The
Record PERTH, WA: January 5, 1995
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Number 2926
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Flashback! The healthy and fit globe-trotting pope 10 years ago.
TAMAN CITY: Pope John V Paul's speeches in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka are expected to include a papal critique of the Asia-wide struggle toward democracy and economic development. A month before Pope John Paul's last visit to the Philippines in 1981. then-President Ferdinand Nlarcos lifted the martial law which he had imposed eight years earlier to consolidate his rule over the nation. Papal speeches throughout that trip focused on the need to protect human rights and to establish democratic inslltutions. In the Philippines. where Muslim rebels on the southern islands have waged guerrilla warfare in a bid for independence. the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it would suspend activity during the papal stay to comply with the Koran's prohibition against harming "men of God." In Sri Lanka the beatifying of a 17th-century Goan priest. Oratorian Father Joseph Var.. will give Pope John Paul an opportunity to recall the history of positive Catholic-Buddhist relations on the island. Father Vaz was given refuge in the southern Buddhist Kingdom of Kandy during the late 1600s when Dutch colonial officials
severely limited Catholic sionary activity in the north. In Papua New Guinea, the pope will beatify Peter To Rot. a married lay catechist martyred in 1945 during the Japanese occupation of what was then called New Britain. Lay c.atechists were and still are the backbone of the church's missionary activity on the island. but their preaching and teaching was outlawed by the Japanese. Despite the ban. To Rot continued to evangelize. to serve as the church's witness at Catholic weddings when a priest was not available and to preach against an occupation-era law legalizing polygamy. He died in a Japanese prison aten. leaving a fter being behind a young pregnant wife b* and two children. !kccording to documents filed %%ith the Vatic.an. the proc•ss for his beatification was begun in 1952 but soon discontinued when the local parish priest judged that To Rot's widosv "was far from obsening an edifying point of conduct from a it, view.When a new archbishop was appointed for the Archdiocese of Rabaul in 1980. he decided that although some pastoral concerns might have been raised by the widow's conduct. it did not detract from To Rot's holiness and, besides, in the meantime
she had begun "to offer an Irreprehensible witness of Christian life." The road to beatification for Sister Mary Helen MacKillop. who will be the first Australian to be proclaimed blessed, i,vasn't much smoother. In fact. the co-founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart was briefly excommunicated in 1871 and her order temporarily disbanded after conflicts with loc,a1 church officials who disapproved of the sisters' living in tiny. isolated communities sometimes only two to frequently cut off from the sacraments in the remote Australian outback. And although local work on her sainthood cause began in the • after 1920s. it was suspended rumors surfaced that she suffered from alcoholism. The rumors were later proven to he untrue. and her cause was formally opened at the Vatican in 1973.
Sister MacKillop's persistence and fidelity to the church despite her sometime rocky experiences with church authorities will give Pope John Paul an opportunity to I.''. one of the clearest messages from the October world Synod of Bishops on religious: dialogue between religious superiors and local bishops is the only way to ensure diversity does not become division.
Promoting dignity of vitomen Respect for the dignity of every human being from the moment of conception is the only guarantee of true and lasting peace in the world. Pope John Paul's message said. 'The siolence which so many individuals and peoples con"Women have the right to insist that their dignity be to experience, the wars which still cause bloodshed in tinue respected." the pope said in his message for the Jan. celeJ; 1 areas of the world and the injustice which burdens the bration of World Day of Peace. life of whole continents can no longer he tolerated." the pope 'They also have the duty to work for the the dignity of all wrote. Education for peace is a lifelong process which must begin persons. men as well as women." he said. with each verson seeking inner peace. he said. That peace "Become teachers of peace with your whole being and in all comes from -knowing that one is loved by God and from the your actions," he urged women. desire to respond to his love." The message highlighted the special role mothers have as "Be witnesses, messengers and teachers of peace between individuals, generations, in the family, in the cultural. social peacemakers thmugh their c,are of their infants and their eduand political life of nations. and particularly in conflict and cation of their children. * See Pages 2 and 3 war," he wrote. TATICAN CITY (CNS) - Promoting the dignity and gifts V of women is essential to building peace in the world. Pope John Paul II said.
TATICAN CFTY (CNS) - Some may see V Pope john Paul ll's January trip to Asia and Australia as a test of his health. but few can doubt it is a proof of his affection for young people. And there will be some other political concerns on his agenda. Pope John Paul's last foreign trip outside Europe was 16 months ago for his August 1993 celebration of World Youth Day in Denver. Since then. he has made a one-ixeek visit to the Baltic nations and an overnight trip to Zagreb. Cmatia. This month's will be the longest papal trip since 1989. Although the papal schedule is filled with important meetings with government officials. bishops. leaders of other religions - and beatification ceremonies on the last three stops bolstering the faith and missionary zeal of young Catholics in Asia is Pope john Paul's key goal for the trip. Expected to draw at least 500,000 registered delegates for five days of celebration. prayer, study. discussion and sharing, World Youth Day 1995 has as its theme. "As the Father sent me. so I send you." The percentage of Catholics in Asia. as in Africa, has jumped in the last 20 years: but with just under 3 percent of the population professing Catholicism, Asia has the lowest percentage of Catholics in the world. By holding the World Youth Day gathering in Asia. Pope John Paul wants to underline the importance and potential impact of young Christians "becoming evangelizers of other youths in response to God's call." Msgr. Boccardo. Vatican youth affairs official, said. The Philippines is Asia's most Catholic nation with 83 percent of its almost 63 million L people belongin ' I