Reclaiming May in Catholicism

As a young boy I was fully inducted into my privileged state  in the Catholic Church. I was a altar server which meant I had access to the sacred in ways that my revered grandmother would never know.I was taught the ritual language of Latin and dressed in robes that marked me off from others in the Church.

The elite male caste of clericalism is one that can easily trap a young boy with religious interest,imagination and dreams of adventure. Although I had my share of comic book heroes, some of whom were military monsters, I also read of the martyrs and wonder workers of my faith tradition who ranged from the hard working to the eccentric. Few of these stories were of women whether  in comic books or biographies of saints.

I spent a number of years as a young adult within this culture of male clericalism. I learnt much from this  experience. My choices meant that I lived in a  multicultural religious community of men. This nurtured a  new appreciation of cultural diversity that has stayed with me since.It also gave me insights into masculinity that have led me to a new understanding of my sexuality as a gay man.

My passion for social justice led me to an awareness that at the core of my life was a deep injustice both personal and systemic. It was an injustice deeply rooted in  the very culture I had taken on board as my  source of meaning and fulfillment.

Patriarchy is the elephant in the room of Catholicism and much of Christianity.In my younger days I took it for granted that males had rights and privileges.When I was a young altar boy there was one Sunday in the year when girls took centre stage in the Church.

The annual crowning of Our Lady's statue was a high  religious festival in May. It involved  flowers, lyrical songs and young girls dressed in white strewing rose petals on the nave of the Church, There was even a "WHS" factor ignored at the time, when one  special girl in full white wedding gear had to climb a ladder to place a wreath of flowers on the head of the statue. Many observers would see the day as a bit of Goddess worship Catholic style where women had their  15 minutes of religious fame. But after all the processing and drama of the crowning we went back to hearing a male priest tell of the glory of Mary.

In  2012  the NCR has published one of the best pieces of writing I have ever read by Eugene Cullen Kennedy : Silence about the global treatment of women is disquieting. Kennedy concludes this item with this call:

From where I stand, it seems to me that male "protection," paternalism and patriarchal theology are not to be trusted anymore because the actions it spawns in both men and women have limited the full humanity of women everywhere, and on purpose.

Isn't it time for us all to really be converted, to say the real Truth about women from our pulpits, from our preachers, from our patriarchs, until both they and we finally believe it ourselves? Then surely the actions that make it real will follow.

I am all for keeping May as a month of "woman awareness". I believe we should rediscover the mythology and person of Mary of Nazareth in our day. My preferred text for such an approach is Marina Warner's "Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary". It speaks with far more religious and feminine insight the Louis de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary.

I have  my own Marian Shrine in the back garden. "Our Lady of the Milk Crate" is a local devotion inspired by the appearances of Mary at Coogee Beach. Readers may be surprised to know that the Virgin Mary had made an earlier visit to Coogee in 1911 to a young woman, Eileen O'Connor who founded Australia's Brown Nurses.

On a practical and pastoral response perhaps our Churches could begin by recognizing May as Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month.No such mention of this basic issue in the May 13 ceremony of the consecration of the Pontificate of Pope Francis.

My many women friends continue to challenge me into the full maturity of my masculinity. I recall with gratitude the women of global influence I have been privileged to meet or know online and through their writings. I honour the work of Dorothy Day, Jean Houston, Helen Prejean, Pauline Coll, Julia Cameron. Marina Warner,  Mirium Therese Winter, Odetta, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Maureen Watson, Oodgeroo  Noonuccal and so many more.

Worth Reading: "Come Out My People!": God's Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond

Any book that has endorsement from Walter Brueggermann grabs my attention.  "Come Out My People!": God's Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond is a new work from Wes Howard-Brook

A remarkable offering for those who care about the interface of power and faith with all the threats and seductions that go with it . . . . As I read, I felt overwhelmed, both by the mass of data and by the cunning of interpretation. I could not put it down, and expect to continue to be instructed by it. --Walter Brueggemann

Wes Howard-Brook teaches at Seattle University and collaborates in the ministry, Abide in Me, with his wife, Sue Ferguson Johnson  He is author of John’s Gospel and the Renewal of the Church, Becoming Children of God, The Church Before Christianity, and Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now (co-written by Anthony Gwyther).

Brisbane readers may recognize the name of Anthony Gwyther from his involvement with the West End Catholic Worker Community. Gwyther is now living with the  Basisgemeinde Wulfshagenerhütten, a christian community in northern Germany

Listen to this podcast wheree, co-hosts Joanna and Mark interview Wes Howard-Brook.

Their conversation covers, among other things: the “argument” within Scripture between advocates of the “religion of Empire” and the “religion of Creation,” the ethic of love (rather than nonviolence in the New Testament) and the anarchic impulses within Scripture.

Come Out My People Facebook Page
Frank Cordaro review

Spiritual Motherhood will Rock the Church!

The day after Pope Francis called  religious women to become "spiritual mothers" the media is covering the story of Sister Megan Rice, 83, Michael Walli, 64, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 56,  who admitted to cutting fences and entering the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which processes and stores uranium.

The July 2012 incident prompted security changes.

Sister Megan said she regretted only having waited 70 years to take action.

A jury deliberated for two and a half hours before handing down its verdict. The three members of Transform Now Plowshares face up to 20 years in prison following their conviction for sabotaging the plant, which was first constructed during the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear bomb.

Sister Megan Rice has  given witness to the ministry of spiritual mothers in a prophetic and  faith filed action. She stands strong in the Christian tradition of civil disobedience and the martyr's refusal to cooperate with the death machines of war and destruction.

Spiritual motherhood is a witness to the civilisation of life against the civilisation of death.

Spiritual motherhood is a witness to the service of the feminine, disarming the power of patriarchy.

Spiritual motherhood builds community among the vulnerable and the dispossessed.

Spiritual motherhood nurtures elders of vision committed to the Gospel of peace and reconciliation rather than apologists of doctrinal semantics.

Spiritual motherhood is a gift and grace to a Church  broken by the culture of abuse of power and children.

So go well Sister Megan with your companions. In the tradition of St Peter, I say you rock!!

Tawadros meets Francis

Vatican City, 8 May 2013 (VIS) - From 9 to 13 May, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, will come to Rome to meet with His Holiness Pope Francis.

As Reuters notes this will  create the never before moment of three Popes in the walls of the Vatican. The average Catholic and their neighbours are probably still recovering from the shock of discovering that Rome isn't the only Church that calls its leader Pope.

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt has about ten million faithful. This large membership makes the Coptic Church one of the most important elements in the ecclesial landscape of the Middle East where, in recent times, Christian communities are having to deal with very difficult situations.

Pope Tawadros’ predecessor, Pope Shenouda III, met with Pope Paul VI in the Vatican 40 years ago in May of 1973. On that occasion, the Pope and the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch signed an important Christological Declaration in common and initiated bilateral ecumenical dialogue between the two Churches.

The joint communique issued by Paul Vl and the head of the Coptic Church in 1973 said:

"In accordance with our apostolic traditions transmitted to our Churches and preserved therein, and in conformity with the early three ecumenical councils, we confess one faith in the One Triune God, the divinity of the Only Begotten Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word, of God, the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance, who for us was incarnate, assuming for Himself a real body with a rational soul, and who shared with us our humanity, but without sin. We confess that our Lord and God and Savior and King of us all, Jesus Christ, is perfect God with respect to His Divinity, perfect man with respect of His humanity. In Him His divinity is united with His humanity in a real and perfect union without mingling, without confusion, without alteration, without division, without separation. His divinity did not separate from His humanity for an instant, not for the twinkling of an eye. He who is God eternal and invisible, became visible in the flesh, and took upon Himself the form of a servant. In Him are preserved all the properties of the divinity and all the properties of the humanity, together in a real, perfect, indivisible and inseparable union.

We venerate the Virgin Mary, Mother of the True Light, and we confess that she is ever Virgin, the God-bearer, she intercedes for us, and, as the Theotokos, excels in her dignity all angelic hosts."

Since the election of Pope Tawadros II as the new Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, there has been a growing rapprochement between the Christian communities in Egypt. This has led to the establishment of a council of Christian Churches in Egypt.

Pope Tawadros, as well as having an audience and a shared prayer with the Holy Father on Friday, 10 May, will be received at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and other dicasteries of the Roman Curia. He will visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and will meet with the faithful of the Coptic community resident in Rome.

Vatican News carries he full text of Pope Francis' address to Pope Tawadros and his delegation:

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2013

The 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be celebrated from 20-27 May and this year’s theme is “We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ (Corinthians 15:51-58)”

Prayer cards ($10 for 25) can be obtained by contacting Queensland Churches Together on 07 3369 6792, admin@qct.org.au or message on Facebook about Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  An invoice will be included with your order.  Printed posters will not be available this year, but you can print your own if you wish by downloading the FREE flyer.  The flyer includes a section at the bottom where you can promote your church’s service.

Other FREE resources:  Eight Day Reflections, Order of Service template, Sermon notes, Prayer for WPCU

On Sunday, May 20th, 100 people from across the Christian Churches in Townsville gathered to mark the opening of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, click hereto read Walk of Witness, Townsville.

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Each year in many countries one week is set aside by a wide range of churches to pray specifically for the unity of the churches. The idea was born in 1908 - which means that 2008 was the centenary of the global initiative of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.Click here for some history and background concerning this initiative.

An Appeal to End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

FOR CHRIST’S SAKE - FIND YOUR VOICE AND GIVE YOUR SUPPORT 
By signing this petition you are assisting every Catholic group calling for change. You are helping to create something very special: - the voice of the faithful. You will be helping to create a church for the future, free of sexual abuse, full of participation and inclusiveness–, a Church where loving God, through Jesus Christ makes us proud and full of the Holy Spirit. This is the voice we want the Vatican to hear. . 
So if you are Catholic and believe that it’s time for the Church to listen to its people; if you’re a Catholic who wants to stamp out sexual abuse from ever occurring again please sign this petition.

For some readers the image and promotion of this petition may be confronting. But so is sexual abuse and its tragic history in the Church.For Christ Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church…for good is the most recent book from the retired auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, Geoffrey Robinson.

I signed his petition in solidarity with victims of abuse. I signed this petition in solidarity with my sisters and brothers of the Church who believe the Church can be a sign and sacrament of the reign of God. I signed this petition in solidarity with  people of good will who believe religion can be a force for unity and peace in our fragile world.

As I look at other signatures on this petition I see many names that have been companions on my faith journey and people whom I have admired for thier ministry: . Majella tracey Graham English Terry Veling, Paul Castley,  Jacinta Sinclair, Susan Connelly, Phil O'Donnell, 

Catholic Leader Poll on Social Media and Digital Technologies

The Catholic Leader was one of my first publishing forums. In 1966 I was in second form at St Joseph's College in Geelong where I had a class master who encouraged us to write and  send  our work to the youth pages of the Catholic Leader. Perhaps I should make a pilgrimage to their archives this year as part of my 60th Birthday Celebrations to find the pieces I submitted.

Pen and paper are now long lost memories as I sit at my keyboard reading the latest edition of what is now my home Archdiocesan publication. And as we approach World Communications Day on May 12 I am  pretty chaffed to see the CL is still publishing my material in an unacknowledged photo for the "Women of Peace"  news item.

In the lead up to WCD the Catholic Leader Facebook Page is inviting readers to share how they have experienced truth and faith through their use of  social media and digital technologies.It will be interesting to see the level of response to this initiative. The first comment was a simple link to the Papal twitter account. Let's hope we get some more creative and  interactive comments.

The Australian Catholic Bishops have also released an e-book and parish resources for the May 12 anniversary.

See, Judge, Act on Children in Detention

One of the most  interesting sites out there in social media land is the Media Blog for the Australian Catholic Bishops.Sadly it is also one of  the most neglected if you go on the  lack of comments to the posts. As well as an easy read site, the blog includes a handy list of tags for quick reference to topics covered.

The latest entry is worth sharing and supporting to raise awareness of the tragic effects of  detention on Refugee children and Asylum Seekers. It seems that we need more resources such as this given the public position of Catholic politicians such as Tony Abbott who continue to ignore Catholic Social Teachings on Refugees and Asylum Seekers.I hope one of the participating schools will invite politicians from both sides of the Parliament to visit them when they are on "Detention" during this campaign.


Media Statement from Australian Young Christian Students

Australia is facing a crisis against children our age.

1000 children are without proper access to education

1000 children are being imprisoned.

1000 children are without their basic human rights, outlined in the Conventions Of The Rights Of The Child, a UN document Australia signed in 2000.

1000 children are currently being held in immigration detention in Australia and just off our coast.

As a high school student of Australia, I find this totally unacceptable.

YCS is standing with Catholic Mission, Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, Uniting Justice, Catholic Religious Australia and Chilout collectively in the Coalition- End Child Detention Australia- to show solidarity with those facing immigration detention. This May, we are all inviting you to undertake a ‘Detention4Detention’ doing a voluntary lunchtime detention with other high school students all around Australia to provide asylum seekers with a message of hope, and a welcome to our country. We will be asking students to take action by signing a petition and taking photos in support.

We have produced a resource that we ask you use and can access athttp://www.cathyouthadelaide.org.au/media/files/5290.pdf

You Can Bet on Celebrity Catholics

Catholics come in all shapes and sizes. Popular Catholics in Australia are devout, practising, committed and Mass-going. Less popular Aussie  Catholics are lapsed and even bad. America has had a longer tradition of "Celebrity Catholics" thanks to Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, all the Kenedys  and Al Capone.

Australia can trace it's links to celebrity Catholics to Ned Kelly and Ronadl Ryan. Mary MacKillop is exempt from this category as she is in the Sainted division of Catholicism, although she does have her own celebrity web site.Sitting on the fence between celebrity and saint is Caroline Chisholm deposed from the five dollar note by the Queen.

Celebrity Catholics have taken the lead in the race for identity in Australia. Perhaps it began with Philip Lynch who became the first prominent Catholic in the Liberal Party. Now there is a new breed of celebrity Catholic who appear simultaneously in tabloid and religious news coverage.

Nicole Kidman began to attract spots in the CathNews service with her wedding and her first born's  baptism  A Murdoch baptism was also noted in case readers missed the columns in the family press.More recently we have been able to have exclusive access to the marriages of Kate and Tom Waterhouse.

Tom Waterhouse comes from a long line of Catholics in the racing industry.With more rough and tumble than the back alleys of the Vatican Tom's career is attracting plenty of media attention. I wonder if we'll see him pop up at the Annual Racing Mass in Melbourne?

I have previously been charged with "joyless nitpicking" when I question the emerging culture of celebrity Catholicism. Sometimes it can backfire when a celebrity Catholic becomes a celebrity on another team such as Tom Cruise.Would CathNews have covered all of Elizabeth Taylor's other marriages after her first Catholic wedding?

Perhaps celebrity Catholicism is here to stay and will continue to pop up in the Royal Family,the entertainment industry and even the Vatican. Let's hope the odds are still with those Catholics who never appear in celebrity or religious news but quietly and passionately live their faith in service and devotion to the life and teachings of the man from Nazareth.