The Record Newspaper 21 October 2004

Vatican offers practical suggestions to dioceses and parishes for putting the Year of the Eucharist into practice - PAGES 8 & 9 LIFE FOR ALL This Sunday is World Mission Sunday - PAGES 5 & 6

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‘Mystery of Light’

This light is needed by man's heart, says Pope

Eucharistic congress closes with televised message from JPII

■ By Jason Lange

The 48th International Eucharistic Congress closed with a televised message from Pope John Paul II to a stadium in Mexico brimming with tens of thousands of the faithful.

Speaking from St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on October 17, the Pope said the congress “invites us to consider the eucharistic mystery, not just in itself, but in relation to the problems of our time.”

The Pope’s message called the Eucharist the “mystery of light.”

“This light is needed by the heart of man, made heavy by sin, often disoriented and weary, tested by suffering of every kind,” the Pope said.

“This light is needed by a world in its difficult search for a seemingly distant peace, at the beginning of a millennium that is distressed and humiliated by violence, terrorism and war,” he said.

Bunbury diocese set to celebrate golden 50 years

The Diocese of Bunbury is celebrating its first 50 years with several events over coming weeks.

The main celebration will be the Jubilee Mass to be held on Wednesday November 10 at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Bunbury at 5.30pm. Individuals of significance throughout the Diocese have been personally invited to this special

I SAY, I SAY

event as a way of saying thank you for their years of gift to the faith communities and Diocese. A link with the past will also come alive when the Papal Bull from Pope Pius XII formally erecting the Diocese on November 12, 1954 is brought forward during the offertory procession. In addition, the alb first worn by Fr Bernie Dwyer, the first priest ordained in the Diocese

This ‘relevance’ word and I

PAUL GRAY Page 10

of Bunbury, will also be presented. On October 31, a Rosary Rally will be held at Kojonup, where Bishop Gerard Holohan will celebrate Mass at 11am. And from November 4 to 6, Hosea House of Prayer in Dardanup, a 10-minute drive from Bunbury, will hold a weekend seminar focussing on rejuvenating spirituality. Entitled ‘New Life in God’s

INDEX Editorial & Letters World News Reviews Classifieds - Page 7 - Pages 12 & 13 - Page 14 - Page 15

Spirit’, the seminar will commence at 5.30pm on Friday November 4, and finish at lunch on Sunday. It’s a year of celebrations. Hosea House of Prayer, a well known Western Australian retreat centre run by Sr Romanus Dee sjg, celebrates its 20th birthday this year while the Parish of Dardanup is celebrating its 150th Year.

Continued on page 2

Archbishop Barry Hickey has produced this Christmas Blessing for all families involved in this year's LifeLink Christmas Appeal, with an invitation to display it in thier homes.

The liturgical launch of the LifeLink Appeal for parish priests and representatives will be held at the St Therese of the Child Jesus chapel at the Pastoral Centre in Mary St, Highgate, next Wednesday night. The appeal will be promoted in parishes on the weekend of November 6-7 and the actual appeal will take place in parishes on the weekend of November 13-14.

THE LAST WORD Move over, Jehovah’s Witnesses

How one US Parish set about evangelising Page 16

Notre Dame: Anglicans hold a Synod in Fremantle. Page 3

Bringing it alive

PARISH.

The Way: How to prepare to enter the seminary. Page 10

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Congress closes

Continued from page 1

The Pope read only the beginning and end sections of his Spanish-language text, and an aide read the rest. In Guadalajara, the crowd cheered the Pope ecstatically each time he paused to catch his breath.

The Pope said the satellite transmission “is like a bridge between the continents ... bringing together believers from the entire world.”

More than 65,000 people packed Guadalajara’s Jalisco Stadium for the midday address, many waving white banners and handkerchiefs throughout the event, which was broadcast via the Internet.

The Pope asked the Christian community to seek a deeper understanding of the Eucharist during Mass and in moments of adoration. This understanding should give rise to a sense of communion and a sense of mission, as well as a greater commitment to fraternity and service to the weakest, he said.

In his message, the Pope announced that the next International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Quebec in 2008.

The Pope recovered enough

strength to close the speech with the phrase, “Stay with us, Lord. Stay with us.”

With the Pope’s message complete and the congress formally closed, the crowd broke into applause and cheering as balloons fell and mariachi music rang through the stadium.

The congress gathered bishops, priests and lay people from 87 countries for a full week of prayer and discussion aimed at bolstering devotion to the Eucharist worldwide.

Thirty-five cardinals and some 250 bishops attended the congress, along with hundreds of priests from every continent. In total, some 14,000 people attended the congress’ sessions.

One of those was Maria Modelewska, 60, who traveled alone to Guadalajara from Chicago to attend the congress after crediting the Eucharist with saving her from alcoholism.

“I was losing my faith and I was drinking, but I turned to devotion of the Eucharist and found strength,” said Modelewska, who now regularly participates in allnight eucharistic devotion.

In a Mass held in the stadium before the papal broadcast, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the Pontifical Committee

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for International Eucharistic Congresses and the Pope’s envoy, said the congress “has been an extraordinary opportunity to become aware that the church is growing around the mystery of the Eucharist.”

Enthusiasm for the congress was evident across Guadalajara, a predominantly Catholic city with a history of martyrdom during periods of religious persecution.

Banners bearing the face of the Pope and advertising the congress were hung in countless windows, and local media credited the congress with the record participation in the city’s annual October 12 procession for the Virgin of Zapopan, which gathered some 3 million people, or about half of the city’s population.

Several priests from Canada said they were motivated to gather a big delegation - at more than 200, it was one of the congress’ largest - because they wanted to prepare their congregations for the next congress to be held in Quebec.

“We’ll only be a 10-hour bus ride away,” said Father Michael Basque of St. Stephen’s Parish in Cayuga, Ontario. “So we want to give them an idea of what it will be like.”

Vinnies appeal for gifts

This Christmas, St Vincent de Paul Society will be inviting West Australians to help make the wishes of local people come true.

St Vinnies needs to raise $500,000 to provide a helping hand to those in need in the lead up to Christmas, during the festive season and with back to school costs.

This year St Vinnies will distribute 7,500 hampers and 20,000 gifts to those who would other-

wise be struggling to make ends meet.

St Vinnies State President Brian Bull invites local businesses, organisations and schools to register their interest to become involved.

“Community support will ensure that we can meet every genuine request for help,” said Mr Bull.

“Christmas is a time for giving, joy and celebration. We invite you to help us share this with

others,” he continued. Each year St Vinnies assists 155,000 families and individuals with food parcels, clothing, essential household items, friendship and other specialised support services.

The Christmas Appeal 2005 will be officially launched on Wednesday October 27, 2004 at the Swan Bell Tower at 5.45pm. To register to hold a workplace collection of gifts or money this Christmas call 9475 5416.

Bunbury celebration

Continued from page 1

At the time of the erection of the Diocese of Bunbury Dardanup’s parish was 100 years old. Bishop Salvado laid the foundation stone of the church on 25 March 1854.

On that occasion, Canon Martelli preached “it was in the midst of the woods under the canopy of heaven that the ceremony was accomplished, not with pomp but with great spiritual joy.”

Nowadays the church still has the canopy of heaven, but with a morning mist rising over the paddocks full of sheep.

Kaye Seeber, secretary to the committee coordinating events for the Bunbury Jubilee said “We hope that all people who have had some connection with the Diocese of Bunbury will be drawn to come and celebrate with us, by visiting and sharing in the activities and catching up with people and priests.” Meanwhile, a ‘Jubilee Retrospective’ will be conducted in late November. Parishes across the sprawling southwestern diocese will be able to hook up via a televised satellite Westlink programme on Thursday 25 November at 7.30pm.

UNDA measures up for synod

In early 2002, the Anglican Diocese of Perth resolved to offer to host the Anglican Church’s national synod, scheduled for October 2004. The job of finding a venue was given to a team led by Fremantle-based Bishop David Murray. The team knew a first-rate venue was essential - one that would meet the needs of over 240 delegates and a large team of staff and volunteers.

Team member Lesley Thomas approached the University of Notre Dame to see if the Fremantle university’s facilities might be available for hire.

Initially, UNDA declined. It has a crowded academic calendar and didn’t think it could make facili-

ties available in the requested period. Then, after reconsideration, University Campus Services Manager Terry Craig, found a

way forward. Not only could facilities be made available but the university would make them available without charge.

All the planning culminated in the opening of the Anglican Church’s General Synod on Saturday October 2, at UNDA. The Synod ran for six, action-packed days, with debates concluding as late as 9pm.

Delegates appreciated the warm ambience and generous spaces of the University, the city’s beautiful spring weather, and access to Fremantle’s many restaurants and attractions. Bishop Murray this week paid tribute to the University, its Vice Chancellor Peter Tannock and staff for their support and assistance.

“It has been a great privilege to work with Terry and the UND staff in preparing for and hold-

ing this most significant event,” Bishop Murray said. “We have been given every assistance. Delegates came to Fremantle from all over Australia and they have appreciated the gracious venue and its wonderful location in the heart of historic Freo.”

“Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney said to one of the organising team that the University was a superb venue and had provided the best facilities enjoyed by General Synod in his long experience of attending such gatherings.” Archbishop Carnley is to retire in May 2005 after 24 years as Anglican Archbishop of Perth, including five years as Primate.

Courage meets

CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

A Catholic Education from $3 a week

“ No child will be denied a Catholic Education due to the inability to pay fees” CECWA

Enrolment Policy

Families who possess a current means tested Health Care Card will soon have access to significantly reduced tuition fees at Western Australia’s Catholic schools and colleges.

Equating to $3 per week per term for primary school students ($120 pa), and $20 per week per term for secondary school students ($800 pa), the new fee structure will come into effect at the start of the 2005 school year.

These fee discounts will apply to current and new students. Costs associated with specialised areas of study, excursions and general school levies may be charged in addition to the reduced tuition fees.

Enrolment is conditional upon availability of places and is subject to the Catholic Education Commission of WA Student Enrolment Policy.

For further information please contact the Catholic Education Office on 1800 213 143 (8.00am - 5.00pm) or visit our website www.ceo.wa.edu.au - refer to Health Care Card.

Mazenod College will continue complementary arrangements for 2005.

A group for men and women with same-sex attractions who wish to live in accordance with Jesus’s teachings on sexuality and relationships is meeting in Perth.

Courage is described by chaplain Fr Francis Ughanze as “a co-operative action of the Catholic Church with all persons of same sex attraction to develop a nondiscriminatory spirituality.” It was founded in the US by Fr John Harvey and has spread around the world.

Courage not only aims to demonstrate to its participants a deeply heartfelt empathy in their Christian journey to give meaning to their lives within the Church. It also identifies with them as brothers and sisters on the journey in the company of Jesus, our friend and brother.

Courage strives to empower all members to feel at home within the Church even as they struggle to maintain their identity within a society which is tempted to discriminate against them.

It encourages all its members to actively participate in the sacramental life of the Church and facilitates this participation through a meaningful dialogue with all its members in order to appreciate the uniqueness of each person in their individuality.

Courage is offered as a compassionate and understanding love of Jesus lived out in the actions of the Church.

At the centre of Courage is the Holy Eucharist from where the love of God demonstrated in Jesus flows to every member of the worshipping assembly. The organisation meets once a month and has groups for both men and women.

Contact can be made by ringing Nathalie on (08) 9242 4066 or Fr Francis Ughanze (08) 9339 1298, email: emyfrank@bigpond.com. A website will be made available to its members in the next edition of The Record.

Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnley with UNDA vice-Chancellor Peter Tannock.

It’s the little things that count

Group's members give up a daily luxury, donate its cost to missions

By Joseph Kenny

Jim Sweeney recalls with a laugh that when he joined the Daily Worldmissionnaires 45 years ago his brother told him it was his ticket to heaven.

Who could say no to that?

Though they have yet to see their ticket punched, Sweeney and other members told the St Louis Review, newspaper of the St Louis Archdiocese, that they do believe the program to support the Church's missionaries has helped their spiritual life.

Daily Worldmissionnaires pray for the missions and also sacrifice some daily luxury. Each day the cost of the sacrifice is placed in a "mite box" and its contents are turned over to the missions each month. The organisation has some 5,000 members in the St Louis Archdiocese.

"It's been rewarding to me to make a sacrifice," said Sweeney, a member of St Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish in Oakville and a retired regional sales manager.

Looking back, he said, he believes in what he has been told by others - that what you give will return a hundredfold.

"I've been fairly successful, and I blame a lot of it on the missions," he said.

The local office of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith receives the funds collected by Daily Worldmissionnaires. The society is recruiting new members for the Daily Worldmissionnaires as that organization celebrates its 50th anniversary and as World Mission Sunday, observed on October 24, approaches.

Daily Worldmissionnaires is "so spiritual and also provides much-needed support," said Msgr. Francis Blood, archdiocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

Especially in light of the fact Catholics are called to be missionary, he said, he hopes Daily Worldmissionnaires is seen "as a wonderful moment to pray and sacrifice for the missionary work of the Church throughout the entire world."

Sweeney said being a member reminds him of his primaryschool days when students would pray for the missions and contribute money to "buy" a baby in some foreign country.

He noted that there are no meetings for Worldmissionnaires to attend - though he attends monthly gatherings as a program moderator. And, he said, sacrificing a dessert, or beer, or whatever, "means it doesn't cost you a thing."

He has met with missionaries, including St Louis archdiocesan priests serving in Bolivia. One of those priests is Msgr. David Ratermann, who has been in that country for decades.

"Those people are saints, don't let anyone kid you," Sweeney said. "The good they do ... the life they lead, leaving the comforts of St Louis and their homes. ... I don't think I could do it myself, and I gladly support them all I can."

Some missionaries have been detained during uprisings or harassed for their faith, he noted.

Don Goeke, another 45-year member, noted that "we not only support the missionaries in the field monetarily but also through our prayers and good works."

The retired real estate agent said he joined simply because his father asked him to, but he soon appreciated its work. He especially likes the fact that the money goes directly to the missions rather than to any overhead costs.

The Daily Worldmissionnaires started after a World Mission Exhibition held in 1953 in St Louis that was attended by more than 270,000 people.

The exhibition was such a success that the organisers expressed a desire to continue to work for the Church's missions. They adopted the mission program once followed by Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in France in 1822.

She asked friends and relatives to pray for the success of the work of her brother, a missionary priest in Indochina, and to support his work financially through sacrifice.

Life for all - PAGES 5&6

Riverton caFE continues

The caFE program in one Perth parish has been so successful its earlier modules have been repeated several times. A new module begins this month.

Queen of Apostles parish in Riverton will continue with the third module of the caFE programme ‘Catholics Making a Difference’. The parish has previously presented the first two modules ‘Knowing God Better’ and ‘Exploring the Catholic Church’.

These two previous modules have been so successful that they have been repeated several times in the parish at alternative time slots to cater for as many parishioners as possible.

The caFE management team has decided that the new module

would complement the parish Advent program as a preparation for Christmas and will commence in the John Luemmen parish hall on Wednesday October 27 at 8 pm and continue each Wednesday until December 8.

The parish team provides a real café environment where attendees can relax socially and enjoy refreshments before the program begins and after when the content is discussed.

All are welcome to attend and enquiries may be made to the parish on (08) 9457 2424

World Mission Day

World Mission Day is a day for the whole Church to focus on the well-being of others who are less fortunate. There are many ways we can do this.

‘Life for All’ is the focus of this year’s World Mission Day, Sunday 24 October, 2004. As Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b)

Catholic Mission’s vision is for a world where all people can live life fully, as the dream of our Creator God for all humanity. World Mission Day is the universal day throughout the world for the whole Catholic Church community to focus on the

vital work of Global Mission. Collectively we have the power and ability to influence how our society and the world community act. We are the creators and promoters of life, or destroyers of it by our failure to act to protect life. We can take a stance of solidarity alongside all who suffer varying forms of marginalisation and whose experience of life is in any way diminished.

Catholic Mission invites you to participate in World Mission Day in the following ways. Attend a mission Mass during World

Mission Week, October 24-30, or wear a sticker promoting ‘Life for All’ on Children’s Mission Day, Wednesday October 27. This is a public display in schools, parishes and the wider community that we commit ourselves to actively promoting fullness of life for all, for everyone on the planet earth.

Catholic Mission also invites you to make a personal commitment to promote life by sending a ‘Life for All’ e-chain to those who may in some way be ostracised, marginalised and isolated. The e-chain

enables people to create a very personal expression of promoting life, communicating that with others, challenging others to take a stance and to stand in solidarity with another. An example of the e-chain with the Catholic Mission ‘Life for All’ logo can be downloaded from the website www.catholicmission.org.au.

To donate to Catholic Mission’s World Mission Day appeal and help achieve the dream of ‘Life for All’, freecall 1800 257 296 or visit www.catholicmission.org.au.

Celebration of life in Brazil

Catholic Mission has recently released a documentary titled Celebrate Life – In the Streets of Brazil, focusing on a health project in the slums of Brazil. The 10 minute documentary explores how a group of volunteers inspired by the Gospel and touched by the urgency of life and death in their neighbourhood, organise themselves to dramatically improve the quality of life for many thousands of people. Their work has grown and is now a collaboration between Church and Government and has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The program began 20 years ago in the south of Brazil and has now grown throughout the country and the rest of South America, even spreading to Africa and Asia. It is

based upon the fundamental belief that from conception onwards a baby is valued as a person and has the right and therefore the need to be cared for, within the context of a family and community.

The program begins when a mother first becomes pregnant, because it is important that the baby is born in good health, and so caring for the mother is necessary. It also helps combat mother mortality. The volunteers working in pairs will visit the mother each month until the baby is born.

As well as the home visits the mother or expectant mother is invited each week to a “Celebration of Life” meeting. Here they learn more about health and the babies are weighed, checking their progress by plotting a chart. They also learn to prepare nutritious

meals from locally available foodstuffs. Most importantly while they share a simple nutritious meal at a cost of $20 for 80 people, they also share their joys and sorrows as a community in an atmosphere of prayer and faith.

The program owes it success to the huge amount of time given by the volunteers, the majority of whom were themselves recipients of the program when they were first-time mothers and who now want to give something back to their community.

To support Catholic Mission’s dream of ‘Life for All’ this World Mission Day, or to order a copy of the video or DVD, freecall 1800 257 296 or visit www.catholicmission.org.au

A young father participating in the program holds his healthy baby. Right: a group of children who have grown up benefitting from the program. Photos: courtesy Catholic Mission

Dreaming of life for all in South Africa

I n 1987, the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions were invited to work with an indigenous tribe, the Dulangan Manobo, who live in a remote valley and the surrounding hills of the Kulaman Valley in the Philippines. From small beginnings the Mission has grown, and at present there are three main projects being run by the Sisters.

They run an integrated women’s program, leading to greater self-determination for women, a health program training health workers and manage a dormitory for girls who attend school in the town, as there are no schools in their villages. The girls spend the week at the dormitory, and then go home to their families in the villages on the weekends. With no access to transport, the children walk for up to six hours to make it home. These are the first of the Dulangan Manobo girls to be offered formal education.

Through the process of education, the girls are given the skills to help in the process of self-determination and empow-

F ather Abel Gabuza grew up in a black township of Alexandra, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, during the worst of the apartheid regime. He attended a school funded by Catholic Mission’s work for children. In 1977 he entered the seminary, where his studies were supported by Catholic Mission’s work in fostering local church leadership. It was during this time that the seminary was desegregated by the Bishop’s Conference, contrary to educational practice at the time. The questioning was, how can we be Gospel people by dividing people by colour?

He is now the Vicar General of Pretoria and parish priest in the small township of Diepsloot. Diepsloot is without any town planning, has no formal streets, no electricity, no water and no sewerage. It also has no church. Previous to the dismantling of apartheid the land was owned by whites when blacks were not allowed to own land. The government pleaded with them to sell but they sold to developers who have no concept of community, only profit.

Father Abel presently celebrates the Sunday Eucharist in

a tin shed of 25 square metres filled to standing room only with around 100 parishioners, and filled to overflowing with singing and chanting, clapping and dancing. The community has received funds to begin building a parish centre if they can ever obtain land. It will be a multi-purpose space for training, teaching and empowering, for running a home-based AIDS care program, for women’s groups to meet, for a computer school and for life education classes.

“Our biggest dream is to have a multi-purpose centre, which will be also used as a place of worship,” said Father Abel. Through funding from Catholic Mission’s work in partnering local church communities this World Mission Day, the dream of Father Abel and the people of Diepsloot is beginning to come true.

You can help further the people of Diepsloot’s dream and Catholic Mission’s dream of ‘Life for All’ this World Mission Day, Sunday October 24. To make a donation freecall 1800 257 296 or visit www.catholicmission.org.au

Empowering women in the Philippines

erment for themselves and their people.

Each day there is a program run for the women. There is a handcraft and sewing centre where women learn various skills. There are also ongoing literacy and numeracy classes, and workshops for women’s self-esteem and other issues.

Basic health training and healthcare programs are also run, enhancing health and life for the local people. This includes training of health leaders and women’s health teams in the areas of antenatal care, family health and hygiene, village sanitation, safe water supplies, medical help and advice.

With the help of Catholic Mission, the Sisters are able to continue in this extremely important work in remote Philippines. You can help support Catholic Mission’s dream of ‘Life for All’ this World Mission Day by making a donation. Freecall 1800 257 296 or visit www.catholicmission. org.au

Top: The people of the town of Diepsloot, with the help of Fr Abel Gabuza, who grew up in the town, are working together to build up their town, Below: The town without formal streets, electricity, running water or sewerage. The town is also without a church.

Photo: courtesy Catholic Mission

Women with power: The Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions are teaching the women of the Dulangan Manobo tribe how to look after themselves and their community. Some girls walk 6 hours on weekends to attend the program.

Photo: courtesy Catholic Mission

The direction signs are changing

Those Members of State Parliament who tried hard in 1998 to prevent unrestricted abortion in WA, and who achieved at least the requirement that abortions after 20 weeks gestation must be approved by a panel of doctors, could be excused for wondering about the worth of their achievement after last weekend’s report that in the last five years 219 such abortions have been performed and 11 refused.

They should not be discouraged. They have saved at least 11 lives, and they have saved at least 11 mothers from killing their babies (and possibly the same number of fathers).

They have also erected a kind of barrier that might eventually compel a blind society to recognise that it is going in the wrong direction. Surely the value of life itself must begin to register in even the most obdurate minds, although one should not get too optimistic. Supporters of abortion were reported as saying that the 11 lives saved compared to the 219 who were voted down (not to mention the 8,000-plus each year the panel didn’t have to consider) represented the making of “hard, ethical decisions on behalf of the community”. Whether they realise it or not, this is an acknowledgement that the saving of life is ethical. How long will it be before they recognise that the taking of it is unethical?

When talking about the taking of more than 8000 lives a year, other problems may seem minor, but sometimes these ‘minor’ consequences of serious evils have their uses. One of these ‘minor’ problems is that The West Australian was repeatedly

Disquieting

Ibought Hal Colebatch's Return of the Heroes and found it persuasive and interesting.

I am filled with disquiet by his review of Facing the Whirlwind (7/10/04). It is what he doesn't say that is disconcerting.

To build a middle class in Moslem countries is an excellent idea. But not a word about or for the poor people in these countries? Do they fit into the scheme of things anywhere?

They do not register in this article. Secondly, not a word about 'justice for all', especially these same people, they seem to be invisible.

America as a symbol of greed in the world is misleading. The problem is in our minds and the way we define 'the good'.

For instance,' the good' life as we understand it cannot be available to two thirds of humanity because we do not have the resources for everyone to share it.Without some semblance of justice and equity, bombs and blood will not stop terrorism.

Fr Gary Walker

Nth

Essendon

Help Ethiopia

Thankyou to the Record for printing my previous letters in a fundraising effort to help the starving 14 million people in Ethiopia who are currently being ignored almost entirely by the news media.

Letters to television programs and to newspapers have been ignored, but the fight for recog-

refused information under the Freedom of Information Act about the abortions approved by the panel, despite the fact that we are supposed to live in the most accountable society on earth.

PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902

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

Year of the Eucharist

– St Peter Julian Eymard

A related one is the concern raised by Independent MLA Phillip Pendal that there is an anomaly which allows the panel to avoid the record-keeping requirements of the State Records Act – a descent into unnecessary secrecy. Mr Pendal played a prominent part in the anti-abortion fight in 1998 and has been a leader in defence of ethical standards in relation to cloning, the use of embryonic stemcells and other bioethical matters in Parliament.

The point about these ‘minor’ problems is that they always build up around a law that is itself fundamentally wrong. Whenever individuals or societies deliberately choose paths that are not consistent with the truth of human nature,

they suffer consequences that were often unforeseen and that they often take a long time to recognise. This is why the conflict between those who resent the very idea of a moral law and those who insist on the necessity for understanding and obeying the moral law of our nature is so crucial. This is the heart of the clash of cultures going on within our society at the present time.

Respect for life is the most important expression of this conflict. If we abandon our respect for life itself, we will lose the rational foundation and the personal motivation to respect the freedom and worth of the lives of others. It is fundamental to the nature of the society we will live in, and at the present time, all the signposts are pointing in the wrong direction.

Another signpost pointing in the wrong direction was emphasized by the reaction

nition of this unfolding human crisis must continue.

I would appreciate any help which your readers may offer.

I am a grandmother myself and also worked part-time until last week, so I have a busy life too, but I would beg people from all walks of life who have any time to spare to become involved with "Ask for Africa".

If you would like to form part of a fundraising committee (ending 1 May 2005), then please contact me and we can brain-storm together.

Perhaps parishes, priests and parishioners, and school principals would like to volunteer to help this project so these starving children and parents and grandparents may be less abandoned, as they appear to be by the rest of humanity.

The recent tragic event in Russia was shocking, and reminded me of the Dunblane tragedy in Scotland in 1996 when 15 five years old children and their teacher died at the hands of one gunman. My sister lives in that village and the response from the world overwhelmed them, with money and teddy bears and toys. The children were gone. I cry for them still. My mother is buried close to the semi-circle of little graves. But the money and toys could not help them. It was already too late. Please let us not leave it too late for the children of Ethiopia, and the parents who must watch them cry, and die without food. I beg you.

I "Ask for Africa".

Sheila Shannon 9309 5071/ askforafrica@optusnet.com.au

of many commentators to the success of the Family First party in the Federal election. Even before their success was known, the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien was complaining, “religion and politics are supposed to be separate”. By Monday night, Tony Jones, of the ABC’s Lateline, was trying to mock the chairman of Family First (Peter Harris) for his Christianity.

The point is not the shallow ignorance of O’Brien and Jones, but the sustained attempt by the ABC and others to prevent Christian philosophy from being part of the philosophy of our society.

It is acceptable for the Greens to introduce a philosophy that reduces mankind to merely a part of nature, but when Christians stand up for a philosophy which sees mankind as not merely a part of nature, but as having dominion over it and therefore responsibility to deal with nature out of the strength of our spiritual and moral nature, they try to bar the discussion.

To understand the way these contests of ideas influence society, note the words of biographer Joseph Pearce about Oscar Wilde: “All the things he was detested for in Victorian society – homosexuality, debauchery, and hedonism – have become the things he is idolized for in our day.”

Although all the signposts appear to be pointing in the wrong direction at present, it is worth remembering that Oscar Wilde recovered from these things and died a very sincere Catholic.

All Souls’ Day

Infant Jesus Parish in Morley will conduct a special Mass for All Souls’ Day on November 2 at 7.30pm and has invited more than 50 families to participate in a special way on the day. However all are invited to attend. The Mass has been prepared by the parish’s Bereavement Support Group and parish ministries, as well

Surrounding parishes

also

Photo: CNS Women carry incense as they follow a procession of Peru’s most revered Catholic religious icon, Lord of the Miracles, through central Lima on October 18. Each year thousands of Catholics in Lima commemorate the image’s survival in a devastating 17th-century earthquake.

as by parishioners from Our Lady’s Assumption Parish in Dianella. In recent years the parish has shared the organization of this special celebration with the nearby Dianella Parish. Banners will be erected behind the altar displaying the names of those who have died over the past year.

have

been advised and invited to participate.

The Vatican has published some suggestions to help make the Year of the Eucharist come alive

Anew document from the Vatican responds to John Paul II’s request for “suggestions and proposals” for ecclesial realms for the Year of the Eucharist, which begins Sunday.

The 35-page document, published this week, points out that the Pope has left the development of this Year to the initiative of the local Churches. Still, he asked that useful suggestions be given to priests and pastoral agents.

“Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions and Proposals,” written by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, is currently available only in Italian.

The document offers suggestions for the Eucharistic year to bishops’ conferences, dioceses, parishes, shrines, monasteries and religious communities, seminaries and houses of formation, and Catholic associations and movements.

The document asks episcopal conferences to prepare subsidiary material that addresses the most important doctrinal and pastoral problems in their countries. In particular, it points out the following: “lack of priests, weakening in priests of the importance of daily Mass, neglect of Sunday Mass, absence of Eucharistic worship.”

The conferences must also give thought to “the quality of television and radio transmissions of the Eucharistic celebration,” and states that “adoration in church must be favoured, avoiding that the faithful be content with following adoration transmitted by television.”

The document further suggests that bishops’ conferences promote initiatives for the opening and closing of the Eucharistic year; encourage reflection on the Eucharist in universities, institutes and seminaries; and promote national Eucharistic congresses.

The document asks that dioceses celebrate in an appropriate manner “the official opening and closing of the Year of the Eucharist” and that they promote knowledge of the saints who were outstanding for their love of the Eucharist.

The document also encourages the dioceses to make known their “art heritage with Eucharistic reference”; “to increase perpetual adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament”; and to give a Eucharistic character to World Youth Day, in particular, around Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday is when Youth Day is observed at the diocesan level.

Dioceses are also requested to “create sections of Eucharistic interest in weeklies, diocesan reviews, Internet sites, and local radio and

television stations.”

The document also offers guidelines for parishes, which it refers to as “Eucharistic communities.” Among other things, the document calls for the reordering, if necessary, of places of celebration (“altar, ambo, presbytery”) or where the Eucharist is reserved (“tabernacle, chapel of adoration”). Dioceses must be furnished with “liturgical books,” and must safeguard the beauty of the signs (“ornaments, chalices,” etc.).

Parishes are requested in particular to pay special attention to “liturgical singing,” following the last indications given by John Paul II; to know and apply the liturgical normative prepared by the Pope and the Holy See; to teach the faithful to be recollected in church; to promote Eucharistic adoration and other prayer practices before the Blessed Sacrament; and to verify the regularity and dignity with which Communion is taken to the sick.

The document goes on to address shrines and suggests that they favour Mass attendance, “valuing Gregorian chant, (at least in the easier melodies); that they help people to pray with recollection before the Most Holy Sacrament; and that they offer pilgrims the possibility to approach the sacrament of reconciliation.”

It suggests that monasteries and religious communities plan moments of reflection and evaluation of the quality of Eucharistic celebration in community. They should rediscover in the life and writings of their founders the manner of Eucharistic piety, and examine themselves on the Eucharistic testimony given by consecrated persons in parishes, hospitals, schools and prisons, among other places.

The Vatican document encourages seminaries and houses of formation to cultivate “the bond between theological formation and spiritual experience of the Eucharistic mystery”; to pay attention to “interior and exterior participation in the celebration of the Mass”; to know “liturgical theology” and the rite of the Mass; to be familiar with Gregorian chant and Latin; and to promote Eucharistic adoration. Finally, the text addresses “associations, movements and confraternities” and explains that the Year of the Eucharist “is a call to reflect, verify, internalise and eventually update their traditional statutes.” Moreover, it is a stimulus to dedicate more time to Eucharistic adoration, also involving other people in a sort of “Eucharistic apostolate.” And it “is an invitation to combine prayer and charitable commitment,” the document adds. - ZENIT

Promoting love of the Eucharist

Above: Cardinal Jozef Tomko, papal envoy, celebrates the opening Mass at the 48th International Eucharistic Congress at Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Oct. 10. About 65,000 people from 80 countries packed the arena for the Mass kicking off a week of activities focused on the central sacrament of the church. Below: Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso, Texas, talks with inmates at Puente Grande prison on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, on Oct. 12. Several bishops visited the facility as part of the events of the 48th International Eucharistic Congress. Photo: CNS

Above: Pope John Paul II, celebrates the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Rome on June 10. During the Mass at the basilica, the pope announced that a Eucharistic year would begin with an International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October. Below: Mexican Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez speaks during the 48th International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, on October 11. He is joined by Spanish Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo, Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko and U.S. Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Photo: CNS

The Virgin of Zapopan is taken in procession from the Cathedral to the Basilica where it usually resides in Guadalajara, Mexico on October 12. The annual event drew more than 3 million people and coincided with the 48th International Eucharistic Congress. Photo: CNS

Praying hands?

By Rev Armando Carandang Archdiocesan Priestly Vocations Director

During the actual formation years in the seminary a prayerful study of and obedience to Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation on the formation of priests/Pastores Dabo Vobis, (I Will Give You Shepherds), March 1992, quoted would ensure fulfilment of the man and not just the program. But even before entering a seminary, the candidate should have at least a summary view of what the formation entails.

First he must be disabused of the idea that to be a priest is to be “another Christ.” There is only one Christ. To become a priest is to become configured instead to Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church.

This requires fundamentally giving-up one’s self-importance and attachment to self. This means, even more deeply, living the truth of one’s “nothingness” in order to put on instead more fully Christ Jesus, the one true Prophet, Pastor, and Priest. Years of formation are accordingly needed in all areas of a seminarian’s being and activity.

“May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, mind, and body…”St Paul’s prayer applies also to would-be seminarians who may not be clear yet about the four areas of formation that Pope John Paul II illuminated in his exhortation: the spiritual, the human, the intellectual and the pastoral.

First, the spiritual. While mind and body take time and space to form, the spirit grows beyond those dimensions. Mind and body can be trained like circus animals. But seminaries do not train. They educate. Seminarians are not there just to conform but to learn to form themselves even as they are transformed by the Spirit of Jesus and of the God of peace. Without this formation of their spirit they would become empty preachers/modernday scribes, heart-less pastors, or narrow specialists/sacristy priests.

Spiritual formation, even before entering the seminary, means already living intimately united with Jesus Christ. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Spiritual formation means intimate communion with the Divine Trinity. It is the core which unifies and gives life to one’s being a priest and his acting as a priest, prophet, pastor. Without this extremely important centre of a seminarian’s formation the three other areas would be left without foundation and unity.

It is from their spiritual core that men seeking priestly formation exercise their spiritual intellect to understand and reason, their spiritual affectivity of free will to choose, and their creative power or spiritual energy to regulate mental and physical drives. Those gifts of intellect, free will and creative force reflect the Wisdom, Love and

Power respectively of the Triune God in accord to whose likeness humankind is called to be. To prepare for spiritual formation in the seminary is to begin to clear that true, good and beautiful wellspring of an intellectual, moral and practical formation.

The intellectual formation is prepared well by a future seminarian who has already immersed him-

in the Trinity that will transform human morality before and in the seminary to spiritual maturity.

Finally, created in the image of the Creator, the pre-seminarian with his creative energy and drives needs also to prepare for pastoral formation by doing already what he can do with his “hands”. Are they consistently “praying hands” or learning to be so? Are they often

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

self in the liberal arts studies or the humanities and some sciences. Later in the seminary his intellect’s search for truth and wisdom would be met by a well-ordered and full academic program of philosophy first in order to give him time to broaden and deepen his capacity for theology.

This search is ultimately a desire to find God. But, as St Thomas says, this desire of the will is love. So only a person who freely loves will find wisdom and God. Intellectual formation, though of the head, begins and culminates in the spiritual freedom of the heart.

The same holds true with human formation. This is the affectional and the old “moral” aspect—properly understood-- of seminary or any human life, inclusive of, but not synonymous with mere psychology of “human development”. One is primarily affected and tested in any human community, as St Thomas says, on both levels of sense (“emotions”) and intellectual affectivity (“good or ill will”).

Rightly modeled education of moral conscience in the family first and then in the larger community will be an on-going task of seminary formation. Yet this minimal love of neighbour as oneself demands further affective maturity involving among others true friendships and spiritually grounded celibacy. It is loving as Jesus loves and loving as

raised palms up heavenward, in praise and thanksgiving, petitioning and receiving from the Father the “daily bread” for all? Are they practical hands that already reach out consistently to the hungry and the thirsty, the homeless and the naked, the sick and the imprisoned, to pass God’s mercy on to them?

Are they hands forming not just in the initial ministry of the word, of worship and sanctification through sacramental celebrations, but also in every practical application of pastoral theology through involvement in certain services…[all] in deeper communion with the pastoral charity of Jesus?

Like the intellectual and the “human” formation, the pastoral is rooted in the spirit which is the hinge of all and the force which stimulates and makes it develop (Pastores Dabo Vobis).

The spiritual then integrates the three aspects of formation and unites them to the Triune God who is Wisdom, Love and Power. A vocations director who helps the applicant to discern his calling and to prepare himself for the seminary looks, if possible, into the applicant’s state of spiritual maturation.

This, above all, is his concern even while he assists the applicant in testing his own willingness and readiness for intellectual, moral and practical growth.

TI Say, I Say...

with Paul Gray

he word “relevance” has a long and tortured history in religious debate. Though not, perhaps, quite tortured enough.

There still remains a strong case for employing the rack and thumbscrews on those who use it too much.

As a 1960s era Catholic who grew up to the sound of black spirituals played badly in church by young white guitarists, as a fashionable alternative to the older beauties of the liturgy, “relevance” and I have had a lengthy and attimes bitter relationship.

The principle of relevance was not so much urged on us young Catholics in the 1970s and later, as compulsorily mandated, under pain of excommunication.

Relevance, we were led to believe, was a more important principle in Catholic life than papal infallibility.

Going to confession might or might not be a good idea -- but challenging the right of priests, nuns and religious education teachers to insert whatever wacky idea took their personal fancy into the liturgy of the church was clearly beyond the pale.

Relevance, then, has been a concept that has hovered ominously over my Catholic life. The trouble is I’m still not sure exactly what it means.

So far as I can read their minds at this distance of time, the concern of church liberals around the period that I was growing up was that the Church had somehow become irrelevant to the culture around it.

It was evidently believed by liberals that there was much to criticise in the way the Church conducted itself in relation to the outside world.

Latin, being a foreign language to most people, was felt to symbolise this principle of irrelevance. The doing away with Latin as the normal language of the liturgy in Catholic parishes was therefore seen – self-evidently – as a good thing.

Conservatives in the Church, like my late father, fumed at the concept that the Church would ever need to – or indeed could -- make itself more relevant.

Relevance, to him and to those who thought like him, was Catholicism itself. It was the truth.

If some people did not understand what the liturgy was about and why the Church taught what it did, then there was clearly

a lack of understanding in those people.

The answer was not to fruitlessly labour at making Catholicism seem even more relevant, but simply to educate people about why the Church does the things it does.

My father, along with many of the good-hearted liberal-minded Catholics that I knew growing up, have now departed to a happier place. But I’m still left with the question, why does the Church care so much about “relevance?”

The critical question, here, is the perspective of today’s young person in the pew.

It seems to me that many young people today are given no food for thought about why the Church has always been here.

“Always” in the sense that their parents’ generation, their grandparents’ generation, and other generations stretching back thousands of years have found the Church to be an asset of enormous personal sustenance throughout their lives.

For thousands of years, the sacramental and devotional life of the Church has infused people’s lives with meaning, grace and support. The fact that much of this sacramental life throughout history was experienced to the accompaniment of the Latin language is an interesting fact, but not the crucial point.

The more important truth is that the generations before ours were intimately acquainted with suffering, in most cases, to a far greater degree than the average citizen of our modern affluent society.

We are well-off, comfortable and healthy, on the whole. This can blind us to the sharper edges of life – and to the significance of the role of the Church in our lives.

Young people instinctively understand that suffering, hardship and death are all an inescapable part of life. My hope is that through continuing acquaintance with the liturgical practices of the Church, young people like my children will be able to clearly understand the great practical value that they’ve always had.

With luck, this will mean that “relevance” is never quite the painful topic that it’s been at times for me.

John Loncle, 39, takes notes at a student government meeting at Theological College of The Catholic University of America in Washington. Loncle is studying to become a priest. Photo: CNS

Faith in Jesus, pure and simple

Are the young indifferent?

No, says Fr Don Kettle.

Young people are thirsting for Jesus.

By Jamie O’Brien

Director of Catholic Youth Ministry Fr Don Kettle said that he has discovered young people of today have a great thirst for truth and the teachings of Christ through his Church.

Fr Kettle made his observation to The Record in the wake of the successful Embrace the Grace Conference that took place in New Norcia from October 6-10, where he was spiritual director.

“They want it straight and not dressed up,” Fr Don said.

“They are tired of the lies the world offers.”

Respect Life Office Director Clare Pike facilitated the conference along with 30 other young people from various groups within the Archdiocese.

Each one of the facilitators underwent nearly five months of preparation.

“The team met fortnightly, had guest speakers prepare them on how to answer questions of complicated life issues, learn leaderships skills, and basically grow as a team,” Ms Pike said.

With an attendance of 90 youth, aged from 16-25, including a number from as far as Queensland, Bunbury and Geraldton, each came with their own experience looking for answers as they develop into adults.

Ms Pike said that the youth who attended are now on fire for the Lord. “They will be lights of hope in a world of darkness,” Ms Pike said.

The Conference was held at New Norcia over five days.

Perth Glory coach Mitch D’Avray opened the event by sharing his

experience on the Wednesday afternoon.

“I was able to share some of my experiences and came away more inspired [than the youth] by what I saw,” he said.

“There is a perception that the youth of today are another generation.

“A lot of people don’t have faith in the youth of today,” Mr D’Avray said. The youth also took the opportunity of asking Mr D’Avray questions about his life as a person in the media and a Catholic.

“There was a heart-warming attitude amongst them, they were very happy,” he said.

“I certainly don’t take a holier than thou attitude,” Mr D’Avray said, “I keep a good integrity and remain open and honest with people.”

Stephen Lawrence, who played for Hawthorn in the AFL for 12 years spoke to the youth about Pope John Paul II’s teachings on

the Theology of the Body.

“The fact that we exist beats the odds of at least 50 million to 1,” Mr Lawrence said.

“We are already winners, we are unique and we were expected by God even if we weren’t by our parents.”

Mr Lawrence also spoke about the ideas of sexuality put forward by magazines such as Dolly, Cleo and Cosmopolitan and also addressed the issues of masturbation, pornography and the use of condoms.

“Condom culture is saying that you can’t really control yourself even if you want to.

“But God and the Church are saying that we believe in you and what you can do,” Mr Lawrence said.

Mr Lawrence also went on to highlight Pope Paul VI’s statement that contraception leads to abortion. “I want sex but I don’t want the life that comes from it.

“You separate sex and life.

St Joseph Pignatelli turns 50!

On Friday 3 September, a large gathering of past and present parishioners gathered at "Tompkins on the Swan" for a dinner to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of St Joseph Pignatelli parish in Attadale.

During the evening, Fr Geoff Beyer, the parish priest, gave a talk on the history of the parish, enlivened with anecdotes about his predecessors and early parishioners.

St Joseph Pignatelli parish was erected by Archbishop Prendiville in 1954, the same year that St Joseph Pignatelli was canonised. The first parish priest was Father CP Finn, SJ, and he was succeeded in 1955 by Father Leo Flynn, SJ. The school/church was blessed and opened in March 1955, and the school was staffed by Sisters of Mercy.

In 1962 the present church, intended then as a temporary structure, was erected. However alternative plans never eventuated and it remains the parish church. In 1965 Fr PJ Tracey SJ was welcomed as Parish Priest and he served the parish for the

next seven years. The Jesuits withdrew from Attadale in 1973, and Father Dan Foley was appointed Parish Priest in 1974.

In 1977 the church was renovated. Father Foley was succeeded in 1985 by Fr Tim Foster, who in turn, was followed by Fr Geoff Beyer.

The Jubilee Celebrations continued with a concelebrated Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday September 5 at which Bishop Don Sproxton was the principal celebrant, assisted by concelebrants Fr Kevin King, SJ, Fr Ted Miller

and Fr Geoff Beyer. Following the Mass parishioners and visitors enjoyed an historical display that included photos and personal reminiscences and memorabilia, parish records and a continuous power-point presentation of parish history, prepared by acolyte Michael Coles.

Topping the celebrations, a commemorative wine pack was on sale; bottles were labelled with a picture of St Joseph Pignatelli and made available by acolyte Chris Vromans from his Grace Estate Winery.

from the conference.” Fr Don said. A celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation was held after Fr Don’s talk in the Chapel of St Gertrude at New Norcia.

Catholic Youth Minister Lucas Hurley said he had witnessed a number of non-Catholics at the conference seek out and invite Jesus into their life.

“Also Catholics who had become luke-warm in their faith, make a firm recommitment to living a sacramental life,” Mr Hurley said.

“When life comes to you your attitude is already [prepared] to say no,” Mr Lawrence said.

The youth were also given an eye-opening experience of listening to David Harp from Flame Ministries International who told his story about the difficulties he encountered with homosexuality and the love and mercy that Christ has shown him.

“By the age of 16, I had begun a journey that culminated in homosexual lifestyle,”

“However I soon came to realise Christ had not given up on me and went to reconciliation after seven years,” Mr Harp said.

Fr Don Kettle played his part in the conference by delivering a seminar on reconciliation which some of the youth said they had never heard before.

“The experience was one of good news, conversion and healing, propelling them to share with others what they have experienced in their lives and learnt

Ms Pike mentioned that the fact the conference dealt with a range of issues, such as fertility, the death penalty and homosexuality, whilst at the same time incorporated various ways of experiencing God (praise and worship, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament) kicking the footy and saying the rosary in the cemetery which meant that participants had a small taste of the wonderful depth and breadth of our universal diverse church.

“Though it won’t be easy, I believe that their witness to the good news will have a profound impact on the Church in time to come,”

“It is so exciting that we are part of a generation that is beginning to see great changes as a civilisation of truth and love increasingly prevails,” Ms Pike said.

For the conclusion of the conference, Bishop Don Sproxton celebrated Mass with the youth.

“The reaction from some of the young people that I was speaking to was that they felt the time they spent there gave them a better understanding of who Jesus is and the way they can follow him,” Bishop Sproxton said.

“It was an excellent opportunity to be with other people who have the same mind, the same desire to follow Jesus.”

Laurie Eastwood now national president

By Jamie O’Brien

The Australian Parents Council of has a new National President, Laurie Eastwood.

Mr Eastwood, an accountant, has served on Parents & Friends Associations since the early 1970’s. As well as being in his new position, Mr Eastwood is Executive Director and Secretary for the P & F Federation of Western Australia.

The P & F of WA is a Catholic organisation, which represents the parents of 60,000 students in 127 schools across WA.

The Australian Parents Council is the National level of the P & F consisting of nine affiliates from every state in Australia.

At present, Mr Eastwood is a member for the Parents and Friends Association at Holy Rosary School Doubleview.

In 2003 he was awarded the Prime Minister’s Centenary Medal for services to Education

and the Community. Prior to the Federal election, Mr Eastwood took a stance against the Labor Party’s policy to redistribute funding from some non-government schools to other poorer non-government schools.

“The future of Australia depends on the young people who are being educated in all our schools,” “Each and every one of them is entitled to an excellent education and sufficient resources,” Mr Eastwood said. Mr Eastwood is also involved in a number of educational organisations and committees, including the CECWA Religious Education and Curriculum Committee, the Board of WA College of Teaching and the Advisory Council on Drug and Alcohol policy. Educated at St Michael’s Bassendean and later Christian Brothers College Highgate, Mr Eastwood also enjoys music, reading, tennis and politics.

Sir Donald Kettle about to be con-knighted? Or is this priest about to be thrown to the lions? Either way, Fr Kettle and Embrace the Grace participants appear to be enjoying themselves during the conference held at New Norcia from 610 October.

Bishop Donald Sproxton chats with a parishioner during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of St Joeph Pignatelli parish in Attadale.

All Saints

The Irish bishops have accused Ireland’s largest teachers’ union of trying to dilute the ethos of Catholic schools by scheduling a teacher training day on November 1, the feast of All Saints. The bishops accused the Irish National Teachers’ Organization of “specifically targeting holy days as in-service training days.” At issue is an effort by the government, unions and community leaders to standardize the Irish school year and to end the difficulties faced by parents who have children with varying school holidays at Christmas, Easter and, especially, during midterm breaks. Catholic schools take three holy days of obligation, including the feast of All Saints, as holidays.

Phony issue

Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick described the current debate over embryonic stem-cell research as a “phony issue” when compared to the benefits already proved with studies conducted with adult stem cells. The cardinal emphasized that the church is “not opposed to adult stemcell research. As a matter of fact, that kind of research has already helped hundreds of thousands of people over many years.” He said research on adult stem cells “should be encouraged and supported by public and private funds alike because it has proven to be useful and beneficial to human beings and does not destroy the lives of anyone. “Embryonic stem-cell research, on the other hand, “does not have that kind of track record,” he wrote.

Opening

Therese,” the long-awaited movie about the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, opened October 1 at 32 theatres in 14 states across the United States. Unlike most other films, however, its scheduling is heavily dependent on the number of people in a particular area who register on the Web at www.theresemovie. com to indicate they would be interested in seeing the film. “Therese” grossed more than $350,000 during its first weekend, ranking it No. 4 in per-location average among all 190 films playing around the country that weekend said a news release.

International News

Catholic news from around the world

Iraqi church bombings prompt Vatican concern for Christians' fate

By John Thavis

The bombing of five more churches in Baghdad has prompted new Vatican concern about the fate of Iraqi Christian communities.

The rudimentary but powerful bombs exploded within an hour and a half of each other beginning at 4 a.m. Oct. 16. No one was injured or killed, but heavy damage was reported to several of the churches.

At the Chaldean Church of St. Joseph, which was gutted by the bomb blast and a subsequent fire, Sunday Mass was celebrated Oct.17 following an all-night cleanup effort.

Other churches that suffered damage were identified as the Latin-rite Church of Rome, the Orthodox churches of St. Jacob and St. George, and the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Thomas.

Last August, car bombs at five Catholic churches killed 11 people and sparked an exodus of at least 10,000 Iraqi Christians into neighboring Syria and Jordan, church officials said.

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul, Iraq, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the latest bombing, expressed shock and sorrow at the news. One of the churches bombed in August was in Mosul.

The terrorist groups that carry out such attacks "hope that many, many more Christians will go," Archbishop Casmoussa told Catholic News Service.

"Their strategy is to create fear among the Christians and push them out of Iraq," he said.

Following the latest bombings, the Vatican's missionary news agency, Fides, published

Real intent

a dossier of information asking: "What future lies ahead for Christians in Iraq if this massacre continues?"

It published what it called a "list of horrors," the names of 88 Iraqi Christians and the

dates they were killed, almost all of them during the last nine months. The latest was a 14-yearold girl, a Chaldean Catholic, kidnapped by an Islamic group for ransom and killed "in cold blood" Oct. 14, it said.

Vatican officials have confirmed that acts of violence and intimidation against Iraqi Christians are increasing, as Muslim extremists consolidate their influence in Iraqi society.

Fides quoted an unnamed Iraqi nun from Mosul, who said Christians even in the oncesafe northern part of Iraq were living a "nightmare of being attacked in their homes, kidnapped and killed by groups of radical Islamic terrorists."

"The fact is that there is no presence of police or civilian authority to govern this situation of anarchy. Many members of these extremist militias are well-known, but no one does anything," she said.

Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel Karim Delly of Baghdad said the recent church bombings were clearly designed to frighten Christians. The important thing was that no one was killed or injured, he told the Italianbased Catholic news agency, Asianews.

"These are inhuman acts. In the name of Iraqi Christians I ask everyone to pray that God may enlighten the minds of the people who are carrying them out," the patriarch said.

He noted that the homes of many Iraqi Muslims were also being attacked. It is a problem shared by all those working for peace, he said.

Patriarch Delly said only prayer would stop these kinds of attacks.

"May the Lord touch the minds of these people, who do not love Iraq," he said.

Iraq has about 700,000 Christians in a population of more than 25 million.

Order devoted to Sacred Heart

New religious order founded in Diocese of Columbus

For nearly 20 years, Mary Jane Goffena taught public school students in Columbus.

But that was a whole other lifetime ago.

These days, she wears an ankle-length white garment with a collar, a sleeved purple scapular, and a white and purple veil. A rosary hangs around her waist.

Today, she is Sister Margaret Mary, foundress of the Children of Mary, a semicontemplative order formed under the guidance of Columbus Bishop James A. Griffin for women between the ages of 18 and 36, who feel called to live simply while working and praying. One of the order’s missions is to promote eucharistic adoration.

Sister Margaret Mary never imagined that one day she would be living as a hermit on 102 acres of untamed land in Ohio’s farm country, much less be the foundress of a new order of religious women consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In 1984, during the sacrament of reconcilia-

tion, she said she had a “powerful experience of the love of God” that changed her life. A few years later, she resigned from her teaching job, sold her house, gave away her belongings and bought more than 100 acres of farmland.

“The land was a little like the Garden of Eden gone wild with vines and brush. Amidst 100 acres of woods, streams, ponds, there sat a little old farmhouse whose only source of heat was a wood burning stove. I began living the simple life,” she told The Catholic Times, newspaper of the Columbus Diocese.

“I cut firewood, planted a garden and learned how to can vegetables. I began the long process of clearing the land of brush and vines,” she said.

During the day, she worked and prayed, “filled with great joy living alone with God. I found that the silence here touched my soul, and left it yearning more and more for God,” she added. During that time, she wrote to Bishop Griffin, asking if she could take vows as a canonical hermit.

Bishop Griffin asked Sister Margaret Mary to spend a year in community with an order of sisters before taking vows as a hermit, but

to also be open to whatever God wanted.

In October 2000, she left her hermitage in the woods to spend a year with the Visitation Nuns in Toledo.

While she was there, she took part in a eucharistic adoration that convinced her to dedicate her life to this practice. She also felt that God wanted her to form a new religious community.

On January 17, 2002, Bishop Griffin consecrated Sister Margaret Mary, and she began writing the rule for the Children of Mary.

In addition to selecting the colours of the habit, which reflect the sacraments of baptism and penance, and the passion of Christ, Sister Margaret Mary chose a pendant signifying that the same Christ who died on the cross is present in the Eucharist, that the crucifixion and the Eucharist cannot be separated.

And although much of her time had been spent in silence, Sister Margaret Mary is no longer solitary. Currently, the order has one postulant; Karen Balmert, 26, entered the order on June 18.

Occasionally people join them to pray or for peace and quiet. Many come for a retreat or to spend time with the sisters. -CNS

Iraqis gather outside a damaged Catholic church in Baghdad, Iraq, following a bomb blast at the church October 16. Bombs damaged five Baghdad churches in coordinated early morning attacks, but there were no casualties, an Interior Ministry official said. Photo: CNS/Rueters

International News

Catholic news from around the world

New members for child protection

National Review Board gets new chair, and new members

By Jerry Filteau

The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has appointed a new chairman and five new members on the National Review Board for the protection of children.

The USCCB president, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Illinois, announced the appointments in Washington on October 15.

He named Nicholas P. Cafardi, dean of the law school of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and a charter member of the two-year-old board, as chairman. He will serve until the conclusion of his term on the board in June 2005.

The new members, all appointed to three-year terms that will end on October 31, 2007, are:

● Patricia O’Donnell Ewers, an educational consultant who was president of Pace University in New York from 1990 to 2000.

● Dr. Angelo P. Giardino, vice president for clinical affairs at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

● Ralph I. Lancaster Jr., an attorney at the Pierce Atwood law firm in Portland, Maine.

● Judge Michael R. Merz, a federal magistrate of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Ohio, in Dayton, Ohio.

● Joseph P. Russoniello, dean

of the San Francisco Law School and senior counsel and resident in the San Francisco office of the law firm Cooley Godward LLP.

Cafardi, who has degrees in both civil law and canon law, succeeds the board’s founding chairman, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, and Justice Anne M. Burke of the Illinois Court of Appeals, who served as interim chair from June 2003, when Keating left, until her departure from the board this fall.

Bishop Gregory said the board has been “vitally important in assisting the bishops of the United States in dealing with

the crisis of the sexual abuse of minors within the church.”

The all-lay board was established by the US bishops at their landmark June 2002 meeting in Dallas to provide an independent review and critique how well US Catholic dioceses were dealing with sexually abusive priests and their victims and what policies, personnel and programs the bishops were establishing to create a safe environment for children throughout the church.

The board’s formation was part of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” that the bishops adopted in

Abortion not a political issue

Political priorities: In Catholic Italy, abortion is not an issue

When more than 1,000 of Italy’s most politically active Catholics met in early October, Pope John Paul II sent them a message urging greater church influence on such issues as the family, the media, economic justice and globalisation.

Reflecting the political priorities of the church in Italy, the Pope did not mention abortion.

In fact, during the four days of nonstop speeches and roundtables at the 44th annual “Social Week” in Bologna, church leaders never really confronted abortion, which has been legal in Italy since 1978.

“This is symptomatic,” Carlo Casini, president of Italy’s Pro-Life Movement, said in an interview on October 12.

“A fairly high percentage of Italian Catholics are not willing to push strongly on abortion because they consider it secondary. It’s an issue that divides Catholics politically, so the feeling is that it’s better not to talk about it,” he said.

At a time when abortion has

become a priority issue for many Catholics in the US election campaign, it is practically off the table in predominantly Catholic Italy. The Pope, whose own Diocese of Rome has the highest abortion rate in the country, has strongly and consistently preached a pro-life message to Italians, but that has not been translated into political activism among leading Catholics.

Abortion was a nonissue in the last major political elections in 2003.

Abortion was a nonissue in the last major political elections in 2003.

“I don’t think many voters know where candidates stand on abortion. It was an issue in the past, but today it has little importance on the political scene,” said Jesuit Father Giuseppe De Rosa, a writer for the Jesuit journal, La Civilta Cattolica.

The idea of making abortion a litmus test issue for political candidates rarely, if ever, enters the minds of Italian voters.

“Abortion here in Italy is not seen as the only issue or the decisive issue. Catholics end up

Dallas in response to what was then a still-burgeoning crisis over the number of priests across the country who had molested children and especially the number of them who had been left in ministry or returned to ministry after church officials learned of their actions.

In its tumultuous first two years the board assisted in establishment of the bishops’ national Office of Child and Youth Protection.

It interviewed scores of experts with a wide range of perspectives on the nature of child sexual abuse and the factors that may have contributed to priests engaging in such abuse.

Last February it issued a 150page report on its findings, sharply criticizing many past practices in the church and what it saw as continuing problems in many areas.

It also reviewed and approved the diocese-by-diocese reports of teams of outside compliance auditors who visited nearly every diocese in 2003 to conduct an independent assessment of its policies, programs and practices for child protection and for dealing with allegations of clerical sexual abuse, the priests accused and the alleged victims.

The board also objected vigorously to a decision last spring by the bishops’ Administrative Committee that would have postponed a second round of diocesan audits until 2005.

The charter calls for annual reports on diocesan compliance

to be reviewed and approved by the board, and the board said new audits were needed in 2004 for the mandated 2004 report.

The board’s objections led the bishops to address the issue at a national gathering in June and decide the second round of audits would be conducted in 2004.

More recently, when board members received a list of nominees to replace the outgoing members, they objected to the appearance of the name of a nun on the list. That name did not make the final cut of new members.

Although the charter does not exclude priests or nuns from board membership, board members felt the board’s reputation for independence was at stake.

In two mid-September speeches in Chicago the interim chair, Burke, asked, “How much freedom and independence do you think we would have if there were members of the clergy on the board?”

She added that board members often have had to “raise ‘holy hell’” to get their points across to the bishops.

When the 13-member board was originally set up, none of the members was assigned a definite term. As they began to complete the monumental initial tasks of their mandate, they decided to begin leaving the board on a staggered schedule so that new members can be appointed to fixed three-year terms with about one third of the board being replaced each year. -CNS

Rosary ‘in fashion’

voting for political parties that are very much in favour of abortion, because they share the parties’ positions on other things,” said Casini.

Casini, whose movement often struggles to get local support for the annual pro-life celebration, said the Italian church hierarchy also has been hesitant to push the abortion question in the political arena. The fight against abortion has largely been left to pro-life groups, he said.

“Has the church been too quiet and too timid about abortion and the abortion law? Unfortunately, I would have to say yes,” Casini said. Yet even Casini said that sometimes there are good tactical reasons for downplaying abortion. At present, for example, the Italian Parliament is considering modifying a 2003 law on assisted procreation that offered protection for the human embryo.

Italian pro-lifers viewed the law as an important accomplishment, one that might eventually help reopen the abortion debate. But now that the law might be modified, church leaders are trying to “speak about abortion as little as possible,” because it would be politically counterproductive, said Casini. -CNS

The bishops’ conference of England and Wales has issued a leaflet in response to the fashion trend among young people for wearing rosaries as necklaces and bracelets.

The Liturgy Office of the bishops’ Department for Christian Life and Worship said that the wearing of rosary beads has become hugely popular this year, with jewellery shops reporting record sales.

“Apparently the rosary has recently joined the crucifix as a desirable secular fashion accessory,” said Father Allen Morris, secretary of the department.

“However, unlike the crucifix, it is generally available only from religious suppliers rather than high street jewellers.”

He added: “Some of these suppliers have expressed concern that those buying them should know something of the religious significance of the rosary.

To that end, the Liturgy Office has prepared a simple twosided A5 sheet in order that those so minded might make them freely available, even placing one in the bag with the rosary.”

Kristina Cooper, editor of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal magazine Good News, has given many rosaries to young people and welcomed the leaflet.

“I live on a council estate in South London and many teenagers there are really interested in the rosary,” Cooper said.

“When someone asks me for one I explain what it is for and ask them to show me that they have learnt the Our Father before I give them one.

“If they ask for a second one, depending on the person, I ask them to tell me a good deed they have done, or teach them the Hail Mary,” Cooper said.

While some observers worry about a profanation of religious items, Cooper sees a positive side to the phenomenon.

“This fashion is a great opportunity for evangelization. I am very pleased to hear about this leaflet,” she said. “I find the rosary is a very useful instrument for catechizing people who have never been to church.”

National Review Board member Nicholas P. Cafardi, right, listens during the announcement of findings of the John Jay study on clergy sexual abuse of minors at a press conference in Washington this year.

Photo:CNS/Reuters

Reviews

perspectives on popular culture

JPII tells all

Here is an excerpt from John Paul II’s forthcoming book, “Memory and Identity: Conversation

Between Millennia,” presented recently at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

It was given to me to have personal experience of the reality of the “ideologies of evil.” It is something that remains indelible in my memory. First it was Nazism. What was seen in those years was already something terrible. But many aspects of Nazism, in that phase, in fact, were concealed. The real dimension of evil that was unleashed in Europe was not perceived by everyone, not even by those among us who lived in the very centre of that maelstrom.

We lived precipitated in a great eruption of evil. Both the Nazis during the War, as the Communists, later, in Eastern Europe, tried to conceal what they were doing from public opinion. For a long time the West did not want to believe in the extermination of the Jews. Nor was it known in Poland all that the Nazis had done and were doing to Poles, or what the Soviets had done to the Polish officers in Katyn.

Later, already after the War, I thought to myself: the Lord God has granted Nazism twelve years of existence and after twelve years that system collapsed. One understands that that was the limit imposed by Divine Providence on such madness. In fact, it had not just been madness -- it had been “bestiality,” as Konstanty Michalski wrote. But in fact Divine Providence granted only those twelve years to the unleashing of that bestial rage.

If Communism survived longer and if it has before it, I then thought to myself, a prospect of further development, there must

MOVIE

Reviewd

by

Harry Forbes/CNS

An appealing love story, which unfolds against the backdrop of England's tennis championship, "Wimbledon" offers audiencepleasing truisms about the rat race of winning versus choosing the important things in life. It features a charismatic performance by Paul Bettany in the lead and an appealing one by Kirsten Dunst as the young woman for whom he falls.

Peter Colt (Bettany), a thirtysomething British tennis pro decides to get out of the big league, after playing one last tournament. He feels he's getting older, doesn't care for his rank at 119th in the world, and feels the pressure from the up-andcoming younger players. In fact, he's already accepted a cushy job as tennis instructor at a posh

be some meaning in all of this.

There was then the clear sensation that the Communists would have conquered Poland and would have gone beyond, to Western Europe, planning the conquest of the world. In reality, it did not go that far. “The Miracle of the Vistula,” that is, the victory of Pilsudski in the battle against the Russian Army halted these Soviet pretensions. After the victory over Nazism in the Second World War, in fact, the Communists were preparing with audacity to take over the world and, in any case, Europe. In the beginning it led to the division of the Continent in spheres of influence. This was the agreement reached at the Yalta Conference of 1945, an agreement only apparently respected by the Communists, who transgressed

it, in fact, in various ways.

For me, then, it became immediately clear that that would last a far longer time than the Nazi madness. How long? It was difficult to foresee. What came to mind is that that evil was in some way necessary for the world and for man. It happens, in fact, that in certain concrete situations of human existence evil reveals itself in some measure useful- useful in so far as it creates occasions for good.

The book will go on sale next spring. The translation of the paragraphs above, published in the Italian newspaper Avvenire, is by ZENIT. They are taken from Chapter 3, which tells of the “limit imposed on evil in the history of Europe.”

club run by Ian Frazier (Robert Lindsay).

He encounters an ambitious young American player, Lizzie Bradbury (Dunst), who's admired him from afar. Be cause of

By Tony Evans

Michael

Davies,

OBITUARY

author and key figure in the movement to preserve and promote the traditional Latin Mass died in London on 25 September, aged 68 years.

crisis and in Cyprus led to his conversion to Catholicism. On leaving the army he married and trained as a teacher and later taught in Catholic schools for thirty years.

implied sexual situations, sexual innuendo, fleeting rear nudity, some crude language and a brief violent incident, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults.

Before the promulgation of the Apostolic Letter, Ecclesia Dei, giving greater freedom for the celebration of the old Rite (in which Davies played no small part) he was a figure of controversy, regarded in some sections of the Church as at worst a rebel, or at best merely a trouble-maker. Later, Davies became the friend, correspondent and confidante of Cardinals, bishops and clergy who recognised his holiness, his devotion to the Church, and the sincerity of his arguments.

In his final address as retiring President of the International Una Voce Federation meeting in Rome in October 2003 he was able to report: ‘Who would have dared to predict in those early days [the 1970s] when we seemed to be working for an unattainable cause, and that the traditional Mass seemed to be the mother of all lost causes, that from the 1990s onwards Pontifical Masses would be celebrated by such members of the Sacred College as Cardinal Mayer, Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Stickler, Cardinal Medina Estevez and Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos.’

That the old Rite Mass is freely available to those that want it in Perth is the result in no small measure to the pioneering work, on the international stage of Davies

Michael Davies was born a non-Catholic in Yeovil, Somerset, England. He served in the British Army from 1954 to 1960. His experiences on active service in Malaysia, during the Suez

After the Second Vatican Council he became increasingly concerned at the liberties taken in liturgical matters under the disproportionate influence, as he saw it, of a network of radical liturgists who were misrepresenting the true intentions of the Council Fathers. He produced a stream of books on the crisis in the liturgy which were controversial at the time, among them, Liturgical Shipwreck, Cranmer’s Godly Order, and Pope Paul’s New Mass. Much of what he wrote then is now being re-evaluated and may have played a part in a reappraisal and correction of current liturgical abuses.

Davies also published popular biographies of such great Church figures as Cardinal Newman and St John Fisher. He lectured in many countries around the world and made a speaking tour of Australia 1996, addressing a gathering in Perth on April 9 of that year. He was a regular visitor and welcomed in Rome.

Michael Davies was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer a year ago and when friends suggested that God had been a little hard on him after all his work for the Church he replied ‘Quite the opposite. I gave Him thanks for what I consider the greatest blessing He could have bestowed upon me. To be given an eighteen months warning of the day that will decide my fate for all eternity is a great privilege.’ A solemn Requiem Mass will be celebrated for the soul of Michael Davies on Saturday 20 November at St James’ Church, Spanish Place, London.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, celebrates the Tridentine Mass at the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome last year.

Photo: CNS

Kirsten Dunst stars in a scene from the romantic comedy Wimbledon.

ANGELS WANTED

ASSISTANCE needed in daily running of our centre. The Living Centre supports those living with HIV/AIDS. We provide holistic environment which is safe and non-judgemental. Volunteers needed in all areas, if you have anytime to spare and wish to become part of our wonderful family call Linda 9470 4931.

BUILDING TRADES

BRICK re-pointing. Phone Nigel 9242 2952

ELECTRICIAN,

PERROTT PAINTING Pty

PICASSO

CATHOLICS CORNER

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

HOLIDAY

DENMARK beautiful 3brm, 2bth, cott, fully equip, special rates. Ph: 0412 083 377

PRAYER

O JESUS, Who hast said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you, through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted (make request). O Jesus, Who hast said, all that you ask of the Father in My Name, He will grant you, through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Thy Father in Thy Name that my prayer be granted. (Make your request). O Jesus, Who hast said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass,” through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (Make your request). Thanks for favours granted.

Sunday October 24

ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK

1 - 2 pm on Access 31: True devotion to Jesus through Mary: Fr Robert Fox and Rosalind Moss with Johnette Benkovic (Abundant Life). The following week we plan to present a program featuring the Year of the Holy Eucharist. Evangelisation is a priority in a society from which God is largely excluded. We are struggling financially to keep these valuable programs on air, for which we rely totally on voluntary donations. Please send contributions to Rosary Christian Tutorial Association, PO Box 1270, Booragoon 6954. Enquiries: 9330 1170

Sunday October 24

GATE OF HEAVEN

Please join us this Sunday at 7:30pm on 107.9 FM, Radio Fremantle, for more Global Catholic Radio. This week we will feature: (1) Mysteries of the Rosary; The Nativity of Jesus With Fr Jaques Daley. (2) The Teachings of Jesus Christ; The Eighth Commandment with Fr John Corapi. Donations toward the program may be sent to Gate of Heaven, PO Box 845, Claremont, WA 6910. Programs subject to change without notice.

Sunday October 24

FOOD FAIR

BIBLES , Books, CD’s, Cards, gifts, Statues, Baptism & Communion Apparel, Albs, Vestments and much more. RICH HARVEST, 39 Hulme Court, Myaree, 9329 9889 after 10.30am.

THANK YOU

THANKS to Jesus, Mary & Joseph, St Jude, St Dominic Savio & Blessed Mother Teresa for the safe delivery of my granddaughter. RD

FOR SALE

ELECTRIC wheelchair, batteries & recharger. Good Condition. Price Negotiable. 9447 1536.

VOLUNTEERS

URGENT

Ph: 9328 2929

9227 7778

Parish Hall, Holy Family Church, Lot 375 Alcock Street, Maddington, 10am – 12noon. Mass 7.30am and 9am. All welcome. Enq: Francis Williams 0404 893 877 or 9459 3873.

Wednesday October 27

SOUTHERN AREA MENTAL HEALTH

Support Group meet fourth Wednesday of each month at St Thomas More Church Parish Meeting Room, 100 Dean Road, Bateman. 7.30pm - 9pm. For contact and information; Aileen 9330 2651, Jenny 9332 4532, Lesley 9337 6295, Margaret 9364 8146.

Friday October 29

BUSINESS PERSONS MASS

Will be celebrated at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Square Perth at 7am followed by a Breakfast Meeting at the WA Club, 101 St Georges Tce, Perth. Guest speaker: Dr Alan Tapper from Edith Cowan University. Enq: 9384 0809.

Saturday October 30 NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF VAILANKANNI

Holy Trinity Church, Embleton, 5pm followed by Vigil Mass at 6pm. Last Saturday of every month. Enq: George 9272 1379, Santina 9272 4180.

Tuesday November 2 BLESSING OF MEMORIAL WALL & HOLY FAMILY GROTTO

Holy Family Church, Lot 375 Alcock Street, Maddington. 7pm Mass for the Holy Souls, followed by Blessing of Memorial Wall & Holy Family Grotto. Main Celebrant: Archbishop B J Hickey, Co-Celebrant: Fr Francis Ly. Light Refreshments after Service. All welcome. Donations towards the Memorial Wall & Holy Family Grotto will be greatly appreciated. All donors names will be placed under the Holy Family statue. Enq: Francis Williams 9459 3873 or 0404 893 877.

Wednesday November 3

CATHOLIC PASTORAL WORKERS ASSOC

CPWA members end of year gathering will be held at Convent of Mercy, 113 Tyler St Tuart Hill from 9.30 – 11.30am. Mass 9.30am followed by morning tea and members gathering. RSVP by Nov 1 to Margaret Walker 9390 8365.

Thursday November 4-6

SEMINAR OF NEW LIFE IN GOD'S SPIRIT

Hosea House of Prayer in the town of Dardanup (10 minutes from Bunbury), a weekend commencing at 5.30pm on Friday and finishing at lunch on Sunday. Please call Kaye for more information and registration 9586 4134.

Thursday November 4 - 7

CATHOLIC CURSILLO

Catholic Cursillo is like a

story. Cursillo is a flow of talks and reflections over 3 days. The Cursillo movement in Western Australia is being renewed. Men’s 1 – Thursday November 4 to Sunday November 7 and Women’s 1 – Thursday November 11 to Sunday November 14 2004 (commencing at 7pm and concluding at 5.30pm) are being held at the Bickley Recreation Camp, Hardinge Road, Orange Grove. A cost is incurred. Enq: Andrew Booth 9364 9567 (evenings).

Friday November 5

ALLIANCE AND TRIUMPH OF THE TWO HEARTS

All night vigil of devotions and reparation to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary at St Bernadette’s Church, Jugan Street, Glendalough. Commences 9pm with Holy Mass. Concludes with Parish Mass at 7.30am followed by Rosary and Benediction. Light refreshments available during the night. Enq: 9342 5845.

Friday November 5

PRO-LIFE PROCESSION –MIDLAND

The First Friday Mass, procession and rosary vigil will commence at 9.30am with Mass celebrated at St Brigid’s Church, Midland. The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate will lead us. All are invited to witness for the sanctity of life and pray for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349

Friday November 5

REIGN OF THE TWO HEARTS

All night vigil and Eucharistic Adoration, All Saints Chapel Allendale Square. First Friday devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and First Saturday devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary commencing at 9pm with Holy Mass, rosaries, hymns and prayers. Concluding with Holy Mass at 7am. Please come and join us in prayer. Enq: Colin 9409 4543

Saturday November 6 WITNESS FOR LIFE PROCESSION

The next First Saturday Mass, procession and rosary vigil will

commence with Mass at 8.30am at St Anne’s Church, Hehir St, Belmont. We proceed prayerfully to the Rivervale Abortion Centre and conclude with rosary. Led by Fr Paul Carey SSC. Please join us to pray peacefully for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

Saturday November 6

DAY WITH MARY

St Brigid Church, 211 Aberdeen St Perth 9am – 5pm. A video on Fatima will be shown at 9am. A day of prayers and instruction based upon the messages of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO. Enq: Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate 9384 3311.

Saturday November 27

TERTIARY CONVENTION

The leaders of the Lay Fraternities (tertiaries, oblates and cooperators) belonging the major Religious Orders presently in WA are asked to attend a committee meeting at 2pm at the Dominican Priory, Angelico Street, Doubleview to discuss the format and agenda for a grand gathering of the fraternities early next year. Contact Adrian Briffa OPL, Phone 9446 2147 or email knight@wa1.quik. com.au

CROSS ROADS COMMUNITY

Healing Masses: 1st Monday of month 7pm Church of East Fremantle, 2nd Monday of month 10am St Jerome’s Munster. Term 4: 18th October to 17th December for: Family & Friends Support Groups of Substance Abusers on Wednesdays 7pm – 9pm, Substance Abusers Support Groups on Tuesdays 5.30pm – 7.30pm & Friday’s All day Group for Substance Abusers on Fridays 9.30am – 2pm, Bible Night: Tuesdays 7pm – 9pm except in October & Healing Mass: Fridays 12.15pm.

The committee is seeking a live in Catholic couple (or single) for everyday management and running of this Pallottine Centre. Some experience in basic hospitality and catering would be an advantage. Accommodation supplied and small remuneration to be negotiated.

Enquiries to Denise 9354 0200. Applications close Tuesday November 30.

Apply to: President, Epiphany Retreat Centre, 60 Fifth Avenue, Rossmoyne. 6148

10

11-14

- Mgr Thomas McDonald

Mass for Mercedes College

Year 11’s, St Mary’s CathedralArchbishop Hickey

Golden Jubilee of the Diocese of Bunbury - Archbishop Hickey, Bishop Sproxton

Parish Visitation and Confirmation, Clarkson - Bishop Sproxton

Door to door

Parish’s ‘Souls for Christ’ group takes church’s message door to door

By Patrick Butler

Move over Jehovah’s Witnesses. Members of St. Gerald Parish, in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, are also going door to door to talk to people about God.

In a five-month period, between 30 and 35 members of a parish committee called “Souls for Christ” rang an estimated 1,800 doorbells. And there are perhaps 5,000 more homes to visit, said Marcy Colantone, one of the volunteers.

Colantone and her husband, Mike, have talked to at least 100 people, both active and inactive Catholics as well as nonCatholics.

“Most were surprised at who we were,” she told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese.

They also were surprised at what the couple was doing, since Catholics generally do not do that sort of thing.

The idea for the outreach came about during a parish meeting last year about how to boost parish membership in an area where there has been an influx of Poles and Hispanics, as well as AfricanAmericans and people of Middle Eastern descent, said committee chair Leonard DeClue.

The campaign, DeClue said, is also a follow-up to an earlier call by St. Gerald pastor Father Richard LoBianco that the parish implement the Archdiocese of Chicago’s evangelization plan called

“Spreading the Holy Fire.” Franciscan

Father Joe Kruszynski, archdiocesan director of evangelization, said parish programs vary. Some are conducted door to door, as St. Gerald is doing. Others use different methods to spread the faith.

Father LoBianco said that although his parishioners are doing something new to them it is not necessarily innovative, but simply the responsibility of every believer to “build up the body of Christ (and) share the good news of Jesus that forms us.”

So far, the “heralds for Gerald” -- and the pamphlets they distribute listing the parish’s services as well as some of the more commonly asked questions about the church as it is today -- have been surprisingly well-received, DeClue and Colantone agreed.

“I can’t believe the openness I see in people,” said DeClue, who normally begins the conversation by asking people if they are Catholic, which he said “opens the door to start talking.”

Father LoBianco said that some people “are surprised to see the Catholic Church, and our parish in particular, involved in a door-to-door approach extending the invitation to be part of our faith community.”

He said people have said they never expected Catholics to be involved in this kind of outreach. But, as he sees it, “we cannot afford to not be involved in new approaches to evangelize our parishes.”

The priest said today’s Catholics “need to be creative to engage the imagination of our faith communities.” But more importantly, he said, they need to “bring the healing power of Christ to so many

among us who are hurting, in need of reconciliation and union with God.”

Many inactive Catholics are often unaware of changes the church has undergone since they have been away, Colantone said. “People were grateful. Some just needed to be asked back.”

“There are so many hungry souls who don’t know where to turn for guidance. A lot of (divorced) Catholics are confused about their status in the church,” DeClue said.

Everyone knows there has been a drop in church attendance in recent years, said the 55-year-old DeClue, who remembers growing up at St. Gerald back when “every Mass was filled. People would be standing in the aisles. The crowds would spill outside.”

The outreach also gives non-Catholics a chance to connect with the church, said Colantone. She recalled how one St. Gerald committee member talked with a Protestant woman who credited the Virgin Mary with curing her cancer and now wanted to join the Catholic Church.

Whatever their situation, everyone the St. Gerald evangelisers talk to is referred to the appropriate parish program -- anything from a senior citizen group to one of the regularly scheduled hospitality events, said DeClue.

He noted that this ministry of evangelization is “something you learn as you do it,” and added that he was a little skeptical at first about knocking on doors.

“But after I got past the first block, it got a whole lot better,” said DeClue.

Catholic parishioner Sheena Smith hands a copy of the New Testament to Gordon Burrell in Baltimore on September 2. Sixteen African American parishes in the city took part in a door-to-door ministry bringing the Gospel to their neighbours.

Photo: CNS