The best conspiracy theories have no evidence. Is this what makes the
soon
New life: Sent to cover the Vatican, a journalist converts Page 14
Principle: Pharmacist faces court over refusal to prescribe Page 13
Parade?: Christians, Jews oppose Jerusalem Pride Parade Page 13
Social doctrine text says its mandate is human dignity, common good
■ By Cindy WoodenThe God-given dignity of humans and the obligation to promote the common good of all the world's people require the Catholic Church to speak on social issues, said the new "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church."
The church's social doctrine offers criteria for judging various aspects of public and social life and provides guidelines for "conforming them to the demands of Christian morality," said the book, released on October 25 at the Vatican. Drafted at the request of Pope John Paul II by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the compendium explains church teachings related to politics, war, the economy, the environment, work and legislation impacting family life, among other topics.
Not counting the index, the English volume presented to the press was 331 pages.
Continued on page 2
Adoration for Life is a new prayer project launched in the Archdiocese by Dr Amanda Lamont and Fr Doug Harris, with the approval of Archbishop Barry Hickey.
Dr Lamont described it as a contemplative missionary response to the need for a culture of life in our hearts, our city, our country, and our world.
MOVIES
“We know that the battle for a culture of life is in essence a spiritual battle, and that the visible efforts of those in active apostolates for life will be most successful when bathed and swaddled in prayer,” she said.
Adoration for Life provides an opportunity for people to come together to provide a perpetual chorus of prayer for a cul-
A Hollywood remake of a great Japanese movie looks OK - for once Page 14
ture of Life before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. This Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is ‘virtual’ in that adorers can choose the Adoration chapel in which they will pray. They will simply commit to a specific hour (or more) to be spent in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for the culture of life each week.
A network of ‘Adorers for Life’
will be formed, with an email communication chain for the distribution of specific prayer requests.
It is anticipated that a regular newsletter emailing will develop, containing reports on issues of relevance to the culture of life as suggested points for prayer.
The administration of the project will be largely by email.
Continued on page 3
Sisters of Mercy congregations around Australia have begun looking at re-configuring their existing relationships in a move that may lead to the formation of one national body.
At present there are 17 autonomous congregations or institutes of Mercy Sisters around Australia, two of which are present here in Western Australia – the Perth and West Perth congregations.
The Sisters of Mercy arrived first to Perth in 1846, settling in Victoria Square and in 1871 because of the increasing number of Sisters arriving from Ireland, built the convent that we can see today.
The Sisters at West Perth became an autonomous congregation from the Perth Sisters in 1896.
According to Sister Beverley Stott from the West Perth congregation, in those days whenever new convents were built the new resident Sisters would become an autonomous congregation.
At that time there were also a number of other autonomous congregations, which eventually combined to make the Perth congregation.
The decision was recently taken at a chapter meeting of all Mercy Sisters in Sydney, which involved three sisters from each congregation. “We do believe that this is the call of the spirit,” Sr Joan Smith of the Perth congregation based at Victoria Square told The Record.
“However, the decision didn’t come easily.” Continued page 3
Monks plan to end their St Bernard outreach to the lost and stranded in the Alps Page 12
No. 4025
DISTRIBUTION
The Record, established in 1874, is distributed to Catholic Churches, presbyteries, religious houses and subscribers throughout the Archdiocese of Perth, Geraldton, Bunbury, Broome and overseas.
THE TEAM
Managing Editor Peter Rosengren
Production/ Advertising Carole McMillen
Office Manager Kylie Waddell
JOURNALISTS
Bronwen Clune
Jamie O’Brien
CONTRIBUTORS
Hugh Ryan, Paul Gray, Fr Tim Deeter, Tony Evans, George Russo, Peter Dwan, Guy Crouchback
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscribe to The Record (46 issues) and Discovery (6 issues)
$55 per year. Send cheque or money order.
ADVERTISING
Editorial: Tuesday first mail
Advertising:
Booking: Monday
midday
Copy: Tuesday midday
CONTACT US
587 Newcastle Street, West Perth, WA 6005 PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902
Tel. 9227 7080
Fax 9227 7087
web www.therecord.com.au
Editor cathrec@iinet. net.au
Classifieds/ Advertising advertising@ therecord.com.au
Accounts administration@ therecord.com.au
Contact Lens Consultants
Mark Kalnenas (B. optom)
Grove Plaza, Cottesloe 9384 6720
stritabooks@webace.com.au
We sell orthodox Catholic books for all ages: colouring books lives of the saints catechisms devotional and much more.
Contact Paul or Janice for a catalogue or more information. Mail orders welcome.
11 day Pilgrimage 2005 to the SHRINE of MARY MACKILLOP
North Sydney
Departing Perth
July 30, 2005
Returning August 9, 2005
Join the thousands on the feastday.
Contact: 08 9041 1045 for further information
IN PRAYER OCTOBER
General: That firm in faith Christians will be eager to dialogue with people who belong to a different religion.
Missionary: That the due presence of Catholics in national life and in the media of the Latin American continent may increase.
Year of the Eucharist Holy Hour
Continued from page 1
"Insofar as it is part of the Church's moral teaching," the volume said, "the Church's social doctrine has the same dignity and authority as her moral teaching."
At an October 25 press conference about the volume, officials from the justice and peace council said the book was reviewed and approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because it pertains to the Church's moral teaching.
The compendium said, "By means of her social doctrine, the Church shows her concern for human life in society."
While the text cautioned against trying to claim any one political party could represent fully Catholic social and moral teaching, it called on lay Catholics "to identify steps that can be taken in concrete political situations" to put into practice respect for every human life, the promotion of justice and peace and true solidarity with the poor.
"A well-formed Christian conscience," it said, "does not permit one to vote for a political program or individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals."
At the October 25 press conference, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the justice and peace council, refused to answer questions about whether a Catholic ever could vote for a politician who supports legalized abortion.
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican spokesman said, "the Holy See has never nor does it ever want to enter directly into an electoral or political question ... because it is the competence of the local hierarchy to provide enlightenment on these questions if they decide there is a desire and need."
of Christian moral teaching, the compendium said the Church must respond to new situations in society, including the increasing number of women working outside the home, advances in biotechnology, globalization, the destruction of the environment and new attacks on human life and on the family.
The compendium insisted that "homosexual persons are to be fully respected in their human dignity," but said respect "does not justify the legitimisation of behaviour that is not consistent with moral law; even less does it justify the recognition of a right to marriage between persons of the same sex and its being considered equivalent to the family."
opinion toward the death penalty and the various provisions aimed at abolishing it or suspending its application constitute visible manifestations of a heightened moral awareness," it said.
The compendium said the Catholic Church does not bless or whole-heartedly endorse any economic system, political party or government configuration; rather it calls on Catholics and all people of good will to ensure that economic and political systems respect the rights of individuals, promote the common good and act in solidarity with the poorest and weakest citizens of their nation and of the world.
On the topic of war, the compendium said that when a nation is attacked it has a right and duty to defend itself, which includes "using the force of arms."
While democracy meets the moral criteria of giving every citizen a voice in government, it said many modern democracies risk not reflecting and upholding the dignity of every human person.
Morality, it said, cannot be decided by a majority vote.
Holy Hour Norbertine Canons
Exposition, Vespers & Benediction
Sunday evenings 6:30pm – 7:30pm
St Joseph’s Priory Church Treasure Road Queens Park
Contact: Phone: 0418 650 661
nsstorm@tpg.com.au
However, echoing Vatican criticism of the US-led coalition's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, it said, "engaging in a preventative war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions."
"International legitimacy for the use of armed force, on the basis of rigorous assessment and with well-founded motivations, can only be given by the decision of a competent body that identifies specific situations as threats to peace and authorizes an intrusion into the sphere of autonomy usually reserved to a state," it said.
The compendium, designed to give Catholics a systematic understanding of Church positions on social issues, explained that the principles flow from the Ten Commandments, from natural law and human reason and from biblical truths about people, the world and the reality of sin.
While based on 2,000 years
On another current topic, it said that while nations have a right and obligation to protect themselves from terrorism "this right cannot be exercised in the absence of moral and legal norms."
Individual terrorists must be identified, proven guilty and punished, it said. But responsibility for terrorist activity "cannot be extended to the religions, nations or ethnic groups to which the terrorists belong."
Throughout the volume, the sacredness and dignity of human life is emphasized: Legalized abortion is condemned repeatedly, as is the exploitation of any human being, including children, women, the poor and the indigenous.
On the question of capital punishment, the compendium repeats the traditional Church teaching that society has a right to defend itself by punishing and, in some circumstances, taking the life of a person convicted for a serious crime.
However, it also said that modern societies have the means to suppress crime and render criminals harmless without taking their lives.
"The growing aversion of public
The compendium called for a recognition of the unpaid work women perform at home and, while stating that women have a right to a profession and to not be discriminated against in the workplace, it also said employers have a moral obligation to ensure that women are able to work without sacrificing their basic obligations to their families.
Biotechnology, particularly in the field of agriculture, holds great hope for better feeding the world's poor, it said.
"The Christian vision of creation makes a positive judgment on the acceptability of human intervention in nature, which also includes other living beings, and at the same time makes a strong appeal for responsibility," it said.
In evaluating possible uses for new technology, profit cannot be the only consideration, the compendium said. The common good and possible negative side effects on human consumers and on the environment must also be considered. - CNS
Continued from page 1
Sr Smith, who attended the chapter, said the decision has come in response to the needs of the mission in Australia and not because ‘it’s a nice idea.’
Among the reasons which have prompted the decision are diminishing vocations and a desire by all 1500 Mercy Sisters to bring collective minds together for the use of resources.
In a statement from the National Chapter, the Sisters agreed that there is an urgent need to respond to the world-wide movement of God’s spirit towards reconciling and embracing difference, replac-
ing fear with hope, suspicion with trust and violence with peace.
“There are questions such as what impact the reconfiguration will have, what we can do together and to what extent do we want to stay the same,” Sr Smith said.
Any final decisions will, for canonical reasons, need to be clarified in Rome, Sr Smith added.
Congregations in Ireland, New Zealand and the United States have already finalised moves to reconfigure, a move that took, in New Zealand, nearly 13 years to complete after the decision was made.
In the US and Ireland, Mercy Sisters have opted to form regions,
each with a varying number of congregations. In New Zealand, the Sisters formed into one congregation throughout the entire country. Sister Smith said it is too early to predict what the results of an end product may be in Australia. They are taking ideas from the congregations in Ireland, New Zealand and the US.
Sr Stott, who was also a delegate at the chapter, said the Mercy Sisters are moving in sync with the international congregations of the Sisters of Mercy. “There is a lot of networking going on,” she said.
Whilst the Sisters of Mercy have a common constitution, each has its own local constitution, but both
Mary
StreetHighgate has a new breeze of vitality with the presence of the new Catholic Pastoral Centre operating from number 40.
Archbishop Hickey opened the buildings with the celebration of a liturgy on October 5.
The building was originally used by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions when they first arrived in Western Australia in 1897.
Standing in the grounds of Sacred Heart Parish Highgate, the facilities will also be used by Sacred Heart Primary School.
new home to many Catholic agencies.
Named after Our Lady of the Mission, Archbishop Hickey said this was because the agencies reach out to the people in a pastoral way.
“It should operate in the spirit and mind of Christ,
who is the one who works with us on this journey,” the Archbishop said. The event was celebrated with Fr Pat Cunningham and Catholic Youth Ministry Director Fr Don Kettle.
Sr Smith and Sr Stott agree there is already much common ground between them.
“All Mercy Sisters wear the same mercy cross and ring denoting our profession of vows,” Sr Stott said.
“We are united on a lot of fronts,” Sr Smith said.
The Sisters also operate using the same finance and archivist officers.
Congregations around Australia have founded and administered schools, aged care, childcare and social services agencies, some of which will be handed over to the lay Church.
They will continue however, to be part of justice, crisis-care, hospitality, refugee and pastoral care
work, said Sr Stott. According to Sr Smith and Sr Stott one of the decisions that will need to be made is what model of leadership could be adopted.
“One of the main decisions is which groups will come together,” Sr Smith said.
More recently, representatives from the congregations in Ballarat, Melbourne, Adelaide, West Perth and Perth met in Safety Bay to look at how to go about taking this initiative further.
“The decision from there was for the leaders of each of those groups to come up with a process for moving towards reconfiguring in the future,” Sr Smith said.
Suicide is recognised as a leading cause of preventable death. Australia’s rate falls in the upper third of developed nations. Suicide was the leading cause of preventable death in WA up until 2000, even ahead of road deaths, and suicide among indigenous people is two and a half times greater.
Often suicide is a result of a range of issues like mental health, drugs and alcohol, family issues, employment, cultural identity and poverty. No one solution will prevent this tragedy.
The Knights of the Southern Cross (WA) have organized an Open Forum on “The tragedy of suicide in our Society.” It will be held on Saturday
Continued form page 1
The contact address will be ‘adorationforlife@iinet.net.au’. For those not on the internet, the Respect Life Office has agreed to be the phone contact (9375 2029). The ‘Adorers for Life’ email network will be linked to that of the Respect Life Office for distribution of relevant prayer requests, news articles and information.
People who want to be involved are invited to make e-mail or phone contact any time now.
The project is expected to bring many benefits to the Archdiocese by ensuring there is at least one person in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament interceding for the culture of life at every moment of every day.
It will increase awareness of the treasure of prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament and the number of people involved in perpetual adoration. It will broaden the network of ‘labourers for life’ and increase awareness of the breadth and depth of each person’s role in helping to create a culture of life, in the ordinariness of daily life.
It is envisaged that this endeavour may in time spread to other dioceses and countries, helping to fuel the battle for a culture of life in the world.
November 13 at 1.30pm in the clubrooms at the Royal Australian Air Force Association Estate, Bull Creek Drive, Bull Creek, with speakers –Anja Brok of the Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention; Mandy Paterson from the Samaritans and Dr Nick De Felice from the Perth Clinic. The forum will cover various aspects including: Statistics and the Myths, Risk and Protective Factors, Warning Signs and Positive Intervention Skills. There will also be a panel discussion.
Cost: Donation only
To register or for further information please contact KSC(WA) on 9225 6011 or e-mail kscwa.office@perthcatholic. org.au
On Saturday November 13 Commencing at 1.30pm
Venue:Royal Australian Air Force Association Clubrooms, Bull Creek Drive, Bull Creek
Discussions will cover;
■ Statistics and the myths ■ Risk and protective factors
■ Warning signs ■ Positive intervention skills
To register or for further information, please contact The Knights of the Southern Cross on Ph: 9225 6011 or email: kscwa.office@perthcatholic.org.au
K-12 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION & FAITH FORMATION SECTION
K-12 CURRICULUM SUPPORT SECTION
The Director of Catholic Education in Western Australia invites applications for these two positions. The Assistant Directors hold senior positions within the Catholic education system of WA and are members of the Executive, which comprises the Director, Deputy Director and six Assistant Directors.
The above named senior positions require people who are able to demonstrate:
•that they are practising Catholics
•the ability to live, promote and uphold the Vision of Catholic Education
•proven interpersonal and facilitation skills
•the ability to promote trust and synergy between all partners
•strategic thinking and planning
•the ability to challenge, support and develop team members
•significant competence in financial and resource management.
The Catholic Education Office provides services to the four dioceses of Western Australia and therefore there is a requirement to travel. The preferred starting date for this position is January 2005, however this is negotiable.
Further information and documentation regarding each of the above positions are to be found on the office website www.ceo.wa.edu.au under employment.
Enquiries regarding the position should be directed to Mary Retel, Deputy Director, on 9212 9205. Application forms are available from Jeanne Harper on 9212 9202. All applications, on the official form, should reach The Director, Catholic Education Office of Western Australia, PO Box 198, Leederville 6903 no later than Friday 12 November 2004.
Eight Polish Salvatorian priests gathered at St Simon Peter’s Church, Ocean Reef, on Sunday October 17 to celebrate their 15 years in the priesthood.
Two travelled from Poland, one from the Czech Republic, one from Gosford, NSW, and the others are working in West Australian parishes.
They gathered at St Simon
Peter’s where one of them, Fr Bronek Pietrusewicz, is parish priest, and which is only a short distance from the Salvatorian Community House in Currambine.
They concelebrated the 6pm Mass and then joined parishioners in the Parish Centre for a celebration during which the President of the Parish Council, Mrs Mary Rogers, congratulated them on their 15 years of priesthood and expressed appreciation for the work done by the Salvatorians at Ocean Reef. This was followed by a dinner in the presbytery and supper in the Community House.
Seven of the priests entered the Salvatorian novitiate in Poland as a group and did all of their priestly studies together.
Six of them were ordained on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, 1989, while Fr Bronek was one of three Polish representatives when Pope John Paul
II ordained 57 priests from all round the world in Rome on May 28, 1989.
The eighth member of the group, Fr Jan Socha, began his service as Novice Master at the same time as the others began their studies.
He has also served three terms as Provincial of the Polish province of the Order.
The other visiting priests were:
■ Fr Jan Grotowski, of Krakow, who is Treasurer for the Polish province.
■ Fr Jan Pacholek, Deputy Provincial of the Czech
Republic province, and previously Provincial.
■ Fr Zyggy Wloczek, PP at Gosford in the Broken Bay Diocese, NSW.
■ Fr Chris Kowalczyk, currently at Carnarvon but soon to move to Greenmount where he will be Novice Master when the Salvatorian novitiate is launched at the end of December.
■ Fr Francis Kot, PP at Balcatta.
■ Fr Boguslaw Loska, PP at Bruce Rock and Superior of the Australian region of the Polish province.
Raphael and Phyllis Mahony celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in St Mary’s Cathedral last Thursday, October 21, and later at the King’s Hotel in Hay Street.
The couple reaffirmed their wedding vows before Fr Peter Meo during the midday Mass.
They were married in the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Broken Hill, NSW, on October 21, 1939. They had six children and now have 18 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
One of their children died in infancy, four of them are living in Western Australia, and one is the sacristan at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
Mr Mahony is now 94 and his
wife 86 and both are in good health and spirits, although Phyllis recently fell and broke her arm. The couple moved to WA in 1954 and Raphael worked as a linotype mechanic for WA Newspapers for more
than 20 years before retiring. They spent most of that time in the Shenton Park parish, but retired to Mandurah and are now living at Swan Cottages in Bentley.
Raphael and Phyllis met when he was Scout Master for the Catholic Scouts at Broken Hill and she went there for a holiday with one of her Aunts.
Phyllis said her Aunt told her, “I’ve got just the boy for you.” She was not in a hurry to trust her Aunt’s judgement on such an important matter, but came to see her point.
They both volunteered that marriage had been a learning curve “with our ups and downs just like everyone else”.
Notre Dame has proved its worth in the eyes of students who are flocking to its courses. Applications to the University have increased this year by 52%.
This year it received 2330 applications, in comparison to last year when only 1526 were received.
The extra applications mean more places because courses will expand their offerings.
“The University is growing according to need,” said the Manager of prospective students,
admissions and marketing at the University Elizabeth Beal.
The increase can be seen in perspective by the fact that applications for other universities through the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre have decreased by 7%.
“We encourage students to optimise their chances of attaining a place at university or TAFE by applying at Notre Dame,” Mrs Beal said.
“Students also come for an interview so that they are able to match what the university offers
with what they want; 99% are already aware what we have to offer and even if they are not they leave the interview very happy.”
Mrs Beal mentioned that the increase was probably being driven by the introduction of the Federal Government’s new loan scheme, Fee-Help, which will allow students to defer payment of up-front fees starting next year.
“Students haven’t had that option before and that has been quite a challenge for some students,”
“Students are now seeing that Notre Dame is a clear choice for
Notre Dame University has been behind a major study involving child and adolescent physical activity.
The results of the study prompted Premier Geoff Gallop to announce last Monday a $1.2 million increase in funding for programs aimed at getting West Australian children fitter and healthier.
In June 2003, the Premier commissioned the University of Notre Dame to conduct the WA Child and Adolescent Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (CAPANS).
“CAPANS showed the children were becoming less active as they grew older and consumed too few fruit and vegetables,” the Premier said.
“Alarmingly, the results showed that the percentage of overweight and obese children in some age groups has increased.
“There is an obvious need to have a greater focus on teaching children the benefits of a healthier lifestyle,” he said. The study aimed at providing information on child and adolescent physical activity behaviours, eating patterns, overweight and obesity.
A significant contribution was also made by the Premier’s Physical Activity Taskforce, which oversees the development and implementation of a range of community physical activity strategies in WA.
Dr Beth Hands, who was part of the research team for the survey from Notre Dame University, said the survey took place from August till December of 2003.
Some of the key findings of the study conducted by Notre Dame are that soccer and football are the most popular
activities for young males, that students are more likely to be engaged in physical activity right after school or on the weekend and that the overall number of activities participated in was similar for students whether they attended metropolitan or non-metropolitan schools.
Dr Hands believes the funding will build children’s confidence as well as competence.
“Part of the reason why students hadn’t done any physical activity was because they didn’t feel confident,” she said. Dr Gallop said it is critical that teachers are provided with the best resources and professional development available.
The funding will be implemented over the next three years and will include:
■ Improvements in the physical activity programs for primary and secondary schools,
■ An increased focus on the development of healthy lifestyle programs as an important part of a school’s curriculum,
■ Training programs for primary teachers and
■ A greater emphasis on regional planning for secondary physical eduction teachers.
“That way, we will be able to ensure that all children in WA schools receive high quality training in physical activity and nutrition,” Dr Gallop said.
Dr Beth Hands said that parents should be encouraging their children to be active as much as possible. “If we can reduce the sedentary time, that includes watching TV, and spending time on the computer, that would be a significant improvement,” she said.
them.” Mrs Beal also mentioned that recent media coverage about the increasing demand for a values based education meant that many students saw something in Notre Dame that they haven’t in others.
The University requires that all students complete a unit in philosophy and one in theology. “If they have any doubts before they start the units they are dissolved after they’ve finished it,” Mrs Beal said. Mrs Beal said Notre Dame’s position has also been helped by some of the
best graduate satisfaction ratings and highest starting salaries in the country. Nursing, law and physiotherapy were among the most popular courses and the university will start its course in medicine next year.
A report in The West Australian on October 22 mentioned that experts at Murdoch, Edith Cowan University and UWA said uncertainty over fees has probably contributed to the downturn in applications from people wanting to study at university next year.
Bishop Donald Sproxton officially opened and blessed Notre Dame University’s new College of Science and Technology last Friday October 8. The College began operating this year. The blessing and opening came after a complete refurbishment of the two-storey building in Cliff Street, which during its life has previously seen service as an Anglican mission to seafarers and as a
bank. From 1968 to 2001 the building was used by various shipping agents. Also present for the ceremonies were architect Marcus Collins and College Dean Professor Brian Collins.
Purchased by the University in 2001, the new College houses the School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Environmental and Life Sciences and the School of Information and Technology.
The Orthodox Metropolitan German Timofeev of Volgograd and Kamyshinsk will bless a new Volga chapel boat on Sunday, October 31. The ‘swimming church’ will be consecrated to Holy Ruler Vladimir who converted Russia to Christianity.
The boat itself will be named ‘Werenfried’ in honour of Father Werenfried (1913 - 2003), the founder of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in 1947.
After the collapse of communism, ACN established ties with the Russian Orthodox Church supporting it with several joint projects, among them the chapel boats in Volgograd eparchy. The first two of them were ‘St. Innokentij,’ blessed in 1998, and ‘St. Nikolaj,’ which was launched in 2000. The new floating church will reach settlements along the Volga shores where there are no churches now, nor will they be built in the foreseeable future.
The original Chapel boat ‘St. Innokentij’ was recently featured on Sixty Minutes in a report by Richard Carlton titled God 1 Lenin 0. St. Nikolaj is shown in the picture at right." -ACN
e transformed by the renewal of your mind……. ”(Rom12: 2) was the theme which drew crowds of up to 150 people to a Charismatic Conference in Willetton on October 15-17. The Conference, which was sponsored by the Sts. John and Paul Apostles for Christ Prayer Community and presented by the Holy Spirit of Freedom (HSOF) Community, encouraged participants to be open to the many graces of the Holy Spirit which were present throughout the weekend.
During his Blessing on Friday evening, Fr. Corran Pike, emphasized the authenticity of charismatic prayer and exhorted all those in attendance, “Be open to anything!”
Key speakers, HSOF Co-Leaders Peter Merrifield and Josephine Bendotti and Founder Rev. Frank Feain urged each person to pray for revelation into the areas of their lives that were most in need of the transforming power of God’s love.
Particular focus was placed on com-
Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, recently addressed the Acton Institute's annual dinner in Grand Rapids.
Michigan, USA on the nature of democracy. A summary follows.
Democracy is never unqualified. We speak of “liberal democracy” which currently is a synonym for “secular democracy.” In Europe there are parties advocating “Christian Democracy.” Lately there has been interest in the possibility of “Islamic democracy.” These descriptors refer to how democracy might be constituted, and to the moral vision democracy is intended to serve.
This is especially true in the case of secular democracy, which some insist is intended to serve no moral vision at all. But as Pope John Paul II argues, “The value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes.” Democracy is not a good in itself. Its value is instrumental and depends on the vision it serves. An attempt is sometimes made to evade this point by drawing a distinction between procedural and normative democracy. Procedural democracy claims it is no more than a mechanism for regulating different interests.
To speak of normative democracy, however, especially if one is a Catholic bishop, is to provoke panic in some quarters and derision in others. Many things underlie this response, not least certain ideological convictions about secularism. But most important of all is a failure of imagination. Democracy can only be what it is now: a constant series of “breakthroughs” against social taboo in pursuit of the individual’s absolute autonomy.
But think for a moment what it means to say that there can be no other form of democracy than secular
mon human struggles such as the unconscious choice to be imprisoned by the “victim mentality “ of past hurts or the “predominant fault” that each person possesses, which tend to steer us away from God.
It was emphasized that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, one could be released from these bondages and they could, in turn become our strength in serving God.
Those in attendance were urged not to look at their sin in a self-condemning way, but rather with the desire to purify themselves out of love for God and an acknowledgement of Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
Along with these teachings, the availability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Healing Prayer and the anointed HSOF Music Ministry provided a wonderful foundation for the healing and transformation which many testified to throughout the weekend.
Several long-serving HSOF members also shared their own experiences of the
personal healings they have received during the time spent in their Ministry of relating with those caught up in drug addiction, prostitution, mental illness and homelessness, both in Australia and the Philippines.
This was the first time the Apostles for Christ and the HSOF Communities have teamed together, but the transforming power of God’s love and joy highlighted the fruit of this union.
The HSOF Community is presenting their next Healing Retreat at Karriholm: God’s Sanctuary in Pemberton on November 19-21.
Entitled “Christ the King our Healing Lord”, the focus of the weekend will be on John 10:10, “I have come so that you may have life, and life to the full.”
All are welcome to attend.
For further details contact Meryl Giumelli on 97721172
democracy. Does democracy need a billion-dollar pornography industry to be truly democratic? Does it need an abortion rate in the tens of millions? Does it need high levels of marriage breakdown, with growing rates of family dysfunction?
Does democracy (as in Holland) need legalized euthanasia, extending to children under the age of 12? Does democracy need assisted reproductive technology (such as IVF) and embryonic stem cell research? What would democracy look like if you took some of these things out of the picture? Would it cease to be democracy? Or would it actuallybecome more democratic?
These are the things by which secular democracy defines itself and stakes its ground against other possibilities. They are not merely epiphenomena of freedom of speech, movement and opportunity. The alarm with which many treat people in public life who are opposed to these things often implies that that they are a danger to democracy. This overreaction is of course a bluff, an attempt to silence opposition.
If we think about the answers to the questions above we begin to have an
inkling about what a form of democracy other than secular democracy might look like, an alternative I call “democratic personalism.” It means a democracy founded on the transcendent dignity of the human person.
Transcendence directs us to our dependence on others and our dependence on God. Dependence is how we know the reality of transcendence. There is nothing undemocratic about bringing this truth into our reflections about our political arrangements. Placing democracy on this basis does not mean theocracy.
To refound democracy on our need for others, and our need to make a gift of ourselves to them, is to bring a whole new form of democracy into being.
From outside Western culture, of course, come other possibilities. The small but growing conversion of native Westerners within Western societies to Islam carries the suggestion that Islam may provide in the 21st century the attraction which communism provided in the 20th, both for those who are alienated or embittered on the one hand, and for those who seek order or justice on the other.
Intolerant religion is not a problem that secular democracy can resolve, but rather a problem that it tends to engender. The past century provided examples enough of how the emptiness within secular democracy can be filled with darkness by political substitutes for religion. Democratic personalism provides another, better possibility; one that does not require democracy to cancel itself out.
Democratic personalism does not mean seizing power to pursue a project of world transformation, but broadening the imagination of democratic culture so that it can rediscover hope, and re-establish freedom in truth and the common good. It is a work of persuasion and evangelization, more than political activism. Its priority is culture rather than politics, and the transformation of politics through revivifying culture. It is also about salvation -- not least of all the salvation of democracy itself.
Anew book by a Leading Australian Media Personality and ex-Protestant Minister claims: “If the world is to be saved from itself it will only be when rational atheism becomes the dominant belief system.
I set aside whether or not Christianity or any other religion is objectively true, but try here to consider briefly the effects of religion and atheism in the world.
The first attempt in modern Europe to institute “rational atheism” occurred during the French Revolution. It led to the Terror, the guillotine, and the Napoleonic Wars which spread death, misery and devastation throughout Europe for 20 years.
The next attempt was called Communism. It lasted from 1917 to 1989 and was wound up after having killed about 100 million people and reduced Russia, Eastern Europe and much of Asia and Africa to poverty, tyranny, squalor and chaos. The 100 million do not include those who died in the wars it produced. Nazism was also a sort of “rational atheism” - the Nazis despised Christianity and put their trust in various aspects of “scientism” such as eugenics.
The record of Christianity compared to “rational atheism” in the 20th Century is rather good. Where, in the holocausts which “rational atheism” produced, there was some mitigating light and mercy, it was often a result of Christian influences. This is borne out by countless testaments, that of Solzhenitzyn being perhaps the greatest.
Today, the most progressive and scientific nation on Earth, on whose charity much of the rest of the world lives, the USA, is also the most Christian. Unlike the French and Russian Revolutions, the American Revolution, despite some occultist elements among its founders, took as its motto: “In God We Trust.” The American genius sees no conflict between Christianity and reason. The second man to set foot on another world, Buzz Aldrin, is a lay preacher.
Northern Europe, where the churches are empty and theologians refer to “The North German Plain of Irreligion” today seems by contrast in a malaise, creating, inventing, standing for and aspiring to little except sterile hedonism, expecting America to pick up most of the defence budgets and unable even to reproduce its own population.
It is believers who tend to run charities, hospitals and clinics, sometimes at great sacrifice. In 800-odd years there has been no atheist equivalent to the Orders of St. Lazarus or St. John of Jerusalem, the latter the greatest ambulance and Hospital Order in the world.
Naturally, our LAMP points to terror and atrocities committed in the name of religion. However, terrorist groups claiming a religious objective are generally not religious at all. The IRA claims its object is to reunite Ireland under Catholicism, but has been repudiated by the Catholic Church, and its political Party, Sinn Fein, in the only major Irish party to endorse euthanasia. Islamicist terrorists have taken not the whole but highly selected passages of Islamic teaching to justify themselves. Islamicist suicide-bombers and hijackers cannot take seriously their own faith, which promises terrifying and eternal punishments for suicides in the next world.
Incidentally, our LAMP wrote during the Iraq war that he wanted “the army of my country to be defeated,” so possibly he favours Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athism. He also asked “When they say ‘Saddam was a very bad man’ why should we believe them?” Whether this is “rational atheism” or not I am unclear.
There is one more point: If “rational atheism” is held up as the only hope of the world, will those who fail to become rational atheists thereby be classified as enemies of the world? If so, what will happen to them?
Solzhenitzyn tells us.
“Historically the Church has had more to say about sex outside marriage than it has within it”, Byron Pirola informed the 22 married couples who attended the “Celebrate Love” Seminar at the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Highgate on October 9 and 10.
■ By Mark ReidyBut by the completion of the weekend couples knew in no uncertain terms that, as the song says, “The times, they are a changin’.”
The fact that Pope John Paul II has written over two-thirds of what has been professed on sexuality in the Church’s entire 2000-year history is testimony to that change!
Byron and his wife Francine are the ”authors and driving force behind ‘Celebrate Love’ in Australia” according to Brad and Mary Prentice who invited the Pirolas to Perth after participating in a life-changing seminar in Sydney three
years ago. Scripturally-based and built on the Pope’s “Theology of the Body”, ’Celebrate Love’ is a two-day seminar designed to lead married couples into a greater intimacy and deeper understanding of self-giving.
In a series of presentations the course is designed to nurture couples as they discover and explore the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of their relationship. These are interspersed with moments of reflection, prayer and sharing that allow couples to gain personal insights and revelations into both themselves and their marriage (all sharing is carried out between husband and wife; there are no group discussions). Continued Page 8
“Celebrate Love” is a two day seminar consisting of workshops and reflective exercises designed to lead married couples into deeper intimacy and to a greater appreciation of their masculine and feminine uniqueness. It is suitable for married couples of all ages and is presented in the context of the Catholic faith. However couples of all faiths and practice are welcome. The program helps couples to identify their individual intimacy needs, freeing them to trust more fully and rekindle the passion and joy of being “in love”.
The seminar is facilitated by married couples and explores the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of marital intimacy.
Presentations are followed by self–directed questionnaires and discussion so that husband and wife can explore the topics together in complete privacy. There are no group discussions or counseling.
Topics include: Understanding Sexuality, Attitudes and Expectations, Barriers to Intimacy, Forgiveness and Healing, Sexual Intimacy, Spirituality and Sexuality, Lifestyles for Loving.
History
In 1990 Byron and Francine Pirola of Sydney, in conjunction with Ron and Cath Feher from the United States, mapped out the embryonic stage of “Celebrate Love”. It was based on a course the Fehers had earlier been involved in with Fr Chuck Gallagher in the US.
The Pirolas began to teach this course to a small number of couples in the early nineties but with the demands of their own growing family (they have five children) the course was put on hold.
It re-ignited in 1996 and has grown ever since with the Pirolas training couples along the East Coast to enable the course to reach as many people as possible.
With its grounding in the spiritual foundations of Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” (a compilation of 130 of his general audiences), the course has since evolved into the practical and user friendly resource that it is today. The Pirolas attribute this evolution to several sources; including the intellectual unpacking of the Pope’s works by US lay Theologian Christopher West, the on-going learning they receive during their seminars and, of course, the joys and errors of their own seventeen years of marriage!
What does the future hold?
Despite the personal demands of the on going development of “Celebrate Love “, the Pirolas are extremely enthusiastic in their desire (one could say passion!) to share this understanding of
God’s gift of sexuality with as many married couples as possible.
In a society where the sacredness of marriage is increasingly undermined within our legal systems, there could not be a more appropriate time to salvage the priceless treasure that God has invested in this beautiful Sacrament.
When asked of their ideal vision for the future they both agreed that they would love to see every parish in Australia adopt the program for their married couples.
They instance Pennant Hills Parish in Sydney where the Parish Priest, Fr Vince Casey has embraced the course and saw the fruits in the more-than 40 couples who have completed it (See article, Page 9).
In a society where the sacredness of marriage is increasingly undermined within our legal systems, there could not be a more appropriate time to salvage the priceless treasure that God has invested in this beautiful Sacrament. For “Celebrate Love” to become a part of every Church would go a long way to stopping the decay.
The recent seminar in Perth was the first time the Pirolas have brought the course out west, but with such an enthusiastic response they were excited at the prospect of returning.
“If there is a demand then we would love to return”, they said. And that’s great news for any couple that wants to increase the passion in their marriage.
Continued from page 7
One of the goals of the seminar is to not only rekindle the passion of being “in love” but to also explore this endless gift within the marital union.
In a society which seems to be placing ever increasing demands on married couples and pulling them apart, “Celebrate Love” attempts to reverse this trend by focusing participants on all aspects of marital intimacy and subsequently draw-
ing forth the God-given passion from within it. Couples are even asked, if willing, to make a commitment to their spouse to pray daily for this passion within their marriage.
Through self–directed questionaires couples are able to, in complete privacy, explore areas such as: their masculine and feminine uniqueness, the formation of their attitudes to marriage and intimacy - which stems from their own fam-
ily and life experiences - and also to seek reconciliation and healing for the inevitable pain that spouses inadvertently or intentionally inflict upon one another.
The format is constructed in such a way that couples are able to adapt the content to their own level of need or desire. And the fruits, as shared at the conclusion of the weekend highlighted the fact that it makes no difference if one has been married for three years or
forty three, there are no limits to the individual and mutual discovery that this course can unveil.
One of the goals of the seminar is to not only rekindle the passion of being “in love” but to also explore this endless gift within the marital union.
After an enjoyable and very social dinner on Saturday evening, Sunday began with presentations introducing couples to the fullness of joy intended by God for their physical lovemaking.
It was specifically emphasized that this is not, as often perceived, an entity in itself but rather an extension of sexual intimacy. This topic is approached with both sensitivity and discretion and explores some of the difficulties most com-
monly experienced. It is at this point that Byron and Francine draw on the insights of Pope John Paul II and explain the sacred nature of marital intimacy and couples begin to explore practical and achievable ways of growing closer together. They are then encouraged to understand their powerful significance within the Church and to remind themselves that the sacrament of Marriage is a vocation no less important than that of a Priest
or Religious. All are expected to reflect the love of God both within their own family/church as well as to the wider world.
George Weigel in his 1999 biography of Pope John Paul II, “Witness to Hope”, bemoans the fact that most Catholics, let alone the broader population, are not exposed to this Pope’s insights into sexuality. He describes them as, ”a Theological Time bomb” and believes that their “discovery” will
unleash a critical moment in the history of modern thought.
What is required, he proposed, is a voice to interpret and make accessible this vital information to a global audience. As “Celebrate Love” brings this understanding to married couples…….. the explosion is fast approaching!
For enquiries or expressions of interest please call Brad and Mary Prentice on 9401 0596, or for more information:
www.celebratelove.com.au
Arecent study in the UK found that British couples spend an average of just over two and a half waking hours together each day – and more than a third of this in front of the television. Of the remainder, 30 minutes is dedicated to meals and 24 is taken up with housework.
The research, by the Office for National Statistics, found that time spent socialising together takes a low priority with an average of just 15 minutes a day.
Commenting on these results Counsellor Paula Hall said that the time couples are spending apart is one reason for the soaring divorce rate.
“Time together is incredibly important”, she said. ”The less time couples spend together the more the distance grows between them”.
Such secular findings only serve to confirm the insights of Pope John Paul II’s ‘Theology of the Body’.
ever-increasing dilemna in relation to its effect on children. It says that the most significant influence on our sexual identity comes from our families, particularly our parents. In essence, the best way to love your children is for a husband and wife to be demonstrating love for one another.
To allow children to witness the love of their parents will provide them with more security than anything you could do for or with them individually.
Younger children specifically need to see this love demonstrated in tangible ways.
Martin, 32 and Rachel, 29, have been married for six years, but with two children and the busyness of life creeping up on them they came to the realisation that they had been growing apart. They had become indifferent to each other and to marriage.
Martin shared that he had been drifting aimlessly in both his relationship and his faith. This was the motivating drive in attending the “Celebrate Love“ seminar in Perth recently.
For enquiries or expressions of interest
For more information:
www.celebratelove.com.au
The Pope describes marriage as a union of mutual self-giving and emphasises that if the gift of self is not practised in all aspects of a marriage then love is not being provided with a fertile ground in which to grow.
“Celebrate Love” addresses this
If children do not see their parents displaying intimacy through emotional sharing and appropriate physical touching then they will form their own definitions of love based on the absence of it. It is vital that parents of today begin to understand, not only their own attitudes to marriage and intimacy, but also to be aware of the lifelong ramifications that these will have on their children.
“Celebrate Love” is designed to explore these and many other issues relevant to the impact of marriage on both individuals and the broader Church body.
"We make sure we give our cars a regular service, but we’re quite content to ignore our marriages for long periods of time!"
Rachel offered an interesting analogy in relation to the weekend, “We’re a strange species aren’t we? We make sure we give our cars a regular service, but we’re quite content to ignore our marriages for long periods of time!”
Martin and Rachel are now ‘back on track’. They look back and realise that they had become comfortable with
a counterfeit relationship. “We live in a society which is focused on self”, Rachel reflects, “We are constantly told ‘don’t lose your individuality within your marriage’.
“Then there’s the whole concept that once the ‘honeymoon is over’ you just have to grit your teeth and endure the relationship”. For this Perth couple the weekend emphasised that true freedom and the fullness of marital passion can only come when each spouse desires to let go of that individuality and starts looking at everything in the context
of “ours” rather than “mine or yours”. They said they were reminded of the importance of praying together and the need to always be consciously building on their relationship and making it a prime focus.
The weekend brought back both spirituality and passion to their marriage. “It provided some of the most intimate moments we have had in our married life,” Rachel shared.
“It might not make all the mountains smaller, but it sure makes the climbing easier when you do it together”.
L ove is definitely in the air at St Agatha’s Parish in Pennant Hills, Sydney, according to former Parish Priest Fr Vince Casey.
Father Vince, who this year has moved to Chattswood, witnessed a beautiful transformation over the past seven years as over 40 married couples experienced the “Celebrate Love” weekends.
Father Vince’s enthusiasm for the Seminars began when he was invited to assist at one in 1997. So moved was he by the fruits of the participating couples in “rediscovering the romance of marriage”, that he introduced the program to his own parish.
“If the Gospel and the Church are to make sense to people then they need to be real”, he says. He believes “Celebrate Love” allows husbands and wives to specifically focus on their own relationship and consequently rediscover the spark which has so often been dimmed by the busyness of life.
The effects of this are contagious he says. ”Children become more secure as they see their parents growing closer together and expressing love for one
another... Couples began walking to Church hand in hand and they would sit together during Mass instead of bookending the children. This was such a great witness to their friends and other parishioners. They would notice a change and would want to know what this couple knew.” Fr. Vince is in the process of introducing the program to his current Parish. He believes that sometimes people need to be reminded that Marriage is a Sacrament and to appreciate the preciousness of it.
“If Marriages are renewed”, he says with conviction, ”then the Church is renewed.”
If anyone is interested in introducing “Celebrate Love” to their Parish and would like more information on its benefits Fr Vince invites you to contact him on (02) 9412 1042.
Some might call it a global headache, others globalised ignorance: what do you do when 8 million readers are convinced that a work of fiction alleging a giant conspiracy by the Church is true? The Da Vinci Code's success has US tourists clambering over European churches looking for proof that it is. Here, HUGH RYAN examines the writing technique and the distortion of ideas that together make people want to believe a fantasy.
The highly controversial novel (eventually to be a film) “The Da Vinci Code”, by Dan Brown, tells the truth. The truth appears on the publisher’s page in the words: “All of the characters and events in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”
The author is faithful to this statement throughout the book, from beginning to end. Even when a character appears to be real – Jesus, Leonardo Da Vinci, the Catholic Church, Opus Dei, the Priory of Sion (est.1954), Constantine – the events, present or historical, associated with them are such that these people or organisations are rendered fictional. They are not the real ones.
With that key in hand, the Da Vinci Code is revealed for what it is: a very C Grade work of fiction.
At other levels, it deserves some attention. For instance, why is it that so many people believe it?
Although they have been told it is a work of fiction, they believe it. Why?
The answer is in the writing style.
The early chapters are packed with superfluous information the reader has no way of verifying – the description of the ride from the hotel to the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre; and the directions of movement in and out of the famous venue west, south, right, left, circular, but with no rational connections, are but two examples. They are further interspersed with highly unlikely snippets of information and misinformation.
It is a kind of hypnosis, a sensory overload that either puts the reader to sleep (it nearly worked with me) or compels him to keep assenting to whatever the author says. As each irrational, non-rational, or merely dubious statement enters the mind unchallenged, the likelihood of anything else being challenged diminishes. Just as most volunteers for stage hypnosis are willing to surrender to the hypnotist, so most readers of novels are volunteering to be seduced, and one therefore doesn’t have to be a writing genius to make it work.
It is very similar to the technique so often used in television advertising: if one really irrational statement in a TV ad. can escape critical attention from the rational, conscious mind, the entire message will gain easy access to the subconscious which is where advertisers want it to go. One of the best examples in recent years was a Meadow Lea campaign which visually displayed all the warmth and wonder of wife and mother and in a jingle said words like “You’re our mother, you’re our life, you’re our lover and our wife. You deserve to
be congratulated Meadow Lea.”
There is not so much as a pause or a change of tune or tone or tempo as Meadow Lea takes the credit for all these wonderfully womanly things. It is so blatant, you might think nobody would miss it, but my surveys of scores of people have not turned up anyone who noticed it or mentally objected to it. The ad. was given saturation coverage initially and is now repeated just occasionally in order to tap in to the subconscious acceptance gained earlier.
There are many others like it.
Parents can do their children a great favour by teaching them to recognize the absurdity in TV ads; it will protect them against the excesses of the consumer society.
Back to Mr Brown. Like a good hypnotist, he keeps reinforcing his influence by dropping in superfluous nonsense. Here are just a few of the many, many examples, with chapter and page number for those reading the hard cover book:
. (6/33) The exact length .. was around 1500 feet. Equally breathtaking was the corridor’s width, which could have accommodated a pair of side-by-side passenger trains. (Two side-by-side passenger trains are not even wide, much less breathtaking.)
. (8/47) attended mass and confession – far more than the requisite holiday attendance.
. (13/68) The ‘hero’ is given star-
tling information. “In his wildest dreams, Langdon couldn’t fathom why.”
■ (17/82) A tracking device suddenly changed location and, instead of accepting that the thing had been thrown out of the window, an experienced policeman believed that the hero had done a standing long jump of 10 yards (greater by far than the world record for a running long jump) from 40 feet up on a window ledge.
■ (22/107) .. (he) would soon be in possession of something that would make him the most powerful man in Christendom.
■ (22/113) …an ancient secret. One that made them immeasurably powerful. (33/145) A secret of incredible power.
■ (40/168-69) The Holy Grail is believed to have been hidden in England since at least 1500. The last grail sighting was in 1447 when numerous eyewitnesses described a fire that had broken out and almost engulfed the documents before they were carried to safety in huge chests that each required six men to carry. (And we’re not even told where it was!)
■ (55/234) The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s. (It is so commonly known that they were found in 1947 and don’t mention Jesus that the “error” confirms both the hypnosis and the fictional nature of the book.)
This pattern of absurdly unbe-
lievable statements and events is consistent throughout the book. Not least of them is the accumulated list of things done by a 76year-old man who has been shot in the stomach and has at most 15 minutes to live.
To make the contest appear a little more even, it is said (fictionally, of course) that the idea of Jesus being divine was introduced by the emperor Constantine in 325, along with Sunday worship and a variety of other things taken from pagan sun worship. For the same reason, Mary, the Mother of Jesus is ignored.
Since the book is, by its own declaration, entirely fictitious, what purpose might it serve, apart from making Mr Brown and his publisher rich?
Well, it might be the ultimate proof that G.K.Chesterton was right when he said that when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe nothing; they believe anything.
It is more likely, however, that it will serve some useful purpose by confirming in the present day Chesterton’s observation that what drew him to the Catholic Church was that her critics could not agree among themselves and were wildly inaccurate or inadequate in their facts. The Church was guilty either because she did something, or didn’t do it; was something, or was not that thing; taught something, or did not teach it.
Dan Brown’s account of early Christianity, the nature of Jesus, the meaning and practice of the ‘sacred feminine’, and anything else to do with the moral and spiritual life of the human person confirms that all of these choices instead of the Church’s teaching are very short change indeed.
The contest for ideas and loyalty is broad, but is basically between a mortal Jesus with the ‘sacred feminine’ represented by Mary Magdalene and her child, and a divine Jesus, represented by a ‘patriarchal’ Catholic Church.
To make the contest appear a little more even, it is said (fictionally, of course) that the idea of Jesus being divine was introduced by the emperor Constantine in 325, along with Sunday worship and a variety of other things taken from pagan sun worship. For the same reason, Mary, the Mother
of Jesus is ignored. What does the ‘sacred feminine’ mystery offer us? Firstly, it offers us royal blood – a royal bloodline stretching from Jesus’ and Mary Magdalene’s child (Sarah) through 2000 years to the present day. Wow! Even among the most ardent royalists, does anyone actually believe that there is ‘royal blood’ that somehow makes some people different from the rest of humanity?
In the case of the mortal Jesus, it survived about 900 years from David and almost 2000 years from Jesus and today we are supposed to fall down in awe and wonder in the face of ‘royal blood’. For those who wonder about the importance of Jesus’ being the Son of David it is because ‘David’ means ‘my beloved’ (ie. God’s beloved). It is this spiritual inheritance - confirmed at Jesus’ baptism and elsewhere - that is real.
The hypnosis continues, by the way. We are told (60/255) “Countless scholars of that era chronicled Mary Magdalene’s days in France, including the birth of Sarah and the subsequent family tree.” Countless scholars … and yet it all remained a secret?
What does the ‘sacred feminine’ offer at the spiritual level? Not much and it’s all for men.
According to chapter 74 (there are 105 chapters) if the union of man and woman was really spiritual, there is a split second at the end of intercourse when a man’s mind goes blank and he can “see God”. Women, it seems, don’t experience this vision, but perhaps they don’t need to because they are already gods, a status that belongs to them because they can produce babies. This was a Gnostic belief, but unfortunately the Gnostics believed that only the spirit was good while matter was bad – which was rather bad luck for babies then and still is today.
This view was shared by other early heretics such as the Montanists and Manichees, both of whom appeared long before Constantine was supposed (by Brown) to have introduced the word and the idea of heresy.
Brown fictionalizes all of this by saying the Church “worked hard to demonize sex and recast it as a disgusting and sinful act”.
In fact, it was the Church that fought vigorously to stamp out such notions and still does to this day to preserve the unity of man and woman in marriage, and the sanctity of every human life.
The Catholic view of marriage far surpasses any attempt by ancient cults to ‘sanctify’ sexual rites for the elite while ignoring the lives of the vast majority of people. Catholic marriage brings two people, made equally in the image and likeness of God (no royal blood needed), to a union in which the two become one flesh. It is celebrated in the sexual union and sanctified in the fidelity in which
husband and wife unite their lives in service of one another and the children they produce in their love. It is the experience of countless married couples around the globe, not merely of delusional elites.
God himself compares his love for humanity to the love of husband and wife, and their union with one another leads them ever closer to union with God. That is a spirituality not approached by any of the historical or present day alternatives. Chesterton saw that, and it appears that Dan Brown does, too, in his own way.
Likewise, the notion of a merely mortal Jesus offers nothing in the spiritual realm. According to the fiction (55/233-34), the idea of Jesus being divine was not even thought of until the Council of Nicea (325) when Constantine imposed it. Until that point, everyone knew he was a great and powerful man and he inspired millions to better lives.
In fact, the divinity of Jesus was the foundation of the Church, not a later addition. It was evident in the events surrounding the birth of Jesus (and John the Baptist).
It was evident at Jesus’ baptism by John when the Blessed Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) were simultaneously revealed.
It was evident in Jesus’ teaching when he took the most significant events of the Old Testament and extended them in his own life:
■ He told them ‘before Abraham was made, I am’ (I am is the name God used to identify himself when talking to Moses).
■ Through the Prophet Ezekiel God told the Jews that because their shepherds had failed them ‘I myself will shepherd you…’ Jesus told the Jews ‘I am the good shepherd.’
■ Moses foretold a greater one than himself, and Jesus said his gift (his flesh to eat and his blood to drink) would be far greater than Moses’ gift of manna in the desert. He had more authority than Moses: ‘because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed you to divorce, but I say to you that in the beginning it was not so; what God has joined man must not put asunder.
■ Jacob earned the name Israel (one who sees God) because he saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder. Jesus told Nathaniel (‘a true Israelite without guile’) that he would see the heavens opened and angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (the title used in the book of Daniel for the one to whom all power and dominion were given).
■ The Jews had a king (the way authority was exercised), prophets (those who spoke the truth of God) and priests (the centre of the spiritual life of the people). Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’
■ Jesus said, ‘I and the Father are one.’ ‘If you have seen me you have seen the Father.’ And many other things like that.
Then there were his extraordinary miracles, his resurrection, and the Eucharist in which he gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink for all time. Anyone who wants to believe that he is not God, as he said he was, would have to believe not that he was a great teacher, but that he was a dangerous megalomaniac.
Without waiting for Constantine, Christians gathered on the first day of the week, not merely to remember his wise teachings but to worship this divine and human Saviour.
In about 155, St Justin, who was later martyred, wrote to the pagan emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) to explain to him what Christians did. Among other things he wrote:
“On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city and country gather in the same place. The memories of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read.” Then they move on to the Eucharist: …(the presider) “offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit….” Clearly, it was the belief of the Church contained in the prayers of the Church that Jesus was divine, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Not everyone easily grasped the combination of a divine and human nature in Jesus. Some argued that he was really God, but not really man; and some argued that he was really man, but not really God, but rather God in a subsidiary or secondary way. Sometimes it was just an inadequate way of expressing the mystery in words, and sometimes it was out-and-out heresy in which people insisted that their concept was the truth and refused to accept the authority of the bishops who said it wasn’t. These debates and heresies went on for two centuries before the Council of Nicea (and some continued afterwards).
Nicea did not create the Church’s belief. It found a verbal formula that safely expressed the belief, and that could only safely be interpreted as expressing the true belief, not any variations that some might want to construe.
It was this belief in the divinity of Jesus – and the personal relationship that individuals could develop with the risen Lord – that inspired countless thousands of early Christians to give their lives in martyrdom rather than deny Jesus and his Church. No amount of admiration for a mere mortal teacher has ever inspired this sort of devotion and courage.
The great absence from the Da Vinci Code, a book allegedly about the sacred feminine, is Mary the Mother of Jesus. If Jesus were only a mortal teacher, surely his mother would be at least as important as the mother of his child. Surely the pregnant Mary Magdalene would have accompanied Mary (to Ephesus) or, so devoted a mother
as Mary would have accompanied her daughter-in-law and expected grandchild to France. Indeed, Mary also had ‘royal blood’, so why the silence?
Once again, the fiction highlights the vastly greater benefits offered by the Church in the reality of Jesus. In his divinity, Mary accepted the role of spiritual mother of all his people. And what extraordinary blessings they have produced for mankind, and especially for women.
On every continent, in every corner of the globe and in every century, betrothed to Jesus and as the children of Mary in the community of the Church, hundreds of thousands of women have, for the first time in history, been free to abandon all other social expectations of them and choose to dedicate themselves to a spiritual life. Their dedication has expressed itself in many forms – contemplatives, anchorites, nurses, teachers, hospitallers in the true sense of hospitality, and whatever other service to God and neighbour their times and circumstances moved them to. The real
Mary Magdalene, of course, is one of them.
Once again, the fiction highlights the vastly greater benefits offered by the Church in the reality of Jesus. In his divinity, Mary accepted the role of spiritual mother of all his people.
And what extraordinary blessings they have produced for
mankind,
and especially for women.
Even a fragmentary reading of the lives of these extraordinary individuals and groups reveals the sacred feminine alive and flourishing, without any need for secret cults, esoteric elites and weird rituals. They have deep personal relationships with the divine Jesus
– no ‘split second’ seeing of God for them.
And the blessings are not limited to women. Jesus and Mary inspire hundreds of thousands of men to lives given to the service of the feminine values of life, the future and the other, instead of power, wealth and war.
The pages of history and of the present day swarm with these vital men and women who carry the goodness of God with them wherever they go. The miracles associated with many of them in this life and even more so after their death are incontrovertible evidence that they have followed the way of life that truly links the human spirit with the ultimate being, Almighty God.
The comparison between The Da Vinci Code and the reality of spiritual and religious life as lived in the Catholic Church for 2000 years leaves even Chesterton’s astute observations in the shade. One can only hope that Dan Brown and his editor “truly understand what this book is all about”.
Pope John Paul II called on Catholic and government leaders in Angola to promote sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage to combat the alarming spread of AIDS in the country in the two years since Angola’s civil war ended. “True love is a chaste love, and chastity offers a solid hope for overcoming the forces that threaten the institution of the family and, at the same time, for liberating humanity from the devastating plague of AIDS,” the Pope said on Oct. 22 in a message to the bishops of Angola and Sao Tome and Principe, an island nation off Africa’s west coast. The bishops were in Rome for their ad limina visits, which bishops make every five years to report on the status of their dioceses. Angola has one of the lowest rates of HIV/AIDS infection in southern Africa, with between 5 percent and 7 percent of its 14.3 million people believed to be infected. But in early October, the country’s health minister said there had been “an exponential rise” in infection rates since the civil war ended in 2002; an influx of foreign visitors and greater ease of travel within Angola are cited as factors contributing to the spread of the virus.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a nationwide ad campaign in support of adult stem-cell research, with the theme “Let’s find cures we can all live with.” Two ads developed on that theme were to appear in USA Today, The Washington Times and National Catholic Reporter in the two weeks leading up to the November 2 election. The ads also were sent to U.S. dioceses for use in local publications. The first ad pictures a baby and says, “Only 270 days ago, Joshua was just an embryo.” The second depicts a grizzled miner who says, “They tell me I may hold the cure for Parkinson’s.” The second ad says, “Embryonic stem cells have been hyped. But it’s the adult stem cells that are showing hope.”
Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information for the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, said in a statement announcing the launch of the ads that stemcell research “is one of the most important moral issues of our day, but it is also one of the most distorted.”
Every dog has its day, but monks say time’s up for Saint Bernards
By Jonathan LuxmooreSwiss officials have urged Augustinian monks at the world’s highest church to reconsider plans to sell their Saint Bernard mountain dogs.
“We just can’t understand it,” said Barbara Ziegler, director of the tourist office in nearby Martigny. “These dogs are the monastery’s major source of revenue. We can’t see any reason for selling them.”
The Canons of the Great St. Bernard plan to auction the dogs, who became famous for saving stranded travellers in the stormy Great St. Bernard Pass, near the monks’ mountaintop hostel.
A monastery spokeswoman defended the decision and said the congregation’s current 34 dogs had served their purpose.
The spokeswoman, Beatrice Troillet, a member of the Swiss Saint Bernard Association, told Catholic News Service in an Oct. 19 telephone interview that male Saint Bernards, weighing up to 100 kgs, consumed 2 kgs of meat daily and were a major expense in time and money to the monastery.
She added that the congregation of Canons could barely cope with other tasks, which include running a boys’ boarding school and welcoming more than 50,000 visitors annually.
“Since people aren’t interested in becoming monks anymore, they’re overstretched,” the spokeswoman said.
“They shouldn’t be expected to look after dogs when they have important pastoral duties to fulfil.”
“The last time these dogs rescued anyone was more than 30 years ago,” she added.
For centuries the hostel, 2400 metres above sea level, has offered food and accommodation to travellers crossing the Alps from nearby Italy.
In the late 17th century, the Augustinian monks began training mountain dogs, who became legendary for rescue feats in the pass, which has wind and snow for 245 days of the year.
One of five monks still living at the hostel, Brother Frederic said the dogs had ceased to be useful after the arrival of mountain-rescue helicopters in 1955 and had been replaced by quicker, lighter-footed German shepherds and golden retriev-
ers. However, the decision to sell the Saint Bernards was criticized as callous by inhabitants of the St. Bernard Valley, who said it would muzzle a 300year tradition and damage local commerce.
“We know they haven’t been used in winter for a long time,” Ziegler said in a phone interview. “But to say they’re too expensive is laughable, when almost all the monastery’s income comes from the dogs. There’s a very good museum there, which is included in the entrance ticket.
But they don’t seem to realise that people come to see the
dogs, not the monks.”
The high-stamina, diseaseresistant Saint Bernard could find tracks and smell buried avalanche victims.
The most renowned canine, Barry, is said to have rescued more than 40 travellers in the early 1800s. At least one Saint Bernard is always named Barry in honour of the four-pawed hero.
Troillet said efforts would be made to keep the older dogs together and to encourage a new owner to bring them back to the hostel each summer for tourists to see - but at the owner’s expense. - CNS
The world’s population policies should encourage and enable married couples to exercise “a responsible kind of personal liberty” when they decide to become parents, the Vatican said in a statement delivered to the UN General Assembly in New York.
“The duty to safeguard the family demands that special attention be given to securing for husband and wife the liberty to decide responsibly, free from all social or legal coercion, the number of children they will have and the spacing of their births,” it said.
Msgr. Reuben Dimaculangan, first counsellor of the Vatican’s U.N. mission, delivered the statement on October 14 to a session of the General Assembly that
was reviewing the 1994 U.N. conference on population and development in Cairo, Egypt, in connection with the 10th anniversary of the meeting.
The priest was acting on behalf of the nuncio, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who was out of town.
“Responsible parenthood is not a question of unlimited procreation or a lack of awareness of what is involved in rearing children, but it also involves the right of parents to use their liberty wisely,” Msgr. Dimaculangan said.
The role of governments and other agencies, he said, is to “help create the social conditions that will enable couples themselves to make appropriate decisions.”
Couples who decide to have large families “deserve to be supported,” he said.
During what was a contentious conference in Cairo, Vatican
representatives argued that many participants were giving undue attention to population issues, particularly questions of “reproductive health,” and shortchanging other matters essential for development. The Holy See, which holds U.N. permanent observer status, successfully fought to exclude abortion as a method of birth control in the final plan of action.
Msgr. Dimaculangan said that “all proper concerns about human population are inextricably connected with the development and flourishing of every human being.”
Human development “must be integral,” and should not be regarded merely as the accumulation of wealth or provision of more goods and services, he said.
“Development programs must respect the cultural heritage of peoples and nations, foster structures of participation and shared
responsibility and empower our human capacity so that each one of us can become the person he or she was created to be,” the Vatican representative said.
Msgr. Dimaculangan recalled that “an important milestone” of the Cairo conference was recognition of the link between migration and development. Although “migrants are now seen as pro active agents of development,” governments should now concentrate more on “creating jobs where people live,” he said.
One of the disputed issues at Cairo and other U.N. gatherings has been the provision of “reproductive health” services, including contraceptives, to adolescents. Also often discussed is the role of parents as guides for their children. In an allusion to this issue, Msgr. Dimaculangan said that parents “above all” must accept their “responsibility to lead young people to a deeper understanding of their own dignity.”
Catholic pharmacist refuses to cooperate in dispensing contraceptive
By Justin DziowgoNeil Noesen, a Wisconsin Catholic pharmacist, could be fined and possibly lose his pharmacist’s licence for refusing to provide artificial contraceptives to a college student.
The 30-year-old pharmacist said he has been clear with his employer that he will not dispense prescriptions for artificial contraceptives when those drugs are to be used for inhibiting conception.
And, he said, he has a letter on file to that effect.
In July 2002, according to the complaint against him, Noesen refused to dispense a prescription for a hormonal contraceptive to Amanda Phiede, then a student at the University of Wisconsin in Stout. She went to the pharmacy at the Kmart in Menomonie, where he was filling in as an independent pharmacist.
According to testimony given during an October 11-12 disciplinary hearing, Noesen, the only pharmacist on duty at the store at the time, asked the student if the prescription would be used for contraception, then refused to refill it when she said it would
be used for that. He also refused a Wal-Mart pharmacist’s request to transfer the prescription.
Wisconsin’s Department of Regulation and Licensing accused
Noesen of unprofessional conduct for failing to refill Phiede’s prescription or to transfer it to someone else to have it refilled.
A ruling in the case is expected
Catholic Web movement founder says he’ll take abortionists to court
By Julius PurcellF or several years, Josep Miro Ardevol has been saying there is an illegal abortion racket in Barcelona.
Now, the founder of a Catholic Web-based movement, E-cristians.net, says he will use information from a British newspaper investigation to try to take the abortionists to court.
On October 10, the London newspaper TheSundayTelegraph reported that a Barcelona clinic, Ginemedex, was performing abortions up to 30 weeks into a pregnancy. It reported that a pregnancy advisory agency in Britain was telling women to contact Ginemedex if they wanted a late-term abortion. The legal limit for a woman to choose abortion in Britain is 24 weeks.
When a reporter who was 26 weeks pregnant went to Ginemedex, doctors at the Spanish clinic said they could abort her perfectly healthy fetus.
The Sunday Telegraph also claimed that, while being secretly recorded, the doctors explained how they could “falsify documents” to justify the termination on the grounds of a “gynaecological emergency” that threatened the mother’s health.
The reporter -- who had no
intention of having an abortionwas quoted a fee of $4,033 for the operation. Spain’s abortion laws are much stricter than those in Britain. Under the current law, Spanish women do not have a right to abortion on demand at any stage in pregnancy.
A pregnancy can be terminated in Spain in cases involving rape, a deformed fetus or if the mother is at risk psychologically. All of these factors have time limits that range from 12 to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
However, a fourth category, grave physical danger to the mother, has no set limit. Antiabortion groups such as Miro’s E-cristians believe this last factor is being exploited by clinics.
According to figures published by Spain’s Health Ministry, more than 96 percent of abortions carried out in 2002 were because the mother’s health was in danger, compared to just over 3 percent because of fetal deformity.
Miro said that The Sunday Telegraph is sending E-cristians video and audio material from its report, so that the Spanish group can initiate a case against Ginemedex’s owners.
E-cristians intends to send two reports alleging criminal activity, one to a magistrate and one to a public prosecutor. Under Spanish law, individuals can initiate prosecution either by a report describing the alleged crime or a more formal lawsuit.
at the end of November.
At the hearing, the pharmacist defended his conscientious objection to dispensing the drugs.
In her testimony, Phiede said she returned to Kmart the next day with police and the store manager called the pharmacy director, who was out of town but who filled her prescription when he returned the following day.
Prosecuting attorney John Zwieg said Noesen’s refusal to transfer the student’s prescription order “engaged in a pharmacy practice which constitutes a danger to the health, welfare or safety of a patient in a manner which substantially departs from the standard of care ordinarily exercised by a pharmacist and which could have harmed a patient.”
Zwieg said that Noesen’s letter on file with his employer stating his objection to dispensing contraceptives does not make it clear he also would not transfer such a prescription.
Noesen said his letter says he would not “aid in any way” in the dispensing of contraceptives, and that his wording covers “transfer” of such a prescription.
He said his conscientious objection to participating in contraception is a First Amendment right, and that he believes the state cannot coerce him to abandon his conscience.
The prosecution argued that contraception is a matter of health care between doctor and patient.
During the hearing, Father Kevin Gordon, vicar of clergy for the Diocese of Superior, testified about church teaching regarding contraception and conscience.
Representing Noesen is Steve Aden, a lawyer from the Christian Legal Society’s Centre for Law and Religious Freedom in Annandale, Virginia.
He said the case was about “the right of any pharmacist to follow his conscience in participating in certain forms of medical care.”
“My belief is that this is a political vendetta that elevates the concept of reproductive rights over the religious rights of health care providers,” Aden told The Catholic Herald , diocesan newspaper of Madison, during a hearing recess.
The Reproductive Rights Task Force of the Wisconsin Women’s Network - which includes such organizations as Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League - said in a statement that “giving pharmacists the right to deny a patient’s access to their doctor-prescribed birth control is not just wrong, it’s dangerous for the women of Wisconsin.”
-CNS
“We are using both routes, because this absolutely has to work,” Miro said.
In 2002, the Spanish news magazine Epocapublished transcripts in which Ginemedex assured an undercover reporter in a telephone call that it could abort a 28-week old fetus. An investigation was launched by the Catalan department of health, which temporarily withdrew Ginemedex’s abortion licence.
Last fall, E-cristians used its Web platform to campaign vigorously against a conference in Barcelona organized by the Morin Foundation, whose founder, Carlos Morin, owns Ginemedex and other Spanish abortion clinics.
E-cristians alleges that the organizers of the International Symposium of Reproductive Health had promised demonstrations of “hands-on procedures” in their publicity material. Miro’s organization says that up to 50 fetuses were aborted in the course of the conference, which was attended by more than 200 medical professionals from around the world.
Symposium organizers denied the allegations.
In terms of Europe, Spain still carries out relatively few abortions: 12 per 1,000 pregnancies. This compares to 20 per 1,000 in England and Wales and 21 per 1,000 in Italy.
AVatican-Jewish communique calling for respect of Jerusalem’s sacred character could open the door to interfaith action against an international gay pride parade planned for the city next year.
Jerusalem WorldPride 2005, scheduled for August, is being billed by its organizers as the largest gay event ever held in the Holy Land. The last such parade was held in Rome during Holy Year 2000, and it was denounced by church leaders as a sacrilegious affront.
Sources told Catholic News Service that the issue was discussed at an October 17-19 meeting of a dialogue committee sponsored by the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
A final statement published by the group cited Jerusalem’s sacred character and said: “We call on all relevant authorities to respect this character and to prevent actions which offend the sensibilities of religious communities that reside in Jerusalem and hold her dear.”
Officials said the gay pride parade was seen as an issue that could stimulate active cooperation among Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders of Jerusalem.
Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to Israel and a
participant in the dialogue, said he expected concerted efforts to curb or even halt the event because “it offends the religious sensibilities of all three religions.”
Whether the parade can be stopped or not depends on “the relevant authorities” in Jerusalem, Archbishop Sambi said.
“But don’t forget that the mayor of Jerusalem is an ultraOrthodox Jew,” he added.
Rabbi David Rosen, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski “certainly wants to stop (the parade), but politically he is under a lot of pressure not to.”
Rabbi Rosen said Lupolianski and Jewish religious figures close to him had let it be known that, with support from Christian and Muslim groups, they would be in a much stronger position to halt the parade. This is basically an invitation to an interreligious initiative, Rabbi Rosen said.
Rabbi Rosen, who also participated in the October meeting in Rome, said the latest Vatican-Jewish statement would probably prompt some concrete interfaith proposals in Jerusalem.
Reviewed by
Harry Forbes - CNSRemakes of foreign films are often a dicey proposition, so it's a pleasure to report that Peter Chelsom's "Shall We Dance?" (Miramax), derived from the 1996 Japanese sleeper hit by Masayuki Suo, is a distinct pleasure.
Lawyer John Clark (Richard Gere), married to loving but busy wife Beverly (Susan Sarandon) with typically preoccupied teenage children, finds himself in a midlife rut. He writes wills all day long, and makes the same dull commute home each night on Chicago's "L" train. From his vantage point in the train window, he notices the neon lights of Miss Mitzi's Ballroom Dance School, and an attractive woman (Jennifer Lopez) looking sadly out the window.
One night, he impulsively disembarks, walks into the studio, and signs up for lessons. He's hoping the beautiful Paulina (Lopez) will be the teacher, but no, it's the over-the-hill Miss Mitzi herself (Broadway veteran Anita Gillette), with a fondness for the occasional nip from a bottle, who puts John and his two comrades -- Chic (Bobby Cannavale), a suspiciously homophobic macho man, and Vern (Omar Miller), a heavyset black guy who learns to dance with surprising grace -- through their paces.
Chic claims he's there because women think men who can dance are good lovers, and Vern asserts he's learning how to dance so he can dance at his wedding.
John admires Paulina from afar, and one night, when they leave together, he invites her for Chinese food. She refuses, saying she doesn't socialize
with students, and if he signed up for lessons just to put a move on her, he can just forget it. Hurt by this rebuff, John is conflicted about returning to class. But a chance encounter with his son, who brings him to a disco where he sees the young crowd dancing, helps change his mind, and he runs back to the studio to rejoin the class.
Other colourful characters at the studio include Bobbie (Lisa Ann Walter), a blowsy blonde training for a championship, and a wild wig-bedecked guy (Stanley Tucci), whom John recognizes as the bald Link Peterson from his office, also dancing in secret.
Bobbie and dance partner Link eventually have a falling out, and it is decided that John will be Bobbie's partner for the non-Latin dances, though Bobbie reluctantly agrees that Link can still be her partner on the Latin dances.
Beverly meanwhile wonders why John is keeping such long hours, and when she catches him in a lie about working late she hires a private investigator (Richard Jenkins) and trusty sidekick Scotty (Nick Cannon), who eventually inform her that John is not having an affair, but simply taking dance lessons.
Puzzled but intrigued at this new interest of a man they thought they knew so well, Beverly and their daughter secretly turn up at the big dance competition, and observe their husband and father, John, cutting the rug spectacularly.
Gere has never been more appealing as this man facing a midlife crisis, and his dancing, both in the studio and in the big competition, is a pleasure to watch.
The stunning Lopez is quite sympathetic as the dance teacher recovering from a lost match at the Blackpool
World Championship competition in England, where she lost both the match and her boyfriend, and of course, her dancing is splendid. Gere's and Lopez's dance sequences -- together and singly -- are among the film's highlights.
The other parts are well done, too. Tucci is a riot as the closeted ballroom dancer, who finally unmasks. Walter comes across as annoyingly strident at first, but softens as the film progresses.
And it's great to see Gillette get such a plum role at this stage in her career. Cannavale and Miller provide more comic relief.
Yes, much of this is predictable, and some might find the plot overly saccharine not to mention unbelievable, but, a few cheap laughs notwithstanding, most will be charmed by the genuine sweetness of the story.
It's to the film's credit that the expected romance between John and Paulina never blossoms into more than understated empathy -- as it would in the usual Hollywood film -- and that John's bond with Beverly remains strong throughout.
The philosophical underpinning of the film's ending, which we won't spoil, is morally sound, and a strong validation of marriage.
As a story about realizing one's dreams and forming and maintaining good relationships, "Shall We Dance?" is first-rate. This isn't the first film to show ordinary folk liberated by the power of dance (think "Stepping Out" and even "The Full Monty.") But this is an old-fashioned romance of the best kind, slightly formulaic to be sure, but a real feel-good film with heart.
Because of a few instances of rough and crass language, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults.
A "courageous book" in which the author "has looked into her own being," is how Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro Valls describes the volume in which a Vaticanist tells of her conversion.
"With New Eyes: Story of My Conversion," by journalist Alessandra Borghese, was recently published by Piemme in Italy, and was presented last Wednesday in Rome in the Palazzo Ruspoli.
"This account of Alessandra has the rare quality of being a true story," Vatican spokesman Navarro Valls said at the meeting.
"There was a time, I am referring to England in the Victorian age, when to speak of the human body and its functions, including in literature, was inappropriate and indecent," he said.
"Today there is a new taboo: to speak of one's soul. Because of this silence on the soul, modern life is ever more impersonal and superficial," Navarro Valls noted.
In his opinion, "'With New Eyes' is a courageous book in this sense. The author has wished to look into the depths of her own being. “And the human being is problematic for himself if he does not encounter God."
"In her pages she often refers to the topic of 'trusting' in God, which is something more than simple believing. To trust implies abandonment in the hands of someone who is the ultimate end of my existence," Navarro Valls added.
"To trust God is to grow in faith," added the former president of Italy, Francesco Cossiga.
But "the concept of faith is different from that of religion," he said. "The Greeks and Romans were also religious. To believe in God is an act of will, not of intelligence."
Borghese, who works for the weekly Panorama, also writes for Tempo and Newsweek.
"Why did I write this book?" she asked. "When a person encounters Jesus Christ through evangelical reflection, through the Eucharist and so many other experiences, his life can change enormously."
"On the external plane, my life hasn't changed much," Borghese said. "I continue to do the same things I did before, the same activities. But I live my life with new eyes. And I have not been able to keep this most beautiful experience to myself. So I have wished to use what little talent I have in writing to share my experience with all of you."
A descendant of the old Roman aristocracy, Alessandra Borghese gives testimony in 174 pages of her journey in faith, which began with her friendship with Leonardo Mondadori, who introduced her to Opus Dei.
That was the period of her conversion, with which the book begins. The author got to know better the personalities of the Church in Italy and the Vatican, entering finally in the world of journalism, when she was asked to be the Vaticanist for the weekly Panorama.
Acknowledging the literary quality of the new volume, Francesco Cossiga referred to the "courageous confessions" it contains, which are not spoiled by the "pride of virtue" that characterizes the Pharisees.
"A Catholic sinner is infinitely more holy than a proud Catholic," he added.
- ZENITBUILDING TRADES
BRICK re-pointing. Phone Nigel 9242 2952
ELECTRICIAN, Power/ light points from $50 each. Rewiring our speciality. 0418 941 286, 9279 5008.
PERROTT PAINTING Pty
Ltd for all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 9444 1200.
PICASSO Painting. Top service. Phone 9345 0557, fax 9345 0505.
RETAILER of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for baptism, communion and confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777.
Shop 12A, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat
APARACIDA’S CAFE EMPORIUM , Delicious meals, unique giftware for all occasions. Regualr workshops and seminars, catering for office and other groups, giftware for schools, parishes, individuals. Ph: 9470 1423, 0414 624 580, email: aparacidas@myaccess. com.au See ad page 5
BIBLES , Books, CD’s, Cards, gifts, Statues, Baptism & Communion Apparel, Albs, Vestments and much more. RICH
Sunday October 31 ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION
NETWORK
5pm (Latin).
Friday November 5
CONCERT SPECIAL
CATHOLIC looking to invest in existing business as a working partner, $100k - $300k. Please call John 0422 751 406.
I like to thank God, Our Lady, The Holy Face of Jesus, Our Lady of the Revelation, for favours granted. I was very ill and prayed to them and God heard my prayers. Thank you Lord and all. C.G.
1 - 2pm on Access 31 Year of the Holy Eucharist: Fr Francis Mary Stone, with three priests, discusses the potential impact of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament on the Church and on the world (Life on the Rock Series). This is a dynamic program for youth, and a must see for all the family. The following week we plan to present means of helping the Holy Souls with our prayers. Please send donations and comments to Rosary Christian Tutorial Association, PO Box 1270, Booragoon 6954. Enquiries about availability of videos: 9330 1170.
The Chisholm College Concert Band, the a cappella Sing from the Heart Choir and College Show Band are performing at the invitation of the Corpus Christi Parish Myaree Projects Committee. Door prize. Raffle of a DVD. Venue: Palmyra Uniting Church Hall, cnr Canning Hwy and Carrington St. Performance commences at 7.30pm. Tickets available. Ring 9330 3310 for bookings.
homeschool conference at Holy Name Church Hall, Carlisle from 9.30am – 3pm. Fr Don Kettle will open the day with a talk on Catholic Youth Ministry and how youth can take up the Faith as their own. Highschool issues will be a focus. Enq: Lorraine 9446 9682.
Saturday November 6 CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC RENEWAL DAY
Community is presenting a Healing Retreat entitled, Christ the King our Healing Lord. All welcome. Enq: Meryl Giumelli 9772 1172.
Sunday November 28
CHRISTMAS ADVENT
PILGRIMAGE
HARVEST, 39 Hulme Court, Myaree, 9329 9889 after 10.30am. VOLUNTEERS
Sunday October 31
GATE OF HEAVEN
Please join us this Sunday at 7:30pm on 107.9 FM, Radio Fremantle, for more Global Catholic Radio. This week we will feature: (1) Council of Faith: Christus Dominus from Vatican II Documents with Trigilio. (2) The Teachings of Jesus Christ: The Ninth & Tenth Commandments with Fr John Corapi. Donations toward the program may be sent to Gate of Heaven, PO Box 845, Claremont, WA 6910. Programs subject to change without notice.
Monday November 1
ANNUAL MASS
Honour the saints with your presence for the Annual Mass honouring them in Perth. Celebrate the Feast of All Saints with Archbishop Hickey, celebrant at 12.10 Mass, All Saints Chapel, 77 Allendale Square, St George's Tce, Perth. Plan to visit All Saints Chapel each weekday you are in Perth. Let the peace of the Chapel surround you, let the hurry and worry of your cares be left with the Lord. Open Monday through Friday 8am to 4pm. Give yourself time for the Lord. Visit with Him.
Monday November 1
SUNG LATIN MASS
ALBANY , neat two bedroom unit in small group of six. Fresh paint and new curtains. Bath, blt in robes, suit older person. Small suitable pet considered. $140 pw call 9844 3319 or mob0418 611 779
URGENT Pregnancy
Ph: 9328 2929
Wanted: Manager/s for Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne
The committee is seeking a live in Catholic couple (or single) for everyday management and running of this Pallottine Centre. Some experience in basic hospitality and catering would be an advantage. Accommodation supplied and small remuneration to be negotiated.
Enquiries to Denise 9354 0200. Applications close Tuesday November 30.
Apply to: President, Epiphany Retreat Centre, 60 Fifth Avenue, Rossmoyne. 6148
All Saints Day 1.10pm Low Mass and 6.30pm Sung Mass, at St John’s Pro-Cathedral, Victoria Ave, Perth. Enq: Fr Michael Rowe 9444 9604. All welcome
Tuesday November 2
SUNG LATIN MASS
All Souls Day 10am and 1.10pm, Low Masses at St John’s ProCathedral. 5pm Sung Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral. All welcome. Enq: Fr Michael Rowe 9444 9604.
Tuesday November 2
NOVENA OF MASSES
Will be said with the intention for the Holy Souls in St Mary’s Cathedral on All Souls Day. Mass will be said at: 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, 11am, 12.10pm, 2pm, 3pm,
Friday November 5
PRO-LIFE PROCESSION –MIDLAND
The First Friday Mass, procession and rosary vigil will commence at 9.30am with Mass celebrated at St Brigid’s Church, Midland. The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate will lead us. All are invited to witness for the sanctity of life and pray for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.
Saturday November 6
WITNESS FOR LIFE PROCESSION
The next First Saturday Mass, procession and rosary vigil will commence with Mass at 8.30am at St Anne’s Church, Hehir St, Belmont. We proceed prayerfully to the Rivervale Abortion Centre and conclude with rosary. Led by Fr Paul Carey SSC. Please join us to pray peacefully for the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.
Saturday November 6
DAY WITH MARY
St Brigid Church, 211 Aberdeen St Perth 9am – 5pm. A video on Fatima will be shown at 9am. A day of prayers and instruction based upon the messages of Fatima. Includes Sacrament of Penance, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. Please BYO. Enq: Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate 9384 3311.
Saturday November 6
THE LEGION OF MARY ANNUAL MASS
To celebrate the Life of Frank Duff will be held at the Redemptorist Monastery Chapel at 2pm. All members, Active and Auxiliary and their families and friends are invited to attend. A special invitation is offered to all Spiritual Directors and other Priests who would like to concelebrate the Mass with Rev Fr Jim Shelton.
Saturday November 6 CATHOLIC HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE
All welcome to attend our annual
L J Goody Bioethics Centre 39 Jugan St, Glendalough. The day includes Prayer & Praise, inspirational talks, sharing and the opportunity for prayer support, with great fellowship besides. Tea & coffee served from 9.40am, official start 10am. The day concludes at 4pm. Please bring a plate for a shared lunch. All are most welcome! Enq: Pam 9381 2516 or Dan 9398 4973.
Sunday November 7
DIVINE MERCY
Fr Douglas Hoare & the Santa Clara Parish Community welcome anyone from surrounding Parishes & beyond to the Santa Clara Church cnr Coolgardie & Pollock Sts, Bentley at 3pm on the first Sunday of each month for devotion in honour of The Divine Mercy. Commencing with 3 o’clock prayer, Divine Mercy Chaplet, reflection and concludes with Benediction. Special Graces are afforded to all who participate.
Sunday November 7 DIVINE MERCY
An afternoon with Jesus and Mary at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Square, Perth at 1.30pm. Holy rosary and reconciliation. Sermon with Fr John Joseph Mary FFI (All Saints & Holy Souls) followed by Divine Mercy prayers and benediction. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.
Saturday November 13 ANNUAL HOLY MASS
At the grotto of Richard & Judy Priestly’s farm will commence at 10.30am. BBQ meat will be provided. Please bring a chair and a hat. Directions: take Great Eastern Hway to El Cabello Blanco & turn south into Warin Rd & go 1.8km & turn left into Chinganning Rd & go 2.2km. Enq: 9450 2749.
Wednesday November 17 & 18 EVENINGS OF RETREAT
American Conventual Franciscan Fr Patrick Greenough OFM (Conv) will lead Marian evenings of retreat at Isaia House of Prayer, 18 Teague St, Burswood at 7.30pm. Phone 9444 0352 for reservations. Entry by donation.
Friday November 19-21
HEALING RETREAT
The Holy Spirit of Freedom
Come join us in prayerful preparation for Christmas. Come with your family and make it a family day with Mary’s Companion Wayfarers of Jesus the Way at the Schoenstatt Shrine in Armadale Hills, a place of grace. 11.45am Assemble at Armadale Train Station (Arrive by train or drive and utilise the available ample train station parking); 12pm – Angelus; 12.05pm Rosary Walk to Schoenstatt Shrine; 12.30pm – Pilgrimage Program with Holy Mass and BYO Lunch (Tea and coffee available); 3pm – Divine Mercy, Benediction and Rosary Walk to the Train Station. Experience first hand pilgrimage spirituality with its longstanding Christian tradition. Sister Lisette 9399 2349 or All Saints Chapel 9325 2009.
Friday December 3
ANNUAL RETREAT
The Secular Franciscans of WA are holding their annual retreat at the Retreat House, North Perth. All welcome. Phone Michael 9444 0352 or Mary 9377 7925 for enquiries or bookings.
Sunday December 12
CELEBRATING THE GOSPEL OF LIFE
Honouring Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the unborn, Feast Day. 4pm Holy Hour 5pm procession and Holy Mass. All Saints Chapel, 77 Allendale Square, Perth. Supporting organizations are Right to Life, the Legion of Mary, the Marian Movement, the Santo Padre Pio Prayer Group, Mary’s Companion Wayfarers of Jesus the Way, and the Knights of the Southern Cross. Come and join in! Bringing a plate is greatly appreciated.
CROSS ROADS COMMUNITY
Healing Masses: 1st Monday of month 7pm Church of East Fremantle, 2nd Monday of month 10am St Jerome’s Munster. Term 4 – 18th October to 17th December for: Family & Friends Support Groups of Substance Abusers on Wednesdays 7pm – 9pm, Substance Abusers Support Groups on Tuesdays 5.30pm – 7.30pm & Fridays All day Group for Substance Abusers on Fridays 9.30am – 2pm, Bible Night: Tuesdays 7pm – 9pm except in October & Healing Mass: Fridays 12.15pm.
A
Individuals, carers and families of those living with HIV/ AIDS in Western Australia have the benefit of a unique support centre in Burswood.
The Living Centre aims to provide an accepting non-judgemental presence that supports and advocates for all those living with the illness and enables them to grow in their journey.
The Centre was founded in 1988 and is funded by the Archdiocese of Perth, through the annual LifeLink appeal in addition to donations and the support of its many volunteers.
“The name the Living Centre was chosen to reflect the changes in direction, and the term members, not clients, is used to describe the family that now exists here,” the Centre’s director Mr Sewart said.
Services of the Living Centre began when Rosemary Brennan, a nurse from Silver Chain, was providing ‘hands on nursing’ to many people dying from AIDS related illnesses.
In the past 18 months, the Centre itself has lost more than five of its infected members.
At the time HIV/AIDS was at the height of its epidemic in WA before
treatment was readily available.
“There was a great fear and ignorance among the wider community,” Mr Walter said.
Mr Walter said since then, the status of the illness has changed rapidly.
In 1995/96, because of the advances in medical knowledge and medications, infection with HIV virus moved from being a terminal illness to an acute/chronic illness, with those infected living longer although in many cases compromised and isolated lives.
“A vast majority of the HIV/AIDS community are still isolated,” Mr Walter said.
“When the Centre was founded, women made up 0.5% of the HIV/ AIDS community, whereas now this is more than 7.5%,” he said.
After battling from the boot of her car, Rosemary approached then Archbishop of Perth, Archbishop Foley, who agreed that help was needed, and assigned Fr Lou Malloy to assist with the growing workload.
Visiting homes, hostels, hospitals, and even the odd park bench, they provided support and comfort wherever it was needed.
Pastoral Care co-ordinator Phil Warren has been involved with
the Centre since about 1990. “It is really about presence,” Mr Warren said.
Part of Mr Warren’s role at the Living Centre involves pastoral counselling, running a meditation group once a week, visiting the prisons, hospitals, homes and also facilitating talks at parishes, schools and other church agencies.
“We try to take people out of their isolation and help them to accept themselves as they are,” Mr Carrier said.
The Sisters of St John of God became involved and through Sr Helen Connolly began helping Fr Malloy and Rosemary Brennan with the workload.
The SOSJG owned a house in Wembley and started to set it up as a drop-in centre, for both the infected and affected.
Because of the prejudice at the time, the local community took up a petition against the Centre and the Town of Cambridge refused to grant an operating licence.
The SOSJG sold the Cambridge property and used the funds to purchase land to build the present premises in Burswood.
Presently an application has been made to the Lotteries Commission to help fund the expansion of the
Burswood premises. When the new Centre opened in 1992 volunteers were providing care for about 15 people.
This has now increased to 92.
“The number of members has increased further in the last three months because we’re making contact with people,” Mr Walter mentioned.
“This is being done by visiting hospitals, the WA AIDS council and GPs so that they know they can refer people to us.”
Having been a director at The Living Centre since July this year, Mr Walter said the experience has been life changing.
He’s come from a corporate background and after serving some time as a voluntary Board Member, decided to take on the full-time position.
“You learn to re-evaluate your priorities in life and all of a sudden people become more important than measuring every dollar,” he said.The Centre provides lunch four times a week and also works very closely with a number of religious, medical, government and non-government agencies that provide support to the HIV/AIDS community.
“It is part of an integrated
approach to improve the lives of infected and affected people.”
Like so many other Church agencies, the Living Centre operates through the services of about 30 volunteers, in addition to the four permanent staff.
“The Centre could not survive without the team of dedicated and hard working volunteers,” Mr Walter said.
Worldwide, the Catholic Church provides more than a quarter of all support services for HIV/AIDS sufferers.
ASSISTANCE is needed in daily running of our centre. The Living Centre supports those living with HIV/AIDS. We provide holistic environment which is safe and non-judgemental. Volunteers needed in all areas, if you have any time to spare and wish to become part of our wonderful family call Linda 9470 4931.