Roses greet a saint in a year of turmoil

Sydney
22 December 2002

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Clouds, silver linings and life

Bl Mary in the Eye of the Beholder

Catholic Welfare concern at reforms

Old boys go back to Marist school after 50 years

'Phone home' - a mother's plea

Where do you get it?

What if Egypt's border guards had turned the Holy Family back?

Transport, food need at lunch

Schoolkids deliver petition, armbands and a warning of the plight of kids overseas

Sydney dinner to honour Coptic leader

What do you give a refugee for Christmas?

How the 'Sacred Heart six' came to the rescue

Editorial: Time of prayer, hope

Letters: Euthanasia

Conversation: Stephen Said - pastoral support services co-ordinator - Helping children cope with crisis

Practical tips for the festive season

Roses greet a saint in a year of turmoil

Where Christmas is celebrated every day of the year

Roses greet a saint in a year of turmoil

Thousands flock to pray at relics of St Thérèse. It was our front page headline in the issue of February 17, 2002.

And it could have been repeated many, many times over the next few weeks as the reliquary carrying the remains of the 'pop star' saint,

St Thérèse of Lisieux, toured Australia.

'Little Flower' is almost here was our banner headline in the issue of March 24, as the relics neared Sydney in what was perhaps the most significant event in the Australian Church this year.

It was undeniably among the most spiritually uplifting events of any time.

The young French saint was welcomed with thousands of red roses when the reliquary arrived at St Mary's Cathedral, in recognition of her affectionate soubriquet, St Thérèse of the Roses.

The cathedral was packed to overflowing with worshippers at the Solemn Mass on the morning of Sunday, April 7.

We reported: "Many more went later to pray, queuing for hours for the privilege; the after-Mass queue snaked out of the cathedral door, through Cathedral Square and along College St, past the Cook and Phillip Park Aquatic Centre, to William St."

Then came a story about a man who had returned to the Church after 30 years - recounted by Fr Greg Homeming, Regional Vicar of the Discalced Carmelites.

It prompted this headline: Did Jesus Christ use St Thérèse in Australia?

Fr Greg, alluding to the number of non-Catholics who had visited Catholic churches around the country to view the relics and to the number of lapsed Catholics who were now seeking confession, said we may have witnessed the "phenomenon of Jesus Christ using St Thérèse to bring people back to their senses".

He spoke of the dishevelled man who went to him for confession at the suburban Perth Church of the Infant Jesus at the start of the Australian tour of the relics.

Fr Greg, who had travelled to Perth to welcome the relics, went with the man to pray before the reliquary.

"He came back to me a week later with his son who, he said, wished to come off drugs," said Fr Greg. "He had not sought his son out; his son had come to him."

Thérèse, a Carmelite nun, lived at the then small convent at Lisieux, France. She was 24 when she died of tuberculosis in 1897.

Her autobiography, Story of a Soul, in which she talks of her spiritual way of striving for perfection, known as the 'Little Way', has never been out of print.

Before St Thérèse took the headlines, the year had begun with devastating bushfires.

The victims included Fr John Evans, spiritual adviser for St Vincent de Paul Society in the Parramatta diocese, who had been had been living in the Warragamba parish presbytery for 28 years.

He lost his house and all his possessions.

"Now I know what it feels like to be a refugee and to depend on people," said the retired parish priest.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, set up a $100,000 disaster fund to assist families who had lost homes in the bushfires.

The year also saw former students and brothers join in celebrations to mark the Edmund Rice bicentenary, the 200th anniversary of the start of the Christian Brothers education movement.

Pope John Paul II canonised three new saints - the popular Italian Padre Pio de Pietralcina, who suffered Christ-like stigmata; Jose-maria Escriva de Balaguer, Spanish founder of the Opus Dei movement; and Juan Diego, the Mexican peasant who was visited by the Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, Mexico.

Although in ill health, the Pope ventured to Canada in July for World Youth Day, where he was cheered by the thousands of young Catholics from around the world who had gone there to share the event with him.

Archbishop Pell, Bishop David Cremin and the Bishop of Wollongong, Bishop Peter Ingham, were among the Australian bishops who led groups to World Youth Day and took partin liturgy and special World Youth Day programs.

During the year, Archbishop Pell called for the Federal Government to review its policy on mandatory detention because of the excessive human cost.

"Innocent people are suffering," he said. "The policy of deterrence is imposing a disproportionate suffering on these people.

"These people are not terrorists. They're not criminals or soldiers in an opposing army; they've made the mistake of wanting to come here and live here."

The NSW Parliament was applauded for its decision to give the 'thumbs down' to the legalisation of euthanasia.

But it did not lead to euphoria.

The NSW Government became one of the most vocal advocates of embryonic stem cell research.

The Church presented a strong case against such research, but - despite a 'conscience vote' - Federal Parliament voted in favour of the Research Involving Embryos Bill 2002, for a law which Archbisop Philip Wilson, the Archbishop of Adelaide, said "sacrificed human life for profit".

Revelations throughout the year of sex abuse by clergy rocked the Church to its foundations in the US and Ireland, and to a lesser extent, in Australia and New Zealand.

Pope John Paul II met US bishops in emergency sessions at the Vatican to consider the actions they needed to take.

The success of Archbishop Wilson in handling sex abuse cases while he was Bishop of Wollongong, led the US Bishops Conference to invite him to address the special bishops' meeting that was to vote for a policy of zero tolerance of sex offenders in the clergy.

In August, The Catholic Weekly campaigned against approval being given for a proposed brothel in Parramatta Rd, Lewisham, in close proximity to three schools, a retirement village, a nursing home, a women's refuge and a parish church.

Fr Michael Butler, Lewisham's parish priest, thanked the Weekly for its help "in focusing people's attention on the problems a brothel could bring and letting the council know how strongly we opposed it".

This year also saw the Vatican outlaw the so-called 'Little Pebble', the Nowra-based, self-styled religious leader William Kamm.

It authorised Bishop Peter Ingham to issue a decree against Kamm and his associates, outlining the Church's rejection of his claims and teachings, and ordering him to disband his movement.

Thousands of people were attracted during the year to a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Perth suburb of Rockingham.

The statue began weeping oil in March; researchers from two WA universities conducted tests on the statue, but found no obvious scientific explanation.

The Archbishop of Perth, Archbishop Barry Hickey, has ordered an official investigation.

The heading said it all: Sydney schools turn to prayer as horror of Bali hits home.

Terrorist bomb attacks in Bali killed 87 Australians and left many injured.

Brigidine College, Randwick, and Casimir College, Marrickville, were among the hardest hit schools.

In his recent apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary), the Pope announced five new mysteries of the rosary - the Mysteries of Light:

* Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan;
* his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana;
* his proclamation of the Kingdom of God with his call to conversion;
* his Transfiguration;
* his institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

An inquiry by Judge Alec Southwell found in September that Archbishop Pell had no case to answer regarding allegations of sexual abuse.

Last, but not least, the Weekly picked up the premier Australasian Christian newspaper award, the Gutenberg Award of the Australasian Religious Press Association.

This is the first time the paper has won this award, scooping 50 other Christian publications from throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The president of the association, the Rev Bob Wiesbusch, said he chose the The Catholic Weekly because of its fine balance of news, features, opinion and history pieces and, in particular, because of its fine homilies.