Standing up for Life
Editorial approved by Fr. Stuart Chipolina
When One plus One plus One makes
T Trinity Sunday sparks heartfelt words
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ast month Fr. Stuart Chipolina took to the lecturn and as usual his congregation settled down for another of his quality homilies, and were not disappointed, in fact he spoke passionately about the ‘scandal’ of division and the importance of unity especially in the Church. Unfortunately we don’t have a transcript of Fr. Stuarts homily, nor did he use notes for his inspired words, but this teaching from Mgr. Charles Pope conveys a similar message.
here is an old spiritual song that says, “My God is so high you can’t get over Him. He’s so low you can’t get under Him. He’s so wide you can’t get around Him. You must come in, by and through the Lamb.” It’s not a bad way of saying that God is “other.” He is beyond what human words can describe, beyond what human thoughts can conjure. And on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we do well to remember that we are pondering a mystery that cannot fit in our minds. A mystery, though, is not something wholly unknown. In the Christian tradition, the word “mystery” refers (among other things) to something that is partially revealed, something much more of which remains hidden. Thus, as we ponder the Trinity, consider that although there are some things we can know by revelation, much more is beyond our understanding. Let’s ponder the Trinity by exploring it, seeing how it is exhibited in Scripture, and observing how we, who are made in God’s image, experience it.
The Teaching of the Trinity Explored
Perhaps we do best to begin by
One
quoting the Catechism, which says, The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons: [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] … The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God, whole and entire (Catechism, 253). So there is one God, and each of the three persons of the Trinity possesses the one divine nature fully. The Father is God; He is not one-third of God. Likewise, the Son, Jesus, is God; He is not one-third of God. And the Holy Spirit is God, not merely one-third of God. It is our human experience that if there is only one of something and someone possesses it fully, then there is nothing left for anyone else. Yet, mysteriously, each of the three persons of the Trinity fully possesses the one and only divine nature, while remaining a distinct person. One of the great masterpieces of the Latin Liturgy is the preface for Trinity Sunday. It compactly and clearly sets forth the Christian teaching on the Trinity. The following translation of the Latin is my own: It is truly fitting and just, right and helpful unto salvation that we should always and
everywhere give thanks to you O Holy Lord, Father almighty and eternal God: who, with your only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, one Lord: not in the oneness of a single person, but in a Trinity of one substance. For that which we believe from your revelation concerning your glory, we acknowledge of your Son and the Holy Spirit without difference or distinction. Thus, in the confession of the true and eternal Godhead there is adored a distinctness of persons, a oneness in essence, and an equality in majesty, whom the angels and archangels, the Cherubim also and the Seraphim, do not cease to daily cry out with one voice saying, Holy, Holy, Holy … Wow! A careful and clear masterpiece, but one that baffles the mind. So deep is this mystery that we had to “invent” a paradoxical word to summarize it: triune (or Trinity). Triune literally means, “three-one” (tri + unus) and “Trinity is a conflation of “Triunity,” meaning the “threeoneness” of God. If all this baffles you, good! If you were to say that you fully understood all this, I would have to call you a likely heretic. For the teaching on the Trinity, while not contrary to
Upon this Rock magazine is published monthly by EuropeAxess Media, Gibraltar. Editor: Fr. S. Chipolina: editor@uponthisrock.gi. Production Editor: A. Sargent: angela@europeaxess.com. Upon this Rock magazine is entirely supported by advertising and donations. It is run in liaison with the Catholic Diocese of Gibraltar by EuropeAxess Media Ltd. as a not-for-profit project. For Advertisers: This magazine is handdelivered to homes, churches, hospitals and many businesses around Gibraltar every month. To discuss your advertising requirements, or promote your church group or charity, call Tel: +350 200 79335 email: angela@europeaxess.com. Editorial is selected by EuropeAxess Media in liaison with the Catholic Diocese of Gibraltar. Neither of these parties is responsible for the accuracy of the information contained herein, nor do the views and opinions expressed herein necessarily reflect the views and opinions of either party. Advertisers are not endorsed by virtue of advertising in this magazine. EuropeAxess Media Ltd. reserves the right to refuse space to any submissions or advertisements. Efforts have been made to establish copyright owners of images, but if we have used your material, and have not credited you, please contact us to discuss restoration. The magazine is online at uponthisrock.gi. Cover: Gibraltar Pro Life Movement, ‘Stand up for Life’ Rally. Photo © Grece Torres
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reason per se, does transcend it and it is surely beyond human understanding. And now a final image before we leave our exploration stage. The picture above is from an experiment I remember doing when I was in high school. We took three projectors, each of which projected a circle: one red, one green, and one blue (the three primary colours). At the intersection of the three circles the colour white appeared (see above). Mysteriously, the three primary colours are present in the colour white, but only one shows forth. The analogy is not perfect (no analogy is or it wouldn’t be an analogy) for Father, Son, and Spirit do not “blend” to make God. But the analogy does manifest a mysterious “three-oneness” of
the colour white. Somehow in the one, three are present. (By the way, this experiment only works with light; don’t try it with paint!)
The Teaching of the Trinity Experienced
We who are made in the image and likeness of God ought to experience something of the mystery of the Trinity within us. And sure enough, we do. It is clear that we are all distinct individuals. I am not you; you are not I. Yet it is also true that we are made for communion. We humans cannot exist apart from one another. Obviously we depend on our parents, through whom God made us, but even beyond that we need one another for completion. Despite what the Paul Simon
song says, no man is a rock or an island. There is no such thing as a self-made man. Even the private business owner needs customers, suppliers, shippers, and other middle men. He uses roads he did not build, has electricity supplied to him over lines he did not string, and speaks a language to his customers that he did not create. Further, the product he makes was likely the result of technologies and processes he did not invent. The list could go on and on. We are individual, but we are social. We are one, but we are linked to many. Clearly we do not possess the kind of unity that God does, but the “threeoneness” of God echoes in us. We are one, yet we are many. We have entered into perilous times where our interdependence and communal influence are under-appreciated. That attitude that prevails today is a rather extreme individualism wherein “I can do as I please.” There is a reduced sense at how our individual choices affect the whole of the community, Church or nation. That I am an individual is true, but it is also true that I live in communion with others and must respect that dimension of who I am. I exist not only for me, but for others. And what I do affects others, for good or ill. The attitude that it’s none of my business what others do needs some attention. Privacy and discretion have important places in our life, but so does concern for what others think and do, the choices they make, and the
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effects that such things have on others. A common moral and religious vision is an important thing to cultivate. It is ultimately quite important what others think and do. We should care about fundamental things like respect for life, love, care for the poor, education, marriage, and family. Indeed, marriage and family are fundamental to community, nation, and the Church. I am one, but I am also in communion with others and they with me. Finally, there is a rather remarkable conclusion that some have drawn: the best image of God in us is not a man alone, or a woman alone, but, rather, a man and a woman together in lasting a fruitful relationship we call marriage. For when God said, “Let us make man in our image” (Gn. 1:26), the text goes on to say, “Male and female he created them” (Gn. 1:27). And God says to them, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gn. 1:28). So the image of God (as God sets it forth most perfectly) is the married and fruitful couple. We must be careful to understand that what we humans manifest sexually, God manifests spiritually. For God is neither male nor female in His essence. Thus, we may say, The First Person loves the Second Person and the Second Person loves the First Person. And so real is that love, that it bears fruit in the Third Person. In this way the married couple images God, for the husband and wife love each other and their love bears fruit in their children [1]. So today, as we extol the great mystery of the Trinity, we look not merely outward and upward so as to understand, but also inward to discover that mystery at work in us, who are made in the image and likeness of God. Thanks to Mgr. Charles Pope for this teaching on the Trinity and Unity, Mgr. Charles Pope ministers to a congregation in Washington D.C. You can read this article in full and other inspiring teachings on his blog found via tinyurl.com/ UTR-trinity
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Protecting unborn babies.
“In common with many other people, we are deeply concerned that the proposed change to the law will undermine the right to life protected in our Constitution” Statement
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he Gibraltar Pro Life Movement (GPLM) welcomed the statement issued by representatives of various faith communities in Gibraltar which calls on MPs to reject the proposed abortion Bill. Commenting on the statement, chairperson of GPLM Karenza Morillo said: “We know that the cause of life and the commitment to the protection of the most vulnerable among us – unborn babies – is a cause shared by people of all faiths and none. We are delighted to see this statement issued by our faith leaders and commend them on being proactive on this fundamental issue.” “It is also very clear from the massive numbers that turned out for the Stand Up For Life Rally in
Photo: ©Grace Torres
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Casemates Square last month that there is huge opposition to the abortion Bill being considered by Parliament.” “There is no question that the people of Gibraltar will be looking closely at the actions of MPs when it comes to voting on the question and will exercise their votes in the next election accordingly.” She urged the people of Gibraltar to make their views known to our MPs by visiting www. chooselife.gi and pledging to vote for pro-life candidates in the next election. “This is the most fundamental issue that Parliament will ever vote on. It’s essential that we all make our voices heard”, Ms. Morillo concluded.
Photo: ©GPLM
Gibraltar Pro Life Movement welcomes statement from faith leaders opposing radical abortion Bill
‘Voters Pledge’ gathers pace The GPLM has circulated an invitation to take a ‘Voters Pledge’ online, whereby recipients can pledge only to vote for politicians who
Rosary Around The Rock October 7th 2019 a date for your diary!
Monday 7th October is The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, formerly known as Our Lady of Victory and Feast of the Holy Rosary. This feast
day marks the anniversary of the decisive victory of the combined fleet of the Holy League of 1571 over the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto.
take a stance in favour of defending the right to life and the right to legal protection of the unborn. Although only a day or so had passed since the Pledge was launched, when we went to print over 350 voters had already signed up. Find the pledge at www.chooselife.gi/ pledge
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Bioethics
Yes to Life! Caring for the precious gift of life in its frailty
Last month Pope Francis addressed participants at a conference in the Vatican entitled “Yes to Life! - Caring for the precious gift of life in its frailness” Attendees included members of the Gibraltar Pro Life Movement (GPLM).
The conference was organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and the “Heart in a Drop” Foundation, which works to welcome “children born in conditions of extreme fragility”, who the culture of waste sometimes defines as “incompatible with life”.
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ear cardinals, brothers in the episcopate and priesthood, and dear sisters and brothers.
Good morning and welcome. I greet Cardinal Farrell and thank him for his words
of introduction. I greet the participants in the international conference “Yes to Life! Taking care of the precious gift of life in its frailty”, organised by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and by the Foundation Il Cuore in una Goccia, one of the organisations working in the world every day to welcome children who are extremely frail at birth. These are children that the culture of rejection sometimes describes as being “incompatible with life”. No human being can ever be incompatible with life, either because of their age, their state of health or the quality of their existence.
Every child that presents itself in a woman’s womb is a gift that is about to change a family’s story, that of a father and a mother, of grandparents and of siblings. This child needs to be welcomed, loved and nurtured. Always! When a woman discovers that she is expecting a child, she immediately feels within her a deep sense of mystery. An awareness of a presence grows
within her and pervades her whole being. Now she is not only a woman but also a mother.
From the very beginning, interactive dialogue is established between her and the child. In science this is called cross-talk. It is a real and intense relationship between two human beings. They communicate with each other from the very first moments of conception to encourage mutual adaptation as the child grows and develops. This ability to communicate does not only belong to the woman, but above all it is the child who, as an individual, sends messages to communicate his or her presence and needs to mother. It is in this way that this new human being immediately becomes a son or daughter, and this moves the woman to connect with her child with all her being. Nowadays, from the very first weeks, modern prenatal diagnosis techniques are able to detect the presence of malformations and illness that
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sometimes seriously endanger the life of the child and the serenity of the mother. Even the suspicion of an ailment, and especially the certainty of any disorder, changes the experience of pregnancy and leads women and couples into deep despair. A sense of isolation, helplessness and anxiety about the suffering facing the child and the whole family, all emerge as a silent cry. It is a call for help in the darkness of illness where no one can predict for certain what the outcome will be. Each illness follows its own course and not even doctors can always know how it will evolve in each individual. Yet there is one thing that medicine knows well, and that is that children, from the time they are in the womb, if they have pathological conditions, they are little patients who can often be treated with pharmacological, surgical and emergency care. It is now possible to reduce the terrible gap between diagnoses and therapeutic options. This for years has been one of the reasons for elective abortion and abandonment of care at the birth of many children with serious medical conditions. Foetal therapies, on the one hand and perinatal hospices, on the other, achieve surprising results in terms of clinical care, and they provide essential support to families who embrace the birth of a sick child. These possibilities and information need to be made available to everyone in order to propagate a scientific and pastoral approach of competent assistance. For this reason, it is essential that doctors have a clear understanding not only of the objective of healing, but also of the sacred value of human life, the protection of which remains the ultimate goal of medical practice. The medical profession is a mission, a vocation to life, and it is important that doctors be aware that they themselves are a gift for the families entrusted to them. Doctors can establish a rapport with others and assume responsibility for other people’s lives. They are proactive when dealing with pain, they know how to give reassurance, and they strive to always find
solutions that respect the dignity of every human life. In this sense, perinatal comfort care is an approach to care that humanises medicine. It involves a responsible relationship with the sick child who is accompanied by the staff and his or her family in an integrated care process. They never forsake the child but allow the little one to feel human warmth and love. This is especially necessary, with our current state of scientific knowledge, for children who are destined to die immediately after birth or shortly afterwards. In these cases, the treatment may appear to be an unnecessary use of resources and further suffering for the parents. However, with attentive observation, one can perceive the true purpose of this effort which is aimed at bringing family love to fulfilment. Indeed, it is in taking care of these children that parents are helped to process their mourning and to comprehend it as not only loss, but also as a stage in a journey that has been travelled together. That child will remain in their lives forever. And they will have had the opportunity to love their child. Unfortunately, the dominant culture today does not promote this approach. On a social level, fear and hostility towards disability often lead to the choice of abortion, presenting it as a form of “prevention”. However, the teaching of the Church on this point is clear: human life is sacred and inviolable and the use of prenatal diagnosis for selective purposes must be strongly discouraged. It is an expression of an inhumane eugenic mentality which deprives families of the possibility of welcoming, embracing and loving their weakest children. Abortion is never the answer that women and families seek. Rather, it is a fear of illness and isolation that makes parents hesitant. The practical, human and spiritual difficulties are undeniable, but it is precisely for this reason that more incisive pastoral action is urgent and necessary to support those who have sick children. It is necessary, therefore, to create
Abortion is never the answer that women and families seek.
spaces, places and “networks of love” to which couples can turn, as well as to devote time to assisting these families. Thank you, then, to all of you who are working for this. Thank you, in particular, to you families, mothers and fathers, who have accepted fragile life and who are now supporting
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and helping other families. Your witness of love is a gift to the world. I bless you and keep you in my prayer. And I ask you please to pray for me. Photos courtesy GPLM. Text is an unofficial transcript from the Conference.
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The Challenge of
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lthough everyone acknowledges that the world has changed, it is probably not unfair to say that most people do not appreciate just how profoundly different things are today. We can all give examples of changes in the way things are today but, as Pope Francis commented, it is not so much that we are living in ‘an age of change as a change of the ages’. People’s expectations, outlook and even intellectual formation are very different to what they once were. The church’s initial response to this societal shift came in the form of the Second Vatican Council which itself ushered in a series of reforms within the church. Sometimes these reforms, which were meant as a response to the challenges faced by the church, were seen as in some way causing those challenges and contributing to her decline and so in some quarters there is an understandable, if erroneous, sense that the church needs to go ‘back to the future’, as if simply recovering practices of the past would of itself reverse that decline. instein is supposed to have said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and again expecting different results. One of the big intellectual shifts of the modern age has been the subjectivisation of truth. People will say that what is true for one person is not necessarily true for another. In the church we have always sought to catechise each generation but how do you teach a people for whom the very basis of communication has been undermined? For whom the proposition “Jesus
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is God” may be regarded as simultaneously true for a Christian and untrue for an unbeliever? More efficient and clearer teaching will help the faith of those already committed to Christ but it is unlikely to have much impact on those who do not go to Church. In the Gospels Jesus speaks of the need to catch fish and also of the importance of feeding the sheep. The thing is that as the author of Divine Renovation, Fr James Mallon, says fish do not eat grass and sheep do not eat worms.
Learning from the Early Church
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ust before his ascension Jesus left his final command to his disciples. Known as the Great Commission, he told them to “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all the commands I gave you”. The order was clear: make disciples, baptise and teach. o it was that the early church made a distinction between the proclamation of the Good News that led to faith (kerygma), and the Teaching of the Apostles that came afterwards (didache). In fact, the most important revelation of the content of the faith came after baptism because the unbaptised were considered not yet capable of receiving the fullness of the mysteries. owever, as Christianity became the main religion and cultural force of Europe, the distinction between the proclamation that led to faith and
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the teaching consequent upon it began to be lost. When St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin he couldn’t find a simple equivalent for “make disciples” and so he translated the text as “teach all nations, baptise them, and teach them”. And in a sense that is what we have done ever since. We teach in our sermons, and especially in our schools and as we prepare people to receive the sacraments. In the Gospels Jesus taught adults and blessed children. We have largely reversed that without ever considering that it might be problematic. n many places the church is in retreat as she withdraws from the public realm. Catholic institutions such as schools and hospitals are given over if not to secular authorities certainly to a secular mindset. The enemies of the church are happy to see her confined to the sacristy and woe betide any bishop, priest or lay person who dares to question the secular order. In many ways we have been complicit in that retreat. How much energy have we spent over the last fifty years arguing about liturgy and internal church affairs. It is as if we have raised up a generation of consumers focused in our parishes on their personal likes and dislikes, rather than a generation of disciples fired up to share Christ with their friends and colleagues.
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ope Francis, however, is telling us again and again that we can’t go on like this. He warns parishes not to be only concerned with what goes on within its four walls, not to be ‘self-referential’ as he puts it. He calls on young people to stir things up and do things differently, hagan lio, to use his words. He tells priests that there must be an element of the kerygma in every sermon they preach. And he has put evangelisation at front and centre of the church’s life. There is nothing about this that should surprise us. St. Pope Paul VI had already taught that the “church exists to evangelise”. He called evangelisation her “deepest identity” and his words have been echoed by every pope since then. o evangelise is to proclaim Christ in such a way that people come to a relationship with him. Their lives are changed by that encounter. For some it will lead to baptism and for many it will be marked by a return to the sacrament of confession. Even Catholics who have never missed Mass can make the mistake of thinking that Christian life consists of behaving in a particular way and miss the point that Christian life is to live in a relationship with Jesus. What we do can help strengthen that relationship but can never replace it. St. Paul
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Fr. Stephen Langridge writes
Sampson
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expresses the essence of Christian life eloquently when he says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”. One of the tools that has helped people come to a life changing experience of God’s love, is Alpha and I happily recommend it to you. Alpha awakens faith. It is not catechesis. What happens is that once our faith comes to life, we long to be catechised because we want to learn more about it and to be better able to share it with our friends. It is one of a number of tools used in different places to help reverse decline and bring about the divine renovation that God desires for his church. Fr. Stephen Langridge is a priest of the Diocese of Southwark. He is chairman of the England and Wales Vocations Directors Conference. Fr. Stephen runs the UK’s first dedicated residential centre for nurturing a culture of discipleship and vocations promotion. Since he began this work in 2005 the number of seminarians in Southwark Diocese has more than doubled with 26 men currently accepted by the diocese as students for the priesthood. At a national level he serves as Chairman of the Conference of Diocesan Directors of Vocations and has been instrumental in promoting the Quo Vadis model of discernment group, and the highly acclaimed Invocation festival. He produced ‘The Calling’ a vocations DVD for use in schools and parishes. He has also worked on a number of publications including a collection of ‘Stories of Priestly Vocations’ published by Saint Paul’s, and ‘Transitions’ a contemporary photographic gift book for young adults.
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Chris Pitaluga writes
The Alpha Course is
Brilliant but what is it?
hen Langridge Last month Fr. Step questions… answered a few
…Simply every
week for ten weeks or so, a group of people gets together, shares a meal, watches that week’s episode of the course and then breaks into small groups for a discussion.
What’s great about it?
Everything. First of all, there’s the meal. We are running an Alpha course in St. Joseph’s parish, in the old retreat centre downstairs which, by the way, is an awesome place – it has a big room with tables for groups in the old dormitories area; it has the dining room and kitchen and, of course, the old ‘Cuarto rollos’ which is a lovely, big space for talks, group work and watching the videos. Each Alpha evening begins with a meal. The food on our course has been fantastic (claro, somos llanitos) but that is only half the point. The thing about the meal is that it gives the whole group a chance to chat in an informal way about anything
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– what they got up to the week before, what they are enjoying about the course, just ordinary chit-chat. At Alpha, the meal is essential. Many groups are tempted to cut it back for a variety of reasons: they want to keep the time shorter, or avoid the “hassle” of having to prepare food, or perhaps they like the idea of just getting straight into the material. This misunderstands the whole basis of Alpha. As the course organisers say: Alpha is friends bringing friends. Alpha works for the simple reason that its primary goal is certainly not to teach about faith (or even the faith) but, rather, to enable people of all spiritual persuasions or none to feel that they BELONG. It’s now well-recognised that, as Mass attendance has crashed and younger generations have become disaffected with or disillusioned by ‘the Church’, the old way in which people first behaved in a certain ‘Catholic’ way, then believed and finally belonged to a group or parish or ministry, has had to shift because people today need to feel, primarily, that they BELONG somewhere. We see this in the growth and
success of new age movements and fads like yoga – people today want an experience of belonging first in order to believe which, in turn, ultimately, shapes their behaviours. In a sense, at the beginning of this relationship with Christ and His church, it doesn’t really matter what people believe or indeed how their beliefs shape their behaviours. The first priority must be that they sense that they BELONG somewhere, in a community where they are appreciated for who they are, and where what they can contribute is valued, where they feel at ease and know that they can say what they want, from the heart, as they seek to explore life’s journey. This is absolutely a key point for us in the Church as we try to find ways of evangelising the un-churched or those who have fallen away from faith and from coming to church. The meal at Alpha provides the opportunity for anyone, absolutely anyone, who just wants to come and be part of a wider group. They are welcome whether they want to join in with the conversation or just be there, all levels of input are positively valued and embraced. Alpha is friends bringing friends and making more friends. The second part of each evening, after dinner, is that week’s episode of the course which is between 25 - 30 minutes long and covers a specific topic like “Who is Jesus?” or “Why and how should I pray?” Some people have described
the Alpha topics as “basic” Christianity but that is an incorrect description, particularly for Catholics because for us “basic” Christianity must, for instance, include the Eucharist. To describe it in these terms is to misunderstand the real purpose and importance of Alpha. Alpha doesn’t cover the sacraments, nor any specific Catholic doctrine like the Immaculate Conception. But the
question is: why would it? When St. Paul rode into Corinth or Philippi, he didn’t launch into a course on the sacraments or transubstantiation when talking to people who’d never heard of Jesus before. He started with what we call the kerygma, the first proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ. St. Paul himself said that faith comes from hearing the word. So it’s the proclamation of
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the words of the good news: that Jesus came to save us from our wrong-doing and give us new life, through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead and through the Holy Spirit, that needs to come first for those who have never heard it before. It is from that first proclamation that faith will come. Once faith is established – then we can provide Catholic teaching and formation. This is what Alpha aims to do, make that first proclamation in a way that those who have forgotten about it, or have never heard it (and many lapsed Catholics fall into that second group) can understand, step by step, week by week, what Jesus intended for us, how to come to faith, how to believe and accept that there is a Holy Spirit who is sent to us. Unfortunately, many Catholics who are suspicious of anything that is not related to doctrinal formation and teaching of Catholic doctrine or of something that came out of another Christian denomination (Alpha was first developed continued overleaf
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The
Alpha Course is
Brilliant but what is it?
continued from previous page by Holy Trinity Brompton in London, an Anglican church) disregard Alpha without doing it or understanding its purpose. That’s a real shame because it is an excellent tool for the initial proclamation of the kerygma. It’s in the small groups after the episode that people get the chance to say what they want about the content, in a forum that is completely free of any pressure or any debate. Small Alpha groups are absolutely not about learning the faith or being taught what is the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way. The relationship on the small groups is not leader -> follower or teacher -> pupil but, rather, Host -> Guest. ‘Leaders’ of an Alpha small group are people who just keep the conversation going, allowing people to say what they really believe without fear or pressure. They are not there even to provide answers, let alone teach. The videos do
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the teaching – we are there just to get people to think about it and allow them to express their views. People come to faith because the Holy Spirit speaks to them when He is ready and often that is on the Alpha Holy Spirit Weekend. We are about to have our first Holy Spirit Weekend at St. Joseph’s as this edition was going to press and looking forward to it. The best way to understand Alpha is to do the course. Actually, Alpha is not so much a course or a programme as a process. When someone of no faith, or any faith, comes to Alpha we believe they have embarked on a journey that is a lifelong process of coming to know the God who made us and Who, ultimately, wants us to enter into a relationship with Him. Alpha is all, and only, about relationship.
London’s Mgr. Nizar Semaan becomes Archbishop of Mosul
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Supporting Christians in the Holy Land
New archbishop offers fresh hope
A Catholic priest formerly in London has returned to Iraq to become a bishop ministering to a people recovering from genocide.
Monsignor Nizar Semaan was ordained Archbishop of Mosul in a church still partly blackened by desecration carried out by Daesh (ISIS) extremists determined to destroy all evidence of Christian presence in the Nineveh Plains. The new archbishop, who for 14 years was UK Syriac Catholic chaplain in London, now presides over an ancient Oriental-rite Christian community still coming to terms more than two years after invading Daesh forces were finally defeated.
Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need after the service, the new archbishop said: “I promise to work hand in hand with [the people] for the good of this city and the diocese.” He said: “It is God’s will and I accept it as it is. I will do my best to realise the will of God in my service. That is the only thing I am going to do.” The service took place in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, a building
ACN has helped restore in Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), where most Christian buildings were desecrated by Daesh. Qaraqosh is home to the largest Syriac Catholic community in the Nineveh Plains, part of a region where Christianity is said to date back to the first century AD. About 50 percent of Christian families who fled Nineveh when Daesh invaded in 2014 are now back and 600 people packed into the church for Friday’s (7th June 2019) ceremony. The archbishop, whose diocese spans Kirkuk in the south through to Dohuk in the north and which covers the whole of Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, was ordained bishop by His Beatitude Joseph III Younan, Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch. Iraq is a priority country for Aid to the Church in Need which provided emergency help for Christians fleeing Daesh, enabled their return by repairing houses and is now renewing churches, parish halls and other key community structures. Photos © Aid to the Church in Need Opposite page: Iraq Ordination ceremony – Immaculate
John Pontifex and Xavier Bisits
Conception Church, Qaraqosh (Baghdeda) ArchbishopElect Nizar Semaan’s head is veiled during the service led by Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan of Antioch This page, centre: Iraq Archbishop Nizar Semaan, Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Above: Bishop Carmel Zammit’s Lenten Appeal supports ACN’s work in the Holy Land and world wide where required, photo ©Upon This Rock Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation directly under the Holy See. As a Catholic charity, ACN supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in need through information, prayer, and action. Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope St. John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in 140 countries throughout the world. Undertaking thousands of projects every year, the charity provides emergency support for people experiencing persecution, transport for clergy and lay Church workers, Bibles, media and evangelisation projects and more.
The world is largely silent in the face of Christian persecution. The scale of the problem is so great, silence is no longer acceptable. Persecuted Christians need YOU - and all of us! Together our prayers and actions can make a difference. You can PLEDGE YOUR SOLIDARITY by: • Praying ACN’s Prayer found in leaflets in your local Church, or your own prayers for Persecuted Christians in danger. • Sharing this article and Christian Persecution facts with others so that all understand the need. ACN are now concentrating on rebuilding the churches on the Plains of Nineveh, they become a point of encounter, community and cohesion. These infrastructure reconstruction and long-term projects also offer jobs and opportunities to its people.
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Donation Details:
Bishop Carmel Zammit Lenten Appeal for‘Aid to the Church in Need’, Gibraltar International Bank, Account Name: ‘Trustees RCC/CAN’ Account Number: 00812022, Sort Code: 60-83-14.
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Race to the Top Reflecting on Holiness
A queue of climbers on the Hillary Step of Mount Everest is shown in a May 22, 2019 handout photo. Mark Ballard / THE CANADIAN PRESS
C
reated around 70 million, yes, 70 million years ago, earths tallest mountain, Mount Everest rears snow capped and formidable 8, 848 meters (26,247 ft) above sea level on the borders between Tibet and Nepal in Asia. Everest stood alone and mighty through the ages and man stood in its shadow in humble awe until history was written on May 29th, 1953 when sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay scaled its snowy heights. They became the first confirmed humans to stand atop of the
world in what was the 9th expedition as all others had been doomed to failure. It has since become the jewel in the crown for climbers, bestowing on those who are successful the ultimate mountaineering accolade. They will have braved below freezing temperatures, frostbite, altitude sickness, exhaustion,
risking their lives and others in their choice to show off, face a perceived challenge, push physical and mental limits, and then what? The thrill of conquest is fleeting. For a few it ends in needless death, and at the time of writing (Pentecost Sunday) statistics show that 288 souls have lost their lives since 1922. To my mind, every single one is reasonless. Is it really worth dying for? Climbing, to attain the highest point on mountains is a discipline of determination and problem solving, with challenges of fitness, inclement weather and adverse conditions which can and do cause great discomfort
and fear, but perhaps above all, it is a discipline of perseverance. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect�. (Mt. 5:48). This is no easy task and it was not meant to be. We are called to strive to emulate Christ, not just toss out words that say the right thing. No. The Everest of perfection rears mightily in all our lives even as we know we cannot be perfect, yet we must aspire to reach that summit. What a conundrum! The discipline we need is Grace and a willingness to try. There are many mountains to conquer but I would suggest the highest is the one of Pride. (I am using this as the example for the rest of this piece). The arrogance, hubris, me, myself and I! One of the seven deadly sins first committed in the Garden of Eden! You can very quickly determine for yourself if pride is a mountain to climb in the search for perfection. Of course there is good pride which lets us set standards and values in order for our own good, and bad pride which lets us put others down by measuring them (unfairly) against our own standards. We forget we are all created in the image of God. Striving for perfection can seem like being in an extreme environment and pride is stubborn. We think we can do
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Please write to: The Chairman, Christian Mission Trust, 4 South Pavilion Road, Gibraltar. 14
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Anne Mesilio writes
it alone. To climb Everest one has to factor in cost, training, equipment, finance, gear, flights, accommodation, all this adds up and the emotional cost of leaving families behind to wait and pray is surely a huge one. Is it worth dying for? Not everyone will, thankfully, but too many good lives have ended on that mountain. It is dangerous and crowded atop of the world. There is a recent breath taking and yet spectacular photo taken in what has become known as the “death zone”, the 8,000 meter mark with the summit in sight. No amount of training prepares for
this where oxygen is limited. Climbers cannot spend more than 48 hours here as O2 levels are 1/3 sea level values and the body uses up O2 faster than breathing can replace it. These are lung crushing conditions in which a long queue of climbers waiting their turn to reach the top of the world are in grave danger and the recent number of deaths, eleven, almost all of whom spent time in the “death zone” is a sobering fact indeed. Thankfully in our striving after perfection in Gibraltar we are not called to enter any death zone and Gods grace is more than enough to sustain us on our
never ending quest. I wonder if the word perfection is a mountain in itself which leaves us shaken and unsure of how to proceed. Help is at hand; www. catholicsstrivingforholiness.org “We wish to help and accompany you in your spiritual growth not only with our posts but also with our prayers, as we all respond to and strive to fulfil daily God’s call towards holiness”. Ah, surely holiness is a much friendlier word and one we can relate to. “Holiness means following Jesus Christ, imitating Him in thoughts, feelings, words and deeds. It means loving God and neighbour, with a love that gives rise to other virtues, such as humility, justice, integrity, and solidarity. Holiness is attained only with God’s assistance and our constant striving. The teaching that everyone is called to holiness was at the heart of the Second Vatican Council, which was enormously influential in shaping the Catholic Church’s understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ in the modern world”.1 God is holy in every way, in love and justice, compassion and mercy. It is the essence
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of his character. We can only strive, with his Grace to emulate his ways. Regardless of the progress we make to become more holy in this life, we will never be perfect. We will still sin at times, as Paul wrote in Romans 7:1819, “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out”. So, we do not have to race to the top, just keep striving! 1. www.opusdei.org/en-uk/ article/what-is-holiness
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