Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 Price $6

Sins of Emission – making a choice, finding a voice. editorial

Contents time to serve 2 Time to serve – editorial Michael Fitzsimons he June issue of Tui Motu has of motives and a time to reflect on the 3 God and Sin Ta smattering of everything but way we work as clergy.” Susan Wilson servanthood emerges as its fundamental 4-5 Letters theme – a spirit of service that takes The sexual abuse scandal is a lasting shame. The wounds will take a long 5 A new world? its inspiration from the Gospels and time to heal and perhaps will only do Ron Sharp stands in striking opposition to the values of our age. so when an examination of the causes 6-8 No altars here of sexual abuse on such a scale is Fr John Larsen SM Servanthood is a spiritual quality pursued with utter honesty. The road 9 Earth Poem which not only transforms our to renewal lies in the rediscovery of Richard Langston relationships with one another but service and humility at all areas of the 10-11 John Henry Newman leads us to treat our environment with Church’s life. Fr Michael Hill reverence and respect. Both aspects of Our relationship with our larger 12-13 Recognising the sacred this spiritual stance are covered in this issue of Tui Motu. environment is the other realm Joanne Doherty which requires humility of us. We 14-15 Sins of emission Fr John Larsen’s article on his ministry are not masters of this universe. We Peter Healy SM on the border of Thailand and Burma are receivers of wondrous gifts for 15-17 Evolutionary Spirit – is a wonderful reflection on service and which gratitude and guardianship Peter Healy SM the interior transformation that lies are the most authentic responses. In 18-20 Belonging leads to belief – at the heart of it. In a culture where his excellent comment piece (page an interview with Archbishop Christian faith is misunderstood or 14) Peter Healy presents the urgent John Dew ignored, there are no ulterior motives challenge to develop a “carbon Michael Fitzsimons for a life of service. There is no consciousness” at a community and an room for posturing. Faith is purified. individual level. We are not powerless, 21 Memories Christian leadership is defined in its all of us have a choice and a voice. M.J. Orange essential terms – at the polar opposite 22-23 How to save a life – re-unifying of privilege and public esteem. Attitudes of service and gratitude refugee families are of a piece. They are the fruit of Amanda Calder In his interview with Tui Motu, a spiritual awareness that we are not 24 Don’t forget to wake early Archbishop Dew describes his the centre of this world, that life is a Daniel O’Leary collaborative model of leadership – gift, that the only true freedom lies in unity enriched by diversity. It is a selfless love. 26 The woman “who has shown very hopeful and inclusive vision of great love” the Church’s future, but in the very It is the antithesis of the self- Kath Rushton human way of things it sits alongside centredness and possessiveness that 27 Film review: Boy his public apology to the victims of is the hallmark of the material world. Paul Sorrell sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic Praise the mystics and the poets and 28-29 Books priests and religious. Such abuse is a the prayerful among us who grasp the Neil Vaney grotesque distortion of the Christian spiritual truths of our existence. In Wendy Kissel message to love one another and, the words of the poet, e.e. cummings: Crosscurrents whether we like it or not, it is a failure 30 “I thank u God 4 Jim Elliston which casts a shadow on the whole this most amazing day, 31 Reframing our picture body of the Church. 4 the blue dream of sky of church It is a humbling time, a time for Peter Norris repentance. In the words of Archbishop and 4 everything that is 32 Farewell to Fr Michael Dew: “It’s an opportunity for clergy in natural, which is infinite, Robyn Kearns particular to look at the way they work which is yes.” and relate to people and to affirm that This issue of Tui Motu was produced by we are here to be of service, we are here FitzBeck Creative, a Wellington-based to be available, we are here to pray with Michael Fitzsimons communications company. people. It is a time for a purification Guest Editor

2 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 god and sin Susan Wilson

remember, at the age of seven, washy and that we, as parents, have the goodness of all creation, humanity Irealising I would never be a saint. been somewhat feeble in passing on included, while also acknowledging This was a sad realisation; in 1969 the faith. While being greatly relieved that we have the freedom to ignore or being a saint was worth aspiring to to know our children were not taught trample on that same goodness? in my school and family. However a faith shot through with guilt and Alongside the unconditional love of God the ‘black marks on my soul’ were as fear we might wonder if the emphasis and the wonder of God’s good creation, indelible as beetroot stains on a white was too much on goodness, love and we have free-will. The choices we make tablecloth and I had to settle for not doing what you want. What do they form us as individuals and as communities. being good enough. know about sin? We are not unchanging ‘selves’ who do things. What we do, contributes to who Many of you over a certain age will You will notice that I am contrasting two we are. Sin can distort us. have your own stories of sin and the extreme perspectives. It will be obvious sense of guilt that often accompanied to the reader that these perspectives are The perspective of a loving God who a Catholic childhood in the 1960s and ‘flavours’ of a particular time rather forgives our sins is the starting point earlier. Of course you will also have than being exactly how it was. The guilt of our faith journey. Fear and free- many wonderful stories of the strong and fear of my childhood was only one floating guilt do not help us come to community, identity and sense of God’s strand of my religious formation. My know God. Fear gives us a distorted holiness found within the church. children, on the other hand, would view of who God is. However, it is argue that their faith formation was important to know about sin if we My children were born in 1985 and not all goodness and love. are to grow fully in God’s love. Yes 1987. They have never agonised over we can do what we want, within the marks on their souls or whether they Even so, there has been a swing from particular limits of our own lives, but had failed to be saints. In religious ‘guilt to goodness’ in the last 40 or 50 what we do has consequences both for education they did not learn about years. The stress on God as a God of love others and for ourselves. Genuine guilt the different grades of sins or gain is a necessary antidote to the old fear and guilt. It is also true; God is love. for doing wrong or not doing what is the impression that God was noting right, enables us to make amends and Too often I hear people talk of God in down all their wrong-doings. They turn back to God. were much less aware of Original Sin terms of wrath, anger and judgement. or that humanity was ‘fallen’. In my There is little sense of the vast wonder of My children were more fortunate than children’s formative years the religious God’s love in these words. This is sad. me. They were formed in a faith that begins with what is most important focus of both school and family was From the other perspective, I on goodness and God’s love. – the deep and unfathomable love of sometimes hear younger people say: “I God. It is also important for them to It is of immeasurable importance believe all people are good.” This may know that how they live forms who to form our children in a faith that be true; i.e. this is what they believe. they are and who they are becoming. is centred on God who is love. We However, is the content of that belief cannot over-estimate the value to true? In other words, are all people Susan works for the Wellington our children, and ourselves, of being good? Is goodness intrinsic to us no Catholic Education Centre. She tutors aware that God loves us as we are right matter what we do? Or are we formed distance learning students, teaches theology, administering the Master of now. Nevertheless, some of us may by our culture, choices and actions? Educational Leadership programme, secretly think the religious education Does free-will mean we can choose not and is involved in e-learning. She is a of my children’s era was a bit wishy- to be good? Is it possible to celebrate mother and grandmother!

Tui Motu-InterIslands is an independent, Catholic, monthly magazine. It invites its readers to question, challenge and contribute to its discussion of spiritual and social issues in the light of gospel values, and in the interests of a more just and peaceful society. Inter-church and inter-faith dialogue is welcomed. The name Tui Motu was given by Pa Henare Tate. It literally means “stitching the islands together...”, bringing the different races and peoples and faiths together to create one Pacific people of God. Divergence of opinion is expected and will normally be published, although that does not necessarily imply editorial commitment to the viewpoint expressed. Independent Catholic Magazine Ltd, P O Box 6404, Dunedin North, 9059 ISSM 1174-8931 Phone: 03 477 1449: Fax: 03 477 8149: email: [email protected]: website: www.tuimotu.org Editor: Michael Fitzsimons Illustrator: Don Moorhead Directors: Rita Cahill RSJ, Philip Casey, Tom Cloher, Robin Kearns, Elizabeth Mackie OP, Peter Murnane OP, Katie O’Connor (Chair), Mark Richards, Kathleen Rushton RSM Printers: Southern Colour Print, 1 Turakina Road, Dunedin South, 9012

Tui Motu InterIslands 3 June 2010 letters

blinder of an issue lasting legacy You sure played a blinder in the May letters to the editor - Thank you for allowing us a glimpse issue! I found it filled with issues that We welcome comment, into the life and work of Father urgently needed addressing. discussion, argument, debate. Michael. As he outlines the numerous But please keep letters turns his life has taken, one cannot help First I would take issue with Paul under 200 words. but admire his readiness to follow the Oestreicher. In his otherwise The editor reserves the right promptings of the Holy Spirit, even challenging article I would disagree to abridge, while not changing when it meant changing course at short the meaning. that in ANZAC commemorations notice. Typically, he speaks of his life in “past wars are a matter of pride.” From Response articles (up to a page) a matter-of-fact way which cloaks and the vantage point of 72 years I have are welcome – but please, by negotiation. understates the true calibre of his person. attended ANZAC services in a variety Many of us in a similar situation would of places and circumstances and I have have engaged in a struggle against never heard war glorified. Neither facing the unknown, and acceptance have I heard such a sentiment from of an uncertain future. Doubts could any of the numerous ‘old soldiers’ that called are torn between staying with the church or exercising our ministry easily have spawned opposition. But I have met and known. Recognition Father Michael, not given to wasting in another denomination. of sacrifice and suffering – yes. But time on regrets, accepted every new glorification of war, never. I also note Peg Cummins, Tauranga path as God’s plan and approached it that our armed services sent overseas well prepared with fresh ideas which in recent times have in the main done almost comic he implemented through his amazing peacekeeping duties. Thank you so much for printing fund of energy. (This is not to imply that in his obedience to the Spirit he would I also found Professor Beier’s article my article on Trust in Tui Motu ever have suspended his unfailing gift on sex abuse very enlightening. One InterIslands. I was really honoured of discernment.) question! If, as he says, “sexual to be placed next to the august orientation is a matter of fate name of Daniel O’Leary, as we are He has been rewarded with abundant rather than choice” we must feel contemporaries; both of us were born Blessings on everything he has put profoundly sad for anyone apart and grew up in The Kingdom of Kerry his hands to. I am sure that Tui from heterosexuals since others are (to us the cradle of civilisation) about Motu readers who over the years have unable to exercise their sexuality and 30 miles between us. It’s almost comic enjoyed the fruits of these Blessings remain within the church. – Daniel, a diocesan writing about the will join me in thanking Father Hill. contemplative life, and yours truly, a We wish him continued good health And finally why do the hierarchy contemplative, writing about diocesan and much joy in a well-deserved presume that God has not called life! Many thanks. God bless. (busy?) retirement. some women to the priesthood or the diaconate? Those of us who do feel so Max Palmer, Kopua Abbey, Hawkes Bay Frank Hoffmann, Papakura

women and Judaism A response to Paul Andrews S.J.’s homily, The Dignity of Women. I am troubled by aspects of Paul Andrews beginning with Vatican II’s Nostra Judaism. While our knowledge is SJ’s homily, “The Dignity of Women.” Aetate. The 2002 Pontifical Biblical limited, historians of women in the (TM May) In his commendable desire Commission document, The Jewish ancient world are discovering sur- to advocate change for women in the People and their Sacred Scriptures in the prising new information about Jewish present I find – most likely unconsciously Christian Bible begins to address “anti- women. For example, Bernadette – he sets Jesus and his relationship with Jewish texts” and their interpretation. Brooten finds Jewish women described women against Judaism. Fr. Andrews is as “ruler of the synagogue,” “founder not alone in this. One must be cautious about assertions of the synagogue,” “elder,” “mother like “The Jews put women in an of the synagogue,” “presiding officer,” Jewish feminist biblical scholars have inferior position” and “What Jesus did “patron” or “guardian.” These suggest critiqued interpretations of Jesus and in the face of this was revolutionary” that some had wealth and exercised his relationship with women as written (Fr Andrews p.21) which emphasise leadership and authority. Restrictions by feminist Christian biblical scholars that Jesus was unique in his treatment of space understood to apply to since the 1980s. Accurate representation of women. Two concerns arise from Jewish women are often a much later of Judaism is sought. The Catholic such assertions: they are questionable development than at the time of Jesus. Church has significant documents historically and they can lead to anti-

4 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 opinion

a new world? By Ron Sharp

s God’s reign on the way? Is the Building Genuine Wealth; Mukesh 1989 by Herman Daly and John Cobb. IKingdom finally Coming? On Aswara, professor of economics at the The GPI, developed by the non-profit Sunday the 18 April, Radio NZ University of British Columbia and organisation Redefining Progress and National’s Chris Laidlaw hosted an co-author of a paper that argues that promoted by Ron Coleman, starts Ideas programme on the economics of greater affluence can actually damage with GDP then adds productive non- wellbeing. There were several interviews a society’s well-being and happiness; market economic activity, such as on the unsustainability of Gross and to Dave Breuer the director of household work and subtracts other Domestic Product with its emphasis AnewNZ, a charitable trust working factors, such as pollution and crime. on material growth that is leading us to on developing new measures of Part of the GPI would be the an impoverished populace and planet. economic well-being in New Zealand. environmental index measuring the The greedy profit-hungry rich elite Efforts to calculate an adjusted GDP impact of the economy on our planet. seem to be making last ditch efforts are the most ambitious efforts to offer The work of economist Robert Repetto to grab every bit of fossilised mineral a GDP-like calculation that accounts and the World Resouces Institute in the they can, and even from our National for environmental and social aspects 1980s was a key to drawing attention Parks. But economists as prominent not calculated in GDP calculations. to the need for environmental as Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz accounting. and Amartya Sen are promoting the Notable efforts include the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare adoption of alternative measurements Most importantly, research on the (ISEW) and the Genuine Progress to GDP to gauge the economic well- quality of life has developed various Indicator. The ISEW is calculated by being of a society. Countries all around indices for measuring life expectancy adjusting the conventional national the world are working on concepts and health, knowledge and literacy income accounts (GDP) through of Genuine Progress Indicators and and a decent standard of living. May the subtraction of the social and there are rumours that the European the recognition of the need for deeper environmental costs, and the addition Union is about to introduce GPI measuring indices be the beginning of of the value of non-market productive alongside GDP type measures. At last a much healthier social fabric in New activity, such as volunteer work and the measure of a country’s progress Zealand and the world. will take into account the happiness, child-rearing. Various related measures have been calculated by NGOs and health and well-being of its people. Ron Sharp helps Mother Nature and think-tanks and indices have been his wife co-create a Bio-Dynamic Ideas spoke to Mark Alienski, the calculated for several countries. The horticultural property in Motueka and author of The Economics of Happiness: ISEW was originally developed in is a member of its Transition Town.

For example, there is no archaeological twelve.” Arguably, Jesus did not treat the foremothers and leaders like Miriam, evidence for the separation of women Canaanite woman well at first and was Deborah, Esther as well as Elizabeth and men in the synagogue until the even rude (Mat.15:21-28). Significantly, and the prophet Anna of Luke 1-2. fourth century CE. the Jewish women of Jesus’ time stand in the lineage of their remarkable Kathleen Rushton RSM One cannot pit Jesus against Judaism and assert that he breaks down barriers of Judaism that oppress women. To paraphrase an article title from the photo reflection Jewish New Testament scholar, Amy- Jill Levine, the church cannot divorce Jesus from Judaism. Without a doubt, the gospels are remarkable for the way women are portrayed especially when they are contrasted with male disciples. Yet, there are no women among “the

Tui Motu InterIslands 5 June 2010 eucharist

no altars here

Fr John Larsen SM

s a younger priest, especially in wash my feet” Jn. 13:8), that there When I serve someone I am saying to the A the Philippines, I delighted in was more to this than met the eye. other person – “while I am serving you, presiding at dynamic celebrations of This sort of service modelled a style your needs, not mine, are paramount”. the Eucharist. The churches are full of leadership that would challenge Just why would I ever say that? and overflowing with faith and life. It their lordship over their flocks. In I could serve someone superior to me is a privilege to preside. Burma, the only model of leadership they experience in their isolated land in expectation of their protection or But for the last six years I have been is military leadership. It’s complicated their reward. Often the service industry living in Burma (until the government by the cultural understanding of the here in Thailand sees many people unceremoniously showed us the door) feet of our bodies as being the most serving their clients in demeaning and in Thailand. In these Buddhist ignoble part. The priests would have ways. I see daily, in this Thai/Burma lands, especially in Thailand, there none of this nonsense. border town of Ranong where I live, are no invitations to preside at the Burmese migrant labourers serving Eucharist. Most people have rarely their Thai bosses in servitude. This sort met a Christian and have no idea what “(The washing of the feet) of ‘service’ of an inferior to a superior a priest might be. simply perpetrates injustice. Nothing is a symbol of service noble about it at all. I’ve had to re-think what the “celebrating the Eucharist” might mean. offered among friends Or I can serve someone inferior to me who are equal. No strings in the expectation that that person I began to reflect seriously about all will be at my beck and call at a later this a while ago. I was giving a retreat attached. It is freely given date. Many parents here seem to care to the Bishop and priests of the and solely for the good for their many children in the explicit Archdiocese of Mandalay in Burma. I expectation that their children asked the Bishop to wash the priests’ of the other.” will care for them later on. On an feet as part of the retreat. The Bishop, international level, in our part of the one of the holiest men I’ve ever met, world, we see powerful China serving was open to it. The priests were From their reaction I began to the interests of the despotic regime vigorously opposed. They sensed, like understand that this idea of ‘service’ is in ‘little neighbour’ – Burma – in Peter before them (“you will never tricky. It requires more reflection. return for permission to rape the land

6 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 of Burma of its rich natural resources. expectation of any reward, is at the re-interpret my understanding of the Here the service of a superior to an heart of Jesus’ message and it involves Eucharist living in a Buddhist land inferior simply accentuates an unjust a revolution in thinking with no room where bread and wine are foreign food. status quo. for compromise. John expresses it by the symbolism of the washing of So, service can be about building the feet. unjust and oppressive structures. Some church leaders, and not only “This line of reflection the priests in Mandalay, have been objecting ever since. Sometimes a few has helped me re-interpret of our leaders have preferred a style of my understanding of leadership that has been obsequious to superiors and abusive of minors. the Eucharist living in a The ones who are fed with the Eucharist John’s ‘washing of the feet’ style of are also called to a service of feeding the Buddhist land where leadership cuts through this systemic hungry migrant kids. injustice to create a new world order bread and wine are of service among friends and equals, It’s true that early every morning our foreign food.” neither fawning nor imposing. small community gathers to adore the Blessed Sacrament, recite the Morning Our Church has faithfully followed Prayer and celebrate the Mass together. But the service in John’s Gospel, the the command of Jesus to take the We need this rich nourishment from washing of the feet, is something bread and wine and proclaim them our Tradition. Every morning, year quite radically different. It is a symbol as the body and blood of Christ. This after year, the same few faces! But if of service offered among friends who is the profound Tradition in Paul and we decided to stop praying like this are equal. No strings attached. It is in the Synoptics. The Eucharist, the tomorrow no-one in the town would freely given and solely for the good of bread and wine, is the core symbol at be remotely interested. the other. It involves death to oneself. the heart of our faith. As such, it is a sign of the Reign of The sign of the Eucharist that speaks God. It is quite revolutionary because But John’s Gospel also has a Eucharistic to our Buddhist friends here is our it upsets an hierarchical status quo. Tradition. In the ‘washing of the service among friends that John feet’ John is speaking of service-in- symbolises in the washing of the feet. Peter was quite right to object, just as friendship as the Eucharistic sign. The he objected in the Synoptic Gospel What our neighbours see here is a radicality of it is that it breaks down tradition to Jesus’ proceeding to small group that calls itself Christian. the master-servant structure in society Jerusalem to suffer and die for his Some of the group care for the migrant and re-presents service as friendship people and he earned the rebuke: labourers at the last stages of dying among equals, putting the other’s “Get behind me Satan!” (Mk. 8:33). with AIDS. No-one is more rejected interests ahead of our own with no than a foreign worker dying with This message of serving the other as a hope of personal gain. friend, being open even to dying for AIDS far from home and family. Our the other and certainly not serving in This line of reflection has helped me quiet, friendly service to them speaks of the Reign of God, even though we never mention the name of Christ. What our neighbours also see here is a small Christian group that gathers some of the kids together each day and tries to give them some hope by teaching them the basics. These children of Burmese migrant labourers are unwanted by everyone until they reach an age (about 13 years old) when they can sweat it out in the fish factories or on the fishing boats or in the brothels. They have no citizenship and no reason to hope for

Listening to the Word of God at the Eucharist and listening to the stories of the migrants anything more. If we can serve them s s and their families are in harmony. Fr Larsen visits the temporary homes of the migrants. in our little classes and as our friends,

Tui Motu InterIslands 7 June 2010 Mass as it once did ceaselessly in the needed. But different times and places Philippines. I loved that life then but call for emphases. now I live in a different type of mission. The telephone still rings. A young One final reflection: Some of my New Burmese woman with AIDS needs to Zealand confreres who have visited be taken to the Thai doctor but needs here have commented that while the some help to get through the police religion in this part of the world may check-points. Could you come with be the all-pervasive Buddhism, the us? Or, one of our students has been religion in New Zealand is secularism. bashed up by her father. Could you Perhaps we share a common search for put her up for a while? how to speak of Christ’s real presence Two Burmese Marist seminarians serve in foreign lands? the needs of the children of migrant Our service among our friends here in labourers who are hidden away in rubber Thailand, our washing of the feet, is Father John Larsen has been a Marist and palm oil plantations by collecting Missionary in Asia for nearly 25 years. just as Eucharistic as our celebrating For many years he served in Mindanao them for informal classes during summer. many Masses in the Philippines. Most of these kids would never have in the southern Philippines. After access to any formal education. We’re just following John’s service- that he led a new Marist mission into symbolism rather than the bread- Burma (Myanmar) but they were s s “wash their feet” as it were, then we are denied an entry visa after 18 months. and-wine symbolism of Paul and the Now they are ministering to Burmese celebrating the Eucharist, John-style, Synoptics. These different Sacraments migrant workers in Ranong, Thailand, in a language they can understand. of the Presence of Christ are both on the border with Burma. This Eucharistic service among friends breaks down the unjust oppressor- oppressed social structure in our border town. It’s no wonder that Christian missionaries are unwelcome in a despotic military regime like Burma. A radical teaching, like the washing of the feet, the Eucharist as service until death among friends, if implemented, would be the General’s undoing, and they know it. Now I am here on the Thai-Burma border, the telephone no longer rings Ronald Lida, a Marist Lay Missionary from the Philippines, sorts out a few things with asking for Father to come and say some of the migrant family kids near the Chanel Community Centre.

If you really love your Swimming (10 years after)

Tui Motu We swim on our backs, you might care the sky rolls by.

to remember us O don’t doubt in your Will we are swimming on our backs watching the sky roll by –

That is all the glory Tui Motu Foundation we need, PO Box 6404 and nothing else. Dunedin North, 9059 – Richard Langston

8 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 Earth Poem

At day’s rise the earth wrestles itself from the dark. Each one of us lifts our heads from the pillows.

We are written from night into the light of day.

What painterly touches, from this one sun.

Morning love, we say, knowing nothing finer will ever be written.

– Richard Langston

Tui Motu InterIslands 9 June 2010 profile

John Henry Newman

Michael Hill IC

ater this year Cardinal John Henry bishop once said to me: “The religion towards honouring God; to love our LNewman is due to be declared of the English is anti-Catholicism”. brethren according to the flesh, the ‘blessed’ by Pope Benedict during a The truth is that holiness is often to be first step towards considering all men Papal visit to Britain. I have no doubt seen in very imperfect human beings. (sic) our brethren.” (Excuse the sexist it will be welcomed by Catholics and language – from the 1830s!) non-Catholics alike. But why has it Newman’s wonderful religious sense taken so long? speaks universally. He is probably Newman himself was a shy human better known outside his native being. Yet throughout his life he had In 1963, when beatifying Dominic England than in it. And in no better very close personal friends. When one Barberi, the Passionist priest who context has his influence been felt of them, William Lockhart, a disciple received Newman into the Catholic than at the Second Vatican Council. of his during the time of the Oxford Church, Pope Paul VI broke off his One could truly say sermon to speak about Newman: “... that he was so ahead of guided solely by love and truth and his time as a religious fidelity to Christ, (Newman) traced an thinker that his cause itinerary, the most toilsome but also had to wait a hundred the greatest, the most meaningful, the years for the church to most conclusive that human thought catch up! ever travelled during the 19th Century – indeed one might say, during the I will return later to modern era, to arrive at the fulness of talk about his influence wisdom and peace.” It sounded as if at the Council. This the Pope was beatifying Newman, not short article can Dominic! only do justice to a few elements of his Newman has always been part of my character, his sanctity Catholic life. Early I learned to love and his achievements. his writings and I was astonished at Let us begin with an the power of his mind. As with many aspect of his character really great writers I felt I was listening which is very personal to the human author speaking when, indeed. say, I browsed his sermons or read his Movement, went ahead of him and famous autobiography, the Apologia. friendship In a sermon preached on the feast of St became a Catholic, Newman was When he became a Cardinal in dismayed and preached one of his 1878 he chose as his motto cor ad John the Evangelist, Newman analyses the relationship between the ‘beloved most famous sermons – on the Parting cor loquitur: “heart speaks to heart”. of Friends. He was referring to the need for a disciple’ of the Fourth Gospel and personal relationship with God. Yet Jesus. He notes not only that Jesus Newman followed Lockhart into the it reflects also the way Newman’s own had one special friend among the Catholic Church in 1845, half way personality leaps out of every page Apostles, but he establishes from this through his long life. he wrote to touch the heart of the fact what he sees to be a key principle attentive reader. underpinning Christian love. He says: He went to Rome to complete “...the best preparation for loving preparation to be ordained priest, So why has it taken the church so long? the world at large, and loving it duly and there he resolved to join the Perhaps it is because we know the man and wisely, is to cultivate an intimate Oratorians, diocesan priests who too well: we know his humanness, his friendship and affection towards those live in community. A close friend of faults are patent enough. Perhaps it who are immediately about us”... “to his mature age was fellow Oratorian is because he is English; as a certain honour our parents is the first step Ambrose St John. When Ambrose

10 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 died, Newman was so moved by this have from the first resisted one great Catholic he was asked to found a personal loss that he decreed in his will mischief... For 30, 40, 50 years I have Catholic University in Dublin. His that he should be buried in the same resisted the spirit of liberalism in writings on the Idea of a University grave as his friend – which he was. religion”. remain a standard guide to this day. Newman’s human sensitivity is never A ‘universal’ education, he insists, far away, even in some of his most What did he mean by that? What he encompasses religious as well as secular profound philosophical writings. rejected was what is sometimes called learning. Here as elsewhere, he was relativism: one ‘truth’ is as good as totally persuaded of the importance the theologian another; it doesn’t matter what you of forming a theologically literate Newman’s theology rested firmly on believe as long as you love God. That Catholic laity. his own personal experience. As a 15- was never enough for Newman. His year-old he describes how he received faith needed to be solidly based on In 1859 he wrote an article on a sense of the closeness of God in his dogmatic teaching, yet at the same “Consulting the Laity in Matters of life: a sort of mystical experience. time his searching mind was always Doctrine”. It was not well received He writes in the Apologia (4,17-18): speculating and seeking new ways to by the English hierarchy, and lead to “this made me rest in the thought develop and apply the truths of faith. him being viewed with suspicion in of two, and two only, absolute and Rome. As a Catholic Newman was content luminously self-evident beings: myself to accept Marian devotion and This cloud stayed over him until a new and my creator... I retained this until those aspects of Marian belief firmly Pope, Leo XIII, made him a Cardinal the age of 21, when it gradually faded grounded in church tradition. For in 1878. away.” But his sense of another world instance, he writes eloquently and of the spirit coexisting with the world Newman’s teaching on the laity with feeling of Mary as the ‘new Eve’ of sense never faded. particularly inspired the theologians – and this was very helpful to many of of Vatican II. This direct experience of God was his fellow converts. replaced – or, rather, it was enlarged. However, his influence continues in However, he resisted the excesses of As a young man Newman was an the church of today in a more profound some – notably his fellow Oratorian evangelical Anglican. His religion was sense. Newman can be seen as a Fr Faber (the famous hymn-writer) grounded in the Bible, and it gave him constant seeker for the truth. He was a and to a lesser extent Cardinal a lifelong conviction that that is where pilgrim. He did not believe in a static Manning. These excesses came to a Christianity. One of his most famous the revelation of God is most securely head during the lead up to the First to be found. But revelation has to be sayings (Essay on Development 40) Vatican Council and the definition of is “...here below, to live is to change, received. A voice needs an ear before Papal Infallibility. communication is effective. The word and to be perfect is to have changed of God needs a theology to make it Newman accepted the infallibility of often.” It accurately describes his own meaningful. the church – and of the Pope – but he life journey. cringed at the enthusiasm exemplified When Newman died in 1890 a very In his Oxford years Newman grappled by one friend who wanted a new Papal old friend from his Anglican days, with the classical theology of the definition dished up each day with his R.W. Church (Dean of St Paul’s, Christian church. He studied the breakfast. London), testified in an obituary to Scriptures. He read the Fathers. He his “singular beauty and purity of became convinced of the importance When eventually the carefully character... his personal sanctity”. But of the teaching authority of the circumscribed definition was he also calls Newman the “founder of church. For a time he was sure that promulgated, Newman accepted it the Church of England as we see it... the Anglican church as he knew it was and publicly defended it – against he will be mourned by many in the part of the greater Catholic church no less a critic than Gladstone, who Roman Church, but their sorrow will suggested that the new Roman decree and provided that guarantee. be less than ours, because they have prevented Catholics from being loyal not the same paramount reason to He also became persuaded of the citizens. importance of dogma. He studied the be grateful to him”. The forthcoming theological wranglings of early church apostolate of the laity beatification promises to be a history and accepted without question All his life Newman rubbed shoulders wonderful ecumenical event. the decisions of the great Councils. with lay people in search of God. This stayed with him for life. When he At Oxford, through his lectures and received the red hat in 1878, Newman sermons he helped mould a whole delivered a speech in which he said: “I generation of students. Later as a

Tui Motu InterIslands 11 June 2010 sacraments

recognising the sacred

Joanne Doherty lives on Wellington harbour and is a writer, mother and grandmother who belongs to Te Wakaiti community.

won the Christian Doctrine prize afternoon I paraded on the lawn at the 1559 – 1563. The word sacramentum Ioften at school, peaking at the age maternity hospital for mum and all means ‘a sign of the sacred’ and the of 12 with a mark of 98 percent. Back the nurses. Confirmation happened Seven Sacraments point to what is in the 50s and 60s my religious and at night when we giggled at the sacred, significant and important for spiritual competency was assessed in exotic name, Zita, chosen by a friend, Christians. They are special occasions the same way as my spelling lists and and wondered why the boys weren’t for experiencing God’s presence. arithmetic tables. I could recite the standing up to pledge not to drink alphabet, the nine times tables and the beer! I couldn’t be a flower girl at our So how do we continue to access these moments of grace and celebration seven sacraments all at the drop of a neighbour’s wedding because it was in today? What are the ‘outward signs’ of hat – rote learning was in! another church and my mother of ten ‘inward graces’? How do we experience was often the ‘priest’, confessor and My childhood memories of Church, the divine in this secular world? Who spiritual guide in our neighbourhood and in particular of the seven are the people of God who share and live of young families. Extreme Unction, sacraments, are still vivid. Experiences the sacraments in this new century? always sounded like the worst disease from my child’s worldview didn’t on earth, until my grandma died, and always match the dogma and I recall the relief of the aunties when catechism answers I knew off pat. “How do we experience told she had been anointed first. Baptism happened in our family the divine in this secular when yet another baby arrived and The Seven Sacraments were learned the taxi stopped at the church on the alongside the Seven Gifts of the Holy world? Who are the way home. I became a godmother at Spirit, the Seven Deadly Sins and the people of God who share the age of ten to my new baby sister. Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy. Things Confession for me was entering a came in sevens it seems. I was even and live the sacraments scary, black box with a booming voice born on the feast of Our Lady of Seven in this new century?” and pretending that I had ‘told a lie’ or Sorrows in September. As a young girl ‘pinched money.’ Making up sins was I remember my shock and anxiety the less stressful than saying I had none to day I discovered that the word ‘doleurs’ When I look for ‘outward signs of confess. I remember having a whole was not about money, but grief, and inward graces’ I see them everywhere. bottle of green fizzy to myself on my that there could be seven of them! For me it is both reassuring and First Communion day, determined commonsense that the key human not to spill any on my white spotted The Seven Sacraments were first stages in life are also significant organza dress and bridal veil. In the defined during the Council of Trent spiritual occasions.

In the name of God the Creator, Jesus A placenta is buried in a sacred place. Exchange of vows in the bush cathedral. his Son and the Holy Spirit…

12 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 • A new baby being welcomed and • A friend with cancer is blessed with • A couple are married in magnificent named under an olive tree planted oils, by his sister, while a volunteer native bush witnessed by kereru and for world peace, while another drives a woman to radiotherapy tui. grandfather baptises his new grand- every day for six weeks. son with water from local rivers. • A young woman makes a shrine to a • The earth is blessed to receive a Mexican Mary in her kitchen while • A relationship beginning, being placenta and a pohutukawa tree while a divorced woman remarries and celebrated and supported or a rela- a rahui is placed on the river and lifted receives communion. tionship ending, being acknowledged with karakia, when a child drowns. and remembered. • A woman facilitates restorative • A litany is written for a wonderful justice for two broken families while • A couple making love and thanking woman, being farewelled by her a headstone is blessed by an aunty. God for their sexuality, their children children and grandchildren while a and grandchildren while the love of manuscript is blessed before going • Two brothers receive a kidney and a gay couple is celebrated at a civil to publishers. new life, from a sister and a friend. ceremony with joy, support and • A nation reviews the Treaty of prayer. • A child is blessed while asleep, by her mother and a pounamu is blessed Waitangi covenant in a spirit of • A meal begins by thanking God for for a daughter travelling overseas. justice and truth while a taniwha food, continues with those around rests in peace when the river is not the table belonging, and ends with • A kaumatua blesses the new diverted for a motorway. community hospital at dawn while the candle still alight for those in We are blessed when we can recognise need of love and support. a married priest and his wife take a Sudanese family to a picnic at a river. and celebrate these ‘outward signs of • A meeting begins with karakia and inward graces’. A wonderful opportunity whanaungatanga while a parent • A mother breathes out when her exists for us to notice and rediscover the begins a new job with a powhiri and adult child becomes aware of his sacred from our cultural, religious and whanau support. spiritual journey and a wahine spiritual traditions, and then re-present receives her facial moko with karakia and share them in the midst of the and aroha. sacred moments of life today. • A community on a Monday evening, I live in a rich community of family and or Friday morning, reflects on the friends who respond to and embrace word of God and breaks bread major events in their family and human together while a group of nuns live development – welcoming and birthing, in the neighbourhoods of Aranui feeding and nurturing, committing and Hiruharama. and confirming, loving and forgiving, reconciling and healing, stillness and • A friend dies and life is celebrated contemplation, annointing and caring in song, music, poetry and writing for, and farewelling and dying. while a brother dies in an accident and people counsel and pray for For me, the seven sacraments in 2010 each other. have a depth, reverence and meaning different to the catechism answers of my childhood. They are about recognising the simple things in life that are sacred Grandparents christen their grandson. and they happen alongside, as well as way beyond, the confines of the Church structures.

Water is blessed for a Christening. Baby Jesus arrives in a paddock. Te Wakaiti Marae

Tui Motu InterIslands 13 June 2010 ecology

sins of emission

“We’ve done those things which we ought not to have done and we’ve left undone those things which we ought to have done.”

Peter Healy SM

ardly a day goes by now when gatherings over the last 12 months – “We will be toast” says the German Hthere is not something in the weddings and funerals – and I have to climate scientist Hans Schellnhuber. news on climate change. I often say I feel a certain guilt about doing this wonder how seriously people take given my own carbon consciousness. At this Oxford Conference it was said this moment of time we are in. I am guilty of a sin of emission. One the good news was hard to find, and Climate scientist James Hansen of big overseas trip in an aircraft is so that two numbers were key for the NASA says we have already reached carbon-emitting that it has the same future of humanity. The first number a threshold with greenhouse gases in impact on the environment as months is the year in which global emissions the atmosphere. They are now at serious of daily car use. peak and the second number is the and destructive levels. The current rate of reduction in emissions that we level of carbon in the atmosphere New Zealanders per capita produce can manage after this peak year. The is at 389 parts per million and around 18 tonnes of carbon each year. peak year is critical. The Conference rising. We will feel the effects of this As a nation we are right up there with suggested 2015 as a peak year if amount of carbon for many decades the worst carbon-emitters in the world warming is to be kept at two degrees. to come. Around 60 percent of carbon such as the US, Australia and Britain. The probability of getting nations to dioxide stays in the atmosphere for a If I had an adequate and functioning peak their emissions by 2015 is not thousand years. carbon consciousness I would no great, nor does it seem likely that doubt realise that I am doing things they will manage the necessary 25-40 One of the ongoing calls from that I ought not be doing! percent reductions needed by 2020. ecologists has been to develop what is called ‘a carbon consciousness’. This In December 2009 world leaders and “One big overseas trip is not some esoteric state that only climate change ministers gathered an initiated few can attain. Rather it in Copenhagen and endeavoured to in an aircraft is so carbon- is something all of us need to have agree on a new climate treaty. It was emitting that it has the if we are to be aware of what we are a difficult and fraught meeting that doing to the delicate and gracious failed to come to a consensus on same impact on the system called our atmosphere. Carbon halting carbon emissions. According to environment as months consciousness in religious terms could 100 climate scientists who gathered at be thought of as an awareness of those another meeting in Oxford (UK) last of daily car use.” things we ought to be doing. year, we can almost certainly expect a two-degree rise in global temperatures Given the rather gloomy forecast of ‘a Flying in an aircraft is the most carbon- sometime this century. The possibility four-degree world’ it is the metaphors emitting way to travel, especially when of a four-degree rise was not considered of collapse and transformation that the plane is in take-off mode. I watch to be alarmist at this meeting either. A capture my imagination. If you have the aviation industry advertising planet just 2.5 degrees warmer means seen the movie The Age of Stupid you cheaper and cheaper flights all over the most of the planet’s ice eventually will have received a clear message about nation and world. No country to my melts with sea-level rises of up to 50 collapse, how it is now underway and knowledge adds the carbon from this metres. The really big giant in this how, for the most part, we are turning a industry to its emissions accounting warming process is all the methane blind eye to it. We are all familiar with and the industry as a whole is exempt trapped in the permafrost zones of news of droughts, floods, cyclones, from taxation on its aviation fuel. I Siberia and northern Canada. If this epidemics and famine that are being have flown by plane to a few family is ever released into the atmosphere, linked to warming. If you read a book

14 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 like Blessed Unrest you will be inspired to the out-of-town meeting? reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent by the collective energy of all sorts of • Who among us can take respon- during 2010. The focus is on home groups of people around the planet sibility for teeing up the technology and work energy use and travel choices. who are conspiring for transformation. that will facilitate tele-conferencing ? There are lots of ideas and inspirations Some of you will have heard of the • Can I leave my car at home a couple on the website about actions to take to Transition Towns movement that is of days a week and walk, bus or ride reduce your carbon emissions. encouraging communities to transform a bike ? and be ready ahead of any collapse. • Am I willing to compost and I was in Rio de Janiero for the Earth wormfarm rather than send my kit- Summit back in 1992. While I was Considerable collapse seems inevitable chen waste to a landfill? there I spotted a banner with the given the destructive path we are on. • Do I understand the connection words on it, “IF THE PEOPLE The poor of the world are suffering between meat production/consump- LEAD THEN THE LEADERS now in various ecological collapses. tion and climate change? WILL FOLLOW”. If there was ever The good news is many groups and a time when these words needed to individuals are waking up to collapse There are many questions that climate come true it is now! and starting to turn things around. change raises; some of the answers The transformative path (as Matthew need to come at a national policy level May I do those things I ought to do for Fox pointed out years ago) is about and some at personal levels. What is the sake of future generations. May I compassion, prophetic movements, important is that we start to put some leave undone nothing that will allow life moral outrage and justice-making. cap on our national and personal and goodness to flourish. emissions. On October 10th this year As communities and individuals, the 1010 Global New Zealand initiative Peter is a Marist priest living and we can join those conspiring for working in Wellington, he keeps up transformation by asking ourselves will be launched. On their website (www.1010global.org/nz/contact) they with “things ecological” as secretary some carbon conscious questions: for the Pacific Institute of Resource describe a simple yet strong idea about Management. This group produces • Who will be the first in my workplace a commitment on the part of families the Pacific Ecologist magazine, writes to ‘conscientiously object’ to flying and individuals in New Zealand to submissions and holds public meetings.

eter Healy SM has a colourful “All art is spiritual by its nature. Pcurriculum vitae. Marist Through colour, shapes and form, it priest, teacher, community worker, evokes a non-verbal response. I have environmentalist, prison chaplain, always been fascinated by the shape of youth worker and artist. Through his things, by the patterns and forms in varied ministries he has maintained a nature that resonate with us. There’s commitment to his art which has been something archetypal about them. an enduring form of self-expression. After all, even the letters which make up words are shapes.” “I’ve always been a fan of a creation- centred spirituality,” says Peter. “Being Peter has a strong interest in the born in the south and living in this evolutionary process at work in the country, I suppose I have always had universe. A stunning painting of his, a feel for the mountains and the lakes The Universe Story, depicts the 14 and the rivers. It’s been a natural thing billion-year evolutionary epic that to link the wonders of creation with scientists tell us is the back story of our spirituality. The awe and mystique of universe. The large canvas hangs in the the natural world was in my psyche as front room of his Marist community ‘religious’ painter. But he does consider a kid and it has strongly informed my in Hataitai, Wellington. himself to be a religious painter in the art throughout my life.” sense of the origin of that word, which “The great spirit of evolution is the is to be joined with something larger

A quietly-spoken man with an engaging larger story that I hook into in terms s s sense of humour, Peter is not a traditional and more profound than oneself. of creativity. Evolution is a profoundly

Tui Motu InterIslands 15 June 2010 profile

s s creative process. A creative spirit “People thought we were crazy sparks it and keeps it going. To be growing tomatoes on the front lawn. an artist is to engage in the spirit of We ran programmes on gardening for evolution with all its spontaneities beneficiaries and the unemployed. I and creativity.” don’t think we convinced too many of them to re-inhabit their own backyards Peter’s art is a reflection of his values but we tried!” he says with a laugh. and beliefs on many levels. He is a committed environmentalist; ecology The next step on the journey was a move and spirituality have been abiding to Kingfisher Farm in Northland. This interests through his years of ministry. 50-acre property was jointly owned by He has held a number of public art the Josephite Sisters and Sue and Bill exhibitions in Wellington, Auckland Bradford. It is a multi-purpose facility and Whangarei. – a farm, a garden and a Research and Education Centre for Social Change. Peter began his ministry as a teacher of Workshops on ecology and spirituality art at St Patrick’s College, Wellington. were part of the programme. Then came a stint as a community worker living in a progressive religious “To be an artist is to engage in community in Strathmore and a the spirit of evolution with all its chaplaincy role at the Auckland spontaneities and creativity.” People’s Centre, a resource centre for – Peter Healy beneficiaries and the unemployed. These days Peter is back in Wellington, “The early 90s was a time of great working as a prison chaplain, and also ferment,” he recalls. Peter was a with youth who have problems with member of the Network of Religious for Justice and Peace and “there was a anger and violence. This issue has strong dialogue between our justice been a long-standing area of interest network and the unemployed rights for Peter who first began working centre.” with men with anger management problems, back in Strathmore. He was also involved in a West Auckland youth programme, Youth “It’s great work. It was a real eye-opener Alive. This programme for youth to me to be involved in this field and offenders has achieved impressive to address issues around male privilege results and is still going today. During and male control.” this time Peter represented the Justice Meanwhile the art rolls on. His successful and Peace Network at the Rio Earth Quatrefoil exhibition, which was held Summit in 1992. “That was a turning in Wellington last year, maintained his point for me in terms of focusing focus on the beauty of creation. on ecology and care for the earth. That has been a major focus ever “These paintings are about our sacred since and has had a major influence universe and the wonder of it all,” says on my art.” Peter. Soon after the Summit, Peter joined the “Several of the paintings have circles, Josephite Sisters on an urban ecology squares and quatrefoils incised into project in Northcote, Auckland. The them. These ancient cosmological idea was to “re-inhabit your own circles are symbols of universal backyard”, growing your own food and harmony. They are the ideal pattern becoming as self-sustaining as possible and proportion that nature’s forms within the confines of suburbia. strive for.” Michael Fitzsimons 16 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 our sacred universe

Paintings by Peter Healy SM

These paintings are from a recent exhibition of Peter Healy’s work, which was the fruit of three year’s creative endeavour. His Artist’s Statement from the exhibition provides some insights into his art:

have for sometime been a student of “Icosmology, ecology and spirituality. I have no training in the science of these subjects but rather in the contemplative and creative side of them. My art is a reflection of myself – my ecological self – that aspect of myself that knows intuitively that I belong to a comprehensive Earth community. The shape I am working with is called the quatrefoil. The quatrefoil is part of sacred geometry. It has been used for many centuries as a shape for containing stained glass windows. Trefoils (three circle shapes) and quatrefoils (four circle shapes) in various forms are found in many of Europe’s great Cathedrals. Quatrefoils evoke the notion of Quaternity, the union of four-in-one. Quaternity is analogous to the theological doctrine of the Trinity, the union of three-in-one. Quaternity is mirrored in our world in the four winds, the four elements, the four directions, the four gospels, the four letters of the sacred name (YHWH), the four humours, the four phases of the moon, the four psychic functions, the four columns of the universe etc. My aesthetic finds its inspiration in the universe story (the 14 billion year epic of evolution) and the impulse within this epic that has been called the aesthetic cosmological principle. I am a student of this principle and its restless movement towards ever more intense configurations of beauty.”

Tui Motu InterIslands 17 June 2010 interview

Archbishop John Dew was made Auxiliary Bishop of Wellington in 1995 and Coadjutor Archbishop in 2004. The following year he was made Archbishop. Michael Fitzsimons caught up with the Archbishop and asked him to reflect on 15 years of pastoral leadership of the Wellington Archdiocese.

What model of leadership do you What is the biggest impediment to However there’s also the frustration aspire to? that happening? that only a small percentage are It’s summed up in what I said when I think a lot of people still think that engaged in the life and mission of the I became Archbishop. I issued an mission is the role of the clergy, not Church in this way. There’s a whole lot invitation to people. I asked them understanding that our Baptism calls of people who are not really engaged. will you come with me as I take up all of us to be involved in the life of the They are not negative, they are not the shepherd’s staff that has been Church, at the service of the world. anti but they are not very involved. I carried by those before me? The whole They think being a Catholic is going think the challenge is to get that very emphasis of this model of leadership to Mass on Sunday, maybe being big group of people engaged, even for is on collaboration – clergy and laity involved in a committee, rather than just a couple of hours a week. What a working together, people of different seeing it as a total way of life. I think difference that would make to the life nationalities working together, young that mindset is a big impediment. I of the church! and old working together. I aspire am very conscious of the need to get What are the signs of hope you see to a style of leadership which draws people to see they have a responsibility as you move about the Church? people to work together for the and an obligation to use the gifts they One thing would have to be the mission of the Church. It is summed have been given. young people in the Church who are up with that invitation: will you come so willing to be involved, and keen to with me? How do you see the New Zealand Church at the moment? give of their time and gifts. They are Many years ago I had a very significant There are some really exciting things very prayerful and deeply involved in experience on the island of Iona, off the happening. I do see a lot of people issues of justice and environmental coast of Scotland, where I was on retreat. picking up responsibilities in parishes issues. That is a great sign of hope. I went to prayer one night at the Abbey and diocesan organisations all over There are also the parishes that are and the prayer focused on some very the country, using their time and their really working at building genuine simple Scripture verses, one of which talents and their treasure for the good communities, knowing that if they was feed my sheep which for some reason of the church. That is tremendously can create a sense of belonging, that really hit me. For days, and in fact for encouraging. I see people exploring is going to bring people to belief. It many years, I wondered what it meant, new ways to pray and really searching is not belief that leads to belonging, what was its significance? It wasn’t until for a spirituality that helps them it’s belonging that leads to belief. I had been a Bishop, and then became to fully live their lives in the world It’s thrilling when you see parishes Archbishop, that I knew what it meant. today, wherever they are, as disciples of working very hard at being hospitable I have been saying to people since the Lord. and giving people that vital sense of becoming Archbishop, will you come belonging. When people feel they with me and feed my sheep? So many I see some great things in terms of belong, they find it easier to believe in people are looking for God, longing different ethnic groups working everything. When they have a sense of for God, we have the responsibility and together. It’s heartening to go to being accepted, of being among like- the opportunity as church to feed them some of our parishes where the whole minded people and belonging to a with Scripture, with the Eucharist, congregation sing hymns in Maori, group, it’s tremendously empowering. with the inspiration of our faith. Our Tokelauan and Samoan and it’s not concern must be to ensure that the just left to one particular group. I really understood this when I took church is working for the good of Everyone knows that they belong, they a fantastic group of young people the world. are members of the parish together. to the World Youth Day in Rome in

18 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 2000. They were amazed to be among that this was happening. It was written when something like this happens. In so many other young people from for the Catholic community. I felt the public spotlight this issue obscures all round the world who believed something needed to be said. Here in everything else, no thought is given and were committed to their faith. New Zealand, we have had for some to all the other issues on which the They don’t experience this at home. time some very strict protocols to deal Church might speak on in the light of It was so much easier for them to be with abuse cases. But mostly I issued Scripture and Catholic social teaching. Catholic in the midst of that crowd. the Letter to reassure people that There’s great authority in that but it It is so important to feel supported. everyone is trying to do their best, to doesn’t get media attention. They are Belonging leads to belief. offer an apology and an appeal to work not interested. together and be prayerful people. I was The New Zealand Church is The other point of course is that the concerned to reassure people and give beginning to experience a shortage failings of one family member do not them hope, to let Catholics know the of priests at parish level. How do you undermine the moral authority of the issue was not being ignored. see that impacting on the Church? whole family. Those who have offended If we look at other countries in the “In those areas where we are few in number but they are part of world, we are not short of priests at our family and the Church leadership all. One of the messages I have been have priests and lay people accepts responsibility for their failure. trying to get across is that this is an working together in pastoral Adult education is taken very opportunity for us to empower lay area teams, we are seeing seriously in the Archdiocese. What’s people to be actively involved in parish the role of the Wellington Catholic communities and pastoral areas, and new life coming into those Education Centre (WCEC)? an opportunity for people to work parishes because there are The Centre offers high quality together. In those areas where we have more gifts being used.” priests and lay people working together Catholic education and professional assistance to Catholic schools, parishes in pastoral area teams, we are seeing new It was also an appeal to our clergy. At and pastoral areas. It’s a key way of life coming into those parishes because the Chrism Mass during Holy Week I developing a diverse and passionate there are more gifts being used. talked about the renewal of our priestly community, grounded in the teachings promises. We are called to be models Clearly we need priests for sacramental of Jesus Christ. ministry but this current situation is of Christ but we can’t do it alone. At not a disaster. It’s an opportunity to the Mass we renewed our vows and The WCEC is a registered private involve lay people and empower them promised to give of ourselves in love, training establishment and several of its to use their gifts. We are beginning to to do that we need the support of our courses are NZQA accredited. What we see new life, new ideas and increased people and our community. have discovered is that once people begin the courses – and this has happened numbers where priests and lay people I think the crisis is an opportunity for with our Launch Out candidates – they are working as a team. Some of our clergy to look at the way they work and realise that there is a treasure in Church priests are getting tired – it’s exciting relate to people and to affirm that we teaching and theology which they had when they have new and enthusiastic are here to be of service, we are here to little idea about. lay people who have been well trained be available, we are here to pray with and can help them think of new ways of people. It is a time for a purification We encourage people to do these doing things. It adds a new dimension of motives and a time to reflect on the courses. It’s one of the great gifts we to the life of the community. way we work as clergy. have – being able to offer courses that Recently, in Holy Week, you issued The Dominion Post wrote a assist the teachers in our schools, those a Pastoral Letter to the Archdiocese particularly harsh editorial in which preparing for ministries in parishes, of Wellington, about the sexual it argued the Church has lost its prison and hospital chaplaincies, as well abuse scandal that is besetting the moral authority to speak at all on as meeting the needs of people who Church worldwide. It caught the moral issues? What is your reaction just want to study for interest. There’s a attention of many commentators to that? huge richness there which I would love to see more people taking advantage including cartoonist Tom Scott who I suppose that view was not entirely of. People on the teaching staff are very contrasted your approach with that surprising, given the number of abuse well qualified and we find that most of a high-ranking Vatican official. cases that have recently been reported participants come back for more. Why did you issue the Letter? from around the world. It is very tragic There was so much being said about that those cases have happened but the How do you see the Church of the the issue around the world, I certainly fact is there are still many other areas future? had the impression our Catholic in which the Church can speak with I would love to see communities that s s people were hurt and disappointed great authority. That gets clouded are deeply prayerful, communities

Tui Motu InterIslands 19 June 2010 s s where there are opportunities for that we are all Catholics together. A final word to readers? people to come together not just for One day I was out at the Cenacle That life of prayer and reflection will Sunday Mass but coming together on a prayer day and I read the line – lead to greater involvement in liturgy, to pray and reflect on the Scriptures “everything is gift and God is the giver and liturgy well done leads to greater during the week. behind the gift”. That insight made a involvement in social outreach and huge impact on my life. It will be a church which prepares justice issues. them for being part of a vibrant, alive I encourage people not to be afraid to At the end of Mass we say, “Go you are community. It will be a church which use their God-given gifts. Everything sent”. We are sent to take the Gospel realises that our faith is not just about is given to us as a gift from God and to the world around us but sometimes our parish or pastoral area, it is about us each one of us has to look for ways to I don’t think people have grasped this. offering the Gospel to the world around return those gifts with thanks, in the We are sent out there with a task, to us. I would like to see these communities way we are engaged in the Church and take the Gospel to our homes and those embracing the richness of different the world around us. places where we recreate and work. ethnic groups and showing by action

Pastoral Letter from Archbishop John Dew There have been priests in New Zealand who have abused to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Wellington, children and young adults, so we do not claim to be guilt free. Holy Week, 2010 However our protocols are very strict and the Church openly collaborates with civil authorities. The Protocol document “Te Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Houhongo Rongo – A Path to Healing” was developed in the 1990s, it has been reviewed several times in order to ensure In my regular Newsletter to the Priests, Lay Pastoral Leaders and that the best is done for those that have been abused. We offer Archdiocesan Department Directors I have quoted Archbishop support to victims and do everything possible to ensure that Vincent Nichols of the Archdiocese of Westminster. He their dignity and self-esteem are not further eroded. had reflected on the “Priest as Witness” and spoken of self- renunciation, “the exorbitant price paid by Christ and reflected I have apologised to victims of abuse; I do so again in the face in the life of the priest”. of the present crisis engulfing the Church. I also apologise to you, the people of the Archdiocese, for the humiliation, Sadly we have become aware that not all priests have reflected embarrassment and disappointment you feel. I know that an Christ’s self-renunciation. Right now there is deep hurt in the apology on its own is not sufficient. It is necessary that we, Catholic family, as we have all been shocked and stunned by the shepherds, look closely at our own actions and life style, the deviant and sometimes criminal behaviour of clergy in deepen our prayer life and consider anew the meaning of our many parts of the world. This is compounded by the revelation commitment to living the “self-renunciation of Christ”. This that some bishops have minimised the seriousness of abuse of Year of the Priest and the dignity of our calling demand that children by priests, and the hurt is even deeper. we do that. While some might rejoice that the Church has been found This week is called “Holy” because of the self-offering of Jesus wanting, for many it is a crisis of faith. It is certainly an occasion (“the exorbitant price paid by his life”), because of his death of deep sadness for all of us. With the world media claiming and his life-giving resurrection. In Holy Week there is also that the Church has lost credibility and some calling for the betrayal and denial. Peter, chosen as shepherd, denied he knew Pope to be held personally responsible, and even to resign, I Jesus. His weakness crippled his commitment. He was restored believe it is my duty to reach out to you as your bishop and as by the loving forgiveness of Jesus and charged to strengthen your brother within the family of the Catholic community. his brothers. Following the example of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, bishops I look for that same strength for myself, and for all of us; and priests are called to protect and nourish those entrusted to shepherds and you, sisters and brothers. We ask for that their care, seeking out the lost, binding the wounded, making strength through the prayers of St Peter. The Church will come the weak strong. This means giving their lives in the service of through this difficult time only when all priests live the life of God’s people, and like Jesus “paying the exorbitant price”. This Christ, which includes suffering, carrying the cross, paying the is what priests commit themselves to at ordination and renew at “exorbitant price”. It is then that we will know the new life of every Chrism Mass. Priests have a privileged responsibility and Easter. one, which you honour with your loving and generous support. I pray that we may all be lifted up in renewal of heart through Some of those called to be shepherds have been found wanting the power of the One who makes all things new. As we come through their abuse of the sacred trust placed in them. Though though this Holy Week may Easter dawn within us, bringing few in number, the entire Church leadership must accept hope and joy and life. responsibility for their failure. +John A Dew Archbishop of Wellington

20 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 war and peace

memories

M.J. Orange reflects on scars inflicted by war which never heal.

Dad could say to describe what he and firing all night, pounding away at the If you want to find the old battalion thousands of other men had endured. German trenches. One by one, my I know where they are, friends were killed. They died around If you want to find the old battalion He was a taciturn man struggling with me, one by one, and we went on firing I know where they are. ill health as a result of mustard gas and the horror of the trenches. Worse than that gun. In the morning I was the They’re hanging on the old barbed wire, only one left.” I’ve seen ‘em, I’ve seen ‘em. this though was the irreversible injury inflicted on his soul. His young man’s Hanging on the old barbed wire, We were silent for a long, long time. spirit had been broken, and I don’t At last I said, stupidly: “Dad, you I’ve seen ‘em, think he ever regained the joy and the should’ve got a medal for that.” Hanging on the old barbed wire. excitement of living. Being alive had From The Long Trail by John come at such cost, his younger brother Disgusted, Dad shook his head wearily Brophy & Eric Partridge. and many mates killed in action. and walked away. When the Second World War began stand in a replica of an earth- my brothers and I, aged nine to Blackberrying in high places. walled trench in the Auckland War I twelve, were caught up in the glamour Memorial Museum and I think of For my late Father, Thomas Corin. and patriotic zeal of New Zealand my father. In a place like this he had and the British Commonwealth’s I gather blackberries lived for hours, days, weeks, maybe stand against the evils of the German high above Carey’s Bay. months, and I know nothing about it. Reich and its allies. Dad kept his Below, the artist rests, The hell of those war years from 1916 counsel, very occasionally making a creator of beauty from shadows to 1918 was never spoken of. This love in the between. bitter or cynical comment when we trench does nothing to portray what it Swaddling the bay eloquently declaimed the baseness of was really like. It is neat and sanitised, in homes and hotel Germans, Italians and Japanese, and silent and orderly. How can I imagine his dark crosses keen. when our pride in the exploits of the the terrifying din, the unrelenting Allied Forces became unrealistic and I remember Mt.Corrin, mud, the stench? How can I feel the extravagant. We had no idea what we the intercity driver telling me despair, the gut-clamping fear, the were talking about. How could we? of how a King built on the summit courage, friendships never forgotten, not wanting death in the Blackwater the interminable waiting, hopelessness, I well remember the only time my and how his young son fell into a barrel merciless exhaustion, all the terrible father spoke of his experiences in the of water brought for the building, intangibles that bonded men and left war to end all wars. He’d had a whiskey drowned, as the druid said. them with a legacy of life-long silence? or three, and I suppose our ignorant I climb through fourteen Stations As Cecil Burgess of the Wellington chatter gave him the encouragement of the Cross, sculpture and wood, Infantry (1914-1918) puts it: “I went to say, to the high cairn and cross home to a father, mother and four “You don’t know, you youngsters! You Celtic and Catholic entwined and then meander down sisters and no one ever asked me what talk a lot of rot! There was a night – I past hawthorn dressed for healing it was like. For seventy years no one remember…” ever asked me what it was like.” beside St. Peter’s well, Hushed, we waited, hoping Dad gathering blackberries. As children, my brothers and I did ask, would go on. It would be important, Crosses and cairns “What was it like in the war, Dad?” His what he had to say, this rare moment transcend division reply would be a terse order to get on of memory. death and with our meal or our homework, or distance. he would sigh and walk out to the “The big field gun – had to keep it vegetable garden to stand in silent firing, all through the night. Me and Dorothy Howie, February, 2008. contemplation. There was nothing that my mates, we were a team. Just keep

Tui Motu InterIslands 21 June 2010 refugees

Amanda Calder

n his book The Life You Can Save – generously and selflessly to refugees Last year, for example, the Trust IActing Now To End World Poverty, in need, both those overseas and those needed to raise nearly $11,000 to Peter Singer discusses what it means living in our community. help an elderly Somali woman pay to live ethically, particularly for those for the airfares to bring her orphaned The Refugee Family Reunification Trust of us whose material circumstances nephews and niece to join her in is a charity that raises money to are infinitely better than those of Wellington. She had been forced to financially assist refugees who are people living in extreme poverty. He flee Somalia in 1988 after most of her already in New Zealand with the costs challenges us by posing questions of bringing eligible family members family were killed, and she lived in a about our choices. If you could save to join them here. Cardinal Thomas refugee camp in Ethiopia for 11 years a child’s life by donating a relatively Williams is one of the patrons of this before coming to New Zealand. Ever small amount of money to an aid Trust, and two St Joseph’s parishioners, since she arrived in New Zealand, she agency, is it possible that by choosing myself and Philippa Meachan, are fought to bring her orphaned nephews to spend money on other things, you Chairperson and Trustee respectively. and niece to join her. They remained are leaving a child to die whom you Whenever the Refugee Family in impoverished circumstances in could otherwise have saved? Reunification Trust has a shortfall of Ethiopia when their refugee camp closed down. They faced constant As Singer puts it: “Most of us are funds, St Joseph’s parishioners willingly danger, and a shortage of food absolutely certain that we wouldn’t make donations. By pooling resources, this parish makes a huge difference. and water. Finally, they were given hesitate to save a drowning child, and that we would do it at considerable cost to ourselves. Yet while thousands of children die each day, we spend money on things we take for granted and would hardly miss if they were not there. Is that wrong? If so, how far does our obligation to the poor go?”

As Catholics, do we have an even stronger moral obligation and respon- sibility to help those in need, given that helping the poor is a fundamental part of our faith?

St Joseph’s Parish in Mt Victoria, Wellington, responds in a very practical way to the needs of the poorest of the poor – refugees. Through its close links Amanda Calder at the airport in October 2009 with two young girls arriving to join to the Refugee Family Reunification their mother. The Trust helped these young children and their parents come from Trust, St Joseph’s parishioners give Sudan, where they had been living as refugees. They arrived in February 2009.

22 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 permanent residence in New Zealand. need financial help to make family St Joseph’s parish contributed $2,500 reunification possible. The Trust is a towards the airfares to get them here. splendid example of ‘walking the talk’.” Father Patrick Bridgman and several With more than 10 million refugees in parishioners were at the airport to the world today, it would be very easy see this family reunited after having to think that the problem is too big to been separated from each other for tackle. But the Trust has been able to nearly 10 years, and the family visited achieve remarkable results by simply the parish on Refugee Sunday to say focusing on those refugees in need in thank you. Father Patrick recalls “It the greater Wellington region. was a privilege and a great joy to see When we established the Trust in this family coming through the arrival 2001, we never dreamt we would be gate. Initially there was caution on able to reunite so many refugees! So their faces, and then beaming delight far, 132 refugee families have been as they recognised their own family helped by the Trust. The Trust has members and friends of the extended paid for airfares to bring more than community. In that moment all the 300 refugees – many of whom were The Trust helped these young children trials that they had endured were given and their parents come from Sudan, children and young people – to re-join the context of the new possibility of a where they had been living as refugees. their families in Wellington. family life in a place of peace. In my They arrived in February 2009. heart I prayed that we, as a country, The support we have been given has Many of these families were living would not disappoint them.” been amazing. Every time a new in refugee camps in Kenya, Ethiopia refugee seeks help I wonder where the and Sudan. By also helping to furnish a flat for money will come from, but it always this family, St Joseph’s parishioners turns up in time. As soon as I explain The Trust hears stories all the time played a significant role in bringing the circumstances of a refugee family about what it is like in a refugee this family back together again. There needing help, the money just seems to camp – the deprivation, the lack is no greater joy than seeing a mother be donated. There are so many generous of food, the lack of clean water and or father finally reunited with their individuals in Wellington who are medical care, the lack of education children after many years apart. It is willing to help others in need. People’s for children and the constant dangers wonderful to be able to help someone generosity never ceases to amaze me. I for women. Many refugees have been in such need and to give them such just wish everyone who donates to the living in these circumstances all their happiness after so much tragedy and Trust could come to the airport and see lives. When they arrive at Wellington loss. Having families together is the what their donation has achieved. It airport, they not only have access to key to successful refugee resettlement really is possible to save a life. the basic necessities of life, but they in New Zealand. suddenly gain the opportunity to have an education, to be healthy, to be safe, Cardinal Thomas Williams has “As catholics, do we to enjoy the love of their family – they reflected that “It is intrinsic in human have an even stronger now have a future. nature to be in relationship with each other and family relationships are the moral obligation and most important of them all. Belonging responsibility to help to a family provides a sense of identity, security and worth. For refugees when those in need, given that their family members are far away and helping the poor is a possibly in danger, the distance and fundamental part of uncertainty is extremely distressing. Amanda Calder is Chairperson of Until the family is reunited, it is very our faith?” The Refugee Family Reunification Trust. difficult for refugees to move on and to Readers who would like to know more integrate fully into the new society. It By nationality, the families who about the work of the Trust, or can help in any way, can contact Amanda is not enough to agree that the right to have been assisted by the Trust were by telephone at 04 475 7994 or email be with one’s family is among the most originally from Somalia, Ethiopia, her at [email protected] Donations fundamental of all human rights. As Eritrea, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, can also be made directly at Westpac, the costs of bringing family members Afghanistan, Cambodia, Liberia, Lambton Quay Branch, account to New Zealand are very high, refugees Sudan, Myanmar and Banda Ache. number 030502-337025-00.

Tui Motu InterIslands 23 June 2010 spirituality

don’t forget to wake early

If we are in a state of depression, or prone to such states, it is at least partly our habits of thought that bring us there or keep us there, writes Daniel O’Leary. But, even on the dark winter mornings, it is possible to allow ourselves to emerge from the gloom.

“ ight and day my thoughts are driving me mad. Nor In The Mindful Way Through Depression, authors Williams, Ncan I pray anymore.” Such anxious cries are becoming Teasdale, Segal and Kabat-Zinn offer a different approach more common in our parishes and communities. Few to improving the quality of our lives by practising another people today are untouched by the temptation to chronic way of thinking – a combination of an Eastern meditative unhappiness, to depression, to despair. And bleak winter tradition and Western cognitive therapy. They ask us to days are no help to such victims of the mind when that replace the ‘doing mode’ of the mind with the ‘being mode’. temptation comes. Instead of allowing ourselves to be seduced into unhappiness It is suggested by many that in our quiet desperation we try by our false and toxic thinking, or our fearful efforts to too hard to free our mind from such thoughts. We panic at avoid or suppress emotions – maybe around persistent our inability to shift the anxiety we have compulsively built memories of a long-past humiliation, an imagined fear, within us. We storm heaven and start novenas. But the more or a grief that has lost its way – it is possible to directly we try the worse it gets. By putting relentless pressure on encounter and experience those thoughts without the our minds we only spin the vicious circle faster. All we are depressing fabrications we weave around them. mostly doing, the experts tell us, is reinforcing the patterns of thinking that keep activating our pain. Through a deep, “Mindfulness” is how they describe this process of dealing existential fear, perhaps, or a pessimistic turn of mind, only with the reality of present experiences rather than we exaggerate the negative, we falsely fantasise about the linking them with past failures, real or imaginary. The secret distressing outcome of things. And we take these distorted is to become aware of ourselves thinking and feeling. This thoughts as the absolute truth. new hygiene of the mind does not fight with or try to banish ‘the enemy within’; rather it befriends those threatening These thoughts then trap us, turning a small sadness into thoughts and moods, carefully exploring them realistically a web of anxiety. A harmless event, a throwaway comment with a non-judgmental compassion – but eternally vigilant can escalate into a flood of depressing emotions that for their deadly tricks, traps and temptations. destroy our sense of worthiness and joy. Our very thinking becomes the enemy, according to writers Eckhart Tolle and It is in this watchful silence, Henri Nouwen believes, that we Richard Rohr. Most of it (85 per cent, they claim) serves can recognise the ways we try to hide and avoid facing the only to upset us more. The Irish poet and philosopher John truth about ourselves; the way we can come to distinguish O’Donohue refers to the “crippling effect of our dried-out, the reality of our condition from the irrational scenario of dead thoughts in the cul-de-sac of our lives”. Our incessant, alarm, disgrace or self-blame that we fearfully attach to it. defeatist focusing on things that happen to us ties us into He pictures our fears and panic as emerging from where an even tighter tangle. we have hidden them, and saying to us, “You can only be free if you look at us in the face. We are not as awful as you A helpful beginning is the understanding that it is not the imagine. When you see us as we really are, not as you think facts themselves that bring on depressive attitudes, but how we are, you will be free to find your happiness again.” our minds deal with those facts. Our habitual reaction to a passing disappointment can transform it into a persistent, In the ‘being mode’ we experience and embrace the objective unsettling unhappiness. Like a blind automatic pilot, reality of what is unfolding around us. We acknowledge our warped thinking becomes seriously misleading. Our the way things are, without any mental fencing or forcing. contact with life, with the truth, is no longer a direct or Mindfulness is about paying non-judgmental attention only reliable one. to what is actually happening at any given moment; not

24 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 to the fearful anticipation, the false stories, the depressing possibilities that something compulsive inside us wildly Moving On weaves as true. I can see us all moving on. This type of awareness is much more than paying attention The clouds, black and raggedy with more concentration; it is about how we pay attention. As scoot across the harbour. if standing behind a waterfall, we calmly observe the cascade of our mental distortions without getting dragged down, like What sound do seagulls make when they are happy? defenceless victims, into the pool of depression. We need to What makes the water not restless? keep reminding ourselves that our unmindful thoughts are When exactly will the hand slip off the wheel? passing mental events. They are not reality itself. We must When will the current overwhelm? harvest the precious energy of our mind for the current task in hand – to see things as they are, not as we are. Will I be alone with a stone in my hand – Dr Raj Persaud, senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University perfectly smooth like your cheek – of London, traces our inner distress to an inability to and the tide running out, ‘keep our thoughts and emotions current’, to adapt them coherently to the actual changes in our circumstances. Under Or, I wonder, the Spirit, a healthy mind will draw the hidden self towards will there be grace, the abundant life. The free and present mind beckons us will your cheek be there with mine, on ever-new journeys – to feel and fulfill our longing for wet and warm, joy, to bring beckoning horizons within our reach. But the and the splendour of the sun will spill over those hills, predetermined tramlines of yesterday’s dark thinking will strike the pillow not bring us to places of hope or imagination. The Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh wrote, “To be dead is to stop believing in and I will be amazed to be carried to the masterpieces we will begin tomorrow.” our wherever. – Michael Fitzsimons “The predetermined tramlines of yesterday’s dark thinking will not bring us to places of hope or imagination.”

“Mind your mind,” O’Donohue re-minds us. We are all responsible for our own thoughts. We have the spiritual power to choose joy, to respond with gratitude even on a grey day, to think in happier rhythms. The beautiful, fragile mind is the place of our most profound freedom. That is why, in all its wanderings, obsessions and struggles, it must be nourished, cherished and protected. In the purifying of our mind it is important, the wise tell us, to keep constantly grounded in our own bodies and in the energy of the earth. For many, these dark, winter mornings are the hardest times. Yet, with courage, with dedicated practice, we can welcome each day like a child waking up with a new look in her eyes, blessing with delight everything she looks at, praising God unknowingly for everything she touches. She is the small baptismal priestess within us, presiding at the table of each fresh beginning, consecrating again the bread and wine of our morning minds. “And don’t forget to awake early,” the Sufi poet Rumi reminds us. “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep; do not go back to sleep.”

Daniel O’Leary, a priest of the Leeds Diocese, is based at Our Lady of Graces Presbytery, Tombridge Crescent, Kinsley, West Yorkshire WF9 5HA. With permission The Tablet.

Tui Motu InterIslands 25 June 2010 scripture

the woman “who has shown great love”

Kathleen Ruston RSM

“ he has shown great love.” Thus Jesus The parable has one point: one who Neither is named by any of the known Sspeaks of the unnamed woman has been forgiven much loves greatly terms of the time for such women. The in Luke’s anointing story (7:36-50). the one who has forgiven the debt. woman’s presence at a banquet opens In contrast, the narrator calls her “a her up to the accusation of being a sinner” as does the Pharisee Simon in In the narrative of the woman’s action prostitute. However, she did none of his heart. Subtitles inserted into many (7:36-40), we see an unnamed member the activities that banquet courtesans Bible versions implant this memory of of the outcast poor rejected by the did: participate in the banquet, engage her in our hearts too. On the Eleventh religious elite. Like the poor throughout in witty conversation with banqueters, Sunday of Ordinary Time, we shall hear this gospel she shows by her action of drink with them, recline beside them, read from the Lectionary the Jerusalem hospitality – the kissing and anointing dance, act, play flute or harp and Bible version that “a woman came in, of Jesus’ feet – that she recognises who entertain. who had a bad name in the town.” Jesus is. He knows what is in her heart. Jesus too knows what is in Simon’s And “Mary called Magdalene, from The three other gospels link the heart. Jesus explains he invited him whom seven demons had gone out” anointing story to Jesus’ burial and to his table but violated the customs (8:2). “The seven” of “the seven demons” locate it in the last week of his life. In of hospitality. Simon’s action and serves to underline a great number John, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ thoughts show he does not accept Jesus and is used also to indicate frequency feet in her home (12:1-8). In Matthew as God’s prophet (vv.44-50). or power. In the ancient world, illness (26:6-13) and Mark (14:3-10), also at of the body and the mind were traced Bethany but in the house of Simon Commentators speculate that this to demons. There is nothing here (or the leper, an unnamed woman woman is a sexual sinner. However, elsewhere 11:26) to suggest that seven anoints Jesus’ head. Her priestly and when Simon Peter says he is “a sinful demons means sexual sin except in kingly action is often unnoticed and man” in the story of his call (5:8), no the mind of interpreters throughout not read in the Sunday lectionary commentator ever discusses what type the ages! No other biblical women are cycles. The only art depiction I have of sins he may have committed let as sexualised, trivialised or demonised found is the 1260 illustration of two alone that he was a prostitute. as the unnamed woman of Luke and anointing women in a Basel Cistercian There is no textual evidence to identify Mary Magdalene whose identity is Monastery Psalter. this woman as Mary Magdalene or to collapsed into hers. Luke’s account is found much earlier hold that either or both are prostitutes. A more apt title for this story would be: in Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. The “Jesus, the Woman and the Pharisee.” controversy is because the woman is a The story is much more than about sinner and not about extravagance and Jesus’ kindness to a repentant woman waste as in the other gospels. So who and edifying reflection about it. We are is this woman who “has shown great drawn into this uncomfortable triangle love”? What is the significance of Luke’s in which Jesus knows minds and hearts, shaping of her story? While v.37 says a pattern repeated in Luke (e.g., 2:34- clearly that she was a sinner, the tense 35; 5:21-22; 6:8 …). Like Simon, Jesus of the Greek verb has the connotation knows what is in our hearts and minds. of “used to be.” Likewise, in v.47 the We are invited into expansiveness of perfect tense of the verb, “have been heart and mind, moving beyond short- forgiven” expresses a past action whose sighted perceptions. Did Simon move effect endures in the present. into expanded perceptions? The story is open-ended about his response as it is for Often in Luke, when Jesus wants to us who ponder this story of the woman explain God’s reign (baseilia) he tells whose heart recognised Jesus and whose a parable. Jesus replies to Simon’s action “has shown great love.” perception in his heart of the woman as sinner by telling a parable. What This illustration of two anointing women, Kathleen Rushton is a Sister of Mercy, Simon “sees” (vv.39, 44) frames the dating back to 1260, is taken from a scripture scholar and spiritual director, parable of the two debtors (vv.41-43). Basel Cistercian Monastery Psalter. living in Christchurch.

26 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 film review

humour fills the void Boy, directed by Taika Waititi Film review: Paul Sorrell his film is cool, it’s choice – in fact it’s really wicked, eh. But rather than getting bogged down in some potentially very TSuch terms of approval seem apt when considering a film dark and heavy themes (and we are never quite allowed to forget set in a rural Maori community in 1984 and, more importantly, that, if something doesn’t happen, the children will end up just one in which the values and aspirations of the adult world like their elders), Waititi treats his material with disarming are seen through children’s eyes. While Boy deals with some humour. Much of it is of the Billy T. James variety, and the of the problems that still affect Maori disproportionately – great Maori comedian makes a brief appearance, accompanied poverty, crime, unemployment, drug-taking, bad parenting – by approving titters from the kids. The other comparison that director Waititi sets aside the dark, Gothic vision that seems suggests itself is bro’Town, which uses satire and humour to almost compulsory for Kiwi filmmakers and lets loose with a portray issues faced by the Auckland Pasifika community. relentless broadside of non-stop humour. While we see the film through the eyes of Boy, his younger Boy is a nine-year-old growing up with his young siblings brother Rocky steals the show. Rocky, who is perhaps another and cousins in Waihau Bay, a small town on the East Coast aspect of Boy’s persona, fantasises that he has superhuman powers that can change the world – the out-of-control adult of the North Island. His mother died in childbirth and his world, that is. In one poignant scene he apologises to his father father, Alamein (played with enormous gusto by Waititi), is in for possessing such strong magic that he inadvertently killed jail. Auntie, who is supposed to be bringing them up, has left his mother as she was giving birth to him. Rocky’s crayon town to attend an extended tangihanga. Boy hero-worships his drawings, skillfully animated on-screen, give us a striking absent father, and weaves all kinds of fantasies around him – insight into the pathos of childhood innocence. chief among them is that he is going to take him to a concert by his other hero, Michael Jackson. The heart of the film shows If at the end of the film Boy’s guileless view of the adult world us the slow unravelling of this dream as Alamein, or Shogun has been well and truly disabused, Waititi is determined not to as he renames himself, proves on returning home to be a loose leave us on a gloomy note. The Michael Jackson pastiche that canon, possessed of a manic energy that is totally without plays over the credits, energetically danced to the stirring music direction. Despite his affection for his children, he has nothing of the Patea Maori Club’s classic hit Poi E, is one of the high positive to offer them as a role model. points of the movie. If we can’t cry, at least we can laugh.

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Tui Motu InterIslands 27 June 2010 book reviews

reader-friendly guide to social justice

Globalization, Spirituality and Justice tradition of liturgy and spirituality his ability to make acute and masterly Daniel Groody in Catholicism – and the way each of summaries of numerous sources, Publisher: Orbis, 2007 these highlight God’s call for a more underlining leading themes through Review: Neil Vaney SM just world. the use of key citations, showing wise and judicious reading. n his preface, Groody proposes Here, for me, are some of the highlights Ihis ground-plan: “This book is of Groody’s work. His overview of His foray into non-Christian religions a reflection on how to think about Biblical perspectives is noteworthy for looks at Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, poverty, justice and liberation in the use of two overarching themes; Baha’i and African indigenous faiths. light of Christian faith and within first, he details five meta-narratives, His judgments are fair, if not overly our current global context.” This is a those of Empire, the world of the critical, but I was surprised at some of daunting task, involving a synthesis poor, Yahweh’s designs, idolatry and the interesting insights from Baha’i and of economic trends, social analysis the gospel. While expounding the African beliefs. In the latter, emphasis and theology. It demands a dense text, final theme he then makes use of the on life as a sacred gift and the priority of chock-full of summaries of key works, three principles that characterise Jesus’ community over individual autonomy, and an acute eye for overarching ministry, following the liberation are very redolent of Catholicity. His themes and analogies. theologian Elizondo: namely the chapter on liturgy is especially brave. Galilean, Jerusalem and Resurrection He attempts to balance the need for a In nine chapters and 280 pages Groody motifs. In chapter 7 the author gives universal worship against the needs of succeeds remarkably. Never pretending a very balanced and fair assessment local communities while his use of the to encapsulate fully the complexity of of liberation theology. Especially mountain metaphor in his treatment global transformation, nor to weigh outstanding is his explanation of the of spirituality is particularly felicitous. up apodictically the goods and evils of contentious ‘fundamental option for globalization, he nevertheless provides the poor’. A final thought; for a text that is many tools with which to make such so meaty, and includes so many judgments and sets forth many of the Another area where I considered summaries and quotations, the style is indicators that point the way. Groody’s insights and even-handedness remarkably even and readable. At the to be excellent was his treatment of five end of each chapter Groody includes His chapters follow a classical pattern. personal paradigms of justice: Gandhi, pertinent questions for reflection and In the first he expounds some key Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, lists of allied readings, which make his statistics: wealth distribution within Mother Theresa and Oscar Romero. book even more reader friendly. This is and across nations, economic indicators This chapter, as well as that on the a work that should be on the bookshelf such as the rocketing salaries of CEOs, early Church teachings, illustrates of any serious student of social justice the fact that 51 out 100 of the leading one of the author’s great strengths – in our age. financial entities in the world are now multinational companies, and that the three wealthiest men in the world earn more than the combined GNPs of the GROWING STRONG New! poorest 48 nations. Joy Cowley In the following five chapters the author describes the tools theologians Real values for young people. $12.00 use to weigh up such trends: the Bible, Honesty, Reliability, Respect, Tolerance, early Church and Catholic social Being Fair, Understanding Others, Caring teaching, non-Christian religions, For The Environment + more. then the witness of some men and women whose lives have been steeped Inspection Copies Available. Bulk Discounts. in a sense of justice and love of the poor. The final three chapters present an overview of other vehicles of justice: www.christiansupplies.co.nz Email: [email protected] Freeph: 0508 988 988 contemporary writings and the rich

28 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 living reality of life in Iraq

The Orange Trees of Baghdad – in search of a vanishing life can be seen pointing their guns at people trying to sleep. Leilah Nadir She learns that Sunni and Shia Moslems often intermarry Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd yet religious intolerance is encouraged by the occupying Price: $A32.95 forces to fragment families; that reconstruction of Iraq is Review: Wendy Kissel intentionally not happening; that after Saddam Hussein there had initially been hope of a better life but the so- he Orange Trees of Baghdad are one of the earliest called ‘liberation’ has produced horror beyond belief. This Tmemories of the author’s father who left Iraq in 1960 includes the destruction of many treasures of antiquity in to study in England. He has never returned and is among the country regarded as the cradle of civilization. one in every five Iraqis exiled around the world. His relatives still living there increasingly urge him not to come back. Nadir includes photos taken by her photojournalist friend Leilah Nadir’s book subtitled in search of a vanishing life Farah Nosh, a Canadian Iraqi. At great personal risk, Nosh explores the events of the past that have led to the present returns to Iraq to photograph wounded Iraqis, those not situation in Iraq. This is no abstract historical study. It is the being shown by the media. The look in the eyes of these living reality of one extended Iraqi family and the ongoing innocent victims, all amputees, speaks volumes. The tip of human cost of sanctions and war. The style of writing is the iceberg. The book ends with the author’s dream that easy to read. The content is not. she may yet visit Baghdad. For now, her book, enhanced by bibliography, map and detailed index, provides valuable Nadir herself has never been to Iraq. She grew up in insights into this ongoing tragedy as she continues searching England and Canada with her English mother and Iraqi for the vanishing life of Iraq. father. Occasionally her father’s Iraqi family entered her life when they visited and took over the English family home with their exotic food, language and music. During these times she glimpsed the very different world of her father. Later, Canada was too far for family visits from Iraq so it faded into the background for her. It wasn’t until her mid- MARY MACKILLOP twenties that Nadir ‘woke up’ to the tragedy unfolding in Iraq and became actively involved in protesting against the CANONISATION TOUR sanctions. As she makes her own personal connections with family in Iraq, she learns about the daily reality of children You are invited to join our small group escorted tour to the canonisation of Blessed Mary MacKillop dying from malnutrition, medicines becoming scarce and in Rome this October the rampant fear caused by bombings, checkpoints and indiscriminate killings. “Death has become an ordinary thing for us,” says one relative adding that his children have We will tour Italy : only ever known life in a war-torn country. • the Assisi of St Francis • Naples Nadir has to face the conflict within her of having both • historic Pompeii and Herculaneum English and Iraqi blood in her veins. As warcraft leave • The Isle of Capri, the beautiful Amalfi Coast, England to bomb Iraq in 2003, she writes in desperation to a Sorrento and Salerno London newspaper hoping readers will realise, “we couldn’t • San Giovanni Rotondo bomb my 70-year old aunt.” When contact is eventually (home and burial place of St Padre Pio) restored, her aunt asks fearfully, “Why are they doing this • Pilgrimage hilltop town of Monte St Angelo • Monte Cassino to us?” She watches another aunt, exiled in London, search • Rome, plus the Vatican Google Earth for the family house in Baghdad and knows this is the closest she has been to home for 15 years. Guaranteed reserved space for the canonisation When email contact is cut because of no electricity for 25 From only $7,895 per person twin share days, Nadir tries to imagine what that might be like. In Contact us for a brochure today: winter there is no heating. In summer it is so hot the family must sleep on the roof to keep cool. Every night noisy Ph 0800 356 728 or email [email protected] American helicopters fly over the houses so low the soldiers

Tui Motu InterIslands 29 June 2010 comment

banker, bookie or prostitute

e have heard a lot in recent Institute in Rome. (‘The Genius of Wtimes about ‘derivatives’. They Crosscurrents the Roman Rite: a background to the are essentially bets, and while some new Missal’). serve a useful purpose for businesses, Jim Elliston such as hedging against currency The thread common to all was the fluctuations, many of the latest types role of the church, which is mission, organ for ensuring its members can are the equivalent of betting on not maintenance. Diarmuid Martin exercise their basic rights freely and horses. The Obama administration is expressed discouragement at the live in safety. This often requires trying to legislate to require banks to superficiality and outward conformity consideration of the broader context; choose between being a banker or a of Irish Catholicism. Benedict was an apparent solution to a problem can bookie. Financial institutions wishing blunt: “We have to overcome the easily have unforeseen effects. to indulge in derivatives must do so temptation to limit ourselves to what we already have, or think we have, through ‘clearing houses’ that will The Law Commission reports that that’s securely ours – that would be stand guarantor in case the losing party compared to other countries our a slow death.” Christ’s comforting defaults – thus saving the taxpayer young people have very high rates of words about being with the church from having to bail them out. sexually transmitted disease, teenage to the end of time “do not excuse us pregnancy and motor vehicle accidents, Wall St traders are resisting strongly, as from going out to meet others.” with alcohol implicated in all of them. derivatives trading has produced huge One set of issues concerns the cost to fortunes in the past. In the March The pope urged people to resist the lure the taxpayer in dealing with both the quarter Goldman Sachs made $US1M of a sort of ‘ghetto Catholicism’, closed immediate results and the longer term every ten minutes. in on itself. The style of missionary health and disability impairments. effort called for can be expressed in Against this background one US This is primarily a matter of social the following phrase: “We impose commentator (George Packer) order, not individual morality; the nothing, but we always propose.” Both bewailed the fact that, after a brief ‘conscience vote’ issue is irrelevant men spoke of the enormous waste of hiatus, the brain drain to Wall here at least. opportunities in this regard. Street seems to be back: “A Wall Street It seems obvious that the government career is becoming indefensible, and Keith Pecklers was equally blunt, has an obligation to take effective yet large fractions of the graduates of saying that all the effort put into measures. These will probably require America’s best universities can think of reforming the Mass would be wasted restrictions on moderate adult no better use for their intelligence and if its basic aim, which is to focus degrees than a job that has become drinkers as well as on irresponsible participants on mission, is ignored. less socially useful than prostitution, peddlers of alcopop-type products. In that case the community will be and a lot more harmful.” Such restrictions have implications for celebrating nothing more than itself. the first set of issues, which concern morality and government notions of freedom and morality. a cardinal’s wisdom e have a tradition that some Surely society has an obligation ecklers, in describing the great Wmatters should be left to the to exercise some form of care for Pdivision of opinion among the individual consciences of MPs the young. Let the market decide, bishops at Vatican II regarding the use because they are ‘matters of personal anyone? of vernacular in the liturgy, mentions morality’. They generally deal with emphasising mission the case of New York’s Cardinal actions rather than consequences – for Spellman who held that a change example banning drinking of alcohol found the second week of May would weaken the faith of the people. versus mitigating the negative effects I very stimulating. On the tenth, However, Spellman admitted he often of misuse. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of didn’t understand the Breviary he Dublin, spoke about the future of prayed every day, so as a compromise It seems to me there are two sets of Catholicism in Ireland. During that he would accept a change there. issues in need of clarification. One has week Pope Benedict gave a series of to do with the relationship between addresses during a visit to Portugal. This prompted one European prelate personal morality and its public I also read an enlightening book by to exclaim: “Marvellous! He wants consequences. The other has to do with Keith Pecklers SJ professor of Liturgical priests to pray in their own language the role of Government as society’s History at the Pontifical Liturgical and the laity to pray in Latin.”

30 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010 reframing our picture of church Peter Norris

ast year I spoke at the Dunedin and I guess I always assumed that the and discipline could happen at a local LPriests’ Assembly. Initially, I thought Labour Party was the best at ensuring level. Our local church in Dunedin, it would be for a morning session but that. When I got to know Bill English or Wellington, is not a Roman branch was surprised to find it was for a two- and a few others in the National Party, office. We are united with the church day period. Even more surprisingly, I I realised that as individuals they of Rome, under the primacy of the was told that the priests were sick of cared for weak people as well. I had to pope, but not necessarily under the breaking into groups. Most speakers, reframe my picture of politicians. curia, or middle level Roman officials. myself included, use the discussion time as an opportunity to regroup and think. Even more recently, I was present Stanley Milligram’s experiments, I was denied that. Not unnaturally, I did when a student here asked Richard outlining how easy it is for those not sleep well the two nights before. Allen, a National Security Adviser for removed from suffering or pain to Ronald Reagan, the difference between inflict it, apply to the church as well I was talking to my parish priest, Republicans and Democrats. There as to other groups. I would love to Father Mark Chamberlain, about my were many subtleties that I missed but say that implementing the principle sleeplessness, and he said: “You were what I picked up was that it was not of subsidiarity would help us to avoid actually praying as well, Peter.” All of as if Republicans are against healthcare silly decisions that have characterised a sudden, he reframed my nervousness for the poor, but that they are not us in the past but I do not think and worry, and put God in the picture. convinced that the Federal Government that is the case. However, if we as I felt lighter, which for someone of my is the best provider of this care. a church lived by this principle we dimensions, is an achievement. might own problems instead of just Richard had strong views on the complaining about solutions. People Reframing can happen in different disadvantages of central government on the ground are more aware of areas. My family, coming from the West taking this over. Without averting to hurt to people. People in central Coast, was strongly Labour and I guess it, he was enunciating the principle of administration are more aware of I inherited this predisposition. A friend subsidiarity that Leo XIII propagated, hurt to the institution. of mine, Bishop Philip Richardson, namely that the greater body should Bishop of Taranaki, speaking at his not do what a lesser body can. In his Re-framing is part of growing up. farewell from Selwyn College, said, “a case, healthcare is great, but perhaps We need others to help us look at life community is judged on how it treats there are implications if the central within a different context. I needed it its weakest members.” Federal Government does it instead of with the Priests’ Assembly, and also state governments. with political parties. We all need to It may not be original, but it struck me re-frame our picture of the church. as important and something that Philip The same principle, articulated by had kept in front of him. It made me Leo XIII, should be applied to the Fr Peter Norris is Master of St Margaret’s more conscious of the way I voted Catholic church. Much of our law College, University of Otago.

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31 June 2010 postscript

changing of the guard A farewell to Michael & Francie

n a damp Dunedin evening the parish Ohall of St Francis Xavier Parish in Mornington was filled with warm cheer as about 60 supporters gathered for a celebration to honour significant coming- and-goings at Tui Motu. After 13 years as a team, the first half of 2010 sees Michael Hill and Frances Skelton handing over the reins to Kevin Toomey. The 30th April evening was a time to remember, be grateful and offer good wishes. Various speakers told the story of Tui Motu’s birth from the dying embers of the Tablet, the key supportive role of the Dominicans and the Josephites, and the generosity of the Rosminians for ‘loaning’ Michael over these years. Above all, however, it was the determination, hard labour, networking, resourcefulness and incisive word- smithing of Michael and Francie that was acknowledged as key to the magazine’s longevity. It was an evening of anecdotes and affirmations, laced with laughter and capped with the presentation of commissioned artwork as gifts to Michael The Tui Motu editors in action – this cartoon illustration by Donald Moorhead was presented to Francie Skelton, and Francie (Michael received a stylised assistant editor. depiction of Tui Motu’s Union St HQ; and a Donald Moorhead cartoon parodying the Tui Motu editors in action was given to Francie). To cap off the jollity, and with Kevin Toomey and Donald Moorhead at the piano, everyone joined in a song that Cecily Sheehy had co-authored from afar: a five-verse humorous tribute to the editorial team. While we are blessed to have Francie with us at Union St a little longer, this was Michael’s adieu, so the song’s last verse is worth reprinting here:

“So here’s to you, Michael Hill, three cheers we shout for you. You’re a teacher, a preacher, a priest through and through. Give the candle to Kev, to take up a new song. You’ve done well. Tui Motu will go on.” At his farewell, Michael Hill was presented with a painting Robin Kearns depicting Tui Motu’s Union St headquarters.

32 Tui Motu InterIslands June 2010