The Record Newspaper 30 January 2008

Walking with Him

Mass Readings

Testimonies for Audrey

3S 4th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Gr Zeph 2:3;3:12-13 Seek the Lord

Ps 145:7-10 The Lord is Just

1 Cor 1:26-31 Jesus our wisdom

Mt 5:1-12 The Beatitudes

4M

Gr 2 Sam 15:13-14.30; 16:5-13 David cursed

Ps 3:2-7 You are shield

Mk 5:1-20 My name is legion

5T St Agatha, virgin, martyr (M)

Red 2 Sam 18:9-10.14.24-25.30-19:3

Absalom dies

Ps 85:1-6 Heed my prayer

Mk 5:21-43 Save her life

6W ASH WEDNESDAY

Vio Joel 2:12-18 Turn to the Lord

Ps 50:3-6.12-14.17 Steadfast spirit 2 Cor 5:20-6:2 Favourable time

Mt6:1-6.16-18 Give in secret

7T

Vio Deut 30:15-20 Life or death

Ps 1:1-4.6 Fruit in due season

Lk 9:22-25 A follower of mine

8F St Jerome Emiliani (O)

St Josephine Bakhita, virgin (O)

Vio Isa 58:1-9 A pleasing fast

Ps 50:3-6.18-19 Wash away my guilt

Mt 9:14-15 Time for fasting

9S

Vio Isa 58:9-14 Finding happiness

Ps 85:1-6 Hear my prayer

Lk 5:27-32 Great reception

A LIFE OF PRAYER

... are you called to the Benedictine life of divine praise and Eucharistic prayer for the Church?

TYBURN NUNS

Contact the:

Rev Mother Cyril, OSB, Tyburn Priory, 325 Garfield Road, Riverstone, NSW 2765 www.tyburnconvent.org.uk

It seems as though no matter who is commenting, former administrator at St Charles’ Seminary, Audrey Sweeney, can be described as reliable, loyal and wise.

The Record journalist Sylvia Defendi spoke to those who worked with her at the seminary during her 22 years of service.

Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton:

“I was the vocations director and the director of ministry to priests in 1985 when I first decided to hire a secretary for St Charles’ Seminary.

“It was not a seminary at that time, but rather a pre-seminary, where young men would live if they were discerning a call to the priesthood, and the position of parttime secretary needed to be filled.

“We wanted a skilled Catholic. Audrey had the secretarial skills we required and was also committed to her family, to the Church and a member of the St Vincent De Paul Society.

“She was down-to-earth and organised.

“I was there for seven years and Audrey was a great support to me even on a personal level.

“She was very responsible and understood life and had a natural wisdom.

“Audrey did a very good job of running the pre-seminary, especially seeing as she initiated its proper administration.

“She saw her work as part of the mission of the Church and was a very reliable person to work with.

“You knew that she was with you in all that needed to be done. I valued her very much then and still do now.”

Mgr Tim Corcoran, former Rector:

“Audrey was always very committed to her work during the nine years I was rector at St Charles’ Seminary.

“I met her in 1996 and was in awe of the tremendous knowledge she had of the seminary and what it took to run it effectively.

“She was also very personable, helpful and tremendously loyal.

Death of Greek Archbishop

Archbishop Barry Hickey has expressed his sympathy to the Greek Othodox community in Perth on the death of Archbishop Christodoulos, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

Archbishop Christodoulos had suffered from cancer of the liver and intestine and died at his home on January 28.

Archbishop Hickey said that the late Archbishop had been a leading figure in

“It will be difficult to replace her permanently, because Audrey did not just answer phones and write letters, she had a real concern for the students. I’m sure she will be greatly missed by all.”

“I went in without any knowledge of what it took to run a seminary, but Audrey did, and she helped me through it all.

“She did everything – accounts, administration, event planning and organising maintenance of the buildings.

“There were even times when my name was signed at the bottom of a document that she had prepared.

“Her greatest work was in applying for visas for the overseas seminarians.

“She always stayed quietly in the background and made sure every little thing ran smoothly.

“She had an ability to work well with so many agencies – Notre Dame, The Liturgy Office and the Immigration Department.

“I shared some great memories with Audrey at the annual St Charles’ Day Mass

improving relations between the Church of Greece and the Catholic Church. A turning point came in 2001 when, despite vocal opposition in Greece, Archbishop Christodoulos personally greeted Pope John Paul II during his visit to Greece.

In December 2006, Archbishop Christodoulos and other Greek Orthodox leaders returned the visit to the Vatican and spent a long time in cordial conversation with Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican announced that it would send a delegation to his funeral tomorrow (January 31).

Archbishop Hickey said that Perth had a particularly close association with the Orthodox Church in Greece because of

and dinner, which she would have a large hand in organising. The Seminary will have a hard time replacing someone like that.”

Fr Don Hughes, current Rector:

“I came as Rector to St Charles’ Seminary in 2006 and Audrey struck me as a strong and intelligent person who was very committed to her job.

“It was amazing the way she had built up what the Seminary is today on her own for 22 years.

“Audrey always had a great love for the seminary and all the seminarians that came through, many of whom continue to visit her.

“I found her departure hard to accept and it reminded me of a saying we had at College: ‘the principal can be absent, but if the secretary leaves there will be chaos.’

“It will be difficult to replace her permanently, because Audrey did not just answer phones and write letters, she had a real concern for the students.

“I’m sure she will be greatly missed by all.”

the unique program of exchanges between St Charles’ Seminary in Perth and the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Greece which enabled seminarians from both centres to grow in knowledge and understanding of each other’s spirituality and traditions.

“Archbishop Christodoulos was very helpful to our seminarians on their visits to Rizarios and was an enthusiastic supporter of the exchange program,” Archbishop Hickey said.

“Our prayers go out to the Greek Orthodox Church here and in Greece, and with a strong hope that our close relationship will continue under the Archbishop’s successor.”

Due to errors in the story, “Gregorian chant makes a comeback” in the January 23 edition, The Record would like to clarify the correct spelling of Andrew Cichy’s name, and his contact number for enquiries into his music course, 0439 922 446.

The Record apologises for any inconvenience.

With thanks: Past seminarians surprised Audrey Sweeney with a nice bunch of flowers.

Fitting farewell for Schoenstatt favourite

■ By Matthew Biddle

Former superior of the Schoenstatt Sisters in Armadale, Sr Renee Buchmann, never likes being reassigned, yet it’s farewell for the much loved Sister, who will be leaving Perth for Sydney at the end of January.

More than 80 Catholics from various parishes provided an emotional farewell to Sister Renee Buchmann of the Schoenstatt order on Sunday.

The surprise morning tea was held at St Francis Xavier parish in Armadale after the 9.30am Mass, with well-wishers from all over Perth making the trek to say goodbye to Sr Renee.

After spending four years as the superior at the Schoenstatt Shrine in Armadale, Sr Renee has been transferred to New South Wales, where she will stay for at least the next three years.

Sr Renee leaves on January 31 for Mulgoa, a rural suburb west of Sydney, which is home to the only other Schoenstatt Shrine in Australia.

Despite being transferred regularly during her 47 years of religious life, Sr Renee said it’s still tough to leave on new assignments.

“Wherever I am I put my whole heart in, whatever I do … and the wonderful people I meet and the people I take in my heart, I can’t rip them out, they all stay with me … and I always pray for them,” she said. “Farewell is not my strength – I always go away very sad, because

the people you leave behind, you just love them … but one can’t forget them.”

As the superior, Sr Renee said she had a number of roles and duties to fill at Armadale, and thus became a “jack of all trades”.

“We had some huge breakdowns, quite a few things had to be done while I was here, but everything is fixed now and I can go,” she said.

“I’ve been here four years, and now I’m called over there to Sydney … because the World Youth Day is approaching and everywhere there is work to be done.

“I’ll always miss this place, because this Shrine is very dear to me.”

Fellow Schoenstatt nun, Sr Lisette Dreis, who has known Sr Renee for nearly 40 years, said it’s a time of mixed emotions for all the sisters.

“A changeover is sad and it’s happy, so we are crying with one eye to see Sr Renee go and happy with the other eye to have two sisters coming to be here in Armadale,” she said.

As for returning to Armadale, Sr Renee remains hopeful. “God willing, we’ll wait and see what

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Divine Providence has in store for us,” she said. To fill the void left by Sr Renee’s transfer, two Schoenstatt sisters from New South Wales will join the community at Armadale.

Sr Janette Volkmuth arrived from Mulgoa on January 26 and was

greeted by parishioners at Sunday’s morning tea gathering.

A second replacement, Sr Georgina, will arrive in Perth on February 13.

Before her relocation, Sr Janette had spent almost 14 years at the

Schoenstatt Shrine in Mulgoa, where she was a sacristan and a catechist.

The last time she was in Perth, the Armadale Shrine didn’t even exist and the sisters resided in Riverton.

Despite her many years at Mulgoa, Sr Janette said she had no problems with leaving Sydney.

“We know we can be transferred anywhere at anytime, and it was not too hard, because there I have the Shrine, and here I have the Shrine … and the sisters I knew because I had worked with them before,” she said.

Sr Lisette said the Schoenstatt sisters are like one big family.

“I’ve also known Sr Janette for a long time … she loves nature, she’s a good gardener, and I’m looking forward to being with her here,” she said.

Sr Janette said a major difference between the Shrine in Armadale and the Shrine in Mulgoa is the amount of people who visit the Shrine.

“[In Mulgoa] we have a retreat centre where people stay overnight … and the Shrine is well known – many, many pilgrims come, sometimes they come by bus … and that I miss, it’s very quiet here, too quiet.”

Sr Lisette said the Schoenstatt Shrine in Mulgoa is flooded with people all day, every day.

“It’s a shellshock for [Sr Janette] to see so few people coming to the Shrine here in Armadale,” she said.

“In Mulgoa we sisters can hardly say our prayers in the Shrine because it’s full from morning till night, with people coming from all over Sydney.”

The sisters warmly welcome any visitors who wish to visit the Shrine, which is officially recognised by the Church as a place of pilgrimage and grace.

The Shrine has also been nominated by Archbishop Hickey as one of just nine churches where a Plenary Indulgence is available for the 150th anniversary of the Lourdes apparitions.

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It’s good-bye: Sister Janette and Sister Renee (above), outside the Schoenstatt Shrine in Armadale, pose for a farewell photo. Meanwhile, the group of five sisters pray in the Shrine. PHOTOS: MATTHEW BIDDLE.

the Parish

Trinity running for gold in Czech Republic

■ By Sylvia Defendi

Aselect six from Trinity College’s cross-country running team will be representing Australia at the world championships in the Czech Republic for the first time ever.

In the past, schools from other states where chosen to represent the nation, but this year the College has managed to put WA back on the cross-country map.

“We are so proud of the boys for being the first WA cross-country team to be selected to represent Australia - these boys have a big future in Australian athletics. We’re hoping to nurture future Olympians and world champions and this could be exactly the break they need,” cross-country coach at the College, Phil Jurjevich said.

The team has been training for up to 12 sessions a week, throughout the hot summer period, in preparation for the 5.1 kilometre race to be held later this year.

Mr Jurjevich said the determination of those in training was unrivalled and that the elite team was

aiming to win, despite the fact that the 13-16 year old athletes will be racing in an age category against 18 year olds.

With 12 weeks until the team hope to head off to the championships on April 23, the College will be raising necessary travel funds by hosting a luncheon, on the first day of February.

Aside from culinary appreciation, the luncheon will also welcome guest speaker Mark Sheen, the first WA born to reach the peak of Everest, as well as Gary Muir who holds the record for running the length of the Bibbulmun Track in 19 days.

Preceding the noon luncheon, which will be held at the College in Gibney Hall, the Trinity runners will make an assault on the AIS, Eagles, Dockers, Glory and Force beep test records at Centenary Park, Trinity College.

“These athletes have put their all into winning this competition, for themselves, their school, state and nation. All we have to do is get them to the race,” Mr Jurjevich said.

Further information on the luncheon may be obtained from Mr Jurjevich on: 9325 3655, 0422 958 174 or by emailing: jurjevich.phil@trinity.wa.edu

Unusual car brings a much needed message

■ By Sylvia Defendi

Perth couple Sam and Linda Hawk have found a unique way to highlight the struggle to do good in today’s society, while reaching out to youth.

Sam’s hobby - spraypainting cars – has produced a 1969 Ford Mustang airbrushed with graphics to represent the spiritual conflict between good and evil.

Painted in two colours - black and silver, split down the centrethe Mustang represents the conflicts that arise when anyone is faced with the opportunity to do a good deed or make a moral choice.

Named the ‘Iron Rod’ the car takes its direction from a scripture phrase that is used to describe the Word of God, which, Linda and Sam say ‘gives all the strength to make correct decisions in life.’

The Mustang also sports a V8 engine and a personalised numberplate - RWH - as a reminder of Sam and Linda’s life motto, Return With Honour.

The silver side of the car is airbrushed to look like panels of steel with pop rivets, to represent the armour of God and features tears and cracks in the armour – “the results of battles between right and wrong,” says Sam.

Sam also airbrushed a mural on the bonnet of the car featuring a knight on a white horse and on the other side of the bonnet, a barbaric tribal warrior on a black horse.

The unusual car can be spotted driving around Perth, but for those who are particularly keen on the design a wall-poster has also been produced.

The Iron Rod also made it onto YouTube, but a more detailed explanation on the car’s meaning and further information can be found on www.ironrod.com.au

On a mission:

Tip-Top sponsorship for WYD

Tip Top is supporting the fundraising activities of local schools, parishes and Aussie communities by offering a special Easter Hot Cross Bun Drive in conjunction with World Youth Day Sydney 2008 (WYD08).

A 6-pack of premium Tip Top Hot Cross Buns in special edition WYD08 packaging can be bought for $3.50, with a Recommended Retail Price of $4.50.

Groups can choose on a price point with all profits to go to their WYD08 fundraising efforts.

Groups can put the funds towards sending pilgrims from their local parish, neighbouring countries or remote Australian Indigenous communities to Sydney for WYD08.

But groups must act now! Registration closes Friday 8 February. “We are looking forward to a positive and enthusiastic response to mark this once in a generation event,” said WYD08 Coordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher OP.

“I encourage all schools, parishes, community groups and movements to support this initiative and register to take part in the Tip Top Hot Cross Bun Drive”.

Catholic Education Officers around Australia are also joining Bishop Anthony Fisher to endorse and offer their support for the Tip Top fundraiser, with hundreds of schools already registered.

“As a supporter of WYD08, Tip Top hopes that this fundraising will ensure that many Australian and international pilgrims have the opportunity to participate in this historic event,” said Serge Costi, Assistant Brand Manager, Tip Top Bakeries Australia.

Register now by emailing hotcrossbuns@ha ndlingmatters.com.au or calling the Hot Cross Bun Infoline on 1800 018 605. Once registered, groups will be sent a Tip Top Hot Cross Bun Drive Fundraising Kit with all the tools needed to make the fundraising a success.

More information about the initiative is available on the WYD08 website: www.wyd2008.org. Sydney will host the 23rd World Youth Day from 15 – 20 July this year.

Winners: Trinity team - Ken Duggan , Eamon Costello, Josh Hicks, Josh Nicholas, Nicholas Lee and Aaron Gregory.

Pictured with their ‘Iron Rod’ 1969 Mustang are Sam and Linda Hawk, who spent two years restoring the car as a ‘3D’ statement of the struggles everyone faces to do good throughout life. Below is the poster Sam and Linda have had produced, which showcases the car in full and even shows highlights of the Mustang along the bottom.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF LINDA AND SAM HAWK.

Working together

World Youth Day will bring a host of people together for the world-wide event. In the meantime, two Perth parishes are discovering the power of working together towards a common goal and enjoying each others company while they are at it.

■ By Anthony Barich

Two Perth parishes have formed one of the strongest alliances between parishes in the Archdiocese of Perth to attract interest for World Youth Day.

Morley’s Infant Jesus parish, where a strong contingent of Young Christian Workers are based, and St Mary’s Leederville have run a series of events last year and more are to come in 2008 to attract youth to the biggest Catholic gathering in the life of the Church in Australia when WYD08 hits Sydney in July.

The Morley/Leederville WYD Delegation is a highly active group of spirited young people on a journey of developing and applying their faith in meaningful actions that benefit the local and wider community.

So far they have 38 registered to attend WYD08 and, under the methodology of the extensive evangelising WYD resources provided by YCW, the aim is to continue to grow from strength to strength.

Led by Tristan Kolay and Marie Raheb, the Morley/Leederville WYD Delegation meets monthly to engage in activities designed to strengthen their faith through Australian Young Christian Students (YCS) and Australian YCW-initiated faith formation sessions, led by YCW Worker Vincent Restifo.

These sessions also included guest speakers like Marjorie, an inspirational Aboriginal Elder from Darwin who designed an Aboriginal paining depicting the Holy Spirit that adorns WYD08 postcards that have been distributed around Australia.

Through the Young Christian Students and Young Christian Workers’ methodology of “See, Judge and Act”, the delegates have

been putting their faith into action, through involvement in community, social justice and personal development initiatives, and liturgical activities such as:

● National Tree Day in Caversham, July 28 2007

● Migrant worker English classes –Teaching English to migrant workers sitting Working Visa exams in conjunction with the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU)

● Multiple Busy Bees at the grounds of Infant Jesus, Morley Parishioners

● A Team Leader formation retreat driven by the WYD Team Leaders at ‘God’s Farm’ November 2007

● Creating and facilitating Youth Movement Coordination Workshops for Perth Archdiocesan WYD Coordinators

● Coordinating youth Masses and special events such as Stations of the Cross at Infant Jesus Parish Morley and St Mary’s Leederville

The Morley/Leederville WYD Delegation has also been working to raise funds to make the journey a reality with many successful major fundraisers that include a Parish Week - a week-long series of events dedicated to World Youth Day that included a games night and a wine and cheese night; a Leederville Fundraiser Luncheon Feast on September 16, 2007 at St Mary’s, Leederville; an Infant Jesus Parish Fun Fair – a fun filled day on the parish grounds – on December 1.

A Swan Valley Winery Tour and networking event is planned for February 9, and tickets are limited.

Also planned is a “Shout!” concert on February 23 at Trinity College Hall and a Cabaret Dinner on April 19.

The six teams that make up the Morley/ Leederville WYD Delegation have grown strong in faith and friendship.

Welcoming all to participate in their upcoming activities, they look forward to “working with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ on this global journey of faith”.

For more information on the Morley/Leederville WYD Delegation or their events, please contact Infant Jesus Parish on 9276

60 years of wedded bliss

A major global catastrophe could not stop this couple’s love for each other. Now they celebrate 60 years of marriage.

■ By Anthony Barich

Alittle old thing like World War II couldn’t stop Albert and Carmel Stevens from getting engaged, and earlier this month they celebrated 60 years of marriage.

Four children, 11 grandkids and two great-grandchildren after they married on January 10, 1948, Perth Vicar General Fr Brian O’Loughlin celebrated a Mass marking their 60th wedding anniversary.

At the Mass they renewed their wedding vows which Carmel says was the most beautiful and important part of the whole anniversary celebrations.

The parish they celebrated the Mass in – Bentley – was that which the Vicar General had his first Holy Communion, though back then it was St Aiden’s, the old school church in Mosman Park. Now a new church – Corpus Christi – stands in its place. Albert, 86, and Carmel, 85, met in 1942 when Carmel’s late older sister Marie had invited two Army servicemen home for a meal whom she had met at the canteen at St Patrick’s Hall in Fremantle, a popular

social spot for young Catholics. Albert, who had been sent over from Fitzroy to Geraldton in case the Japanese followed up their attacks on Broome and Port Hedland, was then stationed at the Fremantle base. While Carmel wasn’t keen for a commitment at first – “I wasn’t 21 until 1943” – they got engaged in 1944. Then Albert was posted to the Atherton Tablelands (Cairns highlands) and she didn’t see him for two and a half years, during which time they wrote letters to each other. He returned in 1946.

Albert’s Alzheimer’s is just another chapter for Carmel, who appreciates what a “faithful husband” and “good provider” he has been over their long relationship since Fr Patrick McArdle married them.

“The commitment you make to each other is important - not letting things get you down. You can get over things with God’s help, I always feel,” says Carmel, who has had a long involvement with the Catholic Girls Movement, and the Children of Mary, which she was involved in when its participants were hostesses at the famous St Patrick’s Canteen events.

“Now couples run to the divorce court, but if people nut things out in their lives, if you make your husband important in your life that’s important to me.

“After all, at the end of your life it’s just you and your husband alone once the kids have moved out, so always make him feel important in your life,” is Carmel’s advice to current couples.

Joyful: Tristan Kolay, 26 and Michelle Raheb 21 present Leederville parishioner Anna Taphorn with a gift for her 85th birthday, with Lucia Di Vincenzo (left) looking on at a WYD Fundraiser Feast at Aranmore Hall, Leederville on September 16 last year.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF YOUNG CHRISTIAN WORKERS

As happy as ever: Albert and Carmel Stevens on their happy day, 60 years ago. Now boasting four children, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, the couple are as happy as ever. PHOTO COURTESY OF ALBERT AND CARMEL STEVENS

the Nation

Hart rejects petition for priestesses

■ By Paul Gray

The Archbishop of Melbourne has asked his priests to reject a petition calling for a review of the Church’s teaching on priestly celibacy and women’s ordination.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has also urged priests to remain faithful to the lead given by the Church’s magisterium on liturgy and sacramental teachings.

Archbishop Hart is the second Australian bishop to publicly reject a petition which began circulation on the internet last year, and has since found its way into some parishes.

Archbishop Hart told an assembly of Melbourne priests last month that he had written back to the authors of the petition, Paul Collins and Frank Purcell, who had written to him late last year seeking support for its circulation

The petition’s authors were also seeking support for a public rally to be staged at a large Melbourne suburban venue, the Camberwell Civic Centre, to promote their views.

The petition’s authors argue that a shortage of priests means that the Church’s priestly celibacy and ordination rules should be changed.

Archbishop Hart responded to these requests in words which he publicly repeated

in front of the assembled priests.

“While acknowledging the challenges we face in the provision of priests, the archdiocese of Melbourne now and in the future will remain totally faithful to the dispositions of the Holy See concerning who may be ordained to the priesthood,” Archbishop Hart said.

“We will continue vigorous promotion of vocations, and accept the assistance of priests from other countries in our time of need.

“We remain totally committed to celibate priesthood as the norm for the Latin Rite,” Archbishop Hart added.

The Melbourne archbishop told the petition’s authors it was not within the competence of any bishop to derogate from the

provisions of the universal Church in these matters.

He said: “Therefore to this extent your idea of a petition is misleading and will, I fear, lead to inevitable frustration on the part of the petitioners.”

The bishop of Parramatta in NSW, Bishop Kevin Manning, made similar comments on his website last year after being asked to give support to the same petition.

In his address to Melbourne priests, Archbishop Hart also warned that grave harm can be caused if priests allow an impression to be created among the faithful that Church teaching on important matters is in a state of flux or under review.

The archbishop issued this warning in the context of discussion about a recent book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, by retired Sydney Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, concerning original sin, ordination, divorce and remarriage, the papacy and sexual morality.

After retiring three years ago, Bishop Robinson has been outspoken in the secular media saying the Church should review fundamental teachings on sex outside marriage, women priests, homosexuality and papal power.

Archbishop Hart said that Bishop Robinson’s book would be judged in due time by the Church, but in the meantime priests should not encourage the idea that

‘Learn from pro-cloners’

Cardinal George Pell has urged pro-life forces to learn from the example of pro-cloning lobbyists, by remembering the importance of emotion.

■ By Paul Gray

While principled moral arguments about abortion are important, Cardinal Pell says “we should remember that people are often moved more by their heartstrings than by their head.”

The Cardinal made his remarks in South Korea while accepting the Mystery of Life Grand Prix award for services to the pro-life cause. He said that the importance of emotion was seldom lost on proponents of destructive embryo research.

Cloning supporters “continue to advance their case through the mouths of young children with insulin dependent diabetes or former high profile athletes who have been tragically struck down by paraplegia,” Cardinal Pell said.

By contrast, the Cardinal said a five-day human in a Petri dish usually has little chance of evoking the same degree of sympathy as people with incurable illnesses or disabilities.

But he argued that the same sorts of emotive arguments can also work in favour of the pro-life cause. He said he was encouraged by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka who works in adult stem cell research. Dr Yamanaka said that once, when he looked through a microscope at an IVF clinic, he saw an embryo and “suddenly realised that there was such a small differ-

the Netherlands. Assisted death and euthanasia are also on the increase on several continents.

Historically, Cardinal Pell said, the exposure of unwanted female infants and deformed male infants was legally and morally accepted and widely practiced throughout the Greco-Roman world 2000 years ago.

ence between it and my daughters.”

Dr Yamanaka subsequently concluded that society cannot keep destroying embryos for research, leading him to develop important work in the adult stem cell area.

In a major address marking his acceptance of the prize, Cardinal Pell documented both the long history and the present enormity of the abortion problem.

Today there are approximately 45 million abortions performed around the world each year, the Cardinal said. According to UNICEF reports, fewer girls than boys are born in India because of abortion and the spread of cheap pre-natal sex determination technology.

In wealthier regions of India, gender-based abortion is accelerating with 799 girls born for every 1000 boys in 2001, down from 875 girls for every 1000 boys in 1991, in the state of Punjab.

Cardinal Pell said it’s estimated that there is clear evidence of cases of euthanasia of newborn infants taking place every year in

Far more babies were born than were allowed to live, and philosophers Plato and Aristotle both recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy, Cardinal Pell said.

It was the emergence of the “creative minority” of Christianity with its strict sanction against abortion and infanticide which ultimately did away with these as common practices.

Citing the Book of Psalms, Cardinal Pell said that the task of pro-life forces today is to “call our brothers’ and sisters’ hearts and minds to wonder and awe.”

He said Psalm 8 asks the question: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are humans that you are mindful of them?

He said too few people today hear the Psalmist’s own answer to this question: “You have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour.”

People today increasingly see themselves as radically independent and self-determining demi-gods, rather than awesome creations of God, the Cardinal said.

Church teaching in these areas is likely to be changed.

“Our mission is to teach and live constantly what the magisterium teaches,” Archbishop Hart said.

The Melbourne archbishop is a member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.

In his meeting with priests he directly rebutted what he called the “outdated 70s proposition that all that is needed in liturgy is acting according to principles established not by the Church but by the liturgical intelligentsia of the time.”

Rather than following 1970s ideas, Archbishop Hart said priests should be faithful to the liturgical books and their General Instructions without variations, except in cases which the books provide.

Liturgical books provide texts for liturgies in black print, with instructions for the actions of priests and people printed in red.

Archbishop Hart said: “The general rule of ‘say the black and do the red,’ with clarity and fervour, obtains within these parameters,” he said.

Archbishop Hart said it is the privilege of priests to provide formation for their people according to the mind of the Church.

He urged priests to give a lead by faithfulness in what they promote in their parishes, and in the way they preach and teach the whole of Church doctrine.

Cathedral Mass for Sheen cause to be televised by EWTN in February

More than four years after the formal opening of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen’s sainthood cause by the Diocese of Peoria, the cause is about to pass one of its most important milestones.

On Sunday, February 3, the final session in the diocesan phase of the Cause of Beatification and Canonisation of the Servant of God Fulton J Sheen will take place during a 10.30am Mass (US time; Illinois is 13 hours behind Perth time) )celebrated by Bishop Daniel R Jenky, CSC, at St Mary’s Cathedral.

Raymond Arroyo, news director of the Eternal Word Television Network, will be in Peoria that day to oversee the live telecast of the Mass and special ceremony on the global Catholic cable network.

Starting about 10am local time, Arroyo is expected to interview Dr Andrea Ambrosi, postulator for Archbishop Sheen’s cause, and Father Andrew Apostoli, CFR, vice postulator, as well as Bishop Jenky. After the Mass, the Diocese of Peoria will host a reservationonly luncheon for about 600 people at the Hotel Pere Marquette in downtown Peoria.

Archbishop Sheen, a native of El Paso, was a priest of the Diocese of Peoria who gained international fame as a radio and television host and author. A former Bishop of Rochester and national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, he died on October 2, 1979.

During the public ceremony on February 3 - known by the Latin name of “postrema sessio” (“next stage”) - all documents, books and personal testimonies

Remembered by many:

Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s sainhood cause pushes on.

that have been collected for the cause will be certified and forwarded to Rome, where they will be examined by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The documents to be certified include all reviews of Archbishop Sheen’s books from the cause’s Theological Commission, all testimonies from the Historical Commission, and the personal accounts of more than 100 witnesses, according to Mgr Richard Soseman, delegate of Bishop Jenky for the sainthood cause.

“All the materials will be tied with a ribbon and a wax seal will be applied,” said Jane Peverly, secretary of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, which has been promoting his cause.

This article was first published by The Catholic Post, of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, on January 6.

Promoters of infanticide: Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of the School of Athens, a Fresco by Raphael.

Archbishop Denis Hart

Cardinal George Pell

the Nation

Pope’s media message a shining light

■ By Paul Gray

Australian media expert Fr Paul Duffy SJ has welcomed Pope Benedict’s message for World Communications Day as “one of the best media statements” yet issued by a Pope.

Fr Duffy, who was commissioned by the Australian bishops to undertake a major study of the media and its use by the Church, says Pope Benedict has drawn together all of “the big issues of today,” and challenged the media to re-examine the question of ethics.

The Pope’s World Communications Day message was released in Rome last week to guide reflection in the Church worldwide about the uses of the media.

World Communications Day will be celebrated in Australia this year on the sixth Sunday of Easter on April 27.

The Pope’s message stresses the role of “info-ethics.” Fr Duffy told The Record this reflects the Pope’s view that the media have developed to a degree where, as in the area of medical reproduction, a whole new specialised field of ethics needs to be developed.

“We’ve reached the stage where we need specialist ethics for the media,” Fr Duffy said.

In his new message Pope Benedict warns that the media seem “increasingly to claim not simply to represent reality, but to determine it, owing to the power and the force of suggestion that they possess.

“It is clear, for example, that in certain situations the media are used not for the proper purpose of disseminating information but to ‘create’ events,” the Pope says.

Pope Benedict says that many Church leaders have noted this dangerous change in the way the media operate.

Fr Duffy said the Pope is right to warn against these trends, saying the media is often guilty of overstat-

in brief

NSW parents happy with Catholic schools

Strong discipline, the climate and tone of the schools, the safety and welfare of students and “Catholic values” are among the reasons why parents are sending their children to Catholic schools, a NSW survey has found.

The Sydney Catholic Education Office has surveyed 1400 parents who moved their children from Year 6 in non-Catholic schools into Year 7 in Catholic schools.

Br Kelvin Canavan, the schools executive director for the Sydney archdiocese, said the evidence from the survey points to parents being happy with their choice of a Catholic school.

While the overall school age population in the Sydney area has dropped by 10.5 percent over the past 30 years, there has been a 6.5 per cent, or nearly 5000 students, increase in Catholic school enrolments in this period. The NSW survey found that 29 per cent of the Year 7 intake in NSW Catholic

ing events, and interpreting them instead of reporting them.

In Australia, this is especially so on television where we see “opinionated reporting” rather than “straight reporting,” Fr Duffy said.

The underlying danger here is not that of creating false events but rather of over-embellishing actual events in a way that does not serve the cause of truth.

Fr Duffy said he’d be concerned about the current media tendency to embellish some stories in an attempt to gain superficial attention. He gave as an example some of the recent tabloid reporting of the death of actor Heath Ledger.

A further problem today is that an “excessive cult of celebrity” has emerged whereby people who are not suited to the role are made famous on a global scale.

Paris Hilton is an example of this, Fr Duffy suggested. He said that, as the Australian writer Clive James has commented, we now have the phenomenon of people who are famous simply for being celebrities.

Alongside this phenomenon, the media in Australia often producesa “trivialisation of news” on TV and radio.

In his media message, the Pope also warns against the dangers of the modern communications industry losing its ethical underpinning. Fr Duffy says this is a cutting-edge comment from the Pope.

“Where we’re at now is that there is a situation of great hazard with the people who control the media. If people with no strong ethical formation control the production of news, anything goes,” Fr Duffy said.

Fr Duffy warned that the media could become the ugly face of capitalism, driven solely by profits and treating people as units of production.

“What the Church says, and it needs to be re-said, is that the prime concern is the dignity of the individual. For example, how many people in the media today believe that people who are in the

schools last year came from students previously at non-Catholic schools.

Aboriginal Catholic pushes for Rudd apology

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appears set to deliver an apology to Aboriginal people on behalf of the Australian nation, possibly to be delivered on February 12.

A prominent Aboriginal Catholic, Graeme Mundine, had recently urged the Government to take this step. Mr Mundine, who is executive secretary of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission, said a Government apology ought to be made, but must be backed up with a commitment to improve the health and living standard of Aborigines.

In an open letter, Mr Mundine said it was ironic that in today’s corporate world, mainstream Australia will hold corporations accountable for their past failings, and yet, until now, the nation has not lived up to its own corporate responsibilities by apologising for wrongs to Aborigines.

public eye don’t have any right to privacy?”

“Info-ethics is about taking responsibility for ethics in reporting.” Fr Duffy said we should be looking for the media to protect rights.

Pope Benedict warns against the media being transformed into a system “aimed at subjecting humanity to agendas dictated by the dominant interests of the day.”

Fr Duffy said this is a vital point. He said a particular danger in the contemporary media comes from the rise of ‘spin doctoring.’

Spin doctoring refers to wealthy or powerful companies or individuals employing media control experts to influence the way they are presented in the media.

He said that public officials need help from people who can help them communicate with the public, but this can become a means

Government waves pilgrim visa fee

A memorandum of understanding has been signed by the federal government and the Catholic diocese in Sydney to waive visa application fees for World Youth Day pilgrims.

International pilgrims will need to obtain a letter of endorsement from their local bishop, but under the memorandum, this will be enough to let them into the country for the pilgrimage with Pope Benedict XVI in mid-July. International pilgrims will need their bishops to confirm in writing that they are well-known and active members of their local Catholic Church.

Bishops writing on behalf of pilgrims will be asked to ensure applicants are aware of the importance of complying with Australian visa conditions, including leaving Australia by the visa’s expiry date. The bishops’ words are enough to satisfy Government concerns over people who might fraudulently pose as committed Catholics to gain entry to Australia at the time of the pilgrimage.

of “covering up” truths which the same officials would not like to be publicly known.

Fr Duffy also praised the Australian media, saying at times we see examples of the producers of news not being controlled by powerful interests. There are sometimes cases, for example, where television networks broadcast information which it is not in the interests of their principal advertisers to have publicly known.

This shows that people working in the media are capable of, and ready to do good work in the interests of serving the truth. Fr Duffy says “the Church should be positively encouraging these people.”

Fr Duffy spent 14 months compiling a report for the Australian bishops’ conference on the media and the Church’s interaction with it. He is also the author of the book Word of Life in Media and Gospel,

published by St Paul Publications. During the 14 months he worked on the study, Fr Duffy visited every Australian diocese and contacted many members of the secular media.

He is still astonished that he did not receive a single negative or hostile response from any journalist or news producer he contacted.

People working in the media are looking for guidance, he believes. “Not all people in the media are monsters,” he said.

One of his report’s recommendations to the bishops was to establish a permanent chaplaincy to the media.

Other recommendations included establishing an office to liaise with the media, and for Catholic education, including teacher training institutions as well as schools, to concentrate seriously on rigorous media analysis.

Media ethics: In his recent message for World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI has focused on the lack of media ethics and the need to reintroduce them. Australian media expert Fr Paul Duffy SJ welcomed the Pope’s message as ’one of the best media statements’ yet issued.

PHOTO: CNS.

Perspectives

editorial letters to the editor

We rejoice in the difference

The recent controversy which saw Pope Benedict decline to attend the opening of the new academic year at La Sapienza University in Rome produced the unintended benefit of focusing people’s attention on what constitutes the best understanding and guide for life. It certainly isn’t science.

At the same time, it became known that in our own secular society the eight nominees produced by the States and Territories for the honour of being Australian of the Year included two sportsmen and four entertainers. Without making or implying any comment on any of the individuals involved, this overwhelming emphasis on the fleeting world of entertainment tells us much about the fruits of a secular society.

In defence of La Sapienza, it should be said that the protesting staff were fewer than five per cent of the total academics and the students an even smaller percentage of the student body. The standing ovation when the Pope’s intended speech was read by a Professor said a lot more about the university itself, and emphasised that the so-called conflict between religion and science, or faith and science, is an artificial construct that is only espoused by those who do not understand one or the other, or both. Secularism, on the other, is worse than either because it does not want to understand anything definitively.

The scientific method is a wonderful discipline for observation, thinking, measuring and experimenting. It has solved many problems, given rise to new fields of knowledge and understanding, and created many means to enrich and prolong life. It is often argued that many of the fruits of the scientific method have been mixed blessings, but this is as pointless an argument as to point out that many people make little, and sometimes even negative use of their knowledge of God. The one does not disprove the value of the scientific method any more than the other disproves the love of God.

THE RECORD

PO Box 75

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cathrec@iinet.net.au

Tel: (08) 9227 7080

Fax: (08) 9227 7087

However, for all the power of its reasoning, science has not been able to produce a description of, or a pattern for, living human life in the fullness of our nature. It has not been able – and almost certainly never will be able – to produce the philosophy of a true moral code or a rational explanation of why that which is true to our nature is so now and for eternity. This is not really a deficiency in the scientific method, merely a limitation of its natural capacity, but it becomes a serious deficiency when people believe that what cannot be ‘proved’ by science cannot be true. This unfortunate attitude is what leads secularism to the modern disease of relativism in which nothing about human nature can be said to be true, so everything must be left to the ego and desires of the individual.

Relativism is pretty much the opposite of the scientific method. Science tries to understand everything at the micro and macro levels, but secularism finds it all too hard and surrenders to the whim of the individual and, ultimately, to those with powerful urges to control others.

Catholicism does not suffer from the limitations of either approach – although Catholics can be afflicted by both of them.

With the revelation that God is love, and that we are made in the image and likeness of God, the Church has been able to proclaim a faithful and rational description of the present and eternal capacity of the human person whose faith is in love.

Interestingly, science has been able to observe the power of the mystery of love in human affairs. There are many accounts of these observations in human healing, human relationships (particularly in children given or denied love from their time in the womb onwards) and even in human relations with plants and animals (we do have dominion over all creatures, but we are supposed to exercise it through love, not power). Science cannot explain love, where it comes from, how it works, or how much is needed in any situation, but it can observe at least some of its effects.

There are, in fact, encouraging signs that advances in both physical and social sciences may be influencing communal attitudes towards moral matters. The medical advances that have made people far more aware that a foetus really is a young baby seem to have contributed significantly to the decline in US abortion rates (The Record January 16, P.11) and the accumulated evidence of the continued post-abortion suffering of women and men (Bronia Karniewicz’s article P.12 of the same issue) is one of the foundations of an Australia-wide move to give women real alternatives to abortion.

Accumulated data from social science research on the destructiveness of divorce, the suffering caused by the absence of fathers, the negative effects of contraception compared with natural family planning, and the failure of the ‘condom mentality’ compared with programs teaching abstinence and fidelity are all having their effects in the community and are beginning to find their place in public policy in many areas.

The Church has always known and taught these moral truths, and the consequences of immoral choices, but as Pope Benedict said in his talk prepared for La Sapienza, people who have not yet received the gift of faith are entitled to receive the truth in forms they can accept and act upon.

We who have the gift must always remember where it comes from – the teaching of the Church and the personal relationship we have been given, through the Church, with Jesus Christ, true God and true man. It is only through developing this relationship with God by talking with Him in prayer that we will grow in our faith and our capacity to carry the light of truth into the world.

Lent is a time when the Church encourages us to further develop this relationship through increased prayer and commitment to the life of the Church. Recent events seem to have conspired to help us make the most of the opportunity.

Dear Editor, Please may I respond to Fr. Pat Rooney’s letter in The Record on January 23 08. I have been homeschooling my children for 15 years, and I’d like to assure you that I have not “bailed out of the Catholic school system for a do it yourself solution”.

As Catholic parents we have chosen to homeschool because we want to and can do.

Pope John Paul II gave us the mandate when he said that parents were the first educators of their children, especially in teaching the faith.

The Catholic homeschoolers of Perth are also encouraged by Archbishop Barry Hickey’s blessing.

As parents we will be judged and have to give an account to Our Blessed Lord Himself, on our performance in nurturing and protecting the souls of His children on loan to us.

We take the passing on of the faith very seriously, and struggle daily to live out and practise our Holy Catholic faith.

The fruits are children who know, love and share their faith.

Our homeschooling in no way inhibits those who choose to delegate this role to the system, “from working together to find and put into practice strategies to help families pass on the Catholic faith.” and what ‘s more they would be very welcome to join us.

Margaret Laundy Ocean

Reef

Dear Editor, I am pleased that Father Pat Rooney (January 23) has so forthrightly defended the importance of Catholic education. However, in seeking to attack parents who homeschool their children, he has taken false aim.

I am in the privileged position of being both a school teacher in our Catholic system and the father of 9 homeschooled children.

My wife and I have taught our children from home for 14 years.

Each year as the new school year approaches, good parents are concerned to look out for the best ways to educate their children.

Education in the faith is often a reason for parents thinking of homeschooling.

I know of many parents who take the education of the faith seriously and are drawn to groups of deep spirituality such as the Disciples of Jesus, who recently figured so prominently in The Record with the WYD cross.

It is this genuine concern for providing the best for their children that is the impetus for Catholics to homeschool.

Our children are, like many of their friends, very active in the life of their parish.

They are prominent in youth groups and act as altar servers.

The parish is rightfully the meeting place for Catholic children.

I hope that our Catholic schools do begin to arrest the seemingly hopeless trend in the vast majority of families that no longer go to Mass. That is why I am teaching there.

Homeschooling is one of the nurturing grounds for practising Catholics to pass on the faith to their children.

It is not an exclusive way, but it has proven a sure path for raising youths who vibrantly practise their faith.

Philip Haydon Woodlands

Speaking to the Father, Son and Spirit

Moresca Almeida

THow I Pray

with Debbie Warrier

here are different ways that I pray. There’s the “on-the-run” prayer where I talk to the Lord when I feel distressed or anxious. Sometimes it may be when I am moved by something beautiful or a joyous event. I pray to the Spirit and to Jesus. I’ve only just started talking to the Father. I try to read and meditate on scripture from the Bible daily. I often find that that’s the way God speaks to me. I attend the Queen of Apostles church, in Riverton on Sundays. I am part of the Music Ministry. That’s really special to me. I am also a Catechist for children aged between five and seven. My husband and I run the class together. It’s amazing how children are so much more in touch with God. I’m always surprised when we ask a question and a child comes up with something profound.

I feel quite connected with God in my work. I work as a social worker at Princess Margaret Hospital, in the Child Protection Unit. Predominately, I counsel children who have been abused. I feel God’s presence at times when I working with children. My heart feels like it expands. The overwhelming sense of love that I have for them doesn’t feel like it is coming just from me. There’s a spiritual dimension to that.

Faith is a journey. When I was a teenager growing up in Bombay, there was a priest in our parish who was very child orientated. I would wake up at six o’clock in the morning and sing for the 6:15am Mass. We sang in Latin. I did that for a couple of years. It is an unusual thing for a child that age to wake up that early and I can only think that God’s hand was working there.

There was a time when I felt quite lost in my personal life. My nine year marriage ended in 1986. I was separated and divorced for twelve years. It was a very challenging time for me spiritually. Then I remarried the same man I divorced in 1998! We have two daughters aged 27 and 25. During the time when I was divorced I experienced loneliness, despair and a spiritual hunger. I was exposed to a lot of New Age ideas which I pursued with gusto. It still left me feeling very hungry.

Then I became curious about the faith of my work supervisor, Margaret Donovan. It was her witnessing of a living Christ that led me to a powerful conversion. The only way that I can describe it was that once I was dead and the next moment I was alive. In that moment of conversion I had a sense of God’s overwhelming love. The vision that came to mind was that if the whole world fades away and I have God, then I have everything. If I didn’t have my faith there would be nothing to live for. It’s as simple as that.

There have been dry times in my faith, like when my father had dementia. God is present in our suffering. In my darkest moments I have an exquisite intimacy with God. I don’t want it to sound like I enjoy suffering – far from it. However, in those moments I reflect that this too will pass.

A Time for Spiritual Renewal

The following Pastoral Letter on Lent was issued by Archbishop Barry Hickey to mark the beginning of this penitential season in the life of the Church that commences with Ash Wednesday on February 6

My Dear People, Although we are encouraged to walk always in the presence of God and to lead a life of prayer and love for others, we are all conscious that we only follow this path imperfectly, and that we need times of spiritual renewal to persevere.

Lent is one such time of renewal that the Church offers us.

Lent has a long history in the Church. It is a time of preparing for the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord, for the reconciliation of penitents and for the final preparation of catechumens for their baptismal entry into the Church at the Easter vigil.

It is a time of prayer, penance and generous giving to the poor.

The whole Church is encouraged to enter deeply into the spirit of Lent, as we remem-

ber our own Baptism and prepare ourselves through prayer, penance and works of charity.

The period of forty days is profoundly scriptural. The Flood lasted forty days, Moses remained fasting on Sinai for forty days, and the Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years before reaching the Promised Land.

Jesus himself, with powerful messianic symbolism, began his public ministry with a Fast of forty days and forty nights.

So we enter a period of prayer and fasting in memory of Jesus, preparing ourselves to enter into his passion, death and resurrection at the end of Lent.

We must therefore take Lent seriously and commit ourselves to renewing our faith and spiritual life.

We do so not just as individuals but as a community faithful to Christ. For this reason the Church has asked us to take on, as a people, practices of prayer, penance and almsgiving during this time.

● Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Although not a Holy Day of Obligation we are urged to attend Mass and receive the blessed ashes on our forehead as a sign of sorrow for our sins.

Continued

Ashes to ashes: As Lent approaches we are reminded of our beginnings and our inevitable end. But with this comes the joy of eternal life made possible through the redemption Christ gained for all when He died for our sins on Good Friday.

PHOTOS:

At a very early age I learnt that the season of Lent was very serious business.

■ By Pauline Smith

Our Parish Priest Monsignor JT McMahon presented us “things to do” and the good sisters presented us “things to do without”. The former would be spiritually gainful and uplifting such as 6.45am daily Mass and Stations of the Cross on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings.

The latter would teach us “self denial” involving doing without such things as lollies and ice creams during Lent and contributing the pocket money saved to the missions.

As small children, morning Mass was not a reasonable option, so our parents decided that we as a family would forgo the Friday night pictures (movies) at the local picture theatre and “do” the Stations of the Cross three nights of the week.

This really was penitential as everyone knew that the Friday night “serial” always ended in Lent and so we were dependent on others to find out “what happened”.

The years passed, we had a young family of our own and the season of Lent was upon us again.

We called a family meeting to decide what we could all “do” for Lent; something that was sacrificial but also productive.

The children decided that they would collect cool drink bottles which at that time had a refundable deposit.

All the family could be involved and the money collected could go to the needy.

Making Lent Matte

My husband’s part was to drive the station wagon slowly along the road while the two eldest children would knock on doors to request unwanted cool drink bottles which were then put in the car.

Returning home the younger children would sort all the bottles into separate piles to be taken off to the manufacturers.

For my part I stated that I was going to go to 6.45am Mass and our 9 year-old daughter said she would join me.

For some reason we had to walk each day. At the beginning of Lent the weather is usually hot but as Lent progressed it became colder.

“If it had not been for my nine-year-old daughter, up and dressed every morning, waiting for me, I believe I may not have been steadfast in my decision.”

If it had not been for my nine-year-old daughter, up and dressed every morning, waiting for me, I believe I may not have been steadfast in my decision.

The years moved on, our children were grown and I was working part-time at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

Lent was upon us again. I discovered that St Thomas More Chapel had Mass each day at 12.10 pm celebrated by a Jesuit priest Fr Hamilton-Smith. What an extraordinary man!

Mass was in the little chapel and in 30 minutes , we celebrated Mass, sang a song and listened to a homily which was always challenging. He forged a little community among the 12 to 14 people who partici-

pated each day and any extras who happened along. Another Lent, another place. This time it was at the Sisters of Mercy in

Wembley who kindly allowed the public to attend Mass at 4pm in their beautiful chapel. Again it was different – all the residents

had their own As I gazed ac the reflections

Penitential season a chance for fresh start, opportunity for renewal

Continued from Vista 1 Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence from meat.

● Those who have completed their eighteenth year are bound by the obligation of fasting, until the beginning of their sixtieth year (1859 incl)

● The law of abstinence from eating meat binds those who have completed their fourteenth year (15+).

“Fasting implies self-denial in the matter of food. It can also include other acts of self-discipline, including bearing with patience our crosses that we have not chosen but must carry.”

- Archbishop Hickey

● Fasting implies self-denial in the matter of food. It can also include other acts of self-discipline, including bearing with patience our crosses that we have not chosen but must carry.

● The faithful are to incorporate into their lives the main themes of Lent:

· Attention to prayer

· Self-denial

· Generosity towards others, especially to the needy

· Reflection on the passion,

death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

● Renewal of our baptismal commitment to Christ and his way.

● Catholics are obliged to receive Holy Communion at least once a year, between Ash Wednesday and Trinity Sunday.

● The special character of Lent should be taken into account in other Church celebrations during this time.

● Hymns are to observe the special character of Lent, avoiding Easter hymns and those with “Alleluias”.

● Catholics are obliged by Church law to confess their sins at least once a year. The Season of Lent is an ideal time to fulfil this obligation. Furthermore, if one is

Note for St Patrick’s Day, and Chinese New Year

The Feast of St Patrick has been changed from Monday 17 March (Holy Week) to Friday 14 March.

Since Ash Wednesday, 6 February, occurs during the Lunar New Year, those who traditionally celebrate these days, Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans and others, are dispensed from the laws of fasting and abstinence on that day.

To avoid confusion, only one Friday in Lent, Good Friday, is a day of abstinence from meat.

conscious of having committed a grave sin since the last confession, he or she is bound to confess that sin in the Sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion. It is recommended that venial sins also be confessed.

Let us recall the words that may be used in the distribution of the ashes:

“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

“Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.”

Most Rev B J Hickey Archbishop of Perth Lent 2008

● The “Alleluia” Acclamation before the Gospel gives way to a Lenten verse.

Archbishop Barry Hickey’s Lenten Pastoral Letter

Reconciliation: A priest offers spiritual guidance, but most of all Christ’s power to wash away all one’s sins in the Sac is the perfect time to reconcile with God.

n chairs, some in wheelchairs. cross the chapel and watched s of the stained glass windows

Ten ideas

and felt the heat of the late afternoon it took me back to my childhood when I had gazed at the reflections of the stained glass windows on the walls of St Columba’s as I listened on hot summer evenings to the Stations being intoned.

As I reflect on these memories I see how important the season of Lent has been in my life. I still ask the question “What can I do?”

One practical suggestion in answer to that question and especially if you have a family is to get a Project Compassion Box, put it on the kitchen bench for all to see and encourage the whole family in selfdenial and in giving to those who have so little.

So don’t allow Lent to just slip away and suddenly discover that it’s Easter. Ask yourself now “How can I make Lent matter?”

Smith is the author of God’s Owns Our Business Also, a remarkable autobiographical account of God’s Providence at work as she and her husband established and developed their family’s business. Published by The Record it is available from The Record Bookshop.

For making Lent a season of new growth

1. Set aside 10 or 15 minutes for prayer each day. If you already pray this much, perhaps a little more time spent with the Lord will help you follow Him more faithfully.

2. Read Scripture, listen and reflect on what God’s word means for your daily ife.

3. Take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation - start (or re-start) your spirtual life with a fresh slate in your relationship with God and others.

4. Go to Mass regularly. If you are a Sundays-only Catholic, try going to Mass during the week. Make it a habit.

5. Speaking of habits, try giving up some that are not mportant such as smoking or television, and taking up others that build your spirtual life. Try the Rosary.

6. Attend the Stations of the Cross at least once.

7. Cultivate love: look for opportunities to give up doing something for yourself, and do something for your family or your neighbours. Try reflectng on why it is important to love other people.

8. Give - amounts don’t really matter. It’s what you can afford to give that counts. Think of your brothers and sisters throughout the world who suffer from poverty, war, injustice, rejection, abuse and so many other forms of suffering and try to do something that will help someone, somewhere.

9. Visit someone who is sick or sorrowing or in jail; spend time listenng to them intently; offer helpful advice so that they see you are really do understand their problem 10. Pray for the souls in Purgatory

■ By Sylvia Defendi

With Lent approaching early this year, Perth’s Caritas Office suggests a new focus on prayer, fasting and giving.

Ash Wednesday will be celebrated on February 6 and marks the beginning of the Lenten period.

“It is during Lent that we are called to pray for our own spiritual growth, as well as that of others and to fast or go without. We do this in recognition of what we have in excess so that we can give to those who experience poverty and suffering each day of the year,” said Ann Fairhead, Perth diocesan director of Caritas Australia.

This year, as part of their preparation for Lent and to remind everyone that Lent is imminent, the Perth office will have a pancake cook-up on Tuesday February 5 for all interested.

Shrove Tuesday, as it is traditionally known, was celebrated across the globe on the day preceding Lent, during which only the plainest foodstuffs were eaten. Rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar were disposed of immediately prior to the fast, by making pancakes and doughnuts, and provided a minor feast before Lent.

Caritas Australia has been at the forefront of aid assistance during Lent, with the launch of Project Compassion, for over forty years, yet Mrs Fairhead believes that the true message of the Lenten drive can easily be missed.

“Project Compassion is an easy way to unite ourselves with the Universal Church, while fulfilling our need to share our good fortune with those who have little or nothing,” she said, adding that in 1 John 3:18 we are called to make our love

Merredin Pilgrimage

The Deanery of Merredin has arranged a special pilgrimage program for Monday, February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

St Mary’s in Merredin is one of the churches designated by Archbishop Barry Hickey as a pilgrimage site for those seeking to gain the plenary indulgence decreed by Pope Benedict XVI for the 150th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearances at Lourdes in 1858.

The indulgence is available for local pilgrimages between February 2 and 11. (See last week’s Record for details).

The February 11 program at Merredin begins at 10.30am with a welcome to pilgrims, the Rosary, and the opportunity for Reconciliation.

Mass will begin at 11am and will include the Anointing of the Sick. There will be a lunch break at 12.30, with tea and coffee provided, but pilgrims are asked to take their own lunch.

A Holy Hour and Benediction will be held from 1.30pm.

In the days February 2-10 there will be Mass at Merredin at 8.30am except on Ash Wednesday (February 6) when Mass will be at 9.30am and 7pm. The Church will be open for pilgrims at other times on request.

‘not just words, but something real and active.’

Among their many projects Caritas Australia will be helping the people of the Philippines, young indigenous people, the people of Java, youth of Kenya, those of Brazil and of

Fiji,

Pauline

crament of Reconciliation. Lent PHOTO:CNS

Prayer: Lent can be a powerful time for real spiritual growth and renewal. PHOTO:CNS

PHOTO:

Special moment: Pope John Paul II prays at the Massabielle grotto at Lourdes, France, where the Virgin Mary appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. PHOTO: CNS/REUTERS.

Perpectives

Things of greater importance: when material

Perth-based Scalabrinian

Tony Paganoni CS writes a series of reflections on the significance of cathedrals in the life of a church and the wider community.

In his chapters on art St Bernard is concerned with one thing and one thing only: excessive art as inappropriate to the monk’s profession.

Under the ‘small things’ he includes such clear infractions of external observance as excess in food, drink, and clothing.

Spirit in Stone of Cathedrals and communities

Anthony Paganoni CS

But what alarms Bernard more are the ‘things of greater importance’, things not covered in the Benedictine Rule, but things to which he attaches greater importance than particular infractions of the Rule.

These can be summed up in the equation between excessive, luxurious art (“the very sight of these costly but wonderful illusions

Q&A Mass facing east

By Fr John Flader

I have some friends who habitually attend the Tridentine Rite Mass who speak of the advantages of the Mass celebrated by the priest facing the altar with his back to the people, “facing eastward”, as they say. Personally I have only known Mass to be celebrated by the priest facing the people, and I don’t understand why my friends prefer the other way. Can you shed some light on the issues?

The tradition of facing in a particular direction for prayer is part of the practice of several major world religions. Muslims, as is well known, face toward Mecca and Jews face toward Jerusalem. In Old Testament times they faced more precisely toward the presence of God in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. There is a reference to this in Daniel 6:10.

Even after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, Jews maintained the custom of turning toward Jerusalem in the liturgy of the synagogue. In this way they expressed their hope in the coming of the Messiah, in the rebuilding of the Temple, and in the gathering of God’s people from around the world.

The early Christians, rather than turning toward the earthly Jerusalem, turned toward the new, heavenly Jerusalem. They believed that when the Risen Christ would come again in glory, he would gather his faithful to make up the new Jerusalem. Because they saw in the rising sun a symbol of the Resurrection and of the Second Coming, it was natural for them to pray facing eastward. There is strong evidence of eastward prayer in most parts of the Christian world from the second century onward. While there is no explicit mention in the New Testament of the eastward direction for worship, tradition has found biblical references for this symbolism in the “sun of righteousness” in Malachi 4:2, the “day dawning from on high” in Luke 1:78, and the angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living

God in Revelation 7:2. In Matthew 24:27-30, the sign of the coming of the Son of Man with power and great glory, which appears as the lightning from the east shining as far as the west, is the cross. There is a close connection between eastward prayer and the cross. By the fourth century at least, it became the custom to mark the direction of prayer with a cross on the east wall in the apses of basilicas as well as in private rooms, for example, those of monks and hermits.

Toward the end of the first millennium, theologians of different traditions mention that prayer facing East is one of the practices distinguishing Christianity from the other religions of the Near East. Jews pray toward Jerusalem and Muslims toward Mecca, but Christians pray toward the East.

While in the early centuries Christian churches were usually built facing East to facilitate this custom, today the expression “facing East” is used in the general sense of priest and people facing in the same direction in the sacred liturgy. The custom is followed in the Byzantine, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Ethiopian traditions, at least during the Eucharistic prayer, as well as in the Tridentine rite.

The custom has a rich symbolism. By facing in the same direction as the faithful when he stands at the altar, the priest leads the people of God, as it were, on their journey of faith toward the new Jerusalem of heaven. This movement toward the Lord is expressed artistically in the sanctuaries of many churches, where representations of the cross or of the glorified Christ, often surrounded by angels, indicate the goal of the people’s earthly pilgrimage.

This reminds us too that the celebration of the Eucharist is a participation in the heavenly liturgy and a pledge of future glory in the presence of the living God.

So there is a long tradition and a great depth of meaning in the “eastward facing” celebration of Mass. A good book on the topic is Fr

Uwe Michael Lang’s Turning Toward the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer, published by Ignatius Press.

It should always be remembered that even when the priest is “facing the people”, both he and the people are always “facing the Lord”, in their worship.

inflames men more to give than to pray”) and holiness.

By ‘excessive art’ he means that art which exceeds the norms of luxurious art of a particular social or religious group in the emphasis placed on material, craftsmanship, size and quantity, as well as in the type of subject matter. Bernard argues in Apologia XII, 28,

“What do you think is being sought in all this? The compunction of penitents, or the astonishment of those who gaze at it? A vanity of vanities, but no more vain than insane! The Church is radiant in its walls and destitute in its poor. It dresses its stones in gold and it abandons its children naked. It serves the eyes of the rich at the expense of the poor. The curious find that which may delight them, but those in need do not find that which should sustain them”.

This dilemma – art as opposed to the care of the poor - has always existed in the Church from its earlier times. Apparently from the peri-

od prior to the so-called Edict of Milan (313), a tradition had existed in the Church sanctioning the selling off of liturgical vessels or liturgical art to aid the poor - harking back to Old Testament days.

Whether it was purely moral or theoretical subordination or the praising of individual acts of selling liturgical art for famine relief and the ransoming of slaves, a firm tradition existed in support of this alternative view and use of art. According to this tradition, which was most widely disseminated through the writings of S. Ambrose, soon after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus in 258 the Roman deacon Lawrence was approached by gov-

Finding respect for all people

Edith Cowan University Journalism student Joanna Lawson has gone to India this summer to establish Branches, a project aimed at helping the exploited working poor in Goa. Her column appears regularly in The Record

Mass finished, and at 7.45 in the morning on what was shaping up to be a blistering hot Cochin day, we left the Church with the bubbling sounds of Malayalam after-Mass chatter in our ears, searching for a nice tea stall to quench our thirst. Coming to a crossroads,

The Vine Branches

By Joanna Lawson

we decided to take a left, though some vestigial instinct from the days before satellite navigation said that we should have taken the right.

Slowly turning the corner, my eyes flitted over a butcher’s shop with the carcass dangling from the threshold and a lady pointing to some part of the unfortunate body, presumably to have it stripped off so she could take it home.

A sense of foreboding welled up in me, partially because we were getting steadily lost and

PHOTO: JOANNA LAWSON.

there was still no sign of any tea. And then... Some cows were tethered to a wall, looking at me with big brown eyes. And then I turned my head to investigate why they were in such an odd area, and in a split second saw many of their former field mates hanging up by their legs.

Immediately horrified, I began to run and then out it rang: a loud bellow at once speaking of terror, pain and resignation.

I screamed and ran, the ladies at the side of the road tittering at my reaction to the everyday act of slaughter.

How could this happen? I felt under a cloud, the cruelty of the morning colouring the rest of my thoughts for the day.

We left Cochin the next day to start a stint of volunteering with the Missionary Brothers of Charity in Kanniyakumari, where

Food for thought: A rather unusual occurance shocks Joanna in Cochin.

Perpectives

possessions are coveted and goodwill is sidelined

ernment officials who demanded that he hand over the treasure of his church.

Lawrence asked them to come back later so that he might gather this treasure for them. When they returned, he showed them the assembled poor and the sick of the city, explaining that they were the true treasure of the Church.

According to Ambrose, Lawrence paid dearly for his reply.

It might be useful to remind the reader that no social services in the Archdiocese of Perth have been curtailed as a result of the extraordinary efforts undertaken to raise funds to subsidise the expenses incurred in restoring St Mary’s Cathedral for

in Cochin

they run a home for the intellectually and physically disabled men of this, the last town where one can set foot in India.

If God had a purpose for letting me see something so horrific the day before, it was so that my heart would be soothed by the Brothers and residents of Santhi Bhavan, the House of Peace, and see the compassionate side of man in its fullest flowering.

Both Hindu and Catholic alike get up early and attend the morning Mass, singing so beautifully, not so much because of the polyphony or adherence to pitch (they each sing whatever key they please), but because of the devotion with which they sing.

I had thought that I would do my stint at the home so that I could feel like I was of some use to the world, but instead I found that the boys and Brothers at Santhi Bhavan became not only an outlet for youthful aspirations of philanthropy, but gentle and loving teachers also.

After dinner is served, many of the boys look a little dishevelled as, despite having conditions such as Cerebral Palsy which cause jerky movements, they feed themselves and get rice all over their faces and fronts.

The boys who are able-bodied dutifully take wet sponges and clean their friends up until everyone looks respectable again. When watching the TV, Rajesh, rather portly because of his disability is happy to be used as a pillow by another boy who cannot sit up.

Their happiness comes from their own company, the Brothers‚ love and receiving guests: every morning their faces just light up as if Jesus himself walked through the gate when we arrive!

I will leave Santhi Bhavan having received instead of given, the lessons I learned here are indeed lifelong gifts. I hope that I can come back to Australia and live out the virtues so naturally present in this home for the mentally retarded, dying and destitute.

Australia, gradually becoming bent on eliminating the imperfections of disability would gain much if we had more Santhi Bhavans in our community.

Read Joanna’s Blog on the internet at: www.thebranchesproject.blogspot.com

the benefit of the Catholic population in Western Australia and its numerous overseas visitors.

I dare to suggest that the newly restored St Mary’s Cathedral will speak to future generations about the Church’s concern for those ‘who will always be with us’, the poor. These will come to know something

about ourselves when they visit the new Cathedral.

Both St Francis and St Bernard drew a clear line between living standards in monasteries and abbeys and the eloquence, in artistic terms, of public buildings, such as churches and cathedrals. In his fourth Sermon on the dedication of

the Church, St. Bernard observes:

“For although these walls may be called and have in truth been made holy by their consecration at the hands of bishops, by the daily reading of the Scriptures within them, by our constant prayer, by the relics of the saints, and by the

angelic guardianship, nevertheless, we must not believe that even holy walls are worthy of honour for their own sake since it is certain that it is not for their own sake that they have been made holy”.

Letting go of a good thing

Being Heard

By John Heard

‘Lapsed Catholic Syndrome’

Scratch a vituperative critic of the Catholic Church and find a lapsed Catholic.

This insight has proved correct so many times that it has taken on, for me, the function of a platitude.

Many readers will certainly recall the editors and writers of The Boston Globe in this context.

The less principled among them seemed, during the darkest days of the US Church sex abuse crises in 2000 - 2002, to take inordinate delight in not merely uncovering and reporting – as was their charge – but labouring, then spinning, inflating and editorialising the details of the various cases that came to light.

Their unseemly fervour quickly transformed early, laudable efforts to uncover a shameful cover-up into something more like, in the words of Oscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga SDB, a ‘witch hunt’.

Certainly, there was no rational link between a few priests’ vile attacks on children and certain

critics’ more outrageous claims about the Catholic Church on ethical and doctrinal issues like abortion, human sexuality and the priesthood.

In the aftermath, one couldn’t help noticing that the largest part of those who wrote most forcefully against the Church in Boston and elsewhere; certainly those who set up and funded so-called lay Catholic protest groups that were, in fact, nothing more than clearing houses for anti-Catholic tosh; were also often on record as being pro-abortion, pro-‘gay marriage’ and pro-priestess.

What a curious fact.

Many were also, by their own admission, former or lapsed Catholics.

Indeed, in my experience, even less than obvious critics - those who demonstrate that they are, through their actions if not their public words, against whatever the Church is for - are invariably lapsed Catholics or else people with a – or so they think - intimate and superior knowledge of Catholic schooling, theology and the liturgy. We have at least two Attorneys-General in Australia at this time that fall into this uneasy category.

It seems that, unlike secular Jews and non-practising Anglicans, people who have once tasted Catholicism can’t let the Church go.

It is as if there is some Catholic syndrome, or perhaps a lapsedCatholic syndrome. It colours the responses of apostates who later come into contact with Catholic material. It blinds former conventschool students.

It plays havoc with the lives and opinions of those who apparently long to be freed from the ‘shackles’ of their one-time religious gaoler but find themselves returning, time and again, to Catholic tropes.

Such people can’t help themselves. They exploit any whiff of impropriety, even if it is only alleged and later retracted or proved false; to lay into the Church they apparently left behind.

But I think they protest too much.

Certainly, reading a particularly toxic interview with famed New York columnist Jimmy Breslin, given to Salon.com’s Andrew O’Hehir in 2004, the typical symptoms of the syndrome – and therefore its treatment - came into view.

As someone who writes, regularly, on issues at the intersection of faith and human sexuality, I receive thousands of emails from people in various stages of this syndrome. I have, for a long time, worried about how to respond.

Why not just tell them the facts? Why not write to people like Breslin, O’Hehir and the others,

and then if they persist in snarling and sniping, blow them off?

But that can’t be the right medicine. No doubt, apologetics helps, but it’s not the complete cure. Sometimes we need a more direct appeal, a more obvious turning of the cheek.

There is, after all, always the sad chance that a critic’s anger stems from some real hurt – a childhood humiliation at the hands of a harsh nun or – God forbid – actual sexual abuse at the hands of a priest.

And I am struck by the simple fact that, despite their distress, the critics can’t let it – Catholicism – go.

That is good enough for me. I can’t let it go either.

The Apostles couldn’t let it go, even when they were spread far and hunted down.

Many saints and martyrs died rather than separate themselves from the Church of their youth.

If it is true that it takes more energy to frown than to smile, then it is probably also true that it takes as much, if not more effort to maintain the rage against Catholicism as it does to love the Church.

Scratch a critic the right way, then – in love, offering healingand coax back a faithful son.

Luxurious: 19th Century Cathedral in Agias Ekaterinis square.

Youth Ministry

In 2008, the Catholic Youth Ministry in Perth is shaking things up in an effort to more comprehensively carry out its vision to do the work of Christ: forming young people in the four key areas - intellectual, spiritual, human and pastoral. The cornerstone of the work will be called PILLARS, a major Catechetical project using the best speakers Perth has to offer to lead young people in a lively discussion about the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In a pub.

To borrow from Flame Ministries, “this is faith, but not as you know it”.

Get ready for it.

Bringing Christ into the culture

■ By Anthony Barich

The Archdiocese of Perth’s Catholic Youth Ministry office is set to change the face of the way it seeks to form young members of the Church in the lead-up to World Youth Day in July.

Under the codename “Pillars”, CYM seeks to provide young – and not so young – Catholics with “intelligent Catechetical musings”, says CYM director Robert Hiini.

Pillars is just one part of a monthly program that includes “Adore” in the first Wednesday of each month (except February) that is basically Holy Hour with Benediction, scripture and song; “Ascent” on every third Wednesday that is contemporary praise and worship and musings on the spiritual life; and “Solace” on every fourth Wednesday, for youth seeking a place for renewal and human formation.

“It’s us coming together and trying to figure out who God wants us to be as human creatures,” Mr Hiini said.

It will be truly interactive, with the aim to provide strong content to give young adults a strong sense of where they belong in a wider movement of the Church.

“We’re trying to set up an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to do its thing and work in young people,” Mr Hiini said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, it depends if people are open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do with them.”

The first session of Pillars starts with Gaetan Raspanti, whose band played at the Goliath music festival last year, performing some Christian music to set the scene for a casual setting.

The program, united under the vision of carrying out the formation work of Jesus – human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral – always starts at 6.30pm.

The significance of this time is based in Scripture, specifically John 6:30: “So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that

we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?” Mr Hiini says the answer to this encompasses the spirit of CYM’s work. “Jesus is the sign - the idea of Jesus giving Himself in the fullest sense as a spiritual entity; as a human being as He is man; spends three years being a pastor to people,” Mr Hiini says.

“His teaching is profound, and what we’re trying to do in covering the four areas of formation, is what Jesus did – He is the way, and we are seeking to follow Him.

The “musings” of Pillars will be a series of discussions led by various clergy and appropriately educated laypeople who can “think on the run” and engage youth in a chapter of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a dynamic way in the “laidback setting” of Rosie O’Grady’s pub in Northbridge.

The setting allows youth to ask questions at their leisure on how anything the speaker says applies to their everyday struggles of life.

First cab off the rank is Perth Canon lawyer Fr Brian Limbourn, who was a mentor for many young men at St Charles Seminary in Guildford as its Dean of Studies until last year. He was a lively educator when teaching Canon Law to St Charles’ seminarians, engaging youth in a dynamic way without compromising on the gravity of what he is teaching, as The Record observed last year.

For the next 12 months he will continue fulltime as auditor of the Archdiocese of Perth’s Tribunal of the Catholic Church.

Fr Limbourn will kick of Pillars’ first eight-week section titled “Why Christ? The point of it all” on February 20.

The star-studded line-up continues on March 12 with Archbishop Barry Hickey speaking on “Enter the Conqueror: The God who came to kick some”.

Other themes include, “You will receive power: Mary, saints and the Spirit”; “The Paschal Mystery: Dying to live the Resurrection?”; “The Sacrament Economy: A Father who hugs His kids”; and “Made for more: The call to Communion”.

Bella to ignite passions in Perth youth

■ By Anthony Barich

CYM will start off its mission in 2008 to “bring Christ into the culture” with a fundraiser to see the prolife movie Bella. on Saturday, March 2 at 5pm.

Bella is the story of Jose and Nina who both work in a New York City restaurant for Jose’s brother, Manny. After Nina comes in late for work again, Manny fires her. Jose (played by a disheveled and bearded Eduardo Verastegui) follows her into the subway, and from there, the story unfolds indie-film style, as the two begin to get to know each other, and both learn that the other has some serious secrets.

CYM director Robert Hiini said that just like his “Pillars” program, using Bella as a way of getting young people of like-minded faith together to ponder key life issues presented in the right way is how CYM is “going out and meeting people where they’re at in their faith journey”. “We want to go out and meet people, but we don’t want to leave them there,” he said.

The main star of the movie, Eduardo Verastigui, remarkably sang in a boy band, but is determined to change the negative stereotype of Latinos in the United States, he told about.com.

After 12 years in the entertainment industry as an

actor and musician, Verastegui decided to dramatically change the path of his career by making movies with positive messages.

He reportedly had a conversion experience and wanted to serve God, and, consulting with his local priest, the cleric told him to use his talents for God and to be a witness to God in everything he does.

“It’s a film that is more than a film, it’s a mission,” he told about.com. “Just making films with a positive message, elevating the dignity of Latinos. It seems before this, Latinos, we have been stereotyped in a very negative way in the media. Always a bandido, the criminal, the prostitute, the gang member and the drunkard, and if you’re good-looking, then you’re the Don Juan Latin lover. In other words, the womaniser, the liar. Very few times you see Latinos having the opportunity of being heroes.” Similarly, Mr Hiini says, the screening of Bella is a function of the vision he is trying to carry out – “to grow in God together and bring people to God in accessible ways”. “The role of CYM is really to just provide opportunities for the Spirit of God to move in the world and in people,” he said.

The film’s producer, Leo Severino, said: “People imitate art, and we wanted to make something with a positive message.”

Active: Eduardo Verastegui is co-founder of Metanoia Films, which released its debut film, “Bella,” last year. The Mexican actor starred in the lead role in the movie, which won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006. CNS

Tide is turning as thousands take to the streets in America

Pro-life message resounds long after march participants return home.

WASHINGTON (CNS) - When the tens of thousands of participants at the annual March for Life returned to their homes last week in the United States, some after longer bus rides than others, many of them put away their placards, marching gear and talking points for another year.

But not all of them.

A number of the participants who travelled great distances and braved cold temperatures to come to Washington to voice their opposition to legalised abortion were ready to jump right back to volunteering, praying or working for the cause that brought them to the January 22 march in the first place.

Those who lobby in Washington for pro-life efforts were no exception - they certainly got right back to work after attending the march that marks the anniversary of the 1973 Roe decision legalising abortion.

Two days after the march, Richard Doerflinger, associate director for the US bishops’ Secretariat for ProLife Activities, told Catholic News Service that his office had a full slate of issues it planned to closely monitor in the months ahead.

For starters, the secretariat was supporting an amendment to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act expected to go before the Senate any day.

The Bill would restrict the federal funding of abortion through the Indian Health Service except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape of a minor or incest with a minor.

The federal agency is responsible for providing health services to American Indians and Alaska’s native peoples.

The US bishops also are following an amendment to remove federal support for Planned Parenthood under Title X of the Public Health

Service Act and working to ensure that pro-life language stays in current appropriation bills.

They also will be keeping a close eye on legislation involving embryonic stem-cell research.

Doerflinger, who has met with some members of Congress on this issue, said he has seen the “tone of the debate change” in recent months with legislators seriously considering options that would enable research while “avoiding moral controversy,” particularly through the use of human skin cells.

The US bishops also will be following a bill to ban the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

In mid-January, a similar ban was rejected by England’s House of Lords.

According to Doerflinger, some researchers seem to be following the reasoning that if a process is “technologically possible, it must be acceptable.”

On the positive side, he said the secretariat also was hoping to see passage of the Pregnant Women’s Support Act, introduced in the Senate in December and the House earlier last year.

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, the group that helped craft the legislation, said her “No 1 priority” is to see Congress pass the legislation designed to ultimately reduce the number of abortions.

Day said that Democrats for Life would likewise be monitoring pro-life language in appropriation bills, stem-cell research measures as well as giving their input on the Democratic Party’s platform.

At the very least, she said, they would like the platform to include “conscience language” that has previously been incorporated in the platform stating the party’s respect for the conscience of each American on the issue of abortion.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, said his office spent a fair amount of time last year simply defending pro-life positions

‘Church must not lack apostles and evangelisers’

Catholic Schools Key in Midst of “Educational Crisis”

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org)

- In the midst of what Benedict XVI calls an “educational crisis,” it is important for Catholic schools to maintain their identity.

The Pope affirmed this when he received in audience participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The ecclesiastical disciplines,” the Holy Father said, “especially theology, are today subjected to new interrogations in a world tempted, on the one hand, by a rationalism which follows a false idea of freedom unfettered by any religious references and, on the other, by various forms of fundamentalism which, with their incitement to violence and fanaticism, falsify the true essence of religion.”

schools face a new challenge, that of “the coming together of religions and cultures in the joint search for truth.” This means, he said, on the one hand, “not excluding anyone in the name of their cultural or religious background,” and on the other “not stopping at the mere recognition” of this cultural or religious difference. Benedict XVI went on to refer to another theme being examined by the plenary assembly, that of reforming the document “Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis” for seminaries, issued in 1970 and updated in 1985.

in legislation and he expected this year to be more of the same.

He said there would not likely be legislation in Congress this year promoting abortion, because the congressional leadership wouldn’t “want to stir things up” before the election.

“For tactical reasons,” he added, “they do not wish to have pitched battles over abortion policy” right now.

But that doesn’t mean the presidential candidates are shying away from it or that future policies won’t be determined by the election’s outcome.

If a Democratic candidate is elected president, Johnson said, all current anti-abortion legislation “would be on the chopping block” because the Freedom of Choice Act, supported by the major Democratic presidential candidates, would “sweep the board clean.”

The legislation, which would prohibit states from placing limits on abortion, was initially introduced during the Clinton administration and reintroduced last April immediately after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal ban on partial-birth abortion is constitutional.

Although Johnson hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling in a joint decision in Gonzales v Planned Parenthood and Gonzales V Carhart, he also noted that the 5-4 decision proves how tenuous the court is on abortion issues.

“We’re on the cusp here,” he said, adding that when the next president picks a new justice for the Supreme Court, the appointment will either “build a majority to re-establish protection for the unborn” or will establish a court that is “extremely hostile to pro-life legislation.”

“There is a lot riding on the political events this year,” said Johnson, matter-of-factly.

But while he awaits election outcomes, he said he has plenty of reason to be optimistic, citing the recent report on the overall decline in performed abortions and polling data showing “a stronger pro-life sentiment in younger people.”

Faced with the educational crisis, Benedict XVI continued, “schools must ask themselves about the mission they are called to undertake in the modern social environment.”

Catholic schools, he said, “though open to everyone and respecting the identity of each, cannot but present their own educational, human and Christian perspective.”

The Pope contended that

Any reform, he said, “will have to highlight the importance of the proper correlation between the various dimensions of priestly formation in the perspective of Church-communion, following the indications of Vatican Council II. [...] The formation of future priests must, furthermore, offer them guidance and help to enter into dialogue with contemporary culture.

“Human and cultural formation must, then, be significantly reinforced and sustained also with the help of modern sciences, because certain destabilising social factors that exist in the world todaysuch as the situation of separated families, the educational crisis, widespread violence, etc. - render new generations fragile.”

Bishop compares Hindu extremists to fascists

Bishop compares Indian extremists to fascists

A Bishop from India has compared the fanatics who attacked Christians in his country to fascists.

Incensed by the violence and intimidation against Christians – which climaxed with last month’s attack in eastern India’s Orissa state – Bishop Lawrence Mukkuzhy spoke out against extremists during an interview with the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need.

The Bishop of Belthangady, in the west of India, said: “One party, by name BJP, is supported by Hindu fanatics – these people are very radical.”

Likening them to the BJP and to fascists, he went on: “They think that we Christians are a threat to them, they think we are committed to conversion, they see India as a Hindu country and believe we will destroy the traditions of India.”

The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) admits to being antagonistic to other faiths. Their website describes religious tolerance as an invader which threatens the fabric of Hindu society. Bishop Mukkuzhy said of the BJP: “They think India should be a Hindu nation.”

However, the bishop stressed that most Hindus are committed

to peace, and that the BJP does not speak for the majority: “They form a tiny minority, but they try to inculcate these ideas to other Hindus, they try to popularise their ideas.”

Yet Bishop Mukkuzhy sees the BJP slowly giving them political ground. “They have found combining religion and politics is advantageous. We are slightly afraid that they will implement this particular way of influencing religion,” he said.

Speaking just after recent violence in Orissa, he described the outbreak thus: “There was an anti-Christian attack, 57 villages were ransacked and attacked by Hindu fanatics, 500 houses were demolished, several churches and schools were set on fire, people were attacked including a seven year-old boy, so people fled to the forest. Men came with machetes, they were intimidated by the weapons and driven into the forest.” However, there has been help for the beleaguered Christians: “We appealed to the government. The central government has been very supportive; the military intervened to protect the people there.”

Orissa, like many areas has a large number of people living below the poverty line: “The Catholics in the area are mostly new converts from the tribes in the region, they are very poor.”

Penetrating message: Signs are displayed during the annual March for Life rally in Washington on January 22. The demonstration marks the 1973 Supreme Court decisions that legalised abortion across the country. PHOTO: CNS

World Feature

Mission Asia: The Jesuits’ new frontier

The new superior general of the Jesuits has summarised his plan thus: to evangelise the Orient “by the power of God alone.”

There is an element of continuity between Fr Adolfo Nicolás, elected as the new superior general of the Society of Jesus, and his predecessor from 1956 to 1983, Pedro Arrupe. Both were born in Spain, and both worked for many years in Japan.

Fr Giuseppe Pittau, who was interim director of the Society of Jesus during Arrupe’s illness, also worked in Tokyo for a long time, where he was rector of Sophia University, founded by the Jesuits in 1913.

The new superior general, Adolfo Nicolás, 71, has lived in the Far East since 1964, mainly in Tokyo, working as a theology professor at Sophia University, as provincial of the Jesuits in Japan, and most recently, from 2004 to 2007, as moderator of the conference of Jesuits of East Asia and Oceania. Apart from Spanish, Italian, English, and French, he speaks fluent Japanese. This link between the recent successors of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Far East demonstrates fidelity to the origins of the Society – to Saint Francis Xavier, the first great evangeliser of these lands – but also the desire to be present on a crucial frontier for today’s Church, that of the missions in Asia, which is today the least Christianised of the five continents. But it wasn’t always this way.

From the very beginning, one of the great directions for the expansion of Christianity was precisely toward the East, all the way to Persia, India, and China. From its origins,

Christianity was not a European phenomenon that was then exported as such to other civilisations, but a faith interwoven with numerous cultures.

Pope Benedict XVI, although he staunchly reaffirms the primordial grafting of biblical faith onto Greek philosophy, has often emphasised this “cultural pluriformity” of Christianity from its beginnings.

The last time he did this was at the general audience of Wednesday, November 28, 2007. At the beginning of his catechesis for the faithful, dedicated that day to illustrating the figure of a Father of the Syrian Church, Saint Ephrem, the Pope looked up from his written text and said, improvising:

“Dear brothers and sisters, common opinion today supposes Christianity to be a European religion which subsequently exported the culture of this Continent to other countries. But the reality is far more complex since the roots of the Christian religion are found in the Old Testament, hence, in Jerusalem and the Semitic world. Christianity is still nourished by these Old Testament roots. Furthermore, its expansion in the first centuries was both towards the West – towards the Greco-Latin world, where it later inspired European culture – and in the direction of the East, as far as Persia and India. It thus contributed to creating a specific culture in Semitic languages with an identity of its own. To demonstrate this cultural pluralism of the one Christian faith in its origins, I spoke in my catechesis last Wednesday of a representative of this other Christianity who is almost unknown to us: Aphraates, the Persian sage. Today, along the same lines, I would like to talk about St Ephrem the Syrian . . .” What, in this regard, is the vision of the new superior general of the

Jesuits, Adolfo Nicolás? To understand this, it is helpful to reread an article he published in issue number 3, 2005, of the international theol-

ogy journal “Concilium,” a magazine that upholds positions on the relationship between Christianity and the other religions and cultures that are not always compatible with official doctrine.

In effect, in this article Fr Nicolás writes that the Church has the duty of recognising “the religious wealth of other religions and the real and actual salvation they have brought to a thousand generations”: an idea that would raise the eyebrows of a few prelates at the Vatican congregation for the doctrine of the faith.

But what is of greater interest in the article by Fr Nicolás are not the answers that he gives, but the questions that he poses. These are to a great extent open questions, which he urges should be faced with “impartial service, without conditions, because only God is strength,” as he said in his first

homily as superior general of the Jesuits, at the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in Rome on January 20. In this spirit, Fr Nicolás says he is also ready to face apparent failures. Following the second world war, the Jesuits were convinced that Japan was fertile ground for a great missionary expansion. For this reason, they sent top-notch personnel to the country. But the massive conversions to the Catholic faith didn’t happen.

Japan is not the only crucial frontier for Christianity in Asia. But in any case, it is coming under increasing attention from the Church of Rome. A sign of this attention will come on November 24, 2008, with the beatification in Nagasaki of the Jesuit Peter Kibe Kasui and his 187 companions, martyred between 1603 and 1639.

SANDRO MAGISTER, LA CHIESA

 BY

The bold choice of a ‘forward thinker’

Though Fr Adolfo Nicolás was not among the most commonly mentioned candidates in the run-up to the big vote, Jesuit sources said he represents a fairly bold choice – something of a blend between the mild personal manner and diplomatic skill of Kolvenbach, and the prophetic emphasis on justice, peace, and Church reform associated with former General Fr Pedro Arrupe.

A Jesuit source in Rome said that several years ago, Nicolás was under consideration as Rector of the Gregorian University, but the Vatican expressed doubts about the appointment on the basis of concerns about the role he played as a theological advisor to the Japanese bishops during the 1998 Synod for Asia.

During that session, prelates from across Asia, including a particularly strong push from Japan, argued for greater collegiality, or decentralisation, in church authority.

The choice of Nicolás is especially significant, observers say, given that immediately prior to the

election Pope Benedict XVI had addressed a letter to Kolvenbach, praising the Jesuits for their many apostolic works but also calling them to obedience on several contentious issues.

“It could prove extremely useful,” Benedict wrote, “that the General Congregation reaffirm, in the spirit of Saint Ignatius, its own total adhesion to Catholic doctrine, in particular on those neuralgic points which today are strongly attacked by secular culture, as for example the relationship between Christ and other religions; some aspects of the theology of liberation; and various points of sexual morality, especially as regards the indissolubility of marriage and the pastoral care of homosexual persons.”

While Nicolás will certainly not lead the Jesuits in any direct challenge to those points, observers say, his election is nevertheless a choice for a “forward thinking” outlook, as well as for a sensibility to the realities of Catholicism outside the West.

Fr Nicolas speaks Spanish, Japanese, English, French and Italian.

The main man: Spanish-born Fr Adolfo Nicolas is cheered by delegates after taking the oath of office as superior general of the Society of Jesus in Rome on January 19.

PHOTO: CNS/DON DOLL SJ

St Ignatius: Society of Jesus founder.

‘I am programmed to kill my babies’

Repeat abortions - a failed attempt at self therapy?

■ By Bronia Karniewicz

It can be easy to pass judgment on women who seem to use abortion as a form of contraception or go out and have another baby almost right away, but we need to step back and look at why this is happening.

The re-enactment of a traumatic experience in order to try to overcome or understand it is a concept most mental health professionals are familiar with. However, replacement pregnancies or ‘re-enactment’ associated with abortion trauma is not understood by most health care providers.

Those acting out their abortion pain in this manner can expect harsh judgment, humiliation and enormous pressure to repeat their abortion experience.

Statistics from the South Australian Pregnancy Outcome Unit 2002 show the repeat abortion rate for teenagers is 18 per cent, for the under 25s it is 39 per cent and for the under 30s, 52 per cent. Overall, the repeat abortion rate is 39 per cent.

Judged as irresponsible and selfish by proabortion and pro-life sympathisers alike, repeat aborters are viewed with contempt by many health professionals including abortion providers, who go to great lengths to instill effective contraceptive practices. However, it is evident that a lack of contraception education is not the issue.

Libby who was doing well at school and dreamed of going to college, after her first abortion she speaks of why it happened again. ‘I had two more abortions over the next four years.

After the second one I attempted suicide; for all of them I asked for just local anesthetic; I wanted to make sure I felt the pain. I didn’t care if it was clean, didn’t care if I died on the table. I never went to follow-ups, and the anti-

biotics they gave me I threw in the toilet. I was just spiraling down in so many ways.’

In another story Becky speaks about the baby she had after her abortion, ‘It is so sad when I look into my beautiful daughter’s eyes and realise there was no love in her conception. It was just by some guy in the office.’

At the time of her first pregnancy Becky was nineteen and very much in love, but Becky’s boyfriend threatened suicide if she didn’t abort. ‘Everybody was against me having the baby, and in the end I just gave up. I just gave up.’

The abortion was organised for her with a predictable aftermath. While she consciously fought the desire to replace the pregnancy, the need to self-medicate with alcohol negated these good intentions.

The ‘Atonement child’ is the conscious or subconscious attempt to ‘replace the aborted baby’, however, the same extrinsic pressures can exist not to have the baby. Compounding

this are now maladaptive behaviour patterns associated with abortion trauma.

‘I am programmed to kill my babies’ were the first desperate words to a pregnancy crisis counselor of a suicidal pregnant woman from a professional background, booked for yet another abortion.

Research consistently links repeat abortion with disintegrating mental health, dysfunctional relationships, and welfare dependency.

In 1998, Swedish researchers calculated that of the 33,000 abortions per year, 18% were pregnant again within twelve months, half of whom would repeat the abortion experience. Among those who carry to term, significant numbers ‘self-medicate’ with alcohol and/or drugs.

The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology recently published a study that found during pregnancy, those with abortion histories were twice as likely to use alcohol, five times more likely to use illicit drugs and

Boosting women’s faith

■ By Anthony Barich

The Council for Australian Catholic Women’s profile in Perth is set to take off with the appointment of Kerry Macfarlane as its Perth representative.

Mrs Macfarlane, a lawyer by trade but who not practised since raising her three daughters with her husband, was appointed after her predecessor, Michelle Wood, asked her to step up as she was leaving for the Eastern states for “religious commitments”. Mrs Macfarlane’s involvement stems from her work with the national Social Justice Council for the past four years, during which time Miss Wood approached the council to help promote women’s interests according to the Australian

Catholic Bishops Conference’s 2000 Social Justice statement on the role of women in the life of the Church.

The CACW advises the Bishops Commission for Church Ministry about women and their participation in the Catholic Church in Australia. By 2006 Miss Wood had helped organise a number of forums around Perth and local volunteers had come up with up to 30 proposals for CACW’s local mandate, the first being that a local council be established in the Archdiocese of Perth, inclusive of women, men, Religious and clergy.

According to the ACBC, the CACW exists at the “national level to ensure that the dignity of women is honoured and their gifts are given space to flourish for the sake of the Church’s life and mission”. (ACBC Social Justice Statement 2000)

Pro-active: Kerry Macfarlane.

through difficult times like divorce, and need that connection with the Church, which can help them.

ten times more likely to use marijuana.

Not surprisingly, escalating substance abuse by mothers during and after pregnancy is now a serious problem in our communities.

‘I am programmed to kill my babies’ were the first desperate words to a pregnancy crisis counselor of a suicidal pregnant woman from a professional background, booked for yet another abortion.

Pitiful indeed is the plight of repeat aborters, who end up in our chemical dependency units trying to carry a pregnancy to term.

Viewed with contempt by all, it only serves to reinforce their sense of self loathing and victimisation.

The root cause of their trauma is too confronting for our doctors to face, it is often easier to blame the woman.

This acting out of abortion trauma can be overwhelming, but through greater sensitivity and compassion towards the issues surrounding pregnancy crisis and abortion trauma we can begin to realise why some women do things we ourselves cannot comprehend.

Bronia Karniewicz is director of Respect Life Office.

Walking With Love, is an initiative of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference which challenges us to develop a deeper understanding of Christ’s teachings and our responsibilities towards vulnerable pregnant women and those who have suffered abortion.

DETAILS:

Saturday 16th of February 2008

Time 1pm-5.30pm

The Boulevard Centre, 99 The Boulevard, Floreat.

( Lower Level Cambridge Library of the Floreat Forum Shopping Centre

More details www.walkingwithlove.org. au, or call 9375 2029.

On a local level, Mrs Macfarlane says the priority is to raise the profile of the CACW so that women have a visible place to seek formation and support for fostering their life in the Church, and in many cases to reconnect them with the Church. “We see our mission as evangelisers,” Mrs Macfarlane says. “Some women feel wounded by the Church, or are going

“Faith in families is often passed on through families, so in many cases there’s a generation missing there if the women fall away from the Church for whatever reason.” To help raise their profile, Perth CACW is seeking to connect with local agencies, organisations and parishes to share coordination of events like retreats and forums; even working in tandem with WYD promotional events to reach out to young women in the Church or “on the fringes”.

The CACW also assists in forming priests to help them pastorally care for women in their unique experiences. The Perth branch is also in the process of drawing up terms of reference for the group and Mrs Macfarlane’s position, in accordance with the national body.

To get involved in the Council for Australian Catholic Women or help Mrs Macfarlane out, contact her on 0400 886 835 or kerrymac4@hotmail.com.

In good company: New Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, a former Trinity College boy, is pictured here after attending Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York on January 27. He is pictured with Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN and Bishop Dominick John Lagonegro, Auxiliary Bishop of the New York Diocese who led the service which honoured His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI’s message of peace.

For over 125 years the Cathedral of Saint Patrick has been serving the New York diocese. It is one of the city’s most famous landmarks and reportedly has one of the largest weekly congregations.

The Australian Foreign Minister was one of more than 1000 people who attended Mass in New York last Sunday to hear the Pope’s Message of Peace.

Mr Smith described the Mass to The Record as “an awe-inspiring experience”.

When meeting Archbishop Migliore and Bishop Lagonegro after the service, Mr Smith discussed with them preparations for World Youth Day 2008 to be held in Sydney, Australia from July 15-20, 2008.

Suffering in silence: Healthcare providers tend to fail to understand the psychological impacts of abortion on women, says Respect Life Office director Bronia Karniewicz.

Wednesday January 30

CARITAS AUSTRALIA PROJECT COMPASSION

Lenten Speakers Workshop

Evening 6pm – 8pm, Catholic Pastoral Centre Seminar Room, 40A Mary St Highgate (Parking off Harold St), no charge, light refreshments provided, RSVP Essential 9422 7925.

First Friday February 1

ALLIANCE AND TRIUMPH OF THE TWO HEARTS

Holy Mass and Eucharistic vigil at St Bernadette’s Church Glendalough. Confessions at 5.15pm. Parish Mass at 5.45pm (Celebrant: Fr Doug Harris) followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, hourly Rosaries, hymns and reflections etc. Vigil concludes with midnight Mass in honour of the BVM (Celebrant: Fr Francisco Mascarenhas). Enq: Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Friday February 1

PRAISE AND WORSHIP

Followed by Mass commences again every first Friday at Sts John & Paul Church, Willetton. 7.30pm – 9pm, followed by light supper. All welcome.

Saturday February 2

DAY WITH MARY

St Peter the Apostle Church, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood (Bedford), 9am to 5pm. A video on Fatima will be shown at 9am. A day of prayer 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 lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Saturday February 2

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, EMBLETON

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes commences. Starting at 6pm Vigil Mass followed by Novena devotions, Benediction, hoisting of the Banner of Our Lady of Lourdes. Welcome get-together for Father Hugh Thomas CSsR the Preacher. Please bring a Plate. February 3rd and 4th, blessing of children and anointing of the sick respectively. Monday February 11, Feast Day. 7pm Holy Mass followed by candle-light procession to the Grotto. After the closing ceremony there will be a farewell get together for Father Hugh Thomas. Please bring a Plate. Enq: Mgr P McCrann 9271 5528 or George Jacob 9272 1379.

Sunday February 3

ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK

Every Sunday, 1 - 2 pm on Access 31. February

3: Introduction to the Gospel of St John/Frances Hogan and guests [For God So Loved the World;1] Followed by: What gives us hope?/ Rosalind Moss and guests [Reasons for Our Hope ; 2].

Sunday February 3

CARITAS AUSTRALIA

Official Launch of Project Compassion 11am Mass, St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral, corner Shepperton Road and Harper Street Victoria Park, Celebrant: Archbishop Barry James Hickey. Parishes to conduct local launch.

Sunday February 3

DIVINE MERCY

An afternoon with Jesus and Mary will be held at St Joachim’s Church, on the corner of Shepperton Road and Harper Street in Victoria Park, at 1.30pm. Program: Holy Rosary and Reconciliation, Sermon ‘The Precious Blood of Jesus’ by Fr Tiziani Bogoni followed by Divine Mercy prayers and Benediction. Afterwards refreshments in the parish hall followed by a video/DVD Fr John Corapi ‘Addictions”. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Panorama

a roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Sunday February 3

INAUGURAL LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT

The Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered every Sunday at 2pm, beginning on February 3, at the Good Shepherd Parish, 40-42 Streich Avenue, Kelmscott, with Rosary preceding. All welcome.

Monday February 4

THE WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA

Screening of Fr Corapi’s 50 part series on the Catechism of the Church will be held at the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Harold St, Highgate. Starting at 7.30pm, the evening will commence with a talk by a guest speaker on ‘Catholic Obedience and Satan’s war against the Church’.

Monday February 4

HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY

BIBLE STUDY – Discover the Power of God’s Love in His Word. Every Monday commencing 4 February. Daytime: 10am – 12noon, Evening: 7.30pm – 9.30pm. St Gerard Majella, ‘The White House,’ 36 Changton Way, Westminister. Enq: Jenni Young 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.

Tuesday February 5

CARITAS AUSTRALIA

Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Lunch

12 noon – 1.30pm, Cost: Gold coin donation, Catholic Pastoral Centre Seminar Room, 40A Mary St, Highgate (Parking off Harold St), RSVP essential 9422 7925.

Tuesday February 5

MMP CENACLE/MASS

First Cenacle/Mass for 2008 at St Anne’s Church, 11 Hehir Street, Belmont commencing 10.30am. Rosary; followed by Holy Mass. Celebrant Fr Paul Carey. (BL to share) Tea/ Coffee supplied. Enq: 9341 8082.

Wednesday February 6

THE JULIAN SINGERS

We are a Liturgical Choir of 30 people seeking new members. We sing at weddings, funerals, Masses and in concerts. Come along to see if you are interested any Wednesday night 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Edel Quin Centre, 36 Windsor Street, East Perth. First term commences 6th February. Enq: Chris 9276 2736 or Angela 9275 2066.

Thursday February 7

THE LORD’S PRAYER BIBLE SEMINAR; PRAY THIS WAY. Explains what it means to call God your Father and what it means to Hallow His Name and the coming of the Kingdom and God’s will in heaven and on earth. We discover how God’s provision can be seen in our lives and how we can give and receive forgiveness. We also discover a way to overcome temptations, how we are delivered from evil and see how God’s is truly the Glory and the Everlasting Kingdom that is also ours. Presented by Flame Ministries International starting 7.45pm for 8 weekly sessions. Cathedral Praise Meeting. 450 Hay Street, Perth City (East). 9382 3668 - fmi@flameministries.org.

Friday February 8

TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION IN HONOUR OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES

Around Lake Monger, will start at 7.30pm with Rosaries and Hymns. Congregating at the northwest corner at the park end of Dodd Street, Harbourne. The paths are wheelchair and stroller accessible. Please bring torches as no naked flames allowed. Enq: Judy Woodward on 9446 6837, Legion of Mary.

Saturday February 9

WYD SWAN VALLEY WINE TOUR

The Morley/Leederville World Youth Day delegation have organised a Swan Valley wine tour. Tickets are $65 with transport to and from the Swan Valley, several courses of wine tasting, chocolate tasting and a set lunch included in the ticket price. This is a great opportunity to get to know some of the other members of the Perth diocese and represents fantastic value with similar private tours costing up to $130. Tickets can be reserved through the Infant Jesus Parish Morley on 08 9276 8500.

Sunday February 10

ST CATHERINE’S GINGIN FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES 150TH ANNIVERSARY

Prog: 12 noon BYO lunch 1pm Holy Rosary, Exposition, Hymns, Benediction and Blessing of the sick 1.30pm Marian Procession. 2.30pm Holy Mass at the Grotto. 3.30pm Afternoon Tea provided. To book a seat on coach, please tel Francis 9459 3873 or Mob 0404 893 877. Enq Sheila 9575 4023 or Fr Paul 9571 1839.

Sunday February 10

CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Perth Chinese Catholic Community welcome all to our Chinese New Year Thanksgiving Mass (English) and celebration at 4pm at Holy Family Church, 45 Thelma St (cnr Thelma Street and Canning Highway). Main celebrant: Archbishop Barry James Hickey. Cultural lion dance and share a meal will follow after Mass. Enq: Peter 0412 626 893.

Monday February 11

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE

Emmanuel Centre is offering a new program called “Taking Control of your Life” This programme helps people with Mental Health problems gain some control over some of the issues they face each day as a result of their mental illness. These include goal setting, weight management, diet, exercise, decision making, setting boundaries and developing support mechanisms. If you are interested in hearing more about this program you are invited to attend an information session at 10am at Emmanuel Centre 25 Windsor St Perth, 6000. Enq: Barbara 9328 8113.

Wednesday February 13

CHAPLET OF THE DIVINE MERCY

A beautiful, prayerful, sung devotion held at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road, Bateman, on the second Wednesday of each month commencing at 7.30pm. The next devotion is to be held on Wednesday February 13. All are welcome. Enq: George Lopez 9310 9493(hm) or 9325 2010(wk).

Thursday February 14

ST PEREGRINE HEALING MASS

7pm at SS John & Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, (off South St,) Willetton. A Healing Mass in honour of St Peregrine, patron of Cancer sufferers and helper of all in need. The celebration will include Veneration of the Relic, and Anointing of the Sick. Enq: Noreen Monaghan 9498 7727.

Friday February 15

CATHOLIC FAITH RENEWAL

Fr Greg Donovan will lead you through Scriptures – Genesis to Apocalypse held at St John and Paul’s Parish Hall at 7.30pm. All are welcome. Enq: Rita 9272 1765 or Rose 0403 300 720.

Saturday February 16

ST PADRE PIO PRAYER GROUP ITALIAN

St Mary’s Church, Franklin Street, Leederville. Holy Mass 8am followed by Adoration, Rosary,

Divine Mercy and Benediction. Fr Tiziano Bogoni will be the celebrant. Finish at 10.45am. To follow in Parish Centre video of St Padre Pio and lunch. BYO. Tea/Coffee provided. All welcome. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Wednesday February 27

SET MY PEOPLE ON FIRE BIBLE SEMINARS BEGIN IN COMO 7.30PM

Holy Family Church, Cnr of Canning Highway and Thelma Street, Como. 15 weekly sessions with 3 weekend seminars bring you Abundant Life in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Open to all. Pope Benedict XVI says, “Prayerful reading of Scripture, and the consequent reform of life, is the secret to the constant renewal of the Church”. Archbishop Hickey said, “The Set My People On Fire seminars are an excellent source of Biblical teaching, especially as a living experience of the Word of God for the participants.” Full details www.flameministries.org/smpof.html or call Flame Ministries International 9382 3668.

PERPETUAL ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT Is in its fifth year at Christ the King Church, Lefroy Road, Beaconsfield. 24 hours per day, except at Mass times. All are invited to spend an hour with Jesus truly present. Entrance is from the porch, near the altar on the Lefroy Road side of the church. Enq: Joe 9319 1169.

First Sunday of Every Month

HEALING FIRE BURNING LOVE MINISTRY

Celebrates the Sunday Mass at St Bernadette’s Church, Cnr Jugan and Leeder Streets, Glendalough commencing with praise and worship at 6.30pm and Mass at 7pm. We have healing prayers after the Mass so please invite all those in need of the healing love and power of Jesus. Enq: Jenni Young 9445 1028 or 0404 389 679.

Every First Friday of the Month

NOVENA

Mass 7.30pm honouring St Pio of Pietrelcina with his Novena to the Sacred Heart and Prayer of Union. St Joseph’s Parish, 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean. Join in every First Friday.

Third Sunday of the Month

OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT MEET

Venue: St Joseph’s Convent, York Street, South Perth at 2pm. An annual Retreat is held at New Norcia, Trinity Sunday Weekend. Oblates are affiliated with Benedictine Abbey New Norcia. We celebrate our 50th Anniversary September 2008. A golden celebration. All welcome. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude monthly meeting. Enq: Secretary 9388 3026.

Every Tuesday WEEKLY PRAYER  MARY’S COMPANION WAYFARERS OF JESUS THE WAY

Starting at 7pm at St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay Street, Perth. Appreciate the heritage of the Faith united with others asking Jesus and Mary to overcome burdens in life. Receive healing in prayer through the Rosary, Scripture, meditation and praise in song. Followed by friendship and refreshments. Prayer is powerful. Come join us!

First Friday and first Saturday of each month

COMMUNION OF REPARATION  ALL NIGHT VIGIL

Corpus Christi Church, Mosman Park 7pm-1am, 46 Lochee Rd, Mosman Park. Mass, Rosary, Prayers, Confessions and silent adoration. Contact: Catalina 0439 931 151.

Submissions

ACCOMMODATION

■ FAMILY/GROUP ACCOMMODATION

www.beachhouseperth.com Call 0400 292 100

■ TO LET

Mandurah furnished holiday apartment in resort complex. 3 bdrm, 2 bath. Phn 9381 3495 or email: valma7@bigpond.com.

Nollamara – Rm avail Feb $125 p/wk. Own bthrm. Close to amenities. Looking for independent and honest female. Enq: Jacinta 0419 194 206.

St Anne’s Church Bindoon - accommodation for retreat/family/group or singles tel 9576-0975

BLINDS

■ BLINDS SPECIALIST

Call AARON for FREE quotes 0402 979 889.

BOOK REPAIRS

■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

Leather restorations; 2ndhand Catholic books @ Tydewi Bindery: phn 9293 3092.

BUILDING TRADES

■ BRICK REPOINTING

Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 9444 1200.

■ BRICKLAYING

20 years exp. Quality work. Phn 9405 7333 or 0409 296 598.

■ PICASSO PAINTING

Top service. Phone 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

■ OTTIMO

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GIFTS

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HEALTH

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THANKS

Many thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the prayers answered. Infant Jesus of Prague, Our Lady of the Miraculous medal, St Jude, and St Joseph. BT

WEDDING MUSIC

■ CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR YOUR WEDDING CEREMONY

Performed by the ‘Simply Classical Quartet’ 9444 1630 Demonstration CD available.

FLORIST

Aparacida’s Emporium

Florist Wedding Planner. As seen on Access 31 TV show- The Couch. Specialising in Weddings and Funerals. Fresh and Silk Flowers. All areas delivery. Contact Jo-Anne. 9439 6539. Valentines Day orders taken NOW !!

FURNITURE REMOVAL

■ ALL AREAS

Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

■ CATHOLICS CORNER

Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for baptism, communion and confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

■ RICH HARVEST  YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP

Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, baptism/communion apparel, religious vestments, etc? Visit us at 39 Hulme Court (off McCoy St), Myaree, 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve.

■ KINLAR VESTMENTS

‘Modern meets tradition.’ Quality hand-made & decorated. Vestments, altar cloths, banners. Contact: Vickii Smith Veness. 9402 8356 or 0409 114 093

PROPERTY

■ THINKING OF SELLING OR BUYING PROPERTY IN 2008

First Class Service

Accurate Caring and up to date advice Premium Marketing Acton Applecross – The Number One Sales Force Joel White 0404 096 214

■ PREMISES REQUIRED

We are looking for premises either North or South of Perth where we can hold daytime clinics for our clients. We require premises for a period of three to four hours during one day of the week where we can see the clients privately and also have a waiting room. A Doctors’ surgery would be ideal. Similar offers would be appreciated.

Our teachers are highly qualified in the field of Fertility education and management in the Billings Ovulation Method. Please contact Billings WA 0409 119 532 Marilena Scarfe.

IN MEMORIAM

KIRKWOOD (Maureen) In loving memory of my wonderful Mother, who died on February 3, 1985. So good, honourable and lovable, kind and generous. May God be with you always, my Little Irish Mother, and with dear Pappa too. May you both rest in peace. Always lovingly in my heart and prayers. Moira

IN MEMORIAM

DOOGUEs deceased: On Australia Day I mourned for my mother Delia Doogue, who died 30years ago on 26 January 1978, aged 88, and for my father, brothers and sisters, all deceased before me in the past 70 years. They were Tom senior [27.10.1886 - 09.08.1938], Tom junior [31.03.1923 – 26.07.1990], Gerald [30.03.1917 – 24.05.1994], Kevin [09.06.1932 – 30.08.2002], Mary [12.02.1921 – 19.01.2004], Jim [18.05.1919 – 22.06.2004] and Nancy [Anne Patricia Gilhooley 31.03.1923 – 17.02.2005] –From their son and brother John. Requiescant in pace.

WANTED

Full Time or Part Time Gardener/Groundsperson for our Convent properties to start mid February. Vehicle and equipment provided for the work. Independent Schools award rates and conditions. Must be trustworthy and able to work independently. Some conditions may be negotiable.

Please apply with CV, Police Clearance and references to: Presentation Sisters, PO Box 290, Cottesloe WA 6911 or phone 9384 5433 for further details.

Rising in Christ: Meditations on Living the Resurrection

By Pope John Paul II

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Foundation of our faith. In these meditations, Pope John Paul II shows us that the hope and joy of the resurrection is a tangible reality we can experience in our own lives.

$23.95+postage

The Glory of these Forty Days: Reflections on the Lenten Season

By James Tolhurst

Here are timeless reflections for each day of Lent to remind us of Jesus’ paschal mystery: his passsion, death and resurrection. The Gospel is given for each day with short commentaries chosen from the writings of one of the Saints or Fathers.

$19.95+postage

A Guide to the Passion: 100 questions about the Passion of The Christ

This book was written to help you understand the many theological and artistic elements of the movie. It presents a fascinating scene by scene analysis of this unforgettable film experience.

$8.95+postage

Jesus of Nazareth

Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifiction and Resurrection, this film brings to life all the majesty and sweeping drama of the life of Jesus as told in the Gospels. A star studded international cast adds depth and humanity.

$62.95+postage

Daily Lenten Meditations:

Prayful reflections from John Paul 11

This volume is a small representation of John Paul II’s teaching presented as a help to those who wish to live the Christian Church’s season of Lent more meaningfully.

$20+postage

The Passion of The Christ

“A beautifully realised interpretation that succeeds brilliantly as a work of art.”

“Powerfully moving”.

“An impressive passionate vision.”

$29.95+postage