The Record Newspaper 22 July 2009 by The Record

It's happening to faithful, believing Catholics. So what's going on? And why? Vista 1-4

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ARISH. HE NATI N. THE Western Australia's award-winning Catholic newspaper since 1874 - Wednesday July 22 2009

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December 812009 This week Archbishop Barry Hickey announced the opening date for St Mary's Cathedral - one of the most beautiful feasts in the entire Church.

An artist's conception of how the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, known popularly as St Mary's, will look after its completion. Archbishop Barry Hickey has named December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, as the opening date for Perth's cathedral.

The official opening and re-dedication of Perth's St Mary's Cathedral would take place on December 8, 2009, Archbishop Barry Hickey announced on July 22. December 8 is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed

Virgin Mary, and both the Cathedral and the Archdiocese are dedicated to Mary under that title. The pro-Cathedral in Victoria Avenue was originally called the Please turn to Page 4 A dogma's history - Page 4

A mosaic of the Immaculate Conception depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary in glory. The Catholic belief that Mary was free from original sin from the moment of her existence was promulgated by Pope Pius IX in 1854. St Mary's Cathedral, named for Mary under her title as the Immaculate Conception, is due to open on this particular feast day of hers, December 8, this year. PHOTO:CNS

Deacons face Notre Dame and acceptance challenge Caritas team up for special Fiji project Deacons are still facing resistance by priests and laypeople throughout Australia, the chair of the National Committee for Deacons has told The Record. IN PAGE 7

Commissioned to teach Fijian youth how to survive natural disasters such as cyclones, a UNDA lecturer ended up helping them shoot movies. PAGE 7

Priests have to get out there, not hide Accepting two students as candidates for the priesthood at St Charles Seminary, Archbishop Barry Hickey outlined his vision for what priesthood should be. PAGE 5

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July 22 2009, The Record

THE PARISH

EDITOR Peter Rosengren cathrec@iinet.net.au

Vocations ministers undaunted

IOURNALISTS Anthony Barich abarich@therecord.com.au Mark Reidy reidyrec@iinet.netau rthiini@gmail.com Robert Hiini PRODUCTION &ADVERTISING Justine Stevens production@therecord.com.au ACCOUNTS Cathy Baguley recaccounts@iinet.net.au ADMINISTRATION Bibiana Kwaramba administration@therecord. com.au BOOKSHOP Caroline Radelic bookshop@therecord.com.au CONTRIBUTORS Debbie Warner Karen & Derek Boylen Anna Krohn Catherine Parish Fr Flader John Heard Christopher West Bronia Karniewicz Guy Crouchback

Vocations ministers from around the country enjoy a visit to St Patrick's Basilica in Fremantle and to the University of Notre Dame last week. Apprpoximately 100 were meeting at St Thomas More College in Crawley to consider the future of vocations ministry. PHOTO COURTESY UNDA

The Record PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902 587 Newcastle St, West Perth Tel: (08) 9227 7080, Fax: (08) 9227 7087 Website: www.therecord.com.au The Record is a weekly publication distributed throughout the parishes of the dioceses of Western Australia and by subscription. The Record is printed by Rural Press Printing Mandurah and distributed via Australia Post and CTI Couriers.

SAINT OF THE WEEK Blessed Titus Brandsma 1881-1942 July 27 From Bolsward, Netherlands, he entered the Carmelites and was ordained in 1905. After earning a doctorate in philosophy in Rome, Titus taught in Dutch universities and lectured on Carmelite spirituality and mysticism. He translated into Dutch the works of St. Teresa of Avila, was rector at the Catholic University of Nijmegen and promoted a free press. His work was widely printed and read. After Germany occupied the Netherlands, Titus was arrested as an enemy of Nazism. He was sent to several concentration camps, and was killed by lethal injection at Dachau in 1942. e

CNS Saints

• By Robert Hiini

Although a modern culture of indifference makes their job one of the hardest, vocations ministers from around the country had a productive national conference in Perth last week. Over 100 vocations ministry professionals from throughout Oceania attended the biannual Catholic Vocations Ministry Australia (CVMA) Conference last week. The five-day conference took place from July 13-17 at St Thomas More College, Crawley, featuring talks from Bishop Tim Costelloe SDB, Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne and Mexican priest, Fr Carlos Massieu, a former seminary director and specialist on the spirituality of mystic, Luisa Piccarreta. Perth author, Alice Nelson, recipient of the 2009 Best Young Australian Novelist Award, rounded-out the guest speakers in

a conference that took the "Coming of the Kingdom" as its theme. The event was organised by the Western Australian Vocations Network (WAVN) a body made up of representatives from different Religious congregations and associations present in WA - in conjunction with its national-body, the CVMA. Sr Bernadette Pike MG, the first professed member of the fledgling Missionaries of the Gospel Community, attended the conference with fellow community members Natalie Thomas and Beatrice Yong. Speaking to The Record, she described the conference as being a positive experience. Sr Bernadette particularly enjoyed Bishop Costelloe's take on the consecrated life and his practical advice about developing an attitude of receptivity to the presence of God, saying that the coming of the Kingdom was about the reign

of God within us. Sr Bernadette became a member of the WAVN's Committee just over two months ago. While not extensively involved in organising the conference, she accompanied a party of interstate delegates around the Basilica of St Patrick and the Fremantle campus of Notre Dame University as Ms Elizabeth Beal, Manager of the Office for Prospective Students, explained the university's purpose and the history and function of the site's buildings. The Willagee-based Religious said that having so many different Sisters and Brothers gathered together over the course of the five-day conference provided a great opportunity for learning and solidarity. "It's so important not to think you have all the answers but to learn from others," Sr Bernadette said, adding that the conference had made her hopeful for the future of vocations and vocations ministry.

Catholic Youth turn out for Hope OVER SIXTY young people attended Catholic Youth Ministry Perth's recentlyconcluded Hope Conference, which took place at Chisholm Catholic College, July 15 - 19. The revellers spent those days listening to talks from eminent Perth speakers -such as Archbishop Barry Hickey, Bishop Don Sproxton and Fr Timothy Deter and participating in praise and worship, games and art workshops as well as witnessing fire-twirling Religious Sisters. FOR FULL COVERAGE SEE NEXT WEEK'S RECORD.

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July 22 2009, The Record

Page 3

THE PARISH

A ppointments around the a rchdiocese

Counter -terrorist expert to head Theology at UNDA

Dr Matthew Ogilvie, the new head of Theology at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle

The Vice Chancellor of The University of Notre Dame Australia, Professor Celia Hammond, has announced the appointment of Dr Matthew Ogilvie as the new Dean of the School of Philosophy and Theology for the University's Fremantle Campus. Dr Ogilvie has returned to Australia from the USA where he worked for University of Dallas as Director of the Philosophy and Letters Program and Online Education Coordinator for the University's School of Ministry. Dr Ogilvie has also served as a research fellow at Boston College and he has taught at Australian Catholic University. He has given papers at national and international conferences Last year the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (USA) awarded him an academic fellowship for travel to Israel for counter-terrorism studies. His academic interests include systematic theology, religion and science, religion and terrorism. Prof. Hammond said: "We are delighted to have Matthew join our dedicated staff in the School of Philosophy and Theology. I am extremely confident that he will continue to lead the School in the excellent way of his predecessor, Father Peter Black:'

Colin Young has joined St John of God Hospital Murdoch as Director of Finance. Colin has extensive financial management experience, particularly within the healthcare sector. He was previously business manager at the Mount Hospital in Perth, responsible for all financial matters and a number of functional areas. Prior to this, Colin was employed by former Affinity and Mayne Health Care Groups in Victoria. Leanne Milligan has taken on a new role as Director Planning and Development at SJOG Murdoch. Leanne, who recently joined Murdoch as the interim Director of Finance, will now be responsible for coordinating the hospital's strategic and operational planning, clinical service development and Medical Clinic management, as well as a number of other functions. Leanne comes with extensive experience in the health sector and has worked for St John of God Health Care for 16 years in various senior leadership roles. St John of God Hospital Subiaco's Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Chris Hanna, has been appointed by the WA Minister of Health Kim Hames as a Board Member of the Nurses and Midwives Board of Western Australia. Chris will be part of a select group advising the Minister and facilitating public education activities. Mrs Kerrie Merritt is the new Principal at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Pinjarra from Term 2. Previously Kerrie was the Head of Primary at Mandurah Catholic College. Mr Paul HiIle has been appointed Principal for the amalgamation of Holy Name School, Carlisle and Notre Dame School, Cloverdale. Paul will take up the position at the commencement of Term 3, 2009 and will commence his appointment as the Principal of both campuses from January 1, 2010. During 2010, Paul will continue planning to facilitate full relocation onto the current Notre Dame School site for the beginning of 2011. Paul is presently the Principal at Our Lady's Assumption School, Dianella.

Doctors have 'primitive' understanding of palliative care: Parkinson If more doctors understand palliative care best practices, euthanasia will go nowhere, says bioethicist. • By Anthony Barich

More resources are needed to improve some doctors' "primitive" understanding of the world's best palliative care in order to relieve the push for euthanasia laws, Perth bioethicist Rev Dr Joseph Parkinson said. Rev Dr Parkinson, director of the LJ Goody Bioethics Centre, said that educating doctors on palliative care best practices is the key to fighting the current push to legalise euthanasia. He warned that the WA Voluntary Euthanasia Society is using 49-year-old quadriplegic Christian Rossiter as a test case to expand the Acts Amendment (Consent to Medical Treatment) Act 2008 passed in June last year to a euthanasia act. WA VES president Ranjan Ray told The West Australian that people like Mr Rossiter proved that living wills legislation that record a person's treatment wishes in a legally bindirT document, "did not go far enough: Mr Rossiter was in The West last month pleading for laws to help him die, but Rev Dr Parkinson said that while his case is a tragic and sad one, he is asking for more than what a civilised society ought to do. Mr Rossiter told The West he wants to spend $100,000 to end his life in Switzerland where euthanasia is legal rather than refuse nutrition and endure a prolonged and painful death. Rev Dr Parkinson said that for people like Mr Rossiter, "we as a society need to put more emphasis on ensuring all doctors are up to speed on what's possible to do with preventative palliative care around

Father Joseph Parkinson has highlighted the importance of o vercoming basic ignorance among some doctors in revealing euthanasia's false promises.

the world. My experience is that some doctors have very primitive ideas of palliative care, and that's very sad," he said. Rev Dr Parkinson added that no matter how good the quality of care that will be available, there will still be patients who want something else". "There's nothing we can do about that, but it would be a big mistake if we were to change our whole attitude to dying on the basis of what these individuals want. They have tragic cases but what they're asking is more than what a civilised society ought to do. "That's their personal choice and desire, and I don't think anyone can criticise him for having that desire to die quickly," Rev Dr Parkinson said. "But that's not something we as a society can sustain:' He says that the recent publicity surrounding Mr Rossiter is part of a coordinated campaign to win public support for another volun-

tary euthanasia bill prepared by Greens MP Robin Chapple, whose Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2002 was defeated comprehensively in WA Parliament. Rev Dr Parkinson warned of more cases like Mr Rossiter who will over the next six to 12 months be "wheeled out" by WA VES as part of the campaign. "What they won't say is that there are other patients like Christian who don't want euthanasia, and who are in worse situations, who don't want the risk of being euthanized," Rev Dr Parkinson said. "The dilemma is that if we give into the few who want this, we're putting at risk many others who don't want it:' He said that concerns about the Consent to Medical Treatment Act amendments were well-founded as it could be taken in the context of an ongoing campaign for euthanasia. However, he said the Bill itself has tight restrictions on making an advanced health directive to make a decision on a person's behalf. He said it's "almost impossible" to draw one up if the person who wants one is not already suffering a life-threatening condition. He said that countries who have legalised euthanasia have shown that "we're signing the death warrant for countless others who don't want to be euthanised but who will be". "If we set up a system where doctors are allowed to end people's lives on the base of illness or suffering, then some classes of people will be expected to be euthanised, like the extremely disabled, the old, those with dementia and children with major genetic abnormalities, as is happening in Holland," he said. Holland's figures from 2001 showed that out of 7700 who were euthanised, 980 did not ask for it.

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July 22 2009, The Record

THE PARISH

Derek - now 'Marriage Man' turns a hit on Twitter Perth marriage message on the web popular globally. • By Anthony Barich

PERTH'S Catholic Marriage Education Services Director is reaching hundreds of thousands of people outside the Church by posting blogs on social networking site Twitter under the identity `Marriage Man.' CMES director Derek Boylen started Marriage Man in April, posting questions, quotes and useful anecdotes every two hours between 8pm and 5am, when traffic on the website is at its peak. He writes a month's worth at a time and the website enables him to post automatically at specific times. He then checks the Twitter site each morning and after work and responds to any queries or answers. Twitter services that grade how effective Twitters are in connecting to the people who are 'following' them show that Marriage Man is in the 98th percentile, putting him near the top of people who are being engaged with. This reflects that Marriage Man is influencing among the largest amount of people, as his followers send his content on to others. His following is getting so big that in a fortnight he will need to produce a separate blog with potentially a YouTube video - a website designed specifically for dialogue that is seen by anyone who logs on. While most traffic on Twitter is people selling or spruiking prod-

Perth Catholic Marriage Education Services Director Derek Boylen at his computer, from which he 'tweets.' His web site is now so popular, around 10,000 people are following it from all over the world. PHOTO' A BARICH

ucts, including real estate, he says even these people check responses of those who are 'following' their posts, and as many are in a relationship themselves, they find Boylen's quotes and anecdotes interesting or even helpful.

A facility on the site that analyses how well 'Twitters' engage with their 'followers' has revealed that Marriage Man has over 10,000 'followers', and up to 550,000 followers of his followers. He said that while many of his questions like

"what do you think it takes to build a life-long marriage" earn typical responses like "communication, honesty, trust, etc", up to 30 per cent say that God or Christ is the most important thing in their relationship. This is because the people he tries to identify as potential 'followers' are those already Twitting about marriage, partner or fiancé, or about faith in some way, he said. "They're more in tune with relationships in their life, he added. Each day Boylen posts something personal about himself, like , `my son kicked a goal in junior football yesterday. I'm very proud of him". He also posts a life-affirming quote from the Bible, a marriage researcher, saint or other positive sources about marriage or love. He then posts an advice-based thought for the day and asks a question to engage his 'followers' with the subject matter. He also posts a link to a helpful website at times, and can track how many of his 'followers' actually go to that link on the internet, and he usually gets between 60 to 100 each time. Sometimes his `followers' will Tweet him with a website. Boylen says that internet research shows that with `social' media like facebook and Twitter, users tend to be broken down into three categories, and it applies, he says, to his Twitter page: about 90 per cent are just clurkers' who just read the page and don't engage with people. Ten per cent merely respond to existing content but don't generate new content. Only one per cent actually engage with

new content and contribute ideas. He recently received queries about `post-wedding day blues' by brides, particularly if they're cohabiting, who fear that their big day will result in an anti-climax when they go back to their regular lives. This does not seem to happen among people who don't co-habit before marriage, he says, as these people return from their wedding day to the exciting challenge of building a life together. Some people reveal intimate traumas like their spouses having left them, and even ask Marriage Man to pray for them. "It took me a while to get a handle on the value of Twitter," Boylen said, as so much content is random, relatively useless information. But working with countless couples at the Archdiocesan Catholic Marriage Education Services led him to think of ways to expose others outside this framework to "think about their marriage every day, how to keep their marriage alive and keep it life giving". "The main impact is to try to help people to have a better marriage, as the reason Christ elevated marriage to a sacrament is because marriage is good for the world, for the people in it and for the children in that family. It's good to see mum and dad hug, speak respectfully to each other... it's a good education for them, but its also good for everyone." It even helps Marriage Man be a better husband and father. Derek Boylen on what Catholic marriage needs to answer the challenge of a culture of divorce - Vista 4

New Cathedral opening will complete great effort Continued from Page 1 church of St John the Evangelist because construction was started on his feast day - December 27, 1843 - the day the first sod was turned. When Bishop John Brady became the first Bishop of Perth, the name was changed to the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist. Bishop Jose Maria Benito Serra, co-adjutor and administrator of Perth, was in Rome when Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. He returned to Perth and changed the name of the proCathedral to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on June 17, 1855, the third Sunday after

St Mary's Cathedral after its completion in 1865. Pentecost. When the new cathedral was built the name was applied to it when it was opened in 1865. "It is expected that many bishops from throughout Australia will attend the opening which is a significant event for the Church in Australia:' the Archbishop said.

"The conservation and completion of the Cathedral has taken around five years in preparation and three years in construction. "Four local architects were invited to offer sketches of how the two earlier partial cathedrals could be brought together so that the finished cathedral would appear as a complete building. It is a matter of great satisfaction and delight that the chosen architect, Mr Peter Quinn, has succeeded in doing so. "The first Cathedral was opened in 1865. In 1926 the foundation stone for a new cathedral to replace the old was laid. Because of The Great Depression the new cathedral was never completed. The cathedral opened in 1930 was an amalgam of the entrance and nave

of the old and the sanctuary and transepts of the new. "Finally, with the addition of a striking contemporary structure the two older cathedrals have been brought together to present a brilliant unity of diverse styles and textures. "The new Cathedral is the product of three centuries of endeavour and is now on the verge of completion. "Beneath the Cathedral is a complex of meeting rooms and other facilities, including a crypt or burial place for deceased Bishops and, we hope, canonized saints at some point in the State's history," the Archbishop said. Archbishop Hickey expressed his profound gratitude to the peo-

ple who had been so generous in raising the original target of $25 million well within the three-year appeal period. "People responded generously again when, earlier this year, we had to lift the appeal target to $32.9 million and we are confident of being able to open the Cathedral debt-free:' he said. "Both the Commonwealth and State Governments gave generous and early donations, and I believe this gave the community confidence that the project could be completed." The Archbishop said that in addition to its deep spiritual significance, the new Cathedral would be a thing of beauty and a joy for all West Australians.

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July 22 2009, The Record

THE PARISH

Redemptorist sees hope for Zimbabwe

Brother Casper Mukabva, a Redemptorist seminarian, says many Zimbabweans only eat PHOTO ANTHONY BARICH one meal a day - if that.

Despite country's troubles, a light is beginning to shine says visiting Zimbabwean seminarian. um By Anthony Barich

WHEN Brother Casper Mukabva is ordained to the priesthood in Zimbabwe in seven months, he may well become a target like other Redemptorists in the country. Brother Casper, 25, who was in Perth this month to promote the work of his Order, will follow in the tradition of Redemptorists championing the plight of the poor in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe suffers 95 per cent unemployment and an inflation rate of over 231 million per cent. The life of a priest in Zimbabwe is in stark contrast to that of one in the Western world, and Redemptorists, among other Religious congregations, are at the coalface. They are mopping up the mess left by Robert Mugabe, who took over as President in 1980. Fr Ronald McAinsh CSsR was repeatedly threatened with deportation while he was the Redemptorists' Regional Superior in Zimbabwe, because he often spoke out about the plight of the poor. In February 2008 he became the Superior of the Orders London Province. Journalling for the London Province's

Newman date set English cardinal to be beatified in Birmingham on May 2, source says • By Simon Caldwell

LONDON (CNS) - Cardinal John Henry Newman will be beatified in Birmingham, England, on May 2, a Catholic Church source told Catholic News Service. The date and venue have been proposed by the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes and are expected to be accepted soon by the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, the source told CNS on July 15 on condition of anonymity. The source said the cardinal will be beatified in the Birmingham Oratory, which he founded following his conversion to Catholicism in 1845 at age 44.

Page 5

website, Fr Ronald said of his time in Zimbabwe: "Let me just say that there is never a dull moment. In the midst of power cuts, lack of fuel and general shortages, I find a refreshing cheerfulness among our brethren. Perhaps it is the simplicity of the life itself. "To celebrate a liturgy with (fellow Redemptorists) - to hear 30 voices raised in song, accompanied by the drums and the hoshos (shakers) is an experience that always lifts the spirit; Brother Casper also shares a special affinity with the poor. He worked in a leprosarium and orphanage while a teen, and while he experienced the good life on his visit to Perth, those early experiences with the poor remain with him; he says he wouldn't leave Zimbabwe for anything. Though Catholic priests are often subject to various threats, they remain popular among the nation's poor - who constitute the majority of the population of Zimbabwe. At age 18, Brother Casper entered a formation house in Tafara, 20km east of Harare, for his postulancy and spent three years at a Jesuit College studying philosophy before studying theology in his novitiate in South Africa. While he grew up in a relatively prosperous Zimbabwe where education and food were freely available and accessible, conditions progressively worsened. Many Zimbabweans eat one meal a day, sometimes going days with nothing. "I love helping the poor; he told The Record. "They really make an impact on who I am as a person." In Harare Redemptorists run five parishes. A Redemptorist, Fr Benjamin Posvo CSsR, runs the Catholic Development Commission (CADEC), which oversees food distribution to the most needy. But because there is so little food production and unemployment is so high, most of Zimbabwe's produce comes from neighbouring South Africa. Seminarians like Brother Casper load and unload the delivery trucks and run the distribution of the imported goods. At St Gerard's parish in Borrowdale, in the north-east of Harare, the Redemptorists run a housing project for victims of a large-scale Government initiative which forcibly cleared and destroyed areas designated as slums and which was called "Operation Drive Out Trash; Redemptorists now provide food and spiritual help for the newly homeless created by the destruction of their dwellings. Brother Casper can see a light "starting to shine" in the country, but he doesn't know who it will come from or how change will happen. Wherever the country is headed, Brother Casper and his fellow Redemptorists will continue working with the poor and preaching the Good News - which, to him, is "a dream come true", despite the daily ordeals priests go through in Zimbabwe.

May 2 is seen as a favourable date because it is the feast of St Athanasius, the fourth-century "champion of orthodoxy" admired by Cardinal Newman. Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree authorising the beatification earlier this year after Vatican medical and theological experts approved the 2001 Cardinal John Henry Newman healing of Deacon John Sullivan of Marshfield, Massachusetts, who was" bent double" by a severe spinal condition, as a miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman's intercession. The decree was made public by the Vatican on July 3. Beatification is a major step in the Catholic sainthood process.

Don't stay home be priests among the people: Archbishop

Archbishop Barry Hickey receives Michael Cornell and Brennan Sia as candidates for the PHOTO: FRANCIS CONSTANTINO priesthood at St Charles Seminary in Guildford early in July.

Addressing seminarians, Archbishop urges them to leave comfort zone of priesthood and be accessible to people immersed in daily life. • By Anthony Barich

PRIESTS should be visible witnesses to the priesthood and to Christ in the marketplace, Archbishop Barry Hickey said on July 7. In his homily during a Mass at St Charles' Seminary where students Michael Cornell and Brennan Sia declared their candidacy for the priesthood to him, the Archbishop spoke of the need to "go out into the marketplace", as there are "millions of people out there who are like sheep without a shepherd". The Archbishop said he wanted the young men present, who included seminarians studying in both Perth and Sydney, to develop a concept of the priesthood that focused on reaching out to people, to "be in the world, but not of it". "There are very few priests who go out into the marketplace... they do, but you don't know they're there. If you walk through shopping centres and people see your cross or your collar, they approach you, because they recognise you" as a witness to Christ, he said.

"Speak the Good News, invite them to speak their stories. You can't stay in your presbytery expecting others to come to you; he said. The Archbishop spoke of a priest friend of his, now deceased, who was in charge of a small parish. Despite having suffered a mental breakdown, and his peers encouraging him to stay at home, the priest still sat in the local mall every week and "did a tremendous amount of good" because he still had a talent to listen to people. Archbishop Hickey, who entered the seminary at age 22, said the candidacy process, non-existent when he was a youth, is crucial today, as most seminarians are older when they enter and have been exposed to other paths of life. "The Candidacy process is where the Church asks if they're sure in their minds and hearts that this is God's call to service of God and His people," he said. The process also requires the consent of the seminary rector and authorities, and of the bishop. The Gospel of the day where Jesus spoke of labourers in the vineyard was particularly apt, he said. "The Gospel is Jesus telling us to pray for labourers in the vineyard. You can't just leave it to God. Prayer is necessary; He asked the seminarians to not only pray for themselves but for others, and stressed that candidates for the priesthood need to be "like Jesus, mixing with people where they are in their lives".

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July 22 2009, The Record

THE NATION

Adelaide braces for looming priest shortage Diocese expects serious shortage in near future. • By Anthony Barich

THE Archdiocese of Adelaide has launched a Leap Ahead project to address "major issues" facing it in next five to 10 years, including the impending lack of priests. Leap Ahead was launched late last year by Archbishop Philip Wilson to address major issues facing the archdiocese and to develop

a plan to ensure "a vigorous and Dulwich/Burnside and Kangaroo faithful Church for our future". Island parishes all have a Pastoral A statement on the Archdiocesan Director, with a Priest Moderator, newsletter from January said: "We who in most cases is not a resident all know that the process of par- in the parish. Elizabeth Parish has ishes being asked to twin or amal- a Deacon and a Priest Moderator. gamate is draining and challenging "Changes can happen quickly and in a few years, with existing - all it takes is for a priest to get resources, they will need to go sick or retire and it could be your through the whole process again. parish faced with this prospect:' Leap Ahead enables us to make the Archdiocese's Parish Finance our plans for the future and then Liaison officers Paul Della and implement the changes in a sys- - Keiran Hughes said in an April tematic way:' newsletter. "From a financial perDue to a shortage of priests spective it means parishes will and vocations, Albert Park/ have to fund the new position of a Pennington, Adelaide Hills, Pastoral Director:'

After focus groups were held in February, extensive conversations diocese-wide followed in April and May to gather data. Ten discussion groups focused on liturgical life, formation, leadership, pastoral care, cultural communities, finance and property, religious orders, schools, young people and catechesis, and spirituality. discussions Concurrently, occurred in other meetings with priests, secondary and primary principals and deputy principals of schools in the Archdiocese and with those involved in the leadership of Religious Education.

Following these initial discussion groups, the Leap Ahead team members are seeking further deanery-based conversations. Of the 54 diocesan parish priests in Adelaide in 1971, 27 were under 50, and 14 were under 40, but priest stocks are expected to be seriously diminished within a few years as many priests there are close to retirement, or are ill, or both.There is no functioning seminary in Adelaide, and only three men are currently understood to be studying for the priesthood two in Corpus Christi College in Melbourne and one in Rome.

How to survive natural disasters, by Fijian students

Clockwise from top: Caritas Australia programs coordinator Kirsty Robertson with Fijian students using the latest technology; students using UNDA MacBook Pros to bring their storyboard to life; locals give the thumbs up to Caritas, who initiated the project. PHOTOS: UNDA

Caritas and the University of Notre Dame Australia combined forces and harnessed technology to assist Fijian youth in a surprising way • By Anthony Barich

FIJI, located in a seismic zone and prone to flash flooding and cyclones from November to April, is no stranger to natural disasters. Its government has a Permanent Secretary for Natural Disaster. In February last year, its Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, declared a 30-day state of natural disaster in areas affected by Cyclone Gene, which gave officials authority to forcibly remove victims for their safety. Caritas Australia and the University of Notre Dame Australia have stepped in to teach Fiji's youth how to save their country from natural disasters. Caritas commissioned UNDA communications lecturer John Reed to create a video to teach Fijian youth how to survive natural disasters, in the hope they would then spread the message to their parents - but

in brief...

Liturgy expert cancels, replaced Fr Keith Pecklers SJ, Professor of Liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, has had to cancel his trip to Perth for a conference in anticipation of the

he went one better. Taking a Scitech animation specialist, eight Mac Book Pros from UNDA, web-cameras and a full-HD video camera with him, he set up a portable computer lab to educate Fijian youth in the old whaling town of Levuka, the old capital on Ovalau Island in Central Fiji from July 1-10. Fijian students from St John's College and Loreto Primary School created storyboards and brought them to life by shooting them on web-cameras on a miniature set with props photographed frame by frame before a static background, which they also created. The Loreto students had the roof of their school and student accommodation ripped off during a cyclone last year, so had personal experience to draw on. It was all done under the direction of Reed and Mark Sadler, manager of Scitech's Digital Studio and director of the Animation Film Festival that showcases the efforts WA students form Years 4-12 who produce stopmotion, Flash or 3D animation films. Now computer giant Apple is interested in featuring the Caritas Fiji Disaster Management Animation project as a case study on its website, and it was displayed at Caritas' Blueprint for a Better World Exhibition at UNDA until July 20. The videos will also be translated into the

release of the new missal's introduction next year. His associate, Fr Paul Turner of the Kansas City Diocese, will speak in his placeon the New Translation of the Roman Missal on August 21, from 9.30 am-lpm, at the Vietnamese Catholic Centre, 3 Victoria Road, Westminster. He holds a doctorate in sacred theology from Sant'Anselmo in Rome, is the author of many books of Catholic instruction and was a facilitator for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.

region's indigenous languages, distributed through the school network and shown on Fijian television to educate the public, and is also planned to be distributed throughout the Pacific - to Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati, where Caritas' Disaster Risk Reduction Program operates. "I suggested that the best way for kids to retain information is if they are involved in the production process and recommended we take Mark Sadler from Scitech to run animation workshops with ND Macbook Pro computers; Caritas contacted Scitech and they agreed:' Reed said. He said the project pioneers the model of teaching youth how to handle a disaster, "not knocking them over the head, but teaching them to make cartoons with important content. It's like educating them by pretending not to". Caritas' guidelines on how to survive natural disasters, including tsunami, cyclone, flood, fire and earthquake, were built into the stories of the cartoons and were based on information from Fiji's National Disaster Management Office. "Brochures don't tend to have much of an effect as people don't read them; but when we showed the finished product of the animation to a local Fijian village, the community was completely glued the screen. It seems everyone loves animation," said Caritas Pacific programs coordinator Kirsty Robertson, who joined the project.

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July 22 2009, The Record

Page 7

THE NATION

Deacons still facing pockets of resistance Centuries-old holy orders still struggle for acceptance. • By Anthony Barich DEACONS are still facing resistance by priests and laypeople throughout Australia, the chair of the National Committee for Deacons' has told The Record. While the diaconate dates back to St Stephen, martyred by St Paul before the evangelist's conversion, the permanent diaconate is still a relatively new concept in the Church in Australia, said Brisbane Deacon Peter Olsen. Deacon Peter is chairman of the NCD, a sub-committee of the National Council of Priests in its consultative role to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Deacon Peter, 72, said that while deacons are accepted, the issue that often comes up during national deacon gatherings is remaining "pockets of resistance", including priests and laity, particularly in some dioceses where the permanent diaconate is a relatively new concept. He says the remedy for this is for deacons to do their jobs as well as possible. The "resistance", he says, is mainly due to misunderstandings about the role of deacons, though there are over 100 deacons throughout Australia. "I don't blame people for that, as from my experience, we didn't have a good introduction," he said. "People in the pews weren't informed about the diaconate. In my case when I came back into my old parish as a deacon it was a bit hard for me and for people to understand... here's a guy who's

Sydney Church converting hearts with Twitter Sydney's Life, Marriage and Family Centre uses the Internet to reach out. • By Anthony Ranch

SYDNEY'S Life, Marriage and Family Centre has utilised all the latest popular social networking, video sharing and podcasting sites to provide spiritual and practical support to that which is often left abandoned - the family. In doing so, the Centre is also responding to Pope Benedict XVI's call to employ new technologies to make the Gospel known. In his message for the 43rd World Day of Communications on May 24the Pontiff acknowledged the way in which new digital technologies have brought about "fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships". He called on people to "employ these new technologies to make the Gospel known, so that the Good News of God's infinite love for all people, will resound in new ways across our increasingly technological world." The Centre, established in 2007 to extend the research, policy, educational and pastoral activities the Church undertakes with respect to life, marriage and family issues, has developed ways to reach people online who would not normally read such materials or attend Mass regularly. "All peoples, practicing or not, and beyond, deserve to hear first hand what the Catholic teaches about issues that touch so deeply and intimately upon their lives,' Life, Marriage and Family Centre education officer Bernard Tatuanji said. The Church wants to offer a hand of support and encouragement to mothers, fathers and families, he said, as these groups are often neglected and left without support. "To be a parent, to live in a family, these are beautiful realities, God himself is a family, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so the Church acknowledges this beautiful vocation," he said.

At the start of 2009 the Centre began a monthly e-newsletter, LMF News, made up of timely online articles short videos, podcasts, free e-books and upcoming events hosted by the Centre and other Catholic groups, is now sent out to over 1500 people in Sydney, nationally and globally. LMF News has already covered issues many 'controversial' Catholic moral issues including contraception, homosexuality, IVF, AIDS and condoms, plus death, overpopulation, fatherhood and marriage. The most popular articles, Mr Tatuanji says, are those on relationships and finding 'Mr or Mrs Right'. Newsletter subscriptions continue to rise and more people forward it on to friends, but the Centre wants each parish to promote the newsletter, as "people want to know that the Church is there for them every day of the week, there to give them hope and to lead them to Christ". The Centre also has a YouTube channel with a growing selection of videos, a group on the social networking sites Facebook and Xt3 (the official social networking site for World Youth Day) and most recently a Twitter account with which it posts regular inspirational quotes on life, marriage and the family. "The Church has been speaking for 2000 years; it would be a shame to forget some of those powerful phrases," Mr Tatuanji said. "Twitter allows us to offer bite size chunks of wisdom to anyone who wishes to receive them." The centre publishes colour brochures that reveal "the beauty and depth of the Church's vision of the human person, sexuality and life issues" annually. These are sent to parishes to help commemorate Respect Life Sunday and Marriage Sunday, and are also requested as resources for school students. To subscribe to the Centre's free monthly e-newsletter - LMF News - go to their website, www.lifemarriagefamily.org.au and enter your email address. You can follow them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lifemarriagefam, or view their YouTube videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/ LifeMarriageFamily.

been a layman for so long, and now he's clergy. "Sometimes the thought is still there that we're glorified laypeople, not holy orders." Deacons are traditionally assistants to the bishop and are at the service of the diocese, but are often assigned to parishes to conduct funeral services, the Sacrament of Marriage, baptisms and, with permission, preach the Gospel and the homily at Mass. They are also often obliged to do additional pastoral work. Many permanent deacons work in diocesan agencies, while others run parishes in the absence of a priest, but cannot consecrate the host into the Body and Blood of Christ or conduct Last Rites. One of Australia's first Deacons was Boniface Perdjert, an Aboriginal, ordained by Bishop John O'Loughlin in Darwin

Cathedral in July 1974. Deacon Peter, a retired cabinetmaker and father of five, was ordained by Archbishop John Bathersby in 2005 after working for the Church in Brisbane for 25 years as a parish coordinator at St Mary's Ipswich then as pastoral associate at St Joseph's in Ipswich and at Leichhardt. He spends much of his time preparing couples for marriage and for the baptism of their children and is often the unofficial chaplain at the parish primary school where his wife is the assistant principal. Deacons enjoyed an active pastoral ministry in the first five centuries of the Christian Church, but was eventually relegated to a "transitional" order given to candidates on their way to priestly ordination. While the diaconate is still a transitional order given to those on their way to priestly ordina-

tion, the Second Vatican Council restored the diaconate as a permanent ministry in the life of the Church, and this may be given to unmarried men, or married men who cannot then become priests. John Paul II renewed ordered and approved the extensive documents, "The Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons" and "The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons. Up to 50 Deacons and their wives are expected to attend the National Deacons Conference in Broken Bay, NSW from August 6-9. Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, former Federal Health Minister and former seminarian Tony Abbott, Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone, Broken bay Bishop David Walker and Fr Frank Brennan SJ will address the conference.

that between 3000 and 5000 pilgrims may seek to make the journey to Madrid, after the success of WYD08 in Sydney, in pilgrim groups of varying sizes, though the bishops said this is only an "indicative estimate". The successful Pilgrimage Provider will be selected on their demonstrated successful experience with international pilgrimages and travel arrangements, their understanding of the Catholic Church and WYDs, and their financial viability. The Official WYD Pilgrimage Provider will be accountable to the Bishops

Commission for Pastoral Life, through the Bishops Delegate for Youth, and will provide full-time staffing support for the development of pilgrim materials and a budget to support the operation of the national committee.

Australia's bishops begin preparing for World Youth Day in Madrid AUSTRALIA'S bishops have started preparing for World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain, calling for expressions of interest for the Official Pilgrimage Provider to the Catholic Church in Australia. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, through the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life, is calling for expressions of interest by July 31. It is anticipated

Specifications, including responsibilities and selection criteria, for the Official WYD Pilgrimage Provider may be obtained from: Bruce Ryan Executive Secretary Bishops Commission of Pastoral Life GPO Box 368 Canberra ACT 2601 Email: pastoral.life catholic.org.au

Stnit ehmtstjltgijtyj lii OA Ian% tat DEEPLY saddened by the crisis engulfing Christianity in the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI has asked the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to provide urgent help. In many parts of the land Our Lord Jesus Christ knew so well, the faithful now live in fear as increasing poverty and growing extremism threaten the survival of these ancient communities. A mass exodus of Christians from the Middle East is now taking place. For some it is a question of escaping bloody persecution. In the Holy Land for example, the proportion of Christians has plummeted from 20% to as little as 1.4% in the last 40 years. ACN is helping to keep faith and hope alive throughout the region by providing urgent aid to priests, religious and lay people, offering subsistence help to refugees and building and repairing Churches and convents. Please help us strengthen and rebuild the Church in the land of Christ's birth.

" ... Churches in the Middle East are threatened in their very existence... May God grant A CN strength to help wherever the need is greatest." Pope Benedict XVI

A beautiful, olive wood crucifix, handcrafted in Bethlehem, will be sent to all those who give a donation of $20.00 or more to help this campaign. Please tick the box below if you like to receive the little olive wood crucifix*. =11

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Page 8

July 22 2009, The Record

PARISH

Encyclical aims at a John Paul icon to visit UNDA new paradigm The current crisis has underscored the need for a new ethics to guide the world Fr Bruce Duncan says in analysing Pope Benedict's latest encyclical

A411141

n his new encyclical Pope Benedict has called for a renewed ethical vision of how the world might address the many urgent social issues at this perilous moment in human history. Addressed to all people of good will, the encyclical appeared just before the meeting in Italy of G8 leaders who were discussing precisely these great global issues, the financial crisis and the global recession, and the threat to world development efforts, particularly the Millennium Development Goals to wind back sharply the extent of hunger and the grossest poverty. World leaders who visited the Pope at the time, including Australia's Kevin Rudd and US President Obama, will have much to applaud in the encyclical. Both share with the Pope the conviction that God is passionately concerned about human wellbeing, and expects believers to be so as well, with particular concern for the distressed and most vulnerable. As Pope Benedict says, this focus on human wellbeing is shared by all people of good will, believers and non-believers alike, and provides the grounds for collaborating in renewed global efforts at sustaining human life in all its dimensions and protecting the environment so that it can support and delight future generations. Though the Pope does not use the word `neoliberalism; or indeed even 'capitalism', his critique of the exaggerated free-market ideology that paved the way for the astonishing collapse of financial markets is unmistakable. Benedict recognises that the processes of globalisation have positive features as well as negative ones. He criticises the 'ferocious pace' of globalisation and its appalling inequalities, but he also sees the current crisis as 'a great opportunity' to reshape the global economy to enhance human wellbeing everywhere. To do this, the 'economy needs ethics in order to function correctly - not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred'. He rejects the view of market 'efficiency' as inadequate to address social needs, and instead reiterates the need for states and civil society to control market outcomes to ensure social and distributive justice. Such notions were dismissed as 'humbug' by the founding father of neoliberalism, Friedrich von Hayek, but the Pope is drawing from deep wells of Christian and Jewish conviction that the economy must serve everyone, not just the better-off or rich. Benedict highlights the wasteful consumerism in richer groups and countries which stands in such sharp contrast with the appalling poverty of hundreds of millions of others. He calls for greater efforts to

eliminate hunger and poverty, and for a redistribution of wealth and opportunity. In richer countries he calls for a new ethic of frugality and moderation, with a change of lifestyles to protect the environment and ensure a sustainable future for coming generations. He encourages the formation of a renewed social conscience and sense of responsibility, lest action merely serve 'private interests and the logic of power' (#5). Benedict notes the corruption in both rich and poorer countries, and that some large multination companies have also caused major problems, along with the failure of many richer countries to honour their pledges to finance efforts to reduce global hunger and poverty. He calls for renewed efforts to feed everyone in the world adequately, realising that we have the capability of doing so. Indeed, he insists on cultivating a 'public conscience that considers food and access to water as universal rights of all human beings' (27). Much of the fault he sheets home to the extreme free-market ideology of individualism and its effects that include: • the down-sizing of social security systems in many countries • the undermining of free associations, particularly trade unions and • the lack of security in employment for many working people. He supports reform of the UN and other international institutions, to give a greater voice to poorer countries. He also encourages disarmament negotiations and efforts to resolve migration issues. And he reiterates Church concern to protect the most vulnerable human life and hence its opposition to abortion, coercive birth control programs and euthanasia. Benedict reiterates that promotion of human wellbeing is an essential part of the Church's mission, but one shared with all people, and hence his suggestions for action can be seen not as matters of faith obligation, but as contributions to the wider conversation about how to solve current problems. Somewhat controversially, he advocates a system of international governance with power to help resolve international disputes. Benedict situates his proposal in the context of the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, insisting on the priority of the common good, and on the need to distribute decision-making as widely as possible. The European Union has tried to embody these principles. Benedict identifies other important problems, including the exploitation involved with sex tourism and trafficking, as well as the corrosion of ethical standards in much of the media. At the same time, he encourages micro-finance and micro-credit schemes, and land reform in developing countries. He also suggests new forms of business enterprise, and especially mentions new forms of mutualism, that widen participation and accountability in businesses. The document is somewhat academic in parts, but it provides a focus as we search for deeper ethical foundations on which to build a more equitable world. Fr Bruce Duncan studied economics and politics at the University of Sydney, completing his doctorate in political science in 1987. Since 1986, he has taught at Yarra Theological Union in Box Hill in Melbourne, where he co-ordinates the program of social justice studies.

From 17-18 August, the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, will host a special icon presented to the world's universities by Pope John Paul II.

"MAKE the University an environment where knowledge is cultivated, a place where the individual finds direction for the future, knowledge, inspiration for effective service of society." This was the request by Pope John Paul II to teachers and staff when he began the journey to the world's universities of his commissioned icon of Mary and Jesus - Our Lady Seat of Wisdom as part of the Jubilee celebration in 2000. Notre Dame's Fremantle Campus will take part in this journey when it welcomes the icon at 11:30am on Monday 17 August. The arrival will be celebrated with a welcoming liturgy prior to Mass at 12:35pm. Whilst on Campus, the icon will be hosted in the Holy Spirit Chapel (Cnr Mouat and Croke Streets) and will be available for veneration, meditation and

prayer. Talks will also occur at various times. A meditation service will be held from 7:30-8:30pm on Tuesday, August 18. The broader community is encouraged to visit and participate in the visit of the icon to Notre Dame; a number of talks are scheduled to take place on understanding and praying with icons. Notre Dame Philosophy and Theology lecturer Dr Angela McCarthy said icons are part of the ancient Christian tradition of making sacred images that lead people into the presence of God and are therefore often termed 'windows to heaven: "They are not simply religious art, but are sacred objects, written' by an iconographer who faithfully records the Church's theological understanding of the subject of the icon," she said. "Prayer and fasting are often included in the preparation and the result is an image that brings us into the reality of the Incarnation - God is in the world. "Everything about an icon is symbolic and food for meditation. University Chaplain, Father Gerry Conlan OMI said that the the Notre Dame Community is grateful for the opportunity to host the Icon. "We encourage all staff and

The icon Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, commissioned by Pope John Paul II will be in Fremantle on August 17 and 18.

students, especially, to avail themselves of this unique opportunity. We pray that the Icon's visit will inspire many to remember the source of all Wisdom whenever the name Notre Dame (Our Lady) is seen, or heard, long after the icon has continued its journey around the world:'

Notre Dame staff win awards Outstanding contributions to student learning acknowledged. THE Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) has awarded academics from The University of Notre Dame Australia three Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Established in 2004 by the Australian Government, ALTC is an independent organisation dedicated to improving the student learning experience by supporting quality teaching and practice. Citations are awarded to academic and professional staff who have made long-standing contributions to the quality of student learning and improving the overall student experience. More than $2 million will be presented to 206 individuals and teams at ceremonies held in August as part of the Australian Government's commitment to quality learning and teaching, with each citation worth $10,000. The successful Notre Dame recipients were; Associate Professor Shane Lavery (School of Education, Fremantle), Mr John Rees (School of Arts and Sciences, Sydney) and members of the School of Arts and Sciences Aboriginal Youth and Community Wellbeing Team: Professor Neil Drew, Ms Kate Mugliston, Professor Peta Sanderson, Dr Dawn DarlastonJones, Dr Dylan Korczynskyj (Fremantle) and founder of the program, Mrs Maria Morgan The School of Arts and Sciences Aboriginal Youth and Community Wellbeing Team citation is 'for authentic and compassionate approaches to cultural learning and engagement with regional and remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia consistent with University values and mission: The team is a multidisciplinary group working in partnership with remote Aboriginal commu-

Professor Neil Drew, Ms Kate Mugliston, Professor Peta Sanderson, Dr Dawn Darlaston-Jones, Dr Dylan Korczynskyj from the University of Notre Dame's School of Arts and Sciences Aboriginal Youth and Community Wellbeing Team. The group is among a number of UNDA staff who have been honoured for outstanding contributions to learning. PHOTO. COURTESY UNDA

nities to stimulate the passions and commitment of students for social justice and reconciliation. Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Fremantle, Professor Drew said that they were very proud to receive the award. "We are grateful for the public acknowledgement by the ALTC. It is a tremendous recognition of the wonderful things that can be achieved as a result of a genuine partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in pursuit of practical reconciliation through education. "In this program we live and learn together - walking alongside one another for shared learning. I am very grateful that we have been invited so fully into the lives of some extraordinary people from the Aboriginal communities in the East Kimberley. This program has been life changing and even life defining for participants. My thanks also to the University for its unwavering support of this important work," said Professor Drew. Mr John Rees lectures in Politics & International Relations and is the Internship Coordinator for the School of Arts and Sciences in Sydney. He has been acknowledged for his contribution to student learning by engaging and motivating students to move from opinion-based to knowledge-

based learning of Australian and world politics. Mr Rees' citation was 'for inspiring students through highlevel teaching and communication practice and for motivating students to link knowledgebased learning to their vocational futures: Associate Professor Shane Lavery's citation was `for sustained leadership and commitment to developing a service-learning culture as an embedded and integral part of the Secondary Teacher Education Formation Program' . Associate Professor Lavery is the Coordinator of Postgraduate Education on the Fremantle Campus. Since its inception six years ago, this service-learning program has been highly successful with both students and community partners. Vice Chancellor, Professor Celia Hammond said the success of the staff in this year's ALTC awards was a significant acknowledgement. "On behalf of the University, I congratulate our three successful nominees for this national recognition of their outstanding achievements. All three citations reflect the commitment Notre Dame's staff have to providing excellent teaching, and challenging and diverse educational experiences for our students.

July 22 2009, The Record

THE RECORD VISTA

• Breamng vows:

when faithful Catholics divorce

• by Tom Hoopes

/ I

t wasn't supposed to be like this." That's how divorce starts for the Catholic couplesI talked to: hardcore, confession-going, Humanae Vitae-believing Catholic couples. Couples who know exactly what marriage is supposed to be. One man I spoke with, now divorced, took Scott Hahn's Christian marriage class with his theologymajor fiancée. Another couple, now divorced, made the twin sacrifices of building a large family and allowing the wife to stay home — because, in the ex-husband's words, "Simpleminded me,Ilooked at every sacrament

as precious and worthy." Two others, now divorced, helped at their parish and were financially sacrificing to send their kids to Catholic schools. Another woman told me that, until recently, she and her husband published pamphlets on how to live a Catholic marriage better. Nearly every married couple at one point or another faces deep disappointment. But unless there is abuse, Catholic couples have very few options when things get really tough. They can either struggle to get their love back or struggle to live without it. What they can't do is divorce. "Divorce is a grave offence against the natural law," according to the Catechism (2384). "Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign." The grave sin of divorce infects everybody around it. It wrecks families and convinces society that Catholic teaching about marriage just isn't practical. So why are so many committed Catholic couples doing it?

The D-Word

For most assenting Catholics - Catholics who reject the idea of legitimate doctrinal dissent - the mystique of Catholic marriage keeps them together. They refuse even to consider divorce an option.

So, for an assenting Catholic, the topic of divorce is usually accompanied by a question: What if our marriage isn't even valid to start with? Or, as Alicia stated it "I'm too good to be divorced. Therefore this was not a valid marriage." "As soon as you even talk about divorce as if it's an option, you've taken your first step," Patricia, an abandoned mother of five, told me. When one spouse has dropped the D-word, a black cloud enters a home and hangs there, affecting everything. Close friends are consulted. One or both spouses will speak to a priest. Still, the black cloud can be dispelled even at this stage, and often is, if the couple looks into the horrible consequences of divorce and decides they just won't go there. There's always hope. Until someone calls a lawyer. "All it takes is one confused spouse who thinks that divorce will solve their unhappiness," said Michelle Gauthier, founder of Defending Holy Matrimony. "When that one spouse visits a lawyer, they place the entire family in the hands of a hostile court system. Children become wards of the state, and all marital assets are controlled by the courts. It is truly a tragedy." Judy Parejko, Gauthier's colleague and author of Continued overleaf

VISTA 2

July 22 2009, The Record

So if Catholics understand math e, why do they divorce? What couples Continued from Vista 1 Stolen Vows, says it's the coercive system we have called no-fault divorce that pushes people in only one direction." One abandoned mother called me after getting a particularly offensive note from a court representative. "I get the feeling that there is this perverse patronizing that's going on here," she said. "They're actually pleased to rip my family apart because they think I'm this mistaken ancient restrictive weirdo because I'm a loyal Roman Catholic." For a woman in her position, the feeling of betrayal is overwhelming. "It's like the Church has let us go into the hands of a monster that is tearing our family apart, and the Church won't intervene," she said. "They just stand back and watch it happen. When I made my vows, I signed up for something different."

The size of the problem

Some distinctions are in order. The divorce rate among Catholics in the US is reputedly the same as that among the general public, where about 35 per cent of people who have been married have also been divorced. The couples I spoke with were very aware of the high Catholic divorce rate. The abandoning spouse in each took comfort in the thought that he was just part of a crowd. But as with most polls that identify trends in the Catholic population, there's less in that number than meets the eye. The Barna Research Group estimates that 25 per cent of Catholics who have been married have been divorced - that's lower than the general population, but high nonetheless. But the group's research also says that only 49 percent of those Catholics go to Mass on any given week. So, what percentage of these divorcing Catholics are lapsed Catholics, and what percentage are committed Catholics? Barna doesn't say. In fact, no one knows exactly what the assenting-Catholic divorce rate is. Catholics sometimes cite the statistic that only 2 percent of married couples who use natural family planning (NFP) end in divorce, but investigate that and you'll soon find that no one knows where the 2 percent figure came from. Parejko said she's skeptical about claims that assenting Catholics have a lower divorce rate. "I've seen that the problem is just as bad for Catholics, and even what I call devout Catholics, as the rest of the country," she said. "I don't see any protected category." Dominican Rev. Juan-Diego Brunetta offered one measure of how bad it is. He is a judge and defender of the bond at the marriage tribunal at the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, where he's involved in hundreds of Petitions for Declarations of Invalidity of Marriage (the technical name for an annulment). "My response can only be anecdotal," he told me. "But in the cases I've handled, I would estimate that in somewhere between

The tragedy of divorce is not understood by societies like Australia generally. However it appears that Catholics, whether in Australia or the US, divorce at close to the same rate as their contemporaries. Is there a deficiency in their understanding and attitudes to marriage? 5 and 10 percent, at least one member of the couple made an effort to know, study, or follow the Church's teachings," he said. The president of a Catholic college known for its fidelity guessed that about 5 per cent of the marriages of its alumni end in divorce. Whatever the number is, it looks awfully high to Catholics who see their friends splitting up. And for each of the marriages that ends in divorce, there are plenty that walk right up to the edge. "Catholics are falling apart left and right, orthodox Catholics," said Dr. Phillip Mango, a psychoanalyst at the St Michael's Institute in Manhattan. "When I saw the Catholic marriages in this country that are hurting, I.wasn't shocked I was saddened. Who is dealing with this? Who is dealing with this in a real way? Bible study is just not doing it."

Pride and individualism

Why is the problem of divorce rearing its head among Catholics right now? For the same reasons it's plaguing everyone else. Catholics can sometimes convince themselves that they aren't part of the same culture as the rest of the world. But we're all part of the culture of immediate gratification that doesn't consider long-term consequences. We're all individualistic rather than communal. Most of us have easily dropped relationships, even family ones, to pursue careers and comforts. On top of that, younger Catholics, products of the 1970s and 1980s, are likely to come from broken homes, or homes bent almost to the breaking point. The crisis of fidelity affects us, too. "We live in a culture in which everything is disposable," said Gauthier, "including unborn children and spouses. This culture affects even the most faithful."

But what about the Faith? Shouldn't faith steel the assenting Catholic against the culture? In fact, it's the other way around. Faith needs a culture to stay strong. Worse, a self-righteous faith can lull Catholics into a false sense of security, a new Phariseeism convinced that intellectual assent to the right doctrines — not our humility and God's mercy — is what saves us. "They think they know everything there is to know about marriage," said Father Brunetta, "and when they get there and discover it's not what they expected, they don't know what to do. If we think the answer to the real day-to-day problems of our marriage is going to be found in a paragraph of Familiaris Consortio, we've missed the point of the document." Doug and Andie can relate. They met on the campus of a faithful-to-the-Magisterium Catholic school in 1989 when "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was a hit song on the radio and Field of Dreams was in theatres. Andie was a theology major, but it was Doug's communications major that led him to full-time Catholic work later in life. They dated, got engaged their senior year, and took three kinds of marriage preparation, including NFP classes. They married a month after their 1992 graduation. Doug had a full-time job in the apologetics movement. "I was surrounded by theology 24 hours a day," he said. But while he and his wife overloaded on "Catholic stuff," they neglected to develop an authentic spirituality. "We went to Mass together on a weekly basis," he said. "We did some spiritual things together that were part of the family life, not as often as she would have liked." Doug -- who's now an abandoned father of two said that the troubles that tore his marriage apart came down to pride.

"Both of us became guilty of self-righteousness," he said. "We both thought it was more important to be right than to be happy. And that's a killer for a marriage." In retrospect, Doug says that marriage preparation gave him all the doctrinal answers but left him unprepared for the life that he would face. "I have learned a lot since then through individual counselling. Too many times, I will read something in a book only to look up to God and ask, 'Why didn't I read this five years ago?" Father Brunetta said that for many couples, "an overly intellectual approach diminishes the mystery that marriage is supposed to be. Before I got ordained I had a certain sense of what it was to be a priest. I thought I knew what it would be like, but I had no idea. A lot of it is experiential. It's learned in the very living of it. If we've got it all figured out ahead of time, we might end up fighting against what our married life is teaching us." Patricia, abandoned mother of five, can relate. She and her husband made a deal that they would never share their marital problems with others. It didn't seem like such a bad plan. "You don't want to be one of those people who gossips about their spouse and just complains," she said. But then it became something else. "You have an image that you portray to other people that you're a good Catholic," she said. "But to seek out and recognize how bad marriage problems really are, you need to talk about them." Patricia explained the phenomenon to me. Catholic couples "think that if you're punching your time clock, doing your duties to your faith, God promises to take care of your marriage. But your marriage has a life of its own, and if you don't do something about it, it's going to fester and it's going to explode." Whether you like it or not, she said, cultural forces will exert an influence over you, no matter how faithful you are doctrinally. "Nobody can escape the fact that you only know what you grew up with even if you have Catholic faith. So unless both people came from a really beautiful marriage, they're going to come in with broken ideas." Doug said the same thing. He and his wife had a great opportunity to grow together, to balance each other out, in the complementarity of marriage. But that's not what happened. "I did not provide as much emotional support and encouragement as she needed because I was an introvert," he said. "She did not trust me enough with major decisions and relied on her family's input to chart our course." Instead of working for a marriage that helps balance their temperaments and better them, they've gone their separate ways. Now their two children are from a broken home.

The abandonment diagnosis

Ironically enough, faithful Catholics' emphasis on doctrinal study can actual-

really need • By Derek Boylen

Tome Hoops thinks that pride and individulism - and a failure to foster an authentic spirituality between spouses - are key contributory factors to divorce among Catholics. The victims? Everyone, but as usual, the children first. ly leave them vulnerable to high-minded doubts about their marriages. "You see the same phenomenon with medical students," said Father Brunetta. "As they study medicine, they begin to self-diagnose. Each new ache and pain is imagined to be an indication of the most virulent disease they know. Of course, precious few of them actually have spinal meningitis or pancreatic cancer. Normal aches and pains indicate life, not death." In the same way, he said, "There are tensions and struggles and difficulties that are normal in the marriage — these are signs of health, not invalidity." But the spouse who wants to jump ship won't think so. He or she will search through the reasons some marriages are declared invalid. He'll discover that for a Catholic who knew Church teaching on marriage, there simply aren't any intellectual grounds for annulment. "The bar is very low for what one needs to know to get married validly," said Father Brunetta. "The Church law requires very little for a valid marriage. People playing all these head games about why their marriages are invalid don't understand the Church's teachings." The assenting, divorcing Catholic will eliminate them, one by one: Their marriage was heterosexual, neither one expected to have a partner on the side, they knew it was "until death do us part," each expected marriage to involve sexual intercourse, and they knew that the procreation and education of children was one of the primary ends of marriage. What about problems of the will? "A person needs to positively set his will against some aspect of marriage in order to invalidate the marital consent," said Father Brunetta. "There would need to be an inten-

tion against children or fidelity or permanence, an intention against the good of the spouse or the sacramental nature of the marriage." To find a ground for annulment, the assenting Catholic will usually end up claiming that he was psychologically incapable of making a commitment to marry. "Some people are not capable of marriage, because of some defect that is beyond their intellect and will," said Father Brunetta, who works with petitions for invalidity all the time. People who can hardly take care of themselves. People who are hopelessly addicted to drugs or alcohol. But these are real mental conditions. "Personally," said Father Brunetta, "I think that somebody who enters into a marriage having studied and appreciated the teachings might suffer from something else when they find themselves knocking at the tribunal door. They expected marriage to be exalted, like the Book of Revelation, like the wedding feast of the Lamb. And when they find out that theirs is not like they imagined, and they are not prepared to grow together and work through normal difficulties in their marriage, they start looking for a way out. And they say, 'Oh, I had a defect.' But, you know what? If you have the wherewithal to figure out that you were so gravely incapacitated as to invalidate your marriage, chances are you're not incapacitated." But the reality is that when a spouse is trying to prove his marriage is invalid, he can easily exploit the process. Alicia, an abandoned mother of three, told me that her husband set out a simple test for whether his theory about their marriage was correct or not. "His test of whether or not the divorce was 'of the Lord' was whether or not the Please turn to Vista 4

t's disturbing to read stories and statistics about committed Catholic couples getting divorced. It makes us question our beliefs about marriage. It can make us question our own marriages. Where did they go wrong? How do we make sense of such a thing? Isn't faith supposed to immunise us against such a tragedy? Surely a committed Catholic couple knew what they were undertaking when they first got married? Where was God's grace? Isn't the grace of the sacrament supposed to stop such things from happening? Could it happen to me? From the beginning the Church has always understood that people are born with a deep desire to bond with one another. For many people this becomes a desire to give our lives to another in a lasting, faithful relationship. Despite the current rate of divorce in our community and the prevalence of cohabitation, many thousands of couples still decide to get married each year in Australia. The Church has always been good at articulating the importance of marriage and the true meaning of marriage. The Church understands that while each person has within them an innate desire to bond with another, a deep understanding of the meaning and importance of marriage is not built into us. This is something learnt. Over recent decades we have become quite adept at articulating this to couples. Unfortunately, in some areas of the Church it has been felt that this is enough. However, are practised faith and an understanding of the meaning and importance of marriage enough for a couple to be happily married for 60 years? Will it see them through career changes and the unexpected loss of a job? Will it help them at 3am with a colicky baby and the expectation of a full day's work on the way? Will it help them through the tragic loss of a loved one? The meaning and importance of a lifelong marriage is not built into us, neither are the skills to maintain such a relationship. The skills to have a lifelong, rewarding marriage have to be learned. Sadly, in today's day and age couples have fewer role models of how to do this. In fact many couples have had very poor role models and have developed coping skills that are detrimental to a lifelong marriage. It's essential in this day and age that we go beyond just telling couples that divorce is not acceptable in the eyes of the Church. We have to go beyond telling them that marriage is a lifelong, loving covenant between a man and a woman. We need to be helping them to develop the real skills, attitudes, knowledge, qualities and behaviours that lead to such a relationship. It's not only crucial that we provide this support if we want couples to fulfil the Church's vision for their future it is crucial for the future of the Church itself. Every successful parish is built upon the family. Healthy, strong marriages and families are the life blood of healthy parish-

VISTA 3

es. Parishes fall apart without a solid foundation of stable families. Karen (my beautiful wife) made the interesting observation to me that today's crisis of failing marriages and families may indeed be the same crisis of people leaving the Church. St Paul observes that "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the Church are one" (Eph 5:31-32). Essentially, the crisis in the Church and the crisis in marriage is a failure to connect in a deep unifying way. People become disconnected from their spouses and they become disconnected from the Body of Christ in the Church. One of the distinguishing features of the Christian life, a life in Christ, is its unifying nature. Perhaps the most common metaphor used for the Church indeed the one handed to us by Christ is that of the body. We are called to be one body. The Church fathers throughout history have continued to use this analogy over and over. Where are we first presented with this notion? It is in Genesis. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Gen 2:24). So how do we reconnect people? How do we help them to become resilient to disconnection? We give them the skills and practices which help. In Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict reminds us that our Christian hope is more than just informative, it is performative. It is meant to do more than change our understanding; it is meant to change what we do. On an intuitive level we know this already. It takes more than just knowing that a healthy diet and exercise make a healthy person. You actually have to eat right and exercise. If you want to be smarter you have to do more than just decide to be smarter, you go to the library, read books and enrol in study. Likewise, if you want to be part of the Body of Christ and grow in faith you have to do something. If you want a successful marriage it takes action. In the case of the Church, participation in the Body of Christ requires scripture (reading and reflecting on the bible), it needs community (belonging and participating), prayer (fostering and nurturing a relationship with God) and service (recognising Christ in others and reaching out). Married couples also need skills. Too many to list here but these skills would include fidelity, faith, honest and open communication, patience, forgiveness, selflessness, common values, interests and goals, a supportive community and intimacy to name a mere few. In this day and age it's not surprising that couples get divorced even the ones who are practising their faith. Society is all pervasive; divorce is common and frequently presented as an option. The rate of divorce in Australia is 48 per cent. However, the question for us as Church is what are we doing to stem the tide? What does it take to have a lifelong, successful marriage? How are we helping couples to develop the skills, understandings, knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and qualities that build lifelong unity? Derek Boylen is the Director of the Archdiocese of Perth's Catholic Marriage Education Service

The sham of etas) annulnK nts - the loose canon the Chmth can only ignore at the expense of alienating real people

here must be a better way than anulment to protect Catholics and marriage. And how many Catholics are aware of their legal right in Canon Law to appeal local marriage tribunal decisions? • By Sheila Rauch Kennedy* TWELVE YEARS AGO, the Catholic Church tried to annul my marriage. My former husband, Joseph Kennedy II, wanted

to remarry and stay in the good graces of the church; to do so, he needed the ruling. Despite 12 years of marriage and two children, a tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston decided that our union was never valid; nor were our children the offspring of a true Catholic marriage. I did not agree with the archdiocese's decision.I was sure our marriage, though failed, had been real, and I appealed to the Vatican. Finally, in 2007,Ilearned that Rome agreed with me; the Vatican reversed the 10-year-old decision of the Boston archdiocese. I am grateful for the Vatican's intervention, and yet the news is bittersweet: Many Americans who might want to defend their marriages as I did are never told that they have the right to take their cases to Rome. Instead, they are intimidated by a process that has

proved ripe for abuse. I also have empathy for the 6 million divorced Catholics in the U.S., a significant number of whom, like my former husband, wish to remarry and remain eligible to participate in the sacraments of communion and confession. But because the church does not recognize divorce, under current Catholic law the only way they can do that is to first procure an annulment through their local and regional church courts. Given this hard line, many see easy annulment as the church's well-intentioned attempt to address divorce and remarriage among its members. Yet the prevalence of annulments in the United States — 90% of annulments decided in U.S. church courts are granted; roughly 57,000 last year alone — has also led many theologians to question whether the

Catholic Church is truly protecting its marriage sacrament. In many cases, the process has become cruel, dishonest and misguided, prompting church lawyers to caution that the procedure itself may violate Catholic law. In the United States, the vast majority of annulments are granted on the basis of Canon 1095, a code in Catholic law that allows psychological factors to be taken into account when evaluating a marriage. Canon 1095, based on well-established Catholic law, states that a person must have the capacity to understand what he or she is doing by marrying and be able to meet its requirements. It stipulates that husbands and wives must enter into marriage honestly and freely, without fraud or duress, and be capable of consummating the union. The closest parallel to 1095 in

American civil law is the sanity requirement that stipulates a person be sane in order to be held

legally accountable. Church courts in the US, however, have broadened acceptable criteria for psy-

chological incapacity to include almost anything, from personality traits such as self-centeredness, moodiness or being eager to please to unproven "disorders," which may be embellished into full-blown mental illness, a practice that has prompted critics to refer to Canon 1095 as the "loose canon." If the spouse tries to defend himself or the marriage, church officials often attempt to silence him, asserting, as happened at first in my case, that the proceedings must be kept secret. Officials may delve into one's childhood, relationships with parents, courtship, wedding, honeymoon and even attitude toward the children the union produced — most often referring to testimony from the spouse seeking the annulment. Psychiatric or marriage counseling records may be sought in hopes of

uncovering a diagnosis to provide "scientific justification" for rendering the marriage invalid. Unless the person defending the marriage has help from a legal expert independent of the church court, or learns that he can appeal to the Vatican, the annulment is almost invariably granted. There has to be a better way to protect the sanctity of marriage and show compassion to Catholics who wish to remarry after divorce. Invalidating marriages and dragging their defenders through psychological mud is hardly a Christian act. Perhaps an answer is closer than we think. The Catholic Church might look to its sister institution, the Orthodox Church, and to Catholic marriage rules in other situations for a solution to the divorce dilemma. In the Orthodox Church, marriages may

be viewed as valid without being "sacramental," a distinction the Catholic Church currently makes when its members marry those who are not baptized Christians. In such cases, after pastoral counselling, the Catholic spouses are still welcomed to communion and confession. Such an approach may not be perfect, but it's preferable to the sham of easy annulment. * SHEILA RAUCH KENNEDY, pictured at left in happier times with husband Joseph, married into one of the most high-profile Catholic families in the world. The Kennedy clan famously produced US President John F. Kennedy and his brothers Robert and Edward, among other notable figures. She is the author of Shattered Faith, an account of how she and others sought to defend their marriages.

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Vista 4

July 22 2009, The

VISTA 4

Record

Five simple steps could make a lifetime

arriage educators Luke and Vanessa Van Beek urge couples to pay attention by making their marriages the Number One priority of their lives.

No faithful married couple wants to be reminded of how delicate their marriage is and how easily it and they can fall apart. Yet Hoopes' article is a sobering wake up call that even the most committed married Catholics can experience the devastation of marriage distress and personal suffering. As a committed Catholic couple, we have at times fallen in to the false sense of security believing that our faith practices alone will somehow insure us against trials of life which are especially manifested in the ups and downs of our marriage. Although blessed by our faith, and church activities, we have had to augment these with other endeavours to keep our mar-

riage alive and life-giving to each other and those around us. However, as products of our generation (70's babies), who are both actively involved in our secular careers and broader community, the work-life balance can become skewed and we have come face to face with the fragility of our relationship competing with our personal and professional ambitions. One of our favourite prayers at our wedding was the nuptial blessing: "Give them the strength which comes from the gospel so that they may be witnesses of Christ to others. May they live to see their children's children. And, after a happy old age, grant them fullness of life with the saints in the kingdom of heaven." This prayer reminds us of older couples who have been married for fifty or more years. When we see a couple in their 80's holding hands and helping one another it reminds us of the vows we made. It reminds us of our goal to also reach old age together, having experienced the difficult times and sharing the joy of the memories of a lifetime together. Looking back over our 15 year involvement in various marriage education and enrichment pro-

grams, we have begun to reflect on some key disciplines which we discovered and enlisted, at times purposefully, to 'engineer' a more fulfilling and faithful marriage:

Him, become more complete, more soulful lovers. Our journey towards God also calls us to be 'rich in compassion' and 'quick to forgive each other'.

1. Quality Time

4. Renewal

Time which adds life to our marriage and family life. The sorts of activities which we know that we and our children will draw strength and a sense of identity from. It could be a weekend away or simply a day at home together planting a vegetable garden or enjoying a long lunch sharing our week's events. Knowing that we are part of a family and Church community which shares our values and holds the success of our marriage as dear to them, provides us untold support and challenges us to live more passionately.

Our marriage needs reflection to identify changing needs and areas of hurt and abandonment. Time invested at marriage retreats, seminars or with marriage-friendly counsellors when needed can assist in identifying and removing obstacles to growth. Renewal is also a time to examine what's working and affirm the growth in our journey. Our investment in marriage enrichment has taught us many new relationship skills such as our decision making and managing our conflict. These skills have augmented, consolidated and in some cases negated the traits we brought in to our marriage from our formative experiences.

3. Prayer and Spirituality

5. Mission

2. Community

Our prayer lives keep us connected to our God, the source of our passion and love. Our marriage is transformed from empty self-centeredness to abundant other-centeredness through our preparedness to quieten our manic lives and accept God's invitation to draw us to Him and through

More recently in our marriage, through our involvement with Celebrate Love, we have discovered the importance of making our marriage the mission of our life. According to Byron and Franck Pirola, the program's authors; A mission is different to a job or a ministry. Unlike a job, a mission

is a way of life that is motivated by deeper values than merely earning a living. While we may put considerable time and energy into a job, when we make something our mission, it becomes the focal point of our attention, the centre of everything else in our life. It doesn't mean that we don't do other things, only that these other things take second place to our primary focus: each other. When we make marriage our mission, our spouse becomes the centre of our life, and everything we do, every choice we make, is evaluated in the context of what will best communicate our love for them. That's really the mission objective: to convince our spouse that they are deeply loved and valued. The journey of marriage involves constantly letting go of the past to embrace the future: it is a journey into the truth of who one is, the truth of who one's spouse is, the truth of who one's children (and extended family) are, the truth of who God is. (Marriage in the Catholic Church FAQ Bishops Committee for Pastoral Life June 2007). Being married is like having a mirror shining back to you - you see both the joy and the pain. Contact the Van Beeks, the execuutive couple for Catholic Engaged Encounter, on 0418 949 829 or Vannessa.VanBeekgteam.telstra.com

Unfaithful vows - why are Catholic couples divorcing? Continued from Vista 3

the fallen state of humanity." The battle in the Church doesn't help, said Mango. Dissenting Catholics often won't teach the doctrines that protect and guide marriage. Assenting Catholics, on the other hand, often won't address the real pitfalls and messiness of marriage because they detract from the doctrines that are under such attack. The Church needs to "get real," Mango said. "As real as the enemies of the Church are getting. I have yet to hear a homily from anyone who says, 'The world has infected the Church, so there in the back of the church are some pamphlets that direct you to where you can get help. There's one on verbal and spousal abuse. There's one on post-abortion healing. There's

annulment was granted. There are books out there to tell you what

to write. He got one of those and filled out his annulment papers. "To me, when the Holy Father came out in 1998 and reprimanded the tribunal boards for granting too many annulments, this is exactly what he had in mind," she said. "This is what he had in mind with his January speech to the Roman Rota when he said we are supposed to assume that the marriage is valid until proven wrong."

Divorce support

Unfortunately, when couples turn to their parish priest for guidance, they don't necessarily get the answers the Pope is giving. They aren't getting them from their families either. Doug remembers how moving to Andie's hometown brought him to the brink of divorce. "Once we got to Omaha, Andie started talking to her family more and more. Within a few months, all of them were discussing divorce and looking for the loopholes," he said. "They were saying I can still receive the sacraments if I divorce my family. They were focusing on the Church's teachings of what is allowed. The Catechism itself says divorce is tolerated -not permitted, 'tolerated' -- but only under certain circumstances. Beatings, not caring for the kids, etc. You can't just say, 'This didn't work out.' But the Church doesn't enforce this." The parish didn't help Doug. "What really put a knock on my faith was that I kept turning to the Church saying, 'Please help us! Please help us!' But the focus seems to be on the acceptance of individuals in the Church after divorce. It almost seems as if priests do not want to address this issue because they are afraid of offending," he said. Frank, an abandoned father of four, had a similar experience when he was faced with divorce. "The different priests I talked to seemed very disinterested, which

one on homosexuality. There's one there for Sexaholics Anonymous. They're all free. Go and get them.

I'll be in the confessional.' Not once. Instead, I hear, 'Good morning. How are you? I think it's time that we should perhaps love one another."

Sons of Adam I must confess, I was surprised

In a culture where there is no longer any support for marriage other than in

some Christian churches, it can feel almost impossible to resist the persuasive forces that say destroying a marriage is the right thing to do.

I found appalling. It was like talking to a wall when my wife and I talked to one priest. All he could say is, 'I can't tell who the victim is here.' Another who was a more senior priest, he just talked about civil and legal matters as being completely segregated from matrimonial unions blessed by the Church," said Frank. "The priests -- it didn't look like they had a clue what to do. They were so out of touch with the need to problemsolve." Do priests know how awful divorce is? Or is it that they just feel helpless? "I wouldn't want to hazard a guess about the motivation of particular priests in particular occasions," Father Brunetta told me.

"However, there is a perceived tension in pastoral work that is not always easily negotiated. It's the false dichotomy that's created between what is pastoral and what is doctrinal." He said that priests fall into the trap in one of two ways. "On one extreme there's a sort of hyperpastoralism, which becomes a constant placating of persons in distress. Here the priest will avoid doing anything that will make him the bad guy. Even, perhaps, at the expense of the Church's authentic teaching on marriage," he said. "On the other extreme is a doctrinaire spirit that can seem to be unaware of the real pain people experience in their day-to-day struggles with sin and failure and

by the story assignment when I was asked to investigate reports that a surprising number of young, on-fire, faithful Catholics were divorcing. But the more I looked into it, the more I realised that my surprise was part of the problem. After all, from the beginning, marriage has always been the centre of a great battle. No one should blithely expect that he's in a special class that is somehow spiritually protected. A marriage was Satan's first target in the Garden of Eden, and it

was one of his preferred fields of battle through the Old Testament. The British schism in the Protestant

Reformation began when a committed Catholic, Henry VIII, wanted to divorce his wife. And today, the battle over marriage rages on. "There's a demon out there that's trying to claw and tear people up, and when he gets a divorce, he's got a victory," one abandoned wife told me. "It wrecks kids. It convinces the

culture that these Catholics don't know what they're talking about. The devil's way of destroying the culture from the very beginning was to put a wedge between the husband and the wife." How to fight back? The obvious answer is better marriage preparation. "The Vatican is begging for

eight sessions" of preparation, said

Mango. He runs an eight-session marriage preparation program that includes family-of-origin issues, the differences between men and women, in-depth communication instruction, a look at the resentment a male-centred sexual life causes, and what a real spiritual life looks like. Father Brunetta put in his vote for a future improvement to marriage preparation. "Canonists belong at the beginning of the process," he said, "working with couples to understand what the Church teaches and what Church law requires for marriage. We need more canonists in marriage prep work for the health of marriages in the United States." But Parejko said that the Church also needs to change the way it approaches marriage at the back end, in the marriage tribunals. "My hope has gotten bigger over time," she said. "Now it's that the tribunals will be transformed from annulment processing places to reconciliation havens." At any rate, something has to be done. I asked one man what the worst effect of divorce has been in his life. "My eleven-year-old son has taken a knock in terms of what he believes about God," he told me. "We've taught him the Faith, but he thinks that sometimes God won't answer prayers, because he prayed and prayed that we'd get back together again. And that didn't happen." TOM HOOPES is the executive editor of the National Catholic Register in the US and editorial director of Faith & Family. Reprinted with permission from insidecatholic. corn

July 22 2009, The Record

Page 9

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GREATER HORN KING NATHAN

OIL RULER SOLOMON TH E

colouring 88. SOLOMON IS MADE KING (1 KINGS 1:28-53)

St Bartholomea Capitanio

St. Bartholomea Capitanio (1807-1833) was born near the Italian Alps. Although her father was an alcoholic with little education, her mother set an example as a good Christian woman. Bartholomea attended a school run by nuns, and she was encouraged by her teachers and her mother to strive to be a faithful follower of the teachings of the church. She realized the value of the education she had received, and she studied until she earned a teaching certificate. She founded a religious guild of St. Aloysius so she could teach young people. Eventually she combined her work with that of Catherine Gerosa, who was a nurse. Bartholomea accomplished these achievements before her death at the young age of 26. She devoted her life to the professions of nursing and teaching, and she brought many students into those fields to carry on the work she started. We remember her on July 26.

PUZZLE Solomon was known for his wisdom. Can you identify any other kings from the list below? There are some difficult names. Bible references have been provided: Jesus, Artaxerxes, Joash, David, Herod, Saul. 1. The first king of Israel. 1 Samuel 9

5. He was king when Jesus was born. Matthew 1

2. He wrote many psalms. 2 Samuel 2

6. Pilate asked him if he was the king of the Jews. Matthew 27

3. He became king at age 7. 2 Kings 12 4. Nehemiah was his cupbearer. Nehemiah 1

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And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel. and blow ye with the trumpet. and say. God save king Solomon " 1 KINGS 1:34

BIBLE ACCENT:

There are two books of Kings in the Old Testament. Combined with the two books of Samuel, they tell the religious history of Israel from 1,200 to about 600 years before the birth of Christ. The two books of Kings are presented in a style that demonstrates whether the different kings followed God's commandments, and God's reward or punishment for their behaviour. Scholars believe that these historical books were based on records kept by the courts, writings kept in the temple and narratives about the prophets whose lives affected the different kings. There may have been only one book originally, but it was divided into two when the text was translated into Greek and Latin.

CHILDREN'S STORY GOD GIVES SOLOMON WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING By Joe Sarnicola

SOLOMON was the king of Israel, but in order to expand his kingdom and its safety, he married the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. At the same time he was trying to build a palace for himself, a temple for the Lord and a wall around the city of Jerusalem. Solomon loved and obeyed the Lord. One night after he had said his prayers, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you Before Solomon asked for anything, he told the Lord how thankful he was. Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king. ... But I am a mere youth not knowing at all how to act. ... Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?" Solomon's gratefulness and humility pleased the Lord. God said to him, "Because you have asked for this - not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right - I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one equal to you." That promise was enough to make Solomon rejoice, but the Lord wanted to give him even more. "In addition," God continued, "I give you what you have not asked for, such riches and glory that among kings there is not your like. And if you follow me by keeping my statutes and commandments, as your father David did, I will give you a long life." Then the dream was over and Solomon slept through the night. When he woke he remembered what happened and he went out to show his thankfulness to the Lord. He went and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord and made sacrifices and peace offerings. Then, in order to involve his servants, he ordered a banquet and he invited them to dine with him rather than just to serve him. READ MORE ABOUT IT: 1 Kings 3 Q&A 1. What did Solomon ask God to give him? 2. What did God give him?

Page 10

July 22 2009, The Record

THE WORLD

Paul VI hailed `conquerers of the moon' Moon landing: Vatican Radio marks anniversary with Pope Paul VI texts. IN By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) "Honour, greetings and blessings to you, conquerers of the moon, pale lamp of our nights and our dreams," Pope Paul VI said in a message to the three Apollo 11 astronauts who had just landed on the moon. The night of July 20-21, 1969, Pope Paul had spent time looking at the moon through the telescope of the Vatican Observatory at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. Then he watched the actual landing and the first moon walk on television. But his message to the US astronauts and a congratulatory telegram to then-President Richard Nixon represent only a tiny portion of what Pope Paul had to say about the expedition months before the July 16 launch and months after the July 24 return to earth. Marking the 40th anniversary of the first manned mission to land on the moon, Vatican Radio published its collection of Pope Paul's audience and Angelus talks about the mission, his reflections on the day of the landing, and the text of his speech to astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, whom he met at the Vatican on October 16, 1969. Pope Paul told Armstrong that he was right on the mark in describing the mission as "one giant leap for mankind; "Man has a natural urge to explore the unknown, to know the

Above: Pope Paul VI watches on television the first manned lunar landing July 21, 1969, at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Right: U.S. a stronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin poses for a photo beside the US flag on July 20, 1969, during the first manned lunar landing. Pope Paul VI told astronaut Neil Armstrong that he was right on the mark in describing the Apollo 11 mission to the moon as "one giant leap for mankind." PHOTOS: CNS/CATHOLIC PRESS/NASA

unknown; yet man has also a fear of the unknown; Pope Paul told the three men. "Your bravery has transcended this fear and through your intrepid adventure man has taken another step toward knowing more of the universe; Pope Paul told the men that the time, energy, talents, resources and teamwork behind their successful trip "pay tribute to the capacity of modern man to reach beyond himself, to reach beyond human nature, to attain the perfection of achievement made possible by his God-given talent; The Pope also prayed that people's knowledge of God's creation

would continue to grow and that it would lead them to see more clearly God's power, infinity and perfection. Pope Paul began talking about the Apollo 11 mission at his weekly general audience May 21, 1969. In his audience and Angelus addresses over the next two months he repeatedly emphasized that the Catholic Church applauded the accomplishments of science, technology and human ingenuity, but he always drew people's attention back to God as the source of their creativity and the creator of the universe they were trying to explore.

Speaking July 13, he said that, just as the mission drew people's attention to the moon, it also should provoke questions about human life and identity. A week later, just hours before the moon landing, he cautioned that, while technology could allow humanity to reach great heights, its use for good or evil always depended on human minds and hearts. "The human heart absolutely must become freer, better and more religious as machines, weaptitts and the instruments people have at their disposition become more powerful; he said.

Christians, Muslim leaders unite to condemn 'uncivilised acts of terrorism Christian, Muslim leaders condemn Indonesian bomb blasts that killed nine and injured over 60. JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) - Christian and Muslim leaders condemned two bomb blasts in Jakarta as "uncivilised acts" and urged the police to immediately apprehend the culprits. Fr Yohanes Dwi Harsanto, executive secretary of the Indonesian bishops' Commission for Youth, said he was deeply distressed over the tragedy that killed at least nine people and injured more than 60 others. "We pray for the dead and those who are injured. Let us also pray for our nation. May God move the heart of this nation to uphold and maintain peace; he told the Asian church news agency UCA News. Father Harsanto expressed hope that all religious leaders would call on their respective followers to maintain national unity. Shortly before 8am on July 17, bombs exploded at the JW Marriott Hotel's restaurant and on the second floor of the RitzCarlton Hotel. Amidhan,head of the Indonesian Ulema Council, Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, told UCA

News, "I am deeply concerned and strongly condemn the uncivilised act; He said the council "does not tolerate such violence against innocent people; The Rev Richard Daulay, general secretary of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, a Protestant association, also condemned the attacks and said Protestants were praying for the victims. The Marriott hotel in Jakarta has been bombed before, with 12 people killed in a 2003 car-bomb attack. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has a history of terrorist attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreigners. While at the time of writing no group had yet claimed responsibility for the attacks in Jakarta, suspicion immediately fell on the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, which was responsible for the Bali bombings. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attack was carried out by a "terrorist group" and vowed to arrest the perpetrators. "Those who carried out this attack and those who planned it will be arrested and tried according to the law; he told a news conference.

A nun places a flower on a memorial banner outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 20. Police were still investigating the July 17 bombing attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta's main business district. PHOTO CNS/ENNY NURAHENI, REUTERS

"Today we celebrate a sublime victory; he said, but human beings also must dedicate their time, talent and creativity to solving problems on the planet that is their home. "As we know, there are still three wars under way on the face of the earth: Vietnam, Africa and the Middle East and a fourth has been added, already claiming thousands of victims in El Salvador and Honduras; he said in the July 20, 1969, speech. Adding that "hunger still afflicts entire populations; he asked, "Where is real humanity? Where is brotherhood? Where is peace?"

in brief...

Christian Brother dies saving girl HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNS) A Vietnamese Christian Brother drowned while trying to rescue a 15-year-old girl who fell into a river in Cambodia. The girl, who fell into the Mekong River, survived, reported the Asian Church news agency UCA News. Brother Dominic Phung The Minh, 28, and his catechism class students had been bathing in the river after Mass on July 12 when Nguyen Thi Ngoc Giau was caught in a strong current. Brother Minh was swept away as he tried to rescue her. It occured 30 miles south of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. His body was found two hours later and taken to Ho Chi Minh City. His coffin was placed in the chapel at the congregation's Mai Thon centre on July 14. Eight local priests concelebrated Brother Minh's funeral the next day, and he was buried at the cemetery of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Br Jean Baptiste Tran Dinh Hiep, 38, the head of the Christian Brother community in Cambodia, said: "He lived in poverty among poor people and died for them;

July 22 2009, The Record

Page 11

THE WORLD

Workers' needs Good news on Russian front trump union interests: Pope

Union members march and rally for jobs in Lansing, Michigan, in early June. When Pope Benedict XVI released his third encyclical in early July, "Caritas in Veritate", he stressed that the voice of workers must be heard as heads of state , industry moguls, labour union leaders and environmentalists develop long-term solutions for the ailing global economy. PHOTO: CNS.

Pope urges workers' voices be heard, unions adapt to global economy. • By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS) - When Pope Benedict XVI released his third encyclical Caritas in Veritate ("Charity in Truth") - he stressed that the voice of workers must be heard as heads of state, industry moguls, labour union leaders and environmentalists develop long-term solutions for the ailing global economy. The Pope's encyclical - released in early July - re-emphasizes the Catholic Church's continuing support of workers' associations going back to Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum, in 1891, but it also challenges labour union leaders to adapt to a growing global economy to remain relevant. According to John Carr, executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Pope's encyclical says a healthy economy depends on workers who earn a sustainable wage, receive reliable health benefits and have a safe environment in which to perform their jobs. "Pope Benedict, like earlier Popes, thinks labour unions are a big part of the solution," Carr said. The encyclical encourages a strong voice for labour to balance the authority of management in the global economy - give-andtake expected to achieve longterm financial security. "What Benedict says is we need moral individuals and we need ethical structures. It's not an either-or," Carr said. "In some ways, the most important word in this encyclical is 'and.' Instead of sort of taking sides, or lifting one over another, he says the Catholic way is to pull those things together," he continued. "He really integrates charity and truth, charity and justice. He talks about the economy and ethics in a way that make them seem not like competing values, but in fact things that need to work together for the good of the human family."

Labour union president John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO applauded the Pope's support of labour unions in the encyclical, saying it offers an ethical critique of the global economic crisis. Sweeney also said the encyclical proposes concrete elements for policies anchored in moral values that enhance the dignity of all, especially the poor and working people. "The encyclical levels a strong critique at the forces of unfettered free-market capitalism and globalized greed," he said. The AFL-CIO is an umbrella organization for a host of unions that represent teachers, construction workers, cable installers and several other groups. Its website says it represents more than 11 million members. Though Charity in Truth does support the workers movement, it's far from being just a prolabour document. Stephen Schneck, director of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America in Washington, said the Pope calls on labour union leaders to address the needs of workers, industries and nations beyond the scope of their membership. "That's really a strong statement," Schneck told CNS. "That's calling on union members and union leaders to recognise that union interests aren't what it's all about. That they are part of a much broader enterprise, this idea of the common good and that unions need to be focusing and serving the common good - just as business interests, just as the state, just as all of the groups and individuals in society need to be focused on the common good." Though Schneck doesn't believe union leaders will change their philosophy overnight, he does trust that the Pope's broader vision will ultimately take hold and make unions stronger than they are today having lost members and influence more recently. "We need to be part of a bigger picture," he said. "If you ask me, I think that bigger picture that is reaching out beyond their membership is probably also the future for union growth, for unions to have their proper place in society. For them, in a sense, to come back from (their current) predicament."

Senior clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church vote during a Local Council session to elect the patriarch to succeed late Patriarch Alexy II in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow on January 27. Russian Orthodox bishops, monks and laymen comprising the 700-member Local Council voted that day for a new leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. The secretary-general of the Russian bishops' conference said Catholic ties had improved with the Russian Orthodox Church PHOTO: CNS/ALEXANDER NATRUSKIN, REUTERS since the election of Patriarch Kirill.

Russian Catholic official says conditions improve for Catholic Church. • By Jonathan Luxmoore

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) - The secretary-general of the Russian bishops' conference said the Catholic Church's working conditions in Russia had improved, and he was hopeful that would lead to the development of higher-level diplomatic relations. "Our Church's ties with state and society here have significantly improved recently, and we hope this process will now develop further:' Fr Igor Kovalevsky, the secretary-general, told CNS on July 14. "A full relationship will clearly facilitate links at a time when both the Holy See and Russian Federation share common views on many international questions," Fr Kovalevsky said.

in brief...

China blamed WASHINGTON (CNS) - A Uighur activist from China told reporters in Washington that, following violence she claimed was directed at her ethnic group, her main concern was that religious freedom be ensured for all Uighurs. Rebiya Kadeer talked to a July 15 media round table sponsored by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom about a government crackdown on a recent demonstration in the city of Urumqi in China's northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang. On July 5 Uighurs were protesting Chinese policies they say are repressive when Chinese police forces shut off lights in parts of the area and opened fire on protesters, according to Kadeer. After the demonstration turned into a riot, government officials said they would shut down mosques for "safety" reasons, but then reversed the decision a few days later.

The Interfax news agency reported earlier in July that Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Vatican's representative in Moscow, said that talks on diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Russia would end soon after "covering a lot of ground." A spokeswoman for Archbishop Mennini's office told CNS on July 14 that a timetable for diplomatic ties would depend on the Russian side, adding that "nothing had been decided" about possible dates. In a July 5 interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera daily, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he believed diplomatic ties were "likely to develop," adding that Russian and Vatican negotiators had discussed "increasing them to full ambassadorial, diplomatic format." Fr Kovalevsky told CNS that foreign Catholic clergy were finding it 'significantly easier" to obtain permits to minister in Russia. He said local problems were caused by "burdensome Russian bureaucracy" rather than "bad attitudes to

the Catholic Church." "The whole of Russian society suffers from the same bureaucratic unpleasantness - this isn't a special problem for Catholics, and it isn't in any way a sign of persecution or hostility," he said. He said that Catholic ties had improved with the Russian Orthodox Church and attributed this to its new leader, Patriarch Kirill, who was elected in January to succeed the late Patriarch Alexy II. "Although conditions were improving before that, expectations have been largely justified thanks to the new patriarch's stance Fr Kovalevsky said. The Vatican and Russia exchanged diplomatic envoys in 1990 following a historic Rome visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Closer ties were believed impeded by repeated Orthodox complaints that Catholics were trying to recruit their believers, as well as by Orthodox objections to the February 2002 creation of four Catholic dioceses in Russia.

New Shore" Encounter with Schoenstatt Father Andrew Pastore YOU WANT TO WALK ON WATER,YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF THE BOAT!

mg and enjoyable experience with - distinguished COMIlltiniCatqr and speaker! Monday, 27th July 2009: Evening for YOUTH (or those young at heart! at 7pm Mass in the Shrine, followed by meeting. Tuesday, 28th July 2009 : Day for WOMEN at 10am Mass in the Shrine followed by Talk, Discussion, Prayers and Reconciliation (conc. L 2.30pm). Wednesday, 29th July 2009: Evening for MEN at 7pm Mass in the Shrine followed by Talk, Discussion, Question Time. All Encounters are at the Schoenstatt Shrine 9 Talus Drive, Armadale (off South West Highway) phone: 9399 2349

Pio..),e 12

Sensing God from Lourdes to Uluru

PERSPECTIVES

Tradition can't restrict growth By John Heard

'The Faith of Our Fathers (Obedience and Love)'

Deborah Robertson

am a Principal in a small Catholic school, Holy Name Carlisle (soon to be amalgamated with Notre Dame School Cloverdale), and Chair of Catholic Arts. After graduating as a mature age student Ibecame a lay missionary' teacher in Broome and Mingenew. Since then,Ihave worked in six other primary schools covering the four dioceses of WA. Valuing the arts is the heritage of my Irish background as well as my Catholic education. The Mass has always been the centre of my prayer life. As a teacher, praying with children in song and movement has enhanced this. The Performing Arts Festival for Catholic Schools and Colleges maintains the importance of using our artistic talents in liturgy and prayer by having a specific Christian section which involves Sacred Music, Liturgical Singing, Christian Dance (Liturgical Movement), Christian Drama and Bible Reading. It's inspiring to see the way children become involved in this kind of prayer. They both praise and respond to God. Anyone witnessing their performances cannot help but be drawn in. The Angelico Exhibition, a visual arts competition for Secondary students, is also built with Debbie Warner around using our God-given talents. Working with young students and sharing in their insight about God and the spiritual life has also been a life-enhancing privilege. Part of the reason for setting up the Performing Arts Festival twenty years ago, was to maintain the tradition of the Religious orders who knew the importance of a rich artistic life to our spiritual wellbeing and provided opportunities for students to be involved in a variety of musical and performing experiences. By continuing this tradition, we can provide an avenue for self-expression and enjoyment that does not rely on your social status or income and provides an environment of achievement and fulfillment. Being Chair of Catholic Arts means I get the opportunity to work with wonderful people who are passionate about the Arts and about providing opportunities for all students to participate. Catholic Arts is responsible for Carnevale, a one day event in Forrest Place on Wednesday, September 9, as well as the Angelico Exhibition from August 17-28, and the Performing Arts Festival which runs for all of August with a final concert on Monday, September 7. We are very excited that in this 20th year of the Performing Arts Festival we are also having events in Bunbury and Geraldton and nearly all of the local schools are participating. This is in addition to the usual 18,000 students in over a 100 schools in the metropolitan region. If anyone would like to attend any of these events, please contact the Catholic Arts Office on 9272 7655 or visit the website: www.catholicarts.wa.edu.au I have had many conversion moments that have deepened my faith - the sense of community when traveling knowing I am at home in any Catholic church and liturgy whatever the language or culture; special places where God seems more immediately accessible than others e.g. Lourdes, Padua, Uluru; faith and personal development experiences such as the Enneagram that lead you closer to God through a deeper understanding of yourself and others; beautiful liturgies filled with heartfelt expressions of faith and community. I pray everywhere and all the time. I have often tried to imagine how people live without faith but just can't - it is unimaginable for me. My faith is central to who I am and what I do. If you have a story to tell, contact Debbie via debwarrier@hotmailcom

Howl Pray Now

July 22 2009, The Record

here is little of any value in change for the sake of change, and much that can be oppressive. That is the summary, the crude summary, of a noble tradition in Western (and, often, specifically English-speaking) thought. That tradition is, depending on the prism through which it is viewed, variously termed orthodoxy, conservatism, common sense, and / or simply culture, and it aligns with notions such as the rule of law, precedent, natural justice and constitutionalism in legal thinking, and prudence, temperance, and diligence in the language of virtue ethics. There are probably other terms and ideas that fit here, including some of the better sorts of urges typically grouped under the banner of progressive politics, but it will not help to list them all. It is enough to gesture towards some of the most impressive titles, to discern underneath something of real value for our civilization. In Catholic circles, tradition is superlative, but there is less of a stress on politics, and more of a sense of obedience and an acknowledgment of love. The deposit of faith, the core of Christian religion, cannot change. A good Christian serves the faith, he does not seek to undermine, or subvert it certainly not in the pursuit of his extracurricular interests and ambitions. The

faith endures, from age to age, and it does so because of the love of God. That the faith professed, defined, and defended by the Church will be the one true faith is, after all, the unique and outstanding guarantee of the Holy Spirit. Thus, when a bishop, say, defends some teaching that has fallen into momentary disrepute, he stands with the entire Church - understood as both the timeless communion of saints and the intimately historical people of God - including at any given time, those people who form the bishop's flock. Similarly, when we pray as Catholics, we utter the words that countless Christians have used over more than two millennia. Further, during the holy sacrifice of the Mass, certain words and prayers - Amen, Alleluia, Hosanna alongside the prayers over the bread and wine, for instance - come to us from the Jews. These are ancient in a way that stretches human understanding. It is not wrong to state that, as long as there have been things such as history and religion and language and law, men have used such as these to praise and implore the one true God. So what happens to creativity? Isn't this way of thinking about faith necessarily restrictive? Certainly, one of the most powerful critiques of this tradition of tradition is that it can quickly lead to stagnation, on the one hand, stifling creativity and stamping out any nascent growth. On the other hand, critics claim, a community wedded to tradition risks glorifying nonsense, simply because it is old. Some of the criticism leveled at the usus antiquior of the Roman Rite comes packaged in this language. It helps to recall, then, that tradition is - in the Catholic context - only one of the pillars upon which the faith endures. The other two are revelation, which is made up of God's holy Word

and His deeds in human history, and the magisterium - helpfully understood as the teaching authority of the bishops (with the pope). These ensure that while the faith cannot change, human understanding of things that are, in fact, ineffable and mysterious, can develop. In terms of revelation, the process is most obvious. One must pay homage to the teachings of the past, but not simply because they are ancient, rather because they are known to be of God. Christians strive to understand what it is that God is saying to man, and that understanding can develop. From the earliest days of the Church, for instance, Christians have come together to understand better Christ's nature (true God and true man), the privileges and prizes of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the theotokos, the Mother of God), and to regulate and improve ritual worship (the reforms of Trent and the Second Vatican Council are epitomic in this sphere). The teaching authority of the bishops, always with the pope, is obvious to Christianity in a different way. If the Church is of God, as Catholics have been promised and profess her to be, her true ministers must do God's work. They must preach His Word. These ideas of the faith, understood under the terms Tradition, Revelation, and Magisterium are, then, organic, unified - and they are coherent. Each of the concepts works happily alongside the others. Combined, they express something unique, and enduring about Catholicism. They express, indeed, what it is that makes Christians able to claim that the faith we profess today is, in all important things, the faith taught by the Christ. That it is the faith imparted to man by God throughout history. What a remarkable thing, our faith. When we get obedience right, faith is love mirrored and repaid.

The end of Britain, but what's next?

POSE R In clear view By Guy Crouchback

Britain's multi-sided attacks on Christianity are astonishing

favourite expression of communist political writing was that some set of facts or other was "no coincidence," implying that there was more to matters than met the eye. In a string of incidents in Britain Christians have been discriminated against in various ways - for wearing crucifix brooches or necklaces at work or school, in the case of one nurse being sacked for offering to pray for a patient, and so forth. A school-girl was recently banned from wearing a small crucifix on a necklace while Sikh girls at the same school were permitted to wear religious bangles. There is the new Equality Bill now before Parliament whose provisions could compel religious institutions such as care-homes, hospitals and schools to remove crosses, holy pictures, icons and other signs from the walls if employees not of their belief - and who they are compelled not to discriminate against in hiring - object. This seems most directly aimed at Catholic institutions which tend to display such signs but could also be applied against others. A crematorium has been forced to remove a cross from its chapel. Here the "no coincidence" thought raises its head. While government and Qango initiatives seem directed at attacking expressions of Christianity

or Judeo/Christianity, pagan police officers in Britain have been given the right to take eight days off work a year to celebrate pagan "religious holidays" including Hallowe'en and the summer solstice. This follows the settirT up of a new "Pagan Police Association.' Pc Andy Pardy, a leading pagan officer from Hertfordshire Police, met recently with Home Office officials to push for more recognition for pagan officers. He is reported to worship Viking gods such as Thor and Freya, and is quoted as saying: "Paganism involves chanting, music, meditation, reading passages and for pagans the practices are seen to have the same power as prayer does for Christians. Most pagans practice some kind of conservation work as well to give something back to the planet." A spokesman for the Home Office is quoted as saying: "The Government wants a police service that reflects the diverse communities it serves." Another officer, Pc Andy Hill of Staffordshire Police, is a practising witch. Last year the Home Office introduced a pagan oath for use in the courts, though it is a little hard to see at first glance what sort of oath would be acceptable both to a pagan who followed, say, the gentle Greek philosopher Socrates and one who followed the Viking rape and pillage specialist Erik Bloodaxe. A leading think-tank close to the government, the Institute for Public Policy Research, has recommended that Christmas, if it cannot be obliterated, should be down-graded to promote multiculturalism. It says that because it would be hard to "expunge" Christmas from the national calendar (although this would apparently be desirable), public organisations must be made to give non-Christian religious festivals equal footing. This would fit in with

Pagan Police at the Solstice very neatly. They might even be able to do a bit of policing of Christianity while there. A Tower Hamlets school-teacher, Nicholas Kafouris, was recently reported sacked for reprimanding Muslim pupils for anti-Christian and anti-Jewish behaviour. He said children aged eight and nine in his class praised the suicide bombers in the 9/11 attacks. He said many unacceptable and openly racist, anti-Semitic and antiChristian remarks were being made, including: "We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up", "the Twin Towers bombers are heroes and martyrs", "we hate the Jews" and "we hate the Christians". During a religious education lesson about Jonah and the whale, he claims one of the pupils asked if Jonah was a Jew, before shouting: "I hate the Jews, they're our enemies." He said reports to school authorities were ignored. A church in Stockport, Manchester, was charged by the local council for advertising when it displayed a threefoot illuminated cross above the entrance. The Red Cross has banned Nativity scenes and Christmas trees from its shops, and banned Christian messages on cards its employees send out. A spokesman said: "In shops people can put up decorations like tinsel or snow which are seasonal. But the guidance is that things representative of Christmas cannot be shown." It was reported that schools across Britain were ordered by local authorities to abandon the ancient tradition of serving hot cross buns at Easter. We have seen, not so much directly from elected politicians as from a multitude of unelected bodies and institutions, an unprecedented effort to alter the actual psychology of the people of Britain and turn it into a completely different country.

July 22 2009, The Record

PERSPECTIVES

Family gatherings a 'yes' to life D inner an education in the Eucharist

Family is the Future

Sacrament of charity jug of water. We sometimes light a candle to remind us of Jesus' presence. In these small ways we teach our children about Eucharist, when we invite Jesus to be part of our family meal. Preparation for Eucharist often begins when children are preparing to receive their first Holy Communion; however, moments of communion are present in our lives every day. Another opportunity to bring the Eucharist alive for our family is when we hold or attend celebrations; birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Easter. These celebrations are important to us because they create space for us to talk to our children about the Mass and Eucharist. At these times we talk to them about choosing and giving gifts, about sharing in cake and food, about creating memories which unite, about the joy we share. Just as we regularly celebrate all kinds of events, the Mass is our regular, weekly, celebration of faith and has many of the same characteristics.

Our regular family celebrations give us plenty of opportunities to explore with our children various dimensions of the Mass. The Mass is a celebration, we come together in joyful hope, we come together as a Catholic family, we offer God our gifts, we remember Christ's loving sacrifice, we share in the Body of Christ; a sacred meal. Attending Mass together, as a family, is the pinnacle of our Eucharist experience. We are participating in our Catholic family meal and celebration. We can point out parts of the Mass which relate to our children's life experience. Preparing our children for the Eucharist is in essence preparing them to be part of the Body of Christ. When a person receives the Body of Christ at Mass they are saying "YES." They are saying yes to Christ and yes to being in communion with the Church; Christ's body. When we gather as a family for dinner and celebrations, we are also saying yes. Yes to each other and yes to belonging.

Burial the preferred option for Christians Catholics and cremation What is the Catholic Church's view on cremation? I thought it was forbidden but in recent yearsIhave heard of several good Catholics whose bodies were cremated.

et me begin with a brief history of the Church's customs regarding the dead. Going back to the Old Testament, it is clear that the ancient Israelites buried their dead (cf. Gen 49:28-32). Burial was the common practice too among other ancient peoples, including the Egyptians, who practised embalming, the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Babylonians, Chinese, etc. The Greeks and Romans usually buried their dead, sometimes even leaving food in the tomb in the belief that the deceased continued their life after death much the same as here on earth. Those who believed in a more spiritual existence of the person after death sometimes practised cremation, in order to hasten the arrival of the deceased to this shadowy land of spirits. The early Christians always buried their dead, following the custom of their Jewish forbears. They sometimes risked their lives to recover the bodies of the martyrs in order to give them Christian burial. Christian belief in the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, as well as belief in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day were behind this respect shown to the body. Cremation on the contrary was viewed as a pagan practice and a denial of the doctrine of the resurrection. By the fifth century, when Christianity was firmly established, the practice of cremation had ceased altogether in the

When symbolic meaning makes Word come alive Fr Erasto Fernandez SSS, a priest from India, continues his series on the Eucharist during this the Year for Priests.

aving dinner together in the Boylen household doesn't happen without the usual amount of chaos. Children are hungry, Daddy walks through the door welcomed by a frazzled wife trying to get the last parts of dinner prepared whilst keeping the starving masses from raiding the pantry cupboard. We all sit down, a bit quieter, in anticipation of a yummy dinner. We say grace and then begin to eat. We talk about the best parts of our day, which sometimes results in laughter or arguments about who gets to claim a particular part of the day as their 'best'. We discuss something we learned during the day or about an item of news that daddy brings up. We encourage the children (and ourselves!) to use courtesy and manners with their family. We come together as family to nourish our bodies and celebrate our unity. Celebrating the Eucharist begins at home in moments of everyday life. The basis of Eucharist is, in essence, eating together as a family. We realise our communion with each other as we share our 'daily bread'. We give thanks to God and ask him to bless our food and lives. Sometimes we may have an uncut loaf of bread that we cut and share on the table, sometimes it is a bowl of salad that we pass around, sometimes it is a

Page 13

Roman Empire. Late in the 19th century the Freemasons, in their opposition to Catholic beliefs, succeeded in having cremation legalised by various governments in Europe, beginning in Italy in 1873, and they founded societies to this end all over Europe. Because of the anti-religious motivation of these groups, the Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued a decree in 1886 which forbade joining cremation societies or having one's own body or that of another cremated. The ban remained in force until 1963, when an Instruction from the Holy Office allowed cremation in certain circumstances, provided the reasons for choosing cremation were not contrary to

Christian belief. However, burial of the body was still preferred. The revised funeral rites of 1969 allowed for cremation: "Funeral rites are to be granted to those who have chosen cremation, unless there is evidence that their choice was dictated by anti-Christian motives... The funeral is to be celebrated... in a way that clearly expresses the Church's preference for burying the dead... that forestalls any danger of scandalising or shocking the faithful" (n.15). The 1983 Code of Canon Law also reflected this criterion: "The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burial be retained; but it does not forbid cremation, unless this is chosen for reasons which are contrary to Christian teaching" (Can. 1176, §3). The Order of Christian Funerals, in use since 1989, gives the reasons why burial is preferred: "Since in Baptism the body was marked with the seal of the Trinity and became the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christians respect and honour the bodies of the dead and the places where they rest..:' (n.19). Following this new criterion, cremation is becoming more frequent. Among the reasons why some families prefer cremation are the reduced cost, the convenience in cases where the person died far from the place where they are to be buried, the scarcity of land available for burial in some places, etc. Even when the body is cremated, the remains should still be buried in a grave or mausoleum, or in a special vault designed for urns containing the cremated remains, sometimes called a columbarium. Many cemeteries have special places for these remains. The practice of scattering cremated remains on the sea, from the air or on the ground, or keeping them in the home of a relative or friend is discouraged. Fr Flader: directorwaec.conau

The Word - A different language To understand God's word fruitfully we first must appreciate the role of the spoken word in our dealings with one another. The words we speak are not just sound-waves - they carry a meaning, a symbolic power. When heard properly, they transform the listeners, encouraging them to rise to a higher level of being. The thousands of gestures and words of love directed towards a child from its birth enable it to accept not just the sound of its name, but also its own full status as a subject that is lovable and loved. The true Self that comes to birth through these spoken words is then empowered to speak to others in a loving manner. Thus, the word nourishes and fosters life in both the speaker and the listener. Whoever feels unloved cannot love in return. No one can live as a subject without words of love and thankfulness being addressed to him. Without sufficient nourishment from loving and life-giving words, human beings shrivel up and die. Some words save; others kill. It is language that makes the universe into a world, or a house into a home! Communication: Human Connecting

Again, we often speak not merely to convey information, but simply to connect with others. WhenI say to a colleague, "It's a beautiful morning," I do not merely convey information. If attentive, he understands that what I really mean is: 'I feel good and reassured to see you are here!' So his answer: 'Yeah, it feels great to be alive this morning!' emphasizes more the connecting factor than the informational content. If he does not catch this 'inner' meaning and says instead: 'Bah, who says so!' then the connection is broken because his reply focuses only on the 'scientific truth' of the statement. We immediately sense how this 'informational' response shuts us out of that person's life or even feels like a sharp 'slap in the face: It puts an end to all further conversation! In the Eucharist, we focus not so much on the 'scientific truth', nor even on the surface meaning. We search for the symbolic meaning or power God's word has whereby it connects us with him. The symbolic meaning here is always: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; you are mine." It is only when we catch this symbolic meaning that the Word in the liturgy becomes nourishing and life-giving. It opens up our hearts, our faces light up and a surge of energy courses through our entire being. But for this to happen we must recall that God speaks to us through ordinary human experiences. We grapple with these, searching for their inner, deeper meaning, preferably as they occur. Having done this ground-work we then listen attentively while the Scriptures are proclaimed at Eucharist. If the two experiences fit like a key in the right key-hole, we immediately feel a thrill, with an `a-ha' welling up from deep within. This happens even when the message points out something negative about us. A message received in this way from God is itself a tremendous gift; it is life-giving and will inevitably change our entire attitudes and behaviour. Further, we share these faith experiences with others even though it is risky. When we do share, we are confirmed in faith and it makes it easier to receive the next message fruitfully. Here also the Christian paradox holds: 'It is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned and in dying that we are born to eternal life:

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PANORAMA

July 22 2009, The Record

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday. Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902. Submissions over 55 words will be edited. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 will be a put into classifieds and charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisment. Saturday July 25 PRAYER GROUP 1.30pm to 3pm at St Cecilia's Parish Centre, Grantham Street and Peebles Road, Floreat, all welcome to pray the Rosary for the sick. Bring a plate to share, optional. Coffee and tea provided. Saturday July 25 to Sunday July 16 400 YEARS CELEBRATION FOR LORETO SISTERS Three Springs Parish 6.30pm Saturday at Three Springs Shire Hall, dinner. llam Sunday Mass held in St Paul's Church followed by BBQ lunch. Accommodation, Three Springs Tourist Lodge 9954 1065 or Commercial Hotel: 9954 104. Those wishing to attend these celebrations, please advise ASAP by July 1. Enq - Convent: 9954 1010 or Myrtle 9954 1135, or jackkeogh@wn.com.au Sunday July 26 ST ANNE'S BINDOON Fifth Anniversary Mass and Blessing of Grotto 12noon BYO Lunch, followed 1pm Holy Rosary, Exposition, Hymns, Benediction. 1.30pm Marian Procession and blessing of the Grotto. 2pm Holy Mass, Main Celebrant Bishop Sproxton, followed by Chaplet of Divine Mercy and tea. Depart for Perth 4pm. Transport booking: Francis 9459-3873 or 0404 893 877. Enq: Jean 9576-0006 or Fr Paul 95711839. Sunday July 26 BULLSBROOK SHRINE PILGRIMAGE 2pm at the Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 3 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook, pilgrim Mass, with Rosary and Benediction. Reconciliation is available in Latin and English before every celebration. The side entrances to church and shrine are open daily between 9am and 5pm. Enq: 9447 3292. Sunday July 26 CATHOLIC DOCTOR'S ASSOCIATION WA Day of Reflection and Mass 10am at Redemptorist Mater Seminary, 26 Camboon Road, Morley, with Fr Michael Moore. An invitation is extended to any Medical parishioners who would like to attend. Lunch will be served. RSVP by 12 July, for catering purposes to Suzanne ljgbcoiinet.net.au or 9242 4066. Monday July 27 to Wednesday July 29 NEW SHORE ENCOUNTER 7pm at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Taulus Drive, Armadale, 27 July, Evening for Youth, Mass, followed by meeting. 28 July, Day for Women 10am Mass, followed by talk, discussions, prayers and Reconciliation. July 29 Evening for Men, 7pm Mass, followed by talk, discussion and question time. Enq: 9399 2349. Tuesday July 28 PRAYER DAY Reflecting on Hope with Mary MacKillop, 9.30am at Mary MacKillop Centre, 16 York Street, South Perth, from 10am to 1pm, facilitated by Dora Maguire, RSJ. RSVP: Monday 20 July. Cost, donation. Enq: marymackillopcentre@sosjwa.org.au or 9334 0999. Friday July 31 MEDJUGORJE - EVENING OF PRAYER 7pm at St Anne's Catholic Church, Stirling Highway and Alfred Road, North Fremantle. All are invited to an evening of prayer with Our Lady Queen of Peace. Evening

commences with Adoration, Rosary, and Benediction, followed by Holy Mass. Free DVD on conversion of Don Calloway who was drug addict, committing felonies but later became a Catholic priest. Enq: 9402 2480. Saturday August 1 DAY WITH MARY 9am to 5 pm at St Simon Peter Church, Ocean Reef, video on Fatima. Day of prayer and instruction based upon the Fatima message, Reconciliation, Holy Mass, Eucharist Adoration, Sermons on the Eucharist, and Our Lady. Also Rosary, Blessed Sacrament Procession and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286. Sunday August 2 DIVINE MERCY 1.30pm at St Joachim's Church, Shepperton Road and Harper Street, Victoria Park, any afternoon with Jesus and Mary, Holy Rosary, and Reconciliation. Sermon with Fr Sharvel F F 1 on St Maxmillian Kolbe followed by Divine Mercy Prayers and Benediction. Refreshments will be provided. Enq: John 9457 7771. Tuesday August 4 FAITH ENRICHMENT SERIES - PROFESSOR MARTIN PHILPOTT 7pm to 8.30pm, St Benedict Parish Centre, 115 Ardross Street, Ardross, Prof Martin Philpott will give a talk on, Stress busting, how to identify and manage stress in everyday life! This will be most informative for people of all walks of life. Coffee and tea provided. Enq: Wim 0421 636 763. Friday August 7 to Sunday August 9 BEGINNING EXPERIENCE WEEKEND Separated, Divorced, Widowed A weekend program at Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne, designed to assist and support people in learning to close the door gently on a relationship that has ended, in order to get on with living. Enq: Maureen 9537 115 or Bev 9332 7971. Friday August 7 PRAISE AND WORSHIP 7pm at 98, Wood Street, Inglewood, followed by Mass and a fellowship. Please bring a plate, optional. Petitions and Thanksgiving boxes are available at the back of the church. All are welcome. Enq: Priscilla 04-33 457 352 or Catherine 0433 923 083. Friday August 7 CATHOLIC FAITH RENEWAL EVENING 7.30pm at St John and Paul's Parish, Pinetree Gully Road, Willetton, songs of praise, talk by Most Rev Donald Sproxton on Blessed Mary MacKillop followed by Vigil Mass and light refreshments. All welcome and bring your family and friends. Enq: Kathy 9295 0913, Rose 0403 300 720 or Maureen 931 4498. Saturday August 8 ST PADRE PIO DAY OF PRAYER 8.30am at St Anne's Church, cnr Aired and Stirling Rd, Fremantle North, St Padre Pio DVD, 10 am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, silent Adoration and Benediction 11 am Holy Mass, Celebrant Archbishop Hickey using St Padre Pio Liturgy. Confessions available. Shared lunch BYO. Tea and coffee provided. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Sunday August 9 The World Apostolate of Fatima Aust Inc Holy Hour of Reparation 3pm at Our Lady's Assumption Church, Grand Promenade, Dianella. Enq: 9339 2614. Tuesday August 11 NATIONAL MARRIAGE DAY 12.30pm at LJ Goodie Bioethics Centre, launched by Jamie Bogle from the United Kingdom, Archbishop Hickey will give concluding remarks. Shared lunch, BYO, Enq: 9277 1644, or afawa@msn.com. Wednesday August 12 CHAPLETS OF THE DIVINE MERCY 7.30 pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road Bateman, a beautiful, prayerful, sung devotion, to be accompanied by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by Benediction. All are welcome. Enq: George 9310 9493 home or 9325 2010 work. Friday August 21 ALAN AMES 7pm at All Saints Catholic Church, Corner Orkney Road and Liwara Place, Greenwood, Mass followed by talk and healing service. Tuesday August 25 THE CATHOLIC PASTORAL WORKERS ASSOCIATION Eucharistic Celebration and Dinner 5.30pm at St Catherine's House of Hospitality, 113 Tyler Street, Tuart Hill, Guest Speaker Mr Gerry Smith of Grief Management and Educational Services, on Please Hear What I am Not Saying. Cost $25. RSVP by 21st August. Enq: Margaret 9390 9365 or Maranatha 6380 5160. Sunday August 30 to September 2 CATHOLIC WOMEN'S LEAGUE Biennial National Conference 3pm at Redemptorist Monastery Church. Opening Mass celebrated by Bishop Don Sproxton. All welcome. Conference will be held at Novotel Langley Hotel, Perth. Wonderful guest speakers lined up including Celia Hammond, Vice Chancellor of Notre Dame University, Fremantle, who will present the keynote address. Enq: Maria sec.cwla@westnet.com.au or 9751 1936. Saturday October 17 REUNION FOR LA SALLE COLLEGE Class of 1974/76 Enq: Sue Wester (Sweeney) sue.wester@iinet.net.au or 0407 985 935 or Liz Bradley (Butcher) Ibradley@iinet. net.au AL-ANON/ALATEEN FAMILY GROUPS If your home is unhappy because someone drinks too much we can help you. For understanding and support to families and friends of problem drinkers. Enq: 9325 7528. SACRED HEART OF JESUS - PIONEERS Any Pioneers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus out there in society, we invite you if you would like to meet other members in prayer and reflection. Enq: 9457 7771. Every Sunday LATIN MASS 2pm at the Good Shepherd Parish, 40-42 Streich Avenue, Kelmscott, according to the 1962 missal, with Rosary preceding. All welcome.

Third Sunday of the Month OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT MEET 2pm at St Joseph's Convent, York Street, South Perth, Oblates affiliated with the Benedictine Abbey New Norcia, welcome all who are interested in studying the rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for lay people. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude meetings. Enq: Doris 9457 5758. Fourth Sunday of the Month HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 2pm to 3pm at Morley Parish Church, 47 Wellington Road, Morley commencing 26 July, includes Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Come and reflect on the grace of being called to serve God in consecrated life. Prayer works! All Welcome. Enq: 9276 8500. Every 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Monday of the Month LATIN EXTRAORDINARY RITE MASS 7.30pm at St Joseph's Church, 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean. Every Tuesday CATHOLIC ADULT FAITH EDUCATION GROUP 7.15pm to 9.30pm at Sts John and Paul Parish, Willetton presents Letters of St Paul led by Sr Shelley Barlow RNDM, commencing 18 August for 6 consecutive nights. This is an opportunity to deepen your faith, through bible study in a warm supportive environment. Enq: Angeline 0402 122 940 or Parish Office 9332 5992. Every Tuesday PRAYER MEETINGS 7pm St. Mary's Cathedral Parish Centre, 450 Hay Street, Perth, overcome the burdens in life making prayer your lifeline with Jesus. Personal healing in prayer, Rosary, meditation, Scripture, praise in song, friendship, refreshments. Be united with Our Lord and Our Lady in prayer with others. Appreciate the heritage of the Faith. Every Thursday KNOWING YOUR CATHOLIC FAITH 6pm to 7.30pm at St. Joseph Church 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean, Catholic Questions and Answers and Catechism of the Catholic Church. Every 1st Thursday of the Month PRAYER AND MEDITATION SERVICE Taize Songs 7.30pm at Our Lady of Grace, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach, come for a prayerful meditation singing together beautiful easy to learn chants from Taize. Spend time in meditative silence, bathed in candlelight reflecting upon themed readings. Enq: Beth 9447 0061 or 9448 4888. Every First Friday of the Month HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 7pm at the Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins Street, Glendalough. Mass celebrated by Fr Saminedi followed by Adoration with Fr Don Kettle. All welcome. Every First Friday of the Month ST PIO OF PIETRELCINA - LATIN EXTRAORDINARY RITE MASS 7.30pm at St Joseph's Church, 20 Hamilton Street, Bassendean.

Canavese, about 50 miles gathered in front of the parish family and respect for human Pope encourages Romano from his Alpine vacation home in church that the region's people life, sensitivity to social justice, Les Combes, for the recitation of are known as enthusiastic and the ability to face hard work and the Angelus prayer July 19. The hard workers. But, he said, today sacrifice, a strong attachment to unemployed not town, near Ivrea, once was home to many families are experiencing the Christian faith through parish hundreds of employees of Olivetti, economic difficulties because of life and especially participation famed for its portable typewriters. the lack of employment." in the Mass have been your true to be downcast Now owned by Telecom Italia, the "Dear friends, do not be strength for centuries," he said. ROMANO CANAVESE, Italy (CNS) PopeBenedict XVI told the jobless of northern Italy that with faith and a commitment to justice and hard work they could be sure of a brighter future. The Popetraveled by helicopter to

company has gone from a high of 33,000 employees in 1970 to about 1,200 today. Unemployment in the Piedmont region, which includes Romano Canavese, has grown to 7 percent this year; the rate was 4 percent in 2007. PopeBenedict told the estimated 10,000 people

discouraged," he told them. "Your grandparents were forced to emigrate because of a lack of jobs, but then economic development brought well-being and others immigrated here from around Italy and from abroad. The fundamental values of the

PopeBenedict said those same values are the secret to building the town's future, "giving life to a society truly marked by solidarity and brotherhood and where all the spheres of life, institutions and the economy are permeated by a Gospel spire

July 22 2009, The Record

Promoters use Internet, prayer to reach variety of candidates • By Jordan Gamble

WASHINGTON (CNS) - With 11 new priests expected to be ordained in the next few years, the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana is doing better than many others in the United States. But Father Brian Doerr, the diocese's vocations director since 2000, remembers a seven-year stretch without any ordinations. The turnaround came, he said, when the diocese renewed traditional devotions like eucharistic adoration. "It's really the Holy Spirit that touches a man's or a woman's heart. Prayer is so vitally important," he said. Father Doerr believes the drought of priests and religious brothers and sisters is not due to vanishing interest but rather a lack of resources and spiritual support. "In the church today, we're ripe with vocations, but we lack a concerted effort to harvest those vocations. They're not listening because we're not here to help them facilitate their discernment," he said. To open up the pathways of information, the diocese reached out to college campuses with monthly dinners and launched a Web site, priestforever.org, to appeal specifically to men considering the priesthood. "Young people are more handson, they are more savvy. They get online, they network with one another, they travel to see different seminaries," said Father Doerr. Holy Cross Father Ed Obermiller, vocations director for the Indiana province of the Congregation of Holy Cross, told CNS that in 2008 almost 600 men contacted his office for the first time. He said the Web site vocation.nd.edu averages about 100 visits a day. Father Obermiller sees the Web traffic as an example that more people are at least open to considering the priesthood, compared to a generation ago. In 20 years, the range of ages and academic backgrounds has broadened among priesthood candidates. While graduatelevel seminary enrollments in the United States fell from 3,788 in 1988-89 to 3,357 in 2008-09, the percentage of pretheologate students jumped from just 7 per cent of total seminary enrollment in 1988-89 to 22 percent last year (an increase from 250 students to 749 students). Pretheologate programs satisfy the philosophy and theology requirements for most seminaries. "I've gotten a lot of questions like 'Do you see a lot of people thinking about becoming a priest because of the economy?' No, I don't. But I have heard that in times of economic problems people start to re-evaluate their priorities. They see that material goods and money don't do it all:' said Father Obermiller. "In the 1940s, you would come to the priesthood because it was prestigious. There was a role you could play in the community because it brought you great respect. Today, I think young men and women are coming out of a love for Jesus Christ and a desire to serve, and that's very inspiring," said Father Doerr.

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CLASSIFIEDS Walking with Him Daily Mass Readings 265 17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Gr 2Kings 4:42-44 Twenty loaves Ps 144:10-11.15-8 Food in due time Eph 4:1-6 One Body, One Spirit in 6:1-15 Five loaves 27 M Ex 32:15-24.30-34 No song of victory Gr Ps 105:19-23 A call at Horeb Mt 13:31-35 The smallest seed 281Ex 33:7-11;34:5-9.28 The Ten Words Gr Ps 102:6-13 The Lord has pity Mt 13:36-43 The end of time 29 W St Martha (M) Wh 1 in 4:7-16 Ps 33:2-11 in 11:19-27 [Alt. Lk 10:38-42

Love one another The Lord is good You are the Christ Worry and fret]

30 Th St Peter Chrysologus, bishop, doctor of the church (0) Gr Ex 40:16-21.34-38 The cloud of the Lord Ps 83:3-6.8.11 God's dwelling Mt 13:47-53 Things new and old

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presbyteries, nor (in the their deaths were not recorded clergy and religious were killed Basque bishops diocesan eyes) of the religious orders to in diocesan registers. He said the during the 1936-39 war. Most which they belonged," said Vitoria church wished to "recognize and were killed during the summer of Bishop Miguel Aramendia. "What repair" the damage and to "serve 1936 after the left-wing Popular apologise for is not justifiable or acceptable the truth by purifying memory. Front government launched an any longer is the silence in which "We do not know in detail aggressive anti-church campaign. silence over our church's official media has the painful circumstances The 14 priests were killed when wrapped their deaths. surrounding these deaths, which Franco's troops advanced into the We believe such a long silence were certainly unjustifiable even Basque region. 1930s deaths was not only a wrongful omission, in the dark conditions of the time They were among 70 clergy and VITORIA, Spain (CNS) Catholic bishops from Spain's Basque region have apologied for keeping quiet about the killing of priests by right-wing forces during the Spanish Civil War. "The memory of these priests has never faded in the eyes of their families, parishioners and

Polish church refuses Madonna 'protest' Mass Mass is not a form of protest, says priest uo By Jonathan luxmoore

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) - The Archdiocese of Warsaw rejected a request by Catholic protesters to

but also a lack of truth and an act against justice and charity, for which we humbly ask forgiveness," the bishop said at a July 11 Mass for 14 priests killed by the late Gen. Francisco Franco's nationalist army. At the Mass„ Bishop Asurmendi said the priests were denied public burial rites, and most of

hold an open-air Mass as part of a "public prayer crusade" against a Madonna concert on August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father Henryk Malecki, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the request was rejected because "Mass can't be treated as a form of protest." The Mass request, made by Marian Brudzynski, head of the Committee for the Protection of Faith and National Traditions, asked for permission to stage an open-air Mass and rosary service outside Warsaw's city government offices to protest of the scheduled concert at the capital's Bemowo airport. The archdiocesan chancellor,

said Bishop Asurmendi, who delivered the homily on behalf of all Basque bishops. "We do not want to reopen wounds, but to cure and alleviate them, by helping dignify those forgotten and excluded, and by mitigating the pain of their relatives and friends." More than 6,800 Catholic

religious killed during the war by both sides in territory covered by the Vitoria Diocese. The commemoration at the Mass marked the Spanish church's first public act of remorse for its wartime role; the bishops at the time declared support for Franco's dictatorship, which ruled the country for four decades.

Mgr. Grzegorz Kalwarczyk, said his office received numerous calls from worried Catholics about

the concert, part of pop icon Madonna's multination "Sticky and Sweet Tour," which began in London on July 4. "To make money by holding a concert on such a day by a singer with such a name is ethically dubious - it's not surprising people are complaining:' Mgr. Kalwarczyk told Catholic News Service. However, he said, the US pop star's concert "may be a deliberate provocation or just a case of thoughtlessness." The protest committee said it petitioned government officials and commercial sponsors to withdraw support and hoped Catholic clergy would join the public prayer crusade" against Madonna beginning on July 31.

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July 22 2009, The Record a..

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Catholic Guide TO THE

BIBLE

COULD YOU EVER COME BACK TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? By Lorene Hanley Duquin Many Catholics feel separated from the Church, citing issues such as divorce, doubts, painful memories and lifestyle. This book attempts to provide clarity and healing to those who feel alienated and invites them to come back home. $21.95 + P/H

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THE WAY OF THE CROSS For the Holy Souls in Purgatory By Susan Tassone This book will guide you in praying for departed souls, reflecting on the reality of purgatory and remembering Jesus' Passion. RRP $30.00

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SAINTS AT THE DINNER TABLE By Amy Heyd

A CATHOLIC GUIDE TO THE BIBLE

Award winning recipe innovator, Amy Heyd, provides a delicious menu of meals, from salad to main to dessert, along with a brief introduction to the saint who inspired them, as well as a reflection, dinner prayer and even questions for meaningful dinner discussions. RRP $34.95

By Fr Oscar Lukefahr, CM With the gentle and experienced hand of Fr Lukefahr, you will learn how to read the Bible with ease and understanding and allow it to become a treasured friend on your journey through life. $19.95 + P/H

By Claire Brandenburg

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CHILDREN'S BIBLE Grow up Knowing God By Maretha Martens

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9am - 2.30pm on (08) 9227 7080 or via bookshop@therecord.com.au

DANIEL AND THE LION

This classic Children's Bible features 172 engaging stories from the Old and New Testament that will teach children of the awesome power of God, allow them to know Jesus as their best friend and learn how to live under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. $24.95 + P/H

GROW UP KNOWIN

Children will be inspired by the modern day story of Daniel who must face his own lion,"fear", as a bully harasses him at school. Daniel receives comfort and guidance from friends, family, his guardian angel and the saints to overcome this challenge. $ 17.95 + P/H

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