The Record Newspaper 13 July 1995

What's inside...

Full text of Pope John Paul II's letter to women -Pages 10- 11 Archbishop Hickey launches a new resource kit to help introduce an Aboriginal perspective to studies across the whole school curriculum - Page 3 PERTH, WA: July 13, 1995

PRINT POST APPROVED PP602669/00303

Letters to the Editor and Book Review - Pages 6 - 7

Number 2953

Colleen McGuiness-Howard travels to the Kimberley to see the work of the Sisters of St John of God- Pages 8 - 9

POST ADDRESS: PO Box 75, LEEDERVILLE, 6902, WA LOCATION: 587 Newcastle Street, Cnr Douglas St (near Loftus St)

TELEPHONE: (09) 22 77 080

FAX: (09) 22 77 087

PRICE 60C

Pope praises women

By John Davis VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In a letter addressed to the women of the world, Pope John Paul II praised women's historic contributions as mothers, wives and social leaders, and said they needed greater protection against persistent forms of violence and exploitation.

The letter, made public on Monday, endorsed the modern mainstream women's movement as a substantially positive process that must go forward. At the same time, the Pope said men and women rightly had a "diversity of roles" - in society and in the Church - that reflected their complementary natures.

The all-male priesthood, for example, did not detract from the role of women and was not a sign of male domination, he said.

He condemned abortion as a grave sin, but stressed that responsibility for abortion extended far beyond the woman involved.

The Pope said his unprecedented letter was an attempt to speak "directly to the heart and mind of every woman" before the start of the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women, to be held in China's capital Beijing in September.

Vatican officials expect tough debate during the conference over issues of abortion, gender difference and women's role in the family. The papal letter, how-

ever, avoided controversy and took a positive tone.

It included thanks for all that women have done, an apology for the Church's failure to always recognise these contributions, and a condemnation of what the Pope called the "long and degrading history" of sexual violence against women.

In a reference to prostitution and sex tourism, he blamed the "widespread hedonistic and commercial culture" for encouraging systematic exploitation of sexuality and corrupting "even very young girls into letting their bodies be used for profit."

He praised "those women who, with a heroic love for the child they have conceived, proceed with a pregnancy resulting from the injustice of rape."

Even in cases of rape, he said, the choice to have an abortion always remained a grave sin.

"But before being something to blame on the woman, it is a crime for which guilt needs to be a ttributed to men and to the complicity of the general social environment," he added.

The Pope urged changes to make women's equality a reality in today's world, called for equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, fairness in career advancement and equal family rights for men and women.

But in listing the obstacles to women's equality, he also said that "the gift of motherhood is o ften penalised rather than rewarded."

"Certainly, much remains to be done to prevent discrimination against those who have chosen to be wives and mothers," he said.

The Pope opened his letter with a series of "thank yous" - to women as mothers, wives, daughters and sisters, professionals in various fields and religious.

Their contributions in all these areas, he said, reflected the "genius of women." He elaborated on this term throughout the letter, attributing to women some specific gifts: • An ability to "see persons with their hearts," independent of ideological or political systems.

• A willingness to give themselves generously to others, particularly in education and especially in serving the weakest and most defenceless. This in effect provided a "cultural and spiritual motherhood" for societies, he said.

• A natural "insight" that helped make human relations more honest and authentic.

"I know of course that simply saying thank you is not enough," the Pope wrote, opening a brief analysis of how women's dignity had been unappreciated at times by the Church and the rest of humanity. He said this was largely a product of historical conditioning.

In various times and places, he said, women had been unacknowledged, misrepresented, relegated to the margins of soci-

tory of humanity. While time had largely buried the evidence of women's contributions, humanity owed a debt which could never be repaid to this "immense feminine tradition," he said.

"Yet how many women have been and continue to be valued more for their physical appearance than for their skill, their professionalism, their intellectual abilities, their deep sensitivity," he said.

The Pope emphasised that while the Church upheld the equal dignity of men and women, this did not translate into a "static and undifferentiated equality" Pope John Paul II between the two sexes. Men and women were complementary, ety and even reduced to servi- and were created to help each tude. He said assigning blame for other, he said. this was not easy, considering In both society and the Church, how people's attitudes are he said, there existed a "certain shaped by their culture. diversity of roles (that) is in no "If objective blame, especially way prejudicial to women." This in particular historical contexts, diversity should never be has belonged to not just a few imposed arbitrarily, but members of the Church, for this I expressed what was specific to am truly sorry," he wrote. These being male and female, he said. shortcomings did not reflect the In the Church, this idea had a teaching about particular application in the allChurch's women's equal dignity, he said. male priesthood, which the Pope "When it comes to setting said reflected Christ's choice to women free from every kind of entrust only to men this ministerexploitation and domination, the ial task. This "in no way detracts Gospel contains an ever relevant from the role of women" or other message which goes back to the lay people, he said. attitude of Jesus Christ himself," He said, however, that the who treated women with open- Church needed to do a better job ness, respect, acceptance and of making it clear that the priesttenderness, he said. hood was not about domination The Pope said it was time to but service.

Letter to women, full text examine the past and look at how Pages 10-11. women had influenced the his-

Recapture YiWs WAs missionaries of charity 'apostolic spirit' •

By Peter Rosengren The Church needs to recapture the apostolic spirit of the Young Christian Workers movement to overcome its growing introspection following the Second Vatican Council, according to Archbishop Barry Hickey.

Archbishop Hickey was speaking in St Mary's Cathedral last Sunday during a Mass to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movement in Western Australia.

"I think after the Second Vatican Council ... we became a little introspective, and started looking inwards (and) there's nothing wrong with that," he said.

"But if we are too introspective we forget to look at the vision of the Church which is for the whole world - to christianise society, to raise people's minds and hearts to God, to build up God's kingdom in the world. And perhaps we have

gone too far by being introspective and need to recapture again the vision that the YCW certainly has."

At the Mass concelebrated with current and former chaplains of the YCW, Archbishop Hickey, who was also once a YCW chaplain himself, lauded the remarkable movement that revolutionised the role of the laity in the Church and said that it was needed now more than ever.

"I hope when we do look back (this) will enable the Church here in Western Australia to hold to a vision of lay spirituality and lay activity in the world which we must not lose. If anything we need it more now because our world is increasingly secular," he said.

Archbishop Hickey also recalled his own early involvement with the YCW when he was appointed as an assistant priest to West Perth where there were four flourishing YCW groups: English and Italian speaking for men, and for women.

Continued on Page 2

•

•

Sister Cabrini of the St John of God Sisters in Derby cares for a patient in the Numbala Lunga Nursing Home, carrying on a near-century-long tradition of St John of God care in the Kimberley. Record journalist Colleen McGuiness-Howard spent a week in the Kimberley discovering the work of the sisters.

Read the first of two reports on Pages 8 and 9.

Reconciliation is way to ensure Aboriginal dignity It is interesting to note, as National Aboriginal week comes around, that the main reason for the establishment of the (then) Diocese of Perth in 1845, was the need to offer the Good News to the Aboriginal people of the Swan River Colony.

It was Fr Brady's clinching argument with the Pope.

As Bishop Brady he recruited Dom Salvado and his fellow Benedictines, together with the Sisters of Mercy and a few others to come to Perth to begin their missionary work among the Aboriginal people.

He was true to his word. He attempted to establish three missionary centres across a very broad area of the State. The one that took root and blossomed launching an important initiative was New Norcia.

Of the Catholic Education Office, I mention this piece of history to draw attention to the involve- a project that would include an ment of the Church with Aborig- Aboriginal input across the inal people right from the very whole school curriculum. It was not simply a course in Aborigibeginning.

Last week I had the honour of nal studies, but a perspective

Archbishop's

Perspective

that would pervade all studies.

Australia is not simply a collection of people from different countries. Nor is the Church.

Australia has developed a identity which national embraces the past and the present in its expression. When people come from nations across the world to settle here, they find something distinctively Australian from which they gain much, and to which they also contribute.

Our Church identity is subject to the same process. On its make-up, it is truly "Catholic" or universal.

It would be incorrect to number the Aboriginal people as simply one ethnic group among many as if they had come here recently from overseas like so many other groups.

The Aboriginal culture has a special place in Australian identity because it was the culture already existing into which the European settlers came. The

French bishop on 'Warrior' MILAN, Italy (CNS) - French Bishop Jacques Gaillot believes words are not enough to protest France's resumption of nuclear testing, so he decided to join the Rainbow Warrior II, the Greenpeace ship that has tried to invade the South Pacific test area.

Protesting nuclear weapons is an extension of fighting for the poor, he said in an interview in the Milan daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, given prior to his departure.

'These tests basically are a cause o f poverty and misery. Governments build arms, which cost billions, and forget their citizens," he said.

France has scheduled eight nuclear tests between September and May on the Mururoa atoll.

Bishop Gaillot was one of 31 people aboard the Rainbow Warrior removed by the 150 French navy commandos who boarded the ship on July 9 as it entered France's 19km maritime limit around

newcomers were influenced that threatened to overrun them greatly by the pre-existing cul- c ompletely. The good things ture and despite the sad history that are happening today in the of interaction, the regrettable Church, drawn from 150 yearsof clashes, dispossession and interaction, are that Aboriginal removal of children, elements of people are being brought into Aboriginal culture are now positions of leadership within essentially part of our identity as the Church, especially in education and social welfare, they are Australians.

We note its influence on art, very active in Church ministries literature, music, dance and and are being consulted about even in a mystical attitude to Church policy. I still look forland, the omnipresence of the ward to the joy of ordaining an Aboriginal priest. outback in the Australian mind.

Reconciliation is the popular In the Church's involvement with Aboriginal people, educa- word today. It is a good word, a tion and health have been two concept that is at the very heart important areas, the history of of the Church's teaching. I hope which is constantly being docu- all people of good will will take the opportunities for reconciliamented.

The Church has often been tion that come their way, so that criticised for paternalism and the right and dignified place of the destruction of culture, but Aboriginal people and their culthe truth is that, whatever their ture is duly recognised in Ausfaults, Church people have tralian society and in the Church remained with the Aboriginal as well.

We, who seek to follow Christ, people through their darkest hours of dispossession, and have should be leaders in this process stood up against harsh forces of reconciliation.

Recapture YCW spirit call PELLEGRINI'S The trusted name for price, quality and range, serving the Church and people of Australia since 1890.

Where you will find the perfect gift for that special occasion - Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, etc.

Mururoa. The atoll is 1,000km east of Tahiti.

Greenpeace members aboard the ship said the commandos fired tear gas at the people on the ship.

Bishop Gaillot said he was "strongly disillusioned by the decision of my country" to resume nuclear testing.

"It is a sign of contempt in regard to the Polynesian people," he said.

Former Subiaco YCW members Lex Hanley, left, Hillary Keenan, Alma Hawley, Ron Felton and Mollie Gaynor (nee Duffy) outside the Cathedral shortly after the anniversary Mass.

Continued from Page 1

"If we ask ourselves who now is to bring Christ into the world into the workplace, into the fields of labour it is even more essentially now a work of the lay people because priests are getting relatively fewer and they can't move in those circles in any case," he said.

He also said that the YCW still had great potential to serve the The bishop said more bishops Church and that he hoped it could should be actively involved in be rebuilt to face the needs of the protesting the nuclear tests, and future. said a protest by Pope John Paul II He said that the consequences of also was needed. not promoting this kind of rejuvenation would be to the Church's loss.

Flame Ministries internatiouni we do not, the Church will be 23=IMIZE left"Ifinside its own walls and will not In January, the Vatican removed Bishop Gaillot as head of the Evreux Diocese in France after he had for years aired public disagreements with papal teachings on birth control, celibacy for Latinrite priests and aspects of sexual morality.

e44141fuatic

0/406 7ileeteatd THE

"GENESIS FACTOR" A Retreat Weekend for Young Adults from 15 to 25 years old.

Friday July 28th to Sunday July 30th "Bickley Recreation Camp" - Bickley.

The Cost is $60 which includes Food & Accommodation

There will be: Skits - Talks - Games & Fellowship.

The "Genesis factor" Is an approved programme developed for building a strong Christian Faith & Lifestyle.

The Team are all Young Adults (Married & Single) who are experienced in Youth Work around Australia and Overseas. Some are "NET" Team veterans with experience in Schools & Youth Groups.

The Weekend will be Fully Supervised with separate Dorms for Boys and Girls.

People under I.8yrs will need "Written Parental Permission" to attend.

There are only 60 Registrations available so

BOOK NOW. By calling Frank Tassone FMI on (09) 382 3668

Flame Ministries International (A Preaching/Teaching Organisation in the Catholic Church Serving The Body of Christ) Head Office Australia: Suite 6, 186 Hay Street. Subiaco, Western Australia 6008. Telephone (09) 382 3668 FAX (09) 388 3081

2

The Record, July 13 1995

Located for your convenience in the heart of the city.

prosper. If we do, the Church - with all the problems and tensions that it has - will find new vigour," he said.

Preaching to several hundred former YCW members and their families, Archbishop Hickey said it had been the role of the priest in the YCW "not to run it because it was a lay thing, but to support, to help with the explanation of the Gospel before the meeting even began, to be there, to show that the Church was right behind this apostolate of lay people in the world."

Following the Mass, old friends were able to reunite with former colleagues at Mercedes College hall.

Jesus beckons at Midland, Greenmount Archbishop Barry Hickey recently urged Catholics to return to the practice of adoring and praying to Jesus In the Blessed Sacrament.

Midland parish, jointly with Greenmount, started adoration successfully three years ago with perpetual adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament 24 hours a day on a roster basis.

However, there are now some (chiefly night) slots which could be filled, and Gail Ryan, one of the coor-

Open 8.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, on Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm.

dinators of the Chapel of Perpetual Adoration, is encouraging people to enjoy this time of special union with God, as much as she does.

For her part, Gail regards it as a precious time with the Lord - "Just Jesus and you."

"Hey!" she tells everybody, "Everyone feeds their body, so why not their soul?"

For any information please ring Gail on 274-4887 or Mike McDonnell

858 HAY STREET PERTH

Ph: 321 6655 IOW

CLIP AND SAVE 20% Present this coupon by 31 July 1995 and receive a 20% discount off your giftware purchase from Pellegrini's.

Retreat with Christian meditator and author from Manila, Philippines

Fr. Gerry Pierse CSSR To be held at Redemptorist Retreat House Weekend: 22nd-25th September (incl.)

Live-in: Cost: $113.00 Weekdays: 25th-29th September (incl.)

Live-in: Cost: $56.50 p.h. p.d.

40 ROOMS ONLY AVAILABLE Please contact 328 6600 A.S.AP. Cost includes stipend

on 295-4597.

STUDENT ENROLMENTS

Iona Presentation College

33 Palmerston Street, Mosman Park 6012 Telephone: 384 0066 Fax: 384 5191 Families wishing to enrol their daughters at Iona Presentation College should telephone or fax Mrs Louis Creasy for an application form. We are presently conducting interviews for our 1996 and 1997 intake of student and would welcome enquiries from interested families.

The College will be holding an Open Day on Wednesday 30 August with conducted tours at 10am, 12 noon and 2pm. We invite you to come along and see the College 'at work' and discover what Iona is all about!

Ukrainians resource 'Historic' Aboriginal thank our

Example set for other Australian states

bishops

nature and, in particular, to the new awareness of the essential nature of Aboriginal culture that Archbishop Barry Hickey forms the consciousness of launched last week a new being Australian." r esource package which CEO Aboriginal education encourages teachers in Catholic consultant, Mrs Bev Port-Louis schools across the state to use said it was hoped the new packAboriginal perspectives in the age would be integrated by curriculum. teachers into their teaching.

The program, known as Abo"It's for every facet of the riginal Studies Across the Cur- child's learning, that's why it's riculum and launched at the across all subject areas," she Catholic Education Office in said.

Perth, encourages the inclusion Mrs Port -Louis said that of the Aboriginal perspective teachers would be encouraged wherever it is important to to draw upon the resources of recognise that there are differtheir own local Aboriginal coment cultural perspectives in any "We're also encouragmunities. part of the educational curricuing our teachers to get to know lum. their local Aboriginal commuIn preparation for three years, nity so that there is an Aborigithe program was coordinated nal person that's in the classby staff of the CEO. room, able to help the teacher A working party of Aboriginal and hopefully do the lesson for people from metropolitan and the teacher in the cultural country areas worked in tan- aspects of it," she said. dem with CEO staff to conThe resource kit will cover tribute to the religious educa- studies ranging from pre-Prition and social studies syllabus. mary to Year 7 but, said Mrs In a launch featuring Aborigi- Port-Louis, it was expected that nal dancing and music by danc- a secondary level version would ing group Western Creations soon be available. and speeches by Aboriginal She gave an example of how elders, Archbishop Hickey in the subject of history, teachdescribed the program as his- ers could draw upon the toric. resources of Aboriginal commuIt was, he said, "something nities. that is historic certainly within "Aboriginal persons could Catholic education in Western come into a classroom and talk Australia, probably within Aus- about things like their own life tralia - something that is historic story, the effects of (parliamenfor our state because others will tary) Acts that have been in take their lead from what is place, why they were in place being launched today." and even (the effect) that they "An awareness of Aboriginal still have today in the Aboriginal culture, tradition, spirituality, community," she said. attachment to land [and] lanAs an initiative of the CEO, guage is basic to any notion of Aboriginal Studies Across the what Australia is all about," he Curriculum highlights recent said. policy statements on Aboriginal "So I welcome this rising and Torres Strait Islander eduawareness to our multicultural cation issued by the Catholic

By Peter Rosengren

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Chuisch in the Ukraine has thanked the Australian Catholic Bishops for the delegation, which included Perth's Archbishop Barry Hickey, that visited the Ukraine and Eastern Europe in May and June.

The delegation was lead by Bishop Peter Stasiuk, the bishop for the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Australia and included Cardinal Clancy, Archbishop Hickey and Bishops Peter Ingham, George Pell and Hilton Deakin.

Michael Whiteley, national director of Australian Catholic Relief, was also part of the delegation.

Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, thanked the Australian bishops' for their visit and their solidarity with Ukrainian Greek Catholics during their persecution under Soviet communism.

"We are grateful for the prayers and sacrifices which were offered by the faithful in Australia during those dark years of persecution," said Cardinal Lubachivsky. Cardinal Lubachivsky also said that it was important that his brother Latin-rite bishops see first-hand the situation of the Ukrainian Church so that such injustices could not occur to it again.

While in Kyviv, the capital city of Ukraine, the Australian bishops were able to see the small bell tower, with a capacity to hold 30 people, and the 50-person chapel Archbishop Hickey presents a copy of the new Aboriginal study which are the only church buildresource package to Ursula Frayne College student Kim Isaacs at ings available to serve the 200,000 Ukrainian Greek Catholic faithful James Nestor Hall last week. in that region.

Education Commission urging Noongar community of the Land that was given to the teachers and students in South-West said it was impor- Church two years ago for the Catholic s chools to demon- tant for Aboriginal people to building of a patriarchal cathedral strate and live out respect for "know about our culture and to in Kyiv was abruptly taken away indigenous people and culture. know it is not a bad thing. by the government and has not Because years ago for black yet been replaced.

Aboriginal elders, Mr Fred people - Aboriginal people - it "The initiative that Bishop Peter Collard and Mrs Gwen Baldini, to be a bad thing to talk Stasiuk took in familiarising repseemed also spoke at the launch and, in about your own language in resentatives of the Australian separate speeches, described schools. I went to a state school Bishops Conference with the situthe event as an "historic event we were denied even ation of our church in Ukraine is and for our people." acceptance of being Aborigi- highly commendable," Cardinal Lubachivsky said.

Mrs Baldini, an elder of the nal," she said.

Flame Ministries International

FAMILY LAW WILLIAM CARR LL.M Barrister & Solicitor Level 8 150 St George's Terrace PERTH WA 6000 Tel: (09) 481 8844

Presents an introduction to Charismatic S irituali

"WHEN THE SPIRIT COMES" HOLY SPIRIT

Families have placed their trust with us for over 100 years.

The tradition continues.

S EMI NAR 7.30pm Thursday 10th August & weekly to Thursday 28th September

"Immaculate Conception" 154 Canning Hwy. East Fremantle.

Accredited by the Law Society of Western Australia and the Law Institute of Victoria as a Family Law Specialist

This Seminar is suitable for people of all ages and levels of spiritual growth.

A :reat o..ortuni to know .ur faith in eater de.th.

Enquires: Guy on (09) 382 3668

Flame Ministries International (A Preaching/Teaching Organisation in the Catholic Church Serving the Body of Christ)

The Daughters of Charity

MEDITATION

URGENTLY NEED

5 DAY RETREAT 14-19 July in lovely b ush setting. Meditation in the Christian tradition - wi ll include a blend of Eastern and Western practices e.g. postures, breathing, chanting to assist in bringing one to the silent p lace of contemplative prayer.

GOOD QUALITY NICK-NACKS, HOUSEHOLD GOODS, UTENSILS, ET(

ENQUIRIES: INSTITUTE OF HUMAN D EVELOPMENT ON 525 5227

Our shops are at: 561 Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley 421 Oxford Street, Mt Hawthorn 3 17 William Street, Northbridge 12 Robinson Road, Rockingham Or ring Sr. Clare 227 6616

For generations, our ability to meet the personal needs and wishes of each family has earned the O'Dea family a reputation for professionalism and understanding.

It's a reputation that will be continued with future generations.

And with innovations such as our Bereavement Education Division and our Pre-Paid Funeral Plan, Bowra & O'Dea strive to offer West Australian families even greater support.

For further information, call our Head Office on 328 7299. Or visit A TRADITION OF TRI •14/ F 68 Stirling St, Perth.

OWRA

& O'DEA

The Record, July 13 1995

3

[Children TOMORROW TODAY

Young adults' eyrie retreat

focus of peace day

By John 'Mavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John Paul II will dedicate his 1996 World Peace Day message to children, as victims of violence and protagonists of peace.

The Pope hopes his message can help -give or restore hope to so .many children for whom the future remains blocked" by the effects of conflict, the Vatican said last week.

The theme of the message, "Let us give children a future of peace," is dedicated to the "too-many children who do not know peace, who have never enjoyed peace," a Vatican statement said.

The statement said that everyone agrees that children are the key to society's future, and that their healthy intellectual, physical and religious development is the best way to build a peaceful way of life.

"But the world today offers the sad spectacle of children who are victims of family and social violence, of armed conflicts and of various forms of exploitation," it said.

The Pope wanted to -launch a heartfelt appeal to all: to give the hope of peace to children, wherever

they are," it said. Children today urgently needed the possibility of living in a peaceful society, so that peacemaking was learned at a young age, the statement said.

-It is their right, and it is our duty," it said.

Children also needed families that educated them with love and that respected their dignity. They needed models of healthy behaviour in order to overcome the temptation to violence and the contrasts of modern society, it said.

But the Pope would also highlight the fact that children could make a difference when it came to peace.

Many young people, the Vatican said, had courageously defended the rights of other children who were being exploited or used.

Some had paid for their efforts with their lives, the statement said.

The Vatican statement pointed out that international organizations planned to highlight themes of world hunger and housing in 1996.

Both were issues that have a huge impact on the children of the world, it said.

Pope, youth to talk at Loreto VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John Paul II plans to visit Loreto, Italy, in September for a European youth festival that is expected to attract several hundred thousand young people, according to the Vatican.

The youth rally between September 6 and 10 and called "EurHope" is being organised principally by the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Italian bishops' conference.

Plans call for a live television linkup with five other European cities so that other youths can talk

to the Pope. Loreto is the site of a popular Marian shrine which legend says contains Mary's house, carried to the spot by angels.

-We want youths to have the opportunity of a real conversion," Archbishop Pasquale Macchi of Loreto said on July 7.

The aim was to stimulate youths to promote in Europe "an authentic Christian presence" which helped install justice and peace in the continent, he said.

A group of young adults who meet together every Monday night at the Catholic Education Office attended a weekend retreat in the tranquil setting of Eagles Nest at Gidgegannup. Bruce Downes from the Youth and Young Adult Office accompanied the group and Father Brian McKenna and Sister Ngaire joined them for the closing Mass on Sunday.

Be not afraid - feed the lambs stand by our values and love our children in this way.

It is also difficult to underWithin the family scene, stand at times why young peowhen there are young teenagers ple state their need to be an involved, we will often find an individual and yet all end up increase in the number of family looking alike, having the same arguments. From the outside haircut, wearing the same looking in, it can seem very clothes, listening to the same clear as to what is happening, music. It is safer in a group but within the family, people are while searching for their own often too involved to be able to identity. As they grow older and divorce themselves from per- become more sure of the values sonal feelings. they hold personally, they need Young people will often disre- group or peer support less. gard family beliefs as they test Change often begins around different values. This does not 12 years of age with the quesnecessarily mean that they dis- tion "Do I have to go to Mass? agree with the beliefs of their Why?" family, but rather it is part of the Then, when they are old process necessary for them to enough to go to Mass by thembe able to make personal selves we may see them standchoices. ing at the back of the church or A young person needs limits in the porch. Sometimes they and boundaries, but they will give up Mass completely. Othcertainly test those limits. It is ers may move into parish based all part of the learning process, activities or parish youth groups and they will make mistakes. such as Luke 18 or Antioch.

This "testing the limits" stage Some go to youth groups run is very difficult for parents, by other denominations and sometimes even distressing. We parents become concerned and can often feel like dictators, but confused. There can be a it is important to tough it out, to dilemma in wondering whether

By Penny Ashcroft of the Youth and Young Adult Office.

Fremantle Dockers Parking

YOUNG PEOPLE & THE FUTURE

Support the Catholic Youth and Young Adult Ministry

Come and listen to Brother Mark O'Connor, national co-ordinator, explain the Bishops Consultation on youth in Australia.

by parking at the

ALL ARE WELCOME

S ubiaco Parish Church 1 Salvado Road Subiaco

Br Graham Neist wrote that Jesus said to young people: "Do not be afraid, I am with you! I have come that you might have abundant life," and to adults he said: Do you love me? Feed my lambs! As I have done for you, will you make yourself vulnerable to these young people and walk with them in their shoes?

1406 O'Brien Road Gidgegannup Set in 17 hectares of natural bush adjoining Walyunga National Park and just 45 minutes from the city, Eagle's Nest can take groups of up to 55 in perfect surroundings for youth retreats, Christian living camps or other youth formation programs. Priority is given to Catholic parish youth groups, schools and other church youth organisations.

THE FOLLOWING DATES ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR 1995

(Dates in: bold = weekend, italics = unconfirmed) July 31-Aug 3 August 6-8, 14-17, 30-31 September 10-11, 15-17, 18-22,25-29, 30-Oct 1 October 2-6, 9-13, 16-20, 23-26, 30-Nov 3 November 2,6-9, 12-15, 16-17, 18-19,20-24,25-26,27-Dec 1 December 11-15, 16-17, 18-22

ij Goody Bioethics Centre

39 Jugan Street, Glendalough

CATHOLIC YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT MINISTRY

SECOND TERM Monday 1st May - Friday 7th July THIRD TERM Monday 24th July - Tuesday 29th September For Bookings and Enquiries, phone Eagle's Nest direct on 574 7030

Phone: 328 9622. Fax: 328 7976. 30 Claverton Street, North Perth.

•

The Record, July 13 1995

If we can tune into this and support them in their search, they will ultimately move into a faith development stage which is based on personal choice as well as family tradition.

EAGLE'S NEST

•

4

When young people leave home, they often become "occasional church goers," but when we speak to them we find they have a very strong belief in God and in Christian values. This usually means that their own personal faith search has begun.

They are moving on from a faith based just on the fact that they were raised in a Catholic family.

Catholic Youth Formation Centre

Thursday July 20- 7.00pm

(Very close to Subiaco Oval)

this means their child is losing their faith or if it is better that they are at least going to a church - even if it is not Catholic.

Ordination remark attacked

Controversial remarks on the subject of the ordination of women and language used in the English language Catechism of the Catholic Church by two Australian heads of religious orders have generated a strong response from members of other religious and clerical associations.

The remarks were made on ABC national radio last week following the Melbourne conference of heads of religious institutes held at St Mary's college at the University of Melbourne.

Fr Bill Uren, provincial of the Australian Jesuits, told ABC radio that the issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood had been placed "on hold" in the orthodox Catholic tradition, while Sr Helen Clarke RSC, president of the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes, said that she imagined the "exclusive" language used in the new Catechism had already done a lot of damage.

Fr Uren said that while the question of the ordination of women had not been formally addressed by the conference, "what we are addressing, rather, is the whole question really of decision making in the Church."

He said that many people were not aware that Pope John Paul II had spoken strongly on the importance of women taking their appropriate plau in the decision making structures of the Church.

"To some degree you know, that issue

(the ordination of women) certainly which are equally valid, which is not an hasn't faded into the background but at acceptable view to us," she said. least within, I guess, the orthodox Also interviewed on the same report, Catholic tradition, it's been put on hold.

Sr Helen Clarke RSC, president of the But I think the energy is being directed Australian Conference of Leaders of more towards, (areas) like women Religious Institutes said that she imagbeing involved in things like matrimoined the use of exclusive language in nial tribunals," he said. the new Catechism had done extensive Responding to both Fr Uren and Sr damage.

Clarke's comments, Sydney priest Fr "I believe we keep chipping away ...

John Walter of the Australian Confraterwe feel very strongly about it and we nity of Catholic Clergy, a national association of priests and deacons which believe that exclusive language alienalso claims over 400 lay members, said ates people and I think we keep on trythat Pope John Paul's 1994 statement on ing, trying to convince those who are women's ordination had said that the not convinced that it is something worth Church did not have the power to alter working towards," she said. what Christ had instituted.

Sr Mary Augustine, however, said Fr Walter said the Pope was like a that Sr Clarke's comments on exclusive judge who had declared he was not language were hard to believe. competent to hear a case.

"I find that very hard to understand "The Almighty's the only one that can from my perspective of having worked give that decision and perhaps Fr Uren with many women of different ages and will have to wait to hear him, "he said. different positions," she said.

Also critical of the statement that the "I think I speak for [the] religious Church's position on women's ordina- members [of APREL] when I say that tion was yet to be determined was Sr we're aware of the painstaking process Mary Augustine, OP, deputy president that the Church went through to preof the Association for the Promotion of pare that Catechism and we received Religious Life, a national organisation of the Catechism from the Church's hands bishops, priests, religious and laity pro- for what it is - a great gift of the Holy moting religious life.

Spirit - which we think liberates the Sr Augustine said APREL believed great mass of Catholics from the hands there was only one Church teaching - of the elitist theologians and, often false, the orthodox tradition. teachers who have been manipulating "(Fr Uren is) speaking as though there teaching over the last twenty-five years are several traditions in the Church or more," she said.

South Africa bound Donkey gets the nod

MANNING & ASSOCIATES Contact Lens Consultants GROVE PLAZA, COTTESLOE Mark A. Kalnenas, B. Optom (NSW) For appointment Phone 384 6633 or 384 6720

MEDITATION CHRISTIAN The path of contemplative prayer for contemporary men and women

Introduction & Information Session SEEKING GOD IN THE SILENCE AND STILLNESS BEYOND WORDS OR THOUGHT

Saturday 22nd July, 2-4pm

at the Servite Priory, 2 Morgans Street, Tuart Hill Open to all interested in Meditation in the Christian Tradition Phone Vesta on 444 5810 A/H 344 6542 Christian Meditation Community [WA)

Flame Ministries International

"Set My People , On Fire,, CHARISMATIC TEACHING SEMINAR

Conducted over 16 weekly Sessions beginning with an Introduction & Registrations Night on: Wednesday August 9th 1995 St. Keiran's Parish Hall Cape Street, Osborne Park.

This Seminar Is FREE A "Love Offering" will be taken up each week You may attend the weekly sessions without Registration.

Only those Registered for the entire Seminar will receive Weekly Study Notes at $2.50 p.w & be eligible for Graduation.

THE PROGRAMME

Mercy College Year 12 student, Angela Fonceca, of Woodvale, will learn all about South Africa and teach them a little about Australia, when she heads off there as a Rotary Exchange student for 12 months in 1996.

LIVING WITH LOSS

Live-in Weekend Workshop Presented by

Grief Management Educational Services A.C.N. 009 337 268

To he held at: Redemptorist Retreat House Camelia Street, North Perth

AUGUST 11-13, 1995 Cost $130 (includes Meals & Accommodation) FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 11 Registration and Getting To Know You Session SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 The Experience of Grief...

Presenter: Gerry Smith Ways of Coping With Loss...

Facilitated by: Members of The Redemptorist Lay Community Life Reconstruction After Loss...

Presenter: Gerry Smith HEALING SERVICE...

'I have Come That You May Have Life' Members of The Redemptorist LayCommunity Music by: HARVEST SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 Please Hear What I am NOT Saying...

Presenter: Gerry Smith Meditation - Silence, Stillness, Simplicity...

Facilitated by: Vesta & Sam Gamalatge Registration forms may be obtained from: MR GERRY SMITH Ph: (WK) (09) 344 4438 (A/H) (09) 448 5905 BOOKINGS CLOSE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9

(L to R) David Ailsworth and big brother Aisling, together with their father, Paul: all happy to ride the Nodding Donkey Every year the Variety Club 'Bash' throughout outback WA raises funds for worthy causes involving children.

This year the beneficiaries of the Bash will be Fremantle Hospital and Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital.

Two children, David and Aisling Charlesworth, brought their dad, a 'Basher', to school for a news item on July 7th. Mr Paul Charlesworth and his car, The Nodding Donkey, entertained pre-primary and grade two children at Loreto Primary School with his most unusual news item.

The Nodding Donkey had everything to amuse the children, from a

'donkey' on the top that 'nodded' to an 'oil well' on the back that squirted water and speakers for music.

Everyone was allowed to climb through the brightly coloured vehicle as proud David and Ashley showed off their wonderful dad. It's safe to say that this was one news item which didn't leave anyone yawning as smiles were beaming everywhere the eye could see.

The 'nodding donkey' is named after the pump that moves up-anddown like a nodding donkey on top of an oil well.

Carmen Pescud

Wk I: "Knowing the Love of God" Wk 2: 'He is Lord" Wk 3: "Healing Through Forgiveness" Wit 4: "The Holy Spirit dr His Gifts" Wit 5: "The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Why Tongues) 'Wk 6: "Righteousness" Wk 7: "The Authority of the Believer" Wk 8: "Spiritual Armour- Wit 9: 'Effective Prayer" Wit 10: "The Motivational Gifts" Wk II: "In the world not of the world" Wk 12: "They turned their world upside down with faith in the name of Jesus" Wit 13: 'Intercessory Prayer" Wit 14: 'Practical Soul Winning for Practical People" Wk IS: "The Great Commission" 3 Weekend RetreatANorkshops are essential to the Seminar & occur at Wk. 5: Wk 10: & Wk 15.

Retreat weekend costs are determined b numbers & venue.

ENQUIRIES (09) 382 3668

Flame Ministries International A Preaching/Teaching Organisation in the Catholic Church Serving the Body of Christ

Makin Church Organs

Work a pleasant surprise Year 10 student Carmen Pescud, seen left with her work experience supervisor Brian Coyne, has written of work at the Catholic Eduction Office: I got more than I bargained for in my work experience placement. I expected the Catholic Education media section to be the most boring place I have ever been to. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. Some of the things I did included watching a television interview done by Channel Nine and the launch of Aboriginal Studies into the curriculum (a pretty big event). I've typed up stories, seen progress meetings, transcribed an interview, sorted and labelled photographs, and I found a small surprising element in most of these jobs. Work experience is an eye-opener. Overall my encounter with the work force was interesting and beneficial through learning about the job at hand.

Makin Organs Ltd. of Oldham, U.K. are makers of digital church organs in the English tradition.

A Makin organ gives tonal quality and regulation normally associated with pipe organs.

A Makin organ sounds, feels and looks like a pipe organ.

Now available in Australia.

For further details, colour brochure and a demonstration call your Makin representative.

Keith Poole

Principal Organs 30 Masefield Ave, North Lake Tel/Fax 331 1525 The Record, July 13 1995

5

Book Reviews

Saint Glare whispers from a poetic reflection This Living Mirror - Reflections on Clare of Assisi, by Sister Frances Teresa OSC, (Darton, Longman & Todd), 1995, $25.00 Reviewed by Dom Francis Byrne OSB, New Norcia

CIS and Clare are as intimately linked as friendship and love.

A fter visiting St Peter's in Rome the pilgrim generally makes his or her way out into the Umbrian hillside to catch a glimpse of the spirit which animated Francis and Clare into stardom and into the hearts and minds of millions of Christians over eight hundred years.

After visiting the crypt of Saint Francis (1181-1226) and being told that some of his bones were kept in a sacred casket, I then moved across the cobble-stoned street to the church where Saint Clare (1193-1253) is honoured.

I descended the dimly lit steps and encountered the iron bars of what seemed a small prison and there she was, her face blackened and yet in all her grandeur.

It appeared to me as if this great lady of poverty was just enjoying her afternoon 'Siesta' and then I could almost discern her admonition as I peered through the inhospitable bars: "No more books about me!"

I can understand her thinking.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those hectic days of the early thirteenth century when Clare, inspired by the example of the Poverello, renounced the world and began the journey to the interior.

Understandably her writings are minimal and she would want the twentieth century Christian to follow Christ in the particular way in which he or she is called.

We should look to Francis and Clare all right, but scrub the romanticism and the moviemakers' concept of the pair romping through the fields of lilies with a classical music background, all encircled by the sun.

So how do we approach another book on Clare? Sister Frances Teresa, a Poor Clare nun based at Arundel in West Sussex in England has brought us This Living Mirror, Reflections on Clare of Assisi.

I had difficulty getting past the cover let alone into the main

text. Now let me point out, Sister Frances Teresa did not design the cover, so she is not to blame.

The text is excellent and in a poetic English style which will appeal not only to her own Sisters world-wide, but to many of the public.

G.K. Chesterton wrote that the coming of Saint Francis was like "the birth of a child in a dark house, lifting its doom ... a child that grows up unconscious of the tragedy and triumphs over it by his innocence." And the same is true, no doubt, of Saint Clare.

Like all the saints in the Church's calendar, Francis and Clare are like beacons for the rest of us still on the way. Sr Frances writes at the beginning of her book: "People like Clare and Francis are given to us to be a compass, pointing always to God." And which one of us has not used this compass to help us find our way out of the morass of life, has not petitioned them to wipe away our tears and intercede before the throne of God on someone's behalf?

Francis and Clare wanted to escape the taedium vitae and experience something of the Divine Spark. This they achieved through Grace and a deep, personal response to Christ's gentle urging: Come, follow me.

The main title of the book This Living Mirror - comes from a pericope in the Testament of Clare: "The Lord has called us to this greatness: that those who are to be effective mirrors and examples for others, should see themselves mirrored in us. Therefore, if we have lived according to this form of life which I have already spoken about, we shall leave a noble example to others."

The life of Clare - and her followers ever since - is one totally dedicated to the hidden life of prayer, silence, solitude and simplicity - the Vita Contemplativa.

And out of this cave of silent adoration of the Triune God runs rivulets of joy and peace which fill the heart and soul to overflowing - a peace the world cannot give.

Clare enters the Light and from it she has an understanding of Christ's gentleness with which the Gospels are sprinkled.

The author tells us on page 102 that "Francis reflected Christ to Clare" and profoundly influenced her life. Yet they went their own separate paths to God - one behind the grille, the other

on the highways and byways of the world.

The author admits that her work is basically personal reflections on the life of Clare of Assisi, from her own experience of the life of a Poor Clare nun of the late twentieth century. But one almost gets the impression that she is grabbing at straws most of the time and trying to 'guess' who Clare was, what she was like, how she coped with Reflections on Clare of Assisi the traumatic events of the period, such as the Saracen invasion threat, the lack of full support from the Papacy and a male-dominated Church.

Sr Frances leans on whatever writings Clare left her beloved community and no doubt would claim that one cannot get any closer that that.

True, but it can also lead to pure conjecture and a far from original picture of Clare and her surroundings. Only after much restoration work are we discovering the real Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, and that angelic artist is closer to us in time than Clare or Francis.

A real burning question for any Poor Clare nun today would be: What was Clare like to live with as an Abbess? This is discussed in chapter seven. The author draws on John 17 ("I am among you as one who serves ...") and then gives us a quotation from Clare's writings: "The abbess indeed, should have such an air af familiarity Instead of Abu's quote why about her that the sisters can army, rights of sanctuary, propspeak and act to her as ladies do erty and clout, as was often the not insert Julian of Norwich: "All to their servants. This is how it case in contemporary great shall be well, and all manner of ought to be, that the abbess be the abbeys. We can easily accept things shall be well?" And substipersonal servant of all the sisters." that this would indeed be Clare's tute Ezra with Thomas Merton: This is the ideal and I have no position. These were barriers to "All my veins run with Christ's doubt that such a gracious Lady intimate union with the Beloved spirit?" and Jalalud with Teresa as Clare undoubtedly was, as and had to be sacrificed on the of Avila: "God preserve us from she attempted each day to put altar of one's ego.

Sr Frances adds: "The positive sad saints?" herself at the service of others. gift of strong people like Clare, is But it must have been a struggle, In today's world of noise and especially when those in the that they not only have great dislocation Clare can still speak hierarchy of the Church felt her vision, but can also communi- her message of Pax, Gaudium Rule too severe, too reactionary cate it to others." and Oratio. If the modern world for delicate females.

Life at San Damiano was cenlooks at this lady of Poverty Clare came up against a veri- tered around the Opus Dei table hillside of opposition as (Prayer of the Church), to breath- closely enough it will discover did the other great mystic and ing in the perfumed silence of her real secret: that of prayer. reformer, Saint Teresa of Avila. God in both summer and winter, It can help if you make the pilThey must have been both springtime and autumn. gimage to Assisi itself to see her women of steel - or should I say Sr Frances begins chapters and imbibe the spirit of that pertinacy and gentle persuasion five, nine and ten with a quota- to have clawed their way up tion from a non-catholic writer peace-filled haven. If you cannot the Holy Mountain.

-Abu Yazid Bistam, Ezra Pound afford the trip, then maybe - just According to the author, in and Halalud din Rumi respec- maybe - you will hear her whisClare's view, the Abbess was tively. They are not remarkable pering to you in the pages of This responsible for the direction and statements either and I wonder Living Mirror. I hope so. And if government of the sisters, not for whether she is trying to broaden you cannot afford the book ($25) feudal power, lands, a standing her "market" of support? use your library card ...

Clergy should take the discipline a la Waishie Confessions of a Failed Finance Minister, by Peter Walsh, published by Random House, 1995, $29.95.

Reviewed by Fred Chaney S book is unlikely to be read by T those who would most benefit from it, clergy of all denominations with a

vocation rooted in the social ministry.

Peter Walsh is unlikely to be a favourite with them; he can be vitriolic and seem unkind to those who would `do good,' determined as he is to look at issues on a factual rather than a fashionable basis.

This is distinctly unfashionable and in some respects a clumsy book. There are irritating repetitions and hits of self-indulgence which will help those who don't like his messages to ignore them.

I just kept wishing Random House had imposed a sterner editor and made the 6 The Record, July 13 1995

book a little less like what you might get over a few beers with Walshie after a good lunch. Why wish that? Because this is a book by a man who sees politics as a matter of morality and it is a pity to give people a cheap reason to ignore it.

My view of Walsh, born of long adversarial contact in the Senate, went from seeing him as a hit man with a dirt file that he was happy to use, to the realisation that he tried, with the constraint of party government in the Westminster style, to deal with issues on their merits and to devastate cant and humbug. This book reflects the author as I came to see him, passionate about the welfare of Australia and always on the side of the battler. He seemed to me to represent what I see as the good Labor values.

My opening reference to clergymen is a matching piece of self-indulgence, a crack at the often sloppy analysis of policy issues by social-justice-seeking clergy. Walsh shows no appreciation, in this book or

anywhere else that I can recall, that pressure groups have a legitimate place in a democracy. But to do so would blunt the corrective he is trying to apply to the political system which enables the affluent to manipulate the system to the disadvantage of the battler.

He is particularly savage about the child-care lobby with its successful pursuit of high cash benefits to the affluent while doing nothing for the $300 per week chicken plucker at Ingham (another repeated image).

As I read I found myself asking, will the operatives in the social agencies of the churches be prepared to read that the industry protrection they favour to protect jobs is as regressive as a sales tax on the necessities of life which they oppose? Will the account of the manipulation of Aboriginal interest in the thoroughly dishonest anti-uranium mining debate within the ALP be seen as a cause for soul-searching about principle and consistency? Will the

custodians of the moral community start to object to the middle-class benefit grab and the steady favouring of the affluent retiree at the expense of the young married battler?

This is a book worth reading by anyone with an interest in a fair society. Peter Walsh is at his weakest when he attacks the efforts of governments and others to address non-economic changes in a rapidly changing society. He is powerful and compelling when he examines the policies which add to or subtract from the decent and egalitarian economic framework which we have proudly seen A part of our national character.

Fred Chaney is a former WA Liberal Senator, Leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate and a current member of the National Native Title Tribunal.

This review was first published in the June-July edition of Eureka Street magazine.

6/ekve

Taylor Bill reveals a patronising view of the disabled The Disabled Advocacy Group is concerned that the Medical Care for the Dying Bill 1995, introduced by Ian Taylor, MLA, will impact adversely on persons with disability.

The Bill provides for the refusal of treatment, including life saving treatment, on completion of a refusal of treatment certificate.

Many disabled persons depend on various "life aids" including ventilators, feeding tubes, dialysis machines, catheters, colostomy bags and pacemakers to sustain life. To remove a ventilator or other life aid from such a person kills them as surely as a lethal injection.

Disabled persons, like others, may suffer depression which at times leads to suicidal ideation.

However, disabled persons are at substantially graver risk of being allowed or even encouraged to act out their suicidal project. First, because they have available the means of refusing a "life aid," their suicide can be disguised a "refusal of treatment".

Second, while society fails to fully acknowledge the equal dignity of the disabled and to commit itself fully to helping disabled persons achieve life satisfaction, the suicidal despair of a disabled person can too easily be reinforced and legitimated by society, including the medical

profession. "Who would want to go on living like that anyway?" is the underlying thought behind these attitudes.

Unfortunately, the Medical Care for the Dying Bill 1995 does not take these factors into account. Suicidal disabled persons, readily judged to be of "sound mind", could complete a refusal of treatment certificate leading directly to the withdrawal of "life aids." There are no provisions in the Bill to ensure that disabled persons are referred to appropriate counselling or assistance in living.

We are also concerned about the discriminatory aspects of the Bill in regard to persons with communicative or intellectual disabilities.

Section 5 of the Bill allows a medical practitioner and a witness to certify that a patient has "clearly expressed or indicated" a decision to refuse medical treatment generally or of a particular kind. The patient is to be informed of any meaningful, useful treatment and must appear to understand the information given.

The language used in the Bill allows medical practitioners who view a particular disability as completely antipathetic to quality of life to characterise any life sustaining treatment as non-meaningful and useless treatment.

The failure to oblige the medical practitioner and the witness to ensure that the

patient, has actually understood the information conveyed is extraordinarily patronising. Life sustaining treatment can be withdrawn from a disabled person who "appears" to have understood what was going on and who, it is claimed, "clearly expressed" consent.

This Bill would make it very easy, for example, for a young person who has become quadriplegic to refuse, or to have refused on her behalf, any life sustaining treatment.

Persons with disability have enough difficulties and challenges in coming to terms with living without society providing a socially-sanctioned, legalised, medically acceptable cop-out from life that is ready to hand whenever it all just seems too hard.

When other groups in our society seek suicide as a solution, we try, however inadequately, to meet the needs signalled by their cry for help. This Bill would serve to distract attention away from the real needs of persons with a disability by masking their cry for help with the facade of a "refusal of treatment certificate".

With the paperwork all in order, the embarrassing reminder of our frailty that every disabled person represents, can be tidied away.

Adrian Bertino-Clarke Spokesman, Disabled Advocacy Group

Serious risks Your distinguished correspondents Dr Ted Watt, Keith Wilson and B Peachey, and many others, find the Taylor Medical Care of the Dying Bill badly drafted and dangerous. They believe it is unnecessary and, if passed, would change the law, depriving patients of important legal safeguards which they now have and exposing them to new and serious risks.

An article in The West Australian of 2 5th May, 1995 (which has not been denied) stated that "The Roman Catholic Church ... indicated its guidelines were similar to those in the Bill". What are these "guidelines", and if they are similar to those in the Bill, will they also deprive patients of important legal safeguards which they now have?

The same article quoted Father Walter Black MSC of the Goody Bioethics Centre as saying he would neither support nor oppose the Bill as the Church had no position on it.

Yet the Church position is clear from the Catechism (2276-9, 2324), and Catholics must oppose any legislation contrary to Catholic teaching, which knowledgeable Catholics clearly believe the Taylor Bill to be.

John It Martyr Attadale

Restoration, not revenge

from it. The importance of the individual is In Matthew 24:4 Jesus said: "Be on your tion to the Divine Mercy to be spread but centered in the personal responsibility of guard and do not let anyone deceive you". approved the Votive Mass of the Divine character formation. Debate about the roles God our Father asks us to read his word, Mercy as well officially establishing the of "nature and nurture" ignore this respon- the Bible and have Jesus as our Saviour and Feast of Mercy for Poland. sibility, promulgating false theories that have the Holy Spirit guide and teach us in Bishop Graber of Rogensburg, speaking seek to place blame elsewhere. at the Fatima Congress in Germany (1973) all truth and prayer.

The Catholic Social Justice Commission We hear incessant empty talk about Again, in Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says: "Ask said: "Once again we affirm that revelation wholeheartedly agrees with Archbishop Hickey's position against capital punish- pseudo-rights, pseudo-liberation and "mak- and you will receive; seek and you will find; ended with Christ and His apostles. But ing religion relevant to contemporary soci- knock and the door will be opened to you. does that mean that God has to remain ment (The Record, July 6).

The Archbishop's comments on the sanc- ety." The truth of the matter is that it is our For anyone who asks will receive, and any- silent, that He can no longer speak to His tity of life are welcomed in these days of responsibility to make ourselves pleasing one who seeks will find and the door will elect? to God, not the reverse.

"Did He not say through His prophet that be opened to him or her who knocks." ever increasing calls for harsher penalties.

Moral values are not subjective. They So I would advise those who condemn He would "pour forth of His Spirit on all At a time when politicians and a vocal minority of the public are proposing the re- have an existence in their own right and, if the truth in what Fr Noel Fitzsimons wrote flesh, that sons and doughters would introduction of the death penalty, a more they are not recognised by society, it is soci- to wake up and read their Bible and ask prophesy, that old men would have visions enlightened approach to the problems of ety that is the poorer thereby. Self-esteem Jesus to unveil their eyes and see His truth and dreams?" (Acts 2:17, St John 3:1-5). can be founded only on self-respect. Good and love.

"Is such prophesy to be limited only to society's ills is very much needed. the first Pentecost? Certainly not." One can Proponents who wish to strengthen the and evil can never be equated, and a "right" Ms Cathryn Loftus save his or her soul without every special retributive justice system need to examine to do wrong is an absurdity.

Tolerance and freedom of expression are Mosman Park grace from God, but the fact that God the many studies which show that harsher offered it because it is useful must weigh penalties do not act as deterrents as used as an excuse for unrestrained promoheavily on one's judgment of it, especially intended; they raise the incidence of physi- tion of socially unacceptable, (and in many in times like ours. cal violence and make our homes and soci- instances) illegal practices, while at the I would like to respond to the letter by Fr same time ludicrous restrictions are ety less safe.

Noel FitzSimons (The Record, June 15) on Adam Zydek During his recent visit to Western Aus- imposed in the name of political correct- behalf of the Divine Mercy Apostolate.

Duncraig tralia, Father Jim Consedine outlined an ness. Logic is conspicuous by its absence. understand not seem to people do Some The correspondence sparked by Fr Fitzsialternative - restorative justice. This seeks Drug abuse, crime and youth suicide are the value and significance of private revela- mons' letters is now closed - Editor abrotragic consequences of an among the to make offenders personally responsible tions, even those approved by the Church. for the consequences of their actions, gation of moral responsibility.

Unfortunately, such attitudes are real the promoconcern at present is A major focusses on restoration for both victim and obstacles to hearing the word of the Lord Interand crime on the tion of pornography There is a great deal of controversy these offender, and promotes rehabilitation. This and Our Lady. A clear statement of the system has been proven to reduce inci- net. There is to be a meeting of State Attor- Church's attitude toward private revela- days about.whether multiculturalism (I predents of crime with fewer re-offences. The neys-General in Perth on July 14 to make tions was made by Pope John Paul II in his fer `multiculturism') is threatening to divide important decisions on this matter. cycle of violence can be broken. our Australian community.

It is for us to make our concern known to homily at Fatima on May 13, 1982 quoting We therefore call upon all christians to This danger is very real,I believe, so long the second Vatican Council: "God's revelatake up the issue as raised by the Arch- our representatives in government. It is tion was brought to completion in Jesus as multiculturalism is understood to mean bishop and to let the cry for restorative jus- well to remember that the Internet belongs Christ who is the fullness of that Revelation. the coexistence within a community of ethto us, the people, not to paedophiles and tice be heard.

The Church evaluates and judges private nic or other groups that insist on enjoying criminal activists.

Gerald Farrell revelations by the criterion of conformity practically unlimited self-determination. In It is a medium of communication with Chairperson, Catholic Social Justice Com- great potential for good, in providing a with that single Revelation." The Holy its extreme form, this attitude leads to the mission forum for discussion, sending e-mail to Father also said: "Private revelations reflect growth of ghettos.

There is, however, a multiculturism that politicians (much easier than writing). I the truth and the call of the Gospel." enhances community rather than fragmentMercy is at The message of the Divine would greatly welcome expressions of the heart of the Gospel. It presents the truth ing it. This multiculturism may be suggestions about setting and/or interest The address on tolerance by Anglican and the call of the Gospel to our present described as an attitude that encourages Archbishop Carnley (The Record, July 6) up a newsgroup on the information super- age, and it is proclaimed by Pope John Paul people of one culture to make their own highway to promote positive values. provides much food for thought.

II in his encyclical "Rich in Mercy" as the elements of other cultures which they find While a separation of Church and State Anne M. Kirkwood congenial. Multicultured people then form message for our age. is surely desirable, and the practice of PO Box 1481 a multicultured and harmonious commusaid to Blessed Faustina (a Polish Jesus belief and worship are indeed private, it is Booragoon nity. nun in the 1930s): "Speak to the world totally illogical to assume on this basis that To ensure the essential solidarity of such about my mercy. It is the sign of the end religion and morals should be excluded a community we need to take seriously the times. from the public forum.

"While there is still time let them have principle that any community's stability Father Noel FitzSimons' letter (The We are becoming increasingly aware of recourse to the fount of My mercy, let them and cohesion depend very much on its the truth.

Record, June 15) speaks an agenda of anti-moralism within our sociPeople who write against the truth do not profit from the Blood and Water which members using a language they all know ety. This is clearly at the root of recent vilely well. know their Bible. Devotion to God, Jesus gushed for them". obscene anti-Christian publications. It is a Strongly as we urge immigrants to masJesus, through Blessed Faustina gives ailgreat injustice that a society, which rightly and the Holy Spirit is not via scapulars and ter and preserve their own family lanthe ing mankind new vessels with which they regards racial vilification as unacceptable, Idols (statues). It is pure devotion to guages, we must insist equally strongly that are to keep of any coming for graces Trinity mind to the founvia and the heart, soul tolerate grossly offensive religious hould s common language is English. At the our tain of mercy. These are: The Image of vilification. The Judeo-Christian tradition human being. we must do all we can to make same time, Divine Mercy, the stay in Chaplet, the Novena, the These to other religions' people choose indeed morality also) who (and mastery of English as easy as possible for requires self-discipline, which is an anath- deception (giving a false image or impres- Three O'clock prayer, but most of all, the people of other cultures ... as well as for feast of Mercy.

We are to where use them promoters of a on with cult of sion) need to read their history individualism ema to those of our own. this devotion of wearing scapulars origi- trust. (militant selfishness).

The Vatican's Sacred Congregation of the John W. Doyle It is not suggested that the individual is nated - a lot was for money gain, not for Divine Worship not only allowed the devo- Kew, Victoria. less important than the community, far true worship of God. The Record, July 13 1995 7

On the Divine Mercy

Multicultured people

The cult of selfishness

The Bible and truth

Features: The St. John of God Sisters in the Kimberley

Pearls of great price at Broome's service In the centenary year of the Sisters of St John of God in Western Australia, Record journalist Colleen McGuiness-Howard travelled to the Kimberley to see the fruits of their apostolate.

In the first of two reports, she tells of their work in Broome and Derby. Next week she describes their work in outlying areas of the Kimberley.

Q

ne hundred years of selfless dedication by the St John of God Sisters in Western Australia Is certainly worth celebrating and recording.

And their Kimberley story,

written in sweat, dust, privations, isolation, selflessness, and the sacrifice of their lives for the Aboriginal people, must be told.

Originating in Ireland, the St John of God Sisters arrived in Albany on November 23, 1895, moved to Perth, and then answered a plea by Bishop Matthew Gibney to embrace the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley. Mother Antonio O'Brien answered the call with eight other equally brave women and the rest is history.

Moving immediately to Beagle Bay in 1907, they established their major centre in Broome in 1908.

Broome has a colourful past

dating back to its exploration days in1861 and the discovery of its Pinctada Maxima, the giant North West pearl oyster found in the magnificent turqouise blue waters of Broome's Roebuck Bay. Its discovery and the lure of wealth attracted Asians, Japanese and encouraged the unscrupulous use of Aboriginal divers, who excelled, but were exploited.

Thus the Sisters arrived in a multi-cultural town where the Aborigines needed considerable help.

Wasting no time they realised teaching and health care was to be their main thrust and started teaching in the church sacristy after their arrival.

By 1912 they had established St Mary's School, with Japanese as their first pupils.

Aboriginal children were not taught at government schools but the Sisters welcomed them; which in turn gave the school a reputation for being an 'Aboriginal school' although it was for all.

The sisters opened Broome's first kindergarten in 1924.

Health care had always been a compassionate ministry of the sisters who began nursing at the District Hospital in 1910, followed by their nursing commitment at the Japanese hospital; this caused the early death of Sister Immaculata Leahy who died after nursing a typhoid patient.

Orphans weren't neglected either with the opening of the SJOG Holy Child Orphanage in 1940.

Sr Germanus Kent, above, outside the hostel named after her with baby Rowan James. Below, Sr Marcella, centre, talks with Aunty Bella, 92, left, and Madge Yau, who accompanies Sr Marcella on her visits to Broome locals.

8 The Record, July 13 1995

Continuing their growth plan for the Aboriginal people, the sisters opened up Nulungu Girls' College in 1974 teaching, in addition, home economics and religious education.

That year Sister Leone (currently counsellor, director of training, and coordinator at St John's Centre, Broome), started t utoring Aboriginal teaching assistants on child development.

This SJOG teaching initiative to equip the Kimberley people for their own self-management has now come to fruition with their use of the excellent facilities at Notre Dame University, Broome campus, which was officially opened and blessed last week.

In 1976 Sr Leone (then St Mary's primary school principal) became the last SJOG principal at Broome as the Sisters, who had

opened the first Catholic pre-primary in the Kimberley the previous year, withdrew from St Mary's - but not before Sr Leone had initiated hearing impairment testing which had been a problem for the children.

Today there are nine sisters at the Broome convent, who like other St John of God Sisters in the Kimberley and throughout WA have made a definite contribution to society at large - and some have been officially recognised for that, such as Sister Germanus Kent.

Sr Germanus, almost 80, successfully lobbied for the building of the Germanus Kent Hostel and day centre Bran Nue Dae. For this she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1991; in 1992 she was named WA Citizen of the Year.

But it would be a mistake to think this outwardly demure but inwardly militant little Sister is "done with lobbying" - on the contrary! She is continually pestering government authorities for the establishment of a Broome nursing home as there is only one in the Kimberley, at Derby.

Not to mention other talents she has of making scones, cups of tea, and maing conversation.

Her seemingly idle chatter once led to three well-dressed Victorian prison escapees who took off in a "borrowed" car being caught the next day through the tip off from this genteel little lady.

Today she boasts around 30 'grandchildren' - born of the six newly-born Derby Leprosarium babies she was asked to foster by their mothers 31 years ago.

She accepted, and bonny babies abounded in the Derby convent with a line up of bassinettes and bottles.

When their mothers recovered from leprosy (Nansens Disease), they reclaimed their children; one was by then the age of 11.

In retirement, the older sisters continue to give - with Sr Germanus looking after single parent families and alcoholics, and others such as Sr Stella (an accomplished musician), with her music group, choir, social work, and Sr Marcella (a former matron of the Derby Lep), with her prayer meetings, who also does much visitation.

Sr Philomena, who spent long years as the orphanage principal, meets many of her extended 'orphanage family' on her visitation.

Sr Raphael (a former teacher and librarian) uses her considerable sewing skills making curtains and bedspreads for Notre Dame University hostel, while continuing with church sewing and sacristan duties.

Sr Sheila teaches at Gibb River, and artistic Sr Joan (former school principal), is archivist for the highly successful SJOG centenary exhibition featuring the Kimberley work of the sisters with its people.

Running back through the Broome years - what do the Aboriginal people think of the Sisters?

Well locals think very highly of them if random comments are anything to go by.

Take Don McKenzie and Joe Roe - they run the St John's Centre based Pinakarra Counselling and Family Support Service for their Aboriginal people based at

"

The grave of Sr Mary lmmaculata St John's Centre. According to them, they wouldn't be where they are today if it wasn't for the initial education and continuing care of the SJOG Sisters, and specifically state it is due to Sr Leone's "pushing and shoving" that they got into the area of Aboriginal counselling which is proving so successful.

There is too, the beautiful story of Our Lady and former Derby Lap patient Gabriel Dolby, "their right hand man" according to the sisters, whose love for them is so real.

Broome resident, and raised at the SJOG-run Derby Lap where he lived with four others of his family similarly affected, Gabriel says he was never afraid when he went there at the age of 10 from 1937 to 1953, "because I trusted and loved the sisters and wasn't afraid of dying because I knew I was in good hands."

Two of his brothers died there but not through leprosy, "Frank and I would pray the rosary daily together", and Gabriel admitted he was "glad in a way I went out there, because with all the training I got, I became a Jack of all Trades."

Then there's CEO consultant for the Kimberley region, Leonie Kelly, whose mother was taken away by the government and raised by the SLOG sisters at Beagle Bay. "She really appreciated the sisters looking after her, and neither she nor my father whom she met there also, have ever said a had word against the Sisters," Leonie said.

"Dad said one of the Sisters would always go to the Beagle Bay old people's camp and say the rosary with them in their own Nyulnyul language."

The sisters were always there for them, Leonie said, and through the recommendation of the sisters, five of their family were sent away for further education to Melbourne and Perth.

She also believes she wouldn't be "where I am today if it wasn't for their urging and support, which I'm still receiving from them."

But perhaps the most telling comment and affirmation for the sisters is Leonie speaking from her heart, when she said: "Through my family's long association with the sisters, I have always felt part of them.

"And although we felt sad that our parents had to leave their homes - the sisters left their homes for us.

"At least we were generally able to retrace our history and find our relatives. "But most of the sisters are in the cemetery today and never returned to their homes ... because of their commitment to us."

Australia's 'missionaries of charity' flowered at Derby Leprosarium t John of God Sister Cabrini onwards, pearling crews then taking in itself - but much, much bends lovingly over a patient brought leprosy across the bor- more.

The pioneering sisters at the in the Numbala Nunga nursing der into Western Australia from Lep - Gertrude, Matthew and home at Derby - the only one in 1870.

Its further importation has Gabriel - like all the sisters who the Kimberley, and the young man stares back from his 'other been further attributed through followed them, loved their world' rigidly fixed in his perma- small numbers of infected patients, and had them taught migrants from countries such as trades and gardening, sewing, nent foetal position.

India, Burma, Malaysia, Italy, painting and carving. They Then comes a sound, perhaps a laugh, or maybe a strangled cry Portugal and Malta where the involved them in the daily running of the establishment where from within a body that is now disease is endemic. possible, and then developed the was 1925, leprosy by Thus useless.

Within the walls live the help- entrenched in the tropics and the famous Lep orchestra, despite less, some victims of unkind age, government was faced with a the difficulties of tortured limbs or innocently encountered dis- dilemma as to how and where to and missing digits; at its height the orchestra boasted 40 violins, ease, and others who've courted treat the sufferers. banjos, a cello and a cornet. six Beaat from lazarette a Apart still while very their own disaster The range of music embraced young, through alcohol and drug gle Bay run by the SJOG sisters from 1934 to 1936, and cases the classics from Beethoven, abuse.

But there are those with the being treated in Darwin, a per- Mozart, Wagner and Handel God-given vocation of caring manent base needed to be estab- down to dance music and honky tonk. There were also corrowith compassion who spend lished.

Thus the Derby Leprosarium borees. their lives feeding, keeping clean, In its early trials searching for and maintaining health within its came to be in 1935, managed by a cure for leprosy, Chaulmooga a matron and her husband. possibilities.

By 1937 it proved unsatisfac- Oil was heated and injected with An embodiment of that ethos, and the SJOG sisters, limited success. tory Is Sister Cabrini who undoubtBut then in 1947 with the disedly joined her Order to help responding to a government perpetuate this caring ministry advertisement, were taken on for covery of Dapsone and subsequently antibiotics the healing which is one of the SJOG a three months trial basis.

Although one would assume pace due to the multi-drug charisms.

Heart-rending work it surely the position would have few tak- regime quickened markedly. By must be, to see the effects of self- ers in view of the consequences 1986, the Lep had served its purdestruction and that of leprosy, of the disease, the sisters were pose and leprosy was completely elated, moved into the 'Lep' in under control. with lost hands or feet.

For the few affected leprosy But the sisters are not new to 1937 and their three month trial that and their Derby story has finished 50 years later when it patients today, the drugs keep been written in the history of this was closed down in 1986 the disease under control, allowenormous state by their incredi- because of its resounding suc- ing them to lead normal community and family lives. ble effort (with medical and gov- cess.

But during the early searchingRampant leprosy was brought ernment expertise) in turning the alarming tide of leprosy which under control by the advent of by-trial years of the Derby Lep, was reaching epidemic propor- new drugs, and very much so by some of the Aborigines were the totally selfless dedication and afraid of the unknown, and hid tions in the Kimberley.

Introduced initially to Aus- commitment of the SJOG Sisters out in the bush for months on end. tralia's East and the Northern who gave their all.

Theirs was not merely a nursThere was also the problem of Territory by Chinese and South Sea Islanders from 1850 ing commitment - a huge under- the young men absconding from the Lep for a 'night on the town' in Derby and having to be traced and returned.

The sisters shone even brighter in 1942 during World War II when they refused to abandon their patients. They continued their nursing when evacuated to the bush, with clandestine daily visits (under the threat of Japanese bombing)

S

6. •0 Sr Raphael with screen printed material from Ngunga, the Derby Aboriginal Women's Group, that she has used to make bedspreads and curtains for the Broome campus of the University of Notre Dame in Australia.

DERBY LEPRCPT;ARIUM THIS MEMORIAL STONE C,ONTAINS A SOROL WITH THE NAMES OF 357 LEPROSY PATIENTS-,,WHO AT THE DERBY LEPROSARIUM BETWEEN ITS 1936 AND ITS CLOSURE ON 5 SEPTEMBER 1986 AND WHO ARE BURIED IN THIS GRAVEYARD. -REST IN PEACE'

DEDICATED BY THE MINISTER FOR AB AND M.L.A. FOR THE K1MBE

THE HON. E. F. BRIDGE ON 5/9/1986 Memorial stone to those who died in the Derby Leprosarium back to the Lep for urgent supplies they couldn't take with them.

Hiding out in the bush site set a few miles inland with their patients, and undeterred by the risks at night, the Sisters changed their dressings by lantern-light.

But the fugitive party never considered themselves alone or abandoned, because they brought God with them - and His presence was venerated in a tabernacle set in a tree trunk while Mother Gertrude conducted religious services in a bower -shed chapel. Daily rosaries were said to bring down the intercession of the Mother of God. Many of the SJOG sisters worked at the Lep, and among those who are still in Derby is Sister Camille, who has the Queens Silver Jubilee Award, and two music Diplomas. She is currently teaching music and involved in many other musical areas.

Also in Derby and remaining in the medical field, are Sisters Francis and Antionette.

Long time sisters at the Lep, they currently maintain the Kimberley Sexually Transmitted Disease Register.

Sr Cabrini, a registered nurse, works ten-hour night duty shifts a t Numbala Nunga Hospital, while Sr Immaculata, who's background is clinic and kindergarten, extends the sisters' caring ministry with hospital visitation, helping Aboriginal people in and outside hospital, Meals-onWheels and the St Vincent de Paul shop.

Another area of nursing undertaken by the SJOG in Derby was a t the Derby Native Hospital which the Sisters served from 1952 through to 1966. When the patients were transferred to Derby District Hospital the sisters followed to continue nursing

there.

The Derby sisters didn't confine themselves to nursing, but also engaged in pioneering work in the education field.

Testimony to that is an ancient boab tree in the now flourishing gardens in the grounds of Holy Rosary primary school, which used to provide support for a little lean-to for the sisters' respite as they taught in the hot onewindow church and its extension - a hessian bough-shed classroom.

That was in 1954 and, in the early stages, church seats became desks during the week with fruit crates used as chairs.

Pre-school chores in the school grounds included feeding the fowls, collecting firewood, and watering the garden, all thoroughly enjoyed by the children.

In 1959, the newly completed St Joseph's hostel accommodated the first lay missionaries in the Kimberley who pitched in and helped build a new classroom.

The testimony to the success of the endeavours of the St John of God Sisters in the Kimberley is certainly in the results of their labours - which lies within the hearts of the Aboriginal people they came to help.

Their affection and gratitude for the sisters is evident and real, and borne out when you see the sisters and their and their people arm-in-arm (maybe going out for a spot of fishing together!), or hand-in-hand as they sit together at a table, recalling old times in joy and friendship.

Or perhaps it's exemplified when the Aboriginal people who were raised as children by the sisters say simply ... "They were our mothers."

Sr Sheila with students at the Gibb River school in May this year The Record, July 13 1995

9

, • Non. ,•11

•

•

•

• and,. • Ciao..R.. •

in India

(Established 1951) Jesuit Mission Office, P.O. Box 193, North Sydney, 2059.

Fr. Tom O'Donovan S.J., Mission Director.

•

Winter, 1995

D ear Friend of the Mission,

Illiteracy — this terrible affliction.

It is difficult for educated Australians to comprehend a life style without the benefits of education and job training. It is so easy to take for granted all the good things education provides. And it is difficult to imagine what life would be like if you could not read and write, had little or no employment, lacked social service handouts and experienced months of hunger. Australia's living standards are amongst the world's highest.

Over half the world's population live in abject poverty. Some 900 million men and women cannot read or write.

Few people in developed societies could comprehend their misery, their suffering and their utter frustration.

An even greater number of children do not go to school, either because there is no school nearby, or because their parents are too poor to pay school fees. Children are stunted precisely when their lives should be blossoming, and are prevented from exercising their fundamental rights.

Where there is illiteracy there is more hunger, more disease and infant mortality, as well as humiliation, e xploitation and widespread suffering.

The Australian Jesuit Mission is situated in one of the poorest areas of India. Most of the 7 million inhabitants live in perpetual poverty and are uneducated.

During the past 44 years priests and nuns caring for illiterate people have witnessed their helplessness . . . lack of self respect . . . entrenched injustices . . . perpetuation of poverty . . . difficulty in communicating . . . low wages and exploitation . . . lack of confidence and initiative . . . difficulty in gaining employment . . . living in unhygienic conditions . . . sustaining life on poor food . . . surviving on almost no money . . . difficulty in raising children . . . agony seeing children suffer and die.

Most of their suffering is caused by lack of education. When individuals, families and communities have access to education and to different levels of training, they make progress on all fronts. Literacy allows people to develop their possibilities, to broaden their talents, to enrich their relationships. It makes possible a better f ormation of conscience and a better perception of moral and spiritual responsibilities.

The demand for education continues to expand faster than the mission can finance it. The people are too poor to contribute to our schools, to our health care, to our mother/child care programmes, to our village social workers and to our agricultural and water development schemes.

Almost 40,000 children in our schools have to be subsidised. Their parents cannot afford $15 to S20 a year for school fees. Trying to feed their children two meals a day is their No. 1 priority.

Please be generous to the work of this mission. Donations are tax deductible. Please make your cheque payable to "Australian Jesuit Mission Oversea Aid Fund". Whatever you can give will help immensely. God bless you and be assured of a special place in the masses and prayers of our missionaries in India.

Yours sincerely,

Y

a4411

1406744441a/0/

Father Tom O'Donovan, S.J., Jesuit Mission Director.

IN OUR MISSION REGION. .WHERE THERE IS

IILLTE ACY

THERE IS PROLONGED HUNGER

THERE IS WIDESPREAD DISEASE

THERE IS INFANT MORTALITY

THERE IS EXPLOITATION

Hungry people suffer poor physical and mental growth affecting their ability to learn and to work. The majority of v illage people are untrained farmers who work their fields with hand tools and wooden diggers. Every year food production does not meet basic family needs.

When the rainy seasons are good 2 crops are sown and harvested. But these provide only 2 meagre meals a day, consisting mostly of maize and rice, which feeds the family f or perhaps 5 months. After that it is a daily ordeal of trying to supply even 1 meal a day, usually consisting of jungle food and unhealthy roots. Without a good diet people have no calories, poor health, no resistance to disease, no strength to work. Their lives are a vicious circle of privation and helplessness. It is no wonder that sickness abounds and tuberculosis is widespread.

Diseases that are scarcely mentioned in Australia are commonplace realities in the Mission. Malaria, dysentry, night typhoid, TB, scabies, leprosy, cholera, blindness — there's a long list. Tragically many die for want of a few pills. Others are victims of ignorance — of simple health care. The big problem is most village people lack elementary health education.

The one great joy in the lives of the poor is their children.

Yet so often they witness the needs of these children and can do little or nothing to help them. Infant mortality is high with the children a prey to all types of sickness_ So often a child could be saved by a few simple tablets.

Above is a typical village dwelling where babies are born and struggle to survive. In child-birth most mothers do not have the care of a doctor or nurse or medical aid. During pregnancy most expectant mothers have no medical checkups, no advice to eat more and rest more. No advice to curtail water-carrying, wood-collection and eliminate casual labouring jobs. Women are ignorant about hygiene, nutrition and how to care for new-born babies. Mothers generally are malnourished and in poor health. It is hardly surprising that many babies do not survive their first weeks of life.

People who can neither read nor write are ignorant of their r ights and duties. They have difficulty in obtaining any but the most menial jobs. They can be exploited and treated unjustly, without being able to defend themselves.

Most of the severest illnesses come about simply because people are neglected in the early stages_ of what are often very minor sicknesses. Many do nothing hoping they will just get better. Some try all kinds of ancient remedies, even consulting a witch doctor. Others adopt spirit worship to appease the spirit causing the problem. The sickness develops over weeks and months till eventually the person is very ill and in danger of death.

Employment, even for a day, is hard to get and is poorly paid. Men trek long distances looking for work. Some go to Calcutta (230 miles away) to work and send money back to their families. Women work up to 10 hours a day as labourers on roads, building sites, in quarries, coal mines, coke plants and in the fields for wages that barely feed the family for a day. There is a great deal we can achieve for these people if we think about their struggle to survive, and are prepared to simplify our lifestyles and give more generously.

Can you help educate some children?

It costs only $15 to $20 a year to educate one child.

Children can escape perpetual poverty if someone pays for their education.

School fees are $15 to $20 a year C hildren suffer severely in extreme adversity. Those who survive birth face a ous circle of disease and malnutrition. Childhood malnutr on is caused primarily by poverty, but is aggravated by ignorance in the family and in the community. Of those who survive 5 years, many will live on with ill health and poor growth, unable to develop to their full mental and physical potential, unable in later years to adequately contribute to the families they will have or to the communities in which they live.

For the most part lack of education denies people the basic necessities of life. That means a bitter struggle just to exist. Furthermore it shatters ative and the sense of being needed in society. It crushes the life of the spirit, for it is hard to hear the voice of God on an empty stomach. Overall it means lirnited living and early dying.

Every act of love for the poor is important to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to the ultimate salvation of the generous giver. For Jesus said "Whatsoever you did to one of the least of My people you S i to Me." Whatever you give will be gratefully acknowledged. May God bless you and be assured of a special place ih the masses and prayers of our missionaries and from the poor you assist.

Please challenge yourself to do more for the poor Please make cheques payable to: " Australian Jesuit Mission Overseas Aid Fund" and post to: National Director, Father Tom O'Donovan, SJ., Australian Jesuit Mission in India, P.O. Box 193, North Sydney, 2059.

I enclose $ to help educate children affected by severe poverty in your Jesuit Indian Mission. Tick 1:for tax deduction receipt.

Mr/Mrs/Miss

(Please print clearlY)

VVinter 95 113 .C. Ii

Address Postcode

It is essential that all girls be educated for eventually they will be involved in the most difficult and important of all tasks — protecting the lives, the health and the growth of their children.

Donations are tax deductible P lease remember our miSsion in your Will.

Australian Jesuit Mission in India • • • cares for the poorest of the poor

Pope John Paul Ifs letter of thanks: the richness of your sensitivity, your intuitiveness, your generosity and fidelity.

Thank you, women who work!

You are present and active in every area of life - social, economic, cultural, artistic and politGREET you all most cor- ical.

In this way you make an indisdially, women throughout the pensable contribution to the world!

1. I am writing this letter to growth of a culture which unites each one of you as a sign of soli- reason and feeling, to a model of darity and gratitude on the eve of life ever open to the sense of the Fourth World Conference on "mystery," to the establishment Women, to be held in Beijing this of economic and political structures ever more worthy of coming September. humanity.

Before all else, I wish to Thank you, consecrated express my deep appreciation to the United Nations for having women! Following the example sponsored this very significant of the greatest of women, the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarevent.

The Church desires for her nate Word, you open yourselves part to contribute to upholding with obedience and fidelity to the dignity, role and rights of the gift of God's love. You help women not only by the specific the Church and all mankind to work of the Holy See's official experience a "spousal" relationdelegation to the conference in ship to God, one which magnifiBeijing, but also by speaking cently expresses the fellowship directly to the heart and mind of which God wishes to establish with his creatures. every woman.

Thank you, every woman, for Recently, when Mrs Gertrude Mongella, the secretary-general the simple fact of being a of the conference, visited me in woman!

Through the insight which is connection with the Beijing meeting, I gave her a written so much a part of your womanmessage which stated some hood you enrich the world's basic points of the Church's understanding and help to make teaching with regard to women's human relations more honest issues. That message, apart from and authentic.

3.I know of course that simply the specific circumstances of its origin, was concerned with a saying thank you is not enough.

Unfortunately, we are heirs to broader vision of the situation and problems of women in gen- a history which has conditioned eral in an attempt to promote the us to a remarkable extent. In cause of women in the Church every time and place this condiand in today's world. For this tioning has been an obstacle to reason I arranged to have it for- the progress of women. warded to every conference of Women's dignity has often been bishops, so that it could be circu- unacknowledged and their prerogatives misrepresented; they lated as widely as possible.

Taking up the themes I have often been relegated to the addressed in that document, I margins of society and even would now like to speak directly reduced to servitude. This has to every woman, to reflect with prevented women from truly her on the problems and the being themselves, and it has prospects of what it means to be resulted in a spiritual impovera woman in our time. In particu- ishment of humanity. Certainly it lar I wish to consider the essen- is no easy task to assign the tial issue of the dignity and rights blame for this, considering the of women as seen in the light of many kinds of cultural conditioning which down the centuries the word of God. This "dialogue" really needs to have shaped ways of thinking and acting. And if objective begin with a word of thanks.

As I wrote in my apostolic let- blame, especially in particular ter "Mulieris Dignitatem," the historical contexts, has belonged Church "desires to give thanks to to not just a few mem bers of the the most holy Trinity for the Church, for this I am truly sorry. 'mystery of woman' and for May this regret be transformed, every woman - for all that consti- on the part of the whole Church, tutes the eternal measure of her into a renewed commitment of feminine dignity, for the 'great fidelity to the Gospel vision. works of God,' which throughout When it comes to setting women human history have been free from every kind of exploitaaccomplished in and through tion and domination, the Gospel contains an ever relevant mesher" (No. 31).

2. This word of thanks to the sage which goes back to the attiLord for his mysterious plan tude of Jesus Christ himself.

Transcending the established regarding the vocation and mission of women in the world is at norms of his own culture, Jesus the same time a concrete and treated women with openness, direct word of thanks to women, respect, acceptance and tenderto every woman, for all that they ness. represent in the life of humanity.

In this way he honoured the Thank you, women who are dignity which women have mothers! You have sheltered always possessed according to human beings within yourselves God's plan and in his love. As we in a unique experience of joy look to Christ at the end of this and travail. second millennium, it is natural This experience makes you to ask ourselves how much of his become God's own smile upon message has been heard and the newborn child, the one who acted upon. guides your child's first steps, Yes, it is time to examine the who helps it to grow and who is past with courage, to assign the anchor as the child makes its responsibility where it is due in a way along the journey of life. review of the long history of Thank you, women who are humanity. Women have conwives! You irrevocably join your tributed to that history as much future to that of your husbands as men and, more often than not, in a relationship of mutual giving they did so in much more diffiat the service of love and life. cult conditions. I think particuThank you, women who are larly of those women who loved daughters and women who are culture and art, and devoted sisters! their lives to them in spite of the Into the heart of the family, fact that they were frequently at and then of all society, you bring a disadvantage from the start, 10 The Record, July 13 1995 The Vatican text of Pope John Paul letter to women, dated June 29 and released July 10 at the Vatican.

I

excluded from equal educational opportunities, underestimated, ignored and not given credit for their intellectual contributions.

Sadly, very little of women's achievements in history can be registered by the science of history. But even though time may have buried the documentary evidence of those achievements, their beneficent influence can be felt as a force which has shaped the lives of successive generations, right up to our own. To this great, immense feminine "tradition" humanity owes a debt which can never be repaid. Yet how many women have been and continue to be valued more for their physical appearance than for their skill, their professionalism, their intellectual abilities, their deep sensitivity; in a word, the very dignity of their being!

4. And what shall we say of the obstacles which in so many parts o f the world still keep women from being fully integrated into social, political and economic life? We need only think of how the gift of motherhood is often penalised rather than rewarded, even though humanity owes its very survival to this gift.

Certainly, much remains to be done to prevent discrimination against those who have chosen to be wives and mothers. As far as personal rights are concerned, there is an urgent need to achieve real equality in every area: equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, fairness in career advancements, equality of spouses with regard to family rights and the recognition of everything that is part of the rights and duties of citizens in a democratic state.

This is a matter of justice but also of necessity. Women will increasingly play a part in the solution of the serious problems of the future: leisure time, the quality of life, migration, social services, euthanasia, drugs, health care, the ecology, etc. In all these areas a greater presence of women in society will prove most valuable, for it will help to manifest the contradictions present when society is organised solely according to the criteria of efficiency and productivity, and it will force systems to be r edesigned in a way which favours the processes of humanisation which mark the "civilization of love".

5. Then too, when we look at one of the most sensitive aspects of the situation of women in the world, how can we not mention the long and degrading history, albeit often an "underground" history, of violence against women in the area of sexuality?

At the threshold of the third millennium we cannot remain indifferent and resigned before this phenomenon. The time has come to condemn vigorously the types of sexual violence which frequently have women for their object and to pass laws which effectively defend them from such violence. Nor can we fail, in the name of the respect due to the human person, to condemn the widespread hedonistic and commercial culture which encourages the systematic exploitation of sexuality and corrupts even very young girls into letting their bodies be used for profit.

In contrast to these sorts of perversion, what great appreciation must be shown to those women who, with a heroic love for the child they have conceived, proceed with a pregnancy resulting from the injustice of rape. Here we are thinking of atrocities per-

petrated not only in situations of war, still so common in the world, but also in societies which are blessed by prosperity and peace and yet are often corrupted by a culture of hedonistic permissiveness which aggravates tendencies to aggressive male behaviour. In these cases the choice to have an abortion always remains a grave sin. But before being something to blame on the woman, it is a crime for which guilt needs to be attributed to men and to the complicity of the general social environment.

8. My word of thanks to women thus becomes a heartfelt appeal that everyone, and in a special way states and international institutions, should make every effort to ensure that women regain full respect for their dignity and role. Here I cannot fail to express my admiration for those women of good will who have devoted their lives to defending the dignity of womanhood by fighting for their basic social, economic and political rights, demonstrating courageous initiative at a time when this was considered extremely inappropriate, the sign of a lack of femininity, a manifestation of exhibitionism and even a sin!

In this year's World Day of Peace message, I noted that when one looks at the great process of women's liberation, "the journey has been a difficult and complicated one and, at times, not without its share of mistakes. But it has been substantially a positive one, even if it is still unfinished, due to the many obstacles which in various parts of the world still prevent women from being acknowledged, respected and appreciated in their own special dignity" (No. 4).

This journey must go on! But I am convinced that the secret of making speedy progress in achieving full respect for women and their identity involves more than simply the condemnation of discrimination and injustices, necessary though this may be.

Such respect must first and foremost be won through an effective and intelligent campaign for the promotion of women, concentrating on all areas of women's life and beginning with a universal recognition of the dignity of women. Our ability to recognise this dignity, in spite of historical conditioning, comes from the use of reason itself, which is able to

understand the law of God written in the heart of every human being. More than anything else, the word of God enables us to grasp clearly the ultimate anthropological basis of the dignity of women, making it evident as a part of God's plan for humanity.

7. Dear sisters, together let us reflect anew on the magnificent passage in Scripture which describes the creation of the human race and which has so much to say about your dignity and mission in the world.

The Book of Genesis speaks of creation in summary fashion, in language which is poetic and symbolic, yet profoundly true: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gn 1:27). The creative act of God takes place according to a precise plan. First of all, we are told that the human being is created "in the image and likeness of God" (cf. Gn 1:26).

This expression immediately makes clear what is distinct about the human being with regard to the rest of creation.

We are then told that, from the very beginning, man has been created -male and female" (Gn 1:27). Scripture itself provides the Interpretation of this fact: Even though man Is surrounded by the innumerable creatures of the created world, he realises that he is alone (cf. Gn 2:20). God intervenes in order to help him escape from this situation of solitude: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Gn 2:18).

The creation of woman is thus marked from the outset by the principle of help: a help which is not one-sided but mutual.

Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: Men and women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the "human" as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way.

When the Book of Genesis speaks of "help," it is not referring merely to acting but also to being. Womanhood and manhood are complementary not only from the physical and psychological points of view, but also from the ontological. It is only through the duality of the "masculine" and the "feminine" that the "human" finds full realisation.

8. After creating man male and female, God says to both: "Fill the earth and subdue it" (Gn 1:28).

Not only does he give them the power to procreate as a means of perpetuating the human species throughout time, he also gives them the earth, charging them with the responsible use of its resources. As a rational and free being, man is called to transform the face of the earth. In this task, which is essentially that of culture, man and woman alike share equal responsibility from the start. In their fruitful relationship as husband and wife, in their common task of exercising dominion over the earth, woman and man are marked neither by a static and undifferentiated equality nor by an irreconcilable and inexorably conflictual difference.

Their most natural relationship, which corresponds to the plan of God, is the "unity of the two," a relational "uni-duality," which enables each to experience their interpersonal and reciprocal relationship as a gift which enriches and which confers responsibility.

To this "unity of the two" God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself.

debt to women cannot be repaid While the 1994 International Year of the Family focused attention on women as mothers, the Beijing conference, which has as its theme "Action for Equality, Development and Peace," provides an auspicious occasion for heightening awareness of the many contributions made by women to the life of whole societies and nations. This contribution is primarily spiritual and cultural in nature, but sociopolitical and economic as well.

The various sectors of society, nations and states, and the progress of all humanity, are certainly deeply indebted to the contribution of women!

9. Progress usually tends to be measured according to the criteria of science and technology.

Nor from this point of view has the contribution of women been negligible. Even so, this is not the only measure of progress, nor in fact is it the principal one. Much more important is the social and ethical dimension, which deals with human relations and spiritual values. In this area, which often develops in an inconspicuous way beginning with the daily relationships between people, especially within the family, society certainly owes much to the genius of women."

Here I would like to express particular appreciation to those women who are involved in the various areas of education extending well beyond the family: nurseries, schools, universities, social service agencies, parishes, associations and movements. Wherever the work of education is called for, we can note that women are ever ready and willing to give themselves generously to others, especially In serving the weakest and most defenceless. In this work they exhibit a kind of affective, cultural and spiritual motherhood which has inestimable value for the development of individuals and the future of society. At this point how can I fail to mention the witness of so many Catholic women and religious congregations of women from every continent who have made education, particularly the education of boys and girls, their principal apostolate? How can I not think with gratitude of all the women who have worked and continue to work in the area of health care, not only in highly organised institutions, but also in very precarious circumstances in the poorest countries of the world, thus demonstrating a spirit of service which not infrequently borders on martyrdom?

10. It is thus my hope, dear sisters, that you will reflect carefully on what it means to speak of the "genius of women," not only in order to be able to see in this phrase a specific part of God's plan which needs to be accepted and appreciated, but also in order to let this genius be more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole as well as in the life of the Church. This subject came up frequently during the Marian year, and I myself dwelt on it at length in my apostolic letter "Mulieris Dignitatem" (1988). In addition, this year in the letter which I customarily send to priests for Holy Thursday, I invited them to re-read "Mulieris Dignitatem" and reflect on the important roles which women have played in their lives as mothers, sisters and co- workers in the apostolate. This is another aspect - different from the conjugal aspect, but also important - of that "help" which women, according to the Book of Genesis, are called to give to

men.

The Church sees in Mary the highest expression of the "feminine genius," and she finds in her a source of constant inspiration. Mary called herself the "handmaid of the Lord" (Lk 1:38).

Through obedience to the word of God she accepted her lofty yet not easy vocation as wife and mother in the family of Nazareth.

Putting herself at God's service, she also put herself at the service of others: a service of love. Precisely through this service Mary was able to experience in her life a mysterious, but authentic "reign." It is not by chance that she is invoked as "queen of heaven and earth."

The entire community of believers thus invokes her; many nations and peoples call upon her as their "queen." For her, "to reign" is to serve! Her service is "to reign!"

This is the way in which authority needs to be understood both in the family and in society and the Church. Each person's fundamental vocation is revealed in this "reigning," for each person has been created in the "image" of the one who is Lord of heaven and earth and called to be his adopted son or daughter in Christ. Man is the only creature on earth "which God willed for its own sake," as the Second Vatican Council teaches; it significantly adds that man "cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self' ("Gaudium et Spes," 24).

The maternal "reign" of Mary consists in this. She who was, in all her being, a gift for her Son has also become a gift for the sons and daughters of the whole human race, awakening profound trust in those who seek her guidance along the difficult paths of life on the way to their definitive and transcendent destiny. Each one reaches this final goal by fidelity to his or her own vocation; this goal provides meaning and direction for the earthly labours of men and women alike.

11. In this perspective of "service" - which, when it is carried out with freedom, reciprocity and love, expresses the truly . 'royal" nature of mankind - one can also appreciate that the presence of a certain diversity of roles is in no way prejudicial to women, provided that this diversity is not the result of an arbitrary imposition, but is rather an expression of what is specific to being male and female. This issue also has a particular application within the Church. If Christ - by his free and sovereign choice, clearly attested to by the Gospel and by the Church's constant tradition - entrusted only to men the task of being an "icon" of his countenance as "shepherd" and "bridegroom" of the Church through the exercise of the ministerial priesthood, this in no way detracts from the role of women or for that matter, from the role of the other members of the church who are not ordained to the sacred ministry, since all share equally in the dignity proper to the "common priesthood" based on baptism. These role distinctions should not be viewed in accordance with the criteria of functionality typical in human societies. Rather they must be understood according to the particular criteria of the sacramental economy, i.e., the economy of "signs" which God freely chooses in order to become present in the midst of humanity.

Furthermore, precisely in line with this economy of signs, even

if apart from the sacramental sphere, there is great significance to that "womanhood" which was lived in such a sublime way by Mary. In fact, there is present in the "womanhood" of a woman who believes, and especially in a woman who is "consecrated," a kind of inherent "prophecy" (cf.

"Mulieris Dignitatem," 29), a powerfully evocative symbolism, a highly significant "iconic character," which finds its full realisation in Mary and which also aptly expresses the very essence of the Church as a community consecrated with the integrity of a "virgin" heart to become the "bride" of Christ and "mother" of believers. When we consider the "iconic" complementarity of male and female roles, two of the Church's essential dimensions are seen in a clearer light: the "Marian" principle and the apostolic Petrine principle (cf. ibid., 27).

On the other hand - as I wrote to priests in this year's Holy Thursday letter - the ministerial priesthood, according to Christ's plan, "is an expression not of domination but of service" (No. 7). The Church urgently needs, in her daily self- renewal in the light of the word of God, to emphasise this fact ever more clearly both by developing the spirit of communion and by carefully fostering all those means of participation which are properly hers, and also by showing respect for and promoting the diverse personal and communal charisms which the Spirit of God bestows for the building up of the Christian community and the service of humanity.

In this vast domain of service, the Church's 2,000-year history, for all its historical conditioning, has truly experienced the "genius of woman"; from the heart of the Church there have emerged women of the highest calibre who have left an impressive and beneficial mark in history.I think of the great line of woman martyrs, saints and famous mystics.

In a particular way I think of St Catherine of Siena and of St Teresa of Avila, whom Pope Paul VI of happy memory granted the title of Doctors of the Church.

And how can we overlook the many women, inspired by faith, who were responsible for initiatives of extraordinary social importance, especially in serving the poorest of the poor? The life of the Church in the third millennium will certainly not be lack-

ing in new and surprising man- them. In this way the basic plan ifestations of "the feminine of the Creator takes flesh in the history of humanity, and there genius." constantly revealed in the is 12. You can see then, dear of vocations that beauty variety sisters, that the Church has physical, but merely not that hoping for many reasons - which God spiritual all above the forthcoming UN confervery beginthe from bestowed ence in Beijing will bring out the full truth about women. ning on all and in a particular Necessary emphasis should be way on women.

While I commend to the placed on the "genius of women," not only by consider- Lord in prayer the success of ing great and famous women the important meeting in Beiof the past or present, but also jing, I invite ecclesial commuthose ordinary women who nities to make this year an reveal the gift of their woman- occasion of heartfelt thanksgivhood by placing themselves at ing to the Creator and the service of others in their Redeemer of the world for the everyday lives. For in giving gift of this great treasure which themselves to others each day, is womanhood. In all its women fulfill their deepest expressions, womanhood is vocation. Perhaps more than part of the essential heritage of men, women acknowledge the mankind and of the Church person, because they see per- herself. sons with their hearts. They see May Mary, queen of love, them independently of various watch over women and their ideological or political systems. mission in service of humanity, They see others in their of peace, of the spread of God's greatness and limitations; they kingdom!

With my blessing. try to go out to them and help

Pope John Paul greets some enthusiastic young women on his 1986 Australian tour.

The 9eForq, July_13. 1995

11

International News

UK soldier's release a 'blunder'

By Patrick Nolan DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) - The release of a British soldier condemned to a life term for shooting to death a girl in Northern Ireland has placed the peace process in difficulty, Cardinal Cahal Daly of t‘rmagh, Northern Ireland, said last week.

The release was "a grave blunder," he said, but he expressed hope that the 10-month ceasefire in Northern Ireland would continue.

The cardinal spoke on July 4 on Irish National Radio after the release of Private Lee Clegg caused angry street demonstrations in Northern Ireland.

More than 100 trucks and cars were hijacked and burned.

The Irish Republican Army, which wants to unite Northern Ireland with Ireland, began a ceasefire last September.

Clegg was released from Wakefield Prison in England on July 3 after serving four years of a life sentence for the murder of Karen Reilly, a 17-year-old Catholic, while she was riding in a stolen car that ran through an army checkpoint in

Northern Ireland. Cardinal Daly said British officials had acted insensitively in separating the Clegg case from that of other prisoners involved in Northern Ireland violence seeking reduction of their sentences.

The IRA and Protestant paramilitary groups have been pushing Britain to shorten the terms of their jailed members.

Ireland's Prime Minister, John Bruton, said all those convicted of serious offences should be treated equally before the law.

Britain's Prime Minister, John Major, said Clegg's split-second shooting of Ms Reilly was not premeditated murder and he denied the release decision was politically motivated.

Mr Major added: "It is patently absurd to equate Private Clegg's (act) with deliberate acts of murder."

He said that Northern Ireland's chief judge concluded Clegg had no intention of harming anyone when he set out on a patrol that culminated in his killing the teenage girl passenger of a stolen car that was speeding past his comrades.

Pope to miss Tunisia VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Vatican officials said Pope John Paul II has dropped plans to visit Tunisia as part of his swing through Africa in September.

A one-day stop in the predominantly Muslim country had been tentatively scheduled as part of the trip, which was designed as a ceremonial conclusion to the African Synod of Bishops. The Pope now plans to limit his visit to Kenya, South Africa and Cameroon.

Bishop Fouad Twal of Tunis declined to say last Thursday why the Pope was unable to come. The bishop now hopes for a papal visit next year.

Vatican sources said the tense political climate in other North African states, particularly Algeria, was one factor in the decision to

call off the stop. Islamic radicals objecting to the Church's presence in Algeria have murdered several missionary priests and nuns over the last two years.

Tunisia is a small Mediterranean country wedged between Algeria and Libya with a tiny Catholic community of about 14,000 in a population of more than 8 million.

The Pope was said to have viewed the planned Tunisia stop as a chance to build closer relations with the region's Muslims. He made a similar stop in Morocco in 1985, addressing Muslims in a rally that was viewed as a huge success at the Vatican.

But officials said the regional tensions made a similar event in Tunisia more difficult.

Thomas Merton continues to attract attention 27 years on

out the picture, especially of his year-and-a-half at Olean, and how that time prepared him for WASHINGTON (CNS) - Gethsemani."

"It is fascinating to see his Interest in Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk famous for his growth and development over spiritual writing, continues 27 three years," the editor continyears after his death because ued, and "fascinating to see his people identify with him and prayer life."

"Merton was full of surhis spiritual search, according to the monk's last secretary and prises," he said, "the things he was reading and his facility for general editor of his journals.

Trappist Brother, Patrick languages." For example, MerHart, who lived with Merton for ton "was reading St Bernard in 17 years at the Abbey of Our Latin, Latin American poets in Lady of Gethsemani in Trap- Spanish and (James) Joyce," pist, Kentucky, said people still said Br Hart. He recalled that Thomas Merton visit Merton's grave there and Merton, born in France, studied the monastery's "guest house is modern languages at Cam- said. "I respond to all the Merbridge University in England booked a year in advance." ton letters that come from "Part of the attraction is Mer- and Columbia University in around the world. That's my job New York. ton and his own journey," said Br Hart entered Gethsemani now and for the past 27 years."

Br Hart, and "part is the desire "I considered him a father, a in 1951, 10 years after Merton. to pursue their own spiritual brother, a friend," Br Hart said.

He worked with Merton as a journey."

Gethsemani is home to 80 He spoke with the Catholic novice. "Merton was the abbey News Service following publi- forester," he said. "After a rain, monks now and less crowded cation of "Run to the Mountain - he would take about a half- than in Merton's time, when The Story of a Vocation," the dozen novices out to plant 200 observed strict silence and chanted in Latin. Br Hart said first of seven planned volumes loblolly pines."

"Merton had a great ecologi- life today "is basically the same, of Merton's journals to be pubcal sense, a pulse of what was but monks now have permislished by HarperCollins.

Merton's best-known books happening," said Br Hart. "Peo- sion to speak when necessary are "The Seven Storey Moun- ple are doing these kinds of or when required by charity." tain" and "Seeds of Contempla- things now, but Merton was "Merton fought for a hertion." When he set up the Mer- doing it 40 years ago. He was mitage, where a monk could ton Legacy Trust to manage his years ahead of his time." live alone," said Br Hart. "For The editor said Merton "was the last three years of his life, he literary affairs, he stipulated that his journals not be pub- interested in so many things." lived alone in a cottage a halflished until 25 years after his Since his death, more than 100 mile away from the main master's and doctoral disserta- abbey." death.

In 1990, the trust named Br tions have been written on "He felt that God was calling Hart as general editor of the Merton's life, works, and ideas him to live a deeper, more soliseries, and he has chosen to about such topics as East-West tary life," he said, "and came to edit the first and last volumes dialogue, ecumenism, the con- believe that our real journey in templative or true self, Zen, and life is an interior one." himself.

The first volume is pre- ecology.

"Merton made popular the Br Hart, who also edited the monastic Merton, with entries concept of a contemplative or from 1939 to 1941. Its three sec- third of five volumes of Mer- solitary life," he added. ton's letters, worked most tions cover: Merton's GreenBoth Baptists and Buddhists wich Village days as a young closely with Merton in 1968. intellectual teaching at Colum- The brother, who earlier had came to Merton's hermitage for bia University Extension and been the abbot's secretary and counsel and discussion, Br Hart struggling to get his fiction pub- then one in a pool of secre- said. "He had a world view that lished; his 1940 trip to Cuba; taries, was called home from few people have today."

In his last year, Merton met and his time at St Bonaventure Rome that summer to become Merton's personal secretary the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual University, Olean, New York and political leader of Tibet.

There he taught English and because "he asked for me."

His job was to answer Mer- According to Br Hart, Merton creative writing while considering possible vocations such as ton's letters. "He was a lovable felt they ''had united on the working with Harlem's poor or kind of monk, easy to work for deepest level," and when the and very appreciative of what Dalai Lama concluded a prayer becoming a friar or monk at Merton's grave last year, he The book's title reflects its you did for him," he recalled.

When Merton died in a freak told Br Hart, "Our spirits are content, Br Hart said. "He was moving pretty fast then, anxious accident in December 1968 dur- united again." The Dalai Lama to move into the religious expe- ing an extended Asian trip, Br is expected to return to GethseHart thought his "job as Mer- mani next year for a Christianrience."

Although "there are no star- ton's secretary had ended." But Buddhist dialogue on meditation. "We will put him in tling revelations" in the book, he learned otherwise.

"I'm the abbey's person Merton's hermitage," Brother Br Hart said these entries "fill regarding Merton matters," he Hart said.

By Nancy Hartnagel

Rise with Jesuit prayer as the dough is baked daily

By Tracy Early NEW YORK (CNS) - Jesuit Brother Rick Curry has revealed the secrets of Jesuit breadmaking in a book of that name, but says his aim also is to impart the secrets of Jesuit prayer.

In the book he offers recipes he has gathered from Jesuits and others from around the world, with the introduction providing general tips on breadmaking.

But in an interview at his apartment in lower Manhattan, he said the true secrets he wished to convey are about Jesuit prayer.

As he carries out the steps of making bread each evening, Brother Curry takes the Jesuit steps in examination of conscience.

"After reading the recipe, I take a deep breath, relax and recall that I am in God's presence," he has explained in the book's introduction.

As the dough rises, he reflects on the good things that have come into his life.

And when the smell of fresh-baked bread 12

The Record, July 13 1995

fills his kitchen, he is filled "with gratitude and praise for God and for all the things in my life."

Br Curry began making bread in 1961, at the age of 18, when he entered the novitiate of the Jesuits' Maryland Province at Wernersville, Philadelphia. The novitiate no longer exists, and neither does its bread recipe book filled with written notes from generations of Jesuit brothers.

So he put together his book to preserve some recipes known from memory, and to make readers more aware of the world of Jesuit brothers.

He plans to go on a book tour in September to promote his work, because he wants to make some money for another of his projects - a theatre program for the handicapped.

Founder and director of the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped, Br Curry was born with a right arm that extends only to the elbow.

After getting a doctorate in theatre from New York University, he decided to offer training to other handicapped people.

Br Curry says he teaches his students

breadmaking as well as theatre skills. By helping him to bake, they pay for some of their tuition. He has suspended operations for this northern summer. But during the winter months he bakes about 250 loaves a week for more than 100 regular customers. At Christmas and Easter, he and his students bake thousands of loaves for workshop benefactors.

Last year Br Curry took an intensive seven-day course in breadmaking at the Culinary Institute of America, which happens to be housed at a former Jesuit novitiate in Hyde Park, New York "One of the students asked me to explain who all these men in the windows were," he wrote. "I laughed to myself but gladly informed him that they were all (Society of Jesus founder) Ignatius - in every window he was dressed in something different."

Readers of the book get a few succinct pages on the history, theory and general techniques of breadmaking, and a list of things that might go wrong and the possible solution.

They get recipes for "Advent breads,"

such as his own cranberry-walnut buttermilk loaf, and for the "Italian Easter Breads" served by Jesuit Brother Raphael Garcia Bandera, a Spaniard who died recently. He said Br Bandera worked for many years at Jesuit headquarters in Rome. One of his jobs was as nurse to the Jesuits' late minister-general, Father Pedro Arrupe, during the years he was incapacitated, and he learned to make the breads of many countries.

Cornbread, Br Curry said, has been important in Jesuit life; each Jesuit fiercely contends the only correct recipe for it is the one used where he served his novitiate.

Along the way, Br Curry slips in a lot of miscellaneous information about bread and the Jesuits.

For example, readers who think sourdough originated in San Francisco will find it was discovered by the ancient Egyptians, and that en route to India the Jesuit, St Francis Xavier, "kept a sourdough starter alive in his cassock and baked bread with it every day on the high seas."

International News

Holy Spirit helps Billy Bear sideline Power Rangers

By Bob Zyskowski ST PAUL, Minnesotta, (CNS) - Can a make-believe bear who wears his religion on his sleeve be as big a hit with kids as Barney and the Power Rangers?

A Catholic father-and-son team from St Paul hope so.

Tom and Kevin Donovan found success when they independently published and marketed their first book and then convinced national stores such as Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks to carry it. Now ,their second book in the series is due out in the fall.

Torn, 73, creates and illustrates the story panels. Kevin, 37, writes the copy, handles the marketing and hawks the books.

Their star is Billy Bear, an ecology-

minded, prayerful, cuddly creature who is striving to follow the way of St Francis of Assisi by loving all things and everyone.

During a 40-year career in advertising, Tom drew ads for national campaigns for everything from Wheaties to Grain Belt beer, and his work won three Clio awards, the Oscar of the advertising industry.

Kevin, a television and video producer, takes his father's story boards with their colorful bears and writes the text to go with them.

"We knew how to produce a book," Tom told the Catholic Bulletin, newspaper of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese.

But then the road turned uphill when -160 publishing companies rejected the project," Kevin said, adding that the main complaint was that the book was too religious.

But the Donovans' test-marketing at Catholic schools and in Lutheran groups has proved there is at least a niche market for stories about a fictional bear who believes in God. Prayer and religious themes run throughout the stories in "Bill and His Friends Discover Their Mission" and its sequel, "Billy and His Friends Rescue Betsy Bear."

Kevin said he knew the idea for stories about soft, round, gentle bears would be a winner if it did not have the aspects of faith; his father insisted that the stories be religious.

In the stories an Angel Bear has wings; the bears pray together; one wears a necklace with a cross around her neck.

Tom, a daily Mass-goer, said he finds his work on the book "more important to me

than the type of things I did for awards.

It's more profound," he said.

Now he has a mission. "I think a kid should find out about God as early as possible so they won't be afraid of God when they grow up."

Toni said images come to him at night, and that when he gets up in the morning the illustrations come easily.

"I seem to have so much confidence when I pick up a brush," Tom said. "Every time I do an illustration, it works. I pray to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is doing it."

And some of the credit for Billy Bear's Franciscan bent goes to the Franciscan Sisters of St Paul. The Donovans tested their bear idea on them. They liked it but encouraged the two to incorporate some elements from the life of St Francis.

Poor parents school Vatican warns again on Iraq sanctions choice in US state MADISON, Wisconsin, (CNS) - The head of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference has called the state legislature's approval of a choice program for religious schools both "a victory for families" and "a vital step" 'for government programs.

The prograrn was approved late last month, making Wisconsin the first state in the United States to give lowincome parents the full opportunity to choose either to send their children to a Catholic or a government school.

The program is limited to schools within the city of Milwaukee, where the state's nonsectarian school choice program is currently under way. In 1990, Wisconsin became the first state to pass a choice program for private, non-sectarian schools.

John Huebscher, the Catholic conference's director, said the legislature's move to include religious schools in the choice plan was "both a victory for families and a vital step in making government programs more responsive to changing needs."

Beginning later this year, the program will accommodate

7,000 students and will expand to include 15,000 students in the 1996-97 school year.

It will cost about $US17 million the first year and $39 million the second. The money will come from a reduction in state aid to Milwaukee Public Schools in proportion to the number of students who participate in the choice program.

"In other words the money follows the child," said a statement from the Wisconsin governor's office.

To be eligible, students must come from a family whose income is at or below 175 percent of the poverty level - about SUS26,000 for a family of four.

An estimated 70,000 Milwaukee public school students meet the low-income eligibility requirements. Participating students will be chosen by random selection.

"The expansion of our school choice program to include religious schools will truly empower the poor parents of Milwaukee, giving them the same educational choices for their children as other parents," the state governor said.

"If a poor inner-city mother wants to send her child to the private school across the street,

rather than bussing her child across town to a public school she is dissatisfied with, she should have that opportunity regardless of her income," he added.

"I'm pleased and delighted the legislature has recognised the important role that parents play in the education and development of their children," Lee Nagel, president of the Wisconsin Association of Nonpublic Schools, said. The association represents 75 percent of the state's non-public schools.

The choice initiative was supported not only by thousands of parents in Milwaukee and across the state, according to Sharon Schmeling, associate director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

Mr Huebscher said fears that parental choice would harm were education public unfounded.

"Parental choice will not destroy public education," he said.

"Rather, choice redefines public education to include any school freely chosen by parents as the place to educate their children.

This diversity can only make all schools better."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - A Vatican official has expressed concern for the continued suffering of Iraqis under United Nations' sanctions and warned that children, the elderly and the sick were the worst affected.

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, head of the Congregation for Eastern-rite Churches, made the remarks in a message sent on July 4 to a symposium being held in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, on "The Church at the Service of Peace and Humanity."

Pope John Paul II and others at the Vatican have consistently suggested finding a way to lift the sanctions, in order to alleviate the effects on the civilian population of Iraq.

Cardinal Silvestrini said he felt especially close to "those who still suffer the consequences of the war in Iraq, especially the children, the elderly and the sick, who need medicines that are unfortunately not always available."

A report to Cardinal Silvestrini's congregation earlier this year said that after four years of the economic embargo, medicine has become almost non-existent in pharmacies and hospitals. It said food supply conditions have also deteriorated sharply, resulting in increased malnutrition.

The Pope met in March with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister,

Tarek Aziz, to discuss the situation.

At that time the Vatican said the UN-imposed embargo had created serious humanitarian problems in the country and repeated a papal warning against using embargoes as an "act of force" against civilian populations.

The new British ambassador to the Vatican, Maureen MacGlashan, raised the subject in mid-June when she presented her credentials to the Pope. She said that although Britain shares the concern about civilian suffering in Iraq, "there can be no question of removing sanctions against Iraq until it complies with all the relevant UN Security Council resolutions."

The security council has insisted. among other things, that Iraq use proceeds from oil sales to pay war reparations to Kuwait.

Also in June, Iraqi Archbishop Paul Dandah of Baghdad appealed for an end to sanctions, saying his people were being "strangled" by the embargo.

"The embargo should be lifted.

The West must give this country a chance to rebuild," he told the newspaper Avvenire during a visit to Milan, Italy. He described the growing levels of malnutrition, disease and poverty as the worst in the country's history.

Bishop escapes US Catholic, peace churches in ecumenical talks robber ambush

By Mart Pattison

MEXICO CITY (CNS) - Five suspects have been arrested over the June 29 shooting and robbery attack on Bishop Arturo Lona Reyes of Tehuantepec, who is renowned for helping poor farmers.

On July 3, state judicial police in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca arrested five alleged members of a local gang of highway robbers, two of whom were said to have confessed to firing on the four-wheel-drive Dodge in which Bishop Lona, a lay catechist and two children were travelling.

Neither Bishop Lona nor the two children in the vehicle sustained injuries, although the lay catechist reportedly was injured by flying glass.

Bishop Lona said that he has been the victim of at least three direct attempts against his life as a result of his pastoral work in favor of indigenous people and poor farmers in his diocese. Three other shooting incidents may have been attempted assaults, he said.

Bishop Lona offered a "humane pardon" to his aggressors.

But, he said, while the attack may have been a simple attempted armed robbery, he would not rule out a possible assassination attempt in reprisal for his outspoken defence of the poor.

WASHINGTON (CNS) - An ecumenical conference at the United States University of Notre Dame last month tackled the relationship between Catholicism and the historic peace churches - the Quakers, Mennonites, Hutterites and the Church of the Brethren.

The conference took a look at the common ground Catholicism and the peace churches share, and what more needs to be done to reconcile the traditions, according to Atonement Brother Jeffrey Gros of the US Catholic bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

The Catholic Church and the peace churches exchanged mutual condemnations in the 16th century, in part over the issues of pacifism and engagement in the world.

"Every church brings a number of nonnegotiable items to the table" when Christian unity is the topic, Br Gros said. "The nonnegotiables for the peace churches are peacemaking and pacifism."

Peacemaking, Br Gros told the Catholic News Service, "is an apostolic mandate, it's a Gospel mandate. If anybody didn't say that, they wouldn't be Christian."

While Catholic tradition could be seen as favouring peacemaking, Br Gros acknowledged the "diversity of views in the Catholic Church" on the subject.

Catholicism had long embraced the just

war theory first articulated by St Augustine explore whether they could use "public acts and developed over 15 centuries and of reconciliation" to put aside their past restated in the Second Vatican Council doc- mutual condemnations of one another; mutual "programs of prayer for peace, for ument "The Church in the Modern World." the unity of the Church and for one recent Il's Paul John Pope said Gros Br encyclical on ecumenism, "Ut Unum Sint" another"; and for the US faith and order dia("That They May Be One") gave impetus to logue series to "explore the relationship of the apostolic character of the churches' faith the work of the conference members. order as they develop from traditions of and "From a Catholic point of view," he said, the encyclical highlighted "the importance continuity and traditions of restoration." of peacemaking as central to our unity in The conference was one of the latest outChrist, the importance of working together growths of the ongoing faith and order on the issues of our faith." series of dialogues sponsored by the John Howard Yoder, a Mennonite partici- National Council of Churches and various pant at the conference and a professor at Christian denominations.

Notre Dame, said the conference looked at In past dialogues, the peace churches had "the nature of the difficulties or divisions. representation because of their small little You talk about them some more to see if you bigger mainline Protestant faiths' with size, ecumenical of can get anywhere" in terms ecumenical concerns receiving more attenunity. tion, Br Gros said.

"I don't think there was any meeting of the was there Prof Yoder but said, minds," The Church of the Brethren and an off"always progress in clarification ... in what shoot denomination have roughly a comwe understand what the difficulty was bined membership of 161,000. about and whether we were right" in definThe two main Mennonite bodies in the ing those difficulties in the first place.

Prof Yoder said: "I don't think one can talk United States have a combined membership to the 1993 about breakthroughs, turning points or con- of about 134,000, according American and of Canadian Yearbook confervergences" taking place during the Churches. ence, but whethor "people still want to talk."

The two US Quaker bodies, the Friends Among the eight recommendations that came out of the conference, entitled "The General Conference and the Friends United Fragmentation of the Church and its Unity Meeting, total fewer than 82,000 members. in Peacemaking," were calls for: churches to The Hutterian Brethren number 6,700.

The Record, July 13 1995

13

r-

••••.1.-

International News

Eastern-rite shows uni way: Pope

By Agostino Bono PRESOV, Slovakia (CNS) - Pope John Paul II has praised Slovakia's tiny Eastern-rite Catholic community and encouraged it to remain as a model of the Church's unity in diversity.

Even when they are surrounded

by Latin-rite Catholics, the Church wants to ensure that Eastern Catholics "do not shrink or even disappear," he said.

The failure of communist efforts to destroy Eastern-rite Catholicism showed its strength, he said on July 2 at an Eastern-rite prayer service during his visit to the newly indpendent Slovakia.

The Pope also extended a welcoming hand to local Orthodox leaders, but was rejected. He spoke in the eastern city of Presov, headquarters of the Eastern-rite ecclesial jurisdiction for Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

"Here West meets East; the Latin rite meets the Eastern rite," the Pope said in the region that historically has formed a loose border between predominantly Western and Eastern Christianity.

The Pope offered "cordial greetings" to the region's Orthodox, who are at odds with Eastern-rite Catholics over rival claims to church buildings.

But no high-ranking Orthodox officials attended the papal event.

Prior to the event, Orthodox leaders announced their rejection of the Pope's invitation to the ceremony.

The Pope said he was "still filled with the joy of my meeting in Rome a few days ago" with the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the leading figure of world-wide Orthodoxy.

"I pray that we may overcome our historically rooted tensions and walk together with mutual understanding towards full unity," Pope John Paul said.

The local Orthodox boycott showed that serious, practical problems still exist on the local level, although Catholic-Orthodox relations at the top have measurably

improved since the collapse of communism allowed religious disputes to surface in the fornwr Soviet bloc.

Most have revolved around property disputes as once-clandestine Eastern-rite Catholics have emerged to claim buildings given to the Orthodox during the communist era. In most of the Soviet bloc, Eastern-rite Catholic chutthes were declared illegal and their members told to become Orthodox.

Other problems involve Orthodox criticism that Catholics are proselytizing in traditionally Orthodox countries - accusations which Catholic officials deny.

The Pope praised Eastern-rite Catholic fidelity under communist rulers who "condemned your ecclesial community to destruction."

The survival of the rite showed the validity of a church which has distinctive liturgical, linguistic and ethnic traditions while maintaining unity with the papacy, said the Pope.

Prior to the outdoor ceremony in front of Presov's sports arena, the Pope made an unscheduled stop at the tomb of Eastern-rite Bishop Pavol Gojdic who died in a communist jail in 1960 after 10 years of imprisonment.

The tomb is in Presov's St John the Baptist Cathedral. The following day, the Pope proposed that a beatification process begin for Bishop Gojdic, which could eventually lead to his sainthood.

There are 208,000 Eastern-rite Catholics in the Presov jurisdiction, while Latin-rite Catholics in Slovakia number 3.4 million.

Most of the Eastern-rite Catholics are descendants of Ruthenian Orthodox who reunited with the papacy in 1646, when the region was part of Hungary. The Easternrite uses Old Slavic, Slovakian and Hungarian as liturgical languages.

The church was suppressed in 1950. The current ecclesial jurisdiction was created in 1990.

Investigate apartheid-era use of poison against cleric: council JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNS) - The South African Council of Churches has called for an immediate probe of new allegations that the poisoning of a top church official and the bombing of council offices were carried out under the former apartheid regime in the late 1980s.

"We know that the (South African Government's) truth and reconciliation commission Will come into being within a matter of months, but we believe action needs to be taken now, based on the most recent revelations," the council said late last month.

The council asked that the files on the poisoning and bombing cases be reopened and a "transparent investigation" be initiated.

In 1988, the council's Johannesburg headquarters were severely damaged by a bomb blast. The following year, the council's general-secretary, the Reverend Frank Chikane, nearly died from an organophosphate, such as that found in the insecticide malathion, that was discovered on his clothing.

In both cases, government police agents were the suspected perpetrators. Former police agents made sworn state-

ments that they had been congratulated for the bombing.

In late June, former officer Paul Erasmus was quoted in South African newspapers as saying he participated in planning Mr Chikane's near-fatal poisoning, carried out by security police at Johannesburg's John Vorster Square.

Mr Chikane fell ill during a trip to Namibia in 1989 and had to be evacuated to Johannesburg for emergency treatment.

Later, while traveling in the United States, he became ill again. He was treated in a US hospital, where it was discovered that organophosphate had been put on his clothing. He had used the same suitcase on both trips.

Mr Erasmus also said he was involved in the surveillance of Khotso House, the council headquarters, as part of the plot to plant a bomb.

"On several occasions, we entered Khotso House prior to the bombing of the building," he said. "We had ready access to most of the offices and on one occasion stole a video-cassette recorder."

He added that "the South African Council of Churches which Chikane headed - was the evil empire, and ... it had to be destroyed."

The council appealed to those

who were involved in these and similar actions to disclose their part in the events.

"It will help clear the air, reveal the truth and lead to the possibility of repentance, forgiveness and healing," the council said.

Mr Chikane asked for new investigations, after the Erasmus allegations were published.

"I am one of those few South Africans who are prepared to forgive those who were responsible for these acts, but this must go with the willingness to voluntarily disclose the said acts as well as an indication of remorse on the part of the perpetrators," he said.

"Failure to do so should open them to prosecution and punishment," Mr Chikane added.

Mr Chikane, picked to head the truth and reconciliation commission, reportedly forgave Erasmus when the ex-policeman called to apologise.

Khanya House, the Pretoria headquarters of the Southern African Catholic bishops' conference, was damaged by a firebomb two months after the Khotso House attack.

According to affidavits held by the group Lawyers for Human Rights, police officers were involved in that incident as well.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, (CNS) - The growing threat of euthanasia requires every member of the pro-life community to be as well educated on the end-of-life health issues as on abortion, according to the executive director of the United States National Right to Life Committee.

David O'Steen made the cornment during a general session on June 30 at the NRLC convention in Nashville.

The topic of the session was "Death Comes to America Assisting Suicide and Managed Care: What You Must Know to Protect Your Family."

Mr O'Steen said that in years past the national pro-life group devoted 99 percent of its attention to the abortion issue, -because the threat of euthanasia seemed so far off."

Although end-of-life issues were often more complex than abortion and might not "have

the same initial appeal as talking about a little baby," they nonetheless needed to be discussed.

"We have to educate a large number of Americans on this issue in a very short time," Mr O'Steen said.

Other speakers at the general session were Lynda Harrington, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, who spoke about the Oregon referendum on physician-assisted suicide; and Burke Balch, NRLC medical ethics director, who addressed the rationing aspects of current Medicare and Medicaid reform efforts.

Ms Harrington cited several factors that led Oregon voters to approve physician-assisted suicide by a small margin in 1993.

The law has never taken effect because of court challenges.

She said the Hemlock Society chose Oregon for a euthanasia referendum, after failures in

Washington state and California, in part because Oregon was known for "stubborn defiant individualism and quirky politics" and because it had one of the lowest rates of church-going in the country.

By Bronwen Dachs

Pro-lifers fight on two fronts

Bishops' condemn German abortion law

By Lynne Well BONN, Germany (CNS) - Germany's new abortion law has diminished legal protection of unborn children and offers ample opportunity for abuse, Germany's Catholic bishops have warned.

The law, a compromise package drawn up by Germany's leading political parties, was adopted by the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on June 30.

It allowed abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy without punishment. But abortion remained technically illegal because the constitution guaranteed the sanctity of human life. An abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be prosecuted as a crime, with fines and a potential jail sentence.

"Abortion is the killing of a human being and is therefore inexcusable," Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, the president of bishops'conference said in response to the new measure.

The Church could not "approve of any law allowing the death of an unborn child," 14

The Record, July 13 1995

he said. "However, it is aware that in politics, compromises occasionally are unavoidable."

The law was also criticised in a commentary in the July 2 editon of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"There were expectations in Germany that the law would have initiated a new direction against the legalisation of abortion and juridical permissiveness," Franciscan Father Gino Concetti, a moral theologian, wrote.

"In the end, it is always the woman who decides whether or not to interrupt a pregnancy," he said.

"Scientific data gives evidence of the absurdity of the pretext of the abortionists to revindicate abortion as a 'right' of the woman, as if the embryo were an 'object" instead of a human being with the right to life, he said.

The new measures resolved one of the last conflicts between the legal codes of East and West Germany after unification.

In the former East Germany, publicly funded health insurance paid for abortions up to the third month of pregnancy.

In West Germany, abortion was actively

discouraged. A woman could have one only after receiving pro-life counselling.

Even then, most doctors were reluctant to perform abortions.

In 1991, the unified parliament tried to write a law satisfying people on both sides.

The measure was challenged in the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that making law was indeed the parliament's job.

Under the new law, counselling is still required and no longer requires a woman to give her name or explain her reasons for wanting an abortion. The counselling must take place at least three days before the abortion.

The bishops' conference said the law was too permissive concerning medical grounds for an abortion.

Claudia Nolte, head of the Ministry for Women and Families, said that as a Catholic she could not vote for the measure, but as a government minister she would see that the law was fairly carried out.

The ministry is encouraging consideration of measures that would make it easier to choose not to have an abortion.

Those who wanted to allow physician-assisted suicide in the state capitalised on the "antireligious, anti-Catholic sentiments" of many citizens in their ad campaigns, she said.

Mr Balch said the current efforts to reform the Medicaid and Medicare systems could have lethal effects on the elderly and disabled by requiring managed care and rationing and restricting the right to pay for additional, unrationed health care.

Stressing that "time is short," he urged those at the convention to begin work on the issue as soon as they returned home.

Saigon bishop dies at 84 HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNS) Some 20,000 Vietnamese Catholics paid their last respects last week to Archbishop Paul Nguyen Van Binh of Ho Chi Minh City at his funeral in the Ho Chi Minh City cathedral.

Cardinal Paul Pham Dinh Tung of Hanoi and Archbishop Luigi Bressan, as the special representative of Pope John Paul II, presided at the Mass.

Archbishop Binh died on July 1 after a lingering heart ailment.

Bishop Nicholas Huynh Van Nghi of Phan Thiet, the Holy See-approved apostolic administrator of Ho Chi Minh, kept a low profile at the funeral, observers said. The Vietnamese Government objected to Bishop Nghi's appointment 21 months ago and has yet to lift its objection.

Archbishop Binh's 35-year episcopate spanned a tumultuous period in the history of the nation of 71 million people, about 10 percent of whom are Catholic, which saw Communist North Vietnam conquer South Vietnam in 1975.

Archdiocesan Calendar JULY 15 Marian Annual Retreat Mass Archbishop Hickey 16 60th Anniversary of C armelite Foundation in Nedlands Archbishop Hickey Antioch "Flame" Mass, John )0011 Collcge - Archbishop Hickey 22 St John of God Sisters, General Chapter Mass Archbishop Hickey 24 Blessing of Plaque for Sr Anne Keenan.

Archbishop Hickey 30 Confirmation, Northam - Monsignor Keating

Enquiries/ Appointments 335 7075

'"41 ,017778 ifo,

EYE Minimum $5 first 28 words.

BUILDING TRADES

CNt

A ssiftt9

THANKS

THANKS

Peter Watt PSYCHOLOGIST

CATCHER Close noon Wednesday.

Phone 227 7778 (24 hours) THANKS

Counselling/ Therapy 1 58 Canning Hwy East Fremantle

ELLIOTT & ELLIOTT

0 MOST beautiful flower of 0 HOLY GHOST, Thou Mount Carmel, fruitful in who makest me see every- TO STJUDE worker of mirs plendour in heaven, thing, how to reach my acles and helper of hopeblessed mother of the son ideal, Thou who givest me less. Thanks for many favours past and present I of God, immaculate virgin, the divine gift to forgive and assist me in my necessity. forget the wrongs that have have always put my trust in 0 star of the sea help me been done to me and who you St Jude, and my have been BUILDING estimator/ and show me herein you art in all instances with me, prayers answered. For those in quantifier/handyman, all are my mother. 0 holy I in this short BUILDING TRADES trades. prayer want need or distress pray to St Phone 483 6042.

Mary mother of God, queen to thank Thee for everyJude. T.P. HANDYMAN, painting, gar- o f heaven and earth, I thing and confirm once CARPENTER/HANDYMAN dening, pruning, tree lop- humbly beseech you from more that I never more QUALIFIED tradesman, any ping, rubbish re -moved, the bottom of my heart to want to be separated from G RATEFUL thanks to type of work, phone 483 clean windows, houses, will succour me in this necessi- Thee no matter how great Sacred Heart, blessed 6042. ty (make request). There b e the material desire. I Virgin Mary, St Jude and St do contract work. are none that can with- want to be with Thee and Martin for many favours 377 2314, Martin.

UPHOLSTERY: lounge Credit stand your power. 0 show my loved ones in Thy per- received. cards welcomed. suite repairs, recover me my mother, o show me petual glory. Amen. R.M. THANK YOU St Jude. dining and kitchen suites, ELECTRICAL, contractor herein you are my mother, Lorraine Etherington, 40 etc. Phone L & K Upholstery rewires fans, power points, o Mary conceived without Dandelong Way, Alexander 457 6996. lights, lic 004003. Phone sin, pray for us who have THANKS to Jesus and Heights.

H oly Mother Mary for Tierney 354 Stephen 2263. r ecourse to thee (three HANDYMAN, painting, gart imes). Sweet mother I answering to my prayers. dening, pruning, tree lopplace this cause in your May your name be adored THANK you Virgin Mary for ping, rubbish re-moved, hands (three times). and honoured, glorified and prayers answered. S.R. clean windows, houses, will HOLIDAY Publication of thanks for made renowned throughdo contract work. 377 out the world. T.P. ST. JUDE, glorious Apostle, ACCOMMODATION favours granted. SAL 2314, Martin. Credit cards faithful servant and friend welcomed.

HOLY Spirit, thou who Jesus, the name of the SPECIALLY FILTERED PRAYER to the Virgin Mary makes me see everything of traitor has caused you to GARDEN handyman. Tidy- IT'S ON AGAIN! Summer Oh most beautiful flower of Guaranteed as pure grapepa made in coniogroo with mcksistcal comhtions tor church 6/ ups a speciality. Own deals. Do you feel the Perth Mt Carmel, fruitful vine and and shows me the way to be forgotten by many. But equipment and trailer. heat in summer. Why don't. splendour of heaven, reach my ideal. You have the Church honours and Produced by given divine Patron me the gift to invokes you as the Soakwells and reticulation. you come down to; blessed mother of the son ISAIA CLAREVALF. Free quotes NOR. Ring Pemberton where it is cool- of God, immaculate Virgin, f orgive and forget the of things despaired of, pray wrong done to me and for me, who am so miserer? We have the special Chris 447 9522. me in my necessities. assist who are always in my life able, pray for me, that finalspot for you to relax and' Oh Star of the Se, help me SWIMMING POOLS, ser- maybe help feed our farm and show me herein you with me. I want to thank ly I may receive the consovice, maintenance, equip- animals. In Feb and March are my mother. Oh Holy you for everything and con- lations and help of Heaven VICTORIA PARK ment, painting (free quotes). stay 5 nights and receive 2 Mary, Mother of God, firm I never want to be sep- in all my necessities, tribu- 684 ALBANY HIGHWAY, EAST arated from you, no matter lations and sufferings, parKAVA-NAGH'S POOL SER- extra nights free of charge.

TELEPHONE 470 4333 of Heaven and h ow great the material ticularly (make your VICE, ph 349 0223. Since Ph freecall 1800 622 290 Queen details. earth, I humbly- beseech desires may be. I want to r equest) and that I may more f or 1974. you from the bottom of my be with you and my loved bless God with the elect Pemberton Farm Chalets. heart to succour me in my ones in perpetual glory. throughout eternity. Amen.

PERROTT PAINTING Pty necessities. There are Amen. Say this prayer for St. Jude, Apostle, martyr Ltd for all your residential, SUNSHINE, none that can withstand three consecutive days and relative of our Lord c ommercial painting WINTER BREEZES, your power. Oh show me asking only one favour. Jesus Christ of Mary and r equirements. Phone Tom SUMMER Kalbarri, comfortable, self- here you are my mother, Thank you Holy Spirit S.R. Perrott 444 1200.

Joseph, intercede for me. contained accommodation without conceived Mary Oh WINDOW CLEANING and by the sea, within walking fly screen repairs. For a fast distance of shops and sin, pray for us who have efficient and friendly ser- entertainment, $140 for r ecourse to thee (three vice please call Marcel 444 two; $210 for four; for times). Holy Mary I place seven days. (09) 459 8554. this cause in your hands 6797 or 041 263 6797. (three times). Thank you for MASTER plumber and gas your mercy towards me fitter, Lic No. 140, bathroom mine. Amen. Thank ACCOMMODATION and renovations, sewer converyou blessed mother, Star of sions, all maintenance the Sea for granting me AVAILABLE work, new houses. Good this favour. E.K r ates, all hours. Contact MY grateful thanks to the John on 457 7771.

TWO house-mates, non- Most Sacred Heart, Our smokers, girl or guy, want- Lady, St Jude and Holy PAINTING & Decorating, ed to share rent. 4 room favours reg. no. 3622. For all your catholic ethos house, South Spirit for many received. painting needs, all work of river. Ring 386 8732.

Dear Mary, please keep the professionally done and protecguaranteed, references LEEDERVILLE luxury exec- family under your available. Call Carlo 444 utive 3 bdrm, 2 bthrm town- tion. house. Fully furnished, Your ever grateful child.

6797. alarm, double garage.

WINDOW CLEANING, pro- Seeking female (18-23) to PRAYER to the most B lessed Virgin: 0 most fessional job done, prompt share with outgoing Send cheque and advertisement to.

Closes noon Wednesdays. and reliable service, fly females (18 yrs). $60 per b eautiful Flower of Mt screens cleaned free, week plys share expenses. C armel, fruitful vine and min. for first 28 words. $5 RECORD CLASSIFIEDS established 10 years, Phone 443 4726 after 6pm. s plendour of heaven, 26 JOHN STREET — P.O. BOX 50 phone 368 2444 or mobile Blessed Mother of the Son Record your ad 22 77 77 8 (24h ) 015 994 034. of God, Immaculate Virgin, NORTHBRIDGE, W.A. 6865 necessities. my in me assist PUBLIC NOTICE GRAHAM WILSON com(or deliver to 587 Newcastle Street) 0 Star of the Sea, help and plete garden care, lawns are you herein show me mowed, edged, yard my mother. 0 holy Mary, cleanups, gutter cleaning, MASSEUSE: Bethany Mother of God, Queen of pruning, weeding, phone Clinic, professional and earth, I humbly 349 4800 or 349 6921. masseuse, dealing with heaven you from the botbeseech skeletal and muscular pain, 0 Personal heart to suc0 Marriage 0 Death 0 Flat to let 0 For sale 0 Sits. wanted sporting injuries, stress, tom of my necessities.

0 Information 0 Silver wedding 0 Death: Thanks 0 Wanted to buy 0 House for sale 0 Sits. vacant relaxation and deep tissue cour me in my none that can 0 In rnemonam 0 Golden wedding 0 Accom. wanted 0 House wanted 0 Help wanted m assage, acupressure. There are power. 0 0 Holiday accom 0 Diamond wedding 0 Thanks Monday to Friday 9.30am withstand your 0 Teacher wanted 0 Accom. available are 0 Wanted to 6pm, Saturday 10am to show me here that youcon0 Jubilee 0 Baptism (free) Teacher available 0 Wanted to rent o Mary mother.

0 my 5pm. Ring Orial 479 7120.

0 Public Notice 0 Congratulations 0 Engagement Building trades 0 House to let 0 / tt61.9 , for pray sin, without atraha ceived A S5 discount pensioners. recourse to have who us Continuous Concrete Garden This service is definitely thee (three times). Holy non-sexual. edging in various colours Mary I place this cause in For obligation free quote y our hands (three times). \none John on 331 24091 Thank you for your mercy FOR SALE t owards me and mine Amen. Thank you Blessed Virgin for answering my EARN some extra income prayer. AJP f or hobby or retirement.

MAY the Sacred Heart of Original nativity set $5 (min) holy family, shepherds, Jesus be adored and glori20 YEARS k ings only 200 Dollars. fied, loved, praised and $5.50 EXPERIENCE Phone 097 312 053 preserved throughout the forever. and now world Domestic - Industrial $6 (.to Sacred Heart of Jesus Roofing - Metal have mercy on us. St Jude, PERSONAL Asbestos - New hope of the hopeless, pray Repairs Save time! Save postage! Pay by BANKCARD, MASTERCARD or VISA for us. Say this prayer 9 days. S.R. 9 day for a Professional times GENT, 35 committed EXPIRY Workmanship Christian, seeks genuine DATE G RATER)._ Thanks to Lady for friendship and blessed Guaranteed S acred Heart, NAME c ompany. I enjoy wining Virgin Mary, St Jude and St and dining, dancing, music, favours for oseph J ADDRESS POSTCODE most sports, weekends received. away, etc. Please ring Jerry P HONE 457 0971.

THANK you St Clare. H.D. CONCRETE Worker, all types, addition slabs, driveways, sheds etc, no job too small, first class tradesman, free quotes, 309 5413 or 015 384 485.

Optometrists

Contact Lens Consultants 4 Cantonment Street, FREMANTLE Phone 335 2602

wine 77.

Something to buy?

Something to sell?

ADVERTISE IN THE RECORD

CLASSIFIEDS MARK CLASSIFICATION

CNZALAILft

411,Vi* n4ILV41

411•1111W

The Record, July 13 1995

15

ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY

• THE PARISH SCENE

BOOKSHOP VIDEOS Hill of Redemption: Japan's 400 year history of Missionaries and Martyrs $35.00 Mother Angelica: Human life is so sacred $30.00 Sr Briege McKenna and Fr Kevin Scallan: The Eucharist and the Priesthood $28.00 1994 Marian Conference. Videos $20. Audios $7.

Fr T. Deeter: Sceptic to Convert Fr T. Deeter: Penitence and Reconciliation Rt. Rev S. Barnham: Mary Mother of the Church

FR. FOLEY TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF PRIESTHOOD

On August 6, 1995, at 5pm, Father Dan Foley will celebrate a special mass of thanksgiving for 40 years of priesthood. The people of Good Shepherd Parish; Lockridge wish to extend an invitation to anyone from the various parishes which he has served over those years; to join them for this special occasion.

The parish Church is located on the corner of Morley Drive and Altone Road Lockridge/Kiara.

A fter the thanksgiving mass there will be a dinner in honour o f Father Dan Foley at the Altone Park Recreation centre c ommencing at 7.30pm, 6 August 1995.

For further information about the mass or tickets to the Dinner, please contact DOMINIC PULEO on 279 9481.

15 Bronte Street, East Perth 6004

325 3474

Mon-Fri 10am-4pm

Archdiocese of Perth

MARANATHA INSTITUTE Catholic Education Centre LEEDERVILLE

Involved in groups: parish council, liturgy committee, care committee, etc?

Then try this course: BEGINNING TUESDAY JULY 25 9.30-12.00: Group Dynamics,

11111=111111111111111•111111=11111111

Beth Pennington (7 weeks) Topical, in the light of Pope John Paul's recent Encyclical:

BEGINNING TUESDAY AUGUST 15 1.00-3.00: Mission and Ecumenism, Fr Kevin Long (7 weeks)

Information, Enrolments: 388 4311

Something to buy?

Something to sell?

ADVERTISE IN THE RECORD

BULLSBROOK PILGRIMAGE

Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel will be celebrated at the Church "Virgin Mary, Mother of the C hurch", 36 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook on Monday, July 17.

Holy Rosary 10.30am, Holy Mass 11 am.

Transperth bus No. 311 leaves Midland for Bullsbrook at 9.15am.

For further enquiries please ring 444 2285, 447 3292.

Sacri Assoc. Inc., P.O. Box 311, Tuart Hill, WA 6060. 571 1699.

UNDERSTANDING EUCHARIST TODAY

This formation evening will provide an opportunity for reflection and discussion on: Introduction to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal; the importance and dignity of the Eucharistic celebration; the structure, elements and parts of the Eucharistic celebration. Tuesday 25 July, 7.30pm-9.30pm at the Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay Street, Perth. Cost: $5.00 donation. For further information and registration please contact the Archdiocesan Liturgy Office, phone (09) 221 1548.

101111111111111=111111111111111111111111111111111

Grand Opening Sale

40TH ANNIVERSARY

of the opening of their Churches and the faith and hope and love which began, sustained and continues the life of these communities.

SATURDAY - 22nd July 7.30pm.

Family Dance, Lake Grace Hall.

Supper provided and bar facilities available. S20 family, $10 single.

SUNDAY - 23rd July 9am. Mass at Thomas a'Beckett Church, Kukerin followed by morning tea. - 23rd July 11.30am. Mass at Maria Regina Church, Lake Grace followed by luncheon in Hall.

R.S.V.P. 15th July 1995, Catholic Presbytery, P.O. Box 248, Lake Grace WA. 6353.

Gatto & Co are Moving To celebrate the move we are having a

TALK BY MATTHEW KELLY

On Friday 28th July '95, 8.00pm, Matthew, a University student from NSW, will speak about his Christian experiences and the c ontents of his book "Our Father" at St Joseph's Priory Church, 135 Treasure Road, Queens Park.

Enquiries: Cathy 255 2024, Russel 274 6018.

111111111111111111111.1111111.11111.1111111111.1

DISCIPLES YOUTH MISSION TEAM

The Disciples' Youth Mission Team presents ...

Jesus - through dramas, live music, sport and just plain good fun, you can get to know God in a real and personal way.

ANCHOR WEEKEND Venue: Bickley Recreation Centre.

Date: 21st-23rd July, 1995.

Age: Years 10-12 Cost S30 Contact Paul 341 3392 or Michelle 341 8506. moN1111111111INIIIMMEINI111111116

APOSTLES OF CHRIST CHARISMA-T1C FELLOWSHIP NIGHT

on Wednesday, 19th July at 7.00pm, Sts John and Paul Catholic Church, Willetton.

Refreshments and Fellowship after. All welcome.

to new modern premises located at

Unit 51108 Wanneroo Rd, Tuart Hill Phone 09 345 5700 Fax 09 344 6260 Next to Australia Post in Tuart Hill

From the 17th July 1995 Come and see our new modern showroom, fully airconditioned and over 30 free car parking bays.

Parking at back r1ZlLairT4E

From 17th July to 31st July 1995 20% Off everything in Stock * Churchware *Vestments * Books * Videos

* Statues * Posters * Pictures * Plaques

* Crucifix

* and many more items

Personal shoppers only 16

The Record, July 13 1995

ctri 9.A.Amr

r

DoGi 544C1517,40 CE1-KVE

LOC);TI1011 ViAtl