The Record Newspaper 15 December 2005

The Parish. The Nation. The World.

The Gift Archbishop ordains 9 new shepherds for people of God

New faces represent a global, catholic Church as congregation packs Perth’s Cathedral to standing-room only

■ By Jamie O’Brien

All eyes were on St Mary’s Cathedral last Friday night as Archbishop Barry Hickey ordained nine men to the priesthood in an historic ceremony.

Archbishop Hickey said the ordination was a record: the largest number for a single ordination ceremony in the cathedral ever.

The previous record was in 2002 when eight priests were ordained, again by the Archbishop, in one ceremony.

Eight of those who joined the ranks of the priesthood on Friday night, Clayton Mitchell, Joseph Lee, Andrew Bowron, Gavin Gomez, Nicholas Nweke, Nelson Po, Andrew Albis and Kenneth Asaba, were ordained for the archdiocese of Perth.

The ninth, William Matthews, was ordained for the Salesian order.

It was not just an historic occasion but an international one too – the faces of the nine men ordained on Friday seemed to come from every corner of the globe – Africa, Asia and Australia, reflecting the reality of a Church that really is catholic.

Fr Clayton Mitchell’s family came to Australia from Burma while Fr Matthews

Where are they going?

The newly ordained priests will go to various parishes of the diocese.

Fathers Joseph Lee and Andrew Albis have been assigned to St Mary’s Cathedral. Fr Andrew Bowron has been assigned to Northam. Fr Gavin Gomez has been assigned to Claremont. Fr Nicholas Nweke has been assigned to Willetton. Fr Kenneth Asaba has been assigned to Wanneroo. Fr Nelson Po has been assigned to Kalgoorlie. Fr Clayton Mitchell has been assigned to Bateman. Fr William Matthews SDB

, will be stationed in Victoria. Page 2 - A raft of clergy appointments

Faces of the world: The nine new priests, here shown outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth before their ordination ceremony, reflect the global and universal nature of the Church. They are Deacons Joseph Lee, left. Andrew Bowron, Gavin Gomez, William Matthews SDB, Nicholas Nweke, Andrew Albis, Kenneth Asaba, Clayton Mitchell and Nelson Po.

Photo: Ian Munro/courtesy News Ltd.

Standing ready: The deacons present themselves formally for ordination.

Photo: Jamie O’Brien

This Week

Intelligent Design

Remarks by the Vatican Observatory’s chief have undermined federal education minister Brendan Nelson Page 5

He’s back

Fr Michael Gatt will once again be manning his Christmas Helpline to lend a friendly hand to those seeking light Page 5

Nine for the Vineyard

Full report on last Friday’s historic ordination of nine to the priethood in St Mary’s Cathedral Vista 1-3, More photos Page 7

Out of date?.... NOT!

Journeying to Europe for World Youth Day, Anna Krohn discovered that relics and shrines have a special role to play in leading all of us, and especially the young, on towards the bright shining path of the true revolutionaries - the Saints Vista 4

The Priestly Identity

Editorial, and letters on many other different things

Page 6

Black and White and shades of Grey

A new film revisits the cold war of the McCarthyist era

Page 10

Catholic leaders recommend meditation CDs

Norma Woodcock’s guides to prayer and meditation in the Ignatian tradition are available from The Record

Page 12

NSW bishops urge calm

Church leaders urge law and order after Sydney riots

■ By Paul

BGray

ishop Ad Abikaram of the Maronite Catholic diocese of Australia has echoed remarks by Cardinal George Pell calling for strong law and order enforcement in response to racial violence in Sydney.

Hooligans carrying Australian flags chanted anti-Lebanese slogans and assaulted people of Middle Eastern appearance during scenes of mob violence at the popular Cronulla beach in Sydney last weekend. This had followed harassment of non-Lebanese Australians by hooligans of Lebanese background in the days before the weekend.

Sophisticated communications techniques including mobile phone text-messaging had been used to encourage the weekend violence.

Cardinal Pell issued a statement on Monday urging all people living in the Sydney area to use the pre-Christmas period to “let the dust settle so we can identify the

in brief Mosquito beats teens

Welsh security consultant Howard Stapleton has invented a teenager repellent that should make him a millionaire. The device, called the Mosquito (“It’s small and annoying”) emits a highfrequency pulsing sound that can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no-one older than 30, he says. The sound is

best way forward.” He said that the weekend violence had been made worse by alcohol “and possibly by marijuana.”

Condemning vigilante group violence by any group as unacceptable, Cardinal Pell quoted at length from the statement of the NSW Police Commissioner, Mr Ken Moroney, who had said that “to find realistic, fair dinkum solutions to this problem, …. we’ve got to be able to sit down around a table and talk to each other.”

But “beyond the rhetoric and beyond the talk there has to be a whole range of actions.” At the forefront of these actions would be “a strong law enforcement approach,” the Police Commissioner said.

Cardinal Pell added that local Catholic communities “and authorities” were ready to cooperate in any useful way to foster harmony and eliminate violence.

On Tuesday, Bishop Abikaram issued a statement saying that with his fellow-Australians, he was appalled at the violence perpetrated over previous days.

“We support the Government and the Police in their efforts to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice,” the Bishop said.

designed to so irritate young peo-

ple that after several minutes they cannot stand it and go away. When tested at his local convenience store in Barry, South Wales, the Mosquito proved its worth. Store owner Robert Gough had been plagued by surly teenagers hanging around outside the store, intimidating customers and brawling and stealing inside. He planned to install a sound system that would blast classical music into the parking lot - another method known to horrify hang-out youths

Bishop Abikaram also spoke of “the root causes” that lead young people to commit violence.

“I believe that it is critical to the resolution of this problem that we as a community foster in all young people a sense of self-esteem and belonging to Australia,” he said.

Bishop Abikaram emphasised his church’s support for the upholding of law and order. “As Australian Christians of Lebanese background, we offer our unqualified support to the Government in its quest to preserve law and order in our society,” he said.

“Insofar as it needs be said, we offer a hand of friendship to Australian Muslims of Lebanese background, as well as to Australians of all backgrounds, when the need is apparent to work as one community to resolve problems, whatever their cause.” During a visit to Australia last month, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, said that one of the central messages of the Church is “nobody is a stranger.”

“That is the strength of the real community. That is a sign of the kingdom of God,” he said.

into dispersing - but never got around to it. But Mosquito cleared them away instantaneously: “It was as if someone had used anti-teenager spray around the entrance, the way you might spray your sofas to keep the pets off,” reports Sarah Lyall. Some of the usual crowd first tried going into the store with their fingers in their ears, begging Mr Gough to turn it off - a request he neatly avoided by telling them it was an anti-bird (flu) device. Now they come, do their shopping, and depart. - FamilyEdge e-newsletter

Mukinbudin Church’s golden milestone

Wheatbelt parish celebrates Parish Church’s golden anniversary

For parishioners of Our Lady Help of Christians Mukinbudin, their Church has been a fortress of faith for the past 50 years.

Nearly 200 people - Catholic and non-Catholic - gathered last month, on November 13 to celebrate the Golden anniversary of the parish with a special Mass celebrated by Archbishop Barry Hickey, Parish Priest Fr Francis Huy, and former Parish Priest Fr Nino Vinciguerra.

The Church was officially blessed and opened on November 13 in 1955 by Lord Abbot Gregory Gomez OSB, who as Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at New Norcia exercised diocesan authority in the region.

Among the congregation for the anniversary were sisters Gemma Scott, Carla Curran, Kathleen Dawe, Leonie Mayne and Ellena Hynes who had all either served on the Motor Mission, the Wheatbelt Mission, the Rural Network or who had conducted Bushie Schools, as they were known, for this area.

Also present for the occasion was Julie Mahoney, the first baby to be baptised in the Church, and Hazel Jones, the first bride married in the Our Lady Help of Christians in Mukinbudin.

Representatives from the Lord of the Harvest Parish in Bencubbin

also attended. A photographic display of past and present clergy, parishioners and children of the Parish highlighted the faces, names and events over the years of the parish’s life.

Meanwhile, the traditional annual parish picnic was organised by Gail Rijnhart at the local Memorial Hall where a light supper was served.

“Many fond memories were vividly brought back to life as each of the photos recounted the stories of God’s people in Mukinbudin,” said Parish Priest Fr Francis Nguyen.

As an important part of this milestone achievement, local parishioners prepared a history of Our Lady Help of Christians Church.

The book, A Fortress of Faith, covers the years of community formation and development from about 1925 to the present.

The first known Catholic in Mukinbudin dates back to 1910 when James O’Toole settled in the area,.

However, Sunday Mass was not celebrated until 1925 when a priest from nearby Trayning visited four times a year.

As the parish community expanded in the 1950’s, Masses began to be celebrated monthly, then fortnightly and then weekly.

Fr Placid Sesma, OSB, then parish priest, worked tirelessly to build a Church in each of the towns in his parish.

At one stage, Fr Placid, with the help of local parishioners, was mak-

ing concrete bricks for the churches in Wialki, Nungarin, Kununoppin and Mukinbudin. Local men carted the necessary materials, often under extreme conditions.

“Successive clergy, religious and parishioners have since courageously carried on the marvellous spirit of self sacrifice, dedication and hard work,” said Fr Nguyen.

“People know the variety of life that has come from the Wheatbelt Region.

“However real life is built on the grains of faith, hope and love of God’s people, past, present and future.”

Fr Nguyen went on to say that the Mukinbudin community has benefited from the strong commitment to unity from people of varied backgrounds and cultures who have come together with a desire and passion to build up the Body of Christ, the Church in their area.

“While the Catholic community is not as strong as in the boom times of the past, there is nonetheless a great deal of pride, consolation and nourishment for a reasonable number of active worshippers, and a great deal of hope for the future.

“Our Lady Help of Christians Church has been truly a ‘fortress of the faith’ for many of God’s people.”

Archbishop Hickey also joined in the celebration and was asked, together with Fr Francis and the parish children, to cut the anniversary cake, which was made by local parishioner, Maria Frank.

College pushes LifeLink over the line

■ By Phil Bayne

LifeLink, Caritas Australia and the St Vincent de Paul Society have all become recipients of the Mater Dei College community generosity that was shared with Bishop Don Sproxton on the last day of the school year. As a special guest at the final College assembly for 2005, Bishop Sproxton was pre-

sented with cheques for both the LifeLink and Caritas Appeals. The College’s LifeLink contribution of $3255 was almost $1000 more than last year and ensured that LifeLink’s schools target of $50,000 was passed.

Later in the afternoon Bishop Sproxton also found himself amidst the many baskets of donated goods that would help ensure a more enjoyable Christmas for the less

Intellectual giant of the Church in Australia dies

■ By Paul Gray

The former leader of the Church in Tasmania, Archbishop Eric D’Arcy, has died, aged 81. For four decades, Archbishop D’Arcy was one of the leading intellects among the Catholic clergy of Australia.

Archbishop D’Arcy died in Melbourne, where he had lived since his retirement as Archbishop of Hobart in 1999.

His life was honoured by the Premier of Tasmania, Paul Lennon, who said he would be remembered by Tasmanians as a man of warmth, compassion and intelligence.

Ordained a priest in 1949, Dr D’Arcy took an honours degree in arts at Melbourne University, and later took doctorates at the Gregorian University in Rome and Oxford University.

He taught philosophy at Melbourne University for 20 years.

Michael Gilchrist, editor of the religious opinion journal AD 2000

“I would say that he’s one of the strongest intellectuals that has come through the Church in Australia,” Mr Gilchrist told The Record

fortunate in society. Addressing the assembly, Bishop Sproxton explained that the money raised through the LifeLink Appeal would be used to help support some 13 agencies operated by the Catholic Church in the Perth Archdiocese. The generosity of Catholic schools, he said, would help secure the future of the agencies and the futures of those whom the agencies served.

As a mark of his intellectual standing, Archbishop D’Arcy was asked by the Vatican during the early 1990s to help complete the work of translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church into English.

He later wrote in the international theological journal Communio that the Catechism was “a providential initiative of the Universal Church.”

The Archbishop was an intellectual giant of the Church in Australia, said Catholic author

The Archbishop was one of the first people recommended to Gilchrist to interview in connection with his book on Daniel Mannix, Gilchrist said.

“I remember being very highly impressed with everything about him. He seemed to be so strong intellectually, and he came across as a very warm, attractive personality.

“He would have been an excellent teacher. He would have drawn people to him, by his manner and by his grasp of what he was talking about,” Gilchrist said.

Bishop Sproxton is joined by Mater Dei College Principal Clem Mulcahy and students among some of the donations to the St Vincent De Paul Christmas appeal.

Golden moments: Archbishop Hickey, above, celebrates Mass togther with Fr Huy and Fr Vinciguerra on the occassion of Mukinbudin Parish’s 50th anniversary.

Leading thinker: Archbishop Eric D’Arcy is shown in this 1991 file photograph.

Carols cancelled in attack fear

“Religious intolerance” motivates attack on Christmas singers

AChristmas carols service at a Catholic primary school in Sydney’s Lakemba was cancelled during the week amid fear of attack by anti-Christian hooligans within Sydney’s Islamic community.

The cancellation of the service was announced after hooligans disrupted an earlier Christmas carols service in another Sydney parish, Auburn. Lakemba is home to Australia’s largest mosque.

Forensic experts were examining bullet holes found in cars on the property of the Auburn church after the disruption of the carols service. They were also examining spent gun cartridges found near the cars.

A church in a third suburb, Macquarie Fields, suffered minor fire damage in the early hours of Tuesday morning after an incendiary device was thrown through a

door.

Cardinal George Pell responded to the Auburn incident with a statement of concern over “the targeting of Christmas celebrations at

schools for students as young as five years old.” He said “The attack was apparently motivated by religious intolerance,.”

“This has no place in Australia today.”

The St Joseph the Worker parish and school in Auburn is home to many Lebanese Australian Catholics. It is believed that the hooligans were predominantly Lebanese Muslim Australians.

The incidents have fuelled concerns over the spreading of racial and religious intolerance in Sydney since last weekend’s outbreak of mob violence at Cronulla beach.

The targeting of Christmas celebrations has added a distinctly religious dimension to the Sydney conflicts. Cardinal Pell said that the action against the carol singers at Auburn was “as unacceptable as the violence perpetrated by Anglo elements on Sunday at Cronulla.”

in brief

Payment for mothers

Italian women considering an abortion could be paid to keep their baby under a proposal supported by politicians of the right and left. Under the scheme, women in straitened economic circumstances, single or married, would get between €250 and €350 a month for up to six months before giving birth. The move was sponsored by a group of MP’s that includes two former women ministers - one an ex-communist and the other from the centre-left. It comes as a general election looms in four months time, and partly in response to pressure from the Catholic Church for a rethink of Italy’s 1978 abortion law, which allows abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. A parliamentary committee recently gave the go-ahead for a commission of inquiry into the workings of the act.

- FamilyEdge e-newsletter

Clergy on the move as Archbishop announces 25 appointments

Following last Friday evening’s ordinations to the priesthood in St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey announced a total of 25 clergy appointments. They are:

Fr Gavin Gomez has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Thomas Parish, Claremont to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Nicholas Nweke has been appointed Assistant Priest at John Paul Parish, Willetton to take effect from February 2006.

Fr Kenneth Asaba has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Anthony’s Parish, Wanneroo, and to the Catholic Chaplaincy at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup Campus, to take effect from February 2006.

Fr Andrew Albis has been appointed Assistant Priest at the Cathedral Parish, Perth, to take effect from January 28 2006.

Fr Joseph Lee has been appointed Assistant Priest at the Cathedral Parish, Perth, to take effect from 13 January 2006.

Fr Clayton Mitchell has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Thomas More Parish, Bateman, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Nelson Po has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Mary’s Parish, Kalgoorlie, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Andrew Bowron has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Joseph’s Parish, Northam, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Dat Vuong has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Gerard’s Parish, Mirrabooka, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Milton Arias has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Mary Star of the Sea Parish, Cottesloe, to take effect from February 2006.

Fr Clesio Mendes has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Vincent de Paul Parish, Redfern, NSW to take effect from February 2006.

Fr Vittorio Ricciardi has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth, to take effect from February 2006.

Fr Thi Lam has been appointed Assistant Priest of Our Lady of Lourdes, Rockingham, to take effect from January 27 2006 and to be available for Navy Chaplaincy work.

Fr John Piumatti has been appointed Parish Priest of St Joseph, Kellerberrin, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Greg D’Almeida has been

appointed Parish Priest of Holy Name Parish, Carlisle, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr John Daly, has been appointed Parish Priest of Sacred Heart Parish, Goomalling, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Francis Huy has been appointed Parish Priest of St Helena’s Parish, Ellenbrook, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Chien Nguyen has been appointed Parish Priest of Lord of the Harvest Parish, Bencubbin, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Son Kim Nguyen has been appointed Assistant Chaplain to the Vietnamese Catholic Community to take effect from January 27 2006.

Deacon Hong Pham Nguyen has been appointed to serve in the Good Shepherd Parish, Lockridge, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Deacon Luis Chavarria has been appointed to serve in the St Mary Star of the Sea Parish, Cottesloe, to take effect from January 27 2006.

Fr Brandon Crawford has been appointed Assistant Priest of St Benedict’s Parish, Applecross, to take effect from January 27 2006, and to be available for Military Chaplaincy Service.

Salvatorian Clergy Changes:

Fr Dariusz Basiaga SDS has been appointed Parish Priest of St Mary’s, Bruce Rock, to take effect from January 15 2006.

Fr Boguslaw Loska SDS has been appointed Parish Priest of St Lawrence & Mary Immaculate, Balcatta, to take effect from January 15 2006.

Fr Roman Wroblewski SDS has been appointed Assistant Priest of St Simon Peter, Ocean Reef, to take effect from January 15 2006.

Join Pope Benedict XVI in prayerDecember

“For all men and women: may they come to an ever deeper understanding of their dignity, granted them by the Creator in his plan.”

Mission intention: “For people all over the world searching for God and truth: may they encounter the Lord Jesus.”

No carols this year: A Catholic school Christmas carol service is the latest victim of this week’s Sydney violence. File photo

ID debate touches education minister

Observatory chief’s view undermines Nelson’s remarks

■ By Paul Gray

The director of the Vatican Observatory has hit out at proponents of the intelligent design theory as an educational option for schools, saying that science cannot “invoke a designer.”

The teaching of intelligent design theory as a complement to scientific education about the theory of evolution has been proposed by a number of Christian schools this year, winning the support of Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson.

Mr Nelson said in August that he had watched a DVD promoting the intelligent design theory, and said that it was a matter of “reasonable choice” for parents to insist on having it taught alongside evolution in their children’s schools.

The Education Minister later clarified the point to say that the theory should not be taught in science classes, but in philosophy and religion classes only.

Mr Nelson’s remarks prompted an outraged public reaction from some teachers and educational groups, with Mr Chris Bonner, the President of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, saying the intelligent design theory was as intellectually respectable as “Holocaust revisionism” and theories about the Bermuda Triangle.

In the December 10 edition of The Tablet, Fr George Coyne SJ, Director of the Vatican Observatory, added his remarks to the debate. Fr Coyne described the intelligent design movement as “a largely American phenomenon” which “diminishes God” and makes him “a designer rather than a lover.”

Fr Coyne argued that the intelligent design theory reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of God.

“God is not the response to a need,” he said. “We should not need God; we should accept him when he comes to us.”

By contrast, he said, some religious believers seem to “fondly hope for the durability of certain gaps in our scientific knowledge of evolution, so that they can fill them with God.

“This is the exact opposite of what human intelligence is all about,” he said.

Christian faith, Fr Coyne argued, should not be seen as “creationist” in the sense of supporting a “fundamentalistic, literal, scientific interpretation of Genesis.”

Rather, faith should be seen as “radically creationist” in a different sense, by being rooted in the belief that everything, including an infinite, ever-expanding universe, “is a gift from God.”

“We should be seeking for the fullness of God in (his) creation,” Fr Coyne said.

Fr Coyne said that science has firmly established that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old. If the period between then and now were thought of as being a single earth year, it would take from January 1 until September 4 before the first non-human life forms would appear.

It would then take until two minutes before midnight on December 31 before the first humans appeared. This gives “some idea of where we humans stand with respect to the age of the universe,” he said.

“In the course of the ageing of the universe the human person has come to be through the process of physical, chemical and biological evolution,” Fr Coyne said. His remarks were given at a talk in the Vatican.

Need a Christmas lift? Speak to Fr Gatt!

Fr Michael Gatt of St Kieran’s Parish Osborne Park will be operating his Christmas Help-line for people in crisis this year.

While many of us enjoy a Christmas dinner with family and friends, others out there will struggle and feel they have no place to turn.

Fr Gatt wants them to know they have someone to talk to.

This year will be the fourteenth year Fr Gatt has set up telephone lines and

in brief

Romania reduces adoption

Adoption of Romanian babies by overseas couples is being discouraged by the European Commission - the executive arm of the EU - as Romania prepares to enter the EU in 2007. Under pressure from the EU, which called for an end to “the exportation of children”, Romania imposed a moratorium on

put aside his Christmas celebrations to provide a non-judgemental and confidential counselling service.

“For some people Christmas time can be a painful reminder of their loneliness and personal problems,” Fr Gatt said.

“As in previous years people need to know there is always someone to turn to in a time of difficulty or crises or despair.”

Fr Gatt said more than 100 people experiencing family breakdown, finan-

foreign adoptions in 2001. In January this year a law came into effect that calls adoption “the last recourse” in protecting children who are orphans or have been abandoned, and it gives “absolute priority” to Romanian couples.

Meanwhile, couples from the US, European countries and elsewhere, who filed requests for adoption before the moratorium, continue to seek permanent residence in Romania so they can adopt children whom they have

cial difficulties, drug issues and those contemplating suicide had used the Help-Line in past years.

People needing further counselling will be referred to appropriate professionals.

The lines will be open from Sunday December 18 to Sunday January 1.

The contact numbers are 9444 1334 or 9444 8650.

For more information check out the website www. osbornepark.perthcatholic.org.au

already fostered for several years. The EU has called for these cases to be finalised as soon as possible.

US officials have criticised the new law, claiming that children remain in orphanages because there are not enough Romanian parents who have the means or the desire to adopt a child. But with aid from the EU, Unicef and other agencies, Romania has reduced the number of orphans in the country to less than 40,000, as the children have been accepted by Romanian families.

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Light in the darkness for some: Fr Michael Gatt will, as usual this Christmas, be manning his Christmas Helpline with assistance from volunteers.

Photo: Courtesy of the Stirling Times

How should theories of human origins be taught? Director of the Vatican Observatory speaks out.

letters to the editor

A priestly inspiration

Ordination ceremonies such as that conducted in St Mary’s Cathedral last Friday night provide an inspiring insight into the nature of priesthood and the nature of the Church. The laying on of hands, first by Archbishop Hickey and his fellow Bishops and then by more than 100 priests sharing their priesthood with their new brothers is a powerful reminder of the special nature of Catholic priesthood.

Healing hands are a natural part of the gifts of humanity so that through the laying on of hands we can all pass on our peace and healing to those who need them. But to witness the passing on of the priesthood is to be aware of a different dimension of the gifts God has given to humanity. This laying on of hands is not something that can be naturally awakened in anyone; it is a gift from above and it passes on gifts from above. It grants the authority and the power to act in persona Christi.

It may well be that awareness of this grows in priests, but to non-priests it is obvious that they do not have it. One would have to be seriously lacking in self-awareness to be unaware that one has not been called to priesthood and has not received the gifts of priesthood. It is not a sense of lacking something, or incompleteness. It is merely awareness that something has not been added, something big, something admirable, but not something that belongs, and therefore not something that is missing. It is not an absence to be mourned in oneself, but a presence about which to be grateful that God has given it to others and they have accepted it.

PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902

Tel: (08) 9227 7080, Fax: (08) 9227 7087 cathrec@iinet.net.au

Having these truths reinforced at ordination ceremonies increases the puzzlement associated with critics and commentators who keep referring to the “institutional Church” as though it were some defective body that prevents the rest of us growing in faith. It is never clear where their version of the institutional Church starts – the Pope presumably – or where it ends. Does it include all bishops, priests, nuns, brothers, religious orders (despite their independence), lay missionaries, catechists, acolytes, parish councils? Where does it end?

It takes only a moment’s thought to realise how futile are these attempts to divide the Church when in reality it is a seamless whole, the “one” we speak of in the Creed, all united in Christ from the Pope to the infant receiving Baptism. Watching a priest being ordained and then receiving the Eucharist from him is a wonderful reminder that while our roles are different, we are not divided. Christ in the Eucharist joins us.

This attempt to divide the Church is similar to, but not nearly so tragic as, the way scripture has been used as an instrument of division. So many people who love Jesus have been led into believing that there is a choice to be made between scripture and the Church. In fact, scripture describes our relationship with the Church.

Jesus told Peter “you are the rock and on this rock I will build my Church … and I will be with you all days to the end of the world … and whatever you permit on earth is permitted in heaven and whatever you forbid on earth is forbidden in heaven”. It was to the Church (the Apostles) that Jesus gave the power to forgive sins, and the power to consecrate bread and wine to create the Eucharist. He instructed the Church to preach the Gospel to every creature and to baptise everyone, and he told them that he who hears you hears me and he who ignores you ignores me.

He didn’t ask any of them to write scripture. People were ordained and the Church firmly established before any scripture was written. What is now called the New Testament was written by the early bishops of the Church to the Church for the Church.

It wasn’t written as a sort of competitor for the teaching authority of the Church, authority that was passed on in ordination ceremonies.

Most of the Apostles were long dead before the writing of scripture was completed, and it was several centuries later before the Church decided which pieces of writing would be called scripture and which would not be.

How this relationship could be turned into an ‘either – or’ choice is something of a mystery. Perhaps it is time for Catholics to become fully aware of the relationship between scripture and the Church so that we can help others to see the unity instead of division.

Who decides?

I am rather concerned about the way our Christian customs and practices are being removed from the public domain, under the pretext that their presence might offend cultural and religious minorities.

It is rare today to see the display of the Nativity scene in shopping centres and there is a likelihood public carol-singing will soon become a distant memory. Evidence suggests these recent cultural changes have been devised not by minorities but by ideologicallydriven social engineers.

Often entrenched in positions of power or influence they make decisions or recommendations inconsistent with the will of the broad community.

There is something radically wrong and undemocratic about a system which allows unelected bureaucrats to arbitrarily decide what ought to be good for us, without our consent, input or consultation.

It is high time to question the motives and agendas of those who have ridden roughshod over our 150 year-old cultural traditions.

Joseph Stekl Gosnells

Undoing the hurt

I read with interest the article in The Record of December 8 “Limbo only ever a theory: Theologians”.

Fr Tony Kelly, a member of the International Theological Commission considering the question of Limbo, is quoted as saying that although Limbo was the common teaching of the Church, over the past 50 years it has been quietly dropped. Pastorally and catecheti-

■ With Derek Boylen

A report of great interest

We have noted with great interest your report (November 17) on Dr Luke Saker’s survey of the beliefs and attitudes of 133 student teachers who are training to teach in Catholic schools in WA, and the wide range of responses printed since then.

These issues have been raised and discussed by the Parents & Friends Federation and many others over a long period of years (most notably in Bro. Marcellin Flynn’s research) and the latest survey results merely emphasise some sad facts that have been obvious for years (regardless of whether one agrees with the research methodology or not) – a large majority of young Catholic people no longer practise their faith and they also disagree with many of the Church’s teachings on important moral issues, such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, marriage and divorce, Sunday Mass attendance, religious celibacy, human sexuality and homosexual activity, and the list goes on. All this despite the fact that they come from good practising Catholic families and have generally had the benefits of 12 years of good Catholic education.

There is little point in blaming families, Catholic schools or teachers, who we assume are generally all trying to do their best to inculcate in our young people a set of values and beliefs which accord with the Church’s teachings.

However, it is of concern and a source of great sadness and disappointment to parents, that whatever we are all doing does not seem to be working very effectively to combat the radical and permissive values of our secular world, which seems to dictate that rather than hitching our guidance systems to some solid moral, religious and spiritual absolutes, everything we know and believe should be questioned and challenged.

It seems that many of our young people are confused by the array of choices and options modern society presents to them and don’t know what to believe about a range of important issues.

Perhaps what is needed is an even stronger collaborative effort by parents, schools and parishes to provide positive role models and adopt strategies using all of the positive resources at our command, including the various forms of media, to ensure that by the time our young people leave home and/or school, they have a sufficiently strong set of beliefs, values and practices to be able to argue against and resist the many negative influences they will come up against in our modern society.

We also need to continue our joint efforts to ensure that all of those who take up the vitally important role of RE teachers in our schools are strongly supported and are committed and knowledgeable practising Catholic role models for all of the students in their charge.

Laurie A. Eastwood Executive Director Parents & Friends’ Federation of WA

cally the matter had been solved, but “we had to backtrack and do the theology” albeit with a bit of a smile, he says.

Limbo was indeed the common teaching of the Church. It was taught from pulpits and in classrooms. It was in the Catechism, complete with Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur of the Bishops, and learned off by heart by generations of Catholics, who accepted it as the infallible teaching of the Church.

Having been a priest in pastoral ministry from way back, I can remember well the distress, anguish

and guilt of many Catholic mothers, who had lost an unbaptised child either before birth or after it, and who believed that their child would never see the face of God. They had lost their child, and the separation would be eternal. They hardly ever spoke about their grief.

No doubt it is necessary to deal with the theological issues that gave rise to the cruel theory of Limbo. The Church still needs to deal with Limbo pastorally. The unwillingness to acknowledge our failures has only led, eventually, to recriminations and

Continued on Page 7

Advent and Christmas Celebrating Family

The Christmas story is really the story of every person. All of us can identify with it on the most fundamental level because all of us were born of a mother. Christmas is a call to reflect on our own coming into the world and our place in it. Jesus was born so that our own birth could have real meaning.

This week, take time as a family to share the stories of each other’s birth into the world. Often as family we forget to take time to share these stories. Each year we remember the story of how Christ came into the world but very often children don’t know the stories of their own births or that of their parents.

Take a trip to the place where you or your children were born if it’s not too far. Get the photo albums out and share the stories. How did you feel looking forward to your children’s births? Tell them about the place where you grew up and the children you grew up with.

Nine for the vineyard

New priests see their c alling not as a

New priests see their calling not as a prize, but a gif t for God ’s people. but a gift for God’s

Continued from Page 1

was born there, Fr Lee is from Korea, Fr Gomez from Bangladesh, Fr Nweke from Nigeria, Fathers Albis and Po from the Philippines and Fr Asaba from Kenya.

St Mary’s was packed to standing room only while more people stood or sat outside as the ceremony took place.

Friday’s ceremony brings to 65 the number of priests ordained by Archbishop Hickey in the 10 years since 1996, and 80 since he became Archbishop in 1991.

Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton of Perth, Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton and the former Bishop of Bunbury, Peter Quinn were all present for the occasion, together with more than 110 priests.

Speaking of what had drawn each of the nine men before him to the priesthood, Archbishop Hickey said each had already experienced the love of Christ and had decided to give their lives completely to Christ in return.

“They have experienced a call going back many years,” he said.

He said the nine had not decided to become priests so that they could be honoured like the Pharisees in the time of Christ.

Instead, the priesthood was a vocation to service of others, just as Christ had done.

“They are, in fact, laying down their lives for you and for me,” he told the congregation

of friends, parishioners, relatives and others packing the Cathedral. “They are giving their lives to follow in the footsteps of Christ, to love and care for the people of God,” he added.

And each of those about to become priests were anxious to “get out into the vineyard of God.”

“They are anxious to be good shepherds, to celebrate holy Mass and make present the sacrament of Jesus on the Cross,” he said.

“They are anxious to lead people in prayer, and help them to be faithful to God.”

The new priests faced a world that was very different and far less friendly to faith in God than in previous times, he said.

“In today’s secular society, where the media has been effective in undermining the faith of millions, priests are going out into a world of secular values, not gospel values,” he said.

Their priesthood and vocation was to be modelled on Christ, the Good Shepherd, who lay down his life for his sheep.

They would, at times, need to leave their flock to bring back the lost sheep, and they would be proclaimers of the Good News of Jesus.

“They will be missionaries to bring to all the knowledge and love of God.”

Among the numerous guests was Charles Onianwa, Deputy High Commissioner of Nigeria, who came from Canberra to witness the ordination of Fr Nicholas Nweke.

Mr Onianwa told The Record that as a Nigerian he felt a deep sense of belonging with the ordination of Fr Nweke and that it was great day for the people of Nigeria.

The new rector of St Charles Seminary, Fr Don Hughes OMI, said he believed the huge turnout of support on the evening was proof that the faith of the Church in Western Australia is on the rise.

Fr Hughes went on to say that the eight new priests for the Archdiocese would lift the spirits of ordinary Catholic men and women, and also of other priests.

The newly ordained men will be going to various parishes of the Archdiocese.

Fathers Lee and Albis have been assigned to St Mary’s Cathedral, Fr Bowron to Northam, Fr Gomez to Claremont, Fr Nweke to Willetton, Fr Asaba to Wanneroo, Fr Po to Kalgoorlie, and Fr Mitchell to Bateman.

Fr Matthews SDB will be stationed in Victoria. The ordinations will be the last in St Mary’s Cathedral for the foreseeable future due to its planned closure next year for the cathedral’s historic completion.

Friday night’s ceremony will also see something of a hiatus in ordinations for the next 18 months to two years as the next seminarians to be ordained will not have completed their courses at St Charles seminary for another two years or so. Photo coverage and profiles on Vistas

The beginning: Only those standing before Archbishop Hickey waiting to be ordained, and those who remember their own ordinations, know what this moment is like. For the Church in Perth the ordination ceremony was an ancient and a direct link with Jesus, his apostles and Christ’s gift of the priesthood to the Church.

Photo: Jamie O’Brien

GOD’S GOODNESS SHINES

ANDREW BOWRON

Originally from Quairading, Fr Bowron entered the seminary after living life as a farmer.

“For a long time I knew I was called,” Fr Bowron said.

A widower with two married daughters, Fr Bowron is soon to become a grandfather. Fr Bowron said God’s plan for him to enter the priesthood developed over a number of years.

It wasn’t until the death of his wife that he realised God had been forming him.

“The call to the priesthood for me has reinforced the ends of marriage and the celibacy of the priesthood,” he said.

Fr Bowron entered the Seminary at the age of 43 in 2000 and was ordained Deacon in September last year.

He expects his first 12 months as a priest will be like an apprenticeship as he learns to grow in service to the people.

“This should help me be able to discern where the spirit is leading me in the depth of my ministry,” Fr Bowron said.

Fr Bowron celebrated his first Mass at Willetton parish and hopes that in his new role as Assistant Parish priest in Northam, he will be able to reach out beyond the immediate flock.

GAVIN GOMEZ

Originally from Bangladesh, Fr Gomez moved to the UK at the age of 9 with his family in 1964 and lived there for nearly 25 years.

Gavin Gomez

After visiting Australia on holiday, Fr Gomez returned in 1988 after he had finished his exams in the UK and gained some experience as an accountant.

Eight years before joining the seminary, Fr Gomez felt the call through writing a song when he was involved in the music ministry at Greenmount Parish.

“I was involved in the music ministry and through composing a song I was able to develop a more spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said.

It wasn’t until 1997 that Fr Gomez realised he was heading towards priesthood.

“My deepest desire is that my work in the vineyard of the Lord is for the glory of God,” Fr Gomez said.

“This means that I intend to keep prayer life as the foundation of my ministry.”

“I already feel that I have been given a lot of valuable experience that I hope to exercise in my ministry as a humble instrument of God,”

“ And the rest I’ll leave to God.”

NICHOLAS NWEKE

Nigerian

Nicholas Nweke arrived at St Charles Seminary in 2003 after spending some time in a seminary in Nigeria. He also worked as an administrator of a Hospital there until he entered a religious congregation in 2000. After completing theological and philosophical studies in Rome, he came to St Charles Seminary at the invitation of Archbishop Hickey. Fr Nweke believes the time he spent working in the hospital led him to his calling for evangelisation.

ANDREW ALBIS

Philippino

Andrew Albis spent seven years in a seminary in the Philippines before coming to Australia in June 2003. Prior to entering the seminary, Fr Albis was a Religious Education teacher. He believes his ordination has been in response to God calling him to love Him and his people.

“It

JOSEPH LEE

Originally from Korea, Fr Lee came to Australia in 1997 and entered the seminary two months later.

Joseph Lee

Prior to entering St Charles, Fr Lee had completed his studies in philosophy in the Philippines and was referred to St Charles by a friend who is a Carmelite sister.

For Fr Lee, his ordination has been in response to God’s call to be of service to the people of the Church.

NELSON PO

WILLIAM MATTHEWS

The Salesian’s have been a large part of life for Fr William Mattthews.

Originally from Burma, Fr Matthews came to Australia in 1994, and went to Melbourne the following year to commence his Salesian formation.

Born into a Salesian parish in Burma, his father was also a past pupil at a Salesian School and later taught at a Salesian College.

After entering the order, Fr Matthews completed his Bachelor of Theology and is now in the process of completing his studies in Information Technology. Ordained to the diaconate in November last year, Fr Matthews will be stationed in Victoria. He believes his ordination has been about service, following in the motto of the founder of the Salesian order, Don Bosco, to serve the Lord in gladness.

KENNETH ASABA

CLAYTON MITCHELL

Archbishop Barry Hickey imparts his blessing on Deacon Clayton Mitchel during a historic ceremony at St Mary’s Cathedral on Friday December 9. The ordinations were a record for the Perth diocese with eight of the newly ordained to serve in Western Australia.

Left: Monsignor McDonald and Bishop Peter Quinn, Justin Bianchini and Don Sproxton kneel during the invitation to pray.

More photos on page 7

Growing up in the parish of Our Lady’s Assumption Dianella, Fr Mitchell, 24, went to Ursula Frayne college and later John Forrest Senior High School.

For his family, of Burmese origin, the Church has always played a big part.

“Church has always been a part of my family, especially during death,” said Fr Mitchell.

“The presence of the priest gave us an obvious sense that the Church was with us,”

Nelson Po

Originally from the Phillipines, Fr Po came to Australia just over two years ago after studying at a seminary in the Phillipines. Fr Po worked as an industrial engineer before coming to Australia.

Originally from Kenya, Fr Asaba came to Australia in January 2004. After studying at the seminary in Kenya for nearly four years, Fr Asaba went to Rome where he undertook more study for a further six years. At the invitation of Archbishop Hickey, whom he met by coincidence, Fr Asaba came to Australia. But the decision didn’t come quickly, because two years passed before he decided to make the move to St Charles in Guildford.

He believes his calling came through the witness of the many European missionaries in Africa, who encouraged him to finish his studies and join the seminary after high school.

Entering St Charles Seminary in 2000 at the age of 18, Fr Mitchell said he thought about a career in teaching or social work but realised life as a priest captured more than all of those.

“There is a great sense of mystery in the priesthood,” he said.

“It is something quite personal that words can’t actually capture.

“It is an awareness that God is calling us (me) to give my whole life to the service of the people.”

Seeking the Shepherds

Archbishop Hickey has worked hard on religious vocations since his appointment in 1991 and it’s clearly paying off.

● When he took on his appointment Perth didn’t have a seminary but by 1994 we had two: St Charles Seminary was reopened after having been closed for 19 years and the Redemptoris Mater Seminary was opened.

● In the Year of Jubilee 15 new priests were ordained, the greatest number to be ordained in any one year for the Archdiocese.

● Last Friday, nine priests were ordained, the largest number of new priests to be ordained on one occasion.

- Derek Boylen

Nicholas Nweke

Clayton Mitchell

Kenneth Asaba

has been a personal response to God’s goodness to me,” Fr Albis said.

Andrew Albis

Andrew Bowron

William Matthews

Let us Pray: The candidates lay down during the invitation to pray during the ordations Photos: Jamie O’Brien and Peter Rosengren

Deacon Joseph Lee swears his obedience to Archbishop Hickey.

The candidates prepare to state their intention to become presbyters.

Archbishop Hickey and fellow bishops during the Eucharist

Families bring up the new vestments for the priests

The new priests bless the bishops inside the sacristy at the conclusion of the ceremony.

Graphic: Derek Boylen

Relics lead to shining path of the saints

■ With Anna Krohn

November was a peculiarly and for some an embarrassingly Catholic sort of month. For it is during this month we remember the dead. It is the month that begins with their light (white vestments) and dark (black or purple) of those two Feasts of All Saints and Holy Souls.

The Church provides us with both an immediate memento mori (a token and reminder of our own inevitable deaths) and the joyful sense that we have an intimate and interconnected solidarity with the “clouds of witnesses” who have gone before us.

This being “in touch” with the Communion of Saints was evident in a different way during the “visit” to Australia in October of the relics of St Margaret Mary Alacoque.

Visiting one of the temporary host shrines here in Melbourne, I was prompted to think again about the place of relics in our faith. I was surprised to see how many young people where present in the reverent crowd.

It reminded me of the thousands upon thousands of people (both pious and de-Churched) who crowded to touch the relics of St Therese of Lisieux a few years ago in Australia and Ireland.

i say, i say

What was going on? Is this a cause of theological angst? Should we be worried that this indicates a dangerous backlash to modern Church reforms? Is it a return to sentimental and morbid piety which should be left discarded along with those faded plaster statues of the past?

The Church is rightly reserved about the association of relics with superstition, magical thinking and downright fraud and financial graft (which many of the Protestant reformers rightly decried at the Reformation).

But the veneration of relics seems

to be a revelation to many of the young people I travelled with to Europe for World Youth Day this year. Why?

Wherever they travelled they seemed captivated by relics. There were discreet third-class relics in the form of bits of clothing. Then there were relics which were startlingly visceral and anatomical (such as the very visible tongue of St Anthony) – something our modern rational consciousness finds repellent and creepy.

Perhaps the young were interested because they saw that “relics” made their more buttoned-up and

respectable elders uncomfortable. The sense of transgressing political correctness has always appealed to the young.

I sense there was something more significant taking place.

One thoughtful young man told me that in his world dominated by virtual reality and slick images, these shrines to the saints gave him a “concrete connection with mystery” and a sort of familial sense of the “person of the saint.”

It is the concrete and the personal that is for young people so hard to find in the life of the Church and world today. The worldviews they

are surrounded by are tinged by the blankness of scientific reductionism or the vaguely numinous dualism of new-age spirituality.

Pope Benedict XVI, while still a cardinal, commented “our current form of sensibility is no longer able to apprehend the transparency of the spirit in the senses”, the material world is thus “opaque” and alienating.

Even the human body itself is viewed “as a mere product of evolution, becoming reduced to industrial material for the work (and use) of other men” (English writer and theologian, Stratford Caldecott).

Relics, by contrast, represent the Catholic sense of the sacramental. They are important not so much in themselves, as they are concrete channels and reminders of the vigorous transformation that makes “holy” the bodies and lives of the saints. They give us at once homely and mysterious access to the work of God and the co-operation of the saints in real human time and space. They form a tangible “pledge” of the resurrection of our own bodies at the eschaton (the fulfillment and end of time - as we affirm in the Creed).

Perhaps it is best said by an unnamed writer from the West coast of Ireland who in reporting on his or her parish’s visit to the relics of St Therese said this:

“Our visit to the Relics of St Therese was a very simple event. We went to see, to touch, and to venerate the Relics of St Therese. This was our response to the power of holiness in St Therese. In the end there is nothing to excel the power of holiness. Holiness is total self-giving in love to the point of complete abandonment which allows God to be God, and allows the creature to become the instrument of his grace”.

Lack of success in love is no excuse for rotten verse

■ By Guy Crouchback

Not many people discover a new vice. I think I have done so, and can only resolve not to repeat it: losing my temper on Internet websites.

Unfortunately some sites cry out for ill-considered outbursts. There is, for example, a poetry site of astonishing popularity. It has, according to its own statistics, posted more than one million poems so far. One night when I was logged on, I found my computer was very slow, and feared it had picked up a virus. But it turned out it was slow because 1,677 people were logged on simultaniously.

Now these people post their

poems. By the time I had looked at one poem, half-a-dozen more had been posted. They roll in from all over the world. Far be it from me to criticise the urge to write poetry, but unfortunately most of those I have seen demonstrate the faults which have brought poetry to the situation where countless tens of thousands of people write it and almost no one reads it. Virtually none of them appear to have read any real poetry, to be aware of the first rules of it, or to understand that poetry is an art and craft which usually takes, as well as talent, a great deal of study and knowledge.

There are those who think poetry is a sort of psychiatrist’s couch or public confessional - they seem to think the proper function of it is as a forum to spill out their obsessions, neuroses, self-pity, hatred and misery. There is no sense of lyricismgenerally it is just prose chopped up and dribbled down the page with a few inconsistent attempts at rhyme. No celebration, just self-obsession. Criticism (“please be diplomatic”) is invited. The subject matter, often the poet’s own failure to attract a particular, or indeed any, member of the opposite sex, unfortunately tends to call for criticism along the lines of the short and simple sen-

tence: “Get a life!” and I fear this is a temptation which I have not always successfully resisted.

I generally feel badly about it afterwards. Many of the “poets” are teenagers going through the agonies of first love and probably do not need curmudgeonly rebukes. Nonetheless, they do need correction. It seems to me that the whole concept of “poetry” as people pouring out their tortured souls and twisted pains - and nothing else! - is desperately wrong. As wrong, if you like, as a Cathedral that consisted of nothing but gargoyles (gargoyles have their place, but it is a small one). Poetry is what Dante used to describe not only the horrors of Hell but also the psychological complexities of Purgatory and the glory of Heaven.

I am sure poetry would not have reached such a pass it if was not being badly taught in the Englishspeaking world, by lazy, ignorant or nihilistic teachers who encourage students to “creativity” irrespective of what is created. It is also the product of an idea of romanticism which holds everything that comes “welling up” from inside the poet is valid - this notion obliterates the distinction between poetry and vomiting. One poet actually claims

here that: “poetry should present to its readers a slice of the mental state of its author.” I am sure most posting on this site at present actually agree with this. Another claimed: “Poetry is my drain.” (In that particular case I’d agree, too). There are exceptions: I saw a powerful and original poem on the site by an engineer on closing-down a generator that had brought light to a town. There is sometimes a good thought well-expressed, as

on another site promoting political incorrectness: “Isn’t forever worth fighting for?” But by and large this site indicates something awfully wrong about contemporary methods of teaching and appreciating poetry.

I’ll try - even after dinner - not to post rude and sardonic comments on the work of love-tortured 16year-olds any more. But I will try to post some examples of good poetry which they might learn from.

Venerating the saints: A young Perth pilgrim pauses to pray before the body of St John Vianney. In 2002 Perth pilgrims travelling to World Youth Day in Toronto with Archbishop Hickey went via France, stopping at Lisieux, to see the relics of St Therese, and Ars to see the relics of St John Vianney.

Photo: Derek Boylen

Continued from Letters page 6 scandal, and seriously undermined our credibility, not to speak of infallibility.

Why can the Church not acknowledge its errors honestly and humbly? Why can we not apologise openly, even if belatedly, to the countless mothers and fathers who have suffered the agony of the eternal loss of a child, because they were misled to believe so by the Church which they trusted implicitly.

Need we be so surprised that many young Catholics, coming out of Catholic schools with ideals of honesty and transparency, regard the Church as irrelevant, when we try to avoid admitting our mistakes? Perhaps they are just smarter than their grandparents.

We may indeed smile at the Syllabus of Errors, and even have a laugh at the Index of Forbidden Books, but Limbo is a more serious thing.

Fr Maurice Toop Queen of Martyrs Parish Maylands

Work together

Congratulations on publishing the report by Dr Saker on the state of Faith education in our Catholic school system.

To concerned parents who have experienced these issues at first hand and who have consistently highlighted the problem, this report reveals nothing new. However, now

A night to remember: Father Kenneth Asaba, clockwide from top left, hugs a relative shortly after being vested as a priest for the first time. Fr Gavin Gomez smiles to wellwishers shortly before processing out of the cathedral. Priests of the Archdiocese line up to come forward and pray over their newly-ordained brothers. The Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Monsignor Thomas McDonald, in the foreground, listens with Bishops Donald Sproxton, Justin Bianchini and Peter Quinn as Archbishop Hickey delivers his homily to a standing-room only congregation. The Cathedral Choir, under the direction of Master of the Choristers, Fr Timothy Deeter, provided sacred music for an historic occasion. Father Asaba waves to an honour guard of priests as he exits the cathedral following the ordination ceremony. Relatives, above, wait to vest one of the new priests.

that the evidence is in, there can be no more denial and evasion about this drastic situation. The question remains, where to from here?

If a key measure of the success of Catholic education is the participation rate in their faith of Catholic students who have been educated under the current system, then by any objective assessment, Catholic education fails.We all know what that implies in the commercial arena - has not the time arrived for a strong response?

It would be wrong to place all blame at the foot of Catholic education workers, consequently, parents and parishes also have a grave responsibility to take a hard look at the situation and together start working to obtaining improved outcomes as far as Faith education is concerned.

Geoff Storey Hillarys

Too compromised?

The front page interview with the courageous Mr Monty Patterson entitled “Don’t do it AustraliaUS father urges Government not to legalise RU-486, the drug that killed his 18 year old daughter,” delivers a powerful and important message, namely that there is a serious health risk posed by the abortion drug RU-486.

Mr Patterson openly acknowleges that for him this “...is not about

the abortion debate. This is about the health and safety of women.”

My concern is that in publishing an article solely focussed upon the public health dangers of RU486, The Record has compromised the Catholic Church’s position. For Catholics, the legalisation of the drug RU-486 has significant moral implications relating to the sanctity of human life. It is not inconceivable that in the future a drug might be developed which delivers a speedy, non-surgical abortion with no ill physiological side effects.

We know that the Catholic Church would vigorously oppose the introduction of any such drug. Why then publish an article which deals exclusively with the health risks associated with the drug? Is it thought that in the case of a sensitive issue such as this, readers will be more readily persuaded by objective medical evidence? The Catholic Church must not be afraid to make a more meaningful contribution to the debate and present a compassionate case against the drug firmly grounded in Catholic morality.

Jessica Carmody Lawyer, Subiaco

Sadness at failure

I write to express my great sadness at finding no mention in this week’s Record (other than in the official diary) of what must

surely be a highlight of 2005 for the Church in Perth, and one which I am sure your readers would have liked to remember in their prayers this weekend.

I have just returned with my two youngest children from the ordination of 9 men from a wide variety of backgrounds to the priesthood. 9 men who have committed themselves to the service of God, to melt the hearts of His sometimes frozen people and through their own love for Christ to bring His Love and His Light to the world.

Cause for celebration, affirmation and prayerful support?

Members of Catholic Women’s League certainly believe so.

My children and I certainly believe so.

Over a thousand people in St Mary’s Cathedral clearly thought so.

My heart aches at the possibility that you do not.

Margaret Ker President

Catholic Women’s League Archdiocese of Perth

Editor’s note: The Record goes to print on a Wednesday, and the ordinations were on Friday evening, two days later, so we were unable to cover them for last weekend’s paper. However The Record was present to cover the ordinations for the important reasons you have mentioned and the coverage can be found on Pages 1 and Vista 2 and 3 of this week’s paper. The ordinations were also mentioned on page 1 a fortnight ago in the article on clergy appointments, so that readers could attend if they wished.

in brief

Teddy cell phone for four year-olds

A teddy bear-shaped mobile phone aimed at children as young as four has been launched in Britain. Teddyfone Ltd claims it will help parents keep track of their children and is a “response to a clear demand in the market”. The phone has no screen, only four buttons that can be pre-programmed by parents, and prevents users from being targeted by harmful material. It also has a low rate of absorption of radiation - a concern which has led health authorities in the UK to discourage use of mobile phones by children under eight.

Missing women

There is a shortfall of some 200 million women in the world, according to a study of violence against women commissioned by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

“We are confronted with the slaughter of Eve, a systematic gendercide of tragic proportions,” said Theodor Winkler in a preface to the study: Women in an Insecure World

Photos: Peter Rosengren

The World

Miracle attributed to Mother Marianne

Miracle ties New York woman to Blessed Marianne Cope forever

■ By Connie Cissell

The life of Katherine “Kate” Mahoney, 27, will forever be entwined with that of Blessed Marianne Cope, who died in 1918 after spending 35 years ministering to leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

The young woman’s recovery from multiple organ failure and cardiac arrest 12 years ago was judged miraculous by the Catholic Church and attributed to the intercession of Mother Marianne, who was beatified last May.

But Mahoney wants to be sure people understand that she herself is no miracle.

She was the vehicle for Mother Marianne’s miracle. It is Mother Marianne’s story that she wants to share.

Mahoney, members of her family, her health care providers and members of Mother Marianne’s religious order, the Sisters of St. Francis, recently told the story of the miracle in interviews with the Catholic Sun, the newspaper of the Syracuse in New York state.

At age 14, Mahoney was diagnosed with germ-cell ovarian cancer and underwent surgery, followed by aggressive chemotherapy. The therapy presented a new round of problems, including mouth sores, aenemia, extensive bleeding and fluid retention.

Dr. Russell Acevedo, who treated Mahoney at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse

and was part of the investigation into the miracle, recalled that one of the complications was severe haemorrhaging that led to cardiac arrest for 25 minutes on December 10, 1992.

“That is a long time for cardiac arrest,” Acevedo said. “She required a lot of fluid, a lot of support. We had to breathe for her, we had to give her medicine to restart her heart. ... Many of her organs were injured during that cardiac arrest.”

By January 1, 1993, the teenager’s lungs had begun to deteriorate and her tissue was described by the family as having the con-

sistency of butter. There was nothing solid left to push another needle into.

Two Sisters of St. Francis who knew the Mahoney family - Sister Mary Laurence Hanley and Sister Rose Vincent Gleason - approached them about the idea of praying for Mother Marianne’s intercession on Kate’s behalf. When the family agreed, Sister Mary Laurence visited Kate on January 3, 1993, and touched her forehead with a relic of Mother Marianne’s - a red scrap of a bookmark on which Mother Marianne had written “Sweet Jesus Mercy.”

The two nuns and other members of

their community began praying for the intercession of Mother Marianne on behalf of Kate, whose vital organs began to function again, one by one.

The presence of a relic is not necessary for a miracle to occur, Sister Mary Laurence said.

“There is no magic in the relic itself but just as anyone feels closer to a person if they have something once belonging to that person, it helps bring about a feeling of presence,” she said.

John Mahoney, Kate’s father, said he was skeptical about the idea of miracles, but not anymore. “If there was a definitive moment for me it didn’t occur in the hospital,” he said. “But, when I read the discharge papers and they said Kate’s recovery could not be explained medically - I know that’s as close as you’re going to come to having a physician say he saw a miracle.”

John and Mary Mahoney, who went with their only child to Rome for Mother Marianne’s beatification, let her determine when she was ready to talk about Mother Marianne’s intercession in her life.

“They were very good about not pulling me into something too fast,” Kate Mahoney said. “The whole key to the story, the miracle, is something that I can’t remember but I have never questioned it. My connection to Mother Marianne came later.”

Her admiration and love for Mother Marianne remain strong. Mahoney admires her courage, her activism and her success during a male-dominated period in history and now acknowledges Mother Marianne’s role in her life.“Her role in my life is huge,” she said. “I talk to her. I pray to her and I take great comfort in knowing she’s watching over me.” CNS

Nuncio to Indonesia gets new title Bishop Mariu dies aged 53

A Sri Lankan archbishop who studied theology and sacred Scripture and has diplomatic experience in Asia was named to the No. 2 post of the Vatican’s worship and sacraments congregation.

Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, apostolic nuncio to Indonesia, was named by Pope Benedict XVI to be secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The papal appointment was announced on December 10 by the Vatican and fills a post made vacant after the previous secretary, Italian Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, was appointed Archbishop of Assisi.

Archbishop Ranjith told Catholic News Service that his appointment was “an invitation of the Lord” and a reflection of the Pope’s trust in his abilities.

“I’m happy about the Holy Father’s trust; it gives me a lot of confidence,” he said by phone on December 12 from the apostolic nunciature in Jakarta, Indonesia. His new appointment as secretary of the Vatican’s worship and sacraments congregation, headed by Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, puts Archbishop Ranjith in an office charged with overseeing liturgical translations and making sure the way Catholics celebrate the Mass and the sacra-

Sri Lankan archbishop receives no. 2 posting at congregation

ments follows the Church’s liturgical norms.

While his experience has not been specifically centred on liturgical norms, Archbishop Ranjith told CNS that he has been “interested in the subject” and that he is “a keen reader in this area.”

He said that, as the congregation’s new secretary, he hopes “to enhance the faith of the people and to strengthen it further.”

Concerning how he hoped to help balance the need to allow local cultural gifts to be expressed in the liturgy and the guarantee that the rites are fully Catholic and dignified, the Sri Lankan arch-

bishop said he wishes to serve the Church and make sure the liturgy is “an expression of the faith of the people.”

In Asia, “faith is life, and worship has to be expressed in life,” he said.

“I am not pretending to do great things; I will be myself and be a humble servant to the Holy Father” and Catholics around the world, he said.

Born in northwestern Sri Lanka in 1947, Archbishop Ranjith became a priest in 1975. He completed his studies in theology at Rome’s Urbanian University and specialised in sacred Scripture at the postgraduate Biblical Institute in Rome.

Throughout the 1990s, he served Sri Lankan dioceses as auxiliary bishop of the capital, Colombo, and the first bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Ratnapura.

In 2001, he returned to Rome to serve as head of the Pontifical Mission Societies under the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples until 2003.

He became an archbishop and apostolic nuncio to Indonesia and East Timor in 2004.

New Zealanders mourn death of first Maori bishop

New Zealanders are mourning the sudden death of Hamilton Auxiliary Bishop Max Takuira Mariu, the country’s first Maori bishop.

Bishop Mariu died on December 12 at the age of 53. Since the 1970s he had suffered heart problems caused by a bout of rheumatic fever in childhood, and he died as the result of a viral heart infection after a weeklong hospital stay.

Bishop Mariu’s funeral Mass was scheduled for December 15 at Hamilton’s Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Bishop Mariu was ordained a priest in 1977 and became New Zealand’s first Maori bishop in 1988. The Maori are the country’s indigenous people. Early in his time as bishop, Bishop Mariu talked about the constant requests he had to answer from Catholics of all ethnic groups.

“I think that, while people have expectations, you’re obliged, simply by your position as bishop, to help them realise those expectations,” he said in 1990.

He said in the same interview that his top priority was to “help my people come to understand and appreciate their culture and their church, so that they can express themselves as Maori and

as Catholic without any conflict between the two.” In 2001, Bishop Mariu was named a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a distinction given to those who have excelled in national or community service. Peter Jackson, director of “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy and the “King Kong” remake, was among the New Zealanders honoured along with Bishop Mariu that year.

Hamilton Bishop Denis Browne, president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference, called Bishop Mariu’s passing “a great loss, not only for me personally and the Diocese of Hamilton, but the whole of the Catholic Maori community of our diocese and of all Aotearoa (New Zealand).”

The Maori Party, a political party formed in 2004, also paid tribute to Bishop Mariu.

“This is a huge loss, the passing of a great leader of our people. Takuira was dearly loved by all our families,” said Tariana Turia, a leader of the Maori Party. “He has spent his life in dedication to the advancement of our people, always responding to the call of our ‘whanau’ (family) whenever and wherever they arise. He would take his ministry wherever the people were.

“I think now how blessed we have all been to have been guided and supported by Takuira. We have indeed been honoured to know him,” she added.

Kate Mahoney, centre, is pictured with her parents, John and Mary Mahoney. Kate’s recovery from multiple organ failure and cardiac arrest 12 years ago was judged miraculous by the Catholic Church and attributed to the intercession of Blessed Marianne Cope. Photo: CNS

Archbishop Ranjith

The World

Hope for a ‘serene world’

Human rights must be respected, Pope says in World Peace Day message

■ By Cindy Wooden

Even in the midst of war, basic human rights must be respected and all parties involved must work to end hostilities, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for World Peace Day 2006.

International humanitarian law is “binding on all peoples” even in times of war, he said in his message for the January 1 day of prayer.

Pope Benedict’s message, “In Truth, Peace,” was released on December 13 at the Vatican.

The Pope began his message, which is distributed to heads of state around the world, by offering his best wishes to all people of good will, “especially those who are suffering as a result of violence and armed conflict.”

“My greeting is one filled with hope for a more serene world, a world in which more and more individuals and communities are committed to the paths of justice and peace,” Pope Benedict wrote.

The message focussed on truth as the foundation for peace - the truth that all people are created in the image and likeness of God with equal dignity, that God has a plan for humanity, and that good and evil exist and can be recognised by all people.

Pope Benedict quoted the Second Vatican Council, which said, “Not everything automatically becomes permissible between hostile parties once war has regrettably commenced.”

The body of international humanitarian law was developed to limit the devastating consequences of war, and its precepts are binding on all nations, the Pope said.

In fact, humanitarian law must be brought up to date to respond to “the changing scenarios of today’s armed conflicts and the use of ever newer and more sophisticated weapons,” he said.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presented the Pope’s message at a December 13 Vatican press conference.

the world in brief

World still at risk

He said the Catholic Church absolutely condemns the use of torture in all circumstances, including interrogations aimed at preventing further violence.

“Torture is a humiliation of the human person” and there is no excuse for using it, he said. Other methods exist for gaining information, assessing threats and stopping potential terrorists.

Asked specifically if Pope Benedict was condemning the United States for its prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegedly in Eastern Europe for suspected terrorists, Cardinal Martino said the Pope “is not condemning anybody, but is inviting them to follow the Geneva Conventions. All those states that are parties to the convention have an obligation to observe it.”

The Pope thanked international

In a message congratulating a winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Pope Benedict XVI warned that the world continues to be threatened by the spread of nuclear weapons.

The Pope’s comments came in a telegram on December 10 to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the chief UN nuclear inspector, who accepted the peace prize the same day at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

ElBaradei, an Egyptian, shared the prize with the atomic energy agency, based in Vienna, Austria.

“Even today, 60 years after the devastating attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is clear that the peace of the world continues to be at

organisations committed to negotiations and peacemaking, but also “the many soldiers engaged in the delicate work of resolving conflicts and restoring the necessary conditions for peace.”

Peace is the result of “an order planned and willed by God,” he said. It is a gift that must be sought through prayer, but also through a commitment to justice.

Falsehood is the enemy of peace, he said. Nazism and communism demonstrated that ideological and political systems can twist the truth, bringing about “the exploitation and murder of an appalling number of men and women, wiping out entire families and communities,” the German-born Pope wrote.

“After experiences like these, how can we fail to be seriously concerned about lies in our own time, lies which are the framework

risk from the spread of nuclear weapons,” the Pope said.

He praised ElBaradei’s service to the world in promoting nuclear nonproliferation and promoting nuclear disarmament.

“I pray that God will continue to guide the efforts of all who work for peace, and especially those who seek to prevent any further use of weapons of mass destruction,” the Pope said.

At UN and other international meetings, the Vatican has been one of the strongest voices insisting on nuclear disarmament. It was sharply critical of world leaders last September for sidestepping the issue at a summit in New York.

When he accepted the award, ElBaradei said the world was in “a race against time” to avoid nuclear disaster of some kind. He said that if humanity hopes to escape self-destruction, nuclear weapons must have no role in security.

for menacing scenarios of death in many parts of the world,” he said.

Truth is attacked both by those who deny it exists and by those who think they can impose their conception of truth on others, Pope Benedict said.

“The nihilist denies the very existence of truth, while the fundamentalist claims to be able to impose it by force,” he said. “Both show a dangerous contempt for human beings and human life and ultimately for God himself.”

“Fanatical fundamentalism,” the Pope said, does not contribute to spreading the truth about God, but “disfigures his loving and merciful countenance, replacing him with idols made in its own image.”

Pope Benedict said, “God is love which saves, a loving father who wants to see his children look upon one another as brothers and sisters, working responsibly to place their various talents at the service of the common good of the human family.”

In the message, released three days after Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Pope Benedict also pleaded for a renewed international effort for nuclear disarmament.

“The truth of peace requires that all - whether those governments which openly or secretly possess nuclear arms or those planning to acquire them - agree to change their course by clear and firm decisions and strive for a progressive and concerted nuclear disarmament,” he said. Pope Benedict decried the increasing amount of money governments spend on their military and on armaments while the process “for disarmament is bogged down in indifference.”

Cardinal Martino told reporters, “In 2004 the military spending of nations surpassed the sum of $1 trillion, about $160 for every inhabitant on the planet.”

Addressing Catholics specifically, Pope Benedict said, “When we hear the Gospel, dear brothers and sisters, we learn to build peace on the truth of a daily life inspired by the commandment of love.”

“If peace is to be authentic and lasting,” he said, “it must be built on the bedrock of the truth about God and the truth about man.” CNS

Beware commercialism

Pope Benedict XVI said the contemporary Christmas season is being spoiled by “commercial pollution” that obscures the true meaning of Christ’s humble birth.

People need to remember that Christ was born in a manger, in a sign of poverty, the Pope said on December 11 as he greeted pilgrims from his apartment window.

Later, keeping up a tradition of Pope John Paul II, he blessed Nativity creche figurines of baby Jesus held up by thousands of Italian children in St Peter’s Square.

The custom of putting up Nativity scenes in the home is a simple and effective way of bringing back the real meaning of Christmas, the Pope said.

“In modern society, this time of year unfortunately suffers a type of commercial

Nun’s killers sentenced

Two men accused of the February killing of a US nun were convicted and sentenced by a Brazilian court.

Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista received prison terms of 27 years and 17 years, respectively, on December 10 for killing Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and an outspoken advocate for Brazilian peasants.

The convicted killers, however, did not receive the maximum sentence allowed by law. The public defender’s office said it would appeal the decision.

Sister Dorothy’s brother, David Stang, and her sister, Marguerithe Stang Holm, were in Belem, Brazil, for the trial.

These were the first convictions for Sister Dorothy’s assassination. Three other suspects, accused of being the ones who gave the orders to kill the nun, remain in jail awaiting trial.

Earlier in the year, a Brazilian Senate commission report uncovered a wider conspiracy in this case involving more ranchers.

During the trial, Sales said he had lied in his depositions. He said he shot Sister Dorothy in self-defence after he mistook the Bible she was carrying for a gun. Describing the atmosphere around the courthouse in the days preceding and during the trial, Notre Dame Sister Betsy Flynn, the order’s communications officer in Brazil, said at least a hundred people had travelled 24 hours from Anapu, where Sister Dorothy lived, to attend the hearings. “The city was alive with posters of Sister Dorothy lining the streets,” she said. “Hundreds of people camped out in the pouring rain in front of the Judicial Tribunal building; many had travelled from all over the state.”

Sister Dorothy, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and a naturalised Brazilian citizen, had lived in the Amazon region for nearly 40 years. She was shot several times in the chest and head on February 12. She was buried on February 15 on church-owned land near the Anapu River, where she had created an environmental project for peasants of the region.

‘pollution’ that risks altering its authentic spirit, which is characterised by reflection, solemnity and a joy that is not external but personal,” he said.

The Christmas creche, he said, helps people understand “the secret of the real Christmas, because it illustrates the humility and merciful goodness of Christ, who for our sake ‘became poor although he was rich.’”

“His poverty enriches those who embrace it,” the Pope said.

He said Christmas brings true joy and peace to those who, like the shepherds at Bethlehem, recognise the sign of “an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

“This remains the sign, even for us, men and women of the 2000s. There is no other Christmas,” he said.

Colombian paramilitaries stand in line in front of an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during a ceremony where they surrendered their weapons in Remedios, Colombia, on December 12

Photo: CNS

Movie Review

Joe, the Station and the Cold War

Good Night, and Good Luck

■ By William Park, Mercatornet

It’s hard to talk about the era of Senator Joe McCarthy without lapsing into paranoia. But actor-director George Clooney succeeds in this drama about anchor man Edward R. Murrow.

Good Night, and Good Luck, a film directed and written by the actor George Clooney, is, among other things, about the rise of television. It presents a slice in the life of Edward R. Murrow, famed early TV journalist, framing his dispute with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the mid-50s by beginning and ending with an award ceremony for Murrow held in 1958.

Through his reporting via radio about the Battle of Britain in World War II, and then by his early television shows, such as “Person to Person,” Murrow became, and still is, the model that all subsequent “anchor men” strive to imitate. Few if any have matched the original, whose eloquence, objectivity, intelligence, and gravitas keep him elevated above his successors. In the film, David Straithairn, formerly a talented supporting actor, plays Murrow with uncanny accuracy. And he in turn is supported admirably by Clooney as Murrow’s long time partner Fred Friendly, and by Frank Langella, as William Paley, chairman of CBS. The film is shot entirely in a grainy black and white, which gives it an authentic period look and which matches the numerous documentary newsreel and TV clips of the actual events with which the film is concerned.

Hollywood has consistently treated Senator McCarthy and McCarthyism as an unmitigated evil, not without reason. Yet films such as The Front (1976) and Guilty by Suspicion (1991) leave the audience with the notion that the hysteria generated by McCarthy was all an unjust witch-hunt and that the Left, if there was such a thing, was entirely innocent. Lives were ruined, friendships destroyed, the quality of Hollywood lowered, and all over what? – being anti-Fascist or pro-union? Such is Hollywood’s and today’s received opinion. So much so that anyone, such as Elia Kazan, who “named names” is regarded not as a patriot who hated the lies and deceptions and double think of the Left, but as a Quisling and coward, little more than a Nazi collaborator. History tells a some-

what different story. Not only that Stalin was just as evil as Hitler and that Communism blighted every country which it controlled, that Communist moles and spies had infiltrated the US government, Alger Hiss being the most notorious, and that atomic secrets were stolen from Los Alamos, but also that John Howard Lawson, leader of the Hollywood Ten (all perceived as martyrs) was a KGB agent and that Hollywood money was used to finance Soviet espionage. Whittaker Chambers, the Time editor and former Soviet courier who exposed Hiss, warned the young William Buckley at the outset of his career that McCarthy, through his excessive claims, smear tactics, and bullying, would discredit anti-communism. And so it has proven.

Happily, Good Night, and Good Luck (the phrase was Murrow’s sign-off signature) presents a more complicated view of this era. Of course Murrow is all-integrity and all-heroic in facing up to McCarthy, in risking his career in exposing un-American tactics, and in helping to bring down this destructive demagogue. But the film also shows clips of Senator McClellan opposing McCarthy, as well as an enraged President Eisenhower denouncing McCarthy and his methods. This is not your typical left-wing paranoid movie, such as The Constant Gardener (2005), where the corruption goes all the way to the top. It also presents William Paley

(Langella) as somewhat sympathetic. When one of Murrow’s programs defending a blacklisted Air Force officer brings on investigations and government protests, Paley backs Murrow. He also, again reluctantly, allows Murrow to attack McCarthy directly, but when CBS loses its Alcoa sponsor and revenues decline as controversies heighten, he demotes Murrow and eases him out of his job. Paley, like others, was not a villain, just all too human. As the film tells us, McCarthy after being censured, remained in the Senate, but Murrow and Friendly must look for new jobs.

These subtle shifts in the conventional treatment of McCarthyism occur because this film is not merely trying to justify the Left. Murrow was never a fellow traveller or socialist, just a decent, liberal man. The film does attack McCarthy head on; it allows the Senator to speak for and damn himself, and it depicts a McCarthy victim in Don Hollenbeck, a commentator with a left-wing past who committed suicide. But the film has a few other agendas and sub-texts. For one, it warns against smoking and even pokes some fun at Murrow, the chain smoker, who endorsed Kent cigarettes. We see the actual commercial. Then too it hits out at male chauvinism. Patricia Clarkson, playing Shirley Wershba, a Murrow staffer, is sent by the men on the staff out to buy a newspaper, automatically, just as she would be

the one, like the other women at CBS, to get the coffee for the guys. She is married, secretly, to Robert Downey, Jr. also a staff member, but the two of them must pretend they are not married, as CBS, in those pre-feminist days, had a policy against hiring husbands and wives. And when the staff must be cut, they, whose marriage after all was not a well-kept secret, are the first asked to leave.

At the end of the film, as the climax to the tribute, Murrow himself delivers a speech, historically recreated, which elucidates what the entire film has been about. It’s not just about how un-American McCarthy was, but how television must maintain its independence and integrity, how it risks decline if it gives into mere entertainment and the wishes of sponsors. So the film which relishes the recreating of the early days of television news reporting, is not so much about the past as it is a warning to the present to try to keep to the standards of Murrow. Provide analysis, not news bytes; raise the audience up, don’t lower them; be objective, not partisan, but don’t shy away from controversy. Only then will television prove worthy of its promise. Not a bad lesson for Hollywood, as well as from it.

Good Night, and Good Luck is not a great movie, just a good one. Like Star Wars, which was a TV show about watching TV, namely, a group of actors in pyjamas sitting in easy

chairs around the set, Good Night, and Good Luck imitates the early TV that is its subject. It too consists primarily of one studio location and talking heads. Despite the camera’s loving exploration of their faces, the characters remain constant and lack any dramatic development, as though we are to know who they are and the roles that they played. It seems like an hour show, and even that is broken up, in the manner of commercials, by Diana Reeves singing contemporary songs, each of them having some point to make about the matter of the movie, such as “I’ve Got My Eyes on You,” a Cole Porter melody from The Broadway Melody of 1940, but here referring not to George Murphy and Fred Astaire watching Eleanor Powell but to big brother government putting Murrow under surveillance. I suspect the film will appeal primarily to an older generation who lived through this period, but certainly the film’s documentary footage will bring the era alive to younger viewers. Despite the film’s limitations – more after all might have proven less – George Clooney is to be congratulated for making a PG movie about an important subject. It is well worth seeing.

William Park is a veteran film reviewer and the author of Hollywood: An Epic Production, a highly praised verse history of American cinema. He lives in California - www.mercatornet.com

Sunday December 18

50TH

CONCEPTION

Friends

Sunday December 18

50TH

Sunday

Saturday December 31

Sunday

Sunday January 1

Portrait of paranoia: George Clooney, left, has written, produced and acted in Good Night and Good Luck which tells the story of the confrontation between legendary US television anchorman Edward R. Murrow played by David Strathairn, at right, and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Photo: imagenet

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15 Farewell for Ann O’Donnell - Archbishop Hickey Board Meeting of The Living Centre - Archbishop Hickey

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Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook on New Year’s Eve, January 1, 2006. A Candlelight procession to the Virgin’s Shrine precedes Mass at 11.30 pm. All are most welcome. Light refreshments will be served after Mass. N.B. Pilgrim Mass will not be celebrated at the Shrine on the afternoon of Christmas Day or of New Year’s Day. Enquiries:

SACRI: 9447 3292.

Sunday January 1

DIVINE MERCY DEVOTIONS BENTLEY

The Divine Mercy Devotions normally held on the 1st Sunday of each month at Santa Clara Church, Bentley, will not be held on New Year’s Day, 1st January 2006. These devotions will resume on the first Sunday of each month commencing from February 2006.

Friday January 6

PRO LIFE PROCESSION  MIDLAND

The first Friday Mass, procession and Rosary vigil will commence a 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.

January 6-7

TWO HEARTS DEVOTIONS

77 Allendale Square, St Georges Terrace, Perth. Devotion to the Sacred Heart on the first Friday of the month with Mass at 9pm followed by Rosaries, Hymns, prayers on the hour through the night concluding with Mass on Saturday morning at 7am in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Ph: 9409 4543.

Saturday January 7

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: 9402 0349.

January 8-15

SUMMER SCHOOL OF EVANGELISATION

In a world that is full of change, young people are called to put their hope in the one reality that never changes - Jesus Christ. Summer School allows a deepening of your personal relationship with Jesus, and being strengthened in your Catholic faith and mission through the power of the Holy Spirit. Follow the summer school link on our website www.disciplesofjesus.org/ for more details and

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Holiday units, self contained, sleep up to 6, walk to the beach, near Penguin Island, very affordable rates. Bookings Ph: 0414 204 638 or bluewaterholidayu nits@dodo.com.au.

IN MEMORIAM

■ SR GERMANUS KENT OA  DECEMBER 11

Just a closer walk with thee. Missing you Gerry. Mary.

PRAYER

■ DEAR HEART OF JESUS,

In the past I have asked for many favours. This time I ask you for this special favour (mention it). Take it dear heart of Jesus and place it within your own broken heart where your Father sees it and in his merciful eyes, it will become your favour, not mine. Amen. P.

OFFICIAL DIARY

application form. Or contact Jane Borg 0401 692 690, Julie Osman 0412 217 957.

Sunday January 22

DIVINE MERCY PILGRIMAGE TO BOVE FARM

Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary: 23pm Holy Hour to Jesus and Mary – Reconciliation will be available, 3-4pm Divine Mercy Holy Mass – Main Celebrants, Fr Doug Harris and Fr Paul Fox. 4-5pm Divine Mercy Way of the Cross, concluding with Benediction. 5-6pm Evening meal supplied, if required – barbecue at a cost of $5 each. 6pm Coach leaves Bove Farm. Transport from Perth and Willetton will be arranged. Tea and coffee and soft drinks will be available free for all, including BYO people. Enq: John 9457 7771 (SOR), Charles 9342 0653 (NOR).

TUESDAYS WEEKLY PRAYER MEETING

7pm at St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay Street, Perth, WA. Take time to pray and be united with Our Lord and Our Lady in prayer with others. Appreciate more deeply the heritage of the Faith. Overcome the burdens in life with the Rosary, Meditation, Scripture, praise in song, and friendship over refreshments. Come! Join us! Mary’s Companion Wayfarers of Jesus the Way Prayer Group. Experience personal healing in prayer.

BULLSBROOK SHRINE SUNDAY PROGRAM

Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Rd. Bullsbrook. 2pm Holy Mass, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Holy Rosary. Reconciliation available in Italian and English. A monthly pilgrimage is held on the last Sunday of the month in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation. Anointing of the sick is administered for spiritual and physical healing during Holy Mass every second Sunday of the month. All enq SACRI 9447 3292.

ST CLARE’S SCHOOL, SISTERS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

A short history of St Clare’s School is being prepared to celebrate 50 years of its work in WA. Any past students, staff, families or others associated with the school - from its time at Leederville, at North Perth, at East Perth or at Wembley - are invited to contact us with photographs, or memories. Privacy will be protected, in accordance with your wishes. Please contact Nancy Paterson on 0417 927 126, (email npaters@yahoo.com.au) or St Clare’s School, PO Box 21 & 23 Carlisle North 6161. Tel: 9470 5711.

ALL SAINTS CHAPEL

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MASSES: 12.10 and 1.10pm Monday through Friday. Easy to find in the heart of Perth, ALLENDALE SQUARE, 77 St George’s Terrace. Exposition: 8am - 4pm. Morning Prayer: 8am (Liturgical hours). Holy

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■ MY GOOD WISHES

I would like to thank all those who have sent me best wishes, I would also like to send my good wishes to all relatives and friends. I regret I cannot make individual contact owing to ill health. Frank Devitt.

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18 Feast of St Lucy, Spearwood - Bishop Sproxton

19 Christmas Cocktails, Italo-Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre - Archbishop Hickey

20 Reconciliation, Bateman - Bishop Sproxton

24 Midnight Mass, St Mary’s Cathedral - Archbishop Hickey Vigil Mass, Vietnamese Catholic Centre - Bishop Sproxton

25 Christmas Day Mass, St Mary’s Cathedral - Archbishop Hickey

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SCHOENSTATT FAMILY MOVEMENT: MONTHLY DEVOTIONS

An international group focussed on family faith development through dedication to our Blessed Mother. Monthly devotions at the Armadale shrine on the first Sunday at or after the 18th day of the month at 3pm. Next event: December 18. 9 Talus Drive Armadale. Enq Sisters of Mary 9399 2349 or Peter de San Miguel 0407 242 707 www.schoenstatt.org.au

INDONESIAN MASS

Every Sunday at 11.30am at St Benedict’s church Alness St, Applecross. Further info www.waicc.org.

au.

PERPETUAL ADORATION

Christ the King, Lefroy Rd, Beaconsfield. Enq Joe Migro 9430 7937, A/H 0419 403 100. Adoration also at Sacred Heart, 64 Mary St Highgate, St Anne’s, 77 Hehir St Belmont. Bassendean, 19 Hamilton St and Mirrabooka, 37 Changton Wy.

PERPETUAL ADORATION AT ST BERNADETTE’S

Adoration: Chapel open all day and all night. All welcome, 49 Jugan St, Glendalough, just north of the city. Masses every night at 5.45pm Monday to Friday, 6.30pm, Saturday and the last Sunday Mass in Perth is at 7pm.

THE DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE

St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Square, Perth – each first Sunday of the month from 1.30pm to 3.15pm with a different priest each month. All Saints Chapel,

Allendale Square, 77 St George’s Tce, Perth - each Monday and Friday at 1.35pm. Main Celebrant Fr James Shelton. St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor Street, East Perth - each Saturday from 2.30pm to 3.30pm, main celebrant Fr Marcellinus Meilak, OFM. Saints John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Drive, Willeton - each Wednesday from 4pm to 5pm. All Enq John 9457 7771.

BLESSED SACRAMENT ADORATION

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

SUNDAY CHINESE MASS

The Perth Chinese Catholic Community invite you to join in at St Brigid’s Church, 211 Aberdeen St (Cnr of Aberdeen and Fitzgerald) Northbridge. Celebrant Rev Fr Dominic Su SDS. Mass starts 4.30pm every Sunday. Enq Augustine 9310 4532, Mr Lee 9310 9197, Peter 9310 1789.

CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Confraternity of the Holy Spirit has been sanctioned in the Perth Archdiocese, our aim is to make the Holy Spirit known and loved, and to develop awareness of His presence in our lives. If you would like more information please call WA Coordinator Frank Pimm on 9304 5190.

MAKE POVERTY HISTORY WALKERS

MPH walkers - walking across Perth Outdoors wearing the White band is a message that we want poverty to be stopped. For info on the walk contact Teresa at tgrundy@westnet.com.au 9458 4084 for info on the worldwide campaign and what is happening this week in Perth look at www.makepovertyhistory.com.au. Please Note

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Church leaders applaud meditation CDs

Pope John Paul II encouraged the Church to get to know Jesus in the Gospels. Two prominent clergy, Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton and well known Perth Jesuit, Fr John Prendiville speak about Norma Woodcock’s aids to meditation and prayer.

Bishop Justin Bianchini, Bishop of Geraldton WA, says:

“When people seek meditation and spirituality, sometimes they find a shallowness. Norma Woodcock brings us the simplicity and richness of some of our ways of praying that have been tried and tested over the centuries.

Having used Norma’s CD for my own prayer I can confidently recommend it for anyone wanting to either learn this approach or develop what they have.

In her CD Norma firstly helps us to achieve a calmness and peace of spirit, so that we can focus and be ready for prayer.

Where better can we come to know Jesus than in the gospels? Norma uses central gospel scenes and themes in these prayer sessions.

A very important element of the Ignatian prayer is the use of imagination. It helps Jesus become more real for us. The gift of imagination helps better connect us and our lives with Jesus. Using our imagination in prayer also makes it easier for the experience of that prayer to flow over into our day. For me the beauty of Norma’s guided meditations is that she skillfully and fruitfully engages our imagination in prayer.

I believe that this CD will help people develop a deeper prayer-life. This in turn will (as it did for Ignatius and countless others) affect our lives and the way we spread the ‘Good News’.”

Fr John Prendiville SJ says:

“I was lying in bed with the flu, feeling rather sorry for myself, and finding it difficult to pray, when I remembered the CD of guided gospel meditations composed recently by Norma Woodcock. This Perth based teacher of prayer had sent her disk to me for comment, and it lay on the table beside me. So I put it on my player, closed my eyes and let Norma lead me into the storm on the sea of Galilee, the touching of Jesus’ garment by the woman with the haemorrhage, and the Father’s welcome to the prodigal son. It worked. I was ‘in touch’ again.

Just a few deftly chosen words from the guide, and in my imagination I was right there with Peter and the prodigal, doing what they were doing. It was not long before the actual historical event was allowed to fade from my mind, and I found myself in the mystery of Jesus’ presence here and now.

As far as I know, there are no other audio aids to prayer quite like this. (The nearest I can think of are the meditation tapes put out by Father Billy Hewitt some time ago, and now, I suspect, unavailable.)

Norma Woodcock is a contemporary guide who doesn’t simply talk about prayer, but leads us right into the heart of it. One needs plenty of faith, and not a little humility to take up that role, and I congratulate her for doing so.”

Why Marriage Matters...

Reason Twenty-one

A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at greater risk of child abuse.

Children living with single mothers, stepfathers, or mother’s boyfriends are more likely to become victims of child abuse. Children living in single-mother homes have increased rates of death from intentional injuries. As Martin Daly and Margo Wilson report, “Living with a step-parent has turned out to be the most powerful predictor of severe child abuse yet.” One study found that a preschooler living with a stepfather was 40 times more likely to be sexually abused than one living with both of his or her biological parents. Another study found that, although boyfriends contribute less than 2 percent of non parental childcare, they commit half of all reported child abuse by non parents. The researcher concludes that “a young child left alone with a mother’s boy-friend experiences elevated risk of physical abuse.”

In Australia, former Human Rights Commissioner Brian Burdekin stated that there was an alarming 500 to 600 per cent increase in sexual abuse of girls in families where the adult male was not the natural father.

A 1994-95 study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that more cases of child abuse involved children from single parent families (39%) than families with two natural parents (30%) or other two-parent families (such as families with a step-parent) (21%). Of neglect cases, 47% involved children from female single parent families compared with 26% from families with two natural parents. More recent Australian research has found that the typical child murderer is a young man in a de facto relationship with the victim’s mother.

A recent study of 1998-1999 Victorian child abuse victims found that 45 per cent lived with single parents. The report, by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, found that children who lived in natural two-parent families had a relatively low risk of abuse. And a more recent report from the same Institute entitled Child Protection Australia 1999-2000 reveals that children are most likely to be neglected or abused in single-parent families. It found that the ACT has the highest rate of maltreatment of children from female one-parent families (47 per cent), compared with 29 per cent in two-parent natural families and 18 per cent in step families or blended families.

And a newer report from the same body found that “a relatively high proportion of substantiations [of child abuse] involved children living in female-headed one-parent families and in two-parent step or blended families.”

Twenty-One Reasons Why Marriage Matters by the National Marriage Coalition is available