Letters: Back to the ‘bad old days’

Sydney
23 June 2002

St Pio – newest saint

US calls in Australian archbishop

Order pays $3.6 million

Fund for ‘tragic cases’

Shame and sorrow for all in Church, says schools head

‘Humble, but delighted’

Church stands alone in war on poverty

Giving and receiving

Religious urge Govt to sign Kyoto treaty

Appointee ‘daunted’ but committed

New employment relations commission installed

Call to keep tough embryo laws

Editorial: In search of a better life

Letters: Back to the ‘bad old days’

Conversation: No platitudes – ‘all our teaching has to be real’ - Sybil Dickens, school principal

Reflections: ‘Welcome’ in a new faith family

Rosary peace plan spreads in schools

Students, teachers prepare for Youth Day pilgrimage

St Charbel’s students welcome bishop

Opinion: A role for entertainment and media in ‘new evangelisation’

A new beginning for Tampa refugees

Inspirations: Good hair day for young Maronites

Letters: Back to the ‘bad old days’

Fr John Dietzen (Covenant with God, Insights, CW 9/6), in answer to a question on the Jewish background of Jesus, gave a very supersessionist answer, asserting his belief in the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, an attitude that – in the wake of the Holocaust, Vatican II, and later church statements – is not acceptable.

After 2000 years of antisemitism, official Church policy has begun the first steps towards reconciliation.

An outstanding example has been given by John Paul II, when we recall, among other things, his visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2000.

Fr Dietzen’s reply is like turning back the clock to the “bad old days”.

Marianne Dacy (NDS)
National Secretary of the Australian Council of Christians and Jews

GODBOTHERERS

Gavan Duffy (Can Catholics still call Australian Labor home? CW 5/5) raises interesting questions.

If for all practical purposes Catholics who hold beliefs about pro-life policies, etc, are excluded from membership, then why should Catholics vote for a party which doesn’t really want “Godbotherers”?

Gavan Grimes
South Yarra, Vic

SASSOFERATTO

I was delighted to read of the latest acquisition by the National Gallery of Victoria, Sassoferatto’s Madonna in Prayer (CW 9/6). Visitors to Rome will find another in the Chapel of St Catherine of Siena in the fifth century basilica of Santa Sabina, high on the Aventine Hill.

This painting, of Our Lady and the Divine Child giving the Rosary to St Dominic and St Catherine, is one of the treasures of Rome, and, according to some, Sassoferrato’s finest work.

The Basilica and Priory of Santa Sabina is the residence of the Curia Generalizia of the Order of Preachers. The cell where the founder, St Dominic, stayed (1220-21) may also be visited.

Jane Newsome
Mosman, NSW

PRAY FOR PEACE

If families could light a candle with the TV off and say the rosary for peace at home and abroad the world would become a better place

Before TV was invented many families would gather around the piano. People then were able to communicate easily with one another.

Singing was taken for granted and the social life was full of good expectations. Now today there is silence.

Some students even do their homework by the TV. No wonder there are few vocations.

Let us unite behind our bishops and pray for true peace, pray and support those people who are in authority.

Michael Francis Filippini
Hawthorn, Vic

NO HARRY POTTER

The movie The Rabbit-Proof Fence, which deals with that tragic chapter of Australian history in which Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their mothers, and sent to live on “missions” hundreds of kilometres away from home, is based on a true story about love, courage, tenacity, self sacrifice and the triumph of good over all evil.

I believe it should be studied in our schools and that Harry Potter, with his witchcraft, sorcery, spells and other forbidden activities, be given a big miss!

Frances McEniery
Wagga Wagga, NSW

BREAD AND WINE

An Italian agency is quoted (Is Pope John Paul planning encyclical on the Eucharist? CW 2/6) as saying that the proposed encyclical “will underline the Catholic Church’s Faith that Christ is truly present in the consecrated bread and wine”.

The Catholic position is that after the Consecration at Mass there is no bread and no wine.

The dogma of Transubstantiation states that the complete change of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood is effected by a validly ordained priest during the Consecration at Mass, so that only the accidents or appearances of bread and wine remain.

Consubstantiation is the theory that in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Christ co-exist with the bread and wine after the Consecration at Mass.

J J Gallagher
Armidale, NSW

TEMPTATION

So Italy’s bishops have decided (Bishops vote to change Lord’s Prayer, CW 9/6) to replace “Lead us not into temptation” with “Do not abandon us to temptation”, believing it to be more appropriate.

Even more appropriate, I think, would be “Strengthen us against temptation and deliver us from evil”.

God, I am sure, would not lead us into temptation.

Stan Murray,
Watson, ACT

‘BOOTS AND ALL’?

The letter from Bryan Doyle (Family issues CW 26/5) is peppered with emotive phrases, but not with facts.

We are told that the National Party will “reinforce traditional family and traditional values” and that the Liberal Party “espouses a policy where the family is respected and strengthened”.

Does the Coalition policy towards asylum seekers (demonise them and lock them behind razor wire fences for indefinite periods) look like Australia’s traditional values?

He accuses the Labor Party of “boots and all” support for stem-cell research. As far as we know the leaders of the three major parties are allowing a conscience vote on this issue. Let’s get the facts right.

Anne and Bill Byrne
Enfield NSW