St Mary's

Terry Fitzpatrick © Copyright belongs to author. This cannot be reproduced/published without author permission.

Fourth Sunday in Lent 14/03/2010

Lk:15:1-3,11-32

The story of the Prodigal Son reminds me of the story of the father who lives in Brisbane and who calls his son in Perth a few days before Easter and says “I hate to ruin your day but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough”
“Dad what are you talking about?” the son screams.
“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer” the father says.  “We are sick of each other and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Melbourne and tell her.” Franticly, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. “Like hell they’re getting divorced” she shouts, “I’ll take care of this!”

The suppression of truth at the heart of the abuse scandal will bewilder the Catholic faithful. And it could spell wider tragedy

Madeleine Bunting The Guardian, Friday 19 March 2010
There is only one conceivable reaction to the fast-spreading crisis in the Catholic church: horror. Only the most virulent anti-papist could ever have quite envisaged the scale of child abuse and the doggedness of the church’s desire to stifle scandal. The rest of us are astonished and appalled. Quite rightly, Angela Merkel saw fit to intervene. After decades – perhaps we should rather be referring to centuries – of obfuscation, the Catholic church has to be called to account for what has happened.

A Response to Christopher Hitchens’ ‘The Great Catholic Coverup’

(with references) SEAN MURPHY
Christopher Hitchens venomous attack on Pope Benedict XVI is a revelation that deserves wider attention.

Not only in Australia, but around the world, the Catholic Church is rocked by news of sex abuse scandals. The vow of celibacy is often blamed, but it is more than that. The Church encourages a kind of adolescence in its priests, a co-dependency, and a terrible and immature loneliness.

Catholic abuse cover-up starts at top
•    Christopher Hitchens The Australian March 18, 2010 12:00AM
ON March 10, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, the Reverend Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, and that “when one speaks of `the smoke of Satan’ in the holy rooms, it is all true, including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia”. This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation.

Edward Schillebeeckx obituary
The Age March 6th 2010

His influential but low-key theological dissent inflamed the Vatican

For the past three decades, the leadership of the Catholic church has displayed a particular intolerance of theological dissent. Some of the otherwise loyal priest-teachers who have been targeted by the Vatican have reacted to their very public rebukes by courting the press and liberal Catholic opinion. Hans Küng and Leonardo Boff, for instance, have become prominent examples.

SMX LIBRARY

From Sunday 20th March to Sunday March15th the library will be operating in a reduced way.
Books can be borrowed at 9am mass only by emailing bob_aldred@netspace.net.au
These are the books that will be available…

Terry Fitzpatrick 21st- Feb 2010 © Copyright belongs to author. This cannot be reproduced/published without author permission.

Luke 4:1-13

At the very core of what it means to be a Christian, a spiritual person, or
whatever term you would like to describe yourself, is a connection to an essence, an
awareness, a sense of other, something more – God.  Call it what you may.

Homily – St. Mary’s in Exile Sunday 7^th March 2010

Dr. Val Webb © Copyright belongs to author. This cannot be reproduced/published without author permission.

Last month, when John sent me today’s Gospel reading, the timing was perfect.  The fig trees in our orchard were bulging with ripe, purple figs and we were eating fresh figs, stewed figs, figs with cheese, fig salad and fig jam.  However, one of our trees has stubbornly refused to bear fruit for even longer than the three years recorded in this parable from Jesus, and so the reading grabbed my attention in a practical way.