Letters: Mixed values?

Sydney
18 May 2003

Blue Wiggle’s wedding ‘a family affair’

Hostility of sexes ‘major threat’

Bishops ‘sent clear message’ on war

‘Standing room only’ at special Mass

Seven generations ...

New movements ‘fruits of Vatican II’

Archbishop questions move to change age of consent

Christian Brothers join call to let Timorese stay

Rosary procession honours Mary Help of Christians

Apology ‘bridge of peace’ for sex slaves

Catholic school popularity ‘a two-edged sword’

Editorial: A tidal change?

Letters: Mixed values?

Conversation: Dr Vivienne Keely CHF, historian and author - ‘Pamphlet’ on convict priest grew into book

Poverty and the ‘two-nation’ notion

School’s visual reminder of love

Inspirations: Faith, teaching boys and Saving Francesca

Galileo, the Church and the centre of the universe

Salesian needs in India, Timor

Facelift for Ashfield’s grand old lady

Letters: Mixed values?

Strange timing? The State Labor Government introduces legislation to reduce the age of consent for males while at the same time it joins the hue and cry against the Governor General for acts of omission in relation to paedophilia.

Surely, anyone with half a brain can see that the above mentioned legislation will increase paedophilia. One can hear the excuse now: “Well, he looked like he was 16.”

Even if they attempt to exclude this excuse by legislation it is still something that could sway a jury or which courts will take into account in fixing penalties!

Why don’t we raise the moral standards of the state and introduce legislation to raise the age of consent for females?

Why do we always have to go down? Have we forgotten the lesson of Easter already?

The temptation put to Jesus on the cross was: “Come down and we will believe.”

But he did not go down.

He who raised human morality to its apex resisted this temptation and gave us an example to follow.

David S Bannerman
Rouse Hill, NSW

CELEBRANTS, PLEASE

I was unpleasantly surprised at Sunday Mass recently to hear a commentator refer to the priest about to say Mass as the “presider”, a term more applicable to a shareholders’ meeting or a football club.

Perhaps this is some new “Church speak” which has crept into the liturgy?

I note that the archbishop and his auxiliary bishops are referred to as celebrants of Mass not presiders.

G M Prendergast
North Ryde, NSW

SAINTLINESS

Fr John Crothers (Irritated, Letters CW 27/4) stirred up a bee in my bonnet when he offered the wholesome and challenging view that on the sacramental ladder, matrimony is not on a lower rung than holy orders. While I honour and revere the priesthood and religious life, I applaud his views.

In the same issue (Heroic virtues of Austrian emperor recognised) seven nominations for canonisation were listed. All are either clergy or religious.

Statistically, the laity grossly outnumbers those in religious life. In the long, long list of either canonised or proposed saints, the opposite is the case.

Should one conclude then that celibacy is a condition of saintliness? The howl of indignant protest would doubtless crush the questioner, but the stubborn figures would suggest so.

The family home is God’s most fruitful seminary. In our society the family is assailed and disempowered.

Is it presumptuous to expect the Church, through the process of canonisation, to enhance the status, dignity and eminence of the family?

Were there, are there, no married modern saints? Not, please, those who at some stage of their marriage chose to become celibate in order to draw “closer” to God, but those who throughout their lives shared their beds, their love, their trials and God’s grace. They are the examples and encouragement these times ache for.

John Kennedy
Concord West, NSW

WILDERNESS

The wilderness for many saints has been a place where solitude has been discovered, a place where there was found deep personal prayer.

Mountains and forests have led men and women to find God in the depth of their hearts. But now the forests are in danger. Trees are being cut down. And it takes a tree about 100 years to grow.

In the agony in the garden where Jesus prayed to the Father, he did not pray in a building, but among trees and bushes, an atmosphere that helps a person to pray.

We need to pray for our heritage so that future generations can experience and enjoy the beauty of an Australian forest. In that environment they will be able to find God in their lives and have the opportunity to be able to escape from the crowded city of the concrete jungle.

Yes, in the forest the Rosary can be said. In the forest we can think of Jesus, worship him and pray to his mother. But look what is happening to our forests.

Michael Tonti-Filippini
Hawthorn, Vic

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER?

I was dismayed to see a picture of a scantily clad woman in a voluptuous pose on the entertainment page (CW 23/3). What have we come to when the winner of the premier Australian Christian newspaper award thinks nothing of regaling us with an image that would not be out of place on the cover of a soft porn magazine?

To add insult to injury, we were also treated to a picture of a model in a low cut bridal gown on page 3 - this to promote a so-called “up close and personal” fashion event for charity. I suppose the moral in this instance is that a good cause “covers” a multitude of sins.

When I was at school, we were taught to practise ‘custody of the eyes’ to avoid the occasion of sin. The Catholic Weekly wins no prizes in my book for its promotion of “in your face” immodesty.

Bogdan Zawadzki
Merrylands, NSW

PART OF A LIFE

My mother is unable to read newspapers anymore; therefore her subscription to The Catholic Weekly will need to cease.

Mum has just turned 90 and as far as I am aware has been subscribing to The Weekly since I was a child.

I am sure it must have given her much reading pleasure over the years. However, all good things must come to an end, and that time is now.

Thank you for being part of her life.

Clare O’Runce
Rooty Hill, NSW

PEOPLE OF THE GOSPELS

Fr Noel Milner, in reviewing Where Lies Lazarus? (The characters of the New Testament, Books CW 6/4) mentions that “modern readers seem to yearn ... for more adequate descriptions” about the people who make up the Gospels.

Many of us are convinced that this yearning is largely fulfilled in the revelations to the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta in the 1940s, translated into English under the title The Poem of the man-God.

This work has the imprimatur of Pope Pius XII. And Pope Paul VI, before he became pope, had all volumes placed in the library of the seminary in Milan.

The English edition is in five volumes and every page is a further light thrown on the Gospels and the people mentioned therein.

Miss D M Clayton
Killara, NSW