An invitation to a special evening with artist and cartoonist TITANE LAURENT for the launch of her wonderful new faith-filled book for young and old alike, God’s Stuff! Page 07
OH REALLY? Mark Reidy queries a TV show on the ‘bones’ of Jesus Page 4
THE BROTHERS: Tony Curtis reflects on a great WA Christian Brother Page 2
Blessed Mary MacKillop looks set to be Australia’s first official saint, especially after a cure the promoter of her cause thinks might be classified as ‘miraculous.’ Vista 2-3
Digging deeper into the history of the Christian Brothers reveals a rich tradition of gentle men
The early growth of Christian Brothers College was phenomenal. Because of a rapid increase in enrolments during the first year of operation an extension to the facilities had to be built during the 1894 Christmas holidays.
This was a very simple addition to the back of the existing single classroom and comprised a large room divided into two classrooms by a partition wall.
And so it was that in 1895 lessons recommenced in three classrooms – and enrolments had increased to 75.
The modest extension of 1894 was soon inadequate to meet the ongoing demand for places and the Brothers proceeded with plans to commence the first of three stages of construction that would create the CBC Perth building. This first stage was the ‘West Wing’.
The foundation stone for the West Wing was laid on November 3, 1895 by Bishop Gibney, whose enthusiasm for the West Wing was matched by his generous financial support; in addition to his previous return of the £1,000 purchase price for the property he now donated another £500.
The CBC Annals of 1902 reflect back to the early days of the establishment of CBC Perth.
...areyoucalledtotheBenedictinelifeofdivine praiseandeucharisticprayerfortheChurch?
They record that the date of the laying of the foundation stone on November 3, 1895 was the Feast of St Malachy. From the time the foundation stone was laid in the West Wing of CBC Perth’s first stage the school was often referred to as St Malachy’s.
in brief...
Contact the: Rev Mother Cyril, OSB, Tyburn Priory, 325 Garfield Road, Riverstone, NSW 2765 www.tyburnconvent.org.uk
The plans for the West Wing were not only adventurous; they were also expensive. In particular, the decision to provide for boarders added to the building and running costs. Besides this the building was to be carried out at a time when Treacy had borrowed heavily for his many other build-
In a wide-ranging discussion about the condition of Catholicism in Australia today, Bishop Kevin Manning says that “we’ve become a middle class church.”
The Bishop of Parramatta in NSW was speaking with the editor of an independent online journal, Catholica Australia.
The bishop criticised a number of trends in modern Church communities, especially a loss of contact with the poor.
“We’ve lost the poor people out of our schools, we’ve become too middle class, our schools have become too costly,” he said. “To me, that’s telling a story right through the church.”
ing programs throughout Australia. It was obvious that CBC Perth – now supporting both its own Brothers and those teaching at St Pat’s – would struggle to finance the new building.
The solution for Treacy was to send a Brother to traverse the West – from the northern and eastern goldfields to the southern coast – seeking funds to support the building of CBC Perth.
The Irish Brother chosen by Treacy for this task had already proven himself a successful fundraiser – Br TR (Regis) Hughes.
In the introductory section of the CBC Perth Annals, Hughes writes about himself and his efforts – in the third person – and claims to have raised about £2000 – the goldfields were flourishing at the time and people were generous with their contributions.
Good times aside, it is obvious that Hughes’ personal contribution in raising such a lot of money was the result of much hard work and a capacity to get on with the job.
To read Hughes’ accounts of his travels is to be left full of admiration for this gentle man who endured great hardship to raise funds from anyone he could convince to contribute.
His role in the early growth of CBC Perth should not be underestimated.
There is no doubt that his fundraising was a substantial contribution towards the financing of the new building; and without it the West Wing would not have been built so early.
Catholics in Australia a multicultural mob: Grech
An estimated 40 to 45 per cent of Catholic people in Australia are either migrants or the sons or daughters of migrants, say the Australian bishops in a message for Refugee and Migrant Sunday next weekend (August 26.)
Bishop Joseph Grech from Ballarat in Victoria, who is the delegate for migrants and refugees on the bishops’ commission for pastoral life, says in the message that the church needs a national plan for pastoral care.
One aim of this plan, he says, should be to help people to “sustain their cultural and religious customs and heritages.”
To celebrate Natural Family Planning week Natural Fertility Services are holding a free information evening.
Have you ever thought about using natural family planning (NFP) or wondered what it is all about? We invite you to come along and find out how you can use Natural Family Planning.
Natural Family Planning gives you an awareness of your fertility. It can help you to space or achieve pregnancies. It is free from chemicals and devices, is medically and scientifically accurate and as effective as the oral contraceptive pill. What’s more, it builds loving marriages.
We are running a free information evening on Wednesday 22nd August to answer all of your questions. It is obligation free and a light supper will be provided.
Please contact Natural Fertility Services on 9223 1396 Monday to Friday 9am-4pm for more details. Couples and singles welcome. The evening will be held at 450 Hay St, Perth from 7.30 – 8.30pm.
on Pope Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Deus Caritas Est
By John Paul II Institute For Marriage & FamilyThis book is a collection of essays explaining different aspects of Pope Benedict XVI’s teachings in Deus Caritas Est. Essay topics include Christian Eros, Agape, the place of human experience, the critique of Friedrich Nietzsche, love & forgiveness, the Eucharist, marriage & family, the Heart of Christ & the meaning of Christian charity.
Special Offer:
Buy The Way of Love $49.95+postage, and receive Deus Caritas Est free. (Offer valid until Wednesday 22nd August 2007.
Meditations on Living the Resurrection by
John Paul II Edited by Jo Cobb-Garcia & Keith E. CobbWhat is the significance of the resurrection of Christ to our individual lives and to all humanity? Here is a prayerful guide for all those who want to sink their roots into the depths of the Risen Christ and draw from His power. John Paul II’s reflections show how the Resurrection empowered the Apostles and how we can all live the redeemed life.
$26.95+postage
In this classic work on the spiritual life, Martin gives readers the tools for entering more fully into a fruitful relationship with God. Prayer is a gift, not a burden. Through it the Holy Spirit draws us into the Trinity, satisfying the hunger for God that lies within every human heart.
$24.95+postage
I’m John Hughes, WA’s most trusted car dealer
Is it true I have my own finance company to assist good people with poor credit to buy cars from me?
Is it true I sell over 1,300 vehicles every month in Victoria Park and that is the biggest number from any one location in Australia?
Is it true that I refuse to sell any vehicle that has had previous major accident damage?
Is it true that when people come to do business with me, I guarantee they will be treated with courtesy, sincerity, professionalism and efficiency?
Is it true that “I want your business and I’m prepared to pay for it” and “I stand behind every car I sell”.
Is it true that I have over 40 technicians who are dedicated to getting my used cars in first class condition before sale?
Is it true that if somebody buys a used car from me, I will pay for a prepurchase RAC or similar inspection?
Four horsemen
According to Dr. John Gottman, a marriage researcher, there are four types of behaviour that can spell doom for any marriage. They are contempt, sarcasm, refusing to meet a spouse’s request and stonewalling. Stonewalling is the silent treatment, delaying and stalling tactics and hindering or obstructing discussion. If you find you are guilty of them then weed them out quick smart.
Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story■ By Mark Reidy
On Monday August 6
a program aired on Channel 10 which made claims to the discovery of the bones of Jesus, his “son” Judas and “wife” Mary Magdalene, as well as others named Maria, Mathew and Joseph (Jose), in a tomb in the suburb of Talpiot outside Jerusalem.
The documentary was produced by James Cameron, the man who gave us the Hollywood blockbuster “Titanic” and “Terminator” versions 1 and 2, and was initially released in the US on the Discovery Channel in March this year.
Considering that such claims would completely invalidate the foundation of Christianity, the resurrection, it is important that Christians are able to refute such allegations when they are confronted by those who consider them factual.
“The Lost Tomb of Jesus” follows a wave of fictional and non-fictional claims, such as “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Gospel of Judas” that challenge the Scriptural records which underpin the Christian faith.
They also mirror earlier “discoveries” of the burial place of Jesus,
such as the village in Kashmir, Northern India, which locals have for generations claimed to be his tomb and say that one can even view the imprints of his nail-scarred feet.
And as recently as last year, James Tabor, a Biblical scholar at the University of North Carolina, published a book which repeated the claims of a 16th century Rabbi who stated that Jesus was buried in the Galilean town of Safed.
However, the global reach of modern technology, combined with the slick presentation, re-enactments and suspenseful narrative that have been utilised by Cameron, have ensured that such claims have never before been so well packaged.
In a world where many people are moulded, and at times manipulated, by media, it is essential that conclusions are not made before objectively examining other alternatives that may have been either deliberately or ignorantly overlooked.
In the case of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, there are numerous responses from other experts and some additional facts that were not proposed in the production of this program.
These include:
1848-1894
feast – August 21
• Frank Moore Cross, Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, Harvard University, who was quoted in the film, also said that the limestone ossuaries (burial boxes) discovered and the varied script styles found on them, indicated that they were from the Herodian Period, which occurred from around 1 BC to 1 AD.
Victoria was born into a leading tribal family in Madagascar at a time when Christian missionaries had been expelled. After this persecution, she was among the first pupils at a mission school run by nuns. In 1863, she was baptized, but it was hard to be Catholic in her circle. Though she wanted to become a nun, she was married to the chief minister’s son, who drank heavily and was unfaithful. When a new persecution began, she encouraged her fellow Catholics, and helped the local church survive. She was beatified in 1989.
This fact alone would make it very problematic for those claiming them to be the remains of the Jesus of the Scriptures who died after 30 AD.
• Stephen Pfann, a Biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, is unsure that the name “Yeshua” (Jesus) was read correctly, since ancient Semitic script is difficult to read. He believes that the name is more likely to read, “Hanun”.
• Professor Amos Kloner, BarIlan University, the first archaeologist to examine the burial site, stated of the film makers, “They just wanted to get money for it.” He also indicated that several “Jesus son of Joseph” inscriptions had been found on first century ossuaries over the years.
• Kloner, who wrote the official report about the discovery in 1980, found nothing remarkable about the findings. He said that the tomb was probably in use by three or four generations of Jews, was disturbed in antiquity and had been vandalised over time. The names on the boxes, he said, were common in the first century. After writing the report he put the 10 ossuaries on shelves in a warehouse where they sat undisturbed until a BBC crew filmed them in 1996. He added, “There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb. They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle class family from the 1st century”.
“There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb. They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle class family from the first century” - Dr Amos Kloner -
• Jewish families were buried in their own towns. For Jesus of Nazareth to be buried in Jerusalem would have gone against Jewish culture and custom.
• If Jesus was married with child, the Jewish leaders of the time would have used this fact to stop the spread of Christianity. If Jesus went to live and die in another town or country, then his body should have been returned to Nazareth, not Jerusalem.
• Dr William Dever, Professor, University of Arizona, said, “The fact that it’s been ignored (since 1980) tells you something. It would be amusing if it didn’t mislead so many people.”
• Dr Gary Habermas, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Theology, Liberty University, said that the only conclusion that could be made from DNA testing on the program was that the Jesus and Mariamne (“Mary Magdalene”) found in the tombs were not maternally related. No other conclusions, such as the two being married, can be proven.
• Dr Paul Maier, Department of History, Western Michigan University, said that all the names, Yeshua, Joseph, Maria, Mariamne, Matia, Judah and Jose were extremely common Jewish names during that period and thus most scholars consider this merely coincidental, as they did from the start. One quarter of Jewish women at that time, for example, were called Maria or a derivative thereof.
• Dr Charles L Quarles, Chair of Christian Studies, Louisiana University said that even by the calculations of the authors of the book that parallels the documentary, approximately 1008 men named Jesus son of Joseph lived in first century Palestine.
• Dr Tal Ilan, the scholar who compiled the Lexicon of Jewish names that was essential to the favourable statistics promoted so heavily on the program said, “I think it was completely mishandled. I am angry”.
• The film makers’ claim that Mariamne is Mary Magdalene requires them to ignore New Testament documents written shortly after the recorded events
and favour the fourth century Gnostic document Acts of Philip.
• Dr Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament Interpretation, Asbury Theological Seminary said that Mary Magdalene grew up in a Jewish fishing village called Migdal and therefore it made no sense that her ossuary would have a Greek inscription and her alleged husband an Aramaic one. He also states that she was never called Mariamne in any other first or second century Christian literature.
• Michael S Heiser, scholar in Near Eastern Semitic languages said that the “cross” inscribed on the Jesus ossuary was not a Christian symbol, as claimed in the program, but rather an engraver’s “direction mark”. He says that the film makers omitted to mention a similar mark on another part of the ossuary that would be more consistent with the plausibility of a direction mark.
• Dr Aren Maeir, Director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeologist Project, said, “Since, along with most of the archaeologists who deal with the ancient Levant, I have been asked about the question of the supposed tomb of Jesus and family... I thought that I should join the very clear message of the responsible archaeological community and say – this is hogwash.”
• Joe Zias, curator for anthropology and archaeology at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem from 1972 to 1997, said of the show’s Director, “He’s pimping off the Bible...Projects like these make a mockery of the archaeological profession”.
By considering the comments and observations from a broader range of experts than those selected for James Cameron’s “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, one is able to balance, counter and often override the “evidence” put forward by the program.As with other attempts over the past 2000 years to sabotage the foundational and treasured principles of Christianity, this too will fade into obscurity. While future attacks are inevitable, the words of Jesus shall always hold true, “You are Peter and on this rock I shall build my Church. And the gates of hell shall never overcome it” (Matt 16:18).
In what could have been an internet age revival of old-fashioned town hall political meetings, up to 100,000 church members gathered in local venues around the nation to watch a live webcast featuring Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and a platform of church leaders asking them questions.
The Australian Christian Lobby, which organised the event, told The Record the official live attendance was between 80,000 and 100,000, but also said this figure was certainly conservative.
A video of the event can be viewed at the ACL website: www. acl.org.au
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Philip Wilson sought a personal rather than a political insight when he had the chance to pose a public question to both political leaders last week.
Archbishop Wilson, who had met with each leader personally, was called upon to ask the first question to both Mr Howard and Mr Rudd following their presentations to the Australian Christian Lobby’s ‘Make it Count’ forum at the National Press Club.
The addresses by the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition were webcast live to an estimated 80,000 Christians around Australia, in an unprecedented event for Australian poli-
tics. Archbishop Wilson asked Mr Howard: “What are the personal qualities, as opposed to the political qualities, that you believe are necessary for authentic leadership?
“ What role, if any, has religious faith had in forming your personal leadership qualities?”
In reply, Mr Howard said that the first requirement for authentic leadership was “a very strong belief in what you want to achieve for your country”.
“The second requirement is extreme physical stamina because public life is very physically demanding.
“And my Christian beliefs have formed me.”
Mr Howard said he drew particular inspiration from two parables – the Good Samaritan and the Parable of the Talents.
“The Parable of the Good Samaritan shows that everybody is deserving of respect and dignity, there is a great moral obligation to serve,” he said, “and I’ve always seen the Parable of the Talents as being the free enterprise parable.”
Following Mr Rudd’s address, Archbishop Wilson was asked to pose the same question to the Opposition Leader that he had directed to the Prime Minister.
Mr Rudd said that for him, “the key thing in leadership is to know what you believe in and why, and not to oppose for opposition’s sake”.
“Leadership is also about admitting that there are things you don’t know and about being fair dinkum
about what you can fix and what you can’t.
“For me, it is also about, in those quiet prayerful moments in Canberra, reflecting on what I can do constructively to make this a better and more humane country and recognising that those who sit opposite are not sons of the antiChrist.”
In their addresses, the two leaders acknowledged the Christian heritage of the Australian nation and outlined their support for maintaining Christian prayer in Parliament and for insisting that marriage remains between a man and a woman.
Both leaders spoke of the need to strengthen families and address the work-family balance.
Mr Howard said the Coalition would do this primarily by “continuing to run a strong economy”, and keeping employment high, while Mr Rudd said Labor would soften industrial relations laws to provide more certainty and security for workers and families.
Mr Howard announced his government would spend $189 million on “cleaning up the internet” for Australian families, blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chat-room sex predators and cutting off terror sites.
Mr Rudd announced that a Labor government would prepare a Family Impact Statement on every submission which went to Cabinet. To download video of the “Make it Count” forum go to http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse. stw?article_id=16242.
The Edmund Rice Institute for Social justice in Fremantle is calling for all budding and established designers to go in the running for a $500 prize.
As part of a re-branding venture, the institute is seeking a contemporary logo that is inclusive of all in the community, captivating and simple.
“As we have a lengthy name that will often appear under or alongside the logo, we need the logo to be simple and ‘not too busy’,” director of the Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice in Fremantle, David Freeman said.
“Our Institute emerges from Catholic social teaching, and
the Christian Brothers’ commitment to social justice that follows the example of their founder Edmund Rice. Equally, we exist for people of all faiths and none,” he added. The winning logo will be used from stationary to posters, so must look good in a number of sizes, in colour or black and white.
Designs can be submitted in an electronic format or on a white A4 sheet of paper and posted to The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice, Fremantle, 24 High Street, Fremantle, WA 6160. Submissions are due Friday September 14, 2007 and must include full contact details, including email. Further information on the Institute can be found at www.ercfremantle.org.
Perth’s Catholic Doctor’s Association is inviting all Catholic health professionals to join them in a one-day retreat on tackling dilemmas in pregnancy.
While the Association runs an annual one to two-day retreat for Catholic doctors, this is the first year that other Catholic health professionals are also invited to attend. “The aim is to promote networking and fellowship between colleagues who share the same faith and values, and who also share in common the work of caring for those who
After almost three years without a trainer, Perth’s Family Life Education (FLE) program is welcoming Anne Raymond, who was appointed Perth’s resident trainer earlier this year.
Mrs Raymond will now be able to assist in the training of FLE teachers, who until recently could only receive training from Sydney educators.
Up until her retirement in 2005, Ann O’Donnell worked as Perth’s resident trainer.
“The ability to train FLE teachers in Perth has been something many have desired for a while now. We in Perth are so remote that it is beneficial for us to be able to train our own people, without having to depend on Sydney’s resources,” Mrs Raymond said.
A previous natural family planning teacher of four years, Mrs Raymond said FLE, which is provided by Natural Fertility Services, was a general sexuality and family life program for school students and pre-marriage couples.
“A large part of FLE is our work with both primary and high school students across the metropolitan area,” she said.
Topics covered by FLE teachers include natural family planning, sexually transmitted infections, sexuality, gender, relationships and contraception.
Over 100 Catholic high schools and primary schools are welcoming FLE as part of their religious education each year.
There are currently seven FLE teachers meeting the large demand for in-school programs throughout Perth, with a further three teachers in training.
“Most of our teachers are young mothers, or those who are able to dedicate themselves on a part-time or casual basis,” Mrs Raymond said. As an FLE trainer, Mrs Raymond now has the ability to train poten-
tial FLE teachers in the psychosocial development of children and adults and how to effectively present the FLE message.
Mrs Raymond said she was glad to be providing the training service in Perth and hoped more people would consider the courses of study available, now that training was once again being offered in Perth.
“We are really excited to be able to train people that will be able to meet the huge demand for FLE in and better respond to the need for fertility education in schools; particularly with the new primary school program – Becoming a Man and Becoming a Woman,” director of Natural Fertility Services, Derek Boylen said. For further information on FLE call: 9223 1396.
are sick or promoting and maintaining good health,” said Jing Man Wong, who attended the Association’s previous retreat on July 29. The free retreat will be presented on September 13, and will involve clinical case presentations followed by discussion led by L J Goody Bioethics Centre director Fr Joe Parkinson. Doctors and other health care professionals are invited to gather for refreshments at 6.30pm, with formalities beginning at 7pm. For info contact the Bioethics Centre on 9242 4066 or by email at: ljgbc@iinet.net.au.
A prominent teachers union leader pointed out that a bishops’ move to reassess the core values of the Catholic schooling system is nothing surprising, given the facts. Dick Shearman from the NSW Independent Education Union told ABC radio that there has been “massive change” in the Catholic school system, particularly with “an increase in non-Catholic enrolments.” This makes it “natural” that the bishops would from time to time review what the schools are doing in terms of the Catholic faith.
The present vulnerability of some religious schools, and other sites such as synagogues, was highlighted by a report that Canberra politicians are considering granting tax-free status to any private donations made to increase security at these places. Both Prime Minister Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd expressed support for the idea. “There are a number of threats to school communities where questions of religious affiliation, questions of racial hatred are involved,” said Mr Rudd.
Sunday 26 August • 10am-4pm
Follow the signs on Mouat Street, Fremantle
The day is more interactive and filled with more activities than ever before!
• course information sessions
• BBQ with current ND students
Time Event
10.00amOPEN DAYWelcome
• participate in interactive demonstrations & workshops
• PLUScourse expo with teaching staff available to discuss course details with individual students
10.30amExercise & Sport Science,Health & PE,Outdoor Education, Preventive Health,Sport & Rec Management CIS
10.30amLaw CIS*
10.30amNursing CIS*
11.00am• Nursing - An art and a science
11.30am92.9 Road Runners arrive
11.30amBiomedical Science CIS
11.30amBusiness CIS*
11.30amTheology,Philosophy & Ethics CIS*
11.30amApplication Process & Study Abroad Information Session
11.30amMaths games that make learning fun
11.30amThe nature of law
11.30amPhysiotherapy CIS*
Time Event
12.00pm• A demonstration of the muscles bio-electrical power
12.30pm+ Come and be a physiotherapist
12.30pm7 Secrets of a PR professional
12.30pmEducation CIS*
12.30pmAccounting:The language of business
12.30pmCounselling CIS*
12.30pmAre you fit for life? - Health Sciences
12.30pmArts & Sciences CIS*
1.00pm Digital driving in your own virtual car (and other convergence magic)- Communications 1.00pm• Mind games
1.00pm Movement workshop - Theatre Studies
1.00pm Science in action
1.30pmNursing CIS*
Time Event
1.30pmBusiness CIS*
1.30pmApplication Process & Study Abroad Information Session 1.30pmExercise & Sport Science,Health & PE,Outdoor Education, Preventive Health,Sport & Rec Management CIS*
1.30pmUsing storytelling to develop language 1.30pmMedicine CIS*
2.00pmNursing - An art and a science 2.30pmPhysiotherapy CIS
2.30pmEducation CIS*
2.30pmLaw CIS* 4.00pmOPEN DAY Concludes * CISCourse Information Session One hour session + Two
The information session will be presented by the University Admissions staff and will provide detailed information about the Admissions process including the Notre Dame personal statement and what to expect in the admissions interview. The session will also include the course structure for Notre Dame’s alternative entry pathway, the Tertiary Enabling Program. All undergraduate course information will be on display. This session will be an ideal opportunity for students to meet admissions staff as well as discuss course details with relevant academic staff.
I finished my secondary education at Corpus Christi College in 2003 and am now in my final year of a double degree in Bachelor of Communications and Bachelor of Marketing and Public Relations at Notre Dame.
I have a keen interest in journalism and the media, so Communications is the ideal course to combine with my interests in business. My degree combines a perfect balance of theoretical and practical work, which is going to be extremely helpful in the workplace. As part of my studies I secured an internship with an events stylist and what started off as work experience has now resulted in casual work where I am involved in the coordinating and preparation of events such as weddings, parties and dinners.
Furthering your studies at university is all about pursuing your passions, which makes learning so much more enjoyable and beneficial. At Notre Dame I am studying with others who share my passion for the Media in classes kept small and personalised. Because of this, I have made three of my closest friends. In class we work together and bounce ideas off each other. In the future they will be invaluable contacts and a continuous source of support and information. Looking back and reflecting on the fantastic opportunities Notre Dame has given me, I can see I made the right choice for my tertiary education.
“My degree combines the perfect balance of theoretical and practical work“
The miracle of God’s love gave this cartoonist the grace to seek freedom and express her creativity. Readers of The Record have a chance to meet her and hear her speak.
Readers of The Record will have a rare opportunity to meet and hear artist and cartoonist Titane Laurent when her new book of cartoons based on Scripture is launched at the Catholic Pastoral Centre at 7pm on Friday August 24.
The life of the corporate marketing manager-turned-born-again-Christian (see story below) has turned around completely since she discovered the presence of God in her life and is a tale in itself; her book is in many ways a result of this process.
Meanwhile, the book has a simple title that pretty much expresses what her cartoons are all about: it is called God’s Stuff
Titane’s cartoons have been gathering for several years after she began looking in the 1990s for ways to employ her artistic talent to spread God’s word to the wider world.
Many of her cartoons have appeared in discovery magazine, which is produced by The Record for a mainly Catholic schoolsbased audience.
Her cartoons create amusing story lines based on Titane’s reading and reflection on scripture but in so doing invite the reader to reflect on the deeper message from God. It is rare for cartoonists to focus on faith, let-alone the Bible, but Titane, who speaks with a charming French accent, has made it into a highly respected practice.
Before the couple left to spend a year in Mauritius doing missionary work Titane’s God’s Stuff appeared also in The Sunday Times in Perth each weekend.
What few people know, apart from family and friends, is that the typical suburban figures in her illustrations – a young family with the couple in their mid-30s and
Twelve years ago I was living in Belgium, wearing expensive highheeled shoes and corporate clothes.
I had a great curriculum vitae, a high position in the marketing field but, despite being envied by many of my friends, I was miserable and grumpy.
One day I asked a close old friend: “Is this all there is? He answered my question with another one.
“What would you do, if you had only one year to live?”
Well that worked for me. I looked at myself in the mirror, I wanted to be an artist, to live in a warm country, wear comfortable clothes and feel free.
So I quit my job and off I went. I studied art in different schools, drew day and night, and then finally after 2 years, with money and pretend friends all gone, I had nothing to lose, so I left.
I decided if I had to be poor in order to live my passion, I might as well do it in a warm country.
New Zealand seemed pretty warm and natural. It’s also as far as I could go, ... any further and I’d be on my way back to Belgium. I thought: “Surely, nobody would judge me or bother me there...”
Soon after, I arrived in Auckland with not
children to-boot – are based on Titane, her husband Jonathon (a convert to Christianity from Judaism) and their children.
However Titane is not only a cartoonist but a gifted and accomplished painter whose works have been exhibited in countries around the world.
New Zealand seemed pretty warm and natural.
It’s also as far as I could go, ... any further and I’d be on my way back to Belgium.
I thought: “Surely, nobody would judge me or bother me there...”
God’s Stuff is a light-hearted yet poignant look at the bible through the eyes of an imaginative and plucky little girl.
The cartoon is truly universal. Thematically appealing to different levels of readership, it is enjoyed by children, adults and scholars alike.
In 2007 God’s Stuff had a readership base well over 700 000, apart from the Western Australian publications it was appearing in, in the Mauritian national L’Express newspaper and Germany’s Verse 1 magazine. God’s Stuff has been described as expressing the timeless message of scripture in an extraor-
much more than my bicycle and my dream of being a free artist.
I started my new life as a gardener, then worked in a framing shop and then sold my paintings with the frames from the framing shop.
But that was not enough, really I wanted more, I wanted to be a real artist that would live only from their art. For that I needed to study more.
Art schools in Auckland were too expensive, too hard and too far for me so whining and complaining, I asked my good old friend for some more advice. He just said to me: “wait, be patient...”
Two weeks later, I received in my mail boxes an advertisement for “The business School of New Zealand” offering an illustration and cartooning course by correspondence.
By great chance, it was subsidised by the government.
It was not really what I had expected but off I went and enrolled myself.
Later on, one of the assignments was to find a topic where I could easily find inspiration for my cartoons, like fishing or tennis.
I spent weeks thinking and thinking in vain. I had no hobby, my English was dreadful as was my social life and I had no activities. So I asked my good old friend to help me again.
He answered: “Why not choose me as your topic?” “You! What do you mean?”
“I mean choose me, God, as your topic”.
What a great topic! Of course, my best friend was God, and the only book I had, that seemed never to finish, was the bible. So I began to create God’s Stuff cartoons. I miraculously sold them every week to the priest at my local church. His encouragement
dinary new way that is variously pithy, profound humorous and reflective. Its positive humour is both nourishing and confronting.
It leaves you refreshed and richer for the experience, regardless of your spiritual convictions.
Through all this, God’s Stuff maintains a warmth and sense of humour that is sorely lacking in today’s harsh literary climate.
Readers are invited to attend the launch and meet Titane, who will be happy to sign copies for anyone who purchases her book. God’s Stuff will also be available from The Record
was the start of an amazing journey. A journey with my best friend: God!
“As a last resort, I asked God what to do ...”
Eight years later, I had had enough. I felt that my cartoons would never reach “The greater public”. According to my nonChristian friends, my topic was “Too boring!” I tended to agree, but I really felt that my cartoons were not boring at all, if only people would read them.
As a last resort, I asked God what to do ... this is what I heard from this amazing, silent
conversation. “Have no fear... I can open all the doors for you..., with Me everything is possible”. So I made four or five phone calls over a year or so, completely inspired and, voila, circulation nearly 1,000,000 per week in 2007.
Can you believe it? He did it! Thanks to the close friend whose advice I had asked so long ago, God’s Stuff has now been published or exhibited in Australia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Mauritius and the US. Titane has a website devoted to her God’s Stuff cartoons www. godstuffcartoons.com
In addition, a separate website focuses on her considerable output of paintings, many inspired by religious themes. It can be found at www.titanelaurent.com
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after what is right
Archbishop Barry Hickey has begun a series of short talks on his website explaining the Beatitudes and their application in daily life. All the talks may be found on Archbishop Hickey’s website at www.perthcatholic.org.au
The fourth beatitude is: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after what is right: they shall be satisfied.”
We are social creatures and live our lives in relationships with others. Being a member of a group is therefore an essential part of being human.
But a group can be something of a prison which limits our willingness to extend justice to others. The challenge of this beatitude is to put what is right above the pressures of group membership.
Children who are warmly accepted, loved and encouraged in their own group are likely to be able to develop healthy relationships and good social dynamics as they mature.
Children who suffer abuse, neglect or rejection in their own group tend to find it hard to be socially secure and are vulnerable to the ‘attractions’ of extremist groups.
If children learn from their group that “others” are not to be trusted, or are not as good as them, there will be problems. If they learn by example that strangers are to be welcomed and respected, there are not likely to be problems.
The pressure exerted by group membership is commonly called peer pressure, but it applies as much to adults as to teenagers.
PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902
Tel: (08) 9227 7080, Fax: (08) 9227 7087 cathrec@iinet.net.au
It is the origin of racism, nationalism, political bias, religious bigotry, militarism, mob morals, gang loyalty, one-eyed football supporters and suicide bombers.
This fourth beatitude must be cultivated if we are to be able to recognise Jesus in all people, regardless of class, creed, colour, race or behaviour, and therefore to treat them all justly.
These first four beatitudes must be developed by adults for their own personal growth, and so that they will be the natural environment for the children who grow with them.
As rational beings we must learn to be aware of the attitudes that motivate us, and we must use our reason and will to choose the path of the beatitudes.
We can rely on all the supports of Christian life to help us – prayer, the sacraments, the grace of God, and faith in the power of the Risen Jesus who will do what is necessary to save us.
It is the kingdom of heaven we seek, and it is worth every effort.
in brief...
Christians have too much power: Democrats
The leader of the Australian Democrats party, Senator Lyn Allison, said Australia is a Christian country, but that people with strong religious views are “heavily over-represented” in the federal parliament.
“It’s unrepresentative,” she said. Senator Allison was commenting on the landmark webcast from Canberra last week when the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader addressed a dedicated audience of Christian church members and leaders. In another twist, Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said there are “many Christians” in his Greens party, and that some churches didn’t participate in the webcast because they didn’t agree with the event’s philosophy.
I am e-mailing you with a suggestion for an article for The Record because I think that lots of young girls would be interested in this site/ magazine that I found searching on Google for a Catholic girls magazine: www.saintmariasmessenger.com.
I subscribed to this magazine after reading the trial issue because I found it very inspiring and just what young Catholic girls of today need to help them to remain a faithful Catholic in today’s world.
The combination of fun and faith was very well balanced and the two young American girls who produce it are excellent in pointing out that they don’t want it to be preachy, because girls as I know, want to learn our faith without it being SO COOL it really isn’t Catholic! Well it still can be fun and they have done that.
Katie Moran (12) via e-mail
This letter is a miniscule of factual information regarding the rigged 2001 Drug Summit and the eventual autocratic legislation of Labor’s 2003 Cannabis Enactment. A little publicised fact is that, thankfully, consequential to the Liberal’s condition, the Act is subject to review by public submission.
The WA AMA and the WA police have vehemently attacked the cannabis infringement scheme.
Without doubt, WA irresponsibly flaunts the most radical and permissive drug laws in the nation; arguably as permissive as the Netherlands.
This reprehensible social experiment continues to seriously afflict our families and communities.
Thus the incorrigible, spurious and collusive academic and political sham which, for over a decade, has incrementally and carefully developed and proselytised cannabis and other drug law reforms must be carefully understood and urgently protested by all West Australians.
The WA Cannabis infringement Notices (CINs) for simple possession and the personal cultivation of two plants, were initially proposed and thoroughly supported by the 2002 WA police hierarchy.
Fines of $100 or the option of an education session were promised by the Government, the Democrats and the Greens to bolster state coffers and keep people, especially juveniles out of crime and the prisons. Reprehensibly, this project was funded by the Council on Australian Government(COAG).
The ‘carrot’ or ‘sweetener’ to bolster communty support was the education session which only reached a small percentage of users, especially excluding juvenile offenders and their families. There was also to be a comprehensive public education campaign about the adverse health consequenc-
BM & KP Jaques forwarded this copy of their letter to Attorney General Jim McGinty to The Record. We thought it so good, we republish it here. - Ed.
We urge you to reconsider your intention to introduce to Parliament legislation to decriminalise prostitution in WA. While it is self-evident that major problems surround the practice of prostitution it does not follow that they will be overcome by its decriminalisation. Victoria appears to be a case in point.
It is common to employ the cliché “the world’s oldest profession”, the implication being that it is futile to try to limit its practice now since it has always occured. Substitute for ‘profession’, ‘business practice’ and wonder which is the older, the business practice of prostitution or the business practice of slavery.
Prostitution in many respects is slavery. A slave is a person who is the legal property of another... and “bound to absolute obedience”. A prostitute is “a woman who offers her body to promiscuous sexual intercourse”.
To prostitute is “to sell one’s honour etc unworthily, to put abilities etc to wrong use, to debase”. It is clearly the case that large numbers of prostitutes are trapped in a variety of ways into such an unworthy life, that they would not readily choose to debase themselves if circumstances were otherwise. Decriminalisation will do nothing to change the position of these people.
William Wilberforce began a campaign to bring an end to slavery in Great Britain, interestingly enough in the year of European settlement of Australia, in 1788.
That campaign was successful only after nineteen years, in 1807, and that only in Britain.
Two hundred years later slavery is still practised in some parts of the world. Surely that is not ground for an argument that slavery should have remained decriminalized.
If you do not proceed with the proposed legislation, the problems associated with prostitution will still be with us.
However, there will remain time and opportunity to look at potentially better ways to deal with them. You know that such attempts have been made elsewhere with some encouraging results.
Decriminalization will likely be seen as the end of an intractable problem, but of course, that will not be so. Give yourself and us in WA more time to seek alternatives.
It might take nineteen years, or more, but if we too could achieve a better result for all of those involved in prostitution, then we would have legislated wisely.
B M & K P
Jaques Willetones of cannabis, which never happened. However, according to the Director of Health, the Premier and WA’s emergency health specialists, WA’s already struggling mental health system has been further destroyed by illicit drug use. Since 2003, WA has repeatedly reached notoriety as the drug capital of the nation’s ice, methamphetamine and speed scourge - again leading the world in illicit drug use.
Unquestionably, the unaccountable and open use of cannabis has led to WA’s massive rise in criminal activities, including unprecedented savage and mindless public and domestic violence and increased juvenile crimes. This public chaos comes from drug fuelled behaviour.
Thus giving indisputable credence to the fact that cannabis causes severe and irreparable mental illness. And despite the resounding denial by the WA legal and public health sectors, it is a “gateway” drug which perpetuates the frequently relapsing disease of alcohol and other drug addiction.
G.Mullins
Spokesperson for The Coalition Against Drugs(WA), 949 Wellington Street, West Perth.WA.6005. Contact: J. Barich, 9 321 2333 or G. Mullins, 99 214 515.
I don’t doubt the facts relayed in the letter last week about the frontline soldier/abortion matter. Nor do I doubt the rule of engagement returned soldiers have said they lived by in combat. That rule being: “Kill - Count - Move”. It seems many do not comprehend that soldiers are not peacekeepers. Nor are they policemen
- and policemen are not ever soldiers. Providing women with equal “rights” to pull on a soldier’s uniform and carry a loaded assault rifle designed and built to do one thing only - kill humans - is not equality. It’s sheer bloody-minded madness. Paul Clune Roleystone
While reading Guy Crouchbank’s article in The Record (August 2, 2007) I was reminded of the Catholic Girl Guides company organised by Marjorie Wyndham in the Highgate Parish in the 1930s. I realised how belonging to the Girl Guides had influenced my life. Studying to pass the tests for the various badges ensured that boredom was never a problem in my teenage years. I had an armful of badges for First Aid, Home Nursing, Child Care, Hostess, Banking, Lifesaving, Athletics and many others. The things I learnt then gave me the confidence to deal with the dramas of life as a wife and mother in my later years. Our spiritual life was not neglected as I remember one Easter being in camp at Darlington and going to Mass at Believue in a room at the back of a shop. I can’t remember how we got there or back but we didn’t ever miss Mass on Sunday.
Frank Wyndham, Marjorie’s brother had a troop of Boy scout s at the same time as my brothers were both in it.
C.F Bradley Menora
For Olivia, it’s Mission Possible. If you happened to be wandering around the ancient cobble-stoned piazza outside the Pantheon in Rome this June, you may have spotted amidst the throngs of tourists, pilgrims and Romans a group of young people enthusiastically singing, dancing and praising the Lord.
One of these young missionaries – and possibly the most vibrant of them all – was Perth’s own Olivia Lavis.
So how does a young Western Australian woman come to be sharing her faith so openly in the centre of the Eternal City?
Olivia, 27, from Our Lady of the Missions parish, Whitfords, has spent almost a year participating in the Emmanuel School of Mission in Rome.
An initiative of the Emmanuel Community – a Catholic Association of Faithful – and under the patronage of the Pontifical Council of the Laity, the school is an integral nine-month program of doctrinal, spiritual and missionary formation and community living.
The overall aim of the school is to equip young adults who are passionately committed to spreading the Gospel in their own country.
Passionate about evangelisation Olivia Lavis certainly is. When speaking about her experiences on mission with the School, the already effervescent Olivia becomes positively effusive.
She abounds in inspiring stories about the transformation she saw in people’s lives as they experienced Jesus in a personal way during the School’s missionary outreaches in Italy, Northern Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
For example, on mission in the Dutch city of Uden, the task of Olivia and her companions was to support a week of mission organised by the Archdiocese as part of its five-year evangelisation plan; accordingly, they spent much of their time on the streets inviting people to attend the various outreach events.
“We met a lot of young people on the streets,” Olivia comments, “and we made an effort to go out to their local hang out spots at the skate park or in the park where they smoke dope.
“The thing that amazed me is how many young people didn’t even know who Jesus was.
“We had some amazing discussions and I was shocked at how many people who had not been to Mass since receiving the sacraments ended up coming to events and to the final Mass.”
Olivia goes on to describe being touched to witness during these events “young people, including a Protestant and a Muslim man, kneeling in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and crying.”
Several of the people Olivia met at the skate park have now joined the youth group in their local parish.
“A lot of people were surprised at the idea of going on mission in Europe,” Olivia remarks, “however, this is the new evangelisation, this is the renewal of the Church.”
In addition to the fruits of being on mission, Olivia was enriched by the ninemonth experience of living in a Christian community. She was one of 20 students from 13 countries and a variety of professional backgrounds, such as medicine, economics and business – Olivia herself is a secondary school teacher and has also spent time working on development projects in East Timor.
“Community life,” Olivia explains, “is like a mirror; it reflects back to me both my gifts and my weaknesses.”
Furthermore, living in Rome afforded Olivia the opportunity to come to know and love the Church and its history more deeply. In fact, the students had the chance to visit several members of the Roman Curia, such as Cardinal Francis Arinze from the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments and Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes from the “Cor Unum” Office.
“It was a privilege to hear them speak and to be able to ask all the burning questions on the Church that we had,” Olivia says. Now that she has returned to Australia, Olivia senses a deep responsibility to share the grace of her time at the Emmanuel School of Mission with others, particularly the disillusioned and the misinformed.
With a radiant smile, Olivia concludes: “I want to help them to understand the beauty I’ve had the privilege of discovering. In Australia, we don’t have the abundance of shrines and tombs of saints that there is in Europe. So we must be these concrete witnesses of holiness, we are called to be saints. And this means growing in our relationship with Jesus every day.”
“ We met a lot of young people on the streets, and we made an effort to go out to their local hang out spots at the skate park or in the park where they smoke dope “
Blessed Mary MacKillop’s sainthood chances appear to have taken a giant leap.
■ By Anthony BarichMary MacKillop: A profile
Born: January 15, 1842 in Fitzroy, Victoria, the eldest of 8 children
that is significant to the one who is to be declared Blessed.
Independent doctors have verified that an Australian boy is now free of multiple sclerosis and lymphoma, which he contracted when he was seven, after the family prayed for the Josephite founder’s intercession.
If approved by the Vatican, it will be the second miracle required for the Pope to recognise Australia’s first saint – though there are many criteria before it can even be called a miracle. The boy who has allegedly been cured, whose identity is under tight wraps, is now 15. Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system as communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted.
It can range from benign to devastating.
Lymphoma is a type of cancer involving the immune system.
Sister Maria Casey, the vicepostulator for Mary MacKillop’s cause, said that in this particular case the boy was in a “very serious condition”.
So the mother, friends and “everybody involved in their area” have prayed very, very seriously to Mary MacKillop, and he’s since made a remarkable recovery”
“We have been told there is cause for optimism as there is no known cure for MS,” Sr Maria told The Record “We have measured everything against the criteria, and confirmation of original diagnosis is paramount, and so far independent specialists say he is now free of the disease.” Sr Maria, who has met the boy, said he was first declared cured three years ago. She now awaits a Rome-based specialist to
come to the same conclusion. That specialist’s findings are expected to be some months away.
The boy’s case is one of several the Josephites have examined seriously in recent years.
Literally thousands of submissions claiming cures by Mary MacKillop have been received from every continent, including Hong Kong, China, North and South America, Russia, Vietnam, the Philippines, France, Belgium,
Italy, Kenya and the Congo. But Sr Casey said this young boy’s case is the most positive one yet in the course of investigations into the cause of Mary MacKillop’s canonisation.
There is also a chance that the canonisation ceremony – if it goes ahead – to be held in Australia.
Sr Maria said that generally the new regulations say it would be in Rome, but “they have left room for an exception, it could be in the country of the holy person”.
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart around the world are quietly hoping Pope Benedict XVI may announce her canonisation when he visits Australia for World Youth Day next year.
“If Rome has a big backlog it could take some time, but being very optimistic, if the Pope can’t do the canonisation by WYD then he may at least make the announcement that the canonisation will go ahead, because even the ceremony
itself takes a long time to prepare,”
Sr Maria said.
The December before he was elected Pope Benedict XVI, thenCardinal Joseph Ratzinger proposed that the need for a second miracle be waived in some cases.
But Sr Maria says it is unlikely that Benedict, now Pope, will jump the gun and waive the second miracle and officially recognise Mary MacKillop as a saint, as “it would set a precedent that may not be desirable until new rules are prepared”. Mary MacKillop was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II on January 19, 1995, after a young Australian woman was cured of leukemia. Examined in the 1960s, she was not expected to live much longer and was told she would never have children.
She went on to be married and had six children and was present at Mary Mackillop’s beatification in Sydney but never allowed her identity to be revealed.
Parents: Alexander MacKillop (former seminarian in Rome) and Flora MacDonald (both Scottish) From age 16: Earned her living and supported her family as a governess, as a clerk for Sands and Kenny (now Sands and McDougall), and as a teacher at the Portland school.
While acting as a governess to her uncle’s children at Penola, Mary met Fr Julian Tenison Woods who, with a parish of 22,000 square miles (56,000 square kilometres), needed help in the religious education of children in the outback.
At the time Mary’s family depended on her income so she was not free to follow her dream.
She never attended high school but received most education from her father.
1866: Opened her first Saint Joseph’s School in a disused stable in Penola, South Australia.
Young women joined her and the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph was born.
1867: Bishop Lawrence Shiel invited her to Adelaide to start a school and the Sisters spread
from there in groups to small outback settlements and large cities around Australia, New Zealand, and now in Peru, Brazil and refugee camps of Uganda and Thailand. She also opened orphanages, providences to care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and refuges for ex-prisoners and exprostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life.
Bishop Shiel later excommunicated her and tried to disband the order, reportedly because the Sisters were not providing the kind of service he expected of them and, because of the Order’s centralised government, they were becoming too independent of him and the clergy.
Before his death some months later he withdrew the sentence of excommunication and restored the Order.
Mary MacKillop Died: August 8, 1909 in the convent in Mount Street, North Sydney where her tomb is now enshrined.
Congregation has grown and now numbers about 1200.
- Information courtesy of Josephites. For more info go to http:// www.sosj.org.au/mary/index.html
The Church does not make a saint –it recognises a saint. What does the Church look at in declaring a saint?
The Church looks at:
1. The life of a person. It looks at what the person did, how s/he reacted to the events of life, what people wrote and said about her, what she wrote or said herself. This requires a great deal of historical research depending on whether the person wrote prolifically or not, whether s/he is of recent memory or not and what manner of records are extant. For a martyr the Church looks at the death of a person and considers mainly the reason for the death and the circumstances surrounding the death.
2. Continuing devotion, in other words, when the person died, did the people keep the memory alive? Is Mary MacKillop still alive in the faith of the people? Is that person’s life continuing in the faith of the people?
Canonisation is a double statement –about the life of the person and also about the faith of the people who are alive at this moment. They are as much a part of the canonisation as the life of the person.
What is beatification?
Beatification is both a process and a stage on the way to canonisation. The ceremony of beatification is the public declaration that a person has lived a heroically holy life, is with God, has the power of intercession for us with God and is a model for the faithful. It recognises that the person is a saint for a particular region, for a particular group of people or for a religious congregation. It permits this person to be honoured by special liturgies and prayers but not for the whole Church or the world.
How does a person become beatified?
How does canonisation happen?
The recognition of a miracle is seen to verify that the person is with God and has intercessory power with Him. The Blessed person does not grant the favour himself/herself but intercedes with God on behalf of those who ask the favour. At present, for canonisation proof is required that a second miracle has occurred since beatification. The proof of such a miracle must be rigorously studied and presented to Rome, where the Cause is reopened. When all has been accepted by both the theologians and the medicos the Holy Father issues the decree and the ceremony can proceed. The title of “Saint” is now granted. Canonisation means that the saint is now recognised world-wide and venerated as a saint for the universal Church. The feast-day is in the universal Church calendar and the liturgy and prayers may be universally used.
What is a miracle?
The intercessory power of the person being studied is usually established through the proof of a miracle. The subject of a miracle is usually an organic illness so that there can be scientific proof. Psychological and other conditions are too difficult to prove in a scientific manner even though there may be many such “miracles”. A second miracle is presently required as verification that this person is worthy of universal cult. For a cure to be declared a miracle there are two aspects to be examined – the theological and the medical.
■ By Anthony BarichGraceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee is the “spiritual” home of millions of pilgrims who flock to the heartland of rock god Elvis Presley every year.
But the real profound spiritual experience comes in following the footseps of Australia’s only siant.
Embarking on the “Walking in the footsteps of Mary MacKillop” pilgrimage in 2005 that took her to a different kind of “Graceland”, 70-year-old Josephite Sister Leonie Mayne started sounding like legendary Australian poet/ author Banjo Patterson.
“It was absolutely wonderful to stand there and drink in the serenity of the land where Mary MacKillop spent her early days as a nun - the beautiful red gums, their boughs scooped right down to the earth…”
Sister Leonie speaks, of course, of Penola, the town just a few kilometres south east of one of Australia’s great wine regions, Coonawarra.
In a disused stable in Penola, Mary MacKillop opened the first St Joseph’s School, inspired by local priest Fr Julian Tenison Woods, who needed help in the
religious education of marginalised outback children.
Young women soon flocked to Mary MacKillop and it wasn’t long before the Sisters of St Joseph were born.
The pilgrimage is, for some, perhaps a little espensive - $3236 (twinshare) will cover all costs from July 11 till return home on July 21 next year.
But as clergy, religious and lay alike ponder how to build the kingdom of God pre- and post-World Youth Day, a pilgrimage to Mary MacKillop’s shrine in Sydney via Penola, South Australia is where a more complete and fulfilling understanding of how one person can really make a difference can be found.
At the same time, Australians young and old are inevitably experiencing an encounter with the charism of Mary MacKillop, even now as it appears the muchhoped for potential second miracle required to start her canonisation process is being investigated.
Both before and since the beatificaiton of Mary MacKillop in 1995, pilgrims have made their way from every capital city in Australia to Mount Street North Sydney and all signifcant sites en route. WA’s first post-beatification pilgrimage was in 2005. Sr Leonie organised this on the 10th
annivesraary of Mary MackIllop’s beatification.
There were 21 participants then and the organisers are looking for 35 pilgrims for next year’s experience of a life time which will culminate with the meeting of Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney for World Youth Day.
Mary MacKillop herself had little contact with WA except to come ashore at Albany en route to Rome. The pilgrimage starts in Croweater territory. Flying to Adelaide, the spiritual journey starts at Port Adelaide, where Mary arrived from Penola via coastal steamer in 1867.
She’d already been running a school in Mount Gambier when Bishop Laurence Shiel asked Fr Woods to bring her to Adelaide.
Upon arrival at Port Adelaide Mary was taken to a little house for the night where they made their first simple religious dress.
Fr Woods said they should be recognised as nuns, as to that point they didn’t have any official dress. The pilgrimage visits three sites where the early Josephites had opened schools in Adelaide. A Mass is celebrated in the chapel where Mary was excommunicated by Bishop Shiel.
Sr Leonie reported an intense spiritual experience in 2005 at the chapel where Mary MacKillop
was excommunicated by Bishop Shiel after her centralist way of running her Order contradicted the bishop’s style.
“As we walked out of the very same chapel that Mary was sent out of, we felt in a very real sense the burden on her shoulders as she was expelled into the world. It touched them deeply,” Sr Leonie said.
When the Josephites were dismissed from the schools, 43 of them had to walk out.
The Bishop’s closest advisers had told him the excommunication was a very bad idea.
Five months later Mary was
on her way to Largs Bay to meet a dying Bishop Shiel to have him reverse the excommunication order when one of his advisers, a priest, met her at Morphett Vale, a southern suburb of Adelaide.
She would not make it to Bishop Shiel before he died, but he had given instruction for the priest to lift the excommunication order and he carried out the formal prayers in a church – which was another important stop on the modern pilgrimage.
She returned to the city and the Sisters recommenced their life in the convent and in the schools.
It is after this important junc-
ture that the pilgrimage reaches Penola, an overland stopping centre for road communications to Victoria, via Robe – a port on the southern peninsula of Adelaide - where Fr Woods was priest of a parish that extended over the border into the coastal Victorian town of Portland.
Penola was where Mary met Fr Woods, and the pilgrimage includes a visit to the school house - a renovated stable - where the Josephites taught.
When she met Fr Woods she was working as a governess with the Cameron family - her relatives - and the pilgrimage visits their graves.
Penola has an ‘interpretive centre’, an interactive museum that gives a hands-on experience of Mary’s life there.
Portland was a significant place in Mary’s young life. Her family - where she was the oldest of eight children - was always in need of finances and Mary had at long last attained a teaching certificate with the government.
She was teaching in the local Catholic school there when, as the Josephites tell the story, the principal moved some of Mary’s smart kids into his classroom just before an education inspector arrived, replacing them with less abled
students from his classroom. She therefore appeared a substand and teacher and was sacked, and this experience prompted her to start her own school in Portland with the aid of her mother and two sisters.
It was after this success that Mary moved to Penola to open up the school in the disused stable.
The pilgrimage then moves through Victoria to Hamilton where her father Alexander was buried, then to Bacchus Marsh, west of Melbourne just outside Ballarat, one of the early schools that Mary herself opened in the 1890s, but her success meant that much was asked of her.
In 1892 the local St Vincent de Paul Society asked her to take over their orphanage in east Melbourne, where there is an exhibition of the life of Mary today.
The pilgrimage will spend a day in Melbourne before flying to Sydney to visit The Rocks, one of Sydney’s oldest suburbs.
The bishops wanted to control the transfers of Sisters in the Order, but the Josephite Rule, which was approved by Pope Pius IX, gave control of the Sisters to Mary.
The order spread to Quensland, and once again a bone of contention arose about Mary’s authority over her Sisters. Bishop James
Quinn of Queensland dismissed her Order from the State. Mary waited for 12 months to give the Bishop time to find teachers to replace her Sisters and left some Sisters to help him.
On the way, some stopped in Sydney, where Archbishop Roger Vaughan welcomed them in his schools for the poor in The Rocks area. While in Sydney the pilgrims will visit Mary’s tomb, located in Mount Street. on a site that Mary was given by a priest friend of her father.
Walking in Mary MacKillop’s footsteps in the days before WYD, says Sr Leonie will bring home the reality of the power of one for any West Australian youth who partake in the experience.
“Once they get to Sydney there’s a risk the youth may get caught up in the big city,” she said.
“Many of them would be her age – Mary was 24 when she founded the Order and she was 18 or 19 when she opened up that school in Portland.
To stand on the headland in Portland looking into the ocean, realising the decisions that she had to take at such a young age that would change the course of Australian history and touched countless lives…just lifts you up.”
For details of the pilgrimage contact the Josephite Sisters on (08) 9334 0999
All baptised persons are called to holiness and many persons are holy. Beatification and canonisation give a public recognition that the person is worthy of veneration because their holiness of life has been proved. The beatification process begins in the diocese where the person died or where a miracle is claimed to have occurred.
There are two phases: one in the diocese and one in Rome. In the diocesan phase the writings of the person are examined, stories and testimony concerning the person’s reputation for holiness are collected from people who knew the person or had heard of her. There also has to be evidence that there is no public cult at this stage. When all this is examined in Rome, permission is given to formally introduce the Cause for beatification. The person now has the title “Servant of God”. Further evidence is more rigorously collected in the diocese to establish the heroicity of virtue. In addition there is an examination of cures that could be declared miracles. One miracle is chosen for study. All the information is sent to Rome where a panel of cardinals and medicos examine the evidence and the miracle respectively. If the outcome is positive the recommendation is made to the Holy Father who can then confirm the findings. The person now has the title of “Venerable”. Then the preparations for the public ceremony of beatification can be set in motion. The ceremony is usually held in Rome but may, with permission, be celebrated in the place
Theological: did the cure take place and did it happen in the context of prayer to God through the intercession of the holy person? Remember, it is God who does the curing.
Medical: Was the cure beyond normal medical and scientific explanation? This proof is by documentary and anecdotal evidence. Six factors need to be examined:
● Did the person really have the illness? Was it a valid diagnosis?
● Is there proof, that at another point in time, the illness was gone?
● There must be proof that the cure was not brought about by medical or surgical means.
● There must be proof that it was morally instantaneous i.e. outside the normal curative process.
● There must be proof that it was complete.
● The cure must be permanent. Before a cure can be examined, 5 years from time of cure are required for an adult and 10 years for a child. When all the documentation has been examined locally, and there are signs that there is no scientific explanation for the cure, a special tribunal is constituted to formalise the findings and send them to Rome. There all the pertinent documents will be examined by both the theological and medical teams. It is a slow process. Please pray that the canonisation of Blessed Mary MacKillop will proceed for the greater glory of God and the inspiration of the universal Church.
Catherine Parish @ home
You would think that in an apparently civilised, peaceful society like ours, it would be an accepted thing that the most vulnerable amongst us would be accorded the highest level of legal protection. Yet the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us are gradually being deprived of the
■ with John Heard
“N o one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict.”
- St Maximilian Maria Kolbe
St Maximilian Maria Kolbe (August 14) was a remarkable man.
A Polish priest of singular stamina and verve, he started a religious movement dedicated to the spread of the Miraculous Medal, oversaw
protection of the law. First the most helpless of all, our unborn children, who are now experimented upon or aborted without any legal recourse or protection. Then the old and sick, under the pretence of living wills, having their right to high quality, dignified care up until the moment of natural death questioned, and made to feel afraid of becoming a burden that they ought not place upon their families. Then adopted children, denied the right to be adopted only by a couple made up of mother and father.
And now, in a most bizarre piece of illogicality, the State government is proposing to decriminalise prostitution because (and I quote from a Sunday Times article on August 12 this year) “Church will fight legal brothels bid”; “prostitution already exist(s) and police (are) forced to
turn a blind eye to brothels”. The police can’t stop burglaries either, so should we solve that problem by decriminalising burglary? Or any other endemic crime for that matter?
How odd to legalise something evil and so dehumanising, physically and emotionally harmful to all participants who engage in it for whatever reason they do so, as a way of ‘solving a problem’ and protecting the reputation of the police! The inconsistency of this approach becomes very obvious when one considers the recent ‘anti-hoon’ legislation to attempt to stop dangerous street racing and general stupidity of a relatively small group of people. Police were given additional powers to help them clamp down on the ‘hoons’. They can’t stop it but they can control it and
ameliorate its effect on innocent road users.
So why is it necessary in the case of prostitution – which they also claim they can’t stop – to decriminalise it so that police can’t be called corrupt any more when they ‘turn a blind eye’ to illegally operating brothels? Surely the same rationale used on the ‘hoons’ ought to apply; give the police extra powers to make it more difficult for the brothels to operate to limit the damage both to the prostitutes, the clients and the surrounding innocent members of society. It is so well documented that prostitution brings with it drug use, disease, involvement of the criminal element and of its nature is highly exploitative of the men and women who engage in it, whether they or their madams admit it or
not. Removing legal sanctions not only legitimises something essentially deleterious to society as a whole, it also removes any slight chance prostitutes may have of disentangling themselves from it once involved.
When I was a kid, legal meant right; the two words were interchangeable. How things have changed in the last forty years. Legal can mean convenient, popular, commonly accepted and practiced – but right doesn’t seem to come into it any more. We really need to make our voices heard now, if we don’t want more of this destructive, heartless, dehumanising, utilitarian type of legislation soiling our statute books. If this is the only way we can deal with such problems, with all our wealth and expertise, then heaven help us.
a vast publishing and broadcasting empire in Europe and Asia and, finally, challenged the Nazis.
He claimed, as a child, to have seen the Virgin Mary holding out two crowns - one white (purity) and one red (martyrdom).
She asked him which he would assume for her. Maximilian, then known as Rajmund, resolved to take up both. Rajmund was only 16 when he joined the Franciscans and only 24 when he was ordained priest in Rome. He lived as a Conventual Franciscan for the rest of his fortyseven years. His life was entwined with numbers. Gifted at mathematics and physics at school, he founded a City of the Immaculate (Niepokalanów) in Poland that boasted 800 inhabitants, then a record. Later, knowing no Japanese, he founded a second religious house in Nagasaki. It survived the 21 kiloton nuclear attack. His Japanese magazine Seibo no Kishi later ran to 65,000 copies. His Polish magazine had a print run of 750,000. A daily newspaper ran to 130,000 on weekdays and 225,000 on Sundays and Feasts.
These numbers, from the first
When I was confirmed about 63 years ago we had just one sponsor for all the children being confirmed. When my children were confirmed there was a sponsor of our choice for each child.
As I remember, there was no age limit; the sponsor only needed to be a practising Catholic.
Recently, when one grandchild was baptised there were two godparents, one Catholic and one Anglican.
I can’t keep up with these changes. Can you please tell me what the present law of the Church is regarding sponsors?
First of all, let me say that I find it strange that when you were confirmed there was only one sponsor for all the children.
This was certainly not the case when I was confirmed, also many years ago, and it was not part of Church law at the time. Usually there is one sponsor for each child.
As regards the sponsor, or god-
third of the twentieth century, eclipse the circulation figures attributed to most major Australian - and many American - publications today. Perhaps the most significant number associated with St Maximilian, however, is 16670. It is the prisoner number he was assigned by the Nazis.
Such marks were used to dehumanise millions of Jews and other innocents in the extermination camps in Auschwitz.
The Nazis visited a cruel and often murderous penalty on anyone judged to be a racial, religious, sexual, political, cultural or artistic ‘degenerate’. However, such a situation, this debasement of the human person, the cruelty and horror of the Nazi machine found its match in St Maximilian, the self-styled Knight of the Immaculate.
He printed anti-Nazi material until they shut down his presses. Until they were suppressed, he and his brothers preached vigorously against neo-Pagan idolatry. His community courageously sheltered three thousand Polish refugees, two thirds of whom were Jewish.
For his opposition to the Nazis, St
parent, for Baptism, the Code of Canon Law, while not strictly requiring a sponsor, highly recommends it. It says: “Insofar as possible, a person being baptised is to be assigned a sponsor.
“In the case of an adult baptism, the sponsor’s role is to assist the person in Christian initiation.
“In the case of an infant baptism, the role is together with the parents to present the child for baptism, and to help it to live a Christian life befitting the baptised and faithfully to fulfil the duties inherent in baptism.” (Can. 872)
While one sponsor is sufficient, and can be male or female, the Code says that there may be two, one of each sex. (Cf. Can. 873)
In practice, it is common to have two sponsors.
Since the role of the sponsor is to assist the person in living out their faith, it is important that he or she have certain qualities.
The Code of Canon Law lists five. First, the sponsor is to be
Maximilian was imprisoned in Warsaw and later transferred to Auschwitz. Even there, amid the horrors of camp life, he continued to serve. He heard confessions. He said Mass in secret. He sustained his brothers and sisters in faith. He was beaten by the guards and afflicted with sorrows. He’d worn Mary’s white crown of purity and service all his life. Now at last, he was called to wear her red crown too.
After a Protestant man with a family was singled out for death, St Maximilian chose to die in his place.
In that final extremity, in a starvation chamber where an entire people, a nation and an idea of a more gentle world were so nearly extinguished, St Maximilian’s soul – like Our Lady’s – magnified the Lord. He sang and prayed with the other prisoners. He survived for three weeks – indeed, seemed to flourish - until the guards, unnerved by his vigour and tranquillity, murdered him with a lethal injection on August 14, 1941.
St Maximilian, however, had triumphed in the inner conflict.
Even in that filthy pit, he showed that no one in the world can change
appointed by the candidate for baptism or by their parents or whoever stands in their place, or by the parish priest or the minister of baptism. The sponsor must have the intention of fulfilling this role. (Can. 874, §1, 1)
The sponsor is not there merely to fulfil a role during the baptism. He or she has an ongoing commitment to help the baptised person to live out their faith and must have the intention of fulfilling this role.
Second, the sponsor should be at least 16 years of age, unless there is a just reason for an exception to be made. (Can. 874, §1, 2)
Third, the sponsor is to be a Catholic who has been confirmed and has received the blessed Eucharist, and who lives a life of faith in keeping with their role as a sponsor. (Can. 874, §1, 3).
Fourth, the sponsor must not be under any canonical penalty such as excommunication, suspension, etc. (Can. 874, §1, 4)
Finally, the sponsor cannot be
the Truth. No leader, no matter how powerful, can force us to sever our relationship with God. No regime can disguise, nor ideology deny the inherent value of human life.
St Maximilian’s life of purity and his martyr’s death ensure that, long after the military battle has been decided, our ongoing internal fight remains illuminated by his witness. We can seek the truth and we must serve it when we find it; the bright blood of this martyr of love compels us. The Church in Paris has just buried her emeritus Archbishop Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger (August 10), but the wider world should know and revere the man, learn his thinking and study his life. In the words of Maurice Druon his fellow ‘Immortal’ in the Académie Française, he was:
“...Jean-Marie, for a quarter century, a manner of miracle: incredible to behold, the inconceivable expressed, the impossible existent... the Jewish cardinal”.
Cardinal Lustiger’s mother, Gisele, also died in Auschwitz. John Heard is a Melbourne writer and an honours student in the School of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne.
the father or mother of the person to be baptised. (Can. 874, §1, 5)
The role of the sponsor is to assist the father and mother in the Catholic upbringing of the child. The sponsor may, however, be a brother or sister or another close relative of the baptised person. While non-Catholics cannot be sponsors or godparents in the strict sense, the Code does allow a baptised person from another Christian denomination to be a witness to the baptism along with a Catholic sponsor. (Can. 874, §2) The Anglican you mention in your question would thus have been a witness, not a godparent in the strict sense.
As regards the sponsor for Confirmation, again the Code does not strictly require a sponsor, although it highly recommends having one.
Questions for Fr
Young people may have odd ideas about marriage. But on one issue they are sounder than their parents: they loathe divorce.
“Generation Gap in Values, Behaviours” screamed the headlines regarding the Pew Research Centre report on attitudes toward marriage and parenthood.
The younger generation is more accepting of cohabitation, pre-marital sex and same sex “marriage.”
But one of the most promising “generation gaps” in attitudes didn’t make the news: the younger generation is more tough-minded about divorce than its elders.
The executive summary of the report summarises the findings on divorce this way: “Americans by lopsided margins endorse the mum-and-dad home as the best setting in which to raise children.
But by equally lopsided margins, they believe that if married parents are very unhappy with one another, divorce is the best option, both for them and for their children.”
Well, this summary certainly fits with the media’s cultural script of marriage being a desirable but probably outmoded institution. But that doesn’t accord with what I have seen of the young.
As I go around giving speeches and participating in debates on campuses, I have been stunned by how many young people are fed up with divorce. They approach me after my speeches to tell me about their parents’ four divorces.
I get emails from young people telling me how horrid it was when their mum kicked their dad out of the house and describing the humiliation of watching their mum’s parade of boyfriends.
Even students who disagree with me about things like same sex “marriage,” admit I’m right about the problems of children of unmarried parents. These young men and women want lifelong marriage for
themselves, and for their children. So, I downloaded the Pew Centre Report, printed it out and looked up the detailed tables. Sure enough, in the back on pages 43 to 46, I found what I was looking for. The table entitled “Who’s been divorced: A Profile” clearly illustrates that the Baby Boomers created the bulge in divorce.
Among those who had ever been married, the age group 50–64 had the highest percentage ever divorced: 45 per cent. Do the math: those are the Boomers, born between 1943 and 1957.
The really telling table was “Views About Divorce, by Gender, Race and Age,” which asks this question: “Which statement comes closer to your views about divorce? Should be avoided except in an extreme situation, or preferable to maintaining an unhappy marriage?”
A strong majority of all adults, 58 per cent, said that divorce was preferable to an unhappy marriage. But breaking the responses down by age shows the generational impact of the Divorce Revolution.
Of the Boomers, 66 per cent preferred divorce over an unhappy marriage. Those aged 65 and over gave similar answers: 58 per cent thought divorce is better than an unhappy marriage.
This is not entirely surprising: these two generations institutionalized the Divorce Revolution. The immediate post WWII generation implemented no-fault divorce. The Boomers practised it with a vengeance.
Their children, and their younger siblings are not so enthused. Of those born between 1958 and 1977, 42 per cent believe divorce should be avoided except in an extreme situation.
And the youngest generation surveyed, those between the ages of 18 and 29, were even more likely to believe divorce should be a last resort: exactly what my ear-to-theground surveys told me.
Unfortunately, some of the other attitudes of the younger genera-
tion will not serve them well in their ambitions for life-long married love.
The tolerance for cohabitation is particularly counter-productive. Women who cohabit before marriage are more, not less, likely to divorce. Multiple sexual partners before marriage increases the probability of divorce.
The younger generation’s liberal attitudes toward sex sets them up for marital failure. Even the much-vaunted shift from children to chores bodes ill for successful marriage.
The Pew Survey noted with concern that only 40 per cent of their survey thought that children are very important to a happy marriage, while fully 62 per cent believe “sharing chores” is very impor-
tant. Studies have shown that the happiest marriages are not those in which men and women share every duty exactly down the middle. The happiest wives are those who believe the overall division of labour is “fair,” but their definition of fair includes an expansive view of supporting the household.
And women are happiest when they feel appreciated, not necessarily when they’ve turned their husbands into Assistant Mums.
Common sense and rigorous honesty reveal that we are all perfectly capable of overstating our own contributions, and understating our partners’, particularly when we are trying to extract extra effort from them.
Yet these very situations cause the most lasting bitterness. We
don’t appreciate what our spouse does, while demanding everlasting gratitude for what we do.
Not exactly a recipe for marital bliss.
Today’s young people want lifelong married love. But as the saying goes, You Can’t Get There from Here.
Their priorities about sex, children and chores are certainly counter-productive.
Those of us who survived the Sexual Revolution owe it to the young to give them more accurate information and steer them in more constructive paths. They won’t succeed unless we do.
and a Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope
Benedict XVI has sent a personal letter and a gift, reportedly a golden pen, to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, who promised he would respond in writing.
In a brief statement, the Vatican said retired French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray delivered the Pope’s letter to the patriarch in Moscow on August 7.
The Cardinal was on his way to Siberia to join celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the consecration of
the Catholic cathedral in Novosibirsk.
After meeting the patriarch, Cardinal Etchegaray, citing joint meetings and conferences, told reporters that relations between Catholics and Russian Orthodox continue to improve.
The Cardinal’s remarks led to speculation that perhaps a meeting between the Pope and the patriarch, long desired by the Vatican, could be closer to realisation. Cardinal Etchegaray confirmed that the chances have improved, but said no firm plans are being made.
The Russian Orthodox have insisted the patriarch will not meet the Pope
until they are satisfied that Catholics are not proselytising in Russia.
The Vatican repeatedly has said it rejects proselytism and wants to be informed of any specific instances where Catholics are trying to entice Orthodox Christians to embrace Catholicism.
NYALA, Sudan (CNS) - The decision by the United Nations to send peacekeeping troops to the Darfur region of Sudan will fail to put an end to years of bloodshed unless the peacekeepers come with a clear mandate to protect civilians, said an official of an ecumenical relief effort in Nyala.
After seven months of negotiations with the Sudanese government, the UN Security Council voted July 31 to send 26,000 peacekeepers to Darfur. They will not all arrive until sometime next year, provided the UN can come up with the troops and the estimated $2 billion needed to deploy them. The UN soldiers and police will absorb a beleaguered African Union contingent of 7000 troops that has failed to stop what many - including the US Congress - consider genocide.
Yet Adam Ateem, director of peace-building and protection activities for the ecumenical Darfur Emergency Response Operation, told Catholic News Service that the UN force will fail unless it learns a lesson from the African Union’s experience.
“The AU force had a very vulnerable mandate. They could monitor and report only. The militias and the rebels and the government knew this, and they could do whatever they wanted,” Ateem said. “If the UN force comes with a weak mandate, they won’t be able to do anything. If they’re coming to keep the peace, they have to be able to protect civilians, especially the IDPs (internally displaced persons) ... if they choose to return to their villages. Without a clear mandate to do that, they’ll fail, just as the AU has failed.”
As many as 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2003 when the government responded to a growing insurgency in the region by arming Arab militias to attack African farming villages that supported the rebels. Often with direct support from the Sudanese military, the militiasknown as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback” - attacked and burned hundreds of African villages, driving more than two million people
from their homes into crowded camps inside Darfur and across the border in neighbouring Chad.
The African Union force was deployed in 2004 in an attempt to stop the violence, but its limited mandate under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter turned its members into mostly passive observers.
“They did nothing but became a target, and their soldiers began to get killed and their vehicles hijacked. They’ve been useless,” said Ateem, an attorney originally from North Darfur.
The newly approved UN peacekeepers will operate under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which grants them the right to use force to protect civilians. Yet they will have no authority to seize weapons from belligerents, nor is there any provision for sanctioning the Sudanese government if it continues its noncompliance with UN Security Council resolutions.
“The Security Council has passed lots of resolutions, but the government of Sudan ignores them. The international community tries to be flexible, but the government of Sudan takes advantage of that,” Ateem said. “It’s good the UN troops are coming here, but the international community must play a stronger role if we’re going to end this crisis.”
The UN force will only have a peace to keep if the parties to the conflict can agree to a ceasefire and subsequent peace. A 2006 peace deal, pushed through at the last minute after intense pressure from the US government, called for disarming the Arab militias, something the Sudanese government has failed to do. Only one rebel faction agreed to the peace deal, and its leader now has little following.
The other rebel groups have splintered into more than a dozen different factions. A unity summit of the rebels took place in Arusha, Tanzania, in early August, but Abdel Wahid Nur, a leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the most popular of the rebel chieftains, refused to attend.
Those who did show up called on the government to engage in “final” peace talks within two or three months. Even if the rebels can unite and successfully negoti-
ate a new deal with the government, Ateem said, that will not be enough. “A peace agreement between the government and the rebels is not real peace; it’s simply political peace,” he said.
“We have to build social peace on the ground. The signing itself can give us extra energy to promote real social peace on the ground between tribes and between communities.”
An ecumenical relief organisation working in Sudan’s Darfur region is hoping to undercut violence by educating displaced people about human rights and peace.
Darfur Emergency Response Operation has helped displaced women build more efficient cooking stoves, lessening the number of trips they have to make out of the camps to forage for firewood - journeys that often result in rape by Arab militia members.
Right: The Darfur Emergency Response Operation, based in Nyala, Sudan, has been providing help to displaced people in western Sudan since 2004. The effort is a joint project of the Catholic agency Caritas Internationalis and the Protestant Action by Churches agency. GRAPHIC: CNS
The long-lasting Pope Pius XII bashing could be over within a year when he could be beatified, according to an elderly nun who has spent decades clearing his name.
Pope Pius XII has long been attacked for failing to do enough to save the Jews during the Second World War and speak out against Nazi atrocities.
Sister Margherita Marchione, a Filippinni Sister who has written eight books exonerating the wartime Pope, told England’s The Catholic Herald that Pius XII has already been declared Venerable, the penultimate stage to beatification, and that she believed he would be declared Blessed “within a year”.
Sr Marchione, an 85-year-old nun from New Jersey, says the task ahead is to “pray for a miracle”, and went as far as saying that “I’m sure that we have some already”.
Members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes allegedly voted to recommend in May that Pope Benedict XVI formally declare Pius XII venerable.
Italian newspapers, citing anonymous sources, have already claimed that the congregation’s cardinals and archbishops have recommended that Pope Benedict formally recognise that Pius XII lived the Christian virtues in a heroic manner. Corriere della Sera reported that a minority of the congre-
gation members had voted “no”, urging Pope Benedict XVI to delay issuing a decree until there is a “more favourable climate”, particularly regarding the ongoing controversy over Pius XII’s wartime actions.
The Catholic Herald said that the papal spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, watered down speculation of an imminent beatification.
He noted that Pius XII was not listed among 17 decrees issued by the Congregation that recognised miracles on July 6.
“A decree on the cause of Pius XII wasn’t among these, and so it seems strange to me that a new decree would be made public
in August,” Fr Lombardi told The Catholic Herald.
He verified that although reports of the vote among the commission of cardinals in May were based on “reliable sources”, he stressed that the Holy See press office had yet to issue anything definitive on the matter. “We haven’t made a statement and it isn’t our task to do so,” Fr Lombardi said.
If the reports are true, however, Sr Marchione says she believes that Pius XII’s beatification would silence his many critics, as happened with the beatification of Pius IX. THE
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNS) - Catholic laypeople must put their faith into action by saying “yes” to Christ, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, during an August 8 keynote address to the Knights of Columbus.
“This ‘yes’ is quite simply the ‘yes’ of faith,” he said, stressing that it is a “full, unmitigated acceptance of Jesus as Lord and our commitment to follow him as master and teacher.”
The Cardinal addressed the Knights at their 125th annual national convention at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, which drew over 2600 Knights and their families.
In his keynote address, he urged the Knights to follow the example of their founder, Fr Michael McGivney, saying the priest understood that all believers, not just priests or religious, were called to put their faith into action.
Fr McGivney “had a deep appreciation for the special characteristics of the lay vocation as being thoroughly immersed in the spheres of the family, civil society and public life,” the Cardinal said.
He also said the priest made it his goal to “develop practical
SEOUL, South Korea - Catholic officials have welcomed the planned summit between the leaders of North and South Korea and expressed hope the meeting will further relations between the two estranged neighbours.
Noting that both countries had “experienced ups and downs,” Fr Peter Pai Young-ho, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, expressed hope the summit will “encourage smooth communications between the two Koreas.”
He told the Asian church news agency UCA News that he also hopes “the summit will be a good chance for a mutual exchange between religions in the North and South.”
The countries announced on August 8 that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was to meet South Korea’s President Roh Moohyun in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, from August 28-30. The meeting will be the second between leaders of the two Koreas. The first was in June 2000.
Thomas Han Hong-soon, president of the Catholic Lay Apostolate Council of Korea, said: “The more
ways of ensuring that faith could be put into concrete action: especially by providing for the material needs of orphans, widows, the imprisoned, alcoholics, the unemployed and the destitute.”
But Fr McGivney, according to the Cardinal, also understood that concern for the poor and those in need had to be rooted in faith so that the charitable actions did not lose their deeper meaning.
This kind of active faith is also a theme of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” (“God Is Love”), the cardinal said, adding that it is only by “living the life of faith” - deeply rooted in knowing God’s love and mercy - that believers can love and forgive others.
He acknowledged that laypeople are asked to live out their faith “in the midst of an increasingly complex and contradictory world” and can be tempted to “compromise their ‘yes’ to God by diluting Gospel values and by placing limits or conditions on love of neighbour.”
The way for the Church to succeed in being a witness to the Gospel, the Cardinal said, is through the ability of bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity to work together.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNS) - Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the second highest ranking official at the Vatican, told members of the Knights of Columbus that he is taking a personal interest in the beatification process for the order’s founder, Fr Michael McGivney.
“I hope this recognition (of sanctity) will arrive soon, and I’ll personally work on this, so that this day will come soon,”
Cardinal Bertone said during his homily, delivered in Italian, at the August 7 opening Mass of
the Knights of Columbus’ 125th annual national convention at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.
Cardinal Bertone’s comments on the sainthood cause of Fr McGivney were met with applause from the Knights attending the Mass.
“I was thrilled,” Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the supreme chaplain of the Knights of Columbus, said of Cardinal Bertone’s comments. “I think he appreciates what it would mean for parish
the leaders meet and dialogue the better will be relations between both Koreas. I hope the summit will promote peace on the Korean peninsula and human development in the two Koreas.”
Fr Paul Han Jung-kwan, secretary of the bishops’ Committee for
the Reconciliation of the Korean People, said he hopes that “the summit promotes mutual reconciliation and peace.”
The summit comes after North Korea took steps toward shutting down its sole operating nuclear reactor in July in exchange for oil
aid. Through various sanctions over the years, the international community has been trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are negotiating with North Korea in
priests in the US and around the world, to have one of their own canonised a saint,” Bishop Lori said on Eternal Word Television Network, which was broadcasting several events from the convention.
Fr McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus at St Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882. The fraternal order for Catholic men has grown to become the largest lay Catholic organisation in the world with more than 1.7 million members around the globe.
six-nation talks on a timeline for the communist nation to declare and disable all its nuclear facilities.
The 2000 summit between then-president Kim Dae-jung of South Korea and North Korean leader Kim led to reduced tension and unprecedented cooperation between the countries.
But any communication by mail or phone and the exchange of people or material between the two Koreas requires special approval from both governments.
There is no public transport linking the North and South.
After Korea was freed from Japanese rule at the end of World War II, it was split into the Soviet Union-backed communist North and the US-supported South.
After the 1950-1953 Korean War, triggered by North Korea’s attempt to reunify the Korean peninsula by force, the North-South rift worsened.
The war ended with an armistice agreement rather than a peace treaty.
More than a million troops still border the buffer zone separating the two countries.
People from all over Western Australia are expected to join in a special celebration for the Feast of the Birthday of Mary. Want to join in?
■ By Sylvia DefendiIt’s not often an entire state is given the opportunity to join together in prayer, yet students, schools, parishes, families and individuals are being invited to do just that early in September.
Now in its 19th year the 48-hour Perpetual Rosary Bouquet, has been uniting a growing number of Catholic participants from all walks of life and from all over Western Australia.
Participants are called to dedicate a mere one hour of their day or night, between 6pm on September 5 and 6pm on September 7, to praying the Rosary for the intentions of Our Mother, Mary.
Everyone is encouraged to take part in this continuous veneration, which will link parishes and people from across the state with prayer for 48 hours.
All participants, whether individuals or groups, will be recorded on the Rosary Bouquet Scroll, which will be presented during Our Lady’s birthday Mass at St Joachim’s parish in Victoria Park on September 8 at 10.30pm.
Last year, almost 70 parishes accross the state participated in the Perpetual Rosary Bouquet, with many being regular participants.
Organiser Margaret Bowen, who said she acknowledged the power of children’s prayer, especially invited Western Australian Catholic schools to take part
in this year’s rosary bouquet.
Asked for his support and blessing, Archbishop Barry Hickey responded by saying:
“I hope that many people will respond to this invitation. The rosary is a powerful prayer and Mary is a wonderful advocate. Let us hope that the children in schools will be particularly motivated to join in with the prayers.”
Many schools participated in last year’s Rosary Bouquet and Mrs Bowen said she was confident many more would join the chain of Perth Catholics involved in this 48-hour gift to Our Lady.
“What a consolation these 48 hours will be for Our Blessed Mother.
“In so many parts of the world she looks down on war and bloodshed, but during these hours she will be looking down on WA on those praying her favourite prayer, the rosary, out of love for her,” she said.
The Mass at St Joachim’s on September 8 will be celebrated by the Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Monsignor Thomas McDonald, while the meditative Rosary for the occasion will be lead by Columban missionary priest Fr Paul Carey.
Those who are interested in participating are asked to fill in their details on the rosary roster (right), giving their desired time, and forward it on to Mrs Bowen at 1/44A Scalby St, Doubleview 6018; faxed to: 9341 8083 or emailed to bowen@iinet.net.au, so that they can be recorded on the official scroll.
For more information contact Mrs Margaret Bowen on 9341 8082.
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Will you be there? We want your photo!
The Rosary, and its accompanying devotion to Mary is one of the most beautiful and profound spiritualities in the Church and of its 2000-year-old history. If you, your family, your school or parish are part of this year’s Rosary Bouquet then we want your photos of the event so we can show our readers what it was like. No-one is too young or too old to take part, so send your photos to: production@therecord.com.au (high resolution, please, if you’re emailing) or via snail (but ultimately reliable) mail to PO Box 75, Leederville WA 6902 . Let’s give Mary a gift to remember!
It’s not just a game
Videogames can have serious consequences so parents need to find out exactly what is in them, writes Melanie
KillenAs we head back to the beginning of a new school year in the northern hemisphere, with the annual break occurring in the summer here, parents once again have to help their kids balance the obligations and joys that come with school, classes, homework, and extracurricular activities.
While most of these tasks are familiar to parents, technology has added a new dimension - thanks to everything from the iPod to videogames and internet surfing. Much as kids might complain when parents monitor their activities, research shows that adolescents clearly want their parents to be involved and assist them when they are trying to juggle school and play.
This is because kids know that self-monitoring can be difficult. Recent research has shown that the effects of extreme videogame playing, in particular, can be subtle, yet detrimental to youth’s classroom productivity, attentiveness, focus, and satisfaction - something that parents and kids are still not fully aware of. While there are a range of videogames, including some that are educational, fun, and academic, there are also many videogames that are extremely violent, aggressive, and sexually exploitive, much to the surprise of many parents.
Negative games, that promote aggressiveness (“points” for killing someone) and depict sexually exploitive images (mostly of females) are pervasive throughout the gaming world, and remain readily available to youngsters.
Researchers Craig Anderson and colleagues at Iowa State University have consistently shown that high amounts of video game playing increases hyperactivity, unfortunately, and reduces attentiveness to details and information.
Further, research conducted by myself at the University of Maryland with doctoral students Alaina Brenick and Alexandra Henning, has shown that there is a fairly high acceptance of negative stereotypic images in videogames, and particularly by male adolescents. The more frequently adolescents play games, the less likely they are to be critical about the negative images.
What are parents to do? There are two important dimensions to consider when determining how to monitor children’s videogame playing: (1) time spent playing, and (2) quality of the game. Even for games that are educational and fun (and these do exist!), children and adolescents should limit their time playing (30 minutes a day for children, and one hour a day for adolescents). This is
because the time that they are playing these games is time that they are not interacting with peers, getting physical activity, or getting school work done, all essential components for the healthy development of youth.
Regarding the quality of the games, parents need to open their eyes and watch the games that their children are playing. They should examine the content of the games, and what’s involved.
Many of the games involve horrific violence; repeated exposure to this content has short-term and long-term negative consequences. It’s not enough to hear that “my friends all play it!” Their friends probably do play the videogames - but that does not make it a positive experience for American youth. How to approach kids? We recommend that parents engage in a discussion with their children and adolescents about videogame use. Taking an authoritarian stance in which rules are laid down with no explanations usually results in kids sneaking around and playing games outside of the home. Instead, help children to be discerning and discriminating, and educate them indirectly about the content, and the consequences. Ask kids to explain the content, the goals, and the aims of the games. Then, use the opportunity to talk about the content, whether it should be changed, whether there are negative consequences, and how much they believe it influences their own behaviour and attitudes.
In a recent study by the University of Maryland, adolescents were asked about the consequences of videogame playing. One adolescent stated that while the violent images were “...bad and not what I’d want my younger brother to see, it’s OK for me because I’m not going to go out and kill someone tomorrow.”
This view reflects a very literal interpretation of what it means to be affected by video game-playing. In fact, studies have shown that videogame playing increases hyperactivity and compulsivity, implicit aspects of behaviour that may not be readily apparent to the player.
There are two general guidelines to keep in mind: (1) explicit consequences are not the only negative consequences that can occur; and (2) adolescents know that parental guidelines are helpful. Parents need to find a compromise regarding the amount of time playing, and then provide videogames that are cognitively beneficial rather than socially destructive. The juggling act is seen here; helping adolescents to divide their time efficiently, and to find a balance between school work, play, friends, and physical activity is a challenge but is an important recipe for healthy social and intellectual development.
Official Diary - August
PLEASE NOTE THE ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICES WILL CLOSE AT 1.00PM FRIDAY 24 AUGUST AND RE-OPEN AT 21 VICTORIA SQUARE ON WEDNESDAY 29 AUGUST.
Sunday August 19
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Will be celebrated at the Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook 2pm. There will be a Rosary Procession before the Pilgrim Mass followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Confessions are available at 1.30pm each Sunday before Mass. All are most welcome. Enq: 9447 3292.
Sunday August 19
TAIZE MEDITATIVE PRAYER
7pm-8pm Sisters of St. Joseph Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth. Come and join in the Taize Prayer this month as we remember Brother Roger’s anniversary of his death in Taize. Come and bring your friends and pray in a candlelit chapel in stillness and peace. Bring along a small torch and a friend. Enq: Sister Maree Riddler 0414 683 926.
Sunday August 19
REFLECTIONS ON THE TEACHINGS OF MEISTER ECKHART
The Annual St Dominic Commemorative Lecture will be presented by Fr Tom Cassidy OP at 3pm in the Parish Hall of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Angelico St, Woodlands. Entry will be by gold coin donation. Fr Cassidy will discuss Eckhart’s teaching on how we become one with God.
Sunday August 19
RADIO GATE OF HEAVEN
Every Sunday 7:30-9pm: 1O7.9FM. Voices On Virtue w/Barbara McGuigon “The Virtue Of Charity (B)” Episode#6 and Life On The Rock w/Fr. Francis Mary “Having Fun Evangelising” Episode #157
Tuesday August 21
SET MY PEOPLE ON FIRE
To December 2 beginning at 7.45 pm sharp each week. St. Anthony’s Parish, 96 Innamincka Road in Greenmount begins 15 weekly Bible sessions for Building a Faith Building Community - Living Life in the Word called “Set My People on Fire,” is presented by Perth Catholic organization Flame Ministries International and will feature international speakers and the Flame Music Ministry. The program runs each Tuesday evening with a Friday to Sunday weekend every 5th week. Free admission - Enq: (08) 9382 3668 - Email: smpof@flameministries.org - Program: flameministries.org/smpof.html.
Tuesday 21 and Thursday 23 August
MARY AND THE SCRIPTURES
Fr Hugh Thomas, CSsR, will present a two-lecture series on “Mary and the Scriptures” at Acts 2 College of Mission & Evangelisation. 9am to 12.30pm, commencing with Mass. 67 Howe St, Osborne Park. Suggested donation $10 per session. All welcome. Enq: Jane 92026859.
Friday 24-26th August FIRE WEEKEND
Come away with other young Catholics (18-35yrs) to experience the power of God being unleashed in your life. A wonderful and unique preparation for anyone attending WYD 08. Ring Mario 0411 641 245 / 9202 6843 for more information or registration forms.
Saturday August 25
BEYOND THE MASK
9am–12noon The General Public and John XXIII College Parents are Invited to attend. A workshop following the Talk “Maximising our Inner Strength” in Term 2 Presenter: Carol Bush (Registered Psychologist) Multi-purpose Room (now The MacKillop Room) follow signs. John XXIII College. Cost: $10 (or donation unwaged).
Sunday August 26
GOSPEL CONCERT
A Catholic Social Justice event supporting Ugandan orphans with food, care & schooling. Redemptorist Monastery North Perth 2pm to 4.45pm featuring WA’s finest Gospel Performers. Advance purchase tickets only - Adults $12, Children $2 erichancock@swiftdsl.com.au or phone 9446 1558.
Wednesday August 29
PREGNANCY ASSISTANCE INFORMATION DAY
Are you Pro-Life? Compassionate? A Good Listener? An Information Day will be held on Wed, 29th Aug from 9.30am-2.30pm for those who would like to know more about becoming a pregnancy support volunteer. To register, phone Pregnancy Assistance on 9328 2926.
Thursday August 30
THE 24TH ANNUAL NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF GOOD HEALTH, VAILANKANNI
Starts 7pm and ends on September 8, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Holy Trinity Church, Embleton. Social get-together follows on the first and last day of the Novena. Please bring a plate. Thank you. Enq; Mons P McCrann 9271 5528 or George Jacob 9272 1379.
Friday August 31
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE HEALING SERVICE
7.30pm – 9.30pm Our Lady of the Mission, 270 Camberwarra Drive Whitford. If you know someone who needs prayer, Jesus says ‘Ask and you shall receive’ Fr Michael Brown OFM will be giving a teaching on the words of Jesus ‘What can I do for you’. Also we are looking for enthusiastic singers familiar with Charismatic songs and praise to assist in our ministry. Please contact Jenni Young on 9445 1028 or mobile 0404 389 679.
Saturday September 1
DAY WITH MARY
9am – 5pm Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, cnr Harfoot & Milroy Streets, Willagee. A video on Fatima will be shown at 9am followed by a day of prayer and instruction based upon the messages of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.
Saturday September 1
WITNESS FOR LIFE PROCESSION
The next first Saturday Mass, Procession and Rosary Vigil will commence with Mass at 8.30am at St Anne’s Church, Hehir St Belmont. We proceed
prayerfully to the Rivervale Abortion centre and conclude with Rosary, led by Fr Paul Carey SSC. Please join us to pray peacefully for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.
Sunday September 2
DIVINE MERCY
An afternoon with Jesus and Mary will be held at St Joachim’s Church on the corner of Shepperton and Harper Street in Victoria Park 1.30pm. Program: Holy Rosary and Reconciliation. Sermon: Our Lady of Perpetual Help with Fr Hugh Thomas CSSR. Followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Afterwards refreshments in the Parish Hall, followed by a video with Mother Angelica entitled, ‘We do not see with our hearts’. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.
Thursday - Sunday September 6 – 10
FEAST OF OUR LADY MARIA SANTISSIMA DEL TINDARI
Basilica Saint Patrick, Adelaide Street Fremantle. The Feast of Maria SS.Del Tindari will be held during the second week of September. It begins with Triduum which will be celebrated by Fr Sergio Natoli O.M.I. from Italy, beginning Thursday September 6 to Saturday 8 at 7.30pm. The concelebrated Mass will be on Sunday September 10 at 9.45am. The Principal Celebrant will be Bishop Peter Quinn. The procession through the streets of Fremantle will commence from the Basilica at 2pm. Enq: Joe Franchina 0404 801 138 or 9335 1185.
Friday September 7
PROLIFE PROCESSION MIDLAND
The first Friday Mass, Procession and Rosary vigil will commence at 9.30am with Mass celebrated at St Brigid’s Church, Midland. The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate will lead us. All are invited to witness for the sanctity of life and pray for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.
Friday September 7
APPLICATIONS CLOSE FOR CACW FELLOWSHIPS
The Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW) was established by the Australian Catholic Bishops‚ Conference in 2000. CACW seeks to promote the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia. CACW is pleased to announce that the 2008 application package for the Young Catholic Women’s‚ Interfaith Fellowship is now available. The package can be downloaded from: www.cacw. catholic.org.au For further information regarding the CACW or the Fellowship, please contact: michelleww@iinet.net.au or 9345 2555.
Thursday to Sunday September 13-16
CURSILLO FOR WOMEN
7pm to be held at ‘Penola by the Sea’, 27 Penguin Rd, Safety Bay. For application forms and/or further information please phone Jeanie Hoff on 95313842 or 0421 725 508.
Friday September 14
MASS AND HEALING SERVICE WITH ALAN AMES
7pm St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church cnr College Rd and Melville St Claremont. Contact Loretta 9444 4409.
Friday to Sunday September 14-16
RETREAT PRAYER IN THE FRANCISCAN TRADITION
All those interested in learning more about St Francis and prayer in the Franciscan tradition are welcome to attend. The retreat will be held at the Redemptorist Retreat House. The retreat will be given by Deacon Dick Scallan SFO. For information and bookings please contact Mary on 9377 7925 by August 31.
Saturday September 22
ST PADRE PIO PILGRIMAGE TO TOODYAY
Programme: 10.15am – DVD Presentation of St Pio’s Life. 11.30am – Solemn Holy Mass- St Padre Pio Liturgy. Lunch BYO. Tea & Coffee provided. Afternoon-Eucharistic Procession, Adoration, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Benediction, Confessions available. Finish 4.15pm Buses departing St Joachim’s Vic Park, Mirrabooka, Girrawheen contact Nita 9367 1366. Glendalough, Leederville, Morley, Midland contact Des 6278 1540.
Sunday September 23
40TH ANNIVERSARY OUR LADY OF LOURDES Past parishioners and friends of Our Lady of Lourdes, Nollamara are warmly invited to attend the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of our Church and the Blessing of its extensions. Celebrations will begin with a concelebrated Mass at 2.30pm followed by light refreshments. For further enquiries please contact the Parish Centre of 9345 5541.
Sunday September 23
ST JOSEPH’S CHURCH TRAYNING CELEBRATES 81 YEARS 10.30am St Joseph’s Trayning will celebrate 81 years. Mass will be followed by a bring and share lunch. Contacts: Sandra Waters 9683 2048 email: rosalind@bbsat.com.au Val Enriquez 9683 1191, Fr Chien 9685 2399.
October 11, 12 and 13
TRIDUUM TO CELEBRATE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FATIMA APPARITIONS
Holy Trinity Church, Embleton. 7pm Holy Mass followed by Rosary, Litany, Marian Prayer and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Thursday and Friday respectively. Saturday 13th, Vigil Mass at 6pm followed by devotions as above, concluding with candle light procession and fellowship at the hall to thank and farewell Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate the Preacher Fr John Josep. Please bring a plate. Enq: Mons McCrann 9271 5528 or Judy David 9275 5827 or George Jacob 9272 1379.
Friday 19 - Sunday 21 October
MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER WEEKEND
When You Care Enough. Looking for a new way to let your spouse know you love them in the midst of your jobs, the kids, sport and trying to keep up with your house, pool and garden? Tell him or her they’re still No. 1 in your life. To love the very best in your marriage, treat yourselves to a Marriage Encounter Weekend. Register now for the last weekend for the year 2007. Contact Joe & Margaret Cordina on 9417 8750 for further details & Bookings.
Saturday October 20
ST JOSEPH’S YOUTH GROUP, QUEENS PARK, 30 YEAR REUNION
All past members of the St Joseph’s Youth Group are invited to attend a reunion. If you would like to attend or know of someone who was a member, please contact Wayne McGoorty on 9351 9563 or email dmcgoorty@upnaway.com or Carolyn Pen on 0411 133 465 or email penpc@optusnet.com.au for further details of this event.
Friday November 17
INTERCESSION FOR WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008
All night prayer vigil. St Bernadette’s, Jugan St, Glendalough. 8pm-6am Begins with Mass ends with Breakfast. All are welcome to come to pray and intercede for World Youth Day 2008. Come for an hour, stay the night.
First Sunday of each month
DEVOTIONS IN HONOUR OF THE DIVINE MERCY
The Santa Clara Parish community welcomes anyone from surrounding parishes and beyond to Santa Clara Church, cnr of Coolgardie and Pollack Sts, Bentley. The afternoon commences with the 3 o’clock prayers, followed by the Divine Mercy Chaplet, reflection and concludes with Benediction.
Last Sunday each month
HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE
Charismatic Mass celebrated at the Holy Spirit Chapel, 85 Boas Avenue, Joondalup at 5.45pm.
Every Saturday PERPETUAL HELP DEVOTIONS
4.30pm. The half hour perpetual novena devotions to the Mother of Perpetual Help continue each Saturday at the Redemptorist Monastery Church, 190 Vincent St, in North Perth. Reconciliation available before and after the devotions. All welcome.
Every Sunday BULLSBROOK SHRINE
Sunday pilgrim Mass is celebrated with Holy Rosary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament 2pm at the Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook. Reconciliation is available in Italian and English before every celebration. Enq: 9447 3292.
Every Sunday RADIO GATE OF HEAVEN
7.30-9pm. 107.9FM. 1. Getting God’s Help w/Fr Benedict Groeschel - “The Gift of Fear of The Lord” Episode #8. Life on the rock w/Fr Francis Mary“Activists & Participants in the Walk for Life on the West Coast” Episode #156.
Every Sunday LATIN MASS
The Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal is offered every Sunday at Our Lady of Fatima, 10 Foss St, Palmyra at noon. All welcome.
Every fourth Monday SCRIPTURAL PRAYER PROGRAM
7.30-9pm. Venue: St Mary’s Parish Centre, 40 Franklin St, Leederville. The Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW) is offering a scriptural prayer program developed in the Jesuit tradition. This form of prayer can lead to more reflective living, greater spiritual depths and promotes lay spiritual leadership in the Church. Led by Kathleen Brennan (ibvm). Enq: Michelle Wood 9345 2555.
Every Tuesday
WEEKLY PRAYER WITH MARY’S COMPANION WAYFARERS OF JESUS THE WAY
7pm, St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay St, Perth. Personal healing in prayer, Rosary, scripture, meditation, praise in song, friendship and refreshments. Appreciate the heritage of the faith united with others asking Jesus and Mary to overcome burdens in life. Prayer is powerful. Come, join us!!
Every Wednesday
HOLY HOUR, BENEDICTION
Holy Hour 4.30 – 5.30pm St Thomas Church, 2 College Road, Claremont each Wednesday, followed by Evening prayer and Benediction. Personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is Adoration of Jesus’ gift of Himself, of His love for you, for your loved ones and for our world. Come and thank Him.
Every second Wednesday
FORTNIGHTLY BIBLE REFLECTIONS
Workers in the Garden of the Holy Family are conducting Bible Reflections at St Mary’s Church, Parish Centre, 40 Franklin Street, Leederville. Commencing 7pm with Rosary, refreshments provided afterward. Dates: August 22, September 5, 19, October 3, 17, 31, November 14, 28, December 5. Enq: 9201 0337.
EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
Holy Trinity Church, 8 Burnett Street, Embleton. Every Monday to Thursday after the 8.30am Mass till 10am. Every Thursday night from 11pm to mid-
night. Every Friday Eucharistic Adoration after the 8.30 Mass till 6pm. Enquiries: Mons P McCrann 9271 5528 or George Jacob 9272 1379.
Every First Friday
HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
At Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins Street, Glendalough. 7pm Mass with Celebrant Fr Albert Saminedi. 7.30pm Holy Hour Adoration with Fr. Don Kettle. Refreshments to follow in the Hall. All welcome.
Every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month
CATHOLIC FAITH RENEWAL
Every 1st Friday - Praise and Worship evening held at St John and Paul’s Church, Pinetree Gully Rd Willetton at 7.30pm. Every 3rd Friday Catholic Faith Education by Fr Greg Donovan, LJ Goody Bioethics Centre, 39 Jugan Street, Glendalough at 7.30pm. All are welcome. Enq: Rita 9272 1765 or Rose 0403 300 720.
Second Friday of each Month GENERAL PRAYER ASSEMBLY
The Couples for Christ and its Family Ministries welcome all members who now reside or are visiting Perth to join the community in our monthly general prayer assembly 7.30pm, St Joachim Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. Enquiries: Tony & Dolly Haber (08) 9440 4540.
Every Fourth Sunday SECULAR FRANCISCAN ORDER
The Perth Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order assembles every fourth Sunday at 2.30pm in the Chapel of RSL Care, 51 Alexander Dr, Menora. Enquiries John 9385 5649.
Every Fourth Sunday WATCH AND PRAY
A Holy Hour is held at Infant Jesus Parish, Morley from 2-3pm with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The hour consists of some prayers and Scripture but mostly the hour is silent prayer for Vocations. All are welcome. Please encourage others to come and pray. Prayer - it works! Enq: 9276 8500.
Every Monday
WEIGHT MANAGEMENT FOR THOSE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
The Emmanuel Centre are offering to help people who gain weight because they are using medication for their mental illness. The group helps participants to manage their weight safely and healthily. Mind-Body-Life meets at the Emmanuel Centre on Mondays from 12.30-2.30pm. Free. The group starts with a weigh-in, then a talk on nutrition and healthy eating tips, goal setting and then half an hour of exercise. Enq: Amanda - Emmanuel Centre, 9328 8113.
BOOK DONATIONS
We still seek donations of books and thank you and bless you for your kind, generous contributions of Bibles, Missals and Catholic books on the faith. We are now able to offer a selection of second-hand, pre-loved books to the community in return for a small donation. Enq: 9293 3092.
WINDOW FUND DONATIONS WELCOME
St Catherine’s Catholic Church, Gin Gin. Parishioners are currently fundraising to restore the church windows. The cost of each window is $1500. If anyone is able to assist our fundraising efforts please telephone Fr Paul 9571 1839.
CLUB AMICI
Club Amici aims to build community amongst Catholic singles, couples and families (aged 25 and up) by organising social events. If you would like a copy of our new calendar of events or would like to be on our mailout list please contact Therese 9437 5349 or email clubamiciwa@yahoo.com.au.
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
Ignatian 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 supports the volunteers in their work. To learn more: www.volunteers.jesuit.org.au Contact Kevin Wringe, Perth Coordinator (08) 9316 3469 kwringe@iinet.net.au .
REUNION
John and Marie Acland are planning to hold a reunion later this year of all past and present members of the Apostles of Christ Prayer Group Willetton and all other persons who took part in their Meetings, Fellowship Nights, Life in the Spirit, and supplementary Seminars, the Alpha Course and other group activities. Further details will be advised when full numbers are known. Enq: Marie Acland. Tel/fax 9537-3390. Email jmacland@bigpond.com or Dianne McLeod 93320829. Email danielmcleod@bigpond.com
Classifieds: $3.30/line incl. GST 24 hour Hotline 9227 7778 Deadline: 12pm Tuesday ADVERTISEMENTS
■ DENMARK Holiday House 3bdr x 2 bath, sleeps up to 8. BOOK NOW. Ph: Maria 0412 083 377.
■ FAMILY GROUP ACCOMMODATION Visit http://www.beachhouseperth.com Call 0400 292 100
■ BLINDS SPECIALIST Call AARON for FREE quotes 0402 979 889.
■ BRICK REPOINTING Phone Nigel 9242 2952.
■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 9444 1200.
■ PICASSO PAINTING Top service. Phone 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.
■ CARETAKER WANTED Church Caretaker Couple (or single man) for St Anne’s, Bindoon suit pensioners, free accomm. Ph: 9571 1839 or 0427 085 093.
■ BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Extra income from your own home-based business. Work part-time without disturbing what you are doing now. Call: 02 8230 0290 or 0412 518318 Events
■ OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ASSISTANT OTA
Experienced OTA required for Servite Villa, Joondanna to commence 22 August 2007. 48 hours per fortnight Tuesdays to Fridays. Applicants must have a current National Police Certificate and Senior First Aid Certificate. Please contact Evelyne Stothard, Facility Manager on 9444 7605.
■ PHARMACY ASSISTANT
Pharmacy assistant experienced. Mondays, flexible hours Friendly pharmacy Wembley. Ph 93873984.
■ PHYSIOTHERAPY ASSISTANT PTA
Experienced PTA required for Servite Villa, Joondanna to commence 22 August 2007. Mondays to Fridays 9.00am to 12.30pm. Applicants must have a current National Police Certificate and Senior First Aid Certificate. Please contact Evelyne Stothard, Facility Manager on 9444 7605.
■ VOLUNTEERS WANTED
The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) is looking for volunteers who support Christian values and want to improve Australia to work at polling booths at the coming Federal election. If you can help, please contact Paul Connelly (CDP’s Perth Candidate) on 0414 247 286 or pmjconnelly@hotmail.com
Authorised by Gerard Goiran 4/294 Gt Eastern Hwy Midland
■ BUSINESS SUPPORT WANTED
The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) is looking for businesses in all areas that support Christian values and want to improve Australia to place CDP Candidate campaign posters (various sizes available) in the shop windows of their businesses for the coming Federal Election. If you can help, please contact Paul Connelly (CDP’s Perth Candidate) on 0414 247 286 or pmjconnelly@hotmail.com.
Authorised by Gerard Goiran 4/294 Gt Eastern Hwy Midland
■ CHRISTIAN BROTHERS REUNION
Christian Brothers “Old Boys” Reunion. All past students, staff and friends of all Christian Brothers Schools are invited to a unique reunion to celebrate the contribution by Christian Brothers to Education in Western Australia.
Date August 26th
Time: 4.30pm
Venue: Burswood Theatre
Cost: $25
Drinks and canapés will be served in the Grand Ballroom from 6.00pm. All seats must be registered and ticketed. Children free, however must be ticketed. For further information please contact: Maureen Colgan on 9317 2753 (all hours) Michael Perrott: 9474 1799 (business hours) or Download a Registration Form on: www.edmundricecelebration.com
■ GOSPEL CONCERT SUNDAY 26TH AUGUST
A Catholic Social Justice event supporting Ugandan orphans with food, care & schooling. Redemptorist Monastery North Perth 2pm to 4.45pm featuring WA’s finest Gospel Performers. Advance purchase tickets only - Adults $12, Children $2 erichancock@swiftdsl.com.au or phone 9446 1558.
■ ALL AREAS Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.
■ ACHES, PAINS, STRESS??? Indian mature male masseur offers Reflex Relax Massage at $30 for 60mins. Phone Jai 0438 520 993.
■ 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.
■ HEALTH AND WELLNESS
A FREE Sample Pack of wellness, weightloss, and energy products. DVD and product brochure also enclosed. (Only while stocks last - hurry!!) Call 02 8230 0290 or 0412 518 318.
■ MIGRATE TO AUSTRALIA For guidance and visa processing, Skilled or Family Visas and Study visas. Call Michael Ring or Ajay Trehan Registered Migration Agent – (MARN # 0212024). Phone: (02) 8230 0290 or 0412 518 318 for a no-obligation assessment, please call or email: michael.ring@bigpond.com
■ APARCIDA’S EMPORIUM Florist, retailer of Catholic Products (all occasions), giftware, wedding planner, as seen on Access 31. Open Tues-Sun, Shop 11, Cinema Arcade Perth. 9439 6539 or 9525 4679.
■ 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.
■ BOOKS Books 2nd hand quality Catholic reading at reasonable prices. Also Bibles and Missals. Ph: (08) 9293 3092.
Must be submitted by fax, email or post no later than 12pm Tuesday. For more information contact 9227 7778.
Panorama entries must be in by 5pm Monday. Contributions may be faxed to 9227 7087, emailed to administration@therecord.com.au 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. Please do not re-submit Panoramas once they are in print.
Elizabeth Knight: 5/8/1913 - 28/6/05
The recent blessing of the new Brookdale church rekindled memories of a major contributor to the Armadale parish, a woman who left much behind for it.
TJoin Pope Benedict XVI in prayer - August
he solemn dedication of the new St Francis Xavier’s Church at Brookdale was an appropriate occasion to recall well-known local identity, Miss Elizabeth (Betty) Knight. Betty, who died on June 20, 2005, is remembered with affection and is significant among the many whose earlier efforts and contributions helped in the realisation of the building project.
In 1929 when Betty was 16 her parents bought the Armadale Newsagency and premises, still affectionately referred to by some locals as “Betty’s”. Ownership passed to Betty in 1949 and she ran the business until 1984 when the newsagency lease was sold.
Betty began boarding at Ladies College (now Mercedes), in Victoria Square, Perth, when her parents lived in Kalgoorlie, prior to 1929, and she continued there until the age of 18.
On leaving school Betty decided to pursue a secretarial career rather than continue with her piano studies. Following completion of a two year training course she worked in the Gledden Building in Perth, until she took over the newsagency.
In her childhood Betty was a lively, outgoing young woman who loved dancing, singing and swimming as well as playing the piano.
She played pennant tennis and was a member of the Parish Concert Party, some of whom still remember her as a very talented and entertaining mimic.
At some point in her childhood there was a young man of whom Betty was very fond but the friendship didn’t develop and she never married.
ies of them. To Betty’s surprise and joy, the Holy Spirit had a different plan, and she continued with the group for many years. She later became a member of the Order of Consecrated Laity, a lay association dedicated to Eucharistic Adoration, and remained an active member until her death.
Throughout her long life in Armadale, Betty was deeply involved in the charitable activities and social outreach of her parish community.
She routinely provided breakfast for the visiting priests who looked after the spiritual needs of the community before Armadale had its own Parish Priest.
She regularly cleaned the Church and prepared the altar; she supported the maintenance and refurbishment of the building over the years with her time, efforts and donations.
In her quiet way she discreetly helped several struggling families in the parish.
For many years she regularly drove Members of the Braille Presidium on day-outings and each year organised a gala afternoon tea and concert for them. Betty accomplished all this while running a busy newsagency.
Failing health eventually led her to move to JE Murray Hostel in Armadale, where she enjoyed the companionship of several parishioners already living there. She continued to attend St Francis Xavier Church until a further decline in health made this impossible.
Ugandan orphans will be assisted through the power of song on August 26 when some of Western Australia’s finest Gospel performers come together for an ecumenical and spiritual concert at the Redemptorist Monastery in North Perth.
Catholic Social Justice is hosting this event, which will run from 2 to 4.45pm, in support of the Sharing Youth Centre in Kampala, Uganda which provides food, care and schooling for 300 children.
“Sister Cosmas Cullen, an 80year-old nun has lived in Uganda for 50 years, and manages the orphanage. The children survive on one meal per day and would be at great risk without the protection the centre provides,” performer Carmel Charlton-Hancock said.
Gospel groups taking part include “The South African Choir” conducted by Martin Meader and made up of South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, West Indians, Scottish and English singers.
St Cecilia’s young singers will join with the “Holy Spirit Choir” under the direction of Julie Doyle and will perform alongside ecumenical group, “A Cappella PRAISE,” “M3” featuring the dynamic Maugeri Sisters and “Melaleuca Road” with Mrs Charlton-Hancock and John Ralph.
General intention: Those suffering in turmoil - That those who are suffering with inner difficulties and trials may find in Christ the light and support that leads to authentic happiness.
Mission intention: Church in China
That the Church in China may grow in unity and in visible communion with the Pope.
Betty was always very devout in her faith, attending daily Mass whenever possible. She had a great love for Our Blessed Lady and was a member of the Legion of Mary from her school days and for as long as it existed in the parish. When it was in serious decline, she began to attend the charismatic prayer meeting.
Her secret intention, she later confided, was to convert all the members and make legionar-
From then until her death Betty was visited regularly by her Parish Priest or Sister Anne Cullinane the former Pastoral Assistant. She also received weekly visits from Eucharistic Ministers and other parishioners. Betty outlived almost all her close relatives and the friends of her youth, but her parish community had become her family, and some of them were at her bedside when she died. Her requiem Mass was concelebrated by eight priests and attended by a very large gathering of parishioners. She will be remembered with gratitude and affection by all those who knew her.
“Gospel concerts of the past two years have been a great success and we look forward to another afternoon of inspiration and audience participation,” Mrs Charlton–Hancock said.
Tickets can be purchased through Eric Hancock at $12 for adults and $2 for children and are only available in advance. Email: erichancock@swiftdsl. com.au or phone: Mrs Charlton-Hancock on: 9446 1558.
