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Bishop calls for Timorese refugees to stay
An East Timor child peers through a fence at the Atapukan refugee camp in West Timor two years ago. Photo CNS,Reuters
Approaches have been made to the Min- 1992 onwards - at a time when East Timor ister for Immigration, Mr Ruddock, to grant was rent by violence and intimidation. Since then they have lived in uncertainpermanent residency to East Timorese refugees who have been in Australia for at ty, waiting on a government decision on their refugee status. least eight years. Archbishop Carroll proposed a special The president of the Australian Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Francis Carroll, visa category permitting East Timorese in wrote urging Mr Ruddock to exercise his Australia the right of permanent residence discretionary powers for a grant of resi- if they desired it. He cited as justification for the visas their dency for 1800 asylum seekers. The department has recently notified integration into the community, their hard many of the asylum seekers they are to work to support themselves in their new life and their contribution to the commureturn to East Timor. They now fear deportation. nity as peaceful, faithful and law-abiding Archbishop Carroll's letter was followed people. He added many had Australianby another supporting his plea from the born or educated children, many of whom leaders of religious congregations in Aus- had started their own families and had obtained work in fields that do not exist in tralia, Archbishop Carroll said the East Timo- East Timor. There was also the continuing rese had begun arriving in Australia from impoverishment of their home country,
Archbishop Carroll said. Executive director of the Australian Conference of Religious Leaders, Sister Mary Cresp RSJ, speaking on behalf of Anglican congregations as well as Catholics. reiterated the strong bonds that had been forged between expatriate East Timorese and Australian religious communities. She said: "We religious women and men admire their courage and their contributions to local church and community life. "The resilience faith and optimism expatriates have shown since the 1975 invasion of their country is matched only by their patience in submitting and resubmitting their applications for Australian residency. "We pray that anxieties they feel today may be removed by the Federal Government granting them permanent residency status," she said.
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THE RECORD
31 OCTOBER 2002
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Christian 71rctthishop's meditation is r erspeclire spreading N Spirituality By Tracy Early
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NEW YORK (CNS) - Groups formed under the auspices of the World Community for Christian Meditation are growing faster in the United States than any other part of the world, according to the Benedictine monk who directs the community. In a New York interview on October 25, Father Laurence Freeman also said the number of meditation groups is growing in Canada, Australia, Great Britain and some nonEnglish speaking countries, and now there about 2,000 such groups worldwide. "A great need in the church today is for the teaching of contemplation," he said. "Our mission is to help revive the Christian tradition of meditation, and help recover it not just for monks and nuns but also for lay people." Father Freeman, who lives in a monastery in England, spent a month in the United States that included meeting with a couple of New York meditation groups, retreats in Houston, San Antonio and Pecos, New Mexico, an address at a Lutheran church in Las Vegas and engagements in California. The tradition of Christian meditation goes back to the early centuries of the church, when it was taught by the "desert fathers" in Egypt, and their approach became influential particularly through St. John Cassian, Father Freeman said. St Benedict drew on that tradition, urging that St John Cassian be read In the refectory every day, though the recommendation is not followed by Benedictines today, he said. Father Freeman is a monk of Christ the King monastery in London, part of the Olivetan Congregation that has its motherhouse at Monte Oliveto in Italy, and is carrying on the work of a predecessor, Father John Main, who died in 1982.
Father Main, while still a layman, was working in Malaysia for the British Foreign Office when he learned about meditation through his study with a Hindu swami from India, Father Freeman said. But he said that after Father Main joined the Benedictines he became acquainted with the Christian tradition of meditation, and devoted himself to making it known. He began setting up Christian meditation centres in 1975, and in 1991 the centres and meditation groups were organised into the present World Community for Christian Meditation. A leaflet produced by the New York group recommends that for a "mantra" people engaging in meditation continuously but silently recite the word "maranatha." It is Aramaic for "Come, Lord" but is not translated in some versions of the New Testament (I Cor 16:22). "Do not think about the meaning of the word," the leaflet counsels. Father Freeman said meditation without thought "doesn't exclude other forms of prayer," but recognises that there is a "prayer of the heart" beyond thought. But when the groups meet for this meditation, they also have readings and talks, he said. Father Freeman said meditation was based on the teaching of Jesus that those who pray should go into a private room, and should not "babble" like the heathen who think they will be heard for using a lot of words (Matt 6:6-8). The movement also reflects the call to "be still, and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10), he said. But though some Christians draw on techniques of Buddhism and other religions. the World Community for Christian Meditation does not. Father Freeman said. "Christ is the centre of our teaching and experience of meditation," he said. "Our method comes from the early Christian monks, and we help Christians learn to meditate in their own tradition."
ovember is the month of the Holy Souls. The Church encourages us to pray for those who have died. In fact she grants a Plenary Indulgence on behalf of the dead on November 2, the Feast of All Souls. The condition for obtaining the Plenary Indulgence is making a visit to a Church on November 2, praying the Lord's Prayer and the Creed and saying prayers for the Pope's intentions. This Indulgence can only be received once. To gain the Indulgence one must also receive Holy Communion and have been to confession recently. It is therefore strongly recommended that one attends Mass not only on November 1, the Feast of All Saints, but also on November 2. This Feast of the Church arose as a result of the faith of the people who wanted a public expression of their belief that ordinary people who were not considered for canonisation would also share in the victory of the Risen Christ. Praying for the dead reminds us of the Church's teaching on Purgatory. The journey of a Christian towards perfection begins at the moment of Baptism and continues throughout life. On the way there are many ups and downs in trying to follow Christ faithfully. All are called to perfection but many fall far short of the ideal. Sins undermine progress and work against the transforming power of grace. At the end of life most people are still far from perfect and need final purification before being fully ready for that deep and eternal union with God
called the Beatific Vision. That process of purification is what we mean by Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of this in numbers 1030 1032. We are urged to pray for the repose of the souls of those who died. God is a God of mercy as well as of justice. Of recent years there has been a reluctance to accept the reality of Purgatory, and a misunderstanding of its purpose. This has led to the presumption of immediate union with God after death and a consequent neglect of prayers for the dead. This November let us remember our relatives and friends who have died and commend to the mercy of God all the faithful departed. It is a good custom in most parishes to pray for all the names given to them, usually with an offering, during the whole of the month of November. If you go to the cemetery to honour relatives or friends, I would like to suggest that you take some flowers and perhaps a candle. At the graveside pray for the repose of the soul of the deceased by name, say an Our Father and a Hail Mary and conclude with this prayer Eternal hi grant rest (him/her/them) 0 Lord and let perpetual light shine upon May rest in peace. May soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
US Bishops send Bali message American bishops have sent a mes'Because so many of the victims of sage conveying their sympathy and this vicious attack were from your prayers for Australian victims of the country, all Australians today share Bali bombings. with us in the US an ever deeper and Bishop Wilton Gregory, president personal awareness of the horror of of the US Bishops' Conference sent global terrorism. the message to Archbishop Francis would be grateful if you let the Carroll, president of the Australian families and friends of the victims conference. know that we share their mourning He said: 'I write to express our sym- for their loved ones and that we hold pathy and prayers for all Australians In our prayers all who have been affected by the terrorism directed at affected.' hundreds of innocents on Bali. - Neil Smith
Caritas in Bali talks Caritas Australia is presently negotiating with two humanitarian networks about identifying the most appropriate response for the long term needs of Balinese communities affected by the recent bombing. Funds received will be chan-
nelled through to these Non Government Organisation partners caring for the victims in Bali. Contact details for donating: Post / in person: 29 Victoria Square, Perth, WA 6000 (Tues Thurs 8am to 4pm) Tel: 9223 1311 Freecall Sydney: 1800 0244 13
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A Mexican woman places candles at the gravesite of a relative at the municipal cemetery in Metepec, Mexico, last year. Mexicans celebrate All Souls Day, popularly known as the "Day of the Dead," by cleaning and decorating the graves of their loved ones. Photo CNS Reuters
Ex-refugee Jesuit to speak The Guest Speaker at the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Burmese Mass at Our Lady's Theological Studies in Melbourne. Assumption Parish in Dianella on He was ordained as a Jesuit Priest Sunday November 3, 5pm will be in the Catholic Church in 1998. Fr Nguyen Van Cao SJ, a refugee He was appointed director of himself from Vietnam, who came Jesuit Refugee Service - Australia to Australia at the end of 1982. He in 2000. Since then he has visited grew up during the Vietnam war many refugee camps including and persecution under the hands Meheba resettlement camp in of the new regime after 1975. Zambia, Kakuma refugee camp in Leaving behind his own family, Kenya, refugee camps in Uganda, he escaped by boat with 158 oth- and the Burmese refugee camps ers, arrived in Malaysia, and was along the Thai-Burma border. placed in Palau Bidong refugee His talk will be drawing on the camp. work of jRS in refugee camps along He joined the Jesuits in 1986 and the Thai-Burma border, and his after 13years of training he com- work as chaplain to the Burmese pleted a Bachelor of Theology, a community in Sydney
THE KECORD
310CTOBER 2002
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Big day for tiny babe at Moora Two "saviours" of a mother and child have become the Godparents of the baby in a baptism at Moora's St John the Baptist Church at the weekend. Father Stephen Giles MHM baptised Kayelynne Warren, four months, who was found on the floor of a Perth public toilet where she was born nine weeks premature. Constable John Macara and his patrol partner, Phil Falconbridge, answered an emergency call, discovering the tiny baby still enclosed in the unbroken sac of waters. They used a pocket knife to open the sac, then bathed Kayelynne in a nearby hand basin, clearing her airways and rendering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Kayelynne's mother was bleeding heavily and unconscious nearby. Kayelynne now lives with her grandparents, Edith Warren and Frank Narvier, at Moore. They asked Const Macara to be a Godfather for her baptism. The Godmother is Christine Young, a social worker at the Anawin Women's Refuge, who found the mother and child and raised the alarm. After the Sacrament, Const Macara said he was delighted to have been chosen as a Godfather. Advertisement
Message from Our Lady, Queen of Peace, given to Marija Pavlovic Lunetti for the village of Medjugorje and the world on October 25, 2002 Father Stephen Giles of Moora baptises Kayelynne WarmII, who is held by her godparents Constable John Macara and Christine Young.
Franciscan habit reaches back to roots By John Norton ROME (CNS) - A community of Franciscan friars in Assisi. Italy, has begun wearing a new simplified habit that harkens back to an earlier style, a move they hope their confreres worldwide eventually will follow. The community, the 50-member Assisi province of the Third Order Regulars. commissioned the new habit from a Milan designer of religious and liturgical garments, Elisabetta Bianchetti, and began wearing it in October. Modelled on a habit style from 1448, it is made of a lightweight, dark-gray wool and is tied at the waist with a cord knotted three times to symbolise the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. "It is very beautiful. For all practical purposes, it is the original one from the early times of the Franciscans." said Father Lino Temperini, the order's provincial. "Over time - the Baroque period, the 1800s - (our) habit had accumulated a lot of pleats and adornments, which today don't give very good witness," he told Catholic News Service in a late-October telephone interview. One difference from the original is the somewhat controversial addition of two breast pockets that are hidden under the habit's triangularly shaped mantle. Some Italian and French
media reported that they were designed to hold cellular phones. Father Temperini denied the reports, saying the pockets were a practical feature copied from the previous habit to be used for small items like keys, rosaries and eyeglasses. Besides, he added with a laugh, it's not even prudent for health reasons to carry a cellular phone on the chest so close to the heart. Father Temperini said other Third Order Regulars around the world had expressed interest in the new habits. Communities in the United States and Sweden have already started wearing them on an experimental basis, he said. "They can see it is a good thing because it is simple and characteristic. "We have started, and gradually others will probably follow," he said. Father Michael Higgins, vicar general of the Third Order Regulars, said the 900-member order had been discussing for many years the idea of standardising its habit, which now varies from province to province. "That discussion will continue," he said, and may eventually lead to the adoption of the new Assisi habit. But he said the order's leadership did not view the question of unifying the habit as a priority because it is not "essential to our mission."
(It is accepted that the ftnal authority regarding apparitions of Our Lady at Mediugorie rests with the Holy See of Rome)
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A model displays the new habit of the Franciscan friars of Assisi, Italy. Modelled on a style of habit from 1448, it is made of a lightweight, dark gray wool and is tied at the waist with a cord knotted three times to symbolise the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Photo CNS Cathor, Press Photo
20 Creery St, Mandurah Masses from 1 November 2002 for the summer are: Saturday Vigil 6pm Sunday 730am and 9.30am Christmas Masses: Them will be 5 Masses: 5pm Children's Vigil Mass 7pm, Youth vigil Midnight, 7.30am and 9.30am on Christmas Day We have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from Monday to Friday from 9am 111 4pm. Our office, located at Unit 3, 65 Pinjarra Rd is open Monday to Friday 9am 111 4pm Any phone inquiries should be directed to the office on 9581 2061
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"Dear Children! Also today I call you to prayer. Little children. believe that by simple prayer miracles can be worked. Through you prayer you open your heart to God and He works miracles in your life. By looking at the fruits, your heart fills with joy and gratitude to God for everything He does in your life and, through you. also to others. Pray and believe little children. God gives you gract, and you do not see them. Pray and you will see them. May your day be filled with prayer and thanksgiving for everything that God gives you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
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OUR LADY OF LOURDES PARISH, LESMURDIE
50 YEARS OF OBLATES IN THE HILLS Inviting all past and present members of Lesmurdie Parish to celebrate
the 50th Anniversary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in our Hills Community. DINNER: Saturday 7th December, 7pm to 12pm Mazenod Gymnasium, Gladys Road, Lesmurdie Cost: $25/head. BYO Drinks MASS: Sunday 8th December, 9.30am Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Lesmurdie Road, Lesmurdie TICKETS: available after all Masses, or from Parish Centre, or by phoning 9291 8197 or 9359 1704.
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THE RECORD
31 OCTOBER 2002
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Question: Since Vatican II, Marian devotion in the Church has become lukewarm in many places. Why? Is there a present turnaround in this attitude? Answer: Although Marian devotion took a downturn in some areas of the post-Vatican II Church (mainly in the Western nations), this was not a fault of the Vatican Council. In fact, devotion to the Mother of God was affirmed and encouraged by the Council, which gave her a further title, that of "Mother of the Church". However, we must look at the situation in the Church in the 1960s, when the Council was held. There had been many efforts to educate the people about the sacred liturgy ever since the pontificate of Pope St Pius X (reigned 1903-1914). St Pius wanted the people to sing during Mass, and so there was a renewed interest in Gregorian chant, and in fact many parishes learned to sing a number of chant Mass settings and hymns. St Pius also encouraged people to learn the meaning of the Mass prayers, and so there was a proliferation of missals (Mass books) published in Latin and English for the use of the people. These books often included commentary and explanation of the Mass prayers and cere-
Ze 44re )1f
Don't be afraid of asking Fr 'TIM DEETER a difficult question. Send yours to: Dear Padre, PO Box 75 Leederville, WA 6902 monies. One of his successors, Pope Pius XII, went so far as to permit and encourage the lay people to say the responses of the Mass, something that until then had been reserved solely to the altar servers. And so the "dialogue Mass" was born, where the people learnt to say "Et cum spiritu tuo" ("And with thy spirit") and all the rest, and the congregations said the Mass prayers aloud. Unfortunately, not all dioceses and parishes were diligent in promoting the liturgical aims of the Church. In many places, the concept of the priest "doing his thing" at the altar while the people "did their thing" in the nave continued on unchanged. What was the people's "thing"? People prayed the rosary silently, made the stations of the cross silently, lit candles at vari-
ous shrines, went to confession, or read from their missal silently - all during the Mass. Now none of this was bad in itself; but the Church was encouraging liturgical participation in the Mass, and it just wasn't happening. So the Second Vatican Council made some sweeping changes that took the world by surprise: the use of the vernacular (native tongue) was permitted as an alternative to Latin in the liturgy; the priest could face the people while celebrating Mass; the texts were updated to eliminate repetitions and make some prayers and ceremonies more understandable; and an attempt was made to remove rituals that had been added on to the liturgy over the centuries so that the style of the liturgy of the early Church would be more evident. Whether or not this has been
entirely successful is the topic of heated debate today. However, we must understand what was going on in the Church liturgically in order to understand what happened to Marian devotion. Public recitation of the Rosary, the singing of familiar Marian hymns, and various devotions like novenas - all of this was conducted in the language of the people. It fulfilled a need for the people to participate in some communal act of prayer and worship. When the Council put in place "new and improved" ways for this participation to happen, through the vernacular celebration of the Mass and the sacraments, there were some priests who mistakenly felt that these "non-liturgical" devotions were best left to private use and no longer had a place in public worship. It was thought that the vernacular liturgy, with its prayers, readings and hymns in the vernacular made other devotional exercises redundant. There are a lot of horror stories about priests breaking rosaries in the pulpit, banning novenas, removing statues of Mary. etc. Any who did such things were wrong to do so, and had not dearly understood the motivation of the Council. Thankfully those days of reaction and overreaction seem to be in the past, and the pendu-
Surprised by Truth
Readers' Conversion stories This week: Usa Irvine
I
once had the world and all its desires but now, today and everyday, I choose God over the world. This time last year I had just arrived back in Perth from a fast and 'partiedout' lifestyle in London, never knowing that I would be here today writing about Our Lord. I'm 25 years old and live at home with Dad and Mum and my dog, Oscar. I have one older sister and am a classicallytrained singer. Growing up in Perth I had a very strong Catholic upbringing thanks to Mum as well as being educated in the Catholic faith at Star of the Sea and Iona Presentation Ladies College. However when I turned 18 I had had enough of Perth and moved straight to Sydney to live in the 'real' world of fun and all its opportunities and to sing for my supper. During this time I studied music and had my first introduction to living life to the full with people from all walks of life and doing what Lisa wanted to do - becauseIwas free and forgetful of all my morals and where I had come from. I can't count all of the times God was there calling me. But as usual I'd ignore him, keep falling over, get back up again, and continue to plod along in life, always having a sense of guilt following me.
New life: Usa Irvine tells how she returned to her faith As time went by,I got myself into a seri-
ous relationship. Ihad completed my studies and woke up one day and found myself on the other side of the world (one big dream!). On my travels I had come close a few times to making a name for myself in the profession, but at the last minute something would always go wrong. Being angry and confused I could never understand why. I continued to keep a barrier between myself and God and would only call on him whenI felt like It. Eventually my relationship was over. I was craving the real qualities of life and, of course, my family.Idecided to come home. Istarted going back to Mass at my parish, St Bernadette's in Port Kennedy, and it was turning out that just an hour of Mass was becoming the highlight of my week Each time, the feeling of bursting out into tears was becoming a lot stronger than usual, particularly in the mentioning of the name Jesus. Some of my friends were looking for someone to sing at Mass and God's timing couldn't have been more perfect. The desire for strengthening my faith and being in a relationship with Jesus was starting to become a heart's desire. I needed healing and knew I couldn't do it on my own, Everything in life thatIwanted was falling down, not even singing could make me feel good. I had hit depression and loneliness, friends had moved on and I had to fit into peoples' lives before making my own. I craved God but didn't know where to start.
Photo Peter Rosengren
Friends I sang with at Mass gave me a pamphlet advertising the Disciples of Jesus Summer School for January 2002. My birthday was the day before it was to start. so I asked my parents if that could be my birthday present - and the answer was 'yes.' I arrived at Summer School and was blown away at the amount of young people my age who were there. They were so loving of each other and free to be themselves. My heart was already there and the music was great. Gradually, I was letting my guard down and my heart was starting to melt - until the evening we had the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I couldn't bring myself to speak to the Priest because of the tears pouring out. He said" Lisa what are your sins?" and I burst out" Jesus I'm so sorry! I never meant to hurt you." I realised how all of my pain and anger had kept Jesus on the cross over all of the years. I'd never known what it was like to say sorry to someone before, particularly when you mean it. The Priest told me that my tears of pain would soon turn into tears of joy. The third night of the Summer School came around, and the theme was commitment. Jesus andIwere best buddies again, but I realised how hard it is to commit to God. Doing it in your head is easy, but in your heart is where the trust factor comes In. I hadn't completely healed from a past broken heart, and I had vowed to myself that I would never love someone completely again. So when it came to doing this with our Lord, I was petrified. But, God
lum is swinging back toward a renewed appreciation of the role of Marian devotion. The Church has published a special Sacramentary and Lectionary of Mass prayers and readings for Masses to honour Our Lady under her many and various titles. The Holy Father declared a special Marian Year sometime back (1988?) and has now declared October 2002 to October 2003 to be "the Year of the Rosary". He h as also given us a new group of mysteries of the Rosary, the "mysteries of Light", focusing on several events in the ministry of Jesus. And there are more Marian conferences, pilgrimages, and books available than ever before in the history of the Church. So Marian devotion is indeed on the upswing again. It is up to us, priests and people, to continue to renew devotion to Our Lady according to the mind of the Council: encouraging the full participation of the people, basing our devotional practises on good scriptural and theological foundations, and harmonising all "para-liturgical" devotions with the sacred liturgy, from which they should flow and toward which they should lead us. This would be Our Lady's wish, for she never desired to glorify herself but only to 'magnify the Lord".
gave me the grace and I did it.I completely gave my whole heart, body and soul and every bit of me left. and I surrendered to the most Divine. I surrendered me. God finally caught me in his hands - after so long, and he won't let me go. Today I am in awe of something so miraculous, and greater than all of the good things in life, that sums up Love. His name is Jesus and what a man he is. Each day I wake up with a song of praise in my heart and ask the Holy Spirit to lead me. My mother was a blessed witness to God's power through His Holy Spirit working in me after Summer School. She in turn had a conversion within the space of a few weeks. Her comments were "I want what Lisa's having", and she has. People have seen how happy and peacefull have become with myself and want to know my secret. My whole life is changing before my eyes and always for the better. God knows us more than we know ourself. God is so full of great surprises, and the more we sacrifice our own desires He will reveal His will for us. And it always turns out better than what we wanted. We just have to trust. Through Mary our Mother, I have so much joy and freedom in being obedient to God's call and making him the first of everything. The power of his Love just brings me to my knees. I'm now back on my path which leads to the embraceable arms of God. And through my faith, I know that when the hard times really hit,Ican find the strength in the fruit of God's joy. It's part of our journey and the relationship we have together. I am encouraged to never doubt that I can trust in him. I have been so blessed without knowing It.Inow see my family and friends through God's eyes, and love them more than I thought I ever could. I look back now and say "Thank you" for all of the pain and suffering because it has been a blessing in disguise. If you have an emptiness in your heart, looking for the meaning of life, and searching for Jesus and his Spirit in the most intimate powerful way, like I was, I can honestly say that you'll find him at the Disciples of Jesus Summer School. I did, and It's the best birthday present I've ever received in my life. I thought music was my first true love but now God is. Life through Jesus Christ is the Best! PRAISE THE LORD" (The 2003 Disciples Summer School will be held from January 12-19 at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar. You can find out more by phoning 9445 9800 or on the web at www.disciplesofjesus.org)
THE RECORD
31 OCTOBER 2002
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Vanier's message: truth, love By Mark Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) - On September. 11 last year, Jean Vanier was home in Paris, where he lives in a household with developmentally disabled friends. When he heard about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, he recalled, he could not watch the unfolding drama on television. He stayed in his room, saying, "I need space to pray ... and not be consumed by fear." The humanitarian who founded the international L'Arche movement visited Washington in midOctober. He spoke to students and others at Georgetown University and later to an ecumenical gathering at a Presbyterian church on the topic of "Becoming Human." "What happened on Sept. 11 created something new." he said. In today's world, he said, people must ask themselves, "What does it mean to be human to be a disciple of Jesus ... to be a peacemaker?" Noting that some in the world now fear chemical war, Vanier said the challenge for people is "not to be governed by fear, but to be governed by truth, compassion and love." Vanier said people must recognise the reality of death and that millions face starvation in the world every day. VS/Fie ' -In his Georgetown talk, he urged people livingin a world filled with Jean Vanier, founder of the international L'Arche movement, addresses an anxiety "to stand up and be men audience at Georgetown University in Washington on October 16. and women of hope, not to run name "L'Arche," the French word nessing the plight of the thouaway. Be disciples of Jesus (be) for ark, to reflect the biblical sands of disabled people institubrothers and sisters in support of Image of a refuge. tionalised around the world. each other." During his talk at Georgetown, Today on six continents there L'Arche had its beginning in are 120 L'Arche communities, he noted that "people with dis1964 in a French village when where people live with the devel- abilities are the most oppressed Vanier invited two men living in opmentally disabled in a family people in the world, it's really an institution for the mentally setting. Having grown up in a priv- true." Later he asked, "Why do we retarded to live with him in a cot- ileged life in Canada, he was reject people who are fragile?" He tage. Above the door he put the moved to a new calling after wit- spoke of seeing a mother in a
Brazilian slum who was shunned because of her two disabled children. Vanier also described a recent visit to Belarus, where "300 beautiful children with disabilities" were crowded into an institution, destined to be warehoused later as adults in a larger nearby building. "I've seen too many people with broken hearts and broken families," he said. But his message was one of hope, describing how he had witnessed disabled Catholics and Protestants living together in a community of peace in Belfast, Ireland, and how in Jerusalem a group of disabled men and their friends went walking together "two Jews, two Arab Muslims and two Palestinian Christians, walking through Jerusalem hand in hand, wobbling along." Often compared to Mother Teresa, who reached out to the world's forgotten poor, Vanier told how his own life had been transformed when he began to live with and love people with developmental disabilities. "It's been my privilege (for the past) 38 years. living with people who are fragile, helping to create communities," he said. "When I began L'Arche, I wanted to serve the poor. Living in LArche,I realisedI was poor. vulnerable." In a world that values materialism and success, he said, he realised "I'm not autonomous. I need God. I need the help of the Holy Spirit" Vanier also co-founded Faith and Light, an international ecumenical association of the developmentally disabled, their families and friends. In Washington. three Faith and Light communities join for prayer, Scripture sharing and celebrations. L'Arche has two homes in
Message of hope inspires pro-lifers
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By Mike Mastromatteo TORONTO (CNS) - The battle to secure legal protection for unborn children is similar to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, said an authority on the role of religious faith in influencing political and social discourse. "This (right-to-life work) is the great civil and human rights issue of our time," said Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life. Father Neuhaus, keynote speaker at the October 25 Creating a Culture of Life conference in Toronto, added that Instead of settling the abortion issue the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision ushered in 30 years of uncertainty and confusion about the sanctity and worthiness of all human life. The January 1973 court decision struck down U.S. laws restricting abortion. For many years, Father Neuhaus worked closely with the 1960s civil rights champion, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Father Neuhaus, a former Lutheran minister, spent the first several years of his ministry working at inner-city .Lutheran parishes in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was received into the Catholic Church by the late Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York in 1991.
Father Neuhaus brought a
respect for life in the years following the Roe vs. Wade decision. "Our challenge is to continue trying and to remember that the rest of the struggle is God's business," he said. Father Neuhaus said hope comes from Pope John Paul II, who continually emphasises the culture of life, despite his personal experience of living through some of most violent DEATH ON events in the history of mankind. A FRIDAY "At the end of the bloodiest A FTERNOON century in human history, Pope John Paul emerged as a voice R ICHARD JOHN NECki calling us to a culture of life," Father Neuhaus said. "If he can message of hope and inspira- speak of hope, then so can we." The priest said that winning tion to a weary band of Canadian and international pro-lifers. over the hearts and minds of He emphasised pro-life work as abortion supporters is made a lifetime calling that imposes easier if pro-lifers demonstrate difficult expectations. He also that they have a higher societal described veteran pro-life work- good in mind. "The pro-life movement that ers as being the avant-garde of would change Canada must be a new humanity. "You have been enlisted to perceived as a movement of stand guard at the entry and exit love," Father Neuhaus said. "You points of life and at every step are calling on your nation to be along the way for the weak and something great and good." The Canadian pro-life confervulnerable," Father Neuhaus said. "It would have been so ence was organised by Cameasy to give in to the view that paign Life Coalition, Canada's some people are expendable, national pro-life political lobbybut your conscience simply ing organisation, and Life Canawouldn't allow you to remain da, an education and research association. silent." Father Neuhaus had been in Father Neuhaus urged conference participants not to be dis- Canada to lead a series of couraged by an apparent lack of retreats in his hometown of success in promoting a greater Pembroke, Ontario.
Washington. Vanier, who is now 74, said that just as he has been transformed he has seen Christ's love change the hearts of others. "Ihave seen people rising up from the dead. I've seen people come to our communities in depression, anger, (and) with no sell-esteem. I've seen them rise up, becoming human, becoming peaceful, becoming loving." Speaking in a gentle voice, he said that in his own weakness he has recognised that he must "open the door of my heart to let Jesus come in, so I can be a presence of God in the world." Instead of sending manna from heaven, God relies on people to share their bread with others, Vanier said. When he encounters beggars in Paris, Vanier said he does not offer them money, but he speaks to them as a friend and brother. When asked about the community's prayer life, he said that despite the differences in countries around the world "it's fundamentally the same, praising and offering ourselves to God." He added, "In my own little foyer, we pray every night. _ We try to create a milieu of love and prayerfulness." At Georgetown, disabled members of the local LArche community were asked to stand, and the audience applauded them and met them at a reception that followed the talk. A special aspect of ILArche is that people have meals together, just as Jesus invited the poor and forgotten to eat with him. "In biblical language, eating a meal together is much deeper, something about covenant and friendship," he said. "Jesus is saying, if you become a friend with somebody who is excluded, you're doing the work of God.
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6
THE RECORD
31 OCTOBER 2002
Opinion
Reflection
Catholic opinions from around Australia
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I Say, I Says...
oiling on for three years since the defeat of the republic referendum, it is worth reminding ourselves of the media's false and stupid predictions of doom, division and international isolation made in the immediate aftermath of that defeat. The Sydney Morning Herald editorialised that: [Australia' will remain confused, bitter and divisive until another leader steps forward to bring the country together. Thomas Keneally claimed the vote would bring home to the world the seemingly colonial status to which those who have flim-flammed the public on Saturday have condemned us. Geoffrey Barker claimed in the AusIndian Financial Review that: Australia's decision was an act of self-abasement. It revealed to the world a timid nation afraid of freedom. In the West Australian one Andre Malan, fatuously compared the eventual coming of the republic to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid.
Greg Sheridan, foreign editor of The Aus- economic growth. Sheridan claimed fur- it even more from Asia." This seemed at tralian, claimed that as a result of the ref- ther that: In Britain, in Europe more wide- first glance to fulfil the prediction Asia was erendum we would see a brilliant Hong ly and in America, the vote makes us look turning against Australia as a result of the Kong scholar choosing to go to Canada. ridiculous, divided and deeply unsure of referendum. However the story was not But surely Canada was also a monarchy ourselves. In Asia it reinforces the impres- the product of The Straits Times but was and indeed was even under the same sion that we are ambivalent about our datelined Canberra. It claimed Indonesia monarch? Much of Canada sports far more Identity, our location and our neighbour- and Malaysia had "turned their backs on Anglophile cultural symbols, such as hood - a frightened little country of sec- Australia in the aftermath of the East Timor Union Jacks on flagpoles in front yards and ond-hand colonials. crisis" - nothing to do with the republic refportraits of the royal family in pub winAs far as real Asian opinion went, The erendum. It went on that "ties remain dows, than would ever be seen in Aus- Straits Times, the major Singapore news- strong with partners such as Singapore tralia. Would not the brilliant Hong Kong paper, published an article by committed and Japan" and that a "senior editor" of an scholar simply make a rational decision to Australian republican Richard Woolcott: Indonesian-language paper had said go where there were the best opportuni- "Timid support for the status quo will not "Indonesia doesn't care [about Australia' ties and lifestyle? Sheridan does not usu- advance our international profile" and one one way or the other." It then published ally demonstrate such a patronising by an Australian citizen who now works in material critical of Prime Minister Howard, attitude to Asians' intelligence. Singapore, which stated that with the con- Australia and the No vote, sourced not An acute Asian observer could hardly tinuance of the monarchy "nothing would from Asia but from pro-republican Ausescape noticing that allegedly reactionary, have changed - Singapore troops will still tralian media - The Sydney Morning Herimmature. monarchist Australia escaped train in the outback, Australia's trade will ald, The Australian and The Daily the economic melt-down that had devas- still he largely dependent on Asia and Telegraph. The general Asian media tated a whole series of Asian countries Asian property buyers will still be pursued showed very little interest in the matter. during the preceding two years. It had low by Sydney and Melbourne realtors." An apology from the Australian media to inflation, low unemployment, cheap A piece in The Straits Times three days the Australian people is called for but I money, domestic and civic stability and later was headed "Australian vote isolates don't expect to read it.
WORD on
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with Guy Crouchback
TO JESUS THROUGH MARY column of Marian devotion
Sunday
A layman's meditations, by Peter Dwan
oday's readings speak of the service of God, and provide us with a contrast between the priest of the Old Law and the Pharisees on the one hand and St Paul on the other. Who do we resemble, the priests and the Pharisees or St Paul? The first reading (Malachi 1:1-14. 2:810) introduces the theme. The book is the work of the last of the prophets sent to the Chosen People who preached and wrote down what he preached in Jerusalem about 450BC. The Jews returned from Babylon in 538BC. In 5I5BC the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt. Moved by the preachings of two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah. the returned exiles were zealous in their observance of God's law and the liturgical rules of the temple were carried out faithfully. But when this prophet Malachi spoke, a change for the worse had occurred. Both priests and people had grown lax. Marriage with neighbouring gentiles, strictly forbidden by the Mosaic law, was becoming very frequent and the temple priests were lax and negligent in their liturgical services. In the verses read today the prophet chastises and threatens the priest of the temple. After giving the priests an opportunity to repent, God warned them that if they didn't repent, he would send a curse upon them. God said: "You have strayed upon the way, you have caused many to stray by your teaching." It wasn't so much false teaching as bad example which caused people to stray. We should consider whether we are giving good example. In verses 6-13, the prophet has listed the offences the priests had committed in their liturgical services, offering lame, diseased or even stolen animals as sacrifices - strictly forbidden in Leviticus 22: 17-25. The first reading for today was chosen because of its similarity to today's gospel (Matthew 23:1-12). Like the Pharisees in the time of Christ the priests of the temple of Malachi's day were the leaders to whom the people looked for guidance and example. Both failed the people miserably. The priests to whom God spoke
through His prophet had made a mockery of religion. They cheated (or tried to cheat) God and led the people to do likewise. Their service of the temple was dishonest and purely external, they brought the true religion into disrepute. They did not teach the Law of God to their people for their own faith and belief was lukewarm if not altogether lost. Despite all this infidelity, God was able to preserve the true faith in a remnant of His people, until the time came to fulfil the purpose for which He had chosen them: the coming of Christ. In the second reading (I Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13) we have a passage which can be considered a guide to those who preach the gospel. St Paul showed the Thessalonians an almost maternal gentleness. He says: "Like a mother feeding and looking after her own children, we felt so devoted and protective towards you, and had come to love you so much, that we were eager to hand over to you not only the Good News, but our whole lives as well." He reminded them that he slaved day and night so as not to be a burden on any one of them. Paul supported himself by making tents. In the gospel, Christ tells the people what the Scribes and the Pharisees really are people who don't practise what they preach. Jesus said: "The Scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must do what they tell you and listen to what they say, but do not be guided by what they do, since they don't practise what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders." It has been said that the Pharisees had surrounded the law of Moses with such a thick hedge of extra precepts, made mostly by themselves, that nobody could get near the Mosaic law to keep it! The Pharisees tried to impose their burdensome laws on the ordinary people, but they themselves would not even attempt to keep it! Pride was the Pharisees' predominant sin. Christ said that everything they did was done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels.
_NAL: An eighth-century mosaic hanging in the grotto of St Peter's Basilica shows the Virgin Mary bathing the child Jesus. Photo CNS/Fabbric,a de San Pietro
By John Mavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John Paul II urged Marian academic experts to develop a deeper theological and spiritual understanding of Mary's role as the church's 'sure guide' in the third millennium. The Pope made the remarks On October 29 at an annual joint meeting of pontifical academies; this year's meeting was dedicated to the theme of Marian studies. The Pope also awarded the 2002 Pontifical Academy Prize to a Marian scholar, Rosa Cali, who wrote a doctoral thesis on the 'anti-Mariological texts' of the church fathers. The prize carries a research grant worth about $30,000. The Pope encouraged Marian scholars to consider new sources as well as traditional ones in their study of Mary and her impact on the church. For example, he said, experts could examine the lives of
the saints and their personal experience of Mary or Mary's treatment in art throughout the centuries. He said the upcoming 150th anniversary of the 1854 proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception offered a good opportunity to increase scholarship and reflection and communicate Mary's significance to people around the world. 'Mary is truly the luminous dawn of the new evangelisation, the sure guide of the church's path in the third millennium,' he said. The Pope recalled that in 2000 he asked the whole church to return to a contemplation of the 'face of Christ' as it looks ahead to evangelisation. 'Who better than Mary to help us and encourage us in this task?' he said. The joint session of the pontifical academies included representatives from the 10 pontifical academies in Rome and at the Vatican.
THE RECORD
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31 OCTOBER 2002
7
Monuments and the meaning of life
he unusual behaviour of our Premier and morning newspaper in the great monument debate going on in Perth illuminates the inability of our society to understand and cope with death, particularly sudden death. Having largely abandoned belief in God, our secular and irreligious society has no coherent sense of the meaning of death, little awareness of the reality of eternal life, and almost no hope in the meaning of the Resurrection. There is a void in society's understanding of the relationship between life and death and of the effect that the way we live has on our life after death. These are not merely matters of personal or religious belief. They have a deep though now often unrecognised influence on our understanding of ourselves and our society. Acceptance of the concept of life after death necessarily requires an acknowledgement of our spiritual existence. Knowing that we are spiritual beings means recognising that we have a relationship with the supreme spiritual being and a relationship with all other spiritual beings. Ultimately, this is the foundation of democracy because it acknowledges that at our deepest level we are all equal and all related. It is also the foundation of the personal and communal awareness that racism is inherently foolish and hatred of others is self-damaging.
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The idea that we are all equal at a merely physical level is patently absurd. Democracy has been built on the belief that we are all equal in the sight of God, that is, in our spiritual reality. This important truth has been acknowledged in the written constitutions of the great modern democracies. Recognising that we are spiritual and that it is in our spiritual nature that we experience eternity requires the acknowledgement that life in its short material phase needs to be directed towards the reality that will be ours after our physical death. The consequence of being aware of the meaning of death and on-going life is that we are naturally propelled towards the development of the spiritual and moral aspects of life. This is the genesis of conscience and the foundation for a life of unselfish contribution to the common good of family and society. This is also the reason why (apart from acts of personal aggrandisement by kings and dictators) most democratic monuments have been erected to those
Ask the homeschoolers
Ra
ising your children to be joyful Catholics is a wonderful task ntrusted to parents. When the school community nurtures the faith, love and knowledge of Christ and His Church. Catholic parents can be somewhat relaxed. It hardly needs saying that parents who T3R LETTERS TO THE E are not involved with their children's faith development are likely to become parents of non-Catholics. The changes highlighted by Paul Kelly (October 17) indicated Catholic parents have four options, including homeschooling. 12 year old did last year. I find it almost Many parents will not be motivated to Incredible that my boys are so deep in their make such life changing decisions. How- faith that when they come home they teach ever, there is a great deal they can and me about whatever they have learned in should do at home. Not sure how to do RE. this? Ask a Catholic homeschooling parAs an adult and a mother of 3, only learnent. If you don't know any, come to their ing about the Catholic Faith now, I have a conference on November 30. You'll hear long way to go, but I do thoroughly agree about the books, tapes, and ideas that will with you, that ills most important for a true make your task easy All it takes is your Catholic School to recognise cost issues time and love. Our society often gives and surprisingly this one does. I feel grandparents many opportunities to lead blessed to have the opportunity for my their grandchildren to Jesus. Are they will- boys to be attending this school, as it is one ing to begin? of a kind in all areas. Ills not a costly school, and regardless of Philip Haydon the cost of the fees, our children are still Woodlands getting the very best education in all areas, which can only be brought to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Mrs SamsonIwould n response to Mrs Samson (October 10) love to tell you more, andI hope and pray a good private and Catholic School is that Iwill get the chance one day, asIhave within arm's reach. I am not a Principal, a lot to tell, so much so, that I would love but an ordinary mother of three beautiful to write a book one day. I thank the Lord boys aged 12, 8 and 6. When I read your every day for not giving up on me! May God Bless you and lead you to the article in the RecordIcouldn't help but feel that Divine Mercy College may be the one school you are in search of. you have hoped and prayed for. Rose Curtis Iwas not raised a Catholic or Religious at Lathlain all, and therefore was not brought up knowing how little we can accomplish without letting the "Lord" into our hearts. It has he Royal Australian and New Zealand been almost two years since the greatest College of Obstetricians and Gynaemiracle of all happened for me, when my boys were baptised and are happier than cologists' proposed Code of Ethics is a ever before. AndIfeel like a newborn baby frightening document. College doctors care just starting to crawl and discovering a for women expecting babies - yet their whole new world, and each day seems Code never mentions the words "baby', *embryo' or "foetus'. The Code stresses brighter than the last. My boys have always been in a state 'women's rights' but acknowledges no school until this year, simply becauseIdid- unborn babies' rights. No doctor shall be 'compelled to act conn't think I could ever afford a better education for them as I have shopped around trary to moral convictions' - but the Coland still found it impossible to be able to lege will ensure that members are 'capable afford it. Until one day we were led to this psychologically' (page 1). Will conscienschool. And yes Mrs Samson it is worth it. tious objectors to abortion be deemed psyMy 12year old in the state school last year chologically incapable? • if a therapy conflicts with a doctor's was in year 6. my 8 year old this year is in year 3 and is doing harder work than my beliefs he must refer the patient to a 'suit-
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Divine Mercy answer
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whose contribution to society has expressed at least some of the nobler features of humanity. On the other hand, a materialistic understanding of human life leads to a philosophy of consumption and a psychology of emotional responses ungoverned by reason and self-discipline. It is a psychology that supports the impulses and economics of consumerism. Unable to entirely ignore the spiritual truth of humanity in the welter of falsehood now prevailing in the public marketplace of ideas, our community expresses its loss in occasional but recurrent outbursts of communal grief. Subconsciously, much of this grief is for our moral and spiritual loss. This spiritual understanding and the direction it gives to life are essentially personal matters, but they also have a profound effect on the nature of our society and on the way we are governed. Societies which have forgotten, or never learned, this basic understanding of human nature are likely to be
unaware that there is any other truth about our existence, a moral order which is not imposed on us but which is inherent in us, a necessary conunitment to that which is good in our spiritual nature. They are likely to forget that democracy is inherently a moral form of government and find themselves arguing that morality has no place in government. They are likely to forget the tine nature of equality to the extent that they will not only allow but actually fund the killing of babies. They are likely to permit and license the prostitution of women and girls. They are likely to forget that there is a fidelity in human sexuality that is the foundation stone of personal relations, family life and the cross-generational relationships which are at the core of our being. Such societies are likely to find themselves promoting ideas and structures that treat love as a sexual impulse, not as a choice to be supported by the strength of the will. Having lost the relationship between life, death and eternity, they lose the sense of the relationships that are necessary for the effective functioning of individuals and society in the here and now. • The opinions expressed in this editorial, and any other Record editorial, are not necessarily those of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Perth.
able' practitioner (page 4) — presumably self was taught the enneagram by the Jesuit one who aborts. Fr. Mitch Pacwa. Fr Pacwa now teaches • all care must be based 'solely on the against the enneagram. He says, "Today, medical needs of the patient' (page 6). there is not a single Jesuit in my province, Aren't there two patients in a pregnancy? or the next province over, teaching the • all patients are to receive 'equal con- enneagram.... Either they've stopped teachsideration irrespective of socioeconomic ing the enneagram, or they've left the Sociand ethnic status' (page 9). In fact, small- ety." That should sound a warning to any ness seems to disqualify one from any consideration whatever. Catholic who is considering getting This unethical Code should be scrapped. Involved in the enneagram. An honest examination of conscience followed by a Arnold Jago good Confession will do more for you than Mildura any of these New Age fads. And don't forget to say the prayer to St Michael. Ben O'Brien A s a tribute of highest esteem and hon- Deer Park, Victoria lour for Brother Andrew from God's Farm and all whose lives he touched with healing in troubled times, we are publishing his newly uncovered wisdom in a book -"have just returned from Parliament he titled The Song of a Wounded Healer. 1House, Canberra, where I attended the In this manuscript, unknown until it sur- Parliamentary Fellowship Prayer Breakfast. faced recently, Brother gives even stronger About 650 people filled the great hall, Catholic answers to the serious troubles of including the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime today, and challenges with wisdom never Minister, Leader of the Opposition and over previously heard from his lips. Added fea- 30 more politicians. hires are a foreword by Fr Paul Glynn SM, Just before Mr Howard was to read from supplements from Fr Daven Day SJ, Aus- the Bible I interrupted him to say that he tralian Provincial of the Jesuits, and Broth- could not do so while he held 300 innocent er Geoff MC, first General Servant elected children in detention camps.Ihad more to after Brother Andrew of the Missionary say but was prevented from doing so. But Brothers of Charity, plus stories from Broth- somebody had to speak for the innocent er's life. It should be available by late children. November 2002 at hopefully $5 each. I want to see those camps closed as they Betty Peaker make me feel ashamed to be an Australian, God's Farm something I thought I would never say. Dehumanising, vilifying, and demeaning these people, to say nothing of splitting families apart, traumatising children and he enthusiasm that Peter and Marya incarcerating people, without trial, soma Stewart show for the enneagram (The times for years, is against everything for Record, October 17) is misplaced. A brief which Jesus stands. history of the enneagram clearly shows its After all He and His family were Asian occult connections. refugees - "illegal queue jumpers". The Sufis used a type of enneagram for The Liberal and Labor parties have colastrology and numerology. This was not luded in all these dastardly deeds. The the same as the enneagram of personality have shot themselves in the foot Democrats types which is in use today. That was are thus the only alternaGreens and the invented by Oscar Ichazo, a Chilean Wollongong by-election the Look at tive. occultist, who was given it by his spirit perspective. The pro-refugee pea from this guide, Metatron. Metatron claimed to be slowly day by day. the chief of the Archangels (I always ple are growing We come from all sides of politics, mostthought it was St. Michael!). ly don't belong to any political party, but enneagram, On the nine points of the real belief in the dignity of the human share Ichazo placed the seven capital sins; he person. Our feelings are intense and we also added deceit and cowardice, to make we will show our disup the nine. Claudio Naranzjo, who met will not go away and election. pleasure at the next Ichazo, placed the personal characteristics The damage to our two leading political from Karen Home's psychology system on parties will be terrible and Australia will the enneagram associated with each type. become unstable. The issue for the Goveach type. for descriptions He also added He started teaching this enneagram in ernment is simple. Close the camps and 1969. So in following the enneagram, you win back this ardent 30 per cent of voters are not simply trusting Richard Rohr, you - or face the consequence at the ballot box. are trusting Metatron, Ichazo and Naranzjo. John Bardsley Roseman Ills also worth noting that Fr. Rohr him- Metung, Victoria
New Br Andrew book
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Enneagrarn epitaph
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Ashamed Australian
8 31 OCTOBER 2002
ear of the ROSARY THE RECORD
FEATURE Pope John Paul II has declared October 2002 - 2003 as the year of the Rosary. He has marked the occasion with the introduction of five news mysteries taken from significant events in the life of Christ. By Hugh Ryan
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t the beginning of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II described the Rosary as his favourite prayer. After 24 years in office, in view of the 'many graces I have received in these years from the Blessed Virgin through the Rosary', he has proposed The Year of the Rosary from October 2002 to October 2003. He has also proposed five new mysteries of the Rosary, and suggested a new order for saying the Rosary for those who recite five decades a day. Marking the end of his 24th year in office with an Apostolic Letter 'Rosarium Virginis Mariae'. the Pope said the Rosary is a prayer of great significance for the third millennium, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. Throughout his letter he emphasised the Christ-centred and scriptural nature of the Rosary. "Though clearly Marian in character. it is at heart a Christocentric prayer ... having all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety." he said in the introductory paragraphs.
"With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty of the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love." "With the Rosary the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty of the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love." Recalling the love of the Rosary expressed by numerous Popes and Saints and the presence of Mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church affirmed by Vatican H, he said that against the background of the words Ave Maria, the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. Looking briefly at objections to the Rosary, the Pope insisted "not only does this prayer not conflict with the Liturgy, it sustains it". Recalling its Christological and scriptural foundations he said "if properly revitalised, the Rosary is an aid and certainly not a hindrance to ecumenism!" Revival of the Rosary was most timely because of the world's need for peace and its need to support the family, 'the fundamental and indispensable institution ... for the future of society'. He presented peace and the family as interwoven and inseparable. Emphasising • the contemplative nature of the Rosary, the Pope said Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word. She constantly sets before the faithful the mysteries of her Son, with the desire
that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their Saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact with the memories and contemplative gaze of Mary. Mary lives only in Christ and for Christ. He described the Joyful Mysteries as being marked `by the joy radiating from the event of the Incarnation', beginning with the Angel's opening words 'Rejoice, Mary...'. Exultation continues in the second mystery, causing John in his mother's womb to 'leap for joy' and went on to the 'news of great joy' proclaimed by the angels at Jesus' birth. The final two mysteries continued the theme but began to intimate the radical nature of the Gospel in which even the closest of human relationships are challenged by the absolute demands of the Kingdom. In the Sorrowful Mysteries was
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1. Christ's Baptism in the Jordan
Mysteries of Light
Pope John Paul II offers five new mysteries to the rosary meditations • Christ's baptism in the Jordan
his event, extraordinary in itself, saw the T revelation of the Blessed Trinity. As Christ descended into the waters to take on the bur-
den of our sin, the voice of the Father declared him the beloved Son and the Spirit descended on him to invest him with the mission he was to carry out
• His self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana
4. The Transfiguration rr his ultimate mystery of light which showed Peter, James and John who Jesus really was, strengthened them for what was to come, and foreshadowed the transfiguration of their lives and ours both in this life and the next if we allow the Spirit to dwell in us. During the Transfiguration the Father again was heard and this time, in a sense, echoed the words of Mary at Cana when he told the Apostles "listen to him".
• His proclamation of the kingdom of God with his call to conversion • His Transfiguration
ere Jesus changed water into wine H thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers. This mystery presents
Mary as teacher with her instruction to all of us "Do whatever he tells you", an instruction which echoes her own acceptance of God's will "Be it done unto me according to your word". The mystery also demonstrates that He will turn our water into wine - our negativity Into love, our sorrow into joy, our sin into salvation.
TUESDAY I WEDNESDAY
Glorious
Joyful
Sorrowful
Source: "Rosarium Virginis Mariae"
Glorious
5. The institution of the Eucharist hen Jesus first appeared on earth he W was laid in a manger, a feeding trough, as a symbol that he was the food with which
God nourishes creation. This symbol became reality in the Eucharist which is now known as the source and the summit of the spiritual life of the Church. It is also the permanently present sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery - the saving power of Jesus' death and resurrection brought about for us and in US
Suggested day for praying each set of mysteries MONDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
! SATURDAY
Light
Sorrowful
Joyful
He said: "In this Year of the Rosary which we have just begun, I invite you to rediscover the efficacy of the prayer of the rosary for peace in the world and in families," and "to rediscover communion with the Virgin Mary through this noble prayer." In Number 6 of his new apostolic letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary), the Pope requested this prayer specifically for these two intentions. "The revival of the Rosary in Christian families," he wrote. "within the context of a broader pastoral ministry to the family, will be an effective aid to countering the devastating effects of this crisis typical of our age." -Zenit
Apostolic letter APOSTOLIC LE [ER "ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE' OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL ON THE "ROSARY OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
I
2002 CNS Graphics
In proposing a Year of the Rosary, Pope John Paul II also offered the Christian community five new Mysteries, to be called the Mysteries of Light, which come from the public teaching life of Jesus. He observed that the current form of the Rosary, formalised in 1569, had a big gap between the end of the Joyful Mysteries and the Sorrowful Mysteries beginning with the agony in the garden of Gethsemane. The new mysteries emphasised the Christological and scriptural nature of the Rosary without reducing its Marian nature, and each is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus.
Pope John Paul II appeals for recitation of the Rosary
"In this Year of the Rosary which we have just begun, I invite you to rediscover the efficacy of the prayer of the rosary for peace in the world and in families," and "to rediscover communion with the Virgin Mary through this noble prayer."
• His institution of the Eucharist
SUNDAY
9
ohn Paul II appealed again for the recitation of the rosary for peace in the world and in families. At the end of a general aJience, which gathered over 16,000 pilgrims, the Pope greeted pilgrims of the ;Czech Republic and of Lithuania in their 61 own language.
2. Christ's self-revelation at the marriage at Cana
found the culmination of the revelation of God's love and the source of our salvation. The abject suffering reveals not only the love of God but also the meaning of man himself.... 'the meaning, origin and fulfilment of man is to be found in Christ, the God who humbles himself out of love'. The Glorious Mysteries revealed the glory of Jesus in the Resurrection and Ascension, and the glory bestowed on Mary in the Assumption and crowing as Queen of Heaven, but in the centre of them 'the Rosary sets before us Pentecost, which reveals the face of the Church as a family gathered together with Mary, enlivened by the powerful outpouring of the Spirit and ready for the mission of evangelisation'. "The contemplation of this scene .... ought to lead the faithful to an ever greater appreciation of their new life in Christ, lived in the heart of the Church." the Pope said. Summarising the Rosary, the Pope said it 'marks the rhythm of human life' and repeated that 'it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man is seen in its true light'. "Contemplating Christ's birth, we learn of the sanctity of life; seeing the household of Nazareth, we learn the original truth of the family according to God's plan; listening to the Master In the mysteries of his public ministry, we find the light which leads us to enter the Kingdom of God; and following Him on the way to Calvary, we learn the meaning of salvific suffering. Finally, contemplating Christ and His Blessed Mother in glory, we see the goal towards which each of us is called, if we allow ourselves to be healed and transformed by the Holy Spirit"
31 OCTOBER 2002
3. Christ's proclamation of the Kingdom of God and his call to conversion his encompasses all of Jesus' teaching T about the mystery of God and the mystery of man, teaching which is infinitely
wiser, deeper, and more fulfiling than the various philosophies and psychologies offered by others.
T
o accommodate the new mysteries, the IPope suggested a new order for saying the Rosary: The joyful mysteries on Monday and Saturday, the sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, the glorious on Wednesday and Sunday, and the mysteries of light on Thursday. News reports before the Apostolic Letter was released suggested that he would propose the mysteries of light for Sunday, but he said he preferred to maintain the link between the Resurrection and Sunday, and to strengthen the link between Saturday and Mary by moving the joyful mysteries to that day.
n continuity with my reflection in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, after the experience of the Jubilee, I invited the people of God to "start afresh from Christ", I have felt drawn to offer a reflection on the Rosary, as a kind of Marian complement to that Letter and an exhortation to contemplate the face of Christ in union with, and at the school of, his Most Holy Mother. To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ. As a way of highlighting this invitation, prompted by the forthcoming 120th anniversary of the Encyclical of Leo XIII, supremi Apostolatus Officio, Idesire that during the course of this year the Rosary should be especially emphasised and promoted in the various Christian communities. I therefore proclaim the year from October 2002 to October 2003 the Year of the Rosary. I leave this pastoral proposal to the initiative of each ecclesial community It is not my intention to encumber but rather to complete and consolidate pastoral programs of the Particular Churches. Iam confident that the proposal will find a ready and generous reception. The Rosary, reclaimed in its full meaning, goes to the very heart of Christian life; it offers a familiar yet fruitful spiritual and educational opportunity for personal contemplation, the formation of the People of God, and the new evangelisation. I am pleased to reaffirm this also in the joyful remembrance of another anniversary: the fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council on October 11, 1962, the "great grace" disposed by the Spirit of God for the Church in our time. From the Vatican, on the 16th day of October in the year 2002, the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of my Pontificate. JOHN PAUL II
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Local News
Pert
Catholic news from the Archdiocese of Perth
Beliefs astray on annulments T
he community has an Highway and Preston Point Road. that had been elevated to one of erroneous perception that Fr Beyer said there were a lot of the seven Sacraments of the marriage annulment is a myths, misunderstandings and Church. form of divorce - a Catholic mistaken beliefs about Saint Augustine had set down marriage divorce. annulments. the basis for marriage in his writEven some devout Catholics It was the Church's desire that ings - they were the goods - the misunderstood annulments and virtues for marriage. what was involved, Father Geof- marriages should be permanent, They required permanence, but breakdowns occur in modern frey Beyer, told a forum in East fidelity and openness to children. society and were frequently due Fremantle last week. to reasons which made the initial Vatican II had provided for the Fr Beyer was the last of three marriage invalid. addition of partnership. speakers in forums spread over He praised the Family Law Unless all four of the virtues three weeks organised by the Fremantle branch of the Knights of Court's priority of mediation with were present in the consent freely the intent of keeping couples given at the time of a marriage, it the Southern Cross. together and that of protecting the was invalid and could be Fr Beyer is a member of the welfare of children in a marriage, annulled. Father Beyer Perth Archdiocese Metropolitan as mentioned by the previous The Canon Law brought in by Marriage 'Tribunal and of the week's speaker. Family Court Vatican II covered several prereq- Instances of a man who had led a national llibunal. 'playboy lifestyle* with many lawyer, Jane Power. uisites for a marriage to be valid, partners, marrying - sometimes An Anglican convert, and marFr Beyer said a petition for an acknowledging the laws of the just as a convenience - but refusried with children, he is also annulment could be presented land, but also the requirements of ing to give up his previous attirecognised as an authority on only after a the Church. civil divorce. tudes. This was clearly a breach marriage and the needs of marI n Full and free consent and under- of the fidelity provision. Or a that way, the Church could riages. The Knights have organised the never be accused of separating or standing of both parties of the chauvinist who abused or domiforums to collate information in facilitating the separation of mar- their responsibilities to each other nated a spouse- and intended to and to children must be clear from the outset before the marpreparation of a case to lobby ried couples. Rather than divorce, the annul- before a marriage for it to be valid. riage - clearly did not fit the virtue Canberra for law reform, includCanon Law 1095 calls for the of partnership. ing the abandonment of the ment procedure tested the validiThere was a mistaken belief that rights and obligations to be wholty of the initial marriage. adversarial system of the Family the Church had an insistence that ly and freely given and accepted Law Court and the introduction of Fr Beyer said marriage was a all marriages produce children. a more user-friendly arbitration covenant between the couple at the time of marriage. system. There was an insistence that This clause in Canon Law was Involved. Many viewed it as a conThe forums were held in the tract, but that was more of some- one of the most commonly used contraception not be used, or the opportunity to have children not parish hall of the East Fremantle thing associated with business in petitions for annulment. parish, at the corner of Canning arrangements. It was a covenant Fr Beyer said there were be denied but natural childless-
ALPHA signs up
to join the Navy
he ALPHA organisation in Perth has joined T the Royal Australian Navy ALPHA, the international ecumenical
organisation that promotes the spreading of faith and a belief in God, has a local chapter headed by John and Marie Acland. They have convinced the RAN authorities that its Ideals would be useful to the service and its personnel. The RAN at Garden Island, south of Perth, has accepted its programs as part of its character development courses and training to help its sailors deal with social problems such as alcoholism and marriage breakdown. Significantly three of the participants in a pilot course have been called to the Ministry - to be trained as Navy chaplains. John Acland said this week that ALPHA has "planted its seed" deep at Garden Island, the Navy's Indian Ocean headquarters on Cockburn Sound. "Instead of being reactive, the Navy has decided to become pro-active and provide ALPHA as an advanced character training course that will enrich the lives of those participating," Mr Acland said. "The course builds the sailors up and answers all the tough questions they have never had time to answer." The Navy's chaplain at HMAS Stirling, Peter Tinney, approached Mr Acland in April and asked for his assistance in planning the first ALPHA course. The base's commanding officer, Commander Peter Higgins approved the plan with its view to creating a better working environment for Stirling. The ALPHA courses were advertised in the base newsletter and 12 personnel joined a three month pilot course led by Mr Acland and the chaplain. The Navy is now in the process of accepting ALPHA as an official in-service course to be taught at all bases throughout its training centres. Continued success of the new programs after the pilot course would lead to it becoming a pre-requisite to all marriages and baptisms in the service. The course has also been requested to run at sea aboard ships that have been despatched on long deployments. The Navy is seen as a new mission field - probably the largest youth mission field in Australia.
Biography of Perth convert Father Lisle proving popular By John Logan
T
ness did not invalidate a marriage. Instances where a woman became pregnant before marriage could fit the Canon Law definitions if there was an absence of the full understanding of what marriage means, and its obligations, so that full and free consent was not given by one or both partners. Some such cases would mean the marriage was invalid and either of the partners could petition for annulment. Another mistaken belief often raised was that children of a marriage that was annulled were *illegitimate? Fr Beyer said this was not the case, and that any children of an annulled marriage maintained their legitimacy in the eyes of the civil law and the Church. 'This is just one of the myths associated with annulment.' There was also a mistaken belief was that annulments were expensive, had to be referred directly to Rome, and took a great amount of time. Some beliefs put the cost at around $8000, and the time at around 10 years. The true picture was that tribunals in Australia handled petitions, the cost was around WO. and an annulment could be achieved in 12 months.
TALL ORDER
he book Tall Order is in the home straight with just a handful of copies to sell after two print runs but only God will know the result of the race. I spent four years writing the life story of married Anglican priest turned Catholic Father John Lisle and the past year marketing it but do not have an earthly chance of knowing whether it's been a big winner. Tall Other's value cannot be determined by the number of books sold or even the amount of money raised from sales for its beneficiary, Catholic Mission. Fr Lisle's story has been told to help people searching for God and strengthen the lives of Christian people like me who know the Lord is omnipotent and omnipresent but struggle to hand over the reins to Him in our daily lives. I won't find out in my lifetime how successful the project has been, but I have taken heart from the people who have supported my efforts. Encouragement has come from many people from many different walks of life and has taken me in some interesting directions. A non-Catholic couple suggested to me during a barbecue at my home one balmy day last summer that I send a book to the Pope. JOHN LOGAN I laughed. "Is it the beer talking? The Pope's too busy to read Tall Order." But my friends were serious and they persisted so I decided to tell Fr Lisle who, much to my surprise, agreed with them. The book on Father Usle Is selling well. Iwas rapt when the Holy Father replied to our letter, thanking us for the gift and conferring an apostolic blessing. line, also makes for captivating reading. And with his wife, Tall Order is the story of a journey to truth which, as Fr Mary, and their children, David, Jane and Mary he had some Lisle of Shelley puts it in the book, can be found only in com- Interesting times in WA. munion with the Pope. Father was focused on God in good times as well as bad. Fr Lisle made history in October 1969 when he was God never let him down and, if you ask him today, he will ordained a Catholic priest in Perth with fellow married tell you that the Lord is the only way to a truly fulfilled life. Anglican priests Fathers Rodney Williams and Geoff Beyer. Imust confess that there has been more than one occasion They were the first married Catholic priests in WA and in my life when focusing on God has been a tall order. among the first married priests in the Church's Latin Rite Writing Fr Lisle's story has helped me to get a better focus since the 10th century on Christ and I pray that the book is inspiring other people There are plenty of anecdotes, especially of Fr Lisle's life on their Christian journeys. as an Anglican missionary in the Bahamas, to keep the readThe book, which at $25 is a great Christmas gift, is availer amused. The strength that Father showed when he able from Catholic Mission opposite St. Mary's Cathedral or denounced apartheid in South Africa, putting his life on the phone 9325 5264.
(t. 441c
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31 OCTOBER 2002
11
Local News Catholic news from the Archdiocese of Perth
Perth woman attending world meeting in Rome ustralia will be represented for the first time at a ant'Egidio Community world conference when Perth woman Colleen-Marie Carey attends this year's conference in Rome from November 1 to 17. The conference has attracted 130 delegates from 40 countries and is devoted mainly to formation. The Sant'Egidio Community (in English, St Glles, patron saint of beggars and lepers) is a Catholic lay movement which began in Rome in 1968 when a 19-year-old man moved into the slums of Rome to begin spreading the Gospel among the poor. It now has more than 40,000 members in 80 countries. The community is characterised by its commitment to prayer (more than 1000 people a night at the Church of Sant'Egidio in Rome) its work for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, its campaign against the death penalty, its ecumenism, and its work in dispute resolution and the promotion of dialogue as the way to resolve conflicts. One of its notable achievements was to broker a peace in Mozambique in 1992. The Peace General Agreement was signed in Rome on October 4. 1992 and has held since. The day is now celebrated as a feast day in Mozambique, and the country's president made an official visit to Rome this year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of peace with the community. Colleen-Marie said she first encountered the community in Rome when she attended World Youth Day 2000. She subsequently established the community in the Maylands parish where it meets for prayer in the Catholic Church at 730pm on liresdays.
A personal account of community By Colleen-Marie Carey
attending WYD in Rome I and a friend of mine said she wanted to go to the Commuwas 2000
nity of Sant'Egidio.Iask who were they and she said they "spread the gospel to the poor". This did not sound appealing to me as I had just spent three months in Berlin with little money so I used to go and help the Daughters of Charity in their soup kitchen and in return they would give me enough food and fruit to last me till my next day there. (So I figuredIhad done my Christian duty with the poor and wanted to sightsee in Rome instead. No one else would go with my friend so I went with her and Father Doug Harris. It was wonderful. There were youths there from Africa which the community had sponsored to come to WYD and it seemed everyone was happy. We heard a speech from a Russian Orthodox Bishop who had spent much of his time in jail for feeding the poor! An Anglican bishop of Tanzania (who was actually an Aussie from Melbourne) gave a talk about his work in Tanzania. Afterward the WYD song was played and everyone was dancing, filled with joy. Even the Bishops were, off the stage to dance with the other community mem-
Colleen-Marie Carey
bers. Well it was a beautiful sight to see Christians from different denominations all united in the love of Christ and in loving their neighbours as themselves. Needless to sayIwent back for the next three days and participated in their nightly prayers, and got to know some of the Italian members. When I returned to Australia I could not get the community out of my mind. In May this year we started the first Sant'Egidio community in Australia at the Maylands parish church, with wonderful support from the parish priest Father Maurice Toop. The Archbishop has been of great support for the community
since I first returned to Australia. This year was the first year an Australian has been invited to the World Representative Congress in Rome. Iwill be joining 130 people from more than 40 countries for three weeks of delegate formation and getting to know the other communities around the world and Improving my knowledge of the Rome community. The Archdiocese along with donations and a raffle helped with my travel cost and the community will host me in Rome. We meet in Perth for prayers every ilresday night at 'Queen of Martyrs' church Maylands at 730pm. Contact number while I'm away is 9284 2209.
Blessing for Prisoner to relate her wartime honors A hospital
411'
tp,
rhe Perth Archbishop 1Barry Hickey is to bless the new Ursula Frayne unit at the Mercy Hospital, Mount Lawley, at 10am on November 13. The WA Health Minister, Bob Kucera, will officially open the unit, a 12-bed inpatient unit for inner city older people with mental health problems. The Inner City Mental Health Service for Older Adults will provide clinical management of patients admitted to the unit The Mercy Hospital was contracted by the WA Government in 1996 to build a 36-bed restorative health unit for patients from the inner city area. It was part of the decanting of the Mount Henry Hospital. A 24-bed unit known as the Mercy Restorative Unit was commissioned in 1998. The new Ursula Frayne unit represents the completion of the contract.
woman who was a sex slave in its second year of ministry in woman to go public with her story a Japanese military broth- Perth and has been focusing on of enforced prostitution. She wrote the book, Fifty Years el in World War II is to give a learning from past history and series of talks in Perth during being grateful to God for His con- of Silence, and this has become an award-winning film. tinuing Grace. November. Mrs O'Herne has spoken at a Some Japanese would prefer to Jan Ruff O'Herne has since been highly decorated and won inter- abide by an ancient proverb "let number of international war national acclaim for her message the past flow away like the water" crimes hearings and has won - the easy way for people to for- great respect for her courage and of peace and forgiveness. She was only 21 when separat- get the past and let it be washed message of justice, peace and forgiveness. ed from her family in a prisoner away. The Dutch Royal family knightof war camp in Indonesia, and But the Japanese church recogforced with threats of death to give nises there remains still racism ed her in 2001 and this year she her body to Japanese army offi- and prejudices, and that they have has been recognised with an cers. been continually confronted by Order of Australia, the ANZAC She will relate some of the hor- the gospel of Jesus Christ - the Peace Award and is the first Ausrors of her experience at a talk at basis for forgiveness among peo- tralian woman to receive the 7pm on Friday, November 22 at ples. Dame Commander of order of Saint Columba's Presbyterian Mrs O'Herne's suffering has not Saint Sylvester, the second highChurch, on the corner of Keane been wasted. est Papal honour. and Venn Streets, Peppermint She has campaigned as a peaceIn inviting the Perth public to Grove, and at 10 am on Saturday, maker advocating peace through her talks, the Japanese church November 23, at the Western Aus- forgiveness. extends a special invitation to all tralian Red Cross Seminar, Hyatt She and nine other Dutch civil- former civilian and military Regency Hotel ballroom. ian women were taken from a POWs. Admission to the Friday talk, civilian POW camp in Java to Also attending the talks will be organised by the Japanese Chris- Semarang where she was ter- Mrs Keiko Holmes, who received tian Church, is free, and there is a rorised and humiliated and the Order of the British Empire $5 admission fee to the Saturday forced into the brothel. from Queen Elizabeth, for her talk. After seeing Korean comfort work with former POWs. Further Saturday's talk will be followed women making appeals for jus- inquiries and acceptances can be by a commemorative service. tice on television in 1992, Mrs registered with Rev Stephen The Japanese Christian Church, O'Herne broke her silence and Young, at St Columba's Church, sponsors of Mrs O'Heme's visit, is became the first European on 9448 8755 or 0413 243 065.
Attadale parish problems forum
T
ie St Joseph Pignatelli Parish Pastoral Council organised five prominent speakers to address some of the problems faced by Catholics in today's highly secularised society,. They were Mrs Therese Temby, Director of Catholic Education, Archbishop Hickey, Father Walter Black, Director of the L t Goody Bioethics Centre, Father Paul Baczynski of Crossroads Community, and Mr Gerry O'Neill. Director of Spirituality at Aquinas College. Items from visiting choirs from Mel Maria Primary School, Santa Maria College, WASIMH ladies' choir and the Julian Singers preceded the speakers. Mrs Temby, using a power point presentation, showed how Catholic schools seek to counter such prevailing societal trends as materialism, individualism and the influence of the media which promoted values that are contrary to the Gospel. She outlined the six characteristics of the Catholic school and gave examples of how students cooperate to give practical assistance to people in need such as providing funds for a school in Ethiopia. and sending teachers to train East Timorese teachers. In his talk. the Archbishop stressed the importance of Christian family values and the proper use of sexuality in human relationships, in the light of the sexual revolution and the erosion of the traditional family. He presented the Church's teaching on Marriage as the Creator intended it to be A number of poorly understood moral questions were lucidly explained by Fr Black in his lecture. These included contraception, abortifacient drugs, euthanasia, homosexuality and the problems associated with infertility. Advances in natural family planning, and Dr lingers' work on assisting couples to conceive naturally were clearly set out. The wonderful work of the Crossroads Community in East Fremantle was illustrated by its founder Fr Baczynski. Fr Paul spoke about the four stages leading to drug addiction, and how his community helps addicts and their families. To break the cycle of dependency and to rebuild personalities shattered by addiction, the power of the Holy Spirit is invoked, and young people are helped to accept God into their lives. The final talk in the series by Gerry O'Neill was entitled Building Christian Community. Building on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, he showed how all community is based on relationships. Christian communities are not selfabsorbed, but flow out into the world. Copies of these talks are available by telephoning 9330 3727
12 31 OCTOBER 2002
THE RECORD
nternational News Catholic news from around the world
Church experts examine the importance of an Ossuary which bears a biblical reference.
Knowledge not wisdom WIGAN CITY (CNS) Knowledge has nothing to do with wisdom if it is simply a collection of facts that has no Impact on how one lives, Pope John Paul ll told university students and professors. "Humanity has developed an elevated ability to analyse and read phenomena on a superfidal level, but it tends to avoid the deeper questions about ultimate significance, about the meaning of life and death, about good and evil in history," the Pope said. Pope John Paul gave the homily and the final blessing at the October 25 Mass in St. Peter's Basilica marking the opening of the academic year at Rome's pontifical universities and institutes. The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski. president of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The Pope told the students that whether they belong to the largest group of students, those studying theology, or whether they are enrolled in other faculties their focus must be on knowing God and seeing how he has revealed himself in "human reality, the church and history." The only way to avoid hypocrisy, he said, is to constantly forge a bond "between that which is known and that which is lived, between the message of truth received as a gift with the Christian vocation and one's concrete personal and communal attitudes."
AIDS help thanks VATICAN CITY (CNS) - A Vatican official was to visit Uganda in late October to thank Catholic agencies that are helping people who have AIDS and to underscore the need for greater efforts, particularly on behalf of children. Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum: the Vatican office that promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable giving, was to visit Uganda between October 25-30. An October 24 Vatican statement said that through "Cor Unum" Pope John Paul gave about $485.000 to Catholic AIDS projects in Uganda in February 2001. Part of the money went to the Missionaries of Charity to build a home for terminally ill children with AIDS. The home, which will welcome 60 children, was to be dedicated on October 26 by Archbishop Cordes. "Children are the centre of this visit," said the statement. According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, more than 2 million children in the country have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
Ossuary of interest
By Judith Sudilovsky JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Biblical scholars said they were interested in the ossuary linked to
the brother of Jesus, but cautioned against the possibility of fraud. The limestone ossuary, a container for the bones of the dead, surfaced in the collection of an antiquities owner, with little known about the item's history. It is inscribed with 'Jacob (Ya'akov) son of Joseph (Yosef), brother of Jesus (Yesima).' Jacob Is the Hebrew version of James. A French inscription scholar believes the writing found on this ancient Dominican Rather Jerome burial box likely refers to James, the brother of Jesus. Photo CAI'S Reuters Murphy-O'Connor. a biblical tell us anything we don't already He said that li the ossuary archaeologist at Ecole Biblique know." lames Vanderkam, pro- were authentic it would be a in Jerusalem, said that, while the fessor of Hebrew Scriptures at 'nice find' but "not earthshakresearcher who studied the the University of Notre Dame in ing.' Vanderkam said the most ossuary was a respected expert, Indiana, said that while a skill- interesting aspect was that the up to BO percent of the artifacts ful fraud was possible it was name of the brother of the found in the illegal antiquities likely that the inscription could deceased person was inscribed market are fake. have been done on a piece of on the ossuary. 'Adding a broth'Every bit of evidence is excit- limestone that dated to the first er's name would point to a ing. ... If it is authentic, the only century. 'We don't know exactly famous brother. As far asIknow, significance is that it is the ear- where it comes from. Suppos- it wasn't (a common practice). If liest dated reference to Joseph. edly it was removed from a cave authentic, it is the earliest bibliJames and Jesus that we have,' by someone who was not an cal documentation for Jacob and said Father Murphy-O'Connor. archeologist, so we lack context. Jesus and the earliest archeo*The only important thing is that It would have been nice to have logical confirmation: he said. date -- the inscription doesn't that,' he said. Vanderkam said many believe -VW
that at the time 'brother' was used to mean more than a sibling. Andre Lemaire, a French inscription scholar and visiting professor at Ecole Biblique, concluded that the inscription found on the ancient burial box quite likely refers to the apostle James, mentioned in the New Testament as a brother of Jesus who became leader of the Christian community in Jerusalem after the crucifixion. "It seems very probable that this is the ossuary of the James in the New Testament,' Lemaire wrote in an article published in the November-December issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Lemaire, a researcher at the Sorbonne in Paris, was permitted to study and photograph the ossuary, which surfaced recently in a private collection in Jerusalem. It is likely that the ossuary was found in or near Jerusalem. Lemaire said. But since the ossuary came from an antiquities market replete with stolen artifacts and not from a legal excavation, little is known about its history, where and when it was found, how was it excavated, who were its former owners or what has happened to the hones that once were inside.
rare
Genocide in Sudan: Bishops By Willy Thorn WASHINGTON (CNS) - Two Sudanese bishops, calling the civil war in their country genocide, asked the international community for help in ending the violence. In a briefing at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on October 23, Bishops Paride Taban of Torit and Rudolf Deng Majak of Wau described a country where forests are strewn with human bones, oil wells are a curse, constructing buildings is dangerous, and schools require bomb shelters - if their classrooms are not being raided for potential soldiers. Bishop Taban said that, having been to Jerusalem, he was familiar with genocide, but that anyone who visited the southern forests of Sudan "will know there has been a holocaust." The bishop described portions of the Sudanese countryside where "human bodies were smashed into the ground by tanks," and yet "nobody speaks of this. These are very painful things ... these are things happening today" "Many people are traumatised," he said, "because of the bombs, because of hunger, because of the land mines. You find women and children wandering through the bush talking to themselves. When they hear the planes, they cry, 'God where are you?'" Southern Sudan's oil reserves are "a curse," the bishop said. "It is not a blessing," he said, because the government has used the fuel to intensify its bombing efforts. Profits from oil sales have only one use, he added. "They don't do any development for the people," he said of Sudan's Khartoum-based government. "The money is only for war." Meanwhile, constructing buildings is a constant risk, he said, because they become targets from the air. "That's why it's genocide," he said, "the bombs are dropped without planning: `to whom it may concern.'" He said the indiscriminate bombing has killed whole herds of livestock and forced schools to be built with underground bunkers. "Most families in Wau only have one good meal a day," said Bishop Deng. "It's hard to
stomach what the teachers have (to offer) on an empty stomach." Mill Hill Missionary Father Mathew Haumann, stationed in Sudan for 30 years, said the church is "the only civic institution which is still surviving." "Most other structures have collapsed," he said. "We are the voice of the voiceless," Bishop Taban said, "trying to bring peace from the grass roots. War divides people and brings hostility. But we are training people to get anger and hatred out of their hearts." Bishop Deng said religious groups try to appeal to an "open attitude of tolerance, brotherhood and mutual respect" and "keep faith alive that something good will come." "People take time to change - you cannot shoot at them to make them change," Bishop Deng said, laughing. "You'll only kill them. It takes time to change mindsets." He said that in addition to education the primary role of the Catholic Church is to offer health and pastoral services, "helping people to understand their faith so they can deal with the onslaught ... and limitations of war." Sudan's 18-year civil war originally pitted Christian and animist African rebels in the South against the Arab Muslim government In the North. It has since evolved into a nationwide conflict fuelled by religion, ethnicity, oil and ideology. An estimated 2 million have been killed and another 4 million displaced in the South, while reports persist that captured southerners have been enslaved. Bishop Taban said the Islamic government uses religion to further its political power by using the premise of jihad, or struggle, against nonbelievers to mobilise Islamic youths for the war He said soldiers find that people in the South "aren't fighting for religion but for their own rights." He added that he feared "a holocaust ... because of religion." "This (museum) should testify to that," he said. "Christian fundamentalists are just as bad as Islamic fundamentalists. "Nobody can win that war," he said. "We have to see a change of heart," or "there will be conflict for generations."
Blessing for new teenage drivers By Terry 0. Roen
OCALA. Fla. (CNS) - The most anxious time of a parent's life and also one of the most exciting for their teens got a blessing from Father Patrick O'Doherty at Queen of Peace Church. The priest, who hails from Tipperary, Ireland, held a special ceremony at his Ocala church during a recent 9.30am Mass for 14 new drivers and their families. "Well, well, well, God bless us all," said Father O'Doherty when the teens lined up in front of the altar to receive a blessing and an ornamental silver key with a host of saints to protect them. He asked everyone receiving the new key to remember to say a special prayer for safety when they get in their cars. The silver key was embossed with St Anthony, Mary holding her Son, the Infant of Prague and St Christopher. "It is the most anxious time of a parent's life when their child gets their driving permit," said the priest during the ceremony. "You say. 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph - keep the child and us safe as well.'" Father O'Doherty got the idea for the firsttime ceremony from a daily devotional he read describing the angst of a mother with a new driver. He told the teens that everyone is on a journey that leads to Jesus but now the teens will be moving around a little faster. Father O'Doherty reminded them that driving is a great privilege and they should use their new ability to ferry their siblings to practice, take the sick to the doctor or run to the grocery store for their mothers. "Be good drivers and use this gift to help others so you may do his will," the priest said. Frankie Dinardi, a 16-year-old who attends Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala, joined his twin sister, Patty, who was an altar server during the Mass, for the ceremony. "I thought it was pretty cool," he said. He promised his grandmother he would take his 11-year-old sister, Katie, to cheerleading practice.
THE RECORD
31 OCTOBER 2002
13
International News Catholic news from around the world
Future lies in Asia
Doctors promote mothers
Asia to become focus of the Vatican's missionary zeal for future Church expansion. By John Thavis VATICAN cny (CNS) - It's said the Vatican
thinks In centuries, not in news cycles. That may help explain why not every Vatican office has been consumed by developments in the recent clerical sex abuse scandal and why pastoral attention these days turns to the East as well as the West. You may not have read about it in your local newspapers, but over the last year the Vatican has been gearing up for a new missionary push in Asia. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, named last year to head the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, has made two major trips to Asia since July and will travel there again in November. At nearly every stop - from Mongolia to Thailand, from Sri Lanka to Hong Kong - Cardinal Sepe has preached a new missionary urgency, reflecting the Vatican's conviction that this may be a magic moment for Christian evangelisation on the world's most populous continent.
Pope John Paul has made eight trips to Asia, despite his ailing health Even with his failing health. Pope John Paul has visited eight Asian countries in his last 10 foreign trips, encouraging tiny Catholic flocks to flourish and grow. That included a delicate journey to India. where the pontiff bluntly told non-Christian leaders that Catholics have a basic human right to proclaim Christ and invite others to join the Church. But in the end, the Vatican knows that evangelisation is not something that can be Imposed from the Church's centre in Rome; it must flow from the lives of Asian Catholics. Here, globalisation may be working to the Church's advantage. As Cardinal Sepe put it. "Asia must evange-
Images of Christ and Mary are displayed in the home of an elderly Chinese woman in a Photo: CNS/Reuters village outside the city of Xi'an in the central Chinese province of Shaanxi.
lise Asia," and the boom in global communications and cultural exchange favours the kind of cooperation needed among Asian church communities. Ideally, the Vatican would like to see a duplication of the evangelisation experience in South Korea - where the Church has grown from 2.5 to 8.5 per cent of the population in the last 30 years. Last year, the Pope inaugurated the Pontifical Korean College; South Korea was the first mission-territory country to have such a college in Rome. The ultimate evangelising opportunity in Asia may be China. Cardinal Sepe told CNS that China represents a great potential, not just because of its huge population but because the Chinese have historically shown an openness to Christianity. He said that for now the Church in Hong Kong would contin-
ue to act as a model for the mainland, deeply engaged in educational and charity work and in announcing Christ through the strong witness of its sons and daughters. This month, Cardinal Sepe travels to India, which in many ways has become a focal point for the tension between dialogue and evangelisation. Even as Indian states have proposed harsher laws against conversion, and as some Christian communities have come under physical attack, the Vatican has insisted that the church's message of embracing the Gospel cannot be muted. Cardinal Ivan Dias of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the type of pastoral leader the Vatican hopes will lead the evangelisation advance in India.
Prospect of black pope surprises the Italians By John Norton
ROME (CNS) - A popular Italian cartoon series about a futuristic conclave raised some eyebrows this fall with a surprise ending: The newly elected Pope turns out to be black The series, Code Petri's, was carried in II Giornalino, a children's weekly magazine published by the Pauline Fathers. The final episode appeared in the October 27 issue. In the story the evil "Mr Lived," a Ukrainian international terrorist who defaces New York's "Towers of Peace," hunts down the newly elected Pope, whose identity remains unknown while he ponders whether to accept the role. Eventually, the Pope-elect is revealed to be "Father Rudy Smith," a black theologian who taught in the Netherlands for many years. Enzo Crocetti, vice
The Italian comic strip series that predicts a black pope.
director of II Giornalino, said the series is set in a future that is intentionally not specified, but "could be 2020 or 2030." The cartoon's choice of a black
Pope was bound to provoke discussion in Italy, where even the idea of a non-Italian Pope is sometimes considered controversial. A leading Italian daily, Ii Mes-
saggero, ran almost a full-page article on the cartoon's "surprising" papal choice. In a subheadline, it reminded possibly sceptical readers that a black Pope is a prospect "that the Church does not exclude." Crocetti said the cartoon's scenario probably was given heightened media attention because of remarks by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's doctrinal chief, saying he could imagine the cardinals electing an African Pope. "Curiously, in the same period in which we were publishing the story, a little debate arose in the Italian newspapers" about the potential future election of a black Pope, Crocetti said on October 25 in a telephone interview from his Milan office. "I don't think (Cardinal Ratzinger) read our cartoon," Crocetti added with a laugh.
By Cindy Wooden ROME (CNS) Catholic gynaecologists and obstetricians who uphold Catholic teaching help bring new life into the world, and can be eloquent voices for promoting respect for motherhood and for human life, said Archbishop John Foley. Because they are at the forefront of many controversial issues - including abortion. contraception, assisted fertility and genetic testing - gynaecologists and obstetricians often are the subject of media interest, said the US archbishop, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Catholic physicians who conscientiously follow Church teaching can use that interest to become "spokespersons for life, for true married love, for stable family life and for sexual morality," he said. The archbishop addressed an international meeting of Catholic obstetricians meeting near the Vatican on October 25.
While "motherhood and apple pie" once was considered a good image beyond debate, he said, it is not having an easy time in most modern societies. "As you know, even in Catholic countries, the birth rate is rapidly falling," he said. Women are having fewer children in industrialised countries, and face being publicly mocked if they have more than two or three children. "Unfortunately, we live in a world in which almost everything is measured in economic terms - and women undervalue themselves and, the world undervalues them. if they do not receive a wage or salary," he said. "The essential contribution of mothers in bearing children, and in forming them morally and intellectually, is often forgotten." he said. Respect for human life at every stage of its development and an acknowledgment that sexual intercourse belongs within the context of a stable. married relationship are other values that Catholic physicians uphold but society at large often does not. "What current technology has made possible is the expression of lust without immediate visible consequences," he said. But there were consequences, including "a lack of personal self-control; an objectification of the partner, if there was a partner.
Vatican's Web designer runs poll to seek patron saint for Internet By John Norton ROME (CNS) - Despite years of Church study and suggestions, the Internet is still without an official patron saint. An Italian Web designer hopes to help things along with an innovative Web poll that already has drawn thousands of votes for potential candidates and has attracted the attention of Vatican officials. The top selections so far, according to statistics on the site in late October, include Saints Alphonsus de Liguori, Don Bosco,
Gabriel the Archangel, Clare and Maximilian Kolbe. Francesco Diani, director of www.santiebeattit, said about 15,000 people had registered votes since the poll's start in June. Most voters have been Italians, but Diani said he also has received feedback e-mails in Spanish, French, and English. Diani said his site, dedicated to saints' biographies and patron designations, is among the more popular in Italy, drawing about 250,000 hits a day.
The poll includes 12 saints, who in a preliminary stage have been divided into groups of six for voting. The top picks among them will proceed to a final stage that Diani expects to begin around Christmas and finish around Easter. Diani, recently hired to redesign the Italian bishops' Web portal, said he has received "informal contacts" from the Vatican office responsible for designating patron saints, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. "They were trying to determine if this was
something serious or if it was only a curiosity," Diani said. "II they ask me for information on the poll when it is finished,Iwill be happy to provide it." One downside of the poll from the Vatican's point of view, Diani said, is that it reflects mainly Italian, not global, popular support for potential candidates. For example, St Isidore of Seville, a seventh-century theologian and encyclopedia author whose name has frequently been cited as a favourite for the title, barely registered in Diani's poll - just 5 per cent.
14
31 OCTOBER 2002
THE RECORD
Reviews The Catholic perspective on popular culture through. Toula Portokalos MY (Vardalos) is due for a change. BIQ FA.I QREIK Mousy, unmarried and WEDDING smelling of garlic from her tuts Wert father Gus' (Michael Constantine) Greek diner where she works, Toula is a worry to the entire family (which includes 27 first cousins). According to Toula, nice Greek girls are supposed to do three things in life: marry nice Greek boys, have nice Greek babies and feed everyone until the day they die. So far, she's done none. But things change drastically By Anne Navarro, CNS when Toula decides to take a NEW YORK (CNS) - A first- few computer classes at the generation Greek woman local college, despite her finds that accepting and loving father's old-world objections. her family, warts and all, has "She's smart enough for a girl," Greek Orthodox, no-expensesspared nuptials. its own rewards in "My Big Fat he protests. Much Greek Wedding" (Lions Gate). Toula's transformation from derived of the comedy is from the clash of culBased on Nia Vardalos' one- dull and drab to fun and fab is tures between Toula's fiercely woman show, and produced strained, happening with light- proud Greek family and Ian, by Tom Hanks and his wife, ning speed. an American, whose family Rita Wilson, with Gary GoetzHowever, it opens the door doesn't quite understand why man, the good-natured roman- for her to meet Ian Miller (John the Portoluiloses are roasting a tic comedy gently pokes fun at Corbett), a handsome high pig on their front lawn. coming from a non-WASP fam- school teacher who is defiThe story is also about Toula ily and contending with its nitely not Greek. Predictably, appreciating the heritage and very different traditions and they fall in love and plan to culture of her family (who, in customs. marry. patriotic zeal, live in a house Audience members don't Toula's father puts up the that resembles a suburbanneed to be Greek, or even from most resistance toward this scaled Parthenon) and learnan immigrant family, to relate non-Greek American with the ing to accept who she is to the absurd situations pre- funny name and long hair. because of it. sented here. However, as However, Ian, raised by milAlthough it never quite directed by Joel Zwick, the quetoast parents, loves Toula's reaches the comedic heights it material seems to have lost boisterous clan. should, "My Big Fat Greek something when it was transAnd after some anguish, Gus Wedding" is amusing and lated to the screen. The wacky comes to accept Ian. entertaining, if only mildly so. situations don't have as much But Toula's embarrassment Because of a fleeting bedcomedic punch as they should, continues as the endlessly room scene and a few resulting in a film that resem- meddling Portokalos brood instances of crass language, bles a TV sitcom. Yet the over- takes over the wedding plans the US Conference of Catholic all message that family is and sets in motion what will Bishops classification is All important clearly comes turn out to be an over-the-top. adults and adolescents.
MOVIES
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - a wacky, but fun story
1111rc'
READING
Red Rabbit - overlong, but believable thriller involving the Pope Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
Available at most major bookstores. Reviewed by Jossph R Thomas (Catholic News Service)
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The Catholic Development Fund (The CDF) is the interest bearing capital fund conducted by the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, established to enable Church organisations to make the most of their financial resources and help fund growth. All deposits are guaranteed by the assets of the Archdiocese of Perth and earn a competitive rate of interest. The CDF offers a variety of facilities free compared to commercial banks. There are no government fees or any other attached to a CDF account, making your money your own. As well as cheque accounts and savings accounts, the CDF also offers an education account and a funeral fund account. These accounts are not reserved only for Catholics, the service is provided for all persons interested in a smart way of banking. lit you are considering a new account, check out what they have to offer and compare them to the commercial banks. Overall the website is informative, direct and clearly set out, navigation is simple with links to a variety of catholic organisations provided. Well worth the browse.
being in his life. The Catholic Church was not a perfect institution — nothing with mere people in it was or ever could be. But it was founded on faith in almighty God, and its policies rarely, if ever, strayed from love and charity' The KGB, on the other hand, 'recognized no power higher than the party it served. And, in proclaiming that, they defined themselves as the enemy of all mankind -- for wasn't mankind made in God's own image?' As for the thoughts of the defector, they would do justice to an entry-level dialogue on moral theology.
Ryan, in his ruminations, acknowledges that one owes a greater loyalty to God than to country. He puts forth the very Catholic idea that the pope is the vicar of Christ -- Christ's "No. 1 representative on planet Earth."
f you are not a Tom Clancy fan (I am not), you can skip his newest Jack Ryan CIA What, then, are the problems with Clancy's caper unless you are seduced (as I was) 'Red Rabbit'? Well, for one, there are the by the fact that 'Red Rabbit' deals with the unnecessary vulgarisms. consequences of a letter from Pope John Paul And there is the reliance on alphabetical jarII to the Communist government of Poland Clancy's clever plotting. Ryan comes into the gon, making the head spin at times, and the during the turmoil engendered by the Soli- picture because, as a rising CIA analyst (this constant repetition of slang terms (*spooks' Is long before Ryan's ascendancy to the presdarity movement. and 'players,' for instance), which speaks to idency following derring-do the and promoIn that fictional letter, Pope John Paul, a son of Poland, threatens to resign the papacy and tions chronicled in previous Clancy/Ryan slovenly writing. Finally there is Clancy's well-documented escapades), he has been sent to London to return to Poland to stand with his people. penchant work counterparts for providing useless information, with his in the British intelThe letter, of course, becomes known to the giving ligence rise office. to a 618-page book that could have are They drawn into the scheme government's Russian patrons who see it as an intolerable threat to Russia and commu- because their cooperation is necessary to get been kept under 500 pages. Clancy fans, of course, forgive him for all of nism. They therefore direct the KGB to assas- the 'rabbit' out of Moscow -- without Moscow these sins because his plotting is generally sinate the pope, putting the matter in the knowing he has fled. What is interesting about all this is that in Intricate, credible and solidly situated in real hands of their Bulgarian proteges. The order, however, disturbs one of their 'Red Rabbit' the Jesuit-educated Clancy events and circumstances. Thus, real figures out of history abound in trusted communications officers, one who has becomes a cheerleader for God and morality begun to question Communist Party dogma (well, some aspects of morality), the church 'Red Rabbit,' leaving the message, 'Hey, it and now finds his conscience assailed by the and the papacy as well as for the good old really could have happened, the pope really USA and conservatism morality of the proposed killing. could have sent a letter to Warsaw saying, 'if Ryan, in his ruminations, acknowledges that the government of Warsaw persists in its His tortured decision to defect and make the plot known leads him to contact a CIA agent one owes a greater loyalty to God than to unreasonable oppression of the people,I will surreptitiously, setting in motion the chain of country He puts forth the very Catholic idea be compelled to resign the papacy and return events that sweep from Moscow to London to that the pope is the vicar of Christ Christ's to he with my people in their time of trouble." Washington to Bulgaria and to Rome, where 'No. 1 representative on planet Earth.' The ability to make a believer out of the an attempt on the pope's life actually took In Ryan's thoughts, 'The pope was a man reader is at the heart of Clancy's work and it place, thereby providing a factual basis for who'd probably never hurt a single human was never more evident than in 'Red Rabbit.'
FILM RATINGS Here is a list of recent films the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting has rated on the basis of moral suitability. USCCB classification: AI general patronage; All - adults and adolescents; AIII - adults; AIV- adults, with reservations (this indicates films that, while not morally offensive in themselves, are not for casual viewing because they require some analysis and explanation in order to avoid false impressions and interpretations); 0 - morally offensive. About a Boy, AM Austin Powers in Goldmemher, AM Big Fat Liar, All Birthday Girl, AIV The Bourne Identity, All The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, MV Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, Affi Eight Legged Freaks, MI E.T. The Extraterrestrial, MI The Importance of Being Earnest, MI Insomnia, MU Lilo and Stitch. All Mr. Deeds, MI Murder by Numbers. MV The Powerpuff Girls Movie, All Signs, All Stuart Little 2, MI The Sum of All Fears. MV The Sweetest Thing, 0 Unfaithful, MV We Were Soldiers, MV
THE RECORD
31 OCTOBER 2002
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official diary panorama NOVEMBER 1
Mass at All Saints' Chapel, Perth - Bishop Sproxton
1-3
Centenary Celebrations Kalgoorlie Archbishop Hickey. Bishop Healy
2
Christian Meditation meeting, Greenmount Bishop Sproxton
3
Confirmation, Moora - Bishop Quinn
4
Joint Conference of WACRI and WA Bishops. South Perth Archbishop Hickey. Bishop Sproxton Clergy Mass for Feast of St Charles Borromeo. St Charles' Seminary - Archbishop Hickey, Bishop Sproxton
5
Meeting of WA Bishops
7
Meeting with CEO Team - Archbishop Hickey Catholic Adult Convention, Foundations Catholic Ministry Bishop Sproxton Confirmation. Girrawheen - Rev Fr G Carroll
10
St Rocco Association Mass and Procession, St Mary's Leederville - Archbishop Hickey Confirmation. Ellenbrook - Mgr Thomas McDonald
12/13
Confirmation. Morley - Bishop Sproxton
13
Opening and blessing of the Ursula Frayne Unit. Mercy Hospital Mt Lawley - Archbishop Hickey
Vatican Net initiative VATICAN CITY (CNS) --The Vat- expertise as well as computers, ican announced a series of new scanners and printers. In addition to offering downforays into the electronic information age, including plans to loadable forms and other practipublish on CD-ROM some cal information for scholars who archival material relating to pris- want to visit the library, the site oners of war during World War II. showcases digital images of the At an October 29 press confer- collection's more famous pieces, ence, Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, including letters written by Marchief Vatican archivist and librar- tin Luther and Michelangelo. Cardinal Mejia said the Vatican ian, said the published material would cover about 3.5 million also planned to create a similar documented requests for assis- site for its so-called 'Secret tance in tracking down prisoners Archives," which contain docuof war from 1940 to 1946. ments from pontificates as far He said the material was expect- back as the ninth century. ed to fill six CD-ROMs that would 'We have fully entered into the be released one at a time, starting electronic age,' he said. next year as each is completed. Cardinal Mejia also unveiled the Editor's Note: Vatican library's new Web site, The address for the Vatican created with the help of Hewlett- library's new Web site is: Packard. The US computer man- http://bay.vatican.va/phom ufacturer donated technical e_en.htm. Beware fat men wearing ballons
Stargazing with Dr Moonunit Vacanstare PhD (Oxen) Dip. Fencing, who is very sensitive and understanding. Gemini (sign of the Twins) Unfortunately Geminarians will be prone to periods of slight depression interspersed with dark patches of gloom which, given your personality type, is a substantial improvement on your normal outlook and patterns of behaviour. But do not be concerned, this is only a temporary blip on the radar. Towards the end of the month you will return to unrelieved pessimism and despair regarding all aspects of life and will be able to lead your life as per normal. Do not believe anonymous individuals offering advice for questionable motives.
Sunday November 3 DOES PURGATORY REALLY EXIST Why do Roman Catholics pray for the repose of the dead, especially on All Souls Day? If they are in heaven, they don't need our prayers: if they are in hell, our prayers cannot help them. Isn't purgatory just a RC invention, or is it a true Christian Teaching? Switch on to 'The Layman's Hour' (Radio Fremantle 107.9 FM at 7.30pm. Ring 9494 2100 for your comments. November 5/6/16/17 HOSEA HOUSE OF PRAYER VISION PROGRAM You are invited to experience the vision Program on Tuesday, November 5, 10am-4pm, Wednesday November 6, 10am-1pm, Saturday November 16, 10am-4pm. and Sunday November 17, 10am-1pm. Cost is S20 per person. overnight stay S35 per person or a donation (all meals provided) Enq: Sr R omanus 9728 1148. Other programs can be arranged by prior arrangement. For transport/pick up points: Francis Williams 9459 3873 mob: 0404893 877. Wednesday November 6/Saturday November 9 TALKS AT JOHN XXIII COLLEGE Responding better to anger - my own and others. Presenter: Ean James (Clinical Psychologist) S5 (Donation un-waged) 7.30-9.30pm Wednesday. Filling my Spiritual Well - Part 2 lgnatian Spirituality (Talk 4). Presenter: Murray Graham (Inigo Centre Director) Donation for !nig°. 11am-1pm Saturday. Details: Murray 9383 0444. Saturday. Sunday November 9/10 WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CHRIST A Spiritual Growth Seminar on Deliverance and Healing, by Stephen Bong from Holy Cross Healing Ministry, Kuching, Sarawak, commencing at 8.30am will be held at the Redemptorist Monastery, North Perth. Celebrant Fr Thomas. Cost is S50 (Residential) and $40 (non-residential). Contact: Doreen 9470 4886, Rita 9272 1765. Sunday November 10 PRAYER SERVICE A Prayer Service against sickness and evil is held every 2nd Sunday of the month at St John's ProCathedral, Victoria Square. Next service 2.30-4.30 Sunday. Sunday November 10 BULSBROOK HEALING MASS Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Holy Mass is celebrated for the physical and spiritual healing of the sick on the second Sunday of each month.The next Mass is on Sunday. Enq: SACRI 9447 3292 Sunday November 10 KRISTALLNACHT SERVICE FOR JEWS AND CHRISTIANS The Council of Christians and Jews WA is hosting this Service to commemorate the Night of Broken Glass. November 9 1938, when members of the Nazi Party went throughout Germany smashing the windows of Jewish building and burning the synagogues. All members, guests and friends welcome, Temple David, 34 Clifton Crescent, Mt Lawley 3.00pm. Friday to Sunday November 8-11 PRAYER RETREAT AT DARDANUP At Dardanup Immaculate Conception Church, Ferguson Road, Dardanup. Friday evening 7.30-9.30pm (talk followed by Mass), Saturday and Sunday begin at 10am with talk, Mass at 11am, lunch then talks, meditations, ends with Benediction at 4.30pm. Cost: Gold coin donation. Preacher: Fr Anthony Van Dyke OP from Holy Rosary Priory, Doubleview, WA. For those coming at a distance, accommodation is available at Hosea Retreat House, Dardanup. Please
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Deadline: 5pm Monday
Send us your Panorama items early To place a piece in the Panorama section please make sure your items reach us at least two weeks before the intended date of your event. This way you are sure to obtain a response. All items are guaranteed a one week placement. A second placement will depend on the availability of space for the coming week. We always do our best to make sure events are placed as many times as possible.
a roundup of events in the archdiocese bring a light lunch. Tea and Coffee provided. For more information contact Fr John on 9728 1145 or Jeanette on 9721 1995. Friday November 22 REUNION OF PIONEERS Notre Dame Parish, Cloverdale, Reunion of Pioneers from 1960 - 1970. For information phone Kath 9277 2196. Avril 9277 5269 or Corry 9479 4207. November 22-24 FATHER PAUL GLYNN RETREAT Marist Father Paul Glynn will take his second and last Retreat in WA at god's Farm on "Christ the King" weekend. Fr Glynn is a renowned author of Healing fire from Frozen earth and song for Nagasaki and other eagerly read books, he will speak on The Kingdom within Us. offer daily mass, rosary and reconciliation. Venue God's Farm - Gracewood. 40km's south of Busselton. From 7.30pm Friday November 22 to 2pm November 24. Suggested donation S80 includes all meals. Contact Betty Peaker Ph: 9755 6212, PO Box 24 Cowaramup, 6284 November 29 - December 1 ANCHOR WEEKEND A fun and meaningful weekend packed with music. drama, games. opportunities for quiet time - prayer and reconciliation plus personal sharing and talks by DYMT members, social activities, holy mass on Sunday and just plain fun. For all high school students. Friday 5pm to Sunday 5pm, at Daybreak Campfarm, Bakers Hill, S50 includes meals and accommodation. Contact: Dave 9245 2377 or Megan 9341 8506. For further details contact Team manger Martin Pannell 9445 9802, 0407 637 040. Sunday December 8 SACRED HEART SCHOOL ANNIVERSARY REUNION 1952 - 2002, 50th anniversary reunion Sunday 11am - 4pm, Sacred Heart School. Mundaring. Past students. families and staff are invited to attend a celebration mass followed by a light luncheon and Historical display. Please contact the school office on 9295 1562 or confirm attendance by email: sacredheartps@sacredheartps.wa.edu.au PERPETUAL ADORATION Night Adorers are needed urgently between the hours of 12 midnight to 6am for Perpetual Adoration. Feel secure and trust Our Eucharistic Lord in Faith and Love. In all weathers He carries you on Eagles wings to keep your rostered time. You are asked in Jesus' Holy Name. "Can you make a commitment for one of these hours?" Society for Eucharistic adoration, Ph: 9364 1338 EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR 2003 Combined Reunion to celebrate 40th Anniversary of St John the Baptist Catholic Church and the 100th anniversary of the former Sisters of Mercy Convent in Toodyay, to be held late in 2003. Anyone interested in either attending planning sessions, gathering and collating information or obtaining memoir etc, is asked to contact Fr Steve Casey 9622 5411, The Sisters of Mercy 9574 2229 or Robyn Sinclair 9574 2580. DIVINE MERCY HOLY HOUR The Divine mercy Apostolate invites all parishioners to a Holy Hour of Adoration on each Saturday of the month (except the 1st Saturday) from 2.30 to 3.30pm at St Francis Xavier's Church, 25 Windsor Street. On the 2nd Saturday there is Anointing of the sick, celebrant Fr Marcellinus Meilak OFM. The afternoon concludes with refreshments, please bring a plate to share. (Also at Sts. John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Road, off South St, Willetton from 11am to 12 noon every Wednesday). Enq John Ph: 9457 7771
16 31 OCTOBER2002
THE RECORD
T he Last Word
Vatican II remembered
A small Perth audience gathered to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Vatican II By Neil Smith
A
n audience of senior clerics, academics and laity gathered at the Foley Hall at Notre Dame University in Fremantle last week to hear witnesses describe the events at the Vatican II Council in 1962. The gathering marked the 40th anniversary of the council and its radical decisions on ecumenism, and interpretations and reforms of Church Canon Law. Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey read the Gospel message to the assembly and with Bishop Myles McKeon - the only surviving Australian bishop who attended the council - blessed those attending.
Archbishop Hickey reads Gospel at the service commemorating Vatican ll
Anecdotal reflections were given by Bishop McKeon and three priests, Mons Keating and McCrann and Dr Russell Hardiman. The keynote theological reflection was delivered by Sister Janet Gray RSM. a senior lecturer in theology at Notre Dame. The assembly was treated to a 10 minute video presentation of the Council and the associated pomp and ceremony of the historic occasion. Sister Gray said the Council's message was recalled in current histories because the 40 interventions that preceded its acceptance by the Fathers prefigured the objections that accompanied the debates on later Council documents. These were its overtly horizontal and peaceful approach to the contemporary
world; its soft-pedalling on the truth of doctrine; insufficient supernatural dimension; no reference to the Virgin Mary; and unwelcome reference to ecumenism and nonChristians. ▪But I suppose that its importance lies more in its relationship to Gaudium et Spes, its iconic influence on the Council Fathers, and how it contests the judgement that Schema XIII was hijacked by liberals and that Gaudium et Spes cannot be given the same weight as other documents and is no way programmatic of the Council,' Sr Gray said. 'Even more importantly Ihope to suggest how its audience - the world - indicates an imperative for the current malaise in the Church, not only about how to interpret and continue implementing Vatican II, but how to be open to the Spirit's next turn.' She said the Message to the World's wording and themes anticipated the opening passages of Gaudium et Spes: 'We take great pleasure in sending to all people and nations a message concerning that wellbeing, love and peace which were brought into the world by Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God, and entrusted to the Church.' She said 'and so it opens - addressed to the people of this age, and how in this assembly, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we wish to inquire how we ought to renew ourselves, so that we may be found Increasingly faithful to the gospel of Christ. 'It is far from true that because we cling to Christ we are diverted from earthly duties and toils. 'As a result of this council's efforts, we look forward to a spiritual renewal from which also flows a happy impulse on behalf of human values such as scientific discoveries, technological advances, and a wider diffusion of knowledge.' As the Council undertook its work, Sr Gray continued. it emphasised whatever concerns human dignity, whatever contributes to a genuine community of peoples. Its themes of peace and social justice led to the council's resolve that 'We humbly and ardently call for all people to work along with us in building a more just and brotherly city in this world. 'We call not only upon all our brothers and sisters whom we serve as shepherds, but also upon all brother and sister Christians, and the rest of humans of goodwill.' Bishop McKeon gave an inspiring address describing the council as 'the earthquake that hit Rome.' He said the council's decisions were more of a revolution than evolution. 'They opened up the Church as never before in the previous four centuries,' Bishop McKeon said.
Bishops fill St. Peter's Basilica as Pope Paul VI presides over a meeting of the Second Vatican Council. •,oto CNSL,• to
'They provide for everybody to have a say En the Church. 'We must never forget John XXIII's concept of looking at 99 per cent of the Church - if we forget, we forget 99 per cent of the people of God.' Bishop McKeon related a story of how later, when touring his diocese a chemist in Kojonup asked what the Church was doing about abortion. He said his reply was that the chemist was the Church, and all the people of the parish were the Church, and asked in turn what he was doing about abortion. The chemist ultimately became a prodigious volunteer worker for the Church, and had mounted a major campaign among the people against abortion. Bishop" McKeon also related how a priest had once urged everyone to attend Mass because of a very important funeral. When the parishioners looked into the open coffin, the priest had placed a mirror inside, reflecting their image. He said the priest told the parishioners that they were hapless people of God, doing nothing. He had said :'We are not the Church you are 99 per cent of the Church.' Father Hardiman related how he was in awe of such an assembly of so many cardinals and bishops.
He was in the 'centre of the action' as train-bearer for the leader of the Australian delegation, Cardinal Gilroy. He raised several laughs from the audience when he related how as a young student in Rome - fresh from Albany - he had been pressed into the role and was so unprepared he did not have all of the correct garments. 'I managed to get a soutane, and took my place in the procession. 'At one stageI was walking close-by Bishop Fulton Sheen and some American tourists recognised him. 'But they said that wasn't the young man walking close to him rather young to be a bishop.' Fr Hardiman was a student and about 19 at the time. He said the authorities also neglected to tell him he was to wear a surplice over the soutane, and hence some of the official photographs showed him standing out as the only one without one. He also related how Mons Keating, a deacon studying in Rome, had taken over his scooter. Mons Michael Keating told how he had 'the real power of the council. He had been an usher, and was able to tell the bishops where they could sit.
Miss America sticks to her guns
A beauty queen won't be silenced on the things that matter to her - including abstinence and abortion
M
ipss America will not allow women to cornete in the beauty pageant if there are skeletons in their cupboard. Nude photos are out, as one entrant recently discovered, ditto illegitimate children. But there was a shudder of horror among the pageant organisers when the latest winner said she wanted to promote virginity for teenagers. Erika Harold, 22, was crowned Miss America last month. She appeared to be the perfect politically correct modern beauty queen - a place is waiting for her at Harvard Law School and she can trace her ancestry on her mother's side to black slaves and Cherokee Indians. The judges were more enthralled by her brains than her looks. "She was selected because she was the smartest," judge Evan Dobelle geld.
Erika Harold
Then her "dirty secret" emerged - Ms Harold wants to use her platform to campaign for sexual abstinence. She had told the organisers her
theme for the year would be teen violence and bullying, but neglected to mention that opposing pressure to have sex would be part of it. When Miss America officials suggested she should pipe down on the issue, the were given short shrift. "I will not be bullied," she declared. It was a winning ploy for Ms Harold, who was an advocate for Project Reality, a sexual abstinence group, during an earlier stint as Miss Illinois. "She said, 'I'm not going to change whoIam'. It was a choice she had made as a teenager," said Libby Gray, of Project Reality. Ms Harold's mixed race had made her the butt of jokes and she was sexually harassed at school, Ms Gray said. "She even had a death threat from a fellow student. What helped her to get through it was
the positive decision she made to turn away from sex, drugs and alcohol." With serendipitous timing, Ms Harold's crowning came as a national survey of more than 10,000 US high school students revealed a marked swing towards virginity. According to figures from the Centres for Disease Control, the number of US youths aged 15 to 18 who remained virgins in 2001 outnumbered those who had sexual inter course by 54 per cent to
46 per cent. In 1991 the ratio was the reverse.
The percentage who reported four or more sexual partners fell from 19 to 14. Kate Darnell of the campaign group Worth the Wait said government-funded abstinence programs were having an effect. In 1996, a Republican bill promoting virginity in sex education became law.
"It's had a few years to take hold. The 11- and 12-year-olds taught abstinence are now graduating from high school," Ms Darnell said. US schools not only teach the moral value of saying no, but also the risk of sexually transmitted diseases from promiscuity. An increasing number of teachers are emphasising that onlx abstinence works instead of sending out mixed messages about the importance of birth control. Campaigners against teen age sex are delighted to have an attractive role model such as Ms Harold. It is not the only issue on which the beauty queen is outspoken. She is a staunch Republican, and filled out the questionnaire about race on her entry form for the pageant as "other". She is also an anti-abortion activist. The Miss America contest may have got more than it bargained for. The Sunday Times