The Record Newspaper - 12 January 2006

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Perth Antioch rises Young Perth Catholics begin to re-establish movement ■ By Jamie O’Brien

Parents: lead your children to the truth

After years of relative decline, Antioch Western Australia is in the process of being revived.

Antioch leader Robert Rullo, from St Brigid’s Parish Midland, said the youth movement is looking at getting an organisational comittee together to assist with the recruiting of more members.

The movement aims to help young men and women aged 15 to 25 develop a love for Christ and the Church, to provide youth with an experience of a Catholic Community, and support of Catholic role models.

“Youth involved with Antioch are also encouraged to find a place to share their faith in God and Christ,” Mr Rullo said.

“It is the perfect spiritual program that offers youth an ongoing opportunity to listen, discuss and better understand what it means to be Catholic today,” he said.

The movement is also very keen on supporting parishes through music ministry.

Antioch first started amongst University students in the 1960’s and 70’s and in 1973, was adapted for parishes in the USA. It wasn’t until September 1981 that Antioch was first introduced to Australia by Bryon, Teresa and Claire Pirola in Maroubra Bay, New South Wales, with just 24 youth.

Pope baptises 10 infants

■ By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Continuing one of his predecessor’s favourite traditions, Pope Benedict XVI baptised 10 babies and urged their parents to lead them along the path of truth.

In an extemporaneous sermon during a January 8 Mass, the Pope said baptism today carries with it the responsibility to fight against “the largely dominant culture of death” - a culture, he said, that is marked by injustice, selfdelusion and sexual irresponsibility.

The hour-and-a-half-long Mass in the Sistine Chapel was enlivened by the frequent cries of the infants chosen for the papal liturgy.

Beneath Michelangelo’s famous frescoes of the creation, mothers used pacifiers and rhythmic rocking to try to keep their babies quiet.

The Pope, standing next to a large marble font, poured water from a golden dipper over the head of each baby as he pronounced the words of baptism. The five girls and five boys were children or grandchildren of Vatican employees. Afterward, the pontiff smiled in delight as brothers and sisters of the newly baptised brought him the offertory gifts.

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Victorians look at schools in wake of Record report Record’s schools report listed by website as a top story for 2005 The director of Victoria’s Catholic Education Office, Susan Pascoe, has revealed that two research studies are being undertaken to explore the effectiveness of Catholic school education today.

The revelation follows nationwide interest in the findings of Dr Luke Saker of Edith Cowan University whose research, revealed in The

Record before Christmas, highlighted a widespread lack of understanding of the Catholic faith among students in Catholic schools.

Dr Saker found that “almost all students who graduate from Catholic education regard the Church as irrelevant.”

Melbourne’s The Age newspaper this week reported the findings from The Record, and quoted the Victorian CEO chief speaking about the two research projects being examined in her state. One

NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE Spielberg has made a provocative movie about moral qualms suffered by an Israeli agent sent to assassinate those responsible for the Munich Olympics massacre.

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research project is examining “the value added by a Catholic education that addresses that very question: what difference does it make to be in a Catholic school?”

The second project, being conducted jointly with the Catholic university at Leuven in Belgium, “examined how Catholic the church’s schools actually were,” Dr Pascoe said.

Meanwhile a discussion of religious education objectives published on a Catholic university

website suggests religious education should be regarded as different from the teaching of knowledge in other areas.

A discussion page website of the Cardinal Clancy Centre for Research in the Spiritual, Moral, Religious and Pastoral Dimensions of Education argues that religious education teachers cannot have the same confidence that their teaching will bring about changes in the beliefs and values of students “in the same way that they can have

INDEX Letters The Family is the Future The World Reviews Classifieds, Panorama

confidence that particular teaching interventions will have an influence on knowledge and understanding,” the website says. “One way of avoiding this problem is to acknowledge that outcomes in (the religious education) area are of a very different order - to call them ‘hopes’ rather than outcomes; or even to call them ‘long-term outcomes’.”

The Record’s special report on Dr Saker’s research was also listed as one of its top stories for 2005 by the daily CathNews website.

PROJEKT BENEDIKT - Page 6 - Vista 4 - Pages 8-9 - Page 10

How an unassuming Pope tore up the media’s agenda at World Youth Day in Cologne makes for one of the top stories about the Church in 2005.

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Vista 1

January 12 2006, The Record

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Laotion gov’t stops Oblate ordination ■ By Jamie O’Brien

J

ust days before his planned ordination to the priesthood last month, the Laotian government withdrew permission for Deacon Somphone Vilavongsy, an Oblate, for the ceremony to take place.

Deacon Vilavongsy had lived and studied in Melbourne for several years in preparation for pastoral work as a priest in his native country.

He had made his perpetual vows as an Oblate and been ordained as a Deacon last year; the ordina-

Stopped: Deacon Vilavongsy

tion is now indefinitely postponed.

According to email communications Deacon Somphone was understood to be disappointed but bearing up well after having come

so close to his life’s calling. Deacon Somphone’s story about how he would be returning to Laos for ordination carrying an Oblate cross inherited from a former French member of the Oblate congregation who had lived and ministered in Laos, appeared in The Record of October 13 2005.

The 32-year-old was scheduled to become the first Laotian to be ordained to the priesthood in 30 years.

“Soldiers are monitoring the church to make sure that the [government] order is enforced,” said Bishop Jean Khamsé Vithavong, apostolic vicar of Vientiane, the last and only Laotian Oblate priest, who had been ordained in January, 1975.

“Now we’ll have to wait and see how

Antioch announces revival Continued from page 1

Within the first three months of Antioch starting, word spread fast to other states and territories through interstate missions and training weekends.

Mary McKillop Ballajura Parish Priest Fr John Jegorow, who was involved in bringing Antioch to Western Australia in March 1982 with just two youth, remembers it spreading to nearly 70 youth after three months.

Fr Jegorow says that’s all it needs to be revived is two young people and an enthusiastic married couple, who are convinced and comfortable in their faith and willing to listen to young people.

“Kids are at a particular stage of their faith that is very much a follow-the-leader attitude, so those two initial leaders need to be natural leaders that others look up to,” Fr Jegrow said.

By the mid 1980’s it was overwhelmingly popular, with 95 per cent of Antioch members being Catholic and 15 per cent from nonCatholic schools.

By 1988 a total of 194 Antioch communities existed in the Perth diocese, with youth involved in preparing liturgies, visiting nursing homes and assisting with after-school

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PETER ROSENGREN Letters to: cathrec@iinet.net.au JAMIE O'BRIEN (Parish/State) jamieob@therecord.com.au

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Instead of pronouncing his prepared text, the Pope stood and gave an impromptu sermon on the meaning of baptism. In the broad sense, he said, the sacrament is a “yes” to life and a “no” to the widespread culture of death.

“This anti-culture is seen in drugs, in flight from reality, in self-delusion, in false happiness that is manifested in lies, deceit and injustice.

“It is seen in contempt for others, contempt for solidarity and contempt for a sense of responsibility for the poor and the suffering,” he said.

“It is demonstrated in a sexuality that becomes pure amusement without responsibility, that turns the human being into a ‘thing’ instead of a person,” he said.

The Pope said the “yes” to life expressed in baptism was fully experienced by early Christians, including those in ancient Rome, who fought against a similar “anticulture of death” in their pagan society.

“It involved a ‘no’ to the spectacles where death, cruelty and violence were enter-

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country of 6 million people wedged between China in the north, Cambodia in the south, Vietnam in the east and Thailand in the west.

Prior to the Communists taking over in 1975, a small but vibrant Christian community had developed under the care of the Oblates, with some villages becoming almost entirely Catholic.

During the war with the Communists, seven Oblates were killed and, with the Communist victory, the remaining members were expelled.

One Laotian Oblate remained, Fr Jean Khamse Vithavong OMI, who is now bishop of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. He administers Church affairs with only one elderly priest to help him.

Pope urges parents to lead

catechism classes. At present, Antioch is present in the Perth diocese in the parishes of Midland, Innaloo and Whitfords, and is focused, said Mr Rullo, on bringing in youth who are far away from the Church in a fun, musical way.

“It’s a great way to meet people, and keep out of trouble and it opens up a new avenue in the life of a young person,” Mr Rullo said.

Mr Rullo, who himself has been involved with Antioch for the past five years, said a year in the life of an Antioch youth can include numerous activities, such as retreat weekends, mid-week Masses, renewal programs, and team meetings.

The group is also known to foster vocations to the priesthood, married, or religious life.

Antioch is having its annual Battle of the Bands on Sunday January 22 at the Cathedral Parish Centre from 6pm.

The event will showcase young Christian bands and is looking for bands to register.

“It is a great opportunity for youth to reunite with friends after the holidays and release stress in a fun environment,” Mr Rullo said.

Interested persons can contact Derek on 042 893 2072 or email bob@antioch.org.au

The Record

the situation will develop.” Laotian authorities did not explain why they withdrew the go-ahead for the ceremony.

However relations between the Church and Communist states have been difficult and have come against a background of widespread persecution and repression of Catholics, especially in Vietnam and Laos, over several decades.

The earlier Laotian permission had come with strict conditions: the ceremony could not take place in the future priest’s home village, and the number of attendees participating had to be small.

Individuals from Australia including fellow Oblates had flown to Laos to be present.

Laos is a predominately Buddhist

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tainment. Think of what was done in the Colosseum, or here in Nero’s gardens, where men were set on fire like living torches,” he said.

The Pope’s reference was to accounts of Christians being burned alive to light the evening parties thrown by the Emperor Nero in his gardens on Vatican Hill.

With baptism, the Pope said, the child is brought into “a company of friends that will never abandon him, in life or death.”

“This company is the family of God that carries within itself the promise of eternity.

It is a company that will always follow him, even in the days of suffering and the dark valleys of life, and offers him consolation, comfort and light,” he said.

The Pope added that, while “none of us know what will happen to our planet or our Europe in the next 50 or 60 years,” as Christians they could all be sure that they belong to the family of God. The Mass was the resumption of an annual tradition begun by Pope John Paul II in 1980 to mark the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

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January 12 2006, The Record

Page 3

‘Voice of Vatican’ heading to Sydney Archbishop Foley to launch pastoral letter in Oz

O

ne of the best-known Catholic voices in the English-speaking world, that of American Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications at the Vatican, will be heard in Australia next month.

Archbishop Foley, who provided TV commentary at the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II and has hosted many live televised Masses from the Vatican, will speak at a series of events in Sydney on February 16-17 to mark the launch of Go Tell Everyone, an Australian bishops’ pastoral letter on the Church and the media.

Archbishop Foley has been in the vanguard of the worldwide Church’s efforts in recent decades

Archbishop John Foley

to develop a better use of, and relationship, with the media. During the Australian bishops’ last ad limina visit to Rome, the American Archbishop suggested to the visiting Australians that a local teach-

ing document on the media would be a useful guide for the Church in Australia. Go Tell Everyone has flowed from that encounter.

A former editor of the Philadelphia Catholic Standard and Times newspaper, Archbishop Foley has argued in favour of Catholic schools undertaking media education courses “so that children and young people could be formed to be intelligent consumers of the media and not just passive couch potatoes.”

The media must be taken seriously as a force in modern life, he said, as they are “almost as present to us as the air we breathe, and sometimes they are even more polluted.”

Archbishop Foley is a strong supporter of the late Pope John Paul II’s ideas on the media. The late Pope argued that today’s media has become “the principal means of guidance and inspiration for many

people in their personal, familial and social behaviour.”

Speaking last year in Rome at a meeting organised by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, Archbishop Foley highlighted the importance to the Church’s mission of “new media” such as the internet.

Comparing the challenge of new media with St Paul’s visit to Athens in the Acts of the Apostles, the Archbishop called the internet “the areopagus of our time.”

“The Church, as transmitter of the Revelation of God, has the task to communicate the Word and must encourage the use of Internet for the common good, the development of peace and justice, in respect of personal dignity and with a spirit of solidarity,” he said.

Archbishop Foley told the Rome meeting said that the new media must be viewed as a “new path to God,” reminding us of the need “to take the Word of God everywhere,

to reach also those who live in solitude and who perhaps would never open the door to their home.”

Archbishop Foley has also been outspoken about the the morality of advertising, urging the advertising industry in 2003 never to put poor people down,”even subconsciously,” through ads.

“Emphasise quality, emphasise efficiency, emphasise even better grooming and cleanliness and good appearance - but please do not suggest that a possession is going to make one person better than another person,” he told a World Federation of Advertisers conference.

As well as launching the Australian pastoral letter, Archbishop Foley will use his time in Sydney to celebrate Mass at the tomb of Blessed Mary McKillop and hold a meeting with young people. He will also host a luncheon for media representatives.

In Brief Couple with 17 children say love conquers fear A Ukrainian-American family that welcomed its 17th child on December 7 may be the largest in the USA, says the Russian language paper, The Speaker. Vladimir and Zynaida Chernenko emigrated from Ukraine seven years ago and settled in California. The Christian couple admit that the work and financial difficulties of raising their large family can be daunting. But they overcome fear with “love and a big heart”, says Vladimir, a security and maintenance worker for a charter school.

The Chernenko’s eldest child is now 22, and the older ones share responsibility for the younger ones. Says 18-year-old Dimitry, “I talk to my friends and they are worried their family has only one child or two. They go home to nothing. I come home from school and I’m never bored. You always have something to do.” The parents plan it that way. “Our goal is to raise the children so when they grow up they will not be afraid of anything in life,” Zynaida says. “I think if every family approaches it that way, we will have a very healthy society.”

- FamilyEdge e-magazine

Who wants to be a millionaire? Generation Y does Young people are materially ambitious and have little idea that their dreams may not be realised, according to marketing research in Australia.

Catherine Heath of ad agency George Patterson Y&R interviewed people born between 1978 and 1994. The universal theme among “Generation Y” was money and a desire to make a lot of it.

All expressed their intention to run a business and anything less than being a millionaire was not good enough. Some interviewees as young as 15 were already making 10-year plans and working out the best credit card deals and loans. They showed little or no fear of taking out a large loan to finance their dreams, said Heath. Their heroes are from the business world and they are avid consumers of celebrity gossip found in weekly magazines. Other recent research showed 94 per cent of Gen Y were optimistic about the future. Yet another study says they do not expect to do menial work. Says Bram Williams of Euro RSCG: “They know the population is ageing. They know they’re needed in the workforce. They know that traditional structures are being flattened. They know they have choices…” Heath adds, “They see themselves as a brand.

I have loyalty only to myself.”

A 25-year-old marketing consultant traces this “unrealistic expectation of life” to baby-boomer parents who indulge their offspring, allow them to continue living at home well into their 20s, and in some cases buy them expensive cars and pay their insurance.

- FamilyEdge e-magazine

Vatican secret archives not so secret The Vatican Secret Archives may now be visited on the Internet. After selecting the language on the Holy See’s site (http://www.vatican.va/), a click on the Focus section of the home page offers a virtual walk through the archives’ age-old halls amid frescoes and documents.

One may (virtually) page through documents such as the 14th-century Parchment of Chinon, which records the absolution of Pope Clement V of the leading members of the Templar Order. Also accessible are the proceedings of the trial against Galileo Galilei.

Among other treasures, the Vatican Secret Archives include key documents concerning the history of single nations.

“Moreover, for some countries, the Vatican documents are the oldest ones, which even mark the beginning of their own national history,” explains the Web page. The archives include about 85 linear kilometers (52 miles) of shelves. The oldest document dates to the eighth century, while the archives have an almost uninterrupted documentation starting from 1198. The archives are primarily used by the Pope and the Roman Curia. In 1881, by decision of Pope Leo XIII, part of the archives was opened to be consulted by scholars, “thus becoming the most important - ZENIT centre of historical research in the world.”

Gov’t aims at saving marriages Relationship centre documents signal divorce law change he objective of saving marT riages, rather than making divorce easier, has been inserted into operating instructions for the Federal Government’s new Family Relationship Centres, according to information printed by a Sydney newspaper this week.

The change signals a cultural shift within Australia’s family law system, which has been based on the principle of no-fault divorce since the introduction of the Family Law Act devised by the late Senator and High Court Judge Lionel Murphy in 1975.

According to changes flagged by the Federal Government for more than a year, 65 Relationship Centres are to begin operating around Australia this year. The Centres are to provide three hours of compulsory counselling for couples contemplating divorce, before they proceed to court.

Pre-tender documents for the Centres, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald, show that staff will be under specific instruction “not to assume that clients with relationship difficulties or going through separation will inevitably separate.”

The documents say that if staff members at a Relationship Centre believe that parents considering

1 in 3 first marriages and 46% of all marriages end in divorce.

separation “can resolve their difficulties and stay together, they should refer the parents to services that will help them to do so.”

Critics of the family law system have argued for years that Australia’s post-1975 divorce court system has done little or nothing to guide people towards resolving their difficulties while staying married, instead facilitating divorce on the presumption that irreversible marital breakdown has already occurred.

This is despite the fact that officially, counselling and mediation

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have been part of the family system since 1975.

In a widely-read attack on the court system published by LaTrobe university historian Dr John Hirst last year, the family court was accused of doing too little to force some marriages to remain intact.

The problem with the Court is “not that it is too much the social engineer, but that it does not want to engineer enough,” wrote Dr Hirst in an edition of Quarterly Essay titled Kangaroo Court: Family Law in Australia.

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January 12 2006, The Record

Page 4

Lobby hones in on importance of Dad A new strategy is being offered to combat the effects of fatherlessness in the nation’s life ■ By Mark Reidy

W

hen an Aboriginal Elder stood up during a meeting in Canberra in 1998 and spoke the words, “What Australia needs more than anything else is fathers – both natural and spiritual”, a seed was planted in the hearts of Warwick and Alison Marsh.

The couple had spent a number of years travelling around Australia providing spiritual, emotional and physical support to struggling families and had regularly come face to face with the traumas associated with divorce, violence, drugs, suicide, pornography, abortion and a myriad of other social problems.

The words that they heard while attending the National Prayer Breakfast at Parliament House resonated deeply and became the stimulus for the eventual establishment of the Fatherhood Foundation in May 2002.

They also confirmed their experiences with struggling families.

Further research indicated that the role of fathers, which had been considered secondary to mothers throughout much of the 20th century, was being further exacerbated by the increasing rate of divorce and of children born outside of marriage.

At the beginning of the 21st century an unprecedented number of children are growing up in fatherabsent homes.

This vacuum of effective men in the lives of many children initiated the vision of the Fatherhood

Foundation to inspire men to a greater level of excellence.

Its goal became one of encouraging fathers to be more committed, involved, responsible, loving and connected to their children.

In the newly-published strategy

document, Fathers in Families, the Foundation has compiled a worldwide selection of research that reflects the personal, family and social ramifications of family breakdown and absent fathers.

These studies consistently indicate that there is a direct correlation between fatherlessness and increases in problems such as poverty, crime, drug abuse; sexual, physical and mental health problems; physical and sexual child abuse, as well as the lowering of educational performance - all at an estimated cost to Australia of $13 billion dollars a year.

The Foundation hopes to be a driving force in the process of cultural change to gradually permeate Australian society.

In February 2003 it organised the National Fatherhood Forum at Parliament House in Canberra which gathered together delegates from a broad range of men’s groups, including representatives from the political, education, law, health, charity and media fields.

The Forum was united by the belief that fatherlessness and family breakdown were major social problems in Australia.

With the goal of supporting and strengthening fathers, they established a Twelve Point Plan.

The Plan divided issues into three key areas where policy change is required; (1) Government, (2) Education and Training and (3) Health and Well-being. However the plan is not regarded as a final document, but the first of many proposals to promote discussion and contribute to a coordinated

national solution to turn the tide of fatherlessness. The Forum was followed by the National Strategic Conference on Fatherhood, also in Canberra, in August 2003, which was attended by number of prominent politicians, including former Labor leader Mark Latham and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson. This Conference recommended 14 strategies to promote and develop the roles of fathers, politically, socially and personally.

The Fatherhood Foundation also produces annual public service TV advertisements promoting the importance of fatherhood and has received wide airplay on the majority of national television stations.

It also provides weekly inspirational quotes via an email service to a rapidly increasing number of men, as well as organising seminars for married and single fathers.

More to come Over the next few weeks The Record will be publishing the National Fatherhood Forum’s Twelve Point Plan, the National Strategic Conference on Fatherhood’s 14 strategies and the research compiled by the Fatherhood Foundation. All this information can be found in the Foundation’s booklet, Fathers in Families.

Anyone wanting a copy of this booklet can contact The Record office on (08) 9227 7080. Cost $5. For further information on the Fatherhood Foundation phone (02) 4272 6677 or go to www.fathersonline.org

Adult faith education full of rewards ■ By Jamie O’Brien

he Director of the Maranatha T Institute has concluded his appointment to take a one-year Sabbatical to further his studies.

Fr Vincent Glynn has been teaching at the Maranatha Institute since 1993, and has served the past five years as Director.

Under his direction, the Marantha Institute commenced the parishhome based theology program and the Café program.

“It is important the Archdiocese offers adult faith education, not just

because it’s part of the mandate,” Fr Glynn said.

“Every Catholic has the fundamental right because of their baptism for adult faith education.”

Fr Glynn is especially qualified to teach Sacramental Theology and said he has enjoyed the rewards as well as the challenges of teaching at the Maranatha Institute.

He was also involved in teaching at St Charles Seminary, Notre Dame University and was a member of the Council of Priests.

“It is very rewarding to see people blossom in their faith,” Fr Glynn said.

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Fr Glynn told The Record that many of those who come to Maranatha often haven’t had any formal faith education since high school, or haven’t been to university.

“Ordinary everyday Catholics have been very open in their search to deepen their faith,” Fr Glynn said.

“People no longer take things for granted. They want to know why the Church says what it does and how that applies to their life.”

“People are no longer just accepting things as they are, they like to know why.”

Originally from Perth, Fr Glynn was ordained in December 1982, and spent time in Rome from 1988 to 1991 where he gained his Licentiate.

Upon his return to Perth, he become Parish Priest of Embleton, and later started teaching at St Charles Seminary. “ I will always feel committed to a seminary,” Fr Glynn said.

“I feel a great joy in seeing priests ordained.”

As well as his work in teaching, Fr Glynn has also been involved with Catholic Marriage Education Services.

End of an era: Fr Glynn has concluded his appointment as Director of the Photo: Jamie O’Brien Maranatha Institute to further his studies..

Join Pope Benedict XVI in prayer - January “That the effort to bring about the full communion of Christians may foster reconciliation and peace among all the peoples of the earth.”

Mission intention: “That Christians may know how to welcome migrants with respect and charity, recognising in each person the image of God.”

January 12 2006, The Record

Page 5

Bishop: China Church is ‘effectively united’ Communist Party controls structures, but not hearts and minds, says Bishop Zen

A

fter decades of division created by the Chinese Communist Party the Catholic Church in China is almost completely united says a leading Chinese Bishop based in Hong Kong.

Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong, told the Italian newspaper Avvenire that up to 85 per cent of the bishops of the Patriotic Association, set up by the Communist Party in the 1950s to try and wrest control of Chinese Catholics from loyalty to Rome, are now reconciled with the Vatican.

However China’s Communist Party is still vying for control of the hearts and minds of their countrymen, he said.

Bishop Zen, 73, known as “the independent voice of the Catholic Church in China,” spoke freely in the interview about the situation in his country.

There are some who admire China for its impetuous economic development and others who see it as a threat to the world. From your vantage point, how do you see the country?

Beyond many analyses, there is a fact: there continues to be a very heavy yoke in China. The Communist Party wants to control everything, not just structures but also the minds and hearts of citizens.

Today the methods have changed a bit, but deep down the reality is the same. No one dares to really say what he thinks.

Take the case of Hong Kong: The Beijing government formally guarantees autonomy there; we are still free to make our voice heard.

But day after day it is extending its control in a very clear and determined way.

However, I do not wish to appear too pessimistic. One can also free oneself from this yoke.

To what are you referring?

To the Church, of course! My conviction, which I try to express in a submissive way because it could trigger a harsh reaction from Beijing, is that Catholics are winning. With patience and tenacity they are conquering significant areas of freedom.

The Communist government controls the structures, but no longer the hearts and minds of the faithful. After many years of forced separation in China, the Catholic Church in fact is now only one - all want to be united to the Pope.

The official and underground Churches are still different. What is lacking for full reconciliation?

As always, the obstacle is the control exercised by the party. I will explain.

The official Chinese Church is made up of two great structures, the episcopal conference and the Patriotic Association of Catholics, which in fact is the long arm of the Communist Party to control the Church.

For the past two years the episcopal conference has been without a president; after the death of the

JOURNEY OF FAITH

incumbent, they have been unable to find one they can “trust.”

The head of the Patriotic Association, Bishop Michele Fu of Beijing, is sick and above all is much discredited in the eyes of the faithful. In a word, the two structures are without a head. The one in charge is Mr Liu Bai Nie, the executive secretary of the Patriotic Association. But he is a boss who runs the risk of being left without a following.

What happened?

Many bishops, appointed by the Beijing government, had no peace of heart and wanted to be recognised by the Holy See. Beginning in the ‘80s, Pope John Paul II, with great generosity, accepted such petitions. At present 85% of the episcopate of the official Chinese Church has been legitimised by the Vatican.

Now the bishops that are not approved by Rome feel marginalised; they are rejected by the clergy and the faithful.

The novelty is that, whereas in the past the bishops already appointed by the government requested papal approval, now the candidates to the episcopate of the official Church are concerned about being appointed by the Holy See. It is an interesting situation, but not lacking in risks, as the candidate chosen by the government is not always the Vatican’s ideal name.

The Holy See recently underlined its willingness to establish diplomatic relations with Communist China, severing relations with Taiwan and moving the Nuncio from Taipei to Beijing. Are we close to an historic agreement?

The universal Church is concerned about the millions of faithful in Communist China and is willing to take a very painful step.

We must explain to the faithful of Taiwan that it’s not a betrayal, but a necessity imposed by circumstances. In a word, it isn’t a decision that must be proclaimed hastily.

Moreover, what will we be given in return? Is the Beijing government prepared to grant religious freedom? This is the question.

What is your impression?

I see that, while the Vatican works for an agreement, the Chinese Communists aren’t in any hurry.

They would rather solve some problems as, for example, the episcopal appointments of many dioceses that are vacant. And I have the impression that the Patriotic Association will try to place its men to counteract the appointments it has had to suffer in recent times, such as that of the auxiliary bishop of Shanghai.

I don’t see an agreement around the corner; more time is needed.

Is it true that Pope John Paul II asked you for help to realise a great desire - that of visiting China?

It was the beginning of 1997. We spoke for a long time and the Holy Father did no more than repeat: I want to go to China!

I replied: But I can’t do anything!

There was talk of a possible trip to Hong Kong for the closing of the Asian Synod, but the Beijing government immediately said no.

- ZENIT

Departs: 08 September 2006 ●

Czestochowa * Krakow * Prague * Medjuorje * Rome ● *San Giovanni Rotonodo * Assisi 21 Days

$6320.00 per person twin share plus taxes (approx $450.00) Spiritual Director: Fr Dariusz Basiaga Contact: Melinda Di Biase at Woodlands Travel Ph: 08 9244 1344 Fax: 08 9445 1393 Licence: 9TA00653 Bishop Zen Ze-klun

Pastoral Care Co-Ordinator The part-time (32 hours per week) position of Pastoral Care Co-Ordinator is currently vacant and we are advertising for a suitable candidate to fill this role.

The Pastoral Co-Ordinator leads members of a team which provides spiritual and emotional support to patients and customers at Mercy Hospital Mount Lawley, which is a Catholic, notfor-profit health care service provider. The work of Pastoral Care exemplifies the Mission of Mercy, where the Values of Compassion, Justice, Respect, Integrity and Excellence are demonstrated in and around the Hospital in its healing ministry. Mercy Hospital views its team of Pastoral Carers as a vital adjunct to its other healthcare staff who deliver a professional service in caring for the sick and infirm.

Candidates will be required to demonstrate the following attributes: ● Possess units in CPE training which includes tertiary level theology, or relevant experience. ● Acute care experience in pastoral care. ● Possession of a Christian ethos and demonstrated affiliation with a faith community that embraces the Mission and Values which are the foundation of the Mercy organisation. ● Ability to demonstrate compassion and understanding in actions and words to provide support for the sick and infirm. ● Ability to work in and manage a team to provide both leadership and vision for the Pastoral Care service.

Candidates interested in applying for the position may in the first place speak to Jackie Shade, Assistant Director of Nursing – Wards on 9370-9919.

Application packages are available from Nursing Administration on 9370-9290.

Applications in writing and addressing the Selection Criteria to be sent to The Director of Nursing, Mercy Hospital Mount Lawley, Thirlmere Road, Mount Lawley WA 6050, or email to nursingadmin@mercygroup.com.au. Please also include a current curriculum vitae with your application.

Closing date for applications: 27 January 2006 at 5.00pm.

Mercy Hospital Mount Lawley Thirlmere Road Mount Lawley WA 6050

January 12 2006, The Record

Page 6

Perspectives d the t n u

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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letters to the editor

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Consider all facts

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am sure that Catholics in the archdiocese are interested to know that they contributed over $320,000 to the Mission Appeal last year. However, I wonder what good is served by publishing a list of contributing (and non-contributing) parishes, starting with biggest givers and ending with the least.

Such a list does not take into account parish population, income levels of parishioners or other commitments individual parishes may have.

Perhaps those who published the list might dwell on the gospel story of the widow putting her mite into the temple treasury. If parishioners wish to make comparisons, surely it would be better if they compared their parish contribution for the current year with previous ones, rather than seeing if they have moved up or down the archdiocesan ladder.

Barry Johnston Doubleview Parish

Legacy of a mogul he death of Kerry Packer, T reportedly Australia’s richest man with a fortune estimated at $7 billion, generated a mass of copy in the print and electronic media, much of which he owned.

Even those pieces that he did not own gave him, what they considered, generous praise. The West Australian ran its front page with the headline “Death of a Giant” and four prime pages; one with the heading spread over two pages, “Gambling mogul who defied long odds to win”.

In Queensland The Courier Mail headlined with “Packer remembered as a great leader”. And in Melbourne The Age gave him an obituary of more than 3000 words.

The Editorial in the Canberra Times described him as “A protected player”, and the paper published an article by Michael Henderson, of Britain’s The Daily Telegraph.

Henderson wrote: “Packer pandered to the lowest common denominator.”

Although he made millions from his media empire, that empire effectively helped in the dumbing-down of Australia. It also contributed to damaging the cultural tastes and moral values of several generations.

Kerry Packer’s powerful media outlets lavishly promoted greed and hedonism that damaged families and undermined the standards of behaviour that were once generally accepted by the majority of Australians.

As chairman of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), Mr Packer controlled a number of influential publications, their secular content influencing thousands.

Among them are The Australian

More promotion needed he Record newsaper has been going from strength to strength. It is T no doubt our collective aim to have it read as widely as possible. I like the regular Free Discovery issue. The free Christmas issue was also a wonderful idea. If only we had it available to distribute! We like to promote the free issues by making sure that it is handed out to families after each Mass. The effectiveness of our very good Catholic newspaper in reality depends a lot on the involvement of the Parish Priest. Perhaps another line of promotion is to make all Catholic families realise that having the weekly Record available to the children will greatly help to give them a proper perspective on the Bigger Picture to counteract the pervasive, insidious influence and misguided social engineering effort of the secular media which invades each home. If Catholic parents are really interested to produce well informed children and feel committed to and concerned about the passing on of our Catholic Faith, it seems essential to have The Record displayed on each lounge room coffee table.

Resist the urge to fold the paper up to make the room look tidy!Put it display in a conspicuous place in the home, with the page turned open to a particular, preferred article that you want your children to read.

Bram Ziegelaar Medina

Women’s Weekly, The Bulletin, Australian Business, Woman’s Day, Mode, Harpers Bazaar and the soft porn Cleo and Dolly, the latter aimed at teenage girls.

Michael Henderson, in The Daily Telegraph was right when he wrote: “In his eagerness to bump up television audiences and attract younger viewers, Packer’s tastes pandered to the lowest common denominator”.

Henderson concluded with another truth “Few people did more than Packer to live up to Wilde’s definition of the cynic: a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

But it was not only the Packer empire that did the damage. Almost all other sections of the mass media followed suit.

Packer’s so-called rival, News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, said Mr Packer was one of the best media proprietors and broadcasters Australia had seen.

“Kerry was one of the most successful businessmen of his generation,” he was reported as saying.

“As a broadcaster, he had an uncanny knack of knowing what people across the country were thinking and this finely-tuned antennae made him one of the best media proprietors and broadcasters this country has seen.”

But surely there has to be more than fun, games, hedonism and more money for the mogul.

Brian Peachey Doubleview

Poet’s corner? ith regard to Guy Crouchbacks W worry about poetry (Letters, December 15), remember one man’s poem can be another mans “put-off ”.

This country’s heritage is full of simple verse.

Look at the daily prayers of the Church, full of simple verse, timeless but not necessarily to the liking of some.

Perhaps to stimulate good poetry The Record could run a poets corner or even a competition with various catagories. I’m sure there are many good poets out there. You could look up my web site and read some of my poetry e.g. “My birth and death” or “Struggle struggle”.

BC Milne SFO Embleton

Disturbing truth agree with Fr Maurice Toop Idisturbing (Letters, December 15) that it is for certain Catholics to be told by Fr Tony Kelly that the teaching about Limbo has been “dropped”. It seems that some of these Catholics believed that the former teaching was supposedly infallible.

I fully agree that it is most disturbing to be told by Fr Kelly and others that it is something that can just be “dropped”. I was taught that Limbo existed and that unbaptised babies went there.

No doubt it was a most traumatic thing for countless parents to face.

It should never have been presented as a firm Church teaching; it was never proclaimed infallibly, as Purgatory was, and should not have been taught as such.

Nihil Obstats and Imprimaturs only say that there is nothing contrary to Church Teachings: not that anything is infallible. It is, in my humble opinion, best now left as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “1261 As regards children who have died without baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy, of God as she does in her funeral rites for them.”

See your Catechism which no Catholic home should be without.

Jerome Gonzalez Willetton

dropped off at: 45 Randell Crescent, Ocean Reef 6027. For further information contact Margaret on 94020932.

Margaret Laundy Ocean Reef

Do something different rough calculation of the A number of practicing Catholics in WA leads to a figure of about 50,000; 2,000,000 people in WA, 25 per cent nominal Catholic, 10 per cent practicing.

There is much lamenting in Catholic and other Christian circles about the general decline in moral and legislative standards in our society.

Yet Catholics and other Christians have a very strong, but latent, power to do something about this elect pro Christian politicians.

Throughout Catholic history in Australia, major achievements have been accomplished through concerted Catholic action such as State Aid for Catholic schools, the influence of Catholics through the DLP to counter Communist influence in the ALP, and the counter influence to Masonry through the Knights of the Southern Cross.

The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) has only about 1000 members and supporters, yet almost had a candidate elected to the State Parliament at the last election.

I challenge any Catholic to find any conflict between CDP policies and Catholic perspectives as declared in Vatican II documents, or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Imagine what the outcome would be if a greater number of those 50,000 practicing Catholics joined and supported the CDP through financial contributions, helping hand out how to vote cards, and of course the easiest way of all by voting for CDP candidates.

I am a member of the CDP,

and have been very impressed by the ability of Dwight Randall and Lachlan Dunjey, who I believe would make very powerful advocates for Christian values if elected to Parliament.

So the challenge is there for those who are complaining about the current state of affairs: get active in Christian politics.

Robert Williams Bull Creek

Abortion effects good to see the results of the IoftNZwas study of the negative effects abortion on mental health of women.

The results did not surprise me.

As a post-abortion grief counsellour I have encountered and dealt with over 800 women experiencing these effects for ten years now. I would add to the mentioned negative effects, substance abuse, eating disorders, increased breast cancer risk and the list is long.

Post Abortion Syndrome, grief, distress, have been known about for over 25 years, however, because of the political nature of the topic, abortion, those suffering post abortion grief, trauma, have largely been ignored.

The media, pandering to the whims of the pro abortion, pro choice lobby, and feminist movement, have been in the main unwilling to listen to the reality that there is much suffering connected to abortion.

Today, with the release of a “secular” study in our region of the world, vindicates what I and others like me have been speaking and writing about in connection to abortion, and the counselling of very broken women and men.

Abortion never, ever empowers it always diminshes and leaves lifelong anguish, and only God in His Mercy can heal such a wound.

Anne Lastman Victims of Abortion Trauma Couns.

Read about a US Rapper’s prenatal brush with abortion.

See Vista page 2

Ocean Reef Sale hank you for your article in Vista T (The Record, January 5), where the head of the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in Australia, Caritas, Jack deGroot ,summarised some of the work and beneficiaries of Caritas following the tsunami disaster of 26th December 2004.

In his article he mentions that Caritas continues to seek funds to help rebuild people’s lives following natural disasters.

As a continuation of the Tsunami appeal, the parishioners of St Simon Peter’s Church in Ocean Reef and surrounding community are holding a second massive “Disaster Relief Garage Sale” on Saturday and Sunday January 21-22 with all funds going to Caritas.

We are seeking donations of anything that can be sold, from furniture, toys, and clothing to bric-abric etc. Any saleable things can be

Archbishop on air

For those who missed Archbishop Hickey’s address on Channel Nine the text is below: Welcome.

This is the day when Christmas decorations come down – the feast of the Epiphany, or little Christmas.

Epiphany is about the wise men from the East who followed the star to Bethlehem to find the new-born king, Jesus

The message of the wise men to us is to follow the star and seek the Lord.

It is the best advice I can give you at the beginning of this new year – Seek the Lord.

Don’t be put off by the false promises of the world. We are offered the gift of eternal life.

Seek the Lord and he will find you and lead you safely and surely to eternal life with God. I’m Barry Hickey, Catholic Archbishop of Perth.

Next: Good in others. For current and past talks visit www. perthcatholic.org.au.

Vista

January 12 2006

Page 1

PROJEKT

BENEDIKT: How an unassuming Pope tore up the media’s agenda at World Youth Day in Cologne

2005 YEAR IN REVIEW

World Youth Day in Cologne dumbfounded a sceptical German media.

■ By Hartwig Bouillon

I

f you were reading the German media in the days before the last year’s World Youth Day in Cologne, you would have expected more dour protesters than delighted pilgrims.

Here’s Deutsche Welle’s comment a week before: “there’s no doubt that the Church does not have a future without young people. Yet, it’s not exactly true that the Roman Catholic Church is ‘young’ - at least if you look at the situation in Western Europe. The majority of young people is neither interested in the Church nor in following Catholic doctrines.”

What actually happened left German TV journalists gobsmacked. The received wisdom - that youngsters would like the event, but didn’t care for the Faith - was shattered. More than one million joyful young pilgrims invaded Cologne, cheered the Pope and openly prayed.

The sheer impact of the images was overwhelming.

Dominating the news was the white-garbed Pontiff on a catamaran slowly cruising up the Rhine encircled by 1200 youths from all over the world.

On both banks of the immense river half a million more, the front row standing knee-deep in water, were cheering and singing: “Be-ne-detto! Be-ne-detto!”

In the months since Cologne, the penny has begun to drop for the commentariat.

Benedict XVI is neither the “German shepherd”, as he was dubbed by the British tabloid press, nor a doddering Übergangspapst, a mere nightwatchman for John Paul the Great’s legacy. In fact, Pope Benedict has his own agenda. Shy and friendly he may be, but with his

razor-sharp intellect, long experience, and deep piety, he is setting his own course. Perhaps a few snapshots of what happened during that memorable week will point towards what the new Pope is planning.

This is the experience of German priest Father Rolf: he only wanted to be one of the thousand priests who concelebrated with the Pope on the Marienfeld. But then one youngster wanted to go to Confession. Then another. After three hours hearing confessions standing up, he gasped: “If you don’t get me something. to sit on, I will faint.”

And Father Stefan: he heard confessions from six in the afternoon until 2.30 am during the vigil before the official World Youth Day. Afterwards he went to the tent where Eucharistic adoration was being conducted - and had to queue up for half an hour. Thousands of young people were silently praying on their knees. They couldn’t even see the monstrance with the Blessed Eucharist. They believed.

According to Cologne’s Cardinal Joachim Meisner, hundreds of thousands of young people went to confession during the week. So much for Deutsche Welle’s sniffy observation that “German youth of today are not necessarily becoming less religious; they are simply less interested in experiencing God through the mediation of the Church.”

The Benedict Project Two main ideas pop up in the aftermath of the Cologne WYD. The German media is starting to call them Das Benedikt-Projekt: Project Benedict.

To begin with: “A first evangelisation of Europe”. In his address to German Bishops at the end of World Youth Day, Benedict commented on their own summary of German Christianity: “We have become a mission land.” The Pope said: “And I therefore believe Continued on Vista 2

January 12 2006, The Record

Vista

January 12 2006, The Record

A Rap for Life

Page 3

”Ignite the WYD Creative Flame” Terms & Conditions

Submitting your design and by signing the Official Entry Form (and if under 18 co-signed by a parent or guardian) constitutes acceptance of these terms and conditions.

Only entries postmarked by 5pm 3 Feb 2006 will be considered. No responsibility will be taken for any entries lost or not received by the judging panel.

Only one design per person will be accepted In consideration of WYD 2008 accepting your entry form for consideration you agree to and do assign all rights, ownership and interests in your design, including the copyright and all other intellectual property rights therin, to WYD 2008 and consent to the reproduction of, the modification of, the communication of and any other use of that design in any manner of form or medium (with or without authorship attribution) in such way that had it not been for this consent it would have constituted an infringement of moral rights under the Copyright Act 1968.

5. You warrant that your design is your own work and not copied from any other work or materials. If several people are involved in creating the design then the application entry is to be made in the joint names of people contributing to the design and one person should be nominated as the principal designer and that person only will be eligible to receive the prize.

6. No additional compensation will be forthcoming should all (or part) of any submitted works be used.

7. Artworks or designs will not be returned.

8. WYD2008 retains the right to publish the names of the winners for promotional purposes, and winners would not reasonably withhold their agreement to be involved in any future promotion surrounding their submission.

9. Winners will be chosen by panel, the judges decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into 10. Delegation program and full prize details will be posted on the official WYD2008 website by no later than 31 Jan 06. Prize is likely to include all reasonable costs including return economy airfare, hotel style accommodation for approx. 4 days/3 nights, breakfast & dinner daily, airport transfers and transportation to and from official Delegation functions. Prize will not include insurances, personal expenditure and the like. Winners must have a valid passport and be able to travel to Rome during April 2006. Prize cannot be transferred and is not redeemable for cash. If under 18, then by the parent or guardian signing then they agree that their child would be in the care of the Youth Leaders appointed by the Church during the official Rome delegation trip.

11. Winners names will be posted on the official WYD2008 website, and will also published in the Catholic Weekly by 26 Feb 06.

12. This invitation to submit is offered by World Youth Day 2008 Organising Committee Ltd. (WYD2008).

SEE OVER FOR ENTRY GUIDELINES AND DETAILS

START NOW! ENTRIES CLOSE 3 FEB 2006.

The next best 5 judged entries will be awarded free registration, accommodation and meals for two people at World Youth Day – Sydney 2008.

The designers of the three entries judged best will each win a once in a lifetime trip to Rome to be part of the delegation to receive the World Youth Day Cross from the youth of Germany in April 2006. Prizes will include airfares, accommodation, meals and transfers. Complete details of the Rome 2006 Delegation and fi final nal prize details will be announced prior to 31 Jan 06.

An open invitation to Australia’s Youth

Be in Rome for the handover of the World Youth Day Cross and WYD2008 logo launch!

World Youth Day Sydney 2008

1.

2 3.

4.

Parent or Guardian’s Name: _____________________________________ Relationship: ____________________________

Signed: _________________________________________Parent or Guardian:_____________________________________ (if under 18)

By submitting this entry I hereby acknowledge that I have read, understood and agreed to all terms & conditions

Parish: _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mobile: _____________________________________ Email : ___________________________________________________

________________________________________________________ State___________________ P/C___________________

Name: _____________________________________________________________________ D.O.B. ______ / ______ / ______

WYD2008 - “Ignite the Creative Flame” - OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM

Any questions may be sent to designs@wyd2008.org

WYD2008 Design, Level 5 133 Liverpool Street, Sydney, 2000.

Designs must be posted to:

Your ideas must be received by the WYD2008 Organising Team postmarked no later than 5pm, 3 Feb 2006. All designs must be accompanied by this official entry form. The design itself should be on one page only.

Your design should be symbolic, with consideration given to the images and where you place them within the overall design. For inspiration you could also go online to visit past World Youth Day websites or use other biblical references.

The words “World Youth Day” and “Sydney 2008” also need to be included, and can either be inserted graphically within the actual design itself, or as type alongside the design. The choice is yours.

Your entry will need to represent three interwoven symbols:

Address: _______________________________________________________________________________________________

Official Offi cial WYD2008 logos will be formally developed by a team of professional young designers but they need your involvement. Getting your ideas also ensures that the look and feel of Sydney’s WYD2008 will be a true refl reflection ection of Australia’s youth. All entries received will be reviewed by a committee which will have representatives from the Sydney Archdiocese, World Youth Day 2008 Organising Team and the youth community.

Highest ever TV audience About 250 million people from every corner of the earth watched World Youth Day according to the European Broadcasting Union. Cologne’s Westdeutscher RundfunkTV had its highest-ever audience with 45 per cent of all households - around 9 million people - watching the vigil with the Pope.

The Sunday morning Mass was transmitted by all four major channels in Germany, even though there are only 27 million Catholics in a Germany of 82 million. Only about 14 per

This invitation is to everyone in the wider Catholic community who will be aged between 16 – 35 in 2008, and has been sent to all Catholic schools through the Catholic Education Office, Office, to tertiary education students and to all Parishes in Australia.

powerful outburst of Christian joy surprised critics, who openly asked: “What do they have what we don’t have?”

Help to inspire the offi official cial WYD design team as they evolve the offi official cial logo, festival themes and other images behind this great event. Your design could become a major part of the final final logo, or perhaps feature in posters or other WYD offi official cial material. Imagine ~ your work could be seen by hundreds of thousands of young Australians, and millions of people around the world.

the Magi we may spontaneously fall to our knees and adore him. Two things certainly happened in the Magi: first they sought; then they found and worshipped him.”

“We have come to adore him.” The words of the Three Wise Men taken from the Gospel of Matthew were the motto of World Youth Day. The 1.2 million worshipping and celebrating pilgrims actually showed a face of the Church unprecedented on German television.

For several days joyful young Catholics from all over the world had top billing in the news. “I have never seen so many rosaries on TV!” commented one university student. This

Here’s your chance to become directly involved!

that throughout Europe... we should give serious thought as to how to achieve a true evangelisation in this day and age, not only a new evangelisation, but often a true and proper first evangelisation.”

“People do not know God; they do not know Christ. There is a new form of paganism and it is not enough for us to strive to preserve the existing flock, although this is very important. We must ask the important question: what really is life?”

The Pope stressed that this was not his task alone but everyone’s challenge: “I believe we must all try together to find new ways of bringing the Gospel to the contemporary world, of proclaiming Christ anew and of implanting the faith.”

The second element in Project Benedict is worship.

He quoted a priest hanged by the Nazis, Father Alfred Delp: “Nothing is more important than worship”.

The Pontiff went on: “Nonetheless, in our new context in which worship, and thus also the face of human dignity, has been lost, it is once again up to us to understand the priority of worship. We must make youth, ourselves and our communities, aware of the fact that it is not a luxury of our confused epoch, that we cannot permit ourselves, but a priority.

Wherever worship does not exist any more, wherever it is not a priority to pay honour to God, human realities can make no headway.”

And the Pope concluded: “We must therefore endeavour to make the face of Christ visible, the face of the living God, so that like

cent of these go to church on Sunday. “This is an age of miracles and wonders, of sightings of Mary and warnings, of prophecy, graces and gifts” Bob Dylan sang a few years ago.

Peggy Noonan took up this line in an editorial for the Wall Street Journal and added: “The choosing of Benedict XVI, a man who is serious, deep and brave, is a gift.”

Her German colleague Dietmar Dath wrote in a leader for the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “It is the humdrum of the consumer society that makes so many people more and more lonely.

“And it is events like WYD that can tell them that they are not outsiders if they search for a meaning beyond material things. If they can pass on this discovery to others, the Pope’s visit can cause a historic turn.”

In the lead-up to Cologne, Deutsche Welle pontificated that “the Church’s stances are often not in line with the values of today’s youth, especially when it comes to sexual issues”.

Here’s one story amongst many which confounds this scepticism about the evergreen vigour of Christian faith.

At the age of 17 Luka Keller, an agnostic high school student, read Ratzinger’s The Spirit of Liturgy. Four years later, as a physics student at Muenster University, she asked for religious instruction in a centre of Opus Dei. The day before World Youth Day began, she was baptised.

“I learned to concentrate on God and not just on myself, and that the truth has to be won with humility and not just knowledge.”

Her personal journey is surely a sign of things to come.

- MercatorNet

An invitation to Catholic Youth from Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, Co-ordinator of World Youth Day 2008.

How Projekt Benedikt undid WYD expectations Continued from Vista 1

The final Sydney WYD2008 logo must consist of a symbol and text to clearly define the event in Sydney.

Carolyn Moynihan is the deputy editor of MercatorNet.

Help design the WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008 logo…

So far he’s losing. The scared young woman yields to clinic routine, is gowned and prepped for the “procedure”. Cannon hovers beside her lying on the gurney. He tries an interesting line – I am a child of the King / Ain’t no need to go fear me.

He accuses – Your pride got you saying ain’t nothing but a migraine.

He jokes – So what if Your friends will look at you funny … Ma I am Oprah-bound/ You can tell he’s a star from the Ultrasound.

Finally, the voice of her child/ conscience conquers fear. Beth/

Guidelines

Mummy I don’t like this clinic Hopefully you’ll make the right decision And don’t go through with the Knife Incision

The video ends with Cannon hugging his real mum in the present and saying, “I love life/I love my mother for giving me life/We all need to appreciate life/A strong woman that had to make a sacrifice/Thanks for listening…/Thanks for listening.”

And lots of people have listened.

Can I Live went straight to No.1 on BET’s countdown show, 106 and Park, and spent almost a month in the top 10 in August and September.

This seems to confirm what we are hearing from polls and pro-life groups – the generation that has grown up with “abortion rights”, that has lost so many little brothers and sisters to abortion, is turning against it as the solution to a social problem.

The 2004 annual American Freshman (first year university) Survey sponsored by UCLA, for example, showed that only a slim majority of first-year university students believe that abortion should be legal. Those who agreed strongly or somewhat that it should declined from a high of 67.2 per cent in 1992 to 53.9 per cent in 2004.

That a black pop artist should take on this theme is not really

In contrast, the leading abortion groups were tight-lipped – a sign that they were are not sure how to control the damage of this kind of pro-life message. Planned Parenthood told the Philadelphia Inquirer they were unfamiliar with Can I Live. NARAL Pro-Choice America, the organisation that lobbied successfully for unrestricted abortion in the US in the 1970s, did not return a call requesting comment.

But a pro-feminist, pro-abortionrights professor of African American studies at Duke University worried that the video could easily “be exploited as a political tool”.

“The whole issue of choice is not being debated when you’re caught up in the issue of, ‘Look how good Nick Cannon turned out’,” said Mark Anthony Neal.

Hang on, though; where’s the element of choice if we’re caught up in the issue of how badly all these kids are going to turn out? Cannon appreciates that this mentality has to be countered with more than a good rap, and he has promised to help mothers in need through his foundation: “If any of you out there know a single mother between the ages of 15-25 who may be having a difficult time I would love to hear the story. Please write to me and explain the condition and how I could possibly help. I will check the website and respond accordingly.”

Can I Live, the book, was due to be published towards the end of 2005 or early 2006. Meanwhile you can watch the video at www.nickcannonmusic.com.

creative flame?

He uses every argument he can think of. Heaven (if I read him right) is her witness – It’s a lot of angels waiting on their wings. She already knows her baby – You see me in your sleep so you can’t kill your dreams. It’s a terrible betrayal – 300 dollars that’s the price of living What? Oh sure, it’s hard to make the right move when you in high school, but, What you want, morning sickness or the sickness of mourning?

I’ll always be a part of you Trust your soul know it’s always true If I could talk I’d say to you CAN I LIVE CAN I LIVE

surprising. Rappers are notorious for broaching taboo subjects, and this is especially a black medium.

Besides, it is black America that suffers most from abortion. As the Alan Guttmacher Institute puts it, black women, along with Hispanic women, are more likely than others to have an unintended pregnancy, and black women are more likely than Hispanics “to resolve an unintended pregnancy through abortion”.

Cannon says he is more “proNick” than pro-life in the political sense, and he is careful to end his rap with the necessary bow to nonjudgementalism regarding persons – “I ain’t passing no judgement/ Ain’t making no decisions/I am just telling ya’ll my story.” But the video as a whole is a powerful argument against the act of taking an unborn life, and pro-life groups are delighted with his effort. As one post on his message board put it, “I have spent years trying to make the same point you made in minutes.”

Feedback from this sector includes gratitude from young mothers who have had their children in the face of criticism. Funny how calling people “crazy” when they want to have a child is not judgemental, but saying they are crazy to have an abortion is.

“Sweet home song my friend!” writes one fan, waxing nicely lyrical. “Keep on splashing this thing and the world might love too much.

Lovin’ too much ain’t a worry though. So keep on making this. I am the youngest of 10 and could easily have been where you and your mum were! Live only full blast.

No half, nothing less than all.”

Will you ignite the

Just Just pause for a second Let me plead my case It’s the late 70s huh You seventeen huh And having me that will ruin everything huh

Tatyana climbs off the operating table and runs from the clinic outside into the sunshine where she is greeted by a chorus of children singing the theme song:

World Youth Day 2008 h Design Project h

A

hip-hop artist in the US with a background in action-comedy films caused a stir late last year with his song and video about a prenatal brush with abortion.

I am no fan of hip-hop. The odd glimpse of music videos has left me cold. But this week, thanks to a tip, I roused my dormant media player and watched my first ever rap-style music video from end to end. It was terrific.

“Can I Live?” is the drama of a young, pregnant woman’s struggle with her conscience over whether to go through with an abortion.

Nick Cannon It is directed and MC’d by Nick Cannon, a rapper who last year landed his own show on MTV in the US. The woman is his mother, Beth Hackett, and he was the baby who nearly didn’t make it into the world.

The video, a series of stills with a few movie clips, opens with his young mom, played by actress Tatyana Ali, getting out of an old car during a downpour and making her way through a pro-life picket into

an abortion clinic. Cannon appears at her side clad in white, suggesting the innocence of an unborn child:

l

© Global Brands Group (Australasia) 2008. GBG WYD2008. 12.05.1001

■ By Carolyn Moynihan

Sydney was recently announced by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as the Host City of the 23rd World Youth Day (WYD) to be held in July 2008. Since it started in 1986, WYD has become the world’s largest international gathering of young people.

Sydney will be the 10th international celebration of WYD and the first in Oceania.

Vista

You could win one of three ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ trips to Rome!

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+ The Catholic Church; + Sydney; and + The message from the official WYD2008 theme: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses” Acts (1:8)

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Vista

January 12 2006, The Record

the family is the future

On contractions and donkeys

■ With Derek Boylen

I

t was the donkey ride that brought on the contractions and the urgent need for an inn upon arrival in Bethlehem. Any good obstetrician could have told Mary that you don’t go riding animals when you’re nine months pregnant.

It was my wife (six months pregnant) that made this startling discovery over Christmas.

I think there is sometimes a tendency by the exaggeratedly pious to over-mystify the gospel stories and lose sight of their gritty reality. To me it is the gritty stuff that makes it all the more relatable. When I think about Mary and Joseph leaving Jesus behind in the temple it resonates with the feeling I have when one of the boys goes missing in a busy shopping mall.

When I read about Jesus turning water into wine I think about how popular he’d be at any Aussie barbeque if the beer ran out. Christ’s first miracle, wasn’t curing cancer or making the blind see. It was an

awesome party trick. The Jews at Cana didn’t see Jesus as the Son of God but as a friend. They were having a party, it was a wedding; plenty of food, song, merrymaking, and Jesus supplied the drinks.

The Franciscan theologian St Bonaventure once said: “Wherever we are, God is.” It’s heartening news.

As Catholics we also believe that God is present in his word.

Therefore, we can be certain that our lives can be found in the story of the Gospel and the Gospel can be found in our lives.

The mystery of the incarnation, the birth of Jesus after a long donkey ride that brought on Mary’s contractions is present in each and every marriage. Whatever stage a marriage is at, God is there.

Marriage encompasses the whole of the mystery of human life: falling in love, getting married, bringing new life into the world, seeing children grow up and getting married in turn, growing old and death, disagreements and forgiveness.

This Sunday’s gospel reminds me that, besides doing some weird stuff like calling people he just met “rock” (“the rock” or “rockmeister” would have sounded much cooler!)

Jesus also did some pretty ordinary things too: he made new friends and he invited people over for dinner (he probably didn’t tell his Mum she’d need to cook extra. I bet he got in trouble).

It’s that simple. When we reach out to others, when we make new

friends and when we invite people into our lives the way Christ did, then we are living the Gospel.

The next time you are listening

to the Gospel at Mass or reading it at home I invite you to think about your family: What’s the connection?

Where is Jesus in the grittiness of

it all. As St Bonaventure tells us: “Wherever we are, God is.”

Send responses or suggestions to: production@therecord.com.au

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January 12 2006, The Record

Page 7

New rules another step along the Way More than 70 per cent of those involved with the Neocatechumenal Way in the US used to be non-practising Catholics.

The Way, recognised by John Paul II as an itinerary of post-baptismal Catholic formation in the Church, valid for our society and for our times, also has its own distinctive liturgy where members of the congregation sit around a square table for the Eucharist and offer responses described as “echoes” to the readings before the homily.

The music is strong, vibrant, and enthusiastically sung by congregations – not the normal experience for most Catholic parishes, especially in this country.

And with Neocatechumenal communities spread all over Australia, the recent guidelines for celebrating the Eucharist presented to the Way in a letter, dated December 1 and signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, have caused much interest.

Some media saw the letter as a ‘reigning-in’ of the Way, but one leader of the Neocatechumenal Way in the US, Giuseppe Gennarini, sees it more as an important step in the process of its development.

What is the significance of this letter for the Way? Gennarini: For the first time, the Holy See has accepted several variations to the way the Eucharist is celebrated within the context of the Neocatechumenal Way, as licit adaptations to help contemporary man to better receive the grace communicated by the sacraments.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only case in which the Holy See has granted such an explicit permission to an ecclesial group.

Until now we had done so with verbal authorisation from the [Vatican] congregation, but not in writing.

In fact, John Paul II had always supported this concept, and he even expressed it in his apostolic letter Dies Domini, in which he spoke about the possibility that “in view of special needs in the area of formation and pastoral care” such celebrations of the Sunday Mass could take place.

Which are the liturgical variations allowed by the congregation to the Neocatechumenal Way? Gennarini: Cardinal Arinze’s letter accepts the principle of special celebrations for the Neocatechumenal communities on Saturday evening.

To better understand the importance of this, we must take into account that many have opposed this practice of the Way, considering it elitist or divisive, although the liturgies of the Way are open to all.

In spite of these criticisms, this principle has been officially approved. The request for partaking once a month in the gen-

Together: faithful attending a Neocatechumenal liturgy gather around the altar after the celebration of the Way’s distinctive way of celebrating the Mass. A new Vatican directive has formalised aspects of the Neocatechumenal liturgy and has been welcomed by those administering the Way which seeks to bring non-practising Catholics back into active participation and membership of the Church.

Photo: Jamie O’Brien

eral celebrations of the parish is already a widespread practice, as for example in the context of such liturgical solemnities as Christmas, Epiphany, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the patronal feast, the Assumption, All Saints’ Day, and the Immaculate Conception.

The letter also restates the article of the Roman Missal regarding [commentaries], but extends its use from an extraordinary practice to an ordinary one.

The “echoes” before the homily have also been accepted; this is something completely new in the Church and receives here some general guidelines.

The letter also allows for the sign of peace to take place before the offertory. To understand the magnitude of this concession, we must remember that only a few weeks before the signing of this letter, the prefect of the congregation had explained to hundreds of bishops attending the Synod on the Eucharist that no one would be allowed to change the place of the sign of peace.

In fact, several bishops’ conferences had requested such a variation, but it has never been allowed.

Finally, the way of distributing Communion as it currently takes place, is allowed for a long period of time, if only [on an experimental basis]. Such a grant shows that this practice is not irreverent, but fully legitimate, as can be attested by anyone who participates in a Eucharist of the communities.

This concession is written within the context of the final approval of the statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, which are right now approved also “ad experimentum.”

When this period ends, the commission of the five Vatican congregations which approved the statutes … will verify the necessary adaptations.

Why is it important to celebrate the Mass in small groups?

Gennarini: More than 70 per cent of the members of the Way used to be non-practicing Catholics.

The liturgical celebrations in the context of a small community creates a welcoming environment for the unchurched.

In the context of an increasingly secularised, individualistic and anonymous society, the Way offers in the parish an environment where people, whether baptised or not, may rediscover the faith in the context of real communion.

One of the problems in the Church today is the anonymity in our parishes.

Through this experience, for instance, married couples can experience forgiveness, and are able to transmit the faith to their children. One of the fruits of the Way is the

rebuilding of the family through this communal experience. Thousands of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are emerging from these rebuilt families, and all of this thanks to the celebration of the Eucharist in small faith communities.

The community saves the family, and, as stated in “Ecclesia de Eucharistia,” no Christian community can be built up unless it has its root in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Some media articles written about this letter presents it as a scolding and as a rejection of the Way by Benedict XVI. Gennarini: That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Our relationship with Benedict XVI before becoming Pope has always been very good. The-then Cardinal Ratzinger met the Way in the 1970s and introduced it in his native Germany.

As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he has always helped us and has mentioned the Way in a very positive way in several of his books.

Benedict XVI received in an audience the initiators of the Way last November and personally confirmed his support for the Way and his joy for the great fruits that it is giving to the Church.

As a sign of his love for the fruits of the Way, the Holy Father will send this coming 12th of January 200 new families of the Way in mission who will go to the most de-Christianised parts of the world to announce the Gospel.

Without the intervention of the Holy Father, the approval of these liturgical variations would have never taken place. We feel fully confirmed by Peter. Those who are trying to oppose Benedict XVI and John Paul II are altering the reality.

These days we are reading news articles that are absolutely unfounded: I wish to clarify that never has a lay person of the Neocatechumenal communities given a homily in place of a priest.

An international news agency even contradicted itself when it accused the Way at one and the same time of having “innovative practices” and having “a very conservative worldview.”

In your opinion, why has the Holy Father approved these variations?

Gennarini: Benedict XVI has confirmed the view of John Paul II granting these permissions in writing to the Neocatechumenal Way because he is very aware of the dramatic situation of secularisation and of the need to evangelise. At World Youth Day he said to the German bishops: “The majority of the population is not baptised, has no contact with the Church and has often not even heard of either Christ or

the Church. … ‘We have become a mission land.’ … Throughout Europe, and likewise in France, Spain and elsewhere, we should give serious thought as to how to achieve a true evangelisation in this day and age, not only a new evangelisation, but often a true and proper first evangelisation. …

There is a new form of paganism and it is not enough for us to strive to preserve the existing flock, although this is very important. We must ask the important question: What really is life? I believe we must all try together to find new ways of bringing the Gospel to the contemporary world, of proclaiming Christ anew and of implanting the faith.”

This shows how much the Holy Father is concerned with finding ways to reach contemporary man. It is with this background that we can understand these permissions.

What is the context of this letter?

Gennarini: This letter is a very important step within the process of approval of the Way. In 1997 John Paul II encouraged the initiators to examine the experience of the Way after 30 years, and to formalise it with the writing of a statute.

In this context, five Vatican dicasteries - the Council for the Laity, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for the Clergy […], the Congregation for Catholic Education, and the Congregation for the Liturgy - have studied for years the multiple activities of the Way, offering recommendations and essentially confirming the experience of this catechetical itinerary.

The initiators have always kept a dialogue with the Popes, beginning with Paul VI and especially with John Paul II. What have been the results of this process up until now?

Gennarini: The catechetical content of the Way in its itinerary of Christian initiation was studied in detail by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by Cardinal Ratzinger, who approved it with very few adjustments.

The next step was the approval of the statute, which was no easy task due to the fact that the Way is neither a lay group, nor a priestly fraternity, nor an association.

The Holy See understood this complexity and recognised the Way neither as a movement nor as an association, but as an itinerary of Christian formation valid to transmit the faith in this present society, both to renew the faith of the already baptised and to initiate the pagans into the faith.

The next step has been the study of the liturgical adaptations present in this liturgical-catechetical reality, a process that has concluded with this letter.

- Zenit

January 12 2005, The Record

Page 8

The World JPII’s would-be-assassin to be released Pope John Paul II’s would-be assassin to be freed from Turkish prison ■ By Carol Glatz

The Turkish terrorist who shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II in a failed 1981 assassination attempt was scheduled to be freed on parole from a Turkish prison on January 12.

Since his extradition from Italy to Turkey in 2000, Mehmet Ali Agca served five years of a 10-year sentence for the 1979 murder of a Turkish journalist and two robberies the same year. But a Turkish court said Agca had completed his prison term and could be released, according to reports by the country’s semi-official Anatolia news agency.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin NavarroValls, commenting on “the news of the possible freedom of Ali Agca” in a January 8 press release, said the decision to release Agca should be up to the Turkish courts.

Concerning issues of “a judicial nature,” the Vatican “submits to the decisions of the tribunals involved in this matter,” the statement said.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to travel to Turkey this fall. Agca, 48, had served 19 years in an Italian prison for his May 13, 1981, assassination attempt on Pope John Paul in St Peter’s Square.

Just days after the near-fatal shooting, the Polish Pope publicly forgave Agca, and in 1983 the Pope embraced his would-be assassin in his Rome prison cell. Though

Mehmet Ali Agca, guarded by Turkish police, sits in court for a hearing in Istanbul in this December 2000 photo.

Photo: CNS

he was sentenced to life in prison for the shooting, Italian authorities granted Agca clemency in 2000 and returned him to Turkey. At the time, the Vatican said the Pope personally intervened in the gunman’s release from the Italian prison.

After returning to his home country, Agca was sent to prison for the murder of the editor of a liberal Turkish newspaper and two robberies committed in 1979.

New Turkish laws reduced Agca’s original punishment from life in prison, or 36 years under Turkish regulation, to a 10-year sentence. Additional penal code reforms led a Turkish court recently to further deduct the years Agca served in Italian prison, thereby completing his sentence, according to The Associated Press.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,

said his council did not want to interfere with the Turkish court’s decision that determined Agca had “paid his debt to justice.”

The Cardinal said, however, that Scripture readings during this Christmas season have talked about Christ being sent “to proclaim liberty to captives.”

Christ, in his mercy, will not break “a bruised reed” nor snuff out “a smoldering wick,” he wrote in a statement sent to journalists on January 9.

Cardinal Martino also noted that “John Paul II, who immediately pardoned his attacker, titled one of his messages for the World Day of Peace: ‘There Is No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Forgiveness.’”

Pope John Paul’s former secretary, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, said the late Pope “would have celebrated” upon hearing the news of Agca’s scheduled release from prison.

“The Holy Father had forgiven him from the very first moment, sincerely so, and then when he met him in jail he spoke to him like a brother,” he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on January 9.

Archbishop Dziwisz said the Pope had once asked, “How could we show ourselves before the Lord if we didn’t forgive each other?” Some Vatican officials noted that Turkish authorities had not informed the Vatican that Agca was to be released.

Navarro-Valls mentioned this in his January 8 statement, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, told the Italian daily La Repubblica on January 9 that he only heard of the court’s decision from news reports.

“No one notified us beforehand,” Cardinal CNS Sodano said.

Catholic doctors rights threatened Children exploited daily Criticising a proposed treaty between the Vatican and Slovakia, a European Union advisory panel said there are limits to a doctor’s right to conscientiously object to performing abortions.

In mid-December, the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights said conscientious objections cannot be allowed to prevent women from having an abortion when the procedure is legal. In its 41-page report on conscientious objection clauses in Vatican treaties, specifically looking at the proposed treaty with Slovakia, the panel also said such provisions could be seen as granting special status to the Catholic Church and its members in violation of national, European and international laws.

The network, an advisory body whose opinions are not binding, was established by the European Commission, an administrative body of the European Union. The commission asked the network to study the Vatican-Slovakian concordat. Officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State and the Vatican nuncios in Slovakia and at the European Union in Brussels were studying the report in early January and were not prepared to comment.

However, Vatican officials including the late Pope John Paul II - consistently have said the

EU panel expresses concern over doctor’s right to object to abortion proposed treaty was not designed to grant special privileges to the Catholic Church or to interfere with the government’s right to govern. The treaty’s purpose is to ensure respect for the rights of the Catholic Church and its members to practice their faith and contribute to the good of Slovakian society. The treaty has undergone several drafts since 2003. In its discussion of the draft treaty, the EU panel said all member nations of the European Union recognise a right to religious conscientious objection, but that right is not unlimited, particularly if exercising the right would lead to a violation of the rights of another person.

Panel members said that in countries where abortion is legal the right of physicians, nurses and other staff members not to perform abortions for reasons of conscience and the right of Catholic hospitals not to offer abortion services cannot be allowed to infringe on the right of women to access the procedure.

In addition to dealing with abortion, the treaty would recognise that Catholic hospitals have no obligation to provide “artificial or assisted fertilisations, experiments with or handling of human organs,

human embryos or human sex cells, euthanasia, cloning, sterilisations” or to provide contraception.

The panel said the need to ensure that Catholic conscientious objection does not infringe on other rights is particularly important in Slovakia, where 70 percent of the population is Catholic.

“The most serious threat resulting from the text under discussion concerns its potential impact on the right to have access to certain medical services,” the panel said.

“There is a risk that the recognition of a right to exercise objection of conscience in the field of reproductive health care will make it, in practice, impossible or very difficult for women to receive advice or treatment in this field, especially in the rural areas,” the panel said.

The panel said it was essential that, if the treaty recognises religious conscientious objection, the law also must mandate that the woman be referred to someone who will perform the abortion.

The opinion concluded that the Vatican-Slovakian treaty “may lead to the state violating its obligations” under international law by granting special status to Catholics, to the Catholic Church and to Catholic moral teaching.

More than 800 million children are exploited, says Vatican report More than 800 million children around the world are victims of malnutrition, disease, trafficking and other forms of economic and social exploitation, an annual Vatican report said.

Among the more worrisome trends are the more than 200 million child labourers between 5 and 14 years of age and the increase in street children on several continents, it said.

Millions more children are forced into armed conflict or prostitution.

In many countries, births are unregistered, leaving those children open to a lifetime of exploitation, it said.

“They are the scandal of our time. For 860 million children of the world, the future is an unknown and the present is a nightmare that lies on the consciences of adults,” said the report, issued on January 5 by Fides, the Vatican missionary news agency.

The annual report, first prepared in 2004, seeks to draw attention to the plight of young people on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, which the Church marks as the world missionary day for children.

The Holy Childhood Association, one of four pontifical mission societies, finances and supports thousands of projects aiding the neediest

children in developing countries.

In 2004, it allocated $18 million for nearly 1,800 projects, including programs at schools and orphanages. The report said that among the estimated 211 million child laborers about 171 million work in hazardous environments - operating dangerous machinery, handling toxic materials or spending hours in poorly ventilated mines, for example.

At the origin of many forms of child exploitation is the fact that, according to UNICEF, more than 50 million children born each year, mostly in Africa and Asia, are never registered. They become, in effect, clandestine in their homelands, unknown to their own governments, the report said.

The Vatican report said that among the estimated 120 million street children about half live in South America, and some 30 million live in Asia. It said the street children population was increasing, particularly in the major cities of Eastern Europe.

Human trafficking involves more than a million children each year, in what has become a $1.2 billion business, it said. The phenomenon is growing, and Europe has become a central hub for the trade in children, it said. Most of the victims are between 8 and 16 years old, destined for forced labour, criminal activities or prostitution; some newborns are also sold for adoption, it said.

January 12 2005, The Record

Page 9

The World Respect life to conquer bloodshed War, poverty ignore truth about human dignity, Pope tells diplomats ■ By Cindy Wooden

In the Middle East, in Africa and wherever violence and extreme poverty threaten human life and dignity, people must recognise the truth that all people are created equal and have a right to exist in freedom, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Bloodshed does not cry out for revenge, but begs for respect for life, for peace,” the Pope said on January 9 in his address to ambassadors and other diplomats representing their nations at the Vatican.

The Pope specifically mentioned ongoing tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq, the Darfur region of Sudan and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

He spoke about the threat to peace caused by terrorism, extreme poverty and human trafficking.

The Pope said the resolution of differences must be based on the truth about people and their communities, that they are equal but have legitimate differences that must be balanced.

Pope Benedict said the IsraeliPalestinian conflict illustrates what he means: “The State of Israel has to be able to exist peacefully in conformity with the norms of international law” and “the Palestinian people has to be able to develop serenely its own democratic institutions for a free and prosperous future.”

A commitment to truth, he said, also implies an individual or a nation is able to recognise when it has made a mistake and is able to seek forgiveness.

Pope Benedict said he knows some people will counter by saying, “Differing convictions about the truth cause tensions, misunderstandings, disputes, and these are all the more serious, the deeper the convictions underlying them.”

However, he said, a closer look reveals that conflict has “little or nothing to do with truth or religion” and that a sincere commitment to truth and to the respect for freedom demanded by truth is lacking when one or both sides resort to violence.

A child scavenges through a dump site near the smoldering Smokey Mountain dump in Manila, Philippines, in July 2005.

Photo: CNS

“Where the Catholic Church herself is concerned, insofar as serious mistakes were made in the past by some of her members and by her institutions, she condemns those mistakes, and she has not hesitated to ask for forgiveness,” he said.

Pope Benedict repeated the words of Pope John Paul II: “There can be no peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness.”

A commitment to truth, a recognition of one’s own errors and sincere forgiveness are needed in the Holy Land, in Lebanon and through the Middle East, “especially, Iraq, the cradle of great civilisations, which in these past years has suffered daily from violent acts of terrorism.”

“Surely one of the great goals of diplomacy must be that of leading all parties in conflict to understand that if they are committed to truth, they must acknowledge errors -and not merely the errors of others,” he said.

A commitment to truth, he said,

the world in brief More formation please The great majority of German Catholics believe it is important that children and young people be given a more active and intense presentation of the faith, according to a poll carried out among some three thousand German Catholics.

The results of the poll, revealed by the Work of St Boniface, show 86 per cent consider instruction in the faith to be urgently needed, and 71 per cent complained about the lack of formation in the faith.

Asked about the most significant person in handing on the faith, first place went to parents or some relative (97 per cent rating), next came a priest or religious (73 per cent rating), then a religion teacher (43 per cent rating),

also requires respect for the freedom of every person to seek the truth and to express his or her religious convictions.

“Unfortunately, in some states, even among those who can boast centuries-old cultural traditions, freedom of religion - far from being guaranteed - is seriously violated, especially where minorities are concerned,” Pope Benedict said.

“To all those responsible for the life of nations, I wish to state: If you do not fear truth, you need not fear freedom,” he said.

Recognising truth, people will see that peace is not simply the lack of armed conflict, but flows from acknowledging the existence of right and wrong on an individual and societal level and acting to protect the dignity of each human being, the Pope said.

“One cannot speak of peace in situations where human beings are lacking even the basic necessities for living with dignity,” he said.

The Pope called for concerted

and others (18 per cent rating). 64 per cent said society makes it difficult for young people to become interested in the faith. Asked about the message they would send to people today, “God welcomes you without buts or conditions” rated 68 per cent, “Seek peace among people,” 33 per cent and “Life after death” 62 per cent.

The majority of those surveyed said passing on the faith to one’s children is extremely CATHNEWS important.

Ursuline nun shot dead A 74-year-old Ursuline nun was shot dead at the order’s premises in Ngqeleni, apparently by a young male robber.

Ursuline Sister Clementine Brantschen, the order’s novitiate superior, had just returned from her work at Ngqeleni Clinic

action on the part of individuals and nations - especially the world’s wealthiest countries - to end poverty and starvation and to improve the living conditions of people in refugee camps.

“Truth demands that none of the prosperous states renounce its own responsibility and duty to provide help through drawing more generously upon its own resources,” he said.

“On the basis of available statistical data,” the Pope said, “it can be said that less than half of the immense sums spent worldwide on armaments would be more than sufficient to liberate the immense masses of the poor from destitution.”

Francis Rooney, the US ambassador to the Vatican, told Catholic News Service that joining the entire diplomatic corps for the first time in a meeting with Pope Benedict was “a tremendously impressive experience.”

on December 28 when she heard commotion and went to investigate, said Sister Magdalena Zenhausen, the Ursuline Sisters’ regional superior. Sister Magdalena said Sister Clementine found an intruder holding a firearm and demanding money from Angelina Sinyanzi, a domestic worker.

Sister Magdalena said that after Sister Clementine handed money over to the intruder Sinyanzi sounded the security alarm and rushed out of the novitiate to alert other domestic staff.

Father Octavious Khosoane, a local parish priest, and other staff stationed nearby heard gunshots as they ran to the house, Sister Magdalena said. They saw the intruder, a young man of about 21, fleeing, and then found Sister Clementine, who had been shot in the head.

Sister Clementine was rushed to a private clinic in Umtata, where she was declared

CNS

Raising a white flag A Polish archbishop said plans to make visitors walk over a Soviet flag as they entered a new “museum of communism” would be un-Christian and a triumph of Bolshevism.

Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin said although many Poles associated negative things with the Soviet flag “it can also been seen as symbolising victory over fascism - to trample on it would be deeply un-Christian.”

“We should always see concrete people, not just ideological slogans. We must not copy Lenin’s way of scorning human beings, since this would mean the posthumous triumph of Bolshevism,” the archbishop told Lublin seminarians. His remarks were reported in early January by KAI, Poland’s Catholic information agency. Archbishop Zycinski said Poles and Russians had little say in choosing national symbols under communist rule and should follow “the path of ideals presented by Christ,” rather than “copying the aggression and hatred previously directed at our own side.” “We should always treat shamefully such ideas as burning European Union symbols, spitting at images of politicians, destroying pre-election posters and throwing stones at groups with different convictions,” the archbishop said. “Jesus never encouraged such activities.

Instead, he taught respect for others, even for those who, like the prodigal son, had lost their way.” Plans were announced in December for the Warsaw museum, named after Ryszard Kuklinski, who spied for the CIA during 1971-81 as a member of communist Poland’s military staff. Jozef Szaniawski, a history professor at Warsaw University’s school of international relations, told the Zycie Warzawy daily on December 30 that the museum would open in May on a site donated by the Warsaw City Council. The Polish-born Kuklinski helped prepare the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia before passing to the CIA thousands of documents that covered Soviet nuclear deployments, satellite defense systems and plans for the 1981 imposition of martial law in Poland.

dead. Sister Clementine arrived in South Africa from Switzerland in 1968 as a nurse specializing in psychiatry.

Better to cheat than eat Most Italians feel more guilty about overeating than they do about cheating on their partners, according to the findings of a survey that factors other than religious faith are more inclined to influence behaviour.

Reuters reports that the survey, by psychology magazine Riza Psicosomatica, found that excessive eating and spending topped the list of what people considered the most guilt-inducing vices. Sexual infidelity came bottom of the list of the magazine’s ‘seven deadly sins’, behind neglecting friends and family, failing at work and not looking after CATHNEWS one’s physique.

January 12 2006, The Record

Page 10

Reviews Movie

Revenge as a deterrent Munich ■ By William Park

S

teven Spielberg has made a controversial but thoughtful film about Israel’s eye-for-an-eye payback for the murders of its athletes at the 1972 Olympic games.

I can understand why numerous Jewish voices have been raised against Munich, the latest film from Stephen Spielberg. Generically, it is a political thriller, but unlike Syriana, it does not round up the usual suspects: the CIA and corporate America. Instead it vividly portrays the tragic consequences of eye-for-an-eye, death-dealing justice. In so doing it questions both the wisdom and morality of Israel’s revenge on the Palestinian terrorists who planned the assassination of the Israeli team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Implicitly it subscribes to the questionable theory that the “root cause” of terrorism is injustice, not Machiavellian aggression and ethnic and religious hatred.

Almost three hours long, the film never flags. We expect such skill from Spielberg. But at the end, we hardly know what to think. Eric Bana, the Australian actor who plays the lead, Avner Kaufman, does not triumph over evil like Indiana Jones, nor is he justified like Oscar Schindler. Instead he is a tormented man, now living in permanent exile from the country of his birth, the country he undertook to avenge.

At the outset, like most heroes, he reluctantly accepts the seemingly noble task of tracking down the evil Black September terrorists. We listen in sympathy as Lynn Cohen, playing Golda Meir, explains that “every civilisation finds it necessary to negotiate compromise with its own values”.

After a tender love scene with

Eric Bana, left, and Geoffrey Rush star in a scene from the movie “Munich.”

his seven-months pregnant wife, he sets out on his quest.

But from the outset he, no coldblooded contract killer, encounters difficulties. His targets are kindly men, elderly family types, or genial neighbours. Innocent bystanders suffer, and then he starts losing members of his own team, one of whom, by the way, is Daniel Craig, the future James Bond. Starting as a hunter, he ends up being hunted, possibly by Israelis themselves. And along the way we hear eloquent Palestinian justifications for their behaviour, and the lethal consequences of the Arab response to his successes.

So the film raises more questions than it gives answers. Wallace Baine, the accomplished film reviewer for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, wrote that

“It’s like a spy thriller written by a roomful of rabbis.”

Each assassination provokes a discussion. Does revenge act as a deterrent, or does it just further a cycle of calamity? Which is more important, Israel or one’s family?

Can Israel survive if it does not respond in kind? Can a Jew be “righteous” if he kills others even to avenge the spilling of Jewish blood?

Can a country be civilised that engages in terrorism, even as counter-terrorism? All this of course relates to America and 9/11, as the final image in the film reminds us.

The film is beautifully wrought, the alternating between planning and violence, flashbacks and the present, documentary footage and re-enactment blend perfectly together. The acting could not be

Photo: CNS

better: Bana as the vessel of consciousness, a domestic man. longing for the perfect kitchen, sacrificing himself for what at first seems a higher cause; Geoffrey Rush as his Mossad case officer: one would think he too was an Israeli, not another Australian (the premier actors of our time). One could object to the improbable French interlude in which Bana experiences a family banquet in the green world of his highly-paid informers. That they can find the whereabouts of anyone in the world stretches belief.

But as in a play by Shakespeare, this seemingly interpolated scene comments on the main action. Whereas Bana has sacrificed his family for his country, these French operatives have denied their country all countries in fact - for the sake

Book

Let there be light ■ Review By Mark Reidy

‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is a story of hope. It is the autobiography of Perth woman Lisa Harris who has published and promoted her own journey to encourage others to put their faith in a loving and merciful God. Harris’ life is presented in diary-like

form and the majority of it is a reflection on her tragic and transient childhood from England to South Australia’s Neptune Island. While her style is limited in a literary sense, her heartfelt honesty depicts the reality of a lonely and tormented child.

Her story is interspersed with humourous anecdotes but the majority of the book deals with the trials and tribulations of

L’ACTION RÉPUBLICAINE Directeur Politique Maurice VIOLETTE

Le Journal de Dreux paraît Mercredi et Samedi TOUTES LES PUBLICITÉS Téléph. : 81

these years of loneliness, sickness, violence fear, abuse, abandonment and poverty.

Throughout the book I anticipated, or rather, hoped for, a dramatic and Divine intervention to offer respite to this sad and lonely little girl, but that moment never came. Instead her encounters with God are gradual and gently weave themselves into her life to create a genuineness of relationship that is far more real and powerful. The final chapters deal with her adult life and while Harris continues to deal with major hardships, the growth of this relationship allows hope to filter through.

The image of the lighthouse is significant in Harris’ journey from darkness to light as it symbolises the source of her inspiration. She acknowledges this in a reflection of the words of Jesus in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Available for $15 from the author, Lisa Diana Harris PO Box 938, Armadale WA 6992.

of their family. To them, countries only betray. In keeping with the outlook of the film, these professional cynics who doublecross their own clients are the only characters in the film who express any allegiance to religion, Catholicism of course.

Munich, then, as a coherent artistic unity stands on the shaky ground of our own confusions and dilemmas about violence and civilisation, of responding or not responding, of sacrificing values to save them or of just muddling along hoping for the best from people who wish to destroy us. It also illustrates, though not intentionally, the inadequacy of a merely natural perspective.

- William Park is a veteran film reviewer and the author of Hollywood: An Epic Production, a highly praised verse history of American cinema.

He lives in California.

January 12 2006, The Record

Page 11

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Sunday, January 15 ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK 1  2 PM ON ACCESS 31: Healing from the trauma of abortion / Georgette Forney with Fr Frank Pavone ; includes testimony of 14 year old Rebeka Forney, and a powerful pro-life film clip [Defending Life] ; followed by The Hippocratic Oath / Fr Stephen Torraco [The Gospel of Life in Health Care]. Please help us to keep these wonderful programs on air, by sending a donation to The Rosary Christian Tutorial Association, Postal address: PO Box 1270, Booragoon 6954. Enquiries: 9330 1170.

Sunday January 22 DIVINE MERCY PILGRIMAGE TO BOVE FARM Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary: 23pm Holy Hour to Jesus and Mary – Reconciliation will be available, 3-4pm Divine Mercy Holy Mass – Main Celebrants, Fr Doug Harris and Fr Paul Fox. 4-5pm Divine Mercy Way of the Cross, concluding with Benediction. 5-6pm Evening meal supplied, if required – barbecue at a cost of $5 each. 6pm Coach leaves Bove Farm. Transport from Perth and Willetton will be arranged. Tea and coffee and soft drinks will be available free for all, including BYO people. Enq: John 9457 7771 (SOR), Charles 9342 0653 (NOR).

January 20-22 16TH ANNUAL FLAME CONGRESS A weekend conference on the healing love of Jesus. Theme: The Compassion of Christ. John 23rd College Auditorium. John 23rd Avenue, Mt Claremont. Free Public Healing Rallies at 7.30 pm each night. Registered Day Sessions $65 all or $10 each: Saturday Sessions 10 am - 12 pm from 2.30 pm & 4 pm. Sunday Mass 10 am then Sessions 2.30 pm & 4 pm. For information call Flame Ministries International, 9382 3668 or email: congress2006@fl ameministries.org Web: www.flameministries.org

Saturday January 28 NOVENA TO OUR LADY The monthyly Novena to Our Lady of Good Health will be held at the Holy Trinity Church, 8 Burnett St, Embleton WA at 5pm followed by the Vigil Mass at 6pm.

Wednesday February 1 HOLY MASS AND HEALING SERVICE  ALAN AMES Touch of Heaven (Alan Ames Ministry). 7pm Mass followed by talk and healing service. St Bernadette’s Parish, cnr Jugan and Leeder Streets, Glendalough.

Enq: Loretta 9444 4409.

Abusers are on Wednesday’s 7–9pm, Substance Abusers Support Groups are on Tuesday’s 5.30 to 7.30pm & Friday’s All day Group for Substance Abusers is from 9.30am to 2pm including Healing Mass on Friday’s @ 12.30pm during term. Ladies Group’s are on Tuesday’s 11am to 1.30pm. Rosary is from Tuesday to Thursday at 12.30 to 1pm.

BULLSBROOK SHRINE SUNDAY MASS PROGRAM 2pm every Sunday Pilgrim Mass is celebrated with Holy Rosary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at the Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Rd. Bullsbrook. Reconciliation is available in Italian and English before every celebration. A Monthly Pilgrimage is held on the last Sunday of the month in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation. Anointing of the sick is administered for spiritual and physical healing during Holy Mass every second Sunday of the month. The side entrance to the Church and the Shrine are open daily between 9am and 5pm for private prayer. For all enquiries contact SACRI 9447 3292.

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A short history of St Clare’s School is being prepared to celebrate 50 years of its work in WA. Any past students, staff, families or others associated with the school - from its time at Leederville, at North Perth, at East Perth or at Wembley - are invited to contact us with photographs, or memories. Privacy will be protected, in accordance with your wishes. Please contact Nancy Paterson on 0417 927 126, (email npaters@yahoo.com.au) or St Clare’s School, PO Box 21 & 23 Carlisle North 6161. Tel: 9470 5711.

Grateful thanks to Infant Jesus of Prague, Our Lady, St Jude, St Anthony and St Therese for favour granted. S

a roundup of events in the archdiocese

CATHOLIC BIBLE COLLEGE

ST CLARE’S SCHOOL, SISTERS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

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Enrolments are now open for fulltime and parttime study at Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation. Orientation commences 13 Feb, Term 1 commences Monday 20 Feb. Day courses (9.30 -12.30): Bible Timeline (Mon); Saints of God/ Actions of the Holy Spirit (Tues); Life Skills (Thurs); Pastoral Ministry 1 (Thurs); Gospel of Matthew (Fri).

Night Courses: Finding New Life in the Spirit (Mario Borg, Wed); Apologetics (Thurs, Paul Kelly); Bible Timeline (Thurs, Jane Borg). Contact Jane Borg 9202 6859; 0401 692690. Website: www.acts2come. disciplesofjesus.org 7pm at St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay Street, Perth, WA. Take time to pray and be united with Our Lord and Our Lady in prayer with others. Appreciate more deeply the heritage of the Faith. Overcome the burdens in life with the Rosary, Meditation, Scripture, praise in song, and friendship over refreshments. Come! Join us! Mary’s Companion Wayfarers of Jesus the Way Prayer Group. Experience personal healing in prayer.

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INDONESIAN MASS Every Sunday at 11.30am at St Benedict’s church Alness St, Applecross. Further info www.waicc.org. au.

PERPETUAL ADORATION Christ the King, Lefroy Rd, Beaconsfield. Enq Joe Migro 9430 7937, A/H 0419 403 100. Adoration also at Sacred Heart, 64 Mary St Highgate, St Anne’s, 77 Hehir St Belmont. Bassendean, 19 Hamilton St and Mirrabooka, 37 Changton Wy.

PERPETUAL ADORATION AT ST BERNADETTE’S Adoration: Chapel open all day and all night. All welcome, 49 Jugan St, Glendalough, just north of

OFFICIAL DIARY JANUARY 14

Fr Georges Maurel’s Consecration as a Hermit - Archbishop Hickey

18

Swearing-in of Dr Kenneth Michael to the Office of Governor of WA - Mgr Michael Keating

CROSS ROADS COMMUNITY

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Opening Mass for SVDP Panasco Conference, Octagon Theatre UWA - Archbishop Hickey

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Province Mass for Sisters of St Joseph, South Perth - Bishop Sproxton

the city. Masses every night at 5.45pm Monday to Friday, 6.30pm, Saturday and the last Sunday Mass in Perth is at 7pm.

THE DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Square, Perth – each first Sunday of the month from 1.30pm to 3.15pm with a different priest each month. All Saints Chapel, Allendale Square, 77 St George’s Tce, Perth - each Monday and Friday at 1.35pm. Main Celebrant Fr James Shelton. St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor Street, East Perth - each Saturday from 2.30pm to 3.30pm, main celebrant Fr Marcellinus Meilak, OFM. Saints John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Drive, Willeton - each Wednesday from 4pm to 5pm. All Enq John 9457 7771.

BLESSED SACRAMENT ADORATION Holy Family Church, Alcock Street, Maddington.

Every Friday 8.30 am Holy Mass followed by Blessed Sacrament Adoration till 12 noon. Every first Friday of the month, anointing of the sick during Mass.

Enq. 9398 6350.

SUNDAY CHINESE MASS The Perth Chinese Catholic Community invite you to join in at St Brigid’s Church, 211 Aberdeen St (Cnr of Aberdeen and Fitzgerald) Northbridge. Celebrant Rev Fr Dominic Su SDS. Mass starts 4.30pm every Sunday. Enq Augustine 9310 4532, Mr Lee 9310 9197, Peter 9310 1789.

CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The Confraternity of the Holy Spirit has been sanctioned in the Perth Archdiocese, our aim is to make the Holy Spirit known and loved, and to develop awareness of His presence in our lives. If you would like more information please call WA Coordinator Frank Pimm on 9304 5190.

MAKE POVERTY HISTORY WALKERS MPH walkers - walking across Perth Outdoors wearing the White band is a message that we want poverty to be stopped. For info on the walk contact Teresa at tgrundy@westnet.com.au or tel. 9458 4084. For info on the worldwide campaign and what is happening this week in Perth look at www. makepovertyhistory.com.au.

January 12 2006, The Record

Page 12

The Last Word Holy See sets the pace for US officials ■ By Catherine Smibert

A

mid a season of festivity, one diplomatic banquet in Rome served its guests cold rice and tap water last week.

The idea for the event came from the new US ambassador to the Holy See, Francis Rooney. He had the support of his US colleagues, Tony Hall, the ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, and Ronald Spogli, the ambassador to Italy.

No, they haven’t gone mad. It was a “Hunger Banquet.” They were merely trying to raise hunger awareness and give a sense of the reality of global income disparity.

As they arrived, the VIP guests were called upon to take a glass of champagne and select a piece of colored paper out of a basket. This exercise determined which “income group” they would be put into and, essentially, what they would be eating for the rest of the evening.

So, 15 per cent of the guests were treated to a full-course meal, served on silver. Another 25 per cent of the crowd, representing the world’s middle-income group, were lucky to get a little bean protein with their rice.

The remaining 60 per cent

received plastic plates containing a little portion of cold rice and were told to venture into the garden of the ambassador’s residence, the stunning Villa Taverna, to collect their water from the tap. They represented the majority of the world that goes hungry every day.

In his speech at the refined affair, Ambassador Rooney said it was a way the United States was trying to respond to the appeal made

by Benedict XVI during a recent meeting of world leaders at the Rome headquarters of UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

“Pope Benedict called for greater international solidarity in the fight against starvation and malnutrition,” Rooney told his hungry listeners. “The United States has answered that call.”

The ambassador said that in partnership, US officials look to the Holy See to use its moral authority to protect the human dignity of every man, woman and child - which includes the right to not go to bed hungry.

“We know that the issue of global hunger is a complex one,” said Rooney, “so we are pleased to partner with the Holy See around the world, and with you here this evening, to raise awareness of - and find solutions to - the scourge of - ZENIT global hunger.”

For a few

For many

Students rekindle love of Christ by living out their dream ■ By Catherine Smibert

here is nothing like experiencing firsthand what is being taught T from textbooks to help you better grasp the subject matter.

That includes Catholic undergraduates who have the privilege to study in the Eternal City for a spell. One US-based college offers its students such a chance, with facilities that put them oh so close to the heart of the Church.

In fact, Christendom College’s Rome campus on Via Aurelia is a hop, skip and a jump away from the Vatican.

I recently encountered an unhappy group of students from this campus as they were passing by St

Peter’s Square to say goodbye at the end of their semester. Their dismay lay in the fact they couldn’t stay longer.

They directed me to a vast number of other graduates of the program who felt the same way.

Thomas Cole of Manassas, Virginia, said his Rome semester “demonstrated the richness and beauty of authentic Catholic culture and of the faith itself.”

He says this is vital because “too often we, as Catholics, are either unaware of, or simply take for granted, the valuable patrimony of culture and truth that has been bestowed upon us by Christ through his Holy Mother Church.”

Some of the students emphasised the importance of being in Rome

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be hard to return to daily life without taking it with you,” she said.

Another student, David Rudmin, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, noted the tangibility of a faith experience in Rome, saying, “It challenges not only one’s explicit understanding of what Western civilisation is built on, but also so many subtle prejudices that one didn’t even know one had … what holiness really smells like.”

Quinn Beekwilder of Sacramento, California, said that for him the Eternal City presents the Church in action in a way that is very rare to our typical daily experience of it. “I don’t think there’s anywhere else where you walk down the street, see a couple of carloads of cardinals, and don’t think twice about it.”

No

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Mary Reilander of Pembroke, Ontario, was struck how the city really is the centre of Catholic culture and marvelled at how great it was to just decide from one day to the next whether she would go down the road to see and hear the Pope.

Connecticut-raised Linda Antunes said she never completely grasped the universality of the Church until participating in such occasions.

“There is something absolutely transcendent about standing among a crowd of strangers who do not speak your language, but who feel like brothers because they share … an adherence to the Catholic faith,” she said.

- ZENIT

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and being able to learn more about the sacrifices made by our Church forefathers.

“The chance to go, live, and see the actual places where martyrs shed their blood for the faith … to see the crafted monumental structures of simple believers … really reminds one that the faith is actually something alive and historic,” said Brian Hadro, also of Manassas, Virginia. “It rekindles a fire to know more still.”

A student from Savannah, Georgia, Mary-Rose Lombard, described her time abroad as the culmination of all the classes she had previously taken at Christendom.

“The beauty and glory of the faith were written on every stone and with so much beauty it would

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