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Day in the life of a country priest The wild flowers were blooming and so were the faces of school children on the priestly rounds in Toodyay - Pages 12-13
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Not out Father Sydney Priest hits sixes for the Lord, on field and off. - Pages 10-11
Marian swagger of the virtuous kind takes to Freo streets
More than 2,000 people turned out for the Blessing of the Fleet in Fremantle last Sunday. Begun by Italian migrant fishermen in 1948, the annual event follows in the footsteps of similar Marian traditions in Europe dating back to the 12th century. In his first time at the event, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB blessed the fishing fleet as spectators looked on. Full story and pictures - Pages 8-9. PHOTO: MATTHEW BIDDLE
Pope Francis wants young people to know, it’s not always easy but it is worthwhile
Beautiful to get hitched
By Cindy Wooden THE CATHOLIC Church must help young people understand that marriage isn’t always easy, “but it is so beautiful,” Pope Francis said in Rome last week. “There are problems in marriage: different points of view, jealousies, arguments, but tell young couples to never let the day end without making peace. The Sacrament of Matrimony is renewed in this act of peace,” the Pope said on October 25 during a meeting with members of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
“This path is not easy, but it is so beautiful,” the Pope said. “It’s beautiful. Tell them that.” For the Catholic Church, he said, a family isn’t simply a group of individuals, but it is a community where people learn to love one another, share with and make sacrifices for each other and “defend life, especially of those who are more fragile and weak”. The family as a special community must “be recognised as such, especially today when so much emphasis is placed on the safeguarding of individual rights,” he said. “We must defend the rights of
this community that is the family.” Defending the family also means defending the basic fact that it is a community founded on the marriage of a man and a woman, he said.
for growth in goodness, truth and beauty,” he said. As he has done on several occasions, Pope Francis also spoke about the special place in the family reserved for children and for the
Any time a child is abandoned or an older person marginalised, it marks the failure of that society. “Spousal and familial love clearly reveal that the vocation of the human person is to love one other person forever and that the trials, sacrifices and crises in the life of the couple or the family are stages
elderly, family members who are “the most vulnerable and often the most forgotten”. “Any time a child is abandoned or an older person marginalised, it is not only an act of injustice, but
marks the failure of that society,” he said. “Taking care of little ones and of the elderly is a mark of civility.” Pope Francis, departing from his prepared text, told members of the council, “When I hear the confession of a young married man or woman, and they refer to their son or daughter, I ask, ‘How many children do you have?’ and they tell me. Maybe they’re expecting another question after that, but I always ask, ‘And tell me, do you play with your children? Do you waste time with your children?’” “The free gift of a parent’s time is so important,” he said. - CNS