The Record Newspaper 14 January 2009

THE R ECORD

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

-Bishop Matthew Gibney

Its supporters promised it would liberate women and make us all happier. ts supporters promised it would liberate women and make us all But as increasing numbers of women count the cost 40 years after But as increasing numbers of women count the cost 40 years after Humanae Vitae’s prophetic insights, artifical contraception’s deceitful artifical deceitful web begins to unravel... web to unravel...

Tumbling Down

One of the Pill’s creators spells out One of the Pill’s creators out the awful unforeseen consequences the awful unforeseen consequences of the contraceptive he now wishes of the he now wishes he had never invented. never Vista 1-3

SERVITE JOY IN PERTH

After a long journey, Perth man Peter Porteous was ordained a Servite priest by Bishop Donald Sproxton. It was a moment of great joy for all concerned. Story, photos: Pages 2-3

ROCKINGHAM STYLE

When it came to celebrating the Feast of the Birth of the Saviour of the World, Rockingham parish and Catholic school joined forces. Page 7

JANUARY INDULGENCE

As part of the special Year of St Paul called by Pope Benedict, Catholics in Perth can receive an indulgence on January 25. Don’t miss out!

Page 5

“I thank my God whenever I think of you, and every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy for your partnership in the Gospel from the very first day up until the present. I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes. Letter to the Church at Philippi 1:3-7

1874

SAINT OF THE WEEK

Blessed Laura Vicuna

1895-1908

feast – January 22

After her father’s sudden death, Laura’s family left Chile for Argentina, where her mother became the mistress of a wealthy landowner. He initially paid the fees for Laura and her sister to attend a school run by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. However, he stopped when Laura rebuffed his sexual advances, and she and her sister worked to pay the fees themselves. She had tried to join the order in 1902 but was rejected because of her mother’s lifestyle. Her death, shortly before her 13th birthday, was caused by stress and a severe beating by the mother’s lover.

Saints for Today

CLERGY CHANGES

Fr Demetri Roh, currently assistant priest at Northam, has accepted chaplaincy duties for the Korean community in the Diocese of Paramatta where a large Korean community exists.

The Vincentian Congregation currently at Shenton Park has agreed to administer the Parish of Maddington from February 5 when Fr Francis Ly goes to Lockridge Parish. The Vincentians will develop an evangelisation and retreat centre there for the benefit of parishes in that part of the archdiocese.

A new College of Consultors was formed late in 2008. They are: Bishop Donald Spoxton, Fr Brian O’Loughlin VG, Mgr Michael Keating, Fr Peter Bianchini, Fr Greg Carroll, Fr Wayne Davis, Fr Vinh Dong, Fr Bryan Rosling, Fr Michael Separovich.

THE PARISH

Happiness all around at Joondanna Servite ordination as.... Perth boy becomes a priest

with a cruise from our extensive selection.

Ready: Deacon Porteous is embraced by a priest shortly before his ordination, at top, and then processes into the Church led by Servite Sisters bearing candles. Moments before, Deacon Porteous had vested at left, with priests and Bishop Sproxton, as the Bishop goes over the ordination ceremony ritual. The occasion was the first time Bishop Sproxton has ordained a priest. At the beginning of the ceremony, Peter was formally presented to Bishop Sproxton. PHOTOS: PETER ROSENGREN

A priest forever: Bishop Donald Sproxton, above, lays hands on Peter as he ordains him to the Roman Catholic priesthood. It was an occasion of great joy for everyone as was seen when Peter’s parents Jim and Maxine Porteous came forward to vest their son for the first time as a priest and embraced him. The emotion continued as Peter was prayed over and embraced by his Servite brethren and then concelebrated his first Mass with fellow Perth priests, Servites and Bishop Sproxton. The great joy of the occasion for the Por teous family continued as Peter was able to give his parents the Sacrament of Communion and, immediately after the conclusion of the Mass, bless them in gratitude to God for all they have received from Him and each other.

A Perth man offers up his life to be a ‘true shepherd’ of God’s people.

■ By Robert Hiini

After a long journey of discernment, Peter Porteous was ordained priest for the Order of Friar Servants of Mary or Servites on Friday, January 9 at the Parish of St Denis in Joondana.

Several hundred of Fra Peter’s family members, friends and fellow Servites - priests and religious - turned out in force to pray for and celebrate with their companion.

In a moving ceremony, Fra Peter was presented as a candidate by the provincial head of Servites in Australia, Fra Liam Mackle OSM, before being examined and accepted by Bishop Don Sproxton with the consent of the congregation.

After vowing obedience, Fra Peter lay prostrate as St Denis’s Choir led the people in the Litany of the Saints before Bishop Sproxton, and in the central act of conferring ordination, laid his hands on Fra Peter’s head then recited the prayer of consecration recalling the Levitical priesthood and the 70 elders God annointed to help Moses. In an emotional moment, the candidate’s parents, Jim and

Maxine Porteous presented him with a stole and chasuble, signs of the priestly office and ministry, before embracing their newly ordained son.

In his homily, Bishop Sroxton recounted Fra Peter’s journey to date, having met him when he was first discerning his call over three decades ago at St Charles Seminary as well as his later involvement in the Holy Spirit of Freedom

Community. Presiding over his first ordination, Bishop Sproxton spoke of the ‘true shepherd’ as one who is called to look after His sheep and to bring the Good News of salvation to “those who are really living their lives burdened.”

While the call to ordained ministry may be daunting, he said, grace for the role will be given in abundance. “Peter looks forward into the unknown, we don’t know

what tomorrow holds. A call is given by God but with that call a promise is made that He will provide what we need as we step into the future. When we say yes we are uncertain and we don’t know what the implications of that call will be but as the Lord reassured Jeremiah, ‘don’t be afraid, I will be with you. I know what sort of choices you will have to make and I will help you make those choices with wisdom’.”

PHOTOS: PETER ROSENGREN

‘Future depends on solving poverty, war’

Pope addresses straighttalking message to diplomats

■ By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Saying the future of the world was at stake, Pope Benedict XVI called for major new efforts to reduce global poverty, end regional conflicts and restore ethics to global financial systems.

In an annual address to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican on January 8, the Pope also appealed on behalf of Christian minorities in places like Iraq and India, urging governments to respond firmly to a recent increase in anti-Christian violence and discrimination.

After delivering his speech in the ornate Sala Regia, the 81-yearold pontiff greeted the diplomats one by one and posed for group photos.

The Pope’s speech, sometimes called his “state of the world” address, reviewed developments on several continents, from the refugee crisis in central Africa to the recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Pope decried terrorist attacks that have “sown death and destruction” in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Algeria, but also found hopeful signs in places like the Philippines, where the government and rebels have opened new negotiations.

Taking up the theme of his recent World Peace Day message, he told the diplomats that “to build peace we must give new hope to the poor.”

In the current “sensitive phase of the history of humanity,” he said, moral and ethical principles are crucial to improving the condition of millions of people living in precarious situations.

“How can we not think of so many individuals and families hard pressed by the difficulties and uncertainties which the current financial and economic crisis has provoked on a global scale?” he said. He noted that the number of poor people is increasing even within rich countries.

“How can we not mention the food crisis and global warming, which make it even more difficult for those living in some of the poorest parts of the planet to have access to nutrition and water?” he said.

The Pope called for an effective strategy to fight hunger and promote local agricultural development, along with a reduction in military spending, which he said diverts enormous resources away from development projects.

Rebuilding economic confidence, he said, will require implementing ethical principles that are based on human dignity - a task that is demanding, but not impossible.

“Today more than in the past, our future is at stake, as well as the fate of our planet and its inhabitants, especially the younger generation, which is inheriting a severely compromised economic system and social fabric,” he said.

The Pope said the world is threatened not only by material poverty but also moral poverty, as seen in acts of discrimination and violence against thousands of Christians over the last year.

Declaring that Christianity is a religion of freedom and peace, he expressed his concern for Christian minorities, especially in Iraq and India, where attacks on church communities have worsened in recent months.

The Pope urged civil and political leaders to commit themselves “to ending intolerance and acts of harassment directed against Christians, to repairing the damage which has been done, particularly to the places of worship and properties, and to encouraging by every means possible due respect for all religions, outlawing all forms of hatred and contempt.”

The Pope said it was particularly important that countries in central Asia protect religious freedom with legislation in line with international norms.

But he said he was also concerned about Western society, and hoped that prejudice or hostility against Christians would not be cultivated simply because, on certain questions, “their voices cause disquiet.”

Turning his attention to the Middle East, Pope Benedict appealed for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the resumption of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, with the support of the international community.

The current violence, he said, has provoked “immense damage and suffering for the civilian population.”

“Once again I would repeat that military options are no solu-

tion and that violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned,” he said. Both sides should agree to “the rejection of hatred, acts of provocation and the use of arms.”

He added that upcoming elections would be crucial in choosing leaders who can lead their people to reconciliation. Israel holds elections in February, and Palestinians are expected to vote for new leadership sometime in the coming months.

In a brief reference to Iraq, the Pope encouraged Iraqis to “turn the page” and to rebuild their country without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic group or religion.

He said Iran was also important to regional and global peace, and he encouraged “tireless efforts” to negotiate a solution to the country’s nuclear program, one that satisfies Iran’s legitimate demands and the international community’s apprehensions.

The Pope looked ahead to his trip to Africa in March, when he will visit Cameroon and Angola, and said he was praying that Africans could build peace by fighting moral and material poverty. He said he was especially con-

cerned about children, many of whom have the tragic experience of being refugees in Somalia, the Darfur region of Sudan, and Congo.

“There are waves of migration involving millions of persons in need of humanitarian assistance and who above all have been deprived of their elementary rights and offended in their dignity.”

“I ask political leaders on the national and international levels to take every measure necessary to resolve the current conflicts and to put an end to the injustices which caused them,” he said.

He told the diplomats that in Zimbabwe, which faces a cholera outbreak as well as a political and economic crisis, the situation was “critical” and demanded considerable humanitarian assistance. He noted a “glimmer of hope” brought to central Africa by a recent peace agreement in Burundi.

In Latin America, the Pope urged legislation making it easier for emigrants to reunite with their families. He also praised the commitment of some Latin American governments in waging an uncompromising battle against the drug trade and political corruption.

He said conflicts in the Caucasus region cannot be settled by war. He

called for the respect of cease-fire commitments in Georgia, and said those displaced by fighting last year should be able to return to their homes as soon as possible.

The Pope concluded his talk by saying the fight against global poverty in all its forms can be inspired by Jesus and His Gospel.

“Because He is the Son of God, He tells us that fraternal solidarity between all men and women is the royal road to fighting poverty and to building peace.”

“May the light of His love illumine all government leaders and all humanity!” he said.

Through papal eyes: Pope Benedict XVI is applauded by the Vatican diplomatic corps in the Sala Regia at the Vatican on January 8. In his annual address to the diplomatic corps, the Pope called for major new efforts to reduce global poverty, end regional conflicts and restore ethics to financial systems. Later, he greeted the diplomats.

PHOTOS: CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS

Perth events mark Year of greatest missionary Pauline indulgence on January 25 Pope baptises babies, emphasises parents’ role

Envoy extraordinary: A spotlight illuminates the statue of St Paul in the courtyard of the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome in 2007. A special year running from June 2008-June 2009 celebrates the life, achievements and mission of Paul, considered to be the greatest missionary.

Aplenary indulgence will available to people who attend a specially designated church and participate in a religious function or public devotion in honour of St Paul on Sunday January 25, the feast of the Conversion of St Paul.

The eight special churches were named by Archbishop Hickey at the start of the Pauline year last June and are listed below.

In those churches, subject to the usual conditions for a plenary indulgence, attendance at Sunday Mass and Holy Communion (including the Vigil) will enable people to obtain the indulgence.

All eight parishes have been asked by the Archbishop to prepare special devotions to St Paul so that people from other parishes may attend Mass at home but also qualify for the plenary indulgence, which may be applied to themselves or to the souls in purgatory.

When Pope Benedict announced the Year of St Paul last year, he assigned the indulgence to any Church on the opening and closing dates of the year – June 28, 2008 and June 29, 2009. He also encouraged local bishops to nominate ‘pilgrimage’ churches and special dates when the indulgence would be available in their dioceses.

Archbishop Hickey nominated three additional dates, June 29,2008, January 25, 2009, and June 28, 2009.

The appointed Churches and their times of special devotions are:

● St Paul’s Church, 104 Rookwood St, Mt Lawley. Contact on (08) 9271 5253.

● Sts Peter and Paul Church, Redemptorist Monastery, Vincent St, North Perth. Saturday January 24: Reconciliation10am-12 noon, 4-4.30pm, 5.30-6pm. Sunday January 25: Masses - 7am, 9am, 10.30am, 6pm. Reconciliation - after all Sunday Masses and 5.30-6pm.

PHOTO: CNS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ, LONG ISLAND CATHOLIC

● St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral, Shepperton Rd, Victoria Park. Saturday January 24: Reconciliation - 5-5.45pm. Vigil Mass 6pm. Sunday January 25: Masses: 8am, 9.30am, 11am, 6pm.

● St Simon Peter Church, Prendiville Ave, Ocean Reef: 2pm Holy Hour of St Paul including Exposition, Benediction, readings, hymns, prayers and periods of silence in the Taize style, followed by afternoon tea in the Parish Centre. Mass times: 8am, 10am, 6pm.

● Basilica of St Patrick, Adelaide St, Fremantle. Contact on (08) 9335 2268.

● St Jerome’s Church, cnr Rockingham Rd and Troode St, Munster. Contact on (08) 9418 1229.

● St Joseph’s Church cnr Gordon and Wellington Sts, Northam. Saturday January 24: Reconciliation - 11am-12.30pm. Vigil Mass - 6.30pm. Sunday January 25Reconciliation - 7-7.50am. Mass - 8am.

● St Mary’s Church, cnr Brockman and Porter Sts, Kalgoorlie. For further information contact on (08) 9021 2100.

The usual conditions for obtaining a plenary indulgence are Reconciliation and Communion, praying the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed, and prayers for the Pope’s intentions (said publicly or privately). Those who are sick or homebound can gain the indulgence if they spiritually unite themselves to a Jubilee celebration in honour of St Paul, offering their prayers and suffering to God for the unity of Christians.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In an annual liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI baptized 13 infants and emphasised the duty of parents and godparents to educate them in the faith.

The Pope strongly defended the practice of infant baptism, saying it acts as a “bridge” between human beings and God, and helps lead children along the path of grace. The Mass on January 11 marked the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The pontiff celebrated the liturgy in the Sistine Chapel, where the crying of babies reverberated off the frescoed walls and ceiling.

The Pope poured water from a shell-shaped dipper onto the head of each of the 13 infants - nine boys and four girls, the children of Vatican employees. In his sermon, the Pope said parents should consider children not as their personal property to be shaped according to their own ideas and desires, but as free children of God who need to be educated in order to make the right choices in life.

If one of the aims of World Youth Day Sydney 2008 was to activate young Catholics, then...

Young Christian Workers reap benefits

■ By Anthony Barich

WORLD Youth Day Sydney 2008 has spawned unprecedented growth in the Australian Young Christian Workers.

AYCW’s new national secretary, Perth-based Marie Raheb, told The Record that pre- and post-WYD formation resources distributed to parishes and schools nationally as well as intensive spiritual formation within the AYCW has sparked interest in dioceses where the group previously had no presence.

The AYCW has had inquiries from Port Pirie and Tasmania following their national distribution.

It contains all the organisation’s basic methodology and reviews of scriptural, social and personal significance for the AYCW movement.

There has also been further interest shown in Perth, Canberra and Adelaide, where the AYCW already exists. “We’ve been able to increase our sphere of influence and widen our targets on a national and local level; and by joining forces with diocesan agencies like the Catholic Youth Ministries in Perth by promoting each other’s events, our databases have also increased significantly,” Miss Raheb said.

She said this growth has been triggered by the resources – which also benefit non-members - as they

deal with global, social and personal issues and urge people not to just do good works but to have them rooted in the Gospel and to constantly review and renew their faith life on which their actions are based. Miss Raheb said that these enquiries are not necessarily about starting a new AYCW group, but simply about animating youth and how to take advantage of the spiritual enthusiasm generated by WYD by giving them an outlet to put their faith into action, as well as offering advice for continued spiritual and human formation.

On a local level, Miss Raheb and her predecessor Sara Kane recently ran workshops for AYCW with representatives from the

Redemptorist Monastary and Claremont and Subiaco parishes after they expressed interest in youth formation.

She said that while AYCW’s figures cannot presently be gauged as it is currently in the process of conducting a census of its national membership, there is clearly stronger interest in the social justice organisation since WYD.

There has also been stronger emphasis by the organisation on spiritual formation for members to get maximum benefits from WYD in the short and long-term.

“After WYD, feedback from the spiritual formation we did preWYD told us that members were able to articulate their faith more

as they knew more about it, were able to discuss issues in light of faith with like-minded people, and are looking at Gospel passages in a new light,” she said.

“The spiritual formation helped to centre us, even amidst the hype of WYD, to remind us of the reason why we went over.”

In addition to the pre- and post-WYD resources, the AYCW launched at their National Council in Melbourne last month a further national resource kit at their national council in focusing on finding meaning in one’s work by having it making a difference in the context of the Gospel. d

To access AYCW’s resource kit, contact Anne-Marie El Dick on annemarie.eldick@ycw.org.au.

Student documentarian pulls pilgrimage into focus

A Sydney media student has won top marks with her documentary on a Catholic pilgrimage

■ By Anthony Barich

THE ancient Catholic traditions of the Latin Mass and Sacred Polyphony are reaching a new, younger audience in Australia, a Sydney University of Technology media student has found in an online documentary she prepared.

Just over 275 pilgrims attended the annual 100km Christus Rex (Christ the King) pilgrimage from St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bendigo on the last weekend of October in 2007; in 2008 it was closer to 350.

Of the 30-plus choristers who sang at Masses celebrated each day of the pilgrimage most were young people in their teens and early 20s and came from states including South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and NSW.

Bridget Spinks, final-year Bachelor of Arts (Communications) student, said in her online documentary production notes that there is therefore “a need for a documentary that exposes and explains the growth in interest around the Latin Mass for younger Catholics”.

“After going to World Youth Day last year, I realised that the idea of ‘pilgrimage’ is a curious one to many people. This documentary gave me a chance to explain and educate my audience on so many beautiful tenets of the faith in a way that will hopefully appeal to a broad range of people not just Catholics, but Christians as well, and those who are on their own journey or pilgrimage through life,” she told The Record

By conducting interviews during the pilgrimage, she also sought to offer explanations on key traditions for those who are new to the old rite.

She said that “although foreign to many Catholics, [the Latin Mass’s] growing influence is becoming mainstream in Catholic society, especially since 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a letter Motu Proprio that recognised the continual importance of the older form of the Mass”.

The pontiff’s letter also stated that groups of the faithful no longer needed their local bishop’s approval to celebrate it with a priest. “(The documentary) is not intended as a promotional piece,” she said, “but rather a historio-graphical, travel and spirituality piece that exposes a new contribution to Australian society.”

Interviewing a teenager, a 30-something mother, a reformed former rock band roadie, the pilgrimage’s chief organiser and a tour veteran, Miss Spinks found that the arduous pilgrimage strengthens participants’ experience of God through offering up their sufferings. They also reconciled their internal conflicts and drew closer to those they were praying for by offering up their sufferings for them.

The most revealing interview of Miss Spinks’ documentary was ‘Bernie’, a former roadie for heavy metal rock bands who is on the road to conversion. Though admitting the over 30kma-day pilgrimage was painful and tiring, Bernie, 36, found himself drawing closer to God by offering up countless Rosaries for his 11-year-

old son and his familyin the midst of a custody battle. Having admitted to making mistakes in his former life and hurting people he loves, he now offers it all up in a tangible way, “praying that Mary will intercede for my son”, not so much to grant him custody to see his son on weekends but just to bless his son and family.

The Christus Rex pilgrimage started in October 1991, inspired by John Paul II’s Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei encouraging the use of the Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal.

Then, just 25 people embarked on a pilgrimage with only Turkish bread and cheese to sustain them on the 100km walk, mirroring the famous and centuries-old 70-mile Paris to Chartres pilgrimage.

But the Christus Rex pilgrimage merely traverses highways and pales in comparison with the French event that sees participants cross forests, muddy fields and paddocks.

Young Sydney mother Carmen Sands admits that bringing young children on the pilgrimage is “really difficult” for her and her husband.

But the children have learned in a real way the self-sacrificial spirit of living for others, and offering up their own suffering for others.

Mrs Sands admits that she “used to dread” going on the pilgrimage, “but the thing that pushes me on is to drop everything as a family for the sake of Christ the King and purify our love for God with suffering”.

“It’s really difficult for us, with the kids especially. It’s not just sore feet - all sorts of things happen to the kids. But overall I really enjoyed coming. They love walking through the countryside; they can’t do that at home. We can take time out from the busy, frantic pace of life.

“They’ll remember walking through the countryside, and it teaches them something about suffering. They tell me they’ve got sore feet and they’re offering it up.”

Eighteen years after the first pilgrimage, the food is slightly better but amenities are still limited – women and children sleep in community halls and the men sleep outside in the cold tents. Showers are non-existent after the first morning. Up to 60 volunteers run the event marshalling on the roads, driving trucks, and organising priests, food and port-a-loos,but John Gresser, a 32-year-old father of three, says he is jealous of the 25 pilgrims who went to the first one in 1991.

“It’s my spiritual highlight, this will get me through another year,” said Mr Gresser, a regular since 1995. “The idea of a walking pilgrimage really spoke to me; the idea of walking to a holy place, walking or travelling is a penance.”

He says that catching up with people year after year, even if names are not remembered, is like a “meeting of souls”, as they have suffered and prayed together; and when they finally arrive at Bendigo’s Sacred Heart Cathedral it’s clear that the pilgrimage is a microcosm of life.

“You’ve just been on an extremely long journey, but every year when you walk into the Cathedral you know God is really here.

“Even though Jesus being in every tabernacle in the world is a matter of our faith, you just have this overwhelming sense that what we believe is absolutely true, because your whole body senses that God is present.” In their exhaustion, he said, the sense of God’s presence is stronger.

Amongst it: Bridget Spinks, centre, with two volunteer marshalls during the pilgrimage.

More than interested: Bridget found young people are flocking to the Latin Mass in droves.

Faith’s rubber hits the road: Pilgrims walk the gruelling 100km. PHOTOS: TOM KWOK

Rockingham parish, school join for Xmas

Rockingham celebrated Christmas a little bit differently last month when Our Lady of Lourdes Parish held their Vigil Family Mass in the grounds of their local Catholic High School.

At the pleasure of Principal Caroline Payne and staff, Kolbe Catholic College played host to the Christmas celebration for the first time in its 20 year history with nearly 500 worshippers attending the Mass.

Kids from the parish’s Children’s Liturgy staged a nativity play while parish youth group ‘Discovered‘ and students from the college provided music for the occasion.

Parish Priest of Rockingham, Fr Michael Separovich thanked all the staff at the college as well as all the parishioners, young and old, who had helped facilitate an occasion he described as “prayerful and spiritually uplifting.”

Celebrate: Acolytes, priests and players process down Kolbe Catholic College’s avenue (above) while a young family and their “Santa Baby” soak up the atmosphere. Theatrics were provided by the children of the parish (below and, bottom left).

PHOTOS: LEANNE JOYCE

As Israel steps up efforts to neutralise Hamas’ strikes on the Jewish state, casualties are mounting...

Caritas medical clinic bombed in Gaza

CARITAS Australia chief executive Jack de Groot has called on the Australian Government to act decisively to end the Gaza conflict now 18 days old (as of publication) after a Caritas-funded medical clinic in Gaza was bombed and destroyed.

The Caritas Jerusalem clinic, in the Al Maghazi district of Central Gaza, was completely destroyed in the bombing that also razed four nearby homes.

“Thankfully nobody was hurt as resident families had fled the area and were temporarily seeking safety in various schools in the district,” Mr de Groot said.

“The need in Gaza for medical assistance is enormous and although Caritas continues to operate five medical centres, the need far out-strips capacity.

“The Australian Government needs to act decisively to bring about a cessation of hostilities in Gaza, this brutality has gone on too long”, Mr de Groot said.

Fr Manuel Musallam, parish priest of Gaza, has referred to the deepening crisis there as “inhumane and criminal.”

Speaking from Beit Hanoun in Gaza on January 13, Fr Manuel Musallam

said: “There is extreme fear everywhere here. The bombs the Israelis are dropping are literally cutting through people. Night and day the sound of children crying is everywhere”.

Of the 884 people confirmed dead, at least 275 were children, 93 were women and 12 medical personnel have also been killed. Supplies of medicine, food and blankets are all at critical-

ly-low levels as humanitarian access remains heavily constrained.

Fr Manuel said that 70,000 people are living in schools and “they are very cold”.

“The ones who haven’t gone to schools are living in their bathrooms or stairwells. There is no water here. We are almost out of diesel for our generator that people are using to cook from. When the diesel runs out we will have nothing,” he said, adding that the conflict “has made these people live like animals and our school is the zoo”.

“There are dead bodies lying on the streets. The clinics are carrying out operations on floors. Women have no place to give birth. One pregnant woman was shot on her way to a clinic to give birth. They tried to save the baby but it too was dead. Life and death for people in Gaza is the same.”

Caritas Australia has launched an appeal for the people of Gaza to provide medical services through its clinics, assist four of the Gaza hospitals in dealing with the crisis and the direct provision of food, hygiene kits, financial support and blankets to people affected by the crisis.

Gaza Strip

Rockets from Lebanon hit Israel after bishops warn war could spread

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -

One day after Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic bishops warned that Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip could spread to Lebanon, several rockets were launched from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.

In a January 7 statement at the end of their monthly meeting, the bishops said one of the dangers of the Gaza war “is that it spreads to other areas and countries, including Lebanon.”

“The massacres committed in Gaza,” clearly visible in media coverage, “stir up anger in the souls for the cruelty they show,” the bishops said.

“This requires the condemnation of this war. An immediate end should be put to it by the UN Security Council. Wars in the past used to spare innocent children, and fights were limited to fighters and warriors.”

The bishops urged Lebanese citizens to be unified to face the dangers threatening them.

“The split of the Lebanese into two bickering (political) teams is not a sign of good health, particularly when Gaza is ablaze and the fire could spread to its neighbours,” the bishops said. On January 8 at least three rockets were launched from southern Lebanon into northern Israel. Israel responded by firing five shells into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government condemned the strikes against Israel, and a Lebanese Cabinet member belonging to Hezbollah, an Islamic political and paramilitary organisation, said it was not behind the rocket attacks.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006 in which more than 1,200 Lebanese - mostly civilians - were killed.

More than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in that war.

Parishioner named finalist in Australian of the Year

■ By Anthony Barich

CLAREMONT parishioner and former Federal minister Fred Chaney AO as been announced as a WA finalist for Senior Australian of the Year.

Mr Chaney, a law graduate of the University of WA and former co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and still chair of Desert Knowledge Australia, spent 30 years working to advance the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, starting his career as a Crown prosecutor in Papua New Guinea.

He told The Record that his work springs from being a Catholic and Jesus’ command to love others, especially the poorest of the poor.

He says that preference to the poor, love of fellow man and finding Christ in ourselves is the key to Christian life, and says that “the Church is at its best” when this is done.

“We should never accept the world as it is, but work to make the world a better place, however imperfect people are,” said Mr Chaney, who co-founded the Law Society of WA’s Legal Advice Bureau and helped establish the State’s Aboriginal Legal Advice Service for which he worked as a volunteer in the early 1970s. He served as Liberal Senator for WA and as the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Australian Catholic University’s former Vice Chancellor, Professor Peter Sheehan, said that Mr Chaney’s “ongoing commitment to reconciliation,

native title issues and improved access to legal aid, among other causes, is testament to his political integrity and social justice vision”.

Perth Catholic evangelist Eddie Russell, founder of the charismatic Association of Christ’s Faithful called Flame Ministries International, was also nominated for Australian of the Year by Willagee parishioner Elda Ruoff. Mr Russell, a Catholic evangelist of 30 years since his conversion after immersing himself in various cults and lifestyles, was stunned upon receiving a personally signed letter from National Australia Day Council chairman and Australian Test vice-captain Adam Gilchrist on December 19.

“I must say that, even though the letter said that I did not make the final choice, the fact that I was nominated for Australia’s highest honour of a citizen, is in itself an award, and I confess to feeling a deep sense of humility and gratitude when I read the letter,” he told The Record

Elda Ruoff said that she nominated him having been transformed by his preaching in the Thursday evening praise and worship sessions that she has attended for the past three years at the Cathedral Parish Centre on Hay Street in Perth city. “I nominated him first and foremost to uplift the Church and give glory to God, as you never see religious identities in the Australia Day nominations,” she said.

“His contribution has been amazing. He’s such a gifted preacher; he delivers the Gospel like no one else,” with such passion and dedication.”

Spain’s atheists continue adverts

MADRID, Spain (CNS) - Catholic and religious leaders have denounced slogans questioning the existence of God planned for buses in Barcelona and other Spanish cities. The message, “Probably, God does not exist. Stop worrying and enjoy life,” were to be placed on buses in Barcelona by January 12.

The advertisement campaign, organised by the Madrid Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and Atheists of Catalonia, will arrive in the capital city of Madrid by January 26, Madrid Vice Mayor Manuel Cobo announced on January 8. Ads in Valencia, Bilbao, Zaragoza and Seville are set to follow, organisers said.

In a statement, Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach of Barcelona said that “faith is not a reason for worry, nor an obstacle to enjoy life honestly, but a solid foundation to live life with an attitude of solidarity, peace and a sense of transcendence.” There have been similar ad campaigns in Great Britain and the United States.

Jack de Groot

Alone in the mess: A Palestinian woman carries belongings near her destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on January 9. Israel pushed ahead with its two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, defying a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

PHOTO: CNS/IBRAHEEM

The other view: People take part in a Mass in Madrid, Spain on December 28 promoting the traditional family. Thousands of Spaniards attended the Mass on the feast of the Holy Family. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/JUAN MEDINA, REUTERS

The Pill: past its use-by date

Actually, the whole idea that technology can deliver consequence-free sex has outlived its shelf life.

Jennifer Roback Morse asks why former champions of the contraceptive Pill are disenchanted with it and what exactly we expected the Pill to do.

How quickly things can change. One week we read about the need for school nurses to give contraceptive pills to girls who just can’t say no; the next, this headline from London’s Daily Telegraph leaps out from our news feeds: “‘Contraceptive pill outdated and does not work well,’ experts warn”.

Well, I thought, that is curious. Whatever could have happened? Are women all of a sudden immune to the effects of estrogen? Is it something in the air, or the water? And who was the expert delivering this disturbing news?

It turned out to be Dr James Trussell, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Dr Trussell is one of the Mr Bigs of birth control research so the Telegraph was listening carefully when he spoke recently at a conference of one of the UK’s main birth control groups, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. And yes, he certainly was disenchanted with the Pill. “One in 12 women taking the Pill get pregnant each year because they miss so many tablets,” he lamented. “The Pill is an outdated method because it does not work well enough. It is very difficult for ordinary women to take a pill every single day.”

Frankly, this is something well known in Britain where pregnancy rates among schoolgirls continue to rise, and thousands of women have three or four abortions. But what does Dr Trussell suggest should be done with these “ordinary women” who, although he is too polite to say it in so many words, are too stupid to take a pill every day?

Shoot them up with longlasting hormonal contraception amounting to sterilisation - not to put too fine a point on it. “The beauty of the implant or the IUD is that you can forget about them,” enthused the professor. “If you want to seriously reduce unintended pregnancies in the UK you can only do it with implants and IUDs.”

So now we get to the heart of the matter. The problem is not that the Pill doesn’t work - it does, reducing the probability that any given act of intercourse will result in pregnancy. The problem is that women do not take it regularly enough. But that raises the allimportant question: What, exactly, are we trying to accomplish with the Pill?

This is my theory: the Pill has been an instrument in the creation of what author Lee Harris called, in another context, a fantasy ideology.

A fantasy ideology is a variety

VISTA

When ‘Plan B’ starts

Falling Apart

Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi, the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill, now says that his co-creation has led to a “demographic catastrophe.”

The news was conveyed here in Australia in the first week of the new year by the CathNews website, which linked to articles from The Taipei Times and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard

In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world’s Catholic doctors broadened the critique of the pill, claiming it had also brought “devastating ecological effects” by releasing into the environment “tonnes of hormones” that had impaired male fertility, The Taipei Times reported.

The critique began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step toward the earliest oral contraceptive pill.

Djerassi outlined the “horror scenario” that occurred because of the population imbalance, for Continued

Walking in a demographic wint

Why are people averting their eyes from the coming collapse of population growth?

Demographic Winter is an independently produced film describing the consequences of the population collapse of industrialised countries.

I have been amazed at the

response, or I should say, lack of response to this film. Many of the reviewers either dismissed the thesis of the film, or changed the subject. The lack of serious attention is surprising, considering that Demographic Winter has been translated in several languages, most recently, Romanian. (Full disclosure: I was interviewed as one of the experts for Part II, as yet to be released.) Commentators Left

and Right are wandering through a Demographic Winter Wonderland with their eyes glazed over.

The film argues that falling population will mean a diminished quality of life for the aging generation and for future generations.

For instance, pensions, both private and public, have to be paid for. When the retired population is too high relative to the working population, paying the promised

pensions becomes an enormous burden.

Either the young pay crushing taxes, or the elderly will not get what they expected, or both.

Consumer spending keeps the economy humming and the stock market climbing.

When population shrinks, the demand for goods and services of all kinds shrinks. Harry Dent, one of the experts interviewed on

the film, is an investment advisor. He discovered the significance of population growth by accident. He had a chart showing birth rates over a hundred year period on his desk next to a chart showing the stock market over the same period. He laid them over each other and realised that the stock market tracks birth rates with about a 40 year lag. That is because people

Has this narrow ideology hit its use-by date?

Continued from Vista 1 of utopianism that is not about making a better world, but making its adherents feel good about themselves. The believer is assured that he is one of the chosen, one of the few enlightened ones who truly understands the universe.

åIn the name of supporting the fantasy, the believer is entitled to impose large costs on other people. Indeed, he seldom notices these costs, because he is not checking in with reality on a regular basis. Data fly right over his head.

Though Lee Harris developed his concept of the fantasy ideology in relation to Islam, his analysis could apply just as well to the contraceptive ideology. The fantasy ideology of contraception is that people are entitled to behave as if they had perfectly functioning contraception; in other words, to act as though

sexual activity and reproduction are completely disconnected. Adherents of the ideology get to feel good about themselves as progressive, modern, enlightened. They are ever so beyond the tired old ethics that connects sex with responsible parenthood through marriage. Most importantly, believers in the faith that contraception prevents all consequences of sex never have to apologise for any sexual misdeeds. There are no sexual misdeeds, with the possible exception of rape.

It is no wonder that poor Dr Trussell is disappointed. The Pill could not possibly meet the standard of creating a lifetime of harmless and guilt-free sex.

Yet on the road to the society of perfectly controlled reproductive freedom, millions of people’s lives have been ruined. Women got themselves involved in relationships that had no chance of sustaining a pregnancy. Then,

they were shocked and appalled when they got pregnant. In their desperation, they turned to abortion. Or they kept babies they were ill-prepared to raise, because they could not bring themselves to have an abortion and no-one encouraged them to consider adoption.

Or, men got themselves involved with women who claimed they wanted no deeper involvement. But then, when they became pregnant, they wanted the child after all. In some cases the woman wanted the child all along, and deceived the man into believing that he was participating in a sterile sexual encounter. Since sterile sex is the new social norm, thanks to the Pill, it is not difficult to convince a man you don’t mean to have a baby.

Men and women alike thought the addition of a condom protected them from sexually transmitted diseases. They didn’t notice

when the sexual spin doctors quietly changed the term “safe sex” to “safer sex”. Some were naïve enough to think that the Pill looked after all safety issues, even though it offers no protection against STDs whatsoever.

The true believer in the fantasy ideology of contraception does not look too closely at problems like these. Any problem that cannot be solved by more contraception is not worth considering.

This is why the indefatigable Dr Trussell advocates more aggressive and intrusive methods of contraception. He and his allies must not, at any cost, question their premise that contraception eliminates all negative consequences of sex. They are reduced to sewing more patches over the tattered quilt of an outmoded fantasy ideology. It is not just the Pill that has outlived its shelf life, but the contraceptive ideology itself.

Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is the Founder and President of The Ruth Institute, and the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World. The book is available from The Record Bookshop.

The Pill’s problems begin to take shape ter wonderland

pend the most money in their 40s. hey buy the biggest house they’ll ver have; they feed, clothe and ducate their children; they buy ars and vacations.

I have been thinking about arry Dent and his charts while I rive through my San Diego neighourhood.

Out of 42 homes, we have 4 foreosures. Yes, the housing prices allooned up and people took on ortgages they couldn’t pay.

But there is more to the story an the credit crunch: there simy are not enough people at the ght age, with enough income, to ford these houses.

Because the Baby Boomers didn’t place themselves, there are not nough people to buy their homes. alling demand translates into fallg home prices.

The Chattering Classes can ot bring themselves to take the emographic Winter thesis seriusly.

The Left dismisses it as a hysrical racist rant. Kathryn Joyce, riting in the US Nation magazine, ports on her conversation with ephen Mosher.

“Mosher, president of the atholic anticontraception lobbyist roup (cue scary music) Population esearch Institute (PRI), describes s grim vision of Europe’s future: elds will lie fallow and econoies will wither. A great depreson will sink over the continent as undergoes ‘a decline that Europe asn’t experienced since the Black eath.’” Joyce never refutes Mosher’s gument that population decline recedes economic decline. Instead, he changes the subject to some-

thing she wants to talk about: the alleged racism of pro-natalists.

“The white Christian West, in this telling, is in danger of forfeiting itself through sheer lack of numbers to an onslaught of Muslim immigrants and their purportedly numerous offspring.”

Oddly enough, the Demographic Winter film makes no mention of race or nationality. In fact, the film emphasises that the problem of population decline is a worldwide problem. Nobel Prize winning economist Gary Becker notes that 70 countries now have fertility rates below replacement. The left-wing commentariat would like the film to be about race, so they can dismiss it as unworthy of attention.

Representing the Libertarian Right, we have Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine.

He likewise makes no pretence of engaging the actual argument of

the film: “I doubt that the “demographic winter” portends economic collapse or social deterioration, but let us set that aside for this column, and instead ask why people are choosing to have fewer children?”

He wants to talk about how the modern world has given men and women more choices, which is a good thing.

His libertarian instincts blind him to the fact that the Invisible Hand does not always promote the social good.

Having children may be optional for individuals, but it is not optional for society as a whole. The principles of individual liberty and personal choice that he holds dear are not self-sustaining.

Those ideals will collapse, if the people who hold them do not transmit them to the next generation. In this case, we are not even creating a next generation.

As I mentioned, the producers of Demographic Winter interviewed me to appear in Part II. The producers happen to be Mormons. They told me that they had anticipated more interest in the film from church groups of all kinds. But in fact, only Catholics and their fellow Mormons seem receptive.

This is not entirely surprising, in that these two groups have theological reasons for supporting larger families. But still, churches and all of civil society, ought to take the argument of Demographic Winter seriously.

Continued from Vista 1 which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now “no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction.”

He said: “This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete.”

He described families who had decided against reproduction as “wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it.”

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an “epidemic” far worse, but given less attention, than obesity.

Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an “intelligent immigration policy.”

The head of Austria’s Catholics, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, told an interviewer that the Vatican had forecast 40 years ago that the pill would lead to a dramatic fall in the birth rate in the west.

Schonborn said when he first read Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning artificial contraception he viewed it negatively as a “cold shower.” But he said he had altered his views as, over time, it had proved “prophetic’.

“Somebody above suspicion like Carl Djerassi ... is saying that each family has to produce three children to maintain population levels, but we’re far away from that,” he said.

Schonborn told Austrian TV that when he first read Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning artificial contraception he viewed it negatively as a “cold shower.” But he said he had altered his views as, over time, it had proved “prophetic.”

Writing for the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, said research from his association also showed the pill “worked in many cases with a genuinely ... abortive effect.”

Angelo Bonelli, of the Italian Green party, said it was the first he had heard of a link between the pill and environmental pollution. The worst of poisons were to be found in the water supply.

“It strikes me as idiosyncratic to be worried about this,” he said. Catholic News Agency details the claims by the president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Dr Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, who outlined a series of scientific arguments said to confirm the prophetic nature of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on artificial contraception.

In an article published by the L’Osservatore Romano, the Spanish doctor pointed to the Federation’s recent document commemorating the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, which “irrefutably shows that the most widely used antiovulatory pill in the industrialised world, the one made with low doses of estrogen and progesterone, in many cases works with an anti-implantation effect; that is, abortifacient [effect], because it expels a small human embryo.”

Castellvi also pointed out that “this anti-implantation effect is acknowledged in scientific literature, which shamelessly speaks of an embryo loss rate. “Curiously, however, this information does not reach the public at large.”

He also pointed to the “devastating ecological effects of the tons of hormones discarded into the environment each year. We have sufficient data to state that one of the causes of masculine infertility in the West is the environmental contamination caused by the products of the ‘pill’.” Castellvi noted as well that the International Agency for Research on Cancer reported in 2005 that the pill has carcinogenic effects.

After explaining that the “natural methods of regulating fertility are the ones that are effective and that respect the nature of the person,” Castellvi stated that “in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man we can say that the contraceptive methods violate at least five important rights: the right to life, the right to health, the right to education, the right to information (its dissemination occurs to the detriment of information about natural methods) and the right of equality between the sexes (responsibility for contraceptive use almost always falls to the woman).”

The Church and ghosts

Are there really things that go ‘bump’ in the night?

By Fr John Flader

Over the years I have heard various accounts of people seeing “ghosts”, hearing strange sounds, seeing objects move without any apparent cause, etc. How does a Catholic look on these phenomena?

Itoo have heard accounts from people I know and whose judgment I trust completely having seen “ghosts” or having heard strange sounds, including voices of people who were not present.

The phenomenon of “haunted houses”, can thus seem to have some basis in fact. This is especially the case when more than one person sees or hears the same things. What are we to make of this?

To my knowledge there has been no pronouncement of the Church on the question, so I cannot pretend to give the “definitive” answer. We will have to derive the answer from what we know by experience and by our Catholic faith.

Peter Kreeft, in his book

Everything you ever wanted to know about heaven, addresses the question of ghosts. He acknowledges that there is considerable evidence of ghosts in all cultures.

He distinguishes three types of ghosts, which correspond to the common experience of people with whom I have spoken.

First there is the type referred to in your question: visible but shadowy spirits without a material body which suddenly appear and disappear, and which may sometimes be recognised as male or female, and of a particular approximate age, including children.

These, Kreeft suggests, may be the souls of people who are still in Purgatory and who have some “unfinished business” on earth.

Perhaps they lived or died in the place where they now appear. There is nothing particularly evil about them, although they often inspire fear in those who see them.

It is impossible to explain why they are allowed to appear on earth, but there are too many accounts to dismiss them out of hand. God may have some reason for allowing them to appear. Among these reasons can be that their appearance moves those who see them to pray for them, or perhaps teaches them some lesson.

“Secondly, there are spirits of a more evil type, which may be from hell. I have heard several people speak of having seen the devil in various forms and I have no reason to doubt the truth of their claims.”

Secondly, there are spirits of a more evil type, which may be from hell. I have heard several people speak of having seen the devil in various forms and I have no reason to doubt the truth of their claims. Of this type too may be the spirits that are conjured up in séances and other paranormal practices. Because Satan can be involved in these practices, the Church, based on Scripture (cf. Deut 18:9-13), warns the faithful against involvement in them.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human

Theology of the Body Mary loves her body

Body Language

By Christopher West

In my previous column, we spoke about the great “spousal mystery” of Christmas. This is based on the idea – flowing from Scripture and so often spoken of by the saints and mystics – that God wants to “marry” us. He wants to live with us forever in an eternal union of love that the Bible compares to a marriage. And, even more, God wants to fill his Bride (the Church) with divine life.

Soul AND body: The Assumption

contemporary

from

beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers.

They contradict the honour, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone” (CCC 2116).

When it is a matter of objects moving without any apparent cause or strange noises, it will quite likely be due to spirits associated with Satan.

St John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, often heard the banging of furniture and strange noises in his house at night, and he had no doubt that the devil was at work to disrupt him in his fruitful ministry in the confessional.

If someone experiences phenomena of this sort in their house, it would be wise to ask a priest, or even the diocesan exorcist, to bless or exorcise the house.

Thirdly, there are accounts of appearances of deceased saints and loved ones, often family members, who are recognised as to their identity.

They do not inspire fear but rather consolation and hope. Sometimes deceased family members, angels or saints can appear when another family member is dying, perhaps to comfort the latter or to accompany them into the next life.

Here it is clearly a matter of souls or persons who are in heaven.

All in all, when human experience offers so many accounts of appearances of shadowy spiritual beings, some of which have come to be called “ghosts”, there is no reason to doubt their authenticity.

Since these appearances are quite rare, witnessed by a small minority of people, one should not fear them.

If one should see a ghost of the first type mentioned, it would be appropriate to pray for the soul of the person who appears and perhaps to sprinkle holy water in that place.

Hundreds of people every year send questions to Fr Flader, who is the Director of the Catholic Adult Education Centre in Sydney. Do you have a question? If so, you can email him at director@caec.com.au

As the Catechism states, “The spousal character of the human vocation in relation to God is fulfilled perfectly in Mary’s virginal motherhood” (505). And that is what we celebrate in the Christmas season. God has espoused himself to us forever by sending his Son, born of this woman.

My own experience growing up in the Church – and learning of the experiences of thousands of other Catholics around the world in my lectures and travels – has taught me that many Catholics have what I call a “hyper-spiritual” idea of the Blessed Virgin.

It’s as if the title “virgin” itself leads us to believe that Mary is somehow opposed to bodily realities, or that her immaculate purity makes her a prudish or even “a-sexual” being. But such impressions of Mary can only stem from projecting our own fallen humanity on to her.

First of all, purity doesn’t annihilate our sexuality – it perfects it. Far from being “a-sexual,” Mary is the only woman who ever experienced God’s original plan for sexuality in its fullness. Sexuality is not to be equated with sexual behaviour. Mary remained a virgin. But virginity is not to be equated with “a-sexuality.”

Virginity, from the Christian perspective, is not the negation of sexuality, but an embracing of the ultimate purpose and meaning of sexuality – to point us to union with God. God made us male and female and called the two to become “one flesh” as a sacramental sign of a much, much greater reality – the marriage of Christ and the Church (see Eph 5:31-32).

This is the original and fundamental meaning of human sexuality and this is how Mary must have experienced her womanhood, her sexuality – as a burning desire for union with God. Through the gift of redemption, we can begin to reclaim this original truth, but even for the holiest among us it remains muddled by our fallen condition.

To recognise Mary as the “Immaculate One” is to recognize that her sexuality was never muddled by our fallen condition. For she experienced the fullness of redemption right from the first

The feast of the Assumption, a holy day of obligation, is celebrated on August 15 and marks the occasion when Mary was taken body and soul to heaven. This also signals the reality of being reunited with our bodies at the Resurrection.

moment of her conception.

This would mean that Mary’s purity allowed her to experience her sexuality in its fullness – as a deep yearning for total communion with God in Christ. This is why she didn’t have sexual relations with Joseph: not because marital union is “unholy,” but because she was already living the union beyond sexual union –union with God.

This is not to knock Joseph, but earthly, sexual union with him would have been for Mary a step backwards. Instead, Mary took Joseph forward with her into the fulfillment of all desire.

And she wants to take us forward with her as well, into the fullness of union with God. But this journey demands that we face all of our diseased images and ideas about our bodies and our sexuality.

For union with God passes by way of sexual healing and redemption. And there is no detour. Here Mary, too, serves as a perfect guide and help.

As Father Donald Calloway expresses: “Mary shows us how to accept the gift of our embodiedness, and this includes the God-given sex of the body.

In this it is important to note that Mary’s exemplarity of what it means to accept the gift of one’s body means that the body is not an obstacle to overcome but, rather, a gift to be lived. Mary delights in her body, especially in its God-given sex: femininity.

It is precisely in her gift of being a woman that Mary was fashioned and called by God to be the Theotokos [God-bearer]. The gift of her body is exactly what helps her to become the Theotokos

Just think of what would have happened if Mary had rebelled against the gift of her feminine body! We would be in a very different situation today. (Mary and the Theology of the Body, pp. 55-56).

Mary, all pure Mother of God, show us the beauty of your femininity and teach us, in turn, to embrace the beauty of our own humanity as men and women made in the image of God.

Hot candidate: If you were looking for a haunted house - well, as they are usually portrayed - this one would pretty much fit the bill. Question is: are there really any such things that would make it... well, haunted?

of Mary is depicted in a

glass piece

Pius X Church in Lourdes, France.

PHOTO: CNS /CROSIERS

War veterans, Latin lovers meet maker

Fr Jack Frawley SSS 1925 - October 3, 2008

FATHER John Vincent Frawley (always known as Jack) was born in Melbourne, Victoria on July 11 1925, the fourth child of Thomas and Wilhemina Frawley.

Jack and his three older siblings, Kath (deceased), Bernie (deceased) and Sheila, lived with their parents at Clifton Hill.

Baptised at North Fitzroy on August 2, 1925, Jack was educated at St John’s, East Melbourne, St Thomas’ Christian Brothers College, Clifton Hill, and St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College, North Melbourne, where he studied accountancy for two years.

In 1943 at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and served in the Communications Branch. Being still a boy at that time, his service record shows that he grew another inch in height before the end of the Second World War. His efficiency was always described as ‘Satisfactory’ and his character ‘Very Good’.

During the war, he was engaged in active service overseas on HMAS Quickmatch which suffered 42 days of kamikaze bombing on its way to Japan and carried out a successful attack on the Japanese base at Sourabaya in 1944.

After the war he worked as a clerk in the Commonwealth Department of Trade and Customs, during which time he became familiar with St Francis’ Church and was drawn to the life of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation. He was also active in the Young Christian Workers movement and in the Catholic Young Men’s Society, at one time being the editor of the CYMS Magazine.

On September 22, 1950 he became an aspirant in the Blessed Sacrament Congregation at St

Fr Gregory Moore O Carm 1915 - December 7, 2008

Francis’, before moving to the novitiate at Bowral where he was accepted as a novice in early 1952, taking the religious name of Brother Joachim. He made his first profession of vows on February 5 1954. For his scholasticate training he initially returned to St Francis’, then moved in March 1955 to the newly opened Seminary of Christ the King at Lower Plenty to continue his studies. He was a fine scholar, consistently recording high marks in his studies in Theology and Philosophy.

He made his final profession of vows on 6 February 1957. On July 26, 1959 he was ordained to the priesthood at St Patrick’s Cathedral by Archbishop Justin Simonds and offered his first Mass at St Francis’ the following morning. In 1960 he completed his pastoral year studies there while serving as the Community Librarian. His first official posting, in December 1960, was to the novitiate community at Toowoomba where he was appointed Treasurer. He returned to St Francis’ in November 1963 and remained there three years.

In addition to his regular ministry of Mass and confessions, he served as Treasurer, worked as a hospital chaplain, and became closely involved with the Eucharistic Fraternity.

In May 1966 he was sent to the Australian Province’s missionary foundation in Colombo, Sri Lanka. While there he was the regular chaplain to a community of nuns as well as studying Buddhism and Oriental Culture on a part-time basis. In October 1969 he returned to St Francis’ until taking up a new appointment as Superior of the Bowral community in June 1970. He also served there as Treasurer and for extended periods ministered in the parishes of Moss Vale and Mittagong.

The major part of his ministry was conducting retreats on site

FATHER Gregory Moore, a Carmelite, died at Nazareth House, Geraldton on December 7 aged 93. He was born in Melbourne and worked in four states but spent the last 40 years of his life in WA.

From 1975 until his death, Fr Greg was on loan to the diocese of Geraldton. He served as parish priest for a year at Northampton and for nearly 20 years in the mining towns of Tom Price and Paraburdoo. He developed a great admiration for those who were involved in the mining industry and dedicated himself to their pastoral needs. He appreciated their isolation and loneliness, especially that of wives who were living far from family and friends.

Every day he had his main meal in the single men’s canteen. At weekends he travelled from Tom Price to Paraburdoo, in earlier days a sometimes hazardous trip, and slept for two nights in a small room at the side of the church.

The young Greg Moore, who was born on July 28, 1915 in the Melbourne suburb of Middle Park, joined the Carmelite Order in 1936. He was due for ordination in 1945 but he was so ill and frail that his ordination was postponed for some months. He was told he had a short life expectancy.

After ordination he taught philosophy and Latin for 10 years. His favourite prayer was the Divine Office which he always recited in Latin. Until his death he continued to read the Latin and English classics and listen to classical music.

In 1955 Fr Greg became Prior Provincial of the Carmelites and during his term of office the Order accepted responsibility for the parishes of Hilton in Perth and Wentworthville in Sydney. Later he became Prior and parish priest, first in the Carmelite parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Coorparoo in Brisbane, where he built a beautiful church, and then at Hilton.

When Bishop Thomas of Geraldton appealed for priests to help in his diocese, Fr Greg volunteered. He never regretted his decision and stayed much longer than he or anyone else anticipated.

for school students and adult lay people and elsewhere for parish groups and religious.

He was also the regular chaplain to the Presentation Sisters near Bowral and to the local De La Salle and Marist Brothers novitiates.

From 1973 to 1978 he served at St Francis’ Church. During that time he served a six-month appointment as acting parish priest at Narooma in 1974. He reflected later that serving in this position of pastoral leadership was the most satisfying experience of his priestly life to that time.

In 1978 he was transferred to Toowoomba as a member of the small community attached to ‘The Shrine’. From 1984 to 1998 he served as a member of the community in Perth that ministered at All Saints Chapel in the city.

Having celebrated his Silver Jubilee of Ordination there, he remained until the Congregation’s withdrawal in late 1998.

His final appointment was to St Francis’. He celebrated his 40th anniversary of priesthood in 1999 and was looking forward to his Golden Jubilee this year.

Having had to contend with significant loss of hearing in his later years, sadly Jack contracted prostate cancer in the course of 2007.

He continued to celebrate eucharist in the church until mid-2008 when his deteriorating condition made this impossible.

His final decline was surprisingly swift. He will be remembered as a man of the people, a friend to all, a lover of nature, a fisherman, a punter, a returned serviceman, a diehard Richmond supporter, a man with extraordinarily broad interests and an amazing memory, beloved of his extended family, but most of all as a faithful priest and religious, a sought-after confessor, and a loyal servant of the Lord.

Original research by Damien Cash, editing and additional text by Tom Knowles SSS

Life in the Pilbara was rugged and demanding but he dedicated himself to the people and the diocese.

He never lost his Carmelite identity nor his interest in what was happening for members of his Province. Every morning he put on his Carmelite habit and prayed at length. He dedicated the church he built at Paraburdoo to Saint Teresa of Avila to whom he had great devotion.

Fr Greg spent his retirement years at Nazareth House, Geraldton. He celebrated Mass for the Sisters and the residents every morning and it was there that Bishop Justin Bianchini led priests of the diocese and Fr Greg’s Carmelite confreres in the concelebrated funeral Mass.

Residents and former parishioners of Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Hilton joined with them to farewell the man whose commitment to them and the Church and his Order had been an inspiration.

-Frank Shortis O Carm

Fr Joe Geran SSS 1923 - October 9, 2008

JOSEPH Francis Geran was born at Coburg, Melbourne on December 7, 1923 and baptised at St Ambrose’s, Brunswick, the fourth son of William and Nora Geran of West Brunswick.

He was educated at local Catholic schools, finishing at St Kevin’s, Toorak, before studying science at Melbourne University and graduating as a teacher. He taught maths and science at technical secondary schools in Wonthaggi and elsewhere in country Victoria.

As a young man he was strongly attracted to prayer and the priesthood. During the early 1950s, Joe met Fr Joseph Ouellette SSS through the confessional at St Francis’ and took regular counsel from him. Reading led Joe to the discovery of Peter Julian Eymard, his teaching on prayer, and the life of the Blessed Sacrament Community at St Francis’. Joe was duly introduced to Fr Len McKenna (Vice-Provincial) who ‘ordered him’ (as Joe recalled!) to the novitiate at Bowral NSW. Joe arrived there early in 1952 and began his novitiate with the name of Brother Julian.

Carried through the unexpected ‘dark days’ of the novitiate by the camaraderie of the other novices, he took his first vows on February 5, 1955.

Joe was one of 14 men to do so that year – the highest number in a single year in the history of the Australian Province. Nine became priests through the prayers of nine French-speaking Carmelite nuns at Parkes NSW to whom Fr Joseph Thibault gave a retreat in 1952.

He was one of the foundation group of students at the Seminary of Christ the King, Lower Plenty, eventually being ordained by Archbishop Justin Simonds at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne on July 24, 1960, along with Pat Negri and Ken Sinclair. The following morning he celebrated his first Mass at the seminary. His maturity and leadership qualities led to his appointment in January 1961 to the Juniorate at Bowral as Director of Students and ‘de facto’ Superior, becoming actual Superior when the ailing Fr Joseph Thibault died that July. After supervising the conversion of the house into a retreat centre, Joe conducted retreats for all comers.

In mid-1964, the Provincial Fr Len McKenna asked Joe to be the first Superior of a new foundation at Bombay (now Mumbai) in India. While the prospect ‘terrified’ him, Joe accepted the call in obedience as he always did. In fact Joe and India embraced each other. He remained there for ten years until 1974, serving as Superior, as Novice Master, and as Assistant Superior. Such were the solid foundations established by Joe and his pioneer community of four that India is now an independent Province with over fifty professed religious and nine communities.

Health problems prompted Joe to return to St Francis’ in September 1974. In 1975, he was named Superior of the founding community in Bunbury, WA, where the four men set to work on their arrival in August to convert a former bank into the Chapel of the Holy Eucharist.

Some of the happiest times of Joe’s priesthood were spent at Bunbury between 1975 and 1978.

In addition to his usual ministries of Eucharist and Reconciliation, he again gave regular retreats to lay people, clergy and Religious.

He also became deeply involved in the Marriage Encounter movement and served on committees of the local priests’ and ministers’ fraternal organisations.

In May 1978 he succeeded Fr Pat Negri as Leader of the Province of the Holy Spirit, comprising Australia, India and Sri Lanka.

The times were challenging: as the Congregation prepared to endorse a new Rule of Life, Joe was confronted by an ageing membership, declining vocations, and a fundamental shift in growth away from Australia to Asia.

But he was not afraid to make difficult decisions, such as selling the former seminary at Lower Plenty and closing his much-loved Bunbury foundation in 1981. He also established a vocations ministry in the Province with a full-time vocations director. On completion of his second term in March 1984, Joe was posted to the House of Formation at Chatswood NSW as Superior and Treasurer. In July 1985 he celebrated his silver jubilee of priesthood at St Francis’. He remained at Chatswood as a member of the formation team until August 1987, when he became Director of Scholastics at Wattle Park, Victoria before overseeing the transfer of the scholasticate, Eymard College, to nearby Box Hill. He also became the National Vocation Director for the Australian sector of the Province in 1988. Throughout his Religious life, he was repeatedly called to leadership, which he never sought but accepted with typical generosity. On 6 December 1989 he was elected Provincial for a third time. While in office, he remained based at Eymard College and continued to share his wisdom with the young men in formation. His administration became increasingly preoccupied with achieving a long-desired major redevelopment on the St Francis’ site. The building of the new Pastoral Centre and multi-level car park was nearing completion when his term as Provincial ended in early December 1992.

In February 1993, aged 70, he accepted a challenging appointment to become Superior of the Congregation’s distant community at Perth. He did not return to his home city of Melbourne until April 1996. Having served almost his entire priestly life to that time in positions of leadership, his final years were spent as an ordinary member of the religious community at St Francis’ Church. He remained active at St Francis’ until shortly before his death from a heart attack at the age of 84 on 9 October 2008, after 53 years of religious profession and 48 years of priesthood in the Blessed Sacrament Congregation.

Joe was a dedicated priest and Religious who was almost always in a position of responsibility. His tastes were simple, his faith strong, his demeanour gentlemanly, his spirit cheerful. He loved his remaining siblings Mary and John; he enjoyed company, story-telling, a drink, walking, and cross-words. He was not without fault: he had his personal prejudices, he could flare up with anger, he remained long in denial about his loss of hearing, and he could be crafty (for a cause). But when anointed and given Communion two days before he died, he could still smile and give a wry chuckle and have a twinkle in his eye.

Joe will be remembered with great affection and be ever respected for his courage and life-long commitment.

Original research by Damien Cash, editing and additional text by Tom Knowles

Fr Gregory Moore O Carm

Generals at the coalface return to God

Brilliance, simplicity,

■ By Beth Griffin

NEW YORK (CNS) - Cardinal Avery Dulles was remembered as a theologian, mentor, counsellor and “a priest’s priest” at his funeral on December 18 at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

At the request of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Edward M Egan of New York was the principal celebrant of the Mass. Five other cardinals, 20 archbishops and bishops and more than 125 priests concelebrated. Among the mourners were Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, and representatives of ecumenical organisations.

Cardinal Dulles died on December 12 aged 90. Since 1988, he had been a professor of religion and society at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York. In 2001, the Jesuit priest was the first American to be named a cardinal without first being a bishop.

Cardinal Egan, who was elevated by Pope John Paul II at the same consistory, said Cardinal Dulles’ life story mixed triumph with suffering. He described a crucifix he saw as a seminarian in Umbria, Italy, that showed Christ’s face as joyful or tortured, depending on the viewer’s position. He said: “Death will always have two faces and neither should be ignored.”

Cardinal Egan said Cardinal Dulles’ triumphs included an unequaled career as an acclaimed American Catholic theologian and author of 23 books and more than 800 articles on “every aspect of theology.” He taught theology at colleges and seminaries in the United States and overseas, advised and wrote for departments at the Vatican and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and served as the president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society. Cardinal Dulles was raised a Presbyterian in a prominent family noted for its public service. His father, great-grandfather and greatuncle served as secretary of state

‘Gold standard’ who would not shy away

■ By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS)Political, Catholic and pro-life leaders expressed their grief over the January 8 death of Fr Richard John Neuhaus, an outspoken opponent of abortion and an adviser to President George W Bush on bioethical issues.

“Fr Neuhaus was an inspirational leader, admired theologian and accomplished author who devoted his life to the service of the Almighty and to the betterment of our world,” Bush said in a January 8 statement. “He was also a dear friend, and I have treasured his wise counsel and guidance.”

Fr Neuhaus, 72, was hospitalised in New York the day after Christmas with a systemic infection, according to information posted on the Web site of First Things, an ecumenical journal he founded in 1990 which was published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life.

kindness: Dulles had it all

in three presidential administrations. Cardinal Egan said Cardinal Dulles’ conversion to Catholicism and his decision to seek the priesthood “entailed a certain measure of pain” in the reaction of his family.

His physical suffering related to polio he contracted during World War II. He recovered from the initial bout, but developed post-polio syndrome 20 years before he died and was paralysed and unable to speak in recent months.

Cardinal Egan quoted from Cardinal Dulles’ final lecture, delivered on April 1, 2008, at Fordham University by Jesuit Fr Joseph O’Hare, to describe Cardinal Dulles’ acceptance of suffering:

“Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils, but are normal ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be accepted as elements of a full human existence. Well into my 90th year I have been able to work productively. As I become increasingly paralysed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity. ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord!’”

Jesuit Fr David Ciancimino, provincial of the New York prov-

ince of the Society of Jesus, spoke at the end of the funeral Mass. He acknowledged the many tributes that called Cardinal Dulles a theologian, mentor and counsellor, but said he was “first and foremost a man in service to the Church, a man who shunned the limelight.”

“To Jesuits, he was our older, wiser brother,” who prepared his own breakfast, did his own laundry, decorated the Christmas tree and took his place in the Mass rotation in each place he lived, Fr Ciancimino said. “He modelled the Jesuit life in genuine service.”

Jesuit Fr Drew Christiansen, editor-in-chief of America magazine, said Cardinal Dulles was a “theological communicator. He wrote in a way that most people could understand. He was a man for whom details were important. So often they’re missed in the soundbite (reporting) of today.”

He said Cardinal Dulles demonstrated how a scholar can hand on the church tradition and refine the understanding of it for a contemporary audience.

Fr Christensen said that commentators who try to label Cardinal Dulles have perhaps neglected his early writings. He said, “The sources of theology always escape precise articulation, because what we’re drawing on is much greater than we can put into words.”

Fr James Massa, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, was a student of Cardinal Dulles. He said Cardinal Dulles was an encouraging, patient and pastoral mentor who encouraged him to study the ecclesiology of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

Fr Massa said Cardinal Dulles’ evolving theological position was “evidence of a real dynamism that took into account new realities in the Church.” He cited Cardinal Dulles’ reflections on ecumenism.

“Early on, he was more hopeful about the possibility of convergence on doctrinal matters, like the Petrine ministry, but later he was more sober about that,” he said.

A former Lutheran minister who became a Catholic priest in 1991, the prolific author was diagnosed with cancer in late November.

A funeral Mass was celebrated for Fr Neuhaus on January 13 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in New York.

“The life and ministry of Fr Richard John Neuhaus have had a profound influence on a generation of intellectuals and Christian believers,” said US Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio. “His legacy will be one of building bridges across theological lines in the defence of life and truth. Fr Neuhaus set the gold standard for ecumenical and interfaith cooperation.”

Fr Neuhaus wrote several books commenting on contemporary issues and the role of the Church in society. In First Things he regularly published long analyses on contemporary topics as diverse as theological disputes between Catholics and Protestants, abortion policies and the application of just-war principles in foreign policy.

In the late 1960s he gained national prominence as a cofounder of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, became an outspoken advocate of “democratic capitalism” throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and in

recent years compared the pro-life struggle to the 1960s’ civil rights movement.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Fr Neuhaus was a leading advocate for denying Communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion and voted against church teaching on life issues.

“Fr Neuhaus was a gift to us all,” said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic-college-watchdog group based in Manassas, Virginia. “With his passage from this world, the Cardinal Newman Society mourns not only the passing of a heroic defender of truth, especially in higher education, but also a beloved adviser, generous supporter and dear friend.”

In a commentary published in a 1999 issue of First Things, Fr Neuhaus blasted Catholic college presidents who permitted politicians working to keep abortion legal to be the commencement speakers at graduations on their campuses. “While effusively affirming their devotion to their ‘Catholic identity,’ they deny it by the most egregious of actions,” he wrote in the commentary. “Being chosen as commencement speaker is as great an honour as most institutions provide. Chatter about ‘Catholic identity’ or, even more tenuously, ‘education in the Jesuit tradition’ is, a Jewish friend observes, comparable to advertising ‘kosherlike’ hot dogs. Few things can constitute a more explicit, in-your-face denial of Catholic seriousness than the choice of pro-abortion commencement speakers.”

Avery Dulles’ words of wisdom

● During a workshop in Texas in 1993, Father Dulles spoke of the ways church life is affected by dissent on Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on human life and birth control. He said the ripple effect of dissent “threatens to frustrate many of” Vatican II’s intentions and said dissenters “must recognise that public dissent” impairs the magisterium’s authority “and weakens the Church as a community of faith and witness,” and those strongly convinced by the arguments for or against contraception should “respect the intelligence and sincerity of those with whom they differ.” He said Humanae Vitae should not be the litmus test in appointments to seminary professorships, but added that “theologians who aggressively attack the encyclical would seem to disqualify themselves” from a canonical mission to teach with hierarchical approval.

● On the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, he said in 2005: “In the end we have to acknowledge that the mystery is ineffable and should be greeted with wonder and amazement. ... Nevertheless, something should be said, because God has not revealed himself simply to mystify us. Christ’s presence in this sacrament resembles that of the soul in the body. My soul is not partly in my head, partly in my heart, partly in my hands, but is entirely present in the whole and in every part.”

Avery Dulles

Revered: The body of Cardinal Avery Dulles rests on a bier during a special Mass for the late Jesuit prelate at Fordham University Church in the Bronx section of New York on December 16. Cardinal Dulles, a renowned theologian, author and lecturer, died at the age of 90 on December 12.

PHOTO: CNS/GREGORY A SHEMITZ

John Neuhaus

Why are Religious numbers declining?

‘It’s too facile to attribute it solely to a misreading of Vatican II’

■ By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS)Statistics leave no doubt that the number of women Religious has dropped sharply over the last 50 years, but there is an ongoing debate over the reasons for the decline.

The question surfaced recently when L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, asked one priest to review another priest’s book about the phenomenon.

Italian Claretian Fr Angelo Pardilla, author of Religious Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, said the principal cause for the decline was that many Religious misunderstood the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and lost a sense of their identity.

He cited as proof the fact that the number of vowed Religious - both men and women - has dropped sharply since Vatican II, except in the contemplative orders that still wear habits and live with a regimented community life.

But Fr Giancarlo Rocca, a scholar of the history of Religious orders, questioned Father Pardilla’s thesis in the review he wrote for the Vatican newspaper.

Fr Rocca agreed with Father Pardilla that factors contributing to the decline include materialism, secularism, the anti-authority movement of the late 1960s and declining family size.

But he said a misreading of the Second Vatican Council could not be the prime culprit, because in many places the numbers began to drop in the 1930s, long before the council opened in 1962.

For Fr Rocca, the key is the emancipation of women.

Previously, he said, the socially approved options for women were either to marry and have children or join a Religious order. He said it was no surprise that the orders hardest hit were those founded to teach or to nurse - two professions previously open only to unmarried women.

Declining World Religious

Statistics gathered by Italian Claretian Father Angelo Pardilla show definite decline of men and women religious.

Sr Carol Regan, the superior general of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts and a member of the executive council of the International Union of Superiors General, said, “It is too facile to attribute it (falling numbers) solely to a misreading of Vatican II.”

For the Holy Union, which was particularly strong in France and Belgium, “the drop-off of new entrants began in the 1950s, perhaps even the late 1940s, in other words, after World War II with all the horror that brought to continental Europe,” she said.

The women’s movement and the broader choices it gave women also obviously contributed to changed attitudes about Religious life, she said.

Sr Regan said her order has about half the members it had in 1965, but is growing in Africa, especially in Cameroon and Tanzania.

“Our congregation leadership will come soon, very soon, from the Southern Hemisphere and all of us have to be prepared to welcome that,” she said.

The shift also poses financial

challenges, Sister Regan said, because the growth is taking place in parts of the world where resources are lacking.

“Naturally, there is sadness where diminishment is sharpest, excitement where growth is clear and evident,” she said.

Sr Christine Anderson, a Scottish member of the Faithful Companions of Jesus, runs a leadership program in Rome for Religious superiors and members of general councils, and has facilitated dozens of meetings of Religious orders of men and women.

She described as “rubbish” the idea that Religious do not know who they are today. “I think those who hung in there in Religious life know why they are there,” she said. “The doors are wide open and they can walk out. Either you say they hung in because they are too scared to move - and that could be true in a few cases - but the majority have hung in because they are on this love quest,” a quest to find God and give themselves completely to him by serving the Church and the poor.

The Sisters may not be wearing a habit, but things have not changed as much as many people think, Sr Anderson said.

“People joined Religious life because they were caught by God; they were grasped by God; they were seeking God in their own lives,” she said. The seeking continues through hours of solitary prayer, reciting the Liturgy of the Hours together, going to daily Mass, making an annual retreat and carrying out their work as a service to God and to others, she said. If there is any confusion over the identity of Religious, it exists

among laypeople, Sr Anderson said, admitting that Religious have had a difficult time explaining who they are in a language people today understand.

From her work with the leaders of Religious orders grappling with the future, Sr Anderson said the most common attitude she sees is “outrageous hope.” “They have an ability to live with uncertainty. Like Abraham, they have set out and they do not know exactly where they are going, but there is this sense of faith and hope that God is with us and God will be faithful,” she said.

Benedict praises witnesses to joyful Christian life

On the 40th anniversary of the controversial but hugely effective Catholic evangelical Neocatechumenal Way movement, the Pope thanked and urged them to continue their work of evangelisation, but also to adhere to the Holy See’s directives.

ROME (CNA) - During an emotional encounter on January 10 at St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI invited the Neocatechumenal Way to continue its intense work of evangelisation in the world, in communion with the bishops of the world.

“Your numerous and enthusiastic presence bears witness to the wonders carried by the Lord during the past four decades; it also indicates the commitment with which you desire to continue the way you have begun, a way of following Christ faithfully and bearing courageous witness to the Gospel,” the Pope said during an emotional encounter with 25,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way, including its founders Kiko Arguello, Carmen Hernandez and Father Mario Pezzi It is “a path of humble acceptance of the guidance of pastors and of communion with all other components of the People of God,” he added.

The Pontiff went on to recall that “everything began here in Rome 40 years

ago, when the first communities of the Neocatechumenal Way were established at the parish of the Holy Canadian Martyrs.”

“How much fresh apostolic energy has sprung forth both from priests and the laity,” he said.

“How many men and women, how many families that had abandoned ecclesial communion or the practice of the Christian life have been helped to encounter again the joy of the faith and the enthusiasm of Gospel witness through the proclamation of the kerygma and the itinerary of baptismal rediscovery.”

Pope Benedict XVI also noted that the recent approval of the Way’s statutes by the Pontifical Council for the Laity “is a seal of the esteem and benevolence with which the Holy See follows the work that the Lord has brought forth through your founders.”

“The Pope, the Bishop of Rome, thanks you for your generous service to evangelisation in this city and for your commitment to bringing the Christian proclamation to every environment,” he added.

The Pope went on to praise the work of the Neocatechumenal Way in 103 parishes throughout Rome.

He pointed out that “while I encourage you to continue in this commitment, I exhort you to intensify your adherence to all the directives of the Cardinal vicar, my direct collaborator in the pastoral governance of this diocese.”

“The organic integration of the Way into diocesan ministry and its unity with the

other ecclesial realities will benefit the entire Christian people and will make the efforts of the diocese for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel in our city more fruitful.”

“Today an extensive missionary effort is needed that involves all the different ecclesial realities, which, each one conserving the originality of its charism, should work in harmony, trying to carry out that ‘integrated ministry’ that has already brought significant results.

“While I thank you for the service you offer to the Church of Rome, I assure you of my prayers and my heartfelt blessing for all those present here and all the communities of the Neocatechumenal Way spread throughout the world,” the Pope said in conclusion.

The festive encounter, marked by the traditional hymns of the Neocatechumenal Way, culminated with a presentation by Kiko Arguello of new ‘comunitates in missio’entire communities that have finished their formation and are open to being moved to other parishes of the diocese that are in need.

The Pope blessed the new missionaries and gave them a silver cross, dubbed the “mission cross,” as a sign of the mission entrusted to them.

The Neocatechumenal Way has 20,000 communities in more than 5500 parishes in 120 countries throughout the world, including a strong presence in Perth, where the priests graduate from the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Morley.

You don’t see this too often any more: Sr Sharon Rose Goellner hugs one of her fellow Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia after a Mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, in 2007. The Nashville Dominicans, a growing Religious order, are an example of an exception to a 50-year decline in women Religious.

PHOTO: CNS/THERESA LAURENCE, TENNESSEE REGISTER

Faithful family: A young girl holds a crucifix to be blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during a special audience with Neocatechumenal Way members in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on January 10. PHOTO: CNS/ALESSIA PIERDOMENICO, REUTERS

Doubt lingers on touchy subjects

Hollywood movies regarding the Catholic Faith these days often amount to artistic Church Bashing, but new film Doubt (M) broaches touchy subjects like sex abuse of clergy and the implosion of Religious Orders with surprising balance.

THE implosion of Catholic Religious orders in the 1970s shook the foundations of the Catholic Church in America, threatening both the financial viability of parish schools and the transmission of faith and morals to subsequent generations. Decades later, the clergy sex-abuse crisis produced another earthquake from which the Church has yet to recover.

Most Catholics view these two developments as entirely separate. But John Patrick Shanley, the screenwriter and director of the newly released Doubt - the film adaptation of his award-winning, off-Broadway play of 2004 - draws out the clear and subtle connections between the exodus of nuns and the unchecked abuses of clerical predators.

Unfortunately, the film doesn’t succeed half as well as the play. The spare plot works better on stage, and Meryl Streep’s interpretation of the central character occasionally drifts into caricature.

Still, Shanley’s meditation on the seismic shift in Catholic culture that converged with the Second Vatican Council helps us understand why an era that began with so much promise ended in such darkness and confusion.

Like the play, the action in the film occurs almost entirely within the confines of St Nicholas School in the Bronx. The time is the mid-1960s, and the pervading mood is sombre, brooding.

Elsewhere in this prosperous nation, young America’s desire for increased spontaneity and creativity fuels the steadily growing pressure for social change.

Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), the school principal, is unimpressed by such youthful naiveté.

Evil exists; original sin is not to be casually dismissed. Her sense of threat remains unshaken, and thus she repels the introduction of ballpoint pens and secular Christmas songs with continued vigour.

She wears her uneasy, suspicious nature like an uncomfortable hair shirt, barking out reprimands to the students and revealing little concern for their emotional life.

The declining standards for student penmanship and the Christmas pageants deeply trouble her.

Yet they are mere precursors for something or someone more dangerous - a coming, but still undefined force that will undermine the ordered existence of her school.

When Father Flynn (Philip Seymour

Hoffman) arrives in the parish and begins spouting newfangled ideas about a more compassionate Church, the principal smells trouble. Before long, Sister James (Amy Adams), the credulous young eighth-grade teacher, reports that Father Flynn requested a private meeting with an eighth-grade boy, who subsequently returned to class with alcohol on his breath.

Sr Aloysius rushes to the barricades. But what can she actually do, lacking both hard evidence or ultimate authority? Technically, Fr Flynn is her superior in the parish.

The principal’s sole weapon remains her “certainty.” She confronts Father Flynn with her suspicions.

He denies any wrongdoing, but offers a curiously muted explanation of his actions. Then, the priest turns the tables on the principal, putting her judgmental attitude on trial.

Fr Flynn dismisses Sr Aloysius as a “dragon.” He is eager to discard the mantle of clerical authority in order to establish closer bonds with the students.

The generational fissures surface slowly, and the future promises to inflict more damage on Sr Aloysius brittle psyche than on the easy-going disposition of her opponent. But is he a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or simply a creature of his time?

The principal’s next step is to call in the boy’s mother (Viola Davis). Shockingly, mum doesn’t want “trouble,” and begs Sr Aloysius to protect her son from any gossip or disciplinary actions that might force his departure from the school.

“What kind of mother are you?” Sr Aloysius asks, as she grapples with something disturbing and novel - a parent who rejects her moral authority.

Consumed by a driving sense of responsibility for protecting her domain, the nun resorts to morally questionable tactics that appall Sister James.

Yet, as Sr Aloysius tracks her prey with ferocious energy, the audience is left to speculate about the absence of such determination within diocesan chanceries that received complaints about abusive priests. Clericalism has been identified as one reason for the foot-dragging; the clubby world of priests is crudely evoked in the film.

Trendy, progressive ideas about guilt and responsibility also shaped episcopal decisions to schedule therapy sessions for sexual predators, rather than impose punitive measures that isolated them from children.

Sister Aloysius, Shanley suggests, would never be seduced by faddish methods that contradicted the fundamentals of Christian realism.

Shanley touches on an additional explanation for the unchecked abuse of minors: a lack of courage on the part of Church authorities who feared confronting evildoers.

Sr Aloysius’s own struggles underscore an unpleasant truth: Opposing evil is both

morally and spiritually dangerous. This kind of combat is not for sissies, and it can poison the soul of the prosecutor.

Shanley shows considerable respect for Sister Aloysius.

Her guile, passion, charity, and courage are on display here. At one point in the story, another nun who is going blind meets with an accident.

If her disability is discovered, she could lose her place at the school. Sister Aloysius comes to her friend’s rescue, telling Father Flynn that most nuns trip on their robes and regularly fall like “dominoes.”

The incident reveals Sister Aloysius’s own brand of Christian compassion.

But it also hints at the coming exodus of women religious. Despite her considerable moral authority and worldly experience, Sr Aloysius holds little real power to protect her students. Father Flynn possesses a bit more power, but not much wisdom. Could Sr Aloysius, that tower of certitude, become one of the “dominoes”? Shanley leaves that question for his audience to decide. But Doubt evokes a haunted time before “the deluge.” Sharp-eyed parochial school principals sensed danger, but could do only so much to protect their charges.

More to life than just saying no all our lives...

NEW YORK (CNS) - “Yes is the new no!”

That’s the motto of self-help guru Terrence Bundley (a comically intimidating Terence Stamp), whose seminar on the power of the affirmative changes Jim Carrey’s life in the fitfully funny comedy Yes Man (Warner Bros).

Carrey plays bored longtime bank employee Carl Allen, who spends his days rejecting loan requests and his evenings avoiding invitations from friends so he can sprawl on his couch and watch videos.

Until, that is, former colleague Nick (John Michael Higgins) convinces him to attend one of Bundley’s meetings.

Vowing to accept every invitation or suggestion that comes his way - Bundley refers to this as “the covenant” - Carl finds his flagging relationship with his fre-

quently snubbed best friend, Peter (Bradley Cooper), renewed and receives greater respect from his humorously awkward boss, Norm (a spot-on Rhys Darby), who’s pleased when Carl agrees to work on a Saturday.

Carl also shows up for a few of Norm’s nerdy social events to which guests come dressed as characters from the Harry Potter movies or the Spartan drama 300, with amusingly ludicrous results.

The most significant outcome of Carl’s new philosophy is a romance with quirky underground singer Allison (Zooey Deschanel) who’s enchanted with his spontaneity and daring. Carl’s six-month marriage to Stephanie (Molly Sims), we learn early on, ended in divorce three years ago, as she found the old Carl too dull to endure.

Principally a vehicle for Carrey’s facial and physical antics, director Peyton Reed’s adaptation of Danny Wallace’s best-selling memoir salutes openness to life and

adventure and satirises superstition. Along with other activities like learning to fly, to play the guitar and to speak Korean, Carl volunteers to work at a soup kitchen, and he and Allison are shown bringing donations to a charity run by a clergyman.

Though there’s no sexual activity portrayed between Carl and Allison, they do discuss moving in together, which is discouraged by the Church in real life. Google Christopher West and Theology of the Body to find out why

Yes Man also features considerable sexual humour, including a distasteful subplot involving Carl’s elderly but randy neighbour Tillie (Fionnula Flanagan).

The film contains nongrapic, nonmarital sexual activity, brief rear nudity, some sexual humour, one use of the f-word, much crude language and a few profanities.

It’s similar to Carrey’s other film Liar Liar, but it’s watchable fare none the less.

By Joan Frawley Desmond, who has written for the Wall Street Journal, First Things, and the National Catholic Register. She writes here for Insidecatholic.com

The inspiration: Sr Margaret McEntee is pictured in 1956 with her first-grade class at St Anthony’s School in the Bronx section of New York. Sr Margaret’s former Religious name, Sr James, was used by an old first-grade pupil of hers, writer-director John Patrick Shanley, for a character in the movie Doubt

PHOTO: CNS/COURTESY SISTER MARGARET MCENTEE

Adaptation: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams star in a scene from the movie “Doubt.” Shanley has successfully adapted his stage play to film, recreating the Catholic milieu of the era.

PHOTO: CNS/MIRAMAX

Yes Man (M)

Funnyman: Jim Carrey stars in a scene from the movie Yes Man PHOTO: CNS

Kids bitz colouring-in winners

Congratulations to our talented colouring-in competition winners. They are Rachel Raphael, 9 years old from Thornlie (top left), Sarah Raphael, 6 years old also from Thornlie (top right), Hadlehy Houghton, 11 years old from Warnbro (bottom left) and Ashley Quadros, 5 years old from Kelmscott. Great stuff guys!

Kids bitz

back in full, next week in The Record

Justine Stevens, the creator and updater of Kids bitz will return from England next week after spending Christmas and the New Year in the snow with her husband and children and her husband’s extended family. Stay tuned for more games, saints and competitions in 2009.

PANORAMA

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday. Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902. Submissions over 55 words will be edited. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 will be a put into classifieds and charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisment.

Wednesday January 21

SIC NEW NORCIA/MARIST ANNUAL MASS AND REUNION

5.15pm at Newman College Chapel, Empire Avenue, Churchlands. Mass; celebrants Marist Old Boy Priests. Followed by re-union event in the college courtyard. BYO everything BBQ’s available. SIC and Marist old boys most welcome. Please spread the word. Enq: Ambrose 9387 1117.

Wednesday January 21

TAIZE MEDITATION PRAYER

7.30pm to 8.30pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, 100 Dean Road, Bateman, all welcome to spend an hour in Group Prayer and relax in a candlelight atmosphere of prayer, song, gospel reading and meditation. Enq: Daisy/ Barney 9310 4781.

Sunday January 25

PILGRIMAGE TO BOVE FARM SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY

Exposition, Rosary, Divine Mercy Prayers, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and Praises of Divine Mercy. Holy Mass, celebrant Fr Douglas Harris and Fr Marcellinus Meilak, other Priests invited to concelebrate. Conclude with Divine Mercy Way of the Cross, for those able to walk the bushland. Refreshments and barbecue provided. Enq: South Perth – John 9457 7771, North Perth - Charles 9342 0653.

Sunday February 1

DIVINE MERCY

1.30pm at St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral, Shepperton Road and Harper Street, Victoria Park. Holy Mass and Reconciliation, and sermon by Fr Andre Maria FFI on Our Lady of Lourdes followed by Divine Mercy Prayers and Benediction. Refreshments followed by Video/DVD on Surrender is not an option Part I with Fr John Corapi. Enq: John 6457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Monday February 2

NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF LOURDES

7pm at Holy Trinity Church, 8 Burnett Street, Embleton. Holy Mass followed by Novena devotions, procession, hoisting Our Lady of Lourdes Banner. Preacher Fr J Carroll CSsR. Conclude with get-together. Bring Plate. Feast day 11 February, 7pm Mass followed by candlelight procession to Grotto, conclude with farewell for Fr Carroll. Enq: Office 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

Monday February 2 to Wednesday February 4

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES NOVENA AND MASS IN THREE PARISHES

7pm, 2 February at All Saints Catholic Church, 7 Liwara Place, Greenwood. Mass celebrated by Fr Vinh Dong PP, followed by Novena devotions, Rosary procession and Benediction. Bring a plate. 3 February at 7pm Novena devotions, Rosary, blessing of children and Benediction. 4 February at 7pm Novena devotions, Rosary, blessing of children and Benediction. Enq: 9447 6225.

Thursday February 5 to Saturday February 7

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES NOVENA AND MASS IN THREE PARISHES

7pm, 5 February at St Peter’s Catholic Church, Wood Street, Inglewood. Mass celebrated by Fr Albert Saminedi, followed by Novena devotions, Rosary procession and Benediction. Bring a plate. 6 February at 7pm Mass followed by Novena devotions, Rosary and Benediction. 7 February at 6pm Vigil Mass, Novena devotions, Rosary, blessing of elderly and Benediction. Enq: 9271 3289.

Collection

Sunday February 8 to Wednesday February 11

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES NOVENA AND MASS IN THREE PARISHES

6pm, 8 February at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, Girrawheen Avenue, Girrawheen, Mass celebrated by Fr Vallis and Fr Fernandez followed by Novena devotions, Rosary procession and Benediction. 9 February at 7pm Novena devotions, Rosary and Benediction. 10 February at 7pm Novena devotions, Rosary, blessing of the sick and Benediction. 11 February at 7pm, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, Mass, Candlelight procession and Benediction. Burning of petitions. Bring a plate. Enq: Jim 0411 615 239 or 9342 6049.

Friday February 6

THE ALLIANCE, TRIUMPH AND REIGN OF THE UNITED HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY

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

Sunday February 8

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES ST CATHERIN E’S CATHOLIC CHURCH, GINGIN

12noon lunch BYO, 1pm Holy Rosary, Exposition, Hymns, Benediction and Blessing of the Sick; 1.30pm Procession; 2.30pm Mass at the Grotto; 3.30pm tea provided. Pick up points, St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral, Maddington and Girrawheen Parishes. Bookings: Francis 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877 confirm by 1 February. Cost, $15 per person return. Enq: Sheila 9575 4023 or Fr Paul 9571 1839.

Saturday February 28

ST PADRE PIO DAY OF PRAYER

8.30am at St Peter the Apostle, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. St Padre Pio DVD, 10am exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, silent Adoration and Benediction. 11am Mass, using St Padre Pio liturgy, celebrant Archbishop Hickey, any attending priest welcome to concelebrate. Confessions available. BYO lunch tea and coffee provided. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Every Sunday

DIVINE MERCY PRAYER AS NOVENA

3pm St Aloysius Church, 84 Keightley Road, West Shenton Park. An opportunity for all to gather once a week and say the powerful Divine Mercy, Eucharistic Adoration, healing prayers followed by Holy Mass at 4pm. Enq: 9381 5383.

Every 1st Thursday of the Month PRAYER AND MEDITATION SERVICE USING SONGS FROM TAIZE

7.30pm at Our Lady of Grace, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. The service is a prayerful meditation in which we sing beautiful chants from Taize together, spend time in prayerful, meditative silence, bathed in candlelight reflecting upon themed readings. Enq: Beth 9447 0061.

Every First Friday and Saturday of Month

COMMUNION OF REPARATION  ALL NIGHT VIGIL

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

for Latin America helping the Church grow in Cuba and beyond

WASHINGTON (CNS) - After nearly 50 years when religious practice was discouraged by the communist government, Catholic bishops in Cuba these days are looking for support from US Catholics to “try to bring back peoples’ religious memory,” as one bishop put it.

In one diocese, that means enlisting grandparents who grew up at a time when they were taught about the church to help educate their grandchildren about the faith. In another,

Every First Friday HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

7pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins Street, Glendalough. Mass celebrated by Fr Saminedi. 7.30pm, Adoration with Fr Don Kettle. All welcome. Refreshments provided.

Every Sunday

LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT

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

Every 4th Sunday of the Month HOLY HOUR PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

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

Every Sunday

PILGRIM MASS

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

Every Monday and Tuesday ADVENTURES IN EXODUS  9 WEEK STUDY

Commencing 9.30am to 11.30am, February 2 and 7.30pm to 9.30pm, February 3 at Church of St Emilie, 174 Amherst Road, Canning Vale. New and exciting study into the heart of the Bible - ‘Called To Freedom’ is also our story of what God calls us to be. Free. Limited places. Enq: Dominic celestialorchids@gmail.com, 6253 8041 or 0447 053 347.

Every Tuesday

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

Every Monday

ADORATION, RECONCILIATION AND MASS

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

Every Thursday

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

11pm to midnight at Holy Trinity Church, 8 Burnett Street, Embleton. Enq: Office 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

Every Friday

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

9am to 6pm at Holy Trinity Church, 8 Burnett Street, Embleton. Enq: Office 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

it means paying for Cuban families to attend the World Meeting of Families in Mexico.

Other dioceses are working to expand their use of contemporary media including the Internet, access to which is still tightly controlled by the government.

Cuban projects get the largest single-country share of funds from U.S. parishes raised in the annual collection for the church in Latin America, held in most dioceses from January 24-25. The collection also supports work done in Latin America by the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. In 2008, 80 projects in Cuba received a total of AUS$1,259,308 from the collection.

Every Saturday

HOLY SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING

10.30am to 12.30pm at St Peter the Apostle Church Hall, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. All are most welcome.

Every Sunday

MUSICIANS AND SINGERS

6pm at the Redemptorist Monastery Church, Vincent Street, North Perth; the Shalomites have been providing the music and singing for over thirty years. We are looking for new members. All interested singers and musicians welcome. Enq: Stephen or Sheelagh 9339 0619.

Every 1st Sunday of Month

DIVINE MERCY

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

Every 2nd Wednesday of Each Month

CHAPLETS OF THE DIVINE MERCY

7.30 pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road, Bateman. All welcome to a beautiful, prayerful, and sung devotion. Enq: George 9310 9493 home or 9325 2010 work.

Every Thursday

JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE

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

Every Last Saturday of Month

NOVENA DEVOTIONS TO OUR LADY OF GOOD HEALTH, VAILANKANNI

5pm at Holy Trinity Church, 8 Burnett Street, Embleton, followed by Vigil Mass at 6pm. Enq: Office 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

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

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

MEMORIES OF AFRICA CHOIR

Calling all to come and join this small but vibrant group. Come let us sing and praise God with the African melody and rhythm. Enq: Bibiana, 9451 6602 after 6pm. ACCOMMODATION NEEDED

Female overseas student aged 23, with 3 months old baby, needs accommodation and support with a family, preferably north of the river for approximately 12 months. Phone: Lydia, Pregnancy Assistance, 9328 2929. INTERPARISH SOCCER: A NOTICE TO ALL PARISHES

The young parishioners in Lockridge are interested in having soccer matches against other parishes. It is a great way for a bit of ‘friendly rivalry’; keep up fitness whilst having fun and all in a good atmosphere. Enq: 0433 646 208 or 0431 951 772.

CLASSIFIEDS

in brief...

Obama picks gay bishop to launch inauguration festivities

WASHINGTON DC (CNA)

- US President-elect Barack Obama’s Inauguration has already seen consternation amongst homosexuals over Obama’s selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation.

However, on January 12 it was made public that openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire will offer a prayer on Sunday to open the inauguration events.

On Monday an anonymous source from the Obama team told Politico that Bishop Robinson had accepted an invitation to kickoff the inaugural ceremonies with a prayer on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

With President-elect Obama in attendance, Bishop Robinson will help launch Obama’s “We are One” string of ceremonies.

In an email to friends, Robinson said that he is “humbled and overjoyed at this invitation, and it will be my great honor to be there representing the Episcopal Church, the people of New Hampshire, and all of us in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.”

An Obama aide told Politico that the plans to feature Robinson were in place “before the complaints about Rick Warren. Many skeptics will read this as a direct reaction to the Warren criticism – but it’s just not so.”

Joe Solomnese, president of the pro-homosexual group Human Rights Campaign, described the Robinson invitation as showing that “ultimately, Barack Obama is a friend to the LGBT community.”

“I believe his administration is going to inspire us and advance our agenda more often than not,” Solomnese said on Monday.

Obama’s selection of Rick Warren to offer the invocation for the inauguration ceremony has drawn the ire of gay activists, including Bishop Robinson who called the Warren pick “really, really unfortunate” because of Warren’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

In a December 2008 interview with Beliefnet, Robinson said that he “would love to engage him (Warren). In some ways he’s a very brave person, but he’s woefully wrong about the issue of homosexuality.”

CNA attempted to reach Bishop Gene Robinson for his reaction to the invitation, but did not response immediately.

Stewardship

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time In today’s first reading, we hear Samuel respond eagerly, “Here I am!” each time the Lord calls him. May we, too, be listening for the call of God in our lives and be ready to say like the psalmist, “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

For further information on how stewardship can build your parish community, call Brian Stephens on 9422 7924.

Walking with Him Daily Mass Readings

18 S 2ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

Gr 1 Sam 3:3-10.19 Speak, Lord

Ps 39:2.4.7-10 Here am I, Lord 1 Cor 6:13-15.17-20 One spirit Jn 1:35-42 The lamb of God

19 M Heb 5:1-10 Title of high priest Gr Ps 109:1-4 Like Melchizedek of old

Mk 2:18-22 Feast or fast?

20 T St Fabian, pope, martyr (O); St Sebastian, martyr (O) Gr Heb 6:10-20 God not unjust

Ps 100:1-2.4-5.9-10 Great works Mk 2:23-28 Did you never read?

21W St Agnes, virgin, martyr (M) Red Heb 7:1-3.15-17 King of peace

Ps 109:1-4 Sit on my right

Mk 3:1-6 Save life or kill?

22 Th St Vincent, deacon, martyr (O) Gr Heb 7:25-8:6 Christ heavenly high priest

Ps 39:7-10.17 Here am I Mk 3:7-12 You are God’s Son!

23 F Ss Timothy and Titus, bishops, (M) Wh 2Tim 1:1-8 Long to see you [Alt. Titus 1:1-5] True child of mine

Ps 95:1-3.7-8.10 Sing a new song Lk 10:1-9 The harvest is rich

24 S St Francis de Sales, bishop, doctor of the Church (M) Wh Heb 9:2-3.11-14 The one perfect sacrifice

Ps 46:2-3.6-9 God reigns Mk 3:20-21 Out of his mind?

ACCOMMODATION

NEEDED

Female overseas student, 23 yo, with 3 mth old baby, needs accomm and support with a family, preferably north of the river for approx. 12 mths.

Ph Lydia at Pregnancy Assistance, 9328 2929.

BUILDING TRADES

■ THE PAINTERS REG NO 5846

"We take the pain out of painting” Residential & Commercial. Phone Jim: 0412 123 630

■ BRICK RE-POINTING Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

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

■ BRICKLAYING

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

■ PICASSO PAINTING

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

BOOK REPAIRS

■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

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

HEALTH

■ CATHOLIC COUNSELLING

Call Jole (M. Counselling, M. Theology, B Bus.)

Catholic Counsellor (Aust Counselling Assoc. Member). Holistic (Mind-Body-Spirit) approach to issues of anxiety, relationship, faith, anger, addiction, grief, trauma etc. Individual, couples, family and children. Contact: 0418 345 356 jole.counselling@gmail.com

■ WEIGHT LOSS, HEALTH AND NUTRITION Lose Weight, shape-up for summer and also forever. For free info call 0282 300 290 or SMS 0412 518 318

MUSIC

■ ORGAN Yamaha El 25 in excellent condition. $2000 ono. Contact St Luke’s Parish, Woodvale 08 9409 6291

FURNITURE REMOVAL

■ ALL AREAS Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.

PERSONALS

■ CHRISTIAN SINGLES

Widowed, divorced or never married. All age groups. Meet-for-Drinks, Dinner Seminars and Individual Dates. Phone 9472 8218. Tues-Fri 10am - 6pm. www.figtrees.com.au

■ SEEKING LADY

Guy 40s tall n/smoker education social drinker, conservative, loyal, creative, likes reading, café food styles, walking, swimming. Down to earth. Reasonable ambitions, dry SOH seeks lady friendship view to a long-term relationship. Marriage if culturally compatible and complementary. Some or more Christian values. Ph 0419 543 093 (afternoon) or e-mail e_aanet@aanet.com.au

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

■ KINLAR VESTMENTS

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

■ CATHOLICS CORNER

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

■ RICH HARVEST – YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP

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

■ OTTIMO

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

SETTLEMENTS / FINANCE

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

FOR EVERYTHING FINANCE – Ph. Declan 0422 487 563, www.goalfinancialservices.com.au Save yourself time, money and stress. FBL 4712

NOTICE OF INTENT

Notice is hereby given that Joanna Lisa Lawson of 6 Sewell Place, Hillarys, WA 6025, being duly authorised by the above named Association intends to apply to the Commissioner for Consumer Protection on 9.02.2009 for the incorporation of The Branches Project Inc. The Association is formed for the purpose of educating, employing and empowering the exploited working poor.

THANKS

THANK YOU ST JUDE PRAYER

O! Holy St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor for all who invoke your special patronage in time of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance. Help me in my present and urgent petition. In return I promise to make your name known and cause your name to be invoked. St Jude pray for us and all who invoke your aid. Amen. Say three Our Fathers, three Hail Mary’s and three Glory Be’s. I had my request granted. R. P.

Name:

Address:

Suburb:

Postcode:

Telephone:

THE R ECORD

STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF JESUS

Play and Learn Jigsaw puzzle Book

A great way to introduce young children to the New Testament. Children can read some of the best-loved stories about Jesus as well as putting together six beautiful jigsaw puzzles.

$29.95 + P/H

FIRST BIBLE STORIES

Illustrated by John Dillow

With beautiful and vibrantly coloured illustrations and retold in a simple, lively style, this book is the perfect introduction to the Bible for young children.

$14.95 + P/H

SAINT THERESE AND THE ROSES

By Helen Walker Homan

Written as a novel in the tradition of Louisa Mae Alcott, this delightful story for older children depicts the life and adventures of Therese Martin (the Little Flower) as she grows up with her widowed father and four sisters in Lisieux, France.

$19.95 + P/H

THE ESSENTIAL MARY HANDBOOK

A Summary of Beliefs, Devotions, and Prayers

A Redemptorist Pastoral

Publication

If you are looking for a way to renew your appreciation for Mary this book is the place to start. Incorporating important Catholic teachings, this all-in-one resource defines Mary’s fundamental significance in the Church today and throughout the ages.

$25.95 + P/H

SAINT COMPANIONS FOR EACH DAY

By AJM Mausolfe and JK Mausolfe

A collection of brief life sketches of around 400 saints, who are some of the Catholic Church’s outstanding heroes and heroines, who, by their holy lives, untiring labours and sacrifices have, through the centuries, helped to sustain that indestructible marvel.

$15.95 + P/H

THE ESSENTIAL BIBLE HANDBOOK

A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication

This book will assist readers in understanding and appreciating the essential role of the Bible within the framework of Catholic belief, tradition, prayer and experience. It also covers a history of how the Bible developed, a suggested plan for reading and interpreting it and how to use it in prayer.

$24.95 + P/H

PSALMS AND COMPASSIONS

A Jesuit’s Journey Through Cancer

By Timothy Brown SJ

After being diagnosed with colon cancer in 1998, Fr Brown turned to the Book of Psalms as a source of strength throughout his illness and recovery. This book is the fruit of that experience and is dedicated to all who are experiencing pain and suffering of any kind, and to all who care for them.

$12.95 + P/H

FAVOURITE CATHOLIC NOVENAS FOR ALL OCCASIONS

Edited by L E McCullough, PHD Novenas have been a popular method of devotion throughout the Catholic world since the 17th century and vary widely in form and styles. This book offers 99 different Novenas for specific intentions and occasions, ranging from healthy births to happy deaths, and everything in between.

$45.95 + P/H

Special leather edition $79.95

FIRST COMMUNION

Preparing children for the Sacrament of the Eucharist

Activities and lessons for parents and teachers to prepare children for their first holy communion. A must have resource book.

$2.95 + P/H

MY FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

Regina Press

This beautifully designed, embossed harcover book is a celebration. It is intended to bring Jesus into the minds and hearts of children in a way that will never be forgotten.

$10.95 + P/H