News

The Church Around the World

Contents - Apr 2012 - Buy a copy now Homily: Holy Thursday: 'With the Eucharist the Church is born' - Pope Benedict XVI Episcopacy: Perth's new Archbishop Timothy Costelloe ready for the challenges of leadership - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Events: Patrick Madrid in Australia Culture: US Churches unite against Obama over religious liberty - Babette Francis Vocations: Australia's seminary numbers continue their growth - Br Barry Coldrey eVangelisation: The Catholic Church and the digital media revolution - cradio.org.au - Jason Rushton Pro-Life: Albury hosts well-attended Family Life International conference - Wanda Skowronska Culture: Christianity's essential role in civilising our society - Bishop Julian Porteous Archbishop Gomez: 'creative conservative' - Giacomo Galeazzi The mystery of human suffering: a Christian understanding - Julian McGauren Missions: Where the Church's growth is fastest - Bishop John Thomas Kattrukudiyil Art: Icons: linking the spiritual and material - Aidan Hart Events: Holy Week 2012 - Extraordinary Form of the Roman Liturgy (1962 Missal) Books: LIGHT OF THE WORLD: The Pope, the Church and Signs of the Times - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput (reviewer) Books: FRANK DUFF: A Life Story, by Finola Kennedy - Donal Anthony Foley (reviewer) Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Christ's Resurrection: the central truth of our faith - Fr Dennis Byrnes

US religious leaders' opposition to Obama

Evangelical and Jewish leaders declared their solidarity with Catholics on 10 February as the Obama administration sought to quell controversy over its policy on contraception and religious ministries.

"Stories involving a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew typically end with a punch line," wrote Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, DC, Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, and Manhattan-based Orthodox Rabbi Meir Soloveichik in a Wall Street Journal editorial.

"We wish that were the case here, but what brings us together is no laughing matter: the threat now posed by government policy to that basic human freedom, religious liberty."

The Jewish and Evangelical leaders joined Washington's archbishop in opposing the administration's attempt to require religious ministries, including schools, hospitals, charities, and media outlets, to subsidise contraception, sterilisation, and abortion-causing drugs in their health plans.

After three weeks of uproar, led by over 170 Catholic bishops, the administration announced a new policy on 10 February.

In place of the policy forcing many religious ministries to purchase plans covering contraception and sterilisation, the new rule shifts the burden to these institutions' insurance providers, requiring them to offer the "preventive services" without a co-pay.

But critics said the administration was only shifting the subsidy, by forcing religious employers to contract with insurance providers offering the controversial services.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue responded to the revised rule by predicting the President would soon see Catholics "team with Protestants, Jews, Mormons and others to recapture their First Amendment rights."

Two days earlier, Charles Colson co-authored a Christianity Today editorial with Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George, stressing Evangelicals' duty to unite with Catholics against the contraception mandate.

Catholic News Agency

Argentinian bishop cites value of Catechism

Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata, Argentina, said the Church makes the Catechism available so that Catholics can know the truths of the faith, which spring "from intelligence and the will" and not from "irrational emotion."

During his program Keys to a Better World on 4 February, the archbishop recalled that this year marks two decades since the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church at the request of Blessed John Paul II, "and this commemoration is an appropriate opportunity to recall the usefulness of this text."

"This is very important because the faith is not a mere sentiment or religious emotion, but is rather the personal adherence of the intellect and the will to God and to what God has revealed to us in Christ, which is that which the Church transmits to us for belief," he said.

Through the Catechism, the Church is addressing a problem in modern culture, which is the question of truth, "and here we are offered the foundation of the truth revealed by God, who illuminates the meaning of man's life."

EWTN News

No more prayers at UK council meetings

A landmark legal ruling in February banning the tradition of saying prayers at council meetings was denounced as an "assault on Britain's Christian heritage".

The High Court controversially backed an anti-religious campaign to abolish official acts of worship.

Christians and politicians reacted with dismay at the overturning of centuries of custom with the ban on the Bideford council in Devon from putting prayers on its formal agenda.

It prompted concern that this would pave the way for Parliament to abandon prayers before Commons and Lords business, mark the end of hospital and Forces chaplains, and could even lead to the abolition of the Coronation Oath, pledged by Kings and Queens taking the throne.

The ruling means prayers will not be allowed at the start of council meetings across England and Wales and comes as two Christian B&B owners who refused to let a gay couple share a room lost an appeal against a ruling that they must pay thousands in compensation to the men.

The Court of Appeal told Peter and Hazelmary Bull that they were entitled to express their beliefs, but not if they were incompatible with the rights of gay people.

Atheist former councillor Clive Bone started the case against Bideford town council in July 2010, claiming he had been "disadvantaged and embarrassed" when religious prayers were recited at formal meetings.

Simon Calvert, of the Christian Institute, said: "Prayers have been a part of council meetings for centuries, and many people, either for religious reasons or cultural reasons, see them as a positive part of our national life.

"It's a shame the courts have taken sides with those whose goal is to undermine our Christian heritage. It is high time Parliament put a stop to this assault upon our national heritage."

Daily Mail (London)

Catholic Church restoration in Ukraine

A Catholic church in the Ukraine that Soviet authorities once seized for use as a "monument of communism" will once again be a place for Christian worship after renovations removed a neo-classical façade erected to disguise its nature.

"The church does not look like a place of worship. It wears a mask, as it were. It is in disguise. We want to take away this mask," Fr Grzegorz Romanowicz, the Franciscan Capuchin provincial in the Ukraine, told the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

"Until now, many people do not even recognise the building as a church from the outside."

St Joseph's Church in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, is now in Catholic hands after a 20-year-long ownership dispute. Franciscan Capuchins now have pastoral care of the church, and the last stages of restoration are underway.

Since 1949 the church was used as a library, a boxing hall and offices. Soviet authorities erected the façade in 1949 to hide the building's origin as a church. That façade was set to be removed later in February.

Aid to the Church in Need has given grants of about $185,000 to the church restoration project. The Church is necessary for pastoral work in the area.

Catholic News Agency

Shahbaz Bhatti's murder anniversary

A year after Shahbaz Bhatti's assassination, initiatives are multiplying in Pakistan in his memory and to keep the battle alive. Bhatti, 42, a Catholic and Minister for Religious Minorities of the Islamabad government, was shot 30 times on 2 March 2011.

His main "crime" was his opposition to the anti-blasphemy law, for which another Pakistani Christian, Asia Bibi - whose defence Bhatti undertook publicly - was, and still is, sentenced to death.

The Asian director of Amnesty International, Sam Zafiri, has accused the Pakistani government of remaining inert in face of the escalation of violence and Muslim fanaticism, of which both Christians and Muslims are victims.

In 2009, recalled Zafiri, the Islamabad executive committed itself to the review of "dangerous laws for religious harmony": a promise that remained a dead letter.

NGOs such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide and the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance have called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry on the Bhatti crime, so that the investigations "will come to a satisfactory conclusion," in addition to clarifying "that the Rule of Law still means something in Pakistan."

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Paul Bhatti, brother of the murdered Minister and special adviser to the Pakistani Prime Minister, said that he was hopeful, despite the genuine siege to which Christians are subjected in their country.

"Who would have imagined it: there is a desire in young people to follow my brother's example, they are inspired by his image," said Paul Bhatti.

In the meantime, the Pakistani Episcopal Conference is awaiting a response from the Holy See about the request to begin the procedure to declare Shahbaz Bhatti a martyr of the Christian faith.

"His figure is particularly significant for young people, who are determined to give genuine witness of faith in Christ, following Bhatti's example," Bishop Andrew Francis of Multan, president of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue of the Episcopal Conference, told Fides.

Bishop Francis referred to Bhatti as a martyr, whose death "will not be in vain," since his memory will give fruit in evangelisation.

Zenit News Agency

Vatican and China: stronger stance needed

Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, former Archbishop of Hong Kong, says the Vatican's recent policy in dealing with China has failed and that the Church must now take a tougher stance.

"On certain points we cannot compromise [such as] on the nature of the Church which is established by Jesus Christ," he said during an interview in Rome on 10 February.

"So, after a well-intentioned attempt to go the other way, we now see the failure of going that way. I think it is time we come back to the direction given by the Holy Father."

Pope Benedict XVI set out his policy on China in 2007 in an open letter to Chinese Catholics. He criticised the limits placed by the Chinese government on the Church's activities, including the right to appoint bishops.

"It cannot be denied that grave limitations remain that touch the heart of the faith and that, to a certain degree, suffocate pastoral activity," wrote the Pope.

Despite the strongly worded tone of the letter, Cardinal Zen says that the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples has instead pursued a policy of "compromise" with the Chinese government.

"After much, I would say excessive, acquiescence by the Holy See, the Chinese government has shown no willingness to respect the essential nature of the Catholic Church, as it is peacefully accepted all over the civilised world," said Cardinal Zen.

He pointed to five episcopal ordinations without the approval of the Vatican since November 2010. "The Chinese government has thus shown that it has no intention of changing its religious policies," the cardinal said.

"I think it is time we really faced the main question of what is the Catholic Church? If they'd like to have an independent, national Church let them have one, but let it not be called Catholic."

Catholic News Agency

India: youth ministry under review

Catechists in India say that the richness and value of the liturgy has to be presented to youth with creativity and imagination, but in line with Church teaching.

This was a conclusion from the Annual General Body Meeting of the Indian Catechetical Association (ICA) held from 8-10 February in Bangalore. The theme under discussion was "New Paradigms for Youth Catechesis."

Many young people complained about dull liturgical practices and preaching, the ICA's concluding statement observed. Therefore, youth catechesis needs to help young people participate more fully in liturgical celebrations.

"The richness and uniqueness of the value of the liturgical celebrations are to be presented creatively and imaginatively, in line with the official teachings of the Church, to the vibrant minds of youth."

The participants at the meeting praised the publication of the youth version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Youcat: "It presents the content of our faith in the language of the young. It is a book that stimulates, excites and inspires the young."

Zenit News Agency

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 25 No 3 (April 2012), p. 4