The Record Newspaper 08 October 2008

THE R ECORD

 P.  N.  W

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

-Bishop Matthew Gibney 

www.therecord.com.au

‘Christ always wins’

Tenor Andrea Bocelli and Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni headline ‘Bible-a-thon’ kickoff

Scripture is essential to Church’s evangelising mission, Pope says

■ By John Thavis

ROME (CNS) - At a Mass to open the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible, Pope Benedict XVI said knowledge of Scripture was essential to the Church’s evangelizing mission in an increasingly godless society.

“It is indispensable that the Church know and live that which she proclaims, so that her preaching is credible, despite the weaknesses and poverty of her members,” the Pope said on October 5 at the Roman Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.

“Only the word of God can profoundly change the heart of man,” he said. The need for such conversion is great in today’s confused society, in which human beings sometimes proclaim themselves “the only masters of creation,” he said.

Following the papal liturgy, the Pope kicked off a marathon reading of Scripture on Italian television. The next day, at the first Vatican assembly of the three-week synod, about 300 synodal participants listened to a report outlining the main themes of discussion.

Key topics included the need to strengthen religious formation and remedy “the ignorance of the Scriptures,” the improvement of preaching based on Scripture, and greater guidance on biblical interpretation - perhaps through a new papal encyclical.

The Pope convoked the 12th general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” He was to preside over most of its twice-daily sessions and accept its conclusions as the basis for a likely papal document on the topic.

He celebrated the opening Mass in the basilica dedicated to St Paul in part because the Church is marking the 2000th anniversary of the saint’s birth, and in part to highlight the connection between Scripture and evangelization.

The Pope, dressed in gold and green vestments, processed into the basilica with bishops from around the world. Also in attendance were synod delegates from other Christian Churches.

In his homily, the Pope said the purpose of the synod was to consider “how to render more effective

BISHOPS’ CHALLENGE

the proclamation of the Gospel in our own time” and to underline the need to “place the word of God at the centre of our life.”

Like St Paul, who evangelised with enthusiasm and urgency, the Church today senses new opportunities for spreading the Gospel, he said. But it also recognises that in some parts of the world, Christians have fallen away from the practice of faith, he said.

The Pope’s homily centred on the image of the vineyard in the day’s liturgical readings. The prophet Isaiah described the divine project of salvation as a vineyard that was planted and cared for with love, but which brought forth only “wild grapes.”

In a New Testament parable related by St Matthew, Christ describes a struggle over a vineyard to illustrate unjust behaviour and the rejection of God, the Pope said.

These images remain relevant today, he said, especially for Christians who have been given the gift of the Gospel.

“If we look at history, we are forced to notice the frequent coldness and rebellion of incoherent Christians. Because of this, God, while never shirking in his promise of salvation, often had to turn toward punishment,” he said.

The Pope noted that some flourishing early Christian communities have disappeared, and asked: “Could this same thing not happen in our day and age?

“Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture. There are those who, having decided that ‘God is dead,’ declare themselves ‘god,’” he said.

The Pope, turning to a dominant theme of his pontificate, asked whether people who remove God from their lives can truly be happy, and really can build a just and peaceful world.

“Is it not more likely - as demonstrated by news headlines every day - that the arbitrary rule of power, selfish interests, injustice and exploitation, and violence in all its forms, will extend its grip?” he said.

The Pope then returned to Scripture, pointing out that the biblical passages promise that God “does not abandon his vineyard,” and that “if in some areas faith weakens to the point of vanishing, there will always be other peoples ready to embrace it.”

Continued - Page 2

Cardinal Levada speaks on hoped for Synod outcomes - Page 11

The Australian bishops have urged a Senate Inquiry into not-for-profit agencies not to abandon the poor when considering changes to how the agencies report their info. Page 4

PHOTOS: TOP: CNS/ANTONIO DI GENNARO/ITALIAN

MARIE STOPES EXPOSED

USAID has denied funding to abortion organisation Marie Stopes - which has a Perth office - on the grounds that it is complicit in coersive abortions and involuntary sterilisations. Page 10

MORE VINEYARD WORKERS

Five priests have been ordained in Victoria in the past month, all in awe and excitement of their unique vocation to serve the people of God as Persona Christi. Page 7

Western Australia’s award-winning Catholic newspaper since 1874 - Wednesday October 8 2008 Perth, Western Australia $2

Papal visit: Pope Benedict XVI arrives at the Quirinal Palace for a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in Rome on October 4, the day before he opened the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God. The next day, Oscarwinning Italian actor Roberto Benigni, right, reads from the Book of Genesis for a live TV broadcast inside the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI kicked off a Bible reading marathon that day on Italian television. The Pope read for several minutes from the start of the Book of Genesis live from his apartment at the Vatican while other speakers read in the Basilica of Holy Cross.

Saint for the week

Hedwig

1174-1243

feast – October 16

A laywoman from Bavaria, in southern Germany, Hedwig married the duke of Silesia, in southern Poland. Henry I encouraged his wife’s numerous charitable activities, one of which was founding an abbey of Cistercian nuns at Trzebnica. e couple vowed to live chastely after their seventh child was born in 1209. When Henry died in 1238, Hedwig moved to the abbey, where her daughter Gertrude was abbess,

New Norcia Abbot goes to God

Abbot Placid Spearitt OSB of the Benedictine Community of New

Norcia passed away on October 4. Fr John Herbert OSB reflects on a life well lived.

BORN Selwyn Spearritt in Bundaberg Queensland on September 17, 1933, Fr Placid was the youngest in a family of five boys. His father was a baker by trade and the family attended the Anglican Church. He was educated at Brisbane State High School and the University of Queensland where he graduated with an MA. During his university days, he sang with the University’s Madrigal Singers.

After spending a year teaching at Warwick State School in the Darling Downs, he returned to Queensland University to work in the library.

At the age of 22, he decided to become a Catholic and also felt called to be a monk. He joined the large Benedictine Monastery of Ampleforth, near York in England, in 1959 and was given the religious name Placid.

community, call Brian Stephens on 9422 7924.

Walking with Him Daily Mass Readings

12 S 28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Gr Isa 25:6-10 We exult and rejoice

Ps 22 Fear no evil

Phil 4:12-14.19-20 To be poor and rich Mt 22:1-14 Banquet prepared

13 M

Gal 4:22-24.27-27.31-5:1 Two sons

Ps 112.1-7 Praise the Lord’s name

Lk 11:29-32 Sign of Jonah

14 T St Callistus, pope, martyr (O)

Gr Gal 5:1-6 Fallen from grace

Ps 118:41.43-45.47-48 The word of truth

Lk 11:37-41 Oh, you Pharisees!

15 W St Teresa of Avila, virgin, doctor of the Church (M)

Wh Gal 5:18-25 Led by the Spirit

Ps 1:1-4.6 The law of the Lord

Lk 11:42-46 Unendurable burdens

16 T St Hedwig, religious (O)

St Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin (O)

Gr Eph 1:1-10 Blessed be God

Ps 97:1-6 Sing a new song

Lk 11:47-54 The key of knowledge

17 F St Ignatius of Antioch, bishop, martyr (M)

Red Eph 1:11-14 Seal of the Spirit

Ps 33:1-2.4-5.12-13 Chosen by God Lk 12:1-7 Do not be afraid

18 S ST LUKE, EVANGELIST, Feast

Red 2 Tim 4:10-17 Be on your guard

Ps 144:10-13.17-18 Creatures thank you Lk 10:1-9 The harvest is rich

For the next eight years he went back to being a student, doing postgraduate work at the Catholic University of Freibourg in Switzerland. He graduated in Theology and Philosophy and was ordained a priest in 1967.

Returning to Ampleforth, Fr Placid settled into teaching philosophy in the monastery and English and Religious Studies in the boys’ boarding school.

He continued to gravitate to the library and was consequently made the librarian. For a brief period, he went to Canada as Visiting Fellow at the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies at St Michael’s College in Toronto.

In 1979 he was appointed Prior of Ampleforth Abbey. Four years later, he was asked to be the Prior Administrator of the New Norcia Community, a position he held for a number of years.

On February 1, 1997, he was elected sixth Abbot of New Norcia. Having reached 75, he was due to retire from his abbatial role. During his time, New Norcia Catholic College closed and, since then, the monastic community has gradually taken over the management of the whole town.

Today, New Norcia seeks to preserve its unique monastic, indigenous and European heritage, and share it with all who visit.

After attending the General Chapter of the Subiaco Congregation (to which New Norcia belongs) and the Abbot’s Congress in Rome, Abbot Placid died suddenly at Ampleforth Abbey, the monastery of his profession. The details of his funeral at New Norcia are yet to be finalised. A canonical visitation consisting of the Abbot President of the Subiaco Congregation, Abbot Bruno Marin OSB, and an appointed abbot from another monastery will take place within the next few months, which will include the election or appointment of a new superior.

Prior of the Benedictine Community of New Norcia, Dom Christopher Power, says the community is deeply saddened by the sudden death of Abbot Placid, whose search for God was “deeply rooted in his monastic vows of obedience, stability and conversion”.

Abbot Placid’s 25 years of humble prayer, work and service have guided New Norcia into this new era, making a significant contribution to the Church and wider community of Western Australia.

- Details provided by New Norcia Archives.

‘Christ always wins’: Pope opens Bible Synod in style

Continued from Page 1

He said the message from Scripture is ultimately a positive one: “the certainty that evil and death will not have the last word, but it will be Christ who wins in the end. Always.”

At his noon blessing at the Vatican the same day, the Pope asked Catholics around the world to pray for the success of the synod.

He said synodal assemblies were particularly important because they brought together representatives from every culture and population, in a direct exchange of information about local realities.

On the evening of October 5, the Pope read from the Book of Genesis as he led a Bible-reading marathon on the Italian state television.

He was followed by Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria.

After the famed tenor Andrea Bocelli sang Johann Sebastian Bach’s Lodate Dio (“Praise God”), the Italian actor Roberto Benigni read the next section of Genesis.

The inauguration of the unprecedented initiative, “The Bible, Day and Night,” was broadcast on the main channel of RAI, Italy’s state-owned broadcasting company.

Most of the remaining 138 hours were to be shown on a sister satellite channel, RAI Educational.

main themes that have emerged during months of preliminary consultations.

Cardinal Ouellet, 63, told reporters afterward that the synod would come up with concrete suggestions for helping Catholics learn to read the Bible, to pray with it and to share its message with the world.

each of the 253 synod fathers will have a maximum of five minutes to address the assembly.

At the last synod in 2005 the limit was six minutes and before that it was eight minutes.

Each of about 1200 people from 50 countries - including Catholics and other Christians, as well as several Jews and Muslims - was to read for between four and eight minutes until all 73 books of the Catholic edition of the Bible have been read.

The synod got down to business on October 6, with the reading in Latin of a lengthy pre-discussion report.

Prepared and presented by Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec, the synod’s recording secretary, it synthesised the

Peter

Anthony

Robert

The synod’s first week was to be dedicated largely to individual speeches by synod members and invited guests. In an extraordinary move, one of the first speakers was a Jewish scholar, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa, Israel, who was to talk about the role of Scripture in Jewish life.

In order to increase the opportunity for open discussion in the synod hall,

The participants include we the 253 voting members of the synod, made up of cardinals, patriarchs, bishops and a dozen priests who head religious orders; 12 “fraternal delegates” representing other Christian Churches; and 35 invited observers and experts.

The Vatican said the synod’s 253 voting members included bishops from Hong Kong and Macau, but none from mainland China, because Chinese authorities would not allow them to attend.

Abbott Placid Spearitt

Suited up: Bishops arrive at the opening meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible at the Vatican on October 6.

PHOTO: CNS/ALESSIA GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS

Experiencing

faith in a fun, fresh, relevant way Activ8 conference seeks to continue World Youth Day wave of enthusiasm

Impact of WYD08 brought home to Perth youth on an intimate level at inspiring yet challenging post-event conference.

■ By

Robert Hiini

OVER 110 teenagers attended the Activ8 Post World Youth Day Conference held September 30 –October 2 at St Norbert’s Catholic College in Queens Park.

Participants listened to talks from Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton, Luke Plant from Emmanuel Community in Brisbane as well as local leaders Ronan McGinniss and Deacon Aaron Peters from Impact Youth Ministry.

Participants were organised into five “nations” - Montenegro, Ecuador, Togo, Yemen and Paraguay – to give the conference the feel of World Youth Day.

Teens had the opportunity to participate in different workshops covering an extensive range of topics and activites – drama, music, social service, understanding the Mass and personal vocation amongst others.

The workshops were provided by groups such as Caritas, True Love Waits and the Young Christian Students as well as different lay leaders and priests.

According to organisers, the conference was aimed at helping young people “experience faith in a way that is fresh, fun and relevant” to their lives.

The conference was convened by the Catholic Youth Network (CYN), a networking committee made up of youth organisations throughout Perth and administered by the Perth World Youth Day Office.

Impact Catholic Ministry took a leading role in putting on the conference. Ronan McGinniss, Impact’s Youth Pastoral Leader, said that he was very happy with how the conference progressed. He said that the CYN realised earlier this year that there would need to be two different conferences following World Youth Day in July – one focusing on faith formation for younger participants and the other focusing on providing leadership training for young adults.

Mr McGinniss said that faith formation happens “not just on the big scale but with close and personal times for prayer and small group discussion that World Youth Day maybe wasn’t able to do because of its size”.

Impact has set up a website for the event which gives participants suggestions about what to do after the event such as getting involved in their local Catholic parish or other Catholic organisations involving youth.

The Activ8 Post-WYD Conference for young adults is on October 10 – 12 at Chisholm Catholic College, Bedford. More information on the young adult conference can be found at www.activ8.org.au

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Is it true that when people come to do business with me, I guarantee they will be treated with courtesy, sincerity, professionalism and efficiency?

Is it true “I want your business and I’m prepared to pay for it” and “I stand behind every car I sell”?

Is it true that every year for the last 20 consecutive years I have been Australia’s top selling Hyundai dealer?

Clockwise from top: Mitch O’Grady participates in a game based on the TV show ‘Wipeout’ at the Activ8 conference; Eliza McKay, Michael Crisafio and Tom Coffey listen intently to a talk at the Activ8 conference; while Jordan Lorite (seen in photo) stands with True Love Waits guest speaker Stephen Gorddard. PHOTOS: ROBERT HIINI

Five years of round-theclock adoration racks up over 100,000 hours

n By Robert Hiini

over 100,000 hours of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been achieved over five years at Beaconsfield parish, say organisers.

archbishop Barry hickey marked the five years with a special Mass on September 26. adorers from throughout Perth joined their Beaconsfield comrades at Christ the King Church, thanking God for the grace sustaining their personal apostolate.

archbishop hickey thanked Fr Doug harris, the archdiocese’ promoter of perpetual adoration, and said he looked forward to attending the tenth anniversary of perpetual adoration at Beaconsfield parish.

the Mass was concelebrated by Parish priest Fr liam Keating SMa, Fr Michael evans SMa, Fr hugh thomas CSsr and Fr Julian Carrasco.

adoration, or the practice of silently praying to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, is “perpetual” when each adorer is followed by another, usually according to a roster. local organiser Joe Migro says that in five years, adorers

have clocked up approximately 100,000 hours of adoration.

he says that his fellow adorers have told him that their rostered time of adoration is the best hour of their week.

Perpetual adoration at Beaconsfield parish has involved neighbouring parishes with adorers coming from Spearwood, hamilton hill, hilton, Palmyra, Yangebup, attadale and as far afield as rockingham.

Mr Migro says that while he is “the person who organises the roster on earth”, getting people to attend at two or three in the morning for the past five years has been a real miracle.

“ the holy Spirit has been working overtime for us,” Mr Migro said as he recounted the many times he has found people who really wanted to pray at a very early hour that needed to be filled.

he is keen to help others gain the same grace he has received from participating in adoration. “i personally want to invite others to adoration so that they too might experience the joy of the presence of Christ.”

Enquiries for perpetual adoration at Christ the King, Beaconsfield can be made to Joe on 9319 1169 or 0419 403 100.

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Archdiocese of Perth

Catholic Education Centre, 50 Ruislip Street, Leederville

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Commence Tuesday 14th October - Friday 5th December 2008

Timetable

Tuesday 9.30am-12pm The Prophets with Stephanie Woods

1.00pm – 3.30pm Christian Mysticism – Where it all Began with John Auer

1.00pm -3.30pm Beginning Theology (Module Four –

Following Jesus) with Sr Philomena Burrell

Thursday 9.30am -12pm Marriage, Family & Sexuality with Fr Joseph Parkinson

1pm – 3.30pm The Psalms with Sr Shelley Barlow

Friday 9.30am-12pm Good Communication in Pastoral Work with Gerry Smith

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Course Handbook available on request

Don’t hurt the poor: bishops warn Inquiry

Federal Inquiry into not-forprofits urged to consider the most vulnerable

n By Robert Hiini

Catholi C Social Services australia (CSSa) has described existing disclosure requirements for not-for-profit organisations as “onerous, inconsistent, and inefficient” to a Senate inquiry that is due to report next month.

Both CSSa and the australian bishops have also warned the inquiry that reporting requirements must not hurt the disadvantaged.

the Inquiry into the Disclosure Regimes for Charities and Not-forprofit Organisations has been looking at the “relevance and appropriateness” of existing disclosure regimes – the data organisations are currently required to provide to government.

the inquiry is examining the feasibility of a uniform national reporting regime, a single not-forprofit regulater and the possibility of a special legal structure for not-for-profits; aiming to improve the governance of not-for-profits, particularly where public funds are involved.

the inquiry’s background paper cites two principal concerns that have been expressed about the not-for-profit sector: a perceived lack of transparency and a lack of accountability.

this follows a report by Choice magazine in March, which the background paper summarises as highlighting “wide variability and inconsistency in the way that charities disclose information to the public”.

the inquiry began on June 18 and has received over 170 submissions as well as conducting public hearings.

in their submission, CSSa, the peak body representing Catholic

social agencies, reported the results of a survey of 19 of its 64 member organisations.

those agencies were found to be engaged in 620 different contracts and associated reporting schedules with government agencies at the federal, state and local level. “it is not surprising (then), that many not-for-profit organisations are puzzled by the suggestion from government that they lack transparency,” CSSa says.

the submission points to a lack of uniformity across governments and funding bodies as to the type of data each demands, citing the inability of governments to agree on formats. “it is difficult to convey in a submission such as this the sense in which organisations frequently feel they are the subjects of these contracts rather than partners,” the submission says.

CSSa says that a focus on accountability through ‘measurement’ often excludes the more intangible benefits Catholic organisations deliver.

in being client focused, Catholic services often extend beyond the minimum service outcomes listed in contracts, CSSa says, with projects often being contingent upon such unreported work.

this is particularly true of the role Catholic agencies play in coordinating services for clients.

the australian Conference of Catholic Bishops (aCBC), in its submission, has urged the inquiry not to underestimate the complexity of the sector made up of charities, sporting clubs, advocacy groups, churches and trade unions, amongst others.

the bishops say that attempts to implement a uniform reporting regime must take account of the costs incurred by organisations in meeting such reporting requirements.

the submissions of both CSSa and aCBC to the inquiry list three principles of Catholic social teaching that should inform policy developments:

l the Common Good – public

authorities have a responsibility to “to make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life.”

l Distributive Justice – public authorities must order all social systems toward the common good.

l Preferential option for the Poor – “ the greater the needs of people, the greater the responsibility of authorities and those with a capacity to meet those needs.”

the bishops say that the role of the community sector over the past 15 years has changed due to reduced sensitivity towards the plight of the poor and a trend towards cost reduction and outsourcing by governments.

“an attraction to Government in outsourcing to the (community) sector is that, with its generally lower salaries and cost bases”, the sector “has traditionally been able to provide services at a much lower cost,” the bishop’s submission says. the bishops contend that in meeting a variety of community and client needs, organisational diversity in the sector isn’t necessarily a negative.

at present, not-for-profits can be legally incorporated in a multitude of ways. the inquiry will examine whether a single mode of incorporation is advantageous.

this may be beneficial, say the bishops, provided “that it does not simply replace the current level of reporting with a new regime built up with a new bureaucracy”.

CSSa’s executive director, Frank Quinlan, says that transparency is a very important principle for his organisation and that he understands the concern that not-forprofits be accountable for the public funds they receive.

however, he says that substantially, this is already the reality for Catholic social agencies with “so many terms and conditions being determined by funding arrangements”. he believes that the principal motivation for the inquiry is simplicity, adding that in his view “there’s a lot to be said for simplifying things as much as possible”.

MerCY hospital Mount lawley has donated medical equipment to a team of West australian doctors who will travel to Madagascar this month.

the team will be headed by Mercy hospital’s own Dr Digby Cullen as part of an effort by the australian Doctors for africa organisation to provide life saving operations in some of the world’s most impoverished areas. located off the south-eastern coast of africa, Madagascar is home to approximately 20 million people and is a former participant in the World Bank’s heavily indebted Poor Countries initiative.

Mercy hospital’s donation, valued at more than $50,000, will facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of various gut diseases –ulcers, polyps and strictures - prevalent in the local population.

With the ever increasing cost of medical technology, two of the donated items, a gastroscope and a colonoscope, cost more than the price of a small car at $43,000 each when purchased new.

the doctors, who will be working in conditions with limited power and water, leave for Madagascar on october 10.

Special: Fr Michael Evans SMA and Archbishop Hickey at the Mass celebrating five years of perpetual adoration at the church.

the Parish

Boat person on a mission from God back to Vietnam

n By Robert Hiini

What do a former refugee, an archbishop and a “pub muso” who’s taken a vow of poverty have in common?

they’re all committed to improving the lives of the kids at the Rose handicap Centre, a struggling facility for orphaned and disabled children 30 kilometres north of ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.

twenty-six years after escaping Vietnam as a refugee, Fr Francis Ly has established a group in his parish to raise funds to provide badly needed upgrades to the centre so it has a greater capacity to help more children.

Fr Francis, parish priest of holy Family Church in Maddington, led a spiritual retreat to Vietnam accompanied by 10 of his parishioners, archbishop Barry hickey and alex Leitch from September 25–30, bringing gifts and the money raised thus far.

the centre is currently home to about 60 orphaned children with a variety of disabilities and is administered by the Dominican sisters who founded it.

Fr Francis says that the hope is to enable the centre to care for at least 150 children through upgrades made possible by fundraising here in Perth.

although he has been involved in raising funds for the centre for over a year, the wheels were set in motion when Fr Francis visited Vietnam for the first time in 23 years in 2005.

Fr Francis arrived in Perth as a ‘boat person’ in 1982. an ordained deacon, he had been prevented from becoming a priest due to the Communist regime’s persecution of Catholics and escaped likely death via Malaysia.

after two years of work experience, he was ordained by thenarchbishop of Perth William Foley in 1984 and has been serving as an diocesan priest ever since.

Upon returning to Vietnam he felt God calling him to help orphans and sought permission and sponsorship from archbishop hickey, spending time searching for an orphanage he could assist before meeting Bishop Dominique Nguyên Chu trinh of Xuan Loc Diocese.

the local bishop asked him to help the Rose handicap Centrea centre with very distinct needs and challenges – and Fr Francis accepted the mission.

When asked why he didn’t return to the diocese of his home parish, thu Ngu, in the south of the country, Fr Francis said that helping out somewhere else keeps him grounded.

“Like Jesus we cannot be honoured in our own town,” he said. a lthough he has been to Vietnam on three previous occasions, archbishop hickey’s recent visit was his first to the centre.

Fr Francis and the archbishop will meet shortly to discuss ways they can make their commitment

an ever-growing reality. One of their fellow travellers, Mr Leitch - a musician who has played in pubs around Perth for the past 20 years - said that while he enjoyed the journey, Vietnam was very different from what he is used to in Perth.

“ the first thing that hits you is the traffic – hundreds of motorbikes, mopeds, people carting big planks of wood on bikes, cars and trucks weaving in and out of traffic,” Mr Leitch said.

he has set himself the ambitious task of raising $160,000 in three months.

Mr Leitch filmed much of the trip and plans to make a film with the help of volunteers he hopes to train up at St Bartholomew’s Men’s Shelter in East Perth where he often plays.

God was looking out for the project when he approached “St Bart’s” director for editing assistance, Mr Leitch said. the director told him that several tafe film students had recently visited the centre in search of a film project.

Mr Leitch is confident that, when completed, the film made by homeless men in Perth about orphans in Vietnam will be a solid fundraiser for the orphanage through increasing public awareness of their daily struggles.

he hopes that the film will be shown in schools and community centres.

In volunteering his time and effort, Mr Leitch is keen to point out that his motivation for helping is the realisation of his own poverty and the love he has received from Jesus Christ.

“ the last thing I need is for somebody to make me out as some saint. It’s not the case...I’m not a good person taking the Gospel to the poor, I’m a poor person with the same troubles as them, saying I have been forgiven,” Mr Leitch said.

In this the Jubilee year of St Paul, he says that his mission is the same as the apostle to the apostles.

“If God can love me as I am, everything else is up to God. anything good that comes through me, comes from God,” Mr Leitch said.

Donations to benefit the children of the Rose Handicap Centre can be made through Fr Francis Ly on 9493 1703.

Happy days: Archbishop Barry Hickey presents gifts to Vietnamese youth from Holy Family Church in Maddington. P H otos: C ourtesy Fr Fr A n C is Ly A nd AL ex L eitCH

Fr Francis Ly

Helping hand: Children from the rose Handicap Centre gather to welcome Archbishop Hickey, Fr Francis Ly and the group from Holy Family parish in Maddington. Below, Archbishop Hickey mingles with locals. Below left, an infant with a spinal disability at the centre.

Parents need to wake up to secret lives of girls ‘Sex and shopping’ culture eating away at our daughters’ sense of humanity

From birth to the end of their teens, our daughters are being attacked by a culture of disinformation.

n By Anthony Barich

Parents need to be up to speed with the language and knowledge of culture and technology to communicate with their daughters about key issues and save them from harm.

that’s the assessment of sydneybased author, teacher and publisher Maggie Hamilton whose recent book What’s happening to our girls? delves into issues concerning girls from birth to late teens based on interviews with girls, psychologists, school counsellors, medicos and police who work undercover on the net.

she said that a key reason girls are vulnerable is because parents aren’t aware that teen and pre-teen life is very different now, and this leaves girls vulnerable.

“I’m not blaming parents or educators, but we’ve had a massive social change in popular consumer culture, and companies and the media are more tapped into the aspirations and mindset of children than parents are,” she said.

“We need to wake up to facebook (social networking website)

and youtube so we’re on the same page, when our kids know we’re not.

adults live in a parallel world so they know they can’t talk to us about personal issues (especially when related to technology).”

Babies from birth to six months are now a multi-billion dollar market and little girls are addicted to shopping long before they can read or write, she said, while kindergarten and pre-school teachers are now seeing a “major decline in imagination and increase in anxi-

Toll

Industrial Chaplain (Two Positions)

Chaplaincy and Second Step Programs

Applications Close January 30th 2009

The Toll Group is seeking to appoint two chaplains to join our existing Chaplaincy program. One role will be based in Adelaide, the other in Perth.

The successful applicants will report to the co-ordinator of Toll’s Chaplaincy and Second Step Programs. The role is open to lay or ordained applicants. The position is made up of two separate areas of responsibility –-

ported employment program.

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Personal issues may include:

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eties, while anxieties about weight and clothes are prominent. Her research found that these anxieties intensify for girls aged six to 12 as this “sex and shopping” culture creates a range of what were once seen as “teen problems” in girls seven and up. Increasing numbers of girls are now choosing their friends based on brands and are experiencing body issues and other anxieties previously unknown at their age, she said.

the research also found that one in 10 girls are now cutting themselves and every weekend girls as young as 12 are admitted to emergency wards so drunk they can’t breathe.

Underage sex has skyrocketed along with sexually transmitted diseases including Chlamydia which can cause infertility.

Ms Hamilton said that, like other parents, she always thought these were isolated cases, but was shocked at their prevalence once she spoke to pre-school teachers, school counsellors, police and emergency unit staff.

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Psychologists spell out damage of Virgin bus ads

n By Anthony Barich

PsyCHologIsts and child health experts are lining up to condemn a recent spate of national Virgin Mobile advertisements that refer jokingly to promiscuity and gives the wrong idea to impressionable boys.

“With our new Virgin Mobile topless plans, we’ve stripped off and given you total freedom to express yourself,” the ad says. “got goose bumps yet? take off your cap and get topless. you know you want to. no CoMMItMent you can do a runner any time. our legal team insisted we warn you that taking your top off in public could get you arrested. Party poopers.” author and teacher Maggie Hamilton says this is typical of the trend discovered in her research for her book, which has been distributed in Brazil, new Zealand and lithuania.

“at a time when many parents, teachers, school counsellors, child psychologists, medical and law enforcement personnel and sexual assault support teams are struggling to help children and teenagers avoid physically and psychologically harmful behaviour, Virgin Mobile chooses to advertise its new plan with the go topless ad on buses across the country,” she said. she added that one psychologist who works with sexual assault victims in a major sydney hospital told her that he has seen girls targeted and encouraged to take photos of themselves and post these online. the psychologist said that these photos can

then be used to engage the girls in a grooming process, and by threatening to show the photos to others, intimidate young women into taking more and more explicit photos of themselves. the trauma from these experiences can be significant, including sleeplessness, flashbacks, not wanting to go out –symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress.

“We forget that kids have no life experience to judge these ads, and often in homes where there are no boundaries, so they only have their peers to judge what they’re being shown and offered. they don’t know the consequences for themselves or their friends. It’s on the net and comes back to bite them when they grow up and get a family and job.”

University of newcastle Professor of Perinatal and Infant Psychiatry louise newman says: “ there is increasing evidence that children are highly sensitive to the implicit values in these images. the imposition of adulttype sexual images and themes in children constitutes a form of child abuse and exploitation.”

Men’s advisory network spokesman gary Bryant says Virgin Mobile’s ad is also abusive towards boys. “ the message in these ads clearly… misleads boys and young men about what is appropriate behaviour when interacting with girls,” he said.

Psychologist and bestselling author of Raising Boys and Manhood steve Biddulph says: “ this kind of advertising…sends confusing messages about whether to respect girls, and whether women are people with dignity or just teasing boys. Virgin as a company has often verged into the tacky in its corporate image, but this takes it right across the line.”

Virgin Mobile did not respond to questions by The Record

SCHOLARSHIPS

TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME AUSTRALIA

The Trustee of the KSC Education Foundation Inc (a project of the Knights of the Southern Cross) takes pleasure in again inviting applications from teachers of Religious Education in Catholic Schools in Western Australia to undertake further study for units in religious education and theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia in 2009.

Application forms and further information are available from:

The

Of concern: Author and teacher Maggie Hamilton, left, has thoroughly researched the disintegration of our young female generation, happening right under the unsuspecting noses of parents, and details them in her book, at right..

Vics rejoice in vibrancy of the Church

Victoria rejoices in the youth and vibrancy of the Catholic Church with the ordination of five priests in their 30s.

n By Anthony Barich

Five newly ordained priests in victoria have begun their new lives with awe and excitement about their unique vocation.

Frs Binh Lee, Thang vu, Dispin John and Ahn Nguyen, ordained on September 6 at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College in Carlton, from which local boy Jake Mudge was also ordained for the Diocese of Sandhurst by Bishop Joe Grech on September 26 at Bendigo’s Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Fr Lee, 32, moved to Australia from vietnam 18 years ago before joining the seminary in 2002.

He reported to The Record of being in awe of the reality that he says “this is my body and blood” during the consecration at Mass, and that it still gives him goose bumps just talking about it.

Fr Lee says he had a job as an engineer and had a relationship in his previous life, yet felt oddly unfulfilled until priests he sought advice from suggested the priesthood.

“Since my ordination i’ve had many powerful experiences each time i administer a sacrament (as Persona Christi),” he said.

“The first time i consecrated the host i thought, ‘who am i to be able to do this?’”

He admitted it’s often hard for young men to discern a call to the priesthood in the business and noise of the modern age.

But if young men who have an inkling of the vocation just give it a shot, and if it works out it will prove fulfilling beyond their wild-

est expectations and “well worth while”, he said.

Fr Lee spent last week working in St John of God Hospital in Ballarat, and finds that sharing people’s lives and administering the sacraments of reconciliation and Holy Communion at their most intimate moments – like the death of a loved one – a powerful, humbling and moving experience.

it’s very humbling, but God’s using you to be an instrument of his love for his people, and people see that. every time i celebrate Mass it’s a thrill,” he said.

Fr Thang vu, 35, came to Australia from vietnam in 1990.

He found his vocation while in the youth group and choir in his local vietnamese Catholic community in Melbourne.

“The ministry is such a wonderful gift and will be unpacked – along with the highs and lows of the job - over the next few years, but the love and mercy of God’s will uphold me.”

Dispin John, 35, who came to Australia in 2006 having completed most of his seminary studies in Tamil Nadu, southern india, finds it an “overwhelming” responsibility and privilege to be part of people’s lives.

“it’s part of my joy to bring Jesus to people who have lost their hope and to be Christ to them. i find that i don’t have to do much to make things happen… when they know you’re a young priest they immediately bloom and blossom.”

He experienced cultural difficulties, like being admitted to hospital twice with food poisoning after trying very rare steak that was still bleeding, and his indian accent requires him to speak slowly to elderly people he ministers to.

“it’s a bit frightening as the priesthood has heavy responsibilities, but i feel i’m not alone, that Christ is there to guide me through, and the people of God respond very positively when they see a young priest.

“They see, ‘here is a young man with whom i can share my faith’.”

They feel the Church is young and alive,” he said.

Ahn Nguyen, 38, came to Australia to study for the priesthood eight and a half years ago.

He had the urge to serve the people of God and celebrate the sacraments since being an altar boy aged 10 in his local church in vietnam.

He then worked for the bishop of the vinh Diocese in the north of vietnam to develop his vocation.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, who ordained the four on September 6, said that by “dying to self”, the young men will be “totally open to Christ, supported always by the grace that He alone will give.

The intimacy that they will know with Him will lead them to grow in holiness and share it with others, walking humbly in the path of Jesus Christ”.

Fr Mudge, 30, a Bendigo boy, said his ordination Mass seemed to band the community together as the large cathedral was packed.

While a distant cousin is a Marist Brother working as a missionary in New Guinea, Fr Mudge’s vocation came about simply from a “very positive experience of parish life,” and in the Catholic primary school attatched to the parish.

By year 10 he plucked up enough courage to call the local diocesan vocations director who advised him to keep reflecting and to let God lead him.

So after five years of studying osteopathy – musculoskeletal health – and a year working in New Zealand loving his profession, the call to the priesthood remained strong and he joined Corpus Christi College.

While admitting the life is a sacrifice, he sees it more as a great joy, that “the call over-rides everything” and that God will give him the strength to be all that he can be.

More workers for the vineyard: Frs Dispin John, Binh Lee, Ahn Nguyen and Thang Vu are applauded by Victorian clergy after their ordination at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Reverence: Frs Binh Lee, Thang Vu, Dispin John and Ahn Nguyen prostrate themselves during their ordination Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on September 6. PhoTo

letters to the editor

Around t he tabl e dnuorA t eh lbat e LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Archbishop stands behind Latin Mass

Iwish to comment on the recent report “Bishops not Cooperating on Latin Rite” (Record September 24). I have been actively engaged in the so called “traditional community” for some years and am qualified to make some observations on the local scene. It is time that some facts were made public.

I first met Archbishop Hickey in 1994 when I approached him with the request that the Traditional Latin Mass be celebrated in St. John’s Pro-Cathedral. His Grace received me courteously and cordially. He listened carefully to all I had to say and we had a relevant and pleasant hour-long conversation. He said he wished to confer with others and requested me to see him in about two week’s time.

This I did. He graciously gave permission for Mass to be celebrated in the Pro Cathedral using the Traditional rite starting in 1995. Administrative arrangements were made with the Dean, Monsignor Thomas McDonald, the services of the Sacristans of St Mary’s Cathedral were made available to us and the Dean provided all the necessary items such as vestments, an Altar Missal and Hymn Books.

The Archbishop’s approval extended to every Sunday. Masses on special feast days were to be separately approved by him. He always gave such approval.

The Archbishop having approved of individual Priests, rostering was left to me. I pursued the policy of

in brief...

requesting a number of Priests to offer Mass for us and I wish publically to acknowledge the wonderful co-operation extended by Rev. Frs Ughanze, Tolboom, Deeter and Perry.

I adopted this policy for three reasons. Firstly, to ease the burden on Priests who were already heavily committed. Secondly, to forestall the possibility of the formation of a following for a particular Priest and, thirdly, to ensure the Pro Cathedral did not become a centre excessively devoted to the liturgy for its own sake rather that to worshiping Almighty God using the Traditional Mass.

This continued until May 1999 when Rev. Fr Rowe took over and new Mass times were introduced which clashed with other commitments I had to meet on Sundays. I then returned to the Traditional Mass at Myaree and continued there until November 2000 when Mass was discontinued due to Rev. Fr Formosa’s ill health.

I then approached Archbishop Hickey asking that the “Myaree” Mass be removed to Palmyra with Rev. Fr Ughanze. After conferring with Fr Ughanze, he readily gave the necessary permission and the Mass started there in April 2001. It continues there today and I wish again to express publicly the thanks of all concerned to Fr Ughanze for his outstanding pastoral care.

As further evidence of Archbishop Hickey’s support of traditionalists I cite his regularising the Mass offered at Jolimont by Rev Fr Cummins; his allowing that priest to administer the sacrament of Baptism in the Pro Cathedral using the old rite in 1993.

His Grace conferred the sacrament of Confirmation in 1997 and many times since in the old rite; at request he has presided at Pontifical Masses on many occasions. He has allowed the old rite of Mass to be celebrated in St Mary’s Cathedral and has extended his greetings and physical presence at Masses at Myaree and Palmyra.

More recently he has permitted the Gregorian rite of Mass to be offered at Kelmscott and, soon to come, at St Anne’s at Belmont with Rev. Fr Rowe as Rector.

This is in response to a petition requesting the establishment

Economic crisis shows life is not built on money: Pope

n By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The current global financial crisis illustrates why it is a mistake to build a life on passing realities like money and success, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“We see this today in the collapse of the great banks: This money disappears, it’s nothing. And so all these things we thought were real and were counting on are in fact realities of a second order,” he said on October 6, the day European stock markets plummeted following news of government bailouts for two more mortgage and banking companies.

“We need to change our idea of realism. The realist is someone who recognises in the word of God, in this reality that appears so weak, the foundation of everything,” he said.

The Pope made the impromptu remarks at the opening session of the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible. He said the morning’s Scripture readings had brought to mind Christ’s parable of the two houses, one built on sand and one built on rock.

“On sand is built only things we can see and touch: success, career, money.

Dissent still alive

Icommend you and your team for your Humanae Vitae fortieth anniversary features in The Record of September 3. This famous encyclical extolled the Christian principles of sanctity of life, chastity in marriage and responsibility in sexual activity.

A generation on, we in the church need more than ever before to reiterate the principles and better express and communicate them. This is what Paul VI was trying to do in 1968.

Responsible family planning and sexual activity within the institution of marriage are the expression of our Christian principles. It is the virtue of unselfish behaviour that is important in the context of responsible family planning. It is the motive not the method that should be paramount. Church will state principles of morality but married couples will also take into account their personal circumstances and in good conscience will make decisions that only God can judge.

Gerard Tonks Lecturer

School of Business

University of Notre Dame Australia Fremantle Campus

The RecoRd

PO Box 75 Leederville, WA 6902 cathrec@iinet.net.au

Tel: (08) 9227 7080

Fax: (08) 9227 7087

of a personal parish – made possible by the Pope’s Moto Proprio Summorum Pontificiam. Let us pray that the Pope’s wishes will soon be implemented elsewhere in the Archdiocese.

Any suggestion that his Grace does not support the traditional community – or any other sub-set of the Archdiocese for that matter – is patently incorrect. With respect, I know of no other Bishops who are as supportive.

The sentiment (happily rarely expressed) that traditionalists are victims or are opposed by the hierarchy is misplaced, based on ignorance of the facts or, possibly, mischievous.

(Dr) R.T.M. Whipple Emeritus Professor Shelley

Apparently they are real, but one day they pass,” he said. He said the banking crisis demonstrated how quickly they can disappear.

“Whoever builds his life on these things - on material things, on success, on appearances - is building on sand,” he said.

The true realist is someone who builds his life on the things that remain, recognising God’s place in his own life, he said.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the Pope’s reference to the banking crisis underlined an obvious contrast between eternal truths and the realities that occupy a great part of people’s lives.

“Here we have institutions - financial and political - upon which people relied as if they were ultimate,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service.

“There is nothing ultimate except God

Latin problems facing our bishops

The CNS report from Vatican City, headlined: “Bishops not cooperating on Latin rite” (The Record, September 24) seems unnecessarily provocative.

Archbishop Barry Hickey celebrated Pontifical High Mass according to the Latin Rite, for us here in Kelmscott, during the first week of spring (7/9). And the people who filled Good Shepherd Church could see that His Grace’s gravitas was unambiguously supportive of this traditional Mass, as he made his entrance to the altar with a version of the Te Deum

Any valid Mass gives praise to God. But while the desire for “Tridentine Masses” to be “popping up in every parish” is prima facie a laudable aim, it does seem to expect of a bishop what might be physically impossible.

There is much to consider before undertaking such a venture, not the least of which is the allocation of scarce human and financial resources.

Clearly, the Archbishop would need to put Latin back on the curriculum of Catholic Schools, and this at a time when Australia’s eco-

and the word of God, which is, as the Pope said, more real than all the material dimension of creation that so preoccupies us,” he said.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said at a press conference that the Pope clearly was offering a spiritual reflection, not an evaluation of financial problems.

“The Pope’s main theme was not the current economic situation, but the value and importance of the word of God in the human journey,” the archbishop said.

He said that although economic issues are important in human society, Christians sometimes forget that they are not the ultimate realities for man.

New Vatican document unifies theology studies

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - An instruction from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education aims to unify standards used in Institutes of Religious Studies and seminaries.

The document, released Thursday, was presented by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of that dicastery.

Religious studies institutes arose after the Second Vatican Council in response to the growing interest among Catholics - in particular laity and religious - to study theology and other sacred sciences. These studies are prerequisites in many countries for teaching religion or giving catechesis.

nomic focus is on Asia and Asian languages.

However, the need for at least an elementary understanding of this ancient language, when present at a Latin Mass, arises out of the Second Vatican Council’s requirement that the people be involved in the liturgy by “active participation” (Sacrosanctum Concilium).

So, the problem with which bishops are faced, in consideration of a diocese-wide Tridentine rite Mass, is undoubtedly a dilemma. And here the advice of an early bishop, the Apostle Paul, is unhelpfully dismissive: “Except you utter plain speech, you shall be speaking into the air” because “the unlearned knoweth not what thou sayest” (1Cor 14:9.16). Therefore, to reduce this dilemma to the cliché that “the Bishops are boycotting the Pope” is nothing other than histrionics.

I think that the best solution to vernacular versus traditional, is to give bishops credit for their common sense.

J F A Sutherland

Kelmscott

Seeking your help

Wish you a very happy Christmas and bright New Year. There are five thousand children and three schools in my residential area. Kindly help me by sending pens, pencils, Rosaries, used cards and used magazines and statues for the children. I am grateful to you for helping me for missionary work in the past years.

We shall be praying for you in return. Please help.

Love and blessings.

Fr Paul Cruz

Fr Paul’s address is: PO Box 691 571

Kottiyam - P.O Kolam - 691 571

Kerala, INDIA

Got something to say? Your opinions might get a response. Write to the Editor at the address in the centre of the page.

The new instruction replaces the preceding normative of 1987, also issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Cardinal Grocholewski explained that the principal novelty introduced by the document concerns the duration of the studies program, which now is five years, as opposed to four.

The programs will now be structured in two cycles: the first cycle of three years, at the end of which a bachelor’s in religious sciences is granted, and a second two-year cycle, at the end of which a licentiate is granted.

The document also makes uniform the titles of the degrees given by ecclesiastical faculties.

Archbishop Jean Louis Bruguès, secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, explained that the document gives a specific answer to the need for theological formation of the laity, in keeping with the proposal of Vatican II.

In fact, the text offers two academic options for the study of theology and religious sciences.

One is recommended for those who are preparing for the priesthood. The second is geared to the laity and consecrated persons, offering them “knowledge of the main elements of theology and of its necessary philosophic premises, in addition to those that are complementary and stem from human sciences.”

This itinerary promotes a more conscious and active participation of the laity and consecrated persons in the tasks of evangelization in today’s world, the archbishop said, “also favouring the assumption of professional responsibilities in ecclesial life and Christian influence on society.”

Perspective: Pope Benedict used the opening of the Synod on the Word of God to remind people everywhere that God, not money, counts.

Benedict offers encouragement to post-Soviet bishops

Pope Benedict XVI encouraging prelates from former communist countries to keep the flame of faith alive in their small communities.

The Pope made his appeal on October 2 as he spoke to prelates from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan who were in Rome for their five-yearly visit.

In addresses in Italian and Russian, the Holy Father invited the bishops to be grateful that communist repression had not extinguished the faith of their peoples, thanks to the “zealous sacrifices of priests, religious and laypeo-

The enemy in the corner of the lounge

n By Peter Rosengren

Some years ago I filled some columns of empty space with the story of how our family came to be without television, and the benefits it had delivered.

Years later, I can confirm that the decision by our son, then aged about two, to conduct a series of experiments into the vexed scientific issue of the electrical conductivity of blackcurrant juice as applied to the interesting slits in the back of the television set, opened a providential space in our lives.

All parents and grandparents please take note: if asked to name the chief advantage of His Royal Highnesses’ scientific curiousity I would say this: we are now in control of our loungeroom and a greater part of our lives.

Please also note: there are some difficulties that are real and which should be understood before doing away with television.

One is the tendency to use the Internet as a substitute. Just as much time can be wasted on the web as in front of the thing in the corner of almost every Australian home.

This issue is really all about selfcontrol, and that never comes easy. If you are going to do away with the Child Whisperer (and please, God, you do), you must be prepared to fill the empty space.

Today, we have a DVD-player connected to a television set, on which we watch mostly children’s movies and the occasional documentary series.

The local library is a great source of educational and wholesome viewing and a wonderful local resource (while local libraries still exist,that is).

Then there is Amazon.com, from which, armed with a credit card, you can purchase all kinds of things to use as family viewing.

I share one of our greatest discoveries: the animated movies (almost all dubbed into English and all available with subtitles) of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

They are extraordinary, and show what television could be capable of - but doesn’t do. Try Howl’s Moving Castle, or Spirited Away and see what I mean.

I would not allow a stranger into our house to whisper continuously at our children and my wife and me for the next twenty or thirty years. So why should you?

ple.” He went on to acknowledge that the prelates generally minister to very small Catholic communities. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, 2004 statistics showed only 500 Catholics in the apostolic administration. The “sui iuris” mission of Turkmenistan reported only 50 Catholics that same year.

The Pontiff called on the bishops to be guided by the Holy Spirit and to draw from their past experiences.

“Continue to educate everyone in listening to the word of God and foster Marian devotion and love for the Eucharist, especially in the

young,” he said. “Encourage families to pray the rosary. Patiently and courageously seek new ways and methods of apostolate, making it your concern to modernize them according to today’s demands, bearing in mind the language and culture of the faithful entrusted to your care.”

The Pope went on to highlight the absolute importance of unity among the prelates and the priests, religious and laity, and within the communities themselves in the respective situations the bishops face. Such unity will make apostolic endeavours more effective, he said.

Half a century ago, television promised so much. Its proponents claimed it would, among other things, be a means of delivering education to the millions throughout the world who had never had the opportunity to benefit from it. Today, amid a flurry of game shows, so-called ‘reality-TV’ and a never-ending parade of sitcoms, shallow news, increasingly pornographic advertising and shows, and identical dramas (same actors, same scriptwriters, same plots, change the setting), what has it really delivered?

Former ABC presenter Tony Evans reflects on...

On the growing plague of terrorism in some of the areas where the prelates minister, the Holy Father affirmed that laws have to oppose the use of terrorism.

“However,” he said, “the force of law should never itself promote a lack of justice, nor can the free exercise of religion be limited, because to freely profess one’s faith is a fundamental and universally recognized human right.”

The Pontiff recalled that the Church is the first promoter of religious freedom, since it never imposes, but only proposes, the faith.

The Church knows, he said, that “conversion is the mysterious fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work. Faith is a gift and a work of God, and hence excludes any form of proselytism that forces, allures or entices people by trickery to embrace it.”

“A person may open to the faith after mature and responsible reflection, and must be able to carry through with that intimate aspiration in freedom. This benefits not only the individual, but the whole of society, since the faithful observance of divine precepts helps to build a more just and united form of coexistence.”

The Ghost in the Machine

The Balloon Game, popular among students of an earlier time, imagined debaters representing historic figures or objects, or events, crowded into the gondola of a hot-air balloon. When the balloon is supposedly caught in a storm one of the debaters – the least convincing in the defence of his subject - was jettisoned to lighten the load and so save the balloon from crashing to the ground with the loss of all the others.

If you, intelligent reader, found

yourself in a balloon debate as a representative of one of the great technological inventions of the last hundred or so years, which invention would you pray earnestly not to have to defend so that you would avoid being the luckless one chosen to be thrown overboard?

For this writer the answer is simple. I would tremble with fear and believe the debate lost before it began, if I were chosen to defend television. With all their faults, their weaknesses and occasional misuse I could put up a reasonably convincing case for motor-

cars, telephones, aeroplanes, radio, washing machines and yes, even computers; but I would find it impossible to defend television. I might as well jump overboard before the debate began.

Television as an invention is about eighty years old. As a mass medium - whose development in England and elsewhere was delayed owing to World War 11 - it is under sixty years old. There is no doubting the high ideals held for the post-war television service, it was closely regulated, and standards were strictly

enforced; hours of transmission were limited. Programming in the late sixties and early seventies in Britain is generally recognised as a golden age when the best contemporary writers and talent were drawn to the medium, and drama and comedy for example, were rarely afterwards surpassed and are still remembered nostalgically today. Few of us at the time, enjoying the good programs as we did, recognised that there was ‘a ghost in the machine’ - the seeds of corruption that lay at the heart of the Continued overleaf

Distributism: A different

The Wall Street crisis reveals the darker sides of Capitalism: insatiable greed without restraint leading to greater and greater instability, speculation based on insane levels of debt, and the threat of societal breakdown. And yet for more than a hundred years a fascinating third way or philosophy of economics and politics has stubbornly refused to die. Inspired by Catholic encyclicals, its promoters, writes scholar and former Whitlam Government Minister Dr Race Matthews, included some of the most gifted minds of the Twentieth Century…

In the early years of the twentieth century, the English Catholic writers Hilaire Belloc and Gilbert and Cecil Chesterton embraced the social teachings of the Catholic Church as the basis for the distinctive political philosophy that they named Distributism.

The basis of Distributism is the belief that a just social order can only be achieved through a much more widespread distribution of property. Distributism favours a ‘society of owners’, where property belongs to the many rather than the few, and correspondingly opposes the concentration of property in the hands of the rich, as under capitalism, or the state, as advocated by some socialists. In particular, owner-

ship of the means of production, distribution and exchange must be widespread. As defined by Cecil Chesterton: “A Distributist is a man who desires that the means of production should, generally speaking, remain private property, but that their ownership should be so distributed that the determining mass of families – ideally every family

– should have an efficient share therein. That is Distributism, and nothing else is Distributism.… Distributism is quite as possible in an industrial or commercial as in an agrarian community…”

Distributism emerged as one element of the widespread revulsion and agony of conscience over poverty in nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain. Its distinctive Catholic character stemmed from half a century of Catholic social thought, as drawn together by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical letter Rerum Novarum in 1891, in part at the instigation of the great English Cardinal, Henry Edward Manning.

The encyclical’s significance has been summarised by the prominent Anglo-Catholic scholar and sometime Distributist of the inter-war period, Maurice Reckitt, who wrote: “Rerum Novarum is the charter of Social Catholicism, and stands to the movement in the same relation as the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels does to revolutionary socialism.”

Manning’s compassion for the poor and championing of social justice and Social Catholicism in turn fired the imagination and idealism of the young Hilaire Belloc, who sat at his feet during frequent visits to Archbishop’s House, and absorbed from him much of the thinking that would ultimately find expression in such key Distributist texts as The Servile State (1912) and An Essay on the Restoration of Property (1936).

A tribute to Belloc’s leadership by his close friend and fellow Distributist, Gilbert Chesterton, reads that the world might one day wake up and find “a new democracy of Distributists: Now at the fountain of that river, at the root of that genealogical tree, your figure will stand in the history of England. You were the founder and father of this mission; we were the converts but you were the missionary… you first revealed the truth both to its greater and lesser servants… Great will be your glory if England breathes again.”

Like Belloc, Gilbert and his brother Cecil were rising stars of London journalism, published authors and

former Socialists, whose schooling in and around the Socialist movements of the day Gilbert saw as having been instrumental in bringing them to Distributism:

“It is my experience that the sort of man who does really become a Distributist is exactly the sort of man who has really been a Socialist.… Mr Belloc himself had been a Socialist; my brother had been a Socialist; I had been a Socialist.”

All three were as one in the moral revulsion over the predicament of the poor to which Gilbert gave expression:

“To say that I do not like the present state of wealth and property is merely to say that I am not the devil in human form. No one but Satan or Beelzebub could like the present state of wealth

and Poverty.” And it was again Gilbert who spoke for them all in a resounding challenge to the established order that reads:

“The thing to be done is nothing more or less than the distribution of the great fortunes and the great estates. We can only avoid Socialism by a change as vast as Socialism. If we are to save property, we must distribute property, almost as sternly and sweepingly as did the French Revolution.… If we leave things as they are, there will almost certainly be a crash of confiscations. If we hesitate, we will soon have to hurry. But if we start doing it quickly, we shall have time to do it slowly.”

Their attributes were complementary.

If Belloc was the St Paul of Distributism and Gilbert its St Francis, Cecil was its

St George, perpetually into the camps of laying about him through tions with a deadly turn Reckitt saw The Servile been seminal: “I cannot impact of this book this I was but symptomatic of others.”

Belloc argued that hood of Socialism tives. Nor did he believe in its current form inherent instability. feared was that the Capitalism and attempts create an ideal Socialist Socialist ideal, in conflict informing the body would result instead

Television: how the thing that promised so much good turned

Continued from Vista 1 technological marvel, seeds that would grow and spread like a cancer through the body until it was rotten and beyond resuscitation. There can be no modern marvel of the technological age which promised so much at its birth and which was accompanied in its early years with high ideals and potential for good, and yet developed in a comparatively short time to be the most powerful corrupting and manipulating force throughout the world.

One person who did recognise the ‘ghost in the machine’ was Pope Pius XII. His now littleremembered encyclical, Miranda Prorsus (1957), although covering film, radio and television, surely had television very much in mind when he warned, that unless these marvels are “subjected to the sweet yoke of Christ, they can be the source of countless evils, which appear to be all the more serious

because not only material forces but also the mind are unhappily enslaved.” In another part he writes of the powerful influence of television on men’s minds and how, instead of “flooding them with light and raising them to nobility, it can disfigure them by dimming their lustre, dishonour them by a process of corruption and make them subject to uncontrolled passions...’

Those of us who were connected with the television and film apostolate at that time were encouraged by the Pope’s encyclical which authorised the establishment of Catholic media offices with the purpose of writing criticism, training priests in the techniques of the media, and encouraging the production of television and film which endorsed Christian ethics.

Alas, the work was akin to David meeting with Goliath without the satisfactory conclusion recounted in the first book of Samuel.

The language of Miranda Prorsus should not be read as mere Vatican rhetoric or flowery, exaggerated prose. Compared with the language and argument in Jerry Mander’s 1977 book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, the Pope’s language may be considered fairly mild.

The title of Mander’s book caught the public’s eye and awoke responsible viewers and researchers to the dangers of television watching for the first time – albeit with special reference to conditions in the United States.

Mander is still read and quoted with respect today and hundreds of subsequent, but less publicityseeking academic studies, have drawn similar conclusions echoing both Mander’s and Pius XII’s words.

Mander was the first to point out that the problems inherent in the technology itself are so dangerous to public health and sanity,

to the environment and to democratic processes, that TV ought to be eliminated forever - a forlorn Quixotic cry with little or no hope of success. (The arresting title of the book ensured its notoriety although Mander refused to promote it on television, being true to his principles).

The growing disillusionment of older viewers with present-day public television is hardly significant enough to alarm television stations. Their only response is to dumb down programs even further, and employ sensation built upon sensation in an effort to retain the viewing mass - thus safeguarding company profits.

Mander bases his arguments for the elimination of television mainly upon the medium’s effect on the human person, on the mind, the personality, and the behaviour of the viewer – and his particular concern is with young people and

how their minds are hypnotised by the screen.

A more recent and authoritative study on how television is damaging our lives was published in 2005 and has as its title, Remotely Controlled. The author, Dr Aric Sigman, quotes research which shows that television watching slows the body’s metabolic rate, and stunts the development of children’s brains; how it increases attention disorders and leads to violence and related crime.

He also shows how continual television watching in middle age increases the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Much of the evidence from current studies, he claims, is seldom reported in the newspapers because newspapers also own television stations, or fear their advertising may suffer if television was shown to be the danger that it really is.

A recent survey in Britain showed that children aged 11 –

15 each computers.

“In now tact with The veys ing corrupting watching.

When technological lical, believed was God,

The sibility being mankind, transmit instruction His misplaced. could

Hilaire Belloc: the brilliant young Oxford graduate was regarded as the great exponent of a new approach to social organisation inspired by papal encyclicals which came to be known as ‘Distributism.’

different way of doing business

perpetually carrying the fight its adversaries, and through its publicaturn of phrase. Servile State as having cannot overestimate the on my mind, and in symptomatic of thousands that there was no likeliachieving its objecbelieve that Capitalism form could survive its What he profoundly the interplay between attempts by Socialists to Socialist society – “the conflict with and yet body of Capitalism” –instead in the wholly dif-

ferent and perverse outcome of a social order where “those who do not own the means of production shall be legally compelled to work for those who do, and shall receive in exchange a security of livelihood.”

It was Capitalism in this new form – and not, as is so often mistakenly supposed, Socialism – that he saw as constituting ‘the Servile State’.

There was in theory a choice between a Socialist or collectivist society, a Distributist ‘society of owners’ and the Servile State, but in reality the options were more restricted, as there was no likelihood that the Socialist objective –“the placing of the means of production in the hands of the political officers of the community, to be held in trust for the advantage of all” – would be achieved. In

as much as the means of production might to a limited extent be taken out of the hands of their present owners, the owners would be fully compensated for their losses, and their position relative to the great majority of the community who had little or no property would be no less privileged.

What was more likely in England was a future in which the Socialists would settle for the achievement of a security and sufficiency of income for working people consonant with the means of production remaining the property of their present owners. In return, the many would be required by law to work for the benefit of the few – to observe contracts “which one man was free to take or leave, but which the other man was not free to take or leave, because the second had for his alternative starvation.”

The conditions workers experienced under such a system – “how the system would administer, would pay wages, would promote, would pension off, would fine” – would not seem then to differ significantly from those to which they were already accustomed.

Nor was the loss of freedom it entailed likely to be unacceptable to them: “The great mass of wage-earners upon whom our society now reposes understands as

a present good all that will increase even to a small amount their present revenue and all that may guarantee them against those perils of insecurity to which they are perpetually subject. They understand and welcome a good of this kind, and they are perfectly willing to pay for that good the corresponding price of control and regimentation, exercised in gradually increasing degree by those who are their paymasters.”

It followed that: “The pursuit of this ideal Collectivist State which is bred of Capitalism leads men acting upon a Capitalist society not towards the Collectivist State nor anything like it, but to that third utterly different thing –the Servile State: The future of industrial society, and in particular of English soci-

ety, left to its own direction, is a future in which subsistence and security shall be guaranteed for the Proletariat in a status really, though not nominally, servile. At the same time, the Owners will be guaranteed their profits, the whole machinery of production in the smoothness of its working, and that stability which has been lost under the Capitalist phase of society will be found once more. The internal strains which have threatened society during its Capitalist phase will be relaxed and eliminated and the community will settle down upon the Servile basis which was its foundation before the advent of the Christian faith, from which that faith slowly weaned it, and to which in the decay of faith it naturally returns.”

The Distributive State As much as The Servile State was a searing indictment of Capitalism, it was also an urgent plea by the Distributists for the establishment of the alternative social order that Belloc named the Distributive State. Its key elements –widespread ownership of productive property, parity of esteem for labour and capital, protection of the rights of workers and unions and self-help through co-operatives and other mutualist bodies – informed and suffused the Distributist vision of a “society of owners,” as had they previously in Rerum

Novarum. Distributism anticipated the E.F. Schumacher doctrine of ‘small is Beautiful.’ It adhered axiomatically and uncompromisingly to the doctrine of subsidiarity that Rerum Novarum foreshadowed – albeit in an incompletely developed form – and that Pope Pius XI subsequently elaborated in his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno Quadragesimo Anno reads as regards subsidiarity: “Just as it is wrong to withdraw from the individual and commit to the community at large what private enterprise and industry can accomplish, so, too, is it an injustice, a grave evil and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies. This is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, unshaken and unchangeable, and it retains its full truth today. Of its very nature, the true aim of all social activity should be to help individual members of the social body, but never destroy or absorb them.”

The Distributive State was to be pluralist and supportive of diversity and the mixed economy. In practical terms, small shops were preferred to chain stores, smallholder farming to agribusiness, and self-employed craftsmen and small workshops with working proprietors to larger enterprises and corporations. There would be guilds – “chartered and established by positive law” – through which the various categories of small businesses could protect their hard-won economic freedom.

Agrarian living and livelihoods were preferred, albeit subject to a realistic appreciation of the futility of attempting to win over largely urban and industrialised populations such as in Britain with arguments largely stated in terms of their application to agriculture and the land.

Gilbert wrote: “Even my Utopia would contain different things of different types holding on different tenures. … There would be some things nationalised, some machines owned co-operatively, some guilds sharing common profits, and so on, as well as absolute individual owners, where such individual owners are most possible. … Even while we remain industrial we can work towards industrial distribution and away from industrial monopoly. … We can try to own our own tools. … In so far as the machine cannot be shared, I would have the ownership shared, and the profits of it shared.”

Next week: Distributism in practice

This article was originally deliverted as a talk by the author to the 2008 GK Chesterton Conference and first appeared in the excellent journal of the Chesterton Society, The Defendant.

turned out to be (gasp, shock, horror) universally worthless

spend an average of 53 hours each week watching television and computers.

“In fact, most of our children now literally have more eye-conwith television characters than with their own parents.”

The findings of statistical surveys are now legion, and alarmand conclusively point to the corrupting influence of television watching.

When Pius XII wrote of the technological marvels in his encyclical, he believed as most of us believed at the time, that television a neutral technology, ‘a gift of God, our Creator’.

The Pope envisaged the possibility of this neutral technology being used for the betterment of mankind, to inspire goodness and transmit noble ideas and religious instruction to vast audiences. His optimism now seems sadly misplaced. He could not see, as we could not see, the reality of what

television would become, and the negative power it would eventually hold over us.

It was Mander, elaborating on his four arguments, who first argued that television was not a neutral technology, in the same way that a gun is not a neutral technology - the purpose of a gun and its only function is to kill.

“Far from neutral, television itself predetermines who shall use it, how they will use it, what effects it will have on individual lives, and if it continues to be widely used, what sorts of political forms will inevitably emerge.”

When Arthur Koestler published his book, The Ghost in the Machine, and so popularised the phrase, he was writing of the dormant, violent tendencies suppressed in the human brain and remain there, hidden, as a threatening presence which can and often do surface again and influence our behaviour.

Koestler was not a Christian and so would not have seen the analogy with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, the corruption in all of us which is endemic and must be exorcised by Baptism.

Unfortunately Baptism is neither theologically acceptable nor canonically sanctioned for use on technology.

Our only sensible conclusion must be that television is past redemption; that it should be consigned to the flames by Catholics and by all those who value their individuality and their mental health and the joy to be had in observing the natural world around them unadulterated by the warped and limiting vision presented to us on the television screen.

Perth author Tony Evans worked in ABC television for many years and presented the first daily current affairs program in Perth, Today Tonight. He is also the author of several widelyacclaimed biographies.

EF Schumacher: in the 1970s the economist picked up the threads of Distributism, giving it a more contemporary appeal in his international hit publication Small is Beautiful

GK Chesterton: in some ways the most gifted - and engaging - of Distributism’s promoters. His prolific output explored the philosophical vision of Distributism, which made the person rather than the economy or the state the most important subject.

Attracted to the One who is unlike any other Body Language

Nuong Nguyen

Iwas a Buddhist by default. In Vietnam when you are not baptised you are automatically considered a Buddhist. I grew up in an environment where there was superstition and I was not happy with it. I looked for meaning in philosophy. I read the works of all the French philosophers but I was not happy with their answers. Those answers were not what I was looking for. Then I met a boy who was Catholic when I was 21. I was attracted to his purity. I thought that he was not like the average person. We became friends and he told me about his family. They were just as beautiful as he was. His father loved his mother and treated her like a queen. Their children were so lovely. They seemed like the perfect family to me.

In my family my mother was very sad because my father was a womaniser. I told myself, “No, I am not going to be like my mother.” I found out Catholics were not allowed to have more than one wife. That was a good starting point. I asked my friend a lot of questions about being Catholic but he couldn’t answer all of them. He referred me to a priest. I told the priest: “I want to know about the Catholic faith but I am not baptised.” He didn’t try to convert me. We met once a week and I asked him questions about being Catholic. This went on for a year. Finally I was satisfied and wanted to be baptised because I loved what I had come to know. My friend’s family was the instrument of my conversion.

Why I became Catholic

with Debbie Warrier

When I got baptised I was different from everyone else I knew. My family, neighbourhood and society were not Catholic. I would say to my family: “I can’t have dinner now. I will have it when I come back from Mass.” At first they were upset. But then my father said something that made me happy. He said, “She is a better person as a Catholic. He decided the Catholic faith was not that bad. The Communists were very against religion. At that time a lot of seminaries were closed by the government. The rich became poor. If you had a small business they classified you as a capitalist. They would confiscate your property and it became nationalised. People would have to sell their jewelry and furniture to buy food. The army could force you out of your home at gun point. They controlled us by our stomach and fear.

When I went to Mass my mother would say: “Please don’t go because our family will be in trouble.” I told her I would tell the army that only I was Catholic and whatever they wanted to do to me, let them do it. They didn’t harm me because I was not a Religious, in business or part of the old regime. I was just a student. The government did try to brainwash us but I decided to escape first. The only way was by boat. Somebody organised the boat. My mother provided the financial assistance for her son and three daughters to escape. We even had to buy the fuel.

My parents stayed behind in Vietnam. It was not easy because the waterway was totally controlled 24 hours a day. You had to pretend things like you were transporting bananas for the government. The boat was not seaworthy. We didn’t know it because we were so inexperienced with sailing. We set out to sea and hit a sandbank. My brother ran into the jungle. My neighbour was with us and she had a one month old baby. She said, “Don’t leave me.” She could not run so eventually we got caught. There were 40 to 50 people in that boat and we got taken to jail. People were handcuffed and put into individual cells made of mud. There was no electricity. When it came to our turn they had ran out of handcuffs and cells. We were put into a large hall.

I got malaria and was very sick. They fed us pig food. I did nothing but pray day and night. In particular I prayed the Rosary. God and a devotion to Our Lady was my anchor. I entrusted to them my whole being. Suddenly it dawned on me that I was going to escape. I told my sisters to come 10 minutes after me because if I got shot they would know not to follow. In the morning they let us go to the river to wash our face and go to the toilet. Although it was tropical somehow that day there was a fog and we could not be seen. I ran into the paddy fields. I do not know how long I was running for. I caught a passing bus and saw my two sisters on the bus! They had made it safely. Prisoners are not allowed to wear shoes but although people could see that we were barefoot no one informed the Communists. It was a miracle. Some time after we decided to escape from Vietnam again. If you paid the Communists they would turn a blind eye and let you go. We did this and I got to Australia when I was 24 years old. I went to University and studied accountancy. Then I got married, worked for a while and had three children.

One of the things that makes me sad is when we are so free [to practise our religion] we don’t value it. When you are persecuted for your faith you find that it is so precious you can risk your property and even your life for it.

Is this the end of civilisation?

a commentary on the intersection of faith, sex and culture

By Christopher West

What Is Marriage? Part I

It is clear, based on our culture’s rampant rates of sexual promiscuity, divorce, cohabitation, out of wedlock births and the ease with which the homosexual lifestyle is being embraced in the media, school systems and legislation that our nation is in desperate need of re-education in the nature, meaning, and purpose of marriage. What is marriage? This column marks the first of a series in which we will explore this crucial question.

What happens to a society when it fails to understand what marriage is? Songs often pop into my head when I’m trying to make a point, and right now I’m hearing R.E.M.: “It’s the end of the world as we know it . . .” (together, everyone, shout: “Leonard Bernstein!”).

Okay, I’ve returned from my 80s flashback. In all seriousness, redefine marriage and you redefine civilisation at its root. What is the root of civilisation? Pope John Paul II put it this way: “(The) shared life of men and women ... makes up the pure and simple guiding thread of existence.

Human life is by its nature ‘coeducational’ and its dignity as well as its balance depend at every moment of history and in every place of geographical longitude and latitude on ‘who’ she shall be for him and he for her” (TOB 43:7).

The sexual relationship — and by that I mean the relationship of man to woman and woman to man, the relationship between the sexes — is the foundation stone of life itself.

All human relationships are the fruit of this root. This is why John Paul wrote elsewhere that it’s “an illusion to think we can build a true culture of human life if we do not . . . accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and their close inter-connection” (Evangelium Vitae,

97). Let’s try to bring this into sharper focus. To put it more bluntly, at the root of civilisation is the civilise-ation of the sexual urge. The sexual urge is one of the most potent forces on the planet.

When properly oriented, it builds up and edifies. When disoriented, it tears down and destroys.

In other words, when this root is “civilised,” the fruit is “civilisation” — well ordered human relationships working together for the common good.

But when this root (the sexual urge) is not properly civilised, well... I’m hearing R.E.M. again in my head.

What does it mean to “civilise” the sexual urge? Among other definitions of the word, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) says that one is civil who shows “highminded and self-sacrificing behaviour.”

One is civil who shows “courteous attentiveness, especially to women.” And — I’m not making this up — one is civil who observes “the forms required by good breeding.”

Throughout the ages, in virtually every culture known to man, the relationship that results from the proper civilise-ation of the sexual urge has been called marriage.

So, when we ask the question “what is marriage?” we should ask ourselves: What form of human relationship most civilises the sexual urge?

In other words, what kind of sexually active relationships show “highminded and self-sacrificing behaviour”? What kind of sexually active relationships show “courteous attentiveness, especially to women”? What kind of sexually active relationships observe “the forms required by good breeding”?

I offer the following not to scandalise nor offend, but some things must be said in times of great crisis: Does sodomy civilise the sexual urge? Does it build up or destroy? Does it serve the common good?

These are questions that must be asked. Can a man marry a man? Can a woman marry a woman? Can a man simultaneously marry several women, or a woman several men?

Can a man simultaneously marry several men, or a woman several women? Can a man marry his sister or his mother? His brother or his father? Can humans marry animals? (Does anyone remember my column on the woman who reportedly “married” a dolphin?)

All of these questions are now on the table in our culture. They cannot be properly answered unless we first know what marriage is.

As Catholics, we have an incredibly rich body of teaching to draw from in order to understand the nature, meaning, and purpose of marriage.

We’ll begin unfolding that teaching in the next column.

Identity drives our mission

with Bronia Karniewicz

Who are we? The Perth Archdiocesan Respect Life Office

Iam often asked “what exactly is the Respect Life Office?” Consequently I thought this a good opportunity to share a little on who we are and what we do.

The Perth Archdiocesan Respect Life Office, affectionately known as the RLO, was an intuitive move by Archbishop Hickey, opened in 2003 with the aim to promote the dignity of all human life within Perth and build up a community knowledgeable on authentic truth and love.

The office is particularly inspired by the late Holy Father John Paul II’s great encyclical of life Evangelium Vitae, “The Gospel of Life” and we work to promote the new culture

of life and love that John Paul II inspired and encouraged us towards. Principally the RLO is an information resource for schools, media, members of parliament and any other interested individuals on issues of life.

We work to clarify the true teachings of the Catholic church and to help people better understand the true dignity of the human person, especially in issues such as contraception, sexuality, abortion, reproductive technologies (IVF and surrogacy) euthanasia, stem cells and cloning.

Of course we cannot consider the issues without thinking of the people involved, this is of the utmost importance. John Paul II had a profound way of looking at the person and their experience.

This personal approach of John Paul II is a great influence on the RLO. We work from the knowledge that our Christian faith brings a just and loving response to the value of each and every human life and every situation faced. It is the work of the RLO to continue actively promoting the dignity of all human life. The activities of the RLO are to have a presence in the media, conduct schools presentations,

organise Respect Life Sunday - a day designated each year to promote life issues - and to arrange Embrace the Grace, a youth conference designed to inspire and encourage young people in their faith and knowledge through thought provoking speakers, music, drama and fun.

A particular quote from Evangelium

Vitae encompasses the attitude and work of the RLO: “It is the outlook of those who see life in its deeper meaning, who grasp its utter gratuitousness, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility. It is the outlook of those who do not presume to take possession of reality but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person His living image” Evangelium Vitae 83 Gospel of Life. No matter what issues we face the Catholic Church recognises the state of our culture and the difficulty of applying ethical principles to certain cases.

The RLO is involved in the Catholic Churches response to invite people to see the wisdom of the teachings that are also written in their hearts and seen in their life experience.

Civilised?: A photographer takes a photo of Amy and Jenelle Ferhart after their civil marriage ceremony at the San Diego City and County Administration Building in San Diego - an example of what Christopher West says redefines not just marriage but civilisation. CNS

Feminine genius of Christ

Life, the universe and everything

By Anna Krohn

Understanding ‘feminine genius’ 20 years on.

On October 11 the Anima Women’s Network, in conjunction with the Catholic Women’s League Inc (Victoria and Wagga Wagga) will explore the way in which “feminine genius” has shaped the Australian experience of being women. The Conference will highlight two extraordinary Catholic womenCaroline Chisholm and Dr Mary Glowrey.

There is a growing interest in the sanctity of these women and for their cause to be considered by the universal Church.

Now in the Australian context, the word “genius” can be a daunting term. Often it smacks of an intellectual or artistic talent or ability that is outstanding, extremely rare and even a bit eccentric - like that of the genius Albert Einstein.

Some women might also be suspicious that the term “feminine” here is just a gimmicky way of tapping into the recent revival of “femininity” in fashion – a style which suggests a coy “girliness” or ironic postmodern “girl-glamour”. This could also suggest a superficial “image” or worse a return to a stereotyped notion of “woman’s roles” and her “proper place in society”.

The notion of “feminine genius” was used by the late Pope John Paul II his Apostolic Letter, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women: “The Church gives thanks for all the manifestations of the feminine ‘genius’ which have appeared in the course of history, in the midst of peoples and nations; she gives thanks for all the charisms which the Holy Spirit distributes to women in the history of the People of God.”

This year marks 20 years since this rich and thought provoking Letter Mulieris Dignitatem was promulgated.

“Feminine genius” became a favourite term of the Pope’s and was used by him years later in numerous homilies, reflections and addresses and also in his Letter to Women - published on the eve of the controversial (or perhaps notorious) World Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995.

Each time the Pope used “feminine genius” it is clear that he did not mean by the term some sentimental or confined ideal of passive and malleable womanhood nor did he mean anything like superficial style.

It is interesting that he did not decree exact details of feminine genius either.

Instead he encouraged and challenged women to question the meaning of their own “genius” by returning to the mystery of God’s creative love and especially to the redeeming instantiation of this love in a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, just as the women in the Gospel had done.

A woman’s feminine “genius” can be broadly understood to mean –her full and authentic spiritual, ethical and interpersonal response to all that it means to be a particular female person. It does not imply a static and confined notion of acting according to some socially defined, or man-made “nature”.

Rather, a woman’s true identity begins in the event of her being cre-

ated and sustained with a woman’s soul, body and experiences - “in the image and likeness of God” and her being called to transformation in the redemption of Christ as his feminine disciple and her being graced with particular charisms by the Holy Spirit.

Very briefly we can outline what John Paul II saw as the four central features which manifest women’s “genius”.

Firstly a woman is called to be true to the deep mystery of her created reality.

This means that while it is good for her to respond and serve others - she must first re-discover the wonder of her own “creation” and in this discover God’s call to her in all her particularity and preciousness.

The full depth of her talents and dignity cannot be under-played.

The integrated and redeemed development of her spiritual, bodily, sexual and intellectual powers should be recognised and strongly defended - by her, her sisters and society.

Secondly, women have generally been recognised to have an enormous capacity to connect to the emotional and cultural dimensions of personal communication and interpersonal relationships.

They are drawn to see a person as a “who” not a “what”. Carol Gilligan calls this “care thinking.”

Women use their “genius” prophetically when as John Paul II says “they ensure sensitivity for human beings in every circumstance: because they are human.”

Women are being tempted away from this “genius” when they use their talent for emotional sensitivity for frivolous and destructive gossipmongering, manipulation of others and most tragically of all when they are made to believe they cannot care for the unborn, the needy or themselves.

Thirdly, women seem also to be drawn to the creation and protection of special and receptive “spaces”.

They have a “touch” for the creative, the dramatic, and the fabric of life which is more than merely “rational” and efficient.

They seem to intuit the need for environments and mileaus in which they and others can flourish. Jesus Himself silenced male disciples and onlookers when he pointed to the “genius” not of the “pretty” or “silly” but the deeply “beautiful things” done by the woman who extravagantly poured ointment on his soon to be pierced feet (Matt. 26:61-13).

The fourth and essential aspect of feminine genius is women’s unique and vital complementary contributions and relationships with men.

The Pope reminded us that God “intended” humanity to be a col-

laboration and communion of “the two”- male and female.

The most important human communities depend on women’s participation - but not upon their merely “fitting” and becoming co-dependent on male whims and power.

The world of men, families, societies and the Church not only want but need the contribution of women on-fire with their spousal/maternal/ sisterly genius.

This “genius” is deeper than biology, but it is expressed precisely in the language of the body in the deep mysteries of consecrated virginity, sisterhood and maternity.

Women as friends, leaders, mothers, wives, sisters and colleagues give and receive what John Paul II calls “co-education” in ways that are richer and also more challenging than occurs in same-sex collaborations.

Over the 20 years, many leading Christian women have embraced John Paul II’s challenge and have fleshed out in their work and lives the meaning of women’s “genius”: Outstanding examples are: Mary Ann Glendon (USA), Leonie Caldecott (England), Janet A Smith (USA), Hanna Barbara Gert Falkovitz (Germany), Michelle Schumacher (Switzerland), Pia de Solenni, Sr Prudence Allen (both USA and Italy), Wanda Poltawska (Poland) and Norway’s Janne Haaland-Matlary.

The Anima Network was established in 2003 in Melbourne to begin to encourage women “disciples” in the Australian setting to trust in their feminine dignity and together with other wise women to explore their “feminine genius”.

The Network includes women of many different walks of life, different ages (15-91) and different vocations. Anima’s events recognise how time and energy poor modern women are, and yet how deeply they hunger to become more than women of success, wealth, glamour or power, but women of holiness and substance.

We’re worth more than a test tube product

By Fr John Flader

IVF babies... acceptable?

Why does the Church not approve of IVF as a way for childless couples to have a baby? A friend of mine has just announced that she is expecting a baby as a result of an IVF procedure and I don’t know whether to be happy for her, because she has finally conceived after eight years of marriage, or sad because she has resorted to unacceptable means in order to achieve it.

First of all, what is IVF, or in-vitro fertilisation? It is the fertilisation of the female egg in a glass dish or test tube in a laboratory, rather than in the woman’s body.

The Church’s rejection of this means of conceiving children is based in great measure on an important teaching of Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae: the “inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning.” (HV, 12)

The unitive meaning is the couple’s coming together in a loving one-flesh embrace, and the procreative meaning is the openness to life of that embrace.

These two aspects must never be separated. Even before Pope Paul VI, Pope Pius XII had taught this in an address on May 19, 1956: “It is never permitted to separate these different aspects to such a degree as positively to exclude either the procreative intention or the conjugal relation.”

How does this relate to IVF? Whereas the use of contraception respects the unitive aspect while thwarting the procreative, IVF brings about the procreative aspect without the unitive.

The 1987 Instruction Donum vitae of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith deals with the issue of IVF, along with other ethical issues at the beginning of life.

It makes the point that in view of the unity of the human person in body and soul and of the innate language of the body expressed in the marital embrace, “the procreation of a person must be the fruit and the result of married love”.

Fertilisation achieved outside the bodies of the couple remains by this very fact deprived of the meanings and the values which are expressed in the language of the body and in the union of human

persons.” (DV, II, B, 4) The Instruction goes on to say: “In reality, the origin of a human person is the result of an act of giving. The one conceived must be the fruit of his parents’ love.

“He cannot be desired or conceived as the product of an intervention of medical or biological techniques; that would be equivalent to reducing him to an object of scientific technology.

“No one may subject the coming of a child into the world to conditions of technical efficiency which are to be evaluated according to standards of control and dominion.” (ibid)

As is clear from this, a child should be conceived in that mysterious interplay between God’s love and the loving embrace of the parents, not as an object of scientific technology.

In the words of the Instruction, IVF “entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children.” (DV, II, B, 5)

In summary, the only setting worthy of human procreation is the act of conjugal love between spouses.

As regards how we should respond to the news that someone is having a baby through IVF, the Instruction goes on to say that even though this procedure cannot be approved, “every child which comes into the world must in any case be accepted as a living gift of the divine Goodness and must be brought up with love.” (ibid.)

We can thus rejoice with a couple who conceive a child by IVF.

If it is appropriate in the circumstances, we might inform them of the Church’s position on IVF but we can still show our joy at the conception of the child.

In the Scriptures, every conception is regarded as a blessing, and that applies here too, even though unacceptable means have been used to bring it about.

We should remember too that many couples, even Catholics, are unaware of the immorality of this procedure and they thus act in good faith when having recourse to it.

Finally, let me say that I have left out of the discussion other issues that bear on the morality of IVF, such as the obtaining of the sperm by immoral means, donation of the egg or sperm by someone other than the spouses, the destruction of unwanted embryos, etc, which are often associated with this procedure and which can aggravate its immorality.

USAID stops Marie Stopes in its tracks

USAID denies funding to international abortion group Marie Stopes for being complicit in coercive abortions

WASHINGTON DC (CNA) - Assistant Administrator for Global Health Dr Kent Hill with the US Agency for International Development has denied funding to the UK-based abortion organisation Marie Stopes International (MSI) on the grounds that it is complicit in “coercive abortion and involuntary sterilisations” in China.

MSI has denied the accusations, the Population Research Institute (PRI) reports in its weekly briefing.

PRI president Steven W Mosher applauded the decision, saying MSI’s “aggressive promotion of abortion, and its longstanding collaboration with China’s coercive program leave little doubt that it is not only aware of the massive human rights abuses that have resulted in that country, but is actively collaborating with it.”

According to Mosher, the USAID decision will cut back MSI’s population control programs in a number of African countries, including Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.

MSI claimed that the lack of funding would leave African women few options besides abortion.

Mosher responded to this claim, calling it “particularly risible, coming as it does from the very agency that is responsible for many of the abortions that are performed in Africa in the first place.”

He also claimed that PRI investigations have revealed that MSI is “one of the biggest abortion actors in Kenya.”

Mosher praised USAID’s decision, saying: “The Bush Administration is to be congratulated for its consistent enforcement of a policy that is supported by the vast majority of the American people - a policy in which PRI is proud to have played a part - and which benefits women and girls by defunding predatory agencies which seek to rob them of their fertility.

“Marie Stopes International needs to decide what its purpose is: performing abortions, often in violation of national laws, or providing legitimate health care to women.”

Mosher explained that the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, passed during the Reagan presidential administration, prohibits US foreign aid from funding any organisation that “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation.”

President Ronald Reagan first invoked the law to deny funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) because of its complicity with China’s one-child policies, Mosher said in the PRI briefing.

The George W Bush Administration reviewed UNFPA’s activities in 2001 and determined they did not violate the KempKasten Amendment, granting it AUS$28.7 million.

In 2002, the Bush Administration canceled AUS$45.37 million, repeating the prohibition each year after, because of evidence provided by PRI showing that the organisation was involved in forced abortions and forced sterilisations.

Christians under fire in India

BHUBANESWAR, India (CNS)

- The Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity said the situation in India’s troubled Orissa state is a call for Christians to be witnesses to the faith.

“Disciples cannot be greater than their master,” said Sr Nirmala Joshi, the successor of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who founded the Missionaries of Charity.

“God will strengthen his people to face this tough situation.”

Sr Nirmala met bishops and leaders of religious congregations in Orissa to develop a plan to take care of the tens of thousands of Christian refugees who have been fleeing attacks by Hindu extremists since August.

More than 30 people have died in the violence.

Nearly 10,000 refugees have fled to Bhubaneswar and governmentmanaged refugee camps in the Kandhamal district.

At the meeting, the church leaders decided to shift 800 teenagers to church institutions outside Orissa’s Kandhamal district so they could continue their education.

The leaders said they also are exploring the possibility of sending more refugees to church institutions outside the district to accommodate them temporarily.

‘He was a lively child, but not an earthquake’

Pope’s brother reveals intimate details of Benedict XVI

Pope’s brother speaks out on Benedict XVI’s ‘Hitler Youth’ past, among other things

ROME (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI’s brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, has revealed when Joseph Ratzinger said one time that Benedict would be a good name for a Pope, and that he never attended Hitler Youth meetings he was obliged to sign up for.

In an interview by Andrea Tornielli for the Italian newspaper Il Giornale in Ratisbona, Germany, Mgr Ratzinger said his brother was “a lively child, but not an earthquake. I remember him as always being joyful. From the time he was a child he showed a great sensitivity to animals, flowers and in general to all nature. Perhaps that’s why he was always given pets as Christmas gifts. His care for nature and for living beings was characteristic of him.”

be signed up for certain youth groups. When it was obligatory, we were registered as a block. There was no freedom to choose, and not showing up would have brought very negative consequences.”

He said his brother Joseph “did not attend the meetings” and that that “brought economic harm to my family because by not doing so we could not receive the discounts for school tuition.”

impoverished and lacking the essential,” he said.

“We have to do our best to help the (refugee) people in a situation like this,” said Sr Nirmala, pointing out that the orchestrated attack on Christians was the “work of a few lawless-minded people”.

She sad “it is a shame” that the government has failed in its duty “to protect the vulnerable people.”

Missionaries of Charity nuns opened their home for people with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, in Janla, less than 20 miles south of Bhubaneswar, to house as many refugees as possible.

Sr Suma, superior of the home, said the first refugees who fled to the home were Missionaries of Charity nuns from Sukananda.

The violence in Orissa began on August 24, the day after a Hindu leader and four associates were killed in the Kandhamal district.

The leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, had for decades opposed Christian missionary activities and Hindus converting to Christianity.

A Maoist group claimed responsibility for the murders, but the Hindu extremists blamed Christians for the murders and began attacking them.

The violence has been concentrated in Kandhamal, where the slain swami was based.

Speaking later about their family, Mgr Ratzinger said his family was “very united” and his father was a “police commissioner who came from an old family of farmers from lower Bavaria. My mother was a daughter of artisans, and before getting married she had worked as a cook. When it was possible, as kids we went to daily Mass.”

After noting that their father considered Nazism to be “a catastrophe and not only the great enemy of the Church but also of all faiths and of human life in general,” Mgr Georg said he and his brother were forced to join the Hitler Youth because “the State ordered all school-age kids, according to their age, to

He said that both were altar boys and that their vocations became clear early on, “first to me and then to him.” “At Tittmoning, Joseph received Confirmation from Cardinal Michael Faulhaber, the great Archbishop of Munich. He was amazed and said he would like to become a cardinal. But just a few days later, while watching a painter who was painting the walls of our house, he said he wanted to be a painter when he grew up too.” Both were not inclined to physical activity, and Mgr Georg said World War II was a difficult period for the family. “We had a ticket to buy the monthly rations, which were simply generic items such as sugar, butter, oil and a little bit of meat.”

On military service, he said: “My brother was called shortly after me. We had objectives and ideals that were contrary to those of Hitler, but it was our duty as soldiers. We didn’t know when the war would end.”

Both men were ordained in 1951, and have always considered the Mass to be the centre of “our faith and our action, it is the personal encounter with God. This is naturally in first place. We cannot imagine a day without the Mass, without the liturgy. It would be

American dream up in smoke

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (CNS) - For more and more people, the American dream isn’t turning out the way it was envisioned, said Cathy Hinko, executive director of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition in Louisville.

“So many people say of people who are poor, ‘It’s their fault,’” noted Hinko in a presentation to members of the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

“(They say) ‘America is the land of opportunity; there’s the ability to make it in America.’ And that

He was “disappointed” when his brother was elected Pope, as “this meant we would have to significantly reconfigure our relationship,” as they would not be able to see each other much. “In any case, after the human decision of the cardinals, this is the will of God and we must say yes to it.” He said the first one to congratulate the new Pontiff when he first called home was Ms Heindl, the housekeeper. “At that time the bells were being rung the entire time and you couldn’t hear well,” so she took the Pope’s call and was able to congratulate him.

“Some years ago my brother told me, ‘Benedict would be a good name for a new Pope.’ Now he doesn’t remember having said it, but I very much do.” He also recalled his brother’s personality.

“He has never been a brash man, intentionally offending others. He always had great respect for the opinions of others. Often the media creates erroneous images of people.” Mgr Georg told Vatican watcher Andrea Tornielli that the experience of being the brother of the Pope “is a situation that brings repercussions and consequences. When I go to the city, I always encounter people who kindly greet me, especially Italian tourists. They say to me, ‘The Pope’s brother’.”

“I never imagined” that would be me, “nor did I expect it,” he said. “It was quite unusual for a German to become Pope, because for centuries this had not been the case. We never even thought about having this honour which was completely beyond our expectations,” he said.

is true for some people,” she said. “But there are also systems in place that say that isn’t so.” For one thing, she said, more people are moving into poverty, and the middle class is no longer rising. Hinko’s presentation on “The High Cost of Being Poor” was one of more than a dozen small-group sessions and workshops held during the society’s September 23-27 national meeting in Louisville.

A host of statistics and graphs punctuated Hinko’s presentation. And as she quantified poverty in America, some Vincentians nodded in agreement, recognising in the numbers the people with whom they work.

Always devout: A young Joseph Ratzinger carries a monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament in this undated photo. Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, .has revealed intimate details like the pontiff mentioning very early on about how good the name ‘Benedict’ for a Pope is.

A shot in arm for enhanced preaching

‘Spiritual nourishment’ of Bible to be a synod focus, says top US cardinal

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS)A renewed appreciation for the “spiritual nourishment” available in sacred Scripture, a shot in the arm for ecumenical dialogue and enhanced preaching on “the word of God in Scripture” are among hopeful outcomes of the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible, a US cardinal has said.

Cardinal William J Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the comments in an interview in San Francisco with the newspaper of the archdiocese, Catholic San Francisco

The cardinal, who is the former archbishop of San Francisco, was in town to dedicate a replica of St Francis of Assisi’s tiny Porziuncola church that now graces a building adjoining the National Shrine of St Francis of Assisi.

“For all the rekindling of the love for Scripture that the (Second) Vatican Council proposed, I would say that perhaps we have not integrated” the study and appreciation of the Bible into the daily lives of average Catholics as much as the church would hope, he said.

Cardinal Levada is one of three delegate presidents who will take turns presiding over the synod’s daily sessions fron October 5-26 at the Vatican.

“I am speaking in generalities,” he said, “but there are sources that indicate that a lot of people perhaps do not have their own Bibles, that they have not learned how to use it every day and make it part of their spiritual nourishment.”

enhance preaching and ecumenical dialogue. Photo: CNS

“The pastoral implications of the Second Vatican Council, particularly Dei Verbum (the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation), still need encouragement for fuller implementation,” Cardinal Levada said.

He also said it “would be one of our great hopes” that the synod might provide “a great point of connection” with other Christian denominations and stimulate “renewed dialogue toward the ecumenical efforts that we all have to continue to make according to the prayer of Christ that all may be one.”

Among other potential pastoral applications for the synod would be preaching, he said, “which the church has always employed to break open the meaning of the Scriptures for our people.”

“I don’t think there are any tremendous theological issues which are left unresolved” by Vatican II that the synod might address, the cardinal said.

However, he added that “we can always be surprised by some aspects of things that will be brought up and that can capture

your mind. So you say, ‘Yes, that is really an interesting suggestion and we ought to go with that,’ so we will have to keep our ears and hearts open.”

He also noted the inclusion of more women and a number of representatives of other faiths as synod consultants and participants - including a rabbi who will be the first non-Christian to address a bishops’ synod - “is going to have its own dynamic.”

Cardinal Levada noted that he, Pope Benedict XVI and other

Pope urges Church to help couples see beauty of natural procreation

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Church must find ways to help Catholic couples see the beauty of respecting the true design of procreation and avoid artificial reproduction and contraception, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Pope Benedict asked why is it that the world and many Catholics still have a difficult time understanding the Church’s teachings 40 years after Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on human life and birth control.

The encyclical Humanae Vitae (‘Of Human Life’) “illustrates and defends the beauty of conjugal love” while respecting the divine laws of nature, he said in a written message addressed on October 3 to participants of an international congress dedicated to the encyclical.

The October 3-4 congress in Rome was sponsored by Rome’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.

Pope Benedict said technical responses to “the great human questions” such as life and death often seem to offer the easier solution. “But in reality (a technical solution such as artificial contraception) obscures the underlying question concerning the

Iraqi Christians suffering ‘paralysing fear’

BAGHDAD (CNA) - A “paralysing fear” still grips Iraq’s Christian communities, the Latin-rite Archbishop of Baghdad has told an Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) event in Westminster, England.

Archbishop Jean Sleiman said that “very real persecution” remains a threat alongside intense pressure to conform to rigorous Islamic standards, driving many Christians to leave the country.

The archbishop, a Lebanese Carmelite who pastors approximately 5000 Latin-rite Catholics in Iraq, said most Christians in Iraq still want to leave the country despite the decline of violence in and around Baghdad and the reconstruction efforts in Kurdish areas in the north. He said Baghdad, Mosul and other regions remained hot-spots of persecution and vio-

lence against minority groups. The Christian population numbered over one million before the 2003 US-led invasion, but is now barely 400,000.

“Emigration remains the dream of most people. The hope of emigration – even when it is not realistic – represents a kind of salvation for the people,” Archbishop Sleiman said. “Very real persecution” remains a huge threat for Christians in some areas, he explained. In other regions “coexistence under pressure” means that Christians are forced to adopt Islamic practices, including dress and veil-wearing. Christians are also pressured to leave.

Even those seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north of Iraq are suffering exploitation masked by generosity and good-will in the

JPII II assassination attempt link to Nazi Stasi

ROME (CNA) - The German weekly Der Spiegel has published a report indicating that Communist Germany’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi) unleashed “one of the largest campaigns of misinformation in its history” in order to deflect investigations into the attempt on the life of John Paul II in 1981 towards Turkish extremists.

According to the ANSA news agency, the article features new documents discovered in German state archives that reveal that the Stasi “tried to help the Bulgarian secret service. The organisation enrolled a young Turkish citizen, Ismet Erguen, who began her mission in Berlin in February of 1982”.

regional government’s church reconstruction projects. He reported how the charity Caritas’ general director thanked a Kurdish official for building homes for displaced people from Baghdad. The officer replied: “We did it for us [Kurds]. We know that you will leave and these houses will be ours.”

Instead of relocating Christians, Archbishop Sleiman said, “the best way to protect, not only Christians but all the citizens, is to bring back the state of law in Iraq.”

He also criticised plans for a Christian “enclave” around the Nineveh Plains, saying the scheme only promotes “a ghetto.” The Iraqi government recently announced plans to remove the quota requirements for minority group seats in provincial councils, which could affect Christian representation.

“The documents show Erguen was involved until 1989, although today she denies ever having been an agent of the Stasi,” the news report said.

Family Catechism out now

BLOOMINGDALE, Ohio (CNS) - The Apostolate for Family Consecration has put out a new unabridged edition of its family catechism written by Divine Word Fr Lawrence Lovasik.

The fourth edition of “The Apostolate’s Family Catechism” features updated crossreferences to the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, Pope Benedict XVI’s first two encyclicals and other documents.

As with previous editions, the new edition contains 304 questions pertaining to

Church leaders were invited by a major Italian television network to take part in a “10 to 15-minute reading of a passage from Scripture” every day of the synod during prime time “as a contribution to helping the Bible come into people’s lives.”

In addition to Cardinal Levada, Pope Benedict has named as delegate presidents Cardinal George Pell of Sydney and Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Sao Paulo. The Pope himself is president of the synod.

meaning of human sexuality” and the need for couples to exercise “responsible control” over their sexual desires so that the expression of those desires may become expressions of self-giving, “personal love,” he said.

When talking about love between two people, technical responses cannot replace “a maturation of freedom,” the Pope said.

Reason is not enough for understanding the true meaning of conjugal love, he said, as “the eyes of the heart” also are needed to grasp the demands of true love and “embrace the totality of the human being.”

The Church, in its teachings and pastoral programs concerning marriage and the family, “must know how to guide couples to understand with their hearts the wonderful plan God has inscribed in the human body.”

Pope Benedict also praised and encouraged the work of Catholic research institutes for their efforts in helping couples overcome infertility through natural methods that fully safeguard the dignity of human procreation.

“The possibility of procreating a new human life is included in the full giving” of husband and wife, he wrote.

By creating life, the expression of conjugal love not only “resembles, but takes part in the love of God who wants to express himself by calling people” to be open to life, he said.

Excluding the possibility of bringing new life into the world denies “the intimate truth of nuptial love,” he said.

the creed, the sacraments, prayer and the Ten Commandments.

Commentaries for the questions are given by Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

Download commentaries by Cardinal Arinze on audio and video, plus discussion guides for free at www.familyland.org.

Prelate backs castration

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) - A Polish archbishop has backed government plans to permit the forced chemical castration of pedophiles as part of a crackdown on sex offenders.

“Bearing in mind the methods of treatment available when we want to cure a per-

son, it seems ethical to help him this way,” said retired Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski of Gdansk.

“Let’s remember it doesn’t just concern him, but also the children who may be wrecked by his lack of self-control and who will suffer throughout their lives.” In an interview with Poland’s Radio Zet, he said the penalty, recently proposed in a package of tough penal reforms by Poland’s centreright government, was morally right to prevent pedophiles from violating the dignity of others.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said mid-September he would “radically accelerate” provisions for the forcible chemical castration of pedophiles after a 45-year-old man was reported to have fathered two children with his daughter after imprisoning and raping her for six years.

Positive thinking: Cardinal William J Levada, one of three presidents of the bishops’ synod on the Bible this month in Rome, says it will

Voiceless: Children look out from the window of a mud house during the distribution of relief goods by the Red Crescent organisation in a poor neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq, on September 8.

Photo: CNS

God did not put us here to sit idly by

Archbishop calls Catholics to fight for ‘soul of public square’

Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life

By Archbishop Charles Chaput

Doubleday, New York, 2008

Available from The Record Bookshop.

“God did not put us here to sit out the struggle for the soul of the public square,” Archbishop Charles J Chaput of Denver writes in Render Unto Caesar. If one needed to sum up the book’s principal intent in just 18 words, that sentence might well suffice.

Archbishop Chaput wants Catholics in today’s America to nourish their nation’s greatest ideals with “courage, honesty and active political engagement,” and without leaving their faith on the sidelines of the public square. He carefully explores how faith and political life interrelate - what their relationship should and should not be.

I suspect many will feel after reading this book that they’ve gotten to know Archbishop Chaput in a new way, particularly if in the past they knew him largely through brief quotations in news reports on occasions when he weighed in publicly on the church and politics.

This is, indeed, a book of strongly held convictions, strongly presented. Still, more than a few Catholics - whether Right-leaning or Left-leaning on political or ecclesial issues - may find themselves challenged by the archbishop’s restraint and balance here on several sensitive matters.

What does Archbishop Chaput oppose and favour in Render Unto Caesar? In his vision, Catholics never would remain silent or complacent when faced with abuses of human dignity and violations of the natural law in the public realm.

Neutrality is decidedly not what Archbishop Chaput wants Catholics to express in public debate, nor does he want

Catholics reduced by contested issues to a cowardly posture. The archbishop wants Catholics to shape their activities in the public square according to their beliefs.

If America “has changed from the land of opportunity to the land of private appetites over the last few decades,” one reason is that “we haven’t lived what we say we believe,” he says, adding, “Homelessness, poverty, abortion, the exploitation of undocumented immigrants, the neglect of the elderly - these are brazenly real problems in contemporary America.

“They won’t go away by... kicking religion out of the public discussion.”

For its survival, American democracy “depends on people of character fighting for their beliefs in the public square - legally, ethically and nonviolently, but forcefully and without apology,” says Archbishop Chaput.

The 12 chapters of Render Unto Caesar afford Archbishop Chaput the opportunity to examine several issues now considered basic in discussions of the Church and politics: abortion; the Catholic voter; whether to

refuse holy Communion to some Catholic politicians; conscience; the separation of church and state; the natural law; bishops’ roles; and major statements in the recent history of these discussions.

“Elected leaders,” he says, “must make laws that reflect a well-formed conscience. When such laws are not produced, those same leaders must press to change them.” Furthermore, he insists, Catholics need to look much more self-critically at themselves as believers and at their “wholesale assimilation - ‘absorption’ might be a better word” - by America’s culture.

It is quite natural for a book on Catholics and political life to turn some attention to church teaching on the relationship of the church and the modern world, a relationship that has preoccupied the entire church in a unique, ongoing way ever since the Second Vatican Council. This relationship is addressed in a special way in Chapters 6

and 7 of Render Unto Caesar - key chapters for me.

In the council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, readers can see “a generous desire to positively engage the modern world,” Archbishop Chaput says. He points in a positive manner to church efforts to establish solidarity with the world’s people and learn from the good things of this world. At the same time, driving home his theme, he says Vatican II did not welcome “the extremes to which free societies tend,” and he rejects any conclusion “that religion has nothing to say to the public square.”

Chapter 7 concludes with this judgment: “Too many of us have become ‘evangelisers’ in the most ironic sense of the word: preaching the world to a Church we claim to love, but which we no longer really understand.”

Reviewed by David Gibson, founding editor of Origins, Catholic News Service’s documentary service.

Catholic families crucial where faith grows dim

Like a Samurai:

The Tony Glynn Story

By Paul Glynn sm

Hunters Hill: Marist Fathers Books, 2008

Available from Aid to the Church in Need, PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148, or info@aidtochurch.org

The role of the Catholic family in the healing of hurts

n Reviewed by By

Dennis J Murphy msc

Though details of the story of Fr Tony Glynn SM are by this time well known to some, it remains, and will remain, something to reflect on. It is an inspiring account of what one man can achieve in promoting peace in the world against formidable opposition and misunderstanding.

It is a healing of hurts on an international scale. But it is not merely an account of the things Fr Tony Glynn did ‘out there’; the author takes us through his personal development and struggles as well.

The Marist Fathers decided to send missionaries to Japan shortly after the war in the Pacific when memories of atrocities committed by the Japanese military were still

very much alive in Australia, not merely as past history in books, but as a rankling memory in many ex-soldiers and families who had lost loved ones.

One of the Marists, Fr Marsden, had been an army chaplain in the war and had suffered in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

Nevertheless, he felt called to go to Japan as a missionary. Chapter Three gives further information about him.

In 1952, Fr Tony Glynn followed him to Japan and at a later date his brother, Paul Glynn, the author of the book, joined them.

Since the details of the extraordinary story are already available in the Annals, I will simply reflect here on what appears to me to be its basic lesson.

On getting to know the Japanese personally, Tony and the other Marists not only ministered to them as priests but accepted them as friends.

This experience convinced Tony that he had to work towards reconciliation between Australia and Japan.

The argument he used with exsoldiers and others was simple: there was no benefit for them in keeping alive bitterness about past wrongs; in this way they were only making themselves unhappy; they had to look to the future; they had to help build up a better world for their children to live in; and to do this practical steps towards reconciliation had to be taken.

One of the practical steps Tony

thought of was to ask those who had taken samurai swords from both dead and live Japanese to return them to the families concerned as a gesture towards building up a more human world. Against all odds, his efforts were largely successful. When I first read this book, I have to admit that I skimmed quickly over the first four chapters which were mainly about the family and its ancestors.

This was something I later corrected.

I spent a bit more time on the next three chapters because they touched on people and places I was familiar with: Chapter Five on Fr Woodbury, the ‘Doc’; Chapter

Six on the Marist Seminary in Toongabbie; and finally Chapter Seven on Fr Lionel Marsden, plus mention of Fulton Sheen and some Trappist monks – Thomas Merton for one – who had influenced Tony.

One thing especially attracted me in these last mentioned three chapters; I found it a relief to come across an author who did not feel compelled to look back in anger at his novitiate and seminary days; he could accept limitations in the formation received but at the same time be grateful for the good he had obtained from it. His memories were mainly happy memories.

In this I found a certain resemblance between the reconciler Tony and his brother who was writing about him.

Though read rather quickly, this first part of the book did prepare me more for the following twenty chapters written about Tony Glynn’s life as a parish priest in Japan and as an international reconciler. Like all of us, he had his limitations, but he certainly was not imprisoned by them.

Later in life, through the charismatic movement, he experienced a great deepening of his faith which brought the reconciliation he had achieved between nations to full fruition in his own heart. Paul Glynn quotes his brother’s moving account of this on pages 136-141.

After finishing the book, the significance of the first three chapters I had skimmed through came

home to me; I read them again, this time more attentively.

I realised that Tony’s family, including the extended family, was the seed ground for all that followed.

There were some ‘black sheep’ of course; but the Catholic faith of the family comes across as almost tangible.

There are still exemplary Catholic families like that in the world, but what a different world they live in.

Because of this roundabout way of reading the book, a final thought I took away with me was the crucial role of Catholic families today in a world where faith is growing dim in an environment largely hostile to it.

We give much time and effort to the formation of priests and religious; it is disproportionate compared with the help given to families.

Yet the role they have to play today is basic not only for the Catholic Church, but, in a growing way, for humanity itself.

This is a book well worth reading. Paul Glynn is an accomplished writer and keeps the story flowing. Furthermore, Like a Samurai will be a good addition to any school library as well as a good source for faith education.

All profits from the sales go to the third world for educational and medical help.

This review appeared in Ann A ls Austr A l A si A s ep T ember 2008. r eprin T ed wi T h permission.

Firm: Archbishop Charles J Chaput, right, gives a few pointers to Sydney Notre Dame student Patrick Langrell at the Theology on Tap session the prelate addressed during WYD08. PhoTo: GiovANN i Por T e LL

Kids bitz

jokes

HERE is the LOST CHAPTER IN GENESIS....

Adam was walking around the garden of Eden feeling very lonely, so God asked him, “What is wrong with you?”

Adam said he didn’t have anyone to talk to. God said that He was going to make Adam a companion and that it would be a woman. He said,

“This person will gather food for you, cook for you, and when you discover clothing she’ll wash it for you. She will always agree with every decision you make. She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will not nag you and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you’ve had a disagreement. She will never have a headache and will freely give you love and passion whenever you need it.

Adam asked God, “What will a woman like this cost?”

God replied, “An arm and a leg.”

Then Adam asked, “What can I get for a rib?”

The rest is history..

A MINISTER was walking down the street when he came upon a group of about a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age.

The group had surrounded a dog. Concerned lest the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked “What are you doing with that dog?”

One of the boys replied, “This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we’ve decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog.”

Of course, the reverend was taken aback.

“You boys shouldn’t be having a contest telling lies!” he exclaimed. He then launched into a ten minute sermon against lying, beginning, “Don’t you boys know it’s a sin to lie,” and ending with, “Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie.”

There was dead silence for about a minute.

Just as the reverend was beginning to think he’d gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, “All right, give him the dog.”

~DEAR KIDS!~ ~ PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS~

If you have great kids recipes please share them with us and we will publish your recipe/s in kidz bitz with your name.

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

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

colouring/activities

art/craft

ALPHABET BOOK

AGE GROUP 46

Materials Needed:

* Paper

* Stapler

* Crayons or Markers

* Magazines

* Glue

Instructions:

This project can be as hard or as simple as you want it! The idea is to create your own alphabet book. Each page will feature a different letter of the alphabet.

First, write a different letter on different pieces of paper. Once all your pages have letters, page through magazines and find pictures of objects that start with that letter. Cut out the pictures and glue them onto the correct pages. Label each picture if you like. You could even write a little story for each letter. Once all glue has dried on your pages, you can put the pages of the book in the proper order and staple it together. Don’t forget to make a cover and even a credits page!

SOCK PUPPETS

AGE GROUP ANY, YOUNGER CHILDREN WILL NEED MORE HELP

Materials Needed:

* Cotton Sock

* Yarn

* Buttons

* Pom-poms

* Pipe Cleaners

Daniel also refused to worship other gods. One time he was arrested for praying and was thrown into a den of hungry lions. God protected Daniel and he was not hurt by the lions.

* Ribbon

* Glue

* Markers

Instructions:

Glue a variety of pom-poms (or cotton balls), buttons, yarn, and/ or ribbon onto the sock to make a colorful caterpillar. Cut a pipecleaner in half and push both of them through the toe of the sock to make antennae. Use a marker to draw eyes and a mouth if you want. Wear the sock on your arm to make a fun puppet.

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday.

Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902.

Submissions over 55 words will be edited. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 will be a put into classifieds and charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisment.

Sunday October 12

MAJELLAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY AND FAREWELL MASS

2pm at Redemptorist Monastery, North Perth. Followed by afternoon tea, Retreat House. One plate per car. All Majellans are welcome. Enq: Kath 9446 6514 or Leeola 9307 5990.

Sunday October 12

ALLEGRI CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ALL ITALIAN MUSIC PROGRAM

3pm at St Thomas Church, Claremont, Soloist will be noted organist Mario Duella, to give the premiere performance in WA of Respighi’s Suite for Organ and Strings, also Albinoni’s Adagio for Organ and Strings. Corelli, Rossini and Puccini works make up rest of program. Tickets available through BOCS or at the door. Enq: 9383 3747 or gail.owen15@bigpond.com

Sunday October 12

THE WORLD APOSTALATE OF FATIMA

3pm at The Immaculate Conception Church, Canning Highway, East Fremantle. Enq: 9339 2614.

Wednesday October 15

TAIZE MEDITATION PRAYER

7.30pm to 8.30pm at St Thomas Catholic Church, 100 Dean Road, Bateman, all welcome to spend an hour in group prayer and relax after a busy working day, in candlelight atmosphere of prayer, song and meditation. Enq: Daisy/Barney 9310 4781.

Wednesday October 15

FROM GLOBAL VILLAGE TO GLOBAL KINGDOM WORKSHOP FOR CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS

9am to 3pm at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, Highgate, this workshop, run by Catholic Mission, is available to teachers with CEO accreditation interested in developing strategies for evangelization in their school community. To register: 9422 7933.

Wednesday October 15

TOUCH OF HEAVEN - ALAN AMES HEALING MASS

7pm at St Gerard Majella, Mirrabooka. Enq; Loreta 9444 4409.

Wednesday October 15

SOLEMNITY OF ST. TERESA AND SILVER JUBILEE OF SR. ROSE (RODRIGUES)

10am at the Carmelite Monastery, 100 Adelma Road, Nedlands, a Solemn Concelebrated Mass will be offered, Bishop Don Sproxton will be the Principal Celebrant. All are most welcome to the Mass and morning tea afterwards.

Sunday October 19

BEATIFICATION FORUM - WORLD MISSION

SUNDAY

2.30pm to 4.30pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Morley, a forum celebrating the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin, parents of St Therese of Lisieux, Patron Saint of Missions. A panel presentation is followed by facilitated small group discussions on the sanctity of parenthood and forming families with a heart for the world. To register: 9422 7933.

Monday October 20 to Tuesday October 28

FR FRANCIS MERLINO (OFM CAP) NATIONAL RESPONSIBLE FOR MMP- WA VISIT

Mass/Cenacles held as follows: - 21 October, 11am to 4pm St John’s Church Rangeway, Geraldton. October 22, 11am to 4pm, Our Lady of the Sea, Dongara. Enq: 9927 1451. October 23, Priest Cenacle, Enq: 9447 3711. October 24, 10am St Joseph’s Church, Albany. October 25, 11am Pemberton. October 26, 1pm Bove’s Farm Roy Road, North Jindong. Enq: 9824 1134.

Thursday October 23

INVESTING IN OUR RELATIONSHIP – WE ARE WORTH IT

5.30pm to 7.30pm University of Notre Dame, P&O Hotel corner Mouat and High Streets. Marriage is the first union to defy management. What is the best about you, me and us? Where to from today? How? Presenters, Kevin and

Kathy Misiewicz, over 30 years experience organising events supporting couples wanting to grow closer in their relationship. All welcome. Donation, $10. Enq: chaplain@ nd.edu.au or 9433 0551.

Saturday October 25

DEVOTION TO OUR LADY OF GOOD HEALTH, VAILANKANNI

5pm at Holy Trinity Church, Embleton, followed by Vigil Mass at 6pm. Enq: Monsignor McCrann 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

Friday October 24

SETON CATHOLIC COLLEGE

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL BR FRANCIS VISUAL AND PRACTICAL ARTS EXHIBITION

Opening 7pm to 9.30pm at Seton College, Marchant Road, Samson, with presentation of Awards. Work from Years 8-12 students includes religious art, paintings, photography, ceramics, printmaking, digital media, and also large and small projects in wood. Viewing of exhibition will be on 27 and 28 October, from 8.30am to 3.45pm at the college. Enq: 9314 1816.

Friday October 24 to Sunday October 26

SPRINGTIME DANCING RETREAT

Commencing 7.30pm to 2pm at Penola, St Joseph’s Retreat, Safety Bay. Enquiries and registrations: Sr Shelley M Barlow, 9271 3873.

Saturday October 25

CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE REUNION CELEBRATION

The Corpus Christi College class of 1988 invites students in the second stream of 1984 to 1988 to the 20th Anniversary Reunion Celebration at Tradewinds Hotel, Fremantle, commencing 6pm. Enq: Justine Rosevear -Tavani 9314 1454 or Vickie Loveridge by email: alan4vickie@bigpond.com

Sunday October 26

RESPECT LIFE SUNDAY PICNIC

11.30am at South Perth Foreshore, Sir Mitchell Park, corner Coode Street and Douglas Avenue, to the right of the boat shed. Bring your family and friends to kick the footy, have a BBQ or just relax on a Sunday. BYO. All welcome.

Saturday November 1

THE SPIRITUALITY OF OUR RELATIONSHIP –JOURNEY NOT DESTINATION

4.30pm to 6.30pm University of Notre Dame, P&O Hotel, corner Mouat and High Streets. All marriages are mixed marriages. Where are we going in terms of what God offers us? What can we do about that? Presenters, Kevin and Kathy Misiewicz, over 30 years experience organising events supporting couples wanting to grow closer in their relationship. All welcome. Donation, $10. Enq: chaplain@ nd.edu.au or 9433 0551.

Saturday November 1

DAY WITH MARY

9am to 5pm at Pater Noster Church, corner Evershed and Marmion Streets, Myaree. 9am, Video on Fatima. Day of prayer and instruction based upon the Fatima message. Reconciliation, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Sunday November 2

DIVINE MERCY AFTERNOON WITH JESUS AND MARY

1.30pm at St Joachim’s Church, Shepparton Road, Victoria Park, Holy Rosary, Reconciliation and Sermon by Fr Anthony Van Dyke OP, on All Saints and Holy Souls, followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Refreshments, followed by Video/DVD on Body and Blood of Jesus, with Fr John Corapi. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Sunday November 2

FUNDRAISING CONCERT FOR THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR

2pm at Little Sisters Community Hall, Rawlins Street,

Glendalough, in the presence of Bishop Don Sproxton, come and enjoy your favourite sounds of music, afternoon tea and door prizes. Tickets are $10. All proceeds to the Little Sisters. Door sales, bookings welcome. Enq: Mary 9443 3963 or Angela 9275 2066.

Friday November 7

THE ALLIANCE, TRIUMPH AND REIGN OF THE UNITED SACRED HEART OF JESUS AND THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

5.15 pm at St Bernadette’s Church, Glendalough, confession; Mass 5.45 pm, followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, hourly rosaries, hymns and reflections etc, throughout the night. Vigil concludes with midnight Mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Enq: Father Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Saturday November 8

20-YEAR REUNION–LA SALLE COLLEGE CLASS OF ‘88

7.30pm at The Queens Hotel, Beaufort Street, Highgate; Enq: Melanie Hood (Franklin) 0413675596 or Phil Miolin 0425758262 or philipmiolin@hotmail.com by 31 October.

Sunday November 16

AUCTION FOR THE POOREST OF THE POOR IN INDIA

12noon at Our Lady of the Mission Parish Hall, 70 Camberwarra Drive, Craigie, please spring clean your cupboards and garage and donate items in good condition, gifts and gadgets etc excess to your needs and help $1 turn into 2 kilos rice in India for the Ragpickers children etc. Enq: Sheila 9309 5071 or shannons3s@ optusnet.com.au

Sunday November 23

PILGRIMAGE TO BOVE FARM SHRINE - FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

Blessed Sacrament Exposition, Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and St Faustina’s Praises of Divine Mercy. Mass, Main Celebrant Fr Alfonsas Saviokis and other priest are invited. Conclude with Divine Mercy Way of the Cross-, for those able to walk the bushland. Refreshments and barbecue provided. Enq: South PerthJohn 9457 7771, North Perth- Charles 9342 0653.

Third Sunday of the Month

OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT MEETINGS

2pm St Joseph’s Convent, York Street, South Perth, affiliated to the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia. All those interested in studying the rule of St Benedict, its relevance to lay people’s day-to-day life are welcome. Vespers and tea conclude meetings. Enq: 9457 5758

Every 2nd Wednesday of the Month

CHAPLETS OF THE DIVINE MERCY

7.30pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road Bateman; beautiful, prayerful, sung devotions. All are welcome. Enquiries to George Lopez 9310 9493(home) or 9325 2010 (work).

Every Saturday and Sunday FUNDRAISING ART EXHIBTION FOR CATHEDRAL COMPLETION

Commencing 4 October to 2 November at Our Lady of Grace Parish Centre, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. Margaret Fane, currently studying Art and Spirituality in Rome, will hold an exhibition of her paintings, after the 6pm Saturday evening Mass and Sundays after the 7.30am, 9.30am and 5.30pm Mass. Paintings are in oil and watercolour, ranging from $25 to $4000. Enq: 9448 4888.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

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

JOSEPHITE-MARY MACKILLOP CALENDARS 2009

Special Edition Centenary year of Blessed Mary MacKillop’s

death. The calendars will be available in October and if you would like to purchase a copy please ring Sr Maree 9334 0933.

Every Sunday

LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT

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

Every Sunday until November 30

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY - UNDERSTAND YOUR SEXUALITY, REALI S E YOUR DIGNITY AND DISCOVER YOURSELF

4pm at 67 Howe Street Osborne Park, commencing September 28. Free seminar. Presenters Disciples of Jesus Catholic Covenant Community and Youth Ministry leaders. Find out what it means to be man or woman. Why we are called to live a life of purity and chastity. A must for 16-25 years group. Enq: Shannon 9444 1467 or 0429 421 149.

Every 4th Sunday of the Month

HOLY HOUR PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

2-3pm at Infant Jesus Church, Wellington Road, Morley, commencing 28 September, the hour includes exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Let us implore God to rain an abundance of new life into our Church, open our hearts and those of the young people of the world to hear His Word for us now, today. Prayer works! All welcome! Enq: 9276 8500.

Every Sunday

PILGRIM MASS

2pm at Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook; with Rosary and Benediction. Reconciliation is available in Italian and English. Anointing of the sick; second Sunday during Mass. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin; last Sunday of month. Side entrance and shrine open daily between 9am and 5pm. Enq: 9447 3292.

Third Sunday of the Month

MEDITATIVE PRAYER IN THE SPIRIT OF TAIZEINTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

7pm-8pm at Sisters of St Joseph Chapel, 16 York Street, South Perth; come and join in praying together for peace throughout the world. You will be invited to light a candle as a symbol of peace. Bring your friends and a small torch. Everyone welcome. Enq: Sister Maree Riddler 0414 683 926.

Every Tuesday

NOVENA TO GOD THE FATHER

7.30pm St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park; incorporating a Bible teaching, a Perpetual Novena to God the Father and Hymns. Light refreshments will follow. Bring a Bible and a friend. Enq: Jan 9323 8089.

Every Monday

ADORATION, RECONCILIATION AND MASS

7pm at St Thomas, corner Melville and College Roads, Claremont; Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Evening Prayer and Benediction, spend 40 minutes quietly before our Lord for the health, faith and safety of yourself and your loved ones; Reconciliation 7.30pm, Mass and Night Prayer 8pm. Come to all or part of this evening of prayer.

Every 1st Tuesday of the Month

H EALING M ASS

7.30pm at St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. Incorporating hymns, spiritual reflection and Novena to God the Father. Enq: Jan 9323 8089.

Every Sunday

MUSICIANS AND SINGERS

6pm at the Redemptorist Monastery Church, Vincent Street, North Perth; the Shalomites have been providing the music and singing for over thirty years. We are look-

CLASSIFIEDS

OCTOBER

11 & 12 Parish Visitation, Willagee - Archbishop Hickey

11 Perth World Youth Day Ball - Bishop Sproxton

12 Majellan Mass, Redemptorist Church - Archbishop Hickey

14/15 Bunbury Clergy Days - Archbishop Hickey

15 Feastday Mass, Carmelite Monastery - Bishop Sproxton

Heads of Churches Meeting - Bishop Sproxton

16 Perpetual Profession, Missionaries of the Gospel, St Joachim’s Pro-CathedralArchbishop Hickey

St Luke’s Day Ecumenical Service at RPH - Fr John Ryan

17 10th Anniversary of SJG Hospice - Archbishop Hickey

Catholic Women’s League AGM, Mass and Conference - Bishop Sproxton

Evangelization Retreat for Young Adults, South Perth - Bishop Sproxton

18 Council of Churches AGM - Bishop Sproxton

18 & 19 Confirmation, St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie - Fr Brian O’Loughlin VG

19 Mass for Australian Family Association Conference, East FremantleArchbishop Hickey

Farewell Mass for Sr Nevisa, Carlisle - Archbishop Hickey

20 Handing over the Bible Ceremony, Mirrabooka - Archbishop Hickey

21 Visit Kora Centre - Archbishop Hickey

MISSION MATTERS

Reflections on this Sunday’s Gospel; Matthew 22:9 “…go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding…”

Our missionaries are out there in their ‘wedding garments’ at ‘the crossroads’ of our world, amongst the poor and marginalized, inviting everyone to ‘the wedding’. As baptised Christians we are called to do the same, but ‘the crossroads’ from which we are to issue our invitation could be similar or vastly different. How difficult is it for us to put on and wear our ‘wedding garment’ and where are these ‘crossroads’ in our own communities?

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

PANORAMAS CONT.

ing for new members particularly musicians. All interested singers and musicians are welcome. Enq: Stephen or Sheelagh 9339 0619.

Every 1st Sunday of Month

DIVINE MERCY

Commencing with the 3 o’clock Prayer at Santa Clara Parish, Bentley, followed by the Chaplet, reflection and Benediction. All friends and neighbouring parishes invited. Tea and coffee provided. Enq: Muriel 9458 2944.

Every Thursday

JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE

7.30pm, Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation, Osborne Park using The Bible Timeline; The Great Adventure can be studied towards accredited course or for interest. Resources provided. See http://www. acts2come.wa.edu.au/ or Jane 0401 692 690.

First Friday of Each Month

CFC PRAYER ASSEMBLY

7.30pm at St Joachim Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. The Couples For Christ and its Family Ministries welcome all members who now reside or are visiting Perth to join the community in its monthly general prayer assembly. Enq: Tony and Dolly Haber 9440 4540.

ALANON FAMILY GROUPS

If a loved one’s drinking is worrying you – please call Al-Anon Family Groups, for confidential information, meetings etc. Call 9325 7528, 24 hours.

BOOK DONATIONS WANTED

We urgently need donations of Altar Vessels, Catholic books, Bibles, Divine Office, Missals, Lectionaries, Sacramentaries etc. Telephone: (08) 9293 3092.

BUILDING TRADES

■ BRICK REPOINTING

Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

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

■ BRICKLAYING

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

■ PICASSO PAINTING

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

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

■ ORDER OF SERVICE BOOKLETS

For weddings, anniversaries, funerals, any occasion. Custom made personalised booklets. Quick turnaround time. Any quantity. Call Maurise, on 040 435 3831.

■ GIFTS OF LOVE

Individually made to order, candles of your choice for baptisms, weddings, and other special occasions. Custom made rosary beads or choose from our exclusive range. Hand made leather bible and missal covers, religious statues, icons and other exclusive gifts of love. “The greatest of them is love” 1 Corinthians 13:13 Please e-mail giftsoflove@amnet.net.au Call Rose 0437 400 247 after 4pm

■ CATHOLICS CORNER

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

■ RICH HARVEST  YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP

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

■ ALL SAINTS HANDCRAFTED ROSARIES AND CHAPLETS

View our current range of original Rosaries, chaplets and bracelets for all occasions. Custom orders in the beads and colour of your choice are welcome. Contact Elisa on 0421 020 462 or email allsaintscreations@iinet.net.au

■ KINLAR VESTMENTS

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

■ OTTIMO

Shop 108 TRINITY ARCADE (Terrace Level) Hay St, Perth Ph 9322 4520. Convenient city location for a good selection of Christian products/ gifts. We also have handbags, fashion accessories. Opening hours Monday-Friday 9am-6pm.

BOOK REPAIRS

■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

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

HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION

■ MANDURAH

fully furnished, air conditioned two bedroom flat. 100m to Doddis Beach ring 08 9385 9732 or 0403 194 601.

■ MANDURAH

Townhouse in Resort Complex. Fully furnished. Sleeps 6. Phone 0419 959 193 or email valma7@bigpond.com

EMPLOYMENT

■ CARETAKER/HANDYMAN

For Catholic Church, Bindoon. Free Accom provided. Suit pensioner. For details telephone 9571 1839 or 9576 0006.

SETTLEMENTS

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

HEALTH

■ DEMENTIA REMISSION

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

WANTED

■ ORGANIST

St Joseph’s, Subiaco is seeking an organist to play for Masses and other occasions. Lessons given if required. Please contact Michael Peters, Director of Music, on 041 429 4338 or michael@michaelpeters.id.au

FURNITURE REMOVAL

■ ALL AREAS

Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.

RETREATS

■ CROSS ROADS

Retreat “Dealing with Change” with

Name:

Address: Suburb: Postcode:

LIKE A DROP IN THE OCEAN  99 SAYINGS

By

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa’s sayings reveal the qualities that we treasure in every mother: playfulness, compassion, humility, calmness, evenhandedness, the ability to reprove wrongdoing with firmness and love, and to maintain a sense of humour even in the most dire circumstances.

Also available leaflet: Teresa of Calcutta $1.00

$15.95+postage

GRANDMA, I NEED YOUR PRAYERS

By Quin Sherrer & Ruthanne Garlock

Grandma, I need Your Prayers is an easy-to-use guide for prayer that will encourage you with practical help and motivate you with wonderful stories of answered prayers.

$21.95+postage

THE WONDERS OF LOURDES

Published By Pierre-Marie Dumont

“The Wonders of Lourdes is a work like no other - a beautiful, grand, engaging and wonderfully comprehensive history of the Lourdes story that calls us back to the virtue of hope. Magnificat has done the Catholic community a marvelous service with this project. It’s a treasure.”

$43.95+postage

THE PRECIOUS PEARL

The Story of Saint Rita of Cascia

By Michael Di Gregorio, OSA

With the canonization of Saint Rita in 1900, interest in and devotion to the “Precious Pearl of Umbria” spread rapidly not only in her native Italy, but throuhout many nations.

$16.95+postage

NOVENA

By Barbara Calamari & Sandra DiPasqua

With its luminous images, inspirational prayers, and message of the miraculous, Novena is a fresh approach to a well-loved tradition.

$41.95+postage

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

By Bert Ghezzi

This simple, familiar gesture is actually a powerful prayer. When we trace it on our body, we stir up the new life of the Spirit that we received in baptism. We affirm our identity as Christians, resist the lure of evil, join ourslves with Christ, and engage the power of the Holy Spirit to deal with daily problems.

$17.95+postage