The Record Newspaper 20 February 2008

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Call for Catholic abortion trauma agency

■ By Anthony Barich

Abortion Grief Counselling Association national director Julie Cook has called for an Abortion Trauma Catholic Health Care organisation to help those affected and thereby reduce future abortions.

Ms Cook told the Walking With Love symposium at Floreat Forum on February 16 that the organisa-

tion would be a “tangible statement of the Catholic Church’s commitment to the recognition and care of women and men traumatised by abortion”.

The Walking With Love symposium was one of many being held in each State as an initiative of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to discuss alternatives and responses to abortion.

Ms Cook said such an Abortion Trauma Catholic Health Care agen-

cy would galvanise concern many professionals feel about the psychological safety of abortion.

She said it would promote a social environment that is “willing to listen to and support those suffering because of abortion and those pregnant and in crisis”; and said it is important that the organisation’s name includes the word “Catholic” due to the “profound spiritual wound associated with abortion”.

“The message this implies is that Catholics care and understand,” she said. “Those traumatised by abortion are particularly sensitive to perceptions of judgement and often feel Church-goers, particularly Catholics, will look down on them. “For their own mental health, they stay away from churches or put on a false front.”

The proposal has the support of the Catholic Doctors’ Association executive committee member Dr Leonard Chan, who agreed with Ms Cook’s statement that many doc-

Continued on Page 12

Sister Lucia, one of the three Fatima visionaries.

10

Photo: Anthony Barich

Our Lady of Lourdes

19th century feast - February 11

This feast recalls the 18 appearances of Mary to a young French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, from Feb.11 to July 16, 1858, near a grotto at Lourdes, France. Bernadette did not know the identity of “the beautiful lady in white,” and asked who she was. Mary said, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” the title Pope Pius IX had defined as dogma four years earlier. In 1890 Pope Leo XIII allowed the local Diocese of Tarbes to celebrate this feast; Pope Pius X made it a universal feast in 1907. Lourdes is still the most famous Marian shrine in Western Europe.

Hundreds of young people will head to Scarborough Beach this Saturday for a World Youth Day Sand Sculpture competition from 9am1.30pm.

Groups of young people that will be heading to Sydney for World Youth Day (WYD) in July this year will be sculpting images on the beach.

Guest judges include the Catholic Archbishop of Perth who will be judging the first round from 9.10am, and various judges for the final round 121pm.

World Youth Day is a week of events that gathers hundreds of thousands and even millions of young Catholics together from around the world.

World Youth Day is being hosted in Sydney from July 15-20 this year.

The event – hosted by the Catholic Church, but open to all – will mark the first visit to Australia by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

The Perth Archdiocese is preparing

Beach stormed Our Lady visits PM

many pre-World Youth Day events for 2008. Young people aged 16-35 are being encouraged to attend pre-World Youth Day events in Perth and the event itself in Sydney.

This Sand Sculpture competition is open to all Catholic parishes, organisations, schools and communities.

It will be a witness without words for the general public to know that World Youth Day is coming.

Families and friends are invited to come along and join in the free festivities including beach sports and games, music, BBQ and picnic facilities.

For more information on World Youth Day please reference the following:

• For information related to the upcoming Sydney events: www.wyd2008.org

• For information related to the Perth upcoming events: www.wydperth.com

For more information on this event, contact Anita Parker on 9422 7944.

briefly...

Western Australia right on pokies policy: Fielding

Family First party leader Senator Steve Fielding cited the example of Western Australia as he launched a move in Canberra to force poker machines out of pubs and clubs and community venues elsewhere in the country.

“In Western Australia poker machines are already successfully restricted to casinos,” Senator Fielding said. He called on both major parties to act to restrict poker machines in the rest of Australia.

The issue has gained significant attention in the eastern states after South Sydney Rugby League club, under the influence of its coowner, Hollywood star Russell Crowe, voted to remove poker machines from its social club.

The Family First party argues that poker machines should be restricted to racetracks and casinos which are “dedicated gambling venues where people go to have a flutter.”

Power for the people, Bishop says

A Bishop has stepped up to publicly oppose the sell-off of the state electricity grid in NSW. The privatisation of electricity has been a hot issue in the industrial city of Newcastle in NSW following a union rally to protest against a proposed power sell-off.

23S St Polycarp, bishop, martyr (M)

Vio Mic 7:14-15.18-20 Delight in mercy

Ps 102:1-4.9-12 Thanks to the Lord

Lk 15:1-3.11-32 Merciful father

24S

Vio Ex 17:3-7 The people thirst

Ps 94:1-2.6-9 Listen to God’s voice

Rom 5:1-2.5-8 State of grace

Jn 4:5-42 The living water

25M

Vio 2Kings 5:1-15 Am I a god?

Pss 41:2-3. 42:3-4 Thirsting for God

Lk 4:24-30 Everyone enraged

26T

Vio Dan 3:25.34-43 The least of all

Ps 24:4-9 Teach me your paths

Mt 18:21-35 Give me time

The World Youth Day Cross and Icon of Our Lady paid an historic visit to the Parliament House of Australia last week.

The Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bishop Michael Malone, said he attended the protest rally, with the Anglican bishop of Newcastle, Dr Brian Farran.

“There is a general sense of alarm that the government is going down the path of privatization,” Bishop Malone said.

Four get days in jail for Pine Gap stunt

A group of protesters styling themselves the “Pine Gap Four” have had themselves jailed for short periods for not paying fines imposed on them after a break-in at a joint Australian-US defence facility in the Northern Territory.

The four pacifists, who claim to follow Christ and Gandhi and include in their number former Iraq war “human shield” Donna Mulhearn, entered the prohibited zone of the Pine Gap defence facility in December 2005 to conduct what they call a Citizen’s Inspection, with the intention of highlighting the base’s and Australia’s role in the Iraq war.

Before an audience of 400 local school children and approximately 100 parliamentarians, the World Youth Day Cross and Icon that was given to the world’s youth by Pope John Paul II were welcomed into Parliament House by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney; Dominican Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, World Youth Day Coordinator; Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn; and Senator Ursula Stephens.

The 3.8-metre high, 40kg Cross has been travelling around the world for over 20 years. The Cross and Icon are an invitation from the Pope to attend World Youth Day, held in Sydney from July 15-20.

“The WYD Cross and Icon has visited Parliaments around the world, and their visit here is a reason to reflect,” Cardinal Pell said.

“It is a moment to pray for justice, peace and equality in our country. It is also a moment to acknowledge

prayerfully those times in our history when the Cross has not been faithfully borne by those who profess Christ,” he said. For the first time, an Indigenous Message Stick has joined the journey in Australia.

This is an invitation to Indigenous youth to attend WYD08 from the Indigenous people of Sydney, the Eora Gadigal people.

The ceremony included a Welcome to Country by Aunty Agnes Shea, a local Ngunnawal Elder, a liturgy led by Archbishop Coleridge and readings by one of the youngest Members of Parliament - Hon Amanda Rishworth Member for Kingston – as well as Paul Neville, Member for Hinkler; Senator Stephens and Senator Helen Polley.

The Cross and Icon’s historic visit also coincides with the 20-year anniversary of Parliament House.

More than 500,000 people are expected to take part in at least one World Youth Day event from July 1520.

The event – hosted by the Catholic Church, but open to all – will mark the first visit to Australia by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

The four were charged under the 1952 Defence Act, the first time the legislation had been used against protest incursions at Pine Gap. Rather than Defence Act violations, charges of trespass had been laid against previous protestors at the location. The four were convicted last year and ordered to pay a fine. According to their own website, the four are now in custody serving short sentences for non-payment of their fines.

No thanks, Anglicans tell Archbishop of Canterbury

A Sydney Anglican bishop has spoken out against the sharia comments of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, caused worldwide controversy by suggesting that Islamic sharia law could be integrated with the Western legal system of Britain in a move towards greater social cohesion. The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, said on behalf of his diocese: “We do not agree with the Archbishop’s comments. In the case of Australia, we are thankful for freedom of religion but would oppose the idea of different systems of law for different people groups.”

Stand in line: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Cardinal George Pell, Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson and Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher OP with the WYD Cross and Icon. PHOTO: CATHOLICNEWS

ACBC President welcomes apology

The National Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were removed from their families under past government policies is an historic and prophetic moment in the life of the Australian nation.

The Catholic Church in Australia welcomes and affirms the apology made in the Federal Parliament today in the presence of so many of the Indigenous peoples of this land.

We recall on this day our own statement, issued in 1998, in which we sought forgiveness from the victims of the policy that broke up Indigenous families, for any part the Church played in causing them harm and suffering.

A decade on, we reaffirm the sentiments expressed in that statement, that “the Catholic Bishops of Australia wish to record our commitment to continue the healing process for the benefit of victims of the unjust policies of the past, to support the just needs of Indigenous people today and to contribute to the quest for national reconciliation”.

Today is a great day in the history of our nation because it represents a much longed-for point of arrival. But it must not end there. For true healing to take place we must also acknowledge that this National Apology is a point not only of arrival, but a point of hope and a point of departure.

Australia is a stronger nation today for having had the humility to say we are sorry that past policies were unjust and wrong, even when they were carried out with good intentions according to the prevailing attitudes of the era.

Having arrived at this point of healing, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that reconciliation is complete and our obligations as a nation are fulfilled.

Rather, we must take the hope that this Apology represents and move forward, determined to increase our efforts to improve the practical circumstances of our Indigenous brothers and sisters.

This must be done by addressing the fundamental causes of entrenched disadvantage, in full consultation and collaboration with Indigenous communities. Appropriate resources must be made available to achieve real outcomes.

The Catholic Church, whose members work closely with Indigenous communities throughout Australia, will continue to assist in whatever ways possible to improve the situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples so that all Australians can live in peace and unity, with dignity and mutual respect.

Archbishop Philip Wilson, President, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

Apology overdue

Archbishop Barry Hickey, Chairman of the ACBC Commission for relations with Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people issued this statement a week before the Federal Governement’s apology

“I think it will be a great relief to most Australians when the Federal Government finally makes an apology on February 13.

“The general population has been far ahead of its political leaders on this matter, just as the people were on the 1967 referendum which granted full citizenship to Aboriginal people.

“I believe that the Federal Government should express sorrow that terrible things happened to Aboriginal people, and continue to happen in many communities.

“In the past, I have publicly expressed sorrow for many things that happened in the Church’s involvement with Aboriginal people, such as the absence of family ties, the loss of personal names and traditional culture, and the lack of involvement in the management of the Missions.

“I also pointed out the many positive aspects of the Church’s missionary endeavours, such as good education, health care and the Catholic Faith.

“At the Synod of Oceania in 1998, all the Australian Bishops, supported by the other Bishops of Oceania, expressed their sorrow at the plight of the Aboriginal people.

“This was taken up by Pope John Paul II in his subsequent response and exhortation ‘Ecclesia

in brief...

Priests in dioceses of the greater Sydney area have been asked to reschedule their Sunday morning Masses for the weekend of World Youth Day so parishioners can attend Mass with the Pope.

The archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, and three

Bishops request Mass re-schedule

other bishops have written to parish priests in the four dioceses around metropolitan Sydney requesting that they consider scheduling additional evening Masses on Saturday July 19 and Sunday July 20 for those who prefer attending Mass in the parish,

“and otherwise encourage all your parishioners to attend the final Mass with the Holy Father.”

Pope Benedict XVI will be celebrating morning Mass at Sydney’s Randwick racecourse on the final day of World Youth Day on Sunday July 20.

in Oceania’ published in 2001, in which he said the struggle of the Australian Aborigines to maintain their culture was a special case.

He also said: ‘Whenever the truth has been suppressed by governments and their agencies or even by Christian communities, the wrongs done to the indigenous peoples need to be honestly acknowledged.

‘The past cannot be undone, but honest recognition of past injustices can lead to measures and attitudes to rectify the damaging effects for both the indigenous community and the wider society.

The Church expresses deep regret and asks forgiveness where her children have been or still are party to these wrongs.

Aware of the shameful injustices done to indigenous peoples in Oceania, the Synod Fathers apologized unreservedly for the part played in these by members of the Church, especially where children were forcibly separated from their families.’

Archbishop Hickey said, “In saying sorry the Government is not necessarily implying that it is solely to blame. The whole of Australia must accept some responsibility.

“Fear of financial implications should not limit the expression of sorrow because the breakdown in traditional cultures and the effects of powerlessness are obvious.

“I hope that the Federal Government saying sorry will free up the emotional logjam that now exists and create new opportunities for the recovery of broken lives.

“It could help to break the impasse that has restricted the effectiveness of State and Federal programs for indigenous advancement, and at the same time help Aboriginal people, as individuals and groups, to approach their future with greater optimism and determination.”

World Youth Day

Anyone able to help this cause will be sent a complimentary Papal Rosary of Pope Benedict XVI, and a Holy card with a prayer for World Youth Day. We ask you to join the Holy Father and the Catholic community in prayer for the success of this unique and faith filled event.

To send your donation please fill out the coupon below and tick the box* if you would like to receive the complimentary Papal Rosary and prayer card.

Help Poor and Oppressed Youth attend World Youth Day 2008

Aid to the Church in Need, POBox 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148

Phone/Fax No: (02) 9679-1929 E-mail: info@aidtochurch.org Web: www.aidtochurch.org

I/We enclose a donation of $ …….....… to help Youth from Poor and Oppressed countries attend World Youth Day 2008

0Yes please send me the Papal rosary and Holy card*

I enclose a cheque/money order payable to Aid to the Church in Need OR please

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WYD08 seeks partners to bring 6000 Oceania pilgrims to Sydney

Over 400 Catholic groups, schools and parishes across Australia have signed up to help young people from disadvantaged communities in our region attend World Youth Day 2008 (WYD08) in Sydney.

The scheme, known as Pilgrim Partnership Support Program (PPSP), was launched by WYD08 in May 2007 to ensure that as many people as possible from Oceanic and Australian Indigenous communities take part in the world’s largest youth event.

Around 3500 Oceanic pilgrims are already expected to attend WYD08, but organisers are calling for further assistance from Host Partners in Australia and New Zealand to help boost this figure to more than 6000 from 19 countries before the event in July.

“There has been wonderful response to PPSP to date, with Australian Host Partners forming relationships with more than 30 Indigenous communities in Australia as well as neighbouring Oceanic countries such as Papua New Guinea, Cook islands, Fiji, East Timor, Guam and Samoa,” said Therese Nichols, WYD08 Communications and PPSP Officer.

“This represents a tremendous achievement considering the majority of these countries have never before been fortunate enough to send pilgrims to World Youth Day,” she said.

The Program for Host Partners is open to all parishes, schools, dioceses, individuals, businesses, movements, universities, religious institutes or any other church organisation throughout Australia and New Zealand. The nature of the aid offered and received will vary according to each particular case, but may include assistance with airfares to Sydney, registration fees, and donations of blankets or clothing. All details of the Program are found at www.wyd2008.org.

Up to 500,000 people - including 125,000 international visitors - are expected to take part in at least one WYD08 event from 15-20 July 2008.

WYD08 will mark the first visit by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Australia.

the Parish

Resource Centre moves base

■ By Sylvia Defendi

Having just celebrated its 20th anniversary, the Resource Centre for Personal Development and Relationships is celebrating another milestone with the relocation of its services.

Previously the Centre operated out of the Coastal Business Centre in Fremantle, known by some as the ‘old prison.’

“This was not a positive setting for those requiring counselling, needing crisis counselling or wanting to study under our accredited counselling courses,” founder Eva Lenz said.

Now located within two cozy cottages on High Street in Fremantle, the resource centre has fast developed a welcoming atmosphere with opportunity for growth.

With at least two counselling rooms, a seminar room, waiting room, bookshop and lending library as well as a second hand shop, to help with fund raising, the centre is emerging quickly.

“We already offer four nationally accredited training programs including an advanced and graduate diploma in counselling, as well as Vocational Education and Training (VET) school programs,” Eva said, adding that the success of the centre is a product of new developments in counselling.

“Educational counselling is a new field that combines teaching with counselling, and has proven very popular with those seeking to learn more about themselves and how to best help

others in need,” she said. Their vision, in fact, is that a wealth of counsellors will be born of the centre’s efforts, who will go on to assist others by starting their own centres. And the need is great according to Eva, who realised this when she witnessed the effects of broken homes as a

school chaplain. “It’s getting desperate out there. People are not capable of having fulfilling relationships and communication is getting worse,” Eva said. Courses begin on February 25 and enrolments are welcome on the day. For more info on the Centre call 0409 405 585 or 0402 222 578 for info on the schools VET program available.

St Vinnies expand for sake of homeless

A leading Australian service for homelessness and mental health opens in WA

Representatives from around the nation gathered to open Vincentian Village in Woodbridge on February 19 - a new facility designed as a leading model of care for men experiencing homelessness and/or mental illness.

State President of the St Vincent de Paul Society Genevieve De Souza said: “2008 marks a new era for Vincentcare, a Special Work of the St Vincent de Paul Society, as the State Council of Western Australia gets set to open this nationally unique development

that will become home to 28 men from some of Perth’s most marginalised sectors of the community.”

One man who will benefit from living in an independent unit in Vincentian Village is 29-year-old Thomas. For the qualified spray painter who formally owned his own business, Thomas’s life took a dramatic turn when he experienced a psychotic episode and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was soon unable to look after himself, or be cared for by family members and was referred to Vincentcare.

Since living in Vincentcare shared accommodation and participating in the Vincentcare Community Integration Program (VIP) Thomas has progressed on

his recovery journey and is now back working four days a week, with the long term goal to one day live independent of Vincentcare support.

Thomas like many other men will benefit from Vincentian Village with the 28 self-contained units, on-site caretakers residence, co-located Vincentcare administration and close proximity to local public transport and shops.

“With the increasing demand for homeless and mental health services and accommodation support in Western Australia, we’re delighted to open this leading facility and model of care that has evolved and been nurtured over a four-year period”, Genevieve said.

“The St Vincent De Paul Society

would like to thank two key West Australian entities for their support of Vincentian Village- Lotterywest and the Department of Housing and Works. We would not have been able to see this project come to fruition without their support”, Genevieve said.

The broad and dynamic work of Vincentcare, a Special Work of the St Vincent de Paul Society, is encompassed within the initiatives of Vincentcare’s midto-long-term accommodation, Vincentian Village, the Vincentcare Community Integration Program (V.I.P) and Passages Resource Centre.

For further information about the Society phone (08) 9475 5400 or log on to www.vinnies.org.au/wa.

Loving it: Daniel, Elisabetta and Jeremiah Paddon with Eva Lenz, Paul Stokes and Helmut Lenz. Eva founded the Resource Centre while Paul Stokes is the VET coordinator for the centre.

PHOTO: SYLVIA DEFENDI

the Parish

Time to reach out to vulnerable

Caritas gives us pause for reflection on the world around us during the Lenten period.

Amos, 18, is a Mialli/Rembarrnga man and lives with his parents and four siblings in the remote Beswick/Wugularr community about 100km from Katherine in the Northern Territory.

Amos is participating in the ‘Learning My Dreaming’ project launched in 2005 by Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation and supported by Caritas Australia, designed specifically for youth in Indigenous communities which teaches skills in film making, acting and video production. Young people are encouraged to document cultural events in the community and to interview and record Elders telling their cultural stories. Youth are provided with equipment and resources to film interviews with members of the community. Footage is then edited, crafted into a story and viewed at community events with traditional dancing and a meal.

Many indigenous communities face poverty, low self-esteem, substance abuse, inadequate education and unemployment, often compounded by regional isolation and erosion of cultural identity. ‘Learning My Dreaming’ aims to bring about positive change in the community by developing pride and encouraging respect for traditional Indigenous family

values, culture, land and ceremony and builds the skills and confidence of young people in the community, encourages collaboration between youth and elders and records important cultural and historical information that could otherwise be lost. Amos is proud of his involvement in making films.

Before the project Amos did not attend school and felt he had little direction in life. ‘Learning My Dreaming’ has helped to bring out his talents and develop skills that formal schooling was unable to do. In the future Amos would like to learn to

read and write, get his driver’s licence, buy a car and travel around Australia working as a cameraman. Djilpin Arts is currently supporting twenty Indigenous youth and employs another twenty five community members to perform the roles of storyteller, teacher and performers within the films. Caritas Australia is proud to support Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation program which is also strengthening relationships within the community, creating job opportunities and supporting young Indigenous Australians to develop a sense of pride in their culture.

Be the spark for your students, VG tells teachers

■ By Anthony Barich

Perth Vicar General Fr Brian O’Loughlin has called on teachers at Catholic schools to get behind World Youth Day and Days in the Dioceses and to think outside the square as communities welcome the WYD Cross and Icon visit in May and June.

Using the example of how lives have been changed at previous WYDs, Fr O’Loughlin said that teachers in Perth’s Catholic schools have the opportunity to do the same for their own students by encouraging support for WYD in creative ways. “Please be creative as you welcome these symbols (WYD Cross and Icon) of our faith and communion,” the Vicar General told the School Commissioning Mass for teachers at Catholic schools in the North Coastal Region at Craigie’s Our Lady of the Mission Church on February 12. It was part of a series of Masses

held on February 12-13 by Archbishop Barry Hickey, his Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, Mgr Michael Keeting, the chairman of the Catholic Education Commission and the Vicar General to welcome the new school year and encourage teachers at Catholic schools to support their students’ faith development as part of their role as teachers in these schools. As thousands of international pilgrims will descend on Perth from July 8-12 and take part in the week’s Days in the Dioceses program for inculturation on their way to WYD in Sydney from July 15-20, Fr O’Loughlin called on teachers to “assist in any way possible”.

“Here is an opportunity for us, as the Church in Perth, to provide welcome and hospitality,” he said, and encouraged students and teachers to help the international pilgrims “capture something of its spirit here” when they visit for Days in the Dioceses. The event will start with a Blessing of the Fleet of the bus

pilgrimages set to depart over July 1314 before a Youth Festival and Cultural Day on July 10 and a closing ceremony and Commissioning Mass celebrated by Archbishop Hickey on July 12 to send WYD pilgrims to Sydney. In preparing for the pilgrimage of WYD, Fr O’Loughlin reminded teachers and students of the model of all Christian prayer - the Our Father - mentioned in the Gospel of the day to pray for WYD and each other in their journey of living out their daily lives as Christians.

Fr O’Loughlin said the power of prayer and public Christian witness was shown when a Canadian newspaper editorialised, saying Canada does not need “the visit of a tired old man, repeating a worn out message”.

The Vicar General added that when thousands of young Canadians flocked to see John Paul II at WYD in Toronto, the newspaper later conceded, “Sorry, we got it wrong.”

■ By Anthony Barich

The international outreach ministry started by Perth priest Fr Nicholas Nweke to assist seminarians around the globe in poverty-stricken areas will be formalised this Saturday, February 23.

Archbishop Barry Hickey will celebrate a Mass at Cloverdale’s Notre Dame Church at midday with Fr Nicholas, originally from Nigeria, and bless the work and the volunteers of the organisation, called Voice of the Voiceless.

Voice of the Voiceless refers to a phrase used by the late Pope John Paul II in his Post-Synodal Apostolic exhortation “Ecclesia in Africa” – a document he issued to the Church in Africa regarding its evangelising mission in the lead-up to the Great Jubilee Year of 2000.

In his exhortation, JPII said that the Church Fathers at the Synod had declared that “the Church must continue to exercise her prophetic role and be the voice of the voiceless, so that everywhere the human dignity of every individual will be acknowledged”.

Inspired by JPII, Fr Nicholas, from the eastern Enugu state of Nigeria, has formed an organisation of lay people to raise money for seminarians in poor countries while also providing prayers and material and logistical support to local seminarians to assist vocations.

Fr Nicholas’ ministry is linked internationally by a network of priests and missionaries to assist seminarians in Africa, Asia and North and South America.

Fr Nicholas, now parish priest at Corrigin-Kulin, hosted a pilgrimage on November 24 last year in his parish with up to 50 people from Perth’s metropolitan parishes visiting nearby country parishes and sharing faith with local Catholics in solidarity.

In doing so he built a network, bridging the gap between rural and suburban Catholics.

The ministry started on December 17, 2006, by 33 local Catholics who were inspired by Fr Nicholas’ vision through experiencing him as their parish priest in metropolitan parishes including Belmont, Willetton and Lockridge.

Lively: Amos, right, lives in a remote area in the Northern Territory. His is a case close to home as the faithful reflect on what they can do to “give till it hurts”. PHOTO: CARITAS

Fr Nicholas Nweke

Forging links with theVatican

■ By Paul Gray

The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference Archbishop Philip Wilson held 39 meetings with high-ranking officials at the Vatican during a two-week visit to Rome in January and February.

The working visit was the first in what is set to become an official annual trip to the Vatican by the leader of the Australian bishops’ conference.

On his return Archbishop Wilson said it is important that there be close collaboration between the local church in Australia and the various Vatican offices.

“We gain from the international perspective they can offer and they hear first-hand about the situation in Australia,” he said.

The visit follows a motion passed by the Australian bishops at their last plenary meeting, in November 2007, agreeing that the President of the conference and its General Secretary should visit the Holy See on an annual basis, except in years when an ad limina visit – a visit by all the bishops of the country – is made.

About 30 Australians working at the Vatican met with the Archbishop and the conference’s General Secretary Fr Brian Lucas for Mass and a lunch to celebrate Australia Day.

The lunch was hosted by Anne Giles, the Charge D’Affaires of the Australian Embassy to the Holy See.

Archbishop Wilson said the meetings with the Vatican officials were “very fruitful and informative.”

the Nation

Sydney to welcome ethics forum

■ By Paul Gray

It might not attract quite the same numbers as World Youth Day, but Sydney is set to stage another important international gathering this year – for philosophers, ethicists and major Catholic thinkers.

The gathering will feature some of the biggest names from the worlds of ethical and legal thought, including Prof John Finnis from Oxford University, Robert George from Princeton University and the world’s major Thomist scholar, Prof John Haldane.

The place will be Notre Dame University’s Sydney campus. The conference, titled Truth and Faith in Ethics, has been announced for June.

Conference co-ordinator Prof Hayden Ramsay told The Record: “We have some of the greatest names in Catholic moral thinking and many other distinguished guests from various fields of ethics. “It would be difficult to imagine how the range of speakers could be bettered.”

The conference follows the example of Pope Benedict XVI who has made a longstanding practice, both as Pope and previously as head of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, of visiting and speaking at universities to engage with both Catholic thinkers and non-Catholic thinkers about major philosophical issues.

Prof Ramsay says that as well as being a meeting of scholars, the Sydney conference will also give Australians the opportunity

to encounter the thinking of some of the world’s great minds on ethical issues. “The event will interest those curious to explore how close – or far apart – Catholic and general ethical views are today,” he said.

Other international guests will be the Dean of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America, Jude Dogherty, Prof Julia Annas from Arizona, who is a distinguished commentator on ethics in the ancient world, English author Anthony O’Hear, whose books Plato’s Children and The Great Books are currently selling in secular bookstores around Australia and Nancy Sherman from Georgetown University, another classical ethicist who has written a highly successful book on military philosophy, Stoic Warriors.

Australian author and philosopher Raimond Gaita, who is well-known for the book and film based on his early life, Romulus, My Father, will also speak at the conference.

One of the conference’s main speakers, the Australian-born Prof Finnis, is a former Rhodes scholar who has been an internationally recognized Oxford professor of law and legal philosophy since the 1980s.

Influenced by St Thomas Aquinas, he has developed “Thomist ideas” for application in legal thinking in several countries, including Britain, the United States and Australia.

Another leading speaker, Robert George, is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton in the United States, and is also a member of the US President’s Council on

Bioethics. As well as directing the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, and is author of several books including In Defense of Natural Law. Prof George has done significant work applying natural law ideas in areas such as bioethics and marriage and the family.

Prof John Haldane, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, is widely regarded as the world’s leading Thomist scholar. He is the author of An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Religion and Faithful Reason, among other works.

Former Essendon coach supports WYD

■ By Paul Gray

Former Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy has signed up as an “ambassador” for World Youth Day and opened the doors of his family’s home to pilgrims.

Sheedy joined Church representatives at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome stadium last week to reveal his support for Melbourne Stay – part of the archdiocese of Melbourne’s Days in the Diocese program -- which will take place in the week before Pope Benedict arrives in Australia.

A culminating moment in the week’s events will be the gathering of a congregation of 50,000 pilgrims and parishioners to attend Mass at Melbourne’s second largest sports stadium, Telstra Dome, on July 11.

This will be a commissioning Mass for pilgrims en route to Sydney.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected to spend time in the archdiocese of Melbourne on their way to World Youth Day.

Kevin Sheedy said he and his family will be among hundreds of Melbourne families who will open their homes to pilgrims on their way to and from the Telstra Dome Mass, and to World Youth Day.

The Sheedys were the first Melbourne family to officially sign up for the Church’s co-

ordinated hospitality effort, which is called Melbourne Stay.

“We have got to do all that we can to host these 25,000 international pilgrims during Days in the Diocese,” Mr Sheedy said.

“I am proud to be a part of it and will be looking forward to having one or two staying in my home this July.”

The Days in the Dioceses program will be a weeklong series of talks and religious events staged around Victoria.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis

Hart welcomed the Sheedy family to the program and applauded the football legend’s involvement.

“Mr Sheedy is an outstanding public servant, contributor and ambassador to Melbourne and Victoria,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Hart will be principal celebrant at the Mass at Telstra Dome, which is more normally the scene for AFL football and international soccer and cricket matches than for religious events.

An estimated 200 members

of the clergy will assist the archbishop in the celebration of the Eucharist at the stadium Mass.

Secular authorities in Victoria are backing the Days in the Diocese program as a significant event for the whole community, not just Catholics.

The Victorian Minister for Sport, Recreation and Youth Affairs, James Merlino, said the Days in the Diocese program is the state’s next major event, and “will be yet another milestone on Victoria’s major events calendar.”

Archbishop Philip Wilson with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Professor Hayden Ramsey

Great partnership: The youth of Australia welcomed the support of former Essondon coach, Kevin Sheedy, who has signed up as an ambassador for World Youth Day this year.

the Nation

Missionaries help Timor to build

■ By

Paul Gray

Mission work continues to give hope to young people in Timor L’Este despite the violence which rocked the political system there in the past two weeks, according to the Salesian Missions Office.

The Office’s director Br Michael Lynch returned from a field visit to Timor L’Este just before the attacks which resulted in the hospitalisation of President Jose Ramos-Horta.

Br Lynch, who has worked closely with the Timorese for many years and is in constant contact with church workers there, said it is clear that the young country is still far from settled.

But the progress that has been made since his previous visit in September 2007 is impressive, he says. “I was greatly saddened by the assassination attempts on the country’s leaders on February 11,” he told The Record this week. “While this is a crisis that the country does not need, it seems that it reflects some underlying and unresolved tensions in the nation.

Br Lynch was accompanied on his visit by Bishop Hilton Deakin, recently retired auxiliary bishop of Melbourne.

“The purpose of my trip was to visit the works of the Salesians and the Salesian Sisters (schools, orphanages, parishes, medical clinics etc) that are heavily supported by Australian donors, some of whom are from Western Australia,” Br Lynch said.

“These works, which are mostly located away from the capital, Dili, are going well and are a source of

hope and encouragement for people.” The Salesian Centres are in Baucau, Fatumaca, Fuiloro, Laga, Lospalos, Venilale, and Comoro which is in Dili alongside the airport.

The centres are active and providing practical help and training for young people at a time when youth unemployment is a significant problem for the nation overall.

“I spent time at Don Bosco Technical Training Centre Comoro, in Dili, and Don Bosco Technical School Fatumaca,” Br Lynch said. “The schools are providing skills training in electrical wiring, electronics, carpentry, welding and auto mechanics. “There are 200 students at Fatumaca, and 170 at Comoro, 40 of whom are girls. While most of the girls are learning word processing, there are three specialising in electrical wiring.

“The Salesian Sisters Womens’ Training Centre at Fuiloro caters for 100 women, aged 19 – 26, from the villages. The Centre has courses in basic computer and word processing, dressmaking and sewing, basic health and hygiene and spirituality.

“Many of the young women at the centre have been victims of abuse,” he said. Br Lynch said he and Bishop Deakin were welcomed at the Don Bosco Orphanages at Lospalos and Quelicai, and the Salesian Sisters’ Girls Orphanages in Laga and Venilale.

A highlight of their visit was officiating at the Annual Don Bosco Cup Race Meeting in Lospalos, an event attended by more than 2000 locals. “The locals participated in three main races riding their Timor ponies bareback,” Br Lynch explained. “Bishop Hilton Deakin

was invited to start the main event, I started the second race and the local police chief was the starter for the third race.” Br Lynch said it was heartening to see the practical results that donations from Australians are producing in the lives of the Timorese.

“Australian donors support a luncheon program at several of the Salesian schools. On one day we were at Don Bosco Fuiloro, with more than 1000 students, for lunch. I was told that for many of these youngsters, who walk more than an hour to get to school, the lunch is their best meal for the day,” he said.

“We have sent to Timor Leste several containers with school materials, stationery, relief goods and other donated items.

“A large quantity of clothing was given by the Melbourne Cricket Ground for distribution. I was pleased to see the Salesian novices at Fatumaca wearing a set of bright red pullovers with the MCG insignia.” Br Lynch said general media attention on instability in East Timor does not take account of the good that is being achieved in the country by dedicated religious.

“Overall it was clear to me that the ordinary day to day work of the Salesians and the Salesian Sisters for youth, while not the stuff the makes the headlines in daily papers, is truly making a significant contribution to the building of the nation.

“Everywhere appreciation was expressed for the assistance given by donors to Salesian Missions Australia. Without this help, the struggle would be much greater.”

Donations to support Salesian work in Timor Leste can be sent to: Salesian Missions Office, P O Box 264, ASCOT VALE Vic 3032.

Bringing about change: Above, Students at Don Bosco School Fuiloro enjoying their lunch.. Below, Carpentry and cabinet making students at Don Bosci Technical School Fatumaca.

Increasing education: The Salesian Sisters Training Centre for Women at Fuiloro caters for more than 100 young women aged 19 - 26.

Behind the scenes: Br Michael Lynch , Bishop Alberto Ricardo of Dili, and Bishop Hilton Deakin.

letters to the editor

St Vincent De Paul concerns

Ihave been a volunteer for the society for the past 27 years, and in the last few years have witnessed the original Charitable Society become a Commercial Business with an administration staff that continues to grow rapidly all of whom are paid servants with all the trimmings.

In the past 12 months I have seen them close all of the low cost food outlets which were operated by people who genuinely gave their time and effort freely. One store in particular was created by one man on his own who originally turned a Homeswest unit into a small shop to help the poor. This grew over the years into a major “Low cost supermarket” in substantial premises which when it was closed by the Administration had a volunteer staff of some 75 persons from the parish and local retirees who enjoyed giving their time for the cause.

All of the profits made from this place were ploughed back into the shop increasing the selection of goods that were available to the customers. The place was booming and all the staff loved being involved, then along came the administration and closed them down and sold the Goodwill to a private buyer. I spent 27 years in one of the clothing outlets the past 25 years as the volunteer in charge and worked with a group of people who freely gave their time to provide a service to the less fortunate without receiving one cent for the efforts all in the name and cause of St Vincent De Paul Society which was the complete objective originally.

The stores always controlled their own destiny by paying their own rent, phone, power and any other accounts that may arise and they had a bank account to bank their takings and at the end of each month a cheque was forwarded to the head office. This method worked for years to my knowledge without any problems until somewhere along the line it was to employ paid staff to carry out all of these duties that we had performed for nothing.

Over recent times they have employed paid managers at some shops, have changed the name to Vinnes which is an insult to the founder of the Society, told some elderly volunteers they are too old and no longer require them, and so it goes on, gradually eroding the whole concept of Society.

Just recently they went to the Wray Ave store in Fremantle, which has been operating and serving the local people for more than one hundred years, and told the lady in charge they had come to close the shop. The excuse was the premises needed some maintenance and it was not making much money so they are going to sell it.

Where has the ethos of the society gone? I consider that if these administrators want to operate a commercial business rather than a charitable organization they should not be going under the St Vincent De Paul banner when most of the volunteers working the clothing outlets for no reward are obviously contributing to the wages of the paid staff. It should also be noted that I have written to them on two occasions but their administration does not reply.

G Crocker Coolbellup

Latin Mass

Irejoice, with many others, that the Traditional Latin Mass has at last been given its due recognition.I began to attend the Traditional Rite in January 2006, after the parish we attended for Sunday Mass lost its priest to country W.A. The new priest took away the kneelers that the previous PP had placed at the front of the altar, for those who preferred (like me) to receive Holy Communion kneeling. I felt that I

Letters

Thanks from Fr Ruiz

Two years ago, two journalists from The Record travelled to Macau and mainland China to see the work of a Spanish Jesuit priest, Fr Luis Ruiz, then aged 92. They recorded a remarkable story of dedication to the old, the orphans, the sick, the lepers and most recently the HIV/ AIDS sufferers for whom there was no other assistance. Although The Record made its journey in 2006, there were some West Australians who had been making regular financial contributions to Fr Ruiz’s work for 30 years and continue to do so. Fr Ruiz’s headquarters are at Casa Ricci Social Services, Largo De Sto, Agostinho, 4, Macau (via Hong Kong). The indefatigable Fr Ruiz hadsagain written to The Record to keep readers informed of his activities and the work of the nuns who care for the people he serves.

had nowhere to go except the Traditional Latin Mass. Although my family and I had attended the Latin Rite several times over the previous years, the Mass was quite unfamiliar to me. I had a lot of trouble getting used to several aspects.

Several people told me that I just needed time to get used to it all. And they were right. Within six months I found myself preferring the Traditional Mass to the Novus Ordo Mass. Sometimes I follow the Latin, and at other times, the English, translation.

I found that participation in the Traditional Rite consists of following the prayers, and of uniting oneself to the Sacrifice of the Altar. One is permitted to make the responses at Low Mass, in a low voice, and one is encouraged to sing with the congregation (and even the choir) at a Sung Mass (Missa Cantata).

I am now used to the periods of silence, and have worked out my own way of keeping up with the priest. There are others, I know, who don’t even try to keep up, but who simply offer themselves silently, and watch carefully. I went to the Traditional Mass for reverence, and that is why I continue to go. The words of the Mass are reverent within themselves, and therefore don’t rely on the priest’s reverence. A quick glance through the Missal can assure one of that. I also love the sound of a beautiful choir, and a wellsung Missa Cantata can lift the soul.

For Perth Catholics, the Traditional Mass is available at St John’s, (Victoria Ave, Perth city) on Sundays at 7.30am, 9.15am, and 11.15am, and at Palmyra Catholic parish, Sundays 12 noon and now at Kelmscott, 2 pm Sundays.

Mrs Carol V. Phillips Canning Vale

Heart saddened

My heart was saddened by some of the articles in this week’s Record. There seemed so much anger and disunity in some articles and letters to the editor. It would seem that we are not far from the early days in the church when Paul wrote to the Corinthians about their slogans “I am for Paul”, “I am for Apollos” and I am for Peter”. We now have slogans “I am for home schools”, “I am for catholic schools”,

It is my duty to thank you and your readers for the wonderful help coming from you and them. May Our Lord repay you and them for you loving heart. It is amazing how Our Lord is sending more work to do and how so many people need your help. Now we have to buy a house for our children with AIDS. We have 10 children in Nanning, but no room for more who are coming. So we got 2 flats for 30 children and the Sisters who take care of them.

The cost is AUD$383,330. Our Lord will provide for that. Last month I went to Sichuan province. I visited 2 leprosariums: one beautifully rebuilt, and the other, a

“I am for Latin Mass”, “I am for the English Mass”, “we must go back to the old ways”, and “we must stay where we are”. We are in a Spiritual war that is taking its toll on us and we are losing our way. To walk with Jesus we must walk where he walked and that is with the sinners, tax collectors, and the poor. We are to accept people where they are in their understanding of God, not to judge, but to tell the good news; and, that is, Jesus has died, has risen and will come again. Our greatest weapon is love. It is love that will change people’s hearts; not arguments. We are all in a different place on the path to find Jesus. Let us look with joy to those who are ahead of us and hold out our hands to those who may be behind us.

During this Lent, let us not compete with each other for right or wrong but begin to change our thinking from “I Am right in what I do” to “as far as I know I am right in what I do”. In doing this we become open to someone who does not think as we think on a subject and accept what we can learn from them so we can grow in wisdom and not be tied down to a place where we cannot grow.

We should always express our concerns if we disagree with others but in doing so, it should be in search of wisdom and not in anger for no matter who we are, sometimes we are wrong.

Geoff Lucey Bassendean

Old is gold

This is in response to the letter entitled “Give it a Try” in The Record (06/2) in regards to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). The letter was a rebuttal to the article by Fr Symondson (Record 23/1) and concluded with a request for a response from attendees of St John’s Pro Cathedral. I am one such parishioner who has been regularly attending the TLM for about two years.

Now for a response to the seven arguments made against the TLM in Fr Symondson’s article.

1) The TLM is being run by a tiny group of militants and most Catholics aren’t interested: It may not be that most Catholics lack interest. Since Vatican II the older generation is under the impression that the TLM

disaster – nobody taking care of it. Now I am going to renew it: kitchen, showerrooms with hot water and toilets, and nice rooms, and winter clothing. The cost will be AUD$50,000.

Besides, we need to keep the mobile clinic to make miracles, but I have to take care of the team of the clinic: Doctor, nurses……, which require AUD$83,300 a year. With my grateful heart to all of you, and prayers for you and your families.

Yours sincerely in Christ

Fr Luis Ruiz, S.J. Macau

was banned and the younger generation simply do not know it exists. I myself am 24 and discovered the TLM just two years ago by accident.

2) The Novus Ordo is after all the official Catholic Mass: We do not disagree with this statement. The Novus Ordo said according to the precepts of Vatican II is the official Catholic Mass.

3) Priests have to have a really good knowledge of Latin to say the TLM: Over time the Latin used in the Mass becomes very familiar. If that is the case with the parishioners then how much more familiar will a priest become who says the Latin Mass regularly.

4) Priests find it uncomfortable to pray this alien Mass: There are many priests all around the world expressing interest in the TLM.

5) Some young people want the TLM but this is only a youthful fad: As a young person this comment is insulting. I know of someone my age who after regularly attending the TLM for a long while, left to join the Benedictines in America and is now on his way to becoming a priest. There is also a 21 year old friend who is studying in the FSSP seminary in Sydney, more vocations to the Benedictine convents from Adelaide and to the Dominicans from Sydney. I didn’t even know the Benedictines and Dominicans existed!

6) Some people simply want the TLM out of hatred for the Novus Ordo Mass: There may be a few such people who do hate the Novus Ordo. But there are also many people who know of the TLM and hate it. In my experience most people attend the TLM because of its Truth and Beauty.

7) The TLM is just a creation of the sixteenth century: No, it was just formalised and encoded at the Council of Trent. It was prevalent soon after the Church was established in Rome.

There are many ways of demonising something that is good. I urge everyone to approach the TLM with a spirit of humility and open minds and hearts. For we only gain graces if we are receptive to them. It is only then that we will be able to truly understand and appreciate its greatness.

Aaron Pereira Willeton

Vista

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated Vista 2-3

Chinese fire up for their New Year

■ By Anthony Barich

The day after Ash Wednesday, February 7, marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year, a day that sparks festivals in Chinese communities throughout the western world and especially in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

It is a day to celebrate their culture, and recognising this, Archbishop Barry Hickey said: “The Church recognises the special nature of this time by granting you on the first day of the festival a dispensation from fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday.”

But it does not absolve the community from reflecting on the significance of Lent and on their own lives, in preparation for what Pope Leo I called “the greatest feast” - Easter.

“Nevertheless as the season of Lent has begun, we need to recall that it is a time of preparation for the memory of Christ’s death and resurrection,” the Archbishop said at the Mass celebrating the Chinese New Year at Holy Family Church in Como on February 9.

“By His suffering and death Jesus won for us the life of the Risen Christ which will never end.”

The day also celebrated the last Chinese New Year in Perth for Salvatorian Fr Dominic Su, the Perth Chinese Catholic community’s chaplain, who is moving back to Taiwan in September.

He said that though the people celebrate the New Year appropriately according to their customs, they can still undertake “spiritual fasting”, preparing themselves by examining their lives and reflecting on the mystery of Easter that is Christ’s resurrection. He added, however, that Catholics regularly get special dispensations for the occasion in Taiwan.

Fr Su concelebrated Mass on the day with his Salvatorian Regional Superior Fr Boguslaw Loska SDS, the Archbishop, visiting Fr Chuang

A strong part of the Chinese culture is remembering their ancestors who passed on the faith, and in their case it is especially poignant as many of them did so at risk of their own lives in Communist China.

They are still persecuted today and the practice of faith has been suppressed.

The Archbishop recognised this, saying: “At this time we think of our ancestors, of those who went before us, who handed down to us their great traditions and customs and their heritage of love for one another.

“In remembering them and doing them honour let us also pray for them, as our Christian faith teaches us that we may pray that they receive the fullness of life with God in heaven.”

Such traditions were celebrated with relish after the celebratory Mass on February 9.

A professional Chinese cultural dance company put on a memorable show of firecrackers, dragons and music replete with piercing cymbals and drums as part of the cultural ceremony

The Chinese community ensured the Archbishop entered into the celebrations as their children gave him gifts wrapped in red, a symbol of prosperity.

He also blessed two boxes of mandarins, which have special place in Chinese culture symbolising good health.

Though up to 150 Chinese Catholics attend the Chinese Mass each Sunday, Fr Su said the recent census revealed there are up to 3000 Chinese Catholics in the Archdiocese of Perth, “many of whom would actively participate in their own parishes”.

“I thank the Chinese community for the example of its strong faith,” Archbishop Hickey said.

“I pray that our community will continue to absorb others as they come to Australia to build up the Church and make it truly a community of believers.”

Chrisostom from Taiwan and Fr Jim Shelton of Bassendean, a friend of the community.

Traditional celebrations: Above, members of the Chinese Catholic community play traditional cultural musical instruments after the Mass celebrating the Chinese new year. Below, Archbishop Barry HIckey gratefully receives red cards, a symbol of prosperity.

PHOTOS: ANTHONY BARICH

Immaculate Conception

Vatican City (CNA) - In an article published by L’Osservatore Romano, Italian historian Francesco Guglietta, an expert on the life of Pius IX, revealed how the Pontiff decided to consult with the bishops of the world to proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854.

Guglietta points out that the revolution that ended with the proclamation of the “Roman Republic” in 1848 and that forced the Pope to take up residence for nine months in Gaeta, south of Rome, had a profound effect on the Pontiff, who had openly sympathized with the European revolutionary movements.

“During this time, in fact, Pius IX progressively lost trust in the processes of the ‘revolution’ that were taking place in Europe and distanced himself from the liberal Catholic environment, beginning to see in the insurrection movement, as well as in the ‘modernity’ of that time, a dangerous snare for the life of the Church,” Guglietta writes.

The expert points out that “understanding what happened with the thinking of Pius IX in Gaeta is of significant historic relevance” and was fundamental for his decision of proclaiming the Marian dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

According to this tradition, Pope Pius IX spent a long period in prayer in Gaeta before a painting of the Immaculate Conception by Scipione Pulzone preserved in the so-called Chapel of Gold, and that moment of encounter with God convinced him to proclaim the dogma.

However, French historian and professor Louis Baunard said that while gazing upon the Mediterranean from the city, “the Pope mediated on remarks made to him by Cardinal Luigi Lambruschini: Holy Father, you will not be able to heal the world unless you proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Only this dogmatic definition will reestablish the meaning of the Christian truths and bring minds back from the paths of naturalism upon which they have become lost.”

According to Guglietta, naturalism, which rejected all supernatural truth, could be considered the “backdrop” for the Pope’s proclamation of the dogma.

“The affirmation of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin laid a strong foundation for affirming and strengthening the certainty of the primacy of grace and the work of Providence in the lives of men.”

He said Pius IX, despite his enthusiasm, welcomed the idea of consulting with the bishops of the world, who expressed their agreement, leading him to finally proclaim the dogma.

Our Lady had her say, too. In 1830 she appeared to St Catherine Labore in Paris and gave us the medal of the Immaculate Conception which quickly became known as the Miraculous Medal.

In 1858 she virtually confirmed Pius IX’s declaration by identifying herslf at Lordes as the Immaculate Conception.

Pilgrims touch, bathe, drink for Mary’s intervention at

Lourdes

■ By Regina Linskey

LOURDES, France (CNS) - Pilgrims come to the Massabielle grotto to slide their fingers and run their hands along its damp walls smoothed by years of touching. They touch the walls with scarves, rosaries and folded pieces of paper with written prayer intentions.

They toss photos of loved ones, written intentions and bouquets of flowers into the grotto’s crevices.

Men and women on their knees silently pray, facing a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes placed where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous 150 years ago.

Groups of pilgrims walk through the grotto holding candles and sometimes spontaneously singing “Ave Maria.” They place the candles at the outdoor votive stations, where the words “The flame continues my prayers” appear in several languages.

People drink and bathe in the holy water of the Sanctuaries of Our Lady of Lourdes, hoping that their prayers for Mary’s intervention will be heard, inner peace will be found and

faith will be restored, pilgrims told Catholic News Service in mid-February.

Sue Jarvis of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said she left a photograph of herself and her late father at the grotto. But Jarvis said she came mostly for her 18-year-old daughter, Megan, who has a brain tumor.

She was not expecting miracles from visiting the sanctuaries, but needed a spiritual retreat to feel refreshed and to receive peace of mind, Jarvis told CNS.

Father Andrew Dubois, vicar for priests for the Diocese of Portland, Maine, said he feels this peace of mind at the grotto.

“When we clutter our minds, we have a way of distracting ourselves,” he said. “And the grotto gives that (peace) back to you.”

In the ninth of 18 apparitions, Mary directed St. Bernadette to drink from the spring at the grotto.

There was barely any water; what was there was muddy, and it took St. Bernadette four attempts to drink it. But today, the water flows clear through the sanctuaries’ spigots and baths.

The extremely sick and the extremely determined sometimes wait in line for hours

to reach the baths inside chambers near the grotto. Mac Carvajal, a banker from Houston, has visited Lourdes twice and dipped in the baths several times.

“I wanted to heal ... personal things I had inside me. I wanted to cleanse, and I thought this was the best way to do it,” he told CNS, noting that life changed significantly for him after his first trip to Lourdes.

Debora Boucaud, a nurse practitioner from the New York borough of Queens, is a volunteer at the grotto. Nearly all workers controlling the crowds and helping at the baths, grotto and votive stations are volunteers.

Boucaud has helped women undress and pray and has guided them as they kneel in the cool waters of the baths. Many of the women “come in very poor attire and very poor health,” she said.

“As nurses, we are taught (in school) to treat the patient holistically,” but in practice the spiritual side is ignored and a patient is treated “in a secular way” with medicine, she said.

“Here at Lourdes, the treatment is the spirituality. You don’t have to inquire what illness;

Vigil at Mercedes’ Grotto

Mercedes College prays vigil to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes

Mercedes College made good use of its replica Lourdes grotto when its ex-student Association MESA organised an allnight prayer vigil on February 10th to mark the 150th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes.

Members of the Mercedes community prayed the Rosary, read from the book by Francis Trochu on the life of Saint Bernadette and meditated privately through the night.

Fifteen candles were lit every hour giving a special feeling. The city at night was quiet and the setting so tranquil as people prayed quietly in the beautiful

gardens on a clear balmy night. People came and went quietly to pray the rosary and reflect on the wonder of the life of Saint Bernadette.

Sr Joan Smith RSM, a member of the College Board, noted as the celebration began that the first sign associated with the event was the timely flowering of the yellow roses at the foot of the grotto just below the statue of Our Lady.

The miracle of the transformation of mere bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ was shared by those who gathered for the 7am Mass, celebrated by Father Marcellinus OFM, who offered the Mass for those in need of healings, both spiritual and physical.

The graces continued later on the day of the feast as students began asking questions that had never occurred to them before – “Why do we pray the seemingly repetitive prayers of the rosary? Did Bernadette really see Our Lady?

What does her title, The Immaculate Conception mean?”

MESA sponsored the building of the grotto in 1931. A Mercedes spokesperson said it was a great way to get reacquainted with the Rosary, to connect with the history of St Bernadette and to honour the college’s Marian links.

“The grotto is a constant reminder to our girls of our Mercy heritage as they rush across the campus in their busy school days,” the spokesperson said.

The grotto now needs repairs and MESA hopes that the Mercedes community will be generous in helping to raise funds for the Lourdes Grotto, a prayer space in the centre of the campus.

it r sam cha the pilg sin aro ritu of ten pro yea tua int in Ma dre ent Ma rais tho of of

Pope Pius IX

at home and abroad at Golden Novena

really doesn’t matter, the treatment is the me,” she said, adding that the job is mentally allenging because “you see all the pain ... all emotions.”

The evening rosary procession, in which grims hold candles, recite the rosary and ng “Ave Maria” while slowly wrapping ound the sanctuaries’ grounds, is a popular ual at Lourdes.

On the eve of the Feb. 11 feast of Our Lady Lourdes and the World Day of the Sick, ns of thousands of pilgrims took part in the ocession.

Bill Mackowick, who brought his twin 15ar-old sons, Tom and Mike, to the sancaries from Pittsburgh, said he came to roduce his sons to Mary, “the greatest mom the world.” Following a difficult divorce, ackowick is the sole caregiver of his chilen.

Although his sons were not exactly thused to join the pilgrimage to Lourdes, ackowick said he was touched as his sons sed their candles high in union with the ousands of other pilgrims during the refrain “Ave Maria.” He said he knew the message Lourdes was sinking in for them.

Goldfields Celebrate 150th Anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady in Lourdes, France

■ By Harry Argus

The Goldfields has been showered with graces and blessings during celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Our Lady’s Lourdes apparitions.

St Mary’s Church in Kalgoorlie was selected as one of nine churches in the Archdiocese of Perth as a pilgrim shrine to celebrate the 150 years of the apparitions of Our Lady to St Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in France.

A Plenary Indulgence – the complete remission of temporal punishment (purgatory) due to sin whose guilt has already been forgiven – was granted to Catholics who visited one of the nine pilgrimage sites between February 2 and 11.

The novena to Our Lady, which has been a great success in the Goldfields, began on the Saturday 6.30pm parish Mass at St Mary’s Church in Kalgoorlie, where many of the faithful attended.

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School 50th Anniversary.

Our Lady of Lourdes School in Nollamara is celebrating its 50th anniversary since opening in 1958. The School’s celebrations coincide with the 150 year anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous, at Lourdes in France.

To celebrate the Our Lady of Lourdes feast day, the school participated in a procession through the streets around the Nollamara parish carrying a statue of Mary and reciting the Rosary. This was followed by a whole school Mass and a picnic at Kings Park.

This is the first of many events which will be celebrated throughout the year to commemorate 50 years of Catholic Education.

Feast Day: student’s light the way and carry Our Lady’s statue in procession at Nollamara

During the novena, daily Masses were well attended, and the Rite of Reconciliation was available on request, giving many parishioners and pilgrims the opportunity to visit Our Lady’s Shrine for private prayers and blessings.

The beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday, and the return of children to school for the new academic year of 2008, gave the parishioners and most of the students from the two Goldfields primary Catholic schools and one college added opportunities to visit St Mary’s Church and shrine. The novena to Our Lady ended at the 6pm Mass on Monday February 11, when a special Mass was celebrated, and about seventy parishioners received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick by Fr Joseph Rathnarj.

Fr Nelson Po had earlier in the day celebrated Mass at the Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel at 9.30am and had also anointed the elderly and sick at their Home for the Aged.

Locals expressed their thanks and blessings to Archbishop Barry Hickey for appointing the nine centres of pilgrimage to Our Lady in the Archdiocese. “Many blessings will flow from these nine days,” was the common thought throughout the week.

Angels on guard: Our Lady’s corner in St Mary’s, Kalgoorlie.

Prayer on the move

Kath Snow

Ipray mainly moving around because I’m a person who can’t stay still! If I sit down to pray my mind tends to wander. When my husband Ken and I go on our walks or I’m raking up the lawn I say decades of the Rosary for various family members.

How I Pray Now

I’ve been married for 52 years, had seven children two of whom died. One died of a hole in the heart and the other of cot death. I have 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. I have a very busy life and I’m very content with it. I love nature and enjoy traveling. I mix mainly with non church goers and my husband is not Catholic.

with Debbie Warrier

I tend to repeat short prayers, like, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for us” or “Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” or “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in thee.” I say these especially when I’m troubled or upset.

When I wake up in the middle of the night I say the morning offering and the act of sorrow. Then hopefully I go back to sleep! From then on I pray when I think about it. I go to Mass every Sunday. I usually try to do the Advent program and the Lenten program at our parish. Sometimes in church and at retreats you can feel so close to God. However, I can run hot and cold with my faith. My favourite prayer is, “Lord, don’t give up on me!”

In 1998 on Christmas Eve I was diagnosed with a bowel cancer. The malignant tumor had gone outside of the bowel and into a couple of lymph nodes. I was operated on and it was completely removed. I had chemotherapy for six months and now get checked every two years. My husband had chemotherapy and radiation last year. My daughter has a melanoma and is in remission.

I joined the Cancer Support Group at Our Lady of Grace Church in North Beach where I’m a parishioner. Geraldine [the group facilitator] is caring and oozes faith. I’ve met a few people like that in my life that are just so lovely. As the group meets on the first Friday of every month, we go to Mass. We have a cup of tea and chat about people that we know. We’ll have a reading, not necessarily something from the Bible but something pertinent. Then we say a prayer for all those we know who have cancer. We keep an interest in how they’re going. After that we say the Rosary before we go home. The group is social but with a meaning behind it. I keep going to the group because maybe someone else needs the prayers.

If you hurt after your operation, you pray that you can get through that suffering without too much complaining. You pray that your efforts may help someone worse off than you are. You offer your pain up for other people and that helps you put up with it.

A friend of ours had a spastic child and another friend said, “Oh, I couldn’t deal with that.” I agreed and said, “The good Lord would never send you one.” If He sends you a cross then he’ll give you the strength to deal with it.

Perspectives

The meaning of art is human

Perth-based Scalabrinian Tony Paganoni CS writes a series of reflections on the significance of cathedrals in the life of a church and the wider community.

One difficulty has to be recognized. There is no generally recognized definition of art any more than there is a generally recognised definition of religion or philosophy. But there is no doubt about the reality of art, of spirit in stone or on canvas or in a musical text.

I hope I shall not be misunderstood. Is there a risk of overlooking the great achievements that have resulted from the introduction of new materials’. I hope I am not one of those who deny any creative vitality and possibility of innovation in modern art.

I know that the great masters were always innovators, that most descriptions of their style resembled a form of abuse for deviating from existing norms. And how often have people talked about art coming to an end and found their prognoses belied by surprising further developments?

And yet, surprisingly, I find it difficult to come to terms with some of the more visible contradictions of the art scene. There are so many provocations which are no longer provocative; so many protests with nothing or very little to protest about; so much publicity and a relatively

small public; so many revolutionaries financed and supported by the Establishment; so many artists who live quite well on what they proclaim to be the ‘death of art’, the ‘renunciation of art’ and the ‘art of artlessness’.

In Loss of the Centre (the title has become proverbial), Christian Hans Sedlmayr pleads against the pressure for autonomy and for the purity of the arts, against the modern principles of pure architecture, pure painting, pure drawing…as if the past never existed and the future would only be a chaotic convergence of mysterious forces, all in the name of neglecting the higher, spiritual, humane and metaphysical. On the path of modern autonomy, there is an increasing loss of that centre of meaning which is in fact the human being, between sense and spirit. Not as autonomous agent, but as made in God’s image. Let art be human: that is, whatever its themes and styles, let it serve humanity and, against all dehumanizing forces active in the world of today, let it throw light on the way forward that awaits us all. In our age of mass media, the value of art as information giver has certainly declined from the time when the great majority of people could read only pictures. In our world the visual arts offer a sense of orientation and of life that we need more than ever today, and which politics cannot replace. Streams of visitors to museums and exhibitions (now and in a foreseeable future) prove, once again, that the spirit in stone has its own witness, projecting its impact and power.

Spirit in Stone

of Cathedrals and communities

Anthony Paganoni CS

The writings of Maria Valtorta

By Fr John Flader

Some time ago a friend gave me a copy of The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta, an Italian mystic. It was on the life of Christ and I found it quite inspirational. Then another friend told me I shouldn’t read it because the Vatican had warned against Valtorta’s writings. Whom should I believe?

When the Vatican warns against a particular writing, there is a good reason for the warning and one should always trust the Church, which teaches with the authority of Christ, assisted by the Holy Spirit.

But let us return to the principal facts regarding Maria Valtorta. She was born in Caserta, Italy in 1897. At the age of 23, she was attacked and beaten with an iron bar and was never completely well again. From 1933 on, she was unable to leave her bed.

On Good Friday, 1943, she began to receive “dictations” on the life of Christ.

In 1947, she handed over 10,000 handwritten pages to her spiritual director, Father Romuald Migliorini, OSM Father Migliorini had them typed and bound and they were presented to Father (later Cardinal) Augustin

Bea, SJ, the spiritual director of Pope Pius XII.

On Feb. 26, 1948, Father Migliorini and two other Servites had a private audience with Pope Pius XII, during which the priests remembered the Pope saying: “Publish this work as it is. There is no need to give an opinion about its origin, whether it be extraordinary or not. Who reads it, will understand. One hears of many visions and revelations. I will not say they are all authentic; but there are some of which it could be said that they are.”

Father Berti OSM then took the books to the Vatican press to be printed. However, in 1949 two commissioners of the Holy Office, Msgr. Giovanni Pepe and Father Berruti, OP, condemned the Poem, ordering Berti to hand over every copy and to sign an agreement not to publish it. Father Berti returned the manuscripts to Valtorta and handed over his typed copies.

Despite his signed promise, in 1952 Father Berti went to publisher Emiliano Pisani. Though aware of the Holy Office’s opposition, Pisani printed the first volume in 1956 and a new volume each year till 1959. When the fourth volume appeared, the Holy Office examined the Poem and condemned it, including it on the Index of Forbidden Books on December 16, 1959 by a decree signed by Pope John XXIII.

On January 6, 1960, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano printed the condemnation with an accompanying front-

page article entitled “A Badly Fictionalised Life of Jesus”.

The article gave various reasons for the condemnation. Valtorta’s fictionalised history makes Jesus sound “like a chatterbox, always ready to proclaim himself the Messiah and the Son of God.” There are “many historical, geographical and other blunders.” For instance, Jesus uses screwdrivers centuries before screws existed. (Vol. 1, pp. 195, 223)

On January 31, 1985, Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote to Genoa’s Cardinal Giuseppe Siri on the book’s status, recalling L’Osservatore Romano’s judgment that it was “a badly fictionalised life of Jesus.”

He added that even though the Index was abolished in 1966, it still retained its moral force. As regards the publication of the book, he said: “A decision against distributing and recommending a work, which had not been condemned lightly, may be reversed, but only after profound changes that neutralise the harm which such a publication could bring forth among the ordinary faithful.”

In view of these warnings, it is clear that while some people may find The Poem of the Man-God inspirational, the book presents an image of Jesus and Mary that is not always faithful to the Gospels and that can be seriously misleading. For this reason it is better to read the Scriptures and the many approved books of the life of Christ.

Amazing: Visitors make their way down the spiral staircase at the exit of the Vatican Museums. More than 3 million people tour the museums each year.

PHOTO: CNS/NANCY WIECHEC.

Perspectives

‘Sorry and Thank You’

Being Heard

By John Heard

On Wednesday, February 13, 2008 the Parliament of Australia formally apologised to the Stolen Generations, those aboriginal individuals separated from their families under a policy of forced removal and relocation. This policy was supported and enforced by previous Australian governments and populations.

This apology, I know, has been resisted in some places and no place has produced more opposition than Western Australia.

It is also true that Western Australia is a population centre for indigenous people and that the Western Australian Government apologised in 1997.

Perhaps then, at least among non-aboriginal Australians, entrenched opposition to an apology has three (non exclusive) potential sources: racism, superior experience / expert opinion and / or pride. This is because, following the Church’s lead, it is hard to imagine why people of good will would persist in rejecting an apology now.

We can certainly deal with the racist without crediting his putative arguments. If anyone opposed the apology because he has

warped ideas about the intrinsic value and equality of human beings, it need barely be re-stated that such opposition is irrational and unorthodox. It is un-Australian.

The task before Australians who support the apology is, then, to apply the rigours and beauty of the culture of life to racist ideology. As Catholics, we are called to do this sort of work every day.

But the vast majority of opponents are not racist, so what else motivates them? I have some time for the idea that ongoing experience with aboriginal people lends certain groups superior knowledge, making it more difficult for them to stomach an apology.

This source of opposition is much more profound. Certainly, it is true that some people – especially in the West and the North – have a better understanding of the plight of indigenous people.

Many of them reject an apology because they think it is waffle. They rightly resist symbolic nonsense that allows the rest of the nation to feel good, while either ignoring or else permanently delaying some real struggles, including the ongoing fight for indigenous land rights and community well being.

To such people I say hold on. Keep the faith. Those others of us who share your concerns about practical reconciliation and related issues (for instance, closing the egregious gap between indigenous and non-indigenous health and standards) view the apology as a concrete first step. It is seamlessly joined to an ongoing, compassionate and hard-nosed campaign of reform.

By apologising formally we indicate that we will not cut and run. Opposition on this point, then, should give way. Good people everywhere will ensure that the most humane and sage recommendations from the Bringing Them Home Report will be implemented. This apology will only strengthen our hand.

It is also true that some individuals, in particular in law enforcement and the legal profession, know too well the trouble indigenous individuals sometimes present to the good order and flourishing of local communities.

I have great sympathy for the Perth magistrate who sees the same criminal return, time and again, to court. I applaud those who are working hard to overcome the entrenched culture of child and alcohol abuse that continues to threaten so many vulnerable young people in aboriginal settlements.

But it would be narrow-minded or worse to treat the problems that contribute to the genesis of such socially inept, criminal individuals as incorrigible.

And, while it would be silly to claim that all aboriginal people are – by dint of their race – worse off, it would be short-sighted and mean to pretend that many of them are not indeed doing very badly, and for reasons that have much to do with flawed government and non-aborigine efforts.

Finally, there is our pride or better yet, the need for a proper reckoning with history.

Unlike some apology supporters, I do not think we have any authority over or access to the motivations and intentions of previous generations, and alongside prominent

Aboriginal lawyer and activist Noel Pearson, I affirm and celebrate the contributions of those Christian missionaries who devoted their lives and talents to lifting the first nations up to Christ.

We need never apologise for good will, for the very Christian desire to help others.

As I understand it, however, the formal apology carries no such connotations and anyway, the vast majority of indigenous Australians would not welcome these. Many indigenous Australians continue to benefit from Christian care and embrace, with love, their Catholic faith.

Opposition on this final ground is, then, similarly overcome. It simply does not apply.

Nothing stands between good people, compassionate Western Australians, Australian Christians, Catholics and good people everywhere and a heartfelt and sincere remorse for the wrong that was done in the past in the name of Australia’s governments, social institutions, etc.

For these reasons, I encourage you to join with me. Let us stand together in solidarity with the first nations and support the national Parliament, with the Prime Minister and with all Australians of good will, in apologising to the Stolen Generations.

Let all indigenous Australians who have suffered know now, at last, how truly, corporately and publicly sorry we are and how resolved we continue to be that nothing like this should ever happen again.

John Heard is a Melbourne writer.

An exercise in the queen of virtues

Edith Cowan University Journalism student Joanna Lawson has gone to India this summer to establish Branches, a project aimed at helping the exploited working poor in Goa. Her column appears regularly in The Record.

The Vine Branches

By Joanna Lawson

Of all the virtues, patience is the queen…” or something along those lines my grandmother used to say while I squirmed away from her lap and ran off to do something else, growing tired of the seemingly endless minutes it took for her to relate her words of wisdom to me.

Always a “fidgety child” (mother’s words), this condition of constantly needing something new or interesting to flow into my life has become a feature (and vice of adulthood).

If it were an illness – and some might propose ADD – then surely God made a cure, and that is trying to get anywhere or do anything in India.

People had warned me beforehand: “you know, lines are long and babus like to always send you to the next counter till you’ve done a whole round of the office.” The filibustering of getting paperwork done is legendary

– but I just wanted to catch a bus to Pune, and rumour had it that one left every half an hour from the Dardar bus stand (a major hub of transport in Mumbai).

The 11 O’clock bus looked just the pick of the bunch and after getting stuck in traffic it looked a little dicey as to whether I would make it (luckily that New Year’s resolution to

always be five minutes early was still going strong) and from there meet a friend at the train station who was arriving at four in the afternoon.

At a couple of minutes to 11, flying down the footpath along which the tickets to the bus are sold, one chap yelled out that there was still a ticket for a bus leaving “right now”.

He said it with such emphasis, and pointedly struck his finger to the desk as if not another second would elapse before the bus would trundle off without me.

“Go there…” he motioned to his partner who was making his way through the crowd. I followed and he deposited me at a corner where a collection of students and an old Muslim man were waiting. But there was no bus.

Nor was there one in five minutes. Or ten. Right now had passed a long time ago, and I was off to find out what had gone wrong.

The following hour was a sideshow of being shuffled around, left at other corners, enquiring for the time and complaining rather loudly about the situation.

A whole hour of precious time that could have been spent on other activities…gone! At a quarter past 12, the 11 O’clock bus left Dardar, and I was happy.

Meanwhile, on a small stretch of road in Santa Cruz, wedged in between two stalls selling salwaar kameez, a husband and wife were unfolding a small patch of cloth, on which they placed neatly cut and bundled neem sticks for people to chew and clean their teeth.

They do this every day, sitting there, waiting for someone to buy, but hour after hour, people walk past. And they sit…and sit, completely aware that they are ignored by everyone.

How long is a lonely hour? I remembered this couple while I was on the bus and shamefully thought of how I could not even stand to “waste” one waiting for a bus. They spend every day waiting for a customer, patiently.

Patience: While waiting for a bus in Dardar, Joanna Lawson learns that patience really is the greatest of all virtues.

PHOTO: JOANNA LAWSON.

the World

Dioceses must be meticulous about saints

Don’t jump the gun: Norms for saints’ causes call for careful study

■ By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In a new set of rules encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican is requiring dioceses to be more meticulous and objective when they prepare local sainthood causes.

The new norms do not introduce revolutionary changes in the existing process, but they tighten up the margin of error and require better documentation in order to avoid carelessness or even, in the Vatican’s words, “fraud or deception.”

The rules are contained in a 45page instruction made public by the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in February. The instruction revises the procedures used by dioceses to recognize and investigate potential saints before forwarding their causes to Rome.

The instruction covers everything from the medical investigation of miraculous cures to the interrogation of favorable and unfavorable witnesses.

Above all, it urges those investigating the life of a would-be saint to act with utmost impartiality and avoid whitewashing any personal faults or negative aspects that emerge.

The basis for opening a sainthood investigation is that the subject enjoys a “fame of holiness” - or “fame of martyrdom” if a martyr - among the faithful of the place where he or she lived. Investigators also must show a “fame of signs” or graces received through the person’s intercession.

“The fame must be spontaneous and not artificially procured. It must be stable, continuous and widespread among people worthy of faith and present in a significant part of the people of God,” the instruction says.

In other words, this cannot be merely a small group of people who decide their deceased friend was a good Christian. Nor can it be a religious order that pushes the cause of a founder or member who is not widely known or influential outside the order.

That’s a point Pope Benedict emphasised in a talk to the saints’ congregation in 2006, when he said a sainthood cause cannot be initiated without proven fame of holiness, “even if these people distinguished themselves through consistency to the Gospel and through ecclesial and social merits.” The local Bishop must appoint a postulator to investigate all of this, and he cannot hide

any “contrary findings,” the instruction says. All the faithful must be invited to give information about the cause.

Two basic types of evidence are gathered about a would-be saint: an examination of writings and oral testimony. Theological experts must examine published writings and are encouraged to look at unpublished writings, too, in order to make sure they conform to the faith.

Again, the experts are instructed not to leave out any negative aspects they may uncover.

When it comes to the interrogation of witnesses, the new rules are designed to exclude any risk of leading questions. Questions should be “brief, not tricky, not deceitful, not suggesting an answer,” the instruction says.

At least for causes of those recently deceased, those testifying should be eyewitnesses, having had direct knowledge of the person. They should be asked to provide concrete facts and specific examples, not merely impressions or second-hand information.

For the cause of a religious congregation member, most witnesses should come from outside the order. A confessor or spiritual director should not be called to be a witness, the instruction states.

If the witness’ testimony is taperecorded, the witness must listen to the tape in order to make corrections or clarifications, then sign a transcript of the final version.

The new rules insist on careful investigation of presumed miraculous healings, with testimony from doctors involved. If the person cured is still alive, two experts must personally check the health of the person and use “all clinical and technical means” to judge whether he or she truly and permanently was cured.

The instruction addresses old and new technology. On the one hand, it tells diocesan officials how to bind and fasten documentswith the seal of the local bishop - for security purposes before sending them to Rome.

On the other hand, it specifically states that a computer may be used in the interrogation of witnesses - a rare instance of the Vatican giving its official blessing to digital data.

The document repeatedly sounds a note of caution: At no time in this preliminary process should diocesan officials give Catholics the idea that the person under investigation is certain to be named a saint.

This don’t-jump-the-gun caveat doesn’t rule out private devotion as the sainthood cause takes its course, but there should be no public devotion carried out by the local church without prior authorization by the Vatican.

Benedict XVI hastens Sister Lucia’s sainthood process

Pope reduces waiting period for sainthood cause for Fatima visionary

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org).- Pope Benedict XVI announced he will dispense with the five-year waiting period established by Canon Law to open the cause of beatification of Sister Lucia, one of the three Fatima visionaries.

The news was announced in the cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal, by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, on the third anniversary of the Carmelite’s death.

The Holy Father dispensed with the established waiting period once before for the cause of Pope John Paul II.

Pope Benedict XVI made that announcement on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, some 42 days after the Pontiff’s death in 2005. John Paul II waived the waiting period in the case of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

The blessed died on September 5, 1997, and was beatified by John Paul II on October 19, 2003.

A communiqué of the Vatican press office states: “Benedict XVI, taking into account the petition presented by Bishop Albino Mamede Cleto of Coimbra, and supported by numerous bishops and faithful from all parts of the world, has revoked the five-year waiting period established by the canonical norms (cf. Article 9 of the ‘Normae Servandae’), and he has allowed for the diocesan phase of the Carmelite’s cause of beatification to begin three years after her death.”

Lucia de Jesus dos Santos was 10 years old when she said she saw for the first time, on May 13, 1917, a lady whom she later identified as the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Perth Archdiocesan Historical Commission briefed by sainthood expert

The Archdiocese of Perth’s Historical Commission was briefed by sainthood expert Fr James FitzPatrick on February 5.

Historical commission members Vicar General Fr Brian O’Loughlin (chair), diocesan archivist Sr Frances Stibi PBVM, UNDA Professor Dr Shane Burke, former AMA president Dr Paul Skerritt who revealed information about Bishop Martin Griver’s medical background last year in The Record, St Thomas More College rector Fr Kevin Long, and former Record editor Fr Pat Cunningham were briefed by Fr FitzPatrick,

in the Cova da Ira.

She saw the vision with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who were beatified by John Paul II in Fatima, in 2000.

In a pastoral letter dated October 13, 1930, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima, José Alves Correia da Silva, declared the apparitions of Fatima worthy of faith and allowed public devotion. Since then, the shrine has become a centre of spirituality and pilgrimage of international scope.

Born in Aljustrel in 1907, Lucia moved to Oporto in 1921, and at 14 was admitted as a boarder in the School of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Vilar, on the city’s outskirts.

On October 24, 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of St Dorothy and at the same time was admitted as a postulant in the congregation’s convent in Tuy, Spain, near the Portuguese border.

She made her first vows on October 3, 1928, and her perpetual vows on October 3, 1934, receiving the name Sister Mary of the Sorrowful Mother.

She returned to Portugal in 1946 and two years later entered the Carmelite convent of St Teresa in Coimbra, where she made her profession as a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949, taking the name Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.

She wrote two volumes, one entitled “Memories” and the other “Appeals of the Fatima Message.” In her writings, she recounts how the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus appeared to her on other occasions, years after the initial apparitions.

The mortal remains of the Carmelite were moved in 2006 to the Shrine of Fatima. The body of the nun, who died at age 97, is buried next to Jacinta. Francisco is buried in the same basilica.

who said he has worked on 31 canonisation cases while at the Oblate of Mary Immaculate General House in Rome. Fr O’Loughlin told The Record that Fr FitzPatrick, now based in Camberwell, Victoria, told the Historical Commission that canonisation is not so much about dead bodies but the faith life of the person being venerated.

So the Church asks if there is a living memory of the holy person. Sometimes it is immediate like Blessed Mother Teresa or is long delayed.

He said the Church’s canonisation process is twofold: the person must be a model whose holy life the faithful can imitate; and the holy person in question becomes an intercessor, standing before God on the faithful’s behalf.

Saintly presence?: Sister Lucia dos Santos meets with Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1982, in Fatima, Portugal. The Pope credited the Virgin Mary with helping him to survive the assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican one year earlier, on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Sister Lucia died on February 13, 2005 at the age of 97 at her convent in Coimbra, Portugal. PHOTO: CNS

What kind of USA will Pope meet?

US ecumenical ties strong despite challenges to Christian unity

WASHINGTON (CNS) - More people profess Catholicism in the United States than any other single religion. There are 64.4 million Catholics, representing close to 22 percent of the nation’s total population.

But the overall number of Catholics and other Christians represents an overwhelming majority of the US population, which has now passed the 300 million mark.

Although there are denominational divides and new fissures continue to threaten unity even within faiths considered mainstream, Catholic and other Christian leaders engaged in ecumenical relations continue to see its importance.

The US Catholic Church’s ecumenical efforts include dialogues with Lutherans, Methodists and evangelicals and a consultation with Anglicans. It also belongs to Christian Churches Together in the USA, founded in March 2006 and considered the broadest, most inclusive ecumenical movement in US history. That’s the ecumenical landscape Pope Benedict XVI will find during his mid-April visit to the United States.

On the Pope’s itinerary is an April 18 ecumenical prayer service in New York with leaders of other Christian denominations at St. Joseph’s Church, which was founded by German Catholics. The meeting comes a day after he gathers with 200 religious leaders at an interfaith prayer service in Washington.

Fr James Gardiner, a member of the Society of the Atonement, an order founded to foster ecumenical dialogue, said these are “very challenging and very encouraging” times for ecumenism.

“One of the most interesting things we just did was for the (annual) Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (in January). We asked people to tell us what they were doing. The stuff was coming in fast and furious,” he said in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service. His order’s headquarters are in Garrison, New York.

For example, he said, the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, “had a Week of Prayer service, but they’re also having a prayer service around Pentecost for the same thing. They’re not limiting themselves to one time a year.” The Episcopal Church, the US branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, has seen tensions rise within the denomination over the 2003 ordination of an openly gay bishop and a move to bless same-sex unions. One Episcopal diocese voted in December to

secede from the Episcopal Church and align itself with an Anglican branch it considers more orthodox in adhering to Anglican teaching.

Because of these tensions, “what we want from our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters is patience and to keep the conversation going,” said Episcopal Bishop Christopher Epting, who since 2001 has been his denomination’s deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations. “We’re very encouraged that things have not broken off. We continue to stay at the table.”

After 40 years of Catholic-Episcopal dialogue in the United States, the task of unity is “not easier. I think it’s increasingly difficult,” Bishop Epting said.

In times past, he added, “we’d begun to develop our own identities apart from one another - and sometimes not even in conversation with one another. When we make decisions (now) we know it affects the other church. We have consulted with Rome and the US Catholic Church in our struggles.”

The Catholic Church is, ecumenically speaking, “the elephant in the living room,” Bishop Epting said. “If we can’t (work with) the Roman Catholic Church ecumenically, we can’t really be ecumenical at all.”

Addressing the impact of U.S. religious pluralism on ecumenical dialogue, the Rev. Doug Mills, the United Methodist Church’s chief ecumenical officer, said: “I don’t know that it makes it easier or more difficult. I think that religious diversity in the US gives a different context, a context we’re very familiar with, but a context that has its own complexities.” Rev. Mills said Methodists may have some issues with Catholic belief and practice, but after 40-plus years of dialogue, it’s still hard to define one issue as insurmountable.

“I don’t know that we’ve really said there is one issue that we cannot get over,” he told CNS. “I think there are some significant issues we have not yet begun to grasp.

“I know for United Methodists one of those issues might be the role of the bishop of Rome and possibly the place of Mary - probably more, devotion to Marymight be one of those,” he continued. “I’m guessing, but I suspect that for Catholics one of those issues that need deeper discussion is the ordering of ministry, especially the role of women, and the episcopacy.”

Many Protestant denominations in the 20th century began to allow the ordination of women. The Catholic Church has repeatedly said its teaching that it does not have the authority to ordain women is definitive and that the issue is not open to debate among Catholics.

“I think everybody has a different way of dealing with the ordering of ministry,” Rev. Mills said.

U.S. Church

Catholic population in millions

1979 1999 2007

Catholics

A look at some key figures on the U.S. Catholic Church as it prepares for a visit by Pope Benedict XVI parishes

18,700

19,19018,640

Pope John Paul made his first visit to the U.S. in 1979 and his last in 1999.

Source: Official Catholic Directory

British Cardinal rejects Anglican prelate’s call for Shariah law in UK

Cardinal rejects idea of Shariah as part of British legal system; but is “saddened” by the way Anglican prelate was misunderstood and polarised

■ By Simon Caldwell

LONDON (CNS) - An English Cardinal has rejected suggestions that aspects of Shariah, or Islamic law might be incorporated into the British legal system.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster distanced himself from remarks made in a speech by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, but he added he was “saddened” by the way the Archbishop had been misunderstood.

In a February 7 lecture on Islam and English law, Archbishop Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said Britain needed to continue to find accommodation with religious legal codes such as Shariah if community cohesion and development are to be achieved.

Archbishop Williams told the British Broadcasting Corp. hours before the lecture in London that the adoption of some aspects of Shariah in Britain “seems unavoidable.” Senior Anglican bishops from around the world criticized his remarks, and some called for his resignation.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor declined to criticize the archbishop but made his views on Shariah clear in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph on February 10.

“I don’t believe in a multicultural society,” he said.

“When people come into this country they have to obey the laws of the land.

“There are going to be certain things which might clash in the overall culture of the country. That’s where one has to make a judgment,” he said.

“There are aspects of Shariah that are practised that we certainly wouldn’t want in this country. The laws of this country don’t allow forced marriages or polygamy,” he said, adding that governments had “a right to make sure that those laws are kept.”

The Cardinal said that multiculturalism had “meant a lessening of the kind of unity that a country needs.”

“It is not enough for people to live within their own cultures and then say ‘We’ll live within the freedoms that are given in this country within a totally separate culture,’” he said.

“Of course you can keep the variety of traditions, but when you enter this country there are common values which are part of its heritage, which should be embraced by everybody.”

The Cardinal, one of six children of Irish migrants, said it would be better if Muslims contributed beyond their own families to the common good, saying they would then “become a normal part of this country and, indeed, cherish those values that should be common to everyone.”

Muslims believe the Shariah is the revealed law of God.

It informs their religious, social, domestic and private lives but is opposed by many non-Muslims because it demands inequalities between men and women and between Muslims and people of other faiths or no faith.

In some parts of the world it is used to justify slavery and punishments such as amputations for theft, stoning for adultery and the death penalty for apostasy.

In his lecture, Archbishop Williams said that “nobody in their right mind, I think, would want to see in this country a kind of inhumanity that sometimes appears to be associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states with the extreme punishments and the attitudes to women as well.”

But he hinted that he thought Shariah courts might be an acceptable way for Muslims to settle marital disputes and financial matters.

He cautioned that such flexibility was necessary because

the increasing secularisation of the British legal system could bring religious believers into conflict with the law on matters of conscience. Archbishop Williams refused to apologise for his remarks when he addressed the Church of England General Synod in London on February 11.

He said much of what he said had been misinterpreted and that he believed “quite strongly that it is not inappropriate for a pastor of the Church of England to address issues about the perceived concerns of other religious communities and to try to bring them into better public focus.”

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor told BBC Radio 4’s “Sunday” program, “I think he did raise a point of considerable interest and concern at the moment, namely, the rights of a religious group within a secular state.”

“Everyone in Britain must obey the law and, therefore, the question of how one can be a loyal British citizen and a faithful member of a religious group is a very pertinent question,” he said on February 10.

Archbishop Williams’ lecture was praised on February 11 by the Christian Muslim Forum, an organisation founded partly by the government to further community cohesion.

“The Archbishop has opened an important debate, not primarily about Shariah, but about the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state,” said a statement co-signed by the forum presidents, including Catholic Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia.

Dominican Fr Timothy Radcliffe, former worldwide head of the Dominican order who is now based in Oxford, called Archbishop Williams’ arguments “intelligent and subtle” and the reaction “hysterical.”

“Christians believe that our intelligence is a gift from God, which should embolden us to probe complex issues, and the archbishop has shown real Christian leadership in daring to do so,” Fr Radcliffe wrote in a February 11 letter to The Times, a London-based daily newspaper.

Prayerful: Students at Loyola University pray during a Mass at the university’s Madonna Della Strada Chapel in Chicago on February 15.

PHOTO: CNS

■ By Anthony Barich

Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton has conceded to the Walking With Love symposium in Perth that the Catholic Church has taken a long time to come to grips with dealing with abortion.

The symposium, one of many around Australia initiated by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference that discuss alternatives and responses to abortion, said he hopes the forum would make the Church “very effective” in dealing with women and couples who have experienced abortion or are dealing with a crisis or unexpected pregnancy.

“They say the Church is like a ship, and ships are slow to turn around,” Bishop Sproxton told the symposium at the Floreat Forum on February 16.

“I heard a more realistic interpretation – rather than the Church being one ship, it is a flotilla of many ships.

“Some turn around quite quickly and little by little more ships begin to turn until finally the entire flotilla of ships is moving in the same direction.”

Bishop Sproxton, who was made a member of the then-Bishops’ committee for Family and for Life shortly after being consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Perth in February 2002, said the Walking With Love symposium was a long-term strategy and key initiative in the pastoral responses to abortion.

He said it was shortly after he was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Perth that the CFFFL began work on the Walking With Love project.

“The bishops’ concern was that until that time our teachings and pronouncements on abortion were focussed on the injustice of abortion,” Bishop Sproxton said.

“It is hard to teach on abortion from this point of view without sounding judgemental.

“This is not to say, of course, that these questions of justice and the rights of the unborn should be put aside.

“Rather, we felt that the tragedy of abortion is an experience of women and men, as well as the unborn child.”

“We are about listening and understanding the needs of women facing motherhood. We are about recovering compassion and support for women facing a difficult pregnancy or suffering the effects of abortion.

“We are about convincing more and more in our nation that abortion is not a solution and that there can be better, life-giving alternatives. Finally, we are about hope and healing for anyone who has been affected by abortion.”

He said the bishops reflected on the need to stand where the woman especially stands when she is faced with the unexpected or difficult pregnancy.”

Bishop Sproxton said the Australian bish-

Abortion trauma call

Continued from Page 1

-tors refer for abortions or diagnose post-abortion trauma as something else as they do not have the resources to recognise or address the problem.

“That is something I do find, as even though I am very involved with pro-life initiatives, I find that resources are very limited. In fact, I wouldn’t say I have any resources.”

The CDA would form a major partner of the organisation, which would seek to integrate with the healthcare and welfare communities, Catholic health care institutions, priests and their parishes, Catholic and public education.

The CDA is also seeking to expand its name and portfolio to include nurses and other healthcare workers, which will expand the reach of Ms Cook’s proposed agency.

Ms Cook said the agency would not need many funds to begin with; just a commitment from Catholic and like-minded professionals working together.

The agency would gather firsthand data - initially through AGCA and the pregnancy crisis centres like Pregnancy Assistance – of what women and men are actually experiencing pre-abortion, at the abortion clinics and post-abortion.

It would promote accountability from the healthcare community, which Ms Cook says is largely responsible for the abortion epidemic.

Ms Cook said it will fill a muchneeded niche as professional people who are aware of abortion trauma tend to lack confidence in this work due to the healthcare industry’s denial that it exists, and have not had the support structure or peer support.

She said they often lack insights due to their limited exposure to the traumatised and to good research and have not been in the position to explore abortion trauma’s associated political landscape.

The agency’s work would reduce abortions as women and couples who have worked through their trauma by validating the life extinguished will then work to prevent others from having abortions.

Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton supported the idea but said it would be “somewhere down the track” and not logistically possible yet as it would be spearheaded by the AGCA, which is struggling itself. Ms Cook is unpaid and a mother of seven children and runs the organisation’s crisis line with 12 volunteers. Her only employee, Mary Boston, has two months left before the non-government grant obtained last year that pays her salary runs out.

“If we are able to find more funds and retain Mary, we will be a force to be reckoned with, because Mary is a high-quality manager,” Ms Cook said.

ops felt the imperative from the lead given by the late Pope John Paul II, whose constant message to women had been encouraging and supportive.

“He hoped that this pro-woman message he had would be heard by all the Church,” Bishop Sproxton said. “So we considered how the Church would walk alongside women in a supportive, non-judgemental way.”

He said he found last year’s discussion on the high number of abortions in Australia (about 90,000 annually – about one in four pregnancies) “intriguing”, and he developed an acute sense of the tragedy that abortion represents to all involved – the woman and the man as well as the baby.

Bishop Sproxton said that the Church must be close to women especially when they are carrying their baby by giving them all the spiritual and practical support possible.

Following discussions on abortion last year, Bishop Sproxton found that the “awful reality” is that when a woman feels abandoned and unsupported abortion becomes an option.

He said this must be manifested not just through priests, but parishioners can become “immediate ministers” for women with unplanned pregnancies; in doing so they will be responding to John Paul II’s 1995 Encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life).

■ By Anthony Barich

Professional denial, lack of spousal support and a personal sense of duty to others are the biggest factors that lead to women having abortions, says Abortion Grief Counselling Association national director Julie Cook.

She said that in her experience, it appears that women want to be pro-life and are naturally protective of their babies, but all around them, including society itself, tells them otherwise.

Ms Cook, who has dealt with hundreds of women on AGCA’s grief and pregnancy counselling phone line, told the Walking With Love symposium at Floreat Forum on February 16 that if the healthcare profession was against abortion there would be no abortion, but that lack of spousal support is often more important than friends or even family support.

If this is missing, she said, then women can feel dehumanised; and when this happens, healthcare “abortion counsellors” often use this as the way to take advantage of them.

In her experience, Ms Cook said that it appears that the very nature of women also makes them vulnerable to being pressured into having abortions for the convenience of others. She said all levels

of health and welfare services are experiencing problems created by abortion trauma and grief, because they do not know how to deal with it, and often do not acknowledge the problem, often misdiagnosing it as something else.

She said the mother-child bond is “the most powerful of all human bonds”, and said it is a fallacy to assume abortions are done for unwanted pregnancies.

Ms Cook referenced Professor Philip Nay, psychiatrist and researcher of international standing and co-founder of the Institute of Pregnancy Loss and Child Abuse Research and Recovery, said there is a strong relationship between the dehumanisation of women and abortion.

She said it is easier to dehumanise a woman’s baby if she

has been dehumanised herself. Professor Nay has said that lack of partner support and the women’s own mother having an abortion are often key factors in woman having an abortion. “I have heard women say that when their spouse neglects the baby during pregnancy, they feel like the spouse has rejected her,” such is the primal instinct.

Early healing of this dehumanisation process is the key to preventing abortions, she said, by strengthening families to protect from a lack of – or perceived lack of – spousal support.

Pregnancy Assistance manager Lydia Fernandez said that in her experience counselling women who have had crisis pregnancies, it is often that spouses and family members who wanted nothing to do with the pregnancy end up being very supportive of the woman once the child is born.

She said abortion is also transgenerational, as women often have abortions when their mother also had an abortion. Women may also treat their existing children differently, acting out on their own guilt for the baby she lost through abortion.

Abortion can also erode women’s protectiveness of their baby that they already have, which leaves them vulnerable to other influencing factors.

Hear this: Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton addresses the Walking With Love symposium at Floreat Forum.

PHOTO: SYLVIA DEFENDI.

In my experience...: AGCA national director Julie Cook addresses the Walking With Love symposium as her employee Mary Boston, Bishop Donald Sproxton and Respect Life Office executive officer Bronia Karniewicz listen as part of a panel answering the attendees’ questions.

PHOTO: SYLVIA DEFENDI.

Julie Cook

alternatives&responsestoabortion

Women in difficulty deserve all our love

■ By Sylvia Defendi

Those advancing the prochoice message might have been astounded at the recent Walking with Love symposium, held in Floreat on February 16.

Especially when director of Perth’s Respect Life Office, Bronia Karniewicz stressed the importance of protecting, supporting and assisting the needs of any pregnant woman as much as those of her unborn child.

Indeed, she began by quoting Chair of the Bishops’ Commission for Pastoral Life, Bishop Eugene Hurley, who said, “Make no mistake: in order to be pro-life we must support the woman who is carrying that life in any way we can.”

Bronia, like many others was keen to discuss ways in which the highly polarised debate over abortion could be eventually bridged.

“For three decades the debate on abortion has been that of the rights of the women versus the rights of the child, pro choice versus prolife,” Bronia said, adding that it need not be the case.

She was there to advocate the rights of women – to be properly

informed, to act out of their own will, without pressure from family, friends or partners and to make such a life-altering decision with the knowledge that many organizations and individuals were waiting to assist them in any way.

“The media and our culture today have promoted a superficial mentality towards pregnant women in difficult social situations, and ignored the human reality that women are too often pressured into unwanted abortions,” she said.

“We can begin to see why Mother Teresa spoke of abortion as being the biggest destroyer of world peace.”

In response to this situation Bronia advocated a very simple approach, which ‘does not rely on judgement, rhetoric and emotionally charged arguments,’ but rather calls all to ‘walk with love’ as Christ did when he encountered the woman at the well.

“Jesus encountered a woman who was considered the lowest of the low, the greatest of sinners. And he treated her like a human being. That is the secret to success,” she said at the symposium, add-

ing that both women’s and men’s lives were being shattered by abortion, by dealing with their grief in unhealthy and self-destructive ways. “We can begin to see why Mother Teresa spoke of abortion as being the biggest destroyer of world peace,” Bronia continued.

While discussing the opportunities for change in the pro-life movement, Bronia said the Church wanted to inspire people to stand up and defend the dignity of life, by fostering a safe environment that did not shame or sit in judgment of people.

“We need to create a society that promotes healing for all who have suffered from abortion; and we cannot promote the dignity of the unborn while ignoring the dignity of their mothers,” she said.

For further information on Perth’s Respect Life Office, contact Bronia on: 9375 2029.

The unexpected joy of walking with love for all

■ By Sylvia Defendi

Those who attended the Walking with Love symposium on February 16 were challenged by the manager of Perth’s Pregnancy Assistance agency to give unrelenting support to those women who felt isolated and burdened by their pregnancy.

“We are not there to solve their problems. They have all the answers within them. We listen to their problems, provide them information and leave them to decide on what they believe is the best solution for them and their baby, both now and in the long term,” director Lydia Fernandez said.

The independent, Catholic pregnancy support agency opened its doors in East Perth in 1996 to pro-

vide relief from suffering and distress for pregnant women, irrespective of age, race or creed.

Since then they have provided a range of services, all of which are free and confidential, including, emotional support, pregnancy testing, financial assistance, accommodation, post abortion grief counselling.

“When they recognise that they do have the ability and the support from our agency, their face lights up with joy and relief that they can get through all of what may have been seen as a ‘mountain of problems.” Lydia said.

Lydia spoke of those who have produced or donated blankets and baby clothes, of parishes who collected funds, of schools who donated baby gift items and many others who helped fund their work.

“Sometimes it is enough to pay just one bill. In their confused and distressed state, they are almost unable to make even the small decisions in their lives,” she said, adding that by greeting women in need of assistance with love, they offer a valuable gift of hope, many cannot find elsewhere.

“Women with an unexpected pregnancy deserve to experience unexpected joy.”

“Some of the women that we see have other people, either a partner, friends, or family members, around them that say that they will support them throughout the pregnancy. They come to us with great joy about their pregnancy but are in need of material or financial help.

“Unfortunately, many of the women who come to us don’t have any support from anyone around them. Everyone that they know has told them that they should not keep their baby because they are either too young, lacking finances, not able to cope with another child, still studying, will bring shame on the family, just started a career, or because of mental or physical health conditions.” She said.

Lydia said that these negative opinions regarding a woman’s capability to care for herself and her child have given pregnancy a bad reputation for being more of a problem, burden or interference, rather than blessing.

“We at Pregnancy Assistance believe in what actress, Patricia Heaton said: ‘women with an unexpected pregnancy deserve to expe-

rience unexpected joy.’ For us, the welfare of the mother and her baby can never be separated - any harm done to one will harm the other, but when we love one, we love the other,” she said.

For further information on Perth’s Pregnancy assistance Inc. contact Lydia on: 9328 2929.

Spreading the love: Director of the Respect Life Office in Perth, Bronia Karniewicz (centre) speaks with women after the Walking with Love symposium.

PHOTO: SYLVIA DEFENDI.

Helping out: Students from Corpus Christi College in Bateman pose with Lydia Fernandez from Pregnancy Assistance, Bronia Karniewicz from the Respect Life Office and teacher Paul Ross. They attended the Symposium and helped to set up beforehand.

PHOTO: SYLVIA DEFENDI.

Next generation: Shawn McDermott, Silvana Scarfe, Jane Pike, James Chua and Stephen Gorddard at the Walking with Love symposium. Many youth were interested in helping to implement the solutions discussed, in order to bridge the controversial abortion argument.

PHOTO: SYLVIA DEFENDI.

Lydia Fernandez

Saturday February 23 to Thursday February 28

LENTEN RETREAT BY FR GILBERT CARLO SVD

To be held at St Jude’s Parish, 20 Prendiville Way, Langford. Weekend Masses, Saturday February 23 at 6.30pm, Sunday February 24 at 7.30am and 9am and 5.30pm, preaching

Monday February 25, Tuesday February 26 and Wednesday February 27 – Holy Mass at 9am. Evening sessions 7.30pm to 9pm. Wednesday February 27; Second Rite of Reconciliation at 7.30pm. Thursday February 28; Healing Mass at 7.30pm and conclusion of the Retreat. All welcome. No registration required. Enq: 9458 1946.

Saturday February 23

“HEALING THE FAMILY TREE” MARRIEDS BRUNCH.

Fr John Rea from New Zealand will begin ministering at a special marrieds brunch to be held at Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community, 67 Howe St. Osborne Park. The day will begin with mass at 9am and the Brunch will start at 10am - 12noon. This will be a rare opportunity for couples to be prayed with by Fr John. All married couples are welcome and to register your interest please contact Melanie at amdchef@msn.com or 0416232505.

Saturday February 23

“WITNESS TO WONDERS” RALLY.

Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community welcome Fr John Rea who has a special healing ministry as the guest speaker for the “Witness to Wonders” Rally to be held at 67 Howe St, Osborne Park at 7.30pm. There will be prayer and praise time as well as dramas performed by the youth. There will also be an opportunity for prayer ministry. All ages are welcome. Admission is free and donations are welcomed. Enq: Reg Firth or Mario Borg at 92026868 or Melanie on 0416232505 or visit http://perth. disciplesofjesus.org.

Saturday February 23 - Sunday February 24

LENTEN RETREAT

Led by Father Hugh Thomas CsSR. The theme is “Christ Our Hope” (rejoice in Hope, be patient in Suffering, persevere in Prayer). Venue –Redemptorist Retreat Centre, Vincent Street, North Perth. Enq: Susan Teo 0422 897 786 or Rose Lim 0403 300 720.

Saturday 23 February

VIDEO / DVD NIGHT

Starting straight after the 6.30pm Vigil Mass: at St. Joseph’s Church, 20 Hamilton St. Bassendean. A variety of Videos / Dvd’s will be shown I.e. The Saints, Conversion Stories, Catholic Teaching etc. Each video is approx. 30mins. Want to learn more about our Catholic faith? Bring the family along, there is no charge. Saturday 23rd February showing pt. 1 of ‘Children Clothed With The Sun’. Saturday 1st March pt. 2 of ‘Children Clothed With The Sun’.

Sunday February 24

ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK : EVERY

SUNDAY, 1  2 PM ON ACCESS 31.

February 24: By what vision? / Dr Joseph Atkinson [The Domestic Church]. Followed by: Media lies / Jason and Crystallina Evert [The Pure Life ; 2]. Please send donations to support continued broadcasting of EWTN to RCTA, P.O. Box 1270, Booragoon 6954. Enq: 9330-2467

Sunday February 24

HEALING THE FAMILY TREE CELEBRATION

Marist priest, Fr John Rea will be celebrating the Eucharist at 67 Howe St, Osborne Park at 3pm. It will be a “Healing the Family Tree Celebration” Charismatic Healing Mass. The sacrament of Reconciliation will be available from 2 - 3pm. Everyone welcome.

Panorama

a roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Monday February 25

FULL OR PART TIME STUDY AT ACTS 2 COLLEGE

Enrolments are now open for full and parttime study at Acts 2 College for Semester 1. Semester starts Monday 25 February, 9.30am. Monday: God’s Covenant through the Old Testament; Tues: What Catholics Believe and How to defend it; Thursday: Communication and Group skills; Friday: God’s plan for life and marriage. All courses may be taken towards a Certificate IV in Christian Ministry (national code 51881). Scholarships available. Enq:Jane 9202 6859 or 0401 692 690.

Monday February 25 to Wednesday February 27

HEALING SEMINARS

Fr John Rea will continue ministering at the Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community at 67 Howe St, Osborne Park with 9am Mass each day. From 10am to 11.30am he will be running a series of healing seminars. Cost is $10 per seminar. Morning tea included. Everyone welcome especially those interested in spiritual gifts and healing. Enq: Reg Firth or Mario Borg at 92026868 or Melanie on 0416232505 or visit http://perth.disciplesofjesus.org.

Wednesday February 27

ABUNDANT LIFE

Set My People on Fire bible seminars begin in Como at 7.30pm. Holy Family Church, Cnr of Canning Highway and Thelma Street. 15 weekly sessions with 3 weekend seminars bring you Abundant Life in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Open to all. Pope Benedict XVI says, “Prayerful reading of Scripture, and the consequent reform of life, is the secret to the constant renewal of the Church”. Archbishop Hickey said, “The Set My People On Fire seminars are an excellent source of Biblical teaching, especially as a living experience of the Word of God for the participants.” Full details www.flameministries.org/smpof.html or call Flame Ministries International 9382 3668.

Wednesday February 27

PREGNANCY ASSISTANCE INFORMATION DAY

Are you pro-life? Compassionate? A good listener? An Information Day at 9.30am to 2.30pm for those who would like to know more about becoming a pregnancy support volunteer. To register; phone Pregnancy Assistance on 9328 2926.

Thursday February 28

THEOLOGY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Acts 2 College presents Fr Douggie Rowe, SFP commencing at 7.30pm. This course presents a Theology and Spirituality for the laity and lays the theological foundation for a prayer life, especially a contemplative prayer life. Osborne Park. Enq: Jane 9202 6859 or 0401 692 690

Thursday February 28

EXPLORING YOUR BIBLE AT ACTS 2 COLLEGE OF MISSION AND EVANGELISATION

Commencing at 7.30pm. The Bible Timeline – a great introduction to the Old and New Testaments. Solid Biblical teaching in the context of your Catholic faith. Old Testament Semester 1. Registration essential. Osborne Park. Enq: Jane 9202 6859 or 0401 692 690.

Thursday February 28 to Saturday March 1

CHARISMATIC RENEWAL  3 DAYS OF HEALING

New Zealand Marist priest, Fr John Rea SM, gifted in the healing ministry, will conduct Healing Masses at St Joachims Pro Cathedral, Victoria Park. February 28 and 29 at 7.30pm; March 1 at 1pm. Teaching builds over 3 days, so try to attend all. A collection will be taken up. Enq: Dan Hewitt 9398 4973

Friday February 29

HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY

Healing Service at Our Lady of the Missions,

270 Camberwarra Drive, Whitford, at 7.30pm to 9.30pm. God’s love for you is extraordinary he gave you his only begotten son Jesus. Come and seek his kingdom in your life and be renewed. Healing services on the last Friday of every month. Enq: Jenni Young 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.

SATURDAY MARCH 1

“BELLA” MOVIE FUNDRAISER

“Bella” is a heart-warming story about friendship, family and our capacity for love with a positive message towards life. Cinema Paradiso, 64 James St Northbridge at 5pm. Tickets $15. Presented by Pregnancy Assistance and CYM. For tickets phone 9328 2926 or 9422 7912.

Saturday March 1

DAY WITH MARY

Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 265 Flinders Street, Nollamara. 9am – 5pm. A video on Fatima will be shown at 9am. A day of prayer and instruction based upon the message of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Sunday March 2 DIVINE MERCY

An afternoon with Jesus and Mary will be held at St Joachim’s Church, on the corner of Shepperton Road and Harper Street in Victoria Park. Starting at 1.30pm. Programme: Holy Rosary and Reconciliation, Sermon ‘The Power of Prayer’ with Fr Tony Vallis followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Afterwards refreshments in the parish hall, followed by a video/DVD Fr John Corapi – ‘Penance, Penance, Penance’. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Monday March 3

PILGRIMAGE

Visit to Bullsbrook Shrine and on to St Anne’s, Bindoon for 12 noon Mass. Benediction and Way of the Cross at St Catherine’s, Gingin 2pm. PILGRIM CROSS (this Cross has travelled with the pilgrims in 2005 to the countries of Croatia (Medjugore), Lisbon (Fatima), France (Lourdes, Neves - St.Bernadette’s burial place and incorrupt body, and Lisieux - StTherese’s birth place and her remains in the chapel and the Abbey), Italy (Rome - St.Peter’s Basillica), Spain (Garabandal). The Cross has received blessings from Cardinals, Bishops and Priests. This Cross will be carried during the Way of the Cross, after Benediction at Gingin. To book a seat on the coach, phone Francis Williams, 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877. Enq: Sheila 9575 4023 or Fr Paul 9571 1839

Wednesday March 5

MOTHERS PRAYERS MASS

Starting at 10am at Our Lady of Grace, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. For all Mothers and Grandmothers coming together to pray for their children. Fathers, Grandfathers welcome. This is a wonderful and necessary opportunity for God to hear and act upon the hearts and minds of mothers joining together as one here on earth. Please bring a plate and enjoy fellowship following the mass over a cup of tea or coffee. Enq: Veronica 9447 0671.

Wednesday March 5

ALAN AMES IN WILLETTON

Alan will be speaking of his conversion experiences at St’s John and Paul Catholic Church, Cnr Pinetree Gully Road & Wainwright Close, Willetton, after 7 pm Mass. Healing prayers will follow. Enq: Loretti Crameri 9444 4409.

Wednesday March 5

HEALING MASS

Fr John Rea , a Marist Priest from New Zealand, will be celebrating Mass at St Anne’s Church, Hehir St, Belmont at 8pm. Prior to the Mass a Rosary will be prayed at 7pm, followed by Charismatic Praise and Worship from 7.30 pm. Following on from the Mass, Fr Rea will pray healing prayers for those present. Fr Rea has witnessed many miracles of healing in the years he has ministered with the charism of healing. Fr Rea will also be ministering at the Prayer Meeting in the Belmont Church Hall on Saturday 1st March from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm. All welcome. These events are sponsored by the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community. Enq: 9475 0155.

Thursday March 6

TAIZE MEDITATION

Starting at 7.30pm at Our Lady of Grace at 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. Enq: Our Lady of Grace 9448 4888 or 9447 0061

Friday March 7 to Sunday March 9

SEPARATED, DIVORCED, WIDOWED

Beginning Experience is running a weekend programme designed to assist and support people in learning to close the door gently on a relationship that has ended, in order to get on with living. The next weekend programme will be held at Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne. Enq: Bev 9332 7971 or Margaret 9294 4892.

Friday March 7

CATHOLIC FAITH RENEWAL  PRAISE AND WORSHIP

Starting at 7.30pm at St John and Paul’s Church, Pintree Gully Road, Willetton. There will be a Praise and Worship followed by a talk on “Worship” by Fr Blasco Fonseca and Thanksgiving Mass. There will be light refreshments after Mass. You are all welcome to attend and we encourage you to bring your family and friends to this evening of fellowship. All welcome. Enq: Rita 9272 1765 or Rose 0403 300 720.

First Friday March 7

ALLIANCE AND TRIUMPH OF THE TWO HEARTS

Holy Mass and eucharistic vigil at St Bernadette’s Church Glendalough. Confessions at 5.15 pm. Parish Mass at 5.45 pm (Celebrant: Fr Doug Harris) followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, hourly Rosaries, hymns and reflections etc. Vigil concludes with midnight Mass in honour of the BVM (Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Giosue Marini). Enq: Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Saturday March 8

HEALING RALLY

Sacred Heart Church, Guppy Street, Pemberton at 7.30pm. The Rally will be led by Fr John Rea, a N.Z. Marist Priest ordained 52 years, in his 33rd year of preaching Parish Missions and involved in Healing Ministry for 18 years. Rally presented by HSOF Community. Everyone welcome. Enq: Betty 9771 1916

Saturday March 8

A TIME OF PRAYER AND REFLECTION

The Executive Committee of the Catholic Pastoral Workers Association invites Secretaries and all who work in administration (Parish/ Agencies) to A Time of Prayer and Refection. To be held at the Seminar Room, Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary Street, Highgate (parking off Harold Street) starting at 9.30am to 3pm. The Spiritual Director will be Sr Philomena Burrell P.B.V.M Director of Maranatha Institute. Cost $15 BYO lunch. Morning / Afternoon tea supplied. RSVP by Friday 29 February 2008. Enq: Margaret 9390 8365 or Maranatha 6380 5160.

Panorama

Classifieds

Classifieds: $3.30/line incl. GST 24 hour Hotline 9227 7778 Deadline: 12pm Monday

PANORAMAS CONT.

PERPETUAL ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

Sunday March 9

SPECIAL LENTEN RETREAT  AWAKENINGS

Beginning at 2pm sharp, Patrist House, 7 Warde Street Midland. Limited places. NonRefundable Reg. Fee $10. Must Book. Fr Douglas Rowe S.F.P. Enq: Ph 9250 5395

Tuesday March 11

OBLATES OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

Meet every 2nd Tuesday of month from 10am at Kalamunda. Prayer; Silence; Lectio Divina. Visitors welcome. Enq: 9293 3092.

Saturday March 15

ST BERNADETT E’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL FETE Where: Grand Ocean Boulevard, Port Kennedy. When: 11am to 4pm. What’s on: rides, show bags, food, plant & cake stalls, music, dancers, magician, ponies, bouncy castle (as available). Fun for all ages. Come and join the fun! Enq: Robyn Fitzgerald rfitzgerald3@aapt.net.au or: 0405 672 487.

Sunday March 16

THE SACRED HEART COMMUNITY FAIR

Is to be held in the picturesque setting of the Sculpture Park, Jacoby Street, Mundaring. Starting at 10am and finishes at 4pm. The Fair is a FREE old fashioned family fun day with activities, rides, live acts, great food and over 50 craft and specialty stalls.

Friday March 21

GOOD FRIDAY CEREMONIES  BINDOON

CATHOLIC AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

11am - Stations of the Cross, 2.30pm Solemn ceremony - The Lord’s Passion. Confessions from 10.30am and after Stations of the Cross. All are welcome! Enq: Fr Paul 9571-1839

Monday March 24

WALK FOR VOCATIONS

At Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Dr. Armadale. Archbishop Hickey will celebrate Holy Mass at 3pm, followed by the “WAY OF LIGHT” Tracing the steps of Jesus after his Resurrection, presented by various religious communities. Sausage sizzle 7pm. Rosary of light Adoration and Benediction. Enq: Sr M Lissette 9399 2349 email: shrine@elink.net.au

Every Tuesday

THE GOSPEL OF ST MATTHEW

Exciting revelations into the Gospel of St Matthew are being offered in a free of charge Bible course being conducted by Fr Douglas Rowe S.F.P. At St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. The course will be held every Tuesday at 7.30pm. Light refreshments will follow. Please bring your bible and a friend.

Is in its fifth year at Christ the King Church, Lefroy Road, Beaconsfield. 24 hours per day, except at Mass times. All are invited to spend an hour with Jesus truly present. Entrance is from the porch, near the altar on the Lefroy Road side of the church. Enq: Joe 9319 1169.

Third Sunday of the Month

OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT MEET

Venue: St Joseph’s Convent, York Street, South Perth at 2pm. An annual Retreat is held at New Norcia, Trinity Sunday Weekend. Oblates are affiliated with Benedictine Abbey New Norcia. We celebrate our 50th Anniversary September 2008. A golden celebration. All welcome. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude monthly meeting. Enq: Secretary 9388 3026.

Every Sunday LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT

The Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered every Sunday at 2pm at the Good Shepherd Parish, 40-42 Streich Avenue, Kelmscott, with Rosary preceding. All welcome.

HELP FOR THE DYING

Patients who are in the last few weeks of life’s journey are invited to be part of a TV documentary being filmed in Perth. This will help terminally ill patients and families to cope better and even enjoy their last few weeks on earth. Enq: Trish Duke Ph: 9561 6980 or go to www.DyingToLiveTV.com

IS YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER UNDECIDED AFTER SCHOOL?

Is your son or daughter unsure what to do in 2008? Acts 2 College offers them a productive year discovering God’s purpose for their life while learning practical life skills. They will develop practical life skills in addition to learning more about the Catholic faith and deepening their own faith in God. Scholarships available. Contact Jane Borg on 9202 6859.

First Sunday of Every Month HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY

Celebrates the Sunday Mass at St Bernadette’s Church, Cnr Jugan and Leeder Streets, Glendalough commencing with praise and worship at 6.30pm and Mass at 7pm. We have healing prayers after the Mass so please invite all those in need of the healing love and power of Jesus. Enq: Jenni Young 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.

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FEBRUARY

22

MARCH

In brief...

Down Syndrome artists wow experts

Students at a Mexican school for people with Down syndrome are producing paintings and lithographs that are impressing connoisseurs and shattering preconceptions about mentally disabled people. They "shatter the stereotype that individuals with Down syndrome have no interior men-

tal life of richness and complexity," said Dr David Braddock, who heads the University of Colorado's cognitive disabilities institute and who helped bring their artwork to the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Mexican School of Down Art is part of the John Langdon Down Foundation, which provides education, counselling and medical care to 500 low-income students with DS in Mexico City.

Art classes began in 1995 and quickly developed into a full-time art school for about 25 adults, aged 18 to 54.The

THANKS

In thanksgiving to St Jude and St Anthony for petitions answered.

WEDDING MUSIC

■ CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR YOUR WEDDING CEREMONY

Performed by the ‘Simply Classical Quartet’ 9444 1630 Demonstration CD available.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

■ CATHOLICS CORNER

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

■ RICH HARVEST  YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP

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

■ KINLAR VESTMENTS

‘Modern meets tradition.’ Quality hand-made & decorated. Vestments, altar cloths, banners. Contact: Vickii Smith Veness. 9402 8356 or 0409 114 093

PROPERTY

■ AUSTRALIND PRIVATE SALE

3 bdrm, brick and tile residence, fully fenced. Schools, shopping centre, estuary very close. $310,000 ono. Phn: Denise 0438 829 949.

■ THINKING OF SELLING OR BUYING PROPERTY IN 2008

First Class Service

Accurate Caring and up to date advice

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■ PREMISES REQUIRED

We are looking for premises either North or South of Perth where we can hold daytime clinics for our clients. We require premises for a period of three to four hours during one day of the week where we can see the clients privately and also have a waiting room. A Doctors’ surgery would be ideal. Similar offers would be appreciated. Our teachers are highly qualified in the field of Fertility education and management in the Billings Ovulation Method. Please contact Billings WA 0409 119 532 Marilena Scarfe.

students not only get technical instruction but also take classes in art history, meet with other Mexican artists and tour art exhibits.

“They have a capacity, a sensitivity for art,” says instructor Daniel Perez. “Their limitations enable them to see the world in a way you and I don’t.”

Many of the Down artists tend towards expressionism and bright colours. “Music, romantic music, inspires me to paint,” says student Lorena Velez. “My themes are landscapes, animals and the countryside.”

THE RECORD BOOKSHOP

Witnesses For Christ Lenten Program 2008

The Glory of these Forty Days: Reflections on the Lenten Season

By James Tolhurst

Here are timeless reflections for each day of Lent to remind us of Jesus’ paschal mystery: his passsion, death and resurrection. The Gospel is given for each day with short commentaries chosen from the writings of one of the Saints or Fathers.

$19.95+postage

Session 1 (Second Sunday of Lent): The Transfiguration

As we come together this Lent in preparation for World Youth Day, we encounter Christ through prayer, reflection, word and song.

“Witnesses for Christ” is designed for use by small groups, families or individuals to consider the Gospel reading for the following Sunday, and to reflect on the Gospel passage and a personal testimony. The themes through Lent are:

Session 2 (Third Sunday of Lent): Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

Session 3 (Fourth Sunday of Lent): The Healing of the Man Born Blind

Session 4 (5th Sunday of Lent): The Raising of Lazarus

Session 5 (Passion Sunday): The Crucifixion

Witnesses For Christ Program & Study Guide (containing opening prayer, Gospel reading, Reflection, Discussion questions, testimony and concluding prayers for each session)

$8 + postage

A Guide to the Passion: 100 questions about the Passion of The Christ

This book was written to help you understand the many theological and artistic elements of the movie. It presents a fascinating scene by scene analysis of this unforgettable film experience.

$8.95+postage

Witnesses For Christ CD (containing a reading of the Gospel passage, a reflection on the Gospel, a short guided meditation and a final hymn for each session)

$12 +postage

What is the Eucharist?

The faith of the Church, Pope Pius XII tells us, is this: that one and identical is the Word of God and the Son of Mary who suffered on the Cross, who is present in the Eucharist, and who rules Heaven. This beautiful little book looks at the Eucharist as exemplified in the lives of the saints, those who have followed their Creator with all their heart and all their will. In its pages you can find inspiration to begin to discover the real meaning of your life.

The Passion of The Christ

“A beautifully realised interpretation that succeeds brilliantly as a work of art.”

“Powerfully moving”.

“An impressive passionate vision.”

$29.95+postage

$6.95 + postage