Thousands Take to the Streets of Brisbane to Honour Our Lord the GIFT OF
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CatholicTHE Leader Keeping Faith with You June 30, 2019. Issue 5558 Queensland Price $2 / $2.50 Interstate OVER TO YOU FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST YOUTUBE INSTAGRAM LINKEDIN CENTREPOINT FAMILY PEOPLE “It’s not good How to make a mar- Heartwrenching story enough!” Religious riage really work: telling makes truth demand better alter- “There is still a way come alive... natives for asylum even if will has fad- seekers. ... ed” ... P 12-13 P 18 P 20 STORY PAGE 9; PHOTOS PAGES 14-15 Real Presence: A sea of Catholics processed the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Brisbane CBD as part of the Feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday, June 23. Photo: Alan Edgecomb Thousands take to the streets of Brisbane to honour Our Lord THE GIFT OF JESUSwww.catholicleader.com.au CHRIST 2 News Eucharist is Jesus alive, Pope P8 Francis says on Corpus Christi This is an edited version of Pope Francis’ homily from a Mass for Corpus Christi in a Roman neighbourhood last Sunday TODAY, God’s word helps us to ap- preciate more deeply two verbs that are simple and yet essential for daily life – to speak and to give. Contents To speak. In the first reading, Melchizedek says: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High … and blessed be God Most High” (Genesis NEWS 14:19-20). 4 News For Melchizedek, to speak is to bless. He blesses Abraham, in whom all the families of 5 News the earth will be blessed. 6 News Everything begins with blessing: words of goodness create a history of goodness. The same News 7 thing happens in the Gospel: before multiply- 8 World ing the loaves, Jesus blesses them: “Taking the Jesus is with us: Pope Francis leads Benediction on the feast of Corpus Christi. Photo: CNS five loaves, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples” It is important for us pastors to keep blessing cation but the act of sharing. This is important. CENTREPOINT (Luke 9:16). God’s people. Jesus does not perform a magic trick; he does A blessing turns five loaves into food enough 9 News Dear priests, do not be afraid to utter a bless- not change five loaves into 5000 and then to an- for a great crowd: the blessing releases a cas- ing, for the Lord wants to bless his people; he is nounce: “There! Distribute them!” 10 News cade of goodness. happy to make us feel his affection for us. No. Jesus first prays, then blesses the five Why is it good to bless? Because it turns a 12 News Only as those who are themselves blessed, can loaves and begins to break them, trusting in the word into a gift. we in turn bless others with that same anointing Father. And those five loaves never run out. 14-15 Corpus Christi When we bless, we are not doing something of love. This is no magic trick; it is an act of trust in 19 Regional for ourselves, but for others. Blessing is not It is sad to think of how easily people today God and his providence. about saying nice words or trite phrases; it is speak words not of blessing but of contempt and In the world, we are always trying to increase about speaking goodness, speaking with love. insult. our profits, to raise our income. But why? Is it to TALKING POINT That is what Melchizedek did, when he spon- In the presence of the Eucharist, Jesus who give, or to have? To share or to accumulate? taneously blessed Abram, who had not said or 23 Your Daily Bread becomes bread, this simple bread that contains The “economy” of the Gospel multiplies done anything for him. the entire reality of the Church, let us learn to through sharing, nourishes through distributing. 24 Conversations Jesus did the same thing, and he showed what bless all that we have, to praise God, to bless and It does not sate the greed of a few, but gives the blessing meant by freely distributing the not curse all that has led us to this moment, and life to the world. loaves. to speak words of encouragement to others. The verb Jesus uses is not to have but to give. ENTERTAINMENT How many times too, have we been blessed, The second verb is to give. He tells his disciples straight out: “You give 25 Arts & Entertainment in church or in our homes? How many times “Speaking” is thus followed by “giving”. them something to eat” (Luke 9:13). have we received words of encouragement, or a This was the case with Abraham who, after We can imagine the thoughts that went 26 Extra sign of the cross on our forehead? being blessed by Melchizedek, “gave him a tenth through their minds. We were blessed on the day of our baptism, of everything”. But the Lord does great things with our lit- CLASSIFIEDS 27 and we are blessed at the end of every Mass. It was the case, too, with Jesus who, after tleness, as he did with the five loaves. He does The Eucharist is itself a school of blessing. reciting the blessing, gave the loaves to be dis- not work spectacular miracles, but uses simple God blesses us, his beloved children, and thus tributed among the crowd. things, breaking bread in his hands, giving, PEOPLE encourages us to keep going. This tells us something very beautiful. distributing and sharing it. And we, in turn, bless God in our assemblies Bread is not only something to be consumed; God’s omnipotence is lowly, made up of love 28 Humans of the Church (cf. Psalm 68:26), rediscovering the joy of praise it is a means of sharing. Surprisingly, the account alone. And love can accomplish great things that liberates and heals the heart. of the multiplication of the loaves does not men- with little. We come to Mass, certain that we will be tion the multiplication itself. The Lord comes to our streets in order to blessed by the Lord, and we leave in order to On the contrary, the words that stand out are: speak a blessing for us and to give us courage. bless others in turn, to be channels of goodness “break”, “give” and “distribute”. He asks that we too be blessing and gift for in the world. In effect, the emphasis is not on the multipli- others. CHAT WITH US /TheCatholicLeader /CatholicLeaderNews /catholicleader feeds.feedburner.com/TheCatholicLeader @TheCatholicLead The Catholic Leader /catholicleader [email protected] Managing Editor Journalists Sales / Advertising Location/ Post THE Sixth Floor, Cathedral House Matt Emerick Mark Bowling Laurie O’Brien GPO Box 282 Brisbane Qld 4001 Joe Higgins CATHOLIC Sub Editor Phone Editorial Advertising Accounts Peter Bugden 07 3324 3555 07 3324 3233 07 3324 3223 LEADER Email P18 Accounts/Marketing [email protected] [email protected] TEAM Catherine Santos [email protected] www.catholicleader.com.au The Catholic Leader, June 30, 2019 News 3 Compassionate Pontiff listens to the situation of Church in Australia Pope meets Aussie bishops By Mark Bowling POPE Francis gave an apostolic blessing to Australian Catholic bishops visiting the Vatican, encour- aging them to explore new ways of being missionaries. Pope Francis met with a group of 38 Austral- ian bishops on June 24 for more than two hours as part of their Ad Limina Apostolorum visit, translated as “To the Threshold of the Apostles”. It was a high point of a memorable first day of the Ad Limina, which began with the bishops celebrating Mass at the tomb of St Peter. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge told his fellow bishops that it was “a time of humiliation” for Catholic Church leaders, but he was convinced that God was still at work. “To celebrate the Eucharist at the tomb of Peter and then to engage in pastoral dialogue with his successor was a unique and grace-filled way to start our week in Rome,” Archbishop Coleridge said. There was a classic photo moment when Archbishop Coleridge presented Pope Francis with an Akubra hat. The Pontiff immediately put it on and ap- peared to enjoy the gift. The bishops raised with Pope Francis a number of topics that are of deep concern to the Catholic Church in Australia; the Church’s work to eliminate child sexual abuse and to accom- pany survivors of abuse; the bishops’ desire to support and minister to Aboriginal and Torres concerns and ideas. Peter’s tomb: Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge concelebrates Mass with Australian bishops in Strait Islander peoples; the hopes for the Plenary ACBC vice-president Sydney Archbishop An- the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica during their Ad Limina visit to Rome. Photos: CNS Council 2020; and the need to find new ways of thony Fisher said the meeting with Pope Francis witnessing to Jesus Christ in Australian society was “moving and deeply encouraging”. in a time of change. He said it showed the benefit of the Petrine “There was an ease and a fraternal warmth in ministry, “of being our solid ‘rock’ and ‘confirm- the way Pope Francis spoke and an attentive- ing the brethren’”. ness in his listening to the questions the bishops “The Holy Father clearly understood our situa- asked,” Archbishop Coleridge said. tion in Australia. It was a real moment of grace,” “For a man of his years, the Holy Father’s Archbishop Fisher said. energy through a long and complex conversation Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci, the most was amazing.” recently ordained of the Australian bishops, said Delivering the homily during Mass in the grot- “Do not cast me he was “deeply impressed” by Pope Francis.