Letters: Santamaria and the DLP

Sydney
7 April 2002

Roses welcome a 'Little Flower'

Archbishop, Bracks clash on embryos

Archbishop Pell widens net for Pentecost letter

Holocaust 'horror' remembered

Scrap refugee plan: bishops

New job for Catholic Weekly columnist

Graduates strive to revive cultural body

Centacare invests in a long future

St Pat's Girls' reunion

Quotes, claims online

Pro-life focus urged for Feast of Annunciation

4-star care at Calvary

The sword unsheathed

Editorial: Death with dignity

Letters: Santamaria and the DLP

Conversation: Inspiring students and 'making a difference' - Sharyn Dickerson, primary school principal

Reflections: Popularity of a saint forever young

Young flock to serve at Holy Family

Opinion: North Melbourne players kick a goal for morality

From virgin field to new school in three weeks

Obituary: Fr Ted - at home in two St Joseph's

Obituary: Visionary priest left a 'magnificent' memorial

Letters: Santamaria and the DLP

It is interesting to find an article (Santamaria: a Man of Great Influence, CW 3/3) reflecting on the benefits BA Santamaria brought to society.

Nevertheless, it could not resist the traditional Catholic press stance of highlighting the proposition that Santa maria was wrong.

If Santamaria was wrong so was everybody else.

He would have pleaded guilty to the notion that humanity - and his humanity - was prone to error, for the essential thing about Santamaria, apart from his uncanny sense of contemporary affairs, was his sanctity of life.

The author of the article says Santamaria was wrong when he supported the DLP.

The Catholic Weekly made that judgment in 1955 and the Bishop of Wagga sent back the issue which printed the excuse for supporting the anti-Santamaria view.

Plenty of people, including the writer, hold that the Santamaria view was the correct one, and that the Sydney line peddled by Mons Wallace, Bishop James Carroll and Cardinal Gilroy was massively wrong.

The Catholic school system would have disappeared if it had not been politically jacked up by the work of Santamaria in his support for the DLP. Without that support, there would have been virtually no school system today.

The Governor-General, who is under siege for a matter of some difficulty for religious people, ought to be massively supported, in public, by the Catholic hierarchy.

It would be a useful ecumenical exercise, a matter Santamaria would not have neglected.

John Heesh
Wyoming, NSW

INSULT TO TEACHINGS

Jim Spratt's letter (Governor-General, Letters CW 17/3), calling the reaction to the Governor-General's problems as "hatred" and comparing his trials to those of Jesus, is an insult to Christian teachings and to those concerned about the performance of the Governor-General.

He has not been subjected to "false witness, set up or loaded questions". And reaction to the Governor General does not "sound familiar" to Jesus' trials.

Richard d'Apice,
Double Bay NSW

ABORTION HOMILIES

I would like to submit a general request for more priests to write homilies about abortion. Many are hesitant because they fear offending women who have had abortions; however, it is these very women, who are suffering alone and in silence, who need to hear a word of hope from the pulpit.

Anne Lastman explains in the latest issue of Broken Branches: "To speak about abortion means that it is poss ible to speak about healing, mercy, compassion, love of God, mercy of God, forgiveness of God and the baby. To remain silent means that only occasionally a priest or pastor will hear about the needs and suffering of someone who has been aborted."

Post aborted men and women are caught up in nets of despair, guilt, hopelessness and depression. I believe that many resort to substance abuse, promiscuity, self mutilation and even suicide in order to cope.

They desperately need to hear that God offers them even greater love, grace and mercy because they are more in need, and therefore they should be encouraged to trust God and to give him greater love in return.

There is an urgent need for this message of trust in Jesus' infinite mercy and love to be spread to all men and women who have been involved in the sin of abortion, so that they can repent and obtain his healing forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.

Anne Lastman's newsletter Broken Branches may be obtained from: Victims of Abortion, PO Box 6094, Vermont South, Vic 3133.

Frances McEniery
Wagga Wagga, NSW

THE FIRST MASS

Regarding Père Receveur, (La Perouse ceremony remembers first Mass, C/W 10/3). Cardinal Moran wrote in his History of the Catholic Church in Australia: "La Perouse's expedition landed at Maouna, in the Navigator Islands, where an exploring party that landed was betrayed and attacked by the natives, 12 being slain and others wounded.

"Among the latter was Père Receveur, who accompanied the expedition as chaplain and botanist. He succumbed to his wounds a few weeks after landing on Australian shores.

"It has been conjectured that Père Receveur, though suffering from his wounds at Botany Bay in 1788, may have been able to offer there the Holy Sacrifice. We have no record, however, to confirm this conjecture."

Cardinal Moran then refers to De Quiros, the Spanish explorer, that during his voyage in 1606 he sailed as far south as 24deg latitude, near Curtis Island, Queensland.

De Quiros related in a letter to King Philip of Spain: "... we erected a cross and we built a church under the invocation of Our Lady of Loretto; 20 Masses were celebrated there, and our men flocked thither to gain the Indulgences. We had a solemn Procession and Feast of the Most Holy Sacrament; the Most Holy Sacrament preceded by your banner, being borne around a wide circuit of lands which it sanctified by its presence."

Cardinal Moran concludes with: "These words appear to me to set at rest any controversy as regards the first celebration of Holy Mass on the Australian continent." Some interesting food for thought!

Lorraine Kijurina
Campbelltown, NSW

OVERWHELMED

Thank you for your congratulatory paper following this year's Australia Day honours. I have been overwhelmed by the responses from friends, present and past colleagues and the wider community.

It is a great personal honour to be awarded an AO. It is also an acknowledgement of the significant role that schools play in contributing to the development of a more just and equal Australian society.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

Sr Judith Redden
Adelaide, SA