Letters

Petition

Contents - Nov 2007 - Buy a copy now Editorial: East Timorese to attend World Youth Day - Michael Gilchrist Democracy: Religious leaders must have freedom to speak - Cardinal George Pell Australia's Missionaries of God's Love congregation continues to grow - Mary Pidcock News: The Church Around The World Liturgical Abuse: Trinitarian language lost in Brisbane Scriptures - Michael Apthorp Ora et labora: How monastic hospitality can strengthen one's faith - Br Barry Coldrey CFC Latin is still the universal language of Liturgy - Bishop Arthur Serratelli World Youth Day: Wagga Wagga priest's 'fly-a-thon' project to aid East Timor Architecture: How a Sydney parish church was restored - John O'Brien Poetry: A poem on the priesthood - Among the Apostles - John O'Neill Letters: Bishop Robinson - Eric Carman Letters: Teachings rejected by Bishop Robinson - Kevin McManus Letters: Modern saints and traditional liturgy - Seamus Mahady Letters: Petition Letters: True Church? - John Frey Letters: Clerical attire - Fr G.H. Duggan Letters: Infallibility - Jerome Gonzalez Prayer: John Paul II and the Rosary - Fr. M. Durham Books: Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating: essential reading in apologetics - Valerie Renkema (reviewer) Books: ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN by Dale O'Leary - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Internet 'Singing Catechism': catechesis for the 21st century - Fr James Tierney Music: Cherished Hymns of the Forefathers - 2DVD and CD set - Peter Donald (reviewer) Books: Books available from AD Books Reflection: Benedict XVI on Sunday Mass: 'not a command, but an inner necessity' - Pope Benedict XVI

At the end of midday Mass on 30 September at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, Randwick, the parish priest gave a short summary of a petition authored by Dr Paul Collins which was titled 'An appeal to the Australian Bishops to ordain priests for our parishes'.

The parish priest then recommended that (if they liked) parishioners should sign the petition.

It was most disappointing that he should have taken this action, given that the petition, among other things, calls on the Australian Bishops to (4) 'Encourage a wide-ranging discussion of the role of women in ministry and in the authority structures of the Church, including the question of women's ordination'.

This is in clear opposition to Pope John Paul II's instruction in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that the question of women priests was no longer open for discussion.

I have just read Michael Gilchrist's review of Bishop Robinson's book, 'Retired Sydney bishop calls for a radical overhaul of the Catholic Faith' (October AD2000).

I agree that the 'congregational model of church' proposed by Bishop Robinson 'has more in common with Calvin that Benedict XVI'.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 20 No 10 (November 2007), p. 14