The Record Newspaper 24 August 1995

What's Inside ....

PERTH, WA: August 24, 1995

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New school provokes defence of RE teaching

By Peter Rosengren HE director of religious education T for Catholic schools in Western Australia, Father Gerard Holohan, has

mounted a spirited defence of religious education standards and programs currently taught in Catholic schools throughout the state.

In a letter to the editor of The Record Fr Holohan urged parents to continue sending their children to schools run under the auspices of the Catholic Education Office because the schools were entitled to call themselves Catholic and were under the supervision of the bishops.

His remarks follow the placing of an advertisement in the August 17 edition of The Record by a proposed new school, Divine Mercy College, that called for enrolments in 1996.

The letter is printed in full on Pages 6 and 7 of today's Record.

Fr Holohan said the college had been refused permission by the Archdiocese of Perth to call itself Catholic and the archdiocese accepted no responsibility for the orthodoxy or otherwise of what was to be taught in the school.

"As Director of Religious Education in Western Australia I have been faced with questions from people seeking information about the status of this college and how it relates to the Catholic school system. The advertisement itself seems to me to be misleading and is causing some confusion out in the community," he said.

However, Brian McGann, a sub-committee member assisting the Divine Mercy College Board, said the reaction from Fr Holohan in speaking out against the establishing of the school indicated he was not aware of the facts himself.

"To my knowledge, Fr Holohan has had no communication with the group and, as such, has been relying on hearsay," he said.

1 would have thought it was far more fruitful if he sat down with us direct and listened to what a group of parents feel is needed in the Catholic community, and that is a school that teaches in the traditional Catholic ethos."

Mr McGann said Divine Mercy College had no complaints about the Catholic education system in WA. "We're not complaining about the standard of education, we're not complaining about anything in the CEO system as it

Archbishop Barry Hickey raises concerns about the Medical Care for the Dying Bill currently before WA's Parliament in a special statement released today. He says a number of the Bill's provisions are ethically sound but warns that a number of ambiguities in the Bill need to be resolved to stop unintended consequences - Page 2 Interview with new SVP national president Mick Smith - Page 10 Preview of United Nations' women's conference in Beijing - Page 8 Fr Dino Torresan reflects on Asian immigration - Page 11

Artful innocence praises God

stands. We believe there's a group of parents out there that believe that there's a need for more emphasis on the traditional Catholic ethos, and that's the basis upon which the school is being established," he said.

He also said the school was being established with the 1992 Mandate of Catholic Education as a guiding document.

"But I am surprised that they have reacted in the sense that they have. because I wouldn't have thought that they would have seen us as any threat or any obstacle to seeking their goals," he said.

1might add that the Archbishop has been communicated with on a number of occasions over the last 12 months. So he's been kept informed and I'm now rather surprised that it's got to the stage where the reaction has been through the press rather than Fr Holohan coming to see us direct."

Fr Holohan listed a number of alleged problems associated with the proposed school, including that it had been suggested that it was being founded by people dissatisfied with the standards and content of religious education currently taught in Catholic schools, that it had been claimed the school would provide places to those unable to enrol in official Catholic schools. and that the religious education programs would be based on a syllabus offered in the Diocese of Wagga Wagga in New Year 5 students from St Paul's Primary School, Mt Lawley, give their all in a rendition South Wales.

Come Fill My World during a session of the Performing Arts Festival of the Catholic of Fr Holohan said he had received no Schools and Colleges last week. Festival report - Page 5. complaints about religious education from those associated with the school and that the CEO would help anyone seeking to they would have discovered that a new cerned. Others have proven to be honenrol in a Catholic school. education program is to be estly mistaken." religious He also said that while the college in Catholic schools from implemented Fr Holohan also hit out at instances of advertised the fact that it would use the year, next the mandate given by what he called "unsubstantiated gossip" reflecting Wagga syllabus, it was in fact a syllabus the bishops of Western Australia to the regarding complaints which not only conthat extensively cited in its own references Education Commission in 1992.

Catholic travened the Eighth Commandment but the program run in WA Catholic schools. impossible to investigate, often for were In addition, he said, from the earliest "There are other difficulties I could list detail. of lack Archbishop, as appointment his of period as well," Fr Holohan said, "but the major indicated had the view that Catholic Hickey Barry Addressing Archbishop real the is 'What is, mind my in question reason behind the attempt to establish this that religious education would be one of schools were to blame for the high levels his top priorities and that this was faith- of young people not practising their faith, college?'

"Surely, if religious education was a gen- fully observed by principals and teacher's he said that schools were only one among several factors including the family's own uine concern, some attempt would have throughout the system. standards of Catholicism, the parish's about complaints of with issue the discuss concern this Regarding to been made the Director of Religious Education. To my the teaching of religious education in response to young people, and the afflumind, that would have been a more rea- Catholic schools he said, "My files and my ence and materialism of society generally sonable response to any difficulties people memory indicate that there have been rel- and its accompanying effect on the young.

He also defended teachers working in may have than in trying to establish a col- atively few (complaints) to me. All have been addressed. Some complaints have Catholic schools and said that teachers lege."

Had those who were founding the been legitimate and appropriate changes were working hard to update their relischool made his acquaintance, he said, have been made by the teachers con- gious education background.

All God's children must be invited to banquet Among the most disturbing words that Jesus spoke are these, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just". (Luke 14, 12-14) How many of us take his words seriously? I enjoy meals with friends, but I rarely think of including the people at the edge, the poor and the disabled.

Jesus' will for His Church was to be a community that included everyone, not just one's inner circle.

Jesus' phrase Invitation to the Banquet" is the title of a Report compiled by the Catholic Association for Special Education Support (CASES) completed last month and released this week.

The Report looks at current efforts by the Church to provide Catholic education for children with disabilities, and attempts to predict future needs.

I was happy to commission the Report, even though I knew it would probably be critical of the Archdiocese and the Catholic education system. But I felt we were big enough to take it.

This issue is so important that, at the risk of hearing some tough home truths, we must hear what parents are saying.

Over the fourteen years since the International Year of Disabled Persons the local Church has initiated a wide range of support services for disabled people and their families. The Catholic education system has worked hard to enable schools to accept individuals and groups of children with special needs.

Resources of personnel and school facilities are costly, but despite the costs, mighty steps have been made to meet the

Archbishop's

_ Perspective • requests of parents to accommodate their children.

The Report says that the response is not yet sufficient. All the more reason to look to the future to put pressure on Governments for proper funding and to encourage schools to open their doors wide to accept even more children with special needs.

Why is this issue so important?

Poor families not affected: bank The Commonwealth Bank has rejected charges that its latest fee increases hit poor families.

The bank's decision to increase many customer fees by up to 700 per cent has been described as "the height of insti-tutional arrogance" by the national director of the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission, Father David Cappo.

"Australia's banks seem set to ignore any sense of social responsibility particularly to low income families and individuals in the community," Fr Cappo said on August 19.

"I believe that it is the height of institutional arrogance for a major retail bank such as the

Commonwealth Bank to be radically increasing fees on a raft of services by up to 700 per cent only six weeks after the Prices Surveillance Authority had completed its investigation into the charges that banks impose upon their customers," he said.

The bank, under widespread community pressure, later cancelled the increase for dishonoured cheques and duplicate statements.

Fr Cappo could not be contacted to comment on the backdown on these two charges.

The bank's chief manager for group planning and development, Lyn Deves, challenged Fr Cappo's original criticisms and said that in fact no fee changes have been effected to account

keeping or transaction fees on retail transaction accounts, which were the subject of the recent Prices Surveillance Authority inquiry, and which poor families used most.

Ms neves said the fee changes related to international and branch service activities not frequently used by customers such as safe custody lodgements, certificates of balance, escrows, opinions, cheque dishonours and telegraphic transfers.

She said the larger fee increases introduced related to usage of services by non-customers of the bank.

The Commonwealth Bank was also the only bank to offer an electronic account free from fee charges, she said.

SOUTHERN CROSS HOMES (WA) INCORPORATED

Southern Cross Homes operates on a non-denominational basis, providing facilities to care for the elderly and care-dependent in a Christian environment by professionally trained caring staff. We are presently caring for 450 residents in 3 nursing homes, 4 hostels and 4 retirement villages. Practical financial support is important to our existence and continued development. New aged care facilities are required and existing services need modernising.

Southern Cross Homes' Annual Street Appeal will be held on Friday, 1 September. Volunteer collectors are desperately needed. If you can help collect in Perth or Fremantle please contact the office of Southern Cross Homes (WA) Incorporated on (09) 314 2499 or pick up a tin from the Perth Town Hall on the day.

If you cannot help but would like to make a donation towards Aged Cared, please return the slip below with your donation. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.

(Cut along here) Please send to:

Southern Cross Homes (WA) Incorporated PO Box 169, Hamilton Hill, WA, 6163 Please accept my donation towards the Care of the Aged. (i) Please debit my Bankcard/MastercardNisacard No. Cardholder's Signature: Expiry Date: (ii) I wish to help by enclosing my cheque for $

2

These families deserve our love and care, without question. We are one family in the Church, and their children are our children. I have watched and been part of the growing consciousness among Catholics of disabled people in our midst, and have welcomed the many organisations and self-help groups that have formed around mental health and physical, emotional and functional disabilities. We are not, and should never be, a Church of the elite. We are to invite to the banquet "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind" because Jesus identifies with them in a special way, reminding us to look beyond appearances and social standing to the image and likeness of God in every person. The hard-hitting Report of CASES acknowledges what has been done but encourages us to do more. We have no alternative but to respond if we are to be the all-embracing Church of Jesus.

Archbishop endorses parts of Taylor Bill, questions ambiguities The following is a statement released today by Archbishop Barry Hickey on the Medical Care for the Dying Bill currently before the Western Australian Parliament.

Bill entitled Medical A Care for the Dying is before the WA Parliament.

Given the current push for euthanasia in Australia, any legislation that contains provisions for the terminally ill must be subjected to the closest scrutiny.

The Bill as it now stands contains a number of provisions that one could endorse from the point of view of sound medical ethics and would welcome in legislative form, in particular • that the reasonable provision of food and water, as part of proper palliative care, is not to be withheld or refused; • that in the relief of pain and suffering, there may never be an intention to cause death even if measures to relieve pain and suffering have the effect of shortening the life of the patient; • that the refusal of medical treatment is only lawful when it is excessively burdensome and clearly futile, and only

when the patient is close to death. In no way should the law legitimise suicide.

While the above provisions are in accord with moral principles for the terminally ill, ambiguities in the Bill need to be carefully addressed lest the Bill have unintended consequences, opening the way to practices that are unacceptable.

The phrase "terminally ill" needs to be understood in terms of proximity to death, not in terms of a medical condition that one day will lead to death.

The phrase "reasonable provision of food and water" needs to be understood as a duty, even if medical treatment has ceased.

The competence of patients to refuse treatment needs to be carefully assessed lest the true wishes of temporarily depressed and disabled patients be misinterpreted.

One cannot easily predict the consequences of any legislation. In the matter of the treatment of the terminally ill, it would be tragic if this Bill, if passed, were to have the opposite effect of what is intended.

Archbishop Barry Hickey

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The Catholic Education Commission cordially invites you to view an exhibition of art and sculpture by

students from Catholic Secondary Schools and Colleges throughout the State. The Angelico Exhibition will be held in the foyer of the BankWest Tower on the corner of St George's Terrace and William Street, from Monday, 28 August to Friday, 1 September 1995.

The exhibition area is open 24 hours a day.

4 "Woman of Substance". Suzanne Healy. Yr 9 Mater Del College 1994

Name: Address:

Let me give you a reason which is absolutely incontrovertible. It has been put to me many times.

We urge parents not to abort their children, even if they know in advance that they have a disability. We say that such children are precious in the sight of God and are of infinite value.

If these parents reject the false values of the world around them, obey their faith and their conscience and give birth to these children, they have every right to expect that the Church will love them, support them in every way, and find a place for them in our schools.

The argument is powerful and unanswerable. Of course the Church must do all in its power to be at the side of these families. After all they are caring for these special needs children on behalf of us all. They have sleepless nights, become exhausted, forego holidays and many of the comforts and freedoms that most of us expect.

_

The Record, August 24, 1995

Further information: Rosemary Penman, Catholic Education Office. 388 4388

Rosary fan: 100 years old, still sharp as ever

By Colleen McGuinness-Howard

Remarkable Evelyn Coverley celebrating a hundred years of charityfilled living with her four sons (left front) Bill, Aubrey, Peter, Bernie, her grand-daughter Helen Bertola and great-grandson Thomas.

Mrs Evelyn Coverley leaned across confidentially to the lady next to her and whispered: —Fake the photographer out of the room so I can ring up on the quiet and place a bet at the TAB." But I didn't disappear.I was too interested in reading the large laminated certificate from the TAB, acknowledging her as their oldest and longest punter and endowing her with S100 credit.

It was Mrs Coverley's 100th birthday last week and the house was brimming over with people to congratulate her.

She has 4 sons, 17 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren and these assembled with about a hundred people at the birthday

Clean up govt: Indon Cardinal JAKARTA. Indonesia (CNS) - The head of the Indonesian bishops' conference said that a fter 50 years of independence, the country needs to develop clean government and justice for the poor.

Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja of Semarang told 15,000 Catholics attending the golden anniversary Mass in Jakarta on 19 August that the greatest challenge facing the nation is no longer the struggle against colonial rulers.

Instead, Cardinal Darmaatmadja said, the most urgent challenge is how to create a strong government that respects the laws and has great concern for justice for all, especially the poor and "small" people. His remarks were reported

by UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.

Cardinal Darmaatmadja said

Indonesia can have genuine independence only if authorities and all citizens rid themselves of sin, which manifests in abuses of power and position, greed and pursuit of narrow interests.

"The ideals of national independence as declared by our founding fathers cannot be materialized if we cannot free ourselves from sin," he said.

Referring to Indonesian Catholics specifically, he said that "besides improving discipline in serving the nation, we need to sanctify ourselves with the power of God through Jesus Christ the redeemer."

Indonesia marked 50 years of independence on 17 August.

The golden jubilee Mass two days later began with a procession and the blessing of the national flag.

In his homily, Cardinal Darmaatmadja noted that the Catholic Church anticipated an

independent Indonesia well before the 1945 proclamation.

He said the establishment of the Semarang Archdiocese and the appointment of the late Archbishop Albertus Soegijapranata as the first native Indonesian archbishop in 1940 reflected Vatican support for the struggle of the Indonesian people against foreign colonizers.

"The appointment of the late Archbishop Soegijapranata was like an announcement by t he universal church that Indonesia would soon be governed by its own people," said the cardinal.

Even earlier, he added, the late Jesuit Father Franciscus van Lath. a Dutch missionary. said that the "Catholic mission wants the native people to develop themselves toward preparation for their independent state."

Myths concerning disabled end The International Year for Disabled Persons in

1984 had a profound significance for the Church

Mary Ballantine, chairperson of CASES, left, Archbishop Hickey and Banquet spokesperson, Silvia Kinder, last Monday

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

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

here in Western Australia, Archbishop Barr Hickey said last Monday as he launched the Catholic Association for Special Education Support report on the educational needs of disabled children.

The launch of Invitation to the Banquet. was launched at St Joseph's parish centre in Subiacc, on Monday night.

Archbishop Hickey said the international year dispelled incorrect beliefs like the one that disabled children and adults should not receive sacraments such as Communion and Confirmation.

At the parish level there's no question about the legitimacy of them receiving the sacraments they have every right to," Archbishop Hickey said.

Responding to the criticisms of the Church, the Catholic education system and parish communities raised in the report, Archbishop Hickey said the reports recommendations would be studied carefully and, wherever possible, implemented, although the problem of funding, and thus places for disabled children, would continue.

And, despite what the report said, the Catholic school system had also accepted the challenges and implemented many programs which had resulted in over 1000 children with disabilities being placed in Catholic schools, he said. in our education we must still search out for those in need, and the children with special needs must therefore have a great claim on our education system," he said.

Mass and two hundred at a Highgate celebration that night, to toast this grand lady.

Blind for the last 55 years, she is the sole survivor from a circus family of 12 children, and although diminutive, is as gutsy a s they come with all the resilience, tough fibre and sense of humour that our truly great pioneers had.

Mrs Coverley's always been a fervant devotee of the Rosary and a daily Communicant where possible. Father Des Clifford of the Redemptorist monastery tells of how his elderly parishioner's first guide dog was also Catholic or at least reverent by nature. It used to genuflect with her in front of the altar, take her to a seat, and then disappear until just before the end of Mass.

Of true pioneering stock, she has an exciting past being a veteran circus performer and expert rider which stood her in good stead after she married Aubrey Coverley.

In 1924 he won the Kimberley Labour seat which was endorsed by an electorate he canvassed on horseback with his bride Evelyn.

It meant swimming rivers and riding for days on end, but it paid off and Aubrey retained the seat until his death in 1953.

Known far and wide for her charity work, Mrs Coverley has aided and abbetted every possible good cause and had been awarded an Order of Australia medal in the general division and a medal of recognition from the City of Perth. She was named Mother of the Year in 1979.

Century of golden toil

St John of God Sister, Sr Theophane, cuts the cake to celebrate.

A Mass to commemorate the centenary of the Sisters of St John of God in Australia was held on 15 August in St Mary's, Kalgoorlie.

The Sisters came to Kalgoorlie in March 1896, serving in education and health care for over eighty years. Their initial presence there was largely due to the typhoid epidemic and the first Sisters ministered to miners stricken with this and other diseases.

With virtually no medical care in the region they established a hospital in Coolgardie. As Kalgoorlie became the focus of the gold rush, the hospital was relocated here.

The St John of God Hospital operated in Kalgoorlie until they left in 1980. The Sisters also provided

education in the goldfields, establishing the basis for today's Catholic education in the region.

The school that is now Kalgoorlie Catholic Primary School comprises buildings which were part of both the St John of God Hospital and their school.

The Mass on Tuesday night was a Mass of Thanksgiving for the work done by the Sisters of St John of God in the Goldfields. Well over 500 people attended, and forty Sisters travelled to Kalgoorlie for the occasion. Mass was celebrated by Fr Steve Durkin, Parish Priest of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, and featured a choir, comprised of students from the three Catholic schools in the area.

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

The tradition continues.

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 TRUST 68 Stirling St, Perth.

The Record, August 24, 1995

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TOMORROW TODAY

Listening is all

By Michael Meegan, Chairman, Donnybrook Parish Pastoral Council The subject of young people's relationship with God, the Church and parents was discussed at Saint Mary's Parish in Donnybrook recently.

Bruce Downes, director of Youth and Young Adults, presented a challenging discussion on how parishes can respond to the needs of youth today.

Often parents, priests and school teachers have a tendency to blame each other for t he problems in communicating with young people. Central to Bruce's discussion was the need to remove blame from the equation and allow people to accept that the issue of the Church and the young people is something which has no easy answer.

Neither was it helpful or correct to blame any particular section of the community.

Young people are in a constant state of flux and the concerns of a twelve year-old differ vastly to a person that may be eighteen years of age.

Therefore, the traditional method of simply providing one youth group for the young in any particular parish may not be

the best approach. Bruce was quick to point out that some groups and some parishes may perform very well with a youth group but it was equally important to realise that not all parishes should simply adopt that model.

The needs of young people must be established, having careful regard to the particular problems associated with each area where the young people may be residing.

It is vital when approaching youth to actively listen to what they have to say about their experience with faith and to be prepared to accept the feelings and concerns of the youth as valid issues.

Bruce said that in his experience with young people he was often amazed at the depth of faith which these people exhibited when given the opportunity to express it in a non-confronting environment.

Further, young people need practical support in areas which may not be necessarily limited to simply discussing [liturgical issues but often providing them with more practical assistance.

For example Bruce said that in one particular group it was arranged for a person from within the parish to assist the young

After the talk: youth ministry needs vary. Perth archdiocesan youth coordinator Bruce Downes is on the far right. by providing a cooking class. If presented with these opportunities and able to gain practical help from the parish, then not only do they then feel that the parish is doing something for them but their interaction with the person offering these classes may well introduce them to a person that is living the faith of Jesus Christ.

What is Fr Pat's secret?

There are no easy answers. Each parish may have different needs. However in Bruce's experience many young people have much to say in terms of their relationship with God. The challenge for the Church is not so much to bring the youth back to the Church but for the Church to bring itself back to the young people.

US youth compete for Papal Mass ALBANY, New York (CNS) - Fifteen teenagers will win an allexpenses-paid trip to participate In Pope John Paul ll's visit and Mass in New York City in October. through a contest sponsored by the Family Rosary in Albany, New York Adults are invited to nominate those aged 16 to 19 years old by answering a questionnaire with the youths. The Family Rosary mailed 27.000 questionnaires to adults throughout the country in July.

-The questionnaire is intended to be an educational tool, to get youth and adults dialoguing about the Catholic faith and the Rosary." said Carol Pickel, pastoral associate of the Family Rosary, based in Albany.

Applicants will be chosen

based on their answers to 20 questions on the Pope, Mary and the Rosary, and their brief essays on why they want to see the Pope in October, the feast of the Holy Rosary. The deadline for applications is 31 August.

All applicants will receive a special, limited-edition rosary packet to be blessed by Pope John Paul during his New York visit.

The three-day, two-night trip for the teen-agers will include attendance at the Papal Mass in Central Park. a visit to St Patrick's Cathedral and other sites of interest. All transportation, accommodations and meals will be paid by the Family Rosary.

The Family Rosary organization was founded by the late Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton in 1942 to foster family prayer.

Catholic Youth Formation Centre.

EAGLE'S NEST 1406

Fr Pat Ahern (middle row, right) with the Antioch crew.

By Margaret Fennessy, Antioch Co-ordinator Father Pat Ahern recently celebrated another weekend with the young of his parish - All Saints, Greenwood. He is very proud of his track record with the involvement of youth in the parish. Antioch has endured now for 11 years, and Fr Pat is no stranger to the challenges and joys of working with youth.

He also has a gift for engaging adults and then enabling them to give expression to their talent as is evidenced by the large number of generous and faith filled supporters over the 11 years.

John and Cathy Mak currently hold this supportive role and can share with good humour their story of working alongside the young. What sustains and nourishes them is their faith in the programme and their genuine love of young people.

Lunch and Mass with Us Come to the Youth and Young Adult Office for Mass and lunch with the staff of the

Catholic Youth and Young Adult Ministry each Thursday at 12.15 pm

30 Claverton Street, North Perth Bring your own lunch 4 ' The Record, 'August44, 1995

O'Brien Road Gidgegannup

They saw 19 new members partake in the recent weekend held at Liwara Primary School and must have been warmed to see some of the old Antiochers helping out. Some of these postAntiochers are establishing a new group, a meeting place for coming together for reflection and support of each other. Antioch is building leaders for today and tomorrow at Greenwood. Perhaps Fr Pat has a direct line.

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 September

October 2-6, 9-13, 16-20, 23-27, 30-Nov 1 November 2,6-9, 12-15, 16-17, 18-19, 20-24, 25-26, 27-Dec 1 December 11-15, 16-17, 18-22 THIRD TERM Monday 24th July - Tuesday 29th September For Bookings and Enquiries, phone Eagle's Nest direct on 574 7030

Catholic University Students' Ball A Scenic Rendezvous 6th September, 1995 Mulberry Farm, Caversham Tickets $45 Phone: Trish 479 7119 Liz 364 3291 Mike 401 6517

Dates in: bold = weekend, italics= unconfirmed) 6-7, 10-11, 14-15, 16-17, 18-20, 30-31

ANTIOCH ALERT!!!

Calling Musos and Singers to a Jam Session to practice current Antioch songs WHEN WHERE TIME BRING COST REPLY REMEMBER

Sunday 27th August.

St Mary's Parish Centre.

Franklin St, Leederville. (off Loftus) 10am - 3pm.

Shared Lunch.

Nil. 328 9622 or 383 9741 to advise of numbers.

Lively Enthusiastic Musk equates to Lively Enthusiastic Groups.

Catholic Schools' Performing Arts Festival

Scenes from the 1995 festival: left, 'Angels heard on high'; above: the Corpus Christi College orchestra; right: Not quite Nathan Camilleri; far right: a more classical string rendition.

Performing arts: aid to living life

By Brian Coyne Educators see the performing arts having a value extending well beyond entertainment and teaching proficiency in performance.

Parents should be aware of this extra dimension too. After all, the encouragement provided by parents carries far greater weight for the individual student than anything that can be provided by outsiders.

The performing arts in schools is not simply about training students to be musicians. actors and dancers. It is in the process of learning how to perform before an audience that the student can develop a number of fundamental skills and character attributes that are important in all areas of their life.

As publicity officer for the Performing Arts Festival I am in the fortunate position of seeing more performances from more schools than anyone else in the Catholic education system. This is my second year of watching the performances. I can report that even from last year to this, watching the

young men and women grow in self-confidence and poise is uplifting for all of us who value the difference that a Catholic education can make.

My colleagues on the festival committee, who have been with the festival since its inception six years ago, are even more moved by the growth that t he performing arts has encouraged in our students both in primary schools and in secondary colleges.

It is not a coincidence that often some of the most gifted performers are also gifted in other areas of study and in the sporting arena. We do not appreciate enough the 'giftedness' we are looking at stems from the attitudes of self-confidence, unselfconsciousness and discernment in how to hold and move one's body, mind and spirit that are necessarily transmitted when a student learns how to play a musical instrument, to sing, act, dance or simply speak in public.

Without being overbearing or 'pushy', parents should take every opportunity to encourage their children quietly when performance opportunities

arise. More than ever today, our schools are seeking to provide those opportunities. The hard work though is up to you - and more so your children in taking advantage of the opportunities.

Educationally, it is now widely recognised that any student's progress at school is as much a factor of their own selfconfidence and self-esteem as any intrinsic "cleverness" they were born with. just look around in your community: the people who "do well" in life are invariably self-confident.

They are not self-confident because they are "successful".

They are "successful" because they are self-confident.

The building of self-confidence begins in the home, continues in the classroom and is encouraged by the performing arts where our children have to get up in front of others in an unselfconscious manner and demonstrate that they have pride in who they are and where they come from - their family, school and community.

Brian Coyne is a writer with the Catholic Education Office.

A liturgical offering at the festival

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(performing ,Vts aestivai for Catholic Schools and Colleges

Secondary Choral, lona Presentation College, Mosman Park. 7.00 pm, 28-29 Aug Primary Choral. Trinity College. Perth, 9.30 arn/1.00 pm, 28-30 Aug FINAL CONCERT - PERTH CONCERT HALL -6 Sep - BOCS Booking 484 1133

GREAT PERFORMANCES

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ILLITERACY THIS TERRIBLE AFFLICTION

O ver 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 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 e xercising their fundamental rights.

In the Australian Jesuit Mission region in India, where there is illiteracy there is more hunger, more disease and infant mortality, as well as humiliation and e xploitation.

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.

School fees are $15 to $20 a year

Can you help educate some children? Almost 40,000 children in our schools have to be subsidised. Their parents cannot afford S15 to $20 a year for school f ees. Trying to feed their children two meals a day is their No. 1 priority.

Donations are tax deductible. Please make your cheque payable to "Australian Jesuit Mission Overseas Aid Fund" and post it with the coupon. Whatever you can give will help immensely.

If this is schoolwork, then give us more of it!

ELLIOTT lie ELLIOTT

MANNING & ASSOCIATES

Optometrists Contact Lens Consultants

Contact Lens Consultants

4 Cantonment Street, FREMANTLE Phone 335 2602

GROVE PLAZA. COTTESLOE Mark A. Kalnenas. B. Optom (NSW) For appointment Phone 384 6633 or 384 6720

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

Illiteracy means a bitter struggle just to survive.

Donations are tax deductible

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • N ational Director, Father T. O'Donovan, S.J., • • • Australian Jesuit Mission in India (Est. 1951), • • ▪ P.O. Box 193, North Sydney, NSW, 2059.

• • • educate India's • I enclose $ poorest • to help children. Tick E for tax deduction receipt. PR 24.8 • • • Mr/Mrs/Miss • (Block letters olease) • • • • • Address • a • • Postcode • • a • •111 1111 ••••••••••••••••• •• e•• MO • • II MI MS • •

.,The Record, August 24; 1995' 5

-r

c-Xe/k.fe4a d 64/ove

'College can't be called Catholic' write in relation to the advertisement theological booklets for adults stretching I featured on page 3 of 17 August edi- back to tion of The Record. It has been inserted on • While implying a guarantee of RE

pilot units were written the Catechism was still under embargo and it was not possible to use quotations.

Schools have been preparing for 5. the new programme by encouraging teachers to update their religious education background and ensuring that their school timetables will fulfil the Bishops' requirements on the minimum time to be given to the religious education programme in the curriculum. Many secondary schools have already sent their teachers at considerable expense to an intensive course - equivalent in duration to the teaching time of three tertiary units.

It is important to note that, if schools did not think there was room for continuing Improvement in their religious education, they would not have contributed so willingly to the development of the new programme. Outsiders may criticise negatively, but our schools and their teachers have been positive in their actions.

1971.

behalf of Divine Mercy College and claims to be a new college "emphasising traditional Catholic values". Some months ago there was a similar proposal in Perth for a College to be called Assumption College which appears to have since died. Both proposals have led to confusion.

As Director of Religious Education in Western Australia I have been faced with questions from people seeking information about the status of this College and how it relates to the Catholic school system. The advertisement itself seems to me to be misleading and is causing confusion In the community. For this reason, I feel it Is necessary to offer a number of relevant clarifications even though this will result in a longer letter than usual.

1.

Let me make three points that already are relatively publicly known: • The proposed college does not have authorisation by the Archbishop to call Itself 'Catholic'.

• The Archbishop has refused a request that the College be allowed to lease Church property within the Archdiocese.

• The Archdiocese can accept no responsibility whatsoever for the orthodoxy or otherwise of what may be taught in the name of religious education.

I would urge all parents to consider carefully before sending their children to a school that is neither entitled to call itself Catholic nor comes under the supervision of the Archbishop of Perth or the Catholic Bishops of Western Australia. They need to realise that Divine Mercy College is in no way related administratively with the Archbishop - the first Teacher as a successor of the Apostles in the Archdiocese of Perth.

2.

Many are suggesting that those establishing the school are unhappy with existing Catholic schools in general and religious education in particular, and that they are frustrated from "getting nowhere" with complaints to Catholic education authorities. However, the fact is that no complaint or request for discussion has been received by me from those whose names I have heard associated with the new school - indeed, I have never previously heard of them.

3.

There has been some claim that the College is needed to provide places to students unable to get into a Catholic school. The response to this is that the Catholic Education Office will be able to assist anyone seeking to get their child into a Catholic school.

4.

It is clear from the wording of the advertisement that a religious education programme for the College has not yet been developed. The specific paragraph from the advertisement I will quote in full because a number of comments will be made in relation to this paragraph. The paragraph reads: "Appropriate texts such as the new Catechism and the 'Faith and Life' series and the syllabus 'We Belong to the Lord' will be incorporated into the programme."

The quoted paragraph gives cause for concern on a number of fronts: • Nowhere in Australia has anyone succeeded in developing a quality religious education programme in as short a time as that available to the proposed College.

• The syllabus "We Belong to the Lord" referred to in the paragraph is the RE content syllabus offered in the Diocese of Wagga in New South Wales. The difficulty is that the full and effective implementation of the Wagga programme requires the support of the resources of the Wagga Catholic Education Office just as the programme running in our own schools in WA requires the back-up resources provided by our own Catholic Education Office. Il ls misleading for the advertisement to suggest it is drawing from a particular programme when, in fact, it has access to only part of that programme.

• Elsewhere in the advertisement the College claims to be offering places in years 4 to 8. The Wagga programme has only been developed up to the equivalent of our year 6 because of the differences in school structures between N.S.W. and WA Furthermore, the other programme cited as a reference for religious education - the "Faith and Life" series - is a series of 8 TOI*Aecbtd,:l!sugastr2441995"

orthodoxy in the documents cited in the advertisement, it is a matter of concern to me that none of the Church's official statements on the methodological requirements for a Catholic religious education have been cited. These are essential if a school is to implement the teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as envisaged in paragraph 24 of the Catechism.

There are other matters I could list as well, but the major question in my mind is, "What is the real reason behind the attempt to establish this College?" Surely, if religious education was a genuine concern, some attempt would have been made to discuss this concern with the Director of Religious Education. To my mind, that would have been a more reasonable response to any difficulties people may have than in trying to establish a College.

Facts about Religious Education in Catholic Schools ad those people made my acquainH tance they would have found out important, relevant facts such as the fol-

lowing: 1.

A review of the Archdiocesan RE Guidelines promulgated by Archbishop Foley began in 1992. As a result of this, a new RE programme will be implemented In Catholic schools in 1996. For the past year this new programme has been piloted in a selected number of secondary schools and piloting is currently underway in primary schools. The feedback from the pilot programme at secondary level will lead to further improvements. The interest and support by primary and secondary teachers in the process of piloting the programme generally has been both positive and supportive. The new programme has been developed as a consequence of several factors, including: • In the first months of his appointment as our new Archbishop, Archbishop Hickey made clear that religious education in Catholic schools was to be one of his top priorities.

• In 1992 the Bishops of Western Australia gave a new Mandate to the Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia and published an official letter which outlined how they want schools to develop in this State over the next seven years. This Mandate Letter from the Bishops includes specific direction concerning religious education.

• Catholic school principals, both primary and secondary, after long and careful discussion of the situation "on the ground" in their schools, made concrete proposals for a new programme.

• The time was approaching when the RE Guidelines promulgated by Archbishop Foley were to be reviewed in the light of developments in the official Catholic Church teachings, in education and in wider society.

• There was a need to ensure all the RE resources teachers use after its publication relate to the Catechism of the Catholic Church which was eventually published in English only in 1994. e There were new and important official Church teachings (particularly from the present Pope) that needed to be presented to our students.

2.

Schools have contributed both finance and personnel to workparties towards the development of the new RE programme. Many more schools volunteered to pilot the new programme than could be accepted. Principals and many teachers have been both involved and supportive at every stage of the development process. For these, and other reasons, I find the periodic letters critical of Catholic schools' attitudes to religious education do not square with the facts.

3.

Archbishop Hickey - with the other Bishops of Western Australia - has served as leader of all that has been happening. However, he has also been personally active as a participant. The leadership he showed when launching the Catechism of the Catholic Church should give some idea of the quality of the contribution he has made and continues to

Fr Gerry Holahan make. I stress this because the suggestion has arisen from time to time that the Archbishop could be doing more in the area of religious education. I can only say that such a suggestion, at the very least, is misinformed. Certainly, it bears no relation to the facts.

4.

Any Catholic school religious education programme has to fulfil directives not only about what to teach but how It should be taught. Otherwise it will not stand Vatican scrutiny. Again, I make a number of points about both the current RE Guidelines and the new Archdiocesan RE programme currently being developed: • The quality of the content of the current Guidelines led the Education Committee of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference to ask that it serve as the basis for the development of their official statement on the Catholic beliefs and practices that need to be taught in RE in Catholic schools. This book, which drew congratulations from the Vatican, is entitled The Word Dwells Among Us. Anyone wanting to find out what is being taught in our Catholic schools in Western Australia needs only to purchase a copy of this book from a Catholic bookshop.

• The Word Dwells Among Us was written in the light of the foreshadowed Catechism and is an example of how paragraph 24 of the Catechism is meant to be implemented. Along with the new Catechism, The Word Dwells Among Us is cited in every unit of the Wagga Diocesan programme as a prime reference.

• Paragraph 24 effectively draws the attention of those officially responsible for Catholic teaching of RE at the local level to the various Vatican directives and guidelines on how Religious Education should be taught. As with the Catechism authors, I need not go into further detail on where these directives and guidelines are to be found in this letter. During his visit to Perth in 1993, Cardinal Pio Laghi, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education was briefed on how the Archdiocesan RE Guidelines implemented the statements of his Congregation and the General Catechetical Directory.

• Church teaching on RE methodology has been concerned with restoring the ancient pastoral principles spelt out, for example, so fully and practically by St Augustine's masterly work on effective catechesis. This renewal recognised that these principles had been lost over time and, more likely than not, were lacking in the RE methodology experienced by many parents and grandparents of today. This has had implications for their capacity to hand their faith on to the young in the turbulence of today's society. Obviously no one is at fault, but the Church would be failing in its duty if it had not given much attention to restore religious education according to the pastoral principles modelled, as the General Catechetical Directory puts it, by the Lord.

• The new RE programme, to he implemented in 1996, uses the Catechism as its primary resource. It is acknowledged that this is not as clear in the current pilot units as will he the case in the final units. However, that only occurred because, though I was involved in the 1991 consultation in the draft of the Catechism, at the time the

Answers to Complaints !turn now to the issue of complaints

'about RE teaching in schools. My files and memory indicate that there have been relatively few made to me. All have been addressed. Some complaints have been legitimate and appropriate changes have been made by the teachers concerned.

Others have proven to be honestly mistaken.

Unfortunately, I have to say that there have also been many instances of unsubstantiated gossip. It has not been possible to act upon these for reasons ranging from a refusal to be quoted to those being accused, to lack of specific details. It is not possible to deal with accusations based upon gossip and innuendo nor those that have been made in the relative anonymity of groups. On more than one occasion I have found the gossip to come from common sources who clearly do not embrace or perhaps simply, not understand - traditional Catholic teachings on the Eighth Commandment (Paragraphs 2464 to 2513 of the Catechism). Sincere expressions of concern about bad religious education teaching will be characterised by justice and as the Catechism itself insists "above all - charity" (Heading to Paragraph 25).

Finally, I turn to the complaint by a vocal minority that Catholic schools alone are to blame for young people not practising their faith, especially by participating in the Eucharist. One must ask: might there not be the hint of scape-goating here?

With the Bishops, our principals, our Catholic school teachers, and the Director o f Catholic Education, Mrs Therese Temby, the current faith development problems of our young are of ongoing concern to me.

Cardinal Laghi pointed out these problems are not simply diocesan or national but international. Together with the international Church, our Bishops and schools have been unstinting in their efforts to come to understand this phenomenon of the contemporary world. However, we reject the proposition that schools alone are responsible for what has occurred.

We are bound to do so because, according to official Catholic teaching, there are four communities that affect the Catholic faith development of our young. They are: • The family - especially through its relationships and Catholic culture; • The parish - the "shop front of the Church" - especially through the quality of its liturgies, homilies and its practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. (Space prevents me here from outlining in any detail relevant Church statements such as the Directory on Masses for Children.); • Wider society; and • The Catholic school - for those attending one.

The sequence reflects when each begins to exercise its influence. If the other three were perfect then arguably questions could be directed to schools alone about why, after they leave school, many of our young seem to reject Catholic faith. However, in practice, while the school can add considerably to what a family and parish offers, as one Vatican document warns, "it cannot substitute for them".

Continued next page

c:Xlet'kz-e4 kt Continued from Page 6

The challenges facing today's RE teachers In their Mandate Letter to Catholic schools, the Bishops of Western Australia wrote this about RE teachers: Teachers of Religious Education accept what is today the most difficult and challenging role in our schools. At times they have to compete with seemingly overwhelming societal, peer and even family influences that run counter to the Gospel message. They are among those at the cutting edge of the Church's mission to our young.

We thank all who accept this role, and urge them to remember that their task is like seed-planting. Religious Education teachers may never see the fruits of their labours, but they should have faith in the Word they plant and in the fruit it will eventually bear [see Corinthians 3: 6; Mark 4: 26-291.

I often wonder if those complaining about Catholic schools have any idea what it is like for the RE teacher of teenagers today. For example, can they imagine what it is like trying to teach young people who make it clear they do not wish to learn about the Catholic faith, that they are going to stop going to Mass

Ethics reform urgently needed

dvt/et-ze as soon as they are old enough, that they to return eventually in their lives, providreally want nothing to do with the Church ing their new experiences are welcoming which they claim is "boring" and says and understanding. nothing about their teenage concerns? I The Archbishop has directed that a could give many other practical examples number of resources to assist families from both primary and secondary levels. and parishes with these areas be develA great tragedy here is that few Popes oped. They are in the pipeline at present.

I believe that the whole Church should have spoken more about the concerns of youth than the present Holy Father. How- get behind those the Bishops describe as ever, apart from religious education, little being at the cutting edge of the Church's of what he says to them seems to filter mission to our young", and join the Bishdown. It is understandable that each gen- ops in appreciating what they are trying eration tends to focus upon Church to do under, at times, very difficult conditeachings that relate to its issues and tions.

Catholic schools are working hard to questions - but cannot we all do a better job at helping the Pope's message filter implement the Church's directives and the Mandate Letter of the Bishops of down to our young?

Do I imply here that parents should not Western Australia. At the end of the day continue to encourage their children to though, they can achieve only what lies go to Mass? Of course not. But I do imply within their scope. Families and parishes the need for reflection upon other matters need to work hard at implementing as well, such as family relationships and Church teachings relating to their sphere communication, the continuing faith edu- as well.

To discover why young people seem to cation of parents, using the various liturgical options meant to make parish litur- give up their faith, each case needs to be gies speak more effectively to our young - studied in the light of the four communiand that all give them better access to ties. The area over which parents have Church teachings relevant to teenage life least control is wider society. That makes the work of families, parishes and schools in a very confused and turbulent world.

Commonly, it is the relationships they much more difficult. Those blaming form with the Church through the Catholic schools alone without first evalCatholic school that leaves teenagers uating the positive or negative influences open to the Church in future, and willing of the family, the parish and the wider

tres. and recommended by to Australian Catholic doctors, and Catholic nurses, and Catholic hospitals. If the Directors do not set the record straight, clearly and promptly. then the Church would be better off without some of these medical ethics centres.

ichard Egan (The Record. 17 August) R has drawn attention to something very Ted Watt serious: an attempt by some American moral Claremont

theologians to justify the intentional killing of unconscious patients by withdrawal of food and water. This is happening in Australia too. I have heard recently of attempts by two priests, directors of Catholic medical ethics institutes in two Australian cities, to cite the Vatican's 1994 Charter for Health Care Workers as endorsing the starvation and dehydration of PVS patients.

The Charter, of course, does nothing of the sort. The relevant sections are 119 and 120. which refer to cases where death is imminent whatever means are used' (nell' imminenza di una morte inevitabile nonostante i mezzi utati). In seeking to protect the patient at the hour of death' (nel moment() della morte) from 'means which are particularly enervating and burdensome to the patient' (mezzi particolarmente sfibranti e pesantiper Il malato), Section 119 explicitly warns 'This cannot mean the power o procure death for oneself or to have it procured by others' (questo non puo designare ii potere di procurarsi o farsi pmcurare la morte).

And section 120 declares that even at the point of death, 'nutrition and hydration even artificially admi-nistered, are among those normal forms of care which are always due the patientwhenthey arenot burdensometohim; their wrongful discontinuation can have the significance of outright euthanasia' (l'alimentazione e l'idratazione,anche artificialrnente amministrate reitrano tra le cure normali dovute sempre all'ammalato quando non risultino gravose per lui; la lom indebita sospensione puo avere ii significato di vera e pmpria eutanasia).

Unless someone can show that these translations from the Italian are inaccurate, it is clear that the most recent Vatican document contradicts what is being taught in some Australian Catholic medical ethics cen-

Confused morality he report in (The Australian. 28 July) of T the Irish girl in a coma for more than twenty years and fed artifically by a tube

order a body to continue living, only God can do that. There is a time to die.

Patricia Malone Doubleview

Do something now

closely on the Mapplethorpe Folknving exhibition with its explicit child pornog-

raphy and homosexual "art", the W.A. Museum is set to cover an exhibition of Gay and Lesbian art, as part of the "Pride" festival.

Commencing on 21 October, the exhibition will open in the Museum's Hellenic gallery. with entertainment from a group dressed in nun's habits, calling itself "The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" And a "Porn poetry" reading. Attacks on the Pope. nuns and the Catholic religion have formed a consistent part of homosexual propaganda. To do this privately may be one thing. but to do this in publically funded venues is another.

Our children have ready access to this venue.

If you feel the way I do, please join me in writing to the Director of the Western Australian Museum or phone him on 328 4411.

indicates a confused notion of morality. The ruling by the Irish Supreme Court (The Record, 10 August) helps clarify the situation.

To deliberately kill someone to relieve pain and suffering as in euthanasia, is murder and therefore evil. To use extraordinary means to keep a person alive, when that person has been unconscious for a long time and has shown no improvement, and is not expected to improve, is evil too, because that person is treated, not with the dignity due to her as a human being, but as an object on a hospital bed, in which life can be maintained at the jurisdiction of medical staff.

Pope John Paul II has stated in Evangelium Mrs. H. Sawyer Vitae that it is not necessary to use extraordi- Greenwood nary methods to keep someone alive. He wrote that euthanasia must be distinguished from the decision to forego "aggressive medical treatment" which in itself cannot cure write firstly to congratulate both Colleen but only "secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life".

McGuiness-Howard and Peter Rosengren Tube feeding in emergency situations is on their timely and excellent article on "Spenot extraordinary. but in a stable long term cial Kids concern". condition when no improvement is expected Archbishop Hickey is also in need of comand the patient remains in a "persistent veg- mendation, for having initiated the report Invitation to the Banquet. etative state", it is extraordinary.

On reading the article one quickly realizes Years ago when it became obvious that there was no improvement in the girl's con- that the CEO has major problems with that dition, and that was not expected, the feeding hideous form of life, "Parents".

Is there hope? Yes. The CEO will be rolled tube should have been removed. The comatose patient should have been fed by by parents, teachers and staff of that organianother person, compassionately and zation who have been experiencing frustrarespecting the dignity of the patient. When tion and disillusionment for years.

The Church's position on education for all that unconscious body refused to cooperate one should then not persist. Man cannot and the role of parents is quite clearly set out

Parents' rights

I

society, by the practice, fail to accept Church teaching on how Catholic faith is shared.

If the above facts seem overwhelming, they need to be given because of what one hears is being implied by those seeking to establish the Divine Mercy College and by other letters critical of Catholic education that have recently appeared in the religious and secular press. I trust what I have written will be of assistance to any parents who are confused or concerned because of the uncertainty created by the messages coming from these other sources. I would urge all parents to keep sending their children to schools that are entitled to call themselves Catholic and that, through their Catholic Education Commission, are under the supervision of the Archbishop of Perth or the Bishops of the Bunbury, Geraldton and Broome Dioceses.

I conclude by indicating that I do not intend responding to any further letters on this matter. I have fulfilled my objective of clarifying the current situation and correcting any misunderstandings and hope sincerely that readers will find this letter helpful.

Yours in Christ, Fr Gerard Holohan Director of Religious Education for Western Australia in several documents: Canon Law clearly enunciates the rights of parents. Institutions such as the CEO are set up to assist parents with the education of their children and are there to listen to parents not tell them.

Canons 793 and 796 are of particular interest to parents. Canons 794. 795 and 803-806 leave the hierarchy of the Church in no doubt as to where their responsibilities rest.

Canon L,aw is backed up by the Vatican II document Gravissium Educatdonis (surprise. surprise, Vatican II supports the rights and role of parents) also the Charter of the Rights of the Family, article 5 from Rome in 1983 and more recently the Catechism of the Catholic Church Section 1653.

Kevin Moir Wilga

NFP helps couples read with interest the leading article in I your publication dated 10 August 1995 regarding the position of Australian Bishops

(and the Church) in relation to the pill. Your article was followed by what I thought was a timely discussion on the benefits and effectiveness of Natural Family Planning ("NFP"). and in particular the 'Billings' method.

Before my wife and I were married, we agreed that as Catholics. it would be morally objectionable for us to use any artificial means of contraception as a form of family planning. To learn about the 'Billings' method, we decided to attend NFP classes together several months before getting married. Since our marriage, we have practiced the method and have found it to be exceptionally reliable. It is a great pity that more Catholics are not aware of the 'Billings' method as a reliable and effective method of natural family planning. There is much misinformation about the method and I hope that your excellent article will help to change perceptions.

Rory O'Hagan Attadale

Smorgasboard of Irish culture delights with dance, song A Taste of Ireland - Ceoltoiri Maghlocha - a colourful show of Irish traditional music, ceili dance, folk singing, humour and storytelling, reviewed by Colleen McGuiness-Howard. healthy sprinkling of religious and A clergy attended the capacity packed Octagon Theatre at the University of Western

Australia recently to see A Taste of Ireland (Ceoltoiri Maghlocha) present a four-hour quality-packed entertainment package.

Sponsored by the Irish Club of WA and coordinated by Lena and Paddy Costello, the group provided a first class night of clean, wholesome, family enjoyment, as these 22

students and teachers from Galway gave a tantalising taste of what the Irish have enjoyed for centuries.

A Taste of Ireland is a composite structure to introduce people to their customs, history, traditions and, of course, their world famous raconteurs, whose wit and laughter have always brought a smile to the face of the world.

Despite the fact their land was taken over by the English, their people oppressed, industries and properties brought under English control, and the people denied an education or the right to practice their Catholic religion, the Irish proved their fierce tenacity to retain their Catholicism, taught their children

secretly in the 'hedgerow schools' - and maintained throughout the centuries their enormous capacity to enjoy life and have a laugh.

Eighteen instruments, including the Irish bodhran (drum), Uilleann pipes, and the magical Irish harp, not only embellished their musical program but also showed the many talents of the performers, many of whom seemed to be able to sing, dance, and play at least one instrument. but usually more!

The wide range of unique Irish dancing and their expertise, with the girls wearing their gorgeous embroidered traditional dancing dresses, was breathtaking as was the agility of their footwork, whether in pumps or tap-dancing.

Irish dancing is usually in the classical form of an upright straight torso with arms kept straight by their sides and their leg kicking and amazing ankle and foot movements providing the focus.

The beautiful singing ranged from Irish folk songs to more modern compositions, while other components - the background projected images and screen slides of Irish scenes and life, lighting, general costumes, sound effects, and general theme composition - were simply superb.

Certainly an outstanding entertainment troupe of great expertise and of the highest standard for anyone's enjoyment regardless of age, nationality, or religion.

The Record. August 24, 1996 1

Women in Beijing

'Bracket Leggo' confuses the issues What is the United Nations' definitions of touchy issues like conference on women in Beijing, "gender" and disagreements due to begin early next month? over its political and economic The editor of Perspective mag- implications made it balloon out. azine, Michael Cook, gives As described by UN public some basic information on the relations, the Beijing Conference conference. This article is an is intended to end the scandal of edited version of a chapter in the discrimination against women in book Empowering Women: such matters as: critical views on the Beijing • Only six of the 184 ambasConference recently published sadors to the UN are women,

by Little Hills Press.

• The proportion of women in world parliaments has dropped From late August to mid-Sep- from 12 per cent in 1989 to 10 tember, about 40,000 women per cent in 1995. and men will gather in the capi• Three-quarters of women tal of the People's Republic of over 25 in much of Africa and China to debate how to bring Asia are illiterate. about the empowerment of • One-third of all families women. world-wide are headed by Organised by the United women, most of whom are poor.

Nations, the Fourth World Con• Women receive between 30 ference on Women, as the gath- and 40 per cent less pay than ering is officially known, Is men for the same work. The meant to make waves all over value of their household labour the world.

Is unrecorded.

On the table at the debate will • Violence against women be more than 120 pages of diag- Invades cultures and regions. nosis and goals for governments The final document is not a and international institutions. treaty and its proposals are not This document, called the Draft binding on the UN's member Platform for Action, was ham- states. However, the conference mered out at a preparatory com- will receive world-wide publicity mittee meeting in New York in and its resolutions will be used March and April. as an organising and leveraging It was originally intended to be tool back home to goad recalciabout 20 pages long, but the poor trant governments into action.

It offers a unique opportunity quality of the original draft, loose

for pressure groups of every hue to put tick marks on their own agenda.

Most women world-wide see their family - and thus motherhood - as central to their lives.

Yet the draft does not reflect this choice. The word "mother" appears once in the entire document. "Maternity" appears, by my count, two times, "motherhood" three times, and mothers" five times. The word "husband" does not appear at all.

"The Platform for Action is an agenda for women's empowerment," the UN has said. An admirable goal - but empowerment to do what? To be politicians, professors, managers, public servants, bankers, editors and trade union secretaries, but not, if I understand the document correctly, to be mothers.

Understanding what the 362 knotty paragraphs of the document mean is no easy task. I estimate that fully half of the words have been placed between "brackets" for debate in Beijing.

This leads to Chinese puzzles like "(The enjoyment of [all] [universal] human rights by women]." The result is grammatical Leggo, with bracketed words piled upon bracketed phrases piled upon bracketed sentences piled upon bracketed para-

Women at work: not necessarily a boon graphs. The Draft Platform for jing closely, recently commented Action is meat and drink for sub- that: "We must hope that the tle lawyers, a diplomat's Val- Conference will set a course that avoids the reefs of exaggerated halla.

The UN has all the statistics on Individualism, with its accompathe injustices suffered by nying moral relativism, or - on the opposite side - the reefs of women.

But it will take more than sta- social and cultural conditioning tistics to bring, about a recogni- which does not permit women to tion of womens rights to equality, become aware of their own dignity, with drastic consequences development and peace.

First of all, it will take wisdom, for the proper balance of society justice and conceptual clarity. and with continuing pain and Pope John Paul H, who has been despair on the part of so many following preparations for Bei- women."

New York feminists' power grab Catiberra-based writer on social issues.

Rita Joseph, will be one of two representatives for the Australian Family Association at the non-government organisations conference on women near Beijing. which is being held parallel to the United Nations conference on women. Here she strips a way the feminist-speak of the conference draft to reveal its real, substantial. meaning.

The Draft Platform for Action for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing is primarily a blueprint for revolution.

It is an ambitious, radical plan for a massive global experiment in social engineering. The core of the experiment is to dismantle the family unit as the basic unit of society.

Women's "economic self-reliance" is the code phrase for focussing reconstruction of society around the female individual who. in order to be empowered to function as an efficient economic unit, is to be relieved of the unfair burdens of raising children and caring for the elderly.

Each woman is to be manoeuvred instead into paid work in grim competition with men in the workforce. The economic interdependence of the family unit with the mother as nurturer and homemaker and the father as breadwinner and protector is to go because it hampers the feminists thrust for power.

In a world plagued by real problems of massive poverty, endemic corruption, and uncontrollable warfare, it is scandalous that the New York-based Women's Caucus has manipulated the United Nations into mounting a major international conference on Western-manufactured, paranoic gender issues.

The underlying theme of the Beijing document is that empowerment of women will solve all the world's problems. Yet all the evidence to date would suggest that this is claptrap. West Australians would know better than most that women in positions of power and privilege, no less than men, are capable of injustice, incompetence, and bad judgment.

Regrettably, in Beijing, all governments will be pressured to endorse economic conscription of mothers into the paid workforce and to subsidise institutionalised childcare centres. Mother labour is being promoted as the best cure for family 8 The Record, August 24, 1995

poverty. Much is made of every mother's "right" to attempt to relieve family poverty by scrambling for one of the pathetically scarce jobs on already besieged and volatile labour markets.

According to the Beijing Draft Platform for Action, it is due to the lack of equality and the unbalanced distribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men that the care of children, the sick, and the elderly falls disproportionately on women. And it is here that we reach the crux of the problem, the devastating flaw in the "gender perspective" ideology that permeates the Beijing draft.

It is simply this: that children and the sick and the elderly are presented only as burdens to be lifted from women, as encumbrances to be contracted out like tiresome household chores - such as lawnmowing or window cleaning - to free women for more worthwhile pursuits. As the preliminary draft put it, "society has much to gain from investments in childand dependant care services, for experience has shown that when such services are available, women are able to contribute their creativity and skills to the public good." What a warped evaluation of the care provided by women in their homes and communities to brand it as impairing their ability to contribute to the public good!

The New York feminists' "gender perspective" infuses the whole Beijing platform. The word "gender" is used over 300 times in the document. At the March preparatory meeting in New York, following a heated, unresolved debate among UN delegates on whether gender was biologically determined or socially conditioned as the feminists would have it, the chair appointed a committee to try to come up with an acceptable definition of gender. All I can say is that the committee has only to visit the labour ward in any maternity hospital to be mugged by reality on this one.

It is significant that governments are being required by the Beijing platform to "undertake gender sensitivity training for all public officials, including law enforcement officers, legal and medical personnel, members of parliament and social workers." (The Australian Government has budgeted 52.5 million for gender-sensitivity indoctrination of the Australian judiciary.)

Like the Nazi Minister for Propaganda, Josef Goebbels, the feminists know how to

It is unfortunate that the Beijing conference is committed to focussing on the concerns of a pampered coterie of New Yorkbased feminists of a fanatical social orientation that shows up in the Beijing document's push for government legislation and "enforcement".

It is ironic that the feminist movement, built primarily on the rhetoric of "choice", has so quickly resorted to the language of "enforcement". Sugar-coating enforcement with the language of "women's rights" does not make it any more palatable. The Beijing conference is about substantially increasing legal and financial pressure on all governments, all transnational corporations, all private enterprise, all communities, all families, and all individuals to "choose" the prescribed gender-perspective.

The issues of abortion and contraception also raise a number of inherent contradictions in the Beijing draft. While one section calls for programs to stop the aborting of female babies (female feticide), another paragraph demands that all punitive laws against abortion be repealed. A document which seeks to outlaw female feticide while demanding abortion rights that encompass female and male feticide lacks both logical consistency and moral integrity.

The Beijing document calls for all women to have access to safe, reliable contraception. But the truth is that the contraceptives that are safe aren't reliable, and the ones that are reliable aren't safe.

Beijing conference: more talk The Pope is right when he says that the monies from strained budgets for basic t rivialisation of sexuality is among the prineducation in poorer countries, will further cipal factors which have led to contempt advance the feminists' crass role-reversal for new life. nonsense aimed at correcting supposedly It seems unlikely that the Beijing agenda unjust "gender stereotyping". will be able to bridge the widening chasm Men and boys are to be re-programmed between the developing world and Westto take over women's responsibilities ern feminist ideology. The feminist world while women are achieving "economic view to be pushed at Beijing holds that the independence through gainful employ- most urgent global inequity the UN needs ment" (again the derogatory implication to address is gender-based. and requires that rearing children is not gainful employ- concerted action on women's issues. ment). Actions to be agreed upon in Beijing The view from the developing countries include securing a commitment from each sees the most pressing injustice to be the government to "compel" men and boys to inequitable North-South distribution of "share equally in child care and household people and resources. It is surely signifimaintenance". Lumping childcare with cant that the real concerns of the poorer household maintenance just about sums countries, mainly the urgent need for up the disparaging treatment in the Beijing development and a loosening of migration document of the work of mothering one's barriers, are riot scheduled for any major discussion in Beijing. own children.

use education and the media to entrench an official ideology. Large parts of two whole sections of the Beijing document are devoted to education and media propaganda directives. Here are clear indications that the feminists' gender perspective revolution is no grass-roots movement. The mass media and non-governmental organisations in collaboration with national machinery for the advancement of women are to "conduct systematic educational programmes and seminars to disseminate information on the sharing of responsibilities in the family."

These systematic educational programs and seminars, while draining further

Feature

Gold, war memories flood back enemy territory gathering intelli- rienced surgeons and, as the forgence; invaluable also to the 6th ward surgeon, to move along The 50th anniversary of the was the Royal Aus- with the advancing troops in Division end of the Second World War their pincer strategy "to trap the Air Force. tralian has brought to light the experiJaps", and resuscitate, patch up, It was tough country. ences of many remarkable Ausprepare the wounded for and lit dimly the in Death lurked tralians during the war. Colleen surgery. filtered only with undergrowth to talked McGuiness-Howard When able to travel, the light from the tall trees, and the one such Australian, the 90-yearwere taken back along patients s in the wildernes hid enemy old Major Aloysius Daly to the AGH. lines the logs, entanglement of rotting Smith.

The team couldn't wear any thick grass, hanging vines and badges, such as the Red Cross, beside deceptively quiet tracks. denoting medical or high rank, inhosthis it through was And Is strong fingers beat out an tropical because the Japanese would sindank, hot, wet, pitable, urgent message on the garadisease infested country that the gle them out for killing. mut drum and the forces of Each morning the medical Australians carried their sound took it through the deep ploughing in team would stand on one hill to James Wieneke's sketch of a 6th mates, wounded night of the jungle to the surheavy boots through swamps watch their infantry fighting on Division soldier recovering from rounding villages. and sucking, clinging, mud to get the next hill and then await the malaria.

It relayed intelligence about an wounded to be brought in for the people there in 1929 were them to medical attention. enemy in a country under seige, The Australian General Hospi- treatment. resilient and optimistic by nature where a warfare was being It was largely bullet warfare and despite the hard financial tals established at Aitape, and waged along the coastline, in the later down the coast at reclaimed assisted by RAAF strafing and times for the rest of Australia, deep valleys and ravines, and bombing, where required, and there was always the chance of Wewak, were of canvas. across some of the hilliest and along the coast the ambulance finding gold to turn around their Daly However, Major Aloysius rugged terrain in the world.

Smith, forward surgeon for the barges ferried the wounded for fortunes.

And meanwhile, the freedom 6th Division's 104th Casualty treatment.

"So it was the only part of Ausfighters, manually and with On one such night, leap-frog- tralia which wasn't in a depresClearing Station, operated under excruciating exertion, dragged even more primitive conditions ging along the coast from Aitape sion," he recalled. their heavy steel weaponry up when following the infantry with to Wewak, Major Daly Smith Morale was high, there was and down hills, mountains, and his medical team, as they fought landed with his patients on always work and money about, along malaria-ridden beaches, to their way down the coast and Wom's narrow beach line and and the people were happy "and position for yet another day's the casualties they'd gathered right on their uppers," he said. into the interior. pitched battle.

Born in Adelaide in 1905, he'd from battle were placed in "Not that they had anything It was New Guinea, and the graduated during the Depression surgery and recovery tents in a spare, but they didn't starve and and came to Western Australia in thin line along the shore. the old goldfielders existed as Surgery was undertaken on the they always had, just taking 1929, working at Woorooloo's tuberculosis sanitorium until beach in overpoweringly humid things as they came." medical advances almost wiped heat with rain pelting down and One fellow did stand out, howthe tent sides left unfastened. out the disease. in Dr Daly Smith's memory, ever, With the surgery finished and and it was a man who'd discovThen, in 1933, he worked in the Kalgoorlie Hospital, (later the theatre vacated. Major Daly ered gold in his mine and becoming a councillor), until his Smith leaned against a tent pole decided to conceal the fact. enlistment as a Major and trans- to catch a breath of air when So he boarded it up. built a there was a huge thunderclap, house on top of it, and then went fer to New Guinea in 1944.

It was his job to train less expe- followed instantly by a bolt of back to Cornwall to fetch his lightening which hurled him and bride. some patients out into the mud Upon their return he removed "as though flung by a giant's the house, mined the gold, made hand." a fortune, and bought up big in They were tough times for the Perth and Kalgoorlie. renting his courageous Australians often houses to folks such as Dr Daly spending nights ringing wet in Smith who was practicing there filthy foxholes close to the hid- at the time. den. waiting enemy, and for the A s for those nurses who medicos, such as Major Daly with him throughout the worked Smith, who sometimes worked Daly Smith is full of Dr years, two days straight without sleep. these "wonderful for praise But then, on the Feast of the women who are the salt of the Assumption. August 15. 1945, vic- earth." tory in Europe for the allies and You can't praise them enough. peace for the war torn world at Dr Daly Smith's view, "because in last was confirmed with victory are dedicated, persistent they surJapanese The in the Pacific.

- they just keep perceptive and render was formalised in Major trying." on Worn Daly Smith's area at Cape A s a committed Nedlands Auster Strip, New Guinea at ioner, Dr Daly Smith loves parish 10.30am on September 13, 1945 faith and said that Catholic his of r surrende formal with the away because of faith your giving Japanese General Adachi. to Auses "isn't my experienc tic trauma neral nt-Ge tralian Lieutena Major Daly Smith at home last week in Nedlands and, right, on war service. deal."

Robinson, known as 'Red RobHe said he's always been gratebie.' Major Daly Smith rememfor God's graces of strength ful occasion le memorab bers the hope, "especially out in the and with tiny General Adachi walking and had a Mass said in field," the of length down the full to God on his birthday gratitude airstrip, flanked by the Australian spin I've had." terrific the "for his over 6th Division, and passing He admits to silently praying sword with the tip facing himself over patients as he worked. in defeat. "making my work a prayer," and outother any And were there standing recollections? "Yes believes others did too, "because indeed," remembered Major without prayer, good works are Daly Smith. "One of the laps dead and this way you can he the wanted to surrende.r, so his Jap instrument of God's healing officer, in an incredibly brutal grace."

And does he believe in miraact, cleaved his skull open like a cles? walnut, all the way down.

In short, yes, but he concedes "Our men brought him in for treatment but he died within 24 that having been to Lourdes he now sees miracles from a differhours of meningitis." ent angle and said that even Dr Australia to Coming home Daly Smith returned briefly to though an X-Ray may show no the goldfields to sell his practice change, a functional change can and moved to Perth with his fam- have taken place - which is the ily to specialise in surgery at the miracle.

Views on society? "Not so hot!

Hollywood Repatriation, Princess Margaret, and Fremantle hospi- he replied and said he wouldn't be surprised at anything today. tals.

As for his life, no, he wouldn't memospecial any Were there ries of the colourful goldfields to have changed a thing, and thanks God in sincere gratitude for all River by James record?

A sketch of a ward at the 2-11 Australian General Hospital near the mouth of the Aitape those wonderful years.

Smith, Daly Dr to According Wieneke from his book, 6th Div. Sketches: Aitape to Wewak, published in 1946.

H

year 1944. In October that year the command of New Guinea's Aitape area had been passed over to Australia's 6th Division of infantry.

They'd come to relieve the 40,000 American troops and to flush out the Japanese invaders, while the Allied Commander-inChief in the South-West Pacific, US General Douglas MacArthur, pushed on to Japan with his men t o liberate the Pacific. New Guinea was important to the Japanese because it was to be their springboard into Australia, which they'd already bombed in 1942, killing hundreds across northern Australia.

The Aussie's job in New Guinea was made easier by the people themselves who'd experienced the Japanese, and found the theft of their food crops and evidence of cannibalism untenable, so they were willing to assist the Australians as police boys and Kanaka labourers.

Of great advantage to the unit were also a small number of very courageous and resourceful Australians who were experts on New Guinea and its people, penetrating deep into the jungles and

The Record, August 24, 1995

9

Feature Interview

Young at head, eager to heal

By Peter Rosengren

-prior to the recent election of Mick

Smith as president of the national council of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the group of state presidents who eventually elected him was described by ABC TVs Four Corners program in general terms as a group of elderly, greying, conservative men of the society.

It was a typically unguarded but illuminatingly ageist approach by an organisation that often affects to engage in advocacy-style journalism on behalf of marginalised minorities and to pride itself as a champion of equal rights, counter-sexism and politically correct language.

And while the lapse in journalistic politically-correct purity, like others throughout the program, implied an image of decaying energy, it failed to take into account the dynamic nature of the men and women who have actually run the society since its founding in Australia.

An interview with the real Mick Smith soon dispels the Four Corners image of old stick-in-the-mud reactionaries. True, he is 70 years old. But, if anything, he is a youthful, vigorous, sharp thinker keen to get on with the job. He is also filled with ideas to bring the society back to an even keel with room on board for everyone, especially his former opponent, Brian Murnane.

The dispute that caused the recent election centred on the issue of the politicisation and transformation of the society from an avenue of direct personal charity into an organisation that both distributed charity and engaged in significant lobbying of government to change unjust social structures. This would inevitably have meant some degree of politicisation.

Photo by Mike Thorpe, courtesy Catholic Weekly On the one hand stood the former president of national council, Brian Murnane. Mick Smith: SVP inevitably has a 'grey' image as young people have work and family and his supporters arguing for the wel- commitments. farist, lobbying future of the society - on the other, all the state presidents, arguing for for fifty-odd years, Mick became a vice- council coordinated reports to the society's president of the Queensland branch. international body, coordinating "twinthe society's traditional role.

"When I retired, which was ten or eleven ning" (helping) with conferences in other The issue finally came to a head with the years ago, I offered the society one full day election of Mick Smith, backed by the state a week, apart from my conference work countries.

But the national council had no powers presidents.

They asked me first of all to be the over- of direction - "it cannot control."

So. following the bitter division of the seas representative on the regional council, His first priority is to heal the St Vincent last couple of years, how does he see his which I was. de Paul Society family, "to get people to role as president now?

"Then they asked me if I'd take over a believe that we are a family, and that just "My role now is to start the healing regional council which was in decay, if you as in any family we can have our differprocess. There's been disunity, but only at like, and try and build it up. I did that ences. national council level - I don't believe with fear and trepidation - but it worked "But in our family unit everybody is forthere's been disunity at conference level, quite well, and then it seemed to be a natgiven and loved and so it is in the society." or even regional or diocesan council level. ural progression from there to diocesan Are there any areas of focus that the soci"I believe that the importance of national president ... of the Brisbane North area." ety needs to engage in more? council's function has been over-emphaNow, of course, he has been catapulted "Oh yes, I think so. One of the prime sised. It serves a function but not an into the national presidency. matters is the involvement of youth, and important function. Conferences (local Mick's election brought to a close the we've arranged a youth meeting now for branches) are the heart and hub of the tumultuous two-year struggle between the the 26th, 27th and 28th of this month society and further, of course, the conferstate branches and the national council (August), at which there'll be a representaence members are our directors. They are under Brian Murnane. The dispute esca- tive from every state. We'll only have the directors of the society." lated to the point where all state branches youth because we want to hear from youth, He also readily admits to being prepared except the Northern Territory seceded uninfluenced by adults." to pursue a non-interventionist line. from the national organisation, principally One of the problems of the recent dis"Oh, yes, and further, of course, the states pute, he says, is that it was dominated by a will have more responsibility for certain over the lobbying role.

Both sides claimed to have the autentic lot of adult agendas. roles and certain committees and this will interpretation of the true Vincentian rule In the meantime, is it all now a question be spread round the states rather than cenand spirit. of `steady-as-she-goes', trying to fill out the tralised."

And Mick Smith is keen to delineate work of the society? What about the critiBut what sort of man is Mick Smith? He cisms that under his leadership the society is, as might be said, a pedigree Vincentian. clearly his role in the society.

Whether he likes to talk about it or not, Sydney's Catholic Weekly newspaper reported that his first act following his election was to pray for Brian Murnane, who had opposed Mick and other state presidents in their attempt to wrest control of "Let's clarify this designation. I believe would subsist as an organisation dispensthe national council away from him. that I'm the president of the national coun- ing material aid but not working to address The irony is that, if anything, he was orig- cil - there's a difference between that and the causes of social injustice? inally press-ganged in a mild way into join- national president."

"Certainly I think we have to, perhaps, ing the organisation. Working as a youth This distinction holds the key to Mr keep the emphasis on not separating charin the power generation industry, without Smith's views of his role. Rather than ity and justice," he said. "There's a fear any interest in the St Vincent de Paul Soci- directing, he sees himself very much as that, if we do, we could become just a welety, he was first asked to join by a local serving the society and its members. fare organisation. That's a very real fear. branch to make up for those members who "The rule (of the society) says that "I think we should be asking ourselves, were away at the war. national council exists to coordinate and and certainly I'll be pushing this, we But it became something of a love affair.

With a few breaks for family and work animate. This is the line that I'll be taking, should be asking ourselves after every commitments, Mick remained a member and I will always leave (it) to national visit: is there an injustice there that we council". could correct? In many cases we can't, but for the next fifty two years.

As president he will also seek to do that we must ask that."

Breaks for familly and work were norfrom his own particular position, but does This whole area raises an interesting mal.

"Your family comes first, they're your not see the national body as the controlling question. Brian Murnane has indicated first consideration. Of course, your work is instrument of the organisation. If anything that Peter McNamara, who acted as his important (too)." he seems keen to devolve more authority representative on the committee set up to And after being a conference member back to state-level, including national resolve the internal ructions of the society, 10 The Record, August 24, 1995

'Always open to listen to all ideas and criticism'

would be setting up a group within the society to campaign for what he called its reform. It sounds very much like setting up a faction. How does Mick Smith respond to this kind of approach to solving the society's problems?

"I'm not quite sure what the approach is.

Idid speak to Brian after the election - I felt I had to do that - I opened the lines of communication. He did mention that he was always for reform, even though he wouldn't be continuing in that role (as president of national council).

"So I said to him 'well I'm always open to listen to all ideas and criticism, from whoever.' We must be open to that. We may not adopt it, but we must be open to it. "But I've heard since that, yes, it's going to be called Ozanam Reform. Now I don't know if it's going to open from within or without the society."

But he does not see any real possibility of a group operating from within, either.

"Well I don't know how that can happen, because it hasn't been formally set up. It's certainly not a function of national council," he said.

Neither does he accept that the embryonic faction, whose aim is to provide a forum for members concerns and wishes regarding the direction of the society, will be able to achieve anywhere near as much as the society's own introspections.

"Yes, well they'll have that opportunity when we do a real review, because that must reach every member and every member must, if they want, have a say. So I believe that that will be covered in the real review. As I say, I'm not very concerned at this stage. I don't think that any of those people would ever do anything to hurt the society, not intentionally. Let's listen to them and see where they're coming from.

But all I point out is that it's not on national council at this stage. We haven't formed any such group."

Nevertheless he is firmly opposed to factionalism and sees it as the opposite of what he has worked to achieve.

"No, that would be sad because this is what we're trying to overcome now. We're trying to get unity back we're trying to get collegiality back" He is also heartened by the youth groups operating within the society, and sees an important strand for the future in their existence.

"Well, we have some excellent youth groups already operating in all states, such as in Tasmania. I haven't caught up with the other states yet, but there are various youth groups operating."

One of the elements of contention in the recent dispute was the charge that the society was an ageing organisation. Youth, it was said, were increasingly disaffected by the society's 'conservative' nature and accordingly would not replace its older ranks which are typically made up of people in the fifty and over age bracket. Mr Smith is keen to involve youth in the society's organisation as part of his plan to get the society back on an even footing, but disputes whether or not the lack of young members is a portent of the society's death.

Younger people with family and work commitments, he says, often just don't have the time to donate.

"I don't think it's any more ageing than when I was a youth; it's simply that the aged have more time to give.

"You take the position that I'm in at the moment. I don't know how anyone who has a (full-time) job could do this work. So, of course, the appearance is that I'm 70 and I'm an aged member picking up the reigns, but I have the time and younger people haven't."

"Even our youth - I have a grandchild at university and I simply don't know how she keeps up with life. She's certainly a far busier person than I ever was when I was a youth."

"Take my own situation. Before I retired I could simply only give a certain time to my conference. I usually tried to make a visit a week and that was it."

The society's future, he said, depended on "our formation and training, our spirituality levels."

Migration Sunday

Opening the door to inner unity Sunday August 27 is Immigration Sunday.

Perth's Episcopal Deputy for Migration, Fr Dino Torresan CS, reflects on Asia migration to Australia.

EN Murphy was called to be the chamberlain of the king, he saw for the first time a tamed royal hawk. He looked at the beautiful bird's long beak and sharp claws, and said "No! You don't look like a pigeon. Your boss has let you down!"

So he got a pair of scissors, cut the beak and the claws. Then, all pleased with himself said: "That's the way, my boy! Now you are a true pigeon!" My grandfather would have said: "No physician can cure the blind In mind."

Today, Australia celebrates Immigration Sunday. In this Year of Tolerance there is much talk about acceptance of others, the need to be more understanding, and the urgency of being a welcoming people.

But the crossroad to a better Australia is not an easy one.

We live in the Asian region. There is no way that we can be true as a nation unless our links with Asia are Improved. Economic links are important. However, we cannot base our relationship with Asian nations only on that level. The migrant cannot be considered merely as an instrument of production. He or she is a person with religious traditions and a culture, hence a subject endowed with full human dignity.

There is need of more than tolerance here.

Besides, the "Asian" cultures are an even more difficult challenge to the Church in her effort of inculturation and evangelization. We can't reduce to "Roman" a world that differs in mental categories, visions of life, symbolisms, and patterns of values.

Perhaps, even before dealing with "Asian" Christians, we must clarify what we imply with the word Asian.

As it has happened 50 years ago, today it is happening again. Fifty years ago it was an European affair. Today it is "Asian".

Anyone who wants to reach out to these new immigrants and make them part of our community, be it the religious community or the social one, must first of all have a deep knowledge of both cultures: the Australian and the Asian cultures in their mul-

tifaceted life. Only then we can be sure that the work carried out in building community spirit and life is actually bridging the gap between the two worlds.

There is another aspect of immigration that we cannot by-pass: the refugees. This can easily become the "nation's shame", if we do not think carefully on our behaviour and treatment of these people.

Senator Jim McKiernan, chairman of Federal Parliament's joint house committee on migration, a few weeks ago talked of fitting razor wire at the Port Hedland detention centre. He was scolded by Justice Nicholson, Chief Justice of Australia's Family Court, who rightly pointed out that the centre was virtually a concentration camp by the way we treat boat people, locking up for years men, women and children who have been proved guilty of nothing.

In some ways, we might feel justified in what we do with Asian refugees because Australia is an isolated country and continent, is not pressured on its borders by enormous masses of refugees seeking asylum. On the contrary, It can be reached only either by sea or by air. People fleeing from their countries because of wars, persecutions, economic pressures or for other reasons are too poor or too frightened to fly to Australia. Besides, they would be caught at the airports. Hence, they come to us via sea, risking their lives for a bit of freedom.

I believe that the distinction between European or African refugees and Asian, in particular Chinese, refugees is only a fictitious one, a distinction of convenience on our part. With the former, we can choose people and numbers; with the latter, we find them at our doors and are faced with the unknown. And it is the unknown that needs trust, compassion and foresight.

As The West Australian wrote in July: "At the heart of Australian history is a fear of what were once described as Asian hordes and their alleged designs on a rich wide land with a sparse and relatively affluent population. It is a sad commentary on contemporary politics that governments succumb to political pressures based on the irrational remnants of history."

Perhaps. while pondering on the many millions of refugees other countries assist. we can let go of our fears and open the

A fair share of social benefits for struggling migrant women

Excerpts from Pope John Paul II's Message for World Migration Day 1995.

Such a situation generally imposes the heaviest tasks on the woman who, in fact, is forced to do a double and an even more demanding job when there are children to care for ...

E International Year of the The Church recognises that Woman, proclaimed by the everyone has the right to leave T United Nations for 1995 - an ini- Itheirl native land for various tiative which the Church cordially welcomes - has persuaded me to assume as the theme of the message for next World Migration Day that of the woman involved in the migrant phenomenon ...

One thinks ... of the women who are experiencing the heartbreak of having left their own family behind in their native country ...

Then how can we possibly overlook that, in the case of emigration, a large part of the burden of the family often falls on the woman?

For their own members the most sophisticated societies, which mostly attract the flows of migrants, have already created an atmosphere where both spouses often feel obliged to work. Those who come among them as migrants are even more subject to this fate. They have to submit to a great pressure of work in order to provide for the family's daily sustenance so as to achieve the goals for which they left their native country.

motives ... in order to seek better conditions of life in another country" (LaboremExercens, n.

23). Nevertheless, while she declares that the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin -(Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2241), she does not deny public authorities the right to control and limit the flow of migrants when for the common good serious and objective reasons exist which affect the migrants' own interests.

Public authorities cannot forget the many and often grave reasons that force so many women to leave their native land. Their decision is not only based on the need for greater opportunities; they are frequently driven by the need to flee cultural, social or religious conflicts, inveterate traditions of exploitation, unjust or discrimi-

Fr. Dino Torresan CS doors for a few more needy people. The past 50 years of our history have proved to be a successful venture in nation-building.

The fusion of cultures that is contemporary Australia results from a remarkable, and mostly conflict-free, history of merging values that 50 years of post-war migration has contributed to the nation.

Let me share with you the following. For years I have been a very tense and nervous person. I was always anxious. Everybody was telling me to change. And everybody was repeating to me that I was too highstrung. I resented that, and yet I agreed with them, I wanted to change. But I was unable.

What mostly was hurting me was that even my best friend was repeating to me exactly the same things. I really felt trapped and powerless. Then, one day he came to me and said: "Listen: don't change.

Remain as you are. I don't care any more if you change or not. I will love you as you are." Those words touched something inside me: I felt loved. I felt special. Such a realisation relaxed me. I felt alive again.

And from that day on I was different. We are called to be a prophetic Church. In this Year of Tolerance we must aim at something more fundamental than simply not saying "bad words" to our neighbours. We as Australians and as Christians, whether recent arrivals or people with a longer history here, need to understand more deeply the prophetic response we are called to

give in the face of the sin of xenophobia and racism.

The Catholic community in Australia was, and continues to be, formed by successive waves of migrants, and can identify with the difficulties encountered in the process of integration. Achieving a community of togetherness demands a spirit of openness on the part of each of its members, coupled with a firm commitment to work towards social cohesion and peace. It also demands a genuine spirit of solidarity to promote the respective values of all concerned.

Differences can indeed provoke jealousy, confrontation, attempts to profit from the other, and escalating exibition of power.

Yet differences can also prove attractive and become the source of enduring love as the last 50 years of our Australian history has proved.

The more we read the Gospels and the letters of Paul, which translated the gospel message for the benefit of the early Christian communities, the more we appreciate the demands of a new community of togetherness and communion.

Could it be that the presence of strangers among us is the impetus of our search for such a community where rivalry cedes to solidarity and a willingness to share? Could It be that immigrants and refugees help us to overcome our self-centredness and make the same commitment as Jesus to the poor, the powerless and the marginalised?

Could it be that we all grow in stature through mutual care and assistance? Could It be that strangers help us to rediscover the Stranger whose traces we vainly seek in the artificial world we have created? Could it be that the people knocking at our doors remind us of the essential requirements of human solidarity?

The Word of God today in the Liturgy, through the symbolism of the door, is very powerful. A door can be slammed in or open to someone's face. It depends on us.

I am convinced that the positive results of tolerance, welcoming, understanding and inculturation %%-ill start seeing the light of the day when our dreams go beyond the narrow fence of our backyard, and sincerely long for a wider and deeper communion: that is, when our backyard will simply become the whole wide world.

natory laws, to give only a few examples ...

The recent phenomenon of a more widespread presence of women emigrants thus requires a change of perspective in the formulation of the relevant policies, and there emerges the urgent need to guarantee women equal treatment, both with regard to remuneration as well as to working conditions and security. Thus it will be easier to obviate the tendency to discriminate against migrants in general which might nevertheless continue to target women.

It is also necessary to set up means to facilitate women's integration and cultural and professional training as well as a fair share of the social benefits such as the provision of housing, schooling for children and adequate lax reductions.

I now address a pressing invitation to the Christian communities which migrants are joining.

Help for the children of migrant women: Pope John PaulII By a cordial and fraternal welcome they witness by deeds sustain your hope and even more than words, that "the Lord's promises, was always good, n you in love. Entrustthe in strengthe events interpret to careful families of migrants ... should he the commitments and of your ing fulfilment the of light everyable to find a homeland where in the Church. This is a Lord's word, accompany and hopes to the Mother of God, the task stemming from the nature enlighten your journey as emi- Virgin of the wayside, I bless you of the Church as being a sign of grant women, mothers and with all my heart, together with your families and all those who unity in diversity" (Familiaris wives.

Consortio, n. 77).

May she, who in her pilgrim- are working to promote a May Mary who, supported by age of faith also experienced respectful and fraternal welfaith in the fulfilment of the exile, fortify in you the desire for come for you.

11, I The,Record4tAgusS-24,1-99

International News

Women are naturals at health care C ASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) - Pope John Paul II thanked the thousands of women around the world who, as doctors and nurses, combined professional skill with compassion.

"How many women, in the Christian community as well as civil society, have been angels of consolation for uncountable numbers of suffering people?" the Pope asked on 13 August during his midday Angelus address.

Speaking at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope said he knew from his own experiences in a Rome hospital how important it was for those who were suffering to receive care that was comforting as well as competent.

The Pope has been dedicating his Sunday Angelus addresses to the role of women in church and society in preparation for the United Nations World Conference on Women to be held between September 4 and 15 in China's capital, Beijing.

"A long history, for the most part unwritten, attests to the privileged role women have always played in situations of suffering, sickness, discrimination and old age, when the human being is particularly fragile and in need of a friendly feminine touch," the Pope said.

A woman's ability to have children, he said, seemed to make her more sensitive to the needs of others and more creative in offering a caring response. When a woman's natural gifts were combined with altruism and the strength of faith and Gospel love, he said, "real miracles of dedication result" as seen in the lives of many Catholic saints and founders of religious orders.

Pope John Paul said that, on behalf of the whole Church, he wanted to thank women committed to caring for children, the suffering and the aged in their families, in hospitals, in mission clinics, in schools and social service centers.

"In all of these areas, the presence of women who are able to unite the necessary professionalism with strong doses of generosity, practicality, intuition and tenderness is irreplaceable," he said.

"It is comforting to see how many women today are dedicating themselves to the medical profession, a field which requires a great measure of humanity along with competence," he said.

The Pope prayed that God would bless all women who worked in health and social services and that God would help everyone to experience the joy which came from serving others in love.

Pop song lyrics now unmasked •

By Mart Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) - The lyrics of today's top songs will be deciphered and scrutinised in a new magazine scheduled to make its debut next month.

Music Monitor will bow in with a 15,000-copy press run, its publisher and managing editor, Charlie Gilreath, said. Rock, rap, dance, country and R&B lyrics will all be reviewed, Mr Gilreath said.

A mock-up version of the debut issue gives not only the title, artist and label for each song, but its story and any slang or other language worth noting.

There are also one-letter advisories for songs when warranted for sex or potentially offensive slang, "V" for violence, "D" for drugs, and "L" for potentially offensive language.

One example was Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me," a top pop hit this summer, which got an S advisory.

Music Monitor said the song's story was "about a woman who wants a sexual partner, and what she could do with him (sexually) and what he must do to her."

While there is "nothing offensive" in the language literally, the magazine noted that "freak" "referred to her being a sexual person and her 'freaky secret' implies a special sexy secret she wants to share with her partner."

Mr Gilreath said he had a staff of five poring over the lyrics of hits. Still, "there have been some things that have stumped all of us," he said.

Not all rap was bad, Mr Gilreath said. "Rap has been abusive. You have to come together

Another bishop fails to support the Pope MANCHESTER, England (CNS) - An English bishop has suggested a world-wide consultat ion by Pope John Paul with Catholics on the issue of mandatory celibacy for Latin-rite priests, even though Pope John Paul clearly believes celibacy for such priests is a better thing for the health of the Church.

The Pope has repeatedly and strongly asserted the Latin-rite rule on priestly celibacy. He calls it a timely challenge for contemporary society and indicated he believes that allowing a married priesthood may create bigger problems than those it intends to solve, principally a drop in vocations in some countries, But Auxiliary Bishop Victor

as a group and swear off the extremists," he said.

But "I think there's messages in some of the music," mentioning Coolio's "Gangster's Paradise" from the "Dangerous Minds" soundtrack as an example.

"I don't think the song is for children, but if people want to get an insight into the culture," the song met that aim, Mr Gilreath said.

Mr Gilreath was raised an Episcopalian and calls himself a Christian, but said a Christian orientation would not appear in Music Monitor.

The magazine, he said, would accept no advertising from the music industry. He recalled having sat in on music meetings where songs were listened to by executives who said, "This record isn't provocative enough. It's not angry enough."

Nathanson 'to convert'

NEW YORK (CNS) Bernard Nathanson, an obstetriGuazzelli of Westminster said cian-gynaecologist who became the Church might have to change an abortion opponent after its rules on compulsory celibacy directing an abortion clinic, has to meet the vocations shortage. been taking instructions in the "I think there are two vocations Catholic faith, Catholic New York here: one to celibacy and one to reported. the priesthood," he told the The weekly of the New York Catholic weekly newspaper, The archdiocese reported on 17 Universe. He said he first felt the August that he -plans to be bapneed for a review of the "man- tized soon." made" celibacy requirement Dr Nathanson told the story of when he went to Brazil some his involvement in the abortion years ago and saw the lack of movement and his decision to priests. leave in a 1979 book, Aborting Bishop Guazzelli's comments America. followed a similar call by Irish "I was led to God through the Bishop Brendan Comiskey of pro-life movement," he told Ferns, who has received a Vati- Catholic New York-Most people can rebuke for his remarks and do it the other way round. Their has been asked to explain his belief in God leads them to the views to Vatican officials. pro-life movement."

Liturgy in US: bishops keep Eucharistic Prayer kneeling

By Jerry Filteau WASHINGTON (CNS) - In mail ballots on six separate questions the United States' bishops have, among recent liturgical decisions, allowed worshippers to raise their hands with the priest while saying the Lord's Prayer.

At the same time, the bishops have decided not to overturn the rule that people must kneel during the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, and not only for the Consecration.

The changes came as the bishops approved new translations of key texts for use in the Mass.

The main vote concerned Segment 3 of the Sacramentary, consisting of the main actions and the core prayers or alternatives used day after day at Mass.

One major change they approved was a simplification of the introductory rites at Mass. That was part of a group of 13 variations on the Roman Missal being proposed to bishops' conferences throughout the English-speaking world. The US bishops gave it only three votes more than the two-thirds needed for passage.

The bishops also approved slightly revised versions of several so-called "ecumenical" texts - ecumenically developed translations for those prayers that a number of denominations use in their worship.

Among ecumenical texts they did not consider was a contemporary version of the Lord's Prayer.

They approved revised US adaptations of the general rules for celebration of the Mass.

Among those adaptations were optional use of the Apostles' Creed sometimes in place of the Nicene Creed on Sundays and major feasts, and an option to exchange the sign of peace at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist instead of just 12 The Record, August 24, 1995

before Communion.

An option to kneel during the penitential rite in Lent was also adopted.

Left unchanged in US variations was the special rule for the United States, in force since 1969, that makes kneeling the ordinary posture for US Catholics throughout the Eucharistic Prayer. The general norm in the Roman Missal is that people should kneel during the consecration only and stand through the rest of the Eucharistic Prayer.

The bishops had debated and voted on the various changes at their June 15-17 national meeting in Chicago, but not enough votes were cast by those present at that time to pass or defeat the proposals definitively.

As a result, absent bishops had to be polled by mail to reach approval by twothirds majority of all those eligible to vote Vatican rules require that level of approval from bishops' conferences on all liturgical matters.

Before any of the changes in the new Sacramentary take effect in the US, the bishops must still vote on several more segments and settle unresolved questions about a number of individual texts they have rejected in their proposed form.

Then the final approved text must receive formal confirmation from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

Only after approval from Rome can the conference president authorise publication of a liturgical text and set a starting date for its use.

One major change that drew extensive debate at the bishops' meeting was the simplification of the introductory rites of the Mass.

As a result of consultations with bishops throughout the English-speaking world, the revised Sacramentary will offer six distinct opening rites. These are: a rite of

blessing and sprinkling of water, a penitential rite, a litany of praise for God's mercy, the Kyrie, the Gloria, or any of the opening rites approved for special occasions such as baptisms or funeral Masses.

Because many bishops were concerned that the simplified introductory rites would not permit people to have the Kyrie and Gloria together in the same Mass, they also adopted a US adaptation permitting the Gloria to be added to another opening rite. That rule applies except during Advent and Lent, when general liturgical norms rule out use of the Gloria.

Another option the bishops approved as a US adaptation is permission for the people to raise their hands as the priest does while praying the Lord's Prayer.

The bishops have been dealing with the issue of a revised Sacramentary for several years.

In November 1993 they approved a new procedure for handling the process of reviewing the texts.

In November 1994 they held their first votes on the actual text. At that time they approved Segment 1, the cycle of prayers for Ordinary Time, and Segment 2, the Proper of Seasons.

Segment 3 - the Order of Mass - forms the heart of the Sacramentary. It includes the instructions for celebration of Mass throughout the year and all the common prayers of the liturgy such as the eucharistic prayers, the Kyrie, Gloria, Lamb of God, Lord's Prayer and so on.

Parts of the Sacramentary still to be treated by the bishops include the prefaces, solemn blessings and prayers over the people, sample general intercessions, the proper prayers for feasts of the saints, the common of the saints, the Holy Week liturgies, the entrance and Communion antiphons, ritual Masses, votive Masses, Masses for the dead, and Masses for various needs and occasions.

These are to be treated in a total of five additional segments, but only two of those - segments 4 and 6 - are needed to complete the first volume of the Sacramentary, used for Sundays and major feasts.

Except for the American adaptations which were developed by the US bishops' own liturgy committee - the various texts for the Order of Mass were developed by the International Commission on English In the Liturgy.

ICEL is a joint commission of bishops from English-speaking countries around the world. It was formed during the Second Vatican Council and operates under a Vatican mandate to produce common English texts for the liturgy for world-wide use. The texts cannot be used in any country, however, until they have been approved by that national bishops' conference and ratified by the Holy See. Individual texts the US bishops or other bishops' conferences reject must be reviewed again by ICEL It then proposes a new translation or proposes the original again with additional explanation for its decision.

International News

Grandmother finds obedience the hardest

By Florence Herman NEW ORLEANS (CNS) - For Sister Maureen Blount Little, the hardest vow to adjust to when she joined the Religious of the Sacred Heart after years of living independently was obedience.

'Throughout the discernment process, I'd pray and feel that I had come to a decision," she said. "But it wasn't my decision alone to make. Others had input into my mission as a religious."

A fter two marriages - one ended in divorce and annulment, the other in the death of her husband - and after raising two sons, Sr Little decided at age 44 to become a nun, returning to a dream she had had as a child.

"Little by little" as she got older, she said, "I felt that I had stopped growing, both spiritually and emotionally."

The New Orleans native, now 48, took her first vows as a religious of the Sacred Heart in June, after living one year in community as a candidate and two years as a

novice at the motherhouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"This is a good life, a comfortable life," she told the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese. "You say no to some things but you are more open to other things. Vows make us more available.

They are freeing. The only things I have to worry about is my relationship with God and my responsibilities to a mission to help people."

Her sons, Bret and Christophe Hanemann, urged her to pursue her vocation.

-They were wonderful, and told me to go for whatever would fulfill me," she said.

'They were right with me all through the process," she said.

'They were proud of me as Mom and as a nun."

One question that has come up since she decided to join the order is how she will develop a relationship with her infant granddaughter, Bret's daughter Abigail.

When she learned of her daughter-inlaw's pregnancy, "I knew what I would be giving up in watching her grow. But it

wasn't enough to swerve me from my course."

While she likes living in community, Sr Little said it has some drawbacks. "You're living with someone who really gets on your nerves, and you have to put up with it," she said. "On the other hand, you simply have to stop and think that you might have an equal effect on someone else's nerves."

But she feels her life experiences will help her be accepted into any community where she is stationed. "For one thing, I like to cook - and that makes me welcome in any community," Sr Little said. "Having lived in the world, I also know how and who to call to get appliances fixed. I know how to balance a cheque book." she said.

"Some women who entered the order young never acquired these life skills, and I can bring them with me to any community."

The next step for Sr Little will be six years of service to concentrate on her ministry. Her next assignment is in San Francisco where she'll be coordinator of the lower form at Stuart Hall for Boys, the

Pope asks Mary to help women CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) - Honouring Mary on the solemnity of her assumption into heaven. Pope John Paul H prayed for all women and for the success o f the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in China's capital of Beijing.

The Pope prayed on August 15 that through Mary's intercession women throughout the world. "aware of their own vocation. would generously offer their Indispensable contribution in every area of human promotion. especially in the defence of life."

Reciting the midday Angelus prayer with visitors gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence, the Pope said. "In Mary, virgin and mother, femininity finds its full expression. because in her the personal qualities that distinguish women from men were manifest in all their splendour."

By looking at Mary, he said, every woman should find an affirmation for her dignity and value.

The Pope prayed that through Mary's intercession the Septem-

her 4-15 conference would "place ation but as the Mother of the in full light the authentic values Church. which every woman bears. With "As Mother of the Church. the constructive participation of Mary, assumed and crowned in every delegation, a significant heaven, does not cease to be contribution can be made to the involved in the history of the cause of women and their mis- Church, which is the history of sion in the modern world." the struggle between good and The solemnity of the Assump- evil," he said. tion, he said, marks Mary's return The Mass reading from Revelain body and soul to "the house of that speaks of "a great red tion t he Father, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the city of dragon" appearing, ready to peace toward which we all are devour the woman's child as soon as it is born, is a symbol of the evil walking." that threatens all good. Pope John He prayed that Mary would Paul said. constantly intercede with God so "Like a mother, in the likeness that a yearning for peace and agreement would fill every cor- of Mary. the Church generates ner of the world and lead to an children for divine life and her children. sons and daughters in end to war.

"Virgin Mary, protect all the only begotten Son of God, are humanity," he prayed. "Protect. constantly threatened by the especially, the victims of injustice. hatred of the 'red dragon': Satan." hatred and violence. Obtain the Pope said. peace for the world, especially for The solemnity of the Assumpthe lands martyred by war." tion was a powerful reminder of At an early morning Mass for God's victory over all evil and of residents of Castel Gandolfo, the the reality that, like Mary, all are Pope said the Church sees Mary called to fullness of life in heaven, not only as the Queen of all Cre- the Pope said.

order's only boys' schooL

While her community's norm has been to move novices every couple of years to give them a variety of experiences, she may stay her entire six years in San Francisco. "As older women join the community, we bring more life experiences with us," she said.

"And I know my charism is in education, as is the order's."

The end of the six years will bring three months in the Third World, possibly Africa, which is part of the formation experience.

Then the final six months will be spent in Rome for what is called a probationary experience. "It's a concentrated focus on what life will be like as a vowed woman," Sr Little said.

After this final formation with other Religious of the Sacred Heart from all over the world. Sr Little and the others will take their final vows in Rome.

"I'm easily looking at 2001 for my final vows," she said.

Disney fantasies now cover sex and violence The recently announced merger between Walt Disney productions and the (American) ABCTV network makes us shudder with the thought of what that can mean to TV programming.

Disney is no longer Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Fantasia.

Even before the hullabaloo over the movie Priest. Disney was getting into the market with another kind of fantasy world - a dark and ugly work of sex and violence designed for a different kind of audience. Neither does ABC have an unsullied reputation. with its regular offerings of programming designed to push the limits of tolerance and acceptability in primetime viewing.

Let's face it. TV is a business, the entertainment business, and the operating principle is to get as large an audience as possible.

The result is that programmers will seek out the lowest common denominator for the audience and pander to whatever taste seems to gather a crowd. The result: situation comedies overladen with sexual double entendres. sexual intrigue and violence masquerading as slices of real life.

Generally unspoken in all of this is an underlying social agenda which includes softening up and shaping popular attitudes on special issues favoured by performers. %%Titers and producers -

Comment issues like homosexuality, availability of abortion and lack of sexual restraint. The same people seem to do their worst in trying to make religion seem irrelevant and to undermine parental and other legitimate authority.

Now that Disney is taking over ABC, we have to wonder what will become of Saturday morning children's programming.

The 40-year reign of the three dominant TV networks in America is long gone because of cable TV and home video. The availability of so many outlets from cable to satellite TV channels, and now the dawning of the computer Internet, have largely evaporated the ability of one entity to control TV programming. but competition in the marketplace and the monkey-see-monkey-do attitudes of the media moguls only tell us that things %%ill get worse before they get better.

What is wrong and unseemly about TV is not the responsibility of parents: the TV industry must take responsibility. Society itself is ill-served when it is degraded by any institution as powerful and pervasive as the TV industry.

The Monitor, newspaper of the Diocese of Trenton. New Jersey.

Spain's dominant Catholicism a test for ecumenism

By Jeff Sellers MADRID. Spain (CNS) - Catholic-Protestant relations are strained in Spain as recent and historical hostilities darken ecumenical efforts.

"Ecumenism in Spain can only be described as modest." Father Julian Garcia Hernando, director of ecumenism for the Spanish bishops' conference, said.

A Protestant layman, Pedro Tarquis. said Protestants were leery of dialogue with a majority church regarded as still trying to block Protestant growth in a nation that led the 16th-century Counter Reformation, and restricted Protestant activity during most of the 1939-1975 regime of General Francisco Franco.

Mr Tarquis, a layman, is spokesman for the Federation of Religious Entities of Spain, an umbrella organisation of nonCatholic Christian churches.

Ecumenism theoretically is a respectful dialogue between two groups for mutual understanding and perhaps joint efforts, but this is not the case in Spain. Mr Tarquis said.

"The Roman Catholic Church has a monopoly of power and doesn't want to

cede it, and doesn't recognise or repent of the harm it has done to evangelicals," he said.

"The only door that they open to us is that we enter into the Roman house to be part of it - a different room, but inside their house," Mr Tarquis said.

Fr Garcia denied that Catholics wanted to absorb Protestants into their fold.

"Ecumenism is a methodology for advancement through dialogue.

It's not a matter of one group trying to convert the other," he said.

Non-Catholic Christians in Spain are called evangelicals.

Fr Garcia said ecumenical efforts involved only a slim representation of nonCatholics, mainly the Lutherans and the Anglicans, which made "the task awkward."

Fear that ecumenism would be used to co-opt minorities into the Catholic Church was common, he said.

Protestants in Spain, a country of 39 million people, are estimated at 70,000 to 100.000. Almost 95 per cent of the population professes Catholicism.

The evangelical suspicion of Catholic motives was rooted in several factors, Fr Garcia said.

"We have a hard history in respect to the Protestants and in the first part of the Franco era." he said.

"For another thing, most of the Spanish Protestants speak hard against Catholics because they are converts" from Catholicism, he added.

Converts from Catholicism "simply do not have the willingness necessary for an ecumenical dialogue because they come with their own biases against their previous religion." he added.

This hard-line opposition gave Catholics little incentive to pursue dialogue, in part because Spanish Catholics also had a limited understanding of the over-arching goals of ecumenism, he said.

"Roman Catholics only think of ecumenism from the point of view of dialogue, and they don't pay attention to the spiritual dimension of ecumenism," Fr Garcia said.

During the Counter Reformation, Protestantism was virtually annihilated in Spain. particularly under King Philip II, who supported and supervised the Spanish Inquisition.

Mr Tarquis put the number of Spanish Protestants killed during the Counter Reformation at I million.

But the Catholic Church "publicly has

not recognised the grave tragedy" that it was responsible for, he said.

"In its silence it clearly declares there is not an attitude of repentance, nor a desire to repair the terrible damage," he added.

Relations did not improve %'lien the Catholic Church lashed out at an evangelical media campaign this spring by a private United States foundation.

The Philadelphia-based Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation's "Power for Living" campaign was launched independently of Spain's Protestant churches. But stunned Catholic authorities put Spanish evangelicals on the defensive with an embittered response.

After receiving thousands of inquiries from confused parishioners, Auxiliary Bishop Francisco Martinez of Madrid condemned the campaign as "deceptive" and not the Christianity born of Jesus Christ ... but a form of Christianity derived from the Protestant Reformation."

The Catholic Church joined the Spanish press in speculating that the campaign was the work of an ultra-right cult.

T ie Record, August 2,4, 1995 •' e ,

13

International News

In Brief

Catechism author to succeed Quinn WASHINGTON (CNS) - Pope John Paul II has named Archbishop William Levada of Portland, Oregon, as coadjutor and eventual successor to Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco.

The appointment was announced in Washington on 17 August.

Archbishop Levada, 59, has been a bishop since 1983 and head of the Portland Archdiocese since 1986.

A former official of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the 1980s he was one of a small international group of bishops appointed by the Pope to write the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Garcia pleased MEXICO CITY (CNS) - Controversial Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal de Las Casas in Mexico has expressed "great pleasure" in Pope john Paul ll's appointment on 14 August of a coadjutor with right of succession to his diocese.

Bishop Ruiz also praised his new top assistant, Bishop Raul Vera Lopez, a 50-year-old Dominican who has been bishop since 1988 of the Ciudad Altamirano Diocese.

In October 1993, Bishop Ruiz became the subject of controversy after the Vatican's nuncio to Mexico, Archbishop Girolamo Prigione, said he used "a Marxist analysis that reduces Christ's work" in his approach to social problems.

Priest arrest ROME (CNS) - An elderly Italian missionary priest belonging to the Missionaries of Africa congregation who has worked in Rwanda for 50 years is reportedly under house arrest.

Missionaries Father, Luc Coppeyans, confirmed that Father Bellomi had been accused "of helping the Hutus against their Tutsi compatriots."

"We think the accusations are very unbelievable," Fr Coppeyans said.

Lebanon synod CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) - More than four years after Pope John Paul II called for a special Synod of Bishops for Lebanon, he has announced it will begin on 26 November at the Vatican.

The synod "will be a privileged occasion to reflect together on the hopes and expectations of the Christian community in Lebanon on the threshold of the third millennium," the Pope said.

Preparations for the synod in Lebanon have included highlevel contacts between Catholics and other Christians, as well as between Catholics and Muslims.

Warlock relapse LIVERPOOL (CNS) - Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool has asked for prayers after entering a hospital with a recurrence of cancer.

The archbishop, 75, had a cancerous lung removed three years ago and appeared to have made a recovery.

14 The Record, August 24, 1995

Apostolic palace gets a facelift at last

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In most cases it may be true that "while the cat's away the mice will play," but for 40 Vatican workers a two-month papal absence means anything but fun.

For the first time in 56 years, the Apostolic Palace - where Pope John Paul II lives and works - is getting a thorough cleaning and face lift.

Instead of seeing a tapestry hanging from the papal apartment window at midday on Sun-

day as an announcement that Pope John Paul will address the crowds and lead the Angelus prayer, visitors in late July and August saw scaffolding.

Pope John Paul was leading the Angelus from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.

Four teams of 10 workers each have until late September, when the Pope returns from his summer break and a trip to Africa, to clean, replace or restore the 16th-century bricks on the outside of the building and its 30 marble windowsills and chestnut shutters To retain the

integrity of the facade of the palace, which was built in preparation for the Holy Year of 1600, workers are replacing severely damaged bricks with some from the attic and others that have been specially made by hand to match.

The facade will then be washed with pressurized jets of hot water.

The large crew is a reflection not only of the time constraints for finishing the job, but is a dictate of the weather. The facade's summer -scorched southern exposure combined with the

Greer confirms resignation

VIENNA, Austria (CNS) - Car- mitted his resignation on October criticisms," he added. Mr Hartdinal Hans Hermann Groer of 13 last year, several months before mann repeated the accusation, Vienna, who sparked wide- the scandal broke, when he and several other anonymous spread Catholic protest after he reached the normal retirement men said they were also sexually did not immediately deny allega- age of 75. The Pope asked him to abused by the cardinal when he was at the seminary. tions he had engaged in homo- remain a while longer.

The homosexual allegations surIn May, the cardinal said that he sexual activities, has confirmed faced in late March when Josef had kept silent about the allegahe will resign next month.

He will he automatically suc- Hartmann, now 37, said the cardi- tions because he found it difficult ceeded as head of the Vienna nal engaged in homosexual acts to defend himself.

"Admittedly for some, that has Archdiocese, the most important with him 20 years ago when Mr Hartmann was studying for the become a burden. Those who ecclesial jurisdiction in the heavily priesthood at the Hollabrunn sem- have borne it with trust, I thank Catholic-populated Austria, by inary, 64km north of Vienna, you, and for those for whom my Coadjutor Archbishop Christoph where then-Father Groer was a silence is unbearable, I ask your Schonborn. teacher. forgiveness," he said in May. At the end of an August 15 Mass Cardinal Groer did not publicly No court action against the carin St Stephen's Cathedral to cele- comment on the allegations for dinal has been taken. Mr Hartbrate the Assumption of Mary, nearly two weeks, but resigned as mann said his aim was to get the Mother of God, into Heaven, Car- president of the Austrian bishops' cardinal to admit his guilt. dinal Groer said the Pope had conference. He also came under Meanwhile, the Pope prepared accepted his decision to resign on heavy pressure from several bishthe way for the cardinal's resignaSeptember 14, the ninth anniver- ops and Catholic organisations to tion in April by naming Vienna's sary of his installation as arch- quit as the archbishop of Vienna.

Auxiliary Bishop Schonborn as bishop of Vienna.

His subsequently rejected the coadjutor archbishop.

There was no immediate allegations, but the way in which Catholic discontent with the carannouncement from the Vatican, he did caused further controversy dinal sparked a campaign in where offices were closed for the and criticism. which more than 500,000 solemnity of the Assumption, the "The massive and increasing Catholics signed a petition asking Vatican's traditional midsummer attacks against me have shaken for greater participation by priests holiday. Archbishop Schonborn. and disturbed many well-meaning and laity in the selection of bish50, said after Cardinal Groer's and faithful people, causing unrest ops and for continued debate on announcement his aim would be and doubt even in the Church," priestly celibacy and women to "seek unity" among Catholics the cardinal said in early April. priests. and to strengthen confidence in "So I see that I am obliged to More than 80 per cent of Austhe Church. reject the content and form of tria's 7.9 million inhabitants proCardinal Groer originally sub- these defamatory and destructive fess Catholicism.

heat radiating up from the cobblestones in St. Peter's Square limits the amount of time each worker can spend on the scaffolding.

The crews are working from 7am to noon and from 4pm to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

While the scaffolding is fixed to the upper floors of the fourstory building, the early morning shift must erect the lower portion each morning. For the security of the papal apartment and the Secretariat of State, housed in the Apostolic Palace, the structure cannot be left up all night.

Orthodox accuses MILAN, Italy (CNS) - A Serbian Orthodox leader has accused Croatia of practicing genocide against .Serbs and of seeking to continue the "ethnic cleansing" of Croatia.

The early August Croatian military attack against Serbs was a "shameful page" of Balkan history, said Metropolitan Amfilohijc of Montenegro, in an interview appearing in the 17 August Milan newspaper, Corriere della Sera.

The attack restored a swath of Serb-held Croatian territory to Croatian control. UN and humanitarian agencies estimated that it also resulted in the exodus of as many as 200,000 Serbs from the reconquered region.

The Orthodox leader said it was "scandalous" that Cardinal Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb had no words in support of the refugees, "chased like dogs from the territory in which they had lived for centuries."

The metropolitan also accused the Serbian government of "betraying and abandoning" Serbs in difficulty in other parts of the former Yugoslavia.

The expulsions and massacres of Croats and Muslims by Serbs is -an equally grave tragedy," he said.

The fighting among inhabitants of the ex-Yugoslavia "is the poisonous fruit of moral relativism inculcated in the people for half a century by atheistic communism," he said.

Bishops encourage desperate Polish farmers

By Jonathan Luxmoore

society means a poor parish, people will always support the church."

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) Even under communism, the After a year in the farming hamlet local party and police chiefs came of Wygoda, Father Bogdan Droz- t o church. Today, with most dowski said he is pleased with his priests and more than half the parish, which reflects the solid country's 114 bishops coming Catholicism of rural Poland. from peasant origins, it is in rural If post-communist changes parishes, some say, far from the have eroded church loyalties in church-state disputes of Warsaw, this predominantly Catholic that Catholic life is most distinct. country, they have not done so in The intervening years have Wygoda, 250 miles north of Warbrought tensions too, widening saw. the gap between rich and poor, Outside the rectory, the red- and putting social bonds under brick Church of St. Jozef rises pressure. above the fields, its black bell In the early communist years, tower gazing down over the dusty the party tried unsuccessfully to hillside cemetery. force Polish farmers into state colCreated in 1902, the parish still lectives. The farmers resisted and covers just three villages. the regime backed down, though Virtually all of its 3,000 inhabi- it made sure the farmers stayed tants attend church weekly. Non- poor - denying them muchchurch weddings, divorces and needed resources. abortions are all but unknown.

But in the 1970s, the govern"There will never be a lack of ment tried to stimulate output by things to do here," said Father offering cheap credits and buying Dmzdowski, 45. -Though a poor all produce automatically at low

but stable prices. Today, many lack of legal regulations," said Polish farmers look back on the jolanta Cirocka, a local educator. period as the hest they ever had.

"But most people imagined the When communist rule ended, changes would happen differmarket mechanisms were hur- ently. Farming families have been riedly introduced, throwing too preoccupied with daily tasks Poland open to cheap foreign and duties to think up new busiimports. ness ideas," the educator said.

Inefficiencies in the state-run In a June message to Polish distribution system ensured that agricultural researchers, Pope much produce never reached John Paul II recognized the hardstores. Many farmers were unable to compete and went out ships accompanying market reforms and urged rural commuof business. nities to cooperate in defending Ex-communists have been their interests. prominent in two Polish governThat has been the aim of the ments since 1993, and there has been little obvious change in the Polish bishops as well. A special economic status of rural Poland. commission has sponsored local In a 1994 survey, only a third of economic foundations that have the rural dwellers said they had funded irrigation schemes and any confidence in government other village projects. programs.

More than 100 church-run "folk In August, a group of farmers universities" are also training chained themselves to the Polish young farmers in languages, law Agriculture Ministry for a protest and banking. A Catholic Associahunger strike. tion of Village Dwellers has coor"Of course, individual entrepre- dinated lay parish activities neurs have benefited from the nationwide.

BUILDING TRADES

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BUILDING TRADES

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6042. or 2 men, all metro areas Credit cards welcomed. and near country. Mike QUALITY PAINTER & DEC-Murphy 008 016 310 (free ORATOR Neat and tidy MASTER plumber and gas call all areas); or 24 hour tradesman with 15 years fitter, Lic No. 140, bathroom 480,5006. e xperience.

Phone renovations, sewer converThomas Hoey on 342 0073 sions, all maintenance f or competitive quotes. work, new houses. Good r ates, all hours. Contact Reg no. 4477.

John on 457 7771.

GRAHAM WILSON comTrades plete garden care, lawns BUILDING mowed, edged, yard Repointing fretted mortar. R ESOURCE Centre for lintels Personal Development cleanups, gutter cleaning, Tuckpointing, pruning, weeding, phone r eplaced, damp cured. Teaches/Counsels individTotal restoration of all uals, couples or groups to 349 4800 or 349 6921. brickwork. Country and promote good relationships PERROTT PAINTING Pty metro areas. All Brick and teamwork. A personal Ltd for all your residential, R estorations. Phone 535 awareness and parenting c ommercial painting 7812. Mob 018 613 839. c ourse beginning in requirements. Phone Tom September.

Perrott 444 1200.

Ring Eva 418 1439.

CARPET CLEANING North and South of River. Winter Special 4 rooms, for 59 Dollars, with free deodorising. Call Al of Mitey Clean 332 6271.

FENCING Paul Wilkinson Fencing, Hardifence, S upersix. Servicing the north side. Storm repairs.

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THANKS THANKS Oh most beautiful flower of Mt Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of heaven, blessed mother of the Son of God, immaculate virgin, assist me in my necessity.

Oh Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my mother. Oh holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart, succumb me in my necessity. (Make request).

There are none that can withstand your power. 0 show me herein you are my mother. Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. (Three times) Sweet Mary I place this cause within your hands (Three times). Thanks Holy Spirit and St Jude for favours granted. Nola

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estimator/ B UILDING q uantifier/handyman, all trades. Phone 483 6042.

UPHOLSTERY: lounge suite repairs, recover dining and kitchen suites, etc. Phone L &K Upholstery 457 6996.

Enquiries/ Appointments

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Call Carlo on 444 6797

MASSEUSE: Bethany Clinic, professional masseuse, dealing with skeletal and muscular pain, sporting injuries, stress, relaxation and deep tissue massage, acupressure.

Monday to Friday 9.30am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 5pm. Ring Orial 479 7120.

S5 discount pensioners.

This service is definitely non-sexual.

ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE A CCOMMODATION to let.

3 bedroom home to share with mature female. Near shops church. and Tel 341 7811 evenings.

THANKS THANKS Oh Holy St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kingsman of Jesus Christ faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in times of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and I humbly beg you to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance. In return I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked. Say 3 Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glorias. Say for nine days. Thank you St Jude.

B.BA ST JUDE thank you for answering my request.

THANKS to Our Lady, St Clare, St Jude, and St Anthony for favours granted. C. and LP.

j

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION WINTER SUNSHINE, SUMMER BREEZES, Kalbarri, comfortable, selfcontained accommodation by the sea, within walking distance of shops and entertainment, S140 for t wo; S210 for four; for seven days. (09) 459 8554.

THANKS THANKS to St Jude and t he Sacred Heart for favours received. KM. THANK You St. Jude for f avours received in our prayers for help.

WANTED TO BUY

Counselling/ Therapy

THANKS

DEATH: THANKS

W ANTED Urgent in good MAY the Sacred Heart of order upright piano to bor- Jesus be praised, adored row or buy (cheap). and glorified throughout Tel. 378 3924 the whole world now and f orever. Sacred Heart of Jesus hear our prayer. St. THANKS Jude worker of miracles, pray for us St Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us.

MAY the Sacred Heart of Say this prayer 9 times a Jesus be adored, glorified, d ay for 9 days. Grateful loved and preserved thanks to our Lady and St throughout the world now Jude. C.H. and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St spirit Jude the worker of mira- THANK you to Holy cles pray for us. St Jude Jesus, Mary and Joseph, helper of the hopeless pray St. Antony and Mother for us. Say this prayer nine Mary McKillop. H.G.P. t imes a day and on the eighth day your prayers will THANKS to Sacred Heart be answered. Say for nine of Jesus Our Lady and St days. Thank you St Jude Jude for the favour I have and Our Lady. r eceived.

DELANE - Ann. The Delane f amily wish to sincerely thank all relatives and friends who attended the rosary, mass or the graveside service, also those who expressed their sympathy with cards, flowers and calls in the loss of their w onderful mother and nana

THANKS PRAY the following prayers daily: St Joseph, St. Rita, Holy Spirit Blessed Virgin of Mt Carmel, St Antony. All these prayers are printed r egularly. Thanks Saints and Deities for prayers answered.

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church The Record continues its regular column publishing excerpts from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, focusing on topical as well as strictly religious themes. Naturally, the excerpts do not take the place of an extensive reading of the Catechism.

Popular Piety 1674 Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacra-

mental life, such as the venera- ful may advance in knowledge lishes a basic fraternity, teaches tion of relics, visits to sanctuar- of the mystery of Christ. Their people to encounter nature and ies, pilgrimages, processions, the exercise is subject to the care understand work, provides reastations of the cross, religious and judgment of the bishops and sons for joy and humour even in dances, the rosary, medals, etc. t o the general norms of the the midst of a very hard life. For 1675 These expressions of Church. the people this wisdom is also a piety extend the liturgical life of "At its core the piety of the principle of discernment and an the Church, but do not replace it. people is a storehouse of values evangelical instinct through They "should be so drawn up that offers answers of Christian which they spontaneously sense that they harmonise with the wisdom to the great questions of when the Gospel is served in the liturgical seasons, accord with life. The Catholic wisdom of the Church and when it is emptied the sacred liturgy, are in some people is capable of fashioning a of its content and stifled by other way derived from it and lead the vital synthesis ... It creatively interests. (CELAM. Pueblo, 1979) people to it, since in fact the combines the divine and the liturgy by its very nature is far human, Christ and Mary, spirit superior to any of them." and body, communion and insti1676 Pastoral discernment is tution, person and community, needed to sustain and support faith and homeland, intelligence popular piety and, if necessary, and emotion. This wisdom is a 9 71 "All generations will call to purify and correct the reli- Christian humanism that radi- Me blessed": "The Church's gious sense which underlies cally affirms the dignity of every devotion to the Blessed Virgin is these devotions so that the faith- person as a child of God, estab- intrinsic to Christian wor-

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

ship."(Paul VI) The Church rightly honours "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honoured with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs .... This very special devotion ... differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." (lumen gentium, 66) The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. (Paul VI and others) ;The Reoprd, Aogustt 2401995

15

THE PARISH SCENE BULLSBROOK PILGRIMAGE The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be celebrated at the Church "Virgin Mary Mother of the Church" 36 Chittering R oad Bullsbrook on Friday September 8.

10.30am Rosary Procession.

11am Holy Mass. The Sacri A ssociation will not provide buses for this Pilgrimage. Public Transports available through Transperth - M3 timetable.

Bus No. 311 stops in front of Church.

Sacri Association Incorporated P.O. Box 311 Tuart Hill WA 6060.

For enquiries please ring 444 2285, 447 3292.

TAPESTRY OF GOD CHARISMATIC PRAYER GROUP W elcomes all to the Healing Mass and the annointing of the sick on the 1st September at Infant Jesus Church Wellington Street, Morley. Starting at 7.45 a ll welcome to supper after.

Further enquiries - Clare 378 2767 or Vicky 344 8823.

PRAYING WITH ST FRANCIS RETREAT A t Hosea House of Prayer Dardanup October 8th - 14t Fr' Michael Brown OFM. Cost S200. Further information contact Sr Rita Mary Duffy. Ph (097) 281 148.

RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS Information/Reflection Afternoon Fr Ray Kemp's visit was a great success. As a follow-up to his w orkshop and to continue to provide RCIA team members with support, this afternoon will a ddress those areas in which you asked for more information.

W hether an experienced or inexperienced member of an RCIA team, your sharing is vital to the life of the RCIA process in t he Perth Archdiocese.

Saturday 2 September, 2pm4.30pm, Doubleview Parish Hall, 1 7 Angelico Street, Woodlands.

Cost S5 donation. For further information please contact the Liturgy & RCIA Office, phone (09) 221 1548.

NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF HEALTH VAILANKANNI

SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL

BOOKSHOP We belong to the Lord - R.E Syiluous from Waggo Diocese. - Great for home schooling S&,L What you should know about the Sacraments $3.50 Eucharistic Miracles $12.50 The Catholic Religion - For child. adult & convert $8.65 Sharing the Faith with your child to age 6 $3.45 Sharing the Faith with your child, age 7 - 14 $5.00 VIDEOS - NEW Fourteen Flowers of Freedom, St Maria Goretti ....$31.00 I am You Jesus of Mercy $27.0

15 Bronte Street, East Perth Mon - n 10.00am - 4.00pm

325 3474 •

Do you have special housing needs?

Does your home have special modifications?

Are you thinking of buying or selling?

Do you need professional Advice?

Are you having difficulties with finance?

We care - try the difference?

Phone Katte, Mark, David or Shirley 474 1414 all hours

Typesetting, Word Processing, Laminating A3 and Printing Services.

No job too small Reasonable rates Pick up and delivery most areas.

Phone/Fax 271 8130 or please leave a message.

Happy marriage, healthy people.

Common sense and family planning ... Call now

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING 221 3866 Country clients wekome. Phone or write.

Phone (008) 11 4010 (local charge) Natural Family Planning Centre 29 Victoria Square Member of the Australian Council of Natural Family Planning Inc.

16

The Record, August 24, 1995

A ugust 30 September 8, Holy Church, Trinity Embleton. Preacher - Reverend James K yaw Hoe SDB. Daily 7pm - Rosary, and H omily Benediction of the Holy m ost Wed Sacrament; A ug. 30 - After Novena devotions, welcome get together at the parish hall.

Please bring a plate; Thur Aug. 31 Blessing of children; Fri Sept. 1 - First Friday. Exposition of Blessed t he from Sacrament 6pm-7pm 9am, Adoration followed

by Novena devotions and annointing of the sick; Sun Sept. 3 Holy Hour from 6pm7pm followed by Novena devotions and Novena Food Fete at the parish hall; Thu Sept. 7 Blessing of the sick; Fri Sept. 8 - Feast of t he Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 7pm concelebrated Mass f ollowed by:- (a) Candle light procession to the Grotto (b) Farewell get together at the parish hall.

I

HEALING LIFE'S JOURNEY RETREAT A Healing Life's Journey Retreat will be held at Presentation Prayer House in Claremont f rom September 24th to October 2nd.

The retreat is a prayer experience and is silent There is a daily input and daily individual accompaniment on each person's journey.

For further information, contact Sr. Paula Quinn on 384 2979.

DIVINE MERCY Mercy Convent/Victoria Sq. on the 3 September (Sunday) 1.30pm. Programme: Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, Benediction. Sermon by Fr J R eynolds "God the Father".

Film: Mother Angelica "Heaven's secrets". Information: Adam 448 0002, John 457 7771.

WHOUSTIC RETREAT - THEME "BREATH OF GOD" Saturday pm, September 30th Sunday noon, October 8th.

"Penola", 27 Penguin Rd, Safety Bay Apply: (Inc. stamped addressed envelope) Wendy Lailey rsj, PO Box 593, South Perth, 6151, WA. Ph. 474 3349. Fax 368 2018.

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST LANDMINES An estimated 15,000 people are killed or severely maimed by landmines each year. Most are civilians, 2 out of 5 are children.

Restore lives and livelihood by s upporting the International C ampaign to Ban Landmines.

Lunch time exhibition, Murray Street Mall 11am-2pm. Photo and video exhibition, petition and postcard signing, display of landmines, information dissemination to the public. All welcome to encourage petition signing and listen to speakers with personal experiences of the impact of landmines.

Ofticia ngagements A UGUST 23-27 27

28 30

Visitation and Confirmation, Mirrabooka A rchbishop Hickey Confirmation, Armadale - Monsignor Keating Confirmation, Merredin - Rev G Carroll Confirmation, Rivervale - Monsignor O'Shea Opening of The Angelico Exhibition A rchbishop Hickey Visitation, Southern Cross Homes Board A rchbishop Hickey Confirmation, John XXIII College - Rev G Holohan

SEPTEMBER 1

3

4 4-15 7 8 8-10 9, 10

Meet Elder L Wood of Latter Day Saints A rchbishop Hickey Celebratory Mass for 25th Anniversary Servite Sisters - Archbishop Hickey Visit of Archbishop of Sarajevo - Archbishop Hickey Confirmation, Carlisle - Monsignor Keating Confirmation, Mosman Park - Rev G Holohan Inaugural meeting of Council of Christians and Jews -Archbishop Hickey Clergy Retreats Prayer Breakfast of Governor of WA Rev K Stuglick Confirmation, Lynwood - Monsignor Keating V isitation and Confirmation, lnnaloo A rchbishop Hickey Confirmation Midland - Monsignor McCrann

RETREAT WITH CHRISTIAN MEDIATOR AND AUTHOR FROM MANILA, PHILLIPINES

Fr. Gerry Pierse CSsR Beyond Conventional Prayer Fr Gerry Pierse will explore prayer as c ompassionate presence in today's world

Weekend: 22nd - 29th September (incl.)

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

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

Live-out cost: $36.50 p.h.p.d.

(Lunch and Evening Meal Supplied) 40 Rooms only Available Please contact 328 6600 A.S.A.P. COST INCLUDES STIPEND.

Gatto and Co. Have the pleasure in inviting customers and friends to the blessing of their NEW PREMISES in Tuart Hill,

by Rev. Fr Christopher Ross O.S.M. followed by light refreshments.

DATE: TIME: VENUE:

3 September 1995 3.00pm 108 Wanneroo Road Tuart Hill