Sydney
29 June 2003
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‘Unethical’
to kill an embryo
Roll on, Cologne
And
they’re racing ... to help Vinnies
‘Renewal
of my faith’
Seminar ‘rekindles Bible
fire’
Year 9 - May the force be with
you
‘Appoint acting judges’ to solve
visa backlog
Charity race day
Society needs to ‘share pain of others’
Bombs found at Mass site
Movement
seeks inquiry on Iraqi conflict
Cambridge
choir in Sydney visit
China visitors
The Catholic Weekly- Spiritual tension
Letters
Moral
values ‘a major role’ for the Church
Challenge
to your neighbourhood?
Jesus Christ,
the ultimate healer
Parents’ acts
inspired Sr Huyen
Religion, art ‘a
very powerful mix’
Classic
rite controversial, but ‘a jewel’
Real
feelings of life and faith
Bishop Peter
Ingham’s message
Clergy-principals’
conference day
Students share justice
issues
New team looks at needs
New director of vocations
Vocation
Awareness Diocesan Poster Competition
Diocesan
catechists train
Gothic paradise -
the legacy of Pugin
Letters:Language of Rome
It was ironic that on Pentecost Sunday your headlines had to do with the revival of the Latin Mass in Rome. Wasn’t Pentecost all about the message of going out to all races and in all languages?
And to follow up with another front page story on the Latin Mass and an editorial? I am truly amazed.
The bishops at Vatican II put things in perspective. There is nothing ‘holy’ about Latin. It was the language of the people of Rome.
When the Church found, in its wisdom, that hardly anyone spoke Greek any more, it changed the language of public worship to something the person in the street could understand; and that was Latin.
Jesus would not have known or understood Latin, which was the language of the Roman oppressors.
Language is a most important part of our lives. It is how we have meaning, it is how we relate, and it is how we express feeling and belief.
Jesus says in Matthew 28:19: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations.”
That’s difficult to do in Latin.
As an altar-boy of the 1960s I thanked the good Pope John XXIII for allowing me to pray and worship with meaning and to better understand my God.
Kevin Bell
Rosebank, NSW
Uplifted
To imply that the Mass in English or, rather, the language of the people is too informal is ridiculous.
I have been fortunate to celebrate Mass in many languages and sometimes in multi languages. Many of these Masses uplifted me and drew me into the mystery of God.
I am reminded of the person visiting Italy who was impressed by the wonderful name, Bella Vista, given to a house with a beautiful view. He told the owner how unimaginative people were in his own country; they would have called the place something silly or mundane like ‘beautiful view’.
“The Italians, however, had such wonderful, poetic names,” he said. “By the way what is the meaning of ‘Bella Vista’?”
“Oh,” said his host, “beautiful view.”
Is it language that makes things more mundane or mysterious, or just the attitude of the person??
Fr Robert M Fuller
Punchbowl, NSW
Not mere fondness
John Thavis says (2000 attend Tridentine Mass in Rome, CW 8/6) that one reason for the Mass at the Rome basilica was to “reach out to Catholics who are still fond of the old rite”.
Catholics who regularly attend the Tridentine Mass do so for far more serious reasons than mere fondness. It would be impossible in the limited space here to explain the reasons many Catholics prefer the Tridentine Mass.
His statement that the old rite “was officially replaced by the new Roman Missal in 1969” suggests the Tridentine Mass was proscribed, i.e. forbidden.
This is not so. In 1986 a commission of nine cardinals declared that Pope Paul VI had never legally suppressed it.
It is rumoured that all priests will be able to celebrate the Tridentine Mass according to the 1962 Missal, once they have obtained permission from Rome.
The question must be asked: Why does anyone need permission to do something that has always been licit?
Philip Robinson
Holt, ACT
Parish pride
In response to Mrs KM Box (Parish of St Mel’s, Letters CW 15/6), I believe even more strongly that The Parish of St Mel’s should be published separately, or at least acknowledged in the title as a separate work.
In Around the Boree Log and other verses the importance of the later work is lost.
Since writing I have had the pleasure of personal contact with Fr Francis Bell, parish priest of St Mel’s, Narrandera, who told me of reasons for acknowledging a separate St Mel’s based on parish recognition.
I agree with his principles, and add my desire based on literary reasons.
The wonderful collection St Mel’s is recognisably written at a different stage of Mons Hartigan’s life.
Marie Therese Levey
Ashfield, NSW
‘Unused
church’? No!
Our Lady of Good Counsel Church at La Perouse was not an “unused church” when the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry of the Sydney Archdiocese moved there in 1998 (Rainbow Serpent in stations at La Perouse church, CW 1/6).
The Yarra Bay Eucharistic Prayer Community had occupied the church since January 1980 with the blessing of the Sydney Archdiocese, Bishop John Heaps and the parish of Malabar.
We left there in September 1999 when we were told to do so after willingly sharing it with the Aboriginal Ministry for a year.
Until the day we left, we had celebrated two Masses on Tuesdays, Mass in Italian on Wednesdays, etc.
Thousands of people and hundreds of priests and bishops locally and from overseas worshipped and celebrated in the church.
We built additions to the church in the back, hall, kitchen, office, toilets and sacristy with the permission of the parish and with the money offered by benefactors and the physical work of the congregation.
We were offered the use of St Mary’s Church, Erskineville, which we gratefully accepted and have used it ever since for Healing Masses at 10.30am and 7.30pm on Tuesdays.
This letter is meant to clarify the facts, not to complain or have any claim from the past. We wish the Catholic Aboriginal Ministry success and God’s infinite blessings on its work
Marika
Gubacsi,
President, Yarra Bay Eucharistic Prayer Community Inc,
Waverley,
NSW