John Garratt Bookroom Voices Ejournal

Brilliant

July 23rd, 2007

I have not yet had time to wade through es und bilden Ihre realen Geldwetten. I have is brilliant! Thank you

Patrick

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Have just opened up Voices and I must say I am overwhelmed by its contents. So much food for thought, research, resources and inspiration. Can’t wait to get back to it and read it in depth. Congratulations.

Peggy Spencer

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Nouwen, Rembrandt, and Prodigal Sons

July 23rd, 2007

Hi Staff
Thanks for your latest issue of ‘Voices’. For a wonderful reflection on the prodigal son and Rembrandt’s painting see, Henri Nouwen’s insightful treatment of it in “The Return of the Prodigal Son”
regards

Sophy Morley
Diocesan Pastoral/Liturgy Coordinator
Diocese of Sale

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‘Pell sounds like Sheik Hilali’

June 6th, 2007

Pell sounding like Sheik Hilali - MP
By staff writers and AAP
The Australian June 06, 2007
CARDINAL George Pell should apologise for his warnings to Catholic MPs or risk being compared to controversial Muslim leader Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali, a NSW Government minister says.
The Archbishop of Sydney and leader of the Catholic Church in Australia said yesterday that Catholic MPs should vote against a Bill overturning a ban on therapeutic cloning or face “consequences” from the church.
Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees today called Cardinal Pell a hypocrite, saying a politician would not interfere with the teachings of the church in exchange for funding.
He said the cardinal was out of step and owed Catholic MPs an apology.
“I consider Cardinal Pell’s incursion a clear and arguably contemptuous incursion into deliberations of the elected members of this parliament which he didn’t exercise during the commonwealth debate,” Mr Rees said.
“I think he’s got three options - he can apologise, he can run for parliament or he can invite further comparisons with … Sheik Hilali.”
Sheik Hilali, the Mufti of Australia, is known for sparking controversy, attracting criticism for comments ranging from saying Muslims were more entitled to be in Australia than those with a convict heritage, and comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat.
The therapeutic cloning Bill is being debated in the NSW Legislative Assembly ahead of a conscience vote tonight.
Disabilities Minister Kristina Keneally, a Catholic, said she would not be voting in favour of the Bill but she said her decision had nothing to do with Cardinal Pell’s warning.
“His first attempt to comment on this matter was an authoritarian legalistic edict,” she told parliament.
Earlier today, NSW Labor MP Tony Stewart said he would will risk his shot at the afterlife before he voted against the Bill.
“Maybe I’ll go to hell but if I go to hell I’m going to do so by saving a lot of lives, because that’s what this Bill is about,” the Catholic MP said on Southern Cross radio.
Mr Stewart said Cardinal Pell was entitled to his views but should keep out of politics.
Cardinal Pell would not say yesterday whether Catholic MPs, who include Premier Morris Iemma, would be excommunicated from the church if they voted in favour of the legislation.
Mr Iemma said today he did not believe Catholic MPs had been swayed by the threat and reaffirmed that he and his deputy John Watkins, both practising Catholics, would vote in favour of the Bill.
“He won’t be dissuading me from doing what I believe is the right thing and that is supporting the Bill and voting for it.”
Cardinal Pell’s warning sparked division among federal MPs today, with Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott defending him and Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey objecting to the threat.
The Health Minister, a Catholic, suggested Cardinal Pell had simply urged Catholic MPs to consider church teachings before deciding which way to vote.   ”Cardinal Pell is entitled to say his piece. He is the leader of the Catholic Church here in Australia,” Mr Abbott said.   ”To do Cardinal Pell justice, I think what he was trying to do was to say to people who happen to be Catholics that this is not a trivial issue. What politicians do on this issue is entirely up to them.”   Mr Hockey, also a Catholic, said Cardinal Pell should use his position to educate Catholics, not threaten them.   ”What he’s doing is his position, which is to remind Catholics of what their conscience should be,” Mr Hockey said on Channel 9.   ”I don’t object to him expressing that opinion, but I do object to any suggestion that there are consequences.”   The Bill would bring NSW into line with the Commonwealth, which has already approved therapeutic cloning.

Posted in Future Church, Books and Ideas | 2 Comments »

June 6th, 2007

Fabiola’s Table comments:

Read the following and weep……………………..

Pell plans fidelity oath for principals

Linda Morris Religious Affairs Reporter
June 4, 2007
THE Catholic archdiocese of Sydney wants its 167 school principals, its deputy principals and religious education co-ordinators to publicly commit to a “vow of fidelity” by adhering to church teaching on homosexuality, birth control and women’s ordination.

In a first for the Australian church, the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, is set to extend the oath of fidelity and profession of faith, a requirement of church law for bishops, priests and heads of seminaries, to all senior educational leaders.

The oath demands “religious submission of intellect and will” on questions of faith and morals - even if these are inferred but not defined by the pope and his bishops - and an acceptance that everything solemnly taught by church tradition is divinely inspired.

It suggests they would be bound not only to impart these teachings but to live by them.

The controversial requirement is contained in a draft pastoral plan circulated to all parishes of the Sydney archdiocese for comment. The plan, at least two years in the drafting, gives a series of priorities, goals and strategies for the archdiocese from 2008 to 2011.

Among its other new measures are marriage preparation classes for senior secondary school students, twice-yearly reviews of its educational bodies, and forums so Catholic politicians can be updated on church teachings.

There will also be renewed efforts to teach youth about “sexuality and life issues” through formal courses and seminars, and measures to bring in to the fold young people inspired by next year’s World Youth Day.

Cardinal Pell has taken an intense interest in Catholic education, ordering the rewriting of the religious education curriculum, and aiming to turn around Catholic thinking that faith is caught, not taught.

The oath has symbolic value as a public commitment to the moral teachings and identity of the church and is not an attempt at control, the archdiocese says.

But a recent Vatican push to institute an oath for theologians in the US was greeted as an attack on academic independence and an attempt to impose tighter doctrinal controls over education institutions connected to the church.

One critic of the archdiocese’s plan says it contains “shades of the Opus Dei”, the Spanish-founded conservative Christian movement that achieved notoriety as the villain of the fictional bestseller The Da Vinci Code.Writing for the online magazine Catholica, a Sydney priest, Father Dan Donovan, said the plan needed a serious rewrite and failed to take note of the “infiltration” of Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal Way, a lay movement that heads the turbulent Redfern parish.

In addition, the plan lacked a suitable process for “critiquing structures and providing just outcomes, and was directed to the needs of clergy and not churchgoers”, he said.

“There must be developed a listening hierarchy who are able to connect with the broad masses of the faithful and their issues rather than endorsing the agenda of the various movements.”

The Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous said the oath would act as a reminder to educational leaders of their role in promoting church teachings.

“It’s not about control,” he said. “The oath gives greater clarity to the importance of the role of principals in schools, that their first responsibility is that the Catholic faith is taught and lived authentically within the school.

“Anybody who speaks in a Catholic education institution is meant to be presenting the Catholic faith in its integrity. There can be a place for theologians to make explorations of criticism, but in teaching positions the role is to very much be faithful to the teaching of the church

www.smh.com.au

Melbourne people gird your loins for it won’t be long before our illustrious Episcopal leaders follow their Sydney mentor.
How soon will it be before the demand is placed on theologians for the “religious submission of intellect and will” on questions of faith and morals?

Didn’t JPII say “sorry” for the inquisition – but don’t forget history repeats itself with such frightening regularity.

The prayers and support of Fabiola’s Table are with the many fine men and women - the principals and leaders in Catholic schools who are the target of this unjust campaign.

Posted in Uncategorized, Future Church | 1 Comment »

June 6th, 2007

Letter of Fr John Crothers Sydney Parish Priest this letter has been in wide internet circulation for some weeks.

Dear Acolytes and Readers,

I am writing to explain a development that has occurred regarding your ministries. First a little background.

As you are aware in both the parishes of Peakhurst and Penshurst many of our readers and acolytes are women. It may not be so well known that according to the Church’s rules women are not allowed to be formally instituted into either of these ministries. The relevant Church decree states that “in accordance with the venerable tradition of the Church, institution in the ministries of reader and acolyte is reserved to men.”

In recent years the Church has tried to deal with this tricky situation in a number of ways. Bishops have refused to institute any readers at all, rather than instituting only the male readers. The formal institution of male acolytes has been quietly dropped. Parishes have introduced informal welcoming ceremonies for the ministries of reader and acolyte to allow for the inclusion of women. Women have been allowed to exercise the ministry of reader on a temporary basis, but not permanently. Some parishes have changed the name of the ministry when it is exercised by women eg “senior server” instead of “acolyte.”

The situation has now changed. In a recent notice from the Archdiocesan Liturgy Office we have been informed that the formal institution of acolytes is to be brought back. (There has been no mention at this stage of the institution of readers.) Parish Priests have been asked to send in a list of those they recommend to be instituted as acolytes. The list of course must include only men.

One might ask why in 2007 the Catholic Church still excludes women from lay ministry. (Remember we are not speaking here about the ordained ministries of deacon, priest and bishop.) Part of the answer lies in the fact that prior to Vatican II the ministries of reader and acolyte were seen as stages to priesthood and were known as “minor orders”. This was in fact a misnomer and Pope Paul VI clarified the situation when he said that the ministries of reader and acolyte “are no longer to be reserved to candidates for the sacrament of orders and may be committed to lay Christians.”

There is no theological argument to suggest that women should be excluded from the ministries of reader or acolyte, or indeed from any lay ministry in the Church. To defend such a position theologically one would have to assert either that the baptism of a women is somehow inferior to that of a man (and so women are not full members of the laity), or that the ministries of reader and acolyte are not lay ministries, but constitute the sacrament of Holy Orders (and so acolytes and readers are really clerics.) Each of these propositions contradicts basic sacramental theology.

This is precisely why the Church’s statement excluding women from these ministries relies solely on the argument from tradition, which by itself can be a shaky basis for argument. I remember the late Bishop John Heaps saying once at a conference I attended - “Just because the Church has been doing something in the past, it is not necessarily a good reason to continue doing it in the future.” If we held blindly to every Church tradition we would still be saying mass in Latin and forbidding Catholics to attend weddings of their Anglican friends in an Anglican church.

At the local level Cardinal Pell’s decision to bring back the formal institution of acolytes has brought out into the open the whole question of women’s exclusion from lay ministry in the Church. Ironically it may be good that the question will now be debated more publicly. The bishops will have great difficulty defending their position. Women are not associate members of the laity - they are full members in every sense.

Here in our parishes of Peakhurst and Penshurst we pride ourselves on our fairness and inclusiveness. That will continue. We will not have two classes of laity in our parishes and no one will be excluded from any lay ministry on gender grounds. Our women acolytes will be invited to continue exercising their ministry. Our women readers will also be welcome to continue reading even if the formal institution of readers is brought in.

Consequently any current acolyte, male or female, who wishes to apply for formal institution please let me know and your name will be forwarded to the Liturgy Office with my recommendation. I would also be happy to speak with those who feel they might like to become an acolyte.

In life there are times when you simply have to stand up for what you know is right. This is one of those times. I am confident that the vast majority of Sydney Catholics believe that women should not be excluded from lay ministry in the Church. Let’s hope that we can bring about a change to this out-dated rule and help ensure that women in the Catholic Church get the recognition and respect they deserve.

Fr John Crothers
Parish Priest — Peakhurst and Penshurst

Posted in Uncategorized, Future Church | 2 Comments »

Welcome to Voices Forum

February 18th, 2007

Voices is a online journal designed to create conversation about how people make sense of living in the Christian faith. Edited by Terry Monagle, we hope to carry the voices of all people living in faith. Voices is a bi-monthly publication and is free to read online or download.

This forum is made avalaible for you to add your voice and share in the conversation.

Posted in Uncategorized, Teacher Chat | 4 Comments »

John Garratt Bookroom Voices Ejournal

Brilliant

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Nouwen, Rembrandt, and Prodigal Sons

‘Pell sounds like Sheik Hilali’

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