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ETG marks milestone
Priest forgives his attacker
Hundreds flock to New Norcia for conference’s 10th year - Pgs 4-5
Fr Bendotti opens up about his terrifying ordeal - Pg 7
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Saviour has place to lay his head in the hearts of the hopeful
A typhoon survivor decorates a Christmas tree amid the rubble of destroyed houses in Tacloban, Philippines on December 17. Typhoon Haiyan reduced almost everything in its path to rubble when it swept ashore in the central Philippines on November 8, killing more than 6,000 people, and displacing more than 4 million. PHOTO: CNS/ERIK DE CASTRO, REUTERS
As thousands pay homage on Pope’s birthday, the poorest get special invite
Homeless top Pope’s guest list AS PART of a low-key celebration of his 77th birthday, Pope Francis had breakfast with three people who live on the streets near the Vatican. A small dog, belonging to one of the homeless men, was also on the guest list. The Pope started the day with his usual morning Mass held in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence where he lives. However, he requested that the Mass be attended by the residence staff “in order to create a particularly family atmosphere for the celebration”, the Vatican press office said in a written statement on December 17. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, represented the world’s cardinals at
the Mass, and Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, attended. After the Mass, all those present sang “Happy Birthday” to the Pope, the Vatican statement said. The Pope then met with everyone, including three homeless men who were brought there by Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner. The Archbishop invited the first group of men he had found early that morning sleeping under the large portico in front of the Vatican press hall on the main boulevard in front of St Peter’s Square, according to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. “Would you like to come to Pope
Francis’ birthday party,” he asked them, reported the paper. The men, in their forties, were from Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic. They loaded all their belongings in the Archbishop’s
toward the sun like the Church turns toward its sun, Christ, the Archbishop explained. The Pope invited the men to have breakfast with him in the residence dining room, where they talked and
The Pope invited three homeless men to have breakfast with him in the residence dining room, where they talked and shared a few laughs. car; the dog rode in the middle. When they got to the residence, they waited for the Mass to end, then greeted the Pope. Together with Archbishop Krajewski, they gave the Pope a bouquet of sunflowers, because they always turn
shared a few laughs. One of the men told the Pope, “It’s worthwhile being a vagrant because you get to meet the Pope,” the paper said. The Pope was scheduled to carry out a normal workday, the Vatican
said. Some Vatican offices paid homage to the Pope in a variety of ways. A group of children receiving assistance from the Vatican’s St Martha Dispensary, a maternal and paediatric clinic, had given the Pope a surprise birthday party on December 14 marked with singing, a real cake with candles and a sweater as a gift. When presented with the cake, the Pope blew out the candles with the children and joked, “I’ll tell you later if it’s good or not.” Pilgrims gathered for the Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square on December 15 also sang “Happy Birthday” as they waited for the Pope to appear at the window of the apostolic palace.
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December 25, 2013
Christmas comes to life in Perth city By Matthew Biddle THOUSANDS of people gathered in Perth city on December 17 for the first of four evening nativity concerts held in Forrest Place. Christians and non-Christians brought their families and friends to see the story of the birth of Christ brought to life in a onehour performance that included 128 cast members and numerous animals. The crowd included many young children, as well as a strong contingent of the older generation, many of whom were dressed in Christmas-themed attire. Even the walkway above Forrest Place was filled with eager spectators, as the Christmas story was told through music. Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) students Miranda Macpherson and Jacob Dibb, who played Mary and Joseph, were among the many actors from the Australian Performing Arts Network who took part in the performance, some of whom travelled from as far as Broome, Carnarvon and Kalgoorlie. It was the largest nativity concert the City of Perth has held, and crowd figures appeared to be up on last year’s average of 3,000 per night. Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said the event grows in popularity every year. “Regardless of faith, the thing about this story that speaks to such a broad range of people is its message of peace and goodwill, humanity, and celebrating togetherness,” she said. “The nativity really is the heart and soul of the Perth City Festival of Christmas and because it celebrates the true spirit of Christmas, for many people it’s the main event of the season.
THE BENEDICTINE monks of New Norcia will kick off a multitude of bicentenary celebrations with Ecumenical Vespers at St Mary’s Cathedral on Tuesday, March 4. Celebrations throughout 2014 will mark the bicentenary of the birth of New Norcia’s founder, Dom Rosendo Salvado. In a media statement last week, the monastery described its founder as a “missionary and advocate for Aboriginal people, abbot, bishop, educator, landholder and a major figure in the history of Western Australia”. The bicentenary will provide an opportunity to share his story and to encourage a range of voices and a variety of perspectives, especially from Aboriginal people who may also wish to commemorate this important milestone. The first public event, Ecumenical Vespers, will be held at 6.30pm on March 4. Vespers is a prayer which features in the everyday life of Benedictine monks, and religious men and women, as well as many diocesan priests and lay people throughout the world. As part of the bicentenary, the monks are very enthusiastic about sharing this ritual with as many people as possible. For more information, contact (08) 96548018 or communications@newnorcia.wa.edu.au.
“No matter how many times I see the nativity, I’m always impressed by the nuances that different per-
“Because the Nativity celebrates the true spirit of Christmas, for many people it’s the main event of the season.” formers each year add and just how they bring the story to life.” The nativity concert has been held in Perth for decades, and is part of the Perth City Festival of Christmas, which runs for seven weeks in the lead-up to Christmas.
Catholic clarity for complex times Top and above, 128 performers, including Miranda Macpherson and Jacob Dibb, took part in the City of Perth’s nativity concert. PHOTOS: MATTHEW BIDDLE
Holy Family first century December 29
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The Holy Family consists of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and this feast honors their life together, beginning in Bethlehem and then moving to Nazareth, Egypt and back to Nazareth. The church has chosen to commemorate their family life as a model for all Christian families. The feast recognizes the humility of Jesus, Mary’s virtue and Joseph’s steadfastness, along with the obedience of all three to God’s plan for them in salvation history. Traditionally celebrated in January, the feast has been celebrated since the Second Vatican Council on the first Sunday after Christmas. If there is no Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s Day, it is celebrated Dec. 30.
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Wednesday 1st - White MARY, MOTHER OF GOD (SOLEMNITY) 1st Reading: Num 6:22-27 The Lord’s blessings Responsorial Ps 66:2-3, 5-8 Psalm: Everlasting blessing 2nd Reading: Gal 4:4-7 Adopted children Gospel Reading: Lk 2:16-21 Everyone astonished
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READINGS OF THE WEEK
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Monks mark Salvado’s birth in 2014
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Saturday 4th - White 1st Reading: 1 Jn 3:7-10 To live a holy life Responsorial Ps 97:1, 7-9 Psalm: Justice and fairness Gospel Reading: Jn 1:35-42 Where do you live?
Sunday 5th - White EPHIPHANY OF THE LORD (SOLEMNITY) 1st Reading: Isa 60:1-6 The glory of the Lord Responsorial Ps 71:1-2, 7-8, 10-13 Psalm: Every nation will adore 2nd Reading: Eph 3:2-3, 5-6 Mystery now revealed Gospel Reading: Mt 2:1-12 We saw his star Monday 6th - White 1st Reading: 1 Jn 3:22-4:6 You are from God Responsorial Ps 2:7-8, 10-12 Psalm: You are my Son Gospel Reading: Mt 4:12-17, 23-25 A light has dawned Tuesday 7th - White ST RAYMOND OF PENYAFORT, PRIEST (O) 1st Reading: 1 Jn 4:7-10 God is love Responsorial Ps 71:1-4, 7-8 Psalm: Justice will flourish Gospel Reading: Mk 6:34-44 Jesus’ compassion Wednesday 8th - White 1st Reading: 1 Jn 4:11-18 Love one another Responsorial Ps 71:1-2, 10-13 Psalm: He will save the poor Gospel Reading: Mk 6:45-52 Do not be afraid! Thursday 9th - White 1st Reading: 1 Jn 4:19-5:4 Begotten by God Responsorial Ps 71:1-2, 14-17 Psalm: Unceasing prayer Gospel Reading: Lk 4:14-22 Jesus wins approval Friday 10th - White HOLY NAME OF JESUS (O) 1st Reading: 1 Jn 5:5-13 God’s testimony Responsorial Ps 147:12-15, 19-20 Psalm: Children blessed Gospel Reading: Lk 5:12-16 You can cure me
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Journey reaches new phase for Fr Ted In a ceremony that was moving for the candidate and the community alike, Deacon Edward Wilson was ordained a Catholic priest for the Ordinariate on Saturday, offering his own heartfelt words of thanks to the people and to God.
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he Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross has a new priest. Deacon Edward Wilson was ordained a Catholic priest by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB before the Ordinariate’s leader, Monsignor Harry Entwistle, at St Columba’s Church in Bayswater on December 14. “It’s great for me to be here after such a long journey. It’s been a traumatic journey at times but a wonderful journey; a journey through un-faith, through to complete faith,” he said at the conclusion of Mass before his wife, extended family, and the wider church community. “It’s been a lesson for me, to sit with other people and to study Lumen Fidei at this particular time and to know deeply what it means, what the word really means,” Fr Wilson said, referring to groups established at the Ordinariate parish of St Ninian and St Chad, Maylands, to study the first encyclical of Pope Francis. “And today I join with you all in being a priest of the Catholic Church and pray that my ministry to you will be a faithful one. “I never thought at this time of life that I would become a priest of the Catholic Church. So often, great grace is given and I thank God for that grace, for the opportunity to minister to you people in the love of
Mgr Harry Entwistle during the laying on of hands at Deacon Ted Wilson’s ordination to priesthood. R HIINI
God. “I thank you all for being here, being part of this, for me, a great service. I hope you’ll join us afterwards. I’d like to talk to you and just to know some of you personally,” Fr Wilson said. Fr Wilson also thanked the seminarians in attendance from St Charles’ Seminary where he has received additional formation over the past year. Fr Wilson will serve as assistant priest at St Ninian and St Chad in Maylands.
Above, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB prays after anointing the hands of Fr Ted Wilson during his ordination to the Catholic priesthood in Maylands last Saturday morning. PHOTO: ROBERT HIINI
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Above, Mgr Harry Entwistle, Fr Ted Wilson, Archbishop Costelloe, Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey and Bishop Don Sproxton. PHOTOS: R HIINI
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December 25, 2013
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10 years on and Embrace the Grace is still a winner
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The Record’s Juanita Shepherd joined more than 100 Catholic youth for five days of faith-filled joy, laughter,
T ALL STARTED at the Bindoon Bakery, the traditional pit stop for anyone who was driving down to the monastic town of New Norcia for WA’s largest Catholic youth conference, Embrace the Grace (ETG). The five-day retreat starting on December 11 saw more than 100 people aged between 16 and 31 travel from all parts of the country, including Bunbury, Adelaide and even Italy to attend the 10th anniversary of ETG, an initiative of the Respect Life Office. Despite the searing heatwave, nothing could stop the Titanicthemed skit, Disney songs in Mandarin, the guest appearance of the Beluga Whale who was secretly one of the MCs, Kamila Soh, pop music from Queen to Taylor Swift, to tell the story of the saints and a series of in-depth talks tackling issues faced by youth in secular society. What are you supposed to say to a friend who is gay? Or how do you tackle an addiction, whether to coffee or pornography? In a society where ‘I can do whatever I want’ is a widely prevalent attitude, ETG opened the minds and hearts of the youth to the true meaning of freedom. Inspired by the words of Blessed Pope John Paul II, the theme for ETG 2013 was Called to Freedom, chosen by organiser Eliza McKay who believed Pope John Paul II associated freedom with the opportunity to choose to act in love and service of others, and in the process allowing individuals to become the best they can possibly be. ETG brought out the very best in everyone, from the logistics team who helped the conference run smoothly, to Beatrice Young in charge of first aid and ever ready with a cold bottle of Gatorade to combat dehydration.
and prayer recently, as the quiet monastic town of New Norcia came alive for the Embrace the Grace conference.
ETG participants Grace Tan, Vincent Haber and Rita My, sporting shirts made for the five-day retreat. The conference was first held in 2004, and is an initiative of Perth’s Respect Life Office. PHOTOS: JUANITA SHEPHERD; MILLER LOKANTA
It also brought out the best of the young men and women on the retreat, particularly after the highly anticipated ‘Masculinity and Femininity’ talks, ending with the boys gallantly serving the girls dinner and in return the girls writing ‘Thank you’ cards for them. The ‘Masculinity and Femininity’ talk saw the males and females split
Catholic Archdiocese of Perth EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES The Archdiocese of Perth is seeking to expressions of interest for the following positions: CASE MANAGER -‐ PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS RESOURCE OFFICE 6 month fixed term full-‐time appointment (significant part time would be considered) The Case Manager assists the Director with the application and monitoring of the Towards Healing protocol, provides support to the Director of the Professional Standards Office and assumes responsibility for specific cases. The successful applicant will be required to maintain the highest level of confidentiality, competency in managing secure databases, have advanced Microsoft Office Suite and Outlook, together with superior written and verbal communication skills. DIRECTOR – DAYDAWN ADVOCACY CENTRE Permanent Full-‐time or Part-‐time 0.7FTE Position Daydawn Advocacy Centre is looking for a person who is able to create a safe and trusting environment for clients and has an understanding of Indigenous issues in WA. The Director will co-‐ ordinate and supervise the work of the advocates and volunteers in the agency and lead the day to day operations of the agency. The successful applicant will have a recognised qualification in social sciences, advocacy or social work and a working knowledge of and commitment to the Catholic Church. DIRECTOR – JUSTICE, ECOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE Permanent Part Time 0.5 FTE Position This newly created office is seeking to employ a Director. The Director’s role will include developing policies based on the Church’s Social Teaching, promoting social justice and human rights through solidarity and developing parish-‐based programs and wider networks to address injustice, poverty and oppression. ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT – ARCHDIOCESAN FINANCE OFFICE Temporary – 2 days a week, 6 month fixed term contract with possible extension to 12 months. As part of the Operations Team of the AFO the Administration Officer works with the Support Officer and the Manager Corporate Services (MCS) to provide support to nominated Archdiocesan agencies and the Manager Compliance and Suppliers to assist with any pre FARM review compliance requirements. Prospective Applicants for these three positions will have an understanding of the ethos of the Catholic Church and appropriate qualifications. For further information please contact Julie Williams, Manager of Corporate Services on 08 9427 0300. Applications must be received by Wednesday 8 January 2014 for all four vacancies. For Job Descriptions, Conditions of Employment and submitting applications please email: tamarar@archdiocese-‐perth.org.au
into two groups; the former went with guest speaker and founding member of ETG, Paul Kelly and seminarian Grant Gorddard; the latter assembled in a separate room to listen to Sr Bernadette Pike MG, after initially panicking due to a wasp which refused to leave until it met its fate at the hands of “Sister B”, as she is sometimes fondly called. “During the talk we learnt that girls and guys are different,” Davide Corti told The Record. “We should not view women as an object but it is important to respect them.” Mr Corti, from the picturesque town of Como in Italy, has been in Perth for nine months. One of the first things Mr Corti did was find himself a group of Catholic friends at the Catholic Youth Ministry’s Holy Hour on Wednesday evenings. “Eliza asked me if I wanted to be a group leader,” he said. “I was surprised and happy so I got involved.” The participants of ETG were split into four groups that were named after Sts Aloysius Gonzaga, Edith Stein, Augustine of Hippo and Jose Maria Escriva. Mr Corti said he liked the fact that ETG focused on the individual
Left, Sydney’s Patrick Langrell was one of several guest speakers at the conference. Above and top, the ETG Ball provided the social highlight for many participants. PHOTOS: JUANITA SHEPHERD; MILLER LOKANTA
and that every person could share their experiences with each other in the smaller groups, which were called community groups. “There are so many good things about ETG,” Mr Corti said. “Firstly, I could pray and I also experienced important relationships with other people, and although for everyone it will be different, when everyone goes home they will be richer. It is like a seed put into the heart, you don’t know when the fruit comes but it will.”
Mr Corti, just like the others at the conference, also enjoyed the speakers who he said were fantastic as they got to the heart of the issues many Catholics face today. “They are like messengers of Christ,” he said. “They make the speeches relatable and specific to young people.” The guest speakers included father of seven, avid surfer and religious coordinator Richard Sellwood, seminarian Grant Gorddard, Respect Life Office Executive Bronia Karniewicz, Paul Kelly, Sr Bernadette Pike MG, founder of Sydney’s Theology on Tap Patrick Langrell, and Fr Peter Meo. Olek Stirrat, who travelled from Adelaide for the event, said Sr Bernadette was his favourite speaker. “She inspired me the most and when I knew she was going to give a talk, I knew it was going to be good,” he said. However, ETG wasn’t without its challenges. Even before the heatwave struck it seemed as if things weren’t going according to plan, but miracles, whether big or small, happened along the way. David Proudlock and Cynthia Sasongko were the group leaders for the older participants at ETG. Prior to the conference both tackled ill health and when they
found themselves on their leaders retreat in November in Toodyay neither of them could find a saint for their group. Mr Proudlock and Miss Sasongko had a list of saints but none seemed quite right; second on the list of names was St Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of the youth. As they were sitting in the room trying to decide what to do, both found a statue of St Aloysius in the corner, placed quite high so that he was looking down at them. In that moment they knew they had found their saint. “By the grace of God and St Aloysius we were able to have a great ETG and win the cup,” Miss Sasongko said. Although the St Aloysius team didn’t win the chant, losing out to the St Edith Stein group who wowed the judges with their rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, by changing the lyrics to I Want to Become a Carmelite Nun, they did win the coveted John O’Reilly cup, named after Fr O’Reilly, loved by all and ever ready for a chat even in 40 degree heat. They battled against the other teams, winning the treasure hunt, apple-bobbing, collected the most amount of Cheetos on their faces, which stuck to the whipped cream that was enthusiastically sprayed
on three members of the team, and were the first to find all 11 mints hidden in the flour using only their mouths. Religious education coordinator at Aquinas College and regular guest speaker at ETG Paul Kelly said the conference is a positive example of evangelisation. “It brings young people into a
The St Edith Stein group wowed the judges with their rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun by changing the lyrics to I Want to Become a Carmelite Nun. direct relationship with the Church in a non-threatening environment,” he said. “It is a very popular event which is evident by the longevity of it being in its 10th year.” Bishop Don Sproxton and Fr O’Reilly concelebrated the 10th Anniversary Mass on the final day followed by a special lunch, which saw the return of former ETG participants and their young children.
The last day, although joyful, held a certain bittersweet quality that always comes when it is time for goodbyes but there was a message of hope from Fr O’Reilly. “I go home with a new confidence in the Church,” Fr O’Reilly said to the participants. “We are doing what Pope Francis said, getting out of the sacristy. “The priests are going among the people and all of us have a closet around us, but now is the time to be proud of our faith, be happy about our faith, and we all have a vocation to spread the faith.” On the last day the young men and women exchanged contact details, promised to add their new found friends on Facebook and hugged each other tightly before piling into their cars or getting onto the bus that would take them home. As the last vehicle turned out of the gates onto the main road, New Norcia lay behind them, the tall and majestic home to the Benedictine monks, slowly disappearing from view, but each participant from the youngest to the oldest carried the memories, friendships, faith and trust in God with them; and although goodbyes are hard there was still one more stop where catch-ups and hugs occurred all over again, the Bindoon Bakery.
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December 25, 2013
Farewell to real life Father Christmas Dennis the teacher has been a real life Father Christmas in the lives of the many children to whom he has ministered as a teacher, mentor and friend over many years, as this anonymous and very grateful author reports.
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HEY SEE him here, they see him there... Over the last six years, the folks of Kalgoorlie Boulder have become accustomed and acclimatised to that bloke in the wheelchair that becomes a motorbike. If his beard were a little fuller, with a slight stretch of the imagination the ankle biters might think it was Santa zooming down the highways and byways of the goldfields metropolis. If the truth be known, Dennis Kennedy has been more than a Father Christmas to many a child and teenager for much longer than the usual span of belief for the one in the coca cola-coloured outfit. He has a non-mythical goodwill that he has shared seven days a week with the students entrusted to his care over the many years that have passed since he was told his injuries would preclude him from becoming a teacher. “What schools operate seven days a week?” I hear you ask. It is not the school that is on call for each weekend’s sporting fixtures, for each concert, play or parade. It is Dennis the teacher. A little like his role model, the man at the centre of the Gospels; the referendum would have him classified as employed teaching but, like his mentor, to him it is a way of life, a true calling, a vocation. His care, concern and interest is not determined by bells, clocks, timetables or term calendars. Look up teacher in Pictionary and there is that smiling face, perhaps a little too cheeky for a man of his considerable years. It was once said there is no greater legacy for a person but that a child was better for having known them. I wonder what would happen if Dennis was aware of the profound effect he has had on such a multitude, nay hordes, of youngsters over the term of his service to our children all over Australia, but most recently in the hinterland of Western Australia. I can’t help but think his embarrassment might manifest itself in such a way as to see him a little redfaced and looking a little more like Santa. As the discussion swings again to the season of goodwill, the tag Fr Christmas has caused me to stop and ponder. Dennis has been in a wheelchair from shortly after he left his teens. He has no children to call him dad, but to how many has he been the significant male as they blundered through their teen years. The pun on the tip of my tongue too tempting to avoid: this man of inspiration on wheels has become the roll model of all role models. This Paralympic medallist and ex-drummer, who swapped to guitar despite the nerve damage which should have eliminated chord formation, has inspired many beyond and away from the classroom. My favourite philosopher has a theory: once we own our own behaviour and accept the consequences that it brings, we can call ourselves a man (or woman). How easy would it have been for Dennis to play the “woe is me card” as he awoke all those years ago to be told he no longer had the use of his legs? How great would have been the temptation to call out and ask God “How could You let this happen to me?” How many of us have and how many would have except that they heard Dennis say: “I was the one driving the motorbike. I chose to drive faster than the conditions permitted. It is no one’s fault but mine and I need to get on and make the best of the situation into which I have put myself ”. Folks, Dennis Kennedy has done
Former Paralympian, Dennis Kennedy, astride his 250cc, the sound of which will be missed in Kalgoorlie Boulder where Mr Kennedy has made such a stellar impression through many years of dedicated service. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
so much more than even he might have hoped to expect with that situation. More importantly, what he has done, he has done for all those who have come under his spell. On behalf of all those who have succumbed to the cheeky smile and the irascible charm; on behalf of those fascinated by his boundless knowledge and the stories he has shared; on behalf of those who felt safe and secure because they knew that they could always call
trot out onto the plasma screen atop my keyboard when I suddenly stopped and thought... teacher. Yes, Jesus was a teacher. He was at the top of the bumper board. Like Dennis, many aspired to walk the path of the ultimate teacher. The big difference is that Dennis, ever caring, ever giving Dennis, climbed so much closer to that pinnacle. Thank you, Mr Kennedy. Thank you, friend. Thank you, Dennis. Thank you, teacher.
“He has no children to call him dad, but to how many has he been the significant male as they blundered through their teen years.” on him even if they never did; and on behalf of those who felt the sting of his blatant honesty which may not have been what they wanted to hear; on their behalf, but especially from one who has oft been tempted to drop the baton, pull down the shingle and crawl off under a park bench except for his inspiration, I say: “Thanks Mr Kennedy. Thank you for being our teacher.” I had a litany of roles that I was about to
Dennis Kennedy leaves Kalgoorlie at the end of the year. The 250cc motor will no longer echo down the alleyways. If you see him about town, toot, wave, say thank you, but, most importantly, smile, let him see the same gift that he brings to his classes and those he meets, not just around Christmas time, but each and every seven days of each and every week of each year. Author - Anonymous and Grateful
Kalgoorlie Boulder teacher Dennis Kennedy will be greatly missed when he moves on at the end of this year. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
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therecord.com.au December 25, 2013
Fr Wayne Bendotti says he’s using his recovery time to reflect on his life and ministry, one month after being assaulted and robbed in his Bunbury home.
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PHOTO: MATTHEW BIDDLE
Priest shows Christ-like forgiveness One month after an intruder broke into his home and assaulted him, Fr Wayne Bendotti says he not only forgives his attacker, but prays for him too. The priest’s charity and forgiveness is truly remarkable, as Matthew Biddle explains...
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YING on the floor with a broken jaw and fearing for his life, Fr Wayne Bendotti’s thoughts were not focused on his own pain, but on the grief that his family and friends would suffer if he was to die. A month after he was viciously assaulted and robbed by an intruder inside his Bunbury home, Fr Wayne spoke openly to The Record about the incident and the impact it has already had on his life. With an extraordinarily unselfish and charitable attitude, Fr Wayne says he has no anger towards his attacker but, rather, empathy at his clearly troubled life. “I didn’t feel anger, and that was kind of reassuring because... you never really know how you’re going to be until something dramatic happens,” he says. “I couldn’t help but think about how blessed I’ve been to be surrounded by family and community and people that have enabled me to have the life that I have, and who knows what kind of world this bloke has grown up in that’s led him to become this.” As a way of coming to terms with the incident, Fr Wayne decided to put pen to paper and write a letter to his attacker. The words convey an incredible level of charity and forgiveness: “I detest what you’ve done. I abhor your actions. I resent the life choices you made to reach this point, but I forgive you,” part of the letter reads. “I let you go, I let you be. I bear you no ill will, I feel no malice or hatred towards you. For you too, despite your reprehensible actions are a child of God. I feel sorry for
you and for the life circumstances that may have been beyond your control which led you to do what you did to me. “I pray that the Lord will touch you, that you will find a way to the God who loves you just as he loves me. I pray that your pain will be healed and that your heart be filled with love and peace, that you will never again have to resort to violence. I pray that you will be surrounded by people and circumstances that will enable you to move from violence towards peace.”
“I started walking into my bedroom and there’s a bloke there with my sports bag, shoving stuff into it,” he recalls. “He saw me and he came running straight at me and grabbed me, yelling ‘Keep your head down’. He started rummaging through my pockets, and took my keys and my mobile phone.” After being punched in the jaw, Fr Wayne feared for the worst. “I was waiting for him to put the boots in. I was on the ground and I thought I was gone,” he says. “Strangely... I felt completely at
cash, where’s the safe,” Fr Wayne says. “I said ‘Mate there’s no safe, I’m just a simple country priest, this is my home, you’ve got all my valuables’.” Fr Wayne says the erratic, irrational behaviour of the intruder could have been due to drug use, and as such he was complicit with all of the intruder’s requests and made no attempt to retaliate. He even explained to the intruder how to start his new Toyota Camry Hybrid, which was later found burnt out in bush land.
I pray that the Lord will touch you, that you will find a way to the God who loves you just as he loves me. I pray that your pain will be healed and that your heart be filled with love and peace... ” - Father Wayne Bendotti The November 15 robbery and assault occurred just before 10pm, when Fr Wayne returned from his office to his residence at the Bunbury Cathedral precinct, where he has lived for the past year. After noticing a light on and several items out of place inside the house, Fr Wayne realised he had been broken into, but wasn’t expecting the intruder to still be inside the house.
peace with that thought. “But the thing that really hit me then was how devastated family, friends, parishioners, all the people that I’ve ever known would be when they find out how it happened, and I felt completely gutted at the thought.” Thankfully, the intruder left Fr Wayne to search for more valuables, but he was soon back. “He was asking where’s the money, where’s the
Before he left, the attacker punched Fr Wayne a second time. “He gave me a full-blooded hit and I literally flew across the room,” he says. “I felt my feet go off the ground. It was really slow-motion, it was weird. I could feel teeth pressing onto the side of my tongue. “Then I just lay there and again I thought he was going to finish me off, but he didn’t. When he left I
was thinking ‘Thank you Lord’ as I heard him drive off in my car.” To help repair two clean breaks, Fr Wayne had three plates inserted into his jaw and, while his physical recovery is progressing well, it hasn’t been without its challenges. For eight weeks, the 42-year-old will be unable to chew, and initially he couldn’t smile or talk without pain. Doctors expect Fr Wayne’s jaw will be fully healed in about three months. “I’m fortunate that all the stitching was inside the mouth, and so I’m not going to have to look at something in the mirror for the rest of my life that’s going to take me back to that time, I’m really grateful for that,” he says. While he admits the mental trauma of the attack will take longer to get over, Fr Wayne is confident there will be some positive outcomes of what was a frightening experience. “Despite the obvious negatives, I feel that this period in my life will be a major growth time, I’m hoping a time where maybe the direction for the next little stage of my journey becomes a bit more clear too,” he says. Since the attack, Fr Wayne has spent time staying with family, reflecting and recovering in a peaceful environment. Although he’s unsure when he’ll return to Bunbury and where he will live, Fr Wayne says his spirits have been uplifted by the overwhelming messages of support he has received. “That’s been one of the lovely blessings that’s come out of this, I’ve got cards from people that I actually don’t know... it’s been just beautiful,” he says.
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C R O S S W O R D ACROSS 2 James is followed by 1 ___ 7 Calais monastic 8 “…___ thy help or sought thy intercession…” (Memorare) 9 NT book 10 Deaconess in the early Church 12 Father of David 13 Pope St Pius X’s surname 14 St Therese of Lisieux is a patron of this country 15 What Samson did while his hair was shaved 16 The soldiers put a scarlet one on Jesus 18 The ___ of Christ the King 20 Colour of smoke if no pope is elected 22 Father of Seth 23 British Prime Minister who converted in 2007 24 Catholic star of “Samson and Delilah” 26 ___ magna 28 Her tomb was the first thing bought in the Bible 29 Jesus, on the third day 31 “Thou shalt ___…” 32 John XXIII’s surname 33 Housing for the patriarchs 34 Act of Contrition word DOWN 1 Biblical instrument 2 One of the apostles and namesakes 3 Saint of Avila
W O R D S L E U T H
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Jordan, for one Play based on the life of Christ Turn away from sin The ___ of David California diocese named for Saint Joseph (with “San”) “…your ___ and your staff comfort me.” (Ps 23:4) Abbreviation for the Mother of God Companion of Daniel Job’s wife told him to, “___ God and die” (Job 2:9) Opening of the largest diocese in a province 22D in Massachusetts One who dies for the faith Number of pieces of silver Judas got for betraying Jesus “___ Angelicus” Easter requirement
LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION
the
Record Christmas 2013
GIVE THE GIFT OF HEALING THIS CHRISTMAS
FRANCIS’ FIRST CHRISTMAS
THE ETHICAL NECESSITY OF TIME TRAVEL
A FOOL AND HER GENDER STUDIES
ARCHBISHOP TIMOTHY COSTELLOE SDB We remember at Christmas that God has come to heal our wounds and warm our hearts.
ANDREA TORNIELLI Pope Francis has been giving interviews again. And the world wants to know what he has to say.
MARK BARNES We all want to die a damn good story, don’t we? Then we need to know what ails us, and what the cure is.
SIMCHA FISHER Our salvation hinged on the ‘yes’ of a teenage girl. Why do we disdain the beauty of motherhood?
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CHRISTMAS 2013
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December 25, 2013
Give the gift of healing this Christmas Archbishop Timothy Costelloe
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EAR FRIENDS, in a recent and in some ways rather startling inter view which Pope Francis gave to a magazine in Italy, and which has been translated into many languages since, the Holy Father offered a very beautiful and very challenging image for an understanding of the role of the Church in today’s world. “I see the Church,” he said, “as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. “Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds... and you have to start from the ground up.” The Pope also adds in this same interview that “the thing the Church most needs today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful. It (the Church) needs nearness, proximity...” I have been personally very moved by these words and am trying to take them to heart as a program for my own role as Archbishop of Perth. At the same time, I would like to offer them as words of advice and encouragement to all of us. Particularly as we celebrate the great feast of Christmas, I would like to suggest that the very best gift we can give to others, both family and friends, is the healing of wounds and the warming of hearts. We live in a beautiful world but it is a world, and a society, that is also deeply wounded. We carry some of those wounds in our own hearts and, even more tragically, we can be the cause of pain and suffering for others, even those we love the most. Christmas is a time when we remember that God has come near to us in Jesus, precisely to heal our wounds and warm our hearts. In the newborn baby lying in the manger, we see what it means to say that God loves us and that love is expressed in closeness, as love always is. God wants to be so close to us, in fact, that he becomes one of us, sharing in everything that is ours as human beings, except sin of course, and in turn inviting us to share everything that is his.
Pope Francis embraces Vinicio Riva, 53, during his general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on November 6. Riva, who is afflicted with neurofibromatosis, said receiving the Pope’s embrace was like being in paradise. PHOTO: CLAUDIO PERI, CNS
The early Christians, reflecting on this, used to say with great boldness that God became one of us so that we might become one with God. This is why, in the Gospel of Matthew, the newborn child is given the name “Emmanuel”, a name which means “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). As this little child, born in the stable of Bethlehem, grows up and begins his life’s work, he will describe that work in this way: “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to give sight to the blind, to set the down-
trodden free, and to announce a year of favour from the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). This is what it means, of course, to heal wounds and warm hearts. The four gospels are full of stories in which Jesus does precisely this. Sometimes, he heals physical wounds, as when he restored the sight of the man born blind (John 9:1-40). Often, he heals the deeper, spiritual wounds, as when he forgave Peter after Peter had denied him three times (John 21:15-17). In both cases, and in so many others, he warmed hearts that had grown cold and hard through
fear, rejection, suffering or despair. Because we, as Christians, are followers of Jesus, we too are called to heal wounds and warm hearts just as he did. The giving of gifts at Christmas can be both a sign and a practical way of bringing warmth and healing into people’s lives. It all depends, of course, on whether the gifts we give really are an expression of what lies in our own hearts. If we want to be close to others, if we want to bring wholeness and joy to their lives, if we want to set them free from whatever is oppressing or
troubling them, and we express this through our gift-giving, then we are the healers God is calling us to be. And, of course, because it is what lies in our hearts rather than what lies under the wrapping paper that really matters, we will want to be and try to be “healers of wounds and warmers of hearts”, not just on Christmas Day but every day. This is my wish and prayer for all of you at Christmas. May it be a time of deep happiness, of reconciliation and peace, and of joyful hope for the future. A happy and holy Christmas to you all.
‘Tis the season for peace and goodwill among all
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REMEMBER well the first time I saw snow. Our family was living in England at the time and, while it was cold, no one, least of all the weather bureau, expected anything other than another miserable and chilly night that Christmas Eve. I woke up early on Christmas morning 1965 to find the house in a buzz of excitement. “Look out the window,” someone yelled. I drew back the curtains and there before me was a picture of dazzling white that had turned the drab Surrey suburban surrounds into a beautifully memorable scene. Getting to Christmas Mass that morning was a challenge as we ploughed through the soft snow to St Patrick’s, while cautiously negotiating the slow traffic. As the days went by and the snow turned to slush and then ice and more snow fell yet again, I began to see the other side of a
Bishop Christopher Saunders “winter wonderland”. Previously, I had thought of us as deprived back in Australia, devoid of the seasonal snowfalls that I once imagined everyone shared in Europe at Christmas time. I remember that our Christmas decorations in Australia included handfuls of cotton wool, our make-believe snow, festooned over freshly cut conifers, while paper crafted mistletoe was nailed to the front door and lights twinkled in the loungeroom window to share a spirit of festivity with passers-by. The Holy Family in the compact crib scene, at the base of our deco-
rated tree, always looked serene and snug in their stable of straw alongside contented sheep and cattle. Highly decorated and opulent wise men bearing luscious gifts were placed at the foot of the Christ child even on Christmas Day, unaware, it would seem, that they had come somewhat earlier than the Gospel had originally suggested. So what was it like for Mary and Joseph and the infant Christ child?
They were joyful at the birth of a son, but the new responsibilities of parenthood must have weighed so heavily upon them just the same. This holy season reminds us, in our joy, to spare a thought this Christmas for those who have come to us from foreign lands, on unsafe boats; who have lost loved ones at sea or are now orphans in a strange country. They too are fearful and the
This holy season reminds us to spare a thought for those who have come to us from foreign lands. Hardly the picture of perfect serenity, I imagine. They must have been cold and fearful in their unfamiliar surroundings. Certainly, they must have wondered about their future, aware that they couldn’t stay in the stable for any length of time, that another journey in the chilling Palestine winter awaited them.
tragedies and disappointments of life continue to weigh heavily upon them. Our hearts turn in charity towards the two million refugees from war-devastated Syria, while countless numbers still suffer the effects of the sheer terror and destruction of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The homeless in
Australia, including those rendered homeless by the recent dreadful bushfires, demand our care and solidarity as we sing the Christmas songs of praise. Christmas is a joyous occasion that recalls the wondrous gift of God entering so remarkably into history, where his word became flesh and dwelt among us. That joy, shared in worship and thanksgiving, would be well directed in love towards those less fortunate than ourselves. With our help and prayers, the miracle of Christmas can be a light of hope for those who have so little. Christmas among Christians is about maintaining a sense of proportion. It’s not a time to be wasteful or careless with what we have. It is a time for peace on earth and goodwill among all peoples. I wish you and your families God’s choicest blessing this Christmas and throughout the New Year.
CHRISTMAS 2013
therecord.com.au December 25, 2013
Children get into the Christmas spirit at Kolbe Catholic College’s staff Christmas party on December 13.
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PHOTO: LEANNE JOYCE
Playing the Advent waiting game As Christmas approaches each year, Advent becomes a time of expectant waiting, as we look towards the birth of Christ. The wait can be both exciting and difficult, as it was for the Israelites awaiting their saviour, as Denise Bossert writes...
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Y DUE DATE was December 26 but, by Christmas Eve 1985, I was ready to be done with it. I stretched out on the bed and reluctantly prepared for another night of leg cramps and propped pillows. The Christmas presents were wrapped and ready. The Christmas cookies decorated. The overnight hospital bag was packed and waiting in the corner. My sister had arrived and was ready to look after my daughter. Still, nothing happened. The first pain hit at 9.30pm. I knew immediately that I had skipped early labour and entered active labour. At the hospital, the nurse called it precipitate delivery. There would be no time for pain medicine. I was disappointed, but at least something was happening. I wouldn’t be pregnant forever. I looked at the clock and wondered if our baby’s birthday would be Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Then the nurse checked the heartbeat and the questions about pain medicine and possible arrival time turned into terrible silence. Something was wrong. The nurse wasn’t smiling. She just kept moving the obstetrical stethoscope from one spot to another. “I’m having trouble finding the heartbeat,” she said. After a few more attempts, she muttered something about getting the doctor, and I was left alone in the small examination room. The wait was excruciating. I knew what labour was like. I’d
A mosaic altar frontal in the chapel of the Portugese mission church in London, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, depicting the adoration of the three wise men. PHOTO: ONLINE
been through it two years earlier. I couldn’t imagine giving birth while overcome by grief. Sometimes, waiting is like a game. It’s fun. Exciting. Sometimes, waiting is a chore. It’s demanding. Requires effort. Sometimes, waiting is agonising. Terrifying. Earth-shattering.
This pregnancy had been all of these. Before I became Catholic, every day between Halloween and December 25 was Christmas, not Advent. I focused on making sure the food was ready, the cards were sent, and the presents were wrapped. I prepared the house for
Christmas, but I did not stop to think about how to prepare myself for Christmas. Bottom line, I did not know how to wait. As Catholics, we know Advent is about waiting. Preparing. Journeying with Israel through salvation history. A man grows into a family. Twelve
sons become 12 tribes. The tribes become a nation. Prophets, judges and kings lead them. Everything presses on to one great event. A young woman steps into the centre of all things and says yes to the most incredible proposition of all time. God has chosen you, Mary. And all creation waits for an answer. As that final week of Advent arrives, we see clearly. This is more than a journey through time. This is a journey to a person. To the God-man. Messiah. Mary’s child. God’s own son. At times, the wait was exciting. Seas parted. Angels visited. Walls tumbled. A donkey talked. At times, the wait was difficult. Brothers argued. Kings failed. Generations were exiled. At times, the wait was terrifying. People died. Nations fought. God was silent. And then, he spoke. With one word, the waiting was over. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And upon his shoulders, dominion rests (Isaiah 9:6). Advent quietly passes. A baby cries. The wait is over. On Christmas Eve 1985, a doctor stepped into the examination room and heard a heartbeat. My son was born at 11.53pm. The wait was over. Every year, we pass through Advent and enter Christmas. The changing liturgical seasons are always fresh and new, like it is all happening right now – the waiting, the expectation, the fulfilment. And so it is. - CATHOLICEXCHANGE.COM
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CHRISTMAS 2013
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December 25, 2013
The ethical necessity I
WISH to die a damn good story. I want to carve out for myself a meaningful slice of existence. I want to leave, along with a good-looking corpse, a coherent narrative that says something, not a garble of unconnected life-events fading unresolved into nothingness as the blood dries. I’d like to be a story, and this is more than a daydream of me-as-Sherlock, man-as-protagonist. This is suicide prevention. The desire for life to be a good story makes the unbearable bearable. The best example of this is in mankind’s most ridiculous response to the presence of human suffering: That’s life, man. C’est la vie. What an odd sort of solace! We are saying, in essence, “This thing you cannot stand is part of an existence comprised by its nature of things you cannot stand. Your family died? You’ll never love again? That’s what life is. You are living an existence in which families die and hearts get broken and, as such, your current pain was inevitable and will reoccur, as it will for everyone performing this terrifying shuffleforth. Feel better”. But – and this is where things get wonderfully bizarre – we can and do find comfort in the fact that particular tragedies are part of an overall thing we call “life”. The pathetically inadequate words will continue to stiffen spines and staunch leaky eyes, for contained however tactlessly and brusquely in the phrase “that’s life” is the consideration of narrative over event, an appeal to story over unconnected fact. It is a zooming out from the part to the whole. Suffering, considered in itself, is unbearable. Considered as a thread woven into the entire fabric of life, it becomes bearable. The tragedy, considered in itself, contains no possibility of comfort. The loved one is dead, the house is destroyed, the child in pain, and nothing is OK. The tragedy you grow from, the tragedy that teaches, in short, the tragedy considered as part of a meaningful narrative stretching towards completion, towards some total meaning which contains your tragedy but is not limited to it – this contains the possibility of comfort. An appeal to the entirety of life comforts a particular evil because even particular evils settle into some sort of sense when placed into a context of other events and better times, as related to a life which is not wholly evil, but rather moves forward to a final meaning. The worse is bearable if it is part of a story we are willing to read to the end. But though the evil we suffer can be comforted, the evil we do is infinitely, qualitatively worse. I’m speaking of sin, the unspeakable phantasm of modernity, everpresent, ever-denied, ever limited to the ranks of paedophilia and Nazism for the comfort of white people wishing to do nothing at all and simultaneously feel good about it. Sin, that existential fact we try, try, and try again to render a religious concept relegated to the guilty, slut-shamed internal lives of churchgoers – a fact we nevertheless taste the copper of every day. We cannot understand sin unless we understand the desire for life to be a consistent narrative. For what is sin? Sin is less like a black mark against our names and more like walking into our home to find our family has grown bat
Sin has a way of destroying us from the inside out, making our story resemble an incoherent mark long after it has occurred. The only way to make amends is via an act of spiritual time-
wings. It is that which ought not be, dwelling within us by our own perverse permission. It is absurdity. Our sins present themselves as loose-ends, ought-nots that cannot be fit with the content of our existence. Our sins – locked in our memory, our history, our consciences, our relationships, and our entire state of being – are irreconcilable oddities that niggle and gnaw against our lives for the simple fact that they are not of our lives. They are foreign cells, notme’s within me, absurdities all and nauseating. We do what we hate, we hurt the ones we love, we indulge the shameful until we cannot feel the shame, and you hardly need me to remind you of the fact. We say we “are not our true selves” when we sin, and this means the following: That which is not our true selves becomes a part of ourselves. Sin is definitively that which ought not be part of our life story, and thus no consideration of narrative over event will absolve the event. To be in sin is to be without the possibility of a finally meaningful existence. To be in sin is to live
an incoherent narrative. To be in sin and to live with past sins is to live a story with loose-ends, a fragmented garble that contains that which ought-not-be and oughtnever-have-been. The desire to die a damn good story is impossible to satisfy on the condition of indwelling sin. Thus, if the desire to die a good story is real, something must be done about sin.
contain within yourself the reality of having done what you ought not have done. There is hardly a human alive – no matter how hip – who can coherently defend the nonexistence of ethical experience, that is, the experience of our actions as things we either ought or ought not have done. It follows that no one really denies the experience of sin – the experience of that-whichwe-ought-not-do – as much as
Sin is not religious. It is a theistic-atheistic, equalopportunity steel-boot to the groin the entirety of humanity is doubled-over and groaning with. The Ethical Necessity of Time Travel Sin is not religious. It is a theisticatheistic, equal-opportunity steelboot to the groin the entirety of humanity is doubled-over and groaning with. To be a sinner is not simply to have offended some brooding moral order which thereafter holds you in cosmic contempt. To be a sinner is to
everyone loves to deny that this experience could possibly mean anything so very grand as God, salvation, heaven, hell and all the rest. Which is fine. But if there is such a thing as sin, there is such a thing as sinners, and to deny the existential state of being a sinner is as self-evidently ridiculous as denying the existence of my elbows, for we feel the
state of sin. What we ought-nothave-done takes shape, taste and cringe-inducing colour schemes somewhere in the bowels of our interior life. It’s absurd to pretend otherwise, to pretend that we may experience doing that which we ought not do, but that this experience has no lasting effect, or rather, that it effects no change in our ontological status, our state of being. For what is the feeling of guilt but an almost bodily recognition of what ought-not-be lingering inside us? If our sins were simply to fade into the non-existent past the moment we committed them, as ethical feelings with no subsequent implications, why on earth would they continue to torture us years later in the sheet-twisting hours of the night? Guilt is evidence of the stickiness of sin. That which we ought-not-do rips – then remains like a bullet-hole. The idea that “the past is past”, that sins are merely “gotten over”, that they have no ultimate, lasting meaning and effect no ontological change stems from a misconception of the person’s relation to
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of time travel narrative with little or no meaning. And just like other events in our lives, sin leaves its travel to alter the past, namely, true repentance, as Marc Barnes writes...
Left, the painted altar frontal of the Anglican parish of St Cyprian’s in London, depicting the fall. The Latin inscription contains the promise given by God in Genesis 3:15 that “The seed of the woman will strike the serpent”, which is seen as a prophecy concerning Christ who overcame the curse of sin. Above, a stained glass detail from a window in St Lawrence’s Anglican church in Chicheley, Buckinghamshire. PHOTOS: ONLINE
time. Personal time is not linear. The human person is not a bulldozer moving forward into the future, leaving behind him only the faded-away – shells and shadows apart from the actual life of the person. The human person summarises his past in his present. When you meet a person, you meet a presence that is currently affected and presently informed by a past. To love a girl is to love the contents of a childhood that, in the moment of your loving her, shape who she is. When you shake my hand you shake a hand formed by my parents, a hand contingent – and contingent in the now – upon past events, past handshakes. The past is not past in the person, but present, tangible in his every touch, audible in his words, encountered at every moment of personal encounter. Indeed, it is a mark of depersonalisation to subtract from people their past, to view them as having come into existence at the moment of seeing them. We rarely consider the daughterhood of the porn-star or the childhood of the convicted rapist. The subtrac-
tion of the person’s past subtracts the person, for the person exists as a “summing-up” of a past in her presence. The addition of a person’s past, on the brighter side of things, is a heroic act of re-personalisation. Which brings us back to the point. If being a person means containing your past, then no sins are past sins. Sin is a present, lived reality. Guilt is not a wallowing in the
only possibility of becoming a story free from poor writing – free from the irreconcilable absurdities that ought never have been part of our narrative – is to go back in time and change the past. We must, quite literally, time-travel, and having done so, alter the quality of our past, that our present might be informed coherently by that which ought be, free from that which ought not.
There is no repentance that simply renders the space-time of our sin blank, a non-event that never was and will never affect us again. past, though a perverse guilt may be. Guilt is the pain of a past-filled present, or rather, the felt experience of the presence of a sinful past – of a past that isn’t past at all. If we want to die damn good stories, to be whole, to have consistent, final meaning – then we’re going to have to be rid of sin. If being a sinner is to summarise within the present moment a past that contains that which ought-not-be, then the
Only then can we introduce ourselves fully. What’s needed is not simply an erasing of sin. Such “erasing” is impossible. There is no forgiveness that utterly removes sin from our existence, our past, our memory, and our relations with others. There is no repentance that simply renders the space-time of our sin blank, a non-event that never was and will never affect us again.
Temporal distance may provide us with the illusion that the past has been changed. We may, and often do, refer to our sinful self at the moment of sinning as “our old self ”, as if the mere passage of time, the mere fact of an event being “old” actually constitutes another self, a someone-else who bears the guilt of sin – certainly not me, feeling happy and wholesome right now. Having willfully written an awful and absurd break in our narrative, we entertain the illusion that we have since started a new book. But this is patently false. We only have one life to live. We only have one story to write. The self is singular, it contains its past, and in the hours of night when our faults come flooding, there is no comfort in the pretense of a duplicated self, old and new. What’s needed must be more than moral restitution. Doing good deeds may restore the multitude of fragmented and broken relationships caused by a particular sin, but the mere fact of good deeds do not dissolve indwelling sin. If your past contains an absurdity, it contains an
absurdity. No attempt at making up for the absurdity by fulfilling some cosmic balancing act of good and evil will undo this existential fact. So if sin cannot be erased, “gotten over”, or made up for, what’s to be done about the needling agony of ought-nots, the pain of containing within ourselves that-whichought-not-be? What’s needed is repentance, that radical act of spiritual time-travel which alters the past by putting it in right-relation with the whole of life. Consider two of our favourite sinners, Augustine and Adam. When we read Augustine’s Confessions, even the most pious of Christians is content to hear of his sexual indulgences, his petty sin, and the various acts that present themselves as ought-nots dwelling within him, for we know that “the full significance and final value” of Augustine’s sins are revealed in Augustine’s entire life, in his conversion from sin to holiness. Augustine becomes St Augustine. On its own, Augustine’s sin is no more than that-which-ought-notbe. In the context of Augustine’s entire narrative, it is that from which came Augustine’s holiness. Because Augustine repented, the quality of his past sin is changed. Similarly, the Church calls the sin of Adam a felix culpa – a “happy fault”. How is this possible? It’s simple, really. Adam’s sin is called happy because it “won for us so great a redeemer”. Adam’s sin has been woven into a narrative in which it becomes the ground and the reason for the saving action of Jesus Christ. His past sin is changed. What’s needed to deal with sin, then, is an act that weaves our sins into the entire narrative of our existence, an act that qualitatively changes the nature of our past sin from an absurdity to an absurdity which serves as the fertile ground for our redemption – and therefore ceases to be absurd. Repentance is not only a turning away from a particular evil action, it is also, and primarily, a “radical reorientation of our whole life” (CCC, 1431). The human person, because he carries the past as present reality, reorientates his whole life, not just his present disposition. By pointing ourselves at the good with “the desire and resolution to change one’s life”, we point our past sin towards the good, rendering it part of an overall upward strive towards a life well lived, and a damn good story, crippling it of its power to simply sit and breed guilt. A sin is absurd. A sin considered as the grounds for redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness makes sense. It is transubstantiated into the precondition of a reconciled life. It becomes a part of a whole movement towards the good, a dark and painful chapter of an overall return to God, a return that consoles the painful by giving to it a sweet, final meaning, like a dawn that makes the dark but a canvas for the glory of the day. Sin is stripped of its power to hurt us, because it has been made the stepping-stone on a path reorientated towards the good, towards what ought to be. Through repentance, our past evil actions bow and serve the good. Through repentance, every fault becomes a happy fault. So be sorry for your sin, with the resolve to be good, and you will have changed the meaning and the significance of your past. - PATHEOS
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riage as a whole at the Consistory meetings in February. The issues will also be addressed at the Extraordinary Synod in October 2014 and again at the Ordinary Synod the following year. Many elements will be examined in more detail and clarified during these sessions.”
Francis’ first
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How is the work of your eight “advisors” on Curia reform proceeding?
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“There’s a lot of work to do. Those who wanted to make proposals or send ideas have done so. Cardinal Bertello has gathered the views of all Vatican dicasteries. We received suggestions from bishops all around the world. At the last meeting, the eight cardinals told me the time has come for concrete proposals and at the next meeting in February they will present their suggestions to me. I am always present at the meetings, except for Wednesday mornings when I have the general audience. But I don’t speak, I just listen and that does me good. A few months ago, an elderly cardinal said to me: “You have already started Curia reform with your daily Masses in St Martha’s House”. This made me think: reform always begins with spiritual and pastoral initiatives before structural changes.”
In a recent interview with Andrea Tornielli, Pope Francis spoke about the relationship between the Church and politics, the problems of hunger and suffering in the world, and his eagerness for ecumenical unity among Christian denominations...
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What does Christmas mean for you?
“It is the encounter [with] Jesus. God has always sought out his people, led them, looked after them and promised to always be close to them. The Book of Deuteronomy says that God walks with us; he takes us by the hand like a father does with his child. This is a beautiful thing. Christmas is God’s meeting with his people. It is also a consolation, a mystery of consolation. Many times after the midnight Mass I have spent an hour or so alone in the chapel before celebrating the dawn Mass. I experienced a profound feeling of consolation and peace. I remember one night of prayer after a Mass in the Astalli residence for refugees in Rome, it was Christmas 1974, I think. For me, Christmas has always been about this; contemplating the visit of God to his people.”
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May I ask you if the Church will have women cardinals in the future?
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How is it possible to believe that God, who is considered by religions to be infinite and all-powerful, can make himself so small?
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“The Greek Fathers called it syncatabasis, divine condescension that is: God coming down to be with us. It is one of God’s mysteries. Back in 2000, in Bethlehem, John Paul II said God became a child who was entirely dependent on the care of a father and mother. This is why Christmas gives us so much joy. We don’t feel alone any more; God has come down to be with us. Jesus became one of us and suffered the worst death for us, that of a criminal on the cross.”
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Christmas is often presented as a sugar-coated fairy tale. But God is born into a world where there is also a great deal of suffering and misery.
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“The message announced to us in the Gospels is a message of joy. The evangelists described a joyful event to us. They do not discuss about the unjust world and how God could be born into such a world. All this is the fruit of our own contemplations: the poor, the child that is born into a precarious situation.
“I don’t know where this idea sprang from. Women in the Church must be valued, not “clericalised”. Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism.”
Above, Pope Francis greets a crowd on December 4. Right, the Vatican Christmas tree glows after a lighting ceremony in St Peter’s Square. PHOTOS: PAUL HARING, CNS
The (first) Christmas was not a condemnation of social injustice and poverty; it was an announcement of joy. Everything else are conclusions that we draw. Some are correct, others are less so and others still are ideologised. Christmas is joy, religious joy, God’s joy, an inner joy of light and peace. When you are unable or in a human situation that does not allow you to comprehend this joy, then one experiences this feast with a worldly joyfulness. But there is a difference between profound joy and worldly joyfulness.”
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What is the right relationship between the Church and politics?
“The relationship needs to be parallel and convergent at the same time. Parallel because each of us has his or her own path to take and his or her different tasks. Convergent only in helping others. When relationships converge first, without the people, or without taking the people into account, that is when the bond with political power is formed, leading the Church to rot: business, compromises... The relationship needs to proceed in a parallel way, each with its own method, tasks and vocation, converging only in the common good. Politics is noble; it is one of the highest forms of charity, as Paul VI used to say. We sully it when we mix it with business. The relationship between the Church and political power can also be corrupted if common good is not the only converging point.”
What does Christmas say to people today?
“It speaks of tenderness and hope. When God meets us he tells us two things. The first thing he says is: have hope. God always opens doors, he never closes them. He is the father who opens doors for us. The second thing he says is: don’t be afraid of tenderness. When Christians forget about hope and tenderness they become a cold Church that loses its sense of direction and is held back by ideologies and worldly attitudes, whereas God’s simplicity tells you: go forward, I am a father who caresses you. I become fearful when Christians lose hope and the ability to embrace and extend a loving caress to others. Maybe this is why, looking towards the future, I often speak about children and the elderly, about the most defenceless that is. Throughout my life as a priest, going to the parish, I have always sought to transmit this tenderness, particularly to children and the elderly. It does me good and it makes me think of the tenderness God has towards us.”
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war...
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This is your first Christmas in a world marked by conflict and
“God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it. All of us from the holiest of saints to the greatest of sinners; from the purest to the most corrupt among us. Even a corrupt person has this ability: poor him, it’s probably a bit rusty but he has it. Christmas in this time of conflicts is a call from God who gives us this gift. Do we want to receive him or do we prefer other gifts? In a world afflicted by war, this Christmas makes me think of God’s patience. The Bible clearly shows that God’s main virtue is that he is love. He waits for us; he never tires of waiting for us. He gives us the gift and then waits for us. This happens in the life of each and every one of us. There are those who ignore him. But God is patient and the peace and serenity of Christmas Eve is
a reflection of God’s patience toward us.
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This coming January marks the 50th anniversary of Paul VI’s historic visit to the Holy Land. Will you go?
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“Christmas always makes us think of Bethlehem, and Bethlehem is a precise point in the Holy Land where Jesus lived. On Christmas night, I think above all with the Christians who live there, of those who are in difficulty, of the many people who have had to leave that land because of various problems. But Bethlehem is still Bethlehem. God arrived at a specific time in a specific land; that is where God’s tenderness and grace appeared. We cannot think of Christmas without thinking of the Holy land. Fifty years ago, Paul VI had the courage to go out and go there and this marked the beginning of the era of papal journeys. I would also like to go there, to meet my brother Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and commemorate this 50th anniversary with him, renewing that embrace which took place between Pope Montini and Athenagoras in Jerusalem, in 1964. We are preparing for this.”
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You have met with seriously ill children on more than one occasion. What do you have to say about this innocent suffering? A “One man who has been a life mentor for me is Dostoevskij and his explicit and implicit question “Why do children suffer?” has always gone round in my
heart. There is no explanation. This image comes to mind: at a particular point of his or her life, a child “wakes up”, doesn’t understand much and feels threatened, he or she starts asking their mum or dad questions. This is the “why” age. But when the child asks a question, he or she doesn’t wait to hear the full answer, they immediately start bombarding you with more “whys”. What they are really looking for, more than an explanation, is a reassuring look on their parent’s face. When I come across a suffering child, the only prayer that comes to mind is the “why” prayer. Why Lord? He doesn’t explain anything to me. But I can feel him looking at me. So I can say: You know why, I don’t and you won’t tell me, but you’re looking at me and I trust you, Lord, I trust your gaze.”
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Speaking of children’s suffering, we can’t forget the tragedy of those who are suffering from hunger.
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“With all the food that is left over and thrown away we could feed so many. If we were able to stop wasting and start recycling food, world hunger would diminish greatly. I was struck by one statistic, which says 10,000 children die of hunger each day across the world. There are so many children that cry because they are hungry. At the Wednesday general audience the other day there was a young mother behind one of the barriers with a baby that was just a few months old. The child was crying its eyes out as I came past. The mother was caressing it. I said to her: “Madam, I think the
child’s hungry”. “Yes, it’s probably time...” she replied. “Please give it something to eat!” I said. She was shy and didn’t want to breastfeed in public, while the Pope was passing. I wish to say the same to humanity: give people something to eat! That woman had milk to give to her child; we have enough food in the world to feed everyone. If we work with humanitarian organisations and are able to agree all together not to waste food, sending it instead to those who need it, we could do so much to help solve the problem of hunger in the world. I would like to repeat to humanity what I said to that mother: give food to those who are hungry! May the hope and tenderness of the Christmas of the Lord shake off our indifference.”
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Some of the passages in the Evangelii Gaudium attracted the criticism of ultraconservatives in the USA. As a Pope, what does it feel like to be called a “Marxist”?
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“The Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”
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The most striking part of the Exhortation was where it refers to an economy that “kills”…
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“There is nothing in the Exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the Church. I wasn’t speaking from a technical point of view, what I was trying to do was to give a picture
of what is going on. The only specific quote I used was the one regarding the “trickle-down theories” which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and social inclusiveness in the world. The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefiting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger, nothing ever comes out for the poor. This was the only reference to a specific theory. I was not, I repeat, speaking from a technical point of view but according to the Church’s social doctrine. This does not mean being a Marxist.”
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You announced a “conversion of the papacy”. Did a specific path emerge from your meetings with the Orthodox Patriarchs?
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“John Paul II spoke even more explicitly about a way of exercising the primacy which is open to a new situation. Not just from the point of view of ecumenical relations but also in terms of relations with the Curia and the local Churches. Over the course of these first nine months, I have received visits from many Orthodox brothers: Bartholomew, Hilarion, the theologian Zizioulas, the Copt Tawadros. The latter is a mystic, he would enter the chapel, remove his shoes and go and pray. I felt like their brother. They have the apostolic succession; I received them as brother bishops. It is painful that we are not yet able to celebrate the Eucharist together, but there
is friendship. I believe that the way forward is this: friendship, common work and prayer for unity. We blessed each other; one brother blesses the other, one brother is called Peter and the other Andrew, Mark, Thomas...”
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Is Christian unity a priority for you?
“Yes, for me, ecumenism is a priority. Today there is an ecumenism of blood. In some countries, they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a Bible and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic or Orthodox. Their blood is mixed. To those who kill, we are Christians. We are united in blood, even though we have not yet managed to take necessary steps towards unity between us and perhaps the time has not yet come. Unity is a gift that we need to ask for. I knew a parish priest in Hamburg who was dealing with the beatification cause of a Catholic priest guillotined by the Nazis for teaching children the catechism. After him, in the list of condemned individuals, was a Lutheran pastor who was killed for the same reason. Their blood was mixed. The parish priest told me he had gone to the bishop and said to him: “I will continue to deal with the cause, but both of their causes, not just the Catholic priest’s”. This is what ecumenism of blood is. It still exists today; you just need to read the newspapers. Those who kill Christians don’t ask for your identity card to see which Church you were
baptised in. We need to take these facts into consideration.”
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Q
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In the Apostolic Exhortation, you called for prudent and bold pastoral choices regarding the sacraments. What were you referring to?
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“When I speak of prudence I do not think of it in terms of an attitude that paralyses but as the virtue of a leader. Prudence is a virtue of government. So is boldness. One must govern with boldness and prudence. I spoke about baptism and communion as spiritual food that helps one to go on; it is to be considered a remedy not a prize. Some immediately thought about the sacraments for remarried divorcees, but I did not refer to any specific cases; I simply wanted to point out a principle. We must try to facilitate people’s faith, rather than control it. Last year, in Argentina, I condemned the attitude of some priests who did not baptise the children of unmarried mothers. This is a sick mentality.”
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What about remarried divorcees?
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Will this issue be dealt with at the next Synod of Bishops?
“The exclusion of divorced people who contract a second marriage from communion is not a sanction. It is important to remember this. But I didn’t talk about this in the Exhortation.”
“The synodality of the Church is important: we will discuss mar-
How is the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) cleanup operation going? “The commissions for reference are making good progress. Moneyval has given us a positive report and we are on the right path. As regards the future of the IOR, we will see. The Vatican “central bank”, for example, is meant to be APSA (the Administration for the Patrimony of the Holy See). The IOR was established to help with works of religion, missions and the poor Churches. Then it became what it is now.”
Q
Could you have imagined a year ago that you would be celebrating Christmas 2013 in St Peter’s?
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“Absolutely not.” Were you expecting to be elected?
“No I didn’t expect it. I never lost my peace as the number of votes increased. I remained calm. And that peace is still there, I consider it a gift from the Lord. When the final scrutiny was over, I was taken to the centre of the Sistine Chapel and asked if I accepted. I said I did and that I had chosen the name Francis. Only then did I walk away. I was taken to the next room to change (my cassock). Then, just before I made my public appearance, I knelt down to pray for some minutes in the Pauline chapel along with Cardinals Vallini and Hummes.” - VATICAN INSIDER, LA STAMPA
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Life in the light and The mediaeval aesthetic is trending in film and television but usually the look is all there is. winning Norse trilogy by Catholic convert Sigrid Undset just waiting to be devoured by young
T
HERE ARE so few books today that “matter”, that talk about their subject in light of the divine destiny of every human being. So I might be forgiven for my effusive enthusiasm on discovering what many have called the greatest Catholic novel ever written, Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter. Kristin gives you insight into virtue and makes you want to be more virtuous yourself. It makes another signal contribution; it demonstrates — no, that’s not strong enough — it makes you feel the relationship between our sexual selves and the rest of our lives, powerfully, and that is exactly what’s needed to challenge current prevailing attitudes, which can be summed as: “As long as it’s consensual, what I do sexually is nobody’s business.” Any young woman under my influence will get a copy of Kristin to read the day she turns 16. And every young woman to whom I have recommended Kristin in the past year has reacted to it as if they had discovered a new world. I say this as one who regularly finds herself at a microphone in front of hundreds of high-school or college-aged Christian women, trying to express the sacred meanings of human sexual intercourse. “Go on, dear; you’re a young woman; they’ll listen to you,” say the wellintentioned people who get me there. Ha! The only ones nodding along with me are already wearing “JPII World Tour” buttons. The rest seem less than enthusiastic. I tell them sex lies when it doesn’t say “forever” and that it can only say forever in marriage. I count the casualties for them — the sexually transmitted diseases, the abortions, post-abortion syndrome, single parenting. I assure them that committed, married love is the best place for human happiness and authentic freedom to flourish. However, before it’s all over, at best, I have captured their intellects, but usually not their hearts. Any wisdom I possess about the profound meaning of a sexual relationship comes predominantly from reflection on experience and from comparing my experience with the experiences of so many I know who have chosen a path outside the “sex-only-in-marriage” model. You can only go so far in appealing to a future that your audience hasn’t yet lived. Reading Kristin is about as close to learning from experience as you can get without the experience. While it is simply impossible to convey its beauty or power in a condensed form, a summary is a necessary preface to a few observations about what Kristin teaches. Kristin follows the life of a girl from her childhood to her death in 14th century Catholic Norway. Kristin is the daughter of Lavrans Bjorgulfson (thus “Lavransdatter”). In modern parlance, it would be said that Lavrans “walks the talk” or “puts his money where his mouth is”. He is a well-off “husbandman” with noble relations. Lavrans is well known for his devotion and generosity to the Church and his charity and justice toward all who deal with him. He has a special love for his daughter, Kristin, a strong-minded, strong-willed girl who, from her early days, aspires to her father’s moral code. Kristin is eventually betrothed by her father to a man of her
father’s taste and character, Simon Andresson, but she falls quickly and vehemently in love with a man who has a long and shameful history of relations with women, Erlend Niklausson. Erlend sees Kristin’s goodness, loves it, and believes he can be good for her. In her passion for him, she is willing at first to overlook his worst faults. They have sexual relations before marriage. Kristin’s betrothed, Simon, has such great regard for her father that he arranges to sever their engagement without betraying Kristin to him. After a long and bitter contest of wills between father and daughter, Kristin and Erlend are permitted to wed. She is pregnant at the time. Through a long marriage, and the birth of eight sons, Kristin and Erlend fight. Kristin repeatedly throws up to Erlend his violation of her virginity and the evil it brought into their married life. She cannot forgive herself or Erlend until near the end of her life. In the end, this hardheartedness drives Erlend to abandon her. After rearing her sons
to their adulthood, Kristin then becomes a lay sister with an order of nuns. There she dies, partly as a result of an heroic act of faith and courage. The first reason to recommend Kristin to young women is its basic, resounding message that “sex matters”. Kristin explores how our sexual lives affect our relationship with God, parents’ relationships with their children, and husbands’ with their wives. Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) Sigrid Undset received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 for her remarkable description of life during the Middle Ages in Scandinavia, the three-volume Kristin Lavransdatter. She wrote 36 books, the mediaeval novels being one part. Another part are her contemporary novels of Kristiania (now Oslo) and Oslo between the turn of the century and the 1930s, the third part being literary essays and historical articles. Her authorship is wide-ranging and of remarkable
depth and substance. None of Sigrid Undset’s books leaves the reader unconcerned. She is a great storyteller with a phenomenal knowledge of the labyrinths of the human mind. By Sigrid Undset: Kristin Lavransdatter: The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, The Cross; The Master of Hestvike (in four volumes): The Axe, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness, The Son Avenger; Jenny. Kristin’s premarital relations with Erlend reverberate throughout her every relationship and throughout her entire life. That Erlend takes her virginity without her full consent poisons the well of their lifelong relationship. Immediately after their first sexual encounter, Kristin feels bound to Erlend in a way that she senses is premature. She feels more helpless, more dependent, more exposed to loss because she is bound, but not permanently, to him by this sexual act: “And since Erlend had wrought her this, she felt herself grown so wholly his, she knew not how she should live
away from him anymore. She was to go from him now, but she could not understand that it should be so.” This sexual bonding leads her to feel that their life together is inevitable, although the reader can feel immediately that it will be the source of tremendous sorrow for Kristin and her family, and that Kristin, Lavrans and others know this. Kristin continues having sexual relations with Erlend before they are married. She senses that his willingness to do this means he has not broken from his former ways, and she is right. Erlend’s inability to master himself, his impetuousness, his inability to put honour first, cost himself, and Kristin and their children, severely throughout their lives. In other words, our sexual behaviour deeply affects our persons, our futures. For some time before they wed, Erlend defies sexual conventions with other women besides Kristin. He puts his own impetuous desires before the good of those he loves, including even the woman
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the shadows US law professor Helen Alvare writes there is a Nobel Prizepeople on the look out for bona fide wisdom about what lies ahead.
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In the year of Our Lord, give or take a few My daughter recently came home from school saying that her teacher said Christ was probably born several years before 0BC. I thought we reckoned the calendar from the year of his birth. Who is right?
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“Go on, dear; you’re a young woman; they’ll listen to you,“ say the well intentioned people who got me there to speak, but reading Kristin is about as close as you can get without the experience. - Professor Helen Alvare he claims to love above all others and the children they bear together. At one point after his marriage to Kristin, Erlend’s sexual infidelity is instrumental in his being jailed, and nearly killed, for treason. (A woman with whom he had slept discovered an incriminating document in his clothes.) Kristin also demonstrates the effects that our sexual behaviour can have on the happiness of our relationships with third parties. Kristin’s and Erlend’s actions diminish her father’s esteem for her. Her premarital sexual relations, her premarital pregnancy, affect Lavrans deeply and cause him shame in the eyes of the community, a shame which drives them apart. She feels unforgivable. Reverberations erupt in her father’s marriage as well. Kristin’s behaviour causes it to come to light that Lavrans’ wife was not a virgin at the time of their marriage and that their oldest, deceased son may not have been his. Kristin shows how our sexual behaviour is intimately related to
the attainment of authentic happiness and freedom over our whole lives. What seems on the surface like an act of personal freedom in today’s parlance — having sex when you want it, with whom you want it, no matter what others say — does not free Kristin. It burdens her. Especially after she and Erlend conceive their first son out of wedlock, Kristin is deeply conscious of her burden, the violation of God’s plan for the use of the gift of sex. Her guilt and her repentance are clearly and emotionally conveyed over the course of the book. Undset’s work further shows how relationships defined largely by sexual or romantic aspects are not fundamentally healthy, especially when other important aspects — fidelity, kindness, honesty, charity — are missing. When Kristin and Erlend isolate themselves from all others, even their children, and allow their romantic and sexual communication to flourish, all seems fine, but when they must negotiate daily life on a farm or decisions about the future of their children, they
flounder. Kristin must supply common sense and Christian wisdom for two. Sex, in other words, is powerful, but no replacement for fundamental strengths that a couple needs over time. Several months ago, I received a postcard in the mail from our nation’s chief mass purveyor of sexual consciousness, Planned Parenthood. On the front was a grainy photo of an unmade bed. The words on the front read: “ABOUT LAST NIGHT... You have 72 hours to erase last night.” On the back was information about what it euphemistically calls “morningafter contraception” (it’s more often abortifacient, really). Planned Parenthood’s message is that sex is a purely physical manipulation of body parts that can have “some physical side effects”. One of its worst effects, a baby, can be “erased”. And then the sex is erased, too. In a world where such messages can be given to young women, Kristin Lavransdatter must be given to them as well.
CTUALLY, your daughter’s teacher is more right than you and the calendar are. But let me explain. St Luke says that when Quirinius was Governor of Syria, the Emperor Caesar Augustus called a census of the whole world and it was this census that made Mary and Joseph journey to Bethlehem where Christ was born (cf Lk 2:1-2). Pope Benedict XVI, in his book Jesus of Nazareth – the Infancy Narratives, before entering into the date of the census, offers a very interesting commentary on the relationship between Augustus and Christ. He says there is an inscription at Priene from the year 9 BC which says that the day of the Emperor’s birth “gave the whole world a new aspect. It would have fallen into ruin had not a widespread well-being shone forth through him, the one now born ... Providence, which has ordered all things, filled this man with virtue that he might benefit mankind, sending him as a Saviour (soter) both for us and our descendants... The birthday of the god was the beginning of the good tidings that he brought for the world. From his birth, a new reckoning of time must begin” (p 59). It is not difficult to see that what was said of the Roman Emperor applies even more appropriately to Jesus. After all, it was Christ, much more than Augustus, who gave the whole world a new aspect, who was filled with virtue that benefitted mankind, who was a true Saviour, whose birth was the beginning of truly good tidings and which should usher in a new reckoning of time, as in fact it did. What is more, in the year 27 BC, three years after Augustus became emperor, the Roman Senate awarded him the title Augustus, meaning “worthy of adoration”, a title which applies most appropriately to Jesus, the Son of God. As to the date of the census, Pope Benedict comments that since it took place at the time of King Herod the Great, who died in the year 4 BC, it must have been at least in that year or before. Moreover, since Herod ordered the killing of all male babies beneath the age of two (cf Mt 2:16), Christ could have been born as early as 5 or 6 BC. Pope Benedict says there is considerable debate regarding the actual year of the census. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus says the census took place in 6 AD under Governor Quirinius. He says Quirinius was only active in Syria and Judea from that year on, although this claim is uncertain. In any case, Quirinius was already in the Emperor’s
Q&A FR JOHN FLADER
service in Syria around 9 BC. Some scholars point out that the census was a long process, conducted in two distinct phases and spread out over several years, so this could explain the discrepancy. Indeed, St Luke says that “this was the first enrolment” (Lk 2:2). Another attempt at ascertaining the year of Christ’s birth starts from the bright star that the magi followed to Jerusalem and then on to Bethlehem (cf Mt 2:1-2). While some writers, including St John Chrysostom (cf In Matt Hom, VI, 2), maintain that the star was not something visible to the eye but rather a light in the soul of the magi, others search for the date of an unusually bright celestial phenomenon that would have drawn the magi. Johannes Kepler, who died in 1630, calculated that
It was Christ much more than Augustus who gave the whole world a new aspect, bringing truly good tidings. in the year 7-6 BC there was a conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars which could have moved the magi to make their journey to Bethlehem. Likewise, there seems to be a reference in Chinese chronological tables to a bright star that appeared in 4 BC and was visible for a long time. All in all, much uncertainty remains, with most scholars placing the birth of Christ between 6 and 4 BC, with some widening it to between 7 and 2 BC. The question then remains as to how the calendar used by the whole world today can be so mistaken. This is related to the further question of when it was that the whole world began to use this calendar. It was the monk Dionysius Exiguus, who died in about 550 AD, who gave the year for the birth of Christ on which the calendar is based. Around the year 525 he said Christ had been born on December 25 in the year 1. Naturally, he could easily have been mistaken by a few years when 500 years had passed from the birth of Christ. So it is a very interesting history and perhaps we shall never know exactly in which year Christ was born. What most matters is to celebrate the feast with great joy and solemnity.
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CHRISTMAS 2013
therecord.com.au
December 25, 2013
Receive Jesus' peace this Christmas and I have not brought to Christ in this sacrament?’ Part of Christ’s reconciliation is to empower us gradually to overcome the temptations that lead us to sin. This is why we should go to the Sacrament of Penance regularly, not infrequently. Pride can discourage us from seeking reconciliation, tempting us to think: ‘Why keep returning to this sacrament when we sin again?’ But this is human, not Christ’s thinking.
Bishop Gerard Holohan
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T IS GREAT when the family comes together at Christmas. But eventually, after a few drinks, all the old tensions come out. This is how someone described their experience of Christmas to me. I was left wondering: ‘How there could be such family tensions if members understood what Christmas was about?’ Such tensions were caused obviously by past hurts - reaching back perhaps to childhood. Clearly, family members had not brought their hurts to Jesus for forgiveness. The peace Jesus came to bring was not a reality in their lives. Christmas peace Jesus came to bring peace on earth ‘to all who enjoy God’s favour’. His peace begins within a person - and spreads to others as the person grows in peace. And so family peace grows as each member grows in Christ’s peace Who are those who ‘enjoy God’s favour’? Those who accept a peacegiving personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is through this relationship that believers can draw on his power for their lives - including healing. It is with this power that we can love and live as Jesus taught. How can we draw on Christ’s power? Jesus came to offer peace to the human race. The Son of God, he became fully human as well at his conception by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born as human as we are - except for sin. The basic reason why people lack inner peace is that human nature is divided. Inner division is a sign we are merely human. Efforts to love are weakened by selfishness; to be just, by greed; to be compassionate by judgementalness. Strong emotions weaken the will; temptations undercut efforts to obey God’s laws. To share in Christ’s divinity The first step towards drawing on Christ’s power is by accepting his call ‘to share the divine nature’ through Baptism’. Through Baptism, we too become divine as well as human. We are no longer ‘merely human’. The Holy Spirit becomes present within us. Becoming divine as well as human does not mean that we
Detail from a parclose screen by Sir Ninian Comper in Southwark Cathedral, London.
become the same as Christ. First, he is divine by nature, whereas we are divine by adoption. Second, in him, the divine and human are one - whereas, in us, they are not. The Christian life is about praying, worshipping and living in ways that bring about greater union between the human and the divine within us. How to unite the divine and the human within Jesus taught us how to deepen the union of the divine and human within us when he taught us how to pray, to worship through the seven sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and to live. How do the sacraments help us to grow in inner peace? This is an impossible question to answer fully in a short article. All we can do is offer a few examples. Is my peace disturbed by life hurts? Jesus began his ministry by performing miracles that revealed his healing power. These were signs of the ‘redemption’ (or freedom from all that is not of God) he offers all. Life hurts can be the result of childhood, relationship, work and other experiences. They are
examples of our need for Christ’s redemptive power. The principal means Christ gave for drawing on his redemptive power for our lives is the Eucharist or Mass. But there are others. If past hurts are disturbing inner peace now, we need to ask ourselves: ‘Do I pray for healing at every Mass?’ ‘Do I share with the Lord how I feel and how I came to be hurt?’ Is my peace disturbed by marriage problems? Marriage relationships can be sources of inner tensions for a range of reasons. They include communication problems; resentment if a spouse seems not to be pulling their weight; mortgage pressures and, once again, hurts - especially infidelity. Marriage break-down brings other sufferings. These may include feelings of guilt, failure and inadequacy. There can be great confusion about how best to care for children, future direction and the purpose of life. Through the Sacrament of Marriage, Christ enters a unique personal relationship with each married couple. This relationship deepens as a couple pray daily, sharing their daily feelings with Christ,
PHOTO: FR LAWRENCE LEW OP
and what stirred them. If I am married, I need to ask: ‘Do I share with Christ daily my feelings and their causes?’ ‘Is it possible for me to pray with my spouse daily about the challenges and questions we face together?’ Through this sacrament, Christ guides and strengthens praying couples in their challenges. Where a marriage breaks down, Christ does not withdraw from the unique relationship with the spouses - nor leave them alone. Provided each keeps trying to pray and live as he taught, Christ offers strength and comfort in their personal tragedy. Is my peace disturbed by feelings of guilt? When we sin by disobeying God’s law, we may suppress or rationalise guilty feelings, but, even if buried, they leave us feeling uneasy. Jesus offers us reconciliation through the Sacrament of Penance. Through this sacrament, he gives forgiveness, as well as ‘peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation’. To find inner peace, we need to ask: ‘How often do I seek Christ’s peace through the Sacrament of Penance?’ ‘Are there past actions I am not at peace with
Is my peace disturbed by fear of death? The reality that each of us will die can be the source of many anxieties. Some people try to repress these natural feelings. When anxieties about death are stirred because we have learned that we have a grave illness, or become aware of serious frailty in old age, Christ empowers through the Sacrament of Anointing. Through the Holy Spirit, he gives inner peace and courage. He does this as the believer shares their feelings in prayer. He gives too the strength to face medical treatments - or death if nothing can be done. As they pray about how they are experiencing their illness or frailty, Christ also strengthens the person’s faith so that they can offer their sufferings and death for others, including loved ones, as he did during his sufferings and death. If fear of death is related to the reality that we will face God’s judgement, Christ helps us to prepare for this through the Sacrament of Penance. No sin, no matter how grave or terrible, is greater than Christ’s power to forgive. Is my peace disturbed by confusion? Many life situations can leave us confused. We can be confused about what we should do about mortgages; how to guide teenage children; whether to marry the person we feel we love. We can all think of examples. Christ gives us enlightenment through listening to the scriptures and trying to relate them to our daily lives. Christ’s enlightenment comes through the Holy Spirit usually when we need it - though it can come in a flash of insight. Often, too, we can be enlightened simply as to what should be our next step. The complete answer to our questions emerges over time. Again, to experience Christ’s enlightenment, we need to ask ourselves: ‘Do I place before him areas of personal confusion and personal questions before and during every Mass where I am present?’
The Incarnation a great opening to live fuller life
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O OFTEN good people like yourselves think about how they are to love God and others and translate that into action. This is important and central in our Faith and Christian life. Christmas, though, is first and foremost about God loving us God reaching out to us in the best way ever. The next step is ours, to be in awe and wonder at this mystery. Then our response to love God and others in practical ways will certainly follow. God didn’t need us to be happy. God is perfectly happy. However, he wanted to share his happiness and his many gifts, so he created us, the world and the universe. God reached out to us as it were. God has never stopped reaching out to us. The author of Hebrews states “At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to
Bishop Justin Bianchini our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages” (1:1-4). God intervened in the world in so many ways in the Old Testament. He intervened fully in human history by sending his only Son. The Incarnation is a great mystery. We cannot plumb the depths of it. We can only stand there in awe. That our infinite God even bothers - fancy that! At this time,
and for the days following, let’s reflect quietly on this great truth and mystery. One simple thing the Incarnation means is that God is so near. There is an Irish saying “The help of God is as close as the door”. Imagine that! Sit on a chair and look at the door of the room. It is very close. God is not in some other country or just in the capitals of our country or even downtown - but right here, right now.
ing help. When I ask for God’s forgiveness, God IS there already, just wanting to give it. There is no bargaining or grovelling required, but a lavish God bursting to give it. When I ask for guidance, the Holy Spirit is there, working within me already in so many ways. My asking is just opening up myself to Jesus and his help, his forgiveness, and his guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.
When I ask for God's forgiveness, God IS there already; a lavish God bursting to give it. As our Creator, God is close. The Incarnation is saying much more. It is God reaching out to us, being one with us in our human nature in the person of his Son. Therefore, when I turn to God for help, God is already there offer-
Christmas - the Incarnation - is not just God reaching out 2,000 years ago and at certain times. It means now God is with us now. Jesus is there within us in the Presence and Power of his Spirit.
We don’t even have to look to the door - just within ourselves. Jesus is all round us for sure - and equally within. All that I have said about God’s love for us, I believe is putting the horse before the cart. However, the cart needs to follow, otherwise the picture or, rather, God’s plan is not complete. The cart I refer to is ‘love of others’, and especially the care for the poor as Pope Francis keeps putting to us in many ways. Because of Christmas and Jesus being intimately one with us, we now are the hands, the feet, the voice, the heart of Christ for others as St Teresa of Avila and many Saints tell us. Whenever, then, we reach out to others, our loved ones and the needy, Christ truly reaches out in us to them. A very happy Christmas to one and all.
CHRISTMAS 2013
therecord.com.au December 25, 2013
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A fool and her gender studies Christ's mother is not only the archetype of the human but also the epitome of the verve, grit and beauty of motherhood. Simcha Fisher laments the casuistry of uncritical "critical thinking" asking us to deny what we know to be true.
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HERE'S a quietly dismal essay by a woman who teaches a "course on Gender and Society" at Grinnell, "Explaining why, next time, I won't breastfeed". This woman breastfed her child for (as far as I can tell) a year, but has come to the conclusion that the price her family paid for that year was too high - not because breastfeeding was too hard on her, but because not breastfeeding is too hard on her husband. Breastfeeding, she says, gave her an unfair advantage where their son is concerned: "Now it’s a year later, and I don’t breastfeed anymore. But my son still prefers for me to read to him before bedtime, and to wake him up in the morning," she writes. "When he is feeling sick or skins his knees, it is me he rushes to for comfort. I did the work and now receive the rewards of being the skin, the smell, the face, the touch that is closest to him - and it is to me he rushes. "Over the years, my husband and I will work to unwind this preliminary advantage, but we could have avoided solidifying it if we had decided to use formula, or to pump and bottle feed our son." I find it hard to even commit these words to the page, but I think she's saying that, because she spent so much time feeding, caressing, and snuzzling her little boy when he was a baby, he now runs to her when he wants comfort. He likes her. He finds his mother... motherly. And this disturbs her. She says, for birth moms, we have this physically grounded centrality to the baby-making process that carries through birth. If we breastfeed, we deepen rather than disrupt that primacy. If we really want to address and redress the ongoing inequalities around the work of making life - the work of raising the next generation - then we have to look at breastfeeding. It’s one thing our bodies do that reinforces the social differences between men and women, mums and dads, and boys and girls. What an overwhelming task, to unpack the many foolish errors presented here. First, she assumes that a child's preference for one parent over the other, at any particular stage of development, is a sign that someone is the victim of sexism, rather than evidence that men and women are different - and that kids need both. (What will happen when her son gets a little older and turns to his dad for advice about bullies, or girls, or the indignities of puberty? Will Mr Gender Studies pen an essay rueing those disastrous hours he spent playing football with her son, because of the socially imbalanced connection they formed?) Second, she believes that, when someone enjoys an advantage over someone else, the solution to this inequity is to take the advantage away from everyone. (In normal families, when the dad wants to feel more connected to his children, he goes ahead and spends more time with his children. In this woman's world, though, the obvious solution is for the mother to spend less time.) But what grieved me most about this essay is what she didn't say - or, rather, what she didn't realise she was saying. She begins sounding exactly like a gender studies professor, and she ends that way. The writing is stilted, angular, and full of jargon: she speaks
of an "infrastructure for an unequal distribution of the work" and "restraints to women’s spatial mobility" (in layman's terms: you have to sit down). But somewhere in the middle of the essay, when she describes the actual experience of breastfeeding
She is telling us with her tone that she finds motherhood natural but all her training tells her these things add up to error. her little boy, she begins to actually compose. Her writing takes on a rhythmic, lyrical quality - just for a moment! "Every time I got to breastfeed him I was holding my son, singing, whispering, touching, and loving on my sweet little boy." And then it descends back to jargon. She is telling us, with her tone, so much more than she real-
ises: that she feels comfortable with motherhood, that nurturing comes naturally to her, that she enjoys taking care of a baby, and the baby loves her with all his baby heart, because she is his mama. But all of her training tells her that these things add up to error. She's been implanted with all sorts of false sensitivities, which tell her something is wrong - even when everything is, by the standards and instinctive delights developed over the entire course of humanity, going just like it's supposed to go. This is what happens when you study gender in isolation, like a bug in a petri dish, rather than approaching it in its natural habitat, which is a world oriented toward something higher than equity: love. Gender is not some kind of evolutionarily developed genetic strain that shifts and transforms according to the demands of society. It's deeper than that. The day-to-day specifics of gender roles can legitimately shift and change. But when a mother feels guilty for feeling like a mother, then we've engineered the kind of problem that causes civilisations to fall. - NC REGISTER
Top, Carlo Crivelli's Enthroned Madonna (Enthroned Maria Lactans) begun in 1470 and completed in 1473. Above, Catholic blogger and author Simcha Fisher laments a gender studies teacher's disdain for her only natural feelings in relating to her newborn son. PHOTOS: ONLINE
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CHRISTMAS 2013
therecord.com.au
December 25, 2013
Detail of the alabaster reredos of the Lady Chapel of Downside Abbey Church, Somerset, by Sir Ninian Comper, circa 1913. Comper was renowned for having designed a number of altar screens (reredos), inspired by mediaeval originals and was commissioned to complete works throughout Great Britain including at Westminster Abbey. PHOTO: FR LAWRENCE LEW OP
“Weary one, you can make it across” Jesus came to save a cosmos in disarray, entering human history and making redemption possible. Witnessing everyday human struggles down at her local beach, Simcha Fisher muses on how close the good is to all of us.
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T WAS scorching hot at our little town beach. I roamed back and forth, from the blueberry bush to the rock, counting the heads of the swimming kids, trying to keep the baby from eating too much sand. People came for a long stay or a quick, cooling dip, catching up with old friends as they bobbed up and down in the water. There was a couple with two kids, a baby and a boy about seven. The young mum was lovely, with a fierce, classical beauty, but her layers of clothing and the way she kept adjusting her top and glancing at her postpartum belly and hips showed that she wasn’t feeling it. The dad was trying his hardest to give everyone exactly the right kind of attention: asking solicitously about the mum’s comfort; tickling and splashing with the baby, but showing the mum that everyone was perfectly safe; making sure the older boy didn’t feel neglected. The man, tough and muscular but overfed, was insisting that his son wait on the rock for him while he swam out to the buoys. “Dee Dee can’t swim!” he explained. (“Ohh,” I realised: Dee Dee is the mother of the baby, but not of the older boy.) “So that’s why she can’t be in charge of you in the water. If you have a cramp, she can’t even save you. You have to wait for me.” The dad got his swim in, they all played and splashed for a while, and then retreated to a picnic table behind me. A little family storm was brewing there, and their voices rose. “I can make it!” insisted the
A modern day scene from the Sea of Galilee, Israel, where Christ spent much of his ministry.
young woman. “No, you can’t, Dee Dee,” her man said, as he towelled off their baby’s curly head. “Just because you could do it a long time ago doesn’t mean you can do it now.” “I can make it!” she said again. “Fine,” he said. “So when you get halfway across the lake and you can’t make it, then you’ll drown and then you’ll be dead. You’ll be dead. You can’t do it, Dee Dee. You have a totally different body now. I don’t even know if I can make it across the lake.” She snatched the baby away from him and finished changing his clothes, dusting the sand from his bottom, carefully strapping useless sandals onto the tiny, soft feet. The man called his older son, and the
two of them went into the water to roughhouse together, and Dee Dee stayed on the shore. The sun beat down, and the waves of anger and hurt lapped against the sand. He was right. It really was foolish of her to want to reach the other shore, if her swimming wasn’t strong. But she needed so badly to know that, even though she was a mum now, she could still do stuff. That her life wasn’t going to be over just because her body had changed. That she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life waiting on the shore, wearing clothes she hated, being safe and watching other people having fun. A man was trying to be a man: teaching his older son to be respon-
PHOTO: ONLINE
sible, playing with his baby, trying to keep everyone secure. He loved all three of them, and was showing his love the way a man must: doing things for them, keeping them safe, taking everything into account, knowing he was responsible for everything, everything that could possibly happen. And he did it in the worst possible way - showing his son that his stepmum wasn’t trustworthy or capable; using the new baby as an anchor to keep his woman under control. He wanted everyone to be safe, and he preyed on their worst instincts to keep them that way. Leaning on the fissures to keep it all together. Someone needed to tell them: But you love each other! Any fool can see that! Any fool can see that
you’re going to be what a family is supposed to be. Please stay together. Please keep trying. You’re so young. You can figure out how to understand each other better, how to take care of each other. You’re on the right track, you just need to refine your methods. Other people shouted out their personal lives as they splashed and waded. I heard: “No, we ain’t together no more. Got a court date next week, because he don’t pay no support. Last time the judge called him a bully, and he didn’t like that too much, let me tell ya! So, this your little one? Ain’t she cute! She looks just like your big girl. She still livin’ at home? My God, is she seventeen already? Oh, when’s she due? Where’s the baby daddy? Yeah, that’s what I heard. He don’t want to work, he’s gonna lose that Honda he’s been workin’ on. When’s your court date for this little cutie? Good luck with that! You like seein’ your daddy, honey? I bet you do! Have fun, guys. I gotta get goin’, rest up before my night shift.” Friendly, smiling people, hard workers, doting on their kids, and chatting amiably about their court dates, their anger management, their restraining orders, their tangled family trees, their days when the kids get to see their daddies. Somebody needed to tell the angry woman, the baffed man, the resentful boy, the imperiled baby with the curly hair: Don’t split apart. Don’t get the courts involved. You can make it across the lake. No one needs to be left behind. You just have to work at getting a little stronger. - NC REGISTER