The Record Newspaper 22 April 2009

N E W CO L L E C T I O N ! NEW COLLECTION! Modern Modern Catholic t-shir ts. t-shirts. Record Bookshop - Page 18 Record - Page 18

The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist

Author offers eyewitness accounts, history galore about exorcisms. Review: Page 14

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THE PARISH

Mary Ward lives

400th anniversary celebrations around the State prove that the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary that Ward founded is still vitally relevant - Page 16

Patrists struggle on Running a mission caring for the poor on limited funds is taking its toll on a new order in Perth.

Robert Hiini reports - Page 16

On top of the world

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate led 30 guys on a twohour climb up Bluff Knoll to meet Christ, and found out something about themseves too. Anthony Barich was there. - Page 17

THE NATION

Human Rights ‘

‘Pandora’s box’

WA Attorney General Christian Porter debates merits of a human rights charter with his predecessor Jim McGinty at Murdoch University - Page 18

Priests revel in Chrism Mass

The Chrism Mass was a virtual non-event 40 years ago as far as laity were concerned, until the Marriage Encounter movement stepped up to the plate - Page 3

THE WORLD

Out of the frying pan...

Notre Dame University in the US finds itself increasingly isolated for awarding a Doctor of Laws to a man who is advancing the killing of unborn children - Page 15

Vatican investigates American sisters

The Vatican has launched a second investigation into US women’s religious leadership. - Page 14

Quotable

“George Pell’s recent pronouncement, which supported the Pope’s claim that condoms do nothing to stop HIV transmission, puts him in the same league as flat-earthers and creationists.”

- Ross Fitzgerald, columnist, The Australian, April 20

“The Pope is corrector, put it another way: the best evidence we have supports the Pope’s comments.”

- Dr Edward Green, Director, Harvard University’s AIDS Prevention Research Centre, March 19

Western Australia’s award-winning Catholic newspaper - Wednesday April 22, 2009 the Parish. the Nation. the World.

Easter 2009/ Across Western Australia, Catholics turn their thoughts to death - and resurrection

Thousands celebrate Christ’s victory

The relentless message from the media and contemporary culture is that Christianity is irrelevant, repressive, selfrighteous and seeks to impose its harsh beliefs wherever it can. Nevertheless, this year across WA and further afield around the world, Christians embraced the true meaning of their faith by gathering to celebrate with hope and joy the sacrifice of Christ - and the overwhelming truth of his resurrection. As they did, they marked their celebrations with variety and unique contributions from national background, spirituality and locale.

■ By Record staff

Parish churches were packed repeatedly as Catholics flocked to the major Easter liturgies over the four days from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. The crowds included 150 people who entered the Catholic Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at the Easter Vigil on Saturday night and an unknown number of others who were baptised Catholics as infants but who had not subsequently received other Sacraments such as Reconciliation, Confirmation, and Holy Communion.

The celebrations began in the familiar atmosphere of suppressed excitement at the Mass of the Last Supper, recalling the occasion when Jesus instituted the Blessed Eucharist and washed his Apostles’ feet as a sign of their priesthood. The evening ended with the stripping of the altar and, in many churches, a period of adoration of the Eucharist in the altar of repose. Good Friday saw a variety of formats for the Stations of the Cross. Continued - Page 3

The waters of baptism cascade from two-month old Felicity Bernadette after she was baptised and welcomed into full membership of the Church by Kelmscott Parish Priest Fr Francis Sundararajan at an all-night Neocatechumenal Way vigil in Good Shepherd Parish at Easter. “Behold God’s new creation!” he told delighted friends and relatives. Across WA individuals were either baptised or welcomed into full communion with the Church at the most important event in the Christian year, which commemorates Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross - and his victory forever over death.

‘We must use mercy, justice, to end conflicts’

■ By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS)Christ’s resurrection is not a myth or fairy tale; it is the one and only event that has destroyed the root of evil and can fill the emptiness in people’s hearts, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Easter message. But Christ still wants humanity to help affirm his victory by using his weapons of justice, truth, mercy and love to end the suffering in Africa, build peace in the Holy Land, and combat hunger and poverty worldwide, he said on April 12 in his message “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world).

“Africa suffers dispropor-

tionately from the cruel and unending conflicts, often forgotten, that are causing so much bloodshed and destruction in several of her nations,” and increasing numbers of Africans fall prey to hunger, poverty and disease, the Pope said in the message broadcast from St Peter’s Square to millions of people worldwide. He said when he visits the Holy Land from May 8-15 he will “emphatically repeat the same message” of reconciliation and peace he brought to Africa during his March 17-23 visit to Cameroon and Angola. While reconciliation is difficult, he said, it is an indis-

PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN

2 EASTER 2009

EDITOR

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CONTRIBUTORS

Pauline wows the judges, parish not surprised

At root of TV fairytale is a mother who encouraged her daughter to sing.

■ By Simon Caldwell

LONDON (CNS) - The audience snickered and the judges of “Britain’s Got Talent” either rolled their eyes or allowed their blank expressions to betray their bemused skepticism as the awkward-looking middle-aged woman told them she wanted to be as famous as the popular British actress and singer Elaine Paige.

Then Susan Boyle began to sing, and they were spellbound and shocked by the beauty of her voice and rose to their feet in applause.

But Father Basil Clark, who watched the show on television at his home in Broxburn, Scotland, was not surprised.

He has seen the situation unfold many times before, having regularly accompanied Boyle, 47, on the annual Legion of Mary pilgrimage to the Marian shrine in Knock, Ireland.

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“When I watched the judges’ faces it reminded me of what I was like when I first saw Susan singing - absolutely blown away by the quality of the singing and by that fantastic voice,” said Father Clark,

Susan Boyle belts out a song on the British hit TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.” Boyle’s singing

dean of West Lothian, the district that covers Boyle’s home village of Blackburn.

“Anyone who sees her for the first time behaves the same way. I have never heard her sing badly, though she might lose the words if the stress gets too much,” he told CNS in an April 16 telephone interview.

Boyle first appeared before

judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden on the ITV1 show broadcast on April 11.

Her fame spread on the Internet, and in just five days she had attracted more than 15 million YouTube viewings of her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream,” from the musical “Les Miserables.”Part of Boyle’s

attraction is that she appears to be such an unlikely candidate for stardom. She said on TV that she has “never been kissed” and has lived alone with her cat since her mother died in 2007.

According to British media, she has learning disabilities as a result of being starved of oxygen at birth. She is unemployed

Ivy Cooper passes away in her 101st year

■ By Glynnis Grainger

and, as a churchgoing Catholic, her social life revolves around her family and her parish of Our Lady of Lourdes. She also enjoys karaoke in her local pub.

Father Clark said, “When she gets up to sing it can either be wonderful or you can get the unpredictable eccentric behavior, but it is to do with the fact that she has learning difficulties.

“In a sense, there is a beautiful voice trapped in this damaged body,” he said. “It is an absolute contrast. There she was on television acting very peculiarly and the audience was expecting peculiar things to happen and then a voice of an angel comes out - and that’s Susan.”

Father Clark said that local people who knew Boyle, the youngest of nine children of a family descended from Irish migrants, were “enormously proud of her and wish her the best but they are aware of the risks she is running,” adding that her behaviour has previously drawn cruel taunts from children.

“People are slightly worried about what might happen after this bout of fame,” he explained.

“I am quite worried for her,” he added. “I think it’s great at one level. It might just be the thing that will make her, but she is a very vulnerable person and it could be quite difficult.

“It is a great opportunity

for her and as far as I am concerned she should make the best of it, and if it lasts, it lasts, and if it doesn’t, then it’s still more than almost any one of us will ever achieve,” he added. “It is important in sustaining her and making sure this is all a very, very beneficial experience.”

He described Boyle as “a woman of great faith” who was often “very gentle and very caring” though she could also be “needy and demanding.” The world’s media has camped outside Boyle’s home where she grew up and where she still sleeps in the same room as when she was a child. But Boyle has decided to temporarily escape the limelight to stay with friends as she prepares for the next round of the competition, in which she is expected to sing “Whistle Down the Wind.” She did give an interview to “The Early Show” on CBS News in which she said that her instant fame “hasn’t really sunk in yet.” She said that she wanted to make her performance “a tribute to my mother” who had encouraged her to sing. “I knew it was something I had to do,” she said. “I had to get on with it. That’s where the courage came from, my mother. “The ones who made fun of me are now nice to me,” she said.

11 days after her birthday, in the early hours of Easter Monday.

Santa Clara, Bentley, parishioner and long-time resident of Bentley Park, Ivy Cooper, whose 100th birthday featured on the front page of the Easter edition of The Record, died peacefully at Tandara nursing home

Her birthday was marked by a special Mass at Tandara and a copy of a Papal blessing from His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, faxed to the presbytery by the Papal Nuncio in Canberra. Mrs Cooper’s funeral, a Requiem Mass, was celebrated at Santa Clara church by parish priest Fr Francisco Mascarenhas, last Monday April 20, followed by a cremation at Karrakatta cemetery. A small number of her family were at her bedside when she passed away. Family members from the

Clergy changes

Fr Maurice Toop will retire from the parish of Queen of Martyrs, Maylands, on Sunday 3 May. He will reside in the Church units in Redcliffe.

Fr Son Nguyen will leave the Vietnamese Centre to be Priestin-charge of Maylands Parish from 4 May 2009, till September 2009.

Mother Cyril, OSB, Tyburn Priory, 325 Garfield Road, Riverstone, NSW 2765 www.tyburnconvent.org.uk

The Polish Franciscans, already working in Maylands, will take over the parish of Maylands from September 2009.

Fr Joss Breen OP will retire from the parish of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, Gosnells on Sunday 26 April after twenty years as its Parish Priest.

Fr Nicholas Nweke of Corrigin/ Kulin parish will take up his appointment as Parish Priest of Gosnells from 29 April 2009.

Fr Arulraj former parish priest of Midland, has returned from India and will be Chaplain to Mater Dei College, Edgewater. He will reside in Wanneroo Parish.

Fr Daniel Chama has returned to

Perth to take up his appointment as Assistant Priest at St Gerard Majella, Mirrabooka from 1 May 2009.

Fr Arnel Taracina, currently Assistant Priest at Mirrabooka Parish, has been appointed Assistant Priest at St Mary's, Kalgoorlie from 1 May 2009.

Fr Kum Htoi, Assistant Priest in Kalgoorlie, is appointed locum tenens in Applecross Parish.

Fr Kenneth Asaba Chaplain to the Robert Healy Centre, Joondalup and to Edith Cowan University, will also be Chaplain to the SACRI Shrine of Our Lady of Revelations, Bullsbrook, following Fr Noel Tobin who was Chaplain for many years at Bullsbrook.

Fr Finbarr Walsh has left his retirement unit in Rockingham to take up residence in the St John of God Villa, Subiaco.

Fr David Halstead OP concluded his term as Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Rosary, Doubleview on 18 April 2009. The newly appointed Parish Priest is Fr Peter Toan Nguyen OP.

US, and country and metropolitan WA, attended her funeral and refreshments afterwards.

A well-known jazz pianist and music teacher, she had no children and is survived by her sister Lil Molinari, 94, of Bunbury, and seven nieces and nephews and their children.

Archbishop celebrates

Archbishop Barry Hickey celebrated his 73rd birthday with a quiet morning tea at the Church office last Thursday, April 16. Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton made a small presentation on behalf of the staff and the Dean of

the Cathedral, Mgr Thomas McDonald. Archbishop Hickey will have a major celebration later in the year to recognise his 50 years as a priest and 25 years as a bishop. He shares his birthday with Pope Benedict XVI.

Vinnies help Dominican Republic’s poor

HONDO VALLE, Dominican Republic (CNS)

- Thanks to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Long Island, conferences in New York and their counterpart in Hondo Valle, Negro, a blind man whose wife would lock him in the house alone while she worked her small farm, now has a safe home. Vincentians in Hondo Valle, with support from the New Yorkers, found a house for him in the village and installed an indoor bathroom. Melvin Santana, who works for the local parish as a driver and is a Hondo Valle Vincentian, checks on him almost every day, bringing him groceries and medications.

A short walk away, Julio, 42, who had suffered a stroke, was living in a leanto made from sugar cane and banana leaves. On the ground he had a mattress that got wet when it rained. Sister Jane Reilly, a Sister of St Joseph from the US, said when the first visitors from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul found Julio, he was naked and had

nothing but the wet mattress. He was depending upon others to bring him food. Vincentians were able to move him into a small house near the church. His neighbors on each side bring him two meals a day. They also bathe him, wash his clothes and help bring him to the bathroom.

Camino Competition Winners Rona Landquist -Sorrento Richard Chia - Duncraig Bronia Karniewicz

OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENTS

Bishop Sproxton

MARANATHA INSTITUTE FOR ADULT FAITH EDUCATION

Easter 2009

Across Western Australia this year Catholics gathered, as they have for generations, to commemorate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This week, we offer a snapshot into a living and often-misrepresented part of our state’s life, the people for whom God is not dead - but risen. PAGES 3-11

Commitment reinforces faith life

Marriage Encounter boosted Chrism Mass:

■ By Anthony Barich

The rise in popularity of the Chrism Mass from the late 1970s can be traced back to the Marriage Encounter movement, Perth Vicar General Monsignor Brian O’Loughlin says. The Chrism Mass, held on April 8 this year during Holy Week, is one of the Archdiocese’s most significant events, where the Archbishop gathers his priests from all his country and city parishes for the consecration of the Holy Oils used for baptism, confirmation, Holy Orders and anointing of the sick. The Second Vatican Council decreed that they also renew their vow of celibacy and pastoral ministry at this Mass. While St Mary’s Cathedral has been undergoing conservation and restoration, it has been held in the bigger parish churches around the Archdiocese – St Thomas More Bateman in 2007, Mary MacKillop Ballajura last year and Sacred Heart Thornlie this year. At each occasion it was a packed house, with hundreds of laypeople from around the Archdiocese attending, celebrating the profound liturgical and pastoral link of the bishop through his priests with all the laypeople. But it was not always that way. Mgr O’Loughlin said that the year he was ordained in 1974, the Chrism Mass “just seemed to be for a scattered number of people,” which seemed like a small number “in the vastness of St Mary’s Cathedral”.

“You had this high point of the Church’s liturgical year on a parallel with Easter, yet it didn’t resonate with the people,” he said.

Since the late 1970s and 80s, there has been a marked change, which he said in many ways can be attributed to the Marriage Encounter movement, which took on the responsibility of ensuring that married couples attended the Chrism Mass.

In more recent times, when most parishes advertise their Holy Week ceremonies in their bulletin, they also include the Chrism Mass, which traditionally is celebrated in the cathedral.

“Couples of marriage encounter were deepening their appreciation of the sacrament of marriage and realised that this very much depended on their shared celebration of the Eucharist,” he said. “They realised, then, that the Eucharist comes about through the ministry of the priest. So they saw this as an important way of supporting priests in their

ministry, but it also flowed from the fact that many priests joined the Marriage Encounter weekends with the couples, so there was an opportunity for deeper sharing on that level as well as the couples appreciating their sacrament of marriage.”

Priests did not concelebrate Mass prior to the Second Vatican Council, which introduced to the Latin Rite the concelebration of the Eucharist that had always been part of the Eastern rites.

“The priests felt much more a part of the celebration as intimate participants,” not spectators, he said.

Priests travelling from all over the Archdiocese was a sign of unity, and the Monsignor remembers that “it was always interesting to see how relaxed Archbishop Launcelot Goody was”.

“He was normally somewhat imperious, but with his

Across WA His followers witness to the faith He left

Continued from Page 1

In the morning, the Disciples of Jesus enacted the Stations on the Bent Sreet oval in City Beach in their usual colourful and moving style, while in the afternoon at Whitford Parish a big group of young people repeated the WYD Stations on the school oval, ending by placing the body in the tomb prepared inside the Church. The large congregation was asked to leave and go home in silence.

A visitor to the parish, Marilyn Mirabella, said the young people had done a tremendous job and many in the congregation were moved to tears.

“I have seen a lot of things in the Church,” said Marilyn, “but nothing like this. It was wonderful.” Many parishes prayed the Stations of the Cross on Friday morning and followed in the afternoon with the reading of the Passion, Holy Communion and

veneration of the Cross. At Ocean Reef, the service closed with the transfer of the Blessed Eucharist to the tomb, with adoration of the Eucharist until midnight.In some parishes, Saturday morning saw the European tradition of the blessing of the Easter food, a

custom that seems to be growing in Perth. The high point of the Easter celebrations is always the Easter Vigil, with the lighting of the Easter fire, and the spreading of light from the Paschal candle to the congregation in darkened churches. For those parishes with

the RCIA program, the baptism and reception into the Church of new adult Catholics is always a joyful reminder that the faith we love is welcomed by those who hear it explained, and a joy to the parish to know that it is contributing to the Church’s permanent duty to ‘preach the Gospel to the whole world’.

Sunday morning Masses were, as always, celebrated in joy, with parishes such as Ocean Reef having good crowds at 8am, 10am, children’s Mass at 11.30am and a final Mass for travellers and workers at 6pm.

In between all these celebrations, priests spent many hours in confessionals, even in parishes which had organised Reconciliation evenings with between 10 and 20 priests in attendance in the week before.

In Perth, churches such as the Melkite Catholic Church in Highgate, which serves mainly Catholics of Middle-Eastern ori-

record?.

priests after the Chrism Mass there was the opportunity for conviviality and he was always very relaxed,” he said. “Then there was the experience of the prayerfulness and the uplifting music and solidarity.”

Pope John Paul II personalised the Chrism Mass even more by writing a letter personally to the priests, which was “a most reflective and uplifting moment, as you realised that you shared the same priesthood of Christ that is shared by the Pope, by one’s own bishop, and shared in solidarity with the other priests of the presbyterate,”

Mgr O’Loughlin said. Pope Benedict has not continued this tradition, but “that’s not to say that he does not keep his priests in mind and share with them, it’s just one of those aspects of John Paul II’s papacy that was unique”, Mgr O’Loughlin

gin, and the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Maylands added their own unique colour and culture to the celebrations of Easter. Ukrainian Catholics, who follow the Julian calendar, conducted their own celebrations one week later.

For most people, Easter is the pre-eminent reminder of the meaning of the faith and its universal nature – both in time, going back to the original promise of the Messiah, and in place, with the awareness that the same celebrations are going on around the world and amongst every race of people.

In this year of St Paul, Easter reminds us of his statement, “the Church is the body of Christ, the fullness of him who himself is the completion of all things”, and for those facing persecution and ridicule, a reminder of Christ’s own words to Saul, “why do you persecute me?”. Their suffering is not wasted.

RATZINGER’S FAITH

By Tracey Rowland

When Dr Tracey Rowland of the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne speaks or writes something, people take notice. Her astute and forensic analyses of contemporary ideas and culture mean that she is not only one of the leading women theologians of the Twenty First Century but a leading theologian, period. When Oxford University Press, possibly the most prestigious publishing house of intellectual and cultural works in the world, needed someone intellectually equipped to chart the influences which make up the life and pontificate of Pope Benedict XV, they turned to Dr Rowland. Her study of the faith and theology of Josef Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has been widely received as a masterly study of one of the greatest thinkers on religion and the divine of our age. This book has proved popular with readers of The Record and has sold out on each occasion it has been in stock. The good news is that copies are back in stock. This book will require serious attention - but will turn out to be well worth the effort. As you follow each chapter your own understanding of the phenomenon of Benedict XVI and of the timeless faith of the Church will be enriched deeply. Available from The Record - RRP $39.95

added. “I can still remember the first of those letters, he actually paraphrased St Augustine, who, reflecting on his priesthood to the people of Hippo in North Africa, ‘with you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop’. He paraphrasd it to ‘with you I am a priest and for you I am a Pope. It was very reaffirming,” Mgr O’Loughlin said, adding that the temporary closure of the cathedral to complete its construction has proved a blessing.

“It’s been one of the happy sides of the closing of the cathedral, as we’ve had this opportunity for the ‘Chrism caravan’ where the Archbishop and his priests have gone on a journey to the larger suburban parish churches, and I’m sure it’s brought a richness to each of those parish churches as they welcome the Archbishop and priests of the diocese.”

momentous work,

Jesus of Nazareth

Author: Pope Benedict XVI

(Joseph Ratzinger)

Read by: Nicholas Bell

Priests who gathered from throughout the Archdiocese of Perth for the annual Chrism Mass, held during Holy Week, reach out their right arm to concelebrate the Consecration of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. The Chrism Mass, one of the biggest events of the Archdiocese, is most edifying for priests, says Perth’s Vicar General Mgr Brian O’Loughlin.

PHOTO: FRANCIS CONSTANTINO, ST CHARLES SEMINARY STUDENT

Youth carry banners during Easter celebrations of the Ukrainian Catholic community in Maylands.

Attadale l St Joseph Pignatelli

Every year it’s the same story at Bateman Parish during Easter, as is the case in many parishes. At Bateman, people arrive sometimes up to an hour before the start of the service, and still struggle to find a seat.

This year finding a prime position inside St Thomas More Church was even more difficult as record numbers filled the pews and streamed outside, even into the car park. God is still so important and relevant in our lives as indicated by the 14,000 people who attended Bateman over the Easter Triduum. In the lead-up to Easter, parishioners were encouraged to not only take up good habits during Lent but to continue these throughout the year. From partaking in the sacraments more frequently and gratefully, to establishing better relationships with loved ones, to lending a helping hand in the community, Bateman Parish provided various ways to help

us remain steadfast in our various resolves and prepare us well for Easter.

One such program was the youth Lenten program.

This was a first of its kind in our Parish, and over the course of six weeks many young people attended and came away with food for thought.

As Fr Michael so powerfully delivered in his Good Friday sermon, it’s not easy to attend Mass every Sunday, it’s not easy to be obedient, it’s not easy to be faithful, it’s not easy to honour our bodies but with God all things are possible, and yes we all have our crosses that we bear but God gives us hope and strength to overcome these.

The Parish’s RCIA program offers instruction and mentorship for those wishing to come into full communion with the Church. This culminates on Saturday’s Easter Vigil.

This year we received 21 people into our community and 12 of these were baptised. Christ’s resurrection is central to our faith and as we move on in the year.

The priests’ inspirational Easter messages encourage us to draw on the power of the resurrection that helps us to overcome our difficulties and to continue to follow Christ fervently.

With the support and prayers of the Bateman community that is “A house of welcome to all and a place of service to all,” being a committed Catholic throughout the year is indeed possible.

Bentley l Santa Clara

Above, teenage parishioners act out the Stations of the Cross; left, Fr Sean Fernandez says the blessing before lighting of the Paschal Candle outside St Joseph Pignatelli Church in Attadale.

Bateman l St Thomas More

Fr Elver Delicano, the second assistant priest at St Thomas More Parish, walks into the church during the Good Friday service.

Monsignor Michael Keating baptises Tomoyo Channer at the Saturday Vigil Mass.

Bayswater l St Columba

Father Minh-Thuy, parish priest of St Columba’s Bayswater, washes the feet of parishioners selected to represent the many groups that operate within the parish. A large group of parishioners from St Columba’s Catholic and St Augustine’s Anglican parish came together for Stations of the Cross around the streets of Bayswater. Bottom left, Fr Minh Thuy lights the Paschal Candle on Easter Saturday; children collect a holy picture and easter egg.

Eight adults and four children just baptised and confirmed stand with their candles lit during the Easter Saturday Vigil Mass and join the well-attended parish community in renewing the Baptismal Promises.

Carnarvon l St Mary Star of the Sea

Palm Sunday Celebrations in Carnarvon.

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The Year 5 children led the procession into the church singing joyfully. It was a wonderful Mass.

The students led the Prayer Of The Faithful. We all gathered after Mass for shared morning tea. Easter Paraliturgy

The students, staff and parents here St Mary’s in Carnarvon reflected on the Easter Story. The reflection was led by the Year 6 students who read to us from scripture and then performed an aweinspiring liturgical movement.

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

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

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

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

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

Armadale l St Francis Xavier

■ By Helen Lesniak

The

had been lit and the candles slowly spread one flame to the next, and the congregation entered the clean and beautiful church. Among the people were three young adults waiting to complete their RCIA journey and ready to become new Catholics. Their time to become Catholic was now. The Lenten journey progressed well, and during

Parish children process during the Palm Sunday celebrations; bottom, students witha pony for the Palm Sunday procession.

Parishioners are blessed during an Easter Mass, with the fire lit outside the church to light the Paschal Candle.

City Beach l Holy Spirit

Parish priest Fr Don Kettle gives communion to the children and parishioners during Palm Sunday at Holy Spirit Church in City Beach.

BLESSED WEEKEND: Parish priest Fr Don Kettle blesses the children and parishioners during Palm Sunday at Holy Spirit Church in City Beach (bottom left).

Geraldton l St Francis Xavier

How St Francis Xavier Parish in Geraldton celebrated Easter 2009.

Easter celebrations in The St Francis Xavier Cathedral started on a beautiful balmy evening Holy Thursday, with the washing of feet at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until midnight. This Easter saw a very welcome influx of new parishioners.

At the Vigil Mass three RCIA candidates were welcomed into the Church, one of whom was baptised.

Easter Sunday saw good crowds in attendance, with lots of eager children who were more than happy to get an easter egg at the end of Mass.

Following the 9.30 Mass that day, Father Geoff Aldous embraced the Easter spirit by baptising another 10 children, welcoming them into the Church.

Locals reported a great sense of contemplation and a feeling of closeness to Jesus.

Hilton l Our Lady of Mt Carmel

Fremantle l Disciples of Jesus

Play had over 50 participants, with several new members and many returning to serve again during the production. Of these participants, many were involved in acting, others played musical instruments, with all age groups being well represented. Parking around the Holy Spirit Parish was at a premium. The Passion Play is a response to the call to evangelisation and an opportunity to evangelise others. It is a witness of our life calling – to be His disciples.  The realis-

tic dramatisation of the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus shows us the depth of love that Jesus had for us when he went to the cross. Using the gifts we have each been given, through the re-enactment of the Passion Play, we are proclaiming the real message behind Easter, that Jesus has suffered and died out of love for you and for me.

Troy Zinetti having his feet washed by Bishop Justin Bianchini at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.Father Geoff Aldous baptises Brooklyn Cullen, one of 10 children baptised on Easter Sunday. Actors from the Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community re-enact Christ’s Passion and crucifixtion in Fremantle (right) and the Parish of City Beach (left).

Above, children have their feet washed by Fr Patrick Lim on Holy Thursday; below, a parishioner is confirmed and received into the Church (left). Fr Lim prepares for communion of Good Friday (below right).

We

Easter Vigil was very special too as we lit candles, renewed our Baptism vows and celebrated the Rising of Christ. Easter Sunday was attended by a lot of parishioners and they all received Easter eggs.

St Denis’ Parish priest, Father Michael Raj is a Servite from India and the Servites have some unique customs in their celebration of Easter.

Under the guidance of the Parish Worship Committee, many members of whom have been in the parish a long time the ceremonies for Holy Week and Easter involved many parishioners in “active and conscious participation”. Over 178 people were rostered for some duty.

The Desolata took place on Good Friday evening beginning at 7.30pm. This service reflects on Mary as she turns over in her own mind the events of the Passion and Death of her Son, Jesus. Each year’s presentation is different.

This year the Congregation entered into a dimly lit church and in the sanctuary could see a large Cross with a red cloth draped over one arm, lighted with a single spot light.

Below the Cross was a woman (Mary) seated in a chair whose gaze was fixed on the Cross.

Across from Mary was a woman who, in the form of an interview, asked Mary questions about what was going on in her mind and heart as her Son walked the Way of the Cross and was crucified. What might Mary have been thinking and feeling?

These reflections were interspersed with songs played by the Saturday Night Music

Ministry. There was nothing raucous here; only songs that made one reflect deeper on the Mystery. For example, Mary in thinking back to the time when Jesus was a child was asked in song, “Mary, did you know…the sleeping child you’re holding is the Great I Am?”

Mary, preserved from sin was not immune from Life and this Desolata Service highlighted for everyone that the sorrows of Mary are our Sorrows too and the God who sustained Mary in her pain sustains us, too. Each person who attended was given a reflection card to remind them that God stands firmly with us in our sorrows like He stood with Mary in her sorrows.

Another Servite custom picked up by the Worship Committee takes place near the end of the Easter Vigil Service. The congregation is reminded that for the last three days we have been remembering the Way of the Cross of Jesus.

The figure of Jesus’ Mother is never far away. The celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus is also a celebration of Mary’s perseverance and her love of God.

Each year one family from the parish is invited to “crown the statue of Mary” while an appropriate Marian hymn is sung. This year the Kilcullen family, Niall, Luana, Marlon, Jesse and Elliott crowned Mary with a crown the family had made at home. The triumph of Jesus is the triumph of His Mother.

Fr Peter Bianchini baptises Chiara Margaret Ines Del Marco at Sacred Heart Church, Highgate during the Easter Vigil with the newly blessed water as her parents, Andrew and Jenny Del Marco, and her brother and Godfather look on.

Goomalling Easter Vigil, blessing of the fire outside Sacred Heart Church in Goomalling.

Dowerin Easter Sunday, parishioners and visitors in St Therese Church with Fr Miguel Zavarese.

Wyalkatchem Easter Sunday Parishioners and visitors in Our Lady Help of Christians Church with Fr Miguel Zavarese.

Narrator Susan Lawrence and Nicola Frew as Mary mourning for the death of her son. Bottom, the coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the Easter Vigil Mass.

Joondanna l St Denis

the palms outside

Mass.

the feet

children of the parish.

Midland l St Brigid

Goldfields l St Mary; All Hallows

Easter Week was a big one in the Goldfields this year, with the three local priests marshalling the faithful.

■ By Harry Argus

Frs Joseph Rathnaraj, Andrew Albis and Joseph Kum Htoi, who are stationed in the Parish of KalgoorlieBoulder, were very busy during the whole length of Holy Week.

Many parishioners who were involved in the Liturgies of Holy Week were also busy, including, sacristans, helpers, acolytes, servers, readers and the church choir.

A very good number of parishioners attended the traditional Palm Sunday Masses in the Parish, which included, Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Coolgardie and Kambalda.

At 11am, on Palm Sunday at St Mary’s Church in Kalgoorlie, one baby and seven children were baptised by Fr Joseph Rathnaraj.

These older children were students from the Parish’s State Schools, and had completed the “Catechetical After Schools’ Program,” conducted by the Missionary Sisters of Charity.

Many family members of the children were present at the moving celebration.

At 7pm on Tuesday evening of Holy Week, the three parish priests gathered with 60 parishioners at St Mary’s Parish Centre for a Passover Meal.

This popular meal is held in the parish each year, and gives the faithful a deeper meaning of the sacrifices conducted in the Old Testament, which prefigures the death of Christ for the ransom of the sins of the world, and the institution of the Eucharist and Mass.

At 9.30am on Wednesday of Holy Week at All Hallows Church in Boulder all the students from St Joseph’s Primary School in Boulder attended a special Baptism, Conformation and Eucharist which was celebrated by Fr Joseph Rathnaraj. Shannon Anthony who is a teacher in St Joseph’s School, was bap-

of Christ was shown to about 30 adults who attended the gathering that began at 8.30pm.

A large number of the faithful attended the Saturday Easter Vigil Mass which began at 7pm with Frs Rathnaraj and Joseph Kum Htoi concelebrating.

Lockridge l Good Shepherd

The parish’s traditional Stations of the Cross were performed with much reverence by the Youth of the Good Shepherd parish Lockridge under the direction of Lydia and Keith Highfield on Good Friday.

This year parishioners were honoured by the presence and participation of Archbishop Barry Hickey, who kindly blessed the youth prior to the start of the Stations of the Cross and was visibly moved by the whole experience.

About 800 people attended this

extraordinary event and to cater for the extra people, a marquee and extra chairs had to be organised.

Two large TV screens were installed outside of the church to enable those who could not find a seat inside the church to watch that superb reanactment of Our Lord's Passion and death more easily from wherever they were. Those screens also proved very handy for the large record number of people that subsequently attended the Triduum Liturgies.

Our

tised with her son, Jacob, having completed the RCIA program during the year with eight other candidates. Their godparent was Sharon Pavlinovich. It was decided that Shannon should become a full member of the Church on this day with her son because she was going to be absent from the Goldfields on the Easter Weekend.

It was also part of a Religious Education program the students were learning on the Sacraments of the Church at St Joseph’s School. The students wanted to join in this special celebration and learn more about the Sacraments of the Church.

At 7pm on Wednesday evening of Holy Week, about 40 parishioners gathered at St Mary’s Church in Kalgoorlie, where the Second Rite of Reconciliation was celebrated by the three priests of the parish.

A large gathering of the faithful attended the Last Supper Eucharist at All Hallows Church in Boulder on Thursday of Holy Week at 7.00 pm. The very devotional Mass was celebrated by Fr. Andrew Albis; and during the Mass, Fr Andrew installed John Evans as a new Acolyte in the Parish. The beautiful “Altar of Repose” which was built in the Parish Centre of All Hallows Church by the Missionary Sisters of Charity, was the place where many of the faithful spent one hour in silent meditation and one hour in deep meaningful hymns that were

sung by those who were present. On the same evening, Fr. Joseph Rathnaraj travelled to Kambalda to celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper for the faithful in that town.

At 10am on Good Friday, more than 200 people from many Christian faiths gathered at St Barbara’s Square in central Kalgoorlie to begin the walk of the 14 Stations of the Cross to St Mary’s Church, a distance of three city blocks.

Little crosses were placed along the route to indicate where each Station was situated for the faithful.

The procession ended with a short reflection.

At 3pm on Good Friday the prayerful Solemn Veneration of the Cross was celebrated in St Mary’s Church in Kalgoorlie.

Frs Joseph Rathnaraj and Andrew Albis were the celebrants.

At this celebration, the church was full to capacity, and at the time when the faithful came to kiss the Cross, they were each given a small silver cross to take home with them as a memory of this special day of Easter.

Fr Joseph Kum Htoi travelled to Kambalda to celebrated the Veneration of the Cross at 3pm in that town.

On Good Friday evening at 6.30pm in St Mary’s Parish Centre, a special children’s prayer time and a children’s film was shown depicting the Easter story.

After the children had some supper and returned home, the film, The Passion

After the blessing of the Easter Water, four of the RCIA candidates - being, Malcolm Atherton, Kim Bowdidge, Georgina Conway and Melissa Plackettreceived the Sacrament of Baptism. Their godparents were Tatiana Atherton, David Bowdidge, Tarryn May and David Plackett, respectively. After the Sacrament of Baptism was conferred, Kay Gibbens, Julie Chiarenza, Bronwyn Lester and Leona Clegg who are the other four RCIA candidates, came forward to read their profession of faith and were then received into full Communion with the Church. After this, all eight candidates received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Fr Rathnaraj. Their sponsors for Confirmation were: Mary Genovese, Susie Hargreaves, David Chiarenza, Harry Argus, Mary Genovese and Carmen McBrearty, respectively. The continuation of the Easter Vigil Mass was beautifully celebrated with much singing, and all eight RCIA candidates then received the Body of Christ for the first time in Holy Communion during the Mass.

On Easter Sunday, Fr. Joseph Kum Htoi celebrated Mass at All Hallows Church in Boulder at 8.00 am with many of the faithful present. Fr Andrew then celebrated the 10am Mass in St Mary’s Church, Kalgoorlie to a church overflowing with parishioners, visitors and families. Fr Joseph had travelled to Coolgardie and Norseman to celebrate the two Easter Sunday Masses in their towns.

To complete a blessed Holy Week, at 3pm at St Mary’s Church in Kalgoorlie on Easter Sunday, the Sacrament of Matrimony was entered into by Debra Polling and Matthew Varvari. Fr Andrew blessed the couple in a beautiful and moving ceremony.

Whitford’s Our Lady of the Mission parish’s Stations of the Cross reenactment on Good Friday morning left over 1000 onlookers stunned, many in tears. Over 8500 attended services over the Easter Triduum, with parish priest Fr Joseph Tran, his assistant Fr Bosco Pudhota and priest-in-residence Fr Erasmus Norviewu-Mortty concelebrating all major Holy Week services from Palm Sunday onwards. These priests were joined by Edith Cowan University and Holy Spirit Chapel Joondalup chaplain Fr Kenneth Asaba and Fr Walter from Ireland. North Beach parishioner

Marilyn Mirabella, who attended the Good Friday Stations of the Cross after

hearing about it through her son, said she was still thinking about the emotional re-enactment a week later, it was so powerful.

Borrowing ideas from the way the Stations of the Cross were portrayed at World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Whitford’s Stations started with the Last Supper inside the church before moving outside where nine Stations were re-enacted, after which attendees were told to leave in silence.

Marilyn, a solo singer who has performed at many major events in the Archdiocese of Perth, says it was, to her mind, the most powerful event she’s attended.

She said the young actors “put their whole soul into it, and that was what was moving,” she said.

“They didn’t care whether anyone laughed, they did it out of sheer love and

devotion, in the real spirit of the Stations of the Cross. Many people were literally in tears.

“At the end, we all came back in the church after Jesus died on the cross, he was taken in on an ambulance stretcher, and they moved a whopping big tomb stone back and put him in there, and the actors stayed on the altar like statues, even up to 15 minutes after it was finished and most people had left.

“I was itching to tell someone how good it was.

That vision has stayed with me till today,” she said, adding that it helped her enter more deeply into the mysteries of Easter over the weekend.

“It helped me the rest of the weekend, drew me into the mystery. You couldn’t help but be moved, you can’t just think that was a bunch of kids acting out the

stations; I’m 54 and been going to Stations all these years and nothing moved me like that.”

The Passion of Our Lord at 3pm was attended by a further 1200 people, many watching the service on a closed circuit screen outside the packed church, with parishioners asked to wear red, the liturgical color of the day.

At the Easter Saturday Vigil Mass, the large backdrop to the altar of the crucifixion was replaced by one depicting the sunrise and the resurrected Christ, with the stone before the tomb rolled back during the singing of the Gloria.

Sixteen RCIA (Right of Christian Initiation of Adults) candidates were received into the Church, with three baptised and 16 receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation and their first Holy Communion.

Newly received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, from right, Malcolm John Atherton, Melissa June Plackett, Kay-Marie Gibbens, Bronwyn Lester and Julie Chiarenza (wearing black outfit).

Shannon Anthony getting baptised in All Hallows’ Church Boulder. Next to her on her left is Jacob Anthony, (girl Altar Server) Sarah Pavlinovich, Fr Joseph Rathnaraj and (boy Altar Server) Tien Nguyen.

l St Joseph

Whitford l Our Lady of the Mission

■ By Anthony Barich

Clockwise from top left: Children come forward for a blessing from the priest at Communion time at the 3pm service, The Stations of the Cross began in the church with the Last Supper, Jesus (Simon Liddell) on the cross, Mary holds Jesus portraying the Pieta.

Jesus (Simon Liddell) about to be nailed to the cross looks into the face of his mother Mary(Jane Pike). PHOTOS: PAULINE EGAN

Kelmscott l Good Shepherd

Easter celebrations at Good Shepherd Parish in Kelmscott this year were, in one sense, three-pronged.

Just as in other parishes across the country, parish celebrations of the kind most parishes would be used to experiencing were led by parish clergy (Fr Francis Sundararajan and Deacon Andrew Loton).

In addition, the parish’s Neocatechumenal communities celebrated the Easter mysteries, as did parishioners and visitors for Easter celebrations focused on the Latin Mass (see separate photos under ‘Latin Mass).

Fr Francis and Deacon Andrew were therefore kept extremely busy presiding at the usual parish cel-

ebrations and those of parish Neocatechumenal communiuties, but as a consequence Good Shepherd became a thriving centre for Easter celebrations.

A highpoint for the parish, as always, is the Easter Sunday morning Mass following which the children of the parish rush outside to participate in the smashing of a giant Easter egg. This year parish catechist Loreto Bennets and Laura Oorschot were almost overwhelmed by eager customers. But two days earlier a more sombre mood dominated as parishioners meditated upon the Passion of Christ and his crucifixion. Stations of the Cross had been prayed by many late

in the morning on Good Friday and in the afternoon a packed church saw almost everyone come forward after the reading of the Gospel account of the Passion to venerate the crucifix. The parish’s Neocatechumenal communities participated in both parish ceremonies and other events such as an allnight Easter vigil where all, from the very young to the very old stayed up all night to commemorate Christ’s victory over death.

One of the highlights this Easter was the baptism during the wee hours of Felicity Bernadette, aged two months, by full-immersion experience, which delighted family and friends.

Gold Towns l Leinster, Leonora, Laverton

■ By Father Robert Cross

My 2000-kilometre Easter Missionary Journey began on the Wednesday of Holy Week with the first leg of my journey taking me from Perth to Mt Magnet where I broke my journey to Leinster with an overnight stay in Mt Magnet.

Setting out next mornong, I first called into the Church at Sandstone.

While no longer a Catholic Church, the now interdenominational Church is still noticibly Catholic with the Stations of the Cross around the walls and the names of the donors inscribed on the plaques, including that of the Presentation Sisters who once taught at the Sandstone Catholic School, now long gone the way of the many Catholic schools of the this "Ghost Town" rich golden landscape.

Wedge-tail eagles feasting on the carcasses of "road kills" marked the journey further east to Leinster. Their mighty size and soaring splendour brought to mind the beauty of God's creation and the Holy Spirit so often symbolised in Christian iconography by a bird.

Arriving at Leinster after travelling 800km in the past two days, I met up with Sr Annette Dever SGS and she briefed me on the first of the Triduum celebrations, the Mass of the Last Supper which was to be celebrated in Leinster. A congregation of around 50 people, including the local Maiori choir (includuding a twelve or so year old male soloist who sang a Negro spiritual), celebrated Mass followed with the proces-

sion to the Altar of Repose led by the children of Leinster. Good Friday began with a journey of 260km to Laverton. On the way the Stations of the Cross were brought to mind by the grave of Bob Elltson (died 1906) on the side of the road as well as the crosses that mark the deaths of road accidents. Stopping at these, I spent a moment in prayer for them. Arriving at Laverton in the early afternoon, I set up the appropriately named Church of the Holy Redeemer for the the 3pm celebration of the Lord's Passion, joined by a group of about a dozen locals.

The folowing evening, the Easter fire was lit in a half 44 gallon drum and the light of the Paschal Candle led the congregation of around 20 people in the Church of the Holy Redeemer where Seth and Krystal were baptized into the Body of Christ.

Rising at 6.30am on Sunday, I began a 900km drive to Geraldton interupted by two Easter Masses, one in Leonora and one in Leinster.

Leonora is the the spirit country and birthplace of Archbishop Barry James Hickey and its Church of the Sacred Heart the Church in which he was baptised.

After celebrating Mass for a small congregation that included a 96-year-old woman and a firefighter from the United States, I travelled on a further 135km to celebrtate an Easter Mass in Leinster for a small congregation of about a dozen people.

At this Mass we farewelled a long-time local (11 years is a long time for somebody to live in Leinster), Sue Olson making a "Sea Change" and moving to Geraldton.

By now it was 2pm, and I began the last leg of my exhausting outback missionary Easter journey back to Geraldton, another six and half hour journey into the sun which finally set in the West as I neared Yalgoo.

Negotiating sheep, goats, kangaroos, emus and eagles, I finally arrived in Geraldton around 9pm Easter Sunday night.

As I sit in the Bishop's House Office in Geraldton writing this article, I am reminded of true missionary character of the Geraldton Diocese, not only by my own jorney but also as I hear two priests reporting to the Financial Manager of the Diocese their Easter vehicular encounters with kangaroos.

No doubt Catholic Church Insurances will come to the rescue of the cars - I am sorry to say the kangaroos are beyond help...

While I prided myself on getting through the journey I am mindful of the heroic priests of the Geraldton Diocese for whom this trip is a monthly event.

Yes, it is arduous, but if taken in faith, God reveals His creative and redemptive power in the beauty and majesty of this sunburnt landscape, its animals and its people of faith. Finally, perhaps this Easter journey might inspire some young men who are contemplating the priesthood to look beyond the horizons and relative ease of city parishes and contemplate a ministry of service to the people in Western Australia's three country dioceses, Geraldton, Broome and Bunbury.

God knows how much they are needed and how welcome they would be.

One boy attending the Parish’s Easter vigil service on Saturday evening was happy to lend a light to an older parishioner as his brothers and family members looked on. After blessing the paschal candle and lighting

known

PHOTOS: PETER ROSENGREN.

A young parishioner venerates the crucifix held by Fr Francis Sundararajan, Parish Priest of Kelmscott, during the Good Friday comemmoration of Christ’s Passion and crucifixion. The simple ceremony, in which worshippers come forward to kiss the crucifix is charged with meaning and is a profound statement of belief signifying love for Christ’s sacrifice - and sorrow for one’s own sins.

Members of the parish’s two Neocatechumenal communities sing in celebration after the baptism of Felicity Bernadette, the newest member of the Parish. Meanwhile Parish Catechist Loreto Bennets, red hair, below, and Laura Oorschot meet demand for chocolate from the biggest, coolest, Easter egg ever seen by some junior parishioners following the Easter Sunday Mass.

Riverton l Queen of Apostles

Pictures of those baptised are Mr Darran Bozanich, Sean Foy, Rachael Blake Markham, Shane Markham, Rosanne Robertson, Manoshia Raj, Veronica Wilson and Jasmine Wilson. And the celebrants are Frs Paul, Jude, John Flynn, John Luemmen and Ray Hevern.

Mass of the Last Supper in the Leinster Church of St Francis of Assissi.

Easter Sunday Mass in Leonora (the Church in which Archbishop Hickey was baptised).

Bluff Point l St Lawrence the Martyrs

Albany l Holy Family, St Joseph

Procession of all ages carries cross through town.

On Holy Thursday the church at Albany was packed for the Mass of the Last Supper. With Mass ended, the lights extinguished and in the gloom of candlelight the door of the tabernacle hung open, empty, reminding us of the darkness without the Light. On Good Friday a crowd of all ages including a very encouraging percentage of

youth and their families gathered for the Stations of the Cross, to re-enact and remember our Saviour’s journey to Calvary. Parish priest Fathers Rogasian Msami CSS and Concord Bagaoisan led the procession. Groups of youth took turns to carry a large cross from St Joseph’s church in the heart of town through the streets to the first station at the attractive public gardens 200 metres from the church. From there they made their way to and through the old cemetery; a remind-

er that life on earth is short and of the three last things, what so many

Dongara l Star of the Sea

later Easter eggs and children’s delighted faces remind us of new life and hope.

Latin Mass Usage l Kelmscott, Trinity College and St John’s Pro Cathedral

Above, Fr Brian Ahearn poses with local parishioners while fundraising at the Easter Markets in Dongara on Holy Saturday. With 60 stalls in all, it was a big event for the local Historical Society.

Bottom, a baptism during the main Mass of Byron James Chapman on the Sunday morning at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Dongara, part of the diocese of Geraldton.

Top,

Sproxton

Bottom, The cross is carried into the church of St Jude Lynwood/ Langford on Good Friday.

Left:

Rockingham l Our Lady of Lourdes

Clarkson l St Andrew

International flavour to Easter at Clarkson.

There was an increase in worshippers in this year’s Easter celebration at St Andrew’s Catholic Church at Clarkson. At our Mass of the Last Supper, twelve parishioners from eleven different countries had their feet washed.

The Good Friday Stations of the Cross and Celebration of the Lord’s Passion were well attended. At the Easter Vigil there were 4 adult baptisms and three child baptisms and two other adults were received into full communion into the Church. On Easter Sunday another baby was baptised. This year we had our first Easter dawn Mass, remembering that the tomb was found empty just before dawn (John’s Gospel). Forty parishioners attended the dawn Mass. The Mass was followed with breakfast and we waited for the rising of the Sun.

Clockwise from top left: Fr Michael Separovich hands out easter eggs after Mass; St John of

Sacraments; Nicole Moore, Sharee Hart, Bradley Turnbull, (Sacrament of Initiation) Sarah Hughes, Geremy Sharpe, Garry Hart, Frank Turnbull (received into full Communion) and sponsors; Fr Separovich washes the feet of parishioners on Holy Thursday as Christ did for His apostles; the Palm Sunday procession. PHOTOS: LEANNE JOYCE

Archbishop Barry Hickey washes the feet of men representing the 12 Apostles on Holy Thursday as Jesus did according to Scripture. PHOTOS: ANTHONY BARICH

Clockwise from top left: Baptised during the Easter celebrations are Hudson O’Brien, Vicky Murphy, Ethan Wheeler with his father Mark Wheeler and Paula Hodgins (godmother); and finally, Zoe Wheeler.

12 EASTER 2009

Willetton l Ss John and Paul

Willetton enjoys bigger numbers over the Easter Triduum.

Lent was celebrated at Sts John and Paul Catholic Church, Willetton with increased attendance at all the events and whole-hearted participation in the liturgy. The high point of the Easter Triduum was the Easter Vigil Service when three members of the Elect were baptised and another four were received into full communion with the Church.

All seven adults then received the Sacrament of Confirmation and Eucharist. The design of the Baptismal Font added special significance to the event. As the Elect stepped in the Baptismal Font from one side; and as water was poured over heads, it signified the Elect being baptised into the death of Christ in the tomb.

The Elect then came out of the other side of the Baptismal Font, signifying the new life or the resurrection received through the grace of Baptism. As the Elect emerged from the water, the choir and congregation sang the hymn:

Up from the waters, God has claimed you,

Up from the waters, child of light.

Praise to the One who called and named you Up from the waters into life.

Ukrainian Catholic Church l St John the Baptist

Easter Celebrations in the Ukrainian Church.

Easter is a very important time of the year in the Ukrainian Catholic or Orthodox Church calendar.

It’s a time of sadness as Jesus was crucified for our salvation and a time of great joy when we celebrate His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Holy week begins with Palm Sunday where Pussy Willow is blessed after Liturgy and everyone takes a branch or two to their homes. People traditionally ‘hit’ each other with the palm saying, “it is the palm that is hitting you, not me – in a week it will be Easter”, basically wishing everyone the best for Easter, like a blessing. Usually a Palm Sunday fete is held so people can buy Paskas (bread-like cake), Pysanky (decorated chicken eggs ) or other foods for Easter. The next event is Holy Thursday (Matins of the Passion of Christ) where the Twelve Gospels are read out. Each time a Gospel is read, two men and two women hold candles during the reading. Good Friday (service of Vespers with Christ’s burial cloth and Veneration and Matins) is also a very important day with Jesus being crucified and buried in the Tomb. If Easter falls on a different day than Roman Catholic Churches, then the service on Good Friday is held at 6pm as many of the congregation are at work. If Easter coincides, then the service is held at 3pm. Easter is worked out by the first full moon after the March equinox (March 21) after Passover, and sometimes can be five weeks apart. A Tomb is set up in the church with flowers decorating it. A purple cloth is placed on the Tomb where the Shroud (Plastanytsia) will be laid. The Shroud is taken around the church 3 times carried by 4 men with the whole congregation walking behind singing prayers. Then all enter the church again and the Shroud is placed on the Tomb. After the

service, all come to kiss the Shroud to show their love for Jesus who died for us on the Cross to save us. Youth group members stand guard at the Tomb.

Easter Saturday (Solemn celebration of Christ’s Resurrection Matins, the priest takes the Shroud and places it on the Altar and the congregation again walk around the church three times but this time the doors are closed. While everyone is walking outside, the inside of the church is transformed back to its original state. The Tomb is taken away and the Tetrapod (table in the aisle) is put back. This is all in preparation for the Resurrection. Meanwhile the Resurrection song of “Christ is Risen” – Hrystos Voskres is sung many times outside the church. The priest then knocks three times on the church doors which are opened and everyone walks in singing ‘Hrystos Voskres.’ After the service the priest blesses the Easter baskets that have been brought. Some churches bless the

baskets only on Saturday night while others still have them blessed on Saturday as well as on Sunday after Easter Liturgy.

A paska bread is also placed on the Terapod (table in the aisle at the front of the church) called ARTOS which represents Jesus. This is blessed on Saturday evening after the transformation of Resurrection and stays in the church all week. The following Sunday (St Thomas Sunday) the Artos is cut up into bite size pieces and the congregation all take a piece to eat. This is to say they consume Jesus and accept his teachings. Easter Sunday is a great celebration with many wearing their embroidered blouses or shirts. The choir sings the Liturgy and usually the church is so full of people that many have to stand outside. Baskets are placed outside around the church and after Holy Liturgy the priest walks around and blesses them. Girls carry the church banners, and someone carries the Cross. A few singers follow singing

“Christ is Risen” as the procession follows the priest blessing the baskets. The baskets usually contain foods like the paska (cake like sweet bread), eggs coloured with one colour for decoration which will be eaten later, pysanky (chickens eggs painted with various designs signifying Easter) that are given as presents as souvenirs to friends and family wishing them the best of health and happiness. Also in the baskets are butter, white cheese, horseradish, salt, beetroot and sausage. These are all symbolic foods and so are used to be blessed.

After the blessing, everyone greets each other with Hrystos Voskres and then go home to eat the special meal with family and friends.

Traditionally the 6 weeks prior to Easter (Great Lent) we should be fasting – no meat or dairy products, but today many don’t adhere to this and simply refrain from eating meat on Fridays.

Clockwise from top left: Parishioners hold candles at the start of the Easter Vigil; Kate receives the documentation of

Clockwise from top left: A little girl holds up an embroidered towel which covers the basket to keep the food clean; Fr Wolodymyr Kalinecki blessing the baskets with help from altar server Daniel Lozyk; girls carry banners; Prayers at the Tomb on Good Friday; children look at the delicious food in a basket as part of the celebrations; Diana Teplyj and her father Joseph brought their basket to be blessed.

PHOTOS: BOHDAN WARCHOMIJ, PETER VALEGA

www.therecord.com.au

God is no enemy of happiness: Friar

Sin keeps people from happiness, says papal preacher.

■ By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -

Sin - not God - is the main cause for people’s unhappiness, said the preacher of the papal household.

In his April 10 homily during the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St Peter’s Basilica, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said that sin and the refusal of God trap people in lies and injustice, condemn them to vanity and corruption, and are “the final cause also of the social evils that afflict humanity.”

He noted the advertising campaigns in several European cities and Canada where public buses were plastered with signs saying:

“There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life!”

What is striking, he said, is not only the claim that God might not exist but its implication that God is an enemy of happiness.

St Paul taught that sin is “the principal cause of man’s unhappiness, the refusal of God, not God himself,” said the priest.

Drug use, an unchaste sexual life and violence may bring on an immediate sense of pleasure, but in the long run they “lead to moral dissolution and often even the physical ruin of the person,” he said. With Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, pleasure no longer ends in suffering but leads to life and joy, he said.

Father Cantalamessa said experts and policymakers have been analysing what triggered today’s global economic crisis but few have dared to “put the ax to the roots and speak about sin.”

St. Paul defines “insatiable avarice as idolatry and he points to the root of all evil in the unbridled desire for money,” said Father Cantalamessa.

Why else would so many families today be homeless and so many workers be jobless “if not because of some people’s insatiable thirst for profit?” he asked.

“Why would so many recently constructed buildings collapse” during the April 6 earthquake in L’Aquila? he asked. What other than greed lay behind the decision to use more

sand than cement in the buildings, he said.

“The elite members of the financial and economic world turned into a runaway train that steamed ahead without brakes, without stopping to think about the rest of the train that had come to a standstill on the tracks. We were headed in the completely wrong direction,” he said.

EASTER IN ROME 2009 13

Benedict links Hindu scriptures, Indian poet to the Cross

Pope’s Way of the Cross adopts an Asian viewpoint.

■

By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS)

- This year’s meditation for Pope Benedict XVI’s Good Friday Way of the Cross has a distinctly Asian perspective, referring to Hindu scriptures, an Indian poet and Mahatma Gandhi.

against the opponent, so that they are led into forms of greater injustice,” the archbishop wrote. Instead, he said, Jesus consistently confronts violence with serenity and strength, and seeks to prompt a change of heart through nonviolent persuasion - a teaching Gandhi brought into public life in India with “amazing success.”

He said suffering is a mystery for everyone, “but without faith in God it becomes immensely more absurd. Atheism is a luxury that only those with privileged lives can afford,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI presided over the Good Friday liturgy held in St Peter’s Basilica. He began the rite by kneeling in front of the altar in silent prayer. During the sermon he removed his shoes and walked to the altar to kneel before and venerate the cross. In his homily the papal preacher said, “Christ did not come to increase human suffering or preach resignation to suffering; he came to give meaning to suffering and to announce its end and defeat.”

Pope: it is urgent that we rediscover grounds for hope

continued from page 1 -pensable “precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Pope Benedict read his message and gave his solemn blessing after celebrating Easter morning Mass in St Peter’s Square, which Vatican Radio said was attended by about 100,000 people.

A sea of flowering trees and shrubs, and other colourful blooms, donated by companies in the Netherlands, decorated the steps and central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

The Pope, who turned 82 on April 16, tripped without further incident when he climbed the dais where the papal throne sat in the central balcony.

He offered Easter greetings in 63 languages and gave special encouragement to those struck by the April 6 earthquake and string of aftershocks in Italy’s L’Aquila province.

During the April 11 Easter Vigil, Pope Benedict baptised and confirmed one woman and two men from Italy, a woman from China and Heidi Sierras, a 29-year-old mother of four from St Joseph Church in Modesto, California.

The Pope used a small golden shell to pour the holy water over each catechumen’s head.

The newly baptised, wearing laced white shawls, had a brief personal exchange with the Pope when they brought the offertory gifts to the altar.

During the evening ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict asked that the fragile flame and delicate light of God’s word and his love, which God has lit in every Christian, may not be snuffed out “amid the confusions of this age ... but will become ever stronger and brighter, so that we, with him, can be the people of the day, bright stars lighting up our time.”

The next morning, after celebrating the Easter Mass, Pope Benedict urged Christians to spread the hope the world so desperately needs.

“At a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and deprivation which force many to

leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever present threat of terrorism (and) of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope,” he said in his Easter message. Christ’s resurrection “is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but is a singular and unrepeatable event” that brings light to the dark regions of the world, he said. The “sense of emptiness, which tends to intoxicate humanity, has been overcome by the light and the hope that emanate from the Resurrection,” he said. But while the resurrected Christ vanquished death, “there still remain very many, in fact, too many signs of its former dominion,” said the Pope. Christ wants today’s men and

women to help him “affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love” and spread the kind of hope that inspires courage to do good even when it costs dearly, he said. The earthquake in central Italy was never far from the Pope’s mind during Holy Week and Easter services. At the end of the candlelit Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum on April 10, Pope Benedict again asked for prayers for those affected by the earthquake.

“Let us pray that in this dark night, the star of hope - the light of the risen Lord - will appear also to them,” he said. The meditations for the rite were written by Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati and focussed on the

way Jesus confronted violence and adversity with serenity and strength, and sought to prompt a change of heart through nonviolent persuasion.

Under an awning on a hill overlooking the Colosseum, the Pope knelt through the entire service while women and men from Italy and India, as well as two Franciscan friars from the Holy Land, were among those who carried the black wooden cross.

After the 14th station, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal vicar for Rome, handed the cross to the Pope who stood and held it aloft.

“We have relived the tragic event of a man unique in the history of all times, who changed the world not by killing others but by letting himself be killed as he hung from a cross,” Pope Benedict said at the end of the ceremony.

Pope Benedict left the Vatican Easter afternoon for the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

After reciting the Regina Coeli prayer with hundreds of visitors gathered in the courtyard of the villa on April 13, the Pope said Christians rejoice because “the resurrection of the Lord assures us that, despite all the dark moments in history, the divine plan of salvation certainly will be fulfilled”.

“This is why Easter really is our hope,” Pope Benedict said.

“We who have risen with Christ through baptism must now follow him faithfully with holiness of life, walking toward the eternal Easter, sustained by the awareness that the difficulties, struggles, trials and sufferings of our existence - including death - can no longer separate us from him and his love,” the Pope said.

But the linchpin of this Eastern reflection is the passion of Jesus Christ.

In that sense, it reflects Pope Benedict’s view of Christianity’s relationship with the non-Christian world - that the Gospel enlightens and fulfills the beliefs of other faiths.

Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati wrote the meditation on the 14 stations, to be read as the Pope leads the candelit “Via Crucis” at Rome’s Colosseum.

The Pope chose Archbishop Menamparampil, a 72-yearold Salesian, after hearing him deliver an impressive talk at last year’s Synod of Bishops on Scripture. The archbishop took it as a sign of the Pope’s interest in Asia.

“His Holiness regards very highly the identity of Asia, the cradle of civilisation. Moreover, our Holy Father has a prophetic vision for Asia, a continent very much cherished by him and his pontificate,” he said.

The immediate assumption among many Vatican observers was that the choice of an Indian would serve to highlight religious freedom issues in the wake of anti-Christian violence in parts of India. Archbishop Menamparampil has taken a leading role in conflict resolution among warring ethnic groups in northeast India, and his Good Friday meditation reflects his conviction that violence is never the way to resolve problems.

But he doesn’t explicitly mention anti-Christian discrimination. His aim here is not to list Christianity’s grievances, but to present its hopes and its answers to universal questions.

The archbishop is chairman of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences’ Commission for Evangelisation, and has spoken many times about the receptivity of Asians to the Gospel.

He has argued that the Church’s presentation of the Christian message tends to be intellectual and doctrinal, but that it works best in Asia when it is more personal, experiential and poetic.

He follows that approach in his “Via Crucis” meditation, focusing on the way Jesus deals with violence and adversity, and finding parallels in Asian culture.

Condemned to death before the Sanhedrin, for example, Jesus’ reaction to this injustice is not to “rouse the collective anger of people

He cited another Christian success story in India, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, when reflecting on how Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry his cross. Simon was like millions of Christians from humble backgrounds with a deep attachment to Christ - “no glamour, no sophistication, but profound faith,” in whom we discover “the sacredness of the ordinary and the greatness of what looks small,” the archbishop said.

It was Jesus’ plan to lift up the lowly and sustain society’s poor and rejected, and Blessed Mother Teresa made that her vocation, he said.

“Give me eyes that notice the needs of the poor and a heart that reaches out in love. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service,” he said, borrowing a line from the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Archbishop Menamparampil echoed one of Pope Benedict’s favourite themes when he spoke about Jesus being mocked before his crucifixion. Today, he said, Jesus is humiliated in new ways: when the faith is trivialised, when the sense of the sacred erodes and when religious sentiment is considered one of the “unwelcome leftovers of antiquity.”

The archbishop said the challenge today is to remain attentive to God’s “quiet presences” found in tabernacles and shrines, the laughter of children, the tiniest living cell and the distant galaxies. His text reflected the idea that Jesus’ own life embodies Indian values, including an awareness of the sacred through contemplation.

“Allow us not to drift into the desert of godlessness. Enable us to perceive you in the gentle breeze, see you in street corners, love you in the unborn child,” he wrote.

Archbishop Menamparampil seemed equally comfortable drawing from the Western and Eastern Christian traditions.

He illustrated the “mystic journey” of personal faith set in motion by Christ’s death on the cross with a verse from a psalm and an eighthcentury Irish hymn. He ended with a meditation on Jesus’ entombment, borrowing insights from the Eastern spiritual distinction between reality and illusion.

“Tragedies make us ponder. A tsunami tells us that life is serious. Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain pilgrim places. When death strikes near, another world draws close. We then shed our illusions and have a grasp of the deeper reality,” he said.

Crowd surrounds the Colosseum in Rome for the Good Friday Way of the Cross led by Pope Benedict XVI on April 10.

PHOTO: CNS/MAX R OSSI, REUTERS

in brief

Franciscans gather at Assisi

ASSISI, Italy (CNS) - Brown-, gray- and black-hooded robes rustled, knotted white cords swung rhythmically, and sandaled feet crunched gravel. The soft sounds of labored breathing could also be heard as several hundred Franciscan friars from all over the world wound their way up steep hills, passing wheat fields and olive groves while on a two-hour penitential procession to the tomb of their founder, St. Francis of Assisi. The processing friars were just some of the 1,800 Friars Minor, Conventual Franciscans, Capuchins and Third Order Regular Franciscans attending an April 15-18 gathering celebrating the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule. It was the first time that many representatives of the four main Franciscan branches had come together in Assisi. Participants followed in the footsteps of their founder with many activities centered around or near the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, which houses the Portiuncula chapel - the small church where St. Francis experienced his conversion.

Police take China bishop

HONG KONG (CNS) - Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, 74, was taken from his residence in Hebei province on March 30, the day the Vatican’s Commission for the Catholic Church in China began its meeting in Rome. Chinese church sources told the Asian church news agency UCA News that five police officers took Bishop Jia, who has not registered with the government, from Christ the King Cathedral in Wuqiu, a village near the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang. The Vatican commission was holding its second plenary meeting from March 30-April 1 in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI established it in 2007 to study issues related to the Catholic Church in China. A Catholic source said provincial government officials in the Shijiazhuang area “wanted to meet Bishop Jia, and the prelate would be away for a few days.”

Several sources said they believe the action is related to a recent move toward reconciliation between the diocese’s two Catholic communities: those registered with the government and those not registered.

Beaten priest identified with Jesus

FENGXIANG, China (CNS) - A Chinese priest who was injured in a church property dispute with the local government said that narrating the part of Jesus during a Palm Sunday Mass helped him to connect his suffering to Jesus’ suffering. The Asian church news agency UCA News reported that Father Francis Gao Jianli, 37, the parish priest of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the Fengxiang Diocese, is back in his rectory after being beaten in the mayor’s office on March 16 and later hospitalized. The cathedral is in Fengxiang County, in the western part of Shaanxi province. The Palm Sunday Mass on April 5 began with the Way of the Cross, followed by a procession in the cathedral compound, reported UCA News. Each of the 500 Massgoers held cypress branches and sang hymns during the procession to commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, UCA News said. During the Gospel, Father Gao read the part of Jesus while other priests and seminarians read the parts of the other protagonists during Christ’s passion.

Vatican deplores Belgian vote on Pope and condoms

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Vatican has deplored a Belgian parliamentary resolution that criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about condoms and AIDS prevention. In an April 17 statement, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State said it “deplores the fact that a parliamentary assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticize the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context and used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate.” The statement said it appeared that those groups were hoping “to dissuade the Pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the church’s doctrine.” The Belgian parliament voted overwhelmingly on April 2 to have the government relay to the Vatican the parliamentarians’ disapproval of Pope Benedict’s statement on March 17 that distributing condoms was not the key to preventing AIDS. The Belgian ambassador to the Holy See, Frank de Coninck, met on April 15 at the Vatican with Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states, to formally inform the Vatican of the resolution.

Vatican orders investigation of Legionaries of Christ

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Vatican has ordered an apostolic visitation of the institutions of the Legionaries of Christ following disclosures of sexual impropriety by the order’s late founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado. The announcement of the unusual investigation was posted on the Web site of the Legionaries of Christ on March 31, along with the text of a letter informing the Legionaries of the Pope’s decision. The letter, written by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the Pope wanted to help the Legionaries deal with their present problems with “truth and transparency.” It said the visitation would be carried out by “a team of prelates.” Apostolic visitation is a form of internal church investigation ordered by a Pope and undertaken by his delegate or delegates. The Pope sets the jurisdiction and powers of the visitation, which usually ends with the submission of a report to the Holy See. In February, Legionaries of Christ officials in Rome disclosed that Father Maciel had fathered a child. Sources in Rome said the order was also looking into accusations of financial irregularities by Father Maciel.

Cardinal sinks his own money into mini-bank for poor

Naples cardinal launches microcredit institution

■ By Cindy Wooden

ROME (CNS) - Saying he wanted to give Easter hope to those “crucified on the cross of selfishness,” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples announced he was setting up a microcredit lending institution and donating a year’s stipend and part of his savings to start it.

At a press conference April 8, Cardinal Sepe announced he was using about $65,000 of his own money to establish a “bank of the poor” and

he asked the faithful of the archdiocese to give what they could. The cardinal also asked the deans of each area of the archdiocese to work with pastors to conduct a census of those in their neighborhood in need of food, clothing and help paying rent and utility bills. Diocesan and parish soup kitchens and food and clothing banks would be strengthened according to need, he said.

Explaining the initiative in a pastoral letter for Holy Week, the cardinal said that, with the global economic crisis and the high unemployment rates in Naples, Christians find it difficult to imagine “the joy of the Resurrection because we have in front of us a crowd of hungry people who, like sheep without a shepherd, are asking for bread.” Just in Campania, the region that includes Naples, he said, 200,000 jobs have been lost because of the economic crisis; “200,000 families from our marvelous and martyred land are asking for bread and that number is added to the already large

number of people living in situations of extreme poverty,” the cardinal wrote. “I hear their cry. I listen to them every day during parish meetings or as I read the letters they write, and I ask myself if one can remain insensitive to so much pain and suffering.

“Could a father plug his ears or tell them to go somewhere else for food? Can a bishop, a witness of Christ, be indifferent to so many who ask for help and compassion?” he said.

“As pastor of my beloved flock, I will take the first step toward an ethics of solidarity, giving part of my personal savings and a year’s stipend

to open the ‘bank of the poor’ fund,” he said.

Cardinal Sepe said the new project would be named after Cardinal Sisto Riario Sforza, archbishop of Naples in 1845-1877, a member of an important and wealthy Italian family, who opened the archbishop’s residence to people left homeless after an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1860s and who gave away his personal fortune to help the poor of the archdiocese in the 1870s.

The fund, Cardinal Sepe said, would give priority to young people struggling to find a job and to those who recently have lost their jobs.

“Far from being a handout,

microcredit will help the creativity and ingenuity of our people emerge,” he wrote in his pastoral letter.

“Giving microcredit to someone who cannot offer a guarantee other than the promise to pay the money back interest-free with small payments over time means having the courage to believe in men and women and to trust in the possibility of multiplying loaves and fishes,” like Jesus did, he said. The archdiocese said the regulations for determining eligibility to receive funds and instructions for applying for the loans would be published after a period of fundraising.

Vatican orders doctrinal assessment of US women religious leadership group

Belief in uniqueness of Jesus as saviour, ordination of women to priesthood related to investigation

■ By Nancy Frazier O’Brien

WASHINGTON (CNS)The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ordered a “doctrinal assessment” of the “activities and initiatives” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Maryland-based association whose members represent about 95 per cent of the 67,000 women religious in the United States.

Sister Annmarie Sanders, a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who is LCWR director of communications, confirmed the investigation in a brief statement released to Catholic News Service on April 15. “At this time, LCWR knows neither the process nor timeline for completion of this assessment,” the statement said. “As more information is made available to LCWR, the conference will take the appropriate steps for its participation in the assessment.”

Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, a member of

the US bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, is to conduct the assessment at the direction of Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the doctrinal congregation.

“Bishop Blair acknowledges that he has been asked by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to conduct the doctrinal assessment, and at this time has nothing further to add,” a spokeswoman for him said on April 16. The assessment by Bishop Blair is separate from an

apostolic visitation of US institutes of women religious that will look into the quality of life in the communities and why their membership has decreased during the past 40 years. That study, announced in January and ordered by the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, is led by Mother Mary Clare Millea, superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart

of Jesus, an international religious institute that has its headquarters in Rome.

The LCWR statement said the doctrinal assessment was announced by Cardinal Levada in a February 20 letter, which the conference received on March 10. Officers of the LCWR informed members about the investigation in an April 2 letter.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told CNS

April 16 he could confirm the congregation asked Bishop Blair “to undertake in the coming months a study regarding doctrinal problems that have presented themselves in the area of female religious life in the United States.”

Top officials at the doctrinal congregation at the Vatican were not in Rome and unavailable for comment.

Although neither the cardinal’s letter nor the LCWR letter has been made public, National Catholic Reporter an independent national Catholic newspaper based in Kansas., said it had obtained a copy of LCWR’s letter to its members.

NCR reported that Cardinal Levada described the assessment as a follow-up to a 2001 meeting between LCWR leaders and officials of the doctrinal congregation, at which the women religious were asked to report on “the initiatives taken or planned” to promote acceptance of Vatican teachings on “the problem of homosexuality,” the ordination of women to the priesthood and the 2000 declaration “Dominus Iesus.” “Given both the tenor and the doctrinal content of various addresses given at the annual assemblies of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the intervening years, this dicastery can only conclude that the problems which

had motivated its request in 2001 continue to be present,” Cardinal Levada wrote, according to NCR. The Church teaches that all homosexual acts are morally wrong but affirms the dignity of those with homosexual inclinations and says that having such an inclination is not in itself sinful.

In the 1994 apostolic letter

“Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,” Pope John Paul II reaffirmed church teaching that the church “has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”

“Dominus Iesus,” the doctrinal congregation’s 2000 declaration on the “unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the church,” says other Christian churches and communities “suffer from defects” and non-Christians also “are in a gravely deficient situation.” In its statement, LCWR said the organisation “faces this process with confidence, believing that the conference has remained faithful to its mission of service to leaders in congregations of women religious as they seek to further the mission of Christ in today’s world.” Sister Annmarie said LCWR officials would meet with Cardinal Levada on April 22 at the Vatican as part of their regular annual consultation with Vatican offices. The meeting had been scheduled before the assessment was announced.

How the apprentice came to experience Devil’s reality

Fascinating tale of a priest who, before he began training as an exorcist, was sceptical about the phenomenon of demonic evil.

The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, by Matt Baglio. Doubleday (New York, 2009).

■ Reviewed by Nancy Roberts

In modern life, the concept of evil personified in Satan and his minions may seem a superstitious anachronism. After all, we now have a sophisticated grasp of the neurological and psychological causes of epilepsy, schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder and the like - all conditions whose treatment, in earlier times, often consisted of casting out the devils within. Yet the church maintains that demons are not just metaphorical, but can, if rarely, actually inhabit the physical bodies of human beings, and to this day practices a rite of exorcism to dispel them. And while it may take months or even years of exorcisms to “liberate” a person from a demonic presence, the church’s solemn ritual of exorcism can be a formidable weapon against such evil.

These are key ideas in Matt Baglio’s book, “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist.” In it he recounts the experiences of Father Gary Thomas, a likable California pastor, who answered his bishop’s call to take a course in Rome about demonic possession and took part in more than 80 exorcisms along with veteran Italian exorcists. Baglio, a reporter who has written for The Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune and lives in Rome, met Father Thomas there in the fall of 2005. The two developed a warm friendship that led to the priest’s full cooperation with the reporter as he progressed through his apprenticeship as an exorcist. The article Baglio had originally planned to write grew into a book that delves not only into eyewitness accounts of Father Thomas’ journey as he learned to cast out demons, but also the history of exorcism’s rites and rituals, portraits of those said to be possessed by demons, and a discussion of the role of angels, devils, satanic cults and curses.

Many people think that exorcists see demons everywhere, but as Baglio writes in a fascinating chapter, the opposite is much more likely.

The church’s guidelines urge prudence and

emphasize the importance of “discernment of spirits,” which is considered to be a gift of the Holy Spirit.

The church further “gives three signs that indicate the possible presence of a demon: abnormal strength,

the ability to speak or understand a previously unknown language, and the knowledge of hidden things,”

Baglio continues.

Because many mental illnesses could be mistakenly interpreted as evidence of possession, it is typical, Baglio reports, “that an exorcist will have a team of individuals (a psychiatrist, psychologist and perhaps a neurologist) that he trusts to help him with discernment.”

Baglio has good storytelling instincts and avoids sensationalizing his topic. Still, his description of dramatic changes in a possessed person’s vocal intonation during one of Father Thomas’ “apprentice” exorcisms is chilling: “As Father Carmine continued with the prayers, a low guttural growl began to emanate from Sister Janica.

Father Gary studied her, trying to determine its source. ... It sounded like the noise a dog makes when it’s getting ready to bite someone. From his reading he did know that it was possible for a demon to attack an exorcist during the ritual. ... He had no idea what he would do if something violent like that occurred.”

Father Thomas is shown here in all of his initial skepticism that eventually gave way to a deeper understanding of the nature of evil. Indeed, his experiences led him to

a profound change in his approach to his calling, because they “expos(ed) him to a level of human suffering that he never knew existed.” At the same time, he emerged with a great sense of hope, because he found that the exorcism ritual truly worked: “Even though evil existed in the world, there was a way to defeat it.” In the end, “The Rite” won’t quell all skepticism about this subject; consider that physicians still use a specialized term, “demonomania,” to describe a mental illness in which the patient has a delusion of being possessed by evil spirits. But overall the book illuminates one of the world’s most long-standing and mysterious phenomena. Interestingly, writing the book occasioned a profound change in the author, who credits the experience with turning him from being a “cultural” Catholic back to a practising one. In many ways, Baglio writes, this is what exorcists themselves aim to accomplish: to help the demon-possessed return to the sacraments and so, by strengthening the practice of their faith, empower them to resist evil. Roberts is a professor of journalism and communication at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and the author of “Dorothy Day and the

This is the cover of “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” by Matt Baglio. The book is reviewed by Nancy Roberts, a Professor of Journalism. ILLUSTRATION: CNS

Cardinal Sepe of Naples. CNS

Nuns clad in white punctuate a sea of spectators anxious for Pope Benedict XVI to arrive for 2008, Mass in New York. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has announced a doctrinal assessment of the US Leadership Conference of Women Religious. PHOTO: CNS

Pope Benedict XVI holds an audience with Franciscan friars and members of Franciscan lay groups at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on April 18. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, REUTERS

US Notre Dame crisis escalates as priests oppose invite

Reaction continues to spread through the US at Catholic university’s decision to honour most pro-abortion public official in the country.

■ By Catholic News Service

NOTRE DAME, Indiana

(CNS) - A group of 10

Holy Cross priests said the decision to invite President Barack Obama as the University of Notre Dame’s commencement speaker “portends a distancing of Notre Dame from the Church which is its lifeblood and the source of its identity and real strength.”

“Such a distancing puts at risk the true soul of Notre Dame,” said the priests, who are graduates of Notre Dame and members of the order that founded the university.

The priests’ signed letter to the editor was published in the April 8 issue of Notre Dame’s student newspaper, The Observer

They said they wished to join and support the “courageous students and treasured alumni” who similarly opposed the university’s “sad and regrettable decision” to host Obama as the school’s May 17 commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient.

Critics of Obama say his support of legal abortion and embryonic stem-cell research make him an inappropriate choice to be commencement speaker at a Catholic university.

The group of priests echoed the US bishops’ 2004 document, Catholics in Political Life. The document says: “Catholic institutions should not honour those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honours, or platforms which would

suggest support for their actions.”

In an early April letter to Notre Dame’s board of trustees, not released by the university but published on April 8 by LifeSiteNews. com, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, university president, said the invitation to Obama, announced on March 20, was in keeping with the “letter and the spirit” of the bishops’ document. He said university officials understood the document to be specifically referring to Catholic politicians, a view he said has been supported by canon lawyers and what other university presidents have been told by their bishops. As far as the university giving honours, awards or platforms “which would suggest support” for speakers that do not support church teachings, Father Jenkins wrote that he always has been clear to express his disagreement with the president “on issues surrounding the protection of life, such as abortion and embryonic stem-cell research.”

“If we repeatedly and clearly state that we do not support the president on these issues, we cannot be understood to ‘suggest support,’” he wrote.

“However misguided some might consider our actions, it is in the spirit of providing a basis for dialogue that we invited President Obama,” he added. In their letter to The Observer, the Holy Cross priests said they regretted the “fissure” that the invitation caused between the university and some US bishops, including the local bishop, Bishop John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who said he will not attend the graduation in protest.

The priests said that even though their public stance puts them at odds with Father Jenkins, they could not remain silent on the issue.

“Notre Dame’s decision has caused moral confusion and given many reason to believe that the university’s

stance against the terrible evil of abortion is weak and easily trumped by other considerations,” they said, urging Father Jenkins to “revisit this matter immediately.”

“Failure to do so,” they said, “will damage the integrity of

the institution and detract from all the good work that occurs at Notre Dame and from the impressive labours of its many faithful students and professors.”

The issue of the campus newspaper that included the priests’ letter also included a

column by Cecilia Prinster, president of the Notre Dame Alumni Association, stressing that some of Obama’s policies are in line with Catholic social teaching.

She said she did not speak for the alumni association or its board of directors, but

after talking to several people and reflecting on the issue, she said, she was convinced that “although we disagree with Mr Obama on some core issues, we must not condemn.”

website plans to offer a Mass of reparation in response to the University of Notre Dame’s decision to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree.

She urged the university community to respectfully welcome the president, saying it would “do well to heed” the words of the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

“Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them,” she wrote, quoting the document.

“With this approach,” she said, “this commencement will be the beginning of a constructive engagement with the president on the issues where we are aligned as well as on those where we disagree.”

● Among the remarkable responses from individual US bishops is Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando who announced on his diocesan

Cardinal George issues clarification, but still suggests protest

■ By Catholic News Service

CHICAGO (CNS)Although the University of Notre Dame is not controlled by the US Catholic hierarchy, “in Catholicism, no person or institution is totally independent,” Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said.

“Any institution that calls itself Catholic needs to anticipate in some fashion the impact their decisions make on others who are part

of the Church,” the cardinal said in a statement posted in mid-April on the Web site of his archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic New World The statement was issued to clarify earlier remarks by Cardinal George, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The cardinal said the invitation “has embarrassed some of those who were also invited to be part of the commencement ceremonies,” including Bishop John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend who has

State’s decision to end death penalty marked at Rome’s Colosseum

■ By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -

For making what he described as “the most difficult decision in my political life,” Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico was given a front-row seat at a papal audience and was to see Rome’s Colosseum lit up in honour of his State.

Greeting Pope Benedict XVI on April 15, Richardson asked him to bless the silver olive branch given to him by the Community of Sant’Egidio in recognition of his decision on March 18 to sign a bill abolishing the death penalty in New Mexico.

Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe said he introduced the governor to Pope Benedict, saying, “Holy Father, this is our governor and he just repealed the death penalty”, adding, “and the Pope nodded very happily in agreement.”

The Rome-based lay Community of Sant’Egidio, which is active in a worldwide campaign to eliminate capital executions, hosted the governor’s visit and arranged the April 15 Colosseum lighting with the city of Rome. Richardson, a Democrat and a Catholic, had been a supporter of the death penalty; he also supports legalised abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, which the Church opposes.

Archbishop Sheehan told Catholic News Service, “We were able to help him understand our opposition to the death penalty and he did indeed change his view and signed the law. One thing at a time.” “It is the result of our dialogue and prayer, and that of many others, that enabled him to see and to change his position,” the Archbishop said.

“There are better ways to protect citizens from bad guys than killing them.”

The Archbishop pointed out, however, that it was not the Vatican or the Catholic Church that was honouring Richardson, but the Catholic lay Community of Sant’Egidio. At a press conference hosted by the community, Richardson said he was influenced by several people: state Rep. Gail Chasey, who had been fighting to eliminate the death penalty in New Mexico for more than a decade; the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty; and “the archbishop and the Catholic Church, because they are very, very influential in a Catholic state like New Mexico.” After supporting the death penalty for years, Richardson said: “This is what changed - one, I didn’t want America

to continue being isolated,” being one of the very few democracies still using capital punishment.

Second, he said, he visited a prison before making the decision and decided that life in prison, staying in a small cell 23 hours a day, “was worse than death.”

Also, the governor said, he was moved by the fact that some 130 people sentenced to death in the United States had been freed in the past 10 years when it was discovered they were wrongly convicted.

The fact that most people on death row are members of minority groups - “AfricanAmerican or Hispanic like me,” he said - made him question the fairness of the system.

And, in addition, he said, with all the necessary legal processes involved in ensuring fairness and justice before an execution, capital

punishment is costlier than life imprisonment. “Plus, my archbishop, a man who I deeply respect, was very active on this issue,” he said.

Archbishop Sheehan was asked at the press conference about the decision of some bishops to refuse to give Communion to Catholic politicians, like Richardson, who do not uphold certain church teachings, particularly on the sacredness of every human life.

“I do not want to bring holy Communion into a situation that makes it look like a penalty. I do not think it is good to take the sacrament of holy Communion and make it a weapon in a context that is political,” he said. The archbishop said the Vatican has “not been approaching politicians who have a different view in that way, nor do I think we should do it in the United States.”

said he will not attend. “The reason for the strong reaction lies in the growing dismay among many, after years of discussion and organising, over their inability to stop the killing each day of about 4000 unborn babies,”

Cardinal George said in the statement.

“The indications now that the present administration intends to solidify the right to abortion as a permanent civil rights law, without possible qualification of any sort, add to that dismay and increase frustration,”

he added. “Abortion is a society-dividing issue.” The statement said Cardinal George has not urged Notre Dame to “disinvite” the president.

“The president’s views are well known as are his reasons for them; he is not himself the issue here.”

Cardinal George said “those who were upset about the invitation should let their opinions be known to the university, not to him or other bishops, since the bishops do not control or manage the university.”

“As Catholics we are aware of the many shortcomings and transgressions committed against the dignity and sacredness of human life in our world,” according to a diocesan notice.

“That is why it is inconceivable that Notre Dame University, a Catholic institution of higher learning, should receive and honour anyone who promotes policies that are contradictory to who we are as a people of faith.

“As our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI stated in his visit to the US last year in reference to Catholic university presidents, “to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission.”

“Come and pray with Bishop Wenski for all of our transgressions against the Gospel of Life,” the notice read. Bishop Wenski recently stepped down as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.

A new organisation of University of Notre Dame alumni is seeking the removal of Father John Jenkins CSC as the university’s president. ReplaceJenkins.com urges alumni “to withhold all funding to the University of Notre Dame until Father John Jenkins is replaced as President of the University with someone who will uphold fundamental Catholic moral principles and steer Notre Dame to its proper place of prominence as a Catholic university faithful to the complete teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.”

Another organisation of concerned alumni, Project Sycamore, also opposes Father Jenkins’s decision to

award President Obama an honorary degree. Project Sycamore was founded in 2006 and seeks to foster the university’s Catholic identity. Meanwhile, the bishop whose diocese includes the University of Notre Dame has said that he might take part in student-led demonstrations protesting the commencement speech there by President Obama. Bishop John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, who had earlier warned against “unseemly and unhelpful demonstrations,” reportedly expressed his support for the campus group NDResponse, and said that he would welcome “prayerful and dignified demonstrations” and might participate in them if his schedule allowed it.

Numerous US bishops have condemned the honouring of President Obama. Saying that “conditions for constructive dialogue simply do not exist,” University of Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins, rejected a request to discuss the university’s decision.

Father Jenkins withdrew an offer to meet with 25 students after the Notre Dame Response Student Coalition requested that the dialogue be open to all members of the coalition, the Catholic World News website reported. The coalition had also asked Father Jenkins to take specific steps to uphold an institutional commitment to the sanctity of human life:

“We request that you take concrete steps to demonstrate that the University of Notre Dame is “firm and unwavering” in its commitment to defending human life in its most vulnerable stages,” the students said in a letter to Fr Jenkins.

“We ask that you promise now and going forward to use the moral authority of your office and the prestige of Our Lady’s University to speak out on behalf of the cause of life in a meaningful, concrete and sustained way.”

Renowned priest-physicist Jaki dies at 84

■ By Catholic News Service

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J.

(CNS) - Benedictine Father Stanley Jaki, the Hungarianborn author, physicist, philosopher and theologian, died on April 7 in Madrid, Spain, following a heart attack. He was 84 years old. Father Jaki, who taught at Seton Hall University in South Orange, specialised in the history and philosophy of science. He earned doctorates in theology and physics.

He was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1987. He was cited for delineating “the importance of differences as well as similarities between science and religion, adding significant, balanced enlightenment to the field.” The author of more than 40 books, Father Jaki had travelled to Spain from Rome, where he had lectured on his latest book at the Renaissance-era “casina,” or garden house, of Pope Pius IV, the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Father Jaki had been an honorary member of the pontifical academy since 1990. Fr Jaki joined the

Benedictines as a novice in 1942, professed his solemn vows in 1944 and was ordained a priest in 1948. He joined the faculty of Seton Hall University in 1965, attaining the rank of distinguished university professor in 1975.

Father Jaki was a Gifford lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, 1974-76, joining the ranks of such prestigious past Gifford lecturers as Hannah Arendt, John Dewey and Albert Schweitzer. He taught widely throughout the United States and Europe, including posts at Yale and Harvard universities in the US, Oxford University in England, the Sorbonne in France and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Fr Jaki was deeply committed to the conjunction between faith and reason, arguing that the flourishing of science in Europe was intrinsically related to the Christian understanding of creation and the Incarnation.

“Although the world was God’s creation and, as such, to be profoundly respected, the world itself possessed no intrinsic divinity,” said Fr Thomas G Guarino, professor of theology at Seton Hall, in a statement following the Benedictine’s death.

“Father Jaki’s work elucidated the notion that in understanding the very laws of the physical universe, science naturally opened out toward the affirmation of faith,” he said.

During a 1992 lecture tour of Australia, Father Jaki said that discoveries in the field of nuclear physics and astronomy have given insights into what happened after the instant of creation - but what preceded that instant, when matter was

created from nothing, can never be known from scientific studies.

“It is a principle of science that a scientific proposition must be verified by quantitative analysis,” Fr Jaki said.

“When Stephen Hawking asserts that the origins of the universe prove that God does not exist, that proposition cannot be proved scientifically.”

“Just because you are a scientist does not mean that every statement you make is correct,” he added. “What can science say about the Creation? The answer is

nothing. Scientists cannot observe nothing.” Fr Jaki wrote widely on the history of science and religious questions, including a number of volumes on John Henry Newman. His books included The Relevance of Physics, Science and Creation, Chesterton: A Seer of Science, God and the Cosmologists and The Purpose of It All His final book was Lectures in the Vatican Gardens Survivors include two brothers, both also Benedictine priests: Fathers Zeno and Theodose Jaki, both of whom reside at St Martin’s Archabbey in Pannonhalma.

reated from the Jarrah of St Mary’s Cathedral laid down in 1865, this exquisite, unique range of gifts is the result of master craftsmanship, with every piece handmade. The wood used in the construction of these beautiful objects is at least 144 years old. Available from and on display at The Record Bookshop. Phone Caroline on (08) 9227 7080 or email: bookshop@therecord. com.au Cathedral Crucifix 15

People line up to place carnations at the foot of a statue of Mary in the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at the US University of Notre Dame on April 5. Hundreds of anti-abortion advocates protested on the campus against the school’s decision to honour President Barack Obama. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/JON HENDRICKS

Father Stanley Jaki. PHOTO: CNS

Bill Richardson, the Governor of the US State of New Mexico, greets Pope Benedict XVI during the Pope’s weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 15. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS

16 EASTER 2009

Mary Ward spirit thrives 400 years on

After 400 years, Mary Ward and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary she founded, better known as the Loreto Sisters, are still vitally relevant today.

Bridget Chamberlain reports

AS part of a range of activities celebrating the life and teachings of Mary Ward, John XXIII College, along with six Loreto schools from across Australia, have participated in a student exchange.

As part of the Mary Ward Connect program on the week that commenced on March 9, John XXIII College hosted 36 Year 10 girls for a week and in turn sent 36 students (boys and girls) and six teachers to the six other Loreto secondary girls colleges Loreto Coorparoo in Brisbane, Normanhurst and Kirribilli in Sydney, Marryatville in Adelaide, Toorak in Melbourne and Ballarat, Victoria.

The Loreto and John XXIII College students undertook a week-long program of activities, including a visit to Loreto Nedlands, where they attended a special assembly and took a guided tour conducted by Year 6 students. During the week they also celebrated Harmony Day with an immersion visit to Majella Primary School, Balga.

Sister Marg Finlay, former Provincial of the Loreto Order in WA, said the celebrations are honouring Mary Ward’s visions, values, spirituality and prophetic response in a 21st century context.

“Her message for the contemporary Church was a call for the recognition of what women can do,” said Sister Marg.

Former student Shelia Pye spoke to the Loreto girls on March 11 at a function and shared her memories of her Loreto school days – from the nuns making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday to picnics with the nuns to celebrate the end of school.

“Being educated at Loreto was a great blessing,” Mrs Pye said. “We really felt the nuns loved us and they worked hard and intelligently to teach us.”

Mrs Pye has been connected with Loreto in Perth since 1940, when she began her schooling in Adelaide Terrace. “They were peaceful, simple times,” she said.

As part of the connection theme, a backpack is also making its way across Australia to visit all current Loreto communities.

Based on the concept of an Aboriginal message stick, it’s a form of communication that will be passed between different groups all sharing a common history. Participants are invited to write in a journal and depict on a piece of silk, how the spirit of Mary Ward manifests itself in their community today.

After the backpack completes its Australian journey, it will travel to Rome from October 4-9 for the 400-year celebration of Loreto Sisters from all over the world.

There they will undertake a two or three-week guided pilgrimage to significant Mary Ward sites.

Values relevant then and now

Mary Ward, with her trust in God, her forgiveness of her enemies, her courage, determination and cheerful heart in the face of all troubles, is a model for all time. Loreto students are inspired by her independence of spirit, her strength of mind, her tenacity and her courage in breaking new ground. All those touched by Loreto teachings are encouraged to adopt the following values in all aspects of their lives: Freedom – an inner freedom, accepting of self, open to others and trusting of life.

Justice – involves personal integrity based on harmonious relationship with God, with others and with the whole of creation. It is expressed in works of justice, in active participation in the struggle to bring about harmony.

Sincerity – Mary Ward’s ideal was that ‘we should be as we appear and appear as we are’. Verity – To do what we have to do well as we strive for integrity and truth.

Felicity – An attitude of mind, a disposition of the heart which manifests itself in cheerfulness, good humour, joy, happiness, hope, optimism, friendliness, courtesy, positive thinking, inner peace, self-acceptance and courage.

Challenge – To build a strong sense of Christian community within today’s society and to address the challenges within a rapidly changing culture and society.

Who was Mary Ward?

On a visit to England in 1609, Mary Ward received a “Glory Vision” which spelt out what God wanted of her. She had dreamt of a women’s order like the Jesuits, to work in the community and particularly in the education of girls. Upon returning to France, she set up schools and communities because she believed education led to freedom. Her institute was suppressed and she was accused of being a heretic and imprisoned in 1631. Mary Ward, the dangerous innovator, fought on and the charges were eventually dropped. Her Institute finally received approval of the Church in 1877 but she was not acknowledged as its founder until 1909. After returning to England, she died in 1645 but surviving her is a network of schools in every continent and thousands of students learning under the umbrella of the Loreto Sisters.

Having been in Perth since 1897, the Loreto Sisters first opened a school in Adelaide Terrace, which later moved to Claremont in 1901, and another in Nedlands in 1930, which still operates today. In 1977, the Claremont school was amalgamated with the Jesuit school, St Louis in Claremont to become John XXIII College.

The Loreto Sisters were also active at Sacred Heart Thornlie, St Francis Xavier Armadale and then in Good Shepherd Kelmscott and Orana School Willetton. Currently in Perth there are 11 Loreto sisters who are part of the 130-strong community in Australia.

Transforming Hearts

On the week commencing March 9, forty-two students from seven Loreto schools across Australia, including John XXIII College in Mount Claremont spent the day at Majella Catholic Primary School in Balga, learning about the diverse backgrounds of the students and the outstanding work being done by the school in providing enriching learning experiences for the entire community.

Nearly half of the students at Majella are refugees from a range of African countries, primarily Sudan, who have come to Perth in recent years under Australia’s Humanitarian Program. The visit of the Loreto delegation coincided with the school’s celebration of Harmony Week, with its theme of ‘belonging together’.

Majella students shared elements of their diverse cultures and heritages with their visitors, including cooking a traditional Sudanese dish and painting each others faces to celebrate those cultures that paint their bodies for special occasions or as a mark of belonging.

The students joined together to play a variety of popular games from a range of countries.

Knuckle bones, elastics, skipping and bocce were big hits.

“Today is about everybody in the world being happy,” said preprimary student Kon, while Year 7 student Betress spoke about the benefits of being able to share her cultural heritage with the visitors.

“We are all proud of our roots and it’s fun to show other people and learn about them.”

Caitlin McCarthy, a Year 10 student participating in the Mary Ward Connect program from John XXIII College, was moved and inspired by the day.

“It’s just incredible how different this is to my school.

I’ve never come out to this area of Perth, or to a school like this with such diversity. It’s been an amazing experience just being here and meeting the kids and talking to the staff about life here,” she said.

Majella Principal Maureen Burke, herself a graduate of Loreto College in Claremont –now John XXIII College, also spoke at length to the Loreto contingent on March 12 to celebrate Harmoney Day with Loreto Connect students about some of the challenges faced by the school during the influx of refugee students following the humanitarian crises in Sudan in 2004.

“We had to try and learn how to deal with these kids. Intially we didn’t know what to do. We had children in distress about lining up because it brought back memories of the refugee camps where if they weren’t at the front

of the queue, they missed out on food,” she said.

“We were dealing with ten year olds who had the responsibility of handling the family’s finances, negotiating with landlords and acting as translators. We had children turning up at schools at 6.30am because they had no concept of time. “Some even had no formal schooling with limited or no English so we gave them the opportunity to attend a six-month Intensive Language Course at an Intensive Language Centre.

“We knew that we had to do something different, that we had to develop a different range of language, education and family health services for these students.”

The challenge for staff at Majella was being able to recognise the impact the refugee experience had on their students and respond with appropriate and targeted programs to assist with their learning and settlement in Australia. Firstly, the teachers themselves undertook professional development in refugee issues, English as a Second Language, literacy and numeracy strategies for children who have had little or no schooling and holistic education progams aimed at families and communities.

With input from a range of community organisations including the Association of Services to Torture and Trauma Surivors, the staff at Majella worked together to develop a range of innovative, culturally appropriate programs.

For example, they worked with Red Cross volunteers developing the Food Cents program to more than 20 parents. The program’s success led to a pilot program involving all Year 5, 6 and 7

■ By Robert Hiini

HOW do you feed twelve personnel and run a mission looking after poor children with limited intake of money?

That’s a question Fr Douglas Rowe SFP, ordained 41 years ago, has to ask himself every day and his definite and confident answer is “God’s providence.”

Like other charitable organisations, the religious order he established in 1999 after being a Jesuit priest for almost 30 years, is facing a downturn in donations as people tighten their belts in the wake of the financial downturn. Somehow, Fr Rowe says, their work goes on unabated but it’s not easy.

“We depend on the good will of people and people are good,” he says. “We don’t go hungry like the people in Zimbabwe or Darfur and we share with others but it is difficult.”

The mission his Patrist congregation established in the Phillipines now has a staff of three Patrist sisters and one novice, feeding 40 children every week and supporting them in their education. In addition they have also adopted two orphan girls. The order also has two seminarians studying at St Charles Seminary in Guildford, as a result of the generous gesture of Archbishop Barry Hickey. They have vocations coming from Nigeria, Kenya, Philippines and even Australia.

Fr Rowe first met the Archbishop while visiting relatives in WA, a month after Fr Barry Hickey was ordained bishop of Geraldton in June 1984. In 2005, Fr Rowe came to Perth at the Archbishop’s invitation to make Western Australia his permanent base.

students where they learned how to budget for a meal and also to cook healthy breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.

Maureen Burke spoke about the importance of schools in the challenging resettlement process.

“Often schools represent the most dependable and constant community that many of these families have,” she said. “We’ve built up very good links and we’re able to help integrate families with other services too.

“When I look back over the last few years and see how far these children have come, I know we must be doing something right.”

The Loreto visitors were struck by the way in which the work being done at Majella is a true embodiment of the message and spirit of their schools’ founder.

The overarching vision of Mary Ward was to accompany, serve and defend the rights of the vulnerable, the marginalised and the forgotten. That vision is certainly alive and well in Catholic schools 400 years later.

The Congregation is now officially under Archbishop Hickey and Fr Rowe belongs to the Perth Archdiocese. He acted as Chaplain to All Saints Chapel in Perth’s CBD while awaiting visa approval for the order’s Religious sisters - a tiring process, he says, that took a long 15 months. His core work over the past three decades has been as a Spiritual director and

Retreat master having developed numerous spiritual formation programs that he continues to run in Perth as well as his Tuesday Night Bible study operating in St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Victoria Park for the past four years. He has given Retreats and spiritual experiences in Australia (Parramatta), America, Canada, Singapore, Kenya, Uganda, India, Korea, Hong Kong, Mauritius and the Philippines, as well as having taught at the Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation in Osborne Park last year. The year 2008 also brought a potentially fateful meeting with Kenyan Bishop Salesius Mugambi of the isolated Meru Diocese who had come to Perth for World Youth Day celebrations.

As a Jesuit missionary in Kenya for two years in the late 1970s, Fr Rowe felt moved to try to mission again to struggling people in the bishop’s diocese. The centre that the Patrist Sisters will occupy there is still incomplete with only its basic walls and roof in place. Fr Rowe needs to find another $20,000-30,000 to complete it and begin to look after the area’s destitute children. His mission in Perth is trying to impart a key message he says he only really understood nearly 12 years into his priesthood: that God is a Father who wants His children to have an intimate relationship with Him. Experiencing God as a personal Father and living as good sons / daughters is the core of their spirituality. “We want the whole world to know and love God our Father and have a deep intimate relationship with Him,” Fr Rowe says. His Awakenings retreat in the Patrists’ Midland house is on April 26 - a six-hour introduction to the Spirituality of Jesus, and says he would love to do more for Perth. “We want to bring this Spirituality to the ordinary person everywhere; to show them the beauty of our Catholic Faith.” For more information about Patrist retreats or to support their work ring 9250 5395 or visit www.thepatristsociety.org

Hiini

■ By Robert

LOVERS of beautiful churches can rest easy after the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Highgate was awarded a Lotterywest grant of $26,300 last month to fix crumbling stained glass windows in its chapel. The Chapel of St Therese of Lisieux, built in 1922 and believed to be the first to be dedicated to the saint in Australia, was built by the previous owners and occupiers of the site, the Sisters of Our Lady of the Mission, when the complex functioned as a convent. The Catholic Pastoral Centre, a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation, houses 14 Catholic organisations operating in the Archdiocese of Perth as well as hiring its function rooms out to the wider Catholic community. Several Church offices also use it. Centre Manager Julie Williams told The Record that, on behalf of Archbishop Barry Hickey and the centre’s board, she is most thankful to Lotterywest for the grant.“This grant for the

Clockwise from top: The mosaic montage of Mary Ward created by the Mary Ward Connect participants at John XXIII College; John XXIII student Caitlin McCarthy with students from Majella Catholic Primary School, Balga during Harmony Week activities; Loreto students from around Australia visited Majella Catholic Primary School, Balga during Harmony Week activities; Majella Catholic Primary School students (L-R) Makieth Deng, Carla Biggs and Adut

Charismatic preacher to fire up Perth faithful

As charismatic preacher Fr John Rea returns to Perth, the local faithful are looking forward to being fired up about Christ again and witnessing inner healing.

THE effectiveness of Fr John Rea’s healing ministry is recognised by the sizeable crowds he attracts in many countries. Hosted by Disciples of Jesus Community, he will be ministering in Perth over three weeks, from April 18.

The New Zealand Marist Priest was in Perth in February 2008, and an article in this newspaper included testimonies of healings that occurred during his ministry.

In one instance, Fr Rea prayed for a young father of five who was about to have an operation to remove a tumour from his shoulder, that the tumour would be gone in 24 hours.

To the surgeon’s surprise, when he operated two days later, the cancer had disappeared. The patient has had no recurrence of the problem.

TV programs Sixty Minutes and A Current Affair have both interviewed Fr John over the years, detailing a number of amazing healings, including a woman whose cancer disappeared, a child violinist whose crushed hand was cured, a teenager whose paralysis and loss of speech was reversed, and a couple whose infertility was broken.

Fr Rea always emphasises that he is not the one responsible for the healings.

He says “I just pray with people for healing - the rest is up to the Lord. It is He who gets the glory.”

In the Scriptures there are many examples of healings that came from the prayers of Jesus’ followers.

“People crowded to Jesus, and then his disciples in the Book of Acts, because they wanted to be healed,” he said.

“The same thing happens today.”

Fr Rea, has been praying with people for healing since 1974.

He says the one constant in cases where people had been healed was that someone must have faith whether it was the faith of the person being healed; the faith of a parent, loved one or friend, or the one praying for healing.

“All I do is pray - sometimes people get better, sometimes they don’t,” he says. He has no set formula for his prayers. “They are always short and simple and spontaneous,” he said.

A couple whose frustrations with infertility ended after prayer with Fr Rea, are among those who have testified to his healing ministry on New Zealand television.

After years of trying every other option in desperation to have a child, the couple came to Fr Rea one Ash Wednesday.

As he does from time to time, he nominated a deadline, informing the couple that by Easter they would be expecting a child.

The woman found out on Easter Saturday that she was pregnant, the baby was born by Christmas and they have had two children since.

A particular healing brought Fr John’s healing ministry wide exposure.

It involved a 10-year-old New Zealand ‘child prodigy’ violinist who had her left hand crushed in the door of a people-mover.

Her hand was so severely damaged that doctors told her she would never play the violin again. Just two days after Fr Rea and a friend prayed with the girl, specialists told her they could find no damage to the hand and no scar tissue.

The hand had fully recovered and she could play again.

One television reporter put it to Fr Rea that sceptics would say that he is someone who has “just got lucky”

Franciscans lead WA men to meet Christ on Calvary

■ By Anthony Barich

A PAINFUL but rewarding Lenten sacrificial tradition was launched when 30 young men – young single men, fathers and sons – climbed the two-hour Bluff Knoll ascent as part of the first annual Bluff Knoll Men’s Retreat on March 28.

The Lenten camping retreat, directed by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, included climbing Bluff Knoll, the highest peak in south-west WA at 1094 metres.

The climb up the Knoll was itself a Lenten meditation on the Way of the Cross and the burden Jesus experienced in carrying the weight of humanity’s sins.

After the two-hour climb to the peak of Bluff Knoll, Fr Joseph Michael Mary McShane FI celebrated the Holy Mass along with Fr Andre Mary and Deacon Pierre Nahas.

The theme of the retreat was “Let us meet Christ on the Mountain Top”, which was fulfilled during the Holy Mass in which Christ descended at the words of Consecration.

After Holy Mass all

in brief...

the participants recited the consecration to the Immaculate of St Maximilian Kolbe and were enrolled in the Miraculous Medal. A slightly easier descent back down the mountain followed, through the wind-swept clouds, where participants, including The Record, were refreshed both in the spirit and in the body by the cooling rains.

Though almost all had sore limbs and muscles, many were looking forwards to making the climb in next year’s retreat at Bluff Knoll.

Fr Joseph admitted he found the climb “particularly difficult”, but had the luxury of stopping whenever he liked – something Christ did not have as he was beaten and driven the whole way up Calvary, carrying the weight of mankind’s sins with the Cross.

Being able to celebrate Mass was itself a “great grace”, and that, as the Mass is itself the sacrifice on Calvary, the climb was then “a meditation on our own life and following Christ, and the difficulty and struggles as we face in our own lives”.

“Yet if we persevere we will reach that summit that is Christ,” he said.

St Denis’ Church in Joondanna has changed its only Sunday Mass time from 8am to 8.30am. Fr Michael Raj, parish priest since November 2007, said the change was made so families had more time to get to Mass on Sunday morning. The Saturday evening Vigil Mass is still celebrated at 6.30pm.

with healings from prayer. “When it happens so frequently, you can hardly call it luck,” was his reply.

Fr Rea is no longer surprised by healings. “Not so much surprised... I get filled with joy that the Lord is working in their lives,” he says.

“I’m always pleased to hear of healings because it’s something new to tell people.”

Fr Rea said the Lord seemed to use him mainly in physical healings, with people coming with all kinds of conditions.

“I have more prayers for fertility than anything else, probably because of the TV program which featured the couple (who were healed). Cancer is probably the next. “Another area where the Lord has used me a lot is with kids with learning difficulties,” he says.

Some of Fr Rea’s activities at the Disciples of Jesus Centre, 67 Howe St, Osborne Park include:

● April 24 Youth Rally. Fr John will be encouraging young people to have an alive faith, and a belief in the power of God to transform society.

● April 29-30. 9am Mass, followed by ‘Miracles’ Seminars 4 and 5, in Acts 2 Bible College.

Other events for Fr Rea include:

● April 21. 12.30pm. Seminar at Murdoch University Catholic students Association.

● April 28. 12.30pm. Healing Mass at Murdoch University Catholic students Association.

● On the weekend of 1st to 3rd May, Fr Rea will be in Pemberton ministering with the Holy Spirit of Freedom Community.

● May 4-8, Ministering each evening, commencing with Mass from 7pm, at Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church 82 Collick St Hilton. For more information on these and other events, please ring Reg on 9202 6868 or 0429 777 007.

Liturgy essential to Catholic community: Bishop Sproxton

■ By Bridget Chamberlain

THE inaugural

graduates of the CEOWA Certificate of Liturgy program were commissioned and blessed at a ceremony in March. Sr Catherine Brophy from the Woodvale parish, Sheelagh Dixon from the Armadale parish and Emma Nofal from Lumen Christi College were presented with their Certificates and are eager to implement their new learning in their work in their schools and parishes. The Certificate of Liturgy program is designed for all those engaged in liturgical planning and supervision in parishes, schools and institutions and was developed by the Catholic Education Office of WA in close liaison with the Director for Liturgy in the Archdiocese of Perth, Sr Kerry Willison. The Certificate of Liturgy program aims to foster deeper insights regarding the celebration of liturgy, to present biblical and theological foundations of the Church’s liturgical rites and to provide practical application and training in developing liturgies.

The theological, historical, spiritual, pastoral and canonical

principles of liturgy are explored through a range of units.

The program consists of five twoday workshops with either a primary or secondary focus, and the completion of two core theological units on prayer and liturgy. The courses are taught by experienced facilitators drawn from throughout the Archdiocese and supported by staff from the Religious Education and Curriculum Teaching K-12 Team.

Course participants include teachers, catechists, liturgy coordinators, campus ministers and school chaplains.

Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton commissioned and blessed the graduates and spoke about the vital importance of liturgy to the faith formation of young people and the community in general.

“Liturgy is something that is so essential to the life of a community,” Bishop Sproxton said.

“Good liturgy has to flow out of our love for God – when we do liturgy well we go deep into our own hearts and discover God there.”

Bishop Sproxton also remarked that he hoped that this graduation ceremony would be the first of many.

Da Vinci racks up the ‘ton’ at St John of God, Subi

Ghost in the machine: WA’s first surgical “da Vinci” Robot, affectionately known as “Marvin”, has just reached its centenary milestone having completed 100 procedures at St John of God Hospital Subiaco (SJOGHS). Perth’s surgeons have been using the da Vinci Robot for radical prostatectomies. The state-of-the-art surgical system allows surgeons to perform complex but minimally invasive procedures, giving a magnified (10x) and 3D view of the anatomy and allows the surgeon to perform the procedure through

‘open surgery’.

‘Like

being hit by a bolt of lightning’

An affectionate tribute and post-Easter reflection from Fr Demetri Roh of ther recently-departed Fr John Lisle

SIXTEEN years ago I came to Australia from Korea to learn English and some business skills. I was living in Mosman Park with four other Korean boys when Fr John picked me out as having some kind of promise and drew me into his parish in Mosman Park. My English was not good but my Korean manners were excellent.

I loved the spirituality and atmosphere he created at Mosman Park where prayer was the order of the day. Indeed, Fr John lived in a world of prayer that started each day with Holy Mass and the Rosary. Then at 10 o’clock each evening there was another hour of prayer with the Rosary, Evening Prayer and the Adoration. I will never forget the blessings, with the laying on of hands on my head after prayer.

One evening when we were walking together along Cottesloe Beach in a kind of meditation and dialogue he suddenly stopped and told me that he was sure I had a vocation to the priesthood. Since my conversion and baptism in Korea this had been a dream – but to hear it from him was like being hit by a bolt of lightning from the sky. To discern this further one of his parishioners, Betty, gave me St Brigid’s 15 prayers and I started saying them each day for the next year as part of my search for my future continued. From that secure spiritual home God touched my life in a number of ways. I came to know his good friend Fr Gordon Bennett and the two of them shared responsibility for constantly

bringing me to new insights and knowledge of the glory of God’s Catholic Church and the joys of following Jesus Christ as well as the hope to be found in the devotions of Marian Prayer. It is the nature of Christian discipleship that there are networks of support and encouragement that connect lives across both generations and nations. However, John Lisle was such an extraordinary person his life touched and moved many people in the UK, the Bahamas, the West Indies, South Africa as well as Australia during his long life as both missionary and pastoral priest. Thus, he will be remembered in many different ways. Certainly for me, John Lisle was an ever burning presence of prayer and devotion. TS Eliot in his poem “East Coker” once described such a person with a great heart as “one impelled to live a lifetime burning in every moment”. Ann Ulanov wrote that this “image of the person of God burning with life, lies at the heart of God’s self-revelation and our experiences of it. In Exodus 2:3b, God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush, which is not consumed; it just goes on and on, the fire never goes out”. Certainly Fr John was a most significant spiritual guide during a critical period of my life and whose influence will continue to burn in my life and ministry.

It was Fr John’s dependence on praying the Divine Office daily and the Rosary that established these spiritual disciplines in my own life. Being part of the vital parish life of Mosman Park under Fr John’s leadership at that time gave me a real experience of what a Christian Community could be. It was there that Fr John encouraged my own vocational yearnings for the priesthood and for that I would be eternally grateful. I,

Local Franciscans to celebrate 800th anniversary of Order with international speaker

■ By Anthony Barich

Catholic and Anglican Franciscans in Western Australia are marking the 800th anniversary of the movement by hosting eminent authoress and theologian Sister Ilia Delio OSF over May 18-19. Sr Ilia’s visit is part of celebrations of the eighth centenary of the approval by Pope Innocent III of the Rule submitted to him by St Francis of Assisi for his community in 1209.

in turn, was able to call two other Korean seminarians to Perth, both of whom are now priests of the Archdiocese. When the Archbishop Hickey ordained me as a deacon Fr John watched the whole ordination ceremony like an eagle watches her young perched precariously in the nest high on the cliff. Then, when I was finally ordained to the priesthood in Korea but incardinated in Perth, one of my greatest joys was that in addition to Archbishop Barry Hickey, Fathers Gordon Bennett and John Lisle were there as participants in the Sacrament of Holy Orders on that day. I was truly blessed by their presence. Like so many others, there is no way I could ever detail the many ways in which John Lisle guided and supported me on my spiritual journey. I only know that I am part of a great company of persons who Father John, as Confessor, Spiritual Director or friend helped give our lives in Christ meaning and purpose. His ability to

discern the critical issues in spiritual life was, I think, as well his unique spirituality a result of his own unique priestly journey. It was one that began in the Anglican priesthood and married life, to his ultimate home in what Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP the former Master of the Dominicans has called “Communion Catholicism”. This secure base in the Catholic Church gave him a spiritual wisdom that allowed him to find space for all those who went to him as confessor or spiritual guidance. At the centre of his spiritual life was prayer. His prayer life was the practical embodiment of what the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar has described as the “indwelling of the Spirit of God in the soul”. Similarly his practical approach to prayer and confession could be summed up in the same theologian’s words, “So it is that tears and feelings of sorrow for sin are both bitter and sweet, that their bitterness once affirmed has a liberating and purifying effect, making room for faith and love”.

After his funeral I stayed behind for a long time by his graveside. Eventually Father Armando Carandang came up to me and invited me to his home to “to have a cup of tea as Fr John would have done for anyone who had come from such a long distance”. It was like the men in Luke’s account of the resurrection when they said, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead”? As Fr Armando and I talked and meditated together my feeling was Fr John was already there among us. It is in this light of our experience of the resurrection that I give thanks to God that all those years ago he took this shy Korean into the Mosman Park presbytery and said, “Let us pray together.” May Mary our Eternal Mother ensure that his soul rests in peace.

Franciscans the world over renewed their vows on April 16, the day of the anniversary. Some 1800 Franciscan friars from around the world converged on the Umbrian hill town of Assisi in Italy last week to celebrate the 800th anniversary, during which time they reflected on the relevance of their charism in today’s increasingly secular world.

The Franciscan Federation of Australia, consisting of Catholic, Anglican and ecumenical groups, is hosting a talk by Sister Ilia at Mercy Conference Centre at Mercedes College in Victoria Square on May 18; entry is $10.

The Franciscan Sister will speak on ‘What does it mean to live the Gospel in the 21st century’.

The following day she will speak at Burt Hall in St George’s Anglican Cathedral, St George’s Terrace in Perth, entry $15. The Sister will speak on ‘Christian life in an evolutionary universe’.

Fr Joseph consecrates the host atop Bluff Knoll after leading 30 men and boys on a two-hour hike up the mountain.

Monsignor Michael Keating, Sheelagh Dixon, Sr Kerry Willison, Ron Dullard, Bishop Donald Sproxton, Debra Sayce, Sr Catherine Brophy, Diana Alteri and Emma Nofal at the graduation ceremony.

Father John Lisle. This photograph was used for the booklet produced for the celebration of his funeral.

■ By Anthony Barich

McGinty, who announced his retirement the next day, said that the right to life for the unborn should not be mentioned in a human rights charter as the issue has been resolved in parliament already, as was the case, he said, when WA’s then-Labor Government launched its own draft Human Rights Bill in 2007. Mr McGinty said that for the purposes of a human rights charter, “life begins at birth”, so that the human rights debate is not “hijacked by an abortion debate”.

He also said that such a charter would not be a “back door” through which to push other agendas, and dismissed the idea that a federal charter of rights could strike down a State’s code of rights. He said that while Australia is a signatory to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is not always reflected in Australian laws; an Australian charter of rights would give the rights a higher standing.

Mr McGinty said a bill of rights would breed a culture of respect for human rights, as has happened in Victoria and ACT, but said that Victorian Parliament’s recent Abortion Law Reform Bill was not an example of that State’s bill of rights’ failure to protect human rights, as the bill of rights works on the notion that life begins at birth, not from conception.

He said such a bill of rights would also breed a culture of respect in the way beaureaucrats deal with social

services, especially those affecting the marginalised.

But Mr Porter said that examples in Britain, the ACT and Victoria have shown that a charter of rights allows parliamentary legislation to be “read down” so it’s original intention is suppressed so as to be meaningless, and it’s happening increasingly.

Mr Porter said rights are always in conflict according to subjectivity, so such issues are best left in the hands of parliaments, otherwise “you give up parliament’s rights to pick and choose policy outcomes,” he said. When asked what would stop parliaments from re-legislating so laws are less ambiguous, Mr Porter said such a system would create a mess, as parliaments would keep needing to re-draft legislation. And by enacting a charter of rights, parliaments would also be binding themselves and future parliaments to such a system.

The Christian Democratic Party backed Mr Porter’s concerns about a bill of rights’ imprecise language, saying in its submission to the NHRC Committee

that a Bill of Rights, by definition, uses “broad, imprecise language that makes it difficult for the courts to interpret impartially.”

“The outcome could be favourable to some groups and detrimental to others. As a result, not all would be treated impartially under the law,” the CDP statement said. A typical example of this, the CDP said, is the Draft Human Rights Bill issued by the then AttorneyGeneral, Mr McGinty.

Mr Porter added that a country that has a charter of rights is not immune to bad law, using the example of the US’ former policy of segregation, despite its founding fathers’ bill of rights in place.

In the Federal Government’s current consultation process, the National Human Rights Consultation Committee is asking the Australian community:

● Which human rights (including corresponding responsibilities) should be protected and promoted?

● Are these human rights currently sufficiently protected and promoted?

● How could Australia better protect and promote human rights?

Oblate bestows ancient tradition on students

THE University of Notre Dame Australia’s medical staff and students in Fremantle have been told not to take for granted being part of a community that makes time for sacred events, so they can reflect deeper on the dignity of the human person.

Adjunct Associate Professor Chris Hanna, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at St John of God Hospital, Subiaco, made the statement to staff and students at UNDA’s Fremantle Campus’ annual Blessing of the Hands Ceremony.

In the past, the hands of kings, priests and prophets were anointed with oils as a symbol of those who were set aside as agents of God.

Led in liturgy by university chaplain Fr Gerry Conlan OMI, students from the Schools of Nursing, Health Sciences, Medicine as well as Counselling and Behavioural Science had their hands anointed with oil as a symbol of healing and strength.

The Blessing of the Hands is held every year before students embark on their first practicum placement.

Prof. Hanna spoke about how she uses her hands in her profession and how we use our hands for healing.

She also spoke about the diversity and complexity of health care environments and reflected on the important use of her hands within the roles at her workplace.

“This ceremony is a time to affirm the value of health and the value of students and staff who are involved in the healing professions within Notre Dame,” she said.

She also encouraged the UNDA students not to take for granted being part of a University community that made a sacred time and place available for such an experience.

“May your hands be instruments that demonstrate an attitude that treasures the unique dignity of every person as you use your hands to provide healing,” she said on the day of the blessing.

Jim McGinty

Christian Porter

The University of Notre Dame Australia Fremantle’s new chaplain, Fr Gerard Conlan OMI, blesses a student with blessed oil on April 8. PHOTO COURTESY OF UNDA

www.therecord.com.au

PANORAMA CLASSIFIEDS

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

Sunday April 26

NORTH SUNDAY SESH

6pm at Morley Parish. Mass followed at 7.15pm by Sunday Sesh. Guest Speaker, Bishop Don Sproxton on Why Believe in God? The largest youth night returns in 2009. Open for youth from ages 15-35. The night includes: music, activities, prayer time and group discussions. Bring money for supper. See www.cym.com.au or call 9422 7912.

Sunday April 26

AWAKENINGS - A GOD EXPERIENCE RETREAT WITH A DIFFERENCE

8.45am to 4pm at Patrist House, 7 Warde Street, Midland, conducted by Father Douglas Rowe SFP. Not to be missed. Attendance for full day is necessary.  BYO lunch, light refreshments provided. Must book 9250 5395.

Sunday April 26

ACTS 2 COLLEGE OF MISSION AND EVANGELISATION

Graduation 2007-2008 Students 3pm at 67

Howe Street, Osborne Park, all invited. Light refreshments afterwards. Enq: Rebecca 0400 206 331.

Sunday April 26

SACRI ASSOCIATION

BULLSBROOK SHRINE ANNIVERSARY

2pm at 36 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook the 62nd Anniversary, Apparition of the Virgin of the Revelation to Bruno Cornacchiola and the 60th Anniversary of the foundation of the SACRI Association, will be celebrated with Rosary procession, followed by Mass and Benediction. Enq: SACRI 9447 3292.

Monday April 27

DIVINE MERCY PILGRIMAGE TO ST ANN E’S BINDOON

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

Friday May 1

DIVINE MERCY THANKSGIVING MASS

2pm to 5pm at St Jerome’s Church, 36 Troode Street, Munster. All Divine Mercy Prayer Groups and everyone invited to celebrate One Year Anniversary, with Fr Varghese Paracakal, VC officiating. There will be Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Reconciliation, Divine Mercy Chaplet and talk on Divine Mercy, followed by Mass and healing. Enq: Connie 9494 1495 or Edita 9418 3728.

Friday May 1

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

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

Friday May 1

PRO-LIFE WITNESS

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

Friday May 1 to Sunday May 3 WEEKEND RETREAT DANCING THE PSALMS

7.30pm at Veat Dardanup Retreat. Enq: Sr Shelley Barlow, 9271 3873.

Saturday May 2 DAY WITH MARY

9am to 5pm at Santa Clara Church, Coolgardie and Pollock Streets, Bentley. 9am, Video on Fatima. Day of prayer and instruction based upon the Fatima message. Reconciliation, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Saturday May 2

WITNESS FOR LIFE

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

Sunday May 3 DIVINE MERCY

1.30pm at St Joachim’s Church, Shepperton and Harper Street, Victoria Park. Holy Rosary, and Reconciliation. Sermon on, Mother of Mercy by Fr Tony Vallis, followed by Divine Mercy Prayers and Benediction. Refreshments in the Parish Hall followed by a video/DVD with Fr John Corapi, on Home Back home Part 2. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda9275 6608.

Sunday May 3 THE 2009 BUSSELTON MAY ROSARY

CELEBRATION IN HONOUR OF OUR LADY

12.30pm at Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine, Bove’s Farm, Roy Road, Jindong, Busselton. Hymn singing. 1pm Concelebrated Mass led by Fr Tony Chiera, followed by Rosary Procession and Benediction. Tea provided. All welcome. Note: Roy Road runs off the Bussell Highway, approximately halfway between Busselton and Margaret River. Bookings: Francis 0404 893 877 or 9459 3873.

Friday May 15

CELEBRATION OF 50 YEARS OF NORBERTINE CANONICAL LIFE IN WA

Solemn Pontifical Mass 7.30pm at Church of St Joseph, 135 Treasure Road, Queens Park, followed by supper and an exhibition at the Fr O’Reilly Centre of St Norbert’s College. The exhibition will be made available at the Priory’s Chapter Room followed by the Parish of York. To help with catering, RSVP to parish @norbert. wa.edu.au or 9458 2729 ext 246.

Saturday May 16 - Sunday May 17

WEEKEND RETREAT – CATHOLIC FAITH RENEWAL

A weekend Retreat by Fr Gino Henriques, CSsR of the Redemptorist Congregation, on Joy of Christian Living. He is an international speaker who has preached to bishops, fellow priests, religious and laity through retreats, seminars and conferences. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913, Rose 0403 300 720 or Maureen 9381 4498.

Monday May 18

LECTURE AT MERCY CENTRE

7pm to 8.30pm at Mercy Conference Centre, Victoria Square, Perth. Sr Ilia Delio OSF will give a lecture on What does it mean to live the Gospel in the 21st century? Donation $10.  Tea and coffee provided after lecture. Booking: 9422 7919.

Friday May 29 to Sunday May 31 WEEKEND RETREAT

Two sides to the coin of forgiveness

7.30pm at St John of God Retreat Centre. Do you find it easy to forgive? Do you view past hurts as positive or negative experiences and struggle to move on? Do you desire a heart and mind as free as Christ’s? Young women, come and explore, deepen and challenge your understanding of the processes to for-

giveness and celebrate healing relationships. Enq: Sr Ann Cullinane 0409 602 927.

PARISH MISSION DATES

Holy Spirit City Beach from 25-30 April. St Bernadette’s Parish, Glendalough 2-7 May. Our Lady of the Visitation, Bullsbrook, from 9-14 May. St Joseph’s Bassendean from 15- 22 May and Good Shepherd, Kiara 23-28 May. Enq: Direct to Parishes or holyspirit.Parish@perthcatholic.org.au or 9341 3079.

LA SALLE COLLEGE Hall of Excellence 2010 Induction

Nominations recognising the many outstanding achievements of past students in the categories of Community Service, Professional, Sporting, Business and Enterprise and The Arts are now open. Applications close on 23 September, and successful applicants will be notified by December 2009. Online application http://www.lasalle.wa.edu.au/ go to News and Events, Hall of Excellence. Enq: Sabrina 9274 6266 or sly@lasalle.wa.edu.au

Every 4th Sunday of the Month HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

2-3pm at Morley Parish Church, 47 Wellington Road, Morley, will commence on April 26. There will be Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Come and reflect on the grace of being called to serve God in consecrated life. Prayer works! All Welcome. Enq: 9276 8500.

Every Monday BIBLE TIMELINE - A JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE

7.30pm-9.30pm commencing 8 June at St Emilie, 12 Hardwick Boulvard, Canning Vale, an easy-to-follow program that lets you discover a deeper insight into God’s ongoing plan of salvation. How the Bible timeline unlocks the many questions of biblical places and events. How and where the various books of the Bible fit in. Enq: Dominic/Helen 0447 053 347 or 6253 8041.

Every Monday ADORATION AND EVENING PRAYER

7pm at St Thomas Parish, 2 College Road, Claremont. Adoration and evening prayer. Followed with confessions, Benediction, night prayer and Mass. Enq: 9384 0598.

Every Tuesday NIGHT PRAYER MEETINGS

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

Every Thursday

CATHOLIC QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

6pm-7.30pm at St. Joseph Church, 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean, with Father John Corapi’s Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Every First Friday HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

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

Every Saturday HOLY SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CHARISMATIC

PRAYER MEETING

10.30am to 12.30pm at St Peter the Apostle Church Hall, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. All are most welcome. Enq: 9475 0554.

CHANGE OF SUNDAY MASS TIME

St Denis’ Parish - Joondanna. Effective from Sunday May 3rd 2009, Mass will be at 8.30am. Maureen Gismondi, Parish Councillor.

CHANGE OF WEEKEND MASS TIME

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

LA SALLE COLLEGE

Aboriginal Scholarships

Year 7 and 8, 2010

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

Every 1st and 3rd Sunday of Each Month ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL SINGERS CHOIR

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

Every Tuesday THEOLOGY OF THE BODY FOR TEENS

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

Every Wednesday THE JULIAN SINGERS

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

Every First Friday of the month

ST PADRE PIO - LATIN MASS

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

Third Sunday of the Month

OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT

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

Every Sunday

DIVINE MERCY PRAYER AS NOVENA

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

Educators urged to follow example of Christ’s teaching ministry

ANAHEIM, California (CNS)Speakers addressing educators on April 14 at the National Catholic Educational Association’s annual convention encouraged them to follow the example of Jesus Christ in his teaching ministry.

“We are a mighty force for good in our world. We carry a grand story of people who travel far to teach about Jesus,” Karen Ristau, NCEA president, told an audience of more than 3000 educators gathered at the Anaheim Convention Centre’s arena.

The multi-culturual crowd included delegates from Canada, Australia, Italy, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The 106th NCEA convention, over April 14-17, was held concurrently with the National Association of Parish Catechetical Directors’ annual convocation and the Catholic Library Association’s annual meeting.

In a keynote titled “You Matter Much,” Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, stressed the importance of educators in guiding students to increase their knowledge of Christ.

“Remember you matter much,” he told the teachers, school administrators, religious educators, pastors, parents and volunteers who attended the national event. “What you do is at the heart of the church’s

mission. You bring faith (and) transmit it, generating a relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said.

Bishop Kicanas, who has a doctorate in educational psychology, told the educators they are important to the church’s future and that for their hard work they deserve a “big fat bonus cheque,” especially during these hard economic times. He urged them to become witnesses.

“This generation listens to witnesses, and if they listen to their teachers, it is because they are witnesses,” he said. “ A teacher affects eternity and you can’t influence when the witnessing stops.”

Most of Bishop Kicanas’ speech centred on what he said are the five pastoral priorities set by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. He called those priorities a source of energy for Catholic education and urged school leaders to focus their future faculty meetings on those proposals. They are: faith formation and sacraments; strengthening of marriage; life and dignity of the human person; vocation promotion; and multicultural diversity.

“The Church has been struggling with catechesis in its life span,” he said, discussing faith formation and sacraments.

ACCOMMODATION

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

■ ST ANNE’S CHURCH, BINDOON. For retreat, family, group or single $25 per night or $100 for family or group. BYO food. Tea/coffee provided. Tel 9571 1839 or 9576 0006

■ ACCOMMODATION SOUGHT

For student (17) from the country, preferably within easy travelling distance of Subiaco. Phone Ellis 0413 383 497.

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

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

BUILDING TRADES

■ BRICK RE-POINTING Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

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

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

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

■ MAINTENANCE

MISSION MATTERS

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