The Record Newspaper 03 March 2010

In defence of

Marriage

Sydney

THE R ECORD

www.therecord.com.au

the Parish. the Nation. the World.

“Be indefatigable in your purpose and with undaunted spirit resist iniquity and try to conquer evil with good, having before your eyes the reward of those who combat for Christ.”

-Bishop Matthew Gibney 1874

Catholic? There’s an app for that Archbishop takes up kidnapping with UN

Urges the United Nations’ High Commissioner to intervene in “distressing, shocking” incident

ARCHBISHOP Barry Hickey has raised the profile and taken up the issue of the reported kidnapping of approximately 50 Karen children from a ThaiBurma border orphanage with the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights in Switzerland.

Archbishop Hickey last week wrote to Madam Navanethem Pillay, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Geneva.

He urged Madam Pillay to intervene in the matter with a view to finding the perpetrators and rescuing the children. His action signals he will not let the Please turn to Page 2

BY PETER ROSENGREN Editor

They’re called ‘apps’ and anyone under 25 years of age - or thereabouts - will know the meaning of the word straight away. ‘Apps’ is young-person talk for ‘applications,’ computer software programs that run, in this case, on Apple Computer’s iPhone, the mobile telephone that has blitzed competitors with the novelty of its approach to the business of communication. A n iPhone is something like a small computer which also happens to be a mobile telephone. Among the young, they’re considered to be a must-have possession.

There’s an almost dizzying variety of applications available for a gadget like the iPhone - now Catholic programmers are seeing the possibilities for Christians in a communications-dominated world.

But what’s interesting about the iPhone for Catholics? It turns out a growing number of apps are being written specifically for Catholics, including at least four different translations of the entire Bible, daily Mass readings and the Order of the Mass (Novus Ordo or Tridentine, in English or Latin) and the entire Office of the Hours - among others. You can even ‘light a candle’ to your favourite saint.

In 2008, Apple reportedly shipped 13.2 million iPhones around the world but by 2012 some are predicting annual sales will have hit 80 million. Whatever, they’re regarded as a versatile and useful product to have.

This week, Catholic Youth Ministry’s tech-savvy Tom Gourlay begins a new series for The Record reviewing the apps that are of interest to Catholics.

The iPieta is a killer app - Vista 4

HOW WE CELEBRATED EASTER 2010

Workshops for Parish Photographers, Correspondents

Every year, The Record turns to parishes to help us show how Christians have walked towards Easter with Christ and celebrated their faith in his Resurrection. It’s a message and a witness our society needs badly to hear and see. This year we will be holding special workshops at The Record before Easter for Parish photographers and writers to show you how to get the best out of this chance to report the most important

events and ceremonies of the Church’s year. Those who attend will also be provided with notes and useful guide material afterwards for reference. If you wish to be a correspondent or photographer for your parish, register now by calling or emailing us at The Record. Our contact details are on Page 8. We will need to know how many are coming for catering purposes (yes, we provide the tea, coffee and biscuits). For those who are too far away to

make it to Perth, we will provide a written guide and notes available on request.

WHEN

Friday, 19 March, 7.30-8.30pm

Saturday, 20 March, 9.45-10.45am

WHERE

The Record offices

587 Newcastle St (cnr Douglas St)

Leederville

PRESENTER: Peter Rosengren Editor, The Record

Photography presenter: TBA

Above, children at the Perth-funded Thai orphanage, from which 50 boys and girls aged 10-14 were taken on 28 December.

PHOTO: ONE HEART ASSOCIATION

died 203 March 7

and Felicity

Martyrs in Carthage, now in Tunisia, these young women — the noblewoman Perpetua and the slave Felicity — were among five catechumens who, after refusing to worship the Roman emperor, were arrested and condemned to be thrown to wild beasts. They were baptized in prison, where Felicity also gave birth to a daughter. In the Carthage arena, they were attacked by a beast, which did not kill them, so their throats were cut by a gladiator.

Saints

Video The Parish

Podcasts The Nation

Print The World

Try the CNS Mediaplayer on The Record’s website www.therecord.com.au

Celebrating the day of the unborn child

Former NAB manager takes over at Vinnies Bryant goes to Southern Cross Care

West Perth

Tel: (08) 9227 7080, Fax: (08) 9227 7087

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BY LYDIA FERNANDEZ Director, Pregnancy Assistance

Perth will be celebrating the fifth annual day of prayer and remembrance of the unborn child on Saturday, 27 March.

Members of the Perth Catholic community are invited to attend a special Mass at St Mary's Cathedral, Victoria Square at 1pm with Archbishop Hickey as principal celebrant. During the Mass, members of the congregation will be invited to join in a procession of flowers in memory of a baby who died before birth or in thanksgiving for a child conceived. Following the Mass, at 2pm, there will be a Holy Hour led by Rev Fr Paul Carey SSC.

On this Day of the Unborn Child, we commemorate the Annunciation when the Son of God became an unborn child in the womb of His Mother. We celebrate the sacredness of every human life and we praise and thank mothers and fathers who nurture and protect their unborn children.

The day is also dedicated to praying for the entire pro-life movement and for an end to abortion in Australia. To be Catholic is to be pro-life. Together, let us pray for those whose lives are threatened by abortion and honour those whose lives have been lost. We pray for hope and healing for men and women who have lost a child and offer the assurance of God’s infinite mercy.

It is not just on this one day but every day that we are called through prayer or through action to be missionaries for the unborn and to protect the sanctity of every human life.

In The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II states "a great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world” (n 100).

“Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.”

For further enquiries, phone Pregnancy Assistance Inc on 9328 2926.

Corporate communications consultant John Bryant took over as Southern Cross Care (WA) Inc’s new chairman. He replaces lawyer Hugh Cahill, who retired as Chairman in December after four years in the position and continues as a Director on the Board.

Mr Bryant, a member of the SCC Board for the past 20 years and previously Chairman of its Planning Committee, said the organisation had changed considerably over the years.

“Southern Cross Care has grown remarkably, particularly during the past decade,” he said. “Much of that growth and success is attributable to the professionalism, integrity and astuteness of my fellow Board members, most of whom have been together on the Board for more than a decade; and to the management skills and leadership of our chief executive Stuart Flynn, who is now in his 11th year with us.

“A lot of dedication and commitment is in evidence around that Board table.”

SCC owns and manages 498 high and low care beds in residential care facilities, over 450 units in independent living villages and services in excess of 1,000 clients through its community care services. The organisation employs more than 800 West Australians.

“Many opportunities exist and the prospects for the future are exciting, though they will inevitably bring with them some considerable challenges”, said Mr Bryant, who follows in the footsteps of Dr Frank Prendergast, Margaret Hubery, Jerry Donovan, Tom Perrott, Laurie Taylor and Bernie Prindiville.

FORMER National Bank senior manager

John Bouffler plans to enhance the “symbiotic nature” of the relationship of WA parishes with the St Vincent de Paul Society in WA after being appointed its new chief executive and commencing on 1 February.

With over 20 years’ experience in the corporate banking and finance sector, Mr Bouffler retains strong links to the Church through regular parish involvement and believes the parishes of WA play a vital role in providing ongoing support to the work of the Society’s volunteers in delivering welfare assistance to the local community.

“The parishes and the conferences are the lifeblood of the Society. I would like to maintain and enhance the symbiotic nature of the parishes along with the Society’s conferences so that we all can focus on the mission of the St Vincent de Paul Society and continue to offer a hand up to those in need,” Mr Bouffler says.

He plans to grow support services to increase service delivery to those in need.

“Through effective communication, policy development and strategic planning, I aim to develop ongoing and beneficial relationships with the people the Society assists, our donors, the government and media, the Archdiocese of Perth, the corporate and community sectors and our dedicated members, volunteers and staff,” Mr Bouffler said.

Mr Bouffler has in the past volunteered in various community organisations including Lifeline, Camp Quality and John XXIII College.

“I have always had the desire to assist people. I have been actively involved in community services for over 30 years which has provided me with the opportunity to combine my professional skills with my passion for helping people in need,” said Mr Bouffler, who also worked with the Commonwealth Bank. He has lived and worked in Sydney, Rabaul and New York.

Archbishop urges UN to intervene

continued from page 1 matter drop, after having raised the matter with Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, a fortnight ago.

“I wish to draw your attention to the abduction of 50 children, boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 13, from a Thai Orphanage in Sang Kan Buri near the Thailand/Myanmar border,” the Archbishop wrote to Madam Pillay.

“The Orphanage is run by a Buddhist Sister, the Venerable Maechee, head of the local Temple. Until recently the Orphanage held 94 children, all Karen, victims of the struggles between the Karen people and the Burmese military.

“People connected with the Orphanage have told me that on the night of 28 December 2009 50 children disappeared overnight. Villagers recounted that a large truck had been seen close to the Orphanage that night. The children have not been seen since.

“A Karen teacher had recently begun teaching Thai to the children. By all accounts he was charming. He disappeared the night of the abduction, giving rise to the suspicion that he was in league with the raiders. The Buddhist Sisters reported the abduction to the Thai authorities. As yet, there has been no result.

“A Presentation Sister from Perth, Sr Cecelia, herself Thai, has been working in the area for some time. She is very familiar with the Orphanage and confirms the account of the abduction.

“Mrs Adelia Bernard, of the One Heart

Association based in Perth, is a regular visitor to the Thai border and regularly fundraises for the Orphanages.

“I have written to the Foreign Minister of Australia, Mr Stephen Smith, asking him to make representations to the Thai Government on behalf of the Australian Government to continue the investigation of this appalling incident.

“It is feared that the children have been abducted into the sexual trafficking of young people sadly common today.

“On behalf of the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth I respectfully but earnestly request the intervention of the United Nations Organisation with a view to finding the perpetrators and rescuing the children.

“I cannot express how distressing and shocking this incident has been for the Orphanage staff and the other children. It is shared by great numbers of people here in Western Australia, where it has had some publicity.”

A worker distributes food at the orphanage from which approximately 50 children aged 11-14 were kidnapped on December 28. Archbishop Barry Hickey has called on the UN to intervene in the hunt for the kidnappers and the children. PHOTO: ONE HEART ASSOCIATION

Schools, movies, Fr John opened doors for many

BY ANTHONY BARICH National Reporter

FATHER John Luemmen was thrust into the spotlight this year when Australian Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush depicted him in the latest Australian film Bran Nue Dae, but local Aborigines have long known about the kindly German Pallottine missionary.

It all started with a lightningquick 15-year-old Aboriginal Australian Rules footballer from the remote town of Mount Magnet called Harold Little.

In 1956, Fr John was sent to Rossmoyne in Perth’s southern suburbs to start a school for boys from their mission house in Tardun, located in the remote bush of the Diocese of Geraldton in north-west Western Australia. He started the school with one student: Harold, a wingman for the Perth Demons in the West Australian Football League who played with legendary Barry Cable, three-time winner of the Sandover Medal, the competition’s award for best and fairest player over the season.

“Boys studying in Tardun often got the basic ‘mission education’, but Harold wanted to study more,” Father John told The Record. “So I helped organise an apprenticeship for him and taught him all the academic subjects. He was a good carpenter.”

With Harold successfully completing his Year 10 certificate and going on to become a cabinet maker, and the success of Joseph Roe and Philip Albert from Broome in WA’s far north the following year, applications started flooding in from everywhere.

By 1961, Fr John was accepting girls into the school and, as numbers swelled, more land was acquired and buildings constructed. Eventually, the Pallottine Mission Centre in Rossmoyne accommodated 80 Aboriginal boys and girls in six separate houses. He eventually housed 100 students a year. Finance for buildings, equipment, furniture, and vehicles

was needed, so Fr John sourced income from the Native Welfare Department, the WA Lotteries’ Commission and the Pallottine Community - mostly from “Misereor”, the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Soon he had expanded the 10-acre lot to 25 acres, including four major buildings. Much of the land has today been bought out by Southern Cross Homes for aged care, but one building still standsthe one he moved into last year for retired Pallottines.

It became a regular Saturday afternoon event for several busloads of students to travel around Perth to watch Harold play for the Demons. They got free entry through a deal with the WAFL.

On Australia Day this year, 26

January, Fr John was presented with an Active Citizenship Award by the Canning City Council for his extensive service to Aboriginal education and welfare in Rossmoyne, the expansion of primary school education in Riverton and Willetton and his work with the aged in the Riverton parish.

Upon being ordained in 1950, he was sent to Tardun in the remote bush of the Geraldton diocese as a missionary priest, caring for boys at a boarding school and farm. His autobiography Led by the Spirit details his experiences there.

Upon arriving at Rossmoyne, he helped students reach Year 12 and obtain apprenticeships and work experience while allowing them to stay at the Pallottine centre.

There, he had a strong Aboriginal collaborator in Harold’s

Is it true

I’ve been selling cars in Victoria Park for over 40 years and last year we sold 16,986 vehicles, which was an all time record!

sister Edith Little, after whom one of the main buildings he built was named. He still speaks highly of her today.

“She was a great help,” he told The Record Fr Luemmen, now aged 90, was depicted by Geoffrey Rush – who won an Oscar for his portrayal of genius pianist David Helfgott in 1996 - in the 2010 musical, big-screen adaptation of the stage musical written by Broome’s Jimmy Chi called Bran Nue Dae, which opened around Australia on 14 January.

Though his name was changed to Fr Benedictus in the movie and play, Fr John was invited to attend

the premiere of the stage production in Perth in the 1990s.

The movie has Rush using a wooden plank to spank the boys with the words “Thou shalt not steal” on it, and depicts his character as authoritarian.

But Harold Little’s wife Cecelia, who was in the first group of girls to be enrolled at the Rossmoyne mission in 1961, told The Record that while Fr John was strict, he was more a mentor to boys and girls alike, and they are still friends to this day.

Harold and Cecelia still live around the corner from the original Rossmoyne mission.

Fr John was prolific in his productivity as parish priest at Our Lady Queen of Apostles parish in Riverton from 1981, starting a second stream at its adjacent primary school and responsible for building Orana Primary School.

Riverton parishioner Bill Smith, in submitting information for Fr John to be nominated for the Australia Day award, said of Fr John: “As parish priest, he actively promoted the participation of the laity in the parish in accordance with the Second Vatican Council and the objectives of the Pallottine founder, St Vincent Pallotti.”

Australian Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, left, in the 2010 Australian musical film Bran Nue Dae as Fr Benedictus, who is based on Fr John Luemann, below, a German Pallottine missionary priest who ran an Aboriginal mission for 25 years and was a long-serving parish priest at Riverton. Star WA footballer Harold Little, shown above armwrestling legendary WA footballer Barry Cable, was Fr Luemmen’s first student. BRAN NU DAE PHOTO: LUNA CINEMAS

From the ashes rises a new way to Christ

Franciscan Friar reveals key to Religious life

BY ANTHONY BARICH National Reporter

THE Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate (FFI) are the strongest they have ever been by giving themselves to Mary for her use without limits, its founder told The Record during a visit to Perth last week.

Between 1965 and 1975, the Franciscan Friars Minor, the main and original Franciscan Order, lost up to 480 friars a year – a process that continues today with many Orders haemorrhaging numbers and vocations drying up.

In the midst of all this, Conventual Franciscan Fr Stefano Maria Manelli submitted the Traccia Mariana (Marian way), the Marian plan for Franciscan life, to the Minister General of the Franciscan Conventuals, who approved it in the summer of 1970.

On 2 August that year, the FFI started and Fr Stefano, Fr Gabriel Maria Pellettieri, who visited Perth last week, and two others were sent by the Minister General to start a mission in the Philippines. With Religious life haemorrhaging not only among the Franciscans but across the board, Fr Gabriel and his confrere wanted to start a new community to live more radically the life of St Francis in the spirit of St Maximilian Kolbe.

St Maximilian - who was famously martyred in Auschwitz, giving his life for another man due to be starved to death – organised the Militia Immaculata (Army of Mary) to work for the conversion of sinners and the enemies of the Catholic Church through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

They utilised the most modern printing and administrative techniques in publishing catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million.

Just as St Maximilian lived a more radical Marian way of life, so too did Fr Gabriel and his brother friars, especially with the Church crumbling around them.

In this way, they re-lived the calling of St Francis, who was famously called by God through a crucifix in an abandoned chapel to “rebuild my Church”.

“In 1970, there were plenty of problems in Religious Orders where values were not being followed any more, including within

the Conventuals,” Fr Gabriel told The Record

“We were forced to follow a new line, as the prayers were not followed any more, there was no more community life and poverty was not being followed, so it was time to go back to St Francis and St Maximilian.”

Fr Gabriel admitted that he and Fr Stefano believed that because they were living their Religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience – plus the extra vow of consecration to Mary – more faithfully, they would be blessed with thousands of vocations.

Today they have 400 – their highest ever, and they continue to grow, especially in the Philippines. Regardless, “it’s never enough”, he said.

Still, “while many others are going down, especially in Europe, we are going up. Even in Italy, where it is very hard to find vocations, we have several novices in training”.

St Maximilian’s concept of rebuilding the Franciscan Order through Our Lady and the Marian vow is lived by the FFI, through which they give their life, death and eternity, their merits and prayers to her.

“Through this vow, we give ourselves to Our Lady without any limits and she uses us

for whatever purpose she wants. That vow is one of unlimited love,” Fr Gabriel said.

Is it hard? “It is. It is very, very radical. We are supposed to be the total property of Mary, in order to become the total property of Jesus. The best way, the shortest way, the easiest way to Jesus is to go through Mary,” Fr Gabriel said.

This vow to Mary is often called the ‘vow of martyrdom’.

When Pope John Paul II erected the approximately 30 Franciscan Friars who lived at Casa Mariana in Frigento, Italy as the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, the friars had a private thanksgiving Mass with the pontiff in Rome.

At that Mass, John Paul II told Fr Stefano that those who want to follow the path of Maximilian will suffer, as the path of St Maximilian was one of suffering.

But this did not scare Fr Gabriel. “Those who want to do their best for Mary will suffer for her, as St Maximilian did. Anyway,

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it’s a vocation. When we start loving Mary it becomes easier and easier to follow. Maximilian was a very young friar but he understood that following Mary was the only way of getting to Jesus, so he was so Marian to the point of giving his life for it. For those who love more, it is easier to understand,” Fr Gabriel said.

“Maximilian said that to reach anything you need to start with the knowledge and a decision to want to know more. To really understand who Mary is and her role in the Church, you can love her more through Scripture.”

Fr Gabriel agrees with the assertion made on 3 February by Cardinal Franc Rode, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, that Religious Orders today are in a “crisis” caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.

“The sign is that there are less vocations; Religious values are not taken seriously. In Religious life, we imitate Jesus and Mary’s life – humility, obedience, charity and prayer. When these go down, Religious life goes down,” Fr Gabriel said.

He admitted, however, that the temptation to adopt modern ways is significant for Religious Orders, but he said that the life of the Religious is “not human, it’s in accordance to the life of Jesus”. “So if we live it in a human way, sooner or later we lose our vocations,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI gave the Franciscans a subtle reminder of this the day after 2,000 friars converged in Assisi on 15-18 April 2009 for the 800th anniversary of their order.

Referring to St Francis’ call by God to rebuild the Church which was in ruin – a call he originally interpreted literally - the Pope told an audience of Franciscan friars at Castel Gandolfo: “There is another ‘ruin’ that is far more serious: that of people and communities.

“Like Francis, always start with yourselves. We are the first house that God wants to restore. If you are always able to renew yourselves in the spirit of the Gospel, you will continue to assist the pastors of the Church to make more and more beautiful the Church's face, that of the bride of Christ. The Pope, now the same as then, expects this of you.”

Fr Gabriel Maria Pellettieri, co-founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, was in Perth last week to visit his local confrere. In an exclusive interview with The Record, he revealed the Franciscans’ falling away from their original charism that led him to form a breakaway Franciscan Order, and the way forward for Religious life.

PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

Focolare invites all to mark anniversary

Members of one of the most interesting of the new ecclesial realities - the Focolare Movement - are inviting one and all to come and celebrate the second anniversary of the death of their founder, Chiara Lubich, on 13 March.

ON the second anniversary of the death of Chiara Lubich (the founder of the Focolare Movement), it is interesting to see what impact this woman from a small northern Italian town has on the world.

Chiara was a woman who did the little things well and who allowed God to do great things

Praise meetings

From Wednesday, 10 March, the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community will be conducting their weekly Praise Meetings at the Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St in Perth from 7.30-9.30pm. For further enquiries, contact Nell on 9475 0155.

Bunbury retreat

A prayerful weekend retreat will be lead by Fr Tony Chiera at God’s Farm, 40km south of Busselton on 12-14 March. For bookings and enquiries, contact Betty or Mary on 9755 6212 and to arrange transport from Perth, contact Yvonne on 9343 1897.

Padre Pio day

Fr Tiziano Bogoni will be leading a Padre Pio Day of Prayer at the Holy Spirit Parish in City Beach on Saturday, 13 March. Beginning at 8.30am, the programme will include Mass, Confession, Adoration, Benediction, Rosary, Divine Mercy and a Padre Pio DVD and will finish at 12pm. Contact Des on 6278 1540 for further details.

Ardross to host faith enrichment

St Benedict Parish in Ardross will be hosting two Faith Enrichment sessions at its Parish Centre on Saturday, 13 March. Murray Graham’s presentations, Resilience in the Family and Reflections on personal prayer in the home, will begin at 2.30pm and be followed by Mass at 6pm. Enquiries to Wim van Alebeek on 0421 636 763.

Moving forward from the pain

Beginning experience is conducting a weekend programme on 19-21 March at the Epiphany Retreat Centre in Rossmoyne. This is designed to assist and support those who have been separated, divorced or widowed in learning how to gently close the door on past relationships and move forward. Enquiries to Helen 9246 5150 or Maureen 9537 1915.

For more Parish events see Panorama: Page 14

with her life. As a young woman, (in the 1940s) she felt a call from God asking her to give Him the whole of her life. She replied with a decisive ‘yes’, without knowing what this would mean, other than the fact that she was marrying God and therefore could expect great things from Him.

When Chiara died in 2008, many men, women and children wrote about the effect Chiara had on their lives. She was a Catholic laywoman who lived in community, but countless people of different ages, backgrounds and beliefs from almost every country in the world felt deeply understood by her and recognised in her their teacher, inspiration and guide.

Only in the centuries to come will we truly understand Chiara Lubich and her gift to humanity. However, we can already recognise her not only as a spiritual leader but also as someone who, through this charism of unity, launched a transformation of the world in economics, politics and philoso-

phy as well as other fields.

The Focolare arrived in Perth in 1972 with a young local family, followed by communities of men and women who came from different parts of the world to help inspire this revolution of living the Gospel. They lived, worked and shared their experiences of putting the Word of God into practice.

This life has produced many fruits. There are also many people in WA who would say that Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity

has transformed their lives too. Susi O’Brien from Samson writes:

“Meeting the Focolare has done so much to change my life completely from the path I was travelling. I was a ‘nominal’ Catholic, who diligently went to Mass on Sundays, Reconciliation twice a year, occasionally said prayers, and ignored God for the rest of the time.

Listening to Chiara explain that we could all do God’s will, in each present moment, and that this was a path to sanctity, opened my eyes and challenged me. It did not matter if I was studying, cleaning the house, working, etc. I have found a relationship with God that I never dreamt possible. He is present in my life in every moment – if I make my number one priority to love – everyone – then He is always near.”

Jessica Kenny from Tuart Hill writes:

“Chiara Lubich began the Focolare Movement during WW2, a very stressful time when she saw

the challenge to keep on loving and keep faith. Life might not be WW2 in 2010 (or for some it might be metaphorically!) but it can be very stressful in a myriad of ways.

Understanding Chiara’s journey and finding the Focolare challenges me to ‘keep on loving’ or to ‘return to loving’ and keep my faith, persevere, in ways I never understood before.

“This has changed my life in every way. It is my focus, has created much personal and family healing, and has taught me more about love than I ever knew or understood before. It is my love of Christ that keeps me loving, and the Chiara ideal that keeps challenging me to love in every instance of my life and not just in the times I feel like it.

“She has been one giant step in my Christian path.”

The Focolare will be celebrating the second anniversary Mass for Chiara Lubich on Saturday, 13 March at 3pm at the Little Sisters of the Poor, Glendalough. Everyone is welcome.

Focolare founder, Chiara Lubich PHOTO: CNS

Notre Dame confronts Malawi concerns

BY ANTHONY BARICH National reporter

UNIVERSITY of Notre Dame Australia students confronted environmental, health and economic concerns for people in a Malawi village during a 23 November-6 December immersion trip, said participant Lana Robinson.

Miss Robinson, an Arts and Commerce student at UNDA’s Fremantle campus, undertook the immersion trip with five other students, UNDA Politics and International Relations lecturer Dr Martin Drum and Caritas’ Global Education Advisor Janine Murphy.

Addressing the 25 February Project Compassion launch at Parliament House, Miss Robinson said that by introducing clay pots as an alternative for cooking over smoky wood fires, the students demonstrated how “one simple initiative can yield significant impacts upon numerous facets of daily life”. By reducing dependency on firewood for cooking, the introduction of the clay pots helped address concerns of deforestation and degradation while reducing

the intake of harmful fumes, which in turn would help improve the health of many women and children.

The villagers were also taught how to construct these stoves to sell them which would generate a significant source of income, Miss Robinson said.

“Such development is a microcosm of Caritas’ aim of providing sustainable, integrated and holistic development initiatives and, as such, concurs with the eight millennium development goals,” she told the launch.

“Most significantly, the approach which Caritas adopts adheres to principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and human dignity. In simple terms, this means that the people Caritas helps run the programmes themselves and take responsibility for their success.

“As a result, the work of Caritas engenders a sense of empowerment and integrity which encourages participation, self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and which ultimately satisfies their philosophy of ‘helping people help themselves’.”

She said local villagers

praised the work of the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) with graffiti on a sanitary block marked with the words: “We love CADECOM” – an indication of the invaluable difference its partnership with Caritas yielded.

CADECOM carried out Caritas’ development projects by helping them address specific needs identified by the communities.

Miss Robinson also noted that, although significant progress has been made on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which are to be met by 2015, there are still a billion people living on less than one US dollar a day and over 820 million are going to bed hungry each night.

“Therefore, I encourage the international community to act now in order to ensure that the goals are met by 2015.

“Both individually and collectively, we need to maintain a commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals which are a global blueprint for breaking the chains of poverty,” she said.

Youth challenged to be ambassadors for change

CARITAS Australia is setting a new challenge to the youth of Western Australia with its Be More Ambassador programme launched this month.

Are you passionate about taking action for social justice?

Do you want to make a difference and inspire others to do the same?

‘Be More’, an interactive online campaign, calls participants to set, track and realise five challenges that contribute to change and social justice in their communities. Culminating in the Be More Weekend in August each year, the campaign empowers young people to be the leaders of today, not tomorrow.

The Be More Campaign has been running nationally for 12 months but this year participants in Western Australia will be the first to take the campaign to new heights.

Caritas Australia is looking for enthusiastic 18-30 year olds to volunteer for 12 months in their diocese

In addition to creating a personalised Be More profile for themselves, young people between 18 and 30 will now have the opportunity to take a leading role in shaping the future of social justice action in Australia through the Be More Ambassador programme.

Campaign Coordinator Margareta Brosnan said, “Be More Ambassadors will participate in training, promotion and support for the campaign, inspiring their families and friends to challenge themselves in 2010.

“Oscar Romero famously said that we should ‘aspire not to have more, but to be more’. Building the campaign on this premise really fosters a culture of meaningful change.

“We hope the programme not only empowers ambassadors to engage with Caritas in social jus-

tice advocacy throughout the year, but also equips them with skills to face the ongoing challenges of global poverty, climate change and inequality worldwide.”

For more information, please contact Margareta Brosnan 1800 236 673 or visit www.bemore.org. au/ambassador.

The women of Kadikira parish welcoming Notre Dame’s students and staff with song and dance to their bakery school. For a week the women were taught how to bake items such dinner rolls, donuts and bread. They are also taught business skills so they can open their own bakeries within their communities in order to generate income.

Bee keeping is a programme initiated by CADECOM. Each hive can produce up to 20 litres up to four times a year. The committee are taught business skills so they can produce and then sell the honey. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF UNDA

Children of the Kadikira parish playing soccer.

Caritas goes where rest of world won’t, national chief says

BY ANTHONY BARICH National Reporter

CARITAS goes where the rest of the world won’t, its Australian chief executive Jack de Groot told the 25 February Project Compassion launch at Parliament House in Perth. Caritas’ work is often “awkward” in helping during “uncomfortable” crises, Mr de Groot said, including in Zimbabwe where it has responded to thousands through its food and water programmes “while the State falls apart and the world shrugs its shoulders in despair”.

“The same can be pointed to in Afghanistan where we support programmes for children who live in a context of fear,” he said.

“Our work is not easy, it is awkward; complex at times when you hear of places like Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. However, when you do give, you change a life and that is multiplied by the hundreds of thousands each year.”

The horror of the Haiti earthquake beamed into Perth television screens over the past month is but a visible version of the hidden suffering that millions more are subjected to around the world, he added.

He said Caritas has received $3 million for its work saving lives and reaching nearly 600,000 in six weeks through medical trauma assistance, the distribution of hundreds of thousands of meals and the first steps in provision of rudimentary shelter, water and sanitation systems in the centres where displaced Haitians have moved since the 12 January earthquake.

The suffering that has been streamed into Western Australian homes this past month is replicated on a daily but hidden basis throughout the world, he said.

“The women and girl child victims of the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo); the chronic food insecurity in parts of Timor or the victims of cyclones in the Pacific such as in Vava’u 10 nights ago, unfortunately go unnoticed by the media most of the time,” he said.

Though secular media largely ignores these tragedies, they are not ignored by Australian Catholics through their support of Project Compassion, he said.

The projected target of $10 million for Project Compassion 2010 covers but half of Caritas’ $20 million programme commitments it has to tens of thousands of families in poverty.

“It’s not just the physical feeding or skilling that you do,” he said, “but your support also contributes to the transformation of lives by the building of peace.”

Over recent years, Caritas’ programmes in Timor, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Congo have all contributed to the creation and nurturing of environments where peace is made possible, he said.

“The Caritas that you support is one that also stands up and advocates for change,” he added.

“This includes communities in Cambodia and East Timor which for the first time in over a generation now have a full year without any hungry season for themselves and their children due to the sustainable agriculture programmes.”

These programmes are an effective response, he said, to the crippling problem of hunger which now sees a billion people around the globe facing serious malnutrition and ongoing hunger and illness.

Caritas goes into overdrive to deliver more earthquake aid

MEXICO CITY (CNS) - The Mexican government has tapped Caritas Haiti to deliver at least 20 percent of the more than 4,000 tons of relief supplies it is transporting to earthquake-shaken Haiti.

A 26 February statement from Cancun-based Caritas Quintana Roo said Caritas Haiti and its local chapters would deliver more Mexican aid in Haiti than any organisation other than the Haitian government.

“This is an important gesture of confidence and backing from the Mexican government, the (Mexican) Foreign Relations Secretariat and Mexico’s navy for the work of the (Mexican Bishops’ social ministry) alliance,” the statement said.

That alliance includes Caritas Mexico, the Association of Mexican Food Banks, Caritas Haiti and Caritas distribution networks. The amount of aid delivered to Caritas Haiti by the Mexican government is expected to increase, said Alejandro de Hoyos, director general of Caritas Quintana Roo.

“As we advance in the distribution (of aid), they continue putting more of the aid in our hands,” de Hoyos told CNS by telephone from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, where he is assisting with the aid distribution. “The Mexican government is trying to have its contributions moved (in Haiti) through groups that are transparent, efficient and can work quickly upon the arrival of the assistance,” he said.

The international community has poured tons of aid and billions of dollars into Haiti since a magnitude 7 earthquake on 12 January claimed more than 200,000 lives and flattened much of Port-au-Prince. The contributions from Mexico largely include food, water and medicine. The items were collected at parishes throughout the country and at collection depots not affiliated with the Catholic Church.

Church tackles domestic violence in East Timor

“In my opinion, our work of charity and solidarity must also include building of leadership. It also calls for investment in women … so that they can take advantage of the available opportunities and stop others from taking advantage of them.” -Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize 2004

CARITAS Australia is working with 10 East Timorese organisations to reduce gender-based violence across the country. The programme works with both men and women to promote women’s dignity, sharing information to reduce violence, providing psychosocial support and safe houses and increasing access to social justice and rehabilitation for those who have experienced such incidents.

Domingas, 29, lives in Oecusse, an isolated enclave on the west coast of East Timor. After surviving a serious assault in 2005, she was referred to Pradet, one of Caritas Australia’s local partners in the Family and Community Violence Prevention Programme.

In East Timor, like many countries, women are often the target of domestic violence and abuse. Lack of accommodation and economic independence, fear of speaking out and strong patriarchal traditions are some of the complex reasons behind this.

Caritas Australia supported PRADET (Psychological Recuperation and Development in East Timor) to establish a ‘safe place’ at Dili Hospital where women can come for support and

share their experiences. “After the assault I could not talk to anyone and was very afraid”, Domingas recalls. “I was taken to spend two weeks at the safe place for medical treatment and counselling. There, I received clothes, soap, toothpaste and money for food and other essential items.” The local staff from PRADET and Caritas Australia’s partner Forum for the Support of Women in Oecusse (FPWO) also supported Domingas to access the local justice system. When she returned to Oecusse, Domingas faced stigma and had no means of supporting herself and her family. “It was hard when I first came back to Oecusse. People didn’t accept me because of cultural taboos”, Domingas recalls. But with the help of Caritas Australia’s partners in Oecusse, slowly the community began to accept and speak to her again.

Caritas also provided her with a small grant of $350 to expand the family’s small kiosk run from their

home. With her own small business, Domingas now keeps busy and lives a normal life - she feels she has her dignity. “My condition is now much better, I’m 99% recovered,” Domingas said. “People and NGOs have given attention to my problems and my family has received me again. I can earn $8 a day and can save some money for my future.

“The support has helped me to share my story - when I do, other women have recognised they are also survivors and have come for help. I help promote the work of the safe house in Oecusse. I am not afraid to talk to men now. I talk to many people, including local leaders, about my condition and how my life has changed for the better,” Domingas explains. As well as working intensively with individuals who need support to recover, Caritas Australia is working with whole communities to reduce violence through village training sessions and discussion groups.

Domingas Tefa she show’s goods for the buyer in small kios, Pantai Makasar.

Jack de Groot

editorial

Olympic gold gives Lenten lesson

Occasionally, The Record reprints editorials from other Catholic media around the world. Here is an editorial titled Olympic gold gives Lenten lesson, which appeared in the 22 February issue of The BC Catholic, a newspaper of the Archdiocese of Vancouver. It was written by Paul Schratz, editor.

As Ash Wednesdays go, it was a pretty upbeat one in Vancouver and Whistler. Medals were being awarded, revellers were celebrating, families waving flags walked in the bright sunshine, and everywhere the smell of grilling food wafted down the street, intensifying already ravenous Ash Wednesday appetites. It all made for a unique observance of one of the most solemn days of the Christian calendar. As one priest quipped, the effects and impact of the Olympics upon us could be an additional offering this Ash Wednesday.

By the time the Olympics and Paralympics end, Lent will be all but over. If we wait until then to start observing and benefiting from this essential season, we will have missed an opportunity that is truly golden - pardon the Olympic pun. So it makes sense to try to draw some useful comparison and perhaps instruction from this event that surrounds and even consumes us for much of this rich season.

THE RECORD

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Leederville WA 6902 cathrec@iinet.net.au

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There’s no better place to look than Pope Benedict XVI’s Ash Wednesday homily. His homily immediately reveals some aspects of Lent that invite comparison with the Olympics. For instance, the very words of the priest as he imposes ashes are either “Repent and believe the Gospel” or “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The first formula, said the Pope, is basically a call to conversion. Conversion is more than just a “correcting” of the way we live, said thePope. It draws us fully into a new way of living.

The call to conversion not only “exposes and denounces the easy superficiality that often characterises our life,” he said. It means not just adjusting our life, but turning it around so we’re swimming against the current of superficiality around us.

This brings us to Olympic comparison No 1. The athletes competing in the Olympics show what conversion is all about. When they embarked on their athletic journey years ago, they didn’t commit to a simple 30 minute a day exercise, or a once a week workout; they immersed themselves in their Olympic call. An athlete who simply cut down on junk food and jogged a couple of times a week wouldn’t earn a tin medal, let alone gold. Similarly in conversion, “we aim for the high standard of Christian life,” said the Pope. We go for the gold.

It’s a journey we don’t undertake alone. Just as athletes are assisted by trainers and coaches, we allow ourselves “to be enlightened by Christ’s light and supported by his strength that moves our feet,” said Pope Benedict. The same Christ who knew what it was to be tempted, and who knew what it was to carry a heavy cross and to fall repeatedly, is at our side. He is there “every day, even when there are difficulties and fatigue, tiredness and falls, even when we are tempted to abandon the path of following Christ and close in on ourselves, in our selfishness, without realising that we need to open ourselves to the love of God in Christ, to live the same logic of justice and love.”

The second Ash Wednesday formula, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” also invites a relevant Olympic comparison. In the same way that athletes must keep the finish line in sight, we are reminded that death is our finish line. The medal ceremony might follow but we have to reach the end first.

Ashes are a reminder of the finish line but also of the death that awaits us all. The Pope said, “Faced with the innate fear of the end, and even more so in the context of a culture that in many ways tends to censor the human reality and the experience of dying ... we remember death inviting us to realism and wisdom.”

In a sense, the Olympic journey resembles our Lenten journey: total conversion toward the aim of successfully reaching the finish line.

The Winter Games were hard to ignore, with their intense competition and carnival-like celebration. At the very least, they can remind us of the truly important things in life.

Go figure...

What makes a marriage really good? I’m certainly no expert. I’ve screwed up many times over the years. But if you learn much more from your mistakes than from your successes, I should, by now, have a wealth of knowledge. So, here are a few thoughts.

Recognise that you are not going to change your partner’s basic traits. After all, that’s what attracted you in the first place. If you view your spouse as a rehab project, you will fail and have nothing but conflict. My wife was always somewhat vexed by my nature of being very private, non-emotional and withdrawn into my personal shell. But she accepted it. Now I write about deep personal issues, feelings and spiritual matters and publish them in a newspaper. Go figure.

Most important is faith. If Christ is at the centre of the family, it is very hard to get too far off course.

Excerpts from an editorial titled Seasons of marriage which appeared in the 14 February issue of the Catholic Times, diocesan newspaper of Columbus, Ohio, written by David Garick, editor.

The moment of death

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Rudd launched “Organ Donation Awareness Week”.

In his speech, he complained that only 56 percent of Australian families consent when approached for permission to remove a dying relative’s organs for transplant purposes. The government is spending $150 million trying to boost that percentage - offering hospitals up to $11,400 a time for harvesting transplant organs from dying patients.

Why do families refuse having their dying relatives’ organs harvested?

Do they doubt whether the doctors will wait until their loved one is really dead before starting to take things out?

Do they wonder whether “brain-death” is simply a convenient myth?

Do they wonder whether a person’s soul has necessarily left the body just because one organ, the brain, doesn’t look like working again?

Death is only certain when the body starts to decompose – that’s why priests are permitted to give the Last Rites up to an hour after patients are certified medically dead.

Organs good enough to be worth transplanting must come from patients only pretend-deadnot dead-dead.

Dr Arnold Jago Mildura

Should we be surprised?

Facebook sites set up to honour the memory of two children have been defaced by pornography.

It’s not at all surprising when one reads about sites such as “Wicked Teen Sluts” from which pornography barons glean vast sums of money. Sadly, a society that refuses to take seriously the devastating effects of legalised pornography is destined to more of the same.

With regard to the ongoing evolution debate in the Letters page of The Record, as far as I am concerned, a Catholic’s beliefs with regard to evolution must start with the Nicene Creed which we say at Mass every Sunday. “I believe in one God ... maker of ... all that is, seen and unseen”.

This includes the entire Universe and everything in it, including the Earth and its mountains, mice and men, as well as Angels and whatever other unseen entities exist.

As far as I am concerned, Intelligent Design simply means that all that is, including the human eye and brain, are made by God by one means or another. They cannot have evolved or come into being some other way, which would be by chance alone. God is ultimately behind all that is. This cannot be proved to be wrong. However, apparently others have

varying understandings of what “Intelligent Design” means. As I said, I understand it to simply mean that God’s infinite intelligence is behind all that exists. I recommend the book Answering the new atheism: dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God by Drs Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker. In its 150 or so pages, it sets out a clear and understandable case against those who push Godless evolution. I am not against evolution and Popes have stated that it has merit as a theory but “all that is” (as far as material things are concerned) began at the time of the Big Bang or moment of Creation of matter. What happened at that moment contained all that was/is necessary for the bringing into existence of all that now is. It goes without saying that the human soul cannot have evolved: it is created and infused by God into the human being within the mother.

M J Gonzalez Willetton

Our children, not yours

Now here’s a solution to the excessive pornography in society and the increasing sexualisation of the young: teach them all about sex much younger!!! Have eight year olds comparing the “reproductive processes and life cycles of a variety of living things including humans” as in the new-beaut proposed Science curriculum for Year 3. Now, that’s age-appropriate - not!

Butterflies, bees and flowers, yes! Humans? Sorry, but no! Human sexuality is private and intimate and education on it belongs primarily in the home where it can be introduced at an appropriate age and in the appropriate context (ie marriage). Schools can supplement this with more scientific information but at a much later age than currently being proposed. Catholic schools have an opportunity to stand against this trend, and I pray that they do.

Mrs C V Phillips Southern River

What is man?

Look into the mirror and you see your own reflection: you do not see God. “We are already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed: all we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as he really is” (1 John 3:2). We believe this through faith. It is our God-given belief that we are like Him. It is not science.

Look into the mirror. Behind you, looking over your shoulder are your ancestors. Mum and Dad you recognise, and Nanna, but probably not that earlier one who arrived on the Lady Juliana in May 1790; less likely that one who lived in the Thames valley at the same time as Christ. Go back a million years or so, they still look quite like us but they are not human. They are a related but different species: Homo erectus, not Homo sapiens “What is man that you should spare a thought for him, the son of man that you should care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, made him lord over the work of your hands, set all things under feet …” (Psalm 8:4).

God created us in His image. He didn’t do the same with animals. It is possible to guess at an approximate time when this took place. What is man? Humans are

those images of God, able to know and to love and serve Him. To do so requires the capacity to communicate in spoken (and written) language. The capacity to speak – to talk – arose somewhere in the last 150,000 years or so. Our ancestors of one million years ago could certainly not speak. God did intervene somewhere in this evolution, this work of His hands. At that point where the capacity to speak had evolved, He breathed His Holy Spirit into our ancestors and they then became like Him, able to know Him. We believe this through faith. It is not science.

There is an overwhelming body of detailed, precise evidence of our physical, bodily, evolutionary relationship to the other living things of this world. We know this through the scientific research which is an aspect of our ability to function as “lord over the work of your hands”. The recurring debate and argument concerning creation or evolution is pointless. Our understanding of who and what we are requires both ideas. To substitute creation of life on earth for evolution of life on earth is just nonsense. To ignore or reject our divine nature is lack or absence of faith in God. The evolution of life on earth and the creation of man in the image of God are not alternatives. They are two different ways of understanding our existence and place in God’s universe.

Michael Jaques Willetton

The Mass we pray

Let me publicly congratulate The Record on its recent coverage of the liturgy conference in Perth which I saw at a friend’s house here in Tasmania.

Firstly, I hardly see Catholic newspapers these days as they are usually not that interesting and I gave up subscribing to diocesan publications years ago because there’s nothing in them except lots of photos of people being presented with awards and things, like in a bank or footy club newsletter.

These days, I subscribe to the print and electronic editions of several Catholic newspapers from the UK and the US which are far more interesting than what exists here in Australia where the main point seems to be to be bland.

I was visiting some friends who receive The Record here in our State and saw your paper on the kitchen table. I picked it up and started reading the article about Archbishop Mark Coleridge and what he said about the new Mass - or at least the new prayers of the Mass would be more accurateand was amazed. Is it possible to get his talk in written form?

It was heartening to think that there may be some sort of end to the banalisation of the liturgy that seems to have been such an Australian speciality in recent decades. And it was heartening to see an Australian Bishop speaking with courage. Our Bishops are nice enough fellows, with a few outstanding individuals among them, but taken as a whole I’ve never seen such an unremarkable group in my life.

But then, in all charity, I suppose I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors in meetings.

Being of an old enough age to remember when Masses were once occasions of quiet, prayer and contemplation and having struggled through the last 30 years or so with our own children and the current inanities, you have no idea how heartened I was to read of the new directions.

T Wallace Hobart

VISTA 1

The Diaconate: growth and diversity III

In the whole of Africa, the number of deacons is rather small: 385. It is alleged that the expansion of lay ministries in the African Church has somewhat curbed the development of the diaconate.

Perhaps so, but a good exception is South Africa, where they number about 225. Maybe this is the reason why the meeting sponsored by the International Centre for Deacons (ICD) was held in Johannesburg and Durban in April of 2008. Across the African continent, there exist two models of diaconal service: the first, but not the most popular, is the deacon assisting a priest in a parish; the second is the deacon being given direct responsibility over several parishes with no priest, particularly within the sprawling and fast developing megalopolis in many African countries.

Soweto is one such area: that’s where Bishop Desmond Tutu lives and that’s

Emerging Ministry

The permanent diaconate: Its genesis, growth, issues.

By Anthony Paganoni CS

where the house of Nelson Mandela is located, now turned into a museum.

According to Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier ofm, Archbishop of Johannesburg, the African Church expresses in the ministry of deacons a diaconate of weakness: in its service to the poor, the elderly, women and children, the handicapped and the victims of violence and abuse, and the many whose rights are not respected simply because they are not known.

If, in South Africa, the ministry of deacons is increasingly taking on its own character, what can be said of the only deacon, Jean-Pierre Hiron, in the little Church of Algeria? The minority status of the Church does not prevent it from witnessing, silently through its martyrs, to the light of the Gospel of Christ. Even this brief review of the conditions of the diaconate worldwide has brought to light not only the uneven numerical distribution of deacons across the Catholic world, but above all the various interpretations about the nature of service or diakonia

In the first instance, it seems to me that in countries where the diaconate has been undergoing a recent development, such as, for example, in the United States of America or even in Australia, a monitoring body has been established at the national level. And that is a welcome move. It is to be hoped that the practical process of inclusion in the life of any Church, though significantly varied as local needs are, will not sidestep the most important question, and that is: who is the deacon?

This issue of identity needs to be thoroughly examined in its historical, theological, pastoral and sociological foundations. As priests, deacons are ordained to carry out their ministry in the universal Church. No matter how diverse the mission of deacons may be, the inner fibre and personality of the diaconate should reflect a common understanding.

During a clergy conference in the diocese of Lismore in 2007, Deacon Paul Simmons, speaking on the restoration of the diaconate, quoted Bishop Anthony Fisher op who, in 2003, at the National Conference of Deacons in Australia, remarked: The challenge facing us is to avoid reducing it (diaconate) to function(s), but rather theologising and spiritualising this vocation more richly than has occurred to date.

BY BISHOP JULIAN PORTEOUS

It was reported that Sunshine Coast priest Fr Stan Griffiths expressed support for the Queensland Government's surrogacy bill passed on 11 February this year. He is reported in the local paper as saying:

"The most important thing is that a child is loved and treasured and I can see no reason that this would not be the case if both parents were the same sex”. He adds, "Our families are different now. They're not just straight mums and dads”.

Is Fr Stan right? Should the Church accept the inevitable and allow same sex families? The Catholic Church has consistently opposed same sex couples adopting children. The Church is opposed to same sex marriage.

As Catholics, we turn to the Scriptures as a foundational source for our faith. The account of Creation in the Book of Genesis states that God created human beings “male and female”. Immediately after this statement, marriage is mentioned. Marriage is a union of a man and woman: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). In other words, God created human beings in such a way that they were to be united in marriage. We are designed – as man and woman – for marriage.

Marriage is ordained for the procreation of children. Again, in the account of Creation, God commissions the man and woman in these words, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth” (Gen 2:28). Human beings are designed for marriage, and the marriage union is ordained for the generation of children. The biological make-up – physically and emotionally - of man and woman is clearly oriented to this task.

Marriage is the first and foundational institution of human society. It is God’s plan for human life – for the good of the spouses and the necessary environment for nurturing of children. This truth has been self evident in Christian history and has been universally understood in human society. It is only now that this understanding is being challenged and tested in law.

The overwhelming evidence of human experience is that marriage is the most important institution for sustaining the health, education and welfare of all persons in a society. Where married life is healthy, society is healthy. Marriage and family life has been weakened in recent decades. Rising divorce rates, pregnancies out of marriage, co-habitation before marriage have had an effect on the strength and stability of marriage and family life.

There has been a tendency to accept these trends as somehow inevitable. The challenge for Catholics is to respond with a determined and clear voice about what is in the best interests of adults, children and families. Society needs to be able to witness and come to appreciate the profound beauty, mystery and holiness of faithful marital love. Indeed, there is a need to challenge civil policies that are contributing to the weakening of the institution of marriage, including the idea of unilateral divorce.

There is a need to explain, particularly to young people, a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make. The current attempt to redefine marriage in order to recognise same-sex unions is a further erosion of marriage culture. If accepted, it will mean a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as it has been traditionally embodied in civil and religious law. Marriage is much more than feelings and a seeking of personal fulfilment. It is

about procreation and the creation of a stable and loving environment intended for the generation, promotion and protection of life.

In particular, the marriage of a man and a woman means that children will receive the contribution from both masculinity and femininity in their formation. Studies clearly show that both boys and girls need and benefit from the significant contributions of both sexes in the development of their identity and character. Even single parents who struggle courageously to raise their children, often in very difficult circumstances, wish they had the complementary contributions of a loving spouse. Society, in order to maximise the potential for healthy human growth, needs to positively promote a stable marriage relationship of a man and a woman as the means by which children will be able to mature into healthy human beings.

The Church respects the human dignity of those persons who are disposed towards homosexual conduct and relationships. We have compassion for their struggles and deep interpersonal needs. We deeply admire those men and women who seek to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they regard as inappropriate. While professing what we know to be right and true, we refrain from any condemnation of those who yield to homosexual temptation. We reject sin, but not the sinner.

The Church is aware that many who desire to enter into same-sex relationships may consider their unions to be truly marital. But their personal conviction cannot eliminate the truth about the nature of marriage and family. Marriage is essentially linked to the sexual complementarity of man and woman. This complementarity is not only physical but is emotional and spiritual. Human beings are bodily beings and the body needs to be one with the consciousness. The commit-

ment that a couple make to one another is sealed, completed and actualised by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh in the act of expressing love and openness to procreation. This latter dimension is integral to the meaning of sexual intercourse.

It is not true to say that the traditional definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality or civil rights. Marriage – as a union of a man and a woman – has an accepted understanding not only within the Christian tradition but generally across cultures. It is not something open to redefinition. There is no civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage. Such perceptions of rights reflect a rejection of the truth about human persons and how we are called to live. Marriage is an objective reality - a covenantal union of husband and wife.

It is the job of the law to support marriage and the natural family for the good of society. The social institution of marriage should not be made subject to the vagaries of lobby groups since marriage law is based on a timeless understanding of the human person. A person cannot claim that they have a right to change the law because of their own experiences. Law has had the role of being a pedagogical tool – to express and protect marriage and family from alternative notions that would threaten the common good.

These current challenges to the understanding of marriage and family should be a stimulus to all of us in the Church to devote ourselves more to the further encouragement of a marriage culture in our society. All Catholics should seek to promote the good of marriage and work to promote the truth of the dignity and beauty of marriage and family life.

Bishop Julian Porteous is an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney

Marriage is a unique insitution and not really just the equivalent of any other relationship, writes Bishop Julian Porteous of Sydney after reported comments from Sunshine Coast priest Fr Stan Griffiths that he believed there would be little or no difference, on balance, between the love given to children by same-sex couples compared to within a traditional marriage.

PHOTO: CNS

Confession: bestowing God’s mercy through the centuries

During the Protestant reformation of the 16th century, John Calvin, amongst others, accused the Catholic Church of creating the concept of priestly penance during the 1215 Fourth Lateran Council. Was Calvin justified in his claims? Mark Reidy looks at the history of the Church in relation to her understanding of the role of priests and the confession of sins.

The history of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

The Scriptural foundation of this Sacrament stems from Jesus’ words, “the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matt 9:6).

Jesus then granted this divine power to His Apostles to exercise in His name when He proclaimed to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19).

Also on the day of His Resurrection, He appeared and announced to them, “‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you’. After saying this He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sin they are retained’” (Jn 20: 21-23). Through Apostolic succession, today’s priests, who, through their ordained ministry, make visible “the presence of Christ as head of the Church” (Catholic Catechism1549) have been granted this same power. The Church teaches that it is only God who can forgive sins and that priests are acting as His representatives.

Evidence from the earliest Church documents indicate that hearing the Confession of sins by the faithful to those in leadership existed from her very foundation: In his Epistle to the Corinthians, Pope Clement I, who died in the year 99, exhorts followers to repentance by imploring them to “submit themselves to the presbyters and receive correction so as to repent”.

In the early 2nd century, written in a prayer used by St Hippolytus in the consecration of a Bishop, are the words, “Grant him, O Lord … the power to forgive sins”.

Writing against Marcionistic traditions Dionysius of Corinth who died in 170, taught not only that Christ had left to His Church the power of pardon, but that, “no sin is so great as to be excluded from the exercise of that power”.

Tertullian, a 3rd century apologist known as ‘The Father of Latin Christianity,” who is known to have coined the term ‘The Trinity’, confirmed the Church’s understanding of Her role at this time by stating that he believed that the Church could not forgive all sins as it proclaimed. He said

that there are lighter sins that can be forgiven by the Bishop, but that there are more grievous sins that only God can forgive.

In 251, St Hieriomartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, rebuked those who had fallen away in time of persecution but also exhorted them to penance: “Let each confess his sin while still in this world, while his Confession can be received, while satisfaction and the forgiveness granted by the priests is acceptable to God.”

St John Chrysostom, a Doctor of the Church who died in 407, wrote, “be not ashamed to approach (the priest) because you have sinned, nay rather, for this very reason, approach.”

St Athanasius (d 373), “As the man whom the priest baptises is enlightened by the grace of the Holy Ghost, so does he who in penance confesses his sins, receive through the priest forgiveness in virtue of the grace of Christ.”

St Ambrose (d 397) rebukes the heretical Novatianists who, “professed to show reverence for the Lord by reserving to Him alone the power of forgiving sins. Greater wrong could not be done than what they do in seeking to rescind His commands and fling back the office He bestowed …” He also wrote: “Christ granted this (power) to the Apostles and from the Apostles it has been transmitted to the office of priests” and “this right of (of loosing and binding) has been conferred on priests only” Against the same heretics, St Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona (d 390), wrote to a Church leader: “This (forgiving sins), you say, only God can do. Quite true: but what He does through His priests is the doing of His own power”.

In the 4th century Apostolic Constitution

- a liturgical/instructional book for the Church - it is written: “Grant him O Lord Almighty, through thy Christ, the participation of Thy Holy spirit, in order that he may have the power to remit sins according to thy precept and Thy command, and to loosen every bond, whatsoever it be, according to the power which Thou hast granted to the Apostles”.

St John Chrysostom also declared that the power to forgive sins that had been “given to neither angel nor archangel, but to priests, penetrates the soul and reaches up to heaven.”

Doctor of the Church, St Augustine in a warning to the faithful in the early 5th century wrote: “Let us not listen to those who deny that the Church of God has power to forgive all sins.” Also answering those who argued that repentance was an affair of the soul and did not require an intermediary, St Augustine stated, “Was it then said to no purpose, ‘What you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven’? Was it for nothing that the keys were given to the Church?”

Pope Leo the Great (Pope 440461), when drawing attention to the faithful that the practice of reading their sins out in public was an abuse of the Apostolic Rule, wrote: “It suffices that the guilt of the conscience be manifested to priests alone in secret Confession”.

In 604, Pope Gregory I wrote: “… the affliction of Penance is efficacious in blotting out sins when it is enjoined by the sentence of the priest when the burden of it is decided by him in proportion to the offence after weighing the deeds of those who confess”.

Egbert, Archbishop of York (d 766), said: “Let the sinner confess his evil deeds to God, that the priest may know what penance to impose.”

St Anastasius Sinaita (7th Century theologian) wrote, “Confess your sins to Christ through the priest”.

Such historical documentation indicates that the Church had always recognised that Christ had granted Her the power, through Her ordained ministers, to forgive sins, but it appears that the problem which led to Calvin’s accusations, stemmed from a lack of official, unified documentation prior to the 12th century rather than a fabrication by the Fourth Lateran Council.

Perhaps Calvin and other reformists did not have access to the writings of 7th and 8th century Irish monks such as St Columbanus (d 615) and Englishmen, Bede (d 735), Egbert and Theodore of Canterbury (d 690) that had described and examined elements of Penance, or to the decrees pertaining to Confession that were enacted at Chalons (650, 813), Chaleuth (785), Tours (813), Paris (820), Worms (868) and Reims (1113). In hindsight, we can recognise that the Church had been attempting to regulate the practice in the latter half of the first millennium, but it seems that it was only during the 12th century that more concrete and official formulas for both priest and penitent began to appear.

The 1215 Fourth Lateran Council specified that all faithful who had reached the age of discretion were to confess their sins to their own parish priest at least once every year, that they were not able to confess to another priest unless permission was granted by their own priest and that the secrecy of

all Confession be abided to by priests or they would be deposed of their office. A formula to be used during Confession had also been developed. Twelfth Century theologian Adam Scotus wrote: “The Sacrament of Penance is the absolution imparted with certain word”. He also mentioned that the acts of the penitent were required for the worthy reception of the Sacrament.

In 1280, the Synod of Poitiers, responding to the practice of deacons hearing confessions, announced: “We forbid deacons to hear confessions or to give absolution in the tribunal of Penance: for it is certain and beyond doubt that they cannot absolve, since they have not the keys which are conferred only in the priestly order”.

The Councils of Florence (1439) and Trent (1551) refer to aspects of Penance as, “contrition, confession and satisfaction” and states that the effect of this Sacrament is the deliverance from sin. These Councils also clarified subjects such as the time limits between sin and Confession, the choice of confessor, the obligation of confessing before receiving other sacraments, especially the Eucharist, the integrity of Confession, the obligation of secrecy on the part of the confessor, ie the seal of Confession, and developed them into a more precise format.

The Council of Trent officially declared that Confession required the performance of satisfaction. It stated that while Baptism frees the soul from all sin, as well as indebtedness to Divine justice, that even after the reception of absolution in penance “there remains some temporal debt that requires works of satisfaction”.

The Council of Trent also confirmed that only priests and Bishops have authority to grant absolution, supporting Pope Leo X’s condemnation of Martin Luther’s proposition, that “any Christian, even a woman or child” could, in the absence of a priest, absolve sins.

By the 16th century, the major framework for the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation had been constructed on the foundation that had been laid by Christ and established by the early Church.

Although there had been arguments regarding specific aspects of the Church’s role in the forgiving of sins over the first 1,500 years, the lack of opposition or schism during this time indicates that there was an understanding that such a role had always been an accepted Catholic doctrine.

Trent confirmed as much when it specifically responded to the claims of Calvin - “The Church”, it announced, “Did not, through the Lateran Council, prescribe that the faithful of Christ confess - a thing which it knew to be by Divine right necessary and established”.

Commonly asked questions

What is sin?

The Catholic Catechism (1850) describes sin as “an offence against God”, as well as a failure in genuine love for Him and for neighbour, in essence turning our hearts away from His love for us. It is a word, deed or desire that puts oneself before God and opposes the salvation that He desires for us. By living in such a state we damage and even break our communion with God.

The Church evaluates sin according to its gravity, ie mortal or venial. For a sin to be considered mortal three conditions must together be met; it is of grave matter, and is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.

Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments and corresponds to Jesus’ words in Mark 10:19, including: Do not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, defraud and honour your father and mother.

The gravity of sins is more or less great, eg murder is graver than theft. However, while mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a serious violation of God’s law, venial sin allow this charity to continue, although it does offend and wound it.

While venial sins impede the soul’s progress, they do not set one in opposition to the will and friendship of God.

What are the consequences of sin?

The Church teaches that mortal sin deprives us of communion with God and consequently makes us incapable of eternal life with Him and that venial sin entails a wounding of our relationship with Him.

What is the Sacrament called?

The Sacrament can be referred to as the Sacrament of “Conversion”, “Penance”, “Confession”, “Forgiveness” and “Reconciliation” because it incorporates all these aspects, but it is more commonly referred to as the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.

This Sacrament is found in the Catechism under the chapter of The Sacraments of Healing because it is able to heal our relationship with God that has been wounded or broken by our sin.

Why a Sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism?

While it is true that Baptism has provided a spiritual birth that has made us “holy and without blemish” (CC1426), it has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin.

Baptism provides us with our first and fundamental conversion but the Church also teaches that, because of this frail human nature, we are in need of a “second conversion” which is an ongoing task for the whole Church who, “clasping sinners to her bosom, (is) at once holy and always in need of purification, (and) follows constantly the path of penance and renewal” (CC1428).

What are the effects of this Sacrament?

Sin damages and even breaks our communion with God. The Sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. It also restores the individual to ecclesial communion and has a revitalising effect on the life of the Church which has suffered from the sin of one of her members.

Why should I confess to a priest?

Fr John Flader, Director of Catholic Adult Education in the Archdiocese of Sydney, believes this Sacrament is one of the greatest gifts of the Church.

He points out that “Our Lord instituted a Sacrament for the forgiveness of sins because he knew human nature and knew we needed it.

“He knew it would be a great help for us to go through the mediation of a priest to be forgiven … We would be most ungrateful and even foolish if we did not make use of it”.

Fr Flader quotes Pope Pius XII in a 1946 radio message, “The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin”. Fr Flader agrees and says that coming face to face with another human being can help us maintain our spiritual sensitivity by keeping us conscious of the reality of sin.

Fr Flader believes that because we are physiological beings, and not pure spirit, we need to satisfy our humanity by sharing our burdens with another human being and then hearing the spoken words that we are forgiven.

Pope John Paul II is in agreement. When speaking to a general audience in 1984, he stated that if Jesus had not established the very human sacrament of Penance then God Himself would, “fade into a far off abstraction which would in the end become a colourless, irritating and despairing imitation of ourselves”.

Fr Flader also proposes that without the mediation and judgement of a priest we would inevitably judge ourselves, “and noone can be a good judge in his own case”. He also adds that Jesus personally healed the sick and forgave sinners while He was on earth, giving them His individual attention. Through His priests, He is able to continue that personal touch.

How often should I go to Confession?

Once Catholics have attained the age of discretion they are obligated to utilise the Sacrament at least once a year. However, at any time, if one is aware that they have committed a mortal sin, they must not receive Holy Communion until they have first attended the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.

However, it is vital that we understand the benefits of this Sacrament so that there is a desire and not merely a sense of obligation to utilise it.

Fr Flader reminds us of these advantages: “Confession offers so many benefits, and if Christ gave it to the Church as a gift, it is only natural that we should want to take advantage of it frequently. We need it and it will give us the vitality, the self-knowledge, the humility, the sincerity, the grace, etc that we need to be truly effective leaven, salt and light in society,” he said.

The Church also strongly recommends and encourages regular confession of everyday faults (venial sins) to assist us to, “form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the light of the Spirit” (CC1458).

The Church believes that a penitent will become merciful the more frequently they receive God’s mercy through this Sacrament.

Saints and Popes throughout the ages have regularly promoted and encouraged the benefits and grace received through the frequent Confession of sins, perhaps even more so in recent times: Pope Pius XII wrote in his Encyclical Mystici Corporis “For a constant and speedy advancement in the path of virtue we highly recommend the pious practice of frequent confession, introduced by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; for by this means we grow in a true knowledge of ourselves and in Christian humility, bad habits are uprooted, spiritual negligence and apathy are prevented, and conscience is purified and the will strengthened, salutary spiritual direction is obtained, and grace is increased by the efficacy of the sacrament itself”.

Pope John XXIII wrote at the age of 80, “During my whole life I have kept faithful to my practice of weekly confession”.

Pope John Paul II said: “It would be an illusion to seek holiness, according to the vocation one has received from God, without partaking frequently of this Sacrament of Conversion and Reconciliation. Those who go to Confession frequently, and do so with the desire to make progress, will notice the strides that they make in their spiritual lives.”

In March 2007, Pope Benedict XVI, in a talk on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, addressed priests as “stewards of divine mercy for the salvation of souls” and implored them to assist penitents in understanding that central to this Sacrament is a personal encounter with God and that the regular celebration of this sacrament and a Christian life that aspires to holiness are inseparable elements of the same spiritual process.

“It is not sin which is at the heart of the sacramental celebration but rather God’s mercy, which is infinitely greater than any guilt of ours,” Pope Benedict said.

What is the Sacramental Seal?

Every priest who hears confession is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that they have heard. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents’ lives.

This secrecy, of which there are no exceptions, is called the sacramental seal.

What are the different rites of Confession and when are they permitted?

There are three rites accepted by the Church:

1st – This is the most common form of the Sacrament. It involves penitents presenting themselves individually before a priest and following this liturgical procedure; the priest will greet and bless the person, then read from the word of God to help illumine the conscience and elicit contrition.

The penitent will then express repentance, followed by the verbal confession of all known sins. The priest will then impose an appropriate penance, provide absolution and then offer a prayer of thanksgiving and a final blessing. The penitent is encouraged to satisfy the penance as soon as possible.

2nd – Penitents also make personal confession to a priest and are given individual absolution, but these are inserted into a liturgical celebration which includes communal readings, homily, an examination of conscience and a request for forgiveness.

3rd – A communal celebration of reconciliation with general Confession and general absolution.

This form of the Sacrament can only be used when there is imminent danger of death without sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear the confessions of individual penitents.

In these cases, for the absolution to be valid, the faithful must have the intention of individually confessing their grave sins when possible.

The local Bishop is to decide whether or not conditions for general absolution exist. The Church is adamant that large gatherings, such as major feasts or pilgrimages, do not constitute a grave necessity.

The Catechism states that “individual, integral Confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession”(1484).

The Church believes that personal confession is the most expressive form of reconciliation with God and the Church because it allows Christ, the physician, to individually tend and cure each one of the sick. He personally addresses every sinner: “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

Why the need for Penance?

The Church teaches that absolution takes away sin but it does not remedy all the disorders that sin has caused.

Once forgiven of their sins, it is necessary for a penitent to make amends for those sins so that they can “recover their full spiritual health” (CC1459). The satisfaction of this is known as “penance”.

When imposing this penance, a priest is expected to take into account the personal situation of the person and the gravity and nature of the sin but must always be guided by what is spiritually good for the penitent.

7 reasons to go to Confession in Lent

1 Priestly absolution is an awesome gift that Jesus gave us. Jesus gave us this Sacrament and wants us to enjoy His grace through it. He told His first priests, the Apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven” (John 20:22). Christ gave us this Sacrament of grace and forgiveness because He loves us. It is a divine gift of mercy and lovenot merely an obligation.

2 You are a sinner. We are a sinners and we need to examine the sinful patterns of our hearts and have a priest give us absolution, counsel and penance. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8). We are often not honest with our hearts and it takes an objective “physician of souls” to help diagnose us spiritually.

3 Confession is a means of grace. Confession shouldn’t be terrifying. It is peaceful. We get excited over baptisms, weddings and ordinations. Why not the remedy for our greatest Christian struggle? Why not be excited about Christ’s forgiveness being declared by His appointed deputies - the priests of His Church.

4 You may have committed mortal sin.

And yes, there is such a thing as mortal sin: If anyone sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal (1 Jn 5:16). Mortal sin is deadly and it separates our souls from the pure eternal life that exists within the Blessed Trinity. Contrition and priestly absolution restores our hearts to a position of love toward God and our neighbours. It ratifies our repentance.

5 Guilt is unpleasant.

Often, Satan weighs us down with guilt. Guilt can be a good thing if we transform it into repentance. Of course, Satan hates this and God and the angels love it. So free yourself from guilt and hear a tangible person with spiritual authority say, “I absolve thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

6 Confession unites you more fully to the Church.

When you make your Confession to a priest, you acknowledge that you have sinned not only against God, but against every single other Christian because by your sin you have weakened the universal witness of every single Christian. You have given the non-believer the excuse that “All Christians are hypocrites.” When you go to Confession, you acknowledge that you have caused every Christian to suffer by your sins. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together” (1 Cor 12:26). The priest, who represents both God and the Church by his ordination and office, receives your repentance and you have the assurance of not only God’s forgiveness but also the implicit forgiveness of the entire Church.

7 Receiving the Eucharist becomes even more powerful.

When you receive the Holy Eucharist you receive the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ our Redeemer.

When you confess your sins in a sacramental way, you also have a stronger sacramental union with Christ in the Eucharist. Also, if you are living in mortal sin, you should NEVER receive the Eucharist because you blaspheme Christ and set yourself up for greater judgement and eternal damnation.

Consequently, confession heals and deepens your devotion to Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

St Hippolytus

Dionysius of Corinth

Tertullian

St Hieriomartyr

St John Chrysostom

St Athanasius

St Ambrose

St Pacian

St Augustine

Pope Leo the Great

Pope Gregory

iPieta: is it the ultimate Catholic iPhone application?

NiFaith

ow, I may have said this somewhere else, but in all honesty, this really takes the cake ... A good friend of mine put me on to this one, and for this I am truly thankful. iPieta has pretty much everything one could possibly want in a Catholic iPhone application. In such a short space, it is impossible to include everything this app contains but I will provide you here with what I consider to be the real highlights. iPieta is divided into four main sections:

By Tom Gourlay

1 The Bible, in both an English translation (Douay Rhiems) and Latin Vulgate.

2 Liturgical Calendar (both the Ordinary, Norvus Ordo and the Extraordinary, Tridentine), including readings and solemnities, feasts, memorials, etc.

3 The Prayer Book is exhaustive with literally hundreds of prayers easily navigated through via the indexed tables (many of the prayers are available in audio too).

4 The library, titled Veritas, is the real gem. One can find a veritable smorgasbord of solid Catholic teaching from the documents of pretty well all the ecumenical Councils of the Church through to Bible commentaries, the writings of Saints and Doctors of the Church (including the major works of St Theresa of Avila, St John of the Cross and the entirety of St Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica,), Papal documents (going back to Pope Pius VI), catechisms, biographies of Saints and a whole lot more.

The really fantastic thing about all this is that pretty well all the documents are fully searchable via the indexed tables (which makes it extremely user friendly).

Realistically, I don’t know how much reading of these substantially meaty spiritual/literary works I will actually be doing on my iPhone (perhaps I’m oldfashioned but I really like the whole experience of a book, the touch, smell, etc) but the convenience of having such writings for easy reference is a great way to familiarise yourself with their content and a wonderful way to clear up your own or others' misunderstandings of core elements of our faith.

For an incredibly low price of $3.99 (which, when you think about it, is less than a small meal at McDonald’s), I think there’s not much more anyone could really want in a Catholic iPhone application.

Without a doubt, the best Catholic iPhone app out there.

Tom’s rating: four out of five stars.

Apps are available for download via the ‘App Store’ function on the iPhone itself or through the ‘iTunes’ program on your computer. Many are free but others need to be purchased with a credit card. Installation happens automatically.

Quiet as a human right

Silence is the enemy of everything superficial, stupid, and ugly

Iread not long ago that automobile companies are racing to reduce the noise in cars. Along with fuel efficiency and safety, the executives are deeply concerned about silence. Why? Where is the demand?

Modern life is extraordinarily noisy, and people are rushing to augment their car stereos with satellite radio and television sets.

The motorcycle and truck owners who have modified their vehicles and roar down our street attempting to sound like the Airbus A380 about to land on our roof seem entirely in step with contemporary culture, a culture enamored of super-loud leaf blowers, riding mowers, jet-skis, and snowmobiles.

And then there is the omnipresent popular music.

Muzak, usually unobtrusive popular music played in commercial and industrial centres, became a reality in 1934 and spread throughout the 40s and 50s.

It grew because it was popular; studies showed that stores improved sales and factories raised worker morale by exposing people to a steady diet of “elevator music”.

Radios, phonograph records and television sets kept the level of sound high most of the time wherever one went. But how quiet it all seems now.

It is almost impossible today, beyond the confines of one’s home, to escape hip-hop (now taught as a serious subject in some colleges), rap, rock, and country-western hits, played at high volume.

Shopping malls blast recordings, spoken commercials and videos at shoppers. Our local Home Depot and Best Buy reverberate

with the assault of sobs, groans, and twangs over gigantic loudspeakers.

Our cavernous grocery store sounds like a perpetual rock concert, with thumpthumping, shouting, and shrieking tearing at one’s ears in every aisle.

Going to the movies can often be likewise painful as the volume of the film and the commercials is set at a level necessary to communicate with the many hearingimpaired teens in attendance.

Summer fairs and festivals are often worse. At most sporting events, the bombast starts at the first hesitation in the athletic action. Gambling casinos can be as loud as a computer game room or a sawmill. When you enter a church and see a drum set near the pulpit or altar, you know you’re in trouble.

This is because people all over the West and industrialised Asia today, perhaps especially the young, cannot abide silence.

Disc jockeys understand this well, not permitting even a second of silence between recordings, running everything together as though it was all of a single piece or leaping into the dreaded “dead air” at the end of a number with blaring commercials. One of the very few moral commandments of modern life to command widespread assent must be: Thou Shalt Not Permit Quiet.

I used to watch several of my students enter class with their earphones on, take them off reluctantly during a lecture, and clamp them back on as soon as possible when the class ended. They were intent on avoiding more than a second or two of silence.

New devices have greatly encouraged more young people to become sound zombies, seeking constant instruction and inspiration from the likes of Lil Boosie and Chingy.

Cell phones often occupy those intervals in life when silence might threaten. Now

everyone is routinely required to sit or stand in public places listening to loud telephone conversations waged by people who have no idea that their conduct might offend others, and wouldn’t care if they knew.

In fact, silence is necessary for many achievements in civilised society, especially meaningful and thoughtful study (as opposed to mere memorisation).

Concentrated minds need to focus without interruption. When I used to tell my students that simple truth, I was often greeted with smirks and bewildered looks. Some had not even imagined reading a serious book in silence.

Quiet is also vital to contemplation, prayer and worship. Churches should have signs that say (right after the admonition against beach apparel): “Be Still. Think. Listen. Pray.”

Silence is the enemy of everything superficial, stupid and ugly.

Thus, I am entirely in favour of the Right to Quiet Society of Vancouver, British Columbia (www.quiet.org), which seeks “recognition of the right to quiet as a basic human right.” Organisation officials argue that “Noise causes stress, and stress is a major cause of illness and suicide.”

Urban noise is said to be doubling every ten years, and air traffic is increasing by five percent a year. The Society declares, “The soundscape is part of the commons, the property that belongs to all of us. No-one has the right to pollute it with noise any more than they have the right to pollute the air or water with chemicals.”

When both our political parties agree, we will have at least some grounds for believing once again in the idea of progress.

By Thomas C Reeves,

It's the simple things in family life that count

IT was worth bringing an expert halfway round the world to speak on the subject so perhaps it is worth noting here that spending time with your children is more important than giving them the chance to become a musical prodigy or an Olympic medallist.

“Simple quality time” is what Ottawa psychology professor Catherine Lee was talking about at a parenting conference in Brisbane in mid-February.

"Sometimes they might just want to

play Lego with you, or throw a ball around or do something silly and that can be just as important, if not more important, as the lessons and the clubs and the activity.

“If we don't have the basics, like enough sleep, if they're not spending time on those simple meals together, then I think we're missing something.

“We know what kids need. Kids need one-on-one with parents and they also need down-time, they need unstructured time and they need to be able to deal with

boredom. If you ask kids to think about a happy Christmas, they usually won't think about what they were given at that Christmas, it will be what they were doing and it's the time that is the important thing.” Isn’t it great that academics are rediscovering the basics of a happy family life? Prof Lee also highlighted the changing role of fathers - from breadwinners and soccer mates to parents more intimately involved with their children.

-Mercatornet

who writes from Wisconsin. Among his dozen books are Twentieth Century America: A Brief History and biographies of John F Kennedy, Joseph R McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, Walter J Kohler, Jr and Chester A Arthur.

BY EDWARD PENTIN Rome Correspondent

This year promises to be a busy one for the Holy Father, with Christian unity, secularism in Europe and relations with Islam and Judaism being among the most serious papal concerns.

Marked in Pope Benedict XVI’s calendar are foreign trips, a Synod of Bishops on the Middle East and a large Rome conference to close the Year for Priests.

The Pope is also likely to appoint several new Cardinals and announce a number of canonisations and beatifications, one of which may be that of John Paul II.

Benedict XVI also turns 83 this year and will celebrate five years of ministry as the Successor of Peter.

One of his most significant engagements took place on 17 January when he visited Rome’s synagogue across the Tiber River from Vatican City. The Holy Father was very warmly received, and those gathered gave him a standing ovation at the end of his address.

He made no explicit reference to the Pius XII controversy, except to underline the efforts the Apostolic See made to save Rome Jews during Nazi persecution. Historians say the “hidden and discreet” assistance given by the Vatican can be traced to the direct instructions of Pius XII.

The Holy Father won’t be making any long-distance journeys this year, but will embark on what promises to be a historic trip to England and Scotland in mid-September. It will be the first-ever state visit by a Pope

to Britain, although he has declined the ceremonial trappings that usually accompany such a visit. (A visit to Buckingham Palace and riding in a horse-drawn carriage through London won’t be taking place.)

But the visit still promises to be a momentous one. Informed sources say the Pope is likely to address politicians and diplomats in London, give a lecture at the University of Oxford and meet Queen Elizabeth in Scotland.

The trip’s main purpose, however, is expected to be the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman.

The Pope is expected to break with precedent and preside over the ceremony himself in Birmingham on 19 September.

His UK apostolic voyage will follow three other foreign visits.

The Holy Father will travel to Malta on 17-18 April to mark the 1,950th anniversary of St Paul being shipwrecked on the island. The following month he will make a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Fatima in Portugal.

And from 4-6 June he’ll be in Cyprus, principally to present the working document for the meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East scheduled for October.

While there, he will also continue his efforts to reach out to the Orthodox Church and his visit just might include the first meeting between a Pope and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Closer to home, on 2 May, the Pope is scheduled to visit the Shroud of Turi, which is on public display for a limited time (10 April-23 May).

The Holy Father will close the Year for Priests by leading a large meeting

Benedicts fifth

Expect a few surprises from Benedict in 2010

of clergy in Rome on 9-11 June.

Then, in July and September, Benedict will visit two Italian towns closely associated with two Popes: Popes Celestine V (the only Pope to have abdicated and whose birth took place 800 years ago this year) and Leo XIII (the Pope who lived the longest, who was born 200 years ago this year and died at the age of 93).

In October, Benedict will fly to Palermo, Sicily to participate in a meeting with families and youth. Also that month he will host the Synod on the Middle East attended by Church leaders from across the region. Restrictions on Christians and their large-scale emigration from the region will be high on the agenda.

During much of the year, the Pope will be surrounded by a greater security presence, following the security breach at Christmas midnight Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

Less certain but by no means impossible this year is a consistory during which he is expected to make between 12 and 19 new Cardinals.

One of them will almost certainly be American Archbishop Raymond Burke. The former Archbishop of St Louis currently serves as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, an office usually held by a Cardinal.

The Pope may also this year announce several new senior appointments within the Vatican, as some Cardinal heads of Vatican departments reach or exceed the customary retirement age of 75.

Later this year, Benedict XVI is expected to publish the second volume of his book Jesus of Nazareth, which he has already written, and he may also release his apostolic exhortation about

“The Pope will doubtless remind Europeans that they risk falling into an abyss of secularism and relativism unless they return to the continent's Christian roots.”

the Synod on the Word of God which was held in 2008. His efforts to promote Christian unity are likely to continue in 2010, not only with the Orthodox Church, but also in bringing back the Lefebvrist Society of St Pius X.

The bimonthly negotiations between the Vatican and the Society may begin to show fruit this year.

Also of interest in 2010 will be how many groups of Anglicans respond to Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Pope’s apostolic constitution aimed at accommodating large numbers of disaffected Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

How it will impact ongoing dialogue with the Anglican Communion may also become clearer this year.

Relations with Islam are likely to figure highly on the Pope’s agenda over the next 12 months, especially as concerns over terrorism by Islamic extremists resurface and ongoing Christian persecution remains a problem in Muslim-majority countries.

Catholic-Jewish relations are also likely to occupy much of the Pope’s time, as the effects of previous decisions continue to rankle Jewish groups, while the Israeli government has yet to live up to its agreement regarding the normalisation of the legal status of Catholic Church properties and personnel in Israel.

Finally, the Pope will doubtless continue to remind Europeans that they risk falling into an abyss of secularism and relativism unless they return to the continent’s Christian roots.

A number of familiar issues will therefore remain very much part of this pontificate in 2010. But, as with each of Pope Benedict’s past five years, expect a few surprises, too.

Doctors challenge proposed NZ abortion guidelines

(CNA) - Pro-life doctors have gone to court to challenge new medical guidelines that require doctors to advise patients who have doubts about continuing a pregnancy that abortion is one of their options. One of the doctors challenging the guidelines is believed to be Mary English, a General Practitioner from Wellington and the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Bill English. According to The New Zealand Herald, Dr English is a Catholic whose opposition to abortion is widely known. She and her husband have six children.

The doctors filed an application in the country’s High Court concerning the New Zealand Medical Council guidelines, which are titled “Beliefs and Medical Practice.”

The current guidelines note that the law allows doctors to conscientiously refuse to provide a service or give advice on contraception, sterilisation or “other reproductive health services.”

The proposed guideline reads: “While the council recognises that you are entitled to hold your own beliefs, it remains your responsibility to ensure that a pregnant woman who comes to you for medical care and expresses doubt about continuing with the pregnancy is provided with or is offered access to objective information or assistance to enable her to make informed decisions on all available options for her pregnancy, including termination.”

According to The New Zealand Herald, the final version of the document is not available. A spokesman for the Medical Council said changes have been made since the release of the draft but the final text cannot be provided because of the ongoing court action.

The case marks the first time the issue of personal beliefs and abortion has been addressed in Medical Council guidelines. The action follows a similar move in Britain.

Guidelines also cover areas where spiritual, cultural or religious beliefs could conflict with what the Council considers to be patients’ rights. The rules say doctors should set aside their own beliefs where necessary and must make the care of the patient their first concern.

Under New Zealand law, abortions can be performed only if two certifying consultants agree certain factors are present. According to the Herald, these factors include cases of incest or if the mental or physical well-being of the mother or unborn child is at risk.

The country’s Abortion Supervisory Committee appoints the consultants who authorise abortions to take place. Prolife groups and a High Court judge have questioned the legality of many of these authorised abortions.

European court stripped of ability to rule on crucifixes

(CNA) - During meetings last week in Switzerland, 47 countries represented in the Council of Europe adopted a declaration regarding the scope of jurisdiction of the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, France. The new policy limits the court’s decisions concerning traditions and national culture in member countries, which extends to the prohibition of crucifixes in Italian public institutions.

According to L’Osservatore Romano, the council met for two days in Interlaken, Switzerland to decide on reforms concerning the activities of the European Human Rights Court.

These meetings were held particularly to address the need for speed, efficiency and credibility within the European Human Rights Court, where there is growing concern for the increasing number of backlogged cases. The Council of Europe calls this situation “desperate,” citing more than 100,000 outstanding cases, 90 percent of which are “clearly inadmissible or have no legal basis, and reveal a serious ignorance of the Convention and the Court’s procedures.”

Discussion during the meetings turned to the topic of crucifixes at the behest of Lithuanian and Maltese representatives, according to LOR. Carmelo Mifsu Bonnici, Justice Minister of Malta, proposed that the court “is not sufficiently sensitive” to the “cultural characteristics” of the “national identities” of member states, to which he provided the example of the situation regarding crucifixes in Italy.

The Lithuanian Minister of the Exterior, Maris Riekstins, declared that the court must work to provide “clear, precise, unambiguous and comprehensible” rulings for everyone, something she said did not happen in their decision last fall against crucifixes in schools.

Vatican officials denounced the ruling upon its release in November, saying it was not in the court’s hands to rule on a matter of Italian tradition. On 3 November, the court ruled in favor of Soile Lautsi’s case to remove religious symbols, including crucifixes, from public schools to ensure her children’s right to a secular education.

The new declaration of policy from the Council of Europe “invites” the court “to apply in a uniform and rigorous manner the criteria concerning admissibility and jurisdiction”. These measures, however, do not immediately overturn November’s decision, and an appeal against it, citing the longstanding tradition of the crucifix in public places in Italy, is expected to be processed by March.

UK Bishops laud euthanasia policy that protects the

BY SIMON CALDWELL Catholic News Service

LONDON - The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales welcomed new guidelines governing prosecutions in assisted suicide cases, saying that the most vulnerable people are better protected under the revisions.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales praised Keir Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions, for revising the guidelines in a way that removed some of the most dangerous provisions for the sick and vulnerable.

It was clear that Starmer had “listened very carefully to, and taken account of, the many representations made to him” during six months of public comment that led to the new guidelines, said Archbishop Smith, chairman of the department of responsibility and citizenship of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

“Our particular concerns were that the interim guidelines gave less protection under the law to disabled or seriously ill people and to those who had a history of suicide attempts and were likely to try again,” Archbishop Smith said in a 25 February statement. “There also appeared to be a presumption that a spouse or close relative would always act simply out of compassion and never from selfish motives. These factors have been removed from the new guidelines, which now give greater protection to some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” he said.

“There is also a greater stress on the fact that the law has not changed, that all cases will be investigated and that no-one is being given immunity from prosecution under these guidelines.”

Starmer was instructed to produce new guidelines following a July ruling in the House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, in a case brought by

vulnerable

Debbie Purdy, who had multiple sclerosis. Purdy demanded to know if her husband would be prosecuted if he helped her to travel to the Dignitas euthanasia clinic in Switzerland to commit suicide. The court’s ruling required Starmer, as Britain’s chief prosecutor, to spell out exactly how the State would respond if someone helped a person to commit suicide.

More than 100 British citizens have killed themselves in the Swiss clinic, but there has not been a single prosecution of anyone who has accompanied them.

Under British law, the offense is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.

In November, the Bishops publicly criticised Starmer’s interim guidelines for allegedly creating categories of people whose lives would be legally considered less worthy of protection than the rest of society.

They said the draft guidelines stigmatised the disabled, the terminally ill, the depressed and the aged and “could encourage criminal behaviour” by signalling that it was acceptable to

help such people to kill themselves.

The new guidelines insist that assisted suicide is a crime but set out six factors that would make prosecution unlikely, including when the suspect was “wholly motivated by compassion” and when the patient had a determined wish to commit suicide.

Sixteen factors would favour prosecution.

They include pressure on the victim, a lack of informed consent, a history of abuse by the suspect, or if the suspect was unknown to the victim.

Starmer told reporters on 25 February that the guidelines had been revised so that the “policy is now more focused on the motivation of the suspect rather than the characteristics of the victim.”

The guidelines were criticised by Paul Tully of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, a pro-life lobby group, who said in a 25 February statement that the element of implicit discrimination against the aged, disabled and sick “is more subtle, but it is still there”.

German prelates apologise for abuse

OXFORD, England (CNS)Germany’s Catholic Bishops have asked forgiveness from victims of sexual abuse at Church-run schools and promised to “learn lessons” from secular institutions dealing with child molestation.

“We are assuming responsibility. We condemn the offences committed by monks, priests and their colleagues in our dioceses, and we ask pardon, in shame and shock, from all those who fell victim to these appalling acts. As Bishops, we are concerned about cases of sex abuse by clergy and their collaborators. We want an honest clarification, free of incorrect considerations, whenever such occurrences are reported to us,” the Bishops said in a 25 February statement, issued after a four-day meeting of the 67-member conference in Freiburg, Germany. The gathering was dominated by claims of past molestation at German Catholic schools. It said the Bishops’ conference in 2002 issued guidelines for handling abuse allegations against priests. The guidelines were binding in the country’s 27 dioceses and applied to all Religious Orders.

However, the Bishops said they had been unaware of the extent of the problem and would ask independent advisers to help review the guidelines by summer and implement a plan for improved detection and prevention

of abuse. In late January, Canisius College, a Jesuit-run high school in Berlin, confirmed there had been persistent abuse by three priests between 1975 and 1983. At least 120 men have come forward since, claiming they suffered abuse by priests or lay teachers at Jesuit schools throughout the country dating to the 1950s.

The Jesuit Order has apologised to victims and hired an attorney to discuss compensation with them.

In their statement, the Bishops said they also opened a hotline for victims and appointed 54 year old Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany’s youngest Ordinary, to oversee abuse claims.

The president of Germany’s Bishops’ conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg im Breisgau, criticised Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on 25 February for claiming in a TV interview that all reported abuse cases had occurred recently and accusing the Church of failing to cooperate with an investigation by her ministry.

“These are false facts, and we expect the minister to withdraw her statement within 24 hours,” Archbishop Zollitsch said. “No government members have ever led such harsh attacks on the Catholic Church.”

The Archbishop said he planned to present details of the scandal to Pope

Benedict XVI in March. Meanwhile, Benedictine Abbot Barnabas Boegle, head of Ettal Abbey, resigned on 24 February, Vatican Radio reported two days later. In announcing his resignation, the Abbot acknowledged that he had not followed Church policy in reporting to police every allegation involving the abuse of minors at a boarding school the abbey runs.

Eight former students charged they were abused by priests in incidents from the 1950s, 70s and 80s.

In Austria, prosecutors in Salzburg said they were investigating abuse claims against a Religious Order priest. The Graz-Seckau diocese subsequently confirmed that an abuse victim had attempted to blackmail clergy for one million euros.

Bishop Egon Kapellari said he rejected paying “hush money,” and would discuss the issue of sexual abuse involving clergy at the next general meeting of the Austrian Bishops.

Elsewhere in Austria, a spokesman for the Vienna Archdiocese said on 1 February there were 17 reported cases of sexual abuse by priests nationwide in 2009.

He said the Austrian Church had implemented a “catalogue of measures” in 2006 to prevent abuse, including the appointment of an ombudsman and procedures for expelling offenders from the priesthood.

Activist Carol Sutton (front) pickets outside a press conference given by former pathologist Jack Kevorkian in Southfield, Michigan, in 2008 after he was released after serving eight years for second-degree murder in an assisted suicide case. The UK’s Bishops have praised a new policy which protects the vulnerable. CNS

Looters cause ‘second earthquake’ in Chile

Pope prays for victims of massive earthquake in Chile

BY JOHN T HAVIS Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI prayed for the victims of the massive earthquake in Chile and pledged the assistance of Catholic relief organisations.

The Pope made the remarks at his noon blessing on 28 February, the day after a magnitude 8.8 quake struck the South American country, triggering giant waves and leaving at least 700 dead.

“My thoughts are with Chile and with the populations stricken by the earthquake, which caused great loss of life and terrible damage,” the Pope said from his apartment window above St Peter’s Square. “I am praying for the victims and am spiritually close to those affected by this serious catastrophe. For them, I ask God to grant relief of suffering and courage in this adversity. I am sure solidarity will be shown by many, in particular by Church organisations,” he said.

Chile was moving about 10,000 troops into affected cities to maintain order and prevent looting. Many stricken towns in central Chile, the worst-hit area, were still cut off, so authorities feared the death toll could climb much higher.

Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of Rancagua, president of the Chilean Bishops’ conference, said in a message to the country that the Catholic Church would mobilise to help meet the people’s spiritual and material needs.

“With the strength of the Gospel, we are bearers of hope in moments of anguish, pain and devastation. To the public authorities, to those working for the state and to volunteer organisations, we offer our help,” he said. A superior of the Sons of Divine Providence Religious Order in Chile, Fr Roberto Simionato, reported that churches and church administrative buildings were among those damaged in the hard-hit city of Concepcion. He said that when the earthquake struck at 3.34am, he thought it would pass like other previous tremors in Chile. But after 30 seconds, the quake was still getting stronger, he told the

Vatican missionary agency Fides. “It was frightening in its intensity. As it went on, things began to collapse, the noises grew louder and the lights went out. I remained still in bed. When it was over I went down to the courtyard and found all the priests.

“We checked to make sure we were all there and that no one was harmed,” he said.

He said that the damage in Concepcion was extremely heavy, with collapsed houses, fires, sunken streets and no electricity, water or telephone service.

Caritas Internationalis reported from its Rome headquarters that Caritas Chile was mobilising to respond to the catastrophe, and working with civil authorities to establish a national help network. The first emergency aid was being distributed in Maule and Bio Bio, the worst-affected regions, according to a Caritas statement.

“We are collecting food to be sent immediately to communities which have been most affected by the earthquake and where shortages are already being reported. Our own communications network and capacity to offer warehouses and points of collection and distribution are immediately available,” said Caritas Chile director Lorenzo Figueroa.

“The magnitude and depth of the catastrophe which has

Legion chief begs pardon for founder’s ‘immoral acts’

Chaos from founder’s ‘immoral’ private life compounds woes for Catholic Order

MEXICO CITY – The Congregation of the Legion of Christ apologised to everyone that its founder, Mexican priest Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), “harmed with the immoral acts of his private life.”

The apology was offered by the Legion’s Secretary General, Evaristo Sada, in a speech last weekend at a Church event that was posted later on the Order’s website. “With all my heart, I wish to beg pardon of everyone that our founder harmed with the immoral acts of his private life, and of the people who have been injured by the consequences,” Sada said about Maciel, who died amid accusations of sexual abuse.

affected the poorest regions of the country will require the support of Caritas members in Latin America and worldwide. Above all, hope is needed among our suffering people,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Caritas emergency response team and search and rescue teams were travelling to Santiago on 1 March to help support relief efforts. The emergency team was composed of international and Latin American staff.

The Mexican search and rescue team recently worked in Haiti as part of Caritas relief efforts.

The president of Caritas Internationalis, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, said Caritas Chile and the local Bishops were providing updates on the needs of the people.

“Chile has faced a terrible catastrophe. The Caritas confederation will be there in support of the survivors in this initial phase of emergency response and as they look to rebuild the country,” the Cardinal said.

Caritas centres in 23 dioceses and Archdioceses in Chile have been mobilised with help from the parishes.

Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello of Concepcion condemned the actions of those using the chaos to loot, saying they were responsible for a “second earthquake”.

Shortly after Fr Maciel’s death, it became known that he had children, six according to the attorney of three of them who are seeking legal recognition. “It grieves us deeply what the Church and these people have suffered,” Sada said.

Maciel was accused for decades of abusing seminarians, eight of whom filed complaints that went as far as the Vatican.

In May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI formally urged Maciel to give up “all public ministry” and ordered him to live a quiet life of prayer and penitence.

Last July, five prelates chosen by the Holy See began an inspection of Legionaries in centres of the congregation to analyse their training and operating systems and study their psychological state resulting from the founder’s scandals.

“This year has been very difficult, there have been a lot of things all at once: the economic crisis, the serious disorders in the life of our founder ...” Sada said in his speech. He said that, at a meeting he had with one of the visitors from the Vatican, he was asked if he had lost his foundation when his superiors told him “about the immoral acts in the life of your founder.”

“I answered: ‘My foundation was not the person of our founder. My human support crumbled and that was hard, but the rock that is my foundation remains strong. It is the rock of the love of God,” he said. Later, he said that when he lived with Maciel he did not see “the negative things” that are now known. “I didn’t see them, I

was only able to see the good and had no idea of the bad. Now that I know about it, it grieves me greatly to talk about it, it grieves me for the people who have suffered, it grieves me that it has discredited the Catholic priesthood. I pray for him, I pray so much for him.”

Today, the Order Maciel founded is considered one of the most conservative in the Catholic Church and the Legionaries’ lay arm, the Regnum Christi, has ties to the political and business establishments of both Mexico and Spain.

The order, which has some 500 priests and more than 2,000 seminarians, runs schools in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, the United States, Ireland, Italy and other countries. Maciel was quite close to the late Pope John Paul II, who cited him as an “example of pastoral work for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.”

Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, greets Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square in this 2000 file photo.

PHOTO: CNS/CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO

Above, Fr Maciel. Below, Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, leads students in taking an oath at a Legion of Christ school in Ireland in this circa 1962 photo. Fr Maciel died on 30 January 2008.

A resident warms himself by a fire amid debris left by a tsunami in Pichilemu, Chile on 1 March. The wave was generated by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that devastated a large portion of central Chile on 27 February. The temblor, one of the biggest in centuries, killed at least 700 people and destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes.

PHOTO: CNS/ MARIANA BAZO, REUTERS

Argentina

Uraguay

Concepción

Constitución

Santiago

Buenos Aires

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck early Feb. 27 near the coast of central Chile, shaking buildings in the capital of Santiago 200 miles away. CHILE

Perpetural adoration changed my life - for real

Ihad never been a great one for prayer. I am more of a doer. I was on the parish council for 20 odd years but my wife prayed more than me. We ran our own business and had a busy family life. I found that prayer was something that got relegated to a small corner. We went to Mass weekly and on some special occasions but mainly it was my wife pushing me along to Church! She’s been an excellent influence and we were very fortunate that our faith was passed onto us from our parents.

Why I became Catholic

with Debbie Warrier

Fr Doug Harris started Perpetual Adoration at our parish, Christ the King Church in Beaconsfield, in 2003. That’s when things really changed in my prayer life. My wife and I have committed ourselves to a weekly 2am timeslot. At first it was an effort but now it is the highlight of our week. Through this I have discovered that the Holy Spirit truly lives within us.

In the past we worried if we couldn’t fill a timeslot at Perpetual Adoration. Now we pray to the Holy Spirit to send us adorers. Once I was talking to a friend and yawned during our conversation. He asked me why I was tired and I explained that I had been to Adoration early that morning. He gave me his business card and told me to call him if I ever needed someone to fill in. Now he goes regularly as a fill-in at various times. We have had numerous responses like that.

Faith is a gift. If the Lord gives us a gift we should be using it. The saying that you shouldn’t discuss religion or politics is incorrect. I have never had anyone shoot me for talking about Perpetual Adoration! When adorers attend after dark you are in a darkened Church, lit only by the candles near the Eucharist and a reading lamp. It is just you and the Lord, which is uniquely precious.

Sometimes instead of praying I just sit and listen for Him. Not a lot gets through (!) but I am in His amazing presence which is the important thing. People say you are judged by the company you keep. If we are spending time with Jesus (who is definitely present in the consecrated Host) we are with the ultimate positive influence.

If you make the commitment to Jesus to go (to Perpetual Adoration) He will help you go. When we started we weren’t sure how long it would go for. Now we know that “perpetual” means forever. There are quite a reasonable number of our registered adorers who go every day. On our roster we have about 250 people plus fill ins. A lot of adorers come from local parishes that all support Perpetual Adoration. We estimate that there are over 400 hours of adoration every week of the year.

I was in hospital for three months in 2006 because my aorta dissected from the heart. The survival rate was very low. During that time I united my hourly prayer of the Divine Praises with those at Adoration. Adorers recite it every hour on the hour as they change shifts. I was blessed to have a huge amount of prayers from family and friends. The power of prayer is unlimited. God can do anything. I am blessed every day.

If you have a story to tell please contact Debbie via dwarrier75@gmail.com

O ye of little faith - and knowledge

Out there

By Michael Coren

Canadian Catholic radio and television talk show personality Michael Coren begins a series this week for The Record, giving readers reasons to be proud Catholics and to defend the Faith.

Being Catholic in the public square is a fascinating experience.

In the past month or two I’ve written extensively about the Church in the National Post and the Sun group of newspapers – no more in the Post because the Sun chain has generously bought my exclusive services.

What is intriguing, however, is how little information about Catholicism my critics possess.

Regrettable but understandable for those not concerned with religion but positively outrageous for those who think themselves informed and write letters and even articles.

One of the constant complaints we hear is that there are Catholic teachings that are not to be found in the Bible.

A consistent if flawed argument from a Protestant but the problem is that it often comes from people who claim to be Catholics.

All Catholic beliefs can be supported

by an intelligent reading of the Bible but, perhaps more importantly for this debate, the very basis of Scripture is that we cannot live as Christians merely by Scripture.

We weren’t left a Bible but a Church, a Papacy and a teaching office, the Magisterium. Christ was quite explicit about this and how could He not be?

The Saviour knew that as fallen creatures we needed a guide, knew that we would sometimes be unable to understand the Bible and that if the written word is left to individual human interpretation there will be myriad disagreements and errors.

So He gave the continuance of the faith to a Church led by Peter and his descendants, a Church which in due course would give us the very Bible that critics now claim contradicts Church teaching. Putting aside the poor theology, it is dreadful logic.

The notion of Scripture alone is simply non-Scriptural, as is the belief in salvation by Faith alone.

These are man-made notions –which, ironically, are precisely the errors of which Catholics are accused.

Again, while I may disagree with genuine Protestants I respect their views.

What I find far more difficult to tolerate because of their anti-intellectualism and arrogance, are failed Catholics who have no idea what they are supposed to believe but condemn the Church because it dares to be Catholic.

Papal infallibility, they so often claim, is a modern invention. No, it’s not.

The Church merely affirmed it when it was challenged; it had been a selfevident truth, abundantly proven in Scripture, from the earliest times.

Yet when the Catholicophobes make this argument, what they really mean is not that they dispute papal infalli-

bility but that they don’t like what the Pope says. If the Holy Father suddenly said, for example, that women could be ordained, condoms used and that homosexual behaviour was not sinful, I have a feeling those who now moan on about infallibility would suddenly see its merits.

It’s rather like people who constantly tell us about the actually non-existent concept of separation of Church and State when a Catholic or evangelical leader annoys them but forget the idea when a United Church or Anglican spokesman delights them.

There is no Faith without the Church.

The cry from the 1960s that “we love Jesus but don’t like the church” is rather like saying we love the idea of childhood but don’t like children.

Christ gave us the Church, not to obstruct our fun or stifle us but to reflect His teachings, life and sacrifice and act as a road from the 1st century until the end of time, along which we can both travel forward to God and look back to the where the message began.

Many of the streets and alleys that have been created in the past 500 years are still attached to that road but they make the path far more circuitous and difficult.

There are also the more modern detours that take people on a totally different and horribly dangerous path altogether.

It’s not about Catholics who may have acted contrary to Catholicism, not about the occasional bad priest or even weak Pope and it’s certainly not about the personal ambitions of activists and their sordid desire to make the Church resemble the contemporary world and all of its failings.

It’s about listening to God; and that, for some, is the most difficult thing of all.

Freeway crawls and self preservation

I say I say

By Mark Reidy

Each time I find myself crawling along the Kwinana Freeway in peak hour traffic I feel that I am caught up in a far more complex global crisis.

Having a great deal of time to analyse traffic movement when there isn’t much, I have begun to notice that when it comes to lane-merging many people become territorial and the consequent bottleneck ensures that everyone comes to a standstill.

I believe that the problem lies not simply with a lack of space, but rather with a majority mindset of those behind the wheel that they have a “right” to the road in front of them and they are reluctant to relinquish it.

It is a mentality that has moulded mankind throughout history.

The instincts of survival that motivated our early ancestors to compete for food and shelter - primarily a fear of starvation and death - still remain driving forces for our behaviour today.

These impulses of self-preservation are well and truly alive and they become very obvious when someone invades “our space” or stands in the way of us getting or keeping what we believe we need or are entitled to.

It is, sadly, a principle that continues to corrupt us – as individuals and as a nation, and at every level in between.

The general consensus seems to be that the recent financial crisis was triggered by such a “get what I can” mentality and even attitudes towards immigra-

tion seem to have our self-preservation juices flowing. We live in a society that has become moulded by our innate fears and this insecurity becomes more deeply embedded when it is threatened in any way, causing us to become more agitated, defensive and self-focused.

We begin to see the world as we see the road in front of us. It is mine, I have a right to it and you will not enter my space unless I give you permission. It is an attitude that seems to be firmly entrenched - but does that make it right? It is not that I advocate anarchy on the roads or on the borders, but I do see a necessity to assess, as individuals, what emotional force it is that fuels our behaviour and attitude towards others. Is it fear or love? Are we driven by selfpreservation or self-sacrifice?

It can be a very challenging exercise to confront our deepest instincts - those spontaneous thoughts that automatically ignite our first reactions. What happens to us when someone wants to occupy the road in front of us? What emotions are evoked by the thought of sharing “our” land and resources with

others? We need to begin by questioning our whole attitude toward ownership. Why do we believe that we have a right to something? What entitles us to own or possess anything? Is it because fear is embedded in the foundation of any form of ownership? That we are driven by our instincts of survival to pursue a state of self-reliance?

It is why, I believe, Jesus made a point to the rich young man that, in order to reach the kingdom of Heaven, he had to forgo all that he had. It was not necessarily what he owned that held him back, but rather his attachment to what he owned.

Jesus recognised where this young man found his security and realised that it was taking his focus from God. He was asking him to let go of the fear that bound him to this world and to trust in a Heavenly Father who would provide for all of his needs.

It is no different to what God is asking of us today – from the way we drive to the way our politicians legislate. He knows that it is the only way for us to keep moving forward toward the destination that He desires for us.

Joe Migro

The confessions of an NRL hero

Paul Osborne, the new CEO of the National Rugby League club Parramatta Eels, is a devout Catholic with nine kids who’s just entered a glamorous world where maintaining Christian values at times seems impossible. In Perth 13-17 February for a pre-season game against St George Illawarra, he revealed to Anthony Barich how God redeemed him through his Catholic faith, his marriage and the fraternity of other Christians.

In 1994, Paul Osborne was the toast of the nation’s capital when he was the most unlikely hero in the Canberra Raiders’ NSW Rugby League premiership.

Raiders fans, starved of a premiership since then, still talk of the glory days when the club – and the competition – was dominated by “Green Machine” – a name which applied as much to the club’s guernsey colours as its imposing captain, the legendary Mal Meninga, who also remains the only player to captain an Australian Kangaroos tour twice.

Osborne’s 16-minute blitz as a last-minute replacement prop in that decider was almost as surprising as his successful election to the ACT Legislative Assembly as its first independent member a year later.

By this stage, however, he’d drifted from the Church and, in his words, “the marriage was under the pump”. He looked to his local parish – St Thomas’ in Kambah – for support, and soon realised that he needed that foundation to keep his marriage strong. He even remembers his Kambah parish priest, Fr Greg Beath. “Good fella,” Osborne reminisced.

Though he admits he was “out of control” in his football heyday, he maintained a connection to his Christian roots by striking up a friendship with Australian World Cup winner and NSW State of Origin star Jason Stevens - a Christian who, since retiring, has set up a website and toured schools promoting celibacy before marriage to youth.

With Stevens, he organised during his playing days an annual get-together of Christian footballers, and gathered up to 70 players annually. Osborne was also a police officer during his playing days.

Osborne’s seven years in politics - he held the balance of power when ACT’s Liberal Chief Minister Kate Cornell formed a minority government with his support in

both 1995 and 1998 – also contributed to him finding the straight and narrow.

In a “liberal jurisdiction”, his public opposition to abortion, euthanasia and heroin “shooting galleries” made him a target but it forced him to think about his faith more seriously.

“It was a real challenge for me as I’d only just got back to Church; though I’d been a regular Massgoer, I hadn’t been that involved,” Osborne, now 43, recalls of his early days in politics, which he said he joined as he wanted to have an influence on the city where he was bringing up his children.

“It was a real test in what I always believed, as it’s one thing to say it in the privacy of your own home or amongst friends, but when you have to go out in front of 300,000 people and articulate an argument as to why you don’t think euthanasia is a good thing, it’s a real challenge.”

It was a tough time, but he was edified by striking up a friendship with prominent Catholic Brian Harradine, the elder statesman of federal politics who, like Osborne, held the balance of power.

“The sad reality of society is that all the things we believe in are slowly being eroded away. But I read somewhere that Mother Teresa wrote that God doesn’t call you to be successful, he calls you to be faithful.” - Paul Osborne

Harradine was responsible for Coalition Prime Minister John Howard barring Australian taxpayers funding overseas abortions, a policy which the Rudd Government reversed last year.

“It was a very tough time, as when you take a stand on these things you can come under the pump a bit. You’re a target,” Osborne said, chatting to The Record in a van in the parking lot of an obscure rubgy oval in Beaconsfield where his boys go

through their routines. “I was fortunate that Brian Harradine was in parliament at the time and he became a mentor to me. He really spent a long time with me. We used to hang out. He’s just a great, great man.

“The sad reality of society is that all the things we believe in are slowly being eroded away. But I read somewhere that Mother Teresa wrote that God doesn’t call you to be successful, he calls you to be faithful.

“So I think it’s just nice to be able to stand up and say ‘here’s what’s right’, and it doesn’t matter what others think.

“I was encouraged by the strength of my convictions on those issues. Obviously, the Christian Brothers did a good job on me in Lewisham,” he half-joked.

Having returned to professional rugby as community relations officer for the Raiders in 2004, then as chief executive of the NRL’s Player Manager Accreditation Programme in 2005 and matchday commentator for ABC’s rugby league coverage, he made another remarkable comeback when appointed chief executive of the troubled Parramatta Eels in July last year.

When he took over, the club was in dire straits. In 2008, it reported a record $7.8 million loss but, when he took over, things transformed nearly overnight.

He oversaw the troubled club’s rise to the grand final, winning seven regular season matches in a row on the way, breaking the record for the biggest crowd at a match outside of the grand final when 75,000 people attended their Preliminary Final win over the Bulldogs.

His friendship with rugby union convert Timana Tahu was also pivotal in the star returning to the Eels from rugby for the 2010 season.

While the club is not as embroiled in controversies by players’ extracurricular activities as, say, the Bulldogs, temptation is still rife, which he knows all too well.

With nine children aged three to 18, he’s tired of having to explain to his boys why yet another player drank too much, got in yet another bar brawl, glassed a girl or was

charged with sexual offences. “There are a lot of pressures and temptations out there; it’s very difficult to maintain (any kind of) faith,” he said. But things have turned around since his playing days.

“There’s a lot of Christian guys coming together and encouraging each other. Many guys are certainly benefiting from the fact that there are many other Christians out there supporting them.

“Ultimately, they’re responsible for their own actions and all you can do is give them as much support as you can. The club’s player welfare manager is a Christian, we have a chaplain, we try to look after their families and them.”

For Osborne, it’s a great privilege to play rugby league at a professional level, and “these guys need to appreciate that, and if they don’t like it they can do something else”.

“I just get sick to death of trying to explain to my boys why someone did this and did that. You can’t make excuses for them forever,” he said.

It is when players connect with the Christian faith that he sees profound changes, like his own Parramatta superstar Jarryd Hayne, a regular church-goer at Hillsong.

“It’s really turned him around,” Osborne said. “There’s a calmness about him that wasn’t there before, and I think that’s because he’s hooked up to a church.

“The thing for me was my faith gives me some security and peace in knowing that God is there. It’s certainly made a difference in my life.”

In an effort to lift public faith in footballers and to give them the chance to gain the perspective of the wider world outside their own glamorised bubble, he organised six non-Christian NRL stars on a trip to Rwanda in October 2008, working in a village building houses for widows and orphans and visiting the famed Mountain Gorillas.

The trip gained extended coverage in News Limited newspapers and Fox Sports TV. He was inspired to organise this when visiting Uganda in 2006 with his mate Brian Houston, a Hillsong pastor.

His son Jacob, 13 at the time, wanted to come so two years later he took him with the rugby stars as a bar mitzvah-style ‘right of initiation’.

“I believe very much in the Jewish tradition of the bar mitzvah – where you go from a boy to a man, and I thought Jacob was ready to go,” Osborne said.

“He’s a great kid. I’m very proud of him, and I just wanted him to see how lucky he was here and to have a strong social conscience, and that, if you can help people, you should. For us (NRL personalities), it was eight days out of our time, the cost didn’t take a lot for us to make a not insignificant contribution.”

Last year, he took six more high-profile players, and now he has a queue of stars wanting to come along on the annual trip.

Amidst all the notorious bad press around NRL players, Christianity may just be taking a foothold … gradually.

Priest finds his calling bringing Christ’s presence to wounded soldiers

BY RICK DELVECCHIO Catholic News Service

PALO

ALTO, California

- To watch Capuchin Fr James Stump at work is to see a Christ-centred “ministry of presence” in action as a daily routine.

A chaplain at the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital in Palo Alto, Fr Stump makes his rounds with one purpose in mind: to invite sick and wounded veterans to encounter the living Christ. Fr Stump is quick in his step and with a joke as he goes about his work. On one of his recent rounds, he joked to a Marine on the move down the hallway in a wheelchair to “watch the speed limit.” They chatted about the Marine’s spinal reconstruction surgery. But in a moment, without a break in the

informality, the priest prayed over the patient and asked that Jesus “show his face to you, have mercy on you.”

And as the two parted, the priest simply said: “Heal up.”

Fr Stump does all he can to put the veterans at ease and in a good mood. He creates an environment where Christ’s presence can become a part of almost any encounter he initiates.

The Kansas-born Fr Stump came to the priesthood late in life. A corporate lawyer until he was about 40, he yearned for more meaningful work, gravitated toward the priesthood and joined the Capuchin community at St Francis Friary in Burlingame.

The Capuchins assigned Fr Stump to the VA chaplaincy to succeed an older priest.

Spirit,” Fr Stump said. “I feel at ease. I just feel very comfortable being a priest.”

Hospital chaplaincy is a ministry that could easily become as heavy as the illness and death that surround it. I sometimes pray that the angels and saints go before me to take care of any problem.”

drafted to serve in Vietnam and led a combat squad.

He wasn’t sure how he would take to hospital work, but it would turn out to be an opportunity that opened up his gift for one-on-one encounters.

“If that’s a gift, it’s a gift of the

When he finds a door open at a Catholic patient’s room, he announces his presence. If he is invited in, he is prepared to offer whatever the patient might be looking for, including prayer and the Sacraments of Eucharist and Anointing of the Sick - which are at the heart of his ministry.

Fr Stump has met many inspirational people through his ministry but perhaps none more than Gregory Peters, a high school AllAmerican football player who was

“He was captured twice, and he escaped one time and another time he was rescued,” Father Stump said. “He had this mantra prayer when he was being beaten, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ We had a banner made and put in our chapel because of that.” Peters spent much of the rest of his life in and out of the VA hospital. “He always wanted to get better, well enough to help around the chapel,” Fr Stump said.

“He’d (roll) his wheelchair over from the nursing unit to the chapel. He was always close to the Lord and had a great love of the Eucharist and the Mass.”

The wounded soldier was instrumental in his roommate’s conversion to Catholicism, Fr Stump said.

Above, Paul Osborne with his family; right, Osborne in action for the Canberra Raiders in the early 1990s.

Capuchin Fr James Stump, right, visits in December with Paul Jordan, 73, an Army veteran who is suffering from a condition that has diminished his vision. PHOTO: CNS/ JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE

PANORAMA

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday.

Email to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mail to PO Box 75, Leederville WA 6902.

Events charging over $10 will be put into classifieds and charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisement.

SATURDAY, 6 MARCH - SUNDAY, 7 MARCH

Vocations in the Philippines

6pm at St Lawrence, Balcatta, Mass. Come and listen to an interesting talk about missionary work among young people in the Philippines by Fr Chris Kowalczyk SDS. 7 March at 8.30am, 10am Italian, 11.30am St Theresa’s, Gwelup and 6pm. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS 0438 344 706 or Parish Office 9344 7066.

SUNDAY, 7 MARCH

Divine Mercy

1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor St, Perth. Homily on St John of God by Father Sharbel Maria. There will be Reconciliation, Holy Rosary and Divine Mercy prayers. Refreshments later. Enq: John 9457 7771.

THURSDAY, 11 MARCH

Kelmscott Mental Health Support Group

12 noon at Good Shepherd Church, 40 Streich St, Kelmscott. Lunch followed by talk on The Lenten Journey Enq: Ann 9291 6670 or Barbara 9328 8113.

FRIDAY, 12 MARCH - SUNDAY, 14 MARCH

God’s Farm Retreat

Fr Tony Chiera VG will lead a prayerful weekend retreat on God’s Farm, 40km south of Busselton. The topic will be Walking with the Saints, Lent 2010. For hired bus bookings, return trip Perth to Farm phone Yvonne 9343 1897. Other bookings and enquiries phone/fax, Betty Peaker sfo 9755 6212 or Mary.

SATURDAY, 13 MARCH

Focolare Community Perth

3pm at The Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel on Rawlins St, Glendalough. Mass to celebrate the anniversary of Chiara Lubich’s entry into heaven, followed by meditation and afternoon tea. All welcome.

Faith Enrichments Series – Presenter: Murray Graham (M.Ed)

2.30-4pm, at St Benedict Parish Centre, 115 Ardross St, Ardross. Coffee and tea break then 4.30-6pm, Murray Graham will lead two sessions in ‘Resilience in the Family’.

First Session: Resilience in the Family. Second Session: Reflection on personal prayer in the home. Followed by Mass for those who wish to attend. Cost donations. Enq: Wim van Alebeek 0421 636 763.

St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School Fete 11am-4pm Grand Ocean Blvd, Port Kennedy. Rides, show bags, food, plant and cake stalls, entertainment, magician, camel rides, laser skirmish, bouncy castle and much more. Fun for all ages, come and join the fun! Enq: Alison, only if you require more information. Lacousins@aapt. net.au or 9593 6640.

St Padre Pio Day of Prayer

8.30am at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. St Padre Pio DVD, followed at 10am with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Silent Adoration and Benediction. 11am Holy Mass, celebrant Fr Tiziano Bogoni using St Padre Pio Liturgy. Confessions available. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Divine Mercy Healing Mass

2.30pm at St Francis Xavier’s Church, Windsor St, East Perth. Main celebrant Fr Marcellinus Meilak, OFM Reconciliation in English and Italian will be available. Divine Mercy prayers followed by veneration of First Class relic of St Faustina Kowalska. Refreshments later. Enq: John 9457 7771.

SATURDAY, 13 MARCH - TUESDAY, 16 MARCH

The Year for Priests Parish Lenten Retreat

6pm at St Lawrence, Balcatta. Mass, then a talk by Fr Tim Deeter on the importance of the Priesthood, challenges facing priests and lay Catholics alike. Evening sessions 15-16 March at 8pm, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. All welcome. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS 0438 344 706 or Parish Office 9344 7066.

WEDNESDAY, 17 MARCH

Lesmurdie Mental Health Support Group

6pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church Hall, 207 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Guilt and its benefits is the topic. Who

makes me feel guilt? What makes guilt grow? Why is guilt used by parents and others? How does guilt affect mental health? Facilitator Gerry Smith, well known Educator and Grief Counsellor. Please bring a plate to share. All welcome. Enq: Ann 9291 6670 or Barbara 9328 8113.

FRIDAY, 19 MARCH - SUNDAY, 21 MARCH

Weekend of Prayer and Reflections

7.30pm at the Little Sisters of the Poor, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Presented by Fr Don Kettle, for all young girls aged 18-35 years old, a wonderful opportunity of giving a little bit of your precious time to the Lord. RSVP before Wednesday, 10 March to Sr Veronika: 9443 3155 or community.perth@lsp.org.au.

Separated, Divorced, Widowed

7pm at Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne. Beginning Experience is running a weekend programme designed to assist and support people in learning to close the door gently on a relationship that has ended in order to get on with living. Enq: Helen 9246 5150 or Maureen 9537 1915.

SUNDAY, 21 MARCH

Taize Prayer Evening

7-8pm at St Lawrence, Balcatta. Spend an hour listening to simple music, canons, and short readings from Scripture, intercession prayer and reflect on the mercy of God in silence. Later talk on forgiveness. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS 0438 344 706 or Parish Office 9344 7066.

Immaculate Conception Curia, Fremantle

Legion of Mary Acies Ceremony 2pm at St Jerome’s Parish Church, Troode St, Munster. Parish Priest and Spiritual Director, Fr Johnson Malayil; Homily delivered by Fr Noel FitzSimons. All Spiritual Directors, active and auxiliary members, family, friends and parishioners most welcome. Tea will be provided. Enq: 9586 4134 or 0423 230 755.

Dominican Laity of Our Lady of the Rosary

2pm at St Catherine’s Convent, 31 Williamtown Rd, Doubleview. Visitors welcome. Enq: Jeff 9446 3655.

FRIDAY, 26 MARCH

Medjugorje Evening of Prayer

7-9pm at St Aloysius Parish, 84 Keightley St, Shenton Park. An evening of prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace consisting of Adoration, Rosary, Benediction, Reconciliation concluding with Holy Mass. Free DVD on Fr Donald Calloway. All warmly welcome. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480.

SATURDAY, 27 MARCH

Day of the Unborn Child

1pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Square. Holy Mass, including procession with flowers, principal celebrant Archbishop B J Hickey, followed by a Holy Hour led by Rev Fr Paul Carey SSC. All are earnestly invited to celebrate the sacredness of every human life and pray for an end to abortion. Enq: Lydia 9328 2926.

SUNDAY, 4 APRIL

Easter is Coming!

2pm at Russell Square, James St, Northbridge. In our ever increasingly secular world, the real meaning of Easter is getting lost. Come and remind the people of Perth what Easter is about. Join with hundreds of Christians from many different denominations to come together to celebrate the real Easter, man and God reconciled and together we are one. Enq: awakeningwa@ fusion.org.au or 08 9472 3470.

SUNDAY, 11 APRIL

The Feast of Divine Mercy

3-6pm at Holy Family Church, Lot 375, Alcock St, Maddington. The programme includes Reconciliation, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena, Eucharistic Adoration, Holy Mass, healing prayers. To be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy from 2-10 April every day from 3-4pm. Inviting all faithful to know more about Divine Mercy through the sharing of the word on all 10 days.

Enq: 9493 1703.

Feast of Divine Mercy

1.30-2.30pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Sq, Perth. Holy Rosary, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy prayers fol-

lowed from 2.30-3.30pm with Holy Mass, Main Celebrant

Fr Alfonsas Savickis. All priests are welcome to concelebrate. Benediction and Veneration of First Class Relics of St Faustina Kowalska. Refreshments later. Enq: 9457 7771.

MONDAY, 12 APRIL - THURSDAY, 22 APRIL

National Pilgrimage 2010 - In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop Enq: Laura 03 340999 or lmccarthy@sosjwa. org.au.

MONDAY, 17 MAY - FRIDAY, 28 MAY

Tour of the Holy Land

12 day tour with Fr Roy Pereira visiting Sea of Galilee, Jericho, Masada, The Dead Sea, Bethany, Jerusalem and Cana. For cost, itinerary and more details, please contact: Francis Williams (Coordinator) T: 9459 3873 M: 0404 893 877 E: francis@perthfamily.com.

GENERAL NOTICES

Perpetual Adoration

Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is in its seventh year at Christ the King Church, Beaconsfield. Open 24 hours, except at Mass times. All welcome. Enq: Joe 9319 1169.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The Church of St Jude in Langford is seeking to put together a visit to Jordan, the Holy Land and Egypt, leaving mid-August 2010. Expect the pilgrimage to be for circa 19 days and could accommodate 28-30 people. Fr Terry Raj will be the Spiritual Director. Enq: Matt 6460 6877, mattpicc1@gmail.com.

St Paul’s Mt Lawley - Lenten Services Weekday Masses, 7.45am and 5.45pm. Stations of the Cross and Benediction, Fridays 6.15pm. Wednesday Fasting and Almsgiving Supper, any time between 5-6.45pm in the church undercroft. 9.30-10.30am, Wednesdays Bible study on St Paul and the Power of the Cross in the RSL Chapel, and 7-8pm in the church undercroft.

EVERY SUNDAY IN LENT

Bible Study Introduction

3-4 pm at St Joseph’s Parish Centre, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean. A Bible in hand is better than two on the shelf. Become Bible friendly. 4-5pm Church History at a Glance. Appreciation of the heritage of the Catholic Faith in the Third Millennium looking at the Church’s providential pathway through history.

Extraordinary Rite Latin Mass

11am at St Joseph’s Church, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean.

EVERY TUESDAY IN LENT

Lenten Tuesday Prayer Meetings

7pm at St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay St, Perth. Join us with others in prayer for personal healing and overcoming the burdens of life united with Our Lord and Our Lady. Weekly live the heritage of the Faith in Sacred Scripture, the Holy Rosary, praise in song, and reflection. Prayer is life’s spiritual lifeline.

EVERY THURSDAY IN LENT

Catholic Questions and Answers

7-7.30pm at St Joseph’s Parish Centre, 20 Hamilton St,

Bassendean. Catecheses easily learned with questions and answers. Catechism of the Catholic Church, with Fr John Corapi DVD series. Adult learning and deepening of the Catholic Faith from 7.30-9pm.

EVERY SUNDAY

Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation

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

EVERY 3RD SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Oblates of St Benedict

2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. Oblates affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey New Norcia welcome all who are interested in studying the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude meetings. Enq: Secretary 9457 2758.

EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life

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

LAST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Christian Spirituality Presentation

7.30-9.15pm at the Church Hall behind St Swithan’s Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Come along and join in these informal and friendly meetings where Stephanie Woods will present The Desert Period of Christianity, 260 to 600AD. From this time period came the understanding of the monastic lifestyle and contemplative prayer. No cost. Enq: Lynne 9293 3848.

EVERY WEDNESDAY

Holy Spirit of Freedom Community

7.30pm at The Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. Beginning from 10 March we are delighted to welcome everyone to attend our Holy Spirit of Freedom Praise Meeting. Enq: 9475 0155 or hsofperth@gmail.com.

EVERY 2ND WEDNESDAY

Year of the Priest Holy Hour

7-8pm at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. Reflections on St John Vianney, Patron Saint of Priests. Light refreshments later in the parish centre.

Chaplets of the Divine Mercy

7.30pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Rd, Bateman. Commencing 10 February, a beautiful, prayerful, sung devotion accompanied by Exposition, and Benediction. All welcome. Enq: George 9310 9493 H or 9325 2010 W.

OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENTS - 2010

March

4 Installation of Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP, Parramatta - Archbishop Hickey

7 Annual Observance for Commonwealth Day, St George’s Cathedral - Mgr Brian O’Loughlin VG

8 & 9 Closure of Catholic Church Office for relocation to the Cathedral Presbytery, Victoria Avenue

9 Chaplains’ Meeting, Maylands - Archbishop Hickey

Opening and Blessing of facilities at Santa Maria College - Mgr Michael Keating

9 - 11 Meeting of Bishops’ Commission for Church Ministry - Bishop Sproxton

17 St Patrick’s Day Mass, St Mary’s Cathedral - Archbishop Hickey

St Patrick’s Day Family Mass, Iona Presentation College - Bishop Sproxton

ACCOMMODATION

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

ESPERANCE 3 bedroom house f/ furnished. Ph: 08 9076 5083.

GUADALUPE HILL TRIGG

www.beachhouseperth.com

Ph: 0400 292 100.

HOUSE TO SHARE for clean living male, $120p/w Riverton.

Ph: 0449 651 697.

YALLINGUP BEACH Front cottage. Three bedrooms from 2-14 March. Phone 9272 3105.

BUILDING TRADES

BRICK RE-POINTING Ph: Nigel 9242 2952.

PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Ph: Tom Perrott 9444 1200.

PICASSO PAINTING Top service.

Ph: 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

WORK from home - part or full -time 02 8230 0290 or visit www. dreamlife1.com.

COUNSELLING

PSYCHOLOGY and PSYCHOTHERAPY

www.peterwatt.com.au, Ph: 9203 5278.

HANDYMAN

Brendon Handyman Services Home, building maintenance, repairs and renovations. NOR. Ph 0427 539 588.

HEALTH

LOSE WEIGHT safely with natural products. Free, ongoing support. 02 9807 5337.

FURNITURE REMOVAL

ALL AREAS Mike Murphy

Ph: 0416 226 434.

PASTORAL CARE COURSE

FOR MINISTRY WITH the mentally ill For those wanting to know about mental illness this 17 week course will run on Fridays, 8.45am-3.30pm from 2 July to 22 Oct 2010. This course involves information sessions on schizophrenia, bipolar, suicide awareness, eating disorders etc plus group work and ward visits. Course donation of $100 is invited. Applications close 11 June. For information, contact Bob Milne, Graylands Hospital, Pastoral Centre 9347 6685 (0413 325 486 mob).

WANTED

PREMISES REQUIRED FOR

BILLINGS LIFE WA INC We are looking for premises north of Perth where we can hold daytime clinics for our clients. We require premises, preferably with a waiting room, for a period of three to four hours during one day of the week where we can see clients privately. A doctors’ surgery would be ideal. Similar offers would be appreciated. Our teachers are fully accredited to teach the Billings Ovulation Method of Natural Fertility Management and are experienced in fertility education. Please contact Billings LIFE WA Inc: Marilena Scarfe: 0409 119 532.

FOR SALE

VIDEOS - ASSORTMENT musical, documentary, and nature, Dutch/German, 25 for $50. Phone 9277 6128.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

CATHOLICS CORNER Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for Baptism, Communion and Confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

OTTIMO Convenient city location for books, cds/dvds, cards, candles, statues, Bibles, medals and much more. Shop 108, Trinity Arcade (Terrace level), 671 Hay Street, Perth. Ph: 9322 4520. MonFri 9am-6pm.

RICH HARVEST YOUR

CHRISTIAN SHOP Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, Baptism/Communion apparel, religious vestments, etc? Visit us at 39 Hulme Court (off McCoy St), Myaree, Ph: 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve.

KINLAR VESTMENTS

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

SETTLEMENTS

ARE you buying or selling real estate or a business?

Why not ask Excel Settlements for a quote for your settlement. We offer reasonable fees, excellent service and no hidden costs. Ring Excel on 9481 4499 for a quote. Check our website on www.excelsettlements.com.

BOOKSHOP

TRADING HOURS:

Monday - Friday 9am-3pm

587 Newcastle Street (corner Douglas St) West Perth WA 6005

Tel: (08) 9227 7080

bookshop@therecord.com.au

LENTEN DEVOTIONS CD

For the first time ever, two beloved audio recordings have been combined onto a 2-CD set. Seven Last Words: Lenten Reflections for Today's Believers, and The Stations of the Cross. Award-winning author Alice Camille's Seven Last Words (produced by Sheldon Cohen) offers brief, beautiful reflections that remember Jesus' final words. The Stations of the Cross guides listeners through each of the fourteen Stations of the Cross.

RRP $23.95 +p/h

DAILY MASS BOOK

Lent 2010 – Lent 2011

Lent 2010/Lent 2011 Daily Mass book. Incorporates the Order of Mass with scripture readings for every day of the year and special feast days.

RRP $20.95 +p/h

A Bedside book of Saints $19.95 + P/H

THE