What's inside
Page 2 - Archbishop's Perspective: Archbishop Barry Hickey begins an occasional column this week with a report on his stay with the martyrs and confessors of the Ukraine Also, a report on Perth Archdiocese's 150th birthday
PERTH, WA: June 8, 1995
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encyclical on ecumenism
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Page 3 - Full report on the funeral of Abbot Gregory Page 7 - New Letters to the Editor page Pages 8-10 - Extracts and comment on Pope John Paul's Page 11 - The 800th anniversary of the birth of St Anthony
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Farewell, Job the Builder
Students, teachers from all over WA gather to honour bishop Over 1000 students and ing Catholic education in the teachers, including students Kimberley. from schools all over WA, The first was Jesus Christ himcongregated in Broome last self, Bishop Healy said in his Thursday and Friday to homily, who came into the farewell their bishop of 36 world to teach people of all years standing, the leg- places and times to love one another. endary John Jobst.
Bishop Jobst: built on the work of education pioneers in the Kimberley
tines and Sisters of St John of God did - and to nurture it to the youthfulness it has today - as Bishop Jobst has done with the aid of many religious and lay people, has been a story that has had moments of deep suffering and pain," Bishop Healy said.
But, said Bishop Healy, there The spectacular Kimberley Catholic Education Festival, were also three other reasons "But, like Jesus in his Resurrich in the vibrant colour and why the gathering took place symbolism of Catholic educa- and they in turn took their own rection and Ascension, it has tion in the Kimberley, featured reasons from Christ. also had moments of great joy These were: the contributions and happiness. This day is one displays, ceremonies and activities designed especially for the to Catholic education in the of those moments of joy and Kimberley by Bishop Jobst, who occasion. happiness when we forget for a "One of the high points was is retiring as bishop of Broome; little while the pain and hard the opening ceremony where the Pallottine Fathers; and the children from each school Brothers and Sisters of St John work that has been endured to build the communities and brought a container of water of God. from their region which was The Mass, said Bishop Healy, parishes of the Broome diocese, poured into a large communal concluded a festival that had and thank God for what has font, which was used during the taken the theme of 'Looking been achieved through his celebration of the Eucharist on Forward, Looking Back' devoted servants," he said. the Friday," Perth Catholic Edu"To establish the Church in cation Office public relations the Kimberley - as the Pallotconfined on page 5 officer, Rosemary Penman, said. Aboriginal students from Kimberley schools delivered messages in their own dialects while messages from the nonKimberley schools came from languages as disparate as African, Polish, Swedish and Maori. Their message? "We are happy to be here." Bishop Robert Healy. chairman of the Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia, said there were four reasons why more than 1,000 teachers, students and other individuals came from all over the Kimberley and throughout WA to celebrate Catholic education in the Kimberley at Mass and honour Bishop Jobst, known as John the Builder for his pioneering work in expandBishop Jobst enjoying the company of Beagle Bay children
Seminarians need holiness, doctrine for family work: Vatican By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) Seminaries must improve the way they train future priests to work with families and must ensure their students will uphold Catholic Church teaching on marriage and sexuality, a new Vatican document said this week. "Families need expert spiritual guides and sound doctrine," said the document, released on Tuesday by the Congregation for Catholic Education, which has responsibility for seminaries. The 21-page document, "Directives on the Formation of Seminarians Concerning Problems Related to Marriage and the Family," called for "a radical renewal of the preparation of future priests for the family apostolate."
Despite church leaders' increasing focus on the family as the priority for church pastoral work, very few priests had the theological, doctrinal, spiritual and practical training needed to help modern families, the document said. An ambivalence toward or outright rejection of church teaching on marriage and sexuality among professors, seminary staff and the students themselves seemed to be the main reason why ministry to families was not given the attention it deserves in seminaries, it said. "The danger in the church is that we will have guides who are not secure in their own thinking" regarding church teaching "and therefore can't guide the church with security," Cardinal Pio Laghi, prefect of the congregation, said. Offering courses in moral theology to examine issues related to sexuality and training priests to celebrate weddings and to under-
stand canonical laws regarding valid marriages was not enough to prepare a priest to help modern families deal with all the problems they faced, the document said. The church's concern for families and its conviction that its future depended on healthy families must permeate every aspect of a seminarian's education and formation, it said. The congregation said it prepared the document after examining how seminarians were being trained for family ministry and after consulting with Catholic couples. "We must conclude that this subject matter is not being treated with that accuracy and fullness which is necessary in order to provide the church with pastors who are well-prepared for this field of the apostolate," it said. "On the subject of the family and married life, in fact, objections to
the magisterium of the church are not rare," the document said. In addition, it said, traditional seminary courses dealing with marriage and sexuality had not changed enough to respond to the modern challenges facing families. The document referred to challenges as varied as raising children when both parents worked, the widespread availability and use of contraceptives, caring for a family member with AIDS, as well as the effects of unemployment and poverty on family life. The document urged seminaries to take an interdisciplinary approach to family ministry, providing future priests the needed background in philosophical and theological issues related to the theme as well as structured pastoral experiences with families. A particular concern of the document was preparing seminarians to deal with family issues in the
confessional, which, it said, must begin by encouraging the seminarians themselves to regularly receive the sacrament of penance. As with most areas of the church's work, providing a good example of living a holy life was the key to helping others live a holy life in their chosen vocation, it said. At the press conference, Cardinal Laghi rejected arguments that the church's ministry to families would improve greatly if married men were ordained to the priesthood. "We, too, come from families. We, too, have families and were born and raised in them," he said. "And I think very little is hidden from us as we work with people, hear their confessions and serve as their pastors. "We do not have to marry to know the problems of the family," Cardinal Laghi said.