Letters: Abstinence and sainthood

Sydney
11 November 2001

Court strips ex-student of $3m award

Caritas needs help to raise $100,000

Archbishop Pell chosen

Kudos for Catholic Health head

Muslims at Mass

Gleeson Auditorium

Getting to ‘know each other better’

Stall in a good cause

School targets kids with poor attendance record

Centacare: it’s just right for the job

Knights answer Pope’s call

A lonely visitor

Crime does pay for Brookvale Vinnies

Call for code on Internet

ACU in business course

Editorial: A time for prayer

Letters: Abstinence and sainthood

Conversation: ‘Give Muslims a fair go’ – plea to media - Faruk Chowdhury and Amjad Ali Mehboob of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Reflection: Understanding our own behaviour

Pastoral care: priests are facing greater pressure

Murwillumbah welcomes son

A Meddling Priest makes a return in time for Christmas

Cowra’s weekend of reconciliation

A horse and buggy and stained-glass windows

Sister Gen – mother to the boys of St John’s

Feature: New research shows euthanasia targets women

Inspirations: A suitcase of prayer and love of Jesus

Letters: Abstinence and sainthood

My pleasure at learning of the beatification of a married couple changed to dismay when I read that they had abstained from sexual relations for their last 25 years together.

Apparently married people can only be saints if they don’t engage in the defining act of marriage.

In this indirect way Church officials have told us what they really think of sex, even within marriage.

What a tragedy!

Joanne Russell
Clovelly, NSW

SOCIAL PRINCIPLES

Why would Fr Murray laboriously drag in the red herring of ‘racism’ when discussing the illegal entrants in People who throw their children into the sea (CW 28/10)?

Why hypothesise whether the people in question are ‘wicked’,‘desperate’ or tropical holiday makers?

He takes a phrase from a radio interview and concludes by judging it racist without ever proving it so.

“They are mainly Afghanis and Iraqis, Moslems, people of a darkish skin. In the current climate, many of Mr Howard’s listeners are likely to assume that all of these people are of a kind who would throw their children into the sea.”

Why intimate the listeners don’t make up their own minds?

Why insinuate Australians are stupid/gullible/easily led? Australian Catholics are as acute morally as high profile persons. Australian Catholics can judge for themselves, if they have the facts and Catholic principles.

Fr Murray might do better service to Catholics if he stated facts and showed how his offered judgment on those facts is based on Catholic social principles.

Joe Lopez
Warrimoo, NSW

OPEN ARMS

Are all Australians as heartless, selfish and compassionless as politicians are portraying us, as they deal with these people, these asylum seekers?

I think not. I’m sure we are not. I know that neither myself, family or friends are. I’m feeling ashamed to stand up and be counted as an Australian, tarred as I’ve now become by politicians’ portrayal

Fifteen years ago I lived and worked in a refugee camp in North Africa with people who, in fear of war and drought, had fled their country, their homes. These people were bereft of all possessions except the rags they stood in.

I have little doubt that the asylum seekers now arriving on our doorstep in leaking boats are from a similar plight and in urgent need of support, care and understanding.

And how is the Australian government greeting these poverty stricken asylum seekers? Either incarcerating them in detention centres, or sending them off elsewhere. In this they are saying to the world “don’t come here, we don’t want you”.

If any asylum seekers arrive on my doorstep, I will welcome them as Christ showed, with open arms. And this applies to those who have fled the detention centres.

It is the law of justice, mercy and compassion for others, innate in all people and sourced in God, which I seek to live by.

John Pettit,
Alice Springs, NT

CONFERENCING

The concept of Family School conferencing as outlined in the article Healing Process Replaces Punishment (CW 7/10) has interesting possibilities.

I wonder has it been considered in situations of family breakup where so many more people are involved than the couple in question and have a very real concern in the final resolution of the conflict.

Norah Hanlon
Lambton, NSW

MALE SUICIDES

Since the last Federal election 6,000 Aussie men can no longer vote because they have committed suicide – 70 per cent directly linked to relationship or family breakdowns.

In the US, 6,000 people are killed by terrorists and our politicians go to war. Yet 6,000 Aussie men commit suicide and those same politicians do nothing!

How many more fathers must suicide or commit murder to make politicians act?

The Family Court is in a poor state; a Government appointed advisory group made 28 recommendations, but the Government shelved the report without any public objections from politicians.

I appeal to all Catholics when voting, please remember the 6,000 men who are unable to vote this time because politicians let them down.

Brian Lumsden,
Carbrook, Qld

‘LOVE ONE ANOTHER’

The genuine Christian will always have a heart open to receive refugees and asylum seekers.

The Christian knows God loves all people, gives life to all, cares for all, awaits the return of all. Christ died for all people. He taught: “Love one another.”

“Whatever you do for one of these, you do for me.”

Pope John Paul II says: “It is wrong to refuse refugees.” So the positive path of the Christian is well spelt out. And the Christian will surely prefer God’s laws to the laws and rantings of men.

Australia has space and the means to support many more refugees. To refuse hospitality to the needy is most un-Australian, and completely un-Christian.

Rev Francis C Bell
Narrandera, NSW

ST FRANCIS

It is regrettable that Australian SAS troops have been sent on a mission to “seek out and kill” Osama Bin Laden as this would only result in making a martyr of Bin Laden; many more like him would come forward to take his place.

The US President, George W Bush, in declaring a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of Bin Laden, has made a rash and hasty decision, as this would only be supplying funds to the terrorists.

Unfortunately, both our main political parties are backing the US stance and blindly following US President George W Bush on his path of revenge.

Let us indeed remember the Prayer of St Francis and each in our own way try to be an instrument of peace by showing the world what it really means to be a Christian.

Margaret Noonan,
North Rothbury, NSW