JUNE 2010 Edition 22

US report chides own religious freedom policy

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has branded 13 nations—Burma, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam—as “countries of particular concern” and has placed on its “2010 watch list” another 12 nations that “require close monitoring due to violations of religious freedom”. The United States’ own foreign policy on religious freedom did not escape censure, the commission’s annual report quoting its chairman Leonard Leo as saying that “after some strong language on religious freedom” by President Obama his references to the issue “had become rare.” The same, he said, applied to Secretary of State Clinton. “The government must do more,” he said. Nations on the USCIRF watch list are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

Catholic stamp on history

Australian philatelists, especially Catholic ones, will be queuing up this month to buy Australia Post’s first stamp to commemorate an event in a parish church. The stamp, which appropriately goes on sale on 11 June, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, is to celebrate the 120^th anniversary that day of the dedication of the Sacred Heart parish church in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne.

Yes, no, maybe

Catholic folk who are inclined to believe the old saying that where there’s smoke there’s fire could be wondering if Cardinal George Pell’s nine-year tenure as Sydney’s archbishop is nearing its end. There have been persistent rumours for months, frequently aired by Tablet’s well-informed Rome correspondent Robert Mickens, that Pell, who turns 70 in June next year, is in line for promotion to a senior post in Rome, often nominated as successor to the soon-to-retire Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, a position he has held for the last 10 years. Some Australians will not weep at Re’s departure. It was his pressure on the Australian bishops in 2008 that was reported to have persuaded them to attack the theology of fellow Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s best-selling book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church. But that, of course, was before the church was forced to admit, at least by implication, that there was substance in Robinson’s courageous questioning of its handling of the sex abuse scandal. Spare a prayer for Bishop Geoffrey.

Priests in search of hope

Spare a thought also for the tens of thousands of good, totally blameless Catholic priests whose lives have been turned upside down and their morale battered mercilessly by the scandal. A remarkable number of them—236 already booked against a usual turn up of half that—will attend the biennial convention of the National Council of Priests in Australia at Parramatta on July 12-16, the theme of which will be Where is the Risen Lord in the changing face of the priesthood? One of the organisers (and Catalyst foundation member), Fr Michael Whelan, thinks the convenient location and the strong line-up of speakers (among them American Fr Donald Cozzens, Fr Richard Lennan, of the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese, who is currently lecturing at Boston College, ABC presenter Geraldine Doogue and Professor David Tacey) could be factors in the unprecedented interest in the convention but he suspects there is a deeper meaning. He points out that the Catholic church has in recent times brought on itself terrible opprobrium from the wider society. Some priests had been responsible for criminal behaviours that had hurt people horribly and some priests and bishops had tried to hide from this awful truth, only to exacerbate the pain and damage already done. “The great majority of priests who generously and faithfully continue to serve their people are looking for some signs of hope,” Whelan said. “Where is the Risen Lord in all this? I see the unprecedented interest in this convention as a very good sign, indicating energy and hope and a willingness to face what must be.”

Footnote Fr Whelan has written four interesting commentaries on the issue of clerical abuse. They can be found by clicking on the link http://www.aquinasacademy.com/PDF/WEB%202010%2023%20SEXUAL%20ABUSE%20AND%20THE%20CATHOLIC%20SYSTEM%20objectivism.pdf

Priest reformist to speak

American priest, author and outspoken advocate of reform in the Catholic church, Donald Cozzens will speak in Sydney next month at a Catalyst dinner. Cozzens, about whom a journalist once said, “While some people try to ignore the fractured foundation of our church, Fr Donald Cozzens calls attention to the cracks in the hope of inspiring enough people to work together to repair the damage,” has written several books including his award-winning best-seller Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church. The Catalyst dinner—titled Fr Donald Cozzens in conversation with Fr Michael Whelan—will be on 23 July in St Mary’s Parish Hall 3 Mary St Hunters Hill, commencing at 7pm. See Digest Diary for further information.

No blogs please

The Traditional Anglican Communion which is leading the drive among Church of England members to accept Benedict XV1’s invitation (Anglicanorum Coetibus) to move en masse to the Catholic church is showing evidence of growing pains. TAC primate Archbishop John Hepworth has announced the introduction of a special section on Anglo-Catholic, the movement’s website, on which only official statements may be published. It appears that a report of proceedings of a recent meeting of the Anglican Church in America’s House of Bishops, seemingly contentious, was posted on the website in the archbishop’s name without his approval. In his statement Hepworth wrote of the unauthorized report causing difficulties of communication and confusion and he complained that the message published was “not entirely helpful” to the TAC’s commitment to pursue unity with the Catholic Church. The new official documents section of the website would maintain an absolute distinction between formal announcements and any open discussion conducted on the site. Discussion would be prohibited in the section.

Abortion ads on TV

The Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales has condemned as “exploitive” an advertising campaign that promotes abortion on British television, and has demanded that it be stopped. The sponsor, Marie Stopes International, launched the campaign at the beginning of June, planning to run it on Channel 4 for the whole of the month. The advertisements urge women to call a help line if they believe they could be pregnant and need advice. The company

Bishops warn “wound to Catholjc unity”

US president Barrack Obama could be forgiven for permitting himself a wry smile when he read the Catholic claims it received 350 000 calls in the first couple of days and argues that the response justifies its decision to advertise. The bishops will be lucky to win this one. The UK Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice prohibits commercial abortion clinics from advertising on television but the Marie Stopes clinics escape the ban because it does not apply to not-for-profit organisations.bishops’ statement on 21 May after his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act finally made it into the statute book. This despite the bishops’ unrelenting opposition to the bitter end and the widespread dismay of ordinary citizens, including Catholics, who desperately needed decent health care which Obama has now delivered. The bishops’ long statement contains the faintest hint of confession that the legislation probably wasn’t all that bad but none of apologia for the hard words they used against the president and his health reform. It does however record that the bishops were “disturbed and disappointed” by reactions “inside and outside the church that had sought to marginalise or dismiss legitimate concerns that were presented in a serious manner by us.” “Our clear and consistent position,” the bishops said, “has been misrepresented, misunderstood and misused for political and other purposes. Our right to speak in the public forum has been questioned.” The statement continued: “Our teaching role within the Catholic Church and even our responsibility to lead the church have come under criticism.” The bishops “disagreed” that the divergence between the Catholic conference and Catholic organisations, including the Catholic Health Association, represented merely a difference of analysis or strategy. Rather, they said, for what ever good will was intended, it represented a “fundamental disagreement, not just with our staff as some maintain but with the bishops themselves. As such, it has resulted in confusion and a wound to Catholic unity.”

Prayerfest for Brisbane

If you are going north to catch the Queensland sun next month it would be a good idea to book early and make sure you pack your Rosary beads as well as your swimmers and sun cream because in July Brisbane archbishop John Bathersby is staging a quite remarkable program that he’s calling Pray2010. The aim of the project is to bring together people from across Australia and perhaps overseas “to deepen their relationship with Jesus through prayer”. The program will be in Brisbane over three days—7-10 July— and will include a wide variety of top keynote speakers from the United States, Italy, the UK and Australia. Archbishop Bathersby, who has long believed that prayer is the powerhouse of our lives and mission, is confident that Prayer2010 will be a “wellspring for renewing the prayer life of Catholics” in his archdiocese and beyond.

For your Catalyst diary

3 July Reflection morning. Speaker Dr Alex Nelson Transforming Shame St Mary’s Church Hall 3 Mary Street Hunters Hill 9.30am For information: Carole 9869 1036 or Michelle 9958 5961

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:

23 July Catalyst dinner. Speaker International guest, Fr Donald Cozzens in conversation with Fr Michael Whelan. St Mary’s Parish Hall 3 Mary St Hunters Hill, NSW For information: Pauline: through message Bank: 02 9990 7003.

7 August Reflection Morning. Speaker Lynette Young rsj. Currajeen 811 Bridge Inn Rd, Doreen Vic. 9.30an For information: Margaret 0425 878 236

SIP progra Check Catalyst website www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au for Spirituality in the Pub venues, topics and speakers.

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May 2010 Edition 21

Bye bye Wilcannia-Forbes?

June 3 2010 very likely will be a sad sad day for Catholic folks in outback western New South Wales. That’s the day that the Australian bishops are expected to decide the future of their beloved but terminally ill Wilcannia-Forbes diocese and it doesn’t look all that good. The 20-parish diocese, the biggest in New South Wales whose 414,000 square kilometre area is greater than England or France, stretches west from the centre of the state as far as the South Australian and Queensland borders. It has been on the sick list for decades because of declining church attendances and its chances of its lasting took a serious dive last year when its bishop Chris Toohey suddenly retired and Liverpool bishop Terence Brady had to move in as caretaker administrator. Since then the word around has been that the diocese will be broken up with parishes being absorbed by neighbouring diocese, including ones in South Australia and Queensland. The thought of this is anathema to a lot of parishioners and not a few priests, many of them ageing, who are desperately anxious for Wilcannia-Forbes to survive. The deck certainly seems to be stacked against them. The New South Wales bishops concluded unanimously last month that the diocese should be dissolved and although the decision was subsequently rejected at a meeting of priests convened by Sydney Cardinal George Pell few doubt that theirs is a lost cause.

Tick for Pope, but

The good news, if there can be any, in the Irish priest sex abuse scandal is that Benedict XV1’s very public and very tough rebuke on March 20 of the bishops of Ireland for their “grave errors of judgment” in dealing with the issue has gone some way to restoring his credibility as leader of the Catholic faith. The bad news is that in the Vatican bureaucracy there is still no evidence of their accepting—perhaps even understanding—that the awful, sordid mess in which the church has found itself was self-inflicted and not, as they continue to suggest, a deliberate media conspiracy to damage the reputation of the church. The pope impressed with his sincerity, his forthrightness, his willingness to concede error and his deep concern for the victims. On the other hand, official Vatican spokesmen largely retreated to the bunkers and ducked the issue, refusing to accept blame for what must be one of the most disgraceful cover-ups in the history of the church,

Gay yes, joy no

And speaking of bunkers, it seems that the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’s battle to keep his Anglican troops united has suffered another serious setback with the decision last month of the Episcopal church in the United States to confirm the election of a second openly-gay bishop, this time a woman, Mary D Glasspool of Los Angeles, who will be consecrated on May 15. Williams, who has been trying desperately to patch up cracks in the solidarity of Anglican Communion since the election of New Hampshire gay bishop Gene Robinson in 2003, will now find his unenviable task much more difficult. Some might say “impossible” given the Pope’s virtual open cheque invitation to dissident Anglicans to switch to Rome. In his address to the fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore on 20 April, a sad Rowan Williams spoke of the “confusion, brokenness and tension within our Anglican family made even more acute by recent decisions of some of our provinces.” Alluding directly to Glasspool’s election, the archbishop said, “All of us share the concern that in this decision and action the Episcopal Church has deepened the divide between itself and the rest of the Anglican family.

Faultless advice

Perth’s Archbishop Barry Hickey speaking to 150 of his diocesan priests gathered for the Chrism Mass last month: “Know your own faults. Admit them to yourself and seek help to work on them. We all have many faults. If you think you haven’t got any ask your parish council. They’ll inform you.”

Catholic focus on Middle East

Benedict XVI has responded to the concerns of eastern rite Catholic church leaders by convening a special assembly of Middle East bishops to explore growing problems in the region. The so-called Synod for the Middle East is expected to focus on a range of issues that are worrying the Catholic church, especially the impact of Islamic fundamentalism and the exodus of Christians from the Middle East because of increasing persecution. The synod will be held in Rome over 14 days from October 10-24. A document issued by the Vatican mid-April reported fears among Middle East bishops that radical groups were spreading as the internet became more widely available. The pope plans to announce details of the Middle East synod on May 6 while he is on an official visit to Cyprus during which he will have discussions with members of the synod council. The importance Benedict attaches to the initiative can be gauged from the wide-ranging and heavyweight nature of the participants. Among them will be the Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, Iraq; Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, of Jerusalem; the Lebanon-based Maronite patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah P Sfeir; and representatives of the Ukrainian, Syro-Malabar, Coptic, Melkite, Syrian, Armenian, Romanian and Syro-Malankar rites. The pope has appointed Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, to preside over the meeting and Ignace Youssif III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians, Lebanon, as president delegate to the synod.

Vatican backs stem cell research

The Vatican took the medical science world by surprise on April 23 when it announced a decision, described as “unprecedented,” to sponsor an international consortium based on the University of Maryland medicine school to research the use of adult stem cells in the treatment of intestinal disease. Dr Alessio Fasano, director of the university’s center for celiac research and head of the project, contends that research of adult stem cells culled from the intestines will prove to be more effective than embryonic stem cell research. “We are trying to explore stem cell research aside from embryonic stem cells,” he said. A Vatican spokesman dismissed suggestions that the church was backtracking in its long-held opposition to stem cell research, predicting that the new research could pave the way for eradication of embryonic stem cell research which the church believed was “immensely immoral”. What the Vatican’s “sponsorship” means in real terms isn’t clear. The Vatican has stressed that it will not be putting up any money

Obama 1 bishops 0

The no-holds-barred campaign of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference to stymie Barrack Obama’s universal health care plan which the Democrats have been trying to enact for 80 years since the Roosevelt days, and its rather sulky reaction when they failed, has done little to enhance the image of the Catholic church in America, even among Catholics. Throughout their campaign the bishops concentrated their objections on perceived deficiencies in the legislation as well as unsubstantiated claims that public money would be siphoned off to fund abortion clinics and totally ignored the undoubted benefits for the vast majority of the American people. Catholic University of America professor Stephen Schneck was terse in his commentary. “After long and careful analysis,” he said. “I am confident that history will prove that this health care bill is the most effective pro-life legislation every crafted.” Schneck went on to say that the great opportunity brought on by the health care debate was “to focus the abortion debate on the plight of a woman facing a crisis pregnancy.’ The church’s solidarity with her, he said, “will do more to persuade our fellow citizens about the sanctity of life than any kind of political protest.”

Rudd’s health reform gets nod

Unlike the Catholic bishops’ response to Obama’s health care initiative in the United States, the Catholic church in Australia—or at least the Catholic Health Australia (CHA)—has welcomed the Rudd government’s wide-reaching health reform package announced last month. The only aspect of the scheme that worries the CHA, whose membership constitutes 20 public and 36 private hospitals as well as 130 nursing homes and hostels, is uncertainty about what the reforms will mean in practice and how the new system will actually work, perhaps not surprisingly in view of the propensity of governments here and there for administrative foul-ups. CHA chief executive Martin Laverty says there are a number of unknowns needing clarification and has urged the government to create a council of health care providers to develop a blueprint on the best way to implement the reforms. His organisation which had 10 percent of the nation’s hospital beds would be happy to co-operate, he said.

Have missal, will sell

Benedict XVI, no doubt conscious of the problems facing the church in gaining acceptance for the soon-to-be-published new English translation of the Roman Missal, has given the committee that has been working on it for the last eight years the additional task of selling it to his flock. In doing so at a thank you luncheon for committee members in Rome on April 29, the pope acknowledged that "many priests and laity faithful will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly forty years of continuous use of the previous translation.” He said the change would “need to be introduced with due sensitivity, and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped. “I pray,” the pontiff said. “that in this way any risk of confusion or bewilderment will be averted, and the change will serve instead as a springboard for a renewal and a deepening of Eucharistic devotion all over the English-speaking world".

Note for historians

Official Vatican documents dealing with acts of the Holy See from 1865 to 2007 have been released for public perusal on line. Also available is a multi- volume collection of acts from World War II. Disappointingly, it does not include more than 5000 not yet catalogued documents held in the secret Vatican archives that could throw light on the controversy surrounding the role of Pius XII in saving Jews from the Holocaust.

For your Catalyst diary

15 May Reflection Morning Speaker Fr Paul Hanna. Sacred Heart Church Hall, Cnr Sturt and Wentworth Sts, Blackheath, NSW. For information: Carmel 478 787 06

22 May Reflection Morning. Speaker Sr Elizabeth Costigan rsc. Currajeen 811 Bridge Inn Rd, Doreen Vic. For information: Margaret 0425 878 236

5 June Reflection Morning Speaker Sister Clare Condon sgs Benedictine Spirituality St Mary’s Parish Hall 3 Mary Street Hunters Hill 9.30am For information: Carole 9869 1036 or Michelle 9958 5963.

19th July An evening with Fr Donald Cozzens Salvation Army Assembly Hall, 140 Elizabeth St, Sydney. For information: Aquinas Academy, 02 9247 4651

23 July Catalyst dinner. Speaker International guest, Fr Donald Cozzens. St Mary’s Parish Hall 3 Mary St Hunters Hill, NSW For information: Pauline. Message Bank: 02 9990 7003

April 2010 Edition 20

Papal apology disappoints

The long-awaited formal apology by Benedict XVI and his public acknowledgment of official cover up of widespread sexual abuse by priests and religious in Ireland has had a disappointingly mixed reception. In particular, the Pope’s pastoral letter, issued on 19 March, fell short of placating the victims whose spokesman said Benedict had missed a “glorious opportunity to address the core issue in the clerical sexual abuse scandal; the deliberate policy of the Catholic Church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children.” The pope addressed the victims and their families directly in his pastoral letter. “You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry,” he wrote. ”I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated.”

Amen, Amen

Acceptance or apathy, that’s the question as the initial vigorous spurt of opposition to the new Roman Missal sparked by the What If We Just Say Wait petition in December shows ominous signs of turning into a trickle as the year progresses. Despite a good deal of publicity in the US, Canada and Britain, the petition, devised in Seattle by Jesuit priest Michael Ryan and attracting almost 13,000 signatures in 61 countries by the end of January, had less than 20,000 at the end of March. Ryan’s motive, he says, is to “help the church we love avert a debacle or even disaster.” He pleads for the voices in the church who decided that “Latinity is more important than lucidity” to listen to the people…so that “lengthy, ungainly, awkward sentences could be trimmed, giving way to noble, even poetic translations of beautiful old texts that would be truly worthy of our greatest prayer.”

Ethics trial classes a worry

Sydney’s Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) has blasted the way the New South Wales government is piloting the concept of introducing ethics classes in state primary schools in lieu of special religious education (SRE). The pilot study, due to start in 10 schools this month, is already causing “consternation and concern,” according to CCD director Robert Haddad, because while the ethics classes were supposed to be complementary to primary school religious education they seemed to be in direct competition in “their grab for students.” Haddad said that two of the schools taking part in the trial had already sent letters to all parents about the ethics classes despite being required to limit communication to those parents who had chosen not to have their children participate in religious instruction. The proposed classes in ethics, he said, were “an unnecessary duplication which may have the effect of reducing numbers in SRE classes.” [The NSW Education Act 1990 gives approved religious faiths the right to teach their beliefs in classes in government schools. The concern is that this right could be undermined.]

Unique of its kind?

In September, Cardinal John Henry Newman, always controversial, will become probably the first person beatified on a railway station. Pope Benedict’s decision to beatify Newman in person while visiting Coventry in England in September, has been described by Bishop Richard Duffield, provost of the Birmingham Oratory and “actor for the Cause of John Henry Newman” as “a unique blessing.” Really? It may be the first beatification on a railway station or even the pope’s first in Britain but, as Sydney Catholics will gladly testify, it isn’t unique for a pope to do it. Pope John Paul ll beatified Mary MacKillop in Sydney in 1995. True, it was not on a railway station. It was on a racecourse. Unique or not, Benedict will certainly break with the tradition of popes not beatifying—and breach his own rule which states that “beatifications must be performed by a cardinal in the diocese where the candidate died.” Newman died in Edgbaston, Birmingham, which seems a long way from Rome.

Church OK to discriminate

The Catholic church has won an all too rare victory in defence of its principles with a High Court’s ruling in Britain last month that it is legal for child adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples. The government had maintained that its 2007 Sexual Orientation regulations which outlaws discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in the provision of goods or services to the public, applied also to adoption. When the government refused its request for exemption Catholic Care, a Yorkshire adoption society, challenged the decision in the court. Justice Briggs allowed the society’s appeal, ordered the Charity Commission to reconsider and awarded costs (£100,000) to Catholic Care. A number of Catholic adoption agencies had closed their doors rather than conform to the regulation.

Benedict starts a flood

Benedict XVI’s surprise invitation last November to members of the Church of England to switch their allegiance to Rome shows every sign of becoming an avalanche as thousands of United States, Canadian, British and Australian Anglicans declare their intention to defect. Last month 100 traditionalist parishes in the Anglican Church in America (ACA), representing an estimated 5000 members, and 40 parishes in Canada voted to convert en masse to the Catholic church, joining Britain (20 parishes) and Australia (12 parishes). Especially significant is the ACA, which belongs to the Traditional Anglican Community (TAC) which broke from the Anglican Communion in 1991 because of its departure from orthodox Christian doctrine. The TAC, with which the Canadian, British and Australian dissenting parishes are also linked, is estimated to have 400,000 members around the world. The Church of England organisation Forward in Faith, which has 200 parishes, also has announced the establishment of a group to gauge interest in joining the exodus.

Dream time?

A German member of the European parliament, Martin Kastler, has attracted more than 11,000 signatures for an online petition supporting a citizen referendum that calls for Sundays to be work-free throughout Europe. The concept of “citizen” referendums was authorised by the Lisbon Treaty which came into force in December, and Kastler’s is Europe’s first. The treaty requires the support of one million voters from “a significant number of member states” to support the proposal before it will be considered formally. For which, no doubt, there will be cries of, “The Lord be praised!”

For your Catalyst diary

10 April Reflection morning. Speaker Fr Clem Hill The Eucharistic Presence St Mary’s Church Hall 3 Mary Street Hunters Hill 9.30am For information: Carole 9869 1036 or Michelle 9958 5961Reflection morning. Speaker to be advised. Sacred Heart Church, Cnr Sturt and Wentworth Streets, Blackheath. 10am-1pm. For information Carmel 4787 8706

17 April ` Reflection morning. Speaker to be advised. Sacred Heart Church, Cnr Sturt and Wentworth Streets, Blackheath. 10am-1pm. For information Carmel 4787 8706

22 May. Reflection day. Speaker Elizabeth Costigan rsc. “Currajeen”, 811 Bridge Inn Rd, Doreen, Victoria. For information Margaret 0425 878 236

SIP program Check Catalyst website www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au for Spirituality in the Pub venues, topics and speakers.

March 2010 Edition 19

A shoe that fits

Melbourne bishop Peter Elliott who will officially represent the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference in negotiating conditions under which groups of Anglicans may enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church looks tailor-made for the job. He was born an Anglican and his father was the vicar of St Agnes’ Church of England in the Melbourne suburb of Glenhuntly. The bishop, who is 66, converted to Catholicism when he was a student in Arts and Theology at Oxford and was ordained a priest at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1973. He was appointed auxiliary bishop in 2007. The announcement of Elliott’s new role came within days of a unanimous vote of the Australian branch of the Anglican group Forward in Faith confirming its desire to accept Benedict XVI’s invitation to have full communion with Rome. “It’s the first step on the road,” Forward in Faith chairman Bishop David Robarts declared after the historic vote.

Viva Vatican II

Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, of Milan, not unlike the aperitif that shares his name, has a reputation for having a bit of a punch. For years this had been evident in his propensity to say and do things that aren’t always welcomed by his Vatican peers. It is a reasonable assumption therefore that his latest venture into the left field would have been greeted with glazed eyes by some of them. On the other hand a lot of Catholics in the pews whose high hopes for real change following Vatican II have been dashed will be deliriously happy that in high places someone is trying to get it back on track. Martini and another Jesuit cardinal the Naples-born Roberto Tucci have given their blessing to a new website called Viva il Concilio (Long Live the Council), whose aim is to remind people “that Vatican II is the lens through which we interpret our tradition and that there is no turning back.” The website’s appearance coincides with the founding in London of a movement titled Stand Up for Vatican 11 whose first action will be to petition British bishops calling on them to rededicate themselves to the second Vatican Council. The best of British luck, many will say.

State law kills adoption agency

The Washington DC Catholic archdiocese has become the third in the United States (after Boston and San Francisco) to shut down it adoption and fostering service in response to local government anti-discrimination legislation that requires gay and heterosexual couples seeking to adopt or foster children to be treated equally. Washington archbishop Donald Wuert whose diocese had been operating the service for 80 years and who led the fight against the council’s legislation said the decision was in line with the church’s teaching that gay adoption was “gravely immoral.” The clergy will not be required, however, to celebrate same-sex marriages so Wuert’s opposition was not entirely in vain.

Be civil, Obama pleads

As Digest has noted a number of times, the American Catholic bishops and president Barrack Obama have never had the happiest of relationships and there have been occasions when the bishops both in conference and individually have been unusually aggressive in their commentary on the president’s legislative program. One might perhaps conjecture on whether Obama had the bishops in mind when he urged religious, business and political leaders attending a national prayer breakfast last month to “find a way back to civility,” which, he said, “required learning how to agree without being disagreeable.”

Queensland legalises altruistic surrogacy

Despite many months of vigorous Family Council opposition, the Queensland parliament last month passed the Surrogacy Bill 2009 by 45 votes to 36 to legalise in that state same sex parenting and to decriminalise non-commercial surrogacy for both heterosexual and homosexual couples and single people. Responded Council spokesman David van Gend: “This bill should have been about altruistic surrogacy as a last resort for an infertile couple but under that respectable cloak it smuggles in an oppressive proposal to deprive children of their birthright…to enter the world…with both a mother and a father.” Queensland is the only Australian state in which altruistic surrogacy has been illegal.

Blues for Brown?

March 3 became another unhappy day for British prime minister Gordon Brown when he read Choosing the Common Good, a report of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales urging voters to consider the issues of marriage and family when deciding which party to support in the May general election. His problem is that the bishops’10-page document is not unlike Common Good which they issued before the 1996 election and which was rated by political observers as a key factor in sweeping Tony Blair into power. Newspaper reaction to the bishops’ latest “controversial intervention in the political arena,” as one Fleet street journalist described it, was that while it was not explicitly partisan in offering how-to- vote advice to Britain’s four million Catholics, it would be seen as “critical of Labour and supportive of the Tories.” In their report, the bishops have warned that Britain has suffered from increased family breakdown at “tragic”cost to society, an issue that has exercised the Catholic church throughout Brown’s prime ministership, particularly because of his government’s introduction of homosexual humanity laws which resulted in the closure of Catholic adoption agencies, legislation to allow the creation of human-animal embryos and recent attempts to introduce equality laws that Benedict XV1 was moved, contentiously, to condemn as “unjust.” Bishops' conference president, Westminster archbishop Vincent Nichols said: "We encourage everyone to read this document and to participate in the wide-ranging and necessary debate about the values and vision by which we seek to construct a just and civil society. Ultimately Choosing the Common Good is about human flourishing. It does not offer a direction on how to vote, but forms a back-cloth to the more particular issues which may well dominate the election itself and offers an invitation to the political parties on how best to respond in all of our joint efforts to build a better society."

And now the good news

All too often commentary on the Catholic Church is weighed down by negativity so it is nice to encounter statistics that tell a brighter story. On June 11 Cardinal George Pell will ordain six young men into the Sydney archdiocese, the largest number since 1988. Two Ugandan students at the Homebush seminary will also be ordained this year. That will be in their home city of Kampala but their archbishop, untroubled by a priest shortage, has agreed to their returning to Sydney to live. Staying on the bright side is the news that enrolments this year in Sydney Catholic secondary schools are higher than they have been for more than 20 years, a reflection, it is believed, of outstanding Higher School Certificate results in 2009 when, according to the Sydney archdiocese, “students in Sydney’s 37 systemic Catholic high schools achieved marks 67 percent above the state average”.

Pell rumours grind on

The name of Sydney archbishop George Pell features so persistently in the output of the ecclesial rumour machine as Vatican watchers seek to identify suitable candidates for recently departed or promoted members of the Roman hierarchy that it is perfectly reasonable for it to be linked to the greatly-prized appointment of prefect of the Congregation of Bishops from which the incumbent Cardinal Battista Re is expected to retire later this year when he turns 75. No doubt Pell would be thoroughly chuffed to know that there are many who would regard him as highly qualified for such an august position but perhaps rather less pleased that his confirmation that he was fitted with a pacemaker in Rome in January has produced speculation about whether he would be fit enough for the job.

For your Catalyst diary

March 20 Blackheath reflection Speaker Fr Michael Whelan SM Does God love us more when we are virtuous? Sacred Heart church hall, cnr Sturt and Wentworth streets, Blackheath. 10am-1pm. Donation. For information: Carmel 4787 8706

26 March Catalyst Dinner Speaker David Woodbridge, chief executive of Australian offshoot of the Grameen Bank. Subject: “ Creating a World Without Poverty – the incredible story of the Grameen Bank and the Foundation now in Australia”. 7pm for 7.30, Villa Maria Parish Hall, cnr Mary Street and Gladesville Road, Hunters Hill. Cost : $45. For information: Messge bank for Pauline on 9990 7003..

February 2010 Edition 18

New Missal: Don’t Rush

The word that comes most readily to mind in trying to gauge from overseas commentary the reaction of Catholics, especially informed Catholics, to proposed changes to the Roman Missal is “unease”, although there is growing evidence that this may be an understatement. The issue appears to have attracted little attention as yet in Australia but in Britain and the United States it is fast becoming a burning issue and is now the subject of a petition whose title is self-explanatory: What If We Just Said Wait? The petition, initiated in December by Seattle priest Michael Ryan SJ whose reason was that it should be tested before being introduced, had attracted nearly 13,000 signatures when this issue of Digest was put to bed. Among them was that of the internationally-respected Dominican Timothy Radcliffe, who last year attracted a full house as a Sydney Catalyst speaker. Radcliffe’s comment: “The Pope himself has underlined that the liturgy grows gradually over many years. He has also been critical of the reforms of the liturgy after the (Vatican) council because they were too rapid. So let’s avoid making the same mistake.”

Wanted: new culture of authority

Speaking of Timothy Radcliffe, recently he gave a talk to Dublin priests to help them cope with the backlash of the devastating report following investigation of child sexual abuse of children in the diocese. In it he argued for the Catholic church to rid itself of “the clericalism that was besetting it”. The former Master of the Dominican order observed in a subsequent Tablet article that every institution sought to preserve and augment its power. This “culture of power” had often infected the church and was perhaps “one reason for the widespread abuse of children in our society,” he said, adding “We will not have a church that is safe for the young until we learn from Christ and become again a humble church in which we are all equal children of the one Father and authority is never oppressive.” The church’s “stiff clericalism and authoritarianism,” he said, did not help the church now to thrive and “be a sign of God’s friendship for humanity.” The church needed a new culture of authority, “from the Vatican to the parish council,” which lifted people up “into the mystery of loving equality which is the life of the Trinity.”

Bishop wields axe

Toowoomba bishop William Morris, never backward in tackling the tough issues, has sacked a primary school principal and two senior Catholic education office employees because, he said, they had exercised very poor judgment and had made a number of serious errors in failing adequately to respond to suspicions that a teacher had sexually abused girls at his school. The bishop said he had been shocked to learn that the principal had admitted at an inquiry that he had suspected the abuse. “This caused me considerable distress and anguish,” he said. Despite complaints, the teacher, who has been charged with 12 counts of rape and 34 of indecent treatment, had been allowed to continue to work at the school.

More miracles please

In what may well be remembered as the high season for canonising new saints, what with various former popes—Pius IX, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II—and Cardinal John Henry Newman and of course our own Mary MacKillop—all in Benedict XVI’s pending tray, the busiest people on the block just now would have to be those with the task of digging up miracles to support their nominations. The good news is that the miracle-hunters seem to have had success with Mary MacKillop and Cardinal Newman. The bad news is that there is evidence of growing scepticism among Catholics about this part of the canonisation process which many find too much akin to a spin exercise for their taste.

Anti-Christian violence

A local court ruling that non-Muslins should be permitted to use the word Allah for God has resulted in a new outbreak of violence against Christians in Malaysia. Four churches near the capital Kuala Lumpur were fire-bombed in January and petrol bombs were also thrown at a church and convent school in the state of Perak and at a church in Sarawak in Borneo. A petrol bomb was thrown at the guard house of a Catholic convent school in Taiping and bricks and stones were thrown at windows of the Good Shepherd Catholic church at Miri. Home minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein described as unfair claims that the government had been “passive” in their response to the violence.

Newman altar at Oratory

The London Oratory on Brompton Road for which many Australians have a particular affection will dedicate one of its chapels to Cardinal John Henry Newman to coincide with his beatification, possibly by Benedict XVI, in Birmingham in September. The convert cardinal founded Britain’s first oratory in Birmingham in 1849. The new chapel will replace the Calvary chapel on the left side of the nave facing the altar, behind the statue of St Peter and next to the Lady Chapel. A copy of Sir John Everett Millais’ portrait of Newman which was painted in 1881 and hangs in the British Portrait Gallery will be hung in the chapel.

Anglican exodus nearer?

Benedict XVI’s initiative to facilitate the reception en masse of Church of England clergy into the Catholic church will move to its next stage at Easter when the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) will meet to formulate a response to the pope’s decree Anglicanorum coetibus which provides for groups of Anglicans who consider themselves Catholic to enter into full communion with Rome while maintaining aspects of their heritage and identity. Archbishop John Hepworth, primate of TAC, whose 2007 petition to Rome for “corporate reunion with the Holy See” triggered the process, said his bishops and vicar-generals had all received letters from Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying that the decree constituted “the definitive response of the Holy See not only to the TAC’s original request but also to the many others of a similar nature which have been submitted over the last years”. Levada’s letter would allow the TAC bishops to move towards making a decision about taking up the pope’s offer of “personal ordinariates,” Hepworth said. The archbishop said he proposed to meet with TAC members in Japan, Central America, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the coming weeks. Regional meetings of bishops, clergy and people were also being arranged to discuss Anglicanorum coetibus. The TAC’s formal response to Rome would be made after the Easter meeting of the full college of bishops.

New role for youngest bishop

Australia’s youngest bishop at 49, Anthony Fisher OP will be installed as the fourth bishop of Parramatta at St Patrick’s Cathedral on March 4. He succeeds Bishop Kevin Manning who is retiring after nearly 13 years in charge of the diocese which was established in 1986 and is now the fifth largest in Australia. Fisher, a Dominican, was ordained a priest in 1991 and completed a doctorate in bioethics at Oxford in 1995.

UK Bishops Dig In

According to opinion polls, the odds against beleaguered British prime minister Gordon Brown remaining at 10 Downing Street after the May general election are rather longer than he would wish so one would imagine that his preoccupation would be to pick up votes wherever he could find them. Even Catholic and Anglican votes. But not so, it seems. For the better part of a year bishops from both denominations have been pleading with the government to amend its Equal Opportunity Bill which, in its present form, they believe, could force the churches to accept women, sexually active gays and transsexuals into the priesthood. On the eve of the Bill going to the House of Lords the government offered to compromise but the churches refused, saying its proposed amendment did not go far enough. It was a pity, Catholic spokesman Archbishop Peter Smith said, that ministers had not been prepared to sit down earlier with religious groups and work out an amendment “with the right wording.”

Microcredit v. poverty

The remarkable heart-warming success story of the use of micro credit to help very poor people throughout the world to escape poverty by establishing small business enterprises will be the subject of Catalyst for Renewal’s scond dinner of 2010 on March 26. The speaker will be David Woodbridge, the chief executive of the Australian offshoot of the Grameen Bank, which is credited with having originated the concept in the 70s in Bangladesh, and for which its founder Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The dinner will be at 7pm for 7.30 at the Villa Maria Parish Hall, cnr Mary Street and Gladesville Road, Hunters Hill. For information: 9990 7003. Cost : $45.

Climate change : echo God’s love

“We cannot show the right kind of love for our fellow human beings unless we also work at keeping the earth as a place that is a secure home for all people,” the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told delegates to the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. Dr Williams was preaching, at the invitation of the Danish Council of Churches, at an ecumenical service in the Copenhagen Cathedral which was also attended by the Queen of Denmark, ambassadors and .religious leaders. The archbishop said the deepest religious basis for our commitment to the environment in which God had placed us was the recognition that we were called to be, and were enabled to be, the place where God’s love for the world came through. “We have to flesh out in our lives that fundamental biblical conviction that when God looks on the world he finds it good,” Dr Williams said. “We have to show in our lives some echo of the delight that God finds in creation.”

Ah, if only

Cardinal George Pell, addressing the Australian Christian Lobby National Conference in Canberra on November 7: Public policy miscarries unless it is informed by the principle of subsidiarity. The role of that principle is to foster key values which are essential to the flourishing of civil society and the common good. It used to be, and still should be, an important principle of public policy to support and protect marriage, as the basis of strong families and strong communities. Some might say that subsidiarity is essential also to the flourishing of the Catholic church.

For your Catalyst diary

12 February Dinner Out West. Guest speaker Geraldine Doogue. St Bernadette’s Parish Hall, 367 Old Northern Road, Castle Hill. 7.30pm Cost $45 For information: Pauline 9990 7003

6 March First Reflection Morning of 2010 Speaker Bishop Geoffrey Robinson. St Mary’s Parish Hall 3 Mary Street Hunters Hill 9.30am For information: Carole 9869 1036 or Michelle 9958 5963.

26 March Dinner. Guest speaker David Woodbridge. Villa Maria Parish Hall, Hunters Hill. 7pm for 7.30pm. Cost $45. For information: Pauline 9990 7003

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November 2009 Edition 17

Catalyst Digest is a venture of Catalyst for Renewal whose role is to encourage vigorous conversation among Catholics and members of the wider community. To this end, Catalyst arranges a number of forums each year that focus on issues facing their church and society in general.

The digest is published at irregular intervals to keep friends of Catalyst in touch with its activities and with other relevant issues. Our hope is that through the digest Catalyst will provide a worthwhile service to its current network of supporters and extend its reach to others.

If you would like to know more about Catalyst for Renewal please visit other pages on our website www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au

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Why the fuss?

In the midst of the extraordinary euphoria that greeted Benedict XVI’s unexpected invitation last month to disaffected Anglicans to turn to Rome there were just a few observers whose reaction was at best apprehensive about the pope’s initiative and at worst very uncomfortable with some of its possible side effects. Their concern centred mainly on the manner of its promulgation, especially the apparent absence of consultation, and the possible negative effect that it could have on Catholic relations with the established Anglican church. As the weeks passed and the euphoria subsided there has been growing evidence that the jubilation may have been premature and the caution prescient. The reality is that Benedict’s proposal to establish what are being called “personal ordinariates” in the Catholic church to accommodate Anglicans who want to switch religious camps has created an environment of considerable confusion which Anglicanorum Coetibus, the lengthy Vatican document issued on November 7 to explain changes to the apostolic constitution seemingly has failed to abate. The question most being asked now is why all the fuss? The door to the Catholic Church has been open for many years to Anglicans, dissenting or not and including married priests, so why, another question might be asked, is it necessary to introduce a new set of rules? Some might even point out that the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) has been working quite nicely.

Church and nuns at odds

The Catholic church has publicly opposed an attempt by the Little Company of Mary to sell its Calvary Hospital in Canberra to the ACT government, leading to speculation that it will veto the sale when it is referred to Rome for formal approval. Under the deal, which was negotiated in April, the nuns would sell the Calvary Hospital for $77m and buy Clare Holland House, a government-owned hospice, for $9m. Leading the Catholic charge was Sydney archbishop Cardinal George Pell who raised the hackles of ACT Health minister Katy Gallagher by claiming that her government’s motives in attempting “to force” the sale of the hospital “were ideological and driven by anti-Christian elements.” Gallagher retorted vigorously that this was simply not correct. “Ideology and Christian values have never been part of the consideration by government and neither should it be,” she said. Pell was joined by the archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn Mark Coleridge, who accused the ACT government of hiding the government’s proposed buy-out of Calvary Hospital “behind a veil of closed doors and secret deals”. It had been extraordinarily difficult, he said, for him to “get all the facts and to grasp all the issues.”

First blood to US bishops

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has won round one of its long and at times testy fight against the Obama administration’s decision to allow, in its Affordable Health Care for America Act, federal funding of abortions, but the battle is not yet over. On November 7, in an unusual Saturday night session of Congress, the House accepted an amendment, moved by Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, the effect of which was to retain in health legislation the ban on public abortion funding. If the amended bill is ratified the ban on the use of federal funds to subsidise health insurance coverage of abortion operations will also remain. Congress finally passed the amended bill by a cliff-hanger 220-215 vote and the measure now goes to the Senate later this month when, no doubt, the bishops’ lobbying will continue. The conference’s success was not complete. It failed in its attempt to persuade the legislature to give migrants access to the health care system regardless of their legality.

OK to discriminate against gays

The Victorian state government has bowed to pressure from the Catholic church to preserve in its equal opportunity legislation the right of religious groups to discriminate in employment on the grounds of sexuality and marital status. A parliamentary committee established to review the government’s equal opportunity legislation had recommended the removal of all religious exemptions but in the face of the church’s protest, especially in regard to the employment of gays, deputy premier and attorney-general Rob Hulls last month ruled that certain exemptions, including those sought by the church, should be retained. Melbourne archbishop Denis Hart had campaigned strongly against the committee’s recommendation which would, he argued, imperil religious freedom. Hart said when Hulls’ decision was announced that it “struck a fair balance between the right to be free from discrimination and the right of religious organisations to act consistently with their beliefs.”

Listening Robert?

Bishops who attended the African Catholic bishops synod in Rome last month, among them Wollongong’s Peter Ingham, concluded their three-week meeting by taking a whack at “corrupt Catholic leaders” in Africa but stopped short of naming them. The large assembly, 200 of them African bishops, dealt with a wide range of issues but kept its attack until the final session when they declared that “many Catholics in high office have fallen woefully short in their performance in office,” going on to call on “such people to repent, to quit the public arena and stop causing havoc to the people and giving the Catholic Church a bad name.”

Unimaginable: church without women

The jovial superior-general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles Sister Felicia Harry disturbed the mostly male calm of last month’s African Synod of Catholic bishops by asking delegates “to spend two minutes this evening trying to imagine what their churches would be without the presence and involvement of women.” Women were happy to teach catechism to children, decorate parish churches, clean, mend and sew vestments, she said, but they also wanted to be on parish and diocesan councils. Women wanted to collaborate not only when already made decisions were being implemented but when they were being made. “We don’t want to take over the responsibility of the parish priest,” the Ghana sister said, “we just want to be equal partners in the Lord’s vineyard.” Sister Harry found an ally in fellow sister Pauline Odia Bukasa, superior-general of the Ba-Maria Sisters from Congo, who told the synod that women “were marginalised at every level” in the church, were “excluded from development programs and were the first victims of war.” Ghana Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle probably echoed the view of his peers when the press asked him what he thought about a church without women. “I am not even daring to imagine such a thing,” he said.

Religion parliament next month

Ten thousand delegates from 80 nations and representing all faiths will attend the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions which will be held in Melbourne next month. The Dalai Lama and Sydney archbishop Cardinal George Pell will be among the 40 religious leaders to address the forum, Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth, which will run through December 3-9. Sub-themes will include climate change and other environmental issues, poverty and problems facing indigenous people.

Perth cathedral reopens after three years

There will be bell-ringing in Perth this Christmas to celebrate the re-opening of St Mary’s Cathedral (officially the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary) which has been closed since August 2006 for major re-construction. The cost of the project initially estimated to be about $25 million, eventually ballooned out to more than $32m but, according to Perth archbishop Barry Hickey, it will be debt-free when it is rededicated on, of course, December 8. The project was first announced in 1999, following a bequest of $2m to the archdiocese (later boosted by grants from the federal and state governments of $3m and $2m respectively and a highly successful public appeal). The work essentially has been to complete an extension of the cathedral that began in 1924 and was halted because of the Depression but it has also involved substantial repairs. The cathedral has a new curved design, a second spire and an underground parish centre.

And so a good year ends

As Catalyst for Renewal shuts up shop for Christmas it can look back with some satisfaction on a year in which it has certainly achieved its objective of stimulating conversation on a whole range of issues that need to be addressed both in the church and in the community in general. It began with a packed all-day forum in March to discuss, and try to find the reasons for, criticism by the Australia Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus, a book by their colleague Bishop Geoffrey Robinson. This was followed by an entertaining address to Catalyst’s May dinner by the ever-controversial former priest, author and commentator Paul Collins entitled Does Catholicism Have Anything to Say in the Debate About Ecology, Global Warming and the Environment, and then in June our guest speaker was the internationally-respected Domincan friar and prolific author Timothy Radcliffe. Another highlight of the year was a brilliant dinner address in September by world authority on stem cell therapy Professor John Rasko who lived up to his reputation for speaking about an extremely complex issue in terms that even your editor could understand. The Saturday morning reflection series at Hunters Hill again attracted the usual strong following and deservedly so because they were all wonderful as was Mgnr Eugene Harley’s Eucharistic reflection in November, the traditional grand finale to the Catalyst year. You weren’t there? Just think what you missed. Never mind. There is always next year.

Have a happy, safe and peaceful Christmas and may 2010 bring you good health and great joy.

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October 2009 Edition 16

If you would like to know more about Catalyst for Renewal please visit other pages on our website www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au

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Health unsettles Church-Obama relations

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ long-running battle with Barrack Obama went into armistice mode this month to congratulate him on his Peace Prize award but warfare flared again within days when the Senate finance committee approved his health care reform bill without first dealing with aspects of the legislation objectionable to the church. The bishops reacted by saying that they had no choice but to oppose the bill if it failed to address their concerns, especially the need for it to include policies “against abortion funding and in support of conscience rights,” that health care should be “affordable and available to the poor and vulnerable” and should meet “the needs of legal immigrants and their families.” The stated purpose of pursuing health care reform, the bishops said, was to provide those without health care coverage access to quality and affordable health care. There was real doubt that the bill would achieve that goal.

Rasko dreams a dream

What keeps world famous haematologist Professor John Rasko and other scientists working enthusiastically on stem cell and gene therapy? It is the dream of one day having simple and cheap treatments for many diseases, and the potential to grow complex structures such as hearts, livers and limbs. The dream is kept alive by current successes in treating; for example, haemophilia and leukaemia. Rasko, who is director of cell and molecular therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and head of the Centenary Institute’s gene and stem cell therapy at Sydney University, explained in an outstanding talk at a recent Catalyst dinner the distinction between adult (somatic) and embryological stem cells. He said that for many people the destruction of embryos to source stem cells posed ethical problems, but he pointed out that there was no such problem with adult cells. The use of umbilical cord blood has been valuable but rapid advances since 2006 in producing induced pluripotent cells, initially by the use of oncogeges (cancer genes), but now by the application of “fairy dust” (proteins corresponding to the oncogenes) to mature adult cells had opened the possibility of producing replacement cells for damaged heart and bone tissue in the not too distant future. Rasko warned that there were other ethical problems still to be overcome with stem cell and gene therapy, especially the premature use of untested therapies in countries with poor regulatory systems (“stem cell tourism”). Pressure to move to “the slippery slope of eugenics”was also of concern, he said. MC for the evening, Francois Kunc SC, reinforced the point that in both science and ethics one always had to start with the facts. If you would like to known more about the research see www.cellandgenetrust.org.au

Pell says women in combat “silly”

Sydney ’s archbishop Cardinal George Pell has leveled his sights at proponents of women being used in front line combat. The idea was one of the silliest he had heard this year, he said. Dr Pell said women's strength and ingenuity, their courage and capacity for self-sacrifice were not in question. They often displayed all these in greater quantities than men, but, he asked, “do we really want to expose those who are the source of life and love in human communities to the horror of the battlefield just so the defence bureaucracy can meet recruitment targets and feminists can tick another item off their equality agenda?” Dr Pell added: “We have spent almost half a century pretending the differences between men and women don't matter. We would do well to remember that while God always forgives, and people sometimes forgive, nature never forgives.

Pope to attend Newman beatification?

The announcement that Benedict XVI will make the first papal state visit to Britain next September has excited conjecture that the pontiff will break with precedent and attend the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman which is expected to be celebrated in Birmingham , the former archdiocese of Archbishop Vincent Nichols who recently succeeded Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in Westminster . Being cogitated on, too, is whether Benedict, whose visit is at the invitation of prime minister Gordon Brown and has been widely acclaimed, will take the opportunity at the same time to give Nichols his red hat.

Bishop in a hurry

Archbishop Nichols’s successor in Birmingham , Archbishop-elect Bernard Longley, who will be the pope’s episcopal host when he visits the city next year, is a fast track religious. Longley, who is 54, became a priest only18 years ago and is a comparatively junior bishop of six years. By this time next year he will be an archbishop, one of the youngest. The Catholic Herald said that Longley’s appointment was “unexpected”. Longley himself said he was “taken aback.” So, apparently, were a lot of other people in the church. But not, probably, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, to whom Longley was auxillary bishop and who ordained him a priest in 1981 and a bishop in 2004. The new head of the Birmingham archdiocese will be installed on December 8.

Win for Father Bob

Self-professed “unconventional priest” and much-loved shepherd of the marginalised Bob Maguire, parish priest of South Melbourne, who used his personal blog and a commercial radio station on which he has a regular programme to protest against his archbishop’s insistence that he retire on his 75^th birthday will be around for a couple more birthdays yet. On October 1 the patient Archbishop Denis Hart , who had been under pressure on the issue for several weeks, announced that he had agreed to Maguire continuing in his present role until February 1 2012 “when his resignation which I have accepted will take effect.” Maguire’s victory was not absolute, however. The archbishop also announced that “Father Bob and I have also agreed that he will hand over all management of the Parish to the Archdiocese so that he can continue, as he has already said on national television, ‘to spend more time looking after the poor and needy of the Parish’.”

Oz luvs Tablet

Eleven out of every 100 people who read The Tablet, which many (including your editor) think is the finest Catholic news magazine in the world, are Australians, according to a recent study of its readership. They make up the largest component of the nearly 40 percent of readers who live outside the UK where it is published weekly. A profile of Tablet readers derived from the study shows that 40 percent are women, 38 percent are either ordained or work in the church, 88 percent go to church weekly (60 percent more than once a week), 68 percent do regular voluntary work and support charities. Despite its being a Catholic publication 14 percent of its UK readers are Anglican.

Chance to reflect

If you are in a mood to celebrate Prince Charles’ 61st birthday on Saturday November 14 (or any one else’s or none for that matter) there is no better way to do it than to find your way to the Catalyst twilight Eucharistic reflection that evening. The reflection will be given by Monsignor Eugene Harley, a wonderful down to earth speaker who will send you home afterwards feeling just so much better. That’s a promise. The place: Villa Maria Marist Centre, cnr Mary Street and Gladesville Road , Hunters Hill. The time: 4pm to 6pm. After the reflection there will be a light meal. The cost: A donation. For catering purposes please ring Pauline on 02 9990 7003 by November 10. The date again: Saturday November 14.

August 2009 Edition 14

Lobby MPs, bishops plead

Victoria’s seven Catholics bishops issued a strongly-worded pastoral letter on July 15 urging Catholics to lobby the state government against amendment of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act which, they say, would threaten religious freedom. The Act has been under review by the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee of the State parliament. The bishops said they were particularly concerned by the committee’s proposal to remove the protection [by exemption] that was given to religious bodies under the existing legislation because “this would force the secularisation of services delivered by religious agencies.” The likely effect would be profound as it would go to the heart of the religious motivation that led people to be involved in those services. Experience showed that secularisation resulted in a loss of volunteerism, the letter asserted. “If people can no longer identify with the religious meaning of their activity then they are likely to withdraw.” The pastoral letter concluded with a plea to “people of goodwill” to defend their religious liberties. “The importance of service delivery by religious people and religious agencies as an essential element of religious belief and practice in service to neighbour is one our parliamentarians need to hear,” the bishops said. It was also important to defend “our pluralist society, the diversity of service delivery, the right of people to receive services in the context of their own beliefs and practices, and the rights of parents to give their children an education in their own faith tradition.”

Stem cell research grant

The winner of the Sydney Catholic archdiocese’s 2009 adult stem cell research grant, the fourth since it was inaugurated by Cardinal George Pell, will be announced on October 31. Applications for the $100,000 grant closed on July 28. The successful applicant will be required to concentrate his or her research on the use of therapeutic adult stem cells to improve the treatment of strokes, burns and degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease.

And an expert dissertation

Need to know more about gene and stem cell therapy? Come along to the Catalyst for Renewal dinner on September 25 when the speaker will be Professor John Rasko, director of cell and molecular therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and head of the Centenary Institute’s gene and stem cell therapy at Sydney University. Your editor has heard the professor speak and strongly recommends that you hear what he has to say. Telephone 02 9990 7003 for information/bookings.

Australia: intersection and contrast

The experience of intersection was critical to the Australian spiritual endeavour, particularly for those who had come to these shores since the end of the eighteenth century in European time, Fr David Ranson said at an Aquinas Academy/Catalyst reflection this month. Paradox marked that wider Australian experience through and through and, he believed, the experience of intersection was “the Australian cathedral” in which to learn how to pray. “Its buttresses are historical, geographical and social.” Ranson recalled that “standing before the gargantuan mine of Mt. Isa” in north-west Queensland in July of 2008, the Australian experience of contrast had been unmistakable for him. “Mt. Isa, as do many towns throughout the vast continent, presents in the intersection of two zones of immensity: spiritual, on the one hand, and mechanical on the other,” he said. “In a town like Isa, the most ancient and the most modern intersect—perhaps even collide. Beyond the cacophony of the mine, the silence of the surrounding landscape is deafening. The same experience of contrast is unmistakable on the other side of the continent in the Pilbara, arguably the oldest earth form on the planet. On the one hand, there is the wealth of the nation, evidenced in the relentless gorging of the land for its minerals, and, on other hand, is its poverty suffered in those aboriginal communities lost in the fog of displacement. In Isa and Hedland the nation’s boast and shame intersect.”

Ah, enterprise

Concern in the various churches about the possible effects of swine flu has produced a variety of responses, one at least, bizarre. In most Catholic churches priests no longer distribute wine at Communion and in a number ministers who dispense the host either wear surgical gloves or are asked to wash their hands with anti-bacterial gel before handling it. Enough protection to satisfy everyone? An enterprising American manufacturer hopes not. He (or is it she?) has produced a mechanical dispenser that allows the minister to dispense Communion by pressing a button. The boast is that the host is never touched by human hands. And that’s not all! The hosts come in two varieties. Plain and “wine-infused.”

Anglican schism over gays?

The decision in July of the general convention of the United States Episcopal church to remove barriers to blessing same sex marriage and the consecration of gay bishops could cause a schism in the Anglican church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rohan Williams, has warned. The church could not change its teaching on homosexuality to follow shifting attitudes in society, he said. Dr Williams raised as a counter action the possibility of a two-tiered Anglican communion—“two ways of witnessing to the Anglican heritage”—in which the main body of the church would be “covenanted” to observe all the teachings of the church and “would be able to take part as a whole in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue,” and a second tier that would be related to the main body “in less formal ways with fewer formal expectations.” The concept of a covenant to achieve unity in the Anglican church is problematic. It is not a new idea and already there is divided opinion among some orthodox elements in the communion as to what it should contain. Even if that is resolved, it is a matter of conjecture whether a two-tiered concept would find sufficient favour with the Catholic church to permit fruitful ecumenical dialogue to progress.

And a breakaway

About 1600 Anglicans who are opposed to what they see as a soft-line approach by the church to a number of controversial issues that include the ordination of women and homosexuality last month formed a breakaway organisation called the Federation of Confessing Anglicans. The organisation described itself as “a cross-party forum for those concerned to preserve orthodox faith and doctrine”. Sydney archbishop Dr Peter Jensen told the FCA’s inaugural meeting in London that “a battle of wills was taking place over the future of the Anglican communion.” The FCA existed, he said, “to keep Anglicanism united, to enable those whose spiritual existence as Anglicans is threatened to remain Anglicans with integrity.”

Hands in the till

A Villanova university centre for church management study has revealed that 83 percent of the Roman Catholic parishes in the United States which responded (78 out of the 174 asked to participate) had lost money because of embezzlement in the last five years, five of them to the extent of more than $500,000. The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of financial controls in Catholic dioceses. Biggest default was of $8.6 million garnered by two Florida priests who spent their ill-gotten gains “on trips to Las Vagas, dental work, property taxes and other expenses,” but most were less than $50,000. Bishop Dennis M Schnurr, treasurer of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, commented, “The Villanova study does not come as a surprise.” Clearly the bishop is not easily surprised.

Birmingham 2-0?

The Vatican’s appointment in April of Archbishop Vincent Nichols, of Birmingham, to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor as archbishop of Westminster was a red letter day for Catholics in Britain’s second-largest city. The chances are that 2010 will be another great year for them because the search is on in the town for a venue large enough to stage the ceremonies associated with the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman whose remains were buried nearby in a small cemetery at Rednal. Fr Paul Chavasse, the postulator for the cause of Newman’s beatification, expects it to be next year and says that Rome has decided that it will be in Birmingham. But just where is the snag. The preferred venues are Birmingham Oratory or St Chad’s Cathedral but both are too small so the new saint may have to be proclaimed in the local exhibition centre or even St Andrews, the home of Birmingham City football team.

Worth visiting in Brisbane

An historical exhibition, arranged jointly by the Catholic archdiocese of Brisbane and the Sisters of Mercy, which includes rare artefacts from Queensland Catholic collections has opened in Brisbane to mark the 150^th anniversary of the archdiocese. The exhibition is at the Mercy Heritage Centre, All Hallows Convent, Ann Street, Brisbane, and will be open until January 29. According to the centre’s director Peter Connell, it offers a unique opportunity to view many items that have historical and aesthetic associations which highlight aspects of 150 years of the Catholic story in Queensland, including a chalice given to Bishop Quinn in 1859 as “Bishop of Brisbane, New South Wales”. Sir Joh would not have approved.

Father president?

A Catholic priest, Fr Ed Panlilio, who has been governor of the Philippines province of Pampanga since 2007, will contest his country’s presidential election next May.

World Religions Parliament Prelim

More than 250 people—Baha’i, Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, Moslem, Protestant and Sikh—turned up at Old Government House, Parramatta on August 2 for an inter-faith gathering which some saw as a dummy run for the Parliament of the World’s Religions forum that will be held in Melbourne from December 3-5 with an expected attendance of tens of thousands of delegates from all around the world and a theme of Making a World of Difference, Hearing each other, Healing the Earth. The Parramatta event was organised by the Ecumenical Council of New South Wales and included a forum on faith and ecology and a sacred music concert.

Smile please

Buckfast Abbey in Devon is, the Tablet notes, one of the most visited monasteries in Europe. One of the consequences of this fame is that there is an increasing tendency for tourists to throw coins into the river that runs around the monastic shop. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with the money which mounts to about £200 a year the monks have decided to give it to a mental health charity called Mind. Why that charity? Because, it was explained, anyone who threw money into a river clearly needed help.

July 2009 Edition 13

If you would like to know more about Catalyst for Renewal please visit other pages on our website www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au

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Radcliffe : Desire well, not less.

Dominican friar Timothy Radcliffe’s reputation as a brilliant, entertaining, thought-provoking speaker obviously preceded him because Catalyst for Renewal printed 400 tickets for the forum it arranged last month and they still ran out. The Sydney Congress Centre was packed and no one went away disappointed. The English-born Radcliffe, a former master of the Dominican order, said he saw the Catholic church as a sign of hope in this time of “ideological catastrophe” in an age that was “creating new, different and particular problems” Christ, he said, was a model for facing difficult times by giving his body as the sign of hope. The challenge for the Church was to find ways to embody that hope by making a commitment to the hopelessness of people; the unemployed in the financial crisis, the young, to countries in conflict. Fr Radcliffe, who has just published his latest book Why Go To Church, the foreword of which was written by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told his audience that the Church had to represent Christ’s welcome; to offer his mercy and forgiveness. When fundamentally grounded in love, he said, it was possible to bring an understanding of love to questions such as sexuality and women and the priesthood. The heart that was encultured through thinking, reflection, prayer and discipline “learned that loving makes you free.” One learned that hope was better than optimism; that what mattered was desiring well, not desiring less.

Brisbane Archbishop John Battersby last month finally cut the rebel parish priest of St Mary’s South Brisbane , Fr Peter Kennedy, adrift from the Catholic church by suspending him from all priestly duties. In his decree, Battersby said the action had been taken because Kennedy had ignored “official warnings to cease his involvement with the group known as St Mary’s in Exile.” Effectively, it means that Kennedy no longer can validly preach, officiate at weddings or hear confessions anywhere in the world. The archbishop has also revoked the faculties of another priest Fr Terry Fitzpatrick who worked with Kennedy but in his case the penalty applies only to the archdiocese of Brisbane . Fr Adrian Farrelly, chancellor of the archdiocese, who was a signatory to the decree, said Kennedy had “consistently ignored a series of formal directives following years of informal requests from the archbishop to conform with universal Catholic practice.” The Catholic church had laws that regulated throughout the world the celebration of sacraments and pastoral care of people which Fr Kennedy has continued to flout,” Farrelly said, adding. “Fr Kennedy’s beliefs and practices have separated him and those with him from the church, local and universal.”

Pell: Tough love needed for aborigines

Cardinal George Pell believes that encouragement of aboriginal leadership is necessary if efforts to assist them are to succeed. On a recent visit to the Northern Territory to launch an appeal to restore St Mary’s Cathedral in Darwin, he said he did not think the underlying challenge was a shortage of money [but to] know how best to spend it and break the culture of dependency. There was no room for sentiment about the condition of the Aboriginal people, the cardinal said, but there was every room for compassion. He thought what was needed was “tough love” but how to express that love and toughness he had no idea.

Ah, this changing world

The 138-year-old Newnham, one of two women-only colleges at Cambridge , has the doubtful honour of deciding to become the first either at that university or at Oxford to dispense with any reference to God or Christ when grace is said on formal occasions. Until now, graces have always had a religious connotation but Newnham will break the mould with, “For food in a hungry world, companionship in a world of loneliness and peace in an age of violence, we give thanks.”

Archbishop intervenes in equal opportunity inquiry

The Catholic archbishop of Melbourne Dennis Hart has told the Victorian Government that while he welcomed its decision to review equal opportunity legislation in the state the bishops had an obligation to represent the church in relation to legislation that “would appear to be inconsistent with the religious doctrines, beliefs and principles of the church.” In a response to the government’s recent equal opportunity discussion paper, Hart said the existing legislation should be amended to recognise the right of institutions to “operate in a manner that observes the religious beliefs and principles that govern those institutions.” The church was opposed to any extension of the Equal Opportunity Commission’s power from a “complaints-based jurisdiction” to one in which it would have an investigative and monitoring role, he said.

Deacons from Oz

Two Australians, one John McHugh from Armidale in New South Wales and the other John Purcell from Broome in Western Australian, were among eight men whose ages ranged from 43 to 68 who were ordained as deacons at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome on June 19, a happy start to the year for Priests. Beda was founded in 1852 as a college for older English-speaking men from all over the world. Four of the new deacons are widowers and between them they have six children. They will be ordained as priests next year. For Purcell the day was extra special. The bishop who ordained the eight is Christopher Saunders whose diocese is Broome. As usual, the ordination took place opposite the Beda College at the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls.

And for UK

More than twice as many men will be ordained as deacons in England and Wales as will become priests in the Catholic church there this year. In 2009 only 16 priests will be ordained but about 50 men will take their vows as deacons. According to latest statistics, there are currently 136 seminarians in England and Wales . Last year 27 priests were ordained there compared with 15 the year before.

Bishops empowered to sack priests

Catholic bishops will be given power, “effectively and unilaterally” to defrock priests who have abandoned their ministry for more than five years but have not formally requested laicisation. The Vatican decision was announced in a letter to bishops by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of Congregation for the Clergy. The cardinal explained that the new measures would speed up the process of laicisation for priests who were living with women, had left active ministry for several years or who had engaged in seriously scandalous behaviour. He stressed that cases involving clerical sexual abuse would be dealt with separately. Previously, Canon law made no provision for a bishop to remove a priest without his co-operation and consent.

Spirituality behind bars

A man who spent two years in gaol for robbing a supermarket will be a guest speaker at a meeting of Paddington Spirituality in the Pub on August 5. The speaker Don Sweetman’s topic: What’s spirituality got to do with life in prison? is one of a series in the SIP’s 2009 program entitled What’s spirituality got to do with? The second speaker will be Sandra Power, a volunteer worker and former education officer at Long Bail Gaol. Between them they will give those attending a better understanding of the impact of a sentence on prisoners and on those who care for them. Paddington SIP meets at the Bellevue Hotel, 159 Hargrave Street at 7.30pm .

Martini stirs again

The ever-controversial Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini who has a reputation for having regularly stirred up hornet’s nests in the Vatican since his retirement as archbishop of Milan has been at it again, no doubt to Benedict XVI’s dismay. On June 18 La Repubblico reported an interview with the Jesuit cardinal in which he said that a council should be convoked every 20 or 30 years to deal with issues facing the church. Martini, who was already on record for wanting discussion of the issue of married priests and a greater role for women in the church, told La Repubblico that the council should discuss the position of Catholics who were divorced and had remarried, as well as what could be done to revitalise the sacrament of penance. Martini also criticised the Vatican diplomatic corps which, he said, was too redundant and required far too much of the Church’s energy, submitting that it should be “greatly reduced if not actually dismantled.”

Gene therapy expert to speak

Internationally-respected haematologist Professor John Rasko, director of cell and molecular therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital , will be guest speaker at the next Catalyst for Renewal dinner on September 25. Professor Rasko, who also heads the Centenary Institutes’s gene and stem cell therapy program at Sydney University , was the first formal appointment in clinical gene therapy in Australia . He has a strong track record in gene therapy, experimental haematology and cell biology. His research has uncovered new mechanisms of leukaemia, understanding blood hormones and their mechanisms in action and clinical trials of new biological therapies for cancer and bleeding disorders. Rasko is an accomplished speaker noted for the clarity of his presentation so if you are looking for a better understanding of the contentious stem cell therapy issue September 25 should be a note in your diary. More details later.

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May 2009 Edition 12

Great Orator not to be missed

In November 2003 the chancellor of Oxford University admitted a Dominican friar as

an honorary doctor of Divinity, introducing him as a man “who does not avoid tackling the most thorny questions,” and one who, on occasion had “been criticised by timid spirits for his boldness and is on record as saying that questions relating to sexual matters must not be disregarded…a man distinguished both for eloquence and for wit, a master theologian who has never disregarded ordinary people, a practical man who believes that religion and the teachings of theology must be constantly applied to the conduct of public life [and] whose outstanding exertions have shed a flood of light both on matters of scholarship and also on human life in general.” Powerful words. Who is this friar who attracted such extraordinary commendation? He is Timothy Radcliffe OP who will be Catalyst for Renewal’s guest in conversation with Geraldine Dooghue on June 24. It will be at the Sydney Congress Hall, 140 Elizabeth Street, commencing at 6pm. Phone 02 9990 7003 for information. But do it quickly. The hall will need expanding walls.

Controversy dogs Benedict

Benedict XVI’s papacy has been disturbed so often by misunderstanding about references he has made to Islam or Jewry that he must sometimes wonder if there will ever be a time when anything he says or does to show the hand of friendship will escape controversy. There was yet another embarrassment, not of his making, on the eve of his visit this month to the Middle East when Israeli president Shimon Peres was forced to deny media reports, based on information given by his own spokeswoman, that he had urged the Israeli government to hand over six Christian holy sites to the Vatican. The press reported that having pointed out that Israel had already promised not to develop land around the holy sites, the president had asked the Interior and Tourism ministries to confirm the pledge and speed up negotiations as a goodwill gesture before the Pope's visit. The spokeswoman later claimed that what was published was taken out of context. Archbishop Antonio Franco, papal nuncio to Israel, apparently agreed. He said the press were a "big mess, a confusion of things.” The sites in question were the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Coenaculum on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, the traditional site of the Last Supper, Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Mount Tabor, and the Church of the Multiplication on the Sea of Galilee.

Mary MacKillop canonisation near?

Canonisation committee project manager Sr Judith Sippel, a St Joseph nun, predicted at the National Catholic Media Congress in Sydney this month that Mary MacKillop would be named a saint in the next eighteen months. She told the audience that the second miracle—attributed to Mary MacKillop’s intercession in 1995 to cure a woman suffering from an invasive and inoperable cancer—was expected to be approved by the Vatican “in the next couple of weeks.” “We don’t need any more miracles,” she said. Mary MacKillop died 100 years ago next August.

Good Blokes in conflict

In the unhappy episode involving the dismissal of the parish priest and the consequent splitting of the community of the South Brisbane church of St Mary’s inevitably the focus has been on the two main players—the unorthodox priest Fr Peter Kennedy and the man who sacked him, Archbishop John Bathersby. What Jesuit social justice advocate Fr Frank Brennan had to say about them at a recent Catalyst forum is therefore of special interest. “I know,” he said, “that Fr Peter Kennedy is one of the most pastoral priests you will ever find. But what you might not know is that John Bathersby, the archbishop, is one of the most down-to-earth, decent, ordinary blokes you could ever find.” Brennan then went on to mention that 20 years ago he stayed at the bishop’s house while passing through Brisbane. At breakfast with the recently-appointed bishop—“Bats as he is affectionately known”—he had asked him what he had on for the day. “He replied, ‘I’ve got to go to a meeting of the ministers’ fraternal.’ I said, ‘That’s a good thing isn’t it? Ecumenism and all?’ He scratched his bald pate and said, ‘Yes, but they want me to sign a letter opposing the building of the casino.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Yes, but it’s a bit difficult when your old man was an SP bookie.’ ”

Ecovatican

Prince Charles chose a meeting with Pope Benedict this month to warn of “a new dark age’ for the world if it did not act on climate change. He had a responsive listener because Benedict has spoken a number of times lately on the issue and is tipped to allude to it again in his social encyclical which is expected to be published soon. It would be of comfort for him, and the Prince of Wales, to note that the Vatican is on target to become the world’s first carbon neutral state. It has invested in solar panels on the roof of the Paul VI Auditorium and in solar heating for the staff cafeteria, and it will outlay 500 million euros to build the biggest solar plant in Europe, near the ancient village of Santa Maria di Galeria, which will produce energy to power 40,000 households. Last year the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary Bishop Gianfranco Girotti stepped up pace on the issue in Rome when he warned that damaging the planet was a sin on a par with more traditional personal vices. “You offend God not only by stealing, taking the Lord’s name in vain or coveting your neighbour’s wife but also by wrecking the environment,” he said.

Prep school for priests

A growing number of English and Welsh bishops insist that before entering the seminary aspirants for the priesthood should spend a year of preparation—a “propaedeutic” year, derived from the Greek word meaning “to teach beforehand.” According to statistics gathered by the British National Office of Vocations, in the last four years the bishops have sent 66 men to pre-seminary courses at the Royal English College at Vallodolid in Spain. Currently there are 136 seminarians in England and Wales. Fr David Featherstone, Salford vocations director, says it is now the norm rather than the exception for candidates to be sent to Spain before entering the seminary. The experience, he believes, often acted as a “reality check and a real test of the strength and authenticity of the individual’s vocation.”

Pope’s prayer for peace

Unlike the pilgrims of old I do not come bearing gifts or offerings. I come simply with one intention, a hope: to pray for the precious gift of unity and peace, most specifically for the Middle East. Peace for individuals, for parents and children, for communities, peace for Jerusalem, for the Holy Land, for the region, peace for the entire human family; the lasting peace born of justice, integrity and compassion, the peace that arises from humility, forgiveness and the profound desire to live in harmony as one—Benedict XVI, Amman, May 8 2009, during his visit this month to the Middle East.

US bishops at war on stem cells

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which has had a running battle with president Obama since before he was elected has stepped up its campaign against his proposal to federally fund research that will destroy human embryos for their stem cells. Draft guidelines for the proposal are now open for public comment and the bishops are urging Catholics throughout America to protest against the measure to their Congress representatives and directly to the National Institutes of Health. Chairman of the conference committee on pro-life activities Cardinal Austin Rigali said on May 7 that the conference would write to Congress and the Administration “about the need to restore and maintain barriers against mistreatment of human life in the name of science and we encourage other concerned citizens to do the same.”

Vatican trivia

Only a few Vatican citizens are permitted to hold accounts in the Vatican Bank (official title: the Institute of Religious Works) and presumably most of them would be fluent Latinists. Hence, as the Tablet reports, someone’s decision to include the language among those that can be used to operate the bank’s ATMs. When you put in your card you are greeted with Inserito scidulam quaeso ut faciundum cognoscas rationem which of course you know means Insert your card so that this account can be recognised.

April 2009 Edition 11

Thank God for the Salvos

On March 28 400 people attended a packed Catalyst for Renewal forum in Sydney to try to find answers to why the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference criticised the theology of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s best-selling book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus. It was in the Salvation Army Assembly Hall because, as Fr Michael Whelan SM explained, the Sydney archdiocese had decreed that it should not be held on Catholic premises. “Thank God for the Salvos,” he reflected. Whelan, who wound up the forum, reminded his audience that 50 years ago when Pope John XXIII announced that he would convoke the Second Vatican Council his decision had been greeted by the 17 cardinals present with “impressive, devout silence” and with opposition but many cardinals were later to think very differently about the Council and its work of renewal. In essence, Whelan said, he believed that Bishop Robinson’s book was a continuation of what John XXIII was promoting: “a critical self-reflection so that the Church can be more faithful to its mission.” He said, “By definition, no event, no statement, no life, no book will ever be entirely adequate to this task. Firstly, it is a never-ending task. The Church is always a work in progress. We will never reach a point where we are entitled to say there is no more need for critical reflection, no more need for greater fidelity to our mission. Secondly, the Church is a mystery. It is—and will always be—a complex and ultimately incomprehensible mixture of the divine and the human, of gift and task, of grace and sin, of the charismatic and the institutional, of order and chaos, of the saint and the sinner.” Speakers at the forum were Frank Brennan SJ, Barry Brundell MSC and Dr Tim O’Hearn, recently retired dean of students at the Australian Catholic University . Chair person was ABC presenter Geraldine Doogue. Check www.catalyst-for-renewal.com about plans to publish addresses given at the forum.

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US bishops pursue Obama on conscience issue

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which since his presidential victory last November has been unrelentingly critical of a raft of Barrack Obama’s policies—abortion, stem cell research et al—has widened its focus to attack his decision to rescind regulations protecting the conscience rights of health care professionals. Counsel for the conference said on March 23 that numerous laws had been enacted by Congress over thirty-five years to protect health care providers and professionals from being coerced into participating in abortions. It was the constitutional duty of the executive branch to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and to avoid contradicting or undercutting those laws. Because the Obama Administration claimed it was committed to a policy of 'choice' regarding abortion, it was inconsistent for it to remove the choice of nurses, doctors, clinics, or hospitals not to provide or facilitate abortions. The removal of “conscience protections” for the purpose of increasing access to abortion would also be inconsistent with the stated policy of the Obama Administration to reduce the number of abortions, the conference said.

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Dismissed priest loses

South Brisbane priest Peter Kennedy seems to have failed to win the battle to retain his St Mary’s parish from which Archbishop John Battersby dismissed him in February because, he said, he had lost confidence in Kennedy’s ability “to lead the church in a way that is in keeping with Catholic Church practice.” Kennedy refused to hand over the keys of the parish when Battersby appointed Fr Ken Howell as administrator. On March 27, a Brisbane archdiocese statement announced that mediation between it and representatives of St Mary’s parish had reached a “positive outcome” following an independent mediation process facilitated by Ian Callinan QC, which involved the signing of an agreement between the St Mary’s community and the archdiocese. Kennedy declined to participate in the mediation process. Howell will take over the parish on April 30.

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World’s biggest issue

Global warming, the “biggest issue facing us today”, will be the subject of an address by well-known historian and author Paul Collins to a Catalyst dinner on May 1. Collins, a former Catholic priest, will present his assessment of current responses to “ecological devastation” in the world, including those of the churches. The dinner, in the Villa Maria parish hall, cnr Mary Street and Gladesville Road , Hunters Hill, will at 7 for 7.30pm . The cost will be $45, byo drinks. For inquiries: 9990 7003 (message bank).

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Blair speaks up for gays

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has questioned Benedict XVI’s attitude to homosexuality, saying that religious leaders must start “rethinking” the issue, according to a BBC news report of an article in a British gay magazine. Asked to comment on the pope’s statement last December that “blurring distinctions between males and females could lead to self destruction of the human race”, Blair told the magazine that there was a “huge generational difference here” and there was probably “some fear among religious leaders that if you concede ground on an issue like this because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end?” He said, “We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith.”

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Back on your bike, Vincent

In July 2004 the then archbishop of Birmington Vincent Gerard Nichols joined a group of 55 parishioners to cycle 235 miles from one end of his diocese to the other to raise funds for charity. At the end of the ride, accomplished in stages over five days, he said, “It has been an exhilarating week; physically and spiritually, individually and as a group. An inspirational pilgrimage on wheels.” Nichols must have been fit. Hopefully he still is because on April 3 Benedict XVI appointed him archbishop of Westminster to succeed Cormac Murphy-O’Connor who will take some catching. The Liverpool-born new archbishop of Westminster, who is 64, was in charge of the Birmingham archdiocese for nine years and before that had eight years as auxiliary bishop of Westminster, having become, at 46, the youngest Catholic bishop in the United Kingdom. From 1984-1993 Nichols was general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Britain and Ireland. His voice may be remembered by Australians who watched the BBC’s television coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005 during which Nichols provided the commentary.

Murphy-O’Connor missed

Not only Catholics will be sorry that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has retired as archbishop of Wesminister. Over the years his name has become synonymous with ecumenism and his personal relations and rapport with Rohan Williams, his Church of England counterpart, have had the effect of bringing the two churches much closer together. Ecumenism was important to him, he said in a retirement interview, “because I think it’s the will of the Lord.” The archbishop went on: ‘The Vatican Council special document on ecumenism urges us not just to dialogue but to realise what unites us with our fellow Christians and that there is a road ahead through dialogue, prayer, friendship and working together as much as one can to try and reach the unity which was the will of the Lord. How successful have I been? Well, you know Mother Teresa said, “God hasn’t called me to be successful; he’s called me to be faithful.

Shockwaves for WYD pilgrims

Sixty-five Australian pilgrims, in Rome for the handover of the World Youth Day cross on Palm Sunday, were 110km from the earthquake-devastated town of L’Aquila in central Italy but were still jolted by the shockwaves. The archdiocese of Sydney website reported: “Most of the young Australians had never experienced an earthquake before and were terrified.” The Australian delegation was led by Cardinal George Pell and was joined at some of the functions by Tim Fischer, the Australian Ambassador to the Vatican , and Amanda Vanstone, Australian Ambassador to Italy .

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Must Diary Note

Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP said in 2001 that “after nine years as a Jack of all trades and Master of the Dominican Order, I have no expertise on anything except airports and exotic foods.” He will have a chance to prove this when he flies into Sydney in June to speak at a Calalyst forum. Radcliffe, described by a journalist in 1992, when be embarked on his role as head of the Dominicans, as “rumpled, amiable and bookish with the air of a man slightly puzzled that you’re interested in what he might have to say” is a renowned author and speaker. For your diary, the date is June 24. Underline it. You will be sorry if you forget.

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March 2009 Edition 10

Catholic-Anglican Bond Tightened

Brisbane’s Catholic and Anglican archbishops have celebrated Lent by inviting members of their congregations to join together at St John’s Anglican cathedral on March 27 in a common act of repentance “for our ecumenical and other failings of Christ over the last 150 years and to rededicate ourselves to the work of Christ in co-operation and goodwill to one another in the years ahead”. The two archbishops (John Battersby, Catholic, and Phillip Aspinall, Anglican) issued an historic joint Lenten pastoral message in which they expressed regret that for many decades there had been little or no contact between their churches and that suspicion and hardness of heart had been part of “our common history.” The bishops added , “We have been driven more by fear than love; more by self-protection than hope; lacking in both insight and will in responding to the demands of the Gospel.”

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Sad victory of politics

The United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference reacted immediately, and strongly opposed, to President Obama’s decision this month to lift the Bush administration’s restriction on federal financing for research that uses embryonic stem cells, describing it as "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics." Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the conference’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said that for the first time in US history, federal tax dollars would be used to encourage researchers to destroy live human embryos for stem cell research. Obama’s action was morally wrong, he said, because it encouraged the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested. Rigali said the decision also disregarded the values of millions of American taxpayers who opposed research that required taking human life, and it ignored the fact that ethically sound means for advancing stem cell science and medical treatments were readily available and in need of increased support. Obama justified his decision by stating that research involving human embryonic stem cells and human non-embryonic stem cells had the potential “to lead to better understanding and treatment of many disabling diseases and conditions.” He said advances in the last decade have been encouraging, leading to broad agreement in the scientific community that the research should be supported by Federal funds. For eight years, the president said, the authority to fund and conduct human embryonic stem cell research [in the US] had been limited by presidential actions. The purpose of his order was to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand National Institute of Health support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America's scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind.

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World parliament for Melbourne

More than 10,000 people from 80 countries are expected to attend the fourth Parliament of the World’s Religions to be held in Melbourne over seven days in December. The parliament, held every five years and described as the biggest interreligious gathering in the world, was inaugurated in Chicago in 1993 and has been held since in Cape Town (1999) and Barcelona (2004) to “discuss and explore peace, diversity and sustainability in the context of interreligious understanding and co-operation. Many religions are represented, among them Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.

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Mediator in parish upset

Retired High Court judge Ian Callinan has agreed to mediate in a dispute over the removal on February 19 of Fr Peter Kennedy as administrator of St Mary’s parish, South Brisbane and the priest’s subsequent refusal to hand over the parish keys to fellow priest Ken Howell whom Archbishop John Battersby had installed as his successor. Howell spoke to the police about his predicament and was “strongly advised” not to attend Masses at the church on the February 21-22 weekend “on the grounds that there may be a danger to public safety”. He had been a priest for 25 years, Howell said, and “I will not engage in a situation whereby the celebration of the Mass becomes a place of conflict and division.” Battersby explained in terminating Kennedy’s appointment that he had lost confidence in the priest’s ability “to lead the church in a way that is in keeping with Catholic Church practice.” He instanced in particular Kennedy’s statement publicly that he was “embarrassed to be a Catholic” and that he no longer believed in the Virgin birth and questioned the existence of heaven and hell.

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Interested spectator

Spare a thought for Bishop Geoffrey Robinson on March 28. He will be in what is certain to be a large audience that day at the Sydney Congress Hall in Elizabeth Street when three eminent speakers will probe why the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference criticised the theology of his best-selling book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus. The speakers at the all-day forum arranged by Catalyst for Renewal, will be Frank Brennan SJ, Barry Brundell MSC and Dr Tim O’Hearn, recently retired dean of students at the Australian Catholic University . Chair person will be ABC presenter Geraldine Doogue. Michael Whelan SM will have the task of summing up.

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Find a better way: Pell

Christians had to recover their genius for showing that there were better ways to live and build a better society; ways that respected freedom, empowered individuals and transformed communities, Sydney’s archbishop George Pell said on March 7 in the inaugural Oxford University Newman Society Thomas More lecture. The secular and religious intolerance of our day needed to be confronted regularly and publicly, the cardinal said. In his lecture, entitled Varieties of intolerance: Religious and Secular, Pell argued that secularist legislation could encroach on the freedom of religion, pointing out that some of the most permissive groups could become repressive despite all their rhetoric about diversity and tolerance. As a result, “opposition to same-sex marriages was branded homophobic whereas christianophobic blacklisting and intimidation is passed over in silence.” The lecture was given in the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library which was built in the early 15th century as a venue for “theology lectures and disputations in Oxford University.”

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Lenten denial

Internationally renowned Dominican friar and prolific author Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP will speak at a Catalyst for Renewal forum in Sydney in June and it is sure to be entertaining. The former Master of the Order of Preachers, the only Englishman to head the Dominican order since it was founded in 1216, is constantly in the news. Last year it was because the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rohan Williams asked him to sit with him as an adviser during the troublesome Lambeth conference. Last month Williams returned the compliment by launching Radcliffe’s latest book Why Go to Church. With thoughts turning to Lent, conversation touched on what people were giving up for Lent. Williams said he would do without coffee and liquor as he did every year. Radcliffe said he had spent a lot of time in Islamic countries and as a result had been very abstemious. This year he would take up alcohol.

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Must Diary Note

Historian, broadcaster, writer Paul Collins who was a Catholic priest for 33 years will be guest speaker at the Catalyst for Renewal dinner on May 1. His subject: Faith and the World Around Us : Does Catholicism Have Anything to Say in the Debate About Ecology, Global Warming and the Environment. Check Catalyst’s website, www.catalyst-fpr-renewal.com.au for details.

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8 February 2009 Edition 9

US Bishops Press Obama on Abortion

While America and much of the rest of the world were showering Barack Obama with messages of congratulations and goodwill as he was inaugurated as the 44^th president of the United States on January 19, the Catholic Bishops of America chose the moment to remind him that the Church’s approval of him was still conditional. The bishops had strongly—and very publicly—opposed him in the presidential election because of his policies on abortion and stem cell research, even to the point of advising Catholics to vote against him. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wasted no time in making sure that the bishops’ position on abortion had not modified with the change of White House occupancy. He had a letter confirming the conference’s stance on Obama’s desk when he opened his first mail as president. It would be a terrible mistake—“morally, politically, and in terms of advancing the solidarity and well-being of our nation's people”—George pleaded, to take executive action that would “reverse current policies against government-sponsored destruction of unborn human life.”

Pope’s storm no teacup

Catholics would need to dig deeply into their memories to recall a papal action that has attracted more criticism than Benedict XV1’s extraordinary decision to waive the excommunication of four Roman Catholic bishops who were ordained on June 30 1988 in defiance of a direction from Pope John Paul II by the rebel French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder in 1970 of the ever-dissident Society of Saint Pius X. The four bishops were excommunicated the following day. Reversal of the decision to banish the illicitly-ordained bishops, and with it the apparent re-embracing of the SSPX which has always been at odds with the Vatican, was highly controversial in itself but Benedict’s greater problem is that acceptance back into the fold of one of them, English bishop Richard Williamson, is highly offensive to Jews because he has publicly questioned that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and even that Nazi gas chambers ever existed Of particular embarrassment for the Bavarian-born pontiff was the unusual if not unprecedented rebuke early this month of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who declined to accept that his “clarification” of the issue was sufficient and called on the Vatican to “make a decision” that would “diffuse the impression that a denial of the Holocaust was possible.”

Forum probes: what doctrinal difficulties?

Issues raised by Australian Catholic Bishops Conference about Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit if Jesus will be subjected to probing analysis at an all-day Catalyst for Renewal forum next month. The four speakers—Frank Brennan SJ, Barry Brundell MSC,

Tim O’Hearn PhD and Michael Whelan SM—with ABC television host and commentator Geraldine Doogue as facilitator, will focus especially on trying to determine what statements in Robinson’s book could have caused the bishops the “doctrinal difficulties” to which they referred in their statement on May 6 last year. The forum will be held at the Sydney Congress Hall, 140 Elizabeth Street, on March 28, beginning at 9am. Cost per person, which includes morning tea and lunch, is $30.

WYD Legacy

The Catholic website Xt3—Christ in the third millennium—launched in Sydney during the World Youth Day celebrations last July is rated as perhaps the fastest growing social network in the world and continues to expand rapidly. The website now has over 40,000 members in more than 200 countries. It was established with the aim of maintaining the bond developed among WYD pilgrims and extending it to all people “who want to make a difference and help to make a better world.”

Paul Collins dinner guest

Prolific author (40 books at last count), former Catholic priest, historian and commentator Paul Collins will speak at the Catalyst for Renewal dinner in May. Dr Collins, who resigned from the priesthood in 2001 after a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith investigation and criticism of his book Papal Power published in 1997. The CDF, under the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, accused Collins of “having an erroneous concept of papal infallibility.” In an ABC interview at the time, Collins gave as his reason for resigning his desire to save his order—the missionaries of the Sacred Heart—from embarrassment. His Catalyst for Renewal address—7 for 7.30m on Friday May 1 at the Villa Maria parish hall, cnr Mary Street and Gladesville Road Hunters Hill—will be entitled Faith and the World Around Us—Does Catholicism Have Anything to Say in the Debate about Ecology, Global Warming and the Environment? Cost is $45 per person, BYO. Dr Collins is a dynamic speaker so book early (9990 7003 message bank for information).

Changes at Headquarters?

Vatican watchers are predicting that 2009 will be a year of substantial change in the leadership of the Catholic Church because of the number of cardinals who have reached the retirement age of 75 or will do so this year plus; even more significantly, the several who having turned 80 and thus are no longer eligible to act as cardinal electors. It is being suggested that Benedict XV1 will call a consistory around the middle of the year to lift the number of eligible cardinal electors which will then be 113 to 120 and at the same time undertake what in political terms would be a reshuffle of portfolios. Once again, the name of Cardinal George Pell is being mentioned; this time, as a possible successor to Cardinal Ivan Dias whose early retirement as head of Propaganda Fide may be necessary because of ill health.

Top author for SIP conference

Five times No 1 best-selling author and ordained inter-faith minister Dr Stephanie Dowrick will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Spirituality in the Pub conference to be held at the historic Centre guesthouse, 14 Frances Street Randwick, on the weekend of March 21-22. Theme of the conference will be Conversation is an act of love. The SIP annual dinner will be held on the Saturday night and accommodation (to be booked individually) is available if required at the conference center. For registration information: 02 9548 2538 or email: kevcar@iinet.net.au

Revised Missal ready in 2010?

A secret ballot of Australian Catholic bishops has brought much closer the introduction here of a revised English translation of the Latin Missal by giving canonical assent to the final recommendations of the International Commission for English in the Liturgy. These dealt with final translations of the Votive Mass, Masses for the Dead, The Commons, the Proper of Saints, the Introductory Documents, Antiphons and Appendices. Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn, who is chairman of the Australian Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy, said it was impossible to predict exactly when the new Missal would be published but current indications were that it might be towards the end of 2010. Meanwhile, a committee was making publishing arrangements and these should be completed by the end of this year.

New venue for reflection mornings

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson will present the combined Aquinas Academy/Catalyst first reflection morning of 2009 (from 9.30am to 12.30pm) on Saturday March 7. It will be at a new venue: Holy Name of Mary’s parish hall, 3a Mary Street Hunters Hill. The title of the reflection is A Christian Life. While you have your diary handy you might make a note that the next reflection (same place, same time) will be on April 4.

15 November 2008 Edition 8

Step closer for women?

If—some would say “when”—the Catholic church eventually agrees to the ordination of women to the priesthood it is likely that October 26 2008, the day that proposition 17 was presented to Benedict XVI at the end of the 12^th general assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, could be recalled as the critical turning point in church policy on the contentious issue. Late in the Synod (incidentally, attended by 25 women, a record number) more than 250 of the church’s bishops raised their hands to the proposition that women should be admitted to the official ministry of lector. If approved, this would remove the formal barrier to their acting as Scripture readers at Mass, edging the door open to further widening of the role of women in the Church. There are still, however, major hurdles ahead, the steepest of which may be the entrenched view among some Vatican authorities that Canon law allows the ministries of lector and acolyte to be conferred only on men. No doubt, should the pope wish it the law could be amended. But those whose hopes are buoyed by the prospect of the proposition soon becoming a reality would be wise to recall the caution of retired Bishop David Cremin at a Catalyst for Renewal dinner on October 17: “Don’t hold your breath.”

Forum to examine bishops’ concerns

Questions posed by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference about Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s best-selling book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus will be the subject of a Catalyst for Renewal forum in Sydney next year. The focus would be issues raised in the book and seeking a better understanding of the bishops’ concerns that they expressed on the eve of Robinson’s tour of the United States in May, Catalyst president Marea Donovan said in announcing the all-day forum to be held on Saturday March 28. It will feature a number of eminent speakers including Fr Frank Brennan SJ. Full details will be announced shortly.

A word from himself

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson will have the opportunity, if he chooses to take it, to express his own views on the bishops’ concerns about his book when he addresses a public meeting arranged by the Catholics Coming Home Committee of the Our Lady of the Way Parishes (North Sydney, Kirribilli and Lavender Bay) on November 25. The meeting will begin at 7.30pm at the ANZAC Memorial Club, Anzac Avenue , Cammeray. First-come first-in entry is free and the doors will open at 6.30. Title of Robinson’s address will be Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus in the 21^st Century. .

Catholic-Muslim love-in

French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who as president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue was involved in arranging the three-day Love of God-Love of Neighbour forum in Rome early in November the aim of which was to smooth Catholic Muslim relations, once had something to say on the matter that he might prefer to forget. In 2004, just retired after 13 years as Vatican foreign secretary, Tauran told the French Catholic newspaper La Croix that too many Islamic countries “treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens, barring church building, while Western states let their Muslims build mosques freely,” going on to assert that Christianity and Islam faced "an enormous task" of learning to live together in mutual tolerance. Despite the cardinal’s then pessimism, the forum was marked by extraordinary harmony, concluding with a declaration renouncing oppression and violence “especially that committed in the name of religion.” A second forum will be held in “approximately” two years time in “a Muslim majority country” yet to be decided, and meanwhile work will begin exploring the possibility of establishing a permanent Catholic-Muslim committee to “coordinate responses to conflicts and other emergency situations.” The Rome meeting, which was addressed on the third day by Benedict XVI, was initiated by King Abdullah of Jordan who last September appealed for dialogue through a letter entitled “A common word between us and you” as a consequence of the pope’s contentious reference to Muslims at Regensburg in 2006. The forum was co-organised by Tauran’s council and the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought and was attended by 50 Muslim and Christian religious leaders and scholars. Like Pope John Paul II who elevated him to cardinal in 2003, and Cardinal Maria Martini of Milan , Tauran suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, but the affliction has no religious affinity. Another victim was Billy Graham. So was Mao Zedong.

Anglican Ups and Downs

Latest Church of England statistics published recently reveal that in England in 2006-07 the number of Anglican clergy rose by 15 percent but weekly attendance at church services fell by one percent. During that year there were 552 ordinations in England of which nearly half—262—were of women. The upward trend in Anglican vocations—in stark contrast to the experience of Catholic seminaries—continued into 2007-08 during which the Church of England recommended 595 candidates for ordination training in England, the largest number for a decade.

Worth thinking about

In this post-Christian world of ours, the communication of faith may well be done more effectively through deeds rather than words—the witness and example that we give by our actions in the service of the human family and the entire planet. While Mongolian society can hardly be called post-Christian since the first Catholics only arrived there in 1992, the young Church of Mongolia has done an extraordinary job of communicating the Christian message largely through the works of mercy which it has initiated. The former communist government’s initial resistance to a Catholic presence in Mongolia was rapidly transformed when it observed the Church’s work in health care, education and employment training, and its response to special problems such as alcoholism, depression and unwanted pregnancy.—Fr Keith Pecklers, SJ, Professor of Liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, who addressed a Broken Bay Institute forum in Sydney on September 23.

Move for Pell?

Benedict XVI’s choice of Cardinal George Pell as one of only three cardinals to serve as presidents-delegate—the pope was the president—and chair in rotation the daily sessions of last month’s three-week Synod of Bishops has provoked speculation, not for the first time, that the pope has ear-marked the Sydney archbishop for greater things. Pell was called on to join Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Sao Paulo Cardinal Odilo Scherer in the role when Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay withdrew because of illness. Robert Mickens, Rome correspondent of the usually well-informed Tablet magazine, commented that Pell’s selection had “rekindled rumours, begun during the papal visit to Sydney last July” that the Pope was planning to name him ‘to a permanent post in Rome.”

2009 reminder

The trouble is that after nine years as a Jack of all trades and Master of the Dominican Order, I have no expertise on anything except airports and exotic foods—Dominican friar and great speaker Timothy Radcliffe who will address a Catalyst for Renewal forum in Sydney on June 24 2009.

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30 October 2008 Edition 7

Bishop warns against “prophets of gloom”

Retired bishop David Cremin told a Catalyst for Renewal audience on October 17 that it saddened him that prophets of gloom whom Pope John XXIII had warned against were exerting more and more influence within the life of the Catholic church and that there were people who would seek to wind back the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Bishop Cremin recalled that John XXIII, “a human, humble, good-humoured man,” had said when he announced Vatican II that the Council “now beginning rises in the Church like the daybreak, a forerunner of most splendid light.” He had opened doors and windows to let in that splendid light, the bishop said. In his opening speech to the Council the pope had made it clear that the Church was moving from defensive mode to a more open, confident and joyful proclamation of the message of Jesus. He had explicitly warned against the prophets of gloom who would seek to undermine the reforms of the ecumenical council. Bishop Cremin said the bishops of Vatican II saw the Church deeply immersed in the heart of humanity; that like Jesus himself, the Church must stand in solidarity with the people of this world. “The opening words of the Constitution proclaim this boldly. The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are in any way poor and afflicted, these too must be the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the followers of Christ.” The Second Vatican Council had enabled the Catholic Church to engage with contemporary culture, challenged it to seek closer communion with other Christians and to pray and work with them. It had sought to be in dialogue with other believers and with non-believers. Bishop Cremin said he was no great Vatican watcher “but one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to notice that the Church climate has changed dramatically in recent times. I love my church, warts and all. It is my family, it is my home, it is the house where I dwell and hope to live in for the rest of my life. But, my God, it is a house that needs cleaning!”

Problems for Benedict

Benedict XVI’s timing in inviting for the first time a non-Christian—the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Shear-Yashuv Cohen—to attend the Roman Synod of Bishops in October proved to be more problematic than he would have hoped. Rabbi Cohen was seriously displeased that in the first week of the synod—two days before he was due to address it—Benedict chose to honour Pope Pius X11, who has long been accused by Jews of not speaking out sufficiently against the Holocaust, with a special Mass to mark the 50^th anniversary of his death, causing speculation that this would lead to the World War II pope’s beatification. The Chief Rabbi, who has been co-chairman of the Catholic-Jewish bilateral commission since it was formed in 1976, did not mince words when his turn came to speak on the first working day of the three-week synod. "We cannot forget,” Rabbi Cohen said in reference to the Nazi-led Holocaust “the sad, the painful fact of how many, including great religious leaders, did not raise a voice in the effort to save our brethren, but chose to keep silent and help secretly. We cannot forgive and forget it. And we hope that you understand our pain, our sorrow over the immediate past in Europe." Rabbi Cohen did not mention the Pope Pius by name in his address but he told journalists later that he was opposed to his beatification and if he had known that he was to be honoured at the synod “I might have refrained from coming because we feel that the pain is still there.”

St John’s 150 year celebration

Sydney architect William Wilkinson Wardell’s original plans for St Mary’s Cathedral will be on display in an exhibition at St John’s College, University of Sydney, which will be officially opened on November 2. The exhibition will also include Wardell’s 1857 drawings of St John’s College. It is one of a number of events on that day to mark the College’s 150^th anniversary, starting with a thanksgiving Mass at 10am. Other activities include a wine-lover’s luncheon hosted by vigneron Andrew Corrigan and a farmer’s market. Brief tours of the college will be available to allow visitors to view current building work. For further information: Trish 0’Brien 9394 5204 or Email tobrien@stjohns.usyd.edu.au

Loss of religion report protested

The ABC’s decision to axe Stephen Crittenden’s Radio National Religion Report is further evidence that religion and other serious broadcast programs have close to zero priority in Australia and seems to run contrary to the policy of the BBC’s new director-general Mark Thompson who touched on the subject of religious broadcasts in April. Thompson, a Catholic, said the BBC and other major channels “have a special responsibility” to ensure that debates about “faith and society” and about any religion “should not be foreclosed or censored”. Catalyst for Renewal is lodging its own protest by arranging a petition.

Outback Australia governance dysfunctional

Remote Australia—85% of the continent but only 4.5% of the population—is strategically, economically, socially and culturally vital to the country but is the victim of government dysfunction, according to former federal minister Fred Chaney. He said this while giving the second lecture in the Aquinas Academy’s Common Good series in Sydney on September 17. Chaney argued that from the perspective of what was shared by Australians those who lived beyond the “geographic divide” were excluded from the common good. “Being remote from the greatest numbers of population from which we are governed, being fragmented into a series of backyards for the state and territory jurisdictions presents problems of governance we have yet to overcome,” he said. He had learned that “it was not possible effectively to govern by remote control; that you cannot deliver services, particularly to people who are disadvantaged, by remote control. You cannot do it by declarations of good intention and occasional visits – it simply doesn’t work.” The full text of Fred Chaney’s address can be obtained from the Aquinas Academy. Telephone 02 9247 4651 or log in to www.aquinas-academy.com. Cost is $5 for the text or $15 for a CD.

Reflection magic

Engadine parish priest Mike Court will lead the annual twilight Eucharistic Reflection for Catalyst for Renewal on November 15 the theme of which is — Reflecting on the mystery through story. The Salesian father is renowned for his capacity to use stories and illustrations to enthrall his congregation. Fr Court transferred from Melbourne early this year to take over the Engadine parish, bringing with him the customary devotion to Australian Rules football. He is also a talented magician! The Eucharistic reflection will be held in the Colin library at the Marist Centre, 1 Mary Street, Hunters Hill, beginning at 4pm after which a light meal will be served. To book telephone 9990 7003 and leave a message.

One to think about—and smile

Last Sunday when I was attempting to give a homily at Hurstville where I live and say something about marriage enrichment, I said, “Why should I be talking to you? I am a bachelor.” I said, “In the present arrangement, Roman Catholic priests are not allowed to marry.” I said, “If I stay as a bishop and I am elected pope I will change all that!” There was a thunder of applause. They were all in favour. That’s particularly interesting because Hurstville is the most multicultural parish I know. I recently said Mass there and there were 56 people at it—Japanese, Polish, Italian, French, Bangladesh, Indonesian, Irish—and I asked out of curiosity how many were born in Australia and one hand went up. Actually it should have been two. The other one was a deaf nun— Bishop David Cremin , at a Catalyst for Renewal dinner on October 17.

For your diary

Internationally renowned author (for example of the best-selling What is the point of being a Christian?) Dominican friar Timothy Radcliffe who was master-general of his order from 1992 until 2001 has accepted an invitation to speak at a Catalyst for Renewal forum in Sydney on June 24 next year.

13 October 2008 Edition 6

Ecumenical SIP

The Kincumber Spirituality in the Pub group which spans the New South Wales Central Coast attracts audiences of up to 200 on good nights and rarely less than 75. This could make it Catalyst’s most successful SIP but it may also be its most ecumenical. Although members of the group’s committee are mainly Catholic, ever since it was formed 11 years ago it has had strong support from the local Anglican and Uniting churches, with their clergy often joining Catholic parish priest Fr Michael O’Toole at SIP meetings. During the World Youth Day festivities in July about 2000 pilgrims were billeted on the Central Coast , often with non-Catholic families. Obviously, they made a big impression because the Uniting Church minister Greg Woolnough insisted on hosting a dinner for nearly 300 of them one night in his church hall and afterwards they walked a block or so to the Anglican church where the rector Fr Rod Bower conducted an ecumenical service. The Kincumber SIP’s theme this year is What Really Matters. It is obvious that to its members ecumenism does really matter.

Hard road for Benedict

The briefing documents on the state of his church in France that Benedict XVI received from Vatican advisers before leaving Rome for Paris mid September would not have been happy reading for him on the flight. The Catholic church in France , once a brilliant jewel in the Roman Catholic crown, is in a sad state. Recent statistics tell the story. Of the 45.35m self-declared French Catholics—77.42 percent of the population, the fifth largest in the world—21 percent claim they attend Mass weekly, but according to Fr Michael Clifton, a retired English priest who spends his spare time publishing a website blog on matters Catholic under the pseudonym Fr Mildew (!), the position is even worse. He says that the church’s own figures suggest that only eight percent of French Catholics go to Mass “at least once a month and then mostly the elderly.” To add to Benedict’s woe, Clifton reports that since Vatican II ordinations in France have fallen from 1000 a year to 100. “A recent finding showed that over half the French population do not believe in the concept of sin,” he wrote, “and 60% say the church does not give answers or strength in their religion.”

Subprime crisis hits Vinnies

St Vincent de Paul Society is among a number of Australian charities and government agencies that appear likely to suffer huge losses as the subprime crisis takes toll of the United States investment bank Lehman Brothers with which they have heavy investments. According to newspaper reports, the society had invested $8.9m in “complex financial instruments such as collalateralised debt obligations” much of which could be worthless. Also reported to have fallen victim to the failed investment is Boystown, operated by the De La Salle Brothers, whose spokesperson conceded to the Melbourne Age that reports of it having $6.5m invested with Lehman Bros was “fairly accurate”. More than 150 Australian community groups, municipal councils and charitable organisations are said to have been affected.

Share a bishop’s dream

Retired Bishop David Cremin, described as one of Australia’s best-loved prelates when he retired in 2004, will tell a Catalyst dinner audience on October 17 of his dream for the Catholic Church and will ponder on what might have been had he been ordained five years ago instead of in 1974. The dinner will be held at the Villa Maria Parish Hall, corner of Mary Street and Gladesville Road , Hunters Hill, at 7 for 7.30pm .

Cost will be $45 a head (BYO). The Irish-born Bishop Cremin, who is noted for his sense of humour and no nonsense views, will attract a crowd so it will be wise to book early. Telephone Pauline on 02 9990 7003 for details.

No way Yahweh

Devotees of hymns and psalms in which the word “Yahweh” appears--Yahweh I know you are near, for example--will be disappointed to learn that it has been blacklisted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. It seems that news of the ban broke in August when the United States bishops’ conference revealed that it had received a new Vatican directive ruling that “Yahweh” must not be used or pronounced as a name of God in songs and prayers during Catholic Masses. The directive “of the Holy Father” was signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze and Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, respectively congregation prefect and secretary.

Pell on the web

Sydney archbishop Cardinal George Pell is using the website xt3.com created for World Youth Day to maintain contact with as many as possible of the pilgrims from across the world who invaded Sydney in their thousands in July. In a message dated September 7, Cardinal Pell noted that there were now more than 30,000 users of the “online Christian community”. “I join you today, 50 days after World Youth Day, to continue to walk with you on your journey,” he wrote. “During our week together we experienced much joy and celebration, connection with a faithful fellowship of pilgrims, and unprecedented excitement and enthusiasm. This powerful experience can be very difficult to sustain after During our week together we experienced much joy and celebration, connection with a faithful fellowship of pilgrims, and unprecedented excitement and enthusiasm. This powerful experience can be very difficult to sustain after you return to your home, parish, study and work. It is not expected that you could continue in this state of celebration and nor is it feasible to stage the kind of events we hosted in Sydney everyday. However, it is possible—and very important—that we sustain our relationship with Jesus Christ.” The cardinal then suggested “some thoughts that might be helpful for those of you who are flagging or finding some difficulty after your pilgrimage here”, and urged pilgrims to read them in Activ8 Witness: Mission and Love that is available on the web at www.xt3.com/activ8

Ecodiversity

Two speakers at the October 1 Paddington SIP meeting addressed the night’s topic Our fragile earth. Handle with care from very different perspectives. Miriam Pepper, from Maroubra Uniting Church , is coordinator of Project Green Church and as such has the task of persuading other churches to conserve energy, and Louise Campbell, an education adviser who is chair of the NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, reflected the views of indigenous Australians. The group meets at 7.30pm at the Bellevue Hotel, 159 Hargrave Street , Paddington.

Worth digesting

We are living in a period in which people are obsessed with having more and more regardless of what they need and can use. It seems to me that the enduring symbols of the era could well be the garage sale and rented storage space.—Fr Michael Whelan SM PhD, at a Catalyst/Aquinas Academy reflection morning at Hunters Hill on September 13.

Next issue

Your editor is off to the Middle East . The next issue will be mid October.

8 August 2008 Edition 5

Postscript to WYD

A prediction in the London-based Tablet magazine by Andrew Thomas Kania, an expatriate Australian research fellow at Oxford University, that the great majority of his young Catholics countrymen might not even choose to watch Benedict XVI on television “if there was a sporting event being televised at the same time or if the weather is good” would appear to have been hugely astray. In an article published on July 12, Kania implied that if this did happen the Pope should not be surprised because he had said in July 2005 (quoting the religion commentator Paul Collins) that Australia was a “Godless” nation in which the mainstream churches appeared to be “moribund”. In fact, by any assessment the Pope’s visit was an extraordinary success, and hundreds of thousands of young Australians eschewed their TV sets and their passion for sport to get involved in the World Youth Day celebrations, as indeed did older members of the community. Kania’s comments attracted criticism, not least from Ascot Vale (Victoria) Tablet reader John Papworth. Clearly, Papworth wrote in the next issue on July 19, Kania “was a long way from the reality of the World Youth Day experience in Sydney ,” and went on to argue that the absence of your people of various age groups from the institutional Church was “a terribly narrow interpretation of research data.” “The Church of the young, as in early colonial days, was out on the streets. Just as Irish nuns and brothers devoted themselves as true servants to the needs of struggling families, providing education and health care, so also are the young out there in their thousands. Not just whooping it up during WYD but faithful to their regular rosters of duty in soup kitchens, nursing homes, refugee tutoring centres and dozens of similar examples of generous service, the young church witnessing to loving service.”

The Pope as Abbott MP sees him

On the eve of World Youth Day, federal parliamentarian and one time seminarian Tony Abbott wrote an article headed The Mission —Benedict and Us in the Australian newspaper. It frankly discusses the challenges that faced the Pope when he came to Australia and poses questions that deserve our pondering. For example: To the modern western mind, a proposition can or can’t be shown to be true. If it can’t be proven by logic or by demonstration, it’s just a supposition which can be accepted or rejected at will. To Benedict, the problem with this line of thinking is that it degrades much of what is necessary for people to be truly human. Love, duty, honour, sacrifice, indeed all the traditional virtues lose their merit except as comforting superstitions. These are no longer ideals to sustain the kind of life really worth living but inventions to mask the essential meaninglessness and randomness of human activity. Benedict thinks that the emblematic problems of the modern west – family breakdown, social alienation, substance abuse and the sexual exploitation of children – spring from this loss of the sense of the inherent value and dignity of human life. To Benedict, this is the central insight of Christianity: that God so loved the world that he sent his only son, which truly ennobles and validates every person. From this flows the fundamental moral precept to treat others as you would have them treat you. On this foundation, the Pope holds, rests the whole edifice of western civilisation: equality before the law, the presumption of innocence, universal suffrage, limited government, and religious, cultural and political pluralism. The question haunting Benedict is whether our civilisation can maintain these principles while rejecting the religious insights on which they rest. Australia ’s best-known historian, Manning Clark, may have been groping towards a similar conclusion when he finished A Short History of Australia with the question: “Just as Samson after being shorn of his hair was left eyeless in Gaza , was this generation, stripped bare of all faith, to be left comfortless on Bondi Beach ?” Perhaps it’s our prosperity, near absence of natural catastrophes, general social harmony and lack of enemies that is responsible for extracting much of the seriousness (if not the rancour) from the national conversation. Our country’s problems may be relatively trivial but Australians’ individual personal problems still hurt, as our suicide rates show. The full text of Tony Abbott’s article can be viewed on his website http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/Pages/Article.aspx?ID=3595

WYD pulpit wisdom

Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, at the opening Mass at Barangaroo on July 15: We Christians believe in the power of the Spirit to convert and change persons away from evil to good, from fear and uncertainty to faith and hope…our task is to be open to the power of the Spirit, to allow the God of surprises to act through us…whatever our situation we must pray for an openness of heart, for a willingness to take the next step, even if we are fearful of venturing too much further. If we take God’s hand, He will do the rest. Trust is the key. God will not fail us.

Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, at St Benedict’s Church Sydney, on July 4, the feast of Blessed Pier Georgio Frassati in the presence of his relics: What’s this thing with Catholics and bones?…[it] proclaims the importance of the flesh, and of the unity of body and soul, in every human life now and in the world to come...Especially today perhaps we need to retrieve a proper sense of the place of the body after a century when more and more terrible things have been done to human bodies by way of torture, genocide, abortion, drugs and self destruction, and pornography, prostitution and medical mutilation...we need to be recalled to reverence of the body.

Benedict XVI, in an address at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Darlinghurst, on July 18: to disadvantaged young people participating in the Catholic Alive rehabilitation program: Perhaps you have made choices that you now regret, choices that led you down a path which, however attractive it appeared at the time, only led you deeper into misery and abandonment. The choice to abuse drugs or alcohol, to engage in criminal activity or self-harm may have seemed at the time to offer a way out of a difficult or confusing situation. You now know that instead of bringing life it brings death. I wish to acknowledge your courage in choosing to turn back on to the path of life…Dear friends, I see you as ambassadors of hope to others in similar situations. You can convince them of the need to choose the path of life and shun the path of death because you speak from experience..it was those who had taken wrong turnings who were particularly loved by Jesus because once they recognized their mistake they were all the more open to his healing message. It was those who were willing to rebuild their lives who were most ready to listen to Jesus and become his disciples. You can follow in their footsteps; you too can grow particularly close to Jesus because you have chosen to turn back towards him. You can be sure that, just like the father in the story of the prodigal son, Jesus welcomes you with open arms.

Editor’s note: Further extracts from WYD homilies will be published in our next issue. The complete homilies can be found on www.zenit.org

Robinson at St Stephens

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson will attend the last session of a lunchtime study series held at St Stephen’s Uniting Church, 197 Macquarie Street, Sydney on August 26 to discuss his best-selling book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church. The series began on July 15 and will continue every Tuesday for seven weeks. Discussion begins at 1.10pm and lasts for 40 minutes, with each session concentrating on one chapter of the book.

Spirituality in the Pub Grows

The Catalyst-initiated SIP movement is now attracting audiences in 28 venues in Australia and one in Boston in the USA , and two new groups are in the process of being established. There are now active SIP groups in four states— New South Wales (14), Victoria (11), Tasmania (2) and South Australia (1). Two more are on the way in New South Wales (Wagga Wagga and Warners Bay ). Twenty of the existing or proposed Australian groups are in the country and 10 in the city. Want to know more about SIP including where groups meet? Check the Catalyst website where you will find a great on it article by Fr Andy Hamilton SJ.

SIP 3D Day Forum

Catalyst’s annual in-service forum for organisers and supporters of SIP—3D (Discernment, Discovery and Development) Day—was held on Saturday August 2 at the Marist Centre, 1 Mary Street , Hunters Hill. Two highlights were the presence of Bishop David Cremin, who presided at the Eucharistic liturgy, and an address by Kate Engelbrecht entitled What’s God got to do with a Conversation in a Pub? Kate, who is director of Mission Possible Education, is the editor of Why I am Still a Catholic, began her address with an image of the Trinity, an icon showing Abraham with strangers; hence there was a hospitality notion. She said that the prayerful observer became the fourth person of the triune God, and then went on to compare conversation with debate. Debate, which she said she enjoyed, assumed that there was a right answer to the question being discussed and the speaker had it. Kate said that in debate, one attempted to prove that one was right; “you listen to find flaws in the other’s arguments and you are ready with counter arguments, you defend assumptions as truths; you assume before you are told, and you look for a conclusion or a closure to the argument.” On the other hand, Kate said, a conversation was open-ended. “You are open to change, you share insights—and it is safe to share them. At a SIP evening, the two speakers offer insights, then others can offer theirs. So you take away insights into what is significant.” She said that a good model of conversation was to assume that lots of people had lots of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. By putting them together one could get a better idea of the puzzle. “We find common ground, we find common meanings and we find agreement. We come to appreciate that other peoples’ thinking can improve or change our own understanding.” Kate said that people who had engaged in consensus decision-making in the workplace had found this approach very effective. The requirement to reach common ground gave them “permission to change their own opinion”—and to let other people have their “Ah Ha!” moments. It was always important, Kate said, to concentrate on the “heart” of a matter, not on the detail; to listen for the flow of ideas. In spirituality, to be a disciple required the same qualities as conversation. “You consider that your true depth is the Christ within you. In SIP we have Christ speaking in many voices.”

Help from the “opposition”

After a very difficult, controversial Church of England synod in July, the dominant issue at which was the ordination of women bishops, the head of the Anglican communion in England and Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, almost immediately had to face what proved to be an equally trying Lambeth Conference which was torn by division and boycotted by some of his bishops. As was his wont, Dr Williams decided to seek the peace and solitude of a Catholic monastery for a pre-conference retreat, choosing as his sanctuary the well-known Benedictine-run Worth Abbey in West Sussex; well-known because it was the location for the much-watched BBC television documentary, The Monastery. At the Lambeth conference itself, the archbishop had beside him, as an adviser, another monk, but not a Benedictine. It was a Dominican friar Fr Timothy Radcliffe. Fr Radcliffe, the author of several books including What is the Point of Being a Christian? Sing a New Song and Seven Last Words, has accepted an invitation to speak at a Catalyst forum in Sydney next year.

Modern UK Catholics analysed

In the absence of recent research in this country, one can only guess at whether the way British Catholics think about their church and its teachings is mirrored in Australia , although it would be surprising if it did not, at least in some aspects so it makes fascinating reading. A just-released survey in England and Wales by Cambridge University ’s Von Hugel Institute and sponsored by the Tablet digs into many of the issues that are of deep concern to Catholics in Australia , among them declining church attendances, absence from the confessional and more contentious questions such as contraception. Tablet published the results of the survey in its issues of 12 and 19 July and has recognised their special interest by allowing free access on line. The magazines website can be reached on www.thetablet.co.uk

Poetry and the spirit—a reflection

Associate Professor Michael Griffith, the author of God’s Fool: The Life and Poetry of Francis Webb published in 1991 and based on his 1981 PhD thesis, will be the presenter at an Aquinas Academy-Catalyst for Renewal reflection on August 23. He will explore how language, as used in poetry, “connects us more deeply to our physical, emotional and intellectual selves and opens us to an experience of the spirit—a persistent theme of mine through 31 years of teaching literature at what is now the Australian Catholic University ”. Dr Griffith’s presentation, his third to Catalyst, will be at the Colin Library, Marist Centre, 1 Mary Street , Hunters Hill, commencing at 9.30am . Entry is by donation and all are welcome.

Worth digesting

There are social currents today that want to isolate religion from other forms of knowledge and experience in order to marginalise it. One of the things I challenge is the desire to separate Christianity from rational enquiry. Many of our “new atheists” seem unable to cope with the notion of an intelligent reflective faith. But the Christian tradition is characterised by a close relationship between reasoned understanding and religious faith. Faith for us is a flowering of reason, not its betrayal. Catholic Christianity is characterised by three things: the richness of its spiritual and mystical traditions; the clarity of its theology which brings theology and philosophy together and gives us an articulate intellectual expression of the knowledge born of faith; and the stability and strength of the structure as a community held in communion and truth by the Pope and bishops.— Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, in a public lecture in London in May.

20 July 2008 Edition 4

In Robinson’s defence (1)

Visiting American author/journalist Robert Blair Kaiser (A Church in Search of Itself and Benedict XVI and The Battle for the Future) used a Catalyst for Renewal forum in Sydney on July 4 to sharply criticise what he described as an orchestrated attempt to prevent Bishop Geoffrey Robinson from conducting a lecture tour of the United States to promote his book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church. Kaiser, who as a journalist covered Vatican II, told his audience that he was so thrilled to cover Vatican II “in those four shining years” that “if Time Magazine hadn’t paid me I would have paid Time to be there, to hear it and to be a part of it.” He said, “We had free speech in the church for the first time in history and then after the council they clamped down and we don’t have free speech. When Geoff Robinson has to be accused of heresy for exercising free speech then that is an indication that we don’t have free speech in the church today. One must hope, he said, that “Geoffrey Robinson’s standing up will lead to the Australian bishops banding together, and saying to Rome, ‘Stop trying to micro-manage the church in Australia. We are going to do it ourselves in Australia. We will still be in the draw but we don’t need Rome to be telling Bishop Geoffrey Robinson or the Australian bishops that he is a heretic because he dared to criticise John Paul II over the way the sexual abuse scandal was handled.” Kaiser said the Maronites and other Eastern rite churches had their own language, culture and liturgy while being in full communion with Rome. He hoped that bishops in the West, for example in the USA and Australia, would stand up and start leading their flock so that they could live out their Christian lives in their own cultural context. Kaiser said that wherever Robinson spoke in America the venues were booked out. “The people there were Catholics who I imagine were just like the people here tonight. Bishop Robinson said things that they had been saying themselves for years and finally they were hearing a bishop say them. So it was very powerful for them. We in America love our bishops and respect our bishops especially when they are listening bishops and serving bishops who are there to tell the truth instead of covering up.”

In Robinson’s defence (2)

In what was described as a “call to action”, WATAC—Women and the Australian Church—has appealed to members and friends to write to all Catholic bishops in Australia in support of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson whose book was recently criticised in a statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The bishops stated that the book’s “questioning of the authority of the church” was “connected to Bishop Robinson’s uncertainty about the knowledge and authority of Christ himself.” The WATAC notice to members said that “many of us have read and been inspired by this book,” and some groups were “involved in an ongoing and enthusiastic discussion if it.” They were “confused by the vagueness of the bishops’ statement of condemnation” and urged the bishops to enter into “honest dialogue on sexual abuse and other issues raised by Robinson. “We are all responsible for our church, its wonder and beauty as well as its faults, mistakes and failures. If we are to honestly face this and act upon it we must ask questions and search diligently for some true answers which lead to action.”

Lead in ecumenism

Benedict XVI will reach out to other faith leaders during his World Youth Day visit to Australia this month. His busy itinerary in the nine days he will be in Sydney will include meetings with Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. He will also pray with Christians of other denominations in the crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral.

Religion discounted?

According to David Tacey, associate professor of Arts and Critical Enquiry at La Trabe University, it often seems that “the spiritual and the religious are separating categories of Australian experience”. Tacey, a much-published author, told a recent Catalyst forum in Sydney that young people especially wanted spirituality without religion. Many Australians saw spirituality as empowering and religion as limiting and oppressive. This was certainly the emphasis in secular society where religion was “heavily discounted and seen as irrelevant”. He argued that religious people needed to stop being defensive and instead to seek a creative relationship with the “secular” spirituality of the current times and religions needed to engage with the world. Tacey insisted, however, that the future of religion was not bleak but “we in the West are living on a depleting stockpile of Christian beliefs and ethics”.

Worth thinking about

The laity has become more mobile, more educated and less passive about their faith. They no longer define the transcendent as distant or remote but as accessible and intimate. God is no longer away in heaven or the stars. As well as in the Eucharist, God is found in prayer, loving others, in service of the poor, in study and reflection, in psychological and scientific phenomena, in discussion. As a consequence many want liturgical celebration not only to be dignified but accessible too—and of course to be beautiful.—The Tablet editorial, June 21.

SIP 3D Day Forum

Catalyst’s annual in-service forum for organisers and supporters of SIP—3D (Discernment, Discovery and Development) Day—will be held on Saturday August 2 2008 at the Marist Centre, 1 Mary Street, Hunters Hill. The forum will start at 9.45am. Cost is $20 with morning and afternoon tea and a light luncheon provided. Two highlights will be the presence of Bishop David Cremin, who will preside at our Eucharistic liturgy, and an address by Kate Engelbrecht entitled What’s God got to do with a Conversation in a Pub? Kate, who is director of Mission for Catholic Health Care Services, is the author of Why I am Still a Catholic. Anyone interested in SIP is welcome to attend the forum. To register, please email Kevin Grant on kevcar@iinet.net.au

Poetry and the spirit—a reflection

Associate Professor Michael Griffith, the author of God’s Fool: The Life and Poetry of Francis Webb published in 1991 and based on his 1981 PhD thesis, will be the presenter at an Aquinas Academy-Catalyst for Renewal reflection on August 23. He will explore how language, as used in poetry, “connects us more deeply to our physical, emotional and intellectual selves and opens us to an experience of the spirit—a persistent theme of mine through 31 years of teaching literature at what is now the Australian Catholic University”. Dr Griffith’s presentation, his third to Catalyst, will be at the Colin Library, Marist Centre, 1 Mary Street, Hunters Hill, commencing at 9.30am.

Catholic Architecture in Australia

The National Trust has arranged an exhibition that traces the history of ecclesiastical architecture in the Sydney area with particular emphasis on the changing architectural styles and decorative features of Catholic churches from colonial times to the present. The exhibition is at the trust’s Observatory Hill centre and will be open from 11am to 4pm daily except Mondays until July 25.

Catalyst for Renewal

Seeking truth and renewal through conversation

WYD pulpit wisdom

In Robinson’s defence (1)

In Robinson’s defence (2)

Lead in ecumenism

Religion discounted?

Worth thinking about

Lead in ecumenism

Religion discounted?

Send mail with questions or comments about this web site please
Contact PAULINE O'NEILL (Secretary) directly on catalyst-for-renewal@tpg.com.au Tel: +61 2 9990 7003

Last modified: May 10, 2010

Home Catalyst Contents

Catalyst for Renewal

Seeking truth and renewal through conversation

WYD pulpit wisdom

In Robinson’s defence (1)

In Robinson’s defence (2)

Lead in ecumenism

Religion discounted?

Worth thinking about

Lead in ecumenism

Religion discounted?

Send mail with questions or comments about this web site please Contact PAULINE O'NEILL (Secretary) directly on catalyst-for-renewal@tpg.com.au Tel: +61 2 9990 7003

Last modified: May 10, 2010

Home Catalyst Contents

Send mail with questions or comments about this web site please
Contact PAULINE O'NEILL (Secretary) directly on catalyst-for-renewal@tpg.com.au Tel: +61 2 9990 7003