The Record Newspaper 26 September 2007

@ HOME: Catherine Parish on protective behaviour VISTA 4

PAUL GRAY: A judge is going to compose a Mass for WYD ‘08 Page 2

REACHING OUT: Ugandans receive the power from Perth Page 13

WANTED:

Parishes, schools, movements, groups, individuals, to provide hospitality for approx. 3000 (or more) o’seas youth, stopping off in Perth before they head to Sydney for the biggest party in the world. July 2008. Also needed: ideas from parishes for activities, formation, sightseeing and generally having a blast. Apply Perth WYD Office. Call Anita on (08) 9422 7944. See Pages 6-7.

A new challenge for humanity Old wine in new bottles for Byzantines

Britain’s fertility regulator has just approved the creation of humananimal embryos for research. What’s next?

n By Michael Cook

The creation of hybrid humananimal embryos for medical research, which has just been approved by the British government’s fertility watchdog, pushes the needle on the “yuck factor” meter far into the red.

But even more “yuck” is the deception and manipulation used to justify the decision.

In the United Kingdom, experiments with embryos are closely regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

So when scientists began to lobby for the creation of interspecies embryos in order to create embryonic stem cells, the HFEA’s approval was required.

What the scientists proposed was this: removing the nucleus of a human cell and placing the genetic material into an empty cow egg, using technology developed for cloning.

The resulting “cybrid” is said to contain 99.9 per cent of a patient’s DNA and only 0.1 per cent of the cow’s.

When it develops, embryonic stem cells are extracted.

These can be used for studying diseases, researching genetics or testing drugs. The HFEA has stipulated that the embryo must be destroyed within 14 days.

Scientists would prefer to study cloned embryos which are created with women’s eggs and 100 per cent human, but there is a huge obstacle.

Thousands upon thousands of eggs will be needed and almost no one is going to volunteer her eggs for research. Payment is banned in the UK, but would be prohibitively expensive in any case.

So the alternative is to use animal eggs, even though the embryos will contain the mitochondrial DNA which floats in the cells’ cytoplasm.

That’s one reason why the HFEA calls these entities “cybrids”, rather than hybrids.

Strictly speaking, hybrids result from combining animal sperm with a human egg, or vice versa, an even more controversial step.

Even in the UK, which may have the

world’s most progressive embryo legislation, creating and destroying human embryos for their stem cells is controversial and the HFEA knew that cybrids had to be handled with care.

So it conducted an inquiry, with focus groups, a public meeting and an opinion poll.

The result? Britons feel “at ease” with hybrid embryos.

Really? How much “at ease”?

The HFEA’s own documents tell a different story: “when further factual information was provided and further discussion took place, the majority of participants became more at ease with the idea, although as one participant observed, ‘The gut reaction is hard to overcome’”.

In other words, only after extensive reeducation by the mandarins of a guided democracy could average Joes stomach the thought of mingling human and animal genetic material.

Furthermore, the HFEA must have been wearing earplugs during its public consultation.

The view that all embryo research was wrong was “overwhelmingly represented” in written comments to the HFEA and “dominant” at its public meeting.

Even the opinion poll involved some creative fudging.

True, 61 per cent were in favour when told that the hybrids would help scientists to understand diseases, but 22 per cent had never even heard that such a thing was possible.

And, to pick one amongst many figures, only 32 per cent were unconcerned about what scientists might do next if they were allowed to create hybrids.

Those who were most concerned, in fact, were those who were best informed.

Not for nothing, it seems, is the chairwoman of the HFEA, Shirley Harrison, a lecturer in public relations with two books on the art of spin-doctoring to her credit.

If the results of its own “public dialogue” required such vigorous chiropracty in order to interpret them as public “ease” with human-animal hybrids, how about its ethical analysis?

Well, research on human embryos has been legal in the UK for some time, so objections on that score were irrelevant. But blending human and animal genetic material adds a new wrinkle to the debate.

How about the “yuck factor”? Simple disgust is not a genuine moral objection, sniffed the HFEA.

In any case, no British scientists have ever sought permission to create the half-human, half-beast monsters in HG Wells’s sci fi classic The Island of Dr Moreau.

Excessive sensitivity to primitive taboos might stifle scientific progress.

How about human dignity? The HFEA documents do not make it clear whether it believes that “human dignity” is a meaningful concept.

(In fact, many contemporary bioethicists do not.)

“Moral rejections tend to rely upon a species distinction between animals and humans, but it is unclear whether such a distinction can be maintained,” says the HFEA.

So what’s the problem with a bit of animal DNA in an embryo?

Scepticism about human dignity sounds odd in a government document, as most people in a democracy regard this as the foundation of human rights.

Surely a bright line between humans and animals is required to deny suffrage to guinea pigs.

One would have thought that bureaucrats in the UK, in particular, would have thought a bit harder about this.

Before the rise of Islamic terrorism, animal rights extremism used to be the most serious police challenge in the country.

All in all, the HFEA’s arguments to support the radical step of authorising the creation of human embryos contaminated with animal DNA don’t stack up.

Which shows that everyone, even many supporters of embryo research, has reason to worry.

With its self-serving opinion polling and its shoddy ethical analysis, is there anything the HFEA will not approve if scientists ask for it?

Probably not.

The HFEA’s guiding principle has always been adamant opposition to all violations of human dignity which are not currently on scientists’ shopping lists.

No scientists have sought permission to extend the lives of their embryos beyond 14 days, so the HFEA opposes it.

No scientists have sought permission to mingle animal sperm with human eggs, so the HFEA opposes it.

No scientists have sought to implant a hybrid embryo in a woman’s womb and bring it to term, so the HFEA opposes it.

But scientific inquiry may someday take these paths.

That’s the way science works. As Dr Moreau explained in the novel:

“You see, I went on with this research just the way it led me.

“That is the only way I ever heard of true research going.

“I asked a question, devised some method of obtaining an answer, and got a fresh question.

“Was this possible or that possible? You cannot imagine what this means to an investigator, what an intellectual passion grows upon him!

“You cannot imagine the strange, colourless delight of these intellectual desires!...

“To this day I have never troubled about the ethics of the matter.”

No scientists have sought permission to reproduce Dr Moreau’s experiments, thank goodness.

But when they do, the HFEA is sure to announce that the public is “at ease” with them.

n By Sylvia Defendi

With the theme Old Wine in New Bottles, the Byzantine Society of Australia welcomes all members of the public to their inaugural conference on September 30. The conference will be held from 2.30pm in the lower hall of the Hellenic Community Centre, 20 Parker St, Northbridge. Speakers include professor John MelvilleJones, who will speak on ‘the last decades in Byzantine Macedonia,’ and Dr Andres Stone, who will present a historical exploration titled, ‘Stemming the Turkish Tide - Eustathios of Thessaloniki and the Seljuk Turks.’

With an emphasis on the spiritual and ecclesiological, Dr Christos Galitos will speak on ‘the poetic creation of theology in Gregory the theologian,’ while titular professor Athanastus John’s-Louvaris will present on ‘fasting and abstinence – the facts of life in Byzantium.’

The conference will be presented free of charge and include complimentary afternoon tea.

To RSVP your attendance, call: 0437 516 428 or email: nicholasalex2003@yahoo.com. au.

Michael Cook is editor of MercatorNet.

WYD Cross sparks a fire Bishop hopes won’t die

n By Anthony Barich

As the youngest Bishop in Australia, aged 47, Dominican Friar Anthony Fisher has a unique relationship with the youth of the Great South Land.

He was chosen as World Youth Day coordinator and has a fair idea of the day-to-day struggles in faith and worldly matters that dog today’s younger generation. But as Episcopal Vicar for Life and Health and a member of the Australian Bishops’ Committee for Doctrine and Morals and the Pontifical Academy for Life, it’s probably safe to say he has a good grasp of how faith is applied to everyday life. Which is why he was simply flabbergasted when a website recently accused World Youth Day organisers of promoting idolatry in the procession of the Cross and Icon around the country leading up to next year’s big event in July.

As WYD coordinator, he took particular umbrage to this suggestion.

But rather than just shrug it off as another secular attack on the Church, he took it as an opportunity to share with youth around the world who are looking forward with great anticipation to WYD just what the Cross and Icon – and the powerful things they symbolise - mean to the way we live out our faith.

The said critic on the website said that the actions of people kneeling or bowing, touching or kissing, praying or weeping before the WYD Cross and Icon were contrary to the First Commandment - “I am The Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:2-3).

Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth.

Bishop Fisher understands this, and because he speaks in a language that is recognisable to today’s youth, they understand too.

Bishop Fisher, who is part of an Order dedicated to preaching the Catholic faith in the context of a life of study, prayer and community, conceded that to some, the act of venerating the Icon of Our Lady and the Child Jesus, or the relics of saints, or adoring the Blessed Sacrament reserved outside of Mass, would seem strange practices.

He says it begs the question: Do Catholics believe in the One True God or not?

His answer was unequivocal: “Absolutely! There is only One God, the Most Holy Trinity, no other thing deserves our worship. No other person, no other idea, no other thing has divine powers. The first commandment is quite clear: We must put no other gods before the One God. No idols, superstitions, magic. Not money or career or self. Not the body beautiful or comfort or addictions. Not even our good relationships and projects.

“God must come first for us.” He was making this statement, “A message of hope”, to both defend the faith and teach the world, as it was posted on the WYD website and distributed to WYD pilgrims as part of the September “e-pilgrimage” newsletter – four pages of which addressed this very issue.

“Once we have that right, other things fall into place,” he said. “We have to still love our spouse, our family, our friends, Church, creation, studies, work, leisure...In fact we can love them all the more deeply, because we understand that the One God is behind them all.”

He said the WYD Cross and Icon are a distraction – but distractions that re-align our attention to what really matters in life: God, and all things that stem from Him.

It is in times of crisis and pain that things like the WYD Cross and Icon enter our lives just when we most need it.

“Things like the Cross and Icon are there precisely to recall us to what really matters,” Bishop Fisher said. “They are like sirens breaking in on our private world. Listen up, they say. Get your priorities right. Nothing before God.”

But interestingly, he says it’s not always the bad things that take us off course – even good projects, favourite people or great ideas can divert us.

“I can even lose the plot in my devotions and charitable works and plans to change the world,” he confessed. “Seek first the kingdom of God, Jesus reminds us, and then all the rest of these good things will be given you.” He explains that the Cross and Icon are more than just symbols – they speak of something

deeper, that effects the very existence in the day-to-day excitement (or boredom, as the case may be) of our lives.

“Christians believe that it is only in the sacrificial love of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and through the power of His Holy Spirit that a perfect act of worship is possible,” he said.

“God enters and nourishes us for adoration, with Himself most completely, in our participation in the Eucharist at Mass.”

But not all youth are at the stage of their faith journey where they, are ready to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament – which, to the uninitiated, is but a piece of unleavened bread in a gold container sitting on a table. So Bishop Fisher goes deeper, explaining that our very lives serve God, who empowers us in the life of the Spirit.

“We show that we love and respect God by living in a certain way. This includes developing an inward attitude of humility, gratitude and receptivity to God’s grace and power in our lives.” The critic on the website attacking WYD as idolising seems to not actually ‘get’ what the term means.

Bishop Fisher clarifies things, using ancient wisdom: “The Law of Moses (eg Exodus 20:2-5) and the insights of the ancient Jewish psalms (eg Isaiah 44:9-10) warn us that human beings readily become shaped by the things they adore instead of God. We make little gods out of the things we grasp and possess.

“In our secular world we do not call these idols ‘divinities’, nor do we attribute spiritual powers to them. Today our ‘idols’ are more likely privatised goals such as social status, wealth, property, fame or heightened emotional experiences.

“Like the ‘idols’ of the pagans, these things can dominate our lives and we are left empty-handed and empty-hearted.”

Our worship of one true God humanises us, he says, but also ‘divinises’ us so that the ‘idols’ of our fallen nature lose their power.

That’s where the Cross and Icon come in. They remind us of the power that we have when we let Jesus fulfil His promise for us, as the WYD theme that Pope Benedict XVI chose says:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”

Stunning Perth logo to greet Catholics from around globe

n By Anthony Barich

The logo that encompasses all that the Days in the Diocese means for World Youth Day pilgrims both of Perth and those who will sweep through our city on the way to the big event in Sydney has been revealed.

And it’s a ripper.

The logo, designed by 13-yearold John XXIII College student Matt Bonser, depicts symbols representing Western Australia, the faith and the notion of embracing pilgrims into the State in the spirit of Christianity.

The Black Swan represents our state’s icon and the uniqueness of Perth and Western Australia. The Swan is depicted with open wings in a welcoming gesture, whilst keeping in a position that portrays the map of the state. The cross is placed over the heart of the Swan image, in the place where Perth lies on the Western Australian map.

The three lines represent pilgrims coming from all over the world to congregate in Perth - one line comes from the Americas in the East; one from Asia in the North and one from Europe and Africa in the West. The three lines are in the liturgical colours, which add vivacity and vibrancy to the logo. The Blue that circles around the logo represents the world, and Our Lady’s mantle that surrounds us. The Blue around the swan represents the water and coastline that surrounds WA through the outlining of the Swan.

Matt started scribbling the design and some notes on what the symbols in it mean in Caroline Watson’s religion class one day when they were asked to come up with a logo.

When Miss Watson saw it, she immediately said he needed to spruce it up on his home computer and submit it. What he produced was something that looks like it could be worthy of a professional

10 things you can do to host world’s pilgrims

1 Open your home to host some pilgrims. Your obligations would be to provide a breakfast meal, a bed, shower/ bathroom facilities and transport to and from your parish in the early morning/late evening. Sign up and register through your parish who will forward the information to the Perth WYD office. You don’t have to be a young person or someone travelling to WYD, EVERYONE can offer to host a young pilgrim. Every host home will undergo a simple check system to ensure they have suitable facilities and are a safe home for pilgrims. Due to this reason, not all offers of host homes may be used.

2 Create a hosting team in your parish to arrange daytime/evening events on Parish hosting days. These teams should attend the Perth WYD office training sessions for ‘Days in the Diocese’ on either Oct 20th or Oct 21st 2007.

3 Get involved with assisting the Youth Festival or the Closing Ceremony Mass. Many volunteers are needed to assist with the planning and running of these events. Contact the Perth WYD Office if you have experience or skills in these areas.

4 Invite your overseas friends, family or parish groups to visit Perth for ‘Days in the Dioceses’ on their way through to

the Sydney WYD. Many overseas groups are already registering on the Perth WYD website bringing Archbishops, Bishops, Priests and hundreds of young people in their groups.

5 Raise some money to sponsor overseas pilgrims to travel to Australia for WYD. Contact the Perth WYD Office if you can help support a pilgrim.

6 Performers can register their interest to perform at the Youth Festival. Contact the Perth WYD Office to register your interest.

7 Business Sponsorships can assist with the running costs of the various events. Contact the Perth WYD Office for more information.

8 Assist in planning or running a community service activity for the young pilgrims to undertake on the ‘Frassati Friday’.

9 Arrange a day or evening event for your whole parish community to meet with the young people they are hosting.

10Once your parish has established how many pilgrims you can host, contact the Perth WYD Office to be allocated an overseas pilgrim group or notify the office if you have already made private arrangements with an overseas group.

Activities will offer fun, faith

advertising agency. Caroline suggested the liturgical colours and the Marian theme, but the rest was all his own work.

Anita Parker, Perth’s World Youth Day coordinator, said that despite the phenomenal design, judging was hard. Luckily she had Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, Catholic Youth Ministry officer Olivia Lavis and others to help her in choosing the winner.

“It’s a very well thought out design that captured the main themes of Days in the Diocese – the welcoming gesture and the WA youthful presence with the symbolism from our faith,” Anita said. Days in the Diocese, from July 8-12 next year, is a week of human, spiritual and pastoral formation for international pilgrims hosted by WA Catholics before they all head off to Sydney for WYD.

Registrations are already encouraging. Of the 300,000 that are expected from all over the world, 3000 of them are coming via Perth.

So far, 204,000 registrations have been received, with Australia leading the way with 63,398, followed by the United States (37,650), Italy (18,908), Germany (9567) and New Zealand (8002).

Expressions of interest for Perth’s Days in the Diocese are coming thick and fast. Only last week Anita got a call from Italy telling her a single group of 100 Italians are coming over.

The time has come for Perth’s parishioners to stand up and be counted to make them feel welcome.

Of WYD itself, plenty of seats are available, priced around $395 one-way for Virgin and $435 oneway for Qantas, direct to Sydney. Failing that, there is also an excess inventory for flights via Melbourne once the 5000 flights allocated from Perth direct to Sydney have been sold.

Contact the Perth WYD office on 9422 7944, email wydperth@highgate-perthcatholic.org.au or log onto wydperth.com.

Resources for the New Evangelisation

Throughout his Pontificate, Pope John Paul II called all Catholics to participate in the New Evangelisation. This was a call for all Catholics to open ourselves to an interior conversion and deepening of our relationship with Christ and in turn, to proclaim the Gospel’s Good News of our Redemption in Christ, through His Church, to all the world. So, how do we begin and what do we do?

John Paul II and the New Evangelisation: How You Can Bring the Good News to Others

Edited by Ralph Martin and Peter Williamson

This book explores the full meaning of Pope John Paul II’s call for a New Evangelisation. It looks particularly at the role of the Parish, married couples and families, religious and singles in the new evangelisation. It also looks at evangelisation’s ecumenical dimensions, and the best ways to bring the Good News to young people. With contributions from 22 highly respected writers, this is an invaluable resource for the Church’s mission to the world.

$33.95+postage

Fanning the Flame of Faith: How to Grow, Go and Glow in Christ Jesus (4 CD set) by Alex Jones

How can we allow the love of God, the life of God and the power of God to renew us so that we accept the Divine imperative to ‘go make disciples of all nations’? How do we effectively evangelise others? How do we let a passionate faith take root in our hearts, homes, parishes and society?

How can we set our souls ablaze with love for Christ? Alex Jones, a Pentacostal convert, teaches listeners how God’s efficacious grace helps us to grow, go and glow in faith and personal relationship with Christ through His Church, and bring Him to the world.

$30+postage

Apologetics for the New Evangelisation (6 CD set) by Tim Staples EWTN apologist Tim Staples uses Scripture, history and common sense to explain fundamental Catholic beliefs and demonstrate the reasonableness of the faith, by inspiring and encouraging listeners to fan the flame of faith in their own lives and the lives of non-believers. Topics include the Papacy, the Eucharist, the Saints, The Virgin Mary, Justification, Scripture, Catholic Practices and a discussion on how the faithful around the world are answering the call to the New Evangelisation. Nowhere else will you find a more energising presentation that shows you how to effectively share your faith with others.

$40+postage

What It Means to Be a Christian

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI’s eloquent and passionate book on how one can live as a faithful Christian in today’s increasingly secular world. Rooted in faith, hope and love for God and neighbour.

$29.95+postage

Evangelising the Baptised (3 CD set)

by Scott Hahn

Scott Hahn’s timeless words empower listeners to effectively and charitably share the faith with nonCatholic Christians, lukewarm Catholics and Baptised Catholics who have fallen away from the practice of the faith.

$25+postage

Catechism of the Catholic Church –Pocket Edition

The Vatican’s official collection of the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church, with in-depth explanations of its teachings, set within a reflection on the Apostle’s Creed. A vital reference for all Catholics.

$26.95+postage

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church –Pocket Edition. The official compendium of the Catechism which sets out the beliefs, teachings and practices of the Church in question and answer format.

$12.95+postage

It’s up to you, Mr Carpenter A

s the husband of one woman and the father of four daughters, it is entirely understandable that Premier Alan Carpenter was discombobulated by the very thought that prostitution could be mentioned in the same sentence as his family. It is the natural imperative of a husband and father to protect his family from such blatantly brutal and destructive matters.

However, Mr Carpenter, your fatherhood does not end there. As the Premier of this State, when it comes to legalising prostitution you stand in loco parentis for all the families of Western Australia. You have a fatherly role when deciding whether being legally prostituted is a suitable life outcome for all or any of the women and girls of this State.

You and the MPs you lead under the rigid discipline of your Party (another case of male domination of females, it seems) are about to declare that you will license people to run brothels in which they can prostitute the women and girls of this State and those of other countries.

It is an unspeakable thought when applied to the females of your family and the families of your fellow MPs, of your friends and even of your acquaintances, but you are about to proclaim in law that it is appropriate for other females to be prostituted as ‘sex workers’.

letters to the editor

I object to The Record

Istrongly object to the editorial comments of The Record in relation to the debate about Father Frank Brennan’s lecture at Notre Dame University on August 13th entitled “The Mix of Law and Religion-Lessons from the Stem Cell Debate.”

The work of charities

Iadmire the sterling work our Christian charities do in caring for the needy, the ill and the underprivileged. They could not be praised high enough for their dedication and the invaluable work they provide for the community.

I find it, however, worrying that – while many of us enjoy the higher living standards – those charities are today under an increased pressure to provide for, and cope with, the ever increasing number of the needy, who seek their aid.

It also concerns me that the number of the economically disadvantaged include those who willingly embrace the culture of poverty engaging in the habits of gambling, alcohol and drug abuse while rejecting the concepts of social responsibility and the self-hep.

How far are we to go to help these people?

Once upon a time we believed in upholding the values of the work ethic, thrift and personal responsibility regarding them not only as virtues but as our obligatory duties.

Have they been abandoned now?

I was recently surprised by the amount of hostile criticism levelled at a government proposal, under which the able-bodied dole recipients would be required to seek employment and those who forgo their family responsibilities receive their pension partly in food vouchers.

September 26 2007, The Record

Getting to know the real men

An historian has dusted off and updated America’s pantheon of portraits in courage.

n By Matthew Rarey

Real Men: Ten Courageous Americans You Should Know By R. Cort Kirkwood Cumberland House 179 pages US$12.95

PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902

Obviously, this is not a law that is intended to apply equally to all people. It has been known for centuries that most of the women who end up being prostituted come from circumstances such as poverty, homelessness, drug dependency, gender inequality, sex and race discrimination, and sexual, physical and psychological violence perpetrated by male relatives, boyfriends, husbands and pimps. Studies worldwide reveal that most women and girls involved in prostitution report male sexual abuse in their youth. These are the people your legislation will allow to be prostituted by much stronger people whom the Government will license for the job.

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

Even with all this damage and disadvantage in their backgrounds, most of these women and girls would not end up being prostituted if it were not for the male demand that men and boys be allowed to buy them and abuse them sexually. The knowledge that the driving force for prostitution and the trafficking of women and girls is the demand generated by licensed brothel owners and their male clients has been around for centuries. In 1927, for instance, Holland reported to the League of Nations that when it stopped the legal brothels, trafficking and prostitution in general reduced to a minimum. (It’s a pity they forgot about it.) Sweden has demonstrated the same result in this century – and this during a time of massive trafficking of women and girls in Europe.

It is interesting that both the League of Nations and the United Nations made the prevention of trafficking and the prostitution of others among their earliest priorities. Australia has serious UN obligations to put in place measures to discourage the demand that leads to trafficking. Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have simply ignored these obligations by licensing brothels and tolerating the large number of illegal brothels that also operate.

The Labor premiers of those States could tell you plainly (so long as you promise not to quote them) that legalisation of brothels has failed miserably – except of course for those who want to make their money by prostituting women and girls. It is significant that your Attorney-General did not send his ‘working party’ to any of those States to gather information.

Instead it and he tell us that illegal brothels are flourishing in Victoria because the fees for legal brothels are too high. If life is that simple, why not advise Mr Brumby that if he lowers the fees all the illegal brothels will sign up and become squeaky clean?

All Governments, particularly in democratic states, have an unavoidable obligation to protect women and girls by curbing the demand for them to be prostituted, but that is not the only obligation in that regard.

The Labor Party and yourself have a long-held belief in the normative effect of law - namely, what is made legal becomes the accepted norm in society. Legalising brothels tells men and boys that it is acceptable to regard women and girls as objects to be bought and sold for the sexual gratification of men.

When you are considering your responsibility acting in loco parentis for all the families of this State, you could ask yourself how many mothers would like their sons to be trained by the law to consider girls and women in this darkness? How many mothers and fathers would like their sons to have so little regard for the meaning of their own sexuality that they think it can be expressed by demeaning women? And how many of these parents for whom you are acting would be happy to know that with licensed brothels more and more young men will have distorted views of about the sexuality of the young women they eventually seek as wives?

It is obvious, Mr Premier, that your Attorney General will not report truthfully to Parliament about the real nature of prostitution or about the superior alternatives available instead of his naïve law.

It is up to you, Mr Carpenter, to give us something better. If you will not protect our women and girls, you cannot defend your own name.

The Record’s first report of the lecture (August 22) was entitled (in very large font):“Embryo Research OK: Jesuit.” In smaller font were the words “The Church teaches research on embryos left over from IVF process is not morally permissible. Jesuit Fr Frank Brennan says it is.”

Father Frank wrote to The Record objecting to those comments and made statements such as “I would counsel any scientist who sought my pastoral or moral advice to avoid experimenting on human embryos” and “I believe that the creation of human embryos for destructive experimentation is morally wrong”.

Instead of apologising to Father Brennan for its patently misleading and deceptive headline, The Record then (September 19) published an article by Father Joe Parkinson containing an editorial comment under Father Joe’s photograph;“Father Joe Parkinson has clarified the Catholic Church’s position on embryo research after Jesuit Father Frank Brennan wrote into The Record about his own views on the subject.”

The clear implication from that editorial comment is that Father Frank’s views are in opposition to the Catholic position. (Father Joe’s article does not make that claim.)

I believe that such innuendo is mischievous, provocative and unfairly damaging to the reputation of a highly respected priest, ethicist and Catholic social commentator, and unworthy of a Catholic newspaper.

The clear and obvious objective of Father Frank’s original lecture was to inform the intelligent lay person on the

In brief

More children are surviving today than ever before, says UNICEF, thanks to life-saving measures like vitamin A supplementation, insect nets and vaccines reaching more children in poorer countries. Globally, the number of deaths of children under five fell to a “record low” of 9.7 million in 2005, down from nearly 13

While seeking protection for those who might be unjustly affected by the proposal should we not welcome the principle which it embodies, instead of condemning it?

Having our old traditional moral concepts become obsolete and politically incorrect these days?

Joe Stekl Gosnells

complex moral and socio-legal issues surrounding the current stem cell research debate, and the impending legislation in the WA parliament, and to help provide politicians with moral and ethical arguments which could help defeat the Bill.

As Father Frank pointed out, the first moral Rubicon had already been crossed in 2002 when the Commonwealth Parliament allowed stem cell research on excess IVF embryos. When that law was reviewed in 2006 and a recommendation made to allow the creation of embryos purely for scientific research, there was no outcry from our Church leaders calling for the repeal of the 2002 legislation.

What Father Frank was trying to do was provide Catholic and other politicians and other lay people with ethical arguments as to why this second Rubicon should not be crossed, given that experimentation on embryos was already legal.

That was the main point of his lecture. It was not to give a full and detailed exposition of Donum Vitae or the Catholic position on embryo research, or the theology of ‘ensoulment’.

Nor was there a single question from the audience, including members of The Record newspaper, in relation to any of those matters. If the Catholic

million in 1990, the organisation reports.

Measles mortality has fallen by 60 per cent since 1999 and by 75 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. The most rapid declines have been in Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian federation and East Asia and the Pacific. In some African countries there have been declines of 20 per cent or more, but the highest rates of

moral and ethical positions on extremely complex issues such as modern embryology and stem cell research are ever to be taken seriously by the wider community then I believe it is incumbent on the Catholic media such as The Record to report on such issues in an informed, intelligent and non-provocative manner and without resort to clumsy and heavy handed comment about which individuals do and do not represent the “Catholic” position. Such small minded nit picking does the intellectual tradition of the Church a great disservice.

Mary McComish Claremont

The impression

In an article (The Record, August 22) and a letter (September 12) the impression given to me was that Fr Brennan was making a huge distinction between moral law and natural law. If that impressoin was correct then it follows that Fr Brennan appears to infer that belief in atheism gives a right to the person with such belief to make his own laws.

John McKay Swan View

child mortality are still found in West and Central African countries and in southern Africa, where HIV/AIDS exact a heavy toll. The fact that there are still many millions of children dying every year leaves no room for complacency, says UNICEF Executive Director Anne Veneman. Most deaths are preventable with basic health interventions.

- FAMILYEDGE

After presiding over the defeat that doomed the Southern cause for independence—a defeat for which he took full responsibility, offering to resign his commission—Robert E. Lee rode past Cemetery Ridge, the site of the most furious fighting at Gettysburg. A Union soldier lying wounded on the ground recognised Lee and shouted, “Hurrah for Union!” As the soldier remembered: “The General heard me, looked, stopped his horse, dismounted and came toward me. But as he came up he looked down at me with such a sad expression... that all fear left me, and I wondered what he was about. He extended his hand to me, grasping mine firmly, and looking me right into my eyes, said, ‘My son, I hope you will soon be well.’ There he was defeated, retiring from a field that had cost him and his cause almost their last hope, and yet he stopped to say words like those to a wounded soldier of the opposition who had taunted him as he passed by! As soon as the General had left me, I cried myself to sleep there upon the bloody ground.”

“ Crafted by a veteran newspaperman, Real Men is a miniature modern version of Plutarch’s Lives featuring many poignant anecdotes about the ten neglected American heroes profiled in its pages.”

Crafted by a veteran newspaperman, Real Men is a miniature modern version of Plutarch’s Lives featuring many poignant anecdotes about the ten neglected American heroes profiled in its pages. But this one stood out in my mind because in just one scene it showcases the virtues of one of America’s greatest heroes: the courage, humility, and charity that were the hallmarks of a Christian gentleman who sacrificed everything save his honour. It is no rhetorical stretch to contend, as does the author, that Lee “is the standard against which any man should measure himself.”

The other nine present challenging standards, too. Indeed, their profiles are inspirational to the point of making lesser mortals dwindle in recognition of their own shortcomings. This should be met not with despair but with the hope of becoming better human beings by following their examples. There is a grave drawback to

this book, however, yet through no fault of its own. For once upon a not-too-distant time most of these ten men were esteemed, their deeds recounted in school history books and celebrated in popular culture.

(Walt Disney featured two of them, Davy Crockett and Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion, in hugely popular films of the 1950s.) Many boys dreamt of emulating them, and some succeeded to the benefit of their countrymen.

Today, however, these ten have been erased from the historical conscience of the nation’s young through outright neglect; or, if remembered at all, as figures deformed by falsehood. The admiration this book evokes is offset with anger at the deliberately orchestrated demise of its heroes.

The cultural Marxists who took the helm of academe in the 1960s made it their mission to destroy great Americans, a mission continued by the acolytes replenishing their greying ranks. And mission successful.

The typical brainwashed product of the public school system might associate Lee with racism. (Even if Southerners fought merely to keep slaves, which is untrue, charging Lee with racism is an outrageous calumny.) Or the deluded youngster might associate the most decorated hero of World War II, Audie Murphy, with...

Audie who? Is he Eddie Murphy’s brother or something?

There is hope, however. Like the examples of these great men, this predicament presents a challenge:

Those who love their country’s great men are duty-bound to correct this cultural crime by speaking truth to error. And R. Cort Kirkwood has done his duty.

Most of the ten he profiles were military men, at least for part of their lives. This should come as no surprise.

The exigencies of war are such that only full measures, of either valour or cowardice, are remembered. All of these men, however, displayed virtue in all of life’s arenas. Character may be encouraged by circumstance, but never circumscribed.

Most of the militarily distinguished heroes lived long ago: the Swamp Fox, Davy Crockett, Lee, “Wild Bill” Hickok, and General, later President Andrew Jackson. (Jackson’s inclusion is debatable because his virtues were as extreme as his faults, a Scotch-Irish predilection.) The others lived in the last century, the most recent being Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace.

Rocky who? Exactly. If his exploits occurred earlier in US history, his name at least would be up there on the shelf gathering dust with the others.

An Army adviser in South Vietnam, the handsome and wholesome West Pointer had decided to become a Maryknoll priest upon his discharge. But two weeks before his second tour in ’Nam was up, he was thrice shot and taken prisoner by the Viet Cong. Versace endured horrific torture and deprivation, rejecting good treatment by refusing to denounce his country for Communist propaganda. Reduced to skeletal emaciation, his hair turned white, he nonetheless encouraged his fellow prisoners to keep faith in God and country. The last they heard of him, he was bellowing out “God Bless America” at the top of his lungs—a song cut short by the report of the executioner’s pistol. President George W. Bush awarded him the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2002, Rocky having been the posthumous victim of bureaucratic ineptitude.

And then there is Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the “storied terror of the skies and Medal of Honor recipient in World War I, race-car driver, aviation pioneer, and airline chieftain.” His greatest exploit, however, happened in World War II with the Captain Bligh-like feat of keeping alive a crew of men who crash landed in the Pacific during a secret inspection of air bases.

Rickenbacker’s private pursuits were likewise heroic, though without the dramatic backdrop of bombs and bullets. He was the model for the ethical CEO. Of the Enronlike raiders he would have nothing but righteous disdain, righteously earned through an ethic of hard work and honesty. When in 1960 he retired from Eastern Airlines, which he rescued from bankruptcy and ran at a profit since the 1930s, he still earned his original annual salary of $50,000... and he never accepted a dime of government money.

Audie Murphy, the diminutive Texan, also gets his due.

Kirkwood succinctly recounts Murphy’s rise from dirt-poor sharecropper to the cover of Life Magazine in 1945. He was barely old enough to buy a beer at war’s end, but his scores of enemy kills ensured the survival of untold numbers of his comrades. This consolation did not keep him from having nightmares until his death in a plane crash in 1971, however. And the same courage that drove a wounded Murphy to mow down waves of Germans from atop a burning tank allowed the middleaged hero to beat a prescription drug addiction by locking himself in a hotel room and going cold turkey.

Two of the remaining ten were sports heroes. Sportw, after all, is the (relatively) peaceful equivalent of warfare.

Lou Gehrig, the “Pride of the Yankees,” never missed a game, never let stardom go to his head, and never complained when he

was stricken with the fatal disease that now bears his name. Shortly before his death, a packed Yankee Stadium paid him tribute. And nary an eye was dry when the frail Gehrig declared that he truly was “the luckiest man alive on the face of the earth”.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, was a tough Italian-American and daily communicant who commanded the respect of his players unlike any other coach in football history. This truly loving man remains famous for his pithy quotes. (Kirkwood fleshes out his and other profiles with quotes worth writing down and sticking on the wall). For example: “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit”; “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm”; “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is”; and “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence.”

The most interesting—as in questionable—inclusion is William Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, best known for being shot in the back by a cowardly boy in Deadwood. After reading his profile, however, one cannot argue with his place among the ten. This gallant soldier (distinguished in the American Civil War) and later lawman had his faults (he was a drinker and a gambler), but he was remarkably honourable toward friend, foe, and every woman he met (God save the man who assaulted a vulnerable woman in Hickok’s presence!). Animals also being vulnerable, he never countenanced their abuse. As a young man working on the railroad, he tossed his boss in the river for mistreating a team of horses. Although this Cavalier of the frontier put many a bad man in his grave, he was a gentleman and would have preferred not to. His opponents rarely being men of his calibre, however, they often fell before Wild Bill’s .44 Colt. Appropriately, Kirkwood saves the best for last: the golden standard of manhood in any age, especially one as benighted as ours, Robert E. Lee. This man really could not have been so noble, but for one caveat: He simply was. As great as his near relation George Washington, he lacked only Washington’s vanity. Real Men features a superb introduction by historian Roger McGrath, perhaps the best storyteller among contemporary historians; but speaking truths not always politically correct, lacking popular recognition. In the afterword, Kirkwood surveys the degraded cultural landscape that makes his book so necessary. By reminding us of a few gallant men who made America great— and whose examples are worthy of universal appreciation and emulation—Mr Kirkwood has made a small but sure step toward redeeming our time. Yes, he has done his duty.

Pride of the Confederacy: Robert E. Lee is counted among ten great American men by R. Cort Kirkwood, but has suffered from politically correct dismissal in recent decades.

Supreme Court Judge to compose WYD liturgical music

n By Paul Gray

A NSW Supreme Court judge,

Justice George Palmer, has been handed the task of composing music for Mass with the Pope at World Youth Day next year.

Justice Palmer, who is a serving judge, has achieved numerous distinctions in a musical career which has developed in tandem with his court duties.

“Music is something I do in the small hours of the morning,” he says. Justice Palmer has been commissioned to compose a musical setting for the papal Mass, entitled “Benedictus qui venit” (“Blessed is he who comes.”)

Pope Benedict XVI will be principal celebrant at the Mass at the end of the World Youth Day celebrations. The director of liturgy for WYD, Fr Peter Williams, said the music composed by Justice Palmer would be well-suited to use in Masses in parishes. “There will be a combination of Latin and English used in the setting, and it will be, in its simple form, suitable for use at a parish level,” Fr Williams said.

Justice Palmer is a familiar figure on the national arts scene, now acting as chairman of the Pacific Opera company, and as a director of Ars Musica Australis and the Sydney Omega Ensemble. He is also President of the Arts Law Centre of Australia.

The judge once took part in a Sydney support act for blues legend Ray Charles, while his musical compositions have received regular public performances. He is an old boy of Sydney’s St Ignatius (Riverview) College where he was the school organist. Early in what has become a distinguished legal career, he took part in the Woodward Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking, acting as junior counsel. In an edition of Australian Story profiling his career on ABC TV four years ago, Justice Palmer said that music allowed him to work better as a judge.

“Music is a stimulus to my ability to carry on as well as I can carry on in the law,” he said.

“It’s a constant source of refreshment. I think it helps me to get through my job as a judge.

“By the same token, doing my job as a judge I think helps me with my music as well. It stops me from becoming repetitive and stale and hackneyed.”

A LIFE OF PRAYER

Parish The Nation The World

Marian poem a ripper

The charism of Mary MacKillop, Australia’s only saint, permeates the hearts of WA’s youth as the build-up to World Youth Day gathers momentum

n By Sylvia Defendi

As the World Youth Day Cross and Icon make their way across the nation, one Perth girl has been recognised for her poem on the meaning of the Cross in the life of Mary MacKillop.

Madeline Raye, 12, from St

Brigid’s Primary School in Middle Swan, won third place in her age category for this year’s Mary MacKillop Place Museum Student’s Poetry Award.

The museum recently invited students aged 10 to 17 throughout Australia to create a piece of original poetry.

“We received many wonderful entries from all over the country and were inspired by the response,”

Christine Richards, education officer at Mary MacKillop Place Museum, said.

“It was a great challenge to select the award winners as so many students clearly reflected the meaning of the Cross in the life of Mary MacKillop.”

For Madeline, who had never

M ary carried crosses all through her life and

A lthough she had tough times, she still followed God and did the right thing. She is

R eady for any trouble, she always got through it and helped others

Y ou could always rely on Mary to care for the poor people and her family

O ther than her family and God, she also cared for the children she taught through her life

F or her entire life, she acted as a mediator for her mother and father

T he church was a special part of Mary’s life

H er trust, love and dedication all went to God

E veryone respected Mary, and everything she did

C onstantly loving God and never doubting he wasn’t at her side and looking after her

R eally kind and good-hearted to everyone she talked to

O pen hearted to any poor or underprivileged person

S he was unselfish and thought of her family, friends, God and the students she taught first.

S he had faith in what was right and she was always loyal to her friends.

In Brief...

Rachel’s Vineyard founder visits Australia

Theresa Burke, founder of the Rachel’s Vineyard ministry for women who have had abortions, visited Australia this week for lectures in Melbourne and Sydney.

A professional counselling psychologist, Burke has engineered the Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreats which promote exercises designed to “allow the soul to speak its grief and sorrow.”

The retreats aim to help participants accept forgiveness for themselves and others, and to “re-connect with the children that have been aborted, on a spiritual level.” In Australia, Burke spoke on “Finding hope and healing after abortion.”

Pell claims victory

Cardinal George Pell said it was “a win for religious freedom” when the Privileges Committee of the NSW parliament’s

upper house ruled he had not been in contempt. The parliamentary committee had investigated comments the Cardinal made about the cloning debate, to the effect that Catholic MPs might face “consequences” for voting against the protection of embryonic human life. After weeks of investigation, the committee concluded that “no contempt occurred” and recommended no further action be taken on the matter. Cardinal Pell then commented: “Christians in Australia have long played an important part in ensuring that fundamental human rights are respected. My contribution to the public discussion on human cloning was made in this spirit and tradition.”

I pray for my attacker: stabbed priest

An Australian-based missionary priest who was stabbed in the throat in a near fatal attack in August has said he’s praying for his assailant. Divine Word Missionary Fr Ho Tran, rector of a Divine Word house at Marsfield in Sydney, interrupted an intruder during the early morning and received serious wounds. The attacker fled and has not been found, while the priest

before entered the competition, her poem spoke of the dedication Mary MacKillop had to God and to others.

For several years the museum has been awarding students for their poetic and artistic works. This year the Museum received over 500 entries that focused on the travelling World Youth Day cross and Mary MacKillop as the official saint of the cross.

All poetry award winners will have their poems exhibited in the ‘Mary - Portraits & Poems’ exhibition at Mary MacKillop Place Museum in North Sydney from December 10 to January 31, 2008.

For further information contact the museum on (02) 8912 4878 or email: mackillop@sosj.org.au.

has now returned to work. “I need to pray for the one who attacked me,” Fr Tran said this week. “I feel when I pray for him in the future he can be better. Everyone wants to live in harmony.”

Power opposes Catholic club gambling

Canberra’s Bishop Pat Power agreed with anti-gambling campaigner and World Vision Australia President Tim Costello, who says it’s a disgrace that Catholic clubs should use poker machines to make money. Visiting Canberra, Mr Costello said the Southern Cross Club in Canberra’s southern suburbs, which is well known for being unofficially linked to the Catholic community, is not keeping the Christian faith because it has 522 poker machines.

Bishop Power said he was also concerned about the promotion of gambling by a Catholic club. “I’d call on the Southern Cross club to examine the whole impact of the poker machines on the life of the community,”’ Bishop Power said. The bishop also acknowledged the contributions made to the community by the Southern Cross club.

Be the touch of Christ to reduce abortion

Our bishops are setting Australian Catholics on a course that could change the very nature of the way we think about abortion.

ACBC chair Bishop Eugene Hurley spoke to Anthony Barich about how we should be treating those who are affected by unplanned pregnancy and abortion.

The Australian Catholic Bishops have called all Catholics to reach out to help those facing unplanned pregnancies and those who have had them and bring people back to the Church.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference chair, Bishop Eugene Hurley of Darwin, commissioned a taskforce to investigate abortion two years ago, which then presented 30 ideas in May last year recommending both educational and preventive strategies together with ways of promoting pastoral and practical assistance to people contemplating abortion.

One was for a National Symposium to be conducted in every capital city of Australia to

engage in dialogue with and educate Catholics and the wider community about the Church’s teaching and pastoral responses to issues surrounding sexuality, pregnancy and abortion.

The Australian bishops have also written a pastoral letter on abortion to be released soon. The symposium has the potential to change the very nature of the abortion debate in a country where over 100,000 abortions are performed every year, paid for by Federal health care.

The National Symposium will discuss how the Church can put John Paul II’s Gospel of Life into practice to empower women and those who have lost a child through abortion, and hopes to change perspectives by promoting the Gospel ethos of forgiveness and healing, and care and respect for human life.

It will present the pro-life perspective that is woman-centred, identifying with their issues and problems.

The National Symposium, to be held in eight capital cities starting in Perth on November 17, is designed to be a “tsunami” which the bishops hope will trigger Catholic communities to get active in supporting people in such difficult situations.

Caring for God’s own too-often

forgotten

National Symposium

Outcomes

- Educate Catholics and the wider community about the Church’s teaching and pastoral responses to issues surrounding sexuality, pregnancy and abortion.

- Engage in dialogue and foster closer working relationships amongst those who “encounter” vulnerable pregnant women and those suffering the effects of an abortion.

Special Focus Areas

- Pregnancy counselling: assisting women to make good decisions

- Practical assistance to women during pregnancy and after birth.

- Post abortion healing: to embrace those who are suffering after an abortion. Whilst it is acknowledged that preventive strategies around sexuality education and relationships are integral to empowering women, the Symposium will not be addressing this in the first instance but useful resources will be made available on a website and featured in the proposed DVD for the Symposia.

Key Deliverables

- Symposium in eight capital cities commencing Perth (November 17, 2007), Melbourne (December 1, 2007), Sydney (February 2, 2008) and Hobart (February 23, 2008). Other dates to be released.

- Production of a website with facilities to purchase DVDs, provide feedback confidentially, and register to attend a Symposium.

- Production of a DVD showing best practice organisations in Australia who offer decision-making pregnancy counselling and post abortion healing, together with supportive strategies that are integral to empowering women.

“He died on the Cross,” Bishop Hurley said, “not for some ideology, but for people like myself who are sinners”.

He said the Church recognises that it’s often the woman that is left with the responsibility for the new life that’s growing within her, and “while that’s a great privilege and joy, in certain circumstances it can be a really demanding and difficult thing to take on”.

“The bishops of Australia are saying in a more defined sense that nobody should be alone in these circumstances – not the man and certainly not the woman or the baby,” said Bishop Hurley, formerly the Bishop of Port Pirie, South Australia.

Archbishop Barry Hickey of Perth, Bishop Hurley, Abortion Grief Counseling head Julie Cook, Pregnancy Assistance manager and JPII Institute for Marriage and Family graduate Lydia Fernandez and Respect Life Office director Bronia Karniewicz will address the Perth Symposium, and a testimony will be given.

Bishop Hurley said the symposium urges Australian Catholics to put into action in a practical way the command of Christ to “love one another as He has loved us”.

“If it’s difficult for all sorts of reasons, then the Church has got to be there practically supporting them in every practical way, so the woman and partner have got real choices – not the choice of which abortion to have, but real choices about a decision to continue with the pregnancy.

If that means providing education, housing, crèches, we should be doing that – tailor made for each circumstance to allow women to make real, wise choices that are life affirming.”

But the Church’s responsibility does not end with caring for preg-

nant women and their partners.

“Ultimately, if the woman chooses not to go through with the pregnancy, the Church doesn’t go anywhere, it stays with that person,” he said, “because in the grief that so often follows the agony of that decision, the Church needs to be there to bring the compassion and touch of Christ to people postabortion.

“This is one of the most difficult decisions a woman will ever make. Often in hindsight people are broken hearted about that, so the Church is not going to be walking away from people who find themselves in those circumstances.”

Quoting the late Pope John Paul II’s Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year in 2000, Bishop Hurley said:

“The Church is in the world, is a living presence of the love of God reaching down to every human weakness in order to gather them into His merciful embrace.”

This, Bishop Hurley said, summed up the Australian bishops’ initiative, and added that all Catholics have a responsibility to be the “touch of Christ in the world”, but not in a simply academic way.

“We’ve got to walk with people in a practical, loving, compassionate, meaningful way that makes a difference to their lives,” he said.

I AM AT YOUR SERVICE WITH ANY QUERIES, QUESTIONS OR REQUIREMENTS. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL ME ON 9375 3116 AND 0419 777 919 www.sallypalmer.com.au

Leading the charge: Bishop Eugene Hurley filmed the DVD for the Bishops’ new initiative in Fremantle last week.

Winner: Madeline Raye

The World

Vatican insists that patients must be fed

n By Simon Caldwell

LONDON (CNS) - Medical ethicists in Britain said a Vatican document reiterating that it is a moral obligation to provide food and water to patients in a vegetative state will encourage doctors to defy living wills.

Anthony Ozimic, political director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the September 14 document released by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was “highly significant” for England and Wales, where the Mental Capacity Act will take effect on October 1.

The act “runs directly contrary to the statement’s principles,” he said in a written statement.

“The Mental Capacity Act allows, and in some cases requires, food and water to be denied to mentally incapacitated, nondying persons,” Ozimic said.

“This will place conscientious health workers in a serious dilemma,” he added.

“They may be forced to choose between continuing to feed patients and participating in a regime of starvation and dehydration.”

Ozimic said health workers who refuse to withdraw nutrition and hydration “may face disciplinary action, dismissal or even criminal prosecution.”

“We hope that this timely statement from the Vatican will be backed up with pastoral action here to support health care workers of any faith resisting pressure to cooperate in the killing-by-omission of their patients,” he said.

The Vatican reiterated church

teaching that nutrition and hydration, even by artificial means, cannot simply be terminated because doctors have determined that a person will never recover consciousness.

Exceptions may occur when patients are unable to assimilate food and water or in rare cases when nutrition and hydration become excessively burdensome for the patient, it said.

The Mental Capacity Act allows patients to instruct doctors that they wish to refuse treatment if their condition worsens.

It will give legally binding force for the first time to living wills, under which patients can record their wish to refuse treatment if they become seriously or terminally ill.

It also includes new provisions for patients to give “lasting powers of attorney” to a friend or relative, who would be able to instruct doctors to terminate nutrition and hydration for the patient if he or she became incapacitated. Those refusing to obey the instructions would be open to prosecution for assault.

According to reports in the British media, some doctors already have indicated that they are willing to go to jail rather than obey directives they claim will oblige them to kill patients by withdrawing food and fluids, which have been classified in Britain as “treatment” since 1993.

Dr Philip Howard, a member of the Guild of Catholic Doctors, said he hoped the Vatican document would help to clear up “a lot of confusion” among professionals about whether the withholding of

food and fluid from stroke victims and those with brain damage was legitimate.

“Because strokes are so common among the elderly, a denial of tube feeding will lead to the premature deaths of many, many people,” he said.

“I know it causes a great deal of distress among nursing staff,” he said.

“There is a moral obligation under most circumstances to provide hydration and nutrition. In my view we should never cause a patient to die.”

Elspeth Chowdharay-Best of the anti-euthanasia group ALERT said that practitioners who felt under pressure from the government “to get rid of bed-blockers” would “draw great encouragement” from the Vatican document.

But Julia Quenzler of SOS-NHS Patients in Danger, a group formed by bereaved relatives of patients who have died in hospitals as a result of deliberate dehydration, told CNS that the Vatican document did not address the reality of the situation in Britain.

“Those most at risk are elderly patients who are not terminally ill or unconscious, who are able to swallow and communicate, but are rendered incapacitated by having food and water withheld, resulting in death from dehydration and the consequences of malnutrition,” she said.

“Of course, that’s not what it will say on the death certificates,” Quenzler added.

“If these deaths took place anywhere but in a hospital setting, those responsible would face criminal charges.”

family on Christmas Eve in 1986 or 1987, according to her brother Bobby Schindler. The case of Schiavo, who suffered brain damage in 1990, fueled debate and legal wrangling about whether a person in a persistent vegetative state must receive food and water. Schiavo died 13 days after her feeding tube was removed on March 18, 2005, at the order of a Florida judge. PHOTO: CNS

No easy answers to persistent vegetative state questions

n By Nancy Frazier O’Brien

WASHINGTON (CNS) - As discussions continue about the latest Vatican documents on artificial nutrition and hydration for those in a persistent vegetative state, one thing is clear: Although the medical community is developing a standardised definition of what constitutes a persistent vegetative state, no one knows precisely how many patients fall into that category. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health says patients in a persistent vegetative state “have lost their thinking abilities and awareness of their surroundings but retain noncognitive function and normal sleep patterns.”

“Some patients may regain a degree of awareness after persistent vegetative state,” according to the institute’s information page on coma and persistent vegetative

state. “Others may remain in that state for years or even decades.”

A spokesman for the institute said it does not keep statistics on how many patients are in a persistent vegetative state in the United States at any given time. Estimates from other sources, however, put the number somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000.

Dr John Collins Harvey, a physician and moral theologian who is a senior research scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Clinical Bioethics, puts the figure at the upper end of that range.

He said it is important to note that there are two types of persistent vegetative state.

In one type, a patient’s heart stops for more than six minutes before it is started again and the cerebral cortex, which he said “expresses personhood,” is dead. Although the lower part of the brain may continue to maintain the patient’s breathing, heart rate and other bodily functions, he said, there are “no cognitive possibili-

ties.” In the second type of persistent vegetative state, Harvey said, patients suffer a blow to the head or an alcohol- or drug-induced state that “poisons the cells of the cerebral cortex and knocks it for a willy-wally.”

In those cases, recovery of cognitive functioning is possible.

The Brain Injury Association of America, based in McLean, Virginia, says the levels of severe brain injury can range from coma - “a state of unconsciousness from which the individual cannot be awakened” - to locked-in syndrome, in which the patient cannot move any part of the body except the eyes.

The association lists four criteria for a vegetative state:

- “Arousal is present, but the ability to interact with the environment is not.

- “Eye opening can be spontaneous or in response to stimulation.

- “General responses to pain exist, such as increased heart rate, increased respiration, posturing or

sweating.

- “Sleep-wake cycles, respiratory functions and digestive functions return.” A vegetative state can be described as “persistent” if it lasts more than a month, according to the association.

Brain-injured patients might also be in what the association calls a “minimally responsive state,” which is neither a coma nor a persistent vegetative state. The minimally responsive state is characterised by primitive reflexes, an inconsistent ability to follow simple directions and an awareness of environmental stimuli, the association said.

But diagnosis of persistent vegetative state is far from an exact science. Some patients considered to be in a persistent vegetative state have recovered cognitive function, although most in the medical community would attribute those cases to an initial misdiagnosis.

“There is no test to specifically diagnose vegetative state,” says the Brain Injury Association

Priestless Mass suggested for Dutch

n By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The general curia of the Dominicans expressed surprise over a booklet published by its order in the Netherlands recommending that laypeople be allowed to celebrate Mass when no ordained priests are available.

In a written statement released by the Vatican on September 18, the Dominicans’ Rome-based leaders said that, while they “laud the concern of our brothers” over the shortage of priests, they did not believe “the solutions that they have proposed are beneficial to the Church nor in harmony with its tradition.”

The statement acknowledged the Dutch Dominicans’ concerns about the shortage of vocations to the priesthood and the difficulty in offering the faithful in the Netherlands a wider celebration of the Eucharist. But while the statement said Dominican leaders shared those same concerns it said they did “not believe that the method they (Dutch Dominicans) have used in disseminating” a booklet to all 1,300 parishes in the Netherlands was an appropriate way to discuss the issue.

An open dialogue about the availability of the Eucharist and the priestly ministry should be carried out through a “careful theological and pastoral reflection with the wider Church and the Dominican order,” the statement said.

“The booklet published by our Dutch brothers was a surprise to the general curia of the Dominican order,” it said.

In late August, the Dominicans in the Netherlands distributed a 38-page booklet, “Church and Ministry,” that proposed parishes in need of an ordained priest choose their own person to become the Mass pre-

sider. The parish could then present such candidates - “women or men, homo- or heterosexual, married or single” - to the local bishop to ask that they be ordained, according to the booklet’s summary on the Dutch Dominicans’ Web site.

However, basing its recommendation on practices within the early Church, the booklet said if the bishop chooses not to ordain the candidate - for example, because the person cannot meet the requirements of celibacy - then the elected candidate and the congregation could speak the words of the consecration together.

“What is important is an infectious attitude of faith,” the booklet said.

Because of the priest shortage in the Netherlands, some parishes have a Liturgy of the Word and a Communion service with preconsecrated hosts.

In some cases, local church officials advise Catholics to drive to a nearby parish that has a priest.

In an interview posted on the Dutch Dominicans’ website, Dominican Father Harrie Salemans, one of the booklet’s authors, said:

“The Church is organised around priests and finds the priesthood more important than local faith communities. ... This is deadly for local congregations.”

The issue of priestly celibacy and the potential role of married priests came up at the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in late 2005.

Both synod participants and Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the obligation of celibacy for priests in the Latin rite.

The Pope’s 2007 apostolic exhortation, “Sacramentum Caritatis” (“The Sacrament of Charity”), and his special November 2006 meeting with top Vatican officials reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy.

Pope didn’t snub Condoleezza Rice

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Benedict

XVI declined to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during his August vacation, but Vatican officials said it should not be interpreted as a diplomatic snub.

of America on its Web site. “The diagnosis is made only by repetitive neurobehavioural assessments.”

The first use of the term “persistent vegetative state” is credited to Bryan Jennett of Scotland and Fred Plum of the United States in a 1972 article in the British medical journal Lancet; they defined it as a state of “wakefulness without awareness.”

Over the years, various people in the medical community have expressed a preference for other terms - “continuing vegetative state,” “permanent vegetative state” or simply “vegetative state,” with no modifier.

But as the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith noted in a footnote to its commentary about artificial nutrition and hydration for patients in a persistent vegetative state, “Terminology concerning the different phases and forms of the ‘vegetative state’ continues to be discussed, but that is not important for the moral judgment involved.”

World

17th century battle sparked September 11 attacks

“The only reason she wasn’t received was that she came during a period when the Pope doesn’t receive anyone. It was a purely technical question of protocol,” an informed Vatican source said.

The source said it was “absolutely not” the Vatican’s intention to rebuff Rice or signal disagreement with US policy on the Middle East.

Rice was about to travel to the Middle East for diplomatic talks in early August when the request for a papal meeting was made. The Pope was vacationing at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome. Even as it declined the request, the source said, the Vatican made it clear that top officials of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State would be happy to meet with Rice at any time.

“So clearly there was no intent to send a negative signal,” the source said.

Rice instead ended up speaking by telephone with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, while he was visiting the United States in August.

Cardinal Bertone later praised Rice’s mediating attempts, saying: “I recognise the untiring efforts of the secretary of state in reconciliation among the governments of the Middle East.” The Italian newspa-

per Corriere della Sera first reported on the Vatican’s rejection of the US request. It said Rice had let the Vatican know that she “absolutely needed to meet with Pope Benedict” before her Middle East tour. The newspaper said Rice hoped a papal audience would bolster her influence in the talks with Middle East parties.

The article went on to say the Vatican’s refusal underlined a fundamental foreign policy divide between the Vatican and the United States. The article was written by Massimo Franco, author of a respected book on US-Vatican relations, “Parallel Empires.” The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, had no comment on the Corriere della Sera report.

US Ambassador to the Holy See Francis Rooney released a brief statement emphasising overall US-Vatican cooperation.

“Since the beginning of formal diplomatic relations in 1984, the US and the Holy See have enjoyed a high level of cooperation on a wide array of issues, ranging from protection of religious freedom and human rights around the globe to eradicating trafficking in persons and HIV/AIDS,” Rooney said. “Our relationship remains strong today. Our working relationship is dynamic and productive at all levels.”

To cut down on the number of papal audiences, early in his pontificate Pope Benedict made it a practice not to meet with government ministers below the level of prime minister.

Polish Bishop says September 11 attacks were revenge over his own country’s victory over Ottoman empire in a period long-past to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Vienna

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) - The head of Poland’s military diocese has accused Islamic militants of seeking revenge for a Polish-led victory over the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century and urged Christians to prevent Europe being turned into “Euro-Arabia.”

“The military defence against Islamic terrorism is being led today by the United States, which is playing a very similar role ... to that played centuries ago by Poland, when it was the rampart of Christianity,” said Bishop Tadeusz Ploski, head of Poland’s military diocese.

“Today, alongside the American soldiers and those of several dozen states in the antiterrorist coalition, there are also soldiers of the Polish army,” he said. Poland is among the 21 nations contributing to the US-led coalition in Iraq.

Polish military forces also are deployed in Afghanistan.

During a homily in Warsaw on September

11 this year for a Mass marking Poland’s Land Forces Day the following day, Bishop Ploski said the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States had been planned with “criminal precision” by Osama bin Laden to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Vienna, Austria, in September 1683, when an Ottoman Empire invasion force was defeated by Christian armies under King John Sobieski of Poland.

The significance of the date was brought to the fore in the eyes of the world once again last year.

He said Islamic extremists had used the same anniversary in 2006 as a pretext for a “brutal attack” on Pope Benedict XVI after his controversial remarks about Islam in Regensburg, Germany.

“They again proclaimed a jihad, a holy war with the West - as they have declared for centuries, the final aim of history is the whole world’s submission to Allah,” said the Bishop.

“The current invasion of Europe is nothing other than a different face of that same expansionism, just more insidious and treacherous,” added Bishop Ploski.

He said the European Union, “with its dismal and deceitful constitution, repels and negates our Christian roots and identity.”

Happier days: Terri Schindler Schiavo models a new outfit for her

A time for mourning: In the footprint of the fallen World Trade Centre towers, mourners of the victims gather at ground zero in New York on the first anniversary of the attacks September 11 in 2002. PHOTO: CNS

Be strong in the faith in order to pass it on Sydney CEO evangelision officer gives hope to Catholic teachers

n By Anthony Barich

Perth Catholic teachers and agency workers have been told that being a loving and joyful example of living out the Word of God is the best way to carry out their job description to evangelise today’s youth in schools and the wider community.

Paul Durkin, a member of the Sydney Catholic Education Office’s Religious Education and Evangelisation team, presented a seminar at the Catholic Pastoral Centre on ‘being an authentic witness’ and being ‘cast out into the deep’ on September 15. Some Catholic teachers present at the meeting expressed frustration to Mr Durkin at their struggle to evangelise many students who seem to lack even a base knowledge of the faith and the Church.

But Mr Durkin reminded them of

the importance of taking seriously where young people are at in their journeys, and their ‘ownership of their lives’.

He said that once youth realise the teacher has an appreciation of their path in life, it will then be possible to develop a ‘spiritual literacy’ by providing an environment where they can ‘experience’ options, so they can make right decisions.

Explaining this, he said that the youth of today ‘won’t buy into’ anything that’s pre-packaged. Many teachers and students, he said, “are lukewarm in what should be the focus of our work”, so the challenge is to understand their reality and invite them to “our experience”.

“Be mindful that it will take a while to come to a meaningful understanding of the Eucharist,”

Mr Durkin said.

“Find the human connection first – a common ground – then

we can lead them to Christ. Our humanity is our commonality.”

He said it is important to bring a religious dimension into every experience of school life, adding

that the best example of how to relate to others is seen in Jesus Christ.

“Jesus knew when to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and we must do the same – even to our leaders (of schools) – for the good of mankind and lifegiving things,” he said.

Teachers being properly formed in the faith themselves is the first step in evangelising, Mr Durkin said.

“It’s distressing that we hear over and over that kids have been in our schools for years yet know nothing of the faith, which is why staff formation is so important,” he said. Catholic teachers must also have a deep commitment to a life of prayer, he said, and model themselves on Jesus who “lived in complete communion with the Father”, bringing to the teachers’ attention the fact that Jesus always spent time in prayer before embarking

on an undertaking. Loyalty to the Church, witness to the person of Jesus, having an authentic life of spiritual discipline along with living in a spirit of joy and a life of love are all prerequisites for preparing oneself for evangelising others. A live of love directed towards others, “to be attentive to the needs of others, yet find time for prayer and community, contributing to the work of the world while seeing it as attending to God’s work” is the key, Mr Durkin said. The meeting also served as a precursor to a larger conference the SCTA will host on November 3 called ‘A Day with the Archbishop’, where Anthony Cleary, director of RE and Evangelisation for the Sydney CEO and Archbishop Barry Hickey will address Catholic teachers. For information on this event, contact Renato Bonasera on 9437 5349, Sr Maria Mora on 9336 3750 or email admin@scta.org.au.

Providence has a few surprises yet for our seminarians

Tomorrow’s priests at St Charles’ Seminary got a history lesson on the 50th anniversary of its rector’s priestly ordination last week

n

By Fr Brian O’Loughlin, Vicar General

It is significant that St Charles Seminary Rector Fr Don Hughes, OMI celebrated his Golden Jubilee of ordination to the priesthood the same year that the seminary itself, in Guildford, marks its own 65th anniversary.

Fr Don celebrated his Golden Jubilee on Saturday, September 15, 2007. Fr Hughes commenced his studies for the priesthood at St Charles’ before transferring to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Seminary in Ireland.

St Charles’ Seminary, Guildford was founded by Archbishop Redmond Prendiville in 1942.

In attendance at the Jubilee Mass on September 14 were two foundation students: Bishop Peter Quinn and Fr Pat Cunningham who concelebrated the Mass.

Fr Don, principal celebrant, was joined by seminary staff members

Fr Nino Vinciguerra and dean of studies Fr Brian Limbourn, along with newly appointed part-time senior spiritual director Fr John O’Reilly and spiritual director Fr Brian McKenna and Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Perth, Fr Brian O’Loughlin, all of whom are former students of St Charles’ Seminary.

Fr Hughes was also joined by his successor as parish priest of Lesmurdie Fr John McGinty OMI and Fr Greg Watson OMI, chaplain of Notre Dame Australia University, Fremantle.

Representing the Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary, Redemptoris Mater in Morley was Fr Nick Falzun OP, while Bishop Donald Sproxton presided at the Mass.

In his opening remarks of welcome, Fr Hughes said he was ordained in Ireland with Fr John Dunlea, who later served

at Fremantle and Lesmurdie Parishes.

Fr Hughes shared that his thoughts and prayers were with his deceased parents. He also recalled those deceased priests from whom he had received the sacraments of baptism, penance and Eucharist. He was especially mindful of the Bishop who ordained him in Ireland and the Sisters of the Convent where he celebrated his first Mass.

For this occasion, Fr Hughes had asked his fellow Oblate, Fr Greg Watson, to preach the homily. Fr Greg’s father had been a student of Fr Hughes’ at Iona College in Queensland where Fr Hughes had been assigned.

Fr Hughes was later Fr Greg’s Rector in the Oblate Seminary in Melbourne. After the Jubilee Mass, a very enjoyable meal was served in the Seminary dining room, prepared by the Seminary cook Guy Fiorucci assisted by his wife Rosa and their family. Fr Pat Cunningham, former editor of The Record gave a stimulating after dinner speech which captivated the students as he reflected on his years at the Seminary under the first Rector, Dr Goody.

Fr Cunningham had come appropriately prepared with a photograph of the Seminary staff and students, including the now Jubilarian Fr Don, taken in 1947. Dr Goody was selected by Archbishop Prendiville as foundation Rector of the newly founded seminary in 1942. This was because Rome had decided in the midst of World War II that each mainland Australian State should have a Seminary. There was no book or guidelines on how to be a Seminary Rector, so Dr Goody had to start from scratch. He recruited staff including Fr E McBride, Fr W Browne and a diocesan priest on loan from Ireland, Fr Kevin Slowey, as spiritual director.

Two members of the foundation staff are still living: Bill Mangini, who taught science in what is now the kitchen; and Sr Vivian Brand of the St John of God Sisters who prepared meals. Later,

Fr Jeremiah McNamara joined the staff. Dr Goody had been plucked from his position on the staff of St Mary’s Cathedral and told “Start a Seminary.” A visitor in the early days noted the severely pruned trees along the driveway of the Padbury property which had been overgrown. He said the students are like those trees, all cut back bare.

Fr Cunningham reminded the students that the red sash which the students wear in the Chapel was introduced to St Charles’ Seminary by Dr Goody as part of the students formal attire, because that was part of the uniform the young Lance Goody wore as a student in Propaganda Fide College in Rome.

The young ‘Lance’ Goody grew up in Goderich St, almost within the shadow of the Bishop Griver built St Mary’s Cathedral. Little did he think at the time of his reception into the Catholic Church with his parents and sister, in the Cathedral, that one day he would be sent to study for the priesthood at Propaganda Fide College in Rome. Or that following ordi-

Ugandans receive Spirit with open arms

Perth evangelists see amazing transformations as they spread God’s Word

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”

(1 Corinthians 2:9)

Not showering or changing clothes for days, Perth evangelists David Harp and Eddie Russell must have looked – and smelt – a sight as they toured Uganda in May, preaching to thousands in makeshift sheds.

Invited by Fred Mawanda, national chairman of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Uganda, and welcomed by the local bishops, the pair from Flame Ministries International set out in May to speak at conferences in Kampala, Masaka and Kasese dioceses to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Though the pair had toured overseas before, this was a mindblowing experience for them – and in such humble surroundings that were in sharp contrast to their firstworld lives back in Australia.

The conference in Masaka was held atop a mountain in a makeshift open-air structure.

“It was like being at the Sermon on the Mount,” David said.

“I could just imagine what it was like in Jesus’ day; people camped out for days in the open air just waiting for the Kingdom to be announced; it was a great privilege to be there,” he said.

On the theme, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9) Eddie and David spoke of the Blood Covenants and the seven stanzas of The Lord’s Prayer as well as David’s life transformation from HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and drug addiction.

The conferences had a profound impact on the priests as well as the people who responded with faith.

“I cannot tell you how much my faith has increased with David’s testimony of healing; the theme of this conference, 1 Corintians 2:9, has become a reality,” local Teddy Muhumuza said.

David witnessed this first-hand as they often went without showers and certainly hot water.

Most often, the best was a bowl of cold water to bath in at the cold crack of dawn.

Without electric power they also preached at night using only a kerosene lamp to read their Bibles.

Late in July, Eddie, David and Patrick Carre toured St Louis Catholic Church in Miami, Florida to conduct Flame’s third annual “5 Nights of Fire” where they also spoke at the Florida Maximum Security State Prison by popular demand of the inmates and on to the second annual 5 Nights of Fire at the St John the Baptist Ukrainian Rite Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

From there they addressed the Walsingham New Dawn National Conference in England along with FMI’s UK evangelist Derek Williams.

nation there, that he would be sent to study Croatian in Split, so that upon his return, he would be able to serve the Slavic peoples while appointed to the staff of St Mary’s Cathedral.

Neither did he know that he would be ordained a Bishop there in 1951 and later be installed as third Archbishop of Perth in 1968.

All this was hidden in God’s plans.

St Charles’ Seminary enjoys this privileged position in the Swan Valley. Like good wine, there will be flavours and influences of the surroundings for each of today’s Seminary students. Over the last 65 years, the Seminary has served the Church well.

Little would young Don Hughes have thought, when he commenced his studies here that he would later feel called to join the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Perhaps that call was inspired by the Oblate missionaries who preached parish missions or by the Oblate priests he had met in Fremantle parish. Nor would he have thought when he left St Charles Seminary, that one day he would return as Rector.

In response, Fr Hughes said that he was happily doing God’s work as Parish Priest of Lesmurdie, when he received a phone call from Fr O’Loughlin, who said: ‘You were a student at St Charles Seminary and twice served as Rector of the Oblate Seminary, would you be agreeable to serve for three years as Rector of St Charles’ Seminary?’ Fr Don said he would think and pray about it.

“A few days later I had a visit from Archbishop Hickey asking for my answer,” Fr Don said. “I said I had two reservations. Firstly, my age. To which the Archbishop responded: ‘You were ordained one year before me and I’m in charge of the Archdiocese and the Pope is only a few years older and he’s running the Church’. My other reservation was that I am an Oblate. To which the Archbishop responded: ‘You started your Seminary training at St Charles and you have always had great involvement in the local church’. So here I am celebrating my Golden Jubilee as Rector of the Seminary where my training began.”

People travelled great distances to be at each conference, many by foot.

“The amazing thing is that people with children carrying belongings on their heads walked great distances and slept in the open air for the five day conferences,” Eddie said.

Not using the tourist routes in Uganda revealed a different picture of its life and people. Eddie and

Finally arriving home in Perth towards the middle of August they began their Set My People on Fire seminars for St Anthony’s parish in Greenmount from August 21 to December 2 and then prepare for their 18th Annual Perth Congress in January 2008.

On the weekend of October 5-7, Eddie will speak at the Committee for Family and Life Archdiocesan Conference on the Motivational Gifts within the Family.

Here is the kingdom of God: Perth Catholic evangelist David Harp enjoys rock star status in Uganda, but the real star is God, to whom David gave witness.

The future: Ugandan orphans pray

Curious: Ugandans listen intently as David Harp and Eddie Russell evangelise.

Hopeful: Paul Durkin in Perth

Strong in the faith: St Charles’ Seminary class of 1947. Fr Don Hughes, is top right. Dr Launcelot Goody, the future Archbishop of Perth, who started the seminary, is seated fifth from left, front row. PHOTO COURTESY ST CHARLES SEMINARY

It’s 100 great years!

n By Sylvia Defendi

Ahundred years worth of students and teachers converged on Iona College in Mosman

Park to celebrate a centenary of education and perseverance in the face of adversity on September 11.

In remembrance of Iona’s founding moment, 500 guests welcomed a horse and cart carrying past students, representing the five founding presentation nuns in full habit, across the school grounds.

Behind the buggy processed present students from the college, some of whom from the primary school dressed in the period costume of the day.

Celebrations had begun earlier that day with a golden girls reunion for past students who graduated prior to 1955. Almost 70 golden girls attended Mass, celebrated by Monsignor Michael Keating, at Corpus Christi Church in Mosman Park that day, after which the Presentation Sisters welcomed these past students for a luncheon at the near-by convent.

All guests and members of the College community then joined in a special talk-show styled presentation, where the ‘founding’ nuns were asked questions about their history, faith and vision for the future of Iona.

Principal of the College Margaret Herley and primary school principal Sr Maureen Moynihan spoke to the audience of the significant growth and success of the College, as well as the rich history and community on which Iona is still based.

The College’s strong links with the Presentation order shone through the words of Presentation congregational leader Sr Anna Fewer, who said the message of the order’s foundress, Nano Nagel, was still strong.

And while the launch of the centenary celebrations continued through the day with exhibitions of student’s achievements and the blessing of members within the school community, celebratory events will continue until March 2008.

A centenary dinner dance is planned on October 20, a concert featuring past and present students will be held on November 5, followed by an art exhibition on November 16, a centenary garden party on November 17, parents and friends centenary picnic on February 10, 2008 and lastly a St Patrick’s Day Mass on March 17, 2008, in remembrance of the strong Irish influence in the founding of the Iona community.

For further information on the events listed, contact Louise Creasy on: 9384 0066, or email: lcreasy@iona.wa.edu.au.

Mosman Park school marks its first century

moment: A horse and buggy travelled through the College grounds (left), while some staff members of the Iona Presentation Primary School gathered for a photo with their principal, Sr Maureen Moynihan in the original nuns habit of 1907 (bottom left). Students from the primary school, dressed in period costume, sing hyms during the golden girls reunion Mass (top right), while Sr Moynihan, posed with Sr Mary Mackin (right). Paul and Carla Sullivan greet Sr Albeus Fahey, while Sr Bridie Rafter, Angela Rossen and Anne Cullity waited for the procession to arrive (bottom right). Two 85-year-old past students, Francis Malone and his sister Carmel Stevens at the Presentation Sisters’ Convent luncheon (below).

Tradition traces back to Saint of the Dark Ages

Founded on September 11, 1907, Iona College was named after the Scottish Isle of Iona, on which the Irish Saint Columba founded a community in 563AD.

The Isle became a centre of learning from which Saint Columba and his monks set forth to spread the Gospel into Scotland and the north of England.

Bishop Matthew Gibney remarked that the site in Mosman Park, situated on a rise, with the Swan River on one side and the ocean on the other, reminded him of the Isle of Iona.

The Presentation Sisters who came to Mosman Park had originally come from Kildare in Ireland to Hay in New South Wales.

In 1900, Mother Angela Treacy, Sr Columba Moynihan, Sr Paul O’Halloran, Sr John Jones, and Sr Joseph Dowling volunteered to answer a call to come to Western Australia. They arrived in Southern Cross in 1900, Collie in 1902, Cottesloe in 1902 and Mosman Park in 1907.

When greeting the sisters for the first time Bishop Matthew Gibney, who was the Bishop of Perth, remarked that the site in Mosman Park, situated on a rise, with the Swan River on one side and the ocean on the other, reminded him of the Isle of Iona off Scotland.

He said he hoped that this too would become a centre of learning and a centre from which the Gospel would be spread. Soon after, boarders and day pupils were enrolled and a well-planned Curriculum was devised. Mother Treacy had spent some years at school in France, Sr Moynihan was endowed with artistic skills and qualified as a teacher in Ireland and Sr O’Halloran was a gifted musician.

“All were cultured and highly educated young women and dedicated educators,” Sr Carmel Ryan, a past principal of Iona College, said. Growth was slow in the years following foundation as WWI and II affected the fledgling school community.

Boarders and sisters were evacuated from Iona in 1939, when war was declared, leaving a reduced staff and a small number of primary and secondary day pupils. With the boarders returning post-war, the need for accommodation and for class-rooms was extreme.

The total school buildings in existence were the 1914 building to which verandas were added as class-rooms.

This building was used as the Parish Church on Sundays and housed the junior, sub-leaving and leaving (years 10,11 and 12) all in the one class room. “Severe Government restrictions on

buildings kept developments at a stand-still,” Sr Ryan said. During the last years of World War II and immediately following it, the Sisters cared for a large number of baby boarders, whose fathers were at war and mothers working. By the 50s 125 pupils were enrolled at Iona College, where the success rate was annually outstanding despite lack of facilities.

“There was no library other than what the window ledges held and no science room other than the enclosed veranda area,” Sr Ryan said. However, a very wide range of subjects were taught and one sister generally taught six or seven subjects. In 1961 came the completion of the first section of the new Secondary Wing. During the next six years, the Chapel was built and in 1968 the second wing of the secondary school including two large science rooms was added.

“Almost biennially a new building appeared – a new boarding school, library, music academy, Nagle Hall and canteen,” Sr Ryan said.

Lay teachers began staffing Catholic schools in the 60s.

“Many of Iona’s present lay staff have been here for a number of years and have become an integral part of the ‘Iona’ College community.

“Since the introduction of lay teachers, we have had in both primary and secondary, some of our past pupils,” Sr Ryan said. By the year 2000 only three Sisters were still members of the College staff with the other 120 positions in the school held by lay teachers. Since the 1980s the College has greatly expanded.

“The particularly hard work was done by the early Sisters, when no funding was forthcoming from governments to Church schools.

“Yet those women taught all the basic subjects, plus a love of the Arts, particularly music, public speaking and a love of good literature.

“They provided many with an education scarcely to be believed, and gave these young women the opportunity to play active and leading roles in society,” current principal Margaret Herley said, adding that today’s challenges are very different to those encountered by the early sisters.

“Our students now live in a very wealthy and affluent western world. This, they are surprised to discover, does not make them any happier than their parents or grandparents, who had far less. The College now faces the challenge of teaching them that happiness lies in the head and the heart, not in possessions and bank accounts.

“In this, the religious education program of the College, and the long-held tradition of reaching out to others and concern for the needs of others, continues to be at the very core of an Iona education,” Mrs Herley said.

Milestone

in brief

Precocious Tween model fronts Gold Coast fashion show

An Australian girl just turned 13 has caused a storm of controversy by appearing as the “face” of Gold Coast Fashion Week - one of the world’s largest fashion shows.

Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Maddison Gabriel was only 12 when she was selected for the role, causing Australian Prime Minister John Howard to call for a ban on models younger than 16 - a move just announced by British Fashion Week.

“There should be age limits, I mean there has to be, we do have to preserve some notion of innocence in our society,” he said.

But the 5ft 7in youngster, whose precocious glamour has adorned countless newspapers and websites in the past few days, says all that matters is that she can “do the job”.

“I believe that I can fit into women’s clothes. I can model women’s clothes, so I should be able to do it.” She says she has wanted to be a model since she was six. Her mother dismisses Mr Howard as “doddery” and out of touch with what 13 and 14-yearold girls are like. “We’re trying to get our teenage daughters to act older. I am so happy that I’ve got a daughter who has got a good head on her shoulders,” she said. Meanwhile, a report by the British group Women in Journalism, slates teen websites frequented by young girls for asking them to rate their bodies on sexiness and offering them the chance to buy “airbrush me” software to improve their looks. The sites also invite young girls to rate the sexiness of boys. The author of the WIJ report, Fiona Bawdon, said teenage magazines for girls did not seem to know what to do with their website and were copying “lad mags”.

- FAMILYEDGE

Saggy pants

Boys who think saggy pants are a fashion statement are likely to end up in prison in one Louisiana town. Pants low enough to show boxers or backsides mean six months in jail and a $500 fine. Atlanta city is also taking steps to stop the sloppy trend.

Trenton is about to issue fines, and to use the occasion to check up on where a kid is heading. “Are they employed? Do they have a high school diploma? It’s a wonderful way to redirect at that point,” says a city councillor.

One-child policy

- FAMILYEDGE

Learning to love with limits is the best protection

@home

n with Catherine Parish

My oldest son has just brought home a Drive Safe handbook from school.

The distressing statistic that kids between 17 and 24 make up one third of road deaths has set alarm bells ringing in our community and rightly so. This has been reflected in the increasing care and attention being given to actually getting that licence in the first place, and in the rules and laws governing the behaviour of young people in their first years of driving.

We don’t want to expose our sons and daughters to unnecessary risk of dangerous or even deadly behaviour.

We don’t want ignorance and inexperience to lead to their injury, death or permanent disability.

We don’t want them to be the cause of anyone else’s suffering either.

We don’t let our kids learn to drive by putting them in a car and letting them go.

We don’t even put them on a bike without making sure they can ride it.

We don’t let them walk to school alone because something bad might happen.

The government and lawenforcement groups help us in this aim.

What a pity that we don’t apply the same rigorous protective behaviour to other potentially harmful activities our kids are very likely to think about engaging in - sexual behaviour for example.

The tragic fallout from promiscuity, both physical and mental, is well documented and researched. Why are we so reticent to do anything about it?

The choice by the government to make it more difficult to get a driving licence is a moral decision – it is a bad thing that too many kids are dying on the roads, something must be done.

Why won’t governments apply the same moral criteria to the area of sexual health? Countless young

people are suffering the effects of promiscuity – STDs are on the rise, abortion is appallingly common, depression and self-harm reaching epidemic proportions among our kids.

If governments won’t back us up on this one with legal protections or constraints, we need to work even harder to give our kids an authentic and clear understanding of why there is no such thing as casual sex.

Have we ever told them any more than the mere mechanics, without emphasising positively its proper context within a permanent, committed relationship?

Are we too afraid or just too reticent to speak positively of its proper place within marriage, its

mystery, its power, its wonderful unitive value, its inseparability from the great gift of life?

On the other hand, do we only speak of the dangers of promiscuity in terms of disease without mentioning the untold damage caused by using or being used by other people, of heartbreak, loss of integrity, shame, of losing the ability to form lasting relationships?

Once you begin to objectify others and see them as a tool for you to gratify your own desires you are on the road to inhumanity.

At the basis of a healthy attitude to sex is a proper regard for yourself and others as persons first, all equally important, before even being men or women. And it isn’t anything to do with religion particularly; it is more a matter of human dignity. Regard for the other person before yourself, or at least at the same level as yourself, is at the basis of a just and authentically human society. We have to be ultra-careful about how we are seen to treat others.

If you can instil that attitude into your children from a very early age by not only telling them but living as though it is true yourself, then you are streets ahead in the challenge of helping them through adolescence and into a mature young adulthood ready for real life, real love and real commitment.

cathrec@therecord.com.au

In our despair, thank God for saints like Teresa

BEING HEARD

n By John Heard

“If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of ‘darkness’.”

– Blessed (Mother) Teresa of Kolkata

The world has trembled at the revelation that Mother Teresa, the ‘saint of the gutters’, lived for most of her adult life in a state of radical unbelief.

After Time Magazine published exclusive extracts from her letters and diaries, this paragon of selfabnegation and heroic virtue was transformed into an altogether more surprising Christian.

Jesus’, reveal Teresa’s spiritual life in all its terrible uncertainty. It is hardly the ecstatic communion more commonly associated with saintly experience.

Indeed, Teresa is here shown to have been a Christian without any sense of, or special attention from, Christ.

It gets worse.

“When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.

“— I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.”

Teresa was cut off.

She was dry.

enslaved by rampant materialism.

Some serve various obsessions.

Some seem stuck on cheap, often vulgar sex tics that they dress up in the arch language of excess and perversion.

Still others, a whole miserable army of the lost and lonely, seek solace from reality in drugs. It seems people have stopped talking about happiness, fulfilment and joy.

We now more often speak of endurance, tolerance and – most hopelessly, of survival.

We are all Camus’ strangers now. We are all in the gutter with Mother Teresa.

As a young man, I see evidence of this disconnect, this creeping nothing, all around.

She could have given up on God. She could have killed herself. She could have turned her inner knives outward and acted out on her turmoil and shame.

Instead, she united her sufferings, the sufferings of all men, with those of Christ on the Cross.

She saw in Him, a God-Man Who also felt abandoned by God, a great model for so much more than survival. She saw a pattern for peace:

A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.

Motherhood is a day job too

A well argued defence of the most important work mothers engage in: raising happy, well-balanced children.

Mothering: A Spiritual and Practical Approach

By Anna Melchior St Pauls Publications

That grand old war-horse, Sir Winston Churchill, once said, “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.”

Despite these wise words of an elder statesman, it has been the aim of the Labour government in the UK during the ten years of Tony Blair’s premiership to get as many mothers as possible into full-time paid work, lured by promises of crèches for babies, nursery places for toddlers and ‘wrap-around care’ for schoolchildren. It is early days under his successor, Gordon Brown, but as yet there seems to be no discernible difference from his predecessor in this policy.

When Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, a deprived area near Liverpool, remarked not long ago that the growing problem of unruly children was a direct result of their mothers not being at home to bring them up, he was attacked on all sides.

So when will government ministers grasp the obvious, and recognise that society benefits from healthy, stable families and that families benefit when mothers raise their own children, especially when they are young?

Anna Melchior’s thoughtful book is not a political program, though it has huge political implications; it is a well-argued defence of the most important work that mothers engage in: raising happy, well-balanced children on whose adult emotional maturity society depends. As the author remarks: motherhood is “awesome”.

To those women who have been led to believe that staying at home is boring and does not stretch them, she replies that motherhood is not wasting one’s genius, it is about “using your genius” in “loving, educating and managing” your children and household.

It is mothers, not child-minders or state nannies, that transmit the consistent security and love without which children cannot develop into well-adjusted adults.

feel isolated in lonely suburbs where all the other mothers, seemingly, are in employment.

My sister, married to a Swede and who lived for many years in Sweden, found that all the Swedish mothers in her vicinity had put their babies into day care so that, in choosing not to do so, she had many lonely hours on her hands in the company of two very demanding toddlers.

when “a holy priest told me to be kind to my husband and to pray for him.” Though she and her husband had “five and a half university degrees between us”, they were ignorant of the reality of caring for a baby. Seven days after her first child was born, worn out by sleeplessness and overwhelmed by the task of mothering, she ran away for a few hours.

Gradually she began to experience the joy and freedom of creating an environ-

ment where her family could flourish. She loves cooking and dislikes prams. This is a humorous, passionate story, written to share the author’s own journey of faith and motherhood with other mothers who are shortchanged by political propaganda which persuades them that their task can readily be undertaken by others.

Challenging feminists with their own terminology, she describes as “radical feminism” the decision to spend unhurried time (rather than carefully structured “quality” time) with the children you love.

Chinese authorities have issued a warning to prominent and wealthy Chinese not to flout the one-child rules. “Party members, cadres and social public figures should take the lead in following the population and family planning regulations and policies,” says the National Population and Family Planning Commission on its website. It warns that offenders will be fined according to their income level, and risk having a black mark against their bank credit standing.

- FAMILYEDGE

“Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love — and now become as the most hated one — the one — You have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want — and there is no One to answer — no One on Whom I can cling — no, No One. — Alone ... Where is my Faith — even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness and darkness — My God — how painful is this unknown pain — I have no Faith — I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart — and make me suffer untold agony.” These jottings, from an undated ‘address to

She sometimes claimed that she was ‘tortured’ and, in 1959, concluded that she had been abandoned altogether.

“In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me — of God not being God — of God not existing.”

Surely then, Teresa’s painful experiences express and personify the modern condition.

For Man, uprooted from the nourishing truths about human nature, increasingly finds himself flailing and alone.

Certainly, a ‘daily grind’, made unbearable by the various nihilisms, too often describes contemporary existence. Some people are

Our fallen idols, our Britney Spears, our Paris Hiltons and our Owen Wilsons, seem to selfdestruct in effigy.

When we, like Teresa, feel only knives and emptiness and hurt, a whole army of marketers, pop icons and academic enablers wheel out the creaking apparatus of despair to show us that nothing is where we came from, nothing is what we’re made for and nothing is where we’re headed.

Thank God, then, for saints like Teresa.

Thank God for her perseverance in pain, her holding on through the darkness, her conviction that if Jesus would not come to her, she would do anything to go to Him.

And, like Christ, she pointed the way to perfect community, a way of loving our mates in the gutter, our brothers and sisters in darkness and death: Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well. With her extraordinary life, Teresa undid the noose of modernity. She showed the way out of our darkness and pain, praying: Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. John Heard is a Melbourne writer.

Melchior, a mother of four with a doctorate from Oxford, is convinced that the best childcare settings cannot achieve what mothering in the average family achieves as a matter of course. In support of this contention, she quotes well-known childcare experts such as Penelope Leach and Steve Biddulph, who have publicly admitted that even good state nurseries do not provide their charges with the attention, care and stimulus that they need.

For Melchior it is self-evident that “the job of transmitting values to our children cannot be left to strangers.”

Like a latter-day Joan of Arc, the author swings into battle on behalf of mothers and children, arguing that “you must be there for your baby” if a close and nurturing (and therefore rewarding) bond is to be achieved. She suggests that mothers should not be left in isolation to carry out this demanding vocation; they need support from husbands, relations, neighbours and friends - and society at large.

What politicians should be doing is providing the economic wherewithal for mothers to be at home rather than pressured back to the workplace, which is often, she points out, a dull and uninspiring milieu. Mothers who choose to stay at home can

To avoid this, Melchior wants mothers properly “reintegrated” into society, a society that respects their worth and which supplements their mothering rather than supplanting it. She advocates a restructuring of the tax system so that a married couple are not, in effect, penalised if only one of them works, and greater flexibility in part-time work for mothers.

In case readers feel a tone of self-righteousness to all this, Melchior readily admits her own failings - “unfortunately I rather like harbouring resentment”; she also agrees she is bossy, over-controlling and always right. Coming from atheistic and divorced parents and having watched her mother struggle as a single parent, she herself has floundered with problems in her marriage.

Apart from cases of actual abuse, she believes it is always better to work through marital difficulties than opt for divorce, which couples choose often “because they cannot bear to confront their own shortcomings.”

Now a Catholic, her marriage and mothering are underpinned by her faith. Her marriage survived to grow stronger

Who’s that man?: Pope John Paul II smiles at a child after

The Last Word

This movie did a lot of damage...

The problem is, the Attorney General seems to think it was a documentary.

Richard Gere and Julia Roberts may one day come to regret having acted in a film that portrayed the sexual abuse of women and girls as glamorous.

Pretty Woman was a wildly successful movie when it was released in 1990.

A bit like a modern-day My Fair Lady, it had everything you could want in a Hollywood fantasy - a handsome leading man, one of the world’s most beautiful women as leading lady, a poor-girl-forcedinto-an-unpleasant-job swept off her feet by a wealthy businessman - an all’s well that ends well sort of story.

Of course. Sadly, the truth is different. Very.

If one thing is universally known about the ugly business of human trafficking

and prostitution it is that it depends on the ongoing abuse and destruction of women and girls for its continuation.

Its effects are clear, known and documented: loss of self-esteem, self-abusive behaviours, drug addiction to numb the painphysical or psychological - loss of a sense of purpose, and despair. Try asking those who help prostitution’s first victims to escape, and see what they say.

But when Jim McGinty talks about decriminalising prostitution in WA, its clear he’s clueless about what it really involves - and who is hurt by it most of all.

Pretty Woman was in many regards a clever, funny, well-produced movie, the sort of thing Hollywood is brilliant at making - a fantasy. But it’s hardly the sort of thing we should be modelling actual laws on - not, that is, unless we don’t care about the victims in the first place.