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I am helping to find information on Fr Dunlea, who served in the parishes of St Francis Albion Street, Rose Bay, Newtown, Enfield and Golden Grove before becoming pastor of
Sutherland and later Hurstville. He was the founder of Boys Town at Engadine and was involved in the introduction of Alcoholics Anonymous and GROW to Australia.
Any information on this much loved man would be
appreciated so his life can be fully documented.
Anyone, for example, who knew him personally might commit some memories to writing and send them on. Likewise anyone who has heard stories, anecdotes or
tidbits of news about him.
Anyone who sends newspaper cuttings, articles, news items, quotations or sayings of Fr Dunlea will have them returned after being photocopied.
Please send to: Pastor
Emeritus, c/- 62 Warejee Street, Kingsgrove, NSW 2208.
Shirley Spinks,
Kingsgrove, NSW
THE BLACK MADONNA
The Black Madonna icon of Jasna Gora
(usually referred to as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa) is not a statue (CW 12/1). It is a painting on canvas mounted on board.
It was maintained for centuries that the evangelist Luke painted it on the top
of a table in the Holy Family house at Nazareth. Recent scientific tests placed the wooden backing of the image in the sixth century. It was also held that St Helena brought it to Constantinople.
Later
located in a Ukrainian town, it was damaged when Tartar archers used it for target practice.
Eventually, on August 26, 1382, Polish Prince Ladislaus Opoiski, brought it to Czestochowa, built the magnificent
monastery of Jasna Gora (Mountain of Brightness) on a hill overlooking the town as its shrine, and staffed the monastery with Pauline monks from Hungary. Pauline monks still staff it and attract large numbers of
vocations.
The slashes on the cheek of the Madonna and the wound on the throat commemorate the Tartar attack and another in 1430 by Hussite troops who damaged the canvas by sword slashes and split the backing
board into three pieces. The board was repaired in Cracow and a replica of the damaged image painted on canvas stretched over the board. The slashes and wound were then painted on the image.
Polish Catholics
regard the icon as the instrument of Mary’s protection of their nation.
Joe Morley,
Lane Cove, NSW
WHAT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?
It puzzles me that
forums of record such as the ABC and Sydney Morning Herald both slavishly follow the incorrect terminology used by our heartless Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock.
People who arrive by Indonesian fishing
boats et al are not illegal immigrants, that is a legal status decided only after exhaustive background enquires.
These people are unauthorised arrivals and should be referred to as such. This is the legal
term used throughout the western world.
John X Berlin
Maclean, NSW
COMMUNION CONUNDRUMS
As a special minister of the Eucharist I am privileged
to serve at both my suburban parish on Sunday and at a large city church during the week. This ministry brings me into contact with a wide range of Catholics of all ages and cultural backgrounds.
Two features
common to both parishes continue to puzzle, concern, even sadden me.
The first is why some people still insist on receiving Communion on the tongue? I can understand some pre-Vatican II stalwarts but the
number of younger adults and even children is surprising. It is the health aspect that concerns me most.
It is almost impossible to avoid saliva contacting one’s fingers and I notice some priests
surreptitiously wiping their fingers on their vestments whenever a person receives the host on the tongue.
With Communion under both species the chalice is carefully wiped with a purificator after each
communicant but no such precaution exists for the fingers.
I understand the move back to receiving Communion in the hands follows the original tradition of the disciples who broke bread and passed it amongst
themselves. Surely if it was good enough for them it should be for us too.
The second aspect of Communion that puzzles and saddens me is the refusal of some to receive Communion from anyone but the priest. It
is most disconcerting to see people clamber through a pew to the other aisle or switch rows when they see a Eucharistic minister ahead. Do they think we are not worthy enough to give them Communion? They surely
don’t think the hosts in our ciborium are any less the Body of Christ?
I would welcome comment from my fellow ministers and anyone who could explain these two phenomena.
John McCartney
Castle Hill, NSW
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