Record P ERTH, WA: July 20, 1995
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What's inside .... Archbishop Hickey speaks of the need to build on our offering of ourselves at Mass with daily prayer and regular spiritual reading and use of the Sacrament of Penance - Page 2 Can the workplace and commerce be a hotbed of ethical activity? - Page 6 Nurses band together to support and educate themselves on bioethical issues - Page 2 Priest-maker of film on Archbishop Romero turns his attention to the life of the co-founder of the US Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day - Page 11
uclear tests co de ned By Peter Rosengren The leaders of Catholic and Anglican religious orders in Australia have condemned France's decision to resume nuclear testing in the South Pacific. In a letter on behalf of delegates to the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes meeting in Melbourne earlier this month, addressed to France's President, Jacques Chirac, conference president Sister Helen Clarke FLSC said the conference wanted to express "in the strongest possible manner" its dismay at your Government's decision to recommence nuclear testing in the South Pacific." We affirm your country's historic commitment to the values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity," the letter said. "The resumption of these tests would be a clear contradiction of these cherished values. Our concern is the for peoples of our region and for the integrity of the whole of creation." it said. The leaders of the religious
institutes also issued statements on euthanasia in the Northern Territory, the role of women in t he Church and society, land mines and native forests. They condemned the introduction of legalised killing of patients in the Northern Territory and strongly criticised a number of its features, including the fact that it contradicted the recommendations of the comprehensive and expert survey by the Victorian Parliament's Social Development Committee which had said it was neither desirable or practicable for any legislative action to be taken establishing a right to die. The leaders also called on the Australian Government to support fully an international ban on the production, sale, distribution and stockpiling of land mines. The government was also asked to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the future of Australian rainforests while acting with maximum care and restraint on rainforest policy. But the leaders' most comprehensive statement dealt with the
role of women in the Catholic Church in which the leaders appeared to raise a number of criticisms of the Catholic Church and society's attitudes towards women. These included what the statement described as the cultural and religious barriers denying women access to full participation in church and society and " the imbalance of women in terms of decision making in the Church given the contribution of women to the life of the Church." The statement said that the structural imbalance whereby women do not have access to clerical status was 'a reflection of a deeper malaise in society at large where women are excluded by virtue of tradition, inadequate vocational opportunity and a consequent lack of experience and diminishment of confidence." While the Bible was described a s being completely characterised by patriarchal bias, the statement also said people who read it should "marvel at the strength and variety of women whose story is included."
f lowever the statement called "Forgiveness" for previous religious men and women who on women to remain part of the had taught that women were church and not give up their lesser beings who had to be faith practice. saved from themselves should -If the church is to be taken as be sought, it said a believable sign of God's reign Papal statements on women in our culture we need women were acknowledged and recog- to remain faithful to its mission nised as "significant." However. and life at every level," it said. "further reflections" were It also called on religious encouraged and welcomed. orders to do more for women in The statement also appeared distress and poverty and to to suggest that the church's prac- investigate the establishment of tice did not match the Pope's a scholarship fund for women who wish to study in Australia or statements. Acknowledging the difficulty overseas_ Further measures could in separating the arguments used in what it described as the include the training in canon "current" Church teaching on law of additional female memthe ordination of women from bers for diocesan matrimonial the present social situation of tribunals and the revision of the women, the statement said that images of women and there was a persisting attitude 1,vomaniman relationships used that women, and religious by religious teaching congregawomen in particular, were a tions in Catholic education. However the statement's concheap source of labour. The alleged view that women clusion appeared to doubt the 'can be dismissed at will from chances of success for a new pastoral office and that a reli- role for women in the church if gious congregation forfeits any the change did not come quickly claims to compensation or loy- enough. Women confessors theory" alty when active service diminPage 3 ishes" was also criticised.
Action must come after deep prayer: Archbishop The spirituality of the Carmelites was needed today as much as ever, Archbishop Barry Hickey said at a concelebrated Mass for the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Carmelite convent in Nedlands last Sunday. The occasion, which recognised 80 years of the presence of the contemplative Discalced Carmelites and their work of unceasing prayer, was attended by over 300 people who afterwards viewed displays telling their history in Nedlands. Bishop Peter Quinn of Bunbury and Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton and a number of priests joined Archbishop Hickey in paying tribute to a powerful prayer force that has operated in Perth now for 60 years. Archbishop Hickey welcomed the bishops and clergy and said that their presence there was a sign of the appreciation of the clergy to the Carmelite sisters for the prayerful support that they had offered for many years. Many people were also attached to the Church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel in Nedlands, Archbishop Hickey said. "I think it's because under that title Mary provokes a certain kind of spirituality which is needed today as much as any other time in history." "This is the kind of spirituality which surrounds the Carmelite order - following Christ through the life of prayer, an interior life, The only surviving Carmelite nun from the, group that founded the a life of quiet - spirituality which Nedlands Carmel, Sr Martha, with an etching depicting the founders, was fashioned by the light of Mt some of whom can seen in a 1960 photograph, above right Carmel in the Holy Land." he said.
Some of the founding nuns in 1960: Sr Mary of the Eucharist, back row left, Mother Gabriel, Sr Mary of the Trinity, Sr Teresa and, front, Sr Veronica and Sr Martha. Archbishop Hickey also spoke love God and want to follow of the heritage of the Carmelite Jesus you should do so via order from its earliest begin- prayer," he said. nings down through the ages to "Be pastoral, be supportive of the present. others, go and minister to them. Great men and women of the But make sure you do that on Carmelite order were also some the deep basis of prayer and of the greatest figures in the quiet contemplation of God." Church, such as St John of the The contemplative model was Cross and St Teresa of Avila, also needed because of the who showed the way towards Increasing complexity and deeper and deeper union with stressfulness of modern life, the God, he said. archbishop said. The whole purBut there were also modern pose of life was to move through day figures such as Edith Stein, this world into the one to come the Jewish convert and philoso- and this was what people pher who became a Carmelite should always remember, he nun and was killed by the Nazis. added. "They all keep reminding us Powerhouse of prayer - Pages of the same message that if you 8 and 9