JUMP FOR JOY: How the crowds welcomed their new Pope Pages 2-3
The Parish. The Nation. The World.
Thursday April , Perth, Western Australia ● $1 Western Australia’s Award-winning Catholic newspaper
WHEN WE KNOW HIM: we will also come to love Benedict XVI Page 4
SIGNIFICANT IMPACT: Archbishop Hickey reflects on ‘Il Papa’ Page 6
Dear brothers and sisters,
After our great Pope, John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in God’s vineyard.
I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools, and I especially trust in your prayers.
In the joy of the resurrected Lord, trustful of his permanent help, we go ahead, sure that God will help. And Mary, his most beloved Mother, stands on our side.
Thank you
The young Josef Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla were present at the key event in the life of the modern Church - Vatican II. Their thinking on the Church was defined by it Pages 7-9
INDEX
■ Continuing John Paul II’s legacy: an Australian priest reflects - Page 4
■ Mass reform was a troubled time - Page 4
■ Measuring the new Pope: Michelle Jones takes a peek at a pontifical tailor - Page 10
No way, writes Record columnist PAUL GRAY. The media mythology about Pope Benedict XVI is just that - and nothing more. In fact, he is a gentle, reflective man. Page 6
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the 78-year-old guardian of the Church’s doctrine for the last 24 years, was elected the 265th Pope and took the name Benedict XVI.
Appearing at the central window of St. Peter’s Basilica on April 19, the newly elected Pope smiled as he was greeted by a cheering, flag-waving crowd of nearly 100,000 people.
“After the great John Paul II, the cardinals elected me, a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord,” Pope Benedict said, in a brief talk broadcast around the world.
“I am consoled by the fact that the Lord can work and act even through insufficient instruments, and I especially entrust myself to your prayers,” he said.
“In the joy of the risen Lord, and trusting in his permanent help, we go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary his most holy mother is on our side. Thank you,” he said.
Then Pope Benedict XVI gave his blessing to the city of Rome and to the world.
He stood and listened to the endless applause that followed, smiling and raising his hands above his head.
Among the few cardinals who joined him on the central balcony was US Cardinal William W. Baum, the only voting cardinal besides the new Pope to have participated in a previous conclave.
From the side balconies of the basilica facade, other cardinals appeared, smiling and waving to the crowd.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls announced that the solemn Mass for the new Pope’s installation would take place on April 24.
He also said the new Pope would dine with the cardinals at their Vatican residence on the evening of his election, stay at the residence that night and celebrate Mass with them the next morning in the Sistine Chapel.
Pope Benedict XVI is the first German pope since Pope Victor II, who reigned from 1055-1057.
Production
Derek Boylen production@therecord.com.au
It was the second conclave in a row to elect a nonItalian pope, after Italians had held the papacy for more than 450 years.
The new Pope was chosen by at least a two-thirds majority of 115 cardinals from 52 countries, who cast their ballots in secret in the Sistine Chapel.
The election came on the second day of the voting, presumably on the fourth ballot. It was a surprisingly quick conclusion of a conclave that began with many potential candidates and no clear favorite.
The day before, Cardinal Ratzinger had opened the conclave with a stern warning about moral relativism and ideological currents that had buffeted the church in recent decades.
“The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - thrown from one
extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism,” he said.
“Every day new sects are created and what St Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw people into error,” he said. Having a clear faith today is often labeled “fundamentalism,” he said.
As the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1981, Pope Benedict XVI was on the front lines of numerous theological and pastoral controversies. He was described by Vatican officials who worked with him as a kind and prayerful theologian and a gentler man than the one often portrayed in the media as an inquisitor.
He made the biggest headlines when his congregation silenced or excommunicated theologians, withdrew church approval of certain books, helped re-write liturgical translations, set boundaries on ecumenical dialogues, took over the handling of cases of clergy sex abuse against minors, curbed the role of bishops’ conferences and pressured religious orders to suspend wayward members.
Pope Benedict’s election was announced in Latin to a waiting world from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
A massive crowd of young and old filled St Peter’s Square and welcomed the news with cheers and waves of applause.
He continued: “The most eminent and reverend lordship, Lord Joseph Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Ratzinger.”
The crowd in the square burst into applause. Some jumped for joy, some knelt to pray and some simply stood and watched.
In the end, the cardinals turned to a man who offers great theological ability, is linguistically talented, kindly of manner and has enormous pastoral and administrative experience.
However, Cardinals agree that Ratzinger is his own man and will bring his own gifts to the papacy, to the Church and the world.
During their pre-conclave meetings, journalists tracked Cardinal Ratzinger’s rising status among cardinal-electors, but most sources doubted he would obtain the 77 votes needed to win.
In the days before and after the Pope’s death, he emphasised his concerns about the urgent challenges facing the church.
In meditations written for the Way of the Cross at the Rome Colosseum on Good Friday, March 25, he said too many Catholics continue to scorn and scourge Jesus in his Church.
“Christ suffers in his own Church,” he said.
He described, “the falling of many Christians away from Christ and into a godless secularism,” but also the fall of those Catholics who abuse the sacraments or their positions in the Church.
“How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those
being dragged down in the fall of your church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered.”
At Pope John Paul’s funeral, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke movingly of the late pontiff, telling a crowd of several hundred thousand: “We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us.”
Born in Marktl am Inn on April 16, 1927, his priestly studies began early but were interrupted by World War II.
While he was a seminarian, school officials enrolled him in the Hitler Youth program, but he soon stopped going to meetings.
After being drafted in 1943 he served for a year on an anti-aircraft unit that tracked allied bombardments.
At the end of the war he spent time in a US prisoner-of-war camp before being released.
Ordained in 1951, he received a doctorate and a licentiate in theology from the University of Munich, where he studied until 1957.
He taught dogma and fundamental theology at the University of Freising in 1958-59, then lectured at the University of Bonn, 19591969, at Munster, 1963-66, and at Tubingen from 1966 to 1969.
In 1969 he was appointed professor of dogma and of the history of dogmas at the University of Regensburg, where he also served as vice president until 1977.
A theological consultant to West German Cardinal Joseph Frings, he attended the Second Vatican
White smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel chimney at 5:49 pm signaling that the cardinals had chosen a successor to Pope John Paul II.
At 6:04 pm, the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica began pealing continuously to confirm the election.
At 6:40 pm, Chilean Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, the senior cardinal in the order of deacons, appeared at the basilica balcony and intoned to the crowd in Latin: “Dear brothers and sisters, I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope.”
who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him,” he wrote.
He said the church often seems like “a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side.”
“The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again,” he wrote.
“Have mercy on your Church,” he prayed. “When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that
For honest, reliable service and care of your investment property.
Contact (08) 9459 3600 or email Trish Humphries at trish@ppre.net
www.ppre.net
Maranatha Institute for Adult Faith Education Catholic Education Centre 50 Ruislip Street Leederville
All courses 10 weeks
Cost - $60 each course
Beginning Tuesday 26 April
9.30am-12pm The Art & Heart of Non-Violent Conflict with Brendan McKeague & 1pm-3pm Catholic Social Teaching with Terry Quinn
Beginning Friday 29 April
Council as an expert or “peritus.”
At the council, he was said to have played an influential role in discussions among the German-speaking participants and gained a reputation as a progressive theologian.
He was named a member of the International Theological Commission in 1969. Pope Paul VI appointed him archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and named him a cardinal later that year.
Editors: Contributing to this story were Benedicta Cipolla and Jonathan Luxmoore in Rome.
9.30am – 12pm From Eden to the Promised Land: A journey through the Old Testament with Stephanie Woods (this is a new course) & 1pm – 3pm The Gospel in the Year of Matthew (Year A) with Sr Shelley Barlow RNDM (this is a new course) for further information
Ph: 9212 9311
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 9am-1.30pm. or email: maranatha@ceo.wa.edu.au
Although critics of Pope Benedict XVI worry that his election as Pope could lead to divisions within the Church, a US priest who has worked closely with him predicted “the church will come to love him.”
As the chief defender of Church doctrine, the new pope “had to make decisions that were not popular, but he’s not a policeman - he’s an evangeliser,” said US Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope, headed for more than 23 years.
Mgr Charles Scicluna, the congregation’s promoter of justice, said he felt “deep joy and great hope for the future” when the white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney and the bells of St Peter’s Basilica rang out.
He is a Pope for the universal Church, and he has lived that in his ministry in the Roman Curia for 23 years.
“He is a man of great compassion and great wisdom.
I know that from direct experience, and I’m sure that the Lord has chosen him because the world needs wisdom and compassion,” Mgr Scicluna said.
The shortness of the conclave “means that the cardinals saw something in Cardinal Ratzinger that led them to elect him very rapidly,” said Jesuit Father Luis Ladaria, secretary of the International Theological Commission.
The Pope’s colleagues cited his years of Vatican experience as a likely key factor in his peers’ decision.
After more than 23 years of
“working with one of the greatest popes in the history of Christendom, he has a very clear understanding of what the church needs,” Father Di Noia said.
Mgr Scicluna said that over the years Pope Benedict has met and talked with bishops from all over the world.
“His ability not only to understand, but also to be very close to the immediate problems of so many different continents really makes him an extraordinary Pope,” he said.
Preaching the homilies for Pope John Paul II’s funeral and the Mass preceding the conclave allowed Pope Benedict to publicly outline the course he would chart for the Church.
One of the “ideological currents” that he sees as pushing the world toward a “dictatorship of relativism” is the secularism that has led to a decline in the number of Catholics, particularly in his native Europe.
“He is deeply concerned for the re-evangelisation of Europe,” Father Di Noia said.
“He will want to reach young people in those countries very much in the way that Pope John Paul did.”
The new Pope’s choice of a name also reflects that concern.
“Benedictine monasticism was one of the main roots by which the faith was transmitted all over Europe for 1,000 years,” Father Di Noia said.
Nevertheless, Cardinal Ratzinger’s colleagues do not expect him to be a strictly European Pope.
“My idea of him is not of a German Pope,” Msgr Scicluna said. “He is a Pope for the universal Church, and he has lived that in his ministry in the Roman Curia for 23 years.”
Asked whether Pope Benedict XVI could have as significant an impact on Western Europe as his predecessor did on Eastern Europe, Father Ladaria was more cautious.
“It’s possible,” he said. “God will
tell us.” US Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said Pope Benedict “has been very faithful in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and I think he will be faithful in his new role as father of the Church.”
The US bishop said the new Pope “from the depths of his heart ... was
not wanting to be divisive” in his previous role as defender of Church doctrine.
“I think he will be as fraternal and caring as he can be” as pope, Bishop Farrell said.
Concerning how the new Pope will address the task of Christian unity, the bishop said he thinks Pope Benedict XVI is “someone who understands all the complexi-
ties of our ecumenical task before us.”
“In my experience, he has always been open and charming to the Orthodox and Protestants we have brought to him,” Bishop Farrell said.
“I’m looking forward to the goodness and kindness” he will bring to this task, he said.
As recently as January this year, Pope John Paul II was encouraging Catholics to support Marriage and Family. The Holy Father stressed that the year of the Eucharist represents “an urgent invitation to find ‘the source of all communion in the supreme Sacrament of love’. Discover anew the immense gift of the Eucharist ‘in order to experience fully the beauty and the mission of the family.” In his famed ‘Familiaris Consortio’ he states that “the future
of humanity passes by way of the family” and in January called for a deepening of “their understanding of marriage and the family in the light of faith. It is good that the family represents the charism of your union. The family is a ‘school of love’. Transmit your enthusiasm for marriage and the family to your people.”
“Society currently needs more than ever healthy families who are capable of defending the common good,” the Pope said. “If we strengthen the sacred institution of marriage and the family in keeping
Catholic Marriage Education Services is the Archdiocesan Agency mandated to prepare couples for marriage and provide ongoing marriage education programs.
Individuals with an interest in marriage education are encouraged to apply for training with the view to future employment on a casual basis at the agency.
Qualifications in a relevant field would be an advantage. The training program is flexible and individualised and will take into consideration previous qualifications and experience.
A position description and application form can be obtained by ringing Christina or Elsa on 9325 1859 Tues, Wed or Thurs.
Closing date for applications is 13th May 2005
with the divine plan, love and solidarity between people will grow.”
The sentiments of the Pope are very closely reflected (echoed) in the Vision of Catholic Marriage Education Services in Perth. Their new vision statement developed by Board and Staff members in early 2004 reads – “Strengthening the fabric of society by strengthening marriage and family.”
The agency strengthens marriage and family by providing a variety of marriage education courses for different life stages but is most known for the work it does with engaged couples. According to Director, Christina Graves, Catholic Marriage Education Services takes the responsibility invested in it to prepare couples for marriage very seriously. “Our work with these couples comes at a very profound ‘teachable moment’ in their lives.
It is a time when they are open to listening and prepared to learn just what it is that keeps marriages strong and healthy. It is an opportunity too important to waste.” As a result the agency is committed to providing only the most beneficial and up to date information to couples. A major part of this is employing marriage educators who
are passionate about their work and are dedicated to the Church’s teaching on marriage.
According to Christina Graves, Marriage Educators are “a very special bunch.” She says “Finding the right people to join the team is never easy. Often people who would make excellent marriage educators just don’t see themselves in that role. Sometimes they feel hesitant
about coming forward even though they have a great deal that they could bring to the job.”
The role of marriage educator needs to be seen as a vocation. A vocation is the outlet for the unique set of gifts and talents that we all possess. It does require a distinctive type of person to become a marriage educator as they are entrusted with the role of guiding couples as
The drastic manner in which Pope Paul VI reformed the Mass in 1969 provoked "extremely serious damage" to the Church, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said.
While many of the liturgical changes were needed, the suppression of the old Mass marked a "break in the history of the liturgy, the consequences of which could only be tragic," the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation said in an autobiographical book released in Italy in mid-April.
"I am convinced that the ecclesial crisis in which we find ourselves today depends in great part on the collapse of the liturgy,’’ the new German Pontiff said.
Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has previously criticised specific liturgical abuses. But in his book, he described his disappointment at the wholesale replacement of one liturgy with another.
In 1969, Pope Paul VI issued his "General Instruction on the Roman Missal," revising the Order of the Mass and related prayers. The old Mass rite was to be banned, with few exceptions, after a transition period of several months.
"I was dismayed by the ban on the old missal, since such a development had never been seen in the history of liturgy. The impression was given that this was completely normal," Cardinal Ratzinger said.
Although prior popes had reformed the Mass, there was always a sense of "continuity," he said. Even Pope Pius V, who established the first normative Roman Missal in 1570 following the Council of Trent, allowed for the continued use of some pre-existing liturgies, he said.
The cardinal said many of the liturgical reforms stemming from the Second Vatican Council represented "authentic improvements and a real enrichment.’’ The introduction of local languages, for example, was a reasonable change, he said.
But with the promulgation of the new Mass, "something else happened as well: The old structure was dismantled, and its pieces were used to construct another,’’ to the detriment of liturgical tradition, he said.
The crux of the problem, he said, was that the reformed liturgy was "presented as a new structure, in opposition to the one which had been formed through history." This made it appear that the liturgy was not a "vital process" in the life of the Church, but a product of "specialist knowledge and juridical competence.’’
All this, he said, "has entailed for us extremely serious damage."
"The impression developed that the liturgy is 'manufactured,' that it is not something which preceded us, something 'given,' but that it depends on our decisions,’’ he said.
Cardinal Ratzinger said action should be taken soon to repair the damage.
"For the life of the Church, it is dramatically urgent to have a renewal of liturgical awareness, a liturgical reconciliation, which goes back to recognising the unity in the history of the liturgy and understands Vatican II not as a break, but as a developing moment," he said.
The Roman Missal of 1969 was a contentious issue in the bitter church dispute involving the late Archbishop Marcel
they prepare to embark on the lifelong journey of marriage.
The ten educators who work at CMES bring their own attributes and gifts to the job. Each educator comes from a different background and possesses broad and varied life experiences.
Nancy Turner is one of the educators at CMES. Many years ago Nancy and her husband decided to send their children to a Catholic school. Wanting to learn more about the faith, they did a course to improve their knowledge. As a couple Nancy and her husband Rodney were then given a Marriage Encounter Weekend as a gift. For eight years Nancy and Rodney were presenters at Marriage Encounter Weekends. This only increased Nancy’s passion for marriage and when coupled with her extensive background in teaching made Nancy an ideal candidate for the role of marriage educator. Through her connection with Christina Graves, Nancy was invited to apply to train as an educator. Nancy is now a highly valued member of the CMES Team.
Nancy believes working as marriage educator is an awesome opportunity to make a difference. She says “It is important to be relevant to couples today; to respect their freedom and right to make choices but to also gently guide them – with loving acceptance and empowering encouragement.”
Luke Van Beek is another educator at Catholic Marriage Education Services. Luke was interested in marriage prepa-
Lefebvre,
In 1984, John Paul II widened the possible use of the Tridentine rite, stipulating that the groups seeking its use must accept the "lawfulness and doctrinal soundness" of the new Mass.
ration and education even before he was engaged! Meeting families associated with Marriage Encounter inspired Luke to become involved in relationship education. He too met Christina Graves who encouraged him to become an educator at CMES. Luke now also works with Engaged Encounter as well as the Catholic Marriage Education Team.
Luke says there is a certain buzz associated with being surrounded by couples who are madly in love. He has a desire to see people grow and says being an educator has shaped who he is. Luke believes the role of ‘equipping couples with skills, techniques and attitudes to resolve problems is an enriching experience’.
Marriage has changed a great deal in the past 40 years. The ideas and expectations about marriage have shifted. This means that the challenges facing couples are also constantly changing. With divorce rates at high levels, it is more important than ever to ensure that coupes receive only the best training and grounding for their lives together. It is vital, therefore, that those involved in the field of marriage education continually improve their knowledge and skills as educators. One of the comments couples often make in their feedback to the organisation is about how relevant the information presented is. This is because the educators are constantly working to keep up with the latest in marriage preparation and edu-
cation. Nancy and Luke, as well as the other educators are provided with many opportunities to update their training. Conferences and courses as well as inhouse workshops and training opportunities enable the educators to develop an ever increasing awareness of the complexities of marriage and their roles as educators.
Each of the educators at CMES take the responsibilities of their role very seriously and all bring to it a passion and enthusiasm that simply cannot be bought. CMES is looking for people who are interested in training as marriage educators. Although it is helpful if trainees have a degree in a relevant field such as teaching, psychology or counselling, an educator needs much more than that. They need to be people who love people, are supportive of the Church’s teaching on marriage, accepting with a non judgmental attitude and have a willingness to meet people where they are. However, most of all they need a real passion for marriage.
If you would like to find out more about becoming involved in this very important work by training as an educator, call Christina at Catholic Marriage Education Services on 9325 1859.
The staff at CMES attest to the numerous benefits of being involved in the field – both to their own marriages and to the sense of fulfilment which comes from the knowledge that they are truly strengthening the fabric of society by strengthening marriage and family.
■ By Jamie O’Brien
An Australian priest who has met the new Pope, Benedict XVI, said he was struck by his gentile and suave nature.
Fr Paul Joseph, Chancellor of the Maronite Diocese of Sydney said the new Pope is a man who doesn’t promote himself but rather sees himself as a messenger of Christ.
“He never seeks anything for himself,” Fr Joseph said.
Fr Joseph said the only thing the former Cardinal Ratzinger, who was elected Pope Benedict XVI on April 19, cares about is whether he is pleasing to the Lord.
The former Cardinal gave an address to the students at the Propaganda Fide College in Rome in 1989.
Fr Joseph also met with Cardinal Ratzinger on a number of different occasions from 1986 to 1992 as a young seminarian, when as Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI met with fellow German priests who were studying or working in Rome.
“He gave an address on the papacy based on Matthew 16:16, which is the classic text when Christ says ‘Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church,’ ” Fr Joseph said.
“I believe he will continue in the line of John Paul II, probably not so much in the way of activity but in the line of thinking and orientation.”
“He will strongly uphold the teachings and dogma of the Catholic Church.”
Departs
Archbishop Barry Hickey welcomed the election of Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, describing it as a ‘very wise choice of a man of great faith, wisdom and loyalty to the Church’s teachings’.
He said he was surprised by the speed of the election and by the result, partly because he thought Cardinal Ratzinger’s age may have been an obstacle, and partly because he thought the Cardinals may have chosen someone from another part of the world.
“The speed of the election is a sign of the great confidence the Cardinals have in this man,” he said.
“He is a gracious and gentle man who grew up under the Nazi
regime with a clear understanding of the evils of totalitarianism. He is a theologian of note, a professor, the
author of many books, and a close friend of Pope John Paul II.
“Although he hasn’t yet said why he chose the name Benedict XVI, St Benedict is the patron saint of Europe and this suggests that he will make a determined effort to reach out to Europe to reverse its tendency to de-christianisation.
“Although it may be a disappointment to editorial writers in western newspapers, there will be no radical change in the Church’s teachings.
“It was never going to happen because the Church must be true to the Gospel. The Church was founded by Jesus, is accompanied through history by Jesus, and teaches in His name and with His authority.
“The Church is not going to start contradicting His teachings just to satisfy the destructive tendencies of
today’s world. The Church’s teachings on the sacredness of human life, on the sanctity of marriage, on the value of human sexuality are good news for a world that has strayed into some strange paths that are proving very harmful to marriages, families, and especially to children.”
He is a gracious and gentle man who grew up under the Nazi regime with a clear understanding of the evils of totalitarianism.
The Archbishop said he thought that young people would quickly become attached to the new Pope
because he had been such a close friend of the previous Pope and has such an intimate understanding of his teachings.
“It is time for all Catholics to thank God for the election of a good and holy man as Pope, and to pray that he will be able to bring unity to the Church and truth to the world,” he said.
Her added that the inevitable media talk about ‘a transitional pope’ would be proved false.
“The Pope is the Pope and that is really all there is to it,” he said.
“As a Cardinal he was probably the leading figure in the Church after Pope John Paul, and it is obvious that his fellow Cardinals have elected him for his strong leadership.
“He will have a significant impact on the Church.”
brains, I’ll comment about in a moment. But first, that mind.
If Joseph Ratzinger is not Pope by the time you read this, you can be sure of one thing. I’ll be lamenting the fact.
Not that I will have serious objections to whomever the Conclave elects Pope. Presuming no unimaginable human error has been made - by which our new Pontiff turns out to be a deep cover espionage agent working secretly for Osama bin Laden - the next Pope will certainly be the right kind of leader for our Church.
I’ve felt confident of this all along, if only because so many of the Cardinals voting for the new Pope have been personally chosen by John Paul II. Enough said.
But the prolonged applause accorded to the pre-conclave sermon last Monday by Cardinal Ratzinger, chief prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, warmed my heart even more.
The Cardinals about to elect the new Pope seemed to like what he said. If that’s true, the Church is in good hands.
Cardinal Ratzinger, I must say, is something special. As well as being a great collaborator with John Paul II, the German priest possesses a quality that is not only rare among Popes. It is rare among the human race in general.
I’d call it extreme intelligence. You hear the intellect of Ratzinger praised by various people in different ways. Media reports of recent days have referred to his “razor intellect,” while the Cambridgeeducated Catholic novelist Piers Paul Read once called him “amazingly intelligent.”
Whether or not Ratzinger has other positive qualities apart from
Cardinal Ratzinger has the ability to assess a large amount of information about the age, culture and world we live in, and then deliver that assessment in language which, from a purely rational point of view, it is impossible to challenge.
He speaks with the voice of authority, in other words. I do not mean the voice of political authority, which commands the listener to obey because of the power vested in the office from which it utters forth.
I mean genuine intellectual authority: that rare gift which strikes its listeners with equal force whether or not they are in sympathy with the position of the speaker. Simply, his thoughts alone have power.
The conclave sermon is a good example of the strengths of the Ratzinger mind. In words no journalist could resist, the Cardinal said that in today’s world we live under a “dictatorship of relativism,” which must be fought.
This is strong language. “Dictatorship” is a metaphorical term, chosen to convey the seriousness of the problems attaching to the climate in which we live. Most of us know – and Cardinal Ratzinger knows – that, in fact, we live today under the freest social conditions ever experienced in history.
There is little or no constraint on us as to what we should, or must believe. Why then should anyone refer to today’s society as a “dictatorship,” of any sort?
In the most dramatic and forceful way, Cardinal Ratzinger is bringing us face-to-face with the deeper, and even more important truth about the world in which we live. This is the fact that without a belief in clear-headed truth, we are, in truth, enslaved.
There is, indeed, no real choice in a world where all of the many available “options” on offer are all essentially the same. This is the situation experienced by a vast proportion of humanity today.
How is this dictatorship experienced? According to Ratzinger, our culture now “does not recognise anything as absolute and leaves as the ultimate measure only the measure of each one and his desires.”
Christians of mature faith are not threatened by this cultural dictatorship, he argues, because they have a
different measure to refer to, namely God. But – and this is the biting edge in the conclave sermon – too many Christians of recent times have lacked that mature faith.
Such Christians “run the risk of being tossed about and carried here and there by any doctrinal wind.”
(This, I must note, is one of the best uses of the word “wind” which I have seen in years.)
This then leads the Cardinal to an apt use of maritime metaphors, as a description of the mental life of many in the churches. “How many doctrinal winds we have known in these last decades, how many ideological currents, how many styles of thought.
“The thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves, tossed from one end to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, to libertinism, from collectivism to radical individualism, from atheism
to a vague religious mysticism, from agnosticism to syncretism.”
This is deep stuff, but to borrow a sporting term, it’s right on the money for our times. Lacking an anchor of firm religious belief, modern people, including modern religious people, are in the practice of changing their style of spirituality as often as they change the oil in their cars. Sometimes, more often.
This creates an enormous cultural problem for true believers: namely, that having “a clear faith, according to the creed of the Church” attracts the unfair label of “fundamentalism.”
Meanwhile, relativism – “allowing oneself to be led here and there by any wind of doctrine” – is seen as “the only behaviour abreast of the times.”
Spoken to the Cardinals who were about to elect the next Pope, this was an enormously important
sermon. It points to the central fact that the next Pope must, like John Paul II, reaffirm the faith of the Creeds, against the spirit of relativism.
I feel that no-one – John Paul II included – could have delivered such a powerful, and pointed preconclave message.
Intellect alone? Sometimes the voice of truth suggests more than simple clarity of vision. It suggests genuine holiness, or closeness to God.
I asked Australian priest Fr Peter Joseph, who has met Cardinal Ratzinger many times during his student days in Rome, for his personal assessment of the Cardinal. He said Ratzinger could not be more unlike the cold, hard image attributed to him by the media, and by his critics.
He is a warm, gentle and quiet man, said Fr Joseph. I believe him.
The young Josef Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla were men deeply committed to Vatican II
George Weigel, biographer of Pope John Paul II, reflects on the encounter of two minds that led to one of the great partnerships in Church history
■ By
George Weigel
Because of Pope Paul VI’s age and ill health, his death was not a surprise to the College of Cardinals. Conclave speculation had long been in the air, and by the time the cardinals had gotten through almost two weeks of daily meetings or “congregations” between the funeral and the opening of the conclave on August 25, a consensus had begun to form about the kind of new pope needed. Although a few members of the College thought that Vatican II had been a serious mistake, the overwhelming majority believed that the Council was a great achievement whose promise had not been fulfilled because mistakes had been made in its implementation. What was needed now was a stocktaking to see how implementation of the Council could be improved. As that conversation continued, a further consensus emerged. The Church needed a pope of dialogue, a man of vibrant public personality who would embody Catholicism’s openness to the world, and a pope who would set a clearer theological and pastoral direction. This latter concern was not confined to elderly men who found it difficult to adjust to the post-conciliar Church.
It was among the important issues for African cardinals, who believed their young churches needed a doctrinally coherent and morally challenging Catholicism in order to evangelise.
In Ratzinger’s view, the Church had been caught in a “global spiritual crisis of humanity itself or, at least, of the Western world” but the Church had not responded to this crisis as the Council Fathers might hoped.
One of the Church’s newest cardinals had made a lucid analysis of the post-conciliar situation three years before. Joseph Ratzinger, fifty-one, had been ordained archbishop of Munich-Freising in May 1977 and created a cardinal one month later. As a theological adviser to Cardinal Frings of Cologne, Ratzinger had played an important role in the debates that produced several key texts of Vatican II, including the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Ratzinger was convinced that the Council had many significant achievements to its credit. But the climate in the Church after the Council had become “simonious and aggressive.” The hallmark of Christianity joy seemed singularly absent from many postconciliar debates. What had happened? Not everything that
had occurred after the Council had happened because of the Council. In Ratzinger’s view, the Church had been caught in a “global spiritual crisis of humanity itself or, at least, of the Western world” but the Church had not responded to this crisis as the Council Fathers might have hoped. Had the Council Fathers themselves been trapped by an excessively optimistic reading of what could be done in dialogue with the modern world? Ratzinger thought so. When the cultural climate of the sixties turned from euphoria about the limitless possibilities of evolutionary progress to disenchantment in some quarters and revolutionary enthusiasms in others, the Church, unanchored, had been swept along by the riptides of the times.
The crucial question for the effective implementation of the Council and for the Church’s service to the world, Ratzinger believed, was not a matter of redesigning the Church’s international, national, and local bureaucracies. The “crucial question” was “whether there are ... saints who ... are ready to effect something new and living. “Unless the Church’s dialogue with modernity was an expression of the universal call to holiness, the Church would inevitably mirror the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age—which at this moment in the self-destructive crisis of humanism was hardly worth emulating.
In Ratzinger’s words, the Church must once again “dare to accept, with joyful heart and without diminution, the foolishness of truth.”
Cardinal Ratzinger, one of the youngest members of the conclave, had never had the opportunity to meet Karol Wojtyla of Krakow. In the interregnum between the death of Paul VI and the formal opening of the conclave the fifty-one-year-old Bavarian and the fifty-eightyear-old Pole finally met, and discovered that they had very similar analyses of the Church’s situation. Ratzinger, one of the intellectual fathers of Lumen Gentium (the Dogmatic constitution on the Church), and Wojtyla, one of the architects of Gaudium et Spes (the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern World), found themselves in what Ratzinger later recalled as a “spontaneous sympathy” for each others, sense of what was needed to secure the legacy of Vatican II. Most concisely Gaudium et Spes had to be reread through the prism of Lumen Gentium so that the Church could engage the modern world with its own unique message. In Ratzinger’s words, the Church must once again “dare to accept, with joyful heart and without diminution, the foolishness of truth.” Karol Wojtyla, who would later tell the French writer Andre Frossard that the most important word in the Gospels was “truth,” must have agreed.
- from Witness to Hope by George Weigel, 1999, pub. Cliff Street Books
Photo: CNS
As the guiding light on doctrinal issues during Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI was one of the most respected, influential and controversial members of the College of Cardinals.
Since 1981 the 78-year-old Pope Benedict XVI - regarded as one of the Church’s sharpest theologians - has headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department charged with defending orthodoxy in virtually every area of Church life.
Over the years, Pope Benedict met quietly once a week with Pope John Paul II to discuss doctrinal and other major issues facing the Church. Insiders said his influence was second to none when it came to setting Church priorities and directions and responding to moral and doctrinal challenges.
From November 2002 until his election, he was dean of the College of Cardinals, a key position in the time between Popes. Pope Benedict presided over the pre-conclave meetings of cardinals in Rome, set agendas for discussion and action, and was responsible for a number of procedural decisions during the conclave.
White-haired and soft-spoken, Pope Benedict XVI comes across in person as a thoughtful and precise intellectual with a dry sense of humor. A frequent participant at Vatican press conferences, he is a familiar figure to the international group of reporters who cover the Church. He is also well-known by the Church hierarchy around the world, and his speeches at cardinal consistories, synods of bishops and other assemblies often have the weight of a keynote address. When Pope Benedict XVI spoke as a cardinal, people listened.
Sometimes his remarks were bluntly critical on such diverse topics as dissident theologians, liberation theology, “abuses” in lay ministry, homosexuality, women as priests, feminism among nuns, premarital sex, abortion, liturgical reform and rock music.
As Pope John Paul II’s pontificate developed, some Vatican observers said Pope Benedict’s influence grew.
“He’s become the last check on everything, the final word on orthodoxy. Everything is
Pope Benedict XVI will bring great continuity with Pope John Paul II regarding Catholic doctrine and morals, said Father Thomas G. Weinandy, a Capuchin Franciscan who is executive director of the US bishops’ Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices.
“One of his great strengths is that he knows the theological scene around the world,” Father Weinandy told Catholic News Service on April 19, the day Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope.
“He will try to reach out to women but he isn’t going to ordain them,” he added.
Where the new Pope may differ from his predecessor is emphasising more renewal within the Church, he said.
“It will be interesting to see the kind of bishops he appoints,” said Father Weinandy.
Because of the child sex abuse scandals in the Church, he will be concerned about seminary training and the type of men being ordained, he said.
passed through his congregation,” one Vatican official said in 1998. “I’m not the Grand Inquisitor,” Pope Benedict XVI once said in an interview, referring to the head of a medieval Church tribunal focusing on heresy.
But to the outside world, he has been known as the Vatican’s enforcer. He made the biggest headlines when his congregation silenced or excommunicated theologians, withdrew Church approval of certain books, helped rewrite liturgical translations, set boundaries on ecumenical dialogues, took over the handling of cases of clergy sex abuse against minors, curbed the role of bishops’ conferences and pressured religious orders to suspend wayward members.
In 2003, the doctrinal congregation issued a document that said Catholic politicians must not ignore essential Church teachings, particularly on human life.
That set the stage for a long debate during the 2004 US election campaign on whether Democratic Sen John Kerry, a Catholic who supports legalised abortion, should be given Communion.
Pope Benedict XVI’s congregation also published a document asking Catholic lawmakers to fight a growing movement to legalise samesex marriage.
Pope Benedict XVI has frequently criticised the growth of Church bureaucracy and its output of studies, reports and meetings. Asked once whether the Vatican would operate better in Germany, he responded, “What a disaster! The Church would be too organised.
“The saints were people of creativity, not bureaucratic functionaries,” he added.
In his first decade at the helm of the doctrinal congregation, Pope Benedict XVI zeroed in on liberation theology as the most urgent challenge to the faith.
He silenced Latin American theologians like Franciscan Father Leonardo Boff and guided the preparation of two Vatican documents that condemned the use of Marxist political concepts in Catholic theology.
But after the collapse of Marxism as a global ideology, Pope Benedict XVI identified a new, central threat to the faith: relativism. He said relativism is an especially difficult problem for the Church because its main ideas - com-
promise and a rejection of absolute positions - are so deeply imbedded in democratic society.
More and more, he has warned, anything religious is considered “subjective.” As a result, he said, in places like his native Germany the issue of abortion is being confronted with “political correctness” instead of moral judgment. He said modern theologians are among those who have mistakenly applied relativistic concepts to religion and ethics. He said Jesus is widely seen today as “one religious leader among others,” concepts like dogma are viewed as too inflexible and the Church is accused of intransigence.
Pope Benedict XVI has been particularly sensitive to wayward trends in Asian theology, especially as they find popular expression.
He banned the best-selling books of a late Jesuit theologian from India and declared a Sri Lankan theologian excommunicated for his writings on Mary and the faith. The Sri Lankan theologian later reconciled with the Church.
After review by Pope Benedict XVI’s congregation, US Father Charles Curran, who questioned Church teaching against artificial birth control, was removed from his teaching position at The Catholic University of America in Washington in 1987.
Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI made a similar judgment about Jesuit Father Roger Haight, who was banned from teaching Catholic theology over his book touching on the divinity and salvific mediation of Jesus.
The Pope also has focused on ordinary Catholics, saying there can be no compromise on dissent by the lay faithful.
He helped prepare a papal instruction on the subject in 1998 and accompanied it with his own commentary warning Catholics they would put themselves outside the communion of the Church if they reject its teachings on eight specific issues.
The same year, he issued a document on papal primacy - a topic of intense ecumenical discussion - saying that, as a matter of faith, only the Pope has the authority to make changes in his universal ministry. Pope Benedict XVI’s theological ideas are based on years of study, pastoral ministry and Vatican experience.
CNS
More and more, he has warned, anything religious is considered “subjective.” As a result, he said, in places like his native Germany the issue of abortion is being confronted with “political correctness” instead of moral judgment.
He said modern theologians are among those who have mistakenly applied relativistic concepts to religion and ethics. He said Jesus is widely seen today as “one religious leader among others,” concepts like dogma are viewed as too inflexible and the Church is accused of intransigence.
Pope Benedict XVI will also focus more on bioethical questions arising from the new technology and medical advances, he said.
“He will study the implications. Are the new advances for real human advancement or are they for human destruction?” he said.
“He’ll be less of a globe-trotting Pope,” said Father Weinandy.
But he will continue to stress Church social teachings on justice, the despair of the poorer nations and the spread of AIDS in Africa, he said.
The new Pope had headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1981 and had a reputation as a stern disciplinarian.
He was “prudent, patient and fair” with dissenting theologians, said Father Weinandy.
“He was criticised by those theologians who didn’t want the Church to speak definitively on many issues. Some of them would like to waffle on doctrinal and moral issues. There are some issues the Church cannot waffle on,” he said.
After a new pope is elected, he is led to a small room adjoining the Sistine Chapel dubbed ‘the crying room’ to be vested in his papal robes. Rest assured that it is the weight of now occupying the Chair of Peter that has traditionally provoked new pontiffs to tears - not the quality of the vestments that await them.
Established in 1798, the exclusive Italian tailor Gammarelli’s is a renowned specialist in ecclesiastical dress. For almost all of the last century, this family-run business - now headed by Filippo Gammarelli, the great-great-grandson of the store’s founder - has had the honour of claiming the pope as their number one client; certainly John Paul II chose Gammarelli’s throughout his 26 year pontificate.
The tradition is set to continue. In recent days, three sets of crisp, new, papal robes have been proudly displayed in the window of Gammarelli’s store, located near the Pantheon. Why three? The new pope’s suit is made in small, medium and large to cover all possible outcomes of the papal election - literally. Alongside the three versions of the white soutane, lace surplice and red mozzetta in Gammarelli’s shopfront are displayed the red shoes, white zucchetta and stole that complete the papal attire.
Which vestments will fit the man? That is the concern of Filippo Gammarelli and his staff. Which man will fit the role? That is up to the Holy Spirit.
- Michelle Jones is from Perth and currently studying in Rome. She filed this story for The Record shortly before Pope Benedict XVI was elected.
This is the man who will measure up the new Pope■ By Benedicta Cipolla
When “Habemus papam!” (We have a pope!) rang out from the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square, most of the faithful were waiting for the name of the 265th leader of the Catholic Church, their upturned gazes fixed on his face.
Filippo Gammarelli was anxiously scrutinising the new pontiff’s body.
As papal tailor, Gammarelli needed to be more concerned with measurements and mental calculations for the outfits the new pope would need in the days following the election.
While it was not certain Pope Benedict XVI would call upon his services, Gammarelli’s shopfounded in 1798 by his forebear, Antonio Gammarelli - served every 20th-century pontiff except for Pope Pius XII, who stuck with his
family’s tailor. Two or three days before the April 18 start of the conclave, Gammarelli delivered three sets of outfits to the Vatican, identical except for size: small, medium and large.
About 10 tailors and seamstresses were racing to finish the order just 48 hours before the deadline. One woman worked only on handsewn buttonholes, 30 per cassock, while another employee focused his attention on more than 200 silkcovered buttons.
Each set consists of a white wool cassock with attached capelet, a white silk cassock and matching red capelet with buttons up the front, a skullcap, a sash and red leather shoes.
After the election and before the new pope’s presentation to the public, he was to quickly don the outfit that best approximates his size and sartorial taste.
“We hope one of them will fit, more or less,” Gammarelli said in an interview before the election with Catholic News Service in his store, located on a tiny street behind the Pantheon in an area chock full of stores selling clerical garb.
Pope John XXIII, one of the more rotund pontiffs in recent memory, almost burst the buttons of his first cassock, while the slender and short Pope John Paul I found even the smallest outfit too long.
When Pope John Paul II stepped onto the balcony, clad in one of the shop’s white cassocks, Gammarelli breathed a sigh of relief.
“He carried himself beautifully. Before the last few years, when he began to be stooped over, he was a handsome man,” Gammarelli told CNS. “He was easy to work with, very simple.”
Once an order comes in from a new pope, Gammarelli and his team head to the Apostolic Palace to take measurements, which they keep on file for future requests.
Books dating back decades contain the arm, waist, inseam and head measurements of thousands of priests, bishops and cardinals, who can phone in an order from
across the globe - unless, of course, weight fluctuations have impacted their sizes.
Much of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the papacy died out with Pope Paul VI, who got rid of the papal tiara and insisted on an unadorned marble slab to mark his tomb.
Likewise, the last half-century has brought a paring down of pontifical and other ecclesiastical clothing.
Pope Pius abolished cardinals’ silk trains, and thus also the servants trailing behind to carry them, and the decorative ermine trim and ostrich-plumed fans favored by pontiffs past went the way of the papal court and portable throne that footmen carried through the crowds. Which is not to say ermine trim might not come back someday: “The Pope can have whatever he wants,” said Gammarelli.
Gammarelli’s store window displays the three versions of the papal attire. Photo: Michelle JonesSunday 24th April
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Pacific Padres
3.00am Harazibag Jesuits
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Pacific Padres
9.00am Harazibag Jesuits
2.00pm Mass for You At Home
2.30pm Pacific Padres
3.00pm Harazibag Jesuits
Tuesday 26th
8.00pm Mass for You At Home
8.30pm Pacific Padres
9.00pm Harazibag Jesuits
Wednesday 27th
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Pacific Padres
3.00am Harazibag Jesuits
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Pacific Padres
9.00am Harazibag Jesuits
2.00pm Mass for You At Home
2.30pm Pacific Padres
2.00pm Harazibag Jesuits
Thursday 28th
8.00pm Mass for You At Home
8.30pm Pacific Padres
9.00pm Harazibag Jesuits
Friday 29th
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Pacific Padres
3.00am Harazibag Jesuits
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Pacific Padres
9.00am Harazibag Jesuits
2.00pm Mass for You At Home
2.30pm Pacific Padres
3.00pm Harazibag Jesuits
Saturday 30th
8.00pm Mass for You At Home
8.30pm Pacific Padres
9.00pm Harazibag Jesuits
Sunday 1st May
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Priests 24/7
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Priests 24/7
2.00pm Mass for You At Home 2.30pm Priests 24/7
Tuesday 3rd 8.00pm Mass for You At Home 8.30pm Priests 24/7
Wednesday 4th
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Priests 24/7
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Priests 24/7
2.00pm Mass for You At Home 2.30pm Priests 24/7
Thursday 5th 8.00pm Mass for You At Home
Priests 24/7
Friday 6th 2.00am Mass for You At Home
Priests 24/7
8.00am Mass for You At Home
Priests 24/7
2.00pm Mass for You At Home 2.30pm Priests 24/7
Saturday 7th 8.00pm Mass for You At Home 8.30pm Priests 24/7
Sunday 8th May
2.00am Mass for You At Home
Talking Families
Tuesday 10th 8.00pm Mass for You At Home
Talking Families
Wednesday 11th 2.00am Mass for You At Home
Talking Families
Therese: An Australian Journey
Mass for
Thursday 12th
Friday 13th
2.00am Mass for You At Home 2.30am Talking Families
3.30am Therese: An Australian Journey
8.00am Mass for You At Home 8.30am Talking Families
for
Saturday 14th
8.00pm Mass for You At Home
8.30pm Talking Families
9.30pm Therese: An Australian Journey
Sunday 15th May
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Add Religion and Stir 3.00am Martyrs of East Timor
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Add Religion and Stir 9.00am Martyrs of East Timor
2.00pm Mass for You At Home
2.30pm Add Religion and Stir 3.00pm Martyrs of East Timor
Tuesday 17th
8.00pm Mass for You At Home 8.30pm Add Religion and Stir 9.00pm Martyrs of East Timor
Wednesday 18th
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Add Religion and Stir 3.00am Martyrs of East Timor
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Add Religion and Stir 9.00am Martyrs of East Timor
2.00pm Mass for You At Home 2.30pm Add Religion and Stir 3.00pm Martyrs of East Timor
Thursday 19th
8.00pm Mass for You At Home
8.30pm Add Religion and Stir 9.00pm Martyrs of East Timor
Friday 20th
2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am Add Religion and Stir 3.00am Martyrs of East Timor
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am Add Religion and Stir 9.00am Martyrs of East Timor
2.00pm Mass for You At Home 2.30pm Add Religion and Stir 3.00pm Martyrs of East Timor
Saturday 21st 8.00pm Mass for You At Home 8.30pm Add Religion and Stir 9.00pm Martyrs of East Timor
Sunday 22nd May
2.00am Mass for You At Home 2.30am The Inner Path Part 1
8.00am Mass for You At Home 8.30am The Inner Path Part 1
2.00pm Mass for You At Home 2.30pm The Inner Path Part 1
Tuesday 24rd
8.00pm Mass for You At Home 8.30pm The Inner Path Part 1
Wednesday 25th 2.00am Mass for You At Home 2.30am The Inner Path Part 1
8.00am Mass for You At Home 8.30am The Inner Path Part 1
2.00pm Mass for You At Home
2.30pm The Inner Path Part 1
Thursday 26th 8.00pm Mass for You At Home
8.30pm The Inner Path Part 1
Friday 27th 2.00am Mass for You At Home
2.30am The Inner Path Part 1
8.00am Mass for You At Home
8.30am The Inner Path Part 1
2.00pm Mass for You At Home
2.30pm The Inner Path Part 1
Saturday 28th 8.00pm Mass for You At Home 8.30pm The Inner Path Part 1
“Pacific Padres”
Among some of the unsung heroes of war are the chaplains - the men and women who care for the spiritual needs of those in the armed forces – at home and abroad, at war and in peace. This film looks at the inspiring story of three World War II Padres and the extraordinary impact they had on the young soldiers given into their care.
“Harazibag Jesuits”
During Global Campaign for Education Week we look at the story of how in 1951 Australian Jesuits went to a desperately poor and remote corner of India and through education and pastoral care have turned their lives around and given them hope.
“Priests 24/7”
This week the Catholic Church throughout Australia focuses on our vocation to live out our baptismal commitment. This film looks at the life of two, typical, Australian parish priests who faithfully and generously serve God’s people 24/7.
“Talking Families”
This week in Australia we observe the UN’s International Day of Families. With all the pressures around these days, it’s never been harder to have a happy family life, so this film portrays a number of ordinary Australian families and asks the question, “What makes for a happy family life?”
“Thérèse - An Australian Journey”
St Thérèse, or the little flower as she is often called, was a complex person who advocated doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. When her relics came to Australia in 2002 people of various denominations and faiths flocked to churches to pray, and to be inspired, again, by her simple way of confidence and love. This week we mark the 80th anniversary of her being declared a saint in 1925.
“Add Religion and Stir”
This week we celebrate the final Easter feast of Pentecost. On Pentecost Sunday in 1964, Pope Paul VI made a similarly brave move by founding the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which, in 1988, was renamed the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. In that spirit, “Add Religion and Stir”, gives us the information we need about other faiths to have a fruitful dialogue. It also provides more meeting points than we could ever have expected.
“Martyrs of East Timor”
The 20th May is East Timor’s Independence Day. In this film we remember some recent martyrs who gave their life in East Timor in solidarity with their persecuted people, by defending the rights of the poor, or for simply trying to bring healing and peace to others.
The Inner Path Part 1
This week we begin a two-part series this week entitled “The Inner Path” where we look at four spiritual traditions that unite Christians in their search for God.
In the first program we focus on the issue of solitude, where it came from in the Christian story and why it remains important for us. And then we look at the importance of community, as lived in monastic life and the lessons it has for our everyday Christian life.
Stephen Payne left Hollywood in 1991 because he was not happy with his newfound career as postproduction co-ordinator for the USA cable television network.
“The execs were pushing the envelope on sex and violence and I was really feeling awful that this was happening under my involvement,” said Payne, 38, who is a Catholic.
“I decided my life was really consecrated to Christ, and I had to step out of that industry to try to do something in film that would make a difference,” he told the Four County Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Norwich.
Looking back, he said he believes the events that led him to team up with his father to found Arcadia Films Ltd. in 1998 have been providential.
Today, instead of preparing racy, made-for-TV movies for broadcast, Payne and his father have produced a series of films on the lives of the saints, a 90-minute documentary on the life of St Louis de Montfort and promotional videos for the Steubenville East summer youth conferences.
Their clients include Eternal Word Television Network, known as EWTN, as well as Priests for Life, Angelicum University in Rome and most recently the Massachusetts Catholic Conference.
“We’ve always been taken care of in God’s divine providence and we’ve never had to do anything secular in over 10 years,” Payne said. From
their studio in Litchfield County, the father-son team aims, as Payne explained, “to make Christ and Our Lady better known” through their work in the media.
Their latest project is a public service announcement for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference on embryonic stem-cell research.
In the 30-second spot, a shot of the globe from outer space fades into a shot of a new baby being delivered into the arms of its waiting mother. A voiceover explains that every human being was once
an embryo, just as butterflies were once caterpillars. The topic of stem-cell research is one with which the Paynes are especially familiar. Stephen’s mother, Patricia, suffers from Parkinson’s disease and is currently undergoing treatment with adult stem cells. She recently testified against embryonic stem-cell research before the Massachusetts Legislature.
The Paynes also have produced several commercials encouraging voters to consider life issues when voting. The spots, paid for
by Priests for Life, were aired in battleground states during the 2000 election year.
“The Saints Speak,” a series of 40 spiritual mini-movies, is currently airing on EWTN. In the three- to five-minute-long clips, an actor or actress portrays a particular saint, offering viewers’ reflections on the Eucharist in the saint’s own words. The reflections are taken from the saint’s writings. Saints featured include Catherine of Genoa, Augustine and John Chrysostom, to name a few.
The Paynes’ involvement in Christian media production began in 1992, just as Payne returned to the East Coast, disillusioned with Hollywood. At the same time his father, Richard, resigned as publisher and editor of a major international religious publishing house.
Although the elder Payne had planned to manage the new company, when it reneged on a promise to refrain from selling Gnostic and New Age books, he decided to leave the firm. It was then that the two decided to form their own venture in film.
Soon thereafter, Richard Payne, who had been the founding editor of the 100-volume “Classics of Western Spirituality” series for Paulist Press, was asked to be managing editor of a 1,400-page book on St Louis de Montfort.
After working on the book together, father and son embarked on their first film project -- a docudrama on St Louis de Montfort. The pair and a small crew traveled to France and shot the film on location throughout Vendee and Brittany in western France.
The Paynes, who are natives of Canada, said that they approach their work “always in an atmosphere of prayer to discern what God really wants.” Stephen Payne said, “Our interest is really to serve the Church and that’s primary in everything we do.”
The pair also firmly believes that the media holds great hope and possibility for furthering Catholic teaching. But the industry’s creative side needs Catholics’ support. “The potential is huge for evangelisation,” said Stephen Payne. “Catholics have to come together to realise if (Mel Gibson’s film) ‘The Passion’ was possible, what else is possible?” CNS
In addition to thanking God for the ministry of Pope John Paul II, Vatican officials offered thanks for the lessons they learned as he was dying, said one of his top aides.
“In the months marked by the progressive decline of his health,” Pope John Paul’s “simplicity and poverty” became even clearer, said Argentine Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, assistant secretary of state.
“It is up to us in a special way to safeguard and make fruitful that which this extraordinary pope gave to the Church and the whole world over the course of his life and at the moment of his death,” the archbishop told Vatican officials on April 13 as he presided over a memorial Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
The Mass, part of the Church’s official nine-day mourning period, was open to the public, but was entrusted especially to members of the Roman Curia.
Archbishop Sandri encouraged the officials to use the time to reflect on “the precious heritage he left, especially to those of us who were closest to him” because of working at the Vatican. “Those who were able to share the daily activity of the Pope were witnesses to his profound love for the Eucharist,” he said. “Before making important decisions, he usually would spend long periods of time before the Blessed Sacrament in his private chapel, bringing with him the dossiers to examine.”
And, the archbishop said, those who were able to visit Pope John Paul in his apartment in the last weeks of his life “could not help but experience a sense of admiration for the modesty of the furnishings that surrounded him, as well as for the humility and simplicity, the sense of detachment and
the total availability with which he abandoned himself into the hands of God.”
Archbishop Sandri said “the great example and the precious teaching that the deceased pontiff left to those of us called to work in the Roman Curia” was “an example of simplicity and detachment, of faithful and disinterested service in the Lord’s vineyard, of constant openness and docile adhesion to the will of God.”
The archbishop ended his homily saying, “Dear and beloved Holy Father John Paul II, thank you for the example you have left us.”
He prayed that the Pope would continue to watch over the church and entrust the members of the curia, the church and all humanity to the maternal hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
CNS
Polish bishops urged their citizens to channel their love for Pope John Paul II into “concrete acts” of charity.
“John Paul II taught us how to live, follow Christ and love the Church. In his last days and hours, he accepted his illness and suffering, and taught us a wonderful lesson in passing through death to life,” the Polish bishops’ conference main council said in a statement published on April 13 by Poland’s Catholic information agency, KAI.
The statement said Poles should make a “living memorial” to Pope John Paul by supporting charitable foundations working to help the poor.
“Initiatives are being born in dioceses and particular circles for commemorating and deepening the enormous spiritual capital John Paul II has left us. Each of these initiatives is valuable and worthy of consideration, if it comes from faith and serves the common good,” the statement said. The statement said the pontiff’s approach to death could be viewed as
a “great act of catechisation,” as well as a “last encyclical” for the contemporary world.
“We now urge communities, church movements, parishes and associations to take concrete actions for commemorating John Paul II’s pontificate, in harmony with their bishops, especially those that require personal conversion,” the statement said.
About 2 million Poles travelled to Rome for the pope’s April 8 funeral, while millions more joined services and vigils in Poland, where the late Pope was born in 1920.
In the statement, the bishops thanked Catholic clergy, minority churches, government officials and the media for their “moving testimony” and for showing “sensitivity, effort and dedication” in their remembrances of Pope John Paul.
Auxiliary Bishop Piotr Libera of Katowice, the bishops’ conference secretary-general, told KAI on April 13 that Church leaders debated how to channel the “huge spiritual energy” that grew after Pope John Paul’s death and that a “deeper reflection about the future” of the Church also was needed. CNS
John Paul II’s death attracted an unprecedented level of interest from the media and the population in general.
The Global Language Monitor organization has the data to prove the great media interest.
As of the day of the Pope’s funeral, there had been 12 million Internet citations, and 100,000 stories around the world in the media. In comparison, for the entire preceding year there were only 28,000 news stories and 1.5 million Internet citations about John Paul II.
The coverage, noted Global Language Monitor, far exceeded attention given to other events such as the South Asian tsunami, the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the deaths of Ronald Reagan and Princess Diana. Within the first 72 hours of the Pope’s death there were about 10 times more news stories on John Paul II than were published in the same period on US President George Bush following his re-election last November.
An analysis of the coverage shows that the word “historic” was associated with the Pope nearly 3 million times, while “conservative” is associated some 1.75 million times, and “loved” or “beloved” some 600,000 times.
Meanwhile, Catholic Internet sites also saw a boom. Catholic sites recorded a 118% jump in market share of online visits for the week ending April 9, versus the randomly selected week ending November 6 last year, according to the monitoring company Hitwise USA Incorporated.
The Pope’s death also triggered an avalanche of Internet searches. For the week ending April 2, searches of the keywords “pope john paul” were up 3,161%, “pope” 2,801%, and “pope john paul ii” 2,307%.
The biggest beneficiary of the searches on the word “pope,” at 11% of all searches, was the Vatican Web site (www.vatican.va). Followers-up, with 10% each, were www.catholic.net and the Google
News page (www.news.google. com).
Newspapers and television Newspaper coverage was also abundant. The British newspaper Independent noted some data regarding the press in the United Kingdom. According to an April 10 article, on the Monday following the Pope’s death the Daily Mirror dedicated 19 pages to the issue and the Times 11 pages. Other papers had similar levels of coverage, with exception of the Sun, which limited its coverage to just two pages.
The attention was notable, according to the Independent’s analysis of the media coverage. Britain is not only a very secularized country, with little space given in the media to religion, but the traditional religion is Anglican.
In fact, Guardian journalist Martin Kettle commented in an April 5 article: “The funeral of a pope, let us be clear, has never until now been the sort of event deemed to require the attendance of the British prime minister - or even of the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
Television coverage was also ample. The Associated Press on April 12 reported that more than 9 million people in the United States either wakened early or stayed up late to watch the Pope’s funeral (it started at 4 am on the East Coast and 1 am on the West Coast).
Television channels in the Arab world also gave large amounts of air-time to the Pope. An Agence France-Presse report on April 3 noted that Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, famous for screening videotapes by Osama bin Laden, was among the first to announce the death of John Paul II.
On the Sunday following the Holy Father’s death, Al-Jazeera continued providing widespread coverage, as did Dubai-based AlArabiya. These two stations, along with many others throughout the Arab world, also aired several documentaries about John Paul II.
Book sales up
Book sales were also affected by the Pope’s death. An April 10 report by the Associated Press noted that in the subsequent days
several titles quickly reached the top 20 of online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Leading titles include five by John Paul: “The Way to Christ”; “Memory and Identity”; “Pope John Paul: In My Own Words”; “Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way”; and “Crossing the Threshold of Hope.”
Another popular book has been “Witness to Hope,” a biography by George Weigel. Only hours after the Pope’s death, HarperCollins announced that a new book by Weigel, not yet titled, would come out by year-end and “examine the death of the pope and the Catholic Church he left behind, while also offering an unparalleled inside account of the election of the next pope.”
On Thursday the Associated Press reported from Italy that sales of John Paul II’s last book, “Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums,” have increased by 50%, to about 12,000 copies a day, since his death. The data came from the book’s publisher, Rizzoli.
The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church said he hopes CatholicOrthodox ties will improve after the election of a new pope for the Catholic Church.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow said Pope John Paul II worked hard at improving the relationship between the two churches, but the Catholic Church’s policies in Russia hindered unity.
“Even when afflicted by a grave illness, John Paul II never stopped caring for believers till his last days of earthly life - such devotion to his Church, strong faith in God and solicitude for his faithful deserve the utmost respect,” said Patriarch Alexy.
“Yet the problems and conflicts which have hurt and still harm our Christian relations have deeper roots.
“I believe the Catholic side should show a readiness to take on the difficult job of radically changing its policies in Russia,” the patriarch said.
The patriarch told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily on April 14 that the crowds in St Peter’s Square showed that the Pope’s “preaching, teaching, statements and sermons” had “energised Catholics” to withstand modern secular ideology.
However, he said “complications” between the Catholic and Orthodox churches had increased under Pope John Paul, who died on April 2.
“It would be wrong to reduce all the difficulties to one person exclusively,” Patriarch Alexy added.
“But I sincerely hope the Roman Catholic Church’s next Holy Father will contribute to positively developing our relations.
“This is what can open a new epoch between our churches, in which our combined testimony to Christian faith and values before the world holds pride of place,” he said.
For more than a decade, Catholic-Orthodox ties in Eastern Europe have been strained over Orthodox complaints of Catholic proselytism as well as over the revival of Eastern Catholic churches.
In his last message published to the world, Pope John Paul II called on the faithful to be “generous evangelisers” by fighting injustice and poverty while spreading the Gospel. On April 15 the Vatican released the Pope’s annual World Mission Sunday message, which was written in six languages, including Chinese. The message was signed by the late Pope and dated Febuary 22, the feast of the Chair of St Peter. “In our day human society appears to be shrouded in dark shadows while it is shaken by tragic events and shattered by catastrophic natural disasters,” the late Pope wrote. He said the eucharistic celebration is “bread from heaven, which gives eternal life and opens the human heart to a
great hope.” The Vatican said Pope John Paul wished the message to be made public on April 15 so that bishops’ conferences around the world had time to prepare for World Mission Sunday, which will be celebrated October 23 in most dioceses.
The 39 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS and the 23 million who have died of the disease provide stark testimony to the breadth and depth of the worldwide pandemic. Undisputed too is the crucial role that faith-based organisations have played in HIV/AIDS treatment, education and prevention. But where do faith-based organisations excel and where do they sometimes fall short in the global response to HIV/AIDS? The answer has been hard to quantify, in part
because - as the World Council of Churches said in a 2003 report - workers for faith-based organisations “are busy ‘doing’ but are notoriously bad about, or are not trained for, monitoring, evaluating and documenting their efforts.” To fill that gap, the Catholic Medical Mission Board commissioned a study by the Global Health Council that assesses the impact of faith-based organisations on HIV/ AIDS efforts in six countries - Haiti, India, Kenya, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda. Titled “Faith in Action: Examining the Role of Faith-Based Organisations in Addressing HIV/AIDS,” the study was released on April 14 at a Washington press conference.
Members of religious orders from around the world packed St Peter’s Basilica on April
15 to give thanks for the life of Pope John Paul II and for his support of consecrated life. Archbishop Piergiorgio Nesti, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, celebrated the Mass, which was part of the official nine-day period of mourning for the late pope.
In his homily, Archbishop Nesti, a Passionist, said Pope John Paul had shown his “respect and esteem” for religious by meeting members of general chapters, holding special meetings with religious on his foreign trips, visiting cloistered communities and canonising or beatifying dozens of founders and hundreds of members of religious orders. “Thank you, Holy Father, for all you have done for consecrated life,” he said.
“Thank you for your words of encouragement.”
From the Anchor Hold
■ Can be found at: www. kmknapp.blogspot.com
Karen Marie Knapp is not physically well but shines through her suffering. We could all learn a lot from her faith, her joy and her patience in trial. Supported by family and friends this young woman reflects on faith, mysticism and on the life of her cathedral, which is also a physical centre for her experience of faith. Inspiring.
Citizen journalism
■ Can be found at: www.speroforum.com
Spero Forum is an interreligious news site based on what it terms citizen journalism with some big names attached to it such as Our Sunday Visitor’s Greg Popcak and others. Editor Robert Duncan is an expatriate American journalist living and working with the foreign press corps in Spain. The news is all about faith and society as we see it. Barefoot and pregnant
■ Can be found at: www.barefootandpregnant.blogspot.com
Meet Valerie at the progressively-named ‘barefoot and pregnant’ blog. Life is busy in a large Catholic homeschooling family. Valerie is the main blogger in the household, in charge of two blogs and six children ages 10 and under: “And yes, they’re all ours!”
Currently working as a ‘Domestic Engineer’ in the ‘Religion’ industry, Valerie’s interests, apart from her family, are: Catholicism, homeschooling, unschooling (sounds interesting), philosophy, music, pregnancy/childbirth, NFP, parenting, homemaking and scrapbooking. Well worth the look.
Being! Or Nothingness
■ Can be found at: www.beingornothingness.blogs.com
… is subtitled ‘When I encountered Christ, I discovered my humanity!’ and is by a member of Communion and Liberation. The more I read this blog, the more I was drawn into it. The very touching and wonderfully vivid account of being able to be present at Monsignor Giussani’s funeral in Milan, posted on March 16, is well worth the read and will give you some idea of the vitality of the movement he created.
Life’s Crosses
■ Can be found at: www.alongcorner.blogspot.com
Most of these blogs are by Americans, who I suppose must have lots of time on their hands, but this one is created by Fr Aloysius Ong, “a middle aging ‘young’ priest making a point in the playing fields of the Lord.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, Fr Ong’s playing fields of the Lord happen to be more precisely located in Singapore.
He introduces himself with “It is a field fraught with the trials and tribulations of life, some of which I carry.
For better or for worse, it’s the life given and it’s the life for me to live out and appreciate.” Give Fr Ong our regards from un-humid Western Australia.
Catholic Ragemonkey
■ Can be found at: http:// ragemonkey.blogspot.com
Three priests mix clever humour, innocent fun and deep faith as they think about the world, current events, the Church and life in general.
This blog is rapidly becoming a favourite among websurfers and Fr Shane Tharp is astonished to find that he is published from Western Australia to US in current affairs magazines. Who or what is the ragemonkey? I have no idea.
Happy Catholic (Not always happy, but happy to be Catholic)
■ Can be found at: www.happycatholic.blogspot.com
The title is corny, but the subtitle is a nice touch. Julie, mother of two, married, somehow finds time to talk about family, reflect on her faith (Scripture, books she is reading, family, what’s on TV) and diarise about family, friends and life in general. Praise n’ Knitting sessions sound like hilarious fun. A really good website that appeals to all for its clever humour, intelligence and orthodoxy. Eg…
So True
1. It is important that a man helps you around the house and has a job.
2. It is important that a man makes you laugh.
3. It is important to find a man you can count on who doesn’t lie to you.
4. It is important that a man loves you and spoils you.
5. It is important that these four men don’t know each other.
A second-last note
All these blogs carry links to hundreds of other blogs by Catholics so if you just jump into one of two of these you’ll get sucked in to an endless array of personalities, thoughts, reflections and so on and so on. These few range from pretty good to occasionally brilliant. See if you can sort them out.
Skinny Dip
One final tip: Look up this excerpt on the web and see if you like it. I thought it was great. It’s from Swimming with Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic, by Matthew Lickona, published by Loyola Press. The link to the excerpt is: http://www.godspy.com/faith/ Swimming-with-Scapulars-Lentand-Its-Discontents-by-MatthewLickona.cfm
I already want a copy for Christmas.
Winterr’s Words
■ Can be found at: www.winterr.blogspot.com
Aha! At last, a blog from Down Under, and this one by Carmel, a young woman who has returned to the Church. It’s pretty good. Try this for an example:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the Courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me!!!
Next time you feel that God cannot use you, just remember:
- Abraham was too old
- Isaac was a day dreamer
- Jacob was a liar
- Leah was ugly
- Joseph was abused
- Moses had a stuttering problem
- Gideon was afraid
- Samson had long hair and was a womaniser
- Rahab was a prostitute
- Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
- David had an affair and was a murderer
- Elijah was suicidal
- Isaiah preached naked
- Jonah ran from God
- Naomi was a widow
- Job went bankrupt
- John the Baptist ate bugs
- Peter denied Christ
- The Disciples fell asleep whilst praying
- Martha worried about everything
- The samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
- Zaccheus was too small
- Paul was too religious
- Timothy had an ulcer.................... AND
- Lazarus was DEAD!!
No more excuses now, God can use you to your full potential, besides you are not the message, you are the messenger.”
Give Carmel some encouragement at the above address.
By Jennie Bishop, illustrated by Preston McDaniels
Published by Catholic Answers, USA.
Available from Portico Books, Ph (02) 9980 8836, www.portico.com.au
‘I asked God how I could teach my young daughters the value of their purity, how I could begin in their early years to stress the importance and beauty of saving themselves for marriage. This is God’s poignant answer. My prayer is that this simple story will fulfil the same purpose for many other loving parents.’ So writes author Jennie Bishop of her reason for writing this beautiful little book. The Princess and the Kiss is a one of a kind picture book. It tells the story of a loving king and queen who present their daughter with a gift from God - her first kiss - to keep or give away.
The wise princess wants to wait
for the man who is worthy of her precious gift. She wonders where he is and how she will ever find him!
One by one, suitors begin to appear, offering the Princess their hand in marriage. She looks into their hearts to find room for her kiss, but finds that none will treasure it as she does. Prince Peacock, with his great muscles and impressive strength, was too full of himself to find room for her kiss. Prince Romance promised an endless honeymoon, but the Princess knew those wonderful feelings could not last forever, and he would soon lose interest in her kiss. Prince Treasurechest brought gifts of gold, jewels and costly silken robes, but the Princess knew that he did not need her kiss, it would not be special to him.
And then one appeared who proved he would treasure the Princess’s kiss. He told the Princess her purity “sparkled like diamonds”, and asked her to marry him.
This marvellous parable will touch the heart of parent and child alike. Beautifully illustrated and presented with hard cover, it makes an ideal gift.
BOOK KEEPING
■ MYOB MY OFFICE OR YOURS
Ph: Margare 9459 5866/0403 778 426
■ BRICK REPOINTING
Phone Nigel 9242 2952
■ HANDYPERSON
Home maintenance good rates. Phone
Adrian 9343 9025
■ GUTTERS/DOWNPIPES
Need renewing, best work and cheapest prices. Free quote. Ph: Ad 9447 7475 or 0408 955 991 5008.
■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD
For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 9444 1200.
■ PICASSO PAINTING
Top service. Phone 9345 0557, fax 9345 0505.
■ RESPITE OR LONG STAY Respite or long stay. I am a qualified carer and have vacancies in my home for frail and aged. Twenty-four hour care. Further information and brochure please contact 9397 7037 mob. 0402 265 952.
■ RETAILER OF CATHOLIC PRODUCTS
Specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for baptism, communion and confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12A, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.
■ WORK FROM HOME
Around your children & family commitments. My business is expanding and I need people to open new areas all over Australia. Training given. Highly lucrative. www.cyber-success-4u.org
■ CARETAKER FOR COUNTRY CHURCH
Accommodation available would suit pensioner situated 1 hour from Perth. Ph: Fr Paul 9571 1839
■ ALL AREAS Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.
■ GLYCONUTRIENTS
Now here is a product that could change your life, a dietary supplement that surpasses all others. Glyconutrients are a technological breakthrough and a new area of science. Learn more about optimal health and Glyconutrients by calling: Mary Anne 9284 1662. Find out Glyconutrients can provide you with a healthy business and a healthier life.
■ DENMARK
■ DUNSBOROUGH
New 4 x 2, great location, sleeps 9. Ph: 0414 579 215
Anzac Day Commemorative Parade and Service - Fr Brian O’Loughlin VG
29 Ministries Mass at St Charles’ Seminary - Archbishop Hickey Blessing and opening of extensions at St Mary’s School, Kalgoorlie - Bishop Sproxton
30 Familyfest at Little Sisters of the Poor, Glendalough - Bishop Sproxton
Sunday April 24
■ HOUSE SITTER AVAILABLE
Responsible adult available, to care for your home and pets, Perth Metropolitan Area Phone/SMS Natalie: 0417 976 028.
■ QUALIFIED MAKEUP ARTIST Weddings and School Balls. Contact Tania 0407 757 457
■ KINESIOLOGY AND NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
Facilitating modern applied Kinesiology and Neurophysiology. These techniques are especially designed for people with psychological pain, such as anxiety, depression and addiction caused by traumatic incidents or childhood experiences. Clients can start to look ahead, find hope, and build a new life, hereby freeing them from the traumatic grip. Cost 45 dollars a session, 22 dollars for concession card holders. Ph: Hennie 9525 0292
■ SUCCEED FROM HOME Call Christine on Tel: 9256 2895
■ RICH HARVEST YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, baptism/communion aparells, religious vestments, etc? Visit us at, 39 Hulme Court (off McCoy St), Myaree, 9329 9889 (after 10.30am, Mon-Sat). We are here to serve.
■ HOME FOR BENNI
1-year-old Male de-sexed cat, lovely natured and great as a companion. Ph: 9537 2385
1 Farewell Mass, Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, Northam - Archbishop Hickey 2-12 Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Sydney - Archbishop Hickey, Bishop Sproxton
6 Blessing of extensions at St Maria Goretti School, Redcliffe - Fr Brian O’Loughlin VG
BULLSBROOK CELEBRATION ALTERED
SACRI Association will celebrate the 58th anniversary of the Aspiration of the Virgin of the Revelation to Bruno Corncchiola, at her shrine 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. There will be Marian procession, Holy Mass and Benediction from 2pm. All are most welcome. Bus Bookings Mrs Haddon 9277 5338 Enq SACRI 9447 3292
Sunday April 24
THE LEGION OF MARY WILL BE OFFERING A MASS IN THANKSGIVING AND CELEBRATION
For the Life of His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Fr Jim Shelton and the Spiritual Directors of the Legion at St Francis Xavier Church, Windsor St East Perth, will concelebrate the Mass. Mass will commence after the Rosary at 7pm. Members of the Legion are invited to attend. Enq Rosemary Bennett on 94547831.
Sunday April 24
ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK
1 - 2 pm on Access 31. The Conclave, documentary on the procedure whereby a new Pope is elected by the Cardinals, a Vatican Television Presentation. The Rosary Christian Tutorial Association thanks those who have contributed to keeping these wonderful Catholic programs on air at Access 31. We rely entirely on voluntary donations. Postal address RCTA, PO Box 1270, Booragoon 6954. Enq 9330 1170.
Monday April 25 FROM THE LAST SUPPER TO TODAYS MASS
Holy Trinity Prayer Group has invited Fr Russell Hardiman from Notre Dame University to speak on the Eucharist at Our Lady of Mt Carmel, 82 Collick St Hilton. The talk will cover such areas as history, spirituality and devotion, Eucharistic life and healing in the Eucharist. The evening will commence at 6.45pm with the Rosary, followed by Mass at 7.15pm-8.45pm including Father’s talk. All Welcome. Enq Martha 0419 242 172.
Tuesday April 26
SPIRITUALITY IN THE PUB
Commencing 7.30pm at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow Pub, Lake St Northbridge. The theme for 2005 is “Relationships in the Contemporary World”. Our speakers are Drew Jago Catholic Primary Principal and musician and Phil Bayne CEO
Consultant and singer who will perform and talk about relating through music, join us for dinner from 6.30pm. Contact person: Deborah 041 993 9864.
Thursday April 28
HEALING MASS
St Augustine’s 38 Gladstone Road, Rivervale from 7.30pm the Sacrament of the Anointing Of the Sick with Fr Bob Anderson, Servite Fathers Enq 9361 6290
Friday April 29
BUSINESS PERSONS MASS
Will be celebrated at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Square from 7am followed by a breakfast meeting at the W.A Club,101 St George’s Terrace Perth, with guest speaker John Kinder of the Communion and Liberation Movement. A fee for breakfast applies. Enq 9384 0809
Friday April 29
A TRIBUTE TO POPE JOHN PAUL II 7:30 PM ON ACCESS 31 Almost an Autobiography, a documentary on the life of Pope John Paul II. This is a repeat of the program broadcast on Sunday, April 10, which is being put to air again by special request.
Saturday April 30
FOCOLARE MOVEMENT PRESENT FAMILYFEST LOVE
BUILDS PEACE
To be held at the main hall at the Little Sisters of the Poor, 2 Rawlings St Glendalough, commencing at 10.30am, concluding at 4.30pm. Entrance is free, food and drinks will be on sale. Enq Focolare 6278 3425 or 9349 4052
Sunday May 1
MERCEDES COLLEGE FETE
Commencing from 10.30am-4pm festivities include live music all day by local rock bands, auctions, craft and gourmet stalls as well as pool side lottery, international food stalls, games, rides and even a bar and AFL tent
Sunday May 1
FAREWELL FOR THE SISTERS OF ST JOSEPH
St Joseph’s Parish, Northam, cordially invites all interested people to attend a Farewell Mass for the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition who are leaving Northam at the conclusion of 116 years service. Mass will be from 11am in St Josephs Church. Light refreshments will be available at the conclusion of
Mass. Please advise Mrs Carol Leeder 0429 339 986 if you are able to attend.
Tuesday 3 May
COMBINED LITURGICAL MINISTRY WORKSHOP NO 1 Workshops include Musicians, Art & Environment and Forming Liturgy Committees. Commencing from 7.30pm - 9.30pm. RSVP Friday 29 April to the Archdiocesan Liturgy Office, 40/A Mary Street, Highgate WA 6003. Phone: 9422 7902, Fax: 9328 2833, Email litrcia@highgate-perthcatholic.org.au
Friday May 6-7
VIGIL MASS ALL SAINTS CHAPEL
Devotions to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, commencing Friday 9pm with Mass, Rosaries, hymns on the hour and concluding Saturday with Mass at 7am all welcome. Tea and Coffee provided. Enq 9409 4543
Sunday May 8
EUCHARIST
We welcome you to celebrate the Eucharist In honour of Blessed Mary MacKillop on the 8th of each month at 6pm with the exception of May at 9am, at our Convent Chapel, 16 York St, South Perth. Enq Sister Maree 93340933
Sunday May 15
MULTICULTURAL FOOD FAIR
Our Lady of Assumption School Hall, 356 Grand Promenade, Dianella 7.30 am-4pm. Ample parking available between the Caltex garage and the Church. A huge range of multicultural food, refreshments and cultural floorshows on display. All welcome. Enq Lorraine 9571-1815, Pat 9571-1438, Lisa 9296-4781. Proceeds will go to St Catherine’s Gingin.
Saturday May 28
MAY QUEEN BALL
From 7.30 to 12.30am to fund raise for Holy Family church Maddington. It will be held at Maddington Community Centre (corner of Yule & Alcock Street) For more information contact Francis Williams 9459 3873 9493 4287 0404 893 877 francis@perthfamily. com
Friday June 3-5
HOLY SPIRIT OF FREEDOM COMMUNITY ANNUAL
CONFERENCE FOR THE BUNBURY DIOCESE
Will be held in Pemberton, the conference theme is “Living Flame Transforming Love” and all are invited
to be a part of this Festival of Praise and Worship. For more details, bookings and accommodation alternatives contact Lisa on9776 0323 or Connie on 9776 1092.
CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Confraternity of the Holy Spirit has been sanctioned in the Perth Archdiocese, our aim is to make the Holy Spirit known and loved, and to develop awareness of His presence in our lives. If you would like more information please call WA Coordinator Frank Pimm on 9304 5190
CROSS ROADS COMMUNITY TERM 2 26TH APRIL TO 1ST
JULY
Family & Friends Support Groups of Substance Abusers on Wednesdays 7pm–9pm, Substance Abusers Support Groups on Tuesdays 5.30–7.30pm & Fridays all day Group for Substance Abusers 9.30am–2pm including Healing Mass on Fridays at 12.30pm during term. Weekday Rosary at 12.301pm. Our new address is 4 Preston Point Road, East Fremantle behind Immaculate Conception Parish.
SECULAR FRANCISCANS IN WA
You are invited to find out more about following Franciscan way of life as a layperson. Contact the group nearest you and come along. Midland fraternity meets on the second Friday of each month at 1pm, contact Mary 9377 7925. Balcatta fraternity meets on the third Sunday of each month at 3pm contact Dunstan 9276 9415. Perth fraternity meets on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2.30pm contact John 9385 5649. Dardunup fraternity meets on the third Sunday of each month at 1.30pm contact 9721 6815.
CATHOLICS EXPERIENCING THE BIBLE
An exciting opportunity to learn more about your faith. Enrolments are now open for study at ‘Acts2come’ Catholic Bible College. Subjects include Bible Timeline, Theology of the Body, Acts of the Apostles, Spiritual Gifts, Life Skills, Christian Virtues in a Post-modern Society and Catholic Ethics. Day, evening, and part-time courses are available. Enq Jane Borg on 9202 6859
When Pope John Paul II died on the evening of April 2, it was just just after a Mass had been celebrated by his longtime personal secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dzwisz and Cardinal Marian Jaworski, to honour the Feast of the Divine Mercy.
Interestingly, the feast had been established by John Paul II only a few years earlier.
The creation of the Divine Mercy feast and the plenary indulgences associated with it found their origin in the revelations given to a Polish nun, St Faustina Kowalska, who was canonised by Pope John Paul II.
Born on 25 August 1905 in the village of Glogowic in Poland, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, at the age of 20, and worked and performed the more humble tasks of the convent, such as cooking, gardening, and being the portress.
On 22 February 1931, Faustina claimed to have a vision of Christ where from beneath his garment two rays, one red, the other pale came forth from his breasat. In the vision Jesus said, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see with the signature, ‘Jesus, I Trust in You’. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world.”
St Faustina died of tuberculosis in 1938 at the age of 33, just prior to the German invasion of Poland. She left behind a series of mystical writings known collectively as “Divine Mercy in My Soul.”
One of the important requests of Our Lord to Faustina was the establishment of a Feast of Mercy, to be celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter.
In the diary of Faustina, Jesus said, “I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially poor sinners. On that day the very depths of my tender mercy are open.” (138)
Associated with this devotion is also the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, prayed on ordinary rosary beads
with the lead prayer, “Eternal Father, I offer You the body and blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and the whole word.
On the small beads one responds, “For the sake of his Sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world”.
The other important feature of this devotion is the Hour of Mercy at 3 pm, the time traditionally associated with Christ’s crucifixion, where Our Lord promises he will grant every possible grace to souls, particularly by recitation of the chaplet.
Before Faustina’s death, she was sent to Krakow, the archdiocese later headed by the future Pope John Paul II. The devotion spread in the years following her death. Among those who prayed at her tomb when he was a clandestine seminary student in Nazi occupied Poland was the young Karol Wojtyla.
The devotion, however, was placed under a ban by the Vatican in 1959.
Despite this, Karol Wojtyla started to collect evidence on her life, and was instrumental in having the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith overturn the restriction in April, 1978.
Sister Faustina had also indicated this would happen in her Diary, when she said that the devotion would be allowed to be propagated again, during a time of great need in the world. In October of that year, Cardinal Wojtyla also became Pope John Paul II.
Early in his pontificate, John Paul II devoted an encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, to the theme of mercy.
The Pope beatified Faustina Kowalska on April 12, 1993, on the Sunday after Easter.
By this time, the message of Divine Mercy had spread all over the world, and the octave Sunday of Easter was starting to be referred to in many places as “Mercy Sunday”
On April 30 2000 John Paul II canonized Faustina in St Peter’s Square. The crowd was estimated
at over 200,000 persons with a particularly large crowd from Poland, which included Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and Solidarity officials.
During the homily, the Pope declared that from now on this octave of Easter Sunday would be known as the Feast of Mercy.
This was the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, that a promulgated feast day found its origin in a private revelation.
In 2002, John Paul II traveled to his native Poland to consecrate a Shrine to the Divine Mercy in the Krakow suburb of Lagiewniki, on August 18, not far from where he used to pray as a young man when he was hiding from the Nazis.
On this occasion he composed a prayer where he consecrated the
whole human race to the Divine Mercy.
He said, “In this shrine, I wish solemnly to entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through St Faustina, may be made known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope”.
The Pope then quoted a common excerpt from her Diary when he said, “From here, there must go forth ‘the spark which will prepare the world for his final coming.’”
Interestingly, many persons have applied that prophecy to John Paul II himself, in his very visible apostolate as Vicar of Christ, compounded by the chronicle of his written
teaching and in the direction he has left for future generations.
In conformity with the promises made by Our Lord to Faustina regarding the complete remission of sins, the Holy Father also in 2002 confirmed a plenary indulgence for those who would go to confession and receive communion on Mercy Sunday.
One could be forgiven for wondering if it was more than a coincidence that the last event John Paul II is known to have participated in in his earthly life was a Mass to commemorate the vigil of the feast of Divine Mercy.
This beautiful Gospel message of Divine Mercy will always be inextricably linked with the first Polish Pope in history.
The Record is the best Catholic newspaper in Australia. Week-in, week-out, we bring news of the Church from throughout the world to you at home. When you read The Record you see beyond the boundaries of the parish and even the nation to the four corners of the globe. But we still bring the best of parish life to all our readers, and week by week we’re expanding our coverage. At just $55 a year you stay in touch with the most important news in the world - what the Church is doing and saying and living. From the Calvary of a Pope’s death, to what the Church preaches to the whole world - we bring it home to you.
Subscribe now.
Contact: Eugene Suares on (08) 9227 7080 or by email at: administration@therecord.com.au
