Attadale Parish Priest's Blog

Feast of Presentation and St Blaise's Day

2012-01-28T15:41:00.001+08:00

On 2 February we shall celebrate the feast of the Presentation with its traditional blessing of candles. If you would like candles blessed for the home bring them along to the Mass. The next day, Friday, 3 February, the memorial of St Blaise, we shall be blessing throats during the Mass.

from Spire of 29 January

2012-01-28T15:38:00.001+08:00

Now that I am back on deck, I would like to wish a belated HappyChinese New Year to all, especially those celebrating the festival.May the year of the Dragon be one full of blessings.

You may have noticed mention made in the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer(the prayer which precedes the Holy, holy) of dominations, cherubim, etc.This prayer rejoices that we are joining in the chorus of praise which the choirsof angels address unceasingly to God.

The Pseudo-Dionysius (fourth century) and St Thomas Aquinas (thirteenth century) both developed the theology of angelic hierarchies based on scriptural sources. According to St Thomas there are three hierarchies of angels with three orders in each hierarchy. The first hierarchy consists of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones; the second hierarchy of Dominions, Powers and Thrones; the third hierarchy of Principalities, Archangels and Angels.

The Preface raises our awareness of the significance of what we are doing. The Eucharist doesn't just involve us here or even the whole Catholic Church and the whole world; in the Mass we are united with the choirs of angels and all of creation in worshipping God the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

Mass Times for Week beginning 28/29 January

2012-01-28T15:37:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

attadale.org

Spire for 29 January

2012-01-28T15:36:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 8 January

2012-01-07T12:40:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am

No Mass from Monday to Saturday this week.

Spire for 8 January

2012-01-07T12:38:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Homily for 1 January

2011-12-31T22:41:00.000+08:00

Today we continue to celebrate the reality of God's Word becoming human. The title, Mother of God, for Mary is an ancient one going back to the earliest days of the Church. However, in the fifth century the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, expressed reservations about its use, indeed he rejected its use. His view was rejected by the bishops of the First Council of Ephesus in 431. The title has a two-fold significance: it honours the Blessed Virgin Mary whose life, as Pope Benedict put it, 'is such that she is transparent to God, “habitable” for him. Her life is such that she is a place for God'. It also upholds the reality of the Incarnation; God truly did become human. Jesus Christ is truly human and truly God. He has a human mind, heart, soul, body; he is human like you and me; he grew, he learnt, he walked, bathed, he truly loved, laughed, suffered and died. In his humanity he was raised and at the right hand of his Father nothing of his humanity is lost. God truly became human so that our human nature might put on immortality. So we celebrate today the mystery of our salvation from death in Jesus Christ. It is a mystery which makes every day of our lives significant and makes the day of our death the door to heaven. To him who is the same yesterday, today and for ever, be glory for ever.

Spire for 1 January

2011-12-31T22:39:00.000+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 1 January

2011-12-31T22:36:00.003+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday No Mass
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday No Mass
Saturday 9am at SJP

Christmas Day Homily

2011-12-31T22:34:00.006+08:00

...to find one’s way to the crib does not require a knowledge of geography. Pope Benedict XVI once said in a Christmas homily: ‘Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but to the geography of the heart. And the heart of God, during the Holy Night, stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach this humility, then we touch Heaven.’
We see the true face of humility in looking at the little group gathered in the stable. Mary had showed great humility before the angel Gabriel: ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord; let what you have said be done to me.’ Joseph accepted in humility the will of God for his young bride and him. The shepherds were humble folk – on the margins of society. The stable itself is humble; it is even humbler than a handbag at Victoria Station.
But as the Pope said, the greatest humility of all is the humility of the Creator and God of all who becomes one like us. In Jesus, God’s Son from all eternity is born in time of Mary.
He would grow up to call people to follow him, to puzzle, amaze and anger his contemporaries. He would proclaim himself, ‘the way, the truth and the life’; he would institute the Eucharist at the Last Supper; he would be rejected; he would be crucified and he is risen.
We celebrate today the beginning of God’s eternal life taking flesh in the Lord Jesus. It began in humility and we become part of it in humility. We are bid put aside the illusions with which we comfort ourselves - our illusions of self-sufficiency, of power, wealth and might - and come kneel in front of the stable, before the crib.
We are called to be disciples of the one who emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave. We come humbly to receive him in the Mass acknowledging that he alone is the Bread of life.
We are humbled that the Lord of heaven and earth, whom hosts of glorious angels adore, calls us his friends and asks us to follow him. He, the humble king who came to serve, is making all of creation new, overturning the structures of this world, in Mary’s great song, ‘he is casting the mighty from their thrones and raising up the lowly; he is filling the hungry with good things, sending the rich away empty.’ He calls us to walk the way of service and humility with him; it is the only way – the geography of the heart. So Christmas can be our birthday too. We can die with Christ to rise with him. We can be reborn with Christ and united to him for all eternity. The baby in the manger, the man, Jesus, is the way, the truth and the life. He is the crucified and risen one. He is the King who will come in glory. He invites us: ‘Come, follow me.’

Christmas Mass Times again!

2011-12-17T16:51:00.001+08:00

Saturday 24 December 6.30pm Christmas Eve Children's Mass on oval

Saturday 24 December 11.45pm Christmas Carols followed by Christmas Midnight Mass

Sunday 25 December 9am Christmas Mass

Mass Times for Week beginning 18 December

2011-12-17T16:50:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 9am at SJP
Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 18 December

2011-12-17T16:49:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Spire for 11 December

2011-12-13T21:10:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Christmas Mass Times

2011-12-12T21:37:00.003+08:00

Saturday 24 December 6.30pm Christmas Eve Children's Mass on oval

Saturday 24 December 11.45pm Christmas Carols followed by Christmas Midnight Mass

Sunday 25 December 9am Christmas Mass

Mass Times for Week beginning 11 December

2011-12-12T21:35:00.000+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 9am at SJP
Saturday 9am at SJP

Parish Sacramental Programme 2012

2011-12-07T23:09:00.001+08:00

An overview of the parish sacramental programme is available here.

Homily for Second Sunday of Advent

2011-12-03T16:49:00.001+08:00

Console my people, console them, says the Lord our God. But, are we in need of consolation? At this very moment some of you may wish for the consolation of air-conditioning, but that is a very middle-class consolation indeed. I doubt if that is what God meant. I would suggest that most of us don’t feel the need for God’s consolation; there would be exceptions, but we lead a relatively comfortable existence and so God’s word of consolation doesn’t respond to a deep-felt need. ‘Console my people’. The prophetic word was originally addressed to a people who had had been stripped of everything and who were suffering indeed. The word would have come like a rain to those dying of thirst. ‘Console my people’. There are people today who need to hear the word as consolation indeed; people in our world facing real persecution for their faith in Christ, people suffering terrible poverty, hunger, disease, exile from homeland, desperate for refuge. And so if we do not feel we need the word of consolation, perhaps the word is addressed as a command to us – we are to be consolers. The child born at Bethlehem is God’s consolation – his love for us made flesh and blood, his love for us made so vulnerable and gentle. The child is the bringer of a new creation. He is the one for whom the Baptist prepared the way. He is the one who gives the fire of his Spirit, the Spirit of the new creation. This Advent we are called to lift our eyes above the urgent need to shop, to the urgent needs of our brothers and sisters. The Lord gives us the Eucharist so that we can be filled with the fire of the Spirit and be consolation to others. We need to find new ways of living and being. This Wednesday we can experience the consolation and healing balm of God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation; we can determine with God’s help to leave the old ways of sin, materialism and selfishness behind; to be reconciled with God and one another; with God’s help to walk his way. He gives us the grace; what shall we do with it?The Lord will come again in glory and his coming can be for us the greatest of consolation for he will make all things new. It can be; whether it will be depends on the decisions we make hear and now. ‘Console my people’ says the Lord our God. God took his own word so seriously that he gave his Word human form in Jesus. How seriously do we take his word, the form of his consolation, his coming?

Mass Times for Week beginning 3/4 December

2011-12-03T16:48:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 9am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

Don't forget the Second Rite of Reconciliation on Wednesday at 7.30pm

attadale.org

Spire for 4 December

2011-12-03T16:46:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

QC finds no substance to allegation

2011-11-29T21:48:00.001+08:00

So the independent investigation has found that the allegations against Monsignor Dempsey are without substance. Read the news here. Archbishop Wilson's has issued a statement on the findings. How is Senator Xenaphon going to justify his egregious behaviour now?

Second Rite of Reconciliation

2011-11-27T17:29:00.001+08:00

The second rite of reconciliation with individual confession will be celebrated at the parish on 7 December at 7.30pm. Several priests will be available for confession. The Mel Maria nativity play will finish before the service allowing families to take part in the parish's celebration of God's mercy.

When: Wednesday, 7 December at 7.30pm

Where: St Joseph Pignatelli Church

Sunday evening Santa Masses

2011-11-27T17:21:00.001+08:00

Please note that this Sunday's Mass at Santa is the last Sunday Eucharist there for this term. Sunday Masses will resume at Santa in the new academic year.

Mass Times for Week beginning 27 November

2011-11-27T17:20:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP (Anointing of the sick)

attadale.org

Spire for 27 November

2011-11-27T17:19:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 20 November

2011-11-21T14:45:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday No Mass
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

attadale.org

Sad and short-sighted

2011-11-14T22:35:00.001+08:00

I still find it hard to believe that Ireland would close its embassy to the Holy See. Living, as I did, at the Pontifical Irish College at Rome, one could not but be aware of the presence the Irish Embassy was in Vatican-Rome. It had a beautiful chancery at the Villa Spada and the presence of its ambassador symbolised the historic ties which bound Ireland and the bishops of Rome. Some Irish commentators have recognised the short-sightedness of the decision. Australia just upgraded its presence to the Holy See by appointing a resident ambassador in 2008. The Irish decision is a sad one.

Mass Times for Week beginning 13 November

2011-11-14T18:10:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP
No Sunday evening Mass this weekend

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 13 November

2011-11-14T18:09:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Attadale Parish Feastday 2011

2011-11-14T16:28:00.001+08:00

Attadale Parish Feastday 2011, a set on Flickr.

Pics from the celebrations in honour of St Joseph Pignatelli SJ

Spire for 6 November

2011-11-07T13:55:00.000+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 6 November

2011-11-05T21:29:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday No Mass
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

Mass Times for Week beginning 23 October

2011-10-22T11:09:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP; and

6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday 6pm Santa Maria Valedictory Mass at Cathedral

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 9am at SJP

Saturday 9am at SJP

ABC lack of balance

2011-10-21T17:33:00.001+08:00

The European Court of Justice has indicated that it will be ruling in a certain way in case before it. The preliminary judgement has been welcomed by the European bishops and you can read about their response here. There is also an article on the judgement on an ABC web site. It is appalling reporting with no real attempt at balance; read it for yourself here. I wish it were an isolated incident, but, alas, it is not so.

Sausage sizzle with Gerard Neesham

2011-10-16T21:01:00.003+08:00

Sunday, 23 October, after 9am Mass we are putting on a sausage sizzle and are delighted to have Gerard Neesham, CEO of the Clontarf Foundation, giving a talk on the work of the Foundation. Do come along. $5 for hot dog, tea and coffee.

Mass Times for Week beginning 16 October

2011-10-16T20:30:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

No Sunday Mass at Santa Maria till 23 October

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 8am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 16 October

2011-10-16T20:28:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

A thought

2011-10-08T16:38:00.001+08:00

As you may have gleaned from the West Australian, quite a few priests in the Archdiocese were concerned at the headlines of last week's Record. The Archbishop was answering questions put to him in a forum and has since clarified his remarks. Here are some of my thoughts: No reasonable person thinks that the Federal Government would force the Church to officiate at same-sex unions. It may happen in some other universe, but not in ours. With regard to the question of Christian funerals: The Archbishop has since stated that he would adopt the compassionate approach towards someone in a same-sex relationship who requested a Catholic burial. It never seemed to me in question and I would think that the majority of my brother priests would have taken the same approach.

The issues raised are delicate. From a pastoral perspective we do not want to add to the opprobrium and pain which many homosexual people already experience. The Church is a loving mother who reaches out to all people. We start with the proclamation that God loves all people. Yet that love does ask for a response in lives of faithfulness to Christ. Church teaching gives expression to that: the Church's teaching on marriage is demanding as well as life-giving. We need to work on expressing the live-giving aspect of the Church's teaching on homosexuality as well as its moral demands. If we do not, then we fall under the Lord's condemnation in Matthew's Gospel: 'They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on theshoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.'

Mass Times for Week beginning 9 October

2011-10-08T16:36:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

No Sunday Mass at Santa Maria till 23 October

Monday No Mass

Tuesday No Mass

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 9am at SJP

Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 9 October

2011-10-08T16:35:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

What do you think the Catholic church does best and doesn't get much credit for?

2011-10-08T11:28:00.001+08:00

I like John Allen's response to the question:

Fundamentally, I don't think the Catholic church gets enough credit for being a hell of a lot of fun. There's great warmth and laughter in most Catholic circles, a rich intellectual tradition, a vast body of lore, an incredible range of characters, a deep desire to do good, an abiding faith against all odds, an ability to go anywhere and feel instantly at home, and even a deep love of good food, good drink, and good company. All that is part of the tapestry of Catholic life, but it rarely sees the light of day in commentary and reporting that focuses exclusively on crisis, scandal, and heartache.

Elevating and showing

2011-10-04T12:35:00.001+08:00

Show and elevate. Did you know that there are gradations when it comes to the elevation of the host?

During the preparation of the gifts, when the priest is saying aloud or quietly, 'Blessed are you, Lord God of creation…' he is supposed to hold the paten with the host a little (aliquantulum) above the altar; it isn't an act of offering, but one of presentation of the gifts which will become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

After the priest says the words of consecration, 'This is my body…. This is my blood', he is to show (parum elevatum…ostendit) the host and the chalice to the congregation. As the priest genuflects after showing the Body of Christ and the Chalice with the Blood of Christ, all adore.

At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, as the priest says the doxology, 'Through him, with him, in him…' then he elevates (elevans) the chalice and paten. The doxology is the 'crowning of the Eucharistic prayer' which is the great prayer of thanksgiving. This last gesture is truly an elevation signifying an offering of the gifts and prayers to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. To this great prayer all respond, 'Amen'.

When the priest says, 'Behold the Lamb of God', he shows the host to the people. The final gesture of showing is during Communion, the minister raises the host a little and briefly and says, 'The Body of Christ', and the communicant responds with 'Amen'. (thanks to Matias Augé)

Mass Times for Week Beginning 1-2 October

2011-10-04T12:30:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

No Sunday Mass at Santa Maria till 23 October

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 9am at SJP

Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 2 October

2011-10-04T12:28:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Spire for 18 September

2011-09-21T10:44:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for week beginning 18 September

2011-09-21T10:42:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 8am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP

Negativity

2011-09-21T10:40:00.001+08:00

I resolve not to do so, but continually fail, and my eyes wander down the web-article to the comments. People do vent their spleen and there is frequently the most appalling bigotry, including some very nasty things about the Church. And it isn’t just fringe elements; the mainstream media is full of it. People assuming the worst about the Church we love (with all her failures) and ignorance and bigotry pass for informed commentary. Not even the ABC gives us a fair go; I am fond of Aunty, but when it comes to church matters, her journalistic integrity fails her badly. So what can we do (besides rant on parish newsletters!)? Well, we start by acknowledging that the Church is made up of people just like us - frail and sinful. We must continually repent as individuals and institutionally and seek to be more transparently faithful to the Gospel. We must continue to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel. The world’s praise is fleeting and ephemeral, it is Christ whom we serve and to whom we are accountable for our stewardship. The times are not easy, but I am reminded of a conversation between Frodo and Gandalf (from the book not from the ghastly movies): Frodo: "I wish none of this had happened." Gandalf:"So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Mass Times for Week beginning 11 September

2011-09-10T15:52:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

and 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday No Mass (Funeral Mass for Fr Eamon McKenna at Rivervale)

Friday 9am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 10-11 September

2011-09-10T15:51:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Holy See's response to Cloyne Report

2011-09-03T21:00:00.000+08:00

The Holy See has issued its official response to the Cloyne Report and the Taoiseach's comments. It is a long and detailed response which does not lend itself to sound-bite summaries. I hope it receives the careful reading it deserves.

from the Spire 3-4 September

2011-09-03T15:33:00.003+08:00

Edmund Bishop, at the beginning of the twentieth century, wrote of the genius [or spirit] of the Roman Rite. It is characterised, he wrote, by its 'precision, sobriety, brevity, its rare concessions to sentimentality, its general disposition to transparency and lucidity as well as the measured nobility of its literary style'. It is hoped that the new translation will help us be better formed in the spirit which has characterised the Roman Rite for close to 1 500 years.

Spire for 3-4 September

2011-09-03T15:32:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 3-4 September

2011-09-03T15:31:00.002+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

and 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday No Mass

Friday 8am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP

Spring Ember Day

2011-08-26T19:26:00.000+08:00

Friday, 2 September, is the Spring Ember Day. The Australian bishops have decided that the Australian Church should observe the first Fridays in Autumn and Spring (March and September) each year as special days of prayer and penance.

On ember days the practice of the Church is to offer prayers to the Lord for the needs of all people, especially for the productivity of the earth and for human labour, and to give him public thanks (GNLYC 45)

The Australian liturgical commission has this to say:

Ember Days in the 21st century will need to focus on the environment, climate change, and our stewardship of the world’s resources. They will help us connect our intercession for favourable conditions with a conversion of heart in relation to our care of the earth. For this reason, the bishops requested that emphasis be placed on doing penance, and on fasting and abstaining in connection with these Ember Days.
Fasting and abstaining from meat will serve to encourage restraint in our exploitation of natural resources. A day of penance will express our solidarity with those who are disadvantaged, especially those who suffer through famine and the inequitable distribution of the world’s goods.

Mass for Week beginning 27-28 August

2011-08-26T19:20:00.000+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 8am at Santa Maria Spring Ember Day
Saturday 9am at SJP (with Anointing of the sick)

Spire for 27-8 August

2011-08-26T19:13:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Homily for 21 August

2011-08-20T13:41:00.002+08:00

When Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ They gave the stock, unimaginative and inadequate answers. Peter's reason was raised by the Holy Spirit so that he had 'clearest insight, amplitude of mind, reason in her most exalts mode' to put all that he had heard and seen together in a new way and come up with the answer, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’
It is on that truth that Christ’s Church is built - he speaks of her as ‘my church.’ She is Christ’s creation, born of his life, death, resurrection and the Spirit he sends. She continues his presence in the world, continues to teach the truth which comes from him. And in Christ’s Church, St Peter and his successors - the Popes - have a particular role - they are to keep the Church faithful to the truth which is not a human creation. Truth which is challenging as well as liberating.
Young people are travelling to Spain for many reasons, but you will have heard many say that they are there to listen to the Pope. To listen. The truth of God can be so unlike the convenient fictions which are propagated by the powers of this world - hard-hearted, selfish, jingoistic, chauvinistic fictions. Fictions which wall us in and which block out the light.
We, the disciples of Jesus, do not pick and choose our truths. We listen, united with the successors of St Peter, to the truth which comes from God. This truth liberates us from our fears and prejudices, this truth opens our eyes to see the world truly and look on all people as brothers and sisters, this truth challenges our convenient falsehoods and selfish ways.
‘Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of the underworld will not hold out against it.’ Set upon the truth, Christ’s church will never be overcome even by the sinfulness of her members. Setting ourselves close to Christ’s truth we need not fear anything. And as we seek to listen in the church, to live out of faith, we learn more of the ways of God whose ways truly are different to ours and invites us to make his ways ours. Set close to Peter, the rock, we can have faith and know that nothing, not even ‘the gates of the underworld’ shall prevail against the new life which is God's gift in Jesus Christ.
V. Let us pray for our Pontiff, Pope Benedict. R. The Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him to be blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. Amen.

28 August

2011-08-20T13:39:00.001+08:00

On Sunday, 28 August, there will not be an evening Mass at Santa Maria.

Mass for Week beginning 20-21 August

2011-08-20T13:38:00.000+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 9am at SJP
Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 20-21 August

2011-08-20T13:36:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Homily for 13-14 August

2011-08-13T19:39:00.001+08:00

The Gospel passage which we have just heard is rich and somewhat troubling. At its most profound level it shows the ministry of Jesus expanding beyond the Chosen People to the pagans as well. It is a radical departure- God’s promises were to the people he had chosen long ago - and this woman, this gentile woman, moves Jesus to proclaim the greatness of her faith and grant her request. St Paul was to reaffirm the special and enduring place of the Chosen People, the Jewish People in God’s plan; God does not go back on his promises.But as he writes God’s graciousness has been extended to the Gentiles as well. It is a pity we do not know the persistent woman’s name - her faith is like that of Abraham, our father in faith.The Gospel speaks to me at another level. There are many things for which I have prayed and which I have not received. And yet I do not say that I have not been heard or that my prayers have not been answered. I have experienced too much of the surprising faithfulness of God in my life to doubt that he has ignored even the pettiest of my petitions. The woman starts by proclaiming Jesus as the ‘Lord’, the ‘Son of David’. In a moving gesture she then kneels before him, ‘Lord, help me!’ And when all she gets in return is a rebuke, she acknowledges the rightness of the Lord’s response, but asks for a little. She is an inspiration. We come to the Lord in our littleness. We are not God. We are human beings and we have been given the grace of addressing God as Father and Jesus as Lord and Brother. We come in our littleness, perhaps making our own the words of Thompson - ‘of Man's clotted clay, the dingiest clot’. And God bends down to us to hear our every prayer. Indeed he sends his Son to takes our flesh so that we can speak to the Father with the voice of the Son. At times we may scream at him, we may cry to him, we may simply say, ‘Lord, help me.’ ‘Lord’ - he is not Father Christmas or our fairy godmother, he is our Lord. And our journey is one of learning to acknowledge with our hearts as well what it is easy to say with our lips, his Lordship of our lives. The Canaanite woman shows us that journey is not one of becoming a spineless. It nonetheless the journey of being stripped of other securities and idols and kneeling before the only one who is Lord.

Mass for week beginning 13-14 August

2011-08-13T19:31:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday Solemnity of the Assumption
8am at Santa Maria and 9am at SJP

Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 13-14 August

2011-08-13T19:26:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Homily for 6 August

2011-08-06T20:50:00.000+08:00

Have you ever experienced the power of the waves? We, human beings, can control many things, but not the sea.
It is not only the waves which can reduce us. Crises can come upon us; we can feel that we no longer have control over life. I was reflecting that in times of crisis when I have called upon the Lord, his response has rarely been dramatic, indeed never been dramatic. Things have shifted quietly, subtly. I have never had hosts of angels appear on my doorstep - which would be heart-attack inducing, but at most as things have moved one could sense the flutter of angel’s wings - the gentle, reasuring presence of God.
In the first reading the prophet senses that it is not in the power that God wants to speak to him, but in the quiet with his word. God has a conversation with his prophet.
When Peter takes his eyes of Jesus, forgets the word Jesus has spoken to him, ‘Come!’ he begins to sink. But crying out in fear he finds his hand grasped, gripped firmly. The word of Jesus is the word of God, it can be trusted. Is it not marvellous? God converses with us, makes us his friends, able to respond to him.
Our conversation with him - a life-long conversation - is the most important exchange of words there is. We are invited to listen to his word and speak to him in turn - he helps us; he gives us words of prayer, the psalms, the Mass.
He is the calm, faithful presence in the storms of life. When we lose sight of him, find ourselves unable to trust in his word, we can use Peter’s words, ‘Lord, save me!’ And we shall find ourselves held close for he is faithful. His word can be trusted - it defeats sin, evil and death. But if we trust it, grasp it, we shall find ourselves where we never expected to be. In the words of the Lord to Elijah, ‘Surge, grandis tibi restat via!’ ‘Arise, a long journey lies ahead of you!’

Cupcake competition

2011-08-05T22:37:00.000+08:00

On 14 August after the 9am Mass we shall have a cupcake competition. Our younger parishioners are invited to bring along cupcakes decorated with a Marian theme. Fr Sean will judge the decoration and then we'll all tuck in.

Assumpta est Maria in caelum!

2011-08-05T22:33:00.000+08:00

Gaudent Angeli laudantes benedicunt Dominum!

On Monday 15 August we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There will be Mass at 8am at Santa Maria Chapel and at 9am at St Joseph Pignatelli. Come celebrate.

Mass Times for Week beginning 6-7 August

2011-08-05T22:16:00.000+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday No Mass
Friday 8am at Santa Maria
Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 6-7 August

2011-08-05T22:13:00.003+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 30-31 July

2011-07-30T20:01:00.000+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP
Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP
Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass
Tuesday 9am at SJP
Wednesday 9am at SJP
Thursday 9am at SJP
Friday 9am at SJP
Saturday 9am at SJP

Spire for 31 July

2011-07-30T19:59:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Parish Dinner 2011

2011-07-30T19:41:00.000+08:00

It was a great success. You can see some of the pics here.

Turnbull on climate change

2011-07-25T12:02:00.001+08:00

Malcolm Turnbull gave an excellent speech on climate change. You can find the whole thing on his web site; I hope he will not mind my quoting a significant chunk of it here.

Now, you will be relieved to know I am not going to spoil the evening with another political speech about the carbon tax or Julia Gillard’s broken promise not to introduce it.

Rather, I wanted to say something to you about the importance of science.

But first, let me say straight up that the question of whether or to what extent human activity is causing global warming is not a matter of ideology let alone or of belief. The matter is simply one of risk management. It is, moreover, not a question of left versus right indeed it was Margaret Thatcher who more than 20 years ago called for immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Her words, on our response to climate change were as wise and as relevant today as they were in 1990. Mrs Thatcher said then:

“Many of the actions that we need to take would be sensible in any event. It is sensible to increase energy efficiency and to use energy prudently. It is sensible to develop alternative and renewable energy sources. It is sensible to replant the forests which we consume. I note that the latest vogue is to call them ‘no regrets’ policies – certainly we should have none in putting them into effect.”

And let us not forget it was Margaret Thatcher who in 1990 committed Great Britain to reducing emissions by 2005 to a level no greater than 1990 and who as that commitment to combating climate change committed £100 million to sustainable tropical forestry. So so much for those who suggest that people in the Liberal Party or on the centre-right of politics more generally who support effective action on global warming are some how or another from the left.

If Margaret Thatcher took climate change seriously and believed we should take action to reduce global greenhouse emissions, then taking action and supporting and accepting the science can hardly be the mark of insipient Bolshevism.

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that many people are grounding their opposition to the Gillard Government’s carbon tax on the basis that climate change is not real and that the scientific consensus which supports it is not soundly based.

It is important to remember however that the rejection of the consensus scientific position on global warming, rejection of the CSIRO’s position on global warming, is not Liberal Party policy.

Quite the contrary. The Liberal Party’s policy is to accept the scientific consensus that the globe is warming and that human greenhouse gas emissions are substantially the cause of it. It is also the Liberal Party’s policy to take action to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions such that by 2020 they will be at a level equal to 95% of their level in 2000. This is the same unconditional target adopted by the Rudd Government and the Gillard Government and pledged at Copenhagen.

That 5 per cent cut is not expected to single-handedly stop global warming but is a measured and prudent contribution to what needs to be a global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so as to prevent, it is hoped, temperature rises beyond 2 degrees Celsius in the course of this century.

Having said that, it is undoubtedly correct that there has been a very effective campaign against the science of climate change by those opposed to taking action to cut emissions – many because it is not in their own financial interests – and that this has played into the carbon tax debate.

Normally, in our consideration of scientific issues we rely on expert advice. Agencies like the CSIRO or the Australian Academy of Science are listened to with respect.

Yet on this issue there appears to be a licence to reject our best scientists, both here and abroad, and rely instead on much less reliable views. Some of those less reliable views are from scientists – although most are not.

In an age where the Internet gives everyone the opportunity to be a broadcaster, you can find an opinion to support any proposition. If it doesn’t suit your interests to reduce the use of fossil fuels, there are plenty of blogs and articles online to support your self interest.

Some of this material online can be very embarrassing to rely on. A good friend of mine recently contended that the CSIRO were utterly wrong on climate change and he sent me a paper from what he understood was “a leading scientist in a leading journal”. As it turned out the paper was in journal published by the Lyndon LaRouche Movement and was written by a man who had recently served time in gaol for securities fraud. The only peer review to which his work had been subjected was, in fact, a criminal jury.

I might note for those unfamiliar with it, that the local wing of the LaRouche movement is the Citizens’ Electoral Council (CEC) an extreme, rightwing, racist organisation that I’m proud to say that the Liberal Party emphatically and invariably puts absolutely last in any how-to-vote form that we distribute.

These are the charming people who recently disrupted a scientific conference in Melbourne by threatening Professor Hans Schellnhuber, a leading European climate scientist in the midst of his lecture by waving a noose in front of his face and saying “Welcome to Australia”. Just think about that. What a wonderful welcome to Australia from these people.

Now my friend had spent much of his career drawing on expert advice in business, economics and science. He goes to the best consulting firms for his advice, the best law firm, the best accounting firm. And yet on a subject as important as climate change he has been taken in that was anything but the best. And needless to say he was a little bit embarrassed by it.

But this is not an isolated case. And I have to say this is like ignoring the advice of your doctor to give up smoking and lose 10 kilos on the basis that somebody down the pub told you their uncle Ernie ate three pies a day and smoked a packet of cigarettes and lived to 95. Now that is how stupid it is and we have to get real about supporting and responsibly accepting the science. And if we want to challenge the science, do so on the basis of peer reviewed work of which I have to say, there isn’t a lot on the contrary side of the argument.

And this is actually — this war on science and on scientists which is being conducted is much worse than the case of person who ignores his doctor’s advice and follows the advice of his friend down the pub, drawing on the life experience of the fortunate Uncle Ernie.

Because the consequences of getting our response to climate change wrong will not likely be felt too severely by us, or at least not most of us, but will be felt painfully and cruelly by the generations ahead of us. And the people in the world who will suffer the most cruelly will be the poorest and the people who have contributed the least to the problem. There is an enormous injustice here. When people try and suggest to you that climate change is not a moral issue, they are wrong. It is an intensely moral issue raising grave moral issues.

Those of us who do not believe the CSIRO is part of an international Green conspiracy to undermine Western civilisation or do not believe that leading scientists like Will Steffen are subversives should not be afraid to speak out, and loudly, on behalf of our scientists and our science. We must not allow ourselves to be deluded on this issue.

If you are a Liberal, as I and many others here in this room are, most of us are perhaps. If you are a Liberal, do not imagine that taking that position puts you at odds with Liberal policy – it does not. It does not. And remember too that if we form a Government in Canberra and then seek to meet that 5 per cent target through purchases of carbon offsets from farmers and payments to polluting industry to cut their emissions, the opponents of the science of climate change will be criticising that expenditure too as “pointless” and “wasteful” with as much vehemence as they are currently denouncing Julia Gillard’s carbon tax.

As Liberals, we have to stake our environmental case and our position on the right way to deal with climate change on the basis that we are supporting the science. That is our policy and we should not allow ourselves to allow people to imagine that it is not. In my view, we cannot afford to allow the science to become a partisan issue as it is in the United States where it appears that it is apparently no longer politically acceptable for any would-be Republican Presidential candidate to say that he or she believes that global warming is occurring and is caused by human activities. Now the change in the Republican Party is extraordinary. In the Presidential Election in 2008, John McCain, the Republican candidate, ran on a policy in terms of climate change that was only marginally different to that of Barack Obama. I mean, the differences were one of detail. And there has been an extraordinary swing, not against cap-and-trade versus direct action; not against one mitigation policy against another; but there has been a swing against the science and that is profoundly dangerous. Because we run the risk that we diminish the science, that we discredit the science and that of course is the ultimate justification for doing nothing about it.

Now not so long ago I was with a friend, a very long serving and distinguished Environment Minister from our region and we discussed the progress of the climate change issue globally. And he said that he thought that human selfishness and greed was so great that there would no effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that by the end of the century our planet would be uninhabitable for billions for people. And as he said that, I felt a chill going down my spine. I feared that he was right but my natural optimism reasserted itself and I thought to myself, ‘we are better than that’. We are better than that but you could not fault him in terms of his objectivity or realism.

Now let me just say this to you: The idea that our country, this great country of ours, can sail through a 3, 4 or 5 or more degrees rise in temperature this century with our prosperity and freedom, let alone the Great Barrier Reef, intact is very naïve. So this is a big issue. So in the storm of this debate about carbon tax and direct action and what the right approach to climate change should be, do not fall into the trap of abandoning the science. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that what Lord Monckton says or what some website says is superior to what our leading scientists or leading universities would say.

And I just ask all of you, many of you here, have had important dealings with the medical profession. Would you allow yourself, your own body to be operated on by some medical theory that you picked up on the website or would you seek to get the most highly respected specialist in the field to operate on you. We all know what the answer is. That’s what we do with our own bodies. What we’re talking about now is the future and the health of the planet.

Now I think an effective response to climate change does not depend on one mitigation policy or another being adopted. Different countries will have different views on what is the most cost-effective way to reduce and indeed so will different political parties and different political leaders. But we must not allow opposition to a particular policy to undermine or diminish our commitment to take climate change seriously and to work effectively both here and globally to ward off the avoidable consequences of global warming.

We also need to be very clear-eyed about what an effective global response to climate change requires. There are many calculations on the scale of emissions reductions required. But it is quite clear that to achieve the necessary cuts by mid century all or almost all of our stationary energy – and when I say our, I mean the world’s – will need to be generated from zero or near zero emission sources.

This could be renewables like hydro, biomass, wind, solar or tidal power. It could be geothermal power, it could indeed be nuclear power. But it will not be burning coal unless the emissions from that coal are captured in some form or other.

Australia generates most of its electricity from burning coal – much of it very emissions intensive brown coal in Victoria or South Australia. That is why our carbon dioxide emissions are among the highest in the world on a per capita basis – a reason why the Chinese (whose emissions are about one-fifth of ours) and the Indians (whose are less than one-tenth of ours) find our regular references to their emissions – and why should we do anything until the Chinese or Indians do something – why they find those references incredibly galling. Those of us, and David’s a member of this club with me, who have represented Australia at international conferences on this, know how incredibly embarrassing statements like that are when you actually confront the representatives of those countries.

We are also the world’s largest coal exporter – we have 19% and 58% of the global trade in thermal and metallurgical coal respectively. In 2009, thermal coal exports were worth $18 billion, and metallurgical coal exports worth $40 billion.

Some people would say, I trust that most would not, that as we have a vested interest in coal being burned we should oppose action on climate change and rather like the tobacco companies who sought to discredit the connection between smoking and lung cancer muddy the waters on climate science in order to prolong the export billions from coal mining.

Others might say that we should not be troubled by the long term prospects for coal because we have abundant resources of the alternatives – gas, the least emissions intensive fossil fuel, uranium, geothermal power and, of course, plenty of sunshine.

A more responsible approach would be to encourage the development of those alternatives at the same time as we promote and develop technologies to capture CO2 emissions from coal burning – whether that is by pumping it into the ground or by turning it into other useful products.

Indeed many would say that no country has a greater vested interest in clean coal than Australia.

And yet I regret to say to you that neither the Labor government led by Julia Gillard – who is a woman fond of a hard hat, I must say – nor the coal industry itself have shown much enthusiasm for investing in Research and Development or trials for Carbon Capture and Storage. In fact funding has been cut again as part of the recent carbon tax package.

A handful of large firms dominate production of thermal coal and coking coal. BHP, Peabody, Rio Tinto, Anglo-American, Xstrata, Wesfarmers. The operating earnings generated from thermal coal production alone are not easy to estimate, but they may approach $10 billion in good years. There is plenty at stake at both the level of producers and export earners, not to mention the taxes they pay along the way for there to be a critical mass of parties with the motivation and resources to move on carbon capture and storage.

Now one of the most dispiriting parts of Professor Garnaut’s updates was his analysis in volume seven on carbon capture and storage. Essentially he said work had come to a halt in 2008 and no technical progress or commercial pilots of significance were apparent. The estimate of coal capture and storage adding 40-plus per cent to the cost of coal-fired electricity was about the freshest fact on the page.

One need only look at the vast expansion of new investment in coal-fired generation underway in China, India and elsewhere to understand the importance of this issue. Carbon Capture and Storage isn’t just about saving Australia coal exports or generation capacity. It is about addressing the reality which the MIT study on the future of coal baldly stated as long ago in 2007: “We believe that coal use will increase under any foreseeable scenario because it is cheap and abundant.” Now if it increases and emissions increase and the science is right, the Reef is finished. And that is a very small part of it. So this is a very serious issue and it is remarkable that with all the rhetoric about the need for action from the Gillard Government, the single most important area of research and development, the one that is arguably the most important in terms of the world’s future and most certainly most important from the point of view from our own economy, is being neglected.

So the commercial feasibility and large-scale deployment for Carbon Capture and Storage is the only way – in the absence of some great technological shift, and you won’t find me discounting that, I’m a great believer in the disruptive power of technology – the world has any chance whatsoever of achieving the cuts needed to get to the 60 per cent or 80 per cent 2050 targets that leaders have committed to.

The thermal coal industry and the Gillard government both know this. So how should Australians interpret their disinterest in this technology? As an acknowledgement that Carbon Capture and Storage doesn’t work and is too expensive and hence thermal coal is finished? Or a sign they don’t ever expect to be answerable for those 2050 targets? I fear that is probably the answer.

Now it is up to us, as friends of Virginia Chadwick and as Liberals, to be prepared to look beyond the horizon and recognise that we must act responsibly as custodians for the future of this country and this planet. For our children and our grandchildren and the many generations beyond them. We must treat the science with respect and rely on the best science which is the only responsible and prudent thing to do. And above all, we should commit ourselves to ensuring that the Great Barrier Reef, which Virginia did so much to protect, and so many other wonderful but fragile environmental assets are not destroyed. We must ensure all of the good work from Virginia and all of the other people who worked with her are not utterly undone by all of the consequences of global warming, of ocean acidification and these great existential threats to the planet that we enjoy, that we revel in and that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy just as we have done.

Enda Kenny's impassioned attack on the Vatican

2011-07-23T15:06:00.004+08:00

In light of the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny's harsh words regarding the Vatican, I decided to read the report on the diocese of Cloyne myself: The Cloyne report states that 'of the 163 clerics listed in the Diocese of Cloyne Diocesan Directory for 1996, there have been allegations made or concerns expressed about 12 (7.6%).'

The report is scathing in its criticism of Bishop Magee and the priest who was in charge of the procedures on dealing with child abuse in the diocese. It criticises the Bishop for not implementing the 1996 framework document drawn up by the Irish bishops and for not following the requirements for canonical investigations into priests accused of abuse. It is very obvious from the report that there were numerous and dreadful failures with regard to child protection in the diocese.
What about Kenny's harsh words about the Holy See? What does the report say?

The Irish bishops sought recognitio from Rome for the Framework Document but it was not forthcoming. Furthermore, almost a year after its introduction, the Papal Nuncio at the time wrote, strictly confidentially, to all the bishops in Ireland in the following terms:
“The Congregation for the Clergy has attentively studied the complex question of sexual abuse of minors by clerics and the document entitled “Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response”, published by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Advisory Committee.
The Congregation wishes to emphasize the need for this document to conform to the canonical norms presently in force. The text, however, contains ‘procedures and dispositions which appear contrary to canonical discipline and which, if applied, could invalidate the acts of the same Bishops who are attempting to put a stop to these problems. If such procedures were to be followed by the Bishops and there were cases of eventual hierarchical recourse lodged at the Holy See, the results could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same Diocesan authorities.
In particular, the situation of ‘mandatory reporting’ gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and a canonical nature’.
Since the policies on sexual abuse in the English speaking world exhibit many of the same characteristics and procedures, the Congregation is involved in a global study of them. At the appropriate time, with the collaboration of the interested Episcopal Conferences and in dialogue with them, the Congregation will not be remiss in establishing some concrete directives with regard to these Policies.
For these reasons and because the abovementioned text is not an official document of the Episcopal Conference but merely a study document, I am directed to inform the individual Bishops of Ireland of the preoccupations of the Congregation in its regard, underlining that in the sad cases of accusations of sexual abuse by clerics, the procedures established by the Code of Canon Law must be meticulously followed under pain of invalidity of the acts involved if the priest so punished were to make hierarchical recourse against his Bishop.”

The report concludes that

There can be no doubt that this letter greatly strengthened the position of those in the Church in Ireland who did not approve of the Framework Document as it effectively cautioned them against its implementation.

The nuncio advised the bishops that they must follow the canonical procedures in force if they want their decisions to be valid. The comment about 'mandatory reporting' does raise questions: what reservations did the Congregation for Clergy have?
It is well known that there were some in the Vatican who did not take the issue of abuse as seriously as they should have. In 2001 Pope John Paul II took the handling of allegations of abuse away from the Congregation for Clergy and gave it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This was evidently at the instigation of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.
The Cloyne report has this to say:

A further instruction came from the Vatican in May 2001 entitled Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela. Unlike the 1922 and 1962 documents, this document was made widely available. This provided that all allegations of child sexual abuse, which have reached the threshold of “a semblance of truth”, should be referred directly to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. That body would either elect to deal with the matter itself or would advise the bishop on the appropriate action to take in canon law. The Commission has been informed that this policy was adopted in order to ensure a co-ordinated and uniform response to allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy throughout the Roman Catholic world.

There was certainly egregious failure in Cloyne. However, there is nothing in the report to justify Enda Kenny's vitriol. David Quinn writes in the Irish Independent that:

the sheer intensity and irrationality of the attacks on the Vatican demands a response.
Essentially the Vatican is accused of interfering in the laws of the Irish State in order to protect the reputation of the church.
When that letter was sent to the Irish bishops in 1997, the Vatican was without doubt excessively concerned about the rights of accused priests. However, that is a very far cry from it interfering in the laws of the land.
The letter emphatically did not forbid the Irish bishops from passing on abuse allegations to the civil authorities as many people seem to think. Had it done so, then it would be justifiable to send the Papal Nuncio packing.
What it did have was a reservation about mandatory reporting but this reservation was shared by the Irish State. Let us remember that back in 1996, when the Irish bishops produced their first child-protection guidelines, the Rainbow coalition was in power.... They had a chance to introduce mandatory reporting back then and didn't. Nor did successive Fianna Fail governments.
So if the Vatican deserves condemnation over its attitude to mandatory reporting, then so does the Irish State.

Mass Times for Week beginning 24 July

2011-07-22T19:54:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 8am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP

Please note that there is no Sunday evening Mass at Santa Maria during the school holidays. Mass there resumes on 31 July.

Spire for 24 July

2011-07-22T19:52:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week beginning 17 July

2011-07-17T15:39:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 9am at SJP

Saturday 9am at SJP

Please note that there is no Sunday evening Mass at Santa Maria during the school holidays. Mass there resumes on 31 July.

Spire for 17 July

2011-07-17T15:38:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Annual Parish Dinner

2011-07-09T10:08:00.001+08:00

The annual parish dinner is fast approaching. It is on 29 July at Santa Maria College. Dinner begins at 6.30pm. Do come along to enjoy the scrumptious food, the wonderful company and the stunning views. Tickets at $50 a person are now available. It's a steal at the price.

Meetings

2011-07-09T10:00:00.001+08:00

The Finance Committee meets this Tuesday at 7.30pm at the presbytery.

The Parish Pastoral Council meets this Thursday at 7pm in the meeting room.

Mass Times for Week beginning 10 July

2011-07-09T09:58:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday 9am at SJP

Saturday 9am at SJP

Please note that there is no Sunday evening Mass at Santa Maria during the school holidays. Mass there resumes on 31 July.

Spire for 10 July

2011-07-09T09:56:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Orientation

2011-07-05T14:22:00.002+08:00

My favourite liturgical blog has a discussion on the topic of the orientation of the presider during Mass; to put it another way - should the priest and people face each other across the altar or should the priest have his back to the people. I have been troubled somewhat by the arguments in favour of the latter and Augé addresses the issue in his usual pithy manner.

He concedes that from the sixteenth century (and earlier), priests and people faced the apse of the church. Interestingly Augé could not find an exploration of this common stance in liturgical books and books of piety of the last four centuries. He deduces from this that the orientation was observed in a passive way without having an influence on the spirituality of the people of God.
Indeed, he believes, that the fact that the presider had his back to the assembly is one of the elements which favoured a clerical view of the celebration - the priest celebrating while the people occupied themselves with their devotions. However, the celebrating subject in the Mass is not the priest alone, but the whole community. Augé points out that this is not something novel taught by Vatican II, one can find it in Guardini. He goes on with the discussion:

One speaks at times of the convenience of praying coram Deo, facing the Lord... I ask myself, where is the Lord, where can I discover his face? In the Lord's Prayer we say that he is 'in heaven''; when he prayed Jesus 'raised his eyes to heaven' (Jn 17.1 passim); the Risen Lord, in his Ascension, 'was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight' (Acts 1.9); at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer we are invited to raise out hearts to the Lord: 'Lift up your hearts'. On the other hand, Jesus affirmed: 'where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst' (Mt. 18.20); the Roman Canon speaks of those who are around (omnium circumstantium) [the revised Missal translates it 'all gathered here'].... Where are we therefore invited to find God? In the imprisoned, in the sick, in the thirsty, the hungry, etc. (Mt 25.31ff).... In short, in our brothers. To turn the praying heart towards God, it is not necessary to avoid the gaze of one's brothers, on the contrary, it is there that one can find him.

Augé goes on to make the point that the celebration facing the people allows the faithful to see what is done on the altar and how seeing has been an important part of popular piety. If you wish to do so you can read the rest of his blog entry here.

Four Corners - 04/07/2011: Sri Lankas Killing Fields

2011-07-04T21:18:00.001+08:00

Four Corners - 04/07/2011: Sri Lankas Killing Fields was truly disturbing viewing. There needs to be a thorough investigation of the claims: Were crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka?

The real presence of Christ in the liturgy according to SC

2011-07-03T23:30:00.001+08:00

After broaching the delicate topic of liturgical reform the Constitution continues with a pithy summary of the mystery of salvation: God's saving act unfolds through the Incarnation, the humanity of Jesus Christ and continues in the apostolic Church, particularly in the Sacraments. It is Christ who makes the Sacraments what they are - a participation in and representation of his saving work until he comes again. The Constitution emphasises that he Paschal Mystery, Christ's Death and Resurrection and the sending of the Spirit, is at the heart of the Liturgy and that

to accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, "the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross", but especially under the Eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes. He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20) .

The Church teaches that Christ is encountered by the participants in the liturgical celebration in various ways. Christ is present through the priest, who by his ordination is configured to Christ. Christ is truly present in the Eucharistic species - the consecrated bread and wine. Christ is one who truly ministers the Sacraments. Christ speaks to us in the Liturgy of the Word. And Christ is present in his people gathered together.

Homily for Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-07-02T21:34:00.001+08:00

No one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. There are different forms of knowledge; here Jesus speaks of a knowledge which is intimate. It is through Jesus that we have access to the Father.

You may remember that two weeks ago I spoke of the Trinity in the Eucharistic Prayer.... or perhaps you don't? Anyway, our whole experience of the Mass is an entering into the knowledge, love and life of the Father through his beloved Son. We gather here because the Son told us to do so - 'Do this in memory of me.' And here in this gathering the Son speaks to us of his Father and draws us into the love of his Father. And not only the Son but Holy Spirit, which the Father and Son give to us, moves here in our assembly and makes our celebration not just a remembrance of past events, but a making present of the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Our gathering here is an acknowledgement of our littleness: we do not have to create afresh our own way to the Father; the way to the Father is the way Jesus taught us, teaches us, leads us. We come here to learn from him, to follow him; we come here to be drawn mind, heart and body into his relationship with the Father. We eat his Body broken for us, drink his Blood poured out for us; we are captured by his love, immersed into his very life given for us, and so gathered to the Father.

We are the little ones who acknowledge that our path is not of our own creation, it is a gift from the Father through his Son.

We do not have to labour unremittingly to make something worthwhile of our lives, to search for meaning, to cling desperately to comforts which seem so evanescent. We are here because the Father has given us the comfort of the way through his Son and in the Holy Spirit.

And so here even our prayer is not something we have to compose and at which we have to labour, it is given to us, the Son unites us in the great prayer of the Mass. We come, all of us, little as we are, with our burdens of sin, longing, and we find that we do not journey on our own, we journey together the way of the Son and in the Holy Spirit; we don’t have to make up own words, we have the comfort of the words of Jesus which we pray to the Father in the Holy Spirit. Here we experience something of the rest which is God's gift in his Son to those who follow him, a promise of the greater rest which comes at the end of the way.

Climate Change

2011-07-02T13:42:00.000+08:00

The scientific consensus is solid with regard to climate change. Here is another quotation from the report of the working group commissioned by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City:

Aggressive exploitation of fossil fuels and other natural resources has damaged the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we inhabit. To give one example, some 1000 billion tons of carbon dioxide and other climatically important “greenhouse” gases have been pumped into the atmosphere. As a result, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air now exceeds the highest levels of the last 800,000 years. The climatic and ecological impacts of this human interference with the Earth System are expected to last for many millennia, warranting a new name, The AnThropocene, for the new “man-made” geologic epoch we are living in.

Inaction is not an option.

Mass Times for Week beginning 3 July

2011-07-01T11:15:00.000+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday - 8am at Santa Maria (please check closer to day)

Saturday 8am at Santa Maria

Spire for 3 July

2011-07-01T11:12:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Homily for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

2011-06-27T14:28:00.000+08:00

Many centuries ago, to be somewhat more precise at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century, the great saint, Jerome, wrote "When we approach the Eucharist, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the word of God and God’s word and Christ’s flesh are being poured into our ears yet we pay no attention, what great peril should we not feel?"
Jerome translated the bible into Latin - the modern languages we use today did not exist - and he was passionate about the Word of God. I was struck by what he said for two reasons. First, of course, he is right about the importance of listening - truly attending - to God's Word during Mass. It is why we have a little silence after each reading. It is to allow all of us to reflect on whether a word, a sentence, a thought from the reading echoed with us in some way; we have a moment to register and store it away so that we can return to it later.
But I was also struck by the reverence Jerome shows for the Holy Eucharist. From the days of early church Christians had a great reverence for the Body and Blood of Christ. It was to reach such a pitch that for centuries people would not receive Communion and so the Church had to tell them to go at least once a year. But now do we approach Communion with reverence for the Eucharist - reverence for the gift which it is? Mysterium tremendum et fascinans - the mystery which is great beyond imagining yet draws us in. In the Eucharist we receive God himself - not just a spiritual food and drink, but the very presence of the Lord. Perhaps a care for even the crumbs which stick to our hands would help us grow in reverence, help us grow in awareness and humility before the gift.
For Christ is truly present in the Mass. Presence occurs on many levels. I can be truly present to you - attentive, listening, present heart and soul. Or I can just be physically present while my mind and heart are elsewhere. Jesus when he walked the earth was truly present to people – it was a presence which liberated, healed, forgave; it took its graphic painful expression on the Cross and was liberated, vindicated in his Resurrection. In the Eucharist that presence is made manifest, made flesh and blood.
The rites we celebrate at the beginning of Mass, the rites we celebrate before Communion are about helping us be present to Him who is truly, fully present to us as loving, gift.
St Augustine, in his Confessions, wrote, 'I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me.' The Body and Blood of Jesus does not become part of our flesh and blood, it makes us one with the Lord, makes us part of his Church. It is in that union that our truest identity flowers, in that communion with the Son of God, with our brothers and sisters here and far away. Perhaps it would be good to tremble a little before the gift and mystery or at least to bow in reverence and holy fear.

Eucharist, the medicine for what ails us

2011-06-26T21:17:00.001+08:00

Andrea Tornelli, the vaticanista, had some excerpts from the Holy Father's Angelus for the feast of Corpus Christi. They are very striking and I hope I capture a little the flavour of them below. Tornelli remarks that they illustrate the Pope's ability to communicate the essentials of the faith with effective and concrete images.

Pope Benedict in his Angelus reflexion on the Eucharist spoke of it as a 'medicine for the intellect and the will', through which these faculties recover their taste for the truth and the common good.The Eucharist constitutes a type of antidote which operates in the minds and hearts of the faithful and continually sows in them the logic of communion, of service, of sharing, in short the logic of the Gospel.

Mass Times for Week beginning 26 June

2011-06-25T16:52:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday 9am at SJP

Friday - Sacred Heart - 8am at Santa Maria and 6.30pm at SJP

Saturday 9am at SJP (with anointing of the sick)

Spire for 26 June

2011-06-25T16:49:00.002+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

The Constitution on liturgical reform

2011-06-18T22:18:00.001+08:00

Lastly, in faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way. The Council also desires that, where necessary, the rites be revised carefully in the light of sound tradition, and that they be given new vigor to meet the circumstances and needs of modern times.

Here the bishops of the Second Vatican Council (they are called Council fathers) set out what they want to do with this Constitution.

The Council fathers did not work through the detail of the reforms of the liturgy. They set out certain principles and gave a direction; the actual implementation and detailed work was carried out by various bodies, above all the Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia or Council for the implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Consilium for short) which was created by Pope Paul VI to do the hard work of reform. It was composed of many liturgists of renown including the remarkable Fr Annibale Bugnini CM (later Archbishop Bugnini).

But back to the Constitution.The Council fathers acknowledge all Catholic rites to be of equal dignity. Most of us are familiar with the Latin rite, but there are other ritual traditions in the Catholic Church -Maronite, Melkite and others. In the past elements of the Latin rite were introduced into these traditions, but the Council fathers state clearly that the integrity of these traditions within the Catholic Church should be respected.

The Council then prescribes the revision of the rites, but a revision which is to draw on the breadth and depth of the Catholic tradition. In the period leading up to Vatican II there were many liturgists and theologians bringing to new light the richness of the Church's tradition. The rites of a particular age cannot contain the whole of the tradition and indeed there can be additions or developments of a rite which obscure important aspects of tradition; at times the debris and detritus of the centuries has to be cleared away so that the 'noble simplicity' of the rite can be seen. The work of these liturgists, historians and theologians was to bear fruit in the revised liturgy.

The Council fathers want work done on reforming the liturgy in the light of the tradition. This is not an archaeological enterprise; the work is to be done so that the People of God in the modern age may celebrate a liturgy which continues to build up the church.

Addendum: I think that Fr Robert Taft SJ in the foreword to his book on the liturgy of the hours expresses clearly what I have struggled to say above:

Those ignorant of history are prisoners of the latest cliché, for they have nothing against which to test it. That is what knowledge of the past can give us.... The past is always instructive, but not necessarily normative. What we do today is ruled not by the past but by the adaptation of tradition to the needs of the present. History can only help us decide what the essentials of that tradition are, and the parameters of its adaptation.

Consistent ethic of life

2011-06-17T23:34:00.001+08:00

Being a pro-life in the Catholic sense means cherishing life in all its stages, from the fragility of life new-conceived to the fragility of life in its final stages and everything in between; it means protecting the child in the womb and doing what we can to support mothers in difficult situations; it means cherishing the asylum-seeker on the boat and welcoming him or her as our brother or sister; it means valuing all members of the human family in their diversity, variety and giftedness ; it asks of us to hold to the sanctitiy of life even in the face of murder and heinous evil; it calls us to journey lovingly with the person suffering from illness and the person in the final stages of life. It is to be aware that we are not lords, but stewards of life.

Cardinal Bernadin spoke of a consistent ethic of life and its demands:

A consistent ethic does not say everyone in the Church must do all things, but it does say that as individuals and groups pursue one issue, whether it is opposing abortion or capital punishment, the way we oppose one threat should be related to support for a systemic vision of life. It is not necessary or possible for every person to engage in each issue, but it is both possible and necessary for the Church as a whole to cultivate a conscious explicit connection among the several issues. And it is very necessary for preserving a systemic vision that individuals and groups who seek to witness to life at one point of the spectrum of life not be seen as insensitive to or even opposed to other moral claims on the overall spectrum of life. Consistency does rule out contradictory moral positions about the unique value of human life. No one is called to do everything, but each of us can do something. And we can strive not to stand against each other when the protection and the promotion of life are at stake.

Mass Times for Week beginning 19 June

2011-06-17T23:01:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday No Mass

Friday 8am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP

Constitution on the Liturgy and our mission

2011-06-17T21:57:00.001+08:00

While the liturgy daily builds up those who are within into a holy temple of the Lord, into a dwelling place for God in the Spirit, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ, at the same time it marvelously strengthens their power to preach Christ, and thus shows forth the Church to those who are outside as a sign lifted up among the nations under which the scattered children of God may be gathered together, until there is one sheepfold and one shepherd.

Jesus Christ came as one sent by his Father in heaven. This was fundamental to his identity - he comes from his Father. And thus it is for us, his disciples whom he incorporates into his Body, the Church. In her members the Church is sent out by the Father to the peoples of every place with the Gospel.

The Constitution on the Liturgy does not indulge in relativism: God wants to gather all people into one family through his Beloved Son in the Spirit he sends. Jesus calls us his friends and we are to be the sign and instrument of the unity of the human race.

We, human beings are mysteries to ourselves and to others; we are wonderful in our variety and complexity. In the liturgy a diverse people is brought together by the Spirit of Jesus and is united in one voice of faith; a faith which is not reductionist and does not demand uniformity, after all our diversity flows from the inexhaustible creativity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In the liturgy we are nourished and nurtured by God; we grow more like Christ. The Liturgy, at the centre of a life of faith, hope and love, works slowly. We become more fully the sign God wants us to be in our age.

Archbishop Conti on the 'old rite' Mass

2011-06-16T18:18:00.000+08:00

Archbishop Conti has written to the priests of his diocese regarding the new translation and associated issues. You can read the full letter here. I would venture that his comments regarding the 'Tridentine' Mass are nothing but the guidance and insights of an experienced pastor (there have been howls of protest in the web ether!) and would probably be shared by many bishops:

The Holy Father and those who advise him have decided to make the old Mass, the so-called Tridentine, or pre-Vatican II, more available to the faithful for pastoral reasons; that is something we must respect. However, even with the most recent instruction from Ecclesia Dei, there is no requirement or indeed encouragement for any of us to promote the so called Extraordinary Form. I venture to suggest that there is no call for it, or pastoral reason to change what has become the settled practice of the Archdiocese, which I read as contentment and indeed appreciation of the pastoral advantages of Mass in the vernacular, and in a form which is less mysterious than at least some aspects of what my generation can recall of the "old" Mass. There is, and I now speak frankly, a difference between mysterious and mystery. The mystery of the Mass is, to the wonderment of the priests and people, the presence of God in the sacrificial offering of the Body and Blood of His Son's humanity, effective through the ministry of those called to be priests, ministering at the altar where the gifts of the faithful of bread and wine are laid. The awesomeness of the holy exchange can be manifested in the way in which we celebrate the Mass, avoiding all that could trivialise what is sacred, without any extravagant gestures, but on the contrary taking advantage of the rich potential within the rites themselves to enhance the significance of what we do by way of the dignity of our actions, the singing of those parts of the Mass which are marked for song and wearing vestments of noble simplicity. Our performance should never appear casual, nor should we appear to be intent on entertaining our congregation. While there is a place for humour in the midst of our preaching, there should never be any attempt, even on the part of those good at it, to amuse their congregations by telling jokes.

Liturgy and the nature of the Church

2011-06-14T21:24:00.001+08:00

The Constitution on the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican II) expands on what the liturgy reveals about the Church.

It is of the essence of the Church that she be both human and divine, visible and yet invisibly equipped, eager to act and yet intent on contemplation, present in this world and yet not at home in it; and she is all these things in such wise that in her the human is directed and subordinated to the divine, the visible likewise to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, which we seek.

I discussed something of the divine life of the Church in a prior blog entry. There is a certain tension which flows from this nature: The Church is divine; she is Christ's creation, born of the divine initiative. And yet she is also made up of very frail, sinful, fallible human beings. The Church is made up of people each of whom is blessed with individuality and gifts. But more importantly she is blessed with divine grace which can work even through human weakness. Her life is not just the sum of shared human lives, but the grace of Christ flowing through her members.

The Constitution makes mention of the 'city yet to come' or the Kingdom of God. In the New Testament the Kingdom is not some otherworldly reality, but our world transformed. So the Church is immersed in the world - indeed she has to be - but she is in the world as a sign and instrument of the Kingdom. This means that the Church and her members are not on about their own kingdoms, but about the work of the Divine Master and are servants of God's Kingdom.

The final consequence of the Church's nature which our little passage spells out is that in order to serve God's Kingdom, the members of the Church must first be disciples - hearers of the word of God.

Spire for 12 June

2011-06-11T20:37:00.001+08:00

Click here for the Spire.

Mass Times for Week Beginning 12 June

2011-06-11T20:32:00.001+08:00

Saturday 6pm at SJP (Confirmation Mass)

Sunday 8am and 9am at SJP

Sunday 6.30pm at Santa Maria

Monday No Mass

Tuesday 9am at SJP

Wednesday 9am at SJP

Thursday No Mass

Friday 8am at Santa Maria

Saturday 9am at SJP