The Record Newspaper 14 May 2008

THE R ECORD Progressing

“We will succeed,” a confident Archbishop Hickey says in presentation to be viewed in parishes this weekend.

■ By Anthony Barich

The most laborious and timeconsuming part of the extraordinary and historic conservation and completion of St Mary’s Cathedral is over. Though “additional needs”

a vote for progress

like re-roofing have been addressed by the architect and the Cathedral’s Project Committee, the completion time is estimated to be May next year, Archbishop Barry Hickey has told Perth Catholics in a DVD presentation that will be viewed in parishes this weekend. In the

2008 Parishes Appeal information kit Archbishop Hickey says that “the dream of completing St Mary’s Cathedral is one we will achieve”. Builders have completed what the construction site manager told The Record is the most time-consuming part – the preparation and excava-

tion of tons of material – over the past 12 months.

Demolition work had to be carried out extremely carefully so the cathedral would not collapse into the excavated area, he said.

Builders are now engaged in the construction and completion of the

The decision by WA’s Legislative Council to reject embryonic cloning was historic. The winning argument, a key MP tells The Record, came from a scientific breakthrough. Page 3

bunbury honours her

Hundreds turned out at Bove’s Farm for the traditional annual celebration and procession honouring Mary in the month of May. It was a day of reflection, and joy. Page 5

cathedral between the ‘old’ 1864 section and ‘new’ one opened in 1930.

The excavation saw 17,000 cubic metres of sand dug out from under St Mary’s, where the parish centre and store, music rehearsal room,

blessed newman

The

The Parish - Pages 4-5

INDEX belmont parish becomes latin mass centre

The Nation - Pages 6-7

Perspectives - Vista 4

The World - Pages 10-11

KIDS BITZ - Page 13

Panorama - Page 14

Classifieds - Page 15

Archbishop Hickey has announced that the parish of St Anne in Belmont will now become a ‘quasi-parish’ for the Latin Mass.

the Parish. the Nation. the World.

Rising up: The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is taking shape as building progresses. This weekend, the Archdiocese is launching the second phase of its Parishes appeal.

PHOTO: WINGS PHOTOGRAPHY

If

depression-era Catholics

■ By Anthony Barich

Blessed Antonia Messina

1919-1935

feast – May 17

can do it, so can we

we can raise the extra $3 million required to complete the project.

Saints for Today Saints

CNS

Antonia was one of 11 children born to poor parents in Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean. She took Communion weekly, prayed the family rosary and helped her mother care for younger twins. By age 16, she was part of a Catholic Action group. One day, when she and a girl named Annette were gathering wood, she was attacked by a 20-year-old man. Annette ran for help, while the man repeatedly assaulted Antonia, finally killing her with stones. She had 74 wounds and is considered a martyr of chastity. Her killer confessed and repented before his 1937 execution.

Stewardship

Baptism of Our Lord

© 2008 CNS

© 2005

Our baptism, like the Lord’s, is a consecration to service. The bishops’ pastoral on stewardship reminds us that”... there is a fundamental obligation arising from the sacrament of Baptism that people place their gifts, their resources - their selves - at God’s service on and through the Church.” For further information on how stewardship can build your parish community, call Brian Stephens on 9422 7924.

Him Daily Mass Readings

18S THE MOST HOLY TRINITY, Solemnity

Wh Ex 34:4-6.8-9 Forgive our faults

Ps/Dan 3:52-56 Glory and praise!

2 Cor 13:11-13 Live in peace Jn 3:16-18 God loved the world

19M

Gr Jas 3:13-18 Wisdom from above

Ps 18:8-10.15 God’s command clear

Mk 9:14-29 I do have faith

20T St Bernadine of Siena, priest (O)

Gr Jas 4:1-10 Wars and battles

Ps 54:7-11.23 Plotting tongues

Mk 9:30-37 Afraid to ask

21W

Gr Jas 4:13-17

You never know

Ps 48:2-3.6-11 Why should I fear?

Mk 9:38-40 Not one of us

22T

Gr Jas 5:1-6 A burning fire

Ps 48:14-20 Outward show vanishes

Mk 9:41-50 Thrown into the sea

PERTH priest Fr John Chokolich has fond memories of 1930, when the last major works of St Mary’s Cathedral were completed and officially opened.

Fr Chokolich, 91, recalls that it was a memorable and very moving occasion, especially as thousands had packed Victoria Square even though it was during the Depression.

Speaking on the Cathedral Appeal DVD handed out to parishes, he says that with today’s much more affluent society, surely

23F

Gr Jas 5:9-12

Have endurance

Ps 103:1-4.8-9.11-12 The Lord is kind

Mk 10:1-12 Marriage

24S MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS, Solemnity

Wh Sir 4:11-18 The straight road

Ps 112:1-8 Praise the Lord’s name

1 Cor 1:18-25 God’s saving power

Jn 19:25-27 Near the cross

“The people were very excited, and I thought to myself that if they were excited then in the time of the depression, with a much smaller community than we have today, then surely today, with Australia being among the richest countries in the world, we can afford to finish the cathedral off,” Fr Chokolich said. In this the second year of the Archdiocese of Perth’s three-

year appeal to parishes, Archbishop Barry Hickey’s Appeal Letter spells out to Perth Catholics that “we must raise a minimum of $2.5 million from all Archdiocesan parish communities if we are to achieve the goal of raising $25 million in total”.

Fr John Chokolich

“Last year was a wonderful start, and I pray that this year you will be equally generous,” Archbishop Hickey said. “I wish you and your parish every success.”

Donations can be posted back using the form attached to the letter that will be distributed to parishes, or a gift can be placed into the reply paid ‘giving envelope’ and then return this to church the following weekend.

Franciscans’ tour de force

■ By Anthony Barich

TWO Perth-raised Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate based in Italy will tour WA this month to raise funds for crucial work assisting poverty-stricken children in Nigeria and Brazil.

The international women’s order run Saint Pio of Pietrelcina’s House of Charity in Nigeria and another house for children of the poor in Brazil.

The Nigerian house is also home to sufferers of Hansen’s Disease, commonly known as leprosy, and is the Sisters’ current major project.

The Nigerian house is only partly completed.

Sr Maria Brigida, who spent 12 years in Albany and Esperance and grew up in Perth, and Mother Maria Simona, the Mother Superior of the house in Nigeria, will visit Glendalough, Rockingham, Esperance, Albany, Yangebup, City Beach and Greenmount from May 16 to 31.

Speaking at Masses at each of the parishes, the Sisters will show a 20-minute DVD on their mission and speak of the project and their experiences. They will also address Lions, Rotary, sports clubs and other key individuals

to garner support for the projects. Sister Brigida said any offerings are welcome, no matter how small, as “a gesture of charity in favour of these children in Africa who, without your help and without the maternal presence of the Sisters, would remain abandoned in the solitude of poverty, ignorance and illness”.

“Knowing that God cannot be outdone in generosity”, they leave their humble request for funds in the hands of WA’s Catholics.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, a new branch of the Franciscan family, are based in Italy and other countries, including Western Australia; they now work in five continents.

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate are also in WA, and were made an Institute of Pontifical Rite in 1998.

The Sisters received Pontifical approval the same year, and have been working in Perth for the past 10 years.

Sr Brigida said that the “ideal religious apostolate” of the Franciscans of the Immaculate is to work for the maximum glory of God through the Immaculate (heart of Mary) and to make a major commitment to missionary work. The Institute lives poverty radically as St Francis of Assisi lived; for this reason they possess

nothing personally or in community life, with no fixed income, relying totally on the Providence of God to sustain them in all their necessities.

The apostolate’s operations are born and carried forward with the help of benefactors.

The Sisters’ schedule:

July 16 - St Anthony’s Church Greenmount, 7.30pm.

May 17 - Holy Family Church Albany 6pm.

May 18 - St Joseph’s Church Albany 7.30am; Holy Family Church Albany 9.30am.

May 20 - St Bernadette’s Church Glendalough 10.30am.

May 21 - St Bernadette’s Glendalough 5.45pm.

May 24 - Our Lady Star of the Sea Esperance 6.30pm.

May 25 - Our Lady Star of the Sea Esperance 9am.

May 26 - Divine Mercy College Yangebup 9am12pm.

May 27 - Kolbe College Rockingham 9am12pm.

May 31 - Holy Spirit Church City Beach All Mass Times.

Love in action: Former WA woman and now Franciscan Sister of the Immaculate, Mother Maria Simona, pictured with children in Nigeria, will be visiting Perth this month to appeal for funds to support the order’s work caring for poverty-bound children and sufferers of leprosy. PHOTOS: COURTESY FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE

Latest science key to WA cloning defeat: Doust

■ By Anthony Barich

WITH the “Cloning” Bill defeated in the State Legislative Council, Labor MP Kate Doust has called on the West Australian and Federal governments to start backing legitimate, ethical technology involving adult stem cells.

On May 6 WA’s Legislative Council rejected the Human Reproductive Technology Amendment Bill, which would have allowed for the creation of embryos for the purpose of research and for their destruction after 14 days, by 18 votes to 15.

It was the first time an Australian State Parliament had rejected a cloning Bill since the Federal Parliament lifted the ban on “therapeutic” cloning in 2006.

Ms Doust, along with Liberal MP Barbara Scott and other pro-life MPs, worked behind the scenes educating their Upper House colleagues on Professor Shinya Yamanaka’s pioneering work at Kyoto University that rendered embryonic research that WA’s “Cloning Bill” allowed for redundant.

Ms Doust told The Record that it was fortunate that the Yamanaka announcement came last November, just when MPs were giving their speeches on the issue in parliament.

Christian Democratic Party state president Gerard Goiran said that the MPs who voted in favour of the

“clone and kill” Bill were “certainly aware of the Yamanaka discovery as the pro-life movement gave to each of them a full scientific briefing of what pluripotent stem cells can achieve”.

Just after his announcement, Yamanaka, who had successfully turned adult skin cells into the equivalent of human embryonic stem cells without using an actual embryo, told the New York Times: “When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realised there was such a small difference between it and my daughters.

“I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research.

“There must be another way.”

Ms Doust said the defeat of the “Cloning” Bill now provides an opportunity for the State and Federal Governments to fund adult stem cell research, given “it seems to be the method that’s actually delivering positive results in medicine”.

She told The Record that many MPs “were yet to be convinced that we had to go down the path of cloning embryos, given that we voted against it in 2003-04”, when they allowed the use of excess IVF embryos but not for therapeutic cloning purposes.

She slammed suggestions that Catholic MPs voted against the Bill just because they are Catholic.

“Those MPs who decided to vote against this legislation did not make

OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENT S ENGAGEMENTS

the decision flippantly,” said Ms Doust, a Catholic parishioner of St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral.

“They simply took on board the information that was given them and made an informed decision. For pro-life MPs, it goes against everything we believe in to create a human embryo for destruction.”

Ms Doust refuted Catholic WA Attorney General Jim McGinty’s claims that the Legislative Council has denied sick people potential cures, and scoffed at suggestions that scores of stem cell scientists would leave the State.

She pointed out that Professor Alan Trounson, one of the strongest advocates of embryonic research when it was debated on a federal level, has since said that Prof. Yamanaka’s research has made embryonic research obsolete and unnecessary, as has Dolly the Sheep creator, Prof. Ian Wilmut.

Ms Doust said that once Federal parliament lifted the ban on therapeutic cloning, “people were telling me it’s a foregone conclusion” that every State will pass their own legislation allowing it.

“But I take the view that you have to do everything you can to defeat these types of Bills,” she said.

Archbishop congratulates parliament on decisive vote

ARCHBISHOP Barry

Hickey has congratulated State Parliament on the defeat of the Human Reproductive Technology Amendment Bill, also known as the ‘Cloning Bill’.

“I thank God that the Cloning Bill did not pass the Legislative Council and I am pleased that a sufficient number of Members of Parliament opposed the Bill as a matter of conscience,” Archbishop Hickey said.

“Cloning human beings for experimentation and as a source of stemcells is morally indefensible. No matter what beneficial effects are hoped for, the end does noit justify the means.

“Furthermore the arguments used to justify cloning are now irrelevant as useful adaptable stemcells can be readily found elsewhere.

“Parliament should breathe a sigh of relief that it will not be held responsible for the destruction of more innocent human beings at the embryonic stage of their existence.

“This issue highlights the heavy burden placed on parliamentarians.

“I sympathise with them in the crucial decisions they are called on to make and congratulate them on this successful outcome.”

The Archbishop added that the cloning debate had again raised the issue of how to get good people elected to Parliament.

“I have often called on talented people with strong pro-life and pro-family values, often based on religious faith, to enter politics,” he said.

“In their decisions they bring with them the insights provided by their faith.

“I am taking a keen interest at the rise of faith-based political parties. This new phenomenon in

Australia may indicate that many Christians and others who share their outlook are not being sufficiently represented by the major parties and wish to strengthen their political profile.

“The recent legalisation of prostitution – which succeeded because MPs did not have a conscience vote – and the attempted legalisation of human cloning – which failed because MPs did have a conscience vote – demonstrate that basic values on human life are not being respected by those in power.

“While the Catholic Church cannot support any one political party, not even Christian-inspired parties, it recognises the right of citizens to form associations and political groups to affect policy and law in this country.

“Perhaps the sorry record of State Parliaments around Australia in passing laws that do not respect human life or its dignity will give life to these faith-based parties that at present have virtually no public profile or finances and lead people to offer them support at the next poll.”

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Job well done: State Labor MLC Kate Doust is pleased at Parliament’s rejection of cloning. Key to the rejection of cloning, she says, was the pioneering work of Japanese Professor Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University that effectively rendered research using embryonic stemcells - of the kind the defeated legislation could have allowed - redundant.

PHOTO: JUSTINE STEVENS

the Parish

Meet our new priests, fresh off the plane

■ By Anthony Barich

THE Archdiocese of Perth has just received two priests from Burma.

Archbishop Barry Hickey was asked by two Burmese bishops to accept Fr Noel Tun Latt and Fr Richard Emyit to experience Western culture for six years.

Burmese Leederville parish priest Fr Oliver Lewis, the liaison between the bishops, said that while Burma is still very much a “closed state”, change is creeping in, and the Rangoon bishops want to know how the Church in Australia deals with changes in society in areas like politics, religion and theology.

Fr Emyit, a former parishioner of Fr Lewis’ in Letbadan, Rangoon, where Cyclone Nagris recently killed thousands, was sent to Perth by Bishop Gregory Taikmaung of Prome, while Archbishop Charles Bo SDB of Rangoon sent Fr Latt here.

They have a four-year visa but their bishops want them here for six. Perth Vicar General Fr Brian O’Loughlin told The Record that the natural growth of the Archdiocese

and migration means “we are relying now and into the future on overseas priests and seminarians”.

“That doesn’t stop us praying and encouraging local vocations, but it means that we’ve had to supplement our numbers with overseas priests as the Archdiocese has not been able to meet its own needs,” the Vicar General said.

“We don’t see the remedy (for the priest shortage) so much in actively recruiting new Orders, although we’re always open to that, and the Jesuits have now supplied priests for Nedlands.

“More the case is that we’re recruiting seminarians from overseas and we welcome some priests who come here for pastoral placement, so we’re happy that the two Burmese priests are here.”

St Charles Seminary in Guildford has 18 seminarians, nine of whom were sourced from overseas specifically to study here, while others still

are from overseas but moved to Perth earlier with their families for a better life.

Though the seminary lost two Australian students last year, it has picked up another two – one 25year-old Australian, a trained dentist, being groomed for the Diocese of Bunbury and another from the Philippines is waiting for his visa to come through to complete his seminary studies in Perth.

Another student from Zambia who had been at St Charles’ last year was forced to return home with visa problems but is expected to return once that is sorted out.

The trend to source Orders and other priests from overseas continued after the loss of the Camillians to the Eastern states when Vincentians

from Karalla, India Fr Joseph Rojan George, Fr Varghese Parackal, Fr Thomas Mankuthel arrived in February for healthcare chaplaincy based at Shenton Park.

They also service the parish.

They are due to stay for three years to run retreats, missions and renewal experiences, but that time could be extended.

Indian-born Fr Michael Raj arrived last year replacing Servite Friar Fr Robert Anderson who returned to the United States.

The most recent international addition is Indian-born Fr Justin Selvaraj CRS, who replaces Spearwood parish priest Fr Valerio Fenoglio, who will take responsibility for the Somascan House of Formation in Sri Lanka after spend-

ing four years in Perth.

The three Vincentian priests, the Samascan priest, Fr Raj and the two Burmese priests met at the Cathedral Office in the city for “pastoral introduction” with Fr O’Loughlin.

In other movements, Hilton parish priest Fr Giovanni Fontana CRS has stepped down after Pentecost Sunday to move to St Brigid’s Northbridge to service the Italian Apostolate after the departure of Scalabrinian Fr Antonio Paganoni for Adelaide.

Fr Benedict Lee will succeed Fr John Ryan as parish priest of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Scarborough from late May, having been assistant priest at Whitfords parish for the past five years.

He has been in charge of Myaree since Fr Larry Reitmeyer returned, in retirement, to the United states, having overseen the building and opening of the new Pater Noster Church.

Happy birthday Church, from St Benedict’s Belmont to go Traditional

■ By Anthony Barich

THE Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways, and last Monday there was no doubting His presence at St Benedict’s Catholic Primary School in Ardross.

The day before was the feast of Pentecost, the day widely known as the birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descended on Christ’s Apostles, as He promised just before He ascended to the Father.

After a few housekeeping items, the first thing the students did that Monday morning during the weekly school assembly was celebrate the Church’s birthday, singing “Happy Birthday to the Church” after a short but cute Liturgy of the Word by the Year Four students, reading out the Scripture from the Acts of the Apostles.

“Kids are visual learners,” said St Benedict’s school principal Mark Powell, who also happens to be a deacon of the Archdiocese.

“We’ve been trying to mark each feast of the Church in a memorable way that the kids will understand, so they can see what we’re on

about as a Catholic school. All these things makes the Church real and alive for them.”

It continues the trend after students went to great lengths to bring other feasts to life.

The year one class brought a donkey in to recreate the Palm Sunday feast, during which teacher David Hayden acted as Jesus overturning the tables in the synagogue. All furniture is in tact…

The year sevens did Good Friday and the year fours did the Easter Liturgy in the adjacent parish church, fulfilling the desire to link the school with the parish community.

The service included the blessing of the water and the institution of the Eucharist.

For last Monday’s celebration of Pentecost, Beck Gliosca, a mother of one of the students, made over 200 cupcakes so the students could celebrate the Catholic Church’s birthday.

They went down a treat, and everyone was happy, not least of which, no doubt, was the Holy Spirit. Two thousand years later, His work hasn’t stopped.

■ By Anthony Barich

THE Traditional Latin Rite Mass community is moving into Belmont parish to save St Anne’s Church.

With their attendances booming and many regular activities like Catechesis and prayer groups, the Latin Mass community has for months been looking for an alternate venue as St John’s ProCathedral, their home for over 12 years, is too small.

After originally hoping to move to the glamorous St Brigid’s Church in Northbridge, St Anne’s was chosen after the Archdiocese had begun plans to sell off the site if a community could not be found to reside there.

However, the move drew controversy as up to 300 people who regularly attend Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Anne’s will be put out after the church was closed last weekend for construction work for up to two months as the church is prepared for Traditional Latin Rite Mass celebrations.

Mt Hawthorn parish priest Fr Douglas Harris, who started the Association of Christ’s Faithful called Apostles of Perpetual Adoration, met Archbishop Barry Hickey and the Archdiocese’s Traditional Latin Rite chaplain Fr Michael Rowe to find a way of keeping adoration open.

A number of ideas were floated, including using for Adoration St Anne’s parish presbytery, office or even a transportable building – which the Archbishop approved if Fr Rowe agreed – but the Latin Mass chaplain said all these ideas were not feasible as the whole area would become a construction site.

Fr Rowe is still in favour of setting up adoration times once the refurbishment of St Anne’s is complete.

The Archbishop received many letters from soon-to-be displaced adorers from Belmont, but Fr Rowe did not want Perpetual

Adoration on the site as there was no priest responsible for it, and he would not become the official rector until after the renovations. Any Adoration set up under Fr Rowe would also require at least two people present at any time.

Although not that much bigger than St John the Evangelist ProCathedral, Belmont is a feasible option for the Traditional Latin Rite community as it is still fairly central and there are State government plans for a rail line down Great Eastern Highway towards the domestic airport, which could be merged with the international one.

Altar rails need to be installed and the sanctuary needs to be rebuilt for Latin Rite celebrations. An old altar from St Anne’s Church in North Fremantle has been acquired for use at St Anne’s Belmont.

The community currently based at St John’s Pro-Cathedral is one of two – the other is at Palmyra – while Fr Rowe also says the Traditional Mass from the 1962 Missal at Kelmscott, the first parish to take up Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio advising that parishioners can celebrate the Mass with

a priest without the local bishop’s permission.

As the centrally based one, the St John the Evangelist-based community is non-territorial, drawing people from as far as Rockingham, Mandurah and Quinns Rocks.

New home

Due to the arrival of the Traditional Latin Mass Community to St Anne’s Parish in Belmont the Charismatic Prayer group, which has been meeting every Saturday in the parish hall for the past five years, has been relocated to the hall at Bedford’s at St Peter the Apostle Parish.

The group, which is sponsored by the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community, will commence at the new venue, 91 Wood St, Inglewood, on May 17 and will meet every Saturday between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

All are most welcome. Ring 9475 0155 for further details.

Fr Thomas

Fr Noel Tun LattFr VargheseFr Michael Raj Fr Joseph GeorgeFr Richard Emyit

Liturgical feast: Year 4 students Jordan Handcock, Alex Milne, Renae Albuquerque and Lillie Bartorelli devour the cupcakes made by Beck Gliosca to celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the Church.

PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

Reverence: Latin Mass chaplain Fr Michael Rowe celebrates the Easter triduum at the Cathedral parish centre. Such traditional celebrations of key events of the Church will be a mainstay at Belmont now.

PHOTO: MATTHEW BIDDLE

the Parish

Hundreds at Bove’s Farm for Mary

■ By Peter Castieu

MORE than 200 pilgrims from as far away as Albany and Perth attended the annual May Rosary Rally held in honour of Our Lady at Bove’s Farm south of Busselton on Ascension Sunday 2008.

Mass was celebrated by Vicar General of the Bunbury Diocese, Fr Tony Chiera, and followed by the crowning of a statue of Our Lady Queen of the most holy Rosary.

After the crowning, pilgrims were led by Our Lady on a procession through the property, during

which the Rosary was recited in Italian and English. The procession concluded with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The day finished with afternoon tea, and a chance to catch up with fellow pilgrims, while the children played together.

In his sermon, Fr Tony shared personal memories of his mother’s great devotion to the Rosary, and of his own memories of festas when he was a child.

On the love of Our Lady, he said, “Mary’s greatest joy is to see us becoming more like Christ and as she sees the features of Jesus on us,

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she loves us as she loves Jesus”. He concluded by reminding the faithful that, “You are the life of Jesus now in the world”.

Bunbury pilgrim, Matthew Monisse, said that it was good to “see all the people express love for Our Lady, feel her tangible presence, and give her honour and thanksgiving here at the Bove’s”.

And to those who couldn’t attend? Organiser Luigi Bove says:

“Have hope all the time.

“The faith costs nothing. From Rupert Murdoch to a pensioner, we can all share in the faith, the most important thing is to persevere”.

It’s a great day: The annual gathering at Bove’s Farm attracts young and old alike and is traditionally followed by a picnic. Among those present this year were these lovely young pilgrims, who also walked in the procession with Fr Tony Chiera.

The Parish

The Nation

The World Read it

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For the Mother of God: As in previous years, a procession winds its way through the paddocks of the Bove family farm, praying the Rosary and bearing a statue of Mary. The annual gathering, in the Diocese of Bunbury, attracts pilgrims from far and wide.

PHOTOS: COURTESY PETER CASTIEU

Persevere: Bunbury Vicar General Fr Tony Chiera addresses pilgrims during the Mass.

the Nation

WYD: One part worship, one part Woodstock

■ By Paul Gray

AMERICAN journalist John R Allen calls it the Olympic Games of world religion. Allen calls it “one part worship and one part Woodstock,” and says it’s designed to offer “a rocking rebuttal to impressions that Catholicism is sliding towards oblivion.”

The detailed plans for the World Youth Day 2008 festival, released by organisers last week, confirm that Sydney will indeed be transformed into a pulsating mass of youth during the week of Pope Benedict’s visit in July.

In fact, on paper at least, it looks like a Catholic youth takeover of some of the oldest and most famous parts of the year 2000 Olympic city.

Organisers have revealed that the area around Centennial Park and Royal Randwick Racecourse, to the south of Sydney’s historic Central Railway station, will be renamed as “Southern Cross Precinct” for the entire duration of the World Youth Day festival.

Hundreds of thousands of praying Catholics from around Australia and the rest of the world are expected to camp out there with sleeping bags, music and the highest of spirits on Saturday night, July 19.

And the Pope will join them, for a time at least, during the Saturday

Perth seminarian chosen for key role

Perth man Christian Irdi has been chosen to be Pope Benedict’s crozier-bearer for World Youth Day in Sydney.

Mr Irdi, a first-year seminar-

night vigil. Earlier that day, the even more iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge will become the scene of the largest ever mass walk of pilgrims in Australian history. From before 5.30am, youth will begin arriv-

ian studying for the Archdiocese of Perth in Sydney’s Seminary of the Good Shepherd, will carry Pope Benedict XVI’s crozier at the Mass following the all-night vigil that ends a week of World Youth Day activities.

It is expected hundreds of thousands of youth, most from overseas, will participate in the Mass.

ing in North Sydney – itself one of Australia’s busiest central business districts – for the walk south

across the Bridge. They will walk across the water of Sydney Harbour, through the heart of Sydney and finally come to Southern Cross for their once-in-a-lifetime gathering with the Pope. A papal motorcade will commence at 9am Sunday within Centennial Park, leading to the Pope’s arrival at the altar within Randwick Racecourse for Mass beginning at 10am.

When the Mass concludes, the host city for the next World Youth Day will be announced.

The six-day festival will commence on Tuesday July 15 with Mass celebrated in the late afternoon by Cardinal George Pell at Barangaroo, a newly named precinct within the popular tourist location of Darling Harbour. Pope Benedict himself will arrive at Barangaroo via a “boata-cade” from Sydney Harbour on Thursday July 16 at 2.45pm. Next day, Friday July 18, the Stations of the Cross will be held at three locations across the city, St Mary’s Cathedral, Darling Harbour and the Sydney Opera House forecourt, from the traditional time of 3pm.

Other youth festival events will be held around Sydney until 10pm each day from Tuesday to Friday, except during the Cardinal’s Mass and the events involving the Pope.

Catechesis sessions will be held at more than 250 locations around the city from Wednesday to Friday.

“Catholic values” must permeate all courses:

Bishops appoint former WA education chief

■ By Paul Gray

THE former Director of Catholic Education in Western Australia, Therese Temby, has been appointed Chair of the National Catholic Education Commission.

Mrs Temby will succeed Victorian Mgr Tom Doyle in what is one of the most important posts in Catholic education in Australia.

The announcement of Mrs Temby’s appointment was made at the conclusion of the May plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Mrs Temby, who has been a member of the National Catholic Education Commission for 16 years, was the Director of Catholic Education in WA from 1992 to 2003.

Mrs Temby told The Record that the Commission serves two important roles. One is providing a forum for leaders in Catholic education, from state Catholic Education Offices and the Catholic universities, to come together to discuss important issues.

The Commission’s other important role lies in the relationship between Catholic education and the Federal Government. Part of this involvement is in the “mechanics” of Government funding of Catholic schools.

She said the Commission has always had a “really strong relationship” with whichever party is in power in Canberra, and she believes and hopes this will continue.

Mrs Temby praised her predecessor as NCEC chair, Mgr Doyle, saying he had been outstanding in his

role as head of Catholic education in Victoria and as a member and chair of the national body. She particularly praised his “insight” and connections.

Mrs Temby says a challenge for the Commission under her chairmanship will be the “changing agenda” in the Church’s discussions with the Federal Government.

One area of change is the push towards a national curriculum for all schools, a trend which began under the Howard Liberal Government and is continuing under Labor.

While happy to talk about the broader challenges facing Catholic education in general terms, she emphasised that it is not the role of the National Catholic Education Commission to “direct” policy to the state Catholic Education Offices.

However she said two challenges facing Catholic schools are enrolments – “we want enrolments to grow,” she said – and “Catholic

chair

identity.” Mrs Temby said Catholic schools need to be good schools, in the sense of providing first class treatment of all subjects and courses.

She added that “Catholic values” should come through all of the courses taught in a Catholic school, so that whatever the subject might be, from biology to maths, Catholic values should be present.

The life of a Catholic school should also be imbued with a “Catholic way of thinking,” Mrs Temby said.

Asked if she is concerned about the level of churchgoing amongst Catholic school students, Mrs Temby said this problem is not just one of education, but of an increasingly secular society we live in. She said churchgoing is falling off in all denominations and all churches. This says something about society and not just about schools. But she is encouraged by some of the activities students in Catholic schools are engaged in these days, such as social justice initiatives and programs to help the poor.

She says the outreach by Catholic schools and the support given to community works like soup kitchens are “fantastic.”

Kids in Catholic schools are giving a “real sense of serving their community,” she said. However she said it’s a shame there is not more Mass attendance among the general Catholic school population.

As well as directing Catholic Education in Western Australia for 11 years, Mrs Temby has a wide experience of school, including Government schools.

The chairman of the bishops’ Commission for Catholic Education, Bishop Gerard Holohan, said Mrs Temby’s wide experience will “ground her leadership of Catholic education across Australia.”

En route to Oz: Youth carry the a cross in Cologne in 2005. The key activities for WYD ‘08 are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of Catholics from around the world for a week of prayer.

PHOTO: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

New NCEC Chair: Mrs Therese Temby previously headed Catholic education in WA for 11 years.

the Nation

Bishops set out “doctrinal difficulties” in book that casts doubt on

■ By Paul Gray

THE Australian bishops have revealed there are doctrinal difficulties with teachings contained in a book by a retired NSW bishop, Geoffrey Robinson.

The book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus, was published last year.

In a statement agreed on during the May plenary meeting, the bishops said that despite correspondence and conversation with Bishop Robinson, “it is clear that doctrinal difficulties remain”.

The major doctrinal difficulty, the bishops say, is Bishop Robinson’s questioning of the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively.

“The book’s questioning of the authority of the Church is connected to Bishop Robinson’s uncertainty about the knowledge and authority of Christ Himself,” the bishops state.

“Catholics believe that the Church, founded by Christ, is endowed by Him with a teaching office which endures through time.

“This is why the Church’s Magisterium teaches the truth authoritatively in the name of Christ. The book casts doubt upon these teachings.”

Bishop Robinson retired as auxiliary bishop for Sydney in 2004. He had been made a bishop in 1984.

In that year he also published Marriage, Divorce and Nullity: a Guide to the Annulment Process in the Catholic Church He had also served on the Sydney Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal. Bishop Robinson played an active role in devising new processes for the prevention of sexual abuse in the Church.

According to the Sydney archdiocese’s website, he has “made an

Catholic

Prelates’ vocation to teach is not subject to fashion: Nuncio

THE new Apostolic Nuncio to Australia has reminded the nation’s bishops that the Church’s teaching does not give in to passing trends.

The newly arrived Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto gave the opening address at the May plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

He told the bishops: “I have come to live together with you your commitment to faithfulness to the Church, and also the courage of a faith and a coherent and authentic Magisterium that does not easily yield to seasonal and passing fashions.”

The new nuncio said he sees his role as being a companion on the way of the Church in Australia.

He also praised the bishops for a new plan to reach out to inactive Catholics.

“This gives honour to your pastoral sensitivity and shows the

enormous contribution worldwide towards raising the consciousness of Church leaders to their responsibilities in this very difficult and sensitive area”.

Bishop Robinson was also foundation Chair of Encompass Australasia, a program jointly established in 1987 by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes.

He has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Australian Catholic University in recognition of his work in the national Towards Healing process. Towards Healing is a set of principles and procedures for responding to complaints of sexual abuse against Catholic

Italy, Croatia, Bosnia

August/September

ACCOMMODATION. A GOOD NUMBER OF MEALS INCLUDED IN THE PRICE (MRS. MARY MCANDREW FOR FURTHER DETAILS

TEL: 03 9310 3017

: Email: marymcandrew@stphilomena-australia.org

Italy,

commitment with which you try to open new ways of announcing the Gospel.”

Archbishop Lazzarotto also spoke about the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI. He said the celebration of World Youth Day will surely be “a moment of great and intense participation, from which our Church here in Australia will draw fresh strength and energy for the proclamation of the kingdom.”

He said the Pope will feel immense gratitude for the “extraordinary efforts” being made to prepare for his visit and World Youth Day.

The nuncio also thanked the bishops for the love and affection given to his predecessor, Archishop Ambrose De Paoli during his final illness.

Archbishop De Paoli died in October 2007 after being diagnosed with leukaemia in 2005.

- Paul Gray

Church personnel. After publishing his book last year, Bishop Robinson spoke on ABC radio about a memory of having been sexually abused himself as a child.

“It was never a repressed memory,” he told the ABC interviewer Stephen Crittenden.

“I always knew it had happened.

“It had been in the attic of my mind, and it was only when I was talking to victims and the things they said were stirring all these feelings in myself, that I finally took all that down out of the attic, looked at it and actually for the first time named it as sexual abuse, and this was 50 years after it had happened.”

Bishop Robinson said the abuse did not happen at the hands of anyone in the Church.

In the interview Bishop Robinson said he retired as a bishop because he could no longer stand up “speaking in the name of the Church

faith

which said all those things which I really no longer believed.”

“In the book I’ve queried papal power, papal infallibility, I’ve queried the entire teaching on sex within the Church,” he said.

Before the bishop came on air, the ABC’s Stephen Crittenden said Bishop Robinson’s book calls for a re-think of all the Church’s teachings on sex and marriage and, Crittenden added, “even a few phrases of the Nicene Creed may have to be altered.”

Last week the Australian bishops expressed gratitude to Bishop Robinson for the contribution he has made to the life of the Church.

“We are deeply indebted to him for his years of effort to bring help and healing to those who have suffered sexual abuse and for what he has done to establish protocols of professional standards for Church personnel in this area.”

The bishops said in responding to the issues raised by the book, they did not question Bishop Robinson’s good faith.

However, the Australian bishops said, people have a right to know clearly what the Catholic Church believes and teaches, and the bishops have a corresponding duty to set this forth.

Because the book casts doubt upon Catholic belief about the teaching office of the Church, other problems follow, the bishops say.

“This leads in turn to the questioning of Catholic teaching on, amongst other things, the nature of Tradition, the inspiration of the Holy Scripture, the infallibility of the Councils and the Pope, the authority of the Creeds, the nature of the ministerial priesthood and central elements of the Church’s moral teaching.”

The bishops’ statement concludes:

“The authority entrusted by Christ to his Church may at times be poorly exercised, especially in shaping policy and practice in complex areas of pastoral and human concern. “This does not in Catholic belief invalidate the Church’s authority to teach particular truths of faith and morals.”

Caritas head pleads for aid agency’s access to Burma

■ By Paul Gray

“PLEASE, please, please let us in. We only want to help the hundreds of thousands of people suffering after the tsunami.”

That was the passionate appeal from Caritas Australia to the Burmese Government in the wake of the biggest human disaster seen anywhere in the world since the Boxing Day tsunami.

The expected death toll from a May 3 cyclone which hit Burma was rising from around 60,000, at the time of writing last week.

But international aid groups like Caritas Australia were being frustrated in their attempts to help survivors and prevent further deaths.

“We plead with the leaders in Burma to please, please, please allow access to the international community who can offer critically needed assistance in Burma,” said Caritas Australia chief executive Jack de Groot last Monday.

“The need is so urgent for international access.

“We can still avert a human catastrophe but our window of opportunity is diminishing

Continued

- Page 9

Waiting: Caritas’s Jack De Groot wants urgent access to Burma for aid.

the Parish

‘Fair dinkum Christians are missionary’

■ By Anthony Barich

PENSIONER

Helen Skellett always thought that “fair dinkum Christians” have to be missionary, and retirement has not stopped her fervour to live out this universal vocation.

Originally from Sydney, retired general practitioner Mrs Skellett, 73, moved to Tanzania from 196271 with her Anglican minister husband Barry and two sons to work as a physician.

Her work involved saving children from the big problems facing kids over there – malaria, the associated Black Water fever, tuberculosis, pneumonia, dog bites (causing rabies) and meningitis. She also worked in leprosy hospitals.

She returned to Dareda, Tanzania in 2005 for six months to work as a consulting physician, and while the Ballajura Catholic parishioner is now back home, she continues her work. On four Sundays over the past two months, Mrs Skellett has raised over $1000 selling goods like toys and clothes she acquired from

putting notices in her parish bulletin asking for unwanted items. Last Sunday she was selling plants.

It’s all part of living the Catholic Church’s universal call to mission in her everyday life.

“I always thought fair dinkum Christians have to be missionary,” she says.

“When I was young I didn’t approve much of ‘pew warmers’.” She admits that sounds aggressive but the reality is she’s anything but. Charitable works are her existence, and the situation in Tanzania certainly requires some attention.

Working over there for 10 years revealed the brutal reality – girls

Ideas needed to engage youth after WYD

■ By Anthony Barich

DISCUSSIONS between youth agencies have revealed that the Catholic Church – which includes lay as well as priests and Religious – have two months after World Youth Day to get youth back into active participation in our churches or the massive event will have been a lost opportunity.

The Australian bishops have instigated Youth Vision, a nationwide group set to spring into action after WYD 2008 in Sydney in July, to re-engage youth and continue to deepen the sense of a personal relationship with Christ that WYD may have triggered.

Perth Catholics young and old already attending WYD are urged to think about how they will re-engage the other youth travelling to WYD with them who may have drifted from the Church before then.

Suggestions include a post-WYD reunion like a Mass and/or social gathering. The Perth WYD Office has already started planning an event in August to give pilgrims an opportunity to “unpack” the spiritual experience they encountered in Sydney, like thinking about what

Christ means to their life now. An October conference involving the mobilisation of Perth youth agencies is also in the pipeline to explore the “gifts and talents” that youth can offer their local church.

Miss Parker told The Record that schools and communities throughout the Archdiocese can continue to flourish and expand post-WYD. New groups have already been formed and leaders have stepped forward to engage in youth ministry for WYD.

“The real work is not before WYD, but it is after, when we want to engage the young people travelling to WYD to become active in the Church and live their Christian calling to be ‘witnesses’ in their everyday lives,” Miss Parker said. “If we don’t have an idea or some goals to work towards, then the momentum of WYD will be lost before we can get started with the follow up. The idea of the visioning process is to capture the main issues we need to improve or address when working with youth ministry in Perth.”

She said that the National Youth Vision which will be launched at WYD is a great summary of the three goals and eight focus areas to be covered across the nation.

“Our role is to use these goals and focus areas to adapt it in the local context and understand what our role and priorities are for developing the National Youth Vision at a local level,” she said, adding that feedback is a key component in developing the visioning process.

“We need to understand the wisdom of those who have worked in this field before us and tried the ideas we are proposing, we need the knowledge of the current leaders active in youth ministry, priests in parishes and chaplaincy roles, parents and others in the community, and we need the balance of the young people themselves and their desires for spirituality in today’s society.”

The Catholic Youth Network, a group of leaders from Catholic youth ministry organisations, are gathering to discuss the issues of Archdiocesan implementation of the National Youth Vision and how it translates at a local level.

The network also meets to share ideas in youth ministry and work together as a coordinated approach to hosting combined pre and postWYD events.

For ideas on how to re-engage youth in your local area, contact Anita Parker on 9422 7944.

Frazzled by traffic, Sydney parents send kids to board

Working parents in Sydney are sending their children to boarding schools in the same city because they are too busy and stressed by fighting heavy traffic.

Up to a third of students at Sydney Church of England Grammar School are weekday boarders and they are said to “love it”.

Twenty years ago the exclusive school’s 200 boarders were full-time and mainly from the country, but fewer farmers can afford the fees these days and city kids are filling the vacancies. Boarding master David Anderson says the regular routine suits boys very well.

His comments follow concerns voiced by the principal of a leading girls’ school, who said in an op-ed that some parents can go almost a year without seeing their children at boarding school.

-Sydney Morning Herald

This is what Mrs Skellett is raising money for.

This effectively helps the country’s ‘brain drain’ as local women can complete their schooling and go on to university and work in their community as nurses, for example.

Mrs Skellett’s friend, Benedictine Sister Zabibu Ndibo, is the leader of a small community in Riroda, Tanzania where she runs a small dispensary and does pastoral work among the local women and children.

Sr Zabibu addressed Mrs Skellett’s old parish, North Beach, in March last year raising awareness of her cause.

rarely finish high school as they are kicked out after being raped in their unprotected villages.

The Benedictine Sisters she worked with in Tanzania who care for the girls are building a hostel for girls to stay in while they are at high school so they are safe from unwanted intruders.

Sr Zabibu’s planned hostel is for girls attending the Chief Dodo Government Secondary School nextx door to her community as there is no specific provision there for housing for students who come there from all over the country. Donations to the Benedictine Sisters’ hostel can be made via the Geraldton Diosecan Charitable Fund, PO Box 46, Geraldton WA 6530. Use Sr Zabibu’s Hostel Account reference number 8631s74 DIO Sr Zabibu.

Too busy for prayer? Try a take-home retreat...

■ By Anthony Barich CATHOLICS

who can’t seem to find the time to recharge their batteries have been given the opportunity to have their own retreat at home.

For 40 years, the Christian Life Community (CLC) has been offering Catholics in Australia the chance to find time for God in their most intimate environment with the help of St Ignatius’ spirituality.

Based on the Spiritual Exercises written by St Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and the retreats he reportedly first ran for lay people even before priests, the movement is booming in Perth.

Fifty CLC members split into six groups meet fortnightly, some of whom have trained for two years to be a “Prayer Companion”. Retreats in Daily Life (RDLs) are run twice a year, and up to 20 people a year in Perth are taking up the opportunity to keep God in their lives.

Prayer Companions meet twice a week for an hour with those who want to take one of these three-week home retreats. But daily retreats during this three-

week period take just half an hour a day. Participants of home retreats need not be members of the CLC, and meetings with Prayer Companions are always held close to the participant’s own home, within their own parish.

Applecross parishioner Patrice Wringe admitted she “was not sure” of what she was getting into when she “signed up” for the RDL, “but I felt a call to participate in this type of retreat”.

“I felt the time was right to spend some exra time in daily prayer, to have a more structured process.”

“Quietly reading and reflecting on the Scripture readings set out for me, I got a better realisation of God’s love and care for me and this helped me to let go of some of my fear and worries.”

Willetton parishioner Chris Gardner, a trained Prayer Companion who is on the CLC national executive, said that he knows of teachers, secretaries, public servants and even a politician have undertaken daily retreats in the Ignatian format.

For more information contact Chris on 9332 4532 or mjgard@cyllene.uwa.edu.au; SJOG Sister Una O’Loughlin on 9205 1623 or ¨naol2002@yahoo.com.au or Patrice on 9326 3469 or pwringe@iinet.net.au

Hard yakka: Benedictine Sr Zabibu (second from right) and colleague Sr Grace (to her left) help construct the hostel to protect girls from rape while they attend high school in Tanzania.

Active: Helen Skellett with her plants she sells at Morley Galleria carpark for St Zabibu’s hostel.

Spiritual benefits: Chris Gardner and Patrica Wringe have raved about how beneficial the Retreat in Daily Life is for busy people. PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

The call was always there

Here we present a continuing series of testimonies by students of St Charles Seminary in Guildford on how they found their vocation. Here, Peter Geers tells his own story

My name is Peter Geers.

Peter Geers

I am a third year student at St Charles Seminary for the diocese of Bunbury. I was lucky enough to grow up in Fremantle; the son of two beautiful people, Frank and Lesley, and brother to Michael.

I completed my schooling at St Patrick’s Primary School and CBC Fremantle.

The majority of my working life has been spent in the rural parts of Western Australia.

This has included a number of years on cattle stations in the Gascoyne and Pilbara, and work within the transport industry in the south-west and, more specifically, Kojonup - the town I now call home.

The question of vocation has been one that has been present throughout my life.

At the age of 20 I spent a year with a religious order in NSW as a postulant, but felt at the end of the year that this was not my calling. However, despite feelings to the contrary, the question of vocation had not been settled.

It was probably the maturing process – something we all go through as we age – that has played a large part in my responding, this time, to what I interpret to be a call to the priesthood.

It was almost the day I turned thirty that I began to look at life differently and, I would like to think, less selfishly.

It is this change in attitude, for which I can claim no credit, that has provided the right conditions for me to hear, what I believe.

Vista

A World Youth Day ‘08... A World Youth Day ‘08...

PILGRIM’S GUIDE

Are you ready for WYD08? It’s from July 15-20 and the countdown is on. The Record’s Deb Warrier spoke to Perth’s World Youth Day Coordinator, Anita Parker, who makes it simple for those that want to get the most of the Sydney hosted international gathering.

From the obvious to the not so obvious here is a basic guide to how to take on the whole WYD experience. For a detailed guide of what - and what not - to bring, see the centre pages overleaf for The Record’s ‘Being there’ guide for pilgrims.

1. Pilgrim Packs:

Items in the backpack should include:

Rosary beads Pilgrim Guide

Candle Liturgy Guide

Clip on koala Transport Guide

Reflections Booklet

Tattoos Pen Wet weather poncho

Bandana Thermal Blanket

Gospel of Luke & Acts

Kinetic Torch Compendium to the Catechism

Water bottle

2. Accommodation:

If you have booked ‘simple accommodation’ under Package A you will be housed in either Homestay or a Church Hall or a School Gym. Remember this is an ‘Indoor Camping Experience!’ Pilgrims are free to bring their own sleeping mats, sleeping bags, pillows etc. Sleeping packs are available for purchase from Harvest youth tours on www.harvestonline. net.au

If you are looking for something a little

nicer and still haven’t organised your accommodation, get on to the official website: www. wydbeds.com

The Southern Cross Precinct (Randwick Racecourse and Centennial Park) is the venue for the Evening Vigil, the night sleep over under the stars, and the Final Papal Mass.

3. Transport:

For pilgrims arriving on or after Monday July 14, 2008, the Pilgrim pass will cover public transport from the airport. However, there is an access charge. This is currently $8 but may be reduced. For those arriving by bus, please travel directly to your accommodation site rather than coming into Central Sydney.

4. Pilgrims with Disability:

Pilgrims with a disability will be given the choice of staying with their groups in accommodation and within the allocated areas at major events. However, there are also Disability Needs Areas available. These are allocated spaces at major events, located in pick-up areas more closely linked to public transport services, shuttle bus drop off and pick up locations (where provided) and onsite venue amenities and services. There will be access shuttle bus service for pilgrims with disability and their carer(s). This will operate between Central station and Randwick Racecourse for the Vigil and Final Mass only. More details are provided on the website: www.wyd2008.org

For any enquiries related to disability please email Astrid Weston at disability@wyd2008. org

5. Volunteers:

Volunteers are given free registration and a uniform. They are given free meals and a special invitation to a major event they won’t be working on. Volunteers are needed for: crowd control, general workforce, logistics, accommodation sites, catering, media services, translators, registrations assistance, accreditation passes (3 month commitment) and transport assistance (drivers for Bishops etc). Four shifts throughout the week for up to 8 hours each. Those interested can register as a volunteer on the Sydney office website: www. wyd2008. org

6. Places of interest to see in Sydney:

Barangaroo – Venue for the Opening Mass, Papal Arrival, Stations of the Cross and Youth Festival Events.

Mary MacKillop Shrine – Australia’s first saint. Book ahead www.wyd-marymackillop. com

St Mary’s Cathedral – a place of pilgrimage for all pilgrims and where Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s body will be kept.

Hyde Park – where the largest reconciliation centre will be established and the WYD Cross and Icon will be displayed. Schoenstatt Shrine

Continued inside

The WYD ‘08 PILGRIM’S GUIDE to... Being there

So you’re heading to WYD08. Organisers and experienced pilgrims to previous World Youth Days have learned by experience (and occasionally the hard way) how to get the most out of this amazing experience. An important part of that process includes knowing WHAT - and what NOT to bring. You don’t want to find yourself tramping around the streets of Sydney lugging extra kilograms of gear that only weigh you down.

As The Record’s Deb Warrier found out from talking to Perth’s WYD Office, the key is to travel light.

WHAT TO BRING TO WYD

These

•

Sydney.

• Small padlocks to lock your bag(s).

• Bring a packet of tissues or a roll of toilet paper [Remove the cardboard roll -makes for easier packing] Keep these in your day backpack for the port-a-loo’s

• Bathers and thongs – for the showers.

• A travel towel

• Photo identification for use at the airport to get your plane tickets. Passport or drivers licence is acceptable.

• Your Parish/Group t-shirt. (see Perth WYD Merchandise)

• Own personal toiletries, medications needed or special dietary foods needed.

•

•

•

•

•

• Small AM/FM radio for the telecast of translation for

• ‘Wet ones’ wipes or similar products to clean your hands before eating. ‘Aquim’ Antibacterial lotion is also good for this.

• ‘Shower in a can’ – Deodorant if you are conscious of your body odour.

• A bottle of water for the walk. Despite it being winter, you will still need hydration.

• Thermal underwear (top and pants). Excellent for most trips - light, warm (even when wet), dries quickly and comfortable.

SNACKS / ENERGY FOOD

• Dried fruit

• Chocolate

• Muesli bars. Almost essential.

• Sweets, for example glucose lollies like snakes

WHAT NOT TO BRING

‘G

oing out’ type clothes or shoes. (Women - no high heels are needed)

• Large suitcases that you cannot lift on your own or carry up stairs on your own.

• Tents with tent poles/pegs for the sleep out.

• Extremely valuable items. You will be in communal accommodation and your personal belongings won’t always be secured.

GENERAL TIPS ON PACKING:

You can only carry a maximum of about 30 per cent of your body weight. We recommend no more that 25 per cent of your body weight. The best thing to do is reduce the weight as much as you can. In general, if you think you can do without something then leave it out. When packing, try to place most of the weight at the bottom of the pack near to your back. Put items that you may need to access quickly (eg. water, sunscreen, snacks, rain jacket) in easy-to-reach pockets or (if that isn’t possible) at the top of the main section of the pack. Also, try to pack so that your legs share the weight equally - otherwise the pack will pull you over at every step. Check the weight restrictions for your airline ticket to ensure your baggage is not overweight.

PREPARATION  FITNESS

• By now you should have started a walking campaign by walking 20 minutes 2 to 3 times a week, increasing by 5 minutes per week. When you get there, you’ll walk a lot.

• Try walking on a variety of terrains, surfaces, hills and valleys (eg. get off the footpath)

WHERE TO PURCHASE TRAVEL GEAR

The following stores are where you will find items such as 60-70L backpacks, sleeping bags, thermals, and other travel gear required for the Pilgrimage. (The staff at these stores usually know their stuff, and so may be able to give you additional advice/tips on packing.) Check the White Pages or Yellow Pages for the store that’s closest or most convenient for you.

• Main Peak

• Army Surplus Stores

• Kathmandu

• Midland Army Navy Disposals

• Paddy Pallin

• Wellington Surplus Stores

• Mountain Designs

• Ranger Outdoors (previously known as Ranger Camping)

- compiled by Deb Warrier

• Tarpaulin

•

•

Friendship:

Perspectives

There is only one answer John Henry Newman challenges hypersexualised ‘gay world’

Being Heard

JBy John Heard

ohn Henry Newman, a giant of the English Church, is to be beatified.

This is good news for Newman’s brother priests in the London, Oxford, and Birmingham Oratories, long-time bastions of liturgical rigour, and aesthetic splendour.

It is also good news for the many students and scholars influenced by Newman’s life and work.

Indeed in many places, Newman’s name is affixed to colleges, schools and universities.

His ideas and writings continue to offer profound insights into disciplines as diverse as theology, philosophy, education, music, literature and politics.

Where Newman’s patronage is implored and his writings studied closely, the Church is beloved.

Newman’s client institutions are renowned for orthodoxy, and for academic excellence.

Newman was, of course, a master controversialist and a beautiful writer. He was a first-rate apologist for Catholicism - for truth, for Christ - and the by-turns gentle, crystalline, radiant, inscrutable wisdom of the Christian faith.

He gave everything for the Church - his sexuality, his intellect, his gifts at music composition, and writing – and risked much to proclaim the truth about God, and about man.

He was particularly brave to do so at a time when simply being a Catholic in deeply Protestant England was difficult indeed.

For this reason Catholic groups on university campuses have long been called Newman Societies and efforts to keep Catholic colleges in the United States – and elsewhere - close to the Church’s patrimony and mission are carried out under the aegis of Newman’s seminal work on higher education: The Idea of a University

Those many young men and women who have benefited from Newman’s gracious, erudite patronage will rejoice at his elevation.

Newman’s beatification is good news too for Anglicans and Episcopalians.

Newman (1801-1890) spent much of his life as an Anglican. Part of the process of becoming a saint is a declaration that the individual in question has lived a life of ‘heroic virtue’.

A good part of Newman’s life (he converted on October 9, 1845), if not the best part, was spent as a faithful son of what he then thought, and some people of goodwill still think, was the enduring, ancient church of St Augustine: the ‘catholick church’ founded on the See of Canterbury.

The spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and in many respects counter-nationalistic transformations Newman had to undergo in order to recognise the Pope as the successor of St Peter, and to greet the Church of Rome as – at last – Christ’s

John Henry Newman

Church - make up the bulk of his Apologia Pro Vita Sua. This is the masterful ‘apology’, or defence that Newman offered for his conversion, and life.

It remains a classic, the bulwark of any useful Anglican-Catholic dialogue.

Newman’s beatification is, then, good news for Christian unity.

It is also, however, joyous news for same sex attracted men. For Newman, perhaps uniquely among all the saints of the Church, lived very close to our times, and was extremely intimate with his beloved friend, Ambrose St John.

Newman wrote of St John:

“From the first he loved me with an intensity of love, which was unaccountable.

“As far as this world was concerned I was his first and last.”

When St John died in May, 1875 Newman was undone. He said that the loss was the “greatest affliction I have had in my life” and then went further, writing: “I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband’s or a wife’s… but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one’s sorrow greater, than mine.”

A year later, Newman declared: “I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John’s grave - and I give this as my last, my imperative will.”

When Newman’s body is exhumed for the beatification, and – God-willing – canonisation rites, he will leave St John’s side for the first time since 1890.

In Newman’s life, and in his remarkable friendship with Ambrose St John, young same sex attracted men have a model for purity and chastity.

Newman decided when he was 15 that he belonged to the Lord, and wrote stirring, magnificent defences (even as an Anglican) of priestly celibacy.

Long after the din of the socalled culture wars has died down, Newman’s life-affirming friendship with Ambrose St John will shine out.

It is a challenge to the hyper-sexualised ‘gay’ world, a signal witness for our times. It is a sign of hope for human friendship; a witness to the fact that love between men can be holy, and His.

By beatifying John Henry Newman, the Church therefore gives same sex attracted men and women, and English-speaking Catholics everywhere, a powerful intermediary.

We have a mighty model for how to grow together in friendship and love.

John Heard is a Melbourne writer.

@home

with Catherine Parish

The strangest things crystallise one’s ideas when mulling over what to write in these columns.

I took my five-year-old to see Horton Hears a Who on the same day as I later read a most momentous story.

There, tucked away at the bottom of page 17 of The West Australian on May 7 was the brief report of the defeat of the State Government’s proposed therapeutic cloning laws in Parliament.

What a signal victory for those who respect life; what an enormous credit to those courageous State parliamentarians who have consistently voted against such laws and have achieved such a success.

What a great boost for our faithful right to life campaigners who have never flagged in their courage, facing unpopularity, abuse, ridicule, and even threats of prosecution.

It allows one to hope that another ghastly story on the same page – which indicates the horrifying consequences of devaluing life and seeing children as commodities to be used as adults see fit – may eventually become a shameful memory rather than an ever-increasing problem.

And finally, what a credit to those MPs who took the time to examine the issue impartially and have the sense to see that a form of research that has yielded no positive results and that hardnosed

investors are no longer backing might not be such a good thing for the government to be legitimising. And what has Horton to do with all that? Well, amongst all the triteness and somewhat irritating antics of Horton, the movie contained at its kernel an extremely significant truth – just because we can’t see it or hear it doesn’t mean it isn’t there (Hamlet said that better – “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio …”, but you get the idea), and “a person’s a person, no matter how small”.

One of my ways of remaining hopeful is to look for signs like this in the secular world that there are people out there who have the strong feeling that in many ways our world is dehumanising us at a rate of knots, we are on the wrong track, and are no longer happy to go along with the mores of a society that increasingly refuses to acknowledge the non-material aspects and needs of its members.

There are people out there genuinely seeking true answers to the

eternal question of our place in the universe and why we are here.

It shows the questions are once again being asked in many forums, not only in films like Horton, and Juno, and The Incredibles, but in an increasing number of books and articles.

And the questions are being asked now not necessarily by Christians (who already have the answer anyway), but simply by people out there who have experienced the disregard for others that is unfortunately the inescapable corollary of the ‘freedoms’ the post-Christian society delivered to the children of the sixties.

The questions are being asked by the bewildered children of those children, who have experienced the fallout of ‘liberation’ – the pain of broken families, abortion, abuse, neglect, infidelity and the countless other tragic consequences of false freedom.

And, hearing the questions, one desperately hopes and prays that one day they will find and accept the real, the only answer.

Death is overcome not dignified

In clear view

By Guy Crouchback

In October 1996 the novelist Thomas Keneally told the BBC that Pauline Hanson had put Australia on the train to Auschwitz.

You would, paraphrasing George Orwell, have to be an intellectual to say such a thing.

No ordinary person would have said anything so stupid. Anyone could see Pauline Hanson was a silly, uneducated woman (though not without some praise-worthy physical courage) who won a seat in Federal Parliament by a fluke, capitalising on various discontents, but whose political presence was going to be very transitory.

Further, though her recent memoirs suggest that her senses of dignity and taste could do with improvement, and though her agrarian socialist-derived economic notions would have been disastrous, there is no evidence that she ever wanted to kill anybody.

Those who really seek signs of Australia being in some way on the road to Auschwitz need look

no further that the constant bombardment of propaganda to legalise euthanasia, grotesquely miscalled “death with dignity.”

Experience all over the world has been that voluntary euthanasia, once admitted, steadily becomes less and less voluntary.

In Holland, which like Nazi Germany instituted voluntary euthanasia with safeguards, there have now been a stream of cases where involuntary euthanasia – ie murder – has taken place, and the murderers have received token or non-existent punishment.

Something similar seems to be happening in Switzerland.

Anyway, it is never possible to draw a clear line between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Lonely, confused and expensive old people could all-too-easily be pressured into it by doctors wanting the beds for other patients, relatives and heirs eager to inherit, and tax payers unwilling to pay for their care.

A certain religious figure actually claimed a few years ago that it would be ethical for old people to agree to euthanasia because their care was expensive.

Even the mass-murderers of Auschwitz never tried to justify their behaviour with the argument that killing people saved money.

Euthanasia cannot be kept a private matter or “right” divorced

from public consequences. Every private decision to receive euthanasia makes the voluntary and later the involuntary euthanasia of others that much easier.

As for the mantra that euthanasia allowed “death with dignity,” that is cant, and should be rejected absolutely.

Modern medical science means death in a hospital or hospice is seldom painful, and that is perhaps as much as can be expected in these circumstances.

Death is not dignified. The Christian position, as I understand it, is that death cannot be be made dignified, or compromised with or accommodated in any way.

No, the Christian position is that death can be overcome, defeated and destroyed forever by Christ’s sacrifice.

The Christian is not offered death with dignity but a final victory over it infinitely better, better beyond any mortal power to express.

CS Lewis had a character in the last of the Narnia stories say that a noble death is a treasure no-one is too poor to buy.

A truly noble death, for a person in such circumstances, would be to refuse euthanasia, not for his or her own sake, but for the sake of others who will inevitably be murdered if euthanasia is ever legalised.

Parish/National VC honoured as educational ‘architect’

American university awards Notre Dame’s Vice Chancellor, and acknowledges toughest football code in world.

Dr Peter Tannock, Vice Chancellor of The University of Notre Dame Australia, is the recipient of prestigious American university, the University of Portland’s, highest honour - the Christus Magister Medal (“Christ the Teacher”).

He was presented the award at the University’s commencement ceremony held on Sunday 4 May 2008.

The Christus Magister Medal is awarded by the University annually to men and women of international

Burma Cyclone

distinction in the fields of art, science, education, and government. Dr Tannock was recognised by Portland as being widely considered the architect of modern Catholic higher education in Australia.

He was described as being instrumental in creating Notre Dame - which began with his dream of starting the first Catholic teachers’ college in Western Australia.

Dr Tannock was also acknowledged for his days playing football for the East Perth Football Club and being chairman of the National Catholic Education Commission, chairman of the Australian Schools Commission, director of Catholic education in the state of Western Australia, and Professor and Dean of Education at The University

Caritas seeks Burma access

Continued from Page7

quickly,” he said. Mr de Groot said in the wake of the cyclone, the medical infrastructure in Burma was at breaking point. “If cholera or amoebic dysentery breaks out it could quickly claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.”

As of last Monday – nine days after the cyclone – some of the areas affected by the cyclone had still not received assistance.

“It is clear the scale of this disaster teeters on becoming a human catastrophe unless we get emergency teams into the most remote and isolated areas,” Mr de Groot said.

Caritas Australia released distressing information from an eyewitness in an attempt to raise consciousness of the scale of the Burmese people’s needs.

The eyewitness was a Caritas aid worker who wished to remain anonymous. He or she reported being at Phyapon on the Irrawaddy River, far from the scene of the cyclone when it hit.

“The bodies of human beings and cattle were floating alongside our boat,” the aid worker said. We reached a destroyed village and were the first outsiders to reach them.”

Cyclone Nargis had “bombed them, flattened them and left their spirit rattled.”

The body of a five-year-old boy drifted by as the boat moved along, the worker said.

“People do not have drinking water and food. Their settlements were crushed to pieces. The decaying debris in the waterlogged riverways emanates a terrible smell. Food has run out. We witnessed children biting at old coconut shells as we went in.

“Dead people and animals are everywhere. The people neither have the energy nor the will to bury them. There were many refugees, living in roofless churches and monasteries. Help has not reached them,” the aid worker said.

However the worker also said Caritas had volunteer teams on the ground doing everything possible to assist the victims.

In the week of the disaster the Australian bishops called for a day of prayer in all Catholic churches.

CARITAS AUSTRALIA has launched an appeal to assist those affected. To donate to Caritas Australia’s Burma Cyclone Appeal call 1800 024 413 or donate online via the organisation’s website at: www. caritas.org.au

of Western Australia. In his speech, University President, Rev. E. William Beauchamp, CSC said,

“With the deepest admiration for a colleague who devoted his life to Catholic education in his state and nation; with astonished respect for a man who dreamed a college and then made it into a great university; with gratitude for a colleague who helps bring sixty University of Portland students to study in Australia every year; and with more than a little awe for a man who played professional football in the roughest wildest league there is, the University of Portland proudly bestows its highest honour, the Christus Magister Medal, on Dr Peter Tannock, of the legendary East Perth Royals Football Club, and of Fremantle, Australia.”

Mission Director’s eyewitness account is heart-wrending

Perth’s Catholic Mission Director Francis Leong has released a letter from Catholic Mission’s National Director in Burma, Fr Callistus Saw Eh Mwee

“Thanks for your love and concern for us.

It was about 11 pm of May 2, I could hear the voices of the storm and I could not sleep anymore. The people were preparing the meal for the Wedding on May 3 too. They were cooking chicken and mutton and they were struggling to finish in time.

I was watching them and the weather all the time. Around midnight I could hear the sounds of the breaking of trees and noises of the Zinc sheeting on the roof. By 5am on May 3

some of the branches had fallen to the ground and by 6.30 the strong wind attacked the compound. Almost all the trees were uprooted or broken. About fifty zinc sheets were blown off the roof and my house was also deep in the flooded water too.

had disappeared.

It was really terrifying because even the smallest tree just above the ground had been affected by the wind. There is the saying that this cyclone is Three in One because, first, it

was a cyclone because of the violent wind moving round a calm central area. Secondly, it was a tsunami because the water level rose by twelve feet. Thirdly, it was also called a tornado because it was a whirlwind.

By 11.30 that morning everything had calmed down and we could clear the compound.

When I looked around, I could see almost all the buildings, all the trees, all the electricity pylons, and telecommunication poles were broken or uprooted. Tens of thousands have died and more than that have disappeared. The total number of dead may be more than one hundred thousand.

Some villages were wiped out by the sea water and, there, all died or are missing. Almost everyone is suffering. Many need help. I will have about one hundred and eighty five families who are struggling for their food and lodging in my parish. We are struggling to do what we can by our own means, and with the help of some generous donors.

Tomorrow I will begin the Novena to Our Lady of Fatima, Queen of Peace, on the 18th May.

Almost all the churches, clergy houses, convents, houses, schools and Government buildings also suffered in the Greater City of Yangon and some parts of Pathein.

Today, the Apostolic Delegate from Bangkok came and offered Mass, together with five other Bishops and fortyfive priests and many religious and laity. He conveyed the message of Condolence from Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI too. Though we are in difficulty, we still feel that we are one. Please pray for us and do something for us too.”

CATHOLIC MISSION has promised to help Myanmar/Burma as we have done for many years, but we cannot do it without your gracious prayers and support. For further information and if you would like to assist, go to the Catholic Mission website at www.catholicmission.org.au or call 1 800 257 296.

Award: University of Portland President Fr E. William Beauchamp, right, presents Dr Peter Tannock, Vice Chancellor of the University of Notre Dame Australia, with the Christus Magister medal. The award recognises Dr Tannock’s achievements as a key architect of Australian Catholic education. PHOTO: UNDA

I found out that about seven of the zinc roofing sheets

Total: An aerial view, above, shows a cyclone-stricken village in the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar on May 7, while family members, pictured below, sit in their home destroyed by cyclone Nargis in Bogalay, southwest of Yangon, Myanmar, on May 8. PHOTOS: TOP  CRS/BURMA NEWS AGENCY VIA XINHUA, REUTERS; BELOW  CNS/REUTERS.

the World

Archbishop tells Governor to not receive Eucharist

■ By Dennis Sadowski

WASHINGTON (CNS)Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, said Governor Kathleen Sebelius should stop receiving Communion until she publicly repudiates her support of abortion and makes a “worthy sacramental confession” related to her stance.

Writing on May 9 in The Leaven, the archdiocesan newspaper, Archbishop Naumann said the Catholic governor of Kansas has had a long record of supporting and advocating for legalised abortion and that her public stances have “grave spiritual and moral consequences.”

The column comes after the archbishop said he learned that Sebelius recently received Communion in a Kansas parish. He said he had previously met with Sebelius and discussed his concerns about her position on abortion and her vetoes of legislation to limit abortion in the state.

Archbishop Naumann told Catholic News Service on May 12 that he sent a letter in August to the governor requesting that she refrain from receiving Communion because of her actions in support of abortion. He also said after discussing the issue with his fellow Kansas bishops he sent Sebelius a second letter asking that she respect his earlier request.

While the archbishop said he has the option of asking priests and extraordinary ministers of holy Communion not to give Communion to Sebelius, he said he is not ready to take that stand.

“That’s certainly an option that’s available,” he said. “I’ll have to evaluate it at that point. I’m hopeful she

Controversy: Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in the US has asked Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, above not to receive Communion until she repudiates support for legalised abortion. The Catholic governor is pictured in an undated photo.

will be respectful of my request and not put the Communion ministers in an awkward position.”

“I think it’s really her responsibility at this point,” he added.

Sebelius is planning to send a written response to the archbishop, said spokeswoman Brittany Stiffler.

“The governor is reviewing the archbishop’s letter,” she told CNS. “She’s not providing any comments at this time.”

In the column, Archbishop Naumann said he was addressing the issue “both for the spiritual well-being of the governor but also

‘Ark of Covenant’ heads on foot towards Quebec

■ By Art Babych

QUEBEC CITY (CNS) - The 49th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Quebec City from June 15-22.

The official opening ceremony and the opening of the Eucharistic adoration sites are to be held on June 15 in the coliseum in ExpoCite, the exhibition complex where most of the congress events and the plenary sessions will be held. For the

Benedict urges pro-lifers on in mission

■ By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -

- Abortion has not solved the problems plaguing many women and families in the world, Pope Benedict XVI told Italian pro-life groups.

Rather, allowing for the termination of a pregnancy has “opened a further wound in our society unfortunately already burdened by deep suffering,” he said.

The pope spoke during a May 12 audience at the Vatican with members of Italian pro-life groups; the 30th anniversary of the legalisation of abortion in Italy is marked this May.

“Certainly the causes that lead to a painful decision like abortion are many and complex,” he said.

for those who have been misled (scandalised) by her very public support for legalized abortion.”

The archbishop wrote he was concerned because Sebelius had vetoed several bills that would have regulated Kansas abortion clinics.

He said many Kansans “find it more than an embarrassment” that the state had become “infamous for being the late-term abortion center for the Midwest.”

He cited the work of Dr George Tiller, medical director of Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita, Kan., which specializes in the provision of late-term abortions. Tiller has been a contributor to Sebelius’ political campaigns and also has funded political action committees

But while Catholics promote the sanctity of the life of the unborn, they also should “promote every initiative that supports women and families to create favorable conditions to welcome life and safeguard the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman,” he said.

Decriminalising abortion “not only has not resolved the problems that afflict many women and family members”; it has also caused additional suffering in a troubled world, he said.

He said the church “cannot hide from the different problems that continue to grip today’s society,” such as the “unfavourable conditions” many young people find themselves in that prevent them from fulfilling their dreams for marriage and a family.

that support candidates who want to keep abortion legal, including Sebelius.

Archbishop Naumann was especially critical of the governor’s recent veto of the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, which would have placed new requirements on abortion providers. An attempt to override the veto failed by two votes.

“From her veto message, I received the impression the governor considered it a waste of the Legislature’s time to pass a statute that attempts to protect some women by making certain they have the opportunity to be well informed: 1) about the development of their unborn child; and 2) about abortion alternatives available to them,” he wrote. While

The lack of stable jobs, inadequate legislation for guaranteeing maternity rights and protections, the “impossibility” of making sure parents can support their children, and a fear of the future are just a few of the problems that must be rectified, he said. Legislation that helps today’s families is needed, he said.

Christians have an urgent calling and “binding imperative” to pay witness to “protecting life with courage and love in all its stages,” he said.

He praised the pro-life groups and individuals for saving so many lives from death.

“Continue on this way and do not be afraid so that the smile of life triumphs on the lips of all children and their mothers,” he said. - CNS

commending the governor for supporting adoption incentives and health services for pregnant women, Archbishop Naumann refused to credit Sebelius for declining abortion rates in Kansas, as she has claimed. Abortion rates have been falling nationwide in recent years, but not as much in Kansas as in neighbouring Missouri, he said.

In his conversations with the governor, Archbishop Naumann said she has told him she was obligated to uphold state and federal laws and court decisions related to abortion. He said he has asked her to show “a similar sense of obligation to honor divine law and the laws, teaching and legitimate authority within the church.”

Orchestra gives Mozart the ‘Chinese touch’ - and delight a big fan

■ By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In welcoming China’s Philharmonic Orchestra to the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI said he was extending a hand of friendship to the Chinese people and greeting the country’s Catholics.

The pope also wished the people of China well in their preparations for the upcoming Olympics, calling the games “an event of great importance for the entire human family.”

The Beijing-based, staterun orchestra, together with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, performed for the first time a concert in honour of the pope in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall on May 8.

weeklong congress the complex is being dubbed “Eucharist City.”

One of the features of the Congress is the youth-inspired Ark of the New Covenant - an iconcovered chest carried on foot to the more than 70 dioceses and eparchies in Canada - will be housed in an Expo chapel throughout the congress. The ark’s pilgrimage began in Rome two years ago with a papal blessing and will arrive in Quebec City on May 25 for the feast of Corpus Christi.

Led by conductor Yu Long, the 145 musicians and singers performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Requiem” and a Chinese folk song, “Jasmine Flower.”

Some 7,000 people, including top Vatican officials and diplomats, attended the hourlong concert.

Before beginning the performance, Yu said the concert was of “historical significance” and said he hoped it would “help spread a message of peace and love.”

“As the leading symphony in China, it is our unwavering belief that music can serve as a powerful instrument to deepen cultural

understanding among people of all nations,” Yu said. He said the musical repertoire chosen for that evening “reflects the value of every man and woman in the world, regardless of cultural difference, in the spirit of peace and love.”

At the end of the concert the pope, an aficionado of Mozart and classical music, praised the orchestra’s “high-quality musical performance” and thanked the musicians in Chinese. All cultures can appreciate

music with religious themes, such as Mozart’s “Requiem,” because all music “transcends the boundaries of every individual culture” and “expresses universal human sentiments,” he said.

He told the artists that the evening gathering was also an opportunity for him “to reach out” to all people in China “with a special thought for those of your fellow citizens who share faith in Jesus and are united through a particular spiritual bond with the successor of Peter.”

Welcome: Pope Benedict XVI greets soprano Lan Rao at the end of a concert by the Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra on May 7. PHOTO: CNS/DARIO PIGNATELLI, REUTERS

On the way: Young people carry the Ark of the New Covenant in Gaspe, Quebec, in 2006, promoting the International Eucharistic Congress.

PHOTO: CNS

In 40th year, Benedict affirms beauty of Paul VI’s vision of love as God intends

Pope defends church’s teaching on artificial birth control

■ By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI defended the church’s teaching against artificial birth control and said its wisdom has become clearer in light of new scientific discoveries and social trends.

In an age in which sexual activity can become like a drug, people need to be reminded that married love should always involve the whole person and be open to new life, he said on May 10.

The pope made his comments as the church prepared to mark the 40th anniversary of the encyclical “Humanae Vitae.”

Issued by Pope Paul VI July 25, 1968, it affirmed the church’s teaching on married love and said use of artificial contraception was morally wrong.

Addressing participants of a church-sponsored conference on “Humanae Vitae,” Pope Benedict said the encyclical was a “gesture of courage.” He acknowledged that its teachings have been controversial and difficult for Catholics, but he said the text expressed the true design of human procreation.

“What was true yesterday remains true also today. The truth expressed in ‘Humanae Vitae’ does not change; in fact, in light of new scientific discoveries, its teaching is becoming more current and is provoking reflection,” he said.

The pope said the encyclical correctly explained that married love is based on total self-giving between spouses, a relationship that goes far beyond fleeting pleasures or sentiments.

“How could such a love remain closed to the gift of life?” he said.

The pope said the Christian con-

Pope to SMS us @ WYD

cept of marriage respects the unity of the person, in body and soul.

The alternative, he said, is a culture that considers the body an object that can be bought or sold and in which “the exercise of sexuality is transformed into a drug that wants to subject the partner to one’s own desires and interests.”

“As believers, we can never allow the dominion of the technical to invalidate the quality of love and the sacredness of life,” he said.

The pope said this fundamental view of human life and procreation was something that goes back to the creation of man, and thus represents a paradigm for all generations. It is a key part of natural law that deserves universal respect, he said.

“The transmission of life is inscribed in nature and its laws remain as unwritten norms to which everyone should refer,” he said.

Any attempt to move away from this principle is destined to remain sterile and without a future, he said.

He said it should also be remembered that true love involves a sense of sacrifice, which is part of a mar-

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI will send daily text messages directly to pilgrims during World Youth Day July 15-20 in Sydney, said youth day organisers.

The pope’s text messages of hope and inspiration will be carried by World Youth Day’s official communications partner, Telstra, said a World Youth Day statement on May 7. The Vatican has not commented.

A Telstra spokesperson said the GSM cell-phone networks running for WYD “will mean many cell phones used by pilgrims from the United States will also work here.”

Pilgrims also can purchase a prepaid SIM card for their cell phones when they arrive in Australia. However, a Telstra spokesman noted that CDMA phones do not accept their SIM cards. In addition to its official Web site - www.wyd2008.org/index.php/en - WYD08

ried couple’s openness to life. “No mechanical technique can substitute the act of love that two spouses exchange as a sign of a greater mystery, in which they are protagonists and co-participants in creation,” he said.

The pope said he was concerned that adolescents today are not receiving the kind of sexual formation they need in order to make proper decisions and avoid the “risky implications” of their behaviour.

He said it does no honor to free and democratic societies when they offer their young people “false illusions” about their own sexuality. Freedom must be tied to truth and responsibility, he said.

He summed up his talk by saying that the 1968 encyclical should be looked at with a broader perspective. “The teaching expressed in ‘Humanae Vitae’ is not easy. However, it conforms to the fundamental structure through which life has always been transmitted from the creation of the world, in the respect of nature and in conformity with its demands,” he said.

also will offer an online social networking site- www.xt3.com.

The site’s social network will be launched in coming weeks, although pilgrims already may visit the site and ask to be notified via e-mail when registration opens.

Latin online at the Vatican

The Vatican’s www.vatican.va site has made hundreds of papal and other documents available in a new Latin-language section.

The Latin area went live on May 9. Visitors clicking on “Sancta Sedes” (“Holy See”) are taken to a menu of documents arranged by pontificate or Roman Curia office.

Also posted is the complete neo-Vulgate Latin version of the Bible and Latin editions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law and the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

The papal pages - “Summi Pontifices”cover the last five Popes and include encyclicals and other major texts, as well as a selection of speeches, sermons and messages.

The last entry on the Latin pages provides information about “Latinitas,” the Vatican foundation that promotes the use of Latin. The other languages used by the Vatican Web site are all modern: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.  CNS

Pope authorises Year of Paul indulgence

■ By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS)

- Catholics who participate in events connected with the 20082009 jubilee year of St Paul can receive a special indulgence, the Vatican said.

Pope Benedict XVI authorised the granting of a plenary, or full, indulgence in order to highlight the Pauline year and open the way to the “interior purification” of the faithful during its celebration, a May 10 Vatican decree said.

The decree was signed by US Cardinal J Francis Stafford, head of the Vatican tribunal that deals with indulgences and with matters related to the sacrament of penance.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven.

Pope Benedict established the Pauline year to run from June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009, to mark the approximately 2000th anniversary of the saint’s birth.

The plenary indulgence is being offered to pilgrims who come to Rome, to Catholics who participate in local events connected to the jubilee year, and to those who may be too ill or otherwise prevented from physical participation.

It can be granted on behalf of the individual petitioner or on behalf of departed souls.

Cardinal Stafford said condi-

Vatican agrees to ozone convention

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) - By acceding to UN conventions on the protection of the ozone layer, the Vatican said it hopes to encourage the world community to support and implement existing treaties.

“The Holy See desires to encourage the entire international community to be resolute in promoting authentic cooperation between politics, science and economics,” said a Vatican declaration.

The Parish

The Nation

The World

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, released the declaration on May 5 in New York of

tions for the special Pauline year indulgence include the normal requirements set by the Church for all plenary indulgences: that the person goes to confession, receives the Eucharist and prays for the intentions of the Pope.

The decree explained in detail some specific requirements for the plenary indulgence:

- Those visiting the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome in the form of a pilgrimage must offer personal prayers before the Altar of the Most Blessed Sacrament; they must also recite the Our Father and the Creed in front of the Altar of the Confession, adding invocations to honour Mary and St Paul.

- The Catholic faithful in any local church can obtain the indulgence by participating with devotion in a liturgy or other public event dedicated to St Paul - in any sacred place on the opening and closing days of the jubilee year, and on other days in places designated by the local bishop.

- Catholics impeded by sickness or other serious cause, as long as they have the intention of fulfilling the other conditions as soon as possible, can obtain a plenary indulgence by joining spiritually in a jubilee celebration in honour of St. Paul and offering their prayers and suffering for Christian unity.

The decree said individuals can obtain more than one plenary indulgence during the jubilee year, but not more than one per day.

the Vatican’s accession to the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as its four amendments. The declaration was dated April 9.

By agreeing to the treaties, it said the Vatican “intends to give its own moral support to the commitment of states to the correct and effective implementation of the treaties in question and to the attaining of the mentioned objectives.”

The Vatican said it hoped such international agreements and instruments would help safeguard the environment while promoting integral human development and care for the common good.

Welcome: Pope Benedict XVI greets a family during Mass on Pentecost in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on May 11.

PHOTO: CNS/DARIO PIGNATELLI, REUTERS

Marital bond endures despite adultery, infidelity

The Painted Veil

■ By Harry Forbes

NEW YORK (CNS) - The Painted Veil (Warner Independent, Rated M) is the latest film adaptation of W Somerset Maugham’s novel set in the 1920s about an English bacteriologist, Walter Fane (Edward Norton), who wins the hand of socialite Kitty (Naomi Watts, following in the footsteps of Greta Garbo in the 1934 original), whose family despairs that she will ever marry.

Walter takes her to live in Shanghai, where she is quickly bored, as she never loved him in the first place.

She soon falls for the married but immature English Vice Consul Charlie Townsend (a dapper Liev Schreiber), with whom she quickly commences an affair.

After he learns of Kitty’s infidelity, Walter vengefully insists she accompany him to a remote part of China during a dangerous cholera epidemic there, knowing that Charlie would not marry her.

She refuses and runs to Charlie, hoping he’ll leave his wife and marry her. But now, as

Walter knew he would do all along, Charlie - citing his position - declines.

Off to the remote, stricken village go Walter and Kitty, with Walter cold as ice and Kitty understandably frightened.

But eventually, partly thanks to the intercession of their simpatico neighbour, Deputy Commissioner Waddington (Toby Jones), who seems to see the goodness within Kitty, she learns to stop mooning over Charlie and volunteers to minister to the sick at the hospital run by a colony of nuns and their mother superior (Diana Rigg).

Walter soon observes the change in her, and responds accordingly, leading them to finally establish a deep and abiding love.

Lushly photographed on location, the film - under John Curran’s direction - unfolds at a leisurely pace, but the intelligent love story at its core and the spiritual journey and ultimate redemption for its heroine are movingly conveyed.

Norton and Watts (both of whom have producer credits here) give impressive, nuanced performances, as do the others.

The film contains a brief scene of lovemaking with shadowy nudity, a flash of rear nudity, innuendo, adultery, images of the sick and dying, drug use and a few crass expressions.

Prelates line up praising book that inspires young men to lives of virtue

YOUNG Men Rise Up, a new book by Missionaries of God’s Love founder Fr Ken Barker, pulls no punches.

It calls young men to be rooted in faith, to hold firm in the truth, and to keep growing in moral character.

It contains inspiring teaching on the virtues in a way that is relevant for today.

This teaching is supported by compelling testimonies of young men, single and married, who share their personal struggle to attain virtue.

The stories of saints, true witnesses of heroic virtue, are also used as attractive role models.

This book has already received praise from Archbishop Barry Hickey.

“Congratulations on a marvellous book for young men. It is very timely and will find a wide readership among those who are reaching maturity in a society confused about its values,” Archbishop Hickey said.

Bishop Julian Porteous of Sydney recommends this book to “any young man wishing to learn how to grow into full Christian manhood” and calls Young Men Rise Up “a most valuable resource to inspire young men to noble Christian ideals.”

Shayne Bennett of the Emmanuel Community, Brisbane writes: “It does not hide the challenge of commitment, self denial and the practice of virtue. This is a wisdom young men need and a challenge that they’re ready to embrace.”

In the foreword of the book, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn also praises the book stating: “By the end, it is not so much the voice of Fr Barker that we hear nor the voices of the young men telling their stories.

“It is the voice of Christ himself, more powerful than the death that lurks within us and around us, a voice calling young men to see how much more is possible than they think and to enter that new world of

possibility as they become the men which God has created them to be, alive to their masculinity as Christ was to his.”

The reason for this book is because Fr Ken Barker believes in young men. He speaks into a culture in which many young men have become lost and confused in their identity.

He points them towards Christ as the one who will answer their deepest questions and bring

fulfilment to the profound longings of the human heart. He challenges young men, both single and married, to stand up and be counted. He is confident that through the quality of their lives and their courageous witness, young men can have a major impact for good on the Church and its mission in the contemporary world.

Fr Ken Barker, the leader of the Missionaries of God’s Love, sensed a call to initiate a movement with young men while he was praying in Assisi in the year 2000. He sensed that the Lord wanted a movement that would inspire young men to a deeper conversion to Jesus and commitment with the Catholic Church.

Through brotherhood with one another they would grow in a deeper personal faith and in greater strength of character. It was to begin in Australia, which has the highest rate of suicide amongst young men. The Lord wanted to work in the

place of deepest wounding, and bring to young men the power they need to take their rightful place in the world today.

This would be a means of building strong lay leaders in the Church for the new millennium.

As Fr Ken was pondering what to do about this vision, he became aware that some young men in Canberra were already keen to take up this challenge.

Ben O’Heir was starting to gather young men for brotherhood together around, sport, barbecues, praise sessions and spiritual talks.

Fr Ken began to give them encouragement and share his vision with them. From this the movement began.

This book, along with the Young Men of God Movement, will set men on course to be an influence for good in the Church and within the world.

Available on www.connorcourt.com or by calling (03) 5368 2570.

Iron Man roars out of comic books onto big screen in slick romp

Iron Man

■ By John Mulderig

NEW YORK (CNS) - Iron Man (Paramount/ Marvel, Rated M) is a sleekly effective science-fiction tale set against a backdrop of contemporary events and driven by its main character’s moral development.

By the second half of the film, that character, billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is downing a health shake, after earlier telling a bartender, “Get me a Scotch, I’m starving!”

The cause of this radical reform, not to mention the former playboy’s decision to concentrate on one woman - his loyal Girl Friday, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)can be chalked up to being held hostage in an Afghan cave by ambitious warlord Raza (Faran Tahir).

There, Raza demanded that he build a replica of his most advanced product.

With the help of fellow captive and scien-

tist Yinsen (Shaun Toub), Stark instead constructed an impregnable, gravity-defying suit of armor and escaped.

Once home, Stark announces that his company will no longer make armaments - much to the consternation of his junior partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), and his military liaison, “Rhodey” (Terrence Howard).

He then secludes himself in his lab to concentrate on producing an improved version of his improvised outfit, which he will use for altruistic purposes later on.

Executive producer-director Jon Favreau’s screen adaptation of this popular Marvel comic-book series features impressive special effects, enjoyably flippant dialogue and a relentlessly energetic performance from Downey.

Though Stark’s initially dissolute lifestyle is treated humorously, his gradual realisation of its underlying emptiness and his subsequent interaction with Potts - which is respectfully restrained - are well handled.

The film contains nongraphic sexual activity, torture, a graphic medical procedure, sci-fi violence, occasional crude language, a brief profanity, sexual humor and innuendo.

Love takes time: Naomi Watts and Edward Norton star in a scene from the movie The Painted Veil. Not the greatest movie about the sacrament of marriage but an interesting tale of its participants’ capacity for redemption within the relationship through Christian acts. PHOTO: CNS/WARNER INDEPENDENT

Conceptual: Iron Man in comic form, now reborn thanks to a witty Robert Downey Jr, whose own personal struggle for redemption lends potency to his role as bad boy-turned-good Tony Stark.

Kids bitz

kids pics

H A P PY B I R T H DAY ! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Nikola 6 years

jokes

A FRIEND was in front of me coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door, as he always is, to shake hands. He grabbed my friend by the hand and pulled him aside.

The Pastor said to him, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!”

My friend replied, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.”

Pastor questioned, “How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?”

He whispered back, “I’m in the secret service.”

THE new priest is nervous about hearing confessions, so he asks an older priest to sit in on his sessions. The new priest hears several confessions, then the old priest asks him to step out of the confessional for a few suggestions.

The old priest suggests, “Cross your arms over your chest and rub your chin with one hand.”

The new priest tries this. The old priest suggests, “Try saying things like, ‘I see, yes, go on, and I understand, how did you feel about that?”

The new priest says those things, trying them out. The old priest says, “Now, don’t you think that’s a little better than slapping your knee and saying, ‘No way! What happened next?’”

kids art/words

The Bible According to Kids

The following statements about the Bible were written by children and have not been retouched or corrected (i.e., bad spelling has been left in.)

In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off.

Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.

Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark because Noah built the ark, which the animals came to in pears.

Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.

The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with unsympathetic Genitals.

Samson was a strong man who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah.

puzzle

A SUNDAY school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to “honour thy father and thy mother,” she asked “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?”

Without missing a beat one little boy answered, “Thou shall not kill.”

~ DEAR KIDS!~ If you would like your poems, drawings or photos published please send them to: Justine Stevens, The Record, PO Box 75 Leederville WA 6902 or email production@therecord.com.au

Samson slew the Philistines with the axe of the Apostles.

Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread without any ingredients.

The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert.

Afterwards, Moses went up to Mount Cyanide to find the ten commendments.

The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.

The seventh commandment is “Thou shalt not admit adultery”.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada.

Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.

The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he

obeyed him.

Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta. Then the three Wise Guys from the east arrived and found Jesus in the manager. Jesus was born because Mary had an Immaculate Contraption.

St. John, the blacksmith, dumped water on his head.

Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says do one to others before they do one to you.

He also explained that “Man does not live by sweat alone”.

It was a miricle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance.

QUICK SNACKS ANTS ON A LOG

Ingredients:

Celery, peanut butter, sultanas

Method:

A creative and easy snack kids can whip up all by themselves! Wash celery and cut into 4 inch lengths. Spread peanut butter on celery and put several sultanas on each one.

BANANA BLASTERS

Ingredients:

6 paddle pop sticks, 6 bananas, honey, 1 cup muesli

Method:

A healthy and simple treat the kids can prepare for an afternoon snack. Peel bananas. Cut in half across the middle to make two equal parts. Place a paddle pop stick in the flat end (creating a lollipop effect). Pour honey onto a paper plate. Roll the banana in honey until it is fully coated. Sprinkle with or roll in muesli.

BANANA SMOOTHIE WITH MILO

Ingredients:

2 cups skim milk

1 banana, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons natural yogurt

1/2 cup NESTLÉ MILO

5 ice cubes

Method:

Combine all ingredients in blender until thick and creamy. Pour into individual serving glasses. If desired, sprinkle with extra MILO

Serves: 2

Panorama

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday.

Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO box 75, Leederville, WA 6902. Submissions over 55 words will be edited or excluded. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 constitute a classified event, and will be charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisment.

Saturday May 17 - Sunday May 18

LITTLE ROCK SCRIPTURE STUDY

Saturday (9am-6pm) in Cantonese and Sunday (1pm-8pm) in Mandarin. Holy Family Church cnr of Canning Highway and Thelma St Como. Acts of the Apostles Saturday and St Paul’s attitude and journey Sunday. Two sessions $30, one session $20 includes tea breaks, lunch and dinner. Book by 11 May. Enq: Susan 0431 443 338 or Teresa 0401 782 486.

Saturday May 17

UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OPEN DAY

From 1pm at 20 Ferguson Street, Maylands. Parish of St John the Baptist is inviting everyone to experience in a practical way the faith of Eastern Catholics. Lightly catered – please RSVP if possible. Enq: Nick 0404 232 894 or email Peter, peter.valega@kbr.com.

Saturday May 17

HOLY SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING

Every Saturday from 10.30am to 12.30pm at St Peter the Apostle Parish Hall, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. Due to closure of the hall at St Anne’s, Belmont the HSOF Prayer meeting will now be held, beginning on Saturday May 17. All welcome. Enq: 9475 0155.

Sunday May 18

ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK : EVERY SUNDAY, 1  2 PM ON ACCESS 31

May 18: Understanding the Mystery of the Mass/ Fr Matthew Beuttner [EWTN Live]. Consider having a rooftop dish installed to receive EWTN free-to-air 24/7 and really strengthen your faith by listening and learning all about Jesus’ message of Love. Your prayerful support and donations are sincerely appreciated. The Rosary Christian Tutorial Association, PO Box 1270, Booragoon 6954.

Sunday May 18

TAIZE MEDITATIVE PRAYER

7-8pm at Sisters of St Joseph Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth.This month we remember Sister Irene McCormack’s Anniversary. You are invited to come and pray in a candlelit chapel with Scripture, song, time for quiet prayer and silence. Everyone welcome. Enq: Sister Maree Riddler. 0414 683 926.

Sunday May 18

PERTH WYD SUNDAY SESH #4

May’s Theme: “SACRAMENTS”.

Youth Mass at 6pm and Session at 7.15pm. To be held at Armadale Parish (St Francis Xavier): 279 Forrest Road, Brookdale. Learn more about each of the Sacraments - understanding why the 7 Sacraments are so important to us as Catholics and as World Youth Day Pilgrims. Special Guest Speaker: Bishop Don Sproxton. All welcome. Enq: Tammy 9422 7944 or www.wydperth.com.

Wednesday May 21

TAIZE MEDITATIVE PRAYER

7.30pm to 8.30pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, 100 Dean Street, Bateman. All invited to come and spend an hour in Group Prayer and relax after a busy workday in a candlelight atmosphere of prayer, song and meditation. Enq: Daisy/Barney 9310 4781.

Friday May 23

NEW LIFE IN GOD’S SPIRIT SEMINAR

Every Friday night 7.30pm to 9.30pm for eight weeks. St Brigid’s Church, 211 Aberdeen Street, Northbridge. Live the resurrection and be released into a new life by coming to know the tangible presence of God in you by his Holy Spirit. Registration $20, students $15 includes booklet with weekly scripture and notes. All welcome. Enq: Jenni Young 9445 1028.

Saturday May 24th

CLAREMONT PARISH JOURNEY OF CROSS & ICON DAY

Welcome the Cross and Icon at Rowe Park (Cnr of Melville St & Gugeri St) Claremont at 11am with a procession to the Church for a day of reflection, spiritual and fun activities. The day will finish with concelebrated Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Followed by dinner and an evening of youth activities (bands, games, drama, dance and more). More Info: claremont@perthcatholic.org.au or 9386 1551or mobile 0404389 679.

Saturday May 24

JOURNEY OF THE WYD CROSS & ICON  ST JOHN OF GOD

HOSPITAL SUBIACO

8.30am -10.30am. 12 Salvado Road, Subiaco. Please join us for Mass as we celebrate the WYD Cross & Icon; these two symbols have touched the lives of millions from around the world. Enq: Jennifer Gardner 9382 6192, or by emailing her at jennifer.gardner@sjog.org.au.

Saturday May 24

RETREAT DAY

9.30am to 3pm, St Catherine’s House of Hospitality, 113 Tyler Street, Tuart Hill. Open to all Parish workers. Spiritual Director: Sr Marie Therese Ryder. Join us for a relaxing day of prayer and reflection. A time to revive our spirits and share with others. Cost $20. Lunch and morning tea provided. Bookings by Tuesday May 20. Enq: Margaret 9390 8365 or Maranatha 6380 5160.

Sunday May 25

ST PADRE PIO PILGRIMAGE AND PROCESSION TOODYAY

Holy Mass 10.30am followed by procession 12.30pm. Celebrate St Padre Pio’s birthday by joining the Corpus Christi Holy Mass and procession in Toodyay. Please bring a plate (tea and coffee provided). Buses leaving at 8am from Victoria Park, Mirrabooka and Girrawheen, enq: Nita 9367 1366. From Leederville, Morley and Midland, enq: Des 6278 1540. From Hamilton Hill, Spearwood, enq: Chia 9337 3831.

Sunday May 25

THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Will be celebrated at the Holy Trinity Church, Embleton with a Forty-hour Eucharistic Adoration starting on Friday May 23 at 6pm, right through Saturday and ending with the 9am Holy Mass on Sunday May 25. Followed by a Eurcharistic Procession and Benediction. All are welcome. Enq: Monsignor P McCrann 9271 5528 or George Jacob 9272 1379.

Sunday May 25

FOOD SAFARI

Starting at 10am and will be held at the Holy Trinity Church hall, Embleton, to raise funds for the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the Novena of Our Lady of Good Health, Vailankanni which occurs August 30 2008. Enq: Monsignor P McCrann 9271 5528 or George Jacob 9272 1379.

Sunday May 25

JOURNEY OF THE CROSS AND ICON

Pilgrimage Event 12 midday to 3.30pm. Start 12 noon from Mends St Jetty through Mitchel Park to Mary MacKillop Centre for a beautiful Ritual and Veneration of the Cross in the Sisters of St Joseph chapel, 16 York St, South Perth. Everyone welcome, all ages. After the event join the Youth for a sausage sizzle at St Columba’s School next to the centre. Enq: Sister Maree Riddler 0414 683 926.

Sunday 25 May

JOURNEY OF THE WYD CROSS AND ICON BALCATTA

4.30pm to 8pm at St Lawrence Church, 392 Albert Street, Balcatta. Come and experience the power of these two symbols of World Youth Day that have touched the lives of millions of youth from around the world! Enq: Linda 9445 2869 or

linzf84@hotmail.com

Tuesday May 27

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER BEFORE THE BLESSED EUCHARIST

7.30pm to 8.30pm at St Benedict’s new Church, 115 Ardross St, Ardross. Fr Maurice Toop, Parish Priest of Maylands will give a talk and discuss his personal experience of prayer before The Blessed Eucharist. This will be an encouragement to bring Christ more deeply into our life. Coffee and tea will be available after this discussion. Enq: 9364 4658.

Friday May 30

MEDJUGORJE  EVENING OF PRAYER

Commencing 7pm. An Evening of Prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace at St Joseph’s Parish Church. Salvado Road, Subiaco. Program: Adoration, Meditation and Rosary, followed by Holy Mass. Concluding 9pm. Enq: 9402 2480.

Friday May 30 - Saturday May 31

THE TRIUMPH AND REIGN OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS AND THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Eucharistic Prayer Vigil at St Bernadette’s Church, Glendalough. Commencing with Parish Mass at 5.45pm, with hourly Rosaries, hymns and reflections; concluding with a special Holy Mass at midnight to celebrate the Feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Enq: Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Friday May 30

SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

6.50pm Holy Rosary and Litanies, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Keaney Place, City Beach. 7.30pm Holy Mass and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary followed by Benediction. Principle celebrant: His Grace Archbishop BJ Hickey. (Novena to the Sacred and Immaculate Heart from Thursday May 22 to Friday May 30 at 6.20am before weekday 6.45am Holy Mass; after 6.30pm Holy Mass; and after Sunday 5.30pm Holy Mass)

Sunday June 1

DIVINE MERCY

Starting at 1.30pm. An afternoon with Jesus and Mary will be held at St Joachim’s Church, on the corner of Shepperton Road and Harper Street, Victoria Park. Program: Holy Rosary and Reconciliation, Sermon: with Fr Johnson Malayik CRS (Keep your eyes on Jesus) followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Afterwards refreshments in the parish hall, followed by a video/DVD to be selected. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Wednesday June 4

REUNION

Mercedes College, Our Lady’s College, Victoria Square, Perth. All former students of years 1950 - 1954 are invited. Contact Frances Taylor nee Kingston on 9330 6620 or email puloft@iinet. net.au or Wendy Ryan nee Rieusset on 9385 9800 or email wenryan2@optus.net.com.au by 23 May 2008.

Saturday June 7

DAY WITH MARY

9am to 5pm at St James Church, 2 Lagoon Drive, Yanchep. A video on Fatima will be shown. A day of prayer and instruction based upon the message of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286. Bus available, contact Nita 9367 1366.

Sunday June 22

GOSPEL CONCERT

1.30pm to 4.15pm at St Patrick’s Basilica, Fremantle. Some of WA’s finest gospel performers will come together for a traditional and ecumenical concert at St Patrick’s. Profits will support the work of Cross Roads Community providing drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Tickets $15 adults and $3 children are ONLY available advance purchase. Enq: erichancock@swiftdsl. com.au or phone 9446 1558.

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. To learn more: www.jss.org.au. Enq: Kevin Wringe 9316 3469 or email kwringe@iinet.net.au.

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 Tuesday

THE GOSPEL OF ST MATTHEW  COURSE

Every Tuesday 7.30pm St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepparton Road, Victoria Park. Exciting revelations into the Gospel of St Matthew are being offered free of charge. Conducted by Fr Douglas Rowe S.F.P. Participants will be introduced into an insightful exploration of this fascinating Gospel. Light refreshments will follow. Please bring your bible and a friend.

VOLUNTEER DRIVER

Emmanuel Centre is a self-help centre for people with disabilities and their families and does not receive Government grants. For the past 15 years Emmanuel Centre has survived largely on recycling newspapers. The firm that has collected these newspapers will no longer take them. Another outlet has been found but the papers need to be delivered to Canning Vale. Emmanuel Centre is looking for a volunteer who has a truck and who will take newspapers for recycling from East Perth to Canning Vale. Every couple of months we have five-tonne of bundled newspapers for recycling. Please call Fr Paul 9328 8113 or ring pager 9480 5960.

Every Saturday VIDEO / DVD NIGHT

Straight after 6.30pm Vigil Mass: St. Joseph’s Church, 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean. A variety of Videos / DVDs will be shown ie The Saints, Conversion Stories, Catholic Teaching etc. Each video is approx. 30mins. Bring the family along. No charge. Saturday May 17 showing ‘St Teresa of Avila’. Saturday May 24 presenting ‘St Margaret Mary Alacoque and The Sacred Heart’.

First Friday and First Saturday

COMMUNION OF REPARATION ALL NIGHT VIGIL

Corpus Christi Church Mosman Park 47 Lochee Road. Starting with mass at 7pm on Friday with Father Bogoni and concluding with mass at 12 midnight. Confessions, Rosaries, Prayers and silent Adoration every hour. Please join us for reparation to The Two Hearts according to the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357.

First Friday of the Month

WITNESS FOR LIFE

Pro-Life Mass at St Brigid’s, Midland starting at 9.30am. Followed by Rosary, procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic. Led by Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Enq: Helene 9403 2444.

ACCOMMODATION

■ ST ANNE’S CHURCH, BINDOON

accom for retreat/family/group or single $25 per night or $100 for family or group. BYO food. Tea/coffee provided. Tel 9576 0975.

BUILDING TRADES

■ BRICK REPOINTING

Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

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

■ BRICKLAYING

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

■ PICASSO PAINTING

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

BOOK REPAIRS

■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

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

VISITING SYDNEY

27

Contact: 0418 650 661 or email: nsstorm@tpg.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 Street, Perth Ph 93224520. Convenient city location for a good selection of cards, candles, statues, medals, apparel and gifts for baptism, reconciliation, communion, confirmation and weddings. We also stock a range of Monastique skin care product made by the Carmelite Sisters, fashion accessories, jewellery, handbags and Australian made gifts. Opening hours. 8.30am to 5.30am Monday to Thursday. 8.30am to 7pm Fridays.

A LIFE OF PRAYER

...areyoucalledtotheBenedictinelife ofdivinepraiseandeucharisticprayer for the Church?

Contact the:

Rev Mother Cyril, OSB, Tyburn Priory, 325 Garfield Road, Riverstone, NSW 2765

www.tyburnconvent.org.uk

CHRISTIAN SINGLES

Meet other Christian singles over small group dinners or on individual dates. FigTrees is Perth’s ONLY genuine Christian dating agency. So, call 9472 8218 to make an appointment or check out our web site figtrees.com.au. 9-328 Albany Highway, Victoria Park. Open Tues-Fri 10am - 6pm.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

■ RECEPTIONIST TRAINEE:

16yrs–18yrs. Office Duties – Computer Literate, well presented pleasant natured. Willing to Learn. Have confidence and be responsible. Hrs 9–5pm Monday to Friday Tiling Company – Osborne Park. Phn: 9244 4088 Ring between 9am–12pm

■ WAREHOUSE ASSISTANT TRAINEE:

16yrs–18yrs.Well Mannered and well presented willing to learn. Basic level of maths is required. Computer literate an advantage. Tiling Company with good opportunities for advancement. Hrs 84pm. Phn: 9244 4088. Ring between 9am -12pm.

FURNITURE REMOVAL

■ ALL AREAS Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.

HEALTH

■ DEMENTIA REMISSION

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

THANKSGIVING

Novena to St Clare. Say 9 Hail Marys for 9 days with a lighted candle, ask for 3 favours and end with – May the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be adored, glorified, praised, loved and honoured today and every day throughout the world, Amen. SETTLEMENTS

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

LOST

Lost wooden Rosary beads with lge silver St Benedict crucifix attached. Reward offered. 0418 954 213.

THE EVERLASTING MAN

By G.K. Chesterton

What makes human beings uniquely human? Can we be so bold as to call ourselves the pinnacle of creation? One of the 20th Century’s greatest thinkers explains what sets human beings apart from all other living creatures. With his characteristic wit, wisdom and reason, Chesterton affirms the role of the Christian faith in helping us understand who we are and explores what God incarnate came to reveal to us about ourselves.

Thought-provoking and entertaining, Chesterton, as usual, defies political correctness to point out the truth.

$20.95+postage Available from The Record Bookshop 9227 7080

The Last Word

St Mary’s begins to... St to...

Come together Come together

Mother Church needs your help

Continued from Page 1 vestry, servery, museum, archival display, toilets and courtyard, among other things, will be placed.

A carpark between Royal Perth Hospital and the cathedral site will be constructed, with 53 bays underground and 33 above.

The previously car-cluttered parking areas surrounding the cathedral will be no more.

An “Easter forecourt” has been specially designed to “draw people into the cathedral” in an inviting manner, Archbishop Hickey said.

A lift will ascend the new tower on the western side facing Murray Street.

In the annual progress report distributed on the DVD St Mary’s Appeal Committee chairman Mgr Michael Keating said that $22 million of the $25 million minimum required has already been raised.

Community fundraising efforts have galvanised parishes and strengthened friendships, he says.

The DVD is a centrepiece of this weekend’s Parishes Appeal and accompanies reply paid envelopes parishioners can use to make donations.

In the DVD Mgr Keating said that just as he donated “a few pennies” when he was a boy to help reduce a debt at the cathedral and feel proud of it, so too today’s Catholics can tell future generations that “you know, I helped build St Mary’s Cathedral” by donating to the cause.

“I wanted to be part of the fabric honouring the mother of Jesus, our mother,” he said of his childhood, adding that he hopes Perth Catholics will decide to give their “generous” support to the Appeal.

Rising up: The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is taking shape as building progresses. This weekend, the Archdiocese is launching the second phase of its Parishes appeal.

PHOTO: WINGS PHOTOGRAPHY

Different views: These photographs reveal progress on St Mary’s Cathedral. Organisers are confident a May 2009 completion will be achieved. AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY WINGS PHOTOGRAPHY; ALL OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS MENCORP/RON TAN