The Record Newspaper 18 March 2009

Annual inauguration of the Murdoch University Chaplaincy

Annual inauguration of the Murdoch University Chaplaincy

You are invited

You are invited

12.30-1.30pm, 24th March, 2009, Murdoch University Worship Centre

12.30-1.30pm, 24th March, 2009, Murdoch University Worship Centre

Prof. Tracey Rowland Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, Melbourne. Author of Ratzinger’s Faith

RSVP: Fr Joseph Cardoso 0403 303 667 Nicole 0432 093 662 Joel 0450 903 606

Prof. Tracey Rowland

Christianity in the marketplace of faith traditions

Christanity in

the marketplace of faith traditions

Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, Melbourne Author of Ratzinger’s Faith, pub. Oxford University Press, 2008

the R ecoRd

RSVP: Fr Joseph Cardoso 0403 303 667 Nicole 0432 093 662 Joel 0450 903 606

the Parish. the Nation. the World.

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

-Bishop Matthew Gibney 1874

York celebrates 150

and fellow Norbertines were among the many who turned up for the parish’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of its first church, which still stands within sight of the current imposing structure. The day also saw the launch of the history of the parish, by local author Anthony Clack, which charts the establishment and growth of one of Western Australia’s oldest parishes. Highlights of York history recounted in its pages include the dynamiting of the Church presbytery in the 1800s by a disaffected local. More photos - Page 6

THE

NEW

REPRESSION

Cardinal George Pell speaks out on the new persecution of Christianity that calls itself ‘Tolerance.’ Vista 2-3

THE ITALIAN WAY

If you want to reach the young, writes Anthony Paganoni, try informality. Page 12

Archbishop Barry Hickey and other clergy, including York Parish Priest Fr Stephen Cooney O.Praem., second from left,

PHOTOS: ROBERT PRIESTLY

“Since

fear of God.”

From the Second Letter to the Corinthians, 7: 1

Priest offers Perth parishes retreats with emphasis on God’s word

Retreats for Lent in five parishes

AN Indian priest with 20 years experience in delivering scripture-based meditative retreats is giving retreats in five Perth parishes during Lent.

Divine Word Missionary, Fr Gilbert Carlo svd, has already presented retreats at Balcatta and Ocean Reef, will complete a retreat at Karrinyup tomorrow (Thursday) night, and in the two following weeks will give retreats at Dianella and Riverton parishes.

Ordained 25 years ago, Fr Gilbert began delivering his unique style of retreats in India 20 years ago and has been presenting them in Australia for the last 12 years. He has also appeared in many other countries, including the USA, UK and Germany.

He begins the retreats by speaking at all Parish Masses on the Sunday and conducts evening sessions from 7.30 - 9pm

from Monday to Thursday. Fr Gilbert also makes himself available in parish churches in the mornings for Reconciliation and personal spiritual guidance.

The theme of the Retreats is Healing – through God’s love and forgiveness; through the Word of God; through the Sacraments (with exposition on Wednesday); and through His body and blood (with Mass on Thursday nights).

His talks ands prayers cover healing of body, mind and spirit.

Fr Gilbert moved with familiarity and affection through the scriptures from Genesis (God’s promise to Abraham and all his descendants) to Revelation (Christ’s promise to each one us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Drawing on an almost endless array of quotations, Fr Gilbert emphasised over and over God’s promises that if we believe in him, we will have life everlasting; that if

we believe, we will not be separated from him; that forgiveness is available to all who repent; and that “when you repent, I will not remember your past sins”.

We should not carry the burden of guilt or shame for past sins because God has already forgiven them and forgotten them.

Likewise we should not carry any unnecessary burdens because Jesus said, “Come to me you who labour and are burdened and I will give you rest.”

These burdens weaken the heart and the body, and prevent us rejoicing in the love of God.

Fr Gilbert’s instruction included meditative prayer, the Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Heart.

He urged people to enjoy praying and to enjoy contemplating all the joyful scripture messages, including the understanding that without God we can do nothing, but once we believe we are never without God.

Liturgical music guidelines released

With a new Order of the Mass due in the near future, musical talent is being sought.

Irish leaders denounce violence, killings

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) - In messages for St. Patrick’s Day, Catholic leaders in Ireland called on their fellow citizens to work for an end to the violence that has plagued both Northern Ireland and the neighbourhoods of Dublin. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said he could not “speak about the new outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland without also expressing my concern yet again about further episodes of gangland violence in and around Dublin.

“We are witnessing the incongruous situation in which one revenge-killing begets further revenge, and precisely those who think that violence is an answer end up being the most vulnerable to the next round,” he added.

Three members of Northern Ireland’s security forces were killed in less than 48 hours March 7-9 by dissidents who oppose British rule in the province.

So far this year there have been eight gangrelated murders in and around Dublin. The president of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, said, “If the awful and tragic events of last week teach us anything, it is that all of us must work unceasingly for peace here on our island.”

COMPOSERS in Perth have been given a head start in composing musical settings for the text of the Order of Mass that will be introduced soon, according to Sr Kerry Willison, Archdiocesan Director of Liturgy.

She was speaking after a workshop held on March 12 that was attended by a number of parish musicians with an interest in composing liturgical music.

The workshop had two aims: to launch the Archdiocesan guidelines for liturgical composers and songwriters entitled Make A Joyful Noise, and to introduce local musicians to the process by which they may submit their settings of the people’s parts of the revised Order of Mass to the National Liturgical Music Board for assessment.

Vicar General, Fr Brian O’Loughlin, launched the guidelines on behalf of Archbishop Hickey.

In his address, he paid tribute to Western Australian composers Dom Moreno of New Norcia and Fr Albert Lynch, both of whom composed liturgical music of enduring quality.

He encouraged the composers present to follow their example. Chris deSilva then talked about the liturgical principles set out in the guide-

lines and how they applied to composers.

He explained the structure of the Mass and how the different characters of the parts of the Mass required the use of different musical forms.

He also discussed the section of the guidelines that deals with appropriate language for liturgical music texts.

In the second half of the workshop, participants were given copies of the texts of the parts of the Order of Mass that are to be set to music and of the guidelines for composers that must be followed by those submitting settings for assessment.

Composers have until the end of this year to submit their works.

Information about the guidelines and the submission process are available from the Archdiocesan Centre for liturgy on email address liturgy. centre@perthcatholic.org.au, as are copies of the handouts from the workshop.

Fr Brian O’Loughlin and Chris deSilva display copies of the new Perth Liturgy Office composition guidelines for the Mass. Fr O’Loughlin also addressed parish musicians. PHOTOS: COURTESY LITURGY OFFICE

Benedict declares the Year of Priests

Pope Benedict XVI ordains Juan Carlos Mari, son of the Pope’s official photographer, Arturo Mari, during a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vaticanin 2007. Pope Benedict has declared June 19, 2009 to June 19, 2010 a special Year for Priests. The Year will also mark the 150th anniversary of the death of St John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, who the Pope will also name as patron saint of all priests, not just parish priests. PHOTO: CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

Mercy was the first requirement:

Pontifical head

Vatican official: Brazilian girl, doctors needed mercy after abortion

n By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - A 9-year-old Brazilian girl and the doctors who performed the girl’s abortion needed the Catholic

Church’s care and concern, not its condemnation, said a leading Vatican official. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, criticised what he called a “hasty” public declaration of the excommunication of the girl’s mother and the doctors who aborted the girl’s twins.

The girl “in the first place should have been defended, hugged and held tenderly to help her feel that we were all on her side” he wrote in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, on March 15.

“Before thinking about excommunication, it was necessary and urgent to protect her innocent life and bring her back

Cure of Ars to become patron saint of all the world’s priests.

n By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI declared a year of the priest in an effort to encourage “spiritual perfection” in priests.

The Pope will open the special year with a vespers service at the Vatican on June 19 - the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the day for the sanctification of priests. He will close the celebrations during a World Meeting of Priests in St Peter’s Square on June 19, 2010.

The Pope made the announcement during a March 16 audience with members of the Vatican Congregation for Clergy.

He met with some 70 participants of the congregation’s March 16-18 plenary assembly, which focused on the missionary identity of the priest and his mission to sanctify, teach and govern.

During this jubilee year, the Pope will also proclaim St John Vianney to be patron saint of all the world’s priests. At present he is considered the patron saint of parish priests.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of this 19thcentury saint who represents a “true example of a priest at the service of the flock of Christ,” the Pope said.

St John Vianney is widely known to Catholics as the Cure (parish priest) of Ars who won over the

to a level of humanity of which we men of the Church should be expert witnesses and teachers,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this is not what happened and it has impacted the credibility of our teaching, which appears in the eyes of many as insensitive, incomprehensible and devoid of mercy,” he said.

Doctors at a hospital in Recife, Brazil, performed an abortion on March 4 on the girl, who weighed a little more than 30 kilograms and reportedly had been raped repeatedly by her stepfather from the time she was 6 years old. Abortion in Brazil is illegal except in cases of rape or if the mother’s life is in danger.

hearts of his villagers in France by visiting with them, teaching them about God and reconciling people to the Lord in the confessional.

In his address, Pope Benedict said the priestly ministry consists of total adherence to the ecclesial tradition of participating “in a spiritually intense new life and a new lifestyle which was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and which the apostles made their own.”

Priestly ordination creates new men who are bestowed with the gift and office of sanctifying, teaching and governing, he said.

The Pope underlined the necessary and “indispensable struggle for moral perfection which must dwell in every authentically priestly heart.”

Pope Benedict said he was calling for the special year for priests in an effort to foster the priest’s yearning “for spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of their ministry principally depends.”

“The awareness of the radical social changes over the past decades must stir the best ecclesial energies to look after the formation of priestly candidates,” the Pope said.

This means great care must be taken to ensure permanent and consistent doctrinal and spiritual

formation for seminarians and priests, he said, specifying the importance of passing down, especially to younger generations, “a correct reading of the texts of the Second Vatican Council, interpreted in the light of all the church’s doctrinal heritage.”

Priests must also be “present, identifiable and recognisablefor their judgment of faith, their personal virtues and their attire - in the fields of culture and charity which have always been at the heart of the Church’s mission,” he said.

“The centrality of Christ leads to a correct valuation of ordained ministry,” he said, adding that, without priestly ministry, there would be no Eucharist, no mission and even no church.

Therefore, he said, it is crucial to make sure that new bodies or pastoral organisations are not set up “for a time in which one might have to ‘dispense with’ ordained ministry based on an erroneous interpretation of the rightful promotion of the laity.”

“This would lay the foundations for further diluting the priestly ministry, and any supposed ‘solutions’ would dramatically coincide with the real causes of the problems currently connected with the ministry,” he said.

Jesus of Nazareth

Author: Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger)

Read by: Nicholas Bell 12hrs 10mins No. CDS: 10

Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI was recently published in audio book format by Bolinda audio. This work is as tender as it is erudite and brilliant. In this bold, momentous work, The Pope – in his first book written as Benedict XVI – seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent ‘popular’ depictions and to restore Jesus’ true identity as discovered in the Gospels.

Every week for seven weeks (beginning Wednesday 11th March 2009) The Record Newspaper will be placing one audio CD set token in the paper. To enter, simply cut out and collect all seven tokens, over the seven weeks. Place all seven tokens in an envelope with your name, address and contact telephone number on the back and mail your envelope to:

Jesus of Nazareth CD Competition

The Record PO Box 75 LEEDERVILLE WA 6902

Entries must be received by close of business on Friday, 8th May 2009. All entries received by this date containing all seven tokens (tokens must be originals cut out from the paper and not copies) will be placed in the Friday, 8th May 2009 draw.

The winners will be notified by telephone and announced in the paper. Happy token collecting!

Absolutely!!

Bunbury boosts care for youth

Money will aid counselling for adolescent anger.

CENTRECARE Marriage and Family Services in Bunbury will be able to develop and implement a program for the increasing number of young people needing counselling for anger management, thanks to $15,000 raised through Bishop Gerard Holohan’s Annual Christmas Appeal for CatholicCare.

Announcing the program funding, the Financial Administrator of the Catholic Diocese of

Bunbury Mr John Ogilvie said the funds will enable the program to help adolescents to manage their emotions in a healthy way.

“The recent recording and posting on the internet of youth fighting provides evidence of young people not being able to deal with anger” Mr Ogilvie said.

“The generosity of parishioners throughout the South West, Great Southern, South Coastal and South East Coastal regions will make it possible for Centrecare to support those working with adolescents to implement and facilitate the program” he said.

CatholicCare is the charitable

DEEPLY saddened by the crisis engulfing Christianity in the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI has asked the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to provide urgent help.

In many parts of the land Our Lord Jesus Christ knew so well, the faithful now live in fear as increasing poverty and growing extremism threaten the survival of these ancient communities.

A mass exodus of Christians from the Middle East is now taking place. For some it is a question of escaping bloody persecution. In the Holy Land for example, the proportion of Christians has plummeted from 20% to as little as 1.4% in the last 40 years.

ACN is helping to keep faith and hope alive throughout the region by providing urgent aid to priests, religious and lay people, offering subsistence help to refugees and building and repairing Churches and convents. Please help us strengthen and rebuild the Church in the land of Christ’s birth.

A beautiful, olive wood crucifix, handcrafted in Bethlehem, will be sent to all those who give a donation of $20.00 or more to help this campaign. Please tick the box below if you like to receive the little olive wood crucifix*.

arm of the Catholic Diocese of Bunbury and was established in 2003 to provide Church assistance for social needs in the Diocese.

South West Centrecare

Manager Mrs Melissa Perry said she was very appreciative of CatholicCare raising funds to develop and implement this important service.

“Centrecare provides invaluable services to support families and marriages” she said.

“The support from CatholicCare will help reconcile, bring peace, and rebuild relationships within the families of those affected by adolescent anger.”

“ … Churches in the Middle East are threatened in their very existence… May God grant ACN strength to help wherever the need is greatest.” Pope Benedict XVI

Donation Form: SOS! – Christianity in the Middle East

I/We enclose $.................. to help keep Christianity alive in the Middle East.

‘Controversy comes from confusing, science, religion.’

n By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -

Affirming the reality of an intelligent design for the creation and development of the universe is not a scientific theory, but a statement of faith, said the preacher of the papal household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, offering a Lenten meditation to Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials on March 13, said the controversy between scientists supporting evolution and religious believers promoting creationism or intelligent design is due mainly to a confusion between scientific theory and the truths of faith.

The intelligent-design theory asserts that the development and evolution of life is such a complex process that a supreme being, God, must be directly involved in it.

While some proponents of intelligent design claim that it is a scientifically valid theory, most scientists dismiss it as pseudoscience.

The arguments, Father Cantalamessa said, are due to the fact that, “in my opinion, there is not a clear enough distinction between intelligent design as a scientific theory and intelligent design as a truth of faith.”

While science and evolution can explain part of the history of creation and how life exists, they can-

not explain why, he said. “Even those who eliminate the idea of God from the horizon don’t eliminate the mystery,” the preacher said.

“We know everything about the world, except how it started. The believer is convinced that the Bible furnishes precisely this missing first page. There, as on the title page of every book, is the name of the author and the title of the work,” he said.

Father Cantalamessa’s Lenten reflection focused on a verse from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “All creation is groaning in labour pains even until now.”

The text, he said, is an indication that St Paul believes that the entire cosmos - not just humanityis waiting to be saved and restored to its original beauty by Christ.

The suffering of the cosmos “is not closed and definitive. There is hope for creation, not because creation is able to hope subjectively, but because God has a redemption in mind for it.”

Christians contribute to keeping hope alive by respecting and defending nature, he said.

“For the Christian believer, environmentalism is not only a practical necessity for survival or a problem that is only political or economic; it has a theological foundation. Creation is the work of the Holy Spirit,” he said.

Christians have an obligation to recognise that the moans of creation described by St Paul “today are mixed with the cry of agony and death” because of “human sin and selfishness,” he said.

of St Joseph, husband of Mary and patron saint of the universal Church. Chinese was to be the eighth language present on the Vatican’s main Web site, www. vatican.va. The Vatican announced the addition on March 16. Before the expansion, the one papal document that had been available in Chinese on the Vatican’s official Web site was Pope Benedict’s letter to Chinese Catholics, published in 2007.

Yes please send me the little olive wood crucifix* Made of olive wood from the Holy Land, this small crucifix is powerfully evocative of Christ’s passion and death. The crucifixes are lovingly handcrafted by poverty stricken families in Bethlehem and your donation helps them survive. Comes in a display box with accompanying religious image.

(Size 12cm x 7cm)

Mr John Ogilvie, Financial Administrator for the Catholic Diocese of Bunbury presents a cheque for $15,000 to Mrs Melissa Perry, Manager for Centrecare South West. PHOTO: DIOCESE OF BUNBURY

Loreto hosts students for Mary Ward

Students came from all over Australia for major event.

n By Robert Hiini

THE pioneering attitude of Loreto founder Mary Ward was celebrated at Loreto Primary School in Nedlands last week as girls from Loreto schools throughout the country met local students to share their stories and experiences.

The March 11 event was part of the Mary Ward Connect Week celebrations, held internationally, March 10 - 13, with five to six girls from each of the seven Loreto schools throughout Australia travelling interstate to meet their counterparts.

Students came from Melbourne, Brisbane, Normanhurst and Kirribilli as well as Adelaide and Ballarat.

Marking the four hundredth anniversary of their founding and the vision of equality Mary Ward had for all of her students, the event was attended by Loreto Australia Provincial, Sr Christine Burke who addressed the gathering of students and local Loreto Sisters, Sr Margaret Finlay, Sr Anne Carter and Sr Leonie Peterson.

Students assembled to sing a song written especially for the celebrations that schools throughout the country had learnt and were led on a tour around their host school by Loreto Nedlands Year Six cohort.

Deputy Principal of Loreto Nedlands, Claudia Di Biaggio, who was instrumental in organising the local gathering says that there could no better representation of Mary Ward's vision and the unity of people connected with the Loreto community everywhere.

"With the sculpture of Mary Ward in the courtyard nearby it was inspirational to gather as Loreto Schools Australia," she said.

"The unique identity of each school was represented whilst it was clearly evident that each school was united by the common thread of the Loreto charism and educational philosophy."

The order's 400 year milestone will be celebrated over the next three years with similar events and gatherings already in the pipeline.

Students and teachers from the seven Loreto schools pose for the camera in front of Loreto Primary School in Nedlands.

Above: Students from the seven schools posing with the Statue of Mary Ward. Right: Loreto Primary Principal Jennifer Healey (at top left of photo), Sr Margaret Finlay ibvm and staff from the seven Australian Loreto schools enjoy the spirit of the day. Below: The year 6 Loreto Students hosting the tour of the school with students from Melbourne, Brisbane, Normanhurst, Kirribilli, Adelaide and Ballarat.

PHOTOS: JUSTINE STEVENS

Catholics near and far gather at York for 150th

L-R: As York celebrated the 150th anniversary of its parish, author Anthony Clack of Glorious Apostle: A history of the Catholic Church in York, poses with Archbishop Barry Hickey; parishioners new and old flock to the original church at York; Mr Clack signs copies of his book.

Left, Brian Gardiner, one of the coordinators of the day, introduces Archbishop Barry Hickey for the book launch. Visitors from Queen’s Park with Sr Pauline; Sister Gerard CSN with her brother, parish priest Fr Stephen Cooney.

Clockwise from far left: Parishioners file out of the new York church; Top left: Shire president Pat Hooper with wife Eileen and Geraldine Davies. Top right: Group of parishioners from Beverley. Bottom left: Laudia Watts and Josie Prunster (Function Coordinator). Bottom right: Refreshments and celebration during the 150th anniversary.

Religious freedom threatened in US Dioceses urged to overhaul websites

protest of a bill that would have changed the way Catholic parishes are governed. Thousands of people from around the State gathered in opposition to the measure, which was withdrawn the day before and is believed to be dead for this legislative session.

Catholics rally against effort to legislate parish financial control, ‘a thinly-veiled attempt to silence the Church’.

HARTFORD, Connecticut (CNS) - About 5000 people gathered outside Connecticut’s State Capitol in Hartford on March 11 to protest a bill - pulled from the Legislature the previous day - that would have given laypeople financial control of their parishes.

The State’s three Catholic bishops were among the protesters, many of whom wore “Religious Freedom” stickers while they voiced opposition to the shelved bill and any future legislation of its kind.

The Connecticut Catholic Conference had called on Catholics in the state to attend the rally as a way to “show support for the Roman Catholic Church and religious freedom in our state.”

The legislation, introduced on March 5, was proposed by a group of Catholics concerned about the management of parish funds following the embezzlement conviction of a Connecticut priest.

At the request of its proponents, the bill was withdrawn and is dead for this legislative session. If it had not been killed, March 11 would have been a day of hearings on the measure, which Catholics had been encouraged to attend.

Just the fact that the bill was introduced is a concern, said Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.

He told rally participants that the bill’s intent to give authority over Church finances to elected lay boards would send a “dangerous message to all religious leaders that will chill freedom of religion and free speech.”

“In effect, this bill states we cannot trust our priests and bishops. It is an insult to every priest in the state of Connecticut.”

In a blog on the event, a spokesman for the Knights of Columbus said Hartford Archbishop Henry J Mansell told protesters the bill had embarrassed the State of Connecticut, making it appear to be a bigoted enclave.

The bill would have replaced an existing law that defines Catholic churches and congregations as nonprofit corporations

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - As the Catholic Church works to become more present in the new digital media, it also must help teach people to be ethical communicators, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State.

Formation is crucial, he said, especially now that the world of communication is crossing new “frontiers that are in need of serious ethical grounding.” The cardinal’s remarks came on March 13 at the end of a five-day meeting in Rome to discuss how the Church should respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by modern media. The seminar drew bishops from 82 countries, aiming to set the groundwork for a possible document by the council that would update its 1992 pastoral instruction, Aetatis Novae (“At the Dawn of a New Era”).

Helen Osman, communications secretary for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said many participants at the seminar saw a need to develop this sort of “theology of communications.” Traditional reporting entailed professionals distributing the news down to its audience, but with today’s social networks, individuals can be the newsmakers and “the line between the consumer and the creator is no longer there,” she said.

Archbishop George H Niederauer of San Francisco, chairman of the US bishops’ communications committee and a participant at the Vatican seminar, said overhauling and revamping diocesan websites is an important investment. Making them easy to navigate, informative, up to date and rich in offering resources and links is “going to pay big dividends for dioceses and archdioceses across the country,” he said.

Correction

PHOTO: CNS/RYAN PELHAM

operated by a five-member board of three clergy and two laypeople.

Instead, the measure called for boards to be made up of seven to 13 laypeople elected by parishioners. It said the pastor would not be a member of the board and the bishop would serve as an ex officio nonvoting member. “This is contrary to the apostolic nature of the Catholic Church because it disconnects parishes from their pastors and bishop,” Archbishop Mansell said in a statement read in parishes in the archdiocese on March 7 and 8.

Bridgeport Bishop William E Lori similarly criticised the proposed legislation in a statement read at Masses in his diocese, calling it “a thinly veiled attempt to silence the Catholic Church on the important issues of the day, such as same-sex marriage”.

Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bill was “not even close to constitutional” and violated the First Amendment “in at least two different ways.”

In a March 11 statement, he faulted the proposed legislation for targeting the “Catholic Church explicitly and exclusively” and for inserting “the State into theological controversies regarding how the Church should be structured and governed.”

Picarello said the bill was a “vastly disproportionate response” to one case of one Connecticut priest who was convicted of embezzling parish funds; in a second case a priest resigned when an audit showed financial irregularities.

Picarello said the legislation went “far beyond swatting a fly with a sledgehammer” to taking the “sledgehammer to the whole house, using the fly as an excuse.”

In a joint statement released on March 10, the co-chairmen of the Connecticut Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, Senator Andrew J McDonald of Stamford and Rep. Michael Lawlor of East Haven, announced the cancellation of a scheduled March 11 hearing on the controversial bill.

“At the request of the proponents who are advocating this legislation, we have decided to cancel the public hearing for tomorrow, table any further consideration of this bill for the duration of this session, and ask the attorney general his opinion regarding the constitutionality of the existing law,” said McDonald and Lawlor, both Democrats and Catholics.

But while the Church learns to encounter, engage with and evangelise today’s “electronic public square,” he said it must never stop doing what it has been doing for millennia as no matter how sophisticated new technology gets, “you can’t receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ over the internet.”

The liturgy and Eucharistic celebration are the summit and fountain of Christian life, he said, which means everything the Church does must lead up to the liturgy and then everything must in turn flow from it.

“So the centre of faith is not going to be the internet. But the net is going to be a wonderful vehicle for people to climb that summit - to the experience of the Eucharist,” he said.

In an article on a new inter-diocesan decree on marriage in The Record last week, we referred to the bishops of WA as ‘titular’ bishops.

The name ‘titular’ bishop is used for Auxiliary Bishops who are given the title of an ancient but inoperative diocese.

Thus, Bishop Don Sproxton is Auxiliary Bishop of Perth and Titular Bishop of Timici, Libya. We also said the decree was written by the “Vicar General for Clergy” Fr Brian O’Loughlin. In fact, the decree was written by the four WA Bishops. The accompanying explanation and commentary was written by Fr O’Loughlin who is the Vicar General, but not the Vicar for Clergy.

Monsignor Stephen DiGiovanni, pastor of St John the Evangelist Church in Stamford, Connecticut, speaks during a March 11 rally on the steps of the Connecticut state Capitol in Hartford in

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone PHOTO: CNS

Review

Saints at the Dinner Table

By Amy Heyd

St Anthony Messenger Press (Cincinnati, 2008). 158 pp., $34.95 + postage.

Available from The Record Bookshop

n By Rachelle Linner

Saints at the Dinner Table is simple and satisfying in its idea and execution: to create and present menus inspired by reflections on the lives of 12 saints.

The book is informed by author Amy Heyd’s gratitude for her family, her faith and her vocation as a wife, mother of three children and gifted cook.

Heyd’s inspiration for the book was the realisation that her prayers were more confident when she felt a connection with a saint’s life.

She writes about praying to St Joseph in the dark hours when her father was hospitalised with a serious stroke.

“In that quiet and heart-wrenching moment, I felt that Joseph himself had stepped off the pedestal, took my hand and walked into my dad’s room with me.”

In St Joseph’s strength and presence she found a “wonderful listener” and “friend I could talk to in my time of need.”

“In my quest to ‘relate’ to the saints, I started an intentioned journey to find a collection of saints on whom I could call,” Heyd writes. She began with those who, like her, were interested in “food and caretaking.”

The fruit of this journey is this lovely book of meditations and recipes that celebrate three biblical saints (Joseph, Andrew the Apostle and Martha); eight historical European saints (Brigid of Ireland, Isidore the farmer, Margaret of Scotland, Hildegard of Bingen, Clare of Assisi, Elizabeth of Hungary, Notburga and Didacus of Spain); and the recently canonised Sudanese St Josephine Bakhita.

Each chapter begins with several pages of text (an explanation of the saint’s historical or scriptural context, a reflection and a description of the meal) followed by the recipes (usually a main course, salad, vegetable and dessert) and

MENUS THAT SET ONE THINKING OF THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS

concluding with thoughtful questions for dinner conversations and a prayer. The meals are well-

Christianity promotes progress: Pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -

Because Christianity promotes a culture of values, it aids in human development and progress, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Early Christian monastic women and men began this essential role by proclaiming the Gospel and spreading knowledge about the arts and sciences to the general population, he said March 11 during his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square.

Promoting the Gospel “must also entail promoting a true human culture,” he said.

Because the Pope’s normal schedule was interrupted by Ash Wednesday celebrations and a weeklong Lenten retreat, it was the first general audience in nearly three weeks.

The Pope continued his catechesis on early Christian writers of the East and West by focusing his talk on St Boniface, the eighth-century martyr and missionary of the Germanic peoples. The Apostle of Germany tirelessly spread the faith, promoted Christian morality and established dioceses and monasteries throughout northern Europe, the Pope said.

He said the saint saw these monasteries for men and women religious as being a kind of “lighthouse for the irradiation of faith and a Christian and human culture.”

By living holy lives and being well-versed in both sacred and secular disciplines, these religious proclaimed the Gospel and spread a true human culture that is inseparable from the faith and reveals where beauty lies, he said.

St Boniface encouraged a meeting between Rome’s Christian culture and Germanic culture “and knew that to evangelise and humanise culture was part of his episcopal mission,” the Pope said.

By imbuing the native customs and traditions with Christian values, a new style of life was born in Germany, which was more humane and “resulted in a person’s inalienable rights being better respected.”

The saint showed how “Christianity - by fostering the spread of culture - promotes human progress,” the Pope said.

It is the task of modern Christians to carry forward “such a precious heritage and let it blossom and benefit future generations,” he added.

balanced, though heavy on meat and dairy products and sometimes an unfortunate use of processed

commercial foods. Many of the menu plans include traditional foods from a saint’s country or

region, such as the chicken saltimbocca for St Clare, colcannon for St Brigid, and Sudanese beef and potatoes for St Josephine.

Other menu choices, like those honouring St Joseph, are metaphorical.

“The best part of this book are Heyd’s wellcrafted reflections on how the saints speak to her life.”

“The lamb chops remind me of how Joseph helped raise Jesus, the lamb of God. The breadcrumbs on top of the Carpenter Tomatoes resemble the sawdust that must have scattered the floors in Joseph’s workshop. The mashed potatoes are a traditional comfort food and signify the comfort that St Joseph has always given me.

“The Rocky Road Cake is symbolic of the difficult roads, both literally and symbolically, that Mary and Joseph had to travel during Mary’s pregnancy and throughout Jesus’ childhood.”

The best part of this book are Heyd’s simple, well-crafted reflections on how the saints speak to her life.

She writes about St Josephine’s remarkable imitation of Christ in the ability to forgive those who abused her when she was a slave and the acceptance of God’s will in illness and infirmity.

“As she neared the end of her life, she couldn’t walk and required a wheelchair to get around. The bishop approached Bakhita and asked her what she did while sitting in her wheelchair. Bakhita replied, ‘What do I do? Exactly what you are doing - the will of God.’”

St Josephine is an appropriate woman with whom to conclude a book that is ostensibly about cooking and saints, but is really about a joyful obedience to God’s will. The saints illustrate how a person can accept God’s will in any (and all) circumstances, and Heyd’s gentle book reminds us that charity, creativity and fruitful living flow from fidelity, whether one is a queen, a farmer, a cloistered contemplative, a fisherman or a contemporary homemaker.

Linner, a freelance writer, lives in Boston.

This is the cover of “Saints at the Dinner Table” by Amy Heyd. The book is reviewed by Rachelle Linner. PHOTO: CNS

Slowly, the Church teaches tribes how to treat Her like a Person

In one Kenyan diocese, Church officials came up with creative solutions to formulate an alternative rite of passage for girls and, in the process, help young women escape the brutalities of tribal practices, writes Liz Quirin.

AKenyan diocese is giving girls a chance to grow up without participating in the traditional tribal rite of female circumcision, a practice that carries the risk of disease or death.

Catholic workers in the Diocese of Meru developed “An Alternative Rite of Passage,” pulling elements from the traditional rite commonly referred to as female genital mutilation.

In other areas of Kenya, programs to stop the circumcisions were tried and failed. Meru diocesan officials decided to begin slowly. They began by talking to each group of what they described as “stakeholders” in the practice and educating them about the dangers of female circumcision.

Joseph M’Eruaki M’Uthari, the diocesan social development director, and Martin Koome, program coordinator, said they spoke with community leaders, members of the councils of elders, parents and the girls themselves to make sure they knew the diocese did not condemn the people’s culture.

Diocesan literature defines the traditional rite of passage as “a range of practices involving the complete or partial removal or alteration of the external genitalia for nonmedical reasons. The procedure may involve the use of unsterilised, makeshift or rudimentary tools.”

The traditional rite is practised on girls aged 12-17 or even younger, depending on the parents’ wishes, since girls can be ready for marriage at these ages. Girls are taken into seclusion for about one week, taught about courtship, marriage and relationships. Then they are cut by a circumciser and given a few days to heal before returning home. By 2001 Kenya had outlawed the practice of female circumcision, but the fines and penalties were minimal: 150 Kenya shillings (US$2) and/or three months in jail. The circumcisions continue because families believe this is the only way to find a husband for their daughters.

“The cut is harmful, but part of the (traditional) seclusions were good,” M’Eruaki said. “They gave the girls education in responsibility, respect and life skills.”

To date, the diocese has facilitated five programs - also called seclusions - with diocesan and parish staff and two women from the community attending each session to keep false information from circulating.

The alternative rite is ecumeni-

cal, and members of other faiths and their pastors have been invited to participate, M’Eruaki said.

At St Peter’s Parish in Kajuki, one mother, Jane Kiura, said she had been circumcised as a young girl.

“I was told by my granny, my aunts, my mother, that this was a good thing before I did it,” she said. “Everybody encourages you and says it’s not a problem.”

Kiura did not want her daughters to go through the pain and subsequent problems - including the risk of disease and/or death and potential difficulties with childbirth - that could occur as a consequence of the rite.

Kiura said when her daughter, Gertrude, returned from the diocesan seclusion, “she sat down and went through the curriculum with her older sisters,” who were very interested in what she learned.

The diocese has initiated quarterly support forums for the girls who attended the alternative rites so they have the opportunity to discuss issues that arise.

Girls who attended the alternative rite faced criticism from girls who had participated in the traditional seclusions, and they faced the possibility that their families would receive no dowries because they were uncircumcised.

One 16-year-old identified only as Ranky went to the parish’s first alternative seclusion and said she felt different afterward.

“The girls who have passed through the female circumcision

tried to talk us out of the alternative rite of passage, but the teachers and our parents supported us,” she said.

The girls who participated in the diocese’s seclusions said they are talking to all of the local women and girls about the alternative rite. “We are encouraging them (women) not to circumcise their children,” Ranky said.

Regina, also 16, said she learned about the alternative seclusion at church and wanted to know more about it.

“I wanted to go into (the diocese’s) seclusion,” Regina said. “I knew about the cut, and I didn’t want to do it. I knew the effects of female circumcision.”

Diocesan leaders also invited government officials in the local area to learn about the alternative rite.

“The

most exciting” part, M’Eruaki said, is “to see the change, a shift in attitude in the people. They see a different

way of life, a better way of life is possible.”

Simon Maingi, senior chief in the area and a member of St Peter’s, said he was convinced the diocese’s seclusion would work after he learned about the program and the

curriculum that had been developed. The diocese has facilitated the alternative rite with 641 girls, and an additional 87 also went through the program when one parish facilitated its own seclusion.

St Peter’s pastor, Father Joseph Majau, said he strongly supports the alternative rite of passage. “Some parts of the curriculum have

become parts of our sacramental preparation for the sacraments of initiation,” he said.

Father Majau said he also participated in the rescue of six young girls who were among 19 girls taken for circumcision.

“The circumcisers had hidden them in various places, and Jane (Kiura) kept her eye on them through telephone conversations with friends,” Father Majau said.

The pastor called the chief district officer and, with nine armed guards, they found the six girls.

“We took them to church for prayer,” he said. The other 13 escaped but later were circumcised.

Father Majau said the alternative rite is replacing old traditional values with education and a chance to grow up without abuse.

“It’s a slow process,” he said. “It will take more than one generation” to change.

The diocese has also introduced children’s rights clubs to begin educating those younger than 12 about their human rights.

“The most exciting” part, M’Eruaki said, is “to see the change, a shift in attitude in the people. They see a different way of life, a better way of life is possible.”

Caritas: really helping others - VISTA 4

Ed: Donations to the Alternative Rite of Passage project may be made online at www.crs.org/ donate. Donors are asked to note “CRS Kenya Meru ARP project” in the online comment field. CRS is the US

Bishops’ official aid agency.

People gather around teenage girls from Uganda’s Sebei tribe who have just undergone female circumcision in Bukwa district, 344.39km northeast of Kampala, Uganda, last December, in this file photo. A Catholic diocese in neighbouring Kenya offers girls an alternative to the traditional rite of circumcision.

PHOTO: CNS/JAMES AKENA, REUTERS

Prisca Korein, a 62-year-old traditional surgeon, holds razor blades before carrying out female circumcision on teenage girls from the Sebei tribe in Bukwa district, about 300 km northeast of Kampala, Uganda, in this 2008 photo.

PHOTO: CNS/JAMES AKENA, REUTERS

The last AcceptAble prejudice

In a noteworthy speech delivered to Oxford University’s Newman Society on March 6, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney charted the ascendancy of new currents of anti-Christian intolerance.

Let me begin with two tales of intolerance. On November 4 last year, the day Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, California and two other states also voted to amend their constitutions to define marriage as between a man and a woman only. This brought to 29 the number of American states with constitutional amendments recognising only marriage between a man and a woman as valid, including Arizona which amended its constitution in 2008 after rejecting a proposed amendment in 2006.

Forty-two states also have statutes defending the traditional understanding of marriage. Only Massachusetts and Connecticut have legalised same-sex marriageby court decisions, not legislationand California’s Supreme Court had also legalised same sex marriage in May 2008, when it struck down a marriage amendment made to the state constitution in 2000. The new amendment passed last November - known as Proposition 8 - is now itself before the California Supreme Court, which yesterday [March 5] heard argument in three cases claiming it is unconstitutional. We can expect a decision from the court within the next three months.

Proposition 8 passed with a little over 52 per cent of the vote, with a turnout of just under 80 per cent of registered voters. Supporters of same sex marriage have not taken this defeat well. Mormon temples in particular, as well as Catholic and Evangelical churches, have been the focus for demonstrations, often attended by violence, vandalism and intimidation. White powder has been sent to places of worship, and some blogs are calling for them to be burnt down. Individual supporters of Proposition 8 have received death threats and been assaulted. Businesses which contributed to the campaign in favour of Proposition 8 are being boycotted, and individuals who made personal donations are being blacklisted and in some cases forced to resign from their jobs. The situation is so serious that the non-partisan Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which takes no position on same-sex marriage and works with churches and organisations on both sides of the question, ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on 5 December condemning the harassment and anti-religious bigotry being directed at Proposition 8 supporters.

Little about this prolonged campaign of payback and bullying has been reported internationally, and I suspect that for some, or even many of you here tonight this is the first time you have heard anything about it. It is being waged against Christians and others who have done nothing more than take part in a political campaign in a democracy, endeavouring to persuade a majority of the electorate to their point of view. Few human rights activists have objected to the vilification and hate-speech that has been direct-

ed at supporters of Proposition 8. In general, the media has shown scant interest in a form of organised intimidation, which even extends to making people unemployable, simply because they do not agree with same sex marriage.

And you have to search long and hard if you want to hear the stories of those who have been assaulted or abused because they believe that marriage can only mean the marriage of a man and a woman. It hardly needs saying that there would have been no strange lack of attention if supporters of same sex marriage were being targeted for bullying and blacklists.

Before beginning my second tale of intolerance let me make clear a number of presuppositions.

I approve of legislation outlawing incitement to violence and acknowledge that tightly limited anti-hate legislation is appropriate. But this second category of legislation should be used sparingly, lest it stifle robust legitimate criticism, so deepening tensions and exasperation under the surface, indirectly encouraging what it aspires to prevent. No-one has tried to use anti-hate legislation (so far) against Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens!

With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 an increased number of Muslims came to live outside Muslim majority societies, a practice not encouraged traditionally. In the new situation Western countries with Islamic minorities must respect their full range of democratic freedoms, encourage participation and foster inter-community and interreligious dialogue. Both within Australia and internationally in South East Asia I have been a regular participant in these dialogues.

However I believe it is a mistake in principle and prudentially to try to prevent criticism of any major religious tradition, religiously, sociologically or philosophically. In a democracy criticism can be made

Levant (for republishing the cartoons of Muhammad which were first printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005), and the weekly magazine Macleans (for publishing an excerpt from Mark Steyn’s 2006 book America Alone under the title “The Future belongs to Islam”). In 2006 Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci was charged with vilifying Islam in her book The Force of Reason, and in 2004 two Australian evangelical pastors were brought before a tribunal in the Australian state of Victoria for critical remarks about Islam which were alleged to be in breach of Victoria’s “religious tolerance” legislation.

The charges against Ezra Levant were dismissed, and Macleans was grudgingly cleared. Fallaci died of cancer before her case came to court, and the verdicts against the two Australian pastors were set aside on appeal. While a retrial was ordered, this was abandoned when the complainant, the Islamic Council of Victoria withdrew its complaint. It would be a mistake, however to think that all these complaints came to nothing. Levant was left with legal bills of $100,000, and one estimate puts the legal costs of the two Australian pastors, whose case and appeal ran for two and half years, at somewhere between $750,000 and $1million.

I have not used the examples of Geert Wilders, the Dutch parliamentarian ordered to stand trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims in his short film Fitna. As I have not seen the film I am unable to judge whether it does incite hatred, although I note Wilders has not been charged with inciting violence.

The expense of defending frivolous hate speech allegations, the time consumed in dealing with them, and the anxiety that comes from being enmeshed in a legal process straight out of Kafka all have an effect on the climate of openness, stifling

most permissive groups and communities, for example, Californian liberals in the case of Proposition 8, easily become repressive, despite all their high rhetoric about diversity and tolerance.

and can be answered. No-one today in the West would suggest that criticism of Christianity should be outlawed. A recent Prime Minister of Australia claimed that if Catholics were to riot every time they were criticised there would be regular riots!

My second tale of intolerance is really a collection of tales following the same narrative. Some of these you will know. In separate cases in Canada last year, human rights tribunals brought charges of hate crime against the publisher Ezra

robust discussion and fermenting intolerance under the surface. Since Ayatollah Khomeini placed a death sentence on Salman Rushdie twenty years ago last month, many in the West have grown used to practising self-censorship when it comes to Islam, just as we seem to accept that ex-Muslims who criticise Islam and extremism, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, require round the clock police protection.

What do these two tales of intolerance tell us? We should note the strange way in which some of the

There is the one-sidedness about discrimination and vilification. Opposition to same-sex marriage is a form of homophobia, and therefore bad; but Christianophobic blacklisting and intimidation is passed over in silence. You can be prosecuted for hate speech if you discuss violence in Islam, but there is little fear of a hate speech prosecution for Muslim demonstrators with placards reading “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas”. It is a fundamental truism that not all religions are the same. This might be an obvious point to us, but the idea that all religions are basically concerned with the same things and more or less morally equivalent in the goodness and badness they have brought to human history is very pervasive. Major differences exist between religions, within religions, and in the contributions they make to culture and society. In a democracy, believers and nonbelievers must be free to talk about these differences, to criticise each other’s beliefs (what Catholics used to call apologetics), and to evangelise, (or propagandise) while always respecting the freedom of the individual. Reciprocity in this is essential: it is not a one way street.

Some secularists seem to like one way streets. Their intolerance of Christianity seeks to drive it not only from the public square, but even from the provision of education, healthcare and welfare services to the wider community. Tolerance has come to mean different things for different groups.

One of the preferred means for addressing perceived intolerance is anti-discrimination legislation.

“Anti-discrimination legislation in tandem with new reproductive technologies has made it possible for children to have three, four or five parents, relegating the idea of a child being brought up by his natural mother and father to nothing more than a majority adult preference.”

As experience from across the Anglosphere has shown, the idea of anti-discrimination has enormous power to shape public opinion. It has been used very effectively to redefine marriage and to make a range of relationships acceptable as the foundation for various new forms of the family. Anti-discrimination legislation in tandem with new reproductive technologies has made it possible for children to have three, four or five parents, relegating the idea of a child being brought up by his natural mother and father to nothing more than a majority adult preference. The rights of children to be created in love and to be known and raised by their biological parents receives scant consideration when the legislative agenda is directed to satisfying adult needs and ambitions.

Until relatively recently anti-discrimination laws usually included exemptions for churches and other religious groups so that they could practise and manifest their beliefs in freedom. These exemptions are now being refused or defined in the narrowest possible terms in new antidiscrimination measures, and existing exemptions are being eroded or “strictly construed” by the courts.

A woman prays during a Roman Catholic service. However, as Cardinal Pell has increasingly under attack from forms of modern liberalism that are ulitmately more

Cardinal George Pell speaks with journalists in 2008. Some secularists seem to like one-way streets and their intolerance of Christianity seeks to drive it not only form the public square but from the provision of education, healthcare and social services to the wider community, he said this month.

PHOTO: CNS/NANCY WIECHEC

rejudice?

In the United States the exemptions granted to churches and their agencies vary from state to state, and in the extent of protection they afford. The effort to wind these exemptions back has focussed initially on contraception. At least eighteen states have enacted “contraceptive mandate” laws, usually with names such as The Women’s Contraceptive Equity Act or The Women’s Health and Wellness Act, which require employer health insurance plans to cover the costs of contraceptives on the basis that failure to do so constitutes sex discrimination. Catholic health insurance usually did not cover these costs.

The state of New York passed such a law in 2002, which, like a similar law passed by California in 1999, grants an exemption defining religious employers so narrowly that church welfare agencies, schools and hospitals do not qualify.

Appeals to the two states’ highest courts (in 2006 and 2004 respectively) to broaden the definition were rejected, and the US Supreme Court declined to review the Californian decision. While most states with contraceptive mandates make broader exemptions for religious employers, only one grants protection to individuals who conscientiously object to them.

Exemptions for church hospitals or medical services are increasingly contentious in the United States, with opponents describing them as “refusal” or “denial clauses”. When exemptions are granted, the standard of care provided by these services is criticised as second-rate, on the grounds that they fail to offer patients the full range of options.

Individual healthcare workers have been sued and dismissed from employment for adhering to their convictions. In 2007 the New England Journal of Medicine pub-

excludes any law concerning abortion from its coverage. The human rights industry ran dead on the freedom of conscience issues which the legislation raised. Amnesty International seems to have been completely missing in action. While Amnesty was founded on respect for conscience, it adopted abortion as a human right in 2007. As we know, abortion corrupts everything it touches; law, medicine and the whole concept of human rights. It would be another tragedy if it has so quickly corrupted Amnesty’s commitment to its foundational belief in freedom of conscience.

Catholic leader praises FBI sweep targeting trafficking of children

n By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) - A recent nationwide sweep of child traffickers by the FBI should highlight that child prostitution is closer to home than many realise, said Kevin Ryan, president of Covenant House.

Ryan called the undercover sting operation - which took place in 29 US cities at the end of February - a “great stride forward” but he also said it was just a start.

“Enormous work still needs to be done,” he said.

runaway youths, is keenly aware that young people living on the streets are “muscled into the sex trade.”

He said what surprised him the most about the FBI sweepto his knowledge the largest of this type of crackdown - was the lack of media coverage about it.

The broad scope of the operation should “remind child advocates in the US that (child prostitution) is not just an international phenomenon” but something that happens in this country, he said.

lished a study claiming that almost 100 million Americans are at risk of being denied “legal medical interventions” by doctors who, because of religious or moral objections, either decline to inform patients about possible treatments or refuse to refer them to other doctors who will provide them.

It will be a major escalation in the culture wars if President Obama keeps his commitment to sign into law a proposed “Freedom of Choice Act”, which will sweep away any restrictions on abortion in state laws. It will also remove any protections in legislation for doctors, nurses, and hospitals with moral objections to abortion. I am still hoping against hope that the President will not trigger such a massive confrontation with pro-life Christians.

In Australia last year, the act of parliament which decriminalised abortion in the state of Victoria included provisions which made a mockery of conscientious objection, requiring doctors who object to abortion to refer patients seeking abortion to medical practitioners who will provide them. Where an abortion is deemed necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman, doctors and nurses are legally obliged to provide it, regardless of any conscientious objections they may have.

The debate surrounding the Victorian abortion law was significant for a number of other reasons as well. Pro-abortion commentators attacked the concept of conscientious objection as nothing more than a way for doctors and nurses to impose their morality on their patients. Victoria’s statutory charter of rights, which purports to protect freedom of religion, conscience and belief, was shown to be a dead letter when it comes to abortion, thanks to a clause which expressly

As a number of commentators have pointed out, the legalisation of same sex marriage has momentous potential to curtail religious freedom. Generally churches and ministers of religion who decline to bless such marriages are protected by exemptions. But in places such as Canada this protection is not extended to civil marriage celebrants, even when the plain meaning of the statutory exemption suggests they are protected. Anti-discrimination laws are also raising serious freedom of religion issues for churches in the areas of relationship counselling, sex and relationship education in secondary schools, the hire of parish, school and church facilities, and accommodation arrangements in emergency housing, retreat, conference and aged care centres. How should Christians respond to this growing secular intolerance? Clearly, there is an urgent need to deepen public understanding of the importance and nature of religious freedom. Having the freedom to search for answers to questions of meaning and value, and to live publicly and privately in accordance with our answers is an essential part of human fulfilment and happiness, and gives rise to other important freedoms such as the rights to freedom of expression, thought and conscience. Believers should not be treated by government and the courts as a tolerated and divisive minority whose rights must always yield to the minority secular agenda, especially when religious people are overwhelmingly in the majority. The opportunity to contribute to community and public good is a right of all individuals and groups, including religious ones. The application of laws within democracies should facilitate the broadening of these opportunities, not their increasing constraint.

Modern liberalism has strong totalitarian tendencies. Institutions and associations, it implies, exist only with the permission of the state and to exist lawfully, they must abide the dictates or norms of the state. Modern liberalism is remote indeed from traditional liberalism, which sees the individual and the family and the association as prior to the state, with the latter existing only to fulfil functions that the former require but which are beyond their means to provide. Traditional liberalism understood the state to exist to assist (provide subsidium) to the association; the association does not exist to further the function of the state.

All this is clearly articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which provides, for example, that parents have “a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children”(Article 26(3)); and in the International Covenant on Continued - Vista 4

The FBI sweep, called Operation Cross Country III, was part of the bureau’s Innocence Lost Initiative that was started in 2003 to crack down on the sexual exploitation of children.

The operation, which took place during three nights, led to the release of 48 youths between the ages of 13 and 17 forced to work as prostitutes and the arrest of 571 trafficking suspects. Federal agents working with local law enforcement officers arrested the suspects on both federal and state prostitution-related charges. The teens were placed in the custody of local child protection agencies.

“We continue to pursue those who exploit our nation’s children,” said FBI Director Robert Mueller in a statement. “We may not be able to return their innocence but we can remove them from this cycle of abuse and violence.”

Daniel Roberts, the FBI’s deputy assistant director, told The Associated Press the majority of the child prostitutes found in the sting operation “are what they term ‘throwaway kids,’ with no family support, no friends. They’re kids that nobody wants; they’re loners. Many are runaways.” Ryan, at the helm of the international Catholic organisation that serves homeless and

And although he was pleased with the crackdown’s success, he said that “none of us should take comfort in the more than 500 arrests” of child traffickers because there are “thousands more out there.”

“Every day for years and years” young people in the country’s sex trade are “physically, sexually and emotionally brutalised,” he told CNS on March 12.

In an as-yet unpublished opinion piece, Ryan wrote about the FBI operation, saying the bureau should “receive the resources and direction” to put an end to child prostitution. He also said state and federal law enforcement agencies should not just target child traffickers but those who pay for sex with the child prostitutes.

“In almost nine years,” he said, “there has not been a single conviction for purchasing sex with a child under the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act.”

Ryan also said the scope of the problem is so large that the broader community must take action.

“Our streets are filling up with homeless youths,” he told CNS.

As he sees it, Covenant House and other similar organisations are part of the solution to help “keep our kids safe from the peril of the streets.” But they can’t do it alone, he said.

spelled out in a speech to the Newman Society at Oxford University, Christianity is more totalitarian in nature in their attitudes to those things they do not like.

PHOTO: CNS/NANCY WIECHEC

Kevin Ryan, president of Covenant House, is pictured with Covenant House children in this undated photo. A recent nationwide sweep in the US of child traffickers by the FBI should highlight that child prostitution is closer to home than many realise, said Ryan.

PHOTO: CNS/COURTESY OF COVENANT HOUSE

Project Compassion builds their future

Caritas supports Indigenous Indonesians in advocating for ecological justice.

CARITAS Australia is supporting a project run by Down to Earth and Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance which aims to give vulnerable communities the chance to build a sustainable future. By protecting their local forests, they are also safeguarding local livelihoods and culture.

As we celebrate World Forestry Day on March 22, Caritas Australia is giving people a chance to support projects which recognise the importance of a healthy environment in reducing global poverty.

Indonesia has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates and Indigenous communities struggle to stop forestry on their lands. Illegal and legal pulp, paper and bio-fuel industries have seen the degradation of the environment in one of the world’s greatest carbon sinks. Mining and logging have degraded the land, resulting in large scale landslides and floods.

A traditional Meratus Dayak saying, “fooled by the hope of making a small profit, we sometimes lose something much more valuable”, shows the importance the people place on remembering the big picture.

In the program, local partners go to remote villages to take part in informal discussion and the communities get valuable information from the outside world during the workshops. The villagers find out

about political issues and regulations and get news about international issues such as climate change.

While the project gives local Indigenous people the opportunities to advocate on their own

behalf to save the forests from commercial exploitation and to have a say in planning that affects them, the benefits of protecting these ecosystems can be appreciated globally.

The project helps to facilitate

meetings of Indigenous people on a local, regional and international level, giving them the chance to communicate with Indigenous communities all over the world.

Ipau, 29, a program participant, feels that she can best participate

in the program by sharing her knowledge so that communities can feel empowered and children can improve their lives.

“We can’t alleviate poverty if the community doesn’t have a good education. If we are not well prepared for the future, what will happen with our next generation?”

For three weeks Ipau is a children’s teacher and every fourth week she walks six hours to her balai (traditional Indonesian community unit) and works in the income generation project as a ‘rubber tapper’.

Ipau has worked with her local community to write a book on the importance of protecting the forests of Indonesia and traditional forest management. Ipau’s community has become more aware of policies that affect them and are better equipped to engage in discussions with the government and investors.

“I have understood that there are Indigenous peoples in other villages, provinces and countries who have struggled like us to get recognition for their rights to manage their natural resources, based on their customary rights,” Ipau says.

Supporting the 2009 Project Compassion Appeal, Caritas Australia’s annual fundraising event, means that projects like these that recognise the role indigenous peoples play in protecting endangered forests can continue to empower people to advocate for their rights and for a sustainable future for their families and the global community.

Christianity faces increasingly hostile global culture

Continued from Vista 3

Economic and Social and Cultural Rights (1966) which provides that the state is to respect the liberty of parents “to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions” (Article 13(3)).

It is important to keep an eye on the bigger picture too. The great question which exercises modern culture is the meaning of human autonomy and especially sexual freedom.

But this struggle is fundamentally a struggle over a religious question, which can be formulated in various ways and revolves around the reality of a transcendent order, or its denial. One way of putting it is: “Did God create us or did we create God?” The limited scope that secularism is prepared to concede to religious beliefs is based on the assumption that we created God.

As long as the supremacy remains with man, as long as faith is understood as a private therapeutic pursuit that can be picked up, changed or discarded at will, it is permissible. But when people insist that faith is more than this and that the supremacy is not ours, it is resisted; increasingly through the law.

The use of anti-discrimination law and human rights claims to advance the autonomy project is not new in itself, but the withholding or retrenchment of exemptions for Church agencies and conscience provisions for individuals is a newer and dangerous trend. A number of factors are at play here, but the broad effect is to enforce conformity. It seems that just as the faith and convictions of individual believers have to be privatised and excluded from public life, the services that Church agencies provide to society have to be secularised. The service the Church gives

has always been a source of its growth and strength, and Church agencies working in the areas of welfare, family, education, health and aged care bear witness to the values that Christian leaders put forward in public debate.

Part of the logic in attacking the freedom of the Church to serve others is to undermine the witness these services give to powerful Christian convictions. The goal is to neutralise this witness to the reality of Christian revelation. There is no need to drive the Church out of services if the secularisation of its agencies can achieve this end.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s remains the greatest modern example of cultural

change. It was made possible by a range of factors, including the development of reliable contraceptives and the rising economic prosperity of Western life. Individualism ousted the family and the community from the first place. The ideas supporting free love and liberated sexuality that flooded the world in the 1960s were also important for generalising confusion and for pushing the issue beyond sexuality to the more fundamental goal of radical human autonomy. These ideas were quickly taken up by a musical revolution (the Beatles, the Rolling Stones) which had an unprecedented cultural impact on that generation, reinforcing individualism and irre-

ligion. Two key premises of the revolutionary developments of the 1960s were that radical cultural change requires a significant proportion of the population to adopt new assumptions about love and sex, and that living out these assumptions will commit these people and the culture to further radical change.

When Christianity was brought to the Roman world it also worked from these premises, for radically different purposes and with world-transforming results. The definition of the human person in the present age depends on which understanding of love and sexuality prevails in the culture.

This is one reason why conflicts over the meaning and purpose of sexuality often seem to be at only one or two removes from public arguments over issues as disparate as religious freedom and biotechnology. The issue will be resolved differently in Europe and the United States, if Brussels wins its battle for secular conformity.

The question of autonomy, freedom and supremacy plays itself out, among other places, in the contest between religious freedom and sexual freedom. Absolute sexual freedom lies at the heart of the modern autonomy project.

It extends now well beyond preferences about sexual practices or forms of relationship to preferences about the method and manner of procreation, family formation and the uses of human reproduction in medical research.

The message from the earliest days of the sexual revolution, always barely concealed behind the talk of “live and let live” and creating space for “different forms of loving”, was that few limits on human sexual autonomy will be tolerated. This is generating the pressures against religion in public life. But there will be limits.

There are already abundant indications of human autonomy being diminished from the left as sexual freedom becomes a driver of consumption and an organising principle of economic life, with the re-emergence of slavery in Europe and Asia, the booming exploitation of pornography and prostitution, and the commercialisation of surrogacy, egg donation, and the production and destruction of human embryos and human stemcell lines.

At the level of the individual, the possibilities of happiness are greatly restricted by the lovelessness, fear and despair that the assertion of the autonomous self against others usually leaves in its wake.

Limits are an inescapable part of the human condition. The only questions are whether they will be the limits of servitude or the limits of freedom, and whether self love or love of others will be predominant.

Resolving these questions requires us to expand the boundaries of what is thought possible, especially by bringing into focus the experiences and ideas which are not acknowledged or legitimised by the secularist worldview. Put simply, Christians have to recover their genius for showing that there are better ways to live and to build a good society; ways which respect freedom, empower individuals, and transform communities. They also have to recover their self-confidence and courage.

The secular and religious intolerance of our day needs to be confronted regularly and publicly. Believers need to call the bluff of what is, even in most parts of Europe, a small minority with disproportionate influence in the media.

This is one of the crucial tasks for Christians in the twenty-first century.

Ipau, a Caritas program participant, teaches Indonesian children for three weeks a month and spends the fourth working in an income generation project for a local indigenous community.

PHOTO: CARITAS

Youth pray in St Maria Himmelfahrt Church in Cologne, Germany. Such a sight seems to be inimical to contemporary culture, which views Christianity as not only outdated but repressive, and therefore to be dismissed.

PHOTO: CNS/BOB ROLLER

Kids bitz

Artists Week

Thankyou to all the children who sent in art this week. It was fantastic. Keep it coming, as I will print some every week. Every child will receive a gift from the Record Bookshop. Love Justine xo

Children’s story

SAMUEL ANOINTS DAVID AS KING OF ISRAEL

By Joe Sarnicola

GOD was not pleased with Saul as the king of Israel, and he wanted a replacement. He called Samuel, who had anointed Saul. “Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way,” he said, “I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”

Then Samuel said to the Lord, “How can I go? Saul will hear of it and kill me.”

“Take a heifer along and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I myself will tell you what to do; you are to anoint for me the one I point out to you.”

Samuel obeyed the Lord and went to Bethlehem. The city officials did not know why Samuel had come, and they were afraid. He was a powerful leader. They asked him, “Is your visit peaceful, O seer?”

“Yes!” said Samuel. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. So cleanse yourselves and join me today for the banquet.” He invited Jesse and his sons to the sacrifice as well.

When everyone was seated at the banquet, Samuel thought that Eliab was going to be the next king, but the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”

One by one, Jesse brought seven of his sons in front of Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse after each one, “The Lord has not chosen him.”

After all of Jesse’s sons had stood in front of Samuel, Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen any one of these. Are these all the sons you have?”

Jesse replied, “There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.”

“Send for him; we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here,” Samuel said.

Jesse immediately sent for David, his youngest son, a strong and handsome young man. Then the Lord said to Samuel, “There - anoint him, for this is he!” In front of everyone, Samuel anointed David with the oil he had brought in the horn.

After that day, Saul selected David to be his armour bearer, and when Saul was tormented by an evil spirit, David would play his harp to soothe him.

Saul declared, “Allow David to remain in my service, for he meets with my approval.”

One of our Artists of the week is Danielle aged 6 years from Sacred Heart Thornlie. She loves to colour and draw and has sent in this lovely coloured picture of Our Lady, of the Holy Rosary.

Our other Artist of the week is Rachel aged 9 also from Thornlie who has sent in a beautiful poem and drawing

Danielle

Rachel

Splendidly pure: receiving indulgences in the Year of Paul

Year

reminds Catholics that once-controversial indulgences do actually have a legitimate place

n By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - As spring started showing its colours in Rome, many of the pilgrims coming out of the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls were glowing - and not only because the sun was shining brightly.

Crossing the threshold of the “Pauline Doors,” praying at the tomb of St Paul, confessing their sins, receiving the Eucharist and offering specific prayers, they came away with a plenary indulgence.

Sister Palmagnese Rossini, a member of the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix, made her pilgrimage on March 10.

Asked why she wanted an indulgence, she said: “We are all children of Adam and Eve and despite the sacraments and the sacrifice of Jesus, we have a residue of sin. We want to be splendidly pure like the Blessed Mother,” and an indulgence gives repentant Christians that extra shine.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines an indulgence as “the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sin whose guilt has already been forgiven.”

Especially for the Pauline year - marking the 2,000th anniversary of the apostle Paul’s birththe Catholic Church is offering an indulgence to pilgrims who visit his tomb at the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls.

Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the basilica, said that with the Pauline year, which began last June, “the number of pilgrims from around the world is increasing.”

“They come to visit the tomb of the apostle,” he said, and the indulgence is an extra grace available to those who have the right attitude of faith.

Apparently, though, offering indulgences specifically for a year honouring St Paul struck some people as a bit odd.

It was St Paul who wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

In an article for the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, the Pope’s chief ecumenist said the Pauline year reminds Christians

- both Catholics and Protestants - of St Paul’s central teaching that we receive justification and salvation from Jesus Christ through no merit of our own.

Writing in the March 7 edition of the newspaper, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said indulgences still make some Catholics and some of the Church’s ecumenical partners nervous.

First of all, the abuse of selling indulgences was a key factor sparking the 16th-century Protestant Reformation and, second, the practice could be misunderstood as the Church promoting good works to obtain salvation.

In Holy Year 2000, some observers - especially Protestants in Italy - objected to what they considered as the Church offering too many indulgences and with too much encouragement.

Cardinal Kasper wrote in L’Osservatore Romano that his office held a symposium on indulgences with Protestant leaders in 2001 and cleared up most of the misunderstandings.

The Rev. Lothar Vogel, a Lutheran professor of Church history at Rome’s Waldensian Theological Faculty, told Catholic News Service on March 11, “For me, indulgences are not a trauma or an annoyance, but part of a spirituality that has nothing to do with me. It’s extraneous.”

“The practice of indulgences that led to such pain in the 16th century was reformed by the Catholic Church almost immediately,” he said.

Even the current practice shows that Catholics and Protestants have a different view on the relationship of faith, personal responsibility and the role of the Church as a channel of grace, he added.

Cardinal Kasper said Catholics, too, must understand that the Church changed the way indulgences were handled in order to make their meaning and their relationship to salvation in Christ clear.

“When we speak of the Church’s treasure of grace, we are not talking about any material reality or a kind of depository from which the Church can make withdraw-

als when needed,” he wrote. “The treasure of grace is, in the end, Jesus Christ” and his immeasurable mercy, which the Church - the body of Christ - shares, he said.

Even after a person’s sins are forgiven, the cardinal said, it is obvious he or she “still lives in this world marked by the consequences and structures of sin.”

An indulgence helps attenuate those consequences and gives each Christian added strength to continue the daily battle against sin, he said.

“An indulgence recalls the need for salvation and (the fact) that this can occur only through Jesus Christ.

“It is a reminder of the penitential character and the spiritual struggle of Christian life,” Cardinal Kasper wrote.

While Catholics are under no obligation to seek an indulgence, he said, “it is a useful and beneficial pastoral gift for facing - with the grace of God and with the help of the intercession of the entire communion of saints - the struggle against the power and violence of evil.”

Adoration is key attitude toward Eucharist: Pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS)Because Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, adoration must be a Catholic’s primary attitude toward the Blessed Sacrament at Mass as well as when praying before the tabernacle, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Our task is to perceive the very precious treasure of this ineffable mystery of faith both in the celebration of the Mass as well as during worship of the sacred species,” the Pope told members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

Members of the congregation met the Pope on March 13 at the end of their plenary meeting, which was devoted to discussing ways to promote eucharistic adoration.

Pope Benedict said he hoped the meeting would result in the identification of “liturgical and pastoral means through which the Church in our time could promote faith in the real presence of the Lord in the holy Eucharist and secure for the celebration of the holy Mass the entire dimension of adoration.”

The Greek word for adoration includes the concept of submission, the Pope said, while the Latin word “denotes physical contact, the kiss, the embrace that is implicit in the idea of love.”

Together, he said, they highlight the fact that in adoring the Eucharist Catholics submit to and seek union with God who is love.

Pope Benedict told congregation members that especially during Lent with its emphasis on prayer, almsgiving and fasting, Catholics should be encouraged “to rediscover fasting and live it with renewed fervor, not only as an ascetic practice, but also as a preparation for the Eucharist.”

Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, the new prefect of the congregation, told Vatican Radio, “The liturgy is, first of all, adoration.”

In the life of the Church, “the Eucharist is the centre of adoration; it is the recognition of God, the recognition that everything comes from him,” the cardinal said in an interview on March 10.

“In this moment of strong secularisation - when people tend to forget God, to maintain that he is not important in human life - it is necessary to reaffirm that adoration comes first, in other words, that God comes first,” he said.

“The liturgy does not recount things that happened in the past, but is the manifestation today of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ,” he said.

Although a crisis that has proved unnerving, Benedict XVI seizes

By John Thavis

excommunication of four traditionalist bishops, including one who denied the extent of the Holocaust.

The Pope’s letter to the world’s bishops, made public on March 12, was remarkable on many counts:

l First, he candidly admitted mistakes in the way he and other Vatican officials handled the reconciliation move with the bishops of the Society of St Pius X. Most specifically, he said they should have used the Internet to find out what millions of others already knew: that one of the four, Bishop Richard Williamson, was known for his radical views on the Holocaust.

l Second, the Pope revealed how deeply stung he was by the criticism of those who felt he was “turning back the clock” or repudiating Catholic-Jewish dialogue. His line

about even some Catholics attacking him “with open hostility” showed that even in his supposed isolation as supreme pontiff this is a man who cares deeply about the reaction among the faithful.

l Third, he put the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” on a shorter leash. By placing it under the control of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope effectively limited the commission’s ability to freelance agreements with traditionalist groups without proper attention to doctrinal differences.

l Fourth, he strongly defended his outreach to the Society of St Pius X to those in the Church who consider the group marginal and unimportant. He described his task as preserving unity so that witness to the Gospel is credible, and warned that divisions

in the Church - the “biting and devouring” described by St Paul in the Church’s first century - are always counterproductive.

The 2,500-word papal letter was unusually pointed and direct, and showed Pope Benedict’s own skills as a communicator once he puts pen to paper. His acknowledgment of mistakes in communications and Vatican ignorance of the Internet was unprecedented.

“I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news,” he said.

Coincidentally, his letter came as the Pontifical Council for Social Communications was hosting a weeklong seminar on the Church and “new media,” with the idea that a new document may be

Papal letter: Pointed, personal and from the heart

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In one fell swoop, Pope Benedict XVI has taken charge of the much-criticised realm of “Vatican communications” following his lifting of the

A statue of St Paul outside St Peter’s in Rome. St Paul is often portrayed holding the letters he wrote to the early Church communities and a sword, symbolising his martyrdom by beheading.

PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN

Pope writes to bishops on controversy

In letter, Pope responds to criticisms over Lefebvrite decision; unity was the goal

n By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In a letter to the world’s bishops, Pope Benedict XVI expressed regret that his lifting of the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops gave rise to a storm of protests and bitterness.

The Pope said the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson’s statements denying the extent of the Holocaust was “an unforeseen mishap” - one that could have been anticipated, however, by paying more attention to information easily available on the Internet.

The Pope said he was particularly saddened at the reaction of some Catholics who seemed willing to believe he was changing direction on Catholic-Jewish relations and were ready to “attack me with open hostility.” He thanked “our Jewish friends” who helped clarify the matter and restore a sense of trust.

The Vatican published the 2,500word letter in six languages on March 12. The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, called it a “unique, exceptional document” for its direct and personal style, and said it showed the Pope had listened carefully to what people were saying.

The Pope said he was taking the unusual step of writing to the bishops because the episode had generated “a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time,” both inside and outside the Church.

He said his overture to Bishop Williamson and the other three bishops of the Society of St Pius X was designed to close a wound and bring unity to the Church, by lifting excommunications incurred in 1988 and opening the way to dialogue with the society.

But when Bishop Williamson’s comments about the Holocaust were circulated, “it suddenly appeared as something completely different: as the repudiation of reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and thus as the reversal of what the (Second Vatican) Council had laid down in this regard to guide the Church’s path,” he said.

As a result, he said, “an avalanche of protests was unleashed, whose bitterness laid bare wounds deeper than those of the present moment.”

“I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics, who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility,” he said.

the

“Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust,” he said.

The Pope acknowledged something critics have pointed out: that a simple Internet search would have revealed Bishop Williamson’s views on the Holocaust and helped the Vatican anticipate the reaction.

“I have been told that consulting the information available on the Internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we

Missionaries reelect Sister Nirmala

CALCUTTA, India (CNS)

- The Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, re-elected Sister Nirmala Joshi as superior general on March 13. But because the order’s religious superior general can be elected for only two consecutive terms, her third term in office will require papal approval, reported the Asian Church news agency UCA News. More than 160 electors from around the world cast their

will have to pay greater attention to that source of news,” he said.

Pope Benedict said he deeply regretted another mistake: that the lifting of the excommunications was not adequately explained and gave rise to misinterpretations about the traditionalist society’s status in the Church.

He emphasised that the removal of the excommunications was a disciplinary measure that affects individuals. But the fact that the Society of St Pius X has no standing in the Church depends on doctrinal reasons, he said.

“Until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the society has no

votes in a secluded Missionaries of Charity house during the last phase of the congregation’s 10th general chapter, which began on February 1. Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta presided over the election of the superior general and four councilors.

Beforehand, he celebrated Mass for the electors, reminding them of their responsibility to develop a spirituality that is attuned to Church teachings and their original vision, UCA News reported.

According to the constitution of the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation holds its general chapter every six years.

canonical status in the Church, and its ministers - even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty - do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church,” he said.

In view of the importance of the doctrinal issues still to be clarified with the society, the Pope announced that he was putting the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” which has handled reconciliation efforts with traditionalist groups, under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“This will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the Popes,” he said.

He underlined what Vatican officials have said in recent weeks, that for the Society of St Pius X full communion implies acceptance of Vatican II.

“The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 - this must be quite clear to the society,” the Pope said.

At the same time, he said, some defenders of Vatican II need to be reminded that being faithful to the council also means being faithful to the Church’s entire doctrinal history, without cutting “the roots from which the tree draws its life.”

After making his clarifications, the Pope confronted the question: “Was this measure needed? Was it really a priority?” He answered

with a heartfelt defense of his reconciliation move, saying the Church cannot stop working for unity among its ranks.

“That the quiet gesture of extending a hand gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet halfway the brother who ‘has something against you’ and to seek reconciliation?” he said.

The Pope also asked whether the Church could be totally indifferent about a traditionalist society that has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, six seminaries, 88 schools, two university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful.

“Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church?” he said.

He offered a special thought for the society’s priests, saying he did not think they would have chosen the priesthood unless they had a love of Christ and a desire to proclaim the Gospel.

“Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them?” he said.

The Pope said he recognised that disturbing statements have often come from the society’s leadership, reflecting “arrogance and presumptuousness.” But he said he has also witnessed “an openness of hearts” among some members. He said the traditionalist society deserves the same kind of tolerance given to other members in the Church.

“At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown, which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them - in this case the Pope - he, too, loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint,” he said.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, denied reports that the Pope was isolated inside the Vatican or cut off from much of the Roman Curia.

“The Pope is not alone. His closest collaborators are loyally faithful to the pontiff and totally united with him,” the cardinal told bishops participating in a Vatican meeting on communications on March 13.

Cardinal Bertone added that the Pope had received many letters of support during the recent controversy, in contrast with “some outof-tune voices among bishops and journalists.”

Editor’s Note: The text of Pope Benedict’s letter in English can be found online at The Record’s website: www.therecord.com.au

initiative and confronts the issues - and criticisms - head-on

needed to promote effective Church use of online opportunities.

To many observers, the realignment of the “Ecclesia Dei” commission was a sign of disapproval of how the commission’s president, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, managed this phase of talks with the Society of St Pius X. Cardinal Castrillon, who turns 80 in July, will probably leave his post soon.

Vatican officials have pointed to Cardinal Castrillon as the man who should have briefed the Pope more fully on Bishop Williamson ahead of time. But the Pope’s dissatisfaction may run deeper than that.

Since the excommunications were lifted, the society’s superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, has insisted that his organisation is far from ready to accept some teachings of the Second Vatican Council. In fact, Bishop

Fellay has suggested that removal of the excommunications merely sets the stage for the real battle over Vatican II - a battle the Pope has no interest in fighting.

All this hints that perhaps the Pope was not fully prepared for the society’s inflexibility on some of these points.

Placing “Ecclesia Dei” under the doctrinal congregation also ensures that other Vatican agencies will be consulted on such reconciliation moves in the future, the Pope said in his letter. That answered a specific complaint from Cardinal Walter Kasper, who coordinates dialogue with the Jews and who said his agency was never consulted on the latest concessions to the Society of St Pius X.

The Pope’s message to the wider Catholic world was just as direct and just as heartfelt. He said his overture to the traditionalists

had a strategic purpose, that of building Church unity in an age when the world seems to be rejecting the Christian message.

In three or four sentences, he summed up what he views as the challenges and the primary objectives of his pontificate:

“In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God,” he said.

As God disappears from the human horizon, he said, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly “evident destructive effects.”

“Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: This is the supreme and fundamental priority of the

Church and of the successor of Peter at the present time. A logical consequence of this is that we must have at heart the unity of all believers. Their disunity, their disagreement among themselves, calls into question the credibility of their talk of God,” he said.

The Pope’s plea was for mainstream Catholics to see outreach to the traditionalists not as a step backward but as an attempt to incorporate the adherents of extremism in a way that helps break down their rigidity and releases their “positive energies.”

The Pope said the Church should “allow herself to be generous” and “be capable of overlooking various faults and making every effort to open up broader vistas” in order to promote this unity. Those are words that will likely be quoted in the future, and not only by Catholic traditionalists.

Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa, Israel, exchanges greetings with Pope Benedict XVI during their meeting at the Vatican on March 12. Representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel asked the Pope to make Holocaust studies a required subject in Catholic schools, saying it could help stamp out anti-Semitism in future generations.

PHOTO: CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

Sister Nirmala. CNS

The rule is, not too many rules...

Fr Anthony Paganoni

, Scalabrinian,

continues his series on a long-running successful initiative in youth ministry in the province of Lombardy, Italy.

The ItalianWay

Informality: the name of the game!

Very often educators, teachers, priests and parents raise the question of what is the most suitable method, structure or approach for reaching younger generations. In the research study I have been writing about these last few weeks, the term most often mentioned as achieving that goal is ‘informality.’

Referring to a place, informality means that people feel free to come and go as they please, and, during their stay do not feel bound by too many rules.

Referring to a group, it means that little regard, if any, is to be had to a recognised leader or an institution, with or without an explicit program.

The Oratorio, as a medium set up to reach young generations, is constantly facing the issue of informality. A building among other buildings, particularly in city precincts, the Oratorio is a place which, unlike schools and universities, is only partially structured, yet not so totally unstructured as a street or a park.

The Oratorio is usually accommodating, blending both physical spaces for structured activities such as instruction classes, liturgical moments or games with a referee, with amenities such as the bar, recreation rooms, pool rooms etc. where youth feel at ease.

In addition, the Oratorio opens up contact and affiliation with well-organised groups, such as the Scouts, Catholic Action or sports clubs, as well as by being open to kids coming in off the street who decide to spend some spare time using the recreational facilities.

This diversity of groups and contacts is a great resource for the Oratorio and its leaders.

Its clientele may start with the casual visitor with no sense of belonging to it and may go all the way to the young people and leaders who spend the best part of their spare time there.

The versatility of the Oratorio is particularly welcome, capturing as it does a wide variety of youth, connected or unconnected with the Church.

It is important, the study declares, that the pastoral leadership be aware of this missionary dimension of a youth-oriented organisation. That this requires a diversification of programs and experiences is evident.

All the demands of informality which young people will make on the Oratorio will call not only for reflection about the constant need for adaptation and change, but also a willingness to try out pastoral strategies, in keeping with the ever-evolving needs.

The Oratorio, with its extensive branches, emerges as a veritable observatory of the trends and needs of youth as they develop over time, in different contexts: urban, semi-urban and rural.

The researchers’ analysis has brought to light insights and conclusions that have been clearly identified in countless, though uncoordinated, socio-religious contexts. To be continued...

A parent’s love: without limits

Reflecting back over life as a daughter, and my own experiences of family life as a parent, especially remembering the tougher times, the question arises, why did Our Lord choose to come to earth as a member of a family?

He could have come out of the desert, a man of mystery with antecedents unknown, but he didn’t, He came as a Son with a mother and a father. He ministered in places where he was known as part of that family. Why?

He clearly placed immense value on our human experience within the family. And it is well known and documented that strong and stable families have always been the bulwark of the Church, and the foundation of any strong and cohesive society.

We learn to love, we learn to give, and we learn to get along with others with whom we are not necessarily automatically compatible, in a family.

One of the insights you get as a parent is the incomprehensible, illogical nature of human love. You feel as though you would do almost anything to keep the love of your children; you will put up with just about anything, turn a blind eye to so much. And if you just can’t keep their love, if the relationship does break down between parent and child, the heartbreak, the suffering, the regret must be unbearable.

Being a parent also teaches us a great

deal about the need for forgiveness. And Our Lord also placed an immense value on forgiveness.

Forgive not seven but seventy times seven times; forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; Father forgive them, they know not what they do. The list goes on.

One of the best loved stories from the New Testament is the parable of the prodigal son, and it is a story told within the context of a family also. It hinges on the apparently limitless capacity for forgiveness of the father for his careless, erring son. The capacity for forgiveness in a loving parent for a beloved child is very deep; you will always look for the mitigating factor, the ray of hope, the sign that it was an accident. Even against all advice, all evidence to the contrary, a parent will keep believing the best of their children, maybe even after it is impossible for any-

one else to keep believing it. Even if you know deep down they are not completely sorry, you don’t really care ultimately as long as the rift is somehow healed or patched over.

We simply cannot understand God’s way of thinking (for want of a better word). Our finite, clouded minds cannot comprehend the depth of God’s capacity for loving forgiveness of his constantly erring children, and his yearning for us to come back to Him. But perhaps we have the best inkling of it in our own feelings towards our children, as reflected in the story of the prodigal son. It is impossible to go through Lent without contemplating the unpleasant reality of sin and its deleterious effects. But if there is sin, there is also the hope of forgiveness offered by our prodigally generous God, if we will but repent and accept it.

Get to know Joseph, the greatest father

By Fr John Flader

Devotion to St Joseph

Can you tell me something about devotion to St Joseph? Some of my friends have great devotion to him but I have never really managed to have much. Is this devotion new or old in the Church?

It is only natural to have devotion to the one chosen by God from all eternity to be the husband of Mary, the Mother of God, and the guardian –or, as I like to say, the spiritual father – of Jesus, the Son of God.

St Joseph, while a silent and rather inconspicuous figure in the Gospels – he is sometimes called “Joseph the silent” –thus had a very special role to play in the history of salvation.

Even though he was a descendant of the royal family of King David, Joseph was a simple craftsman. He must have felt overawed and even unworthy when faced with the responsibility of taking care of the Son of God and being the head of the Holy Family.

He was undoubtedly the person who spent the most time with Jesus, working with him in his workshop and teaching him his trade.

St Joseph was always docile to the will of God, responding immediately when God manifested his will to him on three occasions in dreams (cf. Mt 1:20-25; 2:1315, 19-21).

The liturgy for the feast of St Joseph on 19 March uses Scriptural texts to highlight some of his many virtues. The

Entrance Antiphon reads: “The Lord has put his faithful servant in charge of his household.” The Prayer over the Gifts says: “Father, with unselfish love Saint Joseph cared for your Son, born of the Virgin Mary.”

And in the Preface we read: “He is that just man, that wise and loyal servant, whom you placed at the head of your family. With a husband’s love he cherished Mary, the virgin Mother of God. With fatherly care he watched over Jesus Christ your Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Although one of the apocryphal gospels says that Joseph was an old man when he married Our Lady, we like to think of him as young and strong, living in complete continence with Mary by a special grace of God.

It is not clear when Joseph died, although he is not mentioned in the Gospels at the time of Our Lord’s public life so it is probable that he died sometime before then.

Devotion to St Joseph developed very early in the history of the Church. It appears to have originated in the East at the beginning of the 4th century, particularly with the Copts in Egypt.

Nicephorus Callistus relates that there was a beautiful chapel dedicated to St Joseph in the 4th century basilica in Bethlehem built by St Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine.

In the West the name of St Joseph appears in local martyrologies of the 9th and 10th centuries, and in 1129 the first church was dedicated to him in Bologna.

From the 12th to 14th centuries, Saints Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, Gertrude and Bridget of Sweden all promoted devotion to him.

In the 15th century, St Bernardine of Siena and St Vincent Ferrer had great devotion to St Joseph, giving rise to a great flowering of the devotion from then on.

In the same century, John Gerson

composed an Office of the Espousals of St Joseph, and during the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1471-84), his feast was added to the Roman Calendar, to be celebrated on 19 March.

The 19th century saw a new flourishing of devotion to St Joseph, especially among workers, and in 1870 Pope Pius IX solemnly declared him patron of the universal Church.

Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Quamquam pluries promoting devotion to St Joseph in 1889 and, on the centenary of this encyclical in 1989, Pope John Paul II wrote Redemptoris custos

In 1955 Pope Pius XII introduced the feast of St Joseph the Worker, to be celebrated on May 1. St Joseph is the patron saint of the Universal Church, of carpenters, travellers, house hunters, and of a happy death. There is every reason to have devotion to this great saint, who has so much to teach us. If Mary was given to us by Jesus from the Cross to be our mother (cf. Jn 19:26-27), then St Joseph can be considered our father. The fourth commandment, “Honour your father and mother”, certainly requires that we honour Joseph and Mary, our spiritual parents.

Fr Flader: director@caec.com.au

Tony Paganoni, Scalabrinian Intriguing developments in Youth Ministry

with Catherine Parish

The secret of real giving

Almsgiving in the family

When she thought Dad wasn’t watching Tracey pocketed the dollar and put five cents in the collection plate. Dad didn’t say anything but on the way home from Mass he suggested they stop by the corner shop for a treat.

Tracey was excited. She got out of the car and waited for Dad to give her some money to get lollies. Dad handed her five cents. Tracey looked at Dad confused, “I can’t buy anything with only five cents.”

Family

is the Future

“Neither can Father Michael,” said her Dad. It’s a reality of life that effectively reaching out to the poor and those less fortunate often requires money and resources. But true almsgiving is more about the spiritual life than the material one. When families commit to almsgiving through Lent, every member of the family can grow. It is an opportunity to do spiritual training as a family.

with Karen & Derek Boylen

Almsgiving during Lent can play a crucial role in the faith development of our children. In today’s world most of the messages our children are getting, often from us parents, is one of accumulation and wealth.

At Mass on Sunday we listen to Christ’s love of the poor and the less fortunate. Then we spend the next six days telling our children that they need to do well and get a good job so that they can be secure and have all the things they want. It’s the same message that society bombards them with every day.

It is good for us to encourage our children do the best they can and be the best people they can but Lent gives us the opportunity to orient such encouragement to the gospel life.

Almsgiving gives us a chance to remind family members that, as Pope Benedict says, “we are not owners, but administrators of the goods we possess.”

Almsgiving during Lent is also a good way for family members to learn that there is more joy to be found in giving than receiving (Acts 20:35), particularly in our wealth oriented society. Almsgiving teaches us generosity of love. A deeper, richer and more lasting kind of love than the fleeting happiness of possessions.

Pope Benedict’s Lenten message last year was a beautiful reflection on the meaning and value of almsgiving and can be found on the Vatican website www.vatican.va.

Mother Teresa said on a number of occasions that we must give till it hurts. That’s real giving. The kind of giving Christ made of his very life. The life we are challenged to live through this holy season.

One of the things we are doing is to give the children some money to put in the Project Compassion box every time they turn down a lolly that’s offered. The exercise has also helped us to realise just how many lollies our children are eating each week!

In our money focused world we think money. However, almsgiving as a family needn’t just be the giving of money. It could also include:

• Cooking an extra meal and passing it on to someone who might benefit,

• Purchasing some tinned goods while at the supermarket for a charity,

• Making visits to an elderly home,

• Buying a gift for your God child or

• Helping a local community member in need.

PersPectives

THE R ECORD

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photographed without first sweeping the long golden locks of his curly hair away from his piercing, penetrating, brooding eyes.

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

Saturday March 21 to Thursday March 26

EUCHARIST RETREAT AND THE WORD OF GOD FOR HEALING LIFE’S HURTS

Beginning with Saturday and Sunday Masses at Our Lady Of Assumption Parish, 356 Grand Promenade, Dianella and then from 7.30pm to 9pm from Monday to Thursday. Presented by, Father Gilbert Carlo, Divine Word Missionary. Enq: Gail 9276 1008.

Monday March 23 to Friday March 27

FLAME MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL

LENTEN RETREAT – FIVE NIGHTS OF FIRE

7.30pm to 9pm at St Jude’s Catholic Church, 20 Prendiville Way, Langford. Witness Nine Steps of ancient Hebrew covenant ritual and God’s blood covenant plan from Adam to Jesus. Final message Heaven and Earth Reconciled. 2nd Rite of Sacrament of Reconciliation available. Enq: fmi@ flameministries.org or Fr Terry Raj 9458 1946.

Friday March 27

HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY

CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS

6.30pm at Santa Clara, Coolgardie and Pollock Street, Bentley. Praise and worship, 7pm Stations of the Cross. A time to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.

Friday March 27 and Sunday March 29

HEALING MASS AND TALK ON DIVINE MERCY

7pm to 9.30pm at Holy Family Church, Lot 375, Alcock Street, Maddington. Healing Mass, and 29 March from 3pm to 5pm, talk on Divine Mercy and Prayers for Healing, presided over by Fr Jose Vettiyankal, VC from India. Enq: Fr Varghese 9493 1703.

Saturday March 28

ST PADRE PIO DAY OF PRAYER

8.30am at St Brigid, Aberdeen Street, Northbridge. St Padre Pio DVD, 10am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Silent adoration and Benediction. 11am Holy Mass, Padre Pio liturgy, celebrant Fr Tiziano Bogoni. Confessions available. 12noon shared lunch, bring a plate. Tea and coffee provided. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Saturday March 28

A HALF DAY PRAYER RETREAT FOR INCREASE OF PERPETUAL ADORATION

9am to 12.30pm at St Gerard Majella, 37 Changton Way, Mirrabooka. Mass followed by communal prayers and opportunity for quiet reflection and reconciliation concluding with Benediction. Light lunch provided. All are invited. Enq: Joy 9344 2609 or Norma 9342 4136.

Saturday March 28

DAY OF THE UNBORN CHILD

10am at St Joachim’s Parish, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. Holy Mass, Celebrant Most Rev BJ Hickey, followed by procession with flowers in memory of a child whose life has been taken away by the tragedy of abortion. 11am Holy Hour led by Pro-Life Chaplain, Columban priest Fr Paul Carey. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

Saturday March 28

VOICE OF THE VOICELESS MINISTRY OF POPE JOHN PAUL II

12noon at Santa Clara Church; corner Coolgardie and Pollock Streets, Bentley. Healing Mass and Adoration, with the Voice of the Voiceless Music Ministry. Followed by fellowship. Pleas bring a plate. All welcome to attend. Enq: 0437 286 301.

Sunday March 29

LENTEN REFLECTION DAY WITH ST FRANCIS

10am at Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor Street, East Perth, commencing with tea. The Secular Franciscans invite all interested people to a day of prayer reflection. Shared lunch BYO. Conclude with Eucharist at 2.30pm and followed by tea. Enq: Mary 9377 7925 or Anne-Marie 9447 4252.

Sunday March 29

LENTEN RETREAT

8.45am to 4pm at 7 Warde Street, Midland. A quiet time

with God; attendance is mandatory from beginning to end. BYO lunch. Tea and coffee provided. No charge, love offering. Must book. Enq: 9250 5395.

Monday March 30

TRUE LOVE WAITS

7.30pm, Catholic Pastoral Centre, Highgate presents, Responsible Parenthood and Marriage. Maria is a qualified educator on Natural Family Planning, experienced speaker, will enlighten that this is not just a dependable, clinical tool for achieving or avoiding a pregnancy, but a lifestyle and approach which better expresses the authentic love of Christ. Enq: Julie 0438 447 708.

Tuesday March 31

MMP TUESDAY CENACLE

DAY OF REFLECTION

10.30am at St Jerome’s Church, 36 Troode Street, Munster. Rosary, followed by Mass, and talks by Fr Johnson Malayil, Somascan. Bring lunch to share. Tea and coffee provided. Conclude 2pm. Enq: 9341 8082.

Tuesday March 31

LA SALLE COLLEGE OPEN DAY

You are invited to come and tour the extensive facilities of our Catholic Co-educational College for Years 7 to 12 at 5 La Salle Avenue, Middle Swan. Tour times: 9.30am, 11.30am and 1.40pm. No bookings necessary. Enq: Sabrina 9449 0635.

Wednesday April 1

NATURAL FERTILITY SERVICES

7pm to 8.30pm at 29 Victoria Square, Perth. Come and join us for a free evening presentation to enrich your marriage by a Family Life Educator. The presentation is entitled Healthy Decision- Family Planning, Naturally and includes light supper. RSVP by March 24, 2009. Enq: 9223 1396 Tuesday and Thursday 8.30am to 3pm or admin. nfs@aanet.com.au

Wednesday April 1

HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY

CHARISMATIC STATIONS OF THE CROSS

7.30pm at St Brigid, Aberdeen Street, Northbridge. Praise and worship, 8pm Stations of the Cross, Reconciliation and Healing Service. A time to praise and rejoice in what the Lord has done for you. Enq: Jenni 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.

Thursday April 2

PRAYER DAY

10am to 1pm at Mary MacKillop Centre 16 York Street, South Perth. Tea followed by reflecting on the Cross with Mary MacKillop. Come to a time of rest and reflection. Facilitator Dora Maguire RSJ. Cost: Donation. RSVP 30 March. Enq: marymackillopcentre@sosjwa.org.au or 9334 0940.

Friday April 3

PRO-LIFE WITNESS

9.30am, Mass at St Brigid’s Midland followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

Friday April 3

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

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

Saturday April 4

WITNESS FOR LIFE

8.30am, Mass at St Augustine’s, Gladstone Road, Rivervale followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic, led by Columban Missionary, Fr Paul Carey. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

Saturday April 4

DAY WITH MARY

9am to 5pm at Saint Bernadette Church, Leeder Street and Jugan Street, Glendalough. 9am Video on Fatima. Day of prayer and instruction based upon the Fatima message. Reconciliation, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Sunday April 5

DIVINE MERCY

1.30pm at St Joachim’s Church, Shepperton Road and Harper Street, Victoria Park. An afternoon with Jesus and Mary, Rosary and Reconciliation. Sermon with Fr Johnson Malagic, CRS on the Passion of Jesus and St Francis of Paolia followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Refreshments followed by a Video/DVD Come Back Home Part 1 with Fr Corapi. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Friday April 10

CATHOLIC AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE – BINDOON GOOD FRIDAY CEREMONIES

Commence 10.30am with Confessions, 11am Stations of the Cross, followed by Confessions again. 2.30pm Solemn Ceremony, The Lord’s Passion. All are welcome. Enq: 9576 1040 or Fr Paul 9571 1839.

Monday April 27

DIVINE MERCY PILGRIMAGE TO ST ANNE’S BINDOON

12pm BYO lunch. 1.30 pm Holy Rosary, Benediction and Way of the Cross. 2.30 pm Holy Mass followed by Divine Mercy Devotions and Benediction. 3.45pm tea. 4.30pm return to Perth. All Divine Mercy Prayer Groups are welcome. Transport, Francis 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877. Enq: Sheila 9575 4023 or Fr Paul 9571 1839.

CHANGE OF WEEKEND MASS TIME

OUR LADY OF LOURDES – NOLLAMARA PARISH

From 18 April 2009, Weekend Mass times will be as follows Saturday Vigil 6pm and Sunday 9am. Weekday Masses remain the same. Enq: Catherine 9345 5541.

Every Tuesday

NIGHT PRAYER MEETINGS

7pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, 450 Hay Street, Perth. Overcome the burdens in life making prayer your lifeline with Jesus. Personal healing in prayer, Rosary, meditation, Scripture, praise in song, friendship, refreshments. Be united with Our Lord and Our Lady in prayer with others. Appreciate the heritage of the faith. Recess, April 7 and 14.

Every Tuesday

BIBLE TEACHING WITH A DIFFERENCE

7.30pm St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. Special topic, Keeping your Word. Come and see. Light refreshments will follow. Bring along your Bible, a notebook and a friend. Enq: Jan 9284 1662.

LA SALLE COLLEGE

ABORIGINAL SCHOLARSHIPS YEAR 7 AND 8 2010

La Salle College is now accepting Aboriginal Scholarship Applications. The two scholarships for Years 7 and 8 in 2010 are funded by the College and offer full tuition for a period of up to three years. Closing date 30 April 2009. Enq: Ms Linda Balcombe 9274 6266 or email lba@lasalle. wa.edu.au

LA SALLE COLLEGE

ENROLMENTS YEAR 7, 2011

La Salle College is now finalising enrolments for Year 7 in 2011- current Year 5 students. For an enrolment package, contact Ms Linda Balcombe, 9274 6266.

LA SALLE COLLEGE

SCHOLARSHIPS YEAR 7 AND 8 FOR 2010

Registration for Years 7 and 8, 2010 and Academic Scholarships are now being accepted. Closing date is 20 March 2009. Online registration only available via the College website, www.lasalle.wa.edu.au, under Parent

Resources. Scholarship Tests will be held on 4 April 2009, 9am at La Salle College, 5 La Salle Avenue, Middle Swan. Enq: 9274 6266.

Every 1st and 3rd Sunday of Each Month

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL SINGERS CHOIR

9.30am at St Joachim’s Pro Cathedral, Victoria Park. We are seeking new members to join us – be part of singing at the refurbished St Mary’s Cathedral. Full training provided. Enq: Michael 041 429 4338 or michael@ michaelpeters.id.au

Every Tuesday

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY FOR TEENS

6.30pm to 7.30pm at Holy Spirit, City Beach. DVD by Christopher West will be shown for 12 weeks, with breaks over Easter. Young and experienced facilitators will assist discussion in small groups following each DVD viewing. Cost, free. Intended age group, 16-18. Enq: 9341 3079, HolySpirit.Parish@perthcatholic.org.au

Every Wednesday

THE JULIAN SINGERS

7.30pm to 9.30pm at the Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor Street, East Perth. Inviting any interested people for rehearsals to see if they may like to join the choir. We are a liturgical choir and also perform an annual charity concert. Enq: Chris 9276 2736 or Angela 9275 2066.

Every First Friday of the month

ST PADRE PIO - LATIN MASS

7.30pm at St Joseph’s Church, 22 Hamilton Street, Bassendean. Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered in honour of St Padre Pio. The Latin Mass is also offered every Monday evening - except the third week of the month - at 7.30pm. All welcome.

Third Sunday of the Month

OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT

2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York Street, South Perth. Oblates affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey New Norcia welcome all who are interested in studying the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude meetings. Enq: 9457 5758.

Every Sunday

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

Every 1st Thursday of the Month

PRAYER AND MEDITATION SERVICE USING SONGS FROM TAIZE

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

MEMORIES OF AFRICA CHOIR

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

Every First Friday and Saturday of month

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

Every First Friday

HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

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

Classifieds

Stewardship

Experience of guilt signals openness to need for Confession

Pope suggests multimedia could also be used to proclaim old truths in new ways.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - While more and more people seem to have trouble seeing some of their actions as sins, the fact that so many people feel guilty means they are open to hearing about the need for confession, Pope Benedict XVI said.

In a message to priests participating in a special course for confessors, the Pope said the formation and education of consciences is a pastoral priority for the Church.

Paradoxically, “to the degree that one loses a sense of sin, unfortunately there increases a sense of guilt,” the Pope said in a message released on March 14.

Catechesis, homilies and other forms of preaching, spiritual direction and the celebration of the sacraments of the Eucharist and of penance all are important occasions for helping people recognise their sins and their need for forgiveness, the Pope told the priests attending the course sponsored by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican tribunal dealing with confession and matters of conscience.

Religious education is especially important as an opportunity to help people understand what sin is in an age when the sense of sin has “faded or, even worse, is clouded over by a way of thinking and living as if God did not exist,” the Pope said.

Homilies and other forms of preaching, including multimedia presentations, “offer providential opportunities for proclaiming in ways that are new and closer to modern sensibilities the perennial and unchanging word of truth that the divine Master has entrusted to the church,” he said.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

All that we have and all that we are comes from God. “For we are what he has made us…” St. Paul reminds us in the second reading today, “…created in Christ Jesus for good works.” What are the gifts that you have been given to be used in a life of good works? Good stewardship means that we receive God’s gifts with gratitude, we cherish and develop these gifts, and we share them in justice and love with one another. This is the cycle of the Christian stewardship way of life – a life of good works – and in living this way we return our gifts to the Lord with increase thus enabling the cycle to begin again and again. For further information on how stewardship can build your parish community, call Brian Stephens on 9422 7924.

Walking with Him Daily Mass Readings

22 S 4TH SUNDAY OF LENT Vio 2Chr 36:14-16.19-23 God’s words despised Ps 136:1-6 Remembering Zion Eph 2:4-10 Life with Christ Jn 3:14-21 Refused to believe

23 M Vio Isa 65:17-21 Past not remembered Ps 29:2.4-6.11-13 The Lord had pity Jn 4:43-54 Your son will live [Alt.: Mic 7:7-9; Ps 26:1.7-9.13-14; Jn 9:1-41]

24 T Vio Ezek 47:1-9.12 Life-giving water Ps 45:2-3.5-6.8-9 A refuge and strength Jn 5:1-3.5-16 I have no one

25 W THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD SOLEMNITY Wh Isa 7:10-14;8:10 God is with us Ps 39:7-11 An open ear Heb 10:4-10 To obey your will Lk 1:26-38 Mary disturbed

26 TH Vio Ex 32:7-14 Moses pleaded Ps 105:19-23 Moses in the breach Jn 5:31-47 Your hope on Moses

27 F Vio Wis 2:1.12-22 A son of the Lord Ps 33:17-18.19-21.23 The crushed spirit Jn 7:1-2.10.25-30 His hour not yet come

28 S Vio Jer 11:18-20 You opened my eyes Ps 7:2-3.9-12 God is a just judge Jn 7:40-52 No agreement

MISSION MATTERS

Missionary reflections on this Sunday’s Gospel; John 3: 20

“…everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed…”

Challenging the corrupt practices of the powers that be can lead to persecution. As a missionary presence in the refugee camp we raised our concerns that food aid for the most needy and most vulnerable was being diverted. We were promptly arrested and expelled from the camp. We appealed to the conscience of the local provincial governor who was a practising Christian. After much deliberation he rescinded our expulsion order. In his words, he was ‘returning the Shepherd to His sheep’. We returned and continued to shine a light on the endemic corruption, as a voice for the voiceless, against those who exploit the plight of the poor. Our missionaries throughout the world have this role play. Sometimes the persecution that follows results in the shining, exposing light of martyrdom.

Pope on African Trip

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI said his trip to Africa would be a missionary journey highlighting the continent’s challenges, its enormous potential and its “profound religious soul.” The Pope, speaking two days before his departure for Cameroon and Angola, said he was not bringing a political or social program to Africa, but simply the Gospel message of love that is “capable of transforming the world.” “This is the grace that can also renew Africa, because it generates an irresistible power of peace and a deep and radical reconciliation,” the Pope told pilgrims at his noon blessing on March 15. “With this visit, I intend to embrace the entire African continent: its

ACCOMMODATION

n RIVERTON

Male to share house, rent $120 plus half expenses. Phone 0449 651 697.

n AVAILABLE

Willetton single room for female student in family home, on bus to Curtin or Murdoch uni. $150.00 Ph: 0416 815 804.

n DUNSBOROUGH

Beach cottage, 3 bedrooms, sleeps 7, 300m to Quindalup beach. Great price for Dunsborough! Tel: Sheila 9309 5071 / 0408 866 593 or email: shannons3s@optusnet.com.au.

n SHEKINAH FOUNTAIN B&B & beachside homestay. Quiet area. Lovely garden. Opposite beach, 2 bedr, sleeps 5. Disabl bathr. Special rates F/T clergy, missionaries, pensioners & off peak. Richard & Ann Pether, Ph/Fax 08 9751 1126, Mob 0488 267 165, Email: richann@ westnet.com.au

n GUADALUPE HILL-TRIGG www.beachhouseperth.com Ph: 0400 292 100.

BUILDING TRADES

n BRICK RE-POINTING

Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

n PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

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

n BRICKLAYING

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

n PICASSO PAINTING Top service. Phone 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

BOOK REPAIRS

n REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

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

HEALTH

n FREE Sample pack for Extra energy and Weight loss. Call - 02 98075337 or 0432 274 643.

n COUNSELLING/PSYCHOTHERAPY www.christianpsychologist.info Tel: 9203 5278.

n EDUCATION & COUNSELLING Invest in your relationships and happiness for the whole family. RCPD courses beginning in Fro also family counselling and Austudy Appr. ADV. Dip in Christian counselling. 0404 405 585.

SINGLES

n CHRISTIAN SINGLES

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

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

n GROTTO

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate need volunteers to help build a limestone Grotto for our Blessed Mother. Please contact Fr Joseph Michael Mary at (08) 94372792.

thousands of differences and its profound religious soul; its ancient cultures and its difficult path of development and reconciliation; its serious problems, its painful wounds and its enormous potential and hopes,” he said. The Pope dedicated the trip to St Joseph, whose feast is March 19, and entrusted to the saint the challenges and hopes of all segments of the African population.

World’s societies devalue caregivers

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) - Caregiving is deeply embedded in the tenets of the world’s religions, but the world’s societies routinely devalue caregivers and the

FURNITURE REMOVAL

n ALL AREAS Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

n CATHOLICS CORNER

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

n RICH HARVEST – YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP

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

n OTTIMO

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

SETTLEMENTS / FINANCE

n EFFECTIVE LEGAL

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

n FOR EVERYTHING FINANCE

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

THANKS

I said the following prayers 3 times daily for 21 days, along with the Rosary and the Memorarae, and the request was granted. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved in all the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on me. St Jude and St Clare help of the helpless. Pray for me. Thank you. JDC.

n PRAYER TO THE VIRGIN MARY

Oh Most Beautiful Flower of Mt Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendour of Heaven. Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. O Star of the Sea help me herein, you are my Mother. O Holy Mary Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There are none that can withstand your power. Show me that you are my Mother. O Mary Conceived without sin pray for who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary I place this cause in your hands. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you Holy Mary for answering my prayers. JDC

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people who depend on them, said a panel of speakers on March 11 in New York.

The program, called “Caregiving Within the Family,” was the fourth discussion in a series called “The Human Dignity of Women in Contemporary Society,” sponsored by the Vatican’s UN mission, the Path to Peace Foundation, Franciscans International and the Vincentian Centre for Church and Society at St John’s University in Queens, New York. Earlier sessions explored women in migration, violence against women and economic injustice. “The Catholic Church played a fundamental role in paving the way for the emancipation and empowerment of women,” said Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio to the United Nations. That inspired the sponsors to “invite experts to shed light on this steady, though at times bumpy, road to the rights and empowerment of women,” he said.

THE R ECORD

Bookshop

BOOK

By Bob Hartman

In these memorable short stories, char- acters and events of Easter are vividly brought to life for young readers.

DAILY REFLECTIONS FOR LENT 2009

By Rev. Norm Langenbrunner

Father Langenbrunner, a gifted homilist and pastor, provides thoughtful insights and practical guidance for moving forward each day this Lent. He challenges us to read the Scriptures for Mass each day, memorise a verse from the Bible, reflect on the readings, pray and act.

$5.95 + P/H

EVERY DAY OF LENT AND EASTER A BOOK OF ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN YR B

Using games, puzzles, and activities, children follow the life of Jesus from His temptation in the desert to the glory of His Resurrection as He cures people, raises Lazarus from the dead, and climbs the hill of Calvary. Colourful illustrations and thoughtful activities teach children the value of our annual commemoration of Lent in a way they will enjoy and remember. RRP $7.95

EASTER

The Everlasting Story

By Lois Rock

THE EASTER ANGELS

By Bob Hartman

In this moving retelling, Bob Hartman gets right to the heart of the Easter story evoking both its sorrow and its expected joy. Luminous illustra- tions mirror the story’s changing moods, from the murky shadows of darkness to the sparkling exuberance of life and light. The Easter Angel is a memorable book to return to year after year.

$16.95 + P/H

This retelling faithfully draws together the moving episodes recounted in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark Luke and John. The pictures have been specially adapted from The Lion Bible: Everlasting Stories, which received widespread acclaim.

$16.95 + P/H

THE

Colouring Book

EASTER STORY

Written by Sr Karen Cavanagh Illustrated by Edward Letwenko Children can enjoy colouring pictures while learning the Easter story and its relevance for them today. RRP $2.95

DAYBREAKS

Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter Week By John F Kavanaugh, SJ In this edition of Father Kavanaugh’s best-selling series he takes the reader on a journey that opens a door to understanding the mystery of Christ’s redemptive mission. RRP $2.50