The Record Newspaper 25 November 2004

Contrasts of life and death

A baptism, a celebration and a licence to kill

■ By Jamie O’Brien

Brian Spratt’s baptism at the age of 43 was a special occasion for his mother, Molly Narrier, and his family for many reasons.

Brian has intellectual disabilities and has been in care since he was 18 months old, first with the Disability Services Commission at Pyrton and more recently with i.d.entity.wa (formerly Catholic Care).

His mother lives in Port Hedland where, 40 years ago, there were no adequate services to enable her to look after her child.

Over the years she lost contact with him because she was not told where he was.

Her late husband Victor and daughter Cheryl located him in Pyrton when he was a young man and she enjoyed a reunion with him, but contact was again lost.

Mrs Narrier met her son again in his i.d.entity.wa group home earlier this year.

She said it was a time of mixed emotions for her because Brian had changed and she could hardly recognise him.

It was then that she decided to have Brian baptised.

“My other children had been baptised and I wanted the same for Brian,” she said.

“I always had thoughts for his wellbeing.”

Continued on page 2

FULL STORY PAGE 3

Millions to see the relics of St Francis Xavier

An estimated 8,000 pilgrims, some from overseas, attended the opening ceremony of the six-week exposition of the remains of St. Francis Xavier.

The 43-day exposition, held every 10 years, is expected to draw 3 million pilgrims and tourists and attract international media to Goa, on India’s south-

western coast. Archbishop Ferrao of Goa led a concelebrated Mass at the Basilica of Bom Jesus. He urged people to cultivate “a reconciliatory attitude”

toward all, following the “shining example” of the 16th-century Basque saint. St. Francis Xavier co-founded the Society of Jesus in 1534 with St.

Ignatius of Loyola and eight other companions. In 1542 he reached Goa, then the main Portuguese centre in India and a base for evangelization. - CNS

Human embryo licence shows scale of destruction

The latest license issued for human embryo research shows the scale of destruction of human embryos involved according to the Coalition for the Defence of Human Life

Spokesman Richard Egan said "This latest license issued on November 5, brings to 1,356 the number of human embryos consigned to destruction in the name of science under the Commonwealth's Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002. Of these human embryos 350 will be destroyed in an attempt to create new human embryonic stem cell lines.

Tellingly the latest license for a cooperative project between IVF Australia and the Diabetes Transplant Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital provides for up to 100 human embryos to be destroyed in the hope of establishing just six new lines of human embryonic stem cells. "The other 1,006 human embryos will be destroyed in attempts to improve IVF culture of human embryos, and most tragically in perfecting new eugenic screening techniques to better identify human embryos with unwanted genetic characteristics so they can be weeded out in the IVF process.

"There are said to be some 70,000 human embryos in frozen storage in Australia, It is generally accepted internationally that only about 3% of the stockpile of human embryos will be available for research.

Continued on page 4

The Personal Advocacy Service, which helps people with disabilities to claim their full sacramental and social life in the Church, has grown to 15 groups in nine parishes. All groups participated in "A Tapestry of the Heart" at the PAS 15th anniversary celebrations. This picture shows the splash of colour made by the Morley evening group.

Sacred music fills the Cathedral

St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth was filled with 1200 worshippers last Sunday, November 21 at 5pm as the annual RSCM Choral Festival Choir led a sung celebration in honour of Christ the King.

■ By Fr

Tim Deeter

His Grace, the Most Reverend Barry J Hickey, Catholic Archbishop of Perth, was the principal celebrant and homilist for the occasion.

The 100-strong Festival Choir brought together singers from near (metropolitan Perth) and far (Kalgoorlie), under the direction of

RSCM State Chairman Fr Timothy E Deeter. Cathedral organist Jacinta Jakovcevic and the four-member Cathedral Brass Consort plus a fine young timpanist provided the accompaniment. Considering that the choir was positioned in the pews on the main floor, many metres away from the director and accompanists in the south gallery, it was a minor miracle that the music came together as marvellously as it did.The program embraced a variety of musical styles, and aimed at giving the participating singers something to take home and teach to their own choirs and congregations. In addition to the grand ‘cathedral music’ that is always part-and-parcel of our choral festivals, there was an Israeli tune for the responsorial psalm and a swingy contemporary song at the offertory. Despite the usual handwringing about the demise of the RSCM that tends to go on whenever the ‘oldies’ get together, it was

wonderful to note that a full third of the singers were under 17 years of age. The brass consort were all uni students, the timpanist was a year 12 student, and the organist was a young thirty-three. So there is still hope for all our doomsayers!

The organ program included Jehan Alain’s ‘Litanies’ as a prelude, ‘Entrada’ by John Marsh for the choir’s processional, and Leon Boëllmann’s toccata from ‘Suite Gothique’ as a postlude.

The Mass itself was solemnly sung by the Archbishop (who has a magnificent baritone voice) and enhanced by a phalanx of acolytes.

The choral program was:

Opening Hymn

Concertato on ‘Rejoice! The Lord Is King’ (Darwall’s 148th)

-- arr. Sam Batt Owens, with organ, brass & timpani

Mass Setting

‘Holy Cross Mass’ by David Clark Isele

-- for SATB choir, cantor, congregation, organ, brass & timpani

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 122: ‘Let Us Go Rejoicing’ by Michael Joncas

-- for SATB choir, cantor, congregation, keyboard & guitars

Gospel Acclamation

‘Alleluia’ by Richard Proulx; verse by Timothy Deeter

-- for SATB choir, congregation and organ

Preparation of Gifts

‘Welcome In’ by James E Moore Jr

-- for SATB choir, congregation, keyboard & guitars

Memorial Acclamation

‘When We Eat This Bread’ by Timothy Deeter

-- for cantor, SATB choir, congregation and organ

Great Amen

New life for all the family

Continued from page 1

To bring about the Baptism, Mrs Narrier enlisted the aid of Theresa Roberts who had been a carer for Brian over many years.

She first helped care for him in Pyrton when he was three years old, but some years later left Pyrton to raise her own family.

Later, she returned to work with i.d.entity. wa and met Brian again.

7pm Tuesday 30 November 2004

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With permission from Archbishop Hickey, the baptism was celebrated by Fr Dan Foley at Brian’s home, which he shares with three other intellectually disabled persons.

Mrs Roberts and another of Brian’s carers, Andrew Shelfhout, were his sponsors.

She said she felt privileged to have been part of the event.

Present with Mrs Narrier at the baptism was Brian’s sister Cheryl Kelly, and other sister Dianne Narrier who had seen him only three times before.

She described it as a time of very warm emotion for her and for Brian.

“His face lit up when I came in,” she said.

She said that the event had brought her closer to God and in the process it enabled her to get to know Brian better.

Dianne, who lives in Brentwood, is now one of Brian’s next-of-kin, and said that the added responsibility in his life meant a lot to her.

The family expressed gratitude for the care and support shown to Brian by i.d.entity. wa which is one of 12 welfare organizations funded by the Archbishop’s LifeLink appeal which was conducted in parishes earlier this month.

The LifeLink appeal is always open for donations to support the work of a variety of organisations, which help more than 50,000 West Australians and their families a year.

‘Mass for the Unsung Saints’ by Albert Lynch

-- arr. Timothy Deeter for SATB choir, congregation & organ

Communion Anthem

‘Zadok the Priest’ by G F Handel -- with SATB choir, organ, brass & timpani

Communion Meditation

‘Jesu, Rex Admirabilis’ by G P da Palestrina

-- for 3-part choir

Closing Hymn

‘Hallelujah!’ (chorus from ‘The Messiah’) by G F Handel -- with SATB choir, organ, brass & timpani

The confident singing of the Festival Choir and the supportive participation of the large congregation combined to produce a truly majestic celebration in honour of Christ the King. For everyone present it was a musical moment to treasure.

Molly Narrier looks on as Fr Dan Foley gives Brian Spratt his Baptism certificate

Cursillo movement returns

■ By Jamie O’Brien

A renewal movement for Chrisitan living has made a comeback into the Perth archdiocese.

The Australian Catholic Cursillo movement began in Spain in the 1940’s and has since spread rapidly throughout the world.

The name Cursillo means ‘short course’ in Spanish and was formed as a response to a volatile and changing world.

The movement came to Australia in 1965 and is responsible to the Bishop of the diocese.

It was active in Western Australia until the 1990’s, but has been in recess for the past few years.

However, the movement was still strongly present amongst the Vietnamese Community with more than 50 attending regularly.

The movement offers a method by which an individual’s relationship with God may be developed, deepened and lived out with other Christians.

Involvement with Cursillo starts with a three-day retreat, led promi-

nently by lay people with the support of a priest. The three-day experience, usually with men and women in sepa-

rate groups, is built upon a structured program of short talks as well as discussions, liturgy, music and other activities.

Let us all go rejoicing

■ By Mark Reidy

When St. Paul stated,” For by one Spirit we were all baptised into one body……….and all were made to drink of one Spirit”(1Cor.12: 13), he could well have been referring to the 15th Anniversary celebration of the members of the Personal Advocacy Service at Chisholm College in Bedford on November 13.

Personal Advocacy is a parishbased program that promotes the value and dignity of people with intellectual disabilities and enables them to participate in the life and work of the parish. Its primary role is to match volunteers (Advocates) with those with disabilities (Friends) in a one-toone relationship that nurtures the friend in their faith and individuality. The 15th Anniversary gathering saw one hundred and forty advocates and friends entertain their families, along with Archbishop Barry Hickey, with a colourful and symbolic Performance entitled, ”Tapestry of the Heart”. Spectacularly adorned in a kaleidoscope of colour each of the ten Parishes involved in the program united to represent the uniqueness of the individual that is beautifully woven into the larger church body.

PAS was born from a desire of families in the Archdiocese to incorporate those with intellectual disabilities into a meaningful involvement within the parish community, both in Sacrament and socially. Their plea was recognized and embraced in 1989 by Sr. Eileen Casey, a Sister of Mercy. Morley is now the training and resource base, which supports the fifteen parish networks, that have been established across Perth.

Personal Advocacy is founded on the Christian belief that each individual is precious and enti-

tled to live in an environment of acceptance, love and security in which they can grow and develop physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is relevant not only to their role in the broader community but particularly to their role within the church.

“You remind people that the person is not reduced to his apptitudes and place in economic life, but rather is a creature of God, loved by Him for himself, not for what he does”

Advocates make a commitment of 2-3 hours per week and walk beside their friend in their Sacramental development while encouraging and supporting them in their individual growth. Rose Tricoli, an Advocate for over ten years, is adamant that the growth and benefits of the friendship are mutual. “In fact”, she stated, “I have no doubt that we receive a lot more than we give.”

Executive Director, Leonie Reid, agrees with this assessment. ”There is a great sense of satisfaction in watching the subtle blossoming of both our friends and advocates as they get to know one another.”

While the one-to-one friendships are a focus of the Program, it is recognized that these relationships are best maintained in a supportive network, which is why Advocates are provided with regular training.

Pope John Paul II recently highlighted the importance of such an inclusive group within our Church in his address to the Christian Office of the Disabled, which was founded in France in 1963. “You remind people that the person is not reduced to his apptitudes and

place in economic life, but rather is a creature of God, loved by Him for himself, not for what he does”.

The Office was established to ensure that the Church adopted initiatives that contributed to the well-being and social and ecclesial integration of the sick or disabled.

The Personal Advocacy Service is ensuring that these principles are well and truly alive in Perth today.

St Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians (12:22-26) “The parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable……… there may be no discord in the body, members should have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together”.

The words written by Group Leader, Jill Parker in “Tapestry of the Heart”, beautifully reflect this unity; ”Each person is unique. No one person is entirely representative of Personal Advocacy, and yet, all are part of the fabric, quietly woven through love, care and friendship, that makes up the whole.”

St Paul would be pleased to know that this body is doing a lot of rejoicing together!

The Personal Advocacy Service is always seeking more Advocates to assist the overflow of Friends who are seeking support. Parishes directly involved are: Morley (5 groups), Balcatta, Girrawheen, Thornlie, Willetton (2 groups), North Beach, Belmont (Anglican), Lockridge and Rockingham with a new Program to be established in Greenmount next year.

If anyone is interested in becoming involved in this lifegiving opportunity please contact Leonie Reid on 9275 5388.

ration of the men and women provides an opportunity for each person to experience God individually.

“Just you and God,” he said.

Mr Booth said it was also important to mention the concept of the fourth day.

The fourth day is the ongoing meetings in small groups in which people may continue learning, growing and sharing.

“It is the experience of many people that after a Cursillo retreat, Christian living takes on a new dimension, with a fresh awareness of God’s love and purpose for everyone,” said Andrew Booth.

Then there is also the monthly Ultreya, meaning onwards and upwards, which consists of all the Cursillistas from the parish coming together to relate their experiences, and if possible share the occasion with Mass.

Cursillista Andrew Booth, who is partly responsible for helping bring about the movement’s rebirth in Western Australia, said the sepa-

Two weekends have been held in the last few weeks in Perth, with each attracting about a dozen people.

A more detailed account of the Cursillo movement will follow next week.

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(Left to right) Cursillo leader Andrew Booth, Presidento of the Vietnamese Community Peter Pham, Women's lay Director Dianne Gorland (centre), national Spiritual Direcotr Fr Adrian Farrelly and Mens Lay Director Edvin Galeo, at the reent mens cursillo weekend

Parish named for St Emilie

St Emilie de Vialar, foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, has been chosen as the patron for the new parish in Canning Vale.

Bishop Don Sproxton recently celebrated Mass with parishioners and community members to mark the occasion. Fr Robert Carrillo was inaugurated as the first Parish Priest. The occasion was also used to launch the Parish Pastoral Program using the model of the Basic Ecclesial Community.

“St Emilie was chosen because we believe her spirituality fits well with our multi-cultural and diverse community,” Fr Carrillo said.

“St Emilie was a generous labourer for the Gospel, attentive to the Spirit and reached out to all people, regardless of religion, race or colour,” he said.

Parishioner Lyn Harkins said the Church’s approval of the name St Emilie has become a further acknowledgement of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition who have worked in the Archdiocese for the past 150 years. Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition were the second congregation of religious women to arrive at the Swan River Colony at the invitation of Bishop Serra O.S.B.

“The Mass was also a wonderful occasion to celebrate the many facets of our community by using symbols carried to the altar in

procession by various members of the congregation, many of them in national dress,” Lyn Harkins said.

In addition to the large picture of St Emilie, a number of symbols were placed at the front of the altar during the Mass.

“The symbols represent the many people from different cultures and countries that make up this one unified and vibrant com-

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munity,” she said. A new stole was also presented as a gift to Fr Carrillo in gratitude for the inspiration and spiritual leadership he has unceasingly given.

Although the parish was established three years ago, construction of a Church building will not take place for another three or four years.

At present Mass is held at the

Canning Vale State School undercover area in Livingston.

However, Mass will be held at the St Emilie de Vialar Catholic School in Canning Vale from December 11 and 12 onwards.

St Emilie de Vialar Presbytery and Office is located at Lot 4/151 Amherst Rd, Canning Vale.

Fr Robert Carrillo can be contacted on 9456 5130.

Churches combine

A spiritual transformation is about to shake our city Peter Brownhill informed almost one hundred church leaders from a wide spectrum of Christian denominations, at the South Perth Church of Christ on October 28.

■ By Mark Reidy

Brownhill heads a Board of Reference which is attempting to unify and harness the many evangelical movements that have been evolving in Perth over the past decade. Kaye Rollings of Flame Ministries International is Archbishop Barry Hickey’s representative on this Board.

The October 28 meeting was the first of several across the State in which the Perth Board introduced “City Transformation Consultant”, Rhonda Hughey of Kansas City, USA. Hughey has been serving church leaders in citywide spiritual revival in America and South America for the past eight years.

She has teamed with people such as George Otis Junior who has recently produced the “Transformations” series of videos that portray the powerful renewal of many communities from Kenya through to the Arctic.

Hughey stated that ten years ago the number of transformed communities was eight and today there are over three hundred.

She spoke of the remarkable reduction in

individual and corporate sin in these populations. She stated that crime, violence, corruption, drug and alcohol abuse, occultism, witchcraft, extreme poverty and even barren lands are among the things that have been overcome by the power of prayer.

Hughey emphasized that all transformation had begun with the fervent intercession of a handful of dedicated Christians in each community.

These people were focused specifically on inviting the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit to come to their communities and this resulted in the restoration of wholeness and healing that God intended.

She believed that with the groundswell of passion for the Holy Spirit that has been building in Perth, the “ingredients are already in the pot!” Brownhill shared this analogy, believing that prayer is the catalyst to revival. His vision of churches uniting in the common goal of unleashing the Holy Spirit across Perth is now coming to fruition.

The visit of Hughey is envisaged to be a fan to flame the existing desire that is being embraced by the many churches involved. It is also a precursor to the visit to Perth next year of Mark Anderson the International Director and founder of Impact World Tour.

Impact World Tour (IWT) is a movement that is spreading its way across the globe. It uses international performing artists and sporting and musical identities in campaign style evangelism to provide Christians with the opportunity to come together and seek the Lord for the welfare of their community as well and for the purpose of introducing Christ to individuals who do not yet know Him.

Pressure for more embryos

Continued from page 1

This means that 1356 of perhaps only 2,100 human embryos potentially available for research have already been allocated under the first seven licences issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

"It seems likely that this shortage of human embryos for research will create pressure for the deliberate creation of human embryos for research. This has been banned unanimously by every Parliament in Australia. Deliberate creation of human embryos for research would require the exploitation of women who could be persuaded, commercially or otherwise, to subject themselves to the hazards of ovarian hyperstimulation.

"The idea of the human embryo as a readily available laboratory animal is deceptive as well as contrary to human dignity. It is time for a rethink. A review of the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 is due to begin next month. We hope this Review will recommend an end to this appalling assault on human dignity” Mr Egan said.

Pipe organ concert in Claremont

Claremont Parish is presenting a pipe organ concert by guest organists Sandra & Martin Rein on Sunday December 5 at 3.30pm in St Thomas’ Church.

The concert will feature works by Bach, Merkel, Franck & Vierne.

Sydney Town Hall organist Robert Ampt will play Waltzing Matilda for the finale.

An entry donation of $15 goes to the organ restoration and scholarship funds.

Another concert soon to be available at St. Thomas' Church is by the Polish-Australian Cultural Association on Saturday December 11 at 8pm.

The New Year will witness an important musical event, in that the W.A. Department of Culture and the Arts has awarded the parish a grant to commission a work by a local composer for organ and trumpet.

The concert will recognise the traditional owners in the opening strands of the didgeridoo and has been commissioned from local composer James Ledger.

For more information contact Fr Brian O'Loughlin on 9384 0598.

A picture of St Emilie, and symbols of parish life stand in front of the altar as Bishop Sproxton approaches the Consecration during the parish nameing Mass.

Catechists from metropolitan and regional WA (as well as some visitors from interstate) have come together recently to celebrate their ministry at the biennial Conference for Catechists.

Catechists’ time for growth

■ By Phil Bayne

Under the theme of Salt of the Earth… Light of the World… the well-attended conference commenced with an Aboriginal welcome to land from Noongar elder, Marie Taylor, who presented special message sticks to Bishop Don Sproxton.

Following a message of welcome from Ron Dullard, the Director of Catholic Education in WA, Bishop Sproxton officially opened the twoday conference with an address that affirmed all present in their work.

“Yours is a very important ministry of the church, particularly given that you are bringing faith to our young people,” he told them.

“On behalf of all the Bishops I would like to encourage you in your vital work; in what you do for the children and their families. I have no doubt that your work has a very positive impact on their lives.”

This message was reinforced by keynote presenter, Rev. Dr Elio Capra SDB. Living up to his reputation as a vibrant and engaging presenter, Fr Elio used a combination of technology, humour and real-life experience to relate the

conference theme to the ministry of Catechesis. “People are calling out for light and salt in their lives but Jesus Christ is the only one who can pro-

vide this,” he told them. “Through your work as Catechists you are sent to be light of the world and salt of the earth.” “It is important to realise, however, that you are not the actual source of meaning and flavour; you are not the light and the salt itself,” he continued.

“Rather, you are called to lead the young people with whom you work to discover meaning and flavour in their own lives. You are called to provide them with the skills and the strength they require to recognise false meanings and false flavours.

“Catechesis needs to provide a scenario large enough to give meaning and flavour to their relationships with one another, with creation and with the Creator.

“Jesus, through his birth, life, death and resurrection becomes the light of the world and salt of the earth. Only through him, with him and in him can we hope to become the light and salt for those around us,” he added.

Fr Elio’s presentation preceded a comprehensive workshop program in which delegates had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a range of topics including Liturgy, Scripture, Theology, personal spirituality and classroom practice.

For Nora Murphy, a Catechist of eight years, Glennys White’s workshop on classroom management offered a number of new strategies on how best to deal with different children and their varied needs. Working in small groups, Nora said the workshop was very affirm-

ing. “After the workshop I came out feeling as though I was doing the ‘right thing’ in my classes,” she said. In a similar way, Maria Guinness, a Catechist of six years in the wheat belt town of Corrigin, said the workshop facilitated by Fr Corran Pike urged Catechists to ‘know’ the children in their classes and make meaningful connections between these children, what’s happening in their lives and what was being taught.

The use of specific teaching tools/techniques also came in for some close attention from Angela Bendotti in her workshop, Liturgy for Young Children. As Rosita Biggs, a Catechist of 22 years explained, there was much to learn, even after more than two decades ‘in the job’.

“Angela broadened my horizons and offered new ideas that I hadn’t even thought of in the past. Even after 22 years you can still learn something new,” she said.

“Gatherings like this conference are an excellent means of avoiding ‘stagnation’ in what we do. In coming together we can share ideas and concerns and can reach out to each other in order to learn more and take more back to the children,” she added.

Echoing this sentiment, Maria said the conference provided excellent networking opportunities.

“In the country you can sometimes feel like you are working in isolation so it’s great to get together to share ideas and new ways of teaching and to gain some person-

al enrichment and affirmation for the work you do,” she explained.

For Anne Maree Whenman, an interstate visitor and Catechist in the Broken Bay Diocese, the opportunity to experience the different ways in which conferences run and the issues they address was invaluable.

“Having participated in a number of small group activities, I’ve picked up some great ideas and teaching methods that I can now take back to Broken Bay,” she admitted.

While the children were the focus of most of the workshops, a number also offered a means of personal growth for the Catechists themselves, such as that conducted by Ean James.

Having participated in the workshop, Margaret Handyside, a Catechist of eight years, said Ean’s focus on relationship building introduced the need for respect of others and recognising the positive aspects in negativity.

“In fact, he suggested that when you see negativity in someone, it is actually a reflection of something negative in yourself – a signal that we need to address in order to make the appropriate changes. Similarly, he said if you want to be respected you need to respect and know yourself first,” she explained.

Building on the messages from his keynote address, Fr Elio’s workshop also acted to affirm the work of the Catechists. As Lucile Yearwood, a Catechist of 16 years explained:

“Fr Elio’s workshop was particularly wonderful and reaffirming for me personally. He reflected on the Word of God, the origin of life and how we, as a people, are called to reach out and find God in those around us; how we are called to a loving relationship with God amidst all that life presents.

“By coming together in this way you feel part of the bigger church where you can live your faith and reach out to others – it’s wonderful. This is the third conference I have attended and it has been very powerful,” she added.

For Toni Winrow, a former teacher of 40 years and trainer of Catechists, the conference for her was “a sheer delight”.

“I’ve had so much fun getting up and getting involved,” she said. “After teaching for 40 years I thought what could I really learn? I am happy to say that these two days have been a real eye opener for me. My soul was in need of further nurturing and I have definitely received that nurturing.”

City and country catechists gather at the CEO to learn more about helping children in their journey to God, and at the same time to grow in their own faith.

A prayerful meditative walk on a colourful mandorla helps catechists to learn how to get in touch with the deeper peace within them. Photos: Phil Bayne - CEO

Bishop Don Sproxton, Fr Eilio Capra and Fr Corran Pike (right) concelebrate Mass in St Michael's Chapel at the Catholic Education Office in Leederville during the Catechists conference.

Happy New Year

One of the many advantages of being a Catholic is that we get a different slant on the New Year, because for us it starts on Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. It is the beginning of our religious year, the beginning of a renewal of our spiritual relationship with God as we prepare for the remembrance of His birth in the person of Jesus on Christmas Day.

Of course, we share with everyone the celebration of the new calendar year on January 1, just as we join in the social aspects of life leading up to Christmas, but the four weeks of Advent give us an ideal opportunity to focus on what matters most in our earthly and eternal lives.

This spiritual New Year’s Day is also a much better time to make New Year resolutions because these ones have a better chance of lasting. Most New Year resolutions last only a few days or at most a few weeks, and that’s chiefly because they rely entirely on our own will. We decide we will do something and we rely on our willpower to do it.

Advent resolutions have many advantages, the first of which is that they come immediately after we celebrate the feast of Christ the King and therefore they are more likely to be related to his will rather than our own. They can also be made in a quiet, more thoughtful time than the hurly burly of the other New Year.

It’s not that we owe our King these resolutions; it is that we can rely on his power to carry them out. We have access to the power of the Risen Jesus, to the Holy Spirit the Lord and giver of life, and to the almighty ever-loving Father.

PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902

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

Indeed, our first resolution ought to be that we are going to give up relying on ourselves and instead to always call on the power of the Resurrection. It is a real power, a real force; it is what St Paul meant when he said he did not live his own life, but Christ lived in him. It wasn’t only that he was trying to do what Jesus wanted him to do; it was that he wasn’t trying to do it by his own power but was relying on the Lord’s power.

It sounds simple and easy, and in a way it is, but at the same time the ‘self’ has a desperate fear of not being important. If I let go and let God, it won’t be me that’s doing anything. It will be as though I’m not here, as though I’ve been annihilated. How will I recognize myself? How will other people know I’m the one who’s done these things? How will God know whom to reward if He’s doing everything Himself? Where’s the kudos for me?

The ego or the self has a desperate need for its own identity, and if that means getting further and further away from God in order to create the illusion of its own importance it will do it. It is not easy for us creatures to recognize or remember that we only begin to discover our true self the closer we get to God.

Even when it comes to getting closer to God, the ego latches on to it and says, “I have to get closer to God” instead of letting God get closer to me. It really is important to ask for the power of God to keep you attached to God, and to do everything you do in life.

In practical terms, the first step is to trust in God instead of in things (including ourself). The ego thinks it can control things, so it has a strong preference for them. Reversing this tendency is often called trusting in divine providence – trusting that God’s goodness will provide the answers. It is also called poverty of spirit, which is a pretty powerful thing because those who have it have the kingdom of God, which is not a place but the power of God at work in their life.

The opposite is “Woe to the rich” – not because they are rich but because “they have their consolation”. Seeking happiness and security in things (and lots of them!) prevents us seeking the real happiness of God’s presence.

Even in our religious life, we can seek to be secure, instead of taking the risk to love and serve God and neighbour in whatever ways we might be called to. One of the traps is to see ‘devotion’ as a cosy feeling, a satisfaction for the emotions and the ego. True devotion is filling the mind with thoughts of God’s goodness and man’s helplessness.

Learning to trust God leads us to giving up the desire to control other people. If God is in charge, the desire to dominate others will be turned into the energy that serves God and neighbour.

The prayers of the Church give us constant reminders of this approach. A good example (one of many) was the Communion Antiphon in the week leading to Christ the King: “It is good for me to be near the Lord and place my trust in him.”

Anyone who can pursue just this much surrender to the power of God in this new spiritual year will have a happy new year, indeed.

letters to the editor

Feed the children

Three quarters of our Australian population are adults. Thats about 15 million people. Just think how many children we would feed if we gave just 5 cents a day. There is no excuse for not feeding the hungry. Five cents a day every day is not too much to ask. Too much is left to too few.

J Collins Carlisle

Give them life

Ineed to say from my heart that I am glad Tony Abbott and the Governor General have brought up the subject of abortion. All over the world people climb trees, and lie down in front of bulldozers to save forests. We have all heard and seen on TV campaigns to save whales and seals and bears etc and rightly so, but who is willing to save the human child? As human life starts from conception, these little helpless lives have only us to protect and cherish them.

I implore you women out there who are worried and don’t know what to do, a pregnancy is after all only 9 months, it is not the rest of your lives, and if at the birth of your baby you decide to have your child adopted out it will be given to people who perhaps can’t have children of their own. If you decide to keep your baby there are many support groups out there.

If you think it is easy for me to talk I have experience in both adoption and keeping a child.

I am now 62 but at age 19 found myself pregnant. I was second eldest of 7 children it was 1961 and you were looked on with disdain, disgust and you were the source of gossip and I didn’t think my brothers and sisters deserved that. I went to SA from WA and lived and worked in a Catholic home until my dear little boy was born. I only got to see him twice. I had him baptised in the Catholic faith and made sure he went to Catholic parents. The reason I’m saying this is because you can stipulate these things. I’m sure in the year of 2004 you can have a lot more to say and also be involved if you so choose.

My daughter had a baby girl when she was 17 and together we have brought her up. She has been a source of great joy for all of us. She’s beautiful, intelligent, funloving, loving and sensible. She turned 15 this week. Take it from a happy grandmother, think long and hard before you make a decision to abort, look what our family would have missed out on.

T Bakx-Hall Ashby

Heading

We know that many thousands of people risked prison and death to shelter innocent victims of Hitler’s and Stalin’s governments.

But we may think that people like us, living under constitutional governments, could never be called upon to go to prison in defence of people who are denied legal protection by their government.

Last week’s front-page story The Record 18 November) of Fr McKay, an English priest who is risking prison rather than surrender for deportation a woman in need of shelter, reminds us that such opportunities for heroism may arise anywhere.

WA readers may not know that a Brisbane man, Graham Preston, is in prison right now, following his arrest after his peaceful presence at a Brisbane abortion centre on November 18, and his refusal to promise, as demanded by conditions for bail, not to do it again.

His court appearance has been set down for 22 February, so he is due to be kept in maximum-security confinement, separated from his wife and his seven children, for three months, including Christmas.

Graham has already served three months in the same prison for the same reason in 2002.

This is in Queensland, where a girl rushed to emergency at the Royal Women’s Hospital from an abortion clinic with severe haemorrhage from a ripped uterus, bowel and fallopian tube requiring 200 stitches prompted from one of the medical staff the response: ‘O no, not another one from there’ - the hospital had already treated eight emergency cases from the same clinic in that year alone (see ‘One mum’s nightmare won’t go away’, Canberra Times 14 November 2004)

But the abortionists who have done all this damage to Queensland women are still at large to do it again. It is the man who objects to this butchery who is put in jail.

Letters indignantly demanding Graham’s immediate release on bail without conditions, may be addressed to the Premier of Queensland, Mr Peter Beattie, at Parliament House Brisbane.

Letters of encouragement to Graham may be addressed to Mr J G Preston, Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, Richlands 4077

Letters of encouragement to his wife Liz and their children may be addressed to 22 Rigby Street Annerley 4103.

Prayers for Graham and Liz, and for the nameless Queensland children on whose behalf the Prestons are making this sacrifice, and for the desperate, confused, and now bereaved mothers of those children, may be addressed to God.

Ted Watt Claremont

A grim outlook

Our Christian society and with it our country are crumbling into disorder. Family life as we once knew it barely exists. The problems are grave. We must feel sorry for our womenfolk who cannot give their attention to family life. The arrival of the pill encouraged them to work, then house prices rose precipitously and they could not stay at home. As a result of this expectant mothers have 70,000 unborn babies killed every year.

Families cannot afford for mothers to be at home. The lack of home life because both parents are working has increased the crime rate. Our young girls are socially encouraged to be sexually involved, as though it were a fun game. De-facto relationships are commonplace. Marriages are fewer and, most of these are conducted in parks and gardens. The spiritual content does not exist.

Some of our politicians agree that homosexuals and lesbians can live in a married situation and even adopt children.

Church attendances are critically low. It is said that between 70 and 90 percent of Catholic school children leave their faith when they leave school.

I am hoping that those of our politicians who are practising Christians will take heed, and

encourage a political awareness of the dangers to our great county.

A pagan society will bring about our downfall.

J Bradley Duncraig

Heading

Your heading ‘Gays muscle in on Communion’ Record’ 18 November missed the point. It should have read ‘Church leader reaches out to Gays’ or ‘Archbishop breaks new ground in welcoming Gays to Eucharist’. The article highlighted an extraordinary demonstration of pastoral concern - hopefully not isolated. Archbishop Harry Flynn of St Paul Minneapolis showed leadership when he permitted a group of openly Gay persons to attend Mass and receive fully in the Eucharist. It was an occasion of mutual trust and love witnessed by the Bishop and his flock.

The opposing faction of well meaning Catholics concerned about sacrilege would have been better off embracing each and every gay person who attended., The harsh and unforgiving attitude of some towards homosexual persons is the real sacrilege.

John Angus Doubleview

THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER, 2004

Culture Profiling the

of Death

The current crisis of Western civilisation, which Pope John Paul II has labelled the culture of death, is not an accident.

It is the fruit of 150 years of toxic philosophy written by more than a score of modern philosophers who were inadequate in their thinking and dysfunctional in their personal lives.

While they claimed to have the power to heal the world of its ills, they succeeded only in sowing confusion and death.

Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker describe the dysfunctional lives and theories of these philosophers in their book "Architects of the Culture of Death", published by Ignatius Press.

DeMarco is an adjunct philosophy Professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, in Connecticut, and Professor emeritus at St Jerome’s University, in Ontario.

He shared with ZENIT how a few individuals’ highly influential thought has fuelled the formation of the present culture of death.

Tracing the roots of the Culture of Death

An analysis of how bad thinking can be very powerful if it offers an easy life, unfettered freedom, and social and sexual irresponsibility.

Dan DeMarco said that he and Ben Wiker shared a deeply felt conviction that something terribly wrong has occurred in the modern world, that people need to know how it has come about and that there is an answer to our present dilemma.

I had been teaching moral philosophy and the history of modern philosophy at St Jerome’s University in Ontario, for many, many years.

I have written five books on the subject of virtue. People commonly talk about the importance of love, but without virtue, there is no conduit through which love can be expressed in any effective or satisfactory way.

It was inevitable, I suppose, that my thoughts would turn from something positive to its antithesis. One defends the truth only half way if one does not expose the lies that assail and conceal it.

I had no difficulty, coming up with 15 “architects,” and though there are more that I could present, I am satisfied with those have chosen. Moreover, they fall into nice categories: the will worshippers, the atheistic existentialists, the secular utopianists, the pleasure seekers and the death peddlers. Ben, my co-author, covered the eight other thinkers spotlighted in our book.

Being a philosopher by trade, naturally I wrote about my architects in such a way that what would be most “telling” about them is that their thought is demonstrably untenable. Their view of life and the world simply does not stand up against any reasonable form of analysis. In no instance do any of the architects indicate that they have a balanced notion of what constitutes a human being.

Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand give so much prominence to the will that there was little left over for reason.

Historians have referred to this triad as “irrational vitalists.”

Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Elisabeth Badinter absolutise freedom to the point where there is nothing left over for responsibility, especially communal responsibility.

The utopianism of Karl Marx, Auguste Comte and Judith Jarvis Thomson is an escape into fantasy.

Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich and Helen Gurley Brown make pleasure, and not love, central in the lives of human beings.

Finally, Jack Kevorkian, Derek Humphry and Peter Singer completely lose sight of human dignity and the sanctity of life.

Another “telling” feature of these

individuals is that their lives were in such disarray. At least three of them Auguste Comte, Wilhelm Reich and Friedrich Nietzscheaccording to various historians of philosophy, were mad. Several of the others exhibited clear signs of neuroses. In many cases they involved themselves in activities that are truly shocking.

St Augustine once stated that the only real justification for philosophy is that, if followed, it can make a person happy. There should be a harmony between a person’s philosophy of life and the life satisfactions that its implementation brings about. Ideas have consequences. Realistic thoughts should be a blueprint for a happy life. Unrealistic thoughts cannot lead to happiness. Philosophy is supposed to be a love of wisdom, not a bromide for misery.

Many readers will be surprised at the absolute discrepancy that exists between the therapeutic aims of the architects and the fact that they have contributed immensely to a culture of death.

Wilhelm Reich thought of himself as a secular Messiah who would cure the world of both its social as well as personal neuroses. He saw himself as the world’s first Freudo-Marxist He earned, more than anyone else, the appellation, “Father of the Sexual Revolution.”

Yet he died in a federal penitentiary, serving time there because he had defrauded the American public by selling them empty boxes that were allegedly constructed to capture a precious form of energy called “orgone.” One critic of Reich said that it was hard to take any man seriously who said, “I realised that I could no longer live without a brothel.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, a few years before his death at age 56, was found assaulting a piano with his elbows before he was taken away to an asylum. He had said of his masterpiece, “Zarathustra,” that, “This work stands alone. If all the spirit and goodness of every great soul were collected together, the whole could not create a single one of Zarathustra’s discourses.”

Freud imagined himself to be a new Moses.

Karl Marx believed himself to be a new Prometheus.

Ayn Rand counted herself the greatest philosopher in all history, after Aristotle. She argued that, “Altruism is the root of all evil.”

She arranged that a 6-foot dollar sign adorn her casket. When she died, she had hardly a friend in the world.

These architects had large egos, but it could hardly be said that they had practical strategies for healing society of its ills.

All of the architects claimed to be humanists and liberators in one way or another. Yet, what they

much rather be bound to a rock,” he proudly asserted, “than be the docile valet of Zeus the Father.”

Nietzsche wrote his first essay on ethics when he was 13. In it, he imagined that he solved the problem of evil. “My solution to the problem was to give the honour to God, as is only just, and make him the father of evil,” he wrote.

“Why atheism nowadays?”

Nietzsche asked. “The father in God is thoroughly refuted.” He also advised, “Love yourself through grace; then you are no longer in need of your God, and you can act the whole drama of Fall and Redemption to its end in yourself.”

Backward thinkers of this kind still have appeal today because they offer the promise of an easier life, but facing the real challenges in life, and not following the path of least resistance, is the way to live authentically and combat the culture of death.

The Sixties

The 1960s reflect not the origin but the culmination of these events and ideas. The Sixties represented, among other things, a sexual revolution in the sense of separating sex from responsibility. They also represented a rejection of authority, including a rejection of fatherhood - the cultural notion as well as the religious notion of fatherhood. The views of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir are very much in evidence during this period.

the promise of the false Messiahs, whose message is more religious than most people seem to realise. We now live in a mass culture with mass taste, mass standards and standardised mass living. Philosophy and religion are regarded with deep suspicion. Wisdom is assumed to be either non-existent or unattainable. Media entertainment is just that - a distraction from reality, but hardly ever enlightening.

Ours is a very superficial culture and we are in love with the unholy triad of immediacy, expediency and simplicity. We allow ourselves to be influenced by the kind of incomplete, poorly thought-out philosophies that we find among the architects of death.

It is easy for anyone to float downstream - even a dead man can do that. But to swim against the current, to discover our authentic identity as loving human beings, takes effort, courage and virtue in many forms. The media continue to lull us to sleep, dangling before our eyes the enticements of early retirement, financial independence, a reduced workweek, exotic vacation packages, material ease and a thousand other forms of somnolence that represent the comfort of death more than the energy of life. And so we are easily exploited by bad philosophies.

Antidote: The Culture of Life

"In terms of death toll and damage to human lives all over the world, Karl Marx stands head and shoulders above all the rest."

preached was a false humanism because it saw human beings in an entirely one-sided way.

Death Toll

In terms of death toll and damage to human lives all over the world, Karl Marx stands head and shoulders above all the rest

Arthur Schopenhauer is important because he is the first to regard the will - malevolent and irrational as a fundamental factor in reality. He had an immense influence on Friedrich Nietzsche, who put the will in the ego, and Sigmund Freud, who placed it in the “id.” Ayn Rand is also influenced by this notion of the will as primary.

Sartre had an immense influence in absolutising freedom, which led ultimately to a purely “pro-choice” philosophy.

Karl Marx exploited the religious impulses of his followers and distorted Christian doctrine for his own anti-Christian ends.

When Marx dismissed religion by his celebrated phrases such as “the opium of the people,” the “halo of woe” and “the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world,” he was not criticising the authentic practice of religion but its shell. Marx reacted, to employ Jacques Maritain’s distinction, to “the christian world,” and not to “Christianity.”

That is to say, he mistook the caricature for the archetype, the mockery for the model. He could have reflected an understanding of the difference between fraudulent and authentic practices of religion. But he dismissed all religion because he judged the orthodox by its heterodox counterfeit. As a result, he did everything he could to prevent authentic religion from flowering.

Marx claimed, “It is easy to be a saint if you have no wish to be human.” He would see religion in nothing other than a negative light. Religion meant little to his own

Sigmund Freud Father of Psychoanalysis

"Freud saw himself as a new Moses, or an anti-Moses, whose destiny it was to abolish the Fatherhood of God."

parents. His father, in order to be successful as an attorney, traded his Judaism for Lutheranism and his family lived as liberal Protestants without any profound religious beliefs. Needless to say, no human would be eligible for sanctity without being thoroughly human. Marx used his own faulty ideology as a measuring stick by which to gauge religion. Christianity, itself, has a better indictment against the attempt to become holy without first becoming human. It stigmatises such a practice as “Pharisaism.”

Masters of Suspicion

In the course of his “theology of the body,” Pope John Paul II refers to the “masters of suspicion,” an expression he borrows from Paul Ricoeur that applies to Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche.

For the Holy Father, the philosophies of this triumvirate typify what St John the Evangelist describes in his First Letter, verses

15 -16, as the “lust of the flesh,” “lust of the eyes” and the “pride of life.” Freud wanted to free the sexual instinct from the restraints of the “superego”; Marx encouraged members of the proletariat to revolt so that they could satisfy their desires for material possessions; and Nietzsche proclaimed an ego too powerful to be held down by moral constraints.

The lust, avarice and pride that these three atheistic revolutionaries espoused have not brought about personal fulfilment. On the contrary, they have led to a disintegration of personality. The fruits of lust, avarice and pride are, respectively, bitter loneliness, spiritual dissatisfaction and abject misery.

John Paul explains that “masters of suspicion” is a most telling phrase because it indicates that a heart that naturally expresses itself in the form of lust, avarice or pride cannot be trusted. The heart of man, as described by Freud, Marx

Friedrich Nietzsche Author of Zarathustra

"If all the spirit and goodness of every great soul were collected together, the whole could not create a single one of Zarathustra's discourses."

and Nietzsche, implodes upon itself and in so doing becomes an object of deep suspicion. The heart is at odds with itself and therefore cannot be trusted. The vital element that is omitted in the thought of these three godless thinkers is a relationship with the Father. As St John writes, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; which is not from the Father, but from the world.”

Man in the modern world, following the “masters of suspicion,” is so estranged from God that he can no longer hear the Father’s integrating message. Without the Father, chaos reigns.

Death of God the Father

Freud, Marx and Nietzsche, whose influence on the modern world is immense, were particularly vehement in their rejection of the Fatherhood aspect of God.

They all believed and taught that the condition for human liberty is the death of God the Father. For Freud, perhaps the most basic tenet of his psychoanalysis is that neurosis results when the severity of the superego is too great. He therefore sought to rid people of the Law and ultimately the Law Giver - that formed the superego. Freud saw himself as a new Moses, or an anti-Moses, whose destiny it was to abolish the Fatherhood of God.

Marx was an avowed enemy of anything divine. “I hate all the gods,” he proclaimed.

His Promethean temperament set him against what he believed to be a fictitious God that first mesmerised and then oppressed the masses. He viewed subservience to a Father figure as a deathblow to one’s own selfhood.

No sacrifice for him could be too great in deposing God in the interest of liberating man. “I would

It was also a period during which many religiously-minded people were trying to create a synthesis between Christian and Marxist thought. It was believed, by some, that Christianity had the love while Marxism had the structure for social change. Christianity and Marxism, however, are disjunctive belief systems and cannot be reconciled with each other.

The ‘60s was a tumultuous period and represented the convergence of the thought of a number of the “architects” we have treated. It was not the origin but the full expression of the modern problem. There are roots that go back to the Great Wars and even to the Enlightenment period - when man began to think that he could live very well without God or religion.

Albert Camus’ phrase continues to haunt the modern world and man’s pretence to self-sufficiency: “Why did the Enlightenment lead to the blackout?”

An Easy Life

The essential appeal that our 23 architects have is that they offer the promise of an easier life. The path of least resistance, or the short cut, has always had great appeal. The modern world would love to separate death from life and enjoy life without death. This is

The culture of death rests on a fragmented view of the person and the eclipse of God, but the culture of life rests on its citizens being unified persons and establishing authentic relationships with God and neighbour. The answer is obvious enough, bringing it about is something else. We need inspiration to accept the real challenges of life. If there is one thing would like readers to take from our book it is that we must understand realistically, without tempting illusions, what it means to be a human being and then find the courage to live in the light of that understanding. A human being is a person who is simultaneously a unique individual and a communal being with loving responsibilities toward his neighbours. In this dynamic tension between the poles of individuality and communality emerges the real person who can form good marriages and assist in providing the basis for a better society.

The culture of life is based on complete ideas of the human person. John Paul II’s personalism is a good place to begin if we want a better understanding of what it means to be a human person. And as challenging as it may be to live as a complete human being, this challenge is necessary if we are to avoid the enticements of the culture of death and live in accordance with the principles of the culture of life.

Karl Marx the Father of Communism

Vista OPINION REFLECTION

diversity matters

■ By Guy Crouchback

Iwas privileged recently to hear an address to a largely Catholic organisation by a very distinguished visiting British Catholic layman, an eminent lawyer, on recent medico-legal developments in British and European law, and how they affect such matters as the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide. These are very important matters and what he had to say I found enlightening. His wife, a notable author, was also present. Meeting them both was an Occasion. I had attended a meeting of largely non-Catholic religious media the previous night and had not been favourably impressed. This, I thought was an evening with some intellectual meat in it.

Came question time. And up popped our inevitable hero from the audience: "Who won the footy?"

So the evening ended.

The crass rudeness to the distinguished visitor and his wife was perhaps less significant than something else displayed - the frenzied loathing for, and terror of, the intellect which is a feature of many aspects of contemporary life.

Now, writing in The Australian recently, anti-British and antiAmerican polemicist David Day claimed as part of his ongoing attack on Australia's traditions that: "The origins of this peculiarly Australian anxiety can be traced to our relatively brief and tenuous occupation of the continent, combined with the feeling of isolation and the sense of being surrounded by hostile forces that come from our geographic position.

"Historically we have dealt with that anxiety by developing an image of ourselves as a martial race, with the supposed superiority of our physical prowess being able to repel any potential invaders. Hence also the undue emphasis on sport in our national life."

This is an example of what Marx called nonsense walking on stilts. No evidence is produced to support any of this complex of statements. There is no evidence that Australia is more sports-obsessed than many other countries. In 1969 El Savador and Honduras went to war over a soccer game, involving artillery and air as well as infantry combat, with thousands of people killed. In the British Daily Telegraph of 6 June, 1998, sports commentator Paul Hayward wrote that for Britain: "Soccer provides the perfect synthesis between pop, sport and the cat-walk.”

“Britain's gleaming all-seater stadiums are the new cathedrals. To turn one's back on the country's

national obsession is to make a cultural outcast of oneself." In the British Spectator of 17 April, 2004, media correspondent Stephen Glover wrote of Britain: "In no other country in the world would the allegedly seedy sex life of a footballer with reedy voice and a ridiculous ponytail be treated as a national event."

The point is not football, or the role of sport in our national life, which if it doesn't waste too much public money is probably really quite a Good Thing. Last time I played football, the other players consisting of my 10-yearold God-daughter, her grandfather, and a dog, I enjoyed it. I love sailing, though not competitively, and

was once a bit of a basket-baller. The point is that there is a time and place for everything, and that includes thought, reason and discussion of important issues, quite apart from questions of common courtesy.

Regarding issues like euthanasia and assisted suicide, our opponents' arguments come ultimately from the second-best intellect in the universe. Shouts of "Who won the footy?" will not overcome them. Intelligent discussion might. Stupidity may be a temporary comfort but it is not a permanent defence.

Tensions can be tug of war

Diversity is everywhere, but sameness also helps us to belong

■ By Fr Anthony Paganoni CS

Why is it that some societies find it easier than others to accept foreigners and strangers?

Let us first observe that the old distinction between ‘sending’ countries (usually poor) and ‘receiving’ societies (usually more affluent) is no longer valid. Today most of the 150 million refugees on our planet are located in Third World countries and there are regular flows of migrants out of the more prosperous countries seeking a change of lifestyle in poorer countries that seem to offer them a more relaxed and attractive future. These movements of peoples, the reactions to them in the countries they move to, and the resulting economic and social scene have created an altogether new ball game, in which new ideas about social cohesion, coexistence and collaboration must be negotiated.

One clue to our initial question is to be found in the way a society perceives itself. Some societies see themselves as homogeneous: sameness is the order of the day and so assimilation is held up to newcomers as the basis for social cohesion. Other countries see themselves as being diverse and pluralistic and being shaped by that diversity. Such societies

The Priest's vocation

will clearly hold a different set of expectations for themselves and anyone else wanting to join them.

The option of sameness has long been regarded as the foundation for social order. In the past, Kings and Emperors laid down common conditions for their subjects. In more recent times, totalitarian regimes in Europe and elsewhere dictated and enforced the terms and conditions for people living together.

Anything different had to be carefully guarded against and controlled.

Assimilation into the dominant pattern of social life was the accepted norm. Historically, however, assimilation has sometimes been accompanied by conflict and disruptive behaviours. Certain features such as skin colour, language, social and religious customs were never eliminated. Indeed no soci-

ety ever existed that was a 100% homogenous! Diversity seems to be stamped across the whole face of the globe in its myriad life forms and races mixing freely with one another.

Yet sameness is a positive factor and essential to any sense of identity. To some degree sameness must be emphasised in order to create the sense of belonging that makes social cohesion possible. In fact, social scientists have long noted that there are limits to how much diversity a community can cope with. In this regard the yearning for sameness must be kept in proper balance with otherness if the multicultural society is to survive.

The over-riding factor for survival must be the belief that all human beings share the same fundamental dignity in the tug-of-war between diversity and sameness.

Students see seminary life up close

Two Perth priests are introducing students to St Charles' Seminary

■ By Fr Corran Pike

Whilst every vocational journey is different, it is true that for many a call to priesthood or religious life is first felt while still at school.

In recognition of this fact, I and Fr Phong Nguyen are taking our newly-confirmed year 7's from Orana Catholic Primary School, along with their teachers Michael Zoethout and Anne DeSouza, on an excursion to St Charles' Seminary, Guildford.

This will help the children to understand the intensive training involved in priesthood. It will increase the exposure of the seminary, give the children the opportunity to meet seminarians and

ask them questions, and allow the children to explore the seminary and find out what it's really all about. The program will consist of some shared prayer, a tour of the seminary, a short outline of the history of seminaries in the church, sport activities, finishing with lunch by the river. Who knows, one day one of these young people may be called by God to the priesthood or the religious life! It promises to be an exciting day for all.

Editor: If other parish priests, school chaplains or religious education coordinators have questions on how this initiative from Willeton is being organized or has met with success, Fr Corran can be contacted on Tel 9332 5992 or by Fax 9310 5264. Single men in the vibrant Willeton Parish/Canning Zone who may be interested in the priesthood may also contact Fr Corran.

Father Corran Pike distributes communion after his ordination in December 2003

Photo: Carole McMillen

Passion saint's long road to recognition

Anne Catherine Emmerich's writings, as transcribed by a perhaps-enthusiastic German poet, were the basis of the controversial Mel Gibson film portrayal of Jesus Christ's passion. But despite a few stops and starts, it was her life and virtues, not the uncertain content of her 'writings' that were the basis for her beatification by Pope John Paul II writes

■ By Andrew Rabel

Without a doubt, the major religious story of 2004 was the release of Mel Gibson’s epic, The Passion of the Christ, the first religious blockbuster in about five decades.

No doubt a contributing factor to its success with the wider populace was the controversy sparked in making the movie; most critics were extremely critical of the project, saying it would have only limited appeal.

Viewers of the film no doubt became aware of scenes that are not recorded in the four Gospels. Poignant examples of this were when Satan tempted Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; and later on when Claudia, the wife of Pilate, offered towels to Mary, so she could mop up the precious blood, after the brutal scourging.

These anecdotes were taken from a book of mystical writings entitled, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, part of the writings of a Westphalian nun,

ANDREW RABEL.

Anne Catherine Emmerich who lived from 1774 - 1824. According to Mel one day this dusty book fell off his bookshelf at home, and when he looked through it, thought this would be a great tale to make a movie from.

During the controversy preceding the release of The Passion, its most contentious element was the charge that the movie was anti-Semitic, in the sense that the chief responsibility for the death of Christ was placed on the Jewish rabbinical authorities, and their followers. In addition, anti-Semitic references have been attributed to Emmerich in her writings.

For instance, in the two volume work, “The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich” by Rev C.E. Schmoeger CSSR, published in 1976 in English by Tan Books and Publishers, she describes a vision of an old Jewish woman who said “Jews in our country and elsewhere strangled Christian children and used their blood for all sorts of suspicious and diabolical practices.” Elsewhere in the books there is a reference to the

French priest. From 1813 onwards, sickness kept her immobile.

According to Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, “"She bore the stigmata of the Lord's Passion and received extraordinary charisms that she used to console numerous visitors. From her bed, she carried out an important and fruitful apostolate.”

After Catherine was confined to her sick bed, she was nourished strictly by Holy Communion, and endured exhaustive investigations by the diocese, and by civil authorities. Her condition aroused not only curiousity but also considerable hostility among unbelievers and rationalists.

Despite the difficulties, she tried to dictate her sacred writings in her low German dialect.

"She bore the stigmata of the Lord's Passion and received extraordinary charisms that she used to console numerous visitors. From her bed, she carried out an important and fruitful apostolate.”

A noted German poet, Clemens of Brentano, heard about her reputation for holiness, and became interested in the difficulties Catherine had recording her experiences. He moved to Dulmen and was her constant visitor from 1818 to 1824, writing down what she experienced. During the process, he converted to Catholicism.

Twice a day, the writer went to visit Emmerich to copy the notes in her journal. He then returned to read what he had written; to be sure he had faithfully transcribed what the invalid dictated.

Catherine died on February 8, 1824 consumed by illness and penances. She was declared Venerable at the end of the 19th century.

Paul Claudel and Raïssa Maritain into the Catholic Church”.

In the English language, both the Dolorous Passion, and the Life of Christ, are available from Tan Books, an American publishing house that is interested, among others things, in tridentine Catholicism. Mel Gibson, is probably the most famous person in the world who regularly attends the Latin Mass, so it is not surprising that he would be inspired by the works of Emmerich.

Following the Second Vatican Council, private revelations, mysticism, stigmata and the like, were largely discouraged in certain sections of the Church. But back in the 1920’s, when Emmerich’s cause was progressing, a number of scholars involved in the cause, had legitimate doubts as to the origins of her writings and the extent of Brentano’s influence. Several of the works contain complex literary devices, which must have assuredly come from the pen of Brentano.

According to Fr O’Malley quoted in the same article, “In Germany experts went to work on Brentano’s papers and library and eventually came to the conclusion that only a small portion of what had been published could safely be attributed to Catherine. They found maps, travel books and biblical apocrypha from which Brentano could have supplied information to embellish the texts. We are almost compelled to draw the conclusion that although the texts could be something more, in their present form they are perhaps best treated as devout fiction or, to put it more harshly, as well-intentioned frauds.”

For these reasons, the Vatican put a halt to the cause of her beatification in 1928. However, it seems that whatever the problems in these writings, there was little doubt about the sanctity of Catherine. After many letters sent to the Holy See, in 1973 the cause was reinstated by Pope Paul VI.

curse Noah put on his son Ham in the book of Genesis, and how his ancestors were the “the black, idolatrous, stupid nations of the world”.

These sorts of references would be offensive to the majority of Catholics, so it is worth placing the matter in its historical context, particularly in view of the fact that on October 3, John Paul II beatified Emmerich.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, she was born on September 8, 1774 in the poor farm village in Flamsche in Coesfeld in the diocese of Muenster in northeastern Germany, and was baptised on the same date.

Beginning at 4 years of age, she had frequent visions of the history of salvation. After many difficulties caused by the family's poverty and opposition to her choice of a religious life, she entered an Augustinian convent at Agnetenberg, in Dulmen, at the age of 28.

After the civil authorities suppressed the convent in 1811, she moved to the home of an emigrant

According to Brentano, “I did not see in her physiognomy or her person the least trace of tension or exaltation," and, "Everything she says is brief, simple, consistent, and at the same time full of profundity, love, and life.”

The Dolorous Passion (the basis for Gibson’s movie) was published a few years after Emmerich died. This was followed shortly by another work entitled The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was claimed that archeologists travelled to the town of Ephesus in Turkey, and found a house that greatly resembled the one spoken of by Emmerich in the book.

The work referred to earlier, The Life of Christ, was compiled from the remainder of Catherine’s extant manuscripts, by a German Redemptorist priest, Fr Carl Schmoeger, between 1858 and 1860. Emmerich’s writings, have circulated throughout the world and have had an immense impact on the spirituality of many. According to Fr John O’Malley SJ in an article in America magazine, “The book brought tears to the eyes of the 19th-century Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins when he heard portions of it read aloud in a Jesuit dining hall, and it helped bring

According to Fr Peter Gumpel SJ, who played an important part in the cause of Bl Mary MacKillop, “She is being judged not on the basis of what she has written but, as always, on the basis of her virtues.” In 2003, a miracle was approved by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which had taken place through Emmerich’s intercession in the 1880s.

There is no doubt though, that in the minds of many, what Anne Catherine Emmerich is best known for are the revelations, the likes of which were the basis for the movie The Passion. But as the Church says, when a person receives a vision or other revelation the subjective will always play a role, and that the person who receives them, must obtain them through a certain filter (of their own conciousness).

[CDF Statement on Third Secret of Fatima, 2000]

Catherine’s writings were subjected to a certain amount of embellishment by Clemens of Brentano. But due to the well-authenticated mystical nature of the charisms attributed to Catherine, she must have received some deep intuitions regarding the central tenets of the Catholic faith, such as the redemptive suffering of Our Lord. How wonderful it is that this legacy has passed on to a very successful Hollywood film. May her beatification cause more people to reflect on those beautiful beliefs.

Andrew Rabel is a Melbourne-based freelance writer and contributing editor to Inside the Vatican magazine..

A likeness of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, stigmatist and visionary beatified by Pope John Paul II this year.

Photo: CNS

THE WORLD

Not all death and destruction

There is much to look forward to in a new Iraq says Archbishop

The Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk criticised Western media “misinformation” about his country and insisted that Iraqis are looking forward to elections “because they will be useful for national unity.”

“It is not all death and destruction,” explained Archbishop Louis Sako in an interview on Tuesday published by Asia News.

“Much is positive in Iraq today,” he said. “Universities are operating, schools are open, people go out onto the streets normally.” He did acknowledge that “where there’s a kidnapping or a homicide the news gets out immediately, and this causes fear among the people.”

Yet, “there is no organised resistance” in Iraq, the prelate insisted. “Those who commit such violence are resisting against Iraqis who want to build their country.

“Iraqis instead are resisting against terrorism and are not carrying out attacks, which instead are the work of foreign infiltrators. I have stressed this before:

Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians and Sudanese have entered Iraq.

Prime Minister Allawi has said this as well. And clearly, there are also Iraqi collaborators who, for money, help the terrorist hide.”

According to Archbishop Sako, to overcome this crisis, Iraqis must “manage themselves.”

“We have a government now that is setting up elections, and

those who want to run for government can do so, freely,” he explained.

The archbishop said that the “war being fought by the terrorists is senseless.” If they want an “open, modern and democratic Iraq” they “can register to vote, negotiate with the new govern-

Call for passive resistance

Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong is calling for passive resistance to the government’s attempt to control all of the territory’s schools, including Church-run institutions.

In a letter sent to supervisors, managers and principals of all Catholic schools, he asks them to ignore the new Education Amendment Ordinance, passed by Hong Kong Legislative Council on July 8, which would give the government control over education and marginalise the Church.

AsiaNews published excerpts of the letter, in which, Bishop Zen asserts that it is not his intention to clash with the government, but rather that he does want to protect educational freedom and “safeguard our Catholic tradition in education.”

In his opinion, freedom in education is threatened by the latest legislative measures passed by the Legislative Council, but in fact put forward by Beijing.

According to the terms of the new ordinance, all subsidised schools must have an Incorporated Management Committee (IMC) by 2010.

The bishop wrote that no school should set up an IMC. But

Hong Kong's Bishop expresses concern over government control of schools

he did call on Catholic schools to strengthen their existing management committees, in order to encourage greater involvement of parents, teachers and alumni who share the same Catholic “vision and mission” in education.

In his letter, he contends that new ordinance “has radically changed Hong Kong’s educational system, which has been very effective for decades.

It has demolished the partnership, and the relation of trust and collaboration between sponsoring bodies and the government.”

Changes have been made that are “unilateral, revolutionary and indiscriminate” without any input from all those involved, he states.

An IMC in effect would become the government’s real partner in education. As the agent responsible before the government for the school, the IMC becomes responsible for educational policies. It is supposed to be made up of repre-

sentatives elected by teachers, parents, alumni and “other independent persons from society at large.”

The government claims that this is a step toward democracy. The Church, in contrast, sees it as a ploy to have its own educational policies shunted aside and its responsibilities and power taken away.

For some missioners, it is “odd that the government, which has been blocking the process of democratisation of Hong Kong society and refusing universal suffrage in the territory’s elections, should be now so concerned about school democracy.”

In Hong Kong, the Catholic Church runs more than 300 schools known for their highquality education.

Many observers suspect that the ordinance’s real intent is to eliminate Catholic and democratic influence and plant proBeijing people in management positions.

ment, and use the instruments of dialogue,” he stressed.

Convinced that the elections in January “will be a starting point for a new Iraq,” the prelate observed that instead “Western newspapers and broadcasters are simply peddling propaganda and misinformation.” “Iraqis

are happy to be having elections and are looking forward to them because they will be useful for national unity,” he said. “Perhaps not everything will go exactly to plan, but, with time, things will improve. Finally, Iraqis will be given the chance to choose.

“Why is there so much noise and debate coming out from the West when before, under Saddam, there were no free elections, but no one said a thing?”

Asked about attacks against Christian churches, Archbishop Sako explained that “Christians can be a tool for balance in Iraqi society and want to build a new and open Iraq which respects everyone’s rights.”

“The war in Iraq is not one of religion. And I would like to say this to terrorists ... we are peaceful and in favour of dialogue,” he said.

Archbishop Sako criticised Europe’s absence from the scene.

“Europe is absent, it’s not out there; the United States is on its own,” he said.

Europe “must help the Iraqi government to control its borders to prevent the entry of foreign terrorists,” but “also provide economic help to encourage a new form of culture which is open to coexistence, the acceptance of others, respect for the human person and for other cultures,” the Chaldean prelate said.

-Zenit

Church has great peace role

Pope encourages Asian church to foster dialogue for peace

■ By Cindy Wooden

The Catholic Church in Asia, including the Middle East, is a small percentage of the population, but is committed strongly to fostering the dialogue needed to bring peace throughout the region, Pope John Paul II said.

“The Church intends to contribute to the cause of peace in Asia, where various conflicts and terrorism provoke the loss of many human lives,” the Pope said on November 19.

The Pope delivered the message when he met bishops gathered in Rome to evaluate responses to the 1998 special Synod of Bishops for Asia and to the Pope’s 1999 postsynod document.

During the synod, the Pope said, the bishops “looked with apprehension on the Holy Land, ‘the heart of Christianity,’ and a land dear to the children of Abraham.”

“Unfortunately, in the past few years, the hot spots of war have grown and it is urgent to make peace, a difficult undertaking that requires the support of all people of

good will,” he said. After meeting the Pope, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem told Vatican Radio the bishops spoke during their meeting about the need for “the conversion of those who proclaim Christ, that is, of us who lead churches, of Christians themselves, of heads of state who call themselves Christian, of all those who have anything to do with Israel.”

Without naming names, Patriarch Sabbah said there are presidents who call themselves Christian, but do not act in a Christian way.

“They pray before making decisions, and yet they decide to go to war,” he said. Christianity will have a positive impact on Asia only when all Christians - those who live in Asia and those whose decisions impact the continent - truly live as Christians, the patriarch said.

A Muslim mosque in Iraq. Archbishop of Kirkuk Lois Sako says there is much hope for Iraq's upcoming elections, despite western media reports of violence.

Pope John Paul II

Burke bows out from US review board

Despite problems, review board work deepened faith, says Burke

■ By Agostino Bono

Although it meant raising “holy hell” with some “recalcitrant bishops,” her work as a member of the National Review Board deepened her faith, said Justice Anne M. Burke.

Her 29-month term as a charter member of the lay board that monitors church compliance with sex abuse prevention policies transformed her into an active Catholic, said Burke, who has been interim head of the board since June 2003.

“Before, I was a ‘passive’ Catholic, not really quite involved in church affairs except through charity events,” she told Catholic News Service. Burke, an Illinois Appellate Court judge, was interviewed while she was in Washington to attend her last board meeting.

When the sex abuse crisis first

broke in early 2002, “it piqued my interest, mostly from the legal standpoint, not necessarily from Catholicism,” she said.

This changed after her June 2002 appointment to the lay board, which works under the bishops, said Burke.

It not only transformed her into an active Catholic but opened the door to all the laity having a more effective voice in church affairs, she said. The board’s role in preventing child sex abuse in the

church “is a grace from God, a mission. It’s a calling,” she said. “Once we embarked on the work of the board, it was the Holy Spirit that kept us going.”

“I believe in my faith and I’m sure Jesus Christ doesn’t want his priests to be conducting themselves as many have over the past 50 years,” she said.

“Nor do I believe Jesus Christ wants his disciples and his bishops to be acting the way they did,” Burke said, citing “mismanagement

and poor decision-making” in the way many bishops handled the situation. Working on the board was also an opportunity to see “great virtue” along with “great sin,” she said.

The virtue belongs to many victims who despite their anger have stayed in the church and to the numerous priests not involved in abuse “who are remarkable men who have nurtured American Catholicism for decades,” she said.

“And I feel so disheartened for them (priests) because they are disheartened,” she said. “As lay people we should reach out to them and encourage them.”

Although board members came from different professions and “different walks of Catholicism,” these differences became irrelevant as the board focused on sex abuse prevention, she said. The work also personally united the members, she said. “We have lived together as a family, become very involved in each other’s lives.”

Burke expressed her appreciation for the deep spirituality shown by other members of the board. “It’s energising and electric as a matter of fact,” she said.

Burke added that leaving the

Traditional marriage is the future of humanity

Instituting forms of gay marriage does not help homosexuals and is “destructive for the family and for society,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said.

Cardinal Ratzinger said recent legislative proposals for gay marriage are part of a larger modern rupture between sexuality and fertility. They mark a radical departure from the conviction that the union between a man and a woman guarantees the future of humanity, he said.

Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made his comments in an interview published on November 19 by the Rome newspaper La Repubblica. The interview dealt primarily with Europe, where several countries have

around the world

Calm appeal

Catholic bishops in the Netherlands appealed for interreligious understanding after the murder of a film director by an Islamic militant sparked a wave of attacks on mosques and churches. “The threat of religiously motivated terrorism is fuelling fears. Dutch society has lost its alleged invulnerability to such things,” the bishops’ statement said. “When the constitutional state is in jeopardy, steps must be taken to ensure security. But we should also remember fundamentalist terrorism is the work of

Gay marriage is no help to anyone says Cardinal Ratzinger

moved toward recognising gay marriage.

Cardinal Ratzinger said this is a trend that “separates us from all the great cultures of humanity, which have always recognised the particular significance of sexuality: that a man and a woman are created to jointly be the guarantee of the future of humanity, a guarantee that is not only physical but also moral.”

The cardinal said the church should have “great respect” for homosexuals as people who “are suffering and want to find their way to live justly.” But creating forms of gay marriage “does not really help these people,” he said.

a small group of extremists. The vast majority of Muslims know Islam preaches only peace,” the bishops said. In an "Open Letter to Dutch Society,” the bishops said they had set up a Council for Interreligious Dialogue to address anti-Muslim attitudes in the aftermath of the November 2 killing of film director Theo van Gogh, a distant relative of impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.

At least five churches and nine mosques were burned after the filmmaker’s murder. Dutch officials said a DutchMoroccan Islamic extremist, Mohammed Bouyeri, shot and stabbed van Gogh after having been angered by his latest

Gay marriage legislation has an effect that goes beyond the homosexual population, Cardinal Ratzinger said. It promotes the idea that, because they may be legal, all such unions are morally acceptable, he said.

The cardinal said gay marriage proposals were just one example of the tremendous changes challenging European culture.

“The low birth rate and immigration are changing even the ethnic composition of Europe. Above all, we have passed from a Christian culture to an aggressive form of secularism that at times is intolerant,” he said. As an example of this intolerance, the

film, “Submission,” which pilloried Muslim views on women.

Evangelisation

On the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s pronouncement on the nature and role of the Church, Pope John Paul II said every Catholic has a duty to evangelise the contemporary world. The recently published “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” offers a useful tool to lay men and women who want to implement Vatican II’s teachings in modern society, he said.

The Pope made the remarks at a noon blessing on November

board will not mean returning to being a passive Catholic. “There is no return,” she said. “I feel that I have an obligation, that I can’t permit anything like this to happen again,” she said.

“The crisis has opened the door for the laity in the United States to become more active, because it’s partly our fault as well, because as passive Catholics - as most of us have been trained to be - this happened right under our noses,” she said.

The bishops “took a great risk” in establishing the board as it gave a group of lay people a platform to change the situation, she said.

“Now if we had met as 12 people, a group of people that got together to talk about the issue, who would we take the information to?” she said. Burke said that other topics she could contribute to as a lay Catholic include fiscal management and education.

Important issues still to be resolved include what to do with guilty priests who are removed from ministry but not laicised and developing standards of proof under church law to help investigators determine the credibility of accusations, she said. -CNS

cardinal cited a case in Sweden where a Christian minister was imprisoned for preaching against homosexuality on the basis of Scripture. -CNS

21 from his apartment window overlooking St Peter’s Square. The Pope said Vatican II had wanted to emphasise Christ as “the light of peoples,” or “Lumen Gentium,” the title given to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which was issued on November 21, 1964.

It presented the Church as a mystery, as a communion of baptised believers, as the people of God, and as a pilgrim moving toward fulfilment in heaven but marked on earth with a real, though imperfect, sanctity.

“’Lumen Gentium’ marked a milestone in the Church’s progress along the road of contemporary society,” the Pope said.

Africa fights abortion

The Kenyan bishops vowed to defeat a movement to legalise abortion in the country.

The bishops released a statement condemning abortion at the end of their five-day plenary meeting in Mombasa.

The bishops said they were firm in their stance and added that the state does not have the power to grant abortion rights.

The bishops also vowed to publicise the opinions of members of Parliament who supported abortion rights; they said elected officials were in danger of losing support from average Kenyans over the abortion issue.

They also warned that any Catholic who helped procure an abortion risked being excommunicated.

Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana’a Nzeki of Nairobi said during a November 12 press conference in Mombasa that the Church would do everything in its power to make sure that the legalisation of abortion fails in the country.

Archbishop Ndingi told reporters that after developed countries legalised abortion they later allowed euthanasia, which opened the doors to many other social problems.

In their five-page statement, the bishops said the right to life was a matter of legal and natural justice; science has proven that the unborn infant is a human being regardless of the circumstances of its conception, they said.

They called abortion “pure murder.”

Cardinal Ratzinger

Justice Anne Burke

Photo:CNS

Come into yourself awhile...

Christian meditation comes from the desert, not eastern mysticism

Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God

By James Finley

HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, 2004). 304 pp., US $19.95

The Language of Silence: The Changing Face of Monastic Solitude

By

Father Peter-Damian Belisle, OSBCam

Orbis Books (Maryknoll, N.Y., 2004). 187 pp., US $16.00

Journey into Lay Monasticism

By Mark Plaiss

St. Anthony Messenger Press (Cincinnati, 2004). 127 pp., US $9.95.

Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the gifts of Monastic Life

By Dennis

Patrick Slattery. JosseyBass/Wiley (San Francisco, 2004). 154 pp., US $22.95.

■ Reviewed by Mitch Finley

Amodern audience for books on Christian monasticism, meditation and contemplation was discovered in 1948 with the publication of Father Thomas Merton’s best-selling autobiography, “The Seven Storey Mountain.” Today that audience has been increased by the many modern readers who are intrigued

Christmas with the Kranks

■ By David DiCerto

Lots of Christmas-themed movies promise to become instant yuletide classics. Few deliver. But the agreeable comedy “Christmas With the Kranks” (Columbia) comes closer to being a sugarplum slam-dunk than any film in quite some time.

Directed by Joe Roth and based on the novella “Skipping Christmas” by uber-author John Grisham, this delightful dose of holly-jolly fun will warm the hearts and tickle the funny bones of all but the grinchiest of grinches.

Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis star as Luther and Nora Krank, a couple whose all-out approach to celebrating Christmas has made them famous throughout their close-knit Chicago suburb.

But this year is different. Their

by the implications of Eastern religions for mainline Christianity. These four books are addressed to that modern audience. James Finley’s new book, “Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God,” draws on many traditional wells for insights. Finley (no relation to this reviewer) is best known for his book, “Thomas Merton’s Palace of Nowhere.” He is a psychological and spiritual counsellor living in California.

Finley says that people who think they must turn to Eastern religions in order to learn meditation couldn’t be more mistaken. Christian meditation is hardly anything new; the practice goes back to Christian men and women who lived in the deserts of Syria and Egypt in the third and fourth centuries and, indeed, can be traced to Jesus himself.

With a clear, informative and captivating style Finley explains for both beginners and the more experienced the basics of meditation and what makes Christian meditation Christian, with frequent references to the New Testament. Often along the way, Finley enriches his discussion by sharing with the reader his own experiences.

This is, without a doubt, one excellent book, a perfect guide for spiritual seekers and spiritual guides as we move into an uncertain 21st century.

“The Language of Silence: The Changing Face of Monastic Solitude,” by Father Peter-Damian Belisle, a Camaldolese Benedictine hermit, is a first-rate discussion of the history and practice of solitude in Christian monasticism. It’s not just a book for celibates living in monasteries, however. Solitude can

- perhaps even should - be a part of any healthy adult Christian spirituality and way of life.

This book is part of the “Traditions of Christian Spirituality” series published by Orbis. Father Belisle covers solitary personages in the Old and New Testaments and down through Christian history even through the 20th century.

Finally, he discusses the solidarity of the solitary with all of humankind: “Authentically lived, monastic solitude breaks through human barriers of isolation and speaks a silent word of universal love and solidarity with all life.”

In “The Inner Room: A Journey Into Lay Monasticism,” Mark Plaiss - a medical librarian living in Indiana who is married and has two sons - shares with the reader his vocation to “lay monasticism.” Plaiss describes his meaning this way: “The lay monastic dons no habit, wears no distin-

daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) is flying the coop to do voluntary service in Peru, dampening their holiday cheer.

With the nest empty, Luther suggests the unthinkable: skip Christmas.

He proposes that they forgo their usual festivities - including their annual Christmas Eve bash - and take a romantic Caribbean cruise instead. Nora hesitates at first, but soon warms up to the idea

of a week in the tropics. The same can’t be said for their militantly merry neighbours, who mobilise to persuade the Kranks to reconsider. Their unsuccessful efforts are spearheaded by ringleader and block busybody Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd).

Refusing to cave to their pressure, Luther pulls a Scrooge and humbugs anything to do with the holiday, putting the kibosh on decorations and nixing his support of

guishing ornament, lives not in a monastery.” While not living in a monastery, the lay monastic manages to live a life faithful to the spirit of monasticism which is a life centred on God, who cannot be separated from neighbour.

“The Inner Room” covers considerable territory, from the author’s journey into the Catholic Church to his discovery and adaptation of the monastic life to lay life. It’s a fascinating, rich and rewarding book with great potential to nourish faith whether the reader senses a call to lay monasticism or not. Not to be missed.

In “Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the Gifts of Monastic Life,” Dennis Patrick Slattery casts a wide net. He recounts his threemonth pilgrimage to 12 Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Buddhist monasteries and retreat centres.

Focused on discovering a deeper understanding of his identity as

a police charity, as well as the local Boy Scout troop’s Christmas tree drive (much to Nora’s chagrin).

As the holiday approaches, the war of wills escalates, reaching a boiling point when Luther refuses to put a large illuminated plastic snowman on his roof like everyone else, inciting a “Free Frosty” rally on his front lawn.

But when Blair calls and tells her parents that she has decided to come home for the holiday - and is bringing her new Peruvian fiance - Luther and Nora must make a mad scramble to deck the halls and whip up some last-minute Christmas spirit. To do it in time, they’ll need to quickly mend some fences and solicit help from the very neighbours they’ve alienated.

Allen and Curtis are at the top of their game and totally at ease with the physical comedy their roles demand.

The supporting cast is equally pitch-perfect; it includes Cheech Marin and Jake Busey as local cops and Austin Pendleton as a mystery guest at the Kranks’ Christmas party.

Though the movie lacks the timeless magic of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” or even

a husband and father, a teacher and believer, as well as the life and death of his father, Slattery’s quest took him to locations in California, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. In each monastery or retreat centre he describes the way of life he finds there and the discoveries he made about his own life and life in general.

The pages fly by, and in the end Slattery discovers the simple yet profound meaning of it all:

“Now I can let all of my childhood wounds evaporate. I no longer need them for support. The feeling of liberation reflects a moment of grace unconditionally given. Forgiveness is at the heart of it - I swear.”

There are several individuals or groups in Perth that teach or promote Christian meditation. A list will be published soon by The Record.

the Rockwellian nostalgia of “A Christmas Story,” it does share one essential ingredient with those two perennial favourites: heart. Unlike several recent yuletide films which serve up sour eggnog, the picture’s overall tone is unabashedly uncynical.

“Christmas With the Kranks” manages to be genuinely sentimental without being sappy, as evidenced by a tender olive branch scene between Luther and his neighbourhood sparring partner (M. Emmet Walsh), whose Christmas with his ailing wife is made brighter by Luther’s generosity.

And while the film makes only passing references to the religious dimension of Christmas, its strong, counterconsumerist message of selflessness, family and coming together as a community clearly embodies the truest spirit of the season. If you’re looking for a holiday treat, you might want to spend this Christmas season with the Kranks. Because of some suggestive humour, comic violence and mildly crude language, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II - adults and adolescents.

Tim Allen stars in a scene from the movie Christmas With the Kranks Photo: CNS

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1 Mass to celebrate 20 years of Priesthood of Fr Francis Ly, MaddingtonArchbishop Hickey

3 End-of-Year Mass for Mercedes College at St Mary’s Cathedral and Blessing of College Memorial GardenArchbishop Hickey

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Launch of Norma Woodcock’s Meditation CD “Jesus”, University of Notre DameArchbishop Hickey

4 Annual Mass of Thanksgiving for Members of Mercy Boards, Victoria Square Mercy ConventArchbishop Hickey Address Chinese Community on the Eucharist, Willetton - Bishop Sproxton

PANORAMA a roundup of events

Sunday November 28

GATE OF HEAVEN

Please join us this Sunday at 7.30pm on 107.9fm or www.radiofremantle.com for more Catholic Global Radio. Live in the studio Miss Clare Pike from the Respect Life Office. Donations for the program may be sent to Gate of Heaven, PO Box 845, Claremont 6910.

Sunday November 28

Eternal Word Television Network

1 - 2 pm on Access 31, The Season of Advent; members of the Brotherhood of Hope, with Fr Francis Mary Stone (Life on the Rock Series). The following week we will present a Meditation on the Immaculate Conception with Fr Benedict Groeschel, followed by a presentation from Abp Fulton Sheen’s award winning series, Life is Worth Living. Your prayers are asked in support of continuing this excellent Catholic program on Access 31. Your financial contribution also would be gratefully accepted. Please send donations to the Rosary Christian Tutorial Association, PO Box 1270, Booragoon 6954. Enq: 9330 1170

Sunday November 28

CHRISTMAS ADVENT PILGRIMAGE

Come join us in prayerful preparation for Christmas. Prepare your heart and home with blessings at Christmas. Come with your family and make it a family day with Mary’s Companion Wayfarers of Jesus the Way at the Schoenstatt Shrine in Armadale Hills. 11.45am Assemble at Armadale Train Station (Arrive by train or drive and utilise the train station parking); 12pm Angelus; 12.05pm Rosary Walk to Schoenstatt Shrine; 12.30pm Pilgrimage Program with Holy Mass and BYO Lunch. 3pm Divine Mercy, Benediction and Rosary Walk to the Train Station. Experience first hand pilgrimage spirituality with its longstanding Christian tradition. Sister Lisette 9399 2349, or All Saints Chapel 9325 2009.

Sunday November 28

ASK FOR AFRICA

an opportunity to thank God for 2004 and join others in making a purity pledge. Commencing at 7pm Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St East Perth, followed by Mass celebrated by Fr Hugh Thomas and pledge ceremony at 8:15pm, St Francis Xavier Church, Windsor St, East Perth. Enq: Grant 0411 133 629 or Bronia 0407 430 478.

Friday December 3

ALLIANCE AND TRIUMPH OF THE TWO HEARTS

All night Eucharistic Adoration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary at St Bernadette’s Church, Jugan Street, Glendalough. Commences 9pm with Holy mass. Hourly rosary, hymns and devotions to the two Hearts. Concludes with Parish Mass at 7.30am. Enq: 9342 5845.

Friday December 3 – 5

ANNUAL RETREAT

Fr Bob Carden OFM will lead the annual secular Franciscan retreat at the Retreat House, North Perth. Strangers welcome. Enq and bookings: Michael 9444 0352 or Mary 9377 7925. Please bring a bible.

Sunday December 5

PIPE ORGAN CONCERT

Four Hands and Four Feet. The J.E. Dodd – St Thomas’ Pipe Organ Concert in Honour of St Cecelia 3.30 pm.

Guest organists Martin and Sandra Rein-St Thomas the Apostle Church, 2 College Road, Claremont. Cost involved.

An offering collection will be taken to support the Pipe Organ Scholarship Fund. Flyers for the Youth Mass and Pipe Organ Concert are also included.

Sunday December 5

50TH ANNIVERSARY

welcome – a great gift to your family would be a time of prayer for them. The usual 5pm Mass will follow.

Sunday December 5

DIVINE MERCY

An afternoon with Jesus and Mary at St Mary’s Cathedral Victoria Square, Perth at 1.30pm. Holy Rosary and Reconciliation. Sermon with Fr Paul Baczynski – The Holy Family- followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Tuesday December 7

CHARISMATIC RENEWAL MASS

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal invites all to our end-of-year celebrations, commencing at 7pm at the Como Parish, (cnr Thelma St/ Canning Hwy, Como) the evening commences with Prayer & Praise, followed by Mass and concludes with a light supper. Please bring a plate. Enq: Pam 9381 2516, or Dan 9360 7400.

Tuesday December 7

MARANATHA INSTITUTE

All present and past students of Maranatha are invited to attend the end of year Eucharist and Graduation Ceremony which will be held at 7pm in the Chapel of St Michael the Archangel, Catholic Education Centre, 50 Ruislip Street, Leederville. Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Don Sproxton and Fr Vincent Glynn and followed by a light supper.

Wednesday December 8

FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Please join us in the hour of Grace between 12noon and 1pm at Holy Spirit Church, Keaney Place City Beach. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the hour, rosary and quiet time.

Thursday December 9

HILLS AND EASTERN SUBURBS MENTAL

HEALTH SUPPORT GROUP

Holy Hour

Exposition, Vespers & Benediction

Sunday evenings 6:30pm – 7:30pm

Holy Hour Norbertine Canons

St Joseph’s Priory Church

Treasure Road Queens Park

Auction/Bring & Buy Sale/Sausage Sizzle 12.30pm, viewing from 9am, at Our Lady of the Mission Parish Hall, 270 Camberwarra Drive, Craigie in aid of 14 million starving Ethiopians. Please come spend on some bargains. Enq: Sheila 9309 5071 or email: askforafrica@optusnet.com.au

Friday December 3

TRUE LOVE WAITS

Catholic WA invites you to our end of year thanksgiving mass and pledge ceremony. It’s

Holy Family Parish, Kalamunda, celebrates the opening of the church. Holy Family Church, corner of Railway Road and Burt St, Kalamunda.10 am Mass celebrated by Archbishop BJ Hickey, followed by light refreshments and a display of photos and memorabilia. A time capsule will be buried on the day. Come join us as we celebrate this happy occasion. Enq or to RSVP 9293 1646.

Sunday December 5

FAMILY PRAYER GATHERING FOR CHRISTMAS

2.30-4pm at the Basilica of St Patrick Fremantle. The Flame Ministry Team will be leading a time for prayer for families as we prepare during this Advent for the celebration of Christmas. All

Kelmscott Meeting 12 noon starting with Lunch at Good Shepherd Parish Hall, 42 Streich Ave, Kelmscott. Enq: Barbara Harris of Emmanuel Centre 9328 8113, Clive 9495 1919 or Charles 9497 7170 (after 6pm).

Sunday December 12

GERMAN SPEAKING MASS

12 noon St Francis Church Windsor St, East Perth. The Mass will be said in German and refreshments will be served after. A Baptism will also take place.

Great Books for Christmas!

Available NOW

Open Embrace

A Protestant couple rethinks contraception

By Sam and Bethany Torode

■ softcover ■ 126 page $20.00 inc postage

SAM AND BETHANY TORODE are freelance writers and graphic designers who live in rural Wisconsin with their son Gideon. Their essays have appeared in Christianity Today, Books & Culture, Boundless webzine, The American Enterprise, and Touchstone.

“The idealism of a young Christian couple here blends with wisdom from the Bible and the Christian past to challenge conventional views on contraception.

Sweetly written and solidly argued, this is a head-clearing and heart-warming read.”

JI Packer Author of Knowing God

Nightmare of the Prophet

By Paul Gray

■ softcover ■ 181 page $28.20 inc postage

PAUL GRAY is a languages and philosophy graduate from Monash University who worked for 11 years as an editor and writer for BA Santamaria’s National Civic Council. Today he is a featured columnist on political and international affairs for Australia’s biggest-selling daily, the Herald Sun. He also presents the weekly current affairs and interview program Gray Matter which is broadcast around Australia and writes regularly for The Record

“Today the world is primed for a re-run of the 20th century’s worst violence. Yet despite all our fear of terrorism, it is a prospect for which the world is almost completely unprepared.”

The Nightmare of The Prophet is a warning to the Western world.

As Communism did between 1917 and 1989, ‘Islamist’ terrorism may yet

KNEEL WITH THE POPE IN PRAYER

NOVEMBER

General: That Christian men and women aware of their vocation in the Church may answer generously to God’s call to strive for holiness of life.

Missionary: That all those who work in the missions will never forget that personal holiness and intimate union with Christ are the source of the efficacy of evangelisation.

Year of the Eucharist

Today my soul is greater than the entire world, because it possesses You, Lord, Whom heaven and earth cannot contain.

– St Margaret of Cortona

I the Lord Am With You Always

Prayers and Meditations for Eucharistic Adoration

See review: Page 14 of this week’s Record

“In this clear and well-written book, the Torodes present a winsome case for the integrity and sweetness of sex au naturel.”

Frederica Mathewes-Green

Author of The Illumined Heart

Arise from darkness

What to do when life doesn't make sense

By Benedict Groeschel CFR

■ softcover

$28.20

inc postage

"Fr Groeschel offers rich wisdom ... and a great deal for us all to learn. He superbly teaches us how to pray in times of trouble. A book to be thankful for".

J I Packer

Author of Knowing God

Real Love

On dating, marriage and the real meaning of sex

By Mary Beth Bonacci

divide the world into two huge warring blocs.

Presenting a synthesis of insights from some of the world’s leading minds, Paul Gray addresses the vital lessons from the world’s experience of past totalitarianism, to expose the real challenge of terrorism today. The problem is not religion, but that we have forgotten history.

■ softcover $28.20 inc postage

MARY BETH BONACCI speaks to nearly 100,000 people every year. She speaks to Catholics across the country and around the worldabout friendship, about relationships, about marriage, about God’s plan for sexuality, and about finding real, honest love.

We have been blessed for over 20 years to have Mary Croft as a parishioner here at Our Lady of Grace North Beach, sharing her special gift of a beautiful voice regularly with the parish community at the 9.30am mass on a Sunday.

Singing with purity that you cannot help but listen, but most importantly it helps you to pray.

Mary demonstrates her own great love of God not only with her beautiful voice, but also with her special warmth and passion.

This she also shares with us through her involvement and participation with other parish activities.

Encouraging all she meets to be assured of God’s great love for us all.

Mary continually spreads her spirituality and love of God through her very personality.

Her two CD’s One Day at a Time and now her new CD I believe in Angels provide great comfort and inspiration to many here at North Beach.

I BELIEVE IN ANGELS is available from The Record for $19.95 including postage. Contact Kylie on 9227 7080 to receive your copy of this remarkable CD by Mary Croft in time for Christmas.