The Record Newspaper 16 January 2013

R

A new kind of economy

Disturbed by the dictatorship of greed, Benedict XVI calls for a new economic model

Pages 7-9

The magical view from Jack’s desk

CS Lewis created a world of adventure, charged with meaning Pages 10-11

‘Listen to the streets’ on family, thousands of Parisians tell

French politicians

Massive protest for marriage

to govern without listening to what it’s saying,” he said.

“We’re facing questions about society – what the family is, what marriage is, and whether there’s a difference between men and women,” Monsignor Bernard

“I’m not one who says the street must decide, because this is always dangerous, and political responsibility rests with those elected. But the street is expressing a great frustration today – those holding political responsibility can’t expect

The January 13 demonstration was organised by a coalition of 30 family groups. Organisers said 800,000 people participated, although French police put the number at 340,000.

Mgr Podvin said the Catholic Church believed homosexuals

“must be respected” but was against the same-sex bill, which was introduced in November by the government of President Francois Hollande under the slogan, Marriage for All. In addition to legalising same-sex marriage, it would allow adoption by same-sex couples.

“In our eyes, there’s nothing con-

tradictory between fighting firmly against homophobia and saying no to a radical transformation of the family model,” Mgr Podvin said. At the conclusion of the demonstration, protesters in Paris’ Champ de Mars called on Hollande to “hear and understand the people of France,” adding that the bill had Please turn to Page 4

A demonstrator waves a flag on the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on January 13 to protest against France’s planned legalisation of same-sex marriage.

PHOTO: CHARLES PLATIAU, REUTERS, CNS

A FRENCH bishops’ spokesman urged politicians to “listen to the streets” after hundreds of thousands of people rallied against same-sex marriage.

Podvin, spokesman for the French bishops’ conference, told France’s Metro daily.

Lauren seeks a stranger who could hold the key to life

By RoBeRt Hiini

TWENTY-THREE-year-old Perth woman Lauren Menegola is running out of time and you might be the person to help her.

Not long after her 21st birthday, Lauren was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of leukaemia, myeloid leukaemia, and, with her rare tissue type, doctors have been looking for a donor ever since.

A search of 20 million registered bone marrow donors throughout the world has, so far, yielded nothing.

Her father Bruno walked into The Record’s offices near Royal Perth Hospital recently after having visited his daughter, asking this newspaper to publicise the need for donors.

Described by RPH staff as “an amazing young lady”, Lauren has made an appeal for donors as well, although not principally for herself.

“I want people to register, not just for me, but for all the other people and children in the world who are in the same position.

“The more people who register, the more lives can be saved,” Lauren said.

“It’s hard being in a position where there’s nothing you or your family can do to help – where your whole life depends on someone, someone you’ve never met, to come forward.”

RPH blood specialist Dr Matthew Wright said most people who donated bone marrow did not need a general anaesthetic and that it was as easy as giving a regular blood donation.

“In about 90-95 per cent of cases for adults, we can collect stem cells from blood with medication, which

has made the process more comfortable,” he said. Only one in 1,000 will be asked to donate for a patient requiring a transplant in any given year, according to the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

Potential donors must be healthy and aged between 18-45. For more information, visit the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry website at www.abmdr.org.au or contact the Australian Red Cross Blood Service on 13 14 95.

Marianne Cope

1838–1918

January 23

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WORLD BRIEFS

USA Franciscans offer prayer by text

Often, prayer intentions are offered with hands folded, but a new service allows hands and fingers to move freely - provided a mobile phone is handy. The New York-based Holy Name Franciscan Province has started a service it calls “Text a Prayer Intention to a Franciscan Friar”. The service debuted in January with the new year. Users text the word “prayer” to a phone number and then receive a welcome message inviting them to then send in their prayer intentions. They receive a text in reply stating that their prayer has been received and will be prayed for. The intentions are received on a website, and will be included collectively in the friars’ prayers twice a day and at Mass. “With technology changing the way we communicate, we needed to offer people an updated way to ask for prayers for special intentions and needs either for themselves or others,” said Franciscan Father David Convertino. - CNS

SYRIA

Bitter winter new enemy for refugees

Snow, driving rain and howling winds in early January compounded the already desperate situation for Syrians caught up in 22 months of civil war seeking to oust President Bashar Assad. Now, the extremely frigid temperatures have put both those internally displaced inside Syria and refugees fleeing

Sunday 20th - Green

Barbara Koob was born in Germany, and moved to the United States with her family when she was 2. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, N.Y., serving for 20 years as a teacher and hospital administrator. In 1883 she traveled with six sisters to Hawaii to minister to people with Hansen’s disease, then known as leprosy. In 1888, they opened a home on Molokai for women and girls with the disease, and continued the work of St. Damien de Veuster after his death. Mother Marianne died on Molokai; her feast is her birthday.

to neighbouring countries in even greater danger. Aid workers in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon say they are stretched to the limit. Approximately 600,000 Syrian refugees have escaped to these countries. Omar Abawi of Caritas, the Catholic Church’s humanitarian non-governmental aid agency, said the group has concentrated its efforts in Jordan on Syrian refugees sheltering in towns along the northern border with Syria and those in the capital, Amman, where the majority of an estimated 300,000 Syrians in Jordan live. “We are reaching out to help Christians, Muslims and the minority Alawites,” Abawi said of the Syrians who share the apartments - normally three families in each apartment in frontier towns such as Mafraq, Irbid and Ramtha. - CNS

MEXICO

For priest, it’s all a work of love

Mexican priest Father Pedro Pantoja constantly deals with Central Americans wanting to sneak into the US. The migrants seek shelter in Saltillo, about 320km south of the Texas border at Laredo, arriving after a perilous path through Mexico. Fr Pantoja said the migrants, overwhelmingly evangelical Christians, cling to their Christian faith along the way. The priest, founder of two migrant shelters, said he sees his work as an opportunity to show the best of the Catholic Church, which is often attacked and belittled by pastors in Central America. “I offer them bread and do so freely,” Fr Pantoja said. “The origin of this is love and a social commitment, not a debate about faith.” - CNS

READINGS OF THE WEEK

2ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

1st Reading: Isa 62:1-5

The Lord’s delight

Responsorial Ps 95:1.3.7-10

Psalm: Bless God’s name

2nd Reading: 1 Cor 12:4-11

One and same Spirit

Gospel Reading: Jn 2:1-11

Jesus’ first sign

Monday 21st - Red ST AGNES, VIRGIN MARTYR (M)

1st Reading: Heb 5:1-10

A priest for ever

Responsorial Ps 109:1-4

Psalm: Like Melchizedek Gospel Reading: Mk 2:18-22 Time to feast

Tuesday 22nd - Green ST VINCENT, DEACON MARTYR (O)

1st Reading: Heb 6:10-20 Show earnestness

Responsorial Ps 110:1-2.4-10

Psalm: Thank the Lord Gospel Reading: Mk 2:23-28 The Sabbath

Wednesday 23rd - White SS TIMOTHY AND TITUS, BISHOPS (M)

1st Reading: Heb 7:1-3.15-17 A priest of God

Responsorial Ps 109:1-4

Psalm: A priest for ever Gospel Reading: Mk 3:1-6 Jesus heals

Thursday 24th - White

ST FRANCIS DE SALES, BISHOP, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH (M)

1st Reading: Heb 7:25-8:6

Listen today

Responsorial Ps 39:7-10.17

Psalms: An open ear Gospel Reading: Mk 3:7-12 You are the Son of God

Friday 25th - White

THE CONVERSION OF ST PAUL, APOSTLE (FEAST)

1st Reading: Acts 22:3-16

Persecuted the Way

Responsorial Ps 116:1-2

Psalm: Praise the Lord

Gospel Reading: Mk 16:15-18

Proclaim the Good News

Saturday 26th - White

AUSTRALIA DAY

1st Reading: Isa 32:15-18

Work of the Spirit

Responsorial Ps 84:9-14

Psalm: God gives peace

2nd Reading: 1 Cor 12:4-11

One Spirit, one Lord

Gospel Reading: Mt 5:1-12

Sources of blessing

Perth woman Lauren Menegola is hoping to find a compatible bone marrow donor in her fight against leukaemia.

PHOTO: COURTESY BRUNO MENEGOLA

Academic accolades no stranger to L’Estrange

Ethics the future for business graduates

A CATHOLIC university in the US is spinning off its current economics and business curriculum from its School of Arts and Sciences and fashioning a new business school with the idea of infusing ethics into all course offerings.

In 2014, graduates of the Catholic University of America will receive their degrees from the new School of Business and Economics, the university’s 13th school.

This year’s business and economics graduates will still receive degrees from the School of Arts and Sciences.

“We have very small classes, and we want to keep it that way,” Associate Professor Andrew Abela said.

“There’s something about the program that the students find appealing,” Abela said.

He believes it is the correlation of societal institutions with the economy and the application of natural law within the curriculum.

Natural law and Catholicism are “right at the heart of what we’re teaching”, he said.

In Abela’s view, if the society is not moral, the economy will not act morally either, and he sees the family unit as key, too.

“At the root of the failings of 2008 and the economic decline, at the root of all that is a moral decline,” he said.

“A society that isn’t living morally is not likely to prosper for very long.

“The single biggest example of

GOD’S WORD 2013

Now only $16.00 at

THE UNIVERSITY of Notre Dame (UNDA) has recognised one of Australia’s great diplomats, awarding Michael Gerald L’Estrange AO a degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa

The accolade adds to a number of Mr L’Estrange’s prestigious academic achievements, which include graduating from the University of Sydney with honours in 1974 after studying history.

He is a Rhodes scholar and graduate of Oxford University, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkley.

Mr L’Estange worked for the Department of the Prime Minister in Cabinet in 1981 and on the staff of Justice Robert Hope’s Royal Commission into Australia’s Security and Intelligence Agencies.

From 1989 to 1994, he worked for several leaders of the Opposition

in a range of policy advisory positions and, in 1995, was appointed the inaugural Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre in Canberra.

Since then he has served successive governments in positions including High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Secretary to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In 2007, Mr L’Estrange was

appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the development and implementation of public policy in Australia, particularly national security and strengthening Australia’s relationship with the United Kingdom.

In speaking to UNDA graduates, Mr L’Estrange said they would all have varying career paths and it was important for each of them to remain optimistic about the future.

Baptism follows in the footsteps of Christ

this is the family. If you don’t have a strong family, kids don’t grow up to be disciplined and they’re not productive contributors to the economy.”

While he applies that principle to the US economy, Abela said it fits the situation as well in Europe, which has seen a series of debt cri-

Designed to help you keep the Word of God close to your heart in your daily life. Pray with it, share it and make your life a daily celebration with the word of God. Grow in God’s love, being nourished daily by his word, the bread of life.

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ses in European Union member nations.

“The decline of the family (in Europe) is so much greater” than in the US, he added.

“It’s difficult to see how they can dig themselves out of the hole that they are in.” Since the US economy took a

tumble in 2008, business colleges have offered ethics courses because there has been “an increased concern with ethics” but most courses are an add-on to the curriculum, Abela said.

At Catholic University, ethics is a part of every course in the program, he added.

“For example, in a marketing course, students learn how to be” a good marketer - where ‘good’ is understood as both effective and ethical,” he explained.

Mr Abela worked in advertising, marketing and consulting before joining the Catholic University faculty 10 years ago. CNS

A Franciscan priest baptises a child during a ceremony at the baptismal site known as Qasr el-Yahud near the West Bank city of Jericho on January 13. Hundreds gathered on the banks of the Jordan River at the traditional site where it is believed John the Baptist baptised Jesus.

PHOTO: RONEN ZVULEN, REUTERS

Michael L’Estrange has been honoured by UNDA. PHOTO: UNDA

Politics minus God fails: CDF head

POLITICIANS who want to act as if God did not exist and as if there was no such thing as objective moral truths are bound to fail in their efforts to promote the common good, said the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

“The politics we have today in Europe and North America without ethical foundations, without a reference to God, cannot resolve our problems, even those of the market and money,” said Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the CDF.

Bishop leads peace talks in Africa

ONE OF the Central African Republic’s leading Catholics helped mediate between the Seleka rebel alliance and government leaders, resulting in a peace agreement to end fighting that left a Catholic journalist dead.

Father Dieu-Beni Mbanga, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Bangui, confirmed that Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga represented civil society and helped mediate at the talks in Libreville, Gabon.

The two sides announced a peace agreement and plans for a unity government on January 11.

The rebel alliance, which had hoped to overthrow the government of President Francois Bozize, began its drive in the North on December 10 and captured about a dozen towns.

During the occupation of the city of Bambari, rebels looted a diocesan-run radio station and killed journalist Elisabeth Blanche Ologio. Renee Lambert, head of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program in the Central African Republic, said the agency’s staffers remained safe, but CRS programs in the country’s southeast were delayed. She said that the CRS is still finding out the extent of the crisis. - CNS

The archbishop, coordinator of the project to publish the complete works of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, said one of the key teachings of the Pope is the importance of faith and reason going hand in hand.

Speaking at a Vatican bookstore in downtown Rome, Archbishop Muller said, “faith and reason are like two people who love each other deeply, who cannot live without each other, and who were intimately made for one another, so much

so that they cannot be considered separate from one another and cannot reach their goals separately”. He quoted the Pope’s speech to diplomats on January 7: “It is precisely man’s forgetfulness of God, and his failure to give him glory, which gives rise to violence. Indeed, once we no longer make reference to an objective and transcendent truth, how is it possible to achieve an authentic dialogue?”

Archbishop Muller said that in the current run-up to Italian elections he has heard that some politi-

cians want the Catholic Church to “talk about love, charity and mercy of God” but not insist that the truths it preaches be upheld.

“But where is love without truth?” the archbishop asked.

The archbishop made his comments during a short presentation of his new book in Italian, Ampliare L’Orizzonte della Ragione. Per una Lettura di Joseph RatzingerBenedetto XVI , ( Broadening the Horizons of Reason: From a Letter by Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI).

In the book, Archbishop Muller

highlights the importance Pope Benedict gives to the need for faith and reason to support and purify one another; the Pope’s insistence that Christianity is primarily about a relationship with Jesus Christ and not simply the acceptance of rules and doctrines; and the key role that studying the life and work of St Augustine has had both on the Pope’s theology and on his ministry. Archbishop Muller said Catholics can rightly be proud of having such a great theologian as their Pope. - CNS

Bishops meet to pray for the needs of Christians

Massive protest march a vote for real marriage

Continued from Page 1

“deeply divided” the population and provoked opposition “from right and left and the unaffiliated”.

They said the legislation “means inscribing in our law a fundamental discrimination: between those who will be born from a father and mother, and those who will be legally ‘born’ from two fathers or two mothers”.

France’s Le Figaro daily said several Catholic bishops – including Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon – joined the rally privately with diocesan groups.

In a brief address to protesters in Place Denfert-Rochereau, the bishops’ conference president, Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, said he had not participated because his “mode of communication” with the government was “not the demonstration, but direct dialogue”.

However, he praised protesters for the “quality of their message” and for taking part “peacefully, without aggression, distrust or personal hatred”.

“It must be understood that the defence of parentage, paternity and maternity over children isn’t an act of aggression against homosexuals, but a recognition that a child born from a man and woman has a right to be raised by a man and woman,” he said.

Supporters of the proposed legislation plan a rally in Paris on

January 27, two days before debate is scheduled to begin in France’s National Assembly.

About 500 people, mostly French citizens, also gathered in front of the French Embassy in Rome on January 13 as a show of support for the Paris protesters.

Along with pink, baby blue and white balloons, they also held signs, some of which said “Father + Mother = nothing better for a child”.

Organisers said they gave the embassy a letter addressed to the French president asking him to not

promote the proposed laws. Similar protests were held by French citizens in London, Brussels, Madrid, Washington, Jerusalem, Moscow and Tokyo, organisers said.

Pope Benedict XVI did not mention the pro-family protests in his Angelus address on January 13. However, he did call for greater care and concern for immigrants and their families.

A small demonstration by four women broke out in St Peter’s Square just as the Pope began his weekly address.

Four young women removed

their shirts to reveal slogans painted on their naked backs and chests, such as “In Gay We Trust” and “Shut Up”.

The Pope did not appear to notice the protesters, and they were quickly taken away by Italian police.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told Vatican Radio the Church supports cultural and social progress, but not “at the

In England and Wales more than a thousand Catholic priests signed an open letter to MPs against gay marriage.

expense of nature”.

He said he wondered why so many people were so committed to protecting the environment from manipulation, but “not very concerned about manipulation against the inner workings of anthropology”.

Allowing same-sex couples to adopt “leads to the child becoming a kind of merchandise”, he said, adding that a child must be born and raised “the ordinary way, that is, with a father and a mother”.

In England and Wales, more than

a thousand Catholic priests signed an open letter warning British politicians that a bill to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples would erode religious liberty.

The letter, published on January 12 in the London-based Daily Telegraph newspaper, urged lawmakers “not to be afraid to reject this legislation” when it arrives in the House of Commons later in the month.

The signatories, who also include eight bishops, suggest that the Equal Marriage Bill represents the gravest threat to the Catholic Church in England and Wales since the Reformation.

They said it could restrict the ability of the Church to function effectively and force Catholics from a range of professions.

“Legislation for same-sex marriage, should it be enacted, will have many legal consequences, severely restricting the ability of Catholics to teach the truth about marriage in their schools, charitable institutions or places of worship,” said the letter, which was signed by about a fifth of the priests of England and Wales.

“It is meaningless to argue that Catholics and others may still teach their beliefs about marriage in schools and other arenas if they are also expected to uphold the opposite view at the same time,” it said. - CNS

Catholics gather for Mass with a group of bishops from other countries on January 6 in Zerga, Jordan. The bishops were in the Holy Land in early January to assess the needs of the people and Christian churches there.

PHOTO: CNS/MARCIN MAZUR

Thousands of demonstrators march in Paris to protest against France’s planned legalisation of same-sex marriage.

PHOTO: CNS/CHARLES PLATIAU

Armed with peace - not weapons

GERMANY’S Catholic bishops criticised the country’s growing arms industry and urged greater commitment to settling the world’s armed conflicts.

The message was included in a 24-page bishops’ conference brochure for the January 1 World Day of Peace.

“Peace isn’t just a job for politicians,” said the conference president, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg.

“It must shake us awake when we realise arms exports are such a flourishing business, as military and paramilitary demands increase,” he said.

“Images from the world’s conflict zones show how far we are from peaceful coexistence.”

Archbishop Zollitsch said 2012 had witnessed “worldwide terrorism, devastating wars in Africa and escalating conflict in the Middle East”.

He said economic globalisation required a “further development of international order” which took account of “the global common good as a horizon for local actions.

“Although world peace is generally recognised as a political goal, it often lacks the necessary commitment of power, especially when entrenched economic interests and ideological blindness fuel warlike confrontation,” he said.

German arms exports now account for three-quarters of national arms production.

Sister Suzan Kuku, a Sister of the Sacred Heart, comforts a patient in September 2012 at St Daniel Comboni Catholic Hospital in Wau, South Sudan. In a message for the 2013 World Day of the Sick, Pope Benedict XVI called on everyone to be a good Samaritan and concretely help those in need.

PHOTO: PAUL JEFFREY, CNS

Rest of Europe fine with bank: Vatican monitor

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY - The Swiss finance lawyer hired to monitor the legality and transparency of Vatican financial activity said the Italian central bank’s concerns about the Vatican’s vulnerability to money laundering are not shared by other European countries or international agencies.

Citing a supposed lack of Vatican controls to prevent money laundering, the Bank of Italy denied a request by Deutsche Bank Italia to

Thousands take Rosary pledge for Year of Faith

MASSACHUSETTS - The Family Rosary division of Holy Cross Family Ministries in Easton has gathered more than 80,000 pledges from people around the globe who said they would pray the Rosary daily during the 2012-13 Year of Faith.

The pledges, which came in response to a program offering free rosaries, were gathered in a book and presented recently to Pope Benedict XVI by Holy Cross Father John Phalen, president of Holy Cross Family Ministries.

“There are even pledges in languages we can’t understand, like some of those from India and Bangladesh,” Fr Phalen said in a statement. “It was an honour to present His Holiness with the book and ask his apostolic blessing on our ministry.”

“There are even pledges in languages we can’t understand, from India and Bangladesh.”

The Pope received the book at the Vatican in December as part of the Year of Faith observation and to mark the 70th anniversary of Family Rosary, founded by Holy Cross Fr Patrick Peyton, known as the “Rosary priest”. He died in 1992 and the cause for his canonisation was opened in 2001.

Fr Peyton started the campaign to provide free rosaries and gather pledges in 1991. Back then, the plan was to send one million rosaries to Russia. It has since evolved into a worldwide effort to send the prayer beads to families, schools, parishes and individuals on every continent. To date, more than 20 million rosaries have been given away. About five million of those were provided by volunteer rosarymaking groups in parishes.

continue providing credit and debit card services in Vatican City State.

Because of the decision, the Vatican museums, supermarket and other entities have been unable to accept credit or debit card payments since January 1.

“I’m truly surprised by the measures taken by the Bank of Italy. No other country in the world has adopted similar measures,” said Rene Brulhart, the 40-year-old director of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority.

“Moneyval” - the Council of

Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism - issued its evaluation of the Vatican’s financial and banking laws in July and said the Vatican met nine of its 16 “key and core” recommendations to prevent finance-related crimes.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera , which was translated and posted on the Vatican Radio website, Brulhart said the Moneyval report judged the Vatican’s “process in adjusting to

international standards satisfactory and credible. The Holy See was not subjected to any special monitoring measure, neither by Moneyval nor by any other international body”.

Yet the Bank of Italy said in a January 10 statement that “although it recognised that progress had been made, Moneyval concluded that the presence of an effective antimoney-laundering regime has still not been proven”.

The Italian central bank said it could authorise Italian banks to provide services in countries

Grace even greater than holy ceiling

outside Italy only if the foreign country “has an adequate banking regulatory framework and system of supervisory controls”.

Brulhart said not only are there no problems with other European countries, “there’s close collaboration.”

His office, the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, already has finalised agreements with Belgium and Spain on sharing information regarding suspect financial transactions and has begun similar negotiations with 20 other countries.

Cardinal laments the collapse of state, society

By Peter ajayi dada

LAGOS - Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie criticised oil pipeline vandalism that led to the death of more than two dozen youths, saying if they had had jobs, their deaths might have been avoided.

The Cardinal, retired Archbishop of Lagos, urged the nation’s leaders to save the country from imminent collapse. Young people, fighting over who would get to siphon crude oil from a ruptured pipeline in Arepo, a suburb of Lagos, were roasted in a fire officials believe was triggered by gunshots. It was not the first time people have been killed vandalising one of Nigeria’s pipelines.

Cardinal Okogie said if federal and state governments were providing jobs for unemployed youths, they would not have resorted to vandalism of the pipelines. “Our youths are already being led astray because of the high rate of unemployment within the country,” the cardinal said in a statement released to journalists on January 13, the day after the fire.

“They are like sheep without shepherd, and yet they are being told that they are the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. The cardinal wondered how young people can lead well if they are not given good examples to follow. In a country blessed with human and natural resources, he said, there was no reason the government should not provide its citizens with good roads, affordable housing, constant power supply and gainful employment.

He said lack of leadership was also responsible for an increase in kidnapping, corruption and insecurity, and that the nation’s politicians were busy jostling for power ahead of the 2015 elections.

‘’Nigeria is now in a dire state of disrepute. It appears there is no good government presence at the centre and state levels, and yet they claim that all is well,” the Cardinal said.

Sistine Chapel resounds with baptism of infants

By FranCis roCCa

VATICAN CITY - The Sistine Chapel sounded a bit like a nursery on January 13 as Pope Benedict XVI baptised 20 babies whose crying provided a constant accompaniment to the two-hour Mass on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Pope Benedict said that in choosing to receive the sacrament, Jesus showed he “was really immersed in our human condition; he lived it to the utmost - although without sin - and in such a way that he under-

stands weakness and fragility.”

The Pope told parents that their children’s baptism would bring them into a “personal relationship with Jesus” that would give their lives meaning: “Only in this friendship is the great potential of the human condition truly revealed and we can experience what is beautiful and what is free”.

Reminding the godparents of their duty to assist parents in raising their godchildren in the faith, Pope Benedict noted that “it is not easy to demonstrate what you

believe in openly and without compromise, especially in the context in which we live, in the face of a society that often considers those who live by faith in Jesus to be oldfashioned and out of date.”

Contrary to a widespread view that Christianity is “detrimental to personal fulfilment,” the Pope said faith in Jesus frees us from egoism and “keeps us from being turned in on ourselves, in order to lead a full life, in communion with God and open to others”.

As in previous instances of the

annual tradition, the baptised babies, who this year included a pair of twins, were all children of Vatican employees and were born during the preceding three months.

“It was a moment of grace and great simplicity,” said Alessandro Gisotti, whose daughter Maria Teresa was one of those baptised. He said the event required no special preparation, apart from a rehearsal two days earlier, led by the Pope’s master of liturgical ceremonies, Mgr Guido Marini.

Gisotti, a journalist at Vatican Radio, and his wife Nicole were accompanied by their son Andrea Karol, 4, who received a special blessing from the Pope after the Mass. That evening the Gisotti family celebrated with friends at their parish in the seaside community of Ostia, about 18 miles southwest of Vatican City.

His pastor had happily given permission for Maria Teresa to receive the sacrament in another church, Gisotti said, since “of course, Pope is the pastor of us all”.

Pope Benedict XVI baptises a baby during a Mass in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on January 13. The Pope baptised 20 babies as he celebrated the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The Pontiff told parents that baptism would bring their child into a “personal relationship with Jesus” that would give their lives meaning. PHOTO: CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS

Forget the feel good preening; peace and economic well-being are a real possibility, but they are demanding and presume a radical respect for life and its author, says Pope Benedict XVI in his World Day of Peace message.

God’s Beatitude

In the eyes of the world, those who trust in God and his promises often appear naïve or far from reality. Yet Jesus tells them that not only in the next life, but already in this life, they will discover that they are children of God, and that God has always been, and ever will be, completely on their side. They will understand that they are not alone, because he is on the side of those committed to truth, justice and love. Jesus, the revelation of the Father’s love, does not hesitate to offer himself in self-sacrifice. Once we accept Jesus Christ, God and man, we have the joyful experience of an immense gift: the sharing of God’s own life, the life of grace, the pledge of a fully blessed existence. Jesus Christ, in particular, grants us true peace, which is born of the trusting encounter of man with God.

Jesus’ beatitude tells us that peace is both a messianic gift and the fruit of human effort.

In effect, peace presupposes a humanism open to transcendence. It is the fruit of the reciprocal gift, of a mutual enrichment, thanks to the gift which has its source in God and enables us to live with others and for others. The ethics of peace is an ethics of fellowship and sharing. It is indispensable, then, that the various cultures in our day overcome forms of anthropology and ethics based on technical and practical suppositions which are merely subjectivistic and pragmatic, in virtue of which relationships of coexistence are inspired by criteria of power or profit, means become ends and vice versa, and culture and education are centred on instruments, technique and

efficiency alone. The precondition for peace is the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes acknowledgement of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God upon the conscience of every man and woman.

Peace is the building up of coexistence in rational and moral terms, based on a foundation whose measure is not created by man, but rather by God.

As Psalm 29 puts it: “May the Lord give strength to his people; may the Lord bless his people with peace.”

Peace concerns the human person as a whole, and it involves complete commitment. It is peace with God through a life lived according to his will. It is interior peace with oneself, and exterior peace with our neighbours and all creation. Above all, as Blessed John XXIII wrote in his Encyclical Pacem in Terris, whose 50th anniversary [of death] will fall in a few months, it entails the building up of a coexistence based on truth, freedom, love and justice.

The denial of what makes up the true nature of human beings in its

essential dimensions, its intrinsic capacity to know the true and the good and, ultimately, to know God himself, jeopardises peacemaking. Without the truth about man inscribed by the Creator in the human heart, freedom and love become debased, and justice loses the ground of its exercise.

To become authentic peacemakers, it is fundamental to keep in mind our transcendent dimension and to enter into constant dialogue with God, the Father of mercy, whereby we implore the redemption achieved for us by his onlybegotten Son. In this way, mankind can overcome that progressive dim-

ming and rejection of peace which is sin in all its forms: selfishness and violence, greed and the will to power and dominion, intolerance, hatred and unjust structures.

The attainment of peace depends above all on recognising that we are, in God, one human family. This family is structured, as the Encyclical  Pacem in Terris taught, by interpersonal relations and institutions supported and animated by a communitarian “we”, which entails an internal and external moral order in which, in accordance with truth and justice, reciprocal rights and mutual duties are sincerely recognised. Peace is an order enlivened and integrated by love, in such a way that we feel the needs of others as our own, share our goods with others and work throughout the world for greater communion in spiritual values. It is an order achieved in freedom, that is, in a way consistent with the dignity of persons who, by their very nature as rational beings, take responsibility for their own actions.

Peace is not a dream or something utopian; it is possible. Our gaze needs to go deeper, beneath superficial appearances and phenomena, to discern a positive reality which exists in human hearts, since every man and woman has been created in the image of God and is called to grow and contribute to the building of a new world. God himself, through the incarnation of his Son and his work of redemption, has entered into history and has brought about a new creation and a new covenant between God and man, thus enabling us to have a “new heart” and a “new spirit”. For this very reason, the Church

Continued on Pages 8 & 9

Peace: God’s gift and the fruit of human effort

Peace is not utopian, the Pope says, and depends in part on a positive reality which exists in all human hearts. CNS

Afghan children in Zhari, Kandahar watch NATO troops patrol in 2009. Pope Benedict XVI says he believes an end to such conflicts is possible. CNS

Continued from Page 7 is convinced of the urgency of a new proclamation of Jesus Christ, the first and fundamental factor of the integral development of peoples and also of peace. Jesus is indeed our peace, our justice and our reconciliation (cf Eph 2:14; 2 Cor 5:18). The peacemaker, according to Jesus’ beatitude, is the one who seeks the good of the other, the fullness of good in body and soul, today and tomorrow.

From this teaching one can infer that each person and every community, whether religious, civil, educational or cultural, is called to work for peace. Peace is principally the attainment of the common good in society at its different levels, primary and intermediary, national, international and global. Precisely for this reason it can be said that the paths which lead to the attainment of the common good are also the paths that must be followed in the pursuit of peace.

Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness

The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.

Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalisation of abortion, perhaps

do not realise that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenceless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed, how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.

and thus common to all humanity.

The Church’s efforts to promote them are not therefore confessional in character, but addressed to all people, whatever their religious affiliation. Efforts of this kind are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace.

Consequently, another important way of helping to build peace is for legal systems and the administration of justice to recognise the right to invoke the principle of conscientious objection in the face of laws or government measures that

known, engaging in activities in the educational, benevolent and charitable fields which permit the practice of religious precepts, and existing and acting as social bodies structured in accordance with the proper doctrinal principles and institutional ends of each. Sadly, even in countries of long-standing Christian tradition, instances of religious intolerance are becoming more numerous, especially in relation to Christianity and those who simply wear identifying signs of their religion.

“The path to peace is above all that of respect for human life. Life in its fullness is the height of peace.

offend against human dignity, such as abortion and euthanasia.

There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilise marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.

These principles are not truths of faith, nor are they simply a corollary of the right to religious freedom. They are inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason

One of the fundamental human rights, also with reference to international peace, is the right of individuals and communities to religious freedom. At this stage in history, it is becoming increasingly important to promote this right not only from the negative point of view, as freedom from – for example, obligations or limitations involving the freedom to choose one’s religion – but also from the positive point of view, in its various expressions, as freedom for –for example, bearing witness to one’s religion, making its teachings

Peacemakers must also bear in mind that, in growing sectors of public opinion, the ideologies of radical liberalism and technocracy are spreading the conviction that economic growth should be pursued even to the detriment of the state’s social responsibilities and civil society’s networks of solidarity, together with social rights and duties. It should be remembered that these rights and duties are fundamental for the full realisation of other rights and duties, starting with those which are civil and political. One of the social rights and duties most under threat today is the right to work. The reason for this is that labour and the rightful recognition of workers’ juridical status are increasingly undervalued, since economic development is thought to depend principally on completely free markets. Labour is thus regarded as a variable dependent on economic and financial

mechanisms. In this regard, I would reaffirm that human dignity and economic, social and political factors, demand that we continue “to prioritise the goal of access to steady employment for everyone”. If this ambitious goal is to be realised, one prior condition is a fresh outlook on work, based on ethical principles and spiritual values that reinforce the notion of work as a fundamental good for the individual, for the family and for society. Corresponding to this good are a duty and a right that demand courageous new policies of universal employment.

Building the good of peace through a new model of development and economics

In many quarters it is now recognised that a new model of development is needed, as well as a new approach to the economy. Both integral, sustainable development in solidarity and the common good require a correct scale of goods and values which can be structured with God as the ultimate point of reference. It is not enough to have many different means and choices at one’s disposal, however good these may be. Both the wide variety of goods fostering development and the presence of a wide range of choices must be employed against the horizon of a good life, an upright conduct that acknowledges the primacy of the spiritual and the call to work for the common good. Otherwise they lose their real value, and end up becoming new idols. In order to emerge from the present financial and economic crisis - which has engendered ever greater inequalities - we need people, groups and institutions which will promote life by fostering human

creativity, in order to draw from the crisis itself an opportunity for discernment and for a new economic model. The predominant model of recent decades called for seeking maximum profit and consumption, on the basis of an individualistic and selfish mindset, aimed at considering individuals solely in terms of their ability to meet the demands of competitiveness.

Yet, from another standpoint, true and lasting success is attained through the gift of ourselves, our intellectual abilities and our entrepreneurial skills, since a “liveable” or truly human economic development requires the principle of gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity and the logic of gift. Concretely, in economic activity, peacemakers are those who establish bonds of fairness and reciprocity with their colleagues, workers, clients and consumers. They engage in economic activity for the sake of the common good and they experience this commitment as something transcending their selfinterest, for the benefit of present and future generations. Thus, they work not only for themselves, but also to ensure for others a future and a dignified employment.

In the economic sector, states in particular need to articulate policies of industrial and agricultural development concerned with social progress and the growth everywhere of constitutional and democratic states.

The creation of ethical structures for currency, financial and commercial markets is also fundamental and indispensable; these must be stabilised and better coordinated and controlled so as not to prove harmful to the very poor. With greater resolve than has hitherto been the case, the concern of peacemakers must also focus upon

the food crisis, which is graver than the financial crisis. The issue of food security is once more central to the international political agenda, as a result of interrelated crises, including sudden shifts in the price of basic foodstuffs, irresponsible behaviour by some economic actors and insufficient control on the part of governments and the international community.

To face this crisis, peacemakers are called to work together in a spirit of solidarity, from the local to the international level, with the aim of enabling farmers, especially in small rural holdings, to carry out their activity in a dignified and sustainable way from the social, environmental and economic points of view.

Education for a culture of peace: the role of the family and institutions

I wish to reaffirm forcefully that the various peacemakers are called to cultivate a passion for the common good of the family and for social justice, and a commitment to effective social education.

to the standards of divine love. The family is one of the indispensable social subjects for the achievement of a culture of peace.

The rights of parents and their primary role in the education of their children in the area of morality and religion must be safeguarded. It is in the family that peacemakers, tomorrow’s promoters of a culture of life and love, are born and nurtured.

Religious communities are involved in a special way in this immense task of education for peace. The Church believes that she shares in this great responsibility as part of the new evangelisation, which is centred on conversion to the truth and love of Christ

basis. Today’s world, especially the world of politics, needs to be sustained by fresh thinking and a new cultural synthesis so as to overcome purely technical approaches and to harmonise the various political currents with a view to the common good.

A pedagogy for peacemakers

“True economic development requires gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity.

No one should ignore or underestimate the decisive role of the family, which is the basic cell of society from the demographic, ethical, pedagogical, economic and political standpoints.

The family has a natural vocation to promote life: it accompanies individuals as they mature and it encourages mutual growth and enrichment through caring and sharing. The Christian family in particular serves as a seedbed for personal maturation according

and, consequently, the spiritual and moral rebirth of individuals and societies. Encountering Jesus Christ shapes peacemakers, committing them to fellowship and to overcoming injustice.

Cultural institutions, schools and universities have a special mission of peace. They are called to make a notable contribution not only to the formation of new generations of leaders, but also to the renewal of public institutions, both national and international.

They can also contribute to a scientific reflection which will ground economic and financial activities on a solid anthropological and ethical

In the end, we see clearly the need to propose and promote a pedagogy of peace. This calls for a rich interior life, clear and valid moral points of reference, and appropriate attitudes and lifestyles. Acts of peacemaking converge for the achievement of the common good; they create interest in peace and cultivate peace. Thoughts, words and gestures of peace create a mentality and a culture of peace, and a respectful, honest and cordial atmosphere. There is a need, then, to teach people to love one another, to cultivate peace and to live with goodwill rather than mere tolerance.

A fundamental encouragement to this is “to say no to revenge, to recognise injustices, to accept apologies without looking for them, and finally, to forgive”, in such a way that mistakes and offences can be acknowledged in truth, so as to move forward together towards reconciliation. This requires the growth of a pedagogy of pardon.

Evil is in fact overcome by good, and justice is to be sought in imitating God the Father who loves all his children (cf Mt 5:21-48). This is a slow process, for it presupposes a

spiritual evolution, an education in lofty values, a new vision of human history.

There is a need to renounce that false peace promised by the idols of this world along with the dangers which accompany it, that false peace which dulls consciences, which leads to self-absorption, to a withered existence lived in indifference. The pedagogy of peace, on the other hand, implies activity, compassion, solidarity, courage and perseverance.

Jesus embodied all these attitudes in his own life, even to the complete gift of himself, even to “losing his life” (cf Mt 10:39; Lk 17:33; Jn 12: 25). He promises his disciples that sooner or later they will make the extraordinary discovery to which I originally alluded, namely that God is in the world, the God of Jesus, fully on the side of man.

Here, I would recall the prayer asking God to make us instruments of his peace, to be able to bring his love wherever there is hatred, his mercy wherever there is hurt, and true faith wherever there is doubt.

For our part, let us join Blessed John XXIII in asking God to enlighten all leaders so that, besides caring for the proper material welfare of their peoples, they may secure for them the precious gift of peace, break down the walls which divide them, strengthen the bonds of mutual love, grow in understanding, and pardon those who have done them wrong; in this way, by his power and inspiration, all the peoples of the earth will experience fraternity, and the peace for which they long will ever flourish and reign among them.

With this prayer I express my hope that all will be true peacemakers, so that the city of man may grow in fraternal harmony, prosperity and peace.

Left, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in April 2011 to protest the burning of the Quran by a US pastor; above, children run past rubble from buildings damaged by what activists said was a government airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on December 5; right, an Afghan boy eats corn on a roadside in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 22, 2011.

PHOTOS: CNS

The view from Jack's desk

Largely ignored by professional theologians, CS Lewis' exploration of faith inspires new generations.

By Jonathan Luxmoore

In a wooded suburb of this fabled university city, a battered typewriter sits on a desk beside a bay window that overlooks a tangled landscape of oaks and beeches. Nearby, ancient bookshelves guard a leather armchair surrounded by wall maps and pictures depicting a fantasy world.

When Clive Staples Lewisknown to his friends as 'Jack' – bought The Kilns, a former brick factory, in 1930, he used its remote calm to produce a stream of Christian stories, the best known of which, The Chronicles of Narnia has since sold 100 million copies in more than 45 languages.

But Lewis also gained renown for his Christian apologetics. His Mere Christianity published in 1952, was rated “best religious book of the 20th century” by the US magazine Christianity Today

Until now, Lewis has been largely ignored at Oxford University, where he taught for three decades, until his death in 1963. He has gained greater recognition in the US, where the Anglican Church celebrates a “Holy CS Lewis Day” each November.

With interest growing, however, and three books of the Narnia series now blockbuster films, things are changing.

“Lewis wasn’t a professional theologian, but his sense of the world Christianity portrays was just as profound as the best modern theologians," said Judith Wolfe, an expert on the author and a theology faculty member of Oxford’s St John’s College.

“He realised Christian literature wasn’t presenting good characters who were also interesting; the evil characters were always more

Lewis’ work has appeared on reading lists in both English literature and systematic theology at Oxford. The CS Lewis Society hosts weekly seminars at the university’s Pusey House.

“Like his close friend, JRR Tolkien, Lewis expressed his Christian faith through narrative and imagination which seems to be chiming in with contemporary needs,” explained Fr Ward, coeditor of the groundbreaking The Cambridge Companion to CS Lewis

“People are picking up intuitively again on the timeless religious element in his books, even if they’re not directly aware of their fundamentally Christian message,” the priest said.

compelling,” she said. “By portraying Christ as the lion Aslan in the Narnia stories, he hoped to reveal the real-life attractiveness of the holy.”

A native of what is now Northern Ireland, Lewis won an Oxford scholarship in 1916, graduating after fighting in the trenches of World War I. He became a fellow of Oxford’s Magdalen College in 1925. The city is full of landmarks connected to Lewis. There’s the Eagle and Child pub where his literary group, The Inklings, met; the walkways where he nurtured his fascination for Nordic, Celtic and Greek legends; and the Anglican Holy Trinity Church where he lies buried. As a new generation is introduced to the world of Narnia, Anglican Father Michael Ward, a university chaplain, said he thinks Lewis’ Christian vision is gaining a new relevance.

Lewis was raised in the Anglican Church of Ireland, but abandoned his faith in school, recalling in Surprised by Joy: The Shape of my Early Life how he had received Communion “in total disbelief, acting a part, eating and drinking my own condemnation". When Lewis returned to the Anglican faith at Oxford in 1931 – thanks to the devoutly Catholic Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy – he described himself as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England".

Although Lewis disappointed Tolkien by declining to become a Catholic, he was sympathetic to the Catholic doctrines of confession and prayers to the saints. His return to faith released new powers of imagination and launched him on a fresh career as an interpreter who popularised Christianity.

Lewis’ Mere Christianity based on wartime broadcasts for the BBC, tackled popular objections to Christianity, stripping it to its essentials with simple arguments and observations.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, profes-

sor of church history at Oxford, said Lewis’ nondenominational approach to Christianity explains his popularity in the US and is giving him renewed appeal today.

“Lewis has become a standard bearer for conservative Christians when religion seems to be undergoing a great realignment between the forces of tradition and change,” MacCulloch told Catholic News Service (CNS).

“This tension runs across the theological categories and can now unite a conservative Catholic with a conservative Protestant, something which wouldn’t have happened half a century ago.”

Other experts concur that Lewis succeeded in capturing the Christian imagination where the theological abstractions of churches often seemed too highbrow.

In The Screwtape Letters a series of imagined exchanges between an older and younger devil, Lewis satirised human weakness and selfdeception, showing how Christian communities could be corrupted with “uneasy intensity and defensive self-righteousness".

In The Great Divorce, he exposed the vulnerability of human selfawareness, while in Reflections on the Psalms he explained why the Old Testament’s contents, however “terrible and contemptible", were needed to show humanity’s true colours.

Walter Hooper, an American Catholic who was living with Lewis at the time of his death, remembers the author as affable and harddrinking, but also as a man who sincerely attempted, against difficult odds, to live a Christian life.

Now 81 and a trustee of Lewis’ estate, Hooper has edited Lewis’ letters and diaries, some of which were rescued from a bonfire two months after the writer’s death.

He agreed that interest in Lewis also is growing among Catholics. During a 1988 Cambridge University lecture, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger praised Lewis’ rejection of “destructive relativism".

Hooper recalled how Blessed John Paul II also revealed a knowledge of Lewis’ works when Hooper met the Pope during a 1988 general audience in Rome and the late Pope lauded Lewis' 1960 work, The Four Loves, as well as Lewis’ devotion to a practical apostolate.

“Lewis owed it to his fans to avoid complexities and set Christianity’s core beliefs in place,” Hooper told CNS.

“But he was adamant those core beliefs, the deposit of faith, must always remain, no matter how things change. If you get rid of Christianity’s sense and meaning, you’ll have nothing to come back to,” he said.

Lewis has been criticised by atheists in Britain and the US, while many professional theologians still maintain a haughty disdain for him. But Hooper predicted Lewis’ contribution to popularising Christianity will gain ever greater acknowledgement, especially when the Christian faith appears in danger of being ignored.

“Lewis believed he had a responsibility to spread the Gospel through his writings and showed how Christianity could be presented in almost any form, from science fiction to children’s fables,” Hooper said.

“Because the academics wouldn’t touch him, it’s taken a long time for his creativity to be taken seriously. But Lewis couldn’t deal with anything without illuminating it; and I think many people are now appreciating the inspirational power which runs through his work,” he said. - CNS

A desk overlooks the garden in The Kilns in Oxford, England, where CS Lewis penned his Christian stories, including The Chronicles of Narnia. Experts agree that Lewis succeeded in capturing the Christian imagination where the theological abstractions of churches often seemed too highbrow.

A contemporary edition of Mere Christianity by CS Lewis is pictured in a library. Published in 1952, it was named "best religious book of the 20th century" by the US magazine Christianity Today Georgie Henley is pictured with a lion named Aslan in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

PHOTO: CNS

Tilda Swinton and Skandar Keynes, at right, star in a scene from the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of several movies released in recent years based on CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia Ben Barnes and Warwick Davis star in a scene from the 2008 release The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian PHOTOS: DISNEY; DISNEY ENTERPRISES

A lion named Aslan, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes and Ben Barnes are seen in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

PHOTO: FOX

Books are seen on shelves in the Duke Humfrey's Library at the University of Oxford, England. The library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library and its ancient texts were often pored over by CS Lewis, as well as his friend and fellow Oxford don, JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

PHOTO: PAUL HARING, CNS

1955 portrait of CS Lewis by Walter Stoneman.

PHOTO: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON

A Love for EVERYONE

Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day was shaped by the turbulence of her early life, reports Chaz Muth. The irony is that, although her country’s bishops have officially supported her cause for canonisation, if she were alive she would probably be the first to protest the decision.

Dorothy Day, co-founder of the US Catholic Worker Movement and candidate for sainthood, experienced a great deal of turbulence in early life.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1897, she was baptised an Anglican in a family that rarely attended church. As a young girl, her family moved to San Francisco, then later to Chicago, and Day attended the University of Illinois in Urbana.

However, she left college to work in New York as a journalist for a socialist newspaper. While in New York, she got involved in the causes of her day, such as women’s suffrage and peace, and was part of a circle of top literary and artistic figures of the era, including playwright Eugene O’Neill.

Day also had a string of love affairs, attempted suicide and aborted her first child.

Her life shifted dramatically while living in Staten Island, New York when she entered into a common-law marriage with a biologist named Forster Battingham and, in 1926, while pregnant with her daughter, Tamar, Day embraced Catholicism.

Day had Tamar baptised Catholic, and she too was baptised, which contributed to the end of her common-law marriage.

As she sought to fuse her life and her faith, Day wrote for such Catholic publications as America magazine and Commonweal. In 1932, she met Peter Maurin, a French immigrant and former Christian Brother.

His philosophy on social ills and the need to take personal responsibility in serving the less fortunate melded with Day’s desire to work for social change. Together, they started The Catholic Worker newspaper and, later, several houses of hospitality and farm communities.

Day was a self-proclaimed anarchist, a crusader of Catholic social teaching in aiding poor and mentally ill people, and a union supporter. She was highly regarded in the 1930s by the Church hierarchy and laity.

“It was an idea that maybe its time had come, for Catholics, in the midst of the Great Depression, to be speaking of the social issues of the day,” said Robert Ellsberg, a friend of the would-be saint who is publisher of Orbis Books, editor of Day’s published diaries and letters. He is a former managing editor of The Catholic Worker

“There were many bishops and seminaries that ordered huge bulk orders of The Catholic Worker,” he added. “There were a lot of priests at that time who were very sympathetic to that kind of labour emphasis.”

Day’s strict pacifism during the Spanish Civil War caused a defection among some of her Catholic colleagues who considered the rebel group led by General Francisco Franco to be acting in defence of Christian values, he said. She lost even more support when she took a similar stance during World War II, which was overwhelmingly supported by the Catholic bishops, the American public and even members of the Catholic Worker Movement, many of whom enlisted to fight in the conflict, said Deacon Tom Cornell, co-founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship and a decades-long associate of Day.

“The bishops were very embar-

rassed,” he said. “Dorothy was a grand dame, as far as they were concerned, during the 1930s because she offered an alternative to

Marxist, atheistic, class war labour organisations.” It looked as though The Catholic Worker would not survive World War II and Day was essentially frozen out of important Catholic circles, Deacon Cornell said.

However, the Catholic Worker Movement experienced a renewal of sorts in the 1950s when its members were among the first to join the civil rights movement for racial equality, and though Day continued her anti-war protests throughout the 1960s and 1970s, her reputation was largely restored, Ellsberg said. She prayed and fasted for peace at the Second Vatican Council, and was shot at while working for integration.

Day’s strict pacifism during the Spanish Civil War caused some colleagues to leave. She lost more support during World War II for the same reason.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York called Day’s sainthood cause an opportune moment in the life of the US Church.

Cardinal Dolan, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Day’s journey “Augustinian”, saying that “she was the first to admit it: sexual immorality, there was a religious search, there was a pregnancy out of wedlock, and an abortion. Like Saul on the way to Damascus, she was radically

changed” and has become “a saint for our time”.

The endorsement by the US bishops of Day’s sainthood cause –first undertaken years ago by one of Cardinal Dolan’s predecessors in New York, Cardinal John O’Connor – has been met with scepticism by some members of The Catholic Worker and with joy by others.

Martha Hennessy, one of Day’s nine grandchildren, is concerned the Church will place too much emphasis on her grandmother’s abortion.

“I mean, there was one comment holding her up as a post-abortion saint. What does that mean?” Hennessy wondered. “Dorothy certainly referred to her experience as one of the worst decisions she made in her life.”

But, Day considered the abortion issue to be only a fraction of defining oneself as a champion for the sanctity of life, Hennessy said, and the other pieces of the puzzle included fighting the death penalty, euthanasia and being an anti-

Servant of God Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and its newspaper, The Catholic Worker, is depicted in a stained-glass window at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in the Staten Island borough of New York. Day was received into the Catholic Church at Our Lady Help of Christians in 1927 at age 30.

PHOTO: GREGORY SHEMITZ, CNS

Day is pictured in prayer at a church in New York in 1970.

PHOTO: BOB FITCH, CNS

A passion for truth and love for the common good

LAST NOVEMBER, US Catholic Bishops endorsed the sainthood cause for the late Dorothy Day, an American Catholic peace activist and co-founder of The Catholic Worker Movement. The following is a timeline of her life and legacy.

November 8, 1897: Born in Brooklyn, New York.

1906: Witnesses her mother helping homeless people following the San Francisco earthquake, leaving a lasting impression.

1907: Interest in religion grows when her brothers are enrolled in the choir of a Chicago Episcopal church.

1915: Leaves the University of Illinois and moves to New York, where she becomes a journalist for a socialist newspaper, champions social justice causes of the day and becomes drinking pals with a group of literary artists, including playwright Eugene O’Neill. She would later call this period of her life her time of drifting, which resulted in a string of love affairs and an abortion.

1926: Becomes pregnant with her only child, daughter Tamar; the father is Day’s commonlaw husband, Forster Battingham. The joy of her pregnancy stirs feelings of redemption and she embraces Catholicism; she and Tamar are baptised, contributing to the end of her common-law marriage. Day embarks on a writing career, contributing to a number of Catholic publications.

1933: Introduced to French immigrant Peter Maurin. Together, they launch The Catholic Worker newspaper to promote Catholic social teaching and begin a movement with the same name that establishes houses of hospitality where works of mercy are carried out. Day takes a vow of poverty, believing it is the only way she can truly understand the plight of poor people. Catholic Worker farms also are established and become rural havens for poor families, retreats for slum children and environments where students explore a green revolution.

Late 1930s: Criticisms of Day arise when she takes a pacifist position during the Spanish Civil War. Hostilities toward Day intensify in the1940s when she takes a similar stance during World War II, which is overwhelmingly supported by the US bishops, the American public and even members of The Catholic Worker Movement.

May 15, 1949: Maurin dies.

1950s: Day protests the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, a cause she would champion the rest of her life.

war activist. Day’s exposure has increased since her death. She has been the focus of a number of biographies. Other books featuring her prayers and writings have been published. In the 1990s, a film biography, Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story starring Moira Kelly and Martin Sheen, made its way to theatres.

In 2007, Los Angeles-based photographer Claudia Larson released her documentary, Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me a Saint Larson is organising a Dorothy Day exhibit in May at Marquette University in Milwaukee, home of Day’s archives, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of The Catholic Worker movement. - CNS

1952: The Long Loneliness, an autobiography, is published.

1960s: Led by Day, The Catholic Worker is engaged in the civil rights movement.

1965: Travels to Rome to fast and pray during the last session of the Second Vatican Council as a penitential offering for its success. She is later heartened when the council publishes The Church in the Modern World which condemns indiscriminate warfare and supports conscientious objection.

1973: Joins Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in California’s San Joaquin Valley to protest against the Teamsters Union discrimination against migrant workers. It marks her last imprisonment.

November 29, 1980: Day dies at Maryhouse in New York.

2000: Then-Cardinal John O’Connor of New York initiates the sainthood cause for Day. The Dorothy Day Guild is established to propagate her life and works. The Vatican approves the cause and gives her the title “servant of God”.

US bishops meet in 2012. On a voice vote the bishops backed the cause for sainthood of Dorothy Day.

Day with her daughter, Tamara, above, in 1932, and in prayer, right, in a New York church in 1970. She is pictured the same year at the Catholic Worker farm in New York, at top. Flowers decorate her simple grave in New York, above right.

PHOTOS: CNS.

Dorothy Day in 1916.

Relaxing in the 1930s.

Day visits a Catholic Worker communal farm in 1938.

Protesting against poverty and arms building in 1959.

FUN FAITHWith

JANUARY 20, 2013

CROSSWORD

Across

3. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with ____’, and they filled them to the brim.

5. On the third day there was a ____ at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited.

6. Having no idea where it came from, the president of the feast called the bridegroom and said, ‘Everyone serves good wine first

John 2: 1-11

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. They ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine’. Jesus said, ‘Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.’ Jesus’ mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’. There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’ and they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, ‘Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast’. They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came fromthough the servants who had drawn the water knew - the president of the feast called the bridegroom and said, ‘Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine till now.’ This was the first of Jesus’ signs: it was at Cana in Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

WINNER CORIN RYDER, AGED 6

• JOHN 2: 1-11 • 2ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME SEND

and the worse wine when the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the ____ wine till now.’

Down

1. Jesus said, ‘Woman, what do you want from me? My ____ has not come yet.’

2. Jesus’ ____ said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

WEDDING HOUR WATER WINE BEST MOTHER

WORD SEARCH

WEDDING HOUR

WATER WINE

BEST MOTHER

His Mother’s sons

THE CATHOLIC Church remains committed to deepening its relations with Jews and finds it “absolutely unacceptable” to consider the Jewish people as enemies, the Vatican spokesman said.

“It is absolutely unacceptable, impossible, to define the Jews as enemies of the Church,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said.

In an audio recording posted on YouTube on December 30, the head of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX) called the Jewish people “enemies of the Church,” saying Jewish leaders’ support of the Second Vatican Council “shows that Vatican II is their thing, not the Church’s”.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society, said those most opposed to the Church granting canonical recognition to the traditionalist society have been “the enemies of the Church: the Jews, the Masons, the modernists”.

The remarks were made during a nearly two-hour talk on December 28 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in New Hamburg, Ontario.

While the society’s Swiss headquarters did not respond to a Catholic News Service email request on January 4 for comment, the society’s US district published a press release on its website on January 5.

“The word ‘enemies’ used here by Bishop Fellay is, of course, a religious concept and refers to any group or religious sect which opposes the mission of the Catholic Church and her efforts to fulfill

Some Christians - including Catholics - have treated Jews as if they were the enemy. Slight problem: Jesus is a Jew; so are Mary and Joseph. Treating Jews as the enemy is unacceptable, says Church spokesman.

it: the salvation of souls,” it said. The group said, “this religious context” is based on Jesus telling the Pharisees in the Gospel of St Matthew: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

“By referring to the Jews, Bishop Fellay’s comment was aimed at the leaders of Jewish organisations, and not the Jewish people,” the statement said, adding that any accusations of the society being antiSemitic were false and an example of “hate speech made in an attempt to silence its message”.

Fr Lombardi told CNS that the Second Vatican Council document Nostra Aetate , as well as many papal speeches and Vatican initiatives, reflected the Church’s continued, firm support “of dialogue and deepening relations” with the Jewish people.

In his talk, Bishop Fellay spoke about the society’s three years of discussions with the Vatican over the society’s future and explained how he interpreted behind-thescenes communications about the talks.

Apparently speaking without a text, the bishop said he has been receiving mixed messages from the Vatican for years over if and how the group might be brought back into full communion with the Church.

leaders a “doctrinal preamble” to sign that outlines principles and criteria necessary to guarantee fidelity to the Church and its teaching; the Vatican said SSPX leaders would have to sign it to move toward full reconciliation.

But Bishop Fellay said he repeatedly told the Vatican the contents of the preamble, particularly acceptance of the modern Mass and the council as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, were unacceptable.

“It is absolutely unacceptable, impossible, to define the Jews as enemies of the Church.

- Fr Federico Lombardi Vatican

spokesman

Nostra Aetate described Christians and Jews as having a common heritage and a profound spiritual bond, and denounced any form of contempt of the Jews.

Pope Benedict XVI’s visits to the Western Wall in Jerusalem and synagogues in Cologne, New York and Rome also represent “very significant gestures of the Church’s good relations and dialogue with Jews,” the spokesman said.

He claimed that top Vatican officials told him not to be discouraged by official statements from the Vatican, because they did not reflect Pope Benedict’s true feelings.

Pope Benedict launched a series of doctrinal discussions with the SSPX in 2009, lifting excommunications imposed on its four bishops, who were ordained in 1988 without papal approval, and expressing his hopes they would return to full communion with the Church.

In 2011, the Vatican gave SSPX

He said the only reason he continued discussions with Vatican officials was because others “very close to the Pope” had assured him the Pope was not in agreement with hardline official pronouncements from the Vatican.

According to Bishop Fellay, retired Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, then-president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, the office responsible for relations with traditionalist Catholics, had told him in March 2009 the society would be formally recognised.

When the bishop asked how that could be possible when recognition hinged on accepting the teachings of Vatican II, he said the cardinal replied that such a requirement was only “political” and “admin -

istrative” and that, “by the way, that is not what the Pope thinks”. Bishop Fellay said he continued to get similar messages from other Vatican officials, even as formal talks continued.

The verbal and written messages were very credible, he said, because they came from officials who saw the Pope “every day or every two days. He said he wouldn’t give names, but he did claim “the secretary of the Pope himself” was among those who told him not to worry too much about hardline Vatican positions.

Even if the doctrinal congregation ruled against the society, he claimed the secretary told him the Pope “will overrule it in favour of the society”.

“So, you see, I got all these kinds of messages which were not fitting together,” Bishop Fellay said.

The unofficial assurances were what kept him engaged in talks, he said, since the Vatican’s official demands, which carried the Pope’s approval, “would mean the end of our relation with Rome”.

Bishop Fellay said Pope Benedict wrote to him, emphasising that full recognition required the society accept the magisterium as the judge of what is tradition, accept the council as an integral part of tradition and accept that the modern Mass is valid and licit.

Bishop Fellay said the group wishes to be free to say, “there are errors in the council” and that “the new Mass is evil”.

The group will not accept reconciliation if it means no longer being able to make such pronouncements, he said. - CNS

Pope Benedict XVI, Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, and Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch are pictured in 2011 at the Vatican.

PHOTO: CNS/REUTERS

A global economy where people matter

The remarks of Pope Benedict XVI issued on January 1 (see pages 7-9) in his message for the World Day of Peace were refreshingly different to anything that any other world leader has said in recent times about the state of the world, but especially in his call for a new economic model of global trade, finance and commerce. What the Pope was saying between the lines was quite clear: capitalism is not working – something different is needed.

Among the interesting aspects to the Holy Father’s message was the way in which he linked several factors not usually identified or factored in by politicians, technocrats, investment strategists or economists as relevant to the world at all, including inner individual peace, religious faith, the sanctity of human life and ideologies of technocracy and radical liberalism. In fact, in the most polite way but with his usual razor-sharp diagnosis the Holy Father was calling capitalism for what it is: a system that is based on greed which puts human persons second and puts profit above all else.

His remarks must have been met with astonishment in the US where numerous conservative thinkers - including some high profile Catholics - appear to believe that almost any government involvement in the economy is tantamount to Stalinist communism and that the shortest path to true political peace and stability depends on abolishing taxes. One such figure is Paul Ryan, the conservative Catholic Republican who ran for the US vice-presidency in last November’s election and who has been one of the most powerful politicians in the land, chairing the US Congress Budget Committee for the last six years. Whatever his laudable positions on key issues such as the sanctity of human life may be, Mr Ryan’s economic hero is the author Ayn Rand whose own economic and political manifesto can only be described as pure anarchy: that is, the belief that the way to ensure human happiness is to abolish all government. Ayn Rand, in the end, was little different to the totalitarian ideologues of both the extreme right and the left of the early 20th century – and her theories were just as brutal. In her eyes, if the weak could not find jobs then society did not need them. Essentially, the radical libertarian ideology she gave voice to is a vision of society where the strong prosper and the weak accept whatever they are offered. Ayn Rand’s writings are actually a formula for mass exploitation by the strong. They are inhuman.

On both sides of politics we are in want of leaders with vision.

Few Catholics are actually aware that the remarks of the Holy Father were based in a now-substantial tradition dating back to the 19th century which is broadly described as the Church’s social teaching. The Church’s social teaching is expressed in a range of encylicals and other documents which apply not only principles apparent to human reason regardless of whether one has religious faith but principles which are expressed in Scripture such as love of neighbour, and which consider how best to achieve a just, humane and prosperous society. In essence, Pope Benedict was saying that the current system – and therefore practices – of finance and economics dominating throughout the world are not only failing but are actively breaking down human society on a global level. Greed, which underpins global capitalism, conspicuous over-consumption in developed societies and the relegation of the right to work to second or third-class status, he effectively said, are breaking down humane society, not only eroding peace but leading to wars, poverty and increasing exploitation.

One of the truly fascinating aspects of this whole issue is that if one looks at the current fascination many people have with the state of the world’s environment and related issues such as sustainable development, including the rise in recent decades of green ideologies and political parties in many developed societies, a paradox is evident: although Green movements and parties have been exceptionally hostile to concepts such as the sanctity of human life and the importance of the family unit, they reflect an obvious and authentic concern for the good of society based upon concern for the environment. In this sense, Green movements have, completely unwittingly, been walking down a path largely established in the modern era by Catholic social teaching. They are partly good but fatally flawed.

On the one hand, unrestrained capitalism and its ideologues have asserted that, left to their own devices and unrestrained by bothersome concepts such as government or justice, it is markets which will establish true human happiness. This view, which is essentially the justification of global greed, is simplistic, facile. Markets have no concerns for human beings. The Church, on the other hand, proposes through its social teaching that the most just and humane order of society, including the combat of issues such as poverty, depends not only on establishing rights but observing responsibilities; it applies principles such as love of and concern for others. Its social teaching, almost unheard of by the overwhelming majority of Catholics, is often described as the great undiscovered treasure of the Church. In essence, it represents a third way open to all people, whether of some faith or none at all, which avoids the extremes of capitalism’s increasingly global brutality and the extremism of the old fascists and totalitarians of the left who are currently located mainly in Green movements and parties.

LETTERS

Demographic winter is a cold, lonely place to be

DEMOGRAPHIC collapse in what is generally described as the ‘West’ is the elephant in the room that people have purposely avoided for decades. But now it is becoming impossible to ignore. Take Japan. It is the outstanding example of what happens when a nation pursues aggressive anti-natalist policies and the consequences of the ensuing demographic collapse.

Somewhere I have an article from The Australian Weekend Magazine from well over a decade ago. It describes just what the practical long term demographic and economic effects are for a nation that pursues aggressive contraceptive and abortion policies.

It describes life beyond Japan’s bustling cities and their glittering night life where the young congregate. It describes a countryside where high speed trains flash thro’ empty fields and almost deserted villages that the remaining young have deserted for city life.

It describes the crumbling rural infrastructure and villages where the remaining elderly villagers have actually distributed lifesized dolls of children in a bizarre effort to compensate for the missing children they never had or who have fled to the city.

Interestingly, China is on the same self-destructive trajectory; its current boom status is mostly the reflection of it playing catch-up with the rest of the developed world after the depredations of Maoism. However, it has still not reversed Mao’s legacy, the one-child policy, the efects of which are now becom-

ing apparent in an increasingly ageing workforce.

The West is faced with the same looming problem.

Every Western nation has a birth rate below replacement rate. Our ageing population is code for we never had enough babies; our contraception and abortion policies are having their predictable and predicted effect.

Barry Morgan ALBANY, WA

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Wishing everyone a very happy season of three dots

There are signs of Christmas’ lapse into just another theme for shopping at a certain time of the year but we should not despair, writes

Many readers would have appreciated Professor Craven’s stalwart defence of Christmas in last week’s Record

It was a reminder to us all that we must affirm the faith of our fathers against the agitating atheists and politically correct humanists who try so desperately to eradicate Christmas, not only from our language, but from our very culture.

Ah, yes, Christmas. How fondly we think of that silent night so long ago in Bethlehem.

But was it so silent?

There were three wise men, their camels and their entourages, several shepherds and their baa-ing sheep, cattle lowing in the fields, noisy animals around the mother and child, while outside a heavenly host of angels loudly proclaimed, “Alleluia. Alleluia. Christ, the saviour, is born”.

To top it all off, a very bright star was shining and making it very, very difficult to get to sleep.

In my mind’s eye, I can see a harried Joseph stepping out of the barn and waving up to the Herald Angels and saying, “Thanks, guys, for your good wishes, but it has been a very hard day for me and the missus. We’ve travelled from Nazareth on a slow moving donkey. There was no room at the inn and my wife felt quite wonky. Now the baby’s been born and they both want some quiet, but you guys up there are making a riot”.

Hopefully, the angelic choirs took the hint and went on to tell it on the mountain, over the hills and far away.

Then, as he turned to go back inside, one of the shepherds calls out, “Well, anyhow, Joseph, how are the wife and baby?”

To which he might have replied, “They are both in a stable condition.”

Those Herald angels sang about “Peace on Earth”, but two thousand years later, as Professor Craven laments, what we now have is Political Correctness on earth.

Yes, we are in the age of Political Correctness and PC says that nothing–but nothing–can be written, sung or said about Christmas that could possibly be ever so slightly offensive to another person, religion, sect, tribe, ethnic group, race or football team–excluding Collingwood.

Just before Christmas I received a newsletter from the ABC wishing me, “A very merry ...”.

Was the ABC wishing me a merry three dots? Further into the newsletter they hoped I enjoyed the festive season. Obviously, dear old

A federal minister signed off wishing all happy holidays. He clearly didn’t mean those working seven days a week in pre- and post-Christmas sales.

Aunty ABC’s lips could not frame the word “Christmas”.

I also received cards from two local members of parliament who wished me “The compliments of the season”.

But what season? At first, I thought it was the cricket season, but it can’t be because every night the commercial TV news programs have extensive coverage of AFL footballers running, jumping, jogging or appearing in court. A federal minister signed off in the December issue of his department’s magazine by wishing everyone a “Happy holiday season”.

Obviously, he was not referring

Noel Bourke

to the thousands working flat out from Boxing Day onwards, in shops open seven days a week, flogging unsold Christmas goods in department store sales across the country.

Some in the PC Brigade are even telling us that Christmas should be renamed as “A Designated, NonCompulsory, and Penalty Rate Free Public Holiday”.

These days, Christmas in schools can only be celebrated if equal time is also given to Hanukkah, Ramadan, Eid, The Druidic Mid-Winter Solstice, Confucius’ Birthday, The Ides of March, Halloween, Hindu Nirvana, Buddha’s Enlightenment, and the Melbourne Cup.

As for Father Christmas, also known as dear old St Nicholas and jolly old Santa Claus, he now needs to get a police clearance and refrain from ringing his bell loudly and shouting out “Ho, Ho, Ho!” in case of crimes under the Noise Abatement Act of 1993.

However, in the face of all this, I say to Professor Craven, ‘do not despair’. The Spirit of Christmas will not fade.

Churches may be losing some of their influence over our festive celebrations and in the very nature of the personal greetings that many extend at Christmastime, but, never fear: Coles, Myer, David Jones and Woollies will never, ever let Christmas die. Christmas may be dying in our schools but it lives on stronger than ever in the marketplace.

Perhaps that is why it was no surprise, just days after the Feast of the Epiphany, to find many major stores already selling Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs.

Noel Burke lives in Heathridge and spent 43 years teaching in primary schools in Bunbury, Koongamia, Broome, Tranby and Mt Lawley and as principal at Donnybrook,Three Springs and Doubleview.

A blessing upon the House of Peter Jackson

IT’S GOOD to see The Hobbit in cinemas in Perth. As a child I read JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and it affected me profoundly, proof that books can change a life.

I think it will be harder and harder in years to come for anyone to argue against Tolkien’s masterpiece, originally dismissed by reviewers from the intelligentsia, as being anything other than the

greatest work of English literature of the Twentieth Century. Quite possibly it will turn out to be one of the greatest works of English literature in the last several centuries, a landmark like the works of Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare. Even then its profundity sets it apart. Dickens had astonishing imagination, Austen wrote about the human virtues and had a truly

remarkable insight into people while Shakespeare expresses all the drama of the human condition. But Tolkien’s constructions of entire ages, languages and worlds sets it apart as a work that is unique.

Even if the young can no longer read it’s good to see Tolkien’s insight so faithfully translated onto the screen. Wherever Peter Jackson is - God bless him.

Reverence key for eucharistic service

In my parish, a number of lay people take Communion to the sick, but occasionally I see them take the hosts and then chat with people after Mass before going to the home of the sick. Is this proper? How should Communion be taken to the sick?

YOUR question affects many people, both the ministers and the families of the sick, so it is a good one to answer in this column.

There are no written norms of which I am aware apart from the actual rite of Communion to the sick, but there is a certain spirit that should govern all the actions of the minister beforehand, and it is this that I will discuss here.

Let’s assume that the minister is a woman and that she is taking Communion to just one person.

The first thing to remember is that the minister is not just taking a host to a sick person.

She is taking Jesus himself.

It is an awesome privilege and it carries with it a great responsibility. It should be done with great reverence.

Consider, for example, how the priest treats Our Lord in Mass.

After the consecration of each species – the bread which becomes the Body and the wine which becomes the Blood of our Lord – he genuflects to show his reverence to

Q & A

FR JOHN FLADER

Our Lord. The Latin rubric describing this genuflection actually says “Genuflexus, adorat” – “Having genuflected, he adores”. This is only fitting, since Jesus himself is now present on the altar. The Gospels relate how the Apostles themselves on occasion adored Our Lord. For example, just before his Ascension into heaven, “when they saw him they worshipped him” (Mt 28:17).

This spirit of reverence obtains throughout the rest of the Mass. When the people come up to receive Communion they make a sign of reverence beforehand, at least bowing if they are to receive Communion standing, or even kneeling to receive Our Lord.

After receiving Communion they return to their seat and give thanks to Our Lord for coming into their body and soul, and many remain

for some time after Mass to continue their thanksgiving. During this time they would not think of talking to anyone else. They are focusing on Our Lord.

This is the spirit with which a minister takes Communion to someone outside Mass. At the end of Mass she takes from the altar the pyx, a small round vessel containing the host, and leaves immediately for the house of the sick person.

While she may smile or say hello to someone who greets her, she

there with the driver, that person would be wholly focused on him.

When they arrive at the house, the family members of the sick person should have prepared a table with a white cloth, a crucifix, two candles and a small bowl with a little water in it.

While in a hospital setting it is generally inadvisable to use candles, in a home this presents no problem.

Many families use lighted candles to decorate the dinner table or

If Jesus - the host - were actually sitting there with them they would be wholly focused on him.

makes it clear that she is carrying Our Lord and so does not stop to chat with anyone.

In the car, she does not turn on the radio or chat with other persons. It is best that she prays silently or says the Rosary or some other prayers with any others in the car. Her focus is on Our Lord who is the most important passenger in the car. If Jesus were actually sitting

for other purposes. The minister greets the family at the door and then proceeds to the room of the sick person.

On the table she opens out a corporal, a white linen cloth used only for the Blessed Sacrament, and places the pyx on it, genuflecting reverently along with any others in the room. The others remain kneeling from this point on. The sick

person of course may be in bed or sitting in a chair.

She then proceeds through the rite of Communion, giving Communion to the sick person and to any others who may wish to receive it and have not already received Communion that day.

At the end, she purifies the pyx with a small purifier, making sure that any particles of the host fall into the bowl with water. She may also wash her fingers in this bowl. Since the bowl may now contain particles of the host, she may ask the sick person to drink the water, or she may do it herself, or she may pour the water into a flower pot or under a shrub in the garden where no one will walk.

Only after the final prayers have been said and the sick person has had a little time to give thanks for having received Our Lord, should she engage in normal conversation. This way of acting is a great catechesis to all involved and helps them appreciate the great Gift that the Eucharist is.

-frjflader@gmail.com

Following the Franciscan way

How I Pray

My wife, Jenny especially, and my sons and their families are a great support to me in my ministry as a deacon and Secular Franciscan. In addition, support comes from weekly prayer meetings at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Bunbury, the Bunbury Christian Minister’s Fellowship, the Parish Deacons Pastoral Team and the Parish Secular Franciscan Fraternity. I was forty years professed in the Order of Franciscans Secular on the February 22, 2012.

I am originally from South Africa. My Dad died when I was 11 and I was an only child. He died fortified by the rites of Holy Mother Church. His passing to eternal joy was a great consolation to my Mother and me. We were left with a stronger faith in God. An on-going relationship with Jesus began in my life and I believed Jesus was calling me to follow Him as a priest.

In 1949, a missionary Franciscan friar, Fr Columbanus Timmons OFM, came to our parish. He had spent 20 years in solitary confinement in prison for the faith in China. To me, he reflected the love of our Lord and St Francis. From his example I felt God was calling me to become a Franciscan.

The Friars accepted me as a postulant. However, the major seminaries in the country were full at the time and there was a waiting list to enter. I failed to obtain an essential reference from the Cathedral Administrator and the door to the priesthood appeared closed.

I decided to join the army as a volunteer. After receiving my diploma from the South African Defence Force Military Gymnasium, I went to work in the gold mines in the town of Springs. In time, I met my future wife, Jeanette.

Jenny was received into the

Church before we were married. We settled down to a married family life and were blessed with four sons. The opportunity came to deepen my faith and relationship with Jesus by joining the Secular Franciscan Order through the example of a Franciscan Secular, Mona Smith who lived with us in this remote village called Bindura, in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

Mona was a spiritual daughter of St Padre Pio and a deeply spiritual person herself. She reflected the light of God in a very special way.

A round trip of 240 km to Salisbury was required from Bindura to attend Fraternity meetings once a month. With God’s grace I persisted and was professed in the Order as Brother Paul in 1972. The pressure of working in mining, and its

responsibilities eventually helped me realise that I needed to come closer to God. Joining the Secular Franciscan Order was a significant step towards this need. Jenny is also a member.

Some time after my profession my Spiritual Director, the late Francis Ryan OFM, suggested that I consider a vocation of service to the Church as a Permanent Deacon.

I was unable to contain my excitement. The life and example of St Francis had made a significant impression on my spiritual life. He had a deep respect and love for Christ in the Blessed Eucharist so much so that he never wished to be ordained a priest and only desired to serve Christ and others as a deacon.

All I wanted to be was an instrument of God’s peace, love and ser-

vice like him. Maybe I could follow Christ as a deacon as well? It was worth a try.

After prayer and discernment I decided with my wife’s approval, to apply for acceptance and commenced formation as a permanent deacon in 1974. It seemed that God had not given up on me with His call to serve Him in holy Orders but in a different way than I had originally envisaged.

Owing to my involvement in the Church and the security forces, my company transferred me back to the Republic of South Africa a week before Zimbabwe Independence in 1980. Our son Sean has severe spinal bifida. My wife and I wanted him to contribute to society to the best of his ability and there were limited opportunities in South Africa.

A job offer presented itself from Western Australia and we decided to migrate in 1981 to give Sean the best chance possible. (Sean won the inaugural Pride of Australia Medal for “Fair Go” in 2005 for services to the handicapped and disadvantaged in the community. In addition, he was recognised as the Volunteer of the Year for Western Australia in 2010).

In 2001, Archbishop Hickey invited men in the Archdiocese to apply for selection to the Permanent Diaconate and I was chosen with 14 others to commence the first formation program. I retired from the mining industry in 2002 after 46 years of managing mining, smelting and refining companies. In June 2006, Bishop Gerard Holohan advised me that he would ordain me for the Diocese of Bunbury. The journey and the dream became a reality on October 27, 2006. God’s call and timing, as always, is well worth the wait and the experience of God’s love is absolute joy.

My ministry as a deacon, besides being on the Pastoral Team of St Patrick’s Cathedral, is mostly amongst the aged and infirm, the ex drug addicts, ex alcoholics and shut-ins. My wife assists me with the liturgies in the nursing home.

Many years ago I was asked to choose between a career in the company and my religion by my superior. I told him, I had made the decision a long time ago. I was a committed Catholic Christian. My decision, in hindsight, has received countless blessings for myself and the family.

Jenny and I have been blessed with 54 years of a wonderful marriage. Our sons and their families all live in Western Australia. We have eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild with two greatgrandchildren arriving shortly, God willing.

Through my family and as a Deacon I am reminded to live out St Francis’ words to the brothers near the time of his death. “My Brothers, let us begin again, as yet we have achieved nothing.”

Deacon Dick Scallan has found happiness and countless blessings in his vocation as a Franciscan and as a married deacon.

DEBBIE WARRIER

Deacon Dick Scallan with wife Jeanette.

PHOTO: DEBBIE WARRIER

UPCOMING

MONDAY, JANUARY 21

Breakfast for Graduates of the Catherine McAuley Award (1999-2013)

7.30am in the Mercy Hospital Conference Centre, 1st floor above Ursula Frayne Unit, Thirlmere Rd, Mt Lawley. Cost $10, paid on arrival. RSVP lmason@mercycare.com.au by Wed, Jan 16, for catering purposes. Enq: jennid@iinet.net.au.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22

Spirituality and The Sunday Gospels

7-8pm at St Benedict’s School Hall, Alness St, Applecross. Presenter - Norma Woodcock. Everyone is welcome. Cost: collection. Accreditation: recognition by CEO. Enq: 9487 1772 or www. normawoodcock.com.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23

Marist/New Norcia-Annual Mass and Reunion

Celebrating 100 years of Marist Bros in WA 19132013 4.30pm at Champagnat Chapel at Newman College, Empire Ave, Churchlands. Mass celebrated by Marist Old Boy Priests in memory of deceased brothers and students. A reunion will follow in the college courtyard at 6pm. BYO “everything”, BBQ available. SIC and Marist old boys most welcome. Please spread the word. An update of Marist centenary celebrations in 2013 will be presented.

Enq: Ambrose: 0419 912 187 or Frank McCabe 9446 6435.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25

Holy Hour Adoration

7pm at St Benedict Catholic Church, 115 Ardross St, Ardross. Conducted by Holy Trinity Community.

Enq: Bryan 0406 671 388 or Yunita 0412 677 568. Medjugorje - Evening Prayer

7-9pm at Our Lady of Mercy Parish, cnr Girrawheen Ave/Patrick Crt, Girrawheen. An evening of prayer with Our Lady of Peace in thanksgiving for reported daily apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje. Begins with Eucharistic Adoration, holy Rosary, Benediction and holy Mass. Free DVDs and medals on the night. Enq: 9402 2480 or 0407 471 256. For pilgrimages phone or email: medjugorje@y7mail.com.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26

Australia Day Ecumenical Annual Service of Thanksgiving for this Land

10am at St Patrick’s Catholic Basilica, 47 Adelaide St, Fremantle. Fr Anthony Maher OMI will be joined by ministers of mainstream churches in a service of readings, hymns and a keynote address. A procession of representative items of the Irish contribution to Australia will open and close the service. Complimentary refreshments. Enq: Denis 9345 3530.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 TO MONDAY, JANUARY 28

Youth Inner Healing Retreat (live-in)

7.30am at St Thomas More College, 48 Mounts Bay Rd, Crawley. Led by the Vincentian Fathers. Registration and Enq: Sonia 0410 596 520 or Sheldon 0415 841 737 or dmymau@gmail.com.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27

Latin Mass 2pm at Good Shepherd Parish, Streich Ave, Kelmscott. Enq: John 9390 6646.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2

Day with Mary 9am-5pm at St Bernadette Parish, 49 Jugan St, Glendalough. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. 9am Video; 10.10 holy Mass; Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosary, Divine Chaplet and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Finish approx 5pm. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3

Divine Mercy, an Afternoon with Jesus and Mary 1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor St, East Perth. Main celebrant Fr Johnson Malayil CRS. Homily will be on St Jerome Emilani. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed by the holy Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Refreshments afterwards. Enq: John 9457 7771.

St Brigid’s Day Celebration – to Honour Ireland’s Female Patron Saint 3pm at Irish Club Theatre, 61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco. The Australian Irish Heritage Association presents a discourse on Caroline Chisholm (18081877) looking at her life and legacy as a visionary of the 19th century. Illustrated narrative with music and dance, scripted by Anne McAnearney. Cost $10 at the door includes Irish afternoon tea, or for bookings phone Cecilia on 9367 6026.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5

Catholic Charismatic Renewal Opening Year Mass 7.30pm at Holy Family Church, 45 Thelma St, Como. Evening includes Prayer and Praise, Mass and Prayer Team Ministry. Main celebrant is Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey preaching on theme of Lay Empowerment. Evening concludes with light supper; a plate to share would be most welcome. So come along and help us to start the year with enthusiasm and zeal. Enq: Dan 9398 4973.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8

Annual Torchlight Rosary Procession for Our Lady of Lourdes around Lake Monger 7pm departing from Dodd St carpark, Wembley. There will be an altar area set up for those unable to walk. Enq: 0421 580 783.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Divine Mercy – Healing Mass

2.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, Windsor St, East Perth. Main celebrant will be Fr Marcellinus

Meilak OFM. Reconciliation in English and Italian will be offered. Divine Mercy prayers followed by veneration of first class relic of St Faustina Kowalska. Refreshments afterwards. Enq: John 9457 7771.

St Padre Pio Prayer Day

8.30am at Our Lady of Mt Carmel, 82 Collick St, Hilton. DVD in parish centre followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Adoration and Benediction. Holy Mass, St Padre Pio Litugy, Reconciliation available. Bring a plate for a shared lunch. Tea and coffee supplied. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10

Our Lady of Lourdes 70th Anniversary Mass with Archbishop Costelloe

9.30am at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, 207 Lesmurdie Rd, Lesmurdie. Enq: Fr Kenneth 9291 6282 or 9291 8952 or 0434 934 286.

St Louis Parish, Boyanup – Mass Celebrating 100th Year Anniversary

10am at St Louis Parish, cnr Bridge and Thomas Sts, Boyanup. Begins with Mass followed by lunch at Hugh Kilpatrick Hall. RSVP for catering purposes. RSVP and Enq: Frances 9731 5058.

SUNDAY, MARCH 17

St Joseph’s School Waroona70th Anniversary Celebration Mass

10am-3pm at St Joseph’s School, Millar St, Waroona is inviting all past students, staff and families to help celebrate its 70th anniversary at the school. Begins with Mass celebrated by Fr Chiera, Vicar General of Bunbury Diocese, and will be followed by a day of fun, food and festivities. Please pass on this information to anyone you know from the school in the last 70 years. Enq: Admin 9782 6500 or www.stjoeswaroona.wa.edu. au.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 – SUNDAY, APRIL 7

Catholic Charismatic Conference

7.30-9.30pm, 67 Howe St, Osborne Park. Jesus For All, “I will give you a new heart, and breathe a new spirit into you”. Organised by CCR Perth and MSCCA. Enq: daniel.hewitt5@bigpond.com or stephen.subramaniam@gmail.com.

REGULAR EVENTS

EVERY SUNDAY

Gate of Heaven Catholic Radio

Join the Franciscans of the Immaculate from 7.309pm on Radio Fremantle 107.9FM for Catholic radio broadcast of EWTN and our own live shows. Enq: radio@ausmaria.com.

Catheral Cafe

Cathedral Cafe is now open every Sunday 9.30am1pm at St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, downstairs after Mass. Coffee, tea, cakes, sweets, friendship with Cathedral parishioners. Further info: Tammy on smcperthwyd@yahoo.com.au or 0415 370 357.

Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation 2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation available before every celebration. Anointing of the sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq Sacri 9447 3292.

Praise and Worship 5.30pm at St Denis Parish, cnr Osborne St and Roberts Rd, Joondanna. Followed by 6pm Mass. Enq: Admin admin@stdenis.com.au.

EVERY FIRST SUNDAY

Singles Prayer and Social Group

7pm at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Sq, 77 St Georges Tce, Perth. Begins with Holy Hour (Eucharistic Adoration, Rosary and teaching) followed by dinner at local restaurant. Meet new people, pray and socialise with other single men and women. Enq: Veronica 0403 841 202.

EVERY SECOND SUNDAY

Healing Hour 7-8pm at St Lawrence Parish, Balcatta. Songs of praise and worship, exposition of Blessed Sacrament and prayers for sick. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS or office Tue-Thu, 9am-2.30pm 9344 7066.

EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY

Shrine Time for Young Adults 18-35 Years 7.30-8.30pm in Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Dr, Mt Richon; Holy Hour with prayer, reflection, meditation, praise and worship; followed by a social gathering. Come and pray at a place of grace. Enq: Schoenstatt Sisters 9399 2349.

Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life 2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley.

Includes exposition of Blessed Eucharist, silent prayer, Scripture, prayers of intercession. Come and pray those discerning vocations can hear clearly God’s call.

EVERY LAST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

Filipino Mass 3pm at Notre Dame Church, cnr Daley and Wright Sts, Cloverdale. Please bring a plate to share for socialisation after Mass. Enq: Fr Nelson Po 0410 843 412, Elsa 0404 038 483.

LAST MONDAY OF THE MONTH

Be Still in His Presence –Ecumenical Christian Program

7.30-8.45pm at St Swithun Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie St, Lesmurdie (hall behind church). Begins with songs of praise and worship, silent time, lectio divina, small group sharing and cuppa. Enq: Lynne 9293 3848 or 0435 252 941.

EVERY TUESDAY

Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

6pm at Pater Noster Church, Marmion and Evershed Sts, Myaree. Mass at 5.30pm followed by Benediction. Enq: John 0408 952 194.

Novena to God the Father

7.30pm at St Joachim’s parish hall, Vic Park. Novena followed by reflection and discussions on forthcoming Sunday Gospel. Enq: Jan 9284 1662.

EVERY FIRST TUESDAY

Short MMP Cenacle for Priests

2pm at Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Enq: Fr Watt 9376 1734.

EVERY WEDNESDAY

Holy Spirit of Freedom Community

7.30pm at Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We welcome everyone to attend our praise meeting. Enq: 0423 907 869 or hsofperth@gmail.com.

Bible Study at Cathedral

6.15pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, 17 Victoria Sq, Perth. Deepen your faith through reading and reflecting on holy Scripture by Fr Jean-Noel Marie. Meeting room beneath Cathedral. Enq: 9223 1372.

Holy Hour - Catholic Youth Ministry

Mass at 5.30pm and Holy Hour (Adoration) at 6.30pm at Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. Enq: www.cym.com or 9422 7912.

EVERY FIRST WEDNESDAY

Novena to St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

7-7.45pm at Blessed Mary MacKillop Parish, cnr Cassowary Dr and Pelican Pde, Ballajura. Begins with Mass, novena prayers and Benediction. Followed by healing prayers and anointing of the sick. Enq: Madi 9249 9093 or Gerry 0417 187 240.

EVERY SECOND WEDNESDAY

Chaplets of Divine Mercy

7.30pm St Thomas More Parish, Dean Rd, Bateman. Accompanied by Exposition, then Benediction. Enq: George 9310 9493 or 6242 0702 (w).

EVERY THURSDAY

Divine Mercy 11am at Sts John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy and for consecrated life, especially in our parish. Concludes with veneration of the first class relic of St Faustina. Enq: John 9457 7771.

St Mary’s Cathedral Praise Meeting

7.45pm every Thursday at the Legion of Mary’s Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Includes praise, song and healing ministry. Enq: Kay 9382 3668 or fmi@flameministries.org.

Group Fifty - Charismatic Renewal Group

7.30pm at Redemptorist Monastery, 150 Vincent St, North Perth. Includes prayer, praise and Mass. Enq: Elaine 9440 3661.

EVERY FIRST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH

Prayer in Style of Taizé

7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Parish, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Includes prayer, song and silence in candlelight – symbol of Christ the light of the world. Taizé info: www.taize.fr. Enq: secretary 9448 4888 or 9448 4457.

Holy Hour Prayer for Priests 7-8pm at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. All welcome. Enq: Linda 9341 3079.

FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAY

Young Adults (18-35) Dinner and Rosary Cenacle

6.30pm St Bernadette Parish, 49 Jugan St, Mt Hawthorn. Begins with dinner at a local restaurant. 8pm - Rosary Cenacle, short talk and refreshments at the parish. Enq: st.bernadettesyouth@gmail. com or 9444 6131.

EVERY THIRD THURSDAY

Auslan Café – Sign Language Workshop 12.30pm at St Francis Xavier Emmanuel Centre, 25 Windsor St, Perth. Its Australian Sign Language - Auslan Café is a social setting for anybody who would like to learn or practise Auslan in a relaxing and fun atmosphere. Light lunch provided. Enq: Emma emmanuelcentre@westnet.com.au.

EVERY FRIDAY

Eucharistic Adoration at Schoenstatt Shrine 10am at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Drive, Mt Richon. Includes holy Mass, exposition of Blessed Sacrament, silent adoration till 8.15pm. In this Year of Grace, join us in prayer at a place of grace. Enq: Sisters of Schoenstatt 9399 2349.

Healing Mass

6pm at Holy Family Parish, Lot 375, Alcock St, Maddington. Begins with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Healing Mass followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Enq: admin 9493 1703 or www.vpcp. org.au.

EVERY FIRST FRIDAY

Mass and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 11am-4pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Exposition of Blessed Sacrament after Mass until 4pm, finishing with Rosary. Enq: Sr Marie MS.Perth@lsp.org.au.

Healing and Anointing Mass

8.45am Pater Noster Church, Evershed St, Myaree. Begins with Reconciliation, then 9am Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, anointing of the sick and prayers to St Peregrine. Enq: Joy 9337 7189.

Catholic Faith Renewal Evening

7.30pm at Sts John and Paul Parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Songs of Praise and Prayer, sharing by a priest, then thanksgiving Mass and light refreshments. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913 or Ann 0412 166 164 or catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com.

Communion of Reparation All Night Vigils

7pm-1.30am at Corpus Christi Church, Lochee St, Mosman Park or St Gerard Majella Church, cnr Ravenswood Dr/Majella Rd, Westminster (Mirrabooka). Vigils are two Masses, Adoration, Benediction, prayers, Confession in reparation for outrages committed against the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357; Fr Giosue 9349 2315; John/Joy 9344 2609.

Pro-life Witness – Mass and Procession

9.30am at St Brigid’s Parish, cnr Great Northern Hwy and Morrison Rd, Midland. Begins with Mass followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Please join us to pray for an end to abortion and the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349.

EVERY SECOND FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

Discover Spirituality of St Francis of Assisi 12pm at St Brigid’s parish centre. The Secular Franciscans of Midland Fraternity have lunch, then 1-3pm meeting. Enq: Antoinette 9297 2314.

EVERY FIRST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

Healing Mass

12.35pm at St Thomas Parish, cnr Melville St and College Rd, Claremont. Spiritual leader Fr Waddell.

Enq: Kim 9384 0598, claremont@perthcatholic.org.

Vigil for Life – Mass and Procession

8.30am at St Augustine Parish, Gladstone St, Rivervale. Begins with Mass celebrated by Fr Carey, followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic. Please join us to pray for the conversion of hearts and an end to abortion. Enq. Helen 9402 0349.

EVERY FOURTH SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

Voice of the Voiceless Healing Mass

12pm at St Brigid Parish, 211 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Bring a plate to share after Mass.

Enq: Frank 9296 7591 or 0408 183 325.

EVERY LAST SATURDAY

Novena Devotions – Our Lady Vailankanni of Good Health

5pm at Holy Trinity Parish, 8 Burnett St, Embleton. Followed by Mass at 6pm. Enq: George 9272 1379.

GENERAL

Free Divine Mercy Image for Parishes

High quality oil painting and glossy print – Divine Mercy Promotions. Images of very high quality. For any parish willing to accept and place inside the church. Oil paintings: 160 x 90cm; glossy print - 100 x 60cm. Enq: Irene 9417 3267 (w).

Sacred Heart Pioneers

Would anyone like to know about the Sacred Heart pioneers? If so, please contact Spiritual Director Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or John 9457 7771.

St Philomena’s Chapel 3/24 Juna Dr, Malaga. Mass of the day: Mon 6.45am. Vigil Masses: Mon-Fri 4.45pm. Enq: Fr David 9376 1734.

Mary MacKillop Merchandise

Available for sale from Mary MacKillop Centre. Enq: Sr Maree 041 4683 926 or 08 9334 0933.

Financially Disadvantaged People Requiring

Low Care Aged Care Placement

The Little Sisters of the Poor community is set in beautiful gardens in the suburb of Glendalough. “Making the elderly happy, that is everything!” St Jeanne Jugan (foundress). Registration and enq: Sr Marie 9443 3155.

Is your son or daughter unsure of what to do this year? Suggest a Cert IV course to discern God’s purpose. They will also learn more about the Catholic faith and develop skills in communication and leadership. Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation (National Code 51452).Enq: Jane 9202 6859.

AA Alcoholics Anonymous Is alcohol costing you more than just money? Enq: AA 9523 3566.

Saints and Sacred Relics Apostolate Invite SSRA Perth invites interested parties, parish priests, leaders of religious communities, lay associations to organise relic visitations to parishes, communities, etc. We have available authenticat-

ed relics, mostly first-class, of Catholic saints and blesseds including Sts Mary MacKillop, Padre Pio, Anthony of Padua, Therese of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe, Simon Stock and Blessed Pope John Paul II. Free of charge and all welcome. Enq: Giovanny 0478 201 092 or ssra-perth@catholic.org.

Enrolments, Year 7, 2014

La Salle College now accepting enrolments for Year 7, 2014. For prospectus and enrolment please contact college reception 9274 6266 or email lasalle@lasalle.wa.edu.au.

Acts 2 College, Perth’s Catholic Bible College Is now pleased to be able to offer tax deductibility for donations to the college. If you are looking for an opportunity to help grow the faith of young people and evangelise the next generation of apostles, please contact Jane Borg, Principal at Acts 2 College on 0401 692 690 or principal@ acts2come.wa.edu.au

Divine Mercy Church Pews

Would you like to assist, at the same time becoming part of the history of the new Divine Mercy Church in Lower Chittering, by donating a beautifully handcrafted jarrah pew currently under construction, costing only $1,000 each. A beautiful brass plaque with your inscription will be placed at the end of the pew. Please make cheques payable to Divine Mercy Church Building fund and send with inscription to PO Box 8, Bullsbrook WA 6084.

Enq: Fr Paul 0427 085 093.

Abortion Grief Association Inc

A not-for-profit association is looking for premises to establish a Trauma Recovery Centre (pref SOR) in response to increasing demand for our services (ref.www.abortiongrief.asn.au). Enq: Julie (08) 9313 1784.

RESOURCE CENTRE FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - 2013 COURSES

Resource Centre for Personal Development

Holistic Health Seminar The Instinct to Heal Tue 3-4.30pm; RCPD2 Internalise Principles of Successful Relationships and Use Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills Tue 4.30-6.30pm, 197 High St, Fremantle - Tuesdays 3-4.30pm. Enq: Eva 0409 405 585. Bookings essential.

1) RCPD6 ‘The Cost of Discipleship’

This course combines theology with relationship education and personal/spiritual awareness by teaching self-analysis.

2) ‘The Wounded Heart’

Healing for emotional and sexual abuse promotes healing and understanding for the victim and the offender. Holistic counselling available - http:// www.members.dodo.com.au/~evalenz/.

Religious item donations for Thailand Church Fr Ferdinando Ronconi is the parish priest at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Phuket, Thailand. He is in need of religious items such as rosaries and holy medals for his local congregation and visitors. If you are able to help, please post items to: PO Box 35, Phuket 83000, Thailand or, if you are on holiday in Phuket, bring your donated items with you to church and stay for Mass! Fr Ferdinando can be contacted on tel: 076 212 266 or 089 912 899 or ronconi.css@gmail.com.

Good Shepherd Parish History I am compiling the history of the Good Shepherd Parish and everyone who has been a part of building the Good Shepherd community is invited to write their story and include photos. An editor has been engaged and the deadline to receive your story is January 30, 2013. Please forward on email: goodshepherdparishhistory@gmail.com. Any enquiries ring Nick De Luca on 9378 2684 or 0419 938 481.

WANTED: Christmas Crib Figurines needed for New Parish Contact Fr Francis on 9296 7088 or hn1002004@ yahoo.com.au.

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

CATHOLICS CORNER Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for Baptism, Communion and Confirmation. Ph 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Rd, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

RICH HARVEST - YOUR

CHRISTIAN SHOP Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, Baptism/Communion apparel, religious vestments, etc. Visit us at 39 Hulme Ct (off McCoy St), Myaree. Ph 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve.

KINLAR VESTMENTS

www.kinlarvestments.com.au

Quality handmade and decorated vestments: albs, stoles, chasubles, altar linen, banners. Ph Vickii on 9402 1318, 0409 114 093 or kinlar.vestments@ gmail.com.

MEMENTO CANDLES

Personalised candles for Baptism, Wedding, Year 12 Graduations and Absence. Photo and design embedded into candle, creating a great keepsake! Please call Anna: 0402 961 901 or anna77luca@hotmail.com to order a candle or Facebook: Memento Candles.

ACCOMMODATION

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

Esperance holiday accommodation, 3-bedroom house, fully furnished. Phone 08 9076 5083.

NOVENA

Novena Prayer to St Jude. O

Holy St Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart, and humbly beg to whom God has given such great power, to come my assistance. Help me in my present urgent petition, in return I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked. Say three Our Fathers, three Hail Mary’s and three Glory be’s. St Jude pray for us, and all who invoke your aid. Amen.

TAX SERVICE

QUALITY TAX RETURNS PRE-

PARED by registered tax agent with over 35 years’ experience. Call Tony Marchei 0412 055 184 for appt. AXXO Accounting & Management, Unit 20/222 Walter Rd, Morley. Trade services.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Home-based business. Wellness industry. Call 02 8230 0290 or www.dreamlife1.com.

BOOKBINDING

RESTORATION BOOKBINDING and Conservation; General Book Repairs, Bibles, Brevaries and Liturgical. Tel: 0401 941 577. Now servicing the South-West @ Myalup.

PILGRIMAGES

EXODUS PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND November 5-20, 2013. Are you interested in being part of our 16 DAYS OF EXODUS PILGRIMAGE (following the footstep of Moses) to the HOLY LAND (Egypt, Jordan and Holy Land) for just $4,100 from November 5-20, 2013? If interested, please contact for early reservation/booking and other enquiries: Fr Emmanuel (Spiritual Director) on: 0417 999 553, fremmanueltv@hotmail. com. Trinidad on: 0420 643 949, dax_gatchi@yahoo.com. Nancy on: 0430 025 774, rncarfrost@ hotmail.com.

PILGRIMAGE OF MERCY - Departs May 11, 2013. Fatima/Poland/Czestochowa/ Auschwitz/Divine Mercy/Vilnius Lithuania/Rome/Gennazzano

Fra Elia (Stigmatist) Civitavecchia (miraculous Madonna shrine) Subiaco/Medju-gorje five countries. Exceptional value all inclusive $6,890. Fr Bogoni (Spiritual Director) Yolanda 0413 707 707/Harvest toll free 1800 819 156 23 days.

FURNITURE REMOVAL

ALL AREAS. Competitive rates. Mike Murphy Ph 0416 226 434.

HEALTH

LOSE WEIGHT SAFELY with good nutrition Free samples. Call or SMS Michael 0412 518 318.

CROHNS DISEASE. I have had major surgery to remove parts of my small and large intestines as I have Crohns Disease. Since using Herbalife’s Nutritional Program, my symptoms have gone and I lead a normal life. If you wish to try these wonderful products, please call Mark Norman 0448 443 348 or email wfhbusiness@bigpond.com.

SERVICES

RURI STUDIO FOR HAIR

Vincent and Miki welcome you to their newly opened, international, award-winning salon. Shop 2, 401 Oxford St, Leederville. 9444 3113. Ruri-studio-for-hair@ hotmail.com.

BRENDAN HANDYMAN

SERVICES

Home, building maintenance, repairs and renovations. NOR. Ph 0427 539 588.

WRR LAWN MOWING AND WEED SPRAYING Garden clean ups and rubbish removal. Get rid of bindii, jojo and other unsightly weeds. Based in Tuart Hill. Enq: 6161 3264 or 0402 326 637.

BRICK RE-POINTING

Ph Nigel 9242 2952.

PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd

For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Ph Tom Perrott 9444 1200.

PRIME ART FRAMERS

- CUSTOM FRAMING With 20 years’ experience, we offer unparalleled advice and service for all your custom framing requirements. We also have an extensive range of framed artwork and mirrors. Hurry in for our Christmas special 20% off all custom framing. Ends Jan 31. Quality guaranteed. PRIME ART FRAMERS, 2/240 MAIN STREET, OSBORNE PARK. 9344 8641 or www.primeart. vpweb.com.au.

BRICKLAYING

5 Type of sin

6 Number of days Jesus spent in the desert

7 Catholic poet/essayist John Samuel ___

10 Samuel’s mentor

15 Bible opener (abbr)

16 Spiritual program

17 Adjective for the Bishop of Rome

18 Commit a deadly sin

20 The Inferno

14

15

21 Diocese in Idaho

23 A religious

25 Son of David

26 Catholic apologist and mathematician

28 One of the 12

29 First Catholic United States Chief Justice

31 Wedding vow

32 First family member

33 “None of us lives to himself, and none of us ___ to himself.” (Rom 14:7)

St Pauls Weekday Missal

Only $39.95

St Pauls Weekday Missal contains the Order of Mass, along with the complete weekday cycle of Scripture readings, the Proper of Saints and all the Masses for special occasions. Especially prepared for Australia and New Zealand, bound in blue leatherette with gilt edging, durable edition for use year after year, two colour throughout with marker ribbons.

St Pauls Sunday Missal

Complete Gift Edition

Only $49.95

Contains all of the Prayers of the Missal, together with the full threeyear cycle of Scripture readings, and the complete Easter liturgies. Includes feasts of special importance for Australia and New Zealand: Australia Day, ANZAC Day and St Mary MacKillop. White leatherette, gilt edge, durable edition for use year after year, two colour throughout with marker ribbons. Beautiful magnetic fold-over cover.