The Record Newspaper 17 October 1996

WA's only Catholic weekly newspaper

Price: $1

Perth: October 17, 1996

ope for East Timor in Belo's Nobel prize , 414.

By Peter Rosengren Australia's leading episcopal spokesman on justice and peace issues, Bishop William Brennan of Wagga, this week praised Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor, the joint winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

Bishop Brennan, chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Committee for Justice. Development and Peace said the prestigious award would affirm the apostolic administrator of Dili's work for justice, peace and reconciliation in East Timor.

"This award is well-deserved as Bishop Belo has been a key figure In maintaining peace and stability in East Timor," Bishop Brennan said.

"His policy. in a very difficult situation where his sympathies naturally lie with his people, has been to encourage peaceful solutions to the political and military problems being faced by his people."

Bishop Brennan contacted Bishop Belo. who he has visited in East Timor three times since 1992, earlier this week to offer his congratulations on behalf of Australia's Catholic community Speaking this week following the announcement he had shared the prize with Sydney-based activist for the independence of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, Bishop Belo said oppression on the island continued.

"If you go to the houses of the people, and to remote areas, you will feel that there is still oppression - there are soldiers everywhere, watching you, hearing what you are talking about, and concretely at this precise moment In one sub-district ... in the western part [of the island] the people, they cannot walk freely to their coffee plantations, to their rice fields because there are six or seven battalions there," he said.

The bishop was interviewed on television before the arrival in East Timor last lbesday of Indonesian President Suharto who inaugurated a 27 metre high statue of Jesus in the capital of Dili commissioned by the Indonesian Government.

President Suharto greeted Bishop Belo at the ceremony but did not refer to him or his award in any of the public ceremonies.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Belo walks in procession in East During the earlier interview Photo. CAIS/Reuters Timor's capital Dili last Sunday.

Bishop Belo said he did not know

stamp of recognition on Bishop Belo's work on behalf of his people, much as Archbishop Desmond Tutu's win had helped raise the profile of apartheid in South Africa as a world issue of concern during the 1980's.

"I would hope too that the Indonesian Government may take a hint from it and rethink their policy with regards to East Timor," he added.

He added that his most recent visit to Bishop Belo had been in February this year when the Dili seminary had been opened.

He described Bishop Belo as "a man of extraordinarily high intelligence, in that he seems to be Bishop William Brennan able to keep a hundred things in how much President Suharto's his mind at the same time."

He was extraordinarily courtevisit would actually achieve as combining a gentle personous, by visits many been had there high-ranking Indonesian officials ality and good humour. was in the past but nothing had come "above all a man of courage and a man of deep faith." of the visits.

He said the Bishop's situation in "They never sit down to talk with the simple people from the coun- Dili was very difficult and he was constantly under surveillance. tryside." he said.

Bishop Belo said in a statement Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, issued last week in Rome by his president of the Pontifical Counorder, the Salesians, that the cil for Justice and Peace and a freaward was a recognition of those quent papal envoy to world with whom he has worked for trouble spots, who visited East peace.

Timor and Bishop Belo last Feb"This is a recognition, not of me, ruary, said last Saturday he found but of all the people of Timor, for the bishop to be "a young pastor the Catholic Church which works tirelessly pursuing an open diain Timor. and for all those who logue with all those who are conwork for peace and reconciliation cerned about the future of the between people."

Timorese people."

The 48-year-old bishop told He quoted the Pope. who in 1990 reporters he learned about the said, "The inhabitants of East prize after Communion.

Timor continue to await propos"I can say that I am surprised, als capable of allowing the realibut at the same time, not." he said. sation of their legitimate "I am surprised because there aspirations to have their specific are many other people in the cultural and religious identities world who deserve this recogni- recognised."

In a 1986 pastoral letter, Bishop tion more thanI do. I am not surprised becauseIlive the ordinary Belo sharply criticised Indonelife of a bishop and all events are sia's Government for its East Timorese birth control program, the same before God." Bishop Belo and Mr Ramos charging that family planning Horta, 51, will share the $1.2 mil- workers were distributing contralion award to be given at at a 10 ceptives indiscriminately to poor December ceremony in Oslo, people who were inadequately informed about the program.

Norway.

The bishop was instrumental in Bishop Brennan said Bishop the East Timorese situabringing Belo had seemed very happy at tion to the attention of the interthe news of the prize. "[The Indonesian authorities] national community following a have always treated him with 1991 massacre in which troops respect, they've always respected shot and killed up to 200 his position as a bishop and espe- marchers at a funeral procession cially they've respected the influ- in Dili, and again in 1994, after ence that he has with the East hundreds of mainly Catholic protesters were beaten by police.

Timorese people," he said.

He said he expected the award Continued on Page 11 would place an international Editorial - Page 7

Geraldton action against euthanasia

Sculpture for Cemetery of Innocents

-Page S

- Page 2

Will your pet go to Heaven?

- Page 9 it

Love, pray for and encourage your priests C

riticism of priests has worried me for some time. It was, therefore, heartening to see a recent letter in the pages of The Record pleading with people to be understanding and tolerant when faced with the shortcomings of priests, and to look beyond to the struggles they have to face in carrying out their most vital ministry.

Criticism of priests can do great damage, not the least of which is to discourage young men from considering a possible vocation to the priesthood.

It is bad enough that priests get criticised by those far away from the Church. It is much worse when it comes from Mass-going Catholics.

Imagine the damage it does to the priest's morale and enthusi-

asm when the criticisms get back Rosaries, and other prayers for to him. priests.

Priests are not perfect, nor do Some could only stay a short they claim to be. But then nobody while. Others spent the whole day is perfect. there.I was honoured to give one Our priests have responded to a of the talks on the Priest as the call from Jesus Himself, chan- representative of Christ. nelled through the Church, to These people wanted to affirm offer themselves as priests and and encourage their priests shepherds. through prayer.

They know it is not an easy road.

Now I hear that a group of peoThey are also aware of their own ple are taking part in a novena of faults and inadequacies for such prayer and fasting for priests. a calling, but have the generosity Please be aware of the special to respond to the voice of Christ vocation of the priesthood and and serve his people. how essential it is for the It was therefore refreshing to go Eucharistic and Sacramental life to Holy Spirit Parish, City Beach, of the Church. last Monday week to participate Negative criticism will only frusin a lay-organised day called trate their efforts, assurances of "Intercession for Priests". support will encourage them to All day long, hundreds of peo- be good shepherds and happy ple shared in the Mass, talks, ministers of the Gospel, deter-

CHARISMATIC RETREAT Group Fifty Prayer Group, Fri 25 (evening) - Sunday 27 October (afternoon), at Redemptorist Monastery, Camelia St, North Perth. Leader: Fr John Giles OFM. Theme: "Towards God - One Body, One Spirit." Livein $96 (all meals), live-out $60 (all meals except breakfast). To Register, phone Vi on 364 5050.

mined to be worthy of their sacred calling.

I do not want the often unjustified criticism of priests to undermine their mission, nor do I want it to turn away future vocations.

These are difficult days for the Church. We live in a rapidly changing society where the Gospel is continuously being rejected and ridiculed.

We need strong and faithful followers of Christ to stand firm under pressure and continue to witness to the life-giving ways of Jesus.

We also need our priests, who are called to share in the Priesthood of Christ, to be faithful and joyful shepherds and preachers of the Good News.

Love them and pray for them.

OPTOMETRISTS Contact Lens Consultants Mark Kalimas (B. optom) Grove Plaza, Cottesloe 384 6633 or 384 6720

THE CATHOLIC EDUCAI1ON COMMISSION OF WESTERN AUSCRALIA

Invites applications for the positions of:

PRINCIPAL Holy Spirit School Holy Spirit School, City Beach, is a co-educational primary school with a current enrolment of 240 students from PP-7

St Mary's School St Mary's School. Northampton is a co-educational primary school with a current enrolment of 79 students from K-7 and a projected enrolment of 98 for 1997. Northampton is situated 46 kms north of Geraldton and approximately 15 minutes from the coastal town of Horrocks Beach.

The successful applicants will take up these positions on 1 January, 1997.

Applicants need to be actively involved in the Catholic Church and be experienced educators committed to the objectives and ethos of Catholic education. They will have the requisite theological, pastoral and managerial competencies together with an appropriate four year minimum tertiary qualification and will have, or be prepared to complete, appropriate Accreditation requirements.

Further information and official application forms are available from Sr Clare Rafferty, Consultant, School Personnel Team Ph: (09) 388 4268. Official application forms should be addressed to The Director, Catholic Education Office of WA, PO Box 198, Leederville WA 6903 and be lodged by Monday 28 October.

All Catholic Schools are smoke-free work places

Support advertisers in The Record Th*14'02044 dOctobet,1

We• _Page 2

Perspective

Abortions now equal cause of WA deaths

By Peter Rosengren

MANNING & ASSOCIATES

Archbishop's

The latest abortion figures for Western Australia show that the annual number of deaths from abortion now equal deaths from all other causes, according to the Coalition for the Defence of Human Life, a coalition of WA pro-life groups.

The coalition said abortion and nonabortion causes of death now stood approximately at 10,000 deaths each per year.

The figures were derived by adding the figures for Medicare rebates for abortion (8,894 in 1995-96) to those for abortions in WA public hospitals, which are not subject to Medicare rebates (1,396 in 1993-94, the latest year for which figures are available).

The coalition released their assessment of the figures in the leadup to its annual Cemetery of the Innocents event, designed to raise public consciousness of the cost of abortion in human lives and grief.

This year's Cemetery of the Innocents, part of a 24 hour vigil, will be held on the Perth Esplanade beginning on Saturday 2 November. Ten thousand small white crosses will be erected to commemorate each child killed by abortion In WA over the last year.

Secretary of the Coalition, Richard Egan, said most people were unaware of the scale of the abortion tragedy.

"They don't realise that one baby dies by abortion for every death from other causes," he said.

"There are 10 deaths by abortion for every 4.4 deaths from heart disease and stroke, 2.9 deaths from cancer and 0.72 deaths from all external injuries including road accidents and suicide."

Scripture Diary '97 The contents include: 1. Guidelines for the daily readings 2. Weeks, Seasons, Feasts of the Liturgical Year.

3 Movable Feasts 5. Guidelines for Divine Office.

5. A method of Scripture Study.

6. Prayer for the Healing of Memories.

8. The Miracle Prayer g. Prayer to the Saviour.

10 God our Protector.

11. 5 Steps to Victory. $9.50 per copy from: Scripture Diary Ministries PO Box 516 Rosanna Vic. 3084 Phone: 03 9439 8276 Fax: 03 9439 7649

Pro-lifer Helen Kemp with the foetus statue Mr Egan said the Coalition had set up the Cemetery of the Innocents each year since 1994. It had had a profound effect on those who participated as well as passers-by and on the media.

"To spend some time praying at the cemetery, reflecting that each cross represents a unique, precious human child who was never given the chance to be born, was very moving." he said.

Mr Egan also emphasised the cemetery would be an opportunity for healing those women and men affected by abortion. "We are running a 'Roses' appeal to enable us to place dozens of roses at the cemetery as a symbol of the grief and

sorrow that each abortion brings," he said.

Beginning at 5pm on Saturday 2 November, the cemetery event will see participation from a range of pro-life groups. Archbishop Barry Hickey will join other pro-life leaders in an ecumenical prayer service at 7.30am on the Esplanade the next morning.

Mr Egan added that this year there would be an additional feature to the cemetery - a hand carved sculpture of a six-week foetus provided by Albany sculptor Ken Bartholomeusz.

The sculpture, 140 centimetres high and carved from a single log of pine, took over three years to carve and was inspired by an ultrasound picture of the artist's son. Daniel.

"Pro-abortionists have always used the term 'foetus' in preference to 'baby' as a way of reducing the significance of the unborn child. In my view, this sculpture will help pro-lifers reclaim the term which actually means 'offspring'," he said. "Certainly the sculpture. like all accurate depictions of early human life puts the lie to the 'clump of cells' rhetoric used by the abortion industry and its apologists."

• Catholic health care providers will be assessing their legal options over the coming weeks following the Superclinics High Court settlement, Australian Catholic Health Care Association executive officer Francis Sullivan said this week.

Sydney medical clinic, Superclinics and one of its former patients who had initially sued the company for not diagnosing her pregnancy in time for her to have an abortion settled out of court, ending an appeal before the High Court.

Continued on Page 6

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Fremantle

The Notre Dame Raffle is aimed at raising funds to assist the University in these early days of its foundation.

Joining in is one way you can enter into a partnership with the University in facing the challenges before it.

Next week's insert in The Record will have all the details you need if you want to help Notre Dame in this way.

You could win one of thirty-nine great prices too!

St Brig tunnel fight into public arena

Glory of God's creation s takes celebrated in the Valley

By Peter Rosengren Parishioners and priests of St Brigid's in West Perth are up in arms over un-notified alterations to the Northbridge tunnel entrance beside their Church which they say will impact adversely on their worship and use of the Church.

They have already written to the chairman of the State Planning Commission, Simon Holthouse, saying the shortening of the western portal entrance from Fitzgerald Street by 25 metres will adversely affect the operations of the Church and its presbytery.

But the State Planning Commission is denying the claims, saying the current design had been put to St Brigid's parish council on 2 September, there was a written guarantee that noise would not Increase, and that there would be additional benefits to the Church.

But parish priests and parish council members say they were not consulted about the shortening of the tunnel entrance, and that they only found out about the changes when they asked Balderstone Clough contractors currently working on the tunnel for plans of the site.

Local businessman and parishioner Carl Torre and parish priests, Fathers John Pagnin and Adrian Pitarello initiated the campaign on St Brigid's behalf.

They say the three critical problems caused by the tunnel entrance's new position near the front of the Church will be unacceptable noise levels, a steep increase in pollution and a reduction in the public space allocated to a piazza between the Church

St Brigid's parish priest, Fr John Pagnin, left, Carl Torre, and resident priest Fr Adrian Pitarello look unimpressed as they stand before the tunnel entrance worksite last Sunday.

and the tunnel. The three said they were disappointed that after a year and a half of consultation and 273 submissions put by local Individuals and businesses, that what they understood as an agreement between the parish and the State Planning Commission on the issue was unilaterally altered without them being notified.

As a result, they say, St Brigid's will now be severely affected by a 50 per cent increase in noise, making it difficult to conduct baptism, funerals and Masses in the Church - and a jump in pollution from the 70.000 vehicles expected to enter the tunnel daily.

However, Mr Holthouse said changes to the design of the City Northern Bypass, including the

western portal of the tunnel, would provide additional benefits to St Brigid's. He said that following advice from the parish council and acceptance by the Bypass steering committee, the design had been approved by the Northbridge Urban Renewal committee on 5 September.

Mr Holthouse also said the portal design came with a written guarantee from the contractor that noise and pollution levels would not be increased.

He said that as part of the urban renewal program associated with the tunnel's construction a large landscaped courtyard would be created at public expense for the virtually exclusive use of the parish.

However Mr Torre and Fr Pagnin said they and other Northbridge businesses and residents had been led to believe that the Northbridge Urban Renewal Study produced by the Ministry for Planning and the Main Roads Department of Western Australia was the definite and final guideline for the construction of the tunnel.

But Mr Holthouse said the urban renewal study was not a final plan and set out the principles and design framework within which more detailed proposals were to be developed.

"This is the nature of any design development process," he said.

He added the urban renewal proposals would be modified to suit the tunnel design as it was finalised. The tunnel contract was for a "design and construct" process with designs being prepared for each stage of construction. resulting in considerable cost-savings on the project.

Franciscan priests process at St Michael's in the Swan Valley last Sunday

By Colleen McGuiness-Howard Last Sunday saw once again an event not to be missed, with the Franciscan Friars celebrating with their people the coming of Spring to the Swan Valley.

In the surrounds of St Michael's 61 year old church, parishioners and friends gathered to be part of a Mass presided over by Father John Giles Duigan, with fellow ftiars Frs Allan Hartcher (Midland's PP), Marcellinus Meilak. and Kevin Sheehan - educated at La Salle and visiting home from his Rome base.

At least 350 people overflowed

from the large marquee to face an altar which bore every sign of God's bounty.

Baskets of bread, sheaves of wheat, grapes, bottles of wine and wildflowers decorated the base of the altar which was flanked on either side by huge floral arrangements with a tall cross in the background, from which streamed colourful ribbons of cloth on either side.

Fr John encouraged all to celebrate God's life and goodness as exhibited in His creation, such as in the Valley, and radiate that same life, joy and goodness to others that they too may share in His richness and beneficence.

Priests' appointments Father Greg Donovan of Northam has been appointed parish priest of Yangebup.

Ordained in 1981, Fr Donovan previously served as assistant priest at Kalgoorlie. Craigie and St Mary's Cathedral.

In 1989 he became parish priest of Bencubbin before moving to Northam in 1993.

Indian priest Fr Pushparaj Chinnapan has been appointed assistant priest at Kalgoorlie.

Fr Chinnapan. ordained in 1984. was previously a parish priest at Bhopal in India where among other parish appointments he also worked with vic-

tims of the Union Carbide gas tragedy.

He was appointed Vice-Rector and Dean of Studies of St Theresa's seminary in Madhya State in 1987 Fr Chinnapan also served as director of pastoral and spiritual welfare for the priests, religious and laity of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, his most recent appointment before coming to Australia.

He also holds a diploma in spiritual and psychological formation from the National VocaCentre at Pune, tion Ntaharashtra. in India.

W HEN YOU'RE HURTING, I T REQUIRES A LOT OF TRUST T O LET SOMEONE HELP.

It is hard to imagine anything more painful to owned and operated and are active members of the endure than the loss of someone you love.

Australian Funeral Directors Association.

The only healing is the support of family and Through innovations such as our Bereavement friends, and the acknowledgement of your loss.

Education Division, Fixed Price Funeral Plan and Grief is such an intensely personal thing, which is Female Staffed Division (Leanne O'Dea Funeral why we at Bowra &. O'Dea Funeral Directors are Directors), we are continually striving for new ways to humbled by the trust that is placed in our care. help your family in the nineties.

Since 1888, the O'Dea family's reputation for For more information, we have a range of professionalism and genuine care has seen us grow into informative literature. Please feel free to call in to one Western Australia's largest and most of our many suburban branches, visit respected funeral direction company.

OWRA & 09DA our head office at 68 Stirling Street, We are fourth generation WA family Perth, or telephone us on 328 7299.

FUNERAL DIREcross

B

00EA003OF

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 3

•

TOMORROW TODAY

Kalgoorlie student sees Federal politics at work Stephen Orazi, a Year 11 student at John Paul College, Kalgoorlie was one of nine students selected from Western Australia to travel to Canberra as Queen's Trust scholars during the recent term holiday.

It was a considerable honour for Stephen to be chosen from a large number of candidates from around the State.

This year he was the only representative chosen from the Catholic school sector.

The Queen's Trust for Young Australians was established in 1977 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Each Year the Trust selects one hundred young leaders from around Australia and sends them to Canberra to attend a Seminar.

There they meet senior members of the Australian government and the opposition.

The students attended a series of workshops where the workings of the various levels of government and departments were explained to them.

At one session this year they were addressed by the Governor General, Sir William Deane.

On his return to Kalgoorlie.

Stephen told us the experience had been -fantastic".

The highlights had been the sessions with the Governor General and a question-and-answer session where leading politicians questions.

Stephen also said he had made a lot of new friends from other parts of Australia and the experience had given him a better appreciation of how the system of government we have works.

Elm

44-

1

Check-In Ticketing i Aoais rrlevate and Departures

a

4 Baggage Claim / Engulf' dr. a Specialty Shops

9 • Telephones et` • Gate Lounges 1 2 3 t • Restaurant / Bar 0

Administration

Stephen Orazi pictured at Perth Airport with his parents shortly before his departure for Canberra.

REGISTRATION FORM

EAGLE'S NEST 1406 O'Brien Rd. Gidgegannup

Surname Christian Names Address

Date of Birth

Phone Male

Female

Club Member Number (if applicable) Accommodation Preferred: Tent City Dormitory Style Normal Price $225 $255 Club Members $195 $225 I wish to order a T-Shirt and have included $25 in my registration fee.

T-Shirt Size S M L XL I have enclosed a cheque/money order for $ being for: Deposit Only ($30) Part Payment, Full Payment ( Please make cheques payable to Catholic Youth Convention) My Elective choices are. 123Please note that whilst every effort will be made to give you your first choice. places in each elective are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 4 I

•

•

1

Young people from two parishes recently got active to seek a relationship with God. Top: Chee Wong and Teresa Carey, leaders of the Antioch weekend in Rockingham on 27-29 September. Below: Josephine Murace and Matthew Kempton were the leaders at Cloverdale's inaugural Antioch weekend. Both groups are indebted to the adult support for their generous spirit, encouragement and guidance.

Catholic Youth Formation Centre

Please return to: Catholic Youth Convention P.O. Box 141 North Perth WA 6006

Postcode

Antioch G d f help- ti twheekends

I

0

•

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 available: 1996 October 17, 21, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30. 31 November 4, 5, 6, Z 8, 12, 13, 14, 15. 19. 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28 December 5, 6, 11, 12, 16, 18, 21, 22. 23, 24. 25 1997

January February March April May June July August September October November December

2, 3, 4, 5. 6, Z 8, 9, 10, 19, 20. 21. 22. 23, 24, 25. 26, 27, 28, 29 3. 4, 5, 6, 10, 14, 1Z 18, 24, 25 3, 4, 10, 11, 1Z 18, 2Z 28 3, 7, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28. 29. 30 1, 5, 6, Z 8, 9, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21. 26, 2Z 28, 29 3, 4, 5, 6. Z 8, 9, 10, 11. 19, 20, 21, 22. 23. 24, 25. 26, 30 2. 3, 4, 5. 6. Z 8. 9, 10. 19. 20. 21, 22, 23. 24, 25, 26. 27. 30, 31 2. 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19. 20. 21. 22. 23, 24. 25, 26. 27 30, 31 1, 2. 3,4. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 12, 13, 14, 15. 16, 17. 18. 19. 20, 23. 24. 25 4. 13. 14, 15. 16. 20, 23, 24. 25. 26. 27, 28, 29. 30 1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 10. 11, 12, 13. 14. 15. 16, 17 18, 19, 20, 21, 23. 24. 25. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 1, 2, 3.4, 5, 6. 7 8. 9, 10, 11. 12. 13, 14, 15. 16. 17 18. 19. 20. 21. 22, 23. 24. 25. 26, 27 28. 29. 30, 31

Book early to avoid disappointment Phone Brian or Marjorie Harty, Eagles Nest 574 7030

Geraldton hospice opened

By Colleen McGuiness-Howard In marked contrast to a climate of aggressively promoted death by euthanasia, Geraldton has chosen "life with dignity" with the recent opening of the Geraldton Palliative Care Service and Hospice Unit.

During the opening ceremony, in what was seen as a Christian statement of support for human life, Geraldton's Bishop Justin Bianchini blessed the region's first dedicated hospice unit, staffed by specialist palliative care nurses, at St John of God Hospital.

St John of God hospital gave $150,000 towards the cost of the $210,000 hospice unit, the Commonwealth Government contributed $60,000 and the Lotteries Commission $49,000.

Generous commitment was also given by Geraldton business people and the community who gave support, volunteered labour and provided materials at cost.

The hospice's esta' !ishment was the fruit of an agreement between St John of God Hospital, the Silver Chain Nursing Association, Geraldton Health Services, and the Division of General Practice, all of whom had adopted the palliative care philosophy and devised a service which would allow people to live with dignity, care, compassion, and understanding during their terminal illness.

With 214 diagnosed cancer residents last year in the Mid West

Local Geraldton doctor, Dr Felicity Jeffries, holds a cross to be placed in the new palliative care unit as Bishop Bianchini blesses it at the opening.

and Gascoyne region, and an expected considerable increase expected due to an ageing population, palliative care, which has been addressed in the past in a fragmented manner, will achieve its full potential in the new framework.

The Geraldton-based service will assist smaller towns and hospitals within the region.

The hospice is open to public and private patients requiring respite care and symptom control, regardless of patient health cover status.

With the potential for expansion, the unit currently allows for four in-patients and has a private courtyard, kitchen and lounge.

Clinical nurse in palliative care at St John of God Hospital, Penny Van Mt. said the colour schemes,

furniture, quilts, gardens and goldfish were all chosen with much consideration for patients and families, and the need to create an ambience of homeliness.

"The unit design also allows spouses or other family members to stay on a temporary basis if so desired," she said.

Joy Brann AM, founding director of the Cottage Hospice, Shenton Park, said palliative care meant tremendous effort and total commitment "to the ideals that bind us all in our quest to alleviate human suffering in the presence of terminal illness."

She also claimed that care for the dying, particularly as a result of cancer, had become "one of the greatest challenges of our time."

Palliative care, Ms Brann stated, embraced a vast body of scientif-

WA Health Minister Kevin Prince and Director of Missions at St John of God Hospital, Geraldton, Sr Marguerita Connolly, at the blessing of the hospice.

Pnoto courtesy or the Harvest Times

ic knowledge and skill, offering the best treatment options possible with the ability to use those options "to prevent unnecessary pain and suffering and to allow death to ensue when it wills."

This care neither postponed nor hastened death, she elaborated, but prevented suffering whether it be emotional, physical, social or spiritual.

"Palliative care responds to the whole person, because dying is an holistic experience - not a disease process - and caring for the dying is a response to the needs of the whole person."

Death. Ms Brann said, was not the ultimate tragedy in life.

"The ultimate tragedy is the denial of death, when lies, half truths and avoidance conspire to rob the individual of their per-

sonhood, of their right to live the final days of their life in the manner of their choice."

While admitting there were many fears surrounding death which led people to fear and avoid the topic, noting in particular the patient's fear of becoming dependant on other people, she asked: "Where along the journey of life does it become so terrible to become dependant?"

Ms Brann suggested that palliative care "can indeed allow us to gaze fully upon death and dying and see dignity not dependency, hope not despair, comfort not suffering," and suggested this could be the vision of all "who care enough to work in this wonderful service."

Archbishop asks for letters for the Pope Archbishop Barry Hickey has written to all parishes, schools, archdiocesan organisations and religious congregations asking them to contribute a letter of congratulations to Pope John Paul H on his Golden Jubilee of priesthood on 1 November.

Archbishop Hickey will personally present the Perth letters to the Pope on 10 November.

The Archbishop included a draft letter for people to use as a guide if they wish and has

asked for any Masses and as Successor of St Peter and Rosary pledges to be listed on Supreme Pastor of the Church, the letters, which should be and we will continue to pray returned to the archdiocesan that you be constantly guided offices in Victoria Square by 1 by the Holy Spirit," it says.

November.

"May God give you good The draft letter extends the health, courage and wisdom, to congratulations and assurances lead the Church through these of prayers from Perth parishes times," it concludes. to the Pope, saying that his tire- difficult Archbishop Hickey has also calling less dedication to his Catholics to attend invited Perth over fifty years has been an for the Mass to be said a special inspiration to millions around Pope on Friday 1 November in the world.

"We pledge our loyalty to you St Mary's Cathedral at 730pm.

LEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT Make your views count at People First! the National Conference on Australian and International poverty - Sydney Nov. 22-24, 1996 You can do something about poverty. People

Firstl is your opportunity to play a part in setting the social action goals of the Catholic Church, with particular focus on the eradication of poverty.

The agencies of the Australian Catholic Bishops will bring together key people from the Vatican, Ireland, Tonga and India.

Joining them will be

representatives from Australia's major political parties, social welfare groups, overseas aid agencies, Catholic Parishes, Dioceses and organisations from all over Australia. The conference aim is to find new ways and improve old ways to respond to the needs of people suffering from poverty in Australia and overseas.

Don't miss out. More information from:

People First! Conference, PO Box 429, Kogarah NSW 2217

440-14AOrt Ittsrti"

i I

•

Tel/Fax 02-9587 2333

RENUMBER THE CHULD1REN ON WORLD MISSION DAY If you miss this year's World Mission Day Appeal, please send what you can to me, Father Brian Brock, National Director, Catholic Mission IN) Box A153, Sydney South 2000 Or phone free on 1800 257 2960

Catholic Mission The work of the Pontifical Mission Societies • Propagation of the Faith • St Peter Apostle • Childrens Mission

INU11,411finkl

eil4AILZ4LUArs.k.

4

1011 TM.

YwZ

Sponsored by Aos!raiion Catholic Bishops Conference agencies • Bishops' Committee for justice Development and Pe,: rintos Australia ;Australian Catholic Relief) • Australian Catholic Social Justice Council • Austration Socib' \i*Ifare

Support our advertisers The Record, October 17 1996 Page 5

Give Caesar and God their due Controversial Peter Dwan continues meditations on the readings for Sunday Mass.

This week the readings for the 29th Sunday of Year A

A Layman's Meditation

T

oday's liturgy shows us that a unwittingly and unwillingly co-operate good Christian is a good citizen. with God, let us give Him a cheerful, In the first reading (Isaiah 45:1,4- willing service.

6), the prophet, who lived in Babylonia In today's second reading (1 Thessawith the exiled Jews, tells us, in God's lonians 1:1-4), which is the first written own words that he is the God, not only document of the New Testament, St Paul of the Jews, but of history and of the praises his converts for their fidelity to whole world.

God and to Christ his Son. Cyrus, who had become king of the We have the same faith as the early Medes and the Persians, later extended Christians, but is our fidelity like theirs? his rule to include Syria, Babylon, and If St Paul were to write a letter to our Egypt. parish today, could he thank God for God declared that it was he who had our "work of faith," our "labour of love," so exalted him "for the sake of Jacob," and our "steadfastness of hope in our so that the Jewish exiles could return to Lord Jesus Christ"?

Judah and rebuild the temple.

Today's gospel passage (Matthew God calls him his "anointed," his Mes- 21:15-21), shows that a good Christian siah, (a title given to kings, prophets and is a good citizen. priests of the Chosen People but never The pharisees were always wanting to elsewhere to a pagan), because he was trap Our Lord in his speech. to be God's agent in the liberation of the Although the Pharisees were in oppoJews. sition to the Herodians, another conWe need to remember that God often temporary Jewish sect, they were uses strange instruments to achieve his prepared to use them to help them trap ends, people who don't know Him, to Jesus. achieve His plans for mankind.

Their purpose in getting Herodians, Unlike Cyrus and all those others who (admirers of Herod Antipas of Galilee,

who were most probably friends and spies of the Roman authorities) to form part of the delegation would, they thought, make Christ's answer an offense to one or the other party.

If he answered that it was lawful to pay the Romans taxes, he would offend the Pharisees and 90% of the Jews, who would then refuse to listen to him.

If he said it was wrong to pay the Romans taxes then the Herodians would report him to the Roman authorities.

Our Lord understood perfectly the reason for this delegation, and said: "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?"

They hadn't come seeking knowledge, but to "put him to the test," to force him to condemn himself, whether he said "yes" or "no."

Our Lord asked them to show him the coin for the tax, and asked them: "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said: "Caesar's."

Then Jesus said to them: "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

We have to give civil authorities our obedience, provided that they don't command things that are contrary to God's law, for when there are conflicts, "we must obey God rather than man."

To Jesus through Mary. . . a column of Marian devotion

T

he much-discussed "third secret of Fatima" is not sensational or apocalyptic, said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, one of the few people In the world who has actually read it.

Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima for the 79th anniversary of the final Marian apparition to three Portuguese children, on October 13, 1917.

He was asked about the so-called third secret on October 12 by Radio Renascenca. Portugal's Catholic radio station.

To all the curious I would say I am certain that the Virgin does not engage in sensationalism; she does not create fear.

She does not present apocalyptic visions, but guides people to her Son. And this is what is essential," said the Cardinal, who was shown the third secret by Pope John Paul II. After a lengthy investigation of the alleged apparitions, the Catholic Church In 1930 said the visions were worthy of belief and authorised devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of Fatima.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Lucia dos Santos, the last surviving visionary, was asked by her bishop to write down her recollections of the apparitions and the messages.

The first two segments of her writings have been published.

The published segments urge prayer, repentance, recitation of the rosary and reception of the sacraments.

They contain specific references to war and to the conversion of Russia, and are popularly referred to as the first two secrets.

Vatican officials throughout the past 50

Statues of the Virgin Mary of Fatima are removed from a table at the Fatima shrine after being blessed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on October 13.

Photo CNS Reuters

years have said the third part of the recollection written by Lucia, now a Carmelite nun, contains nothing that is not already part of revealed truth, so it is unnecessary to publish it.

Cardinal Ratzinger, in the Radio Renascenca interview, said preoccupation with the message and its presumed predictions of catastrophe are not part of a healthy Marian devotion.

The Church, he said, "is opposed to sensationalism and this expectation of unheard of things."

"It would be a perversion to give in to such pressures" by publishing the third segment, he said.

Instead, the intention and the centrality of the mission of the Church is to guide people toward those things that are truly important," the Cardinal said during the interview.

"Only in that way are we truly obedient to Mary" 'The Madonna did not appear to children, to the small, to the simple, to those unknown in the world in order to create a sensation," Cardinal Ratzinger said.

Mary's purpose "is, through these simple ones, to call the world back to simplicity, that is to the essentials: conversion, prayer and the sacraments," he said

"We thought that planning our funerals would be an uncomfortable business. But the Purslowe family made it very easy:" PURSLNE FUNERAL HOMES Our fami4 servingrur family since /906 North Perth 444 4835, Midland 274 3866.

Victoria Park 361 11S5, Wanneroo 409 9119.

Northam 1096) 221137.

Mareena Purslowe and Associates.. Subiaco, .38$ 1623 Sank'N 1371

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 6

Cardinal will be right again

With Paul Gray

J

oseph Ratzinger is one of the best Catholic thinkers of our time. Better known as Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's acred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he is also a most controversial figure in today's Church.

In the secular media and some sections of the Church, Cardinal Ratzinger has often been portrayed as a conservative arch-villain.

A perceptive and cool critic of destructive trends in modern Catholic thinking, he is often dismissed as intolerant.

But as anyone who closely reads Cardinal Ratzinger's own writing and thinking will see, this charge is most unfair. In fact, he has often gone closer than any other modern Church intellectual to understanding the real problems today's Christians face.

Criticism of Cardinal Ratzinger came to a head in the 1980s, when.in a series of statements he took to task certain forms of liberation theology for using Marxist concepts Incompatible with the Catholic faith.

The subsequent collapse of Marxism, both as an intellectual and a political force, has since born out the essential wisdom of Cardinal Ratzinger's stance at that time. lbday the Cardinal warns of a new danger to the faith, in what he calls the "relativism" that rubs off on Catholics as a result of living in a democratic society.

"Relativism has.... become the central problem for the faith at the present time," he said during a series of recent talks to bishops.

Successful democracy, he said, relies on compromise and the rejection of absolute positions. That is entirely appropriate in the realm of politics.

But in the realm of religion, he argued, it is Impossible to compromise on the essential absolutes of faith - like the belief that Jesus is the living God, not just "one religious leader among others."

Even such worthy political concepts as "dialogue", "pluralism" and "multiculturalism" are out of place in Church discussions.

These concepts all involve an assumption of equal rank among the participants.

Yet the Church cannot accept putting the faith on the same level as other beliefs, he said.

There is a clear, consistent line of logic between this and Cardinal Ratzinger's earlier diagnoses of the problems of modern Catholicism. For example, in the still highly relevant Ratzinger Report of 1985 he argued there was a modern crisis in Catholic belief.

At the core of this crisis lies a forgetting of what the Church really is, he suggested.

"My impression is that the authentically Catholic meaning of the reality 'Church' is tacitly disappearing, without being expressl \ rejected," he commented there.

"Many no longer believe that what is at issue is a reality willed by the Lord himself.

"If the Church, instead, is viewed as a human construction, the product of our own efforts, even the contents of the faith end up assuming an arbitrary character."

Critics may say the Cardinal is being unduly alarmist with all these warnings.

To them, it is worth replying that he has been proven right in the past.

Who's to say he's not right today?

Abortion deaths

Continued from Page 2 Mr Sullivan said he was disappointed the case had not gone ahead as Catholic hospitals remained in the same, or slightly less certain. position with regard to any liabilities they could face for not offering women the full range of abortion services.

"If there was an opportunity for the High Court to clarify our potential liability, then it's been lost on this occasion," he said.

However he said the Association would need to seek "firmer legal advice" on how to demonstrate Catholic organisations were not liable for not offering abortion services.

President Suharto should listen to Bishop Belo T

The Record

lie awarding of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize jointly to the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Dili in East Timor, Bishop Carlos Belo, and Sydney-based activist Jose Ramos Horta He would be well aware that while some has proved a wonderful public relations There is no doubt that Bishop Belo is a coup for those agitating for justice in East worthy winner of the award. He witness- Christians and Catholics have difficulty Timor. es to the best practice of the Church seek- leading peaceful lives in some MuslimThe award itself would have been impor- ing to form the world into a civilisation of dominated regions of Indonesia, there are tant enough in helping focus world atten- love by fearlessly insisting that the true areas - such as the island of Flores in easttion further on East Timor and increasing religious and secular rights of the East ern Indonesia - in which Catholics flourpressure on Indonesia to find a solution to Timorese be honoured by the Indonesian ish and dominate public life.

There is, in fact, no reason to suspect that an embarrassing diplomatic and political Government.

But he is not advocating a particular Bishop Belo's true task as a bishop - to problem.

But to have the award announced short- political solution. Despite the Australian ensure his flock gains their eternal salvaly before President Suharto was to visit media's uncritical lumping together of tion as members of the Catholic Church East Timor was real icing on the public Bishop Belo and Mr Ramos Horta as both is in any danger if they live as members being pro-independence for East Timor, of the Indonesian state rather than under relations cake.

The presence of Bishop Belo as a Nobel there does not appear to be a great deal their own rule. It is not impossible that Peace Prize winner on the same platform of evidence that Bishop Belo sees inde- they could live as peacefully as the as the President, officiating at the first offi- pendence from Indonesia as the neces- Catholics of Flores do.

None of this is of direct interest to Mr cial showing of a public statue of Jesus, sary source of justice in the same way Mr Ramos Horta or the man he thinks should makes it very difficult for Mr Suharto not Ramos Horta does.

Bishop Belo insists that the East Timo- have received his award, Xanana Gusmao, to take notice of what the Salesian bishop Is saying about justice for the East Timo- rese be given a choice as to their full or the jailed leader of the East Timor independence movement. partial incorporation into Indonesia. rese.

7aae.

Arounc T

•

They want physical independence for East Timor and, in the past, have been ready to use force to gain it.

They may be the only political voice for East Timor at present and, as such, have a necessary role to play, but that does not mean they have any authority based on a democratic vote of the East Timorese.

Bishop Belo on the other hand is the spiritual shepherd of most East Timorese and can speak for their spiritual and human rights with real authority, an authority which leaves the question of the independence of East Timor to a vote of the East Timorese.

His voice is recognised in the world community as a voice of reason and integrity.

President Suharto would do well listen to Bishop Belo and act on his advice. It may not be against the best interests of Indonesia at all.

• The opinions expressed in this editorial, and any other Record editorial, are not necessarily those of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Perth.

. °r Leflers lo /A-e Col-11

•

Disbelief, dismay at writer's analysis /

read with at first disbelief, and then ter hostility and contempt, and are not with deep dismay, in the letter of J L "simply ignored entirely by the broader Goerke (10 October) of the fallacious community" - whose approval Mr Goerke claims directed against the words of Julie seems so desperately to need - but are Cook, who was interviewed by The Record actively opposed in the courts, the parlia(26 September) in relation to her work ments, the universities and the media.

Contrary to Mr Goerke's opinion, Il ls with the organisation Women Hurt by only through Julie Cook, and others like Abortion (WHBA).

Having read and re-read Julie's interview her. "that the Church's compassion and its nowhere could I find anything said by her care for life will be heard".

Congratulations to The Record for makto justify Mr Goerke's statements that she had made "exaggerated claims" or the ing, in the words of Mr Goerke, a "positive Inference that she had asserted "unsub- contribution to the debate".

Fr Steven Casey stantiated facts".

Nowhere in her interview could I find Willetton grounds that she was, as Mr Goerke seems s it a case of bad conscience Mr Goerke again to infer, guilty of "emotional hype" or (The Record, 10 October)? In response a "distortion of facts". to an invitation from Women Hurt by Nowhere in the interview is there reason Abortion (WHBA) for Centrecare to be parto believe that she had, or ever would, make ticipating in a survey of abortion trauma the sort of comments that Mr Goerke May 1994, Mr Goerke, the program manwould call "thoughtless, "insensitive" or ager of Pregnancy Help. wrote refusing his "blatantly untrue". staffs involvement.

Nowhere in her interview do her words He was prepared to contribute only if even remotely sound like what Mr Goerke agencies such as Family Planning Associadescribes as the "din of those extreme peo- tion (FPA), Women's Health Care House or ple within the right to life camp" (whoev- King Edward Memorial Hospital, which er those people are!). refer or perform abortions, were involved Again, nowhere in the course of her inter- in such research. view, does Julie resort to what Mr Goerke He argued these agencies needed to parjudges to be "unbalanced and biased ticipate if the results of the research rhetoric". "would be treated with respect and gain I happen to know Julie Cook personally. validity in pregnancy counselling circles, I find her knowledge and understanding of and through this, have any impact on polthe "complexity" of the subject of abortion icy and practice". to be very credible indeed and, although The FPA workshop Mr Goerke referred to she is in fact a Catholic, as Mr Goerke was only run after VVHBA managed to get seems to imply - even though nowhere in an article in The Sunday Times (12 Februher interview did she say she was - I can ary, 1995) on post abortion syndrome, confidently say that her views in no way which was in response to an irresponsible "discredit the Church's position on abor- article FPA ran in The West Australian (27 tion", but rather illuminates it further in its January, 1995) in which they quite unconsplendour of truth. cernedly acknowledged that advocating Julie Cook is a person who possesses the two contraceptives for teenagers was going ability of "sensitive and deliberate com- to result in an increase in unplanned pregmunication" and who has worked tireless- nancies and hence an increased abortion ly, not to create "additional difficulties for rate. those women already hurt by abortion," Those associated with the abortion indusbut to bring them healing, self-esteem and try have consistently denied abortion trauinner peace. ma until cornered.

Furthermore, she is a woman of such pruA Family Planning Association spokesperdence and discretion, and of such warmth son was quoted in the Australian Doctor and sensitivity that never, in her very fre- (24 March, 1995) as saying, yes, they were quent encounters with distressed pregnant seeing the symptoms described by VVHBA, mothers seeking her help and advice, but they found it a bit sensationalist, and would she make even the slightest inop- didn't like labelling people. (Another letter portune and inappropriate comment that could be written expounding on FPA prowould "harm attempts to protect the fessional irresponsibility.) unborn".

Post-abortion syndrome is at present Ills true, as Mr Goerke says, that there understood to be a type of post-traumatic continues to be a high number of abortions stress disorder. in Australia, although this, of course, does There is a large and growing body of scinot necessarily suggest "that the Church's entific literature dealing with PAS. message is not being heard", but that more In 1992, the British Journal of Psychiatry probably, through the eloquence and published a review by Zolese and Blacker, courage of such people as Julie Cook, the which found that psychological or psychiChurch is indeed being heard. atric disturbances occur in association with This is why we are greeted with such bit- abortion and seem marked, severe or per-

/

sistent in approximately 10 percent of selling" this organisation has to offer women who have experienced an abortion cases.

Given the serious limitations of many of - probably as a result of acting on its own the studies to date and their frequent inter- advice in the first place.

Mr Goerke acknowledges that the preter bias coupled with the tendency of PAS to be labelled by its presenting symp- Church's message about the sanctity of life toms, 10 per cent probably underestimates Is not being heard as the abortion figures continue to rise in Australia. the true picture.

This, he claims, is not surprising "while In 1994 the UK parliamentary CommisChurch's genuine concern for life is the abortion effects of sion of Inquiry into the on women found 87 per cent of women it obscured by the din of those extreme peosurveyed experienced long-term emotion- ple within the right to life camp."

I'm not sure what Mr Goerke means by al consequences with 15 per cent actually "extreme", but if he is referring to the requesting counselling.

While the frequency of PAS may be debat- peaceful demonstrations that take place able, the severity and the existence of PAS outside abortion clinics, where the rosary is not debatable.I suggest that Mr Goerke Is recited and hymns are sung. then I'm lets the abortion industry answer it's own proud to be labelled one of those "extreme" right to life people. accusations in future.

J. Said Julie Cook RN Noranda Manning

M

I

L Goerke's intemperate and irrational r Goerke (The Record, 10 Octoattack on Mrs Julie Cook of Women ber) appears to have a problem Hurt by Abortion is reprehensible. with "extreme" pro-lifers.

To accuse her, in the balanced and reaHow can anyone be partly pro-life or vaguely pro-life? Either one is pro-life or sonable article (The Record, 26 Septemone is not. Just as one is pregnant or one ber) of "making exaggerated claims" and Is not. You cannot be extremely pregnant being "thoughtless. insensitive and blatantly untrue" is outrageous and without or partly pregnant.

The present Pope is one of the most con- basis.

Iam thoroughly acquainted with the comstant and vocal defenders of human life and our own Archbishop has followed his passionate, effective and well-researched work that Mrs Cook and those who are example.

I simply do not understand how a associated with her have done.

It is Mr Goerke's attempt in his letter to Catholic can hold any position other than one of total conunitment to being pro-life. defend the "abortion industry" and put the As Pope John Paul II says in Evangelium pro-abortion Family Planning Association Vitae: To defend and promote life, to show in a positive light that causes grave conreverence and love for it is a task which cern.

God entrusts to every man.

Brian A. Peachy Julie Cook's article draws attention to an President of Coalition for Defence of issue of great importance to many women Human Life who have had abortions themselves or had been meaning to write congratuhave friends who have done so. lating The Record for its interview with We cannot underestimate the pain and Julie Cook, describing the devastating grief that they face. Instead of arguing effects of abortion on women. about how many are suffering, we should I was therefore astonished to read J L accept that some women do suffer terribly criticism of the article as "not Goerke's and work to prevent other women being making a positive contribution to the traumatised by abortion in the future. debate", as making "exaggerated claims" The efforts of women such as Julie Cook and being "unbalanced". in working to educate the general commuHe speaks of those committed to fighting nity about this issue should be applauded. abortion as having an "extreme position", Anne-Marie Langdon but how can anyone who fully understands Duncraig what abortion is be only moderately r Goerke (The Record, 10 Octo- opposed to it?

And how can he make the preposterous ber) asserts that "the Family Planning Association has conducted claims that "such comments harm attempts workshops on grief counselling for post to protect the unborn", and that "publicity of this kind can actually promote aborabortion trauma."

The FPA is not only in the business of pro- tion"?

ThisI find not only deeply offensive but moting "safe sex" practices Ills also responsible for many of the abortions that are simply baffling. procured through its other practice of refer- Janet 1Kovesi Watt Claremont ring clients to abortion clinics.

If Mr Goerke's assertion is correct, one More Letters - Page 11 can only wonder about the kind of "coun-

I

M

The Pecontl, Octdlide 17 1996 .-Pati‘ 7

Book Reviews

Where art and music adorn faith Cowper and Newman, all part of this rich heritage of hymns. And I love Newman.

So I started with Newman's lien this book arrived Lead, Kindly Light The poetic imagery is in the best for review I wondered what to do about it. sense simple and so beautifully Suited more to horses than hymns stated that it is hardly noticed.

The shape of the verse is that of I began to look for some inspirathe homily. Verse one states its tion.

So on Sunday morning asIknelt general theme: "Lead kindly Light, amid the at Mass I looked up at the Hymn numbers in search of "Traditional encircling gloom, Lead thou me on; Hymns" - alas there were none.

The night is dark andIam far It seems that today's Church has drifted in and out (mainly out) of from home, Lead thou me on. the traditional mode of hymn Keep thou my feet,Ido not ask singing.

Lured by the sheer beauty of the to see The distant scene: one step book; a bright red cloth cover, adorned with a painting of the enough for me."

The painting to go with NewLast judgement; divided into section headings like Morning and man's hymn is The TransfiguraEvening; Advent and Christmas; tion', with the Lord transfigured the traditional seasons; and chap- before the Apostles who shelter ters with hymns on such interest- their eyes from the bright light of ing topics as 'For those at sea' and His presence.

It is much the same with all the 'Children', each section begins with a musical score, then the hymns - simplicity and grace.

The thinking behind them, the words of the hymn, the poetry and the painting. history, the poetry and the art are Ah, the paintings - one for every elements vital to worship. hymn! All taken from the great As the Introduction puts it; "comItalian Masters of the Renais- pared with prayer and preaching, sance, deeply religious and taste- the finest hymns have something ful. The works of the impeccable else - a force, a beauty, a grace Fra Angelico. for instance, which makes them beloved and abound. special": and it quotes the poet.

There was not much I could do George Herbert: with the musical scores, so I "A verse may find him, who a began to read the words of the sermon files, hymns and my abysmal ignoAnd run delight into a sacrifice." rance began to be corrected.

An example of historical signifiMy enthusiasm kindled ('Ride cance is the hymn 'Nearer My on in Majesty' caught my eye); I God to Thee'. was captured by their beauty.

As the Titanic was sinking many They are, after all, poetry; devo- of the doomed passengers stood tional poetry - Donne, Milton. together on deck, joined hands, Traditional Hymns 1,,' bury Press, London. RRP $35 Reviewed by George Russo

W

and sang the hymn. Its words comforted them, and imbued them with courage.

The painting chosen to accompany the hymn shows a welcoming God and His court; Fra Angelico's 'Trinity, Music & Saints'.

Again, we get the simple, moving imagery in question form with the hymn; 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?' in Passiontide.

The music flows effortlessly, with the repetition of 'tremble' at the agonies of the Passion.

The artist, par excellence, is Fra Angelico, and his Crucifixion fortifies the historic details of the 'nailed', 'pierced', 'refused', 'entombed' Lord.

This picture, along with many others in the book, is a rare example of Catholic piety at the time, and witnesses to the sufferings of Christ, made necessary by human sinfulness, and is the work of a master.

All the pictures speak powerfully, and unpredictably, to anyone who takes the trouble to look at them.

This is an excellent art book as well as a hymn book. A great painting, like a great poem, or hymn, enlarges our imagining, moves our heart, and changes the way we think about ourselves and our world. And it would work this change if we had the time and occasion for these amazing traditional hymns.

Still it would be something even to read this beautiful little book.

Ills a work of art, and to contemplate it, and its great hymns and works of art, offers an opportunity not to be missed.

Sacred cows are not immune to viruses either White Death by julian Cribb

Published by Harper Collins, 266 pages, RRP $16.95

Reviewed by Brian A Peachey

W

hite Death is described on its front cover as "a chilling expose of a theory that has international scientists running for cover." That description is a gross exaggeration, like its main thesis, which speculates on the origins of AIDS. The author Julian Cribb is an Australian journalist who has worked from the Parliamentary Press Gallery in Canberra for the last two decades.

The opening words state that "Forty million human beings will carry HIV, the AIDS virus, by the year 2000. . . ." and that "it is unquestionably one of the most awful

T HE

WRITE IMAM A chilling exposé of a theory that has internationa: scientists running for ccver

' IMAM rDib The Record, October 17 1996 Page 8

events ever to befall humankind." But this the dire predictions of a pandemic among is simply the repetition of a false specula- heterosexuals, spread sexually by the tion, one which has been uttered many transmission of the virus did not happen. times before.

The facts are that in Western Australia.

One suspects that such statements have since AIDS was first diagnosed in the early been partly motivated by commercial inter- 1980% only 222 persons have died of the ests and have contributed to channelling condition - 16 in the year ending 31 March billions of dollars into research pro- 1996. This cannot be described as a pangrammes, drug companies and jobs for demic. health and social workers.

There have been only 4864 deaths from The theory that AIDS is caused by a virus AIDS in Australia during the past 15 years; and the claim that mainly heterosexual and 86.8% of those who died were homomen and women will die from AIDS, does, sexual men. however, take the pressure and the attenCribb, however, leaves himself open to tion away from homosexual men, who are the charge of propagandising because he the majority of sufferers. is not objective.

Cribb's book is based on the premise that There is a growing number of eminent all who test positive for HIV antibodies will medical/scientific researchers who claim develop AIDS and die from the syndrome; that AIDS is not caused by HIV; that it has that the virus was supposedly passed to multiple causes and is a series of diseases humans from the African green monkey which occur as a result of the breakdown and spread widely because the polio vac- of the immune system. cine used in the 1950s was allegedly conCribb does, however, briefly refer to one taminated by the monkey virus, infecting of the most outspoken researchers, Dr Peter millions of humans.

Duesberg, Professor of Molecular Biology But the contaminated polio vaccine theo- at the University of California at Berkeley. ry has already been attacked by Dr David In 1985 the Editor of Cancer Research Sloan, an epidemiologist with the Central invited Duesberg to write a special review Queensland Public Health Unit writing in paper related to retrovirus and cancer.

The Australian on 4 September 1996: Duesberg completed the work in 1987 "....if a vaccine contaminated by HIV was and added a section arguing that HIV could administrated to 300,000 people in the Bel- not cause AIDS. gian Congo in the late 1950s, then a cohort He cited data "that showed that HIV was of some 20 percent of those infected would inactive in the body, did not kill T cells, and have developed AIDS after five years i.e. in could not possibly have a long latent perithe early/mid 1960s.Isuggest that ills most od before inducing AIDS". unlikely that such a phenomenon would Duesberg has since continued to publish have gone unnoticed," he said. research papers arguing his case.

Cribb is also colourful when referring to Nor does Cribb mention the eminent the Congo region of Africa, such as on page scholar Dr K B Mullis, the 1993 Nobel 103: "lit].... has been inhabited by humans Chemistry prize winner, who has said that and proto-humans for four million years. HIV does not cause AIDS. Its valleys, mountains and arid plains He does not quote the work of formed the anvil on which our kind was researchers in Western Australia such as shaped. It saw the human and chimpanzee bio-physicist, Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopugenera divide and go their separate paths. los, of the Medical Physics Department of It witnessed the first hesitant bipedal steps the Royal Perth Hospital, Dr V F Turner of of a hominid child. . . ." the Department of Emergency Medicine at I have long suspected the theory that Royal Perth Hospital and Professor I M AIDS was caused by HIV was false, because Papadimitriou of the Pathology Depart-

ment at MA. who have published independent studies arguing against the conventional wisdom.

These studies should not have been ignored.

Although it can be reasonably claimed that Cribb's book is trying to protect the lifestyle of homosexuals, many homosexuals are coming to the conclusion that such protection is harmful.

Sean Current, in an article, "HIV and AIDS: Causation or Coercion" in the homosexual journal. Pro vincetown Positive (April/May 1995) says: "In an attempt to diffuse the destructive potential of AIDS. we made AIDS everyone's disease.

"Despite the fact that the initial indications of what was actually causing so many men to get sick and die all pointed to environmental toxins that were present in our lives, this said too much about our lifestyle at the time.

"Above and beyond everything else we had to protect our lifestyle, regardless of whether it was killing us.... It was politics, not science, that determined what was killing us.

"And now we are left with what we ourselves have created."

Last year the British homosexual magazine, Continuim offered a 1000-pound (since raised to 10,000) reward "to the first person finding one scientific paper establishing actual isolation of HIV" It went on to ask "if HIV has never been isolated, what is AIDS?" At the time the reward was offered, Dublin's Gay Community News announced the prize as a news story and reported: "leading AIDS researchers at the Kobler Centre in London said current evidence does not prove that HIV causes AIDS." My appreciation of this book was not enhanced by the endorsement of Professor Peter Singer, many of whose statements I totally disagree with, such as the extraordinary admission that there is "no ethical distinction to be drawn between the killing of a foetus and that of a new-born baby."

Features

Radical Catholic movement still true to its vision

By Tracy Early

p

eople who see the new movie on the life of Dorothy Day, the foundress of the Catholic Worker Movement in the United States will learn not just about history, but about a Catholic Worker movement that continues today.

The movie, "Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story" from Paulist Pictures, began its US season late last month in New York where the movement began.

Day and Peter Maurin founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 during the Great Depression to shelter the homeless, feed the poor and defend the cause of the poor.

At Maryhouse, where she died in 1980, and the nearby St Joseph House. the homeless continue to be sheltered, the hungry fed and the cause of the poor defended.

No one has emerged, and apparently no one has tried to emerge, as the successor of Dorothy Day in leadership of the movement.

But the community continues with a mixture of people who have worked there since before her death, and new people who continually come to participate in the

The young Dorothy Day, journalist and activist

life there for a time and then perhaps move on.

Treena Lenthall, who has been visiting from Australia, said Australia had two Catholic Worker houses, the first one named for Dorothy Day. Although the New York houses where Day worked serve as something of the "cathedral church" of the movement, many other places have either Catholic Worker houses or other ministries taking inspiration from the movement.

Peter Maurin, a sort of peasant philosopher from France who is honoured as cofounder, taught that time should be taken for "clarification of thought."

At the first of the Friday night sessions of the 1996-97 year, on September 13.

Suzanne and Brayton Shanley talked about one of the related houses they have established. Agape in rural Massachusetts.

Sabra McKenzie-Hamilton said there were now more than 140 Catholic Worker houses in the United States, each with a "different personality," and 10 or more in other countries.

The Catholic Worker community also continues to make its traditional witness for pacifism.

"I came in 1990 during the preparation for the Gulf War," said Brian Hynes.

"I wanted to stop earning money so I could stop paying taxes."

He and his wife now live in their own apartment while he works on a doctorate in theology at Fordham University, but he comes back to St Joseph House and takes on periods of responsibility that are not called managing but just being "on the house."

Several people have a Fordham connection. Michael McCarthy. a recent graduate. comes down to help on Friday evenings after teaching at a parochial school in the South Bronx But people seem to come from every direction.

Amanda Atwood, a college student in California, spent this past summer working with the community.

By what it is and does the Catholic Worker community acts as a magnet that continually draws people in.

Sincere Gibson, who broke with her English Catholic background and at one point was planning to be a nun in a Hindu corn-

Moira Kelly, right, stars as Dorothy Day with Martin Sheen, left, as Peter Maurin in the Paulist PicPatAs; tures production -Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story."

munity, said she became involved more by nity since 1972, said about 90,000 copies of the latest issue were printed. accident than intention.

Most go to individuals, but some parishWalking along near St Joseph House one day, she was mistaken by men in the soup es, Newman clubs or other bodies get mulline for a volunteer, and they got her inside tiple copies, she said. before she knew what was happening.

"Who knows?" was her answer to a quesBut once inside, she was captivated by tion about the future of the paper. the kind of life she found.

"Dorothy was very clear that we should Instead of some like herself taking care of not ding too much to these things," she the needy who were housed there, it turned said. out all were caring for each other.

"If we do. they can take the place of God She recalled that she found herself on the in our lives." receiving end when she was served a bowl Continuing the concern for a tie with the of soup by one of the "intellectually chal- soil, there is still a Catholic Worker farm in lenged" men, as she described him. upstate New York_ It serves as a place for Dorothy Day was a professional journal- some to live and others to visit on retreat. ist, and started the Catholic Worker newsBut in New York. the changing character paper to inform people about issues of of the neighbourhood has become a matjustice for workers. ter of concern to some members of the At this year's first Friday night meeting, it Catholic Worker community. was announced that the August-SeptemFrom the beginning, the work has been ber issue would be mailed the next Mon- based on the Lower East Side of Manhatday. tan. historically a low-rent district.

It continues to sound the same themes.

Immigrants and other poor people found with front page headlines such as "Sweat- places they could afford there, and in the shops, Brand Names, Huge Profits" 1960s the area attracted hippies and other and "IWW Union Organiser Fired." people with lifestyles that were very alterFor the sake of the post office, an annual native. subscription price of 25 cents is given, but But now gentrification has arrived, which in fact anyone who asks for the paper gets means both a loss of housing for the poor It, and is left to donate whatever conscience and a neighbourhood climate that is may dictate. "inhospitable to the poor," said Joseph Budget limitations have forced a reduc- McKenzie-Hamilton. tion to seven issues a year.

The area still has many needy people, but Committed as they are to direct personal instead of the usual worry about a neighInvolvement, the idea of moving toward the bourhood going down, at St Joseph House technological will require much "clarifica- you can hear apprehension about what it tion of thought." means for the poor when the neighbourJane Sammon, a member of the commu- hood movement is upscale.

Pets have their place in creation, but in Heaven?

By Stefani Manowski

S

ome of the best listeners are pets.

They love the undivided attention they are given when their owners reveal their human troubles.

Pets greet their caretakers when they come home, serve as eyes and ears for the deaf and blind, and warn of fire or prowlers. And they just make human lives better.

To celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4, some Catholics take their pets to be blessed as a form of protection and respect.

But throughout the rest of the year, there isn't much talk about Catholics and their pets, much less discussion about what measures are appropriate for remembering a pet after the animal has died.

When a beloved pet dies, some people may say, "Fido was just a dog. Why are you so upset?"

Fido may have been a dog, but was he really "just" a dog? The grieving pet owner may hope the saying is true that "all dogs go to heaven."

"We cannot know for sure whether or not

there are animals in heaven," said Father Peter Ryan, assistant professor of theology at Loyola College and a Jesuit.

"But human beings, unlike animals, are created with rational souls and free will," he told The Catholic Review, newspaper of the Baltimore Archdiocese.

"We can be assured that God calls all human beings who cooperate with his grace to the eternal joy of heaven."

While there might not be pets in heaven, animals do have their own special place in creation.

Created in the image of God, humans were given dominion over the animals, but that dominion includes an obligatory respect toward animals.

"All creation is loved by God," Father Ryan said.

"When the day of resurrection comes, there are not only going to be resurrected bodies, but we will be part of a whole resurrected universe. That suggests Ills reasonable to think there may be animals in heaven. In any case, we do have moral obligations to animals because of our rational nature."

Official Catholic doctrine states the same.

The "Catechism of the Catholic Church," article 2416 reads: "Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness.... God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image."

The catechism further states that animals are destined for the common good of humanity and give glory to God by their mere existence.

Pet lovers might say they bring glory to human lives by their mere existence.

Jean Liddell, associate professor of theology at Mount St Mary's College in Emrnitsburg, said, "If you look at what is behind human beings and their pets, there are intimate relationships and a certain harmony exists. We live in such an isolated, fragmented and urban society that the desire to turn to nature and be with animals is spiritual and is a good thing for Catholics.

One thing humans do know is that ills the destiny of all living things to die.

Because people become emotionally attached to their pets, bereavement is

inevitable. Father Ryan said Ills appropriate to be sad, to a point.

"We have to keep (the grief) in perspective and not mourn for a pet as though we were mourning for a person."

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 9

• 4\ -•••••••

•

World Mission Day 1996

Time to act for those in need The Church celebrates World Mission Day 1996 this Sunday. 20 October with the theme "Remember the Children!"

The national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Australia, Fr Brian Brock of Sydney, reports here on how Australian contributions are helping the evangelical work of the Catholic Church in Zambia in Africa.

Bishop Peter Quinn of Bunbuly also speaks of what he is doing to help the Church in another African country, Uganda.

S

ister Dorothy Bwalya, 33, is the Zambian equivalent of Australia's group of Good Samaritan Sisters who became known as the "Motor Mission's flying nuns" as they went about catechetical or scripture teaching work in Sydney's Northern Beaches area.

One of those Good Samaritan sisters is Sister Mary Hugh, now based at Brookvale in a co-ordinating role, for the Congregation.

She probably drives a lot faster than her Zambian counterpart in her early model Gemini but Sister Bwalya has to cope with narrow, pot-holed dirt roads which leave few windscreens uncracked.

Sister Dorothy is pictured in her Nissan utility bouncing along the ruts near the huge slum area which has grown up near Ndola, the centre of the copper belt in

the north-west of Zambia. Along with the small Christian communities of the parish of St Elizabeth, she has already achieved a lot for the people there; cleared roads, extended the water supply, and above all, provided education for the women and young people.

This help is now more badly needed than ever with the continuing fall in copper prices which have worsened the hardtimes for one of the poorest countries in the world.

Sister Mary Hugh, also a regional St Vincent De Paul worker, will find time on World Mission Day, Sunday, October 20, to remember the children in Zambia.

"We have plenty of people who need assistance here in Australia but the level of poverty here would be paradise compared to many African countries," she said.

Sister Dorothy Bwalya bounces along in her Nissan utility near the slums of Ndola in Zambia.

Where a log is a confessional Grandfather to 80,000

G

launches Mission Day

o now in peace, says Father Stephen of the parish of Chongwe, Zam-

bia.

And the peace seems to be all around in the still bush as the woman receives the sacrament of Reconciliation.

She will ring the bell (an old tyre rim) as she leaves Father Stephen to let the next member of the congregation know that the confessional is vacant.

Father Brian Brock, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies comments: "It might seem a peaceful bush setting but there are no kneelers, no protection from the sun and from experienceIcould get awfully afraid that an elephant might come charging through the bushes.

"You might ask about protection from the rain. Well in Zambia,

Hearing confessions, Zambian style - no pews, no confessional, no Church.

they are often short of that, so they would consider it a bonus. "I'm glad I went to Zambia this year, it

will make my own talks on World Mission Day, October 20, a special appeal from the heart."

Time for us to be generous to others

The Bishop of Bunbury, Bishop Peter Quinn, presents one of the Confirmation candidates at Pemberton parish in the State's South-West. Parishioners considered the old Church too small for the occasion so Mass and Confirmation were held in the community hall. Parishioners are talking about building a new Church to be ready for the Year 2,000

W

Its Churches like these that show why we should be generous in helping our brothers and sisters through the World Mission Day. The St James Chapel of Shamba, above, constructed of the hardwood Mukwa tree and dried mud was built by the parishioners themselves and holds 60, mainly inside. Sir Dorothy Bwalya (seen at top of the page) is a St John the Baptist Sister who helps to run up to 60 rural out-stations or Mass Centres. She admits the chapel is "a bit crooked" but the choir sings and beats its drums so loudly the sound would fill more than one Australian cathedral.

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 10

orld Mission Day how tough it is for children and started early in Man- grandparents in Uganda. jimup and Pemberton 'The war to topple Idi Amin in Western Australia's lush brought AIDS into the country South West recently when Bish- and wiped out a whole generaop Peter Quinn told Confirma- tion of parents, leaving the chiltion gatherings of children and dren to fend for themselves." he adults in the two towns of his told his listeners. special links with 80,000 'Many grandparents, grieforphans in Uganda. stricken at the loss of their sons 'I am their spiritual grandfa- and daughters are working ther he said, 'because a bishop themselves into the ground to in Uganda is a friend of mine teach the children survival skills and he has asked me to help before they themselves die and those orphans in his Diocese. can no longer help their grandBishop Quinn described how children. the two bishops had studied 'That's why I am hoping that together as seminarians. that Australian grandparents "We studied for the priesthood will generously contribute to in Rome together, so how could Children's Mission, a special I refuse his request - particular- fund set up by the Pontifical ly when the theme for World Mission Societies to help chilMission Day this year is dren throughout the world.

'Remember the Children!'

'Grandparents are used to Bishop Quinn also told his unselfish giving soI am hoping audiences of how hard it was that they can multiply their for Australians to realise just efforts'.

Ulrouno Honing skills in apologetics

B

y way of making his point, Father Smith (Letters, 26 September) has misrepresented mine, and accused those who disagree with him of "heresy".

However, I am as far from subscribing to the heresy that "all religions/denominations are the same" as is Fr Smith himself.

I shall not repeat the whole content of the letter Fr Smith attacks, since it is a matter of public record anyway.

But I will elaborate the point he appears to have misunderstood.

Universities are not seminaries. But seminarians can benefit from universities.

Especially their dialectical skills, and hence their apologetics, can be sharpened - for they will eventually have to go into the world and defend the faith.

At Notre Dame these skills can be sharpened in an atmosphere of intelligence and goodwill - qualities I feel they will meet with from Andrew McGowan.

Dr Catherine Killerby Nedlands Editor's note: This correspondence is now closed.

Misrepresentation plea

Fr

Digges (The Record. 26 September) has taken twelve words "culture is not going to ensure the survival of the Aboriginal race" from two sentences of more than 44 words of my letter and presented something that seems to suit his agenda but is far from the truth of the complete text.

I repeat my original words in my letter to The Record of 5 September that "health first and foremost is essential to the future of any community he it Aboriginal or non Aboriginal. Culture is not going to ensure the survival of the Aboriginal race if they are dying at a greater rate than the rest of

L'elfers Jo the population." You have every right to disagree with my words, Fr Digges, but please don't misinterpret them.

Kathleen Brosnan Mt Tarcoola, Geraldton

Salute to Edmund Rice

T

he beatification of Edmund Rice, founder of the Irish Christian Brothers, seems to have come and gone with little fanfare and certainly not the secular media coverage deserving of the event.

The legacy left by Edmund Rice in the form of the Christian Brothers has served the Church well and continues to do so, despite recent revelations.

Recently-formed CBC Old Boys Kalgoorlie has been overwhelmed by the support from past students looking to renew friendships and reminisce on school days.

I'm sure that most old boys would agree the Brothers had a profound impact on their lives.

We all owe the Brothers a debt of gratitude in appreciation of their life of self-giving service. Many were asked to teach in very difficult circumstances and conditions, that today would be totally unacceptable.

One can but wonder how Australian culture would have developed without the contribution of the Brothers.

The legacy of Edmund Rice has been immeasurable and due respect and acknowledgment should be afforded him and the Order.

The Old Boys of Kalgoorlie-Boulder salute and thank God for Blessed Edmund Rice.

Robert Hicks President

Legitimate description

/

refer to Brother Shanahan's letter headed "Contemptible Attack" (The Record.

19 September) in which he upbraids the Nine Network's 60 Minutes program and VOICES. No-one disputes the fact that electrical

devices were used to treat bed-wetters in the Christian Brothers' orphanages.

However, Br Shanahan fails to mention that 60 Minutes was discussing the use of an electrical device attached to the child's penis, a device which he himself on the same program described as bizarre but which Br Doyle admitted on the program was, in fact, used.

Such machines in general use were normally attached to a rubber sheet, and the issue would not have been raised by 60 Minutes if this was the type of device used

by Br Doyle.

It is surely legitimate to describe an electrical machine attached to a child's penis as a torture machine.

Bruce Blyth Director, VOICES

More on celibacy

IF

urther to the editorial in The Record (12 September), I would ask the editor to please entertain a more catholic view of our Church.

Whereas it is has been the custom for the Roman Church to have a celibate priesthood, this has not been the case for the Greek Church and those Catholic rites which take their heritage from it.

I personally belong to the Ukrainian Catholic Rite and consider myself as much a part of the Church of Rome as my brothers and sisters belonging to the Rites of the West.

The Ukrainian Catholic Rite, taking its religious essence from the Greek Fathers, has always had a married priesthood. and we share this custom with other Catholic Rites of the East.

To imply that the Catholic Church does not allow for married priests is a statement both ignorant of the Church's dual historical roots, deriving its doctrinal formulation from the Fathers of the East and West and one also canonically fallacious.

The editor's comment that optional celibacy may eventually "encourage in the public mind the question of women priests", is also quite fascinating if one con-

300 attend Latin Mass, Gregorian chant Three hundred people worshipped and attended a traditional Latin Mass complete with Gregorian chant in St Mary's Cathedral last Tuesday evening.

Visiting American priest, Father John Rizzo, a member of the Fraternity of St Peter, celebrated the Mass.

The Fraternity, a congregation erected by the Holy See in 1988. is devoted to providing the Sacraments, especially the Mass, according to the Roman Missal of 1962.

The subsequent form of the Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI saw the switch to the vernacular and other changes which most Catholics these days are familiar with.

Fr Rizzo was in town as part of a national tour and will visit most of Australia's capital cities.

Interviewed on ABC Radio earlier that day, he said a resurgence in the popularity of Gregorian chant had occurred

especially among younger people and its appeal lay mainly in its contemplative nature.

"It helps us to elevate our minds to certain truths the Church teaches. Music is indeed a great expression, a great way of expressing ourselves," he said. "So the Church tries to use the best form of music, which we consider to be Gregorian Chant, to help elevate our minds."

However, he added, much concentration was needed to create the mystical dimension of beauty associated with Gregorian chant, named for Pope St Gregory the Great.

"It combines both the physical and spiritual elements because as we're singing we're concentrating. and we need to concentrate as we're singing such beautiful pieces. At the same time we're also reminding ourselves about what it's all about." he said.

-Peter Rosengren

siders the ancient tradition of married male priests of the Eastern Church and its not having, after all this time, introduced a female clergy.

Furthermore the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in the Lvov diocese in Western Ukraine has currently 350 candidates for the priesthood, of whom approximately 90 per cent are young married men.

These men, when ordained, hold the same right of priestly authority as the celibate priests of the Eastern and of the Western Catholic Church.

These young priests replace the martyred, married and celibate priests executed or imprisoned by the Soviet government when the Ukrainian Catholic Church was purged.

To imply then that celibate priests, by virtue of their celibacy, make better priests I feel is to cast unjust aspersions on the validity and value of the married priests of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church whose existence is as old as the Catholic Church itself and who take their way of life from the example and legacy given to us by Saint Peter the Apostle, whom in spite of his married state Christ named as successor to His Church on earth.

Andrew Thomas Kania Doctoral Candidate The University of Notre Dame Australia Editor's note: To live a more excellent principle, as principles by their nature are universal, is to necessarily entertain a "more catholic" view. In making this point Iam not engaging in a play on words.

The editorial did not imply that the Catholic Church did not have married priests historically as it referred to celibate clergy as a fruit of a developing understanding of doctrine and discipline: this. of course, implies that there was a period when there were married priests.

The fact that St Peter had a mother-in-law does not inevitably mean he was married at the time of Jesus' public ministry or at the time of the Last Supper when the ministerial priesthood was instituted. His wife may have been dead.

The G.K. Chesterton Society of WA invites you to meet

The Chesterbelloc A celebration, in prose and verse, of the friendship and professional association of two of our century's mat writers, G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc presented by Faith Clayton and Alan Richardson Wednesday 23rd October at Z3Opm in the "Chesterton Room

Henry Street - behind the Library of University of Notre Dame. Fremantle Refreshments provided as usual All welcome (Members free. Others are invited to make a donation towards the expenses of the eveniii i

Part of the congregation last Tuesday

Belo prize brings Timor hope Continued from Page 1 20 years of guerrilla warfare and In 1994, Bishop Belo said Indone- repeated reports of human rights sia had turned East Timor into "hell" violations.

Born in 1948, in Baucau, East through arrest, intimidation and Islamic proselytising among the ter- Timor, Bishop Belo was ordained a ritory's Catholics. East Timor is 89 Salesian priest in 1980.

In a pastoral letter before Pope per cent Catholic, while Indonesia John Paul ll's 1989 visit to East Timor, has the world's largest Muslim pop- Bishop Belo said the Pope was the ulation. bishop of Dili - alluding to the see's East Timor. a Portuguese colony establishment directly under the for four centuries, occupies half of Vatican to avoid the political issue of the island Timor, north-west of Aus- being within the Portuguese or tralia. Indonesia invaded East Timor Indonesian bishops' conferences. during a civil war in 1975, after East Bishop Belo has said the central Timor declared its independence message of his pastoral work is recfrom Portugal, and annexed it as the onciliation. country's 27th province in 1976.

"I speak of pardon, but frequently Neither the Vatican nor the United people respond: 'Pardon whom? The Nations has recognised the annexa- one who killed my father, my mothtion and most countries still view er, my brothers. Reconcile with Portugal as territorial administrator. whom, our enemies?' I answer that Many in East Timor also do not as Catholics, we have no enemies, accept the legitimacy of Indonesia's that we must always forgive as Jesus claim, and the territory has endured said," he said.

ci;*lor conlinueof

i -

cSAWMILLERS & TIMBER MERCHANTSL — S ( ---"L

The PEOPLE who specialise in TIMBER for the BUILDER & HANDYMAN Feature Cladding 4ds' , Future Extensions

1 . 1111 •

114

/40,7

Ni

t,411Rt

Balconies an Vgrandahs . _

Decks

426 Great Northern Highway.

MIDDLE SWAN.. W.A. 6056

Ph: 250 1899

Eg: Jarrah F8 Hardwood Karri F11 Hardwood Batu F17 Hardwood Jarrah Dry Dressed and Mouldings Pine F5 Softwood Pine Profile Mouldings Pine Treated Pine Treated Building Poles Particle Board Flooring Western Red Cedar Laminated Beams- L.V.L Flooring T & G (Jarrah, Pine, Tasmanian Oak, Cypress Pine) Wall Panelling Pine, Western Red Cedar, Jarrah

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 11

International News

US Catholics tops in giving less to their Church

By Jerry Filteau WASHINGTON (CNS) - Catholics, like other Christians, are taught that everything we have we owe to God. But some new national studies in the US serve to highlight again how poorly US Catholics do when it conies to stewardship - the generous use of what we have to thank God and help our neighbour.

And they indicate that there is a deeper spiritual crisis behind Catholics' inability to get right with God on money - a crisis that goes to the heart of Christian life.

This October, Independent Sector released its fifth biennial study on giving and volunteering in America. It found again that Catholics gave far less of what they earned to their Church and to charity than members of any other US religious group.

A quote from the Independent Sector report: "Over the survey years, we have

noted that respondents with a religious affiliation generally report a higher percentage of household income contributed (to all charitable activities) than those with no affiliation. The exception to this trend has been among Catholics."

Here are the specifics: • If you were an average Protestant, you gave 2.9 percent of your household income to the church and other charities.

• If you were an average non-Christian believer, you gave 3 percent.

• If you were an average Catholic, you gave 1.4 percent.

Do Catholics give less because they're poorer? On the contrary, "Catholic respondents reported a higher (1995) household income, $45,702, than Protestants, $38,42Z or those of other religions, $35,331."

Independent Sector found direct correlations between giving and volunteering.

So to the extent Catholics aren't giving, they also aren't doing for others. If a

Catholic in the US wants a quick measure of their own giving against that of the average non-Catholic believer all they need to do is answer this question: For every $10,000 a year you earn, do you give $4 a week to Church and $2 a week to other charities?

A second new study on giving is the forthcoming book, Money Matters: Personal Giving in American Churches, by Dean Hoge, Michael Donahue, Patrick McNamara and Charles Zech.

In an article on September 14 in the Jesuit national magazine, America, McNamara and Zech laid out some of the study's findings on the huge gap between Catholic giving and that of the other four denominations studied - Lutheran, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist and Assemblies of God. The study focused on what is called congregational giving - the actual amount received in a parish from its members. In

Bishops urged to lead through prayer, study

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In order to carry out their task of promoting and defending the Catholic faith, bishops must have a deep understanding and love for the doctrines of the Church, Pope John Paul said.

Meeting a group of bishops from the Philippines on October 5, the day before he entered the hospital for an appendectomy, the Pope said that from the time he became a bishop in 1958 the duty to teach "has been foremost in my mind and efforts."

The Philippine bishops were in Rome for their "ad limina" visits.

"To us has been entrusted the deposit of faith, along with the duty to preserve it intact and defend it against all threats," the Pope told the bishops.

But a bishop can fulfil his responsibility only when he truly understands and fully believes the Church's teaching, the Pope said.

"We must continually examine ourselves both regarding our

fidelity to the truths of the faith Parents need assistance in eduwhich have been handed on cating their children. Even those and in relation to how we fulfil who are well educated, he said. the divine mandate to pass them need help in integrating the teachon," he said. ings of the Church into their daily "Bishops are called to grow activities. through personal prayer and The training and formation of study in intimacy with the Holy priests is especially important, the Spirit in order to be able to assim- Pope said. ilate and communicate the full The bishops of the Philippines content of the Christian message," must work together "to overcome Pope John Paul said. regional disparities in the training The next step. the Pope said, is of priests, seeking to raise the eduto ensure that all those who assist cational level of all seminaries the bishop in teaching the faith - through a greater exchange of priests. parents and catechists - personnel. . . ." have the same love and a Pope John Paul also praised the solid understanding of Church bishops' joint efforts to provide teaching. pastoral care and protection to With the world in "a state of the thousands of Filipinos who widespread spiritual and cultural work outside their country to supuncertainty," the Church must port their families. strengthen its religious education In addition, he encouraged them programs at every level, he said. to give greater support to the "All other forms of the aposto- Philippine bishops' office for late and service will benefit from indigenous peoples. an ever-more enlightened CathoThe tribal way of life 'is underlic culture," the Pope said. going profound changes, not all. .

Young people need to learn the . . positive, and not the least as basics of Catholicism so they can a result of the fact that their habigrow up to assume their place in tat is being destroyed by industrithe Church. al deforestation," he said.

Chinese Church faces new repression

By Art Babych KONIGSTEIN, Germany (CNS) - The "underground" Catholic Church in China is facing a new wave of repression, an international conference on communism was told.

"Since the start of this year, some very serious efforts have been made by the Chinese state to gain control of and resolve the problem of the underground Church," said a cleric from China, who asked that his name not be published.

Canadian Catholic News reported that he told the congress of Aid to the Church in Need, which met from September 26-29, that the centres of the underground church in Hebei Province have been crushed and a number of

Catholic parishes, the average yearly contribution per household was $386.

In Lutheran parishes it was $746; in Presbyterian, $1,085; in Southern Baptist, $1,154; and in Assemblies of God, $1,696.

But one of the most interesting things in the McNamara-Zech article is their analysis, from surveys of Catholics, Presbyterians and Lutherans, of why Catholics give so much less.

They found only two variables. Both were matters of religious commitment - commitment to Christ and conviction that a Christian's first duty is to bring others to Christ.

"If all else were equal, but Catholics resembled Protestants in these commitment measures, Catholic giving would rise markedly," the researchers concluded.

It seems like it's time for US Catholics to translate that information into personal reflection and action.

Workers try to stop Cathedral sinking

A vendor pushes a cart of fruit and vegetables across the plaza of the phoo Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City.

By Lynn Wehness MEXICO CITY (CNS) - The Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City is filled with gold leaf, statuary and paintings, has walls eight feet thick - and is sinking.

For the past eight years the cathedral's appearance has been marred by green scaffolding as workers try to save it from sinking into the soft ground below.

All of the city's historic centre was built atop the ancient roadway system of lakes and canals used by the city's Aztec inhabitants; the cathedral sits on a lake bed.

Workers pump out sand and water in an attempt to level the cathedral floor, which has been sinking for centuries.

Between 1573 and 1996 the cathedral sank nearly eight feet.

A steel pendulum encased in the centre of the cathedral

bishops have had to flee. "The there are other bishops and Churches have been shut again, priests who, while accepting to and in some villages there are work under the label Patriotic said to have been collective for- Association, are still personally swearings of the faith," the cleric loyal to the Pope. said.

Confrontations between the China severed ties with the Vat- underground Church and the ican in 1952.

Patriotic Association "represent IDS ANGELES (CNS) - A CaliChinese Catholics split over the one of the greatest evils" to prosetting up of the Chinese Catholic claiming and spreading the fornia mother of two boys who is suffering from terminal cancer Gospel, he said.

Patriotic Association in 1957 'The aged bishops, priests and Conference delegates were also placed a very different type of faithful who knew well the theol- told that in China there are more ad recently in The Tidings, the ogy and tradition of the Church than "2,000 governments," becau- weekly newspaper of the Los could not accept the schismatic se rules change depending on the Angeles Archdiocese.

"Please, adopt my boys!" read and heretical tendencies of the local administrators.

Patriotic Association, and they Aid to the Church in Need offi- the ad from Susan, a 51-year drew a clear distinction between cials said that, over the past five old Catholic and a single mother the association and the Church," years, the organisation has pro- of two adopted boys, ages 6 and the speaker said. vided more than $2.5 million in 9.

The underground Church now aid for 200 pastoral projects for Susan, whose name was chanhas a bishops' conference of the underground and govern- ged to protect the family's privasome 50 bishops. But, he said, ment-approved Church in China. cy, has a quick-spreading and

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 12

shows visitors just how much the cathedral has dropped.

The fact that the city was built on such soggy ground has contributed to the damage wrought by earthquakes throughout its history.

Flooding and drainage problems have also wreaked havoc.

Although workers toil 24 hours a day, the process is slow, and work is expected to continue for another five to 10 years.

"They can't level it fast because they could destroy it - it would fall," said cathedral guide Jose Rodriguez Leon.

Because of the cathedral's size. "if they levelled it fast, it would break So they're levelling it millimetre by millimetre," he said.

This is not the first time efforts have been undertaken to save the cathedral from ruin.

It suffered serious earthquake damage in 1894, and repairs were begun in 1905 while architects did reinforcement work below the building in 1941.

Dying mum's advert terminal form of liver cancer and only a few weeks to live.

Her only goal, she told The Tidings, was to find a loving home for her boys as quickly as possible.

"I am urgently searching for a happily married Catholic family who will raise my boys," she said in her ad.

In an interview she said, "I don't have any doubt that the Lord will show the way. God has a plan for these boys; I would just like to know they will be in a good place before I go."

International News

Picking a successor for Pope not such an easy task

By John Thavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) - When a Pope gets sick, Rome starts to buzz: a low murmur of speculation about who might be the next to sit on St Peter's throne.

Pope John Paul ll's current problems with his appendix and nervous system got the buzz going in September.

It's human nature to worry a little, and it's a Roman hobby to scan the horizon for "papabili" - potential papal candidates.

These days, though, Vaticanwatchers in Rome may not be in the best position to identify strong contenders for the papacy.

They're close to the Vatican and Italy, which used to produce all the Popes, but far removed from local dioceses around the world.

Maybe that's why the short lists of candidates being quietly passed around Rome these days seem a bit recycled.

Several are veterans of the Roman Curia: Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, and Italian Cardinals Pin Laghi and Achille Silvestrini, for example.

• On women's ordination, Pope But most of these men are in Church teachings, a solid pastoral their 70s; Cardinal Arinze, who record and an ability to commu- John Paul's statements on the allmale priesthood are right. But "I turns 64 in November, is by far nicate.

Any Church leaders fit that think we are not at the end of this the youngest debate. The teaching of the Holy Pope John Paul was elected at description?

One walked through Rome the Father is very dear, but the intelage 58 and set a new standard for energy that the world may now other day, but was practically ligence of faith must follow it. And invisible to the papal list-makers. it's a pastoral responsibility to expect in any new Pope.

Throughout Church history, in He wasn't wearing cardinal red, fully explain this teaching."

• Papal infallibility is important fact, older candidates have usual- but his list of credentials is long and valid, but must be better and getting longer ly been passed over.

• He was the main editor of the understood. It's not just the Pope's In the current College of Cardinals, it's interesting to note that "Catechism of the Catholic position, but the Pope expressing the "infallibility entrusted by only 12 of the 112 potential elec- Church."

• Appointed to a troubled arch- Christ to the Church as a whole." tors are age 63 or under.

• Religious movements like Most of these younger cardinals diocese, he took steps to bridge are busy working in dioceses the pastoral gap between hierar- charismatics and neocatechumens sometimes upset local bishand have not come to the world's chy, clergy and faithful.

• A Dominican scholar and ops and clergy with their attention.

The most probable papal candi- member of the International The- aggressive evangelising, yet this is date may be in his 50s today, may ological Commission, he was a "necessary tension" that can work outside Rome and may not tapped this year to preach the help the Church.

• Theology today needs two or yet wear a cardinal's red hat. Pope's Lenten retreat - a sure sign three generations to recover from (Many inside the Vatican think of papal favour.

Archbishop Christoph Schon- inadequate formation programs. the Pope will name additional cardinals sometime over the next born of Vienna is not, of course, One possible remedy: Using running for Pope, but in the heart the new catechism in seminaries, year.)

The consensus is that the next of the Roman Curia, he's seen as in beginning formation courses.

• We need new ways for all the Pope will have an "international" a world-class leader for the future.

While in Rome he spent the day faithful to express their underoutlook and experience, deep thestanding of the faith. But majority ological formation, traditional but talking to some 80 bishops. vote or parliamentary procedure A few samples of his remarks: well-thought-out positions on

Pope jokes with well-wishers after operation

By John Thavis ROME (CNS) - Pope John Paul II left Rome's Gemelli hospital last Tuesday to return to the Vatican.

He took the hospital elevator to the lobby, where he walked without support. accompanied by chief surgeon Dr Francesco Crucitti and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state.

The Pope waved to onlookers, who shouted, "Long live the Pope!"

Thro days earlier, looking fit and sounding animated. the Pope blessed thousands of well-wishers from his hospital room, five days after he had his appendix removed.

"I would call this 'Vatican No 3,"' the Pope joked from his 10th-floor window above a plaza crowded with fellow Poles, Italian faithful and hospital workers.

He said "Vatican No 1" was at St Peter's Square, No 2 was at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo and No 3 has become Gemelli hospital.

"Let's hope next Sunday we'll have the Angelus blessing from

Pope John Paul II leaves Rome's Gemelli hospital escorted by Dr Francesco Photo: CNS/Reuters Crucitti, right.

Vatican No 1," he said. The Vatican press office said that after his return to the Vatican he would undergo an unspecified period of convalescence and rest.

Doctors said the 76-year-old pope was making an excellent recovery from the 50-minute operation, a "textbook" appendectomy in which adherences or scar tissues from previous surgery were also removed.

Dr Crucitti ruled out any more serious intestinal disease and took the opportunity to tell journalists he was tired of media speculation about possible papal cancer.

"It's time to put an end to all these fantasies we've read." he said. Microscopic tissue examination confirmed the doctors' diagnosis of recurrent inflammation of the appendix, he added.

Agca denies a Bulgarian connection ROME (CNS) - The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 said the alleged "Bulgarian connection" to the assassination attempt was a fabrication of Italian intelligence officials.

Mehmet All Agca, the Turk serving a life sentence in Italy for the shooting, said the intelligence officials met with him only a few weeks after his conviction and told him he would be released within two years if he

went along with their plan. Agca said he decided to cooperate.

Soon afterward he began recounting to investigators tantalising details about supposed meetings with other Turks and Bulgarians in Rome.

"The information was all gathered by other people," Agca said in an interview on October 9 with the Italian newspaper CorHere della Sera.

"I think the Bulgarian connec-

tion was a chapter of the Cold War." An Italian investigator dismissed Agca's latest claims as lies, but said the Papal assailant had recently told judicial authorities the same thing.

"He has one goal: to get out of prison. He can only hope for a presidential act of pardon, and he thinks it's easier to obtain if he makes it seem like he acted alone," said Antonio Marini.

Archbishop Christoph Schonborn.

cannot be the Church's model.

Several of the bishops who listened to the talks sang his praises afterward.

Archbishop Schonborn will turn 55 in the year 2000. By then, he'll probably be appearing on Roman "papabili" lists.

Anenwdsn5olfroerotrh7ess

By John Thavis

VAITCAN CITY (CNS) - In some ways, Pope john Paul ll's appendectomy marked the finest hour for Vatican forthrightness.

Medical reports not only described the surgical procedure and the patient's reaction ‘,I detail, but confirmed previous Vatican statements that ruled out a worse illness like cancer.

Such candour would have been unthinkable earlier this century.

It was ironic that at a time of such disclosure, there was more information about the Pope's intestines than about recent important developments In the heart of the Church.

The same week the 76-year-old pontiff went under the knife and into the world's spotlight, Vatican offices were claiming confidentiality on several key documents or events: • The International Theological Commission convened a meeting to discuss two important documents, one on salvation and other religions, and the other on the Importance of God for modern people.

Would they be released? No, it's up to the head of the doctrinal congregation, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to decide whether they'll be published at this time or ever.

• The council organising the Synod of Bishops for America held a planning session on October 2-4.

A one-page statement listed the names of participants and divulged that they had discussed "principle questions regarding the synod's preparation."

When asked for details, officials invoked synod secrecy.

• At the same meeting, Cardinal Edward Cassidy delivered what must have been an interesting speech on the ecumenical implications of the upcoming synod.

The usually accommodating cardinal said he couldn't make a copy public, because these synod preparatory meetings are considered confidential and "I'm bound by their rules."

• A strong rumour making the rounds in Rome was that the

world's cardinals would be assembled in a special meeting this fall to discuss several important Church issues.

What better person to ask than Archbishop Jorge Melia. secretary of the College of Cardinals?

"I don't know anything - but of course it's not obligatory that I know. I don't think it's likely at this point, but then again the Holy Father can always call one," he said.

Wouldn't he know, if he's the secretary of the College of Cardinals?

"Yes. I'm the secretary, but they don't always tell me everything." he said.

• Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, head of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, was certain to be retiring at age 80.

His probable replacement was already known in Rome: Mexican Bishop Javier Lozano Barragan of Zacatecas.

The Vatican, however, was holding to a "no comment" on the appointment until the changing of the guard occurred - probably in December.

At the Vatican, nothing's real until it's officially announced, the council's undersecretary, Father Felice Ruffini, said with a laugh.

The attitude of secrecy is as old as the Vatican itself.

Officials in the Vatican's many departments are told, in their employee handbook and in occasional memos, not to discuss work matters with outsiders - i.e.. journalists.

Many do anyway, but often their identity must be protected, not only from the public but from other Vatican officials.

But not all is secret. For example. Archbishop John Foley, president of the Commission for Social Communications, routinely sends advance copies of his talks to journalists.

This revolutionary practice is viewed with amazement.

As for those who ventured into the Internet site on October 8, they found that only one piece of information had been deposited there that day: the medical bulletin on the pope's appendectomy.

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 13

International News

ten Leader peace talk s Easter date 'scandal' years after Assisi event In Brief

ROME (CNS) - One of the most scandalous signs of Christian division is that in many parts of the world Christians celebrate Easter on different days, Catholic and Orthodox leaders have said.

Participants in the discussion at the interreligious meeting sponsored by the Romebased San Egidio Community agreed all Christians should observe Easter on the same day.

They reviewed proposals for determining the date, but could not agree on how the decision should be reached.

University opens JERUSALEM (CNS) - Students and faculty staff of Bethlehem University living in Jerusalem were allowed into Bethlehem on October 14, two weeks after the Israeli government closed the border between the two cities.

University rector Brother Ronald Gallagher confirmed that most classes in the University had re-opened.

He said Israeli soldiers were honouring university students' identity cards and allowing students to enter, although some were having problems getting their cars through.

During the closure, classes at the university continued, and many Jerusalem students had looked for alternate ways to get into the city, including walking through outlying agricultural fields.

Martyrs' lead VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Cistercian monks and nuns must follow the example of their brothers killed in Algeria by dedicating themselves completely to Christ, Pope John Paul II said.

"Have no doubt, the blood of martyrs is the force for renewal and unity in the Church," the Pope said in a message to various branches of the Cistercian order meeting in Rome.

Last May, seven French monks belonging to the Cistercians of the Strict Observance, known as Trappists, were kidnapped and murdered in Algeria.

A papal envoy celebrated a memorial Mass for the slain monks on October 12.

Call for pardons SEOUL (CNS) - Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan of Seoul has proposed that former South Korean presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Taewoo be pardoned as a "way of healing" the nation's wounds.

In an interview published on October 6 in the Kyonghyang Shinmun newspaper, Cardinal Kim said he wondered whether the nation's political wound could be healed by taking revenge against two former presidents.

On charges of mutiny and treason, Seoul District Court sentenced Chun to death, and his successor, Roh, to 22-anda-half years in prison on August 26. An appeal by the two, along with 14 co-defendants, began on October 7

By Cindy Wooden ROME (CNS) - Ten years ago Pope John Paul II planted a seed by inviting hundreds of religious leaders to the birthplace of St Francis of Assisi to pray for peace.

In the heart of Rome on October 10, an estimated 400 religious leaders gathered to conclude the 10th-anniversary follow up meeting on religions and peace, and received a message from the Pope thanking all those who have worked to make sure "the seed sown 10 years ago in Assisi continues to sprout."

The San Egidio Community, a Rome-based lay group, has sponsored the annual follow-up meetings, bringing together Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and other believers.

In this decade-long journey, many believers have come to know each other better, to use a language of solidarity and to spread the message of peace in their environments," the Pope said in a letter to the participants.

The Vatican secretary of state.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, read the message written by the Pope, who was in the hospital recovering from an October 8 appendectomy.

Andrea Riccardi, president of

San Egidio said, "For 10 years, we have said that religions do not want war. We have cried out that religion and war are not sisters, they are not friends, they are on completely opposite sides of history.

"The strength of believers is prayer from which are born love and understanding," Riccardi said at the concluding ceremony.

Before lighting candles in the square in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, the religious leaders signed an appeal for peace.

Since the 1986 meeting, they said, "new energies of peace and new sentiments of understanding among believers have developed like a stream that grows.

"We want this river of peace to bathe the earth of war, extinguish hatred, and nourish hope for a world that is just and without conflict," the religious leaders said.

They addressed an admonition to members of their own faiths who claim religious motivations for engaging in violence: "We remind them that peace is one of God's names. To speak of a religious war is an absurdity. No hatred, no conflict can find its

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, second from right, and religious leaders, walk together at the close of the peace conference in Rome on October 10.

incentive in religion." In some two dozen round-table discussions during the October 7-10 meeting, the religious leaders gave only a brief nod to the fact that since the 1986 meeting, the Iron Curtain has come down and the Cold War has ended.

New tensions, often exploiting religious differences like in the former Yugoslavia or ethnic differences like in Rwanda, show that dialogue, respect, prayer and

Media 'too simplistic' on Bible

By Tracy Early

NEW YORK (CNS) - Public understanding of the Bible is hampered by a media tendency to convey either fundamentalist teachings or sceptical views such as those of the Jesus Seminar, according to a leading New Testament scholar.

Sulpician Father Raymond Brown, retired professor at the interdenominational Union Seminary in New York. said biblical scholars at institutions such as Union and other major academic centres do not fall into either camp, but do not attract media attention.

The power of the media in American life today makes that a problem in getting a balanced view of the Bible across to the Catholic laity and other members of the general public, he said.

"What they hear on a talk show is more important than what they hear on Sunday."

Father Brown, who was on the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1972 to 1978 and was

appointed this year to another sixyear term, spoke on October 10 on "The Catholic Church and the Bible."

He delivered the annual Merton Lecture at Columbia University in New York Father Brown said he found the media "entranced" by the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars who have gained publicity by announcing their belief that many incidents reported in the Gospels did not happen.

Their pronouncements are often presented as what "scholars" say, as though they constituted the total scholarly community Father Brown said.

He said Catholic biblical scholarship was saved from fundamentalism by Pope Pius XII's 1943 encyclical on biblical studies, "Divino Afflante Spiritu."

He wrote that the Bible contains material of various literary forms, and not all of it has to be interpreted as literal history.

Father Brown said that was "enormously helpful," to biblical studies, and the encyclical

overall brought a • drastic change" from the situation earlier in the century.

This new outlook provided the basis of teaching that the future Pope John Paul II received in Rome in the late 1940s, and it is reflected in his subsequent writings, he said.

Father Brown said the encyclical also advanced biblical study by encouraging translation from the original languages, rather than being based on the Latin.

The change, he said, enabled Catholic and Protestant scholars to work together and get beyond their earlier divisions.

He said use of inclusive language where the original biblical text used "men" to mean all people was innocuous.

But the biblical term "Son of Man" carries a significance that is not represented by translations that change the term into "the human one," he said.

And he said Jesus used "father" with a special meaning in reference to God. "I think we have to respect that." he added.

reconciliation are just as necessary today.

"Wars are born from human selfishness and the thirst for domination, even if it is masked by other pretexts," Cardinal Sodano said in his personal address to the meeting.

As part of their talks the religious leaders also tried to find common ground and practical solutions to the tensions which give rise to conflict.

Judiciary 'vs democracy' WASHINGTON (CNS) - An attitude in America's judiciary that dismisses the links between faith and public values is undermining democracy, according to Father Richard John Neuhaus.

Father Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, told an audience on October 8 that the curjudicial rent climate, particularly as defined by the Supreme Court. is on a collision course with the basic tenets of democracy.

"It is frequently said that you cannot legislate morality." he said.

"In fact, you cannot legislate anything but morality," he said.

He warned that American public life is increasingly being interpreted as necessarily separated from its own moral foundations, he suggested.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church Responsibility and participation 1913 "Participation" is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange.

It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good.

This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.

1914 Participation is achieved first of all by taking charge of

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 14

the areas for which one lic life in a climate of genuine assumes personal responsibili- freedom." ty: by the care taken for the edu1916 As with any ethical obligcation of his family, by ation, the participation of all in conscientious work, and so realising the common good calls forth, man participates in the for a continually renewed congood of others and of society version of the social partners.

1915 As far as possible citiFraud and other subterfuges, zens should take an active part by which some people evade in public life. the constraints of the law and The manner of this participa- the prescriptions of societal tion may vary from one country obligation, must be firmly conor culture to another. demned because they are "One must pay tribute to those Incompatible with the requirenations whose systems permit ments of justice. the largest possible number of Much care should be taken to the citizens to take part in pub- promote institutions that

improve the conditions of human life.

1917 It is incumbent on those who exercise authority to strengthen the values that inspire the confidence of the members of the group and encourage them to put themselves at the service of others.

Participation begins with education and culture.

"One is entitled to think that the future of humanity is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come with reasons for life and optimism?

Official Engagements OCTOBER

Record EYE.CATCHER Deadline for ads:

Classified ads: S3 per line

5pm Monday Phone 227 7778

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

BUILDING TRADES

BUILDING TRADES

PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd for all your residential, painting commercial requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 444 1200.

LIC. PLUMBER/gas fitter, Contact John on 457 7771 Mobile 015 385 209.

PAINTING by professional.

Registration No. 3248.

Domestic or commercial.

No job too small. Available immediately. Telephone Dominic 354 9442.

PROFESSIONAL property maintenance, carpentry, fences, roofs, gutters, down pipes, paving. Ph Paul 309 4751, mob 041-895 4771.

PAINTING & Decorating reg. no. 3622. For all your painting needs, all work professionally done and guaranteed. references available. Call Carlo 444 6797.

SWIMMING POOLS, service, maintenance, equipment, painting (free quotes) K AVANAH'S POOL SERVICE, ph 349 0223. Since 1974.

WILSON'S Garden Clean Up Company. Tree lopping, hedging. pruning, yard cleanups. fully insured. Call Graham or Patrick Wilson. Tel. 276 4617, Mobile 041 993 0790.

HANDYMAN , gardening, painting, clean homes, windows, landscaping 041 991 6239. phone 377 2314.

CARPENTER/HANDYMAN All jobs, qual tradesman, Ph 041 991 6548 PLUMBER Ring Desmond 350 5223. mob. 019684 322.

PUBLIC NOTICE Bethany MASSEUSE: professional Clinic, 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. $5 discount pensioners.

This service is definitely non-sexual.

K ALBARRI Chalets by the Sea Phone (09) 572 3297

FIRST Holy Communion and Baptism outfits, for boys and girls. We have the largest and best range in Perth. We are a one stop ship. We have everything you need. We are the specialists in raw silk garments.

The Rosa Linen 267 William Street.

Northbridge, Tel & fax (09) 227 5634

THANKS

THANKS TO JESUS CHRIST our Lord. Mother Mary. St Jude and my brother Peter in Heaven, thank you for prayers answered. Trish.

d

Phone: e-mail: Publisher:

C AMP KALBARRI PCYC. All school groups. Church groups. Cheap accommodation. Children $20, adults $22 per day. Please ring Ann and Malcolm Butcher (099) 371 630.

FURNITURE REMOVALS All areas. Mike Murphy.

008 807 929.

Reecor

Managing Editor: Postal address: Street address:

PINK LAKE LODGE, Esperance. 85 Pink Lake Rd, Ph: (090) 712 075 Fax: (090) 714 754. Best value for money in town. The Lodge offers 4 self-contained apartments plus 23 rooms with shared facility.

Fridge, tea, coffee in room.

Guest kitchen. Lounge with TV, Video. Pool table. BYO Restaurant. From $25 single, $35 double, $55 family.

WANTED

HEALTH & BEAM

VESTMENT press. Contact S Collins (098) 805 052.

WANTED!! Persons to lose 5-10kg. Tel. June 242 5351

THANK you St Jude rich in for prayers miracles answered. Your novena never fails. M.K.

ISSN: 1327 - 3531

David Kehoe PO Box 75, Leederville, WA. 6902 587 Newcastle Street, West Perth, WA. 6005.

(09) 227 7080. Fax: (09) 227 7087 cathrec@iinet.net.au Roman Catholic Archbishop of Perth.

The Record, established in 1874, is distributed to Catholic churches, presbyteries and religious houses throughout the Archdiocese of Perth and the Dioceses of Geraldton. Bunbury and Broome.

Advertising rates Display: $6 colcm. $3 a line Classifieds: Deadlines: Tuesday, first mail.

Editorial: Advertising: Booking: Monday midday.

Copy: Tuesday midday.

Member: Aust Catholic Press Association; Aust Religious Press Association.

The Record follows the Holy Spirit's teaching at the Second Vatican Council on the role of the Catholic print media.

The Record will not return copy or photographs submitted for publication unless specifically requested in writing upon submission.

The editor reserves the right to accept or reject any material submitted and to edit such material for clarity and brevity without recourse to the author.

18-20 20

21

24

TRANSFORM A SHABBY CONCRETE AREA - WITH A NEW COLOUR FINISH

Driveways, Verandahs, Paths, Patios. Pool surrounds etc.

Arrnercoat =I offer you a range, of 9 fashionable colours and various ftnishtm, to suit your budget and LISIAM. .Arrnawat uses old fashionmi tediniquas and modo-n equipmait to give you the best finish. Armerwat use_s Special Dreamcoat only the bt...t quality finisha Driveway Package available - so your paved artm will stay looking good, for years. $495 (Save $185) Cleaning + New colour Phcne Peter at .Armavoat on offer ends 30 Nov. 90 (09) 447 0314 (all suburbs) any area up to 85 m2 or mobile 015 19 77 55

25

26 26/27 27

29 31

WACRI Conference Archbishop Hickey Confirmation, Spearwood Mgr M Keating Ecumenical Service and Break fast. Royal Perth Hospital Rev Fr S Bredin OSCam Visitation, Greenmount Archbishop Hickey Fishing Fleet Festival Blessing Archbishop Hickey Confirmation, Melville Rev Fr G Holohan Official Opening of Mental Health Week - Rev Fr M McShane SJ Catholic Women's League Annual (State) Conference Archbishop Hickey LifeLink Launch Archbishop's Christmas Appeal, Willetton Archbishop Hickey Visit to St Charles' Seminary Archbishop Hickey Opening of exhibition -Treasures of New Norcia-. WA Art Gallery Mgr M Keating Confirmation, Nedlands Mgr J O'Shea Confirmation. Beaconsfield Mgr P McCrann Confirmation. Morley Mgr M Keating 40th Anniversary Foundation of Mt Lawley Parish and Blessing of Commemorative Stained Glass Window - Archbishop Hickey Blessing and Dedication of Sta tions of the Cross. University of Notre Dame Australia A rchbishop Hickey Mass for Notre Dame community, University Chapel Archbishop Hickey Confirmation, Yangebup (Beeliar Park) - Rev Fr G Holohan Confirmation, Kwinana R ev Fr G Carroll Heads of Churches meeting A rchbishop Hickey LifeLink Launch Archbishop's Christmas Appeal, Morley Archbishop Hickey Presentation Night lona College Mgr M Keating

Record advertising works

Archdiocesan Panorama THE CHESTERBELLOC

No: 3019

18

22

THANKS to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Our Lady of Good Counsel, St Jude and Blessed Edmund Rice for favours granted to me and my family. Please continue to help and protect us. NAA. MAY the Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised. adored and glorified throughout the whole world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus & St Jude pray for us. Thanks Holy Spirit. M.W.

17/18

The G.K. Chesterton Society of W.A. presents

a celebration, in prose and verse, of the friendship and professional association of two of our centuries greatest Catholic writers. G.K. Chesterton and Hailaire Belloc. Guest readers.

Faith Clayton and Alan Richardson. Wednesday 23 October at 7.30pm in "The Chesterton Room" at University of Notre Dame (behind the Library). Refreshments provided. All welcome.

MASS FOR THE HOLY SOULS The Executive Committee of the Catholic Pastoral Workers Association invite you to attend a Mass for the Holy Souls (deceased family, friends and Maranatha Ass.) to be celebrated in the Chapel. Convent of Mercy, 113 Tyler St. Tuart Hill on Wednesday 6 November at 7.30pm. RSVP to Sr Mary Berry on (09) 444 5750 by Mon 28 October.

COUNTRY DAY OF REFLECTION Country Day of Reflection will be 22nd The held at Sacred Heart Church, Goomalling on Monday 11 November, commencing 9.30am with Rosary, Cenacle, concluding 2.00pm Holy Mass. Theme for the day: "Mary, Mother of all Families". Speakers: Fr Joe Kelly (OCD) & Frank Feain (Holy Spirit of Freedom Community). Please pray the "Hail Mary" for the success of the day. BYO Lunch. Tea/coffee supplied. Please wear name tag. All invited.

Enquiries: Carmel (096) 291 044 or Margaret (09) 446 1935.

CANCER FOUNDATION WIGS The Cancer Foundation of WA Inc provides the services of a Wig Library for ladies having treatment for cancer. The library is very much in demand and relies on wigs being donated and groups fundraising so the foundation can

purchase new wigs. We are urgently seeking donations of wigs. If anyone has a wig they would like to donate to the Wig Library. or could volunteer their services to sew turbans, please contact Glenice or Jenny at the Cancer Foundation. Phone: 13 11 20 or (09) 381 4515.

Your assistance is much appreciated.

BUSINESS PERSONS' MASS Will be celebrated at All Saints Chapel. Allendale Square, Perth on Friday 25 October at 7am. followed by a Breakfast Meeting at the Venice Cafe. Trinity Arcade, Perth. Cost of Breakfast S8.00. Guest speaker will be AnneMarie Langdon of the Pregnancy Help Council. Enquiries: phone 384 0809.

150th MERCY CELEBRATION LITURGY A 90 minute edited Video of the Mass celebrated in the Entertainment Centre on 22 September is now available. Please contact Sisters of Mercy on Phone: 382 1477 or Fax: 388 2978.

Cost S20 plus postage.

PROCESSION TO HONOUR OUR LADY A procession in Honour of Our Lady of the Family will take place at Sacred Heart Church.

Discovery Drive, Thornlie, on Sunday November 10, commencing at 11am, and concluding with Mass. All are invited to attend this occasion in honour of Our Lady. Enquiries: 459 4459.

PEOPLE FIRST! A National Conference organised by the Catholic Bishops of Australia, following the recently launched statement on poverty. The conference aims to develop a Social Action Plan for the Church and is seeking representation from Church welfare, social justice, aid and development organisations, as well as interested individuals.

Registration forms are available from the Catholic Social Justice Commission, phone (09) 325 1212.

Copies of the statement on poverty "A New Beginning" are also available.The statement is compulsory reading for those attending the conference and contains a questionnaire to be submitted prior to the conference.

TPEOvcolvk-ooPirp.,q4s,946.-Rtige15

P41444

ortmit

pithels, 741t 1,4t-aer

Archbishop to bless new window, marking 40 years S

t Paul's Parish, Mt Lawley is officially forty years old and to mark this special occasion the anniversary will be celebrated at the 9.30 am Mass next Sunday, 27 October.

Archbishop Barry Hickey will bless the newly installed stained glass window depicting St Paul, that now enhances the sanctuary and launch the just-completed parish history.

St Paul's history goes back well before it became a parish in its own right.

It was originally part of Highgate Parish, which meant a long trek, mostly on foot, to get to Mass every Sunday.

Some of the pioneer parishioners, like Marie Creeper and brothers Frank and Pat Brophy, can still remember having to do this when they were children.

They can also remember the decision taken by Father Crowley to rent the upstairs room at the Montessori School in Learoyd St, Mt Lawley, as a Sunday Mass centre in 1935.

The Sisters of Our Lady of the Mission had built the school in 1929.

It was the first Montessori school in Western Australia and it was very successful.

Former pupils, like Father Pat Cunningham, often sing the praises of both the effectiveness of the method and the young sisters who taught there.

As time went on people got involved in the usual sort of parish activities: rosters to set up

Tina Jack and Luke O'Donoghue preparing for the Parish Mission. and dismantle the room before and after Mass, forming choirs to sing on special occasions, cleaning, fund raising, giving the priest breakfast before he rode his bicycle back to Highgate.

But they were still considered to be part of Highgate Parish.

Baptisms, First Communion days, weddings and funerals were therefore conducted at the Mary Street Church for the next 20 years.

The change came in 1955 when the Archdiocese purchased two adjoining blocks of land in Rookwood St, some two hundred metres from the school.

The decision was taken to make

Mt Lawley a separate parish from Highgate and, shortly after, it was declared a parish in June 1956.

The late Monsignor John Wallace was appointed the first parish priest.

However, Monsignor Wallace carried out his duties from Highgate, while plans were drawn and decided upon for a church and presbytery.

But before they were completed, ill health forced Monsignor Wallace to resign his position.

The late Monsignor Thomas Lenihan took over and there followed an amazing three months of concentrated fund raising to provide the furniture and fittings for the new Church and presbytery The history committee has calculated that in today's terms the amount raised in the three months prior to the blessing of the new church was equal to two and a half years worth of the current planned giving commitment.

The generosity of those pioneer parishioners gave the new parish a flying start and with everything donated being inscribed with the donor's name there came an immediate sense of belonging and identity.

For the current parishioners, the decision taken by the parish council to re-install two stained glass windows, removed in the 1970 renovations, and to install an additional one depicting the patron saint of the parish, may well have the same result. The windows are to mark the fortieth

St Paul's Church and its adjoining presbytery deft, today.

ARCHBISHOP'S 1996 CHRISTMAS LIFELINK APPEAL Parish priests and Christmas Appeal representatives in the southern suburbs are reminded that Archbishop Hickey will launch the appeal (formerly the Advent Appeal) in the southern suburbs on Thursday 24 October at the John Paul Parish Centre in Willetton at 7.30pm.

CHARISMATIC RETREAT Group Fifty Prayer Group Charismatic Retreat. Friday evening 25 to Sunday afternoon 27 October, at Redemptorist Monastery, Camelia St, North Perth.

Leader: Fr John Giles OFM. Theme: "Towards God - One Body, One Spirit."

Live-in cost: $96 (all meals) or live-out $60 (all meals except breakfast).

To Register, Phone Vi on 364 5050.

The Record, October 17 1996 Page 16

The recently remodelled sanctuary wall.

The St Paul window surrounded by the symbols of the evangelists. anniversary and to serve as a memorial to deceased priests and people of the parish.

Those parishioners who have supported this gift will always Identify themselves with the windows whenever they enter their church.

The parish today is quite a mix of age groups. As with every parish many of the original families have grown up and only the now retired parents remain.

Recent years have seen an increasing number of young families moving into the area, so that the children's liturgy has had quite a resurgence and the school is once again able to fill its numbers with children from the parish.

The special feature of the parish Is the location within its boundaries of the aged persons' homes complex on Alexander Drive.

For more than twenty years this has meant the parish has been enriched by the many and varied contributions made by these energetic and committed retirees.

The current parish priest is Father Brian O'Loughlin, who also has a position with the Marriage Tribunal.

The parish has had to adapt to having a "part time" priest but seems to have done so fairly smoothly. Having Sister Margaret Mary Crock OLM as a pastoral worker two days a week has helped enormously. Sister's time

Archdiocesan Panorama 41111.111111•10100MM

LITURGICAL MUSIC WORKSHOP 'Liturgical Music for Everyone: the Effective Parish Organist', presented by Richard Clark. Please bring a short piece of music and a hymn with which you are confident and can use within the workshop. Thursday 24 October, 7.30 pm 9.30 pm, St Joseph's Church, 1 Salvado Rd, Wembley, Cost $5. For information and registration contact Kylie, Archdiocesan Liturgy Office (09) 221 1548.

BANNER MAKING WORKSHOP This special workshop will be run over two days on the weekend of November 9-

10, where you will be able to create a banner/altar frontal/ambo frontal for your parish.

This workshop is "hands on" and limited to 20 participants.

The workshop will look at design suitable for Ordinary Time, and the images, signs and symbols that can be used.

Colours, fabrics and crafting will be covered. St Jerome's Parish Hall, 24 Troode St, Munster. 9.30am -4.30 pm.

For further information and registration contact Kylie, Archdiocesan Liturgy Office, phone (09) 221 1548.

Is given to visiting the residents of the retirement homes.

The parish council with chairman Michael Holler and secretary Annette Ti'brook is very active and reflects the make up of the parish in its membership: Pat Brophy has lived in Mt Lawley since 1928, Tricia Mitchell since 1994.

The research into the parish history has revealed many dedicated and loyal people who gave, and in some cases are still giving, wonderful service to the community.

It is hoped that the reading of the history will inspire everyone to carry on this fine tradition.

- Karen McLean

At a Glance Parish: St Paul's, Mt Lawley

Parish Priest: Fr Brian

O'Loughlin, PhD Address: 106 Rookwood St. Mt Lawley WA 6050.

Telephone: 271 5253 Masses: Saturday (Vigil) 6pm. Sunday Etam and 9.30am. Wednesday and Friday at RSL Chapel, 9am.

Reconciliation: Saturday 5pm-5.45pm.

Parish School: St Paul's

Principal: Mrs Roberta Chapman Tel: 271 8593; Fax 370 3047

MASS & FAREWELL LUNCHEON FOR FR TIM QUINLAN Members, relatives and friends are invited to attend Newman Sunday Mass, 10 November at 10.30am followed by luncheon in West Tutorial Room at 12 noon.

Cost $10 per person. RSVP Adrienne Byrne 388 3026. or Judith Kennedy 386 7714 by Wednesday 6 November.

This is also a farewell to our Spiritual Director, Fr Tim Quinlan SJ who is leaving after serving a six year term as Rector of St Thomas More College to take up duties at Canisius College. Sydney, to head the lgnation Centre of Spirituality (ICS) which he helped to found.

He will be replaced by Fr Theo Oberberg SJ, former Rector of Aquinas College, Adelaide.

Continued page 15