As a little girl climbed onto Santa’s lap, Santa asked the usual, “And what would you like for Christmas?”
The child stared at him open-mouthed and horrified for a minute, the gasped: “Didn’t you get my e-mail?”
It is getting harder and harder to be Santa.
December 2010
by Eric Hodgens, Melbourne
Cathnews* put a reference to my Golden Anniversary article on its daily website edition. By 11.30 a.m. it had been removed. Apparently very high authorities in the church were angered by it and insisted that the editor remove it. The headline is still there, but a click on “more” results in an article on the Bible. It is disappointing. Couldn’t a bishop see that this is not just one man’s opinion? The extraordinary support I have received reassures me that I am not projecting my own view onto others of my generation. And support from involved laity has been as strong. If a big group of priests who have worked for 50 years is so alienated you would expect an alert bishop to spot the problem and try to offer some redress – even a touch of empathy. But what do they do? Prove my point by their response. Censorship does not work very well in the world of internet. The article can still be seen on www.theswag.org.au
We are the Gaudium et Spes priests. We went into the seminary at the highest rate in living memory. We were ordained between 1955 and 1975 – in double the numbers our parishes required. Most of us were from the Silent Generation with a few years of Baby Boomers at the end. We took Vatican II to heart.
We changed from being priests called and consecrated by God to being presbyters called and ordained by the Church – the People of God.
In a recent homily I spoke about my understanding of our faith community – as a community “on the edge” whose focus was for those who “ on the edge”
The homily for this weekend I wrote before last Sunday. That homily was on our website and the central point of that homily is still central to this new homily. In light of last Sunday’s AGM meeting I thought it might be an opportunity to state clearly what my understanding of this community is.
John the Baptist like to paint a colourful picture, didn’t he? Broods of vipers; eternal fire; cutting down the bad trees; keeping the good wheat and burning the inedible left over bits– which is incidentally a good fertiliser so I didn’t quite get that metaphor, John. Nonetheless, John was making his point that the ‘reign of heaven’ is here and now and you had better get on board.
Her name was Carolina and she was the best grandmother in the world.
She had the ability to dislike no one and to find beauty in the simple things in life. She was active and the healthiest 90 year old woman you ever met. She loved to take her dog for walks and to eat candies and chocolates. She was still able to remember each of her 20 grandsons, our birthdays, our worries, our occupations and our favorite desserts.