The Record Newspaper 04 August 2010

THE R ECORD

REMARKABLE TALE: CHINA’S LARGEST CATHOLIC VILLAGE PAGE 9

SECOND SPRING?

Archbishop meets Prime Minister

After a week of controversy following media reporting of his comments on the encroachment of secularism in Australian life, Archbishop Hickey met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard while she was on the campaign trail in Perth

ARCHBISHOP Barry Hickey met with Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 2 August at her hotel room at the Sheraton in Perth where he explained media misrepresentation of his statement encouraging people of religious conviction to be politically active.

They were joined by the Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Monsignor Michael Keating, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Labor Member for Perth, Stephen Smith, and the Archbishop’s Executive Assistant, Fr Robert Cross.

The meeting, meant to be held at St Mary’s to show the Prime Minister the recently completed and restored Cathedral, had to be relocated at the last minute to the Prime Minister’s Perth accommodation due to unforeseen circumstances.

Both the Archbishop and Monsignor Keating took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister and Mr Smith for the financial support given by the Federal Government for the completion and restoration programme of the Cathedral and expressed a hope the Prime Minister would be able to tour the Cathedral at a future date.

Please turn to Page 4

1970 was a good year. Make that a great year ... for Marriage

Couples celebrate 320 years of love and marriage

On Saturday, 26 July a Mass and supper celebration at St Francis Xavier Parish in Armadale marked the 40th wedding anniversary year for eight separate couples.

In preparation, a small group decided that it was worth approaching parish priest Fr Kaz to have the couples all come along to the Mass and invite family members to join them for the occasion. The

Here is the full text of Archbishop

Hickey’s

clarification of his earlier media statement

The Archbishop has said in media statements today that he does not seek to support one party over the other. At

Is Mel the Caravaggio of Hollywood?

couples were involved in the preparation of the liturgy and during the Mass they were given a special blessing and presented with congratulatory certificates.

Following Mass a slide show featuring photographs of each of the weddings delighted those present and brought the memories from yesteryear flooding back.

Great care was taken in decorating the church hall where wedding photos and wedding dresses were displayed. A special “Wedding Anniversary Cake” was made for the occasion; the knife to cut the cake

this time, both are doing the proper thing. The Archbishop respects the honesty of both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott and both of them have said they respect the Christian point of view. He did not attack Julia Gillard or suggest how people should vote. The Archbishop highlighted in his original statement his concern about what the future will bring if secularism is allowed to take an unchallenged hold in our society.

They’re both artists with, at times, inspiring visions and an artist’s gift to communicate them. But both also share a dark side. It’s a tale of genius and shadow. PAGE 9

was an original used at one of the 1970 weddings. It was fun and heart-warming to see that with faith these couples have worked to keep their marriages fruitful and can celebrate their achievement.

Along with their special Mass, the couples are planning a range of activities to make this year a memorable one.

Sponsored by the Knights of the Southern Cross, National Marriage Day will be celebrated in St Mary’s Cathedral on 13 August.

Aussie film explores modern marriage - Page 17

Encroaching secularism in our society could lead to social policies that are harmful to the good of our society and personal wellbeing.

This is already becoming evident in some European countries and even here in Australia.

For example, recently in Victoria, proposed legislation threatened to deny the right of Catholic Health Professionals to conscientiously object to referring patients onto agen-

cies that would perform abortions. The Archbishop wants to encourage people of faith to reflect on how their faithbased values are applied to social issues such as human life, human sexuality, sanctity of marriage and justice (poverty, refugees etc).

He further wants to encourage people with strong religious convictions to be active politically and to make sure their views are taken seriously by all political parties.

A year later, AIDS stats vindicate Benedict

Around the world more than a quarter of all persons suffering from HIV/AIDS are being cared for by the Catholic Church. And statistics are backing up Pope Benedict on the use of condoms. PAGE 14

Archbishop Hickey meets with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, while she was in Perth campaigning last Saturday morning. PHOTO: FR ROBERT CROSS

Ruby, ruby, ruby ... Eight couples celebrate their 40th wedding anniversaries at St Francis Xavier Parish in Armadale.

PHOTO: COURTESY ARMADALE PARISH

Detainees honour chaplain

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

DETAINEES at Banksia Hill Detention

Centre were blessed last week after receiving a visit from Archbishop Barry Hickey.

The Archbishop was special guest at a memorial service for the late Fr Michael ‘Mac’ McMahon, the centre’s former chaplain who passed away in July 2008.

Marking two years since his passing, detainees and staff led a prayer for Fr Mac’s family and spoke of his commitment to helping young people.

Centre and Re-entry Programmes

The Parish. The Nation. The World. Find it in The Record

Editor

Coordinator Desi Duguid told The Record that, in honour of Fr Mac’s work, the detention centre had a plaque made which was blessed by the Archbishop during the service.

“Fr Mac inspired and supported a lot of young people who passed through the centre and, to honour his memory, we had the plaque installed in the gym where he spent a lot of time mentoring the boys,” he said.

“The great thing about the service was hearing how Fr Mac had helped those he came across.

“Archbishop Hickey said Fr Mac believed helping lost teens in unfortunate

AT A GLANCE

Forthcoming events around the Archdiocese

Conquest Café

Archbishop Barry Hickey with prison chaplain John McCarthy, Juvenile Custodial Services director Brett

situations was his calling and for those whose lives he touched, it couldn’t be truer.”

The service was attended by Trinity College headmaster Ivan Banks, who

The course features DVD presentations by world class experts followed by opportunities for discussion and fellowship. To register your attendance, email truelovewaitswa@yahoo.com. All welcome.

When: 7-9pm on 24 August and four subsequent Tuesdays at St Mary’s Parish Centre, 40 Franklin Street, Leederville.

spoke of Fr Mac’s work with the school. More than 100 detainees and staff attended the memorial service, which concluded with Fr Mac’s favourite song, Lord of the Dance

Series’. His previous album repertoire includes What a Day (2008) and Closer (2006). Rev Rob’s passion is to draw others to the heart of God. Check out his ministry at www.thatsworship.com. To register your group for the Sunday Sesh, contact admin@cym.com.au. On the night, a collection will be taken to support Rob’s ministry.

Peter Rosengren editor@therecord.com.au

Journalists

Bridget Spinks baspinks@therecord.com.au

Mark Reidy mreidy@therecord.com.au

Anthony Barich abarich@therecord.com.au

Advertising/Production

Mat De Sousa production@therecord.com.au

Accounts

June Cowley accounts@therecord.com.au

Classifieds/Panoramas/Subscriptions

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Record

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Conquest Young Adult Ministry with Keith Carmody - Chaplain of the Fremantle Football Club Keith Carmody will speak on the challenges and rewards of being a chaplain to an elite sporting club. $5 entry includes complimentary drink and nibbles. Call Nicole 0438 179 092 to reserve a seat.

When: 7pm on 11 August at Integrity House, 67 Howe St, Osborne Park.

St Mary’s Leederville

Young Christian Workers Workshops

- The YCW is running a series of workshops centred on young people’s experiences of work, their work rights and responsibilities and how this is all connected to their spirituality.

For more information or RSVP, contact Marie 0422 510 816 or Michelle 0412 539 427. When: 7pm (dinner then workshops) on 3, 10 and 17 August at St Mary’s parish centre, 40 Franklin St, Leederville.

True Love Waits

Want to discover the Master Plan for your life? - In collaboration with True Love Waits, three youth groups - St Mary’s Leederville, St Bernadette’s Glendalough and St Paul’s Mt Lawley - will jointly host a five week course on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

The first night will be an introductory DVD presentation of The Gift with subsequent weeks delving deeper into this wonderful, sophisticated, yet simple exploration of Catholic teaching on sexuality.

South Perth

Blessed Mary MacKillop Vigil MassThe Sisters of St Joseph will hold a special Mass to celebrate their foundress’ feast day. The celebrant will be Fr Dat Vuong. All welcome, a light supper to follow.

When: 6.15pm on 7 August at the Sisters of St Joseph’s Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth.

Catholic Youth Ministry

Music Workshops with musician and Deacon Rob Galea - The workshops will cover topics relating to music ministry at Mass including the importance of music and singing in the Liturgy; the structure of the Mass; the parts of the Mass that may (and should) be sung; how to choose music for Mass; the liturgical seasons; the role of music ministers and more. Entry: $10 includes afternoon tea and a liturgy resource. To register, contact admin@ cym.com.au.

When: 2-5pm on 21 August at St Thomas More Bateman Parish Hall.

Sunday Sesh with musician and Deacon Rob Galea - 5pm Mass at the Cathedral will be followed by supper at 6pm (bring $7 for dinner) and at 7pm, in Mercedes Hall, Rob Galea, who was recently ordained a deacon, will give his testimony.

Originally from Malta, this “Singing Seminarian” has also toured America, Canada and Australia. Rob has just released a new album last month, Divine Mercy Chaplet, the first in a ‘Devotion

A message from The Record

When: 22 August for 5pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, followed by supper and sesh.

Divine Mercy Testimony

After being pronounced clinically dead in 1993, Brother Stanley Villavicencio has been travelling the world sharing his alleged spiritual encounters with Jesus.

Divine Mercy Pilgrimage to Divine Mercy Church, Chittering with Stanley Villavicencio is being organised.

It includes Exposition, Rosary, Benediction, Blessing of Grounds Mass, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Stanley’s testimony. BYO lunch. If you would like to book a seat on the bus, contact Francis on 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877.

When: 16 August at 10.30am at Casa Luisa Piccaretta, 59 Newton St, Spearwood.

16 August at 7.30pm at St Jerome’s, Cnr Rockingham Rd and Troode St, Spearwood.

17 August at 10.30am at St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough; Mass followed by lunch, bring a plate.

17 August at 7.30pm at St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough.

18 August at 10.30am at Our Lady of Mercy, 5 Patrick St, Girrawheen.

18 August at 7.30pm at St Joseph, 19 Hamilton St, Bassendean.

19 August at 10.30am at All Saints Chapel, 77 St George’s Tce, Perth; Exposition until 4pm. 19 August at 7.30pm at Holy Spirit Church, 2 Keaney Way, City Beach.

Send your parish bulletin for At a Glance to baspinks@therecord.com.au.

Got a story? Send Parish stories to: parishes@therecord.com.au

School stories: schools@therecord.com.au

Parish photos (hi-resolution): parishes@therecord.com.au

School photos (hi-resolution): schools@therecord.com.au

All other stories from parishes: parishes@therecord.com.au

All other photos from schools: schools@therecord.com.au

McMerrin and Trinity College principal Ivan Banks with the plague dedicated to Fr Michael McMahon.

PHOTO: GLYNNIS GRAINGER

As

Detainees honour chaplain

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

DETAINEES at Banksia Hill Detention Centre were blessed last week after receiving a visit from Archbishop Barry Hickey.

The Archbishop was special guest at a memorial service for the late Fr Michael ‘Mac’ McMahon, the centre’s former chaplain who passed away in July 2008.

Marking two years since his passing, detainees and staff led a prayer for Fr Mac’s family and spoke of his commitment to helping young people.

Centre and Re-entry Programmes Coordinator Desi Duguid told The Record that, in honour of Fr Mac’s work, the detention centre had a plaque made which was blessed by the Archbishop during the service.

“Fr Mac inspired and supported a lot of young people who passed through the centre and, to honour his memory, we had the plaque installed in the gym where he spent a lot of time mentoring the boys,” he said.

“The great thing about the service was hearing how Fr Mac had helped those he came across.

“Archbishop Hickey said Fr Mac believed helping lost teens in unfortunate

AT A GLANCE

Forthcoming events around the Archdiocese

Conquest Café

Archbishop

situations was his calling and for those whose lives he touched, it couldn’t be truer.”

The service was attended by Trinity College headmaster Ivan Banks, who

The course features DVD presentations by world class experts followed by opportunities for discussion and fellowship. To register your attendance, email truelovewaitswa@yahoo.com. All welcome.

When: 7-9pm on 24 August and four subsequent Tuesdays at St Mary’s Parish Centre, 40 Franklin Street, Leederville.

spoke of Fr Mac’s work with the school. More than 100 detainees and staff attended the memorial service, which concluded with Fr Mac’s favourite song, Lord of the Dance

Series’. His previous album repertoire includes What a Day (2008) and Closer (2006). Rev Rob’s passion is to draw others to the heart of God. Check out his ministry at www.thatsworship.com. To register your group for the Sunday Sesh, contact admin@cym.com.au. On the night, a collection will be taken to support Rob’s ministry.

Editor

Journalists

Peter Rosengren editor@therecord.com.au

Bridget Spinks baspinks@therecord.com.au

Mark Reidy mreidy@therecord.com.au

Anthony Barich abarich@therecord.com.au

Advertising/Production

Mat De Sousa production@therecord.com.au

Conquest Young Adult Ministry with Keith Carmody - Chaplain of the Fremantle Football Club Keith Carmody will speak on the challenges and rewards of being a chaplain to an elite sporting club. $5 entry includes complimentary drink and nibbles. Call Nicole 0438 179 092 to reserve a seat.

When: 7pm on 11 August at Integrity House, 67 Howe St, Osborne Park.

St Mary’s Leederville

Young Christian Workers Workshops

- The YCW is running a series of workshops centred on young people’s experiences of work, their work rights and responsibilities and how this is all connected to their spirituality.

For more information or RSVP, contact Marie 0422 510 816 or Michelle 0412 539 427.

When: 7pm (dinner then workshops) on 3, 10 and 17 August at St Mary’s parish centre, 40 Franklin St, Leederville.

True Love Waits

Want to discover the Master Plan for your life? - In collaboration with True Love Waits, three youth groups - St Mary’s Leederville, St Bernadette’s Glendalough and St Paul’s Mt Lawley - will jointly host a five week course on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

The first night will be an introductory DVD presentation of The Gift with subsequent weeks delving deeper into this wonderful, sophisticated, yet simple exploration of Catholic teaching on sexuality.

South Perth

Blessed Mary MacKillop Vigil MassThe Sisters of St Joseph will hold a special Mass to celebrate their foundress’ feast day. The celebrant will be Fr Dat Vuong. All welcome, a light supper to follow.

When: 6.15pm on 7 August at the Sisters of St Joseph’s Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth.

Catholic Youth Ministry

Music Workshops with musician and Deacon Rob Galea - The workshops will cover topics relating to music ministry at Mass including the importance of music and singing in the Liturgy; the structure of the Mass; the parts of the Mass that may (and should) be sung; how to choose music for Mass; the liturgical seasons; the role of music ministers and more. Entry: $10 includes afternoon tea and a liturgy resource. To register, contact admin@ cym.com.au.

When: 2-5pm on 21 August at St Thomas More Bateman Parish Hall.

Sunday Sesh with musician and Deacon Rob Galea - 5pm Mass at the Cathedral will be followed by supper at 6pm (bring $7 for dinner) and at 7pm, in Mercedes Hall, Rob Galea, who was recently ordained a deacon, will give his testimony.

Originally from Malta, this “Singing Seminarian” has also toured America, Canada and Australia. Rob has just released a new album last month, Divine Mercy Chaplet, the first in a ‘Devotion

When: 22 August for 5pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, followed by supper and sesh.

Divine Mercy Testimony

After being pronounced clinically dead in 1993, Brother Stanley Villavicencio has been travelling the world sharing his alleged spiritual encounters with Jesus. Divine Mercy Pilgrimage to Divine Mercy Church, Chittering with Stanley Villavicencio is being organised.

It includes Exposition, Rosary, Benediction, Blessing of Grounds Mass, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Stanley’s testimony. BYO lunch. If you would like to book a seat on the bus, contact Francis on 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877.

When: 16 August at 10.30am at Casa Luisa Piccaretta, 59 Newton St, Spearwood.

16 August at 7.30pm at St Jerome’s, Cnr Rockingham Rd and Troode St, Spearwood.

17 August at 10.30am at St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough; Mass followed by lunch, bring a plate.

17 August at 7.30pm at St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough.

18 August at 10.30am at Our Lady of Mercy, 5 Patrick St, Girrawheen.

18 August at 7.30pm at St Joseph, 19 Hamilton St, Bassendean.

19 August at 10.30am at All Saints Chapel, 77 St George’s Tce, Perth; Exposition until 4pm. 19 August at 7.30pm at Holy Spirit Church, 2 Keaney Way, City Beach.

Send your parish bulletin for At a Glance to baspinks@therecord.com.au.

Parish photos (hi-resolution): parishes@therecord.com.au

School photos (hi-resolution): schools@therecord.com.au

All other stories from parishes: parishes@therecord.com.au

All other photos from schools: schools@therecord.com.au

Barry Hickey with prison chaplain John McCarthy, Juvenile Custodial Services director Brett McMerrin and Trinity College principal Ivan Banks with the plague dedicated to Fr Michael McMahon.

PHOTO: GLYNNIS GRAINGER

As

Detainees honour chaplain

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

DETAINEES at Banksia Hill Detention Centre were blessed last week after receiving a visit from Archbishop Barry Hickey.

The Archbishop was special guest at a memorial service for the late Fr Michael ‘Mac’ McMahon, the centre’s former chaplain who passed away in July 2008.

Marking two years since his passing, detainees and staff led a prayer for Fr Mac’s family and spoke of his commitment to helping young people.

Centre and Re-entry Programmes Coordinator Desi Duguid told The Record that, in honour of Fr Mac’s work, the detention centre had a plaque made which was blessed by the Archbishop during the service.

“Fr Mac inspired and supported a lot of young people who passed through the centre and, to honour his memory, we had the plaque installed in the gym where he spent a lot of time mentoring the boys,” he said.

“The great thing about the service was hearing how Fr Mac had helped those he came across.

“Archbishop Hickey said Fr Mac believed helping lost teens in unfortunate

AT A GLANCE

Forthcoming events around the Archdiocese

Conquest Café

Archbishop

situations was his calling and for those whose lives he touched, it couldn’t be truer.”

The service was attended by Trinity College headmaster Ivan Banks, who

The course features DVD presentations by world class experts followed by opportunities for discussion and fellowship. To register your attendance, email truelovewaitswa@yahoo.com. All welcome.

When: 7-9pm on 24 August and four subsequent Tuesdays at St Mary’s Parish Centre, 40 Franklin Street, Leederville.

spoke of Fr Mac’s work with the school. More than 100 detainees and staff attended the memorial service, which concluded with Fr Mac’s favourite song, Lord of the Dance

Series’. His previous album repertoire includes What a Day (2008) and Closer (2006). Rev Rob’s passion is to draw others to the heart of God. Check out his ministry at www.thatsworship.com. To register your group for the Sunday Sesh, contact admin@cym.com.au. On the night, a collection will be taken to support Rob’s ministry.

Editor

Journalists

Peter Rosengren editor@therecord.com.au

Bridget Spinks baspinks@therecord.com.au

Mark Reidy mreidy@therecord.com.au

Anthony Barich abarich@therecord.com.au

Advertising/Production

Mat De Sousa production@therecord.com.au

Conquest Young Adult Ministry with Keith Carmody - Chaplain of the Fremantle Football Club Keith Carmody will speak on the challenges and rewards of being a chaplain to an elite sporting club. $5 entry includes complimentary drink and nibbles. Call Nicole 0438 179 092 to reserve a seat.

When: 7pm on 11 August at Integrity House, 67 Howe St, Osborne Park.

St Mary’s Leederville

Young Christian Workers Workshops

- The YCW is running a series of workshops centred on young people’s experiences of work, their work rights and responsibilities and how this is all connected to their spirituality.

For more information or RSVP, contact Marie 0422 510 816 or Michelle 0412 539 427.

When: 7pm (dinner then workshops) on 3, 10 and 17 August at St Mary’s parish centre, 40 Franklin St, Leederville.

True Love Waits

Want to discover the Master Plan for your life? - In collaboration with True Love Waits, three youth groups - St Mary’s Leederville, St Bernadette’s Glendalough and St Paul’s Mt Lawley - will jointly host a five week course on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

The first night will be an introductory DVD presentation of The Gift with subsequent weeks delving deeper into this wonderful, sophisticated, yet simple exploration of Catholic teaching on sexuality.

South Perth

Blessed Mary MacKillop Vigil MassThe Sisters of St Joseph will hold a special Mass to celebrate their foundress’ feast day. The celebrant will be Fr Dat Vuong. All welcome, a light supper to follow.

When: 6.15pm on 7 August at the Sisters of St Joseph’s Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth.

Catholic Youth Ministry

Music Workshops with musician and Deacon Rob Galea - The workshops will cover topics relating to music ministry at Mass including the importance of music and singing in the Liturgy; the structure of the Mass; the parts of the Mass that may (and should) be sung; how to choose music for Mass; the liturgical seasons; the role of music ministers and more. Entry: $10 includes afternoon tea and a liturgy resource. To register, contact admin@ cym.com.au.

When: 2-5pm on 21 August at St Thomas More Bateman Parish Hall.

Sunday Sesh with musician and Deacon Rob Galea - 5pm Mass at the Cathedral will be followed by supper at 6pm (bring $7 for dinner) and at 7pm, in Mercedes Hall, Rob Galea, who was recently ordained a deacon, will give his testimony.

Originally from Malta, this “Singing Seminarian” has also toured America, Canada and Australia. Rob has just released a new album last month, Divine Mercy Chaplet, the first in a ‘Devotion

When: 22 August for 5pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, followed by supper and sesh.

Divine Mercy Testimony

After being pronounced clinically dead in 1993, Brother Stanley Villavicencio has been travelling the world sharing his alleged spiritual encounters with Jesus. Divine Mercy Pilgrimage to Divine Mercy Church, Chittering with Stanley Villavicencio is being organised.

It includes Exposition, Rosary, Benediction, Blessing of Grounds Mass, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Stanley’s testimony. BYO lunch. If you would like to book a seat on the bus, contact Francis on 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877.

When: 16 August at 10.30am at Casa Luisa Piccaretta, 59 Newton St, Spearwood.

16 August at 7.30pm at St Jerome’s, Cnr Rockingham Rd and Troode St, Spearwood.

17 August at 10.30am at St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough; Mass followed by lunch, bring a plate.

17 August at 7.30pm at St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough.

18 August at 10.30am at Our Lady of Mercy, 5 Patrick St, Girrawheen.

18 August at 7.30pm at St Joseph, 19 Hamilton St, Bassendean.

19 August at 10.30am at All Saints Chapel, 77 St George’s Tce, Perth; Exposition until 4pm. 19 August at 7.30pm at Holy Spirit Church, 2 Keaney Way, City Beach.

Send your parish bulletin for At a Glance to baspinks@therecord.com.au.

Parish photos (hi-resolution): parishes@therecord.com.au

School photos (hi-resolution): schools@therecord.com.au

All other stories from parishes: parishes@therecord.com.au

All other photos from schools: schools@therecord.com.au

Barry Hickey with prison chaplain John McCarthy, Juvenile Custodial Services director Brett McMerrin and Trinity College principal Ivan Banks with the plague dedicated to Fr Michael McMahon.

PHOTO: GLYNNIS GRAINGER

Bishops unimpressed by migrant debate

The nation’s Catholic Bishops want to see different, better, migrant policies from both parties

AUSTRALIA’S Catholic Bishops are unhappy that both major political parties claim they will reduce immigration if elected to government on 21 August.

“Australia is a country which, compared to most nations that welcome migrants, is underpopulated with a standard of living which would remain sustainable

despite higher levels of immigration,” says Bishop Joseph Grech, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) delegate for Migrants and Refugees.

Bishop Grech has expressed his distress about the Liberal Coalition vow to cut overseas migration from an annual intake of 300,000 to 170,000, and Labor’s announcement that the Government had already begun reducing migrants to Australia and is well on the way to arriving at an annual goal of 145,000 net migration.

The prelate believes both parties are ignoring the rich contributions made to Australian society with their respective policies and ques-

tions why both sides of politics are bowing to pressure from a minority of the public.

“Both parties are arguing that higher levels of migration will put strains on the country’s infrastructure.

“However, it is the job of the Government to look to sustainable infrastructure regardless of migration levels,” Maltese-born Bishop Grech said.

Pointing out that migration has helped offset the impact of Australia’s declining birth rate, Bishop Grech said that migrants have long contributed to the nation’s economic well-being, and added to our reputation as a uni-

fied nation of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. He and the ACBC are convinced that by cutting our migration programme there will be no economic gain for Australia’s citizens while losing the valuable contributions that migration has always brought to this country. Bishop Grech and the ACBC also strongly question the current bipartisan policies on migration, claiming they have been made without “foresight or hindsight.”

Labor leader Julia Gillard began the debate shortly after the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was deposed, saying she did not believe in a “big Australia” or the goal of

The Centre for Faith, Ethics and Society

at The University of Notre Dame Australia is pleased to present a free public forum at the University

‘bìíÜ~å~ëá~=C=m~ääá~íáîÉ=`~êÉ Raising New Questions in the Public Debate’

péÉ~âÉêë:

Rev Dr Joseph Parkinson STL PhD, Director of the LJ Goodie Bioethics Centre

Mr Peter Quinlan, Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers

A/Prof David Watson, Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine, UNDA (Fremantle)

a~íÉWqÜìêëÇ~óI=NO=^ìÖìëí=OMNM

qáãÉWSKMMéã=oÉÖáëíê~íáçå=~åÇ=oÉÑêÉëÜãÉåíë SKQRéã=cçêìã

Venue: The University of Notre Dame Australia School of Medicine Lecture Theatre (ND35/301) 3rd Floor, 38 Henry Street, Fremantle

RSVP:rsvp@nd.edu.au or 9433 0797

reaching a population of 36 million by 2050. Instead, the Acting PM said she wanted a “sustainable” Australia” although she has refused to put a number on this. Almost immediately, the Opposition announced a similar policy, backing away from a Big Australia despite business leaders expressing dismay, claiming not only would a cut in migration mean less skilled workers but warned another consequence would be higher taxes. Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott has pledged to retain skilled migration numbers and said reductions would come from a focus on migrant family and student visa programmes.

Archbishop and PM meet

Continued from Page 1

The meeting afforded the Archbishop an opportunity to explain to the Prime Minister the media misrepresentation of his statement encouraging people of religious conviction to be politically active.

The Prime Minster said that as a politician she knew full well about media misrepresentation, and said she fully supported the Archbishop’s comments for people of religious conviction to be politically active.

Archbishop Hickey raised with the Prime Minister the issue of Aboriginal and Islander disadvantage in Australia, specifically pointing out his own intimate experience and knowledge of urban Aboriginal people in the centre of Perth.

He sought the assistance of the Prime Minister to help urban Aboriginal people to remain in education beyond primary school so as to improve their opportunity for employment and dignity.

The Prime Minister fully agreed with the Archbishop and said she would endeavour to draw on the Archbishop’s personal experience in this area in the future.

in brief...

Fischer visit

AUSTRALIA’S Ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer AC, discussed preparations for the 17 October canonisation of Blessed Mary MacKillop in Rome with Archbishop Hickey. Mr Fisher was cccompanied by David MacLennan, State Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Archbishop will be in Rome with many of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the Religious congregation that Blessed MacKillop founded, and pilgrims from the Archdiocese.

Mgr Michael Keating and Archbishop Barry Hickey with Julia Gillard and Stephen Smith.

PHOTO: ROBERT CROSS

Toodyay breaks ground in mental health

Workshop this week

to kick start a muchneeded network of support, aimed at getting parishes to help those suffering form mental illness

BY ANTHONY BARICH

TOODYAY Parish is on the verge of establishing a historic mental health support network after years of appeals from the area that currently has few support structures in place.

A 5 August workshop at St John the Baptist Catholic parish hall on Stirling Terrace, Toodyay was planned to establish a steering committee to find a parish-based

way to support people with mental health issues, their families and carers in the community.

Barbara Harris, director of the Emmanuel Centre – the Archdiocesan self-help agency run by and for people with disabilities, their families, carers and those with whom they work – will facilitate the 5 August workshop, titled “Introduction to taking control of your life”.

The workshop is the Emmanuel Centre’s response to over a decade of calls from the Northam-Toodyay area asking for practical help with mental health issues to which, until now, the Centre has only been able to provide over-the-phone help.

“Calls have been coming in from people in outer regions, particularly in the Northam-Toodyay area, and all we’ve been able to offer is a listening ear,” said Ms Harris, who has spent countless hours on

the phone advising people in the Toodyay-Northam area who are up to 90 minutes drive away.

This changed once the Toodyay Parish Council, through its member Gina Gulbransen, made a commitment to help Emmanuel, together with the support of the Toodyay-based Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.

“So we’re biting the bullet and having this meeting,” Ms Harris told The Record. People from a 50km radius are invited to the workshop which Emmanuel has successfully run in the metropolitan area in a number of parishes.

Steering committees set up from such workshops in the past have assessed training needs for those at the workshop who want to be on a steering committee, how often they like to meet (usually monthly), the purpose of the group, and where the meetings will

be held.

“The most crying out need we find is there’s this isolation … that you not only have an issue to deal with but you feel so alone in itthat’s whether you’re a carer or a person with a mental health issue. The general rule is that people with mental health issues are shunned by those in the community who don’t know how to deal with them, they keep away,” Ms Harris said.

“If you’re caring for somebody, there’s a whole lot of embarrassment and coping mechanisms that keep you from integrating or even mixing with other people, which may also stem from the way people don’t understand people with mental health issues.”

This is the case in the metropolitan and rural regions, she added.

The outcome of the workshop would take the form of a network,

with a particular focus on a common understanding and Catholic belief system, though it is open to supporting non-Catholics.

It will focus on two “unique” facts: that there are people in the community who have mental health issues and those who care for them, and that the support network stems from the Christian faith.

It is hoped that this venture will become a permanent opportunity to provide much needed support particularly to Catholic people with mental health issues as well as their families, friends and supporters. Seven similar mental health support and well being groups already exist in the Archdiocese of Perth in Clarkson, Whitford, Morley, Bateman, Northbridge, Kelmscott and Lesmurdie, though each are different in how they address local needs.

Landmark as Vinnies open retail centre in Morley

Visiting International President on hand to launch new retail centre

THE St Vincent de Paul Society’s International President General Michael Thio witnessed the opening on 2 August of the first new Vinnies retail centre since 2004.

The centre, at Unit 2, 10 Dewar Street, Morley, will provide the local community with a cheaper shopping alternative, a welfare outlet for clothing and household goods and a place to volunteer and gain new skills.

The opening of the shop and Mr Thio’s visit also coincides with Homeless Persons Week, from 2-8 August, which takes the theme Will you be homeless in 2020?

It highlights the four main emerging groups of homeless as women and children, families, young people and over 55s.

Homelessness Australia has reported that families with children are the fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness in Australia with more than 16 per cent of Australia’s 105,000 homeless in this group –stating one of the main causes as lack of affordable housing.

St Vincent de Paul Society WA spokeswoman Lucinda Ardagh said the Society had a mother with four children walk into its service last week after driving down from Toodyay as she was desperate for help.

After her husband’s work had dried up, they were now struggling to pay a crippling mortgage, look after animals, feed their growing children and keep the family warm in winter.

Her main priority was buying a gas bottle so she could keep the house warm in the freezing weather.

“We were able to assist this lady with food and fuel vouchers to free up some cash, and provided assistance with her outstanding utility bills,” Ms Ardagh said. “Sadly, this mother’s story isn’t uncommon.”

The St Vincent de Paul Society responds to many requests from families in crisis.

Utility bills are one element crippling households at the moment and we’re experiencing a 34 per cent increase (May/June 09 – May/June 10) in the demand for help with payments to keep gas, water and electricity running. Ms Ardagh said that families all over Perth are in dire straits and more often than not, a hand up from a charity like Vinnies is what keeps a roof over their head and them off the streets.

The Vinnies Retail Centres also act in responding to the community’s needs by providing an outlet for welfare assistance in the form of clothing. The new Vinnies Retail Centre in Morley will give locals an opportunity to redeem clothing vouchers given through

Home Visitation for themselves and their families.

Vinnies Retail General Manager Lisa Pappas said the Morley shop has been planned for three years.

“We’ve been able to get a whole new group of volunteers to run the shop which is a great reflection on the Morley community who want to help those in need around them,” she said.

The Centre’s aim, she added, is to provide customers with “a pleasant shopping experience where they can find pre-loved clothing and household goods at reasonable prices”.

The Association of the Society of St Vincent de Paul is present in 146 countries, has 51,000 conferences worldwide composed of 750,000 members helping more than 1,500,000 people in their good works.

To donate to the St Vincent de Paul Society Winter Appeal and help respond to individuals and families in need this winter, call 13 18 12 or visit www.vinnies.org.au.

Above: St Vincent de Paul Society International President Michael Thio with volunteers Alisha Eley, 20 and Krystal Davies, 17 and store manager Debra Dennis. Right, Mr Thio with Debra Dennis.

Rosaries for the Bouquet

Sunday, 5 September - Tuesday, 7 September

WA Bishops join State in 48 hour Rosary

Parish. Nation. World. The Record.

PRINCIPALSHIPS

KURURRUNGKU CATHOLIC EDUCATION CENTRE, BILLILUNA

Kururrungku Catholic Education Centre (Billiluna Station) is located within the Mindibungu Aboriginal Community, 180 kilometres south of Halls Creek. The school was started in a tin shed by the Sisters of Mercy in 1979. Today Kururrungku has contemporary facilities and caters for around 60 students from Kindergarten to Year 10. The staff consists of four non-Indigenous teaching staff including the Principal, four community teachers and three Aboriginal Teaching Assistants.

Community involvement is encouraged and the philosophy of two-way learning, which incorporates both a western and an Aboriginal curriculum, underpins the school’s operation. Kururrungku provides pre-school to adult education programs, including the teaching of the Walmajarri language and culture. Adult and post compulsory education is encouraged and Kururrungku is now part of the Kutjunka Trade Training Centre, which also includes Luurnpa Catholic School, Balgo Hills and John Pujajangka-Piyirn School, Mulan.

WANALIRRI CATHOLIC SCHOOL, GIBB RIVER

Wanalirri Catholic School is located on Gibb River Station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The school was established in 1991 by the Our Lady of the Missions Sisters, who first commenced lessons in an old corrugated iron station house, which has now been replaced with excellent facilities. The Sisters remained at the school for ten years and the first lay principal was appointed in 2001. Currently the school is led by a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

The school currently has an enrolment of 14 students in one primary class with the assistance of an Aboriginal Teaching assistant. The students follow a balanced, challenging program that addresses their spiritual, physical, social and intellectual needs. The community remains very supportive of the school with elders calling to visit or teach language.

Wanalirri’s curriculum is developed through a whole-school approach that combines best practice in learning, teaching and assessment for Aboriginal students.

The

48 Hour Rosary Bouquet 2010

AS Our Lady’s Birthday on 8 September approaches, Catholics throughout WA are getting their Rosary beads ready to be part of the 48 Hour Perpetual Rosary Bouquet, a Birthday Gift to Our Blessed Mother.

For 21 years throughout the State, Catholics have united in praying the Rosary for 48 hours before her birthday and presenting the Bouquet to her as a gift, free of intentions.

In this 22nd year, the 48 hours commences on Sunday, 5 September at 6pm and concludes on Tuesday, 7 September at 6pm.

To ensure the 48 hours are covered, Catholics are urged to fill in the roster with their designated time and forward to the organisers, so that names - parishes or individuals - can be placed on the scroll.

The Rosary can be prayed anywhere, anytime, during the 48 hours, privately or with a group. A number of parishes can cover the whole 48 hours. Both Archbishop Barry Hickey and Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton commend and support

the Bouquet, wishing it every success and blessing.

All Catholic schools throughout WA are invited to take part. What a pleasing sight for Our Lady to see children praying “Her Prayer.” Their prayer is so powerful.

In future, the Legion of Mary will be supporting the Bouquet. The aim of the Legion is to promote Our Lady and to encourage more and more people to take part in this Rosary Bouquet, hopefully taking it further afield, even offshore.

The scroll, with names of parishes, schools and individuals taking part, will be taken up in procession during the Mass on 8 September at St Mary’s Cathedral at 12.10pm celebrated by Archbishop Hickey, which will be preceded by a Meditative Rosary at 11.30am led by Fr Paul Carey.

Those interested in participating are asked to put their details on the Rosary roster, giving their desired time and forward to Margaret Bowen: 1/44A Scalby St, Doubleview 6018. Phone - 9341 8082. Fax - 9341 8083. Emailbowen@iinet.net.au.

Legion of Mary: Phone - 2726. Fax - 9328 2782. Email - perthcomitium@bigpond.com. Website: www.rosarywa.info.

A Rosary is draped over the praying hands of a statue of Mary outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, New York, on 6 December 2007. PHOTO: CNS/PAUL FINCH, CATHOLIC SUN

Caritas slams Khmer Rouge sentence

Caritas Australia’s coordinator in Phnom Penh says victims denied justice

THE 30 July announcement that former Khmer Rouge official and prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as “Duch”, has had his sentence for murder, torture and crimes against humanity reduced from 35 years to just 19 has been greeted with outrage by Caritas Australia’s coordinator in Phnom Penh.

Contacting head office in Sydney, CA’s Lay Sothy, said the survivors and other victims of the Khmer Rouge regime have waited more than 30 years for justice but the reduced sentence has left his country depressed and disappointed.

“If we consider more than 14,000 lives were lost at his command, and that he will spend just 19 years in prison, it amounts to less than two days behind bars for every life he took,” Lay Sothy said.

Sothy, who was 15 and living in rural Cambodia during the brutal and bloody Pol Pot regime of 1975 and 1979, said the trial and sentence of the man responsible for so many deaths has opened old wounds and brought great pain to the people of Cambodia, but has not brought justice.

“I understand we should forgive the past, forgive wrongdoings and should look to the future,” he said.

“But it deeply concerns me that so much money - millions of dollars - was spent to give victims and families justice, but that this has not been done,” he said.

Sothy, now 45, said that while he welcomed the trial, its result has not satisfied him or anyone else who lived through those terrible times and he believes the 19 year sentence is far too short for such enormous guilt and for so many “Duch” ordered killed.

The international tribunal, which tried the former leader within the Khmer Rouge and chief of the Phnom Penh’s notorious Toul Sleng Prison, found

“Duch” guilty on all counts. But the 35 year sentence, reduced to 19 years on time already served, was lenient compared with his crimes, Sothy says, and forcefully criticises the tribunal.

“Survivors of Pol Pot expected the hybrid court to give them full justice so their suffering could begin to heal,” he says.

But he said that this will not happen now as instead of giving the man who was responsible for so many deaths a sentence befitting his crimes, the tribunal took the prisoner’s cooperation, confession and expressions of remorse into consideration and handed down a relatively mild 35 years behind bars, which in reality will become less than 20 years.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal was established within a United Nations framework. “Duch” was the first of the Pol Pot regime’s elite to come before the tribunal. But Sothy says he and his countrymen hold out little hope for real justice.

For Sothy, “Duch’s” so-called remorse was not “from the heart” and was simply another sign that he continues to be a clever politician and player and “very, very manipulative.”

Rush to rescue MacKillop artefacts after tornado

VOLUNTEERS were up early on 2 August to rescue and store priceless artefacts from Penola’s 1867 MacKillop-Woods schoolhouse and valuable memorabilia at the nearby Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre, both of which were damaged in the tornado which ripped through the town at 6pm on 31 July.

Claire Larkin, chairwoman of the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre Committee, said that the State Emergency Service and the Country Fire Service have tarped the roof of the schoolhouse and the smashed skylight at the Centre. The State Government has contributed with a special grant to help repair the centre and schoolhouse and all the 60 damaged buildings which included 40 houses.

With winds of up to 180kph, the ferocious storm tore away three quarters of the roof of the heritage-listed schoolhouse along with one of its chimneys.

The main skylight of the Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre, which houses the Mary MacKillop Museum, was destroyed and many of its windows cracked.

With roofs and skylights destroyed, water poured into both the centre and the schoolhouse during the storm but thanks to the efforts of local volunteers, including Claire and her team, and the swift action of the area’s

SES and CFS, priceless artefacts and mementos from the days when Australia’s saint-in-waiting, Blessed Mary MacKillop, established her first school.

The school was also the site where she and Fr Julian TenisonWoods, who was then parish priest at Penola’s St Joseph’s Church, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

“Now it is a matter of mopping up water from the floors of both buildings and making sure everything is stored safely until the roof of the schoolhouse and skylight can be repaired,” Mrs Larkin said.

The South Australian State

Government also gave a grant of $250,000 to be put towards repairs for the stricken town. SA Premier Mike Rann said the State Government would be “very happy” to assist the Church with the cost of repairs to the heritagelisted MacKillop-Woods schoolhouse. “The sky was an eerie colour and suddenly I heard this horrific noise,” Mrs Larkin said. “I thought it was a plane trying to land, and then I saw all this stuff in the sky, bits of roof, trees, all whirling about together in a great dark cloud.”

At home with her husband when the storm hit, she said with the noise and wind plus teeming rain, the tornado was “very dramatic and very frightening.”

Almost immediately, the power went off across the town and residents were forced to sit in total darkness for several hours as ferocious gusts and pelting rain cut a swathe through the town.

With no heat, no radio and phone lines down, Claire says it wasn’t until one of the 11 regular volunteers at the centre managed to get through on her mobile that she realised a tornado had hit Penola and that the roof of the schoolhouse had been destroyed. “We rushed over straight away to do whatever we could and to rescue the desks and all the displays and memorabilia,” Mrs Larkin said.

Pope Benedict XVI

Claire Larkin

A victim of the Khmer Rouge.

Excellent editorial! It gave a much broader perspective to the asylum seeker issue, a generous perspective, than the one we have with blinkers on.

I thought the point you made about Australia being “a country still waiting to be built” and your theme of hospitality was poignant.

On the issue of the current election: in an election, many issues need to be considered in deciding a vote. In the lead up to the big day, the media is typically presenting topics such as economics, taxes, climate, schooling, border protection, work place agreements to name a few. But there are also life issues to be considered.

These are important for all Australians, and especially for Catholics. The secular media aren’t paying much attention to pro-life debates and, in their campaigning, politicians themselves are quiet about them.

It’s even more necessary then for us to emphasise life issues now and to remember why these matters are important for our vote.

Life and bioethical issues are important because they directly affect whether or not, and how much, the value of life itself is recognised in our country.

In the hierarchy of goods, the discussions of life and death logically take the highest priority because life in itself is the greatest good (if we can even talk about it that way). All other issues fit underneath it and flow from it. After all (and it should be able to be taken for granted) all other agendas discussed by governments are supposed to be for the greater good of people’s lives and the quality of our wellbeing.

Therefore, while every other issue has its rightful place and importance in this election, I believe that pro-life issues take the prime place.

These are what make up those controversial issues such as abortion, contraception, marriage and “same sex marriage”, sex education, prostitution, embryonic stem cell research, IVF, cloning and euthanasia.

Putting it bluntly, these are a matter of life and death.

They simply cannot be dismissed or treated with less

Polding beat MacKillop

In the article on page 1, (The Record, 28 July) Anthony Barich refers to Mary MacKillop as the “Mother Superior of the first Australian-founded Religious congregation”. Not true, as Archbishop John Bede Polding OSB founded the Good Samaritan Sisters in Sydney in 1857. This was nine years before the founding of the Josephites in 1866.

Fr

Brian Russell Redemptorist Monastery North Perth

Disgust and praise

On a positive note, I enjoyed, and fully support, your ideas of a compassionate stance when it comes to asylum seekers, which was expressed in your editorial (28/7/2010). Also, the letter on the theology of Eucharist: Eucharist as an action not an object, by Guido J Vogels gave a good summary of Vatican II’s intentions for the Mass.

However, I was angry and disgusted that this (supposedly) politically independent Catholic newspaper had inserted a flyer supporting a political party, namely the Christian Democratic Party.

I will certainly not be voting for this party, but for the party they have, unfairly in my view, denigrated. I will be voting for the Greens. The CDP will be on the bottom of my ballot paper. Please avoid political advertising. Shouldn’t your paper be politically independent?

Br Joe Murphy Christian Brothers, Waterford

Ed: A note of clarification on political advertising: at State and Federal elections The Record often receives enquiries about political advertisements. Advertisments are clearly treated as such and the appearance of an advertisement in the paper does not mean the paper endorses the party or candidate advertising in its pages. The insert you refer to was an advertisement and should not be construed as the paper supporting the Christian Democratic Party, explicitly or implicitly. While reserving the right to decline any advertisement, The Record would be happy to accept advertisements from most political parties with the exception of those that promote policies repugnant to Christian faith, such as support for euthanasia or pornography, and so on. The Record believes Catholics should be able to be active in and vote for the political party of their choice, so at election times the paper takes particular care to steer clear of endorsing any party.

Rotten Green

Something is rotten in the State of Victoria. The same day Greens MP Greg Barber announced his party’s new policy to ban zoo imports, saying he “felt for Melbourne Zoo’s Thai elephants standing in the cold every time he went past their enclosures”, the Greens voted against a Motion in the Victorian parliament to have a Parliamentary Committee

importance than other seemingly more tactile issues that are currently hot in the campaigns.

Just because political leaders are choosing not to publicly debate life issues or because they aren’t presented in the media also doesn’t mean that the contesting parties are all in agreement about the issues.

In fact, each party and political member can differ widely or have opposing views about them. The Liberal party, for example, reject “same-sex marriage” and oppose illicit drugs whilst Labor and Greens advocate them both. Whoever wins the election will bring with their governance either pro-life or pro-choice (anti-life) agendas.

A government’s philosophical outlook on human life and ethics concretely affects the way it governs a country. It affects the types of policies the government may implement, how they are implemented and the manner in which they respond to new issues as they arise. And so, they directly influence the wellbeing and existence of every person and society at large.

Consider how late term abortion was recently legalised in Victoria in 2008 and how, in the same year, the bill for decriminalisation of brothels in WA passed the Upper House - a move that was made behind closed doors so to speak, almost completely undetected and undebated by the public. These are real issues that have real moral and threatening impacts on us as citizens.

Why weren’t the public made more aware of them and given a democratic say at the time?

Now, in the instance that we risk electing a government that consents to the killing of children by abortion, or the

investigate the deaths of 54 babies born alive following late term abortions. Not a shred of pity did Mr Barber have for the 54 babies left to die in the cold in hospital sluice rooms.

This is a wake up call for Victorians facing a State election. We have fanatics in Parliament committed to humanising flora and fauna and degrading human life

We have a Labor MP’s distress at at being ordered to vote against this investigation to avoid a backlash against the Brumby Government’s infamous 2008 Abortion Bill legalising abortion up to birth. If Premier Brumby was proud of this legislation, there would be nothing to fear from this Motion.

Denise M Cameron President, Pro Life Victoria East Brunswick, VIC

Eucharist or adoration?

Irefer to the letter by Guido J Vogels. I was aghast at reading: “The Eucharist therefore is not a magic ritual, or an object to be adored or worshipped”.

It seems odd that this gentleman who signs himself as “Vicar Social Apostolate, Catholic Archdiocese of Perth” has anything at all to do with the “Catholic Archdiocese of Perth.”

The trouble with the word “Eucharist” is that it has a dual meaning. Your correspondent has skimmed over this mean-

frail with euthanasia - considering the hierarchy of goods, what relevance is there discussing a good economy when life itself is not properly recognised?

Isn’t it ironic to talk about limiting boats and immigrants while we allow the killing of our own population?

And what of all the talk of climate change and preserving the planet if we deny our posterity to be born to inherit that earth and all its goods? What’s the use of going about kissing babies if the dignity of marriage from which they come is not protected? And isn’t it absurd to be campaigning for women’s rights while making it legal for women to be degraded in prostitution?

The controversial nature of these issues and the intensity of sentiments they can arouse in people mean that they are not openly debated and talked about by politicians nor presented by the media, especially leading up to elections. It is far ‘safer’ for the politicians to debate other issues - issues that can arouse just enough excitement and sentiments, but not too much to upset the majority. But we cannot fall into the error of forgetting about the issues that the media are silent about, especially given their moral weight. So then with life issues, we as the public have to play detective and do our own research on party policies, taking care to scrutinise the less conspicuous agendas. We have to seek out the facts the best we can, join the dots and make some educated guesses on likely outcomes.

It makes it easier that we have clear guidelines from the Church on the stances we should adopt for life and bioethical issues, and we can compare party policies against these.

If in doubt, it is wise to stick by the Church’s dictum: “Affirm life from conception to its natural end.” Anything that contradicts this will ultimately be destructive to ourselves. Policies that go against this must be rejected.

On 21 August let’s hope that all Australians will decide on a vote based on values that make a country healthy - values that protect the dignity of life, marriage and the family.

Jing Ping Wong Nedlands

ing without actually defining his terms. The first meaning is that of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

In that sense it most certainly is not a “magic ritual”.

During the Holy Mass, the priest, as Alter Christus (another Christ), by the power of his priesthood, actually transubstantiates the ordinary species of bread and wine into the actual Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.

The “accidents” of bread and wine remain, so that they still look like bread and wine, but what they are is changed substantially.

No longer are they bread and wine but they have become the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Because of that, God Himself is immediately present on the altar.

Reformation Protestantism wanted to deny this miracle so it stripped the altars, threw out the Mass, and claimed that transubstantiation had never taken place.

The second meaning of the word “Eucharist” is that of the Real Presence of Jesus himself as the reality which is contained in every tabernacle throughout the Catholic world.

I much prefer to refer to item two as “The Real Presence” and item one to be “The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”.

Then there is no doubt as to what is being referred to.

Anyone who writes that the Eucharist is not an object to be adored or worshipped is risking being understood as denying the Real Presence.

John Rayner

Hillarys

Mel Gibson:

Conservative demon or miunderstood Caravaggio?

Scandalous tape recordings expose the movie star in an ugly light, but some critics are honing their own agendas, writes

Carolyn Moynihan

Mel Gibson, Hollywood antihero in the making, is in the stocks this month being pelted with verbal rotten tomatoes by journalists who love nothing better for a target than a fallen moralist.

The former family man, having broken up a 28 year marriage by his alcoholism and infidelity, is now in the midst of an ugly breakup with his girlfriend of two or three years, Oksana Grigorieva.

She has released recordings of telephone calls in which he abused her in highly offensive and threatening language, and accused him of hitting her and injuring their nine month old daughter in the process.

Compounding the disgrace is Gibson’s Catholicism, which, thanks to his father’s influence, is reputed to be of a stricter kind (doctrinally, if not in practice) and to which he gave notable and moving expression in his 2004 film The Passion of The Christ

Additionally, and in jarring contrast, there is his habit of spouting racial and other slurs during bouts of alcohol-fuelled truculence and, in the present instance, uncontrolled anger.

To his much-cited rant against Jews when stopped for drunk driving, he has allegedly added denigration of gays and now the use of “nigger” in the context of vitriolic and profanity-laden attacks on Grigorieva.

Infidelity, drunkenness, boorishness - these by themselves would not distinguish Gibson from the common run of sinners.

But anti-semitism, racism, homophobia and sexism are a dif-

ferent story; in American public life today there are no greater sins that these, and no clearer target for opprobrium than the person who commits them, or even appears to commit them.

The woman he recklessly took up with as his marriage disintegrated has exposed him as just such a target.

New York Times writer Frank Rich, who seems to have a personal score to settle with Gibson, has seized the opportunity to “bury Caesar” with evident relish. He has two things against the disgraced movie star. In the first place, Rich is Jewish and he was deeply offended by The Passion of The Christ, which he damns as “nakedly antisemitic”.

And the second is like the first. The film represents everything that was nasty, brutish and far too long about the conservatism of the Bush years: values voters, indecency rules, concerns about the “war on Christmas”, panic over gay marriage - but, above all, the respect given to The Passion and its creator.

“In 2004, Mel Gibson, box office king and conservative culture hero, was invincible,” says Rich bitterly. He then notes with sardonic satisfaction how those trends have been reversed: “The death throes of Mel Gibson’s career feel less like another Hollywood scandal than the last gasps of an American era.”

Rich is wrong about The Passion; it is not an attack on Jews but an attempt to look without flinching at the suffering of one Jew who happened also to be the Son of God. The Times writer also makes too much of circumstantial evidence: Gibson senior’s reputation as a Holocaust denier and Gibson’s own - only? - drunken outburst about Jews.

It is hard to escape the impression that he simply dislikes Christian morality, and Gibson gives him a convenient excuse to rehearse his phobia.

Something similar is at work in Christopher Hitchens’ diatribe against Gibson on Slate. We all know how Hitchens cannot stand religion and religious people and

that he has to spend a lot of time pointing out what is wrong with it all. Well, here is Gibson doing all the hard work for him - Gibson and his eccentric dad, tarred with the same brush of fanatical Catholicism and its hang-ups as he is. Many people, even Gibson himself perhaps, have come to the conclusion that he suffers from a personality disorder bordering on outright mental illness: paranoia, manic depression, something like that.

Hitchens has a more elegant, but less forgiving theory: “Yet here is a man whose every word and deed is easily explicable once you know the single essential thing about him: He is a member of a fascist splinter group that believes it is the salvation of the Catholic Church.” Gibson thus becomes an emanation of one Hitch’s pet hates: “the Catholic right” with its connection to “European fascism”.

The funny thing is, as I read Hitch’s rant against Mel I was struck by how alike they are. Both seem shaped, willy-nilly, by their backgrounds.

“Conservative culture hero? Catholic fascist?

Mel Gibson? I don’t think so; but how does one make sense of the man?”

According to a profile in the Guardian, Hitchen’s mother was Jewish, which explains his sensitivity to anti-Jewish slurs. His father was a British naval officer in World War II whose sole topic of conversation subsequently was the war - the one time in his life when he “knew what he was doing”. Hitch, as we know, loves nothing better than a verbal war and his second wife (like Gibson he has a broken marriage behind him) told the New Yorker a few years ago that her husband was one of “those men who were never really in battle and wished they had been. There’s a whole tough-guy,

‘I am violent, I will use violence, I will take some of these people out before I die’ talk, which is key to his psychology – I don’t care what he says. I think it is partly to do with his upbringing.”

Then there is Hitch’s gargantuan capacity for alcohol, his scatalogical language, his ranting against “Islamofacism” and every other type of fascism he sees lurking behind religious exteriors - even that of Mother Teresa, whom he once called the “Ghoul of Calcutta”. Granted, the Oxford graduate usually does it with more elegance than the wild colonial boy, who prefers blood and gore imagery to send messages to the establishment, but he often seems to sail close to the line between literacy and lunacy. Conservative culture hero? Catholic fascist? Mel Gibson? I don’t think so; but how does one make sense of the man?

Back in 2004 when The Passion was causing such a stir, a Wall Street Journal editorial likened the film to “a documentary by Caravaggio”. Following this clue (hat tip to Frank Rich for quoting it) I boned up on the famous Baroque painter, who turns out to be another scapegrace who produced works of genius.

Many of these are marked by violent struggles, decapitations, torture and death. One of his first public commissions was the Martyrdom of St Matthew. Not Braveheart, The Patriot, or even The Passion, but the works of the two artists show a similar fascination with strong contrasts of light and darkness and the drama of violence. And like Gibson’s more serious output, Caravaggio’s realism upset some people, who saw it as vulgar.

But it is the personal life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - who died exactly 400 years agothat particularly caught my attention. Let Wikipedia do the talking: He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions … Thereafter he never lacked for commissions or patrons, yet he

handled his success atrociously. An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, tells how “after a fortnight’s work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him.”

In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. In Malta in 1608 he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. By the next year, after a relatively brief career, he was dead.

This is not an attempt to absolve Mel Gibson on the ground that his talent excuses everything else. It does not.

The point is that he may be a more familiar kind of sinner than some of his critics make out, and that their attempt to demonise him as a fascist reveals more about themselves than about him.

Exactly what Gibson has said and done to Ms Grigorieva has yet to be determined by the legal process, but it looks very bad. His life is seriously derailed and it is difficult to see how it can be set to rights. After a three year separation, his wife Robyn filed for a divorce in April 2009 and it is not clear what stage the proceedings have reached.

She and Gibson still have their seven children and business interests in common. She has even spoken up for him in the current scandal, submitting a sworn statement that he never harmed her or their children during all the years of marriage. She was, reportedly, sick of hearing him portrayed as a monster.

Could she forgive him and repair the marriage? He would have to use his knees a lot more than his mouth for that to even be possible. A Caravaggio ending is not inevitable for this drama that Mel Gibson is co-directing, but we shall just have to wait and see.

This article first appeared on MercatorNet.com

The poster for Mel Gibson’s latest movie is oddly apt considering his public persona, which, while inflamed by the media, has also been of his own doing.

Mel Gibson:

Conservative demon or miunderstood Caravaggio?

Scandalous tape recordings expose the movie star in an ugly light, but some critics are honing their own agendas, writes

Carolyn Moynihan

Mel Gibson, Hollywood antihero in the making, is in the stocks this month being pelted with verbal rotten tomatoes by journalists who love nothing better for a target than a fallen moralist.

The former family man, having broken up a 28 year marriage by his alcoholism and infidelity, is now in the midst of an ugly breakup with his girlfriend of two or three years, Oksana Grigorieva.

She has released recordings of telephone calls in which he abused her in highly offensive and threatening language, and accused him of hitting her and injuring their nine month old daughter in the process.

Compounding the disgrace is Gibson’s Catholicism, which, thanks to his father’s influence, is reputed to be of a stricter kind (doctrinally, if not in practice) and to which he gave notable and moving expression in his 2004 film The Passion of The Christ

Additionally, and in jarring contrast, there is his habit of spouting racial and other slurs during bouts of alcohol-fuelled truculence and, in the present instance, uncontrolled anger.

To his much-cited rant against Jews when stopped for drunk driving, he has allegedly added denigration of gays and now the use of “nigger” in the context of vitriolic and profanity-laden attacks on Grigorieva.

Infidelity, drunkenness, boorishness - these by themselves would not distinguish Gibson from the common run of sinners.

But anti-semitism, racism, homophobia and sexism are a dif-

ferent story; in American public life today there are no greater sins that these, and no clearer target for opprobrium than the person who commits them, or even appears to commit them.

The woman he recklessly took up with as his marriage disintegrated has exposed him as just such a target.

New York Times writer Frank Rich, who seems to have a personal score to settle with Gibson, has seized the opportunity to “bury Caesar” with evident relish. He has two things against the disgraced movie star. In the first place, Rich is Jewish and he was deeply offended by The Passion of The Christ, which he damns as “nakedly antisemitic”.

And the second is like the first. The film represents everything that was nasty, brutish and far too long about the conservatism of the Bush years: values voters, indecency rules, concerns about the “war on Christmas”, panic over gay marriage - but, above all, the respect given to The Passion and its creator.

“In 2004, Mel Gibson, box office king and conservative culture hero, was invincible,” says Rich bitterly. He then notes with sardonic satisfaction how those trends have been reversed: “The death throes of Mel Gibson’s career feel less like another Hollywood scandal than the last gasps of an American era.”

Rich is wrong about The Passion; it is not an attack on Jews but an attempt to look without flinching at the suffering of one Jew who happened also to be the Son of God. The Times writer also makes too much of circumstantial evidence: Gibson senior’s reputation as a Holocaust denier and Gibson’s own - only? - drunken outburst about Jews.

It is hard to escape the impression that he simply dislikes Christian morality, and Gibson gives him a convenient excuse to rehearse his phobia.

Something similar is at work in Christopher Hitchens’ diatribe against Gibson on Slate. We all know how Hitchens cannot stand religion and religious people and

that he has to spend a lot of time pointing out what is wrong with it all. Well, here is Gibson doing all the hard work for him - Gibson and his eccentric dad, tarred with the same brush of fanatical Catholicism and its hang-ups as he is. Many people, even Gibson himself perhaps, have come to the conclusion that he suffers from a personality disorder bordering on outright mental illness: paranoia, manic depression, something like that.

Hitchens has a more elegant, but less forgiving theory: “Yet here is a man whose every word and deed is easily explicable once you know the single essential thing about him: He is a member of a fascist splinter group that believes it is the salvation of the Catholic Church.” Gibson thus becomes an emanation of one Hitch’s pet hates: “the Catholic right” with its connection to “European fascism”.

The funny thing is, as I read Hitch’s rant against Mel I was struck by how alike they are. Both seem shaped, willy-nilly, by their backgrounds.

“Conservative culture hero? Catholic fascist?

Mel Gibson? I don’t think so; but how does one make sense of the man?”

According to a profile in the Guardian, Hitchen’s mother was Jewish, which explains his sensitivity to anti-Jewish slurs. His father was a British naval officer in World War II whose sole topic of conversation subsequently was the war - the one time in his life when he “knew what he was doing”. Hitch, as we know, loves nothing better than a verbal war and his second wife (like Gibson he has a broken marriage behind him) told the New Yorker a few years ago that her husband was one of “those men who were never really in battle and wished they had been. There’s a whole tough-guy,

‘I am violent, I will use violence, I will take some of these people out before I die’ talk, which is key to his psychology – I don’t care what he says. I think it is partly to do with his upbringing.”

Then there is Hitch’s gargantuan capacity for alcohol, his scatalogical language, his ranting against “Islamofacism” and every other type of fascism he sees lurking behind religious exteriors - even that of Mother Teresa, whom he once called the “Ghoul of Calcutta”. Granted, the Oxford graduate usually does it with more elegance than the wild colonial boy, who prefers blood and gore imagery to send messages to the establishment, but he often seems to sail close to the line between literacy and lunacy. Conservative culture hero? Catholic fascist? Mel Gibson? I don’t think so; but how does one make sense of the man?

Back in 2004 when The Passion was causing such a stir, a Wall Street Journal editorial likened the film to “a documentary by Caravaggio”. Following this clue (hat tip to Frank Rich for quoting it) I boned up on the famous Baroque painter, who turns out to be another scapegrace who produced works of genius.

Many of these are marked by violent struggles, decapitations, torture and death. One of his first public commissions was the Martyrdom of St Matthew. Not Braveheart, The Patriot, or even The Passion, but the works of the two artists show a similar fascination with strong contrasts of light and darkness and the drama of violence. And like Gibson’s more serious output, Caravaggio’s realism upset some people, who saw it as vulgar.

But it is the personal life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - who died exactly 400 years agothat particularly caught my attention. Let Wikipedia do the talking: He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions … Thereafter he never lacked for commissions or patrons, yet he

handled his success atrociously. An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, tells how “after a fortnight’s work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him.”

In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. In Malta in 1608 he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. By the next year, after a relatively brief career, he was dead.

This is not an attempt to absolve Mel Gibson on the ground that his talent excuses everything else. It does not.

The point is that he may be a more familiar kind of sinner than some of his critics make out, and that their attempt to demonise him as a fascist reveals more about themselves than about him.

Exactly what Gibson has said and done to Ms Grigorieva has yet to be determined by the legal process, but it looks very bad. His life is seriously derailed and it is difficult to see how it can be set to rights. After a three year separation, his wife Robyn filed for a divorce in April 2009 and it is not clear what stage the proceedings have reached.

She and Gibson still have their seven children and business interests in common. She has even spoken up for him in the current scandal, submitting a sworn statement that he never harmed her or their children during all the years of marriage. She was, reportedly, sick of hearing him portrayed as a monster.

Could she forgive him and repair the marriage? He would have to use his knees a lot more than his mouth for that to even be possible. A Caravaggio ending is not inevitable for this drama that Mel Gibson is co-directing, but we shall just have to wait and see.

This article first appeared on MercatorNet.com

The poster for Mel Gibson’s latest movie is oddly apt considering his public persona, which, while inflamed by the media, has also been of his own doing.

In his latest book, Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous of Sydney has charted a fascinating phenomenon: the rise of new and unexpected movements, often rapidly growing, in the Catholic Church. And all share exactly the same faith...

Church. Pope John Paul II saw the significance of the ecclesial movements and spoke in more general terms of them in 1981.

By 1987 he recognised the apostolic dynamism of the movements and saw them as a significant presence in the Church:

“The great blossoming of these movements and the manifestations of energy and ecclesial vitality which characterise them are certainly to be considered one of the most precious fruits of the vast and profound spiritual renewal promoted by the last Council”

In 1998 he said that the movements “represent one of the most significant fruits of

He spoke of them as “a new Pentecost for the Church”.

The role of Charism

The source of a movement is a charism which is given to the founder. A charism is as the word implies a gift, a gift for the Church. Thus a charism is for the Church.

The notion of charism which received special notice in the Constitution on the Church in Vatican II is of vital significance when speaking of the movements. It proposes that movements are not merely human undertakings, but have a divine source, an

ful, are co-essential and share in fostering life, renewal and sanctification, though in different ways”

Movements form around a charism

Movements become a reality when groups of the faithful respond to a charism. The power of the charism so engages them that they associate in order to live the charism.

Pope John Paul addressed this phenomenon in these words:

“In the Church’s history, we have continually witnessed the phenomenon of more or less vast groups of the faithful which, under

New, different and Vatican II fruit: the new movements are fascin

BY BISHOP JULIAN PORTEOUS

The emergence of what have come to be termed “ecclesial movements” has been a significant feature of the Church in the past fifty years.

Such movements have been seen by Pope John Paul II and by Pope Benedict XVI as important gifts for the

that springtime in the Church which was foretold by the Second Vatican Council.

He went on to add that the movements have “a very precise – we can say irreplaceable – function in the Church.”

In his encyclical letter, Redemptoris Missio, 1990, the Pope saw the movements as “a true gift of God both for the new evangelisation and for missionary activity properly socalled.”

A catechesis for adults and teenagers to be held in St Mary’s Cathedral hall will also introduce one of the fastest growing of the new movements in the Church, the Neocatechumenal Way.

The team of catechists preparing the talks are inviting anyone interested to experience the happiness of belonging to the Church, taking at face value the line from Psalm 32, “Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.”

The twice-weekly series of talks, often drawing upon the personal experiences of both lay and clerical catechists, will commence on Tuesday, 10 August and run for several weeks.

Often referred to simply as ‘the Way’ by those who are involved in it, the Neocatechumenal Way began in the slums of Madrid in the early 1960s after the Second Vatican Council.

It has gone on to become one of the most remarkable of the new movements that have sprung up in the Church. It is one of the rare bodies mandated to be led not by clerics but by laymen and women.

In an era when numerous Catholics are baptised but hardly ever become involved in or attend their parishes, the Way focuses strongly on helping baptised Christians to experience and live an adult faith.

Numerous non-Catholics or unbaptised individuals choose to enter the Church through its ongoing programme of faith formation. The spread of the Way

inspiration, which is usually incarnated in the spiritual vision of the founder.

Pope John Paul often referred to the complementary role of charism and institution. He saw them as “mutually complementary”. In his 1987 address to the movements he said:

“In the Church, both the institutional and the charismatic aspects, both the hierarchy and association and movements of the faith-

a mysterious impulse of the Spirit, have been spontaneously moved to join together in pursuit of certain charitable or sanctifying ends. This has come about in relation to the particular needs of the Church in their day, and even involved collaboration in the Church’s essential and permanent mission.”

What is important is that the forming of a movement is somehow a fruit of the impulse of the Spirit, with the free will of those who

In Perth there are approximately 16 communities in

The majori Neocatechumen Neocatechumen tive form of t minor modifica approved in 200

They also me in Scripture and Listening to the ing its call is a k an important ro munities and em of the Way is dis

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around the Church on a global level in the decades since its establishment has seen tens of thousands of small communities within parishes come into existence.

parishes; the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Morley, one of numerous such Neocatechumenal seminaries around the globe, is also run under the auspices of the Way and forms priests for the Archdiocese.

L’Arche founder Jean Vanier

Opus Dei Priest celebrating Mass Communion

Pope Benedict XVI leads a special audience with Neocatechumenal Way members in St Peter’s Basilica in 2009 (CNS photo/

embrace the life of the movement. It is also important to recognise that the founder, embodying the charism, has a special influence.

Again, as the Pope expresses, “the passage from the original charism to the movement happens through the mysterious attraction that the founder holds for all those who become involved in his spiritual experiences.”

An outworking of the grace of Baptism

The ground upon which people from all states of life in the Church can become

of communion with Christ and with their brethren.” Members of movements in effect live out the full reality of their Christian identity and calling.

“... we can say that the movements are simply the actualisation of baptismal grace.”

- BISHOP JULIAN PORTEOUS

ible variety of initiatives in the realm of charity and holiness”. He commented that the movements “have helped you all to rediscover your baptismal vocation”.

What is significant about participation in the movements is that the Christian life of the members is not just partially involved, but their whole Christian life is engaged.

Movements are more than associations where individuals contribute to a work or cause in the Church; they are, rather, a completely involving experience.

Communion with the Church

ticularly at the 1998 gathering of communities called for a new level of maturity by which the movements could come to a better sense of their place in the Church.

He said:

“Today a new stage is unfolding before you: that of ecclesial maturity ... the Church expects from you the ‘mature’ fruits of communion and commitments”.

To Bishops meeting one year later, he said: “This journey requires of movements an ever stronger communion with the Pastors God has chosen and consecrated to gather and sanctify his people in the light of faith,

d very unexpected nating - all different, all with the same Faith.

involved in an ecclesial movement is their common Baptism. Indeed, we can say that the movements are simply the actualisation of baptismal grace.

Pope John Paul II commented on this when he said: “Even in the diversity of their forms, these movements are marked by a common awareness of the ‘newness’ which baptismal grace brings to life, through a remarkable longing to reflect on the mystery

city of Perth

ity of its students come from nal communities throughout the world. nal communities celebrate a distinche liturgy which, after scrutiny and ations by Church authorities, was finally 09. eet weekly to listen to the Word of God d to reflect on its relevance to their lives. Word of God in Scripture and discernkey aspect of communities. Music plays ole in the life of Neocatechumenal commphasises singing of the psalms; music stinctive for its heavily Spanish flavour. ch has faced a growing climate of indifstianity in recent decades, especially in es such as Australia, the phenomenon of ments has been regarded with approval Church leaders. As traditional Church pear to be receding in many places, it is ments that appear to be growing.

a somewhat paradoxical situation in hristianity: while all remain distincfrom each other in focus and activity, all cal faith and vigorous adherence to the h and its faith. The Cathedral hall talks Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8pm et in the city. For more information, con8) 9455 3787 of Francesco on 9384 0276.

Again we refer to the words of the Pope: “Members of the Church who find themselves in associations and movements seek to live, under the impulse of the Spirit, the Word of God in their concrete lives.

“They do so by stimulating, with their witness, constantly renewed spiritual progress, by evangelically vivifying temporal realities and human values, and enriching the Church through an infinite and inexhaust-

Movements can be composed of Catholics and have a Catholic identity but there is a danger that they can operate outside the structures of the Church.

Sometimes they can be elitist or be critical of the “ordinary” life of the Church.

This can be a temptation at the beginning in the first flush of enthusiasm and discovery of their charism and life.

Pope John Paul recognised this and par-

hope and charity, because ‘no charism dispenses a person from reference and submission to the Pastor of the Church’”.

A New Wine and Fresh Skins, Ecclesial Movements in the Church, a new book by Bishop Julian Porteous published by Connor Court Press, is available from The Record. Details: Page 20.

and Liberation in procession

Focolare founder Chiara Lubich

Simeon Dzieciol, 10, guards his candle against a breeze during the Easter Vigil with members of the Neocatechumenal Way at St Gerard’s Parish in Mirrabooka, Australia in 2006. PHOTO:

Holy See establishes full diplomatic ties with Russia

ARCHBISHOP Antonio Mennini, until now the Pope’s representative to the Russian Federation, is now the Holy See’s first Apostolic Nuncio to the country. The Archbishop presented his letters of credence to Foreign Affairs Minister Sergej Lavrov on 15 July in a ceremony followed by a “cordial” meeting, reported the Vatican press office. Last December, Benedict XVI and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to upgrade relations between the two sides to full diplomatic ties, which raises the level of representation to Apostolic Nuncio and embassy.

The two sides have maintained representation below the rank of ambassador since 1990. In an address to the new Nuncio, Alexander Krusko, the vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, reviewed the development of bilateral relations between the Russian Federation and the Holy See. He noted that the relations between the two were “characterised by a growing understanding and spirit of collaboration,” reported L’Osservatore Romano. Krusko also assured Archbishop Mennini, on behalf of the Russian president, of “a fruitful collaboration in the great moral and ethical challenges posed to man today.”

Vampire novelist quits Christianity ‘in the name of Christ’

THE best selling writer who made headlines with her dramatic conversion (or reversion) and wrote a popular book about her journey back to Catholicism, has changed her mind.

She made the announcement on Facebook: “I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanist. I refuse to be antiscience. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of ... Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

Rice wrote Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession, a memoir about her own conversion to Christianity - making the post a bit more surprising. In another post, Rice also admitted, “I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity.” So far, her posts have drawn nearly 2,000 comments and well over 3,000 “likes.”

In responding to the story on US blogsite The Deacon’s Bench, blogger Magistra Bona said: “When you convert, whether it’s ‘reverting’ or ‘con-verting’, you must go through necessary formation, formal and informal. You’re just not done learning the faith. Her seeming recantation shows how little she knows about the actual teaching of the Church, which most of us can find in the pages of the Catechism. She admits in her story that she does not like to read text. Perhaps a good solution would be the Catechism in audio book form. The Church does not teach us to be anti anyone, but pro-Christ and His Kingdom. Just because some of your fellow Christians pig out on hate does not mean you must imitate them or fail to ‘be a good Christian’. You’ve got to deal with the scandal of the Cross and all that goes with it.”

Chinese underground priest released, then re-arrested

A PRIEST of the “underground” Catholic Church in China who was released from prison after a three-year term was immediately re-arrested, the AsiaNews service reports.

Fr Peter Wang of the Xiwanzi diocese, who was originally arrested for celebrating Mass without permission from local authorities, was released on 24 July, exactly three years after his first arrest. But before relatives could greet him, he was seized and returned to prison. The priest - who reported to a sister that he was “doing well” in custody - is under heavy pressure to cooperate with the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association.

City threatens to cut Church of Holy Sepulchre water supply

CITY officials in Jerusalem are threatening to cut off the supply of water for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the AsiaNews service reports. The city has provided free water service to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for nearly a century, as a service to pilgrims and a courtesy to the clerics who administered the shrine. But that tradition may now be in jeopardy. Church officials say that the city is now asking for payment not only for current water usage, but for usage dating back to the Israeli takeover of Jerusalem in 1967.

The status of Christian shrines in Israel - including their tax treatment and the provision of public services - is not clearly delineated because Israel and the Holy See have not yet reached agreement on a long-awaited juridical agreement.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a difficult case as its administration is governed by a complicated agreement among the various Christian denominations that work there: Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian.

Vatican preparing new document on effects of abortion on women

Easy access to drugs trivialises abortion, says Vatican official

BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Promoting easy access to RU-486 and other drugs that induce abortion risks trivialising the termination of a pregnancy, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life said.

Commercialising abortion medication can turn “an unwanted pregnancy into being almost like an annoying cold to be gotten rid of with a pill,” Mgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula told the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, in an interview published on 30 July.

The Spaniard, who is also a medical doctor, recalled working in Armenia after the 1998 earthquake. He said many of the women patients he worked with had already had more than 20 abortions and that “for them abortion had become like having a coffee.”

Such a blase attitude “is a serious phenomenon” that could easily spread to other parts of Europe, he said.

However, indiscriminate use of the abortion pill may increase the number of women who experience post-abortion syndrome, he said.

Mgr Carrasco, who was named head of the Life Academy in June, said scholars are working on a document focusing on the psychological and emotional after-effects of abortion because “it is certain that abortion, beside killing an innocent person, weighs heavily on the conscience of the woman who resorts to one.”

The academy will study the impact and nature of the syndrome in more depth and release its findings and recommendations in a document by October 2011, he said.

“When abortion is being talked about, unfortunately it triggers many issues that always spark a heated debate, sometimes even

within the Catholic world,” he added. He said he believes the academy’s role is to “always go beyond polemics in order to reflect on every single aspect of the issue, even if it is uncomfortable to face. Internal or external debate does not scare us, rather, it enriches us.”

In an interview with the Italian Catholic online magazine Il Consulente Re, the Monsignor criticised Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the new abortion law that went into effect in early July.

The Spanish parliament approved a measure that allows abortions without restrictions for up to 14 weeks. The new law allows 16 and 17 year olds to have abortions without parental consent although the parents have to be informed. It also declares abortion to be a woman’s right.

The law “is foolishness, absolute foolishness, and it goes along with the mentality of Zapatero,” who presents every issue in terms of human rights, said Mgr Carrasco.

The prime minister promotes everything as a human right, “but he is incapable of understanding

what a right is,” he added. The same dangerous tendency can be seen in other countries in which the relationship between patient and doctor is being eroded, he said. Medical decisions will no longer be determined by a medical professional who acts according to moral guidelines but by a judge, he said.

“Such a development is very disturbing because it would also mean an undermining of medicine,” he said.

Mgr Carrasco urged people to at least try to resist the large financial and ideological interests lobbying for pro-abortion legislation. He praised Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for abandoning his support of limited abortion laws and becoming a strong opponent of abortion.

The academy is also studying the issue of umbilical cord blood banks. While the Church supports the use of stem cells derived from adults and umbilical cord blood, the academy will look at whether public or profit-driven private facilities would better and more fairly conserve and use such cells, he said.

Church condems embryo cell tests on humans

BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican condemned the recent decision by US regulators to begin using embryonic stem cells in clinical tests on human patients.

The destruction of human embryos involved in such research amounts to “the sacrifice of human beings” and is to be condemned, said the president emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Bishop Elio Sgreccia.

The US Food and Drug Administration gave final approval for a clinical trial of embryonic stem cells as a treatment for patients with spinal-cord injuries, making the United States the first country to allow the testing of such cells on human beings.

Geron Corp, the US company which won the FDA approval, plans to perform tests on a small group of patients paralysed by a

spinal cord injury. The company had won FDA approval early last year, but after mice treated with the cells developed spinal cysts, the government put the clinical trials on hold amid concerns over the safety of the procedure. The new government-approved trials aim to

test the therapy’s safety on humans as well as its effectiveness.

In a 31 July interview with Vatican Radio, Bishop Sgreccia said science itself recognises the human embryo “is a human being in the making.”

Destroying embryos “receives a completely negative judgement” from an ethical point of view, no matter what justifications are given for their use, he said.

The Italian Bishop said embryonic stem cells have not been proven to be effective in therapies. He said embryonic stem cells are “totipotent,” that is, they tend to reproduce a whole organism or individual, but not specialised cells. However, even if there were positive results from the use of such cells, “morally it would still be a crime,” he said.

The Church supports research and therapies that utilise adult stem cells and stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.

Archbishop Antonio Mennini

Anne Rice

Spanish Mgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, a medical doctor, a member of Opus Dei and president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that scholars are working on a document focusing on the psychological and emotional aftereffects of abortion.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia

Anglicans deeply split over women Bishops

BY SIMON CALDWELL Catholic News Service

LONDON - A group of traditionalist Anglican Bishops has admitted that Anglo-Catholic clergy are sharply divided over how to respond to the ordination of women as Bishops.

Fifteen Bishops belonging to Forward in Faith, the largest Anglo-Catholic group in the Church of England, admitted that the Anglo-Catholic faction of the Church could not decide collectively what course of action to take.

They said members faced a range of options in response to the mid-July vote by the General Synod, the Church’s national assembly, to create women Bishops by 2014 without meeting demands of objectors.

Describing themselves as Bishops “united in our belief that the Church of England is mistaken in its actions” they wrote to more than 1,300 Anglo-Catholic priests and deacons who, in June 2008, registered their opposition to women Bishops in an open letter to Anglican leaders.

The Bishops’ letter, posted 31 July on the website of Forward in Faith which has 10,000 members, said it was inevitable that many traditionalists, including some Bishops, would take up Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of a personal ordinariate within the Catholic Church.

That offer was contained in the Pope’s November apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus

Under this arrangement, Anglicans can be received into the Catholic Church as a group while retaining their distinctive patrimony and liturgical practices, including married priests.

An application for an English ordinariate, which would resemble a military diocese in structure, has yet to be made by a mainstream Anglican group in the UK.

But the Bishops said some

Anglicans were already resolved “to join the ordinariate as the place where they can find a home in which to live and proclaim their Christian faith, in communion with the Holy Father, yet retain something of the blessings they have known and experienced in the Anglican tradition.”

They said: “Of course the ordinariate is a new thing, and not all of us are trailblazers or can imagine what it might be like. Some will undoubtedly want to wait and see how that initiative develops before making a decision.

“Yet others will make their individual submission and find their future as Roman Catholics.”

Some Anglo-Catholics, the Bishops added, would remain in the Church of England, “perhaps even reluctantly because of personal circumstances, family loyalties, even financial necessity, but with a deep sense of unease about the long-term future, an unease that is surely well-founded.”

They said such worshippers “cannot currently imagine themselves being anywhere else but within the Church of England.”

The clergy’s 2008 open letter to Anglican Archbishops Rowan Williams of Canterbury and John

Sentamu of York asked the Church to make “generous and coherent provision for us” if the Synod pressed ahead with plans to ordain women as Bishops.

The signatories had sought episcopal visitors, or “flying Bishops,” to minister to their members. The Synod rejected this in favour of women Bishops agreeing to make alternative arrangements for traditionalists through a code of practice.

In their letter, the traditionalist Bishops said that “those of us unable in good conscience to accept that any particular Church has the authority to admit women to the episcopate” were now facing “grave times.” They said that the legislation, if ratified in its current form in 2012, would not allow the Anglo-Catholic tradition to “grow and flourish.”

“We will be dependent on a code of practice yet to be written and, sadly, our experience of the last almost 20 years must make us wonder whether even such an inadequate provision will be honoured in the long term,” the Bishops said.

“We must now accept that a majority of members of the Church of England believe it right to proceed with the ordination of women as Bishops, and that a significant percentage of those in authority will not encourage or embrace with enthusiasm the traditional integrity (movement) or vocations within it,” they said.

The Bishops also warned clergy against infighting. “It would be a sad and destructive thing indeed if we allowed our unhappiness and wondering to drift into unguarded or uncharitable criticism of those who, in good conscience, take a different path from our own,” they said.

“We must assume the best motives in one another and where there are partings, let them be with tears and the best wishes of godspeed,” the Bishops said.

Pope’s UK trip costly but crucial

UK official says Church cops brunt of religious intolerance and outright hostility as it “confidently asserts basic truths”

BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - With Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom just seven weeks away, the British government official working on organising the trip said the Pope’s visit will cost taxpayers more than originally foreseen, but it would be an important opportunity to highlight and promote cooperation on issues the British care about.

Vatican Radio interviewed Sir Chris Patten, the government’s papal trip coordinator and the former governor of Hong Kong on 26 July. The Pope is scheduled to visit Scotland and England from 16-19 September, meeting Queen Elizabeth, Anglican and other religious leaders, celebrating public

Masses and beatifying Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Patten said he expected the fourday papal visit to cost British taxpayers more than US$15 million, but he said April’s one-day summit of the leaders of the world’s largest national economies cost British taxpayers more than US$30 million.

He said the Pope’s visit is important for Catholics and other religious believers, but “I also think it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate that the government of a largely non-Catholic country still has a formidably large agenda to work with the Catholic Church on issues of consensus,” particularly regarding human rights and international development aid.

Patten, a Catholic, said the Pope’s visit also could contribute to the government’s efforts to strengthen the relationships among British faith groups.

Several individuals and groups have announced plans to stage protests while the Pope is in England, and Patten said that peaceful protests would be allowed since “we live in a free society.”

However, he said, the govern-

in brief...

Irish Government in takeover bid for Catholic schools

THE Irish government has given Catholic Church leaders a list of the areas where it hopes to assume control of schools currently administered by the Church, The Irish Catholic reports. The government has not set a schedule for assuming control of the schools, but has acknowledged that it would need to “re-allocate existing finances” to run them, The Irish Catholic reports. The story indicates that the government will present a proposal for taking over schools in 30 areas, mostly around Dublin.

UK in major contraction, abortion push for poor nations

PRIME Minister David Cameron’s government has announced that the United Kingdom will “put family planning at the heart of its approach to women’s health in the developing world.” The nation’s Department for International Development [DFID] “will now have an unprecedented focus on family planning, which will be hard-wired into all our country programmes,” said Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development. “Key proposals for UK action” include “modern methods of family planning such as implants, injectables and IUDs” and “ensuring abortion services are safe.”

Africa bid for self-reliance

LEADING African prelates called for encouragement of native entrepreneurs during a meeting of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Nigerian native who is former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said that a practical application of Catholic social doctrine would include support for African entrepreneurs to “make progress in their businesses.” Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa, agreed that a top priority for Africa should be to reach economic independence. “Christ has not told us not to work hard,” he said. “We need to instill this concept in our middle classes.”

Bishop urges vote for parental notification on abortion

AN Alaskan Bishop is urging citizens to support a ballot initiative mandating that parents be notified when their minor daughters are considering having an abortion. “This measure is meant to restore in law the rights parents have to protect their minor daughters,” wrote Bishop Edward Burns. “In a just and decent society, we would protect all young, frightened girls from those who would try to convince them that a ‘secret’ abortion would be their best option. In a just and decent society, parents would not be kept in the dark when the welfare of their children and their unborn grandchildren is at stake. In such situations, the loving support of families is critical and needed most during these moments. Any institution that desires to be cryptic or secretive in dealing with the children of our community raises the serious question of trust.”

ment wants “to ensure not only the security of the Holy Father, but also that the pastoral events are not disrupted, because that would give serious offence.”

Patten said intolerance or even outright hostility toward religion is often directed more at the Catholic Church than other faith communities “because of the Catholic Church’s prominence and longevity and self-confidence in asserting some basic truths.”

“But I don’t worry too much about that,” he said. “I think we have to stand our ground, recognising when we do so that we’ve often been intolerant to others ourselves in the past.

“We should be arguing that it’s ironic that some secularists - not all - are being as intolerant of Church groups as Church groups were of them in the past.”

One of the challenges that members of every religion face in Britain, a challenge the Pope will share, “is getting across the message that religion is not a problem; that faith is, for many people, the way they cope with the challenges of living in the 21st century,” he said.

Russian Orthodox hit streets to fight secularism

THE Russian Orthodox Church is training 100 young people for “street missionary activity.”

The initiative, championed by Patriarch Kirill, is described as an effort to counteract the influence of secular materialism, Western ideology, and “drugs, egotism, and moral relativism” among Russian youth. Sceptical observers see it as part of an overall campaign to boost Patriarch Kirill’s influence in Russian society.

Irish priests distressed by hierarchy’s response to abuse

DISTRESSED by the Irish hierarchy’s response to the abuse scandal, some Irish priests are forming a new association whose aim is to represent the nation’s priests in their dealings with Bishops.

“‘We priests are perhaps the only group in the country with no representative forum,” said Fr Sean McDonagh. “We want to address this. It is a good thing if priests wish to organise themselves in order to voice their opinions and this would be important at this challenging time for clergy and lay Catholics alike,” said a spokesman for the Irish Bishops’ conference. The Irish Catholic reported that the Association of Catholic Priests’ aims include “a re-structuring of the governing system of the Church,” “an equal place for women in all areas of Church life, including the governing systems and the various forms of ministry,” and “a re-evaluation of Catholic sexual teaching and practice that recognises the profound mystery of

Cardinal Francis Arinze

David Cameron

Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church.

PHOTO: CNS

The condom conundrum

AIDS workers clarify when, as a Catholic employee, it’s ok to mention the c-word

Workers say even after decades, AIDS continues to challenge Church

BY PAUL JEFFREY Catholic News Service

VIENNA - After three decades in which the AIDS pandemic has ravaged lives and communities around the globe, those struggling against the disease at the grass roots say AIDS continues to present difficult challenges to the Catholic Church.

“AIDS is challenging the Church to look once again at the life of Jesus, who was constantly on the margins of society, bringing people at the margins back to the centre,” US Maryknoll Fr Richard Bauer, executive director of Catholic AIDS Action of the Namibian Bishops’ conference, told CNS.

“Many of the new HIV infections are found among the most marginalised people, so our response to the Gospel today isn’t to reach out to the tax collector and leper, but rather to the (intravenous) drug user in the Ukraine or the woman in commercial sex work who’s being trafficked. They are calling the Church to no longer be comfortable only in parish settings. We’ve got to go to the margins as Jesus did,” said Fr Bauer said.

The Church has preached behaviour change as a prevention method for AIDS, and a nun who works with trafficked women in Eastern Europe said that message can have larger implications.

“Behaviour change is possible, but I’d like to see it happen on a deeper level, more than just as a response to HIV and AIDS.

“If women could have greater say in matters related to their own sexuality, and a greater say in how they create their relationships and get out of a vicious circle of poverty, dependency, abuse and disease, we can accomplish a lot,” Sr Silke Mallmann, a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, told CNS.

“Often, to our ears, behaviour change sounds restrictive, a list of the things we’re no longer allowed to do.

“But if you formulate it differently, it can be very empowering.”

Sr Mallmann, a German psychologist now working in Austria, worked for several years with an AIDS programme in South Africa. She praised decisions by several African Bishops’ conferences to adapt Church teaching to the unique challenges of the pandemic.

“I appreciate the stand the Catholic Church is taking on discordant couples, saying condom use is OK if one is infected, in order to protect the other,” Sr Mallmann told CNS. “I firmly believe that condoms aren’t the answer. If you only go and tell people to use condoms, it won’t work.

“But if you’ve got a 14 year old girl who is HIV-positive because she was forced to engage in sex at such an early age, and she’s crying her heart out, I would tell her to use a condom and to use it in good conscience, to protect someone

else and to protect herself. “I’m not promoting condoms as a blanket solution to the problem of AIDS. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in South Africa where you can get condoms on every street corner. We don’t promote condoms, but we give people full and correct information about prevention. There’s abstinence, fidelity, and there are condoms or Femidoms. Don’t hide the truth about them. Share what the Church says about them, that we don’t appreciate their use, but they are safe. And if you in your own conscience feel that’s what you should use, then they are an option.”

Fr Bauer said experience has shown that only a comprehensive approach to prevention will work.

“Every time any activist group says, ‘This is the silver bullet, this is the answer,’ after a few years go by they say, ‘Oh, I guess it wasn’t.’ This is whether it was abstinence only

or condom only; either end of the spectrum is incomplete. The real answer is about comprehensive services and changing not just the individual’s behaviour but changing the behaviour and norms of the society,” he said.

Sr Mallmann said the continuing AIDS crisis also challenges the structure of the Church, where only priests and deacons administer sacraments.

“People who are sick need the Anointing of the Sick and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When I was counselling people (in South Africa), we dealt with guilt, and they would release their whole story,” She said.

“We got to the point where they would benefit from a sacrament. It’s not good enough for me to say it’s OK and God will forgive them.

“That will work in Germany or the US where people don’t know the catechism anymore. But

it won’t work in countries where people have been trained in the Catechism.

“So I have to tell people to go up the street and find a priest and tell him the same story again.

“At the only remaining Catholic hospital in South Africa, there was no permanent priest, so whenever someone is going to die we have to phone around looking for one to rush in. People in Africa love rituals, and while we can pray with people for healing, we can’t offer the deepest gift the Church has to offer, which is the Sacraments.”

Fr Bauer said that cutbacks in global funding for AIDS programmes challenge the Church to document its work in some new ways.

“Faith-based organisations have been our own worst enemies. Many haven’t been good at presenting evidence-based findings. We were there doing the care and compassion, but because our faith dictates humility, we haven’t tooted our own horn,” he said.

“Yet one good thing to come out of these last years is that I’ve learned the evidence-based language, so now I can talk to you about quality of life indicators for 5,000 home-care clients, or the percentage of children who receive services and what percent of them attend school, or the outcome indicators of young people who delay first intercourse and stay in school,” Fr Bauer said.

“We’re getting better at tooting our own horn and getting good data.”

Even with the right evidence, money for AIDS treatment and prevention is going to be harder to come by in the near future. US Mgr Bob Vitillo, a special adviser to Caritas Internationalis on HIV and AIDS, said the Church should cooperate in the push for more efficient use of AIDS funding.

“We need to look at combining health programmes, so we don’t have parallel programmes for HIV and TB and malaria and so on,” he told CNS. We can do it smarter. And we can do the study to show the evidence that our programmes are effective. But we’re still going to need the money. Faith-based organisations and civil society groups can’t do this on their own.”

A year after Pope’s Africa storm, stats show he’s still right

DENVER, Colorado (CNA)

- Nearly a year after the Holy Father visited Africa and sparked controversy over the ineffectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, the facts continue to speak in favour of the Pope.

Benedict XVI’s March 2009 remarks on condoms were made to a French reporter as he explained the Church’s two-pronged approach to fighting AIDS. At one point in his response, the pontiff stressed that AIDS cannot be overcome by advertising slogans and distributing condoms and argued that they “worsen the problem.”

The media responded with an avalanche of over 4,000 articles on the subject, calling Benedict a “threat to public health,” and saying that the Catholic Church should “enter the 21st century.”

Harry Knox, a member of

President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships added to the criticism, accusing the Pope of “hurting people in the name of Jesus.”

Then last month, when Knox was asked if he still stood by his statement, despite growing evidence that the Pope was right, he replied in the affirmative, stating that “scientific evidence shows otherwise.”

However, “the Pope is right,” argued Chris Stefanick, director of Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministries for the Archdiocese of Denver, “and the fact that people like Harry Knox are critiquing the Pope and continuing to throw condoms at the AIDS epidemic globally, and (that) it’s not working, shows you who has personal dogmas that are more important to them than human lives.”

But, Stefanick argued, the facts are behind Benedict XVI. Stefanick compared the African nations of Botswana and Uganda. Botswana promoted condom use from the beginning. Uganda, a primarily Catholic country, encouraged abstinence.

“In Botswana, Cameroon, and Kenya - they saw AIDS prevalence rise alongside condom distribution until they both levelled out,” noted Stefanick. “In Botswana today, where condoms are available nearly everywhere, one in six people is HIV positive or living with AIDS.”

In Uganda, where abstinence is strongly promoted, the prevalence of AIDS has dropped and now affects less than six percent of the population.

Stefanick quoted BBC News who stated that Uganda has done extremely well in fighting AIDS because, in many parts of the

country, its prevalence “was at least three times higher in the early 90s.” Stefanick also cited a similar comparison, made between Thailand and the Philippines, where AIDS broke out at the same time.

Thailand’s approach promoted the distribution of condoms while the highly Catholic Philippines promoted abstinence.

Twenty years after the outbreak, the prevalence of AIDS in Thailand is 50 times higher than in the Philippines.

“According to the British Medical Journal, which is not a Catholic publication mind you, ‘the greater the percentage of Catholics in any country, the lower the level of HIV. If the Catholic Church is promoting a message about HIV in those countries it seems to be working,’” said Stefanick.

Other relevant facts to the Pope’s opposition of condom use come from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) itself.

Despite the claims on condom packaging, which assert a 99 per cent effectiveness, the NIH found that condoms are only 85 per cent effective in preventing the transmission of AIDS and about 50 per cent effective at blocking other STDs.

“The calculus of condoms is very simple,” says Stefanick. “You decrease the risk a little, increase the risk takers a whole lot, and pretty soon you get what they have in Botswana where one in six people has AIDS,” Stefanek said.

“Or you get what we have here in America, where we are aggressively promoting condoms, yet every year, nine million young people under the age of 25 are getting an STD.”

Reproductive health advocates display placards and inflate condoms on 1 March to express support for a Philippine government initiative to promote the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. The Catholic Church has strongly opposed the distribution of artificial contraceptives and condoms saying that it is against long-standing Church teaching.

PHOTO: CNS/ROMEO RANOCO, REUTERS

In all the fuss about the AIDS pandemic and funding for programmes...

What about those in the trenches?

Advocates: Caregivers on frontlines of AIDS pandemic need support

BY PAUL JEFFREY Catholic News Service

VIENNA (CNS) - Although much of the news coverage of HIV and AIDS focuses on advances in research or controversies over prevention methods, those who struggle on the frontlines of the pandemic say more attention needs to be focused on those who quietly care for people living with the virus.

“Home-based caregivers are the unsung heroes of the AIDS response,” said Ann Smith, the HIV corporate strategist of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, an agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

“Caregivers provide basic health care, but also support and acceptance. Their visits to the homes of people living with HIV and AIDS destigmatise the disease and remove the fear and isolation that often accompany it. They are hugely important, but they’re often ignored,” Smith told CNS in an interview during the XVIII 18-23 July International AIDS Conference.

It is often women - usually older women, often grandmothers - who provide the care and compassion. And activists say that work needs more visibility and greater resources if vital health services are going to be strengthened to better respond to the challenges of HIV and AIDS.

“Home-based caregivers have not received the recognition and visibility they deserve. If we’re going to achieve universal access (to AIDS treatment and prevention), then appropriate attention and adequate resources are long overdue to those who provide care and support on the ground,” said Hedia Belhadj, deputy director of the Technical Support Division of the UN Population Fund.

Matilda Maluza, national health secretary for the Catholic Bishops’

conference of Malawi, said that more than 80 percent of caregivers in her country are women, and they are not adequately compensated for their work.

“We are taking advantage of women, who are born to be caregivers. We’re violating the rights of the woman, because she has other roles. I’m a woman, but I also go to work. When I come home, I want to sit down and rest. But if I’ve got a number of people to care for, as a woman I’m expected to go care for them. I have to cook and fetch water and firewood, and then I’m expected to care for others. When do I get time to rest? Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you should do everything,” she said.

“Men should contribute more, but men tend to only get involved when there is pay involved. It’s time for that to change,” she said.

A study released at the Vienna conference by the international Huairou Commission showed that unpaid female caregivers in six African countries routinely donate an average of 69 hours per month to care for the sick and vulnerable - a contribution worth millions of dollars each month.

The study examined caregivers’ work in Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

Maluza said increased government support for home-based care was sorely needed. Caregivers in Malawi - where the Huairou study showed caregivers donate an average of 8.2 hours per week - have organised an alliance to pressure the government for better support, she said.

Yet caregivers will continue their work whether official support is present or not, she said, because of the commitment and reach of faith-based organisations, which provide 40 percent of health services in Malawi.

“Faith-based groups began working with HIV and AIDS before governments got involved. We didn’t sit around waiting for resources, we just got started,” Maluza said.

US Maryknoll Fr Richard Bauer, executive director of Catholic AIDS Action, a programme of the Namibian Bishops’ conference,

said caregivers have long been “at the core of quality programming,” yet the faith that often motivates such selfless commitment has not always been well understood.

“The first thing we do when we gather with our volunteers is pray, reinforcing their spiritual strength, because that’s usually their primary motivation. Only then do we start talking about the medical aspects of their work. The success of a lot of faith-based organisations in combatting AIDS is that we keep that order of things,” Fr Bauer told CNS.

“Donors and governments come to me constantly and ask how we do home care. I tell them that the volunteers are often motivated by their own faith. And the government representatives respond, ‘Well, OK, but without that faith stuff, how do you do it?’ What can I say? The faith motivation of the caregivers is key,” he said.

In an era of declining financial support for AIDS work, Smith said the value added by caregivers makes faith-based organisations an even better channel for responding to the continuing crisis.

“One of the values of faithbased organizations is that they can mobilise huge numbers of volunteers, yet these people aren’t visible at more strategic levels, in part because they don’t cost the system anything. They should cost the system. It’s a huge injustice, as caregivers are often expected to provide all sorts of support out of their own pockets, which are often as empty as those of the people they’re caring for. But they’re seldom factored into budgets or grants,” Smith said.

Fr Bauer said he has struggled to find ways to support the caregivers while affirming their volunteer status.

“Sometime they take food from their own family to care for other people. This can’t continue from a justice point of view,” he said. “So in one recent food distribution for orphans and other vulnerable children, I proposed taking 15 percent of the food and giving it to the volunteers, the ones who get it to those who need it. That was a solution that everyone supported.”

Fr Bauer has also worked to

Help Benedict fight AIDS

ROME (Zenit.org).- Unsure how to make charitable donations truly arrive to a worthy destination? Try sending them through the Pope.

Millions of dollars each year are distributed by the Holy Father through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum In this way, the Successor of Peter is able to manifest the solicitude of the universal Church for needy populations. There are a handful of channels that direct the funds to projects deemed most needy. The Pontifical Council Cor Unum, established by Pope Paul VI in 1971, coordinates the initiatives of Catholic charitable institutions.

involve men, and he said the response surprised him.

“We started training men because we had the idea that a few of them could help convince other men to support the women doing the work, because women caregivers often got in trouble with their male partners. The male partners would say, ‘Why are you doing all that? You should be out in the fields, or at home or caring for kids.’ Our initial idea was to get the men to support the women, but the men said, ‘No, we want to do it ourselves.’ We started a couple of pilot programmes of men providing home care for men. It was unbelievable. We now have more men on the waiting list to be caregivers than we have a budget to train and supervise them,” Fr Bauer said.

Dr Kathleen M Foley, medical director of the International Palliative Care Initiative of the Open Society Institute, said the situation of caregivers and the people they care for would benefit from more training.

“Home-based caregivers are not professionalised, so the formal health care system ... is worried about them because they don’t have any way to standardise the quality of their care. Palliative care has clear standards, and people are certified in providing that kind of care. When we take home-based care and make it have clear quality standards, accountability and transparency, then there’s enormous respect for home-based care. The caregivers have enormous commonsense, and they have a clear understanding of what the family needs, but they need some help from a psychological and medical perspective,” Foley told CNS.

She said caregivers can play a key role in monitoring the responsibility of governments to provide health care to their citizens.

“Pain relief and palliative care are human rights issues, and governments need to be held accountable. The best people to hold them accountable are our home-based caregivers, because they see the needs every day on the front line of responding to the health crisis,” she said.

Last month, for example, the president of the council, Cardinal Paul Cordes, brought a donation to Haiti for the reconstruction of a school destroyed in the January earthquake. In this case, his delegation was formed by members of the Papal Foundation Populorum Progressio, which aids with projects for the most disadvantaged populations of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Donations such as this demonstrate “the spiritual and paternal closeness of the Universal Church to the populations in developing countries, encouraging the integral promotion of the human person, and contributing to projects in favour of children, women, the elderly, the disabled, and those in greatest need.” In addition to the Populorum Progressio Foundation, there are groups like the Foundation for the Sahel, established by Pope John Paul II in 1984 to help Africa. The aid figures are notable. To respond to natural or man-made disasters, for example, donations over the last few years have amounted to US$1.86 million (2009 in assistance of 25 countries), US$1.76 million (2008 in assistance to 31 countries), and US$1.48 million (2007 in assistance to 16 countries).

For projects that aid integral human development, the figures are similar: US$2.3 million in 2009 (assisting 45 countries), US$2.37 million in 2008 (40 countries), and just over US$2 million in 2007 (46 countries).

To participate in these projects you can send a banktransfer donation.The Council asks that donors provide their names and addresses, as well as the designation for where the gift is to be used.

- For bank transfers in currencies other than Euros and made from outside Italy, including Australian dollars, the details are: Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”

Account Number: 603035

Bank: Banco Posta, Poste Italiane SpA.

Bank Address: Viale Europa, 175; I-00144 Rome, Italy

Home-based care worker Olipa Mkandawire prays for a man living with AIDS in Matuli, Malawi, in this 2009 photo. She represents a Presbyterian Church AIDS programme. A recently released study showed that unpaid female caregivers in six African countries routinely donate an average of 69 hours per month to care for the sick and vulnerable - a contribution worth millions of dollars each month.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL JEFFREY

Theology of Body spans all vocations

Priests, Religious find that John Paul II’s Theology of the Body isn’t just for married couples

BY GENEVIEVE POLLOCK Zenit.org

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, (Zenit.org) - The Theology of the Body is often seen as something for married couples, but many clergy and Religious are finding renewal in their celibate vocations through John Paul II’s teachings.

Sr Mary Elizabeth Wusinich of the Sisters of Life told Zenit about her experience when she took a seminar with the Theology of the Body Institute.

Today the institute concluded its first National Theology of the Body Congress, which began last week near Philadelphia.

Of the 450 congress participants, over 60 were bishops, priests, deacons and religious.

Sr Wusinich, a participant as well as a speaker, spoke with Zenit at the congress.

She explained how studying the Theology of the Body contributed both to her ministry, especially in her service as the director of the New York Archdiocese Family Life/Respect Life Office, and to the living of her own vocation.

She recalled that when she went to the institute’s seminar with the rest of the office staff, it “was a turning point for us.”

We had been discussing “how to engage in the new evangelisation” and apply the Pope’s teaching to pastoral work in the archdiocese, the nun said.

Through the Theology of the Body, she noted, the staff learned “a whole new language and a new method” for their work.

“It’s actually so rooted in the Gospel and in Christ’s first method of evangelisation,” Sister Wusinich observed, “because when you look at it, his method was very relational and personal.”

She continued: “He met people one-on-one and, when he was inviting people to follow him, he said, ‘Come and see; come and experience my way of life.’

“Or if you look at his encounter with the woman at the well, you see that he would pose questions to her to have her look inside, to her own experience, in order to go deeper, to question her own perception of reality, before he presented his view.

“Thus he would prepare the person’s heart to receive the truth he wanted to convey.”

The family life office team decided to implement this method in its evangelisation efforts in New York, especially with the marriage

preparation programmes. “We found it very effective,” the Sister said.

“I think part of it lies in the genius of the method of Theology of the Body, because often people are expecting to have the Church’s teaching shoved down their throat.

“But instead we propose the Church’s teaching - the way that we would propose it would be as God’s plan, or God’s vision, for their marriage, in a broader context of his vision of the human person.

“We then invite them to look within their own experience and verify the truth of what we’re saying in what they have seen.”

Sr Wusinich added that the Theology of the Body seminar was also “a blessing for me personally in my own vocation. It helped me to correct some of my own perceptions or images of God that I didn’t even realise I had just from growing up Catholic.”

Many Catholics, the nun noted, “tend to see God more as a judge or the rule maker,” whereas “the Theology of the Body proposes this vision of God as Father, but also, in the whole Trinitarian view of God, as this eternal exchange of love, a communion of persons.”

“That’s such a radical shift,” she affirmed, “a very different kind of paradigm.”

It “affected my own prayer life,” this experience of a “relationship with God, the three Persons of the

Trinity,” as “this unity of love, of mutual self-giving,” she said.

Fr Roger Landry, parish priest, speaker, writer and executive editor of The Anchor, also noted this deepening in the understanding of God through the Theology of the Body.

In his address at the congress on Theology of the Body in the Life and Ministry of the Priest, the priest, a Harvard University graduate and bioethics expert, noted that through John Paul II’s teaching, he became more deeply aware that God is not a doctrine, but rather a communion of Persons.

Fr Thomas Loya, a Byzantine Catholic priest who gave a congress workshop on “Understanding Celibacy in Light of the Theology of the Body,” underlined the importance of the personal relationship with God and with the Church for a Religious or priest.

To be a “happy celibate,” he said, one must live it in a spousal way. In other words, the priest explained, a spouse makes a choice to invest himself in the other, which for a priest or religious would be Christ and the Church.

He added that clergy and religious must also, like married spouses, “die to self continually and live for the other.”

The priest pointed to religious sister in the audience who was wearing a wedding ring on her finger, noting that she is living the “real thing,” as she recognises

that she is espoused to Christ. Fr Loya said he is from a long line of 300 years of married priests in the Eastern Catholic Church. Although he himself is celibate, his grandfather was married, and his great-grandfather. He denounced the idea proposed by people during the clergy sexual abuse crisis that it would be better for all priests to give up celibacy; he asserted that allowing marriage does not mean throwing off all self-denial and discipline.

All the faithful, the priest said, as baptised Christians, married couples, religious, and even married priests, must practice asceticism and work to grow closer to God.

He pointed out that even married priests of the Eastern Churches are supposed to abstain from marital relations at certain times, such as 24 hours before celebrating the Eucharist and during the four annual periods of fasting.

The real problem, Father Loya said, is that many religious or clergy have not truly tried celibacy or understood what it really is.

He said that celibates can draw inspiration, encouragement, and a reminder from married people about how to live their vocation in a spousal manner, giving themselves fully to God.

The priest added that religious and priests, in turn, by embracing the living of their Christian baptism in a radical way, remind married people of the truth that we are all going to God for eternity, to be entirely focused on him.

Sr Helena Burns of the Daughters of St Paul, said in the same workshop, “We as celibates show married people that God is the spouse of every soul.”

The religious vocation, she said, is the living of “conjugal love pledged to God himself,” as John Paul II stated in “Love and Responsibility.”

Fr Loya explained that marriage and celibacy are “indispensably together,” and that they must be understood in terms of “complementarity, not bipolar opposition.”

“We have to think like Catholics,” he said. “We have to think in a way that is integrated.”

Pope Benedict, Cardinal Newman share the fight against relativism

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN

News) - Similarities between the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal John Henry Newman were detailed in an edition of Il Foglio last week.

Vatican expert Paolo Rodari examines the Pope’s interest in the soon-to-be beatified English cardinal in an article titled The fight against relativism of Benedict XVI is the same as Newman’s one hundred years ago. Il Foglio refers to the argument of Mgr Roderick

Strange, who in his “spiritual biography” of Cardinal Newman, illustrates a moment when thenCardinal Ratzinger showed a “bond” with the founder of the Birmingham Oratory.

Addressing the College of Cardinals on the eve of the papal enclave in which he was elected in 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of the “dictatorship of relativism” threatening the world, in which nothing is definite and the only thing that remains is “oneself

and one’s desires.” This, Mgr Strange wrote, is a “not necessarily coincidental” link to Cardinal Newman’s own premise of a “simply non religious world.”

Relativism, explained Rodari, represents a “threat” for the Pope, “because when truth is abandoned, freedom is also left behind... and it slides towards totalitarianism.”

In his book, Mgr Strange describes when at a conference for the 100th anniversary

of Cardinal Newman’s death, “Ratzinger makes reference to the link between truth and personal conscience.”

Cardinal Ratzinger had pointed out that Newman “taught that the conscience must be nourished as a way of obedience to objective truth. And Newman’s entire life witnesses that conviction”. So during World War II, the future Pope “experienced what Newman had predicted: the consequences of when revealed religion is not rec-

ognised as true (and) objective, but is considered as something private from which the people might choose for themselves whatever they like.”

Upon being named Cardinal in 1879, Newman said “religious liberalism is the doctrine according to which there doesn’t exist any positive truth in the religious field, but that any creed is as good as any other; and this is the doctrine that, day after day, is acquiring consistency and vigor”.

Pope John Paul II prays the rosary in this L’Osservatore Romano photo dated May 4, 1991. His Theology of the Body, described as a “ticking timebomb” by some commentators, has proven useful for priests and Religious to embrace their celibate vocation rather than seeing it as a burden.

PHOTO: CNS/ L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

A young nun holds a picture of Pope John Paul II during a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and some 40,000 young people in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican in 2006.

PHOTO: CNS/TONY GENTILE, REUTERS

Mother Teresa experience inspires Aussie movie

A new Australian movie transcends the norm in its portrayal of a contemporary marriage and motherhood

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

NEW Australian movie The Waiting City first came about when writer-director Claire McCarthy did some volunteer work with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.

That first trip in 2002 to film her sister Helena’s experiences volunteering with the Sisters allowed Claire to see the world of parenting and adopting from the perspective of those who couldn’t conceive a child.

This formed the seedbed for ideas behind the script and plot for The Waiting City, the first Australian film to be shot entirely on location in Calcutta.

Claire noticed a trend of “middle class Western couples needing to adopt children” which intrigued and provoked her to think what it means when Westerners choose to delay having children.

While making the documentary and on subsequent trips, Claire began interviewing these couples who had been through IVF programs or who had tried to adopt children, or had adopted children and from there she developed a database of different experiences.

The story behind The Waiting City developed from these encounters. It follows the route a married Australian couple, Ben (Joel Edgerton) and Fiona (Radha Mitchell) take to parenthood. When they come to India, Ben is a struggling artist and coming out of depression while Fiona, who is a lawyer, brings her work with her to India to ‘run a case’ in between meetings to pick up their adopted daughter.

Themes of motherhood, fatherhood, fertility, infertility and adoption are explored through Ben and Fiona’s relationship; estrangement within their relationship and their journey to parenthood.

“The film’s primarily a love story and a portrait of a marriage; especially a contemporary marriage,” Claire McCarthy said.

The setting of India, specifically in the context of Calcutta, was deliberate because it’s an extreme environment which could “push the buttons of a couple and provoke them,” she said.

The film offers hope for couples because the process of adopting the child transforms Ben and Fiona and their relationship.

“India cracks them open; India allows them to see each other and the world from a different viewpoint,” she said.

“They find the better part of themselves and the willingness to love each other more selflessly,” she said.

“Each person is capable of transformation and change and of offering more than they think they can,” Claire told The Record

The couple arrives in the middle of the Durga Puja, a celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga. The street parades and lively atmosphere sweeps them along Calcutta’s streets as they try to reach Lakshmi, their new child.

Through documentary filming techniques, including filming some scenes in semi-vérité fashion, Claire McCarthy, with cinematographer Denson Baker and

the crew was able to create a poetic ode to Calcutta. The airport official at the start of the film and later the pharmacist are real people, who were hired to play out the scene as they normally would, bringing an authenticity to the film that wouldn’t otherwise be there.

The Indian wedding scene, too, was orchestrated by approaching a local couple who had been married for two years.

“They renewed their vows and we had a Hindi priest there who conducted the ceremony completely correct as to how it should be. Everything was as authentic as it would be within a Bengali wedding,” Claire said. Through the film, a variety of

people with different religions intersect in the story. In one sequence there is a Hindi priest, a Muslim doctor and Catholic nuns together in one place and also a couple of Westerners, Ben and Fiona, who have little or no formal religion. “It was important to me to demonstrate a pluralism of religious expression and to demonstrate different ways of doing things in a way that was quite traditional,” she said.

“Film is a departure point for discussion, not a place to be told what to think,” she said.

Claire McCarthy also told The Record that she was very inspired by the Missionaries of Charity and “the paradox of beauty and love that can be found in poverty”.

“It was exciting to have the opportunity to work with the Missionaries of Charity, to rewrite them into a film for a mainstream audience and offer spirituality in film as entertainment,” she said.

In this film, the Missionaries of Charity have a central although not always visible role in that the Sisters care for Lakshmi and other children until their adoptive parents arrive.

The love that the Sisters give to those for whom they care comes through loud and clear.

When Ben and Fiona have to make a decision about the child, Missionary of Charity Sr Tesilla lets them know that the decision they make must keep in mind what is best for the child rather than themselves. “I’ve nursed her since she was a baby; she’s my child too,” Sr Tesilla tells Ben and Fiona. “You must act out of love, not desperation or need.”

“Love is our mandate to each other,” Claire McCarthy said.

“It transcends culture and creed; to find that level of divine in each other is a gift. It’s as much about celebrating differences as honouring what’s unique about someone,” she said.

The Waiting City is released by Hopscotch and has been in cinemas nationwide since 15 July.

A word of caution

The Waiting City is recommended for viewing by Mature audiences. It deals with adult themes and includes a sex scene.

A family moment: Fiona (Radha Mitchell) and Ben (Joel Edgerton) meet Lakshmi in Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Calcutta.

PHOTO: COURTESY CLAIRE MCCARTHY

Waiting: For this couple, adopting a child from India transforms their relationship and strengthens their love.

PHOTO: COURTESY CLAIRE MCCARTHY

On set: Australian writer-director, Claire McCarthy, leading cast and crew in one of 43 locations in Calcutta, India chosen to shoot The Waiting City

COURTESY CLAIRE MCCARTHY

THURSDAY, 5 AUGUST

Group 50 Catholic Charismatic Renewal Prayer Group

7.30pm at Redemptorist Monastery, 190 Vincent St, North Perth. There will be Prayer and Praise, Mass and the Sacrament of Anointing. Every 2nd and 4th Thursdays include Lalilith Pereira satellite message. 19 August in Retreat house.

FRIDAY, 6 AUGUST

Pro-Life Witness

9.30am at St Brigid’s Church, Midland. Mass followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic led by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. All welcome to come and pray for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

Catholic Faith Renewal Evening

7.30pm at St John and Paul’s Parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Songs of Praise, sharing by Fr Paschal Kearney, CSSp on Prophetic Leadership followed by Thanksgiving Mass. All welcome to attend and encourage you to bring your family and friends. Refreshments afterwards. Enq: catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com or Kathy 9295 0913.

SATURDAY, 7 AUGUST

Faith Enrichment Series

4-5.30pm at Applecross Parish Centre, 115 Ardross St, Ardross. Murray Graham will lead discussion Growing in Love and Silent Reflection on Deepening of Spirituality, link between Being Loved and Changing Behaviour, How to Grow in Love. Presentation followed by Mass. Donations. Enq: Wim 0421 636 763.

Day With Mary

9am-5pm at Our Lady of Grace Church, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. 9am Video, 10.10am Holy Mass, Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Witness for Life

8.30am at St Augustine’s, Gladstone Rd, Rivervale. Mass celebrated by Fr Paul Carey, and followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic. All welcome to come and pray for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

SUNDAY, 8 AUGUST

The World Apostolate of Fatima – Eucharistic Hour

3pm at St Mary’s Church, James St, Guildford. There will be the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of our Apostolate. All welcome. Enq: Diana 9339 2614.

SUNDAY, 8 AUGUST AND SUNDAY, 15 AUGUST

Extraordinary Form of the Latin Holy Mass

12.30pm at Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Palmyra. All welcome.

MONDAY, 9 AUGUST TO SUNDAY, 15 AUGUST

Fr Ermelindo Di Capua Perth Tour – Relics of Saint Padre Pio

6.30pm, 10 August, St Mary’s Cathedral, Adoration, later Mass celebrated by Archbishop Hickey. 13 August, 11.30am, All Saints Chapel, Allendale Square and 6.30pm, Our Lady of the Mission Church, Whitfords. 14 August, Italian day, Infant Jesus Church, Morley, 8.30am Padre Pio DVD, Adoration, Mass and lunch (BYO) and St John and Paul Church, Willetton, 6.30pm. 15 August, St John and Paul Church, Willetton 10.30am.

FRIDAY, 13 AUGUST TO SUNDAY, 15 AUGUST

Beginning Experience Weekend Programme

Separated, Divorced, or Widowed

7pm at Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne. Beginning Experience is designed to assist and support people in learning to close the door gently on a relationship that has ended, in order to get on with living. Enq: Maureen 9537 1915 or Bev 9332 7971.

SATURDAY, 14 AUGUST

Divine Mercy

2.30pm at St Francis Xavier’s Church, Windsor St, East Perth. Healing Mass, main celebrant Fr Marcellinus Meilak OFM, followed by veneration of First Class Relic

PANORAMA

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

of St Faustina Kowalska. Reconciliation in English and Italian will be offered. Refreshments afterwards. Enq: John 9457 7771.

SUNDAY, 15 AUGUST

Divine Mercy Pilgrimage - Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

12 noon BYO lunch, Divine Mercy Church site, Muchea East Rd and Santa Gertrudas Dr, Lower Chittering. There will be Exposition, Rosary, Benediction, blessing of grounds and Divine Mercy image. 2pm Holy Mass, Chaplet of Divine Mercy followed by Br Stanley’s talk and veneration service. Tea provided. Transport bookings, Francis 9459 3873, 0404 893 877 or Fr Paul 9571 1839.

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Bullsbrook Shrine

2pm at 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. The Pilgrimage commences with a Marian Procession and Rosary followed by Mass. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. All are most welcome. Enq: 9447 3292.

The Associates of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition - 20th Anniversary

2.30pm at Christ the King Parish Hall, Lefroy Rd and Moran St, Beaconsfield. Relatives, friends, colleagues and past students are invited to attend. Later, tea with the Sisters to celebrate and to launch our Commemorative Project; The Klong Lan Educational Project – Thailand. Bring a plate. RSVP by 10 August. Enq: germaine.m@ optusnet.com.au. Germaine 9335 1639 or Wendy 9330 1723.

SUNDAY 15 AUGUST TO THURSDAY 19 AUGUST

Brother Stanley Villavicencio Perth Visit Brother Stanley’s powerful testimony on Divine Mercy, being pronounced clinically dead and his amazing spiritual encounters with Jesus. Check Record and Church Notices for venues and dates. Enq: Paulyne 9364 4228.

TUESDAY, 17 AUGUST

Past Pupils and Friends of Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart

9am at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. Mass in the Chapel for those who wish to attend followed by tea. Limited numbers. Enq: Betty 9246 0302 or Maureen 9447 2346.

Council of Christians and Jews WA Inc.

7.30pm at St Peter’s and Emmaus Church, 56 Green St, Joondanna. Lecture on The Spiritual Quest of Two Artists, Marc Chagall and Anselm Kiefer by Simon Blond. Cost $5 members and $10 non-members. Art or Theology Students free entry. Enq: ccjwa@aol.com.

WEDNESDAY, 18 AUGUST

Lesmurdie Mental Health Support Group

6-8pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall, 207 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Laughter Yoga workshop conducted by Fr Paul Pitzen and Ann Page. Group session consisting of breathing exercises, playful handclapping and laughter exercises designed to relax the participant. Please bring a plate to share. Enq: Ann 9291 6670 or Barbara 9328 8113.

THURSDAY, 19 AUGUST

Healing Mass

7pm at St John and Paul Church, Willetton. Mass in honour of St Peregrine, patron of cancer sufferers and helper of all in need. There will be veneration of the Relic of St Peregrine and anointing of the sick. Please note change of date from August 12.

THURSDAY, 26 AUGUST

Morley Mental Health Support Group

7pm-8.30 pm at Infant Jesus Parish Hall, 47 Wellington Street, Morley. Guido Vogels will talk about dealing with conflict and how to identify triggers and defences. The meeting will be conducted as a workshop. Enq: Thelma 9276 5949, Darren 9276 8500 or Barbara 9328 8113.

FRIDAY, 27 AUGUST

Medjugorje - Evening Of Prayer

7-9pm at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church, 175 Corfield St, Gosnells. All welcome to an evening of prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace, with Adoration, Rosary, Benediction and Holy Mass, celebrated by Fr Bogoni. Free DVD on Donald Calloway’s life of drugs, crime, jail term, sexual promiscuity through to his conversion and priesthood available on night. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480.

FRIDAY, 27 TO SUNDAY, 29 AUGUST

Post-Abortion Hope, Reconciliation and Healing Weekend Retreat

The Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat is for anyone suffering the spiritual and psychological effects of a past abortion experience. The Retreat starts at 5pm. The Archdiocese of Perth sponsors this confidential and beautiful healing ministry. Enq: Jenny (08) 9445 7464.

SUNDAY, 29 AUGUST

Annual Saint Dominic Commemorative Lecture

3pm at Our Lady of the Rosary Church parish hall, Angelico St, Woodlands. Initiative of the Dominican Laity of Our Lady of the Rosary Chapter, presentation by Sr Maree Riddler on Blessed Mary MacKillop. Enq: Jeff 9446 3655.

SUNDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER

Divine Mercy

1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor St, Perth. An afternoon with Jesus and Mary. Main celebrant (to be decided) will give homily on the Birth of Our Lady. Enq: John 9457 7771.

FRIDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER TO SUNDAY, 19

SEPTEMBER

Annual Secular Franciscan Retreat - The Spirit of St Francis for Today

6.30pm at the Redemptorist Retreat House, North Perth. All those interested in learning more of Franciscan spirituality are invited. Fr John Spiteri OFM will conduct the retreat. Enq: Angela 9275 2066 by 31 August.

SATURDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER

Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi

2.30pm at Redemptorist Retreat House, North Perth. All are invited to join the Secular Franciscan Order in celebrating the Feast with the readings of the Stigmata of St Francis. Tea provided. Enq: Angela 9275 2066.

FRIDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER TO SUNDAY 26 SEPTEMBER

Inner Healing Retreat

7.30am at the Redemptorist Retreat House, North Perth. A live in retreat for a closer encounter with Jesus and experience spiritual, physical and emotional healing. Enq: Holy Family Church Maddington 9493 1703.

GENERAL NOTICES

Perpetual Adoration

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

Perpetual Adoration

Sacred Heart Church, 64 Mary St, Highgate. All that is needed is for each one of us to be willing to spend one hour a week with Jesus so that all the hours are covered with one person in the Chapel. Available times, Monday 2-3am, 4-5am, Saturday 11am-12 noon, Tuesday 11am12 noon, Sunday 2-3pm, 3-4pm; Thursday 7-8pm. Enq: Helen 9444 7962.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The Church of St Jude in Langford is seeking to put together a visit to Jordan, the Holy Land and Egypt, leaving 8 September 2010. The duration of pilgrimage is expected to be 15 days and could accommodate 28-30 people. Fr Terry Raj will be the Spiritual Director. Enq Matt 6460 6877, mattpicc1@gmail.com.

Archbishop Goody Award Applications

Award established by The Most Reverend Sir Lancelot Goody KBE to further the lay apostolate in the Archdiocese of Perth by financing the formation, education and training of lay people. This year we are particularly interested in endeavours having to do with the Rite of Christian Initiation. Applications for the Award are to be submitted before 31 July 2010. Enq: Kim 9384 0598 or claremont@ perthcatholic.org.au.

EVERY SUNDAY

Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation 2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation is available before every celebration. Anointing of the Sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation, last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to

the church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq SACRI 9447 3292.

EVERY SUNDAY AND MONDAY

Extraordinary Form of Latin Holy Mass

11am Sunday and 7.30pm Monday except 3rd Monday of the month, at St Joseph’s Parish, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean.

EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life

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

LAST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Christian Spirituality Presentation

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

EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT

Novena and Benediction to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

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

EVERY WEDNESDAY

Holy Spirit of Freedom Community

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

EVERY THURSDAY

Catholic Questions and Answers

7-7.30pm at St Joseph’s Parish Centre, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean. Catechesis learned easily with questions and answers. The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Adult learning and deepening of the Catholic Faith, with Fr John Corapi DVD series, 7.30-9pm.

Divine Mercy

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

EVERY FIRST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH

Taize Prayer and Meditation

7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Church, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. All are warmly invited to prayer and meditation using songs from Taize. In Peace and Candlelight we make our pilgrimage. Enq: Joan 9448 4457.

FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

Communion of Reparation All Night Vigil

All warmly invited 7pm-1am at Corpus Christi Church, Lochee St, Mosman Park. Mass, Rosary, Confession and Adoration. Enq Vicky 0400 282 357.

Mass for Vocations

7pm at the Sisters of the Poor, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Celebrated by Fr Doug Harris, followed by Holy Hour and Benediction, refreshments will follow.

Healing Mass

7pm at St Peter’s Church, 93 Wood St, Inglewood. Benediction, Praise and Worship followed by Mass with Fr Sam and Fr Joseph Tran as celebrants, later fellowship. Enq: Priscilla 0433 457 352.

EVERY FRIDAY LUNCHTIME

Christian Meditation comes to the City

12.15-12.45pm at The Wesley Uniting Church, William and Hay Sts, Perth. Ecumenical Christian meditation as taught by Fr Laurence Freeman. All welcome. Enq: CMC WA 9444 5810, Anne 9335 8142 or christianmedittion@ iinet.net.au or www.christianmeditationaustralia.org.

PAINTING Top service.

Ph 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

LAWN MOWING

WRR LAWN MOWING & WEED

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

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

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

OTTIMO Convenient city location for books, CDs/DVDs, cards, candles, statues, Bibles, medals and much more. Shop 108, Trinity Arcade (Terrace level), 671 Hay St, Perth. Ph 9322 4520. Mon-Fri 9am-6pm.

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

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

SETTLEMENTS

FOR SALE

PEEKABOO CORNER Good quality & affordable branded kids’ clothing. For boys & girls 0 to 6 years. Don’t miss out 20% discount for first 20 customers. Errina: 0401 454 933. Email: peekaboo.corner@gmail.com or visit www.peekaboo-corner.blogspot. com.

ORGAN FOR SALE Old fashioned chamber organ. Wilcox and White. Meridian Gonn USA. Photo and details email:gschaefer@ amnet.net.au or call George on 08 9386 1695.

ART FOR THE CATHEDRAL www.margaretfane.com.au.

CHURCH KNEELERS

Pair of splendid jarrah three metre kneelers. Photo and details email: gschaefer@amnet.net.au or call George on 08 9386 1695.\

COMPANIONSHIP

LADY SENIOR 80S ITALIAN seeks companionship 2 or 3 times per week for tea and espresso coffee/chat for an hour or two in Woodlands NOR. Offer $5 fuel reimburse for visit. Ph 0418 841 757 afternoon.

9

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

WANTED

SINE

FURNITURE REMOVAL

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

“The Woman Shall Conquer” by Don Sharkey. Photograph of Pope John Paul celebrating Mass in WA. Contact: email rodway@iinet.net. au.

Your advertisement could be very effective here.

10 Tu ST LAWRENCE, DEACON, MARTYR (Feast) Red 2

9:6-10 Something to spare

Ps 111:1-2.5-9 A steadfast heart

Jn 12:24-26 A rich harvest

11 W St Clare, virgin (M)

Wh Ezek 9:1-7.10:18-22 No pity, no mercy

Ps 112:1-6 Praise the Lord’s name!

Mt 18:15-20 Witnesses required

12 Th St Jane Frances de Chantal, religious (0)

Gr Ezek 12:1-12 Leave like an exile

Ps 77:56-59.61-62 God tested and defied

Mt 18:21-19:1 Pay What you owe me

13F Ss Pontian, pope, and Hippolytus, priest, martyrs Gr Ezek 16:1-15.60.63 Live and grow [Alt.Ezek 16:59-63 Covenant recalled]

Isa 12:2-6 Thank the Lord

Mt 19:3-12 Question of divorce

14 S St Maximillian Kolbe, priest, martyr (0)

Red Ezek 18:1-10.13.30-32 Renounce your sins

Ps 50:12-15.18-19 Create a pure heart

Mt 19:13-15 Little children

They’re new. They’re different. They’re growing.

New release

TSo who are they?

he emergence of the new ecclesial movements must be seen within the context of the whole Church and within the context of our times. What is often said of them is that they are not simply human efforts to do something in and for the Church, but they have emerged as a work of the Spirit of God. They are testimony that the Holy Spirit poured out on the Apostles at Pentecost is still a present and active force in the Church, blowing where He will. The new movements are one of the “surprises” of the Spirit. This extraordinary action of God in our time confirms the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Is, 43:19-21) Many ask about the place of the new movements in the Church. Are they a completely new reality or is there an historical precedent? How does the Church view the movements? This book examines the emergence of the new movements in the Church in recent times and their significance for the life and mission of the Church.

“This is the most complete, best researched, and most up to date presentation of the New Communities I have read. In a few pages Bishop Julian manages to introduce us to this new springtime for the Church in a worldwide perspective, giving a pastoral vision of the strengths and of the points of attention he has observed. The book helps us to discover a wonderful hope and a great trust in the Holy Spirit who constantly renews the Church.”

- Jean-Luc Moens,

Emmanuel Community, Paris

“In his reflection on the Ecclesial Movements in the life of the Church, Bishop Porteous opens a window on the creative and transforming power of the Holy Spirit working in the Church in our day. In many different and unique ways, the message is the same – lives are transformed and in the process a new missionary energy is ignited.”

-

Ralph Martin, a founder of Word of God Community, Ann Arbor

“This is the book for those wishing to understand the significance of the emergence of “ecclesial movements” in the Church. Bishop Julian has a profound grasp of the international scope of this development and provides a remarkably helpful description of the main movements as well as a nuanced historical, theological and pastoral interpretation.”

- Shayne

Bennett, Moderator of Emmanuel Community, Brisbane

“Bishop Porteous has done us a great service. This book explains well how the new ecclesial movements are a precious gift to the Church, and shows clearly their significance for the Church’s mission today. His insights will help us all reflect more deeply upon the grace of the movements, and will assist the members of the movements to situate themselves confidently within the whole life of the Church.”

- Fr Ken

Barker, Founder of Missionaries of God’s Love

“There is little doubt in my mind that the New Movements are from the Holy Spirit. The unique feature seems to be the lay inspiration and leadership. The Church will be renewing itself from below.”

-

Archbishop Barry Hickey, Perth, Western Australia