Tui motu 2010 may

Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010 Price $6

Peacemakers Edine von Herold and Nicky Wagner Tui Motu InterIslands 1 May 2010

editorial contents

2 editoral 3 Disturbing the peace

Paul Oestricher 4-5 letters 6 Nuclear peacemaking

interview: Edine von Herold 7 Anzac reminiscences 1916

Arthur Moroney 8-9 ‘If it can happen there, it can

happen anywhere’ interview:Niall ÓDochartaigh 10 A delicious irony

Jim Consedine 11 Poem: ‘Within my room’

Jacqui Lambert 12-13 A life rich with providence

interview: Michael Hill IC 14-15 Why does sexual abuse

happen?

Klaus M Beier 16-17 ‘Now sleeps the Lord’

Poem: Margaret Woods

(1856-1945), courtesy of

Sr Annette CSN 18-19 Threshold of the soul

Daniel O’Leary 20-21 Trusting priests

Max Palmer OSCO 21 The dignity of women

Paul Andrews SJ 22-23 In defence of Catholic

schools - a response

Peter McRae 24-25 Holding on to hope

Marilyn Elliston 26 Pentecost –

Kath Rushton RSM 27 Film Review 28-29 Book Reviews 30 Crosscurrents

Jim Elliston 31 Voice of the Faithful

Robert Consedine 32 Postscript: Mother’s Journal

Kaaren Mathias

front cover Signora Edine von Herold Duarte, Parliamentarian from Costa Rica and Nicky Wagner, National List MP for Christchurch and the Vice President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non Proliferation and Disarmament for NZ.

guest editor Michael Fitzsimons of Wellington (mike@fitzbeck.co.nz) is guest editor of the June issue of Tui Motu.

2 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

making peace into shalom

T

he arms race is one of the greatest curses on the human race and the harm it inflicts on the poor is more than can be endured. The musings of a radical leftie? Not all all; the statement of the bishops gathered in Council in 1965 (Gaudium et Spes, 81). I hunted for this when the Guardian Weekly (19-25 March) produced a list of the nations who are squandering the world’s combined resources through their ever growing race for nuclear and conventional arms. Arms sales are booming, despite global recession.

Since 2005, the average volume of arms sale increased 22 per cent; Of these sales, the USA exports 30 per cent. Who benefits, and who loses?

At a seminar in Washington on 16 March, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Pope’s nuncio to the United Nations, said that nuclear deterrence, the idea that possessing nuclear weapons discourages enemy attack, is preventing the goal of disarmament being achieved. He went on to say that the cold war conditions that encouraged the church’s “limited toleration of nuclear deterrence” no longer exist. (reported in America, 5 April) Tentatively, but with great respect, I consider that this statement warrants a whole rethinking of what John Paul II said in 1982. The Pope then implicitly corrected the US Bishops in the writing of their momentous pastoral letter on War and Peace in a Nuclear Age, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and our Response.” The bishops wished to give a nuanced moral condemnation of the idea of nuclear deterrence. The Pope intervened to say that deterrence may still be morally acceptable, in his words “certainly not as an end in itself, but as a step on the way toward a progressive disarmament.”

That was 1983. 27 years later, the Nuncio has given what is presumably

not just his own judgment but that of the present Pope, that limited toleration of nuclear deterrence is no longer morally acceptable. How will we make that a reality in Aotearoa ?

Meanwhile, the appeal of Signora Edina von Herold Duarte, recently in our country as the personal representative of the President-elect of Costa Rica to the NZ government, puts the secular world miles out in front of where we, as Christian people, presently seem to be (see p. 6). Over the last 30 years the constant appeals for nuclear disarmament of world wide organizations, like Pax Christi, have gone largely unheard. They are no longer crazy ideas, tossed to the sideline. The possibilities for nuclear disarmament now are mainline global political and strategic material. They challenge all New Zealanders to put the matter of the arms race, which is a blatant rape of resources from the world’s poor, on the political and moral front burner.

It is ironic that John Key recently accepted kudos in Washington for the Lange “anti-nuclear” policy. We hope he will take it up with alacrity to fall in with President Obama’s nuclear security push. Moreover, from 3-28 May, watch through the media (the internet will give the best coverage, I predict!) the 2010 Review Conference of States Party to the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty at the United Nations in New York. It is another opportunity for us to do something concrete and practical. A turning point? Signora Duarte said, “Young people believe that we can abolish nuclear weapons in this generation and I for one am ready to support them and ensure that this vision is achieved.”

I believe the deep spirituality of peacemaking which Paul Ostreicher so richly puts before us, will compel a change of thinking, making for that universal shalom which Christ promised all of us.

KGJT

disturbing the peace

D

isturbing is usually the charge brought against people who take non violent direct action against symbols of militarism and damage them. Both in Britain and New Zealand juries have acquitted the alleged offenders. At least some people with common sense, faced with the facts, recognize that it should not be an offence to expose the many crimes committed in the name of defence.

Nevertheless, public opinion finds such acquittals deeply disturbing, disturbing to their peace of mind.

To question the role of the armed forces of a nation is to challenge its very identity. What defines New Zealand more than any other commemoration? ANZAC Day. Past wars are a matter of pride. Future ones need to be prepared for. The male members of the royal family are expected to appear in uniform on every important occasion. Such symbols are powerful.

Of course we have learnt to condemn personal violence. To kill someone is now the most serious of crimes. The police are there to help prevent them.

It was not always so. It all changes when we think collectively. To kill in the name of the nation is held to be heroic, though that is seldom said.

Instead the killer becomes a hero when he dies. In the face of all that, am I not mad to dedicate myself to working for the abolition of war? Is armed conflict not bred into our genes?

Yes, it is bred, created by century upon century of human culture. But it is not an essential part of our DNA. It can be bred out. We can be conditioned to peace as we have been conditioned to war. Most of the time we do live at peace and organize our common life to make that possible. Why not all the time?

I am not, of course, talking about eliminating conflict. The idea that nations, races, religions, tribes – all the many collectives in which we live – could exist without serious differences (as in families) is absurd. It is not absurd to suggest that we can create a human mind-set that rules out the use of armed violence to put right what we believe to be wrong and unjust.

While we are human, a totally just world is only possible in an idealised future that will always recede beyond the horizon. But a world without armed violence is a realistic goal. In fact, given our capacity to destroy all living things with weapons of mass destruction, if that goal is not reached we may not survive as a human race at all. War is not only immoral, it is irrational.

As a Christian, the life and teaching of Jesus strengthens me in that endeavour. He was not a starry eyed idealist when he asked his followers to love their enemies: to love them, not to like them. To love means to have their interests at heart. In military language,

that is called common security. If my enemy does not feel threatened by me, I am much safer. The principles of the United Nations are an important move in that direction.

If a policeman can help keep my road peaceful, an international police force – not trained to win a war but to prevent or stop one – can perform that function world-wide. Moves in that direction already exist. The human family can be said to be on the way to peace, not to a perfect world but to an end to armed and legitimized collective violence.

Ever since St Augustine and the Emperor Constantine most Christians have believed in the idea of the ‘just war’. The time has come for that doctrine to be put in the dust-bin of history. In every conflict each side believes its cause to be just.

It took the best part of 200 years to convince the nations and their peoples to put an end to slavery.

For a long time that was held to be impossible and even undesirable.

It was ended, ended by law. But let there be no mistake, the forces to stop people putting an end to war are very powerful. No less a person than exgeneral, ex-US President Eisenhower warned the American people before his death of the power and the danger of the industrial military complex. Let there be no doubt. The struggle will be long and tough.

Paul Oestricher

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Tui Motu InterIslands 3 May 2010

letters meek and humble of heart

It is interesting and disconcerting to watch the various happenings that are troubling progressive Catholics.

By ‘progressive Catholic’ I mean those who want to see a reining in of the resurgent, flawed, traditional, paternalistic, power-based governance that we believed Vatican II had done away with.

Two events that are in the headlines interest me. Others could be quoted.

The forthcoming introduction of a new Sacramentary points to a serious misuse of power by Roman functionaries. In introducing the Sacramentary changes, against much advice, the bureaurcrats are usurping responsibility specifically given to Bishops at Vatican II. This is usurping legitimate governance by a naked grab for power by people not entitled to have that power.

The continuing uncovering of perverted priests and religious and the hideous efforts to serve the institution to the detriment of the victims is also a serious misuse of power. It also points to the main reason for these terrible acts: the availability of power. Any serious examination of the Gospels shows that Jesus was not a fan of the exercise of power for its own sake. He recognised the corrupting influence that power exercises over the powerful. Roman bullies are power mongers. People in thrall to the Roman bullies can become power mongers themselves.

In both instances I suspect that the power hungry holding these positions are unfamiliar with Jesus’ admonition: “…learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart…”(Mt 11:29). And who in Rome was Jesus talking about in Matthew 23.

I am not alone in being upset by the Church’s bureaucracy but what can I do. Nothing much alone but pray.

If everyone who shared similar views could form a united front perhaps the message would get through.

The church bureaucrats have been around for a long time and know how to organise themselves. The 4 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

letters to the editor

-

We welcome comment, discussion, argument, debate.

But please keep letters under 200 words.

The editor reserves the right to abridge, while not changing the meaning.

Response articles (up to a page) are welcome but please, by negotiation.

conservative-minded seminarians being shepherded through the training process now will not be much help in future years. If Pope John XXIII’s prophetic dream to open the church is not to flounder under the predations of the power elite, the time to act is now. Tomorrow may be too late!

Phil Wilkinson Whanganui

complementary?

Remember the posters which claimed Girls can do anything? Obviously, they can’t, says Fr. Pat Maloney.

Obviously? What can’t they do? I’ve thought and I’ve thought, but the answer eludes me. Do it differently, perhaps, but the job gets done. And all over the world, in various countries, job allocations differ, but invariably it’s humdrum and ordinary if done by a woman, very important if done by a man.

He goes on: ‘The complementary role of the sexes in human living is vital to our happiness and wellbeing.’ Sounds good, and I’m all for complementarity.

Vive la difference and all that. But a priest in our parish extended that thought. “Men give and women receive,” he informed me. Really?

Wherever I look, women give and men receive.

Perhaps ordination of women is too big a hurdle to be faced at present. But it should certainly be discussed. And women should certainly be included in every step of church decision making and policy. We can see at present some disastrous decisions being made by a tight and powerful male clique.

I can’t speak for all New Zealand, but in our parish there’s a collaborative ministry that reaches out to a wide and diverse community, women as well as men working at all levels, except the ordained priesthood, of course, working effectively, and usually unobtrusively, women and men.

Jill HeenanWhangarei

new translation

I found the article What if we just said: ‘wait’? very unsettling. At first reading it seemed that this new translation expects us to use a style of language and a vocabulary that to ordinary people is as alien as the Latin original: the juggernaut that is the Roman Curia once more imposing its decisions on grass roots Catholics!

After reflection and discussion I see how changing what we regard as ‘normal’ English for specialised words would in fact reflect our faith tradition more fully, that some of the words we use now are inadequate in this age when every tenet of our faith is being attacked even by other Christians. Father Ryan does not seem to cover this point or to question if the present English translation was originally a ‘dumbing down’. I have come to the conclusion that we do need a new translation but the proposed translation has problems in its style of English.

So what if our bishops just said ‘wait’? Or if the changes were done gradually – the words/phrases that are not controversial come into use while the more clumsy, difficult passages are worked out until a truly noble text be developed? The liturgy, ‘the public worship of the people of God’, is deserving of a truly dignified, noble text.

There is already too much unrest in the Church – we do not want another cause of dissatisfaction to drive more people out. Nor do we want the present version of the Mass to continue quietly ‘underground’ as happened with the Latin Mass.

Kathleen Kenrick, Dunedin

choking on chestnuts

I find the issue of inclusive language far more than ‘an inevitable old chestnut.’

In Communication Theory there is agreement that thought does not shape language; language shapes thought. The words I use determine the thoughts I think, even about my relationship with God and my image of God. Is it wrong to be offended by sexist language in liturgy?

Are we giving God our best worship when we continue to call ‘women’, half of God’s initial creation, ‘men’?

I find such discriminatory language offensive and far from the ideals that should belong to those who espouse the values of Jesus Christ and of a community that claims to be true to his ideals. How difficult is it to just add ‘and women’ to a liturgical text? Are the words more important than the people who are asked to pray them? A certain teacher applied this same argument to the Sabbath. To use the excuse that it is not in an original Latin text is a lame argument. To change the language is to learn to think differently and learn to see women as equal images of God. Yes, Jesus called God ‘Father’, a loving parent image and beautiful expression of the intimacy of God with humanity.

The problem is that God is not only father, and to restrict the nature of God to father-language only is to betray the nature of the very God we believe in. To do so in our liturgy is doubly offensive.

Br Kieran Fenn FMS, Wellington

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waihopai spy base invasion

The media and the public at large have recently been engaged in the District Court jury trial, ending in an acquittal, of the ‘invaders’ of the Waihopai Spy Base.

It is possible that this action will prove to be one of the more significant actions in our local Church since Vatican II. It has ramifications for the primacy of conscience, justice, politics and the law of our country.

Later this year, we, as a parish, will likely receive a letter signed by all the Bishops of Aotearoa. It will pertain to the new edition of the Roman Missal. Among other matters there will be instructions as to when to kneel, sit or stand during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It has been suggested that an inclusion of a response in te reo Maori will serve to recognize our tangata whenua. That is good. I presume that this venture will be fully supported by our Bishops.

What puzzles me is that we have not had any encouragement, nor has there has been any public support from our Bishops for the three men who stood out against the law as a matter of principle. We have not been asked to stand alongside these three men who by their actions have chosen to act out their faith in response to Isaiah’s call for justice – they will beat their swords into ploughshares (Is 2:4).

Are we not called both to respond appropriately in our own liturgy, which is an integral part of our life of faith and to acknowledge with gratitude those who have witnessed to their faith for the sake of justice and peace?

We all need support and encouragement when we go against the norm in our search for truth. Let us pray for and honour the integrity of one another.

Loreto Meehan OP, Auckland

clerical misconduct

I know you will be inundated with erudite comment regarding the quote, “Pope’s problems with his priests etc and their misbehaviour with children”.

The reality is age-old and grows out of the ‘Confessional secrecy’ and then the requirement for celibacy for the priesthood.

Perhaps when il Papa visits England he can have a good chat with the Archbishop of Canterbury and come to some sensible agreement whereby the loneliness of the presbytery can be challenged with a new regime of priesthood. Then, hopefully, the men who find celibacy intolerable can marry and continue on as good and holy priests.

Maurice McGreal, Glenfield

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Tui Motu InterIslands 5 May 2010

peace & justice

peace making with Edine van Herold Duarte Signora Edine van Herold Duarte, a member of the Costa Rican Parliament, has been in New Zealand to promote the draft Nuclear Weapons Convention with the New Zealand Government.

She spoke to Tui Motu of her mission to promote world peace.

“I

am a medical doctor, a physician, by profession living in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. I have a girl and a boy, 25 and 21, both of whom are studying to be doctors, one a psychiatrist. It was for their benefit, to ensure the future security of my own children, that I entered politics.

“Moreover, and something of which I am very proud, I come from a family tradition of women in public life. My grandmother was elected to public office in 1952 in the first national elections in which Costa Rican women could stand for public office. She was the first woman councillor for the area of San Jose, the national capital, and she became well known for her efforts on behalf of women and of nuclear disarmament. She was also involved in international negotiations in Paris to bring that about in the 1950’s.

My mother has just finished this valiant woman’s biography. My great grandfather (on my mother’s side) and five other men were involved in the 1923 parliamentary attempt to obtain the vote for CR women. Unhappily this first attempt failed.

“In 1949 Costa Rica suffered a short bloody civil war. This crisis provided the opportunity for women to gain the right to vote. At the same time, Costa Rica’s new constitution declared that it should have no standing army.

This startling provision has stood the test of time, despite neighbouring countries, like Nicaragua and El Salvador, suffering the ravages of civil war, and the coming of the Cuban revolution close by.”

6 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

Signora Edine was in New Zealand in mid-April to bring a letter from Costa Rica’s President-elect Laura Chinchilla for Prime Minister John Key and the Minister for Disarmament, Georgina Te Heu Heu. She said “This letter calls for collaboration between our two governments in supporting the UN Secretary General Ban KiMoon’s 2008 initiative to promote a proposed global treaty to abolish Nuclear Weapons – the draft Nuclear Weapons Convention.

“Costa Rica and New Zealand are both small countries with similar backgrounds and economies based on agriculture, tourism and a common value for universal education. Both are active in advancing cooperative security, human rights, disarmament and development internationally at the United Nations and other key forums. And along with many other small countries they are uniting to promote a nuclear free world, where human rights are upheld, in which the arms race is stopped, and the money saved given appropriately to those poorer countries in dire need of money to survive.

“Importantly both Costa Rica and New Zealand are nuclear free zones.

And while New Zealand, since 2000, no longer has a combat ready air force, Costa Rica has had no standing army since 1949. Both countries have worked long and hard on the abolition of nuclear weapons in the various treaties and conventions that have grown up since 1966 when the first Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban

Treaty opened for signature at the United Nations. Young people believe that we can abolish nuclear weapons in this generation and I for one am ready to support them and ensure that this vision is achieved.” (her emphasis) From May 3-28 the United Nations will host the second regular five yearly review by States Party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Both New Zealand and Costa Rica will take a full part in this review.

Signora Edine was pleased that Mr Key, representing a nuclear free nation, had an invitation to take part in the Nuclear Security Summit which US President Obama has just hosted. This invitation also affirmed her belief that New Zealand and Costa Rica are world leaders in advancing the links between disarmament and development and she hoped that in Washington the Prime Minister would be able to stake the claims of the smaller countries of the world for the nuclear powers to take up the wider challenges beyond abolition and non proliferation, dealing mainly with development and the environment.

Asked what would be the one message she would like to give New Zealanders, Signora Edine said: “To love life. If we love life we are able to love all that is around us, to love the environment, as well as ourselves. Costa Rica has 5% of the unique biodiversity of the world and we are committed to sharing this and protecting it. If we love ourselves as human beings we can maintain the essence of life, hold on to it, and share its precious nature.” n

anzac reminiscences august 1916

I

n the afternoon of an early Autumn day, we enter the shell shattered town of Albert. Here is a picture of devastation which surely will remain stamped indelibly on the memory of every one of us. A once prosperous town laid in ruins by the agency of man. A little boy running along the broken pavement prompts the thought that a short while ago, these old streets rang with the merry laughter of innocent children whose pleasant homes have since been reduced to crumbling heaps of splintered stone.

The inhabitants have a pious belief that when the statue falls, the end of the war will be at hand. (This actually happened.) Does it seem strange that an inanimate object of cold stone should to any extent affect the minds of men? To me it is not strange. I have seen hardened old soldiers who profess no religious beliefs glancing reverently upward at the serene face of Mary as she looks down with infinite compassion on the strange khaki legions from the end of the earth.

The high tower of the Cathedral still dominates the square and though badly damaged, proudly challenges the guns of the invader to further acts of destructive sacrilege. In times of peace this noble tower was surmounted by a great Statue of the Mother of God clasping her infant Son, but now, although the statue is still there, it is no longer upright. A cruel shell, striking it at the base has caused it to fall forward and there it rests supported only by a narrow parapet that seems much too frail to support the great weight.

One is forcibly reminded of that dark Friday morning nearly 1900 years ago when the Immaculate Mother stood by the Via Dolorosa and saw her Son carry the cross to Calvary where the world’s greatest tragedy was enacted and the world’s greatest sacrifice was offered for the Redemption of Man. In our most enlightened (?) days, the lesson of Calvary is forgotten and our boasted civilization has brought into conflict the greatest nations on earth. And that is why we are here; that is why this town of Albert lies in ruins, that is why the Queen of Heaven leans over us now.

This excerpt is taken from the diary of a New Zealand solider, Arthur Moroney, who died in the first World War. It gives a poignant spiritual reflection on the meaning of war and its consequences. He was a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church, North East Valley, Dunedin. His daughter-in-law, Nancy, still lives in the house he built after returning from the war; and she, together with her son, Peter, and her grandchildren still worship in the same Church.. Peter read this at a memorial Mass on Anzac Day this year.

Tui Motu InterIslands 7 May 2010

peace & justice

What happened following the Good Friday Agreement 1994?

What led up to that point? In an attempt to understand peacemaking in Northern Ireland Tui Motu interviewed Dr Niall Ó Dochartaigh, lecturer in political studies at the National University of Ireland Galway, and specialist in the politics of conflict in Northern Ireland.

if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere londonderry ourist literature trumpets the city of Derry (Londonderry) as the ‘jewel of the North.’

How, then, to explain the tragic, troubling and extraordinary things that have happened to the citizens of the city in the last fifty years? Dr. Niall said twice: Derry is an ordinary peaceful place peopled by “ordinary people, almost banal.” To change that mantra: How can bad things happen to good people, Dr. Niall asked, how can such extraordinarily bad things happen to such ordinary, almost banal, people? His mantra was: “If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.” And why?

Ordinary people react strongly to terrible things that happen to them personally and LOCALLY. Something awful may happen in Belfast, but the people in Derry were not touched by that, and vice versa. It took an intimate local event for Derry people to get involved in violence, and its pattern of escalation, “the troubles,” matched local events.

T

“The Troubles” is the name given to Northern Irish history from the 1960’s. Niall lived in Derry in the late 1980’s and in Belfast in the early 1990’s studying the economic and social history of the North, but 8 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

especially of the city of Derry. He was born in Galway in the Republic of Ireland. Distance to Derry is short, but light years away when unlocking the complex background and culture of this enchanting city. history In the late 1500’s, Elizabeth I’s military leaders tried to conquer the province of Ulster, the only part of Ireland still outside English control, and for that reason the place with the highest concentration of Catholics.

Prior to ‘the settlement,’ there was no urban settlement in Northern Ireland, the most Gaelic part of Ireland. The English government determined English and Scottish Protestants to come to conquer and colonize this province, and (London)Derry was set out as the jewel in the “Plantation of Ulster,” the last walled city built in Europe.

Derry was garrisoned entirely by Protestants settlers. Only in the late 1600’s were Catholics able to settle there, and the first Catholic church in Derry was built in the late 1700’s.

Native Irish Catholics were seen as interlopers in the northern cities, and there was resentment on both sides. Lower class Catholics pushed strongly to improve themselves by living in the cities, with large scale

riots beginning in the early 1800’s over St. Patrick’s Day parades. This new Catholic element challenged and was challenging, dividing Derry along sectarian lines. causes of the troubles Arguments rage about the causes of the Troubles of the 60’s. Social deprivation was bad on both sides.

There was a reservoir of unemployed people, whose grievance was heightened by government discrimination. Before the Troubles, the people, Catholic or otherwise, did little about this – nonmobilisation was the order of the day. But by the 1960’s the British Gnovernment was injecting lots of money and resources into Northern Ireland. Large scale public housing, begun earlier, increased. However, the Protestants were housed first, leaving Catholics on the housing lists. Local grievance rose to new heights. Many say that this was not a religious conflict; religious doctrine was not driving this. But religious belief and affiliation were important to the people involved. the good friday agreement and after By the late 1980’s many Sinn Fein leaders thought to end the IRA campaign that arose to fight these grievances. It no longer made political

sense. But it took five years to achieve that, with considerable reluctance on the part of the British Government.

Around 1990 some Sinn Fein were saying if peaceful politics can be productive, government should make this argument. But there was huge reluctance to talk. The British Government started, but took an incredibly long time to do this effectively before Sinn Fein could argue convincingly to their own people to end their campaign.

John Major used influence, but it was only with Tony Blair that things changed for the better. Blair’s large majority in Westminster Parliament and making the Irish situation a high government priority were crucial.

Only then could the British do something radical enough to break with the past. The power for policing was handed over from London to the Northern Irish executive.

Broadly speaking this was a win-win situation. The Republicans got their wish for local control, preferable to British control. It was compatible with the British desire to disengage from Northern Ireland, and the Unionist desire to have more power over their own affairs. This became something local that could be done together. Yet there was enormous resistance by the Unionists especially the Police Federation, itself overwhelmingly Protestant, who treated the Good Friday agreement as an IRA surrender where the police could continue as usual, without change. But by then the peace process was irresistible. some conclusions Dr Niall reluctantly draws important more global lessons from the Northern Irish experience: • the Northern Irish situation was exceptional. It happened in the most comprehensive welfare state in existence. It was the first conflict where one government has paid for

and benefited both sides to fight!

The British Government in NI so powerfully penetrated into life that even in no-go areas they were able to negotiate, to ensure that people there got state benefits and services.

Likewise, these areas were unable to detach themselves from central government because the State was involved in education, health and welfare.

• governments are not always as lovely as they make out. Through propaganda, London elevated a tactic, non-negotiation, into a principle. The IRA could well have ended their campaign many years beforehand if the British Government had listened. It marginalized the IRA as terrorists, to defeat them. Government wrongly assessed this. Moderate nationalist opinion in Ireland encouraged the British Government to believe the IRA were fanatics with no support, utterly detached from the community. This proved incorrect.

Within a couple of years of the IRA ending its campaign, Sinn Fein became the majority nationalist party in the Northern Parliament, and the biggest party in the north.

Catholics made up 60 per cent of the vote in the North; in Belfast, the place of greatest IRA strength, 80-85 per cent. Most would not have voted that way while the IRA campaign was on, but the quick change shows broad desire to end British rule, and for a united Ireland.

This was a popular view, not at all marginal. It was absolutely the dominant viewpoint in the Catholic community.

• it is always important to talk, to have contact with your enemies. Rejecting contact in principle is wrong.

That people use violence does not mean they are necessarily extreme, nor open to major compromises.

Violence may be compatible with

quite unexceptionable demands.

Sinn Fein settled for something quite unexceptionable in the end. It is the heavy responsibility of a State as powerful as Great Britain to explain itself. Holding immense power, it was the principal actor determining most of the circumstances in these conflicts. In future, governments should think more critically about their stance and contribution. They possess enormous power for peace.

Finally, Dr. Niall talked personally of IRA operatives imprisoned for their involvement with the struggle. His friends are “the most unremarkable of ordinary men. What is striking about them is that you would never guess that they had been involved in a violent conflict at all.” They are married, middle aged with kids they love. To all intents and purposes they are reconciled to the new dispensation, with no sense that their central aims weren’t achieved by struggle. They’ve shifted easily to peacetime.

Poignantly: how did Great Britain get involved with pleasant, ordinary Irishmen involved in such desperate struggle, as they saw it, against an ‘oppressive’ state? Each state has to figure out how it may end up in similar dreadful situations, taking responsibility for peace. n

Colin Gibson NZ Hymns go to Provinces There will be These Hills Workshops to promote the NZ Trust hymn book in June. The website for further

information is:

http://nz-hymns.come2see.co.nz

Venues for These Hills Workshops are: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Te Kuiti, Saturday 12 June, 10am – 4pm Bellblock Co-operating Parish,

New Plymouth,

Monday 14 June, 4.30 – 9.30 pm Enquiries etc: contact Gaynor gaynormc@xtra.co.nz; or ph: 07 877 8372

Tui Motu InterIslands 9 May 2010

peace & justice

a delicious irony Jim Consedine reflects on the forgotten part of the history of Aotearoa New Zealand’s involvement in protest movements that have been the source of both pride and change

irony

J

ohn Key is floating on a wave of adulation in Washington, because of NZ’s nuclear free credentials.

Any action by the United States in finally recognizing the stance taken by New Zealand should be applauded.

It was the Muldoon National Government that defied public opinion and invited US warships into Auckland harbour in the first place.

They wanted New Zealand under the nuclear umbrella.

This stance sparked mass protests and helped create the New Zealand nuclear free movement. Remember the George Armstrong-led Peace Squadron which sailed out into the Auckland harbour leading a flotilla of small boats protesting the arrival of USS Haddo? With police out in military helicopters flying low enough to create a wash in the water designed to capsize small boats, the brave sailors defied the government – and the odds.

The highpoint of the protest was when they stopped the Haddo in the main channel. Remember Stephen Sherie, the amazing young man who leapt from his small boat on to the bow of the Haddo? When he realized where he was, he raised his arms in a salute to the stars and did a Zorba dance.

and Wellington harbours. The flow-on from these protests led directly to the nuclear free legislation enacted by the Lange government. Indeed it was the decsion by Marilyn Waring to cross the floor of the Parliament and vote against nuclear ship visits which led to the early calling of the 1984 General Elction and the landslide victory of the Labour Party.

two examples of hypocrisy Hypocrisy abounds in public life. I remember being at an anti-apartheid debate at the United Nations in New York in 1982 shortly after being one of many who endured the huge civil strife at home resulting from the Springbok tour. This had been a tour sought by the Muldoon government desperate to please its rural constituency and win an election. I was stunned to hear Bryce Harland, the NZ ambassador, taking credit for the strong anti-apartheid movement that New Zealand had developed.

Other US warships subsequently arrived and received an equally hostile reception from the peace movement.

Protesters were harassed and arrested.

I am reminded, too, of Jim Bulger who fronted up at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration in 1995 having been part of the Muldoon Cabinet in 1981. This was the government which maintained trade and sporting ties with the white South African Government. Bolger received the plaudits at the inauguration for the lawbreaking actions of the NZ antiapartheid movement – which he never publicly supported.

a people’s movement

forgotten lawbreaking

This was a people’s movement, conducted at grassroots level in every part of the country, culminating in acts of resistance on the Waitemata 10 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

What is forgotten when these events are later officially acknowledged is that all these campaigns for justice involved breaking the law.

The moralizing about the Waihopai Ploughshares peacemakers reminds me of the double-speak in the corporate media, by the Solicitor General, Cabinet ministers and members of Parliament, and many other political supporters.

Mohandas Ghandi, the father of Indian independence, and Nelson Mandela, the father of modern South Africa, spent years in prison for choosing to break the law in the pursuit of justice.

St. Paul, the apostles, John the Baptist and Jesus regularly broke the law. They broke it to acknowldge a higher moral law. Indeed, Jesus argued that law should be broken when it hindered true justice. For example, when you need to pull your ox from the pit on the Sabbath or needed bread from the sanctuary of the Temple, there was a higher law involved.

following whose example?

Those who made New Zealand nuclear free sometimes broke the law. They did it so we would be free of the threat of nuclear weapons and to keep us away from the US nuclear umbrella. They acted from a higher moral law. It seems that President Obama recognizes this. John Key has been the recipient of the kudos that have flowed from these illegal acts. He should be grateful and acknowledge those who took a stand in the 1970’s and 1980’s. They have made New Zealand a better place.

The Prime Minister should also recognize the courage and prophetic action of the three Waihopai lawbreakers. The jury did. n

within my room (an annunciation) My eyes hurt.

Joy-bruised my heart burns, but my eyes hurt.

Their scales torn off then flushed with searing truth grace branded deep upon their blindness.

Around the margins of the vision left, a piercing glister dawn remains, a seductive whisper to tease upon my memory.

It was as if the sun had risen from the dust in a star-reft moon dark night.

A blazing morn contained within the ashes of my room, and I eclipsed within its fire, flesh melted on the floor, too weak to hold its form.

Yet calm within the firestorm my spirit rose in windlessness, stretched out to touch its truth, and kindled in the Mother flame, a spark lit deep within my womb.

I barely heard the question asked but knew the answer written on my soul since time began.

I would have thought that I had dreamed, but my eyes hurt.

Jacquie Lambert

Tui Motu InterIslands 11 May 2010

a life rich with providence The new editor spoke with the editor emeritus, Father Michael Hill IC, about his life and his work, and the mission that he sees for himself now

early life I was born in Yorkshire in the north of England: a spacious, bleak, very old and beautiful place by the sea.

My first years were happy, secure in the warm upbringing of my English father and Irish mother. In 1970 I was ‘reborn’ to the open, windy but sunnier agricultural environment of Gore, reminding me of those sparse Yorkshire plains. My ten years in Gore were the happiest days of my priestly life.

I was welcomed by local people and clergy, and made lasting friendships.

My schooling at Ratcliffe College, the English flagship school of the Rosminians, was happy too. It was wartime, remote from the poundings of London. However, in this dynamic teaching environment, I thrived intellectually and socially, becoming head boy. My father and the Rosminian provincial wisely advised me to get a university degree before entering religious life.

university Early 1950‘s Cambridge was a remarkable environment, the premier university in the world for its research and ferment in biological sciences.

I studied these “wet sciences” (e.g., zoology, biology) for two years. Against my tutor’s best advice, I switched to modern history in my last year. By then I had firmed up my desire to become a Rosminian. We had famous historians like Hubert Butterfield to 12 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

teach us. And I remember Crick and Watson, the discoverers of DNA, drawing double helixes in beer on the tables of the pub we frequented.

The Chaplaincy, presided over by the eccentric Monsignor Gilbey (of Gilbey’s gin fame) dressed in frock coat, black buckled shoes and flat black hat, was buzzing. His fine spiritual preaching moulded us. Many later distinguished people were also influenced by him and found their way into the Church then. Against Gilbey’s best wishes though he was gracious in defeat, we spearheaded opening the chaplaincy cafe/bar to women.

religious life and study The brothers’ strong community life in our Sussex novitiate formed me well. Then, untrained as a teacher, I taught sciences for four years at Ratcliffe College. We were bailed off to Wonersh seminary in southern England for a year under the guidance of Dr. Sillem, a brilliant young philosopher – then to Rome.

I spent four years training at the Pontifical Lateran University. This was arguably the most reactionary place of theological training in the world at that time, the seminary for the Diocese of Rome, also preparing students to become members of the Roman Curia. Its rector, the infamous Monsignor Piolanti, was swiftly removed by Paul VI in one of his first acts as pope.

Thankfully we had, as well, access to occasional lectures by some of the

best minds of the Council, like Father Bernard Haring. It was only later when I read the texts of the Council that I realized how bad our Roman seminary training was. Cardinal (then Bishop) Delargey used to stay with us for retreat days during the Council.

Once I asked him what did he think would be the real impact of the council. His answer has stayed with me: “It will give us a new theology of prayer.” How wise and true that has proved to be, a changed attitude towards God through liturgy and law.

ordination Ordained in Rome in 1964, it was back to teaching at Ratcliffe College.

Little did I know what was ahead. One day our provincial caught me in the corridor between classes. “Michael,” he said, “have you got a moment. I would like you to buy a sixteen seater bus and take it to New Zealand.” Just like that.

st peter’s A year later, I arrived in Gore with that bus -– by owning it for a year we successfully avoided import duty on a new bus for the school. I threw myself into life at St. Peter’s College, becoming first deputy principal and then headmaster for six years. It was a wonderful time of hard work and community, developing the life, culture and style of this coeducational school: sport, outdoors pursuits, music and drama, among other things.

Co-education, here the brainchild of Bishop John Kavanagh, who gave us great support, was something I had never experienced before. It

was remarkable to see the way there developed wonderful mother-son, father-daughter relationships among the students and the priests and Mercy sisters who co-taught with us.

I remain a firm believer in the efficacy of coeducation. Seeing the academic results that both girls and boys gained (and still gain) at St. Peter’s, I believe the academic arguments in favour of single sex schools are dubious.

ncrs Then came another major change in direction for me. After some years teaching at Rosmini College in Auckland, I was suddenly asked to become one of the co-ordinators of the NCRS programme (then lovingly clept ‘Nickers’, now ‘Walk by Faith’).

Co-directing the religious education course of 600 people nationwide with Sister Catherine Ann Shelton was new and exciting for me.

In 1984 I moved to Christchurch to form community with Father Gerry Cooke, the Vicar for Religious of that Diocese.

Gerry was a much loved spiritual director who was being swamped by many of those who were thinking of leaving religious life and priesthood. He needed community support.

nz tablet Being the Rosminians’ NZ superior for a while, I was at the annual meeting of the bishops and major superiors in 1993. One evening Bishop Len Boyle called me to have a drink with him. This proved to be another “bus” experience – a sea change direction in my life. “I’ve got a proposal for you. I would like you to be the editor of the Tablet.” Never send bishops a copy of a book you have written! I had just sent each a copy of my small biography of our founder, Blessed Antonio Rosmini. Bishop Len used it as bedtime reading, and deduced that I could write!

Given my Rosminan brothers’ unanimous support, I took up this position in Dunedin in 1993. From the first, it was clear that the Tablet

had financial problems, and that I required good PA support. From 1994 Mrs Francie Skelton assisted me.

I knew her as a person I could work well with.

In 1996 Bishop Len decided that the Tablet was no longer financially viable. A national campaign to sustain it had netted $130,000, and a data base of 800 names. We were obliged to return the money collected. The list of donors became the foundation from which Tui Motu developed. And you know the rest, life started anew!

early years From the first, we had a marvellous group of supporters, great technical help from our printers McIndoes (and later Southern Colour Print) as Francie and I struggled to learn how to run an independent Catholic magazine.

Financial support from the Dominicans and the Josephites (among others) was amazing. Because of this we have never lost money. We needed good writers and happily we succeeded in attracting some of the best NZ religious writers.

Our subscribers have given us huge support. For all of this, we are truly grateful.

Asked often what the bishops have to say to some of the ‘outrageous things’ we print, all I can say is that they subscribe; they have never criticized, but have been supportive. In fact, I’m sure that they rejoice that we can say things that they think but can’t say.

Most gratefully Francie, as assistant editor for these 13 years, has always been my most loyal help and keenest critic, a part of my philosophy that you need to hear the ‘other voice’ all the time.

reflections on church Over these 13 years, I have despaired sometimes about what is happening in Rome. They don’t seem to get it.

They don’t seem to listen and are too remote. I think the structure of the Church is too autocratic, and that a lot of the vision of Vatican II has, sadly, been lost. I think longingly of Reg

Delargey’s prophetic “new theology of prayer.” I would largely exempt the NZ bishops from this criticism, because they have done all they can in a difficult situation. However, I think we still live in a clerically dominated Church, and that this is the basis of many of our problems an outrageously sweeping statement but one I stand by. The sexual abuse crisis is a typical example that would never have happened to this degree if the church had not been clerically dominated. And the treatment of women has been ‘scandalous’ as Sister Pauline O’Regan said. You can quote lots of noble exceptions to that, but as a global statement it has a lot of truth.

a new council?

We are desperately, desperately in need of a Vatican III. It would be to reform, as much as anything, the way the Church is run, because it is squandering its huge resources and a wonderful heritage by tight control from the top. The way Auxiliary Bishop Robinson was treated by the Vatican was a disgrace.

my future As for the future, I will play golf though not all day - till the soil, say my prayers and write. Perhaps I will be asked to write a definitive English biography of Antonio Rosmini. That remains to be seen. But I am happy to stay here in New Zealand, in the New Zealand Church. I have no burning desire to return to the panting heart of Rome or the broad acres of Yorkshire.

post word Looking back on my life, I can often see incidents that seem unrelated, or come out of the blue, as signs of God in my life. They shape what eventually becomes of you. Some are bountiful providences, like family. Others at the time are painful, but open doors to something else creative and good.

The “bus” experience of migrating to St Peter’s is one; the painful closing of the NZ Tablet is another. They show God’s goodness in one’s life. n Tui Motu InterIslands 13 May 2010

sexual abuse

why does child sex-abuse happen?

The Church has been devastated by the scandal of paedophile priests. Yet, while child-protection measures are now in place worldwide, questions remain over the causes of the abuse. Here a renowned specialist in the field, Klaus Beier, examines the psychological factors at work

S

tudying human sexuality, it is helpful to examine it from three related view-points: those of sexual attachment, sexual desire and reproduction.

The significance of the attachment dimension of sexuality is widely underestimated. Like all socially organised animals we possess a biological attachment ‘programme’ as part of our evolutionary development.

This means that through intimate communication we can fulfil one of our fundamental psychosocial needs – that for acceptance, closeness, security and warmth. Brain activity imaging procedures show how, in a bonding situation, stress is reduced.

In the company of close friends, those regions in the brain that connect with fear are deactivated, which helps emotional stability. We are ‘made’ to seek these things.

It is of decisive importance for people of all ages, regardless of their cultural background, to meet other people by whom they feel accepted and appreciated. Feeling wanted, just the way we are, is not some sort of schmaltzy romantic desire. The quality of our life and our capacity for contentment depend on it.

Of course, this has reciprocal implications. If we are ‘made’ to bond, then we need to be able to step outside ourselves, showing self-restraint and respect for the other person, if a relationship is to be possible.

14 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

Turning to the aspect of desire in our sexuality, we need to remember that the structure of our sexual preferences is moulded during puberty and thereafter remains unchanged for the rest of our lives. Our desire is focused in terms of the gender of the preferred partner (male, female or both), the stage of physical development of the preferred partner (prepubescent, pubescent, adult), and in terms of the type of interaction, the practice, to which we are inclined.

These ‘paraphilias’ – that is, the objects of our desire – are fixed in adolescence and unchangeable thereafter. In the case of paedophilia, the focus is on the physical stage of development of the preferred partner. The paedophile is sexually responsive either to girls or boys or (more rarely) both sexes, at a prepubescent stage of development.

Hebephiles, meanwhile, respond to a teenage body perception. The sexual orientation is towards juveniles, but – in the case of male juveniles – the condition should not be confused with homosexuality, as the decisive characteristic of hebephilia concerns the stage of development.

We are dealing at this point with biologically located phenomena that cannot be influenced by the individual.

It is a matter of fate rather than choice, as in the case of heterosexuality, homosexuality, fetishism or masochism. Morality concerns action rather than inclination, so moral judgement is inappropriate at this

stage. Acting out a sexual preference that can harm others, however, as is clearly the case when people with a paedophile inclination have sexual contact with children, does indeed call for moral evaluation.

Since acting out sexual impulses in the case of children and adolescents can harm others, the only desirable and feasible way of dealing with these impulses is complete abstinence. It is not the fantasies and sexual impulses per se that are open to reproach, since these are an expression of an unchangeable sexual preference structure that is not consciously chosen. It is the acting out of such impulses on the behavioural level that must at all costs be avoided. In other words, fantasies must not become deeds.

People who have a sexual preference disorder such as paedophilia or hebephilia have been familiar with the fantasies and impulses connected with their disorder since their adolescence.

It is linked to severe inner conflicts and a feeling ‘of being different’ from the others, as well as the fear of being socially ostracised. Homosexuals are also familiar with such fears.

Paedophiles are affected to a much greater degree than homosexuals, as an intimate relationship with the desired partner (a child) in a responsible manner will never be possible, and the person concerned is well aware that they would be socially ostracised if their inclination were to be found out.

However, as we have already seen, human beings are biologically programmed to bonding in order to experience the fundamental need of acceptance, recognition and esteem. Paedophiles and hebephiles are therefore particularly easily destabilised in this respect. They assume that they would no longer be accepted if people knew about their inclinations, and thus they are all the more interested in institutions like religious communities which promise to strengthen bonding forces and give life a meaning.

So far, there is nothing wrong in this. The problem arises when those concerned assume that strong faith and obedience to religious instruction will make their undesirable sexual impulses disappear. Celibacy is so attractive to paedophiles because they want to leave their conflict-laden sexuality behind them and liberate themselves from their sexual impulses.

Unfortunately, that is a fatal fallacy.

The purifying strength of the Gospel can only bear fruit where biological principles do not have to be overruled in order to reach the goal one is striving for. That is the reason why all attempts at ‘reversing’ homosexual orientation have failed until now, even when those affected were highly motivated. They all had to accept that their homosexual orientation remained stable.

not refuse to accept sexual minorities because they have a particular sexual inclination, because such inclinations cannot be evaluated morally. This is the only way that one can count on those whose sexual orientation is a potential danger to others (as with paedophiles) to act responsibly and accept the help that should guarantee the prevention of sexual assaults.

We would not exclude a diabetic or an alcoholic from society merely because they have a chronic problem.

Thus they are able to seek appropriate help in order to prevent ‘secondary failures’, in their case further damage to their health. The same should apply to paedophiles and hebephiles. The sufferers need a professional system that they can fall back on and to which they can turn that consists of specialists in diagnosing and treating sexual preference disorders. These specialists will have the expertise necessary to guarantee the patient’s sexual abstinence. Detailed analysis of their fantasies, identification of dangerous situations and, possibly, the prescription of impulse-curbing medication, are the ways of dealing with the conditions.

What we are dealing with is a built-in biological mechanism. The stability of the sexual preference structure in the case of the majority, those people with an adult heterosexual orientation, guarantees the founding of families, the realisation of a joint wish for reproduction and for jointly raising children. This principle is a part of Creation.

It is at this point that Christianity has something very particular to offer. Christian ethics are principally oriented towards the Gospel witness of God’s love for all humankind as practised in particular by Jesus Christ.

Even if human beings frequently do not live up to Christ’s example and harm others and themselves, God never withdraws his love. Thus they experience appreciation and acceptance even when they fail. This can be regarded as that fulfilment of their fundamental psychosocial needs inherent in the attachment dimension of sexuality referred to earlier.

However, if we are to prevent sexual abuse of children, we need to accept that human sexuality is characterised by a broad spectrum of unalterable types and that people can deviate from the average in their sexual orientation.

We must also insist that society does

The love of God for humanity thus serves as a relationship model which can result in psychological and emotional stability between human beings. The key is not to refuse others the respect and acceptance we all desire.

We must also remember that, in a relationship, we take part in and grow in each other’s development.

The other person must always be protected in this process: detention, force and violation contradict love which can only come about if the other person is respected as a person, and if both partners communicate with one another sexually and accept responsibility for the consequences of their sexuality. Both the correct attitude of people who are not paedophiles to paedophiles (neither condemning nor ostracising them on account of their paedophilia), and the correct attitude of paedophiles to children who, on account of their paedophile sexual preference, are their preferred sexual partners but whom they must protect by abstaining from all actions which could restrict a child’s free development, have their roots in the early Christian and biblical ‘recognition of one another.

Such abstinence is truly Christian, expressive of a love of neighbour, and should therefore be possible for paedophile Christians, which is why preventive measures should be effective as long as the above-mentioned pre­ conditions are fulfilled. Abstinent paedophilia should not be a reason for exclusion from the priesthood, or from any other profession.

To achieve this, however, it is necessary to take individual responsibility for one’s inclinations, and not to take refuge in institutionalised celibacy. It is possible to curb or dispel the sexual dimension of desire, but if it is simply prohibited, it will only flourish the more behind closed doors. n

Professor Klaus M. Beier is head of the Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine at the Berlin Charité Hospital.

Printed permission London Tablet

Tui Motu InterIslands 15 May 2010

Now sleeps the Lord

Now lies the Lord in a most quiet bed.

Stillness profound Sleeps like a balm the wounded body wholly, More still than the hushed night brooding around.

The moon is overhead, Sparkling and small, and somewhere a faint sound Of water dropping in a cistern slowly.

Now lies the Lord in a most quiet bed.

Now rests the Lord in perfect loneliness.

One little grated window has the tomb,

a patch of gloom

Impenetrable, where the moonbeams whiten

and arabesque its wall

with leafy shadows, light as a caress.

The palms that brood above the garden brighten,

but in that quiet room

darkness prevails, deep darkness fills it all.

Now rests the Lord in perfect loneliness.

Now sleeps the Lord secure from human sorrow.

The sorrowing women sometimes fall asleep

wrapped in their hair, which while they slumber yet warm tears will steep because their hearts mourn in them ceaselessly.

Uprising, half-aware, They myrrh and spices and rich balms, put by for their own burials, gather hastily,

dreaming it is that morrow when they the precious body may prepare.

Now sleeps the Lord secure from human sorrow.

16 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

Now sleeps the Lord unhurt by love’s betrayal.

Peter sleeps not, he lies yet on his face and has not stirred since the iron entered in his soul red-hot.

The disciples trembling mourn their disillusion, that he whose word could raise the dead, on whom God had conferred power, as they trusted, to redeem Israel, had been that bitter day put to confusion,

crucified and interred.

Now sleeps the Lord unhurt by love’s betrayal.

Now rests the Lord, crowned with ineffable peace.

Have they not peace tonight who feared him, hated

and hounded to his doom,

the red thirst of their vengeance being sated?

No, they still run about and bite the beard,

confer, nor cease

to tease the contemptuous Pilate, are affeared

still of him tortured, crushed, humiliated,

cold in a blood-stained tomb.

Now rests the Lord crowned with ineffable peace.

Now lies the Lord serene, august, apart, that mortal life his mother gave him ended.

No word save one of Mary more, but gently as a cloud on her perdurable silence has descended.

Hush! In her heart which first felt the faint life stir in her son,

perchance is apprehended even now dimly new mystery, grief less loud clamours, the Resurrection has begun.

Now lies the Lord, serene, august, apart.

Margaret L Woods

Tui Motu InterIslands 17 May 2010

listening to inner music

threshold of the soul If we are to hear the silent music beneath the noisy traffic of our thinking, we need to learn how to leave the mind and focus on the senses. The distractions of modern life prevent us picking up the rhythm of grace Daniel O’Leary

A

t a Metro station in Washington DC a man started to play the violin. It was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that rush hour it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station.

After three minutes, a middle-aged man stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip – tossed in the box by a woman without slowing her stride. A few minutes later someone leaned against the wall to listen, but after looking at his watch began to walk quickly on his way.

The one who paid most attention was a three-year-old boy. His mother hurried him along but the child stopped in front of the violinist. Reluctantly the boy was dragged away, looking back all the time.

During the 45 minutes that the musician played, only six people stopped and stayed for a while. He collected $32.

When he finished playing and silence took over, no one applauded him or showed any sign of recognition.

The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the world’s finest musicians. He had played some of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million.

The event was organised by The Washington Post as part of a social experi­ment about perception, taste and the priorities of people. The inherent questions were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognise talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions to be drawn from this bit of research might be put in another question: if we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing in the course of our 18 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

normal day? Do we forget that our senses are ‘the threshold of our soul’? “Listen, my child,” St Benedict wrote at the beginning of his Rule, “with the ear of your heart.”

Another railway station; another musician; another busy mother and small son. This time in Leeds where a wintry wind was wailing down the empty platform. Linda suddenly realised that Iain had let go of her arm. In panic she retraced her steps. And there he was, hunkered down in rapt attention, listening to a scruffy, broken-down old man playing a lonely mouth organ in the cold rain.

Iain was offering the last 10p of his pocket money to his new hero, oblivious to the man’s appearance. “How lucky he is”, he said to his Mum, his eyes shining, “to be able to play such beautiful music.” Unlike people in Washington, Iain was listening with the ear of his heart.

‘Listen, my child,’ St Benedict wrote at the beginning of his Rule, ‘with the ear of your heart’ Awareness is always about presence. But how often are we present to ourselves and to our environment in a distracted world where electronic multi-tasking rules, even while we’re having a meal with a friend? From both within and without, that inner sacred place is continually invaded.

Without this grace of space there will be no stillness for catching the cadences of the unfinished symphony beneath the surface of what happens.

One Celtic evening, the mythical Fionn Mac Chumhail

and his warriors were having a discussion about the finest sound in the world. His son Oisin extolled the ring of spear on shield in the din of battle. Another went on about the fearful cries of the stags and the baying of the hounds in the rising blood lust just before the kill.

Yet another spoke of the song of his beloved as she played the harp to soothe her hero after a day of blood and gore. The wise warriors nodded their approval.

“And you, Fionn,” they then asked, “what do you say is the finest sound in the world?” The mighty hero paused. “The music of what happens,” he said.

We need to learn how to leave the mind and come to the senses so as to hear the silent music beneath the noisy traffic of our thinking, to catch the divine harmony in everything human. Close to our soul, we are called to become like human tuning forks catching the rhythm of grace.

The funeral memorial card of John Moriarty, the Kerry mystic, carried one of his reflections. “Clear mornings bring the mountains to my doorstep. Calm nights give the rivers their say. Some evenings the wind puts its hand on my shoulders. I stop thinking. I leave what I’m doing and I go the soul’s way.”

Along the soul’s way we find the only places of encounter between our spirit and the Spirit of all life, between our emptiness and the universal flow of energy. It is along the soul’s way that we hear and create the unique music that only we can hear and create. It is here that we come home to the God of harmony already within our hearts. “God is always at home,” Meister Eckhart insisted, “it is we who take a walk.”

If the present moment is the only place we can meet the incarnate God, will we be at home when God comes in disguise to find us? Are we always too distracted, seduced by other transitory attractions, to gaze at and recognise the mother of all beauty – and to hear the music she is always making for us? There is something both funny and lovely about a verse in John Ashbery’s At North Farm: Somewhere someone is travelling furiously towards you, at incredible speed, travelling day and night, through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.

But will he know where to find you, Recognise you when he sees you, Give you the thing he has for you?

It is as though a secret smile, a whispered assurance, a small melody lies hidden, like an impatient epiphany, in everything we encounter in the course of each day. Everything wants to draw us into the harmony of life. Everything is waiting to encourage and support us as we struggle, mostly out of tune, to get the timing right. Our monkey-minds miss the magic and the music of the moment. There’s a Joshua Bell playing somewhere always, in the most unlikely places. But we need to be aware. To stop running. To be here.

In Now I Become Myself, May Sarton writes of the time it takes to be present to one’s true harmony after years of distraction, of panic, of wearing ‘other people’s faces’.

O, in this single hour I live all of myself and do not move.

I, the pursued, who madly ran, stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

Daniel O’Leary, a priest of the Leeds Diocese, is based at Our Lady of Graces Presbytery, Tombridge Crescent, Kinsley, West Yorkshire Printed permission London Tablet

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Tui Motu InterIslands 19 May 2010

trusting priests Cistercian Max Palmer tells the story of Archbishop Mannix and points to one solution to the current church crisis

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o the young man leaving home to start a business in the big smoke, the parting words of his village elder were: “Son, trust everybody you employ, until they let you down.” The young man never forgot these words, and went on to become one of the great trucking magnates of Australia.

The village elder, long since gone to God, would have made a marvellous bishop or superior.

In the heart and soul of every priest and religious there is a great ache for trust, the trust that Christ placed in each of the Apostles; the trust that can only come from the superior, and which all too often is not forthcoming.

Why? Superiors will say you cannot trust some religious, as they will only let you down. But, Christ trusted Judas. Full stop. This was Christ’s way of saying to all ecclesiastical superiors: “Go ahead and trust. Somebody will let you down, but that will not lessen your virtue of trust.”

It takes true greatness, the greatness of Christ, for superiors to trust all their religious, not just a few. The hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church, as it has evolved since Papal Infallibility, does not encourage such trust. The scales are loaded top-heavy on the side of obedience. Superiors and religious who can give and accept trust, are a golden reflection of the divine balance between trust and obedience we find in John 10. 29, “This trust which my Father has committed to me is more precious than all else.” (Knox translation). The Father trusted Jesus; Jesus became obedient to the Father.

Bishops and superiors who trust their priests and religious, receive in return, 20 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

not only obedience, but an overflow of loyalty, love and devotion. Religious can only respond fully to a superior who trusts, and what a response that is, something that lights up the whole world. A classic example of this trust existed in the diocese of Melbourne, Australia, in the first half of the 20th century.

Try this for an astounding scenario – a 99-year-old archbishop, confined to a wheelchair but with mental faculties firing, governing a diocese of 360 priests in 176 parishes with total peace, calm, serenity, equanimity and a devilish sense of humour – “I never studied in Rome, but I try to be a good Catholic!” – Dr Daniel Mannix, born in Charleville, Co.Cork 1864, Archbishop of Melbourne 1917 – 1963. Mannix trusted all his priests, “I give a priest a parish, I trust him to do the best job possible.”

Dr Mannix deemed the canonical visitation of a parish to be in direct conflict with his trust of the parish priests, so he dispensed with canonical visitations, thereby staking a strong claim to being one of the greatest bishops of all time. Mannix was not a dill; whatever reservations he had about some priests were locked firmly ‘in pectore’. His priests were trusted, knew they were trusted, and whole generations of priests were ennobled by his trust. Ironically, Australia also provides an example of the ultimate in mistrust, where a bishop excommunicated a saint, Mary MacKillop!

What can one say to young religious or priests who find themselves in a notrust situation? Accept it willingly; this

will be hard; it will call for a stronger, higher and nobler spirituality than if you were trusted, but it will also result in an extraordinary degree of peace, happiness and tranquillity. On the other hand, if you cannot accept your no-trust situation, then for the good of your soul, go, leave.

The great exodus of priests and religious is a sad fact of life. Sadder still is the dark cloud of paedophilia swirling around us. Has the non-trust of bishops and superiors contributed to these scandals? This is for the experts and professionals to answer. One book by an expert that cannot be praised too highly is Clericalism, The Death of Priesthood by George B. Wilson SJ (Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2008).

My thesis is simple – that priests and religious be shown trust, the trust that Christ gave his Apostles and Mannix his priests, until, as the village elder said, they let you down, if and when.

To punish criminals, we send them to places where trust is non-existent.

Seminaries, before Vatican II, were little better. Incredibly, Dr Mannix spent the first 30 years of his clerical life in such a milieu. He was 50 before he learned from his predecessor, Archbishop Thomas Carr, of mutual trust, the virtue that became the hallmark of his next 50 years. This was a mighty midlife metamorphosis, as Archbishop Eric D’Arcy testified: “They say Dr Mannix was a first class bastard as rector of a seminary. Yet he was the very opposite here. Never say die, never too late to start.”

Without mutual trust, there can be no true community. St Benedict (6th century) trusted all his monks ss

mother’s day

the dignity of women Paul Andrews, SJ

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bout 400 years ago, parts of Europe started to celebrate the fourth Sunday of Lent as Mothering Sunday. In other parts of the world people have chosen other days, and smothered the festival in mawkish cards and gifts. There are deeper issues here than pink roses and butterflies and golden captions of I love you mum. It is a day for all of us, especially husbands and children, to ask how we can best express that love – what changes to make in ourselves that would please the women in our lives? And we in the church could well ask that same question.

The Jews put women in an inferior position. A woman’s religious obligations were on the same level as those of a slave. She did not have to pray the Shema, the morning and evening prayer of men, because like a slave she was not the mistress of her own time – her husband might need his supper when she was praying. Judaism saw women as a source of irresistible temptation for men, and sought to safeguard morality by keeping women as far removed as possible from the public eye.

What Jesus did in face of this was revolutionary. Through the Gospels he picks out women as the bearers of hope.

Think of Mary at Cana, hoping to save a wedding feast from disaster. Or the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, sensing the hope of living water. Or Magdalene weeping at Jesus’ feet, hoping for a love that would last longer than one night. And it was women who were not merely beside the Cross on Calvary, but the chosen witnesses and messengers of the resurrection.

That message was lost in the following centuries, as men shaped the liturgy of the church, and spoke as though all children were ‘sons’, all listeners were ‘brothers’, all worshippers were ‘men’. We are starting to put things

ss in community dialogue. Blessed are those clerics who can accept and give trust. Priests and religious who are trusted and know they are trusted, will not betray that trust. They will not seek refuge in drink, sex, gambling, paedophilia or whatever, as they will not need any such, and can quietly get on with their prayer life. What a bright beacon of light it would be to

right, but we have a long way to go before we regain the attitude of Jesus.

We men are only dimly aware that in spite of what Rex Harrison sang in My Fair Lady, we are not such a marvellous sex after all. As children we are more vulnerable and die easier than the other sex, so we have to be born in greater numbers. Women live longer than us. They are more at home with birth, with suffering and failure. Where father fumes over a bad school report, mother sustains the failer with hope of a future. More women than men are found at deathbeds. In men’s worst moments, alcoholism, redundancy, sickness, we draw hope from the strength of a woman.

We need to make amends. Let me start here. On behalf of the clerics that speak from this altar, all of them male, and on behalf of all the men here present, I should like to say to the other half of the human race, to the women who listen to us: Thank you, my sisters, for being carriers and witnesses of the Good News. Thank you for earning that privilege by your fortitude in carrying us, in bringing us to birth, and rearing us through childhood. Thank you for sustaining us with hope when we have lost it, for sharing and tending our suffering as Mary shared the Cross of her son. Thank you for clinging to the deep values, of patience, and love, and new life, that put into perspective our male vanities, our promotions and productions and liquidations and wars. Thank you for pointing us back to the hope that carries us through aging and sickness and death, to the person of Jesus, who chose you as the first witnesses of his death and resurrection.

Thank you.

A homily preached by Fr Paul on the fourth Sunday of Lent when he was in Gore, New Zealand

us, if Rome would show a little trust in our bishops, and let these good men provide their people with a suitable language for the liturgy in their own countries?

Throughout the Catholic world, seminaries and religious orders now have responsible and competent formation teams who are making great strides with new and viable formation

programmes. God bless their noble work. And if mutual trust, the trust of Christ and Benedict and Mannix, will take it’s place in these programmes, then we can surely look forward in joyful hope to a bright and happy future for the church we all love. n Max Palmer OCSO is a monk at Kopua Abbey, Hawkes Bay Tui Motu InterIslands 21 May 2010

response

in defence of catholic schools Peter McRae writes in response to Professor Ivan Snook (see Tui Motu, February 2010)

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hile I have no doubt about Professor Ivan Snook’s knowledge and sincerity expressed in his article Catholic Schools and Social Justice in the February issue of Tui Motu, I would quite strongly disagree with his gloomy prognosis.

With respect I would recommend Professor Snook actually samples the classrooms of an everyday parish school in an everyday neighbourhood and discovers what actually happens in them. It could be quite a mindchanging experience for him – passing judgement from a double-glazed window in an ivory tower does not do justice to the reality experienced down on the playing fields at parish level.

The reason why “in 1972, the Labour government proposed a scheme which came to be called Conditional Integration” was because a sustained campaign (by the Holy Name Society) convinced the Labour government of the time that, unless full State Aid was forthcoming by a given date, all Catholic schools in New Zealand would close and tens of thousands of pupils attending them would seek enrolment in their nearest State school. And we meant it.

Professor Snook also overlooked mentioning that the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 contains some effective provisions to safeguard the essential ‘special character’ of the integrated school.

For example Professor Snook wrote that “The Catholic school system undertook to submit to a degree of state control particularly in the appointment of principals 22 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

and teachers; in return they were guaranteed their special character.”

That is quite an emotive statement and does not give a correct perspective at all. The Act stipulates that the ‘special character’ qualities of the principal and the majority of the teachers must be a willingness and ability to take part in religious instruction appropriate to that school as a condition of appointment.

And further, each school is guaranteed its own Director of Religious Studies.

On top of that, each school has its own Deed of Agreement (to integrate) detailing not only these special character staffing positions but also the minimum number of teachers who must hold and teach faith and values.

The Professor went on to write that “The church representatives originally agreed that education in their schools would be free as in other state schools”.

The reality is that the need for costrecovery was recognised before the Bill was drafted. Clause 35 of the Act gives the right to charge the same fees as any other school would charge, while Clause 36 specifically allows for the charging of Attendance Dues.

The need for Attendance Dues was recognised early in the negotiations.

It became obvious when the evolving cost of upgrading schools to meet the State Schools Building Code began to be understood. It would have been impossible for school communities to have carried the capital costs; it would have bankrupted every parish with a school, diocese and most teaching orders in the country.

In mentioning Rory Sweetman’s book on the Integration negotiations (A Fair and Just Solution?) the Professor implies Integration as we have it is not fair and just. The response to the question put by the book title has to be that the alternative would have been no Catholic school system at all – unless it was an elitist full-cost-toparents system.

The Professor, in discussing Tomorrow’s Schools, wrote that “choice came to the fore, and schools were encouraged to compete against each other for finance and for pupils”, without mentioning the Preferential Enrolment criteria applicable to our schools.

Under the Act, Parents who have a particular or general philosophical or religious connection with an integrated school shall have Preference of Enrolment at the school. And that means children enrolled will either have a Preference Certificate (usually signed and validated by the parish priest), or will be enrolled as a Non Preference pupil.

And the Non Preference enrolment is limited to just five percent.

It is a matter of record that in the early negotiations we thought our schools under integration would become neighbourhood schools with the right to teach the faith – with open enrolment in fact. The two teacher unions, NZEI and PPTA, objected to that concept in quite strong terms and demanded a percentage be set for non -Catholic enrolment. That is how five percent Non-Preferential Enrolment came about. ss

people who see like god Hannah Hewitt works in the Logos Project: her particular task this year has been to act in support of parish youth ministry in the diocese of Auckland.

One activity she was involved in was a youth camp from the Papatoetoe parish at Waitangi weekend. The activity described here was so successful that Hannah is offering it to readers as something which could be used with other youth groups.

Four of the Logos team were present (Tash Tamiano, Bob Savea, Joe Tupou-Vea and Hannah) leading a group of 30 young people on the camp, pursuing the theme of Prophets as those who SEE God. Hannah asked the group to imagine different scenarios and imagine what God would see in them. They thought about simple situations such as a parent doing the dishes at home; or someone at school that no one wants to play with, and more besides. The group came up with various suggestions of what God might see: beauty, love, forgiveness, being helpful, truth... and so on.

Hannah then challenged them with this question: “If prophets are people who SEE LIKE GOD... and you have just told me how God sees... does this mean that YOU too can be a prophet?”

Most of the young people at first answered NO, although some started to think it might just be a possibility.

ss So – would the Professor mind explaining how, under the Preferential Enrolment criteria, our schools “poach students from the local State schools” and be “ruthless enough to want additional money for doing so”? There is the five percent Non Preference barrier to get over. If there was free choice I would find it very difficult to be critical of non Catholic parents seeking an education for their children in a faith-based schooling system.

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n his article Professor Snook does not seem to be aware that our schools have had Maori and/or Pacific Island enrolment of 40 percent or even 50 percent – it was not that unusual. Many Maori nowadays opt

“Why not?” I said. They looked questioningly at one another. I asked again: “Can you be a prophet?”

This time most of them became excited and called out “Yes!” But from the back of the group I heard a small but determined “NO”. Looking where the voice had emerged from, I saw on of the smallest boys wagging his head at me.

I asked: “Why can’t you be a prophet?”

“Prophets are chosen by God,” he informed me.

I crouched down so that my eyes were on a level with his and said in a low voice to him: “I have a secret for you”.

The room fell silent. “YOU are chosen by God”.

The young man’s face filled with wonder and awe at this possibility. This triggered off a long discussion about each one of us being called to be a prophet. It is then up to us how to answer this call.

for kaupapa Maori schools teaching te reo and that is their right. A change not noted by the Professor was that our schools are teaching an increasing range of ethnically diverse children in their classes – children of parents who do indeed value the faith-based education he criticises.

And to lump our schools into a generalised statement about a plummeting literacy rate in New Zealand without justifying why he has included this statement in his article about Catholic schools is just unfair – to say the least. It’s damning by inference.

I think we should celebrate our schools – particularly the parish

primary schools and their remarkable achievements. The ones I have known have been places of faith and frequent re-evangelisation, inviting young parents, who want the same faith-based schooling they had, for their children to rejoin faith practice as well as turning out well-rounded and educated kids. Long may they continue to do so, in spite of all the negative pressures they experience.

Peter McRae was the first General Manager of the Catholic Education Office in the Hamilton Diocese. He was involved in the lay consultative process for integration prior to it becoming Law

Tui Motu InterIslands 23 May 2010

church

holding onto hope Marilyn Elliston takes a critical look at a church beset by scandals – but offers some hopes for the future of catholicism

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n any age the church reflects the society in which it lives. And that can be both its strength and its weakness. Its strength in that it needs to understand and appreciate the joys and hardships of the real world if it is to touch, encourage, and lead people; its weakness in that it so often follows that society or condemns it, rather than inspiring it forward and beyond.

an oppressive church

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urrently I find the church a more than usually oppressive place to be. The abuse scandals (for which I do not have the words) keep coming, and it will be years into the future, I think, before we can say that any true, honest and humble reconciliation has happened. For many the damage caused will be irreversible.

I have sympathy with the men of integrity who remain within the active priesthood. But the betrayal and the shame are shared by all of us within this universal church and there can be absolutely no room for defensiveness. Nor can there be short-cuts. The responses of popes, curial officials, bishops have overall been seriously less than adequate (Archbishop Martin of Dublin being one outstanding exception). Concern for not ‘scandalising’ the laity treats them as ignorant and as children, and the damage caused to those abused seems little realised – this in a church whose repeated statements on healthy sexuality generally are based on ‘thou shall not’.

The abusers of children or adolescents do not even seem to be seen as distinct from people of a homosexual orientation. Thus Rome’s initial response several years ago to the 24 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

American crisis was to start setting conditions for the acceptance of homosexual men into seminaries.

What planet do they inhabit? Is there no recognition that maturity, both psychological and moral, is necessary, regardless of orientation.

Some dioceses have been bankrupted by claims brought against them; nowhere does there seem to have been any real acknowledgement made of the loss of resources donated by generations of Catholics.

There has been some space given in recent times to oppression of women in the church. I would tend to argue that it is oppressive of both men and women and examples given of one often apply equally to both genders.

One of the many delights of the Gospels for me over many years has been their unanimous recording of the announcement of the Resurrection by women. I have often smiled at the initial reaction they must have received from Peter and the other disciples.

Christ was well-versed in Jewish practice; there can be little doubt that time-wise he knew it would be women who would find him gone.

Another earlier event that reflects his attitude was the washing of his feet

by Mary and the drying of them with her hair. The intimacy of the occasion would create difficulties no doubt for many of those men who would currently claim discipleship. (A few years ago an acting parish priest refused to include women in the washing of feet on Holy Thursday. I felt sorry for his ignorance, but I did tell a fellow parishioner that his willingness to take part under those circumstances disappointed me considerably.)

Rome in many of its public statements preaches women as wives and mothers (nuns are presumably another species!) in a way that does not stipulate the value of men as husbands and fathers.

Of course those roles are important but each of us aspires to a recognition of personhood first and foremost.

Who we are claims precedence and is the ‘I’ that remains, beyond the roles and vocations we take on in life.

Non-inclusive language is a problem for some, and yet I can live with it more resignedly than I can tolerate what I have seen of the ‘new’ translation of the Mass.

signs of the times

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he ordination of women and/ or married men is upheld. I ask whether it answers the right question.

What John XXIII referred to as the “signs of the times” seems to have some relevance here for me. Perhaps God is trying to tell us that it is time for the ministry as we know it to change significantly. Respect for Tradition does not preclude evolutionary movement or growth. The possibilities are many. But we are not listening or trying to discern God’s intention.

Instead we most commonly respond by praying for vocations, and aim to prop up the current system by simply introducing what is likely to result in more of the same. (Other than cultural and sociological factors, I can see no good reason for women not to be ordained, but I do not want to see that happen in the near future.)

The introduction of deacons at this point, which does nothing for the celebration of Eucharist, seems simply to add another possible layer to the problem of clericalism. The question

of what exclusively needs to be entailed in ordained priestly ministry is a key one.

New Zealand universally may be seen to be enlightened, educated, and classless. Yet studies here indicate that women (including those with children and holding employment) still carry out most of the domestic tasks. (There is no domestic gene held only by women!) Pay-rates in many quarters still fall behind those for men, particularly in the ‘caring’ areas that tend to attract primarily female employees.

Women are still evaluated for their looks, clothes and demeanour, requirements in those things being sought by advertisers. The conflict of Eve versus the Madonna lives intrinsically with us still. Children too often are conceived by ‘accident’, mothers then having responsibility with significantly higher numbers of absentee father (male) role models for both sons and daughters. Men too have their issues to work on, but that is their story, not mine.

The fault of the church as an institution is to mirror rather than shine forth in leadership where it counts. Some priests in parishes still often show no respect for their parishioners by insisting on total

control due to their perceived status, delivering ill or unprepared sermons to a captive audience, and not recognising the multiplicity of talents that exist and encouraging their use in the community. Parishes should be less of a comfort zone than a place of challenge.

The fact that in all decisive ways only men run the church in this day and age is appalling. (Which is not to say that if only women had held responsibility a similar situation would not have occurred.) We may be a long way from Rome but its tentacles easily breach the distance.

To the men who reside in Rome I would say, with respect: forget about control, the politics and the power – the Christian life is about service and servanthood. Look again at the documents of Vatican II, stand for honesty, integrity, and witness, concentrate on the important stuff, forget the petty, the trivial, have faith in, and listen to, the members of the church at all levels who share the same Baptismal vocation as you do, be still before Him who is both Lover and Judge.

hope for the future

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well remember, at the time that this country banned nuclear ships, feeling proud to be a New Zealander.

I would like to feel the same way about being a Catholic. When we as a community can take a lead (as against the actions of individuals), when we make credible Christ alive here and now, when we affirm people’s attempts to make moral decisions with the best of intentions rather than condemn, when we take on board the findings of science, psychology, education and the other fields of human knowledge, to marry such with the understanding of Christ in past and present history, when we affirm the conscience of the individual in practice (e.g. remarriage), when we together affirm justice for all, when we uphold the necessity to actively educate adults in their Faith, when responsible collegiality occurs to govern local churches where all members count for something, when charity as a heart that sees is paramount – then we can be seen to be standing for God in this world of ours as a present and positive influence.

Meantime many of us (men and women) can live with God in all his mystery, majesty and humility; the authoritarian and oppressive reality of the current church, founded by Christ, increasingly leaves us bowed down and losing hope.

Ah, but I still have a dream!

n

two gleams of hope

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n the avalanche of bad news afflicting the Catholic Church over recent weeks, it is good to be able to report two Cardinals whose actions have given new heart to their people.

In the United States, the Archdiocese of Boston was the first and possibly the worst example of widespread clerical abuse and failure on the part of the bishops to act appropriately.

In 2002 Cardinal Law was removed from his post and replaced

by Archbishop Sean O’Malley, whose first action was to sell the Archbishop’s residence to pay legal settlements.

O’Malley personally met many victims of abuse. He has worked hard to restore the self-esteem of the clergy and little by little things are being put right.

Meanwhile, during Holy Week in Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schønborn joined a special liturgy of “Lament and Reconciliation” organised by the We Are Church movement,

held in St Stephen’s Cathedral. The motto of the service was “We are furious, God!” Abused victims were invited to share some harrowing stories.

The Cardinal, dressed simply in a black suit, led a litany: “We confess that some of us exploited the trust of children and destroyed it... that some of us are guilty of causing the inner death of others... that we covered up and gave false witness...” In his homily he said that silence was more appropriate – the silence of the friends of Job who gazed upon his suffering. Then he turned to the victims and said: “Thank you for breaking your silence”.

The service was attended by over 3000 people, and none went away unmoved. The Cardinal’s testimony contrasts with the sad lack of adequate response from many other church leaders. Is Austria giving us the heir apparent?

M.H. Tui Motu InterIslands 25 May 2010

scripture

pentecost O

ur theological imaginat­ ions are shaped, and even confined, by beautiful icons and paintings of the Holy Spirit descending upon Mary and the 12. Consequently, Irish artist Nora Kelly’s painting, Pentecost, provokes the liveliest interest in my scripture reflection groups and classes at this time of the year.

you recall a time when you experienced the Spirit as ‘the gentle whisper of a breath, a wind’ or as ‘the wind blowing where it chooses’?

Other images are found mainly in the farewell discourses of John 14-16. The Spirit is presented as a person and given the name of the Paraclete which needs many words to explain its shades of meaning: comforter, counsellor, friend, an advocate which almost has the legal sense of ‘counsel for the defence,’ intercessor, one who stands beside another, a witness (14:15-16).

What do we see? In a crowded room, men clad in prayer shawls along with women and children gaze at the descending Holy Spirit. Our imaginations expand. With new eyes we reread Acts 1-2.

After the ascension of Jesus, the 11 named apostles return to Jerusalem where they “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.” (Acts 1:13-14). An ancient manuscript inserts “children” instead of “women” which begs the question that if children were present then surely wives were too.

Then Peter addresses those gathered described, literally in Greek, as the “crowd of names together was in all about 120” (v.15). This is thought to be the number required for a city to have a legitimate synagogue. Later they pray: “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen…” Matthias is numbered among the 12 (vv. 24-26). On the day of Pentecost when “they were all together in one place” a sound like a great wind blowing is heard. Then “divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them” (2:3).

Later Peter addresses the crowd who heard the Spirit-filled believers speaking (2:14-39). His speech 26 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

suggests that women participated in the Pentecost event for he quotes the prophet, Joel, to interpret what has happened: God will pour out the Spirit “on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy … even upon my slaves, both men and women I will pour out my Spirit” (3:1-5).

The word used throughout the Greek Scriptures for the Spirit is pneuma which is the translation of the Hebrew ruach meaning ‘wind.’ Often it is translated as ‘breath’ and as such is an essential characteristic of life. Thus, the Spirit is an unseen phenomenon known by its effect on others, by what it does and how it feels within.

The Spirit flows through all creation bringing life and love. John tells of the pneuma blowing where it chooses, of its mystery and the power given one born of the pneuma (3:8).

To this point imagery for the Spirit evokes the elements – fire that warms and wind that moves unseen. Can

The Spirit has a special resemblance to Jesus. Jesus is described as “coming into the world”, so too is the Spirit. Jesus is “the truth” (14:6). The Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (14:17).

They relate to disciples in similar ways.

Both abide or remain with them. Both guide and teach. Both are unseen and unknown by the disciples.

The role of the Spirit is to enlighten our minds and hearts to the truth and to that deep inner knowing that accompanies a feeling of peace. What role does the Spirit play in your life?

When has the Spirit descended on you gathered as the Church, the people of God, as happened on the distant yet ever-occurring Pentecost? Which of the gifts of the Spirit do you have special need of at this time: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear/awe of the God? Which of the fruits do you desire to flourish in your life (Galatians 5:2223)? What gifts and fruits does the Church, the people of God stand most in need of at this time? n Kathleen Rushton Kathleen Rushton is a Sister of Mercy and scripture scholar living in Christchurch

reviews

a celebration of gospel values The Necessities of Life Film Review: Paul Sorrell

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oward the end of the film, Kaki, a young Inuit orphan who has never lived in the Far North, asks the protagonist, Tivii, if there is anything to eat in his frozen homeland. “Yes”, he replies enthusiastically, “there are seals, caribou and geese – all the necessities of life”. By the end of this multilingual movie – in French and Inuktitut with English subtitles – we have received a deeper understanding of just what “ce qui’l faut pour vivre” means.

The film opens in Tivii’s homeland, Baffin Island, where the islanders are filing aboard a Canadian government hospital ship for X-rays. The year is 1952, and Canada is in the grip of a tuberculosis epidemic that affected much of North America following the Second World War and was especially devastating for indigenous communities.

Tivii, a proud Inuit hunter and family man, is found to have a shadow on his lung and is taken to a sanatorium in Quebec City for treatment. (Tivii is played with skill and emotional dexterity by Natar Ungalaaq, who took the title role in Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner, the first feature film to be made in Inuktitut.)

At first, unable to speak or understand French, and confronted with all manner of things he has never encountered before – such as trees, grass and tall buildings – Tivii is in a state of shock and bewilderment. Far from home and family, locked in linguistic and cultural isolation and a figure of fun to his fellow patients, he falls into a gradual decline. His despair becomes so great that he flees the hospital despite the appalling winter conditions and, when found and readmitted, refuses to eat.

Things look bleak for Tivii. However, his French-Canadian nurse Carole is determined to break through to him and brings the boy Kaki, a fellow patient, to his bedside. The trio form mutual bonds of friendship, love and care – bonds that grow strong enough to survive the further tragedy that is waiting in the wings.

The religious background of the movie is notable. Tivii and Kaki are cared for by religious Sisters in old-fashioned habits and black-clad priests with hefty crosses worn around their necks. Despite their forbidding appearance, they all radiate a practical care and concern for the sanatorium patients and their families. I found this positive portrayal of the Catholic Church a welcome oasis in the current arid climate. It is wonderfully refreshing to find a film that celebrates – without cliché or sentimentality – the true necessities of life. n

the present is all we need The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle Review: Pen Whitaker

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n The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle does not tell us anything that has not been taught by Jesus, Buddha and other profoundly spiritual people, but he explains simply how each of us can become more enlightened by quietening our ever-chattering brains and becoming aware of the inner Being which we share with all Creation. To do this Tolle suggests that we need to live in the present moment, which is all we have. Life is NOW and always now. There must be a shift of consciousness from mind to Being, from time to presence, where there is a realm of intelligence beyond thought. Here there is an awakening

to all that truly matters – beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace.

Tolle reminds us that Jesus conveys this when he says “Before Abraham I am”.

The dimension of eternity has come into the world which does not mean endless time, but no time. You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only place you can find yourself is NOW. That is the joy of being, of being who you truly are. Past and future are thought forms, mental abstractions.

The past can be remembered NOW, the future when it comes, is the NOW. The only thing that is real, the only thing that ever is, is the NOW. Acknowledge it, honour it.

To quote from Eckhart Tolle’s Stillness Speaks: The Now is as it is, because it cannot

be otherwise. What Buddhists have always known, physicists now confirm: there are no isolated things or events.

Underneath the surface appearance, all things are interconnected, are part of the totality of the cosmos that has brought about the form this moment takes.

When you say ‘yes’ to what is, you become aligned with the power and the intelligence of life itself. Only then can you become an agent for positive change in the world.”

The Power of Now has a question and answer format. The language is simple but it needs time and reflection to ponder the full meaning of the message.

The effort is rewarding.

n

Tui Motu InterIslands 27 May 2010

book reviews

reflections on a parish community in crisis in a book that involves crucial issues relating to the nature and life of the church.

Peter Kennedy: The Man who Threatened Rome One Day Hill Publishers, Australia Price: $A38.50 Review: Fr Vince Hunt

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he title refers to a gifted priest, Fr Peter Kennedy, who became the leader of a community in South Brisbane, and to his conflict with his archbishop who finally declared him out of communion with the Catholic Church. The community members were drawn by what they saw as the openness and hospitality particularly evident in the liturgy; these were combined with an ambitious social outreach.

The great majority followed the priest ‘into exile’.

The book has an unusual format, chosen no doubt to suit the purpose. There are 11 testimonies to the life and liturgy under Fr Kennedy’s leadership, and 22, mainly short, pieces intended to expand reflection on the issue. Despite the title, the primary focus of attention is the community. There is no clear account of the dispute, and no contribution either from the archbishop or from Fr Kennedy.

The strength of the book is to be found in the testimonies, combined with some of the comments on the experience of life together. But the general tone of the book is well represented by two quotations at the beginning; one from a Muslim mystic which says that no one knows anything about God, and one from Albert Einstein insisting that the important thing is not to stop questioning. I suspect that some members of the community would not want to take this combination literally. One cannot live on questioning alone. But there is a remarkable lack of doctrinal reference

28 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

Freeph:

Matters are not helped by the inclusion of the Manifesto of Bishop Spong which, with declarations beginning with “I will no longer debate”, and “I will not listen to”, seem strangely at odds with the spirit of openness and inclusiveness claimed by the community. This reveals a difficulty with any simple approach to inclusiveness.

Yet I suggest that the book has some important things to say to the church. It firmly directs our attention beyond the Sunday morning congregation. The large and diverse community gathered round Fr Kennedy represents an ever-increasing number of spirit­ually lost people seeking a home. These include great numbers of ‘ex-Catholics’, especially young people, in whom the church seems to have lost interest. Yet we cannot simply write them off like bad debts. But it also reminds us that the theological task is much more important and more urgent than is generally recognised.

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One learns that ‘Baptism’ was administered with the form, “We baptise you in the name of the Creator, Sustainer and Liberator of life”; there is no justification given for the change. One writer tells us that the church is a human construct draped on an incredible idea. Fr Kennedy is quoted as saying that he does not believe in heaven or hell, that they are notions that were conceived when people thought that the earth was flat. The only piece of careful theological reflection is that of Neil Ormerod, included to present the opposite case.

The tendency for contributors to the book to consign truths of the faith to the rubbish bin indicates that for them the faith has lost contact with their lives. Serious reflection on the faith is a crucial task for the church and for the individual christian. n

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The community experience appears to be regarded by many as an authentic, if not the authentic, way of being church at this time, without reference to the wider church, to tradition or to doctrinal foundations. In fact, these are sometimes treated with scant respect.

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divine treasure in human hands Grace and Peace: In Celebration of St Paul Kieran Fenn FMS & James B Lyons First Edition Ltd Review: Joy Cowley

S

t Paul’s letters to new Christians follow the classical form, the business at hand sandwiched between greeting and salutation. Often, Paul begins with the Semitic greeting, Grace and Peace and then expands it with references to God and Christ Jesus. This light-filled blessing is the title of a fine reflection book written

by Br Kieran Fenn and Fr James Lyons who take the reader on a journey from the Scripture reading to commentary and then reflection.

The Pauline letters are the oldest books of the New Testament, written when most of the 12 apostles were still alive and the emerging church had that direct physical link to the

risen Jesus. Yet even then there were schisms, arguments, the kind of struggles that we experience today. It is the paradoxical mixture of clay and divine fire in the letters that strongly appeals to us as individuals and Christian community. The tensions in the church are the same now as they were then, and the authors of this book gently bring that home to us not as conflict and division but as a part of a necessary birthing struggle.

Here are excerpts from Earthenware Jars. First a reading from 2 Corinthians 4: “But we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own”.

Then Kieran Fenn writes: “… a Jewish image derived from the rich Wisdom tradition of Israel. Wisdom was the treasure, and the pot or vessel was the frail human instrument that carried it.”

James Lyons follows with a poem: Fragile, imperfect, as cheap as Yet holding power and Bearing grace Wondrously privileged Home to life A cup of water, a jar of wine A shell, a body You, me Divine treasure in human hands Gold in paper bags Flawed yet trusted Ungrateful yet loved Light out of darkness The victory not our own.

An important aid to these reflections is a series of photographs of churches, a cross shown on each. These photos speak eloquently in silence, taking the reader to the place where words leave off. Since the photographer is not acknowledged he is probably one of the authors.

When this book is reprinted, I hope consideration will be given to a different binding so that it will lie open and flat, a guide to prayer. n

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Tui Motu InterIslands 29 May 2010

comment

a pro-life initiative

M

y former neighbour, Bob Urban, died last January aged 91. In July 1986 he and his wife Carmen initiated the establishment of a local branch of the North Shore Hospice in our rapidly-growing area.

Bob concentrated on patient services, Carmen on volunteers. By December there were 28 volunteers and six patients. They held monthly training courses for volunteers who, from the beginning, have been expected to act in a professional manner. They also began fundraising, set up support groups for the bereaved, organised a library, bought equipment for loan to patients, and organized patient day care programmes etc. The focus has been on assisting the family to keep the dying person at home as long as reasonably possible.

Growth was such that after five years Bob was asked to investigate making the movement a charitable trust; a year later Bob became Chairman of the now independent Hibiscus Coast Board of Trustees. Many skilled professionals have volunteered their services as trustees over the years.

We currently have a modern in-patient facility with professional management and staff, scores of volunteers engaged in fundraising and patient support. It is a truly community-based initiative; it not only serves, it educates by serving.

It is a tribute to a couple of visionary, energetic German immigrants who worked to change a cultural attitude that saw death and dying as something to be kept at arms’ length within the health system.

T

can the church survive?

he injuries done to the innocent are terrible. Now a fundamental structural problem is emerging. Media reports of the widespread cover-ups (‘for the greater good’) highlight gross systemic failures. Some small 30 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

earthquakes have recently occurred that seem to presage a swarm that will cause cracks in the structures developed since the Council of Trent 450 years ago. Conflict within the Vatican is now becoming public.

Crosscurrents

cardinal, Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly burst out: “Your eminence, are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?” The cardinal responded ruefully: “Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.”

Jim Elliston

One recently retired Curial Cardinal, Hoyos, has been criticised by Vatican sources – in 2001 he had congratulated a French bishop given a suspended sentence for not reporting a paedophile priest to the police. It now emerges that another, Sodano, had for years defended Maciel, a well-heeled founder of a religious order, against consistent allegations of paedophilia.

Within a few weeks of becoming Pope, Ratzinger justifiably had Maciel removed from office. Further, Viennese Cardinal Schönborn, although very close to Benedict, is calling for a thorough examination of celibacy.

The test of validity of a structure is, is it a help or hindrance in achieving the goal? The Parish system is good, but the requirement that one person (male, female, celibate or married), in addition to being liturgical leader, also be financial manager, legal employer, pastoral planner and overseer, is unfair both to the priest and the parishioners.

This requirement can be changed. I have known many good priests; some were not fitted either by personal aptitude or training for the role of parish priest. That is but one aspect of the structural problems, but is of immediate relevance to the Church’s ‘front line troops’ – the laity.

Worse is yet to come. Will the Church survive? The following anecdote seems apposite: During a frustrating argument with a Roman Catholic

when will they ever learn?

T

he ACT Party is delighted with the ‘Three Strikes’ legislation. Police Commissioner Howard Broad says it will be years before it has a marked effect on crime, and detoxification centres in major cities would be much more practical – something police have been requesting for 30 years.

A Justice Department Survey in 1964, Crime and Punishment, found “experience has shown that the deterrent value of a penalty does not rise in proportion to its severity.

Beyond a certain point sterner measures have little or no effect in reducing crime.”

In his preface to the report, Justice Minister Ralph Hannan quoted US Chief Justice Earl Warren: “It is obvious that the ultimate protection of society can be achieved in only three ways – by the imposition of the death penalty, by confinement for life, or by reformation. In the practical administration of criminal law, more than 95 percent of all convicted offenders are ultimately released. The dictates of logic demand therefore that every resource at our disposal be directed towards the re-education and regeneration of offenders in order that they may eventually assume the responsibility of citizenship.”

I

equal opportunity employer

t is reported from the UK that application forms for aspiring taxi drivers in Portsmouth are available not only in foreign languages, but also in ‘audio, large print or Braille.’ n

voice of the faithful

I

frequently silenced. Morale declined. Significant numbers left the church.

The Lay Congress proceeded seamlessly until the delegates recomm­end­ed change which included the right and duty for laity to express opinions and form associations. They requested full acknowledgement of the ministries and charisms of the laity, more authority to be exercised by laity, and a change to the church’s traditional teaching on contraception.

The reform of the church from the grass-roots, for a growing number of Catholics, is now a top priority. From the basement of St John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley Massachusetts in 2002 came a new network, Voice of the Faithful. It has now grown to 100 affiliates and more than 25,000 members in the USA alone. The initial goals were: to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, to support priests of integrity, and to shape structural change within the Catholic Church. Their national gathering in 2009 attracted hundreds of representatives from throughout the USA.

t was September 1967 and the excitement was palpable.

I was in Rome, part of a New Zealand delegation at one of the largest official gatherings of lay Catholics since the Reformation. Two years after Vatican II the ‘people of God’ had been called to be consulted at the highest level. It was a heady experience. The hope at the heart of Christ’s message was in the very air we breathed. The first Bishops Synod was also meeting and Archbishop McKeefry joined us for lunch.

The Curia immediately reacted. The culture of secrecy prevailed and subsequently cast a shadow over the entire proceedings. Delegation leaders sat through the night passionately debating the issues. The next day there was disillusionment amongst them.

The earlier euphoria in Rome had been a Prague spring – the democratic experiment in Czechoslovakia which was crushed

by Russian tanks in 1968. Now the message was clear. Laity were only to be consulted as long as they re-affirmed the position already held by the Magisterium.

In hindsight we were naive. Even now, nearly 50 years on, most sections of the church have still not realized the unprecedented nature of the changes intrinsic in Vatican II. The old wineskins could never hold the new wine.

In Aotearoa changes have occurred. Some were temporary depending on the theological position and openness of a particular Bishop. Progressive priests and parishes were

In the United States the pattern was similar. The last straw for the laity was the abysmal failure of church leadership over the sexual abuse crisis. The figures are breathtaking: 1950 – 2002, 4392 priests abused children, 10,667 known victims already identified, over $3 billion in payouts – so far.

This is not the only response to the crisis. There are now at least a dozen grassroots organisations seeking to renew the church, some promoting the ordination of women, others focussing on the re-structuring of the church. All have now coalesced under the American Catholic Council. Their kaupapa is founded on the belief that the Catholic Church is at a turning point.

A grassroots revolution that seems unstoppable has emerged.

This is no Prague spring. The laity have found their authority grounded in Vatican II. In July 2011 the coalition will gather in Detroit. They are expecting 5000 delegates and the keynote speaker is Hans Kung. n Robert Consedine Robert Consedine is part of the priesthood of the laity in Christchurch, a Treaty of Waitangi educator, author and writer.

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31 May 2010

postscript

A Mothers Journal...

E

aster holidays and our family is enjoying a week at a Methodist ashram nestled in the Himalayan foothills. After the constant noise of life in Delhi, the stillness and silence here are deeply refreshing. We are sleeping in past 6am. Talking more softly. Listening to bird song.

Holy Thursday this year was celebrated with friends at their small flat in the middle of our bustling slum community in Delhi. One family led the footwashing ceremony, the Mathias family organized and led the Last Supper/Passover meal and the third family organized the ceremony based in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Passover story is one I often shy away from. This year I decide to be brave and tell the whole story to the gathered children, and also to discuss the bits I don’t understand on the way. We followed a guide for a family Christian Passover ritual we found online.

We sat on the roof terrace with flickering candles. Neighbours leaned over their balconies and watched interestedly. I held the plate of solar-oven roasted meat, chappatis, bitter herbs and the haroseth chutney made of ground nuts, cinnamon and apple and explained the meaning of each element as we walked through the Passover story. The story of people of Israel being kept as slaves and captives in Egypt for centuries. The plagues.

Pharoah’s anger. Moses coming up as a leader. And then the perplexing instruction that I find so improbable: an angel of God will come to kill the first born sons of all the households

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whose doorway is not painted with a cross of blood from a sacrificial lamb. (“Why only the sons?” asks gender-pronoun-aware ten-yearold).

The Jews escape and amazingly slip through the parted waters of the Red Sea. The Egyptians are drowned in hot pursuit…

We talk briefly about Jesus and his non-violence stance. The Old and New Testaments. The new way of Jesus… and then move on to the Easter story – suddenly more richly symbolic with the story of redemption and atonement. To be honest we’ve boycotted many of the violent bits of the Old Testament in our family devotions for a while. But my theological tangles aren’t always a problem for the children. We all need to hear The Story into which Jesus arrived. Maybe its okay to tell some of these warlike stories and to admit there are bits we don’t understand fully. God’s nature is still being revealed to us today and maybe we can let the Israelites be parochial with their understanding of God several thousand of years ago. Spirited Exchanges (www.spiritedexchanges.org.uk) use a phrase helpful to me as I ponder how to share my faith with my children – “we let God defend God”. She can probably cope with our small head scratchings.

So we ate the Seder meal. And washed feet. And a warm breeze blew out the flickering candles. The neighbours drifted away.

It wasn’t hard to feign sleep in the Garden of Gethsemane….

Kaaren Mathias Kaaren and Jeph, with their four children live and work in health and community development in North India.

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32 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2010

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