catholicweekly.com.au 17 17, May, 2020 E ditorial & letters Dorin’s World Send your letters to:
[email protected] By the post: The Editor, Level 13, 133 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA Article ascribed views which I do not hold at all I n an article by Monica Doumit on 11 May I am described as holding views that ‘both truth and justice [are] a nuisance’ and that ‘ [Cardinal Pell’s] innocence [is] an inconvenient truth’. I hold neither view, either at the concep- tual level or in Cardinal Pell’s case. The ‘truth’ is that I regard the High Court’s decision as legally correct and unarguably so and that it brings about ‘justice’. That is a statement of an honest- ly held belief. Truth and justice are concepts about which I care deeply and with which I lived for 20 years as a jurist. Sometimes I found them difficult to attain but never a nuisance and never inconvenient. I still think that way. Further, I have always been, and remain, a supporter of the Plenary Council. Neville Owen Perth WA Stories of the ‘domestic church’ can also inspire I ’d like to offer a suggestion. It’s been great seeing articles on what parishes and priests are doing to keep con- nected with their parishioners. But it would be great to know what our ‘domestic churches’ (i.e. people at home) have been doing to keep their faith active and focused. Could you perhaps encourage readers to send in a photo of their ‘sacred space’ that they have gathered around for lives- treamed Mass or their family at prayer. If nothing else it would be good for his- toric purposes to have a record of our ‘domestic church’ through the pandem- ic of 2020. God willing we will soon have our churches open and public Masses again. As wonderful as this will be, let’s hope families don’t lose the concept of how important their ‘domestic church’ has been in this time of crisis. Thanks for your great work and God bless you and your team. Mark Wilson Sydney NSW A hole in the heart - but a light is also present I n this very sad time and living in self-isolation, missing Holy Com- munion leaves a hole in the heart for many Catholics. We are indeed grateful to still be able to listen to God’s Word and pray together led by our parish priests, bishops and the Archbishop courtesy of YouTube and Facebook. It’s a great privilege granted to us by our Father. Ina Kite Terrigal NSW Laws essential to protect mothers from neglect I t is crystal clear that mothers in most developed countries still face insurmountable obstacles in fulfilling their roles effectively. Most of the mothers in such countries face the hardest problems where poverty is high- ly present and during civil wars. Some poor countries have not yet un- locked mothers’ potential such as giving them access to land, eradicating gender imbalances and creating employment. Some mothers carry the burden of rais- ing their children alone when fathers ab- dicated their responsibilities. In such cases there should be strict laws that should enforce fathers paying maintenance who have an income and are employed. Without adequate laws and protection from the government, mothers in poor countries will continue to suffer in silence. Handsome Chikowore London, UK We can still greet the Lord in the Tabernacle T he world-over when we go up to the altar to receive the Eucharist, the priest waits with God in his hands and says: “The body of Christ – the blood of Christ” and we reply “Amen” – so be it. The first time we experience this miracle, whether as a child or adult, we do so with a sense of wonder, even awe, and perhaps a stab of fear. This is the first time we have eaten the true food of the soul and our lives will never be the same again – we have be- come living tabernacles. God has made His home within us – we are family. But this sense of wonder may fade for many over the years. We might even have taken God for granted. But as our churches remain locked and empty in this time of the pandemic, many will be reflecting on our sudden loss of spiritual nourishment. But God is still present in the taberna- cle of every church we pass. Respectfully making the sign of the cross as we walk- by will tell Himwe know He is still at home, patiently waiting for us to return. And joyfully we can say “Amen” to that. Bob Cameron Malabar NSW Quarantine’s three lessons for the church W e are an intensely, inescapably Eucharistic church. One of the most difficult moments that I’ve had as a bishop was participating in the decision to close our churches and to shut down the celebration of Mass with a community. Mind you, it was the right decision. I emphatically disagree with those who argue that the bishops caved in to the pres- sure of the secular state. That’s nonsense. There are some very real tensions between Church and state and some- times we have to make a stand — such as opposing efforts to violate the seal of confession. But this is not one of those cases. Instead, we bishops agreed with the secular author- ities that the churches should be closed, precisely for the well-being of our people. Having said that, the suspension of public Mass has been painful for everyone. Sensing this, innumerable priests and bishops all over the world commenced to live-stream or film the liturgy, broadcasting it over Facebook, YouTube, or on television. The reaction to these representations of the Mass has been overwhelming. To give just one example, at Word on Fire, we started filming daily Mass on St Patrick’s Day, acquiring to the present time well over 5,000,000 views from over 200 countries. Some priests have processed through the quiet streets with the Blessed Sacrament, while Catholics look on from their homes; others have placed the monstrance with the consecrated host in the windows of their residences and rectories so that people can venerate the Sacrament as they walk or drive by. And wasn’t the whole Catholic world fas- cinated by Pope Francis, standing in the rain and facing an empty St Peter’s Square, as he blessed us, via television and social media, with the Eucharist? None of these mitigated encounters with the Eucharis- tic Lord is a substitute for the real thing. The abstention from the Eucharist —which began, fittingly enough, during Lent —has awakened a profound hunger for what Vatican II called “the source and summit of the Christian life.” Per- haps too many Catholics had grown indifferent to the Bless- ed Sacrament. A second ecclesiological insight is this: priests are in an in- tensely symbiotic relationshipwith their people. Everyone knows that priests have been passing through a difficult peri- od, practically without precedent in the history of the Church. The scandals of the past 25 years, culminating in theMcCar- rick outrage, have souredmany against priests and havemade priests extremely vulnerable to the charge of clericalism. Still, I want to insist once again that the vast, vast majority of priests are decent, prayerful men, whowant nothingmore than to bring Christ to their people. And this coronavirus quarantine has powerfully confirmed this for me. During the course of the shutdown, I have personally reached out by phone or by Skype or Zoom to all the priests of my region. Like everybody else, they’re a little antsy and bored, and their routines have been interrupted. But time and again, they tell me that their greatest frustration is not being able to have steady contact with their people. Priests indeed bring Christ to their parishioners through preach- ing, presence, and sacrament, but the people also give life to the priests, sustaining themwith prayer and friendship. Keeping the people away from their priests is just bad for both people and priests, for they are, in the Mystical Body, ordered toward one another. A third and final insight is that the Church is stubborn- ly incarnational. At the heart of the Catholic sensibility is the conviction that God became flesh in Jesus Christ. And Catholicism teaches that the presence of the risen Jesus is made known through words to be sure, but also through physical signs —water, oil, bread, wine, etc. —delivered by human hands and accompanied by bodily gestures. At the liturgy, we are meant to come together in close proximity so that we can pray in unison, sing in unison, process together, embrace one another, gesture in harmony with each oth- er. In all of this, the incarnational quality of the Church be- comes concretely expressed. And this is what has made the last two months so particularly difficult for Catholics. Our faith is not primarily an internal business, something nego- tiated between the individual and the invisible Lord. Rather, it shows up physically and publicly, through bodies. Once again, I would hope that our fasting from togetherness will heighten our appreciation for this incarnational density of our faith. So Catholics, don’t get discouraged. Rather, use this time of deprivation and abstention to awaken a deeper love for the Church in its Eucharistic, symbiotic, and incar- national distinctiveness. This editorial by Bishop Robert Barron first appeared at: www.wordonfire.org LETTERS