The Record Newspaper 16 March 2011

MySchool: disability funds boost needed

BY ANTHONY BARICH

The

said.

Extra funding is also needed to help address the education outcomes for students, especially in the eight schools in remote Indigenous communities where the Catholic school is the only

Please turn to Page 2 Catholic Ed leaders welcome Myschool site - Page 3

Catholic bookshop buzzes in the heart of the city

It’s different and, with its focus on family life, parenting, marriage, youth, Scripture study and the Baptismal vocation, also a little bit counter-cultural says Editor …

CATHOLIC families in the 21st century find themselves facing increasingly complex challenges to being a Christian in modern societies, so they need resources to help them navigate their way.

That, in a nutshell, is the reason The Record Bookshop was established.

Although its beginnings were humble, today The Record Bookshop, a small department of The Record Catholic newspaper, is a buzzing hive of activity at its new offices at 21 Victoria Square opposite St Mary’s Cathedral.

Record Editor Peter Rosengren established the bookshop in what was then a spare room at The Record’s old Newcastle Street offices back in 2005.

“We started offering occasional books that had been reviewed in the paper to our readers because we could see there were great resources for individuals and families out Please turn to Page 2

The Record Bookshop has grown from humble beginnings in a spare room at the Catholic paper’s old offices, says Editor Peter Rosengren. It tries to distinguish itself with a special focus on meeting the needs of contemporary Catholics, especially families and parenting, Scripture and papal writings of the modern era.

New Chair for SJOG Trustees

The St John of God Health Care Trustees have elected Clive Macknay as their new chair.

The role will see Mr Macknay oversee governance as well as providing advice on strategic direction to the board and executive of the private health care group which has grown from seven to 13 hospitals across Australia since 2002.

Mr Macknay’s 25 year long association with the group began with St John of God

Hospital Subiaco in the 1980s as an advisor, continued as an inaugural board member on St John of God Health Care’s establishment as a unified group in the early 1990s, and culminated with his joining the Trustees in 2009 and current appointment.

Mr Macknay is expected to continue the organisation’s focus on the relationship and communication between the Trustees and the Members of St John of God Australia Ltd, which sponsors the ministry.

Members include the Sisters of St John of God, the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, and the ten dioceses in which St John of God Health Care has facilities.

Born in Perth and educated at Aquinas College and the University of Western Australia where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, Mr Macknay is qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Certified Practising Accountant, and is an active member of the St Vincent de Paul Society.,

Midwife wins award

Julia Zehnder (pictured) of Como was named St John of God Hospital Murdoch’s 2010 Caregiver of the Year as part of St John of God Day celebrations on 8 March.

Julia, a Clinical Midwife and mother of two, has worked at Murdoch since it opened in 1994.

The Caregiver of the Year award recognises and acknowledges excellent service and care provided by Murdoch caregivers, and is a reflection of the hospital’s mission and values.

Bookshop offers new, contemporary, resources for families

Continued from Page 1 there. But mostly they were only available in the US or Great Britain,” he says.

THE R ECORD Contacts

Editor

Peter Rosengren office@therecord.com.au

Journalists

Bridget Spinks baspinks@therecord.com.au

Mark Reidy mreidy@therecord.com.au

Anthony Barich abarich@therecord.com.au

Advertising/Production

Mat De Sousa production@therecord.com.au

Accounts

Classifieds/Panoramas/Subscriptions

Catherine

Record

Bibiana Kwaramba bookshop@therecord.com.au

Proofreaders

Chris

The

PERTH WA 6832 21 Victoria Square, Perth 6000

(08) 9220 5900 Fax: (08) 9325 4580

Website: www.therecord.com.au

The

The

“That made it difficult; also, tracking down something and then ordering it in, without too much experience in retail operations, made it a bit of a learn-asyou-go thing. But fortunately we started off small and have been building it up ever since,” Mr Rosengren said.

“I realised that offering books, DVDs, CDs and similar products was something that fitted in naturally with being a Catholic newspaper. On the one hand, we were offering people a message about the global reality of the Church, but only through news stories.

“For those who were really interested in going deeper, it was clear that things like books and all the other resources we offer could help open new vistas for today’s Catholics, young and old.”

He said the bookshop focuses on three main areas of Catholic and Christian life under the general heading of the Baptismal Vocation.

“There are thousands of books and other things produced by religious publishing houses every year on spirituality, theology and so on, but they’re usually for the more academic reader – fine if you’re doing a doctoral dissertation,” he says. What was clearly needed is something for ordinary Catholic men and women and their families making their way in the world, especially helping families to conquer the pervasive challenges that a moral relativist culture aims at their children.

Record Editor Peter Rosengren: “If you want a good First Communion outfit, don’t come to us,” he says.

“If you want a nice First Communion outfit, don’t come to us,” he says, somewhat jokingly.

“What I mean is that your First Communion outfit won’t make you a better person. We want to offer resources that open new vistas and help Catholics to see that their faith is not what so many in our society regard it as: burdensome, an obligation, irrelevant and ultimately suspicious of happiness.”

The bookshop offers resources in Scripture, papal writings and the Lay Vocation, especially family life, and some giftware and devotional items.

“We chose those themes because Catholics don’t read the Word of God anywhere near as much as they should, we have these remarkable Popes of the modern era and the Church is 99 per cent families and laity,” he says.

These lead naturally into other areas such as prayer, the Sacraments and Christian community, he points out.

Australia, like many other affluent nations, is a rapidly secularising society. It’s post-Christian and the trend is clearly global, says Mr Rosengren.

This has taken its toll on several generations of Catholic families with large numbers of young people over several generations choosing not to follow in their parents’ faith. But that’s because they don’t know what it is they’re rejecting, he adds.

“The voices informing their lives are not the voices of the Church, such as the saints and the great thinkers and explainers of Christianity. We want to re-introduce them to their family - their real family,” he says.

“That’s why we try to offer modern resources for young people, children, parents, spouses and families that can help them see that the Church is alive, exciting and relevant to their lives.”

The Record Bookshop, managed by Mrs Bibiana Kwaramba, is open 9am to 5pm weekdays and can be contacted on (08) 9220 5900 or bookshop@therecord.com.au

Schools website info reveals disabilities funds boost needed

Continued from Page 1

“Students with disabilities have access to a mainstream education in Catholic schools and so the real cost is not as easily identified within the individual school data,” Mr Dullard said.

may be used as the sole basis for judging schools.

“The reality is that important aspects of our school communities such as religion, pastoral care, sense of belonging and diversity are not reflected on the MySchool website,” he said.

THE R ECORD Contacts

“An ongoing commitment from governments and education authorities to funding for these students, regardless of the sector in which they attend, will be a significant step forward in improving the educational outcomes for this group of students.”

While he applauded having this information available to parents, he said Catholic Education is concerned that “this small window into each school”

“I also have no doubt that there will be particular comparisons made between schools that will result in much time being spent explaining variances when the time should more productively be used in providing a better education for our students.”

National Catholic Education Commission chair Therese Temby, the former Catholic Education WA director,

said the financial data on the site and the Australian Government’s current Review of Funding for Schooling will help clarify the facts about the amount of government funding received by Catholic schools. Australian schools, both government and non-government, are funded differentially by governments, both Commonwealth and State/Territory.

Notwithstanding, all sources of income, including private sources and funds accrued from fundraising, have been included in the calculations, she said.

Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett said the financial data would help shape his planned overhaul of funding for public and private schools.

The

St John of God Health Care’s new Chair of Trustees Clive Macknay, in foreground, and Don Good. He will be responsible for setting the direction of the growing health system.

MySchool 2.0 a new era

Top Catholic Education leaders see the MySchool 2.0 website as a new dawn for information for parents. They’re less happy with what they see as the media’s simplistic reporting of its usefulness.

SINCE unveiling the second version of the MySchool website in early March, Education Minister Peter Garrett has been fielding questions about the future of school funding in Australia.

Every school’s recurrent and capital expenditure has been displayed in a comparative format for the first time. Students’ literacy and numeracy data, NAPLAN (National Assessment Programme – Literacy and Numeracy), collated over three years for each school has also been displayed.

Whilst debate continues over the value of the new MySchool V2.0 website, the Education Minister heralds a new era in information available to parents. “MySchool 2.0 will provide information on every school in Australia, giving parents and the public access to performance and financial data on our schools – information that has previously only been available to education bureaucrats or school authorities” Mr Garrett said.

Catholic Education WA CEO Ron Dullard said that “in principle, having this information available for parents and the community in general is welcomed by Catholic Education”.

“It means that the public is given access to information regarding aspects of the operation of each school,” he said.

The National Catholic Education Commission also applauded the extra transparency delivered by the new website. “Parents can now see what resources are available to spend on their child,” Commission Chair Therese Temby said.

However, some of the financial and demographic data has been presented in the media in a manner that is simplistic.

For instance, last Thursday’s (10 March) article in The Australian

newspaper entitled “Poor disadvantaged by broken system”, strikes at the very core of the ethos of Catholic Education across Australia.

For a system that has as its mandate taking care of the vulnerable and socially and educationally disadvantaged in our society, this article highlights precisely why there is concern in the education sector about making comparisons between schools. The table compares Aranmore Catholic College with Woodvale Senior High School, which has a similar level of educational advantage but that is where any similarity ends.

Woodvale SHS has 1,404 students, Aranmore Catholic College has 617 students.

Woodvale has no Indigenous students whereas Aranmore has seven per cent Indigenous students. Woodvale has 13 per cent of students who have a Language Background Other than English (LBOTE) whereas Aranmore has 33 per cent LBOTE and must fund an Intensive Language centre.

Aranmore also has a high student population from refugee families.

All of this information is clearly shown on the MySchool 2.0 website but for the purpose of the article, this additional information, which directly influences and affects funding, has been ignored and hence provides a skewed picture

to the wider community. Similar instances have been cited for other Catholic schools across the nation targeted by this article.

Mrs Temby signified the dangers as this type of miscommunication presented by The Australian could cause people to buy into a “simplistic public versus private funding debate” rather than recognising the complexity of educational funding.

Early National figures released by School Education Minister Peter Garrett show that an average $11,100 is spent per student at public schools, $10,000 at Catholic schools and $13,700 at private schools.

In WA, public school costs outstrip private schools’. An average $13,585 is spent per student in State schools compared with $12,756 in independent schools and $10,722 in

Catholic schools. This is understandable given the geographical diversity of Western Australia and that there are a number of high cost special needs schools operated by the Department of Education.

Catholic schools, however, continue to demonstrate their ability to operate efficiently and achieve very good outcomes with the resources at their disposal. Any funding debate must closely investigate the fact that Catholic schools are focused on ensuring equity of access and opportunity.

Catholic Systems play an important role in ensuring access to Catholic schools by planning new schools in regions of need, crosssubsidising the operations of high need schools, maintaining an educational presence in rural and remote regions and providing additional facilities such as boarding functions.

Equity is ensured, amongst other things, through school fee and charges policies, including fee relief and waivers, and a commitment

to enrolling special need groups such as Aboriginal, refugee, low SES and students with disabilities. The data from our schools illustrates the effectiveness of Catholic Education in Western Australia and the diversity in our school communities. Catholic schools in Western Australia are located from Kununurra to Esperance.

Of these, eight are in remote Indigenous communities where this is the only available school. The high cost of running these schools is an ongoing issue for all involved in education. Increased government commitment to such students will continue to help address the educational outcomes for these students.

The high cost of educating students with disabilities is also illustrated on the MySchool 2.0 website with special education centres requiring significant recurrent income per student. Students with disabilities have access to a mainstream education in Catholic schools and so the real cost is not as easily identified within the individual school data.

Catholic schools use a coresponsibility model of funding where higher costs of education for remote communities or those with special needs are shared amongst schools.

“The reality is that important aspects of our school communities such as religion, pastoral care, sense of belonging and diversity are not reflected on the MySchool 2.0 website,” Mr Dullard said.

“There is no doubt that there will be particular comparisons made between schools that will result in much time being spent explaining variances when the time should more productively be used in providing a better education for our students.”

Interestingly, at a recent conference for concerned educators held at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Professor Brian Caldwell, education consultant and former dean of education at Melbourne University, cautioned that “current policy will inhibit creativity in schooling.” Professor Caldwell, along with representatives of principals’ and teachers’ groups, called for the next version of the website to include qualitative assessments of the students’ total experience of school.

Mr Dullard said: “Catholic schools excel at catering for the ‘whole person’ with Christ as our example and the Gospel teachings as our guide. We maintain an education system all over the State that enhances life opportunities for every child in our care.”

Catholic education authorities such as National Catholic Education Chair Therese Temby and CEOWA Director Ron Dullard, below, welcome the MySchool 2.0 website for the information it makes available, but are hoping media reporting of debate on information it offers can improve.

PHOTOS: COURTESY CEOWA

NCEC Chair Therese TembyCEOWA Director Ron Dullard

Youth gather in Narrogin to prepare for WYD 2011

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

PILGRIMS preparing for World Youth Day from Bunbury, Katanning, Perth and Narrogin, members of the Malaysian Singaporean Catholic Community and the local Narrogin, Williams and Wagin parishioners came together for a spiritual retreat in Narrogin on 4-6 March.

Even Deputy leader of the Nationals WA who is also Wagin’s Legislative Assembly member, Terry “Tuck” Waldron, visited the gathering and encouraged youth, while Bunbury Vicar General Fr Tony Chiera spoke about the importance of being yourself.

Catholic Youth Ministry director Anita Parker spoke via Skype on her experiences of World Youth Day while Katanning resident and member of the Bunbury diocese’s youth council, John Paul Collins, gave a talk on the challenges facing country Catholic youth and agricultural life in the Great Southern.

Disciples of Jesus leader Mario Borg spoke on the Pauline theme of World Youth Day, “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith”.

Those who attended were also given a farm tour of Narrogin Agricultural College.

“It’s good to have invited guests to see how the rural sector works,” Louise McEllister of Narrogin said. Brendan O’Reilly, a Narrogin farmer, said he organised the event to provide spiritual development and spiritual preparation for those taking the journey of World Youth Day.

He encouraged all those who attended to be “companions on the journey”.

BRIGHTON CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL, BUTLER

Brighton Catholic Primary School in Butler is a co-educational school catering for 316 students from Kindergarten to Year 6 and is located 38kms north of Perth in a rapidly developing coastal area. The school commenced in 2004 with an enrolment of 75 students. It is currently double stream to Year 3 and single stream to Year 6. An additional class is being added each year. The buildings are modern and attractive with a degree of flexibility in function and the school is well resourced.

Brighton has a strong individual, family and parish focus and has an effective pastoral care program. A strong academic focus is a key element and the school has a special focus on literacy. A number of teachers are currently undergoing Key Teacher training in diverse curriculum areas, as well as having resource teachers in the areas of library, sport, music and Italian.

The school also achieves well in performing arts and students have the opportunity to take part in school sport, as well as regionally based lightning carnivals and inter-school activities.

Brighton is well supported by the Parents and Friends’ Association and has a strong and committed School Board. The school has a close and collaborative relationship with both the parish and St Andrew’s Catholic Primary School in Clarkson.

The successful applicant will take up the position on 1 January 2012.

STAR OF THE SEA PRIMARY SCHOOL, ROCKINGHAM

Star of the Sea Primary School is a co-educational school comprising 690 students from Pre-Kindergarten (3-year-olds) to Year 6. The school is proud of the standard of education it offers in a friendly and caring environment where every child is encouraged to reach their full potential. A broad curriculum is offered, including ICT, Japanese, sport, music (including an instrumental program), support programs in literacy and numeracy and an extension program.

Star of the Sea is well resourced with interactive whiteboards, excellent playground facilities and an oval. A new early childhood centre has recently been completed which provides new facilities for students from Kindergarten to Year 1 and a new library will be completed by the end of June.

The school has a strong emphasis on the teaching of religion and places high priority on pastoral care which is based on Gospel values. This, combined with the services provided by the school social worker, reflects the school’s focus on student wellbeing. School and parish relations are strong, with a high level of cooperation and support existing between the two.

Parents are recognised as the first and most important educators of children and are encouraged to participate in the life of the school. The School Board and Parents and Friends’ Association work closely in building a strong community spirit.

The successful applicant will be required to take up this position from the commencement of Term 3 2011.

Pilgrims look forward to the WYD promise of something big

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

SARAH

Kain,

17, (pictured below, centre) and Belinda McEllister, 18 (at left) and youth group leader Brendan O’Reilly (at right) are three young people from Narrogin who will go to World Youth Day in Madrid.

Sarah is involved in St Matthew’s Narrogin parish community with the music ministry and children’s liturgy. She finished high school last year and is spending the year teaching guitar in Narrogin.

Although she travelled around Australia in a landcruiser and camper trailer for eleven months with her family when she was in year four, going to a European WYD will be a first.

“It’s my first time overseas, second time for a WYD,” she said.

She said her experience at WYD in Sydney was a fulfilling experience, increased her faith and helped her more fully understand it.

“I also enjoyed sharing my faith with people from all around the world and be reassured that our faith is going all round the world,” she said.

Belinda, who has been living in Perth while studying at Notre

Dame, only heard about and decided to go to World Youth Day recently after Narrogin resident and Servite Sister Sahaya approached her after Mass.

“World Youth Day is an unknown experience for me,” she said. “I think it will strengthen my faith, deepen it and I think it will make me a better person.”

Brendan O’Reilly has been farming pigs in Narrogin since finishing high school more than 15 years ago.

After his first WYD experience in Sydney 2008, he was invited to be part of the diocesan youth council for Bunbury.

He is gearing up to lead the Narrogin youth with the Bunbury Diocese.

“I’m hoping to firstly lead these two young girls and another guy who has expressed interest. I’m hoping that they also learn enough to be confident in themselves to become leaders in their own right as well,” he said.

He wants to grow in his own spiritual development, he said.

“I hope and I pray that I become a better messenger, a better disciple of spreading the Good News of Jesus,” he said.

Campion College Australia is poised to make major advances in educational and building developments following its period of initial growth.

The current President, Dr David Daintree, has indicated his intention to retire in late 2012, and the College wishes to appoint a successor who will play a leading role in securing its academic, physical and financial expansion.

The President is the chief executive officer of the College and a prime figure in the public promotion of the institution and its programs of student recruitment and fund-raising support.

The College seeks candidates who are committed and practising Catholics and who possess impressive scholarly credentials, expertise in mobilising the strengths and talents of the College community, and a capacity to win support for the institution among key constituencies, including private benefactors, potential students and their families, and other educational institutions.

Located on a 10-acre campus in the Sydney suburb of Old Toongabbie, one of Australia’s earliest centres of European settlement, Campion is a private Catholic institution of higher education. It offers a core undergraduate degree in the Liberal Arts, providing an array of integrated subjects as a preparation for life as well as an intellectual foundation for any career path.

An information package on the position, detailing the selection criteria, can be obtained from the College website (www.campion.edu.au/president), where other details about the College are available. An appropriate remuneration package will be negotiated.

Enquiries in confidence may be addressed to the Chairman of the Campion Institute Board, Mr Joseph de Bruyn, at joe@sda.org.au.

2011.

Grateful: Courtney Donnelly, Belinda McEllister and Sarah Kain thank Fr Roy Pereira, MSCCA chaplain, for visiting Narrogin. Bunbury VG Fr Tony Chiera and Fr Roy Pereira, below, in Narrogin to guide the youth. PHOTOS: BRIDGET SPINKS

Busselton marks 125 years of parish life, Catholic presence

BY MIA WUGOL AND ANTHONY BARICH

SAINT Joseph’s Catholic Parish will celebrate 125 years of Catholic presence with a special Rhapsody musical performance on 3 April at Busselton Uniting Church Performance Centre. Its proceeds will be shared equally between the St Vincent de Paul Conference of Busselton and the Busselton Uniting Church Outreach.

Mark Coughlin, a concert pianist who has toured Europe, south Asia and Australia and whose work is broadcast regularly on ABC Classic FM, will headline the event.

He will be joined by violinist Stephanie Dean, who started playing at age four, Janet Depiazzi (soprano) and MacKillop Catholic College student Matthew Ho (piano).

Musical items including Rhapsody in blue by composer Gershwin, Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, Warsaw Concerto by Addinsell and works by Liszt and Chopin will be performed on the day.

However, the parish has been celebrating its 125th anniversary for much of the last year.

Celebrations kicked off with the ordination to the Diaconate of Edwin Ocho, 31, in February 2010 which coincided with the 125th anniversary of the arrival

of Busselton’s first priest. Bishop Gerard Holohan ordained Edwin to the priesthood in October 2010 in the Ordinand’s hometown in the Philippines. He is now based at the Bunbury Cathedral parish.

Current parish priest Fr Wally Kevis took over six years ago from Fr Leon Russell, who oversaw the construction of the new Our Lady of the Bay Church.

The previous Church – St Joseph’s - has been converted into a café in the mall in the centre of town.

This year, the celebrations continued with the parish’s annual Summer School where 111 parishioners reflected on the theme of “Our parish renewed”, chosen specifically for the 125th anniversary, with Bunbury Vicar General Fr Tony Chiera and former University of Notre Dame Australia theology lecturer Dr Michael Jackson, now working in Busselton parish’s pastoral office, presenting “very challenging” talks.

It was so successful, the parish wants to host another Autumn or Spring Summer School again this year.

Two busloads of parishioners continued the festivities on 29 January to tour the two popular religious sites in the area – Bove’s Farm and God’s Farm, both in the southern end of the parish, with Rosary and morning tea at Bove’s, lunch at a local winery, then on

to God’s Farm for Benediction, then to another winery, then to Busselton Youth Camp, where Mass was offered.

A country and western dance night with over 100 parishioners on 11 February kept the celebrations going at the old Dunsborough hall.

Fr Kevis and former State MP Bernie Masters opened an art exhibition at Busselton parish from 18-20 February, with a car swap meet, hotdogs, wood turners and other fete activities on the Saturday.

The Veteran Car Club displayed old cars on the Sunday to show how parishioners got to Mass in the old days, including a caravan towed by an early-model Holden. All this culminated in the main event – a Mass celebrated by Bishop Holohan, and the lighting of a special Jubilee Candle that will be lit every week for the next year.

“We’re not finished yet,” Fr Kevis said. He plans to end the celebrations with a “big bang” event in February next year “that everyone can take part in, and thank the Lord for our 125 years”.

More events are also likely to be planned later this year.

Tickets to the upcoming Rhapsody Concert cost $25 (adults), $20 (concession) and $15 (concession). Contact 9752 1687.

Sunday

Monday

NightPrayer8pm

Tuesday-Saturday Mass12.35pmwith Reconciliationat12pm

FirstFriday 5.30pmMass, Convent,ReserveStreet (additionalMass)

FirstSaturday HealingMass12.35pm

Little school tops big State

A Catholic Primary School in Harvey has zoomed past many of its statewide competitors

SAINT Anne’s School in Harvey has achieved the highest level of improvement in NAPLAN (National Assessment Program –Literacy and Numeracy) data in the period 2008 – 2010.

This achievement is all the more laudable given that St Anne’s has been recognised from amongst the 155 WA schools from all three education systems involved in the Smarter Schools National Partnership Programme in K–7 Literacy and Numeracy.

The news comes as Minister for Education, Early Childhood and Youth Peter Garret called for good news stories from each State in terms of top results by improvement across the three education systems, government, Catholic and Independent schools.

This was done in the lead-up to the launch of the new MySchool website 2.0, which features the addition of a third year of results for the National Assessment ProgrammeLiteracy and Numeracy.

St Anne’s principal Phillip Rossiter attributed the improvement to the hard work by teachers

Caritas invite

CARITAS is inviting people to be a voice for women in the Congo with a film night at 8pm on 29 March at St Thomas More College dining room on Mounts Bay Rd in Crawley.

The Greatest Silence, not appropriate for children under 16, was directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lisa

over the past years as well as the additional support from National Partnership Programme (NPP) funding, a federal government funding initiative. St Anne’s Harvey has been using Raising Achievement in Schools (RAISe) strategies for the past four years. Under National Partnership literacy and numeracy funding, a Collaborative Professional Learning in Action strategy was implemented. This involved a whole school approach to literacy and numeracy. For the past four years, a Reading Recovery Tutor has also been employed to target early intervention in literacy.

Mr Rossiter also indicated that a key aspect was the support offered by the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia (CEOWA) regional School Support Consultant who visited the school around four times each term.

Parent information nights and parent newsletters targeting the school’s focus of literacy and numeracy were also integral to the school’s improvement.

Overall, St Anne’s School has been able to effectively use NPP funding to build on, and add significant value to, their existing literacy and numeracy programmes.

CEOWA director Ron Dullard reported that he was delighted with the results and that these strategies were being used successfully in 73 Catholic schools across WA that had access to the NPP funding.

Jackson, a survivor of rape, who depicts the plight of women and girls caught in that country’s conflicts as she travels through the DRC to understand what is happening and why.

The movie is one of several events organised by Caritas’ young Be More Ambassadors across the dioceses of Bunbury, Perth and Geraldton.

RSVP by 22 March to perth@ caritas.org.au or 9422 7225.

City Beach Parish raises $10,000 for WYD

HOLY Spirit Parish has World Youth Day 2011, Madrid on the horizon.

Holy Spirit Parish in City Beach raised over $10,000 to help 12 young people attend World Youth Day in Spain this year with a St Patrick’s Day annual dinner.

Over 160 old and new parishioners showed up for human formation.

The night unfolded with a four course Irish meal prepared by parishioner Vincent Oswald and his team of helpers, accompanied by classical music throughout the night.

Parishioner Denis Carrick donated a portrait that he painted for the occasion of a breathtaking scene of Tuscany, Italy.

This was raffled off on the night and won by Mr and Mrs Bowen, longstanding parishioners of Holy Spirit.

During the evening the young people were invited to express in their own words why they wanted to go to World Youth Day, which was inspiring as they spoke about their faith in God, His Church and of Pope Benedict XVI.

New Medicine Dean for UNDA

DOCTOR Christine Bennett, (pictured) renowned for her extensive experience in clinical health, hospital management and medicine generally, has been appointed Dean of the School of Medicine at University of Notre Dame Australia’s Sydney campus.

“Her impressive record of achievements is testimony to her passion and commitment to the health profession and to improving the quality of health services throughout Australia,” UNDA Vice Chancellor Professor Celia Hammond said, adding that UNDA believed that with her passion for medicine, combined with

her drive and energy, Dr Bennett would be invaluable to the further development of the University’s School of Medicine in Sydney, as well as to medical students enrolled at the school. With the appointment of Dr Bennett to the Sydney campus, acting Dean of the School of Medicine Professor Gavin Frost will return to his home in WA and his duties as Dean of the School of Medicine at Notre Dame’s Fremantle campus.Known

to many television viewers for her forthright and informed views on medicine and her regular appearances on shows such as Channel 9’s Mornings with KerryAnne, Dr Bennett graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Sydney in 1979, and eight years later was awarded a Masters in Paediatrics from the University of NSW, the same year she became a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians.

Holy cards. They may look corny, but they’re a time-honoured expression of Catholic belief. 100’s of prayers for hundreds of different needs, with a huge range at The Record Bookshop.

The group from City Beach that is attending World Youth Day 2011 in Spain.

Left, the musicians perform on the night; right, Mr and Mrs Bowen, the winners of the raffle, with the artist. PHOTOS: LEANNE JOYCE

Bolivians get out of dire straits

The Record continues its Lenten reflections by Caritas promoting Project Compassion

“It should be evident that the ecological crisis cannot be viewed in isolation from other related questions...”

- Pope Benedict XVI, Message for World Day of Peace (2010)

THERE are no roads, no phones and no electricity in Bolivia’s Yuquí - Yuracaré Indigenous Community Lands. The 115,000 hectare territory can only be accessed by boat.

Until 40 years ago, these communities were unknown to Bolivian authorities; today, they still practise traditional agriculture, hunting and gathering. Here, Rosa lives with her husband and five children.

During the past few decades, extensive migration and demand for land and forestry resources has caused conflict in the area. Like many of Bolivia’s Indigenous communities, poverty and social inequality are a daily reality here.

Since 2007, Caritas Australia has supported local partner CINEP to assist these isolated river communities to come together and access their rights as Bolivian citizens.

“Like all Indigenous families, our biggest challenges are gaining recognition as Bolivian citizens and covering costs of health, education, clothing and food,” Rosa explains. “I attended CINEP’s

workshops on community participation, local development, leadership and strengthening culture. I was preoccupied with encouraging Indigenous women to address poverty and marginalisation.”

CINEP and Rosa encouraged the Yuquí and Yuracaré families to come together, identify their needs and brainstorm a response. An innovative community tourism project was born.

“Tourism, as we dream it, should respond to our cultural identity, preserve our ‘big house’ and improve our income,” Rosa told us. “My people long to improve their lives and provide a viable future for our children. My commitment is to promote participation of Indigenous people, affirm our cultural identity and construct our survival as a people with dignity. I

think if we all work together, we’ll come out ahead - this project will strengthen our communities and organisations.”

Rosa became the leadership coordinator of the community tourism project, facilitating community meetings and support for the project and promoting the initiatives with other Indigenous peoples, local and national authorities.

All families were involved in the workshops to identify community capacities and points of interest to tourists, ensuring: “It is the responsibility of every man and woman to guarantee the success of our project,” Rosa explains.

Deforestation was identified as a grave threat, so Caritas Australia’s partner helped the communities audit their plants, trees and animals.

School teachers, parents and chil-

dren began establishing Indigenous plant nurseries to repopulate the community lands. Already, people have noticed a return of birds not seen for a decade.

CINEP, the communities and Bolivian volunteers built a Tourist Information Centre for the region. Caritas Australia funded construction materials, while the families contributed raw materials, labour, tools and land.

CINEP’s monthly tourist service training, including interpreting, cooking, and public relations, is strengthening the communities’ ability to promote the region and manage the Centre. Cultural workshops have also made an impact: “We have recovered traditional dances, weaving and storytelling, and improved the quality of our crafts and sales skills. This has created a sense of pride and confidence about what we can offer tourists,” explained Rosa.

The Centre is now operational with information and guides, a kiosk, traditional crafts and simple accommodation. Some communities have also built rooms to receive tourists. Day visitors have started visiting villages three hours along the river. The community tour-

ism project is starting to generate a profit, while asserting the communities’ culture and preserving their land. Caritas Australia’s partner is now helping consolidate the project’s foundations and outcomes on conservation, economic development, education and health.

“I dream that all families, women, men and children are united and engaged in their own development. I dream of ensuring protection of our territories and resources, and of young leaders, full of vitality and commitment to restore the dignity of our people. Maybe this is one of the greatest challenges,” Rosa explains.

“In this journey our dreams are shared with CINEP and Caritas Australia - that makes us feel it is possible to move forward and build our future.

“Thanks to the efforts of each family we are slowly gaining our rights - we are achieving our empowerment as a people. Hopefully it expands to other communities in my area.”

Your donation to Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion appeal helps marginalised communities to come together, participate in their own development and create a future free from poverty.

Saint Peregrine

Servite Friar 1265 - 1345

Patron Saint of those suffering from Cancer and other life threatening diseases

medals

Rosa from Bolivia.

PHOTO: CARITAS AUSTRALIA

When God is hard to see, much less find

Nothing is harder to take or comprehend than the death or suffering of the innocent. Across the globe, the whole world shared in this sentiment beginning last Friday when, suddenly in the afternoon, images of incomprehensible destruction and loss of innocent life in Japan began appearing on afternoon television. It is this kind of event that, for many, proves or indicates strongly that a loving God, as Christians describe him, cannot exist.

The argument against God, because of what has been called the problem of pain and suffering, is probably the greatest and oldest of the arguments which conclude that a loving God intimately concerned with the welfare and fate of each and every human being cannot possibly exist. What the alternative to this very understandable view, grounded in real distress for the suffering of others, actually is is never quite spelled out. But it seems to be a simple acceptance of or resignation to the apparent fact that if there is no God then this is just the way life is. But for the person of faith in the God of Israel and of Jesus, a person who believes in a God who dies in agony on a Cross for love of us all, while the suffering of the innocent is so distressing the view that this is just the way life is is the most incomprehensible belief of all.

The simple truth is that there is no such thing as an easy answer to the question of death and pain, but most especially of the innocent. A part of the problem is that in our own thinking we perceive immediately that there is something fundamentally wrong, something that does not make sense at all about such events. But we are not accustomed to thinking deeply about such things as death and often spend a lot of our lives trying to run away from it in our thoughts and our actions.

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Another part of the problem is that in modern life we have become powerfully conditioned by the pervasive but often moronic pitch of Hollywood that good always triumphs over evil. Actually, it doesn’t. For Christians, there is only one time when we know for certain that good will triumph decisively and there will be no more suffering. This will be the end of the world. Until then, while God is always in our midst, almost anything is possible.

Interestingly, this moment of triumph began, in a perfectly real sense, with another triumph over evil, real evil, which occurred when Jesus died on the Cross. Christ’s perfect sacrifice for us was the triumph which relegated death to a bothersome status it can never overcome and reunited us with God.

The truth is that there is nothing in the fine print of the Cross that says we can avoid our own crucifixion, our own suffering. And it is possible, perhaps likely, that our own individual paths to heaven are through our own viae dolorosae. But even saying this does not satisfy the questions about the suffering of others. People may accept that we have a philosophical explanation for our own cares and travails but to appear to write off the sufferings of others by the thousands with such explanations can look dismissive, dogmatic and cold.

The real problem, ultimately, is that death entered the world through man’s rejection of God’s love. The essential facts of what happened are recorded at the beginning of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It is also passingly interesting that in a sense the Bible begins its history of salvation with all the unpleasant material. In this way, one can say that the Bible is setting out the real nature of the problem from the very beginning, rather than seeking to run away from it, as so many modern atheists so mistakenly assume, by seeking an easy answer to the problem of existence. But the great English journalist, satirist and documentarymaker, Malcolm Muggeridge, once wrote that while he could not tell which parts of the account of the tempting of Adam and Eve and their Fall were literally true (perhaps, he mused, it was a village, a city, or a nation and, if so, what was the apple?), the Genesis account remained the single most profound explanation he had ever seen anywhere for why we human beings are the way we are.

Muggeridge was referring more to sin and the capacity for humans to carry out great evil (he had, among other things, witnessed Stalin’s deliberate genocide of the Ukrainians while serving as The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent) but his point is also applicable to suffering.

Whatever it was that Adam and Eve did, however it was that they actually rejected God’s will, their action, jointly agreed and carried out together, had such catastrophic effects that not only sin but death entered the world. Nor was the effect limited to death. Rape, infanticide, cancer, the death of children, jealousy, famine, hatred, murder, sexual abuse, and the genocidal policies of the 20th century’s marxist and national socialist tyrants, to mention only a few, also did as well.

We human beings are often naive in our attitude to life. We think that this world in which we live is normality. We accept that death is normality as much as the winter flu. Actually, these things are abnormality. The effect of Adam and Eve’s rejection of God was so calamitous that it also impacted nature. A tsunami of death, a famine, an earthquake is not the way life is supposed to function at all. It is remarkable to reflect upon the fact that one single human decision had this effect on the world. Because we do not think of these things very often, our daily assumptions are suddenly, and rightly, shaken when we see the horror and scale of the loss of life in Japan - or Haiti, or Sudan; the horror of the children and the parents and the elderly crushed by the debris or swept out to sea. All these things are inexplicable and they are certainly unfathomable, because we cannot see the will of God. Here we may get at least one point right: He never wanted these things to happen at all. The horror of Japan is that, really, it was human sin that made the world the way it is. They probably didn’t realise that for their rejection of God’s love, all of us, as was seen so awfully in Japan, would one day have to pay.

SUNDAY BEST Moments of Faith in the trajectory of life

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Dorothy Day, biblical women, focus for day

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

Around 80 women of all ages from all over Perth attended a Catholic Women’s Group miniretreat at St Paul’s parish in Mt Lawley on 5 March.

The Saturday morning to midafternoon programme included the Rosary, Mass, a talk by Fr Tim Deeter on the women in the Bible and a second, more meditative talk on Mother Mary and social activist Dorothy Day as well as time to socialise with other Catholic women of Perth over lunch.

When her husband started to attend Catholic Men’s Group meetings last year that Renato Bonasera would organise, Lydia Stanley noticed that there was a need to organise similar events for women.

“It was very pleasing to hear that so many Catholic men were coming together to socialise and to learn

more about their faith, especially relating it to the role of the Catholic man today,” she said.

This led to a conversation among her Catholic women friends about the idea of forming a group for Catholic women and of running events in a similar format, she said.

Lydia said she knew of a few small groups of women that would meet up socially but for those who were looking for more faith education and spirituality, she felt she had to organise something a little different.

“In January this year, the call became stronger in my heart to officially start up a Catholic Women’s Group,” she said.

Over the Christmas period, when Lydia was talking with Kate Gibson (who regularly attends St Paul’s in Mt Lawley), both felt it would be nice to have a retreat day for women.

In early January, they planned the day with St Paul’s Mt Lawley parish priest Fr Tim Deeter and then started advertising.

While they only expected 30-40 to attend, as soon as it was advertised on email, facebook and in The Record, women started to register.

Lydia said the feedback from the day has been positive, with women expressing interest for more sessions and that they enjoyed the time together in the company of other women.

As a follow-up to this first Catholic Women’s Group event, there will be a brunch in May for those women who attended the first meeting to get to know each other.

To join the Catholic Women’s Group mailing list and hear about future events, send your details to catholicwomen.perth@gmail.com or phone Lydia on 0413993987.

The missing words of an editorial

Through a sub-editing error, last week’s editorial ended suddenly mid-sentence.

The final sentence should read: “Floods and other natural phenomena are certainly signs, but ones that call us to love and help the other rather than frittering our lives away in worry.”

The Record, and the editorialist, apologises for any frustration readers may have experienced. - Ed.

Geoffrey Scott and Susan Bates-Cosgrove share the “chalice” sign in Auslan, the language for those who are deaf or have a hearing disability, with Pammy D’Monte for the new text of the Mass.

The virtue of discrimination

As Federal and State governments draft anti-discrimination legislation, it’s essential they preserve the distinction between discrimination which is unjust and that which is necessary ...

BY BISHOP JULIAN PORTEOUS

The Sydney Star Observer (16 February 2011) reported that the NSW Greens “have called for the closing of loopholes in the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act that allow businesses owned by religious groups to discriminate against students, employees and clients if they hold something about them that conflicts with their beliefs”. Currently, the churches have “exemptions” from the provisions of the Anti-Discrimination Act.

David Shoebridge, Greens MLC, is reported as saying, “Once a religious organisation receives taxpayer money to fund its operations, whether it’s a school, welfare services or accommodation, then it is absolutely unacceptable that they be allowed to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual identity, their religion or being a single mother”.

Are the churches offending against the Anti-Discrimination Act? Or is the Act itself wrongly constructed? Is all discrimination wrong?

Discrimination is an important quality to have as a mature human being. We discriminate every day in making choices. It is a compliment to be called a discriminating person. Or, at least, it used to be. To be discriminating was regarded as a virtue. It was viewed as a reflection of wisdom and prudence. Making considered judgements about all sorts of things has traditionally been considered the task of a responsible person. Yet now it seems that its meaning has been changed. In our society at the present time, discrimination has come to be seen only in a negative light. Today, a new definition of discrimination is taking hold. Anyone who projects judgements on situations is viewed as being judgemental. Rather than being discriminating, the person is considered discriminatory. How has this happened?

In the past, it was considered a natural process to make decisions, judgements and distinctions on the basis of distinguishing between objective good and evil, between right and wrong. This capacity to recognise what is objectively right or wrong was the basis for making appropriate choices. Now the issue is not what is right or wrong but what reflects an attitude of tolerance. Otherwise, it is claimed that a person is being judgemental, carrying prejudice, or being offensively discriminatory.

What was once a virtue is now seen as a vice. There has been a complete turn around in meaning. The virtue now is tolerance and the sin is discrimination.

The change in outlook is fuelled by the view that all people, all ideologies and all behaviours have equal merit and, therefore, an equal right to exist. When there is no such thing as basic right and wrong, then any judgement of another becomes negative discrimination. Sometimes the Catholic Church –holding as it does clear positions on a number of issues - is accused of being discriminatory. It is viewed as imposing its beliefs on society. However, as Pope John Paul II said, the Church does not seek to impose but rather to propose its understanding of issues to the soci-

ety. The Church seeks to contribute to the public debate and offer its insights to assist in strengthening the quality of life within a society.

Properly speaking, discrimination may be either a virtue or a vice. It depends on whether the discrimination is just or unjust. It is right and good to discriminate between good and bad in order to make healthy and wise choices. We discriminate wisely when we call a doctor rather than a car mechanic for medical advice. This is appropriate discrimination and we do it every day.

Unjust discrimination is evidenced by treating someone less favourably than others because of a personal quality such as their race, age, religion, gender, parental status, disability, or political or other beliefs.

The Federal Attorney-General’s Department is currently drafting broad anti-discrimination legislation. However, is such legislation being built on a faulty footing? To speak of “anti-discrimination legislation” is to misuse the notion of “discrimination”. The concern of the government is not that all discrimination is wrong but, rather, that unjust discrimination is wrong.

It would seem wiser, then, to change the language and avoid the obvious danger of using this term in an inappropriate way, even if it has come into common parlance. We should be speaking about legislation against unjust discrimination.

It is made all the more important when we consider that there are government policies which invoke what can be called “reverse discrimination”. Such discrimination is aimed at favouring members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group, like the Aborigines. Such policies may take the form of affirmative action programmes. In other words, this is discrimination in favour of a particular group to redress inequality.

It would seem preferable to use an adjective to indicate whether discrimination is viewed as a virtue or as an act of injustice. Clearly, the government’s concern is to address issues where there is unjust dis-

crimination. These days, the misuse of the word has led to the view that all discrimination is a social evil. When “anti-discrimination” is proposed as a good in itself, then any group which pursues some form of discrimination is viewed as being opposed to the common good of the society.

This can be applied to the Catholic Church which requires, for instance, that a teacher in a Catholic school accept the position of the Church on certain moral issues. To respect the right of the Church in such a matter, the State has proposed that an “exemption” be granted to the Catholic Church in certain instances. This, however, is a false position. It suggests that the Church is in the wrong, but this wrong will be tolerated by the State.

In a submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Sydney Archdiocese commented:

“...the future of our society depends upon our ability to discriminate between good and evil...”

“It is formally submitted that the language which characterises protections of religious freedom in anti-discrimination legislation as “exemptions” does not accurately reflect the purpose they are meant to serve. Characterising these protections as exemptions or exceptions encourages the profoundly mistaken view that religious freedom is merely a favour granted by the State or a special permission to discriminate, rather than a fundamental human right. This mistaken understanding is reflected in the clear tendency to apply existing religious freedom protections very narrowly or only to the most limited extent necessary.”

Australians are blessed in being able to enjoy freedom in its many forms. A basic form of freedom is freedom of thought and hence of conscience. This form of freedom is the basis upon which freedom

of religion is based. No government can legislate against freedoms which are interior to the person and exist in the conscience of the person. Law should in fact protect such freedoms from being curtailed in any way. Of course, no “right” is absolute and operates alone. Australian law should enshrine freedom of religion and ensure that it is a freedom which is acknowledged. This should be the starting point in any discussion about discrimination. This freedom of religion entails not only the right to hold to one’s beliefs, but also to publicly live the injunctions of the religion in one’s personal life, and where appropriate to promote one’s beliefs in order to enrich the society or culture. Religion is a significant source of the nourishment of the social fabric. Australian society benefits enormously from the religious faith of its citizens.

It seems ironic that investigations into anti-discrimination run the risk of proposing an unjust discrimination against religion. It should rather be the case that this enquiry includes an affirmation of the fundamental rights that the state upholds – like that of freedom of religion - and then address issues where unjust forms of discrimination exist.

There is great value in the lost art of appropriate discrimination. In fact, the future of our society depends upon our ability to discriminate between good and evil, right and wrong and what is or is not acceptable behaviour for our society.

The notion of discrimination needs to be rescued from the shadows and restored as a positive virtue to be sought and prized. Forms of unjust discrimination based in prejudice and denial of human rights need to be identified and penalised as inappropriate attitudes and behaviours.

At the same time, the right to discriminate on the basis of right and wrong, and in adherence to more fundamental beliefs, needs to be acknowledged and protected in Australian society.

Bishop Julian Porteous is Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney

Concert to offer joy, the jubilance ... the journey

STABAT MATER

Sunday, 3 April at 2.30pm

The Basilica of St Patrick Corner Parry and Adelaide Streets, Fremantle

Surrender yourself to Stabat Mater , a musical journey with religious overtones that explores the spiritual period that begins with Lent and ends in the celebration of Easter. Featuring acclaimed pipe organist Dominic Perissinotto and the much admired and highly sought after Giovanni Consort, the pro-

gramme includes works that are widely regarded as some of the world’s masterpieces of sacred music.

The highlight of the afternoon is composer Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater, the performance of which has been specially commissioned by the Italian Consul, Giorgio Taborri, for this concert.

This extremely moving work conveys Mary’s suffering during Jesus’ crucifixion. Following this is Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs which musically expres Mary’s subsequent joy at His resurrection.

Last year’s Easter concert, Resurrection, which was also presented by the Giovanni Consort and Pipe Organ Plus, received a standing ovation and was highly praised in The West Australian newspaper. Stabat Mater continues on from its phenomenal success and opens the Pipe Organ Plus 11th Concert

Season, certain to resonate in people’s memories and hearts long after they leave the Basilica.

The concert runs for approximately two hours and includes an interval where enticing, complimentary refreshments will be served.

During performances, the organ can be viewed on the large screen video presentation thanks to the Film and Television Institute of WA.

Complimentary afternoon tea will be served during interval by Creative Provisions and is supplied by Elmstock Tea, Essenza Coffee and Picobello Patisserie.

Pipe Organ Plus is supported by Beehive Marketing and Clancy’s Fish Pub, Fremantle and Canning Bridge. Tickets are available through BOCS Ticketing (08) 9484 1133, Toll Free 1800 193 300, www. bocsticketing.com.au and at the door one hour prior to the concert.

Dominic Perisinotto in the pilot’s seat in St Patrick’s Basilica in Fremantle. Mr Perisinotto, together with the Giovanni Consort singers, will present an afternoon of masterpieces of sacred music with a special emphasis on Lent in St Patrick’s in early April.

The Passion throug

The current Pope, believed to be one of the greatest theologians the Church has reveals much about the man-God Himself, how Catholics should

Christ was a reconciler, not a revolut

ANALYSIS

BY JOHN T HAVIS Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - In his new volume on Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI presents the passion and resurrection of Christ as history-changing events that answer humanity’s unceasing need to be reconciled with God.

The 384-page book, titled Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week - From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, was officially released on 10 March and will be available from The Record Bookshop. The Pope had worked for several years on the text, the second in his series exploring the main events of Jesus’ public ministry.

The Vatican said 1.2 million copies of the book had already been published in seven languages, and that an e-book version was also planned.

In a foreword, the Pope said he did not set out to write another chronological “Life of Jesus,” but instead to present the figure and message of “the real Jesus” - not a political revolutionary and not a mere moralist, but the son of God who inaugurated a new path of salvation based on the power of love. Through His sacrifice on the cross and his institution of the Church, Jesus carried out a universal mission: “leading the world away from the condition of man’s alienation from God and from himself.” It’s a mission that continues today, the Pope wrote.

“Is it not the case that our need to be reconciled with God - the silent, mysterious, seemingly absent and yet omnipresent God - is the real problem of the whole of world history?” he said.

The book analyses the key events of Jesus’ final days, including the cleansing of the temple, the Last Supper, His betrayal, His interrogations before the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate, His crucifixion and His appearances to the disciples after His resurrection. Throughout the text, Pope Benedict examines the scriptural interpretation of early Church fathers and contemporary scholars, rejecting some arguments and affirming or elaborating on others.

Prominently cited was Rudolf Bultmann, the late 20th century German Protestant scholar of the New Testament.

The Pope said it was important to understand that the events recounted in the Scriptures are historically grounded and actually occurred and are not simply stories or ideas. For example, he said, if Jesus did not actually give His disciples bread and wine as His body and blood at the Last

Supper, then “the Church’s Eucharistic celebration is empty - a pious fiction.”

Likewise, he said, Christ’s actual resurrection from the dead is foundational for the Church. Without it, he said, “Christian faith itself would be dead.”

At the same time, he acknowledged that the historical record about Jesus is not always complete and said that “if the certainty of faith were dependent upon scientific-historical verification alone, it would always remain open to revision.”

He took issue with the “historical Jesus”

the political and the religious had been inseparable.

“This separation - essential to Jesus’ message - of politics from faith, of God’s people from politics, was ultimately possible only through the cross. Only through the total loss of all external power, through the radical stripping away that led to the cross, could this new world come into being,” he said.

The Pope said that “violent revolution, killing others in God’s name” was not Jesus’ way. “He does not come bearing the sword

the contrary, it is a favourite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be. It serves not humanity but inhumanity,” he said.

Previously released excerpts from the book emphasised that Jesus’ condemnation and death cannot be blamed on the Jewish people as a whole.

The same chapter said Jesus’ trial before the Roman authorities raised the questionwhich is still being asked today - of whether politics can accept “truth” as anything but a subjective reality.

movement in scriptural scholarship, saying it has “focused too much on the past for it to make possible a personal relationship with Jesus.”

The Pope took critical aim at scholars who have interpreted Christ’s passion in political terms and sought to portray Jesus as a “political agitator.” On the contrary, the Pope wrote, Jesus inaugurated a “nonpolitical Messianic kingdom” in a world where

of the revolutionary. He comes with the gift of healing,” he said.

The book generally steered clear of commentary on contemporary issues, but on the issue of nonviolence, the Pope added that “the cruel consequences of religiously motivated violence are only too evident to us all.”

“Vengeance does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On

The book’s final chapter examines the resurrection from the dead as “the crucial point” of Jesus’ life. Without the resurrection, the Pope said, Jesus would be merely “a failed religious leader.”

The Pope said some of the strongest evidence for the authenticity of the resurrection was to be found in the Scripture accounts of the disciples’ encounters with the risen Christ. Jesus is presented as being

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Pope offers approach to conversi

IN his new book - the second volume of his work Jesus of Nazareth - Pope Benedict XVI writes that Catholics should not target Jewish people specifically for conversion to the Church.

“Israel is in the hands of God, who will save it ‘as a whole’ at the proper time, when the number of Gentiles is full,” the Pope writes. He says that Christians should “wait for the time fixed for this by God” rather than attempting to convert the Jewish people.

While the Pope affirms that salvation only comes through Jesus Christ, he argues that the mission

of the Church is primarily to the Gentiles, and cites the belief of St Bernard that God will bring Jews into the fold at a time “that cannot be anticipated.”

The Pope acknowledges that efforts by Christians to convert Jews have caused severe problems over the centuries. Although he does not propose to place limits on evangelisation, or discourage individual conversions, he does say that Christians should not target Jews specifically for conversion.

The Pope’s thoughts - advanced in a book that he takes pains to identify as his personal opinion

Jim Caviezel plays Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which was based on the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.

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physically, yet not bound by physis, and is not immediately recognised. f this is presented “clumsily” in the narratives, which make them all re credible, reflecting the disciples’ e amazement, he said.

important that the encounters with en Lord are not just interior events stical experiences - they are real ters with the living one who is now ied in a new way,” he said.

His Resurrection, Jesus was not a or a mere “resuscitated corpse,” but o has entered a new life in the power the Pope said. This comes through in the Gospel accounts, he said.

Pope then asks whether modern d women can put their faith in such ny. “’Enlightened’ thinking would he said. Science would seem to rule but science has its limits, he said. ct, he said, the resurrection does not dict science but speaks of something our world of experience, a further ion. He then posed a series of quesunderline that a “new dimension of should not be rejected out of hand dern thinking.

ot creation actually waiting for this d highest ‘evolutionary leap,’ for the of the finite with the infinite, for the of man and God, for the conquest of he said.

ssence, he said, Jesus’ resurrection hat leap, ‘creating for all of us a new f life, a new space of being in union od.” As such, the resurrection was nt that broke out of history yet “left a nt within history,” he said.

brief epilogue, the Pope looked ascension of Christ into heaven, a that may be difficult for people to tand, he said. With the ascension, presence with God is not “spatial” ine.

departing Jesus does not make y to some distant star,” he wrote. sion does not mean departure into a region of the cosmos.”

ining God His father, Jesus “has not way but remains close to us,” accesroughout history and in every place, pe said. stians believe that Christ will return store justice in a final triumph of e said. In the meantime, what is d of Christians is vigilance - which first of all, “openness to the good, to th, to God, in the midst of an often ngless world and in the midst of the of evil,” he said.

ion of Jews

ather than a magisterial teachng document - will bring new ttention to the debate on whether God’s covenant with the Jews ndures, even after the establishment of the New Covenant.

The Pope himself has rejected hat view. Still, Rabbi Eugene Korn, a specialist on interfaith ialogue, sees the Pope’s approach n his new book as an imporant development that “takes the ractical threat out of Christian upersessionism for Jews today.”

eft, Pope Benedict XVI greets Rabbi io Toaff, former Chief Rabbi of Rome.

New gem to benefit all faiths

Scholars see benefits for all faiths in Pope’s second ‘Jesus’ book

BY NANCY FRAZIER O’BRIEN Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) - A panel of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish scholars and theologians found much to praise on 9 March in what several called a “remarkable” new book, Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week - From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection.

The panel - convened by teleconference in anticipation of the global release on 10 March of the second in the Pope’s Jesus of Nazareth series - was unanimous in its assessment that the book would benefit readers of every faith and at nearly every level of theological and scriptural understanding.

“I would have no hesitation putting this book on the syllabus for my students, who are mostly Baptists,” said Craig A Evans, Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

“My impression is that Protestants who are fairly well read and have some sense of the historical Jesus will be astonished at how Protestant and evangelical (Pope Benedict) sounds.”

Benjamin Witherington III, a professor of New Testament for doctoral studies at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and a member of the doctoral faculty at St Andrew’s University in Scotland, said the book “could not have happened before the Second Vatican Council” and would greatly contribute to Christian unity at the scholarly level.

“Catholic and Protestant exegetes have come closer and closer together in their understanding of the historical Jesus” since Vatican II, Witherington said, adding that the Pope’s new book “helps with the understanding of Jesus from the historical and critical view, but also helps us with faith.”

The book focuses on the key events of Jesus’ final days, including the cleansing of the Temple, the Last Supper, His betrayal, His interrogations before the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate, His crucifixion and His appearances to the disciples after His resurrection.

Much of the discussion also centered on the book’s statement that the condemnation of Christ had complex political and religious causes and cannot be blamed on the Jewish people as a whole.

The Pope also said it was a mistake to interpret the words reported in the Gospel, “His blood be on us and on our children,” as a blood curse against the Jews. He said those words, spoken by the mob that demanded Jesus’ death, were a cry for reconciliation, not vengeance, if read in the light of faith.

Rabbi Jacob Neusner, a professor of the history and theology of Judaism at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York,

Pope’s book should boost Scripture studies: Ratzinger’s old pupil

CANADIAN Cardinal Marc Ouellet said he believed the Pope’s new book on Jesus of Nazareth could lead to “the dawn of a new era of exegesis, a promising age of theological interpretation.”

Cardinal Ouellet, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and a former student of thenProfessor Ratzinger, emphasised the scholarly quality of the Pope’s book, and particularly its challenge to contemporary Scripture scholars.

Addressing a 10 March press conference introducing the second volume of Pope Benedict’s book Jesus of Nazareth, the Cardinal pointed out that the Pontiff “first enters into dialogue

and author of A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, said he had been corresponding with Pope Benedict for 25 years about the historical Jesus.

He called the book’s statements on the Jewish people in relation to Jesus “courageous and very learned” and said they could have “a lot of impact” on negative attitudes toward Judaism.

“I think any Jewish reader can benefit from” reading the book “and it will do a lot of good in general,” Rabbi Neusner added.

Capuchin Fr Thomas G Weinandy, executive director of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Doctrine, said the book also offers insights into “the close, fruitful relationship between Scripture and doctrine.”

“Scripture gives light to doctrine, but doctrine also serves as a guide that helps us understand the sacred texts,” he said.

Calling the book “not just an academic exercise,” Fr Weinandy said he thought the book would be

with German exegesis, though he does not overlook other important authors from the French, English, or Romance language areas.”

The Pope’s thorough knowledge of the field, displayed in this work, should “enliven debates that have become stagnated because of rationalist or positivist prejudices,” he said.

The Pope’s new work, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, also demands that Scripture scholars recognise the true claims of Jesus as Messiah, the Cardinal said.

“A number of modern exegetes, under the influence of dominant ideologies, have made Jesus out to be a revolutionary, a

accessible to “lay readers who think Scripture and theology are beyond them.” The Pope presents Jesus as “someone the people of the world are dying to meet,” he said.

Brant Pitre, a professor of sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, said the Pope’s book showed his commitment to Vatican II’s call for the renewal of biblical studies, “which in his opinion has not yet taken root.”

Pitre said Pope Benedict has sometimes been portrayed “as the Pope who is trying to turn back the clock on Vatican II,” especially when he reinstituted celebration of the Latin Mass in the extraordinary form. “But when you look at what he has done with sacred Scripture, you see that the idea he was somehow opposed to Vatican II is baseless,” he added.

During a question-and-answer period, one person who said he was a rabbi asked if Pope Benedict’s stand indicated a move toward the view that the mention of the

master of morality, an eschatological prophet, an idealist rabbi, a madman of God, a messiah in some way in the image of His exegete,” he observed.

Salesian Fr Giuseppe Costa, head of the Vatican publishing house, said that, as author, the Pope will receive a percentage of the proceeds of worldwide sales of the book.

He said half of the Pope’s share would go to the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, which promotes theological studies and rewards promising scholars. The other half will be designated for the Pope’s use, and will probably go to charities, Fr Costa said.

- CatholicCulture.org

“blood curse” - contained only in the Gospel of Matthew - was not correct.

Jesuit Fr Joseph Fessio, founder and publisher of Ignatius Press, US publisher of the second Jesus of Nazareth, said the Pope “does acknowledge certain contradictions” between various Gospel accounts of the passion and death of Jesus. “But he sees that as an even greater witness to the integrity of the Gospels,” because it made clear that the writers of the Gospels “did not get together to make sure they were saying the same thing,” said Fr Fessio, a longtime student and friend of Pope Benedict.

Fr Fessio said the initial printing of the second Jesus of Nazareth was 1.2 million in seven languages worldwide, including 90,000 in the United States, 200,000 in Germany and 300,000 in Italy. Advance sales of the book have already exceeded one million copies. The book is available in electronic form as well as hardcover format.

Brenda Chicas, 17, holds a Bible study guide while attending a New Testament class at St Luke Church in Brentwood, New York in 2008. The class was part of a free two-week summer Bible course for teenagers sponsored by the Office of Faith Formation of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York.

PHOTO: CNS/GREGORY A SHEMITZ

World must recover sense of sin

DURING Lent - which is “a spiritual itinerary of preparation for Easter” - Christians should be keenly aware of the costs of sin, Pope Benedict XVI told his midday audience on 13 March.

During Lent the faithful make a journey toward the Cross, the Pope explained to the crowd in St Peter’s Square. Along that path, he said, we contemplate our own role in the Crucifixion. The Holy Father continued: “Why the Cross? The answer is, in radical terms this: Because evil exists, sin, which according to Scripture is the profound cause of all evil.” In today’s world, the Pope remarked, the very concept of sin is unpopular: “Many people do not accept the very word ‘sin’ because it presupposes a religious vision of the world and of man; and indeed it is true that if we eliminate God from the horizon of the world we can no longer speak of sin.” Thus, the discipline of Lent should help the faithful to recover a strong sense of sin, and understand God’s work in saving us from that sin. Lenten penitence, the Pope said, “means always siding with Christ against sin, facing - as individuals and as Church - the spiritual struggle against the spirit of evil.”

Vatican creates Facebook, YouTube pages for John Paul II beatification

THE Vatican has launched pages on Facebook and YouTube to help provide information about the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

The Facebook page provides information about the beatification, while the YouTube site offers video clips from important moments in the pontificate of John Paul II.

The efforts are organised by Vatican Radio, the Vatican television centre, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Fr Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the goal is “to emit a huge wave of positivity, of friendship, of spiritual values through the open paths of social networks,” as the 1 May date of the beatification approaches.

China police block access to funeral for underground Bishop

CHINESE police are curbing access to a village in the Hebei province to deter Catholics from attending the funeral for a beloved Bishop of the “underground” Church. Bishop Andrew Hao Jinli, who had served 20 years in prison and lived much of his life under police surveillance, died on March 9 at the age of 95. His funeral is scheduled for 17 March in the village of Gonghui. Police have already set up checkpoints around the village to discourage entry. Chinese Catholics expect that authorities will forbid any reference to Bishop Hao’s episcopal status in the public funeral.

Indonesion Christians barred from church in West Java

CHRISTIANS on Indonesia’s province of West Java report that they have been barred by local officials from entering their own church, despite a supreme court order allowing them to use the building. The church in Bogor City was padlocked, and the faithful were forced to break into the building for Sunday services. Local officials were defying the court’s order, they said.

Hans Küng issues new book attacking Church

DISSIDENT theologian Hans Küng has released a new book denouncing the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

The German-language book, entitled Can the Church Still Be Saved?, continues Küng’s longrunning battle against Church teachings on papal infallibility, the indissolubility of marriage, clerical celibacy, and other issues. He encourages lay Catholics to reject the authority of the Church hierarchy.

Küng’s new book was - not coincidentally - scheduled for release on 10 March, the same day that will see the official publication of a new book by his former theological colleague, Pope Benedict XVI.

Fasting brings strength in Lent: Pope

Lent fasting, almsgiving, prayer bring strength: Pope

BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Wishing all Christians a “happy Lenten journey,” Pope Benedict XVI said fasting, almsgiving and prayer are traditionally suggested for Lent because they have proven to be effective tools for conversion.

Lent is a time “to accept Christ’s invitation to renew our baptismal commitments” in order to arrive at Easter in a new and stronger state, the Pope said at his weekly general audience on 9 March, Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent for Latin-rite Catholics.

“This Lenten journey that we are invited to follow is characterised in the Church’s tradition by certain practices: fasting, almsgiving and prayer,” he told the estimated 7,000 people gathered in the Vatican audience hall.

“Fasting means abstaining from food, but includes other forms of self-denial to promote a more sober lifestyle. But that still isn’t the full meaning of fasting, which is the external sign of the internal reality of our commitment to abstain from evil with the help of God and to live the Gospel,” Pope Benedict said.

In the Church’s tradition, he said, “fasting is tied closely to almsgiving” and is the sign that after having given up an attachment to things and to sin, the Christian has embraced good works.

“Lent is also a privileged time for prayer,” the Pope said. He quoted St Augustine, who described fasting and almsgiving as “the two wings of prayer,” because they are signs of humility and charity.

Pope Benedict said, “The Church knows that because of our weakness it is difficult to be silent and sit before God,” even though we are “sinners who need his love.”

“For this reason, during Lent, the Church invites us to be more faithful and intense in our prayer and to meditate at length on the word of God,” the Pope said.

The Lenten period is the Church’s gift to Christians to help them pre-

pare to truly celebrate Easter, Pope Benedict said.

“In order to reach the light and joy of the resurrection, the victory of life, love and goodness, we, too, must take up our cross each day,” he said.

Celebrating an evening Mass during which he received ashes from retired Cardinal Jozef Tomko and distributed ashes to Cardinals and others present for the liturgy, Pope Benedict said, “Let us begin the Lenten journey trusting and joyful.”

In his homily during the Mass at Rome’s Basilica of Santa Sabina, the Pope said there is a risk that Lent is seen as a time of “sadness, of drabness,” when it really is “a precious gift of God, a time rich and full of meaning” for the Church and its members.

In fact, he said, Jesus admonished his disciples not to moan and groan in public as they practised their penance, because then the admiration they received would be their reward.

Especially during Lent, Christians should be “a living message” of the joy and beauty of being saved by Christ because “in many cases we are the only Gospel that people today” will know, he said.

“Here is another reason for living Lent well: to offer the witness

of faith lived to a world in difficulty that needs to return to God, that needs conversion,” he said.

Also on 9 March, the Vatican released Pope Benedict’s message for Brazilian Catholics’ Lenten solidarity campaign; the 2011 campaign focused on the relationship between environmental destruction and human selfishness.

“The first step toward a correct relationship with the world around us,” the Pope said, is to recognise that human beings are creatures made by God.

“Man is not God, but his image, so he should try to be more sensitive to the presence of God in what surrounds him: in all creatures and especially in other human beings,” the papal message said.

Respect for the environment will never be complete without respect for and “a clear defence of human life from conception to natural death, without a defence of the family based on marriage between a man and a woman, without a real defense of those who are excluded and marginalized by society” and without concrete care of those impacted by natural disasters, he said.

Editor’s Note: The text of the Pope’s audience remarks in English will be posted online at: www. vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi.

Movie reminds that Satan exists

BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - The latest Hollywood movie on exorcism is a reminder that the devil truly exists and wants to prevail, said the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano

The Rite , starring Anthony Hopkins - who said during publicity for the movie that he believes in God - as a priest and veteran exorcist, is an “honest and respectful” film that may even end up being “a kind of publicity promoting the priesthood,” said an article in the newspaper on 13 March.

The movie was released in Italy on 11 March.

Despite several “forgivable flaws” and the usual stereotypes, “The Rite is able to stay sufficiently credible,” especially in its portrayal of the characters’ doubts and convictions, the newspaper said.

In the film, “the Church is not portrayed by people who thunder anathemas or dispense dogmatic certainties, presented invariably as being mean, irritating and unbearable,” the newspaper said, but instead priests are portrayed in a positive light. The film’s main message comes when Hopkins’ character says, “Choosing not to believe in the devil won’t protect you from him,” the Vatican newspaper said.

“The devil exists whether one believes in him or not, and he subtly works to have the upper hand,” the article said.

Unfortunately, the film’s interpretation of demonic possession leans excessively toward the genre of a horror movie, “seeing how that pays off at the box office,” it said. Such a limited focus overlooks “the objectivity of a reality - possession - which is already in and of itself bloodcurdling,” it said.

But the Vatican newspaper said

the story shows how a young seminarian who is steeped in cynicism and doubt over God’s existence overcame those obstacles and rediscovered faith.

The movie shows that evil does not prevail and the film gives witness to the power of faith, it said.

The Rite was based on the book, The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, which in turn was based on Father Gary Thomas’ training as an exorcist. He is a priest of the Diocese of San Jose, California, and pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Saratoga, California.

The film was classified by CNS as A-III - adults - for incest and suicide themes, some gruesome imagery, incidental irreverence, a couple of uses of profanity and a few rough and crude terms.

The book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, on which the movie is based, is available from The Record Bookshop.

Cardinal Jozef Tomko sprinkles ashes on the head of Pope Benedict XVI during Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome on 17 February. The pope joined Catholics around the world in marking the start of the penitential season of Lent.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING

Church struggles in carnage

Damage keeps Japanese Church officials from assessing needs

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

TOKYO - Damage from a magnitude 8.9 earthquake and ensuing tsunamis were preventing Church officials in Japan from assessing needs as tsunami warnings were issued for 50 other countries and territories.

Yasufumi Matsukuma, a staffer at the Japanese Bishops’ conference, told the Asian Church news agency, UCA News, that most staffers would remain in the offices overnight because of suspended rail service and continuous aftershocks.

“In Tokyo, telephone lines are so busy that I cannot contact diocesan chancellor offices in Japan. Aftershocks have followed. The tsunamis are terrible and we cannot get any information concerning the Church yet,” he said.

Disruption of telecommunications has made it impossible for the conference’s general secretariat to contact Sendai near the quake’s epicentre, and neighbouring dioceses, he added.

Television and web video showed cars, ships and even buildings being swept away by a wall of water hitting Sendai. As of 15 March, the official death toll was 2400, but 10,000 were feared dead in Myagi alone. Rescuers found 2000 bodies on the shores of the Myagi prefecture. Fears of a nuclear meltdown were also growing as fuel rods are exposed.

A telegram sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, to Archbishop Leo

Jun Ikenaga of Osaka, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, on 11 March expressed Pope Benedict’s prayers and solidarity with earthquake victims and rescue workers.

“Deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic effects of the major earthquake and consequent tsunamis which have struck Japan’s northeastern coastal regions, his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI assures all who have been afflicted of his closeness at this difficult time,” the telegram said.

It also noted that the Pope “prays for those who have died, and upon their grieving families and friends he invokes divine blessings of strength and consolation.”

“The Holy Father also expresses his prayerful solidarity with all those providing rescue, relief and support to the victims of this disaster,” the telegram said.

The Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the charitable arm of the papacy, announced that the Pope was making a donation of $100,000 to the relief efforts. “Obviously, material, concrete aid is necessary” to help the thousands who are suffering, a spokesman said.

Daisuke Narui, executive director of Caritas Japan, said in a statement: “We are still collecting information at this point, but currently we are not able to communicate on the phone. Cell phones are also out of service.”

Fr Koichi Otaki of the Diocese of Niigata told Fides, the news agency of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples: “A tsunami has hit our people ... a tidal wave has come to overwhelm our lives. We are still in shock over what has happened.”

He said the diocese most affected was Sendai. The priest added that Niigata Bishop Tarcisius Isao

Kikuchi, president of Caritas Japan, said even though the Catholic community in the country was very small, “we will not walk away from our commitment and our solidarity with the victims.”

A spokeswoman for Catholic Relief Services said the agency was on high alert in many countries in Asia, including the Philippines and Caritas Oceania, which is active in many islands in the Pacific.

This earthquake is the strongest since a magnitude 9.1 quake struck off Indonesia in December 2004.

The quake and the tsunamis that followed left about 220,000 people dead or missing in more than a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.

“We know from 2004 the devastating impact that these tsunamis can have,” said Sean Callahan, CRS executive vice president for overseas operations.

“As with all such disasters, CRS will help people recover from the emergency and stand with them as they recover.”

Tsunamis also hit Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.

Twitter feeds from the diocese of Honolulu indicated most schools were closed. One tweet read: “St Stephen Diocesan Centre is open if anyone needs to get to higher ground. Please be safe.”

Humans must remain at centre of green development

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -

During a UN conference on the “green economy” and sustainable development, a St John’s University professor speaking on behalf of the Vatican urged that humans remain at the centre of all such development.

“Promoting economic development should not be at the expense of the poor and marginalised or of future generations, which is often qualified as ‘inter-generational engagement and justice,’” Charles Clark, a St John’s economics professor, said in his remarks to the UN General Assembly. “The well-being of all, and especially those who live with the pains of hunger and who are

excluded from contributing to and benefiting from the economic, social and political life of their communities, requires that both markets and government policies be directed towards the higher goal of integral human development, grounded in the principle of the fundamental human dignity of each person,” Clark said on 7 March during the UN’s Second Preparatory Committee for the Commission on Sustainable Development. “With them, it is our solemn obligation to remain in solidarity. We all must work together to ensure that this is incorporated into the goal of sustainable development and the concept of the

green economy. The promotion of sustainable development is one of the most important challenges humanity faces today.

“Most of the development strategies and policies that have failed to promote integral human development in the past have done so because they reduced humans to a shadow of their humanity.

“On the one hand, we are told that self-interest and greed are the sole drivers of human behaviour, and that ‘free markets’ are all that is needed to turn ‘private vice into public virtue.’ On the other hand, we are told that human nature is what society makes it, giving us a development strategy that centres on structures and institutions,

with the hope that the right institutions will be enough to promote development.”

However one views the issue, Clark said, “humanity cannot be reduced to either selfish egos or social constructs. A full understanding of what it means to be human must also include the basic solidarity that is a necessary part of our humanity, that comports to the fundamental dignity of each person and that demands justice. Just as we need to improve the functioning of markets and the effectiveness of government policy, we must also work to promote solidarity and social justice.”

Clark quoted from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas

in Veritate (“Charity in Truth”) when he reminded the delegates that “integral human development is primarily a vocation” and that the global economy needs “a moral formation which is peoplecentred.” But he also harkened back to Pope Paul VI, whose encyclical Populorum Progressio on the development of peoples has been regarded as “the Magna Carta of development” 45 years after it was issued in 1967.

“We hope that it will also become a clarion call to people of good will for an integral human development that will form the foundation for peace, founded on social justice and animated by solidarity,” Clark said.

A woman weeps while sitting amid destruction in Natori, Japan on 13 March. Government officials have estimated that 10,000 people may have lost their lives in the 11 March earthquake and the tsunami it triggered.

PHOTO: CNS/ASAHI SHIMBUN/REUTERS

A Japan civil defence officer holds a four month old baby girl who was rescued along with her family from their home in Ishimaki, northern Japan on 14 March.

PHOTO: CNS/YOMIURI SHIMBUN/REUTERS

A whirlpool is seen near Oarai, Japan on 11 March. A magnitude 8.9 earthquake hit northeastern Japan in the afternoon, triggering strong aftershocks and tsunamis along the coastline.

PHOTO: CNS/REUTERS/KYODO

Clergy need identity conversion

Priests called this Lent to “become what we are”

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org)The Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy says that Lent is a time of conversion for priests, a time for them to convert themselves to what they already are.

With this expression, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza has urged priests to a conversion of “identity” in his annual Lenten letter.

He explained: “Conversion, for us priests, above all else means to conform our lives more closely to the preaching that we offer daily to the faithful, becoming in this way ‘a piece of the living Gospel’ that everyone can read and accept.

“The foundation of that behaviour is, without doubt, the conversion of our own identity: We must convert ourselves to that which we are.

“The identity, welcomed and received sacramentally in our wounded humanity, demands the progressive confirmation of our hearts, our minds, our behaviours to everything that we are in the image of Christ the Good Shepherd that has been sacramentally imprinted in us.”

Cardinal Piacenza invited priests to “enter into the mysteries that we celebrate,” particularly the Eucharist.

“It is in the Eucharist that the priest rediscovers his true identity,” he said. “It is in the celebration of the Divine Mysteries that one can catch sight of ‘how’ to be a shepherd and ‘what’ is necessary to truly serve each other.”

The 66 year old Cardinal reflected that a new evangelisation also requires “new” priests.

“Not priests in the superficial sense, like every passing fashion,

but in the sense of a heart profoundly renewed by every holy Mass, renewed by the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Priest and Good Shepherd,” he said.

Cardinal Piacenza stated that a particular urgency in this process is “the conversion from noise to silence, from the anxious need ‘to do’ to the desire to ‘remain’ with Jesus, participating ever more consciously with His being.”

He went on to call priests to a conversion to communion and to daily participation in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

He emphasised the sacrament of Confession.

“Christ made possible and efficacious our salvation with His perfect vicarious substitution. In the same way, every priest, alter Christus, is called, as were the great saints, to live firsthand the mystery of their substitution for the service of all especially in the faithful celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation,” the Cardinal said.

“This sacrament is sought for ourselves and generously offered to everyone, along with spiritual direction, such that in the daily offering of our lives we make reparation for the sins of the world.”

Cardinal Piacenza acknowledged that sometimes priests experience great fatigue and the “feeling of being only a few before the needs of the Church.”

“However, if we do not convert, we will always be less because only a renewed, converted, ‘new’ priest can become an instrument through which the Holy Spirit calls other new priests,” he said.

“To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, we entrust this Lenten journey imploring from divine mercy that, based on the model of our Heavenly Mother, also our priestly heart will become a Refugium peccatorum (Refuge of sinners).”

Cardinal puts 21 priests on leave

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA - Continuing his response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Cardinal Justin Rigali placed 21 priests on administrative leave from their clerical assignments on 7 March.

Parishes where the priests had been assigned were to be informed of the action at Masses on Ash Wednesday, and again at Masses the following weekend.

The priests’ placement on leave is not a final determination, according to a press release issued by the Archdiocesan communications office. The action follows “an initial examination of files looking at both the substance of allegations and the process by which those allegations were reviewed,” the statement said.

Each case will be subject to a further review in a “thorough, independent investigation.”

Cardinal Rigali emphasised the nature of his action on 8 March.

“I want to be clear,” he said in a statement. “These administrative leaves are interim measures. They are not in any way final determinations or judgements.”

Among the 21 Philadelphia priests suspended because of sex abuse charges, only seven had their cases brought to the attention of an independent review board, the head of that panel has disclosed.

The unprecedented step to remove such a large group of priests responds to the Philadelphia grand jury’s 10 February report that called for the Archdiocese to “review all of the old allegations against currently active priests and to remove from ministry all of the priests with credible allegations against them.”

Cardinal Rigali described the turmoil existing among Catholics in the Archdiocese since the grand jury’s report. He said the weeks since have been “difficult most of all for victims of sexual abuse, but also for all Catholics and for everyone in the community.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called the action “commendable,” saying it reflects Cardinal Rigali’s “concern for the physical and spiritual wellbeing of those in his care.” Williams said his office appreciates that “the Archdiocese has acknowledged the value of the report, and seen fit to take some of the steps called for by the grand jury.” He called on the Archdiocese to “take the necessary and proper steps to protect children for whom they are responsible, as they have done here.”

The grand jury report had cited 37 priests as continuing in ministry in the Philadelphia Archdiocese despite credible allegations of sex abuse against them.

In addition to the 21, the Archdiocese’s statement noted, three priests were placed on administrative leave after the 10 February release of the report. Of five other cases that would have been subject to the same action, one priest was already on leave, two were “incapacitated” and not in ministry, and two others no longer serve in the Archdiocese. Both of the latter two cases concern Religious Order priests, and their Religious superiors plus the Bishops of the dioceses in which they reside have been notified, the statement said. Another eight priests will not be placed on leave,

Badly celebrated Mass weakens people’s faith

Vatican officials say too many Bishops tolerate liturgical abuses that lead to weak faith

BY CINDY WOODEN Catholic News Service

ROME - A weakening of faith in God, a rise in selfishness and a drop in the number of people going to Mass in many parts of the world can be traced to Masses that are not reverent and don’t follow Church rules, said two Vatican officials and a consultant.

“If we err by thinking we are the centre of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith,” said US Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s supreme court.

Cardinal Burke and Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, spoke on 2 March at

a book launch in Rome. The book, published only in Italian, was written by Fr Nicola Bux, who serves as a consultant to the congregations for the doctrine of the faith and for saints’ causes and to the office in charge of papal liturgies.

The English translation of Fr Bux’s book title would be, How to Go to Mass and Not Lose Your Faith

Cardinal Burke told those gathered for the book presentation that he agreed with Fr Bux that “liturgical abuses lead to serious damage to the faith of Catholics.”

Unfortunately, he said, too many priests and Bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant when, in fact, they are “serious abuses.”

Cardinal Canizares said that while the book’s title is provocative, it demonstrates a belief he shares: “Participating in the Eucharist can make us weaken or lose our faith if we do not enter into it properly” and if the liturgy is not celebrated according to the Church’s norms.

“This is true whether one is

speaking of the ordinary or extraordinary form of the one Roman rite,” the Cardinal said, referring to Masses in the form established after the Second Vatican Council as well as the Mass often referred to as the Tridentine rite.

Cardinal Canizares said that at a time when so many people are living as if God did not exist, they need a true Eucharistic celebration to remind them that only God is to be adored and that true meaning in human life comes only from the fact that Jesus gave his life to save the world.

Fr Bux said that too many modern Catholics think the Mass is something that the priest and the congregation do together when, in fact, it is something that Jesus does.

“If you go to a Mass in one place and then go to Mass in another, you will not find the same Mass,” he said.

“This means that it is not the Mass of the Catholic Church, which people have a right to, but it is just the Mass of this parish or that priest.”

the statement said. “The initial independent examination of these cases,” it said, “found no further investigation is warranted.”

Gina Maisto Smith, the veteran child abuse prosecutor hired by the Archdiocese on 16 February to lead the intensive re-examination of all the cases cited by the grand jury, recommended the actions to Cardinal Rigali after completing her initial review. To re-examine the cases, Smith referred to Pennsylvania child protection law, guidelines from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and the Archdiocese’s “Standards for Ministerial Behaviour and Boundaries.”

The cases concerned allegations ranging from child sexual abuse to other incidents of what the Archdiocese terms “boundary issues” - discussions or behaviour by a clergyman that might indicate a pattern leading to later abuse.

Cardinal Rigali’s statement acknowledged his “responsibility to respond to this report transparently,” and pledged continued cooperation with the district attorney’s office. He said he shared with the office and the grand jury “the desire to deal definitively with the concerns noted in the report.”

The Cardinal also addressed the morale of Catholics in the Philadelphia Archdiocese as a result of the scandal. He said for many people, “their trust in the Church has been shaken.”

“I pray that the efforts of the Archdiocese to address these cases of concern and to re-evaluate our way of handling allegations will help build that trust in truth and justice,” he said.

Cardinal Rigali reiterated his “sorrow for the sexual abuse of minors committed by any member of the Church, especially clergy,” he said. “I am truly sorry for the harm done to the victims of sexual abuse, as well as to the members of our community who suffer as a result of this great evil and crime.”

Cardinal Justin Rigali. PHOTO: CNS/NANCY WIECHEC

Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, elevates the Eucharist during a Mass in the extraordinary form of the Latin rite at the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome on 7 January.

Priests must preach on uncomfortable topics

ROME, Italy (CNA) - Priests must not preach “Christianity á la carte” and should be willing to approach even uncomfortable aspects of the Gospel, Pope Benedict said in a meeting with priests this week.

In a meeting with priests and Religious from the diocese of Rome on 10 March, the Pope led a Scripture meditation as the “pastor of the pastors,” basing his meditation - a lectio divina (sacred reading) - on a chapter from the Acts of the Apostles in which St Paul leaves the faithful in Ephesus with instructions on how to continue preaching the Gospel after his departure.

Paul’s advice to be humble and vigilant in preaching the faith, to make themselves completely available in service to Christ and the

Church, and prayerful as they protect their “flocks” are all relevant characteristics of priests nearly 2,000 years later, said the Pope.

He implored priests to show “full-time” fidelity to their vocation as priests, “being with Christ and being ambassadors of Christ.”

The Pope also called on priests today not to shrink from proclaiming “the entire plan of God.”

“This is important,” said the Pope. “The Apostle does not preach Christianity á la carte, according to his own tastes; he does not preach a Gospel according to his own preferred theological ideas; he does not take away from the commitment to announce the entire will of God, even when uncomfortable, nor the themes he may least like personally.

“It is our mission to announce all

the will of God, in its totality and ultimate simplicity. But the fact that we must instruct and preach is important - as St Paul says - and really proposes the entire will of God.” In a world where people are curious to know everything, “so much more should we be curious to know the will of God,” said Pope Benedict.

“What thing could be more interesting, more important, more essential for us than to know what God wants, to know the will of God, the face of God?”

He called on priests and Religious to respond to this curiosity and awaken it in others, assisting them in “knowing truly all the will of God and knowing then how we can and must live, which is the path of our lives.”

Education must respect values

NEW YORK (Zenit.org) - If education does not respect religious and cultural values, then it runs the risk of becoming a “tool of control,” says a Vatican representative.

Jane Adolphe, speaking on behalf of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said this on Monday when addressing the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on 28 February.

Adolphe is an associate professor at the Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida, and a member of the Holy See delegation to the UN commission.

Taking up the theme of “access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work,” Adolphe noted that, first and foremost, education “must be firmly rooted in a profound respect for human dignity and with full respect for religious and cultural values.”

“If this is absent,” she added, “then education is no longer a means of authentic enlightenment but becomes a tool of control by those who administer it.”

She insisted that education needs to be guided by “values rooted in the natural law common to humanity”.

Furthermore, Adolphe continued, “the true advancement of

exploitation, from conception onwards, including abortion, especially sex-selective abortion, female infanticide.”

She took up the issue of human trafficking and insisted that “states need to augment concrete and concerted efforts to work together to put an end to this heinous crime by addressing adequately the demand side of trafficking in persons by strengthening laws against prostitution of children and adults, child pornography and sexual exploitation.”

“The authentic advancement of women begins with full respect for the dignity and worth of all persons,” she stated.

“Such respect must take into account the entire life cycle - from conception to natural death - and states have the responsibility to ensure this in their national laws”, she added.

Cord blood used to cure brain cancer

SEVILLE, Spain (CNA/Europa Press) - A four year old girl has become the first patient in Spain to recover from brain cancer after being treated with stem cells from her own umbilical cord blood.

The announcement of the girl’s recovery came on 7 March from the company Crio-Cord, a stem cell bank in Spain.

Alba was born healthy in 2007, but at age two she was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. Her treatment consisted of extracting the majority of the tumor from her brain. She was then given chemotherapy to reduce and eventually eliminate the remainder of the tumor.

Alba’s blood system was destroyed during the final round of chemo, thus requiring a transplant of cord blood stem cells.

The procedure was carried out in 2009 by Dr Luis Madero of the Department of Oncology and Hematology at the Nino Jesus Hospital in Madrid.

Today, four year old Alba is a healthy girl. Sixty days after the transplant, Alba was given new stem cells taken from her peripheral blood in order to accelerate the production of platelets. Fourteen months after the transplant, her blood system was completely restored, and she has since enjoyed a normal life.

Dr. Madero called her case unique in Spain. “The use of stem cells to regenerate the blood system is an extended treatment for

this form of cancer,” he said. What makes her case unique, he added, “is that for the first time in our country, the stem cells came from a patient’s own umbilical cord, preserved from birth.”

“In recent years, transplants of cord blood stem cells have become increasingly common. In the case of siblings, these stem cells are the best therapeutic option that exists,” he said.

Alba’s father, Santiago, who is a computer engineer, and her mother, Teresa, a literature professor, agreed that keeping the blood from Alba’s umbilical cord was the “best investment” they ever made.

Santiago said he had previously seen a report “on the treatment for Parkinson’s using stem cells … and was sympathetic to the idea of using stem cells to treat degenerative diseases.”

“Keeping the umbilical cord is a wager for the future, a life insurance policy that you don’t know if you will need but that could save a life,” Teresa added.

The head of Crio-Cord, Guillermo Munoz, also said he was pleased at the results of the therapy. He noted that the organisation was “proud to have participated in Alba’s healing process.”

Cases like these confirm “that umbilical cord blood is an excellent source of stem cells. Being the youngest cells of their kind in the human body, they have great potential to cure,” Munoz explained.

Libyan Catholics help stranded migrants

Libyan Catholics help Bangladeshis stranded by antiGaddafi violence

DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNS)

- The Catholic Church in Libya is offering shelter to stranded Bangladeshi migrant workers following an appeal by concerned Bishops in their homeland.

Ministry has expressed regret that it can only bring home around 25,000 with help from the International Organisation for Migration.

“Returning home means landing in heaven from hell for me. I’ve left everything in Libya, but I’m happy to get home in one piece,” said Sentu Richard Gomes, 27, a Catholic who returned to Bangladesh in early March.

women requires that labour should be structured in such a way that women do not have to pay for their advancement by abandoning what is specific to them and at the expense of the family, in which women and mothers have an irreplaceable role.”

Regarding the topics of discrimination and violence against women, the professor reiterated the Church’s insistence on legislation that protects girls and women “from all forms of violence and

The commission, which is dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women, was meeting last week at UN headquarters in New York through to 4 March.

The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See held a side event last week on the occasion of the session of the United Nations commission. The panel discussion on Health and Education: Advancing the Wellbeing of Women and Children was co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of St Lucia to the United Nations, along with the Path to Peace Foundation.

“The government is struggling to repatriate thousands of migrant workers and we can’t help them directly. With the assistance of the Vatican Embassy in Dhaka, we asked the Libyan Church via the Italian Bishops’ conference to shelter Bangladeshis,” said Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi, chairman of the Bishops’ justice and peace commission.

“Since our appeal, several churches in Libya are currently sheltering many Bangladeshi migrants,” the Bishop said. His remarks were reported on 9 March by the Asian Church news agency UCA News.

Reports say approximately 89,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers remain in Libya, where protesters are embroiled in a conflict to oust dictator Moammar Gaddafi. About 5,500 workers have returned to Bangladesh so far and at least five were killed.

The Bangladeshi Labor

“In Libya, around 100 rebels attacked us, stole everything we had and torched the building we were hiding in. We had no choice but to flee,” Gomes said. “I fled to Egypt, starved for days and then came back to Bangladesh with help from the IOM.”

Thousands of migrant workers from other Asian countries are still waiting to come home.

According to the Philippine government, around 12,000 of the estimated 26,000 Filipinos in Libya have left the country, but only about 4,000 having actually arrived back home.

Of the estimated 18,000 Indians in Libya when the violence began, around 1,700 are reportedly still awaiting evacuation.

Meanwhile, around 7,500 of a reported 23,000 Thai workers had returned home, but the Thai Foreign Ministry said on 7 March it was still trying to contact around 1,000 migrants believed trapped.

New Legionaries of Christ priests fold their hands during their ordination ceremony at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome on 24 December, when Cardinal Velasio De Paolis ordained 61 men.

PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING

Jane Adolphe, who addressed the United Nations on behalf of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, pernament Observer of the Holy See to the UN.

PHOTO: CNA

‘The West’s resistance to fidelity is killing millions of Africans’

Broken Promises: How the AIDS Establishment Has Betrayed the Developing World

REVIEWED BY DAVID Q UINN

The Iona Institute

CURRENTLY, I am reading

Broken Promises: How the AIDS Establishment Has Betrayed the Developing World and it is a truly devastating expose of the AIDS industry in Africa.

In particular, it indicts the industry for doing its utmost to ignore, or deny, or actively undermine and condemn efforts to persuade at-risk Africans to moderate their sexual behaviour either by abstaining from sex or sticking to one part-

ner, despite abundant evidence that this approach to the spread of HIV/AIDS works far better than any other.

The book is by Dr Ed Green, former Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Health. Green has worked for many years promoting condoms and family planning in Third World countries.

However, Green has also spent many years trying to persuade the AIDS industry that condom promotion campaigns on their own do not reduce the spread of AIDS in general populations and that what has worked best is the ABC policy devised in Uganda by Ugandans in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

ABC stands for ‘Abstain’, ‘Be Faithful’, ‘use a Condom’. The campaign was aimed mostly at young people and encourages them to abstain if they didn’t have a part-

ner; if they did have a partner to be faithful to that partner, and if they could do neither of these things,

Software, music, movies: to copy... or not?

Foolish Wisdom

“a foolishness wiser than human wisdom”

By Bernard Toutounji

Last week I reached the conclusion that in order to save a life of regular chiropractic visits, I could no longer carry around my large, heavy laptop, so I bought a new netbook (a mini laptop).

I was telling my housemate that the netbook came with a simple version of Microsoft Word and Excel and that I would probably need to buy the full version in the future.

His immediate suggestion was that I could get a copy of a friend’s full version to save me buying one. It did make me think … would that be ok? Could I just ask a tech savvy friend to upgrade my computer at no cost?

To say that media piracy is a large industry would be an understatement. Five years ago, media piracy was estimated to be worth over $50 billion per year and that was when most of it was through CDs and DVDs. With the growth of online file sharing, all that is needed now is an internet connection. With the ease that a person can now obtain free copies of the latest software or movie it does not seem like media piracy is coming to an end anytime soon. I have heard it said, though, that media piracy is a victimless crime and some go even further to claim that such corporations deserve to lose sales because they are greedy and charge the public too much for their products.

But … even if movie tickets do cost too much and even if Windows does advertise a new upgrade every 12 months, does that justify piracy? At its most basic, piracy is taking something that does not belong to us. The average citizen would not

go into a department store and take a shirt or a microwave without paying for it, yet piracy is the very same act of taking something that one does not own.

Most people who have heard of the Ten Commandments know that in there somewhere is something about not stealing. In fact, you probably didn’t need the Ten Commandments to tell you that stealing was not a good thing. Thanks to our fallen natures, though, most of us still manage in varying ways to convince ourselves that in certain instances it will be ok to break (or maybe just bend) certain laws. But is this really a way to live, by the letter of the law?

In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ set a radical challenge when he said, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). This means that those who genuinely want to call themselves followers of Christ are called to live a radically new moral vision, one that begins in the heart and spills over into the way they live and act in the world.

So, while the Ten Commandments were given to a people who needed the law because they desired to break the law, Christ calls for a change of heart so that the first question is not ‘how far can I go before I break the law’ but, rather, ‘how much can I show love in all that I do’? Christ calls His disciples

then use a condom.

The approach was dramatically successful and slashed the rate of HIV/AIDS in Uganda, but there was also huge resistance to the programme from Western agencies on the grounds that it was unrealistic and moralistic.

All the evidence in its favour, cited by Green, was ignored, even when studies backing ABC were commissioned by the likes of UNAIDS.

Green is damning of these Western agencies for insisting ABC couldn’t work because they couldn’t stomach the fact that something which encourages abstinence and fidelity does actually work.

He quotes a study by Rand Stoneburner, an epidemiologist who used to work for the World Health Organisation in which Stoneburner estimates that if South Africa had promoted ABC between

2000 and 2010, roughly 3.2 million lives could have been saved. That is astounding.

It means a refusal to promote ABC is costing millions of lives all over Africa. In other words, the dogmatic resistance to the A and the B of ABC is killing people on a mass scale.

For the record, Green is an agnostic and a man of the left. He is, incidentally, the same person who defended the Pope when the Pope correctly said condom campaigns aren’t reducing the spread of AIDS in Africa.

The Pope was attacked for being dogmatic and he was told that his dogma is killing people. The exact reverse of this is the truth. The real dogmatists are his critics.

Broken Promises can be ordered from The Record Bookshop

Priest escaped persecution

My vocation

with Debbie Warrier

Father Vinh Dong

Ato not begrudgingly follow copyright laws to avoid getting caught, but, rather, open their hearts to love their brothers and sisters who have created these goods for the world to enjoy and so use them justly and in fairness to all. Genuine faith cannot be about rolling up to Mass on Sunday, singing loudly from the hymn sheet, but going home afterwards to listen to music we illegally downloaded the night before on a computer powered by software that we never purchased. If a Christian really looks to Christ and looks to live justly, then piracy becomes something that stops them being an example of holiness.

It may be tougher (and it will be more expensive) to buy what we need instead of taking it but we must grow in our desire to do what is right in all things and to set an example to our own family and friends. Sometimes, we have very good motives; we may want to help out a friend by lending them a program to copy that they cannot afford, but we cannot do an evil even if a good may come from it.

Admittedly, it is a big step to throw out those copied movies and clear our computer of pirated software but this is part of the radical nature of belief. Best that we get to the gates of eternity having never upgraded to Windows 7 than have St Peter accuse us of theft.

b_toutounji@optusnet.com.au

fter the Vietnam War everyone was fleeing from the country because of the political and social situation. My parents wanted their children to leave Vietnam so we could have a better future. There were 12 in my family (three passed away). The only escape was by sea and my parents wanted us to go one by one so that if the boat sank the remaining nine weren’t wiped out all at once. Also, the trip was costly. So my older brother went first to Australia and he worked hard to pay the fare for the next child and so on. I tried unsuccessfully to escape 13 times. I was ready to give up but my mother pleaded with me to try again. I escaped on a very tiny river fishing boat that carried 78 people. We headed out to sea and it was just so dangerous. I remember one night I was very frightened because there was a big storm and the waves were so high. I prayed, “If you save me, Lord, I will be a good boy.” Then I went to sleep.

I made it to Malaysia and went to a refugee camp in late 1981 where I stayed for 10 months. There was a French missionary priest there who worked very hard for the refugees. I was his altar boy. Every so often people would come and tell him that they were going to America, Canada or France etc to resettle. He was so happy for them. I could see that he was of service to people and that made me think back to my prayer.

I went to Australia in 1982 and started going to school. Priests came to talk to us about considering the priesthood. They said there weren’t many vocations and invited us to think about it. Again, I thought back to my prayer. I decided that I better do something about it. So my vocation started from that journey.

Initially, I wanted to be a Redemptorist priest and went to a discernment house in Sydney. I stayed for two years because I really wanted to be a missionary. But then my parents came to Australia in 1990. So I thought rather than being a missionary where I could be sent anywhere, I would rather stay in Australia where I could see them. That’s when I decided to be a diocesan priest.

I went to St Francis Seminary in South Australia and attended Flinders University there. In 1996, I received my Bachelor of Theology and was ordained that same year. I went to Perth in 1996. In 2007 I received my Masters of Arts and Theological Studies at Notre Dame University in Fremantle.

I think that being a diocesan priest is great because I get to have a second family – the parish community. The longer I stay in the priesthood the more I believe that this is the way God has provided for me to follow Him. Through my past I can identify with the struggles people go through and this helps me in my ministry.

For instance, people might say, “Oh God, you are a good God, so why are you letting these bad things happen to me?” There is a saying that, “Goodness may come from evil.” I have found through the hardships that I have experienced I have learnt to love God more in a deeper way then I could have if I lived a normal life.

Monks’ heroism told from beyond grave

A low budget movie based on the reallife murders of seven French Cistercian monks in Algeria in 1996 became a surprise hit in France late last year.

OF GODS AND MEN

REVIEW AND MUSINGS BY

SR HELENA BURNS FSP

Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et Des Dieux) (2010) is a French feature film about the seven Cistercian monks killed in Algeria in 1996. Subtitled in English, this film is up for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. This is a pretty big deal, especially due to the fact that the film itself (not just the subject matter) is profoundly and explicitly and, I would say, purely religious. It’s almost as if the monks are truly telling their own story from beyond the grave.

The motivation for their whole lives was simply and only God and His people.

The motivation for their martyrdom (which they could have avoided by choosing to flee or accept protection - both luxuries not afforded to those whom they served) was simply and only God and His people.

But although there is a simplicity and single-heartedness here, the lives of the monks were fraught with complex tensions and, each having their own temperament, they each faced their agony in their own way. But together.

This is a very European, very French film. It moves slowly and is reminiscent of Into the Great Silence, but with dialogue. Watch it when you are calm or want to be calm. It’s a prayer experience.

You must take time to reflect on the radical Gospel concepts put forth. I can’t think of a more perfect movie for Holy Week.

The movie is also very French in its poetic approach to God, religion and life. A poetry with teeth, that you can hang your hat on, but at the same time that is very tender like Jesus who is “Infinite Love.” (When’s the last time you heard that in a movie?) And, mais oui! nothing sounds like the name “Jesus” in French, does it?

The film takes its time, almost to get you into the rhythm of the lives of the monks.

We chop wood with them, attend to mothers and children in the free clinic, make and sell honey, work the land, eat in common, but most of all pray together.

There are lots and lots of prayer times, with beautiful singing in French: “hymns and Psalms and inspired songs.”

The Psalms, in particular, become more and more germane and real as the danger increases.

There’s a beautiful scene where the liturgically-vested, white-robed monks throw their arms on each other’s shoulders in a chain as they sing their prayers (the ever-strong Psalm 141) while helicopters menace over the chapel. The monks also deliberate much

Perth screening

Of Gods and Men will be screening in Perth as part of the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2011. It will be shown in Perth at Cinema Paradiso on 26 March and at Luna on SX on 2 April.

To check screen times in your city in Australia visit www.frenchfilmfestival.org.

together. They sit down in council and discern. What should they do? Stay or go? What would be the point of each course of action? What would their Master do?

The monks are middle-aged or elderly. They chafe a bit against each other (a Canadian priest of the Oratory once said: “community life is like a bunch of pennies in a bag rubbing against each other, shining

each other up”), but the love runs so much deeper in a thousand and one little details and kindnesses.

Of Gods and Men is also a marvellous film for interreligious dialogue/reflection. Algeria is a Muslim country, colonised by the French.

This causes built-in problems, but also a coming together of two nations and religions with a great deal of mutual respect.

The common people love the monks and the monks love them. An armed terrorist apologises for bursting in on the monks on Christmas - the birth of the “Prince of Peace.” Muslim village elders decry the violence against noncombatants erupting in the Civil War. This is a very nuanced view of Islamic-Christian relations.

Why do these monks - over ten years later - still capture our imagination? Because they knew what they were getting into. They understood the brutality they could face. Although some hesitated to stay, others did not. As one said to another: “We already gave our lives by becoming monks.”

Their act of heroism, of resistance, of love, of freedom (freedom is a big theme!) was to stay and carry on with their daily lives of harmony, charity and worship.

Their act of selflessness reminded me of Blessed Charles de Foucauld (another French monk martyred in Algeria). I rarely watch movies twice. But this one needs to be seen over and over. It’s a meditation. Few films have ever gotten this close to the heart of Christianity.

Additional musings

Sr Helena will often add her notes, under the heading “Other Stuff”. It’s stuff that didn’t quite fit into the review but is interesting to read and think about nonetheless.

What’s with all the prayer?

Heathen nun that I am, I got a little annoyed with the very many prayer times. But, good gravystains, I thought later, why shouldn’t we see a plethora of them, experience them.

The praise of God is the raison d’etre of the monks’ lives (and not just some social activism) and, ahem, the raison d’etre of, like, everyone else’s life on the planet, too? What better words in the words of men than the words of God? When there are no more words to say, what better words in our mouths than God’s Word?

Pope Benedict is virtually pleading with us these days to read and reflect on the Word of God.

Theology of the Body

The Incarnation and Resurrection shine through this movie like sun through stained glass. There is a continuous eschatological expectation shot throughout, even before Death begins rattling his rusty sabre ... A lovely and funny description (as only the French can!) of what love is. The doctor-monk talks to a teenage Muslim girl. He even begins to outline BJP2G’s stages of love from “Love and Responsibility”: attraction, desire ... Spiritual but not religious? You just split yourself in two. “Spiritual” is of the soul. “Religious” is of the body. We need both. If we’re “spiritual” and not “religious,” then we’re just tripping out on something unseen, interior, unverifiable that has no consequences in materiality. If we’re “religious” but not “spiritual,” our religion is empty, “lip service,” external formalities, hollow, heartless. (Religare means “to bind.” I sure want to bind myself physically to God, too! And, we’re all spiritual any way because we’re all body and soul.)

This movie reminded me of another recent French movie, Lourdes (2010). The French are not afraid of the human body, the human face. They don’t dress it up too much. It’s just there in all its plainness, stillness.

The monks’ deliberations are in faith, trust, natural and supernatural reasoning.

It’s all about imitating the helpless Christ-Child and the vulnerable Pierced-One who has the power to lay down His life and take it up again, and us with Him.

Slowest scene in the film: Father Superior walks up the hill. And walks and walks and walks and walks and walks and walks ... Somebody wake up the editor.

My community watched the film before me and only complained about one scene: the “Last Supper” scene. It didn’t work for them because the monks put on a cassette of Swan Lake which plays rather bombastically while the camera pans back and forth over their faces.

The problem is, we forget that the sound is diegetic, and begin to think the filmmakers made a really bad choice of scored music here. Some of the characters looked very self-conscious and camera shy for the first and only time, while others burned up the screen, ready for their close-up.

The ancient Fr Jean-Pierre is the best little actor of the lot. Father Superior at this point gets a little melodramatic.

However, this scene did work for me. I kept thinking, maybe they did play Swan Lake. (There were actually eight monks in the monastery when the abduction happened, so there is a living eye-witness of everything that took place before. He is still alive at 86).

Daughter of St Paul Sister Helena Burns fsp blogs reviews of movies from Chicago, via her blog: www.hellburns.blogspot.com.

“Only in this second volume do we encounter the decisive sayingsa and events of Jesus’s life... I... hope that I have been granted an insight into the figure of our Lord that can be helpful to all readers who seek to encounter Jesus and to believe in him.”

- Joseph Ratzinger

The monks pray together in their time of distress during the French film Of Gods and Men, and below, vote on a decision in community in these scenes from the movie.

PHOTOS COURTESY LUNA CINEMAS

SATURDAY, 19 MARCH

Men’s Breakfast

9am at Infant Jesus Parish hall, corner Wellington Rd and Smith St, Morley. “Is there really a God?” by Fr Deeter. Includes 8.30am Mass. Attendance $20 - proceeds to SVdP. Advise on dietary requirements. Enq: Brendan 9276 8336.

Peace Vigil

6-9pm at Redemptorist Monastery, 190 Vincent St, North Perth. Prayer for peace in families and world - 20 min sessions followed by 10 min silence and lighting of votive candles. Supper provided. Everyone welcome. Enq: Fran franell@iprimus.com.au.

Reunion for St Joseph’s Girls Orphanage 11am outside The West Australian Museum at the memorial for Forgotten Australians site. Please bring any photos and memorabilia you might have. BYO lunch. Family members welcome. Enq: Ann 9349 3424, Rita 9242 7766, Lynette 9453 2211.

A Morning Retreat

9am-12pm at Gonzaga Barry Lecture Theatre, John XXIII College. Cost: Donations. Inner Peace - Part 1 presented by Murray Graham. Enq: Murray 9383 0444 or graham. murray@johnxxiii.edu.au.

SUNDAY, 20 MARCH

March Sunday Sesh – First Sunday Sesh for 2011

6pm at Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Parish, 175 Corfield St, Gosnells. Mass, followed by Sunday Sesh at 7.15pm. Theme, There’s a party in da house The largest youth night in March! Open for youths of all ages (pref 15-35). The night includes games, formation and fun. Enq: www.cym.com.au or call 9422 7912.

Taizé Prayer

7-8pm at Sisters of St Joseph Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth. God speaks and the heart hears. Beautiful contemplative prayer in a cool candlelit chapel. Bring your friends and a small torch. Enq: Sister Maree 0414 683 926

TUESDAY, 22 MARCH

Lenten Preparation

Spirituality & The Sunday Gospels

7-8pm at St Benedict’s School Hall, Alness St, Applecross. Grow in your faith this Lent through these powerful sessions. Deepen your relationship with God and prepare for the graces of Easter presented by Norma Woodcock. There will be a collection to cover costs. Enq: 9487 1772 or www.normawoodcock.com.

WEDNESDAY, 23 MARCH

Freedom in Christ Course

7.30-9.30pm at City Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth (cnr Aberdeen St). Course will benefit anyone whose life may at times seem out of control, affected by fear or anger. All welcome. Enq: HSoF 0449 65 1697 or hsofperth@gmail.com.

FRIDAY, 25 MARCH

Medjugorje Evening Prayer

7-9pm at All Saints Chapel, 77 St Georges Tce, Perth. Allendale Square. Adoration, Rosary and Benediction followed by Mass. DVD available of alleged visionary Ivan. All welcome. Enq: 9402 2480 or 0407 471 256, medjugorj@y7mail.com.

FRIDAY, 25 TO SUNDAY, 27 MARCH

Lenten Retreat

7pm at ‘God’s Farm’, 94 Woodlands Rd, Wilyabup. Concludes on Sunday at 2pm. “Celebrating EucharistSource and Nourishment for our Christian life” Retreat Master: Fr Tony Chiera. Retreat includes daily Mass, Reconciliation, Adoration and prayers. Bus booking and Enq: Betty 9755 6212, PO Box 24 Cowaramup 6284.

SATURDAY, 26 MARCH

The Voice of the Voiceless

12pm at St Brigid’s Parish, 69 Fitzgerald St, Northbridge. Mass followed by fellowship. Please bring a plate to share. All Welcome. Enq: John Sutton, 0437 286 301 cjsutton@bigpond.net.au.

The 6th Day of the Unborn Child

10am at St Mary’s Cathedral. Mass celebrated by Bishop Donald Sproxton. 11am Holy Hour with Fr Paul Carey SSC. This is in thanksgiving to God for the gift of life and to pray for the protection of the unborn child. There will be a memorial procession with flowers in honour of pre-born babies whose lives have been lost. This is the mid-way event in the inaugural 40 Days for Life campaign. Enq: 9328 2926.

PANORAMA

SUNDAY, 27 MARCH

Annual ACIES Ceremony

Immaculate Conception Curia of the Legion of Mary 2pm at St Jerome’s Parish Church, Troode St, Munster. All welcome. Afternoon tea provided.

A Morning Retreat, Inner Peace - Part 2

9am-12noon at John XXII College, Gonzaga Barry Lecture Theatre, near Mary Ward statue, follow overhead signs. Presenter, Murray Graham M.Ed, Inigo Centre Director. You do not need to have attended Part 1. Donation only. Enq: Registration, Murray 9383 0444, graham.murray@ johnxxiii.edu.au.

TUESDAY, 29 MARCH

Day of Reflection (MMP)

10.30am at St Bernadette Church, Cnr Leeder and Jugan Sts, Glendalough. Rosary Cenacle, followed by Holy Mass and Talks. Concluding 2pm. Celebrant & Speaker: Rev Fr Sharbel, FI. Bring Lunch to share. Tea and coffee supplied. Enq: 9341 8082.

Movie Night Organised By Caritas Australia

8pm at St Thomas More College Dining Hall, Mounts Bay Road, Crawley. Come and be a Voice for women in the Congo, screening The Greatest Silence, a powerful documentary by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson. The film, though sensitive, unflinchingly looks at the plight of women and girls caught in the country’s intractable conflicts, for 16 years and over. RSVP by 22 March, to perth@caritas.org.au or 9422 7925.

FRIDAY, 1 APRIL

The Shroud of Turin at Catholic Faith Renewal Evening

7pm at St John and Paul’s parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Exhibition and talk by Fr Ted. Followed by Stations of the Cross, Holy Mass, Exhibition and light refreshment. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913 or Ann 0412 16 6164.

The Alliance, Triumph and Reign of the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

9 pm at St Bernadette’s Church, Glendalough. Commences with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed by Reflections and Rosary. Vigil concludes with midnight Holy Mass in anticipation and preparation for the Lord’s second coming and His reign on earth. All welcome. Enq: Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

SATURDAY, 2 APRIL

Day with Mary

9am-5pm at St Bernadette Parish, Cnr Leeder and Jugan Sts, Glendalough. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. Begins with video, followed by Holy Mass, Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

SUNDAY, 3 APRIL

Taizé Prayer Evening

7-8pm at St Lawrence Parish, 392 Albert St, Balcatta. An hour of beautiful canon music, short readings and intercession prayers with quiet reflection. Enq: Fr Irek 9344 7066 (Tue-Thur, 9am-2.30pm) or www.stlawrence. org.au.

GOOD FRIDAY, 22 APRIL

Passion Play - 35 Actors

9.45am at Holy Spirit Oval, 2 Keaney Rd, City Beach. Enq: Janny 0420 635 919.

HOLY SATURDAY, 23 APRIL

Passion Play – 35 Actors

11.30am Fremantle High St Mall. Enq: Janny 0420 635 919.

SATURDAY, 30 APRIL

Live Ministries - Charismatic Healing

6.30pm at Sacred Heart Parish, 64 Mary St, Highgate. Come and get prayed over and be healed from past and present issues or stand in for a loved one who may be ill or facing problems at this time. Team, includes Fr H Thomas, Fr D Watt, Fr P Bianchini, Fr D Harris. All welcome. Enq: Fr Hugh or Gilbert 0431 570 322.

SUNDAY, 1 MAY

Centenary of Kellerberrin Parish 11am at St Joseph’s parish, Kellerberrin. All present and past parishioners are invited to the parish Centenary celebrations. Mass celebrated by His Grace, Archbishop Barry Hickey, followed by a catered luncheon at the Kellerberrin

Shire hall. RSVP by Saturday, 2 April for catering purposes to Christine Laird 9045 4235 or fax 9045 4602, or Audrey Tiller 9045 4021, or stmary@westnet.com.au.

2011 Busselton Rosary Celebration

12.30pm at Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine, ‘Bove’s Farm’, Roy Rd, Jindong, Busselton. Celebrant: Bishop Gerard Holohan. Mass followed by Rosary Procession and Benediction. Tea provided. All welcome. Bus booking and Enq: Francis 0404 893 877 or 9459 3873.

FRIDAY, 8 TO WEDNESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER

Cruise on the River Nile

14-Day package. Includes Tour/Sightseeing of Jordan and Egypt. Cost: $4,900 per person twin share (22 people). Accompanying priest: Fr Joe Carroll. Itinerary and Enq: Fadua 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877.

EVERY SUNDAY

Gate of Heaven Catholic Radio

Join the Franciscans of the Immaculate every Sunday from 7.30-9pm on Radio Fremantle 107.9FM for Catholic radio broadcast of EWTN and our own live shows. Enq: radio@ausmaria.com.

Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation

2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation is available before every celebration. Anointing of the Sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation, last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to the church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq Sacri 9447 3292.

EVERY FIRST SUNDAY

Divine Mercy Chaplet and Healing Prayer

3pm at Santa Clara Church, 72 Palmerston St, Bentley. Includes Adoration and individual prayer for healing. Spiritual leader: Fr Francisco. All welcome. Enq: Fr Francisco 9458 2944.

EVERY SECOND SUNDAY

Healing Hour for the sick

6pm at St Lawrence parish, 392 Albert St, Balcatta. Begins with Mass, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and prayers. Enq: Fr Irek 9344 7066 or ww.stlawrence. org.au.

EVERY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Oblates of St Benedict

2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. Oblates are affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia. All welcome to study the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and tea later. Enq: Secretary 9457 5758.

EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life

2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley. The hour includes Exposition of the Blessed Eucharist, silent prayer, Scripture and prayers of intercession. Come and pray that those discerning vocations to the priesthood or Religious life hear clearly God’s loving call to them.

EVERY MONDAY

Evening Adoration and Mass

7pm at St Thomas Claremont Parish, Cnr Melville St and College Rd. Begins with Adoration, Reconciliation, Evening Prayer and Benediction. Followed by Mass and Night Prayer at 8pm. Enq: Kim 9384 0598, claremont@ perthcatholic.org.au.

LAST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Christian Spirituality Presentation

7.30-9.15pm at the church hall behind St Swithan’s Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Stephanie Woods presents The Desert Period of Christianity, 260 to 600AD. From this time period came the understanding of the monastic lifestyle and contemplative prayer. No cost. Enq Lynne 9293 3848.

EVERY TUESDAY

Novena and Benediction to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

6pm at the Pater Noster Church, Marmion and Evershed Sts, Myaree. Mass at 5.30pm. Enq: John 0408 952 194.

Spirituality and The Sunday Gospels

7-8pm at St Benedict’s school hall, Alness St, Applecross. The power of the Gospel message; How can we live meaningful and hope-filled lives? Presented by Norma Woodcock. Donation for The Centre for Catholic Spiritual Development & Prayer. Enq: 9487 1772 or www.normawoodcock.com.

EVERY WEDNESDAY

Holy Spirit of Freedom Community

7.30pm at The Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We are delighted to welcome everyone to attend our Holy Spirit of Freedom Praise Meeting. Enq: 0423 907 869 or hsofperth@gmail.com.

Holy Hour at Catholic Youth Ministry

5.30pm Mass and 6.30pm Holy Hour (Adoration) at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. $5 supper and fellowship after Holy Hour. Enq: www.cym.com. au or call 9422 7912.

EVERY FIRST WEDNESDAY

Holy Hour prayer for Priests

7-8pm at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. All welcome. Enq: Linda 9341 3079.

SECOND WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH

Chaplets of the Divine Mercy

7.30pm at St Thomas More Church, Dean Rd, Bateman. Chaplet will be accompanied by Exposition followed by Benediction. Monthly event. All welcome. Enq: George 9310 9493 or 9325 2010 (w).

EVERY THURSDAY

Divine Mercy

11am at Sts John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and for the consecrated life especially here in John Paul Parish, conclude with veneration of the First Class Relic of St Faustina. Please do come and join us in prayer. Enq: John 9457 7771.

Fr Corapi’s Catechism of the Catholic Church

7.30pm at St Joseph Church, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean - Parish Library. Enq: Catherine 9329 2691.

EVERY FIRST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH

Taize Prayer and Meditation

7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Church, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Prayer and meditation using songs from the Taize phenomenon. In peace and candlelight we make our pilgrimage. All are invited. Enq: Joan 9448 4457 or Office 9448 4888.

FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life

7pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Mass, followed by Adoration with Fr Doug Harris. All welcome. Refreshments provided.

Catholic Faith Renewal Evening

7.30pm at Sts John and Paul’s Parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Songs of Praise, sharing by a priest followed by Thanksgiving Mass and light refreshments after Mass. All welcome to attend and bring your family and friends. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913, Ann: 0412 166 164 or catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com.

Communion of Reparation All Night Vigils

7pm-1.30am at Corpus Christi Church, Lochee St, Mosman Park. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357 and at St Gerard Majella Church, Ravenswood Dr and Majella Rd, Mirrabooka, Enq: Fr Giosue 9349 2315, John or Joy 9344 2609. The Vigils consist of two Masses, Adoration, Benediction, Prayers and Confession in reparation for the outrages committed against the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary. All welcome.

Healing Mass

7pm at St Peter’s Parish, Wood St, Inglewood. Reconciliation, praise and worship, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament, Benediction, Anointing of the Sick, and special blessing. Celebrants Fr Sam and other clergy. All welcome. Enq: Priscilla 0433 457 352, Catherine 0433 923 083 or Mary-Ann 0409 672 304.

Healing and Anointing Mass

8.45am at Pater Noster, Myaree. Reconciliation, followed by Mass including Anointing of the Sick, Praise and Worship to St Peregrine and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All welcome. Enq: Joy 9337 7189.

ACROSS

3 Monastery sights

9 Sacramental gesture

10 St Francis is the patron of this

11 Diocese of Honolulu necklaces

12 Luke adds these to his Beatitudes

13 Catholic Academy Awardwinning actress Hayward

15 First Mass in Canada was celebrated on this peninsula

16 Lot, to Abraham

17 Catholic newsman and MSNBC Hardball host Matthews

20 Belief

22 Holy object

23 Diocese in Idaho

25 United States Catholic Supreme Court Justice

26 There are 7 mentioned in Revelation

29 Possible Easter month

31 “…and there was no one to ___ the ground” (Gn 2:5)

32 Story of original sin (with “The”)

35 Marks with oil

36 ___ Galilee

37 On the first day of this month after the flood, the mountaintops appeared

DOWN

1

3 Ark occupant

4

20

2

21 M Dan 9:4-10 We have sinned

Vio

8:8-9.11.13

22 Tu Isa 1:10.16-20 Cease to do evil

Vio Ps 49:8-9.16-17.21.23 Am I like you?

Mt 23:1-12 One Father, one Teacher

EVERY FIRST SATURDAY

Healing Mass

6

7

15 Gold, frankincense or myrrh

18 Patron saint of lawyers

19 Bible book about the early Christians

21 Judasʼ name

22 “Eternal ___ grant unto them”

of Rebekah

30 Season before Easter

33 Eternal ___

34 ___ Wednesday

23 W St Turibius de Mongrovejo, Bishop (O)

Vio Jer 18:18-20 I pleaded for them

Ps 30:5-6.14-16 God is my refuge

Mt 20:17-28 Son to be handed over

24 Th Jer 17:5-10 Things of flesh

Vio Ps 1:1-4.6 Fruit in due season

Lk 16:19-31 Purple and fine lined

25 F THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD (Solemnity)

Wh Isa 7:10-14;8:10 God is with us

Ps 39:7911 An open ear

Heb 10:4-10 To obey your will

Lk 1:26-38 Mary disturbed

26 S Mic 7:14-15.18-20 Have pity on us

Vio Ps 102:1-4.9-12 Not angry for ever

Lk 15:1-3.11-32 You kill the calf

Continued from Page 18

12.35pm at St Thomas, Claremont Parish, cnr Melville St and College Rd. Spiritual leader: Fr Waddell. Enq: Kim 9384 0598, claremont@perthcatholic.org.au.

PILGRIMAGE TO PRAGUE, POLAND AND AUSTRIA

St Jude’s parish, Langford is organising a 13-day pilgrimage departing 1 October. Pilgrimage will include visits to the Shrines of Divine Mercy, Infant Jesus, the Black Madonna, St Faustina, the birthplace of Pope

John Paul II and the Museum at Auschwitz. Total cost per person $5,800. The Spiritual Director, Fr Terry Raj. Enq: Co-ordinator John Murphy 9457 7771, Matt 6460 6877 mattpicc1@gmail.com.

FRIDAY, 11 NOVEMBER TO TUESDAY, 22 NOVEMBER

Pilgrim Tour To The Holy Land Jordan, Israel and Egypt. Spiritual Director, Fr Sebastian Kalapurackal VC from St Aloysius Church Shenton Park. Enq: Francis – Coordinator, 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877 or Skype ID:perthfamily.

LAWN MOWING

WRR LAWN MOWING & WEED SPRAYING Garden clean ups and rubbish removal. Get rid of bindii, jojo and other unsightly weeds. Based in Tuart Hill. Enq 9443 9243 or 0402 326 637.

OPPORTUNITIES

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Work from Home - P/T or F/T, 02 8230 0290 or visit www.dreamlife1.com.

A NEW CHURCH CHOIR

Varied repertoire – old and new. Rehearsals every other Wednesday, 7-8.30pm. Singing Saturday 6pm Mass once a month. Ability to read music preferred. St Paul’s Catholic Church 106 Rookwood St Mt Lawley Contact: Chloë – 0417 712 027, chloe.piper@gmail.com.

COOK WANTED

Nursing home in North Perth is seeking a mature person to provide home-style cooking two mornings per week. Experience cooking for the elderly is desirable. For further information, please ring 0431 08 2364.

COOK PART TME REQUIRED FOR A CATHOLIC MONASTERY 25 hours per week (Monday to Friday). Enquiries to Fr J Carroll or Bernadette on 9328 6600.

ACCOMMODATION

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

ESPERANCE 3 bedroom house f/furnished Ph 09 9076 5083.

MATURE AGE single gentleman looking for a room. Non-smoker, and works fulltime at Royal Perth Hospital. Has been a house friend for two elderly people over the past 20 years, carrying out light house-duties and gardening when required. If you can help, please call Greg O’Brien on mob: 0413 701 489.

Deadline: 11am Monday

TRADE SERVICES

BRENDON HANDYMAN

SERVICES Home, building maintenance, repairs and renovations. NOR. Ph 0427 539 588.

BRICK RE-POINTING

Ph Nigel 9242 2952.

PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd

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

PICASSO PAINTING Top service.

Ph 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

BOOK BINDING

NEW BOOK BINDING, General Book Repairs; Rebinding; New Ribbons; Old Leather Bindings Restored.

Tydewi Bindery 0422 968 572.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

CATHOLICS CORNER Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for Baptism, Communion and Confirmation. Ph 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Rd, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

RICH HARVEST YOUR

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

KINLAR VESTMENTS

Overseas till 15 March, sourcing new fabrics. Phone Viki on 9402 1318 or 0409 114 093. Kinlarvestments@gmail.com.

OTTIMO

Convenient location for Bibles, books, cards CD/DVDs, candles, medals, statues and gifts at Shop 41, Station St Market, Subiaco. Fri-Sun 9-5pm.

FOR SALE

FOR SALE CHEAP & VARIOUS

Catholic/Protestant Books New/ secondhand - 94404358.

WANTED

CARPENTER TO MAKE PEWS for church. Tel 0427 08 5093.

THANKSGIVING

MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS may Your Name be praised and glorified throughout the world now and forever. Amen.

Mrs J Lawson

PILGRIMAGES/TOURS

1. Visit to Viet Nam and Cambodia (17 days)

A$3,800:00 per person twin share Mon, 9 - Wed, 25 May 2011

2. World Youth Day August 2011 (10 days)

Sun, 14 - Tue, 23 August 2011 (18 people)

For cost/itinerary and more information please contact:

Francis Williams (Coordinator)

T: 9459 3873 (after 4.00pm)

M: 0404 893 877 (all-day)

E: francis@perthfamily.com

Skype ID: perthfamily88 FURNITURE

ALL AREAS. Competitive Rates. Mike Murphy Ph 0416 226 434. SETTLEMENTS

ARE YOU BUYING OR SELLING real estate or a business? Why not ask Excel Settlements for a quote for your settlement. We offer reasonable fees, excellent service and no hidden costs. Ring Excel on 9481 4499 for a quote. Check our web site on www.excelsettlements.com.

The Record Bookshop

DVDs that will help you know our Saints...

Padre Pio

MIRACLE MAN

RRP $41.95

This movie captures the Capuchin friar’s intense faith and devotion, and deep spiritual concern for others, as well as his great compassion for the sick and suffering. It reveals the amazing details and events in Padre Pio’s life as a boy and throughout his 50 years as a friar, dramatising the frequent attacks of the Devil on him, as well as the persecution he suffered at the hands of people, including those in the Church.

The Passion of Bernadette

RRP $27.95

Following up the acclaimed best-selling movie, Bernadette, the story of the apparitions of Our Lady in Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous, this beautiful Jean Delannoy film tells the rest of the story of her life after the Marian visions: the life that made Bernadette a saint. With another moving performance by actress Sydney Penny, this film reveals the incessant illness and suffering that St Bernadette patiently, even cheerfully, endured throughout her life in the convent, often repeating her prayer to “suffer and offer it to God.” She went to her eternal reward in 1879, at the age of 35.

St Guiseppe Moscati

Doctor of the Poor

RRP $41.95

Giuseppe Moscati, “the holy physician of Naples,” was a medical doctor and layman in the early 20th century who came from an aristocratic family and devoted his medical career to serving the poor. He was also a medical school professor and a pioneer in the field of biochemistry whose research led to the discovery of insulin as a cure for diabetes. Giuseppe Moscati died in 1927 at 46 years old, was beatified in 1975 and declared a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1987. His feast day is 16 November.

Paul

Contending for the Faith

RRP $34.95

Zealous for the God of Israel, Saul of Tarsus pursued murderous threats against the disciples of Jesus. But Saul’s zeal was turned upside down when he was knocked from his “high horse” and humbled by the hand of God. Join the adventure in this edition of the Footprints of God series as Stephen Ray, best-selling author and popular Bible teacher, takes you on the road with St Paul through Israel, Syria, Turkey, Greece and Italy.

The Spiritual excersises of St Ignatius

RRP $65.95

From his experiences in solitary prayer, St Ignatius wrote a handbook for retreats called the Spiritual Exercises. These “exercises for the soul” lead the follower of Christ from self will and excessive attachment into the freedom of the sons of God: freedom to know and do the will of God. Under the guidance of Fr Raymond Gawronski, SJ, the viewers of this 13 part series can make the actual Ignatian retreat, covering all the major points of the Spiritual Exercises.

St John Bosco

Mission to Love

RRP $34.95

Flavio Insinna gives a winning performance as John (Don) Bosco, the great priest and educator of youth from the tough streets of Turin, Italy. Beautifully filmed in Italy, this epic movie dramatises the many challenges that Don Bosco had to overcome from his childhood through founding his Religious Order, the Salesians, for helping educate boys. Growing up without a father gave him compassion for the many orphans that he cared for, while he faced persecution from both secular society and the Church as he fought to build a place to house and educate the homeless, outcast youth of Turin.

The True Easter Story

RRP $25.00

From the ignominy of the cross to the glory of the risen Lord, The True Easter Story sheds new light on the resurrection of the King of Kings — deepening our appreciation of God’s love for us and His provision for a Messiah. Travel with Ray VanderLaan to the land of Israel and discover fascinating truths about the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus. See 2,000 year old tombs, much like the one that so temporarily held Jesus. Experience a dramatic plunge into the vibrant history and culture of Israel.

Mary

The Mother of God

RRP $41.95

This second film in the Footprints of God series follows Mary on her extraordinary journey on location in Turkey, Israel and Greece with popular Catholic author and speaker Stephen Ray as guide. Downto-earth teaching on subjects like Mary’s Immaculate Conception, Assumption into Heaven, and her role of intercessor, and more are offered in an energised, high-impact style that combines the best elements of a travel documentary, biography, Bible study, apologetics course, and Church history review.

5901

Email: bookshop@therecord.com.au

Address:

Perth