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PERTH, WA: October 11, 1990
Registered by Australia Post P ublication No. WAR 0202
Number 2709
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Back to back, yet not seeing eye to eye At the Mandorla Prize judging at New Norcia last weekend, art critic MURRAY MASON found Dom Chris Power and Dom Bernard Rooney unable to see eye to eye on the winner but on Page 2 he reveals why Dom Chris appears to have chosen the better part.
• More on Pages 6 and 7
Worrying signs . . . OVER THE FUTURE OF PRIESTHOOD
VATICAN CITY: The eighth Synod of Bishops to be held since Vatican II has opened with the historic presence of Eastern European bishops, even from Russia, but very aware that new problems surround the Catholic priesthood's formation systems. Pope John Paul told the 238 delegates to remember the Catholic churches of China, Vietnam and Laos who were unable to have representatives present. The pope told the bishop he hoped "your labours will produce the abundant fruit the Church community is expecting" but some of the heavyweight names from around the world are already pointing to the difficulties ahead. At the opening Cardinal Pimonta, Bombay, pointed: "We must be grateful to God for so many priests who, without doubt, are men full of the Spirit of Christ, but we are also aware that there is a crisis in the life of many of our priests; many have left the ministry while others seem to be uncertain of their priestly identity, of their faith, of their ministry." There were worrying signs — such as the small numbers of seminarians, the ageing priesthood, and the numbers leaving the ministry.
There were some subjects that the Synod did not have time to discuss: celibacy of priests, the ordination of women, and the priesthood for married men. These themes had already been dealt with in a definitive way. He said one of the greatest problems in the formation of priests was the society in which young people grew up. Candidates for the priesthood were less naive and more realistic than 40 years ago. But in the west they were growing up surrounded by hedonism, eroticism, drugs and pornography. "They look for liberty without limits," he said. Young men often lacked even the most basic education about their faith, even when they had come from Catholic families and been to Catholic schools. Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the crisis in the image of the priesthood had come about because of a failure in Catholic theology. The priesthood was a sharing in the mission of Christ, and therefore demanded an intimate personal relationship with Christ. Cardinal Ratzinger criticised theologians who had tried to identify Christ with Karl Marx, as
a liberator of the poor from the oppression of the rich. That was completely different from the image presented in the Gospels, he said. Cardinal Neves of Brazil, summarising the responses received during the preparation said priests needed to make up for the lack of numbers by excellent preparation and formation. "The current spring-time of vocations in some parts of the world could quickly turn into a cold winter without the proper formation," he warned. Cardinal Jan Willebrands, from Holland, former head of the Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, warned against a nostalgia for the past. The 81-year-old cardinal said many were nostalgic for the middle ages when Christianity dominated Europe. But nostalgia could hide reality, and the Church at that time was unable to respond to calls to reform. Others were nostalgic for the more recent past, when the churches were full and vocations numerous. But that was an era when atheistic and pagan governments had emerged, which wanted to destroy Christian culture and annihilate the faith.
Forgive us plea by Czech bishops • Page 4
Love and serve via the Church • Page 3