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The world’s families get
Answers from the father Pages 6-8
It’s raining Grace
Year of Grace takes shape - Page 5
INSIDE
Meet the Prince of Principle
No backing down for monarch who would sooner abdicate Editorial - page 16
Saint Columba’s is dedicated to Christ, with love By Robert Hiini IT had been a long wait, but St Columba’s South Perth was finally dedicated and consecrated last Sunday, 75 years after it was blessed and opened. Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB joined Parish Priest Monsignor Brian O’Loughlin and long-serving Parish Priest Emeritus Fr Michael Casey, for the occasion. In his homily, Archbishop Costelloe said the day of the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) was an ideal time to celebrate St Columba’s solemn dedication and consecration: “We Catholics, I think, have an instinct which is deep within us that the celebration of the Eucharist is at the very heart of our faith; the
heart of our church; at the heart of our identity as Catholics,” the Archbishop said. “So it seems to me there is no better day for us to do what we are doing here in the church tonight …
In those days a church could not be dedicated unless it was paid for ... After 75 years the right time has finally come. when we remember and celebrate the Lord’s gift of himself to us in the Eucharist and his call to us to give ourselves to others.” The church had not been dedi-
cated at the time of its opening because protocol dictated that a church could not be dedicated unless it had been paid for. In a sense, the Archbishop said, the altar had already been consecrated by the many celebrations of the Eucharist that had taken place in the church over the past 75 years. “We want to ask the Lord that this altar, and this church and this community of faith will still, in the years to come, be a place of blessing and of hope,” the Archbishop said. “Tonight … there is the opportunity once again to acknowledge that while this church is yours, it is first and foremost the Lord’s church. “It is our Church because it is the Lord’s Church; because it is Him who draws us into the Church and makes us member of his body
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe with students from St Columba’s Catholic Primary School after the dedication of their church. PHOTO: ROBERT HIINI
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Jolly celebrations at John XXIII with John Paul II
Round-Up CHRIS JAQUES
Papal picnic at JXXIIIrd Primary students and staff of John XXIII College recently gathered around the iconic statue of Pope John XXIII on the front lawn of the College for the first “Pope’s Picnic Lunch”. The statue was crafted by Mr Khoat Van Nguyen in 1989 in gratitude for the excellent education his five children received at the college. The family had arrived in Perth as refugees and the John XXIII community welcomed them and many other Vietnamese families into the school. Antoinette De Pinto, Head of Primary, said, “as the College is this year celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s courageous decision to call together Vatican II, we thought the college would do something special in his name. A picnic was a great way to remember the simplicity and hospitality of John XXIII”. In keeping with his charism and commitment to those in difficulty, each child brought a non-perishable food item to donate. These were then built into a ‘food wall’ and donated to The Sisters’ Place (a refuge for women in Fremantle), St Patrick’s Care Centre and St Vincent de Paul.
Above: The food wall created at John XXIII by primary students at the first Pope’s Picnic Lunch recently. PHOTO: JOHN XXIII COLLEGE Below left: Archbishop Costelloe bestowing a blessing, accompanied by Principal Geoff Mills. Below right: Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB with Head Boy Travis D’Souza and Head Girl Genevieve Ogden, both altar servers in their home parishes of Thornlie and Armadale. PHOTOS: LUMEN CHRISTI environment. Markedly different to earlier buildings, the Centre is spacious, light and bright; an inviting space in which to gather, learn, socialise and set in motion plans for the future. Feedback about the new facilities is also helping inform plans to rejuvenate the Junior Transition Centre. Principal Geoff Mills acknowledged the contribution of those whose dedication and professionalism helped create such a wonderful result. There will be a College tour on Thursday, June 21 and bookings can be made on 9394 9300 or lumen@ lumen.wa.edu.au.
Light and bright at Lumen Inviting the Holy Spirit to guide the hearts and minds of staff and students is key to the blessing and opening of new buildings in Catholic schools and Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB undertook this at Lumen Christi College on June 1 in opening the Senior Transition Centre (STC). He also blessed wooden crosses made by staff and students
to be hung in the new facilities to symbolise God’s presence. Following the welcome by Dean of Curriculum Giovanni Cartoni, a special blessing and Dreamtime story were incorporated within the welcome to country speech given by
Marie Taylor (Nyungar Elder). Board Chairperson Rick Gherardi explained that the enhancement of existing facilities alongside the creation of a new state of the art STC has enabled the College to create a contemporary education
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Named among the Twelve Apostles in all four Gospels, Thomas figured prominently in several stories in John. He said he was ready to die with Jesus, that he didn’t know where Jesus was going and so couldn’t follow, and famously doubted a post-Resurrection appearance until he himself saw the risen Lord. For this, history has called him “doubting Thomas,” but his name remains among the most popular Christian names. Four apocryphal writings were attributed to Thomas, and in church tradition he evangelized in Syria, Persia (now Iran) and India. Indian Catholics believe he was martyred and buried there. Thomas is the patron saint of India, builders and the blind.
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Monday 18th - Green 1st Reading: 1 Kgs 21:1-16 The death of Naboth Responsorial Ps 5:2-3, 5-7 Psalm: Hear my cry! Gospel Reading: Mt 5:38-42 Eye for an eye? Tuesday 19th - Green ST ROMUALD, ABBOT (O) 1st Reading: 1 Kgs 21:17-29 Double dealing Responsorial Ps 50:3-6, 11, 16 Psalm: Have mercy on me! Gospel Reading: Mt 5:43-48 Love your enemies
Psalm: Love the Lord! Gospel Reading: Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Alms in secret Thursday 21st - White ST ALOYSIUS GONZAGA, RELIGIOUS (M) 1st Reading: Ecclus 48:1-14 In praise of Elijah Responsorial Ps 96:1-7 Psalms: The Lord is king Gospel Reading: Mt 6:7-15 Do not babble Friday 22nd - Red SS JOHN FISHER, BISHOP, AND THOMAS MORE, MARTYRS (M) 1st Reading: 2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20 People of the Lord Responsorial Ps 131:11-14, 17-18 Psalm: Reward of keeping the law Gospel Reading: Mt 6:19-23 Secure treasure Saturday 23rd - Green ST PAULINUS OF NOLA, BISHOP (O) 1st Reading: 2 Chr 24:17-25 Prophets ignored Responsorial Ps 88:4-5, 29-34 Psalm: God’s love endures Gospel Reading: Mt 6:24-34 Serve God or money?
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Sunday 17th - Green 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 1st Reading: Ezek 17:22-24 I, the Lord, have spoken Responsorial Ps 91:2-3, 13-16 Psalm: The just will flourish 2nd Reading: 2 Cor 5:6-10 At home with the Lord Gospel Reading: Mk 4:26-34 Parables for the crowds
Wednesday 20th - White 1st Reading: 2 Kgs 2:1, 6-14 Elijah and Elisha Responsorial Ps 30:20, 21, 24
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St Francis Xavier Parish in Armadale has invited its parishioners to join the Public Tours of St Mary’s Cathedral which will be conducted every Tuesday starting on July 3 from 10.30 to 11am. If you are interested in art and architecture and the religious history of St Mary’s Cathedral, you may wish to join them. A donation of $5 per person would be much appreciated. Make your donation and collect your ticket at the Church Office, 25 Victoria Avenue on the day. For group bookings please email the Cathedral on cathedral@perthcatholic.org.au.
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Pope calls for Sundays to stay free for families By Giles Tuffin THE Pope has made poignant comments about keeing Sundays free, just as legislation allowing general retail shops to trade seven days a week seems likely to be passed by the Western Australian parliament. “Sunday is the day of the Lord and of man, a day which everyone must be able to be free - free for the family and free for God”, the Pope remarked during his catechesis on June 6 in St Peter’s Square. “By defending Sunday, one defends human freedom.” The Pope’s statement comes at a time when political opposition to
Sunday trading has reached new lows in Western Australia. Whilst the Labor party was previously against Sunday trading, leader Mark McGowan changed the party’s policy upon gaining the leadership last January. This has left both major political parties supporting Sunday trading, all but assuring its passing in the near future. One of the few parliamentary voices against the legislation is Liberal Nick Goiran MLC, who noted recently in the Upper House that seven day trading was “just the beginning of the abolition of Sunday as a distinctive day of the
week.” “Indeed, once the notion of Sunday as a special weekly day of refreshment and family is abandoned, it is hard to make a con-
One of the few WA parliamentary voices against Sunday Trading is Nick Goiran MLC. sistent argument against treating all days the same,” he remarked in parliament. Goiran also observed that banks
and public services may in time be required to be open seven days a week, and that the legislation as it stood provided no safeguard for workers against being required to work on Sundays. He remarked that the legislation greatly disturbed him, as a day of rest was “one of the greatest gifts of Judaism and Christianity to our civilisation.” Goiran even mooted the idea that one day even parliament would be required to sit on Sundays. But he was emphatic in saying he would never attend such gatherings, and instead would “keep honouring Sunday by attending worship and
by spending it with my family.” Goiran repeatedly stressed his concern the legislation would have on families. “With many families now needing both parents to be working, weekends are more important than ever for family time,” he said. “Requiring those mums and dads who happen to work in the retail sector to work most Sundays is a major assault on family life.” The Pope, it seems, could not agree more. “Humanity has no future without the family,” he said. Send your parish stories to: parishes@therecord.com.au
Hamilton Hill marks His real presence By Robert Hiini HUNDREDS staved-off the wild weather to celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ at Holy Cross Parish, Hamilton Hill last Sunday, swapping streets for the interior of the church for the Portuguese-led annual Corpus Christi procession. Men and women of the Portuguese association, the Community of Santissimo Sacramento, adorned themselves with red vests and necklaces featuring a sacred image of Christ, respectively. They followed the Blessed Sacrament for two turns around the church, held aloft by Parish Priest, Fr Nicholas Nweke, as a brass band played on, easily drowning out the wild winds outside. The principal celebrant of the preceding Mass, Fr Nweke was joined by Fr Julian Carrasaco, Chaplain to Portuguese and Timorese Communities, and Fr Joe Cardoso OCD, who also gave the homily. Fr Cardoso said he wanted to address the concerns of those doubting the reality of Christ’s true presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Christ, he said, had always explained the metaphors in his parables immediately after telling them. Christ did not explain his claim that his body and blood were the true food and drink of salvation which suggested Christ meant his words to be taken literally. Fr Cardoso also reminded the congregation of the miracle at Bolsena-Orvieto, Italy, when a Host began to seep blood, immediately after being consecrated at Mass. The miracle was affirmed by Pope Urban IV and shortly after-
wards, in 1264, the same pope proclaimed a feast in the Blessed Sacrament’s honour – the Feast of Corpus Christi. Girls from throughout the parish’s multicultural community dressed up as angels for the occasion. Fr Nweke announced he was starting an association for young
Putting families FIRST
Family resources from The Record Bookshop See Page 20
people from their early to late teens, centred-around altar serving. The group would meet regularly, he said, with many likely activities in the pipeline, including dancing lessons, formation talks and the viewing of Christian-themed films. The group already has around 20 members, aging from 12-20 years old, with more welcome.
It is being spearheaded by a lay parishioner with support from the Voice of the Voiceless ministry. The ministry run a Bible Study at the parish’s hall every 2nd and 4th Thursday at 6.30pm as well as a prayer service every Friday at 7.30pm at St Brigid’s, Northbridge. Send your parish stories to: parishes@therecord.com.au
Clockwise: Christian Catanzaro 5, wearing his red vest associated with Corpus Christi, joined in the procession. Saaina Bukuru, Chance Bukuru, Sofia Bukuru, Daniella Canada and Catarina Freites assisted in the Mass and Procession. Three vesteiros (ushers) sit in prayer in front of the alter adorned with decorated linen and flowers. PHOTO: MAT DE SOUSA
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Knights at the service of advocates and friends THE global head of the Knights of Malta spent time with intellectually disabled people and their advocates when he visited Perth late last month. The Grand Master of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta, Fra Matthew Festing and a number of office holders, Australian Knights and their wives, enjoyed Mass and a meal at Personal Advocacy Service’s (PAS) centre in Morley. Fra Festing was greeted as “your majesty” at the door. He and his travelling companions were not royalty but PAS regular Adam offered the guests a warm welcome nonetheless. It was perhaps an indication, PAS staff told The Record, of how people with intellectual disabilities pick up on the sacred, sensing the importance of the visit. “PAS is a marvellous example of the sort of work the Order of Malta should be supporting and promoting,” Fra Festing said during the lunch, adding he was “full of admiration for the extremely good service being provided by PAS”. The Knights of Malta’s history in care runs long and deep, operating as a continuation of the order of St John of Jerusalem, founded around 1050AD to serve sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. Following the loss of Christianheld territories of the Holy Land, the Order operated from Rhodes from1320 to 1523 and later from Malta (1530-1798) over which it was sovereign.
Above, Lynette Brittain, Denis Cullity and Sean Roche. Right, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, Fra Matthew Festing and Personal Advocacy Service’s Jocelyn Versace and Leonie Reid. PHOTOS: PAS
Now based in Rome, the lay religious order’s contemporary work is done among the elderly, those with
“It’s a marvellous example of the sort of work the Order of Malta should be supporting and promoting.” disabilities, refugees, children, the homeless and those with a terminal illness. The origins of PAS are more
recent but no less steeped in care. PAS was established in 1989 to address the personal and spiritual needs of people with intellectual disabilities (the ‘friends of PAS’) and help them live full lives in their local communities. The organisation has groups in parishes throughout Perth, typically consisting of six people with intellectual disabilities, individually paired-up with their own volunteer advocate. The groups are usually overseen by two group leaders. Over lunch, the Order of Malta visitors heard of the difficulties parents and their adult offspring experienced in their early days of
attending church; the yearning of parents for their intellectually disabled children to be included in Sunday Mass. The visitors witnessed how people with intellectual disabilities could be fully immersed in the
Mass with a few simple adaptations to the liturgy. Fr Michael Moore was the Mass celebrant. For more information about Personal Advocacy Services, contact 9275 5388 or admin@ paswa.org.au.
Church gets its deserved dedication cont from page 1 – people of faith,” Archbishop Costelloe said. After the entrance hymn, the Archbishop moved to the baptismal font, blessing the water before walking along each of the church’s walls and down the centre aisle, blessing the building and people as he went. He recited the prayer of dedication after the Litany of the Saints, which followed the Profession of Faith: “For today we come before you; to dedicate to your lasting service this house of prayer, this temple of worship, this home in which we are nourished by your word and your sacraments,” the Archbishop said, part of a longer prayer asking God to bless the church as a site for the outpouring of grace. The Archbishop poured Oil of Chrism on the altar, removing his chasuble and rolling up his sleeves to spread the oil over it with his hands. Monsignor O’Laughlin and Fr Casey took some of the oil to anoint the church’s walls, marking four places with the Sign of the Cross. Archbishop Costelloe burnt incense on the altar before incensing it with a thurible: “Lord, may our prayer ascend as incense in your sight. As this building is filled with the fragrance so may your Church fill the world with the fragrance of Christ,” he prayed. Acolytes then wiped down the altar before two parishioners dressed it with an altar cloth, candles and flowers. Lighting of the altar followed as the altar candles and festive candles marking the places where the walls were anointed were lit and, in the latter’s case, lifted into place. Earlier in the evening, Archbishop Costelloe blessed a paten donated to the church by St Columba’s Catholic Primary School. After Mass, the community made its way to the school’s undercover area for food and drink prepared by the P&F.
Clockwise from above: Archbishop Timothy Costelloe with St Columba parish priest, Mgr O’Laughlin and former parish priest, Fr Michael Casey; the Archbishop pours Oil of Chrism on the altar for its dedication; the incensing of the altar; parishioner dress the altar with an altar cloth; and Archbishop Costelloe blessing St Columba’s walls. PHOTOS: ROBERT HIINI
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Still growing in Spirit
Teachers hit their straps in meditation on God’s grace TO introduce the Year of Grace, I ran a creative session with the RE teachers. We were using the prayer on the bookmark but before we did I asked them to all think about what grace meant to them. Then to imagine that they could use an ordinary item to explain their understanding of grace to the rest of the group. They each received a brown paper bag containing seven items: a balloon, peg, pipe cleaner, chocolate, piece of blutack colour (can be shaped or used to stick), a prayer card (message: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me) and a birthday candle. A little creative time was allowed to think up ways of using these things to explain grace. Then about a third of the group shared their ideas. Many aspects of grace revealed-
GRACE is for a lifetime, not just a one-off, if incredibly important event. That might be the most obvious inference of Holy Spirit Parish, City Beach’s actions in welcoming the Year of Grace and confirming 39 young people on Pentecost Sunday (May 27). The parish community provided each candidate with a copy of YouCat - a young person’s catechism - recommended by Pope Benedict XVI. A representative from Holy Spirit Primary School said the book was given as a resource to assist confir-
mation candidates throughout their faith lives. It also provided answers to young people’s oft-posed questions. In the forward he wrote for YouCat, Pope Benedict said young people were passionate for real answers: “Some people tell me that the youth of today are not interested in the catechism, but I do not believe this statement and I am certain that I am right ... young people want to know what life really is about,” the Pope said. “A crime novel is compelling because it involves the fate of other
One line of photo caption goes here. Please seek to avoid a flat description of pictured scene. PHOTO: ATTRIBUTION HERE
people, but it could be our own; this book is compelling because it speaks to us of our own destiny and therefore is closely related to each of us”. YouCat was the official catechism of World Youth Day Madrid 2011 and is available from The Record Bookshop.
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Ursula Frayne RE coordinator, Theresa Davis shares her Year of Grace initiative. gift, joy, wonder, mystery. Then we said the prayer together.
ARCHBISHOP GOODY AWARD The Archbishop Goody Award was originally established in 1983 by The Most Reverend Sir Launcelot Goody, KBE. The Award aims to further the lay apostolate in the Archdiocese of Perth by financing the formation, education and training of lay people to serve the Church in Perth according to their particular calling and talents. Applications for the Archbishop Goody Award are currently invited for submission by July 31, 2012. Ordinarily, awards are up to $5,000. Contact Kim at St Thomas, Claremont on 9384 0598 or email claremont@perthcatholic.org. au for an application form or any further information.
Calling all Catholic families, schools, parishes and organisations... How are YOU celebrating the
Year of Grace When visiting Rome last October Australia’s bishops announced a special Year of Grace for Australia to run from Pentecost 2012 to Pentecost 2013. All over Australia, Catholic families, parishes and organisations have begun considering how they can celebrate this special year. At The Record, we want your celebrations so that we can share them with our readers. Perhaps your idea will inspire someone somewhere else. What is your family, school, parish or Catholic organisation doing for the Year of Grace? Why did you choose this particular way of celebration? How did you go about it? Let us know! Send your contributions, including your best three pohotographs to editor@ therecord.com.au and help us to inspire everyone else! (please note: send your photos as hi-res files, 300dpi or greater)
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Putting Family Benedict XVI sends a message When over a million people from around the world, including Perth, gather in Milan with Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the family, something’s going on. The Holy Father didn’t mince his words: he emphasised the unique role of the family as the school of love and upbraided economic theories and practices that put utility and profit above the good of families and individuals.
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s tens of thousands of families from all over the world gathered from May 30-June 3 for the World Meeting of Families, Pope Benedict XVI urged them to use their Christian values and strengths to help bring peace, joy and solidarity to everyone in their lives. “It is within a family that one experiences for the first time how the human person was not created to live closed up in himself, but in relationship with others,” the Pope said as he appealed for continued help for those affected by two deadly earthquakes in northern Italy. While the world meeting centered on the joy and celebration of families living their faith, the Pope said it was impossible to not remember all those who were suffering in the world as he called for greater solidarity. The Pope arrived by plane from Rome on June 1 to jubilant crowds who lined the streets from the airport to a packed square in front of the soaring spires of Milan’s gothic cathedral. The family is the first place people become aware that the world does not revolve around just themselves, he said. It’s in the family one learns that the driving force is not egoism, but self-giving, and “it is in the family that the light of peace begins to light up in the heart” a
light that is meant to radiate out into the world. Bringing Christian values to life is urgent, he said in his earlier speech to the city of Milan. Faith in Jesus Christ must be alive and witnessed in everyday life – both personal and social, public and private, he said – so as to create a society that is stable and dedicated to the true wellbeing of people. Secular society and people of faith are called to work together for the public good, he added.
The Pope told youth that they are called to great things, urged them to study hard and told them to be selfless because egoism is the enemy of joy. About one million people from 153 countries braved dawn wakeup calls, shouldered supply-laden backpacks and prodded along sleepy kids to descend on Milan’s Bresso Park on June 3 to take part in the event’s closing Mass. In his homily, the Pope called for Church unity, emphasised marriage as between a man and a woman,
urged parents to keep the transcendent alive in a world that adores the high tech over high ideals, and urged children to respect and love their family. Because the five-day meeting’s theme was how to balance work demands, family needs and religious celebration, the Pope upbraided economic theories that advocate that the best policies, markets and work ethics are those that push the most product and reap the most profit. “The one-sided logic of sheer utility and maximum profit are not conducive to harmonious development, to the good of the family or to the building of a more just society, because it brings in its wake ferocious competition, strong inequalities, degradation of the environment, the race for consumer goods and family tensions,” he said. Such a “utilitarian mentality” takes a toll on the family and social relationships, “reducing them to a fragile convergence of individual interests and undermining the solidity of the social fabric,” he added. The Pope spent nearly three full days at a variety of events: meeting local citizens, religious, government and business leaders and Catholic young people and families from around the world. Despite the jubilant and festive
air among participants, the Pope and archdiocesan leaders peppered their speeches with reminders of the thousands of people rendered homeless or destitute by a recent series of earthquakes in northern Italy. The Archdiocese of Milan announced that a half-billion euro had been collected during the papal visit and would be given in the Pope’s name to those hardest hit. Pope Benedict also hosted a lunch for 100 poor families – about 300 people – who live in Milan, but come from a variety of countries. He urged faith communities and
secular governments at events on June 1-2 to work together for the common good by having people of faith live their values in all areas of life. The Church offers its teaching and input as a service to society, he said, as he urged governments to be just and guarantee liberty based on natural law for everyone, “beginning with the right to life of which its deliberate suppression can never be allowed.” Inside Milan’s monumental gothic cathedral on June 2, the Pope met women and men religious, priests, seminarians and bishops for a
A massive gathering underscores an ANALYSIS By Peter Rosengren
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he fact that an estimated one million people turned out for the closing Mass of the World Gathering of Families with Pope Benedict XVI on June 3 at Bresso Park in Milan barely registered, for the most part, on the radar of the world’s media. And yet the Gathering, organised every three years by the Pontifical Council for the Family, a Catholic Church peak forum for considering issues that affect the family, was a landmark event, the significance of which seemed to escape almost all of the world’s news reporting organisations. The Gathering came at a time when it has become clear there is a growing clash between the dominant orthodoxies and forces driving contemporary culture and views in developed nations around the world, on the one hand, and institutions such as the family based
on marriage between a man and a woman, openness to children and belief in the sanctity of all human life on the other. By holding the Gathering, Pope Benedict and key Church leaders were personally signalling that the traditional family is, in their eyes, of key importance to the future of humanity as the basic cell of all human society. They were also reasserting the relevance of the Church’s traditional view of the primacy of the family as the most important school for the human person within the most basic community that expresses the interrelationship of love that is the Trinity – God. Cardinal George Pell and a swag of Australian pilgrims attended the Gathering including Perth’s own Derek and Karen Boylen and their six children; Mr Boylen is the head of the Archdiocese of Perth’s Catholic Marriage and Fertility Services Agency. That the world’s media do not see the family as an important issue or
comprehend why institutions such as the Catholic Church say what they say about it, was reflected in the fact that few gave much coverage – other than as in-brief reports – to the spectacle of over a million people from around the world gathering to be with the Pope precisely because of the traditional family. Meanwhile, underscoring the increasing divide over the traditional concept of marriage and family espoused by the Church together with other Christian denominations were three interesting events in the last two weeks: • At about the same time that the World Gathering was taking place, one of Australia’s highest rating early morning current affairs television programs, Channel 7’s Sunrise, was taking the unprecedented step of formally announcing its own support for the legalisation of gay marriage in Australia. Sunrise’s participation in the gay marriage ‘I Do!’ campaign surprised many such as the Australian
Christian Lobby’s Jim Wallace, who objected on the grounds that the move represented “a clear breach of the trust placed in a current affairs and news program to be impartial.” For the presenters and producers of Sunrise, the campaign is an obvious human rights issue, revealing the completely different assumptions and principles surrounding ideas to do with marriage and the family which are now held by themselves and their colleagues in the media on the one hand and institutions such as the Church on the other. The divide between Sunrise and supporters of traditional marriage and the family also reveals, at one level, the extent of the loss of consensus in societies such as Australia on what exactly marriage is. For Sunrise’s producers and presenters, marriage can be any relationship between any number of people who feel committed to each other for a period of time and desire to be seen as married; for
the Church and figures such as Mr Wallace (not a Catholic), marriage is permanent, rooted in the complementarity of male and female, based on fidelity and a biological ability to conceive human life that is the only stable basis for any society.
The Church must promote the family in this time of “unprecedented anthropological crisis. • The second event to express the growing disquiet key Church leaders are increasingly expressing over the family was when one of its leading experts on the family, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, described the present situation as an unprecedented crisis over the meaning of marriage and the fam-
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Pope Benedict XVI, above, greets a child during an evening service with families during the World Meeting of Families in Milan on June 2. Meanwhile, a family, below, waits for the service to begin. PHOTOS: CNS, PAUL HARING
Almost lost in the crowd, Pope Benedict XVI, flanked by Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola, waves as they arrive in Milan on June 2. The Pope was in Milan for the 2012 World Meeting of Families. PHOTO: CNS, MARIA GRAZIA PICCIARELLA, POOL
prayer service in the Ambrosian rite. A religious vocation and one’s personal wellbeing are not at odds, the Pope said, but go hand-in-hand since being a good priest or sister and a happy person both find its source in drawing closer to Christ. Later that day in Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, the Pope told some 80,000 boys and girls who were or would be recently confirmed that they, too, can be saints as they let the Holy Spirit guide them to use their
talents for the good of the community. “You are called to great things,” he said, telling them to keep their aims high. He told them to study and work hard, obey their parents, help others and be selfless “because egoism is the enemy of joy.” At an evening vigil marked by testimonies from families all over the world and international music by well-known artists, the Pope shared the joys and sufferings of the world’s families. Five couples and families went
up on stage one group at a time to ask the Pope a personal question or appeal for advice (see story Page 8). The Pope lunched with seven families after the June 3 Mass. They included Allen and Janell Tuncap and their five children from the US; the Green family, including their seminarian son, Jack, from the diocese of Parramatta, Australia; and families from Baghdad, Iraq, Kinshasa, Congo, Mexico City, Spain and Milan. At the end of the lunch, the Pope
offered a few impromptu words of thanks to all present. His remarks seemed to allude to the so-called VatiLeaks scandal which has dominated recent press coverage of the Vatican and led to the arrest of the Pope’s personal assistant on charges of possessing stolen documents. “If at times it seems that the boat of Peter is really in the midst
of adverse winds, it’s true,” Pope Benedict said. “Yet we see that the Lord is present, alive, that the risen one is truly alive and has taken in hand the government of the world and the heart of men.” The World Meeting of Families, which celebrates and aims to help families live their Christian vocation, is organised by the Pontifical Council for the Family. - CNS
‘unprecedented crisis’ of the family ily. The Cardinal’s 2006 publication, Divine Likeness - towards a Trinitarian anthropology of the family, is seen as being at the cutting edge in Catholic Church terms for theological reflection on the family and marriage. Cardinal Ouellet made his comment in his keynote address to open the International Theology Symposium at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland, on June 6. He told delegates – including Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, as well as international bishops and theologians – that the Church must promote the family in this time of “unprecedented anthropological crisis ... characterised by the loss of a sense of marriage and the family.” The Cardinal also defended marriage based on the Church’s traditional teaching and urged Catholics to use the resource of the family to confront the challenges of secularised societies. At the same symposium the challenges to marriage were
also highlighted by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Cardinal Rodriguez defended the Church’s discipline on clerical celibacy to reporters and rejected the suggestion that celibacy was to blame for the shortage of priests. “It is not celibacy that is the problem. The problem is a life commitment. You see the same issue in marriage. Many people do not want to be married because they have a difficulty in committing forever,” he said. • Meanwhile, in Cardinal Ouellet’s country of origin – Canada – the Ontario legislature passed a law on June 5 which requires all Catholic schools to allow students to form gay-straight alliance clubs if requested by students. The controversial Bill 13 passed 65-36 in the Ontario provincial legislature. While Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins and Catholic leaders had opposed the law, immediately following its passage he issued a brief
statement in which he said Catholic schools should respect it. It is against the background of such events that the importance of the Milan gathering begins to take clearer shape; the Gathering is not just a big get-together to feel good about Catholic families but is also a practical step on the part of Benedict XVI and other Church leaders to launch a renewed understanding of the importance of the family and marriage among Catholics everywhere. One of the most touching scenes came when families and one engaged couple from countries all over the world were able to address their questions and concerns directly to the Holy Father. Although he knew the questions in advance, the man once stereotyped by the world’s media as a ‘panzer kardinal’ displayed a warm, human familiarity with the problems and challenges of marriage and family life (see report Page 8). Over several decades, Joseph
Ratzinger, then serving as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church’s top doctrinal watchdog, has also repeatedly commented on the increasing marginalisation of marriage and the family by forces such as rampant capitalism and what he famously termed in 2005 as the ‘dictatorship of moral relativism.’ His strongest comments have often come in book-length interviews such as the 2000 publication God and the World, co-authored with German journalist Peter Seewald. It was in God and the World that the future Benedict XVI noted in relationship to practices such as the widespread adoption of artificial contraception and abortion that a world that no longer wants to have children is a world that is growing darker by the day. Nor can the consequences of such societal choices be avoided for long, he noted. It is clear that in Milan Pope
Benedict, key Church leaders and one million faithful from all over the world see the Church’s understanding of the human person, marriage and the family as a clear alternative to the moral vacuum of contemporary affluent societies. Pope Benedict also understands the clash between the family and the rights of children, on one side, and societies increasingly buffeted by fashionable but transient opinions and superficiality is becoming more serious - for families and societies - by the day. Like the immensely popular World Youth Days, the World Gathering of Families held under the aegis of the Pontifical Council for the Family is one way of showing that the Church not only understands families and their problems, but is determined to demonstrate why marriage and the family are vital for the future of individuals and societies everywhere.
- WITH CNS REPORTS
8
WORLD
therecord.com.au
June 13, 2012
Pope takes families’ questions Several families had the opportunity to personally question the Holy Father at Milan’s Bresso Park on the evening of June 2 during the World Gathering of Families. Their questions and his answers make fascinating reading ...
ferent model of marriage prevailed from what we have today: marriage was often in reality a contract between clans, intended to preserve the clan, to make preparations for the future, to defend property, etc. Marriage partners were sought out by the clan, in the hope that they would be suited to one another. To
purified, it has to undergo a process of discernment, that is, reason and will have to come into it. Reason, sentiment and will have to come together. In the Rite of Marriage, the Church does not say: “Are you in love?” but “Do you wish?” “Have you decided?” In other words, falling in love has to become true love
little is left over for the partners: so much so that with every day that passes, we have less with which to support our families. Our situation is just one among many millions of similar situations. In town, people go around with their heads down. No one trusts anyone else any more, hope has vanished.
Cat Tien (a girl from Vietnam)
H
ELLO, PAPA. I am Cat Tien and I come from Vietnam. I am seven years old and I wish to present my family to you. This is my Dad, Dan, and my mother is called Tao, and this is my little brother, Binh. I would very much like to know something about your own family and when you were very young like me. HOLY FATHER: Thank you, my dear, and warm thanks also to your parents. You have asked me about my family memories. They are so many, and I can only speak of a few. The most important moment for our family was always Sunday, but Sunday really began on Saturday afternoon. My father would read out the Sunday readings from a book that was very popular in Germany at that time, which also included explanations of the texts. That is how we began our Sunday, entering into the Liturgy in an atmosphere of joy. The next day we would go to Mass. My home is very close to Salzburg and so we had plenty of music – Mozart, Schubert, Haydn – and when the Kyrie began it was as if Heaven was opening up. Then once we were back home, naturally our Sunday meal together was important. We sang a lot together. My brother is a fine musician; he was already composing pieces for all of us as a boy, and the whole family would sing them. My father would play the zither and sing. These were unforgettable moments. Naturally, we would go on journeys and walks together. We lived near a forest and it was so enjoyable to walk and have adventures and play there. In a word, we were one in heart and soul, enjoying so many experiences together, even though times were hard, as this was during the war: first, we had the dictatorship and then poverty. But the mutual love that we shared, our joy, even in simple things, was so strong that it enabled us to endure and overcome these things. I think it is very important to understand that even little things were a source of joy because they were an expression of warm-heartedness. And so we grew up convinced that it was good to be human, because we saw God’s goodness reflected in our parents and our brothers and sisters. And indeed when I try to imagine what Heaven will be like, I think it must be like the time when I was a small boy. In this environment of trust, joy and love, we were happy, and I think that Heaven must be rather like those early years. So in a way, I am hoping to return “home” when I leave for “the other part of the world”. Serge Razafinbony and Fara Andrianombonana (Engaged couple from Madagascar) SERGE: Your Holiness, we are Fara and Serge and we come from Madagascar. We met in Florence as students – I was studying engineering; Fara, economics. We have been engaged for four years and as soon as we graduate, our dream is
Pope Benedict XVI leads an encounter outside Milan’s cathedral during the World Meeting of Families in Milan on June 1, above, and family members walk together as people gather for an evening service with the Pope the following day. PHOTOS: PAUL HARING, CNS
to return to our country to help our people, not least through our professional activity. FARA: The family models that prevail in the West leave us unconvinced, but we realise that in Africa too there are many traditional elements that need somehow to be set aside. We feel that we were made for one another. That is why we want to marry and build our future together. We also want every aspect of our lives to be shaped by Gospel values. But speaking of marriage, Your Holiness, there is a phrase that attracts us more than anything else, and yet it also frightens us: “forever”. HOLY FATHER: Dear friends, thank you for this testimony. My prayers go with you in this journey of engagement, and I hope that you will be able to build a family “forever”, upon Gospel values. You mentioned different types of marriage: we know the African mariage coutumier and we know Western marriage. Even in Europe, to tell the truth, until the 19th century, a dif-
some extent it was like that in our countries too. I remember that in a small town where I went to school, it was still very much like that. But then, from the 19th century onwards, there came the emancipation of the individual, personal freedom, and marriage was no longer based on the will of others, but on one’s own choice: first a couple would fall in love, then they would become engaged, and marriage would follow. At that time, everyone was convinced that this was the only just model, and that love by itself would guarantee the “forever”, because love is absolute, it wants everything, and thus it demands permanence: it is “forever”. Unfortunately, reality was not like that: we see that falling in love is a wonderful thing, but perhaps it does not always last forever: it is a feeling which does not remain indefinitely. So it is clear that the progression from falling in love to engagement and then to marriage requires a number of decisions, interior experiences. As I said, this loving sentiment is a wonderful thing, but it has to be
by involving the will and the reason in a deeper journey of purification which is the journey of engagement, such that the whole person, with all his or her faculties, with the discernment of reason and strength of will, says: “Yes, this is my life”. I often think of the wedding feast of Cana. The first wine is very fine: this is falling in love. But it does not last until the end: a second wine has to come later, it has to ferment and grow, to mature. The definitive love that can truly become this “second wine” is more wonderful still, it is better than the first wine. And this is what we must seek. Here it is important that the “I” and the “you” are not alone, but that the parish community is also involved, the Church, the circle of friends. All this – the right degree of personal maturity, communion of life with others, with families who support one another – is very important, and only in this way, through this involvement of the community, friends, the Church, the faith, God himself, can a wine emerge that will last forever. I wish you well! Nikos and Pania Paleologos (Greece) NIKOS: Kalispera! We are the Paleologos family from Athens. My name is Nikos and this is my wife, Pania. And these are our two children, Pavlos and Lydia. Years ago, together with two other partners, we invested everything we had in setting up a small IT company. When the present severe economic crisis broke, our client base was drastically reduced, and the remaining customers take longer and longer to pay their bills. We can barely manage to pay the salaries of our two employees, and very
PANIA: We, too, even though we continue to believe in Providence, find it hard to imagine a future for our children. There are days and nights, Holy Father, when we find ourselves asking what to do in order not to lose hope. What can the Church say to all these people, to these individu-
Political parties need to stop promising what they can’t deliver, not just seeking votes, to take responsibility. als and families who no longer have anything to look forward to? HOLY FATHER: My dear friends, thank you for this testimony which touches my heart and the hearts of us all. What can we respond? Words are not enough. We ought to do something concrete, and we all suffer on account of our inability to do anything concrete. Let us speak first about politics: it seems to me that all the parties need to develop a stronger sense of responsibility, not to make promises they cannot keep, nor just to seek votes for themselves, but to take responsibility for the good of everyone, and to understand that politics always has to include human and moral responsibility before God and before the world. Then, of course, individuals suffer and have to accept the situation in which they find themselves, often without any possibility of avoiding it. Nevertheless, we can also say this: let everyone strive to do whatever they can, thinking of themselves,
MILESTONES
therecord.com.au June 13, 2012
9
Legendary Rockingham priest dies Obituary
Henry Finbarr Walsh, Priest Born: March 5, 1929 Entered eternal life: May 31, 2012 By Glynnis Grainger MUCH-LOVED former parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Rockingham for 31 years, Fr Finbarr Walsh passed away peacefully at Fremantle Hospital on May 31, aged 83. His Pontifical Requiem Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Thursday, June 7, was attended by more than 600 people and over 60 priests and was concelebrated by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, Emeritus Archbishop Barry Hickey, Bishop Donald Sproxton, Parish Priest Fr Michael Separovich, Fr Michael Casey, and two of his former assistant priests, Fr Benny Calanza and Fr Vittorio Ricciardi. Choristers from the choir at St Mary’s Cathedral provided the music, as Fr Separovich told The Record, “Fr Walsh loved music, but couldn’t sing a note.”
Fr Walsh’s pontifical Requiem Mass was attended by over 60 priests and 600 people of the Archdiocese. Religious orders, such as the Sisters of St John of God, the Josephites and the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, and others, were represented. Henry Finbarr Walsh (known as Finbarr) was born in Cork City, Co Cork, Ireland, on March 5, 1929, the son of Sheila and Henry, and brother of Malachy, Aidan (dec),
their family, other people, with a great sense of responsibility, knowing that sacrifices are necessary in order to move forward. And, thirdly, what can we do ourselves? This is my question, at this moment. I think that perhaps twinning arrangements between cities, families, and parishes could help. In Europe, we now have a whole system of twinning, but it takes place at the level of cultural exchanges which are certainly good and useful in themselves. Yet perhaps there is a need for twinning in another sense: that a family from the West – from Italy, Germany, France ... should take on the responsibility of helping another family. So too between parishes, and between cities: that they might genuinely assume responsibility and offer concrete assistance. And be sure of this: I and many others are praying for you, and this praying is not just a matter of words, it opens the heart to God and thus it also leads to creativity in finding solutions. Let us hope that the Lord will help us, that the Lord will always help us! Thank you. Jay and Anna Rerrie (United States) JAY: We live near New York. My name is Jay, I am of Jamaican origin and I work as an accountant. This is my wife, Anna, who is a supply teacher. And these are our six children, aged from 2 to 12. From this, you can well imagine, Holy Father, that our life is made up of constant racing against time, anxieties, highly complex situations. In our country, too, in the United States, one of the absolute priorities is to hold onto our jobs, and if we
Fr Finbarr Walsh, who was parish priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Rockingham, left, was a legendary figure in the Archdiocese of Perth. He is shown in this 2009 photo after being awarded the papal medal Pro Pontifice et Ecclesiae (for service to the Pope and the Church). Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB of Perth, above, censes Fr Finbarr’s coffin at the much-loved priest’s funeral on June 7 in the church Fr Finbarr built. PHOTOS: ROBERT HIINI
John and Pat. He was educated at the Christian Brothers’ College, Cork and All Hallows College, Dublin. Fr Walsh was ordained on June 21, 1953, at All Hallows for the Archdiocese of Perth, arriving here on November 19, that same year. He was appointed assistant priest at West Perth on the same day and on February 26, 1954, was appointed assistant priest at Cottesloe. Then on March 3, 1957, Fr Walsh was appointed assistant priest at St Mary’s Cathedral and was
appointed Secretary of the Church Office in April 1964. Fr Walsh became Administrator of St Mary’s Cathedral on July 31, 1969, and also appointed a member of the Council of Priests. On Christmas Day 1972 he became Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral and, in 1973, was the WA Coordinator for the International Eucharistic Congress held in Melbourne. On May 16, 1976, Fr Walsh was transferred to be the parish priest of the rapidly growing Rockingham Parish, where he built the new Our
are to do so it’s no use keeping to the timetable, and often this comes at the cost of our family relationships.
together as a family, to accept and overcome the dark moments, the trials of which we spoke earlier, and to think of the great good that the family is, and hence, in the determination to do something good every day, to find a way of reconciling the two priorities. And finally, there is Sunday, the day of celebration: I hope that Sunday is observed in America. Sunday, the Lord’s Day, seems to me to be of great importance, and as such it is also “our day” because we are free. In the creation account, this was the Creator’s original intention: that on one day we should all be free. In this free-
ANNA: It certainly isn’t easy ... Our impression, Holy Father, is that institutions and businesses don’t make it easy to reconcile work schedules with the demands of family life. Your Holiness, we imagine that for you, too, it isn’t easy to reconcile the enormous number of commitments you have with the need for rest. Do you have any advice to help us rediscover this essential harmony? In the maelstrom of so many stimuli coming at us from modern society, how can we help families to live and celebrate according to God’s heart? HOLY FATHER: It is a big question, and I think I understand this dilemma of reconciling the two priorities: the priority of the workplace is fundamental, and so is the priority of the family. How are we to reconcile them? I can only seek to offer a few suggestions. Firstly, there are businesses that allow something extra for families – birthdays, etc – and they realise that to grant a little freedom ultimately brings benefits for the business too, because it strengthens people’s love for their work, for their workplace. So I would like to invite employers to think of the family, to think of helping to reconcile these two priorities. Secondly, it seems to me that a certain creativity has to be achieved, and this is not always easy. But at least, every day, try to offer some element of joy to the family, some attention, some sacrifice of one’s own will in order to be
I see a great task for parishes: helping remarried couples to feel accepted in parish life, not excluded. dom for one another, for ourselves, we are free for God. And this is how I think we defend human freedom, by defending Sunday and feast days as the Lord’s days and thus as our days. I wish you well! Thank you! Manoel Angelo and Maria Marta Araujo (Porto Alegre, Brazil) MARIA MARTA: Holy Father, in our country, just as in the rest of the world, marriage breakdowns are continually increasing. My name is Maria Marta and this is Manoel Angelo. We have been married for 34 years and we are now grandparents. As a doctor and a family psychotherapist, we meet a great many families and we
Lady of Lourdes Church together with a spacious presbytery and parish centre, Star of the Sea parish school and Kolbe College regional high school. Continuing his support for Catholic education, he was appointed the Council of Priests’ representative on the Catholic Education Commission of WA in March 1989. Fr Walsh retired from active parish ministry in May 2007 and moved to a unit in Shoalwater purchased for him by the Archdiocese, then to Castledare Retirement Village, Wilson. In 2009, he was honoured with the Papal Award Croce pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in recognition of his apostolic work in the local Church throughout more than 50 years
of priesthood. He was almost 59 years a priest. Student representatives were present at the funeral with symbols of the schools that he established in Rockingham. Fr Walsh’s brother John and his wife Claire came from Ireland to attend the funeral and Mr Walsh thanked the Archbishop and spoke on behalf of his brother’s niece Felicity and the family. Archbishop Costelloe concluded his homily by saying: “As you pray for him today, and entrust him to the Lord, may you also commit yourselves to keeping his memory alive by trying to be all that he hoped and prayed you would be.” Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him and may he rest in peace. Amen.
notice that couples in difficulties are finding it harder and harder to forgive and to accept forgiveness. We often encounter the desire and the will to establish a new partnership, something lasting, for the benefit of the children born from this second union.
their journey. As regards these people - as you have said - the Church loves them, but it is important they should see and feel this love. I see here a great task for a parish, a Catholic community, to do whatever is possible to help them to feel loved and accepted, to feel that they are not “excluded” even though they cannot receive absolution or the Eucharist; they should see that, in this state too, they are fully a part of the Church. Perhaps, even if it is not possible to receive absolution in Confession, they can nevertheless have ongoing contact with a priest, with a spiritual guide. This is very important, so that they see that they are accompanied and guided. Then it is also very important that they truly realise they are participating in the Eucharist if they enter into a real communion with the Body of Christ. Even without “corporal” reception of the sacrament, they can be spiritually united to Christ in his Body. Bringing them to understand this is important: so that they find a way to live the life of faith based upon the Word of God and the communion of the Church, and that they come to see their suffering as a gift to the Church, because it helps others by defending the stability of love and marriage. They need to realise that this suffering is not just a physical or psychological pain, but something that is experienced within the Church community for the sake of the great values of our faith. I am convinced that their suffering, if truly accepted from within, is a gift to the Church. They need to know this, to realise that this is their way of serving the Church, that they are in the heart of the Church. Thank you for your commitment. - VATICAN WEBSITE
MANOEL ANGELO: Some of these remarried couples would like to be reconciled with the Church, but when they see that they are refused the sacraments they are greatly discouraged. They feel excluded, marked by a judgement against which no appeal is possible. These sufferings cause deep hurt to those involved. Their wounds also afflict the world and they become our wounds, the wounds of the whole human race. Holy Father, we know that the Church cares deeply about these situations and these people. What can we say to them and what signs of hope can we offer them? HOLY FATHER: Dear friends, thank you for your very important work as family psychotherapists. Thank you for all that you do to help these suffering people. Indeed the problem of divorced and remarried persons is one of the great sufferings of today’s Church. And we do not have simple solutions. Their suffering is great and yet we can only help parishes and individuals to assist these people to bear the pain of divorce. I would say, obviously, that prevention is very important, so that those who fall in love are helped from the very beginning to make a deep and mature commitment. Then accompaniment during married life is needed, so that families are never left on their own but are truly accompanied on
10
VISTA
therecord.com.au
June 13, 2012
Perpetual Adoration for peace
Despite the daily challenges of time zones, languages, cultural adaptations and Church politics, Fr Pat Barry wouldn't live any other way, he tells The Record's Mark Reidy.
Y
ou only need to look at Father Pat Barry's passport to know that he takes Jesus' words, “Go forth and make disciples of all nations ...”, very seriously. He has endured many hardships over the past 16 years as he has taken the Blessed Eucharist to all corners of the earth, but he is determined to continue until every parish in the world has a chapel of Perpetual Adoration. From believing he would be beaten and abandoned in treacherous mountain terrain on the Kazakhstan–Kyrgyzstan border to hiding in the back seat of a car entering into prohibited zones in Burma to being robbed at machete point in Guatemala, Fr Pat is prepared to lay his life on the line to introduce the 24-hour availability of the Eucharist to churches across the globe. His passion to open chapels of Perpetual Adoration began during his priestly studies in the Philippines in the early 1990s, after meeting US priest Fr Martin Lucia who had founded the Mission of Perpetual Adoration in 1980. Since then, Fr Pat, 45, has travelled through over 50 countries and can't even remember how many passports he has filled. He is currently in Perth as a member of the Apostles of Perpetual Adoration, in an attempt to plant his feet in the same time zone, in a familiar culture, with recognisable foods, before launching himself with renewed vigour into his global mission. “There is no more important aspect of the Catholic Church than the Eucharist” Fr Pat stated in an interview with The Record, “and my goal is to bring Jesus to as many people as possible in my lifetime.” After many years of responding to invitations from individuals around the world to open chapels in their parishes, Fr Pat has since taken a more strategic approach, dividing the world into 40 regions. Within 15 years he hopes to have a missionary, usually a lay person, within each region who has been
trained in assisting parishes in opening 24 hour chapels while simultaneously training others to further the cause. “A number of years ago I met a wonderful Guatemalan lady, Denise Eichenberger, who was inspired to join our mission” he said. “I explained to her the process I use to introduce Perpetual Adoration to a parish, but since then the Holy Spirit took over and in her first five years 80 chapels have been opened throughout Central America.” Fr Pat believes that since Fr Martin's mission began in 1980 there have been over 3,000 chapels opened around the world. According to his calculations, if there are at least two committed
"The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth.” - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
adorers at each chapel during each of the 168 hours of the week, this equates to over a million hours of adoration each week. “The grace of one single holy hour touches the lives of every one in the world,” Fr Pat shares with great enthusiasm, “and the flow of that grace is perpetual.” The Melbourne-born priest compares it to the life-giving water that flowed from the altar in the Book of Ezekiel – an ever widening stream that he hopes will become a spiritual flood comparable to the one that covered the earth in the story of Noah. Not surprisingly, Fr Pat exudes a contagious sense of peace and joy, although this stands in stark con-
trast to his radical lifestyle and the perilous adventures he has lived (a life-threatening stint in Kazakstahn in 2002 being perhaps his journeys' nadir). In spite of these, he believes no matter how precarious circumstances may become, God will provide the protection he requires to continue his mission. But he also shares tales of hope and encouragement. He recalls the time when he worked with a
priest in Rome to establish the first Adoration Chapel in Italy in 2001. A day before the chapel was to open, the priest was to give an address to the annual general audience of all clergy in Rome, attended by an ailing Pope John Paul II, and had snuck Fr Pat in to attend. The priest decided he would use his short window of opportunity to spontaneously announce the opening of the Perpetual Adoration chapel the fol-
lowing day. Grinning widely, Fr Pat recalls the Pontiff 's reaction to the announcement. “It was an amazing spectacle,” he recalls. “I had been watching the Pope throughout the long gathering as his head drooped and he slumped in his chair. But when the priest mentioned the new Chapel the Pope suddenly sprung to life. He raised himself in his chair, threw his arms into the air and let out a
VISTA
therecord.com.au June 13, 2012
Celebration and adoration not in competition: Pope ROME - A misunderstanding of the Second Vatican Council has led some Catholics to think that Eucharistic Adoration and Corpus Christi processions are pietistic practices that pale in importance to the celebration of Mass, Pope Benedict XVI has said. "A unilateral interpretation of the Second Vatican Council has penalised this dimension" of Catholic faith, which is to recognise Jesus truly present in the Eucharist and worthy of adoration, the Pope said on June 7 during a Mass marking the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. In his homily, the Pope told the thousands of people gathered on the basilica lawn that it is important to recognise the centrality of the celebration of Mass, the moment in which the Lord gathers his people, nourishes them and unites them to himself in offering his sacrifice. But if Christ is seen as present in the Eucharist only during
Mass, "this imbalance has repercussions on the spiritual life of the faithful", who need to be aware of "the constant presence of Jesus among us and with us", the Pope said. "The sacrament of the charity of Christ must permeate all one's daily life," he said.
"... we should make it our joy and happiness to come and spend a few moments to adore Him ... ." - St John Vianney Celebration and adoration are not in competition, the Pope said. "Worshipping the Blessed Sacrament constitutes something like the spiritual environment in which the community can
celebrate the Eucharist well and in truth." Pope Benedict said Mass is most meaningful when the faithful recognise that in the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord is present, "awaits us, invites us to his table and then, after the assembly disperses, remains with us with his discrete and silent presence." Spending time in prolonged silence before the Eucharist "is one of the most authentic experiences of our being Church", and it finds its complement at Mass when Catholics "celebrate the Eucharist, listening to the word of God, singing, approaching together the table of the bread of life." Tr u l y e nt e r i n g i nt o communion with someone, he said, is accompanied by "exchanging glances and intense, eloquent silences full of respect and veneration." "If this dimension is missing, even sacramental communion can become a superficial gesture on our part," the Pope said. CNS
Fr Pat has been on the road for some time as can be seen in a younger version of himself with a nun in Zimbabwe, above. Right, the Eucharist has become the focus of Fr Pat's ministry in his endeavour to introduce 24-hour availability of the Eucharist to churches across the globe. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
resounding whooping cry that sent a shock wave through the crowd. The first image that came to my mind was of an animated cowboy with a lasso. “It was a memorable moment that indicated the true heart of the man, but just as remarkable was an incident that occurred directly after this gathering when I went to the Rome chapel to prepare for the opening. On the tabernacle lay a cigarette lighter that someone had left. I picked it up and was amazed by the depiction that was there – a cowboy with a lasso. I took it as confirmation that we were on the right path.” It is a path that has taken Fr Pat to destinations that would be the envy of any National Geographic photographer, including South Africa, Thailand, Guatemala, Dominican Republic,
Vietnam, Kenya, Botswana, Latvia, Mozambique, Israel, Zimbabwe, China, Nicaragua and Indonesia.
"The best, the surest and the most effective way of establishing everlasting peace on the face of the earth is through the great power of Perpetual Adoration." - Pope John Paul II However, he concedes that despite the physical beauty of the landscape and the wonderful people
he has encountered, there are also moments of hardships that he has had to contend with. He shakes his head as he recalls incidences such as trying to salvage his passport from corrupt border guards, and slipping into the shadows in a country that continues to persecute the Church, before government officials could arrest him. He also vividly recalls finding fried rat served on his plate. It is through moments such as these that he learns to adapt to life without peers or a support network, he says. Despite the challenges of time zones, languages, cultural adaptation and Church politics, Fr Pat says he couldn't live any other way. “From the outside it may look as though I live a lonely existence”, he says with a grin, “but with Jesus as my constant travelling companion, I know that I am never alone.”
11
A History of
Perpetual Adoration
“T
he Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the Sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of Adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside it ... exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful ...” (Catholic Catechism – 1378). The Church has acknowledged the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist from the time Jesus took bread in his hands at the Last Supper and announced to the Apostles, “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22:19). - In the year 150, St Justin, writing in his Apology, states that deacons were appointed to carry the Blessed Sacrament to those who were absent from the liturgy. - In the 3rd century, hermits, particularly in Palestine and Egypt, often lived with the Eucharist in their cells or caves. - In 325, the Council of Nicea indicated that it was an established practice to keep the Eucharist in the churches of monasteries and convents – reserved for the sick or dying. - In 329, it was recorded that St Basil divided the Eucharistic Bread into three parts: one he consumed, one he gave to monks and the third he placed in a golden dove suspended above the altar. - By the 9th century the Blessed Sacrament was kept in most monastic churches, close to the altar. - By the 11th century most churches preserved the Eucharist in a tabernacle. - At the end of the 11th century Berengarius, archdeacon of Angers in France, began to publicly deny the Real Presence of Christ in the specie of bread and wine. - He was chastised by Pope Gregory VII and ordered to recant. This lead to a renewed vigour toward the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic Processions became popular as did visiting Christ in the tabernacle. - After his victory over the Albigenses, King Louis VII of France asked the Bishop of Avignon to have the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the Chapel of the Holy Cross (September 14, 1226). The throng of adorers was so great the bishop decided to have the adoration continue day and night. - This was later ratified by the Holy See and continued uninterrupted until 1792 during the French Revolution. It was resumed in 1829. - In 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ) that emphasised the Bodily Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. - During the Protestant Reformation, church lootings were common, as were desecrations of the Blessed Sacrament. Faithful Catholics made reparation to God by keeping a loving vigil before him, around the clock. Perpetual Adoration became a symbol of constancy in a volatile age. - The Council of Trent (1545–1563) declared: "The only-begotten Son of God is to be adored in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist with the worship of latria, including external worship ...The Sacrament is to be pub-
licly exposed for the people's adoration." - In 1592, Pope Clement VIII issued a document, Forty Hours, promoting continual prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for 40 consecutive hours. He wrote, “At every hour of the day and night, the incense of prayer shall ascend without intermission before the face of the Lord.” - More detailed instructions for the 40 hour devotion were provided by Pope Clement XIII in 1731. It was a practice that was gradually spreading throughout Catholic churches, as was participation of Perpetual Adoration. - Many associations, both consecrated and lay, adopted the practice of Perpetual Adoration over the next two centuries, beginning in Europe and later spreading to other countries around the world. - One of the great promoters of Perpetual Adoration for laity was St Peter Julian Eymard who established the Blessed Sacrament Fathers in Paris in 1856. - Pope Benedict XV issued the first Code of Canon Law in 1917 which legislated the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in "every parish” and encouraged the private and public exposition of the Holy Eucharist.
The throng of adorers was so great the bishop decided to have adoration continue day and night. - Pope Pius XII (1939–58) continued to promote Perpetual Adoration through documents such as Mystical Body of Christ (1943) and Mediator Dei (1947) - Pope John XXIII (1958–63) often urged the faithful, especially priests, to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. - Pope Paul VI (1963–78) continued this promotion ... however, the practice of Perpetual Adoration and Benediction began to decrease after the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). During the Council, Pope Paul VI produced documents such as Mysterium Fidei (1947) his Encyclical on the Holy Eucharist … vigorously defending the Real Presence in the Eucharist and encouraging the faithful to spend time before the Eucharist, - Pope John Paul II (1978– 2005) actively promoted Perpetual Adoration and became known as the Pope of the Real Presence. In an address in Ireland in 1979, he said, "The Eucharist, in the Mass and outside the Mass, is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and is therefore deserving of the worship given to the living God, and to Him alone". - In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, an Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church's Life and Mission, wrote, “I heartily recommend to the Church's pastors and the People of God the practice of Eucharistic Adoration, both individually and in community ... to set aside specific churches or oratories for Perpetual Adoration.”
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therecord.com.au
June 13, 2012
church vs STATE in the time of
War The 1920s still impacts on current day Mexico, as can be seen in the recently released film For Greater Glory, the background to which is outlined by David Agren of Catholic News Service.
E
VEN as modern-day Church-state relations improve, the impact of Mexico’s three-year Cristero Rebellion in the 1920s on the Catholic Church remains widely debated in Mexican society. The rebellion saw Catholic clergy and laity taking up arms to oppose government efforts to harshly restrict the influence of the Church and defend religious freedom. In the end, the rebellion of the Cristero - soldiers for Christ - was quelled in 1929, leaving the Church sidelined for much of the last century and its role limited to pastoral concerns with no say in the public policy arena. Ask Mexicans about the rebellion and the answers about what it means today depends on a person’s point of view. Catholics leaders consider the government’s actions to limit Church influence that led to the rebellion an attack on religious freedom. Self-described liberals and many in the Mexican political and intellectual classes consider the suppression of the revolt a triumph of the secular state. Some academics and authors are less passionate, describing the uprising as an agrarian conflict with political and religious overtones. Now the conflict comes to the big screen at a time with improved Church-state interaction, even if the interpretations of one of Mexico’s defining events remain controversial. “What price would you pay for freedom?” posed the synopsis for the movie, For Greater Glory, which stars Andy Garcia and Eva Longoria and opened in the United States on June 1. The synopsis continued, “An impassioned group of men and women make the decision to risk it all for family, faith and the very future of their country.” General Enrique Gorostieta Velarde, the protagonist played by Garcia and leader of the Cristero forces, is a “retired military man who at first thinks he has nothing personal at stake ... Yet the man who hesitates in joining the cause will soon become the resistance’s most inspiring and self-sacrificing
leader, as he begins to see the cost of religious persecution on his countrymen.” Like various histories of the rebellion, Gorostieta’s actions remain open to interpretation. Some question his motives for leading the rebel cause despite being a nonbeliever; others wonder if he really did have a conversion late in life. Victor Ramos Cortes, a professor at the University of Guadalajara, said any reading of history must consider the factors of religious intolerance, agrarian land issues in a country with numerous landless farmers and the threat posed by the Church hierarchy to the liberal elites of the time. Such nuanced readings of the era are rare. “In our country, each history is
the mexican constitution placed priests in the same class with criminals and the insane presented as if it were the only true version and the other is erroneous,” Ramos said. The Cristero legacy remains somewhat divisive, with the conflict and the beatification and canonisation of Cristero martyrs at the centre of the Church’s agenda. The Archdiocese of Guadalajara is building a large sanctuary on a prominent hilltop to memorialise Mexico’s martyrs, and Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass during his visit in March for 640,000 people at the foot of the Cerro del Cubilete, site of a giant Christ statue built to remember those fighting the rebellion. Father Manuel Corral, Mexican bishops’ conference spokesman, has seen the film and speaks well of its message of “showing young people that there’s something worth fighting for.” He also considers its release a sign of how much Mexico has changed in terms of religious toler-
ance and the more prominent role the Church is taking in public life. “Twenty-five years ago, it would have been impossible to release a movie like this,” he said. How far Mexico has come is evident in the film’s subject matter, too. “It was a violent era and there were a lot of ambitious generals. Gen Gorostieta was one of them,” said Richard Grabman, author of Gorostieta and the Cristiada, Mexico’s Catholic Insurgency 19261929. “The Cristeros attracted a lot of people who were not necessarily religious, but looking for a military solution to social problems,” he said. Mexico had emerged from a violent revolution during the 1910s, which was fought mainly to end the enduring rule of then-President Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz and give properties to the landless peasants being exploited by hacienda owners. The revolutionary elite emerging from the conflict were anti-clerical and had approved a 1917 constitution forbidding the Church to own property and operate schools, limiting worship to authorised churches and stripping priests of civil political rights. Iniquis Afflictisque (On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico), a 1926 encyclical by Pope Pius XI, said the constitution “placed (priests) in the same class with criminals and the insane.” Grabman said that, especially in rural areas, priests competed for influence with teachers whose orders were to spread a secular ethos. Teachers were viewed by the central government as a counterweight to clergy and as such, he explained, were killed in large numbers by Cristero fighters. Many of the Cristeros were small landowners, unlike those taking up arms in the revolution. Haciendas were less common in the main areas of the conflict, which covered an area of west-central Mexican known as the Bajio. “Cristero were small landowners threatened by social change,” Grabman said. “They feared (agrarian reform) would be collective agriculture.”
Jesuit priest and martyr Blessed Miguel Pro Juarez is pictured just before his execution in 1927. He did not support the armed insurrection but was nonetheless arrested and executed without trial. PHOTO: CNS
The relationship between the Bajio landowners and their workers was different from the exploitation on haciendas suffered by peons taking up arms in the revolution. “They saw their farm workers as family, instead of peons,” Grabman said. Gorostieta, the retired general, had experience with attempting to suppress peasant uprisings in Morelos state, fighting the forces of revolutionary leader Emilano Zapata, whose troops were fighting for “land and liberty.” Grabman said it left an impression on Gorostieta when he learned that “farmers
without military training could be a formidable force when fighting for a belief.” The Cristero Rebellion was suppressed in 1929, but many of the small landowners persisted, even if the Church hierarchy was moving on. “We have people who are children of Cristeros,” said Fr Jorge Raul Villegas, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Leon which encompasses Bajio. “For us, it’s a historic reality since there were men who died defending the faith. This isn’t forgotten.” - CNS
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therecord.com.au June 13, 2012
13
Year of Grace can also be Year of Holiness
Dear Father, now that we are celebrating the “Year of Grace” in Australia, can you just remind me what grace is?
T
Scenes from For Greater Glory, including Andy Garcia, above, and Catholic actor Eduardo Verastegui, right. PHOTO: ONLINE SOURCE
HERE are two main types of grace – sanctifying and actual: in order to do justice to your question, I will speak now of the first and leave the second for next week. The word grace in general refers to that freely given, a gift. For example, we say “by the grace of God” meaning by the gift God gives us or refer to an ex gratia payment, meaning a payment not due in justice but freely given. The Latin word gratia has also come to mean thanksgiving for God’s gift. In this sense, we say Grace before and after meals: we thank God and ask him to bless us and the gift of the food. Likewise, the Spanish for thank you is gracias and the Italian, grazie. The Latin for thanksgiving is gratiarum actio, literally action of graces. So the two meanings of gift and thanksgiving for the gift, which are closely related, are expressed by the same word. The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the meaning of grace in general: “Grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life” (CCC 1996). What exactly is sanctifying grace? The Catechism sums it up succinctly: “Grace is a participation in the life of God” (CCC 1997). That is, in addition to the natural life we receive from our parents, we have supernatural life, a sharing in God’s own life, the life of the Blessed Trinity, in our soul. This is an awesome gift, completely undeserved. It gives us an extraordinary dignity. The Catechism describes it like this: “It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body” (CCC 1997). This life of God in the soul has a number of aspects. Through it, the three divine persons come to dwell in the soul in what we call the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity. Jesus himself announces this in the Last Supper (cf Jn 14:17, 23). Also, we become not mere creatures but the very children of God: “As an ‘adopted son’ he can henceforth call God ‘Father,’ in union with the only Son” (CCC 1997). And in what can only be termed a great mystery, we become in some way divinised or deified, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). That is, through grace we share in the very nature of God. All this is truly the beginning of holiness. As the Catechism says, “The grace
Q&A FR JOHN FLADER
of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification” (CCC 1999). We receive sanctifying grace for the first time in Baptism and it remains in the soul as an “habitual grace”, a stable quality, as long as we do not lose it through mortal sin. It has been called the inchoatio vitae aeternae, the beginning of eternal life, which is destined to reach its fulfilment in the eternal life of heaven. What practical consequences do we derive from this momentous gift? First, since this grace is truly sanctifying, we do well during this Year of Grace, and always, to strive to grow in holiness, in sanctity. What does this mean in real terms?
The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. Essentially, it means to grow in love for God: through regular times of prayer which are real encounters with God, times of loving conversation with him. Also, it means making an effort to receive the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist more regularly since they increase the life of grace in us and help us to grow in the love of God. And always, it means striving to do the will of God in all things since, as Jesus says, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word” (Jn 14:23). What is more, through our good works, we receive more grace. Naturally, it means making a great effort not to commit sin, especially mortal sin, since sin offends God who loves us so much. And when the soul is “dead” through mortal sin, we cannot gain merit for our good actions. So if we commit mortal sin, we should return to God as soon as possible with true contrition through the gateway to grace of the Sacrament of Penance. In this way the “Year of Grace” can be also a “Year of Holiness”.
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VISTA
JUSTICE
therecord.com.au
June 13, 2012
THE VATICAN WAY
This unique Vatican court system tackles everything under the sun from petty to serious crimes, as CNS’s Carol Glatz reports...
Pope Benedict XVI poses with judges to mark the start of the judiciary year of the Roman Rota at the Vatican on January 21. The Rota is the church’s central appellate court. PHOTO: L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS
By Carol Glatz
F
rom picked pockets to a 1998 double murder and suicide, the Vatican legal system has dealt with a vast array of crimes and misdemeanors over the decades. Now it has begun a formal inquiry into the case of the pope’s personal assistant who has been implicated in the media-blitzed “VatiLeaks” scandal. Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s valet since 2006, was arrested on May 23 by Vatican security for having unauthorized documents in his possession. As the case unfolds in the coming weeks, many may wonder how the Vatican City State’s unique judicial system works. Its legal foundations are rooted in the Code of Canon Law, papal decrees, the Lateran Pacts, and Italian and Roman municipal laws. Of the half-dozen different tribunal systems at the Vatican, just one deals specifically with the maintenance of law and order in the 108acre country. The other systems tackle ecclesial matters. When Vatican City State was created out of the Lateran Pacts in 1929, it adopted the Italian legal system for very practical reasons. Since the majority of people who
are brought before the court are Italian residents, not Vatican citizens, it was believed necessary to have an established point of reference and direct link to Italian authorities. Like the Italian system, the Vatican judicial system is an inverted pyramid. At the bottom level is the sole judge, Piero Antonio Bonnet, then there’s a three-judge tribunal, followed by an appeals court and the supreme court of appeals at the top. Lay lawyers and judges staff the bottom two courts while the appeals court includes clerics. The supreme court of appeals is led by three cardinals, and US Cardinal Raymond Burke is president. The Lateran Pacts established that anyone who commits a crime on Vatican property, even if it is a Vatican employee, can be handed over to Italian authorities and be tried in Italian court. The treaty also stipulated that crimes committed in St. Peter’s Square, an open area that borders on Italian territory, fall to the Italian police. That is why Italians took over the investigation and trial of Blessed John Paul II’s would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, when he shot the pope in 1981. The Vatican legal system has
modified some aspects of the Italian system it’s based on. For example, it only uses civil laws that do not conflict with Catholic teaching, especially those concerning divorce and abortion. It also fixed some of the problems that plague the Italian system – like the glacial speed with which it addresses and resolves cases. The Vatican has sped things up by decriminalizing a series of minor
Strange to say but, per capita, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world. That’s because of the massive number of annual visitors it receives... offences – such as shoplifting in Vatican stores – which allows the sole judge to resolve them without having to go to trial. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters that in the case of Gabriele, the first phase of a preliminary investigation was completed by a Vatican tribunal judge, Nicola Picardi. Bonnet, the sole judge, began
the next step of the formal investigation, which will include a preliminary questioning of the suspect in the presence of his two lawyers and Vatican judge Picardi. The next stage of the investigation will be to decide whether the evidence points to a possible criminal offense, in which case Gabriele would be called to stand trial. If the evidence does not indicate criminal action, he would be acquitted. If they decide to go to trial, the court could also decide whether to turn to the Italian justice system for assistance, Father Lombardi said. Even though no cardinals have been questioned in the initial inquiry, “hypothetically speaking,” it is unlikely that a cardinal could be interrogated by the Vatican magistrates, the spokesman said. “Cardinals answer to the pope,” he said. “With anything involving a cardinal, the Holy Father would have to be informed and decide how to proceed.” The last serious crime the court and its judges had to deal with was a 10-month investigation in 1998 that determined a young Swiss Guard shot and killed the Guard’s commander and the commander’s wife before taking his own life. The cases that normally come across the sole judge’s desk include contested parking tickets, civil suits
involving compensation for injuries suffered at the Vatican, employee theft, forgery, and the especially rare instances of small-time fraud or embezzlement. The vast majority of penal cases handled by the court involve theft, especially by pickpockets, but the perpetrators usually are not caught. Per capita, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world. According to the most recent published statistics, 226 criminal cases were reported in 2011 – actually half the number of cases reported in 2006 when it was almost one crime per resident in a country with only 492 inhabitants. But those figures are deceiving since the high crime rate stems from the sheer volume of people – some 18 million each year– that stream through the Vatican to visit St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums. Recent reforms in Vatican norms and laws – for instance, the 2008 creation of an agency regulating and overseeing workers’ health and safety – also have increased the number of civil suits, which counted 640 in 2011. The Vatican also adopted new laws in 2011 as part of its efforts to meet international norms against money-laundering and financing terrorism. - CNS
FUN FAITH WITH
JUNE 17, 2012 • MARK 4: 26-34 • 11 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
UNDER THE OCEAN BY MOLLY HALL
Once there was a little sea horse named Tilly and his best friend was Mr. Crab, but they were not related. One sunny morning Mr. Crab and Tilly were going to an underwater concert called: I feel like dancing. When they arrived Mr. Crab went to get something to eat and then he got a glimpse of a beautiful crab, and she was single – and Mr Crab was single. While that was happening Tilly was dancing with his friends, they were doing the bip-ity-bop. Now, could you even think what was going to happen next? Mr. Crab walked over to her and mumbled “hey good looken” and then she replied “how sweet” and then she started to walk off and then Mr. Crab shouted: “wait! Don’t go!” and then everyone stopped and stared at him and then he quickly went over to her and whispered, “sorry about that, what’s your name?” The crab said to Mr Crab: “Nina” At just that minute something happened… Squidly Squash came (he’s weird and thinks he’s awesome) with his eel – they came to destroy all the good things and take over the world. Mr. Crab turned around and looked at Nina and said: “I know we just met but…” Nina interrupted and said: “yes!” “Alrighty then!” said Mr. Crab excitedly. “We have to get Tilly” “Who’s Tilly?” asked Nina “I’ll tell you later, we have to get him” So they got him and then went to Mr. Crab’s house. They talked about what just happened, Mr. Crab asked Nina if she knew Squidly Squash and she said: “No, I don’t” The Mr. Crab had a great idea: “we can capture him” “Yeah, that’s a great idea!” shouted Tilly. Nina went home after that and Tilly slept over at Mr. Crab’s house. The next day they planned
Molly Hall
what they were going to do, then they investigated, then it came to an end. They sneaked up on him and caught Squidly Squash and his eel and chained them up. Then Mr. Crab pinched Squidly Squash and he cried. Squidly said: “What was that for? “It was for being mean!” shouted Mr. Crab Finally they brought him to Mr. Water Squirt (president) and Squidly and Eel went to jail and Squidly said: “I’ll get revenge on you Crab!” Nina, Mr. Crab and Tilly were heroes. In a year’s time Nina and Mr. Crab got married! Thanks for this great story, Molly! You’ll receive a prize from The Record in the mail soon!
Hey kids! Do you have a great story to share like Molly’s? Send it in to us at The Record! You can email it to: editor@therecord.com.au or send it in the mail to: The Editor PO Box 3075 PERTH WA 6832
It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade. - Mark 4: 31-32
CROSSWORD Across 3. At the time of its sowing, is the ____ of all the seeds on earth. 5. Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a man who scatters ____ on the land. 6. Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can ____ in its shade.’
HARVEST
WORD LIST SEED
SMALLEST SHELTER
GROWING
LAND
Down 1. Jesus also said, the kingdom is like a ____ seed. 2. When the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the ____ has come.’ 4. Night and day, while he
MUSTARD
sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and ____; how, he does not know. 7. Of its own accord the ____ produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
16
OPINION
therecord.com.au
June 13, 2012
EDITORIAL
Letters
Prince of principle and courage
Lady Gaga can hardly be upset
O
ne of the persistent disappointments for those committed to the cause of unborn children has been the witness over several decades of Catholics who, as politicians, voted for practices such as the legalisation of abortion. It happened in Western Australia in 1998 and it happened in Victoria in 2008 and it has happened around the world since the early 1970s, most notably in the US where House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic from California, has voted against banning health coverage that includes abortion, has voted for allowing embryonic stem cell research and has voted against restricting interstate transport for minors to get abortions. For such individuals, it can accurately be said, ignorance finally proved victorious over truth - and life. It was heartening, therefore, to hear of the case of Crown Prince Alois of the tiny European Principality of Lichtenstein who, in late May, told Agence France Press he was prepared to abdicate and end the 900-year-old role of his family and the monarchy which has governed Lichtenstein since 1806 in his country rather than sign abortion into law. What can be said of such an action and of the Crown Prince? It is remarkable that in an era when politicians who govern in much more powerful states and nations have been unilaterally unable to muster the courage to enshrine in law what everyone who looks at this issue knows - that an unborn child is a human person - it takes the ruler of possibly the tiniest sovereign state on the face of the earth (Lichtenstein has an estimated population of 36,000) to teach such figures what true courage is and what it is really like as a politician to translate principles into actions. What is additionally interesting is that support for the practice of abortion has lost all intellectual credibility everywhere. Its midwives, such as the US physician Bernard Nathanson who was the chief architect of its legalisation in the US in the 1970s, have almost all renounced their former support and become pro-life. In places such as Western Australia, politicians have been forced to enshrine mutually contradictory laws which make the killing of an unborn child simultaneously an act of public service and civic duty on the one hand, or a crime punishable by imprisonment on the other, depending only on the intentions of the individual doing the killing. Even more perverse is that the one who deliberately kills an unborn child is regarded as a conscientious member of the medical profession while a person who kills an unborn child through an error of judgement is the one who faces the full force of the law. It is to such ridiculous measures that ‘progressive’ societies have resorted in order to cover the barbarity of abortion. Crown Prince Alois’ ultiPO Box 3075 matum came after an earlier Adelaide Terrace abortion law had been rejected PERTH WA 6832 by Lichtenstein’s parliament, 25 votes to seven. Abortion office@therecord.com.au activists in the socially libTel: (08) 9220 5900 eral Lichtenstein (the country Fax: (08) 9325 4580 recently formalised same-sex civil unions) then launched a referendum in late 2011 which failed. At the time, Crown Prince Alois addressed parliament and threatened to veto the referendum if it succeeded. Activists then pushed to revoke the hereditary ruler’s right of veto. Having collected the required number of signatures to force a referendum to restrict the Prince’s right of veto, the referendum is due to be held on July 1. It is this progression of events which led Crown Prince Alois to take the position that ending his family’s political involvement in his country’s governance is preferable to acting as collaborators in the legalisation of the killing of children. “The royal family is not willing to undertake its political responsibilities unless the Prince has the necessary tools at his disposal,” he told AFP. “But if the people are no longer open to that, then the royal family will not want to undertake its political responsibilities and ... will completely withdraw from political life.” The Crown Prince is a father of four children and, according to some reports, a devout Catholic. It is entirely possible that the experience of being a parent has helped clarify his convictions regarding the sanctity of all human life which many Catholic politicians and their contemporaries in places such as Western Australia and further afield around the world have often found impossible to embrace. It can only be said that whatever his religious beliefs, his courage and conviction are exemplary, a model of true political leadership and public service, especially for Catholic politicians, everywhere else. Many might also reflect that two thousand years ago Jesus Christ may well have had figures such as Crown Prince Alois in mind when he asked what it would profit a man if he gained the whole world and its glory but lost his soul in the process. Those who have voted for the barbarity of abortion shine in the media today but will ultimately be consigned to the dustbin of history. It does not seem too much to say that a figure such as Crown Prince Alois, alternatively, should he persist in his heroic resistance to the anti-culture of death now afoot in his country, will one day be welcomed into his true homeland by Christ - and all the children whom the Prince defended.
A figure such as Crown Prince Alois will one day be welcomed into heaven by Christ and the children he defended ...
THE RECORD
TO THE EDITOR
A RECENT article in The Australian newspaper laid the blame for the cancellation of Lady Gaga’s concert on the radical Islamic group, the Islamic Defenders Front (IDF), claiming it has forced its agenda on the more moderate groups. I would imagine that the average Indonesian would be quite insulted at the insinuation that they are so easily brainwashed. Objection to the hypersexualised, religion-insulting performances of Lady Gaga and similar entertainers, is not restricted to extremists or to the country of Indonesia. Many countries in the Southeast
Asia region and beyond reflect a growing indignation at what is perceived as western cultural imperialism that treats the moral values of other countries with contempt. In the Philippines, Gaga’s appearance elicited responses from Catholics and Protestants that were similar to those exhibited by Muslims in Indonesia. The Manila-area concert was only permitted by government officials after they issued a warning to Gaga regarding acts that might be considered lewd or offensive to morals or religion, promising to act against the singer if she broke public decency laws. The admonitions failed to placate a crowd of hundreds of protesters who attempted to march on the concert, and were stopped by police a kilometre away. A similar response in South Korea, where hundreds of Christians participated in organised
protests against a Gaga concert, led to a prohibition of attendance by anyone under the age of 18. Lady Gaga should hardly be surprised at the reaction of Asian Christians and Muslims to her onstage antics, which she has repeatedly acknowledged are calculated to generate controversy, and which serve her economic interests as a publicity-seeking entertainer. The true issue raised by the Gaga affair in Southeast Asia is not one of religious extremism or the sanctity of freedom of speech. It is, rather, the fact that the moral and spiritual decline of the West has created a gulf between ourselves and peoples who continue to maintain the values we have abandoned, values that are essential to the health of any society. Gillian Gonzalez Willetton, WA
Fewer literary critics and more librarians could help Giving more people degrees doesn’t make us a more educated society.
C
ertain politicians in Australia, Britain and America have set a political goal of increasing the number of students at universities. The Australian Prime Minister has mentioned a target figure of 40 per cent of the population to have bachelors’ degrees by 2025, at a cost of more than $5.2 billion in public money over five years. This is presented as a Good Thing. In fact, there is a very strong argument that it is not a Good Thing at all. It may be a very Bad Thing indeed to encourage our young people to waste years of their lives and a vast amount of public money acquiring worthless and useless degrees. When one looks at some of the theses undertaken for higher degrees, the waste becomes even more glaring (I recall one thesis on that less-than-vital subject, homosexuality among Chinese pirates). All this is costing money taken from the taxpayer, and which might be spent on welfare, medical research, infrastructure investment, national defence or wildlife conservation, to name but a few alternatives. It is taking from young people and their families years they might have invested in getting more solid and useful qualifications. Further, once the idea that this is an entitlement is settled in the public mind, it will be very difficult to take it away, however ruinous to the public (and private household) economy it becomes. Further, while we already have a surplus of unemployable Arts graduates, we have a desperate shortage of skilled tradesmen. Much of the tertiary education budget could be better spent on technical training. Even within the tertiary education system, the money could be spent much more discriminatingly. For all the thousands of people in Australia doing Creative Writing course how many really good poets
Clear view GUY CROUCHBACK
and novelists does Australia have? My guess is in the vicinity of two or three per million of population. Teaching discriminating reading might be more beneficial to the individual, even if it does nothing for the national economy. Poor neighbourhoods do not need universities turning out literary critics, though some good librarians might be useful there (incidentally, I think one year of philosophy is a very useful part
I recall one thesis was on that lessthan-vital subject of homosexuality among Chinese pirates. of a university course, but not as preparation for a lifetime career in the subject, except in the most rare and exceptional cases). Obviously, those degrees which demand a high standard of intellectual rigour – such as medicine, physics, mathematics and law – will largely select their own students, or at least I hope they will. Who wants a community filled with bad doctors? It is the softer subjects that need greater scrutiny, and where the saying “more is better” needs to be challenged. There is a riddle regarding what graduates say to their customers: Law: “I’ll need to obtain senior counsel’s Opinion.” Medicine: “I’ll need to consult a specialist.” Arts: “Will you have fries with that?” Parents trying to push their off-
spring into ‘Uni’ at any price might do much better to get them into technical training or an apprenticeship. Unless things go very seriously wrong, they will never want for employment. If they have a personal interest in some more academic subject they can, in most cases, obtain fulfilment by studying it privately. This may, of course, lead them to university studies later. Of course, there are the rare geniuses who can, and must, do only one thing, the sort of people higher degrees were originally intended for. But they are not a problem in this context. Einstein and AE Houseman, a famous poet and during his life perhaps the most learned Latin scholar in the world, began working as clerks in patent offices. Shakespeare was a theatre-manager, John Masefield a sailor and barkeeper. It did them no harm. **** Unqualified as I am to write a proper appreciation of the career of Mgr Sean O’Shea, recently retired as Rottnest Chaplain (and before that chaplain at the Stella Maris centre), I would like to place on record a memory of the delightful times my wife and I spent with him on Rottnest, enjoying his famous homemade (and I think homegrown) fig jam. “Wit and wisdom” is an overused phrase, but it well describes his conversation. How fortunate he was to enjoy the beautiful island in all its moods and seasons, not least the unforgettable full Easter moon over Thompson Bay, with the lights of the mainland twinkling along the horizon, and the still, calm early mornings! He was part of the spirit of Rottnest, to my mind one of the loveliest islands in the world, and he will be deeply missed. A footnote to his ministry which may not be widely known is the work he put into restoring the old pioneer cemetery there.
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OPINION
therecord.com.au June 13, 2012
17
Dream big by starting small: let God do the rest One of the basic tasks of the Christian life is understanding that although life can be unfair, God has given us eternal life
H
aving grown up in North America during the decades of girl-power, materialism, and exaggerated self-esteem, I was encouraged to ‘dream big.’ Not by my humble parents, who stressed holiness over human achievement, but more so by our secular school system and the culture at large. Even post-Conciliar catechesis played a role, with less emphasis on sin and personal conversion, and greater stress on how special we were, how much God loved us, and our role in building the Kingdom. This is true, of course: God greatly loves us and calls us to a unique vocation. But to effect positive change in the world, we must be aware of our lowliness, our weakness, and our constant need for God. Instead, the gospel of self-regard preached that I was wonderful and the world was my oyster. At university I imbibed just enough feminism and Marxism to believe that the oppressive patriarchs who ran the world owed me a successful and fulfilling life.
@ Home MARIETTE ULRICH
Alas, reality comes calling when you graduate with little practical knowledge and fewer marketable skills than your high school chum who went to hairdresser school. On what had I based my great expectations? Mostly fantasy and delusion (many university faculties and programs could disappear tomorrow, and the world would be a better place). I soon fell into a career: having married during my last year of university, I worked a short time in radio as a lowly ad-copy writer, became pregnant, indescribably ill, and quit my job to stay home fulltime. Through 25 years of marriage and seven children, there have been ups and downs. As a naïve young bride, I had numerous expectations, which my husband was supposed to fulfill according to my whims and timetable. (I have since forgiven
him for not being omnipotent, and life is much easier for both of us.) Many Christians have expectations about what their lives should be like, sometimes thanks to wellintentioned books and seminars (“Buy my six-week program for the secret to faith and fulfilment!”). I know devout people who exist in a near-constant state of disappointment that life has not delivered on
As a naïve young bride I had numerous expectations which my husband was supposed to fulfill. their expectations. They try to do everything right: submit to God’s will; pray and go to church; attend workshops and seminars; read good books — all to no avail. ‘How long, O Lord?’ they lament. Perhaps we need to hit the re-set
button and adjust our expectations to ‘zero.’ Do not misunderstand: we must never abandon the virtue of hope. We do need to renounce any sense of entitlement or presumption (even unconscious) that certain things are owed to us because we profess faith in God. Nothing is owed to us; rather, we are in debt too great to repay. In the cosmic scheme of things, fallen man is worthless; we deserve condemnation for our sins, many of which are grievous indeed. The Gospel turns this tragedy entirely on its head. We hear the phrase ‘Good News’ so often it’s almost cliché. But it is so wonderfully good, adjectives fail to describe it. Jesus’ atoning sacrifice changes everything. God, in his infinite love, has bestowed sonship on those not worthy to be called slaves. He magnanimously offers us eternal life with him in heaven. Everything else, every gift and blessing, is a bonus, and none of it deserved. Even in our suffering, a merciful God offers to help us carry our
crosses. Do we accept, or do we prefer to wallow alone in our misery? Are we occasionally angry at God (or sad or frustrated) because “life isn’t fair”? It’s true: life isn’t fair. From the moment sin entered the world, life ceased to be fair, by any definition you’d care to invoke. What’s most unfair (in terms of strict justice) is that the eternal, sinless Son of the Father should debase himself to become one of us, and then suffer (horribly) and die for our sins. We deserve death. Instead, Jesus gives us eternal life. As if that’s not enough, he also offers us grace, the sacraments, the very power to defeat sin. This is not another tepid cliché. Repeat it, slowly: we have power to defeat sin. Life is not fair (‘just’) but it can be fair (‘beautiful’). Our attitudes and actions are the determining factors. Expect great things; dream big by starting small. Ground Zero is the point of profound gratitude for salvation. Trust God; follow him in every detail, and the entire world will be transformed.
Driving the panel van of conversion Buying his first car – and its personalised number plates – may have been the beginning of a truly life-changing choice.
Why I became
Catholic
DEBBIE WARRIER
Andrew Pratt
I
BECAME a Catholic during Easter 2012 at Sacred Heart Church, in Thornlie and since then have become more prayerful. I now see things more from a Catholic perspective then I would have previously, like the Eucharist and Adoration. I have always considered myself Christian. I was raised an Anglican and have as long as I can remember felt a connection to God and Jesus. Mum and Dad dragged me to the church as a kid so some of it must have stuck. I have been married for 24 years and my wife Annet and I have three children: Hayley (21), Michelle (20) and Jordan (17). My prayers are for my family and my work as a public servant. During various points in my life I have felt God’s influence over me and have found a greater focus on my faith during major life events like funerals, weddings and baptisms. When I was about 18 or 19 (a young bloke about to buy his first car) I wanted to rush out and buy a panel van. I wanted to be a bit of a hoon and panel vans were cool cars to buy in those days. I went to look at this car and it had personalised number plates that said, “ROM 10 9” The guys that were selling it to me were Christians and they wanted to make sure that I had these plates and knew what Romans 10:9 was. The Bible passage reads, “If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” It sowed the seeds and has stuck with me for a long time. That was one of the moments in my life where I could feel the presence of God around. My conversion probably started then. As a young adult, I had a brief association with one of the evangelical Christian churches called the Church of Christ whose exuberance and obvious enthusiasm were attractive to me. Around the same time, I met my wife
Andrew Pratt, pictured here with family and friends, became a Catholic at Easter this year at Sacred Heart Church in Thornlie.
Annet (now my sponsor) who is Catholic and we began attending church together. My mother-in-law attends Mass a few times a week as well as on Sundays and prays the Rosary every night. The whole clan is more than just Easter and Christmas Catholics. I began to notice strength of faith and commitment to God and the Church from my wife, her family members and other Catholics that drew me closer to my own faith. Whilst the enthusiasm of the Church wasn’t as obvious as the evangelical church it is still there with a depth of strength and faith that really stands out. I found the RCIA journey a very enriching experience. The process was contemplative and spiritually focused. Whilst at times it was challenging to express my thoughts and feelings, the sharing was uplifting. The RCIA team’s dedication and input has been outstanding and I will always be grateful to them for helping me on my journey. Also, the welcome feeling I have received
from the members of the Church who have said a quick word, given a nod or smile has been really appreciated. I pray for a variety of things like whatever might be troubling me that particular day or week. I ask God for guidance. I also try not to
I have become a union delegate because I think someone has to stand up for others. It must have been prayer. pray to God for only things I want to ask him for but also to thank him for the things I’ve been blessed with. I feel that I have had a fair bit of luck in my life. The kids are great and the missus is great so I thank God for that. It is a pretty secular world at the moment and you can get caught up in lots of rubbish. Now that I am Catholic I tend
to speak out more on issues that might get raised up in the office. Some things may not be particularly pleasant like bullying and I will say, “Hang on; I don’t think that’s right.” I have asked God to give me the strength to deal with these situations. Now I have become a union delegate because I think someone has to stand up and be a voice for others. I think that is because I have been praying about it. It must have been. My conversion has been more of a slow burn. I guess that comes from going to church for 20 years. There have been ‘A-ha’ moments in my life when I have encountered God at work, like the time when my grandmother in Brisbane telephoned me. We were in Perth so we weren’t in regular communication although we would call for Christmases and stuff. A week before she passed away, she accidentally rang my phone number. Without knowing it at the time, it was a “goodbye” conversation.
PHOTO: COURTESY ANDREW PRATT
When she did pass, there was closure for me because I felt like we had said our goodbyes. Another time I had a colleague who was depressed and rang me to ask me to pray for him. It’s a big office and he was more like an acquaintance but he chose me. There are not too many Catholics in my office but I told them I was becoming Catholic at Easter. Who knows? I might be sowing some seeds for later down the line. Some people have asked me a bit more about my faith. I still think I am fairly inexperienced in my journey to answer their questions but just a little bit of enthusiasm and preparedness to talk about it helps. Whilst it has taken a while for me to get off the fence and become Catholic, I have always felt welcome in the Church and I believe it was ultimately God’s plan for me to make my commitment. Now I have a sense of love and peace as well as respect. It is a sense of being, belonging and purpose.
18
PANORAMA
SATURDAY, JUNE 16 10th Anniversary of St Padre Pio’s Canonisation 5pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Sq, Perth. Begins with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Adoration and Benediction. Confessions available. 6pm Mass. We are also celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Enq: Des 6278 1540. A Reflection Morning 9-12pm at John XXIII College, Mary MacKillop Room, Mooro Dr, Mt Claremont. A Saturday morning to take space and time to experience some quiet in your life. Cost: $10. Registration and enq: Murray 9383 0444 or graham.murray@johnxxiii. edu.au. SATURDAY, JUNE 16 AND SUNDAY, JUNE 17 Books Books Books 10am-4pm at Myaree Parish, Evershed St, Myaree. Pater Noster School/ parish hall.
NEXT WEEK SUNDAY, 17 JUNE St Anthony of Padua’s Feast Day 11am at St Anthony’s Parish, Dundebar Rd, Wanneroo. Begins with Holy Mass followed by Procession and Benediction at 2pm. Between Mass and the Procession there will be a festival in the grounds of St Anthony’s Primary School. This is the 80th Anniversary of this celebration in our parish. Enq: Jeanette stanthony.padua@ perthcatholic.org.au. TUESDAY, 19 JUNE The Nativity of St John the Baptist - Seminar 7-8pm at St Benedict’s School Hall, Alness St, Applecross. ‘Do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard’ presented by Norma Woodcock. View a weekly short video broadcast at www.thefaith. org.au. Cost: collection. Accredited - CEO - Faith Formation for ongoing renewal - $10 reg. Enq: Norma 9487 1772 or www.normawoodcock.com. THURSDAY, JUNE 21 Auslan Café - Australian Sign Language 10.30am-12pm at Emmanuel Centre, 25 Windsor St, Perth. Learn sign language and share a cuppa. Following dates: Thursday, July 26; Thursday, August 16; Thursday, September 20. Enq: Emma 9328 8113 or emmanuelcentre@westnet.com.au. FRIDAY, JUNE 29 Medjugorje Evening Prayer 7-9pm at St Lawrence and Mary Immaculate Parish, 392 Albert St, Balcatta. Includes Eucharistic Adoration, Rosary, Benediction and concludes with Mass. Free DVDs on conversion of Don Callaway giveaway. Pilgrimage to Rome/Medjugorje for Sept. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480 or 0407 471 256 or medjugorje@y7mail.com.
for more info. Enq: 9332 4994 or tburbid@bigpond.net.au.
REGULAR EVENTS EVERY SUNDAY Gate of Heaven Catholic Radio Join the Franciscans of the Immaculate from 7.309pm on Radio Fremantle 107.9FM for Catholic radio broadcast of EWTN and our own live shows. Enq: radio@ausmaria.com. Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation 2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation is available before every celebration. Anointing of the sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq Sacri 9447 3292. EVERY FIRST SUNDAY St Mary’s Cathedral Youth Group – Fellowship with Pizza 5pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, 17 Victoria Sq, Perth. Begins with youth Mass followed by fellowship downstairs in parish centre. Bring a plate to share. Enq: Bradley on youthfromsmc@gmail.com. Singles Prayer and Social Group 7pm at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Sq, 77 St George’s Terrace, Perth. Begins with a Holy Hour (Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary and a teaching) followed by dinner at a local restaurant. Meet new people, pray and socialise with other single men and women. Enq: Veronica 0403 841 202. Divine Mercy 1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Parish, 25 Windsor St, East Perth. Homily: The Body and Blood of Jesus. Main Celebrant: Fr Johnson Malayil. With exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Reconciliation, holy Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Divine Mercy prayers, followed by Benediction and veneration of first class relic of St Faustina Kowalska. Refreshments afterwards. Next Divine Mercy: Sunday, June 3. Enq: John 9457 7771. EVERY SECOND SUNDAY Healing Hour 7-8pm at St Lawrence Parish, Balcatta. Join us for songs of praise and worship, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and prayers for the sick. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS or parish office Tues - Thur, 9am2.30pm 9344 7066. EVERY THIRD SUNDAY Oblates of St Benedict – Meeting 2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. For all interested in studying the Rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for laypeople: Vespers and afternoon tea afterwards. Enq: Secretary 9457 5758.
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY
Embracing Womanhood A Spiritual Dimension Over a Cup of Tea 9am-2.30pm at St Thomas More Bateman Parish Hall, cnr Dean and Marsengo Rds, Bateman. Mass celebrant: Fr Clayton. Cost: $5. BYO: lunch, morning tea provided. Daycare available for children. Enq: Gertrude 0411 262 221 or Brenda 0403 226 350 or Carolin 0432 855 605.
Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life 2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley. The hour includes exposition of the blessed Eucharist, silent prayer, scripture and prayers of intercession. Come and pray that those discerning vocations can hear clearly God’s call.
1-day seminar “Knowing God in everyday life” - Holy Trinity Community 8.45am-6pm at Faith Centre, 450 Hay St, Perth. By Fr Tuan and team. Registration and enq: Adri 0412 948 688 or William 0447 388 882 or Bryan 0406 671 388. SATURDAY, JUNE 30 AND SUNDAY, JULY 1 Annual Retreat - AHFI Perth 8.30am-5.30pm at St Anne’s Parish, 11 Hehir St, Belmont. Alliance of the Holy Family International - retreat Master: Fr Edgardo ‘Bing’ Arrelano. Cost: $20/day (pensioners $10/day). Coffee/tea supplied; please byo lunch. Seating is limited. Registration and enq: Vicky 0400 282 357 or Nick 0428 953 471 or John/Joy 9344 2609.
UPCOMING SUNDAY, JULY 1 Focolare – Gospel reading 2.30-4.30pm at Little Sisters of the Poor, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Children’s program held simultaneously. Discover the extraordinary words in the Bible: “… they were eternal words, for all times, therefore also for our times.” Chiara Lubich. Enq: secretary 9349 4052 or ffperth@iprimus.com.au. SATURDAY, JULY 7 Day With Mary 9am-5pm at St Columba Parish, 25 Forrest St, South Perth. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. 9am video; 10.10am holy Mass; Reconciliation, procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, sermons on Eucharist and on Our Lady, Rosaries and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286. TUESDAY, JULY 10 TO SUNDAY, JULY 15 RSCM Choristers Camp At WA College of Agriculture, Narrogin. Stay tuned
EVERY SECOND AND FOURTH MONDAY A Ministry to the Un-Churched 12.30-1.30pm at St John’s Pro-Cathedral, Victoria Ave, Perth (opposite church offices). With charismatic praise, and prayer teams available. Help us ‘reach out to the pagans’ or soak in the praise. Enq: Dan 9398 4973. EVERY LAST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH Filipino Mass 3pm at Notre Dame Church, cnr Daley and Wright Sts, Cloverdale. Please bring a plate to share for socialisation after Mass. Enq: Fr Nelson Po 0410 843 412, Elsa 0404 03 8483. EVERY MONDAY Evening Adoration and Mass 7pm at St Thomas Parish, Claremont, cnr Melville St and College Rd. Eucharistic Adoration, Reconciliation, evening prayer and Benediction, followed by Mass and night prayer at 8pm. Enq: Kim on 9384 0598 or email to claremont@perthcatholic. org.au.
LAST MONDAY OF THE MONTH
therecord.com.au
June 13, 2012
EVERY FIRST TUESDAY Short MMP Cenacle for Priests 2pm at Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Enq: Fr Watt 9376 1734. EVERY WEDNESDAY Holy Spirit of Freedom Community 7.30pm at The Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We are delighted to welcome everyone to attend our Holy Spirit of Freedom praise meeting. Enq: 042 3907 869 or hsofperth@gmail.com. Bible Study at Cathedral 6.15pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, 17 Victoria Sq, Perth. Deepen your faith through reading and reflecting on holy Scripture by Fr Jean-Noel. Meeting room beneath Cathedral. Enq: Marie 9223 1372. Holy Hour - Catholic Youth Ministry CYM is back in 2012. Mass at 5.30pm and Holy Hour (Adoration) at 6.30pm at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. Enq: www.cym.com or 9422 7912. Adonai Ladies Prayer Group 10am in the upper room of St Joseph’s Parish, 3 Salvado Rd, Subiaco. Come and join us for charismatic prayer and praise. Enq. Win 9387 2802 or Noreen 9298 9938. EVERY FIRST WEDNESDAY Holy Hour Prayer for Priests 7.30-8.30pm at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. All welcome. Enq: Linda 9341 3079. Novena to St Mary of the Cross MacKillop 7-7.45pm at Blessed Mary MacKillop Parish, cnr Cassowary Dr and Pelican Pde, Ballajura. Begins with Mass, novena prayers and benediction. Followed by healing prayers and anointing of the sick. Enq: Madi 9249 9093 or Gerry 0417 187 240. EVERY SECOND WEDNESDAY Chaplets of Divine Mercy 7.30pm at St Thomas More Parish, Dean Rd, Bateman, on the second Wednesday of each month. A powerful, prayerful, sung devotion accompanied by exposition and followed by Benediction. Next devotion: Wednesday, June 13. Enq: George 9310 9493 or 6242 0702 (w). EVERY THURSDAY Divine Mercy 11am at Ss John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy and for the consecrated life, especially here in John Paul Parish. Concludes with veneration of the first class relic of St Faustina. Please do come and join us in prayer. Enq: John 9457 7771. St Mary’s Cathedral Praise Meeting 7.45pm every Thursday at the Legion of Mary’s Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Includes praise, song and healing ministry. Enq: Kay 9382 3668 or fmi@flameministries.org. Group Fifty - Charismatic Renewal Group 7.30pm at the Redemptorist Monastery, 150 Vincent St, North Perth. Includes prayer, praise and Mass. Enq: Elaine 9440 3661. EVERY FIRST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH Prayer in Style of Taizé 7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Parish, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Includes prayer, song and silence in candlelight – symbol of Christ the light of the world. Taizé info: www.taize.fr. Enq: secretary 9448 4888 or 9448 4457. EVERY FIRST FRIDAY Healing Mass 7pm at St Peter’s Parish, Inglewood. Praise and worship, exposition and Eucharistic Adoration, Benediction and anointing of the sick followed by holy Mass and fellowship. Celebrants Fr Dat and invited priests. 6.45pm Reconciliation. Enq: Mary Ann 0409 672 304, Prescilla 0433 457 352 and Catherine 043 3923 083. Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life 7pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Mass followed by Adoration with Fr Doug Harris. All welcome. Refreshments provided. Healing and Anointing Mass 8.45am Pater Noster Church, Evershed St, Myaree. Begins with Reconciliation followed by 9am Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, anointing of the sick and prayers to St Peregrine. Enq: Joy 9337 7189.
Be Still in His Presence – Ecumenical Christian Program 7.30-8.45pm at St Swithun Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie St, Lesmurdie (hall behind church). Begins with songs of praise and worship, silent time, lectio divina, small group sharing and a cuppa at the end. Enq: Lynne 9293 3848 or 043 5252 941.
Catholic Faith Renewal Evening
EVERY TUESDAY
Communion of Reparation All Night Vigils 7pm-1.30am at Corpus Christi Church, Lochee St, Mosman Park or St Gerard Majella Church, cnr Ravenswood Dr/Majella Rd, Westminster (Mirrabooka). The Vigils consist of two Masses, Adoration, Benediction, prayers and Confession in reparation for the outrages committed against the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357 or Fr Giosue 9349 2315or John/Joy 9344 2609.
Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal 6pm at Pater Noster Church, Marmion and Evershed Sts, Myaree. Mass at 5.30pm followed by Benediction. Enq: John 040 8952 194. Novena to God the Father 7.30pm at St Joachim’s parish hall, Victoria Park. Novena followed by reflection and discussions on forthcoming Sunday Gospel. Enq: Jan 9284 1662.
7.30pm at Ss John and Paul Parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton – Songs of Praise and Prayer, sharing by a priest followed by thanksgiving Mass and light refreshments after Mass. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913 or Ann 0412 166 164 or catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com.
EVERY SECOND FRIDAY OF THE MONTH Discover the Spirituality of St Francis of Assisi 12pm at St Brigid’s Catholic Parish Centre. The Secular Franciscans of Midland Fraternity meet for lunch followed by 1-3pm meeting. Enq: Antoinette 9297 2314. EVERY FIRST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH Healing Mass 12.35pm at St Thomas Parish, cnr Melville St and College Rd, Claremont. Spiritual leader Fr Waddell. Enq: Kim 9384 0598, claremont@perthcatholic.org. au. EVERY LAST SATURDAY Novena Devotions – Our Lady Vailankanni of Good Health 5pm at Holy Trinity Parish, 8 Burnett St, Embleton. Followed by Mass at 6pm. Enq: George 9272 1379. EVERY FOURTH SATURDAY OF THE MONTH Voice of the Voiceless Healing Mass 12pm at St Brigid’s Parish, 211 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Bring a plate to share after Mass. Enq: Frank 9296 7591 or 0408 183 325.
GENERAL Free Divine Mercy Image for Parishes High quality oil painting and glossy print – Divine Mercy Promotions. Images are of very high quality. For any parish willing to accept and place inside the church. Oil paintings - 160 x 90cm and glossy print - 100 x 60cm. Enq: Irene 9417 3267 (w). Sacred Heart Pioneers Is there anyone out there who would like to know more about the Sacred Heart pioneers? If so, please contact Spiritual Director Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or John 9457 7771. St Philomena’s Chapel 3/24 Juna Drive, Malaga. Mass of the day: Monday 6.45am. Vigil Masses: Mon-Fri 4.45pm. Enq: Fr David 9376 1734. Mary MacKillop Merchandise Available for sale from the Mary MacKillop Centre. Enq: Sr Maree 041 4683 926 or 08 9334 0933. Financially Disadvantaged People Requiring Low Care Aged Care Placement The Little Sisters of the Poor community - set in beautiful gardens in the suburb of Glendalough. “Making the elderly happy, that is everything!” St Jeanne Jugan (foundress). Registration and enq: Sr Marie 9443 3155. Resource Centre for Personal Development The Holistic Health Seminar “The Instinct to Heal’’, every Tuesday 3-4.30pm; and RCPD2 “Internalise Principles of Successful Relationships and Use Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills” every Tuesday 4.30-6.30pm, 197 High St, Fremantle - Tuesdays 3-4.30pm. Enq: Eva 0409 405 585. Bookings are essential. Courses held at The Faith Centre in 2012 450 Hay St, Perth 1. RCPD2 - Internalise Principles of Successful Relationships and Use Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills
Send us your
Year of Grace stories to parishes@therecord. com.au
Contemplate the
face of Christ
This course provides knowledge of principles that, if applied, will improve all relationships. Skills of self-analysis are taught as well as communication skills. Mondays: 5-7pm, until 10 Dec. For enquiries or bookings ph Paul 0402 222 578. 2. RCPD4 – Increase Personal and Spiritual Awareness and Improve Relationships This course promotes self-awareness and spiritual growth. Emotional development is explained in order to improve understanding between persons. Study of Psychology and Theology. Mondays: 10am–12.30pm, until 10 Dec. For enquiries or bookings ph Eva 0409 405 585. 3. Higher Certificate in Biblical Studies The Higher Certificate of Biblical Studies is a distance education program that can be followed in your own home at your own pace with periodic face-to-face contact workshops. Tutorial assistance is available as required. It is equivalent to a one-year tertiary course, although it is recommended that you aim to complete it in two years. For enquiries and enrolment, ph The Faith Centre on 6140 2420. Is your son or daughter unsure of what to do this year? Suggest a Certificate IV course to discern God’s purpose for their life. They will also learn more about the Catholic faith and develop skills in communication and leadership. Acts 2 College of Mission & Evangelisation (National Code 51452). Enq: Jane 9202 6859. AA Alcoholics Anonymous Is alcohol costing you more than just money? Enq: AA 3253 5666. Saints and Sacred Relics Apostolate Invite SSRA, Perth invites interested parties, parish priests, leaders of religious communities, lay associations, to organise relic visitations to their own parishes, communities, etc. We have available authenticated relics, mostly first-class, of Catholic saints and blesseds including Sts Mary Mackillop, Padre Pio, Anthony of Padua, Therese of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe and Simon Stock and Blessed Pope John Paul II. Free of charge and all welcome. Enq: Giovanny 0478 201 092 or ssra-perth@ catholic.org. Enrolments, Year 7, 2014 La Salle College is now accepting enrolments for Year 7, 2014. For a prospectus and enrolment form please contact college reception on 9274 6266 or email lasalle@lasalle.wa.edu.au. Pellegrini Books Wanted An order of Sisters in Italy is looking for the following: The Living Pyx of Jesus, Fervourings From Galilee’s Hills, Fervourings From the LoveBroken Heart of Christ, Fervourings From the Lips of the Mast, Listening to the Indwelling Presence, Sheltering the Divine Outcast, Daily Inspection and Cleansing of the Living Temple of God, and Staunch Friends of Jesus, the Lover of Youth. If you are able to help, please contact Justine on 0419 964 624 or justine@waterempire.com. Secondhand Electric Organ Good working condition. Angela Vigolo would like to give it away to a good home; maybe a parish would like it? Enq: Angela 9276 9317. Thank you To all who attended and participated in the Africa Day Mass Celebration – God bless you and we will keep you updated with upcoming events. Bibiana Kwaramba.
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ACROSS 1 Priscilla and Aquila left here because the Jews were ordered out (Acts 18:2) 3 A non-coveting commandment 7 Bishop saint whose feast day is October 20 9 Nathan told David that taking Bathsheba was like stealing this (2 Sam 12:3) 10 Eve beginner 11 A fallen angel 12 Supreme ___ 13 “___ My God to Thee” 14 The Wise Men followed it 17 “Our Father who ___ …” 20 First Mass in Canada was celebrated on this peninsula 23 Cap under a nun’s veil 24 “Turn Back, ___” (“Godspell” song) 25 A Doctor of the Church 28 “… but do not notice the ___ that is in your own eye?” (Mt 7:3) 29 First place 31 Catholic singing group, The ___ Sisters 33 “Have ___ on us” 35 Martyred Salvadoran, Bishop Romero 37 A finish for Canaan 38 Med Christian empire 39 “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a ___” (I Jn 4:20) 40 Passover meal 41 “They are like any ___ in the house; it is said their hearts are eaten away” (Bar 6:19)
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6
THE NATION
therecord.com.au
June 20, 2012
Aussies line up in Milan OVER 60 Australians representing the Australian Bishops Conference, Australian dioceses and Catholic agencies attended the 7th World Meeting of Families in Milan this month. The Archdiocese of Perth was represented by the Boylen family – Derek and Karen Boylen, together with their six children and Derek’s parents. A group of 48 other Australian diocesan delegates travelled to the Milan gathering, led by Bishop Terry Brady, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and Ron and Mavis Pirola who chair the Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council. Included in the group were three families with five children each, most under the age of ten. The Pope had a luncheon with representatives of six continents. Australia was represented by Stuart and Donna Green of Parramatta Diocese together with two of their children, Jack – a seminarian – and Anna. One highlight for the Australians included Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pell and Bishop Brady at the church of St Satyrus which was built in 886; a famous pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages. “The whole meeting brought home to me not only the depth of our traditions but the universality of the Church,” commented one couple. Others found it a powerful reminder of the evangelising
Sydney Uni pro-life club clears final hurdle By Sarah Motherwell
Cardinal George Pell and Bishop Terry Brady with some of the Australian families attending the World Meeting of Families in Milan. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
potential of the ordinary events of daily life. “Our family is like a little world of its own within the whole world” said one mother. “We influence other families in that world by the way we live our lives.” World
Meetings of Families were inspired by Pope John Paul II and his strong interest in marriage and family. They have been held every three years since 1994, following a pattern similar to World Youth Day and attracting similar numbers.
An estimated 7,000 people from 153 countries participated in the preliminary three-day pastoral and theological Congress. A Family Expo, open to the public, was attended by an estimated 30,000 people.
Sydney bishops issue marriage pastoral LEGISLATING for same-sex marriage will change the meaning of marriage for everyone and radically reshape cultural and social structures, according to a pastoral letter in defence of marriage issued by the Sydney Archdiocese last week. It has been prompted by ongoing debate on same-sex marriage and outlines the Church’s case for marriage, including that same-sex marriage will not remove discrimination and injustice but cause them. “Marriage is more than having one’s love for another legally recognised,” states the letter from Archbishop of Sydney, George Cardinal Pell and the archdiocese’s auxiliary bishops, Bishops Julian
NSW
Porteous, Terry Brady and Peter Comensoli. “It has been protected and supported by the law because governments have recognised its contribu-
Bishop Porteous said he hoped priests would read the pastoral letter at Sunday Masses. tion to the good of society. “The family based on strong, happy marriage plays a unique role in generating children and providing the best environment in which children can be nurtured and edu-
CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH
PERSONAL ADVOCACY SERVICE Enabling people with intellectual disabilities to live full and valued lives.
REGIONAL COORDINATOR Personal Advocacy Service (PAS) provides one-to-one support for people with intellectual disabilities to enable them to live fully as active members of their local community. PAS is seeking a motivated person to coordinate the delivery of the Personal Advocacy program in small parish groups throughout the Archdiocese of Perth. Specifically, this person will support the development of volunteer advocates as they respond to the emotional, spiritual and social needs of people with intellectual disabilities. The successful applicant will display the following attributes: • a commitment to the Catholic faith • a level of comfort with people with disabilities • the capacity to work collaboratively in a team environment Ideally, the successful applicant will also possess: • tertiary qualifications in a relevant field • sound interpersonal and organisational skills • experience in primary/secondary teaching, pastoral ministry or disability/community services To obtain the full selection criteria and position description, please phone 9275 5388 or email admin@paswa.org.au Written applications, including a curriculum vitae and names and contact numbers of three referees, should be addressed to the Executive Director, Personal Advocacy Service, PO Box 1261, Morley WA 6943.
Applications close: Monday 9 July 2012
cated. It helps to ensure the future and wellbeing of society.” Parishioners were to receive the letter, Marriage: One Man and One Woman in a Covenant of Love and Life, last Sunday. Bishop Porteous said he hoped parish priests would read the letter on Sunday; however, a copy will be available for every parishioner. “We have also printed special bookmarks for parishioners which have eight frequently asked questions about marriage,” he said. “Questions like ‘Isn’t the right to marry a basic human right?’ and ‘Isn’t this discrimination against same-sex couples?’ and ‘Don’t same-sex couples have children and make good parents?’
“All of these issues are being raised and discussed and have resulted in some confusion in our community.” He said that he hoped the letter and bookmark will “help people understand the Church’s teaching, and why”. “Marriage is an institution between a man and a woman uniquely designed by God, as a source for their own happiness and as the means for the generation and formation of children,” he said. “I believe this pastoral letter will explain why and how the Catholic community upholds marriage and supports and defends those who are committed to this life-giving and ancient foundation of society.” - THE CATHOLIC WEEKLY, SYDNEY
Orthodox Primate declares lobbying ‘a sacred duty’ AN “URGENT encyclical” by the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, Sydney’s Archbishop Stylianos, was read out in Greek Orthodox parishes throughout the country last weekend. Australian members of state and federal parliaments would be voting on the legalisation of same-sex unions in coming weeks and the Orthodox bishops of the Episcopal Assemble of Oceania had “wasted
Orthodox opposition to same-sex marriage rests on sacredness of marriage and the family. no time in sending a written statement to the political authorities expressingour clear disagreement with the proposal,” he wrote. However, he pointed out, the Orthodox opposition to same-sex marriage was not because of any hostility to fellow Australians who
thought differently on the issue but because proposals to make samesex unions the legal equivalent of heterosexual marriage were “diametrically against the sacredness of marriage and of the family, as taught by the Christian faith and Greek Orthodox Tradition.” It was “[t]herefore a sacred duty of every responsible member of our Church ... to request that his or her local Member of Parliament vote ... against the Marriage Amendment Bill”. He said that nobody should be indifferent to the current struggle over the definition of marriage “as there is a danger that we will be overwhelmed by the well-organised ‘same-sex marriage’ lobby.” Archbishop Stylianos urged all members of his Church to write to their MPs through a website set up by the Greek Orthodox Church which offers an online capacity to lobby parliamentarians. A separate statement from the Greek Orthodox Church said the issue “is a challenge we cannot ignore and an opportunity to witness our faith”.
THE UNIVERSITY of Sydney approved its first pro-life student society earlier this month after the group’s initial application for funding was rejected. LifeChoice Sydney was voted 6-5 for approval on June 1 by the board of the student union at Australia’s oldest university and will now receive $4,000 in annual funding. It is thought LifeChoice Sydney, which aims to “promote the dignity of human life from conception to natural death”, is the first pro-life student group in Australia. Spokeswoman for LifeChoice Sydney, Isabella Whealing, said the group was told the initial application for approval was rejected because the group would not enrich student life. “We wouldn’t back down,” Miss Whealing said. “We really want to be student engaged in this dialogue – we want to discuss this for ourselves.” LifeChoice Sydney currently has 60 student union members as well as non-union supporters. While the group currently does not have a physical presence on campus, funding will be used to hold events such as guest speakers and documentary screenings. LifeChoice Sydney has a strong online presence with its own website, Facebook page and Twitter account where both support for the group and protests against their formation are expressed. A petition demanding the approval of LifeChoice Sydney be overturned has been set up on the website GetUp! Australia by University of Sydney’s women’s officer, Annabel Osborn. The petition, which currently has just over 2,000 signatures, states the group is not about freedom of speech or equal opportunity, but “about funding and giving legitimacy to a group whose sole target is women”. Miss Whealing said claims the group is against human or women’s rights are unfounded because people have not thought about what the group is really trying to affirm. “We are trying to affirm that from conception there is a life there and that life must be respected. I think this life at conception has really been underplayed in the debate surrounding abortion,” she said. “People who are pro-choice really want to ignore the other life that is involved.” “I think in a way it is a human rights issue, but we are just presenting the other side of the debate.”
VATICAN
Journalists ‘fantasise’ over Vatican plots THE VATICAN Secretary of State blamed an ongoing scandal over leaked Vatican documents on unethical journalists and a spirit of hostility toward the Catholic Church. “Many journalists play at imitating Dan Brown,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in an interview with the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana. “They continue to invent fables or repeat legends.” Cardinal Bertone made his remarks as Vatican judges were investigating leaks to Italian journalists of dozens of documents, including letters to the Pope and encrypted cables from Vatican embassies around the world, several of which hint at power struggles among officials of the Holy See. “The truth is that there is a malicious will to produce division” among the collaborators of Pope Benedict XVI, the Cardinal said. He likened the experience of the scandal, for the Pope and Vatican officials, to that of the crucifixion. - CNS
8
WORLD
therecord.com.au
June 20, 2012
UK marriage push ‘threatens churches’ PROPOSALS by the British government to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples will make the Catholic Church permanently and indefinitely vulnerable to the risk of legal action, said the bishops of England and Wales. Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, speaking on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, warned the government that its assurances that churches would not be compelled to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies were meaningless. The law could be amended at any time, he said, and might not withstand a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it contravened equality directives if homosexuals were not allowed to marry in churches. “The government’s proposed safeguards for the institution of marriage as understood and con-
ducted on religious premises are not proof against subsequent changes to legislation and are at early risk of challenge,” said Archbishop Smith. “By creating new legislation, the government would move the whole framework of marriage in such a way that issues which could not come before a court today could be contested at any point in the future,” he said on June 11. “No assurances the government could offer about religious freedom for religious bodies would be able to negate the permanent risk they had created,” he added. He said there will be a “permanent risk that any exemptions provided for religious bodies may be withdrawn at any point in the future, if they have not already been overturned as unlawfully discriminatory by domestic or European courts. The government announced its intentions to redefine marriage
in March and gave any interested parties until midnight on June 14 to make their positions known. But it has also made clear that the consultation is principally about how changes will be implemented. In a June 11 letter, Archbishop Smith told Theresa May, Britain’s home secretary, that it is “of serious concern to us that this proposal, which has such immense social importance for the stability of our society and which has significant implications for the unique institution of marriage and of family life, should be proposed on this basis and with such limited argument”. In the response, Archbishop Smith also criticised the government for totally ignoring the role of marriage in the procreation and education of children, pointing out that the proposals failed to mention children even once. Mainstream churches are
opposed to the proposed legislation, and a petition of more than half a million signatures has been raised to defend the status quo. A press release issued by the Scottish Catholic Media Office revealed workers could be fired for opposing unions between same-sex couples, priests could be sued for refusing to allow wedding ceremonies to take place in their churches, students would be forced to attend gay history lessons and couples would be rejected as foster parents if they opposed gay marriage, according to the June 12 statement drafted by Scotland for Marriage, an umbrella group that supports traditional marriage. The group includes the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland. The claims of the group rest on an expert legal opinion from Aidan O’Neill, a senior Scottish lawyer. - CNS
Bavarians celebrate Corpus Christi their way
US
Arizona bans tax dollars for abortion Governor Jan Brewer of the US state of Arizona signed legislation on May 4 that prevents the state of Arizona or any local government from using taxpayer dollars to contract with organisations that offer abortion as part of their services. Brewer signed the measure at a reception held in Scottsdale by the Susan B Anthony List, an organisation that works to elect pro-life candidates to public office. Although state law already prohibits the use of public monies for abortion, the new law closes loopholes that were allowing some funds to trickle through to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.
FRANCE
Guillotined priest to be canonised a martyr A Catholic priest has been beatified as a martyr more than two centuries after he was guillotined during the French Revolution. “This act of martyrdom invites us to live our communion with Jesus coherently and faithfully, despite wounds and sufferings of all sorts which modern society inflicts on the Gospel through its erroneous ideologies,” said Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes. “May his intercession help us be good Christians as well, strong and victorious in defence of our faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” he said during the homily at the April 29 beatification of Norbertine Father Pierre-Adrien Toulorge, 1757-1793, in the cathedral in Coutances. Fr Toulorge was publicly executed in the northern town for secretly ministering after the French government suppressed religious orders.
US
Christians reconcile over Klan murder
Bavarians pray on boats as they take part in a Corpus Christi procession on Staffelsee lake in Seehausen, Germany, on June 7. A Eucharistic procession is a traditional feature of the celebration of the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. PHOTO: MICHAELA REHLE, REUTERS
Vatican paper discovers its feminine side By Carol Glatz, cns VATICAN newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has launched a monthly insert dedicated to women, aiming to bring greater attention to their important but sometimes neglected role in the Church. The glossy, 4-page, colour supplement, which debuted on May 31 to mark the end of the month dedicated to Mary, is called “Women, church, world” and will run on the last Thursday of every month. The idea was proposed by female journalists at the paper as a way to “widen the coverage of the newspaper of the Holy See” by including more articles on women and the Church, the newspaper said. The front page will be dedicated to religious or lay women who play a critical role in the Church, yet whose contribution “is still hidden”, the paper said. In particular, L’Osservatore said, highlighting the work of about
740,000 women religious around the world – compared with only 460,000 priests and men religious – “will also help amend prejudices and preconceived notions about the Catholic Church and its attitude toward women”. The monthly insert will cover issues dealing with “life and the condition of women, without neglecting ‘hot button’ issues” such as “procreation, access to culture and emancipation”, the newspaper said. Like the main newspaper, it will include articles written by nonCatholic authors. Other regular features will include articles about women’s spirituality, issues relating to religious life and reviews of new books and movies. The May 31 edition featured a front-page interview with Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement. Other articles describe efforts by religious women to fight human trafficking; the recent
discovery that a well-known 18th-century book on spirituality, formerly attributed to a Jesuit
priest, was really written by a nun; and an in-depth reflection on St Joan of Arc.
More than 90 years after a Methodist clergyman killed a Catholic priest in Birmingham, members of both churches gathered to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. “There is no statute of limitations on forgiveness,” said Passionist Fr Alex Steinmiller, president of Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, during a service at Highlands United Methodist Church. The service focused on the August 11, 1921 murder of Fr James Edwin Coyle by the Rev Edwin Stephenson, who was angry with the priest for presiding over his daughter marrying a Puerto Rican man. Bishop William Willimon of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church called it “a national scandal” that Rev Stephenson was acquitted of the murder by a jury that included members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were influenced by both racist and anti-Catholic attitudes. The presiding judge, who denied an eyewitness to the murder an opportunity to testify, also was a Klansman.
COUNTRY
Chinese priest gets the numbers as Bishop
Women look a page of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano during a news conference at the Vatican on May 30. PHOTO: L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO
Fr Thaddeus Ma Daqin, approved by the Vatican, won a majority of votes as candidate to be the Diocese of Shanghai’s coadjutor bishop. One hundred and ninety of the eligible 205 diocesan priests, nuns and laypeople cast votes on May 30, reported UCA News. Fr Ma, whose exact age was unknown but was said to be in his 40s, was the only candidate for the representatives to consider. - CNS
MILESTONES
therecord.com.au June 20, 2012
9
Rio+20 ‘Green protectionism’ warning AS THE international community looks for ways to protect the environment while promoting development, it must keep the good of human beings and the protection of human dignity as its central goals, according to the Vatican. Among the points it makes in a position paper for the upcoming UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, the Vatican warns that efforts to promote a “green economy” of environmentally friendly goods and services could lead to “green pro-
tectionism”, rewarding technologically advanced countries and hurting the poor. The Vatican’s position paper was published on June 14 by L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. The Rio+20’s high-level discussions are scheduled for June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro. The Vatican position paper applauds the “unanimous consensus” that has emerged around the notion that “protecting the environment means improving peoples’ lives.” But, the Vatican says that
Catechism joins online growth
Protestors hit the streets to tell the President ‘No’
THE CATECHISM of the Catholic Church now has more of a presence in the increasingly popular world of e-books. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has made the Catechism available as a browserbased e-book at www.usccb.org/ beliefs-and-teachings/what-webelieve/catechism/catechism-ofthe-catholic-church/index.cfm. The Catechism is a compendium of Catholic beliefs structured around the four pillars of faith: creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer. The new e-book is free. The USCCB announcement about the latest e-book format comes at a time when more active readers are moving to e-books from traditional formats. A Pew study conducted in February shows 21 per cent of US adults say they read an e-book in the past year, compared with 17 per cent in December 2011 who said they had done so. Additional research shows that, overall, e-book owners are more likely to read than those who read via print formats. In late 2011, the USCCB accommodated that trend by releasing the e-book edition of the Catechism through Amazon, iTunes and the USCCB online bookstore. “Providing the Catechism in this particular electronic format will make this foundational resource even more accessible to people,” said Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City. - CNS
too often the international community focuses almost exclusively on technological solutions to environmental degradation and treats the problems human beings face as simply another set of technological challenges. “The process of development cannot be left to purely technical solutions, for in this way it would lack ethical direction,” the position paper says. And it is unethical to act as if human beings are simply obstacles to sustainable development. The key to simultaneously
protecting the environment, cleaning up pollution and triggering economic growth, the Vatican says, is “adopting and promoting in every situation a way of life which respects the dignity of each human being”, and promoting research and technology that safeguards creation without endangering persons. To be successful and truly benefit humanity, the discussions at Rio+20 “must not be muddied by blind partisan political, economic or ideological interests which shortsightedly put particular interests
above solidarity,” the Vatican says. In promoting an economy that minimises environmental damage and promotes conservation and preservation, the paper says, care must be taken to avoid “conditioning commerce and international aid” in a way that would become “a latent form of ‘green protectionism’” that would penalise countries who do not have access to advanced technologies and have economies heavily reliant on traditional uses of the environment such as farming, fishing and forestry. - CNS
Karli Snell, Monica Deardorff and Emily Sturgeon, members of a parish pro-life group, join hundreds for the “Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally” on June 8 in Chicago. Rallies held across the US took aim at the Obama administration’s HHS mandate that will require most employers, including Catholic organisations, to cover contraception and sterilisation procedures for employees. US Catholic bishops have repeatedly criticised the mandate. PHOTO: KAREN CALLAWAY, CATHOLIC NEW WORLD
Vatican proposes personal prelature to SSPX By Carol Glatz THE Vatican presented Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, its evaluation of the society’s position on a series of doctrinal questions as well as a draft document proposing the society become a personal prelature. “The ball is in the society’s court” to accept the Vatican’s response and clarifications made during a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Vatican officials in Rome on June 13, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman. Bishop Fellay, who was accompanied by an assistant, met with US Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, congregation secretary, and Mgr Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. During the meeting, Bishop Fellay was given the Holy See’s evaluation - including the opinion of Pope Benedict XVI - of the society’s April response to a “doctrinal preamble” that the bishop would
need to sign in order to reconcile the society with the rest of the Church, the Vatican said in a written statement released on June 14. “The subsequent discussion offered an opportunity to provide the appropriate explanations and clarifications” on both sides, it said. “Bishop Fellay illustrated the current situation” of the society and promised to give the Vatican a response “within a reasonable lapse of time”, the statement said. Also, Bishop Fellay was given a draft document “proposing a personal prelature as the most appropriate instrument for any future canonical recognition of the society”, it said. A personal prelature is a Church jurisdiction without geographical boundaries designed to carry out particular pastoral initiatives. It is headed by a prelate who is appointed by the Pope; currently, the Church’s only personal prelature is Opus Dei. When asked whether giving Bishop Fellay a formal proposal of a prelature was a sign the Vatican had approved the bishop’s response to the doctrinal preamble, Fr
Lombardi told journalists that all doctrinal differences had to be resolved before any formal recognition could be made. “However, evidently (the prelature proposal) was presented so that if the doctrinal issue is resolved, the canonical part is ready,” he said. The discussion process is “still open”, the Vatican spokesman said, but it seems the Vatican and the SSPX are “drawing closer to agreement in the formulation and presentation of the doctrinal questions” at hand. The Vatican statement said, “The hope was expressed that this additional opportunity for reflection would also contribute to reaching full communion between the Society of St Pius X and the Apostolic See”. Fr Lombardi said the Vatican is showing its willingness and availability to reach an agreement, but that now it is up to Bishop Fellay to respond to the Vatican’s position. The Vatican spokesman said the society would be holding its general chapter in July, which would be “an occasion for reflection and exchange” of ideas concerning its
next step. The statement reiterated that the Vatican would be dealing with the society’s three other bishops “separately and singularly,” and Fr Lombardi confirmed that only Bishop Fellay was actively engaged in discussions with the Vatican. While Bishop Fellay has been generally positive about the possibility of reconciliation with Rome, leaked letters show that the society’s three other bishops have had strong objections to such a move. Pope Benedict’s recent efforts to bring about reconciliation with the traditionalist group began when he lifted the excommunications incurred by Bishop Fellay and the three other SSPX bishops after they were ordained without papal permission. The Pope also established a Vatican committee for doctrinal talks with society representatives in 2009. In September, the Vatican gave Bishop Fellay the “doctrinal preamble” to explain the “minimal, essential” elements on which the society would have to agree for full reconciliation, Fr Lombardi had said. When the Vatican’s doctrinal dis-
cussions with the society began in 2009, both sides said the key issues to be discussed included the concept of tradition in general, as well as the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the liturgy, the unity of the Church, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. The society’s founder, the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who rejected some teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the modernising reforms instituted in its wake, was excommunicated for ordaining Bishop Fellay and the three other bishops without papal permission in 1988. In April, Bishop Fellay submitted to the Vatican his second official response to the “doctrinal preamble”, outlining what the Vatican said were “some doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary to guarantee fidelity” to the formal teaching of the Church, presumably including the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The bishop’s reply was studied by the cardinal-members of the doctrinal congregation and, ultimately, by Pope Benedict. - CNS