The Record Newspaper 13 July 2006

$8 million success

million.

Project Compassion, Caritas Australia’s annual fundraising campaign, is the largest humanitarian effort in the country.

This achievement wraps up what has been a very successful year for Caritas Australia, raising over $23.9 million for overseas aid and development projects.

“We are overwhelmed by the response of our donors who have lived out the theme of this year’s campaign and shown ‘Compassion in Action’”, said Mr Jack de Groot, Chief Executive Officer of Caritas Australia.

“The generosity of the Australian public is a direct acknowledgement of Caritas Australia’s ability to respond effectively to humanitarian needs”, he said.

The international Caritas network, a confederation of 162 Catholic aid agencies, is contributing to the alleviation of poverty worldwide through its long term partnerships in Asia, the Pacific and Africa.

“Our work during the Asian Tsunami, the Pakistan Earthquake and in East Timor and Yogyakarta in the last few months has demonstrated to the Australian public that we are an agency who delivers.

“Our response to emergencies and commitment to long-term development has increased our support from the Australian public this year,” said Mr de Groot.

Those who donated to Project Compassion this year have made it possible for families in Tanzania, to have easy, safe access to drinking water. Money raised through Project Compassion will be going towards projects such as the building of water tanks and pipes in Tanzania, improving communal health.

“We acknowledge the efforts of schools, parishes and all individuals across Australia who have given hope to communities in need. Your money really does go a long way to ensuring that poverty is made history,” said Mr de Groot.

Sunday,

Prisons minister acknowledges volunteers

Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk has acknowledged the dedicated service of volunteers at Bunbury Regional Prison visitors’ centre on its fifth birthday this month.

Ms Quirk marked the milestone by presenting framed certificates to the volunteers who welcome and provide support to people visiting the prison’s inmates.

Most volunteers are members of the St Vincent de Paul Society.

The Minister singled out Roger Liebmann and Sister Bridie Quinn for their guiding roles at the visitors’ centre and many years of dedicated service.

“Volunteers at the centre do an outstanding job of welcoming visitors to the prison and many also pay visits to prisoners,” she said.

“They don’t get a lot of acknowledgement for their work so I was glad to have the chance to meet the

Continued on page 3

The Most Reverend Anthony Fisher OP, DD,

(Hons),

BTheol (Hons), DPhil

Bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney

After

their own four children, Paul and Mary Zarpentine decided to adopt six children: Beth, 13, Toby, 7, Marissa, 6, Tommy, 7, Kareem, 5, and Jessylyn, 8.

PHOTO: CNS

about their other 150 children: Vista 1

The effort begins: The Australian Bishop responsible for organising World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney will present an information evening at Notre Dame University in Fremantle this Sunday evening. It promises to be a stimulating and fascinating evening.

YCS tackle negative body image

In an image obsessed world, dignity loses respect.

Perth Young Christian Students (YCS), held a “Healthy Happy Bodies” seminar on June 28 at the University of Notre Dame with over 200 high school students from across the metropolitan area participating in the day’s activities. The event promoted positive body image and self esteem in highschool students and was part of YCS’s larger campaign to fight the negative impact of poor body image in today’s society.

Year nine Chantelle Ferreria (Infant Jesus Parish YCS leader) said “body image is a major concern for many high school students and I am proud to be part of a campaign that is trying to make a difference in the students’ reality.”

YCS Worker Vicky Burrows said that YCS believed in the dignity of the individual and the potential for everyone to achieve. “In today’s image obsessed society this dignity is not always respected, particularly when we look at images in the media. This is why this campaign is so important for young people,” she said.

The day was organised by a committee of students from various YCS groups, with the assistance of the Perth YCS Workers. The day included a variety of guest speakers who presented on areas concerning social, mental, physical, and spiritual

health. Jane Roberts, from Young Media Australia, presented an enjoyable session on the influence of the media on young people.

Margaret Maassen, a consultant for student well being at the Catholic Education Office, explored the psychological wellbeing of students and its effect on body image. Joanna Lawson, from the Respect Life Office, looked at the spiritual side of our bodies.

The students heard the experi-

The Body Image campaign was initiated by a group of YCS students at a Perth high school who where concerned about their friends negative attitudes towards their bodies.

ences of young people who had gone through an eating disorder and learnt about good exercise and eating habits. The Body Image campaign was initiated by a group of YCS students at a Perth high school who were concerned about their friends’ negative attitudes towards their bodies. This was leading them to experiment with crash diets and generally experiencing feelings of dissatisfaction and depression.

Perth YCS realised it was a major issue for young people, not just at that school but for a majority of people in today’s society. These

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The Record is a weekly publication distributed through parishes of the dioceses of Western Australia and by subscription.

In Control: “Happy, Healthy Bodies” attended the YCS forum on body image.

beliefs were validated by surveys carried out by YCS in 2005, which found that body image was one of the major concerns.

For more information call Vicky Burrows on 0412529656, 94227911 or email perth@aycs.org.au.

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Teachers head to Japan

The experience of student exchange has always been wonderful and rewarding. This year, primary school staff are about to take “global education” a step further.

Sacred Heart Primary School in Thornlie is hosting junior high school students and educators from Toyomatsu Village, Japan as they have for the past six years. A dynamic, memorable experience, but this year it is extra special. 2006 is the official Year Of Exchange between Australia and Japan.

To commemorate this occasion, ten educators from Sacred Heart PS and one from St Joseph are reciprocating the exchange and conducting lessons at Toyomatsu Junior High School during the school holidays in October.

The “Teach the Teacher” project commemorating this special occasion, is an exciting venture for the staff of Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School.

By starting at the grass-root level, they are hoping to further

develop the school‘s approach to education by developing an international curriculum.

Living in a multi-faith, multiculture, multi-national society provides many challenges for teachers working in today’s society. The world is no longer a big place.

A tour of this kind has not yet occurred in primary education and they hope to further promote the concept throughout education.

LOTE (Languages Other Than English) is a learning area that can be integrated throughout the curriculum. Support from the community and fellow educators has been wonderful.

In addition, the school has received written support from the Governor of Western Australia, and the Consulate-General Of Japan, Mr Hiroyuki Ariyoshi, verbally expressed his support for the proposal.

The Australian Embassy is impressed with the venture and has licensed the group to travel below the YOE logo and promotion.

Something new: Japanese teachers experience a considerably diverse culture.

Family praise

Pope to focus on Love, not Controversy

As Benedict XVI left for Valencia, he explained to the 64 journalists who accompanied him on the plane that his visit is a message of encouragement to families, not controversy. As Pope John Paul II used to do, the German Pontiff peered through the curtains to the section of the plane reserved for journalists, accompanied by Joaquín Navarro Valls, director of the Vatican press office, to speak with them and to respond to two questions in Italian.

Explaining the meaning of his visit to “beautiful Spain,” the Holy Father said: “I only wish to take a message of encouragement.”

The journalists’ first question referred to the contrast between the message on the family transmitted by the Church and the new Spanish laws which recognise, for example, homosexual marriage, including the adoption of children.

“I would not like to begin imme-

diately with the negative aspects, because I am thinking of families that love one another, that are happy. We want to encourage this reality which is the reality that gives hope for the future,” he said.

“There are also problems, points where the Christian faith says ‘no,’ it is true, and we want to make it understood that, precisely according to the nature of the human being, man and woman are ordered one for the other, and that they are also ordered to give a future to humanity,” he continued. “Therefore, we underline these positive things and in that way we make it understood why the Church cannot accept certain things.”

A journalist asked Benedict XVI how he is preparing for his trip to Bavaria, Germany, next September.

The Pope replied, “on one hand, I prepare texts and on the other I prepare my heart. In this aspect I must say that my heart is always open for Germany, as it is for Spain.” - Zenit.org

Defending the dignity of ageing

Caritas Spain, the Crescendo Network and the Ascendant Life Movement presented the book “The Pope and the Elderly.,” during the International Fair of Families being held in Valencia in the context of the 5th World Meeting of Families, which the Pope visited on July 8-9.

The book, published by Caritas-

Spain, is meant to contribute to the “defense of the dignity” of the elderly and to sensitise public opinion to the “need to promote a Christian and human aging process,” said Concha Guillén, director of Valencia’s diocesan Caritas.

Those presenting the book lamented that at present, “the economic view prevails, in which the person who doesn’t produce doesn’t count.” However, the elderly “have much to contribute and to transmit to society, in collaboration with the Church.”

Volunteers rewarded

Continued from page 1 volunteers last week and thank them for the compassion they show.

“Such is their dedication, I understand the centre has only been closed on two days since it first opened.” The volunteers welcome visitors to the prison site at the purpose-built venue, opened in July 2001, providing them with refreshments and support with prison

visitor administration. Ms Quirk presented the certificates during a luncheon for the volunteers at the prison last week.

The Minister was in Bunbury to announce the state’s first personal duress alarm system had started at Bunbury Regional Prison.

All prisons will be fitted with the alarms, to improve staff safety, at a cost of $5.5million.

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I’m John Hughes, WA’s most trusted car dealer

Do I guarantee that when people come to do business with me, they will be treated with courtesy, sincerity, professionalism and ef ciency?

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

Is it true that I have over 40 technicians who are dedicated to getting my used cars in rst class condition before sale?

Is it true that every year for the last 17 consecutive years

I ve been Australia s top selling Hyundai dealer?

Is it true that if somebody buys a used car from me, I will pay for a pre-purchase RAC or similar inspection?

I have a warehouse selling cars under $10,000. Is it true that I offer a full money back guarantee within one week?

Fifth World Metting of Families: Pilgrims gather in Spain with Pope Benedict XVI, who reaffirmed that marriage must be based on the union between one man and one woman.

Photo: CNS

A book containing messages to the elderly from Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II is meant to contribute to the defence of the dignity of the aging.

Welcome appreciation: Minister Quirk rewards St Vincent de Paul volunteers.

Evangelisation initiative to hit Perth

By Mark Reidy

Preparations for the Impact World Tour (IWT), a citywide evangelising campaign coming to Perth in February 2007, are shifting into second gear. Christians of all denominations are invited to join together in three evenings of prayer, worship and unity on July 27-29 to plant the spiritual seeds that aim to transform the city when IWT commences its seven-week program.

The Tour, which was successfully conducted in Western Australia’s Midwest region earlier this year, is

designed to bring the power and relevance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to today’s youth in an exciting and contemporary way. Over 100 evangelists and missionaries from around the world will converge on Perth for the event and will address young people in schools and churches as well as holding evangelistic nights in large public venues. The Gospel messages of love, life and freedom in Christ will be conveyed through music, dance, extreme sports and entertainment, in a way that is designed to attract and challenge young people.

The goal for the July threeday prayer Conference, entitled “Transform”, is to spiritually pre-

Charismatic conference to be held in South West town

“Awake My Heart” is the theme for the Charismatic Conference being presented by the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community (HSOF) in Pemberton on August 11-13.

Conference Co-ordinator, Betty Namnik said that the idea for the title was inspired by the image of an enflamed heart received by a member of the organising Committee. “Our hope is that the hearts of participants will be awakened and enflamed to the power of the Holy Spirit”, Mrs Namnik said, “So that they are able to embrace the cross in their lives, as Jesus did, and be raised to a new life in Him”.

The annual Conference, the ninth presented by the Community for the Bunbury Diocese, will include Praise and worship, teachings, sharings, testimonies, the Eucharist,

Reconciliation, Prayer Ministry and Christian Fellowship.

Ron Ng, who first attended the Conference in 2002, shared that his family’s life had been transformed by the experience. He said that he was inspired by the gentle openness and Christian love that he experienced there. “The Festival’s vision of spiritual healing, renewal and meeting God in a very real way, sounds simple”, he said, “but is so lacking in our busy lives”. He encourages others to share the experience. “Come and see”, he said, “We liked it so much that we moved to Pemberton in 2004.”

For further enquiries or to book for the Conference contact Meryl (08) 9772 1172 or Marcelle (08) 9776 1522.

For accommodation options contact the Pemberton Visitors Centre

pare, unite and encourage Perth Christians for the IWT campaign.

During a visit to Perth late last year, IWT International Director, Mark Anderson said that he believed that Perth was spiritually ripe for revival. Having witnessed thousands of young people dedicating their lives to Christ through IWT campaigns in the USA, South America, India, New Zealand and other places, he believes that Perth is on the brink of an unprecedented movement of the Holy Spirit.

The goal of IWT is to work hand in hand with local churches of all denominations so that ongoing discipleship is available for converts after the campaign.

Kaye Rollings of Flame Ministries International is the Catholic representative on the IWT Board of Reference in Perth and is excited by the potential of the 2007 Tour. “We are anticipating that many Catholics who have fallen away will come back to the Church as a result of this campaign”, she said. She is hoping as many Catholics as possible become involved in preliminary events such as “Transform”. Youth Leaders in particular are encouraged to attend, as young people seeking further faith development after the IWT campaign, will be directed to their local parishes.

The July 27-29 “Transform” Conference will be held at 154

Balcatta Rd, Balcatta and will commence with prayer and worship at 6.15pm each evening.

This will be followed by talks from International speakers. Admission is free but participants will be given the opportunity to contribute to the campaign.

As tickets are limited for this preliminary and vital stage of IWT, those attending must register online at www.transformperth.com to confirm their seats. If you do not have access to the Internet you can contact 9478 6652.

For further information on how to become involved in the IWT campaign, contact Kaye Rollings on 9382 3668.

Mosman enjoys Archbishop’s visit

Archbishop Barry James Hickey visited the Parish of CottesloeMosman Park from June 30 to July 2.

The agenda for the visitation was completely full since our Parish serves the pastoral needs of three suburbs, five nursing homes and

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two schools. The Archbishop met with Parish workers and then visited Iona Primary School.

The students were happy to welcome him into their classrooms to show their love for God, the Church and their teachers.

They sang for him, displayed their projects and chatted with him.

The afternoon was dedicated to the administration of the parish and he also met with the Principal of Iona Presentation College.

On Saturday Archbishop Hickey met with the clergy and those involved in the parish such as the parish council, acolytes, sacristans, special ministers, children’s liturgy and catechists and other groups

within our parish. He encouraged us all to continue and to start the building of a parish centre as well as the ‘beautification’ of the Mosman Park Church.

Our day concluded with the celebration of the Eucharist with the Neo-Catechumenal communities

Sunday was the day dedicated to the parishioners. The Archbishop attended all our Masses including the Spanish Mass at Mosman Park.

The visit of our Shepherd has brought to the parish a renewed courage and hope to continue our evangelisation in this part of the Archdiocese.

- Fr Milton Arias

WANTED: VOLUNTEER WORKERS

KIMBERLEY CATHOLIC VOLUNTEER SERVICE

The Diocese of Broome, Western Australia urgently requires volunteers - particularly couples - to serve at the remote Mission at Kalumburu. Duties include any of the following – cooking, working in the Mission shop, building and general grounds maintenance, vehicle maintenance and housekeeping.

Placements are preferred for a period of twelve months but a reduced time would be considered.

For further details and an application form please contact: Kerry or Merrilyn Purcell

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email: info@broomediocese.org

PO Box 76, Broome WA 6725

Meeting the boss: Iona College students meet the Archbishop and show off some of their projects during his parish visit.

Arrested: Bishop Zhiguo

Chinese arrest bishop after surgery

Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, 72, was arrested while still in hospital recovering from an operation. There has been no trace of him since the arrest last Sunday.

The US-based Cardinal Kung Foundation sent ZENIT a communiqué stating that on June 25, Bishop Jia Zhiguo of the underground Church, who is bishop of the Zheng Ding Diocese, was arrested by Religious Affairs Bureau personnel in Hebei.

According to the communiqué, the authorities removed the bishop from the hospital before his medical care was completed.

Local Catholics questioned the religious affairs office about his whereabouts and were told that the bishop had been sent away for a few days of “education.”

There is no further information on his situation, the communiqué reports.

Ordained a bishop in 1980, he has lived virtually the whole of his episcopal ministry under house arrest and was previously imprisoned for approximately 20 years. It is estimated that this is the ninth or 10th arrest suffered by Bishop Jia Zhiguo since January 2004.

Hebei is the Chinese region with the greatest concentration of Catholics, numbering over 1.5 million, most of whom belong to the underground Church.

- Zenit.org

Bishops to highlight gifts of disabled

Hope book will be part of “a wonderful process”

Bishop Max Davis, Australian bishops’ delegate on disability issues, has called for contributions to a book focusing on the gifts of disabled people to be published in December for the International Day for People with Disabilities.

“I really expect that the publication of this book will provoke yet another step in a wonderful process, which will enrich our Church community’s appreciation of the presence of Jesus in our midst – a pres-

ence which is so rich in diversity,” said Bishop Davis.The book is part of the Australian bishops’ new focus to the many gifts and blessings that people with a disability and their families can bring to the life of the Church, Bishop Davis said.

“I am looking forward to listening and learning from those who have a disability and to taking every opportunity to ensure that the whole Church community becomes more aware of the gifts of grace that are being offered,” he said.

The Australian bishops started a dialogue at a national level in

September 2004 when the former Bishops’ Committee for the Family and for Life launched its pastoral document for parishes, entitled “I Have a Story.”

“We are really asking people to consider writing an article for this publication. The submissions we receive will be a perfect example of what can be achieved,” said Disability Consultant for the Bishops Committee, Patricia Mowbray.

For more information contact Patricia Mowbray on: (02) 6201 9868, or email: disability@catholic. org.au.

Churches unite to fight poverty

By Sylvia Defendi

2 Billion Christians, one goal: make poverty history

Caritas, World Vision, TEAR and Compassion have united with the Micah Challenge in organising a day of information, which they believe could be a grand leap in the fight to abolish extreme poverty across the globe.

The aptly named Micah Challenge campaign, seeks to invite and equip Christians to follow the teachings of scripture, “to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8),” by playing an important role in making poverty history.

Running from 10am to 12.30pm on Saturday July 29, at the Nedlands

Uniting church, 237 Princess Road, the informative event, titled What Can One Church Do?, will focus on practical and effective ways to help promote and raise awareness of poverty in local Churches and among the broader community, and equip them with the means through which to make a difference to a poverty stricken life.

“A child dies every three seconds,

completely unnecessarily, as a result of extreme poverty. The Micah Challenge is to make this statistic history, through the prayers and actions of two billion Christians world wide,” said Terry Crestwell, event organiser.

A global Christian movement, the Micah Challenge Campaign calls on Christians of every denomination to actively strive for justice, by standing by the poor and powerless and work for a fairer world.

A firm believer in the exciting potential young Christians can bring in the fight against extreme poverty, Mr Crestwell said everyone could encourage Australian

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and other leaders to keep the promise they made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which if adhered to would halve extreme global poverty by 2015.

“This would change the lives of one billion people living in desperate poverty,” he said.

Morning tea will be provided on the day for a small donation towards the Micah Challenge Campaign.

To RSVP or for further information contact: Judith Woodward (Caritas) 9422 7925; Helen Milo (World Vision) 9325 7665; Andrew Broadbent (TEAR) 9443 5100 or Lester Sutton (Compassion) 9307 5507.

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Wrong side of the tracks: This 1999, file photo shows an overview of one shantytown outside the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It houses some 20,000 poor Argentines and immigrants from neighboring Latin American countries.

What a birthday

In reference to the letter in the Record of the 25th May –“St Dominic was Spanish” - yes, there was a print error in the short article. However, I am wondering if Jerome realised the utmost importance of the article was to point out that “we” Dominicans are celebrating 800 years of Dominican Lifewhich is being celebrated in various ways throughout the world by our Friars, Cloistered Nuns, Apostolic Sisters and over one hundred thousand Lay Dominicans.

I thank you for the article mentioned above and the effort in correcting and drawing attention to the life of Dominic. You actually managed to get more information in your letter than I have been able to do on several occasions.

After all, how many identities in Australia do we read about celebrating 800 year Anniversaries? Exactly! Not many.

June Ross – Lay Dominican zonal coordinator for the Pacific Region

Medjugorje trouble

I refer to recent articles that have appeared in The Record, both of which cast undue doubt on the apparitions that have supposedly occurred at Medjugorje during the past 25 years.

The undercurrent in these articles has been notably one-sided and I question the motives of The Record for adopting this approach.

I record that I have never visited Medjugorje. However, what I do know about Medjugorje is largely influenced by the experience of others and, more importantly, the positive changes and growth in faith

Perspectives

that have occurred in those pilgrims lives.

It is worth recording a few points about apparition sites, with particular reference to Medjugorje:

- Apparition sites cannot be approved until the apparitions cease, which is yet to happen at Medjugorje. Only then can serious consideration be given to the process of investigating and establishing the validity of the site

- No Church authority, least of all the Vatican, has impeded or banned pilgrimages or visits to Medjugorje or related websites. In fact, I understand that the Bishop of Mostar visits Medjugorje on a regular basis to monitor developments

- Consider the good fruits of Medjugorje which include millions of pilgrims, prayers, heartfelt confessions, conversions and an increase in vocations, especially in the US, hardly the work of the devil!

To draw unjust inferences, as your reviewer does, from the large houses and constant foreign travel of the visionaries, is disingenuous, if not dishonest. Does that imply that anyone living in a large house is at fault and what about the extensive travel of the late Pope John Paul II?

Whilst I recognise that the Church might eventually decide against the validity of Medjugorje, until that time, it would be prudent to keep an open mind. Bear in mind that all approved sites such as Lourdes, Fatima etc were also once subject to conjecture and debate before approval.

It is very disappointing that The Record has deemed it appropriate to print misinformation, in what appears to be an unbalanced review of a book, itself of dubious credentials. Further, the inability of The Record to correctly spell Medjugorje

on the front cover and on page 10 of the issue dated 25 May 2006 does nothing for credibility.

Geoff Storey Hillarys

Trends have causes

People should be particularly horrified and disgusted by recent crimes, the increasing number of sexual assaults on women and children and crimes of assault against persons and property.

There will be no solution to these crimes that are becoming more common by reintroducing the death penalty or by the Judiciary handing down harsher penalties.

There are two definable causes.

The most perceptible cause is the role of the State and Federal Parliaments and the powerful educative effect of the laws enacted in the latter part of the twentieth century.

Many of the changes in moral values have been brought about by deliberate social engineering by politicians who understood that the law is, in fact, the strongest educative agency of all. Their real purpose in seeking to change the law in relation to questions containing a large moral dimension, like marriage, sexuality, the value of human life, and pornography is primarily to change the community’s view on normality and morality.

If an immoral matter has become legally acceptable it soon becomes socially acceptable. In the effluxion of time, what is socially acceptable becomes morally permissible as well. Thus by a kind of rule of consequence, we reach the situation that, for most, what is legal is as good a guide to practical morality as any other.

The other cause is that the majority of Australians have abandoned the Judeo-Christian teaching, the belief in God and the acceptance of the precepts that are embodied that have beneficially influenced and guided the civil government of humanity for centuries.

The evidence is that almost ninety percent of Australians practice no religion. Have we become a pagan nation and get the government that we deserve?

Brian A Peachey Woodlands

Mass translation

Recently, I read with interest the report in The Record on the new translation of the Mass.

One of the reported changes is to the Nicene Creed, changed from; “We believe...” to, “I believe...”

I wonder if someone could answer why for some time now, every Sunday, some parishes on their large overhead screens show the Nicene Creed with the words;

“For us and our salvation”... instead of; “for us men and for our salvation...” ?

Did Rome authorise this change and when? Or is this just another unauthorized change by local parish liturgy committees.

Eric Natta Willetton

A little saint

To give some comfort to the parents, friends, students of Mater Christi Primary School and parishioners of the Archdioce of Perth in the brutal murder of Sofia, there are many similarities to this unfor-

tunate innocent death to that of St Maria Goretti, feast day July 6.

If the Catholic Church members in Australia were to pray to little Sofia in heaven for their intentions, help and cures, and they are answered, there could be a cause for her name to be put forward for sainthood in the future, giving Australia untold graces and blessings.

My deepest sympathy to all who knew her.

Harry Joseph Argus Kalgoorlie

Where was mummy?

The article Mummy what did you do during the war? (Record 22/6) highlights both the satanic ethos behind the abortion industry and a basic contradiction of the feminist movement.

Abortion not only kills small human persons in the millions, but ensures much psychological and spiritual damage to those left behind.

The feminist movement has nothing to say about sex selection because it cannot jeopardise their hard-fought-for ‘right’ for women to kill their child in the womb. Any jeopardy of this so called ‘right’ would undermine their whole raison d’etre.

Irrespective of the number of female children aborted in Asia, India, China, or anywhere else for that matter, not a sound will be heard from those whose ethos is based on the Margaret Sanger model.

Lastman

Anne

founder, Victims of Abortion Melbourne

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The Magnificat Fertility Care Centre

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162

Adoptive, foster families share their love with children

By Jennifer Burke

New York couple Jean and John Platt opened their home to more than 150 children during the 17 years they were foster parents. Each of those children holds a special place in their hearts, but four of them now occupy another niche as well.

Four years ago, the Platts adopted four siblings for whom they had previously cared as foster parents. The children’s biological mother, who was dying, asked the Catholic couple to adopt her children and keep the siblings together as a family, Jean Platt said.

“Six months after the adoption, our 6year-old said to me, ‘If you love one of the foster children more, will you give me back?’”

But the decision to adopt had an unforeseen effect on their commitment to continue serving as foster parents. “Six months after the adoption, our 6-year-old said to me, ‘If you love one of the foster children more, will you give me back?’” Platt recalled.

The question broke Platt’s heart, and she and her husband soon left the foster-care program operated by the Monroe County Department of Health and Human Services. “We want these children to know they’re permanent,” she said.

While the Platts’ story is unique, the hundreds of foster and adoptive parents sprinkled throughout the 12-county Diocese of Rochester likewise have tales to tell. Foster and adoption programs are operated by most New York counties, and several other agencies - such as Rochester’s Catholic Family Centre - also offer spe-

Hello, baby

PHOTO:

required by Monroe County and went on to care for 60 to 80 children during 17 years as foster parents.

They have adopted seven children and - with such a full house again - have dropped out of the foster-care system.

Stephen Fezer chose to become a foster parent when his 17-yearold son was preparing to go away to college. Fezer fosters unattended refugee minors through the Catholic Family Centre and is currently caring for a 14-year-old boy from Rwanda.

“There’s so many places in the world where there’s civil war, AIDS and famine, and you can decide to make a difference for one person,” he said. “You can’t save the world, but you can save one person.”

People often choose to adopt children for the same reasons others choose to foster them.

Rich and Deb Rasmussen, who belong to St Francis Parish in Interlaken, recently adopted an infant through the Catholic Family Centre.

The Rasmussens started the process five years ago, and originally thought they would like to adopt an infant from overseas. But each time they came close to adopting through an international adoption agency, another obstacle sprang up.

“Finally our social worker, last April, suggested we throw our hat in the ring for the domestic adoptions. Eight months later we got a phone call,” said Rich Rasmussen, who is youth minister at Immaculate Conception Parish in Ithaca.

cialised foster-care and adoption services.

Kim McConnell, casework supervisor with Monroe County’s Foster Care Homefinding Unit, said between 800 and 900 children are regularly in basic foster care in the county, so her department is always looking for new foster families.

“We’re not looking for perfect people. We’re looking for people who love kids,” McConnell said. People become foster parents for a variety of reasons, but many choose to do so because they have a real love of kids or because they

feel they’ve been blessed and want to give something back, she said. Such was the case with the Platt family.

The couple has one biological son, now 29, but they felt called to share their love with other children as well. “I wanted more kids, but God would only give me one child of my own because he wanted me to leave room in my heart for all of the other children that needed me,” Jean Platt told the Catholic Courier, newspaper of the Rochester Diocese.

Mary Zarpentine, another former foster parent, said children

who come from situations of abuse or neglect deserve the chance to have a good life. “They’re children. They didn’t ask to be born; they didn’t ask to come into the fostercare system, but they’re here. They should have the right to a stable home,” she said.

Zarpentine and her husband, Paul, became foster parents in 1986. Although they had four biological children, their family just didn’t seem big enough, she said.

The Zarpentines - who belong to St John the Evangelist Parish in Spencerport - completed the 10week foster-parent training course

In January 2006, the Rasmussens welcomed little Mia into their home. “God’s hand was in it,” Rich Rasmussen said.

One of the hardest things about being a foster parent is watching a foster child leave your home, Jean Platt said. The first child her family took in was an infant they brought home from the hospital and even named.

“I thought it would hurt so much to give him away. It did, but it made me feel good inside that I did a good thing,” Platt said. “That’s the only way I could let go of each one when they moved out.”

Rich and Deb Rasmussen of New York play with their 4-month-old daughter, Mia, whom they recently adopted. The process was not easy. Years were spent working with an international adoption agency before successful adopting at home.

CNS

Amazing - and disturbing? - and

JINGPING WONG, a graduate engineer who is now studying at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne, reflects on “The Amazing Human Body” exhibition now showing in Perth

The production of artificiallymanufactured models of human bodies and parts for the public and educational display is not uncommon and has not been known to have caused notable ethical controversies.

But what if these human bodies and parts are not artificially manufactured, but are of real human people?

Currently, eighteen whole body ‘specimens’ of real people who are deceased, are put on display for the public at the Perth Convention Centre.

The popular “The Amazing Human Body” exhibition has toured through Australian cities and has been open in Perth since June this year.

Using radical methods, it showcases various real human organs and parts.

One exhibit called “specimen J – horizontal slices” for example, is an entire human body cut into 1cm pieces to display the full length of the body’s cross sections.

Other displays include whole skinned bodies posed in various ‘live’ sports postures with one body holding a tennis racquet, another set on skis and another on a bicycle. Of all the whole bodies displayed only one is of a woman, labeled “specimen M – the female”.

A New Zealand news article reports that the ‘specimens’ include real unborn babies. This commercial exhibition has attracted the attention of many curious-minded audiences.

The exhibition has been labeled by critics as a “freak show”, and has also aroused significant ethical controversy.

Underneath the good-willed scientific, medical and educational grounds of this commercial exhibition lie some prodding questions: who are these deceased people? where are they from? how did they die? how did they become collected for a public showcase?

These questions, most likely accompanied by a sense of eeriness, may well have come to the minds of the average curious spectator.

A couple of short statements are offered to some of these questions in the official exhibition website: “The exhibit focuses on the nature of [human] bodies, not on providing personal information”.

Although the website also states that donors “bequeathed that…their bodies could be used in this exhibition for educational purposes”, a Sydney Morning Herald news video reported that “the bodies were left unclaimed in China and…were donated to…the Dalian Medical Research for Plastination.”

Apart from the brief address of these points, the website, promotional material and mainstream media coverage of the exhibition have primarily applauded the impressiveness of its methods of display and praised it as an effective and “fascinating” tool for scientific and medical education for Australians.

Yet, the many questions remain unanswered.

At least two important concerns need to be raised.

The first is an ethical issue about the respect of personal dignity of the deceased people and of the viewers.

Does the means of exhibiting human corpses for the purposes of scientific promotion, in a public and commercial setting, protect and uphold the value of the person and the person’s body that is used?

This type of public display is vastly differ-

ent from the exposition of corpses in a legitimate context for categorised viewers such as in the case of a university anatomy class.

Here, in a strictly classified and safe environment, there is a measure of respect for the corpses of the deceased people.

Further, for the people viewing the corpse, they are doing so in safe-guarded circumstances along with a presupposed frame of mind to anticipate what they are about to see. In contrast, displaying corpses in a public setting provides no safety barriers to protect the dignity of the body of the deceased person.

Neither is the unassuming spectator, be it a young child or an older person, protected from the visual shock that the exhibit can generate.

The second issue, which is related to the first, deals with the dualistic ideology that this exhibition carries, that can influence the way our culture understands the human person.

Putting human bodies on public display for the sake of gaining disciplinary knowledge has the effect of divorcing the person’s identity from the body and thus trivialising the body. It risks allowing a person who is viewing the body to see a nameless composite of material parts that is given to the disposal of others.

Is the human body, then, much differ-

One exhibit called “specimen J – horizontal slices” is an entire human body cut into 1cm pieces to display the full length of the body’s cross sections.

era which heralded the human rational mind as the highest order and at the same time jettisoned all sense of mystery and sacred value from the physical order of creation. This ideology still exists in our world today and it affects the way our culture sees and treats the human person and the body.

Coupling this with the gradual but forceful separation and removal of ethics from science makes way for the utilisation of the human body for certain ends at the expense of the sacredness of the body, both in life and death.

Amongst many of today’s secular projects, the human body exhibition is yet another example of the mistreatment of the human body and the denigration of its dignity.

Students win recognition among Australia’s best as... Masters of Fashion Masters

Lavish garments designed and created by Santa Maria College year 12 visual arts students were paraded at the prestigious Australian Masters of Fashion show, in Melbourne, during the last week of June.

Alex King, Holly Kagis, Emily Eisentrager and Hannah Hughes were entered for judging, last month, in the Student Designer Category among entrants with University or TAFE equivalent skills.

Excepting Ms Hughes, who was not able to attend, the three students mingled with prominent fashionistas at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, where professional models showcased all entries and the prizewinners from seven categories were announced.

Among the honoured, were Emily Eisentrager and Hannah Hughes who made it to the top eight of their category – “an outstanding achievement in a total of 40 entrants,” applauded the head of art and design at Santa Maria College, Lisa Bowden.

The garments submitted by the Santa Maria students were designed and created over a school term as assessment pieces in their Art & Design and TEE Art courses.

“The students were encouraged to use a variety of demonstrated fashion and textile techniques to create unique garments,” Mrs Bowden said.

Being the first year that the Australian Masters of Fashion show was promoted to the Santa Maria visual arts department, a delighted Mrs Bowden said “This was a wonderful opportunity for emerging designers to develop fashion industry contacts and showcase their designs. We are absolutely thrilled and extremely proud with the result.”

- Sylvia Defendi

Christina farewells career focussed on wedded bliss for others

The ‘sex lady’ says goodbye to colleagues as she heads for retirement from archdiocesan agency

By Peter Rosengren

ent from an old disposable puppet or mannequin? In a line, the exhibition denies the respect worthy of the sacred origins of the human body. Because our spirit and bodies are so intimately linked together, the notion of rupturing the two parts and denigrating either one of them, in this case the body, inevitably denigrates the other, the soul. This ultimately threatens our personal sense of worth and security.

In a stark way, the exhibition carries with it the materialistic mindset of modernity, an

“The Amazing Human Body” exhibition prides itself on its achievement to have acquired real human bodies as specimens, manipulated and displayed in such ‘amazing’ ways that are sure to impress viewers and leave them bewildered.

It has effectively marketed itself in the shroud of educational and disciplinary advancement and appeals to the public mind with its fascinating and shock-horror novelty.

Though the exhibition may attempt to promote an appreciation for anatomy, it falls short of fostering a truly holistic sense and understanding of the awesome creation of the human body.

It was the end of an era for the archdiocese of Perth when outgoing Catholic Marriage Education Services director Christina Graves said goodbye to colleagues last week.

After nine and a half years as head of the archdiocesan agency that offers couples pre-marriage education courses designed to help them deepen and strengthen their marriages, Christina is retiring from the role.

She is replaced by Derek Boylen, formerly of The Record, who will continue to contribute a regular column focussing on marriage and family life.

Archbishop Barry Hickey, Bishop

mation in their vocation. Recalling her own beginnings in the work

Christina told those present at the CMES offices that she had started by answering an advertisement seeking people to become natural family planning teachers.

However when she gave her first talk on NFP the shy suburban mother was horrified at the thought of public speaking. She prayed to God for guidance but got no apparent answer. After the talk she checked evaluations given by those who attended and noticed one that stood out from the rest: “The lady needs to go to public speaking classes,” an anonymous participant had written.

became known in some quarters as ‘the sex lady.’ AT the same time she trained and won accreditation as a marriage educator and took over the agency in 1997.

She found herself in her early years there, she said, on “a steep learning curve,” but found it an exciting and stimulating challenge.

Paying tribute to his predecessor, Derek Boylen said she had done a fantastic job.

“Christina has been an outstanding example, both personally and professionally in her commitment to marriage and family,” he told The Record

Donald Sproxton, and Vicar General Fr Brian O’Loughlin were on hand with many others to wish Christina the best for the future and to thank her for a labour of love over the last decade. Among her achievements, said Archbishop Hickey, were the tripling of the number of courses

held for couples every year and the institution of new programs to give couples more choice in marriage education. She has also initiated several post-marriage courses in recognition of the fact that not only premarriage education is important but that couples need ongoing for-

It was, she told those present with a laugh, the answer to her earlier prayer: “He did listen, He did answer, He did show me the way.”

After attending a highly beneficial course she found herself in the thick of it presenting sexuality and reproductive health programs in schools as well as information about NFP.

Her talks also led to the perhapsunexpected development as she

“In her time as Director of Catholic Marriage Education Services she significantly increased the profile of the agency and broadened its focus.

“Christina has possibly been the most active person in the diocese committed to the married vocation. The agency will miss her wisdom and guidance.”

For information on courses offered by CMES contact the agency on (08) 9325 1859

Other issues: The Amazing Bodies exhibition raises other questions apart from the scientific ones, writes Perth engineer Jing Ping Wong, such as who are these people, how did they die and how did their bodies come to be part of this exhibition?

Photo: Terence Boylen

A stylish combination: Emily Eisentrager’s gown. Creators and creations: Hannah Hughes, Alexandra King, Holly Kagis and Emily Eisentrager.

Masquerade Ball: Holly Kagis’s gown

Goodbye: Christina Graves farewells colleagues as she ends her role as head of the Catholic Marriage Education Services agency last week. Photo: Peter Rosengren

i say, i say

Opinion

The journey toward forgiveness

With Mark Reidy

In the summer of 1980, a 16 yearold Louisiana girl was brutally abducted and repeatedly raped by two men. The fate of her perpetrators became known to the world through the movie, “Dead Man Walking”, which followed the journey of one of them, Robert Willie, who was executed for an unrelated murder.

The story of the young girl, Debbie Morris, however, did not receive much recognition. In the current environment of community grief and anger that has enveloped Perth since the tragic murder of eight-year-old Sofia RodriguezUrrutia-Shu, it is a story that should be heard.

In her book, “Forgiving the Dead Man Walking”, Morris tells her pain-

ful and heroic journey from suffering, shame and self-destruction to forgiveness and redemption.

In a recent interview, she shared how she initially believed that her inner torment would be appeased through the “justice” of capital punishment, but was shattered to find that her agony remained.

On the night following the execution, she lay on her bed in the dark and told God that she forgave Robert Willie. The decision was not inspired by feelings, but by what

The choice to forgive, as Morris discovered, is the choice to release oneself, and the perpetrator, into the loving and just hands of God.

she describes as a “selfish” moment and a “desperate” attempt to relieve the pain. However despite feeling a burden lift after her prayer, she felt disillusioned that it did not bring the complete closure that she had expected. “I thought forgiveness was an event”, she later recalled, “Not an ongoing process.” In fact it was at this point that her life, through a series of self-destructive choices, spiralled out of control. She turned to alcohol to subdue the

lingering pain and eventually found herself in a Rehabilitation Centre. She gradually realised that her healing would take time and that it could never reach its fullness without a relationship with God. After her horrendous experience she had lived with the perception that God had abandoned her. “It took me years to realise’, she says, “that I had abandoned Him”. One of the greatest barriers that Morris encountered on her journey towards healing is common

to many who struggle to forgive. It is the perception that forgiveness accepts or even condones the injustices of others. But this is not the case. Forgiveness does not imply that a person should not be accountable for their wrong - they must be. Rather, the choice to forgive, as Morris discovered, is the choice to release oneself, and the perpetrator, into the loving and just hands of God. It does not excuse wrongful behaviour, but it serves to free the forgiver from the destructive forces, such as anger and hate, that can hold them in spiritual and emotional captivity.

“I had to stop looking at it (forgiveness) as a victory for Robert Willie”, Morris explains, “And start looking at it as a victory for God. I needed to accept a difficult truth; that God loved Robert Willie as much as He loves me.”

Morris considers the acceptance of this truth as the final step of her journey to forgiveness and sees her decision on the night of the execution as her first. She believes God softened her heart through the years and nurtured her to a point where she could genuinely and completely forgive. Her testimony is a confronting one, but it is also one of hope. It shows us that no matter how dark things may seem, through forgiveness, the journey to the light is only a choice away.

Designer label motherhood doesn’t really fit

Like many, I always have a look at the latest magazines while waiting in the checkout queue at the supermarket. Lately there has been a pleasantly curved, womanly looking Reese Witherspoon defending herself against charges of being too fat; tales of Katie Holmes’ struggle to lose her post-baby kilos so she can be fit to marry Tom Cruise (Actually that one suggests a whole bundle of issues of which body image is probably the least worrying!) And perennially we have Oprah’s ongoing struggle with her weight, Renee Zellwegger’s apparently effortless ability to put on and take off weight, along with diets and exercise plans to help us all drop three dress sizes.

The whole thing is that women are not allowed, it seems, to be happy with the way they are, and the increasing divergence between the actual realities of the female body and the image being presented as ideally female is disturbing, especially the post-baby female ‘ideal’. When it requires sweat, strain, surgical enhancement and superhuman devotion to achieve and maintain an appearance, you have to question the skewed vision that decrees it beautiful.

The final straw for me was an article in The West Australian recently about the “Yummy Mummy”. In order to qualify as a yummy mummy, a new mum must immediately begin dieting and working out so that she can be seen in her sexy little jeans and tops, out and about,

Catherine Parish @ home

composed, perfectly groomed, back to her pre-baby figure with perfectly accessorised bub along for the ride in the designer pram. It is all so disturbingly appearance-based. There is nothing about BEING a happy and confident person in your new role as mother; only about appearing so by being skinny and well-groomed, almost in spite of being a new mother. It’s a type of denial, pretending that nothing has changed when in reality, as any honest new mother can tell you, everything has! The feminist canard that tells women they should expect - no, they have the right - to have and do anything they please, has a hand in this. It has become not a right to have it all, but a burdensome occupation to appear as if you have it all. Sisters are doing it to themselves - destroying their health, their sanity and their prospects of happiness - by this stupid obsession with being young and thin.

The curse of eating disorders and dissatisfied and unhappy girls obsessed with their appearance will never be ameliorated until we can get our girls - our daughters - to embrace their own complete and Godgiven femininity, and the natural shape that comes with it. We have to make maturing into a woman something wonderful and precious, not something to be feared and dreaded as bringing unwanted bumps and curves. We have to teach them to value motherhood, where their body comes into its own to fulfil a natural and beautiful function. And we have to teach our sons likewise to value women for themselves, for whom and what they really are, as individual human beings. The behaviour and attitude we as mothers (and fathers) exhibit are our children’s first and most important indicator of what is true and valuable and good. It is up to us.

The final straw for me was an article in The West Australian recently about the “Yummy Mummy”.

How to prepare for a seminary formation

By Rev Armando I Carandang, PhD, STD, Archdiocesan Vocations Director

During one’s formation years in a seminary a prayerful study of, and obedience to, Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation on the formation of priests would ensure fulfillment of the man and not just the program.

(Most of the quotes here are from John Paul II, “Pastores Dabo Vobis, I Will Give You Shepherds”. March 1992.)

But before entering a seminary, the candidate should have at least a summary view of what that formation entails. First he must be disabused of the idea that to be a priest is to be “another Christ.”

There is only one Christ. To become a priest is to become configured instead to Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church.

This requires fundamentally giving-up one’s self-importance and attachment to self. Even more deeply, this means living the truth of one’s “nothingness”, being stripped of one’s self, in order to put on more fittingly Christ Jesus the one true Prophet, Pastor, and Priest. Accordingly, years of formation and preparation are needed in all areas of a seminarian’s “being” and “activity”.

“May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, mind, and body…”

This prayer of St Paul applies no less to would-be seminarians who may not yet be clear about the four areas of formation that Pope John Paul II illuminated in his exhortation: the “spiritual, the human, the intellectual and the pastoral”.

First, the “spiritual”. While mind and body take time and space to

On

form, the spirit grows beyond those limited dimensions. Mind and body can be trained like circus beasts. But seminaries do not train. They educate. Seminarians are not there just to conform but to learn to form themselves even as they are transformed by the Spirit of Jesus and of the God of peace. Without this transformation of their spirit they would become empty preachers/modern-day scribes, heart-less pastors, or narrow specialists/sacristy priests.

Spiritual formation, even before entrance to the seminary, means already “living intimately united with Jesus Christ”. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Spiritual formation further means “intimate communion with the Divine Triunity.

“It is the core which unifies and gives life to one’s being a priest” and his acting as a sacramental priest, preacher, pastor who must draw

all good things from the Father, through the Son in the Spirit.

“Without this extremely important core” of a seminarian’s formation the three other areas “would be left without foundation” and unity.

From their “spirit-centre” men who seek priestly formation are to exercise wisely their spiritual intellect to understand and reason, their spiritual affectivity of free will to choose, and their creative power or spiritual energy to regulate mental and physical drives.

Those gifts of intellect, free will and creative energy reflect the Wisdom, Love and Power respectively of the Triune God in accord to whose likeness humankind is called to be.

To prepare for spiritual formation in the seminary is to clear the ground for that true, good and beautiful wellspring of an intellectual, moral and practical outflow and growth .

For a priestly “intellectual formation” a future seminarian prepares well if he already immerses him-

self in liberal arts studies, or the humanities, and some sciences.

Later in the seminary (or shortly beforehand) his intellect’s search for truth and wisdom would be met by a well-ordered and full academic program of philosophy first to accord him time and opportunity to broaden and deepen his capacity for theology.

This search is ultimately a desire to find God. But, as St Thomas says, this desire of the will is love. So only a person who loves freely will find wisdom and God.

Intellectual formation, though of the head, begins and culminates in the spiritual freedom of the heart.

The same holds true with “human formation”. This is the affectional and the old “moral” aspect—properly understood— of seminary or any human life. It is inclusive of, but not synonymous with, mere psychology of “human development”. One is primarily affected and tested in a human community, as St Thomas says, on both levels of sense (“emotions”) and intellectual affectivity (“good or ill will”).

Rightly modeled education of “moral conscience,” ideally in the family first and then in the larger community, will be an on-going task of seminary formation.

Yet this minimal love of neighbour as of oneself needs greater affective maturity involving, among others, “true friendships” and spiritually grounded “celibacy”.

It is loving as Jesus loves and further loving as in the Trinity that will transform human morality within or outside a seminary to spiritual maturity.

Finally, created in the image of the Creator, the pre-seminarian with his creative energy and drives needs also to prepare for “pastoral formation” by doing already

what can done by his “hands”. Are they consistently “praying hands” or learning to be so for others?

Are they often raised, palms up to heaven, in praise and thanksgiving, petitioning and receiving from the Father the “daily bread” for all? Are they practical hands that already reach out consistently to the hungry and the thirsty, the homeless and the naked, the sick and the imprisoned—as active instruments of God’s mercy?

Are they hands forming not just in the initial “ministry of the word, of worship and sanctification through sacramental celebrations, but also in every practical application of pastoral theology through involvement in certain services— [all] in deeper communion with Jesus’ pastoral charity”?

The would-be seminarian should be mindful that, like the intellectual and the human formation, the pastoral “is rooted in the spirit which is the hinge of all and the force which stimulates and makes it develop”.

It is the spiritual then that integrates the three other areas and aspects of formation and unites them to the Triune God who is Wisdom, Love and Power.

A vocations director who assists the applicant in discerning his own calling and in preparing for the seminary looks, if possible, into the applicant’s state of spiritual maturation This, above all, is his concern even while he helps the applicant test his own willingness and readiness for intellectual, moral and practical growth.

(All those who are interested in becoming diocesan priests in the Archdiocese of Perth are invited to contact Fr Armando, the Vocations Director.

Tel 9470 9113. Mobile 0401197310. Email. provocation@hotmail.com)

WYD organisers mark 2 years until Sydney WYD

“Two Years To Go” - World Youth Day 2008 starts national youth preparation program

July 7, 2006: The World Youth Day Sydney 2008 organisers mark the “two years to go” milestone on July 15 for the world’s largest youth event to be held in Australia, with the launch this week of Activ8, its national pastoral preparation and education program.

World Youth Day 2008 (WYD08) Coordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher OP recently unveiled Activ8, a program of events, activities and materials developed by WYD08 to prepare young people across Australia for World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008.

World Youth Day – to be staged between July 15 and 20, 2008 - is expected to attract half a million participants, mainly from around Australia but including well over 100,000 international visitors. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will make his first visit to Australia for World Youth Day 2008, presiding over the Final Mass.

AcCTv8 is intended to inform and engage Catholic youth around the country, encouraging them to be a part of WYD08. It will be delivered through a number of different elements including an online ePILGRIMAGE, a promotional DVD,

Parish support programs, school curriculum materials, youth leadership courses and events and activities at key milestones up to July 2008.

The name‘ Activ8’ refers to the scriptural reference chosen by Pope Benedict XVI for the World Youth 2008 theme - Acts 1: v8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” as well as a call to action in the word “activate”.

“World Youth Day is an extraordinary gift to the Church in Australia. We are going to fulfil the promise of this gift by ensuring over the next two years our young people are given every opportunity to prepare and be engaged with their religion through our parishes, youth groups, schools and homes,” Bishop Fisher said.

He said a priority in the planning and preparation for World Youth Day in Sydney was the delivery of a broad and engaging program of communication, education and participation to ensure Catholic youth from all over Australia were invited and able to participate.

The first ACTiv8 materials are being distributed around the country this week in the form of an introductory booklet and the promotional DVD titled “get with the spirit” issued to parishes, schools and available online.

The DVD provides an introduction to World Youth Day for

Australians, showing its history, its elements and its impact on the lives of young people. It features interviews and testimonies from young people who have participated in previous World Youth Days.

It is available from the WYD08 Diocesan and Youth Ministry representative in each Diocese to show in parishes, to youth groups, at conferences and in classrooms where it can enhance the WYD08 curriculum modules also being distributed nationally.

Activ8 includes a package of school curriculum materials for Australian schools and parishes to be used by teachers and catechists, but also appropriate for priests and parents. There is one module for each of the 5 semesters starting this month, July 2006, through to December 2008. The school curriculum materials have been developed by a WYD08 working committee made up of representatives from the Catholic Education Office, teachers and catechists and other Catholic agencies. The WYD08 Education Committee has endorsed the materials and will be responsible for their deployment.

The modules are targeted to senior primary and secondary school students and will be progressively made available on the WYD08 website at www.wyd2008.org. They will cover the World Youth Day themes from this year ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’,

for 2007 ‘Just as I have loved you, you should love one another’ and for 2008 ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.’

For young people after school age a series of catechetical materials will be provided to parishes to assist youth group leaders, priests and teachers to present the WYD08 themes and a more advanced range of approaches to faith covering areas like scripture, theology, spirituality, sociology, morality and social justice as examples. These will be available again through the website from January 2007.

The WYD08 office is also offering a Youth Leaders Formation Course as part of Activ8. The live-in course from March 1 to May 31, 2007 will prepare young people desiring to serve the Church, particularly in relation to WYD08.

By next year the Activ8 program will include the Australia-wide tour of the World Youth Day Cross and Icon of our Lady, bringing celebrations and activities to parish communities. The program will help each diocese in Australia prepare activities to receive the Cross and Icon as they tour during the lead-up to World Youth Day celebrations in July 2008.

The WYD08 office is making sure that dioceses can have a taste of World Youth Day through the Activ8 National Tours, taking

a program of international guest speakers and musical concerts and exhibitions on the road to increase awareness and interest in the celebrations. Bishop James Wingle will tour later this year and Father Stan Fortuna FFR has been confirmed for a concert tour in 2007.

The dioceses will also be called on to celebrate the one year preanniversary of WYD08 in July 2007 as part of this campaign as well as Palm Sunday in 2007 and 2008.

The World Youth Day 2008 program in Sydney from July 15 to 20 will include an Opening Mass, a Youth Festival with exhibitions and performances, a Papal welcome ceremony, Catechesis sessions led by Bishops from around the world, the Way of the Cross, a Pilgrims walk and overnight prayer Vigil, and the Final Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.

Young people of all ages and from anywhere in the world can be a part of Activ8 now and prepare for WYD08 by joining the ePILGRIMAGE, a new World Youth Day initiative providing monthly online contact in the form of both spiritual and catechetical information as well as practical information for pilgrims to plan their journey to World Youth Day 2008.

Details about the Activ8 programs for Australian parishes and schools and registration for the ePILGRIMAGE are available on the website at www.wyd2008.org

the way: Seminarians at the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Dallas

The World

Live out the Gospel at home: Pope

Pope urges thousands of families in Valencia to create loving homes

By Carol Glatz

Surrounded by hundreds of thousands of families from every corner of the globe, Pope Benedict XVI urged mothers and fathers to be open to life and to create a home based on love, acceptance and mercy.

Though this seaport city was still reeling from a July 3 subway disaster that left 42 people dead and dozens more injured, the atmosphere during the Pope’s July 8-9 visit was full of joy and celebration.

The Pope journeyed to Spain’s third-largest city to help close the July 1-9 Fifth World Meeting of Families and to focus on its theme, “The Transmission of Faith in the Family.”

In his July 9 closing Mass homily, Pope Benedict emphasised that families have a duty to make sure “the good news of Christ will reach their children with the utmost clarity and authenticity.”

Handing down church teaching and Gospel values also entails consistently living out those same values of love and charity, the Pope said to hundreds of thousands of people gathered at Valencia’s ultramodern, outdoor City of the Arts and Sciences centre.

Children will be more likely

to appreciate and cherish their Christian heritage if they witness their parents’ constant “love, permeated with a living faith,” along with experiencing the support of a Christian community, he said.

In his homily, the Pope urged husbands and wives to be open to the gift of life, saying each human is not created by accident or random selection, but is part of “a loving plan of God.”

“Married couples must accept the child born to them, not simply

as theirs alone, but also as a child of God, loved for his or her own sake and called to be a son or daughter of God,” he said.

Then these children must be bathed in love, the Pope added, stressing that “the experience of being welcomed and loved by God and by our parents is always the firm foundation for authentic human growth” and development.

The Pope also emphasised this during a festive July 8 vigil when he told parents that every child has his

or her own “personality and character” and, no matter what, parents need to accept their children, including adopted children. He urged people to “be sensitive, loving and merciful like Christ” even to people outside the family. Families should not be “closed in on themselves,” the Pope said at the vigil, so children can learn that “every person is worthy of love, and that there is a basic, universal brotherhood that embraces every human being.”

The late-evening vigil was marked by testimonies from families and experts from all over the world, interspersed with singing and a dance performance by the Taiwan Ballet. The vigil closed with a fireworks display that shimmered over the arts centre’s gigantic reflecting pools.

In an address to the city’s seminarians on July 8, Pope Benedict said a loving, harmonious home life is also good for vocations since the love, devotion and fidelity of one’s parents create a fertile setting for men and women “to hear God’s call and to accept the gift of a vocation.”

The Pope re-emphasised the Church’s teaching against divorce and insisted marriage is based only on a union between a man and a woman. Spain recently passed laws that made divorce quicker and easier and allowed homosexual couples to marry and adopt children.

During his two-day visit, Pope Benedict seemed more interested in accenting what was working and making families thrive than in finger-pointing.

During the papal flight to Valencia, reporters asked the Pope about gay marriage laws and other measures that challenge church teaching. The Pope said he preferred to “not start on the negative.”

He said stressing what is positive about Christian living can help people see “why the Church cannot accept certain things, but at the same time wants to respect people and help them.” CNS

Head on down to the mall for Mass Bishop urges visionaries stop

Bosnian bishop urges Medjugorje visionaries to stop claims

The bishop whose diocese includes the Bosnian village of Medjugorje has urged six alleged Marian visionaries to stop claiming that Mary has been visiting them for 25 years.

Bishop Ratko Peric of MostarDuvno, Bosnia-Herzegovina, said the Church “has not accepted, either as supernatural or as Marian, any of the apparitions” said to have been witnessed by a group of people from Medjugorje.

“As the local bishop, I maintain that regarding the events of Medjugorje, on the basis of the investigations and experience gained thus far throughout these last 25 years, the Church has not confirmed a single apparition as authentically being the Madonna,” he said. He then called on the alleged visionaries and “those persons behind the messages to demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish.”

“In this fashion they shall show their necessary adherence to the Church, by placing neither private apparitions nor private sayings before the official position of the Church,” he said.

“Our faith is a serious and responsible matter,” he added. “The Church is also a serious and responsible institution.” The bishop made his comments on June 15 during a homily at a confirmation Mass in Medjugorje’s St James Church. The diocese published the homily in English and Italian on July 3.

On June 25, thousands of pilgrims converged on Medjugorje to mark the 25th anniversary of the onset of the alleged apparitions.

Marian experts continue to debate the significance of Medjugorje, and several have published books - ranging from enthusiastically supportive to sceptical - to coincide with the anniversary.

At the Vatican, officials said they are still monitoring events at Medjugorje, but emphasised that it was not necessarily the Vatican’s role to issue an official judgment on the alleged apparitions there.

The Vatican has said that dioceses or parishes should not organise official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. But the Vatican has also said Catholics are free to travel to the site, and that if they do the Church should provide them with pastoral services. Bishop Peric said in his homily that “so-called apparitions, messages, secrets and signs do not strengthen the faith, but rather further convince us that in all of this there is nothing either authentic or established as truthful.”

In metro Manila, diocese debates pros and cons of Masses at malls

A prayer room with glass windows could not hold the crowd for Sunday Mass in a mall just south of Manila.

On that Sunday in June, about 300 people spilled onto the corridor around the packed room. They peered through the glass to follow the liturgy under the watchful eyes of bald mannequins clad in designer underwear at a nearby shop.

As bells tinkled, eyes followed the round white host Father Jerico Habunal raised before men, women and children, who bowed their heads in silence. They were attending the 6pm liturgy, the last of four Masses that day at Festival Supermall in Muntinlupa, one of three cities served by the diocese of Paranaque, just south of Manila.

Most large shopping malls and centres in metropolitan Manila have rooms or chapels where Masses are celebrated regularly, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. In Paranaque Diocese, only one of seven large malls does not host Masses, because it is near a church.

Canon law directs that Mass

be celebrated in a “sacred place,” though a “decent” place other than a church may be used if necessary.

Paranaque priests who favour shopping-mall Masses say the liturgies are part of a “new evangelisation” and make the Eucharist accessible. Others, however, have voiced concern about preserving the meaning and sanctity of the Mass. For some, guarding against fraud is also an issue.

Father Habunal, parish priest of San Roque and Paranaque’s vicar for the clergy, told UCA News the diocese is reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of celebrating Masses in shopping malls.

Diocesan records estimate 9,000 out of 431,000 regular churchgoers attend Mass in malls. The latest diocesan profile reports that Catholics comprise 91 percent of the 1.4 million people living in the cities of Muntinlupa, Las Pinas and Paranaque, which form the diocesan territory. Around the country, 81 percent of the 76 million Filipinos are Catholics.

After the June 11 Mass, Merle Bisona, 42, told UCA News that she attends Mass at Festival Supermall for convenience. She said it was comfortable to be inside an air-conditioned place when it is so hot outside.

Members of the Fernandez family said they attend Mass at the mall when they are too late for

Mass at the church or when 9year-old Jose Paolo Fernandez is scheduled to serve as an altar boy.

Jonathan Baquiran, 60, travels with his family 12 miles from his house in Laguna province to shop for groceries. The relatives include Mass attendance at the mall as part of their “family time.”

However, Father Eric Salazar, pastor of San Isidro Labrador Church, maintains the ideal of “church as communion” is best achieved when parishioners gather for Sunday Mass in their parish church.

“Instead we have a community of convenience in the mall,” said the priest, whose church is less than 100 yards from a mall.

He told UCA News that some of his confreres are wary of the Mass losing the “sense of the sacred” in a commercial environment, and he stressed the need for proper formation of servers, lectors and eucharistic ministers. Some pastors feel they also must be vigilant against scams. Father August Pulido, parish priest of Last Supper of Our Lord Church in Las Pinas, is investigating the case of a suspected fake priest who reportedly hung a streamer outside a mall in the parish announcing a Holy Week Mass. The streamer “disappeared” after the pastor sent someone to inquire about the announced Mass in the mall.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Mass at the Fifth World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, July 9. The Pope consecrated the wine with what tradition says is the cup Jesus used during the Last Supper. PHOTO: CNS

The World

Priest makes an unusual donation

Priest donates kidney to parishioner

The scenario could give a Hallmark card commercial a run for its money: A parish priest donates a kidney to a parishioner who is his friend’s wife and the mother of four.

“This is the gift of life for me,” said Patricia “Pat” Sanchez, who on July 6 received a kidney from her pastor at Sacred Heart Church, Father Ken Ramon-Landry. “I am happy for me, for my husband, and I am happy for my family.”

“Neither of us wants notoriety,” Father Ramon-Landry said. “Both of us think it is a worthy cause to raise awareness to the fact that within some of our bodies we carry life for others - even us men - by offering a kidney, a lung. Perhaps this is why God gave us two to see if we would share and take seriously what his Son did for us ... laying down our lives freely.”

Father Ramon-Landry and Sanchez were often listed as instructors on the workshop agenda for continuing education in the Diocese of Biloxi, but the priest’s strongest connection to the Sanchez family was with Pat Sanchez’s husband, Rafael.

Both men work closely in Hispanic ministry in the diocese. Rafael Sanchez is also director of foreign language study-abroad programs at the University of Southern Mississippi and liturgy and music director at Sacred Heart.

“I saw that my friend Rafael was getting sad,” Father Ramon-Landry

recalled in an interview with the Gulf Pine Catholic, Biloxi’s diocesan newspaper. “I noticed something was wrong during July and August (last year). I asked him if he wanted to talk, but he said ‘No.’”

Pat Sanchez, 60, a Scripture scholar and writer of homilies and Scripture commentaries, was first diagnosed with kidney disease 12 years ago.

She has focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. It attacks the glomerulus, or the main filtering part of the kidney, and the subsequent protein leakage acts as a toxin, injuring the remaining parts of the kidney.

The damage leads to kidney

failure, which requires dialysis or a transplant. Rafael Sanchez later confided to the priest that his beloved wife’s health was continuing to fail. He said the situation was “not promising” and there were no prospects of a kidney donor.

“Well, I have two kidneys; she can have one of mine,” Father RamonLandry told him. He then asked for her blood type. It is B-positive, the same as Father Ramon-Landry.

Pat Sanchez went to the University of Alabama in Birmingham in January of this year to see if she would qualify to receive a transplant. Father Ramon-Landry began

his donor screening process in March. Both the donor and the recipient had to undergo a battery of medical, physical and psychological tests.

Father Ramon-Landry had a reaction to the iodine dye put into his body for a computerised tomography, or CT, scan, but otherwise the matching process was painless.

“We were so compatible, the lab personnel suspected that we were siblings,” the priest said. “We are 97 percent negative on the crossmatch. ... The higher this number, the less the chance of rejection, which is great!” CNS

Pope gets his hands on the Holy Grail in Valencia

At Mass in Valencia, Pope uses ‘Holy Grail’

King Arthur and his knights and Indiana Jones looked for it, and most recently Dan Brown’s sleuth, Robert Langdon, hunted it down in “The Da Vinci Code.”

But these legendary and fictional characters might have saved a lot of trouble in their hunt for the Holy Grail by just going to Valencia.

The host city of Pope Benedict XVI’s third pastoral journey abroad

the world in brief

on July 8-9 is home to what tradition says is the cup Jesus used during the Last Supper.

The custodian of the “Santo Caliz,” or Holy Grail, said the age of the stone chalice and documents tracing its history back to 1071 make it “absolutely likely that this beautiful cup was in the hands of the Lord” during the Last Supper.

Mgr. Jaime Sancho Andreu, head of the Valencia Archdiocese’s liturgy commission and curator of the Holy Grail, wrote a full-page article in the July 5 edition of the

Mumbai bombs blasted

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India deplored the July 11 deadly bomb blasts in Mumbai that claimed more than 130 lives and injured more than 200 people. “It is a blatant act of aggression on harmless people, and this must be countered with courage and determination by all concerned,” the bishops said in a statement. “We appeal to all the affected people to maintain calm and equanimity at this hour of sorrow and grief so that the nefarious designs of the anti-social elements can be defeated.” The seven bomb blasts, most of them in railway cabins, came within minutes of each other during the evening rush hour. Authorities were calling the blasts well-coordinated ter-

Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, describing the chalice, its history and the likelihood of its being authentic, although at least one Vatican art official challenged the notion.

Pope Benedict admired the holy vessel during his July 8 visit to Valencia’s cathedral, where the chalice has been kept since 1437, and church officials also gave him a replica as a gift. The Pope used the Grail to consecrate the wine during a July 9 outdoor Mass to close the Fifth World Meeting of Families,

rorist attacks, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. The railway system is the city’s lifeline for its more than 20 million people. The Mumbai blasts were preceded by five minor blasts in Srinagar that killed eight people in the capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

For life is for good

If Catholic moral theology and ethical concerns affirm the need to protect and promote human life and dignity, then moral theologians must be concerned about both individual behaviour and communal life, said speakers at a conference in Padua. “Whatever is for life is good. Whatever is anti-life is bad and evil. This is the principle to use in detecting the positive elements of globalisation from the negative ones,” said

just as Pope John Paul II had celebrated Mass with the holy chalice during his visit to the city in 1982. Valencia’s sacred chalice is made up of two parts. The polished stone vessel on top is supposed to be the cup of the Last Supper. It is made of dark brown agate and measures 6.5 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide. Archeologists say it dates back to the first century B.C. and is of eastern origin, from Antioch, Turkey, or Alexandria, Egypt.

The part of the chalice that the cup rests upon was made during

Father John Mary Waliggo, a member of the Uganda Human Rights Commission. Father Waliggo was one of the speakers at the July 8-12 international conference on Catholic theological ethics. The conference was organised by Jesuit Father James Keenan of Boston College. Like many of the speakers, Father Waliggo emphasised the impact of sin and injustice on both individual behaviour and social life. He asked why the marketing and distribution of condoms has become the only internationally supported response to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. “Why can’t abstinence, behaviour change, family and married life and counselling be also emphasised?” he asked.

Beatification helps ties

The beatification of a nun killed for shel-

New Web site aims to help Catholic couples prepare for marriage

With an estimated 280,000 Catholic weddings taking place in Canada and the United States each year, it isn’t always easy to plan a ceremony that is both personalised and understandable to guests of many faiths.

But a new Web site, www. CatholicBrides.com, aims to assist couples throughout the various stages of the average 17-month engagement period, during the ceremony itself and afterward. The site also offers articles on a variety of topics, ranging from an introduction to the Catholic faith to an explanation of the different rites that can be used for Catholic weddings and a guide to etiquette in Catholic churches.

Engaged couples can learn about pre-Cana courses, wedding music, interfaith marriages and other wedding-related issues.

More than 23,000 people visited the Web site during its first three months of operation, according to CatholicBrides.com, which is based in Markham.

The site, which carries no advertising, funds itself through the sale of wedding programs that serve as a worship aid for the ceremony and a memento of the day. A $50 deposit is required to access the online templates to create a wedding program.

the medieval period. The chalice’s stem and handles are made of fine gold, and its alabaster base is decorated with pearls and other precious gems. Mgr. Sancho wrote in the Vatican paper that tradition says after Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper St Peter took the cup to Rome, where it was protected by successive popes. The cup then made its way to Spain during the Christian persecutions in Rome by Emperor Valerian in the third century. CNS

tering Jews during World War II will help the Church’s image in Hungary and strengthen Catholic-Jewish ties, said the Hungarian bishops’ conference spokesman. “The communist and liberal image of the Church in our country is that of an institution which uses the resources of the state to live a good life while doing nothing,” said Csongor Szerdahelyi.

“This story firmly shows that the Church was and remains on the side of the poor and helpless. The beatification will be a very important pastoral event.” Sister Sara Salkahazi of the Sisters of Social Service was shot and thrown in the Danube River in Budapest on December 27, 1944, by agents of Hungary’s pro-Nazi Arrow Cross regime for sheltering Jewish women and children at her convent. Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree for her beatification on April 28.

Father Ken Ramon-Landry, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Sacred Heart parishioner Patricia “Pat” Sanchez are pictured in the parish office on June 29, just a week before the priest donated a kidney to Sanchez. PHOTO: CNS

Movie Review

Johnny Depp back to the deep

Reviewed

by

David DiCerto

Director Gore Verbinski, the man who put the jolly back in the Jolly Roger with 2003’s sleeper hit, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” delivers more of the same rip-roaring fun in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Disney).

For a sequel, the new movie matches - if not tops - the original as first-rate popcorn entertainment with all the right ingredients: action-adventure, spectacle, screwball comedy and a bit of romance. It even has an outrageous three-way swordfight on a runaway mill wheel. But most importantly, it has Johnny Depp, who once again steals the show as the mascaraed and rumsotted rogue Capt. Jack Sparrow. (His screen entrance is one of the more hilarious in recent memory.) Sparrow finds himself back in a sea of supernatural trouble as he tries to wiggle his way out of a Faustian pact with the fabled Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), the squid-faced captain of the Flying Dutchman ghost ship, who rules the deep and gives new meaning to the term “octopuss.”

Orlando Bloom and Keira

Knightley return as Will Turner and his bonnie bride-to-be, Elizabeth Swann, who before they tie the knot are arrested by the nefarious British bureaucrat and pirate hunter Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), who presses them into tracking down Sparrow and swiping his magic compass.

They all end up questing after the same object: Jones’ legendary locker, the content of which will

give its possessor control of the briny main. Amid the swashbuckling slapstick there are some slightly darker moments and scary supernatural elements that, while mostly harmless, preclude giving the film an A-I classification. There are also a few scenes involving a tentacled sea monster known as the Kraken - a computer-generated cousin of the giant squid in Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” - that may

N e w r a i n b o w s : a series on society and Church

The creative minority

By Tony Paganoni CS

In The Seed, the Leaven and the Little Flock (1998), Card. Carlo Martini remarks that there are very few who are committed to witnessing the Gospel and building the Church community. As Card.

Martini observes, these ‘few’ are a committed and motivated minority, much unlike the majority of Catholics who maintain some religious aspects out of respect for family traditions, rather than personal conviction.

He goes on to state that the Church has inevitably become a small seed within a handful of leaven - an institution in a state of marginality.

Throughout Europe, and similarly in Australia, the Catholic com-

munity exhibits a great degree of diversification, despite belonging to the same Church. This has given rise to several ways of belonging and expressing one’s own religious identity.

Further, there are those who entertain a loyalty split between parish communities and other forms of spirituality, which may not necessarily be in tune with the Church’s directives. How can the Church wisely manage such fragmentation, while avoiding the risk of leaving existing Catholics in a situation where they are forced to decide on their own?

It takes a lot of savoir faire and an enormous blend of skills to accomplish a remarkable growth in spirituality.

Just a few years ago it was fashionable to openly state that ‘God

was dead’ and that religion was bound by the confines of antiquity. Recently, however, the resurgence of religion and spirituality has been nothing short of astonishing and completely unprecedented.

All Catholics are called upon to demonstrate patience, attention and imagination.

We are called to accept this historical transition with much hope and optimism. Exchange of information and experimentation among local Churches should be strengthened and fostered.

In the words of contemporary historian Arnold Toynbee, “The fate of a society always depends on its creative minorities.” Christian believers should look upon themselves as such a creative minority, helping to reclaim a zeal for their faith.

be too intense for the wee ones. The story and characters have about as much flesh as a peg leg, but the skeletal plot is kept afloat by several riotous set pieces pulled off as before with flair by Verbinski, imaginative effects and makeup, and some solid supporting performances by Nighy and a barnacled Stellan Skargsgard as Bootstrap Bill, Will’s long-lost father. There are also funny turns by Lee Arenberg

and Mackenzie Crook as a pair of bungling buccaneers.

“Dead Man’s Chest” is a bit too long. But while it plows many of the same comic waters as the original - and granted, the idea based on a Disney theme-park attraction is stretched thin - its good-natured goofiness demonstrates that there is still enough wind in the franchise’s sails to justify the third installment set up by the cliffhanger ending.

If crustacean-limbed ghost crews and comical cannibals don’t shiver your timbers, you may want to think twice about dropping your anchor, but if you liked the first movie this pirates’ life is for ye, matey.

The film contains recurring action-adventure violence and peril, including a nongraphic throat cutting and off-screen executions, a fleeting gruesome image, some intense sequences and frightening supernatural effects, voodoo hokum, lightly suggestive humour and innuendo, and a mildly rude expression. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II - adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 - parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. STORY  CNS

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PANORAMA a roundup of events in the archdiocese

Sunday July 16

ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK ON ACCESS 31

10-11 am: Our Father’s Plan, Episode 3: Bible study / by Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins.

1-2 pm: Four levels of happiness / Fr Robert Spitzer [Healing the Culture; 3], followed by Trying to find a substitute for God / Fr Ed Krause [Becoming Catholic]

Sunday July 16

CARMELITE FEAST

A solemn concelebrated Mass for the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be offered at the Carmelite Monastery, 100 Adelma Road, Nedlands, at 11 am. Archbishop Hickey will be the principal Celebrant. All are welcome to the Mass and to light refreshments afterwards.

Thursday July 20

NEW EVANGELISATION LECTURE

Presented by Bishop Don Sproxton. The New Evangelisation is a term being heard frequently throughout our Catholic circles. But what does it mean? Why did Pope John Paul II exhort us so often to embrace this latest initiative of the Holy Spirit? The time has come to take very seriously this prompting of the Spirit. Hosted by Acts 2 College of Mission & Evangelisation. 67 Howe St, Osborne Park at 7.30pm. All Welcome. Supper provided.

Saturday July 22

RELATIONSHIP: A SPIRITUAL PATHWAY

Footprints Men’s Spirituality Group invites you to its next Open Meeting on “Relationship: A Spiritual Pathway” with Ean James. It will be held from 10am to noon in the Begley Room, St Thomas Moore College, Crawley. Ladies and Gents welcome. Gold coin donation. For further information, contact

Christian 9444 1734, Les Walters 9535 2886 or John Dwyer 9245 2932.

Saturday July 22

LEGION OF MARY ANNUAL ONE DAY RETREAT

All Legionaries, Active and Auxiliary, and others who wish to spend a day in retreat are invited to attend the Legion of Mary One Day Retreat which will be held at the Redemptorist Retreat House, Vincent St North Perth, commencing at 9am and concluding at 3.45pm. Fr Hugh Thomas will present 2 talks on the Pope’s Encylical DEUS CARITAS EST. The day will include Holy Mass, Benediction, Eucharistic Adoration and Reconciliation. Morning and Afternoon tea provided. Please bring your own lunch. A secret bag will be passed around to offset costs. Further enquiries phone 9328 2726 or 9454 7831 (Rosemary Bennett).

Sunday July 23 EVERYTHING OUT OF LOVE, WITH JOY. A TALK ON “GOD IS LOVE”.

The Schoenstatt Family invites you to a “Family Day” at the Shrine, 9 Talus Drive Armadale. The day is offered to all families in the Archdiocese of Perth to highlight the importance we place on Family life. Guest speaker - Fr. Ivanhoe Allies, a Schoenstatt Father from Sydney. The day commences at 10am for registration, followed by a talk, then BYO lunch. Afterwards there will be group discussions on aspects of the talk and sharing of feedback between groups of families. Concelebrated Holy Mass led by the Most Rev. Bishop Peter Quinn at 3pm. Separate activities and program for Youth and Children. All warmly welcomed. Any inquiries please contact Sr Renee on 9399 2349 or Terry & Ann Maree Huxtable on 9310 5461 or Ralph & Monica Perez on 9457 0762.

The good badie: Johnny Depp stars in a scene from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” PHOTO: CNS

ACCOMMODATION

ACCOMMODATION NEEDED

Single mother with 2 Y.O. boy needs accommodation in “granny flat” or self-cont. area of home. Call Lydia, Pregnancy Assistance 9328 2926.

AUTO PARTS

AUTO PARTS SALESPERSON

SOR Auto Recycling Yard (Wreckers) requires experienced person to carry out sales, warehousing and various other related tasks. Mechanical and panel knowledge preferred, however will train suitable applicant. Phone Heather 9459 6333.

Classifieds

Classified ads: $3.30 per line incl. GST 24 hour Hotline 9227 7778 Deadline: 12pm Tuesday

BOOKKEEPING

BOOKKEEPER

Contact Sue Grant on 9375 9620 or 0417 942 225

BUSINESSES FOR SALE

NATIONAL VESTMENT BUSINESS FOR SALE

Home run from WA for 4 yrs. Kinlar vestments serves all Christian churches. Approx. 300 clients. Purchase includes, patterns, materials and goodwill. Call John Ryall: 9378 4752

HOME BUSINESS

HOME BUSINESS

Redirect part of your supermarket shopping to mail order buying environmentally friendly safe products. Home business potential, part or fulltime. Send contact details to buybetta@yahoo. com.au

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

For July, month of the Precious Blood. Lectionaries $40; Missals & Divine Office $25 Ph. 9293 3092 or email from our website at http://www.our.homewithgod.com/benedict/

OFFICIAL DIARY

JULY

14-16 Episcopal Visitation, Subiaco - Bishop Sproxton

15 Pontifical High Mass, St Mary’s Cathedral Mass to celebrate Centenary of Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, Midland - Archbishop Hickey

16 Mass for Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Carmelite Monastery - Archbishop Hickey

Commencing Monday July 24

CATHOLIC BIBLE COLLEGE

Enrolments are now open for term 3 at Acts

2 College of Mission and Evangelisation.

Available subjects: Theology of the Body (Richard Egan) – Tues 9.30am and Thurs 7.30pm; Preaching and Teaching (Mario Borg) – Thurs 9.30am; Christian and Community Leadership (Reg Firth) -Thurs 1pm; Catholic Doctrine (Richard Egan) – Friday 9.30am. All subjects may be taken towards a Certificate IV in Christian Ministry (National Code 51446). Enquiries and registration to Jane Borg, 0401 692 690.

Tuesday July 25 - Friday September 29

CROSS ROADS COMMUNITY

Term 3 for: Family & Friends Support Groups of Substance Abusers are on Wednesdays 7–9pm, Substance Abusers Support Groups are on Tuesdays 5.30 to 7.30pm & Fridays All day Group for Substance Abusers is from 9.30am to 2pm including Healing Mass on Fridays @ 12.30pm during term. Rosary is from Tuesday to Thursday at 12.30 to 1pm.

Friday July 28

“HEALING FIRE  BURNING LOVE”

Receive a New Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our Lady of the Missions Catholic Church, 270 Camberwarra Drive, Craigie, 7.30pm to 9pm. Come to know more about the Holy Spirit in your life and his action of grace in you by listening to the Word and talk given by Fr Hugh Thomas CSsR. There is a time of prayer and praise with the laying on of hands to receive a new outpouring of God’s presence. For more information please contact Jenni Young on 9445 1028, mobile 0404389679 or email youngjj@iprimus. com.au .

Saturday July 29

DA VINCI CODE AND OTHER GNOSTIC

NONSENSE

There will be an Apologetic Symposium given by Fr Angelo M Geiger, FI explaining the errors and dangers of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. It will be held at the Marian Friary, St Aloysius Hall, 36 Stirling Terrace, Toodyay, at 10am to 3pm. All are welcome to attend and we encourage you to bring your family and friends. Enquiries Franciscans of the Immaculate Tel: 9574 5204.

August CATHOLIC BIBLE COLLEGE

Diarise the following short courses: August 14, 15, 17, 18 – Fr Leo M Spicer, OSM: Mary in the Mystery of the Church; August 31, Sept 1, 4, 5 – Fr Daniel Benedetti, MGL: The Bible and the Mass.

All courses commence with Mass at 9am and finish by 1pm. These courses may be taken towards a Certificate IV in Christian Ministry (National Code 51446). Enquiries and Registration to Jane Borg, 0401 692 690.

Wednesday August 2

THE JULIAN SINGERS

The choir will mark its thirtieth anniversary with a Mass presided over by Bishop Don Sproxton and concelebrated by Father Chris Ross OSM and Father Pat Cunningham. It will be held at the Holy Family Church, Thelma Street, Como at 7.30pm followed by a meal in the hall. All past members, family and friends are welcome. For arrangements ring Angela on 9275 2066 by July 21.

Saturday August 5

REUNION

The Dominican Sisters of WA extend a warm welcome to all ex-students, their family and friends of the Sisters to attend a reunion and Mass to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Dominican Family. The reunion will be held in the Parish Hall at Doubleview at 2.30pm followed by Mass in Our Lady of the Rosary Church at 6.00pm. Please RSV to domsiswa@globaldial.com.au or telephone 9446 7689 by July 21.

Saturday August 5

DAY WITH MARY

St Simon Peter Church, 20 Prindiville Avenue, Ocean Reef, 9am to 5pm. A video on Fatima will be shown at 9am. A day of prayer and instruction based upon the messages of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO lunch. Enquiries to Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286. Next Day with Mary is Saturday September 2 at Our Lady’s Assumption, Mandurah. Bus services contact Nita 9367 1366.

Sunday August 6

DIVINE MERCY

An afternoon with Jesus and Mary at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Square, Perth at 1.30pm. Program: Holy Rosary and Reconciliation, Sermon: with Father Joseph Johnson (on St John Vianney), followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Enquiries; John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Friday to Sunday August 11 to 13

AWAKE MY HEART

All are invited to the 9th Charismatic Conference in Pemberton presented by The Holy Spirit of Freedom Community.

WINDOW CLEANERS

PREMIER WINDOW CLEANING

Phone Gerard: 0414 488 809 or 9343 2668.

SELLING

ORGAN

Conn. Very good condition. $500 O.N.O.

Phone: 9493 3410

WANTED

HYMN BOOKS

Any used Living Parish Hymn books and Catholic Worship books. Please contact Justin on 9349 1612

20 Talk for Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation - Bishop Sproxton

21 ‘Mariapolis’ Mass, Muresk - Bishop Sproxton

23 Blessing of Sports Complex, Iona College - Bishop Sproxton

24 Civic Reception for Ambassador of Israel - Fr Brian O’Loughlin VG

26 Confirmation, La Salle College - Bishop Sproxton

For further details contact; Meryl (08) 9772 1172 or Marcelle (08) 9776 1542.

Tuesday August 15

REMEMBRANCE MASS

Held at the Good Shepherd Church in Lockridge, Corner Altone Road and Morley Drive at 7pm. This is a time to remember babies lost either before, during or after birth whether it is a recent loss or many years ago. For further details please contact Shirley on 9279 9165.

Saturday August 19 - Wednesday August 23

INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM VIRGIN STATUE

Return visit of Fatima International Pilgrim Virgin Statue to Perth. Venues include St Patrick’s Basilica, Fremantle, Redemptorist Monastery, concluding with Mass, and crowning at St Mary’s Cathedral 22 August. (Queenship of Mary). Further details to follow. Enquiries: 9341 8082, Mobile 0413 707 707.

Friday August 25

FR GREG DONOVAN SILVER JUBILEE

Fr Donovan invites all friends and past parishioners to his Silver Jubilee celebration. Mass will be celebrated in SS John & Paul Church, Cnr Pinetree Gully Road & Wainwright Close, Willetton, at 7pm, followed by a Supper in the Parish Centre. For catering purposes, RSVP by 4 August to the Willetton Parish Office, 9332 5992 or email: admin@johnpaulwilletton.org. au

Sunday August 27

TAMMIN HOLY FAMILY CHURCH ANNIVERSARY

Holy Family Church will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its opening. We extend an invitation to all past parishioners to join us on this happy occasion. A thanksgiving Mass will be held at 11am followed by a light luncheon. For catering purposes please contact Mary Stokes 9637 1131 or Mary Caffell 9637 1020 by August 13.

Sunday September 17

KOORDA CHURCH 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Our Lady of the Assumption Church at Koorda will celebrate its Golden Anniversary this year on September 17. Past Parish Priests and past parishioners are invited to come and join us for the celebrations. Anyone who has any photos they would like to include in a display is welcome to send them to Kath Gosper at PO Box 68, Koorda 6475. You could send copies or we will copy and return them to you. The day will commence with Mass at 10.30am, to be followed by lunch at the Recreation hall.

Sunday September 24 to Saturday September 30

FIVE DAY DIRECTED RETREAT

At the Redemptorist Monastery Retreat House, 190 Vincent Street North Perth. Director: Fr Joe Carroll CSSR. For more information contact Jan Broderick

Sunday October 15 HEALING MASS

“Oh taste and see the Lord is good. He will satisfy the soul.” Catholic Charismatic Renewal invites you to come and experience the healing love of God through Prayer and Praise, the Eucharist and Praying over. The celebration will be held at St. Joseph’s Church, 1 Salvado Road, Subiaco, commencing with Prayer and Praise at 5.30pm, Mass at 6pm followed by praying over and supper. All are very welcome to join us in this celebration. Enq. Celine 94462147

Sunday October 29

WORLD CENTENARY OF CATHOLIC WOMEN’S

LEAGUE

Members of the Catholic Women’s League of WA will be celebrating the Women’s League Centenary, founded in England by Margaret Fletcher in 1906. Mass will be celebrated at the Redemptoris Monastery, 190 Vincent Street, North Perth at 10.30am followed by a lunch at the Royal Park Hall at noon. Members, ex-members and their families are most welcome to attend.

For more information contact Margaret Ph: 9328 8978 or Fay Ph: 9284 3084 on 9328 9736.

AL ANON FAMILY GROUPS

If a loved one’s drinking is worrying you – please call Al Anon Family Groups for confidential information meetings etc… Phone Number on 9325 7528 – 24 hrs.

ATTENTION COUPLES

Have you or your spouse been diagnosed with a mental illness? Depression? Anxiety/Panic Attacks? etc. Could you do with some help understanding your/ their illness? Do you know how to get help when you need it? We can help you to help each other through the Unconditional Love Program. For more information contact Amanda Olsen: 0407 192 641, or email: mandyfolsen@bigpond.com.au.

TUESDAY NIGHT PRAYER MEETINGS

St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay Street, Perth, 7pm. Come join us! Overcome the burdens in life making prayer your lifeline with Jesus. Personal healing in prayer, Rosary, meditation, Scripture, praise in song, friendship, refreshments. Be united with Our Lord

and Our Lady in prayer with others. Appreciate the heritage of the Faith.

EVERY SUNDAY

Bullsbrook Shrine Sunday Pilgrimage Program. Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Rd Bullsbrook. 2pm Holy Mass, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Holy Rosary. Reconciliation is available before every celebration. Enquiries: 9447 3292.

FIRST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

The Santa Clara Parish Community welcomes anyone from surrounding parishes and beyond to the Santa Clara Church, corner of Coolgardie and Pollock Sts, Bentley on the 1st Sunday of each month for devotions in honour of the Divine Mercy. The afternoon commences with the 3 o’clock prayer, followed by the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Reflection and concludes with Benediction.

YOUNG CATHOLIC WOMEN’S INTERFAITH

FELLOWSHIP

The Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW) was established by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 2000. CACW seeks to promote the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia. CACW is pleased to announce that the 2007 application package for the Young Catholic Women’s Interfaith Fellowship is now available. The package can be downloaded from the website: www.cacw.catholic.org.au.

Michelle Wood is the contact person for the CACW in the Archdiocese of Perth. For further information regarding the CACW or the Fellowship, please contact Michelle: michelleww@iinet.net.au or 9345 2555.

ART EXHIBITION

Art exhibition every Saturday and Sunday at the Parish Hall, Star of the Sea church, Cottesloe, cnr of Stirling Highway and McNeil Sts 11am – 4pm. All proceeds from the sale towards the extension of St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Is alcohol costing you more than just money? Alcoholics Anonymous can help. Ring 9325 3566.

BLESSED SACRAMENT ADORATION

Holy Family Church, Alcock Street, Maddington. Every Friday 8.30 am Holy Mass followed by Blessed Sacrament Adoration till 12 noon. Every first Friday of the month, anointing of the sick during Mass. Enq. 9398 6350.

Get more out of your Sunday

Special Reports

Over the last five years The Record has brought you special reports that give us the time to look at important issues in-depth and which benefit every family, parish and school community: Catholic education, a papacy in transition, World Youth Day. Watch out for more coming your way.

Soon, you’ll be able to get more out of your weekly Record. In fact, we’ll be adding an extra four pages. The Record has grown over the years, but the space has stayed the same. Now we’re running out of pages to put down all the news of the Parish, the Nation and the World that help give you a complete picture of the Church every week of the year. Here are just a few reasons why a good thing is about to get a whole lot better:

Columnist: Anna Krohn

Just one of our impressive line-up of columnists and observers of the Church and the world: a modern, contemporary, highly-educated woman whose gift for writing stands out from the very first sentence as she reflects on life, the universe and everything.

Seven days Being a weekly we have the advantage of being able to survey everything that has happened, choosing the most interesting news to bring home to you.

Better than anyone else

Over three weeks in April and May 2005 we covered an historic moment - and an historic passing. Our Lion of Rome edition became a national prizewinner.

Columnist: John Heard

Expect the unexpected. John Heard: young, Catholic, gay - and proud. He’s also the best defender of the timeless institution of marriage around. John has courage in spades. We’re proud he’s with us too.

Features for life

Follow the Church’s year with our regular features on faith and life, articles which inform, educate, and inspire.