The Record Newspaper 12 December 1996

'r ecord

Christmas joy at Plan Hospital " St Vincent de Paul 'strenuously resisted' WA's only Catholic weekly newspaper

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By Peter Rosengren The Catholic Church in Perth has locked horns with Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and will vigorously resist the hospital's plans to phase out existing chaplains and replace them over time with what it calls 'ecumenical chaplains.'

Perth's Auxiliary Bishop Robert Healy said this week the hospital's plans were unacceptable and would be "strenuously resisted: Bishop Healy's comments followed the hospital's announcement that it intended to move to a new model of ecumenical chaplains as existing priests and ministers retire or are appointed to other positions by their relevant Churches.

The new policy would see existing chaplains, all of whom are priests or ministers of religion, replaced with new ecumenical chaplains appointed by the hospital, who would make "pastoral diagnoses" of patients' spiritual needs.

The new official chaplains would effectively be non-denominational, meaning that Catholics, Anglican and Uniting Church patients could no longer expect visits from official chaplains of their own denomination working at the hospital.

But they would still be able to ask for a Catholic priest to come from outside the hospital 24 hours a day to administer the sacraments and spiritual counselling.

Hospital staff would have a list of outside denominational priests and ministers to call if a patient requested one.

Bishop Healy said both he and Archbishop Hickey had put their criticism of the new policy strongly to the hospital's acting director of medical services, Dr Diane Davies.

"Only a Catholic priest can provide for the needs of Catholic patients in the hospital," Bishop Healy told The Record.

Bishop Robert Healy

"If the hospital wishes to provide the best professional pastoral care for Catholic patients, then the hospital should be willing to provide a Catholic priest for the Catholic patients." the bishop said.

"This has been done in the past. at greater expense to the Church than the hospital, and it should continue in the future," he added.

According to the hospital. there are three chaplains - two Catholic priests and a Uniting Church minister - working at the 628-bed hospital.

A fourth position, filled until recently by an Anglican priest, had been advertised and would become the first of the new positions. It would be filled by a hospital "ecumenical chaplaincy coordinator."

Dr Davies told The Record the appointment would be made according to skills, training and experience related to chaplaincy work rather than on denominational criteria.

She said the move would ensure the best professional pastoral care was provided by the hospital's taxpayer-funded chaplaincy regardless of denomination, and followed the lead of other hospitals around Australia.

But other public hospitals in Perth contacted by The Record last week said they were unaware of plans to alter existing chap-

Perth: December 12, 1996

laincy arrangements at their own hospitals. Instead, the trend appeared to be towards maintaining the status quo or, in some circumstances, enhancing hospitals' responses to denominational religious needs.

A spokeswoman at Princess Margaret Hospital said the hospital had recently installed a Muslim prayer room to meet the needs of the hospital's Islamic patients.

The chief executive officer of Fremantle Hospital, Peter Howe, said there were no plans to alter the chaplaincy regime there.

"We have the highest regard for our chaplaincy service and believe it is an integral part of providing comprehensive care to our patients," he said.

"We would not envisage changing the existing arrangements and would hope that we will be able to further strengthen our bond Notre Dame University students, Leticia Jennings, left, and Erin Callahan, were with the chaplaincy service in the at the Society of St Vincent De Paul headquarters in East Perth this week happy to help prepare hampers donated by students, staff and friends of the future." university for distribution to needy families at Christmas.

Fremantle-based Dr Davies said no patients at Sir stuffed with items such as tinned food, puddings, hampers twenty-five The Charles Gairdner Hospital would be disadvantaged through being hams and drinks - together with a mountain of gifts for both young and old denied access to a chaplain of are currently being distributed by the society.

In 1995, St Vincent De Paul volunteers and staff gave the spirit of hope to their choice.

Christmas joy even If a hospital chaplain of the 3500 West Australian families but are hoping to spread year. this further required denomination was not West Australians wishing to share some of their good fortune this Christmas available, she said, the chaplaincan make donations of food, toys, gifts or money at any of the St Vincent De a list call on cy coordinator would of available clergy from outside Paul shops or by phoning the donation line on 221 8888. the hospital, as was the case for denominations and religions not included on the current chaplaincy staff.

The convention, to be held from The Perth Catholic archdioBut Bishop Healy questioned cese's Youth Ministry director, January 12-18 at St Brigid's Colthe practicality of the new lege in Lesmurdie, are effectively arrangement because of the size Bruce Downes, has contradict- live-in retreats attended by severof the hospital. "We fail to see how ed the common wisdom that al hundred young people. a coordinator can be aware of, young people return to the Mr Downes said that he had spoand provide for, the needs of all Church through significant to experienced parish priests ken patients," he said. their lives such as occasions in in Perth and other dioceses and He added that a Catholic chap- marriages and baptisms, saying found that their consistent lain would continue to work at this is no longer the case. response was that now people the hospital "for the time being" His comments came in an arti- who ceased lobe involved in their but the future of the position was cle in this week's Record (see teens were now coming back for uncertain.

Page 4) explaining the annual the events such as marriage and In any event, "any attempt to youth conventions used by the baptism but, except for small introduce a full ecumenical Chap- Archdiocese's Youth and Young numbers, did not become active laincy will be strenuously resist- Adult Ministry to make contact again in other areas of Church or ed," he said. with and evangelise youth parish life as previously.

Catholics.

Full report - Page 4 Continued on Page 15

Youth 'not coming back'

WA Presentation Sister hopes for Thai AIDS hospice

Two Perth men to be ordained

- Page 19

- Pages

The Record will publish a 24 page Christmas edition next week with the best a vailable Catholic Christmas reading.

A return to Jesus is crucial for humanity 0

n the first Sunday of Advent we began the Year of Jesus, the first of three years of preparation leading up to 2000 AD. This solemn preparation for the celebration of 2000 years of Christianity is timely.

It will allow us to make sure that Jesus is central to our lives or, if other things have in fact displaced Him, we will be able to make the necessary adjustments.

In my view the centrality of Christ in the lives of Christians is becoming a major issue.

Because we live in an increasingly secular society, we are in danger of adopting the values and attitudes of a secular culture to the detriment of our faith.

Has it already happened? To some extent we must say that it has happened. On major moral

issues to do with life, Catholics one can be sure that they are not but deep prayer and trust in God, are indistinguishable from others being nourished in their Catholic and asks us to discover the joy of in their use of contraception and faith or beliefs in other ways. living His way while withstandin seeking abortion.

They tend to merge more and ing the opposition of the world to We are seeing the same drift more with the general population the values that mark the life of a from Catholic moral principles in regarding attitudes and values.

Christian. current attitudes to euthanasia.

Given that the fall-away of our A return to Jesus is crucial for Add to these life issues the atti- young people is even higher, have the salvation of humanity. tudes of Catholics to wealth, mate- we not here a major problem?

We cannot stand by indifferent rialism, poverty, racism and There is no easy way of address- to the fate of those who walk with refugees, and we see a similar pat- ing it. The Holy Father calls it the Him no more or whose lives are tern.

New Evangelisation, or the re- a contradiction of the Gospel.

This is not to say that the core of evangelisation of Catholics who If the human race is to find salfaithful Catholics who attend have drifted away. vation and eternal life, it can only Mass each week, who pray in It is therefore of the utmost find it through Jesus Christ who, their families, who seek opportu- importance that we make the in the words of St Paul to Timonities to pray with others, or who most of the Year of Jesus. thy, is the one Mediator between read their Holy Scripture and To say that He is central is to say God and us. (1 Tim. 2: 5) other spiritual books, are that way. that He speaks to us in a different It is necessary for us to do two They have held firm. voice from that of the world. things - first, make sure that Jesus The truth is that around 75 per He has much to say to individu- is central to our lives, and, second, cent or more of our Catholic peo- als and to families, to mature peo- remind the world that there is no ple do not attend Mass each week. ple and to the young about how other way to salvation but through And if they do not even do that, to live. He calls us all to simple Jesus.

By Peter Rosengren

force from March next year and tims, assistance to others affected, stage of preparing for the study, will apply in all dioceses except an effective response to those which would attempt to discover the Archdiocese of Melbourne accused of abuse as well as to if there were any factors specific which has already implemented those guilty of it; and prevention to the Church that might lead to its own set procedures for of abuse from happening. sexual abuse. responding to the problem.

The pastoral letter, approved at A key point of the bishops' stratThe bishops said they had the bishops meeting in Sydney egy - a code of conduct for clergy issued the accompanying pas- late last month, said that a major and religious which is currently toral letter, Responding to Sexual study involving interviews with in its second draft - would also be Abuse - A Progress Report, to convicted offenders, victims, pro- circulated early next year among bring the public up to date on fessionals who have treated victims, clergy and religious for their April 1996 commitment to offenders and with a number of comment, the bishops said. implement nine strategies to deal priests and religious was in Face to face meetings between with sexual abuse within the preparation. There would also be Church leaders and victims Church. a review of principles and proce- designed to more vividly bring The document commits the dures. home the hurt and damage done Catholic Church in Australia to They said the Australian by clerical or Religious sex abuse strive for seven objectives regard- Catholic Social Welfare Commis- were also increasing, they added. ing allegations of sexual abuse: sion and Centacare Sydney had An interim board of psycholotruth, humility, healing for vic- already completed the initial gists and psychiatrists had begun to meet to develop a program of treatment and prevention for offenders.

Bishops' representatives had also reported to the New South Wales Royal Commission into Police Corruption after the commission heard evidence of sexual abuse by clergy earlier this year from other sources.

Professionals have also been employed to make case studies of how the Church has responded to

Archbishop's

Perspective

Bishops ask for abuse comment The Australian Catholic Bishop's have released a new document dealing with the Church's response to sexual abuse by clergy and religious for comment by the public.

The publication, Towards Healing, reviews and updates principles and procedures regarding the Church's response to sexual abuse by clergy.

Towards Healing was released on Wednesday with a pastoral letter from the bishops reporting on their progress in implementing strategies to deal with the problem.

The document will come into

the problem in the past in order to help determine how it could better respond in the future, the bishops said.

Father David Cappo, a former ACSWC national director who is also a social worker with experience in child protection and support for victims of abuse, had been appointed as an executive officer to the bishops' inquiry into sexual abuse within the Church, the bishops said in their letter.

"Although it is too early to assess the response to these strategies, the picture should become clearer by our next meeting in April 199Z" they said.

The bishops, however, were not prepared to say that the strategies currently being developed were the complete answer to the problem.

"What has happened is only a small part of what needs to be done," they said.

"It will take much work by many people before the response of the Church is truly adequate to the reality of sexual abuse.

"We invite the whole Catholic community to assist us in every way possible," they said.

Jobless reforms earn praise

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The Catholic bishops' main welfare lobby group, the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission, this week praised Howard Government reforms to schemes helping the jobless.

ACSWC national director Toby O'Connor said consultations on how to implement the Government's employment reforms had heeded "vital concerns" voiced by the community sector.

He said extending assistance for the most disadvantaged job seekers from 12 to 18 months as well as a strong commitment to help disadvantaged metropolitan and

regional communities showed the Government wanted to tackle the unemployment crisis in a comprehensive manner.

The most significant indication of the Government's commitment to disadvantaged job seekers was the announcement this week of a community support program that guaranteed help to those facing severe barriers to employment and those with special needs.

Centacare Australia backed Mr O'Connor's praise strongly and welcomed the Federal Government's general consultation process as well as the specific reforms themselves.

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The Record,December 12 1996 Page 2

Encourage our priests, 'do not tear down'

By Colleen McGuiness-Howard Despite current wisdom in some places that priests were set too high on pedestals and must have their status reduced, the opposite was true, Archbishop Barry Hickey told the second Day for Prayer for Priests held at Holy Name Church, Carlisle, last Monday.

And part of the problem was that priests these days increasingly found such views in their own theology books, Archbishop Hickey said.

In fact priests shouldn't be torn down but built up, the Archbishop urged.

Despite the humanity of a priest who had faults and failings, He was chosen by God to be His priest, and enter into that greater intimacy with Him, the Archbishop said.

Thus in order to help him, it was important for people to pray and assist the priest in his spiritual renewal which begins and grows with prayer, "and which will allow him to enter more deeply through prayer, to capture that unity that Jesus Himself started."

Otherwise they will be discouraged. said Archbishop Hickey, "but if they do pray. they will know the world is in the hands of Jesus and they must cooperate as generously as possible.

"Because they (the world) will never be able to blot out the voice of Christ and young women and men will continue to come forward to follow Him." He also encouraged people to pray that priests would take Mary "home" to their hearts, which the Holy Father had pointed out John was enjoined to do by Jesus on

Archbishop Hickey speaks of the need for prayer to support priests. the cross. "Mary was receptive to the Holy Spirit and it was because the Holy Spirit was within her that Jesus was formed in her womb and the world received its Saviour," Archbishop Hickey told the gathering of people who had come to pray for WA:s priests.

The answer to the dilemmas, frustrations, and discouragement faced by priests today, however, stated Archbishop Hickey, was for people to pray for their priests, "because they're chosen," and for the priests themselves to pray for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who would guide and direct them.

He also asked his priests and lay people to heed the Holy Father who despite a fragile body, had a strong voice, mind, and direction for all to follow.

He said that as a result of that guidance and strong prayer "they will find courage to face their difficulties and expected hostility which inevitably comes," but will gain strength. guidance and a new vigour from the Holy Spirit to be an inspiration to others.

Passing of a man who had time for the people The Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Church in Western Australia both suffered a tremendous loss at the sudden collapse and death of Br Tony Daily at the Brothers' residence in Fremantle on the evening of Friday, 29th November 1996.

Born at Glenelg (SA) in 1925, Br. Tony lived out his choice of vocation as a Christian Brother for over 55 years, having set off for the Christian Brothers' Juniorate in Smithfield, NSW, in January 1941.

In 1955 he was sent to Adelaide, serving first as Principal of Ovingham Primary School and then St Paul's College.

In 1965 he was transferred to St Patrick's College. Geraldtonan appointment which ushered in an involvement with Catholic Education in WA that would last the remaining 32 years of his life.

After four years in Geraldton, he became vocations director for the newly created Holy Spirit Province (WA & SA), and in 1972 was made Principal and Superior of Clontarf and then Superintendent of Castledare.

In 1985 Br Dally was appoint-

Archbishop Hickey thoroughly endorsed prayer for priests, telling the assembly they were definitely "on target".

Priests faced discouragement today, he admitted, and are also faced with many meetings, fund Dornincan Sister Mary Ignatius, raising and organisational details.

As leaders, they took personal who died suddenly and peacefulresponsibility for those who drift- ly last Thursday. 5 December, ed away from the Church and felt after a lengthy illness, was born discouraged 70% to 80% of Hannah Prendiville at Castleisland in County Kerry where she Catholics never came to church.

"And when he looks around him was educated by the Presentation and at Australia, he sees some sort and then by the Loreto Sisters.

It was in 1938 that Sister Mary of spiritual desert." he said.

Perhaps he sees a rebirth here Ignatius joined the Dominican and there. said Archbishop Hick- Sisters at Dongara, in far away ey, "but it is not to be found in the Western Australia. church."

A Domincan sister said this The Day of Prayer was the sec- week Sr Ignatiius was an extremeond such event to be organised in ly gifted person; she had inheritPerth and saw Carlisle parish ed a great love of the arts. priest. Father John Liszka issue an especially music and drama, and, enthusiastic welcome to a large in her early religious life, had the crowd of pray-ers. opportunity of developing her talContinued on Page 15 ents in those areas to a high Also, two Perth men to be degree. ordained; priest appointments She was highly successful, too, - Page 5 in her studies at the University of

Br Anthony C Daily cfc ed Regional Director of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Bunbury before'returning, at the age of 65. to Geraldton.

Among his own Brothers, he will be remembered as a man above all of deep and genuine prayerfulness; a colourful character with a fund of stories; a good educator, one who could view projects with an eye to the big picture, but at the same time recognise the detail necessary for them to succeed.

Always he has been a man who has had time for people, and that is why his passing will touch so many hearts. May he now enjoy the reward of the good and faithful servant.

Sustained by Eucharist

WA and went on to do post graduate studies in the United States.

By nature, Sr Ignatius was a very private person, of deep faith, very spiritual and prayerful, with a great love of the Mass and great devotion to the Divine Office and the Rosary.

It was her daily reception of the Blessed Eucharist which sustained her during her latter years when her health deteriorated.

The Dominican Sisters would like to express their gratitude to the Doctors and staff of the Nursing Home for their kindness and attention; to the many ladies of Doubleview parish who acted as drivers and friends; and to all sister's friends and relatives whose visits she treasured.

May she rest in everlasting peace.

Y OU'VE PLANNED THEIR BIRTHDAYS, G RADUATIONS AND WEDDINGS. N OW PLAN SOMETHING ELSE FOR THEM. Y OUR FUNERAL.

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The Record.December 12 1996 Page 3

-•••••

TOMORROW TODAY

Challenge now is to find the medium the young will hear so that they can contribute back to their parishes or groups where they have come from.

We invite them to enter into prayer by being led by both adult guides and young leaders during the week as well.

Along with these aims, a major emphasis is placed on attempting to develop a Catholic Culture for young people to belong to when the convention has ended.

Young Catholics often express to those of us who work in this ministry field that they are lonely and are unsure where they fit in the Bruce Downes Church. people in Australia was a lack of A study done by the Youth Office a sense of participation. here in Perth suggested that 77.2% It is no secret that young people of young people do not feel as if are drifting away from the Church they belong in the Church. in a more permanent manner This is backed up by the recent than occurred years ago. large scale national research It was not uncommon to hear of done by the National Bishops young people who ceased to Conference for Justice, Peace and attend Church on a regular basis Development where the number and for them to become involved one issue expressed by young again only when they got mar-

ried, had a child or their children way young people are educated commenced school. This, howev- today, they are more articulate, In my position as the Director of er, is no longer the case. encouraged to question and the Catholic Youth and Young One just needs to speak to expe- arrive at their own conclusions Adult Ministry I am often asked rienced Parish Priests both here and if something does not make what our objective is in holding and in other dioceses as I do, to sense to reject it until they have the Annual Youth Conventions. realise, that their consistent sufficient information.

As the seventh Annual Youth response is that people who This is a far cry from only a few Convention "The Voice Within" is ceased to be involved in their years ago when Catholics acceptonly one month away, this seems teens are now coming back for ed without questioning the like an appropriate time to the events such as marriage and Catholic faith because "Father respond to this repeatedly asked baptism, but do "not" become said so." question. active again in other areas of It is my belief that we are not Church or parish life except in experiencing a "Crisis of Faith" as There are number of objectives small numbers. that we endeavour to meet over some would suggest but rather a the seven nights and six days that While this may sound negative "Crisis of Method" of which coma convention runs. it only serves to show that young munication is part. people are expressing something Primarily, the Convention is a We need, as Church, to look at to us about the Church and that if appropriate ways retreat for young people between of expressing we are not defensive we may actu- our beliefs the ages of 16 and 23. in a manner that interally learn something about how sects We attempt to provide for them their lives. we are Church together. an opportunity to reflect upon The reason I do not support a their life, meet others who are There are many reasons for this change to Catholic teaching is that prepared to share about their life, trend, with arguably the pace of it is not in my opinion the source provide some Catholic teaching, change within our world being of the difficulty. and train young leaders over the the most damaging.

Young people are not, in the first three months before a convention A person need only consider the place, hearing the voice of the Church in a manner that they understand or can interpret.

It is also my belief that if we do not encourage and assist the growth of places where young people can experience faith in an ongoing manner then most young people will wander away from the Church.

Being with other young people to share is extremely important and yet most parishes struggle to maintain places for young people to do this.

While it may appear that I have gone off the subject of "Why Youth Conventions," it is all of the above that we try to accommodate in our planning of this yearly event.

The most successful part of the Convention is giving young peoCurrent and ex-Antiochers gathered at the Embassy Ballroom last Saturday night for a mediaeval ball that saw the latest in ye olde ple the security to pray in a manfashions on parade for all to see. The ball, a community building exercise as well as a successful fundraiser, will help Antioch make its way through ner that is both relevant and 1997, now just weeks away.

Over 200 attended the alcohol-free event and enjoyed, like good mediaevalist, the food, the company and the music. meaningful to them.

The key factor is having people not just talking about prayer but praying with, and in front of, young people in a personal manner that is not hidden.

0 We have, like many others, found that catechesis and evangelisation are the gateway to the more traditional forms of prayer in the Church.

We all know that young people are very conscious of what others think of them. The same is true of A faith.

Pallottine Priests, Many young people comment The Brothers & Sisters that at the Conventions they can Word talk about God and religion and Fr Pat Jackson SAC D Studied not feel as if they need to hide 27 Barcelona Street, Li Contemplated their beliefs. It is my conviction Box Hill, Victoria Celebrated that we need more opportunities 3128 Australia D Proclaimed for this type of sharing to occur.

(03) 9898 4657 There is an old saying that is Trough Community often used in the Youth Ministry based Prayerful Fr Kelvin Kenny field, "Faith is caught and not and Scholarly SAC Preaching and taught."

60 Fifth Avenue Teaching The convention organisers Rossmoyne, endeavour to create a space in the For information WA 6148 lives of young people where they contact Australia can catch the faith and learn Fr John O'Neill OP (09) 457 7906 about it as well.

St Dominic's Priory 816 Riversdale Rd The Youth Convention runs Camberwell 3124 from January 12 to 18, 1997 For Tel. (03) 9830 5144 more information call the Youth Office on 328 9622.

The RecordAecembar 12 1996 Page 4

By Bruce Downes

Who said no-one had fun in ye olde Mediaeval times?

Pallottines building people not pyramids...

in a participative

Church.

Wake up caII and inspiration

By Peter Rosengren It might sound almost too romantic for words but when Deacon Vinh Dong arrived in Australia 15 years ago, aged 11 and just one minuscule part of the flood of humanity desperate to escape communist rule in Vietnam, his vocation to the priesthood had already been born in the middle of a storm.

For two deacons, Vinh Dong and Michael Separovich, due to be ordained priests by Archbishop Barry Hickey in St Mary's Cathedral in Perth at 7pm this Friday, their journey to the priesthood has been very different.

Even before Vinh Dong arrived in Australia he knew that God had something special and noble in store for him.

"I'm a 'boat person'," he told The Record this week. "I left Vietnam when I was only 11 years old - by myself at that time.

"I escaped on a boat that was nine metres long and two metres wide and carrying about 80 people," he said.

During that 10-day journey on the squalid and dangerously overcrowded boat which eventually ended in a refugee camp in Malaysia Vinh discovered his vocation.

"On the sixth day the boat was facing a really big thunderstorm and it almost turned the boat over.

There was a lady sitting next to me and she said 'are you a Catholic?'Isaid 'yes' and then she said "Well, wake up you little boy and pray!"

Vinh didn't appreciate being disturbed. "I said: 'I've already said my prayers. Let me alone and let me go to sleep!' So I went to sleep and my prayer was this: Oh God, if you save me I'll try and become Deacon Vinh Dong a priest and I'll help your people' "So I guess that's where my what he wanted to do when he vocation started," he said. "It start- finished Year 12. "I said, 'I want to ed from my hardship, where I be a priest.' And Mr Finucane needed God the most." looked at me and said 'Really!'

Despite the storm threatening to He was excited too. He said to me capsize the overcrowded boat, 'If you ever become a priest, you when he woke the next morning will be the first priest from this he found the sea as calm as glass. school!'"

In Malaysia he saw not just that As a result of the support he a priest's life was hard work but received at Mercy College, Vinh that a priest's mission was to bring said, he has invited the whole happiness to the people, despite school to the ordination and all the difficulties. hopes to see as many of them Educated at St Mark's College in there as possible.

Bedford and later at Mercy ColAlso there on Friday night will lege in Koondoola, Vinh's voca- be Vinh's eight brothers and sistion received support and ters.

They are now living in Australia; affirmation.

When he and his brother were another sister has come from Vietinterviewed as prospective pupils nam for the ordination.

After ordination, Vinh will offer at Mercy College by principal Dick Finucane, Vinh was asked his first Mass this Sunday at 10am

Deacon Michael Separovich

at St Thomas More Church in Bateman.

For Deacon Michael Separovich, the journey to priesthood has been completely different.

Through the example of a priest he found his own vocation, which was present from when he was in primary school.

"What he preached from the altar he lived out, living the Gospel message. He had a great sense of pastoral love and care for people, his zeal to be of service to them, [and] a great spirituality," Michael said this week.

Like Vinh, Michael's vocation came to him early - "something niggling at me" - but he eventually went to work in the public service for 14 years before his real call in life was made clear.

Balcatta Capuchin farewell Parish priest changes made

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Archbishop Barry Hickey announced this week that the current parish priest of Greenmount. Fr Andrew Pyka SDS, will be the new parish priest of St Lawrence Church. Balcatta, from Sunday 19 January

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1997

Fr Benedict Quadros of Bencubbin will be the new parish priest of Maddington from 2 January 1997. No appointments have been made as yet to Greenmount or Bencubbin.

Fr Peter St John, parish priest of Kulin. will begin work with Fr Michael McShane SI and Psychiatric Chaplaincy Services from 2 January 1997, concentrating on the Church's outreach to patients living throughout the community.

Archbishop Hickey said a Salvatorian Priest will be appointed parish priest of Kulin.

Fr Kazimierz Stuglik will become parish priest of St Joseph's Parish, Northam. including St John the Baptist's Church at Toodyay. from 2 January 1997. the archbishop said. He has also been appointed as Dean of the Avon Region.

Fr Joseph Fernando will be priest-incharge of Northam/Toodyay from now until 1 January 1997

Michael first joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, spending 12 months with them in the Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave as he thought of doing missionary work overseas.

However, it became clear to him that as much as missionaries were needed elsewhere they were also needed in Australia.

"Ithink the greatest challenge to me was that there was so much work to be done in our own back yard. I think that we ourselves have become a mission country which needs to be re-evangelised," he said.

And although he doesn't pretend to have all the answers he sees clearly the tasks facing a priest are many.

"I think that people are searching for God and struggling within that search and, possibly, their vision is impaired by the lifestyle they're living," he said.

Therefore, he added, his own goal would be with the people in their journey to come to know Christ "through proclamation of the Word, by example and by Sacrament."

The new Fr Separovich's first Mass will be celebrated at St Jerome's Church in Munster at 6.30pm on Saturday, 14 Decem-

364 2617 Balcatta parish bade a sad farewell to its Capuchin Franciscan friars at a formal dinner Iasi week after 35 years of continuous presence in the parish. The current parish priest of Greenmount, Salvatorian Fr Andrew Pyka, will become Parish Priest of St Lawrence from Sunday 19 January 1997. Over 300 attended the dinner, which saw Archbishop Barry Hickey, Vicar general Monsignor Michael Keating and archdiocesan representatives join Balcatta parishioners for the historic occasion.

Cesare Di Silvio, right, presented outgoing parish priest, Fr Ted Han-op OFM Cap, left, with a plaque to commemorate the grotto he built to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception which now stands in the Church grounds. Fr Harop and Mr Di Silvio are watched by Tony Vallelonga, an ex-parish council member and a current Stirling councillor, who spoke on behalf of the Italian community. Twenty-six Capuchins have served at St Lawrence's in the 35 years of Capuchin presence in the parish.

WANTED: WORKERS - VOLUNTEERS DIOCESE OF BROOME WA The Diocese of Broome has immediate vacancies for VOLUNTEERS to serve on remote Missions and communities in the Kimberley as: Catechists, farm labourers, handymen, housekeepers, teachers, nurses, domestic staff, mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, administrators, book-keepers, secretaries, general hands, electricians, tutors. For a period in excess of six months up to two years.

Those who apply as LAY VOLUNTEERS will be practising Catholics committed in service to the Faith and the work of Church in the Kimberley. The isolated circumstances of the various remote communities require the talents of people able to work as part of a team.

ATTRIBUTES: Good health, a sound faith, a joyful attitude to life, resourcefulness, a desire to share talents and faith with others, a willingness for self-sacrifice and a dedication to prayer and the Eucharist. These are all part and parcel of the calling. Single people and married couples considered.

Please contact: Bishop Christopher Saunders, fax for application form Fax 091 922 136 or write to: Catholic Lay Volunteers, Diocesan Office, PO Box 76, Broome WA 6725 Please include in your fax or letter a recent reference from a parish priest, or name a person involved in the work of the apostolate as a referee for you.

MANNING & ASSOCIATES OPTOMETRISTS Contact Lens Consultants Mark Kalenas (B. optom)

Grove Plaza, Cottesloe 384 6633 or 384 6720

BURSARS, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS With the end of the school financial year approaching it will soon be audit time again.

Have you made arrangements yet?

Our firm has a long association with the Catholic Community and acts as auditors to a number of Catholic secondary and primary schools.

We provide proactive advice in accounting and taxation requirements including FBT, salary packaging, budgeting, grants etc.

It you would like to know how we can help you, please contact Jonathan Lamprell-Jarrett Stephen J Mann

IBDO

BOO Nelson Parkhill Chartered Accountants & Consultants

267 St George's Terrace, PERTH WA 6000 Telephone: 360 4200 Facsimile: 481 2524 Specialists in non profit organisations and community based groups.

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 5

Why not try gratitude, hope? Lennon: naive,

p

erhaps you noticed last Sunday the Gospel of the Mass as we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It was the Gospel of the Annunciation, the Angel coming at the direction of God Himself to tell Mary she would be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Naturally Mary asked "But how can this come about since I am a virgin?"

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you" the Angel answered.

Thus is recorded the first action of the Holy Spirit in the era of Jesus Christ.

His work and His influence was to be a dominant feature over hundreds and thousands of years.

As we reflect on the Advent Season, we would be wanting seriously if we were to omit the work of the Holy Spirit from our thoughts.

He is indeed the one who inspires our good thoughts and inspirations.

If we are people who depend on Him and show that dependence by constantly seeking His help in prayer, then we can live in hope of coming into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The spirit of Advent is a spirit of hope.

Hope was kept alive among the Jewish people by the preaching of the prophets and by the word of God. Herein lies a pattern for us in these Advent weeks.

We too are striving to keep our hope

With Bishop Healy alive by reflecting on the Word of God as our forbearers did.

So one great fruit of accepting the Holy Spirit into our lives is to renew our hope.

Obviously it is not the only fruit.

In writing to the Thessalonians, St Paul lays great stress on thanksgiving as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

It is only my own opinion but I think the greatest traits in a human being would be a spirit of compassion and a spirit of gratitude.

There are opportunities every day for saying thank you to others and there are opportunities every day of saying thanks to God many times over.

And God likes us to say thanks to Him. The Mass is preoccupied with thanking God: "We give you thanks" in the Gloria; "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God" in the Preface; "On the night He was betrayed, He took bread and gave you thanks and praise"; "Again He gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to His disciples and said".

To Jesus through Mary. .

Ireceived a note from another Bishop recently, thanking me for an expression of sympathy on the death of his brother at an early age.

Ihad forgotten thatIhad written it but obviously he had not.

God too will not forget our expressions of gratitude especially when they are linked to the great Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass.

We thank God, we thank people because we are enjoying God's gifts to us.

It is really the experience of goodness in whatever form that inspires us to gratitude and that experience of goodness now through the Holy Spirit gives rise to hope for the future, especially when that future is the eternal happiness of being in the presence of God in heaven.

I am sure God is an optimist. Otherwise he would not have created us.

Jesus is an optimist. Otherwise He would never have died for us or rose again from the dead for us.

We have to be optimists too through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

If there is something that Advent should inspire in us it is a spirit of gratitude and hope.

I finish with the words of St Paul "Be happy all times; pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus" (Thessalonians 5:16).

a column of Marian devotion

By Cindy Wooden

C

hristian mothers and fathers should look to Mary and Joseph as models of parenthood, even though their task must have been easier in some ways, Pope John Paul II said.

'The absence in Jesus of every form of sin required of Mary an always-positive attitude, excluding interventions to correct him." the Pope said on December 4 at his weekly general audience.

Just three weeks before Christmas, Pope John Paul focused his audience talk on this occasion on the role that Mary, the Mother of God, played in the human education of Jesus.

"The motherhood of Mary was not limited only to the biological process of generation, but like every other mother, she A mosaic of the Holy Family decorates an outside wall of Holy Family Church in Citrus Heights, also made an essential contribution to California. The feast of the Holy Family, which commemorates Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the the growth and development of her son." model of domestic society, holiness and virtue, is marked this year on December 31. the Pope said.

Their experience as educators is a sure talk, he urged Romans to take inspiration Mary is called Mother of God, he said, point of reference for Christian parents, from Mary's spiritual beauty, even as not only because she conceived and gave birth to Jesus, but also because "she called in ever complex and difficult con- they enjoy the harmony of their own city accompanied him in his human growth." ditions to place themselves at the service and its art. of the integral development of the perVisitors to Rome should find not only "As for every human being, the growth sonhood of their children so that they architectural splendors, but also a of Jesus from infancy to adulthood would live in a worthy way correspond- renewed Christian spirit among its peorequired the educating action of par- ing to God's plan," the Pope told those in ple, he said. ents," the Pope said. his audience.

Earlier in the day, a crown of flowers Mary and Joseph provided Jesus with • Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II kicked was placed on the statue, which rests models of people who love God and one's neighbours, as well as showing off pre-Christmas ceremonies in Rome atop a high column. with a traditional visit to a statue of Mary him the dignity of work, he said.

It was set up shortly after the dogma of They introduced him to the religion, in downtown Rome and a torchlight Mary's Immaculate Conception was protradition and prayers of the people of parade at the Vatican. claimed in 1854.

Israel and helped prepare him for his Marking the feast of the Immaculate The pontiff was applauded by a crowd mission.

Conception on December 8, the Pope of several thousand, including many who Mary and Joseph, he said, are models laid flowers and knelt in prayer at the afterward returned to some of Rome's for all parents. statue near the Spanish Steps. In a brief most fashionable shopping streets.

"We thought that planning our funerals would be an uncomfortable business. But the Purslowe family made it very easy:"

Our family ,serping .vour famtiv since 5106.

North Perth 444 4835, Midland 274 3866, Victoria Park 361 1185. %memo 409 9119.

Northam 10961 22 1137 Marefna Purslowe and Associates. Suhiaco,*3R8 1623

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 6

but not so bad compared to the current lot

With Paul Gray

T

his month marks the anniversary of the death of John Lennon. On December 8, 1980, the great pop superstar of Beatles fame fell to five bullets shot by a fan in a New York apartment block The shadow of Lennon hangs over us still.

It's not just that the music of The Beatles has influenced countless later performers - or that recordings of their songs remain immensely popular with a worldwide public.

The influence of Lennon, and other stars of the immensely productive period for popular music, the 1960s, stands out in another important way too.

It has left us with one of the biggest and most powerful industries in the modern world.

Big, because in generates inunense amounts of cash for those who own and control it.

And powerful, because of the sway it holds over the lives of many millions of young people today.

As we've seen from tragedies like the suicide of pop idol Kurt Cobain, that influence Is sometimes profoundly negative.

But that is not to say that pop or rock music itself should be seen as an evil thing.

What is important is that we should try to understand it - to understand what in Il ls good, and what in it is bad.

If we do not, how can we ever hope to communicate with young people about the music they listen to?

John Lennon himself provides an interesting lesson in the good and the bad of pop music.

Notorious for thumbing his nose at organised religion, both in his private life and his songs, Lennon is often seen as one of the "bad boys" of the pop world.

For example, his 1969 song "Ballad of John and Yoko" was the first pop song to deliberately use the word "Christ" as an expletive.

Many radio stations at the time wouldn't play the song for that reason.

Was Lennon wrong to write that song? Obviously, from a Christian point of view, it was sacrilegious.

Nevertheless, after hearing it countless timesIfind it hard to conclude that what John Lennon was on about in political songs like the "Ballad of John and Yoko" was something satanic.

No, from a Catholic point of view Lennon was simply heretical.

In fact, in his own heretical way, he was really quite religious.

John Lennon held sacrosanct a radical utopian vision of man and society - and like many such radicals before and since, he saw organised Christianity as a threat to that vision.

You can see this philosophy in his famous peace song 'Imagine' - "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try..."

In my view it's a mistake to equate this kind of 1960s radicalism - which was moral, in its own naive way - with the more brutal, soulless flavour of much of the pop industry's more recent product, including heavy-metal and "techno" music.

Today, we have pop songs generated without a musician in sight, relying on a computer-driven beat and shamelessly ransacking the musical capital of earlier eras, especially the 1980s, for tunes that can be "reworked" for mere commercial gain.

At least with Lennon and Co. you knew what you were getting - people who had something to say, and - even if you didn't agree with it all -were well worth listening to when they said it.

It's taken me years to admit it, but maybe John Lennon wasn't so had after all. May he rest in peace.

Keep unfounded fears out of debate on culture T The Record

he Australian Catholic Bishops' pastoral letter of late last month counselling Australian Catholics and other citizens to debate the issues of migration and Aboriginal policy without using racist attitudes was welcome, to say their national character will evolve natuBut it may be that it will not be a culture the least. rally in a way that is impossible to predict of many cultures as some people seem to It is timely not just because they because there are many cultural strands believe it should be. declared that it was "never right to say or at work currently, and so many unknowns To see Australian culture as a collection do anything that arouses racial intoler- in the future. of more than a hundred static cultures ance."

We are what we are, and will be, no mat- defies how cultures develop and exist.

It is also welcome in that it affirms by ter how much navel-gazing takes place.

The Irish have a wonderful phrase to implication that a proper, rational debate The navel-gazing may in fact confuse the describe those Irish emigrants who mainabout migration and Aboriginal policies issue more than if we just let the daily tain their culture over generations in should take place without those Chris- tasks of living together take care of pro- another land while the home culture tians who ask questions about these poli- viding us with a national character. develops - "stage Irish." These are those of cies being labelled as lacking integrity in It is in this daily living that Christianity, the Irish diaspora who act out being Irish their calling to love their underprivileged led by the Roman Catholic Church, has its as a separate identity in a foreign culture. neighbour. chance to direct the course of Australian A multicultural policy in Australia that In the end, the current debate comes society and culture. sees Australian culture as nothing more down to trying to decide what Australians If the Church is doing what it designed than a collection of cultures will be nothwill be, what culture they will have as the to do - converting hearts and minds ing more than a culture of "stage" cultures. sum of their beliefs and actions. through preaching the full message of It should also be remembered that the One part of this culture is already in Jesus Christ, worshipping God according culture developing in Australia, the one place and hopefully will continue - help- to the memorial of Christ's death and res- that is developing on the ground rather ing with financial and other support poor urrection in the Mass, and taking advan- than in the imaginations of theorists, will Aboriginal, white and migrant Australians tage of the power of the Sacraments - then continue to be dominated by immigrants to stand on their own feet and fend for lay men and women will enflesh Chris- from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales themselves; this help should also be tianity in Australian culture as it develops. and Cornwall and their descendants. offered to other countries through gener- The Christian ethic will become the AusIt is one of the best kept secrets of the ous overseas aid schemes. tralian ethos. debate on multiculturalism that more than The more difficult part of the debate on This informing of the Australian soul will two thirds of Australians descend from Australian identity that underlies discus- take place whether there is one or many Ireland and Britain, and that the majority sion on migration and Aboriginal policy is cultural groups in Australia and will, over of immigrants since World War II come identifying what strands in the current time, lead to at least one significant cul- from Britain - not Italy, Greece Ireland or multicultural mix should be encouraged tural characteristic becoming evident to Asia.

In developing an Australian culture. outsiders, although there may not be any This, in part, explains the success of In one sense, the question is unneces- outsiders in centuries to come as the Macka's Australia All Over program on sary as whatever Australian culture is to world become a global village through ABC Radio every Sunday morning - a be will come about no matter how much advanced travel and telecommunications. show which unashamedly sings the philosophising is undertaken by the chatThis emerging culture will grow out of virtues of the Australian culture that has tering classes. the more than 150 different nationalities grown from Irish and British roots, particAs Australians work and play together and races represented in Australia. ularly in the bush.

The majority of Australians know that Australian culture still has a British-Irish base historically.

That's why some are attracted to the questioning of Queensland MITR Pauline Hanson because they are tired of being told Australia is a multi-cultural society when it is so in only one respect - the number of cultures represented.

They know that the great majority of Australians were born into, live and love a culture with roots in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

What is more, they can see many second generation Italian and Greek children living this Ocker culture.

They also see many Aboriginals participating in this culture, enjoying its laconic, laid-back nature, as can be seen in the screen image of Ernie Dingo.

None of this is an argument against Asian immigration.

Asians have as much right to an orderly migration to Australia as anyone else.

The cultures they bring with them can legitimately influence the development of Australia's ethos as other migrant cultures do.

But it will be a long time before Asia cultures dominate in Australia, if they ever do.

What culture the daily work and play of Australians in a rapidly changing technological environment produces during the coming decades is something no-one can truly envisage.

In the meantime, let us not let unfounded fears control debate on migrant, Aboriginal and other policies.

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

T igrouno &e

Leffers Jo /Ae Co(dor

Open letter questioned

0

n Sunday, 8 December,I picked up a copy of The Record at Holy Family Church, Como. In it I found an open letter from the Liberal candidate for the seat of South Perth, addressed to parishioners.

My query is: was this paid advertising or was the local Church supporting a particular candidate?

J. Crawford Hamilton Hill Editor The candidate paid for the advertising insert in The Record, as his main opponent paid for a display ad in a prominent position on Page 5. At the bottom of the insert it stated clearly: "Written, authorised and printed by Peter Spencer, 71 Mt Hemy Rd, Manning, 6152."

Costs of exaggeration

S

pare us any more of the ramblings of Peter Stewart, director of the Christian Centre for Social Action, whatever that organisation may be. (The Record (5 December) Ills all very well to say you are against economic rationalism, but that is not a licence for being economically or socially irrational. Mr Stewart was both.

If we are going to get anywhere in public life, we need to have at least a sense of truthfulness in our communications.

Take Mr Stewart's "problem of job security" and the case of Frank Simons who, according to Mr Stewart, after 20 years with the Water Authority, suffered this fate: "Six months ago he was called to the CEO's office. He was told his job had been outsourced to a private contractor. His services would no longer be required.

Shattered, his entire world had collapsed."

The facts of this case are that Mr Simons participated in the process of selecting the contactor who won the job.

He had the options of going across to the contractor without loss of pay, accepting redeployment, or taking severance.

He chose severance - a three-step process which gave him opportunities to change his mind. The standard severance pay was

two weeks pay for each year of service, taxed at only 15 per cent, plus any accumulated leave.

Leaving aside Mr Stewart's misrepresentation of the facts of this case, one must ask him whether he thinks this man or any other has some special right to a life-long occupation not subject to the ordinary vicissitudes of life.

And what would he say of the employees of the private contractor? Would it be morally acceptable to Mr Stewart for these people to lose their jobs because their employer did not win the Water Corporation contract and could no longer employ them?

Population-wide "job security" as presented by Mr Stewart is the kind of thing that exists only in feudal or totalitarian societies and it is not worth the price.

The worst of his statement, however, are those dreadful words: "Shattered, his entire world had collapsed".

Again, leaving aside the fact that the man chose to leave his job with at least a year's salary in hand, one has to ask where does a Christian Centre for Social Action get the Idea that the image and likeness of God is "shattered" by the mere loss of a job?

As for his "entire world" collapsing, one can only wonder whether he suddenly forgot how to love his wife and children, no longer knew that God existed, and firmly believed that he could never again do anything useful.

This is not just an argument about the words people use.

There is very clear evidence that people who learn to explain and interpret the events of their life in this catastrophic manner take much longer to recover from setbacks than those who take a view which incorporates more natural faith in their own goodness, even if they have never heard of the goodness of God. To teach or encourage the young or the old to interpret the events of their life in this manner is scandalous, in both the social and spiritual senses of the word.

To use that sort of catastrophic exaggeration - in this case based on a misrepresentation - in order to buttress irrational arguments about 'job security' is intellectually puerile.

Mr Stewart quotes WACOSS at length and approvingly, but readers of The Record ought to know that WACOSS does not even

acknowledge Christian principles, much profits. So, why is it sinful to make a profless support them or act by them. it out of building and operating a hospital?

Mr Stewart quotes the US Bishops' docuFurthermore, during the years of Labor's misbegotten rule of this State, WACOSS ment A Catholic Framework for Economic was a very successful competitor for pub- Life approvingly but, if he applied his cholic funds, diverting to second-rate programs sen quote about judging economic instituof little or no community benefit large tions "by how they protect or undermine amounts of money that would have been the life and dignity of the human person" far better spent on society's true responsi- to the fruits of Medicare, he would have to bilities, such as the disabled. condemn Medicare.I wonder why he didThe fact that the Court Government n't? restored the disabled to their rightful place To apply moral principles effectively to at the head of the list of society's responsi- public life we need a good deal more subbilities and allocated them an additional tlety than can be found in any of the slo$125 million seems to have passed entire- gans and prejudices enunciated by Mr ly unnoticed by Mr Stewart.

Stewart.

Mr Stewart also harks back to his version Anyone can quote Scripture, the Pope, or of the good old days when the citizens of any group of Bishops.

WA "owned a bus service".

The two important tests are: (a) whether I'm not sure what Christian principle we can apply these principles in our own requires public ownership of a bus service. behaviour, and (b) whether we can see However,I do know that you don't have whether and how they have application in to be much older than Mr Stewart to particular circumstances. remember when Perth had numerous priHugh Ryan vate bus companies.

In their final year of operation before they Cturambine were swallowed by the then Labor Gov- Editor's note: Mr Ryan, a press secretary ernment's creation of the MIT they, col- for the Court Government's Minister for lectively, made a profit.

Water Resources, Roger Nichols, told The In its first year of operation the MTT made Record he was tendering this letter as a a significant loss, and that loss grew each private citizen and not as a Government year thereafter until it reached more than employee. $200 million.

I am not aware of anything in Scripture, the Catholic Catechism or Catholic social teaching which says that the inefficient use ome ideas we were brought up on of public resources is morally defensible. eg. that science is a search for truth On the other hand, waste - particularly and that once we've refined our sciavoidable waste which consumes entific theories to cover certain "gaps", we'll resources which could otherwise be used have explained all existence without a for moral purposes - is sinful. belief in God - aren't true.

There is a similar history with public hosScience isn't a search for truth: it's a pital waiting lists. Nobody seems to want system of measuring certain particulars of to admit these days that these waiting lists our physical experience (the least imporhad their genesis in Medicare when 40 per tant of the experiences which make us cent of hospital beds were excluded from what we are). the services available to Medicare patients.

As for explaining the universe, all scienThe only attempted justification for tific knowledge is based on the assumption excluding them was the Labor Party's chant that knowlthat "it is wrong to make a profit out of that the experiments leading to edge are repeatable. other people's sickness".

This assumption is based on the The reality, of course, is that the people who build public hospitals make a profit assumption that ours is an ordered uniout of them, the people who supply beds verse - which has to be based on the and mattresses, sheets and blankets make assumption that there is a God. A correct assumption, fortunately. The a profit out of them, the people who supply operating equipment and all manner of question of "gaps" doesn't arise. drugs make profits, and even the people Arnold Jago who sell food to public hospitals make Mildura

Science and God

S

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 7

Advent 1996

Shop frenzy: Magi aghast

Jesus: the answer to the world's I destiny

By Fr Eugene LaVerdiere SSS

By Father John Castelot

IF

rom the time of Abraham on, the Israelite people believed that God had a purpose for them, though they weren't sure what their destiny was.

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go" (Hebrews 11:8).

At first the people thought that their destiny was to possess a land they could call their own, the Promised Land.

But that did not satisfy their longing.

So, as the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, referring to these Old Testament ancestors, "now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:16).

The Israelites became convinced that, just as God's first promise was fulfilled, so this ultimate promise would be fulfilled too.

This deeply rooted conviction enabled them to withstand defeat, exile, near extinction.

God always saw them through, and each successive victory strengthened their confidence in ultimate triumph, in the complete victory of God over all evil, even death itself.

Isaiah expressed this hope in necessarily poetic language because he had no way of knowing what the reality would be like: "On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines.... He will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces" (Isaiah 25:6-8).

As history disappointed the Israelites over and over, they became convinced that only God's direct intervention could bring the "kingdom: And what was Jesus' initial proclamation, the dominant theme of all his preaching?

We hear it immediately in Mark's first chapter: "This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the Gospel (the Good News)" (Mark 1:15).

Jesus' whole ministry witnessed to God's triumph over evil, sickness, disease and ultimately over death.

But the triumph was not yet complete, and Christians looked forward eagerly to that definitive victory in what we have come to call the second coming.

At first the Christians believed that the second coming was near at hand, but reality gave the lie to that expectation; to that precise expectation, yes, but not to the basic conviction.

After all, Christ's first coming was a pledge and assurance that he would come again to establish definitively the reign he had inaugurated.

Both the time and the manner of this coming are simply unknown and unknowable.

f the poor Magi returned, they would be aghast at the commercialism surrounding Christmas. Imagine them running into Santa Claus!

It is quite a challenge to keep the Christian feast of Christmas from becoming a winter secular festival.

Lest the challenge seem too big, we should remember how the feast of Christmas started.

It was in the fourth century when Christians took the Roman winter festival of the Unconquered Sun and transformed it into the feast of Jesus' birth as the Unconquered Son of God. Today, keeping Christ in Christmas is an enormous challenge.

But there is an even greater challenge: keeping Christians in Christmas. Let me explain.

In our celebration of Christmas, our tendency is to look back 2,000 years to when Joseph and Mary, who was with child, travelled to Bethlehem and Mary gave birth One of the real challenges of Advent is to put not just Chris-t, but Christians, back into Christmas to a son she named Jesus. claim Christ's Second Coming, we But, instead of looking back- out his life on earth. The greatest Christ's presence in the world. poverty is the lack of faith, love celebrate his first coming 2,000 matter It is of not motivating a ward, a good celebration of Christmas starts by looking for- and hope - the three most impor- ourselves or others; it is a matter years ago when Mary gave birth tant virtues which we need if our of realising who we are. to the Son of God, wrapped him ward. lives are to make any sense.

I n swaddling clothes and laid him Christchallenge That is the of We do that, starting with the very Those who are truly lame and mas: looking forward to and con- In a manger because there was beginning of the Church's Advent crippled are unable to walk or tributing to the coming of Christ. no room in the inn. season. even limp in the following of But when we celebrate the birth When we take up our responsiYes, Jesus was born 2,000 years Christ. bility for Christ's coming, the of Jesus, his first coming, we do so ago.

Those who are truly blind can- Christmas event will be told as a In light of his Second Coming and He came as the presence of God not see the goodness of God in story of Gospel hope. of our responsibility as Christians to the human race. their midst, in the smile of an old Recall the message of the angel to make him present in the world.

But that was only the beginning. couple holding hands, in a child to the shepherds: "Do not be The danger otherwise is to Jesus is still coming into the studying the mystery of a flower afraid; for behold, I proclaim to reduce the celebration of Christworld and continues to do so with unfolding, in a young couple in you good news of great joy that mas to an annual exercise in each passing day. love. will be for all the people. For romantic nostalgia.

Reaching out with a smile, a today in the city of David a savHe continues to do that in and As a nostalgic celebration. prayer, a kind gesture, a greeting iour has been born for you who Christmas becomes an escape through us Christians.

He will continue to do that until - sometimes with a small gift- to is Messiah and Lord" (Luke 2:10- from reality.

Then it loses its Gospel chalhe is fully present in the world. the poor, the lame and the blind, 11).

When we keep ourselves as lenge and is no longer good news.

We call that full presence of Christ we make Christ more present.

It is not just a question of getting Christians in Christmas, we keep the Second Coming.

Just as all is grace, all is faith. the Gospel in Christmas.

And faith is based on what God The Second Coming already has ready for the Second Coming.

It is a matter of making it hapChristmas is a proclamation of has done for us in history. begun.

What God did in the first comIt is our Christian responsibility pen progressively each day until the Gospel of hope. to contribute to Christ's coming, Christ is fully come.

When we approach Christmas ing was a promise.

We make ourselves ready for as an opportunity to proclaim the to make Christ more and more At Christmas we celebrate the present in the world, in our cities, Christ's coming by contributing coming of Christ through what we promise made in the birth of our neighbourhoods and homes. to it, placing ourselves as Chris- do and what we say, we can real- Christ. ly appreciate the story of Jesus' We do that by reaching out to tians at his disposal.

We also make him present in Born again from above, we birth. the poor, the lame and the blind love and hope, looking forward to At Christmas we not only pro- his Second Coming. around us as Jesus did through- Christians become living signs of

Longing for a new heaven and a new earth everything. Our faith and our worship are based on the fact that the Iike most children, I spent a Son of God became human and fair amount of playtime in lived among us.

But, yes, Advent still is a season childhood pretending.I was also a voracious reader as a child, of waiting, our hymns and prayers and that gave my imagination vast cry out for the Lord to save us.

So if we are not pretending that worlds to roam.

Christ has not yet come, what do With this background, it was not we await during Advent? hard for me to think of Advent as The readings for the first Suna time when we all "pretended" to be the Israelites of old, waiting day of Advent reveal the answer.

We await the second coming of for the Messiah to be born.

Christ, not his first coming.

It may have been difficult someHis first coming at Bethlehem times to endure the long wait until provides the basis for our confiChristmas Eve and the ritual of dence that he will come again. opening gifts, but Advent seemed The four major figures of our like a comfortable religious ver- Advent readings can remind us of sion of childhood make-believe: Christ's second coming, just as On Christmas Day the infant they played an important role in would magically appear in the his first coming. manger scene, and we would First, the prophet Isaiah proimagine that he had just been claims a vision of the wonders of born. the day of the Lord when the Of course, when I got older I kingdom comes in its fullness: learned to see Advent with more "There will be no harm or ruin on mature eyes. all my holy mountain."

We do not pretend that Christ Our awareness of the gap has not yet come, for we know between Isaiah's vision and our that he was born at Bethlehem daily reality leads us to long for and died and rose to new life at the Lord to come again.

Jerusalem.

The kingdom has arrived with Christ already has come into our the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, world; that fact has changed but we still await its definitive

By Father Lawrence Mick

I

Advent: hoping for Christ to come.

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 8

arrival when "the wolf shall be guest of the lamb" and they shall not "train for war again."

Second, John the Baptist calls us to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his path, not for his first coming but for his coming again.

The Baptist stands as a model for us.

As he prepared for Christ's first coming, we are to prepare the way for the second coming.

With John we recognise that we are "not fit to carry his sandals" and that a more powerful one will come after us to judge the world.

Finally, Mary and Joseph are examples for us.

As Mary brought Christ into the world at Bethlehem, we are to make him present in our world today.

As these expectant parents longed for the day of Jesus' birth, so we long for the birth of the new heaven and the new earth.

With these Advent figures we recall the first coming of the Lord so that we might be prepared for his second coming.

With them we cry out wholeheartedly, "Come, Lord, and do not delay. Come, 0 come again, Emmanuel!"

Features

Raindrops of love in a Thai slum Monique Farmer, editor of "The Guide" in the daily Sydney Morning Herald, recently offered her services to the Marist Mission Centre in Sydney to write about the work of a West Australian Presentation Sister loan Hayes and her plans to build a hospice for babies with AIDS and their mothers in the Thai capital of Bangkok Sr Joan is one of five Presentation Sisters of the WA Presentation Congregation working in Thailand at present. The others are: Sr Frances Hayes; Sr Cecilia Phetpanompom; Sr Petra Likhittam; and Sr Monica Maddox

I

Sr Joan with one of God's children

down by provisions for the day a water bottle, a Tupperware container of biscuits, endless supplies of eucalyptus lollies for boosting sugar levels.

In her hand is a damp facewasher which she constantly wipes across her brow.

She visits people who have become her friends, massaging the shoulders of an elderly woman here, comforting a tearful and sick woman there.

When she hears that a group of people in a slum called Saapaen Kwaen need to go to the hospital, she commandeers a MC vehicle and, after a quick walk through the slum, has gathered nine people who need to see a doctor.

They pile into the back of the ute - seven children and two adults - with ailments ranging from runny ears to ringworm and scabies.

"I sometimes feel frustrated in terms of the health, because the children haven't got a good diet," she said.

"That's why schools are important, because they provide one good meal a day.

"To me, the very important thing is that the children in the slums go to schooL They ask to go, they know exactly what they want.

"If they don't go to kindergarten, they're at a loose end in the slum in the day time, and that's when they get on the glue sniffing and the drugs, and it's those children that will be lost."

Her fortnightly provision of milk to slum mothers has grown from 20 families to 200 - an organisational nightmare which meets an important need.

Many of the mothers cannot afford to buy powdered milk - the poorest feed their young the starchy liquid from the top of a pot of boiling rice.

Sr Joan's next project is to estab-

lish a hospice for AIDS babies and their mothers, possibly in a building owned by HDC in the suburbs of Bangkok.

It would accommodate up to 12 mothers and their babies, she says, and there is huge demand for such care.

"The social worker at the children's hospital rang me a couple of weeks ago and asked if the hospital was open yet.

"She had two babies then that she was desperate to get in somewhere.

"She could fill it If we don't get babies from the slum, she has babies to fill it" Already, some charities and overseas embassies based in Bangkok have donated equipment for the hospice, such as second-hand cots and clothing.

What is needed now is funding to cover the hospice's running costs.

Sr Joan dreams of children such as Naen having a place to live in comfortable and hygienic surroundings, with good medical care and lots of love.

"They're survivors," Sr Joan says of the slum children. "They don't smile much,Idon't know if you've noticed that, even bubbies don't smile much."

At the Bangkok Children's Hospital, the doctor swiftly examines Naen and finds her improved since her last visit She has recovered some energy since her earlier coughing fit and she tentatively explores a play area in the hospital foyer, a lopsided grin on her face as she negotiates the big wooden blocks.

In the car on the way back to slums, Naen remains active, pulling the legs off a new doll and repeatedly handing the parts to Sr Joan to fix.

It is mid-afternoon during the monsoon season and, as if on cue, it begins to rain heavily.

Naen stops playing with the doll and gazes up at the windscreen above her.

A smile creeps across her face.

She reaches out her twig-like arm to touch the raindrops falling on the windscreen. It is an expression of curiosity of pleasure in nature and the world around her.

And instead of being a heartwarming moment, it is heartbreaking when you remember that Naen's future is bleak.

She is unlikely to see next year's monsoon season.

t is the eyes you notice first rimmed by long, straight lashes, their deep brown depths seem to regard you with a solemnity and calm way beyond her three years.

She sits quietly in a stroller, content to simply watch the activity around her, passively allowing herself to be changed from grimy shorts and t-shirt into a pretty floral dress.

Then she coughs, a hacking, tearing, body-shaking cough of an elderly man, and her frailty is all too clear.

Naen was diagnosed with fullblown AIDS at the age of two.

Her life expectancy is not certain. What is certain from her incessant coughing, her swollen fingertips and her listlessness is Little Naen: a hospice would help her enjoy her short life more that the disease is taking its toll on Most of the locals recognise her numerous slum kindergartens her tiny body. as she pauses to speak to them in run by the HDC - and three nights Beneath her short, spiky hair, near-perfect Thai, asking about attempting to sleep to the squeal sores are visible on her head. Her their health, noting the pleas from of pigs having their throats cut. cheeks are bloated, the lingering small children who say they want What stuck in Sr Joan's mind, effect of the steroids she had to to go to school yet their parents however, were the women she take after her last lengthy stay in have no money. met in the slums, whom she hospital.

Sr Joan meets the needs of the describes as the backbone of the Before long, AIDS will rob Naen slum dwellers by talking to them community. of her life. It has already robbed and listening to their problems "I felt great admiration for the her of her parents, who rejected whether news of someone's sick women - older women caring for her because of their fear of the relative a few streets away, or a babies, women looking after disease. request for tins of powdered milk whole families, supporting fami"When the mother knew that It's the same modest, low-key lies. working hard."

Naen had AIDS, she virtually approach she adopted on her Now, five years later, 63-year-old abandoned the baby," said Sister arrival in Thailand in 1990.

Sr Joan is a regular fixture in the Joan Evans, nursing Naen on her When she met Father Joe Maier, slums. lap as we battle Bangkok's traffic the energetic American priest She walks briskly and confion the way to the children's hos- who runs the Human Develop- dently, her white Reeboks miracpital for a regular check-up. ment Centre where she is now ulously remaining clean despite Naen's mother, in her early 20s, based, he asked Sr Joan what she the filthy alleyways she negotilives nearby in the slums but is wanted to do in the slums. ates. She dresses casually in a preoccupied with her glue-sniffShe shrugged and said, "I skirt and blouse, or occasionally ing addiction; her father works in thought I'd go in and see what I long knickerbockers, a baseball north Thailand and rarely visits. cap atop her short grey hair. had to do."

So Naen lives with her 76-yearHer black backpack is weighed In the beginning, with little Thai old great grandmother - herself so and even less clarity about her ill she seems to barely cling to life role, Sr loan made slow progress.

- in one of Bangkok's worst slum The slums were an alienating, houses. intimidating place.

The one-morn shack is dark and The labyrinth of plywood and filthy, with cockroaches clamberiron shacks teemed corrugated ing over the soiled clothes on the and children. The adults with floor and rats under the floorwere piled high with roadsides boards.

Sister Joan Evans, an Australian Presentation sister, has been living for the past five years among stinking rubbish; wrecked, gutted "Great Grandma tells me there cars and buses. the slum-dwellers of Bangkok. is only one reason she lives in that This Christmas her dream is to establish a hospice for Babies with AIDS. She had to negotiate wooden house," Sr Joan said, "because of haphazardly joined Join the Marist Mission Centre in making this dream a reality.

Naen and her younger brother, planks a few feet over the smelly Hack. She says she has pity on together If you wish to help, please use the form below and send your contribution to: stagnant water, sidethem. That's the Thai word she refuse and malnourished cats and stepping Marist Mission Centre, 3 Mary Street, Hunters Hill. NSW 2110 uses - pity." mangy dogs.

Sr Joan, a Presentation sister It was a world apart from Sr I wish to support the Marist Mission Centre in its Christmas Appeal for Sr Joan's Project from Perth who has worked in Joan's years as a mathematics and years, for five Bangkok's slums Irequire a tax deductible receipt YES NO (Please circle) religious teacher at a Catholic shakes her head sadly.

'YES' make cheque out to AMCOA (Australian Marist Centre Overseas Aid Fund) I f school in Perth. girls' There is little she can do in the If 'NO' to Marist Development Fund in work been drawn to She'd short-term to reduce the stigma Mastercard Cheque enclosed for $ or charge my Credit Card $ Bankcard L Visa attached to AIDS, widespread in Thailand after attending a conferaccomthere in 1988.

Her ence Thailand. What she can do is try been in the Card Number 1 LJL 1 11 1 H it i 1 to help those who have it, partic- modation had Slums, not far Slaughterhouse ularly children. from where she now lives and Cardholder,s Signature Card expires Each day - and often all day, works, and so named because of regardless of Bangkok's oppres- Its proximity to the nightly slaughMr/Mrs/Miss/Ms sive humidity and pollution - Sr tering of pigs and cows.

Joan walks through the slums Address Post She spent three days visiting the crowding the port. hospital, street kids home and

Make a dream come time for Christmas!

r

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 9

Bishop James O'Collins, third Bishop of Geraldton

Australian bishop who 'played the ball to win' Bishop James O'Collins was the third Bishop of Geraldton from 1930 to 1941 when he was translated to the Diocese of Ballarat in Victoria where he was bishop until his retirement in 1971. His nephew, the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, Fr William McCarthy, gives here a portrait in miniature of the young bishop's life in Geraldton. A fuller account is given in Fr McCarthy's newly published biography of Bishop O'Collins: A Bishop's Story.

I

n 1930 Father James Patrick

O'Collins was assistant priest at Our Lady's Parish, East Brunswick, in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, when he was appointed the third Bishop of Geraldton. He was thirty seven years of age and ordained just seven years.

Asked how he came to be appointed Bishop so soon after ordination, he used to say that the Pope wanted native-born clergy as bishops in mission lands, even if that meant Victorians going to West Australia.

Cardinal Rossi, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, said that he appointed O'Collins to Geraldton because he always played football to win and Geraldton wanted someone like that.

When Bishop O'Collins left Perth by train to take up his appointment in Geraldton in June 1930 heavy rains had caused washaways.

These held up the train but after that nothing held up the progress of the Geraldton Diocese to which O'Collins brought energy, courage and considerable practical skill.

James Patrick O'Collins was born in Melbourne on 30 March 1892.

He left school on his fifteenth birthday and went to work in the South Melbourne gasworks.

Then years later he set out for Rome to join his brother Will who had been ordained a priest there In 1914.

They toured Europe together but when the Great War started they left for home via England, Ireland and the United States.

Back in Melbourne he decided to become a priest.

This meant returning to study because he had no secondary education.

After he completed his matriculation in one year, Archbishop Mannix sent him first to the seminary in Sydney and then to Rome where he was ordained inDecember 1922.

Bishop O'Collins came to Geraldton at the start of the Great Depression when the diocese had only 7 parishes, 19 churches, 6 priests, 83 sisters, 17 schools and 660 pupils.

He was not daunted by the challenges he faced. Indeed just two years after his arrival he wrote to Father Lonergan, his priest friend in Melbourne that he was at one Bishop O'Collins, wearing long robes, blesses the foundation stone for Holy Cross Church, Morawa, in 1933. and the same time Geraldton's bishop, parish priest and curate tralia, he formed the opinion that and he added that nonetheless it the average mining town was not too solid, and at that time and was great to be a bishop. even in later years, he did not In 1932 he opened his first buildanticipate that such an excellent ing in the diocese, a churchschool at Mingenew, staffed by building would be erected at Mount Magnet. the Dominican nuns.

Bishop O'Collins took a great His work has left many land- interest in Tardun where the marks such as schools, churches, Christian Brothers had taken up a hospital and old people's home. land on which to develop a farm With his great friend and helper, school for orphan boys. architect Monsignor Hawes, he He was pleased to see it develcompleted St Francis Xavier's op and flourish under the direcCathedral, finishing the transepts, tion of his friend Brother Conlon. the central octagon and adding He always thought that the Tarthe dome. dun boys had opportunities for Archbishop Hickey later embell- success in life equal to those posished the cathedral such that sessed by the sons of the well-totoday it continues to be a show- do. piece of Geraldton.

He saw the scheme turning out While much of the credit for the first-rate citizens and farmers. buildings went to the Bishop and In 1940 the Geraldton Diocese Monsignor Hawes, O'Collins had a population of 30,000 of insisted that their talents would whom 6000 were Catholics. have been useless were it not for Bishop O'Collins said in his 1940 the generous support of the peo- report to Rome that the Catholics ple. were hard-working people.

The bishop travelled extensiveThey were not endowed with a ly his diocese ministering to his great share of this world's goods people in all conditions. and were scattered over a vast He spoke at gatherings, organ- area with no big towns. ised Church events such as Nonetheless he considered that Eucharistic processions, launch- the Church was serving these ed a diocesan paper and visited people well and improving their families wherever he went. lot His examination of candidates In 1941 Bishop O'Collins was for confirmation were eagerly transferred to Ballarat as its bishlooked forward to because of the op. repartee between himself and the The Geraldton Diocese then congregation. boasted of 14 parishes, 29 churchO'Collins spoke clearly and es, 17 priests, 133 sisters, 27 Bishop O'Collins on a pastoral visit with then-Father John Hawes, left rear. made his intentions for the dio- schools and 1197 pupils. . . . at achievement merely by statistics arrival and the year of his deparcese plain as can be seen from his least twice those on his arrival. and by material structures, yet it ture." Bourke said that Bishop address at the opening of the Father Bourke says in his "His- must be admitted that the figures O'Collins had given Geraldton school-hall at Mount Magnet. tory of the Catholic Church in are impressive, not for the num- hope and life.

He said on that occasion that Western Australia" that "it would ber themselves, but for the conThose who remember those when he arrived in Western Aus- be a mistake to judge a man's trast between the year of his years would no doubt agree.

St Francis Xavier Cathedral In Geraldton was finished by Bishop O'Collins, evidence of his energetic building program throughout the diocese.

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 10

More WA, Australian News

heas ttm est cmhen r o e ztht ds i K. frst Aust bishops vow to continue fight against abortion Australia's Catholic bishops have vowed to continue to oppose abortion despite having been prevented from pursuing the matter in the High Court Superclinics case after the matter was settled out of court.

The bishops, who met in Sydney two weeks ago, said it was important to let all Australians know that the Catholic Church will continue to work and speak for life.

The struggle to defend the basic human right to life is never over," the bishops said in a statement issued after their November meeting.

"As Pope John Paul has said, 'the value at stake is one which every human being can grasp.' Unless this value is respected and protected, there is no foundation for the other human rights we cherish."

The statement issued by the bishops comes two months after the Superclinics case, which was regarded as having the potential to create a precedent-setting decision by Australia's highest court, was settled by the litigants out of court, effectively preventing a decision on the issue.

A woman referred to as 'CES' by court documents in order to protect her anonymity had sued Sydmedical consultancy, ney

Superclinics, for failing to have diagnosed her pregnancy several years ago in time for her to have an abortion.

The woman had eventually given birth to a baby girl who now lives with her mother.

The case would have been the first time the High Court had considered the points of law in regard to abortion which is effectively illegal throughout Australia but flouted regularly by medical practitioners and ignored by the police, legal authorities and governments.

Pro-Life groups estimate about 100,000 unborn children are killed by abortion throughout Australia each year, while recent figures have shown that in Western Australia abortion is the largest cause of death, statistically equalling all other causes of death in the State combined.

The bishops said the case had concentrated national attention on the abortion debate and for the first time many Australians had been made aware of the extent and dubious legality of the abortion industry operating in their country.

The case had still left unresolved a number of important questions about abortion as well, the bishops said.

"Under what circumstances is abortion legal in Australia? What do contemporary developments in medicine and jurisprudence mean for the rights of unborn children? What consequences flow for a civilisation which would enshrine "wrongful birth" as grounds for compensation? What room is there for health care and pregnancy counselling services which refuse to provide or recommend abortions? These are questions which the wider community needs to address as well." the bishops said.

It was impossible to say where the matter would go from this point, the bishops said, adding it was clear that "nothing was concluded."

However they said the Church would continue to assist mothers facing difficult pregnancies and situations.

In addition. individual Catholic agencies were now exploring what steps each would need to take to protect their freedom to operate according to the ethics they proclaimed.

"We will continue to speak and work for life. We encourage all who support us and join us in this cause to draw fresh strength from the One who gives life and gives it in abundance," they said.

Suitably impressed by the robes, Elais Fares, 4, of Willeton, Christina Farinaccio, 4, of 77iornlie and Veronica O'Brien, 5, of Willeton were all agog when they got to meet a representative of the original Father Christmas - the 4th century St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, also known as St Nicholas the Wonder Worker for the miracles attributed to his prayers - who dropped in for a visit at the Schoenstatt Kindergarten in Riverton recently.

Whitfords parish mission Seminarians get mission experience centers on letting Jesus heal The first evening closed with BeneWhitfords parish has just concluded a week long mission under the diction and the procession of the leadership of Mrs Norma Wood- Blessed Sacrament up and down the cock, an individual with 17 years aisles for the blessing of the people. experience of Missions.

The following evening four priests The week saw several hundred were available to hear Confessions people attend at Our Lady of the and Exposition of the Blessed SacraMission church for personal consul- ment was repeated. tation with Norma under the theme Each night, according to Mrs Rea. The Abundant Life - Peace, joy, Love. "Norma prayed for needs which she Mrs Woodcock, described by discerned among the people preparish spokesperson Betty Rea as sent, and it was exciting by the end having a balance of head and heart, of the Mission to know that a num"spoke from a background of a ber later came forward and had sound basic knowledge of Sacred experienced healings of deep emoScripture and Church teaching, tem- tional wounds, physical healings, pered by her own life experiences." and peace," said Mrs Rea. She said Mrs Woodcock during her Her overall message was one of hope, "while pointing out that our individual sessions took people back lives are limited, reaching only a to the time of trauma or pain, and small proportion of our potential led one to visualise Jesus present in and crippled by all sorts of emo- the situation. tional and spiritual baggage that we To conclude the Mission, Mass was carry" concelebrated with "a very moving During the Mission, Mrs Wood- meditation by Mrs Woodcock, cock placed great emphasis on Rec- encouraging each of us to get in onciliation and healing, physically. touch with Jesus; to relate to Him as friend and brother." emotionally and spiritually.

Christianity in the Southern Highlands of PNG, Four seminarians from Morley's Redemptoris Mater seminary who are also students of Notre is only one generation old, reported Daniel, "and Dame Australia, have gone to Papua New Guinea so there is a need to keep close and frequent conand the Philippines afire with missionary zeal, to tact with the people."

Dennis Sudla noted the "hunger of the people give witness to the Gospel and gather invaluable for the message of the cross - the love for the experience for their future role as missionaries.

After ordination, former Neo-Catechumenate enemy, of which they have many."

Meanwhile in the Philippines, Richard Tomelty seminarians from Redemptoris Mater spend a minimum two year period in the Perth Archdio- of Melbourne and Raul Matute of Peru, who form cese, and then may be sent abroad to work in part of an itinerant team, met with long established Neo-Catechumenate communities as well missionary fields.

Father Nick Falzun OP, with two seminarians, as forming new ones within the parish structures, Dennis Sudla from the Philippines and Daniel Fr Eric said.

There they observed the suffering on a large Chama from Zambia, went to work in Papua New Guinea in the Mendi region, travelling through scale and among many people, he said.

After completing their missionary experience, the villages "proclaiming the Good News of salvation," according to Fr Eric Sicruzny, Vice Rector the four seminarians will resume their studies at NDA before their ordination. of Redemptoris Mater.

STEFANELLI SAWMIU_ERS & TIMBER MERCHANTS

The PEOPLE who specialise in TIMBER for the BUILDER & HANDYMAN Feature Cladding

Perth priest new Jesuit head Perth-born Father Daven Day SJ has been appointed as Provincial of the Australian province of the Society of Jesus by the Jesuit order's superior general in Rome, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach.

He replaces Father Bill Uren SJ who has headed the order in Australia for several years.

Father Day, 62, was educated by the Jesuits at St Louis School in Claremont before entering the novi-

tiate at Loyola College in Watsonia, Victoria, in 1952.

The new provincial was also the founding headmaster of Claremont's John XXIII College, formed by the amalgamation of St Louis School and Loreto Convent in 1977 In 1986 he was appointed President of the Jesuit Major Superiors of East Asia and most recently served as director of the Jesuit Social Justice Centre, Uniya, in Sydney.

Future Extensions

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,December 12 1996 Page 11

International News

In Brief NFP experts 'are needed' VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John Paul II called on parishes and other organisations involved in counselling married couples, on December 7, to make sure an expert in natural family planning is available.

"The moment has come when every parish and every organisation for counselling and assisting families and the defence of life should have personnel available who are capable of educating couples in the use of the natural methods," he said.

Abuse money SE JOHN'S, Newfoundland (CNS) - The out-of-court settlement reached between the Newfoundland government and 39 abuse victims of the Mount Cashel orphanage has been welcomed by the top Church official in the province.

Most of the victims accepted the government's offer, believed to be more than $10 million.

Church blockade BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland (CNS) - Catholic and Protestant Church leaders in Ireland have condemned the continuing blockade of a Catholic Church in the town of Ballymena by supporters of British rule in Northern Ireland.

In a joint statement. Church leaders condemr KI the blockade of Saturday evening Masses by Protestant Loyalists which has lasted 3 months.

Zaire desolation VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John Paul II called attention to the plight of people in eastern Zaire on December 8, urging the public not to forget that many are still suffering from war there.

The Pope said the people of Zaire are "caught in the grip of fratricidal fighting, which is extending like an oil slick, with the distressing consequences of hunger, insecurity, looting, flight from cities and villages, atrocities and horrors."

Meanwhile, the Vatican newspaper expressed concern for the fate of missing 77year-old retired Rwandan bishop, Bishop Phocas Nikwigize of Ruhengeri, who had not been heard of since he tried to cross the border from Zaire.

Peru sterilise LIMA, Peru (CNS) - The secretary-general of the Peruvian bishops' conference has denounced a forced sterilisation campaign among Andean peasants being developed by Peruvian health authorities.

In a letter to Dr Ulises Jorge Aguilar, health director for the central Andean region of Chavin, Bishop Luis Armando Bambaren Gastelumendi of Chimbote claimed to have proof peasant women are forced to undergo 'family planning' programs before being allowed any health treatment at local hospitals."

Women• priests spoil Pope-Carey dialogue

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches have agreed to -contheir further" about sult Churches' relationship in view of some Anglican provinces' ordination of women.

Pope John Paul II and Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury, spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, also called for respect and understanding of their respective positions.

They called for the additional consultation on December 5, at the end of Archbishop Carey's three-day visit to the Vatican, the first meeting since the Church of England, which he heads, began ordaining women in 1994.

It was also the first meeting since Pope John Paul formally declared in 1994 that the Church has no authority to ordain women because such a practice would go against the example of Jesus and the unbroken tradition of the Church.

At a press conference earlier on

December 5, Archbishop Carey said, "We have agreed to convene a meeting to review our past progress and future agendas."

The meeting, he said, would take place after the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, the official theological dialogue body, completes work on a statement about authority in light of Scripture and tradition.

The document is expected to be completed in 1997.

Neither the Pope nor the Archbishop specifically mentioned women priests in their formal speeches on December 5, referring instead to "new obstacles" to Anglican-Roman Catholic unity.

Pope John Paul, however, did point to disagreements over women's ordination when he and Archbishop Carey gave homilies that evening at a prayer service at Rome's St Gregory Church.

"Sadly, we are faced with disagreements which have arisen since we entered into dialogue, including disagreements about conferring priestly ordination on

phcfc, cNs4.1.6.

Archbishop George Carey with Pope John Paul at an evening prayer service on December 5 in Rome.

women," the Pope said in his homily.

"This question puts into clear relief the need to reach an understanding of how the Church authoritatively discerns the teaching and practice which constitute the apostolic faith entrusted to us," he said. While positions on

Laity council ponders true femininity

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The equality of men and women must be promoted, but it must be done with respect for the differences between the sexes, Pope John Paul II said.

"Equality goes hand in hand with the recognition of the differences inscribed by creation," the Pope told participants in a December 6-8 conference on women sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

The meeting was designed to reflect on the experiences and implementation of the 1994 UN Conference on Women and to continue a dialogue with and about women called for by the Pope, said Archbishop Francis Stafford, president of the council.

The Pope told the 130 participants that the Vatican delegation's message at the conference was that "all people must be respected for themselves, in the integrity of their bodily, intellectual and spiritual being, in a way that can never be debased and considered and treated as an object or instrument at the service of political and economic interests."

Respecting women for who they

are, he said, includes recognising and respecting the ways they are different from men, but those differences are not to be used as a basis for discrimination.

Archbishop Stafford told CNS on December 9 the key points of discussion at the meeting were: • How the equality and differences between women and men must lead to collaboration, unity and communion between male and female as a reflection of the Trinitarian life of God. • The overwhelming "culture of death" in the world, which particularly impacts the woman, "the one who has been especially and primarily entrusted with human life as gift."

Participants explored what they saw as "the prophetic element of what it means to be feminine, and that is to be the guardian of life."

• The concepts of empowerment and rights as they were used at the UN Women's Conference, and whether or not they are terms appropriate for use in the context of the Church.

"There was a strong affirmation of the Holy Father's desire to take what is best in contemporary culture, and these may be among the

better ideas" if placed within a Christian context, Archbishop Stafford said.

• The need for everyone in the Church to see and exercise power the way the Blessed Virgin Mary did: listening to the word of God, then accepting God's will for one's life.

The Virgin Mary is the most perfect model for both women and men, he said.

The message of her life is that "the primary human activity is not to seek in order to grasp and acquire, but to receive in order to give back" Bruna Costacurta, who teaches as a professor of theology at Rome's Gregorian University, told participants that the way the biblical creation story is written emphasises the fact that God had not completed making the human being until he had created male and female.

"Creation is all good, all beautiful, but the human being of which Genesis 2 speaks has still not reached completion; there is something missing before this work is truly good and beautiful," Costacurta said.

both sides seem firm, Pope John Paul and Archbishop Carey pledged to continue the ecumenical journey and to support the official Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue commission.

-The path ahead may not be altogether clear to us, but we are here to recommit ourselves to following it," the Pope told the archbishop.

"The dialogue between us will continue, no matter what barriers - even ones that seem insurmountable from a human point of view - are in the way," the archbishop said.

Both leaders praised the work carried out over the past 25 years by the dialogue commission and said it would continue searching for a common understanding of divisive theological questions after a period of reflection.

During his Angelus blessing on December 8, the Pope said he wanted to offer "thanks to the Lord— for the two leaders' meeting, saying it -encourages us to continue on the road to communion between Christians."

Pope's art prize VATICAN CITY (CNS) Catholic theologians, philosophers, artists and scholars must be creative if they want to be credible and stimulating partners for dialogue with modern culture. Pope John Paul II said.

In order to promote such creativity, the Pope announced on November 28 that he was establishing a small cash prize "to support promising talents or initiatives" in the fields of theology, Mariology, archaeology, religious history, the study of the martyrs, literature or art.

Addressing members of the academies, Pope John Paul said dialogue between faith and culture is a task that comes with being a Christian Intellectual because "Christian thought is open to the truth wherever it is found, it is ready to face the different opinions found in the universe of other religious and cultural traditions."

Furore over evolution remarks was media-driven: expert

By Mart Grutkowski EMMITSBURG, Md. (CNS) The recent furore over Pope John Paul II's comments regarding evolution is largely created by the media, and specifically the Italian press, according to one of the chief architects of the papal stance.

"The media is hungry for something. That is very clear in the Italian newspapers," said physicist Father Stanley Jaki, who helped draft the Pope's October 23 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

"The Italian newspapers are what gave this issue its promi-

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 12

nence." In the message, Pope John Paul said that over the last 50 years, new knowledge has emerged that shows the theory of evolution to be "more than a hypothesis."

His point was that evolution was now accepted by a wide range of scientific disciplines doing independent research.

One Italian newspaper said in a headline, "Pope says we may descend from monkeys," while another claimed that the Pope "had made peace with Darwin."

But there could be nothing further from the truth, Father Jaki said on November 18 in the first of a series of lectures on Catholic culture at Mount St Mary's Col-

lege and Seminary in Emmits- he said. "The music of early Bach is different than the music of older burg.

The recent papal talk, while Bach. Things do evolve.

"True Darwinists say that a taken by many to be a lightening of the ties between creationism species, under pressure of the and Charles Darwin's theory of threat of dying out, turns into evolution, merely brings the two another species," he added.

"I hold that there is no scientific closer to their point of contention, proof of that. In my mind, matter, Father laid said.

Creationists believe God is the being the product of an infinitely creator; evolutionists believe that wise Creator, has infinite potenmatter is eternal and not created. tial. The Creator does not have to Father laid agrees with the idea come back and hit it again and that life has changed over the again (to survive)."

Father laid. 72, is a lecturer and course of time, but unlike Darwinists he does not believe that author of more than 30 books. He change was due to outside pres- received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion - the religious sure for survival.

"Rock music of the '60s is differ- equivalent of the Nobel Prize - in ent from rock music of the '90s," 1987

International News

Allow Chinese Catholics 'unity with Rome' call

By John Thavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In a strongly worded message, Pope John Paul Ii urged the restoration of unity among Chinese Catholics and their full communion with Rome.

Church communion means "visible unity among all, pastors and the faithful, around the Pope," the message said.

The Pope read the text aloud at a Mass for China broadcast on December 3 on Vatican Radio.

"I know that the Church in the People's Republic of China wants to be truly Catholic, even in suffering and in its particular historic condition," he said.

-Therefore, it should remain united with Christ, with the successor of Peter and with the entire universal Church, above all through the ministry of bishops in communion with the Apostolic See. This is a truth of faith," he said.

The Pope's words had special significance in China, where a government-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, sanctioned and supervised by the government, claims 3 million members.

An underground Church, estimated to number somewhere between 3 million and 10 million "unauthorised" Catholics, remains loyal to the Vatican, and tries to retain ties to it despite government suppression.

While he did not mention the "patriotic" Church by name, the Pope urged Chinese Catholics "not to give in to a conception of a Church that corresponds neither to the will of the Lord Jesus, nor to the Catholic faith, nor to the sentiments of the great majority of Chinese Catholics."

He also appeared to aim strong advice to the bishops of the government-sponsored organisation.

A bishop, he said, should above all be a model of the Church's unity.

He carries out his activity in a hierarchical communion headed by the Pope; in this way, the faithful can look to their pastor as "a bishop of the one Church of Christ," he said.

One of the first tasks of Catholic bishops in China is to "favour a full reconciliation among all the faithful," the Pope said.

However, Chinese officials

A building cleaner works on a facade next to a Catholic church In Beijing's main shopping centre on December 6. Chinese officials rebuked Pope John Paul II following his remarks in early December urging China to allow Catholics to have official links to the Vatican.

Jiangxi Catholics 'arrested, beaten,' foundation reports STAMFORD, Conn. (CNS) Since mid-November approximately 80 members of China's underground Catholic Church in the Fuzhou district of Jiangxi province have been arrested, beaten and jailed by the government, according to the Cardinal Kung Foundation.

Those seized during the mass arrest were captured without warrants, and their ages range from teens to late-70s, the Cardinal Kung Foundation announced on December 1.

Among organisers of the arrest

were Liu Ding, secretary of the Communist Party of Fuzhou and Sun Wei Hua, director of political security for Fuzhou, according to the foundation.

Earlier in 1996, the foundation reported, 5,000 troops were mobilised to Dong Lu, Hubei, in the Diocese of Baoding where they destroyed the Our Lady of China Shrine.

The shrine was consecrated in 1932 and has attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims annually, despite government roadblocks and physical abuse.

rebuked the Pope for his remarks, of the Chinese Catholic Hierarchy demanding that the Vatican stop in 1946. The letter noted that the "interfering" in the country's China Church has faced many hurdles since its inception by domestic affairs.

China severed ties with the Vat- Franciscan Archbishop John of ican after Pope Pius XII declared Montecorvino 700 years ago.

It recalled the late Bishop Peter invalid government appointments of Chinese bishops in 1958. Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding, Meanwhile, some 'underground near Beijing, who clandestinely Church' Chinese bishops have ordained some bishops in the issued a pastoral letter to mark 1980s to preserve the Church the two major anniversaries hierarchy.

Those bishops have gone on to occurring in the Chinese Church ordain others. this year.

Finally, the letter asked CathoThe bishops commemorated the 70th anniversary of the historic lics to be united and in commufirst ordination of six Chinese nion with the successor of Saint bishops in Rome in 1926 and the Peter, and to support the bishops 50th anniversary of the erection in this time of difficulty.

Avoid Chinese toys: ex-prisoner Wu

WS ANGELES (CNS) - Chinese-born dissident Harry Wu, a Catholic, is asking people in the United States and Western Europe not to buy toys for Christmas and Hanukkah that are labelled "Made in China."

"Christmas is a season of thinking about other people, thinking about love and kindness," said Wu, a human rights activist who spent 17 years in China's forcedlabor camps, known as laogai.

He said the camps make toys for export.

"If you find out the toys are made

by forced labor and if you care about the human rights abuses," he said, "I would suggest you don't buy the toys."

In a December 3 interview with CNS, Wu said some Teddy bears are made in the camps.

"Iknow there are other witnesses who can prove the camps are making toys," he said.

Parents who buy Chinese-made toys "are saying to Chinese authorities, 'We know it. We deny it," said the activist.

He fears "the people of China are fading away, replaced instead

by economic boom." In interviews and lectures around the world, Wu, 59, has been promoting his second book, Troublemaker - One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty, published by Random House/ Times Books in November.

Wu regularly compares China's system of more than 1,000 labor camps, factories, wineries, farms and mines to the gulags, the prison and forced-labor camps of the former Soviet Union, and to Nazi labor camps in pre-World War II Germany.

Mother Teresa improves greatly after operation CALCUTTA, India (UCAN) Sources in the Calcutta hospital where Mother Teresa recently underwent a heart operation said on December 7 that her condition had improved greatly, and she expressed the desire to visit China.

Mother Teresa, who has been ailing for months, also blessed 64 novices of her Missionaries of Charity congregation in her hospital room on December 6.

According to attending doctors she was cheerful and "looking almost like her old self."

"Her mental faculties are fine," said Doctor Apurba Chatterjee, general administrator of B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre, where Mother Teresa has been since November 26.

"She is certain of what she is talking about," he added.

Chatterjee said that for the first time since she came to the hospital, Mother Teresa did not ask to go home, but instead told a visitor she wanted to go to China. Doctors said her condition was still unstable and she was not out of danger.

Doctor Debi Shetty, leader of

0

Steven Ebert of Boston holds a portrait outside Mother Teresa's Calcutta hospital on December 5.

He and his father, travelled to India to pray for her health.

the medical team attending the nun, said re-programming Mother Teresa's pacemaker to raise her heart rate from 60 beats a minute to 90 "partially contributed to her recovery," he noted.

Indonesia boycotts Nobel ceremony for Belo, Horta OSLO, Norway (CNS and CWN) - The 1996 Nobel Peace Prize was presented to Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Dili, East Timor, and his co-winner, human rights activist Jose Ramos Horta, in Oslo's City Hall on December 10.

The laureates received gold medals, diplomas and their $1.2 million prize from Nobel committee chairman Francis Sejersted.

Indonesia, however, boycotted the event.

Indonesian officials condemned Horta's inclusion in the prize when the award-recipients were announced in October and have denounced him as a traitor.

Horta. 51, and Bishop Belo, 48, were awarded "for their long- lasting efforts to achieve a just and peaceful solution to the 20-yearold conflict in East Timor," Sejersted said at the ceremony.

Bishop Belo has been apostolic administrator of Dili since 1983.

"It is high time that the guns of war are silenced in East Timor, once and forever," the bishop said in his acceptance speech.

"It is high time that tranquility is returned to the lives of the people of my homeland. Ills high time that there be authentic dialogue."

He added, "It is my fervent hope

that the 1996 Nobel Prize for peace will advance these goals."

Bishop Belo said a bishop's foremost task was pastoral and spiritual. caring for all Christ's faithful entrusted to his care, whatever their condition or nationality.

"I am fully aware of the norms of the Catholic Church, which demands of a religious leader to stay away from concrete political practices specific to the field of politicians," he said.

"But as bishop I have the moral duty to speak for the voice of the poor and the simple people who, when intimidated or terrorised, cannot defend themselves or make their suffering voiced."

Bishop Belo acknowledged the efforts of the Indonesian Government in the development of East Timor but warned these would not be appreciated by the East Timorese unless their identity, freedom and dignity were recognised.

In his press conference, Bishop Belo called the Nobel Peace Prize "a precious gift" to all who desire and work for peace and justice in East Timor, and called for assistance in "defending the dignity and fundamental rights of the ordinary people" of his homeland.

'Use Bible for vocations' VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Reading Scripture and meditating on its meaning can help people discern their vocations and can move young people toward priesthood or religious life, Pope John Paul II said.

"Sacred Scripture narrates the history of salvation as a history of vocations, in which the Lord's initiative and people's response have become intertwined," the Pope said.

In his annual message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, the Pope encouraged religious educators and vocations directors to make ample use of Bible reading in their work of helping people discover the particular way

they are called to live. The text of the papal message for the 1997 World Day of Prayer, was released on December 3 at the Vatican.

Because the Bible "reveals the deepest meaning of things and gives mankind security of discernment and orientation in the daily choices of life," the Pope said, il ls an essential part of Christian life.

Addressed part of his message to young people he said: "Christ needs you in order to realise his plan of salvation. Christ needs your youth and your generous enthusiasm for the proclamation of the Gospel. Respond to this appeal by giving your life to him and to your brothers and sisters."

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 13

Asian Catholic News

Laity and youth top Sri Lankan agenda KANDY, Sri Lanka (UCAN) Laity and youth are primary concerns in the resolutions of a pastoral convention in Kandy diocese that followed up on Sri Lanka's last national pastoral convention.

Of the 10 resolutions published in the November issue of Among Ourselves, the Kandy diocesan newsletter, two deal with youth and their role in the Church, and seven deal with or refer explicitly to laity and their role.

Bishop Vianney Fernando of Kandy also exhorted the delegates to consider renewal in terms of a meaningful celebration of the Jubilee of the Year 2000.

A better understanding should be established between youth and the rest of the parish community, delegates resolved.

Along with this, delegates said, Ilium's/ should be enlivened and made more meaningful, and people need to have their awareness raised of their role in interreligious dialogue and in taking steps to restore peace, justice and harmony in society.

Making the best use of technical developments in the field of communications to effectively proclaim the Good News of salvation and spread a message of peace, unity, justice and brotherhood was another resolution.

The convention called for improving catechetical education, solving problems related to religious formation faced by Catholic children attending government schools, and promoting priestly vocations.

It also emphasised the need to promote Bible reading and to offer necessary assistance to enable every family to own a Bible.

Alarmed by the consequences of the ethnic conflict in the country. delegates appealed to the government, all political parties and the Tamil rebels to end hostilities and work toward solving the burning problems facing Sri Lanka.

All parishes were to dedicate a special day of prayer imploring the Blessed Mother's intercession to restore peace, justice and freedom in the land.

Indian catechumen martyred for the Faith CALCUTTA, India (UCAN) - A attended his funeral on Decem- deities, which my father refused," reached the village the following tribal catechumen who was ber 1.

Sagram said. Such pressure day and warned the villagers not beheaded for his faith more than The Santal catechumen, his wife forced another Catholic family to to harass the catechumen and his a month ago in eastern India was and their son adopted the leave the Church, he added. family. given a funeral on December 1 Catholic faith in 1994, Father Soon after the police left, though, Mathlal, a village Santal priest, after a village leader's confession Robert D'Souza, their former then accused Sukulal, his younger Sankar and others dragged the led police to the body. parish priest, told UCA News, brother, of witchcraft and fined catechumen out of the house and Sukulal Hansda, 55, a catechu- adding that tribal leaders him 500 rupees. the family had no information men for two years in Gobi- harassed the family because of Village leaders also forbade him about him for weeks, Sukulal's pallavpur village, some 200 their conversion. wife told UCA News. to go to Church. kilometres west of Calcutta, was Nonetheless, he said, the family Father Francis Soren, who works After the catechumen refused to beheaded on October 25 by a attended Sunday Mass, received comply, his son said, a village in the area, said the catechumen's Santal tribal leader and his gang regular instructions from cate- meeting was called on October continued absence led parishfor refusing to renounce his faith. chists, and had their house 20 at which Sankar presided. ioners to suspect that he had been Police arrested the village head, blessed by a Catholic priest.

The meeting gave the catechu- murdered.

Sankar Hansda, the catechumen's Sagram Hansda. 25, the mur- men no chance to speak and told They informed the police and brother Mathlal Handsa and their dered man's son, told UCA News him to pay the fine and worship registered a case. two associates on November 27 that non-Christian SantaIs perse- the Santa! deities.

Catholics, Baptists, and Lutherfor the crime. cuted Christians and fined his To force his compliance, vil- ans of the area sent a delegation Following Sankar's confession father for becoming a Catholic. lagers were put on guard outside on November 6 to police authoron November 30, police exhumed "My father paid 3,000 rupees the house, and the family was not ities, who promised to take action, the mutilated, headless body of (about US$85) to the villagers and allowed out even to answer calls Father Soren said.

Sukulal near the village. from last August the villagers of nature.

He said the incident had both His head was found two kilo- started persecuting us," he said However, Sukulal escaped from disturbed some 20,000 tribal metres outside the village. amid sobs. the house on October 23 and, with Christians and united them Five priests, several nuns and "They asked us not to go to the help of some catechists, across their various denominahundreds of tribal Christians Church and to worship the Santal Informed the police. The police tions.

Levi, Nike targetted on 'sweatshops' Fashion at

By Art Babych OTTAWA (CNS) - A study by the Canadian Catholic bishops' development agency shows that workers employed by a Philippine subcontractor for Levi Strauss sometimes work shifts lasting 29 hours.

As well, workers involved in stone-washing jeans begin their duties at 6 am and often end their shift at 10 pm, said the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace.

The organisation's study, released on December 3, takes aim at the international clothing manufacturer for not permitting independent monitoring of its code of conduct to prevent worker abuse, reported Canadian Catholic News.

It focused on the practices of Noveca Industries in the Philippines because the company sells almost everything it produces to Levi Strauss.

Problems persist at the plant even though there are frequent visits by Levi Strauss representatives, the study said.

"If Levi Strauss' representatives were serious about requiring compliance from its contractors, its code of conduct could become an authentic instrument for pro-

tecting workers," said the study.

"Otherwise, one can only conclude that the code amounts to nothing more than an exercise in public relations."

More than a year ago, the CCODP launched an international campaign to "expose the plight of millions of workers worldwide who work in often deplorable working conditions."

It targeted the giant sportswear companies of Levi Strauss and Nike, both of which have a code of conduct in place.

However, the companies have refused to accept independent monitoring.

During a meeting in February in New York between officials of the CCODP and Levi Strauss, the company insisted that its own personnel be the ones to determine whether the code of conduct is respected by its subcontractors.

Study coordinator Jacques Bertrand said that allowing independent verification of the code would "ensure its application, make it truly effective while avoiding some abuses."

The CCODP could help Levi Strauss identify independent groups who could make this verification, he said.

On April 30, the CCODP sent a 77,000-name petition to Levi

a just price

Strauss calling for independent monitoring of its code of conduct.

Nike, which was sent petitions

By Patricia Zapor containing more than 80,000 names, has ignored the agency's WASHINGIUN (CNS) - For the campaign. year in a row, consumers second Levi Strauss officials maintain the Catholic agency should be tar- told pollsters they would be willgeting the 95 percent of compa- ing to pay extra for goods they nies that are without similar know were made without sweatshop labor. codes.

They said they would also avoid They also argue that the campaign by the CCODP creates a shopping at retailers who they "disincentive" for other compa- know sell items made under nies not to enact their own codes. undesirable conditions.

Six out of every 10 people surBut Pierre Sane, secretary-general of Amnesty International, veyed in the study for Catholicsaid in April that "if they (Levi run Marymount University in Strauss) adopt a code of conduct Arlington, Virginia, said they and if they are serious about it, would be more likely to do their why would they want secret mon- holiday buying at stores that cooperate to end abuse of garment itoring?"

"It is only if a code of conduct is workers.

Seventy-nine percent of the surmonitored independently that it can be shown to really represent vey respondents said they would the commitment to act in accor- avoid retailers that they knew sold dance with international human garments made in sweatshops.

Sixty three percent said they rights standards," he said.

Some companies, however, app- would be more inclined to patroear to be moving toward inde- nise a store that cooperates with pendent monitoring, said labor law enforcement efforts.

Eighty three per cent of responBertrand.

"The Gap company has accept- dents, including people from ed the principle of the indepen- lower income backgrounds, said dent verification," and other they would even be willing to pay companies have also expressed a a slightly higher price in return desire to move in this direction, for a guarantee the clothing was he said. not made in a sweatshop.

International News

Protecting children's rights a basic duty: Pope VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In a dren from the family environstrongly worded appeal on ment. behalf of minors, Pope John This goes against age-old wisPaul II said children today dom that sees abandonment of faced dangerous forms of children as one of the most tragexploitation and neglect, aggra- ic human experiences, he said. vated by a weakening of the "In our age, while the number family. of 'natural' orphans has Protecting the legal rights of decreased, there has often been minors is a "fundamental duty a very sad and continual of justice," the Pope said in a increase in children who are message on December 7 to a abandoned - if not legally, psygroup of Italian legal experts. chologically," he said.

In modern society, he said, the He said this includes children legal system itself is sometimes exploited "in the most abject responsible for removing chil- and brutal ways," or in "equalThe Record,December 12 1996 Page 14

ly perverse but more subtle ways" that are typical of today's entertainment-oriented society "The care of these children, the defence of their basic concerns and the commitment to help them grow up normally corresponds to a fundamental duty of justice," he said.

The Pope said that when dealing with minors, justice officials should remember that "there are no 'natural' delinquents, nor children who are born with a tendency toward crime."

Criminality among minors is

the result of "negative experiences which, directly or indirectly, young people have had when deprived of family warmth and affection," he said.

"One should not forget that criminal behaviour in the minor is often the response to a world that has forgotten its duty to take care of him," he said.

He urged corrections officials to aim at recovery of the young person, encouraging him or her to re establish a positive relationship with life and its values.

A Filipino boy living on the street sniffs solvent to get high.

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

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Continued from Page 3 channel for Jesus to His people; Although some priests may and referred to Jesus whom he have incurred criticism justifi- said was the High Priest and the ably, Archbishop Hickey said, one who mediated between the he admitted to never having human race and God. Priests are essential to "our experienced the levels of criticism of the kind directed at Eucharistic worship of God and priests today (unjustifiably), and in the sacramental life of the said this had a demoralising Church," the Archbishop said.

"And the priest sees people effect on the men, who after all, "were human beings with feel- going off to strange new moveings." ments, (apparently) looking for He emphasised the role of the spirituality in bizarre forms in priest was a specific one where- the environment, animal life, by the priest had a special rela- circle dancing under the stars, tionship with Christ and was a in crystals, massage, and a lot of

different ways," he said outlining some of the factors priests must now contend with.

"So he wonders why they don't listen to him, because he preaches a spiritual message.

"And he asks why they listen to others who will lead them up the garden path."

It was in this milieu, with little encouragement and much discouragement which came from battling against the odds in a secular world "which was pushing God out,"that priests needed prayers so much, he said.

Perth bishops vow to resist chaplaincy plan Continued from Page 1.

A spokeswoman for the Hospital told The Record that after making a pastoral diagnosis, an ecumenical chaplain would decide whether a patient needed to see a minister from their own denomination.

If the patient was "pastorally healthy," she said, the ecumenical chaplain's job would probably consist in duties such as coordinating the patient's spiritual needs and welfare, providing counselling and monitoring any related needs.

It is understood that applications for the new position are currently being considered by the hospital.

The spokeswoman said the new chaplaincy operation arose after the WA Health Department decided not to contribute funds to religious denominations.

Previously all chaplains had been partly subsidised by the department.

The Department told the hospital that it should take over financial arrangements for

chaplaincies. The hospital had then decided it would not pay for a denominational chaplaincy, she said.

For Catholic patients in dangerous or life-threatening predicaments requiring emergency assistance, such as absolution, the hospital would keep a list of available Catholic clergy available to minister to them, the spokeswoman said.

Approximately 80 per cent of the hospital's patients indicate some religious interest when they enter hospital.

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 15

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More than a patron, parish model St Thomas More humbly welcomed the poor to share his meals. He served others - his own family, his King and country - but always, though, "God first"

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his year the Bateman parish We have also tried to be a welcelebrates our tenth coming community, with a group anniversary as a parish. of parishioners visiting new Our celebrations have included a parishioners in their homes. special Anniversary Mass with The group presents new parishBishop Healy as the main cele- ioners with a letter of welcome brant, a parish dinner dance, and, from Fr Peter Whitely along with very especially, a parish mission brochures on the various groups conducted over three weeks, by in the parish. the Redemptorist mission team.

We demonstrate our welcoming The first Mass was on June 22, spirit through Mass greeters at 1986, the feast of St Thomas More. the doors of the Church at every who was eventually to become Sunday Mass. our parish patron when our The architecture of the parish parish Church was opened on complex also helps us to welcome December 13, 1992. people through a large courtyard Our parish motto is: "a house of area where people naturally welcome to all and a place of ser- gather before and after Mass. vice to all," from Pope John Paul As a place of service we try very Il's 1988 exhortation on the voca- much to reach out to all in need, tion and the mission of the lay not only in our own community faithful in the Church and the but far beyond our boundaries. world, Christifidelis laid.

Our parish outreach committee, Coming during the early years "Morecare," provides short-term, of the formation of our parish this and sometimes longer-term, document has been our inspira- emergency help to families and tion in trying to understand who individual parishioners, who may and what God intends us to be as require meals, baby-sitting, transa parish community. port to hospitals or house clean-

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Inside, parishioners can find a quiet corner for reflection and prayer to God.

ST THERESE REFLECTIONS The monthly reflection on the life and message of St Therese of Lisieux (1873 - 1897) in preparation for the centenary of her death will take place on Wednesday next at Infant Jesus Church, Morley at 7.15pm and will include a blessing with the relic of the saint and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Enquiries: phone 276 8500.

CHOIR VACANCIES The Julian Singers is a Catholic liturgical choir whose repertoire consists of sacred and liturgical music of the past five centuries. There are currently several vacancies in the choir. Interested choristers who would like to join are invited to contact the choir's Musical Director, Mr Chris de Silva on (09) 276 2736.

The Record,December 12 1996 Page 16

ing. Meanwhile, our parish St

Vincent de Paul conference typifies service beyond our own boundaries by focusing all its care in neighbouring areas that are

socially disadvantaged.

Parishioners raise large amounts of money for the work of the conference by the sale of morning tea and cakes once a month after Sunday Masses.

Our parish service even goes beyond Australia's own boundaries.

Several years ago we adopted a newly formed parish in Bhelai in India.

We have regular fund-raising activities so that we can send money to our "sister parish" to assist with the establishment of their new remote conununity.

The prayerful celebration of liturgy is also very important in our parish life.

We have been blessed with a talented music ministry which provides music at every Sunday Mass.

The music ministry practices together as a whole group once a month and members roster themselves on whatever Mass they can attend.

Each Sunday Mass over a weekend has the same hymns and parts of the Mass and so the members easily interchange with each other.

The music for the Masses is selected by a group of musicians at separate meetings once a month, during which there is prayerful reflection on the readings for the month ahead so that the music chosen is in accord with the theme of each particular liturgical celebration.

Our music ministry is also often asked to assist at Archdiocesan celebrations and to present work-

Plenty of room is available for people to gather and meet after Mass.

shops in other parishes on music in the liturgy.

Faith education is a vital part of the life of our parish.

To assist us with this we are blessed with a Catholic regional high school, Corpus Christi College, and a two-stream parish primary school. Yidarra, on the same site as the Church, which is unique in the archdiocese.

We also have a catechist programme - the St Thomas More religious education programme which at times sees over two hundred children attend on Wednesday afternoons.

Our RCIA team this year are 'ourneying with twelve people

At a Glance Parish patron: St Thomas More Parish priest: Fr Peter Whitely Assistant priest: Fr Philip Perreau Religious education coordinator: Joanna Roper Parish secretary: Juliana Doss Address: 100 Dean Road. Bateman WA 6150 Telephone: 310 1747 Fax 310 8575 Masses: Saturday (vigil) 6.30pm, Sunday 8.00am, 9.30am and 11.00am Reconciliation: Sat 11.00am-12.00 noon and 5.00pm-6.00pm

Archdiocesan Panorama TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS A sung Traditional Latin Mass with Gregorian Chant will be offered at St John's Pro Cathedral, Victoria Ave, Perth on Tuesday 24 December 1996 at 8.30pm and Tuesday 31 December 1996 at 7.30pm. Mass is offered here every Sunday - 10am first Sunday of month and 11.15am every other Sunday. All welcome. Enquiries: 457 5860.

PASTORAL TRAINING SCHOOL '97 The Disciples of Jesus Community invites young Catholics (17-35 years) to

who wish to become Catholics, while a dedicated group of parishioners plan many adult faith education programmes for the rest of the parishioners.

Our parish patron. St Thomas More, is a very appropriate model for us in trying to live out our parish motto.

Being a layman and a family man he exemplified welcome and service in his life and death.

He humbly welcomed the poor off the streets to share his family meals.

He was a man who served others, his own family, his King and country, but of course, always, "God first."

attend their annual week-long Pastoral Training School, from 19 - 26th January 1997 at Catholic Agricultural College, Bindoon. It's fun as well as being instructive.

Cost $210 or $195 (conc/students): livein, all meals provided. For further information phone: (09) 341 6171 or (09) 446 1686.

FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS Saturday 28 December is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Archbishop Hickey will offer the 6.30pm Vigil Mass at St Mary's Cathedral in reparation for abortion.

Crosses will be placed around the Cathedral grounds. Donations of baby clothes will be forwarded to Pregnancy Assistance to help mothers of the unborn. Prolife Rosary at 6:10pm. Enq: to Catholic Pro-Life: 446 9682.

THE EMMAUS WAY An RE in-service program for teachers using the Emmaus story (Luke 24: 13-35) as a model for ministry. Facilitated by Monica Brown and Gerri Boylan sgs.

Begins on Monday 13 Jan 1997 at 2.00pm and concludes 2.00pm Friday 17 January 1997.

Venue - Redemptorist Retreat Centre, 190 Vincent St, North Perth, 6006. Cost $484 inclusive. Phone (02) 9484 0252, Fax (02) 9481 9179.

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