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06-Apr-2010

CathBlog - The temptation to opt out of suffering  

Published: Thursday, 02 Sep 2010 Joel Hodge

Two television programs on ABC earlier this year revealed an important battle at the heart of Western culture over the nature of human life and suffering. There was an Australian Story program which was about a businessman, Peter Roberts, providing solace and comfort to sick and dying patients through music. On the same evening, there was a Q&A featuring the philosopher, Peter Singer. According to form, Singer advocated for euthanasia for the severely disabled. Underlying Singer’s attitude about euthanasia is something seemingly typical of the utilitarianism of modernity, in which it is increasingly difficult to make sense of suffering, and so, it must be avoided.

It seems that modernity, with its struggles between cold rationalism and sentimental romanticism, can make little or no sense of suffering. From a theological perspective, the modern notions of the human person, with their emphases on individualism, relativism, and affluence, seem to be lacking a relational understanding of what it means to be human. It is this relational understanding that lies at the heart of Christianity:

“The whole history of mankind was led astray, suffered a break, because of Adam’s false idea of God. ...He thought God was an independent, autonomous being sufficient to himself; and in order to become like him he rebelled and showed disobedience. But when God revealed himself, when God wished to show who he was, he appeared as love, tenderness, as outpouring of himself, infinite pleasure in another. Inclination, dependence. God showed himself obedient, obedient unto death. In the belief that he was becoming like God, Adam turned away from him. He withdrew into loneliness, and God was fellowship.” (L. Evely in Ratzinger, 1990, Introduction to Christianity, p. 202).


Unfortunately, the wonder, depth and vulnerability of relationality has to some degree been lost to the modern world because of the individualism that feeds the capitalist system, the romantic myths that reduce relationality to sentimentalism or because of the cold rationalism that seeks to counter it. The split between romanticism and rationalism – between reason and faith – continues to plague the West; and it impacts in real ways on Western notions of human suffering and life that form how we live and even who we allow to live.

Suffering for many affluent Westerners, supported by philosophers like Singer, does not fit into their picture of human life: it must be cut out to make a nice, neat system in which we can control our lives. Yet, the gaping holes in this Western worldview are manifested in many modern Western problems that show how we find it hard to cope with suffering (e.g. drugs, alcohol, suicide, etc.). For example, if the media are correct in their reporting, the recent court ruling in Adelaide to allow a woman to starve herself occurred because it was not regarded as “suicide”. Thus, the semantic games continue in the justification of an underlying cultural movement: ending the life of the fetus for the mother’s “suffering” is not killing; starving oneself is not suicide; waterboarding is not torture; and so on. Human dignity is being degraded because the West struggles to make sense of human life and suffering.

Yet, there remains hope, as the Australian Story episode shows: there are still ordinary people being human – that is, utilising and seeking the good in relationship with others – in the midst of suffering, pain and evil. At work here is a Christian instinct that brings out humanity’s true goodness: one does not seek to impose one’s view of being human and eradicate the situation (of pain and evil), but confronts the situation by humbly seeking to provide whatever good is possible from one’s talents for the building-up of others. It is shown that it is natural for humans to seek good in the midst of evil, rather than to cut that evil off through bad or evil means (i.e. killing). Advocates of euthanasia claim that the good that they pursue is the alleviation of pain that is not natural to human beings; but they use what is ordinarily regarded as negative or evil (killing) means to achieve the good they are seeking.

The Christian witness similarly seeks to combat the evil at work here but through both good ends and means; as Peter Roberts on Australian Story shows in his service of music and fellowship to the sick and/or approaching death. This good ends and means comes through building relationality: by building up relationships and identities, not cutting them off. Suffering only ultimately makes some sense in these relationships. Many people caring for persons with disabilities can attest to the importance of their relationships, as Minister Peter Garrett explained on the Q&A program. For example, when my grandmother slowly approached her death at nine-eight years of age, she was in great pain. However, her last days and weeks were important moments of grace for us as a family to deepen our relationships with each other, our grandmother and God. Her weakest moments were in some ways her greatest: they showed who she was (as she persevered and offered her life in faith); and they revealed who we were in our solidarity with her. Confronting suffering in this way can lead to solidarity: to the unity of self-giving that builds communion.

The ABC has shown where the battle for the West lies: between the rejection or fear of suffering (in an individualised, self-sufficient notion of human being); and, the effort to seek and bring good out of evil and suffering with faith that God is moving life toward good ends. In the Christian tradition, God comes to a world plagued by suffering, violence and death to bring good out of it: the Cross is the symbol of this par excellence. It is the symbol that the West no longer wants to face – that suffering and evil can be and needs to be transformed into good, no matter the initial pain, cost and self-sacrifice that this involves. Thanks to Australian Story we can see that there remain witnesses to life and the Cross that the West can still celebrate, despite the deep misgivings the individualised, affluent West has about suffering and relationality.

Click on the following links to watch the programs online: 
Australian Story
Q&A

Joel Hodge teaches theology at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.


Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Not just any baby  

Published: Wednesday, 01 Sep 2010 Judith Lynch

Twelve months ago I had the awe-full experience of “seeing” my unborn grandchild through the wonder that is an ultrasound scan. While the technician measured the baby’s head, peered into the mouth to check for cleft palate and gently nudged him or her to move so that she could measure leg bones, our eyes adjusted to the shades of grey, streaked and blotched by black and white, that took us into the world of the baby in the womb.

But not just any baby, but someone who already was part of our family. The young parents and myself marvelled at what we saw. A beating heart, half the size of a man’s thumbnail, fingers and toes, ten of each, minute kidneys, a perfect, miniature spinal cord and, delightfully, a little tongue practicing sucking.
 
Later, as I drove away, the words of the psalmist floated into my mind: “You created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother’s womb. For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders.” (Ps 139: 13-14) Things the psalmist took for granted I was able to watch on the ultrasound screen.

The image of God as a knitter is earthy and homespun. To paraphrase the words of Fran Ferder in her book Your Sexual Self:  “Like the slow methodical work of the knitter, God is threading and weaving and looping each strand of this baby- in- progress into a unique person. Each bone, every organ, has been placed in position with care and precision. Now, week by week it will grow and develop until, like the finished wool garment, when this baby is ready to be born, every fibre of its being will have passed through the hands of a knitting God.”

Technical manuals call all this reproduction. To the psalmist it was a wonder. Paul, writing to the people of Ephesus, marvelled that each and everyone is “God’s work of art”.
 
Family genes decided whether my new grandchild would be blue eyed or brown, tall or short, hair straight or curly, black, brown, blonde or red. But this little person we saw on the screen was not just physically wonderfully made, but had an innerness, a uniqueness, a personality that is all his or hers We call it soul, that mystery that lies at the core of each one of us and draws us gently but firmly to become the work of art God planned for us to be. This child already gave visible expression to the mystery that is God.
 
Just as I am not a knitter, neither do I understand the scientific wonder behind the sound waves that gave me a glimpse into the wonder of creation. But in some new way now I understood that the innerness, the spirit of this child, was tuned into God, the same God who called him into light and life on his birth-day last August.

Judith Lynch is a freelance writer who lives in Melbourne.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - How to make it into CathNews  

Published: Tuesday, 31 Aug 2010 Christine Hogan

Years ago, when I was considering a career path, I considered the diplomatic service. Why not? I wanted to travel, was studying French Hons and Japanese at university, did night classes in Spanish and Italian, so it seemed a good fit.

When I proudly announced my plans over the family dinner table, I got a reaction I hadn’t banked on: first, stunned silence. Then, hysterical laughter erupted as they choked on their Irish stew. The upshot seemed to be that I would be a danger to shipping in the quiet and polite reaches of diplomacy. Journalism suddenly seemed a better option, requiring, perhaps, less tact.

I thought about that the other day, when I was trying to explain to someone why a particular media release sent by her organisation would not actually make a story for CathNews. I danced around the point for a while, which made the person on the other end of the line more and more confused.

Eventually, I managed to choke out: 'Well, it’s not very well written.’ She was hurt – turned out, she had written it herself.

Trying to lessen the blow, I carried on: ‘And it is a media release about something that happened a month ago.’ The injured silence continued; I rushed to fill the gap and made things worse. ‘The publication is CathNews, you know… not CathNews-ish.’Shocking to have learned so little over the years, but just further proof that the diplomatic service had a very lucky escape thanks to the derision of my family.

However, there is an interesting question here – just how does an organisation or an individual get a story, a point, or an opinion, into CathNews?

So let’s take it from our fundamental premise: ‘CathNews is a daily clipping service which links to media coverage concerning the Catholic Church or related issues. CathNews does not have a mandate to create content, but to reflect what is in the public domain.’

That’s the basis of what we do here at CathNews, but…There are some exceptions to the aggregation rule, the notable one being ‘CathNews may publish material provided directly from official Catholic Church sources.’

So how to cut through the throng of media releases and news stories to make sure your story getsinto the CathNews newsletter and on to the website? Here are five ways:

News

Almost all of CathNews’ editorial content comes through the aggregation of news which is the essential business of a clipping service.However…

• If you belong to an official Church Agency under the auspices of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia, Dioceses and Religious Congregations, Major Lay Organisations, you are invited to send your Media Releases to news@cathnews.com.au for consideration for inclusion in CathNews. Your Media Release might not make the news list, but it will certainly be posted on the Media Release page of CathNews, and have visibility in that way.

 

[Note that viewscoming from a single site source other than an official Church site (ACBC, CRA etc) are avoided; for example, a news release from a parish action group or an individual.]


• If you have a relevant or timely opinion about matters dealing with the Catholic Church which you would like to see aired on CathNews. First, you must be published elsewhere, and then alert the editors that it has been. Your piece can then be reviewed for inclusion on CathNews.

 

• News Comment.If you belong to a church agency, and know that a story which affects your agency or organisation is about to appear in the media, you are invited to be pro-active. If you would like to have your relevant view joined to a story which you think CathNews might be aggregate, contact the Editor-in-Chief via email up until 6am of the day the story will be appearing in the media.If appropriate, your comment can then be woven into the narrative aggregated by the CathNews editors. Remember, the more timely you are, the more likely it is that your comment can be used. I

Non-news elements

CathNews cannot commission material, but under its editorial guidelines can publish comment which is an individual’s opinion. There are two avenues for that:

• Story comment. The CathNews discussion boards invite comments from readers, and the requirements for being published are included on the board – identifiers such as name, location, phone number, are required. Go to CathNews (www.cathnews.com), select the story you wish to comment on, and then away you go – up to 250 words!
• CathBlog. A group Blog, this feature on the website and the newsletter has fast become a favourite with subscribers and readers. The CathBlog editor is in the process of building a stable of writers who can write with wit and brevity on a whole range of topics dealing with the Church and Catholics. If you think you have what it takes to join the CathBloggers, write to the CathBlog Editor at news@cathnews.com.au with your idea or Blog.

Okay, so there’s how. Submit, and someone more diplomatic than I am will tell you if your story fits. When it comes to the discussion boards, though, that is still down to me. And I am still working on my diplomatic skills. Some days are better than others….

Christine Hogan is the Communications Manager of Church Resources.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - The Farmer Wants A Wife!  

Published: Monday, 30 Aug 2010 Mick MacAndrew

I’m taking a very big risk in revealing that my favourite television show – for the moment, is Channel Nine’s, “The Farmer Wants A Wife.”

Like many people with a favourite show, I’ve found myself scheduling out Wednesday nights 8:30-9:30pm. I’ve even started asking around for someone record the program on Wednesday 8th September because I have a college function to attend and I just can’t get out of it - the function, not my obsession with the TV. Just who would you ask, or better, who could you trust to understand, this task.

I hated those Big Brother shows with a passion. I’ve never been within a button of the remote control to watch other similar programs, but after stumbling upon The Farmer Wants A Wife, I must say it was probably a bit of a reaction against the election and what all the campaigning didn’t address, that I went looking for something escapist a few weeks ago when it commenced.

I’m a priest, celibate and comfortable with that and approaching sixty. I’m not wanting to be part of the program, I can assure you. But I’m intrigued at how I’ve been attracted to this program.

It’s the simplicity of the plot of course, isn’t it? A simple feel-good story, so common in our lives - boy meets girl or girl meets boy, a desire to explore commitment and possibly a future marriage. As a priest, I’ve been part of such things in all the couples I’ve assisted in preparing for their wedding days.

That this program features farmers seeking a spouse is a little different. How many Australians are prepared to be accepted or rejected on the basis of where they live and what is not going to be part of daily life because of the factor of distance from a capital city or other major regional population hub?

Even the adverts in the show seem so inconsequential, set against the backdrop of the ordinariness and toughness of farm life, where choice is limited in so many daily pursuits to – how far is it, how long will it take to get there, can I afford it along with the travel costs, will it really be worth it to go so far for it?

Any thoughts I had in the first episode of being a busy body, or of loitering, invading a couple’s privacy, left me very quickly because of that ordinariness, so repetitive as to be very profound. What I’m watching in this program is a plea from the rural part of our nation, for a partnership with those in the urban areas.

And the partnership so badly needed is exactly symbolised as in the covenant of marriage.

Getting back to what most thinking people in Australia are concerned with at the moment, there might just be a chance at finding a spouse for the bush, given that of the six ‘out of the square’ parliamentarians elected, four of them are from non-urban areas.

The bush capital may yet be the place of an unforgettable wedding and the beginning to a wonderful marriage, fruitful for all Australians, no matter where they live.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - The challenges of old age  

Published: Friday, 27 Aug 2010 Bishop Kevin Manning

As someone who has recently retired, it was with newfound sympathy that I watched presentations appearing on the TV seeking a better deal for the aged. In an increasingly technological age elderly people find themselves isolated from their families and communities, unwanted, and out of touch.  

The Fourth Commandment, “Honour your father and your mother”, is always a reminder that the family ought to be a place of love, respect, and caring for the ageing members of society who have a right to a life beyond material survival, a right to be educated, a right to spiritual care and comfort.  

Many older people live with a silent, crippling fear. The cost of food, medical care, electricity and housing are a constant worry to them and in many cases social security payments remain inadequate to sustain a decent standard of living. Self-funded retirees are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the market on their superannuation funds.

The residents, and families of those in nursing homes, can be plagued by the fear of what might happen. In most nursing homes, care is excellent but too often we read of cases where patient care is sacrificed while operators amass huge profits. And those who continue to live at home find their resources stretched, property maintenance becomes expensive, personal care and nutrition suffer, isolation follows.

So where does the Church fit into all this? Elderly Catholics look to the Church for support and assistance. They expect the Church to be a community, where they can experience the comfort of a loving God, and share the hope given by the Risen Christ.  

And our response? Families have the primary responsibility for the love, care and attention that the elderly need, for it is within the family circle that the elderly feel most accepted.  

That said, some older people are distanced from their families and there is much the Catholic community can do to support them: identify the hidden elderly in our suburbs and invite them into the parish community life; offer opportunities for day care, home visits, car pools, recreation, etc; sponsor low-income housing programs for the elderly.

Sometimes, the point is reached where the family can no longer offer the most appropriate care for the older person and as the Catholic community we must ensure that our Catholic institutions provide professional care for the elderly. Families and parishes have an obligation to maintain regular visiting.

Older people don’t forfeit their basic human rights simply because they age. The right to life of the elderly is being attacked directly and indirectly by the proponents of euthanasia. The elderly can become targets of a mentality that disposes of the unwanted, and which would place end-of-life decisions solely in the hands of physicians or the State.  

Our advocacy for the elderly must be firm and unrelenting. Governments will not act, and political parties will not promise, unless we make them listen and, of course, hold them to the promises they make.

Our program for action could include: reform of the pension system so that the payment enables older people to live in dignity and without fear; more low-income housing; higher priority of mental care for the elderly; more intensive inspection of nursing homes and real follow-up action.

The rupture between society and its elderly members requires a major effort to change attitudes, as well as social structures. This requires us to accept that we are the People of God and each person, no matter how young or how old, is an integral member.

Kevin Manning is Emeritus Bishop of Parramatta

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Empty spaces in the pews  

Published: Thursday, 26 Aug 2010 Judith Lynch

Some people are multi skilled. I don’t mean everyday multi-skilling, like simultaneously holding a crying baby on your hip, madly tossing the stir-fry ingredients around the pan and having a deep and meaningful conversation with an 8 year old, but skills like knitting, playing the piano, riding a horse, navigating obscure (to me) computer programs and making a sponge, to name a few. I’ve tried them and given up because I found them hard going and lacked the necessary stick-at-it to master the processes involved.  

I’m sure most of us can remember clubs, organisations or groups that we have joined, been part of for a time, then, through boredom or changing circumstances, we drifted away. Our churches are a bit the same. We look at them, large buildings often with seating for several hundred, and we assume that because we don’t fill it three times over every Sunday, then something is very wrong. The reasons our churches were so large and easily filled lies partly in geography and the way society was back when these same churches were built. In our grandparent’s time and earlier, young people were socialised into the faith. The church was the centre of faith life. Generally speaking babies were baptised, went to a catholic school, then married someone from a similar community. Today, because we are such a mobile society, the way we live, work, recreate, communicate and worship has changed enormously.

When we look at the empty spaces in the pews we’re inclined to believe that it’s the fault of the people who we think should be there. Maybe they should. I don’t really know. What I do know is that Jesus fed 5000 people, then ended up soon after with just a little band headed by Peter.  What Jesus had to say, the blunt way he expressed it, was seen as intolerable by those men and women, and they walked away just as many walk away from their faith community when they come up against things that they find intolerable. In any gathering there will be one or more who no longer “go to church”, or call themselves a lapsed catholic. The reasons are legion: “I had enough religion at school to last me a lifetime”, a remarriage after a divorce, a case of sexual abuse by a familiar and trusted Church figure, a choice to use contraception, Sunday sport and shopping …. the list could go on and on.  

In the years after Jesus died it took faith, not to mention courage, determination and a strong will, to join the fringe movement that gathered around the apostles sharing their memories of him. Becoming a follower of Jesus, a Christian, was an adult thing, a deliberate choice that involved struggle and conflict. Twelve hundred years later St Thomas Aquinas said that every choice is a renunciation. That informed choice to follow Jesus through Baptism has eroded through the centuries. We baptise babies and trust that the personal choice will follow later. Often it doesn’t and baptism or christening has just been a cultural rite of passage that has lost its real meaning.

We  baptize and hope that faith will follow. What if it was the other way around, and Baptism was the sealing of a freely chosen and informed following of Jesus ? Are we brave enough to begin to face these kinds of questions as we live out our own faith journey?

Judith Lynch is a freelance writer who lives in Melbourne.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - The Church doesn't need technocrats  

Published: Wednesday, 25 Aug 2010 Simon Rowney

Criticisms of the bureaucracy of the Church in Rome and clericalism are often misguided.   I agree the bureaucracy has contributed to many problems and clericalism is pervasive. But this criticism is still wrong because it doesn't go far enough, it is too narrow in vision and fails to see the true scope of the problem.

It also fails to realise that in Pope Benedict and many Bishops we have allies.

The true problem isn't isolated to Rome, nor is it only in the priesthood, in fact it is not even specific to the Catholic Church.

The problem is best summed up as the domination of the world by technocracy.  This problem is most alarmingly found in the modern economy giving rise to Peter Drucker's famous phrase "capitalism without capitalists". Where are the entrepreneurs? Where are the robust, visionary and principled men and women that should drive the economy?

It is true the technocratic problem is found in the Roman Curia but it is also found in lay dominated parish councils.  It is true it is in priestly organisations but it is equally found in men's and women's clubs, social groups and associations.

Technocrats run the modern business and the modern government, they even run the union movement.

Technocracy is identified by three things: specialisation, an emphasis on systems and process and an emphasis on technical skill.

Of the three listed above, specialisation is the root cause of the modern technocratic revolution. It is something Leibniz warned us about in the 17th century. He was aware that the strength of the middle ages was synthesis and he lamented it's demise. He saw clearly that knowledge was fragmenting. Physicists did not understand chemists, dogmatic theologians did not understand scriptural theologians and so on.

Kant too warned about being paper mâché men and women, fully aware that technocracy was creating a problem of personality. Specialisation erodes general intellectual and moral principles. It stops us  attempting to know "everything about everything" in Lonergan's phrase. It makes us mistrust ourselves and the authority of non-specialists. We become unable to make our own decisions and become slaves to systems.

Fortunately many people are fighting this important battle. Contrary to popular opinion these people include the Pope and many Bishops, it also includes many lay people and many outside the Church.

One notable example in Australia, which is driven by many people from all walks of life, is the Catholic universities. Clearly Campion College is an attempt to solve the problem but so to are ACU and Notre Dame. Each one is attempting to buck the trend toward specialisation and mere technical skill. Even where vocational training is supplied a more general context is provided. Staff and students are encouraged to cross the quad, to engage with other departments. And philosophy is alive and well in all Catholic universities, it is not treated as an ancient relic.

These places also protect against fundamentalism and post-modernism, two movements that try to remove specialisation by destroying knowledge altogether.

And finally Faith, of course, is the greatest aspect. Faith can shed light on all departments of knowledge. Faith is no respecter of speciality, it encourages synthesis and true understanding.

The Catholic universities are trying to develop men and women of deep principle and true Faith.

In many ways such people do not fit into the modern world but then again, they are also it's only hope.

Simon Rowney is a CathNews reader who blogs from Corrimal, NSW.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Voting in the Facebook era   

Published: Tuesday, 24 Aug 2010 Beth Doherty

Facebook has been an interesting source of political commentary this election. Campaigns stir up emotions, and more than ever before, a Facebook status can be used to tout your political leaning and perhaps, wishfully thinking, influence the undecided. On election day, I woke up to check my Facebook, and every second status had something to say.

“I think I’m gonna vote for my dog – pretty sure it will do a better job than anyone else”; “For the love of God, don’t vote for #insert political party here#”.

By far, the most interesting one I saw was from some Catholic friends and acquaintances of mine. “I just met Bob Brown in the tally room!” remarked one friend, updating his status on his iPhone. He went on to say that he had shaken Bob’s hand and congratulated him.

The eight word status has led to quite the Catholic debate! The list of comments on this status is now up to 45 and growing. Many of the comments are from committed Christians with solid and well-informed consciences. And yet, what a diversity of opinion from people of such goodwill! One young woman who is extremely faithful and has worked in church for many years made the point that congratulating Bob Brown was like endorsing abortion….another remarked that the Liberal party had not done anything to reduce the number of abortions in Australia…..others remarked that only one party has not used asylum seekers as political fodder….others commented that abortion trumps asylum as a political issue….and others again quipped that we need to look at more than one issue when casting our vote…..and thus it continued.

Now I don’t have a particular desire to let people know who I voted for. After all, it’s meant to be a personal decision. What I will say, is that human dignity and the rights of the most vulnerable in our society were my absolute highest consideration when numbering the boxes. I’m still unsure about whether I voted right, and I wonder who Jesus would have voted for. There is obviously some debate about who are the most vulnerable, and for me, it’s essential that we consider quite carefully how we personally treat these most vulnerable in our own lives as much as in choosing how we vote.

This relatively public Facebook debate was a sign that in fact we live in a democracy where we have the birth right to vote without fear of recrimination…. (well, except a frosty Facebook reception perhaps).

We can carefully discern which politicians may best uphold the values that we hold dear. As much as we might claim to hate them – the Liberals, the Greens, and the Labor party will all, despite their sins, uphold at least that right for people to vote. Sadly, they may never have the best record on issues such as abortion, overseas aid, asylum seekers, health, education, or poverty. Political parties may never champion the right to be born or the right to seek asylum. Not a single political party in Australia is the whole enchilada, but, as one woman remarked on this Facebook chain – we vote in the least worst.

We live in a country where a young man can shake hands with Bob Brown, maybe congratulate him, and he doesn’t get put in jail or shot. We live in a country where a young woman can defend the right to life of unborn children, and she doesn’t get tortured or forced to limit the number of her own children.  

Further, it is worth noting that it is less than 100 years since women have had the right to vote without restrictions. Even in 1962, Australian women’s votes carried some restrictions.  For many other countries, this came much later.  Kazakhstan, South Africa, Samoa and Kuwait have only afforded women the right to vote in the last 20 years.  So, what a privilege to be able to discuss the issues that are important to us freely and openly in a public forum like Facebook.  There are still countries in this world where the internet is effectively barred. Much of Africa and the Middle East are not free to cast their vote without recrimination. In 2010, only 46 percent of countries are considered completely free and democratic.

Now, perhaps after this ill-fated but interesting election, instead of simply talking about it, we might consider visiting our local member – even if they aren’t of our political persuasion…and let them know what we think about issues such as abortion and refugees. It’s a guarantee that we won’t be put in jail, tortured or killed for doing so, unlike many of those who seek asylum on our shores. And as for those who participated in this most interesting of Facebook debates, they will probably sit down to dinners and lunches in the future, invite one another to baptisms and weddings, sit next to one another in Church and let their kids play together.

Beth Doherty is media officer for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Spirituality that appeals to Gen Y  

Published: Monday, 23 Aug 2010 David Timbs

The ‘youth debate’ will not go away.  Recently two timely and pertinent blogs have appeared on this Board. Bill Farrelly has asked poignant and uncomfortable questions frequently on the minds of his generation, ‘why have my children and grandchildren become so distanced from the Church?’  Mark Johnson has raised the issue about the value of so much of the Church’s energy going into youth evangelisation. Both blogs have been widely read and have attracted quite a deal of comment.

For those of us who have been around long enough, it is fairly evident that about the mid 1980s a new group of young people appeared on the block and they have most emphatically made their presence felt. This is Generation Y, the much studied and analysed ‘legion of the watched.’ They are also known as the ‘Millennials,’ ‘the Echo Generation’ or ‘The Net Generation.’ They specifically and, to a lesser extent, their parents  (Generation X) are the subjects of recent critical scrutiny. In 2004 ACU published an extensive and illuminating report on Gen Y. This generation is described as narcissistic, lacking drive, commitment and discipline.  It might well be construed that they have been over protected, over stimulated and over indulged.  Perhaps too these young people have fallen victim to potentially dangerous forms of inherited social adulation and isolation. Perhaps they are a generation which has been seduced by the mantra ‘you can be what ever you want to be’ and have rarely if ever heard the parental ‘no’ word or come to learn reasonable social boundaries or expectations. The rhetoric of ‘rights’ is often heard but that of ‘responsibilities’ to a lesser extent.

The ACU report has some very revealing statistics on Gen Y and its relationship to the world of religion. 31% identify themselves as humanists, having little or no sense of ‘God’ or a ‘higher power’ in dogmatic terms; 17% claim no belief system; 32% are unsure while 19% acknowledge faith practice. Of interest here also is that the respondents indicated very little serious interest in cults or religious side-shows. It seems that the ‘love’ promises and the prosperity gospel of rock and roll Christianity do not have a lasting attraction. These figures, however, offer the Church very clear evidence that it needs to examine both how it presents itself to the young and how it might evaluate its evangelical outreach. Bill Farrelly’s anguish and grief might in some part derive from inept Church leadership and their lack of prescience. Bill, they have, in fact, constructed splendid monuments and museums for the kids but have failed pastorally to tend their garden (John XXIII). Mark Johnson is right, I think, in arguing that the Church is poorly directing its evangelical energies at the youth. The parents are the ones who need help to understand the consequences of introducing their children to the ‘sociological’ Sacraments namely, ‘Claytons’ rites of passage: photo ops with lavish presents and parties afterwards. The spin offs of all this might well lead to odious social and economic comparisons, inclusion, exclusion and bullying.  What enduring realities count for the kids when it’s all over? Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation into what world of Church community, if any? What about the long haul and ongoing commitment? Exactly the same goes for Christmas and Easter. They have long been reduced to mere ‘kid’s stuff.’ Maybe the parents of Gen Y have quietly adopted their children out to the managers of the market place.

Michael Carr-Gregg, a youth psychologist, has identified four interconnected worlds that youth call home: inner world; family world; peer world and school world. Recently he has added a fifth one, the internet world. These are the domains of youth socialisation but, ominously, about 90% of this interaction is electronic! He has come to realise that, understandably, these worlds are filled with fear, anxiety and confusion for many young people who struggle to deal with forces almost too powerful to handle. Vulnerability to exploitation and manipulation is widely prevalent and that, left to themselves, youth do not have the wisdom or wit to navigate their way safely through these worlds. Our Catholic kids are no exception here.

One of the heartening findings of the ACU study, however, is that while Gen Y has little or no time for the institutional Church its youth do relate very positively to the no-nonsense, down to earth and challenging figure of Jesus. Serendipity and dogma are lost on them but not the real Jesus of the Gospels who connects with their experience of being human. He, it seems, can speak to them and for them with persuasion and intelligibility.  Maybe there has been something missing here for some time.

David Timbs blogs from Albion, Victoria.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Remembering Dorothy Day's visit 40 years ago  

Published: Friday, 20 Aug 2010 Val Noone

On Saturday 14 August, an enthusiastic commemoration was held in Melbourne, Australia, of the 40th anniversary of the visit to that city of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement. On a cold and windy night, one hundred people gathered at All Saints parish hall in Fitzroy, an inner city suburb with large public housing estates, next door to a site where Dorothy had stopped for a meal in August 1970.

Few people know that Dorothy Day (1896-1980), anarchist-pacifist and Catholic, who fed and housed thousands of homeless people in New York and campaigned tirelessly for peace, had a major influence on Australian Catholicism. As historian Ed Campion and others have written, Dorothy Day's impact in the southern continent dated from the 1930s when an Australian group began a newspaper called Catholic Worker which took its name from the one started by Day three years earlier in the States.

During August 1970 Dorothy, then 73, accompanied by Eileen Egan of Pax, spent three weeks in Australia as guest of two priests, Roger Pryke and John Heffey, who had met her in New York some 30 years earlier. Dorothy first stayed a week in Sydney with Roger Pryke, then parish priest of Harbord. Then she had a week in Victoria, half of which was spent at St Benedict's farming community at Gladysdale as a guest of Fr John Heffey, and the other half she spent in Melbourne at the home of Paul and Marie Ormonde.

She returned for another week at Harbord. On Sunday 23 August 1970, as part of the campaign for peace in Vietnam, she shared a platform with national Moratorium leader and well known parliamentarian Jim Cairns at Sydney Town Hall. Dorothy went on from Australia to visit Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, and then Tanzania and England before returning to New York.

On the Sunday afternoon of her stay in Melbourne, Dorothy addressed an overflow crowd in the Public Lecture Theatre at the university on issues of war and peace, and ways of building the new society. She proposed her comprehensive vision a new social order: "Our present capitalist, industrial system is inhuman and wicked. The non-violent are trying to re-build it within the shell of the old." She advocated the traditional works of mercy, "feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, housing the homeless, nursing the sick, visiting the prisoner and burying the dead. … every war, is just exactly the opposite."

The following day, Monday 17 August, was a busy one. Dorothy did an in-depth interview with John Nicholson for the national television network, spoke to a large gathering of theological students at Corpus Christi College, Glen Waverley (hosted by Fr John Prendiville, the rector), and came for the evening meal to the open house run by Mary Doyle and Brian Noone and others at 101 King William Street Fitzroy.

This weekend's commemorative event was convened by Mary Doyle who had hosted Dorothy's visit to Fitzroy in 1970. Dorothy would have been pleased to note that the parish hall has recently been renovated by the diocese to improve its services to the Sudanese refugee community.

"I met Dorothy at an afternoon tea after her talk at the university, hosted by the Loreto Sisters at St Mary's College. Dorothy was most forthright. One, she wanted to visit and stay at our house. And two, she asked me to deal with the copious amounts of food that would be left over after the afternoon tea. Could I please ensure that it was delivered to those who need it?", Mary told the gathering last Saturday evening.

"Dorothy knew of us from a letter four of us had written to her earlier that year, Brian Noone, Chris Tucker, Graham Marshall and myself. We described all the people who were living together with us in our open house. Dorothy said, 'It sounds exactly like some of our houses of hospitality'", she continued.

"She dined with us in the house next door which has since been demolished, around 19 of us. We had a most enjoyable evening with her, lots of laughs. I note in the diary that we had Australian songs out of tune. The homeless men were very impressed with Dorothy," she said.

Among those attending the Fitzroy 40th commemoration were key figures from the lay and radical movements of the city, the parish priest Father Thinh Nguyen and former parish priests Luigi Dastegno, Len Thomas,  and Brian Cosgriff, draft resisters to the Vietnam War, John Wollin and Merv Langford, as well as former deputy prime minister of Australia, Brian Howe. An apology was received from Bishop Joe Grech of Bendigo, who had visited the open house as a seminarian.

Dorothy, a radical in lifestyle and politics, was nonetheless a traditionalist in her religious practices. Confirming this aspect of Dorothy, Mary Doyle told the following story: "At about five o'clock on that Monday evening forty years ago, when Dorothy and Eileen were walking along King William Street here, coming from the car into our house, we ran into Father Gavan Fitzpatrick, the parish priest of the time, the same one who later decided to demolish the two houses next door. Dorothy and Eileen asked Gavan could they receive Communion. He held a little service for them straight away.

"Forty years later many of us who have critical views of the Catholic Church may not share all of Dorothy's practices. However, in my view, our sharing of food and drink, bread and wine, this evening is a form of communion that is different from Dorothy's but true to the spirit of things," she said.

The walls of the hall were decorated from photographs, newspaper cuttings and Catholic Worker memorabilia, and there was a short illustrated presentation on Dorothy's work and related Australian developments. Pointing to Dorothy's remarkable record in tackling the issues of her day, Doyle proposed a toast to Dorothy: citing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well the problems of global warming, she urged those present to continue their commitment to the works of peace and justice.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Are there any female lay Catholic role models?  

Published: Thursday, 19 Aug 2010 Beth Doherty

Recently, the editor of CathBlog wrote to the Office for the Participation of Women (OPW) remarking that most of the writers for CathBlog are clergy and lay men. I too had noticed this, and have also noticed the same trend in other publications that I read with gusto.

I wondered why that was, being that I could readily think of hundreds of women who write as intellectually and beautifully as any men that I know. Are we not brave enough to contribute? Is it busy-ness? There could be a myriad of reasons. This request also made me reflect on the sheer volume of women I see more or less running parishes, in roles as pastoral associates; special ministers; readers; musicians; liturgists; running youth groups, prayer groups, service groups, social justice groups.....and volunteering in so many ways.

Indeed these women have responded to the call for “all the baptized and confirmed to be aware of their active responsibility in the Church’s life (Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 46).   They have responded to the call for collaborative ministry, “the way that mature Christians express their unity in Christ and work together to accomplish his mission in the world” (From Words to Deeds, US Bishops Conference).The National Church Life Survey of 2007 reported that 61 percent of Catholic mass attendees are women. So I have much cause to wonder about women in the Church.

As a young, single lay feminist, it is not lost on me the irony that most of my saintly/Catholic role models are religious women or men. Will young Catholic women in 50 years feel the same way? Will we have to wrack our brains to find female role models that not only managed to change the world, lived fulfilling lives of radical service to the gospel, but also that had a family? And what about the world?

In Australia on Saturday, we may just elect democratically our first female Prime Minister. To many, this might signal a triumph – a sign that women are finally equal in status and power to men. But...let’s look at some statistics. “According to the AMP/NATSEM Income and Wealth Report, a 25-year-old man is likely to earn a total of $2.4 million over the next 40 years, more than one-and-a-half times the $1.5 million prospective earnings of a woman. Women are less likely to be in leadership positions within organisations and only 10.7 per cent of executive managers are women.” (ABS data). So these are the Australian stats.

Most women who desire marriage and family accept that at some point in their lives, their capacity to earn may be lessened, depending on the number of children they have, and indeed, the circumstances. But must this acceptance mean that women renounce their goals and ambitions, even to the point where they perhaps deny their own vocations?

I have just returned from six weeks in Paraguay. In my time there, I was introduced to numerous newborn babies. In Paraguay, the poorer the women are, the more likely they are to be expected to take on traditional roles. In the barrio where I spent most of my time  not only were the mothers the primary-care givers, nappy changers, breast feeders, cooks and cleaners, quite often they had been abandoned by the father of the child even before the end of the first trimester. Like women in most countries – they are of mixed minds about their “ascribed roles”, but unlike in Australia, they generally had little hope of any other opportunities apart from being mothers, and probably single ones.

Many of them enjoy nurturing, nesting, cooking, making house, just as many Australian women (and men) enjoy these things to varying degrees. For argument’s sake, I know for sure that I enjoy cooking more than my father – which is a good thing for anyone who might choose to eat at our house.

My time in Paraguay did however, make me ask if it is possible for me to have a fulfilling career as well as a family without working doubly hard for half the pay, that is, as they say, to have it all.

John Paul II wrote in his Letter to Women in 1995:

“In this vast domain of service, the Church’s two-thousand-year history, for all its historical conditioning, has truly experienced the “genius of woman”; from the heart of the Church there have emerged women of the highest calibre who have left an impressive and beneficial mark in history. I think of the great line of woman martyrs, saints and famous mystics. In a particular way I think of Saint Catherine of Siena and of Saint Teresa of Avila, whom Pope Paul VI of happy memory granted the title of Doctors of the Church. And how can we overlook the many women, inspired by faith, who were responsible for initiatives of extraordinary social importance, especially in serving the poorest of the poor? The life of the Church in the Third Millennium will certainly not be lacking in new and surprising manifestations of “the feminine genius”.

The informal slogan of the Decade of Women became “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own one percent of the means of production.”  

I agree with John Paul II as he writes about the many female role models in our Church’s history, but, I lament, there are not as many as I would like to see. Missing in this letter is mention of lay saints, lay women, mothers, workers like Dorothy Day and others. Is it that by choosing marriage and family, the most popular vocation, that we lose our capacity to be saints or role models? Or is it, and I suspect that this might be closer to the truth, that we are just too damn busy?

Beth Doherty is media officer for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Where the politicians can't go  

Published: Wednesday, 18 Aug 2010 Joel Hodge

There is one important issue that this election campaign won’t talk about: the cultural crisis occurring in the West. This neglect is typical for us, human beings: we tend to talk about the pseudo-crises to avoid facing the real ones. It is what ’hypocrisy’ actually entails (and what Jesus complained about to the Pharisees who placed false crises in the face of believing Jews instead of the real issues of faith and life). In Australia (and in the West, in general) we talk of the ‘economic crisis’, the ‘ecological crisis’, ‘political crises’, the ‘border security crisis’, and so on – which are all real to some degree. However, we talk of, and even sometimes manufacture, these crises to avoid the real crisis: the West’s increasing inability to hold onto common cultural assumptions and justify its own existence and identity to really deal with our problems.

Many comment on our problems – rampant individualism, consumerism, economic exploitation, relativism, breakdown of marriage and family, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, suicide, falling social and religious affiliation, dysfunctional sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, psychological issues, and so on – which are all symptoms of a cultural crisis, i.e., a crisis in which there is a declining sense of truth that gives meaning to our being human, to how we should live together, what this world and our existence in it is about, and how we should relate with God. From “dignified suicide” to “wrongful birth” (the concept that some people just should not have been allowed to live), the West is attacking its own foundations; and because it lacks any strong will to critique this attack, it is encouraging its citizens on this path. Who needs external enemies? The prevailing ideological dogma of the West that there is no truth, which justifies “the 60s” individualism (supported by mass capitalism), has not set people free from ideological dogmas or cultural norms, but enslaved them to new types of insipid norms: relativist and individualistic ones that do not build up, but leave people with shaky foundations for dealing with life in all its dimensions: relationships, vocation, sexuality, family life, and so on.

While there have been great advancements in living standards and the consciousness of rights, the crisis of meaning and truth in the West is acute, and in particular the younger generations are suffering from it in various ways. These deeper issues are not being commented on or addressed by politicians because many do not acknowledge them; or if they do, they are limited in what they can do about them, especially in a ‘democracy’ that is driven by mass media and which does not want to make hard choices. Yet, politicians are not afraid of speaking about their beliefs – at least the ones that will get them elected. However, the positive messages and initiatives that we do sometimes receive from our political class often lack a strong sense of where their foundational values emerge from and how these values are fulfilled within a broader picture of what it means to be human.

There are no easy answers to the current crisis. We hear from our political leaders how they are transforming the country and making things new. However, education, money and work are not salvific on their own (as some politicians seem to claim), but are just parts of how we can really be transformed into our true humanity. Christians are realists: ultimately humans can’t seem (on their own) to move away from crisis, selfishness and self-sufficient opposition to God (even with the best education!). Yet, we, humans, do yearn for transformation and inspiration – and seek it from our politicians; but do we expect it from the wrong source? As people of hope, Christians trust in the God who “makes all things new” (Rev 21:5). So, not despite, but precisely because we are realistic, we hope in God, who has the powerful love to move us and for which we long. Thus, we trust that God will bring about change and conversion, as the ‘history of salvation’ shows us. We must ‘read the signs of the times’, be aware of our cultural milieu (and its effect on us),  even as we sow seeds with God, and help our politicians to do so as best as we can; so to provide a witness of hope in the midst of a confused culture. There are opportunities opening all the time for witnesses to hope: for witnesses who can make sense of a world by living a life of deep meaning and integrity for others in faithfulness to God’s promise.

Joel Hodge is a lecturer in systematic theology at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Unions, workers and the Church  

Published: Tuesday, 17 Aug 2010 Bishop Kevin Manning

I was initially taken aback, some years ago, when an elderly Catholic unionist in Lithgow stated: “I learnt my practical Christianity through the union, for the union cared more for the poor and vulnerable than many Church organisations.”

And there was truth in what he said, for initially unions saw themselves as protecting the poor and vulnerable workers, those seeking work, immigrants and those suffering because of war and disorder in their own countries.

Because workers’ rights, like all rights, are based on the nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity, the Catholic Church was never reticent to list these rights in the hope they would be recognised in juridical systems.

In so doing, the Church recognised the fundamental role played by labour unions which “grew up from the struggle of the workers – workers in general but especially the industrial workers – to protect their just rights vis-a-vis the entrepreneurs and the owners of the means of production.” (Laborem Exercens, 20)

In her teaching the Church insists that unions are not a reflection of the “class” structure of society but should be promoters of the struggle for social justice, for the rights of workers.

In addition, unions must act as representatives working for “the proper arrangement of economic life and of educating the social consciences of workers so that they will feel that they have an active role in the whole task of economic and social development and in the attainment of the universal common good.” (Gaudium et Spes, 68)

The Church contends that unions have a duty to exercise influence in the political arena, making it sensitive to labour problems and demanding respect for workers’ rights.

However, unions should not have the character of ‘political parties’ struggling for power and they should not be forced to submit to the decisions of political parties nor be too closely linked to them and used as an instrument for other purposes.

In view of the aforesaid, and this month’s federal election, we might well put some of our more prominent unions under the microscope. After all, the goal of all organised labour is to contribute to the common good of all Australians.

No doubt any such efforts would be challenged and questioned. But workers are entitled to unions which are being treated fairly. In turn, unionists’ rights can be placed at risk because of a lack of freedom of speech in assembly or coercion by union leaders.

And there are many issues to fight for: some legislators still believe that health care is a privilege, not a human right; that the right to life is an option; that the rights of the poor are subject to the choice of the rich.

Union membership can also offer great opportunities for self-sacrifice, helping people, like Jesus, to be a ‘servant of all’, laying down one’s wishes, needs and desires for the sake of others is our measure for living the Gospel.

The unions might well have a second look at the plight of immigrants; after all, Australia was built on immigrant labour. And they still come to Australia to seek a better life for their families; and don’t unions have a right to affirm their right to work?

That is precisely why we need the leadership of organised labour: for the poor and the vulnerable; for those who seek to organise in the name of human rights; families who have been deprived of both dignity and justice.

In some cities each year there is a Labor Day Mass – something we could think about. It provides the opportunity for members to show their commitment also to their faith, where they can come to join together on this day to show that they participate in projects which are good for the community – not just good for their jobs.

They can take the opportunity to praise God for giving work and ask for God’s help in finding and keeping good jobs. They could pray, on this occasion, for union members who have lost their lives, an opportunity to say we haven’t forgotten about those who have fallen on the job.

Kevin Manning is Emeritus Bishop of Parramatta

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - The secular is sacred too  

Published: Monday, 16 Aug 2010 Mark Johnson

In June of this year, from the Basilica of St Paul-Outside-the-walls in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to establish a new pontifical council. That council is to focus upon the address of the “progressive secularisation” of once predominantly Christian cultures and territories. During the speech in which the new council was announced Pope Benedict inadvertently indicated two important themes that are of special concern for those not willing to automatically conform to the rhetoric of ‘culture war’ or to that of the ‘clash of civilisations’, both of which well used vehicles are clearly implicit in any simplistic division of world into ‘us’ and ‘them’. The themes that were inadvertently addressed were that of “powerlessness” and of “desert”. In this short blogpiece I’d like to explore some of the ramifications of these unintended allusions, and also add a third: that of the ‘stranger’, a figure so deeply imbedded within our history of spirituality and so deeply challenging to this latest twist of the failed ‘new-evangelisation’.

Pope Benedict remarked that in the face of so many historical, social, political and (especially) spiritual changes, all of which overwhelm our human capacities “It seems sometimes we pastors of the Church (are) reliving the experience of the Apostles, when thousands of needy people followed Jesus, and he asked: what can we do for all these people? They then experienced their powerlessness.” It is worth pausing to listen deeply to the nuances that are swirling under this one sentence, and the content of the speech generally, because here is revealed a primary matter of concern: that of power. For a while now the rhetoric of a siege mentality has dominated the evangelical content of neo-orthodox mission. The declared ‘culture wars’ of the 1980’s have continued unabated within the Church, despite having reached their apotheosis outside of Church circles in the slaughter of the ‘clash of civilizations’. In harmony with the deeply destructive range of narratives manufactured within a ‘culture war’ enemies are identified, ever more pure criteria of purity and legalism are enforced, and Gospel and Tradition become malevolently transformed into the weapons by which cruelty is given legitimacy.

In such an atmosphere of manufactured menace and threat we are led to forget that our faith is based upon the very thing that many now so fear: powerlessness. Our faith is not based upon a triumphant messianic warrior, or upon ritual righteousness and privilege. Our faith is built upon the self-emptying of God, a scandal and a blasphemy to religious respectabilities and self-sufficiencies of the first century. Just as once the small imaginations of humanity created an elaborate divide between matter and spirit, time and eternity, holy and profane, so now between ‘Church’ and secular. We live as if Christ has not already healed that breach, as if the Kingdom is not already ahead of us, independent of us, leaven-like and as the mustard seed, beyond the confines of Church. The Incarnation itself is the Holy ‘yes-saying’ to that we too narrowly and presumptuously define as alien to God, contradicting our efforts. It is not our place to be creating new categories of ‘Gentiles’ so to once again exclude. There is no Church-secular divide in the Incarnation.

Powerlessness should not be feared, as it is the very reason for being of faith. Power erases faith. The satisfaction and insularity of power creates the illusion of self-sufficiency, and it is this that we then worship: the cold and hollow-eyed certainties of power.

Pope Benedict went on in the same speech to state “…in the deserts of the secularised world, the soul of man is thirsty for God, for the living God”. In the deserts of the secularised world could it be that human being can again become aware of its need for God? The secular as desert is a potentially rich means by which to understand our contemporary experience of God. The desert has long been regarded as that space into which we are led or into which we enter to be stripped of our illusions and our comforts. It is not just a place; it is a space, a state of mind. We do not enter the desert if we take with us minds full of our pantheons of little deities. Do we seriously think that God is to be found solely within the confines of paradigmatic comfort? We see here that desert is not a place of romance or of sentiment. This is no place for rouged and swooning saints. They will soon perish in the dry heat. Nor is this a place for the phalanx’s and armour of power; wind and sand will block any advance. Rather, the desert is the space of silence, and of silencing, and in such a space, one not of our choosing, we in trust submit to God’s rendering of us. Yes, Benedict is right to say that in such a space the soul will cry out for God, but this may have been the first time that such a soul has cried out for God, rather than been lulled into an infantile embrace of placebo and artifice. How can our souls cry out for God if never tested, if forever corralled –herd like – within rigidities that others place around us?

Finally I want to suggest a third means by which the so-called secular can be appreciated rather than constructed as necessary enemy. I want to suggest that the secular is strange; the secular is the stranger and/or the outsider. Such a stranger can be responded to with hostility, perceived as threat. But let’s stop the reflex of self-interest. Let’s ask what is it that we regard as under threat? This takes courage, this takes faith, and it is a question that we probably cannot face if asked within our space of suffocating comfort. It is a question of the desert, and the stranger can only come to us in such a questioning way if we are already in the desert, if we consent to being seen by the eyes of the other, to be seen anew, beyond our control. This is liberation, a dangerous liberation, but in such being newly seen, we are offered a new beginning.

Mark Johnson teaches in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney, where he is a PhD candidate.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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Cathblog - Some lessons from life and the boards  

Published: Friday, 13 Aug 2010 Christine Hogan

Every school day when I was a little kid, my dad used to drop me off on his way to work in the city. I loved those times when I had him all to myself and I could get to work as a junior inquisitor about the things he knew about and I was beginning to learn. Subjects like why Grandma was so incredibly scary, and how he fell in love with Mum, were favourite topics.

When I was in Grade Two, it was his habit to drop me at the Somerset Road gate of St Anthony's, Kedron, near the corner of Turner Road. Apart from the fact that I was mortified by the family car - a black Riley which looked like the car of absolutely no one else's parents – I was thrilled that my handsome father took the trouble to drive me the couple of blocks to school.

So it was a surprise to him when I asked to be deposited at another entrance to the school, one which was further away from my classroom.He was late, and we were almost there, so the plans couldn't change that day. I started to cry, and as soon as he stopped the car, I darted across the footpath and up the steps, streaking past Pius XII in the stairwell and right into the class room. From the car, Dad watched my retreating back and recognised this as abnormal behaviour .

Two days later, Mum and Dad had the truth of it – I was being bullied at the school gate by two big girls, and hadn't been game to tell them, or Sister Mary Monica. On the third day, Dad took me back to the Somerset Street gate, got me out of the car, and asked me to tell him which of the children was being mean to me. Terrified of the reprisal I was certain would follow, I cowered behind him, and pointed out the culprits. You can imagine my shock when, with my hand in his, he approached the pair and engaged them in gentle conversation.

I was shy, he told my little torturers, and was having some problems at school, and they looked like the kind of girls who might be able to help me. Would they? Amazingly, they would. Every morning, those two continued to wait for me at the school gate, waved at Dad as he drove up, then escorted me up to my class room.You never saw a bully picking on any kid they thought was going to beat them, Dad told me… and you could beat them just by refusing to go along with them. It was one of the greatest lessons of my life.

It came in useful when I worked for Kerry Packer, and then went into television, where bullying seemed a normal form of social intercourse. And it is still useful on the discussion boards of CathNews, where sometimes there are still, from time to time, outbreaks of intemperate behaviour.

Regular board correspondents know extra details are now required by CathNews' editorial guidelines from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. (Just to remind you: a real name or real initials, no pseudonyms, a functioning telephone number nfp, and a location.)

So I wrote to one whose details were missing, and referred him to the protocols for commenting, and waited for a location detail and a confirmation of his name which would allow publication. If I had been expecting my requests to be fulfilled, I was disillusioned very smartly by his reply. So I wrote back, still requesting the required details.My correspondent was not happy and told me so: 'Christine, I find your attitude a bullying one - I personally would disqualify you from dealing with the public until you undergo more training, especially as you may be dealing with vulnerable victims of sexual abuse at this time considering what the Bishops are saying at present on this issue.'

Good grief. Refusing to reward this behaviour, I retreated into silence – which is where I remain regarding him. However, for every reader who reacts in such a way, there is constant positive reinforcement from CathNews' readers and subscribers.

I had written to Marie H, a regular board contributor, and asked her if she could not use ampersands in her comments – they play havoc with the formatting. She replied: 'Now that I know, I'll stop using (them).  So sorry to have caused you a problem.  Especially as you've turned the forums into one of the best centres for discussion, allowing diversity of views but preventing matters from ever turning nasty.   Quite an achievement on the Net! Once again, my apologies.'

And I had another, much appreciated piece of support, from Peter, who is a regular as well on the boards, when I wrote to welcome him to the CathNews subscribers: 'Actually I have appreciated CathNews for several years. I just needed to resubscribe when I changed my ISP. Congratulations on your own sensible and courageous handling of mail that is sent to you. God bless the work!'

God bless the work, indeed. And God bless the fathers and mothers who teach their little children lessons which stand them in good stead long after the school yard bullies have been faced down.

Christine Hogan is the Communications Manager of Church Resources

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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Cathblog - Nuns with professional qualifications  

Published: Thursday, 12 Aug 2010 Carmel Pilcher

Recently I attended a gathering of nearly two hundred of our Sisters who live and work in the NSW province.  On the second day we were invited to work towards an agenda for the next hundred years of our congregation. 

A casual observer would have wondered at such a task, given that almost the entire group could surely claim the wisdom of age rather than the idealism of youth!  I found myself sitting between a seventy three year old and one of our few younger members who is a mere twenty seven.  At our gathering we celebrated Alice’s birthday.  At 93 Alice was one of the more senior contributors to the discussion but it was clearly apparent that she, along with everyone else was enthusiastic and hopeful.  The atmosphere of the room was charged with energy and life.  It seems that the followers of Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods are determined to leave a strong and vibrant legacy for the future.

At a time when the story of our heritage is very much to the fore as we anticipate the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, we believe it imperative that our collective voice is a clarion call for justice and integrity; and our service continues to address the greatest need in our society and world.  To achieve this goal requires constant prayer and discernment, active liturgical involvement and the continual ongoing formation of each of our Sisters.

Religious have put a high value on education and continue to pursue this ideal to fully equip them to serve God’s holy people.  This has not come about without considerable cost – both financially and personally.  Women and men have often undertaken formal study while exercising fulltime ministry.  It was not unusual for religious to teach all day and then attend university lectures at night.  Communities have shared the burden.  In order for some to be released for long term study, others have foregone that possibility and worked in ministry to support their companions.  In a number of cases where a particular area of expertise was needed, religious are sent overseas for specialist courses of study, often at great financial cost to the community.  

Contemplative religious also place a high value on education and study if the writings that are produced and the calibre of lecturers and preachers is any indication.  In their balanced lives of reflection, work and prayer, these men and women live in a more serene atmosphere (at least to the outsider), where time takes on a different rhythm.  This would seem highly conducive to disciplined study and research, and the resulting evidence is compelling.  One only has to think of the great mystics and wise contemplative religious of our own time to verify this.

I owe my ongoing formal study opportunities over many years to competent Josephite teachers in my formative years, and latterly to the generosity and encouragement of those same Sisters.  This month I am engaged by the northern deanery of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese to teach a series of workshops on the Mass in preparation for the introduction of the new translation of the Roman Missal.  Hundreds of Catholics are availing themselves of this opportunity each week.  For many the message is challenging and yet they are so eager for their faith to be nourished.  

Will there still be professionally competent religious to teach and form the people of the next millennium?  Only God knows – but the legacy of religious founders to value a sound and thorough education continues to give integrity to religious life.  And religious continue to make a valuable contribution to the Church’s mission to bring about the reign of God at this time in our history. Indeed the religious of today are arguably the most educated single grouping in our church and yet so often their wisdom, particularly that of women religious is dismissed or ignored.  

Carmel Pilcher is a Sister of St Joseph based in Sydney who works as a liturgical consultant.

Image: Sister Joan Healy RSJ receives an honorary doctorate from the Australian Catholic University.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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Wednesday - Jesus laughing  

Published: Wednesday, 11 Aug 2010 Bill Farrelly

I was going to talk about the devil today but he can go to you-know-where. I will visit him (or her? - now there's an interesting thought) another day. After our previous heavy-going exercise on our God-given sex drive we need – well I do – to lighten up.

So, let's talk about something completely different. Any suggestions? Yes, you, the lady in the third row with the boa constrictor – and  might I say what a fine specimen he is. I do beg your pardon, “she”. By the way, how do you tell?

What was that? You're wondering whether God ever laughs? Wonderful suggestion.  

As it happens, my eldest grandson raised this with me when he was just six years old. He might have been five – no matter. This wonderful little philosopher speculated that because God is God he must have the best sense of humour of all. How do you argue with that?

Incidentally, and please excuse this aside, but the same extraordinary young mind a couple of months later commented, after my wife had accidentally reversed her car into mine, 'You don't expect your wife to crash into your husband, do you Poppy?'

Delighted and amazed, I agreed. He consoled me further as he said with a shrug: 'Sometimes, good things happen, and sometimes they don't, you know.' What a joy!

So, does God laugh? Interestingly, I doubt there is one single reference in the Bible to God ever having laughed. There are references to God smiling on his people; there are references to other emotions including anger and sadness; to compassion and empathy; to fear and loneliness.

Did Jesus ever laugh? Easy. Of course he laughed. What at? The same things that all children, all youngsters, all young people laugh at. How do I know? I know because he gave me a brain and he gave me common sense. Why wasn't it ever recorded? Don't know.

Surely only someone with the most outrageous sense of humour – dare I say, sense of the ridiculous – could have created human beings.

Another proof: why do most people take such delight in making one another smile, in making them laugh, in making them happy. No prizes – it's simply because that's the way he made us. But what about our free will? True, we don't have to do this but we prefer to do it because it makes us happy and, rather obviously, we prefer to be happy. And, therefore, or so I say, God smiles, he laughs, he is happy.

Too simple? Sometimes simple is right. It doesn't always have to be complicated. Though we are complex not everything about us is complex.

Another proof. Have you ever watched kittens or pups or cubs at play?  Were you, like me, in fits of  laughter? Did you not wonder how they could be so playful? So where did their sense of mischief come from? Again, no prizes. It comes from God.

As well, for me God is laughing when trillions of snow flakes, no two alike, create a winter wonderland; he is laughing when the flowers bloom, the trees sway, the sun shines, the rain falls, the stars sparkle, the breeze blows.  

He laughs joyfully when we love; when we succour; when we forgive; when we remember what it was like be a child.

Think about it: we have the power to make God laugh. That's something to smile at, isn't it?

Incidentally, if you'd like to see some beautiful pictures of Jesus laughing and smiling check out the Jesus Laughing exhibition on this website.

The images will, I hope, lift your heart as they lifted mine.

Bill Farrelly writes a column for Marist Messenger.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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Cathblog - Across Spain with a crook and a cockle  

Published: Tuesday, 10 Aug 2010 Tyrell Heathcote

In May, Spain's Oficina de Peregrinos issued approximately 1000 compostelas – permits for pilgrims walking in the footsteps of St James – every day. That's a far cry from 35 years ago when 690 pilgrims were recorded for the entire year.

Pilgrim numbers have been increasing since 1993, when the Galicia regional government began promoting the Way of St James of Campostela as a tourist attraction. 2010's Holy Year has put further pressure on pilgrim numbers, which are proving to be the largest yet.

Such popularity brings with it concerns that the numbers are detracting from the pilgrimage as the race for a bed each night increases and much of the way becomes relentlessly busy with pilgrims. In the northern spring of this year, I walked the last stage on the ancient Way of St James pilgrimage with them.

The routes on the Way of St James criss cross Spain but the Camino Frances is by far the most popular. The final 100km is particularly popular, as it takes about a week. Go the full distance and that means starting across the border in France; that pilgrimage takes at least four weeks.

I walked an unusually slow camino, around 5–11 km a day, compared with most pilgrims who scampered over distances of between 20–30 km each day. It turned out that my more relaxed program of slower walking and more frequent stops were a blessing in disguise. I stayed in less frequented places and stopped early in the afternoon when most pilgrims were still walking on to the next place. I had time to appreciate and reflect on the beautiful landscape I was passing through as well as time to meet many locals and fellow pilgrims encountered along the way.

It's become hard to travel on the Camino Frances alone. The hardships medieval pilgrims faced – lack of food, lack of accommodation – are not those of the modern pilgrim. There is no shortage of places to buy food and other commodities, large televisions appear in most bars while mobiles and computers are never far. Other concessions to modernity include self serve pilgrim credencial sellos (stamps), drinks vending machines and self serve 'pop-up' bars.

But the challenges of the modern camino are, in many ways, about the sheer abundance that the pilgrim can be tempted by, including expensive, organised tour groups and taxi services to carry baggage to each night's resting place.

Consideration and patience become the greater tests when there are so many others also in need of a shower/toilet/bed/water. In the refugios, some people arise and start rustling from as early as 4.30am to try to get a headstart. Queues at the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago waiting to be issued their compostelas can also be an exercise in patience.

However, there is also a wellspring of camaraderie and conviviality – a certain 'pilgrim lingua' develops among so many people from so many places. The combination is a wonderful shorthand everyone understands: starting with 'Buen camino' and 'refugio'; continuing past 'gracias' to 'Que tal?' 'God mord,' 'Bonjour,' 'Hallo' and 'Hola!'

This amazing quality of the camino to accommodate so many people's personal caminos was a great source of wonder to me as was the privilege of being able to connect to such an ancient ritual and tradition.

My camino included blessings from nuns, welcomes from priests at their church doors and even a spontaneous medieval canto performance by two Italians minstrels. Unofrgettable!

The Oficina de Peregrinos gives these reasons for undertaking the pilgrimage:

1. To get involved in their faith in a more coherent way.

2. To show their belief in St. James' heritage, which is the fulfilment of the work of Jesus of Nazareth: to announce to the world that man can already be happy.

3. To turn their own values derived from pride and selfishness into love and to invite the others to do so.

To me, irrespective of crowds and numbers all three were still very much in evidence all along the Way.

Buen camino.

Tyrell Heathcote is a Melbourne freelance editor and writer.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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Cathblog - Being our real selves online  

Published: Monday, 09 Aug 2010 Evan Ellis

Newspapers have said a lot about the 'real' Julia Gillard lately. The Chaser's current political series Yes We Canberra juxtaposed the old Julia with her newest incarnation for laughs; by all accounts, they look pretty similar.
 
However, this idea of a true or 'real' version of our self, uninhibited by the roles we play (or our campaign strategists) is not limited to Gillard or the political arena. "I wish they could see the real me" is something many of us have sighed at one time or another.
 
In fact, some of the greatest literature of the 20th Century explores the truthfulness of our identities. The Great Gatsby is one of the clearest and most eloquent examples of this, inviting readers to follow Gatsby's reinvention of himself as a way to explore the control we have over our own identity and what we get stuck with?
 
Meanwhile self help books do a roaring trade (at times realistically) challenging us to become better versions of who we are or (misleadingly) inviting us to be any-versions of who we are.
 
Our technology also has the potential to heighten concerns over identity. A few years ago having a website or blog was the domain of companies and writers. Now, in an era of ubiquitous Facebook and MySpace use, are individuals really managing their own 'brand' as well as staying connected?
 
Does Facebook show the 'real' me or market a superior version; one that never takes a bad photo (thank you un-tag), who balances friendships with hundreds (goodbye quiet Friday nights) and charts overseas trips like a National Geographic spread. And if so, what does this mean?
 
There are now workshops, resources, government programs, the works, about how to manage this technology. Countless morality tales exist about staff fired for inappropriate material posted on line or athletes shamed, almost as if their digital self was a louder, coarser relative; neither quite distant enough or fit for public.
 
Anand Giridharadas, the technology columnist for the New York Times recently explored these issues and so much more in a Sydney address entitled "This Digital Life".
 
He made the salient point that as technology fosters new ways of interacting, our default seems to be set on running with it, rather than first taking a step back and asking is this (a) how I want to relate and (b) will it help me become the person I want to be.  He posits questions rather than gives definitive answers, which is wise considering the complexity of the issues involved.
 
In a point I'm sure Christine Hogan would appreciate, he notes bemusedly how incivility has become almost a characteristic of online discussion boards. He calls for a study about why anonymity and downright rudeness are such easy bed follows.
 
It might seem obvious (because people can) but there are important anthropological/ethical questions at stake.
 
Namely, was the Greek philosopher Glaucon correct when he weaved his story about the ring of Gyges in Plato's The Republic? Gyges, a simple Lydian farmer, came across a magical ring which turned him invisible. Free from any punitive consequences he did what, according to Glaucon, anyone would do; namely bed the queen, kill the king and usurp the throne.
 
Is this what we get when people become invisible or anonymous? And if so, do we need to relearn that between Big Brother and total anonymity there is a middle way of accountability, which fosters community without losing diversity?
 
In the digital realm as outside of it, we must confront both these issues of identity and accountability.  We need more commentators like Giridharadas to stimulate debate about the relationship between technology and the people we are or are becoming. Really.

Evan Ellis is Social Justice Coordinator for the Diocese of Parramatta.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Prayer at times of exam stress  

Published: Friday, 06 Aug 2010 Ann Rennie

One of the spiritually nourishing rituals of working in a Catholic school is the small inbuilt time for prayer in morning homeroom. It’s a rite of greeting, a space in the day cleared just for God, a welcoming of him into our daily lives.

It may be only two or three minutes between marking attendance and notices for sport and music and debating and who’s going on excursion. It is a sliver of sacred time amongst the myriad things that constitute the educational megamart that is the 21st Century school.

But, for us, it is a sure way of checking in with the divine. We pray as one, but there are twenty seven hearts and hopes beating heavenward, twenty-six young ones and an older one maturing nicely. With the girls I insist that these few minutes are reverenced. No chatting or fidgeting or last minute homework.  

The prayers cover the spectrum between petition and gratitude in what Catholics have long known as special intentions. Sometimes there is the soft shoe shuffle of supplication. Occasionally, the almost dervish dance of demand. Mostly there is prayer without strings; prayers of hope and thanks, prayers that look beyond self, prayers that look out for others. Occasionally there are prayers to special saints, intercessions to those who have the ear of God and will put in a good word.

The girls pray for parents and friends. They pray in response to world events and for people they don’t know. They pray for pets and grandparents and peace. They pray most fervently that they will pass their Maths tests later in the day.

Now, in schools all across the country, the academic year is moving inexorably and fatefully towards the examination season. The thirteen years of education for our students is coming to an end and our hope is that they take their faith into the world with them. Meanwhile it’s a time of midyear results and stress and doubts and countless cups of coffee and the secret stories of the Year 12 common room. It is also the time of holding onto the steady pattern of endeavour.  This is where the power of prayer can be used as a gentle and restorative means of settling those whose minds are racing and whose nerves are jangling because there are only forty five teaching days till the final assembly and the last rendition of the school song.

Michel McGirr writes in his book Bypass (the history of the Hume Highway), a book many of Victoria’s VCE Literature students know well that prayer is a pillow; a place of rest and repose where we place our urgencies in the hands of God. And so before each assessment task and most especially before the exam I pray with my students. We make the Sign of the Cross, a signal that we are clearing a sacred space where random thoughts and jitters and the recollection of key phrases are banished.

These two dedicated minutes are just enough for the girls’ thoughts to fly up. We pray to the Holy Spirit for clarity of expression and help to synthesise the solid learning of the subject into answers that will be well-rewarded by those who pass judgement. It is the most crucial and heartfelt of prayers. The girls then have time for their own private prayers. They may be eloquent or incoherent, ragged or rhyming, fluent or flailing, but their shape is not as important as their clear and present intention. They know God hears every last word. Then we sign off with an effusive Amen and the girls start writing down everything they know in an eight hundred word hand written thematic essay on Luke’s gospel.

The small redirection of thought and purpose before an exam or an assessment task in the shape of a prayer may not bestow additional marks, but it bestows its own blessing. The girls have taken on an internal rhythm that holds them steady.
The Spirit is with them.

And, whatever the result at the end of the year, in some unfathomable, mysterious and graced way, their prayers are answered.

Ann Rennie teaches senior students in a Melbourne Catholic girls' school.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Church has role in the election  

Published: Thursday, 05 Aug 2010 Bishop Kevin Manning

What a bonanza – an election campaign for a first-time blogger!  

I have the impression that many of my fellow citizens view the election process with some distrust and indifference. People suffering poverty and injustice cannot be blamed for losing their faith in our political institutions when the government is not accountable and politicians are ineffective in dealing with critical issues which touch their lives.  

However, turning our backs on involvement in politics is not an effective or responsible approach for Christians. We need committed, informed citizens to demand accountability from our political leaders and government institutions in order to achieve the common good.  

The electorate needs politicians to demonstrate personal integrity and to present their policies clearly so that they contribute truthfully to a campaign based on vital issues for the community.

In this context, the role of the Church in the political order is important. Christ’s command to love one’s neighbour has to extend to the transformation of all human relations ranging from the family to the entire human community for Jesus came “to bring Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind and set the downtrodden free.” (Lk 4:18)  

These are not empty words. They require reflection and action on poverty, hunger and injustice which involve structures of economy, society and politics. Action on behalf of justice is the key dimension in the Church’s ministry and the Church has the right, indeed the duty, to proclaim justice on the social, national, and international level.  
And, so, the Church’s rightful role includes:

1. Clear explanations of the Church’s teaching and responsibility to the faithful;
2. Analysis of issues for their social and moral dimensions;  
3. Measuring public policy against Gospel values;
4. Participating in debate over public policy; and
5. Speaking with courage, skill and concern on public issues involving human rights, social justice, and life of the Church in society.

The Church’s participation should not be a threat to the political process, but an affirmation of their importance. She must recognise the legitimate autonomy of government and the right of all to be heard in the formulation of public policy.  

She does not seek a specific religious voting block, nor to instruct persons how they should vote. Rather, the voters should examine the position of the candidates and the full range of issues as well as the person’s integrity, philosophy, and performance.  

Christians should promote a greater understanding of the important link between faith and politics, especially the belief that our nation is enriched when its citizens and social groups approach public affairs from positions grounded in moral conviction and religious belief such as: the affirmation of life at its beginning and end by opposing abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and assisted suicide; the just funding of government and non-government education; promotion of the social welfare system to care for the vulnerable, sick and aged; retention of the concept of marriage as a union of a man and a woman; the rejection of WorkChoices; and justice for asylum seekers.

So, it comes down to this: all citizens are called to become informed, active and responsible participants in the political process and the pursuit of the common good. It is a particular responsibility for the Catholic laity, drawing on their experience and exercising their distinctive roles within the Christian community.

Kevin Manning is Emeritus Bishop of Parramatta 

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Lessons from the saints  

Published: Wednesday, 04 Aug 2010 Christine Hogan

When I was a child growing up in Brisbane, I thought Adelaide was the epitome of style and glamour. That was thanks to the fact that my aunt and uncle lived there, in a low-slung bungalow with an unusual amenity for those times – a double garage. And in that garage were his and hers Jags – my uncle drove the Mark 10, my aunt the Mark 2.

To me, it was also a spiritual hotspot, thanks to my aunt's visits to the local church supplies store. Every so often, packages wrapped in brown paper and securely tied with string arrived, addressed to me in her firm and distinctive hand in blue fountain pen ink. Unwrapped, they revealed a treasure trove of holy pictures; the stamped cherubs and seraphs were immediately pasted on to my school books.

A couple of times, something meatier arrived, articles of faith I think she was hoping might make me a better behaved little girl – slim books of the lives of the saints. I still have one of them on my desk at home: Miniature Stories of the Saints, Book IV, by the Rev Daniel A Lord, SJ. St Veronica is on the cover, holding her veil with its imprint of Christ's sad face; St Bernadette with our Lady of Lourdes on the back.

The stories were written with little girls in mind and were designed to reinforce goodness, not scare the horses. St Angela's story, subtitled Friend of Girls, about the founding of the Ursuline Sisters, was to the point: 'She wanted sinless girls to help save sinful girls.' St Mary of Egypt, who had been a sinner – 'she was very bad', wrote Fr Lord – but became a hermit and then a saint, was also included. All excellent examples, in my aunt's eyes, of redemption for a tearaway seven year old!

But there were stories which verged on the gruesome. St Agatha, The Pure Virgin, is shown with pincers in her hand, but there is no reference to the use to which they were put in the text. And there was a terrible symmetry in the story of St Barbara, whose cruel father had condemned her for her faith. He was struck on the head by lightning the instant she was decapitated on his orders.

Years later on a trip to Tuscany, inspired by these stories from childhood, I visited a couple of the saints who had featured in Fr Lord's little book. There are relics of St Catherine, 'one of the greatest women who ever lived' according to Fr Lord, behind glass in the basilica di San Domenico in Siena. On the day I visited, ranks of little girls and boys were making their first communion, adding a festive air to the basilica. I also went to see St Zita, the patron saint of maids and domestics, who lies in state in the basilica di San Frediano in Lucca from whence she is taken once a year on her feast day for a tour of the town. No happy families that day, just a chilly church and a mummified saint in a glass coffin surrounded by dead flowers.

I revisited my book of the saints when I was given a life of Mary MacKillop, St Mary MacKillop, Friend of Jesus, by Judith Steer, rsj, and illustrated by her sister Josephite, Dorothy Woodward. It is a delightful little volume a hagiography designed for impressionable young minds.

It covers the arrival of Mary's family from Scotland, their straitened circumstances in Melbourne, and the faith formation she received from her father, Alexander. It is material which owes much to the letters Mary MacKillop wrote all her life, and which, treasured in the archives of the Josephite archives, provide much of the wellspring for MacKillop spirituality to this day.

Had I been a child reading this, I would have been tormented by the thought that someone was cold to Mary, and that the teenage girl was so hurt by that behaviour that she ran to her room in tears. The other part of the Mary story which to this day moves me tremendously is covered in the chapter 'Mary MacKillop is misunderstood by the Bishop'. In her own letters, Mary describes the moment in the Adelaide church when she was excommunicated. She had never felt so close to God, she wrote, and asked her Sisters not to say an unkind word about the Bishop – he already had her forgiveness.

The decision was reversed by Bishop Sheil on his deathbed, and by the next chapter Mary was in Rome, in conversation with Pope Pius IX. Obviously there is no photographic record of how this meeting was conducted, but in the illustration, Mary is shown seated in front of Pio Nono. Depicting this particular event was a bit of a challenge, according to Fr Michael Goonan from St Paul's Publications.

'We have no idea if she sat in front of the Pope,' said Fr Michael. 'And if she did, what sort of chair she sat on. So we decided to show her sitting, but the Pope's chair is rather bigger.' It's hard to imagine Mary would have cared if she were sitting or standing, selflessness my Adelaide aunt would have approved of entirely.

I have adopted her custom of sending packages to my young niece in Queensland, too, so that the family tradition of long distance contact will continue. This story of Mary is going off by the next post so the lessons of a sanctified life can be transmitted from generation to generation.

St Mary MacKillop, Friend of Jesus, by Judith Steer, rsj, St Paul's Publications.

Christine Hogan is Communications Manager of Church Resources, which publishes your CathNews.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Behaving sexually as God intended  

Published: Tuesday, 03 Aug 2010 Bill Farrelly

There is too much emphasis on virginity.

Now that I have your attention, and because I don't mind an each-way bet, on the other hand I don't think there's enough emphasis.

So that nobody is in any doubt, I believe unequivocally in the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth. Nevertheless, and at the risk once more of being labelled a heretic, I think the Church – and especially the Catholic Church – is obsessive about Mary's virginity.

I wrote recently about Mary and Joseph and their beautiful and heroic (no adjectives suffice) undertaking. During that exercise I wondered whether after the birth of Christ their relationship may have changed.

The reason I ventured down that hazardous path is because I have often felt that by putting so much emphasis so constantly on Mary's virginity the Church has unwittingly demeaned the billions of women who have chosen to become wives and mothers.

There is never a similar emphasis placed on male virginity even though the Church exhorts both male and female abstinence before marriage. This suggests hypocrisy – the result, I believe, of the patriarchal nature of the Church.

Undoubtedly, and regrettably, in general society there has always been broad acceptance that a young man will sow his wild oats before marriage. Nowadays there seems to be almost as much tolerance of young women behaving similarly.

I support the Church in encouraging sexual abstinence before marriage. I believe that, ideally, we should be sexually faithful to one partner. I further believe the Church needs to pay more respect to, and be more understanding of, our God-given sexual desires.

I have a deep devotion to Mary. I know that she was the most extraordinary of human beings. She could not have been anything less and still become the mother of God.

Nevertheless – and this is crucial – she was a human being.

Despite the apparent futility, I do not want the Church to stop fighting against promiscuity. I do want her to be more respectful of all human beings' sexuality, of which procreation is not the only aspect.

If God had designed our sexual beings with the single intent of procreation, need he have made sexual acts so pleasurable? This, of course, raises the obvious question: why did he give males especially such an incredibly strong sex drive? A drive that he, as a man, must surely have wrestled with himself. But I will leave that subject for another day.

The bottom line is, I believe, that God wants us to enjoy one another.

It occurs to me that one of the reasons so many in the Church struggle with sexual issues is because they see a contradiction between the sacred and the secular nature of sex. Aren't they – and the rest of us sometimes – forgetting that sex is the integral part of marriage and that marriage is a sacrament?

Now here's a thought: Although, hopefully, we all want God in our marriage, how many of us can imagine God being present in our bedrooms while we are making love? I can't. I am not being flippant. In every other sacrament God is paramount and we expect and welcome him there.

It's disconcerting, isn't it? But it shouldn't be, should it? Putting aside the enormous pressure society puts on us with regard to body image, why are we so uncomfortable with our bodies?

It may offend many readers, but if Mary and Joseph had made love then the Church would, or might have, paid more homage to sexual acts.

With great respect I wonder whether we shouldn't assume that they at least may have done so, thereby giving sexual relations between a husband and wife the honour and dignity they deserve while still rejoicing in the sublime pleasure of this God-given gift.

Bill Farrelly writes a regular column for Marist Messenger.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Dream of elected leaders really taking us forward  

Published: Monday, 02 Aug 2010 Mick MacAndrew

Elections. They are the strongest symbol of democracy. Although they galvanise opposing understandings of how best a nation, a state, a town should be run, they are, at the moment, the best opportunity we have of ensuring a degree of fair go for all in our society. We listen to the opposing arguments and then decide how to vote and in the case of the federal election, we also get to decide how our vote is distributed according to our preferences for the groups or individuals offering themselves for election.

I sometimes wonder what value I’m attaching to my vote. Is it a commitment to willingly involve myself in the various structures that are available to ordinary citizens to ensure that our democracy really works as it should? Do I cast my vote and then follow it through with community service? Or is casting my vote a way of exonerating myself from further action? After all, I voted and maybe my vote helped elect the representative of my choice, so he or she can get to work and repay me for my support. Or, my vote was deemed useless for the ‘other side’ won, so, I can claim that what the elected representative does is no business of mine because I didn’t vote for them!

Voting is meant to elect the type of representative that can be counted on to oversee the various laws needed to run our society as it should, for the benefit of all, for a fair go for all. The only problem here is that too few of us are really committed to a process which would ensure that justice is reflected in the laws passed. What we end up getting for our vote is a legislature dominated by groupings with their own agendas – albeit generally fair and benevolent, but still lacking an essential commitment to principles of justice which bring integrity to both laws and the people who live by them.

In the generations one has to observe this process, it does seem that, in the matter of hope for progress for the human family it is ‘two steps forward and one back.’ Maybe that’s why our election processes are essentially becoming more and more ‘presidential’ in nature, us hoping for one strong character to be able to unite all the disparate souls and take us forward to a better existence.

As I was thinking about the forthcoming election and the promises from the major parties to pass the necessary laws our nation will need to conduct its affairs for another three years, I got to wondering about the state of the Church, especially about the rural scene of Church in Australia. The National Church Life Survey of 2006 provides a good picture of the health of congregations until next year’s survey. Its research reveals some of the pressures facing the Church in rural areas of our nation. Ageing and dwindling congregations and the challenges of keeping hope alive, the hope of faith itself and then the hope that remaining committed is making a kingdom difference for the local area; difficulties in meeting the recurrent costs of maintaining local clergy; the issues surrounding finances for maintenance of buildings and then the ‘what to do’ issues of just what ministries will effectively answer Christ’s command to proclaim the Good News; are issues worthy of any election campaign. The mind is stretched with the thought of what laws would be implemented if the Church held a general election on such issues.

Would those seeking election seek a mandate for justice, or, sadly, like our civic elections, only a mandate for laws of expediency, to see them through one term to success in the next election? Like rural Australia, the rural Church is at the mercy of those who live in urban areas. The mercy decided upon needs to be framed in principles of justice, not in laws of expediency.

Father Mick MacAndrew is parish priest of Bombala-Delegate in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Pope has authority to talk about economics  

Published: Friday, 30 Jul 2010 Simon Rowney

Pope Benedict has criticised scientism and the awful influence it has on the world today. Scientism has two aspects. The first aspect is the theoretical notion that only scientific doctrine and method can lead to truth. The second is the practical handing of authority to scientists alone. Pope Benedict's criticisms of both aspects has support in many circles when he challenges scientism in physics and biology but attracts incredible opposition when he wades into political and economic affairs.

Economists seem to be the only people permitted to make sensible statements about political and economic conditions. It is being assumed that the current economic methods are the only rational way to discover economic truth.

In Australia today we have an election battle where neither party has the strength of conviction to say anything that opposes received economic orthodoxy. Rudd challenged the economic orthodoxy and was abandoned by both parties.

Strangely this attitude follows on the heels of the global financial crisis, which was unpredicted by all but the acknowledged unorthodox economists. I would have thought this would damage the reputation if economic orthodoxy but it seems the opposite is the case.

Paul Krugman is an prime example of an economists having failed to predict the GFC and not losing his reputation or influence on socio-economic policy. The 2008 Nobel prize winner and New York times columnist provided a rather simplistic analysis of where economists went wrong in 2008. He suggested that economists had preferred mathematical beauty to real truth, they had failed to realise that markets and institutions are not perfect and that people often behave irrationally.

Krugman remains blind to the fact that the economic view of rationality is a stunted and limp view of the real nature of this divine gift.

The Popes have rightly criticised economists for their failure to come to terms with the nature of the human person.

Modern economics was conceived during a time when psychology was at a low point in history. The mind was little understood and there was a deep suspicion of mental structures. The Enlightenment's revolt from the middle ages had rejected the faculty view of the soul. For economics this meant the rejection of notion of a hierarchy of goods and the development of a utilitarian calculus view of rationality.

In more recent times the structured nature of the mind has been rediscovered and the corresponding hierarchy of goods and broader notion of rationality developed. Unfortunately this has not found it's way into economic theory which suffers from sorry origin.

If Krugman is not ready to read Caritas in Veritate, at least he should cross the quad at Princeton and meet philosopher Harry Frankfurt. There he would be introduced to the distinction between first and second order desires. First order desires such as wanting a cigarette are different from second order desires, which are desires about desires. For example does a person desire to desire cigarettes or in other words, desire to be a smoker?

From this distinction comes a hierarchy of goods. Clearly a person can want, even crave a cigarette and yet also hate cigarettes (because they want to quit). This would place cigarettes near the bottom of the hierarchy of goods, while near the top will be the things a person cares about and the things they want to take care of those they love.

Such a hierarchy is more powerful and sophisticated than the current needs/wants analysis if modern economists.

Krugman and other economists need to acknowledge that modern economics is in need of a major overhaul. At the same time we need to realise that the practical scientism that places intellectual authority in the hands of scientists alone is unacceptable. In particular the Pope should not be the only voice defending the true dignity of each human person.

Simon Rowney is a CathNews reader who blogs from Corrimal, NSW.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - The Vatican is not beyond scrutiny  

Published: Thursday, 29 Jul 2010 David Timbs

In late May 1453 the great city of Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Turks. This marked the end of the great Christian Byzantine Empire founded by Constantine over a thousand years before. During this time the New Byzantium flourished as a political power underpinned and supported by a theology of ‘the perfect society.’ Byzantium was self-described and celebrated as ‘Heaven on Earth.’ Church and State were one entity, beyond critical scrutiny. Compliance and uniformity were paramount virtues to be guarded at all costs.

With the demise of Constantinople, the power base of eastern Christianity relocated to Russia, the new ‘Heaven on Earth.’ The czarist empire was greatly comforted in the knowledge that it was divinely ordained and severe penalties were meted out to those who questioned the status quo. Another form of absolutism replaced the Czars. It was Marxist-Leninist Communist. This time the ultimate authority was the Party not God but society was still described as ‘paradise’ and one had to be at least insane to criticise the best of all possible worlds. Soviet psychiatric wards were full of such ‘deranged’ people. In all of these regimes lurks a great deal of what came to be known in the 19th century USA as ‘Manifest Destiny.’

What highly centralised authoritarian regimes hate and fear the most is scrutiny from within. What these organisations do from the outset is to establish ‘defence mechanisms’ of fear, intimidation, exclusion and isolation for those asking awkward questions or who appear to break ranks. Noam Chomsky calls this ‘flak.’ In a critique of self-protective institutions he wrote, “The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which weeds people out who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on – because they’re dysfunctional to the institution.” (On Class Warfare, 1995).

In the Catholic Community, the French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur insisted on the need for a Society, Institution, Church to engage in an ‘hermeneutic of suspicion,’ that is to examine in loyal and courageous honesty the underlying story beneath its story. Ricoeur outlines this process in his discussion of the three ‘naïvetés’ (simplicities), The Symbolism of Evil  (1967). Firstly, the institution simply lets its story remain untouched and unexamined. Secondly, the institution with educated, critical suspicion and rigour dissects and examines what the story is all about and how it has been handed down, and knowing the difference between what is core from what is not. The third simplicity is to celebrate with understanding the story in its authenticity. Pius XII in his teaching was moving the Catholic Church in the direction of a critical understanding of the world and of itself in a mature and enlightened way. John XXIII, in calling for the Second Vatican Council, was keenly aware that the Church should not find itself inhabiting a world for which it was splendidly unprepared. In summoning the Church to throw open its windows to receive the fresh breeze of the Holy Spirit Pope John was not being romantically poetic. He was calling for critical discussion, examination and real change in the service of the Gospel.

Earlier this month, James Martin SJ, in an opinion piece in America magazine's blog, pointed to the disquiet of a South African Catholic Bishop, Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, at the reemergence of a post Vatican II introspective conservatism along with its ‘flak’ equipment. What concerns Dowling is that Church curial officials, authorised or not, are increasingly firing defensive ‘flak’ in the form of  attaching to Vatican views, opinions, directives and pronouncements the labels of ‘de fide’ and ‘infallible’ when they are clearly not. Bishop Dowling legitimately points to the sidelining of Bishops who are marginalised  as ‘rank-breakers’ because they have views at odds with those of the powerful, dogmatic, authoritarian secret men of the Vatican. Bishops are directly responsible to the Pope for their ministry. Where is there transparency in relation to the people who seem to be beyond scrutiny or the ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’? All of us as Catholics know that the Church, unlike Byzantium, is permanently in need of reform. The question now is, who are the ones setting the agenda and why? Maybe they, with some discomfort, know well that people already have the answers.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathNews MIA: an unexpected cloud and its silver lining  

Published: Wednesday, 28 Jul 2010 Christine Hogan

Friday last began like any other day. My day started, as usual, around 5.30 when I got myself together to hurry up and wait. That's what I do, while the editor-in-chief of CathNews and the news editor sift through potential stories and devise the news and features list for the day.

My vigilance is required only as a backup to the judgement of Michael Visontay, the editor-in-chief. Sometimes the stories about the abuse and cover up scandals just need another head to consider them before he either includes or excludes them; sometimes it is a question about how they might be handled. That wait – during which no pending disaster was identified – lasted until around 7.30, during which time I moderated the discussion boards for CathNews from the BoHo (bed office, home office).

By 8.30 am, I was at work and logged on to check how the CathNews website read – and then the rest of the day began. It had been a good week – four days without a story about a scandal on CN and the weekend was almost here! Praise the Lord and pass the plate, I thought.

That joy was a little premature. At 9.30 I was on the phone to a subscriber in Melbourne who had discovered – as some others of you had – that there were a couple of problems briefly with links earlier in the week. She was pleased the problem had been sorted out but told me she was still waiting for her daily CathNews to drop into her electronic in box. Say what?

The website was done, so that meant there was a problem with getting the newsletter from our editors to our subscribers. So I began my hunt, trying to work out what had happened. The editor in chief was off line, at university, teaching; the news editor was in Kuala Lumpur and also not answering emails or texts. Time was passing… and no CathNews.

I spoke to CathNews' founding editor Michael Mullins – he was in the country – and we started a hunt for what was wrong. I also enlisted the help of Church Resources' webmaster to establish the events. What I did not want to happen was to re-launch the electronic bulletin just to have the in-trays of subscribers loaded up with two emails from CN.

By midday, I decided we had to take that risk, and try to resend. But while the cause of the delay was being investigated, it was unclear if we could successfully send at all. Michael Mullins hit the button, and I wrote an apology to go to all the subscribers explaining what had happened.

The newsletter finally arrived with me at 12.33 via the distribution house. The apology email went out at 1.09. Mine was in my in tray by 1.10. By 1.20, the CathNews subscribers had begun to respond.

'No need to apologise,' wrote Colleen Cutcheon. 'You do a grand job. Blessings.' Colleen was the first, but not the last.

Just in case I was tempted to feel a little too pleased with myself, I came down to earth with the next one in, at 1.31: Can you please take me off your e-mail list.

It got better a few minutes later: At 1.35, I got: Thank you, Christine, I was waiting at the mail box at the usual time and alas!!! I need my daily CathNews fix. Been hanging out it…. and now!

Thanks for all the great work. There are many days when my sole connection with the Church beyond the parish is Cath News.' That was from Peter Confeggi, of Blacktown in Sydney.

At 1.36, Harold Shrigley wrote: 'No apology necessary; worse can happen in life. Enjoy CathNews each day. God Bless.'

Now it's 1.47: 'Hello, Christine, and great to hear from you. I was going to report that I couldn't read the newsletter the last couple of days and the browser site didn't work. So, perhaps there are gremlins about! I'll sacrifice my daily info injection for a good cause. Thanks again for all your great work and I love the blog's contributions. Cheers for now. John Murphy.'

Edwin Bakker of the Kerygma Teams Australia in Melbourne wrote at 2.22: 'I always read the CathNews email with a great sense of knowing I am in the loop with the things going on around OZ. No worries about late delivery, you are doing a huge job and doing it very well if you would ask me. I could not do a better job!'

Sister Benedetta sosj wrote at 3.11: 'Just want to say thank you for sending the news – late or not isn't important.  Thank you again.'

And then I got an email from Bishop George Tung Yep, formerly Assistant Anglican Bishop in the Diocese of North Queensland: 'Thanks for your message.  We can pray for a better day tomorrow. Blessings +George.' His email account is @ virgin broadband, which seems appropriate.

And there were more, from the kind and receptive heartland of CathNews: 'Thanks Christine for your apology, the keen ones among us went to the website. I understand, and may I take this opportunity to thank you for all that you do for us and CathNews, Fr Kevin Walsh'; 'Thanks for a great CathNews.  I love it and don't like to miss an edition.   Many thanks for a job well done.   Kath Marson'.

The emails were addressed to me, but the credit belongs to the people who get up earlier than I do to make sure that your CathNews is (for the most part) in your in trays by 9 am every week day morning.

And while a couple of people did ask to be removed from the mailing list, this late delivery was a wonderful way to discover how much CathNews is treasured by the people it is written for – its subscribers.

It was also a great way to appreciate the cheeky sense of humour some of those subscribers have. Tom Campbell of Canberra wrote: Dear Cheryl (sic!) How can I ever forgive you? The sheer joy of receiving a great summary of news that matters far exceeds any disgrace in not receiving a day's issue. I would never have a clue if I failed to receive one, but do absorb the ones I receive with great zest, and sincerest thanks for a job excellently done. From someone whose Catholic church membership card is unbelievably battered and torn and out of date, but who reads your dailies, many, many thanks.'

So to Tom, and Sr Benedetta, and Bishop George, Colleen, Edwin, and all the rest who took the time to write in such a wonderfully reinforcing way, I would like to say thank you on behalf of the CathNews team. Wishing you all peace and grace.


- Christine Hogan is the Communications Manager for Church Resources, and moderates the sometime immoderate discussion boards of CathNews.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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Cathblog - Nuns or sisters?  

Published: Tuesday, 27 Jul 2010 Carmel Pilcher

I joined the Sisters of St Joseph in the sixties, along with forty nine others in my year.  And yes, I wore the ‘old’ full habit for a short period – and loved wearing it!  Some years later when our uniform had changed to a simple brown dress with veil, my young nieces and nephews were trawling through some old photos.  One of them found a picture of me as a young novice and asked if that is what I looked like when I was a nun!  I felt disinclined to confuse them entirely by telling them that I never really was a nun and that even though my outward appearance had changed radically, that I was actually still a ‘Religious Sister’.  Now that they are adults with children of their own they still introduce me to their friends as their aunt, the nun!

Attention to language does really matter.  Vatican officials know that, otherwise they would not be meticulously pondering every word and phrase of the latest English translation of the Roman Missal.  Technically, a ‘nun’ is a woman who has publicly pronounced solemn vows in the church while a ‘religious sister’ takes simple vows.  While I and most ‘religious women’ belong to the second category, more often than not we will be referred to as ‘nuns’, and society, or the church for that matter, rarely makes the distinction.  Then there is the question of titles.  When I introduce myself, I rarely prefix it with the title ‘Sister,’ although I never disguise the fact that I am a religious.  

Do we need to use the language of the past or dress like the ‘nuns’ of old to maintain our Catholic identity as religious?  Some would argue that ‘if only the Sisters looked like Sisters and lived in convents, they would gain more respect and women would again join them as of old!’  I would argue the opposite.  I believe we need to earn respect by the witness of our lives.  Many of us no longer have a distinctive dress but we do dress distinctively – simply and suitably according to our current ministry; and all of us wear the distinctive badges of our community and most a ring that symbolises our commitment.  True, we no longer call them mother superiors, but we do still have leaders.  These women are elected by us after prayer and discernment, hold the vision of our congregation and assist us to follow our rule faithfully.  Few of us live in large convents anymore.  Our place of living is determined by our ministry and we are always accountable to one another as community even though many of us might now live alone.  But then is that so different from the original daughters of Mary MacKillop who lived in twos in the outback, wore a simple dress and inhabited shanties similar to their neighbours?    

The religious habit was a simple dress of the day.  But over time fashions changed and the religious dress did not, so it took on an ‘other worldly’ feel that people interpreted in various ways.  Vatican II asked religious to review their rule of life and return to the radical spirit of their founders.  If the careful and prayerful reinterpretations of the original intentions of our congregations have made us appear less distinguished in dress from our sisters and brothers then there might be a good reason for this change. The habit had become so strange and ethereal that it was a barrier to genuine interaction with others, and therefore a barrier to effective Christian discipleship.  

Do religious women need to look different from the rest of society?  Perhaps there is a need if we live in Asia where a uniform is a strong sign of belonging.  But in Australia we are much less formal.  We are more likely to dress to identify ourselves with a sporting team rather than at any other time.  While in other societies place much emphasis on class and social stratus, our nation is more egalitarian.  People rarely use titles – even prime ministers are addressed by their first names.

In the present time our church is besieged by many scandals and excessively preoccupied with internal politics.  As a result it is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the society it serves.  Surely it is more important for religious to be distinguished by a strong prophetic voice that speaks out on behalf of refugees, the homeless and any other of societies’ powerless, rather than by the way we dress or where we live.  What was it that Jesus said about those who are preoccupied with externals?  Is it not by the fruit of our labours as genuine disciples of Christ that we will be remembered?

Carmel Pilcher is a Sister of St Joseph based in Sydney.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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'Border protection' insults our migrant communities  

Published: Monday, 26 Jul 2010 Maurizio Pettena

As the director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO), I spend my days working in the area of pastoral care of migrants and refugees. This isn’t solely confined to saying mass for these communities; it is a 24/7 job which requires a sensitivity to a wide range of people. More importantly though, I work with human beings.

In my meeting of other people and agencies providing service to migrants, I have always relied on the tradition of Australia being a country of welcome.  Look around…..migrants are present in every aspect of Australian life…look at family names in politics, business, academics and church. People look to Australia for leadership. Looking at scripture, Christians do not have an option but to welcome migrants.

For me, their stories hit very close. I too am a migrant. I have had the experience many times of being an stranger in other homelands – having lived in the US, Argentina, and the Philippines….However, my situation is slightly different in that I came here as a pastor – as a Catholic priest, specifically for the purpose of ministering to ethnic communities.  As an Australian, an immigrant and a giver of pastoral care, I see that migrants and refugees are among the best assets that we have in this country. People choose to come to our shores. Doesn’t this speak volumes?

However, each day, it surprises me just how many, well-intentioned people, even Christians, believe that by closing our borders we can preserve some sanctuary, some better way of life. What exactly does that mean? What is a better way of life? If migration is cut, what message are we sending to poorer nations about our international solidarity? What are we saying to migrants who have settled in Australia and have already made a rich contribution to this country?

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and her opposition counterpart Tony Abbott have both been using political rhetoric in recent weeks to convince people that a smaller population in this country would be a good thing.

The Coalition government is expected to announce that if elected, they would cut overseas migration from 300,000 to 170,000, thus reducing the nation’s population growth from 2.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent.

Labor leader Julia Gillard similarly announced last week that she does not believe that a “Big Australia” with a population of approximately 36 million by 2050 is desirable either; a policy which is at odds with her predecessor Kevin Rudd who announced the “Big Australia” policy as asylum seekers arrived off our shores. “If you elect me on August 21, our country will take the path to a sustainable population. I will focus on preserving the quality of life of our Australian sanctuary”, said Prime Minister Gillard.

“In our 2008 document “Graced by Migration” we demonstrated that Australia needs migration. The various migration movements have offset the impact of Australia’s declining birth rate; they have contributed to the nation’s economic well-being and they have added to our reputation as a unified nation specially committed and equipped to the creation of cultural and religious diversity.”

Let us reflect with honesty and integrity on our history. We have much to offer migrants coming to this country, and indeed, they have much to offer us.

I would be interested to hear from other migrants what they think of this.

Fr Maurizio Pettena CS is the Director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Sharing personal faith journeys with work colleagues  

Published: Friday, 23 Jul 2010 Mick MacAndrew

One day each year, staff at Catholic Schools in our Archdiocese are asked to engage in a personal reflection on faith and how they integrate their own personal journey with what the system stands up for as it conducts the ministry of education among this generation of young people. Some staffs travel away for an overnight Retreat, some opt for another form.

For the first time in my six years in this area of the South Coast and Southern Monaro district of New South Wales, teachers and priests from the three Catholic primary schools in the area and our regional Catholic High School came together for our reflection day. That was an experience in itself, given the pressure on two of the primary schools who are facing ongoing questions regarding their viability because of declining student numbers. The day started as usual for such a gathering, the staffs of each school claimed a section of the bank of chairs, even the priests sat together, the largest grouping was of course the staff of the high school, but they magnanimously gave the primary teachers, and the priests, the chairs with the beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean – we were meeting at the Pambula Surf Lifesaving Club.

There is always the question in the heart at the beginning of such days, “will it be worth it, what could I have been doing more effectively if I wasn’t here?”

I always have another question as well – “how are we accepting of such days as we are gathered together in the context of sharing something which is so personal?”

Prayers at a Catholic school, School Masses and the special times of Lent, Holy Week and Advent are all given community assent which is a tribute to the integrity of the staff. The support given to Sacramental programs and student Retreat Days amid all the demands for curriculum requirements has to be seen to be believed.

But turning the ‘spotlight’ or having it turned on us as individuals is another matter. What will be required of us, will we have to share our own personal thoughts and experiences? Many people choose an individual retreat or a reflection experience today, but there is little choice in being gathered together as work colleagues, in some sort of extended staff meeting process, not looking at work issues but at personal faith and beliefs. The majority of Australians would never face such a prospect. But it is required of staffs in Catholic Schools.  

Full marks to those who plan and carry out such days. Most of them achieve the objective of putting all at ease while at the same time inspiring individuals to look again at what faith can do if it is given nourishment and encouragement.

What to do and what topics to cover and what theme to give the day is always the greatest challenge, but this year, we have it laid out for us on a serving platter – Mary MacKillop is being canonised as Australia’s first saint. And then there was Father Julian Tennison Woods who was part of the picture in the foundation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, surely you can get a couple of hours out of his contribution. Now bringing in Donald MacKillop, Mary’s brother who became a Jesuit Priest and worked for much of his ministry among the aborigines of Daly River in the Northern Territory could have been a bit of a risk.

Unless of course, the person leading the day allowed us a view of their personal life which reveal how so many threads can be woven together to become a ‘wrapped with love’ witness to a passionate faith.

Father Frank Tennison Brennan SJ led our day last Monday. At the end of the day you felt like it was New Year when you want to make some resolutions to carry you through another year, but with an added intake of air.

Father Mick MacAndrew is parish priest of Bombala-Delegate in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Questions bishops are asked during election campaigns  

Published: Thursday, 22 Jul 2010 Beth Doherty

Last weekend, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the August 21 Federal Election. Media enquiries to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference will inevitably come thick and fast for the next month, all asking the same sorts of questions. “Which party will the bishops be backing?”, “Will Catholic Tony Abbott be the bishops preference over Julia Gillard who does not profess religious belief?”, “Which policy issues are most important for the Church?”, “Is there a Catholic vote?”

There are no simple answers to any of these questions. Indeed, in a room full of bishops, you are likely to find as wide-ranging views on politics as any other sector of Australian society. There is no Catholic vote, even when politicians may profess Catholic faith. In a secular democracy, it just doesn’t work that way. Interest groups may encourage you to prioritise certain issues over others, and in our democracy, that is their right. The bishops, like all Australians will line up on Election Day, and cast their votes. No two bishops will number their preferences exactly the same. Nonetheless, Catholics will look to church leaders for guidance.

During each election politicians and leaders of community will ask questions on a wide range of issues ranging from tax reform to war, asylum seekers to wealth distribution, education to health. The bishops too will be praying for guidance - examining their consciences to make a decision on who might best serve Australia.

The Bishops Conference can only work with citizens of this country to assist them in forming their own consciences. Nonetheless, there are issues that deserve reflection and mention. In particular, the dignity of refugees and asylum seekers, funding for Catholic schools, health and aged care, the protection of the most vulnerable members of society, poverty, wealth distribution and international development, and the environment and climate change are among the most prominent issues all people of good will may wish to consider.

It is often called the best kept secret of the Catholic Church, but Catholic Social Teaching may indeed be the authoritative source we might look to as followers of Christ when casting our votes in August. The principles of Catholic Social Teaching ideally should touch every aspect of how we live our lives, but, still remain a relatively unknown aspect of the Church’s magisterium. The following principles may be something to consider as you go to the polls.

1. Dignity of the Human Person
2. Common Good and Community
3. Option for the poor
4. Rights and Responsibilities  
5. Role of Government and Subsidiarity
6. Economic Justice
7. Stewardship of God's Creation?8. Promotion of Peace and Disarmament
9. Participation
10. Global Solidarity and Development.
 
The most prominent of these values listed above is the dignity of the human person. This means that each human being, as a creation of God, has an innate dignity. Indeed, we should consider how each political party might uphold the dignity of all human beings, including asylum seekers, indigenous people, the unborn, the elderly, children, adults, women, men, Catholics, Muslims, Atheists. According to Catholic Social Teaching, each person – at every stage of life, must be awarded this dignity. In casting our vote, it is important too, to consider the most vulnerable of our society, those most in need of our protection.

President of the ACBC Archbishop Philip Wilson says that it is not his role to tell people who to vote for, but rather to engage in the process in a way which respects each person’s right to participation.

“We have a responsibility to work with our elected representatives and dialogue respectfully about the issues of the day. Our role is not to judge or comment on the individual lifestyles of these elected representatives, but rather to present our views in light of the Christian tradition, and invite them to reflect on that, especially with reference to how that might impact public policy.”

So, the ACBC will not tell you who to vote for. They will not say that one candidate is better than another. What they will do, is outline some of the key areas we might consider when going to the polls and encourage prayerful reflection about the candidates and their policies.

Beth Doherty is media officer for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources.

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CathBlog - Hard work doesn't always get the job done  

Published: Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 Evan Ellis

I have a picture of Kevin Rudd in my work planner. Admittedly, I do not own a Kevin 07 T-shirt and I am not overly impressed at his political record. No, my reason for the picture is more cautionary.
 
As Rudd's popularity plummeted and Labor's factions grew mutinous, 'hard work' was one of the few companions that didn't abandon him.
 
Not that Rudd could ever be accused of being slovenly. This was the man who quipped that 3-4 years under him was the equivalent of 28 or 30 normal years. Almost literally his staff worked like dogs, living seven days in one.
 
No, Rudd was always a hard worker; a fitting PM for a country that works an estimated 2.14 billion hours of unpaid overtime each year.
 
He turned towards hard work to fix faulty insulation, tame uppity miners, heal our health system, turn back boats, calm the climate (sooner or later), revolutionise our education system and win the electorate back.
 
In the end it wasn't enough. Never had the maxim, smarter not harder been illustrated so explosively on the political stage.
 
Having voted Rudd into the office and followed his career with interest, the day he was cut down proved seminal, even mythic.
 
It was a reminder, like the Greek heroes wrestling with hubris and the dangerously bored gods above, of human limitation; that hard work isn't always enough and extra hours don't always cut it.
 
And it illuminated the tension between the quality of work and the quantity produced. Rudd was always busy, going somewhere, chained to the relentless news cycle.  It would eventually run him over.
 
I wonder if the recent leak about his last minute meeting with Gillard hints that he's still stuck beneath the wheel, going round.
 
Whatever the details, Rudd has become my mentor. Having just opted for part time work within the Church, I now think of Rudd before I blindly commit to 'work harder' to keep up with demands. 
 
I picture the forlorn press conference that crowned his years of hard work and ask myself can I work smarter, delegate more