and received their badges of office from college Chaplain Fr Gilbert Raj and President Fra Chris Ross, with visitors from Servite College’s brother school Servite High School in Anaheim, USA, chaplain Fra Ed Penonzek and president Peter Bowen, plus the Servite’s Australian Provincial Delegate in attendance.

Two former students who were present at the college’s opening in February 1958 were also present, including the City of Stirling’s John Italiano.

Also in attendance were a number of our Perth diocesan clergy, representatives from the Servite nuns in Perth, former College Council members who had done much of the ground work that led to the building being conceived and built, many of the former winners of the St Philip’s Medallion and the parents who had donated directly to the Building Fund.

Fra Ross explained the history of the College starting with the first building in 1957. The only reminder of this first building is the terraz-

zo crest that is now inside the main entry to the St Alexis building.

Fra Mackle read a letter from the Provincial in Chicago before Perth

Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton blessed the building.

The crosses in the library were also blessed, which are now in

each classroom and were made by College students last year. A $1.6 million grant from the Federal Government enabled the

college to build the shade area and refurbish all our old rooms.

The Federal Government also contributed nearly $400,000 towards the St Alexis Building.

The remaining $6.5 million cost of the St Alexis Building has been partially paid for by college parents from its reserves and new parents will repay the remainder of the bank loan over the next 25 years.

Filipino Cardinal to visit Bunbury Cathedral

TWO major events are planned for Bunbury’s new St Patrick’s Cathedral after it is opened and consecrated on 17 March.

Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, will celebrate Mass for the Filipinos in the Bunbury diocese in the new St Patrick’s Cathedral on the Feast of St Joseph, 19 March at 11am. All Filipino people are welcome. There will also be a free organ recital, sponsored by Rodgers’ Organs, in the new St Patrick’s Cathedral on 19 March at 4pm. All are welcome.

Six Workshops

The Centre for Liturgy will run six workshops to introduce parish musicians and others to Mass settings that can be used with the new translation of the Mass. Each workshop will include a review of the changes to the people’s parts; information about the use of the new settings; an introduction to one or two of the new Mass settings.

The first five workshops will each introduce one new mass setting. The final workshop will present two existing settings that have been revised to accommodate the new texts.

The dates and venues of the workshops and the Masses to be presented at each one are listed below:

24 February Leederville Parish

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Mass of Saint Francis by Paul Taylor

8 March Willetton Parish

17 March

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Mass of Our Lady Help of Christians by Richard Connolly

Victoria Park Parish

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Missa Magis by Christopher Willcock

5 April Leederville Parish

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Mass of Christ the Redeemer by Bernard Kirkpatrick

5 May Willetton Parish 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Mass of Glory and Praise by Paul Mason

17 May Victoria Park Parish 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Mass Shalom by Colin Smith, revised by Paul Mason and Mass of Creation by Marty Haugen

REGISTRATION FORM

Centre for Liturgy

28 Marda Way, Nollamara WA 6061

T: 9207 3350 F: 9349 0362 E: liturgy.centre@perthcatholic.org.au

Name Telephone

Parish

Date A ending

Number A ending

St Kieran’s gets new roof

Good news all round for Osborne Park parish

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

ARCHBISHOP Barry Hickey and Fr Michael Gatt concelebrated a special Mass on 20 February to mark the re-opening and blessing of St Kieran’s Church, Tuart Hill in the parish of Osborne Park. This was to mark the completion of a $300,000 roof replacement on the church. After completing his October 2010 pastoral visit to the parish, Archbishop Hickey reported: “Financially, the parish is in good shape, without a debt. However, an agreement has been reached to repair the church roof. This has involved a grant from Lottery West, a facility from the Archdiocese and a commitment (of $50,000) from the parish so that the work can be done and paid for in a relatively short time.”

About 600 parishioners, past parishioners and guests attended the 8.30am Mass, which was followed by a special morning tea in the Parish Centre, which is the original church where Mass has been celebrated for the past six weeks during building works.

Fr Gatt said the day was the feastday of “our patron, Saint Kieran, in thanksgiving to God for all the blessings we have received from Him over the last 97 years”.

“We are here because our forefathers have prepared the good ground for us through faith and community, and so we do remember them,” he said. “We can also reflect on ... the many thousands and thousands who were baptised in our two churches; were fed with the Eucharist, were confirmed and married. Now that we have completed the good work of refurbishment, I’m privileged to ask His Grace the Archbishop to re-open our church and bless it again for the glory of God.”

Archbishop Hickey congratulated Fr Gatt and said in his homily: “One of the things that happens at an occasion like this is that we remember the past. We go back to 1914 and see how much love God has produced. Since 1914, the Mass has been celebrated here.

“Jesus wants to be the heart of this community and wants to be with us at all times. We are not just

individuals travelling through life but members of a community. St Paul went to the various communities to preach ... for us to understand the good news.

“The community therefore responds by putting this to good use . . . loving one’s enemy and being good to those who persecute us. There are people who attack us because of our beliefs.”

The previous Wednesday night, he said, he went to a little parish group in Beaufort Street and they invited the homeless to give some support. Asked to say a few words, he said he believed he had heard some gossip about him and God suddenly prompted him to love those who say bad things about us. “I will welcome them with a smile and do something good for them. I haven’t had the chance to do that yet but I hope,” he said.

“Sometimes God just goes past us. When someone says bad things about you, the natural reaction is to be angry. Jesus says: ‘Do something good for them.’ The parish must try to put into practice that Gospel –we are learning how to love.”

Fr Gatt said that early in his priesthood he realised that the best way to communicate and to run a parish is the basic principle of a family, “and I’m happy to say that this has been a pattern that I have followed for many, many years, and it is very effective”.

He said the motto of the parish is to be fair, firm and friendly, under the patronage of St Kieran.

He said the creation of the parish kept the late Archbishop Patrick Clune and the late Archbishop Redmond Prendiville pondering for 30 years – from 1907 to 1937, when the parish was erected in its own right. The mother parish continued to support the newlyerected parishes between 1937 and 1958, including Scarborough, North Beach, Gwelup, Wanneroo, Nollamara, Balcatta, and other parishes between Osborne Park and Wanneroo, at a later date.

“We pray that we’ll continue to grow in faith, hope and love,” Fr Gatt said. “Today, the church is the landmark of Osborne Park and we thank the Lord for this.”

The congregation also sang Happy birthday to Fr Gatt, who turned 73 on 13 February.

Fr Gatt also mentioned that parishioner Mark Rucci is becoming a seminarian after the death of his mother one year ago.

Archbishop Barry Hickey and Fr Michael Gatt cut the cake at the special opening of the restored St Kieran’s Church on 20 February. PHOTO: GLYNNIS GRAINGER

Caritas helps Nepal’s poor

The Record begins Caritas’ annual Project Compassion series during Lent

WEEK 1 – NEPAL

“It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied …”

- Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus (1991)

KALURAM, 33, lives with his wife and three children in Nepal’s densely populated south west plains, near India.

Nepal is one of South Asia’s poorest countries, with around ten million of its 28 million people living in poverty. Most people depend on farming but small land holdings, long dry seasons and lack of irrigation mean more than half of Nepal’s districts are food deficient. Few paid employment opportunities, lack of roads in rural areas and migration compound these difficulties.

Caritas Australia has supported local partner Caritas Nepal to run Farmer Field Schools in rice and vegetable farming since 2004. These schools improve the food security and livelihoods of poor farmers from disadvantaged ethnic groups and castes.

Like most people in his village, Kaluram lives and farms on a very small piece of land. His rice and vegetable productivity were low and his crops badly damaged by pests. His land lay empty for months. “We had no regular income,” explained Kaluram. “Sometimes I did labouring in the next village but had headaches and vomiting from the heat. We often couldn’t pay school fees and our house [made from sticks and straw] was a fire hazard.”

In 2006 Kaluram heard about Caritas Nepal’s programme and with 25 other poor farmers began training in early season rice and vegetable production. They had never accessed any training before – and their land lay largely empty.

“I had no idea about planting in a new way,” Kaluram explained.

“We learnt about land preparation, nursery raising, making compost, planting and managing pests and disease for different crops.”

Twice a week for the whole crop season, Kaluram’s group met with a Caritas Nepal trainer in a community field.

On different plots traditional practices were compared with trials in techniques such as seed selection, staking, composting, spacing and pest control – experiments too risky for poor farmers to otherwise try. Each week the group reviewed the results of their trials.

‘Learning by doing’ promoted skills that were easy for farmers to remember and apply at home:

“These were really new practices for us,” explained Kaluram.

“At first our community had big doubts on how the trials - like spacing rice seedlings further apart, using fewer seeds and no chemical pesticide - could get better yields and plant health but soon it was clear to everyone.”

Kaluram embraced the training

Malaysian Catholics celebrate Chinese heritage

Lunar New Year dinner celebration reveals Christian love

and began implementing the new practices on his home garden. With Caritas Nepal also supporting construction of foot-operated water pumps for irrigation in his community, Kaluram’s rice and vegetable garden soon fed his family.

After completing Farmer Field School training, Caritas Nepal encouraged Kaluram and the other farmers to stay motivated and increase their incomes by forming a Farmers’ Cooperative for group farming. Caritas helped the Cooperative to lease land, and provided support and money for seeds and equipment. Group farming means Kaluram and the other farmers can pool their labour and share profits from their vegetable sales.

Kaluram’s Farmers’ Cooperative now provides savings facilities and loans to members, who are otherwise unable to access financial services.

They have also supported two more Farmer Field Schools for other poor farmers in their community.

Thanks to the support of Caritas Australia, Kaluram is now able to save for his family’s future. “For my family there have been so many changes,” he explained.

“We’re not dependent on others for income now. We have no need to take loans for school fees. We’re producing more vegetables and rice to eat and also sell.

“We can manage our everyday expenses. Last year I started to lease land for growing rice and wheat to sell at the markets.”

More than 12,000 farmers like Kaluram across Nepal have benefited from Caritas Nepal’s Farmer Field Schools. Having improved food security and incomes, their families have hope for a more stable future.

“Our house now has mud walls. All my family’s health is better. Sometimes I can give the children money when they ask for it – they are happy,” Kaluram said.

“To the people in Australia – your support has given me opportunity to learn and improve. Please continue supporting Caritas Australia to help small farmers.”

Your donation to Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion helps subsistence farmers like Kaluram achieve food security for their families and increase their income for a brighter future.

THE sound of drums set the mood as two lions danced to welcome the Lunar New Year at a celebration dinner on 12 February.

The Malaysian-Singaporean Catholic Community of Australia (MSCCA) chairman Soma Muthucumaru welcomed the 110 diners and explained the rich culture of the festival often known as the Spring Festival which marks the commencement of a new lunar year at the South Ocean Restaurant.

Ten sumptuous traditional Chinese dinner courses were served during the evening when Bishop Donald Sproxton participated in the ‘tossing’ of the Yu Sheng dish. This traditional practice of tossing the Yu Sheng sees chopsticks cross one another and can symbolise the intertwined lives of the faithful raised as one to God. Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald encouraged everyone at

the event to express Christian compassion for one another in all spheres of daily life. The Lunar New Year can be interpreted in the Christian context as a reminder that just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, our lives are to reflect the light of Jesus by acts of charitable love for others. This love was revealed in the warm fellowship shared among the merry-makers and a sum of $1,000 which was collected that evening in aid of

Queensland’s flood victims. The MSCCA is a non-profit association led by Fr Roy Pereira, its spiritual director. The association’s mission is to support efforts that alleviate suffering amongst those in society who Jesus names the ‘little ones.’

The next MSCCA-organised event is “Holywood Night”, a gala dinner event on 2 July at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Log onto www.mscca.org.au

Bishop Donald Sproxton, centre, and Fr Roy Pereira ‘toss’ the Yu Sheng dish.

Same-sex marriage rights trump religious rights: London court

THE High Court in London has affirmed the decision of a local council to bar a Christian couple from acting as foster parents because of their opposition to homosexuality.

Owen and Eunice Johns, who are Pentecostals, were informed by the Derby City Council that they could not be foster parents because their strict opposition to homosexual acts made them unsuitable guardians for children. The couple challenged the ruling, saying that it was an instance of religious discrimination.

The High Court rejected the couple’s challenge, saying that the laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual preference “should take precedence” over concerns against religious discrimination.

Filipino Bishops back away from public protest after risking arrest

THE Catholic bishops of the Philippines have backed away from plans for a prayer vigil outside parliament to protest the pending family-planning bill.

The Bishops changed their plans after supporters of the legislation organised their own demonstration outside the offices of the bishops’ conference. Rather than going ahead with a public confrontation at the parliament building, the Bishops’ conference asked Catholics to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for defeat of the legislation.

Chinese Bishop imprisoned for decades dies aged 90

A CHINESE Bishop who was sentenced to a decade of forced labor because of his fidelity to the Pope has died at the age of 90. Bishop Augustine Hu Daguo ministered in the south central province of Guizhou.

“With discretion and effectiveness he administered the clergy and faithful of his apostolic prefecture with great zeal and spiritual fervor, giving life and hope to the various parish communities, scattered in the mountainous region,” L’Osservatore Romano reported. “Bishop Hu led a life teaching simplicity and poverty, in full adherence to the principles of the universal Church and to the primacy of Peter.”

California woman renounces ‘ordination’ to diaconate

A CALIFORNIA woman who participated in an 2007 “ordination” ceremony organised by Roman Catholic Women Priests has renounced her ordination, affirmed the Church’s teaching on the impossibility of ordaining women and asked forgiveness.

Norma Jean Coon, who had claimed ordination as a deacon, said that she has broken ties with Roman Catholic Women Priests and now wishes to “disclaim the alleged ordination publicly with apologies to those whose lives I have offended or scandalised by my actions.” In her statement, Norma Jean Coon says that the ordination ceremony, which took place in Santa Barbara in 2007, was conducted by “Bishop Patricia Fresen, of Germany and South Africa, who was ordained by three male Bishops in Germany.” She recognises that because the ceremony was illicit, she incurred the penalty of excommunication. The Bishops who allegedly attempted to ordain Fresen are also be subject to that penalty, but they have never been identified. Coon says that she accepts the truth of the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, in which Pope John Paul II explained that women cannot be ordained.

Planned Parenthood on the ropes

PLANNED Parenthood is now at a point of “significant vulnerability” as the US House of Representatives voted to defund it. At the same time, undercover investigations into the abortion provider’s affiliates in seven states have revealed its staffers’ apparent willingness to accommodate the needs of illegal sex traffickers. “They are singularly focused on expanding other services to adolescents, as they need a next-generation client base. They’ve done more abortions every year for 27 years running, even as everybody on the life issue now says they want to see abortion rare,” said Charles Donovan, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who co-authored the 1991 book Blessed are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood.”

Irish Church lost its way by conforming to culture: prelate

CATHOLICISM is a “minority culture” in Ireland today, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.

In an address at Magdalene College, Cambridge, the Primate of Ireland explained that secularism has taken a heavy toll on the faith in Ireland for years, to the point that most people—even those who identify themselves as Catholic—no longer order their lives according to the principles of the Catholic faith.

Archbishop Martin told his Cambridge audience that several years ago, Pope John Paul II asked how Ireland had suddenly become secularised.

The Irish Archbishop said that he respectfully disagreed with the Pontiff, telling him that the change had not come suddenly: “Secularisation, whatever that means exactly, had been on the Irish radar screen for many years. It was not all negative but it was not an overnight wonder.

“It was there, but not recognised. It was there but the answer of the Irish Church was for far too long to keep the same show on the road, not noticing that there were problems with the show and that the road was changing.”

Years earlier, Archbishop Martin recalled, a sociology professor had told him that Catholicism was already a minority culture in Ireland.

At the time the argument seemed outlandish, he said, but in time he came to understand the professor’s point.

Now conceding that Catholicism is a minority culture, the Archbishop said: “The challenge is to ensure that it is not an irrelevant minority culture.”

Archbishop Martin said that the Church has failed to capture the

attention of young Irish, so that “there is a missing generationand perhaps more than one.” He said that the Church must undertake greater efforts to reach young people.

On the public scene the influence of the Church has lapsed considerably, the Archbishop continued, noting that “in the current political discussion in Ireland is increasingly marginal.”

With elections approaching, he noted that none of the country’s political parties had made an effort to gain support from the Church.

Archbishop Martin said that the process of secularisation was

Pill boosts AIDS

PHNOM PENH (Agenzia Fides) – The main cause for the surge in the spread of AIDS in Cambodia is the birth control policy and the promotion of artificial contraception, Human Life International (HLI), which completed a mission in the south-east Asian country told Fides news agency. Cambodia is one of the countries with the most offices of international agencies which promote family planning and population control: “Engender Health”, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and its RACHA program (Reproductive and Child Health Alliance).

In the last 20 years, thanks to substantial funding from these organisations, the State has spent more than 600 million dollars on population control and contraception programs. Analysis of these actions has seen a drop in the fertility of Cambodian women (from six to three children on average), but also a rapid spread of AIDS.

From when the first case of infection was detected in 1991, in the 15 years following, 94,000 people died from AIDS and those infected have increased beyond all proportion, to 160,000 cases in a population of 13 million, which makes Cambodia one of the worst affected by the epidemic in South-east Asia.

“These programs, according to the promoters, would have had to stop AIDS,” notes Human Life International to Fides. The paradox is, rather, that this massive campaign to spread contraceptives and condoms, intended as a ‘panacea’ against AIDS, “has instead encouraged its spread, fuelling a culture of sexuality as a commodity.”

The Church and many Christian-based NGOs have been active in countering this approach: Christian movements such as “Couples for Christ” promote training seminars for young couples, while religious orders like the Sisters of Mary Help of Christians work in educating new generations to spread the culture of respect for life, the person, for corporeality and sexuality.

accelerated by the efforts of Church leaders to conform to the culture.

“The paradoxical thing is that the farther the Church goes in adapting to the culture of the times, the greater is the danger that it will no longer be able to confront the culture of the time,” he said.

“It will only be able to speak the language of the culture of the day and not the radical newness of the message of the Gospel which transcends all cultures.

“It could become a type of civil religion: politically correct, but without the cutting edge of the Gospel.”

- CATHOLICCULTURE.ORG

OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENTS 2011

MARCH

4 Ordinations to Priesthood, St Mary’s Cathedral – Archbishop Hickey, Bishop Sproxton

World Day of Prayer Service 2011 – Fr Beyer & Mrs Beyer

6 Project Compassion Launch, St Mary’s Cathedral – Archbishop Hickey Annual Fruit Harvest Festival, Pickering Brook – Bishop Sproxton

9 Mass at Curtin University – Archbishop Hickey

10 Rite of Election – Bishop Sproxton

12 Focolare Mass – Bishop Sproxton

13 Multi-Faith Observance – Mgr Brian O’Loughlin VG

15 Blessing and Opening, Our Lady of Assumption School, Dianella – Bishop Sproxton

16 Centenary Mass of Archbishop Clune, St Mary’s Cathedral - Archbishop Hickey

17 Dedication and Opening of Bunbury Cathedral – Archbishop Hickey, Bishop Sproxton

Bishop Augustine Hu Daguo

Norma Jean Coon

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland, speaks to the media just outside St Peter’s Square in Rome on 11 December, 2009 as Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, look on.

PHOTO: CNS

Women’s, children’s rights linked

BY BETH GRIFFIN Catholic News Service

UNITED NATIONSReproductive health policy should be informed by accurate data, not polarising ideology, and illuminated by moral values and an ethical framework that respects the dignity of women, according to speakers at a 24 February UN event.

The panel, Advancing the WellBeing of Women and Children, was held in conjunction with the 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. It was sponsored by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of St Lucia to the UN and the Path to Peace Foundation.

Monique Chireau, assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, described women’s reproductive health as a gender, development and human rights issue. She said reproductive health is sometimes contemporary code for health care and education that includes abortion under the guise of family planning.

Chireau said she preferred alternate terminology.

“Reproductive health is a state of freedom from destructive activities and practices that compromise a woman’s health, well-being and dignity, such as abortion. It includes the provision of services and knowledge that promote women’s health, dignity and well-being as well as that of her family. The rights of

women are inextricably connected to the rights of their children,” she said.

“The ultimate reproductive right of women is the right to say no to destructive practices and influences, to be able to protect her children, and to strive for optimal health and well-being for herself and her family,” Chireau said.

Chireau said some of the papers presented at the current U.N. session separate the rights of girls from those of their parents and families. In fact, programs that strengthen families promote development and human rights, she said.

Globally, there has been a decrease in maternal mortality, the number of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth. Chireau said this welcome trend correlates to increased education and income, better birth care and a decrease in the number of children women bear. It is not related to increased access to abortion and contraception.

“Maternal mortality is not necessarily higher in countries with more restrictive abortion laws,” she said.

Chireau also said contraception and abortion are receiving more attention at the current U.N. ses-

sion than two other common and devastating causes of maternal deaths - female genital mutilation and obstetric fistulas. Fistula, a complication of childbirth and obstructed labor, can be caused by genital mutilation. She said there is profit in providing abortion and contraception, both of which are supported by ideological agendas. By contrast, she said, “women who suffer fistula have no voice.”

Helen Alvare, associate professor of law at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., said the separation of sexual intimacy from marriage and procreation over the past 50 years has not significantly improved the well-being of women and girls. She said since the contraceptive “pill” was introduced in 1960, births outside marriage and abortions have both increased, as have sexually transmitted infections.

Separating sex from marriage has led to higher rates of cohabitation worldwide, either as a substitute or precursor to marriage, she said. Women do not necessarily consider this a “gain” she said, citing studies that measure happiness.

Alvare said separating parenting from marriage has impoverished single mothers, particularly immigrants and minorities.

She said historical notions of reproductive rights, individualistic ideas of freedom, late 20th-century feminist assumptions and same-sex marriage activism have prevented an open, empirical inquiry on the state of women flourishing in con-

nection with sexual expression, marriage and parenting.

Alvare advocated a “new feminism that looks at data and gives an honest response to it, allowing an important role for communities of faith and other ethical communities which have ... sacred meanings of human communion, family life and parent-child relationships that can get women and children out of the cycles they’re presently in.”

Lynne Lang, curriculum development manager at BJC Healthcare in St. Louis, described the effects of advanced technology on the education of women and children. She urged development of critical thinking among young Internet users to assess the truth and value of information and communication in cyberspace.

Lynne said particular attention should be devoted to protecting vulnerable users from predators and bullies.

The program attracted a standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 people and was the first side event sponsored by the Holy See’s U.N. mission since Archbishop Francis Chullikatt became papal nuncio in September 2010.

After the discussion, Archbishop Chullikatt told Catholic News Service, “I am particularly happy because we touched on one of the most important issues we church people have to address: the life issue. It is clear what is at stake. The panelists made the point that we cannot manipulate the issue of abortion for political ends.”

Forcing women to abort ‘solves nothing’

Women often persuaded by others to have abortions:

Pope

BY SARAH DELANEY Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict

XVI said that pregnant women facing difficulties due to their personal circumstances or to health issues of the fetus can be misled by doctors or people close to them into believing that abortion is the best solution.

Those who have undergone abortions often find themselves beset by serious psychological and spiritual problems from the “deep wound” that is the consequence of actions that “betray the innate vocation for human good,” the Pope said. His comments came the same week that 18 senior gynaecologists, nurses and abortion providers from the UK’s Royal College of Obstetricians drew up a draft guidance document recommending that women considering terminations be told that “abortion is generally safer than continuing pregnancy to term,” London’s Sunday Telegraph reported.

Josephine Quintavalle, of the Pro-Life Alliance, said the College was “manipulating the evidence” to promote a pro-choice message.

“I don’t believe that most women considering abortions are worried it will kill them or are worrying about dying in childbirth; this is a blatant attempt to force an absurdly liberal agenda on women when they are at their most vulnerable,” she said.

Pope Benedict made his remarks at a 26 February audience with participants in the 27th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy

PHOTO: CNS/LESLIE RADIGAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE

for Life who met at the Vatican Feb. 24-26. Members of the academy, doctors and bioethics experts discussed the results of months of study on the controversial subject of umbilical cord blood banking and on the

phenomenon of post-abortion trauma.

The meeting was led by Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who took over as president of the life academy in June 2010.

Pope Benedict said that doctors

in particular are called upon to defend against those who “mislead” many women into “believing that abortion will be the answer to family, economic or social difficulties.”

Especially when the fetus is found to have health problems, women are often convinced, even by their doctors, “that abortion is not only a morally correct solution, but an obligatory ‘therapeutic’ act in order to spare the child and its family suffering” and avoid becoming an “unjust” burden to society, he said.

He said that pregnant women are often left alone, sometimes by the child’s father, as are those who have had an abortion and are dealing with negative psychological consequences. He urged more support for all women whose well being “can never, in any circumstance, find fulfillment by choosing abortion.”

Pope Benedict also addressed the issues around the growing use of umbilical cord blood to extract stem cells for use in medical research and therapy. He said that research and clinical use had been promising but urged that the technique be used ethically and for the common good.

He warned against the proliferation of umbilical cord blood banks where families store their children’s cord blood for their personal use rather than donating it so it can be available for general access. Such private storage, he said, “weakens the genuine spirit of solidarity that should constantly accompany research for the common good.”

At the meeting, Mercedes ArzuWilson, an author and a founding member of the academy, and Dr Paul Byrne, neonatologist, pediatrician and former president of the Catholic Medical Association,

presented a paper in which they warned of the danger of clamping the umbilical cord too early and too close to the baby in an effort to obtain a large quantity of cord blood. That blood is vital for the immediate functioning of the lungs and for the future development of the newly delivered baby; cutting the cord too soon sets the baby up for potential deficits in many areas, they said.

Another speaker at the meeting was American psychologist Theresa Burke, the founder of Rachel’s Vineyard, a Pennsylvania-based organisation that counsels women who have undergone abortion.

She told participants that many studies show that women who have had abortions have a significantly greater tendency to suffer depression, substance abuse and other psychological problems than women who have never terminated a pregnancy. She said that 46 million abortions were performed annually worldwide.

Opening the 24 February gathering, Bishop Carrasco said that the academy was called upon to study extremely complex problems with scientific, technical, ethical, religious and moral aspects that require a “renewed commitment” and the ability to “look at the future with new eyes.”

He said, “the challenge is great. We find ourselves in a world that is increasingly aggressive towards human life.”

The academy will continue to study various issues in depth with experts from inside and outside the Church, he said. The next topic under consideration by the academy is the progress made in infertility therapy that doesn’t involve assisted reproductive technologies, the Bishop said.

Tiny coffins line the outside of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 19 January. Pro-lifers made a peaceful pilgrimage to the front steps of the state Capitol to call for an end to abortion and pray for the new legislative ses sion as well as other agenda items outlined by the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Mothers with newborn babies on their chests rest inside a government hospital in Manila, Philippines on 1 October, 2010. Church officials have protested a proposed Reproductive Health bill pending in the Philippine Congress. CNS

Death of a monster

One of those rare individuals who might have been called a true monster of the 20th century passed away a week or so ago, with the fairly good chance that by the time of his death he was what Catholics would call a saint. If he was a saint, he was also one who had deliberately presided over, by his own estimates, the killing of approximately 75,000 innocent persons. Of these, he estimated, he had personally carried out the killing of around 7,000 or so of the victims. Worse, he had been the key engineer in spreading his genocidal practice to numerous countries around the globe, including Australia. All of his victims were children, two of them his own.

To meet Bernard Nathanson was a remarkable experience. He seemed so ... normal. To meet him was to meet someone who had been an Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s murderous architect of the Holocaust, or a Pol Pot, and to experience that individuals who have carried out what would normally be called evil actions can be just as apparently normal as any other person one might meet. To talk with him was as normal as talking to any other visiting tourist, an interesting person from another country, with the exception that this particular individual just happened to have something to say about the realities of killing people by the tens of thousands on the basis of extensive personal experience. Addressing a small gathering of perhaps 60 or so individuals in Melbourne in the early 1980s, he told his audience after they had commenced the dinner by praying grace quite clearly where, at that stage in his life, he stood.

While he and they shared a common commitment, he was in no way a religious individual, he respectfully, almost matter of factly, pointed out.

“I want you to understand this: that while I respect people who believe in God, and while we all share the same common commitment on this issue,” he told his listeners, “you must understand I am not religious in any sense of that word. I am an atheist. I believe in nothing that I can’t see or touch or measure.” Silence instantly enveloped the room as his listeners waited to see what came next. Whatever one might say about him, Dr Bernard Nathanson was a person who knew how to get an audience’s attention.

However, he went on to say, as an obstetrician and a scientist committed to the principles of objectivity and scientific truth he had come to the inescapable conclusion that an unborn child could be nothing other than a human person with all the inalienable rights of any other human being walking around on the surface of the earth. Scientifically, no other conclusion was possible. Bernard Nathanson’s talk that day in Melbourne was the account of a personal and philosophical epiphany journeying from darkness to truth that should have been heard by every person in that city and across this nation. Of course, it was already impossible. By that stage, Australia had come to embrace in its entirety the murderous creed of abortion on demand he had almost singlehandedly instituted approximately 20 years earlier when, with a handful of colleagues, he masterminded the push to legalise unlimited abortion in the US. By the time Bernard Nathanson had concluded that abortion really was the killing of a child and had come to realise the horror and extent of the monster he had created, affluent and increasingly corrupt societies such as Australia had become addicted to the killing of their children.

As the co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League and as an obstetrician he had a particular authority on the subject of abortion. He recalled how he and his colleagues deliberately lied about abortion death statistics to credulous journalists who never bothered to check the facts, elevating the figure from an estimated 200 to more than 10,000 annually. However, his journey to leading pro-life advocate primus inter pares also paved the way for others to follow and through the decades there has been a growing stream of doctors who have renounced their practice of abortion. There is no doubt that Dr Nathanson also inspired many young doctors to decide against ever practising it at all.

More than 40 years after Roe v Wade, the landmark US Supreme Court case legalising abortion throughout the United States, its legalpolitical fiction has become a template for societies everywhere, including Australia. By the time Bernard Nathanson MD was born into eternal life last week, it seemed few wanted to listen to the killer who had discovered the truth. In 1998, politicians of every party, including those who identified themselves as Catholics, legislated the unlimited killing of unborn children in Western Australia, officially codifying what had become unofficial normality. They did this despite the fact that by the time they did so each of them was in possession of a copy of Dr Nathanson’s autobiography setting out the truth he had discovered and embraced about the reality of abortion and who it kills.

However, the real Bernard Nathanson story is actually the account of why resistance to God’s love is useless. This is the most interesting, the most inspiring, the most important aspect of Bernard Nathanson’s life. In his autobiography, The Hand of God, he recounted his journey from abortion’s chief architect to spending the last decades of his life as the most credible pro-life voice in the world. It is really an account of an odyssey from monstrosity to humanity. To read it, including the very disturbing account of his childhood at the hands of a father who could only be described as a monster, is to read the most uplifting story of the power of God’s love in an individual’s life probably to have been published in the 20th century.

While Bernard Nathanson described himself as an atheist for some time after his coversion to the pro-Life cause, he was baptised a Catholic by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York at a private Mass with a group of friends in the mid-1990s. He also received Confirmation and First Communion from the Cardinal. With him was the Opus Dei priest Fr John McCloskey who had taught Dr Nathanson his faith in the lead up to his baptism. A recent obituary recalled Bernard Nathanson’s comments on his baptism. “I was in a real whirlpool of emotion, and then there was this healing, cooling water on me, and soft voices, and an inexpressible sense of peace. I had found a safe place.” In his life Bernard Nathanson journeyed further than most Catholics ever do, but we should all try to follow in his foosteps. He had more courage than most others, including many Catholic men and women and not a few of those who lead them. He probably blamed himself terribly for his sins, including the killing of his own children. “I am,” he once said, “one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age.” Was he a monster? Actually, he was a hero. Kind friends and gentle hearts, of the charity of your souls, pray for him. He will certainly return the favour.

What didn’t happen

Cardinal Wuerl, co-author of the new book The Mass: The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition is quoted in The Record (16 February) as saying: “Catholics never learned what was really happening at the altar.” If they didn’t, who was it who failed to teach them? The faithful were always told that the translation of the liturgy into the vernacular would make it easier for them to understand what was going on.

The Cardinal seems to be admitting that this did not happen. Mere translation of the words of the Mass cannot illuminate the mystery of what is happening, especially if that translation is as banal, ugly and sometimes downright inaccurate as the one we have been saddled with for so long.

Janet Kovesi Watt Claremont

Brochure amazement

Iwas amazed to read the editor postscript to Fred Preshaw’s letter “The concert Hall church” about the forthcoming Mass Etiquette brochure.

How on earth can a brochure be the answer to the problem of lack of reverence for the Lord at His House?

However the congregation may not be entirely to blame. The symbolism of these ‘concert hall’ churches, whether they be very large and expensive or small and relatively cheap, is that it exalts the place of the people in both the

liturgy and design of the Church whilst the Lord is relegated to second place, with the Tabernacle in any of several places but generally not in the centre and elevated position.

Because of the symbolism of such churches, there needs to be a fundamental change in the hearts and minds of the people who promote this kind of terrible Church architecture.

H Miller West Perth

Clarification

Thank you for publishing my letter re “gay” marriage in The Record of 23 February However, the French Constitutional Council (Court) did not say “No” to “gay” marriage as such. They ruled that keeping marriage for heterosexual couples only does not violate the principle of equality, since there is a difference between heterosexual and same-sex couples. There is no unjust discrimination involved.

That is a very important point. There is much talk here, for example, of “discrimination” (unjust implied) involved.

Apparently, the French Council went on to observe that it is up to Parliament (ie the Government) to enact laws re this matter, not the Council (Court). They simply pointed out that there is no injustice involved in leaving things like they currently are: a sensible, commonsense ruling.

MJ Gonzalez Willetton

The persecuted

Iread the editorial on persecuted Christians last week with interest and appreciate the point about the need for Christians and Catholics to pray more for those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus.

I was slightly surprised that some places were not mentioned, but you can’t mention every such occurrence.

Saudi Arabia, which was mentioned in passing, has one of the most extreme officially antinon-Muslim policies in the world, with things such as possession of a Bible, a crucifix or a Star of David

punishable by public flogging.

Migrant workers from countries with Christian populations such as the Philippines are routinely abused, exploited by their employers and have almost no rights under Saudi law.

The oil-rich kingdom (but a kingdom for how much longer?) is the origin of the extremist form of Islam known as Wahabism which is currently trying to take over and suborn Islamic communities throughout the world (successfully in many places) and is largely responsible for the radical militant Islamic mentality which leads teenagers, children and others to become suicide bombers – the ultimate form of child abuse. In Saudi Arabia strict sharia law is enforced.

In Indonesia, thousands of innocent people have died in conflict between Christian and Muslim communities, including three schoolgirls beheaded on the way home from school in 2005, although in this case the killers were subsequently imprisoned.

In Iraq, an ancient centre of Christian activity, Christians make up perhaps six per cent of the population but more than 40 per cent of the refugees from the conflict there. Militant Muslim groups clearly pursue a strategy to eliminate Christians from that country, presumably before they kill all other Muslims who do not happen to belong to their particular Islamic sect.

It is estimated that about 1.5 million Christians and nonMuslims have been killed in Sudan in recent years by the Janjaweed Arab Muslim militias, who also widely use rape and torture. The suffering of the predominantly Christian and animist population of the South of Sudan has been staggering.

These are just a few of what could be a very long list, but I applaud your editorialist’s point that we Christians in Australia and other countries often behave as though we are unconscious of the suffering of our fellow Christians for their (and our) faith.

I support your call for more things such as Prayer of the Faithful in parishes for our fellow Christians. Would it be possible to convene an occasional evening service of prayer in parishes around Perth to pray for those who are witnessing for their Faith?

Terry Radclift

Death of a monster

One of those rare individuals who might have been called a true monster of the 20th century passed away a week or so ago, with the fairly good chance that by the time of his death he was what Catholics would call a saint. If he was a saint, he was also one who had deliberately presided over, by his own estimates, the killing of approximately 75,000 innocent persons. Of these, he estimated, he had personally carried out the killing of around 7,000 or so of the victims. Worse, he had been the key engineer in spreading his genocidal practice to numerous countries around the globe, including Australia. All of his victims were children, two of them his own.

To meet Bernard Nathanson was a remarkable experience. He seemed so ... normal. To meet him was to meet someone who had been an Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s murderous architect of the Holocaust, or a Pol Pot, and to experience that individuals who have carried out what would normally be called evil actions can be just as apparently normal as any other person one might meet. To talk with him was as normal as talking to any other visiting tourist, an interesting person from another country, with the exception that this particular individual just happened to have something to say about the realities of killing people by the tens of thousands on the basis of extensive personal experience. Addressing a small gathering of perhaps 60 or so individuals in Melbourne in the early 1980s, he told his audience after they had commenced the dinner by praying grace quite clearly where, at that stage in his life, he stood.

While he and they shared a common commitment, he was in no way a religious individual, he respectfully, almost matter of factly, pointed out.

“I want you to understand this: that while I respect people who believe in God, and while we all share the same common commitment on this issue,” he told his listeners, “you must understand I am not religious in any sense of that word. I am an atheist. I believe in nothing that I can’t see or touch or measure.” Silence instantly enveloped the room as his listeners waited to see what came next. Whatever one might say about him, Dr Bernard Nathanson was a person who knew how to get an audience’s attention.

However, he went on to say, as an obstetrician and a scientist committed to the principles of objectivity and scientific truth he had come to the inescapable conclusion that an unborn child could be nothing other than a human person with all the inalienable rights of any other human being walking around on the surface of the earth. Scientifically, no other conclusion was possible. Bernard Nathanson’s talk that day in Melbourne was the account of a personal and philosophical epiphany journeying from darkness to truth that should have been heard by every person in that city and across this nation. Of course, it was already impossible. By that stage, Australia had come to embrace in its entirety the murderous creed of abortion on demand he had almost singlehandedly instituted approximately 20 years earlier when, with a handful of colleagues, he masterminded the push to legalise unlimited abortion in the US. By the time Bernard Nathanson had concluded that abortion really was the killing of a child and had come to realise the horror and extent of the monster he had created, affluent and increasingly corrupt societies such as Australia had become addicted to the killing of their children.

As the co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League and as an obstetrician he had a particular authority on the subject of abortion. He recalled how he and his colleagues deliberately lied about abortion death statistics to credulous journalists who never bothered to check the facts, elevating the figure from an estimated 200 to more than 10,000 annually. However, his journey to leading pro-life advocate primus inter pares also paved the way for others to follow and through the decades there has been a growing stream of doctors who have renounced their practice of abortion. There is no doubt that Dr Nathanson also inspired many young doctors to decide against ever practising it at all.

More than 40 years after Roe v Wade, the landmark US Supreme Court case legalising abortion throughout the United States, its legalpolitical fiction has become a template for societies everywhere, including Australia. By the time Bernard Nathanson MD was born into eternal life last week, it seemed few wanted to listen to the killer who had discovered the truth. In 1998, politicians of every party, including those who identified themselves as Catholics, legislated the unlimited killing of unborn children in Western Australia, officially codifying what had become unofficial normality. They did this despite the fact that by the time they did so each of them was in possession of a copy of Dr Nathanson’s autobiography setting out the truth he had discovered and embraced about the reality of abortion and who it kills.

However, the real Bernard Nathanson story is actually the account of why resistance to God’s love is useless. This is the most interesting, the most inspiring, the most important aspect of Bernard Nathanson’s life. In his autobiography, The Hand of God, he recounted his journey from abortion’s chief architect to spending the last decades of his life as the most credible pro-life voice in the world. It is really an account of an odyssey from monstrosity to humanity. To read it, including the very disturbing account of his childhood at the hands of a father who could only be described as a monster, is to read the most uplifting story of the power of God’s love in an individual’s life probably to have been published in the 20th century.

While Bernard Nathanson described himself as an atheist for some time after his coversion to the pro-Life cause, he was baptised a Catholic by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York at a private Mass with a group of friends in the mid-1990s. He also received Confirmation and First Communion from the Cardinal. With him was the Opus Dei priest Fr John McCloskey who had taught Dr Nathanson his faith in the lead up to his baptism. A recent obituary recalled Bernard Nathanson’s comments on his baptism. “I was in a real whirlpool of emotion, and then there was this healing, cooling water on me, and soft voices, and an inexpressible sense of peace. I had found a safe place.” In his life Bernard Nathanson journeyed further than most Catholics ever do, but we should all try to follow in his foosteps. He had more courage than most others, including many Catholic men and women and not a few of those who lead them. He probably blamed himself terribly for his sins, including the killing of his own children. “I am,” he once said, “one of those who helped usher in this barbaric age.” Was he a monster? Actually, he was a hero. Kind friends and gentle hearts, of the charity of your souls, pray for him. He will certainly return the favour.

What didn’t happen

Cardinal Wuerl, co-author of the new book The Mass: The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition is quoted in The Record (16 February) as saying: “Catholics never learned what was really happening at the altar.” If they didn’t, who was it who failed to teach them? The faithful were always told that the translation of the liturgy into the vernacular would make it easier for them to understand what was going on.

The Cardinal seems to be admitting that this did not happen. Mere translation of the words of the Mass cannot illuminate the mystery of what is happening, especially if that translation is as banal, ugly and sometimes downright inaccurate as the one we have been saddled with for so long.

Janet Kovesi Watt Claremont

Brochure amazement

Iwas amazed to read the editor postscript to Fred Preshaw’s letter “The concert Hall church” about the forthcoming Mass Etiquette brochure.

How on earth can a brochure be the answer to the problem of lack of reverence for the Lord at His House?

However the congregation may not be entirely to blame. The symbolism of these ‘concert hall’ churches, whether they be very large and expensive or small and relatively cheap, is that it exalts the place of the people in both the

liturgy and design of the Church whilst the Lord is relegated to second place, with the Tabernacle in any of several places but generally not in the centre and elevated position.

Because of the symbolism of such churches, there needs to be a fundamental change in the hearts and minds of the people who promote this kind of terrible Church architecture.

H Miller West Perth

Clarification

Thank you for publishing my letter re “gay” marriage in The Record of 23 February However, the French Constitutional Council (Court) did not say “No” to “gay” marriage as such. They ruled that keeping marriage for heterosexual couples only does not violate the principle of equality, since there is a difference between heterosexual and same-sex couples. There is no unjust discrimination involved.

That is a very important point. There is much talk here, for example, of “discrimination” (unjust implied) involved.

Apparently, the French Council went on to observe that it is up to Parliament (ie the Government) to enact laws re this matter, not the Council (Court). They simply pointed out that there is no injustice involved in leaving things like they currently are: a sensible, commonsense ruling.

MJ Gonzalez Willetton

The persecuted

Iread the editorial on persecuted Christians last week with interest and appreciate the point about the need for Christians and Catholics to pray more for those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus.

I was slightly surprised that some places were not mentioned, but you can’t mention every such occurrence.

Saudi Arabia, which was mentioned in passing, has one of the most extreme officially antinon-Muslim policies in the world, with things such as possession of a Bible, a crucifix or a Star of David

punishable by public flogging.

Migrant workers from countries with Christian populations such as the Philippines are routinely abused, exploited by their employers and have almost no rights under Saudi law.

The oil-rich kingdom (but a kingdom for how much longer?) is the origin of the extremist form of Islam known as Wahabism which is currently trying to take over and suborn Islamic communities throughout the world (successfully in many places) and is largely responsible for the radical militant Islamic mentality which leads teenagers, children and others to become suicide bombers – the ultimate form of child abuse. In Saudi Arabia strict sharia law is enforced.

In Indonesia, thousands of innocent people have died in conflict between Christian and Muslim communities, including three schoolgirls beheaded on the way home from school in 2005, although in this case the killers were subsequently imprisoned.

In Iraq, an ancient centre of Christian activity, Christians make up perhaps six per cent of the population but more than 40 per cent of the refugees from the conflict there. Militant Muslim groups clearly pursue a strategy to eliminate Christians from that country, presumably before they kill all other Muslims who do not happen to belong to their particular Islamic sect.

It is estimated that about 1.5 million Christians and nonMuslims have been killed in Sudan in recent years by the Janjaweed Arab Muslim militias, who also widely use rape and torture. The suffering of the predominantly Christian and animist population of the South of Sudan has been staggering.

These are just a few of what could be a very long list, but I applaud your editorialist’s point that we Christians in Australia and other countries often behave as though we are unconscious of the suffering of our fellow Christians for their (and our) faith. I support your call for more things such as Prayer of the Faithful in parishes for our fellow Christians. Would it be possible to convene an occasional evening service of prayer in parishes around Perth to pray for those who are witnessing for their Faith?

Terry Radclift Kelmscott

Prince of the West Australian Church

This coming St Patrick’s Day it will be 100 years to the day since Perth’s first Archbishop was consecrated a Bishop

BY FR C HRISTOPHER DOWD OP

Browsing through the early twentieth century editions of The Record, one notices the frequent use – one might even say the over use – of the term ‘red-letter day’ to designate a special occasion in the life of the Catholic Church in Western Australia. There were few red-letter days redder than the one that occurred just on one hundred years ago – 17 March 1911. It was the feast day of St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, an important day because the ethnic background of the Catholic population was strongly Irish.

There was something different about St Patrick’s day in 1911 for it was also the day of the ordination of a new Bishop for Perth. The day was chosen in recognition of the Irishness of Western Australia’s Catholics and also because St Patrick was the patron saint of both the one about to be consecrated –Father Patrick Clune – and the Bishop who would be the principal consecrator – Cardinal Patrick Moran, Archbishop of Sydney.

On 14 March, the liner Orsova docked at Fremantle, bringing Cardinal Moran and other distinguished guests, including four other Bishops. The days that followed were crowded with glittering liturgical and social events. The visiting prelates were welcomed at the wharf by Bishop-elect Clune, the clergy, a huge crowd of people and a guard of honour provided by the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society and the Highgate Hill Irish Pipe Band. A motorcade took the dignitaries to a mayoral reception at the Fremantle Town Hall, after which all travelled by train to Perth and were greeted at the Central Station by the Mayor, Thomas Molloy, the members of the Hibernian Society in regalia, the Irish Pipe Band (again) and another great concourse of people.

The State Governor made his carriage available to conduct Cardinal Moran and Bishop-elect Clune to the Cathedral, the others following in motor cars, to meet Clune’s predecessor as Bishop of Perth, Matthew Gibney. After lunch, there was a municipal reception at the Perth Town Hall, which was ‘a veritable forest of palms and foliage’, the air filled with music supplied by an orchestra and a phonograph.

The Record’s description of the day of the consecration itself carried a headline which summed up the significance of the proceedings: “A Historic Day for Western Australia: Spectacular Display of Liturgical Splendour”. A crowd estimated at 10,000 crammed itself into Victoria Square.

Very few were able actually to enter the Cathedral where there was standing room only. Outside, people clustered tightly around doors and windows, stood on fences and watched from the windows

and balconies of buildings around the Square.

At mid-morning, led by the Irish Pipers and cross bearer and acolytes, the procession emerged from the Palace. The long line of secular clergy in black cassocks and birettas and white surplices, religious priests in their habits, formally attired Catholic civic officials, including the Mayors of Perth and Coolgardie in robes of office and Timothy Quinlan, Speaker of the House of Assembly, in his uniform as a Knight of St Sylvester, and Bishops in purple choir dress were dominated by the tall figure of Cardinal Moran in scarlet, his train carried by two page boys in white tunics and knee breeches, black stockings and feathered hats.

Catholic school children sang hymns as the procession performed a circuit of the Square before disap-

pearing into the Cathedral. Waiting for them were the Governor, the Premier, ministers, parliamentarians, consular representatives, municipal, judicial, military and business figures and their families and attendants.

The high altar and sanctuary were decorated with candles, flowers and coloured cloths. The walls of the nave were draped with hangings of cardinalatial red and gold.

The liturgy lasted three hours. The Mass setting by the modern Church composer, Perosi, was sung by the Cathedral choir, augmented by monks from New Norcia Abbey.

The Bishop of Goulburn preached.

At the end of the Mass, the Cardinal conducted the now Bishop Clune, arrayed in pontifical vestments, episcopal ring on his finger and crozier in his hand, to the throne of the Church of Perth as the choir

the ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries were entertained at the Good Shepherd convent at Leederville. On Monday, there was a guided tour of Catholic educational, religious and charitable institutions. The following day, the eastern prelates and clergy sailed for home.

Clune’s consecration was an intensely Irish affair but it was not a merely Catholic Irish tribal demonstration. In fact, it resonated widely through Western Australian society. The level of non-Catholic participation in the celebrations was high. Early twentieth century Western Australia was not free of sectarian tensions but they were less pervasive than in other States, a point remarked upon by Cardinal Moran. If anything, the consecration demonstrated the social acceptability of the Catholic community. The daily newspapers provided extensive and sympathetic coverage of the consecration and associated activities.

Who was this fourth Bishop of Perth? Like almost every other Australian Bishop at that time, Patrick Joseph Clune was an Irishman, born near Ennis, the capital of County Clare in 1864. His father, James, was a prosperous tenant farmer and businessman.

Young Patrick’s education was carried out at the local National School, Killaloe Diocesan College in Ennis and All Hallows College in Dublin. His religious upbringing was strongly influenced by his mother, Margaret, and he felt the call to the priesthood from as early as he could remember.

He wanted to be a missionary and enrolled at All Hallows, a seminary which specialised in training priests to serve the extensive Irish diaspora overseas. Ordained in 1886, he was assigned to the Diocese of Goulburn in Australia where he taught at St Patrick’s College and undertook pastoral work on the staff of Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral.

He was so moved by a mission given by the Redemptorist Fathers at the Goulburn Cathedral that he asked to be received into that Order. His work in Goulburn had been highly successful. His Bishop had great plans for him and tried to persuade him to stay but Clune could not deny his vocation to the religious life and entered the Redemptorist novitiate at Liverpool in 1893.

sang the Te Deum. The proceedings concluded with the Alleluia chorus from The Messiah and an organ postlude, the march from Mendelssohn’s opera, Athalia

In the afternoon a gala banquet with background music and ‘daintily hand-painted menu cards’ was held in the gaily decorated Town Hall in honour of Moran, the visiting prelates and the newly consecrated Bishop. Many toasts were made and replies made. When Clune’s turn came, uproarious cheering, waving of handkerchiefs and a hearty rendition of ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow’ erupted. In the evening a grand concert, attended by the Governor, was held at His Majesty’s Theatre in Hay Street. The festive marathon continued into the weekend. A garden party was given at Government House on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday,

After further studies, he was sent to Ireland and, based first at Limerick and then Dundalk, worked at giving the famous Redemptorist parish mission all over the British Isles, again to great acclaim. When Bishop Gibney of Perth asked the Redemptorists to set up a foundation, Clune, in consideration of his talents and his previous experience in Australia, was chosen by his superiors to be a member of the pioneer community which arrived in 1899.

For the next five years, from a base at the North Perth monastery, he laboured all around Western Australia – the timber country, the wheat belt and the gold fields as well as the capital – giving missions. Conditions were often primitive in the more remote districts. He rapidly acquired a reputation for eloquent and persuasive preaching and was much in demand for missions and retreats.

Please turn to Page 14

Looking every inch a Prince of the Church: Archbishop Clune in this undated photograph, apparently taken by photographer Frank Martyn at Coolgardie.

PHOTO: COURTESY ARCHIVES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH

Hear the differ

Why the new translation of the M

The whole Church in Australia is gearing up to receive the newly translated prayers of the Mass. The event will be one of the biggest in the Church throughout the English speaking world for several decades. Here, one of Australia’s leading liturgists explains why the new prayers we will be saying soon are more mysterious, deeper and beautiful ...

BY BISHOP PETER J ELLIOTT Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne

Many Catholics who regularly go to Mass seem to be unaware that the texts we use to worship God have been translated from Latin. For over 40 years, ever since the new rite of Mass (Novus Ordo ) was introduced after the Second Vatican Council, we have used a translation prepared by the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

This year, a new English translation of the 2002 Latin edition of the Missale Romanum, the Roman Missal, will be introduced. A new Lectionary will follow, no longer derived from the Jerusalem Bible. In the next few years, all the sacramental rites will appear in a new translation. But the first project is the missal.

A reorganised ICEL has worked on the translations, under the guidance of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments through the Vox Clara (“A Clear Voice”) committee, chaired by Cardinal George Pell. The new principles for translation are set out in an official instruction Liturgiam authenticam

a prayer. How did this come about? To be fair, it needs to be stated at the outset that this dismal situation was brought about by good pastoral and catechetical intentions. The Bishops in the early seventies were anxious to get the “new missal” to the people as quickly as possible. But the translation they hastily approved was distorted because it was based on a flawed principle of translation known as ‘dynamic equivalence’. The principle was endorsed in the 1969 instruction of the Consilium for Implementing the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Comme le prevoit (1).

ICEL was faithful to much of that instruction, and even went beyond it, so what we ended up with was a paraphrase rather than a translation.

The drafts of new texts have been carefully prepared, revised and corrected over the past nine years.

All the Bishops in countries where English is used in worship have been consulted. They have been able to invite experts to comment and advise them. Finally, each Conference of English speaking Bishops has voted on the final drafts, in “the grey books”, and the agreed text of the missal has already been presented to the Holy Father, who warmly welcomed it.

The printing of new missals for the altar and the people is under way, a massive project as there is one version for the whole English speaking world. Other language groups are under notice that they too must review and retranslate their texts, in particular the liturgy in French and German which is replete with inaccuracies. Not only in the Englishspeaking world have people been grumbling about shoddy translations from the past and seeking something better.

But do we need a new translation of the Mass in English? Is the text we currently use not good enough?

No, it is not good enough because it is not particularly good – and “good enough” is not the way to describe the language we should use in the worship of God. The time has come to change because what we are using is not only often inaccurate as a translation, but the style of English is rather dull, banal, lacking in the dignity of language for worship, more like the language of a homily than

Dynamic equivalence demands a lively, modern translation that is supposed to get to the meaning of the Latin without literally translating every word.

That method can be useful in on-thespot translation from a modern language by an interpreter who knows the familiar idioms.

I have used it myself while working at meetings in the Vatican.

But paraphrasing is not good enough for sacred texts composed in Latin and Greek over many centuries for use in Divine Liturgy. A paraphrase can fail to give us, not only what the Latin original means, which is bordering on telling lies, but paraphrase often eliminates poetic beauty in the original, particularly scriptural language that runs through the prayers of the Roman Rite of Mass. I will take some Sunday collects as an example of a “not good enough” translation.

Comparing Collects

Thirty five years ago an Australian Archbishop involved in ICEL told me that a religious, un-named, had translated the Sunday collects (Prayers of the Assembly) in use today. He praised this work. When I groaned, he scowled and changed the topic. (You can see that I have disliked the translations for many years!) But the collects surely rank among the worst instances of liturgical translation.

They are as brief as their Latin originals, but that is not what a vernacular version of a collect should be, for the compact Latin of a collect is a literary genre with its own conventions and structure, demanding rich expansion once you put it into the vernacular, otherwise it sounds abrupt, trite, even absurd, which is what happened.

Each collect was reduced to something like this: ‘God! You are good. So do this for us,’ followed by a slightly inaccurate version of the Trinitarian ending. Yet, by eliminating any traces of the Latin “oratorical cursus, rhetorical-prose cadence”, the unknown translator had only followed the flawed prin-

ciple of dynamic equivalence in Comme le prevoit (2)

Let us take the Collect for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and then compare it to the new version. First listen to the version we currently use, which is quite a good prayer:

Father of everlasting goodness, our origin and guide, be close to us and hear the prayers of all who praise you. Forgive our sins and restore us to life. Keep us safe in your love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Now listen to what we will pray in the new translation:

Draw near to your servants, O Lord and never cease to welcome their prayers, that, for those who glory in you as Creator and guide, you will restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen

You can hear the difference. The first prayer was broken up into small sentences, with ideas that contrast with one another, while the second flows with continuity and a unity of meaning that is found in the Latin original.

There is nothing in the Latin about asking for forgiveness of sins. Rather, the emphasis is on God’s grace restoring those who recognise their Creator and guide, that is, people with faith.

Questions of doctrinal content also emerge here – and this is a serious matter because it raises the ethical question of telling lies and distorting Catholic truth.

When we examine the specific content of the ICEL collects we currently use we find a more serious result of ruthless paraphrase and précis - the virtual elimination of a key Christian word, ‘grace’.

It could be argued that this went beyond Comme le prevoit. This serious falsification may be observed in the current translations of seven Sunday collects in so-called ‘Ordinary Time” that contain “gratia” (3). Of these seven collects, not one has translated gratia as ‘grace’!

Gratia is usually rendered as ‘love’, or ‘gifts of love’ (Sunday XXVI). Surely that is stretching the translation principle of ‘dynamic equivalence’ beyond the limits. For Sunday XXVIII, the beautiful collect about God’s ‘prevenient grace’, the grace that goes before us, has been hacked to pieces.

The word ‘grace’ has been excised and the meaning of the collect has been lost. Likewise, ‘grace’ has effectively vanished in the translations of the Prayer over the Gifts and the Post Communion Prayers (4)

Taking the essential Christian word ‘grace’ out of the key seasonal prayers is a symptom of the deeper doctrinal weakness that is evident in not a few of the current ICEL texts.

As others have noted, this is a kind of Pelagianism, the heresy that we save ourselves by our own efforts, not through the grace of God. What we do is what matters, not so much what God does. This led to the mentality that “we make the liturgy” so liturgy is no longer primarily a gift to us from God through the Church; rather, something we fabricate, our work, what we “create”.

Our Lady

Striking examples of inaccuracy are evident if Latin references to Our Lady in the Missale Romanum are checked against the current ICEL texts. Here, we find an amazing failure to comprehend a basic principle of Christology and Mariology. The Marian adjectives are doctrinal, not poetic. All this is

corrected in the new translation, which gives full honour to the Mother of God.

However, in the current ICEL version, the bland expression ‘the Virgin Mary’ is used again and again. This does not truthfully translate a variety of references to Mary in the Missale Romanum. Nor does ‘blessed’

truly render beatissima, because this superlative, ‘most blessed’, is reserved for the Mother of God, proclaiming her as the pre-eminent saint, the Queen of all Saints.

But, again, this was in line with a specific reference in Comme le prevoit concerning beatissima Virgo or beata et gloriosa, followed by a curious comment: “Understatement in English is sometimes the more effective means of emphasis” (5). Really? The authors of the instruction were blissfully unaware of the Mariological nuances not only of beatissima but, in terms of the Assumption, of beata et gloriosa, “blessed and glorious”. So these Marian adjectives had to be “understated”?

“Dynamic equivalence” becomes more destructive when Marian phrases which convey doctrinal truths taught by the Church are simply removed. In the first Preface of Our Lady, two unequivocal Latin phrases expressing Mary’s perpetual virginity just vanished. The second became a paraphrase ‘She became the virgin mother of your Son’ but that does not carry the Latin virginitatis gloria permanente, literally ‘the glory of

The new English translation of the third underwent a lengthy translation proces

Bishop Peter Elliot

rence: Mass will be like ... rediscovering buried treasure

her virginity remaining’. ‘She became the virgin mother of your Son’ barely hints at Mary’s perpetual virginity as set out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here, we touch on trendy ideological motives reflecting the era when the ICEL translations were made.

Carmelite spirituality. Why? These examples of the destructive effects of the old ICEL following ‘dynamic equivalence’ reveal a vernacular version of the text of the Roman liturgy that in some places tells lies, so that, at these points and many others, it is no longer the Roman liturgy.

make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ”.

The new translation is more precise: “You are indeed holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness. Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them

One senses the hand of a translator or committee working away 40 years ago and not wanting to offend someone. But who was this ‘someone’? Was this an imaginary, non-Catholic Christian, to be respected out of misplaced ecumenism?

But the only groups beyond the Catholic Church who might ever use a Marian Preface would be some high Church Anglicans and Lutherans, and they would be among the first to point out the defects in style and regret devious paraphrases. The more recent ICEL translation of the beautiful new Preface of Mary Mother of the Church is another example of a kind of protective censorship.

A reference to Mary’s immaculate heart has been excised. Why? Do the Catholic people need to be protected from ‘something’? Is it exotic language, or does that phrase hint too much of Fatima? In the collect for the third day before Christmas, the adjective ‘immaculate’ also vanished.

In the collect for the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the mystical representation of the Son of Mary as a holy mountain has also vanished, even if it is central to

The loss of poetic metaphors

Archbishop Coleridge of Canberra rightly has said that, in the current ICEL texts, the metaphors have been “bleached out.”

An obvious one is in the Third Eucharistic Prayer “so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name.”

In Australia, “from east to west” can mean from Sydney to Perth. In the US, that would be from New York to Los Angeles. But if we go back to the prophecy of Malachi concerning the universal sacrifice, we find poetic language bringing together both space and time.

So the new accurate translation from Latin will be: “… so that from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name.” This recaptures the original scriptural text.

In the Latin original of the Second Eucharistic Prayer, the invocation of the Holy Spirit (the epiklesis) carries two beautiful metaphors of God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Currently, this reads: “Lord, you are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness. Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to

like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ”.

The new text clarifies the first water metaphor because “fount” means “source”, not a garden fountain. Then it restores the second subtle and poetic water metaphor about the dew. Of course, the new text is slightly longer and the commas will need to be taken into account when it is said aloud. But why rush? Smooth and plain paraphrases take less time to say, but is worship about saving time?

The truth of the mystery

Another dimension of truth in translation is asking whether a text maintains the mystery or a ‘sense of the sacred’ in the original tongue. In the East, mystery in worship is maintained largely by the ikonostasis, the icon screen across the sanctuary. In the West, the Latin language functioned as a kind of ikonostasis of language.

Coupled with the celebration of Mass ad orientem, facing the altar, the Roman Rite retained the sense of a holy mystery which the East maintained through the universal

liturgical paradox of concealing so as to reveal (6). The truth of the mystery came to be carried in the Latin texts.

It is possible to translate the Mass into our vernacular while retaining much of that sense of linguistic mystery, as may already be seen in the work of the current project. The new ICEL translation seeks to reclaim the truth of the mystery. But that was not the prevailing mentality of the era of the sixties. The reasons for this attitude may be discerned by beginning with the obvious ‘didacticism’ of the translations, that is regarding liturgical texts as primarily messages directed at us, to teach us.

The didacticism of the current ICEL texts embodies a stage in history when communication was the key to everything - the Sixties, the era of Marshall McLuhan and the ‘global village’, when ‘mankind’ reached for the stars and we could hear men talking from the moon. Clarity, comprehensibility, access to data and information, the triumph of the Enlightenment, was also marked by the jostling of ideologies, each claiming to carry the light and future, whether of ‘modern man’, ‘secular man’ or ‘socialist man’, to use the language of the pre-feminist vocabulary of those times.

In such a social, historical and political context, everything in the new Missale Romanum had to be translated so as to be, above all, comprehensible. There is little place for mystery in being modern and enlightened because mystery eludes human control, and modern, enlightened people have to be in control. But Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, pointed out that: “The liturgy derives its greatness from what it is, not from what we make of it” (7). In itself, the liturgy finds its “summit and source” in the Eucharist, that is, the sacred Mystery of Faith ever stretching out beyond our control, ever inviting us into deeper union with God.

However, the old ICEL translations reflected the principle of ‘dynamic equivalence’ in Comme le prevoit. Paraphrases came to bear a modernity that communicated a meaning instantly, in the language of common usage (8). I would call this immediate, accessible meaning. If I translate gratia as ‘love’, listeners immediately comprehend something, the word ‘love’.

But, in contemporary society, ‘love’ is a polyvalent term, that is, it carries many meanings. Therefore, when the faithful hear ‘love’, they will not comprehend or retain much of the real meanings of gratia, another polyvalent word but one suggesting a specific range of divine and human realities.

Eucharistic mystery

Liturgiam authenticam and guidance from Vox Clara have freed us from that obsession with instant comprehension, or immediate, accessible meaning which destroyed real meaning.

The new ICEL translations reflect not only accuracy but reverence for the mystery of God, indeed the centrality of God, which is the meaning of Christian worship. To elucidate this, we may compare the two translations of the opening words of the First Eucharistic Prayer, the Roman Canon.

The ICEL text that we currently use begins: “We come to you, Father, with praise and thanksgiving through Jesus Christ your Son. Through Him we ask you to accept and bless these gifts we offer you in sacrifice.”

By contrast, the new ICEL text begins: “To you, therefore, most merciful Father, we make humble prayer and petition, through Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord: that you accept and bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices ...”

The old text is smooth, shorter, with good words, but they have nothing to do with the Latin original, the majestic Te igitur clementissime Pater of the venerable Roman Canon. There, the emphasis is on God and how the divine actio liturgica, liturgical action, flows Please turn to Page 20

d edition of the Roman Missal is seen in Rome last April. Announced by Pope John Paul II in 2000 and first published in Latin in 2002, the missal s and received final approval by the Vatican in 2010 for use beginning in 2011.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING

Missionary Archbishop a remarkable WA figure

Continued from Page 11

In 1905, his superiors sent him to New Zealand to establish the Redemptorist Congregation in that country. He founded St Gerard’s monastery in Wellington and again enjoyed great success as a missioner. Five years later he was re-assigned back to Perth as the superior of the Redemptorist community.

He was settling back into his previous Western Australian routine, again to the usual chorus of praise, when it was announced in January 1911 that, at the age of 47, he had been chosen by the Pope to be Bishop of Perth on the recommendation of the majority of diocesan clergy entitled to vote in the process, the majority of the Bishops of the ecclesiastical Province of Adelaide, to which the diocese of Perth then belonged, and Cardinal Moran.

The circumstances of Clune’s promotion as a Bishop were unusual. When he returned from New Zealand, the diocese of Perth was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, a state of affairs that had its origins in the discovery of gold in the 1890s and the attendant

economic boom and population explosion in Western Australia.

The then Bishop, Matthew Gibney, moved quickly to put in place an extensive network of pastoral, educational and social welfare services and imported large numbers of Religious men and women to staff them. Unfortunately, he over-

reached himself financially. He employed entrepreneurial methods to raise funds. Many of his business ventures were reckless and imprudent and, by 1910, the diocese was in debt to the tune of £200,000, a vast sum of money for those days.

At the urging of Cardinal Moran and other Australian Bishops,

IMPLEMENATION OF THE NEW TRANSLATION OF THE MASS

Train the Trainer

ONE WORKSHOP - SEVEN VENUES

2 Hour workshops from 7.30PM—9.30PM

These evenings are designed for those who wish to work with the new resource “Become, One Body, One Spirit in Christ” DVD for the purpose of workshopping groups in parishes or church organisations.

Tuesday 15th March Vietnamese Catholic Centre, Westminister (Northern Zone)

Wednesday 30th March Gosnell Parish, Gosnells. (Queens Park Zone)

Tuesday 12th April Newman Siena Centre, Doubleview. (Claremont Zone)

Thursday 5th May St Benedict Parish, Applecross. (Canning Zone)

Wednesday 29th June Our Lady of Lourdes, Lesmurdie. (Guildford Zone)

Tuesday 5th July Infant Jesus Parish, Morley. (Central Zone)

Thursday 4th August Our Lady of Lourdes, Rockingham. (Fremantle Zone)

ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND

Registra on is ESSENTIAL - numbers are limited

Registra on Form

Centre for Liturgy

28 Marda Way, Nollamara WA 6061

T: 9207 3350 F: 9349 0362 E: liturgy.centre@perthcatholic.org.au

Name ___________________________________________Telephone ________________

Parish _________________________________________Date A ending ______________

Number A ending __________

Train the Trainer

Rome insisted that Gibney resign to make way for someone who could deal effectively with the crisis. The one thing necessary was a dynamic, charismatic leader who could restore confidence in the ecclesiastical government of Perth. On account of his wide travels and mission work, Clune was very well known and popular in Western Australia. This factor, combined with his attractive personality and legendary powers of oratorical persuasion, made him an ideal figure to arouse the monetary generosity of the Western Australian laity which was the only way to save the diocese of Perth from the imminent peril of financial collapse.

Fresh from his consecration, Clune took to the road travelling all over his diocese in ‘the guise of a beggar’, as he put it. The people responded to his appeals magnificently. He raised approximately £50,000 in the first year and had beaten the debt down to £10,000 by 1922. Sadly, the financial crisis destroyed what had previously been a close co-operative relationship between Clune and Bishop Gibney who accused Clune of misrepresenting his administration.

The rest of Clune’s episcopate was marked by dramatic events. In 1913 the Holy See raised Perth to Archdiocesan status, the head of a new province of the Church embracing the diocese of Geraldton, the Abbey Nullius of New Norcia and the Vicariate Apostolic of the Kimberley. Clune was the first Archbishop of Perth. He was a strong supporter of the war effort between 1914 and 1918 and declared himself in favour of conscription in contrast to his controversial Melbourne colleague, Daniel Mannix. In 1916, Clune himself saw war service on the western front and in Egypt as Catholic Chaplain General of the AIF. At the end of 1920, he was briefly projected onto the international stage when he was approached by the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, to act as intermediary with the Sinn Fein leadership to help bring to an end the brutal Anglo-Irish war. Clune’s mission failed because of unreasonable British preconditions but brought London to the realisation that the only path to peace was through negotiations. Clune also helped to block a possible papal condemnation of the violence which might have been interpreted as singling out the Irish rebels.

Back home, Clune worked to develop the diocesan apparatus of schools, hospitals, social welfare agencies and Religious institutes. He built upon the infrastructure put in place by Gibney. Clune took important initiatives in the areas of early childhood education, scholarships for needy children, special schooling for intellectually disadvantaged children, religious education for children living in remote districts, in-service professional development for teachers, adult education, aged care and migrant chaplaincy. He re-founded the St Vincent de Paul Society in 1911 and invited the Knights of the Southern Cross to set up in Perth in 1922. His foundation of the Newman Society in 1924 marked the entry of the Church into the tertiary educational sphere in Western Australia. He sponsored the scientific study of social work based on the latest American model. He introduced the first contemplative Religious Order into Perth, the Carmelite nuns who arrived in 1935. His great personal

monument is the sanctuary and transepts of St Mary’s Cathedral rising above Victoria Square and opened with great fanfare in 1930.

Clune was a well known and well respected figure in public life. At one of the receptions given at the time of his consecration, he announced that, consistent with his Catholic principles, his policy would be to avoid any statements or actions which might cause strife or divisiveness in the community generally. As a result, he was cautious, even reticent, about commenting on controversial political and social issues except when he believed his guidance was needed. He tended to the middle way. For example, he was a moderate Irish nationalist but also a man of Empire, which went down well in Western Australia, that most British of States. He was a great supporter of the Returned Servicemen’s League. He maintained harmonious and co-operative relations with the heads of other denominations and religions, especially with his Anglican counterpart, Charles Riley, and the Chief Rabbi, David Freedman.

The measure of a man is often seen in death. Archbishop Clune died at the age of 71, on 24 May 1935, the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, patroness of Australia, after some years of very poor health and continual hospitalisation. His passing elicited an extraordinary outpouring of tributes from all walks of life in Western Australia, interstate and overseas. The list of representatives from all levels of State and society at the funeral Mass required two tightly-printed columns in The Record. The city came to a standstill on a grey and rainy day as the mile-long cortege made its way along silent, crowded streets bearing the late Archbishop’s body to its place of interment, as he wished, the Redemptorist section of Karrakatta Cemetery.

What of Clune, the man? He was outgoing, affable and gregarious. Recreations at the Redemptorist monastery and the Palace saw him joining lustily in the Irish singing and the story telling. He was a smoker and fond of a whiskey or two. He was not a scholar but loved English literature and was something of a minor authority on the novels of Thackeray. He was passionate about Christian art and architecture. He kept poultry and grew vegetables, skills he learned growing up on the family farm in Ireland. He was an enthusiast for motoring and acquired an Italian automobile in 1911, replacing it with a Daimler in 1915. Despite his impressive physical presence, his constitution was not strong and his health was further undermined by over-work. He compensated by taking the restorative sea voyages he enjoyed so much, to such places as Colombo, Singapore and Noumea.

As a diocesan priest, teacher, preacher, Redemptorist missioner, diocesan administrator and Bishop, Clune was a man of action rather than contemplation. His philosophy was that if there was a task to undertake he would give it his all.

Whatever he did he did well. He once said that God’s greatest gift is faith. He was not the kind of person to doubt his own Catholic faith and, from that secure foundation, he spent his life in its service and the service of those with whom he shared it.

Fr Dowd OP is currently preparing a biography of Archbishop Patrick J Clune, the first Archbishop of Perth.

Archbishop Clune in military uniform, and in civilian attire.

‘Lay down your weapons’

Anglicans urged to embrace Benedict

BY ANTHONY BARICH

TRADITIONALIST Anglicans who are staying in the Anglican Church rather than take up the Pope’s offer are wasting their time and spiritual energy clinging to a dangerous illusion, the Holy See’s delegate for the Australian Ordinariate said.

Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican, urged Anglicans at a 26 February festival introducing the Ordinariate in Australia at Como Catholic parish in Perth to take up the Pope’s offer of “peace”.

“I would caution people who still claim to be Anglo-Catholics and yet are holding back,” he told The Record during the festival.

“I’d say ‘when are you going to face realities’, because there’s no place for classical Anglo-Catholics in the Anglican communion any more.”

Following a formal request for full communion made by the leaders of the Traditional Anglican Communion in 2007 where several of their Bishops signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church to show their fidelity and seriousness, Pope Benedict XVI issued his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus in 2009 to allow the group reception of disaffected Anglo-Catholics into the Catholic Church.

People coming into the Ordinariate are the “last fruits” of the Oxford Movement started in 1833 by the likes of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman to restore Catholic identity in their Church. But he warned that times have changed and events have taken a “new and confronting turn”.

“These realities seem to be lost on some Anglo-Catholics who are tempted to make a desperate last stand by just staying where they are,” he told the festival which drew over 100 people, including the Catholic Archbishop of Perth Barry Hickey and his Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton in a strong show of support for the formation of the new non-geographical diocese.

Martyr inspires Anglo-Catholics

BY ANTHONY BARICH

AUSTRALIAN AngloCatholics want 12th century English martyr St Thomas Becket as the patron of their Ordinariate.

Becket was martyred in his Cathedral as Archbishop of Canterbury, having vexed King Henry II by excommunicating the Bishops of London and Salisbury for their support of the King, with whom Becket disagreed on changes to law regarding Church and Crown courts, among other things.

Australian Anglo-Catholics believe adopting Becket as their patron is apt, considering how they say they have been ostracised by the Anglican Church.

St Thomas Becket is immortalised in Canterbury Cathedral, which hosts one of the four great mediaeval shrines of the Church.

His burial place was destroyed during the Reformation in seven stages. Archbishop John Hepworth said that by the time King Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell, who history shows was anti-Christian, came to finish off the relic there was only the right hand left – the blessing hand.

The monastery didn’t want to send it to the English, Archbishop Hepworth said, so they sent it to Rome where 12 slivers of bone were taken, including the one placed on the altar during Mass at Holy Family Como Catholic Parish on 26 February.

PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

“Permit me to suggest that it is a waste of time and spiritual energy to cling to such a dangerous illusion. Valuing the Catholic Faith should not be confused with polemics. Let me quietly invite you to lay down weapons of controversies that are now pointless, to set aside endless intrigues which led nowhere, to walk away from futile conflicts which cannot build up the Body of Christ in charity. Accept the invitation of the Vicar of Christ on earth.

“The gentle man who reaches out to you in (Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution allowing the group reception of disaffected Anglo-Catholics into the Catholic Church) Anglicanorum coetibus has no ulterior motives.

“His apostolic offer is clear. There is no deception here. He calls you to peace.”

The prelate also dismissed suggestions that the Pope’s offer would hinder ecumenism. Rather, it has kick-started it, he said.

“Recently it has been announced that the ARCIC (AnglicanRoman Catholic International Commission) process will continue. Anyone tempted to add ‘in spite of the papal offer of the Ordinariate’ should reflect whether in fact it is the papal offer that has kick-started ARCIC once more,” he said.

“With reference to these ongoing conversations, I would argue, as I have said elsewhere, that, far from damaging ecumenism, the Ordinariates will provide a lively stimulus for better relations between Anglicans and Catholics. In this regard, let us pray that the forthcoming ARCIC discussions on the Church as communion and Christian ethics will go well.”

Bishop Elliott added that the ARCIC conversations and the fruit of these conversations in the documents will also be honoured in the new Ordinariates.

Australian Anglo-Catholics hope to establish their Ordinariate by Pentecost, by which time up to 60 Anglican clergy from Australia and the Torres Strait hope to have been ordained Catholic priests.

The others are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela (the remains of St James the Apostle) in Spain and Our Lady of Walsingham in England.

It was smuggled across the channel to a Catholic monastery in Normandy, France where it survived the French revolution and was greatly venerated. When Anglicans enjoyed the first modern visit of a Pope to Canterbury Cathedral in 1982, Pope John Paul II promised to send the hand back to Canterbury.

It is an authentic relic of the surviving hand. The rest of the hand is now in a shrine in the Catholic church alongside Canterbury Cathedral, and is still an important place of pilgrimage for English Catholics.

It was also on the altar during Mass at the Anglo-Catholics’ 1-3 February national conference on the Gold Coast.

Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican and the Holy See’s delegate for the Australian Ordinariate, holds up the Catechism of the Catholic Church while addressing the festival introducing the Ordinariate at Holy Family Parish in Como on 26 February. Several Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion signed the Catechism when they formally applied for full communion with the Church in 2007.

Anglicans swimming the Tiber

Australia leading the way with Britain as Anglicans flock to Pope’s offer

BY ANTHONY BARICH

INTEREST in the Pope’s offer to Anglicans to join the Catholic Church via a unique arrangement is gaining momentum with up to 60 Anglican clergy to be ordained as Catholic priests in Australia and the Torres Strait by Pentecost this year.

That number – including 30 from Australia and 30 from the Torres Strait - is also expected to rise.

Archbishop Barry Hickey and his Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton showed their strong support for the Ordinariate by both attending the 26 February festival at Como Catholic Parish introducing the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia.

Archbishop Hickey said those participating in the Ordinariate and the festival are joining in the “important prayer” of Jesus Himself, who prayed to the Father that “all may be one, as You and I are one”.

Dossiers seeking ordination from Forward in Faith Australia chair Bishop David Robarts and TAC Bishop of WA Harry Entwistle, Bishop Tolowa Nona (Torres Strait) and retired TAC Bishop Raphael Kajiwarra (Japan) are being submitted for approval. A fifth is a former diocesan Bishop of the Anglican Church in Australia, who cannot yet be named.

Pentecost is when AngloCatholics hope the new Ordinariate will be established under Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus (“Groups of Anglicans”). Some seminarians aligned with the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which claims 400,000 members globally, attend the Adelaide College of Divinity where Catholic seminarians also study.

An international commission also is quietly working on the framework of a future liturgy for Anglicans to be received into the Catholic Church in Ordinariates, (non-geographical dioceses). It will comprise elements of both Anglican

Archbishop John Hepworth, has asked the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to appoint Bishop delegates for India, parts of Africa, Latin America, the Torres Strait, Puerto Rico and Japan following decisions in those countries to enter the Church as Ordinariates.

Celibacy

BY ANTHONY BARICH

ANGLICANS seeking communion with the Church via the Pope’s unique offer that allows married priests must recapture and understand the gift of celibacy in the priesthood, a global leader of AngloCatholics said.

Adelaide-based Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion which claims a global membership of 400,000, said Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus (“Groups of Anglicans”) “challenges us in a most wonderful way”.

“I want to be quite clear that when becoming Primate eight years ago I wrote to my people saying celibacy is part of the unity deal, just start getting used to it. It’s something we have to start learning about,” he told over 100 people at a 26 February festival introducing the Anglican Ordinariate at Como parish.

PHOTO: CNS/MARCIN MAZUR, BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF ENGLAND AND WALES

and Catholic liturgy. Three Anglican Bishops were ordained as Catholic priests at Westminster Cathedral on 15 January. Former Anglican Bishop of Ballarat and Archdeacon of Leicester (UK) David Silk was also ordained a Catholic priest at Buckfast Abbey in Devon on 18 February and Bishop Edward Barnes will be ordained on 5 March.

TAC Bishop Robert Mercer, the former Bishop of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe and of the Anglican Catholic Church in Canada, will also be ordained a priest at a yet to be announced date and could be consecrated as a Bishop in the Ordinariate as he is a celibate. However, Fr Keith Newton, the former Anglican Bishop of Richborough, has already been appointed head of the Ordinariate – effectively a non-geographical diocese – for England and Wales.

Pentecost, 12 June, is also the time by which up to 60 Anglican priests are set to be ordained as Catholic priests in the United Kingdom, with dozens of parishioners also to be received into the Church.

Moves are also under way to establish Ordinariates across Latin America and India, the latter to be based at either Kerala or Mumbai.

As The Record revealed exclusively in January 2009, there will be an event at the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome to launch all the Ordinariates once they are in place around the world, with all the Ordinaries, (localised Bishop-like leaders), concelebrating Mass with the Pope.

The venue has special significance to Anglicans as it was the official church of the Knights of the Garter, whose prelate is the Anglican Bishop of Winchester.

TAC Primate, Australian

Though a ‘pan-Protestant’ Church was set up in India comprising Anglican, Methodist and other Protestant denominations when England withdrew from the subcontinent in 1947, many members left and joined the TAC, so it now owns many hundreds of parishes across the country and has 95,000 people.

Last June, a TAC Synod of nine Latin American countries including Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Brazil voted unanimously to seek an Ordinariate for Spanish-speaking Anglicans based in Guatemala, as did the TAC Bishops’ conference in Puerto Rico last October.

Anglo-Catholics in trouble spots endure the same trials other Christians do.

TAC parishioners in North Africa have a tattooed cross on their hand to identify them so they can enter their church, which is then padlocked, otherwise “the local Islamic people will toss a hand grenade in during the Offertory as their contribution”, Archbishop Hepworth said.

“All our churches have to be locked or they’ll be killed,” Archbishop Hepworth said.

“Having celibate clergy of people dedicated to God is vital to the life of the Church and can’t be lost. Equally, (the priestly celibacy rule) is not of divine legislation (as St Peter, the first Pope, was married).

“Therefore, it’s something that the Church has invoked as a tradition of its own. It doesn’t have to be like that, and Anglican spirituality revolves very much around the clergy’s family. The clergy not married are usually not parish priests but teachers, lecturers and officials.”

Parish clergy have almost always been married and since the people have a role in choosing their priest, they normally choose a married priest, he said. While Anglicans in general tend to make a “powerful deal” out of married clergy, “we’re not looking for an exemption for celibacy, but for both traditions to go side by side, each requiring massive commitment in this world where the family is more under threat than any time in the last 500 years”, he later told The Record

Newman’s dreams to be fulfilled, liturgy to be

Continued from Page 1 something the Pope desires as a gift to be brought in,” Robert Andrews said at the festival.

Robert’s religious experience is rooted in what he calls ‘low-church’ ‘Protestant-Anglicanism’ where he was encouraged to read any of the literature on the shelves at the church.

Perusing the library of old hymnals, Robert discovered the Book of Common Prayer, written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, a leader of the Reformation; and here learned the essentials of the Catholic faith.

This is the same way that Fr Keith Newton - a former Anglican Bishop who was ordained a Catholic priest and the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on 15 Januarylearnt the faith as well.

“I discovered that the Book of Common Prayer spoke of a

Catholicism; it became evident that there was an apostolic succession and every page had an element of Catholic ethos coming off it,” he said.

By writing an Honours thesis on an influential leader of the Oxford Movement and a convert to Catholicism, the now Blessed John Henry Newman, who co-founded the Oxford Movement which attempted to restore Catholicity to their Anglican Church, Robert concluded that he ‘didn’t disagree with anything’.

When Robert found he had no doctrinal objections to the Catholic faith, he converted to Catholicism in 2008.

“I felt I had a need to settle this,” he said.

“There were intellectual and spiritual objections I had to overcome; I realised that this is what I believe.”

But even now as a Catholic, he

still slips into the back pews of Anglican churches to take in the beauty of the service of Evensong; rich in its use of Bible readings, the wonderful English and excel-

lent choirs. To grasp the depth of Anglican spirituality, it needs to be experienced, he said.

“That combination of wonderful liturgy and Englishness is what

attracts me; it’s been the spirituality that I most like and it has a reality,” he said.

Robert said that there are many gems of sacred English within the Anglican liturgy but he prefaced this with a caveat that ‘liturgy and buildings’ are not the most important thing about Anglicanorum Coetibus (“Groups of Anglicans”): ‘that’s important and it’s the means with which we go to God’ but after all, he chose to become Catholic because he agreed with the tenets of the Faith.

Meanwhile, Peter Hannan, who was born into a Roman Catholic family in 1968, only discovered in his adulthood the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite.

Peter’s dad converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism while courting his mother and, as a family, they attended Mass at Sacred Heart Church in the parish known as Kenwick/Thornlie. During his

Robert AndrewsPeter Hannon

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster kneels to receive a blessing from former Anglican Bishops Frs John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham, and Keith Newton that he ordained at Westminster Cathedral in London on 15 January. Those ordained were. The priests became part of the world’s first personal ordinariate for former Anglicans.

TAC Bishop Robert Mercer

needs to be ‘recaptured’

In the Anglican tradition, the priest’s family is at the heart of the parish, which he admitted puts “enormous pressure on the family”. Former Anglican priests who are now Catholic priests have previously told The Record that in the Anglican Church, stress in the marriage is caused by priest’s wives often becoming unpaid assistants, dealing with parish matters when they should have the right to their own hobbies and interests.

“I’ve tossed in my mind whether it’s more difficult to be a celibate in today’s world or a totally faithful family man. These both require heroic virtue to achieve,” Archbishop Hepworth said.

“We’re offering a charism - the gift of the Spirit in the Church of a family struggling heroically to be faithful and to support the ministry of the priest and his people and it comes to the heart of the Anglican concept of little parishes where everybody knows each other and lives closely to each other.”

He told The Record this after he told the festival audience that, as Anglicans seeking to enter the Catholic Church,“we have to recapture the gift of celibacy of the priesthood and the gift of monastic life”.

Although in the Anglican Church the priest was not married before he was ordained, he was expected to be married dur-

ing his first five years as a curate (assistant priest), to ensure he’d marry a woman from the parish who agreed with his life etc. Seminarians were not usually allowed to marry, though they are now, he said.

The importance of the family unit was highlighted in a letter to the TAC by Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which stipulated that men seeking to be a priest in the Ordinariate must also send a letter from his wife stating she agrees with him and why.

“This is a very difficult thing. I’m taking a priest’s wife to lunch next week to convince her to write her letter of approval to Rome,” Archbishop Hepworth said.

The prelate said that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before becoming Pope, had written about “making rules for gifts of the Holy Ghost rather than having them as free gifts within the Church. It opened up a celibacy debate, but marriage of priests is something the Church is on the brink of”.

Married priests is not a radical concept in the Church, he said, as Pope Pius XII gave permission for a few married ex-Lutheran ministers to be ordained as Catholic priests after World War II, though the first to take advantage of it was only ordained in Germany in 1964.

Celts the model for Anglo-Catholics

Anglo-Catholics to use sixth century evangelising method to re-Christianise pagan world

BY ANTHONY BARICH

THE way the Celts Christianised pagans in England in the sixth century will be the model of how Anglicans will attempt to Christianise a society that is paganising Christianity, the leader of WA’s AngloCatholics said.

A fully-resourced monastery with daily prayers and Mass was the central “powerhouse” from which monks evangelised the pagan countrysides of Ireland, Scotland and parts of Wales and Northern England, Bishop Harry Entwistle told the 26 February festival at Como Catholic Parish introducing the Anglican Ordinariate (non-geographic diocese) in Australia.

The laity were critical of this plan also, as monks would gather groups, often running informal prayer meetings at the junction of car tracks. As these lay groups – which were often peasants “eking out an existence on their land” - became established, they were resourced by the monastery, he said.

Similarly, the Church of Sts Ninian and Chad in Maylands would be the centre of the Ordinariate in WA, with other smaller Ordinariate groups to be established in major regional centres including Geraldton, Bunbury, Albany, Kalgoorlie and Esperance.

Initially, those who form them may be former Anglican converts to the Catholic faith who still value their Anglican heritage, and would “use their skills, gifts and faith of the ministry of the lay faithful to organise its life and grow the mission”, he said.

“We know of such a group of former Anglicans within the Catholic Church in New Zealand who are anxious to exercise such a ministry,” he

said. An Ordinariate Mass would be offered periodically and other gatherings organised, but the Ordinariate members would continue their Christian life within the local Catholic parish on a weekly basis.

To do all this, the AngloCatholics will need more vocations to the priesthood and still others to live the Religious life in the world in communities like the Society of the Sacred Cross or as lay oblates and associates of other Orders.

The Bishop said he sees a similarity between the emergence of new Religious communities within the Church and the way Celtics operated, and added that the Anglo-Catholics can learn from both.

Often consisting of young people living in small houses and communities within parish communities, these new movements seek to evangelise by bringing God’s presence into the everyday lives of those whom they meet, “communicating the Gospel in ways they can understand”.

Similarly, the Celtic Church placed people at the centre of its mission, communicating the Gospel to them in ways that enabled the local population

to relate to the faith, Bishop Entwistle said at the festival introducing the Ordinariate.

The Celts, who came from Northern Europe and occupied Ireland, Scotland and parts of Wales and northern England, were a Christian community before the Augustinian mission in 597.

The Celts Christianised pagan shrines and places, and above all focused on the Holy Trinity – as an alternative to the pagans’ various gods - as the one, true God who is involved in the whole of life, he said.

“Hence, Celtic prayers were said for virtually all of life’s activities because everything came within the domain of the Holy Trinity,” he said.

He stressed that Anglicans entering the Church via these Ordinariates must not “build walls around ourselves like the Pharisees in order to protect the pure form of Anglicanism”.

“Our purpose is to bring the treasures of the ‘Anglican Way’ into the fullness of the Catholic Church and those treasures include the experiences of the Celtic Church, of the preReformation Catholic Church in England and the reformed Church of England,” he said.

enriched as Anglicans flock to Benedict’s offer

upbringing in the 70s and 80s, Peter was hopeful of a reunion of the two traditions as he often heard his parish priest, the late Fr Eivers, refer to the local Anglican congregation as “Our Separated Brethren across the road”.

The two parishes would join forces for the Christmas Carol Services held at the Catholic primary school.

“We should all hope and pray that the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia will, once it is up and running and as time goes by, attract more Anglicans and members of other denominations, such as Lutherans,” Peter said at the festival.

Like Robert, Peter hopes that Anglicanorum Coetibus will enrich the Catholic liturgy in its Novus Ordo (“New Order”) form - the vernacular form of the Mass introduced in 1969/1970 by Pope Pius VI.

“My hope is that the Rite of Holy

Mass used in the Ordinariate in Western Australia will show that a Roman Liturgy in the vernacular can and should have as much of a vertical dimension as the Old Tridentine Mass,” he said.

While living in Melbourne from 1999 to 2002, Peter had what he calls a ‘liturgical revelation’ when he learned by reading Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars that, prior to the Reformation, the English - who were effectively Catholic, such as St Thomas More, who was martyred by King Henry VIII - would have assisted at Mass according to the Sarum Rite.

When writing the Book of Common Prayer , Archbishop Cranmer drew on this Latin Sarum Liturgy.

Through Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, this Book of Common Prayer that is part of the Anglican tradition, will truly

become a Book of Common Prayer between Catholics and Anglicans and enrich the Catholic liturgical history and tradition, Peter told the festival.

The 2009 Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus , follows Vatican moves in 1980 that welcomed episcopal priests and laity who sought full communion with the Catholic Church.

Under John Paul II’s 1980 Pastoral Provision, married Anglican clergymen could be ordained as Catholic priests.

“The Pastoral Provision envisaged the establishment of parishes comprising former Episcopalians with a former Episcopalian minister as their priest, and preserving aspects of their former AngloCatholic modes of parish life and worship,” Peter said.

This Pastoral Provision of the late Pope’s and the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite - Mass celebrated

according to the Book of Divine Worship - has acted as ‘an unintended trial run’ for the Anglican Ordinariate, he said.

When Peter discovered the existence of the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite, which was practised within the Catholic Church at seven parishes in the US, mostly in Texas, he felt he was missing out.

“How I wished I was one of those lucky ‘Cradle Catholic Texans’ who, living nearby, and wanting to embrace something totally in tune with their Catholic heritage, could assist at an Anglican Use Mass in fulfilment of their Sunday obligation, sing with gusto Scriptural based hymns, receive Jesus kneeling at an altar rail and generally engage in an authentic version of the full and actual participation of which the Vatican II Fathers spoke in (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) Sacrosanctum Consilium,” Peter said.

In broad terms, Peter’s two main reasons for his enthusiasm for the Anglican Ordinariate are that the implementation of the Constitution marks a significant step towards the goal of Christian unity with and under the successor of Peter.

Secondly, that the Constitution will provide impetus towards the achievement of Pope Benedict’s objective of improving the way Holy Mass is offered in the Roman Catholic Church.

Like Peter, Robert too anticipates the liturgical gift that Anglicans will bring to Catholicism.

“Anglicans will be bringing a rich tradition and I very much welcome that and think it will enrich the Catholic Church in a number of ways,” Robert said.

As a convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism, Robert said he hoped that the Apostolic Constitution would make the ‘journey’ easier.

Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion that claims a global membership of 400,000, addresses the Festival at Como Catholic Parish on 26 February.

Traditional Anglican Communion Bishop Harry Entwistle of WA offers Mass at Holy Family Catholic Parish in Como at the festival introducing the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia on 26 February.

PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

Pope sees Lebanon as model for Christian-Muslim coexistence

POPE Benedict XVI met on 24 February with Lebanon’s President Michel Sleiman, and said that the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims in that country “stands as a message of freedom and respectful coexistence, not only for the region but for the whole world.”

The Pope’s talk with the Lebanese leader concentrated on the importance of interfaith cooperation, according to a communiqué released by the Vatican after the meeting.

The two also discussed the current unrest in the Middle East, and the difficulties facing Christians in the region. President Sleiman was in Rome for the dedication of a statue of St Maron, located on the exterior wall of St Peter’s Basilica.

St Maron was the founder of the Maronite Catholic Church, the largest Christian group in Lebanon.

Egypt: acquittals in drive-by shooting of Christians

AN Egyptian state security court has acquitted two men “known to be accomplices” in the January 2010 drive-by shooting of seven people outside a Coptic church in southern Egypt, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). “It took over a year, and the Egyptian state security court committed serious breaches of due process and fairness in the case of the killings of six Christians and one Muslim in Naga Hammadi,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair. “The government also should ensure that Christian and other nonMuslim places of worship receive heightened security, particularly in the current climate where religious minorities are increasingly vulnerable to extremist attacks, including threats to eradicate Christians from the region.”

Egypt Bishops won’t call for repeal of Islam as state religion

The Catholic Bishops of Egypt will not call for the repeal of Article 2 of the nation’s constitution, which declares Islam to be the state religion. Thousands of Coptic Christians marched in Cairo on 20 February to demand the removal of Article 2 from the Egyptian constitution. Article 2 reads: “Islam is the religion of the state. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia).” At a recent meeting, Egypt’s Catholic Bishops decided “we will never ask for its abolition because it would [injure] the feelings of Muslims,” said Coptic Catholic Bishop Kyrillos William of Assiut. “In the future, we will ask to add some assurances for the non-Muslim communities.”

Bishop William traces much of the Muslim-Christian tension in Egypt to an incident two years ago when a Coptic Orthodox layman “committed an act of sacrilege against Islam” - an incident that led to the brutal murder of his parish priest.

Of the nation’s 79.1 million people, 0.3 per cent are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics. An estimated five to 10 per cent of Egyptians are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

‘Little risk’ in Arab world uprisings

A VATICAN expert on Islam, Fr Samir Khalil Samir, sees the current surge of protests in the Arab world as a largely healthy development. The crowds are not motivated by Islamic fundamentalism or antipathy toward Israel, he insists; they are young people looking for greater freedom and economic opportunity.

“In all these movements, issues linked to America, Israel, the Palestinian struggle, the liberation of Jerusalem, etc have not emerged. For decades, the Arab world has been witness to ideologised demonstrations,” he said. “These young people are focused on national and social problems, they are not demonstrating for any ideology, right wing or left wing. In all these months, no American or Israeli flag has been burnt; no-one has made claims in defence of an Islam that must rule the earth.”

Middle East unrest reaches Korea

THE anti-government demonstrations that have swept across the Middle East and Asia have reached North Korea, the AsiaNews service reports. The government there has responded with characteristic brutality, and tried to impose a blackout on news of the violence. Hundreds of North Koreans clashed with security forces in the town of Sinuiju on the border with China on 18 February. The crackdown by the military regime of Kim Jong-il caused injuries and up to five deaths. The riots are caused by progressive deterioration of economic conditions, as confirmed by an AsiaNews source.

Indiscriminate killing worries Vatican

As rallies continue, Vatican expresses concern about Libya

BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - With prodemocracy movements moving across North Africa and the Middle East, the situation in Libya worries the Vatican because of the loss of human lives, “the targeting of civilians and of peaceful protesters, and the indiscriminate use of force,” a Vatican representative told the UN Human Rights Council.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican representative to UN agencies in Geneva, told the council on 25 February that the Vatican supports all efforts to encourage a dialogue between pro-democracy demonstrators and the government of Col Moammar Gadhafi.

Since late January, demonstrators across the region have taken to the streets calling for democratic reforms; the protests led to leadership changes in Egypt and Tunisia, but saw a violent crackdown in Libya where some 1,000 people were believed to have been killed, foreign workers were being evacuated and about 100,000 people were said to have fled to Egypt and Tunisia.

Archbishop Tomasi told the Human Rights Council, “Violence only leads to a humanitarian catastrophe. Especially vulnerable in this crisis are asylum seekers, refugees and irregular immigrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa, who risk being made a scapegoat of accumulated frustrations.”

Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, Libya, said 2,000 Eritreans showed up at a church and churchrun facilities on 27 February asking for help. “My heart is breaking because we can’t do anything for them. My thoughts go out especially to the women and children, who truly are the ‘least’ the Gospel talks about,” Bishop Martinelli told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

The Bishop said the Church was able to secure seats on a flight to

Italy for 54 of the Eritreans who have documents from the UN High Commission for Refugees; the others all were hoping to stay inside church properties, “but it’s impossible. We are trying to help them any way we can, helping them pay rent,” he said on 28 February.

Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said on 25 February that the Vatican obviously was saddened by instances of violence connected to the prodemocracy demonstrations across the region and especially by the extent of the violence in Libya.

In an editorial for the Vatican Television Centre, Fr Lombardi noted that many observers watching what is happening in North Africa and the Middle East see it “as

a possible ‘springtime of the Arab world’” as far as democracy goes. While the encouragement of outsiders is needed, he said, “the Arab peoples’ true growth in freedom and democracy must be born from within, without counterproductive external interference.”

The world’s democracies must offer the region’s peoples “friendship and dialogue,” he said.

When, on the other side of the Mediterranean basin, “there are numerous young people desiring human growth in greater freedom, we must do everything possible to enter into a positive dialogue with them,” he said.

Throughout the Arab world, 25 February was marked as a “Day of Anger” with pro-democracy demonstrations.

People took to the streets in several cities in Iraq, mainly because of “the lack of work, the lack of electricity and water,” Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad told Vatican Radio.

“The situation is like this in almost all the Arab nations: what is happening demonstrates how there are many dictators in the world. We hope they can learn something from this situation and decide to give their people more freedom,” he said. If and when governments change, Bishop Warduni said, the new leaders must act first of all “to defend the good of every citizen” by guaranteeing their rights, ensuring their security and not thinking that “their citizens are slaves.”

Mourners carry coffins containing the bodies of Libyans who were killed in the recent clashes in Benghazi on 25 February. Filipinos trapped in the violent upheaval in Libya have taken refuge inside the Cathedral of the Apostolic Vicariate of Tripoli.

PHOTO: CNS/SUHAIB SALEM, REUTERS

YEMEN President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years, granted concessions to two groups of demonstrators but protests continued.

ALGERIA Government lifted state of emergency after 19 years and instituted other reforms, but protesters seek broader overhaul.

President Hosni Mubarak resigned Feb. 11 after 18 days of nonviolent protests.

LEBANON Remained quiet after Sunni Muslims rallied against government leadership changes. Other protesters focused on the economy and support for Egyptian demonstrators.

©2011 CNS

ANTI-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATIONS have swept across North Africa and the Middle East since January in an effort to oust authoritarian leaders and improve economic conditions.

MOROCCO called for reforms to re-energize after King Mohammed VI slowed their pace after an initial push in 1999.

LIBYA Violent clashes between opponents of leader Moammar Gadhafi and his supporters claimed hundreds of lives.

Protests fueled by an underlying resentment toward the monarchy over the lack of social programs that other oil-rich Arab nations enjoy.

Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad. CNS

Lebanese Presidnet Michel Sleiman

USCIRF chair Leonard Leo

Kim Jong-il

Pilgrims flock despite investigation

Pilgrims flock to Medjugorje while Vatican studies alleged apparitions

BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service

MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-

Herzegovina - A Vatican-appointed commission is studying the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, but pilgrims keep arriving in the small town.

As the 30th anniversary of the alleged apparitions approaches, the town is experiencing a building boom with new hostels, restaurants and shops that cater to pilgrims.

The 11 Franciscan friars assigned to the town’s convent and its sole parish - St James - are assisted by visiting priests in ministering to the pilgrims and the town’s 3,500 residents, who pack the church even in the winter when pilgrim buses are few and far between.

A few hotels and dozens and dozens of family-run hostels offer more than 10,000 beds for pilgrims.

Individuals and members of organised groups climb the craggy Apparition Hill where six village children said they first saw Mary in June 1981.

The pilgrims pray the Rosary as they trudge up the hill, careful not to twist their ankles on the slices of rock jutting out of the hillside.

Most of the Medjugorje “seers” have said the apparitions have continued every day for years. Three say they still have visions each day, while the other three see Mary only once a year now. All six are now married and have children.

Ivanka Ivankovic-Elez, Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo and Jakov Colo still live year round in Medjugorje or a nearby village; each of them was contacted in late February but declined to be interviewed.

On the second day of each month, Dragicevic-Soldo says Mary shares with her a prayer for unbelievers and on the 25th of each month, Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, who now lives with her husband and children in northern Italy, says she receives a public message from Mary.

For years, the local prelate, Bishop Ratko Peric of MostarDuvno, has said he believes nothing supernatural is happening in Medjugorje. In an email to CNS in late February, he said he would no longer comment about what is happening in Medjugorje out of respect for the Vatican commission.

While the Vatican has said dioceses should not organise official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, it has said Catholics are free to visit the town and pray there, and that the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno and the Franciscans should organise pastoral care for them.

Franciscan Fr Svetozar Kraljevic, who runs pilgrim-funded social projects on the edge of town, said, “We are all a commission” - the local Franciscans, the townspeople and the pilgrims, who by their presence continue to study the claims about Mary’s appearance in Medjugorje and to judge the authenticity of the messages the young people say she gives them.

At least 1.5 million pilgrims came in the past year and their judgement is clear, he said, although the formal commission members “have been given a special responsibility” for discernment.

Offering a 25 February introductory session for a pilgrim group from St Louis, Franciscan Fr Danko Perutina told them, “Everything Our Lady has been talking about here is already in our tradition - it’s nothing new - pray, read the Bible,

recite the Rosary, go to Holy Mass, go to Confession.”

Fr Perutina told the St Louis group that official Church bodies, particularly Bishops’ conferences, have been investigating the Medjugorje visionaries’ claims for years and whatever the Vatican commission decides, “we must accept.”

“There weren’t as many investigations of Lourdes and Fatima,” the Marian apparitions in France and Portugal respectively, “but everything must be tried by fire. Only the good things will remain,” he said.

Fr Perutina told the pilgrims, “Apparitions are one expression of God’s acting in the world and they are helping people.”

The Franciscan Friar is collecting stories of priests and nuns from around the world who say their vocations are connected to Medjugorje and he said he already has more than 500 such testimonies; Fr Rodger Fleming, one of the priests leading the St Louis group, said his is one of them.

The associate pastor of St

Medjugorje pilgrims help drug addicts

BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service

MEDJUGORJE,

Bosnia-

Herzegovina - Millions of pilgrims have come to Medjugorje and reported experiencing conversion in the village where six young people claimed they began seeing Mary in 1981.

In the 30 years since, many of the pilgrims have made donations that helped make huge changes in the lives of orphaned children, women in difficulty and young men with serious addiction problems, usually involving drugs.

The men who live in the Merciful Father Community on the edge of Medjugorje have conversion stories of their own and they know it is thanks to the alleged visions and the generosity of the pilgrims that they have a chance for a better future.

Brano Bakic, 32, has completed 33 months of the three-year recovery programme that focuses on prayer and work according to a very strict schedule that begins at 6am each day.

“I believe that God saved me, that Mary saved me,” he said.

Clement of Rome parish in St Louis said he was making his 20th visit to Medjugorje, which he first visited with his parents and siblings.

In late February, his group was the only organised Englishspeaking pilgrimage in Medjugorje; there were several Italian groups, but things were pretty quiet in the little town.

Wandering around the church grounds on 26 February were four men in their 30s carrying plastic souvenir bags. The four friends work in Switzerland, but two are Armenian Orthodox from Turkey, one is Italian and one is Croatian.

Jakob, a 37 year old Armenian, said, “Whether the Vatican says it’s true or not really doesn’t matter. What counts is what you believe inside, and I believe people need this.”

The Italian, who said he has changed his name to Omar, said he agreed to join his friends on the roadtrip to Medjugorje “because I believe. It attracts me. You don’t have to have more of a reason than that.”

The former heroin addict said that when a social worker first dropped him off at the community gates, “nothing was clear. There was only big confusion. But now I know God saved me and I’m ready for a good life.”

The recovery community was founded 10 years ago by Franciscan Fr Slavko Barbaric, who founded Mother’s Village in 1993 to care for orphans from the Balkans War. The village now includes a large kindergarten, family-style homes for 55 children whose parents have died or no longer can care for them, a house for pregnant women in crisis and the Merciful Father Community.

Franciscan Father Svetozar Kraljevic, current director of the village, said the Franciscans were able to build and to expand the village “knowing that the pilgrims had every desire and intention to help.”

He said the people who come to Medjugorje because of the alleged apparitions are true pilgrims “if they are about the

quality of life and reaching outfirst for their own lives and then for others,” he said. “If what happens here is self-centered, then it’s not about God.”

Zaklina Pazin, who shares the story of Mother’s Village with English-speaking pilgrims and shows them around, said, “The pilgrims are generous and they want to give back.”

The men at Merciful Father spend much of their day doing manual labour; they work in the gardens at Mother’s Village and are responsible for the upkeep of the buildings. They make Rosaries and plaques and mosaics. They did the back-breaking work of digging through the rocky Apparition Hill to install lights for pilgrims. And occasionally, Bakic said, they carry aged and infirm pilgrims up the steeper Krizevac, or “Cross Hill,” where locals and pilgrims meditate on the Stations of the Cross.

“We start every day in the chapel and end every day in the chapel on our knees,” Bakic said. The community’s chapel has no altar - the men go to Mass in town - but “every day one guy reads the word of God and tells what it means to him. I think it’s a very good way to think about these things.” The men are not confined and some leave after a few days or few weeks, Bakic said. “For the first three months, each person has a guardian angel guy who is with him all day. It is the biggest obligation in the community.”

Sitting in a large dining room where the aroma of garlic and other spices made it clear it was almost lunchtime, Ilija Cale, another recovering addict at Merciful Father, said, “All this is connected with what happens in Medjugorje.

“Everything that does not come from God, falls down. The point of Medjugorje is to pray. Like everyone, we came to Medjugorje with a bag of bad stuff on our backs. We had to put that down to get better and we put that down with prayer.”

Bakic said the relationship with the pilgrims is a two-way street. “We have money from the pilgrims, but they have our testimony and our hope.”

Men make the sign of the cross during lunch at the Merciful Father Community in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina on 26 February. The pilgrim-funded programme helps men overcome addictions through prayer and work.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING

Daniel from Florida prays during a Mass for English-speaking pilgrims in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina on 25 February.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING

Souvenir shops and restaurants are seen at night in Medjugorje, BosniaHerzegovina on 26 February.

PHOTO: CNS/ PAUL HARING

Less talk, more action on religious freedom

European Bishops welcome EU pledge on religious rights, urge action

BY JONATHAN LUXMOORE Catholic News Service

WARSAW, Poland - A commission representing the European Union’s Catholic Bishops welcomed an EU commitment to support religious freedom worldwide and predicted “concrete measures” will be taken to implement the pledge.

“It isn’t up to churches to suggest practical action,” said Johanna Touzel, spokeswoman for the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community. “What we’re calling for is a clear warning about the consequences of continued persecu-

tion. “The Western world should be offering a framework for respecting fundamental rights, which local communities can implement democratically. Now that revolutionary changes are occurring in the Arab world, the West has a responsibility to set the rules of the game,” she said.

Touzel’s response followed the release on 21 February of a statement by the EU foreign ministers that reaffirmed a “strong commitment” to promote religious freedom and condemn violence against Christians and Muslims.

Touzel told CNS that the voices of Church leaders and Christian politicians helped “change the orientation” of the foreign ministers.

“There’s been a reluctance to mention Christians by officials in Britain and other countries who feared this risked a clash of civilisations by identifying Europe with

Christianity,” Touzel said. “But respect for fundamental rights is already a condition for EU aid, so I think we can be hopeful concrete steps will now be taken to uphold this in practice.”

Calls for action to combat antiChristian violence have mounted in the wake of recent events, including a 1 January bombing that killed 23 Orthodox Christians in Alexandria, Egypt.

Foreign Ministers from Italy, France, Hungary and Poland demanded a “strong and clear political answer” in a January letter to the Catherine Ashton, the EU representative for foreign affairs and security policy. She told the European Parliament on 19 January the EU would seek “strong crossregional support” on the issue at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March.

At a 31 January summit, the EU

foreign ministers declined proposals for protecting Christian minorities and referred only briefly to discrimination in a 21-page document. However, in their 21 February statement, they “firmly condemned” violence and terrorism “against Christians and their places of worship, Muslim pilgrims and other Religious communities.” They said Religious people should “practise their religion and worship freely, individually or in community with others, without fear of intolerance and attacks.”

Although the statement was welcomed as a “good step in the right direction” by the Bishops, they also urged the EU to take “significant political action” and “help eradicate the stark sectarian divide, the war of cultures and religions, and the wave of religious cleansing.”

Meanwhile, a senior official from the 54-country Organisation

for Security and Cooperation in Europe outlined plans to combat “Christianophobia” in a 17 February speech to European Church leaders, and welcomed the “five risks to religious freedom” outlined by Pope Benedict XVI in a 10 January address to Rome diplomats.

“That the OSCE has established the office of representative for combatting discrimination against Christians represents an achievement for the diplomacy of the Holy See and those governments which cleverly supported it”, Massimo Introvigne, the security organisation’s representative for combating discrimination and intolerance, told the Council of Catholic Episcopates of Europe and the non-Catholic Conference of European Churches in Belgrade. “The time of words not followed up by actions has gone,” he said. “There is a need, as the Pope states, to adopt effective measures.”

New prayers will help elevate hearts and minds to God

Continued from Page 13 out of the Sanctus and Preface, hence the igitur, now recaptured in English as “therefore”. Notice how the new version captures the spiritual sense of reserve and humility before God that characterises the great liturgies of the West and East.

The words of consecration are slightly different, particularly the consecration of the wine: “…. For this is the Chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal Covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

The blood of Christ “will be poured out”, effundetur, and “for many”, pro multis, a particularly delicate change mandated by the Pope to resolve a divisive controversy, raised by some traditionalists but really caused in the first place by the mistranslation, “for all”. Christ died for all, but his one Sacrifice in the Mass is applied to “many”.

In the Roman Canon, after the consecration we find a rhythmic repetition: hostiam puram, hostian sanctam, hostiam immaculatam, now to be rendered as “this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim”.

At present this is boiled down as “this holy and perfect sacrifice”. The ICEL of the past avoided repetitions, but repetition is always a part of prayer. The old ICEL airbrushed out that strong sacrificial word “victim” - hostia

The words that follow, explain who “this victim” is, “the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation”. As at the consecration, we note the recovery of the dignified and accurate term “chalice”, with its religious and cultural connotations. We do not usually ask for “a cup of wine”.

The words of the people

Obviously priests will have to become accustomed to a new style in virtually every prayer they say. But to what extent will the words said by the people be different? Here, care has been taken to keep the changes to a minimum. I indicate what is new at some key points of the Mass.

The greetings

The first obvious change will be the response to “The Lord be with you”, which will be “And with your

spirit”. This brings us into line with all the other major languages where et cum spiritu tuo is translated literally, for example con il tuo spirito in Italian.

This is an ancient mystical response to a blessing-greeting. referring either to the priest’s angelic guardian or the presence of the Holy Spirit in the priest or, as is more likely, the spirit within each us. This is why this blessing-greeting with its response is only given by the ordained and not by lay people, for example when a lay person leads a “Communion service”.

The Confiteor

In the “I confess” we will admit that we have “greatly” sinned, “through my fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault”. Again the new ICEL is not afraid of symbolic repetition and respects Catholic familiarity with the mea culpa

The Gloria

The new text of the Gloria largely returns to the first English translation that was used between 1964 and late 1969. It will be easier to set

to music, as we already see in new musical settings that are appearing for the new texts.

The Orate Fratres

In “Pray brothers and sisters…” we return to the Latin “my sacrifice and yours”, to restore the distinction between the two modes of offering Mass, that of the priest and that of the priestly people with him.

The word “holy” has been restored to the response to qualify “Church”.

One wonders why someone presumed to remove one of the four marks of the Church forty years ago. The Church is “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic”

The Sanctus

The only change in the “Holy, holy …” is replacing “God of power and might” with a more literal “Lord God of hosts”, Dominus Deus Sabaoth, the word Sabaoth being a Hebrew reference to the countless angelic armies, in the context of worship. This is a return to the first English version of the Sanctus in the Sixties.

The invitation to Communion

A particularly beautiful development is the complete retranslation of the invitation to Communion. Instead of the blunt and bland

“This is the Lamb of God … happy are those who are called to his supper”, the priest will say, “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb”. Our response will be closer to the words of the centurion in the Scriptures (Luke 7: 6-7): “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Note the shift to God’s initiative, not “that I should receive you”, rather “that you should enter under my roof” and the restoration of “soul”. There was a fear of the word “soul” among theologians forty years ago. Since then Pope John Paul’s “theology of the body” has deepened our understanding of the unity of the person in body and soul.

These examples show that what

is coming is richer, more elegant in style, more truthful in doctrinal content, closer to the Scriptures and more spiritual and mystical. The new translations should gradually deepen the quality and tone of our worship. But the transition will not be easy for some people. The new texts carry better doctrinal content and they will call for careful catechesis and explanation.

But, what an opportunity this is! For all of us the transition and the catechesis involved should enrich our faith and worship, and our love for the Mass. From an address given to the Catholic Women’s League National Conference, Melbourne, July 31 2010

Footnotes

1. Comme le prevoit, On the Translation of Liturgical Texts for Celebrations with a Congregation, Instruction of the Consilium for Implementing the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 25 January 1969, to be found in English on www.webelieve

2. Cf ibid., 28.

3. Cf Missale Romanum, Collects for Sundays 5, 6, 11, 13, 16, 26, 28 and Sunday 27 leaves out the mercy of God.

4. Cf ibid, Prayer Over the Gifts for Sundays 9, 17, 29 and 33; Post-Communion Prayer, Sunday 3.

5. Comme le prevoit, 12.

6. Let us never hear the ignorant expression “with his back to the people”. A priest celebrating Mass facing the altar is turned to “the East”, an ancient tradition, and he is leading the people, standing with them on the same side of the altar. The Eastern Rites maintain this tradition. It is optional in our Roman Rite.

7. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “The Theology of the Liturgy”, in Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger, Proceedings of the July 2001 Fontgombault Liturgical Conference, Alcuin Reid OSB ed, St Michael’s Abbey Press, Farnborough, 2003, p 30.

8. Cf Comme le prevoit, opcit, 14, 15, citing a word or two from an allocution of Pope Paul VI to participants in a congress on translating liturgical texts, 10 November 1965.

Interested in the new prayers of the Mass?

See information throughout this paper on public seminars organised by the Archdiocesan Liturgy Office.

The new English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal is seen in Rome last April. Announced by Pope John Paul II in 2000 and first published in Latin in 2002, the missal underwent a lengthy translation process and received final approval by the Vatican in 2010 for use beginning in 2011.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING

Bishops slam Obama

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - The US Bishops’ Office of General Counsel said the Obama administration’s decision to no longer support the Defence of Marriage Act in legal challenges ahead “represents an abdication” of its “constitutional obligation to ensure that laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”

“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman,” the office said in a 23 February statement issued after President Barack Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the federal law passed by Congress and signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton.

The Defence of Marriage Act says the federal government defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman and that no state must recognise a same-sex marriage from another state.

“The principal basis for today’s decision is that the president considers the law a form of impermissible sexual orientation discrimination,” the Office of General Counsel said.

In a 23 February statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said that although the administration has defended the 1996 law in some federal courts, it will not continue to do so in cases pending in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Unlike in the previous cases, said Holder, the 2nd Circuit “has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated.”

In response to the announcement, the National Organisation for Marriage, which opposes samesex marriage, called on Congress to “get lawyers in the courtroom who actually want to defend the law, and not please their powerful political special interests.”

“We have only begun to fight,” said Brian Brown, president of the organisation. He also said that with Holder’s announcement, Obama “unilaterally” declared homosexuals “a protected class” under the Constitution and would effectively make a federal court decision on the law “unreviewable by higher courts.” While Obama favours repealing the law, Holder said the president has supported defending it as constitutional if a state or local law meets the legal standard of having “a rational basis” for singling out people for different treatment based on sexual orientation.

But in the pending cases, Holder said, the administration “faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.”

From law to love - a journey to sustainable living we can all consider

BY GERRY O’NEILL

The refrain from the book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything under heaven” (3: 1) is pertinent to the reflections in this article. At this time of enhanced awareness and concern about the environment and the negative environmental impacts of human activity, it is timely to reclaim and to share with the world the richness of the Christian tradition in respect of creation.

In order to facilitate this reflection, give it direction and coherence, a model of sustainable living is offered. Its name – From Law to Love – conveys a number of understandings:

It is a developmental model;

It is a Scripturally-based in that it reflects a movement in Scripture beginning with the reality of the Law – the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture, to the Prophets – individual and community critiques of life-style choices, through to the Wisdom Literature and the embodiment of that wisdom in the person and life of Jesus Christ;

It is a motivational based model that leads to and sustains ways of living that reverence creation.

The base of the modelPreserving - equates to the law and the necessity to meet statutory obligations and to comply with national and state regulations in relationship to our environmental responsibilities. In some ways, it is the only place to start. However, as St Paul discovered in his own life, it ultimately fails if one does not move beyond compliance and the law.

St Paul was an outstanding Jew. He studied and knew the scope and complexity of the Jewish law.

He adhered to the law in every respect and allowed it to energise and guide his life. In later life he speaks about the curse of the law. His zeal for the law turned him into a mass murderer. The story of the Good Samaritan makes a similar point. The demands of the law and religious convention prevent good people – the Priest and the Levite – from responding to the urgent needs of the person lying on the side of the road.

The law is a great starting point but it is not enough. The cries of suffering creation may well be ignored if we rely solely on the motivation of the law. We need a deeper place of motivation if our engagement with the natural world is to be truly life-giving.

The first triad in the model is the place of motivation. Scripture and Catholic tradition point to the relational nature of reality. The seeds of Trinitarian thinking are sown in Scripture and formalised much later in Christian doctrine in the form of the Trinity of God. It is astounding that the illusion of separation and the primacy of connectedness which modern physics points to was discerned and given expression in the third and fourth centuries in the doctrine of the Trinity of God. Human community operates most intelligently and compassionately when it operates out of the paradigm of connectedness and interdependence found in Trinitarian thinking.

The Genesis accounts of creation underpin the notion of connectedness and interdependence. The second creation story found in Genesis (2: 1-25), has the first human formed from the Earth.

The first person is named Adam –literally of the Earth. The divine

breath animates the human but does not deny its essential earthiness. We are Earth people suffused with the divine.

Another implication from the Garden of Eden story is the filial relationship between humans. We come from the same Earth and are struck through with the same divine reality. The notion of the common good is not just based upon good social policy; it also reflects our common source and our shared destiny.

One dimension of our Christian tradition that urgently needs to be reclaimed is the proper relationship between humans and the natural world. The first account of creation in Genesis (1: 1-31) has often been interpreted in a way that supports the exploitation of creation. However, in light of current questions about sustainable living more insightful readings of this story have emerged. A careful reading of the Priestly account of creation in Genesis observes that each part of creation is declared “good” immediately after it has been created. The goodness of air, water, earth, flora and fauna precedes the creation of the human and is therefore not dependent upon the human. All material reality is good of and in itself and does not find its worth in relation to its usefulness to the human. It is inherently good!

Another important point emerges in more recent readings of Genesis one. The human does not occupy the position of senior partner in the realm of creation. Creation reaches its climax on the seventh day with the institution of Sabbath. Sabbath observance privileges being over doing but it also extols human beings to delight in

and give thanks for the great gift of the natural world.

The doctrine of incarnation underlines and reinforces this inherent goodness of material reality. God enters into human history in the flesh and the sacredness of the material world is thereby reinforced and assured.

The second triad in the Model of Sustainability is grounded in and builds upon the relational paradigm: what we are related to we value and what we value we actively care for.

At the core of active care is human freedom. In the prophetic triad of the model is an invitation to critique our life-styles at the individual and corporate levels. Individual and corporate decisions and actions can degrade or nurture the natural world. As these words taken from Deuteronomy make clear, there is always a choice to be made. “I place before you life and death: Choose life” (30: 19). We can choose to live simply and with proper reverence for the Earth or we can choose to live extravagantly but the consequences of those choices will follow – life or death.

In every dimension of life we are beginning to understand more deeply that what we do to the Earth we eventually do to ourselves. We truly are Earth people! More than this - a more mature understanding of the Earth and its place within salvation history is emerging. No longer is the Earth seen as an evil place that one must escape in order to gain spiritual fulfilment, rather it is the place of revelation and God’s presence to us in beauty and fragility. As such, it needs to be loved and nurtured.

The top triad in the model for sustainable living is given over to liturgy. It relates to the Wisdom tradition in Scripture, embodied most fully in the figure of Jesus Christ. The drama of the Eucharist captures most eloquently for Christians the communion, unity and interconnectedness of all things. In the celebration of the Eucharist we remember who we truly are in Christ and are inspired to live Eucharistic lives that reverence all things, including the natural world.

The journey to sustainable living reaches its climax in the Eucharist. As the priest holds up the bread and wine at consecration time, the Holy Spirit descends to transform these ordinary things into the Body and Blood of Christ. God acts to transform the material world. However, we must reclaim the significance of the prior human act. We are called to be Eucharistic people who hold up God’s creation so that it may find its true fulfilment and perfection in God.

As the model suggests, everything goes back to God. How it goes back to God is our opportunity to act with love.

Gerry O’Neill is mission leader at St John of God Health Care Group Services. He has a Master’s degree in education and a Master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame University in Fremantle.

Pope accepts resignation of Maronite Patriarch

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P Sfeir, the 90 year old head of the Maronite Catholic Church.

In a 26 February letterr, Pope Benedict said the Cardinal began his ministry as patriarch or head

of the Maronite Church in 1986, “in the turmoil of the war that bloodied Lebanon for too many years. With the ardent desire for peace for your country, you have guided this church and travelled the world to comfort your people who were forced to emigrate.”

“Peace finally came back,” the

Pope said, and while it is “always fragile,” it continues to reign in Lebanon.

As the head of an Eastern Catholic Church, Cardinal Sfeir could have served for life but chose to ask the Pope to accept his resignation.

In a country where religious

identity and political identity often are entwined, Cardinal Sfeir has been criticised at times for being too political, while at other times he was criticised for not engaging directly enough in the practical affairs of the country.

During Lebanon’s civil war, Cardinal Sfeir tried to continue

the tradition of the Maronite patriarch serving as a reference point of Lebanese cultural identity in a way that would bring the country’s Christians and Muslims together; he urged Christians and Muslims to stop fighting, to respect one another and to rebuild the country.

WEDNESDAY, 2 MARCH AND WEDNESDAY, 16

MARCH

Auditions for new Church choir

7pm at St Paul’s Catholic Church, 106 Rookwood St, Mt Lawley. Singing a varied repertoire of old and new Church music, once monthly at 6pm Saturday Mass. Ability to read music is desirable. Enq: Chloë 0417 712 027 or email chloe.piper@gmail.com.

FRIDAY, 4 MARCH

The Alliance, Triumph and Reign of the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary

9pm at St Bernadette’s Church, Glendalough. Commences with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament; reflections, Rosaries and hymns; alternating with healing sessions. Vigil concludes with midnight Mass in anticipation/ preparation for the Lord’s second coming and His Reign on earth. Enq: Fr Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Pro-life witness

9.30am at St Brigid’s Parish, 69B Morrison Rd, Midland. Holy Mass followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic. Spiritual leader: Fr Sharbel of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Come and pray for the conversion of hearts and an end to abortion. Enq. Helen 9402 0349.

SATURDAY, 5 MARCH

Day With Mary

9am-5pm at Queen of Martyrs Church, 77 Seventh Ave, Maylands. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. 9am Video; 10.10am Holy Mass; Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Women’s Day of Recollection

8.40am at St Paul’s Parish Centre, 104 Rookwood St, Mt Lawley. Rosary 8.40am followed at 9am by first Saturday Mass, optional, 9.30am tea. 10am talk on Women of the Bible presented by Fr Tim Deeter, followed by discussions, lunch, Holy Hour and Benediction. RSVP essential to catholicwomen.perth@gmail.com or Lydia 0413 993

987.

40 Days for Life Consecration

8.30am at St Augustine’s Church, Gladstone St, Rivervale. Holy Mass will be offered for an end to abortion. Celebrant: Fr Paul Carey. Rosary procession and prayer vigil to the nearby abortion clinic will follow. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

SUNDAY, 6 MARCH

Divine Mercy

1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor St, Perth. Homily on St John of the Cross by Fr Doug Harris. Enq: John 9457 7771.

Official Launch of Project Compassion 2011

9.30am Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Sq, Perth. Celebrant: Archbishop Hickey. Enq: Caritas office 9422 7925.

TUESDAY, 8 MARCH

Pancakes for Poverty

12 noon-1pm at the Seminar Room of the Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary Street, Highgate. Speaker: Ann Fairhead, Caritas Australia Acting Regional Coordinator WA. All welcome. Cost: donation. RSVP by Thursday, 3 March. Enq: Caritas office 9422 7925, perth@caritas. org.au.

FRIDAY, 11 MARCH

Alan Ames Healing Service

7pm at St Bernadette’s Catholic Church, Jugan St, Glendalough. Mass followed by talk and Healing Service. Enq: Katherine carver1@iinet.net.au.

SATURDAY, 12 MARCH

St Padre Pio Day of Prayer

8.30am at St Joachim Parish, Shepperton Rd, Victoria Park. Programme includes 11am Holy Mass, Adoration, Divine Mercy and Rosary. Bring a plate to share for lunch. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Divine Mercy Healing Mass

PANORAMA

2.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, Windsor St, East Perth. Main celebrant will be Fr Dennis O’Brien. Divine Mercy prayers followed by veneration of First class Relic of St Faustina Kowalska. Prayers for vocations and an end to abortion throughout the world. Reconciliation offered in English. Refreshments available. Enq: John 9457 7771.

SUNDAY, 13 MARCH

Triennial WA Regional Elections of the Secular Franciscan Order

10am at Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Includes Mass at 2.30pm. Please bring a plate for shared lunch. Enq: Michael 9275 5658.

TUESDAY, 15 MARCH

The Great Adventure by Jeff Cavins

7.30pm at the Redemptorist Monastery. A 24-week DVD series on the Bible timeline. Enq: Fr Hugh Thomas 9328 6600 or Gertrude 0411 262 221 or Keith 0411 108 525.

SATURDAY, 19 MARCH

Men’s Breakfast

9am at Infant Jesus Parish Hall, corner Wellington Rd and Smith St, Morley. “Is there really a God?” by Fr Deeter. Includes 8.30am Mass. Attendance $20 - proceeds to SVdP. Registrations/payment to the parish office by Sunday, 13 March. Advise on dietary requirements. Enq: Brendan 9276 8336.

Peace Vigil

6-9pm at 190 Vincent St, North Perth, Redemptorist Monastery. Prayer for peace in families and world - 20 min sessions followed by 10 min silence and lighting of votive candles. Supper provided. Everyone welcome. Enq: Fran franell@iprimus.com.au.

Reunion for St Joseph’s Girls Orphanage

11am outside The West Australian Museum at the memorial for Forgotten Australians site. Please bring any photos and memorabilia you might have. BYO lunch. Family members welcomed. Enq: Ann 9349 3424, Rita 9242 7766, Lynette 9453 2211

FRIDAY, 25 MARCH

Medjugorje Evening Prayer

7-9pm at All Saints Chapel, 77 St George’s Tce, Perth (Allendale Sq). Adoration, Rosary and Benediction followed by Mass. DVD available of alleged visionary Ivan. All welcome Enq: 9402 2480 or 0407 471 256, medjugorj@y7mail. com.

FRIDAY, 25 TO SUNDAY, 27 MARCH

Lenten Retreat

7pm at ‘God’s Farm’ 94 Woodlands Rd, Wilyabaup. Concludes on Sunday at 2pm. “Celebrating EucharistSource and Nourishment for our Christian life” Retreat Master: Fr Tony Chiera. Retreat includes daily Mass, Reconciliation, Adoration and prayers. Bus booking and Enq: Betty 9755 6212, PO Box 24 Cowaramup 6284 .

FRIDAY, 1 APRIL

Catholic Faith Renewal Evening - Change of Date

7.30pm at St John Paul Parish, 5 Ingham Ct, Willetton. Evening will no longer be on 4 March due to the Ordinations. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913 or Ann 0412 166 164, catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com.

SUNDAY, 1 MAY

Centenary of Kellerberrin Parish 11am at St Joseph’s parish, Kellerberrin. All present and past parishioners are invited to the parish Centenary celebrations. Mass celebrated by His Grace, Archbishop Barry James Hickey, followed by a catered luncheon at the Kellerberrin Shire Hall. RSVP by Saturday, 2 April for catering purposes to Christine Laird 9045 4235 or fax 9045 4602, or Audrey Tiller 9045 4021, or stmary@ westnet.com.au.

2011 Busselton Rosary Celebration

12.30pm at Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine, ‘Bove’s Farm’, Roy Rd, Jindong, Busselton. Celebrant: Bishop Gerard Holohan. Mass followed by Rosary Procession and Benediction. Tea provided. All welcome. Enq: Francis 0404 893 877 or 9459 3873.

FRIDAY, 8 TO WEDNESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER

Cruise on the River Nile

14-Day package. Includes Tour/Sightseeing of Jordan and Egypt. Cost: $4,900 per person twin share (22 people). Accompanying priest: Fr Joe Carroll. Itinerary and Enq: Fadua 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877.

EVERY SUNDAY

Gate of Heaven Catholic Radio

Join the Franciscans of the Immaculate every Sunday from 7.30-9pm on Radio Fremantle 107.9FM for Catholic radio broadcast of EWTN and our own live shows. Enq: radio@ausmaria.com.

Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation 2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation is available before every celebration. Anointing of the Sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation, last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to the church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq Sacri 9447 3292.

EVERY FIRST SUNDAY

Divine Mercy Chaplet and Healing Prayer

3pm at 72 Palmerston St, Bentley, Santa Clara Church. Includes Adoration and individual prayer for healing. Spiritual leader: Fr Francisco. All welcome. Enq: Fr Francisco 9458 2944.

THIRD SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Oblates of St Benedict

2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. Oblates are affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia. All welcome to study the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and tea later. Enq: Secretary 9457 5758.

EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life

2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley. The hour includes Exposition of the Blessed Eucharist, silent prayer, Scripture and prayers of intercession. Come and pray that those discerning vocations to the priesthood or Religious life hear clearly God’s loving call to them.

LAST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Christian Spirituality Presentation

7.30-9.15pm at the church hall behind St Swithan’s Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Stephanie Woods presents The Desert Period of Christianity, 260 to 600AD. From this time period came the understanding of the monastic lifestyle and contemplative prayer. No cost. Enq Lynne 9293 3848.

EVERY TUESDAY

Novena and Benediction to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

6pm at the Pater Noster Church, Marmion and Evershed Sts, Myaree. Mass at 5.30pm. Enq: John 0408 952 194.

Spirituality and The Sunday Gospels

7-8pm at St Benedict’s school hall, Alness St, Applecross. The power of the Gospel message; How can we live meaningful and hope-filled lives? Presented by Norma Woodcock. Donation for The Centre for Catholic Spiritual Development & Prayer. Enq: 9487 1772 or www.normawoodcock.com.

EVERY WEDNESDAY

Holy Spirit of Freedom Community

7.30pm at The Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We are delighted to welcome everyone to attend our Holy Spirit of Freedom Praise Meeting. Enq: 0423 907 869 or hsofperth@gmail.com.

Holy Hour at Catholic Youth Ministry

5.30pm Mass and 6.30pm Holy Hour (Adoration) at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. $5 supper and fellowship after Holy Hour. Enq: www.cym.com. au or call 9422 7912.

SECOND WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH

Chaplets of the Divine Mercy

7.30pm at St Thomas More Church, Dean Rd, Bateman.

Chaplet will be accompanied by Exposition followed by Benediction. Monthly event. All welcome. Enq: George 9310 9493 or 9325 2010 (w).

EVERY THURSDAY

Divine Mercy

11am at Sts John and Paul Church, Pine Tree Gully Rd, Willetton. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and for the consecrated life especially here in John Paul parish, conclude with veneration of the First Class Relic of St Faustina. Please do come and join us in prayer. Enq: John 9457 7771.

Father Corapi’s Catechism of the Catholic Church

7.30pm at St Joseph Church, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean - Parish Library, Enq: Catherine 9329 2691.

St Mary’s Cathedral Praise Meeting

7.45pm at St Joseph’s Church, Upper Room, 3 Salvado Rd, Subiaco. ‘Stepping Out in Radical Holiness’ – Flame Ministries International. Come along to continue to discover how to become equipped and empowered to live God’s word in these troubled times. Enq: Eddie 9382 3668.

EVERY FIRST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH

Taize Prayer and Meditation

7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Church, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Prayer and meditation using songs from the Taize phenomenon. In peace and candlelight we make our pilgrimage. All are invited. Enq: Joan 9448 4457 or Office 9448 4888.

FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life

7pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Mass, followed by Adoration with Fr Doug Harris. All welcome. Refreshments provided.

Catholic Faith Renewal Evening

7.30pm at Sts John and Paul’s parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Songs of Praise, sharing by a priest followed by Thanksgiving Mass and light refreshments after Mass. All welcome to attend and bring your family and friends. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913, Ann: 0412 166 164 or catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com.

Communion of Reparation All Night Vigils

7pm-1.30am at Corpus Christi Church, Lochee St, Mosman Park. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357 and at St Gerard Majella Church, Ravenswood Dr and Majella Rd, Mirrabooka, Enq: Fr Giosue 9349 2315, John or Joy 9344 2609. The Vigils consist of two Masses, Adoration, Benediction, Prayers and Confession in reparation for the outrages committed against the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary. All welcome.

Healing Mass

7pm at St Peter’s parish, Wood St, Inglewood. Reconciliation, praise and worship, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament, Benediction, Anointing of the Sick, and special blessing. Celebrants Fr Sam and other clergy. All welcome. Enq: Priscilla 0433 457 352, Catherine 0433 923 083 or Mary-Ann 0409 672 304.

Healing and Anointing Mass

8.45am at Pater Noster, Myaree. Reconciliation, followed by Mass including Anointing of the Sick, Praise and Worship to St Peregrine and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All welcome. Enq: Joy 9337 7189.

PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND

St Peter’s parish in Inglewood is organising a visit to Jordan, Israel and Egypt from 13-26 March 2011. The pilgrimage will cost A$3,990, everything included. Fr Sam will be the Spiritual Director. Eng Jim 0411 61 5239, zawnaing@optusnet.com.au.

PILGRIMAGE TO PRAGUE, POLAND AND AUSTRIA

St Jude’s parish, Langford is organising a 13-day pilgrimage departing 1 October. Pilgrimage will include visits to the Shrines of Divine Mercy, Infant Jesus, the Black Madonna, St Faustina, the birthplace of Pope John Paul II and the Museum at Auschwitz. Total cost per person $5,800. The Spiritual Director, Fr Terry Raj. Enq: Co-ordinator John Murphy 9457 7771, Matt 6460 6877 mattpicc1@gmail.com.

ACROSS

2 Passover animals

6 Catholic horror actor Lugosi

8 ___ will

9 Peter and Andrew may have used this

10 Nihil ___

11 The ___ Son

13 One of the seven

15 Catholic Republican National Committee Chairman

17 Jesuit university in New York

19 Section

(Mt 5:14)

18 What Jesus did on a certain Thursday

20 Church spires

21 ___ Judgement

22 “When we eat this bread and drink this ___…”

23 “Blessed are those who hunger and ___ for righteousness…” (Mt 5:6)

25

bk.

LAWN MOWING

WRR LAWN MOWING & WEED

SPRAYING Garden clean ups and rubbish removal. Get rid of bindii, jojo and other unsightly weeds. Based in Tuart Hill. Enq 9443 9243 or 0402 326 637.

OPPORTUNITIES

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Work from Home - P/T or F/T, 02 8230 0290 or visit www.dreamlife1.com.

A NEW CHURCH CHOIR

Varied repertoire – old and new. Rehearsals every other Wednesday, 7-8.30pm. Singing Saturday 6pm Mass once a month. Auditions Wed, 2 or 16 March, 7–8.30 pm. Ability to read music preferred. St Paul’s Catholic Church 106 Rookwood St Mt Lawley

Contact: Chloë – 0417 712 027, chloe.piper@gmail.com.

COOK WANTED

Nursing home in North Perth is seeking a mature person to provide home-style cooking two mornings per week. Experience cooking for the elderly is desirable. For further information, please ring 0431 08 2364.

COOK PART TME REQUIRED FOR A CATHOLIC MONASTERY 25 hours per week (Monday to Friday). Enquiries to Fr J Carroll or Bernadette on 9328 6600.

ACCOMMODATION

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

ESPERANCE 3 bedroom house f/furnished Ph 09 9076 5083.

TRADE SERVICES

BRENDON HANDYMAN

SERVICES Home, building maintenance, repairs and renovations. NOR. Ph 0427 539 588.

BRICK RE-POINTING Ph Nigel 9242 2952.

PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd

For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Ph Tom Perrott 9444 1200.

PICASSO PAINTING Top service. Ph 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

WALK WITH HIM

Deadline: 11am Monday

PILGRIMAGES/TOURS

1 Visit to Vietnam and Cambodia (17 days)

Mon, 9 - Wed, 25 May 2011 -

Cost: AU$4,600 per person twin share (24 people)

2 Pilgrimage to Jordan/Holy

Land/Egypt (12 days)

Tue, 7 - Sat, 18 June 2011

3 Pilgrimage to Prague/ Poland/Vienna (13 days)

Sat, 1 - Thu, 13 October 2011 (30 people)

4 Pilgrimage to Jordan/Holy Land/Egypt (12 days)

Fri, 11 - Tue, 22 November 2011

Special for senior card holders (40 people)

5 Pilgrimage to Jordan/Holy Land/Egypt (12 days)

Sun, 18 - Tue, 29 March 2012

Special for senior card holders (40 people)

For itinerary and enq: Francis Williams (Coordinator)

T: 9459 3873 (after 4pm)

Mob: 0404 893 877

E: francis@perthfamily.com

Skype ID: perthfamily88

CRUISE ON THE RIVER NILEFri, 8 - Wed, 21 September 2011

Tour/Sightseeing of Jordan and Egypt

14 Day Package. Cost: AU$4,900 per person twin share

Accompanying Priest: Fr Joe Carroll from the Redemptorist Monastery, Perth For more information/Itinerary, contact Fadua (T: 9459 3873 M: 0404 893 877).

SETTLEMENTS

ARE YOU BUYING OR SELLING real estate or a business? Why not ask Excel Settlements for a quote for your settlement. We offer reasonable fees, excellent service and no hidden costs. Ring Excel on 9481 4499 for a quote. Check our web site on www.excelsettlements.com.

BOOK BINDING

NEW BOOK BINDING, General Book Repairs; Rebinding; New Ribbons; Old Leather Bindings Restored. Tydewi Bindery 0422 968 572.

FURNITURE REMOVAL

ALL AREAS. Competitive Rates. Mike Murphy Ph 0416 226 434.

6 S 9TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Gr Deut 11:18, 26-28, 32 Obey and be blessed

Ps 30:2-4, 17, 25 The Lord, my refuge

Rom 3:21-25, 28 Law does not justify

Mt 7:21-27 Do the Father’s Will

7 M Ss Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs (M)

Red Tob 1:3, 2:1-8 Tobit’s good work

Ps 111:1-6 Virtues of the just

Mk 12:1-12 The wicked tenants

8 Tu St John of God, religious (O) Gr Tob 2:9-14 Anna supports Tobit

Ps 111:1-2, 7-9 Trust in the Lord

Mk 12:13-17 Whose denarius is this?

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

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 Rd, 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 Ct (off McCoy St), Myaree, Ph 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve.

KINLAR VESTMENTS

Quality hand-made and decorated vestments: Albs, Stoles, Chasubles, altar linen, banners etc. 12 Favenc Way, Padbury. By appointment only. Ph Vicki on 9402 1318 or 0409 114 093.

OTTIMO Convenient location for Bibles, books, cards CD/DVDs, candles, medals, statues and gifts at Shop 41, Station St Market, Subiaco. Fri-Sun 9-5pm.

THANKSGIVING

MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS may Your Name be praised and glorified throughout the world now and forever. Amen.

Mrs J Lawson

Coolgardie

PASTORAL CARE COURSE FOR MINISTRY WITH MENTALLY ILL

For those wanting to know about mental illness this 17 week course will run on Fridays, 8.45am to 3.30pm from 3 June to 23 Sep 2011. This course involves information sessions on schizophrenia, bipolar, suicide awareness, eating disorders etc plus group work and ward visits. Course donation of $100 is invited. Applications close 13 May. For information contact Bob Milne, Graylands Hospital, Pastoral Centre 9347 6685 (0413 32 5486 mob).

WANTED

CARPENTER TO MAKE PEWS for church. Tel 0427 08 5093.

9 W ASH WEDNESDAY

Vio Joel 2:12-18 Come back to Me

Ps 50:3-6, 12-14, 17 Spirit of fervour

2 Cor 5:20-6:2 Favourable time

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 The Father rewards

10 Th Deut 30:15-20 Life or death

Vio Ps 1:1-4, 6 Winnowed chaff

Lk 9:22-25 Christ’s followers

11 F Isa 58:1-9 What type of fast?

Vio Ps 50:3-6, 18-19 Have mercy on me

Mt 9:14-15 Feasting and fasting

12 S Isa 58:9-14 The clenched fist

Vio Ps 85:1-6 You are my God

Lk 5:27-32 A great reception

Books that you should have for Lent and Easter...

Not a tame lion

Based on writings of C S Lewis

Hilary Brand

RRP $19.95

An engaging and original resource for Lent. A five-week Lent course based around two films, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Shadowlands

The course aims to bring ideas from Lewis’ writing to a wider, contemporary audience. In doing so the book looks at issues of suffering, God’s absence, the gift of the present moment, as well as a few ideas less well explored in present day Christianity: heaven, judgement, and the force of evil. It includes full notes for facilitators.

CELEBRATING LENT

By Rev Jude Winkler OFM Conv

Helps children understand this time of preparation for Jesus’ Resurrection. Fullcolour illustrations.

Lenten Services

Just in time

Lucy Lind Hogan

RRP $19.95

Based on the Revised Common Lectionary and broadly ecumenical, this addition to the Just In Time! series provides: Sitting with the Text: Scripture commentary for each of the three lectionary years; Worship and Preaching Themes; Creating the Environment: ideas for decorating and preparing the worship space; Shaping the Worship Service: prayers, liturgies, dramas, music suggestions; Scripture Index; and more.

Beginning with Ash Wednesday, Lenten Services aids the reader in planning and implementing transformative

Taste the Joy of Easter

Anselm Grün

RRP $20.95

Easter is a feast of joy. In celebrating this feast, we are called to access the light and joy that is Easter’s gift to us. And yet in our lives many of us experience the ‘way of the cross’ rather than the ‘way of resurrection’.

How, then, should we celebrate the feast of Easter and taste the joy it brings in all its fullness? Deeply versed in the ways of the human soul and the knowledge of God’s Spirit, Fr Anselm Grün invites us to explore the mystery of Easter. Interpreting the rich symbolism of this feast and the fascinating characters contained in its stories, he suggests 50 ‘movements of life’ and specific exercises designed to help anyone seeking to live their life in the