The Record Newspaper 28 April 2010

THE R ECORD

the Parish. the Nation. the World.

HOW WE CELEBRATED Easter 2010

“Be

How Catholics in WA’s city and How Catholics in WA’s city and country parishes came together this country came this year to relive the central event of year to relive the central event of their faith - Jesus Christ’s death and their faith - Jesus Christ’s death and Resurrection.

Pages 10-27 10-27

Mayor gives Cathedral $275,000

Perth Council makes its own contribution to an historic city building

It was a happy moment for Monsignor Michael Keating when Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi presented him with a $275,000 cheque last Friday, 23 April.

The Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral said he felt “very proud” of the Cathedral; and added that the pride that Perth city has “such a beautiful Cathedral” was a sentiment shared by all who were present at the handover.

Witnesses to the presentation by the Lord Mayor included Deputy Lord Mayor John Tognolini; City of Perth councillors Janet Davidson and James Limnios; Chief of Staff to the Lord Mayor, Jennifer Lazberger and Director of

Planning and Development, Peter Monks. Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, members of the Cathedral’s fundraising committee and representatives from Tim Davies Landscaping, the company responsible for the landscaping of the new Cathedral grounds, were also present.

The significant donation honoured a 2008 pledge from the City of Perth towards the completion of the Cathedral, one of the historic buildings of Perth, payable on completion of the work. The money had been pledged to landscaping of the prominent city site. Please turn to Page 6

Monsignor Michael Keating, Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, describes the completion process and layout of the completed building to Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi. The City of Perth donated $275,000 for landscaping costs of St Mary’s.

PHOTO: RON

Western Australia’s award-winning Catholic newspaper since 1874 - 28 April 2010

Perth, Western Australia

indefatigable in your purpose and with undaunted spirit resist iniquity and try to conquer evil with good, having before your eyes the reward of those who combat for Christ.”

-Bishop Matthew Gibney 

CEOs to be left out in cold

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Hundreds of corporate chief executives in every State will discover the life that is lived by hundreds across Australia but is easily forgotten as they sleep out on the streets in a St Vincent de Paul national initiative.

Following its success in Sydney last year when $600,000 was raised by 200 CEOs, the Vinnies CEO Sleepout goes national this year on 17 June when hundreds of CEOs and business leaders will sleep out across Australia.

The Society in WA launched the Vinnies CEO Sleepout Perth event on 22 April at the Passages Resource Centre, a joint venture between Perth Rotary and the Society providing information, referrals and support to homeless people.

The Society and State event partners, Australian Institute of Company Directors and WA Business News, have urged all business and community leaders to rise to the challenge and join them at the WACA on 17 June.

This will coincide with events in Sydney (Luna Park), Canberra (National Museum of Australia), Melbourne (Etihad Stadium), Adelaide (Adelaide Zoo), Darwin (The Gardens Oval) and Brisbane (Suncorp Piazza, Southbank) with a target of more than $1 million to be raised. Tasmanian CEOs will sleep out at the Melbourne event.

St Vincent de Paul Society national CEO Dr John Falzon said the initiative captures the “real concern in the community about social inequality and an increasing awareness by business that it can have a role in addressing the situation”.

“The night is not an easy one,” he said. “Participants literally bed down on a sheet of cardboard on the ground, with only a mug of soup to sustain them, on what is usually one of the coldest nights of the year. Last year it rained non-stop, but still most of those who were there have indicated they will come back again this year.

“The experience of stepping into another person’s shoes like this, to get a tiny sense of what it must be like to have no home, can change the way you think

about the world. The business leaders who have chosen to do this say it is literally a life-changing experience.”

Dr Falzon said it was especially important for the “big end of town” to understand the issues surrounding homelessness, as they were often the ones who had the power to influence change and make a difference.

While some of the CEOs already participate in altruistic initiatives, sleeping out will be a greater challenge. John Poulson - managing partner at Minter Ellison, one of the biggest law firms in the Asia-Pacific region with 1,000 legal staff in Australia and Hong Kong – said that he is a “big believer” in the fact that those in a privileged position should give

something back to the community. Mr Poulson, an Anglican who is also on the board of Volunteering WA, said his own law firm has its own “Four Pillar” community investment programme, including partnering with SVDP to help homelessness and the disadvantaged; a mentoring programme at Warnbro High School; the Minter Ellison Youth Arts Foundation; and every employee is given an extra day’s paid leave a year to do volunteer charity work. “I have a warm bed to sleep in every night, and not everyone does,” he told The Record Channel Seven sports personality and former West Coast Eagles player Adrian Barich will emcee the Perth event. Participating CEOs can register on www.ceosleepout.org.au.

The Bishops’ Men unite around Pope

BY ANTHONY BARICH

THE Knights of the Southern Cross’ National Council is organising an Australia-wide effort among schools, parishes and communities to pray for Pope Benedict XVI and his pastoral mission leading the Church, “that the Holy Father may be strengthened and uplifted at this time of considerable challenge”.

The Novena, starting on 15 May and concluding on 23 May, Pentecost Sunday, is in response to the attacks on the Pope amidst the sex abuse crisis sweeping Europe, the Americas and Australia.

The concept is borrowed from the Knights of Columbus in the United States, a fraternal benefit society founded on a similar model to the Knights of the Southern Cross, who are committed to promoting the Christian way of life throughout Australia.

The Knights of Columbus - who, with the Knights of the Southern Cross, are members of the International Association

of Catholic Knights - held a Novena for the Pope that finished on 19 April.

Ballajura parishioner Peter Lewis, the Knights of the Southern Cross’ national president, told The Record that the Knights are often referred to as “the Bishops’ men”, so they need to support the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, “who is also our Bishop”.

“We know the Pope has a great relationship and respect for the Knights of the Southern Cross, and this prayer will help him in this time of trial,” Mr Lewis said of the initiative, which has also been backed by Archbishop Barry Hickey.

“Throughout the Church’s history, whenever challenges have come, faithful Catholics have gathered in prayer, offering their supplications and sacrifices to God for specific intentions,” Mr Lewis said in the call-to-arms email he sent to all Knights across Australia.

“Now we are called to unite our prayers for our Holy Father,” Knights are encouraged to approach their parish priest so the Novena spreads through the parishes.

Australian Company of Directors WA State manager Suzanne Ardagh, Committee for Economic Development of Australia State director Robin McClellan, JJ Leach Group chairman Jeffery John Leach, Minter Ellison managing partner John Poulsen and St Vincent de Paul Society client Chris rug up on the steps of the Passages Resource Centre in Northbridge.

PHOTO: ANTHONY BARICH

Knights of the Southern Cross national president Peter Lewis, above left, is calling on Knights around Australia to marshall parishes and schools to pray for Pope Benedict XVI, above. PHOTOS: KNIGHTS/CNS

A priest’s best friend immortalised

Parish cats immortalised in stained glass window

BY BRIDGET SPINKS

IF one looks closely at the stained glass window behind the altar at the ten year old parish of Yangebup, a cat called Benedict can be seen curling behind the foot of an apostle at the Last Supper.

Benedict was Fr Bryan Rosling’s cat who faithfully accompanied him from parish to parish over the course of his 16 year life span until his death in August 2001 at Mater Christi parish in Yangebup.

From the day Fr Rosling took Benedict home as a kitten from Kulin parish - where he was with the priest for three years - in 1985 until his death, Benedict and Fr Rosling were company for each other at St Columba’s in Bayswater for six years and later at St Thomas the Apostle parish in Claremont for five years.

From Claremont, Fr Rosling moved to the 1,000-strong Mater Christi parish in Yangebup situated on Perth’s outer southern corridor at the end of 1998.

Since Benedict’s death in August 2001, Fr Rosling has been accompanied by Lionel (pictured), a Maine Coon cat he adopted from the cat orphanage in Jandakot and which suffers with ‘Cat AIDS’, otherwise known as feline hepatitis or Feline Immunodeficiency Disease (FIV). Cat AIDS can be transmitted to other cats, but not to humans, Fr Rosling said.

Lionel, adopted in 2001 in Yangebup, is also immortalised in a Yangebup stained glass window.

He’s pictured at the foot of the late Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005 - around the time the new parish was being planned and built.

It was at Fr Rosling’s request the cats were included in the stained glass windows, designed by architect Dana Quinn in the newly built church designed by architect JeanMic Perrine.

Benedict was named after St Benedict as he adopted Benedict on the saint’s feast day.

Lionel was already named when he was brought home from the orphanage in Jandakot to Yangebup.

“We chose him because he was the unfriendliest and most needy; we got him for free,” Fr Rosling said, adding that other people had returned him to the orphanage.

When The Record asked Fr Rosling if Lionel came to Mass regularly, he said, “(Lionel) looks in occasionally; he doesn’t come to church much.

“He welcomes people to the presbytery,” Fr Rosling said.

Silhouettes of black cats are also pinned around the door frame - a reminder, Fr Rosling says, of the company that a priest - or anyone, for that matter - can seek. “You need company in your life,” Fr Rosling said.

The Mater Christi parish was completed in 2000 for under $800,000. It has since been insured for replacement to the tune of over $3 million.

Hickey recovering from eye surgery

Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey is “recovering well” from his eye surgery on 22 April, his office said this week. St John of God Hospital Subiaco staff performed the eye surgery for a hole in the retina. Archbishop Hickey will not be celebrating any public masses for the next two to three weeks while on sick leave. He said he would “appreciate prayers” during this time.

Munster hosts Divine Mercy

EXPOSITION of the Blessed Sacrament and Divine Mercy Chaplet will be followed by Mass and a talk on Divine Mercy and Healing on 14 May from 2-4pm at St Jerome’s Church, 36 Troode St, Munster. For enquiries call Connie 9494 1495.

Extraordinary form at Bassendean

The Extraordinary form of the Latin Mass is celebrated every Sunday at 11am and Monday (except on the third Monday of month) at 7.30pm at St Joseph’s parish, 20 Hamilton St, Bassendean.

Benedict the cat under an apostle’s foot in a depiction of The Last Supper in the sanctuary of Mater Christi Parish in Yangebup. PHOTOS: PETER ROSENGREN

Lionel the cat pictured at the foot of Pope John Paul II in a stained glass window at Yangebup’s Mater Christi parish.

Yangebup parish priest Fr Brian Rosling with Lionel the cat in the sanctuary of his Mater Christi Church in front of the stained glass window that bears the image of Benedict, Lionel’s predecessor, at the foot of an apostle.

Marriage Encounter pioneer goes to God

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

BUNBURY priest Fr Bernie Dwyer, a pioneer of the Marriage Encounter programme, passed away at the St John of God Villa on Good Friday after 50 years in the priesthood. He had leukaemia. His Pontifical High Mass was celebrated by Bunbury Bishop Gerald Holahan at St Benedict’s Church, Applecross on 13 April. Words of remembrance were delivered by friend Fr Noel Fitzsimons. Archbishop Barry Hickey and Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton were also in attendance.

Fr Dwyer was born as the tenth of 11 children in the Dwyer family on 23 August 1930 in Wagin.

He was educated at the local convent school by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions.

At the age of 14 he went to work on the Railways under Bill Jenkins, who remained a life-long friend, and then went to work in the clothing and manchester departments of the local co-op.

At age 18 he entered the seminary at Guildford and faced the prospect of learning Latin and getting his leaving certificate.

He persevered and after three years’ philosophy at St Charles Seminary and four years of Theology at Manly, he became the first priest to be ordained for the recently-established Diocese of Bunbury.

He was delighted to return to Wagin to celebrate his first Mass as he loved his home town and its people.

After a further six months at Manly he was posted to Albany where Fr Cunningham was not only his parish priest but probably the greatest single influence in his life. Fr Dwyer was affectionately known as “The Mons”.

Fr Noel said in his eulogy: “I had met Bernie as a student when I was appointed to Wagin, but it was decisively in Albany where I had also been appointed that we became firm friends. We had a wonderful partnership and great understanding.

“Bishop Launcelot Goody had told ‘the Mons’ after his heart attack to take things easy and let the young priests do the work.

“He taught us that nothing mattered more than helping others.

“Mons seemed to do this instinctively, we had to learn it, and no one learned that lesson better than Bernie.

“Bernie and I agreed that the best gift that God gave us in the natural order was to belong to a large family. He was also blessed by the fact that he was not a scholarly type (and) he shunned the niceties of philosophy and theology.”

Fr Noel and Bernie worked together in the parishes of Gnowangerup-Tambellup, which they amalgamated and shared the travel and the income.

“It is true to say that he was beloved of the people wherever he went and in our diocese he was proud

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of the fact that he had served in 12 parishes in the diocese,” Fr Noel said. “He was a priest who, like ‘the Mons’, made a huge number of friends, with whom he kept in contact over the years and who will miss his wisdom, his good humour and his advice.

“He loved the youth group Young Christian Workers which provided parish leaders, men and women, for a couple of generations.

“He then dedicated himself to what was then a new apostolate in WA, Marriage Encounter. He was amazed at the effect those weekends had on couples.

“His enthusiasm for this work was wonderful to see and only ceased many years later when he was unable to continue due to ill health. He made countless friends and earned high praise for his years of service to Marriage Encounter.”

When he was in Manjimup, Fr Bernie endured years of suffering after two back operations which seemed to offer no relief.

Fr Noel was in Harvey and although separated by a great distance, they were united by their love for the West Coast Eagles. The Eagles had few supporters as avid as Bernie who attended the 1992 Grand Final with a broken ankle he sustained the previous Sunday at a Marriage Encounter weekend.

“At every opportunity we would go to see the Eagles play, when I was parish priest of Mandurah and Bernie was persuaded to help out in the parish,” Fr Noel said.

“Just when we had acquired the best seats to see the game regardless of the weather, Bishop Peter Quinn asked Bernie to go to Lake Grace.”

After two years there, he retired to Albany, then, after five years, came to share a house with Fr Noel at Erskine, before moving into the St John of God Villa, Subiaco, where he died.

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Men fast to imitate Jesus for their wives

A new way for men to truly love their wives is exploding around the US and Australia

BY MARK REIDY

AN organisation that encourages Christian men to fast for their brides or future brides is rapidly gaining momentum across the globe. “e5 Men”, founded by US Catholic Steve Habisohn in 2002, now has many thousands of registered members in over 80 countries who have committed themselves to fasting on bread and water at least one day a month.

In a 2003 interview, Habisohn told Zenit news service that he had spent years looking for a way to assist people in applying Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to every level of their faith life and he eventually realised that the best place to begin was at the heart of the domestic church - the Sacrament of Marriage.

Habisohn recognised that the most effective way to apply the former Pope’s teaching was to target men, as he believed that wives and children naturally followed the example set by their husband and father.

It was this understanding that inspired e5, named after Chapter 5 of St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, in which St Paul, amongst many other exhortations, urges husbands to “love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (5:25). Habisohn understood that fasting, a practice utilised by holy men of both the Old and New Testaments, including Jesus, was a powerful spiritual gift that modern day husbands could offer up as a bodily sacrifice for their wives. “The idea of a groom giving his body for his bride is a basic tenet of married love”, he said.

The idea quickly spread and within a year over 5,500 men were committed to fasting for a 24 hour period, preferably the first Wednesday of every month, although specifics are entirely up to the individual. The concept is also open to men who are not yet married, who can fast for their fiancée or even future, unknown brides. Those who are celibate can fast for Christ’s bride, the Church.

The e5 movement also encourages men to fast and pray not only for the spiritual growth and healing of women currently in their lives but also for past girlfriends they may have hurt, abused or sinned against. They can also include the intentions of other e5 men’s brides as well as those of e5 Women, an associated group which supports and receives the healing and growth that is gained through the fasts.

Perth Catholic John Stanley has been a member of e5 Men since 2007. Mr Stanley told The Record that he first heard of the movement during a talk about the Theology of the Body and the call to Christian masculinity and saw it as a wonderful act of self-sacrifice and humility.

“I offer up the (fasting) day for my wife, praying throughout the day for her spiritual growth and healing”, he said, “I also pray for all women sinned against by men”. His wife, Lydia, is a member of e5 Women and they typically attend Mass and Eucharistic Adoration on the day, which allows them to put aside the busyness of life and grow in awareness of the importance of self-sacrifice and self-giving love.

Mr Stanley sees his involvement as a practical act of love as it reminds him of his call to lay down his life for his bride. “Fasting taps into this part of our masculine hearts”, he says. “It is a fantastic commitment for men at any stage of life.”

Olivia Lavis, 30, of Mt Hawthorn, has been an e5 woman since 2005 and says she is uplifted each month by the knowledge that there are thousands of men across the world who are fasting and praying for her spiritual needs. Miss Lavis told The Record that she also uses the opportunity to pray for her own vocation and future husband and for discovering the plan that God has for her.

e5 Women, according to Habisohn, are welcome to join the men in their fasting but they are particularly encouraged to attend Mass on the first Wednesday of each month and receive Jesus in the Eucharist. e5 Men, he says, will be praying at that time for them to receive the grace they need in their lives at that time.

Habisohn is convinced of the spiritual power of fasting, not only for the good of the intended women, but also for the spiritual orientation of the men who participate. He believes that the sacrificial motivation behind denying oneself allows a man to move from selflove to a genuine love of others and this is a gift that will benefit his family or future family.

Habisohn believes that many women have been hurt by the selfish bodily acts of men and says that fasting for women becomes the exact opposite of such sexual indulgence. Fasting, he says, allows a man to make a more selfless bodily gift of himself, a gift that can be given in silence and over a great distance, and even outside time because of its mystical union with Christ’s bodily gift on the cross.

The e5 founder is adamant that men are the key to the new evangelisation, of which the late Pope John Paul II spoke. “The fastest way to convert the world”, he says, “is to convert fathers”.

Habisohn is full of hope for the future of the Church. He says that although the destruction of marriage can be seen all around, “underneath the ashes are fresh green sprouts of truly extraordinary marriages”.

Young Catholics today, he believes, have at their disposal a greater understanding of the true nature of marriage than their parents ever did. Habisohn hopes that e5 Men will be able to nurture these strong marriages, because, he believes, they will become the brightest lights in the darkness of the 21st century.

For more information on e5 men or to register see: http://www.e5men.org.

New life to be revealed

A SENIOR member of one of the newest approaches to living the Christian vocation in the Church will visit Perth in early May.

Jean-Luc Moens has worked for the Emmanuel Community, a Catholic charismatic community founded in Paris in the 1970s, for 23 years and leads a humanitarian, non-government organisation (NGO) born out of the community.

He will speak at St Bernadette’s Parish in Glendalough on 11 May and at the nearby LJ Goody Bioethics Centre on 12 May about the Holy Spirit.

Married with seven children, he is President of the Emmanuel Community’s NGO, FIDESCO, founded in 1981 by the Community after a meeting at the Vatican with African Bishops.

Fidesco’s mission is to fight poverty and despair through the development of all human beings regardless of religious, ethnic or cultural backgrounds.

It sends volunteers throughout the world to place their skills at the service of the poor by assisting with development projects, social, and/or humanitarian efforts.

Although still relatively small compared with other new forms of Catholic Christianity such as Focolare, Communion and Liberation, Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal Way (the Community has an estimated 7,500 members globally), like its contemporaries it has won a reputation in the Church as an impressive new arrival on the scene of contemporary Catholicism.

Born in Paris - the very crucible of the culture wars of the 1970s that convulsed social attitudes and values throughout Europe and the rest of the world - the Emmanuel Community is often seen as one of the Church’s new and unexpected responses to a radically different global culture that is often antithetical to Christianity.

Like some of the other new forms of Catholicism, its leadership is - surprisingly within the Catholic Church - lay rather than clerical. Members can be from any state of life, whether married, celibate singles living and working in secular occupations, clerical or religious.

The Community now has more than 200 priests, and has in excess of 100 seminarians preparing for ordination to serve its work throughout the world.

Over 100 members live and work in their own professions as consecrated singles.

The Community seeks to respond to the universal call to holiness through practices such as intense personal prayer, adoration, outreach to the spiritually and materially poor with a spirit of compassion and evangelisation.

Members gather regularly, often in homes, to pray and reflect on God’s actions in their lives. The Community convenes national and international gatherings on themes such as the New Evangelisation while other events offer formation to various social and professional groups.

Where parishes are placed under the care of clergy of the Emmanuel Community, members are entrusted with the task of animating and assisting parish activities.

For further information on the visit of Mr JeanLuc Moens, call Olivia on 0423 415 823.

Parish supports fatherhood bond

BY MARK REIDY

AFTER the Palm Sunday Children’s Mass at St Thomas the Apostle Church in Claremont, over 50 fathers and their children set up tents on the school grounds for a night of fun and community bonding.

The idea for the overnight camp was the initiative of the Parents and Friends’ Association and was originally organised as a “bit of fun”, according to principal Tamara McGougan, but it soon developed into a wonderful opportunity for the school to become more involved with the parish.

Ms McGougan said that the wonderful homily and gentle manner of parish priest Fr Charles Waddell set the pattern for a night of “shared participation in our faith and building a spirit of community”.

The evening began with over 140 kindergarten and primary school children and their fathers attending Mass, which began with a procession into the church with the song of Hosanna and was followed by the reading of the Passion of

our Lord by the children and Fr Charles. After the Final Blessing there was a communal sausage sizzle and icecream, which was followed by the chaotic and fun-filled tent and air mattress set up. The children were then let loose to exhaust themselves which seemed to work as all were asleep by 10pm, according to Parents and Friends’ President John Pritchard. Mr Pritchard confessed, however, that the same could not be said of the fathers who “took advantage of the rare opportunity to catch up, shoot the breeze and congratulate ourselves on our expert parenting abilities”.

It was a decision some may have regretted as they awoke at 5.30am to the hearty laughs of the local kookaburras.

The open-air sleep-out ensured that appetites were at their peak and breakfast was quickly devoured, which was later followed by Mass.

“It was a wonderful way to bring the school and parish together at the beginning of Holy Week,” Ms McGougan said.

“It was a great opportunity to enhance community and involve ourselves fully in the parish Palm Sunday celebrations”.

Above: John Pritchard and Emma during the camp-out. Below, parish children enjoy the day.

St John of God takes lead against culture of death

Sierra Leone man whose sister’s family was slaughtered needs help

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

ST JOHN of God Murdoch Community Hospice, the only freestanding hospice left in WA, is leading the charge against the culture of death.

Greens MP Robin Chapple is set to introduce his Voluntary Euthanasia Bill on 20 May and Catholics have until 1 July - when debate is set to begin on Private Members’ Bills - to write letters to parliamentarians warning of the dangers of the legislation.

St John of God Murdoch Community Hospice is a prime example of anti-euthanasia work in this State, where doctors, nurses and volunteers work to save lives, not cut them short prematurely, as the Bill proposes, if it is passed into law.

There is a case for more hospices in WA, even at the proposed Fiona Stanley Hospital, now under construction opposite St John of God Hospital Murdoch.

Director of Hospice and Palliative Care Services, Margherita Nicoletti, told The Record that the hospice, built in 1999 and part of the St John of God Hospital Murdoch’s campus, provides for those diagnosed with a life-threatening illness when relief from symptoms or pain management may be required and is funded as part of the hospital budget process, relying on both Department of Health contracts for its public patients and private health funds for private patients.

Fundraising provides a strong link to the community and the hospice will continue to encourage these efforts to support the comfort and care of our patients, Dr Nicoletti said. The hospice features a 20-bed inpatient unit, outpatient clinic, consultancy service and day centre. The Footprints Day Centre provides services for more than 50 patients and family members per week, with approximately 150 volunteers, including some professional therapists providing complimentary therapies.

“Our volunteers mainly help out in the inpatient area providing ‘that little bit extra’ for our patients and their families,” Dr Nicoletti said.

The average length of stay is 13 days. Dr Nicoletti leads the hospice management team with Hospice Operations Manager Glenys Joplin, which reports to Director of Medical Services Dr Tony Robins and chief executive officer Peter Mott.

The hospital pastoral services team caregivers co-ordinate and facilitate spiritual and religious ministry.

Pastoral practitioners are available to provide companionship, emotional support and prayer.

YouthCARE, one of the largest not-for-profit community service organisations in Western Australia, is an organisation which impacts on tomorrow.

Due to recent developments within YouthCARE, we invite applications from suitably qualified individuals who would like to join our team. If you are driven by a life of purpose to make a meaningful difference to people’s lives, you are invited to apply for the following current positions:

• Area Chaplain (Metro);

• Local Area Chaplains (Regional)

• Regional Team Leader (North & South)

Applicants must be prepared to travel. Expressions of interest should include a resume and a statement addressing the selection criteria for the position being sought. Job descriptions can be downloaded from our website –www.youthcare.org.au or alternatively, contact Fiona Beermier on 9376 5000 for further information. Applications close on Monday, 10 May 2010 at 4.30pm.

BY ANTHONY BARICH

A MARRIED couple from Sierra Leone with 10 children in their care are currently crammed into a two-bedroom unit in Scarborough.

The couple, Abubakar Mansarray and Aminata Kanu, arrived in Perth in 2004 with eight children of Abubakar’s sister, who, along with her husband, were murdered years ago in the civil war that has torn the West Africa country apart since 1991.

It is a war that has seen tens of thousands die and a failed attempt by the United Nations to stop it, until 17,000 foreign troops finally disarmed tens of thousands of rebels and militia fighters in 2002.

Amidst the atrocities, the rebels’ trademark was to hack off the hands or feet of their victims.

After fleeing Sierra Leone, the couple and their eight adopted children – now aged between 11 and 18 - spent five years in a refugee camp in Guinea before arriving in Australia.

Their life in Scarborough, while less fragile than back in Sierra Leone, is still tough, with Abubakar working in the Steggles factory in Osborne Park and Aminata, who worked in an aged care and in a food factory until her own second child, Haja, was born four months ago.

While the St Vincent de Paul Society has helped them gain a State Government Hardship and

Utility Grant to help pay the Synergy, gas and water bills; and provided friendship and a network of support, they still struggle with $180 a year school fees and up to $160 a year for school uniforms for the children at Balga Senior High School and Cyril Jackson Senior High School.

Since they arrived as refugees in 2004, their case worker introduced them to the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Osborne Park office, which has provided them with clothes and food. Since

then, its Scarborough-City Beach Conference and Conference secretary Peter Murphy have helped them out.

“I’m sure the family will stand on their own two feet eventually, but we want to help them get there,” Mr Murphy said.

Estate agents and rental owners are refusing to take them into accommodation as there are too many of them. If anyone can help them find accommodation, contact St Vincent de Paul on 08 9475 5400 or email info@svdpwa.org.au.

City of Perth gives $275,000 to Cathedral

Continued from Page 1

The Council’s contribution assisted with the works which include plantings, a water feature and ceremonial drive.

“That has now been done and the pleasing results are there for all to see,” the Lord Mayor said.

After the presentation of the cheque, Mgr Keating, accompanied by Cathedral architect Peter Quinn, gave those present a tour of the Cathedral and its crypt (see photo, inset)

Mayor Scaffidi said the Catholic Church had been influential in city

life since the early days of the Swan River Colony, with the foundation stone for the Cathedral having been laid in 1863.

“The Cathedral grounds have been a popular meeting place over

the years and are an attractive part of the city’s landscape,” she said.

“The Council believes that the recently completed works place this historic site in a more contemporary setting which can be appreciated by generations to come.”

She also said that she used to come in and light a candle in the Cathedral and say prayers when she was a young person.

Monsignor Keating told The Record “the grounds which are beautifully landscaped have become a place of rest for many people”.

A worker unearths a mass grave in a Catholic church cemetery in Menden, western Germany in 2006. German authorities investigated whether the remains of at least 51 people, among them young children, were victims of Hitler’s euthanasia programme. Reuters news agency reported that the state prosecutor, Ulrich Maass, said that he had testimony from a Church assistant who said he saw corpses brought on horse-drawn carts and dumped into the grave.

PHOTO: CNS/ALEX GRIMM, REUTERS

Top: Adama, 18, left, with her auntie Aminata, who adopted her with her husband after Adama’s parents were killed in Sierre Leone’s civil war, with Aminata’s own two daughters, Haja and Rhana. Above: The Aminata with most of her family at their current Scarborough residence.

PHOTOS: ANTHONY BARICH/ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY

Fatal flaws in Rudd health plan: Catholic dentist

Dr Patrick Shanahan, a Perth Catholic, has for decades worked on national dentistry policy for the government and the industry itself. In an exclusive column for The Record, he says the Federal Government’s current health reforms are woefully inadequate, leaving those on the fringes of society without access to basic dental care which is linked to general health problems in the community.

It is widely accepted that oral health is critical to general health but less so with health care outcomes. Medical research has strongly connected harmful bacteria from untreated dental conditions in high medical risk patients with serious medical complications. These can be prevented by promptly identifying and treating ‘medically necessary dental care’. Dental care for medical reasons is not the same as dental care for dental reasons. The principal objective of medically necessary dental care is to remove the bacterial risk before it impacts on medical treatment.

It is primary health care and nonelective.

This is a very good example of what I am talking about.

Recently, a patient here in Perth presented at a public dental clinic for an urgent dental extraction that was going to cost $35 which he didn’t have, so no dental extraction. Shortly afterwards he was admitted to hospital with pericarditis (inflammation of the heart lining) caused by bacteria from the infected tooth. The hospital treatment cost $18,000. That was medically necessary dental care that could have been funded under Medicare dental, but wasn’t.

In health care, ignoring the risk of infection from the mouth in high medical risk patients is really going to cost heaps more than preventing it happening.

Rigorous studies in the US and Japan have demonstrated this.

In the US, complications following heart valve replacement surgery caused by harmful dental bacteria added $100 million (10 percent) to the treatment costs. They found treating the bacterial risk before surgery would cost only $16 million, a saving of $84 million. The US Congress adopted Medicare dental legislation in 1998. It stated exactly what would be funded by Medicare, and not what is being funded here under Medicare dental in Australia now.

Japan has many in aged care because of their very large aged population. Pneumonia is very common in aged care, frequently caused by harmful bacteria from the mouth entering the lungs. It costs $15,000 plus to treat pneumonia.

In Japan, a large nursing home study found that simply implementing preventative antibacterial oral care daily at minimal cost reduced the number of cases of pneumonia. A very important finding was the risk of pneumonia was just as high in those without teeth or dentures as it was with those who had teeth or dentures. These preventative strategies are not practised here.

GPs treat high medical risk patients all the time and know most have serious oral and dental problems but nothing is done about it. The patients most affected cannot afford private dentists and public dental services don’t address this.

As you can see, the health system is picking up the tab for all this but attempts to change this have been rejected at a time when everyone is calling for more money and more hospital beds. GPs are treading water and the health system is burning money.

The principal objective of primary care is to deliver better health care outcomes, keep people out of hospital and save money. This was the reason behind Medicare dental introduced in 2004 but it was little used because no-one knew what to do. It was amended in 2007 and since then it has gone ‘gang busters’ because it is now delivering dental, but not health care, outcomes.

The most sensible thing to do would be to amend the legislation and ensure the funds were spent for health care reasons, and to establish pilot projects that demonstrate how they can best work. Both these options have been rejected.

While we cannot amend the legislation, we can establish pilot projects, and that’s what we are doing right now.

We are working on two demonstra-

tion projects at present to fine tune this, one at Romilly House, a mental health facility in Claremont, the other the Swan Medical Group in Midland, the largest medical practice in WA. This will also include St Vincent’s, a Catholic Homes aged care facility.

Romilly House is serviced by a dedicated GP and Cottesloe dentist. They will both bulk bill so there will be no gap as the patients cannot afford it.

Besides dental treatment there will be an emphasis on prevention and delivering social benefits restoring quality of life and dignity to the residents, not just health care. This will involve the whole facility, not just the residents, GP and the dentist. This is what should be happening.

At the Swan Medical Group, we have very strong GP support but we don’t have any Midland dentists. We want to make sure that this works well for dentists and not compromise their practices. We want to bulk bill to avoid the gap which most of the patients cannot afford to pay.

Ideally, the programme should operate locally through local general practice to be efficient and cost effective.

It is unlikely an opportunity like this will present again. If we can demonstrate the benefits, this initiative will spread across Australia and deliver immeasurable benefits to the nation now and in the future. If you support this initiative, please write to your local State and Federal Member to express your support and for them to get behind it.

Dr Patrick Shanahan is co-ordinator of AMAWA’s CGP Oral Health Initiative, director of Oral Health Australia and was an advisor to the government’s Medicare scheme. He has 25 years’ experience in the field, including establishing centres for indigenous Australians. He can be contacted by email on patricks@iinet.net.au or phone (08)0385 2565.

Women continue to struggle with work-life balance

Work-life balance is getting even worse for women: study

BY ANTHONY BARICH

NEW research from independent women’s think tank Women’s Forum Australia (WFA) shows that nearly half of women are sacrificing career goals and one third are delaying or not having children.

Women are also juggling two thirds of the domestic work and provide over 70 percent of primary care for the disabled and frail aged.

Australian women are working more now than ever before and experience 10 percent more work-life conflict than men.

Latest measures show the stress on women is increasing and taking its toll, WFA said. Women now rate the stress

equivalent to having diabetes in its impact on their quality of life.

WFA director and report author Lynne Pezzullo said women take more career breaks than men and do more part time paid work, “and we know that juggling more responsibilities makes work-life balance harder to manage. But there are practical solutions that help alleviate the pressure”. She is also a director and chair of Access Economics, heading the firm’s Health Economics group.

The Reality Check: Work, Life, Balance research calls for:

● Tax deductibility of all forms of

childcare, including nannies and kincare

● ‘Income-splitting’ for families to reduce the high (40 percent+) marginal tax rates paid by mothers working part-time

● Business granting flexible work practice requests in line with the Fair Work Act 2010

● Broader environmental design changes – including more clustering and collocation of services, drivethroughs, one-stop-shops and better public transport.

The research was based on a survey with 956 respondents, a focus group, and literature review. More information on findings is available in a fourpage backgrounder on request.

Reality Check was launched on 25 March at the Treasury Theatre in Melbourne.

On a local level, the Reality Check report will be launched in Perth on 18 May.

Trinity take out Head of River

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

TRINITY College won the Head of the River rowing race at Champion Lakes, Armadale on 28 March, beating rivals Christ Church by more than a boat length.

Trinity’s First VIII won in a record time of 5min 48.2sec in the winning boat Fr Michael McMahon, named nostalgically after their last chaplain who sadly passed away two years ago.

Scotch College came in third.

Trinity’s Director of Rowing Phil Jurjevich and First VIII coach Joseph Tamigi were ecstatic at the triumphs and said that the boys had achieved “amazing” times in training. They were confident that if the boys stuck to their game plan, they would win.

Trinity also convincingly won the Hamer Cup for the most points on the day for winning the most races, with 262 points. Scotch College came second in the Hamer Cup with 244 points and Christ Church third with 234 points.

After the regatta, celebrations continued at Trinity College, East Perth, with a formal lunch and presentations.

The boys left for London on the Wednesday before Easter where they were set to take on the Henley Club on the Thames and the Dutch national junior crew in the Netherlands.

in brief...

Calling all Catholic youth

THE Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Ministry of Perth is inviting local Catholic youth to engage in local events, parish youth groups, social events, retreats and much more. It holds a weekly Holy Hour - during which the Sacrament of Confession is available - at 6.30pm at the Catholic Pastoral Centre on Mary Street in Highgate after a 5.30pm Mass. Log onto their website, www.cym.com.au, for more information or ring 08 9422 7912.

Trinity College’s lads celebrate their Head of the River win.

Back row - Luke Comiskey, Alex Ambrogio, Will Fleming, Mitchell Boros, Jack Connelly and coach Joseph Tamigi.

Front row - James Cumming, Nicholas McKenna, Liam Gale and Gerard Ryan.

Lynne Pezzullo

Fatal flaws in Rudd health plan: Catholic dentist

Dr Patrick Shanahan, a Perth Catholic, has for decades worked on national dentistry policy for the government and the industry itself. In an exclusive column for The Record, he says the Federal Government’s current health reforms are woefully inadequate, leaving those on the fringes of society without access to basic dental care which is linked to general health problems in the community.

It is widely accepted that oral health is critical to general health but less so with health care outcomes. Medical research has strongly connected harmful bacteria from untreated dental conditions in high medical risk patients with serious medical complications. These can be prevented by promptly identifying and treating ‘medically necessary dental care’. Dental care for medical reasons is not the same as dental care for dental reasons. The principal objective of medically necessary dental care is to remove the bacterial risk before it impacts on medical treatment.

It is primary health care and nonelective.

This is a very good example of what I am talking about.

Recently, a patient here in Perth presented at a public dental clinic for an urgent dental extraction that was going to cost $35 which he didn’t have, so no dental extraction. Shortly afterwards he was admitted to hospital with pericarditis (inflammation of the heart lining) caused by bacteria from the infected tooth. The hospital treatment cost $18,000. That was medically necessary dental care that could have been funded under Medicare dental, but wasn’t.

In health care, ignoring the risk of infection from the mouth in high medical risk patients is really going to cost heaps more than preventing it happening.

Rigorous studies in the US and Japan have demonstrated this.

In the US, complications following heart valve replacement surgery caused by harmful dental bacteria added $100 million (10 percent) to the treatment costs. They found treating the bacterial risk before surgery would cost only $16 million, a saving of $84 million. The US Congress adopted Medicare dental legislation in 1998. It stated exactly what would be funded by Medicare, and not what is being funded here under Medicare dental in Australia now.

Japan has many in aged care because of their very large aged population. Pneumonia is very common in aged care, frequently caused by harmful bacteria from the mouth entering the lungs. It costs $15,000 plus to treat pneumonia.

In Japan, a large nursing home study found that simply implementing preventative antibacterial oral care daily at minimal cost reduced the number of cases of pneumonia. A very important finding was the risk of pneumonia was just as high in those without teeth or dentures as it was with those who had teeth or dentures. These preventative strategies are not practised here.

GPs treat high medical risk patients all the time and know most have serious oral and dental problems but nothing is done about it. The patients most affected cannot afford private dentists and public dental services don’t address this.

As you can see, the health system is picking up the tab for all this but attempts to change this have been rejected at a time when everyone is calling for more money and more hospital beds. GPs are treading water and the health system is burning money.

The principal objective of primary care is to deliver better health care outcomes, keep people out of hospital and save money. This was the reason behind Medicare dental introduced in 2004 but it was little used because no-one knew what to do. It was amended in 2007 and since then it has gone ‘gang busters’ because it is now delivering dental, but not health care, outcomes.

The most sensible thing to do would be to amend the legislation and ensure the funds were spent for health care reasons, and to establish pilot projects that demonstrate how they can best work. Both these options have been rejected.

While we cannot amend the legislation, we can establish pilot projects, and that’s what we are doing right now.

We are working on two demonstra-

tion projects at present to fine tune this, one at Romilly House, a mental health facility in Claremont, the other the Swan Medical Group in Midland, the largest medical practice in WA. This will also include St Vincent’s, a Catholic Homes aged care facility.

Romilly House is serviced by a dedicated GP and Cottesloe dentist. They will both bulk bill so there will be no gap as the patients cannot afford it.

Besides dental treatment there will be an emphasis on prevention and delivering social benefits restoring quality of life and dignity to the residents, not just health care. This will involve the whole facility, not just the residents, GP and the dentist. This is what should be happening.

At the Swan Medical Group, we have very strong GP support but we don’t have any Midland dentists. We want to make sure that this works well for dentists and not compromise their practices. We want to bulk bill to avoid the gap which most of the patients cannot afford to pay.

Ideally, the programme should operate locally through local general practice to be efficient and cost effective.

It is unlikely an opportunity like this will present again. If we can demonstrate the benefits, this initiative will spread across Australia and deliver immeasurable benefits to the nation now and in the future. If you support this initiative, please write to your local State and Federal Member to express your support and for them to get behind it.

Dr Patrick Shanahan is co-ordinator of AMAWA’s CGP Oral Health Initiative, director of Oral Health Australia and was an advisor to the government’s Medicare scheme. He has 25 years’ experience in the field, including establishing centres for indigenous Australians. He can be contacted by email on patricks@iinet.net.au or phone (08)0385 2565.

Women continue to struggle with work-life balance

Work-life balance is getting even worse for women: study

BY ANTHONY BARICH

NEW research from independent women’s think tank Women’s Forum Australia (WFA) shows that nearly half of women are sacrificing career goals and one third are delaying or not having children.

Women are also juggling two thirds of the domestic work and provide over 70 percent of primary care for the disabled and frail aged.

Australian women are working more now than ever before and experience 10 percent more work-life conflict than men.

Latest measures show the stress on women is increasing and taking its toll, WFA said. Women now rate the stress

equivalent to having diabetes in its impact on their quality of life.

WFA director and report author Lynne Pezzullo said women take more career breaks than men and do more part time paid work, “and we know that juggling more responsibilities makes work-life balance harder to manage. But there are practical solutions that help alleviate the pressure”. She is also a director and chair of Access Economics, heading the firm’s Health Economics group.

The Reality Check: Work, Life, Balance research calls for:

● Tax deductibility of all forms of

childcare, including nannies and kincare

● ‘Income-splitting’ for families to reduce the high (40 percent+) marginal tax rates paid by mothers working part-time

● Business granting flexible work practice requests in line with the Fair Work Act 2010

● Broader environmental design changes – including more clustering and collocation of services, drivethroughs, one-stop-shops and better public transport.

The research was based on a survey with 956 respondents, a focus group, and literature review. More information on findings is available in a fourpage backgrounder on request.

Reality Check was launched on 25 March at the Treasury Theatre in Melbourne.

On a local level, the Reality Check report will be launched in Perth on 18 May.

Trinity take out Head of River

BY GLYNNIS GRAINGER

TRINITY College won the Head of the River rowing race at Champion Lakes, Armadale on 28 March, beating rivals Christ Church by more than a boat length.

Trinity’s First VIII won in a record time of 5min 48.2sec in the winning boat Fr Michael McMahon, named nostalgically after their last chaplain who sadly passed away two years ago.

Scotch College came in third.

Trinity’s Director of Rowing Phil Jurjevich and First VIII coach Joseph Tamigi were ecstatic at the triumphs and said that the boys had achieved “amazing” times in training. They were confident that if the boys stuck to their game plan, they would win.

Trinity also convincingly won the Hamer Cup for the most points on the day for winning the most races, with 262 points. Scotch College came second in the Hamer Cup with 244 points and Christ Church third with 234 points.

After the regatta, celebrations continued at Trinity College, East Perth, with a formal lunch and presentations.

The boys left for London on the Wednesday before Easter where they were set to take on the Henley Club on the Thames and the Dutch national junior crew in the Netherlands.

in brief...

Calling all Catholic youth

THE Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Ministry of Perth is inviting local Catholic youth to engage in local events, parish youth groups, social events, retreats and much more. It holds a weekly Holy Hour - during which the Sacrament of Confession is available - at 6.30pm at the Catholic Pastoral Centre on Mary Street in Highgate after a 5.30pm Mass. Log onto their website, www.cym.com.au, for more information or ring 08 9422 7912.

Trinity College’s lads celebrate their Head of the River win.

Back row - Luke Comiskey, Alex Ambrogio, Will Fleming, Mitchell Boros, Jack Connelly and coach Joseph Tamigi.

Front row - James Cumming, Nicholas McKenna, Liam Gale and Gerard Ryan.

Lynne Pezzullo

New media needs a soul: Benedict

New media needs more Christian witnesses, Pope tells communicators

BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI called on Catholic communication workers to give witness to their beliefs and to help infuse new media outlets with “a soul.”

“More than through technical resources, although necessary, we want to confirm ourselves living in this (digital) universe, too, with a believing heart so that it may contribute to giving a soul to the Internet’s endless flow of communication,” he said on 24 April.

The Pope made his comments during an audience with participants of a national congress on digital media organised by the Italian Bishops’ conference.

The congress, which ran from 22-24 April, was titled, Digital Witnesses. Faces and Languages in the Cross-media Era

During the congress, the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, told participants that truth, transparency and credibility were paramount in communications.

“Secrecy and confidentiality, even given their positive aspects, are not values that are cultivated by today’s culture,” Fr Lombardi said in his address to the congress on 24 April. “It is necessary to be able to have nothing to hideToday is “above all, a time of truth, transparency, and credibility.”

The times “that we are experiencing, the price we are paying, all

indicate that our witness must be decisively in line with rigour, consistency with what we say and what we are, and the refusal of every hypocrisy and duplicity,” he said.

Fr Lombardi urged Catholic communications workers to “bring the joy of truth and loyalty” to the world, and to be “credible witnesses of what we say and do.”

In his audience address to participants later the same day, Pope Benedict spoke of the importance of new media reflecting the full human person. When too much focus is on the superficial, people can seem

like “soulless bodies - objects of exchange and consumption,” he said. The digital divide, which further separates the haves and the havenots, still needs to be bridged, he said. Some of the risks the Internet still present are the problems of “conformity and control, and intellectual and moral relativism - already quite evident in a waning critical spirit, in the truth being reduced to a play of opinions, and in the many forms of degradation and humiliation of a person’s innermost being,” he said. Communicators can help

humanise the mass media by upholding those universal values that promote the common good and the dignity of the human person, he said.

“Without fear we want to set sail for the digital sea, facing the open waters with the same passion that has governed the ship of the Church for 2,000 years,” he said.

Pope Benedict asked that media workers never tire of filling their hearts with “that healthy passion for mankind,” which in turn can find sustenance in a solid preparation in theology, “a deep and joyous passion for God,” and prayer.

UK Bishops ask Catholics to do penance to atone for abuse

LONDON (CNS) - The Bishops of England and Wales are asking Catholics to carry out acts of penance each Friday in May to help atone for clerical abuse crimes.

received against 38 priests, Religious, lay employees, volunteers and parishioners. Two of these have resulted in prison terms.

Pontiff to create Vatican department to re-evangelise the West

VATICAN CITY (CNS)

- Pope Benedict XVI is planning to create a Roman Curia department charged with overseeing the “re-evangelisation” of traditionally Christian countries, an Italian newspaper reported.

The Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation will be announced in an apostolic letter being prepared by the Pope and will be headed by Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Il Giornale said on 25 April. The Vatican had no immediate comment on the report.

The step would represent the first major Roman Curia innovation under Pope Benedict, who has frequently spoken about the need to renew the roots of the faith in European and other Western societies.

In their statement, the Bishops reminded Catholics that they are “members of a single universal body” and must atone for such offences wherever they happen.

In a statement read at all parishes on 24-25 April, the Bishops assured Catholics that effective child protection procedures are in place. However, they said, it is “time for deep prayer and reparation for atonement” of the sins of priests and other Catholics who have abused children.

“We invite Catholics in England and Wales to make the four Fridays in May 2010 special days of prayer,” the Bishops said in their statement, released on 22 April.

They recommended visiting the Blessed Sacrament to pray for victims, their abusers and for Church leaders who mishandled cases.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales revised its child protection procedures in 2001 after it emerged that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, when Bishop of Arundel and Brighton in the 1990s, had reassigned Fr Michael Hill as chaplain of London’s Gatwick Airport, despite receiving credible abuse allegation against him. Fr Hill went on to abuse again, and one of his victims was a 14-year-old boy confined to a wheelchair because he had cerebral palsy. The priest was jailed for five years.

The Church in England and Wales claims it has one of the toughest child protection regimes in the world, and numbers of allegations have fallen dramatically in the past five years.

In 2008, 51 allegations were

“These terrible crimes, and the inadequate response by some Church leaders, grieve us all,” their statement said. They also expressed “heartfelt apology and deep sorrow to those who have suffered abuse, those who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed.”

“We ask their pardon and the pardon of God for these terrible deeds done in our midst,” the Bishops said. “There can be no excuses.” They also apologised for the “failings” of some fellow Bishops in handling cases of abuse.

● Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin, Ireland, who said he should have challenged the culture of silence in the Irish Church when priests were accused of sexually abusing minors.

The Vatican announced on 22 April that the Pope accepted the resignation of the 73 year old Bishop under a provision in canon law for retiring before age 75 “because of ill health or some other grave cause.”

It was Pope John Paul II who first used the term “new evangelisation,” and Il Giornale said a proposal to create a Vatican department to promote this type of activity was made in the 1980s by Fr Luigi Giussani, the founder of the Italian lay movement Communion and Liberation.

More recently, the newspaper said, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice re-proposed the idea to Pope Benedict, and the German pontiff decided to move ahead with the project.

Archbishop Fisichella has headed the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2008.

He came under fire recently from a small number of academy members, who said in a statement that he should be replaced because he “does not understand what absolute respect for innocent human lives entails.”

The criticism of Archbishop Fisichella stemmed from an article he wrote in 2009, which said a Brazilian Archbishop’s response to an abortion performed on a nine year old girl had shown a lack of pastoral care and compassion.

The Vatican later issued a clarification reiterating its teaching against abortion and saying the Brazilian Archbishop had, in fact, acted with “pastoral delicacy” in the matter.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks to journalists aboard a plane on his way to Malta on 17 April. He said on 24 April that Catholic communication workers need to witness to their beliefs and to help infuse new media outlets with “a soul”. PHOTO: CNS/ALESSIA GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS

Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, speaks during a press conference on eugenics at the Vatican on 17 February. Five members of the academy have called his leadership into question in the aftermath of several controversies.

PHOTO: CNS

Top left: Pope Benedict XVI exchanges greetings with Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin during the Irish Bishops’ meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican in February. PHOTO: CNS

Octogenarian plus:

Pope refuses to go into hiding amidst scandal Portugal

At 83, Pope to skip vacation to evangelise

BY JOHN T HAVIS Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Almost lost in the recent furor over clerical sex abuse is that Pope Benedict XVI just turned 83 and is approaching one of the busiest stretches of his pontificate.

At an age when most Church officials have long retired, over the next six months the German pontiff will make six trips, preside over dozens of public liturgies, close the Year for Priests, chair a Synod of Bishops on the Middle East and keep up a steady stream of audiences, both public and private.

A major document on Scripture in Church life is expected before summer. In his spare momentswhich are few - the Pope is still working on his second volume of Jesus of Nazareth. Recent media reports have drawn a portrait of a weary Pope, overwhelmed by the onslaught of criticism over the Church’s handling of sex abuses cases. Yet on the public stage, Pope Benedict has shown few signs of succumbing to job fatigue.

In Malta in mid-April for a 27-hour visit, he appeared to nod off for a few seconds during Mass. But although that moment was well photographed, it was the exception to the rule.

Throughout the visit, he appeared happy and relaxednotably as he chatted with young people aboard a boat in Valletta’s Grand Harbour. If the story line was a dispirited Pope alarmed by a drop in approval ratings, he clearly wasn’t following the script.

Nor is the Pope about to go into hiding. There’s far too much on his schedule. A typical week in late April, for example, included four days of private talks with African Bishops, speeches to new ambassadors, a meeting with a prime minister, commemoration of the Church’s annual vocations day, a general audience talk, another talk at his Sunday blessing and a speech to Catholic digital media experts in Italy.

Oh yes, and a brief celebration of the fifth anniversary of the official start of his pontificate.

In May, things will get really busy. He will travel to northern Italy on 2 May to see the Shroud

of Turin, a visit that includes four other major events and speeches: a meeting with Turin residents, Mass in a main square of the city, a meeting with young people and an encounter with the sick.

The Pope will travel to Portugal from 11-14 May, visiting the Marian shrine of Fatima as well as the capital of Lisbon and the city of Porto.

The Pope could have made this an overnight stop in Fatima, but he broadened the trip as he wants to deliver a message on Christian values to the wider society at a time when the country appears ready to legalise same-sex marriage.

Back in Rome, he will celebrate Mass at St Peter’s Basilica for Pentecost on 23 May. In early June,

he will mark the feast of Corpus Christi with Mass and a procession through Rome.

Then on 4-6 June he will head to Cyprus, where he will meet with Church leaders of the Middle East. The next weekend, he will preside over a vigil and Mass on 10-11 June at the Vatican to close the Year for Priests; thousands of priests from around the world are expected to attend.

Later in June, he will ordain priests in a lengthy Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

He then will mark the feast of Sts Peter and Paul with two liturgies, evening prayer at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls on 28 June and Mass the next day in St Peter’s Basilica, where he will

present palliums to new metropolitan Archbishops.

Things usually slow down in summer, but not as much this year.

The Pope has announced he won’t be taking a real vacation in the northern Italian mountains.

Insiders say he wants to spend more time writing, and he can get more done at his villa outside Rome. Volume 2 of Jesus of Nazareth is overdue, and the Pope would like to put the final touches on the book over the summer, if not before.

In September, which used to be a slow month for Popes, Pope Benedict will travel to England and Scotland on what could be his most challenging trip of the year. It’s a four-day visit, and already the events are piling up: the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a major address at Westminster Hall in London, where St Thomas More was put on trial; liturgies in London and Glasgow; and an encounter with

Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury.

Closer to home, the Pope will travel to central Italy in July to mark the eighth centenary of the birth of St Celestine V - who is best known as one of the few Popes in history to have resigned.

That will no doubt stir the imaginations of journalists. Expect to read lots of stories on whether Pope Benedict might resign. He has given no indication that abdication is even a remote possibility, and his health appears good.

But people remember that in 2002, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said rather bluntly of the ailing Pope John Paul II, “If he were to see that he absolutely could not (continue), then he certainly would resign.”

As he turned 83, Pope Benedict looked as though he could keep up the pace indefinitely. Only one Pope has lived longer in the past century - Pope John Paul II, who was 84 when he died.

Church as counter-cultural agent sets it up for attack

Church treated unfairly by media because of countercultural teachings:

Cardinal

ROME, Italy (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Benedict XVI and the Church are not being treated fairly in the media coverage of the sexual abuse scandal because his teachings disagree with the relativistic and individualistic culture of today, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, said.

“It’s evident that it is an attack not only against the Pope, but also and especially against the Catholic Church as authoritative moral reference of our world

today,” Cardinal Antonelli said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Foglio on 21 April.

There are various elements that show “clearly a militant ‘information’ against the Church,” the Cardinal asserted. Citing examples of this pattern, he specifically alluded to the “tone” and “tenacity” of the accusations, the re-use of past cases that were already public as current news, the lack of statistics in reports and the promotion of the idea that paedophilia only exists within the clergy and not as “an enormously widespread vice in society.”

In order “to darken the image of the Church and compromise its credibility,” he explained, “it’s logical that they seek to strike the Pope in person, even if the firmness and coherence of his commitment against certain criminal

behaviours has always been known.”

Cardinal Antonelli told Il Foglio that while he recognises the “profound suffering” of the victims, the scandal of offend-

ing priests’ “lack of loyalty to the Lord” and the negative effects of abuses on the image of the Church, he also regrets the way that the scandal is “conditioned by the media.”

Behind the media response, said the Cardinal, is the fact that the Holy Father’s message severely “wounds” the dominant mentality of society. A “strong contrast” exists between the two sides, Cardinal Antonelli explained. On the one hand, you have “the teaching of Jesus Christ and of the Church on love, sexuality, matrimony, the family (and) respect for every human life.”

On the other hand, the Cardinal continued, is “the relativistic and individualistic culture that provokes the disintegration of the family, reduces love to sexual satisfaction and egotistical

sentimentality without commitment and without sacrifice for the good of the other, sustains the equality of very different forms of cohabitation, promotes the exclusively recreational exercise of sexuality (and) favours the practice of abortion and demands its recognition as a right.”

The Pope, observed the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, “clearly emphasises the objective truth of the good, moral norms and their meaning and value for the authentic human growth of people and of society” and in doing so he “unmasks the idols and false values of the dominant culture.”

Benedict XVI puts us “on guard against illusions and dangers,” the prelate stated. “This, in many environments, doesn’t procure him sympathy and applause.”

Predominantly Roman Catholic Portugal is home to the Marian shrine of Fatima, named for the town where Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.

A woman prays while holding a Rosary and picture of Pope Benedict XVI as gay-rights activists protest against child sexual abuse outside the apostolic nunciature in Lima, Peru on 24 April.

PHOTO: CNS/PILAR OLIVARES, REUTERS

Pope Benedict XVI travels to Portugal from 11-13 May. In Fatima, he will mark the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who saw the apparition of Mary.

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli

Octogenarian plus:

Pope refuses to go into hiding amidst scandal Portugal

At 83, Pope to skip vacation to evangelise

BY JOHN T HAVIS Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - Almost lost in the recent furor over clerical sex abuse is that Pope Benedict XVI just turned 83 and is approaching one of the busiest stretches of his pontificate.

At an age when most Church officials have long retired, over the next six months the German pontiff will make six trips, preside over dozens of public liturgies, close the Year for Priests, chair a Synod of Bishops on the Middle East and keep up a steady stream of audiences, both public and private.

A major document on Scripture in Church life is expected before summer. In his spare momentswhich are few - the Pope is still working on his second volume of Jesus of Nazareth. Recent media reports have drawn a portrait of a weary Pope, overwhelmed by the onslaught of criticism over the Church’s handling of sex abuses cases. Yet on the public stage, Pope Benedict has shown few signs of succumbing to job fatigue.

In Malta in mid-April for a 27-hour visit, he appeared to nod off for a few seconds during Mass. But although that moment was well photographed, it was the exception to the rule.

Throughout the visit, he appeared happy and relaxednotably as he chatted with young people aboard a boat in Valletta’s Grand Harbour. If the story line was a dispirited Pope alarmed by a drop in approval ratings, he clearly wasn’t following the script.

Nor is the Pope about to go into hiding. There’s far too much on his schedule. A typical week in late April, for example, included four days of private talks with African Bishops, speeches to new ambassadors, a meeting with a prime minister, commemoration of the Church’s annual vocations day, a general audience talk, another talk at his Sunday blessing and a speech to Catholic digital media experts in Italy.

Oh yes, and a brief celebration of the fifth anniversary of the official start of his pontificate.

In May, things will get really busy. He will travel to northern Italy on 2 May to see the Shroud

of Turin, a visit that includes four other major events and speeches: a meeting with Turin residents, Mass in a main square of the city, a meeting with young people and an encounter with the sick.

The Pope will travel to Portugal from 11-14 May, visiting the Marian shrine of Fatima as well as the capital of Lisbon and the city of Porto.

The Pope could have made this an overnight stop in Fatima, but he broadened the trip as he wants to deliver a message on Christian values to the wider society at a time when the country appears ready to legalise same-sex marriage.

Back in Rome, he will celebrate Mass at St Peter’s Basilica for Pentecost on 23 May. In early June,

he will mark the feast of Corpus Christi with Mass and a procession through Rome.

Then on 4-6 June he will head to Cyprus, where he will meet with Church leaders of the Middle East. The next weekend, he will preside over a vigil and Mass on 10-11 June at the Vatican to close the Year for Priests; thousands of priests from around the world are expected to attend.

Later in June, he will ordain priests in a lengthy Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

He then will mark the feast of Sts Peter and Paul with two liturgies, evening prayer at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls on 28 June and Mass the next day in St Peter’s Basilica, where he will

present palliums to new metropolitan Archbishops.

Things usually slow down in summer, but not as much this year.

The Pope has announced he won’t be taking a real vacation in the northern Italian mountains.

Insiders say he wants to spend more time writing, and he can get more done at his villa outside Rome. Volume 2 of Jesus of Nazareth is overdue, and the Pope would like to put the final touches on the book over the summer, if not before.

In September, which used to be a slow month for Popes, Pope Benedict will travel to England and Scotland on what could be his most challenging trip of the year. It’s a four-day visit, and already the events are piling up: the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a major address at Westminster Hall in London, where St Thomas More was put on trial; liturgies in London and Glasgow; and an encounter with

Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury.

Closer to home, the Pope will travel to central Italy in July to mark the eighth centenary of the birth of St Celestine V - who is best known as one of the few Popes in history to have resigned.

That will no doubt stir the imaginations of journalists. Expect to read lots of stories on whether Pope Benedict might resign. He has given no indication that abdication is even a remote possibility, and his health appears good.

But people remember that in 2002, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said rather bluntly of the ailing Pope John Paul II, “If he were to see that he absolutely could not (continue), then he certainly would resign.”

As he turned 83, Pope Benedict looked as though he could keep up the pace indefinitely. Only one Pope has lived longer in the past century - Pope John Paul II, who was 84 when he died.

Church as counter-cultural agent sets it up for attack

Church treated unfairly by media because of countercultural teachings:

Cardinal

ROME, Italy (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Benedict XVI and the Church are not being treated fairly in the media coverage of the sexual abuse scandal because his teachings disagree with the relativistic and individualistic culture of today, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, said.

“It’s evident that it is an attack not only against the Pope, but also and especially against the Catholic Church as authoritative moral reference of our world

today,” Cardinal Antonelli said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Foglio on 21 April.

There are various elements that show “clearly a militant ‘information’ against the Church,” the Cardinal asserted. Citing examples of this pattern, he specifically alluded to the “tone” and “tenacity” of the accusations, the re-use of past cases that were already public as current news, the lack of statistics in reports and the promotion of the idea that paedophilia only exists within the clergy and not as “an enormously widespread vice in society.”

In order “to darken the image of the Church and compromise its credibility,” he explained, “it’s logical that they seek to strike the Pope in person, even if the firmness and coherence of his commitment against certain criminal

behaviours has always been known.”

Cardinal Antonelli told Il Foglio that while he recognises the “profound suffering” of the victims, the scandal of offend-

ing priests’ “lack of loyalty to the Lord” and the negative effects of abuses on the image of the Church, he also regrets the way that the scandal is “conditioned by the media.”

Behind the media response, said the Cardinal, is the fact that the Holy Father’s message severely “wounds” the dominant mentality of society. A “strong contrast” exists between the two sides, Cardinal Antonelli explained. On the one hand, you have “the teaching of Jesus Christ and of the Church on love, sexuality, matrimony, the family (and) respect for every human life.”

On the other hand, the Cardinal continued, is “the relativistic and individualistic culture that provokes the disintegration of the family, reduces love to sexual satisfaction and egotistical

sentimentality without commitment and without sacrifice for the good of the other, sustains the equality of very different forms of cohabitation, promotes the exclusively recreational exercise of sexuality (and) favours the practice of abortion and demands its recognition as a right.”

The Pope, observed the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, “clearly emphasises the objective truth of the good, moral norms and their meaning and value for the authentic human growth of people and of society” and in doing so he “unmasks the idols and false values of the dominant culture.”

Benedict XVI puts us “on guard against illusions and dangers,” the prelate stated. “This, in many environments, doesn’t procure him sympathy and applause.”

Predominantly Roman Catholic Portugal is home to the Marian shrine of Fatima, named for the town where Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.

A woman prays while holding a Rosary and picture of Pope Benedict XVI as gay-rights activists protest against child sexual abuse outside the apostolic nunciature in Lima, Peru on 24 April.

PHOTO: CNS/PILAR OLIVARES, REUTERS

Pope Benedict XVI travels to Portugal from 11-13 May. In Fatima, he will mark the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who saw the apparition of Mary.

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli

EASTER 2010

SOUTHERN PARISHES

ATTADALE

BATEMAN

The Stations of the Cross in “tableau” presented at St Thomas More Bateman were first produced by Olga De Souza 45 years ago in Mumbai. Her eagerness to do the same again got her sons Charles and Douglas motivated to do the Stations here in Perth for her. The Stations were enacted with due solemnity during a Lenten Friday service at St Thomas More Church, Bateman.

Choosing the cast, predominantly of Goan/Indian origin, from the parish was a tough task. Although all amateurs, cast members dressed their part and played their characters to perfection. Each scene started with a narrative of the Station.

The cast enacted the Station and then froze in position with realistic facial and body expressions for 20 seconds, giving all the opportunity to solemnly reflect on, and consider the meaning of the Station.

This literally took people back hundreds of years putting them at the scene and provoking emotions seldom seen at Stations of the Cross. The lighting used was what was available in the church, but it brought out the mood perfectly. The scene of the Crucifixion was so realistic that it almost seemed that it was a life size crucifix on display, till the head of Jesus fell forward, as Jesus gave up his spirit.

The tableau was directed by Charles and, being the first time a tableau was to be performed on the sanctuary in Bateman, the parish priest Fr Philip Perreau, though apprehensive, gave him full rein. To the cast who did such a great job, the readers who put emotion into every prayer, the makeup ladies, light controller and seamstress, well done.

Watched by acolytes and servers, Fr Sean Fernandez baptises one of a number of individuals received into the Church in the Parish of Attadale at Easter. From infants to adults, there was joy all round.

Parishioners re-enact the Stations of the Cross, above and below, at St Thomas More Church in Bateman in Lent. The Stations were part of the parish’s preparations for the great celebrations of Holy Week.

The soldiers nailing Jesus feetThe soldiers nailing Jesus feet Fr Nicholas, Lisa one of the teachers and actors and actresses.

The soldiers nailing Jesus feetThe soldiers nailing Jesus feet Fr Nicholas, Lisa one of the teachers and actors and actresses.

2010

KELMSCOTT

In the Parish of the Good Shepherd in Kelmscott this year Easter was, as usual, an extremely busy period. Parishioners joined together to commemorate the great ceremonies of Easter from the washing of the feet through until the Easter Sunday celebration of the Resurrection.

Kelmscott also finds itself as a focal point for at least three separate sets of Easter celebrations. The majority of parishioners participated in the well attended parish celebrations; however, parishioners who usually attend the celebration of the Extraordinary Rite of the Mass on Sundays (in Latin) were able to attend ceremonies conducted primarily in Latin, while parishioners who are involved in the parish’s Neocatechumenal community attended celebrations conducted by their community. In some cases, parishioners attended various celebrations depending on when these were being celebrated.

As usual a highlight for children of the parish was the giant Easter Egg cracked open after Mass on Sunday morning. Whichever ceremony was attended, Kelmscott was clearly a busy parish offering something for everyone, including many visitors from further afield.

Fr Sundararajan blesses the Paschal Candle during the Easter Vigil conducted by the Parish’s Neocatechumenal community. Children, assisted by cantor Lara Malin, sing during the Neocatechumenal vigil.

Kelmscott Parish Priest Fr Francis Sundararajan venerates the Cross during the Neocatechumenal Good Friday service.

Fr Sundararajan holds ther Cross aloft at Karagullen on Good Friday.

A member of the congregation at Karagullen comes forward to venerate the Cross on Good Friday.

EASTER 2010

ROCKINGHAM

Altar girls carry candles as the Blessed Sacrament is brought to the altar with Robin Giles.

Fr Michael Separovich with the Paschal Candle.

Fr Separovich censes the Paschal Candle.

Rockingham parish celebrations of Easter saw young and old participate throughout Holy Week this year, with children of the parish prominent in assisting at ceremonies.

EASTER 2010

WILLETTON

Sonia was born 27 years ago in the north island of New Zealand in a town called Hastings. She was the daughter of a minister of the Ratana faith.

When she was about 16, she met Richard Sussmilch in a nightclub in New Zealand.

They became very close.

Richard was a Catholic but went through a period of questioning as most young people do.

However whenever Richard went to Church, Sonia would go with him and began to feel quite comfortable.

About two years ago, they moved to Western Australia in search of change and then started to come to Sacred Heart Church in Thornlie.

It was there that they saw the advertisement for the RCIA programme and decided to join, Sonia as the candidate and Richard as her sponsor.

Richard has found as the sponsor that his perspective on faith and the Church as an adult is different to when he was growing up and it has confirmed his commitment whilst Sonia has embraced the Church wholeheartedly.

This has been a terrific journey for both of them which will culminate with their wedding as Catholics in New Zealand on 26 June.

The most amazing point to this story, however, is that whilst Sonia was being baptised on Holy Saturday evening here in Perth, so too was her Minister father of the Ratuna faith being baptised a Catholic in New Zealand on Holy Saturday.

Though separated by distance, they have been able to share their journey of faith.

Fr Thai Vu baptises a new parishioner; right, he blesses another during the Easter celebrations.

Students participate in the Stations of the Cross.

Sonia Tuahine (shown below) was one of many throughout Perth on Easter weekend who took the final step in joining our Catholic community through the RCIA programme.

Mgr Tim Corcoran and assistant priest Fr Noel Latt carry the Cross into the church.Sonia Tuahine carries forward a candle during the Easter celebrations during which she was received into the Catholic Church.

EASTER 2010

MIDLAND

Fr Thai Vu washes the feet of parishioners during Willetton parish’s Holy Thursday Mass.

Parishioners with candles during the Easter Saturday Vigil at Willetton parish.

Fr Thai Vu blesses a new parishioner during the Easter celebrations.

ARMADALE

Easter in Armadale

It’s not all over, this Easter thing. The fridge is emptying and the families are settling back to work and the normal rhythms of life continue. So why did we celebrate Easter?

My five year old granddaughter (she has just started school) gave me her version of the Easter Story.

There was a man called Jesus who was very good but he was killed, he was nailed to a cross on a hill, with real nails. On the hill there was a man, Jesus in the middle, and another man. He was there, on the cross, till he died, then they put him into a cave with a big stone in the front.

Then these three ladies came along but the stone was rolled away and Jesus was gone!

That was because the Easter Bunny had been and Jesus was off to get his Easter Eggs!

Sometimes we just don’t get it! We are like

KALGOORLIE

this beautiful little girl, we miss the main Easter message.

We listen to the readings but we are too preoccupied to ponder the miracle. We had the most beautiful Easter celebrations. This liturgy committee worked hard to sort out who would be responsible for doing what, rosters were drawn up and people were given various jobs to do which help the celebrations run smoothly.

The people arrived in great numbers and the Church was packed, there were new faces, visitors from other places, old parishioners whom we hadn’t seen for a good while, and our regulars, those who are the backbone of our church community.

This year Fr Kaz put together a flyer which went out with the bulletin prior to Holy Week. This little flyer had summaries of the meaning of Church teaching, the history, and reason for the various parts to these celebrations that lead up to the Easter Vigil.

So even if the readings and prayers were a bit long and complicated we had the benefit of a simplified explanation.

This year we did have an RCIA candidate and she was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil.

For me, I saw this year’s celebration as an opportunity to renew and grow in my relationship with my God through a deeper understanding of his saving action throughout history.

My little granddaughter with her grasping of the initial part of the story will herself grow into an understanding of Easter.

I feel in Armadale we are very fortunate to be walking this journey, growing and sharing our faith, and trying to hold on to the true meaning of Easter, and the sacrificial Love of God for us all.

The church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel in Hilton was packed for the celebration of the Easter Vigil. A fire was lit in the porch to light the Easter candle. Fr Pat carried the candle through the darkened church to set it on its stand beside the altar, supported by the singing of the choir. Fr Pat sang the Exultet before the congregation who were holding their lightened candles. As well as celebrating the liturgy, Fr Pat baptised four people, two children from Mt Carmel primary school, Alana Cromerty and Oscar Kealley, and two adults, Beverly Leavy and Sean Pitt. Beverly and Sean received the Sacrament of Confirmation as well.

The new tabernacle, donated by the Taranto family in memory of Joe Taranto, was blessed at the end of the Vigil Mass.

And, of course, Fr Pat was happily distributing Easter eggs to young and old as they were leaving the church.

Students and parishioners re-enact the Stations of the Cross at the outdoor setting at St Francis Xavier Parish in Armadale. Many parishes throughout WA organised re-enactments of the Stations of the Cross as one way of bringing Easter alive for congregations.

Many gathered to mark Easter at Kalgoorlie where six people were received into the Church this year at Easter ceremonies.

Photos, words, courtesy Armadale parish

EASTER 2010

NORTH PARISHES

CHRISM MASS AT ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL

Archbishop Barry Hickey washes the feet of the faithful during the Holy Thursday Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Top: photos from the Chrism Mass.

Choristers in the choir loft of St Mary’s Cathedral during Easter Week.The Lady Chapel at the Cathedral becomes the Altar of Repose on Holy Thursday..

EASTER 2010

GOOD FRIDAY AT ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL

EASTER

VIGIL/CHRISM MASS AT ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL

CITY BEACH

LAKE GRACE/RAVENSTHORPE

Tenebrae, a service where candles are gradually extinguished while reading and psalms are recited, was one of the ceremonies conducted at City Beach Parish for Easter this year. Parish Priest Fr Don Kettle was kept busy with ceremonies, including baptisms and greeting parishioners.

An ecumenical Stations of the Cross, above, was held on farmland on Good Friday at 9am at the Nolan’s Farm in Tarin Rock, 29km west of Lake Grace. Fr Gayan Thamel, parish priest is at left of the photo. Parishioners, top right, venerate the Cross on Good Friday at Lake Grace Church. Small but vibrant: Parishioners outside the church after Easter Sunday Mass in Ravensthorpe.

BENTLEY (CONTINUED)

BAYSWATER

GLENDALOUGH

SOUTHERN CROSS

BASSENDEAN

Fr Jim Shelton washes the feet of parishioners to commemorate Christ’s action at the Last Supper.St Michael’s primary school children spending moments of prayer during the Holy Week.

DISCIPLES OF JESUS

The Easter weekend in Fremantle is full of last minute shopping, and buskers and street performers who draw considerable crowds. There is little to identify the real meaning of the holiday. But last Saturday, the message of Easter was proclaimed through an animated Stations of the Cross. About 40 Catholics were involved in the drama.

In the midst of busy shoppers, the cappuccino strip, and tourists, the Stations of the Cross were enacted in dramatic fashion. Jesus was dragged through the streets, tried by Pontius Pilot, and a huge rugged cross thrust on his shoulders. He was lead to Calvary, and was crucified. Responses from onlookers and shoppers were

CLAREMONT

mixed. Some were caught up in the drama of the Stations and its eternal message. They followed intently. Others gave the event a casual glance and continued with their shopping. A few even ridiculed the Passion of Christ and yelled abuse. After the event a number of onlookers approached the actors and shared how the drama had touched their life.

The drama has been presented in the streets of Fremantle for the last 15 years by the Disciples of Jesus Community.

The Disciples also presented the drama at a park near Holy Spirit Church in City Beach on Good Friday. Parish Priest Fr Don Kettle began with prayer and a stirring speech about the Holy land.

Good Friday veneration of the Wood of the Cross.

Fr Charles Waddell holds the Easter Candle before the commencement of the Vigil.

Death threats turn to reality for Christians

Amid death threats, Christians find ‘there is no future in Iraq’

BY MICHAEL SWAN Catholic News Service

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The death threat came as no surprise to Ihab Ephraim Khodr, an Iraqi Christian.

He had seen it happen to other Christians around Mosul, in northern Iraq, where he lived. Year after year there had been plenty of vague and general threats before he received a personal threat just before Iraq’s 7 March elections.

Khodr knew it was only a matter of time before such a threat came his way.

His expectation is inked into his right wrist.

In Khodr’s student days in the early 2000s, he began to get a tattoo that portrayed a crown of thorns wrapped around his wrist. It was to be a sign of his devotion to Christ. It also would have made Khodr recognisable on the street as a Christian.

Then he suspended his appointments at the tattoo parlor as violence against Christians escalated.

Khodr and his wife, Diana, are graduates of the University of Mosul, which was founded by the Dominican order. But since their graduations in 2006 and 2007, respectively, neither had found a job. Khodr turned to running the family business, a small shop in the city. But he had to move the family to a village outside of Mosul for

the wrong people or reopens the family shop, he probably will be killed. The second threat is that the young family might live their entire lives waiting in vain for a free and democratic Iraq where they can hold jobs that match their education and their daughter can have a proper education.

Even the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not believe Iraqi Christians can safely return to their homeland.

“Conditions are not yet ripe for a voluntary and sustainable return to Iraq in large numbers,” said the commissioner’s annual Regional Response Plan for its largest active refugee crisis. The Iraqi government claims more than 32,000 Iraqis did return in 2009. The UNHCR helped 2,400 of them.

safety. When the death threat came in early March, Khodr decided to close the shop. Without the income the shop provided or any prospect for a job, it made no sense for the couple to sit in the village waiting for the money to run out. Venturing back into the city and risk running into the mujahedeen - Muslim holy warriors - was out of the question.

So the couple packed up their baby daughter Reena and, joined by Diana’s sister Israu, headed for the Syrian border, then through Syria to Beirut.

Like many Iraqi refugees, they

believe the resettlement process in another country will go faster from Beirut. Caritas Lebanon workers roll their eyes when they hear this. Fuelled by rumour, there’s no evidence of a faster or surer route to the West out of Beirut.

The young family found a roomy apartment in a neighbourhood a few blocks from the crowded and crumbling apartment blocks where the main concentration of Iraqi Christians live. It’s pricey: US$500 a month, plus US$100 a month for utilities.

Diana stays home with the baby. Her sister has a 12-hour-a-day, six-

day-a-week job in a sewing factory that pays US$250 a month. Khodr landed a job in a juice factory carrying containers around the factory floor for US$350 a month, half of what a Lebanese worker earned for the same job. Working illegally was a tough adjustment for a university-educated, middle class Iraqi. He quit in disgust over the wages, the back-breaking labour and the 12-hour days.

“I would work from seven to seven. But pay me a salary for this hard work,” Khodr said.

The danger in staying in Iraq is twofold. If Khodr runs into

An Iraqi government programme that runs an on-again-offagain monthly bus from Damascus to Baghdad is supposed to help refugees resettle with an $850 payment, but the experiences of returning refugees tell a different story.

Families report never getting the payments or being unable to return to their own homes or their old neighborhoods because they have been taken over by armed groups.

Some families who boarded the bus for Baghdad have ended up right back in Damascus.

Hearing such stories poses serious questions for people such as the Khodr family.

“There is no future in Iraq,” Diana said.

Despite pleas from Iraqi leaders, Christians say they won’t go home

BY MICHAEL SWAN Catholic News Service

DAMASCUS, Syria - An election victory for Iraq’s more secular parties backing Prime Ministerelect Ayad Allawi is not tempting Iraqi Christian refugees to return home, even as members of the Chaldean Catholic Church hierarchy continue to express confidence that Christians can live in peace in Iraq.

“It’s very, very difficult to turn back to Iraq, impossible to turn back,” Toma Georgees said in his apartment in Damascus.

“Our problem is not with the Iraqi government. Our problem is with Iraqi people, ignorant people who want to kill us, who want to kill all the Christians. Those people are ignorant, and they just want to drink our blood as Christians.”

elections have returned. “The elections were carried out very well. During the campaign period, the political parties debated their programmes in a very civilised way,” Archbishop Sako told the Church agency Aid to the Church in Need in late March.

“Whatever happens, it will be a good result. I am very optimistic.”

But refugees who fled during the elections said they have no intention of returning. Many ended up in Damascus or Beirut, Lebanon.

“Impossible, impossible - no way,” said Ameera Yalda Matti, who fled her home near Mosul following the elections after barely escaping a bomb attack on her car.

“If Iraq was a free, democratic country we would not have come here,” said Ihab Ephraim Khodr, who arrived in Beirut within days of the Iraqi vote.

Militants had threatened to kill him for selling liquor under the counter at a family business.

“Since 2003 there was no authority in Iraq that has found a way of preserving our rights or protecting us,” he said.

or the Kurdistan Alliance. The process of coming up with a governing coalition is expected to last months, as a court-ordered recount begins in late April.

Middle East policy expert Oussama Safa believes Christians can play a meaningful role in Iraq’s sectarian politics.

“It’s incumbent on Iraqi Christians to organise themselves and sell themselves as possible coalition partners, coalition pushers or improvers,” said the director of the Beirut-based Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.

Though Safa is enthusiastic about the prospects for a healthy democracy in Iraq, impressed by the 62 per cent turnout at polls, he acknowledges it is a long road back to normal civic life for Iraq’s Christians, particularly refugees.

“There is decidedly a wave to make Iraq unliveable for the Christians,” he said.

“What’s happening there is direct violence against the Christian community.

Iraqi election win not enough to prompt Christians back Mirror of

“Iraq is no solution. We cannot return to Iraq,” said Manhal Khoshaba Mikhail, who has spent five years in Beirut, Lebanon waiting for a chance to resettle in the West.

“If we talk about going back to Iraq, we’re talking about going to hell,” said Hanah Abdel Hahel Salumi, widow and mother of four in Damascus.

Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq has said that most Christians who fled to escape death threats and violence during the run-up to the 7 March Iraqi

“The parties should have looked at Iraq as if we were all Iraqis. This is what was missing,” said Khodr’s wife, Diana Ephraim.

Seven Christian parties vied for five seats reserved for Christians in the 325-seat parliament.

With 91 seats and 28 per cent of the vote, Allawi’s Iraqiya group edged out Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition, which won 89 seats with 27.4 per cent of the vote.

But neither of the major parties can form a government without the support of either the Shiitebased Iraqi National Alliance

“It’s not a political issue there. It’s, you know, blowing up churches and shooting Christians in the streets.”

Chaldean Fr Farid Botros, parish priest at St Teresa Chaldean Catholic Church in Damascus, said statements from Chaldean Catholic leaders in Iraq encouraging refugees to return or trying to limit the exodus of Christians are not helping.

“Until now, they (refugees) are coming. Until now, they don’t trust in the authority in their country,” Fr Botros said.

“And they don’t trust in their Church.

“This is very sad.”

Displaced Iraqi Christian families wait to submit their coupons for relief goods to a worker from the Red Cross in the town of Hamdaniya in 2008. Christians in Iraq have been targets of sectarian attacks; in October, over 1,500 Christian families fled the northern city of Mosul. PHOTOS: CNS/THAIER ALSUDANI, REUTERS

A displaced Iraqi Christian woman sits in the courtyard of al-Saida monastery in 2008 in al-Qosh village, 28 miles north of Mosul, Iraq.

Guarded optimism amidst storm

ANALYSIS

BY JOHN T HAVIS Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Fresh developments in the continuing storm over clerical sex abuse illustrate a chronic Vatican problem as well as some reasons for guarded optimism about the future.

The problem, acknowledged by many inside the Roman Curia, has been recent missteps in communication that have undercut the Vatican’s own patient efforts to provide accurate and detailed information about sex abuse policies.

The latest came when Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, told reporters in Chile on 12 April that many psychologists believe there is a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia.

The groans could be heard throughout Vatican City the next day, as news media reported not only the Cardinal’s remarks but also the intensely critical public reaction - including a condemnation from the French government.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, came back with a statement that tried to reframe Cardinal Bertone’s remarks with an unusual disclaimer: “Church authorities do not believe they are competent to make general affirmations about specifically psychological or medical issues.”

The Vatican relies on specialists and experts for such information, Fr Lombardi said. In fact, experts consulted by the Vatican several years ago argued against a causeeffect relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia. The groans in Rome came from people who wondered why Cardinal Bertone was needlessly raising an inflammatory side issue at a time when the Vatican was already under a media siege on sex abuse.

The Vatican has been down this road before. A papal preacher recently surprised the Pope and others at a Good Friday liturgy by comparing criticism of the Church on the sex abuse issue with antiSemitism. A Cardinal stood up at the Pope’s Easter Mass and used the term “petty gossip” to describe such criticism.

Some have faulted Pope Benedict XVI for failing to take firmer control of the reins.

“It’s a matter of governance. You have to bring people together, get them on the same page. And tell

them to stop speculating out loud with the media,” said one Vatican source. But this kind of hands-on management is not Pope Benedict’s strength, he added.

Fr Lombardi had to put out another fire on 15 April, after a French website published a 2001 letter from Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, at the time head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, congratulating a French Bishop for not reporting a sexually abusive priest to the police.

The priest was later sentenced to 18 years in prison for multiple counts of sexual assault. The Bishop was given a three-month suspended sentence for not reporting the abuse in violation of French law.

“I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration,” Cardinal Castrillon wrote to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux.

“You have acted well and I am happy to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other Bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son, a priest.” Fr Lombardi said in a statement:

“This letter is a confirmation of how opportune it was to centralise the handling of cases of sex abuse of minors by clergy under the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in order to assure their rigorous and coherent management.”

In effect, Fr Lombardi was pointing to Cardinal Castrillon as part of a problem that has since been overcome. Cardinal Castrillon retired in 2006; Bishop Pican retired last March.

The Vatican has emphasised recently that it now tells Bishops to follow civil law when it comes to reporting accusations of sexual abuse to civil authorities. When that policy was posted online as part of a “layman’s guide” to the Vatican’s sex abuse procedures, it prompted such erroneous headlines as Vatican: Bishops Must Report Alleged Abuse To Police Erroneous, because where civil law does not require mandatory reporting - in Italy, for examplethe Vatican still advises Bishops not to do so.

The reasoning is twofold, Vatican sources said: first, the role of a Bishop in these situations is to

effectively implement Church law, not to act as a reporting agent for the state. Second, while Bishops should advise and sometimes encourage victims to go to police, they should not exercise that right for them; some victims, for a variety of reasons, may not want to report an allegation to police.

The Vatican’s policy, then, still has the potential to create problematic situations - especially because non-reporting, in the eyes of many people today, is the equivalent of cover-up. For all the complaining about Vatican communications, there is a growing consensus inside the Roman Curia that, this time around, the Vatican has been more effective and proactive in responding to allegations, rumours and misinterpretations on the sex abuse issue.

Officials of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation have given extensive and detailed interviews, the Vatican has translated and posted on its web site copious background information and documents on Church law and sex abuse, and Fr Lombardi has been unusually swift to respond to media reports.

Reporters on the Vatican’s e-mail list sometimes receive such statements late at night, reflecting an urgency that in previous times would have been reserved for papal death.

Another point the Vatican is eager to make in the court of public opinion is that the recent disclosures and media reports have focused on cases that are decades old, whereas new allegations of sexual abuse against priests are relatively rare.

Fr Lombardi, for example, cited a study by the US Department of Health and Human Services, which said more than 60,000 child sex abuse perpetrators were reported in 2008.

In contrast, in the one-year period covered by the 2008-2009 audit of child sex abuse in US Church institutions, there were 21 new accusations of sex abuse by priests against persons who are currently minors.

In short, the Vatican now has a record of progress to point to, largely thanks to the efforts in the US. Eight years ago, the struggle to establish strict sex abuse norms in US dioceses met with resistance in some Vatican quarters - notably from Castrillon, who has since retired. Today, many at the Vatican are pointing to the US norms as a success story.

Researcher links contraception to HIV

Researcher finds strong link between contraception and HIV

FRONT ROYAL, Virginia

(CNA) - A researcher reported last week that there is a strong scientific link between hormonal contraceptives and a woman’s risk of contracting AIDS/HIV.

Joan Robinson, a researcher at the Population Research Institution, said that although over 50 medical studies to date show the link between the two, the scientific consensus has received little to no media coverage due to the economic and ideological force behind contraception.

“The science is settled,” Robinson says. “Hormonal contraceptives – the oral pill and

Depo-Provera – increase almost all known risk factors for HIV, from upping a woman’s risk of infection, to increasing the replication of the HIV virus, to speeding the debilitating and deadly progression of the disease,” reports Robinson in her article, titled The Pill’s Deadly affair with HIV/AIDS Robinson explained on the PRI website on 20 April that hormonal contraceptives boost the number of specific cells in women which HIV uses to infect and proliferate in the body.

According to the researcher, hormonal contraceptives also create an “ideal” site for HIV infection on the surface of a woman’s uterus, eliminate the natural pH acid protection against infection and cause the fragile cervical tissue to grow beyond its natural bounds and replace what would normally be thick, protective membrane.

Additionally, said Robinson, hormonal contraception can cause vaginal dryness which makes the environment susceptible to tears and abrasions, creating fertile sites for infection.

“The ‘family planning’ types dismiss out of hand the impressive body of scientific research demonstrating a Pill/HIV link,” Robinson said, “preferring to rely on a handful of their own highly questionable trials which claim to find ‘no increase in HIV risk among users of oral contraceptives and DepoProvera.’ This is like relying on a tobacco company to monitor a study on the link between cigarettes and cancer,” she charged. Robinson also wrote that despite the risks involved, many US-funded organisations promote these drugs to women in developing countries, even though they increase the odds of these women contracting

no serious study has ever shown a connection between celibacy and paedophilia, but many psychologists and psychiatrists believe there is a connection.

Expert agrees paedophilia linked to homosexuality

SANTIAGO, Chile (CNA)

- The newspaper El Diaro de Chile published an article last week by Spanish psychologist Jose Maria Amenos Vidal titled Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the scientific evidence that supports the relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia

The author asserts that the Cardinal was correct in affirming such a link during his visit to Chile.

Since 1984, Vidal has been a professor of Philosophy and Educational Science at the Central University of Barcelona, Spain where he is also Director of Seminars in the Departments of General and Social Psychology.

In his article, Vidal recalls that the renowned Spanish doctor and psychiatrist, Aquilino Polaino, an expert in the field, previously pointed out that homosexuality should be considered a mental disease and must be addressed with psychiatric treatment under the guidance of the model set forth by Gerard JM van den Aardweg.

Aardweg is the Dutch professor and psychologist who years ago, “deciphered the keys to this illness and its treatment.”

HIV/AIDS. “Population control groups continue to lobby for more hormonal contraception, not less,” she noted. “How many lives are being lost because we continue to ship boatloads of hormonal contraceptives to a continent and to countries laboring under an HIV/ AIDS pandemic? Isn’t it time that we stopped?”

Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, echoed Robinson and said on 21 April that “groups like USAID and the UN Population Fund must recognise the danger of recklessly pushing hormonal contraception on populations suffering from the scourge of AIDS.”

“How many African women have died because their ‘free’ birth control pills cost them their lives?”

More info can be found at:

http://pop.org/201004201199/the-pills-deadlyaffair-with-hivaids.

His model directly clashes with those of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, Vidal said, “because orthodox and heterodox psychoanalysts have defended the unscientific position that homosexuality is the result of hereditary factors.” He noted that “this hypothesis … has been completely ruled out today because of its incongruence with the results of scientific research”, adding that one can conclude that the “social environment is indeed (homosexuality’s) main trigger”. From this point of view, Vidal continued, “the recent statements by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone during his recent trip to Chile support the scientific evidence derived from statistical co-relational studies between homosexuality and paedophilia.”

Vidal said these studies show that homosexuality is not the result of genetic inheritance or of evolutionism in relation to paedophilia and that it is not disconnected from environmental influence.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that

PHOTO: CNS

Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos walks to the Vatican on 16 April 2005 during the period between the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. The cardinal, who served as prefect of the Congregation for Clergy under Pope J ohn Paul II, said the late Pope approved a congratulatory letter he wrote in 2001 to a French Bishop who did not report a sexually abusive priest to the police.

PHOTO: CNS/NANCY WIECHEC

PANORAMA

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday.

Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO Box 75, Leederville WA 6902.

Submissions over 55 words will be edited. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 will be put into classifieds and charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisement.

FRIDAY, 30 APRIL

Charismatic Healing Rally

7pm at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Altone Rd and Morley Dr, Lockridge. Praise and Worship with Guest speaker, Eddie Russell FMI. Come and experience the healing power of God working in your life! All welcome.

Enq: Colleen 9377 5133, after 6pm or Shirley 9279 9165.

Medjugorje Evening of Prayer

7-9pm at St Thomas The Apostle Parish, College Rd and Melville St, Claremont. All are invited to an Evening of Prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace. Evening consists of Adoration, Rosary, Benediction and Holy Mass. Free DVD on Fr Donald Calloway’s conversion from drugs and life of sin to Priesthood. Enq: 9402 2480.

SATURDAY, 1 MAY

Witness for Life

8.30am at St Augustine’s, Gladstone Rd, Rivervale. Mass followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at abortion clinic, led by Columban Missionary priest Fr Paul Carey. Come and pray for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

Day with Mary

9am-5pm at St Helena Parish, 55 Fortescue Pl, Ellenbrook. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. 9am Video, 10.10am Holy Mass, Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Catholic Youth Ministry 2010 Ball

7pm-midnight at Mercure Hotel Perth. 18+ event. Join us for a night of entertainment; fantastic 3 course set menu, and much more. Tickets available for $100. Enq: 9422 7912 .

SUNDAY, 2 MAY

Divine Mercy

1.30pm at St Francis Xavier’s Church, 25 Windsor St, Perth. Fr Joseph Asnaban, will give Homily on Mother of Mercy. Enq: John 9457 7771.

FRIDAY, 7 MAY

Pro-Life Witness

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

SATURDAY, 8 MAY

Divine Mercy Healing Mass

2.30pm at St Francis Xavier’s Church, 25 Windsor St, East Perth. Fr Marcellinus Meilak, Main Celebrant. Reconciliation in English and Italian available. Divine Mercy prayers followed by Veneration of First Class Relic of St Faustina Kawalska. Refreshments later. Enq: John 9457 7771.

MONDAY, 17 MAY  FRIDAY, 28 MAY

Tour of the Holy Land

12 day tour with Fr Roy Pereira visiting Sea of Galilee, Jericho, Masada, The Dead Sea, Bethany, Jerusalem and Cana. For cost, itinerary and more details, please contact: Francis Williams (Coordinator) T: 9459 3873 M: 0404 893 877. Email: francis@perthfamily.com.

SATURDAY, 29 MAY  SUNDAY, 30 MAY

Catholic Faith Renewal - Weekend Retreat

9am-6pm at James Neston Hall, Catholic Education Centre, 50 Ruislip St, West Leederville. Theme will be Tears of God, Christian Answer to suffering with guest Fr Gino Henriques, CSsR an International Speaker who has preached to Bishops, priests, and Religious to laity through retreats, seminars and conferences, a postgraduate study in Sacred Scripture and Theology. Enq: 0433 224 541, Rita 0422 917 054.

GENERAL NOTICES

Perpetual Adoration

Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is in its seventh year at Christ the King Church, Beaconsfield. Open 24 hours, except at Mass times. All welcome. Enq: Joe 9319 1169.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The Church of St Jude in Langford is seeking to put together a visit to Jordan, the Holy Land and Egypt, leaving mid-August 2010. Expect the pilgrimage to be for circa 19 days and could accommodate 28-30 people. Fr Terry Raj will be the Spiritual Director. Enq: Matt 6460 6877, mattpicc1@gmail.com.

Businesses and Companies – Support our Youth Catholic Youth Ministry is looking for donation of prizes or financial support to help with Diocesan youth events such as WYD in Forrest Place, Inter-Parish Sand Sculpture Competition and the WYD Fundraising Ball. All contributions will be acknowledged. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. For more information, admin@cym. com.au or 9422 7912.

The Alliance, Triumph and Reign of the Two Hearts

Eucharistic Prayer Vigil and devotion to the Two Hearts will recommence on the first Friday of May (7th) as usual at St Bernadette’s Church Glendalough. Enq: Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Urgent News - for all Catholic Youth

Connect with Catholic Youth Ministry Perth to engage in local events, parish youth groups, social events, retreats and much more. Visit our website: www.cym.com.au, mailing list to receive a monthly e-newsletter, or facebook group Catholic Youth Ministry Perth. Volunteer with us to meet new people and share your skills with the Church. Feel free to visit us, or call 9422 7912.

EVERY SUNDAY

Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation

2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation is available before every celebration. Anointing of the Sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation, last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to the church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq: SACRI 9447 3292.

EVERY 3RD SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Oblates of St Benedict

2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. Oblates affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey New Norcia welcome all who are interested in studying the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude meetings. Enq: Secretary 9457 2758.

EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life

2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley. The hour includes Exposition of the Blessed Eucharist, silent prayer, Scripture and prayers of intercession. Come and pray that those discerning vocations to the Priesthood or Religious life hear clearly God’s loving call to them.

LAST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Christian Spirituality Presentation

7.30-9.15pm at the Church Hall behind St Swithan’s Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Stephanie Woods will present The Desert Period of Christianity, 260 to 600AD. From this time period came the understanding of the monastic lifestyle and contemplative prayer. No cost. Enq: Lynne 9293 3848.

EVERY WEDNESDAY

Holy Spirit of Freedom Community

7.30pm at The Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We are delighted to welcome everyone to attend our Holy Spirit of Freedom Praise Meeting. Enq: 9475 0155 or hsofperth@gmail.com.

EVERY 2ND WEDNESDAY

Year of the Priest Holy Hour

7-8pm at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. Reflections on St John Vianney, Patron Saint of Priests. Light refreshments later in the parish centre.

Chaplets of the Divine Mercy

7.30pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Rd, Bateman. A beautiful, prayerful, sung devotion accompanied by Exposition, and Benediction. All welcome. Enq: George 9310 9493 H or 9325 2010 W.

EVERY TUESDAY

Bible Teaching with a Difference

7.30pm at St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepparton Rd, Victoria Park. Exciting revelation with meaningful applications that will change your life. Meetings incorporate a Novena to God the Father. Light refreshments will follow. Bring along your Bible, a notebook and a friend. Enq: Jan 9284 1662.

EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Holy Hour for 2010 at Catholic Youth Ministry

5.30pm at The Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. Mass, followed by Holy Hour at 6.30pm, dinner afterwards for a $5 donation. Enq: www.cym.com.au or call 9422 7912.

FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

Mass for Vocations

7pm at the Sisters of the Poor, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Celebrated by Fr Doug Harris, followed by Holy Hour and Benediction, refreshments will follow.

Healing Mass

7pm at St Peter’s Church, 93 Wood St, Inglewood. Benediction, Praise and Worship followed by Mass with Fr Sam and Fr Joseph Tran as Celebrants, later fellowship. Enq: Priscilla 0433 457 352.

Communion of Reparation All Night Vigil

7pm-1am at Corpus Christi Church, Lochee St, Mosman Park. All are warmly invited to Holy Mass, Rosary, Confession and Adoration. Celebrant Fr Bogoni Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357.

Vatican supports ‘unprecedented’ international stem stell project

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Vatican is strongly supporting a new international project for adult stem-cell research but is not directly involved and has made no financial contribution to the initiative, a Vatican spokesman said.

The project, led by the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, established a consortium of researchers from several Italian health institutes, including the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome. The Church opposes embryonic stem-cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos. It supports adult stem-cell research, which uses undifferentiated cells obtained from adult organs and tissues.

Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said news reports of a Vatican contribution of 2 million Euros to the project were inaccurate. In an e-mail to Catholic News Service on 25 April, Fr Lombardi said no funding

in the research can be seen as a ‘Vatican’ contribution, but the precise extent of this participation has not yet been defined,” he said.

The initiative was announced at a meeting in Rome on 23 April at which participants signed a letter of intent. Among those present was Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, a retired Vatican official, who said the Church was committed to “supporting this research in every possible direction.” He said it was an example of the proper use of scientific research as “an instrument of service to the human being, in order to preserve life and alleviate suffering.”

Mucosal Biology Research Centre and the Centre for Coeliac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told The Catholic Review, Baltimore Archdiocesan newspaper, in a brief telephone interview that the consortium has been months in the making. “We started discussing this a few months ago,” Fasano said.

“It extended from discussions I had with Cardinal Martino. He liked the idea, and submitted it to the Holy Father (Pope Benedict XVI). The Holy Father loved it. This is unprecedented.”

commitment had been given by any Vatican institution.

“This aspect must be further studied,” he said. “It is true,

however, that institutions such as the Bambino Gesu Hospital are connected with the Holy See, and therefore its concrete participation

Participants at the Rome meeting said the project would focus on intestinal stem cells, a relatively new field of study. Intestinal stem cells are easy to harvest, replicate frequently and can be used to generate a variety of other more specialised cells, they said.

Dr Alessio Fasano, professor of paediatrics, medicine and physiology and director of the

Nancy Paltell, the Maryland Catholic Conference’s associate director for respect life, called the new project “yet another example of the Catholic Church stepping up to the plate to fill a need that the government either won’t fill or isn’t capable of filling.”

“The Church has been a consistent supporter of stem-cell research using ethical adult stem cells,” she added.

A microscopic view shows a colony of human embryonic stem cells (light) growing on fibroblasts (dark) in this handout photo released to Reuters by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine on 9 March. US President Barack Obama has lifted restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stemcell research. The Catholic Church has long opposed such research because it relies on the destruction of human embryos. Advocates say the research may advance treatments and cures for deadly and debilitating diseases.

PHOTO: CNS/ALAN TROUNSON, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE VIA REUTERS

ACCOMMODATION

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HEALTH

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ACHES & PAIN? Reflex Relax Massage by Indian masseur. Jai 0438 520 993.

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LAWNS

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BUSINESS

BOOK BINDING

BOOK REPAIR SERVICE

New Book Binding, General Book Repairs, Rebinding, New Ribbons; Old Leather Bindings Restored.

Tydewi Bindery 9377 0005.

FURNITURE REMOVAL

ALL AREAS Mike Murphy

Ph: 0416 226 434.

EVENTS

COLLEGIUM SYMPHONIC

CHORUS Subscribe and save.

Conductor: Margaret Pride. Bach & Beyond, Mass in G, Cantata No 147, Brandenburg

Concerto No 3. Sunday, 16 May 2010 at 2pm, at St Joseph’s Church, 1 Salvado Rd, Subiaco. CSC Box Office: 9252 0002.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

CATHOLICS CORNER Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for Baptism, Communion and Confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

OTTIMO Convenient city location for books, cds/dvds, cards, candles, statues, Bibles, medals and much more. Shop 108, Trinity Arcade (Terrace level), 671 Hay Street, Perth. Ph: 9322 4520. Mon-Fri 9am-6pm.

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TRADE SERVICES

BRENDON HANDYMAN SERVICES Home, building maintenance, repairs and renovations. NOR. Ph 0427 539 588.

PLASTERING homes and renovations. Phone Neil 9390 6333.

BRICK REPOINTING

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PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd

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PICASSO PAINTING Top service.

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MINI EXCAVATOR HIRE

Trenching and civil works. Daniel Mob: 0428 170 379.

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ENNEAGRAM WORKSHOP

From a Christian perspective. Led by the upper Room team. The best way to understand others and ourselves. $120. 1 & 2 May, Rockingham Church Hall. Bookings/Enquiries 9593 4918.

SETTLEMENTS

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KINLAR VESTMENTS Quality hand-made and decorated vestments: Albs, Stoles, Chasubles, altar linen, banners etc. 12 Favenc Way, Padbury. By appointment only. Ph: Vicki 9402 1318 or 0409 114 093.

21

23 F Sts George martyr (O), Adalbert Bishop (O) Wh Acts 9:1-20 Heavenly light

Ps 116 Praise the Lord Jn 6:52-59 Real food, real drink

24 S St Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest martyr (O) Wh Acts 9:31-42

Ps 115:12-17

We need penicillin, not condoms, in central Africa: local lawyer, editor

US aid agencies want to revitalise family planning in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is certifiably insane.

Ever since it gained independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been in chaos. By some statistics, the hinterland outside of the capital Kinshasa has suffered through the worst war since World War II as rival armies of thugs, warlords, or surrogates of hostile neighbours battle it out over our rich mineral resources.

The DRC is rich in people, too. It has a population of about 70 million and by the year 2050 it will be one of the ten most populous countries in the world. Our total fertility rate is 6.3, one of the highest in the world.

Abortion is illegal here, with some exceptions for the health of the mother.

Unsurprisingly, our health care is in a mess, especially for women, and it is actually getting worse, year by year.

The current maternal mortality rate (MMR) is estimated at 2,000 per 100,000 live births; in 1990 it was 800. (The rate in Canada is six per 100,000 births.) Infant mortality in the first year is estimated at 92 per 1,000. (In Canada, it is about six per 1,000.)

At the moment, however, at least by the standards of the DRC, the country is relatively calm and the thoughts of foreign aid donors have turned to improving health care. And the band-aid they are offering is vigorous family planning programmes.

Back in December, the DRC’s First Lady, Marie Olive Lembe Kabila, opened a National Conference to Reposition Family Planning in Kinshasa. It was attended by all the nabobs of DRC’s health bureaucracy as well as USAID, the American aid agency, and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

“This is an issue that concerns us all,” said Mme Kabila. “No-one among us wants to lose a child, a loved one we waited nine months for, and no man wants to see his wife left on the delivery table.”

USAID is investing US$8.4 million in family planning in the DRC.

The US Ambassador to the DRC, William Garvelink, told the conference that the unmet need for family planning is more than 24 percent.

Satisfying this unmet need could avert over 18,000 maternal deaths and 850,000 child deaths.

I share the desolation of the First Lady, but this is almost literally insane.

No-one can fail to weep at a stillborn child or the death of a mother in childbirth. But it is absurd; it is criminally irresponsible, for the United States and international aid agencies to argue that the solution to the DRC’s calamitous maternal mortality is family planning.

The real solution is quality basic health care. Not conferences about foreign aid. Not plans drawn up in airconditioned offices in New York. We need real health care. We need $8.4 million worth of penicillin, not $8.4 million worth of condoms.

A few years ago, the slogan was

“Health for All by 2000”. Now it is the propaganda of “Millennium Development”. We even have a home-grown slogan, “the five yards of the president.” This is all pie-in-the-sky stuff. What the DRC needs is not a scaled-down version of the American health care system, but an understanding of how to deliver primary health care throughout the whole country, not just in Kinshasa and the provincial capitals.

In the DRC, as in most Third World countries, lack of medical care is the principal cause of maternal mortality – and this is the case regardless of the legal status of abortion or the level of family planning.

Here are a few of the dismal statistics. The World Health Organisation says that medical problems linked to maternity are the cause of 19 percent of deaths amongst women and girls. Life expectancy was 42 years in 2002, when the mean for Africa was 51 years. Access to health services is less than 26 percent.

Throughout the country, especially in the interior, basic health care and prenatal care is inadequate or nonexistent. There are no midwives and clinics lack minimum conditions of hygiene. Even major cities lack the infrastructure and equipment for emergency care.

Where it does exist, only a small minority can afford it. Doctors are poorly trained. Many are not equipped to deal with emergencies in childbirth. In large public hospitals, there are excellent physicians, but sometimes they lack antibiotics and sterile gloves.

“The real solution is quality basic health care. Not conferences about foreign aid. Not plans drawn up in airconditioned offices in New York. We need real health care. We need $8.4 million worth of penicillin, not $8.4 million worth of condoms.”

Malaria is widespread. Eradicated diseases such as trypanosomiasis, leprosy and plague have reappeared. HIV/ AIDS affects more than 4 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 49. In the eastern provinces where fighting is still going on, that figure rises to about 20 percent. According to recent estimates, 750,000 children have lost at least one parent due to sickness. During the 1997-2005 war, 3.9 million of our people died. Most of them succumbed to infectious diseases which they were too weak to withstand because of malnutrition and the stresses of migration.

Although the DRC has an abundance of natural resources, it is one of the poorest countries in the world, with vast disparities in wealth. This is due mainly to the never-ending war which scourges the country. In 2002 – the last year for which I have statistics - 80 percent of the population were living below the poverty line of US$2 per day. Nearly 44 percent of women and about 22 percent of men had

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

CAMEROON GABON

REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Congo River

CONGO

AFRICA

Kinshasa

Goma

Lake Kivu

Bukavu

SUDAN

UGANDA

RWANDA

BURUNDI

Lake Tanganyika

no income. Regional disparities are very strong. In the eastern districts, people were living on $32 per year; in the southern districts, $138; and in the capital Kinshasa, $323. Malnutrition affects between 30 and 50 percent of women and children. In total, 16 million people live in conditions of food insecurity.

In these chaotic circumstances, how can the US ambassador seriously propose family planning as a solution? He and his cronies in the aid agencies are living in NeverNever Land.

I firmly believe that what the DRC needs to turn around the appalling statistics on maternal deaths is good nutrition, basic health care, good obstetric care

ANGOLA

during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. In industrialised countries, birth-related deaths declined with the development of better obstetric techniques and improvements in the overall health of women. In England and Wales, for example, the maternal mortality rate dropped from more than 550 pregnancy-deaths per 100,000 births in 1931 to less than 50 in 1960 through the use of antibiotics, blood transfusions and the management of hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.

According to the World Bank’s 2006 Development Report, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have managed to reduce maternal mortality by enabling access to midwives and nurses in rural areas

TANZANIA

ZAMBIA

©2008 CNS

and regularly supplying provinces with medicines and medical equipment. Severe bleeding contributes to 44 percent of maternal deaths in Africa, deaths which could be prevented if doctors had access to clean blood.

Rather than revving up the engines of family planning, foreign aid donors should think of ways to bring modern medicine and better health care to the DRC. If they don’t, it will just confirm our suspicions that family planning is merely a Trojan horse for legalising abortion in the DRC.

Gaston Azitaki is editor of the magazine Construire la famille in Kinshasa and a lawyer. This article first appeared on Mercatornet.com. Used with permission.

Part of the problem: A Ugandan Red Cross volunteer distributes condoms in the northern town of Lira during a 2006 commemoration service for AIDS victims. Uganda’s ABC campaign -- which encourages people to practise abstinence and faithfulness or use condoms - is thought to have contributed to a significant drop in HIV/AIDS in the country. A Congo lawyer and editor says African countries need practical help like penicillin, not more condoms.