Rap for Schönborn?
Reading between the lines, it would
appear that the increasingly outspoken Cardinal Christoph Schönborn,
archbishop of Vienna and president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference,
may have discovered last month what it was like to be on the papal mat.
A Vatican communiqué issued after a personal audience with Benedict XVI
on 28 June, which Schönborn had asked for, noted that the meeting had
“clarified and resolved” certain “widespread misunderstandings” that had
derived from “misinterpretation” of statements the cardinal had made.
In April Schönborn had implicitly criticised Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the
present dean of the College of Cardinals, for blocking an investigation
(while he was John Paul II’s head of the Secretariat of State) into
sexual abuse charges against Schönborn’s predecessor as Archbishop of
Vienna, Cardinal Hans Groer. Groer retired to a monastery in 1995 and
after further allegations were made against him was defrocked in 1998.
He died in March 2003 never having been prosecuted. Schönborn, who
famously said the Vatican had “screwed up” when it withdrew an
excommunication bar on a SSPX bishop Richard Williamson for denying the
Holocaust, succeeded Groer in 1995. His 28 June visit to the pope’s
office would have been an uncomfortable ordeal. Sodano was also
present.
Coalition policy: bishops cautious
The Australian Catholic Bishops’
Conference has put a question mark over Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s
recently announced policy on refugees and asylum seekers. If returned
to government, the Coalition would require asylum seekers to be
processed overseas after which they would be given temporary protection
visas allowing them to work and have access to Medicare but they would
not have family reunion rights. “It has always been the view of the
Catholic church,” conference spokesman Bishop Joe Grech observed, “that
asylum seekers should be treated as human beings not political
footballs.” He said the coalition policy sounded as though it “could be
quite punitive toward asylum seekers who had left their countries of
origin because of dire and dangerous situations.” The requirement of
asylum seekers to have to work for their benefits would need to be
carefully considered and its motives made very transparent, Grech said.
Cardinal
named in corruption probe
Benedict
XVI must sometimes despair of ever having a trouble-free day. The
latest cause for lost sleep is a police investigation into allegations
of corruption involving the property and financial dealings of
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe when he headed the Congregation for the
Evangelisation of Peoples, known as Propaganda Fide, from 2001
until 2006. The allegations, which the cardinal denies, are that he sold
property below market value to a government minister who then allocated
public funds for work on the Vatican building housing the congregation.
There are also questions about how the cardinal helped a government
official, now also under investigation, to find a flat in one of Rome’s
most exclusive districts. Wider allegations are said to include bribery
and sexual favours involving businessmen, members of the church
hierarchy and public officials. Among those being investigated is Guido
Bertolaso, special commissioner for the 2009 Aquila earthquake disaster
fund and a senior aide to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit, said the Vatican
supported Cardinal Sepe who had “the right to be respected and
esteemed.” The Vatican wanted the situation cleared up “fully and
rapidly so that shadows on him and on Church institutions can be
eliminated,” Lombardi said.
Anglicans move closer to Rome
The
Traditional Church of England Wales and Scotland (TAC) has formally
asked the Vatican to authorise the establishment of a “personal
ordinariate” in Britain in response to the pope’s initiative
Anglicanorum Coetibus which permits disaffected Anglicans to move
en masse to the Catholic church. In a letter to Cardinal William
Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, TAC
asks that an interim governing council be formed and arrangements made
to choose a leader, known as an “ordinary”. The TAC has 30 parishes in
the UK. It is not part of the Anglican communion although it is known
that at least three Anglican bishops, including John Broadhurst, the
leader of Forward in Faith, the largest group of Anglo-Catholics in the
Anglican Church, have visited Rome recently to discuss the pope’s
invitation.
Another miracle please
A year or so ago the advocates of John Newman’s beatification were
having difficulty tracking down the requisite number of miracles
necessary for him to progress along the road to eventual sainthood.
Now, with only weeks remaining before Benedict XVI’s September arrival
in the UK to preside over the beatification, it seems they may need yet
another miracle to pay for it. The Catholic church is committed to pay
half the cost of the papal visit, initially put at £7m but reported to
have blown out to £14m, but so far has raised only £3.5m. To the
rescue, in response to a plea from prime minister David Cameron, has
come the good Catholic Baron Patten of Barnes (but still called Chris),
who hopefully will prove to be just as successful in helping the church
out of its financial dilemma as he was, as governor of Hong Kong, in
negotiating Britain’s transfer of the colony back to China in 1997.
Der tag, a special welcome
By chance a year ago your editor and his wife participated in what has
become known in Austria as the Long Night of the Churches. Since 2004,
on one night each year, first in Vienna, then throughout Austria and now
into the neighbouring Czech republic, most Christian churches throw open
their doors from evening to the early hours of the morning to give the
general populace a glimpse of what goes on inside. Every church puts on
its own program with activities ranging from prayer services, lectures
and forums on current issues to plays, concerts and musical recitals.
For the energetic abseiling from church parapets or climbing up church
towers or down into the catacombs is not uncommon although most people
just sit quietly and enjoy the atmosphere. The annual event, initiated
by Fr Karl Ruhringer, episcopal vicar of St Stephen’s cathedral in
Vienna, and promoted for months by small red Der Tag notices on
church doors, is heralded on the night by the ringing of the bells of
every Christian church in the town. It was on again last month when
hundreds of thousands of people visited 750 churches in Austria and
another 400 in neighbouring countries.
Spiritual care for the dying
The healthcare reference group of the Catholic Bishops Conference of
England and Wales has produced a much-needed booklet providing practical
guidance “to frontline health care staff” on spiritual care of the
dying. The publication, launched on 25 June at a faith and health
conference in Liverpool, was acclaimed by Baroness Finlay of Llandaff,
professor of palliative medicine at Cardiff University, who said it was
applicable to dying people of any faith or none because “we share a
common humanity if not a common faith.” Dr David Jones, one of the
authors, said it was a document “with some practical help, some ethical
guidelines and an invitation to think more deeply.”
Tick for St Jude’s
The St Jude’s Catholic
parish primary school in Langwarrin, a south-eastern Melbourne suburb,
has become the first school in Australia to obtain a computer software
licence which allows students
to
use their computers at home to access programs on which they are working
in the classroom. The prep-to-year-six children will be able to use the
same software which includes publisher, draw, paint, spreadsheet,
database, presenter, branch, turtle logo and movies
for
the whole of the time they are at St Jude’s. The decision to introduce
the system was described by the school’s parents and friends secretary
Mrs Eleanor Strickleton as
an
“example of how St Jude’s strives to develop a closer partnership
between home and school."
But are ye
listening?
Logging on
to the internet in the hope of discovering when the last Catholic
bishop’s synod was held can be a vastly unrewarding exercise, especially
if you want to know when the last one was held in Australia. There’ve
been lots of bishop’s synods in the UK and America but they are mostly
Anglican. There have also been a few Catholic ones in the United States
but nary is there a mention of one in Australia. Not in recent history,
anyway. All of which makes it doubly interesting, significant even,
that the Catholic bishop of Broken Bay David Walker has decided to have
one in his diocese next year. The bishop has announced a task force of
six—of which, incidentally, three are women one of whom is the
coordinator—to get the synod up and running. The task force’s charter
is “to create opportunities for listening to the people of the diocese
and to act on that feed back to shape the direction of the synod.” To
which some might say may there be many more.
Women
priests yes but NIMBY?
The
Anglican archbishops of Canterbury and York—Rowan Williams and John
Sentamu— have joined forces in a desperate attempt to prevent their
church from tearing itself asunder over whether there should be women
bishops in the church. The issue will come to a head later this month
when legislation to give effect to this is debated in the General
Synod. Sensing that the problem for many Anglicans, clergy and lay, is
less about the church having women bishops than about having women
bishops practising in “my church,” the two archbishops propose an
amendment by which upon request women priests would voluntarily refrain
from functions where they are not wanted and these would be carried out
by a “nominated” male bishop. In a joint statement they explained that
“where a parish sought [such] arrangements by issuing a Letter of
Request, the diocesan would in practice refrain from exercising certain
of his or her functions in such a parish and would leave the nominated
bishop to exercise those functions in the parish in question.” As they
say, and the best of British luck.
For your Catalyst diary
17 July
Reflection morning
Speaker Dr Trish Madigan OP Finding Peace and Authenticity- a
Pilgrim Way Sacred Heart Church Hall, Cnr Sturt and Wentworth Sts,
Blackheath, NSW. For information: Carmel 4787 8706
19 July Aquinas Academy
forum Speaker Fr Donald Cozzens. Salvation Army Assembly Hall 140
Elizabeth Street Sydney 6pm (to 7.30). Cost $20 pp. For information:
Aquinas Academy 02 9247 4651:
21 July
Dinner and public lecture Speaker Fr Donald Cozzens. Responder:
Bishop Geoffrey Robinson God’s holy People or God’s Holy Empire?
Towards a healthier, humbler church. Veneto Club, 191 Bulleen Rd,
Bulleen VIC. Bookings, call 1300 650 878
23 July
Catalyst dinner Speaker International guest, Fr Donald Cozzens
in conversation with Fr Michael Whelan. Holy Name of Mary Parish
Hall 3a Mary St Hunters Hill, NSW For information: Pauline: through
message Bank: 02 9990 700
7 August
Reflection morning Speaker Fr Kevin Bates sm “Song
Cycle of the Sacraments”. Holy Name of Mary Parish Hall 3a Mary
Street Hunters Hill. 9.30am For
information: Carole 9869
1036 or Michelle 9958 5961
7 August
Reflection morning Speaker Lynette Young rsj. Currajeen 811 Bridge
Inn Rd, Doreen Vic. 9.30am For information: Margaret 0425 878 236
21 August
Reflection morning Speaker Dr Robert Tilley Spirituality and
Self Perception Sacred Heart Church Hall, Cnr Sturt and Wentworth
Sts, Blackheath, NSW. For information: Carmel 4787 8706
SIP program
Check Catalyst website www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au for Spirituality
in the Pub venues, topics and speakers.
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