The Record Newspaper 04 June 2008

Part of a worldwide celebration, Chinese Catholics bring their own special ways, traditions, to honouring Mary our Mother in the Month of May

When The Record’s Anthony Barich joined the World Youth Day Cross and Icon’s visit to Hakea prison on May 25, he gained exclusive insight into a little-seen but extremely important work of the Church.

WHAT STATS DON’T SAY

In light of the tenth anniversary of abortion’s legalisation in WA, it seems the debate on this topic is over. But is it really, asks Bronia Karniewicz? Page 9

After roughly 30 prisoners witnessed the World Youth Day Cross and Icon in Hakea Prison on May 25, Archbishop Barry Hickey

RECORD BOOK LAUNCH

Archbishop Barry Hickey launched a brand new book on Marian apparitions and miracles by a young WA author.

Meet Bridget Curran Page 11

told me a not entirely unsurprising thing about the prisoners there. The Archbishop usually visits the prison twice a year, and said that he often finds the prisoners have “a lot of

faith”, and are often called to draw on it as they have “plenty of time to think”. It’s often in our darkest hours that we feel the need to pull

Continued - Page 11

The Parish - Pages 4-5, 11

The Nation - Pages 6-7

Letters - Page 8

INDEX CATHOLIC CLARITY in UNCERTAIN TIMES

Perspectives - Vista 4 - Pg 9

The World - Pages 10-11

Panorama - Page 14

Classifieds - Page 15

Resources for your family to help you live the life God has planned for you. Page 16

Gathered for her: For Catholics and Orthodox Christians, Mary’s attraction is universal. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Xing Wenzhi of Shanghai, left, Catholic priests and the faithful participate in a ceremony during a pilgrimage in honour of Mary at the Sheshan shrine on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, on May 24. At a special Mass three days earlier, Chinese pilgrims read aloud a prayer by Pope Benedict XVI as they marked a special day of prayer for the Church in China. Here in Perth Catholics gathered to see and hear Archbishop Barry Hickey launch a new book documenting miracles associated with the intercession of Mary. Book launch report - Page 11

PHOTO: CNS/ALY SONG, REUTERS

Saint for the week

Venerable Bede

673-735 feast – May 25

ybenedict? For Australia’s youth

■ By Anthony Barich

Born in Northumbria, in northern England, Bede was schooled at the Benedictine monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, where he spent the rest of his life as a monk and priest. “Study, teaching and writing have always been my delight,” he wrote. He penned extensive biblical and theological writings, but his fame came as a historian. His most valuable work was “Ecclesiastical History of the English People.” In 836, a church council at Aachen, Germany, called him the Venerable Bede and Pope Leo XIII declared him a doctor of the church in 1899.

for Today Saints

A NEW website linking international pilgrims with Australian Catholics as they prepare for World Youth Day 2008 was launched on May 24 by Cardinal George Pell at an Hispanic party in Sydney.

The website, www.ybenedict.org, is an initiative of the Australian Catholic Students Association and is now publishing daily pilgrim-news in English and Spanish for the final 50 days till WYD 2008.

“I am pleased to launch YBenedict and I wish ACSA every success with this important initiative,” said Cardinal Pell in launching the site.

During the night, Cardinal Pell also starred in a short video commercial to promote Carnivale Christi 2008 – one of ACSA’s events to be held at Sydney University as part of the WYD Youth Festival.

YBenedict is a project of Towards 2008 - the national student and young adult campaign for WYD2008 – and is hosted by ACSA.

The ‘launch-party’ had an Hispanic theme celebrating the Spanish side of the website which will be translated by four Mexican girls who are in Sydney volunteering for WYD.

Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, chief organiser of WYD08, said the website will serve a “vital purpose in the final 50 days till WYD2008”.

Walking with Him Daily Mass Readings

8 10TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Gr Hos 6:3-6 Love, not sacrifice

Ps 49:1.8.12-15 I will free you

Rom4:18-25 Abraham believed

Mt 9:9-13 Mercy, not sacrifice

9 M St Ephrem, deacon, doctor of the Church (O)

Gr 1Kings 17:1-6 No dew, no rain

Ps 120:18 The Lord your guard

Mt 5:1-12 The beatitudes

10 T

Gr 1Kings 17:7-16 Jar of meal

Ps 4:2-5;7-8 Answer me, O God

Mt 5:13-16 Light if the world

11 W St Barnabas, Apostle (M)

Red Acts 11:21-26, 13:1-3 They sent Barnabas

Ps 97:1-6 God’s salvation

Mt 10:7-13 No gold or silver

12T

Gr 1 Kings 18:41-46 Drought ends

Ps 64:10-13 Water for the earth

Mt 5:2-26 Come to terms

13F St Anthony of Padua, priest, doctor of the Church (M)

Wh 1Kings 19:9,11-16 A gentle breeze

Ps 26:7-9, 13-14 To see your face

Mt 5:27-32 I sat to you

14 S

Gr 1Kings 19:19-21 The call of Elisha

Ps 15:1-2.5.7-10 My portion and cup

Mt 5:33-37 Do not swear

Anthony McCarthy, national coordinator of Towards 2008, said the website will allow pilgrims “from Sydney to Santiago, from South Australia to Spain” to follow all the developments in the lead up to WYD2008.

The launch party followed the ‘Activ8’ promotions on Saturday when young people promoted WYD in 50 locations across Sydney.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their efforts promoting WYD today – this is important work,” said Cardinal Pell in front of the 120 young people gathered for the launch.

“One of the young people tonight suggested to me that it was all about ‘bums on seats’ – I suggested that it was more about changing their hearts… the two concepts are not incompatible,” the Cardinal explained.

As part of a truly international night, the YBenedict launch also included Marian prayers sung in English and Mandarin following Pope Benedict’s personal call for the Universal Church to be united in prayer for the Church in China on May 24 – the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians.

The night concluded with Latin Compline led by the WYD group Juventutem-Australia and overnight adoration was then held in St Peter’s Church next to the BXVI Pilgrim Centre.

“An overnight Adoration Vigil will now be held every weekend until WYD at St Peter’s Church,” said Mr McCarthy.

“The Adoration will serve as a prayerful countdown for the final eight weeks until WYD just as YBenedict will serve as a news-countdown for the final 50 days.”

The St Mary’s Crucifix Dont miss a UNIQUE opportunity to own a part of our history of Faith!

Contrary to what some schoolboys may think, history is not just dry bones, boring dates and anniversaries of long-forgotten battles; it is a story of human lives and the dramas of every individual who ever lived - all of it - the triumphs, the tragedies, the struggles. Here is your chance to see history come alive.

The St Mary’s Cathedral crucifix AVAILABLE NOW from The Record is Western Australian history preserved in a fresh new way. Made from the solid Jarrah timbers originally used in the construction of St Mary’s Cathedral and lovingly refashioned into a beautiful new object of devotion, these professionally-produced works of faith and love were once timbers laid down and fashioned for use by the craftsmen and tradesmen who built St Mary’s Cathedral. Every one of these beautiful crucifixes, available standing on a base or for hanging on a wall, represents in a special way the faith of the early Catholics of Perth who sacrificed so much to see their beloved Cathedral raised up in the city of Perth. Here is a beautiful way to preserve their efforts and sacrifices, a way that also brings their achievements alive with a whole new meaning added by the Catholics of today, one which honours their memory, a tradition of love.

As it was: St Mary’s cathedral shortly after completion in 1865.

PHOTO: COURTESY ARCHIVES OF THE ARCHDOICESE OF PERTH

Above and below: The website emphasises Pope Benedict XVI, a central presence during WYD08, and youth preparations for the event.

With 20 DVDs under belt, Fr Patrick is back

AFTER spending most of the last year or so working in Brisbane and finalising the production of a series of videos for adult Catholics Fr Patrick Lim has returned to be Parish Priest of Hilton.

In April 2007 Fr Lim, then Parish Priest of Kwinana, decided to complete and promote a long-run-

ning project in which he had been involved with Marist priest Fr Brian Thornhill.

Fr Thornhill, a well-known Australian theologian with a special interest in the Second Vatican Council, has authored the 20-DVD “Emmaus” series which offer adult faith formation; from 2001 to 2005

Youth to get one-onone with Benedict

■ By Anthony Barich

POPE Benedict XVI will meet some of Australia’s disadvantaged young people during World Youth Day Sydney 2008 after personally requesting to do so.

WYD08 organisers also revealed May 26 that the Pope will share a private meal with 12 young people from around the world and hold a special Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral with invited seminarians and young religious people.

WYD08 Coordinator, Bishop Anthony Fisher, said these occasions would allow the Pope to connect with young people from different walks of life on a personal level.

“The lunch will be a very special occasion for those 12 young people, especially the two Australians chosen to represent the host country,” Bishop Fisher said.

Thirty-year-old Teresa Wilson from Melbourne, a longtime volunteer with the St Vincent de Paul Society, said she felt blessed to be chosen to break bread with the Pope.

“It’s an incredible honour to speak directly with the Holy Father and to meet young people from every continent at Australia’s World Youth Day,” she said.

Craig Ashby, a 21-year-old Gamilaroi (Aboriginal tribe) man and Sydney University student, said he was thrilled and proud to represent Australian and indigenous youth.

“Who would have thought a young bloke from Walgett would get the chance to have lunch with the Pope one day and represent all young Aussies?” Mr Ashby said.

Bishop Fisher said the 12 young people would include two people from each of the five continents

Billings WA are proudly commencing a Natural Family Planning Clinic

For clients services at the Midwifery & Natural Childbirth Centre

336 Oxford St. Leederville

Corner of Oxford and Franklin St’s

Billings WA Clinic is open

Every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays in the month

Hours available are 10.30am-2.00pm.

Contact Billings WA for Accredited

Billings Teachers 0409119532

Free call State Wide 1800 819 841 www.woomb.org

CLINIC OPENS

Other Billings WA clinics situated at Fremantle and St John of God, Murdoch

Supported by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing and administered by Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Fr Lim helped Fr Thornhill to record and produce the DVDs. While in Brisbane he offered his services to Archbishop Bathersby. He assisted in Grovely Parish until he was made Administrator of Oxenford Parish, in the Gold Coast, one of the fastest growing parishes in Brisbane Archdiocese,

in November 2007. Due to a health issue because of the climate in Brisbane he was advised to return to Perth this year. He returned to Perth at the end of March. Ordained in 1985, Fr Lim has served in a variety of roles around the Archdiocese of Perth, including as webmaster for 12 years.

Between 1996 and 1999 he studied part-time at Notre Dame Catholic University and in 2000 was awarded a Master’s Degree in Theology.

In 1994 he was appointed foundation Parish Priest of the new parish of Clarkson, where he worked until 1999.

World Youth Day

Anyone able to help this cause will be sent a complimentary Papal Rosary of Pope Benedict XVI, and a Holy card with a prayer for World Youth Day. We ask you to join the Holy Father and the Catholic community in prayer for the success of this unique and faith filled event.

To send your donation please fill out the coupon below and tick the box* if you would like to receive the complimentary Papal Rosary and prayer card.

Help Poor and Oppressed Youth attend World Youth Day 2008

Aid to the Church in Need, POBox 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148

Phone/Fax No: (02) 9679-1929 E-mail: info@aidtochurch.org Web: www.aidtochurch.org

I/We enclose a donation of $ …….....… to help Youth from Poor and Oppressed countries attend World Youth Day 2008

0Yes please send me the Papal rosary and Holy card*

I enclose a cheque/money order payable to Aid to the Church in Need OR please

. . . . . . . . . Postcode . . . . . . . . . . . .

Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Back in Perth: Fr Patrick Lim, greets parishioners at Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Hilton after a recent Saturday Vigil Mass. PHOTO: EUGEN MATTES

the Parish

Port Kennedy to celebrate dedication this weekend

The parish of Port Kennedy has been built from the ground up by parishioners, and will celebrate the dedication of its new Church on Sunday at 2pm

■ By Anthony Barich

LITTLE over ten years ago, the site of Port Kennedy parish was not much more than an expanse of dirt, and since then it’s been a tough row to hoe.

But on June 8, St Bernadette’s Church will finally be dedicated by Archbishop Barry Hickey.

In 1994 the sand was tilled and the site for the new Catholic primary school was blessed by Fr Tony Vallis. The foundations were laid a year later.

Garry Burgess was appointed school principal and Fr Richard Doyle was appointed as foundation parish priest having come from Willetton.

By 1995 a liturgy committee was formed and special ministers were

commissioned, plus an RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) program and social committee were also initiated.

The first Mass was celebrated on July 8, 2005 in the new parish centre and Archbishop Hickey officially opened it on August 24.

Among the difficultues the parish has faced are the departure of clergy under less than happy circumstances.

Now Bangladesh-born Fr Gavin Gomez, who was assistant priest at Claremont, is steering the ship after having been appointed parish priest at Port Kennedy.

This year he also celebrates 20 years in Australia since moving from England where he grew up since the age of nine.

But back in the 1990s, Port Kennedy’s fledgling faith community had to improvise, with Mass being celebrated in the Year One classroom of the parish school, and parishioners still recall squatting on the tiny chairs until the community outgrew the room and Mass was moved to the pre-primary centre.

Then a pastoral worker arrived –Sister Francis Gibb from the Sisters of the Mission in Armadale, who organised many community-building events around the parish that

forged friendships. Sr Frances was based at Port Kennedy until 1998.

Groups such as the Majellan and mothers’ groups, others focused on shepherding children and youth through various phases of their faith development were all initiated.

In January 2001 the community celebrated the country’s federation with the installation of a Federation Bell that the children took great delight in ringing after all the Masses.

The children also closed the Holy door that marked the end of the

Jubilee Year initiated by Pope John Paul II.

Requests were flooding in for baptisms and soon, in 2002, discussion started about the need for a house for refugees.

A house was purchased in October and prepared to host its first refugee family.

Until now, the parish hall has been used for Mass; in November last year it was announced that the parish would officially be known as St Bernadette’s. Construction of the new church began with the erec-

Prendiville College celebrates namesake’s foresight

■ By Anthony Barich

ARCHBISHOP Redmond

Prendiville’s wisdom and forward thinking left a legacy that will be remembered for some time yet, according to his latest successor, Archbishop Barry Hickey.

During a day of festivities at Prendiville College on May 16 marking the fortieth anniversary of the death of the earlier Archbishop of Perth, Archbishop Barry Hickey spoke during a special Mass about Archbishop Prendiville’s role as shepherd of Perth’s Catholic community.

The former Archbishop served the Archdiocese of Perth for 36 years as Archbishop, from 19331968.

Holding Archbishop Prendiville’s crozier, Archbishop Hickey recalled Archbishop Redmond Prendiville’s dedication as a shepherd to his flock.

Archbishop Hickey also described Archbishop Prendiville’s wisdom in establishing 60 Catholic schools in Western Australia during his ministry. He recalled that when Archbishop

Prendiville acquired the land on which Prendiville Catholic College is located in present-day Ocean Reef, there were no roads leading to

the area. He said that some administrators thought that Perth would never spread that far northward along the coast, but the flourishing

of the northern suburbs is a tribute to the Archbishop’s foresight, as is the establishment of many other excellent Catholic schools and parishes in the area.

It is now part of folklore that Archbishop Prendiville befriended a Jewish couple, and when the husband later died the widow offered to sell him a significant parcel of land in the northern suburbs. His advisers reportedly advised against the investment, but he went ahead in partnership with the Adelaide Steamship Company.

When the company wanted to withdraw from the deal, he took possession of the other half.

Those who bought property in the northern suburbs from the late 1970s right up to the 1990s may have noticed the names of Archbishop Prendiville’ and his successors on top of their title deeds, as the land was subdivided. Suburbs like Ocean Reef, Iluka and Currambine are all in the area that the Archbishop purchased. Among other clergy, Archbishop Hickey concelebrated the Mass that opened Prendiville Day with Fr John Prendiville SJ, a nephew of the late Archbishop Redmond Prendiville.

tion of the spire in April last year, and people were still forced to sit on rugs outside the parish centre as parishioners packed into it for Christmas Eve Vigil, Midnight Mass and Christmas Day Mass at the end of 2007.

Fundraising, a difficult but necessary process for new parishes, netted over $35,000, and the parish also received a donation of just under $40,000. As reported in The Record recently, the famous five cent collection organised by parishioners netted $5429.

The community also rose to the occasion, supporting the Fence Appeal and a Buy-a-Pew campaign that raised just over $3400 and $15,600 respectively.

But finding those past parishioners who helped build the parish for the upcoming dedication of the new church has proved difficult.

“Despite concerted efforts, we have been unable to contact some of our past parishioners who have moved away from the area,” explained Fr Gomez.

“An open invitation is extended to them to join in celebrating with us this historic occasion, an occasion which they helped to create.”

A full report will appear next week.

Students flock to tech-free college

Imagine a college where television and cell phones are banned and where the internet can only be accessed through an on-campus computer lab. Would anyone want to go there?

The answer has already been provided by a new university in Wyoming, USA, where the first 34 students have just completed final exams and all seem determined to come back for more. More art of conversation, more wilderness and horse-riding experiences, more of the great books program on which the curriculum is based, more Latin immersion classes, more learning how to think, and more of the spiritual tradition offered at Wyoming Catholic College.

Students interviewed by the local newspaper clearly found it a breath of fresh air. “This is the first time in my life I’ve actually felt like I learned something,” said one. They come from as far afield as Iowa, New Jersey, California and Illinois.

Happy to be here: Fr Joseph Tran of Whitford Parish blesses a staff member during a special Mass celebrating the day named for Prendiville College’s founder, Archbishop Redmond Prendiville.

PHOTO: COURTESY PRENDIVILLE COLLEGE

Patroness: St Bernadette, one of the most popular of modern saints, is patroness of the Port Kennedy parish.

Up she goes: Construction begins at Port Kennedy in 2007. The church will be consecrated this weekend.

the Parish

Sisters do great work - but now they need help

Soaring local property prices are pressuring Servite Sisters out of an area where they are badly needed

■ By Anthony Barich

CATHOLIC Religious orders have for centuries relied on Divine Providence, but for the Servite Sisters in Bayswater who give loving care to the children of refugees and Aboriginals, things are getting pretty tough.

Servite Sisters working around Perth and Narrogin are involved in teaching, nursing, pastoral care and the Aboriginal apostolate, but three who run a childcare centre for children of refugees and disadvantaged Aboriginal people in Bayswater are in dire straights.

They rent a large block Homeswest. It has an office, classroom and playground.

On that block they run early childcare for children aged up to five for refugees from countries including Sudan, Ethiopia and Rwanda, and for disadvantaged Aboriginal children in a centre called ‘Kora’, an Aboriginal word for ‘companion’.

They also let Aboriginal women suffering domestic abuse stay with them, and assist the parents and the refugee parents enroll in education programs to empower themselves and build a better future.

But Bayswater is a suburb on the rise where houses are already selling for over $500,000, and the Sisters have been under pressure for some time to move due to the value of the land.

They also face insurance and licensing fees and general running costs that total about $70,000 a year.

While they receive a subsidy from the Archdiocese of Perth and occasional donations from schools like John XXIII and Servite Colleges and some primary schools who support their work through fundraising programs, these often cover only part of their costs.

Two years ago the Sisters also had a series of break-ins, so Catholic Church Insurance helped them install bars on the windows.

Lotterywest has also been helpful by providing a bus the Sisters use to pick up the children.

It also enables the Sisters to interact more with families and to know what their home lives are like, so they can understand the children more and better care for them.

The Order has been in Perth since 1970, heavily involved in working for the marginalised and relying on Divine Providence in the form of charity from others, but things are getting very tight indeed.

They have been searching for months for someone to drive the bus, as the three Sisters already divide their time between aged care and teaching as well as running Kora three days a week.

Their Congregation’s charism has always been that, “Whoever helps the powerless and help them to liberate themselves stand at the foot of the Cross with Mary,” said Sister Charla Kernand, Superior for their Congregation’s Riverton community who coordinates the Kora Centre.

“When migrants arrive, the adults have to learn the language and get jobs, which leaves the kids in limbo, so we look after them,” Sr Chela said.

“When they’re under age five, kids learn by playing, and when they receive one-on-one love and care they develop the confidence to start regular schooling and interact with other kids.

“Their parents trust us, as they find their children get the confidence to interact with other kids, having made friends easily with children from such diverse cultures here.” She added that their interaction with children from other cultures and countries also gives them

a unique ability to establish friendships regardless of race or colour.

“When a new child arrives, they make friends with the others straight away. Their parents all come from different circumstances but we teach them to love everyone equally,” she said, adding that they start each day with a prayer to God.

The Servite Sisters are a branch of the Servants of Mary, an Order started by seven Florentine merchants in Italy in the thirteenth century in response to the divine call for prayer and penance, inspired by the Blessed Mother of Sorrows.

The Servite Sisters’ Congregation was founded in 1854 by five young women and helped by Jesuit Father Peter Mercatti, an Italian Jesuit living in India.

Today, the Order has established over 150 houses throughout India, Myanmar, Australia, the Philippines and Italy, with the international headquarters in Chennai.

Things are much easier in India, where Sr Chela says that charity organisations are much cheaper to run, and accessible to more people. But here, the Sisters often get buried under licensing and insurance fees and bureaucratic red tape.

Though they only provide the basic necessities in terms of material possessions, the Sisters give that which is needed most – love and compassion.

“With so much divorce, childrens’ hearts are breaking; they yearn for a father, or which ever parent they don’t get to see,” Sr Chela said.

Though parents help out some-

14 months, with another mother, Evelyn, with Sr Chela.

Can you drive?

The Sisters who run Mercy Care Kora Child Care in Bayswater are keen to find drivers for their 22-seat bus, to collect children from their homes to attend the centre on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The day is between 9 and 4 but only has two hours of driving the little ones and their helpers between home and the centre.

If drivers would be able to do some light yard work during the day it would be a great help.

This could be a job share situation for volunteers who will need either a LR or MR licence with an F endorsement. Volunteers would need to be prepared to get a working with children police clearance. Interested volunteers are asked to phone Sr Chitra on 9271 9031.

times, they are often away working and educating themselves to establish the family, but, Sr Chela says, the friendship of the children and the love of the Sisters is what they can offer.

To help the Sisters out financially, practically or materially, call them on 9271 9031, 9354 5083 or email srchitraosm@hotmail.com

WYD Stations of the Cross toned down for Jewish concerns

■ By Anthony Barich

WORLD Youth Day 2008 organisers have toned down the Stations of the Cross that will process through the streets of Sydney on July 18 to appease concerns of the local Jewish community.

Jim Hanna, WYD08 Director of Communications, told The Record on May 30 that Church officials had agreed to use a “more ecumenical” account based on the New Testament.

“We didn’t want to give people reasons to not attend,” Mr Hanna said. “We want as many people to attend as possible, that’s why we were happy to make changes we could live with.”

It is understood that in

discussions with WYD organisers, members of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies said they did not want the Jews to be depicted as the ones who crucified Christ.

A statement released by the WYD08 office on May 29 said: “We’ve accommodated them (the Jewish community’s concerns) where appropriate, but we’re unable to change the New Testament. Ultimately, we’re acknowledging that Christ was crucified for and by all sinners.”

Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, chief organiser of WYD08, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on May 29 that organisers are “very conscious of the fear some people might have that enacting the Passion of Christ could incite anti-semitic feelings

and so we’ve had a long dialogue about how we can minimise any risk of that”.

“We want to make it very clear to people that the Passion of Christ celebrated in the Stations of the Cross is not intended to be, is no excuse for being, an attack on anybody and certainly not for nurturing any prejudices that people may have in their hearts.

“In the choice of scriptural texts, you can choose ones that are less likely to be misinterpreted by people to encourage that kind of feeling and we’ve chosen those texts carefully and in consultation with others.”

Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Sydney, praised the Catholic Church’s attempts at positive talks

between the two faiths, and told The Sydney Morning Herald he had invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit the synagogue during his stay in Autralia for WYD.

The WYD Office announced on May 28 that Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the Australian leaders of other faiths during his visit to Australia for WYD, including Anglican, Protestant, Orthodox, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Eastern Rite Churches.

About 40 Christians will pray with His Holiness in the St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt, which will be followed by a meeting with around 40 heads of other faith traditions including the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu.

The Australian reported on May 30 that during the first Station of

the Cross – a re-enactment of the Last Supper - to be played out on the steps of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney’s central business district, the Pope will read a prayer then lead the pilgrims in a recitation of the Our Father.

He will then descend into the cathedral’s crypt accompanied by journalists to watch the remining Stations of the Cross on television.

The WYD08 website says the Stations of the Cross will be a “prayerful re-enactment of the last days of Jesus’ life”.

Mr Hanna also confirmed that 13 Stations will be re-enacted on the streets of Sydney, not eight, as The Australian reported May 30. The Stations will be played out between 3-6pm local time on July 18.

All together: Sr Candida Pereira and Sr Chela enjoy helping refugee and Aboriginal children learn through playing at Kora Centre. Three Servite Sisters work at the centre three days a week, but need constant financial help.

PHOTO: RIGHT: COURTESY MERCEDES COLLEGE, WHERE YEAR 12 EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES STUDENTS ARE HELPED BY THE SERVITES.

Loving care: A young mother, Emma, with Chanelle,

the Nation

French Mass called a ‘coup’ for Canberra archdiocese Hart calls for inquiry after Law Reform abortion report

■ By Paul Gray

A UNIQUE church service will be televised live throughout France from Canberra’s St Christopher Cathedral next month, when the Archbishop of Paris visits our national capital for a special Mass for French Word Youth Day pilgrims.

Cardinal Andre Armand VingtTrois, who succeeded the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger as Archbishop of Paris, will concelebrate the Mass with CanberraGoulburn’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge.

Nearly 1000 French pilgrims are expected to crowd the Canberra Cathedral for the July 13 Mass, which has been scheduled for 6pm to allow 1.5 million French viewers to watch live from home.

The Mass is an organisational coup for the Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese, and will add further international flavour to the World

Youth Day festival in Australia next month. In what is rapidly becoming a tradition, the archdiocese of Paris arranges Mass for youth pilgrims from France on the Sunday before the papal Mass in the country where World Youth Day is taking place that year.

Where possible, the CardinalArchbishop himself says the Mass.

This year it’s expected that 450 people from the city of Paris and up to 400 other French pilgrims will be in attendance.

The “Paris Mass” in Canberra is a fruitful outcome after a year of behind the scenes labour.

Shawn van der Linden from the Catholic Life Office of the Canberra-Goulburn diocese visited France last year and heard of the interest people in the Paris archdiocese had in maintaining the French connection with previous World Youth Days.

As well as meeting diocesan officials, van der Linden met with representatives of the Chemin Neuf

A Day of RETREAT & REFLECTION For Mothers & Women

Everyone is cordially invited to a Day of Reflection at the Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Drive, Mt Richon 6112 Fr Marcelo Aravena, a Schoenstatt Father from Sydney, NSW, will speak on the theme of “Hope in a

challenging world! Our answer?”

There will be time for questions and discussion, reflection and meditation. The program includes the celebration of the Eucharist.

WHERE: Schoenstatt Centre – Emilie House (see above)

WHEN: Wednesday, 11th June, 2008

From 9.30 am to 2 pm

WHAT TO BRING: Your own Lunch, Tea & Coffee will be provided

COST: By Donation

For any queries please contact Sr. Georgina Heger on 9399 2349 or E-mail: g.heger@bigpond.com

(New Way) community, a Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation which was founded in Lyon, France in 1973. Chemin Neuf has more than 1000 members in 20 countries. Van de Linden describes them as a fascinating community whose approach is based on “Jesuit spirituality.”

There are expected 100 members of Chemin Neuf in Canberra for the July 13 Mass.

Canberra has already been visited by a television infrastructure crew from France who have investigated shooting locations in the Cathedral precinct and around Canberra.

Van der Linden says there will be 20 staff from France flying in and out for the day to operate the live broadcast van.

“They will be filming around the diocese as well on the day of the broadcast,” van der Linden said.

A key element in the organisation of the Mass is accommodation for the large number of visiting French. Several dioceses including Canberra-Goulburn have been organising “home stay” programs to accommodate an influx of overseas visitors in the days before World Youth Day in Sydney.

But the logistics of the Paris exercise meant it was necessary to take French visitors out of home stay around Canberra and house them in a communal setting, van der Linden explained.

He said the Catholic colleges of St Edmund’s and St Clare’s were happy to oblige. Male French pilgrims will now stay at St Edmund’s boys’ college while the females stay at St Clare’s, a girls college.

The archdiocese itself will provide the French visitors with their croissants for breakfast on the day the Mass. Van der Linden says this is not necessarily the beginning of a particular link between Canberra and Paris.

However he explained that Canberra’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge is a bishop who is “very open” to the gifts brought to the life of the Church by some of the new communities.

Dating back as far as the third century AD, the see of Paris is regarded as one of the most prestigious in Christendom. The diocese is believed to have been founded by the martyr St Denis, who was beheaded by heathens for converting so many people to Catholicism.

■ By Paul Gray

MELBOURNE Archbishop

Denis Hart says a parliamentary enquiry into abortion should be established, in response to a Law Reform Commission calling for the legalising of the practice.

He has also warned that Victorian law is in danger of becoming “completely permissive” and giving pregnant women no support, if abortion laws are changed. Victoria became the latest state to put abortion on the parliamentary agenda last week as the state’s Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, released a long-awaited Law Reform Commission report.

Archbishop Hart said the issue demands a parliamentary inquiry.

“Matters of such gravity and community concern should not be determined on the basis of a single committee report,” he said.

The Archbishop criticised the committee which produced the report as unrepresentative of the wider community.

“The Commission completely dismisses concerns about proper respect for human life,” he said. “It seeks to have abortion treated as though it were any other medical procedure.

The Archbishop added: “This flies in the face of the fact that the life of a human being is intentionally destroyed. It also flies in the face of community concern for a woman faced with the predicament of abortion.”

Under a longstanding court precedent called the Menhennitt ruling, abortions are generally considered legal in Victoria, at least up to 24 weeks’ gestation of the child.

However a long-expected Law Reform Commission report presented by the Victorian Government last week calls for one of three legislative options to be enacted, each of which would further entrench abortion as a legal practice in

the state. Archbishop Hart said all three options provided by the Commission reject requirements for making supportive counseling for pregnant women available.

They also reject the need for an independent medical opinion before an abortion is allowed, the reporting of adverse events and the restricting of abortion to places that have adequate facilities for a major surgical procedure.

The Archbishop said all options recommended to the Government would simply allow a doctor to perform consensual abortion with no support offered to the woman to assist her with her pregnancy.

“That does not reflect Australian opinion which sees abortion as a decision that is very difficult to make and in need of supportive counseling.”

Archbishop Hart warned that if any of the three Law Reform Commission proposals are accepted by Victoria’s parliament, the number of children aborted will increase, as will the number of children aborted who “are matured enough to be born alive.”

The Melbourne Archbishop expressed disappointment that in its report the Victorian Law Reform Commission included an essay on the ethics of abortion which misrepresents the pro-life position and in which Pope John Paul II is “selectively quoted.”

It fails to address the needs of a woman in the predicament of an unexpected pregnancy for support and an opportunity to discuss the issues with someone who is supportive of her and independent.

“Everything can rest on the advice and opinion of the abortion doctor,” he said.

Discussion of the issue should now be shifted to a parliamentary inquiry where elected representatives “can take evidence for themselves and gauge the nature of community concerns that have been obscured by this report.”

Sydney Uni buys Vatican Knights Templar records

A RARE copy of manuscripts of the trials of the Knights Templar has been purchased from the Vatican by Sydney University, to assist medieval scholarship in Australia.

Neil Boness, Rare Book Librarian at the university’s Fisher Library, said it is “very unusual” for the Vatican to release a reproduction of such material from the secret archives.

The medieval Knights Templar still have a controversial reputation with Hollywood movies Kingdom of Heaven and The Da Vinci Code both giving them starring role.

But the Knights, who wore white robes with large red crosses over their chain mail, have often been unfairly accused of crimes they did not commit. The newly released Vatican documents (pictured) show that at least one Pope thought so too.

think the Templars were guilty of heresy,” Bones says.

John Pryor, Associate Professor of Medieval Studies at Sydney University, says agents of King Philip IV of France put “significant pressure” on the Pope to find the Knights Templar guilty of heresy in the early 14th century. Many of the order’s leaders were burnt at the stake after the trials.

But a key document in the newly purchased collection – a document known as the Chinon Parchment – shows that Pope Clement V absolved the Knights Templar of the charge of heresy.

Prof Pryor says after the trial several thousand of the order survived in Spain and elsewhere, but most simply disappeared into the surrounding society.

“The crux of these trial documents is that Pope Clement V didn’t

“There is a huge scholarly interest in the trials,” Prof Pryor says.

 PAUL GRAY

Canberra: Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn welcomes the WYD Cross and Icon before media and local youth recently. His archdiocese will host a special French-language Mass celebrated by Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris that will be televised live to France.

PHOTO: COURTESY ARCHDIOCESE OF CANBERRAGOULBURN

the Nation

Goulburn set to be taken over by youth

■ By Paul Gray

THE rural township of Goulburn in New South Wales is set to experience a Catholic youth takeover with 2000 pilgrims from around the world flooding in for a four-day forum before World Youth Day.

An international ecclesial movement, the Emmanuel Community, is organising the International Youth Forum for 1600 people in conjunction with the sole local parish in Goulburn.

The Forum will be opened by the new Apostolic Nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto.

Other diplomatic dignitaries will also mark the youth forum with their presence, in another sign of the developing international interest in World Youth Day and its related activities.

Those expected in Goulburn include Indonesia’s Ambassador to Australia, who is coming to greet an expected cohort of Indonesian Catholic pilgrims, numbering around 40.

Goulburn is a 170-year-old township, 200 kilometres from Sydney. Its current population is about 22,000.

The youth forum will run from July 9-13. It is being organised along the lines of similar international gatherings organised by the Emmanuel Community during the approach to earlier World Youth Days. Sydney lawyer and Emmanuel

Community member Dominic Cudmore has been travelling extensively between the harbour city, Goulburn and Canberra in recent weeks to help with the extensive planning for the event.

He says World Youth Day and related events represent the community’s principal mission to the young. The group hosted 5000 young pilgrims at the last International Youth Forum, before World Youth Day in Cologne.

Organising for the Goulburn forum began informally in 2005 when a number of Emmanuel Community members met the parish priest of Goulburn, Fr Tony Percy, and found they had a common interest in holding such an event.

Fr Percy is shortly to become Rector of the Good Shepherd seminary in Sydney.

The Forum organisers are expecting 600 Dutch pilgrims and several bishops from the Netherlands to attend.

Others who have registered for the forum include Colombian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Brazilian and North American pilgrims.

The large number of pilgrims from the Netherlands reflects the fact that the Dutch bishops have chosen Goulburn as the principal Australian location for their youth to spend time before World Youth Day.

Overall, the forum participants, Cudmore says, will be just “ordinary kids” who are keen to come to

Reconciliation: Set to be a key part of the Goulburn gathering.

World Youth Day. They range from members of the Emmanuel movement, to their friends, to young people who have “no allegiance” to any particular church group or tendency other than the Catholic faith.

Cudmore says during their days in Goulburn, pilgrims will have a “genuine experience of the Lord.” Activities will include adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, confessions, serious mission and evangelisation sessions, fun, entertainment and meals together.

Cudmore quotes the words of Canberra-Goulburn Archbishop Mark Coleridge who has described World Youth Day as a combination of “prayer and party.”

Youth forum pilgrims will meet for their morning sessions at the Goulburn showgrounds and later in the day, converge on the park in the centre of the town in what will be a clear sign to all who see it that

the Church today intends taking its faith on to the streets.

Already the World Youth Day cross and icon have visited the same park in Goulburn, with 2000 people attending in welcome.

Cudmore says such happenings highlight the stage that Catholic mission has reached in Australia. “I think the time has come to take it into the marketplace,” he says.

Cudmore says he’s confident, in light of experience from earlier World Youth Days, that good relationships will be built up in the long term between local residents and pilgrims who stay in Goulburn next month.

The Emmanuel Community was founded by Frenchman Pierre Goursat in 1976 and numbers more than 6000 committed community members worldwide. These include 140 priests and 120 seminarians.

At a global level, the Emmanuel Community also plays an important role in looking after the San Lorenzo International Youth Centre in Rome. This work is carried out under the aegis of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

The Emmanuel Community’s statutes were recognised by the Vatican in 1998, seven years after the death of its founder.

The Community consists of ordinary lay members, priests and consecrated lay persons. Australian members of the Community presently include one priest and one seminarian who is studying in Belgium.

Caring for Grandpa - by remote control

The prospect of 76 million American baby boomers growing older and frailer is stimulating trials of electronic monitoring systems that can help to keep elderly relatives living alone safe - or relatively safe. One woman in her own home has sensors attached to the walls which are able to register when she gets out of bed and whether she stops at her medication dispenser.

They can alert her daughter hundreds of miles away to any deviations from her routine that might indicate an accident or illness. The family is updated by electronic report every morning. A Harvard professor predicts that this sort of thing will become commonplace in 10 years.

Intel Corporation is testing a “memory bracelet” that vibrates at a specified time to remind the wearer to take her medicine. Also in trials are sensorinfused carpets and wearable sensors which would measure changes in gait, to help avoid falls.

Yes, but will it be all good? There seems to be major potential here for a dehumanised system in which the needs of the elderly for company and affection are not met.  MERCATORNET

Perspectives

editorial letters to the editor

The winds of change are gusting

The winds of change are forever blowing, but in Australia these days they are gusting in so many directions that it is hard to see where they are coming from, much less where they are likely to take us. Some are predictable, some surprising and some hopeful.

One of the certainties of life is that when a society loses respect for life, it will soon lose respect for people. Our loss of respect for life has been evident for many years in abortion, suicide, the push for euthanasia, and the creation and destruction of human embryos for the sake of research.

The most recent demonstration of this morphing into lack of respect for people is the strong government support for the idea of an opt-out system for organ donation at the time of death – that is, the assumption that the government owns your body unless you take bureaucratic steps to assert otherwise.

Regardless of what one thinks of the merits of organ transplants or the merits of registering yourself as an organ donor, the notion that the government can decide that your family will have no say in the disposition of your body at death is a huge leap in disrespect for the person and for the family.

If one can believe the poll reported by The West Australian (and a poll of 412 people is not much to go on) three-quarters of the population think this form of disrespect is acceptable. The fact that fewer than half of these people have bothered to register themselves as organ donors suggests they have little concern for potential organ donor recipients, little respect for their own bodies, and no respect at all for those who do not share their views.

THE RECORD

PO Box 75

Leederville, WA 6902 cathrec@iinet.net.au

Tel: (08) 9227 7080

Fax: (08) 9227 7087

The last of these is an expression of the too common belief that some people know how to live other people’s lives better than they do, which, in turn, is one of the classic demonstrations of the pernicious desire to control other people.

A separate gust of wind in a similar direction is Premier Alan Carpenter’s action in appointing his own selections to various ‘safe’ Labor seats for the next State election. It seems hardly to have been noticed that he is the first Premier in the State’s history to have claimed and exercised the right to name his own candidates to as many seats as he chooses.

Until now, this has been anathema, because it is a sharp turn in the direction of the old “rotten boroughs” of English history. Mr Carpenter is fulsome in praise of his own endeavours to right the balance of integrity in the parliamentary wing of the ALP, but if he lacks the knowledge of history to know what he is doing, he should simply ask himself what would be result of this new Premier’s prerogative if it were exercised by any of his recent predecessors as Labor premiers, particularly, perhaps, his least admired colleague Brian Burke.

The many dangers of this sort of personal patronage are revealed in the fact that two of Mr Carpenter’s personal choices are, like himself, journalists, a kind of cloning that suggests he has little understanding of human nature and a limited capacity to recognise quality unless it looks like himself.

On a different front, the death (or at least permanent coma) of the federation now seems inevitable. There wasn’t much of the federation or the defences surrounding it left intact by the Howard government, and the Rudd government has confirmed the pattern.

Despite all the arguments about what might or might not be the true figures arising from its changes to the Medicare levy, the unarguable fact is that it is a long stride back towards the original Medicare which excluded private hospitals from Federal Government funding. From that day onward, waiting lists and overcrowding at public hospitals ballooned and have not been brought under control in any State since. This time, the damage caused will quickly become the justification for Labor’s long-held dream of a national health system with a very limited place for private health.

It also appears that Labor’s roll-back of the GST (remember that??) is about to begin. According to the Rudd/Swan version of economic management, the Opposition’s plan to cut fuel excise (Commonwealth revenue) by 5c a litre was almost unspeakably irresponsible, but within a very short time someone in the backroom woke up to the possibilities.

Instead of taking 5c a litre from Commonwealth revenue, they could take 4c a litre from State Government revenue by cutting the GST on the excise component. We have always been told that the GST cannot be changed without the approval of all States, but so far the States (all Labor) have not threatened a veto. They have merely demanded ‘compensation’, which is just another way of making themselves subservient to the whims of the Commonwealth as the rock-solid growth tax for the States disappears into history and the federation with it.

On a more optimistic note, we have had a sudden gust of decency reaching into parts of the media. Columnist Paul Murray wrote an angry piece in the morning newspaper about the surfeit of crude language in a TV show about restaurant management.

He was not asking for censorship but asking people, especially community leaders, to demand respect for decent community standards. Welcome to the team! For years, Catholics all over the place, and this newspaper in particular, have been calling on community leaders to stand up publicly for decent standards in films and television in the face of the glamorisation of adultery and the glorification of meaningless sexual activity which have contributed so much to the destruction of families and the pain and suffering of children.

We also applaud the actions of the police in NSW in closing down an “art” exhibition featuring nude photographs very under-age models. Until now, the profane word “art” seems to have justified all manner of things.

Let the winds blow .... “blow, blow, blow till I be, but breath of the Spirit blowing in me.”

By the way, I just saw your Easter edition of The Record

It is nearly two months since Easter, but it is only now that I have seen the Easter issue of The Record. It is a magnificent photographic cover of the ceremonies of Good Friday and the Easter Vigil and Mass in the parishes of Perth and country towns – of Ways of the Cross, Palm Sunday processions, Washing of the feet - and photos and accounts at Connemara and Piazza S Pietro in Rome. The report on the Way of the Cross on Page 10 is truly a work of art. I was puzzled by the colourful hats in Piazza S Pietro, till I realised they were umbrellas because of the rain!

It is a magnificent issue, unique in my experience and worth keeping as a memorial of Easter during the year.

I offer you my warmest congratulations.

Br Athanasisus McGlade c.f.c Christian Brothers Community Strathfield NSW

Thanks from Loreto

On behalf of Loreto Nedlands I would like to thank for your article in the May 21 edition of The Record, on Unveiling of the Mary Ward Sculpture at Loreto Nedlands. We were very excited to be featured so prominently, and it was very kind of your editor, Peter Rosengren, to supply each Loreto family with a copy of The Record, which will serve as a lasting memento of this occasion.

Jennifer Healey, Principal Loreto Nedlands

It’s in Wicklow!

Regarding the article on Glendalough in this week’s Record (Page 3), may I submit a little correction. As a native of County Kildare, I would proudly claim Glendalough and St Kevin’s monastic ruins etc

there as belonging to my native place, but in fact Glendalough is very much in County Wicklow. Your report probably confused St Kevin and St Brigid and their monastic settlements. The latter’s monastic settlements were in Kildare town and some remains are still there today. Some weeks or months ago, another article in The Record referred to the famous parliamentarian, Edmund Burkes, as English. He was very much an Irishman!

John Archbold, OMI. St Patrick’s Basilica, Fremantle

A lost chance

We should be grateful that Paul Gray (The Record, April 23) has given us the only religious take on the 20/20 Summit. However, it is a great pity that the Summit was unable to discuss

in brief Shroud of Turin will go on display to public in 2010

■ Stories by Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Shroud of Turin, revered by many as the burial cloth of Christ, will be displayed to the public for the first time in a decade in 2010.

Pope Benedict XVI announced during a June 2 audience with pilgrims from Turin that he had approved the shroud’s removal from its protective casket for display to the public in the spring of 2010.

He told the 7,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, “If the Lord grants me life and health, I, too, hope to come” see the shroud displayed.

According to tradition, the 14-foot by four-foot linen cloth is the burial shroud of Jesus. The shroud has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death.

The church has never officially ruled on the shroud’s authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.

The shroud lies protected behind bulletproof glass in a special chapel of Turin’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The cloth lies flat, unseen inside a casket made of a special space-age alloy that is waterproof and fireproof and is hermetically sealed to keep out oxygen.

The shroud is removed only for very special spiritual occasions, and its removal for study or display to the public must be approved by the pope. The last time it was displayed to the public was in 2000 for the jubilee year.

the role religion plays in developing our social capital. Mention was made of the strengthening of Civil Society and the communities stream could have discussed all the welfare work undertaken by faith communities.

Apart from Archbishop Wilson, Rev Tim Costello, Mons. Cappo, Fr Tate and Fr Riley attended but there was little reference to the work of the Church agencies.

Instead we have been offered a Charter of Rights which in Britain and Canada have made it more difficult for religion to carry out its traditional work of teaching societal values. With a Prime Minister who regularly attends church and given the post-election analysis that it was Pentecostal Church goers who gave Mr Rudd his swing in Queensland one would have expected some discussion of the role of religion in our national life.

John R Barich Claremont

Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin, papal custodian of the Shroud of Turin, had requested the shroud be displayed in two years. During the June 2 audience, the Pope said he was happy to grant the archbishop’s wish.

Pope Benedict said it would be “a propitious occasion” for the faithful “to contemplate that mysterious face that silently speaks to the heart of humankind, inviting them to recognise the face of God.”

At the end of the Vatican audience, the spokesman for the shroud’s custodian, Mgr Giuseppe Ghiberti, presented the Pope with a life-size reproduction of the shroud.

Everyone has right to food; unborn have right to life, says Pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Everyone, especially the youngest and poorest of the world, has a right to food, and the unborn have a right to life, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The protection of human life is the “rock solid and inviolable” foundation upon which all other human rights are based, the Pope said in a May 31 audience with Guatemala’s new ambassador to the Vatican.

There will always be more work to do in helping guarantee pregnant women, even those who are in “severe difficulty,” will be able to raise their children “with dignity, that way avoiding the unjustifiable recourse to abortion,” the Pope said. The Pope made his comments in a ceremony in which Acisclo Valladares Molina presented his credentials.

The Pope said protecting all human life, especially the life of the unborn, is an ever pressing task.

Pope Benedict lamented the ongoing problems of poverty and emigration in Guatemala. He said another challenge the country faces is finding a solution to the malnutrition suffered by “numerous children.”

Vista The Ambassadors

The y come from all walks of life Meet the Aussies who are ste pping up to the mark for WYD

They come all walks of life. Meet the Aussies who are stepping up to the mark WYD

With only 60 days to go before the biggest event to hit our shores - World Youth Day 2008 - ambassadors have been chosen who have either been public witnesses to their faith, or who see WYD as a chance to tell the world that they are Christian and proud of it.

Australian Test cricketer Matthew Hayden, well-known for making the sign of the Cross whenever he makes 100; practising Catholic, AFL Sydney Swan Jared Crouch; Socceroo World Cup and Palermo Serie A star Mark Bresciano, opera singer Amelia Farrugia, former Ambassador to the Holy See Dr John Herron, fashion designer Carla Zampatti, Wallabies hooker Stephen Moore, musician Jimmy Little and the Delezio family are the chosen ones.

This week we continue the series of reflections with Jared Crouch.

■ By Anthony Barich

Many of the AFL’s biggest stars hate lining up on Sydney Swans tagger Jared Crouch. His dogged persistence, renowned discipline and strict physical regime have earned him a reputation as the tough, no-nonsense player invariably assigned to curb the opposition team’s most dangerous small forward.

He overcame two collarbone operations in 2005 to break the AFL record for consecutive games (158) and finished in the top 10 of the Swans’ best and fairest for the seventh straight season.

His phenomenal consecutive run of games since his debut in 1998 ended at 194 with a chronic ankle injury and broken collarbone along with hamstring and lower back problems in 2006, his welltrained body eventually succumbing to the increasingly hectic rigors of AFL.

He was recently appointed one of 10 World Youth Day ambassadors, and rightly so. Footballers are human like the rest of us, but the only headlines Jared Crouch is likely to make is for helping Sydney win an AFL premiership, or for his freakish endurance and durability, rather than the drunken off-field shenanigans too many of his AFL peers have succumbed to.

And guess what? He’s Catholic. He prays regularly and considers it an hon-

our to have carried the World Youth Day Cross when it visited Coogee.

“It was an amazing experience – the Cross gives great strength and continues to focus your thoughts on your faith,” he said.

Born into a Catholic family and educated by the Christian Brothers in Adelaide, Jared now attends Our Lady or the Rosary parish in Kensington.

To Jared, World Youth Day is about helping young people realise how important faith still is in society and allowing them to see so many people from around the world all living and enjoying their faith.

“I think it will make the Church listen and learn from our youth, which can only give it strength and continue to get its message out,” he said.

“It’s an honour to be an ambassador for such an amazing event and to be able to help out as much as I can.

“My faith is very important to me. It gives my life meaning and direction. Without it, I am lost. It’s the reason I have been able to achieve what I have in my life so I am always happy to give back.”

As an AFL star, he often speaks to school groups, and he’s noticed first-hand how the world is changing and its impact on young people. He has noticed that today’s youth are “losing a little of their focus on their faith as they get distracted by things around them”.

“I would like for them to see that having

faith can still play a very important role in our society,” he says.

“During World Youth Day, I’m really looking forward to the coming together of people from around the world to pray and form new friendships.

“I know that this event is for the youth of the world, but I would love to see lots of Australians from all over showing the world how important our faith is to us.

“My advice to young people is to stay strong. Join together at World Youth Day and see that there are so many others who pray and have similar values. Make new friends and realise that you are not alone.”

Standing up for truth: WYD organiser Bishop Anthony Fisher OP (far left), Cardinal George Pell (fourth from right) and WYD chief operating officer Danny Casey (second from left) with WYD ambassadors, fashion designer Carla Zampatti, the Delezio family, Amelia Farrugia, Jared Crouch and Dr John Herron. This week, Jared Crouch tells of how his Catholic faith is not just something he ‘does’ once a week: it underpins everything he does.

PHOTO: WYD08 OFFICE

A winner: Sydney Swan Jared Crouch says it’s an honour to be involved in World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney.

WYD n n Aussie c c

World Youth Day will be the first opportunity that thousands of Australian youth have ever had to see and hear of a different possibility for their lives

It is occasionally said that St Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures is best celebrated as a communal act of worship.

If one thinks of World Youth Day 2008 as a canticle, metaphorically, then the July international gathering will be the single biggest canticle of praise to God in Australia’s history.

Father Paul Smith OFM, Vicar Provincial of the Franciscan Province of the Holy Spirit that includes Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore, says that in his Canticle, St Francis stressed the importance of praising God not only for all that is good but or all that lies between life and death.

“A canticle is not meant to be said or sung alone, it is a hymn or chant to be used during praise and worship,” Fr Smith said.

Although Aboriginal Australians had been here for thousands of years already and despite the problems associated with the history of European settlement, there is still much to be thankful for in the 220 years since the First Fleet arrived in Australia from England in 1788.

And when Australia hosts WYD it will become only the third nation outside Italy to have been visited by each of the three ‘traveling’ Popes - Paul VI, John Paul II and now Benedict XVI.

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, who lobbied hard for Australia to host World Youth Day, said recently that Australian society has been living off Christian principles for two centuries, and is still, despite the opinions of some among the nation’s elite, a Christian country whose major social, political and legal institutions cannot be fully understood without reference to Christianity.

Cardinal Pell’s Auxiliary, Bishop Anthony Fisher OP who is also the chief organiser of WYD 2008, says Pope Benedict XVI likely chose Australia as host, in part, because secularisation has taken hold in Australian life and culture like few other Western countries.

One clue supporting this view is the

■ By Anthony Barich

Every Catholic school, community, congregation and parish in the metropolitan area is invited to Perth’s World Youth Day extravaganza as 10,000 Perth Catholics young and old are expected to descend on the Esplanade in Perth CBD to officially welcome over 3000 international pilgrims to launch Days in the Diocese on July 10.

It will be the big curtain-raiser for the main event in Sydney when Australia welcomes Pope Benedict XVI for the first time in his pontificate.

Local and international bands, speakers, dancers and other performance artists will be on show as Perth’s Catholics show the rest of the city the joy of living as Christians.

The day represents the formal welcome for the international pilgrims –including several bishops from around the world, priests, friars and nuns, as

Traditional worship: Local indigenous Australians pray during the veneration of the World Youth Day Cross and Icon in Darwin, Northern Territory.

At Catholic Church Insurances, we’ve been

serving the needs of Church organisations for nearly 100 years.

our

Striding forward: Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, coordinator of WYD08, walks with charity volunteer Teresa Wilson and indigenous youth representative Craig Ashby near Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral on May 26. PHOTO: CNS

not an instant cure for not an cure for church - but a beginning church - but a

2005 meeting of Pope Benedict, then on holiday in the Italian Alps, with a gathering of priests shortly after he announced Sydney would host WYD 2008.

People in the Western world, Pope Benedict remarked, felt self-sufficient, with less need for Christ and Christianity; this is a suffering linked o the present situation where “maintream churches appear moribund. This is so in Australia, above all.”

Bishop Fisher said the German hosts of WYD 2005 in Cologne told him that, first and foremost, the event brought God out in public for the first time”.

With very public events like a powerful and prayerful re-enactment of he Stations of the Cross, and a Youth Festival that includes a Vocations Expo, public debate, Reconciliation, Adoration, music, performing arts, visual art exhibitions, film, community gatherings, street performers and workshops, Sydney will be transformed nto a virtual outdoor cathedral.

“It’s not like overnight (Australia’s Catholic youth) will become saints, martyrs and apostles. For some, WYD will be a bit of fun but won’t move them deeply. But I truly believe that for a lot more it will be a time they’ll ask the big questions in their lives, like ‘how does God fit into my life’...

No longer, Bishop Fisher says, will having an active and passionate faith be an “embarrassing little secret” that many Australian youth are afraid to hare with their friends.

“Religion has been privatised; there s a feeling that you should keep religion to yourself, almost something you’re embarrassed or ashamed about,” Bishop Fisher said.

“But, as happened after Cologne, by the final day of WYD in Sydney omething like 200,000 young people will be excited by their faith; and by he time the Pope says the final Mass on the Sunday there could be half a million very publicly saying that God matters to them.

“I think many young people are till very idealistic, still want to build better world and want to be a part of hat happening, and part of what the

young pilgrims will see in Australia is a young Church, full of people just like them, being a part of something that does have some answers to their big questions, because it has Christ at the centre of it.

“Today’s youth are sick of the materialism and secularism that has consumed the next generation up, and WYD could be a huge help to these youth.”

There is plenty of inspiration for Australian Catholics, not least of which is the roughly 125,000 international pilgrims set to descend on their shores to share their faith with; or the catechesis, centered around the workings of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the theme Pope Benedict approved for WYD - Acts 1:8, the last thing Jesus said to his Apostles before ascending to the Father:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses.”

Though the Holy Spirit will be an active participant in WYD 2008, Bishop Fisher says the event is “not magic”.

“It’s not like overnight (Australia’s Catholic youth) will become saints, martyrs and apostles. For some, WYD will be a bit of fun but won’t move them deeply. But I truly believe that for a lot more it will be a time they’ll ask the big questions in their lives, like ‘how does God fit into my life’, and they will be encouraged by thousands of others their age from around the world, and they will be ready to take this into their work, study and family life.

“It won’t just be ‘a funny, slightly embarrassing thing about me, that I’m more religious than my peers, that I like to pray or go to Mass or I want to live the ten Commandments’. They will have the confidence to feel quite upfront about their faith.

“Talk to people who’ve come back from previous World Youth Days and they saw they weren’t alone or weird by caring about God and wanting to live God’s will; they come back confident to take on the world.”

“We’ve seen (Australian) studies like the “Spirit of Generation Y” (those born between 1978 and 1994) that say almost half of young people now don’t consciously identify with a religion or Church; and even those that do only come very rarely to a church to worship,” Bishop Fisher said.

“We hope that WYD will strengthen

young people’s connection with Christ and His Church, to tell them here is the place where you will find the big answers to your questions in life.”

He says international pilgrims attending WYD 2008 will find Australia is a very hospitable country.

“Already, volunteers that have come from the world have talked about how hospitable we are. They are astonished by the beauty of this country, its stunning geography that will be the backdrop to the spiritual events at WYD,” he said.

“They’ll meet something of our spiritual history. We’re a young Church compared to where they come from, and that gives us a certain energy and youthfulness. They’ll find here too what a multicultural society we are, as they’ll find people from their land already here.

“We’ve built a country that is really Catholic in the sense of including everybody, and that’s something I don’t think they’ll have seen before, as countries are often mainly of one particular culture. That will impress them, and will show them the capacity of Christianity to bring people together like that.”

Bishop Fisher finds it sadly ironic that a nation that often refers to itself as “the lucky country” with a solid democracy and so many opportunities, “yet at the same time we have youth issues like high suicide rates, drug taking, disoriented about their values and lot of hurting and damaged people”.

“Homelessness and despair are a real challenge for Australia, and while these things are more obvious when a society faces an obvious oppression like Communism.

“But secularism and consumerism come with a very attractive face as they have some Christian sides to them - they say we want you to be happy and comfortable, and they’re not bad, but you very easily get seduced into thinking that all that matters is getting more possessions, or experiences. But there’s no satisfaction in that, it doesn’t answer their needs.

“We’re tying to get youth to not just be comfortable and do the ‘lazy Aussie thing’, but to see that if they want real happiness then they’ll have to ask some hard questions, to commit to Jesus Christ and His Church and that’s the way they’ll do some really great things in their lives.”

 ANTHONY BARICH

ected for Per th Days in Diocese ected for Perth Days in Diocese

well as thousands of lay people.

Switzerland alone is sending a bishop, several priests and 132 pilgrims, while the Franciscan Friars of he Renewal from the United States and a large contingent of over 50 pilgrims and Schoenstatt priests, nuns and seminarians from Germany are also on the way to Perth for some enculturation before they hit Sydney for the main event.

There is a sizable contingent comng from Cape Town in South Africa and other African nations are sending pilgrims and priests.

The main event, WYD, is the largest youth event in the world, with more expected at Sydney in July than descended on the Harbour City for the 2000 Olympics. Organised by the Catholic Church, World Youth Day gathers young people from around the world to build bridges of friendship and hope between continents, peoples and cultures.

In August 2005, Sydney was chosen o host the XXIII World Youth Day.

Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne made the announcement at the conclusion of the XX World Youth Day in August 2005.

Through the WYD08 experience, young people from throughout the world will make a pilgrimage in faith, meet, and experience the love of God. The young people will have an opportunity to rediscover their baptismal calling and the centrality of the sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation, and so discover a new apostolic zeal to witness more fully the Gospel in the modern world - all in the context of the beauty of Australia and the hospitality of the Australian people.

To preview all this, Perth’s Days in the Diocese launch includes stalls for exhibitions from the many Catholic ministries active in WA and a “VSpace” – a vocations area for those discerning or curious about religious life.

There will also be a major “immersion” of indigenous culture for the thousands of international pilgrims to

learn about Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, with potential painting workshops and didgeridoo lessons.

The next day, on July 11, is Frassati Friday, named after the celebrated Italian saint Pier Giorgio Frassati who is seen as a special patron for youth around the world as he combined his enjoyment of life and sports with strong faith, serious charity and a commitment to social justice. He died at age 24. Details are being finalised to fly his body to Sydney for veneration by young people at WYD in July. Frassati Friday will be a day where locals host international pilgrims in community service events that will immerse them in Australian culture.

Francisc an gathering for youth will Franciscan for will celebrate special spirituality on celebrate special on Bondi ’s white sands Bondi’s

Franciscans in the hosting nation of World Youth Day have always bent over backwards to ensure Franciscan pilgrims – and anyone else who wants to join in - share and celebrate their Catholic faith in the context of their Franciscan spirituality.

Continuing in this tradition of Franciscan WYD hospitality, the Province of the Holy Spirit is hosting a Franciscan Festival at Sydney’s legendary Bondi Beach on July 16, called “Come to the Water (from Isaiah 55:1).

Headlining the day will be Franciscan Friars of the Renewal rapper, Father Stan Fortuna from the South Bronx, along with popular Catholic American songwriter Matt Maher’s band, whose music has already inspired youth ministries across Australia.

Franciscan Cardinal Wilfred Napier OFM, Archbishop of Durban, South Africa, will share a talk on the power of baptism and how it unifies Christians.

God Squad, an interdenominational motorcycle club, will also feature at Bondi.

Its NSW State president Dave Hansen will give his testimony of how he converted to Catholicism from the Uniting Church after seeing and hearing Pope John Paul II during his visit to Australia in 1986.

Young Tasmanian Samuel Clear, whose “Walk 4 One” project, has seen him walk around the world urging Christians to join him in prayer for Christian unity, will give his testimony to an expected 12,000 people at Bondi. The event will also be the culmination of his epic journey.

Fr Paul Smith, the Franciscan Vicar Provincial, hopes the gathering will promote Christian unity and strengthen the faith of young people as they come together in the name of justice and peace.

In hosting the gathering the Friars will draw on assistance from various cultural, religious, educational, business and sporting groups in the local community.

“It is our hope that the youth experience the very special differences in Franciscan culture, whilst celebrating the very special unity in Franciscan spirituality.

In this spirit we will welcome them ‘down under’ to our great nation Australia, the land beneath the Southern Cross, “The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”.

In this way Franciscans hope they will help WYD achieve what Bishop Fisher has been praying for - to strengthen the connection of youth with Christ and His Church.

A true legend gives his life

We watched the recent film I Am Legend with our older children last night. It is quite a powerful film, with lots of interesting discussion material in it.

But what really gave rise to a quite extensive family discussion was the very short Hong Kong animation that followed the movie on the DVD version we watched.

It is silent, the same story, a girl alone in a deserted world. She finds her way to a bridge and jumps off it as her way of dealing with the situation. “What a downer!” was the immediate, universal reaction. It - probably unwittingly – served to draw an amazingly clear line under the fact that Dr Neville (Will Smith) in the film did not ever give up; he remained absolutely, almost maniacally, committed to trying to find a cure for this dreadful virus, despite the apparent hopelessness of the cause.

with Catherine Parish

As my daughter pointed out, the film and the animation expressed completely opposite attitudes in dealing with a terrifying and apparently hopeless situation.

You can live with hope or without hope. Your hope can derive from markedly different sources – for Dr Neville his belief in himself, that he can find a cure somehow by dint of continuing research and experimentation, and for Anna and Ethan, the other survivors who eventually find him, belief in what she describes as a “message from God” that there is a colony of survivors in Vermont.

The important thing is that they believe that they must go on striving, seeking, searching. In Dr Neville’s case, his belief in himself eventually transmutes into a belief that a higher power than his own ability is very much in play here.

The element of synchronicity - that Anna comes at that precise moment for a reason, that she is to be the messenger who delivers the cure, leads to Dr Neville’s sudden moment of understanding that there is much more at work here than just what he is doing and that in fact others have a vital role also.

His subsequent decision to sacrifice his life to enable her and her son to escape with the cure was so absolutely contrary to the tragically hopeless loneliness and despair portrayed in the animation.

Though both end in the death of the protagonist, a death chosen and embraced freely, one has a definite, selfless purpose of salvation of others, whilst the other has an empty, tragic uselessness one that is just ultimately pointless and disturbing.

The idea of a hero willingly giving his life to save or defend the many even when it seems a useless sacrifice is such a powerful motif in Western culture, and the belief that such an act is radically redemptive in some way is present in the earliest western literature.

The bottom line is that there must always be a compelling reason for the hero to choose death, and that reason in the most effective of these stories always involves the good of others.

There is a nod to this tradition in the title, referring to Anna’s recognition that what Dr Neville is about to do is the stuff of heroic legend.

It is reassuring to discover that our children still prefer archetypical heroes – and that they are still good box-office...

Perspectives

It all comes down to openness

Body Language

By Christopher West

Commentary on the intersection of Faith, sex and culture: Contraception and cultural chaos.

July 25 marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most controversial papal documents in history: Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, which reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception.

If you have wrestled with this teaching, believe me, I can relate. Years ago I almost left the Church over it.

Forty years of perspective provide an opportunity to take another look. That’s what I’ll be doing in several columns between now and July 25.

You may have noticed above that I said “traditional Christian teaching” on contraception. Only in the last 50-70 years has this been viewed primarily as a “Catholic” issue.

Until 1930, all Christian bodies stood together in their condemnation of any attempt to sterilise the marital act.

That year, the Anglican Church broke with more than 1900 years of uninterrupted Christian teaching. When the Pill debuted in the early 1960s, the Catholic Church alone was retaining

what in 30 short years had come to be seen as an archaic, even absurd, position. One way to begin understanding the Church’s stance is by “judging the tree by its fruit.”

This is what first made me realise that contraception is a much more important issue than I had realised.

When Margaret Sanger and her followers started pushing contraception in the early 1900s, wise men and women – and certainly not just Catholics – predicted that severing sex from procreation would eventually led to sexual and societal chaos.

Today’s culture of adultery, divorce, premarital sex, sexually transmitted diseases, out-of-wedlock births, abortion, fatherless children, homosexuality, poverty, crime, drugs and violence was all foreseen.

What’s the connection with contraception? While today’s societal chaos is certainly complex, the following demonstrates the “inner logic” of contraception’s contribution. People are often tempted to do things they shouldn’t do.

Deterrents within nature itself and within society help to curb these temptations and maintain order. For example, what would happen to the crime rate in a given society if jail terms suddenly ceased?

Apply the same logic to sex. People throughout history have been tempted to commit adultery. It’s nothing new. However, one of the main deterrents from succumbing to the temptation has been the fear of pregnancy.

What would happen if this natural deterrent were taken away? As history demonstrates, rates of adultery would

skyrocket. What’s one of the main causes of divorce? Adultery. Apply the same logic to premarital sex. Such behaviour has, indeed, skyrocketed.

Premarital sex, as a kind of “adultery in advance,” is also a prime indicator of future marital breakdown.

It gets worse. Since no method of contraception is 100 per cent effective, an increase in adultery and pre-marital sex will inevitably lead to an increase in “unwanted pregnancies”.

What’s next? So many people think contraception is the solution to the abortion problem. Take a deeper look and you’ll see that that’s like throwing

Let God in to sort it all out

Stopping to smell the flowers is a term we are all familiar with, but how many of us have taken the time to actually ponder its spiritual significance?

I say I say

By Mark Reidy

Our lives today are often lived at such a frenetic pace that the incessant activity of our minds ensures that the present moment is being lost within the busyness.

Even during those rare moments of physical quietness our mental state is often hijacked by regrets and hurts from the past or worries about the future. Our cerebral hyperactivity can be one of the greatest barriers in discovering who we truly are.

By not allowing our minds to ever be at rest we will never be able to live the fullness of life that Jesus promised us.

Even within secular society there is a growing awareness of our failure to embrace the here and now. A movement within the field of psychology, known as “Mindfulness”, appears to be gathering momentum.

Mindfulness is not a new concept and can be identified in ancient Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism and Yoga, but it has gained recognition in recent decades by its marriage with modern principles of psychotherapy.

The motivation behind practitioners who endorse this hybrid discipline vary widely, but, in general, they seek to utilise meditative techniques so that pro-

ponents are able to become conscious of the thought patterns that hinder their ability to embrace the present moment.

On a surface level Mindfulness appears to be a useful tool in recognising the deeper issues that can often condition one’s thought processes, but as with most secular movements, it fails to delve into the spiritual roots that are often at the core of our inability to discover our true identity.

In the practice of Mindfulness, the client is firstly trained to acknowledge the plethora of thoughts that sabotage their focus on the present.

However the problem lies in stage two of the process which has them consciously step outside all mental activity and observe it as an unattached bystander.

The theory behind this is that any self-destructive or distracting thoughts will eventually extinguish themselves once they are starved of acknowledgement.

But this process, I believe, equates to placing a band-aid on a tumour. When we fail to face the painful memories in our lives, those that have moulded us, both consciously and unconsciously, through fear, distrust and unforgiveness, then we do not allow ourselves the opportunity to attain our maximum potential.

It is only through the process of forgiveness that we are able to recognise who we truly are.

It is only then that we are able to break down the walls of hurt that we have been hiding behind and rediscover the person that God created.

But, unlike the process of Mindfulness, which tries to dismiss the painful realities of our memories, as Christians, we are called to confront them.

We must acknowledge them as factors that have shaped us into the person

we are today, but we must also understand that, through the graces offered to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection, it does not have to be the person that we will always have to be.

We are products of our past but we are not meant to be prisoners of it.

The process of forgiveness begins when we quieten our minds.

It is then that we will be able to, not only face the hurts of our past, but also be open to the guidance of God. This is when we will discover our true identity in Him.

And only then will we be able to truly appreciate, just what a beautiful flower that is.

Pope Paul VI: The architect of the prophetic Humanae Vitae, which warned of the consequences of contraception.

to life

gasoline on a fire to try to put it out.

In the final analysis, there is only one reason we have abortion – because men and women are having sex without being “open to life.”

If this mentality is at the root of abortion, contraception does nothing but foster and afford this mentality.

Not everyone will resort to abortion of course. Some will choose adoption.

Other mothers (most) will raise these children by themselves. Hence the number of children who grow up without a father (which has already been increased by the rise in divorce) will be compounded. And a culture of “fatherless” children inevitably becomes a culture of poverty, crime, drugs, and violence.

All of these social ills compound exponentially from generation to generation since “fatherless” children are also much more likely to have out-of-wedlock births and, if they marry at all, divorce.

What about homosexuality? Our culture is impotent to resist the “gay agenda” because we have already accepted its basic premise with contraception – the reduction of sex to the exchange of pleasure.

When openness to life is no longer an intrinsic part of the sexual equation, why does sexual behavior have to be with the opposite sex?

Forty years after the release of Humanae Vitae, many people are beginning to see that the Church might not be crazy after all.

Perspectives

Carefree life turned to one of service

Furthering our series on vocation stories from St Charles Seminary students, fifth-year student Matthew Willix from Lesmurdie tells of how his life skills helped him to follow God’s call.

Before coming to St Charles Seminary in Guildford, life for me was carefree.

Having benefited from three jobs in mineral exploration, crewing Rottnest ferries and driving buses, I was thankful to God for the opportunities I experienced.

Other experiences and opportunities arose musically through bagpiping in bands around Perth and in Kalgoorlie–Boulder, where I had lived for a time.

A motivation to do something significant in my life expressed itself in various ways, which included learning to fly ultralight aircraft in the South West.

Contemplating the stars one summer’s night, I felt that perhaps, through the generosity of God, that He might be calling me to the life of a priest.

After seeing the vocations poster at my parish, I met with the-then vocations director or for the Archdiocese, Fr Armando Carandang, now the chaplain at the University of Western Australia.

He was inspirational and supportive. He accompanied me on the way forward and helped to make the necessary preparations for meeting with the seminary board of admission.

the parish the nation the world

Is the abortion debate really over?

Life...

with Bronia Karniewicz

For the last decade abortion has been decriminalised in Western Australia. It seems that the debate on abortion is over. But is this really the view of the general community?

In 2004 a survey was undertaken by the Southern Cross Bioethics Centre to move beyond the surface attitudes of simple approval or disapproval on the issue. It had some encouraging findings.

This survey found that while 62 per cent of people support abortion on demand this figure drops when different circumstances are considered and when people are asked how strongly they support this position.

One in four pregnancies in Australia end in abortion and 64 per cent of those surveyed believed this figure was too high. Eightyseven per cent believed it would be good if the numbers of abortions were reduced, while at the same time protecting existing legal rights to freely choose abortion.

When we contemplate these figures along with the fact that 22 per cent consider themselves not well informed on the topic and 71 per cent support greater public discussion on the issue, we can feel some encouragement.

We can begin to see that there are opportunities to find new ways of educating and informing, ways that do not resort to slogans, rhetoric

or heated debates. People are open to discussing abortion; it is just the way we do this that is important.

Of course abortion remains terribly wrong. Women’s lives are often shattered because of abortion, men too are frequently acting out their abortion pain in unhealthy and destructive ways, and children are suffering second generational trauma because of their parent’s abortion. With this in mind we can see why Mother Teresa spoke of abortion as the biggest destroyer of world peace.

And we can understand why John Paul II wrote in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope:

“It is precisely the woman... who pays the highest price, not only for motherhood but even more for its destruction, for the suppression of the life of the child who has been conceived. The only honest stance, in these cases, is that of radical solidarity with the woman. It is not right to leave her alone.”

There are many parents who grieve and suffer because of their children’s death and as we truly recognise the humanity of the unborn, we will know that it cannot be otherwise. When we speak of abortion we must always speak with compas-

He was very encouraging and quite assertive, and worked closely with me and bought me to Guildford and we had dinner with the other guys from the seminary. He prepared me and got to know me so he could decide to recommend me. He was the first port of call for me before I took the next step.

My family’s parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lesmurdie, as well as St Francis of Assisi Maida Vale where I lived, were incredibly supportive. I have a strong connection and support from Maida Vale parish community, with membership of the parish’s Divine Mercy prayer group.

He developed my trust, and vice versa. Everyone wants seminarians succeed, so they do everything they can to get the best out of you, so when I made the decision to become a priest, I was by no means alone.

I was apprehensive as to how I would handle the academic side of studying for the priesthood. This comprises however a quarter of the- formation program. Subsequently, I completed the Bachelor of Theology at Notre Dame on the heels of the discipline and work ethic gained through

Good Night & God Bless

Matthew Willix

my previous jobs. Friendships and relationships are an important aspect of life for me.

I have forged life long friendships at the seminary and within the archdiocese.

Moreover having completed annual three parish placements, the many people I have met have provided the recognition and relevance with which the ministerial priesthood has for them.

It would be a privilege to administer the Sacraments, and to be able to impact the lives of others. To interface with them at the important times - for weddings, anointing of the sick or funerals. Representing Christ in a radical way for others, you are sought out by them because “you are the priest.”

The Rise of Benedict XVI: The inside story of how the Pope was elected and what it means for the world

By John L. Allen

Pope Benedict XVI will soon be in Australia. His Papal visit to America caused a stir. What will happen in Australia? In this book, Vatican correspondent John L. Allen gives readers exclusive access into the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, and the reasons why they chose him to be the Vicar of Christ, leading the Church today.

sion and care to the parents of the unborn, as we would to any parent who has lost a child. We must always be aware of the pressure our society puts on women and couples not to give birth to their children.

Our gentle words can give hope. When we speak with compassion and care, we reach out to those who are suffering, we promote healing. The fact that we care and are willing to listen creates a nurturing environment where women and men can begin to look at themselves and their experience.

Let us remember; the healing and prevention of abortion are intrinsically intertwined. When women and men can heal and speak out about the enormous harm abortion has done to them, then and only then will support for abortion dry up.

Ten years have passed since abortion was decriminalised in Western Australia. But it’s still not too late to take on the ‘honest stance of radical solidarity.’ To love those that have had an abortion and encourage those thinking about it to seek all the relevant information and help that is out there.

Bronia Karniewicz is executive officer of the Archdiocesan Respect Life Office.

Volume 1: A Guide to Convent and Monastery Accommodation in Austria, Czech Republic and Italy

By Trish Clark

Convents, Monasteries and Abbeys have always been places that generously welcomed weary travellers. This tradition continues today and Good Night & God Bless takes you on a tour of religious hideaways offering tourist and pilgrimage accommodation throughout Europe.

Good Night & God Bless reveals these unique, atmospheric and affordable places which accommodate tourists or those pursuing a pilgrimage or spiritual retreat.

This user-friendly travel book provides safe, affordable and comfortable accommodation information, local tourist information, places of pilgrimage, travel tidbits and anecdotes against a fascinating backdrop of history and religion. An amazing reference guide for all those planning to travel to Europe!

$29.95+postage

Allen also analyses the battle Pope Benedict XVI has begun against ‘the Dictatorship of Relativism’, his aim to renew the culture of the Church and the surprises and challenges his Pontificate will bring.

An engaging book for those who want an inside scoop to Pope Benedict XVI before his Australian visit.

$14.95+postage

Available from The Record Bookshop 9227 7080 or email bookshop@therecord.com.au

the World

Ancient Monks Speak To Us Through Time

Three centuries after Christ ascended to The Father, St Anthony started Christian monasticism. Pop into Egypt today and you’ll see it’s still going strong - some 1700 years later.

Above: An altar shows the resurrected Christ at St Anthony’s Monastery in the desert nearly 100 miles southeast of Cairo, Egypt, on May 3. The monastery, founded in 356, is considered by many to be the world’s oldest active Christian monastery. St Anthony (also often known as St Antony) was one of the earliest Christian monks, and set off into the desert around 280 AD and settled in caves near the monastery.

PHOTO: CNS/ASMAA WAGUIH, REUTERS

Top left: The view shows part of St Anthony’s Monastery, splendid in its isolation in the desert. St Athanasias’s ‘Life of Antony’ is still easily available in paperback for contemporary readers and gives a fascinating glimpse into the extraordinary life of this heroic saint. St Anthony became renowned for his holiness and the many miraculous events associated with his life, including healings and victories over evil spirits sent to try to destroy his vocation. He had a close relationship with Athanasias, who went on to become one of the greatest defenders of the faith of the Church, particularly against the heresy of Arianism which threatened belief in the Incarnation.

PHOTO: CNS/ASMAA WAGUIH, REUTERS

Middle left: Monk Ruwais el-Anthony speaks during a May 3 interview at the Monastery.

PHOTO: CNS/ASMAA WAGUIH, REUTERS

Bottom left: A monk walks outside one of the gates of St Anthony’s Monastery. PHOTO: CNS/ASMAA WAGUIH, REUTERS

the Parish

Miracles are personal, not spectacular

The Miracles of Mary:

Everyday Encounters of Beauty and Grace

By Bridget Curran

RRP: $22.95

2008

■ By Anthony Barich

THE launch of “The Miracles of Mary” at The Record Bookshop on May 29 revealed the mother of God working in Bridget Curran’s ordinary life to reveal herself to the young writer.

Bridget, 28, renewed her faith in a big way in 2000, but still had serious reservations about the Church’s perceived obsession with Mary. In fact, she nearly left the Catholic Church because of this.

So when Allen & Unwin’s Maggie Hamilton contacted her after seeing her blog on the Catholic Youth Ministry website, she did not want to write a book on Mary, of all people. She was so “blocked” in her feelings towards Mary that she could barely bring herself to pray the Rosary.

“This book was Our Lady’s way of helping me appreciate and

understand her better,” she told The Record. Bridget always wanted to be a writer since she was a little girl – “apart from a dream of being a ‘nun-gypsy-princess’”…

But having grown up and started working for a film production company, she let that dream go, and the approach from Allen & Unwin was an opportunity to fulfil that dream.

This is apparent in the book’s style. Accounts of devotions to Mary and miracles attributed to her from around the world are written simply, as if being read as a child’s bedtime story, yet it has deep theological implications that are easily understood as acts of love.

As such, it is ideal for such a purpose to introduce children to the possibility of a relationship with a woman whose compassion and strength reach through the ages to

bring individuals to her son, Jesus Christ, and remains appropriate today.

The stories often involve Mary appearing to the poorest of the poor, and children, or both, showing that sanctity is often achieved through simplicity of faith, as Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3)

In launching the book that covers 32 Marian apparitions and miracles, Archbishop Barry Hickey praised it as “concise and satisfying”.

“The stories we are familiar with, such as Fatima, Lourdes and Guadalupe, are sketched lightly and well, and her less familiar stories carry the same imprint of reliability for those who come new to them,” he said.

Highlighting one story of local Aborigines remarking that Mary “knows so much” about their environment having saved New Norcia from a raging fire, the Archbishop said: “It would do all of us a lot of good to realise that Our Lady knows so much about us and God, and can do so much to help us in our daily life and particularly in our relationship with God.” He said the book reveals how Mary touches the lives of individuals in many ways, and confirms to us that “the biggest fruit of Mary’s apparitions is not the spectacular reminder of how close heaven is to earth, but the personal conversion of so many hearts that brings us closer to God”.

In investigating how other people from many cultures encountered Mary and Jesus in their eve-

ryday lives, Bridget discovered an important avenue to the Father. In the same way, in reading this book full of such accounts, it is possible for one to come to understand and even get to know Mary more, and subsequently Jesus, who shared the same loving compassion of hers that we do.

“I am sure Bridget did not write this as a reference book,” the Archbishop said. “But it contains so much of the essence of Mary’s work in the world, and in such easily accessible form, that it would be a very handy reference book for families wanting to talk about Mary, for RCIA teams wanting easy access to illustrations of what one might call Mary’s theology of love, and even for priests looking for examples of what having God in your life is really about.”

Wanted: thick-skinned Catholics to be Christ to prisoners in need

Continued from Page 1

ourselves up, and are pulled up by God through any means.

Certainly, for one young man I spoke to, the Cross’ presence in the prison before him was a reminder to the grace given him throughout his life.

He said he grew up in a “strong Catholic family”, but had fallen away until he was arrested months ago and sent to Hakea, a remand centre for men awaiting bail or trial. It was then that he returned to the Faith.

“So it took a drastic event to get you back to the Faith,” I asked. “Yep,” he nodded.

The Prison Superintendent Ian Clark expects that most prisoners who witnessed the WYD Cross and Icon will be touched by them in some way. “It was voluntary to come to this, so we know that if they’re here, they want to be here for this event,” he said.

These men live under understandably strict control, but Fr Shelton celebrates Mass at the prison on the second and fourth Sunday of every month, and administers the Sacraments whenever required or asked for.

Fr Shelton actually gave me two young men to interview about how the event affected them, but I got barely a minute with them before the security chief came up and said, “righto, time’s up. Gotta go”.

As Mr Clark told me, the prisoners’ dignity must be upheld at all

times, and they must be treated with compassion as humans.

But this is, after all, a maximum security prison, and there are people in there being charged with anything from theft to murder, so all precautions are taken.

As the young man I was chatting to was walking out the door, I asked him what was going through his mind as he approached the Cross to venerate it. “I asked for forgiveness,” he said simply.

Of course, having just witnessed a Mass concelebrated by prison chaplain Fr David Shelton OMI and the Archbishop, the two young men I spoke to seemed harmless enough, but I was thankful for the opportunity to witness such a touching moment of grace.

I can’t mention their names, and for their sake I won’t even say how long they’ve been there.

As the Superintendent said: “You never know who’s reading it on the ‘outside.”

Just entering the prison is a process. I had to give them my driver’s licence well in advance for the police screening, and entering the actual prison is not unlike an airport, with metal detector et al.

I couldn’t photograph anyone near a door as replicas of keys can be made to open locks.

But in another sense, it is the outside world that a prison chaplain represents for the prisoners, as well as his pastoral duty to be Christ to

them. “My job is to make their life easier in prison,” said Fr Shelton, who contacts and even visits families for them, gives them access to Rosary beads or Bibles if they want them, and acts as a confidante for them.

“They know I won’t tell anyone else what they tell me.”

The Superintendent understands. “The chaplain is an important tool for rehabilitation,” Mr Clark said.

“The prisoners obviously aren’t going to necessarily confide in the prison officers, so the chaplain is a mediator.”

The chaplain’s services extend to celebrating marriages between inmates and those in the outside world, with the celebration taking place in the prison, and ‘outsiders’ can come into the prison for the ceremony.

The chaplain also helps the prisoners’ families on the ‘outside’ deal with life. If they are poor, for example, he will put them in contact with the St Vincent de Paul Society to get them back on their feet again.

If someone has been in prison for a few years, the outside world may have changed, relationships may have changed, so he often gives the prisoners his mobile phone number once they have been released and they’re welcome to catch up with him for a coffee to discuss any problems they’re having adjusting to the ‘real world’ again.

Sometimes he even drives them

where ever they need to go upon being released, as they must provide their own transport; often they simply don’t have anyone to pick them up.

“Being a chaplain is a non-judgemental role,” says Fr Shelton, who is also chaplain at Casuarina Maximum Security Prison and Karnet Prison Farm. It’s also sacramental.

Just the morning before the Cross arrived, one of them asked me for Confession.”

He says it’s something you either love or hate - there’s no in between. And he loves it. Sometimes he holds memorial services for past prisoners who die or for their relatives, if they can’t get to the funeral.

“It’s about meeting them wherever they are at in their lives, in terms of faith as well as other aspects of their lives,” Fr Shelton said.

During the Mass one Aboriginal prisoner struggled through reading the Responsorial Psalm, but Fr Shelton revealed to me later that he can barely read, and would have just been proud of being able to get through the reading in front of his peers.

Nicola Ann Smith, a Catholic 25year-old law graduate, is one of a handful of people who voluntarily visit the prisoners, and has gained a rapport with many of them. She said that man who read the Psalm “would have wished he could read as well as the others, but I know he would’ve just loved the chance to

be a part of the event”. Nicola, who has been visiting the prisoners for three years, is constantly amazed and changed herself by the humility of the prisoners. It grounds her in her own existence.

“When I come to the Mass in the prison with the prisoners, I didn’t expect them to pray so deeply, and have an intimate understanding of God that I don’t have,” she said.

“It’s humbling coming here. They have so much humility in coming before God and making their prayers. During the Responsorial Psalm and the Prayers of the Faithful, it was obvious that God had touched them.”

While Oblate of Mary Immaculate priests have been in charge of Western Australia’s prison ministry for over 120 years, Fr Shelton, the head prison chaplain for WA, needs some help now.

He says prison chaplains need not necessarily be priests, as clerics are always around to help give the Sacraments and to support noncleric chaplains.

They need not be “evangelical”, just have empathy to be there when prisoners need a kind ear.

But they do need to be compassionate but firm. Things are not always as they seem in this ministry, so chaplains need to “have their wits about them”, Fr Shelton said.

The also need to be committed, and “in it for the long haul”, he says. To enquire, call 08 9335 2268.

Iconic: Bridget Curran with a replica of the image New Norcia monks put in the path of a fire that was stopped.

Famous: Bridget Curran signs copies of her book Miracles of Mary at its launch at The Record Bookshop.

Joyful occcasion: Archbishop Barry Hickey, launching Miracles of Mary, praised its author Bridget Curran for revealing how Mary touches the lives of individuals with love.

PHOTOS: ANTHONY BARICH

Meet the Priest with all the answers

A SPECIAL invitation to readers of The Record!

Those Hard QuestionsANSWERED in a new book by Record columnist Father John Flader. You’re invited!

In Question Time, Fr Flader draws on more than 40 years of experience in handing on the faith to answer 150 questions on everything Catholic: doctrine, the sacraments, moral life, prayer and devotions. The answers were originally published in Sydney’s The Catholic Weekly between 2005 and 2007, and since mid-2007 they have also appeared in The Record in Perth.

The book is written in a balanced, easy-to-read style and contains a wealth of information that will be invaluable for anyone who is interested in finding out more about the Catholic faith or who is

in a position to hand on the faith to others: priests, teachers, catechists, parents, RCIA coordinators, sacramental program coordinators, recent converts...

Some of the Questions!

1. The question of the “filioque”, 6. The Church and evolution, 7. The virgin birth of Christ, 16. The Old Testament and the Church, 21. Infallibility of the bishops, 22. Imprimaturs, 23. Eastern Catholic Churches, 29. The resurrection of the body, 34. Mary’s perpetual virginity, 35. The marriage of Mary and Joseph, 40. Sponsors for sacraments, 47. Concerts in churches, 53. Why water in the wine?, 56. Masses

for deceased baptised infants, 61. The divorced and Communion, 71. Communion in the hand or on the tongue?, 72. Communion by intinction, 80. The Third Rite of Reconciliation, 81. Indulgences, 88. Marrying relatives, 89. Validation of an invalid marriage, 91. Celibacy after divorce, 96. The ordination of women, 98. The role of conscience, 102. Using “bad language”, 103. Sins against the Holy Spirit, 108. Pius X Society Masses, 110. Disposing of blessed objects, 112. Chain letters, 113. Suicide and eternal salvation, 116. Homosexuality and the Bible, 117. The morality of gambling, 138. Devotion to the guardian angels, 139. Prayer for the Holy Souls,

Praise for Question Time

By Fr John Flader

“Fr John Flader’s book provides a useful and much needed explanation of the faith drawn from the Scriptures, the Patristics and the Councils. Many enquirers in the faith and RCIA members will find the text helpful and informative. It is an ideal complement to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, to which it is amply referenced. I strongly recommend this excellent faith resource.”

- Most Rev Barry Hickey, Archbishop of Perth

“Father Flader’s Question Time is in the tradition of the apologetics of Fulton J. Sheen. He explains the Church’s teaching and practices in a straightforward way without any spin. The information is very up to date, including references to the works of Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI. A great resource for handing on the faith.”

- Associate Professor Tracey Rowland, Dean, John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne

Question Time: 150 Questions and Answers on the Catholic Faith Fr John Flader, Paperback, 310 pages, ISBN: 978-1-921421-05-1 $29.95, price includes

kids art and pics Kids bitz jokes

A

The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.”

The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the little girl replied, “They will in a minute.”

~ DEAR KIDS!~

If you would like your poems, drawings or photos published please send them to:

Justine Stevens, The Record, PO Box 75 Leederville WA 6902 or email production@therecord.com.au

puzzles

BIBLE BRAINTEASER

Which one does not belong in each list and why?

o Shadrach, Abednego, Balthasar, Meshach

o Zechariah, Samson, Isaiah, Jeremiah o Sarah, Raphael, Stephen, Tobias o Thomas, Cletus, Andrew, John

EASY WORD SLUETH

Forgiveness

GOD GOOD LOVE SIN

SORRY

God

CATHOLIC CRYPTICS

THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

In the Sacrament of Confirmation we receive the seven gifts of God, the Holy Spirit. These gifts give us Godʼs power to spread and defend the faith, witness to Christ Jesus boldly and live in the power of His Cross and Resurrection.

Crack the code below to find the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Solution in next weekʼs Record.

Hint: A=W; Y=I; L=S AYLOFS

TXOVDLBRXOYXC

GFTXLVK

PFDBYBTOV

IXFAKVOCV

EYVBK

KIDS COOKING

CHICKEN SANDWICH POINTS

Ingredients:

8 slices fresh white bread

11⁄2 cups cooked, diced chicken breast

1⁄2 cup whole-egg mayonnaise

2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped 2 tablespoons sage, chopped

Method:

Combine chicken, mayonnaise and herbs, spread on four slices of bread, top with remaining bread slices.

Slice crusts off and cut each sandwich into four points (triangles).

Note: Morning tea is often over-run with sweet treats; these chicken sandwiches provide an elegant savoury contrast!

CHOCCORNFLAKE SURPISES

Ingredients:

3 Mars Bars

6-7 handfuls of cornflakes/rice bubbles

Method:

A choc-caramel alternative to the well known honey crackles. Melt the Mars Bars in a bowl over boiling water, continuously stirring until melted. Add the cornflakes and mix together - quickly before it sets! Add more cornflakes if needed. Spoon mixture into patty pans and leave in the refrigerator until they are hard

CREAMED RICE AND SPICED APPLES

Ingredients:

1 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup castor sugar

3 cups NESTLÉ CARNATION Light & Creamy Evaporated

Milk

4 red apples, cored and cut into wedges

1 cinnamon stick

1 pinch saffron threads, (optional)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup apple juice

Method:

Place rice and 2 cups water in a saucepan, bring to the boil, without stirring, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until most of water is absorbed.

Add caster sugar and milk and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until rice is soft. Meanwhile, place remaining ingredients in a saucepan and stir over low heat until brown sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 5-10 minutes or until apples are just soft. Remove cinnamon stick.

Serve rice topped with apples and cooking liquid.

Kids in the kitchen: Kateri aged 4 and a half shows creativity in the kitchen.

Friendship: Nikola aged 6 shows friendship in this colourful flower.

KINDERGARTEN teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

Panorama

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday.

Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO box 75, Leederville, WA 6902. Submissions over 55 words will be edited. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 constitute a classified event, and will be charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisment.

Wednesday June 4 and Wednesday June 11

RETREAT AND REFLECTION FOR WOMEN AND MOTHERS

9.30am - 2pm at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Drive Armadale, two days retreat by Father Marcello Aravena. Talks on “With Mary, Star of hope” and “Hope in a challenging world - Our answer?” respectively. Reconciliation opportunity. Concludes with Holy Mass. BYO lunch. Tea and coffee provided. Cost: Donation Enq: Sr. M. Georgina 9399 2340 or email: g.heger@bigpond. com

Thursday June 5

PRAYER AND MEDITATION SERVICE USING SONGS FROM

TAIZE

Every 1st Thursday of the month 7.30 - 8.30pm Our Lady of Grace Parish, 3 Kitchener Street North Beach. Experience a deeply sacred time, with a meditative style service, singing easy chants to quieten the business of the mind. Share readings around a theme and spend time in prayerful silence with the church bathed in candlelight. Enq: 9448 4888 (Parish) or Beth 9447 0061.

Saturday June 7 DAY WITH MARY

9am - 5pm at St James Church, 2 Lagoon Drive, Yanchep. A video on Fatima will be shown. A day of prayer and instruction based upon the message of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286. Bus available, contact Nita 9367 1366.

Saturday June 7

WITNESS FOR LIFE

Starting at 8.30am with Mass at St Augustine’s, Gladstone Rd Rivervale followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic, led by Fr Paul Carey SSC. Enq Helene 9402 0349.”

Saturday June 7

CHARISMATIC RETREAT AND HEALING SERVICE

Starting at 6pm, St Aloysius Church, 84 Keightley Rd, Shenton Park, preaching the word of God and healing prayers led by the Vincentian Fathers. No registration fees. All welcome. Enq: 9381 5383.

Sunday June 8

PERTH WYD  JCI STATIONS OF THE CROSS PILGRIMAGE WALK SWAN RIVER FORESHORE.

7am Trinity College, East Perth. Everyone welcome, all ages, to large scale Stations of the Cross Pilgrimage Walk with WYD Cross and Icon. Will propagate anti-clockwise around foreshore via South Perth, finishing at G.O. Edwards Park, Burswood. Special Guests include Archbishop Barry Hickey, Missionaries of God’s Love Father Chris Ryan and JCI Travelling Team. Also representative stations from parishes, schools and youth groups. Flyer download www.wydperth. com or Tammy 9422 7944.

Pope to arrive at RAAF base for World Youth Day week

■ By Anthony Barich

POPE Benedict XVI will arrive at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base in Richmond, New South Wales, on July 13 before a hectic schedule during World Youth Day week, July 15-20.

The Pope will arrive at the Richmond RAAF Base - the second RAAF base to be established in Australia, located west

Sunday June 8

HEALING AND RECONCILLIATION MASS BULLSBROOK

SHRINE

Commencing 2.30pm, every second Sunday of the month, the Sacrament of the Sick is administered for spiritual and physical healing of pilgrims during Mass at the Shrine of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook. Reconciliation in Italian or English 1.30pm precedes devotions. 2pm Exposition, Rosary and Benediction. Pilgrim’s Mass and devotions every Sunday at 2pm. Enq: 9447 3292.

Sunday June 8

HOLY HOUR OF REPARATION

Starting 3pm in St Jerome’s Church, Troode Street, Munster. The World Apostolate of Fatima Aust Inc invites you to attend a Holy Hour. All welcome. Enq: 9339 2614.

Wednesday June 11

SUCCESS AT SCHOOL  OVERCOMING STUDY AND EXAM

BLOCKAGES

From 7.30pm to 9.30pm at John XXXIII College MacKillop Hall (Multi-Purpose Room) Presenter: Hasser Graham (Registered Psychologist) Cost: $10 (Unwaged $5). Enq: Murray 9383 0444.

Wednesday June 11

CHAPLETS OF THE DIVINE MERCY

Commencing at 7.30 pm every second Wednesday of each month, at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road Bateman. A beautiful, prayerful, sung devotion held. All are welcome. Enq: George Lopez on 9310 9493 (Home) or 9325 2010 (Work).

Wednesday June 11

CHAPLETS OF THE DIVINE MERCY

Starting 7.30pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road, Bateman. All welcome to a beautiful, prayerful, sung devotion held every second Wednesday of the month. Enq: George Lopez 9310 9493 Home or 9325 2010 Work.

Saturday June 14

ST PADRE PIO PRAYER GROUP

Starting 8.45am at St Jerome’s Church, 24 Troode Street, Munster, St Padre Pio DVD. 10am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Adoration and Benediction followed by Holy Mass, St Pio Liturgy at 11am. Lunch 12pm, tea and coffee provided. BYO Lunch. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Wednesday June 18

PARENTS AND FRIENDS’ FEDERATION OF WA  54TH

AGM

Members of affiliated Parents and Friends Association/Catholic School Communities are invited to participate in the AGM 7pm8.30pm, followed by a presentation at 8.40pm on “The Importance of Quality Early Childhood Education Programs: (Dr Lennie Barblett) ECUPFFWA Office, 1st Floor, 101 Wood Street, Inglewood (St Peter’s School) Registration details – www.pff.wa.edu.au or 9271 5909.

of Sydney - then spend a few days resting before his official welcome into Sydney on July 17 on Sydney Harbour and Barangaroo.

Barangaroo is the inner-city foreshore locale north of Darling Harbour where Cardinal George Pell of Sydney will celebrate the Opening Mass for WYD.

The announcement of the Pope’s itinerary was made on May 29 as WYD08 organisers released the Pope’s itinerary that includes an official welcome at Government House, Sydney, a ‘Thank You’ to volunteers in the Domain and an official farewell at Sydney airport. The Domain is a large open-air space on the eastern edge of Sydney’s central

Saturday June 21

ST PADRE PIO PRAYER GROUP  ITALIAN

Starting 8.45am at St Lawrence Church 392 Albert Street, Balactta, St Padre Pio DVD. 10am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Adoration and Benediction followed by Holy Mass, St Pio Liturgy at 11am. Lunch 12pm, tea and coffee provided. BYO Lunch. Enq: Rosa 0437 700 247.

Saturday June 21

PARENTS AND FRIENDS’ FEDERATION OF WA ANNUAL MASS AND DINNER

Starting 5.45pm with Mass at St Thomas More Chapel, Crawley, followed by Annual Dinner, 7pm for 7.30pm at Royal Perth Yacht Club (Guest Speaker, Mr Ian Dalton, Executive Director, Australian Parents Council) “Where have all the Parents Gone?” Registration details www.pff.wa.edu.au or 9271 5909.

Sunday June 22

GOSPEL CONCERT

1.30pm - 4.15pm at St Patrick’s Basilica, Fremantle. Some of WA’s finest gospel performers will come together for a traditional and ecumenical concert at St Patrick’s. Profits will support the work of Cross Roads Community, providing drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Tickets $15 adults and $3 children are ONLY available advance purchase. Enq: erichancock@swiftdsl. com.au or phone 9446 1558.

Friday 27 June

TALK AND HEALING SERVICE

Starting at 7pm with Mass at St Peter’s Catholic Church, 93 Wood Street, Bedford. Followed by Alan’s talk and healing service.

Every Friday to 11 July

NEW LIFE IN GOD’S SPIRIT SEMINAR

Starting from 7.30pm – 9.30pm, St Brigid’s Church, Corner Aberdeen and Fitzgerald Street Northbridge. Be filled with grace, love and power of the Holy Spirit. Renew your faith by listening to talks and testimonies given by Charismatic Priests and laypeople. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404389679.

Every Saturday VIDEO / DVD NIGHT

Immediately after the 6.30pm Vigil Mass, at St Joseph’s Church, 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean. A variety of Videos/DVDs will be shown i.e. The Saints, Conversion Stories, Catholic Teaching etc. Each video is approx. 30mins. Want learn more about our Catholic faith? Bring the family along no charge. 7 June presenting ‘St John of the Cross’ and 14 June presenting ‘Saints and Catholic Rome’.

Every Saturday

HOLY SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING

10.30am to 12.30pm at St Peter the Apostle Parish Hall, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. All welcome. Enq: 9475 0155.

business district where the Pope will thank WYD volunteers.

Immediately before the final Mass on July 20, the last day of WYD, the Pope will also do a fly-over in a helicopter above Centennial Park and Randwick Racecourse, the site of the final Mass where up to 500,000 are expected, before getting into the ‘Popemobile’ and circling the precinct.

Centennial Park is where unregistered pilgrims can watch the final Mass from.

The itinerary also includes official meetings with the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery; Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd;

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Jesuit Volunteers Australia calls for part-time volunteers to respond to the needs of people in the community who live in marginalised circumstances. At the heart of this program is a reflective process, based on Gospel values, which underpins the work of the volunteers. To learn more: www.jss.org.au. Enq: Kevin Wringe 9316 3469 or email kwringe@iinet.net.au.

Every Sunday

LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT

The Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered every Sunday at 2pm at the Good Shepherd Parish, 40-42 Streich Avenue, Kelmscott, with Rosary preceding. All welcome.

Every Tuesday

THE GOSPEL OF ST MATTHEW  COURSE

Every Tuesday 7.30pm St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepparton Road, Victoria Park. Exciting revelations into the Gospel of St Matthew are being offered free of charge. Conducted by Fr Douglas Rowe SFP. Participants will be introduced into an insightful exploration of this fascinating Gospel. Light refreshments will follow. Please bring your bible and a friend.

VOLUNTEER DRIVER

Emmanuel Centre is a self-help centre for people with disabilities and their families and does not receive Government grants. For the past 15 years Emmanuel Centre has survived largely on recycling newspapers. The firm that has collected these newspapers will no longer take them. Another outlet has been found but the papers need to be delivered to Canning Vale. Emmanuel Centre is looking for a volunteer who has a truck and who will take newspapers for recycling from East Perth to Canning Vale. Every couple of months we have five-tonne of bundled newspapers for recycling. Please call Fr Paul 9328 8113 or ring pager 9480 5960.

First Friday and First Saturday

COMMUNION OF REPARATION ALL NIGHT VIGIL

Corpus Christi Church, Mosman Park, 47 Lochee Road. Starting with Mass at 7pm on Friday with Father Bogoni and concluding with Mass at midnight. Confessions, Rosaries, Prayers and silent Adoration every hour. Please join us for reparation to The Two Hearts according to the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357.

First Friday of the Month

WITNESS FOR LIFE

Pro-Life Mass at St Brigid’s, Midland starting at 9.30am. Followed by Rosary, procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic. Led by Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Enq: Helene 9403 2444.

BOOK DONATIONS WANTED

Can you help? We urgently need donations of Altar Vessels, Catholic books, Bibles, Divine Office, Missals, Lectionaries, Sacramentaries etc. Telephone: 9293 3092.

NSW Governor Marie Bashir and NSW Premier Morris Iemma.

“His Holiness has a very full schedule on his first visit to Australia,” said Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, coordinator WYD08.

“He has requested specific meetings in order to connect with the full range of Australian youth and the youth of the world.

“As a Head of State, he will also be conducting several official meetings with civic leaders.”

The Papal itinerary is available on the Vatican website www.vatican.va.

NSW ‘no fathers’ legislation

The Australian Christian Lobby has attacked a proposed NSW law which would ban references to fathers and mothers and dismiss the word “father” from birth certificates.

A proposed NSW Government bill to amend 57 miscellaneous pieces of legislation would insert the concept of “either parent” in place of references to fathers and mothers.

The Lobby says the bill would remove the longstanding presumption that each child has one father and one mother.

“It is a form of social engineering that ignores the overwhelming social research that says kids do best when they have a mum and a dad,” commented Lyle Shelton, National Chief of Staff for the ACL.

Mary MacKillop ‘miracle’...

An Australian woman’s cure from cancer is to be considered as possible evidence of a second miracle attributable to the sanctity of Blessed Mary MacKillop, secular media outlets have reported.

The ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald both said last week that the Vatican had launched a judicial inquiry into the case of the unidentified Australian woman who had inoperable lung cancer.

The woman was given weeks to live in 1993. Ten months later no cancer was found. During the intervening period, the woman had worn a relic and picture of the saint attached to her clothes.

While a second miracle is necessary for canonisation, it is unlikely that Blessed Mary MacKillop will be canonised during the Australian visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

MISSION MATTERS

Missionary reflections on this Sunday Gospel “I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.”

Today’s gospel is a reminder that in the urban slums and prisons of every developing country you will always find a missionary sister, brother or priest accompanying those incarcerated or abandoned in the streets. Their presence is one of ‘mercy, not sacrifice’. Their example should inspire us to the very same acts of merciful love for those whom society rejects and despises here in Perth, or perhaps somewhere up north or overseas.

Call the Mission Office on 9422 7933 should you want to explore this idea further.

ACCOMMODATION

■ ST ANNE’S CHURCH, BINDOON accom for retreat/family/group or single $25 per night or $100 for family or group. BYO food. Tea/coffee provided. Tel 9576 0975.

BUILDING TRADES

■ BRICK REPOINTING Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

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

■ BRICKLAYING

20 years exp. Quality work. Ph 9405 7333 or 0409 296 598.

■ PICASSO PAINTING

Top service. Phone 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

CHRISTIAN SINGLES

Meet other Christian singles over small group dinners or on individual dates. FigTrees is Perth’s ONLY genuine Christian dating agency. So, call 9472 8218 to make an appointment or check out our web site figtrees.com.au. 9-328 Albany Highway, Victoria Park. Open Tues-Fri 10am - 6pm.

HEALTH

■ DEMENTIA REMISSION

Do you, or your loved one, suffer Dementia. Get into Dementia Remission like me! http://www. wgrey.com.au/dm/index.htm or (02) 9971 8093.

BOOK REPAIRS

■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

General repairs to books, old bibles & missals. 2ndhand Catholic books avail. Tydewi Bindery 9293 3092.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

■ KINLAR VESTMENTS

‘Modern meets tradition.’ Quality hand-made & decorated. Vestments, altar cloths, banners. Vickii Smith Veness. 9402 8356 or 0409 114 093.

■ CATHOLICS CORNER

Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for baptism, communion and confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

■ RICH HARVEST  YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP

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

■ OTTIMO

Shop 108 Trinity Arcade (Terrace Level). Hay Street, Perth Ph 9322 4520. Convenient city location for a good selection of cards, candles, statues, medals, apparel and gifts for baptism, reconciliation, communion, confirmation and weddings. We also stock a range of Monastique skin care product made by the Carmelite Sisters, fashion accessories, jewellery, handbags and Australian made gifts. Opening hours 8.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday. 8.30am to 7pm Fridays.

SETTLEMENTS

EFFECTIVE LEGAL, family owned law firm focusing on property settlements and wills. If you are buying, selling or investing in property, protect your family and your investment, contact us on (08) 9218 9177.

OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENT S OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENTS

the Cross, Swan River ForeshoreArchbishop Hickey

Dedication of St Bernadette’s Church, Port KennedyArchbishop Hickey

10 Visit Confirmation candidates, Palmyra - Archbishop Hickey

Handover to Geraldton of WYD Cross & Icon - Bishop Sproxton

Promotion Day for Community Partners Program, MaylandsSr Kerry Willison RSM

12 Council of Priests meeting, Glendalough

13-15 Visitation and Confirmation, Palmyra - Archbishop Hickey

17 Northam Zone meeting - Bishop Sproxton

THE R ECORD Bookshop Resources

Learning to Live Catholic

LORD HAVE MERCY: THE HEALING POWER OF CONFESSION

By Scott Hahn

A clear, illuminating and reassuring explanation of the Catholic Church’s teachings on sin, mercy and the sacrament of Reconciliation. Hahn explores the sacrament and shows why it is the key to inner growth, particularly in times of anxiety and uncertainty, and the fulfilment of Christ’s promise that anyone who enters by Him will be saved.

$34.95+postage

THE BIBLE MADE EASY: A BOOK BY BOOK INTRODUCTION

By Timothy P Schehr

Timothy Schehr introduces readers to each book of the Bible. In easy to read and entertaining style, Schehr brings the Bible and each of its books alive, helping readers delve into the Word of God and what each of its Books means.

$29.95+postage

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

This book contains the complete and official teachings of the Catholic Church. It provides in depth explanations of The Creed, the Sacraments, the moral life, the virtues, the Ten Commandments, the meaning of being human, human freedom, human community and Christian prayer. The essential book for all Catholics.

$26.95+postage

REASONS TO BELIEVE: HOW TO UNDERSTAND, EXPLAIN AND DEFEND THE CATHOLIC FAITH

By Scott Hahn

Is belief in God a delusion? Is faith blind?

Is there a reasonable case for Christianity?

Catholicism’s leading evangelist and bestselling author, Scott Hahn, explains the hows and whys of the Catholic faith, showing how reason and revelation, the natural and the supernatural offer evidence that God and His Church are real. Ideal for Catholics who want to grow stronger in their faith and those who are searching for something that satisfies both their heart and their mind.

Paperback: $27.95+postage

Hardback: $34.95+postage

APPRENTICED TO CHRIST: ACTIVITIES FOR PRACTISING THE CATHOLIC WAY OF LIFE

Apprenticed to Christ provides Catechists with ideas and resources for catechumens and candidates. This hands-on activity-based method is presented in easy to use format based on scripture readings for each season of the Church’s calendar. It also links the readings to excerpts from Church documents, encyclicals and the life of the Church.

$22.95postage

COMPENDIUM TO THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

By Willaim E. Rabior & Susan C Rabior

Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a concise reference book for communicating the Catholic faith and the Gospel message. With beautiful artistic illustrations, this is a superbly designed hardback book that presents the essentials of the Catholic faith in question and answer format.

Pocket Edition: $12.95+postage

Large Print Edition: $24.95+postage