The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
11 January 2004
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HSC
pupils in top class
Trinity
students credit teachers
What
will they do now?
Catholic
all-rounder students in HSC 2003
Catholic
teachers’ pay rise welcomed
Vows
revisited 68 years on
Heroes
of the Vatican
Grow
grows too well
Staff,
residents believed in me
Sharing
our vulnerability
Pregnant
Pause
World
Youth Day
Graham
Andrews learns by teaching
Timor ‘sister’ parish
plan for St Canice’s
Symbols
of belief
A
conversation with ... Piers Paul Read, biographer of Sir Alec Guinness
Out
of Africa – with hope
Visit
to husband landed Anna in jail
Where
do teens see God?
Sparked
by ‘tongue of fire’
Parish honours ‘linchpin’ of
Vinnies conference
Maria finds family link in UK college
The day Br Nicholas dropped the pin
Symbols of belief
Religion is replete with symbols. They not only convey complex theological notions through simple images; they can also identify the wearer or bearer as an adherent of a particular faith.
In Christianity one of the earliest symbols was the image of a fish, the outline of which helped believers identify one another during a time of religious repression.
The cross and crucifix are perhaps the best known Christian symbols we have today. They make a profound statement about the incarnation and our divine redemption through the sacrifice of Calvary.
It is of concern then that in an increasingly secular world there are attempts in some countries to ban overt religious symbols, including the display of crucifixes in places like state schools. In France these plans would also ban the wearing of Jewish skullcaps and Islamic headscarves.
As far back as 1962 the United States Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a voluntary, verbal prayer offered in American public schools. In 1983 another court banned all artwork depicting religious themes in schools.
Closer to home, there have been several attempts to drop the use of Christian prayers in parliaments.
And at Christmas last year Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby said the “conscious effort by public figures to avoid mentioning the word ‘Christmas’” was a “sad reflection of an increasingly secular society”.
A declaration of faith, whether it be praying in public, wearing a symbol like a crucifix or even displaying a Christian bumper sticker, should give offence to no one.
In fact, last year the Pope encouraged young people in particular not to be afraid or ashamed of saying the rosary in public “while going to school, to university or to work, along the street and on public transportation”.
Too often we are coy about declaring that we are Catholics. We should be proud to proclaim our faith.
In a tolerant society which respects the rights and beliefs of others, including their display of religious symbols and public prayer, such expressions of belief should be enshrined rather than denied in a nation’s law.
Divine Providence
Prof William Maley is concerned (Would Mary need a visa? CW 21/12) that “if
Christ was born into the world today, Mary and Joseph would have been
stopped on the Egyptian border because they didn’t have the appropriate
travel documents”.
The good professor should make due allowance for Divine Providence. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and told him to take the child and his mother to Egypt, he would have handed Joseph the appropriate travel documents; to do otherwise would be unthinkable.
Arthur Negus
Tuggerawong, NSW
Stem cell vote
I read with interest your article pro-
filing Federal Labor MP and Shadow Minister Daryl Melham (School values
live on, CW 21/12).
The title pretty much sets the theme, the idea that Daryl Pelham’s life as a politician and the values he holds are an expression of the values he learned at school from the Josephite sisters and De La Salle brothers.
It is all well and good – up to a point – with the influence of religious values in forming his ideas on social justice, anti-discrimination, etc.
The problem I have is reconciling all this with Daryl Melham’s conscience vote in favour of allowing embryonic stem-cell research.
This blinkered view of human rights is a problem with many Catholic politicians, media commentators and, unfortunately, ordinary Catholics, whose views are formed by them.
Pope John Paul II, being aware of this, issued in November 2002, at about the same time the Research Involving Embryos Bill was being debated here, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a ‘Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in political life’. This document specifically states, inter alia, that ‘those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life’. It goes on to say that ‘it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them’ and ‘it is necessary to recall the duty to respect and protect the rights of the human embryo’.
It is a pity that Daryl Melham, and many other ‘Catholic’ MPs did not heed these principles and vote down the Research Involving Embryos Bill.
Peter Dolan
Lambton, NSW
Drug use
In his attack on the medically supervised injecting centre at Kings Cross
(Drug problems, Letters CW 7/12) Collis Parrett argues for a return
to the past and limiting strategies to prevention of drug use.
In regards to the injecting centre, an independent evaluation report has pointed to its overwhelming success and families are particularly pleased that there have been no deaths in the facility.
Dependence on anything is difficult to overcome, and when it is hard drugs it can be a long haul with many lapses. While some eventually do beat drugs many have to settle for less – reduction or control of their problems.
It is imperative that Australia’s drug policy embraces all elements (including prevention) and doesn’t get caught in the allure of simplistic approaches.
Fighting a war that makes enemies of our youth and imprisons and isolates families is not the way forward.
Tony Trimingham
Family Drug Support
Willoughby NSW
Good Sams
Thank you for the article on the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the
Order of St Benedict in Japan (Good Sams of Kyushu, CW 14/12).
I should like to correct a couple of points:
Bishop Thomas McCabe of Port Augusta (now the diocese of Port Pirie) was the main person instrumental in persuading the then superior general, M Oliverio Murphy, with her council, to send some sisters to Japan.
He, like Cardinal Gilroy, had studied for the priesthood in Rome, together with other students, including the future bishop of Nagasaki, Paul Yamaguchi.
Moreover, Bishop McCabe had four sisters in the Good Samaritan congregation.
Cardinal Gilroy’s part in helping their mutual friend was mainly to lend some priests for an agreed time, to make up for the sad loss of Japanese priests and students killed in the war.
Some years would necessarily elapse before the young Japanese students for the priesthood could be ordained.
The first eight Good Samaritan sisters in Japan lived in and studied Japanese in Nagaski, not Nara, for about three years.
Besides language study, they engaged in charitable work, tending victims injured by the A-bomb, and helping other impoverished victims, with food and clothing, etc.
May I here mention the invaluable aid of the Good Samaritan sisters in Australia, who with their relatives, friends and pupils, gave practical and other aid to the sisters in Japan, especially in the early years. The members of the St Vincent de Paul Society were also well to the fore as helpers.
Sr M Xavier Compton SGS
Glebe, NSW
After death
Re the question regarding the securing of perpetual prayers after death
for a soul, Fr John Dietzen, (Prayers after death, Question time CW
14/12), I have many relatives for whom I have secured membership in
the Book of Perpetual Remembrance for the souls of many friends and
loved ones.
It is a great consolation to know when I have passed to our dear Jesus, that prayers are being still offered for loved ones, who may or may not be in the prison of Purgatory.
We know the Church always prays through the Mass for the Dead as Fr Dietzen explained so fully. Not quite the same as personal remembrance, however.
A small donation and request sent to Sr Bernadette, c/- Carmelite Monastery, 19 Morshead St, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, will ensure prayers for the soul of the dead in the Book of Perpetual Remembrance on the birthday and anniversary of the loved one.
It will bring peace and comfort to your relatives and blessings for the departed soul.
The Carmelite Monastery actually advertises this loving service quite often, or used to, in The Catholic Weekly.
Gwen Byers
Newport, NSW