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30-May-2013

Cathblog - Who goes to heaven?

BY ANGELA McCARTHY

A student recently came to me in distress in the lecture break to ask the question ‘Who goes to heaven?’

Her husband is Catholic and he wanted their two children to be baptised but she has been resistant because she has been brought up as a Mormon.

Her mind was in a state of distress and flux as she considered what she wanted for her children. She had erroneously been told by someone who claimed to be ‘in the know’, that if she wasn’t baptised as well she would not be able to be with her husband and children in the afterlife. This had concerned her deeply and so she was considering joining Catholicism purely to be assured of an afterlife with those she loves the most.

A problem comes to mind here. The previous teaching propagated by Catholics that you had to be Catholic to go to heaven is not the doctrine of the Church but somehow the minds of people have not changed from that error.

There are millions of very good, faith-filled, people in this world who have not, and who will never receive Baptism but who will be glorified after death because Jesus Christ died for us all, not just for some.

The way in which they live their lives in the knowledge and faith of their various beliefs and values draws them into the love of God to no lesser extent than Catholics and all other Christians.

Those of us on earth cannot fully know the mind of God but the God I believe in would not delineate a particular group and damn the rest.

A similar question that often comes up is ‘what happens to my animal when it dies?’ Many of us who are animal lovers have experienced the deep pain of the loss of an animal who has been faithful and connected in very special ways to our family, they are family. Lots of us cried during the movie Red Dog because we recognise the value of such rich interaction.

I have had beautiful experiences with the various dogs we have lived with and loved in our lives. A current canine member of our family will know when you are ill or distressed and simply put his paw upon your lap to show concern.

‘You don’t have to walk me this morning because you need to go back to bed and get rid of that ‘flu,’ he ‘said’ on one particular occasion. They greet us with unfailing enthusiasm when we come home feeling tired and lack lustre, and show us how to treat everyone who comes home, no matter how we might feel ourselves.

They know how to be gentle with a tiny person, and how to avoid the rampages of a 2 year old. They know how to walk slowly with an elderly person.

Paul assures us’“that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.’ (Romans 8:22-23).

How this happens has been open to much theological speculation for many centuries, and there are those who would like to limit the restoration to those who belong to a particular group but our God is inclusive, revealed through Jesus Christ, and then through the inspired writings of those, like Paul, chosen to give us the truth.

Following death, the whole of creation comes to a knowledge of God and will be fully restored in the end times.

Dr Angela McCarthy is a lecturer in Theology in the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame in Perth.

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 Real Presence and the Kangaroos

Kangaroo: Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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BY RICHARD WHITE

For the past week or so I have seen them. A mob of kangaroos pass through our property between six and seven in the morning. I am out there doing the watering. It is very dry and the kangaroos are coming into the edge of town looking for feed.

This morning a big grey buck stopped as I stood by the bore tap. About thirty or forty metres away, behind the pile of bush cuttings and the old Christmas tree, he just stood there.

He looked and I looked back. It was magic moment but my head kicked in. This is the sort of thing the American poet, Mary Oliver does – just looking, being still and totally present. I’m doing a Mary Oliver! I thought. But the thinking didn’t stop there.

It is Sunday morning. I am catching the train to Sydney this afternoon. There are bathrooms to be cleaned, watering to be done and Mass at 9:30 am. I wonder where the dog is.

Then, a smaller kangaroo, possibly a female came up through the scrub, the untameable part, sloping away to the neighbours dam. She had gone through earlier and now she returned, carefully. The big fellow had settled on his haunches, if kangaroos have haunches. The other one, emboldened, moved closer, fossicking. Then the dog appeared.

Our dog is no fierce hunter, slavering and straining at the leash. ‘Mate’ is a small Shih Tzu-Silky cross, a bit short-sighted, more interested in kangaroos droppings than kangaroos. But, by this time, ten minutes or so, I was over it. I had lost the poetic spirit, the contemplative moment that lingers and sees. I wanted to get on with it, get some excitement.

Eventually, Mate spotted the kangaroos, after much prompting, and barked and dashed forward. The magic was over. Thump, thump, thump off they went.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . I turned on the taps, made the ritual early cup of tea and settled, with my unsettledness, into the chair for a bit of quiet. Then the cat came. I like to think it’s affection that prompts that rubbing of her face over my hands, threatening cup or book and ruining my efforts to pray. But, it’s more likely cat being cat and imprinting herself on the one who feeds her. No peace here and the residue of disappointment at my ungracious encounter earlier generated more scattered thoughts.

Presence and absence or being present and not being present were foremost. One thought was a discussion I had with an Anglican priest about the Real Presence. ‘What do you think we have? The Real Absence?’

Then, there was the story Martin Buber used to tell, Martin Buber of I and Thou fame. As a young boy he loved to visit his uncle’s farm. He would stand beside the paddock where his prize stallion was kept. The horse came to know him and would come to the fence and Martin would sit on the railing and stroke it.

One day, he became conscious of this process, the stroking, him stroking the horse, the feeling of his hand on the neck of the horse. Something happened. The horse tossed its head and walked away. It no longer came when he sat on the railing.

All this and more was going through my head as the cat settled on my lap. The tea was now safe and I could sip it meditatively. Her purring matched the slowing of my thoughts. Real presence. Being still. Seeing who and what is there. Being grateful, relaxing.

Shortly I will be down in that great barn of a church at Mass. Real Presence or Real Absence? All I know is that my thoughts are not the measure of reality and that I believe someone is present to me, whether I am present or not.

There is a Presentness that is constant and faithful, that cares for the sparrows falling to the ground and the kangaroos heading off down the slope. And, more, those glimpses, like this morning, that meeting and all the other meetings of today and beyond, have in them a nourishing reality that is infinitely stronger than my distractions and busyness. I do believe this.

Richard White blogs from Cootamundra in southern 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 - A Spirit Uncontrolled

BY DAVID TIMBS

In the few weeks since Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis he has become for many a symbol of renewed hope and confidence while for others he remains someone to be regarded with a degree of caution, even suspicion.

While some are looking closely at Francis to see if he maintains a sense of recognisable continuity with his predecessor, others have been waiting for him to give clear indications of openness to future change.

He has, it seems, now done that simply, emphatically in two major areas of structural change and renewal in the life of the Church.

His has appointed of an international panel of Cardinals to begin the process of reforming the Roman Curia. This has been almost universally welcomed, given that the ecclesiastical bureaucracy has become top heavy, flabby and self-serving, especially during the past 40 years or so. Despite Cardinal George Pell’s recent door stop remark that ‘a few mishaps’ have occurred in the Curia which require fixing, the real problems are systemic and deep-seated.

John Allen, of The National Catholic Reporter, has observed that the recent Conclave passed a rather critical judgment, not on Benedict XVI himself, but on his management and governance of the Church.

In Allen’s view, ‘They were either non-existent or dysfunctional.’ He went on to say that the Cardinals wanted a candidate ‘not tainted in any way by association with the old regime’. It seems Jorge Bergoglio was certainly aware of this well before the voting started. [1]

It is evident that Pope Francis is now happy to see the wild, persistent and naggingly intrusive mustard weed of the Kingdom flourish once more in God’s garden.

At a recent chapel Mass in his shared residence Francis, referring to the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, spoke eloquently of the original prompting action of the Holy Spirit. He called the Council the beautiful gift of God’s’ Spirit which cannot be controlled or manipulated. He went on to say,

‘We celebrate this anniversary, we put up a monument but we don’t want it to upset us. We don’t want to change and what’s more, there are people who want to turn the clock back. .... The Holy Spirit upsets us because it moves us, it makes us walk, it pushes the Church forward.’ [2]

There has been extensive debate during the last decade or more that this momentum has been slowed dramatically, even stalled under the watch of Pope Benedict and extending back into his time as Prefect of the CDF.

Pretty much from the day the Council was closed, the question has been how its documents should be interpreted authentically. This has long been a point of contention for those who have strongly resisted the proposition that the combined magisterium of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and the Catechism of the Catholic Church amount to the authentic interpretation of the Council’s documents. History points in another direction.

The historical clues for identifying the authentic interpretative criteria for Vatican II should be found in the thinking and action of the almost 2,800 bishops who participated.

These were the Fathers who were transformed by what they witnessed and experienced. They were the ones who wrestled with the often bewilderingly complex, critical issues. They were the ones who pondered about, argued, debated about and made deliberate, conscious decisions on behalf of the universal Church.

They were keenly aware of the contending theologies of Church, Sacraments and ministries embedded in the Council Documents. Importantly, they demonstrated the intention, directions and vision of the Council by what they did when they returned home. That is what constitutes the authentic interpretation of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. [3]

North American blogger and commenter, Colleen Koch (colkoch) offers a way of developing this principle of forward movement that is in congruence with the intentions and praxis of the Council Fathers. She suggests that the notion of evolution could provide a basis for re-envisioning the dynamics of the Council. Commenting recently in an NCR article on the shift in viewpoints between Benedict XVI and Francis, Koch observes,

‘Yes, he’s shifting the viewpoint. That’s not reform, that’s evolution. I am far more excited about an evolution than I would be a reform. The Church has reformed ad nauseam only to see new pathways created to keep the old ways of doing business. Evolution is a different story all together. Evolution leaves the old behind because it can’t adapt to a new environment.’

With a new Pope, there are different possibilities which might emerge. These are all things which can be done within the living and evolving life of the People of God. These involve some dramatic organic changes in Church governance, ministry and practice which are within the Church’s present understanding of what can and cannot be done. Here are some suggestions:

The College of Cardinals should be abolished
The integrity and authority of the national Bishops’ conferences or permanent national synods should be restored or established with suitable representative from the non-ordained religious and laity should have permanent consultative and deliberative voice in these conferences
One elected member of all these national groups would constitute the Conclave to elect the Pope.
The authority to determine the translation of liturgical texts and, where appropriate calendars should be restored according to the express intentions of the Bishops at Vatican II. The Bishops of the English speaking world should instate the 1998 ICEL translation of the Eucharistic texts. A recent example of a national Episcopal conference declining to follow the express instructions of Pope Benedict XVI is their instruction to priests in their jurisdiction to continuing using the words, for all during the consecration of the cup. This autonomous unilateral action is supported by Cardinal Meisner of Cologne: ‘I have always said that the Congregation for Divine Worship should go through our text critically and see if we have translated the theological context correctly. But how we express ourselves in German is up to the German bishops.’
De-link the ministry of word, altar and charity (ordained Deaconate) from the clerical state and open it to women. De-link the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick from sacramental absolution and include the ministry to the sick in the liturgical commissioning of male and female deacons.
Restoration of the Third Rite of Reconciliation.

These are essentially matters of initially rearranging the Church’s mental and spiritual furniture. The really contentious issues can be addressed as time goes by.

[1] See an interview with John Allen on the significance of Jorge Bergoglio’s election here.

[2] Francis on the ongoing challenges of Vatican II, here and here.

[3] Fr William Grimm, MM, offers some very useful reminders in this UCANews article. Click here.

[4] For Colleen Koch’s observations on evolution in papal thought and future direction of policy, click here.

David Timbs blogs from Albion, Victoria.

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Cathblog - Understanding how to grow in the Spirit

BY JOHN RYAN

I like the story from my school days where there was a Brother who was especially attentive to the lonely and those of us who suffered from homesickness.

One evening he sighted a lad alone and somewhat sad. He approached him and quickly engaged him in conversation. Eventually he asked the boy how he was finding his school days. Quickly the young man said that while his boyhood years were exciting what he was really looking forward to was adultery.

Hopefully, a slip of the tongue and what he really meant was adulthood. Whatever about that it is a story that reminds us that life has its ages and stages.

Traditionally we talk of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. All of us in some way or another spend our lives moving through each of these stages and trying to weave them into some kind of integrated pattern.

Now I suspect many of us encounter something like this same developmental pattern in our spiritual life. There is a childhood stage, a kind of adolescent stage and an adult or mature stage.

Traditionally for spiritual writers the way of childhood is known as the purgative way and the main concern of a person there is to do the right thing. When we succeed we are rewarded and for failure we are punished.

From there we usually move to a more developed stage where we are concerned with making a difference in the world and we struggle to understand what makes life better for the majority of our brothers and sisters.

While in the earlier stage keeping out of trouble is the way we relate to God, here we are more inclined to see ourselves relating to God through doing things to bring order and peace to our world.

Many of us might see ourselves in such a place, and so before we go any further we need to note that there is nothing wrong with being in these stages. That is a great consolation for us all, I'm sure; nevertheless there might well be something missing.

At this point, aware of our many years of faithful service, we might become a little impatient and want to ask, ‘What then must I do to inherit eternal life?’ While the question is important the answer is tricky, very tricky. Tricky because seemingly there is nothing that we can do – nothing.

To enter the stage of spiritual maturity or adulthood the door way is not so much via doing but rather through receiving. -- Like Mary in the Annunciation story, all we can do is clear the way, empty ourselves out and let God have his way in our life.

Mary's words ‘Let it be done unto me according to your word’, and the words of Jesus on the cross ‘into your hands I commend my spirit; not my will but thine be done’ provide the clues for us as we look for our part in the process.

In words made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous this stage is all about letting go and letting God.

Critical for this stage is the call to loosen the tight grasp we are always tempted to take on our possessions; even our spiritual possessions, our virtues, our victories over evil and our achievements in prayer and good works.

As I'm sure you know the problem with all riches and possessions is that we tend to use them to fill the ache that is in the hearts of all of us for God. As long as we have some kind of crutch to lean on it is hard for us to make the jump and let go enough so that God can take his full place in our lives.

Even selling off all that we have, of itself, won't do the trick especially if we see our selling off as something that we have achieved or as some virtue that will put us somehow in God's debt or in high regard in the eyes of our sisters and brothers.

All we can do is let go, make a space and then call on God to come and wait patiently for his coming.

For most of us the Lord shows a special mercy and sends something that shocks us into letting go. Something like a death, a failure of some kind, maybe even a shameful failure that strips us of our pride and self-righteousness. For C.S Lewis, the English writer, such a moment came with the tragic death of his beloved wife which was so well described in the movie Shadowlands.

Lewis came to understand it well when he named that death as a severe mercy.

In some ways it is easier if God intervenes and strips us of whatever it is that we are putting into our lives to try to provide what only God's presence can provide. But however it comes; the letting go is always an example of the special blessing that belongs to the poor.

Fr John Ryan, a Sandhurst Diocese priest who lives in Canberra, has spent much of his 49 years of ministry working in renewal projects, especially with priests.

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Blogwatcher - Cardinal versus Cardinal

BY STEFAN GIGACZ

There's no getting around the fact that Congregation for Religious Life Prefect Cardinal Braz de Aviz was criticising the process followed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to John Thavis:

The Vatican on Tuesday issued a statement saying that Cardinal Braz de Aviz and Cardinal Muller had met Monday and "reaffirmed their common commitment" to the program of changes foreseen for the LCWR.

The statement blamed the media for its suggesting there was a divergence between the doctrinal and religious congregations at the Vatican "in their approach to the renewal of religious life."

Whatever spin the Vatican chooses to put on this, Cardinal Braz de Aviz was clearly criticizing the process by which the LCWR review was handled. He made it equally clear that he would support the doctrinal congregation's conclusions.

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Not all babies love Pope Francis, as this video shows

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In a post for Mother's Day, Lisa Hendey, a Catholic wife and mom blogger from California, notes:

"Part of our vocation as mothers is to be within our home and do our work with love, and (as Catholic bloggers) we can also do work that draws people closer to Christ and his church."

There are no stats on the number of blogs operated by Catholic moms, but it is a growing "ministry" in this era of the new evangelization, said Hendey.

"There are comments, more voices and a real sense of being a part of a community," she said, describing the difference between a website and a blog. "You're not just reading something. It's much more interactive."

Mary DeTurris Poust is a Catholic mom blogger from the Diocese of Albany, N.Y., whose blog, www.notstrictlyspiritual.com, began about five years ago as a sort of "spiritual journal online."

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Enquiring minds! - RT @mcleod: What happens when students are simply free to learn? bit.ly/17MRZS4
— Greg Whitby (@gregwhitby) May 10, 2013

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Now an effort is under way in the US to reinvigorate the ranks of “labor priests”, writes Barbara Doherty at Catholic Labor Network:

This new network of labor priests aims to build a contemporary home for a century-old tradition of speaking out for workers’ rights and fighting against injustice alongside workers.

The Rev. Evelio Menjivar was among some 30 priests who attended a conference for labor priests in Chicago last May. He serves as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.

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Prayers for Archbishop Coleridge today on the first anniversary of his installation as Archbishop of Brisbane
— Fr Adrian Sharp (@FrAdrianSharp) May 10, 2013

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In the wake of the 50th anniversary of Pope John's encyclical Pacem in Terris, Frank Cocozzelli recalls the Catholic social teaching pioneer John A. Ryan:

Monsignor John A. Ryan was a leader in the development of Catholic economic thought who also greatly influenced the New Deal — an economic paradigm that a small but influential group of Catholic neocons and economic libertarians has been trying to destroy.

Now, Walter J. Collins and I have started a production company, Social Impact Films in order to create socially conscious documentaries. Our first effort will be to set the record straight about Catholic economic teaching by telling Monsignor Ryan’s story. But in order to get this project off the ground, we need your help.

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Can't get away from Fr Bob at the moment:

@fatherbob Congrats! Your book Father Bob: The Larrikin Priest is at 16 in Bookscan's best-sellers and 7 in Indie list after just a week.
— Sue Williams (@suewilliams00) May 11, 2013

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British theologian John Milbank thinks that the push for gay marriage is part of the state’s “drive to assume direct control over the reproduction of the population”, writes Matthew Schmitz, who doesn't agree:

Heterosexual exchange and reproduction has always been the very “grammar” of social relating as such. The abandonment of this grammar would thus imply a society no longer primarily constituted by extended kinship, but rather by state control and merely monetary exchange and reproduction.

Milbank, the founder of “radical orthodoxy,” begins his argument by pointing out the impossibility of defining gay marriage in traditional terms of “consummation” and “adultery.” The impossibility of doing so means that marriage will “inevitably be redefined even for heterosexual people in homosexual terms.”

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Philip Adams appears to be undergoing a conversion of sorts:

Can't walk these days.Choice of miracle at Lourdes or major surgery.Splitting the diff.Heading for Catholic Hospital in 3 weeks.
— Phillip Adams (@PhillipAdams_1) May 11, 2013

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In Sydney, Bishop Julian Porteous takes up a different angle of the same sex marriage debate:

Are we denying people their right to marry? The right to marry is a universal human right affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Marriage as an institution, as we have noted, has a specific meaning and function. A person is not being denied a right to something which is not for them.

It is argued that same-sex couples can have children by means of donor sperm or eggs, or through adoption. To have children a same-sex couple must involve a third party. The child is not biologically linked to both members of the couple. Furthermore a child grows best from the contribution of a father and mother. Being denied the opportunity for the complementary contribution of a father and mother is unjust to the child.

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Final thought:

Stop looking for the perfect church. It does not exist. Even if it did exist, the moment you joined it, it would no longer be perfect.
— Nicky Gumbel (@nickygumbel) May 12, 2013

Michael Mullins Stefan Gigacz is preparing a PhD. at MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne, on the role of Joseph Cardijn at Vatican II.

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Cathblog - My Best Homily! (If I do say so myself...)

BY JOHN RYAN

I suspect that one of my best sermons was given many years ago, not in a Church, but in the kitchen of a Victorian farmhouse in the context of an ordinary conversation. Let me share it with you.

One day when I was on parish visitation, I called in on a family to find the mother busy bathing and attending to her new-born daughter on the kitchen table. Clearly flustered, she invited me into a situation where my presence could only be a hindrance.

Sensing her embarrassment and yet noting that she did not want me to leave without some chance for a word or two together, I suggested that I might adjourn to another room and quietly say my breviary, my prescribed priestly prayers, while she completed her motherly work.

So it was that I went off to pray! Eventually the lady knocked on the door and invited me to come through. As I did I noticed her husband had returned and where the baby had been now there was s nice table cloth topped with an array of tempting goodies all set up for afternoon tea.

As we began to talk, her first comment concerned my taking time out to be with the Lord and pray and with a note of envy and regret she spoke of how she longed for the chance to spend similar time with the Lord. Sadly her life as wife and mother of six young children just seemed to be too busy for this to happen.

I clearly recall feeling an impulse from the Spirit and while I sympathized with her desire to find time and space to be quiet and recuperate, I felt that I had to gently object to her implication that this was the only way she could be prayerfully with the Lord.

Quietly I set out to correct what was at least the beginning of a dangerous heresy.

I tried to explain briefly that while I had been trying to relate to the Lord by fulfilling my duty of reading a series of prayers from the Breviary, she had been in a parallel situation.

As she responded to the duties of her vocation as mother, she too could relate to the Lord through her contact with her daughter.

I ended up by saying that we each had our own breviary or way of praying and that while they took us along different paths, we could not say that one way was better than the other, they were just different. The words of my prayer book, and the physical presence of her baby, could each equally be an opportunity and an obstacle for communing with the Lord.

Somehow my hesitant words struck home and helped this woman come to a new and life giving realisation. Subsequently, whenever our paths crossed I could ask her how she was getting on with ‘her breviary’ and without a flinch she would respond with a knowing smile and usually an affirming nod.

What happened that afternoon, now long ago, was one of the most satisfying moments in my life as a priest and it made me forever sensitive to the danger of separating our spiritual life from our nitty gritty day-to-day existence.

In that instance, for that busy mother, on that day, the special conduit through which she could relate to the Lord was her baby.

For others of us and at other times, it can be any of host of possibilities. For the carpenter, it can be the piece of wood he is working on; for the carer the patient she is looking after; for a teacher, the pupils stretched out before her.

Above all else know this; whoever you are, wherever you are there is nothing in which God cannot be found.

Fr John Ryan, a Sandhurst Diocese priest who lives in Canberra, has spent much of his 49 years of ministry working in renewal projects, especially with priests.

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Cathblog - Reforming our Parishes

BY DANIEL ANG

Intense discussion about reform in the Catholic Church has accompanied the first weeks of Pope Francis’ pontificate and finds additional impetus here in Australia with the commencement of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

There are varying opinions as to what ‘reform in the Church’ ought to look like, about the priorities that should occupy the Church’s present and future energies and the limits or extent of change.

Some interpret ecclesial reform as a return to a past condition or purer ideal; others conceive of reform as a development of what already exists; while yet others promote versions of reform which near on ‘revolution’, a movement toward a future altogether new with scant connection with what went before.

The variety of responses to the issue of reform can be expected because the question of change always engages a particular understanding of the Church’s identity.

Despite developments in the Church’s self-understanding at the Second Vatican Council, including the retrieval of the Church’s identity as mystery-sacrament and its eschatological character as ‘pilgrim’, it is clear that a rather juridical, one-dimensional and institutional view of the Church remains pervasive.

Fifty years after the Council, the idea of the Church as sacrament, an organism ‘unfolding in history and already breathing within the eternal’, is yet to be fully appropriated by clergy and laity.

The consequence is that contemporary talk of reform usually centres on ecclesial structures and not very much else.

This focus on hierarchy is understandable to the extent that failures in Church governance and moral leadership stand at the heart of the Church’s present woes. However, an exclusive focus on structure can be rather naïve in that it assumes that change needs only take place in the ‘head’ and not in the ‘body’ of the faithful.

What ultimately sustains the Church’s holiness and mission is not good administration and policy, as essential as these are, but the conversion of disciples, a common calling that makes a demand on each and every member of the communion.

Indeed, reform that restricts itself to the overhaul or remodelling of bureaucracies ‘out there’ can fast develop into a means of evading self-reflection closer to home, including a neglect of the ordinary Catholic parish.

It is the parish, after all, which remains the primary experience of the Church’s communion for most Catholics and is the surely the most immediate opportunity for the new evangelisation. For many, the parish is Church and so these communities warrant attention on the question of reform.

The 2006 National Count of Attendance revealed that just 13.8% of Australia’s Catholic population attended a weekend Mass and showed a disproportionate number of women and older attenders among these.

The 2011 figures are expected to be released any day now. We are unlikely to see any improvement in Mass attendance though the good news may be that we have at last ‘bottomed out’ and arrived at the so-called ‘faithful remnant’ that sustains our Church in and out of season. In a word, the data may tell us that things can only get better.

While decline in parish participation can be partly attributed to clericalism and maladministration, it can also be ascribed to a weakening of the ecclesial fabric within parish community itself and to stagnation in the imagination of what such communities can offer its members and those beyond it.

In my experience, one of the underlying factors that seriously impedes the ability of our parishes to achieve their potential is a lack of focus on what is, at bare minimum, a two-fold mission – to facilitate the growth of discipleship and the making of new disciples.

To address the first commitment, our parishes are rarely understood, organised or experienced as communities of learning and so are not always organised to enable lasting growth. There is of course the sign value and grace of sacramental encounter as well as the hearing and preaching of the Word, the latter of which varies in quality and focus.

Apart from these, however, the primary exposure of most Catholics to the content of faith can be, quite alarmingly, the parish bulletin.

To my knowledge, far too few parishioners engage in any form of spiritual reading outside the context of liturgy and while many lay men and women are experts in their own professions and fields of study they may never read a work of Christian theology in any given year.

Without practical initiatives to cultivate an adult, learned faith, one cannot expect an increase in commitment or passionate outreach to others.

To grow in discipleship also means to grow in prayer. However, once again, we find few opportunities in parishes where the ways of prayer are actively taught and can be learned. If our parishes and homes are to be ‘schools of prayer’, a notion vigorously promoted by John Paul II, then we need to recognise that many, including ourselves, ‘do not know how to prayer as we ought’ (Rom. 8:26).

Learning to pray, as even the first disciples of Jesus did, presupposes effort on the part of the faithful and witness and teachers of prayer in each of our local communities.

Taken as a whole, parishes can often assume their people are growing in faith and so be occupied with maintaining a fixed schedule of groups and activities while the reality may be that no growth is actually taking place.

If communities are growing the faith of their people, their relationship with Christ and his body, the Church, then one could reasonably expect to find evidence of such growth.

Indicators of parish growth would include an overflow of laypeople capable and trained for ecclesial ministry, the growth of missionary outreach including proclamation, service and faith-based advocacy for justice in the wider community, increasing numbers of young people and adults seeking to be baptised into the life of Christ and his ecclesial body, and our existing disciples maturing every year in biblical literacy and in their familiarity with tradition.

Without attention to the effectiveness of our parishes in nurturing this kind of adult faith, and without taking seriously the changing demographics and emerging needs in our midst, it is possible that our parishes are offering programs and activities for people that no longer exist.

Organisational memory can be a gift, reminding a parish of its identity and the best of its traditions. However, such memories can also be a liability and stifle growth if they are allowed to slip into nostalgia for parish practices that were helpful in quite a different time for altogether different people.

It is clear that if our parishes are truly growing the faith of their disciples, they will soon begin to attract more disciples into its communal life in Christ.

When disciples experience growth, they will go on to become better witnesses and attract others to the same faith that they have received and lived. Evangelised disciples, then, are the baseline for any evangelising Church.

While Church reform must touch upon the universal structures that shape, organise and facilitate the life of a universal Church, it must also challenge and find practical expression in the life of our local communities, including our Catholic parishes.

Without that change, talk of reform can tend to remain only at the level of abstraction and blunt the radical edge of conversion and missionary discipleship that stand at the heart of the Gospel for us all.

Daniel Ang blogs from Parramatta, NSW. He also writes at www.timeofthechurch.com and can be found on Twitter @DanielAngRC.

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Cathblog - Rethinking World Youth Day

BY BETH DOHERTY

After much reflection I took the decision recently not to go World Youth Day (WYD) in Brazil at the end of July.

With a real sense of gratitude for the privilege of having been before, it feels like the right choice, even though I had started learning Portuguese a number of months ago to enhance the experience.

My decision not to register was not because I don’t think that WYD is a worthy thing, but because on a deeper level, there exist some questions for me about what its frequency means for local youth ministries and the world’s Catholic population.

Just two years after Madrid hosted an estimated 1.5 million pilgrims, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil expects perhaps three times this number to descend upon its beautiful shores, and to welcome a new Pope who, providentially, just happens to be a South American.

WYD is the only event in the Catholic Church’s calendar which receives these kinds of numbers. The only other comparable event is the hajj , the annual Muslim pilgrimage which draws around two million to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Not even the Conclave which elected Pope Francis got close to WYD and hajj numbers. The Soccer World Cup and the Olympics get maybe one-fifth of the 1.5 million figure. Manila’s WYD in 1995 with an estimated four million people, holds the record as the largest Papal gathering ever. So there’s something to be said for the communion which takes place with this experience of a truly universal Church.

At 30, I have been to my share of WYDs. Toronto in Canada was my first at age 19, Sydney in 2008 at age 26 and finally Madrid at age 29. Aware of the injustice that makes it possible for me to attend three times and others not at all, I decided to put together a short documentary called Putting the world into World Youth Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBymMl2hFK8) two years ago ahead of Madrid, to try and raise money for pilgrims from Kenya and Paraguay to attend.

And I began to ask: Is WYD ever truly World Youth Day? It can easily become ‘White Youth Day’ or ‘Western Youth Day’ when the vast majority of people who have the means to attend are from Europe, North America and Australia.

While efforts are made in these countries to fundraise for those who cannot afford the experience, there are very real questions about whether the money could be better spent in other areas such as human development or works of mercy.

The average Australian pilgrim spent between $4,000 and $7,000 to attend WYD in Madrid in 2011. Almost 4,000 Australians were present at the Australian Gathering in Madrid.

While it is difficult to find accurate statistics, the cost for African and South American nations seems significantly lower, indeed in some places a quarter of cost. Yet for some countries, this would be equivalent to a year’s salary.

For Australian Catholics, the question that is on many youth ministers’ minds is ‘does the very event of WYD mean that we have less time to focus on our own diocesan strategy?’

One youth ministry director in a Diocese confided to me recently that there was simply no question that they would organise a group to go to Brazil; it was an expectation, even though they had just taken 50 people to Madrid a few months before.

The short time frame between the two WYDs meant for this small office that the focus has become necessarily about getting a small number of people overseas, in some cases, fewer than 20, perhaps to the detriment of those left at home.

There are many good things happening in the lead-up to WYD in Brazil, and Australian pilgrims are participating in some mammoth fundraising efforts. Some will start their journeys by working with local communities in Lima, Peru; and others will visit Columban missionaries in Santiago, Chile. These efforts are what almost sold it to me.

However, the questions that remain are as follows: Is WYD a ‘just’ strategy for Youth Ministry in the Catholic Church in the World if it is prohibitively expensive for the majority to attend?

Could regional youth days be a better strategy for building up faith?

Could the frequency of WYD be changed so that people have more time to consider their attendance or fundraise to make it a truly global event?

Hopefully, the experience for the pilgrims will be profoundly life-changing. Perhaps when travelling into Rio, they will behold the sight of the thousands of people, in the world’s most populous Catholic country, living in “favelas” or “slums” which ring the perimeter of the city.

Perhaps this sight will help them to be grateful for what they have, and move them to do more. For to whom much is given, much will be expected.

Because although four million people gathered in Christ’s name will be an uplifting experience of communion; Christ is also there, probably even more present, among those Christians who cannot afford to feed their families, much less attend WYD.

Beth Doherty is communications director for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

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Cathblog - The sacramental essential of matrimony

BY DRASKO DIZDAR

Recently one of the key architects of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Schonborn, stated: ‘There can be same-sex partnerships and they need respect, and even civil law protection. Yes, but please keep it away from the notion of marriage.’

The problem for the Church – at least for the Catholic Church – is the use of the word marriage to denote same-sex partnerships.

But if we look at the very Catechism Cardinal Schonborn was so instrumental in putting together, the word mariatus (marriage) does not occur once in the Latin original.

The word that is used by the CCC to speak of the sacrament is always matrimonium (matrimony). Unfortunately, in the English translation of the CCC ‘marriage’ is used interchangeably with ‘matrimony’.

Now before anyone tells me that I’m playing semantics let me ask you: what else do we have with which to think except words and their meanings (semantics)?

This whole issue for the Catholic Church is about semantics because semantic precision, finding and using the right words correctly, is important. ‘Marriage’, we have been insisting, is the wrong word to use to describe same-sex partnerships.

But is it?

Or perhaps more to the point: Is marriage really the right word to use to describe that ecclesial sacrament at the service of communion which ‘signifies the union of Christ and the Church’ (CCC n. 1661)?

The people who took great pains to redact the CCC didn’t seem to think so. They studiously avoided the word mariatus and only ever used the word matrimonium when speaking of the ecclesial sacrament.

Marriage as a secular institution has taken many different forms throughout history and across cultures. Even the biblical concept of what constitutes marriage has shifted: The early patriarchs had multiple wives and concubines, as did the Israelite kings (Solomon being especially prodigious and infamous for it!).

And yet polygamy is no longer practiced by Jews and expressly forbidden by the Church.

Clearly the secular institution of marriage is not identical with the ecclesial sacrament of ‘holy matrimony’.

The secular understanding of the institution of marriage (as we now have it in countries like Australia and New Zealand) took an irreversibly non-Christian turn when it began to accept divorce.

Secular marriage has for decades been seen as a contract between a man and woman which they are free to dissolve at any time they choose.

That is hardly the ecclesial sacrament of holy matrimony signifying Christ’s indissoluble union with the Church – a union that cannot be dissolved, rather than may not or should not.

It simply cannot, since Christ and the Church are ‘one body’, one living organism; and any union that signifies that is therefore indissoluble.

Furthermore, matrimony is literally about mother-making – it’s about the nurturing of families, with the maternal, feminine archetype as its positive structuring principle, its meaning-generating symbol.

Marriage, on the other hand, probably has a more ancient etymology, and means something like ‘the acquiring of a woman (mari)’.

Here the feminine symbol is objectified and commoditised: woman as purchased and owned. In the word matrimony, woman is present as the fruitful source of life; in the word marriage, she is property.

Frankly, given this probable etymology, and its deeper implications (all of which have been realized at some point in history), I’m glad the (Latin original) of the CCC never once uses the word mariatus.

The sacrament of holy matrimony (the sign that is itself an instance of Christ’s union with the Church in godly mother-making) is not to be confused with a conditional and dissolvable secular partnership contracted by individuals for as long as it works for them (and that, it seems to me, is all that the secular world wants same-sex partnerships to be recognised as in law).

A marriage between a man and a woman can certainly become a sacrament of holy matrimony, just as bread and wine can become the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

But not every piece of bread and glass of wine is the body and blood of the Risen Lord – at least not yet. Perhaps, in the fullness of time, and by the grace of God, they might.

Dr Drasko Dizdar is a member of the Emmaus monastic community, and a theologian with the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office.

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Blogwatcher - Students and bishops aim to stop to child detention

BY STEFAN GIGACZ

Several Catholic groups, including the ACBC's Australian Catholic Migrant Office are taking part in a campaign to end the detention of children of asylum seekers.

A YCS media statement on the ACBC Media Blog has more details.

Holy Irritant Tony Robertson also weighs in:

One of the most interesting sites out there in social media land is the Media Blog for the Australian Catholic Bishops. Sadly it is also one of the most neglected if you go on the lack of comments to the posts. As well as an easy read site, the blog includes a handy list of tags for quick reference to topics covered.

The latest entry is worth sharing and supporting to raise awareness of the tragic effects of detention on Refugee children and Asylum Seekers. It seems that we need more resources such as this given the public position of Catholic politicians such as Tony Abbott who continue to ignore Catholic Social TeachiAngs on Refugees and Asylum Seekers. I hope one of the participating schools will invite politicians from both sides of the Parliament to visit them when they are on "Detention" during this campaign.

* * *

And a further challenge from Fr Bob:

ABCTV damning exposé of Oz use of concentration camps. We are now in the immoral position of collective culpable ignorance.
— FatherBob (@FatherBob) April 29, 2013

4 Corners talks the asylum seeker talk...."I was in prison and you visited me".....who will now walk the asylum seeker walk?
— FatherBob (@FatherBob) April 29, 2013

And Australia's policy on refugees is not the only problem concerning the YCS:

Just asked Timor Leste Ambassador about relationship with Australia and its oil resources 'the Australian state plays a hard ball game'
— Elise Ganley (@EliseGanley) May 1, 2013

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Malaysia's controversial General Election took place yesterday. Catholic journalist Anil Netto has been blogging the issues at stake here. Another Catholic commentator Martin Jalleh accuses the incumbent government of lacking religious sensitivity by holding the election on Sunday.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia goes even further:

Christians are appalled at the despicable and heinous message on election campaign boards which has gone viral among Netizens recently (see photo).

The message asking “Do you want to see your grandchildren praying in Allah’s house” and with two pictures of churches with the Cross and the words “Gereja Allah” is incendiary and may pose a danger for Christians and Churches just because we use the word “Allah”. These fears are real given the recent history of Church burnings and threats to burn the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia.

* * *

No punches pulled by Pope Francis this week:

My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centred mindset bent on profit at any cost.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) May 2, 2013

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Tom Jozwik remembers Dorothy Day:

“She was a newspaperwoman,” Jordan noted of Day. “She wanted a paper with a point of view. She wanted news, she wanted events.” The Catholic Worker, as “a radical journal,” included articles about tax resistance and prisoners, poverty and peacemaking, the labor movement in general and the United Farm Workers in particular – all the while stressing the Beatitudes.

“She wanted letters,” he added. “She felt letters really breathed life into the paper.”

Fillers, such as Gandhi’s statement “Christianity is profoundly revolutionary,” were printed. Lewis Mumford, Chavez, Dom Helder Camara and the president of Tanzania contributed articles. But “of all the writers,” according to Jordan, “Dorothy was the best. There’s no doubt about it.”

Jordan said he and other staffers “cooked and took care of the (St. Joseph) house and washed people’s feet,” in addition to journalistic efforts. Some 80-90,000 papers per run had to be folded by hand, Jordan remembered. St. Joseph House clients pitched in, which “gave people meaningful work.” Day admired individuals devoted to physical labor, he noted.

* * *

Over at Blog of a Country Priest, Fr John Corrigan is bemused if not pleased to find that his "humble blog has been named in Catholic Dating Site’s 100 totally awesome blogs by Catholic priests":

I’m joined in the list by another Aussie priest, Fr Richard Healy of the Diocese of Wollongong, who blogs at frrick.org.

The list is “arranged in no particular order,” but that hasn’t stopped a few Facebook friends congratulating me on my number 11 ranking.

The compilers of the list are good publicists. No one over there has actually read my blog — they’ve just plucked out a few of my main tags and described them out of context — but they have contacted all one hundred priests on the list and asked us to link to the list, “if you think that your readers may find it of interest.” Well, why not?

* * *

John Bingham warns against the wrath of church organists:

If new research is be believed, behind the quiet exterior the humble church organist is not someone to be crossed.

While charged with providing spiritually uplifting music to worshippers, it seems many also seize the opportunity to extract subtle revenge on clerics who have displeased them or simply play pranks on congregations.

A survey of churchgoers found that at least half have noticed their organist straying from the path of musical orthodoxy at some point – slipping snippets of heavy metal classics, advertising jingles and even nursery rhymes into hymns and anthems.

* * *

And finally John Thavis says Pope Benedict with have plenty of feline friends in his new home:

Pope Benedict will have cat company at his new digs in the Vatican. #PopeBenedict #cats johnthavis.com/benedict-may-h…
— John Thavis (@JohnThavis) May 2, 2013

Michael Mullins Stefan Gigacz is preparing a PhD. at MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne, on the role of Joseph Cardijn at Vatican II.

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Cathblog - Cyberspace: Our New Meeting Place

iPhones and tablets ready? Shoot! Agora, ancient and modern, St Peter’s Square, after the announcement of Pope Francis.

From The Washington Post

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All my working life has been in media; in newspapers, magazines, print, and now in digital and social media. My current role as Publisher at Church Resources brings these together in a very fulfilling way.

In every one of those manifestations – all previously in the secular media – my work was about the Gospel value of proclaiming the truth. I did not know it at the time, but it was all about those words in Scripture, ‘Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ (Jn 8:32).

If you want to know the truth, you must actively seek the truth: of people, of situations, of events. Then, as a writer, you must, as fairly and accurately as possible, retell it so it is understandable and effective.

I have been involved in reporting on some very big media events in my life. There were some joyous events to cover such as weddings, Royal and otherwise; the birth of children, Royal and otherwise.

There have been small moments of truth, too, which by retelling took the specific experience of one person to millions of readers.

There were great events: like reporting on the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece, ahead of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000; and glamorous ones, like covering the launch of Dior’s new fragrance, J’Adore, for The Sun Herald, which had me on a four-day boondoggle to the south of France.

And then there were the terrible events. I remember covering the news of a racist murder in Perth; Louis Johnson was brutally killed by skinheads in 1992 and finally buried at the age of 19 in his country after his adoptive parents took him home to Alice Springs.

Another ghastly story I covered was for The Sydney Morning Herald; the murder of a little child. I remember his mother insisted I look at the tiny form in the white casket in an undertaker’s rooms in Newtown, so I could see just how beautiful her son was in order to tell the world. But I saw the effects of a terrible bashing death, barely disguised by the hand of the post-mortem make-up artist and then had to find a way to express that while keeping his mother’s belief and her child’s dignity intact.

In every one of these stories, I was obliged to tell the truth, to bring the reader or the viewer into the reality of the people who had been touched by circumstance in either a wonderful or dreadful way.

But it is in digital media, and increasingly, through social media, that I find a more direct though at times uncomfortable interaction with readers.

I became aware of the power of social media when CathNews covered the canonisation of Mary MacKillop in 2010. We had bloggers there who sent in firsthand reports via email and we used group file sharing sites such as Flickr for sending and receiving images. In a series of around 15 special editions of CathNews during eight or nine days, the immediacy and the power of social media was on show.

With the recent resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, social media was at the forefront again. I had a heads up just after 10pm on that Monday and by 10:15 I had spoken to our Ambassador to the Holy See to confirm it. By then a Twitter feed had alerted a friend of mine who had gone into the Vatican website and was able to forward the details.

With this swiftly moving story – a real collision between my working life and faith – the new meeting place was forming. TV cameras, radio reporters, print journalists were rolling into St Peter’s Square alright, but most of them were reaching for their mobile devices to tweet short bursts of news on the run while the longer, background truths were discovered, understood, and crafted later.

They were in the new agora Pope Benedict XVI speaks of in his message for the 47th World Communications Day, this Sunday: ‘….where digital social networks which are helping to open a public square in which people share ideas, information and opinions, and in which new relationships and forms of community can come into being,” (Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the 47th World Communications Day. Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization. 2013).

During the past last 12 months, I had developed an appreciation the benefits of using Facebook, both personally and professionally and have enjoyed seeing who is responding to my posts.

But I’ve also been dismayed by what can be unleashed on social media too. I have been absolutely lacerated by some CathNews readers for being too conservative, too liberal and a heretic.

However, this just teaches me that we do, in a way, leave ourselves open to many gifts, but also to a level of vulnerability by using the new media.

This is the challenge for me: learning how to deal with the way some people feel entitled to denigrate others on social media, ignorant of the laws of defamation.

I was, however, incredibly heartened by the coverage of the election of Pope Francis, which oddly brought together disparate elements in the service of the media and the Church…

(From WORD MADE FLESH AND ‘SHARED’ AMONG US. The collection is a publication of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Communications Office. Copyright 2013. The eBook can be downloaded for free by clicking on the link to the 47th World Communications Day on www.catholic.org.au)

Christine Hogan is Publisher at Church Resources, with oversight of its faith-based publications, including the flagships CathNews and CathNews Perspectives, and Bulletin Notes. She is the author of six non-fiction titles, including The Veiled Lands: A woman’s journey into the heart of the Islamic world, and Look At Me: 50 Years of Australian television and the women who made it.

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 virtue of flawed heroes

BY ELIZABETH McKENZIE

In spite of patient and expert tuition, I never mastered the thumbs/eyeballs/ brain co-ordination necessary to be a successful player of either desktop or Xbox computer games.

Inexorably, I would be dead in the first 10 seconds of the game – beheaded or run through with a sword or been pushed from a great height or mowed down several times over by a high powered Kalashnikov rifle – by the bad guys.

In spite of the ongoing debate about the influences of violent computer games on the brains on young males – and increasingly on young females – these mainstream games belong to the genre of the perennial battle of good versus evil.

That the forces of evil can be overcome by superior expertise in the martial arts or vigorous swordplay, cunning strategies or in more recent times, by random sprays from semi-automatic weaponry has been the stuff of legends, sagas, odysseys, adventure and science fiction stories, from time immemorial.

And they all have one thing in common, whether it’s a ripping yarn from two centuries (or millennia) ago or the latest computer game from Sony – ‘evil’ is always ‘other’ and unambiguous.

Which is probably why eventually the stories/games no longer engage us. Life in the real world teaches us that such certainties are overstated.

There are many nuances to being good. Evil has many guises.

Maturity demands that we eventually move to a different stage of life, however reluctantly, from admiring and wanting to emulate the derring-do of our heroes to a more realistic assessment of what we can achieve.

For me, this stage of my life was peopled with characters from fiction who in spite of their own goodness and high moral values, didn’t necessarily achieve their heart’s desire.

Evelyn Waugh’s Charles Ryder and Guy Crouchback spring to mind as does that pantheon of 19^th century heroines, from Maggie Tulliver and Dorothea Brooke to Jane Eyre and Tess of the d`Urbervilles.

Their tragic or elegiac experiences more accurately reflected the realities of my own life!

Goodness did not always have a happy ending and even heroic self-sacrifice could not alleviate the bitter taste of disappointment and failure.

Nowadays my tastes in fictional heroes run to admiration for and addiction to the flawed hero – professionally successful but emotionally thwarted, holding high moral values but sometimes ethically ambiguous, morally good but not immune to temptation, liquor and tobacco.

For some reason there are few women who fit this bill – apart from Vera Stanhope, but quite a few men, mostly Chief Inspectors called Morse or Rebus or even Adam Dalgleish and Reg Wexford.

Their attitude to life in general and their own in particular, resonates with where I’m at in mine – a bit jaded, disillusioned, perhaps disgruntled that ‘things’ haven’t quite worked out the way they should have done, a realization that somewhere deep inside there is more of a coward than a heroine. (Well maybe a flawed heroine!)

Yet, in spite of everything, they retain an unshakeable belief in the basic goodness of ordinary people.

This predilection for the flawed hero might explain why I have in recent years developed quite a soft spot for St Peter.

His flaws were only too evident - his impetuosity, his impatience, his over-enthusiasms and anxieties, his betrayal of Jesus.

I know what it feels like to sit in a boat of doubts and fears in the middle of the howling gale of a personal or family crisis.

I know what it’s like to seriously doubt that I would come running, or for that matter, walk on water, if the Lord called me.

But I also know what it is to hear ‘O woman of little faith’ as I am picked up and saved from a sure death by drowning, and in that moment to realize that even with all my flaws and failures, I am redeemed.

Perhaps the gamesters/story tellers and the flawed heroes got it right after all. Good will triumph no matter what – we just might not need sophisticated weapons or strategies, virtual or real, to defeat evil.

We just need to have enough faith and the flaming sword of the grace of God will do the rest.

Elizabeth McKenzie is a Melbourne writer.

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Cathblog - Pentecost and the hero’s journey

From The Prayer Book Journey: Google

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BY ANN RENNIE

Two films that many Australians have recently seen are about journeys; the journeys that can come to define or change a life. In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins finds an unexpected inner tenacity when he leaves the dusted and doylied comfort zone of his home to embark on his adventures.

But it is Jean Valjean’s journey in Les Miserables which is the most poignant. We first see him as a man of brute strength with few redeeming qualities. His essential humanity has been debased by violence and vile incarceration over a period of nineteen years.

However, it is an act of unexpected mercy that sets him on the path to redemption; a small act that resolves him to become a good man.

Instead of incriminating him after the theft of two silver candlesticks, the bishop says to the police that they were a gift. In pardoning him, the bishop has bought his soul.

In the chapel a perplexed Valjean asks What spirit comes to move my life? He becomes a man repentant and transformed, vowing from that moment to make amends and to make something of his life.

This becomes his journey; his life becomes a work in progress, as all our lives are. Although Valjean cannot be described as an everyman, his story resonates with everyone who has to make choices as to how they will live, how they will be in the world, how they will treat others, what their life will mean.

Valjean is graced through an act of mercy whereas Inspector Javert , a righteous man, prosecutes the law mercilessly. He cannot comprehend the depths of a human heart that can respond mercifully. This is beyond the palette of his imagination. He cannot find any emotional empathy for the plight of another human being. To him Valjean is merely a number, 24601.

Throughout Les Mis Jean Valjean’s heart is enlarged by love. In the film his final words sums up the essence of what it is to live and love.

Take my love for love is everlasting

And remember the truth that once was spoken

To love another person is to see the face of God.

The film shows that change is possible; that life does give us second chances if we are prepared to make good on them, that God’s love is everywhere.

It reminds us that love brings us to our better selves and that the best of love is a gift that opens our hearts to God.

As we move towards Pentecost, perhaps we, too, need to reconsider What spirit comes to move my life?

Can we hear the soft sibilance of the Holy Spirit urging us on, hinting at a change of heart, whispering to us as we pray that a new way might be found, suggesting somehow that there are other plans afoot and much work to be done, that our lives are moving in a new direction?

I am old enough to remember the words of the hymn Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew.

This is what Pentecost is; a new start with the Spirit; a birth day, as it is for the Church, where we are given the opportunity to live life anew.

Pentecost is the time when love is in the air, the wind is beneath our wings and the Spirit moves within us.

It is the answer, my friend, blowing in the wind.

(Pentecost this year is May 19.)

Ann Rennie is a Melbourne writer who also teaches senior students in a Catholic girls' school. Her book The Secret Garden of Spirituality (Reflections on Faith, Life and Education), was published in 2011 by Michelle Anderson. Flickr image from cowley_mail.

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Cathblog - Emergency learning

BY RICHARD WHITE

Not long ago, there I was, sorting through a filing cabinet for ‘essential documents’. I had printed off the ‘Bushfire Survival Plan’ and made notes.

There was a list on the kitchen table and I was ticking off the things that needed to be done or needed to be packed. The forecast for the next day was ‘catastrophic’ and this was our first summer in the bush.

The cat’s cage had been collected from the garage; the dog’s collar and lead were beside it. The as-yet-to-be-packed bag was in the bedroom.

The sense of urgency waxed and waned as did the packing and the sorting. Needless to say, my wife and I were only partly prepared when the calamitous Tuesday arrived. But there had been discussion and this was a start. It also set me thinking.

What are my priorities? What would I most want to save and what losses would impact on me the most? I was reminded of a French film from many years ago, A Man and A Woman. It had a wonderful musical theme, but it was a discussion about priorities, like the one we had on Monday night that came back to me.

The conversation in the film centred around a real or imagined house fire and the choice of saving a work of art or a cat. I can’t remember whether there was agreement, but one of the characters was adamant; the life of the cat was more important than saving the painting.

As only the French can, the film focussed on what is most important to us, what we value and what this says about us. The film also did what I found difficult to do prior to that Tuesday, create a sense of urgency, make the unacknowledged, the taken-for-granted, real.

The morning prior to the emergency, I was joking with the landscape architect who is doing some work for us. At a previous meeting, when we newcomers to Cootamundra had expressed some concern about snakes, she said something like, ‘You haven’t lived ‘till you’ve stood on a brown snake!’

This morning I told her that I haven’t even seen a brown snake yet, despite my best efforts, let alone stood on one. I quoted back to her the words I thought she had said. She laughed and said, ‘I meant life has never felt so precious ‘til you’ve stood on a brown snake.’

‘Life has never felt so precious . . . ‘

When I sat down to write these few words I did not know that was how I would end. I watched the devastation of the fires in Tasmania, the destruction in Victoria and the losses closer to home.

Then, in more recent days there were floods in Queensland and northern New South Wales. The images had a familiar impact, the same feelings of horror and helplessness and intentions to contribute to the various appeals.

But, it was a woman from Jugiong speaking about the loss of livestock that affected me most.

‘Life has never felt so precious . . . ‘

The painful, frightening loss of life, the ordinary, daily loss of life, the inevitable, inescapable loss of life can all merge into one.

Our survival instincts protect us most of the time and our resilient and healing instincts can lessen the impact of loss, our own and other people’s.

But, the other side of this loss, hidden deeply in the tragic and the ordinary, is the truth that I visited, briefly, gratefully and unexpectedly as I lined up passports and the cat’s cage and the dog’s lead.

Life is incredibly precious.

Richard White blogs from Cootamundra in southern NSW.

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Blogwatcher - What happened to the Irish Church?

BY STEFAN GIGACZ

In an address to Fordham University last week, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin asked what happened to the Irish Catholic Church:

When I was asked to return to Dublin, Pope John Paul asked me why secularisation had taken place so rapidly in Ireland. It was one of the rare occasions when I told a Pope he was wrong!

The roots of change in Ireland were there but were not seen. It is not that Ireland is today in a momentary out-of-the ordinary period in its history, somehow temporarily adrift from what is really the default position. There is no default position anymore and there has not been such a position for some time. In many ways the Church in Ireland had been trapped in an illusory self image.

The Catholic Church in Ireland had for far too long felt that it was safely ensconced in a “Catholic country”. The Church had become conformist and controlling not just with its faithful, but in society in general. I was at a seminar last week about the Church’s self-understanding as a “perfect society”. All I can say is that anyone who might have thought that “Catholic Ireland” was anything like a perfect society must now be very disillusioned.

Full speech:

http://www.dublindiocese.ie/content/fordham-university-address

* * *

In the wake of Anzac Day, John Menadue remembers the wars that are mostly forgotten namely the Aboriginal and also the Maori Wars from 1845:

Some may claim that all this occurred before Australia was federated and we were still colonies. I do not think that this can obscure the fact of Australian participation in the Maori wars. The first association between Australian and New Zealand forces was not at Gallipoli in 1915. It was in the Maori wars 70 years earlier.

* * *

CathNewsUSA proprietor Bill McGarvey is a musician who lives in Hoboken not far from where Frank Sinatra was born. He argues this week that Mumford & Sons' Grammy Award winning album "Babel" represents a new generation of evangelical singers "who make God haunted music NOT Christian rock".

"Faith, or the profound struggle with it, is at the core of everything the band has recorded thus far," Bill writes:

Treading a path blazed by Bono and U2, Mumford & Sons are at the leading commercial edge of a growing number of crypto-Christian artists who claim no particular affiliation and actually seem uncomfortable with institutionalized Christianity. And yet, somehow, their imaginations, instincts and language are deeply informed by Scripture and the person of Jesus.

* * *

Patricia Zapor shares details of a web tool that lets Americans see if their ancestors would be eligible to immigrate to the US today.

Advocates for comprehensive immigration reform have long noted that immigrating to the United States today involves an entirely different legal system than that under which most people arrived here for nearly 200 years.

Now, there’s an online tool to help explain that.

Bend the Arc, a Jewish organization focusing on equality and justice, has a simple web page through which you can plug in the circumstances of your ancestor’s arrival in the United States and figure out, very generally, if she would be admitted under current laws.

Entry Denied guides users through some simple questions: in what time period did your ancestor enter? From what region? What skills and connections did he/she have in the U.S.?

And here's the answer my Slovak grandfather would get today:

I wonder what an Australian version of Entry Denied would say.

* * *

At First Things, Michael Paterson-Seymour notes that:

In the U.K., two Catholic midwives, Mary Teresa Doogan and Concepta Wood, have just won an important court case regarding the conscience clause in the Abortion Act 1967. Although this is a Scottish case, the Act applies to England and Wales, too, so the decision has implications for the whole of Great Britain.

* * *

Closer to home, the MGL Brothers are seeking new religious vocations:

THE CALL:What is different about the Missionaries of God's Love? Fr Chris Ryan gives the answer in this short video ow.ly/k3R8a
— MGL Brothers (@MGLBrothers) April 18, 2013

* * *

Over in Brazil:

Cardinal Braz de Aviz explains how Rio is getting ready World Youth Day Rio 2013 youtube.com/watch?v=EWFoR4… #JMJ #Rio2013
— WYD English (@wyd_en) April 28, 2013

* * *

And Leonardo Boff continues to keep the faith in Pope Francis:

It doesn't matter that Pope Francis doesn't use the expression "liberation theology". What's most important is that he speaks and acts in a liberation manner.

It's even good that the Pope doesn't affiliate with any type of theology, such as liberation theology or any other one.

* * *

Devett O'Brien has invited people to join the online IYCS School of New Evangelization here.

* * *

Tom Fox tweets history's most famous bird:

Seagull landed on Sistine Chapel chimney, becoming the most photographed bird in human history. twitter.com/NCRTomFox/stat…
— Tom Fox (@NCRTomFox) April 24, 2013

* * *

A bit late for Good Friday this year but Jimmy Akin shows how close historians can come to identifying the precise date on which Jesus died:

Just how specific can we be with the death of Jesus?

Can we determine the exact day?

We can.

And here's how . . .

Clue #1: The High Priesthood of Caiaphas

The gospels indicate that Jesus was crucified at the instigation of the first century high priest named Caiaphas (Matthew 26:3-4, John 11:49-53).

We know from other sources that he served as high priest from A.D. 18 to 36, so that puts Jesus' death in that time frame.

But we can get more specific. Much more.

Complete answer here.

* * *

Final word to Emerging Theologians who are celebrating Theological Shark Week. No, I didn't ask.

Michael Mullins Stefan Gigacz is preparing a PhD. at MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne, on the role of Joseph Cardijn at Vatican II.

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Cathblog - Lest we forget local people and their initiatives

BY STEFAN GIGACZ

“Lest we forget,” a local woman said to me in her strong French accent over lunch yesterday near the Western Front battlefield town of Bullecourt.

It was her way of entering into the spirit of Australia's big day in the region.

For my part it was an opportunity to retrace the footsteps of my own grandfather Robert Coleman, who spent two years in the trenches from 1916-18. Until recently I thought he had actually participated at Bullecourt until I managed to reconstitute the calendar of his life at the front from documents available online at the magnificent Australian War Memorial website. But it turned out that he was recuperating in England during the Bullecourt battles after falling ill in the freezing winter trenches.

Yesterday's (unofficial) Anzac lunch was organised by a group including Colette and Claude Durand who have been commemorating the 1917 battles known to Australians as First and Second Bullecourt since long before the now annual Australian pilgrimages began.

Claude explains more of their pioneering story on the website http://www.bullecourt.fr/.

“Our story, in which we develop our close relationship with Australia,” Claude writes in his francophone influenced English, “begins when my wife, Colette Durand, and I arrived in Hendecourt as school teachers in September 1972. “Back then, it was possible to find Australian 'rising sun' badges and Australian shoulder badges in the ploughed farm fields around Bullecourt. We were interested to know why!”

Together with the late Jean Letaille, the then mayor of the town, and in contact with the then Australian Ambassador to France, John Rowland, they launched what has now evolved into a key moment in the Embassy's Anzac Day program each year.

Over the years, in a barn on his property, Jean Letaille also gradually developed a homespun museum with relics of the battles dug up from local fields, even including tank tracks. With assistance from the Australian government, that too has now developed into the Jean and Denise Letaille Museum in the town.

But now, sadly, the official commemorative events have grown so important that the locals who launched them are starting to feel that their role has been somewhat sidelined.

Colette Durand and Bill Twitchett

I got to meet Colette, Claude and their friends and family thanks to Bill Twitchett, an Aussie originally from Murwillumbah but now resident in Arras for some 37 years and one of the few Australians who lives permanently in the region.

After post-graduate studies in architecture and town planning, Bill ended up working for the Diocese of Arras as their architectural advisor renovating ancient churches and abbeys and occasionally building new ones for some 30 years.

In fact, he was originally invited to Arras by the late Bishop Gerard Huyghe, a dynamic bishop who played a significant role at Vatican II particularly in the drafting of the Decree on the Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis.

“In 1976, Bishop Huyghe invited me to join a mixed community of religious and lay people known as the Centre for Culture and Faith,” Bill told me. Sadly the community did not continue after Huyghe's retirement, but Bill stayed on in the region, developing a new centre and community devoted to ecological and urban renewal known as Le Pavillon.

(In one of those providential coincidences of life, I first met Bill about three years while giving a talk at the Institut Marc Sangnier in Paris. Learn more about Bill and his work on the website he is developing to record some of his lifetime of work.)

And so, after a great meal, we all moved on to Bullecourt for the official ceremony at 1.30pm with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr. And Mr Carr did not disappoint with his speech clearly reflecting his own personal interest in Australian military history.

The current bishop of Arras, Mgr Jean-Paul Jaeger, followed up with a prayer. Finally, after much wreath laying by Australian and local dignitaries, several hundred Aussie pilgrims, including students from Queensland, and local French people began the march up to the Digger statue that stands one kilometre outside the town.

I only got to talk to a couple of people on the walk, the first being a somewhat lonely German army representative, who lamented the lack of commemoration of other World War events and battles. The other was Bishop Jaeger, originally from Lille, where Cardinal Achille Liénart had confirmed him, and we reflected together on the extraordinary influence of the great cardinal on the French church and Vatican II.

By the time we made it to the Digger monument, the sun had taken its toll with a couple of students being revived by the pompiers after collapsing under the warm spring sun.

So after even more wreath laying, I headed back to Le Canberra Bar in town for a drink with Bill. There he told me that he is now on an Arras church committee studying how to commemorate the forthcoming centenary of the Great War.

Well, one thought came to me inspired by today's events and by Pope Francis' strident affirmation that the Church is not an NGO. Moreover, not only is the Church not a non-government organisation, for all its faults, it is emphatically not a government organisation either.

And perhaps the role of the churches in the forthcoming celebrations could be to focus on rebuilding the people to people links that Claude and Colette Durand and their friends have worked so long to promote.

Lest we forget those who remembered our soldiers while we in Australia had forgotten them.

Michael Mullins Stefan Gigacz is preparing a PhD. at MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne, on the role of Joseph Cardijn at Vatican II.

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Cathblog - Scentsory perception at Mass

BY BRIAN DOYLE

You know what no one talks about when they talk about the Mass? The panoply of scents, the plethora of sensory adventures through the doors of your nose, the layered and complex and lovely subtle messages you smell in Mass.

For instance: the sweet intricate tendrils of incense, and the cheerfully dank aura of raincoats and moist jackets and dripping umbrellas by the door; and the faint talcumpowdery smell of the three babies in attendance; and the sharp abrupt smell of matches and lighters as candles are lit; and the ancient dignified redolence of the wooden walls and the wooden organ and the wooden pews; and the faintest hint of mothballs and incense and cigar smoke as Father sails up the aisle like a battleship draped in layers of linen and cotton; and the deep tang of the wine and sturdy floury tastelessness of the wafer; and the leathery friendly aftershaveish smell of your neighbor as he shakes your hand; and the sweet blast of perfume from your other neighbor as she shakes your hand; and the shaggy musky popcornish teenager scents as you hug your lanky sons, not yet fully awake even yet; and the coolest scent of all, the honey cinnamon iris coffee beach scent of your lovely and mysterious bride, as you kiss her, yes, kiss her, right in the middle of Mass, before all these people, because you wish her well, and you wish her peace, and she somehow got the boys out of bed and into the car, you do not know how, for she is short and they are long, but here you all are in the pew, smelling the hundred miraculous smells that have so much to do with the deep pleasure and savor of the Mass.

Such as: the happy oily reek of doughnuts stacked in the lobby, awaiting attack from children who come in waves the second Father sails past them on his way down the aisle, so that he appears to be followed by a troop of children, bouncing behind him like brightly colored balls; and the blunt workmanlike scent of coffee in urns that appear to have been purchased from the Defense Department after the First World War; and the bookish dusty serious smell of the tiny library of missals and Spiritual Literature and songbooks and even, God bless me, the collected works of Anton Chekhov for some reason; and the scent of the vast moist copse of cedar trees across the street, a scent that blows through the lobby like a tide whenever someone opens the door of the church; and the incomprehensible trustworthy graceful scent of Father as he shakes hands and hugs children by the door; he smells like grandfathers and apples, as one of my small Sunday School students once said, and indeed he does.

The Mass is a work of quotidian genius in so many gentle human ways, and for all we laud and bow at the miracle in it, perhaps the deeper miracle even than the Quiet Guest who arrives midway is the sweet shuffling redolent gathering itself – the miracle of it.

We collect, we rise and subside, we sing and chant, we tell stories at the table around the meal, we shake hands and kiss and hug and laugh.

The scents and sounds and touches braid and weave and stitch something quietly astounding, every day, in a thousand languages, all over the world.

This morning, with the scents of rain and cedar and babies and cigars and aftershave and cinnamon and sweat and coffee and apples and trust in my nose, I say thanks.

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, Oregon, USA. His most recent book os Grace Notes, a collection of spiritual essays.

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Cathblog - Where the News and the Good News meet

Image: Perth Now

---

BY LOUISE McKEOGH

Earlier this month, my radio alarm woke me up to the news that a boat containing 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers had reached Geraldton, just 425km north of Perth.

The radio announcer highlighted that the boat had been donated to Sri Lanka after the Boxing Day tsunami.

An article in my daily paper detailed the loopholes in policy where people reach the mainland and are then sent offshore for processing.

The video attached to an online news clip showed a boat (through a barb wire fence) arriving at Geraldton harbour. The tone of the article was one of affront: How could we let our space be invaded like this?

The article and media coverage only told one side of the story. We know nothing of the 66 asylum seekers:

Who are they?

What caused them to be on this boat?

What life experiences had led them to make such a desperate decision?

What are their hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future?

I found that I wanted to know the story of these people - my fellow sisters and brothers on this planet.

I asked myself where God is in this story. How does our scripture speak to this?

In the first reading for Sunday 21 April, we find Paul and Barnabas in Antioch where their presence and their preaching has caused some tension between the Jewish and the Gentile communities and their respective claims for space and voice.

Jealousy and division is the tone of the relationship from one group to the other.

The Christian decision of Paul and Barnabas was to speak the Word of God, shake the dust from their feet in protest and move on to a new place (Iconium).

No doubt in the media, talkshow discussions and workplace conversations that will take place about this group of asylum seekers, and the continuing conversation about asylum seekers in our community, we can hear the call of Paul and Barnabas to speak the Gospel Word and encourage all of us to move on to a better place – a more humane and Christian understanding of the other's story.

The news article had dehumanised these people, they were now a number - 66 - nameless people, asylum seekers.

Paulo Freire states, ‘While both humanisation and dehumanisation are real alternatives, only the first is the people’s vocation.’

The human vocation is very much the theme of the Gospel for the fourth Sunday in Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, a Sunday when we think about vocation.

Herein lies the challenge to our human and Christian vocation, to care for God's people, and here they are, these people wanting human care and shelter on our shore.

I think of the modern Shepherds I know, the people who work for and volunteer at organisations such as the House of Welcome.

Here Jo and her colleagues provide care and shelter daily for asylum seekers and refugees on their journey to become part of the community. They help their story to be told and relationships to be built.

The House of Welcome and organisations like it seek to:

• Provide a place of welcome, trust and friendship for asylum seekers and refugees;

• Assist them in their transition to life in the Australian community;

• Develop their capacity to engage confidently with the various aspects of life in Australia and our culture;

• Promote their legal and human rights as they seek to have their status recognised; and

• Enable them to become full and independent Australian citizens.

It seems to me that dialogue and conversation are the Christian way, knowing the other's story and human experiences helps us to be people of the Trinity, people of relationship, in the mode of our Trinitarian God.

Can we be the shepherds, the voices of Paul and Barnabas, who can lead our country to a better place in this conversation and in this issue?

Sister Louise McKeogh FMA is Caritas and Social Justice Office Coordinator for the Diocese of Parramatta.

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Blogwatcher - A New Genesis for a new civilisation

BY STEFAN GIGACZ

In his latest post, Leonardo Boff cites Robert Müller, a former top UN official born in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, who went on to found the University of Peace and became known as the "father of global education":

Robert Müller imagined a new retelling of the Biblical Genesis: the birth of a truly worldwide civilization, where, as a species, together with others, the human species assumes the mission of guaranteeing the sustainability of the Earth and of caring well for her and also for the Earth’s other beings.

Here is Müller's description of the final day of the new creation:

And God saw that humans retook God and the human person as their Alpha and Omega, reducing institutions, beliefs, politics, governments and other human entities to their roles as simple servants of God and of the people. And God saw them adopting as the supreme law that which says: «Love the God of the Universe with all your hearth, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. You will love your beautiful and marvelous planet and will treat it with infinite care. You will love your human brothers and sisters as you love yourself. There are no commandments bigger than these».

And God said: “It is good”. And that was the seventh day of the Planet of God».

* * *

Closer to home, John Menadue warns that "the Commonwealth and the States will blame each other for failure to agree on Gonski 'light':

It is a pattern we have seen so often over many years, particularly in health.

Federalism is just not working for us. It has become an obstacle to good government. The Commonwealth financial dominance will continue. The States are poor but proud and reluctant to concede jurisdiction.

* * *

Vexilla Regis has the story of Australia's first Catholic priest, Irishman Patrick Dixon:

In the aftermath of the Rebellion Father Dixon was arrested. Various traditions surround the reasons for his arrest including that he had been found to be wearing a medal inscribed " Erin Go Bragh", that he had been heard to sing a patriotic song and that he had administered the United Irishman's Oath to certain men. Whatever the case he was taken and imprisoned in Duncannon Fort and tried and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted as in so many other cases to transportation for life.

Father Dixon arrived in the Colony of Botany Bay in January,1800 as a convict, but had nevertheless , been appointed by the Holy See as the first Prefect Apostolic of the primitive penal colony.His appointment must have been among the last acts of the Pontificate of Pope Pius VI who was himself at the time a prisoner of the French Revolutionary Directory and died before Father arrived in Botany Bay, still a prisoner.

* * *

Brisbane's Devett O'Brien, now secretary-general of the IYCS, makes the claim that Joseph Cardijn was "the first agent of the new evangelisation":

The New Evangelization is about the special new burst of energy the Church must have to proclaim Jesus Christ in all countries, even those of “ancient Christian tradition.” It is about reaching those people who may have already heard about Christianity but have not been truly exposed to the message and life of Jesus.

What Cardijn proceeded to do throughout his life was all directly in response to this question: “How can we evangelize and transform the lives of young people who believe God has nothing to say to them?”

* * *

Back in the USA, Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley reflects on the tragic events of the week:

[CardinalSeánsBlog] Mourning in the aftermath of the Marathon bombings: On Monday, Patriots’ Day, we were on t... bit.ly/11tEscO
— Cardinal Seán (@CardinalSean) April 20, 2013

But he also warned against the death penalty as extending the "culture of death".

More locally Melbourne identity Father Bob Maguire shares the pain of Sydney's Anglican Father Dave Smith:

Mate Father Dave Smith, Dulwich Hill, after church burned 2 ground "We're fighters here, on the ropes now but not the canvas".
— FatherBob (@FatherBob) April 21, 2013

And he retweets his Triple JJJ colleague:

Very sad to hear @fatherdave's Syd church has burnt down. Boxing ring inside for local kids, I once boxed Dave there! abc.net.au/news/2013-04-2…
— John Safran (@JohnSafran) April 21, 2013

Still making the news, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan invites us to check out his latest cyber venture:

I invite you all to visit my new website: cardinaldolan.org
— Cardinal Dolan (@CardinalDolan) April 15, 2013

And more prayers sought for Bishop Michael of Townsville:

Lord, help Bp Michael continue to be strong in these days of adversity. Help all ill people find strength. Amen. twitter.com/tsvHope/status…
— Pray for Bp Putney (@tsvHope) April 21, 2013

Michael Mullins Stefan Gigacz is preparing a PhD. at MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne, on the role of Joseph Cardijn at Vatican II.

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Cathblog - The meaning of the Cross

BY JOEL HODGE

At Jesus’ death, the Gospels recount cosmic and liturgical acts occurring, such as the temple veil being torn in two.

These acts present to us the fulfilment of God’s action in history in which God is present to and reconciled with creation – God in Jesus bursts out of the temple offering his Spirit as sacrifice to reconcile the world to Himself.

In the midst of this, we hear the centurion’s cry - exemplifying redeemed humanity’s cry: ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ (Mk 15:39). This act of true perception and faith on behalf of the Gentile centurion crucifying Jesus occurs not under the influence of power or miracles, but in being present to Jesus in Jesus’ death.

It is at Jesus’ death – when he breathes his last – that persecuting humanity (which is exemplified in the centurion) recognises the truth and submits to it. The centurion, who had believed in the divine Roman Emperor (called a son of God by the Romans), finds that true divinity is not in power and violence, but in the just man who loves “to the end” (Jn 13:1); who gives himself fully and freely for humanity.

Truth is a Person who Loves; and life is a response to this love in faith. Everything that Israel should have recognised, instead is recognised by the ‘idolatrous’ Gentile who perceives because of Jesus’ death: ‘He [Jesus] has accomplished the utter fullness of love – he has given himself’ (J. Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth Part Two, p. 223).

It is this simple, pure act of love – made in the midst of overwhelming pain and violence – that reveals divinity as well as eliciting our true humanity.

The Resurrection allows us to recognise this pure act of love as from the pure being of love. It frees us from the distortions and lies of human culture, which inflicts violence and death to impose power, counter threats, punish failures and take from others.

In the Resurrection, moreover, God interprets the Crucifixion (and the whole of history) for us: it is as an act of love to reconcile humanity to itself and God (H. McCabe, God, Christ, and Us).

Rather than the punishment of a criminal or the failure of a leader, the Crucifixion is the act of the true human, the fully human.

Thus, God is offering humanity an answer to its deepest questions: How can I be truly human? How can I be happy? How can we overcome the evils and divisions that hurt and prevent real unity and happiness amongst the human race?

The answer: only in the Love that gives itself to redeem a lost humanity – ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do’ (Lk 23:34) – and emerges from the other side of the worst of human actions and experiences – ‘they persisted in calling for his crucifixion, and their voices prevailed’ (Lk 23:23) – to overcome death and violence – ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Lk 23:46).

The Christian message is clear: Love overcomes violence and death! Death is not the final answer, but is subject to God who is love.

Thus, in the midst of death and violence, there is hope for humanity. Hope comes with the one who gives up on the path of self-assertive pride and grasping – of building identity over against others.

The rejection of the violent world leads to suffering and death, but it also leads to Resurrection.

The Love that lasts until the end – that endures even death and hands ‘all things’ over to God and to others in self-giving – is that which cannot be destroyed and draws ‘all people to myself’ (Jn 12:32). In Jesus, the great cosmic liturgy of Atonement is complete: God hands himself over as Lamb of God to cleanse humanity of sin and evil with his love.

All injustice is taken up and overturned in the Resurrection.

God’s final word is to destroy death’s final word over our lives – giving Jesus his whole life back (and so, to us, too, as we become part of his body). In the risen life, all death, violence and injustice are subsumed into the life of love. In other words, death and love – evil and good – are not equal competitors facing off against each other. Life is not an us-and-them game characterised by wars and ‘over againsts’.

Love is the greatest of all, subsuming all things in itself and transforming them to be better than anything that could be imagined. We experience this in a small way even now in the love that we share with God and others.

Even though evil, pain and death seem all-powerful, they ultimately subside in the shadow of love. The pain of life, however, is not just wiped away without acknowledgement and healing.

Jesus carries his wounds in the Resurrection, but he carries them in God’s love, which heals and enables him to be healing for others: ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you’ (Jn 20:21).

This is not easy, but it is possible – the Crucifixions of this world need not have the final word over us, if we can allow love to transform our lives slowly and meaningfully as we face our pain, hurt and enemies.

Thus, the Crucifixion and Resurrection show us that the divine life confronts and subsumes all things, even violence, evil and death. Jesus returns to us not for vengeance, as the disciples in the upper room feared when they first saw Jesus and thought he was a ‘ghost’ come to haunt them; cf. Lk 24:36-43).

Instead, he approaches us with all-encompassing forgiveness that redeems all evil – even the worst evil that kills God’s Son – and brings real peace, joy and unity.

Joel Hodge is a lecturer in theology at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. Image: Flickr.

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Cathblog - Building a truly multicultural, Australian Church

BY NOEL CONNOLLY

This Easter, I did not have any lecturing commitments or a supply so I went to the local parish for all the major ceremonies of Holy Week.

The ceremonies were good: prayerful, beautiful and spiritually nourishing.

Sitting in the pews, I could not help noticing how many of my neighbours were Asian migrants.

I was reminded of a statement from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants published a document entitled, The love of Christ towards migrants [2004] in which it claimed that we are in the midst of ‘the birth pangs of a new humanity’ because of unprecedented levels of migration.

We are clearly in the birth pangs of a new and much more multicultural Australian Church.

Recent Australian Censuses have shown that the Catholic Church has been the major religious beneficiary of migration.

In 2011 we made up 25.3% of the Australian population but we would have dropped if it had not been for the 300,000 Catholics who came to Australia between 2001 and 2011.

Migrants make up a large percentage of our Catholic population and especially our regularly attending Catholics. Around 40% of Mass attenders aged less than 65 were born overseas.

Of the total number of Australian Catholics, only 52.2% were born in Australia and 25.3% are migrants and 21.6% are children of migrants.

The Australian Bishops’ Commission for Migrants and Refugees in Graced by Migration revealed that based on 2001 Census figures four Dioceses: Sydney, Perth, Parramatta and Melbourne had one third or more of their Catholics born overseas.

As well, a significant number of our priests and religious are migrants. It is difficult to get accurate figures, but overseas born priests would make up more than 20% of the active priests in a number of Dioceses. And finally some of the most vibrant parishes in Australia today are ethnic parishes.

This is both a gift and a challenge for the Australian Church. Research and experience show that migrants are better Mass attenders; more traditional in their devotions; more accepting of authority; and better educated. Also ethnic communities seem to be an important source of vocations.

Migrants are not only going to change the face, life and practices of the Catholic Church in Australia but they could be a considerable force for mission, especially if we learn how to welcome, enable, support and encourage them.

But this will not happen automatically. There are too many possibilities for misunderstanding, hurt, isolation, neglect, discrimination and cultural imposition, if we do not reflect on our multicultural future and prepare and plan for it. If we do not prepare many Catholic migrants, who on arrival naturally look to their “mother” Church for welcome and support, may be disappointed and we as a Church may also miss out on the resources and richness they bring us.

It is my experience that one of the first steps in understanding new social situations is to see them in their historical context.

We westerners, with our emphasis on the individual and on psychology and personal story, neglect history and sociology at our peril. While our emphasis remains solely on the personal, the tendency is to praise or blame ourselves or others excessively.

What is happening in Australia today in the product of centuries of movement. From the beginning of the Sixteenth Century till the middle of last century we had the Great European Migration.

Between 1800 and 1925, 50-60 million Europeans migrated to the “New World”. On the strength of this migration Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada were developed, Latin America was “Europeanised”, slavery grew, India was colonised and indentured labour flourished. This migration was the foundation of Europe’s economy and hegemony.

But since the 1960s, the movement has reversed. Europe and the West are now the destination of migration and not the point of origin. Because global capital now resides in the West or ‘North’ migration flows in that direction as people seek jobs and security.

Non-Western migration to Australia between 1960 and 1990 grew from 12-52%. At least 47% of Australians were born overseas or had a parent born overseas. The Church is mirroring Australian society and Australia is only part of or an unprecedented worldwide movement of migrants. In 2005 there were 191 million international migrants, 2.5% of the world’s population or 1 in every 34 people lived as a migrant.

‘The future isn’t what it used to be.’ We are at the birth pangs of a new multicultural Australian Church and there will be some pain but a lot of possibilities in that.

The pain will be less and the possibilities greater if we can welcome, support and integrate our migrant priests, religious and lay people into our Church, if we can enable them to settle in and to contribute their gifts then we have a rich future. Many come from vibrant Churches with much to share. But more importantly their experience of crossing cultural boundaries has given them insights and sensitivities that people who have never lived outside their own culture cannot have. These insights and sensitivities are vital for the growth of our Church.

Fr Noel Connolly is a Columban missionary priest. He is a member of the Columban Mission Institute, Strathfield, in Sydney, and of the Broken Bay Institute. He also lectures in mission at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.

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Cathblog - Presence on the journey

BY DAMIEN BRENNAN

Our presence to others can be a both an affirming and a challenging thing. Sometimes we are ‘in the zone’, aware of and engaging well with others.

At other times the distractions of life, or the many gadgets we carry with us, can mean we are more present to those in cyber space than people more immediate to us. Or we can be just plain tired or grumpy some days.

I have been thinking much about presence as we embark upon moving from our family home and neighbourhood of the past 23, very happy years.

We are not moving far, about twenty minutes away, to a small acreage property that will enable my wife to develop further her organic food and horticulture business. It is an exciting development, one we have been working towards for many years.

We have looked at more than 150 properties during the past eighteen months. But we are realists and we know that there will be some grieving as we move from the very familiar and from our friendly and supportive neighbours.

There are also the considerations of parish involvement and worship after we move, an additional aspect for those of us still trying to stay connected to a Church community.

It is so important for many of us to also find a spiritual home and a community of challenge and support. I hope we don’t have to explore 150 of them! We might yet decide to commute to our current parish. Who knows what we might find out there?

Co-incidentally, we are purchasing from a gracious elderly couple who, 20 years ago, moved from two streets away from our current home. As one of my mentors used exclaim about such things, ‘Synchronicity is everywhere!’ Sadly, the wife has advancing Alzheimer’s disease and they need to leave their much-loved property and move to a more high care situation. This has provided a sobering perspective to what some couples face.

We have started working our way through decades of accumulated stuff, some which is extremely important; such as my long dead parents’ lounge suite that they bought in Geelong when they married in 1936.

And there are other totems of less importance such as a seemingly endless supply of books, documents and articles that I have collected over the years because, ‘I might need to refer to them in a presentation or an article one day.’

It still remains a challenge deciding about these once vitally important attachments. Of course there are no such questions to be asked about plant species that will move with us from my wife’s abundant and productive edible organic garden!

Even the collection of our children’s teddy bears and soft toys had to be brought into the equation – do they move with us or not? We discussed this at one of our Sunday evening family meals and displayed them for all to examine. Our 25-year-old son could not see them leave our family and rescued them from their probable St Vinnies fate. They are all now ensconced at his place, for he said, ‘They have been like people to us in our childhood.’

The presence and imagination of childhood can be re-awakened at times like this – other markers of our life journey can come to the fore and re-engage us with moments or tokens of significance. In being present to ourselves we need to also honour our past and those people and situations that have impacted upon us positively.

A sense of reality can also bring temperance to our thoughts about those people, situations and times of disappointment from the past that we are better served to jettison, as best we can, if we are to move forward positively.

We need to be present to ourselves if we are to be present to others in a more engaged manner. Clearing through the stuff we have accumulated, mental or physical, can assist this.

The other aspect of moving is selling. At our real estate agent’s direction we have de-cluttered. Our home appears now as a pristine display house with many of our artefacts, such as the photos of our forbears, removed from their places of honour. We know that our home will sell, but we are living like we have not done for most of our lives. We already have some stuff packed away at two of our children’s places as a result of this direction to look like a house in a glossy magazine instead of a home. It’s all a bit false really. Maybe it is part of the process of becoming less present to this home and becoming more present to the journey ahead.

All of this brings me to another aspect of presence, those rituals that assist us to put life into perspective.

This is an important part of our current transition, as we will be challenged to develop new rituals in a new place. For example, moving further from the CBD, which we rarely visit these days as we both work from our home office, will entail new routes or different public transport options and require a longer journey time. We will need to find new doctors and chemists, engage with new neighbours and possibly reconsider if our Sunday evening ritual meal will continue to be convenient to all, especially for my 86 year-old mother in law.

I cannot help but think that Jesus and the Gospel writers had a profound insight about such rituals and our presence to each other in and through them. When we do break bread and drink wine we so often bring our current stories to the fore and might bring to the present moment times of significance from the past that are vital. So often many of our family rituals are ‘in memory of’, be they visiting a parent’s grave, remembering and honouring a loved one’s birthday, celebrating our anniversaries.

That the Catholic Church has worked through and proclaimed this ‘in memory of’ in the Eucharist to be a ‘real presence’ is a powerful reminder that our rituals can signify much more than their actions. They can be more than a trip down memory lane.

On that day we finally drive away from our current home, we will take many memories with us, as we start afresh on the next phase of our life journey in new surrounds. We will need to be present to those moments in order to take them into our future.

In time, stories associated with this transition might become a real presence in our family’s story, shared in and through our meals and our gatherings and especially when we break bread and share wine. This place we currently call home is significant to all in our family…and we are moving on.

Let’s hope that these moments of transition might also be pointers to that more significant ‘real presence’ from our larger Christian memory and through its continuing renewal of life in and through Jesus.

Perhaps it is in our families and in trying to connect our simple rituals with such larger ones that new evangelisation might find some initial fertile soil.

Being present to the moment and to others can be such a challenge – and it is vital.

Damien F. Brennan is a consultant and writer and provides leadership development services primarily to education, welfare, Church and not-for profit sectors.

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Cathblog - The continuing lessons of the Passion

BY DRASKO DIZDAR

Why did Jesus have to die? I am often asked this question by both teachers and students in Catholic schools – especially around this time of year (Eastertide).

Another question they often ask is: How can you believe in God when there is so much suffering and evil in the world?

To many of them evil and suffering are as good as ‘proof’ that there is no God – or at least that the Christian God can’t be true.

The fact that these questions are such a puzzle to them may be among the main reasons why most now identify themselves as either ‘unsure’ (read: ‘agnostic’) or atheist among them – as demonstrated by findings from surveys conducted under the Enhancing Catholic Identity Leuven Study.

If we can’t engage the questions of suffering and the reason for Christ’s death in a meaningful way and offer ‘an account of the hope that is in us’ (1Peter 3:15) then the ‘new evangelization’ is over before it starts.

The traditional answers that ‘Jesus died to save us from sin’ and that ‘suffering is a mystery’ are true; but they are also far too glib; and they beg the question – their premise is as questionable as their claim. In any event, they fail to give a meaningful and convincing response in our times and context.

The only convincing way to engage in these questions is to do so from within our own experience of the One who enables us to undergo the kind of transformation that turns our own suffering into hope and a burgeoning capacity to love.

In other words, if I speak to you about suffering apart from my own experience of it, I am wasting my time and yours; and if I speak of Christ’s death as though it wasn’t first and foremost about him loving me, then I haven’t yet heard the ‘good news’ with which I’m supposedly (re)evangelizing you.

Paul was a powerful messenger of the good news about Jesus precisely because he not only had ‘blood on his hands’ and was ‘the least and weakest’ of men, but he knew it, and said so.

If as a church we are serious about the new evangelization then we have to begin with the One who stands among us not as our vengeful or just or even benevolent Judge but as our healing and reconciling love.

Why do I believe in the resurrection? Because the story as told in the gospels is not something we are capable of inventing. The innocent victim of our betrayal (by Judas), denial (by Peter), abandonment (by the other ten) and even violent persecution (by Paul), comes to us not as our provisional and conditional forgiveness – much less our just condemnation – but as our Peace, breathing his own Spirit of reconciling love into us (cf. John 20:19-22).

This is so far off our moral and spiritual grid that we simply could not have made it up – and still find difficult to believe, much less understand and live by.

What Christ’s death and resurrection ‘saves’ me from is the tightening circle of self-loathing shame and guilt by which I participate in a world held together by blaming someone else for the mess we constantly and repeatedly find ourselves in.

What his decision to join me in suffering what I find meaningless does is to show me how being loved in my suffering can transform that suffering into something meaningful: it can become compassion, it can make me loving, it can set me free from the suffocating circle of shame and guilt that fuels the very suffering we visit upon each other and so upon ourselves.

In a world of suffering and evil how can I not believe in the One who loves me enough to join me in my suffering to the extent that he becomes the victim of my violence, treachery, denial and rejection in order to return to me, not as my Judge but as the One who bestows my true self upon me in the person of his own True Self, his very Spirit and Breath reviving my corpse?

It is precisely because there is evil and suffering in the world that I believe that ‘God’ can only be what Jesus is.

Dr Drasko Dizdar is a member of the Emmaus monastic community, and a theologian with the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office.

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Blogwatcher - A blueprint for the pontificate of Pope Francis?

BY STEFAN GIGACZ

Who picked Bergoglio for Pope? Not many journalists. David Gibson asks why, and gives credit to John Thavis who did get it right:

In retrospect, there were some hints of a Bergoglio candidacy. All the early buzz around appealingly novel papabile like Cardinal Turkson of Ghana or Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines diminished to almost zilch as it became clear the cardinals did not want to do anything too radical, like picking an African or an Asian – no “Obama moment” this time. They wanted something “out of the box” (a phrase that kept coming up in private conversations) but someone who would be familiar enough to perhaps win over some Roman votes – like Bergoglio, who was born of Italian parents, spoke Italian, and came from a very European country in Latin America.

Moreover, Bergoglio did enjoy a last minute bump from his intervention at the General Congregation, which drew the attention of some electors at the time. In the conclave his talk became even more important to those on the fence.

Now credit where credit is due: the only Vaticanista to pick up on the Bergoglio momentum before the conclave was John Thavis, the longtime CNS Vatican bureau chief and author of a new bestseller about his time in Rome, “The Vatican Diaries.”

* * *

More insight into the likely orientation of Pope Francis' papal ministry comes from reports of the important role he played in the drafting the document from the CELAM Latin American bishops conference at Aparacida in Brazil in 2007.

Barbara J. Fraser writes that when the conference began, Cardinal Bergoglio was the runaway choice to head the drafting commission. said Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru, who served on a subcommission that worked on the section of the final document about the environment.

"More than 130 bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean trusted him," said Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru, who served on a subcommission that worked on the section of the final document about the environment.

"That trust reflected his simplicity, his lack of desire to stand out. Those things drew everyone's attention." The cardinal repaid that trust by working long into the night, encouraging his colleagues who were drafting various chapters of the document and urging them to keep two things in mind -- "Christ, the Good Shepherd ... and the people who were awaiting a word of enlightenment that responded to their needs," Archbishop Barreto said. Three themes at the heart of the Aparecida conference, which Pope Francis has echoed in his early homilies, were "the personal encounter with Christ, the option for the poor and stewardship of creation," the archbishop said.

Read the Aparecida Concluding Document here:

http://fr.slideshare.net/cscctt/aparecida-document

* * *

Certainly people continue to appreciate the human touch that he is bringing to his pontificate.

#PopeFrancis puts pacifier back in mouth of screaming baby.twitter.com/CatholicNewsSv…
— Catholic News Svc (@CatholicNewsSvc) April 10, 2013

* * *

No doubt it's too soon to compare Kirsten Powers article Where are the front page horror stories? on the Kermit Gosnell abortion-murder case in the US with Emile Zola's famous J'accuse newspaper article in 1898 exposing the Dreyfus affair in France.

Nevertheless, it is remarkable to see how in the space of two days Powers' article has galvanised the social media sphere:

RT @lilagracerose: 166,800 tweets on #Gosnell! We will not be silent, even when the media wants us to be! ow.ly/k2bVK
— Jill Stanek (@JillStanek) April 13, 2013

Good job, all. Keep it up. RT @patrickruffini: How the #Gosnell story took over Twitter: twitter.com/PatrickRuffini…
— Jill Stanek (@JillStanek) April 13, 2013

Elizabeth Scalia comments:

It has been, as Ed Driscoll notes a slow awakening for the mainstream media, but now that they are reading the Grand Jury reports on Kermit Gosnell and the testimony at his trial, some members of the press are saying yes, this story deserves covering and in fact demands it from many angles.

Perhaps I am only an optimist, and a naive one, but I feel like this is a break in the tide; a moment that can perhaps turn America from its myriad and mostly empty distractions, and get her asking important questions about who we are, what we have been enabling, who we want to be and what serving “the least among us” really means.

* * *

The sad life of Rickey Lynn Lewis came to its anticipated end Wednesday morning Australian time

Before he died, Lewis admitted to Connie Hilton that he had raped her but denied murdering her fiance. The Start Telegram reported Lewis' final words before his execution:

"When I saw you in the truck driving away, I could have killed you, but I didn't," he said. "I'm not a killer."

Lewis thanked his friends who watched through a nearby window "for the love you gave me."

"I thank the Lord for the man I am today. I have done all I can to better myself, to learn to read and write," he said, appearing to choke back tears. "Take me to my king."

As the drug began taking effect, he said he could feel it "burning my arm."

"I feel it in my throat. I'm getting dizzy," Lewis said before he started to snore and, seconds later, lost consciousness.

He was pronounced dead 14 minutes after the lethal dose began.

Also present at the execution were Rickey's French adoptive parents Rene and Daniele Sirven, who described Rickey's final moments as "pure violence".

* * *

More evidence on Twitter that's it's getting closer to World Youth Day in Brazil with the release of Rio 2013 soundtrack:

“In the heart of the WYD” gathers the Rio2013 soundtrack: “In the heart of the WYD” gathers the Rio2013 soundtrack bit.ly/16JyGqe
— WJD Rio 2013 (@wjdrio) April 8, 2013

Meanwhile, YCW leaders are doing their own preparation.

Doing it Melbourne YCW style fb.me/23VJrkZOE
— Australian YCW (@AustralianYCW) April 13, 2013

The National Executive are hanging in Melbourne for team meeting #2
— Australian YCW (@AustralianYCW) April 13, 2013

* * *

Last word to Jesuit Fr James Martin again this week:

People who mock Twitter say you can't express anything of value in a short space. Jesus did. The Beatitudes were all under 140 characters:
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) April 12, 2013

Michael Mullins Stefan Gigacz is preparing a PhD. at MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne, on the role of Joseph Cardijn at Vatican II.

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Cathblog - On eagle’s wings

BY JOHN RYAN

New experiences beyond the age of 70 that impact significantly on one’s life are rare.

I often think about experiences that might provide me with a deeper understanding of my faith. Flying in a glider was one such experience but until a few years ago I had never done so. Then fortuitously I found myself in Victoria at the Benalla airfield preparing to fulfill a long delayed ambition.

Before I was securely strapped in, having signed the necessary papers agreeing to take the obvious risks, the pilot once more reminded me of those risks with the rather solemn question ‘are you sure that this is what you want to do?’ I dared not think again as I answered quite automatically and watched the tow plane take up its position in front of me. [I was in the front seat from where the vision was unbelievable.]

The towrope was connected and we were underway, being pulled up to about five hundred meters or fifteen hundred feet. At that point the pilot whose name was also John taped me on the shoulder and instructed me to pull the yellow lever which disengaged the rope and suddenly we were all alone drifting in space.

The feeling of being up there and all alone was powerful, no engines, no ropes, no nothing, relying solely on unseen elements to keep us aloft. Surrending to those elements was a real act of faith especially knowing that if they were to stop acting the fall would be a great one!

Clearly I was feeling more alone and vulnerable than normal and more alone than ever before in an aeroplane.

This awareness led me to recall and appreciate how we are launched into life and set into orbit by first being pulled alone by others.

Of course, there is the umbilical cord but over and beyond that there are numerous ties that we rely on for our education and nurture; but there always comes the moment when we are challenged to cut free and take responsibility for our own journey.

The experience of being launched into invisible air, relying in hop on the promise that it could sustain us, was a clear reminder for me of faith. In our early years we are sustained and indeed exist within the faith of our parents and the communities to which we belong.

But then, for most of us, there comes the day when mature faith brings a call to launch ourselves into the unknown where we see nothing but confidently trust in the promise that there is something there to support us and lead us to a richer life.

I was fascinated to know how John knew when it was time for us to disengage the rope that connected us to the towing airplane. When I quizzed him, he reminded me of a couple of instruments he had explained to me during the brief introduction to the glider before take off.

These instruments are called Vario Meters and they register upward thrusts and sink movements in the surrounding air. He said that once we were at a reasonable height and he had registered good lift it was appropriate for us to cut free and fly on our own.

Those Vario Meters became significant for me during the light and they have taken on a highly symbolic spiritual meaning for me subsequently. Let me explain.

Within that vast invisible space that we were immersed in there were both up drafts and down drafts.

The up drafts would not only hold us up, they would also give us height to move forward and explore further.

The down drafts, significantly called “sink” would pull us down with energy over and above the force of gravity. To be able to identify and distinguish the up movements from the down ones was critical and while the Vario instrument was useful, surely this was a special skill that any glider pilot would need to have.

All of this easily became another powerful parable for me of the spiritual life.

There we are being constantly challenged to move into realms where we are subject to both upward and downward forces that are often described as good and bad spirits. Such spirits, like the drafts of air surrounding glider, can look very much the same to the untrained eye.

While we too have our equivalent to the Vario instrument in terms of teaching and guidelines there is the need to develop those personal skills of consciencethatallow us to sort the good impulses from the bad ones.

Whenit came time to land it was important that when we came down to a critical height we were near enough to the airfield to make it home. Surely another parable for the spiritual life.

In other words, don’t wander into dangerous territory without being virtuous enough to deal with the inherent challenges.

Years ago I read a very good book on the spiritual life titled Riding the Wind; it was all about living in the Holy Spirit.

My experience in the glider took what I had learned from that book to a whole new level. I think that one of my firm resolutions is to try to do more gliding, perhaps not with the Victorian Gliding Club, but in my life in general, trying to move more freely in and with the Spirit who bears us up on the breath of dawn and holds us in the palm of his hand.

Fr John Ryan, a Sandhurst Diocese priest who lives in Canberra, has spent much of his 49 years of ministry working in renewal projects, especially with priests.

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Cathblog - Stay in your own backyard

Image: Google

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BY GARRY EVERETT

Sometimes the import of a message is best communicated through the emotions, rather than the reasons. When we try to explain what ‘the new life of Easter’ is really like, we stumble in our attempts to use logic and rationality. I offer below, the words of a song to illustrate the power of the emotion to do so much better than our intellect can.

This song has a history for me. It was sung to me when I was quite a small child, by a lady who helped my mother when Mum was ill. ‘Mrs Henry’, as I knew this lady, came from some island north of Australia; she was dark-skinned, had steel-grey, wiry hair and a voice like honey. That I have never forgotten her song in all these years is a wonderful tribute to how she sang it. The song is about new life --- but with a twist! Let’s read the words, remembering that reading is a pale version of the sung feelings.

Lilac trees are blooming in the corner by the gate, Mammy’s at the little cabin door.

Curly-headed piccaninny coming home so late, crying ‘cause his little heart is sore.

All the children playing round with skins so white and fair, none of them with him would ever play,

So Mammy on her lap, takes the weeping little chap, and sings in her kind old way:

Now honey you stay in your own backyard, and don’t care what the white childs do.

What show do you suppose they goin’ to give, a black little coon like you?

Go stay on this side of your high –board fence, and honey don’t you cry so hard;

Go out and play as much as you wish, but stay in your own backyard.

Every day the children as they passed old Mammy’s place, romping home from school at night and noon;

Peeping through the fence they’d see, an eager little face, such a wistful lonesome little coon;

Then one day the little face was gone forever more, God had called the dusky little elf.

But Mammy sat and rocked as she rocked him off before, and crooned to her old black self:

Now honey you stay in your own backyard, and don’t care what the white childs do;

What show do you suppose they goin’ to give, a black little coon like you?

Go stay on this side of your high-board fence, and honey don’t you cry so hard;

Go out and play as much as you wish, but stay in your own back yard.

The words of this song describe an experience at the heart of the lives of so many of our indigenous brothers and sisters. Versions of it inspired Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, founders of religious orders, ordinary men and women who saw the need for justice in our world. But there is a twist in this song, which on first reading or hearing can escape us. Whilst the words of the chorus, which conclude the song, do not change, their import does!

The poignancy is to be found in the realization that Mammy sings the same words, even though ‘God had called the dusky little elf.’ She reminds her piccaninny that even in Heaven, he can expect to find a high-board fence, and that further, he should expect to play in his own backyard. Such is the power of discrimination and non-acceptance, that it can colour even our view of ‘the new life of Easter.’ How could anyone believe that even Heaven will still continue the realities of all those fences that divide?

I hope that some of you who read this article will learn ‘by heart’ ( that vehicle of emotion and passion) the words of this song. If you do, perhaps your experiences will be similar to mine: at the most un-expected of times, the emotional call will tug at your heart strings, and lead you where you may not have chosen to go. Sometimes the heart will rule the head, and that is how it should be. For as another song reminds us:

‘I will break their hearts of stone; make them hearts for love alone... Whom shall I send?’

The answer to that song’s question is not to be found by reason and analysis. The answer is more heart-felt.

Garry Everett is deputy chair of Mercy Partners in Queensland and a former Deputy Director of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and previous chair of the Brisbane Archdiocesan Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.

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Cathblog - Altar serving for children

BY ERWIN CABUCOS

In the busy schedule of our children’s weekends these days, altar serving has had to compete against the attractiveness of sports and cultural activities available in their repertoire of choices.

There are swimming, soccer and taekwondo on Saturdays that promise the benefits of physical health, teamwork and general wellbeing. There’s rugby, dancing and tutoring on Sundays that sell outcomes such as physical strength, social skills and improvement in subject results.

What about altar serving, what has it got to offer? Why should parents consider it worthwhile for their children to engage in?

When I told my friends that I would enter the seminary many years ago, their first reaction was: what does that give you? How much money would you earn from it?

At my university campus, housemates asked me: ‘Why go to church when you can come with us to footy?’ In my religion classes, students asked me: ‘Sir, what has religion got to do with my job prospects when I finish school?’ I got that last question answered pretty quick and smart, but this idea of questioning spiritual things in the standards of materialism and pleasure-seeking benchmarks is quite odd.

How do you measure the benefits of things spiritual or transcendental? How do you completely define or gauge the experience of peace, tranquillity, love, justice, piety, respect, harmony, etc.

Anyhow, since we have the question at hand, why don’t we try to look into the practical benefits of altar serving in a child today?

First, the skills of being aware and in sync with the flow of the event is put into practice. Mass is a liturgical celebration of words and actions that symbolise and represent meanings within the Catholic teachings and tradition. Altar servers, where they are expected to be doing or still, to be saying prayers or being quiet, to be singing or listening, are applied. When to do and when not to do an action tests one’s attention while being patient and adherence while being in control. Movements such as the procession at the start, the handing of water and wine to the priest, the ringing of bells at consecration and other actions demand awareness of the process and cooperation within a team environment.

Second, the enjoyment of being able to dress-up, select suitable vessels and prepare appropriate colours of vestments as well as decorating the church for the meanings and theme of the liturgy involve tactile and aesthetic skills.

In many of activities similar to these, children are challenged in the skills of recalling meanings, selecting from options, matching consistent items, looking for balance and order, adhering to expectation, prioritising for what’s more relevant and observing for roles and responsibility, not to mention the fun that may be brought by being able to wear outfits of religious and community significance.

Third, the involvement of parents, teachers, friends, and community members in the liturgy provide a deeper sense of belonging, identity and perhaps security for the child. In most sporting activity, parents are reduced to mere spectators while at Mass or other church liturgical celebrations, the whole family members are all participants. It becomes more satisfying for the child.

Fourth, the stimulation of the senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, touching and tasting in the public celebration of the liturgy shows the versatility of the activities. Examples of those instances include: hearing the beautiful choral ensemble of the choir, smelling the perfumes of the incense, touching the bible and the Eucharistic vessels and tasting small amount of bread and wine filled with meaning and graces. The psychological or experiential appeal of the activities may prove to be wholesome and engaging for the teenager.

Fifth, children’s sense of occasion and awareness of growth or cycle in the seasons are deepened. Christmas, Lent, Palm Sunday, Easter, Feast of Christ the King and other significant events in the church calendar do help kids understand elements of permanence, change, consistency and dynamism. Changes in season reflect the different times, mood, prayer and events in life. Narratives associated in those seasons add meaning into those realities. Altar serving in sacrament-based liturgies such as baptism, wedding or first communion can introduce children into a sense of growth, community, relationship, family, roles, identities, love, courage, hope and faith.

Furthermore, other liturgies such as funeral or anointing of the sick may bring more profound experiences for altar servers that an ordinary classroom or sports field simply provides. These experiences, including the homily of the priest can give the child rich soil for personal reflection towards more mature inspiration, memories and illumination for what is happiness and meaning of life.

Catholic parents and other adults who have children under their care know that altar serving for children offers far more wholesome benefits than simply being at the altar and suspicion that one day their will become priests or nuns. If it turns out that way, then maybe it is meant to be, but the sense of faith, love and other spiritual things that is experienced in a liturgy far extends children’s understanding of life in general.

Erwin Cabucos is a migrant from the Philippines, an ethnic radio broadcaster and a teacher of English, History and Study of Religion at Assisi Catholic College, Upper Coomera, Qld

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Cathblog - Mannix: The Legacy

By Clifton Pugh, The National Portrait Gallery

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BY GABRIELLE McMULLEN

Recently I received an invitation to speak at the conference organised by the Archdiocese of Melbourne to mark the centenary of Archbishop Daniel Mannix’s arrival in Australia and 50th anniversary of his death.

Entitled Daniel Mannix: His Legacy, the conference held at the State Library of Victoria, re-assessed Mannix’s impact and contributions, particularly during his 50 years in Australia.

Two significant Irish participants were the keynote speaker, Emeritus Professor Dermot Keogh, and Patrick Mannix, a distant relative of his namesake, who wrote a thesis and in 2012 published a book on his famous ancestor, The Belligerent Prelate: An alliance between Archbishop Daniel Mannix and Eamon de Valera.

Daniel Mannix: His Legacy was a stimulating conference and the papers are to be published, given the significance of Mannix not only for the Church but also for the wider community.

I was asked to speak at the conference on Mannix’s role in the establishment of Melbourne’s Catholic residential colleges, namely Newman and St Mary’s Colleges at the University of Melbourne and Mannix College at Monash University. I also explored why Mannix’s commitment to higher education for Catholics did not extend to an Australian Catholic university and argued that, in the contemporary context, this new higher education apostolate of the Australian Church would have had Mannix’s patronage (a topic for another blog).

On the day of his arrival in Melbourne, Easter Sunday 1913, Mannix gave his first public address, during which he advocated that: ‘Every inducement should be held out to Catholics to take their proper place in the Universities’.

Given Australia’s stage of development and the relative disadvantage of Catholics, he saw university colleges associated with secular universities as the appropriate means to achieve this goal. They allowed Catholics to attend university ‘with all due and sufficient safeguards for their faith and the practice of their religion’ (The Advocate, 29 March 1913, 22). Mannix was committed to improving Catholics’ access to higher education, thereby qualifying them for the professions and increasing their influence on and participation in Australian society.

Amongst the first responsibilities delegated by Archbishop Thomas Carr of Melbourne to Mannix as his Coadjutor Archbishop was the establishment of the Catholic residential college planned for the University of Melbourne. Mannix chaired the College Executive Committee which over the period 1914-1918 oversaw planning for and construction of the Walter Burley Griffin-designed Newman College and the arrival of the first (male) students in 1918.

The second project in support of Catholics attending secular universities was St Mary’s Hall and later St Mary’s College at the University of Melbourne. These had their origins in an earlier hostel for Catholic women studying at the University of Melbourne established by the Loreto Sisters.

Building on this foundation, in 1917 Mannix requested the Loreto Sisters to secure a property for the Archdiocese near the University of Melbourne as a residence for women students. Thus, St Mary’s Hall, the first Catholic women’s college at an Australian university, also welcomed its first students in 1918.

While some plans exist that suggest the original College Executive Committee intended to include a women’s wing at Newman College, this was not realised in the 1918 project.

Over the ensuing decades Mannix and other key players argued strongly against the co-location of men’s and women’s residences. By the mid-twentieth century, however, St Mary’s Hall had the resources to expand and the most suitable site was adjacent to Newman College.

Further, the University of Melbourne was in need of space and seemed to be eyeing this vacant land. Finally in 1963, the decision was taken, with Mannix’s endorsement, to commit the land to a new Catholic women's college.

While St Mary's Hall came into being during Mannix’s early years in Melbourne, his approval for its relocation and the establishment of St Mary's College (in 1996) occurred in his hundredth and final year.

During 1963 Mannix was also actively involved in