Editorial: Spiritual gold

Sydney
7 July 2002

Bishops take their message to the top

MPs misled on embryos: ethicist

Cardinal Clancy’s look to ‘blue sky’

Golden wedding Mass at Cardinal Gilroy Village

200,000 boost lifts number of Aussie Catholics above 5m

Penny-farthing raises ante

Tas firm wins sacred text rights for web

Pope presents pallium to Archbishop Wilson

NZ bishops apologise to abuse victims

Church guidelines for priestly behaviour under review

Religious still ‘prepare for the unknown’

Flags for World Youth Day pilgrims

Fr Maurice O’Connor OSA (1921-2002)

Vatican gives nod to neocatechumenism

Caritas set to hit $6m target

‘Most travelled priest’ – golden jubilee

Editorial: Spiritual gold

Letters: Sex abuse issue

Conversation: People ‘often look for God in wrong places’ - Cardinal Clancy, retired Archbishop of Sydney

Reflections: Proclaiming the ‘Gospel of life’!

Respect for human dignity

‘Hundreds in crisis’ in Macarthur area

‘Times have changed’ at St Anthony’s

New clinic offers alternative to IVF

Inspirations: Bush retreat is a winner with kids

Editorial: Spiritual gold

The relationship between our increasingly irreligious society and both spiritual and material poverty are touched on in this week’s Catholic Weekly and in Melbourne’s Age newspaper.

In our Conversation with him, Cardinal Clancy touches on this when he says that secularism tells you “that the only grace is money and the only heaven is pleasure”.

But many people find material goods don’t fulfil and go looking for ways to assuage their spiritual hunger – even if they look for the “divine” in all the wrong places. Drugs are one such place to go, but ultimately they don’t fulfil either, despite the visions they can induce.

The Age newspaper quotes Francis Sullivan of Catholic Health Australia – commenting on a report on poverty by Melbourne’s Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services – calling today’s world “a world without values”.

He says people on low incomes are being forced to put off buying prescription medicines as they struggle to juggle straitened household budgets in a “brave new world of user-pays”.

This ‘user-pays’ concept is part of a wider philosophy that places increasing emphasis on the material and so fuels the ‘material’ attitudes. An example is Sydney’s obsession with property, with houses seen as investments rather than homes; this has pushed the price of some ordinary homes into a price bracket far out of the reach of many families.

How ironic it is then that the St Vincent de Paul Society is sending out an SOS for more help for its Winter Appeal because the number of people in need, especially homeless people, is already far in excess of last year’s – and we are not even halfway through winter.

Sydney is a city of many pleasures for those who can afford them. But if Vinnies’ experience is an indication, the number of people who can’t even afford a bed – let alone pleasures – is growing fast. Vinnies’ NSW hostels are already ‘home’ to more than 1000 homeless people.

In a world where material things seem to matter so much, the needs of the poor inevitably get pushed aside.

We are all familiar with the joys of giving that Christmas brings. Many Vinnies volunteers say they experience this joy year-round, when in helping and giving to the poor they find themselves repaid in spiritual gold – peace of heart.

* If you would like to donate to Vinnies’ Winter Appeal, call 13 18 12. If you would like to help year-round, contact the St Vincent de Paul Society conference in your parish.