The Record Newspaper - 02 April 2014 by The Record

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WE WILL PR AY FOR THEM St Mary’s Cathedral creates a shrine for those missing on Flight MH370 More news in weeks to come

The economic and existential poor in Australia need us, need God, global leader says

Perth a launching pad for laity THE AUSTRALIAN branch of a lay movement with its roots in the 16th century was launched in Perth last week by the global leader of an order looking after orphans, the sick, and those afflicted by physical and spiritual poverty. Fr Franco Moscone CRS, Superior General of the Clerics Regular of Somasca addressed a gathering of around 150 people at St Jerome’s Church, Spearwood on March 27. Fr Moscone spoke about the movement’s founder, St Jerome Emiliani, a former soldier who gathered laypeople and priests together to form the Servants of the Poor, caring for orphans, the sick, and women trapped in prostitution. Speaking to The Record earlier this week, shortly before returning to Italy, Fr Moscone said the Somascan founder was committed to reforming the Church, starting not with people in the “higher classes”, but with the poor. Poverty, however, was not a concept restricted only to economic circumstances, but included the

difficult existential realities confronting lay people in developed countries, as well as developing, countries. “Jesus in the Gospel spoke of the poor as being always with us in society. There is no society without the poor,” Fr Moscone said.

Even here, in this rich country, exist people who need our presence, who need our help, our heart. “There are many aspects of poverty. Here in Australia economic poverty would certainly exist but other aspects of poverty too – people who are alone, who live without motivation or without being able to make sense of it. “I think our charism may help people to open their eyes to others, to their brothers and sisters. “Even here, in this rich country,

exist people who need our presence, who need our help, our heart, and our work. This, I think is our gift to this church, to help believers to open their hearts and walk to their neighbours with help.” Members of the movement will receive monthly formation in Somascan spirituality and will work towards common charitable goals while growing into a genuine community of Christian believers. The Somascan congregation has survived three attempted suppressions throughout its history, during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and during the unification of Italy in the mid-19th century. Until 1928, the order only existed in Italy but has subsequently spread throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The Somascan Order has been entrusted with looking after two Perth parishes, in Spearwood and Rockingham. More information about the Somascan Lay Movement is available at info@somascan.org.au.

Fr Franco Moscone CRS, Superior General of the Somascans at the launch of the Somascan Lay Movement in Spearwood, March 27. PHOTO: MAT DE SOUSA

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Cancer takes a beating on the trail

Round-Up JUANITA SHEPHERD

Arise this Lent with the Catholic Guy Bruce Downes, better known as the Catholic Guy is hosting the Arise Lenten Retreat, April 11-12 at the St Lawrence Catholic Primary School Hall in Balcatta. Designed for people of all ages and backgrounds, the Arise Lenten Retreat aims to help participants experience the power of Christ through music, arts and scripture readings. It is also a time to reflect on Lent and prepare for the Easter. “One moment with God can completely change our world and allow him to breathe freshness, ignite passion and give us a renewed sense of hope,” Mr Downes said. The Arise Lenten Retreat also caters to the needs of children aged two to 12 years old. “A special Lenten program is available during the day time sessions for children,” Mr Downes said. “The program incorporates teaching, music, games and craft activities to help the children learn more about God who loves them and wants them to lead the best life possible.” To register for the Arise Lenten Program visit www. thecatholicguy.com/arise or email arise@thecatholicguy.com or call 1300 734 880.

Lea-Ann’s fighting feet part of $2.2M raised Together with 845 people, Lea-Ann Gaffney, parishioner at St John and Paul’s Parish Willetton raised $2.2 million over the weekend of March 15-16 for cancer. The Weekend to End Women’s Cancer was a 60km walk that began at McCallum Park and the aim was to celebrate the

WYD launch and pilgrim walk set for April 13

St John and Paul’s, Willetton parishioner Lea-Ann Gaffney took part in the Weekend to End Women’s Cancer on March 15-16, walking 60kms with the financial support of the Lumen Christi College community, where whe teaches. SUPPLIED for my mother-in-law.” Mrs Gaffney teaches at Lumen Christi College in Gosnells, the school was pivotal in helping her take part in the walk. “It became a school effort,” Mrs Gaffney said. “To sign up each person had to raise $2000 that allowed you to walk. So, via the school I brought in and sold lunches and had a curry day for the staff so everyone bought my curry. The kids collected money during lunch and recess and we had a bingo night, the school was really behind me.” The Weekend to End Women’s Cancer was the first

lives that have been saved and to remember those lives that were lost to breast and gynaecologic cancer. All the money raised will enable the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research to advance in its cancer research, fund innovative projects and allow the institute to look for genetic clues that help prevent and treat breast and ovarian cancer in women. “A friend of mine had cancer,” Mrs Gaffney told The Record. “When she mentioned the walk to me I said I would do it for everyone at school, for my friend and also

Monday 7th - Violet ST JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, PRIEST 1st Reading: Dan 13:1-9,15-17, 19-30,33-26 False Evidence Responsorial 22:1-6 Psalm: I fear no evil Gospel Reading: Jn 8:1-11 Sin no more

John Baptist de la Salle 1651 - 1719 feast - April 7

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Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, John Baptist was the eldest of 11 children in a noble French family. His studies in Paris were interrupted by his parents’ deaths; he returned to Reims, where he finished his schooling and was ordained in 1678. After settling into the comfortable life of a cathedral canon, he was challenged by a layman who had opened free schools for the poor in Rouen to do the same in Reims. This led to increasing involvement with poor children and the founding, growth and running of his order, which survived opposition and innovated classroom teaching and use of the vernacular. Canonized in 1900, he was declared the patron saint of teachers in 1950.

Tuesday 8th - Violet 1st Reading: Num 21:4-9 Moses intercedes Responsorial Psalm 101:2-3,16-21 Psalm: Hear my prayer Gospel Reading: Jn 8:21-30 I am going away Wednesday 9th - Violet 1st Reading: Dan 3:14-20,24-25,28 God will save us Responsorial Psalm/Dan 3:52-56 Psalm: Glory and praise Gospel Reading: Jn 8:31-42 Truth sets free

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Thursday 10th -Violet 1st Reading: Gen 17:3-9 My covenant Responsorial Psalm 104:4-9 Psalm: Covenant remembered Gospel Reading: Jn 8:51-59 Greater than Abraham?

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Friday 11th - Violet ST STANISLAUS, BISHOP, MARTYR (O) 1st Reading: Jer 20:10-13 The Lord is with me Responsorial Psalm 17:2-7 Psalm: I called on the Lord Gospel Reading: Jn 10:31-42 They wanted to arrest him Saturday 12th - Violet 1st Reading: Ezek 37:21-28 One nation Responsorial Psalm/Jer 31:10-13 Psalm: Like a shepherd Gospel Reading: Jn 11:45-56 Gathered in unity Sunday 13th - Red PASSION (PALM) SUNDAY 1st Reading: Isa 50:4-7 No resistance Responsorial Psalm 21:8-9,17-20, Psalm: 23-24 Trust in God 2nd Reading: Phil 2:6-11 Death on the cross Gospel Reading: Mt 26:14-27:66 I shall rise again

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time it has been held in Perth. On average, each walker raised $2800 each. Lea-Ann Gaffney raised $3120. She was also the first women to cross the finish line. “It didn’t even hit me that I was first,” Mrs Gaffney said. “I just finished it for the people.” Mrs Gaffney carried with her a list of names of the people who had lost their lives to cancer, were battling the diseases or were affected by it. “It’s 60km done in two days,” Mrs Gaffney said. “On the second day I was tired and blistered but at the hardest part my faith and the 300

Perth Catholic Youth Ministry (CYM) have been invited youth from across the Archdiocese to take part in the World Youth Day Pilgrim Walk and Launch on Sunday, April 13. In honour of World Youth Day 2014, the pilgrimage will begin at 1.30pm at the CYM office in Highgate. The one hour walk will see the pilgrims arrive at their destination, St Mary’s Cathedral where Bishop Donald Sproxton will address them. Following Bishop Sproxton’s message, World Youth Day will be officially launched in preparation for World Youth Day 2016, to be held in Krakow, Poland. Blessed John Paul II, who is set to be canonised on April 27, was from the southern Polish city of Wadowice. He initiated World Youth Day in 1984 and the first celebrations took place two years later when bishops all over the world scheduled an annual youth event, to be held every Palm Sunday, in their dioceses. World Youth Day is celebrated around every two to three years at an international level and it is celebrated annually at a diocesan level.

READINGS OF THE WEEK

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names on the list got me through it.” Mrs Gaffney has already signed up to take part in next year’s walk and she urges everyone to get involved. “Even if the 60km is too much volunteer your time to help out,” she said. “There were about 300 or 400 people just helping out. It is such an emotional weekend but so amazing and it’s rewarding that you can help out in some way.”

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Vulnerability, not stoicism, leads to God: Pope ONLY those who recognise their own limits can accept the great gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, which is why Catholics with disabilities are such important and powerful witnesses of faith, Pope Francis said. Meeting March 29 with close to 7,000 members, staff and volunteers of the Apostolic Movement for the Blind and the Little Mission for the Deaf, Pope Francis insisted it is “truly blasphemous” to believe that a physical limitation or disability is a punishment from God. “Jesus radically refused that way of thinking,” he said. “The person who is sick or has a disability, precisely because of his or her fragility and limits, can

become a witness of the encounter: the encounter with Christ who opens one to life and to faith; and the encounter with others, with the community,” Pope Francis said. “Only one who recognises his own fragility, his own limits, can construct relationships that are fraternal and marked by solidarity in the church and in society,” he said. The key to being a trustworthy, effective witness to Jesus, he said, is first having had the experience of meeting Jesus. “A witness to the Gospel is one who has encountered Jesus Christ, who knows him or, better, feels known by him, recognised, respected, loved and forgiven. This

encounter has touched him deeply, has filled him with new joy and given his life new meaning,” the Pope said. Discussing the story from the Gospel of St John about the man born blind - the same Gospel story

the Deaf, told Pope Francis that too many parishes have, in effect, closed their doors to Catholics who are deaf because they make no provision for sign language or other forms of assistance. Too often, he said, those who are deaf

A witness to the Gospel is one who has encountered Jesus Christ, who knows him... who feels known. read at Masses around the world March 30 - Pope Francis said the man becomes a believer and witness to Jesus and to “the life, love and mercy” of God. Father Delci da Conceicao Filho, a member of the Little Mission for

are “without catechesis, without the sacraments and with faith. They are unable to have a personal encounter with Christ because there is no one to sign for them or no one willing to make subtitles for them.” Pope Francis, reciting the

Angelus on March 30 with visitors in St Peter’s Square, returned to the Gospel story and urged people to read and re-read the ninth chapter of St. John’s Gospel during the coming week. He said the story, which deals only briefly with the miracle of the man recovering his sight, speaks at length of the man’s faith and the Pharisees’ doubts. The Pharisees, “closed in their presumptions, believe they already have the light and for this reason, they are not open to the truth of Jesus.” In fact, the Pope said, their opposition to the light of Christ “becomes aggressive” and they throw the healed man out of the temple.

Vitality not a problem for Keralites By Juanita Shepherd MORE than a thousand people flocked to Holy Family Parish Maddington to attend a March 16-20 retreat organised by Perthbased Syro Malabar Catholics from Kerala, South India. The five day retreat included the rosary and enthusiastic preaching as well as music, praise and worship and Mass. Everything was conducted in Malayalam, the native language of the Keralilte community. “The retreat was about renewal,” parish priest Fr Varghese Parackal VC told The Record. “It was also about Lenten preparations for Holy Week. “We’ve had a few retreats in previous years but this was special.” Fr Parackal said. Two priests travelled from Kerala specifically for the event. They conducted a series of retreats all over Australia including in Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Melbourne and Canberra. The retreat coincided with the installation of the newly-established Syro Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Australia’s bishop, Bishop Bosco Puthur, on March 25 in Melbourne. Each day over 1000 people arrived at 9am and left at 4pm. The crowds were so large that they couldn’t fit into the church so tents were placed outside on the lawn and screens were set up ensuring that the congregation did not miss what was happening inside. “Lunch was provided for everyone. It was the feeding of the 1000,” Fr Parackal said. After lunch another preaching session took place as well as Eucharistic Adoration and Confession. “The people need it,” Fr Parackal said about the retreat. “They have a hunger for the Word of God.” Fr Parackal pointed out that part of the four day retreat took place during the working week. “If 1300 people had to be here on a weekday what does that mean?” Fr Parackal said. “They had to take the day off to be there. This is very

important. It speaks volumes about the retreat.” Some people remained

The crowds were so large they couldn’t fit into the church, and most of the retreat took place during the week. behind, after the retreat, for a few hours for personal pray and intercession.

Fr Saju Elenjikkal and Fr Xavier Khan Vattayil from Kerala join Syro Malabar Catholics in Perth for a lively retreat at Holy Family Church in Maddington. PHOTOS: MR BABY THOMAS AND MR PRASANTH JOSE

Some of the more than one thousand people who attended the Syro Malabar community’s recent retreat, March 16-20. PHOTO: SEE ABOVE RIGHT

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Chiara’s charism for unity lives on at Perth event PERTH joined Wellington in being one of the first cities in the Oceania to begin a week of worldwide celebrations on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the passing of Chiara Lubich, Catholic founder of the ecumenical Focolare Movement. The sense of communion, deep joy and thanksgiving were palpable at the Chapel of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Glendalough on Friday, March 14, with a Mass concelebrated by Bishop Don Sproxton and Fr Richard Smith from Our Lady of Grace, North Beach, in the presence of Anglican Bishop David Murray. In his greetings and reflection at the beginning of the Eucharistic Celebration, the main celebrant, Bishop Don Sproxton referred to Chiara’s holiness and to a possible miracle waiting to be approved. He encouraged everyone to always pursue unity in their personal life and with those around them, with the same openness as Chiara did. During his homily, Emeritus Anglican Bishop David Murray, Director of the Centre for Spirituality at St George’s Anglican Cathedral, recounted his personal encounter with Chiara and the spirituality of unity. “It was as if my inner life was waiting for permission to come to expression in a way of life that sought to live the Gospel in unity through love,” he said. He also shared of his involvement with the Ecumenical group of Bishop Friends of the Focolare Movement and he talked about some of the key points of the Spirituality of Unity: “From Chiara’s teaching and writ-

Above left, Anglican Bishop David Murray in conversation at an ecumenical Focolare event on March 14.

ing I am learning that God has taught us some very deep things by living them himself in Christ… Only by emptying ourselves, as Jesus has done, can we have room for our neighbours needs … and their love. ““Becoming one” means letting go of lots as Jesus did. It means embracing with Jesus the moment of his suffering and forsakenness and discovering that all things are made new in him in that moment. Becoming one also contributes to

the dynamics of a group.[It] enables the light of God, Jesus in the midst, to guide group dynamics, conversation and decision-making… to create Holy Communion… Holy common union”. The congregation was made up of people from a variety of backgrounds and mix of ages, with people from different Christian denominations or rites, such as the Anglican Church and Greek Orthodox Church. The refreshments that followed the Mass

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offered further opportunities to continue building bridges while experiencing the joy and peace that comes from the presence of Jesus in the midst of his people. Many also prayed for the event, such as the Sisters of the Schoenstatt Movement who offered an hour of Adoration at their Shrine in Armadale. Similar events have taken place in other capital cities in Australia: in Melbourne, with a Mass celebrated by the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Mgr

Greg Bennet, followed by a program with the Anglican Bishop Philip Huggins, former Assistant Bishop in Perth and currently Assistant Bishop for the North Western Region of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne; in Sydney, with a Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral presided by the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Bishop Peter Comensoli and followed by refreshments; as well as in Adelaide. Further afar, around the world, in small communities and in large metropolises many paused to thank God for the gift of Chiara Lubich to the human family; there has been book launches, concerts, and other cultural events throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In Pretoria, South Africa, Dr. Kobus Gerber, General Secretary of the Dutch Reformed Church, spoke about Chiara’s contributions to Ecumenical dialogue. In view of the upcoming Synod on the Family, Chiara’s passion for the family was the central focus of events in Luxembourg and Spain. The Muslim Noor Centre in Toronto, Canada, hosted a discussion about Chiara’s contribution to interreligious dialogue. On March 20, at Rome’s Pontifical Urban University, several prominent representatives from a range of world religions gathered for a Conference entitled “Chiara and Religions, Together Towards the Unity of the Human Family.” The event was followed by an Interfaith Symposium attended by Christians and faithful of other religious traditions, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists and Sikhs.

Help Religious Sisters - the unsung heroines in the Church!

hey smile, they heal, they teach, they comfort. Around the globe Catholic religious sisters quietly perform their dedicated and heroic service without remuneration and barely even noticed by the wider world. But in order to help others, they themselves also need to be helped, for although they are ministering angels to so many, they themselves still need their daily bread and a roof over their heads.

Sr Lucia a religious sister from Italy rendering assistance to the poor in Ethiopia

“YES” TO CHRIST, “NO” TO THE CHURCH? THE PLACE OF THE CHURCH IN A LIFE OF DISCIPLESHIP

Each year the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) supports over 9,000 religious sisters in every corner of the globe. Many religious congregations turn to the charity for help, not least for the formation of their precious new vocations. While many congregations in the Western world have few or no new vocations and even seem to be dying out, in other parts of the world the religious communities are filled with young and smiling faces. ACN also helps those sisters active in the charitable apostolate, relieving them of the daily burden of supporting themselves while they also care for the poorest of the poor, whether in the slum quarters of the great cities, in the vast expanses of the Amazon rainforest, or in the remotest regions of the African Savannah.

MOST REV TIMOTHY COSTELLOE Archbishop of Perth

It is vital that the indispensable work of religious sisters in Christ’s Holy Catholic Church and throughout the missions worldwide continues. Religious sisters are the unsung heroines in the Church. ACN is therefore proud to help them in their efforts to make the world a better place, even just a little. The average grant ACN gives to support a religious sister or novice is $300 – but whatever you can afford will be enormously appreciated. ACN forwards the donations directly to the religious superiors in charge of the religious communities and congregations.

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John XXIII embraces film lifting lid on sex trade By Juanita Shepherd Tori Anderson has dedicated her life to stop Australian men from engaging in the child sex industry, including through her self-funded movie Corridors of Children that premiered in Perth on March 13 at John XXIII College. Approximately 140 people gathered together for the event, raising $1800 through ticket sales and donations for the Child Protection Development Centre (CPDC) in Pattaya Thailand. “CPDC aims to provide street children with protection, education and prospects for the future,” Ms Anderson told The Record. “They effectively combat child trafficking as well as commercial and sexual exploitation of children in and around Pattaya. “The funds raised through the premiere will support the 70 children that are housed, fed and educated at this centre to live a life

that is safe and free.” Corridors of Children, directed by Cam Smeal, shows a three-year exploration of the bleak world of the child sex trade in Thailand, Cambodia and Burma. Ms Anderson was the founder of the film as well as the executive producer and she credits her Masters in

1.2 million children are trafficked into the sex industry. One in seven Australian visitors to Thailand visit for sex. Development Studies at Melbourne University and researching child rights as her inspiration to act on the problem of the child sex trade. “1.2 million children are trafficked into the sex industry and 30

to 35 thousand are in Thailand,” Ms Anderson said. “250,000 Australians visit Thailand every year and 1 in 7 visits for sex,” Miss Anderson said. “We don’t know the percentage that engages in sex with children but my goal is to stop the demand.” Following the launch of the film in Perth, John XXIII College has agreed to use the film as part of its Year 12 curriculum to raise awareness of the issues around the child sex trade. “The children might be smiling while they are dancing on table tops but we need to see past their smiles which are deceiving,” Ms Anderson said about the children who have been caught up in the sex trade. “My life passion is to be able to support these children and I feel enraged that this is happening. We need to protect these children.” For a copy of the movie call 0448 115 133.

Tori Anderson, centre, who initiated the film Corridors of Children, pictured with a child in Thailand and the film’s director, Cam Smeal. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Holy Cross welcomes its first littlies HOLY CROSS College has taken a significant step in its development with the arrival of students in kindergarten - Year 2. The school opened in 2010 with 69 students in Years 7 and 8. This year Holy Cross marks two milestones with its first group of Year 12 students as well as the arrival of the youngest students. On March 6 the students moved into the recently completed Early Learning Centre. To mark the significant event the secondary students formed a guard of honour and student leaders led the younger students to their new learning space. College Captains, Giordarna Rigoli and Teaghan Barone, cut a ribbon across the door and the children explored their new learning environment. The Early Learning Centre was designed with the needs of young children at the forefront. It is wonderful to see the strong connections which are developing between the older and younger students and the genuine sense of a K - 12 community. HOLY CROSS COLLEGE

Above and left, Holy Cross students in their new early learning centre.

Concert to commemorate Anzacs in North Perth Advertorial

Two lines of photo caption goes here. Please seek to avoid a flat description of pictured scene. PHOTO: ATTRIBUTION HERE

This is the third year where Collegium Symphonic Chorus, under the direction of Margaret Pride, has performed Anzac Day Commemoration concerts at the Redemptorist Monastery in Vincent Street, North Perth. With the support of Father Edmund Nixon and the Redemptorist community this has now become an annual event. Collegium Symphonic Chorus and the Redemptorist community, led by Father Nixon, have developed a very strong relationship, and the choir now sing various concerts at the Redemptorist Monastery during the year. The choir’s first Anzac Day

Commemoration Concert was in 2012, where they performed Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, (which was semi dramatised by the late Edgar Metcalf) and

This year’s concert will feature music by Pergolesi, Biber and Jannequin, as well as war letters and poetry. Faure’s Requiem. To the delight of the choir, this concert was recorded by ABC FM and later broadcast in October 2012. With the 2012 performance

being such a success it was decided that the choir would programme an annual Anzac Day Commemoration Concert, giving two performances on the day at 2PM and 5PM. This year’s performance will begin with Pergolesi’s deeply poignant and expressive Stabat Mater, which conveys the agonies of loss that a mother felt when her son, Jesus Christ, was crucified. Also on the programme will be Biber’s Battalia and Jannequin’s La guerre, and as in previous years, war poetry and contemporaneous letters will enhance this musical commemoration. Tickets are available through www.trybooking.com/DZOY or 9317 394”

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Fr Eugene decreased, Jesus increased Beloved Perth priest Fr Eugene McGrath didn’t want to talk about himself when the The Record’s Mark Reidy got in touch. Instead, he talked about the love of God and the witness his parents and siblings had been to him.

HROUGHOUT his sixty years as a priest Fr Eugene McGrath has prayed, “He must increase, I must decrease”, and anyone who has spent time with this gentle Irishman will realise his prayers have been answered. From the moment he greets me at the front door of the Little Sisters of the Poor facility in Glendalough where he now resides, I sense I am in the presence of holiness. It is a presence that lies beyond his deep humility, serene nature and grandfatherly tenderness and ignites in one a yearning to stay longer than one needs to. I soon came to recognise these qualities as gateways to a deeper spiritual treasure. It had been quite an assignment to convince Fr Eugene to spend time discussing his Diamond Jubilee, which fell on March 13 – a result of his humility more than his hearing difficulties - and it also came with conditions. “I don’t want you to make me the focus of this article”, he insisted, “I would like this to be a story about my family, my parents love and prayer and the beauty of consecrated life”. Humility is indeed a wonderful virtue, but from a journalistic perspective it can be very stifling. Fortunately, however, the fruit of the McGrath family tree is worthy of a story itself. In an ironical twist, given his cheerful disposition and typical Irish humour, Fr Eugene was born twelve days after the Great Depression began in 1929. Raised in County Kerry he was the youngest of 10 children to Eugene and Margaret, farming parents who provided the family with a remarkable and lifelong gift of faith - which has produced, to date, 349 years years of consecrated service. Four of Fr Eugene’s sisters would become religious sisters and would be dispersed throughout the world. In 1936, Sr Angela and Sr May responded to a call from a visiting Reverend Mother from Iona Presentation Convent in Perth and left for Australia. It was a testing year for the family, Fr Eugene reflected, in which his father also passed away. “By Christmas of that year our family was reduced from twelve to nine”, he said. Sr Angela would spend 36 years at Iona, before passing away and Sr May would serve 62 years as a Religious, much of it in Pakistan. Another sister became Sr Rose and spent 69 years with the Poor Clares in England and Sr Gemma, who stayed in Ireland with the Presentation Sisters, would go on to celebrate 60 years of consecrated life. Of all his siblings, however, it was his brother, Fr James, who had the most impact on his spiritual and personal development. It is an affection that is still obvious today as he proudly displays the five thick volumes of meticulously crafted, hand-written letters he received during his older sibling’s 69 years of priesthood. “Along with my parents, he had the greatest influence on my life”, Fr Eugene shared. “From the age of 10 I wanted to follow him”. There would be 13 years between their Ordinations, but a relationship of brotherly love would remain a lifetime. Fr Eugene’s priestly seed took deeper root during his teenage years and when Perth’s Archbishop Prendiville arrived at the family farm to report on the two sisters at Iona, he would accept his invitation to Australia.

Fr Eugene McGrath credits the grace of God, working through his family the then-Archbishop of Perth, as leading him to the priesthood, a state of life to which he was ordained in Rome in 1954. Four of his sisters became religious and his brother James, a priest. PHOTO: MARK REIDY

Leaving his family and Ireland, he said, was the greatest cost of his vocation, but his sacrifice led to six decades of faithful service to God and the many parishioners he would encounter within the Perth Archdiocese. Fr Eugene was ordained in Rome in 1954 and from his push-bike home visitation days in Queens Park in 1955 to his recent years as Chaplain of the Little Sisters home, Fr Eugene has touched the lives of thousands throughout Boulder, Northam, Subiaco, Kellerberrin, Rockingham, Guilford, Manning and Belmont. His Diamond Jubilee celebrations were simple, celebrating Mass on May 12 at the Little Sisters residence and then at Iona on May 13, but this is exactly the way he wanted it. He seems to be still recovering from the very public affair of his 50th anniversary celebrations, which involved the participation of numerous bishops, amongst other events. He wanted this milestone to be a personal celebration with Christ, Our Lady and those saints he holds dear to his heart, he said. One of the most influential of those saints, not only for Fr Eugene, but foundational to his family, was St Therese (Martin) of Lisieux, who

was canonised in 1925. Fr Eugene’s mother had a strong devotion to St Therese and wanted her family to replicate the Martins, and the influence of this French saint would resound throughout Fr Eugene’s life. During our interview he produces a picture of her and her words, “Tout est grace” (Everything is grace), which was a saying the McGrath family adopted. “We are

razor sharp, his insight is profound and his words are always encouraging, but his delivery is carefully contemplative - as though waiting for guidance from a perpetual conversation he is having within – an acute awareness that every word and action carries spiritual significance. Sensing the focus of our conversation was drifting back to him, Fr Eugene quickly draws attention

Fr Eugene McGrath doesn’t want to talk about himself. From the moment he greets me at the door, I sense I’m in the presence of a holy man. nothing until God gets hold of us”, he said. “He is constantly at work within each of us, but it took me a long time to wake up to this”. One of his favourite prayers comes from the lips of St Therese, “It is all very simple – the weaker and more imperfect we are, without desire or virtue, the more fitting objects we are of His consuming and merciful love”. Another favourite phrase comes from St Paul, “The love of Christ drives me”. These are the prayers he still wants his life to be shaped by and it is not difficult to recognise them in his 84-year-old frame. His mind in

to the many groups he has been associated with throughout his life, such as the Legion of Mary, the St Vincent De Paul Society, the Marian Movement of Priests, Flame Ministries International, the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community and numerous prayer groups. It was a great privilege to be associated with, and to welcome these groups, he said, but it is the six years of Perpetual Adoration he helped establish during his time at the Belmont/Redcliffe Parish, that remains one of the highlights of his journey. “I look back on this as the most fruitful edition for priestly

ministry”, he said. Today Fr Eugene has difficulty hearing, but even this may be an answer to his St John the Baptist prayer - “He must increase, I must decrease”. As his communication with people diminishes, so his communication with God increases. “I would have desired so much to have been able to keep in touch with a simple phone call with some of the many wonderful people who have been a part of my priesthood”, he reflects, “But it is no longer possible”. But this does not mean he has forgotten any of those who have shared his journey. “The Good Lord has given us a beautiful Chapel here at the Little Sisters and therefore I have not lost touch with anyone”, he said. “I truly take all whom I have been spiritually responsible for, to the foot of the Cross of Calvary, through my daily Mass and to Our Lady through the Rosary”. At the conclusion of our time together, as he provides me with a blessing, it is not difficult to understand the truth of these words. The sense of being in the presence of Christ deepens and I am left wondering just how many others, over the past 60 years, have been benefactors of such a beautiful instrument of God’s grace.

LOCAL

therecord.com.au April 2, 2014

Hundreds gather to acknowledge loss and pain By Juanita Shepherd DOZENS of white dove-shaped balloons were released into the air on Saturday March 29 outside St Mary’s Cathedral in honour of the International Day of the Unborn Child. Established by Pope John Paul II, to be officially marked on March 25 annually, organisers chose to schedule it on the Feast of the Annunciation, marking the Angel Gabriel’s announcement of Christ’s coming to the Virgin Mary. The event was facilitated by Pregnancy Assistance and began with a Holy Hour and Rosary led by Fr Doug Harris who prayed for all unborn children and everyone affected by abortion. “It is a time of grace where we honour God’s gift to us,” Lara Malin, Director of Pregnancy Assistance said, explaining what the day was about. “It is also a time to recognise the damage and distress that’s been caused by abortion and to acknowledge the often delayed grief.” Mass followed Holy Hour with Emeritus Archbishop Barry Hickey as the principal celebrant. In his homily he told the congregation that abortion doesn’t remove problems but only takes the life of a child.

The people and their pastors gather at St Mary’s Catherdal to mark the day of the unborn. JUANITA SHEPHERD

After the Prayers of the Faithful, Archbishop Hickey invited everyone to lay flowers in baskets placed at the foot of the altar, in honour of all the babies who have died before they were born.

“It is a memorial procession,” Miss Malin said. “It is especially moving for those who are remembering their own loss and it’s a sign to bring dignity to the unborn child.”

At the end of Mass around 100 people gathered outside St Mary’s Cathedral and following a short prayer dove-shaped balloons were released in memoriam. “We believe all unborn babies are

welcomed into the loving arms of their Father and enjoy the peace of heaven,” Miss Malin said. “The doves symbolise the loss parents feel due to abortion and when they are released it is a way

We must work together for our kids The Archdiocese of Perth launched its Sacramental Policy for School Aged Children at the Vietnamese Catholic Centre in Westminster on March 20, in front of educators, clergy, and members of advocacy. The policy, accepted and promulgated by Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe SDB, was the work of a dedicated committee meeting over the past 12 months. The committee members were Bishop Don Sproxton, Fr Vincent Glynn, Fr Sean Fernandez, Pina Ford, Mr Peter Cutrona, Dr Debra Sayce, Diana Alteri, Sr Kerry Willison, Fran Beale, Carmel Suart and Dianne Grinsberg. The policy, which is available at www.attadale.org/spire/ SacramentalPolicylow.pdf, states the theological, as well as the pastoral principles underpinning to be used by the formators of children, and the implementation strategies that will help to bring about its aims. In his promulgating letter, Archbishop Costelloe wrote that the policy “establishes a framework within which parents, parishes, [the Parish Religious Education Program, or PREP] and Catholic schools should collaborate to prepare children for the celebration of the sacraments”. “I ask that all communities work together to provide every opportunity for the gift of faith, implanted in children through Baptism, to be properly nurtured, bearing fruit in discipleship, empowered by the Confirming Spirit and continually inserted into and drawing life from the Paschal Mystery in the Eucharist,” the Archbishop wrote in the letter. “This policy will require all who play a role in the nurturing of faith to work together.” Attadale parish priest and sacramental policy committee member, Fr Sean Fernandez echoed the words of the Archbishop, saying the policy seeks to “make sure that everything has its proper place”. “The family plays the most significant role in the formation of the faith, so we want to affirm and support that” Fr Fernandez told The Record, earlier this week.

“All celebrations of the sacraments take place in a parish and all candidates are parish candidates. We see the parish as playing a key role in providing support and continuity, even after the [children] have left school. “We want to make sure that people realise that, wherever they are, they are members of a parish – a hub for celebration and formation,” Fr Fernandez said. “The schools have their role and PREP have their role, we are all part of the Church, and we all work together in our different roles to help parents and children in their faith formation.” The policy is set to be reviewed in 2018.

Top, Fr Sean Fernandez speaking on implementation strageties at the launch of the Archdiocese’ sacramental policy. on March 20. Above, Pina Ford presenting on the theological principles underlying the policy. PHOTO: FAYANN D’SOUZA

WORLD

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April 2, 2014

Salesians show the beauty of vocations By Carol Glatz POPE FRANCIS encouraged the Salesians in their work with young people, saying that religious vocations are the fruit of good pastoral youth ministry. “Sometimes vocations to consecrated life are confused with choosing to do volunteer work, and this distorted vision does no good” to congregations and religious orders, he told more than 250 religious taking part in the their general chapter in Rome, February 22-April 12. The full beauty of religious life needs to be shared with young people - not incomplete or biased points of view, which risk promoting “fragile” vocations that are based on “weak motivations,” he told them during a private audience at the Vatican on March 31. Religious vocations are “ordinarily fruit of good pastoral care of youth,” he said, and people discern-

ing a religious vocation need prayer and special attention, personalised formation, guidance and support from young people’s families. The Pope, who attended a Salesian school in Buenos Aires when he was 13, said he recalls the importance of the order’s motto of “Work and Temperance,” joking

through increased cultural awareness and strong educational preparation. “It’s necessary to prepare young people to work in society with the spirit of the Gospel, as workers for justice and peace, and to live as protagonists in the church.” However, the Pope said, while it’s important to learn “new

It’s necessary to prepare young people to work in society with the spirit of the Gospel, as workers for justice and peace... as protagonists in the Church. that the school even forbade everyone from having “siesta” or an afternoon nap after lunch. “Working for the good of souls” helps people focus on the essentials of God and his kingdom, the Pope said. He also encouraged the Salesians to continue their efforts in education and help find answers to today’s “educational emergency”

languages” with the changing times, the most important language still remains speaking “from the heart” in order to reach out and forge friendships with others. The Pope also greeted the Salesians’ new rector major, Spanish Father Angel Fernandez Artime, who was elected to a six-year term on the first ballot on March 25.

Born on August 21, 1960, in Luanco-Gozon, Spain, he was ordained in 1987. He has degrees in pastoral theology, and philosophy and pedagogy. Father Fernandez was provincial of the South Argentina province between 2009 and 2014, during which time he got to know and work with the future Pope Francis, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. Father Fernandez had been appointed provincial of the new province of Mary Help of Christians in Spain, but will not carry out that appointment because of his election as rector major. Addressing his fellow Salesians on March 25, Father Fernandez said: “I abandon myself to the Lord. We ask Don Bosco and Mary Help of Christians to accompany us and to accompany me, with my brother Salesians and with the congregation, and I accept with faith.” CNS

Priest’s study lays foundation for Big Bang Theory

VATICAN NEWS

Police foil scam attempt at Vatican bank VATICAN SECURITY officers stopped two men - one American and one Dutch - trying to enter the Vatican bank with a briefcase full of fake bonds. Officers with the Vatican gendarme corps intercepted the two men on March 29 when the men approached a guarded entrance and asked to be let into the Vatican bank, known formally as the Institute for the Works of Religion. According to Vatican Radio, the men did not have Vatican bank accounts and they did not have an appointment with anyone at the bank. The men were apprehended and, according to Vatican-Italy agreements, placed into the custody of the Italian financial police. They have been charged by both Vatican and Italian authorities, the radio reported. The briefcase contained fake bonds appearing to be worth billions of euros and US dollars, according to Agence FrancePresse. The Italian finance police found fake passports and other false documents in the men’s hotel rooms, the news agency reported. The police crackdown “shows the controls are working,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told AFP.

‘Bishop Bling’s’ resignation accepted

The 10-meter South Pole Telescope and the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarisation experiment, or Biceps2, at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station are seen against the night sky with the Milky Way in this National Science Foundation picture taken in August 2008. The work of researchers who reported detecting the signal left behind by the rapid expansion of space billions of years ago is rooted in the efforts of a Belgian priest whose mathematical computations in the 1920s laid the groundwork for the Big Bang theory. PHOTO: CNS/KEITH VANDERLINDE/NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION VIA REUTERS

Preparations begin for Pope’s sainthood By Cindy Wooden THE RITE of canonisation for Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II on April 27 will use the standard formula for the creation of new saints, but the Mass will be preceded by the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet, and it is possible retired Pope Benedict XVI will attend, the Vatican spokesman said. “He is invited,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman. “But there is still a month to go. We’ll have to see if he wants to be present and feels up to it.” Discussing preparations for the canonisations with reporters on March 31, Father Lombardi also said the Popes’ tombs in St Peter’s Basilica would not be disturbed, other than to change the inscriptions from “blessed” to “saint”. Pilgrims can visit the tombs after the April 27 Mass. Relics from the two Popes will

be presented during the liturgy, the spokesman said. The relic of Blessed John Paul - a vial of his blood encased in a reliquary featuring a silver sculpture of olive branches - will be the same that was used for his beatification in 2011. A matching reliquary has been

tomb was opened in 2001 and the remains treated before being reinterred in St Peter’s Basilica, some bone fragments were removed. Floribeth Mora Diaz, a Costa Rican whose recovering from a brain aneurysm was the miracle accepted for the canonisation of Blessed John Paul, and French

The canonisation Mass is scheduled to begin at 10 am the Sunday after Easter, which the Church celebrates as Divine Mercy Sunday. made for a relic of Blessed John, said Mgr Guilo Dellavite, an official of the Diocese of Bergamo, where the Pope was born. When Blessed John was beatified in 2000, no relic was presented, the monsignor said, because no blood or body parts had been preserved for that purpose. However, when Blessed John’s

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose cure from Parkinson’s disease was accepted as the miracle that paved the way for his beatification, are both expected to attend the Mass on April 27, Father Lombardi said. Pope Francis waived the requirement for a miracle for the canonisation of Blessed John.

The canonisation Mass is scheduled to begin at 10am the Sunday after Easter, which the church celebrates as Divine Mercy Sunday. Pilgrims are expected to begin filling St Peter’s Square early in the morning, Father Lombardi said, and will have an opportunity to participate in the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet, a series of prayers focusing on the gifts of God’s mercy, especially shown through the passion of Christ. The Diocese of Bergamo, where Pope John was born and ordained a priest, has launched a special website - www.2papisanti.org and several social media initiatives with the help of communications students at a Rome university. The Facebook fan page is “2Popesaints,” the Twitter account is “@2Popesaints,” the Instagram account is “#2Popesaints” and the YouTube channel search term is also “2Popesaints.” - CNS

The Vatican has accepted the resignation of a German bishop who was at the center of controversy over expenditures for his residence and a diocesan center. Following a diocesan investigation, the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops studied the audit’s findings and accepted the resignation of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg. Auxiliary Bishop Manfred Grothe of Paderborn was appointed to serve as apostolic administrator of Limburg in the meantime, the Vatican announced on March 26. Bishop Tebartz-van Elst would be assigned, “at a suitable moment,” another unspecified assignment, the Vatican statement said. It said the Vatican accepted the bishop’s offer to resign “given that a situation exists in the Diocese of Limburg which prevents the fruitful exercise” of his office. Pope Francis met with the bishop at the Vatican on March 28. No details of the meeting were released. In Germany, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the bishops’ conference, said the resignation would “end a period of uncertainty” in the Limburg Diocese. He told a Berlin news conference on March 26 that he believed Bishop Tebartz-van Elst’s case had been handled “fairly and transparently” by the Vatican and German church.

JPII remembered for the fall of communism Catholics venerate Blessed John Paul II for his holiness, as demonstrated, among other ways, by his globetrotting evangelism and long-suffering endurance in the papacy despite his illness. For secular historians, however, none of the late pope’s accomplishments looms larger than his role in the end of the Cold War and the fall of Soviet communism. Blessed John Paul’s opposition to totalitarianism grew out of his devotion to the idea of God-given human rights. As a father of the Second Vatican Council, thenArchbishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow was a key supporter of the 1965 Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, which affirmed that the “right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person, as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.” During the 1970s the then-Cardinal Wojtyla became a well-known champion of human rights for all Poles. - CNS

WORLD

therecord.com.au April 2, 2014

CAR Muslims, call on your Christian brothers By Navar Watson THE QURAN, Islam’s holy book, indicates that when a Muslim is in trouble, he should go to Christians, because they are also children of God, so Imam Omar Kobine Layama fled to the house of a Catholic archbishop. “His arrival was very emotional because he arrived with only one small bag in his hand,” Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic, told Catholic News Service of his friend’s arrival on December 5. “When he left his house, he knew he would find a friend where he arrived.” Archbishop Nzapalainga’s parish is one of several Catholic churches to house displaced citizens of different faiths during the conflicts in

Central African Republic. The archbishop and other religious leaders are hoping to mend the relations between Muslims and Christians,

“Our house, in reality, is God’s house... When I open my doors to receive a brother, I am doing what God asks me to do.” which have been crippled by recent rebel attacks. “Our house, in reality, is God’s house,” Archbishop Nzapalainga told Catholic News Service in Washington in March during a visit

with two other religious leaders. When I open my doors to receive a brother, I am doing what God asks me to do.” In March 2013, a rebel group known as Seleka, which includes many Muslims from the neighboring countries of Chad and Sudan, overthrew the capital, causing the president to flee. The religious leaders said they will continue to try to mend bonds among their people. These conflicts have helped build an interfaith “platform” for different religious leaders, Imam Layama said. “You never know,” Rev Guerekoyame-Gbangou said. “From one moment to the next, I could be a person chased from my house and in need for someone to take me in.” - CNS

People pray next to caskets on March 23 containing the bodies of two men killed by sectarian violence in Bangui, Central African Republic. PHOTO: CNS

In confession, Pope leads by example LEADING a penitential liturgy in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis surprised his liturgical adviser by going to confession during the service. After an examination of conscience on March 28, the Pope and 61 priests moved into confessionals or to chairs set up against the walls to offer the sacrament to individual penitents. However, as Mgr Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, was showing which confessional the Pope would be using to hear confessions, the Pope pointed to another confessional nearby, indicating that he himself was going to first confess. The Pope, dressed in a simple white alb and purple stole, spent about three minutes kneeling before the priest’s open confessional and received absolution. The priest also clasped the Pope’s hands and kissed his simple silver ring. Pope Francis then went to another confessional and spent about 40 minutes hearing confessions. In his homily, the Pope said following God’s call to conversion is not supposed to happen only during Lent, but is a lifetime commitment. He also spoke about two key characteristics of Christian life: putting on a “new self, created in God’s way” and living in and sharing God’s love. “Tell them that our father is waiting for us, our father forgives us, and even more, he celebrates,” the Pope said. Even with all of one’s sins and mistakes, God, “instead of scolding us, he celebrates,” the Pope said. “And you have to tell this, tell this to lots of people today” so they can experience God’s mercy and love. - CNS

A clergyman hears confession from Pope Francis during a penitential liturgy in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on March 28. Pope Francis surprised his liturgical adviser by going to confession during the service. PHOTO: CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS

Jordan transforms desert into new refugee camp By Dale Gavlak

A view of part of the hospital at new Azraq Syrian Refugee camp on March 25, which is under construction, east of Amman, Jordan. PHOTO: CNS/MUHAMMAD HAMED

THIS desolate dusty patch of desert near Jordan’s borders with Syria and Iraq is soon to be home to the latest victims of Syria’s three-year civil war. UN officials warn that with increasing numbers of Syrians fleeing daily to Jordan -- almost 800 in one 24-hour period in March -the opening of yet another refugee camp is imperative. “This is what we are expecting to continue for the months to come,” Andrew Harper, U.N. refugee agency representative to Jordan, told reporters at the new Azraq camp. “Zaatari (Jordan’s biggest camp with some 120,000 Syrians) and the host communities are completely full, so we need to mitigate the pressures on the host communities by establishing this camp,” he

said of $64 million dollar facility, some 62 miles east of the capital, Amman. But there’s a catch: a huge shortfall of international funds and money needed to run the camp. The international community has

How can we continue to do what we are doing if the international community is largely ignoring Jordan? pledged just 16 percent of the $1.2 billion the U.N. has sought to help Syrian refugees in Jordan. “How can we continue to do what we are doing if the international community is largely

ignoring Jordan or taking it for granted?” Harper asked. He said the refugees are not solely Jordan’s problem, but are an international one, as the Syrian conflict shows no signs of letting up. Both the United Nations and the Jordanian government admit that the bulk -- about 80 percent of the 600,000 registered Syrian refugees -- live in communities concentrated mainly in the northern border area, but are also scattered throughout the country. “This camp has the capacity to hold in excess of 100,000 to 130,000 people,” said Robert Beer of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the U.N. partners in the camp. “Some lessons were learned from Zaatari. With the numbers of refugees arriving there is huge pressure on the response to provide services and infrastructure on time.” - CNS

VISTA

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April 2, 2014

VISTA

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Comfortable Catholicism be damned, let what is true in the world be

THE WHETSONE

One Church Father suggests we ought to forget the safe and the secure if we want to inculcate the faith, Dr Andrew Kania writes. An only-apparent Christian environment could be toxic to our immediate or ongoing conversion. At the same time, there is wisdom in the secular and non-Christian which a love of true learning, illuminated by grace, will not reject.

AM GOING to reveal my age now. As a toddler, I can remember sitting in front of a black and white television set and watching my favourite singer, Johnny Cash, who at that time had his own weekly television show. I could not understand the lyrics of most of his songs, but his deep voice, and the catchy music captured me. One of the songs that I particularly enjoyed was, “A Boy Named Sue”. It was only when I grew older that I began to understand the meaning behind this song. For those who don’t know, the song tells the story of a boy and his mother who have been abandoned by a man who can’t handle the responsibilities of being a husband and a father. But before he leaves his family, the rake’s parting gesture, is to register his son with the name ‘Sue’. “Sue’ sings the song and narrates his life story. His ambition in life is to ‘hunt down the man who gave him that awful name’; awful that is for a man to bear. Eventually he finds his father in a bar; a fight breaks out, ‘Sue’ pours years of pent up frustration into every punch, and his father gives back as good as he is receiving from his long, and deliberately lost son. Exhausted, both men sit in the mud outside the bar. The father turns to ‘Sue’ and tells him: “Son, this world is rough, And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough, And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help ya along. So I give ya that name and I said goodbye, I knew you’d have to get tough or die, And it’s the name that helped to make you strong. He said: Now you just fought one hell of a fight, And I know you hate me, and you got the right, To kill me now, and I wouldn’t blame you if you do. But ya ought to thank me, before I die, For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye, Cause I’m the [Expletive Deleted] that named you ‘Sue’”. When I began my theological studies over two decades ago, I can recall reading a passage from the Eastern Father of the Church, St Basil the Great, who long before the age of our modern, expansive, Catholic Education system, once wrote, that to him the proposition of developing Catholic parochial schools could potentially be one means by which the child could lose their Faith. This may sound nonsensical, for how could schools that teach the Faith be a vehicle by which the Faith is actually lost? How could a Catholic Bishop of the Church, and founder of monasticism, negate something that seems so self-evident to us moderns as to the promulgation of the Catholic Faith? St Basil the Great’s reasoning was as wise as it was realistic. If my memory holds true, he mused that if a child is placed in an environment that either challenges or is hostile to their faith – the child will have to either defend their faith and thus become much stronger in it; or run from that school. When a child is in an environment where there is no such challenge to their Faith – they could, St Basil rationalised, become complacent, and quickly lose It. Critically, St Basil the Great was not speaking out of mere supposition and theory; he and his childhood friend, St Gregory of Nazianzen, had attended as young men, the University of Athens, and the treatment that both had received at this esteemed place of learning, is now legendary. Derided, spat upon, heckled and continually criticised, both Basil and Gregory lasted a decade at the University, only eventually to find that the staff and students of the University begged them

Far left, an artistic rendering of St Basil the Great, a Church Father who exhorted Christians to have the Wisdom of God as their object and subject.

PHOTOS: ONLINE

to stay longer; for in the interim they had converted so many to Christianity, by their witness. Those who had been hostile to the Faith, had in the end come to understand that there must be something real in Christianity, for both Basil and Gregory to be so ardent and determined. St Basil later explained that his faith had become so strong, because it had been sharpened against the vitriolic barbs and teachings of paganism. His Catholic and personal identity were shaped by selfpreservation; he fought for the Faith with the same energy as he had fought for his personal integrity. Faith and character had eventually become intermeshed in St Basil.

Intellectual challenges to the Faith, provide the student with the necessary tools, by which to form responses, and by which to grow. Thus in his text, Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature, St Basil teaches that the pagan works of old, provide in large part for the foundation of sound thinking skills. St Basil’s tract was written at a time when many in the Church were criticising pagan writings, because they were written by people who did not know the Christian God. But St Basil’s approach to the world of Ancient Greek Literature was profoundly nuanced. A good Christian thinker should not feel threatened, but must sift through all that

he or she reads and hears in order to find wisdom. St Basil writes: “For just as bees know how to extract honey from flowers, which to men are agreeable only for their fragrance and color, even so here also

the putting on of spectacles that perceives all in the light of a higher Reality. The Christian thirsts for knowledge in order to know the wisdom of God more – and God’s wisdom is found even in non-

A good Christian thinker should not feel threatened but must sift through all that she reads and hears in order to find wisdom... including in non-Christian sources. those who look for something more than pleasure and enjoyment in such writers may derive profit for their souls.” The key to this pursuit of wisdom, is not only the reading of ancient secular sources – but

Christian sources; for God has created all minds. So one should not be surprised at the beauty found in secular sources. St Basil continues: “Since we must needs attain to the life to come through virtue,

our attention is to be chiefly fastened upon those many passages from the poets, from the historians, and especially from the philosophers, in which virtue itself is praised.” Thus St Basil, true to his experiences at the University of Athens, asks the student to discriminate from all that is before them – to cut their teeth on, but not to fall prey by eating and swallowing everything they see, and sense. He writes: “For it would be shameful should we reject injurious foods, yet should take no thought about the studies which nourish our souls, but as a torrent should sweep along all that came near our path and appropriate it.” This is a vital skill, for children of the Faith – the profound

ability to discriminate. One can easily be corrupted by the world, and worldly things; and that is exactly why, St Basil says that one of the highest skills that a Christian child must obtain, is the ability to discern. Without discernment we can easily be loSt Discernment can only come by exposure to challenges. If the individual hides in Plato’s cave then one day they may well be blinded, when a broader reality is presented to them; alternately, if one is guided to see the secular world in the light of Christ, then this process of the mind being sharpened as the knife at the whetstone, will lead the individual to a more profound intellect and a richer, deeper, Christian Faith.

St Basil concludes: “To be sure, we shall become more intimately acquainted with these precepts in the sacred writings, but it incumbent upon us, for the present, to trace, as it were, the silhouette of virtue in the pagan authors. For those who carefully gather the useful from each book are wont, like mighty rivers, to gain accessions on every hand. For the precept of the poet which bids us add little to little must be taken as applying not so much to the accumulation of riches, as [to] the various branches of learning.” Thus St Basil is not against parochial education per se, but rather he speaks as to the Christian being immersed and engaged in the world, but not of it. He

wants the Christian of the future to be challenged, so as to understand their role and purpose in the world. One can fathom his concern that a parochial education may in fact narrow the intellect, if the student is not made aware of the riches found in broader scholarship. For this reason St Basil purported the notion that before the individual is educated in Scripture they must first be exposed to the secular; for secular knowledge is a stepping stone to an even higher Truth that is Revealed to the world by God, for humanity’s salvation. Thus to St Basil the Great – all that is not sinful, has a marque of the Sacred, and all our studies must eventually lead to this goal.

VISTA

therecord.com.au

April 2, 2014

SISTER’S ACT POSITIVE or PROBLEMATIC Popular reaction to a religious sister’s performance on a television talent show was positive if somewhat bemused. Others in the Catholic blogosphere wondered whether it was bad idea all round. Was it good or was it cringeworthy? Elizabeth Scalia reflects*.

AST WEEK, a twentyfive-year-old Catholic sister appeared on a vocal competition show in Italy, and demonstrated how a pop song could become a psalm. She brought down the house. In her modified habit and prominent silver crucifix, Ursuline Sr Cristina Scuccia concluded her song with a spin of ecstatic joy born of pure authenticity and love. She moved one of the Italian judges, a rapper in full Urban-American street regalia, to tears with a simple, straightforward admission that she was there to evangelise. Referencing Pope Francis, she said, “He always says we should go out and evangelise telling God doesn’t take anything away from us but will give us more. I am here for this.” “Brava,” said the judges, very likely unaware of what that approval had invited into their midst, but excited at this newness. “Brava,” said the crowds. The luminous glow of a young woman sharing her gifts on behalf of her beloved bathed the world in light for a few moments, and people wanted more of that, because when real love and real joy is laid before us, it is irresistible. All mystery contains within it a prompt toward introspection—an invitation to ask, “This touches me so compellingly, why?” And yet reading the comboxes of blogs and social media threads concerning both of these stories, one could find pockets of strange biliousness. Amid the comments on Sr Cristina - which even on secular sites tended to be enthusiastic (“No twerking [just] Talent and enthusiasm!” one Huffpo commenter noted approvingly) - some seemed intent on drowning any hopeful good feelings in a bath of acid, decrying her “unseemly bopping,” her “undignified” choice of song, and her “taking on the trappings of the world.” One miserable being outright predicted that nothing good could come of this. To a response that the sister might inspire young Catholics to seek out the “small, still voice” and discern vocations to church-service, this person snarled, “she will shame the Church, just like the last ‘singing nun’ did.” And that is the other part of mystery - that some people cannot wait for misery; they anticipate it, and reach out for it and claim it; they cling to it like Gollum to his Precious; they wrap it around themselves, because only within its shrouds do they feel comfortable and complete. There is no generosity there - not toward the

Above: Ursuline Sister, Cristina Scuccia generated something of a media storm when she sang on the Italian version of the talent show The Voice last month. Her performance was greated warmly in most quarters. PHOTOS: CNS/MICK TSIKAS

grief-stricken, nor the sacrificial— because there is no capacity for joy. And there is no joy because there is no gratitude. To look at a family in grief, as was the family of a Wyoming mother and two of her children after a car accident last month, and resent the show of humanity that surrounds them because your own ideology, is not, currently, the “most pressing thing” as some did in comboxes, is to be ungrateful for the good; it is pathetically self-involved and closed-off. To witness love and joy in sparkling abundance, and respond to it with dark prophecies is to refuse a gift because one does not like the wrapping. It too is pathetic in its warped isolation. In truth, within the continual embrace of the Creator, we are on the receiving end of constant-good. As the saying goes, “it’s all good,” except as our limited human perceptions may perceive. It is precisely because our perceptions are so narrow, so unable to know what God knows, or see the long link-chain of our lives and how each event, large and small, “good” and “bad” acts like a solder, distinctly applied and meant to strengthen the whole, until we

reach culmination and can finally let go of it. In yesterday’s Gospel reading for the Annunciation, Gabriel says to Mary: “Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible for God.” Whenever angels tell us nothing is impossible for God, I take them at their word. “Nothing” is impos-

Nothingness, who is the evil one. John tells us the same thing in the beautiful prelude to his Gospel: “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” When you understand that there is only “nothing” when God is absent, you realise that God is everywhere about you, in every moment and space of your life. It becomes very hard to remain uptight about

Some seemed intent on drowning any hopeful good feelings in a bath of acid, decrying her “unseemly bopping”, her “undignified” choice of song. Where was the generosity there? sible for God, because God is and fills all reality: in him we live and move and have our being. There can never be “nothing” except where God is not, because he fills all things: Where God is not, is where “nothing” comes into being. And this can only be a spiritual thing - a spiritual state of nothing - an active willing-away from God that opens up to nothingness and the Being of

things, because where God is, there is also his consent. God’s continual “yes” keeps everything going; the universe is still expanding, today, on the strength of his “yes.” That means even the terrible things, even the bad, grievous things, even the hard things, the heartbreaking things, the awful news that makes us ask, “where is God? Why is this allowed?” resides, mysteriously, within his consent.

“It’s all good.” That’s unimaginable at times. A family grieving the loss of children cannot comprehend it at their depths and it would be inexcusably cavalier to ever utter those words to them, or to the victims of sexual assault, or abuse, or bullying, because it gives short shrift to their pain, and also to God’s mystery. The only way to communicate “it’s all good” in the midst of what we can only perceive as “bad” is with the crucifix. Pondering the torturous death of the God-man, which also rode upon God’s “yes”, is the only way we may even begin to whisper the words, “it’s all good.” Because within the crucifix we see that God has a plan. Plans of fullness, not of harm. To give us a future, and a hope. All we have to do, then, is believe, and roll back a stone. I bring all of this up in the context of what I first wrote on the matter at First Things because I got only a little kickback on it, but it was from people who took umbrage at being described as “bilious” and ungenerous when it came to Sister Cristina and her appearance on Italy’s “The Voice.” I imagine I could have been a little more balanced in the piece -

VISTA

therecord.com.au April 2, 2014

Though not sinful, dreams give insight into our heart Is a person guilty of sin who has unchaste nightmares or dreams and wakes up realising what just went through their mind in a dream?

I could have suggested that there is nothing wrong with being prudent in our praise of such new and asyet-untried sorts of evangelisation, because there really isn’t. Still, I stand by the idea that how we receive a thing - and the quickness with which some people seem to need to denounce anything that outruns their comfort zones - is a gauge of our capacity for both gratitude and joy. Instead of grousing, wouldn’t it be a better, and more productive thing, to wonder at the evangelical potential of partnership and pray for all concerned?: When J-Ax finally speaks to Cristina, he tells her, “If I had met you during the Mass when I was a child, now I would be Pope. “I would surely have attended all of the functions [awkward YouTube translator].” This is an incredible statement. If he had encountered her energy, her capacity for joy and faith in his youth, he would have gone all the way. He doesn’t say he would have wanted to date her or something. He says he would have been inspired to follow her, and that such a path would have led him to the top of the Church. He would have attended all of the “functions”

- the Masses, funerals, baptisms, confirmations, weddings, ordinations, canonisations, papal elections, feast day parties, Theology on Tap nights, Brideshead Revisited marathons, vespers, holy hours the “functions” that so many of us attend and take for granted every day. Her reply is absolutely perfect in its clarity and simplicity: “Well you have met me now... [a similar encounter with grace launched] my reversion. How awesome it is to watch it happen to another soul through another means”. Behold the transformation: Unselfconsciously, J-Ax smiles, cries, giggles, cries some more, wipes his eyes with his arms, curls up in his chair as if he wants to hide himself so she won’t see how ridiculous he looks. It’s like Adam covering his nakedness before God. While she is deliberating over which coach to join, you can see in his eyes the “Pick me! Pick me!” of every kid who ever wanted to play kickball. And when she does choose him - for he chose her first based on her voice alone - he leaps out of his chair, scoops her up in his arms, and spins her around to the sound of hundreds of cheering fans.

What a moment. Indeed. People can snark all they want about how “it would be better if Alicia Keys learned to sing like a nun, instead of a nun singing like Alicia Keys”. I don’t know anything about her faith, but how can such critics know whether Keys’ own soul won’t be moved Godward by seeing her song sung as a praise-psalm? How do they know anything beyond their fear of scandal? I grant, it is a fear for the Church, born out of love for the Church and for Christ Jesus. But it is a fear, nonetheless, and the angels tell us “do not be afraid”. And they also say, “nothing is impossible, with God”. We live within the midst of a great battle between dark and light and - as Chesterton said as he died - “everyone must choose”. Given the reality of that battle, I suspect the Holy Spirit knows what he is about and that the artistic partnership between a rapper and a nun is part of a plan, and a thread. For certain, it is not about “nothing.” This is composite of articles by E. Scalia that originally appeared at Patheos, First Things, and * by another blogger at Through a Glass Brightly through-a-glass-brightly.blogspot.com.au.

HIS is a frequently asked question and it is good to address it in this column. The first thing to say about dreams is that they are something that happens to us when we are asleep and we have no control over them. We do not choose what we are going to dream or what we are going to do in a dream. Often dreams make no sense when we think back over them since they involve a series of totally unconnected events and places. They sometimes involve real people, places and events in our lives but usually what happens in the dream has little relationship with reality. Dreams are simply a natural phenomenon, part of our psychological makeup. On the other hand they do have something to do with our real person, especially when they involve people or places we have known. Thus a football player is likely to dream from time to time about football and a singer about singing, a truck driver about driving and a mother about raising children. In this way dreams are in some way a reflection of our real life, especially of our subconscious. In view of this, what can we say about the moral significance of what we do in dreams? For any act to have moral significance, whether sinful or meritorious, we must be aware of what we are doing and we must freely choose to do it. This is the case with most of our actions. There are some actions, however, even while we are awake that lack this moral significance. For example, we may sneeze in Mass or we may become distracted in prayer through no fault of our own. Similarly, while asleep we may snore or talk or even walk. In all these cases there is no moral fault because we are not in control of what we are doing. Passing to dreams, it is clear that while asleep we cannot be consciously aware of what we are doing nor can we freely choose to do or not do something. Even though the dream may seem very real at the time, and we may seem to be in control and to be acting knowingly and willingly, when we wake up we realise that we were not acting at all. It was only a dream. In view of this, it is clear that there can be no guilt or merit for what we did or did not do in a dream. If in the dream we did something that in a waking state would have been a sin, we are not guilty of a sin, even though we may have a certain sense of shame or remorse for even having dreamed it. And if in the dream we did something meritorious, there is no merit. Nonetheless, dreams do reveal to some extent where

Q&A FR JOHN FLADER

our heart is in real life. Thus if we find ourselves frequently dreaming of committing certain sins, it is likely that we have been thinking consciously of those sins or even desiring to commit them when we were awake. Alternatively, if in our dreams we were tempted to commit a sin and we did not commit it, that may be a sign that in real life we would not have committed it either. Or if we often dream of working hard to spread the Gospel in some other country or of dedicating ourselves to feed the poor, our heart is probably in those activities. Thus the subject matter of our dreams can show us at least the tendencies of our heart. A virtuous person will tend to be virtuous in dreams and a sinful person sin-

Nonetheless, dreams do reveal to some extent where our heart is in real life... A virtuous person will tend to be virtuous in dreams and a sinful person sinful. ful. While we are not responsible for what we do in dreams, we are responsible for what we think about and desire when we are awake. It was probably the connection between dreams and desires that moved the Roman emperor Dionysius to have his subject Marsyas decapitated because Marsyas had dreamed of cutting the emperor’s throat. Foolish though it was, Dionysius undoubtedly thought that if Marsyas considered killing him in his dreams, he would have carried it out in real life. The popular saying “I wouldn’t even dream of doing such a thing” reflects the notion that our dreams do reveal something of our character and that, even though we might consider doing certain things which are wrong, there are others that are so abhorrent that we wouldn’t even dream of doing them. In short, what we do in dreams has no moral guilt or merit it itself, but it may reveal something of our character. For more, go to fatherfladerblog.wordpress.com or contact Fr Flader on frjflader@gmail.com.

FUN FAITH With

APRIL 6, 2014 • JOHN 11: 1-45 • 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT

CROSSWORD

TODAY’S GOSPEL John: 11::1-45

JESUS

BELIEVED LAZARUS WAKE DEAD

Across

Down

2. Many of the people who were with Mary ____ in Jesus when they saw this happen.

1. When ____ heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death...”

5. Finally, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea... Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and ____ him up.”

3. A man named _____ was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters. 4. Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the ____ man came out.

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, When Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death...” and remained there for the next two days. Finally, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea... Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.” When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again... I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” ”Yes, Lord,” she told him. ”Where have you put him?” Jesus asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out. Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.

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Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out.

VISTA

therecord.com.au April 2, 2014

Catholic Health Australia’s Rowena McNally and Pakistani tribal women and children during Ms McNally’s January trip to Pakistan to visit health facilities.

PHOTO: CATHOLIC HEALTH AUSTRALIA

Australia views Pakistani treatment Catholic Health Australia chair Rowena McNally toured Pakistan’s health system with Fr Robert McCulloch in January, an Australian who has worked to improve health and education in that country for more than 30 years.

EADERS in the Catholic health sector in Australia have seen first-hand the significant challenges facing Pakistan’s health system, including its network of Catholic hospitals and aged care services. Catholic Health Australia chair Rowena McNally and Cabrini Health’s David Nowell joined Australian priest Fr Robert McCulloch, procurator-general of the Missionary Society of St Columban, on a 10-day trip to Pakistan in January, visiting hospital, church and government officials in the Sindh and Punjab Provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory. The visit was at the invitation of Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, who serves as president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The first stage of the party’s visit including inspection and meetings at the Holy Family Hospital, a 250-bed capacity maternity and general hospital, School of Nursing and associated work forming part of the ministry of the Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi. They met the board, management and staff of the Holy Family Hospital and School of Nursing. In order to compare the Catholic health care services in Pakistan with others, the group visited a number of other hospitals. Aga Khan University Hospital is a large, very modern charitable hospital established in 2001 to allow mustahiq patients – those with minimal financial means – to access high-quality medical treatment at the hospital, its clinics and medical centres. The centre offers its services to the broader population.

The group also met with the senior doctors, staff and the chair of trustees at the Memon Medical Institute Hospital in Sakoora Goth, Karachi, a modern 332-bed multidisciplinary not-for-profit hospital established by the Memon community and 100 per cent donor funded to provide medical services to people regardless of caste, creed, colour, religion or ability to pay. “These tours were valuable in informing us as to the availability of trained personnel, resources and equipment, as well as providing a comparative of other health care facilities in Karachi,” Ms McNally said. A number of meetings with government officials, including Governor of Sindh Dr Ishrat ul Ebad Khan, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, afforded the opportunity to discuss the work of the Catholic Church in Pakistan. A number of possible opportunities for collaboration between the government and the Catholic Church’s health services in Pakistan were also identified. From Karachi, the group travelled to visit the St Elizabeth Hospital in Hyderabad, meeting the hospital administrator and staff, including Patras Inayat, who trained in Australia in palliative care. St Elizabeth’s is a 100-bed hospital established in 1958 that serves the people of Hyderabad and the lower areas of Sindh province, where it is the sole medical provider for 12,000 people in nearby villages. The hospital also has a School of Midwifery. It is owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hyderabad and is run on its behalf by the medical board of the Diocese. At the request of the chairman and administrator, a further report

will be provided on the hospital and nursing facilities, with comments and recommendations. The Columban Missionary Society, St Elizabeth’s Hospital and other donors also support many of those still homeless after the floods of 2010-11 and living in Sindh province in southeast Pakistan. This is done through mobile medical outreach and other projects. One of the projects visited has been the purchase of four acres of land at Jhirruk, 30 kilometres south of Hyderabad, where more than 30 permanent two-roomed houses

hospice administrator Sr Margaret Walsh, MFF. In a subsequent meeting with Saira Afzal Tarar, Pakistan’s Minister for Health Sciences Regulation and Coordination, her director-general and her departmental secretary, the group briefed the minister on Catholic Health Australia and on the work that was being undertaken for the Pakistani people by the Catholic Church through the many health, community and aged care institutions run by the Church in Pakistan. The visit culminated with a

“From the perspective of Catholic Health Australia, there is a valuable and important opportunity for support to be provided in those areas in which CHA already had developed resources... I believe that this was a very valuable and successful visit which has and will continue to bring benefit to the individual health services.” - Rowena McNally, CHA have been built on the land. Many more are under construction and there are plans for a school. The group’s planned visit to St Joseph’s Hospice in Rawalpindi, which provides care for up to 60 sick, aged and disabled adults and children, was postponed due to a bombing in a nearby containment and bazaar, but they were able to tour the hospice the following day. Over several days, formal and informal meetings were held with a wide range of board members and key staff and stakeholders of the hospice and the diocese, including

series of meetings and workshops in Islamabad with personnel from Catholic institutions across the country including bishops, priests, hospital administrators and board members, leaders of religious congregations and staff from the apostolic nunciature. “Importantly, these meetings provided the first ever opportunity for institutional personnel to meet and explore opportunities for collaboration,” Ms McNally said. Some of the issues covered in the meetings included maintaining the standards and Catholicity

of the ministries, the nature of the health services as works of the Catholic Church, the development, training and formation of staff, the formation and development of hospital governance boards, strategic planning, business development, performance measurement, budgeting and other matters of good administration and governance. The likely benefits of co-operation between members that might be realised by the formation of a Pakistani network of Catholic health providers were also discussed. “There is much that can be done to assist the various Catholic health and aged care services in Pakistan and assistance has begun already and no doubt will continue to flow from the various individual health and religious bodies in Australia,” Ms McNally said. “From the perspective of Catholic Health Australia, there is a valuable and important opportunity for support to be provided in those areas in which CHA already has developed resources, particularly in relation to assisting in and supporting the establishment of a Catholic Health Pakistan network or association. “I believe that this was a very valuable and successful visit which has and will continue to bring benefit to the individual health services.” The travelling party will be providing a number of reports and recommendations based on what they saw and heard during their visit in an attempt to further support the work of Catholic health and aged care in Pakistan – a country with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and one of the smallest health budgets in terms of percentage of GDP.

OPINION

GUEST EDITORIAL

Bring back the joy of the Human Body

OMESTIC violence is not entertaining. And I don’t spend my time scanning news sites looking for more sadness than that which usually jumps out at me when I check the Chicago Tribune each morning. But… there was an incident that caught my eye on a popular news/chat/gossip site about a year ago. My first response was to send it to a friend with the brief comment, “Hulga’s revenge?” Flannery O’Connor fans know who Hulga is. A joyless woman, possessed of a degree in philosophy but little common sense, Hulga - née Joy - lost a leg in a childhood accident. She lives with her mother on the family farm, where her position is, in today’s parlance, the resident “Debbie Downer.” In a tragi-comical turn of events, Hulga seduces a Bible salesman whom she takes to be an innocent rube, and instead winds up as his victim. The Bible salesman is not what he appeared to be and Hulga, in her haste to shame him, allows herself to be shamed. Not only is Hulga shamed, she is left in the loft of the barn while salesman takes quick leave of her – carrying her prosthetic leg as a trophy. (This is better told by Flannery herself. If you don’t have a copy of her collected works I would advise that you find one. And make Good Country People one of your first choices.) How could Hulga not come to mind when I read of a woman in South Carolina who stabbed her boyfriend and then threw his prosthetic leg into the yard to keep him from chasing her? And this woman was thorough! She didn’t just throw his leg out in the yard; she tossed his spare leg, too. I wonder if any other fans of Flannery and Good Country People also saw it as some sort of turnabout on Hulga’s tale. (That is all I know of this sad story, except that it coincidentally took place in the South, reminding me of what the great author said about that, “Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.”) The frailties of the human body show up frequently in Flannery’s work. As a Catholic, she knew the importance of the human body as being an offer of Divine Grace – each human body. In the Resurrection, it will be our bodies, glorified, that will rise. God himself became human, incarnated in a body of flesh PO Box 3075 and blood – bones, tendons, Adelaide Terrace corpuscles and muscles. It is PERTH WA 6832 easy to see to make a connection to the divine if one looks upon a body in its prime – office@therecord.com.au adorable babies, Olympic athTel: (08) 9220 5900 letes at the peak of their fitFax: (08) 9325 4580 ness, gorgeous women on the covers of popular magazines, men so good looking they must be deported. Then there are those of us whose bodies don’t draw an immediate connection to the divine: the Plain Janes, those missing limbs, those with weak chins, weak intellects, and chemical imbalances. These bodies, too, are offers of Divine Grace. Afflicted with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Flannery O’Connor knew more than enough about the trials that can afflict the human body. My family has seen its share of suffering and challenge. Lately I have been doing more reading on lupus and other autoimmune disorders. This not only helps in our immediate situation, but also reconnects me with the background of one of my favorite authors. I can read Flannery’s work with knowledge of her understanding of the incarnational nature of Catholicism as well as with fuller insight to the suffering and vulnerability that she faced in her own body. (I did find a good Flannery quote that has been a help; with a bit of humor consoling one of my daughters as she faces illness and the baffling maze of our American medical system: “Doctors always think anybody doing something they aren’t is a quack; also they think all patients are idiots.” A sense of humor in the face of suffering is grace indeed.) March 25 of this year would have been Flannery O’Connor’s 89th birthday. What beauty there is in the birth date of such an ‘incarnational’ author being the Feast of the Annunciation! I can only wonder how a woman with such a keen sense of humor felt about having a birthday that was a Feast day, which was movable dependent upon its falling during Holy Week. This year, for instance, we celebrated the Annunciation on April 8. Would she have moved her birthday celebration? Celebrated twice? I know I remembered her birthday on both days this year. Our bodies are important. They are not just disposable, fleshy vehicles for our souls. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit.” (CCC 364) God himself became one of us – incarnate in a human body: an actual human body prone to colic, rashes, fevers, and vulnerable to extreme suffering. And death – death on the cross. Is that not the most potent endorsement for the gift of our bodies? We should also understand our imperfections and accept the offer of Divine Grace that is inherent in them, to cast off the Hulga and bring back the Joy; respecting and honoring our own bodies, the bodies of others...and even their attendant prosthetics.

There are bodies that don’t draw an immediate connection to the divine. These, too, are offers of grace.

THE RECORD

Ellyn von Huben is a writer and contributor to Word on Fire.

therecord.com.au

April 2, 2014

LETTERS

Marriage help is only a phone call away IT WAS HEARTENING and challenging to read the centre spread of last week’s Record by Simcha Fisher on the challenges of married life. She makes the excellent point that marrying in the Catholic Church doesn’t provide couples with an inoculation against future challenges. There’s no doubt that having a shared faith life can be a powerfully uniting force for good in many marriages. However, even the strongest marriages can stumble when faced with many of life challenges such as unemployment, illness, parenting, financial stress, grief and loss, fail-

ure, abuse, shame, etc. Many couples experiencing these challenges often feel alone and don’t know where to find help. Sometimes they are afraid to speak up and ask for help for fear that they, or their relationship, will be judged. Our agency works with couples experiencing these kinds of challenges on a weekly basis. The good news for couples is that we know more today about how to support marriage than ever before if couples are willing to seek help. I sincerely encourage any couples who may have identified with Simcha Fisher’s article and would like help for their marriage to seek out counsellors or psychologists who are experienced in couples counselling work. I would particularly like your readers to know that they are

always welcome to contact our agency and make an appointment with an appropriately qualified and experienced counsellor on (08) 9241 5000. Derek Boylen DOUBLEVIEW, WA

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Darren Aronofsky’s Noah: A Post-Modern Midrash If you go to Noah expecting a faithful telling, you’ll be disappointed, writes Fr Robert Barron, but you also might be pleasantly surprised.

ARREN Aronofsky’s cinematic re-telling of the story of Noah has certainly stirred people up. While quite a few reviewers, both religious and non-religious, have given the film high marks, many Christians, both Evangelical and Catholic, have registered a far less than enthusiastic reaction. One prominent Catholic blogger and movie reviewer opined that Noah is “embarrassingly awful” and “the stupidest film in years.” Most of the religious critics have complained that the film plays fast and loose with the Genesis account, adding all sorts of distracting and fantastic elements to the well-known story. In the midst of all of this—and no doubt in part because of it—Noah took in $44 million on its opening weekend. Noah is best interpreted, I think, as a modern cinematic midrash on the Biblical tale. The midrashim— extremely popular in ancient Israel—were imaginative elaborations of the often spare Scriptural narratives. They typically explored the psychological motivations of the major players in the stories and added creative plot lines, new characters, etc. In the midrashic manner, Aronofsky’s film presents any number of extra-Biblical elements, including a conversation between Noah and his grandfather Methuselah, an army of angry men eager to force their way onto the ark, a kind of incense that lulls the animals to sleep on the ship, and most famously (or infamously), a race of fallen angels who have become incarnate as stone monsters. These latter characters are not really as fantastic or arbitrary as they might seem at first blush. Genesis tells us that the Noah story unfolds during the time of the Nephilim, a term that literally means “the fallen” and that is usually rendered as “giants.” Moreover, in the extra-Biblical book of Enoch, the Nephilim are called “the watchers,” a usage reflected in the great hymn “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones.” In Aronofsky’s Noah, the stone giants are referred to by the same name. What is most important is that this contemporary midrash successfully articulates the characteristically Biblical logic of the story of Noah. First, it speaks unambiguously of God: every major character refers to “the Creator.” Secondly, this Creator God is not presented as a distant force, nor is he blandly identified with Nature. Rather, he is personal, active, provident, and intimately involved in the affairs of

Jennifer Connelly and Russell Crowe star in a scene from Darren Aronofsky’s cinematic re-telling of the story of Noah. PHOTO: CNS/PARAMOUNT

the world that he has made. Thirdly, human beings are portrayed as fallen with their sin producing much of the suffering in the world. Some of the religious critics of Noah have sniffed out a secularist and environmentalist ideology behind this supposed demonization of humanity, but Genesis itself remains pretty down on the way human beings operate—read the stories of Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel for the details. And Noah’s portrayal of the rape of nature caused by industrialization is nowhere near as vivid as Tolkien’s portrayal of the same theme in “The Lord of the Rings.” Fourthly, the hero of the film consistently eschews his own comfort and personal inclination and seeks to know and follow the will of God. At the emotional climax of the movie (spoiler alert), Noah moves to kill his own granddaughters, convinced that it is God’s will that the human race be obliterated, but he relents when it becomes clear to him that God in fact wills for humanity to be renewed. What is significant is that Noah remains utterly focused throughout, not on his own freedom, but on the desire and purpose of God. God, creation, providence, sin, obedience, salvation: not bad for a major

Hollywood movie! There is a minor scene in the film which depicts some members of Noah’s family administering the sleep-inducing smoke to the animals. They look, for all the world, like priests swinging thuribles of incense around a cathedral. I’m quite sure that this was far from the mind of the filmmakers, but it suggested to me the strong patristic theme that Noah’s Ark is symbolic of the Church. During a time of moral and spiritual chaos, when the primal watery chaos out of which God created the world returned with a vengeance, the Creator sent a rescue operation, a great boat on which a microcosm of God’s good order would be preserved. For the Church Fathers, this is precisely the purpose and meaning of the Church: to be a safe haven where, in the midst of a sinful world, God’s word is proclaimed, where God is properly worshipped, and where a rightly ordered humanity lives in justice and non-violence. Just as Noah’s Ark carried the seeds of a new creation, so the Church is meant to let out the life that it preserves for the renewal of the world. If Aronofsky’s Noah can, even subliminally, suggest this truth, it is well worth the watching.

OPINION

therecord.com.au April 2, 2014

“This is my son” desperate, anxious on the street Mark Reidy contemplates as his son turns 12, the same age Jake was when Mark met him on the street eight years ago.

ARLIER this year a British tourist, Andrew Priestly, was swimming on the NSW coast with his 10 and 12 year old sons when they suddenly cried for help as a savage rip began to drag them under. Andrew swam to their rescue, holding them up until a surfer arrived and took the distraught boys to shore. When the surfer arrived back to retrieve the father he found him face down in the water. Efforts to revive him failed and it was later discovered he had died from a heart attack. He had literally exhausted his heart in his efforts to save the lives of his children. This is the God-given love that should define the life of a parent – to be willing to lay one’s life down - but it is not always the way. The heroism of Andrew Priestly is the extreme example of self-sacrifice, but the heart of every parent should at least be aspiring to this level of love. Several weeks ago I found myself sitting beside a 20 year old man on a city pavement in the cold hours of the night.

I Say, I Say MARK REIDY

As tears rolled down his cheeks he rocked back and forth with hands cupped over his ears. “I just want it all to stop”, he screamed, “Make it all stop”. What he wanted to cease was the sense of pain, abandonment, self-loathing and emptiness that had always haunted him. I have known Jake since he began roaming the streets at the age of 12. His mother had her own issues and was not capable of looking after him and he had spent many of his early years in government care. He had never known his father, so he didn’t have anyone who was willing to hold him up when the ravages of life began to drag him under. I thought of my own son Joseph, who recently turned 12 - the same age Jake was when I first met him. Later that night as I prayed I asked

myself, “What if that was my son crying out in despair as he pondered yet another lonely night on the streets?” I don’t claim to audibly hear from God, but a deep sense resonated within me that His heart was crying out, “That IS my son”. The heart of God. It lives within each one of us and we are called to reflect it throughout our lives. For most parents it becomes more deeply alive when we behold our children and a love greater than any we have known comes alive.

is not born from a natural desire, but rather from a choice to live out the will of God. But we must also trust that God’s grace will follow our choices. No matter what stage we are at in our journey of loving others, we are all called to extend ourselves further – to love beyond our comfort zone. However we can only do this through God’s intervention. If we feel overwhelmed and helpless even thinking about the darkness currently being experiences by

I don’t claim to audibly hear from God but a deep sense resonated with me, “This IS my son.” But, as Christians, we are called to extend this love beyond our flesh and blood. “Love one another as I have loved you”, Jesus commanded. That is not to say that we can simply replicate the love that comes naturally toward our children, but we are called to choose to love all others, especially those most vulnerable and lost. It is a far more difficult love to fulfil because it

thousands of children within our own country, then we must pray for the courage to step beyond our fear and embrace them, at least, in our hearts. If we have already emotionally embraced these children then we should be seeking God as to whether He wants us to take a deeper and more practical step to practically fulfil the yearning He has planted

within. Does he want us to be one of the unsung saints dotted throughout our communities who have accepted the most vulnerable and damaged children, not only in their hearts, but into their homes and lives. People who have chosen, either through fostering or mentoring programs, to step beyond any sense of fear or helplessness and live out God’s cry for sacrificial love. These are the people who are making a real difference to the lives of the most vulnerable. These are the ones who are healing and preventing the wounds that continue to bleed within Jake and thousands of others like him. These are the heroes who are bringing the intended love of God into the lives of those who need it most. Could you be one of these heroes? For more details on fostering, ranging from a few days to a lifetime, see www.dcp.wa.gov.wa or www.mackillop.org.au/Fostercare For information of Big Brother/ Big Sister, a mentoring program for disadvantaged youth, see www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.au

Sister’s joy of doing good for others

Sr Teresa My Nguyen, a Dominican Superior at Mai Am Hoa Hong Orphanage in Vietnam shares her vocation story.

My Vocation DEBBIE WARRIER

WAS BORN in Saigon, Vietnam and have two sisters and one brother. My father was in the army and then later became a farmer. My mother was a housewife. Not matter how busy they were, they always insisted we have family prayer in the evening. I entered the Order of the Dominican of Lang Son convent when I was 12 years old. On the one hand my parents loved to see me enter the convent but at the same time they told me that they cried a lot when I left. I didn’t know anything about being a Dominican nun but I went through their convent school anyway. I also attended a high school on the outside. When I looked at the nuns, I just wanted to follow them. It was not until I was 24 and preparing for my Final Vows that I felt really shaken up. I asked myself, why did I want to be at the convent? I realised that I was there because I liked doing good for other people. But the Dominican charism is education not charity so I wondered if this was the right order for me. I talked to my parents and my father explained to me that there was also charity in education. So with the knowledge I had learnt at the convent for 12 years and the maturity I had gained, I decided that this was my vocation. Now I am the Superior at the Mai Am Hoa Hong orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. When I was a postulant, there was a formator mistress whom I looked up to as a model. I am also influenced by my baptismal patron saint, St Therese of the Child Jesus. The three things I love about her are: simplicity, humility and complete trust in the providence of God. At Mai Am Hoa Hong (English translation: rose house of love) orphanage we rely only on the providence of God as well. The name of the orphanage was partly inspired by St Therese (Also known as “The Little Flower” who promised to send down a shower of roses from heaven before she died in 1897) and partly because I like to see people treat our house as a

Sr Teresa My Nguyen pictured above with some of the orphan children she helps to care for in Vietnam.

home and we become a rose offered to God. People from all walks of life come to us: orphans, pregnant ladies, the disabled and elderly. The oldest resident is 74 and the youngest is seven months old. Originally we were lent one house by benefactors but now it is becoming too full so some good people have lent us a new one. Our congregation is made up of 17 nuns and we run both houses. One day we hope to have brothers of another order to assist us when the boys and girls are older and need to be separated or we may separate them between the two houses. At present there are 60 residents in one house and in the other we have 30. Before I became involved with my work at the orphanage I went to three other communities. Once I was the Vice Mother Superior and was on the Council for the Order. Throughout my life I have found that my vocation has been confirmed as the right decision for me many times. What really satisfies me is that I always wanted to do charity and although we educate the children up to the age of 5 at the

orphanage (afterwards they go to a government school), we are also helping all the people that come under our care. They remain at the orphanage for as long as they need to. My background is in nursing and I was educated on the job as well as obtaining a Diploma in 1963. Some of our nuns are qualified to work with the children and others with the disabled. On a

earn their living. They plant vegetables and grain as well as breed rabbits and poultry. When we first started this ministry many of own sisters were against it because of the expense. They told us, “It is too difficult. You will fail.” But when I look at the orphans, I think what would their lives be like if we did not do this ministry? Would he or she still be alive or would he or

I have found that my vocation has been confirmed in the right decision. normal day at Mai Am Hoa Hong my role is to connect other people together. My first priority is to provide for the nuns and the residents their spiritual and physical needs as well as human development. To be the link is nothing big but I think it is necessary. These houses exist because of the great help of the congregation, the sisters’ relatives and benefactors. Besides this, every member of the house that is able to works to

she be dumped in a rubbish bin by now? They could be street children or uneducated in the future. They could be in a gang or whatever. When I prepare them for the future I make sure they know about God, the difference between right and wrong, and about prayer. We pray that one day they will be good people. That is our inspiration. Since the orphanage was built in 2004, we have relied on the generosity of people in our country and

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

overseas to help us with finance or to run the place. As the children grow up we need more finance because we want to give them the best that any child could receive in a family. We went to give them the same opportunities for education up to university level. To do that is very costly and the government does not provide any financial assistance. One of the things that I am very scared of is the Communist government in Vietnam. They always harass us. They won’t look after the children and they don’t want us to either. They ask us to see them so they can question us and I am always afraid. But God works in mysterious ways. Government officials say, “If you don’t do this, we will close the place.” but somehow they always seem to forget! Our work requires complete trust in God – a God that provides because after all, these people are God’s children. The more I do this work, the more I believe that God is the one who looks after them. Things happen that are beyond our imagination.

PANORAMA

SCHOENSTATT CELEBRATES 100 YEARS All welcome, 9 Talus Drive, Mt Richon. More information - 9399 2349. April 4 - 7.30pm The Covenant of Love in the Second Milestone 1942 May 2 - 7.30pm The Covenant of Love in the Third Milestone 1949 June 6 - 7.30pm The Covenant of Love in the Fourth Milestone 1965 July 4 - 7.30pm The Covenant of Love and the Place of Grace Bring a picture of your Home Shrine August 1 - 7.30pm The Covenant of Love in its Depth Renewal of Crowning ‘Queen of the Family’ September 5 - 7.30pm The Covenant of Love in its Width Bring your Pilgrim Mother Shrine October 3 - 8pm The Covenant of Love in the Everyday Bring your Group Symbol

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5 TO SUNDAY, APRIL 13 40 Days for Life Daily Lenten Prayer Vigil 7am-5pm daily outside Midland abortion clinic, 8 Sayer St, Midland, for everyone affected by abortion. Come and join us. Enq: Tina 0415 382 541 or www.40daysforlife.com/perth. FRIDAY, MARCH 7 TO APRIL 11 Lenten Contemplative Prayer 5.30-6.30pm every Friday in Lent in the Upper Room, St Joseph’s Parish Centre, 3 Salvado Rd, Subiaco. Deepening our prayer life in Lent through the practice of Centering Prayer. Enq: 9381 0400, www.stjosephssubiaco.org.au. SATURDAY, APRIL 5 Day with Mary 9am at Our Lady Queen of Poland Church, 35 Eighth Ave, Maylands. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. Video; 10.10am Holy Mass, Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, two talks, Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Stations of the Cross. Finish approx 5pm. BYO lunch. Enq – Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate 9437 2792. One day Inner Healing Retreat 9am-1.30pm at Holy Family Parish, 34 Alcock St, Maddington. Program includes Praise and Worship, preaching of the Word of God, Confession, holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and healing prayers. Experience the eternal love and healing touch of our Lord. Morning tea and lunch provided. Enq: 08 9493 1703 or vincentiansperth@ yahoo.com. www.vpcp.org.au. Catholic Bible Seminar Life in the Miracle of the Scarlet Thread 10am – 9pm at the Edel Quinn Centre, Windsor Street, Perth (east off Lord St). Following God’s blood covenants throughout the Bible from Adam to Jesus’ Blood Sacrifice and Resurrection we experience the Bible and the Mass in a whole new way. Bring a Bible and shared meals. Enq: FMI 9382 3668. fmi@flameministries.org, flameministries.org/smpof.html. SUNDAY, APRIL 6 Preparing For Easter 9.30am at St Francis Xavier Church, 23 Windsor St, Perth. Mass, followed by morning tea and discussion group at Emmanuel Centre. Learn why the priest lowers the paschal candle three times into the baptismal water and many other interesting things. Interpreter, audio induction loops and PowerPoint services available. Light lunch. Enq: Fr Paul 9328 8113 or SMS 0401 016 399. Latin Mass 8.30am at The Good Shepherd Church, Streich Avenue, Kelmscott. Enq: John 9390 6646. TUESDAY, APRIL 8 Seeking The God of our Lenten Story Talks with Sr Margaret Scharf OP 7.30-9pm at MacKillop Room (multi-purpose room), John XXIII College, Mooro Dr, Mt Claremont. Sr Scharf is WA Vicaress of the Dominican Sisters. How is the salvation story mirrored in our own personal stories? $10 donation (unwaged). Register: Murray Graham 9383 0444, graham. murray@johnxxiii.edu.au.

THURSDAY, APRIL 10 AND MAY 1 Passion and Resurrection stories in the Synoptic Gospels 7.30pm at Christian Brothers’ Support Centre, 53 Redmond St, Salter Point. Two Powerpoint presentations on the Passion and Resurrection stories in the Synoptic Gospels. Part 1 Passion and Part 2 Resurrection. One-hour long sessions. No RSVP, no cost. Parking, tea and coffee available. Enq: Br Joe Murphy 9450 1061. SATURDAY, APRIL 12 St Padre Pio Prayer Day 8.30am at St Mary’s Church, 21 James St, Guildford. 8.30am - St Padre Pio DVD in parish centre. 10am - Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Silent Adoration and Benediction. 11am - holy Mass, St Padre Pio Liturgy. Confessions available. 12pm- BYO for shared lunch, tea and coffee supplied. Enq: Des 6278 1540. SUNDAY, APRIL 13 Divine Mercy Hour 3pm at St Pius X Church, 23 Paterson St, Manning. Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Divine Mercy prayers, Rosary and Benediction. Please join us in prayer. Enq: Mrs K Henderson 9450 4195. FRIDAY, APRIL 18 Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena 3pm at Holy Family Parish, 34 Alcock St, Maddington. Followed by Good Friday service. Enq: 9493 1703 or vincentiansperth@yahoo.com; www.vpcp.org.au. Good Friday Ceremonies Bindoon 11am at Catholic Agricultural College, 3398 Bindoon-Dewars Pool Rd, 10k North of Bindoon. Stations of the Cross followed by Solemn ceremony of The Lord’s Passion. Confessions from 10.30am & after the Stations of the Cross. Enq: Fr Paul 9571 8068. SATURDAY, APRIL 19 TO SATURDAY, APRIL 26 Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena 2.30-3pm at Holy Family Parish, 34 Alcock St, Maddington. Confession followed at 3pm by Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena with preaching and healing prayers. Enq: 9493 1703. MONDAY, APRIL 21 TO SATURDAY, APRIL 26 Easter Retreat 11am at St Catherine’s House of Hospitality, Tuart Hill. Our Faith in light of God’s Sacred Universe story. Both live-in and live-out possibilities. Finishes 4pm Saturday, April 26. Enq flyer and registration: Sr Shelley Barlow 0428 772 784; smbarlowrndm@gmail.com. SUNDAY, APRIL 27 6th Annual Celebration of the Feast of Divine Mercy 2-3pm Confession at Holy Family Parish, 34 Alcock St, Maddington. 3-5pm procession with Divine Mercy icon followed by Eucharistic Adoration, Divine Mercy Chaplet and healing prayers. 5pm Solemn Feast Mass. Enq: 9493 1703 or vincentiansperth@yahoo.com; www.vpcp.org.au. Divine Mercy Sunday Pilgrimage 12 noon-4.30pm Divine Mercy Church, 34 Santa Gertrudis Drive, Lower Chittering.12noon BYO lunch followed by Holy Rosary, Adoration, Confessions. 2.15pm Holy Mass, Divine Mercy Devotions, veneration First Class Relic of St Faustina. Afternoon tea and return to Perth. Transport, Francis 9459 3873, 0404 893 877. Enq: 9571 0978, 0448 833 472 or Fr Paul 9571 8068. SUNDAY, MAY 4 Busselton May Rosary Celebration Honouring of Our Lady 12.30pm at Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine, Bove’s Farm, Roy Rd (off Bussell Hwy), Jindong, Busselton. 12.30pm: hymns. 1pm: concelebrated Mass led by Fr Tony Chiera. Rosary procession and Benediction following Mass. Afternoon tea provided. Bus from Perth ph: Francis 0404 893 877 or 9459 3873. FRIDAY, MAY 16 Medjugorje Evening of Prayer. 7pm - 9pm St Bernadette’s Parish, 49 Jugan St, Glendalough. It is reported Our Blessed Mother has been appearing daily in Medjugorje since June 1981. In thanksgiving the Medjugorje evening of prayer group meet at a different parish each month. There will be Eucharistic Adoration, Rosary, Benediction & Holy Mass. Pilgrimage Italy & Medjugorje June & Oct. See pilgrimage advertisement. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480 mob 0407 471 256, medjugorje1947@gmail.com. SUNDAY, MAY 25 Centenary Celebrations - Mt Barker Parish 10.30am at Sacred Heart Parish, Langton Rd, Mount Barker. You are invited to the celebration of 100 years with Mass, celebrant Bishop Gerard Holohan, followed by bring and share lunch. RSVP with your intention to attend. Enq: Fr John Brown 08 9851 1119 or Rose-Mary 9851 1695.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9 Spirituality & Sunday Gospels, Lenten Sessions 7pm-8pm at St Benedict’s Church, Cnr Canning Highway &115 Ardross St Applecross. The Gospel readings can deepen our Faith & increase our peace. Presenter Norma Woodcock. Cost: collection. Enq: 94871772, norma@ normawoodcock.com www.normawoodcock. com.

REGULAR EVENTS

THURSDAY, APRIL 10 Healing Mass in Honour of St Peregrine 7pm at Sts John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Patron of cancer sufferers and helper of all in need. There will be veneration of the relic of St Peregrine and anointing of the sick. Enq: Jim on 9457 1539.

EVERY SUNDAY Gate of Heaven Catholic Radio Join the Franciscans of the Immaculate from 7.309pm on Radio Fremantle 107.9FM for Catholic radio broadcast of EWTN and our own live shows. Enq: radio@ausmaria.com. Cathedral Cafe

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April 2, 2014

Cathedral Cafe open every Sunday 9.30am-1pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, downstairs after Mass. Coffee, tea, cakes, sweets, friendship with Cathedral parishioners. Further info: Tammy on smcperthwyd@yahoo.com.au or 0415 370 357. Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation 2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Starts with Rosary, then Benediction. Reconciliation available before every celebration. Anointing of the sick administered at Mass every second Sunday of month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to Church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq Sacri 9447 3292. Praise and Worship 5.30pm at St Denis Parish, cnr Osborne St and Roberts Rd, Joondanna. Followed by 6pm Mass. Enq: Admin on admin@stdenis.com.au. Mass with Sign Language Interpreter and PowerPoint 9.30am at St Francis Xavier Church, 23 Windsor St, East Perth. Enq: Voice 9328 8113, TTY 9328 9571, 0401 016 399 or www.emmanuelcentre.com.au. Latin Mass 8.30am at the Good Shepherd Church, 42 Streich Ave, Kelmscott. Enq: John 9390 6646. EVERY FIRST SUNDAY Singles Prayer and Social Group 6.30pm at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Sq, 77 St Georges Tce, Perth. Begins with holy hour followed by dinner at local restaurant. Meet new people, pray and socialise with others. Enq: Veronica 0403 841 202. EVERY SECOND SUNDAY Healing Hour 7-8pm at St Lawrence, Balcatta. Songs of praise and worship, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament and prayers for sick. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS or office Tue-Thu, 9am-2.30pm on 9344 7066. EVERY THIRD SUNDAY Oblates of St Benedict’s 2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. We welcome all interested in studying the Rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for laypeople. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude our meetings. Enq: Secretary 9457 5758. Holy Hour with Exposition 3pm at All Saints Parish, 7 Liwara Pl, Greenwood. Mercy Novena and Rosary during Holy Hour. Enq: Charles 9447 1989. EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY Shrine Time for Young Adults 18-35 Years 7.30-8.30pm at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Dr, Mt Richon; holy Hour with prayer, reflection, meditation, praise and worship; followed by a social gathering. Come and pray at a place of grace. Enq: shrinetimemtrichon@gmail.com. Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life 2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley. Includes Exposition of Blessed Sacrament, silent prayer, scripture, prayers of intercession. Come and pray that those discerning vocations can hear clearly God’s call. EVERY LAST SUNDAY Filipino Mass 3pm at Notre Dame Church, cnr Daley and Wright Sts, Cloverdale. Bring a plate to share after Mass. Enq: Fr Nelson 0410 843 412, Elsa 0404 038 483. LAST MONDAY Be Still in His Presence – Ecumenical Christian Program 7.30-8.45pm at St Swithun Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie St, Lesmurdie (hall behind church). Begins with songs of praise and worship, silent time, lectio divina, small group sharing and cuppa. Enq: Lynne 9293 3848 or 0435 252 941. EVERY TUESDAY Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal 6pm at Pater Noster Church, Marmion and Evershed Sts, Myaree. Mass at 5.30pm followed by Benediction. Enq: John 0408 952 194. Novena to God the Father 7.30pm at St Joachim’s parish hall, Vic Park. Novena followed by reflection and discussions on forthcoming Sunday Gospel. Enq: Jan 9284 1662. Mercy Heritage Centre Open Day 10am - 2pm at 86 Victoria Square, Perth (corner Goderich St) main entrance. Free tour of the 1871 Convent. Enq: 08 9325 4155 EVERY FIRST TUESDAY Short MMP Cenacle for Priests 2pm at Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Enq: Fr Watt 9376 1734. EVERY WEDNESDAY Holy Spirit of Freedom Community 7.30pm at Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We welcome everyone to attend our praise meeting. Enq: 0423 907 869 or hsofperth@gmail.com. Holy Hour - Catholic Youth Ministry 5.30pm at Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. Mass followed at 6.30pm with Holy Hour. Supper $5 and fellowship later. Enq: 9422 7912 or admin@cym.com.au. Subiaco Ladies Prayer Meeting 10am in the upper room at St Joseph’s Parish, 3 Salvado Rd, Subiaco. We welcome you to join us for prayer, praise, and fellowship. Phone Win 9387 2808, Colleen 9245 3277 or Noreen 9298 9938.

Evangelizing with Catholic Dvds 10.30am-11.30am at St Joseph’s Church, 20 Hamilton St. Bassendean Library. No price too high. Pentecostal Rev. Alex Jones came into the Catholic Church along with some of his own congregation at Easter in 2001. Incredible conversion story not to be missed! Enq: Catherine 9379 2691 Merle 0414 794 224. EVERY FIRST WEDNESDAY Novena to St Mary of the Cross MacKillop 7-7.45pm at Blessed Mary MacKillop Parish, cnr Cassowary Dr and Pelican Pde, Ballajura. Begins with Mass, Novena prayers and Benediction. Followed by healing prayers and anointing of the sick. Enq: Madi 9249 9093 or Gerry 0417 187 240. EVERY SECOND WEDNESDAY Chaplets of Divine Mercy 7.30pm at St Thomas More Parish, Dean Rd, Bateman. Accompanied by Exposition, then Benediction. Enq: George 9310 9493 or 6242 0702 (w). Miracle Prayers 7.30pm at 67 Howe St, Osborne Park. An opportunity to receive prayers for healing of mind, body and soul. Enq: miracleprayers@disciplesofjesus. org or Michelle 0404 028 298. EVERY THURSDAY Divine Mercy 11am at Sts John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy and for consecrated life, especially in our parish. Concludes with veneration of the first class relic of St Faustina. Enq: John 9457 7771. St Mary’s Cathedral Praise Meeting 7.45pm at the Legion of Mary’s Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Includes praise, song and healing ministry. Enq: Kay 9382 3668 or fmi@ flameministries.org. Group Fifty - Charismatic Renewal Group 7.30pm at Redemptorist Monastery, 150 Vincent St, North Perth. Includes prayer, praise and Mass. Enq: Elaine 9440 3661. EVERY FIRST THURSDAY Holy Hour Prayer for Priests 7-8pm at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. All welcome. Enq: Linda 9341 3079. Prayer in Style of Taizé 7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Parish, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Includes prayer, song and silence in candlelight – symbol of Christ the light of the world. Taizé info: www.taize.fr. Enq: secretary 9448 4888 or 9448 4457. FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAY Social Dinner (Young Adults aged up to 35) and Rosary Cenacle 6.30pm at St Bernadette’s Church, 49 Jugan St, Mt Hawthorn. Begins at 6.30pm with dinner at a local restaurant, followed at 8pm by a Rosary Cenacle, short talk and refreshments at the church. Great way to meet new people, pray and socialise! Enq: 9444 6131 or st.bernadettesyouth@gmail.com. EVERY FRIDAY Eucharistic Adoration at Schoenstatt Shrine 10am at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Dr, Mt Richon. Includes holy Mass, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament, silent adoration till 8.15pm. Join us in prayer at a place of grace. Enq: Sisters of Schoenstatt 9399 2349. Healing Mass 6pm at Holy Family Parish, Lot 375, Alcock St, Maddington. Begins with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Healing Mass followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Enq: admin 9493 1703 or www.vpcp. org.au. Eucharistic Adoration - Voice of the Voiceless Ministry 7.30-9pm at St Brigid’s Parish, 211 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Eucharistic Adoration, beginning with praise and worship and reflection on the scriptures. All welcome. Enq: adrianluke1999@ yahoo.com.abibleu. EVERY FIRST FRIDAY Mass and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 11am-4pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Exposition of Blessed Sacrament after Mass until 4pm, finishing with Rosary. Enq: Sr Marie MS.Perth@lsp.org.au. Voice of the Voiceless Prayer Meeting during Lent 7.30-9.30pm (following parish Stations of the Cross at 6.30pm) at Holy Cross Church, 1 Dianne St, Hamilton Hill. Celebrant Fr Nicholas Nweke. Starts with Rosary prayers followed by Mass, concluding with Exposition of Blessed Sacrament. Enq: Frank 9296 7591. Healing and Anointing Mass 8.45am Pater Noster Church, Evershed St, Myaree. Begins with Reconciliation, then 9am Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, anointing of the sick and prayers to St Peregrine. Enq: Joy 9337 7189. Pro-life Witness – Mass and Procession 9.30am at St Brigid’s Parish, cnr Great Northern Hwy and Morrison Rd, Midland. Begins with Mass followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Please join us to pray for an end to abortion and the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349. Catholic Faith Renewal Evening 7.30pm at Sts John and Paul Parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Songs of praise, prayer, sharing by a priest, then thanksgiving Mass and light refresh-

ments. Enq: Ivan 0428 898 833 or Ann 0412 166 164 or catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com. Communion of Reparation All Night Vigils 7pm-1.30am at Corpus Christi Church, Loch St, Mosman Park or St Gerard Majella Church, cnr Ravenswood Dr/Majella Rd, Mirrabooka. Vigils are two Masses, Adoration, Benediction, prayers, Confession in reparation for outrages committed against the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357, Fr Giosue 9349 2315, John/ Joy 9344 2609. Holy Hour 7.30pm at St Bernadette’s Parish, cnr Jugan and Leeder Sts, Glendalough. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, music and chants, silence, readings and meditative decades of the holy Rosary. Tea/ coffee and cake to follow. Enq: Sean Tobin of Bl Elisabeth of the Trinity Choir 0439 720 066. EVERY SECOND FRIDAY Discover Spirituality of St Francis of Assisi 12pm at St Brigid’s parish centre. The Secular Franciscans of Midland Fraternity have lunch, then 1-3pm meeting. Enq: Antoinette 9297 2314. EVERY SATURDAY Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary 9am at St Denis Parish Church, cnr Roberts Rd and Osborne St, Joondanna. A warm invitation to those interested in praying Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary with us. Enq: Parish office 9242 2812. EVERY FIRST SATURDAY Vigil for Life – Mass and Procession 8.30am at St Augustine Parish, Gladstone St, Rivervale. Begins with Mass celebrated by Fr Carey, followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic. Please join us to pray for the conversion of hearts and an end to abortion. Enq: Helen 9402 0349. Mission Rosary Making at the Legion of Mary 9.30am-2pm at 36 Windsor St, East Perth. All materials are supplied. The Rosaries made are distributed to schools, missions and those who ask for a Rosary. Please join us and learn the art of Rosary making on rope and chain. Enq: 0478 598 860. EVERY SECOND SATURDAY Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Succour) and Divine Mercy Chaplet (Chant) 8.30am at Our Lady of the Mission Parish, Whitford, 270 Camberwarra Dr, Craigie. Holy Mass at 8.30am followed by Novena. Enq: Margaret 9307 2776. EVERY FOURTH SATURDAY Voice of the Voiceless Healing Mass 11.30am at St Brigid’s Parish, 211 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Bring a plate to share after Mass. Enq: Frank 9296 7591 or 0408 183 325.

GENERAL Divine Mercy Church, Lower Chittering Come join the “$500 club” by donating that amount towards completion of the Divine Mercy Church in Lower Chittering. Your name will be included in a plaque and you will share in Masses offered for benefactors. Donate online: www. ginginchitteringparish.org.au or send cheque to DM Church Building Fund, PO Box 8, Bullsbrook WA 6084. May God bless you! Free Divine Mercy Image for Parishes High quality oil painting and glossy print – Divine Mercy Promotions. Images of very high quality. For any parish willing to accept and place inside the church. Oil paintings: 160 x 90cm; glossy print - 100 x 60cm. Enq: Irene 9417 3267 (w). Sacred Heart Pioneers Would anyone like to know about the Sacred Heart pioneers? If so, please contact Spiritual Director Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or John 9457 7771. St Philomena’s Chapel 3/24 Juna Dr, Malaga. Mass of the day: Mon 6.45am. Vigil Masses: Mon-Fri 4.45pm. Enq: Fr David 9376 1734. Mary MacKillop Merchandise Available for sale from Mary MacKillop Centre. Enq: Sr Maree 0414 683 926 or 08 9334 0933. Financially Disadvantaged People Requiring Low Care Aged Care Placement The Little Sisters of the Poor community is set in beautiful gardens in Glendalough. “Making the elderly happy, that is everything!” St Jeanne Jugan (foundress). Reg and enq: Sr Marie 9443 3155. AA Alcoholics Anonymous Is alcohol costing you more than just money? Enq: AA 9325 3566. Is your son or daughter unsure of what to do this year? Suggest a Cert IV course to discern God’s purpose. They will also learn more about the Catholic faith and develop skills in communication and leadership. Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation (National Code 51452). Enq: Jane 9202 6859. Acts 2 College, Perth’s Catholic Bible College Is now pleased to be bble to offer tax deductibility for donations. If you are looking for an opportunity to help grow the faith of young people and evangelise the next generation of apostles, please contact Jane Borg, Principal at Acts 2 College on 0401 692 690 or principal@acts2come.wa.edu.au. Abortion Grief Association Inc A not-for-profit association is looking for premises to establish a Trauma Recovery Centre (pref SOR) in response to increasing demand for services (ref www.abortiongrief.asn.au). Enq: Julie (08) 9313 1784.

CLASSIFIEDS

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

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RURI STUDIO FOR HAIR Vincent and Miki welcome you to their newly opened, international, award-winning salon. Shop 2, 401 Oxford St, Leederville. 9444 3113. Ruri-studio-for-hair@ hotmail.com.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS RICH HARVEST - YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, Baptism and Wedding candles, 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 www.kinlarvestments.com.au Quality vestments, Australianmade, embroidered, appliqued. Ph: 9402 1318, 0409 114 093.

TAX SERVICE QUALITY TAX RETURNS PREPARED by registered tax agent with over 35 years’ experience. Call Tony Marchei 0412 055 184 for appt. AXXO Accounting & Management, Unit 20/222 Walter Rd, Morley.

FURNITURE REMOVAL ALL AREAS. Competitive rates. Mike Murphy Ph 0416 226 434.

TO LEASE MINING LEASE 95612415.

PAINTERS IN PERTH since 1933. AJ Cochrane & Sons 08 9248 8211.

PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD For all commercial and strata property requirements. Ph 9444 1200. BRICK RE-POINTING Ph Nigel 9242 2952.

PILGRIMAGES PILGRIMAGE TO ROME/ PADUA/ASSISI/VENICE AND MEDJUGORJE Departing Perth Mon, June 9. $4,474 for 16 days. Price includes all flights, quality accommodation with ensuite facilities, bed/breakfast/evening meals, rest period in airport hotel for six hrs with bedroom/ ensuite, enabling you to arrive refreshed. English speaking guide 24/7, transfers in luxury coach. Taxes/tipping included. Spiritual Director Rev Fr Ronan Murphy. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480, mob 0407 471 256 medjugorje1947@gmail.com. HOLY LAND AND MEDJUGORJE: September 15-30. 16 day pilgrimage of a lifetime to Tel Aviv, Caesarea, Nazareth, Cana, Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, Mt Tabor, Jerusalem, Gethsemane, Ein Karem, Bethlehem, Qumran, Jericho, Dead Sea, Mt of Olives, Mt Zion, Holy Sepulchre and Medjugorje (price $4,800). Departing September 15 and returning September 30, 2014.

Fr Nicholas Nweke (Spiritual Director), 9448 4888. 19 DAYS: COST FROM $7,080 Poland, Italy, Lourdes & (Paris - Optional) Departs Perth on Monday 22 September 2014 Spiritual Director: Fr. Tadeusz Seremet SDS 19 DAYS: COST FROM $4,900 Jordan, Israel, and Egypt, Petra, Amman, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, Cana, Bethlehem, Taba, Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine’s, St. Anthony’s, and St. Paul’s Monastery, Sharm El-Sheikh, Pyramids of Giza and Cairo. Departs Perth on Sunday 9 November 2014. Spiritual Director: Fr. Phong Thanh Nguyen. For Itinerary and more information please contact: Francis Williams (Travel Coordinator) / T: 9459 3873 / M: 0404 893 877 (all-day) E: perthfamily888@ gmail.com 10 DAYS HOLY LAND WITH POPE FRANCIS: Cost from $2,580:00 (Land Only). Caesarea, Muhraka, Nazareth, Cana, Tiberias, Mt of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Boat Ride, Jordan River (Yardenit), Mt. Tabor, Jericho, Qumran, Dead Sea, Jerusalem. Departs Perth on Tuesday 20 May 2014. Francis Williams (Travel Coordinator) T: 9459 3873, M: 0404 893 877 (allday). E: perthfamily888@gmail. com 8 DAYS ITALY incl. Rome. Monte Cassino. Castelpetroso. San Giovanni Rotondo, Monte Sant’Angelo, Corato, Lanciano, Collevalenza, Assisi, Medjugorje 7 days 1 night Split. Oct.7-25th.. Spiritual Director Rev Fr Doug Harris. Cost $4 999. Contact Eileen 9402 2480 mob 0407 471 256. email medjugorje1947@ gmail.com.

C R O S S W O R D ACROSS 3 Where King Saul consulted a medium (1 Sam 28:7) 6 Pertaining to Scripture 8 “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (abbr.) 9 Start of the Christian era 11 Papal ambassador 13 Morality 15 Good ___ 17 The Sacred ___ of Jesus 20 NT epistle 21 Sacred music 23 “…be ___ and your no…” (Jas 5:12) 24 “___ in terris” 26 Ezekiel scattered this to the wind (Ezek 5:1–2) 27 This was rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb 30 Agape ___ 32 Archdiocese and capital of Canada 34 The Israelites settled here in Egypt 37 Nephew of Abraham 38 Evil king of Israel 39 One of the young men cast into the furnace 40 Top monk DOWN 1 God, in Paris 2 Catholic actor Guinness 3 Old Testament prophet who was the successor of Elijah 4 “…the ___ he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:53) 5 Lies

W O R D Free Rosaries For The Missions If you or anybody you know are going to the missions and would like to send or take Rosaries to spread the faith locally or overseas or for school or First Holy Communion, please contact Felicia 0429 173 541 or Hiep 0409 128 638. Saints and Sacred Relics Apostolate Invite SSRA Perth invites interested parties, parish priests, leaders of religious communities, lay associations to organise relic visitations to parishes, communities, etc. We have available authenticated relics, mostly first-class, of Catholic saints and blesseds including Sts Mary MacKillop, Padre Pio, Anthony of Padua, Therese of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe, Simon Stock and Blessed Pope John Paul II. Free of charge and all welcome. Enq: Giovanny 0478 201 092 or ssra-perth@catholic.org.

PERPETUAL ADORATION Would You Not Watch One Hour with Me? Adoration - St Jerome’s, Spearwood Adorers are needed. Please contact the office on 9418 1229. Holy Hour Slots at St Bernadette’s, Glendalough “Every Holy Hour we make so pleases the Heart of Jesus that it will be recorded in heaven and retold for all eternity” ~ Blessed Mother Teresa. Adorers needed for: Monday 2-3am; Tuesday 10-11am; Wednesday midnight-2am; Friday 2-4am; and Saturday 1-2pm. If you would like one of these hours or more information, please call the parish office. Enquiries: 9444 6131. Resource Centre For Personal Development 2014 Courses 197 High St, Fremantle. RCPD2 ‘Successful Relationships, Emotional Intelligence/

Communication Skills’; RCPD3 Part1 ‘Health – Mental, Physical and Spiritual’ ‘Understanding and Healing the Consequences of Emotional and Sexual Abuse’ Lecture and Discussion; RCPD11 ‘Therapeutic Workshop’; RCPD7 Part1 ‘Psychology and Christian Spirituality’; RCPD7 Part2 ‘Exorcists and Psychiatrists’. Volunteers required for Op/Shop Drop-In Centre. Enq: 9418 1439, 0409 405 585 www.rcpd.net.au. Penitential Taize Service The Parish of St Ninian & St Chad, of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, will hold a Taize Penitential Service on Sunday 6th April, at 7pm. The service will be a Second Rite of Reconciliation, with Taize chant and meditation. 11 Susan St, Maylands. Further information: Fr Stephen Hill PP, ph: 0401 699 574. Email: fr.stephen@me.com. Web: www.ninianchad.org.au.

S L E U T H

7 10 11 12 14 16 18 19 20 22 25 27 28 29 31 32 33 35 36

Man of the ___ Bk. of the Pentateuch A non-coveting commandment ___ Testament Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, is patron saint of this South American country The Lord, in Madrid (with “El”) Joseph was sold into slavery here “He is ___!” Song of David What you do not use in unleavened bread Italian archdiocese with the Ambrosian rite The ___ of Confession Nihil ___ John’s symbol NT epistle Second son of Judah Jesus’ name for the Father ___ of Songs “Tantum ___”

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION

PERSONAL ORDINARIATE OF OUR LADY OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS

BRINGING the ANGLICAN TRADITION into the CATHOLIC CHURCH Mass is celebrated according to “Divine Worship”, a uniquely English liturgy drawing from the Book of Common Prayer, and approved by the Holy See. Come and experience Pope Benedict’s vision for a new way of English worship come to life PARISH OF SAINT NINIAN AND SAINT CHAD Mass: Sundays, 9.30am 11 Susan Street, Maylands T: 0401 699 574 E: fr.stephen@me.com