The Record Newspaper 28 December 1989

PERTH, WA: December 28, 1989

Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202

So Jesus went back with them to Nazareth, where he was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew, both in body and wisdom, gaining favour with God and men.

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Road to our end

VATICAN CITY (CNS): While the world longs for the peace promised by the birth of Jesus, "every day our brothers and sisters are dying" in the Middle East, in Central America and in other regional wars, Pope John Paul II said in his "urbi et orbi" (to the city and to the world) annual Christmas Day message which was beamed by satellite to more than 50 countries.

The pope offered a prayer for "this old Europe of ours," especially for Eastern European countries "awakened from a nightmare" of repression under communist governments.

But he said people all around the world are "dying in fratricidal struggles for supremacy" and are "dying because of senseless and reckless courses of action".

The pope said that through Jesus, God has welcomed "the men and women of the second millennium now hastening to its end".

"He has not regarded our contradictions, our infidelities, our inconsistencies," the pope said.

Rather, he sent his son to heal all people, "to tell us that by taking the road we are taking, we are racing toward selfdestruction."

"The world longs for reconciliation: yet every day thousands of refugees are abandoned and rejected," the pope said.

While the pope did not mention a specific group of refugees, a week earlier he had called for a humanitarian solution

to the plight of some 45,000 Vietnamese refugees facing forced repatriation from Hong Kong.

"Ethnic and religious minorities go neglected in their basic needs," the pope said, and "whole groups are kept on the margins of society in ever-growing isolation".

"The world longs for balance, both within and without: yet every day the environment becomes more polluted for reasons of selfinterest or from lack of concern," he said.

In his message, the pope also prayed for an end to "all barriers" of race, ideology and intolerance among people and asked God to "guide the negotiations now under way for arms reduction and control".

"Strengthen all who strive for an end to hostilities that have continued for too long in Africa and Asia, so that the people involved may regain their freedom and their rights through frank and trusting dialogue," he said.

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Inhuman ways and resistance VATICAN CITY: For half a national independence," century Eastern Euro- he said. peans have been resisting Resistance always must the "terrible evils," be the reaction to "inhuincluding repressive man systems," the pope governments, which were said. unleashed by the war, the In a Christmas Eve pope said. interview with Italian "We know that as much state television, Pope as this resistance cost, it John Paul pointed particwill always be indispen- ularly to the end of onesable, and not only for party communist rule in the ethical motives of most of Eastern Europe

"beginning with my Poland," which elected a non-communist prime minister in August.

"It was also extraordinary that all of these events developed in a quite peaceful manner.

The only sad and painful exception was Romania.

But it is a stage of the same process," the pope said.

"It is also significant that all of this comes in the year 1989, 50 years after the outbreak of the Second World War, which began all of these tragedies," he said.

The war "was a trial from which the people are finally emerging as winners," the pope said.

The interviewer told the pope that many people have said that the peaceful changes in Europe could not

have happened without his influence.

"To this there is only one response," the pope said.

"There is-providence which guides the destinies of people, of humanity, also of individuals. And sometimes providence makes use of useless servants."

The praise, he said, belongs to God's providence and to the protection of Mary, mother of Christ.

Latest work of Gerry Roleystone artist Gerry Darwin has produced the resin-bronze lifesize sculpture for a new church of St Brigid in Dubbo NSW. Named simply The Dubbo Madonna this latest work of Mr Darwin concentrates on the young Jesus, in contrast with the adolescent Jesus he sculpted last year for the Marist College in Canberra.

Diocese of Bunbury

Pastoral Formation Program A two year correspondence course for adults, aimed at deepening knowledge of the Catholic faith and preparation for lay ministry.

The third and final intake of new students for this program will be in 1990, commencing with a Lenten Study Course.

For information write to the Executive Officer, Pastoral Formation Program, 20 Prosser St, Bunbury 6230 Kids listen to the Christmas story.

ss ine pp Ha Homeless.

It's no place to be and at Christmas harmony Almost 2000 years ago Jesus Soon after his birth he born. was experienced the hardship of being a refugee, as he and his parents fled for their lives to Egypt.

That flight into the unknown, the fear and the loss of home and possessions, is shared today by the many millions who are homeless.

They have fled their homes and sometimes their countries through famine, flood, war or political turmoil.

With no home and no means of earning a living, they must depend on others for their daily needs as they await the opportunity to return and rebuild or to move to a new land and a new life.

For many, the refugee camp has become their home.

Australian Catholic Relief is

helping with projects that will give them the skills and the education needed to maintain their dignity and get back on to their feet.

Where return is impossible, their new-found skills will help them to qualify for resettlement in another country — perhaps Australia.

This Christmas, share your celebration of the life and hope of Christ's birth with the gift of a future for our homeless brothers and sisters.

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2

The Record, December 28, 1989

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What a swell party it was. They came by the scores — babies, toddlers, children and adults — and rendezvoused at the Cathedral Parish Centre in Hay Street.

There were at least 500 present.

The occasion: A Christmas party for newly arrived refugees. The hosts: The Catholic Migrant Centre. Date: December 21 from 11am.

The result: We witnessed a mini world of refugees.

These people came from countries like El Salvador, Cambodia, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Chile, Nicaragua, Iran, Hungary, Rumania and Poland.

CMC staff worked feverishly to see that everything went on smoothly and that all present were well looked after.

It was the biggest ever party given by CMC and without a doubt it will go down as being the most successful.

And what better way to emphasise a success that to "crack" a few bottles of champagne. (We even have to use a French name!) Yes. It flowed quite freely; the guests were treated to tid bits and refreshments.

The pity of it all was that the centre's hall was not big enough to accommodate all that came. So the latecomers had to be content with watching the show from the doorways.

The day opened with CMC director Gerald Searle welcoming all those present. His staff

By Roy Lazaroo interpreted the welcome number of in a languages.

The place was a sea of happy faces. Though pigmentation varied in shades, the smiles were universally the same. It never altered the mood of the occasion.

It was clear that the new arrivals felt very much at home.

It was clear, too, that racial barriers did not count. It was a true spirit of Christmas.

And if Christmas can bring about such racial harmony, it might be a good idea to have Christmases more frequently.

Keeping the crowd entertained were Nettie Hobson and Elene Embleton with a puppet show on the Christmas Story, the duo of sisters Jiyn (violin) and Lee Ee Soong (piano); Music on Wheels by Coral Gunning and a sing-along session by Carlos Soto

(CMC staffer) and Miss Kerna.

Santa Claus was also present and naturally he was a big hit with the children who rushed around him expectantly as he made his entry into the hall.

It was indeed heartrending to watch the goings-on.

Happiness and harmony was in full focus.

At the end of the party one could not help but silently pray and hope that such harmony would continue to exist in the years ahead.

It would make Australians proud. Proud that they have eventually left behind their embarrassed mistrust of outsiders. The Christmas party went even further and showed that we have grown up to the realisation that irrespective of race, colour or creed, we all are children of God. Gerald Searle said: "This is just the start of our push for racial acceptance."

Some of those who could not get into the hall.

She'll get down to the grass roots Sister Maura Kelleher.

BATHROOMS... BEAUTIFUL Remodel that old bathroom A dd PRESTIGE and VALUE to your home The councillors who will help guide the Perth Mercy Congregation from January 26: (from left) Sisters Claire Keating, Assisium Wright, Gabrielle Blake (vicar), Josephine Dillon.

"I won't be in an office all the time and I want to be close to the grass roots," says the new congregational superior of the Perth Sisters of Mercy.

Suter Maura Kelleher had already been sorting out a few directions her life might take when her current education contract finished in two years but she never thought this would be her ministry.

Sister Maura was elected during a six-day chapter at Santa Maria College attended by 42 participants, including 22 delegates. On January 26 she commences a fiveyear term as West Australian superior of her

congregation and her appointment means that she winds up her position at Yidarra Catholic School Bateman where she was founding principal, following a similar experience as founding principal of Langford Catholic School.

Her other appointments included Redcliffe. Carlisle, Belmont and Havelock St (both of which she saw closed), Victoria Park and Harvey.

Originally from County Cork, she says it was a cousin in the Mercy order and her schooling with the Mercy Sisters that turned her mind to a vocation of her own.

She wrote to Australia and when next two WA

sisters visited Ireland in 1952 she returned with them to enter at Victoria Square.

Six years later she made her final vows in the first ever Bunbury ceremony, with Bishop Goody presiding at the ceremony.

"It will be hard to give up Yidarra," she said, "I love being there." Compared with the days when many sisters might staff a school being the sole religious sister on the staff did not worry her at all.

"They saw me as a person whom they said was approachable, and that's part of being a Mercy religious, bringing mercy to people."

A sense of the human

Jubilee joy

and approachability were the two things she worked hard at with their staff and she is convinced the laity can do an excellent job after her departure.

"I did not feel alone because I felt we were all about the one thing, the mission of education. I worked hard at developing the Catholic ethos of the school."

On the other hand, she says, religious still have a role to play in the school in the field of pastoral care for families and teachers and as a liaison between the home and the school.

For the future of the congregation she leads, it is a matter of looking at

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Risecord Was last weekend's Christmas celebration imprisoned in a day of time in the garbage of post-Christmas scourings or did it become a universal event to the end of ,time?

Was the bitter privacy of a poor couple in a country stable trapped inside cards and tinsel or did Jesus' Crib become a public triumph, asks St Brigid's crib display, on page 16 of this issue.

Was it but the birth of just another individual or was it truly the birth of the Word of God through whom all things were made??

Across decades, across centuries and millennia, successive waves of humanity are free to celebrate the birth of Christ again and again — provided they want to be free. When the world has to shut down its celebration of Christmas in order to get back to reality it is still not free.

Celebrating the birth of Christ is a gesture of freedom to those to whom He gives the power to become children of God, who have seen His glory, full of grace and truth.

The world says goodbye to the 1980's and God leaves us free to believe or not to believe — to accept His Son or reject Him. Like most of our affluent urban brothers and sisters of the First World Australians have never been so free to believe. No government would dare command us to believe. Even the peer pressure that once made us believe out of semi-compulsory respectability has vanished.

Three quarters of Australians — those who professed in the census to be Christian — were free to celebrate the birth of Christ but their embarrassed faith hidbehind tinsel, pantomine make-believe and food.

To know Christ, to have listened seriously to His words would be a loss of freedom, says the popular secular wisdom. Those who have no faith, who have abandoned faith, say they are now more free.

The Eastern Europeans for decades were told they were free even though they lived in the prison of state atheism, drabness and inhuman torture and suffering. That freedom was a mirage. They now want true freedom.

Others are stillnot free. In the Third World, millions upon millions were free to celebrate Christ's Birth but only if they stayed in their shantytowns, in their endless lines waiting for food, for jobs, for nothing. Jesus had come to bring some peace, but it was hard to find in their misery.

Our politicians are poised to sell us another round of promises of freedom. They may be selling us into slavery — our own.

We don't know the mind of God. Wisely the Church counsels us to pray even for the Ceausescus of this world. God's mercy is better than grizzly revenge.

Ceausescu and other dictator thugs now being unmasked, along the thousands of grasping sycophants who kept them in power, were playing at the Garden of Eden trick — they thought they were gods.

The masses were told to believe the Serpents' lies and in case they didn't a Russian Army was on hand to see they did.

The day had to come, of course, when even the Russians could no longer stand the lies themselves.

Ceausescu died on Christmas afternoon.

In his fantasy it was not Christmas afternoon because for decades the masses whom he liberated were told that Christmas did not need to exist in the graft and corruption that has been applauded as the worker's paradise behind the Iron Curtain.

Ceausescu thus substituted his own miserable gospel for another. He forgot to keep up his reading of Luke's parable of the rich man who built bigger and bigger barns.

But God said: 'Fool . . . this hoard of yours, whose will it be then. . ?'

The Church is dismissed as old fashioned and irrelevant for preaching this simple reality. There are obviously fools born every day who think they can take their (Swiss) bank hoards with them!

4

The Record, December 28, 1989

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Cory gets a Sin arning

Cardinal Sin

LAUNCH IMMEDIATE REFORMS OR..

MANILA (CNS): Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila has told President Corazon Aquino to hunt down army rebels and curb excesses by her relatives and government or face "the horrors of a new coup."

Cardinal Sin warned the president that she faced a "social explosion" if she did not launch immediate reforms and win back her people's confidence.

Speaking to a group of diplomats, the cardinal

become a strong critic of her government.

While he continues to "The crisis is covert, but support her personally, for that reason all the he has severely criticised more threatening so long officials around her. as the teeming masses of He said the leaders of our poor are virtually December 1 revolt the alienated from human had eluded capture, who society." such as army Col GregoCardinal Sin, who rio "Gringo" Honasan, helped put Mrs Aquino must "be hunted down into office by rallying and punished."

"But beyond that, the millions of Filipinos behind her in a 1986 presidency must be freed popular revolt that of every taint of nepottoppled former President ism. Unsettling are the Ferdinand Marcos, has unceasing reports of the

added: "The crisis is not yet over.

Facts about defacto marriages •

VATICAN CITY (CNS): When a state recognises common-law marriages as legitimate, it damages true family values and presents "disorder as a good and correct situation", said Pope John Paul

The pope's remarks to a group of Italian legal experts immediately provoked controversy in Italy, where a proposed law on the rights of cohabitating couples was under debate.

The pope warned that civil societies should not "disavow the specific value that the correctly constituted family brings to the good of society".

"It does not help per-

sonal or social well-being to devise laws that would pretend to recognise 'de facto' marriages as legitimate, equalising them with the natural family founded on matrimony," the pope said.

He said cohabitation "does not involve any assumption of responsibility or guarantee of stability, which are essential elements in the union between man and woman as understood by God and confirmed by Christ."

"It is one thing to personal guarantee rights and another thing to promote misunderstanding by presenting disorder as a good and

correct situation," he said.

The pope said recognition of cohabitating couples could be socially damaging and that the state should instead be giving help — including various subsidies — to formed correctly families.

The family is the first and main ally in society's fight against such ills as unemployment, drugs and even AIDS, the pope said.

He said lawmakers have a specific duty to work in favour of the family and should not simply "remain in passive contemplation of changes in society".

Tribute to Sakharov WASHINGTON (CNS): Andrei Sakharov, a tireless campaigner for human rights in the Soviet Union who died last week was described by a US church leader as a "fearless" man who became the "moral conscience" of his nation.

"He was obviously a genius. He was totally committed to human rights. He was fearless and would walk into the lion's den. He was constantly getting up in front of (Soviet President Mik-

hail) Gorbachev, and kind that Gorbachev would say the most blunt formed in 1987. The things right to the man's priest and Sakharov face," said Holy Cross organised the US-Soviet Father Theodore M. foundation's human Hesburgh, former presi- rights efforts. dent of the University of Sakharov went from Notre Dame. being an honored "He was sensitive not to member of the Soviet human beings but to the intellectual elite to a great problems facing political outcast. humanity," said Father Pope John Paul II, who Hesburgh, who along with Sakharov was a met Sakharov last year member of the 10-person said the Soviet human International Founda- rights activist was an able tion for the Survival and defender of human and Development of Human- spiritual values.

•

ser"Government undue influence of presiseems so dential relatives in offi- vice . . . cial government policy," unhappily linked with Mercedes Benzes, costly Cardinal Sin said.

While attacking govern- Pajeros (utility vehicles), trips ment officials, Cardinal unnecessary Sin urged Filipinos to abroad, guns and continue backing the money," the cardinal "government that has said. been freely elected "It is privilege, not this sacrifice, that too often to according constitution." marks the public servant.

He denounced insensi- It is power that is his tive lawmakers and pub- elixir, not service. lic servants who owned "Can we be blamed for several expensive cars, travelled frequently thinking a social exploabroad, and kept arsenals sion is yet to come? he asked. of guns.

Irish priest to be deported OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines (CNS): Deportation proceedings have begun against Father Shay Cullen, an outspoken Irish missionary priest who has worked with street children in Olongapo City, a town adjacent to the US Navy's giant Subic Bay base.

The charges brought against the 45-yearold Columban priest accused him of "abusing Filipino hospitality" and "being an undesirable alien and an enemy of the Filipino people."

Father Cullen counters that he is being "harassed" by city officials and businessmen who promote child prostitution and who are "turning moral issues into political issues."

In the petition for deportation Father Cullen is accused of

leaking a story to the press which allowed an American sailor to escape prosecution in the Philippines on charges of sexual abuse of 12 children.

Cullen Father alleges that the sailor was permitted to escape "because of a connivance" between Olongapo City officials and the commander of the naval base.

The missionary, who writes an outspoken column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. believes that businessmen and politicians in Olongapo City, the liberty town for the US base, want to deport him because of his opposition to the presence of US military bases and his uncovering of child prostitution syndicates in Olongapo.

Light sentence MANILA (CNS): The Passionist community in the Philippines has expressed its disappointment over sentencing of the killer of one of its priests.

The community said it thought 12 years in prison was too light a sentence for Saguin Monday, 28, who was convicted of killing 70-year-old Passionist Father Carl Schmitz, an American.

Monday shot Father Schmitz three times outside his home last year. The judge ruled that there was "no treachery" involved in the killing because the shooting was preceded by a "heated discussion".

Bishop Dinualdo D. Guitierrez in whose diocese Father Schmitz worked, previously said he believed Monday was a hired assassin.

Successful

The countdown to freedom ...

VATICAN CITY (CNS): FEBRUARY 1985 Here is a chronology of Pope meets again with e vents in the opening Gromyko. of religious freedoms MARCH 1985 in Eastern Europe.

Mikhail Gorbachev OCTOBER 1978 Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, Poland, becomes Pope John Paul II, first pope from a communist country.

JANUARY 1979 Pope receives Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko at Vatican.

APRIL 1979 T hen -Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, architect of Vatican's Ostpolitik, is appointed to head the Vatican Secretariat of State.

JUNE 1979 The pope returns to his homeland. The trip helps the rise of the Solidarity movement.

MAY 1981 Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shoots and wounds the pope in St Peter's Square. Agca claims Bulgarian agents working for Moscow hired him to kill the pope because of his support for Solidarity. In 1986, a Rome court rules the "Bulgarian connection" cannot be proved.

DECEMBER 1981 Martial law is declared in Poland. Solidarity is crushed. Pope keeps up public pressure on Warsaw.

JANUARY 1983 Four of 18 bishops named to College of Cardinals are from Fastem Europe, including one from within the Soviet Union.

JUNE 1983 Pope makes second visit to Poland while country is still under martial law, which is lifted a month later.

AUGUST 1984 Pope publicly criticises Moscow for not letting him go to Lithuania for religious celebrations.

becomes Soviet Communist Party general secretary.

JUNE 1985 Pope makes third trip to his homeland, challenges government and Church to work for social change.

JULY 1985 Vatican releases pope's fourth encyclical, "Slavorum Apostoli" (Apostles of the Slays), praising Sts Cyril and Methodius, Greek brothers who took Christianity to the Slays, most of whom now live in Eastern Europe.

Cardinal Casaroli meets with Yugoslavian and Czechoslovakian officials while attending ceremonies marking 11th centenary of Sts Cyril and Methodius.

AUGUST 1985 Members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, suppressed in 1946 and forcibly merged with the Orthodox Russian Church, begin to worship openly in the Soviet Union.

MAY 1986 Top Vatican officials meet to discuss Church relations with Eastern Europe.

JUNE 1987 Celebration is held in St Peter's Basilica for the 700th anniversary of the evangelisation of Lithuania and for the beatification of Archbishop Jurgis Matulaitis.

JULY 1987 Vatican diplomats meet with Bulgarian officials to discuss Church issues.

FALL 1987 Catholics in Czechoslovakia publish 16-point "Charter for Believers" that calls on government to end religious discrimination, allow new build-

ings and agree to naming bishops.

NOVEMBER 1987 Archbishop Renato R Martino, the Vatican's UN representative, tells a special UN committee that "flagrant violations" of religious and other human rights continue in many countries.

JANUARY 1988 Theme for 1988 World Day of Peace is religious freedom: "Free to Call Upon God and So Live Peace".

By this time, more than 90,000 Czechoslovakians have signed 31-point petition calling for restoration of religious liberty.

MARCH 1988 The apostolic letter "Euntes in Mundum" is published for the 1000th anniversary of Christianity in what is now the Soviet Union.

APRIL 1988 Papal message to the Ukrainian Catholic Church for the millennium of Christianity is published.

JUNE 1988 High-level Vatican delegation, in Moscow for millennium of Russian Christianity, meets Gorbachev.

JULY 1988 Pope celebrates Divine Liturgy with bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in St Peter's Basilica to commemorate

Pope holds audience with Soviet Ambassador to Italy Nikolai M. Lunkov, who briefs the pope on the "perestroika" reform policy of his government.

DECEMBER 1988 After the earthquake in Armenia, pope sends telegrams of sympathy to Gorbachev and Armenand Catholic ian Orthodox leaders. Pope also sends $100,000 to aid earthquake victims.

Bishop Julijonas Steponavicius of Vilnius, Lithuania, is allowed to resume his duties as apostolic administrator after 26 years.

JANUARY 1989 Representatives of 35 European nations, meeting in Vienna, Austria, adopt agreement guaranteeing wide range of rights for believers.

FEBRUARY 1989 Soviet Union returns cathedral in Vilnius, Lithuania, to the church 40 years after it was confiscated.

MARCH 1989 Moscow allows Vatican to reinstate nearly the entire Catholic hierarchy in Lithuania.

APRIL 1989 Vatican, Polish officials sign proposed law granting the Catholic Church and its activities full legal standing for first time communist under government.

Kremlin lifts bans on religious activity.

MAY 1989 Three bishops and three priests of Ukrainian Catholic Church begin seven-day hunger strike that ends with a meeting with high Soviet official to protest persecution of Church.

Parliament Polish passes law giving legal status to Church.

JUNE 1989 More than 100,000 Soviet Ukrainian Catholics participate in special day of prayer for legal recognition of their church.

JULY 1989 Hungarian officials announce they will reopen the case of the late Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty.

Poland becomes the first Warsaw Pact country to establish full diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

'Protect environment' VATICAN CITY (CNS): People have a "grave duty" to protect the e nvironment, Pope John Paul II told Noveb Laureates and other scientists.

Human responsibility for the environment increases as scientific developments allow people to make "substantial modifications" in their natural surroundings, the pope said.

Destruction of the environment is "a subject of increasing concern to all those who hold the good of mankind at heart," the pope said.

to receive and to hand on God's gift of life with dignity and freedom."

"In considering the problem of the environment, a global and ethical perspective is indispensable since the environment is not only the setting in which the great drama of human history is played out, but in a sense it is also an active participant in that drama," he said.

human Authentic development, he said, cannot ignore the solidarity of human beings and their environment, nor can it exclude concern for all the people of the earth.

The pope said that "uncontrolled exploitation" of the environment not only threatens the survival of the human race, it also threatens "the natural order in which mankind is meant

"Any attempt to assess the relationship between environment and development which ignores these deeper realities will inevitably lead to further and perhaps more destabilising imbalances," he said.

Ecological problems and the international cooperation needed to address them pose "one of the great challenges of our time," he said.

Decisions regarding use of natural resources and other decisions affecting the environment must take into account "the moral responsibility which we bear toward future generations," he said.

"This moral imperative is rooted in our common humanity and in the ethical universal demands which flow from it," the pope said.

Pope, with Kremlin approval, appoints bishop to Byelorussian diocese vacant for 60 years.

Pope names three new bishops in Czechoslovakia.

Pope announces he will visit Hungary in 1991.

AUGUST 1989 Yuri E. Karlov, personal representative of Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, delivers message to pope from Gorbachev. Message asked for strengthening of Soviet-Vatican ties, said Tass, official Soviet news agency.

Poland, Vatican exchange ambassadors.

SEPTEMBER 1989 Hungary announces it is ready to establish diplomatic relations with Vatican.

Polish Parliament approves solidarity-led government under Tadeusz Mzowiecki, Catholic and friend of the pope, ending 45 years of communist rule.

More than 150,000 people march through Lvov, Ukraine, to demand legalisation of Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Top Soviet, Vatican officials meet in Rome to prepare for expected Gorbachev-pope visit.

Ukrainian bishops from outside the Ukraine begin meeting in Rome to discuss ways to strengthen Ukrainian Catholic Church.

OCTOBER 1989 Pope demands Kremlin legalise Ukrainian Catholic Church, says he wants to go to the Ukraine in 1992.

Pope flies over the breadth of the Soviet Union on his way to Asia after China refuses overflight, electronically beams a message to Soviet people.

Mazowiecki makes his first foreign visit to Rome instead of Moscow to thank the pope for helping Solidarity surcommunist vive repression.

Vatican, Soviet officials meet in Klingenthal, France, to discuss future of religious freedom in Eastern Europe.

Archbishop Angelo Sodano, secretary of the Section for Relations with States, flies to Moscow to discuss Lebanon, Soviet-Vatican relations.

Pope ordains first Byelorussian bishop in more than 60 years.

DECEMBER 1989 Pope and Gorbachev hold historic meeting.

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Where have all the Catholic churches gone?

VATICAN CITY (CNS): In Catholic-Russian Orthodox dialogue, the question of who holds the keys to the church buildings is replacing the question of who holds the keys to the kingdom.

The shift from the theological to the practical has been caused by the historic meeting between Pope John Paul II and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Catholics and the Russian Orthodox leadership must now grapple with the politically delicate issues arising from the potentially legal reemergence of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Included is the thorny problem of what to do about church buildings once belonging to Catholics but transferred to the Russian Orthodox a fter the Ukrainian church was suppressed in 1946 and its members forced to become Orthodox.

Complicating the issue has been recent Catholic takeovers of several churches used by the Orthodox. The takeovers strained Catholic Russian Orthodox relations and caused postponement of a November meeting to discuss the matter.

Some Orthodox leaders say these takeovers are motivated and organised

by Ukrainian nationalists seeking independence from the Soviet Union.

Tied to this is the question of what to do about people who are now Orthodox but who would want to revert to Catholicism.

The Ukrainian church, an Eastern rite in union with the pope, in theology and liturgy is close to the Orthodox church.

The Orthodox, however, do not accept papal authority.

At the December 1 summit, the first meeting between the supreme leaders of the Catholic Church and the Soviet Union, Gorbachev promised a new law which would guarantee freedom of religion to all believers.

But the law is not expected to tackle the practical problems of legalising the Ukrainian church.

Vatican officials said these are to be worked out by Vatican and Orthodox authorities through their already established ecumenical dialogue structure.

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Official CatholicRussian Orthodox dialogue is under the sponsorship of the Vatican and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow.

Ukrainian Catholics are not members, and Vatican and Russian Orthodox officials have said they will not be included in the near future. 4 Vatican officials, however, say the Ukrainians' views will be sought.

The Soviet government "would like to think that the Orthodox church and the Catholic Church could come to some kind of agreement about this which they would be delighted to approve", said Archbishop Edward J. Cassidy, then-deputy Vatican secretary of state, after the popeGorbachev meeting.

Soviet, Catholic and Orthodox officials "don't want this to develop into a religious struggle", he added.

Other Vatican officials note that the government cannot afford to resolve practical problems of the Ukrainian church at the expense of the Russian Orthodox, the largest and most influential religious body in the Soviet Union.

"The Russian Orthodox church has 60 million to 70 million people. The government wants to get them involved in perestroika. It can't do anything to alienate them," said Jesuit Father John Long, member of the Catholic dialogue delegation.

Highest estimates of Ukrainians who have clandestinely remained faithful to Catholicism is six million, said Father Long, vice rector of Rome's Oriental Institute, which specialises in Eastc-n Christianity.

Orthodox estimates put the number at several hundred thousand.

By all estimates, Ukrainian Catholics represent a small fraction of the 60 million inhabitants of the Ukraine and are concentrated in the western Ukraine.

In contrast, Russian Orthodox are spread throughout much of the Soviet Union.

Father Long said the practical problems between Ukrainian Catholics and Russian Orthodox will have to be worked out in the long run by local people.

"Catholic -Russian Orthodox dialogue can only set the framework for solving problems at a local level," he said.

The Record, De(!ettiber 29 1989

The imposing architecture of central Kiev in the Ukraine, but where are the Catholic churches which vanished during 40 years of compulsory deregistration?

One plan favoured by the Catholic side would be to organise task forces of Catholic and Orthodox officials from outside the area to help local people resolve practical problems. ,Vatican officials stress that a key component of any plan is creating a non -confrontational atmosphere favouring peaceful solutions.

Some strides have been made in this direction, but the road is still bumpy, given the centuries-old history of between disputes Ukrainian Catholics and Russian Orthodox about spiritual jurisdiction over the same flock.

An emergency meeting of Vatican and Russian Orthodox officials in Moscow after one church

takeover in the Ukraine But a regularly scheemphasised negotiations duled November 19-26 as the way to problem- C atholic -Russian solving.

Orthodox dialogue meet"The spirit of Christian ing in Moscow was charity demands above indefinitely postponed all the exclusion of acts of because of the church violence," said the joint takeovers. statement issued at the Metropolitan Kiril of end of the November 2 Smolensk, Soviet Union, meeting. the Orthodox official in Prior to the pope- charge of relations with Gorbachev summit, Car- the Vatican, complained dinal Myroslav Luba - of the "very tense" chivsky, head of the atmosphere created by Rome-based Ukrainian Ukrainian Catholics.

Catholic church, said Some Orthodox offilegalisation "will require cials are also worried that compromise on all sides" the Ukrainian Catholic and pledged to "coexist Church is a smokescreen peacefully" with Russian for nationalists wanting Orthodox. independence from the Bishop Vladimir Ster- Soviet Union. niuk, a leader of the Many of the clandesclandestine church inside the Ukraine, said tinely ordained priests he is willing to share and active laity are buildings with Russian motivated by politics not belief, therefore removOrthodox.

ing freedom of conscience as a reason for establishing a church structure, they argue.

At the cancelled meeting, Vatican officials had hoped to present guidelines for solving the practical issues of legalisation.

For the Orthodox, some of the practical problems also involve major theological questions.

people to leave and join the Ukrainian Catholic Church? Is not this fostering Christian division rather than unity?

Behind these complaints is the Orthodox view that Ukrainian Catholic union with the pope, declared by a group of bishops in 1596, was invalid. According to this view the 1946 merger was a righting of the account.

A main one is a method for determining whether all the people claiming to be clandestine Catholic priests were validly ordained and if they have a genuine vocation.

The positive tone of the pope-Gorbachev meeting, however, has renewed Vatican hopes for Catholic-Orthodox co-operation.

Another issue raised by the Orthodox is: If the recognises Vatican Orthodoxy as a sister church with valid sacraments, why does it want

The aim now is "to develop along the road of sister churches working out their problems in dialogue", said Archbishop Cassidy.

Getting down to the heart

Cardinal Willebrands

Often when the cardinal spoke of ecumenism, he spoke of it in relation to the heart.

In an address to diocesan ecumenical directors in Atlanta in May 1987, he said a passion for Christian unity meant suffering at times.

Passion "can mean the movement of the heart and can mean

suffering," the cardinal said. "Often we are called to a task we have not foreseen and for which we are not prepared."

Several days later in Washington, the cardinal said that of all the ecumencial advances since Vatican II, the most important was pray we "that together".

"The Second Vatican Council said that spiritual ecumenism is at the heart of everything," he said.

In a 1983 speech in Toronto, he said that achieving Christian unity demands conversion of heart, and progress toward that unity involves recognising that some diversity is of divine origin.

In a 1984 address to the Lutheran Chruch in America's biennial convention in Toronto, the cardinal said the "whole people of God" as well as church authorities must accept ecumencial agreements.

The reception of theological consensus statements "is and

remains a process of the entire people of God, and in this sense it also has certain aspects of a sociological process," he said.

"Each part of the people of God has to play a specific part before there can be any binding reaction by teaching authority, be it a council or the pope."

Praises for the 'giant' who was removed WASHINGTON (CNS): When non-Catholic religious leaders speak of Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, they use words like "giant" and "trust".

Reacting to the news that the 80-year-old cardinal was replaced as head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, leaders of several religpions praised him for his role in shaping the Catholic Church's attitude toward other religons.

Cardinal Willer brands is "one of the

giants of the 20th century in terms of improving relations between Catholics and Jews," said Rabbi James Rudin, interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Congress.

In London, Bishop Mark Santer, Anglican co-chairman of the AnglicanSecond Roman Catholic International Commission, called the cardinal "one of the principal architects of the Catholic Roman Church's contribution to the ecumenical movement."

"Speaking for Anglicanism,Ican echo what the Archbishop of Canterbury has said: that Cardinal Willebrands has enjoyed enormous affection and trust, and the good relations which now exist, for instance between Lambeth and Rome, are in very large measure due to him," Bishop Santer said.

The Anglican cosecretary of the dialogue, Canon Christopher Hill, called Cardinal Willebrands "one of the great giants of the ecumenical movement."

relations with nonChristian religions.

The cardinal was always true to the Catholic Church but "he always displayed such an openness to other churches," said Rev Crumely, who served as bishop of the The Rev James Cram- Lutheran Church in ley, Lutheran chair- America from 1978 o man of the Lutheran- 1988.

Roman Catholic International Commission, "He was the person said the cardinal's par excellence to make influence could be that bridge to other traced back to the churches," said Rev "There Second Vatican Coun- Crumley. cil, where he was could not have been a influential in the draft- better person than ing of documents on Willebrands." ecumenism and on Leaders of other

Canon Hill, who until November served as secretary for ecumenical affairs for Archbishop Robert Runcie of Canterbury, spoke of his "immense respect and affection" for the Dutch cardinal.

churches trusted the cardinal because of the way he did things, said Rev Crumley.

Several times, Rabbi Rudin referred to Cardinal Willebrands as a "towering figure".

"He was there at the shaping of and developing of "Nostra Aetate", the Declaration on Relations with Non-Christian Religions, said Rabbi Rudin. He added that the cardinal — then a monsignor — was young enough to see through the work of carrying out the ideas behind the document.

He reached the age of

80 with "undiminished vigor, strength, intellectual energy and spirituality which is rare," said the rabbi, who added that the challenge now was to "build on his achievements".

Cardinal Willebrands also served as head of the Commission for Religous relations with the Jews since its formation in 1974, and the rabbi said the cardinal's "personal integrity" had been unchangeable throughout good and bad times in C atholic -Jewish relations.

Row over Vatican Seminarians: A drop big Xmas tree resolved VATICAN CITY (CNS): A controversy over the Vatican's Christmas tree was resolved with a visit to the forest in Austria where the tree grew.

environmental An impact study in the forests of northwestern Austria turned into "a little ceremony to say good-bye to the tree," said Martin Bolldorf, minister councilor of Austria's Embassy to the Holy See. Austria's environmentalist Green Party had organised a protest against cutting down the tree — not to "bahhumbug" a Christmas tradition, but because it was reported that a section of the forest would have to be clearcut to get the massive tree out.

"It was very easy to resolve because the protest was based on wrong information," Bolldorf said.

While some 20 other trees had to give up their lives for the sake of the Vatican tree, "all the ecologists agreed there was no problem," he said.

The tree was delivered to St Peter's Square, December 11, four days

after the Vatican released Pope John Paul II's message for World Peace day, "Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation".

"Faced with the widespread destruction of the environment, people everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to use the goods of the earth as we have in the past," the pope wrote.

Respect for God's creation and for the future of demand humanity efforts to halt the "suffering" of the earth, he said.

The pope said countries, companies and individuals "are not morally free. . . to damage the environment through industrial pollutants, radical deforestation or unlimited exploitation of non-renewable resources".

With the ecologists' blessing, the near 24m tall Vatican Christmas tree was topped with an eight-point star and set in a stand near the centre of St Peter's Square. Sandbags around the tree stand and three taut, thick metal cables helped steady the tree.

Pings and thuds echoed through the square early in the week as more than two dozen workers constructed the metal and wood frame of the nativity scene that would house larger-than-lifesized figures of the Holy Family and 11 supporting cast members.

Eight other workers were in or around the tree, stringing wires and drilling holes in the trunk.

They hoisted up boughs — large enough to be a family's Christmas tree — and inserted them in the holes to cover the spots nature or travel left bald.

Two older women, pulling shopping carts, spied the pile of bits and pieces of boughs. After some fast talking and lots of smiles, they walked away, Austrian pine branches in hand.

Several Italian newspaper photographs of the tree showed US Archbishop Paul Marcinkus nearby. The Chicago native is president-intransition of the Vatican bank and pro-president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City.

He has taken personal responsibility for the display in St Peter's Square since 1982, when the pope asked him to put "something Christmassy" there, the archbishop said.

A suggestion that there

might be committee of some kind helping him organise the display did not receive the warmest of receptions.

"Committees, committees, committees. You are all concerned about committees," he said. "I want to be sure it's done".

His deadline was 4pm, December 16, when a concert and tree illumination ceremony were scheduled to begin.

Some residents of the Austrian village of Kopfing, population 2500, planned a pilgrimage to St Peter's to see the local tree in the spotlight.

The villagers were to join their bishop, Maximilian Aichern of Linz, other diocesan pilgrims and local government officials. An Austrian choir would lead the crowd in singing "0 Tannenbaum," the traditional Christmas tree carol.

WASHINGTON (CNS): For the fifth straight year, the number of US Catholic seminarians has dropped at all levels, according to data released in December.

At the start of the 1989-90 school year, there were 8,394 seminarians, down 500 seminarians or six per cent from last year.

The figures represent an 11 per cent decline in two years and a drop of 37 per cent since 1979-80, when the total of seminarians was 13,263.

At the theology level — the most important indicator of future ordinations — the decline over the past decade has been 12 per cent.

Only in the novitiate, a separate year of formation for religious life undertaken by priesthood students entering religious orders, was there an

increase: from 526 in 1988-89 to 564 this year.

Novitiate figures tend to fluctuate significantly from year to year, in part because many religious orders do not have a novitiate program every year, according to Father Fuerst.

In general, however, the novitiate numbers have dropped from an average in the mid-600s a decade ago to an average in the mid-500s at the end of the 1980s.

Father Fuerst said about one-third of the recorded decline in theology-level numbers was due to a decision by one institution to discontinue its former practice of keeping a number of students on its lists for several years as "on leave" because they had not completed their academic degrees.

That administrative change accounted for elimination of 46 people from theology rosters, he said.

Serious probe into murders VATICAN CITY: The leader of a Salvadoran delegation to brief Pope John Paul on the murder of six Jesuits says the investigation is being conducted seriously because the regime wants to restore confidence in President Cristiani's leadership.

The recent events, said Col Martinez Varela, are obscuring the accomplishments and "tolerance" exhibited during Christiani's first several months in office.

He said Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was assassinated "in

completely different circumstances" from that of the Jesuits.

SincP 1980, when Archbishop Romero was killed, there have been six popular elections in the country, he said.

The delegation to Rome handed out copies of a reward poster that had been distributed in El Salvador. It promised $250,000 — in US currency — for help in finding "the assassins of the Jesuit priests, their cook and daughter."

The Record, ,December 28, 1989 ";

Compiled by NC News Service

Serenity in a violetnt world

0:1)

We live in a violent world. What once was told by word of mouth and later written in newspapers and photographed for leisurely viewing now comes immediately into our living rooms through television.

Murders, prison riots, terrorist bombings, airplane crashes, wars, robberies, hostagetakings — all pour through the screen every day. We watch programs filled with simulated violence.

Then we go to the movie theatre to view the latest version of "Friday the

13th" on the big screen. citizens.

Not all violence is made At a recent jury selecby human beings. Nature tion for a violent criminal often gets into the act. case, the judge asked Who can forget sitting prospective jurors if they down to watch the third or anyone close to them game of the World Series had experienced a vioin the San Francisco Bay lent crime. Out of a area and witnessing a dozen people, only two devastating earthquake said no. instead.

Most jurors had several Not long before that we -, -iences to relate. had a front row seat at was only the terrifying destruction or wrought by Hurricane my car • 1-on int, Hugo.

Such crimes now Our experience of vio- taken for granted, even lence, however, is not considered insignificant. only vicarious. Many How are Christians to people have become live in this kind of world? victims of unruly nature Certainly we should try and the cruelty of fellow to change it. We can and

should limit the amount of "entertainment violence" we subject ourselves and our children to. But we cannot stop an earthquake. And so much violent activity is beyond our control.

Chapter 16 in the Acts of the Apostles is a place where we can get help in dealing with violence.

Here Paul and Silas, newly arrived in MaceQncounter several kindf c3f violenc:.

First kwe to drivr the devil himseli -c fortunetelling young slave girl who harrasses them. Then the girl's owners lay violent hands

abusers were themselves abused as children.

Human behaviour often forms into patterns, and violence serves as one example of that. But there are many other cases in which one kind of hehaviour leads to another of the same kind.

How many examples can you think of?

to "catch" it from each other. Of course, this can be for better of for worse.

If the pattern that spreads from one person to another is one that human diminishes beings or the world around them, then a pattern has emerged for the worse.

People may try. to

on them and drag them before the authorities.

The crowd turns on them as well. The magistrates have them beaten with rods and thrown into a maximum security jail cell. Next there is an earthquake.

What do Paul and Silas do? While in prison, they pray and sing hymns. other prisoners to,thinking :at Paui crazy. ci-mecteu — hear moans and cu.:— after a scourging, not the

sounds of a prayer meeting.

When the earthquake hits and the doors fly open, the apostles do not lead a prison revolt or run away. They stop the jailer from killing himself. Before long they accept his hospitality and win him and his whole household as converts by proclaiming the Word.

Finally the disciples have the presence of mind — or the sense of humour — to demand that the magistrates eat crow and send them on -ray publicly.

Pzu— as teach us is possible to that

exl rience a violent we' d and remain hlA an. Courtesy, coming sense, faith, kindn even joy can survive in e worst of circumsta:es. The evil of ViQ ace can become the rtunity for doing goc earthquake or a ht cane can bring out h sm and generosity in any people. Criminiehaviour, if it does nol pther good, can cbk,oge us to forgive oulnemies. t many opportuniti r forgiveness come bailing at us every day thligh the television

set?

The violence around us can force us to get our priorities straight, to live a life reconciled to God and to our neighbour, to recognise our dependence on providence.

It can motivate us to find the inner peace that nothing can shake, the calm that thinks of others with compassion in times of calamity, the quiet joy that remains rooted at the depth of our being, no matter what sad and frightening things are going on around us.

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul compiled a

explain away their behaviour or justify it by saying that "everyone does things this way."

Still, for the people of God, there is hope to be found in the fad that human behaviour is contagious.

It means that people can always look to each other and serve each other as

signs of the ways of love or of courage or of compassion.

Behaviour that is "contagious" can spread from one person to another.

But we're not completely dependent on others when it comes to changing our ways.

Simply by repeating an action again and again in

thelntext of our own inii idual lives, there is the lope that a new iour pattern will en ,e.

Tb hope is that as a pen attempts again to ad impassionately, he Or ie gradually will de )p a pattern of COnission in life.

Tie is the hope that as

one prays or begins to make the effort to listen attentively to what others have to say, patterns of prayer and of listening will grow in one's own life.

So, violence begets violence. But love also begets love, and peaceful ways beget peace.

It may take time — it

By Father Paul J. Schmidt

Briefly Violence is the father of violence; it begets itself.

That insight is part of the common wisdom of the human family. Yet, as modern scholars study violence, they are discovering just how true the insight is.

In cases of child abuse, for example, the frequent finding is that the adult i m•••

Smiles beget smiles and laughter begets more laughter. Yawns elicit yawns. And when several people in a crowd begin to cheer excitedly, others around them begin to cheer excitedly too.

Human behaviour, it appears, is contagious.

People have a tendency

may even take outside

help and consultation in some cases — for love to become a pattern in one's life or for a person to develop into a full-grown peacemaker.

Once the pattern does grow, however, others will see it. And the pattern will spread.

••=nr

Do we make God in This week i n focus our own image?

There are parts of some psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours that I simply cannot recite.

By Father John Castlelot historians of Israel were sure God was always on their side to sanction their actions.

The image of God as violent or vengeful, however, is totally with his self-revelation elsewhere. People may read with violence to real or imagined hurts. God does not.

The prophet, Hosea, boldy pictures God as wrestling with conflicting emotions. His people have been so atrociously unfaithful that God decides they must be destroyed.

But in the next breath he realises that he cannot do this to them.

At the end of the emotional conflict, God says, "My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger, I will not destroy Emphraim again, for I am God and not man" (Hosea

In describing God's faithful people, for instance, a psalmist prays, "And let twoedged swords be in their hands; to execute venegeance of the nations, punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, their nobles with fetters of iron" (Psalm 149:6-8).

In some psalms we read that God ordered his people to wipe out whole villages of men, women and children.

Such passages turn people off. How can God be so violent, so heartless, so cruel?

But in approaching those passages, it is important to keep in mind that while the Bible contains God's selfrevelation that revelation comes to us filtered through humans. And it is expressed in human language by people who 11:9). lived in a violent culture.

That profoundly simple When disputes arose, statement should stand the people fought. Quiet as a warning not to make ) negotiation was the God in our own image, farthest thing from their not to project our anger minds. and spite and violent Convinced that they vindictiveness into our were God':; people, the picture of him.

8

catalogue of the mayhem he had encountered. He also told how he dealt with adversity. Learning from his experience can give us serenity in a violent world.

"We have to show great The patience in times of presence of affliction, of need, of violence in difficulty; under the lash, the world force us in prison, in the midst of can to get our tumult; when we are priorities tired out, sleepless and straight and fasting. We have to be to find a pure-minded, enlight- way to ened, forgiving and gra- remain calm cious to others. We have and to rely on the Holy Spirit, c ompassionate on unaffected love, on to others when the truth of our message, c alamity on the power of God" (2 strikes, says Corinthians 6:4-10).

Father Paul Schmidt.

The Record. December 28, 1989

God is on the side of humanity. "God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living" (Wisdom

1:13).

Jesus, supreme revela-

tion of God, abhorred violence, and thereby taught us that his Father abhors it also.

When Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem to meet a violent death, a Samaritan village barred his entrance. Furious, James and John asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?"

How did Jesus react? He "turned and rebuked them" (Luke 9:53-55).

After the agony in the garden, when the disciples wanted to attack his arresters with the sword and one of the disciples hotheadedly sliced off the ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus said, "Put your sword back onto its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 25:52). And in Luke's account, he restored the man's ear.

This is the God revealed

by Jesus and in many Old Testament passages as well, a God of peace who not only does not encourage violence but detects it.

As the Christmas season of peace concludes, you can't help but notice that news reports are filled with accounts of violence.

Although violence is so antithetical to the spirit of the season, it remains a fad of life.

This week, the topic of the CNS Religious Education Package is violence — the violence caused or experienced by individuals and the violence of nations and systems.

Father Paul J. Schmidt asks how Christians should live in a violent world. He notes that St Paul encountered more than a little violence during his travels and has left us some interesting material that might help to shape our own response to violence.

Debbie Landregan interviews a moral theologian, a hospice administrator and a psychiatrist

for their views on the violence people experience in ordinary settings. Those who suffer violence needs others who can give them support and reaffirm their self-worth.

Father John Castelot reflects on some of the violent images of God conveyed by the words of some psalms. The Scripture scholar says he simply cannot recite those psalms and notes that the image of a God of love is well founded in Scripture.

Father Herbert Weber tells two stories of people who have experienced violence — violence at home and violence in a setting of war. The admission of a young man who had endured his father's abusive behaviour that he himself had a capacity for violence freed him to seek a peaceful lifestyle. says Father Weber.

DISCUSSION POINTS Violence is a fact of life in our world, as news reports make clear on a daily basis.

Violence always seems to beget more violence. But if violence seems able to spread itself, are other behaviours like love and compassion less contagious?

Violence terms things down. It is destructive.

But is there anything people like you can do to build up the world around them?

After reading the article by Debbie Landregan, what do you think the church can do for those who suffer violence in settings such as the home?

A New Year without violence?

A university student With the holidays named Jay stopped to around the corner, Jay see me just before expected that he would Christmas break. As he spend some time with his entered my office, I father. couldn't help but notice He desperately feared his massive size and that if his anger were set strength. Apparently off, he would take a he was used to queries s wing at his father. on the subject and Because of his strength it quickly informed me would be harmful. that his hobby was That was a couple of weight-lifting. years ago. Jay managed to His newfound strength, get through the holiday however, was part of his season without fighting problem. He was scared with his father. to death that he might After New Year's he direct it toward violence. came back and for the As Jay and I talked, he next seven or eight recounted how before months we talked about his parents' divorce his ways to overcome the father frequently was violence of the early abusive of him. years of his life.

Jay made a new beginning right in the face of violence. Rather than accepting its legitimacy as a way to solve problems, he asked for something better.

But, first of all, he had to

admit that he himself had a tremendous capacility of being violent.

That admission freed him to seek peaceful selfrestraint.

During the Christmas season there is more talk about peace than at any other time of the year.

Why not? After all, it is the Prince of Peace whose birth is celebrated.

By Father Herbert Weber

This year especially, on the eve of a new decade, peace is the concern of prayer and the object of hope for many.

But it will not come about unless people, like Jay, choose it over a more violent form of behaviour.

In making the choice for peace, people sometimes have to become aware of the repercussions of their own actions, even admitting that their decisions can cause violence elsesometimes where,

unintentionally.

Last summer I had the privilege of visiting several countries in Central America, including Nicaragua. Being in a Third World country is hard in itself; seeing that country at war was devastating to me personally.

One day in Nicaragua I was part of a meeting with a group of mothers.

One woman, Lydia, especially touched me as she told how she had lost two sons in the war.

As bad as that was, the recent kidnapping of her daughter by rebel forces was even more painful.

She broke down in tears as she spoke about the way her daugher had gone to the mountain villages as a teacher only to be taken captive.

Lydia said that not knowing whether her girl was alive or dead was almost impossible to bear.

AllIcould recall as she talked was documentation I had seen the previous day regarding the raping and torturing of kidnap victims.

After the meeting, Lydia and I were talking when she discovered that I was a priest.

At that, she grabbed my arm and in a pleading manner begged, "When you go home, please tell people what is going on here."

She was asking that the people of a nation who spend so much money in her country think of their actions and decisions in terms of human suffering and not merely ideologies.

Sometimes good people and good nations need to be reminded that their decisions can have ramifications for others.

Faci g up to your own violence It is Sunday morning experience of their own and the day's liturgy violence, says Father has you feeling invigo- Francis X. Meehan, a rated and renewed as moral theologian and you walk from the Peace activist. church to your car.

"It's a good recognition Once inside, you calmly of how quickly our turn on your engine and anger, competitiveness start to pull out of the and humiliation can turn parking lot when into a kind of violent another churchgoer cuts mode. Thank God, must sharply in front of you. circumstances don't a You hit the brakes and llow us to express it," he s the horn, he flashes you aid. a dirty look and before While most people you know it you're seeing Probably don't equate t he explosive red. feelings h For many people, such at can occur while r an incident while driving iving with the types of raw violence they read is the most common

about in the news — murder, physical abuse, terrorism, rape — the causes of all are similar, says Father Meehan.

"There are a lot of angry people wanting to respond in an angry, vengeful way, andIthink that comes from a terrible fear, a terrible hurt," he said.

When people respond in a violent way, something "is really touching into our fear about ourselves, a loss of selfesteem", he says. "We see someone as attacking us

Some are abused by their families or a partner. Others endured a kind of mental violence in the form of neglect and rejection. Still others are victims of violence themselves against through drug abuse.

against them . . . so they are carrying around a lot of anger," Sister Campbell says. "The frustration level in these people makes them volatile."

Many women who come to Mercy Hospice are seeking help to make a better life for themselves and their families, says Sister Campbell.

Many of the victims she sees "haven't had many opportunities" to get out of the situation they are in. "So many systems are working against them.

People are working

The staff works in partnership with the women to help them cope with their anger and frustration by finding support systems that will build up their selfesteem and self-worth.

By Debbie Landregan and we fear losing something."

As administrator of Mercy Hospice, an emergency shelter for homeless women and children, Sister of Mercy Eileen Campbell sees how rejection, anger and a lack of self-esteem can become catalysts for violence.

"Many who come through these doors have been victims of some kind of violence," says Sister Campbell.

Sister Campbell sees a need to help people "get in touch with why they are feeling violent" so that they will be "able to take the steps to move from the violence".

"People in really broken situations have a potential for good. . . and they have the potential to grow," she said. If those who have more "partner with them, then they would learn to address the violence".

Dr Weston T. Hamilton, a Catholic psychiatrist in private practice agrees.

"You cannot gain self-

Being peacemakers means being aware of possible ramifications and taking them into account when making decisions.

The old adage is that violence begets violence.

If so, it will be necessary for men and women living in a world where violence is prevalent to consciously look for other means of resolving differences.

Perhaps inspired by the actions and words of Jay and Lydia, people of good will also discover their capacities for peace in looking at new beginnings.

esteem in a vacuum. You can't gain self-esteem in

an atmosphere of rejection and hostility.

"If there is a part of me that I think is unacceptable for whatever reason, and if I share that with you and you don't take the same attitude toward it that I do,I feel better," he said. "I feel that somebody cares, that somebody understands and it enables me to go on."

The solution "has to be one of self-awareness and a desire to be loving", ho said.

The Record,

0

•

Left: Maureen Jewell, e xecutive officer of C atholic Care who believes they have passed another milestone in their list of aims for those with disabilities.

111

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Right Bishop Healy and guests at the opening of the Koondoola duplex which will mean greater independence for the multi-disabled on one side, and offer respite care in the other duplex half.

ay CC

t.

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•

CATHOLIC CARE LOOKS BACK AT A FRUITFUL YEAR With the end of the year drawing nigh, Catholic Care (CC) in Wembley are counting successes notched up, and re-aligning new t argets.

Koondoola is a purchase which will mean semi-independence from their families for four who have multiple disabilities and the duplex "marks our arrival", said executive officer Maureen Jewell.

House "Koondoola offers a meaningful service to these adults, and is a milestone for CC because we have taken the approach that you have to walk before you can run.

"So we've built up our experience as an organisation to the stage where we think we can offer care to people with severe disabilities."

On the other side of the duplex, respite care can be given to three. Koondoola is staffed 24 hours a day; overnight there is a nurse and staff member who sleep in the house and during the day there are two full time staff.

Three of the four residents go out during the day to work placements and the staff organise recreation and social activities for them.

All residents maintain constant contact with their families and occa-

sionally go home overnight or on weekends.

The CC's aim has always been to provide full time residential care to such handicapped people, which has the double advantage of allowing their integration into the community, plus enabling their parents to have a sense of security and trust, knowing their son or daughter is in an appropriate home.

The house which was purposely built for people in wheelchairs and the disabled, was blessed in late October by Bishop Healy, and was almost entirely funded for capi-

way is a children's respite house which Catholic Care are endeavouring to purchase in the Riverton area.

This will be set up to complement the existing in-home respite care offered to children, who are already familiar with CC staff in this role.

Most families need a longer break than inhome respite offers, said Miss Jewell, and with a respite house, families could go away on holidays while the children tal costs, by Homes West, were enjoying theirs. the Lotteries CommisPersonal support to sion, Appealathon Foun- gain funding, has been dation and the Catholic given to the project by Dr church.

Neil Blewitt and Minister Another project under- for Health Mr Keith

Residents, family and friends at the blessing of Koondoola performed by Bishop Healy recently.

10

The Record, December 28, 1989

"We are now providing a real option for these families, so that people Currently children in will be comfortable the south-east metropol- about asking for respite itan area do not have before a crisis." access to any respite care Another project during the school week to is alterations planned without changing new office the premises schools at the same time.

Catholic Care has So one of CC's aims bought, with a projected would be to take children six months before they to their ususal schools, are complete. while staying in the "This will give us more children's respite house. space and an opportunThere are few options ity to expand the family for respite care for ill counselling services children, except in insti- which are limited by the tutions and parents of inadequate accommodavery young children find tion here in Wembley," it unacceptable and said Miss Jewell, who traumatic to have to leave believes CC will continue their children at such to make many positive venues, said Miss Jewell. strides into 1990.

Wilson, which is an "all clear" to go ahead.

They aim to lure more students in Vinnies' work Youth is a vast Jane and Chris believe energy young involvement with untapped source which the Vin- the Vinnies is essential nies (St Vincent de because of the many Paul) are keen on undertakings which spetapping for their mercy cifically need young

initiatives. help, for instance in the Over from Sydney to set work of relating to street the ball rolling, were Jane youth.

The young also have a McNamara, 20 and Chris Mikhael, 19 who painted tremendous amount of some rather grim pic- energy and enthusiasm tures of what is happen- and are not scared to try ing to our, in many cases, new things, they said. abandoned youth, who Chris sometimes goes claim the streets as their out on the dawn patrol only home. into Kings Cross where They are hoping to set he finds homeless childup a State Youth Com- ren, youth and adults. mittee in WA with Twelve year olds are representatives of all the into prostitution and state's regions. most of the street people This would be struc- are on the dole, into drug tured with school confer- running, prostitution ences. The idea is to and many steal. interest students in their They are a nomadic work, so, having left population, some of school, they will appre- whom you will see a ciate Vinnies' activities couple of times and then and hopefully join a post- never again. school group within the Some also live in the Church. beach caves around With youth groups in all Sydney. regions, they will have a They die young through representative on the St overdoses, disease and Vincent de Paul regional AIDS flourishes on the council for each area. streets.

The Vinnies also have As a people they don't youth representatives on care — and have no the State Council. During reason to care. They have their Perth visit, Jane and low self-esteem, and Chris attended meetings, their only real concern is met youth from local where their next "hit" is parishes and indicated a coming from. youth conference may be started in the Woodlands As regards helping them, "in fact we may parish. never rescue them from Anyone interested the streets", said Chris. please phone Kris Kerwan on 385 9456, or if "But at least we can give they wish to start in them a bit of support and another area, within friendship. They may their parish or school, still die onthe streets, but ring Craig Williams on at least it may be with a 446 5332. Youth confer- little more serenity and ences are to help the poor dignity, knowing that at and needy and are least we cared." independent set-ups The Vinnies demand within the school, run by nothing of the street young people. Works people; they go out with may involve anything the primary aim of being from fundraising to companions to them, and working on the streets offering shelter. with homeless children and youth, or supporting They are often lonely and have no-one to speak senior citizens. to, so they try and just be Jane, a diocesan youth friends, showing that representative, is a Syd- they care. ney University student studying social work and In about all cases of sees her Vinnies' work as homeless children, they the practical side to her have been kicked out of Christian upbringing home. Bashed, sexually and physically abused — and beliefs. and totally unloved, said In effect it becomes Chris.

So they run to the religion in action!

Cross in the hope of With the youth side of finding refuge. Homeless the Society, there is no people usually gravitate restriction to what you there and inevitably get can do to meet immecaught in the circle. diate needs of the people.

Although one can get She spends about four hours a week on Society food there because of many Church organisawork.

Chris, a youth represen- tions, it's only a matter of tative, writes commer- days before someone cials at a radio station picks you out and and spends many hours irwolves you in prostitua week for the Vinnies. tion or drugs, he said.

He believes he has They then weigh up the something to give and pros and cons of whether there are many who need they should return it; and rewards in help- home, but to them, ing are plenty. nothing could be worse

By Colleen McGuiness-Howard than returning home. So they choose the Cross.

The Vinnies usually go out with a van, offering people coffee and a sandwich, and hostel shelter if they want it.

"But the coffee and sandwich are only openers," said Chris, "because we are primarily there to talk to them."

Only a few return to the hostel; most opt for the streets because that is their home.

One 18 year old youth came there when he was nine, having run away from home where he was constantly bashed by his parents. Having lived on the streets for the last nine years, he is into drugs and realises he probably won't live beyond 20. But doesn't care because he has nothing to care about or anyone who cares for him.

Chris and Jane said formerly people preferred to believe that young people on the streets were just thugs, and didn't face the reality of the homebackgrounds which drove young people to sleep in doorways, alleyways, caves and abandoned homes. It was easier.

In one instance the Vinnies were queried as to why they were helping such people as themselves, having been talking to a group of young people for some time.

Before they could answer, a girl inthe group volunteered — "Just as we get our highs from drugs, they get theirs from helping people." And the Vinnies do, said Chris.

streets of the Cross at 4am on a wet, cold and dark morning.

Chris' patrol asked him to come to hostel shelter, but he refused, saying he had a home to go to, but his friend didn't and wouldn't come with him.

So he couldn't leave his friend.

But as they left, the old man cried, thanked him, held his hand, and said it was years since anybody had cared about him.

"I've never forgotten that experience," said Chris.

Jane and her team found one man on a Parramatta street who begged them to find him some shelter. However, they were unable to on this occasion, so took him to a park and left him wrapped up forthe night, with a few other men, who welcomed him.

"The men look as if they are in their sixties, but in fact, they are usually only in their forties," said Jane.

Some of them are Vietnam veterans whose horrific war experiences

have ruined their lives.

"One of them sobbed and sobbed when talking to me about it."

And some too have come from poor childhood backgrounds and then repeated the same adverse parenting patterns with their own families which has proven a disaster for their marriages.

The Vinnies run a lot of activities covering a wide range of age groups and addressing various needs.

They run eight camps annually for underprivileged children, giving them and their parents a break from their lives "which are rather intense because of financial strains", said Jane and Chris.

Some of the children have never had a holiday before.

A picnic for alcoholics who are residents of the Matthew Talbot men's hostel at the Cross and a senior citizens luncheon complete with a jazz band are also other

Jane McNamara and Chris Mikhael who came and went in a flurry of enthusiasm for Vinnies, having started the ball rolling for youth conferences in WA. initiatives, along with door knocking for food and clothing for the needy.

As a result of a senior citizens luncheon, one lady remarked how seeing youth in action had changed their opinion of the young whom formerly she and her friends had regarded as just "thugs"!

Jane gives time to a hostel for homeless men who've been involved in alcohol and drugs.

Vinnies they emphasised, is not merely a service community group; it's more than that with spirituality as its COM.

"We reflect on what we've done and relate it to Christ." The Perth scene for the homeless is not much different to the Sydney one, Jane and Chris maintain, and therefore they are asking Perth youth to get involved with Vinnies "You'll love it!".

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There is the odd success story which is visible, and they related the case of the young girl with her luggage in a Kings Cross park whom the dawn patrol discovered.

She was very scared and uncommunicative.

But having spoken to her for hours, they discovered she had been beaten and raped by her parents and had run away to the Cross.

She finally agreed to go back to a hostel with them and was rescued from the cesspool of the streets.

Then there is mateship which keeps them there.

One old man was found sitting next to a sleeping man and dog on the

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BUILDING TRADES Electrical Contractor J.V. D'Esterre, 5 Vivian St, Rivervale. 30 yrs experience, expert, efficient, reliable. Ring 362 4646, after hours 385 9660. Unit E, 98 President St, Kewdale.

THANKS

THANKS

Thanks to St Clare and Our Lady for favours granted. Say nine Hail Marys for nine days with lighted candle. Publicise this devotion. F.P.

Novena to the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, you who solve all problems light all roads so that I can attain my goal. You gave me the divine gift to forgive and forget all evil against me and that in all instances of my life you are with me.

I want in this short prayer to thank you for all things as I confirm once again that I never want to be separated from you ever, in spite of all material illusions. I wish to be with you in eternal glory.

Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine.

R.P.V.

Holy Spirit you who solve Painting, quality work at all problems, light all the right price. John roads so that I can attain Freakley. Phone 361 4349. my goal. You gave me the divine gift to forgive and Kingdom Electrics tic No forget all evil against me 003467. Prompt 24 hr and that in all instances in service to all suburbs, my life you are with me. domestic, industrial, com- I want in this short prayer mercial, installation and to thank you for all things maintenance, computer as I confirm once again cabling installed and that I never want to be terminated.

Contact separated from you ever in spite of all material Frank on 446 1312. illusions. I wish to be with New metal roofing and you in eternal glory. gutters, carports, patios, Thank you for your mercy maintenance repairs. For towards me and mine. personal service phone This prayer must be said Ron Murphy 277 5595. for three days after which Upholsterer, retired pro- the favour will be granted. fessional is interested in The prayer must be repairs and light recover- published immediately. ing work (kitchen chairs) S.B.B. etc. Phone 342 8333.

Holy Spirit you who solve all problems, light all PUBLIC NOTICE roads so that I can attain my goal. You gave me the FURNITURE CARRIED. divine gift to forgive and One item to houseful's. forget all evil against me Small, medium, large vans and that in all instances in available with one or two my life you are with me. men from $24 per hour, I want in this short prayer all areas. Cartons and to thank you for all things cheap storage available as I confirm once again Mike Murphy 330 7979, that I never want to be 444 0077, separated from you ever 317 1101, 447 8878, 272 3210, in spite of all material 378 3303, 384 8838. illusions. I wish to be with callers: you in eternal glory.

Country Thank you for your mercy 008 198 120. towards me and mine. Say this prayer for three days A CCOMMODATION and publish immediately.

Thank you Holy Spirit.

WANTED M.C. Robinson.

Holy Spirit you who solve all problems, light all roads so that I can attain my goal. You gave me the divine gift to forgive and forget all evil against me and that in all instances in my life you are with me.

I want in this short prayer to thank you for all things as I confirm once again that I never want to be separated from you ever in spite of all material illusions. I wish to be with you in eternal glory.

Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine.

This prayer must be said for three days after which the favour will be granted.

The prayer must be published immediately.

V.W.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.

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St Jude, worker of miracles, pray for us. St Jude, helper of the hopeless, pray for us. Say this prayer Announce a BAPTISM FREE in The Record nine times a clay for nine Classifieds. Post or deliver (no phone advts) days. Publication must be the candidate's name, parents' name, date of promised. Thank you Sacred Heart and St Jude. ceremony and the church.

M.C. Robinson.

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Catholic Marriage Preparation & Education Committee

SECRETARY

Part-time, approx 20hrs per week and including 11 Sundays at approximately monthly intervals.

Secretarial skills, keyboard and word processing experience are needed, along with ability to deal with public calls.

The position is essentially administrative but will appeal to the person who has a genuine interest in people readying themselves for marriage.

Apply with relevant details and a reference from o parish priest to:

The Director Catholic Marriage Prepc..ation Office 459 Hay Street, Perth 6000.

12

The Record, December 28. 198k

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers. St Jude, worker of miracles, pray for us. St Jude, help of the hopeless, pray for us. Say the prayer 9 times a day for 9 days and promise publication. Thanks to Sacred Heart of Jesus and St Jude for prayers answered.

Eileen.

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to the Editor

Worries over UN Convention from Laurie EASTWOOD, Parents Friends Fedn

Dear Sir, In attempting to encourage and justify Australian ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child, Mr Burdekin (The Record, November 7) quotes Archbishop Martino, the Holy see representative at the UN, who he says cited significant gains for the world's children and the cause of human rights, particularly in the areas of adoption, health care, disabled children and the right of children who lack the protection of a family. The Archbishop was obviously referring to the church's view of the worldwide situation and particularly the very poor treatment of many children in some Middle Eastern, Third World a nd other developing countries.

We hope and pray for the proper spiritual and physical development and advancement of all God's children, but we are not convinced that the adoption of a demonstrably secular humanist Convention, which includes not a single mention of God or any other Higher Authority apart from the State, will achieve that end — indeed, the substitution of the authority of the State for the authoriy of God over children entrusted to families will certainly have the opposite effect.

Mr Burdekin should concern himself with the Australian situation and how the hasty adoption of this Convention will affect our families and children, and indeed why it is necessary in a country which already has adequate laws to protect the young, the abused and the neglected.

Our society now either finances, accepts as legal, or turns a blind eye to, the abortion of 80,000 unborn Australians a year, the import and distribution of some of the worst hard-core pornographic films and publications ever seen, sodomy and other physically harmful homosexual acts, and prostitution — the resulting lack of respect for human life and traditional Christian values can be seen in high levels of family breakdown, domestic violence, child abuse, divorce, welfare payouts, homeless children, juvenile delinquency, illicit drug abuse, suicide and soaring crime r ates.

We are now being asked to support and ratify a UN Convention which a) omits two very important parental rights included in earlier UN Convenants, namely, (i) the right of parents to freedom of choice of education for their children, (ii) the right of parents and guardians to ensure the religious and moral educa-

tion of their children; and b) would further undermine parental and family relationships, rights and responsibilities by installing a libertarian charter of children's rights, particualrly via Articles 2,5, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16, wherein children are to be assured of various rights . . "consistent with their evolving capacities" (judged by whom?) and "in their best interests" (perhaps decided by militant humanist and femist bureaucrats, whose views are unlikely to coincide with those of the Christian family?).

These rights include: protection against all forms of discipline (the Swedish result has been disastrous) and discrimination (note: in Canada, children who believe their parents have discriminated against them are encouraged to report to the Human Rights Commission); the right to express views freely in all matters affecting them; the right to f reedom of expression including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, through any media; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; to freedom of association and peaceful assembly, and the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy.

Are children to be given the right to ignore parental views and to decide for themselves on school curricula, religious affiliation, medical treatment, with whom they associate, and what they read, watch, listen to and say, on any matter?

Parents and families will not be protected by the acknowledgement in the Convention's (unenforceable) preamble that "the f amily . . . should be assisted . . to assume its reponsibilities within the community". To be properly balanced, the Convention needs to include Articles guaranteeing the prior right or role of parents and families as the carers, nurturers and primary educators of their children, and making it incumbent on Governments to materially assist parents to raise and educate their children according to their beliefs and values (and eg. to eliminate the current financial discrimination against non Government school children).

We fully support the views expressed by our colleagues in the Victorian Parents' Council on these issues, and we invite readers who would like copies of papers and information on this i mportant Convention to contact us on 387 5377 or at PO Box 222, Wembley WA 6014.

hear Father M. Byrne deliver one of his normal, eloquent, hardhitting sermons, in the space of 15-20 minutes. They must be good, because

there is "pin drop'. silence, and even the babies "stop crying", and I am unable to keep up with the new faces at the 6pm Mass on Saturdays!

We have six days to observe silence in the home, the garden, and elsewhere, but please not at Mass. We urgently need God's message, at Mass!

Suggestion for Jan from G.E. HOWARD, Mt Lawley Sir, I suggest that Jan Beeson (The Record, December 14) come to St Pauls, Mt Lawley, and

Attitudes of arties poles apart

While the expansion of applications for new places Catholic in independent schools has Australia's schools feel the squeeze, increased from 24.5 per cent the attitudes of political in 1986 to 38.1 per cent in parties seem poles apart. 1990. Applications for The Liberal Party says it will abolish the New Schools Policy which it sees as a direct attack on basic freedom of choice, but a government spokesman says the Liberal policy is nonsensical.

Shadow Education spokesman Peter Reith says the New Schools Policy restricts the establishment of new schools, restrains the growth of enrolments and imposes unwarranted regulation in the non-government schools sector.

"The rejection rate of

37,000 new places have been rejected over those five years," he says.

But a spokesman for Mr Dawkins, Wayne Burns, says: "We all know that, for a new school to get up and running you need not only a good educational basis — the criteria to establish it," he said. "You also need a good financial basis and good community support.

"What Mr Reith is saying is this: 'You don't have to worry too much about these things. Our party believes in choice. And, if anyone wants to start a school, they should

be able to do so, and attract Government funding for it."

Mr Burns said the present approved Government about 40 per cent of applications and turned down about 60 per cent.

For the future Mr Reith says: "We will also remove limitations on the use of Commonwealth provided capital funds and remove all penalties currently imposed by the Government in relation to the raising of private funds."

Mr Burns disagrees: "Mr Reith says the Liberal Party can fund all these new schools, that they can all be viable, but that it can do this without increasing funding

to the non-government sector.

'That would mean the same amount of money going to more and more schools. Basically, you would have more schools with fewer resources.

"The alternative under this policy would be a blow-out of about $160 million a year."

A spokesperson for the National Catholic Education Commission said the NCEC's policy was to balance: • The right of parents to a choice of schooling for their children.

• The need for a cooperative and planned development of schools.

— Nicholas Kerr

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TOMORROW TODAY with Father Joe Parkinson

It IS good to be alive.

Sister Emilie Cattalini at the Leaders Day.

Andrew McLean shows us he is a greenie after all, while Noel D'Souza looks bemused.

Flashback to events of the year One of the classics: Justin Poor of Balcatta making a meal of cream cake at the Antioch Leaders Day in April.

CPY's Neway Team have difficulty posing for the photographer during their livein week in May . . .

Four full time youth workers completed terms at the Youth Offices during 1989: < (from top left, clockwise) Vince Whately (YCW), Andrew McLean (CPY), Paul McLeod (YCS) and Corinne McLeod TICS). . . . while the Northern Regional camp also had trouble . . .

.. . but then so did the Redemptorist Youth Ministry Training Program!

The Record, December 28, 1989

1:-:

Happy New Year!

by Colleen McGuiness-Howard

THE BALLAD OF THE HARP-WEAVER

-

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Son," said my mother, When I was kneehigh, "You've need of clothes to cover you, And not a rag have I. "There's nothing in the house To make a boy breeches, Nor shears to cut a cloth with, Nor thread to take stitches.

"There's nothing in the house But a loaf-end of rye, And a harp with a woman's head Nobody will buy," And she began to cry.

That was in the early fall, When came the late fall, "Son," she said, "the sight of you Makes your mother's blood crawl, — "Little skinny shoulder -blades Sticking through your clothes!

And where you'll get a jacket from God above knows.

"It's lucky for me, lad, Your daddy's in the ground, And can't see the way Ilet His son go around!"

And she made a queer sound.

That was in the late fall. When the winter came, I'd not a pair of breeches Nor a shirt to my name.

I couldn't go to school, Or out of doors to play.

And all the other little boys Passed our way.

"Son," said my mother, "Come, climb into my lap, And I'll chafe your little bones While you take a nap."

And, oh, but we were silly For half an hour or more, Me with my long legs Dragging on the floor, A-rock -rock -rocking To a mother-goose rhyme!

Oh, but we were happy For half an hour's time!

But there was I, a great boy, And what would folks say To hear my mother singing me To sleep all day, In such a daft way?

Men say the winter Was bad that year, Fuel was scarce, And food was dear.

A wind with a wolf's head Howled about our door, And we burned up the chairs And sat upon the floor.

All that was left us Was a chair we couldn't break, And the harp with a woman's head Nobody would take, For song or pity's sake.

The night before Christmas I cried with the cold, I cried myself to sleep Like a two-year-old.

And in the deep night I felt my mother rise, And stare down upon me With love in her eyes.

I saw my mother sitting On the one good chair, A light falling on her From I couldn't tell where, Looking nineteen, And not a day older, And the harp with a woman's head Leaned against her shoulder.

Her thin fingers, moving In the thin, tall strings, 14 The Record December 28 198F,

Were weav-weav-weaving Wonderful things.

Many bright threads, From where I couldn't see, Were running through the harp-strings Rapidly, And gold threads whistling Through my mother's hand.

I saw the web grow, And the pattern expand.

She wove a child's jacket, And when it was done She laid it on the floor And wove another one.

She wove a red cloak So regal to see, "She's made it for a king's son," I said, "and not for me." But I knew it was for me.

She wove a pair of breeches Quicker than that!

She wove a pair of boots And a little cocked hat.

She wove a pair of mittens, She wove a little blouse, She wove all night In the still, cold house.

She sang as she worked, And the harp-strings spoke.

Her voice never faltered, And the thread never broke. And when I awoke, — There sat my mother With the harp against her shoulder, Looking nineteen, And not a day older, A smile about her lips, And a light about her head, And her hands in the harp-strings Frozen dead.

And piled up beside her And toppling to the skies, Were the clothes of a king's son, Just my size.

CHICKEN CACCLATORE

Serves 6

842 chicken pieces. skinned salt andfreshly ground black pepper 60g (2 oz) butter 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 clorws garlic. crushed 2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped 125 g (4 oz) button mushrooms 1 cup (817 oz) dry white wine 3 tablespoons chicken stock 6 tomatoes, peeled, and chopped or 500g (Jib) canned tomatoes, drained 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon dried basil 2-3 bay leaves 2 tablespoons brandy

Rub chicken pieces well with salt and pepper. Melt butter and oil in a large frying pan. Add the chicken pieces a few at a time. Brown them on all sides and remove from the pan.

Fry garlic and onion until softened but not brown. Add mushrooms and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the wine, stock, tomatoes and tomato paste. Add the herbs. Bring to the boil and cook for three to four minutes.

Return chicken pieces to the pan and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes. Stir in brandy and season to taste.

Arrange in an attractive, heavy enamel dish and allow to cool. Place in refrigerator until chicken stock has set.

GINGER BEER Makes about Igallon (4.5 litres) 45g (11 2 / oz) fresh root ginger 1gallon (4.5 litres) water 1 lemon, rind andjuice 1 teaspoon cream of tartar 500g (1 lb sugar) 15g (1 2 / oz) brewer's yeast 1 egg white

Bruise the ginger and put it into a large saucepan with the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the ginger, pour into a large bowl and add the lemon, cream of tartar and the sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and leave to cool.

When the liquid is lukewarm, stir in the yeast, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave to ferment for two days. Skim off all the scum and strain the liquid into another bowl.

Whisk the egg white into the beer and pour the mixture into clean bottles, preferably with screw-top lids.

Keep for at least three weeks before drinking.

RHUBARB PIE Serves 6-8

Use this recipe with any fruit you wish.

A combination of apples and blackcurrants, apples and quince or pear and toasted almonds would all be delicious.

When using other fruit, the amount of sugar necessary for stewing will vary according to the tartness of the fruit. Pears, for instance, will require only 60 g (2 oz) sugar, sour cooking apples will require 90 g (3 oz).

1 kg (2 lb) rhubarb, or equal quantity of other fruit, chopped coarsely (if necessary) rind of! orange, grated 125 g (4 oz) sugar 4 sheets frozen, sweet, shortcrust pastry castor (powdered) sugar

Leave frozen pastry to stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Line the bottom of a 20 cm (8 in) pie dish with pastry and pinch decoratively around edge. Bake 'blind' in a hot oven 220°C (425°F) for 10 minutes.

Cook the rhubarb with the orange rind, sugar and a little water. Stir over a low heat until the rhubarb has softened slightly.

Pile the rhubarb into the pastry shell and seal the top with the remaining sheets of pastry. Cut small holes in the top, brush with milk and dust with a little castor sugar.

Bake in a moderate oven 190°C

\ (375°F) for 45 minutes.

God given food •

GREEN TOMATO AND ONION QUICHE Serves 6 For the pastry 220 g (7 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour 15 g (1 2 / oz) icing (confectioners) sugar, (optional) pinch salt 155 g (5 oz) butter 1-2 tablespoons iced water For the filling 1 onion, finely chopped 2 teaspoons garlic, crushed 60 g (2 oz) butter 4 green tomatoes, skinned andfinely chopped 125 g (4 oz) cheddar cheese, grated pinch salt 1 2 / teaspoon pepper 1 2 / teaspoon oregano 4 tablespoons parsley, chopped 125 g (4 oz) Gruyere cheese 3 eggs, lightly beaten Icup (8 fl oz) cream

To make thepastry Sift flour, sugar and salt. Rub in the butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add just enough iced water to make a dough. Wrap in foil and put in refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour.

Remove from refrigerator and leave to stand at room temperature until pastry softens slightly. Roll out on a floured board and place in a 23cm (9in) quiche tray or dish. Prick with fork, cover with a piece of foil and fill with dried beans. Bake "blind" in a hot oven 220°C (425°F) for about 10 minutes. Remove beans and foil and cool before filling.

To make the filling Saute onion and garlic in the butter until softened but not brown.

Combine with tomatoes, cheddar cheese, seasonings and herbs.

Sprinlde pastry shell with half the Gruyere cheese and add half the tomato and onion mixture. Repeat until all mixture and cheese are used.

Add cream to the beaten eggs and pour over filling. Bake at 190°C ( 375°F), for 30-40 minutes.

THE BEST CHEESE AND SPINACH PIE Serves 6-8 1kg (2 lb) fresh spinach 7 eggs 125 g (4 oz) Fetta cheese 220 g (7 oz) cottage cheese 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 6 rashers bacon 2 tablespoons parsley, coarsely chopped pinch oregano salt freshly ground black pepper 60 g (2 oz) butter, melted 250 g (8 oz) filo pastry

Wash spinach well and remove the thick stalks. Places leaves in a large bowl, sprinkle heavily with salt, then rub the salt into the leaves with your hands, as you tear them into small pieces. This will reduce the spinach to a quarter of its bulk. Rinse salt off thoroughly and drain. This method is better than boiling the spinach and losing allits nutrients to fluid.

Beat eggs, crumble Fetta cheese and mix together with cottage cheese. Add this egg and cheese mixture to the spinach.

Saute the onion and bacon in olive oil until the onions are soft and the bacon is crisp, then add these to the spinach mixture. Season with parsley, a good pinch of oregano and lots of black pepper.

Butter your gift dish, preferably an oblong one 23x30 cm (9x12 in).

Stack the filo pastry onto a flat working surface, brush each sheet of pastry with melted butter and fit, one sheet at a time, into the baking dish with the edges hanging over the sides. Do this until only 2-3 pastry sheets remain.

Pour the filling into the pastry-lined dish and fold over the ends of the pastry, brushing with a little more melted butter. Butter the remaining sheets and place them on top, folding down to fit the dish. Cut through top layers of pastry to the filling in about three places to allow steam to escape.

Brush top with melted butter and bake in a preheated, moderate oven 190°C ( 375°F) for 50 minutes.

ANGEL CAKE 125 g (4 oz) self-raising flour, sifted 250 g (8 oz) castor (powdered) sugar 12 egg whites

.4.09 . sok* ,sidir

11 4 / teaspoons cream of tartar 1 4 / teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 1 4 / teaspoon almond essence

Add one third of the sugar to the flour and sift up to six times.

Beat the egg whites until foamy Add the cream of tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks form. Add the rest of the sugar a little at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and almond essence. Taking about 60 g (2 oz) of the flour mixture, fold it gently into the egg white mixture. Repeat process until all the flour is added.

Pour into a 17 cm (8 in) cake tin and bake for 1 hour in a preheated, moderate oven 160°C (325°F). When cooked, invert pan over cake cooler and leave to cool in the pan.

This cake is a grand and sensational presentation. Decorate it accordingly with our beautiful cherries dipped in white chocolate. Place each one carefully around edge of cake with stems upright.

LEMON SQUASH

Makes about 12 cups (3 litres) 6 lemons 2 kg (41b) sugar 60 g (2 oz) citric acid 30 g (1 oz) tartaric acid 30 g (1 oz) Epsom salts 10 cups (2.5 litres) boiling uater

Peel lemons thinly and squeeze. Put pulp and peel (not the pith) into a large container. Add acids and sugar.

Pour on boiling water and stir until sugar dissolves. Strain and bottle while still hot. Store in refrigerator in sealed bottles.

CORFU CRUST Serves 6-8

3 onions, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 90g (3 oz) butter 500 g (1lb) zucchini (courgette), diced 750g (1½!!,) cooked lamb, diced 2 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped 1 2 / cup (4 fl oz) lamb gravy or beef stock salt andpepper 1 kg (2 Lb) potatoes, peeled milk and butter for creaming

In a large frying pan gently fry onion and garlic in the butter for 5 minutes or until onion is soft and transparent.

Add zucchini and fry gently, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until just tender. Stir in the lamb, tomatoes and gravy and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Place lamb and zucchini mixture into the pie dish.

Boil potatoes in salted water. Drain well then mash over a low heat, beating in sufficient butter and milk so that the potatoes become smooth and creamy.

Pipe rosettes of creamed potato over the lamb mixture, covering it completely. Bake in a hot oven 200°C (400°F) for 20-30 minutes. Brown top of pie under the grill before presenting.

The Record.December 28, 1989 15

THE PARISH__ SCENE

WORLDWIDE MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER

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Still no room at the inn • Last year at St Brigid's church West Perth the holy family's only refuge was a car wrecker's yard. This year they are "trapped" in the cage of fear — the fear of those who cannot accept them.

"Dear Friend, don't be upset about the cage!' says an explanation of the crib.

'That is not the problem! It is only a sign, a symbol. ' Just make sure that, with your life, you don't 'cage' Christ somewhere, away, in a romantic corner, meaningless to you and to others.

"Don't scream 'scandal! propagation!'. Bother to read this message first Ihope you finish to read it with a prayer in your heart: "Our youth group wanted to express a Christmas message by 'caging' the crib. Why? The thought of the many ways we today proclaim Christ with our lips while with our lives we refuse him: • Christ suffers hunger — we throw away plenty of food!

• There is no room for Christ in the inn — we live in half empty houses!

• He is born in a manger — "we get romantic - with snow on the crib!

• He is refused by the "goodie-goodies" — we lead a life of compromise!.

"We all want Christmas, the crib, the shepherds. We even want, in front of it, a bowl to put money in.

"But do we want. really — in truth, the Christ who has come to challenge and change our lives? Do we both to make this Christmas a time of renewal, a time of new life in Christ?

'To express such feelings, our Youth thought of a cage. Yes, we want Christ: but we don't want Him to bother us too much.

"We play safe by putting Him in a cage: from there, Christ can't come out and we are "free" to do our own things . . ."

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