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W E S T E R N A U S T R A L I A’ S A WA R D - W I N N I N G C AT H O L I C N E W S P A P E R S I N C E 1 8 7 4
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MISUNDERSTOOD AND MYTHOLOGISED
FRANCIS TO PRIESTS:
Often ridiculed, sometimes abused, indulgences have had a bad wrap: Mark Reidy - Pages 12-13
Yes, scandals hurt but holiness beats everything - Page 9
INDULGENCES: AIDS TO LIFE’S JOURNEY
SANCTITY IS TRUMPS
“Jesus loves me – with or without my tattoos”
Stuart Randell stands in front of his Fremantle tattoo parlour, Sacred Tattoos. Mr Randell’s unusual service emphasises not the usual lurid or negative artworks associated with bikies or young men with too much money, but designs centred on religious themes. Mr Randell’s unusual business and his own return to Catholicism were, in part, sparked by East Fremantle Parish Priest Stephen Astill SJ, who decided to visit local businesses when he took up his parish posting. A tattooist for 20 years, Mr Randell says tattoos can also be part of the healing process in people’s lives. Matthew Biddle reports - Pages 10-11 PHOTO: MATTHEW BIDDLE
Australia’s most senior Church leader pays tribute to a pioneering reformer-prelate
Bishop changed the landscape OBITUARY By Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney BISHOP Bill Brennan was one of the most individual and interesting Catholic bishops of his generation, with an influence far beyond Wilcannia-Forbes and Wagga Wagga. Bishop Bill’s announcement in 1989 of a new seminary in Wagga, a decision denounced in an intemperate article in Sydney’s Catholic Weekly, was the first public sign that the head of an Australian diocese was ready to support Pope
John Paul’s program to retrieve Catholic life in the Western world. The initial idea came from the then Cardinal Ratzinger and, in 21 years, St John Vianney’s has produced 40 priests and one bishop. By 1990, hundreds of religious and priests in Australia had resigned; the numbers in the seminaries were small. Orthodox young men were sometimes refused entry to these houses of formation where discipline was often lax with an occasional whiff of corruption. Daily Mass and meditation were ideals rather than regular
events, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction were never seen and public recitation of the Rosary forbidden. In one seminary, the ancient Marian hymn, the Salve Regina,
Brennan was good company and a fine raconteur. A formidable opponent, he was personally courteous, kind to his priests and universally respected by his brother bishops for his loyalty, competence and hard
His seminary was the first sign an Australian bishop was ready to support JPII’S program... was also forbidden as divisive. Archbishop Hickey’s revamped seminary in Perth also moved in the same direction as Bishop Brennan’s and the game was on. Despite a dour public persona,
work for the Conference despite the fact that a majority disagreed with a good part of his theological views and proposed remedies. He knew that reform is never accomplished without division, incomprehension
and sometimes bitter opposition. He confronted this courageously, without any melodrama, but it took a toll on his health. William John Brennan was born at Arncliffe in Sydney on February 16, 1938, the eldest son of a strongly Catholic family in Dulwich Hill. His brothers pre-deceased him while two of his three surviving sisters are Ursuline nuns. One of them, Sister Therese, lovingly dedicated herself to his daily personal care after a debilitating stroke in mid-2001 forced his early retirement. Continued on Page 8