Tui Motu InterIslands 1 editorial

I will return to my father. . . contents

2 editorial ent has crept up on us suddenly fleeing from situations of deprivation 3 Tui Motu 10th birthday Lthis year with Easter as early as and poverty. He observes that when we 4 response is possible (almost). So this year our confront the prevailing tide of atheism Zella Horrell Lenten issue is February, not March. in our world, we should first look at 5 letters Lenten themes appear throughout the atheism within our own hearts. 6-8 Freedom and belief the magazine from the pens of some This is a profound reflection for the Archbishop Bruno Forte regulars: Paul Oestreicher, Mary Betz, start of Lent, and that is why we have 9 It is what it is Glynn Cardy and Jim Consedine. given it pride of place. Paul Oestreicher 10 Helping each other Probably no Gospel story expresses the Those who study the Archbishop’s text Gerry McCarthy Lenten call so eloquently as the parable as Lenten sustenance might well go 11 Lenten resolutions of the Prodigal Son. Our cover depicts back to the article on Richard Rohr’s Mary Betz the climax, when the errant son finally visit to NZ, in the February 2007 12-14 Paul VI: Pope of the revolution comes to his senses and succumbs to issue – also a leading article. Rohr is Michael Hill the healing grace of unconditional looking at the human journey in a 15 Simply good Glynn Cardy love. He cries out: I will arise and go to similar way to Forte, except that he 16-17 Ahmed Zaoui – a cry for justice my father... (Lk.15,18). is emphasising the individual search Peter Murnane rather than a great historical and For our leading article we offer one 18-20 Gandhi series: the seven deadly sins sociological movement. Worship without sacrifice of the most profound explorations of Sandra Winton the crisis of our age that we have come A striking point that the Archbishop 21 Seismic change across. Archbishop Bruno Forte spoke makes is that the true seeker may Jim Consedine to the annual gathering of the bishops find more common ground with 22-23 The gift of England and Wales last November. atheists than with believers who are Mike Noonan What we offer is a digest of his speech complacentin their faith. The atheist 24-25 Our ‘Irish’ Catholics – with extended quotations. too is a seeker for truth – not yet whatever happened to the ‘Irish’ bit? arrived, yet on a similar quest. Sean Brosnahan For Archbishop Forte, the journey of 26 Disappointment the Prodigal is a figure of the modern How to meet those who reject religious Paul Andrews quest for freedom and ‘emancipation’, belief is the theme of another powerful 27 Decision-making in the early church fostering a spirit of individualism so piece in this issue, from the pen of Susan Smith characteristic of Western civilisation Neil Darragh (pp 28-9). He examines 28-29 Richard Dawkins and the assault today. Inevitably it leads to dust and the writings of Richard Dawkins, an on religious belief Neil Darragh ashes, because when we turn our backs English biologist who sees organised 30 Crosscurrents on God and put self-gratification in religion as pernicious and damaging. John Honoré the place of service, we end up, like Darragh notes Dawkins’ philosophical 31 The death penalty the Prodigal, in the pigpen. shortcomings – but also what we might Humphrey O’Leary learn from him. Clearly, believers must 32 In memoriam The bishop, however, sees many signs see scientists as their companions in of hope, specifically in contemporary the quest for ultimate truth, not as poetry: Peter Rawnsley, Erich Fried, movements of compassion for the weak incompatible rivals. Pat Neuwelt and vulnerable, especially for those M.H.

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 ISSN 1174-8931 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, 9030 Phone: 03 477 1449: Fax: 03 477 8149: email: [email protected]: website: www.tuimotu.org Editor: Michael Hill IC; Assistant Editor: Frances Skelton; Illustrator: Don Moorhead Directors: Rita Cahill RSJ, Philip Casey, Tom Cloher, Robin Kearns, Chris Loughnan OP, Elizabeth Mackie OP, Katie O’Connor (Chair), Kathleen Rushton RSM

2 Tui Motu InterIslands anniversary

Celebrating ten years of Tui Motu

Ten years ago, in September 1997, the first issue ofTui Motu was circulated throughout New Zealand. Since that time the publication has grown steadily here and overseas. So, St Andrew’s Day 2007 was celebrated in Dunedin true southern style

Cutting the haggis: TM reviewer Kathleen Doherty, flanked (l to r): Mike Noonan (writer), Susanne Hannagan and Shirley Curran by Fr Damian Wynn-Williams and Frances Skelton (volunteer helpers); Robin Kearns (TM Board); Aidan Baughan (printer)

Tui Motu Board and Foundation both met in Dunedin the last weekend of November 2007, so the opportunity was taken to celebrate Tui Motu’s 10th birthday. All facets of the enterprise from writers to sellers to promoters to readers were represented. Since it was St Andrew’s Day, the haggis was piped in. The party wound up with the Dunedin TM Foundation chair John Gallaher in Barber’s Shop Quartette. earnest discussion with Board chair, Katie O’Connor Tui Motu editors receiving bouquets: Michael Hill and Frances Skelton

TM readers and supporters putting the world right: Trish Serenading the desserts: the Dunedin Barber Shop Quartette, Lainchbury and Graeme Donaldson aided by Brian Rea (TM promoter) Photography: Jim Neilan

Tui Motu InterIslands 3 response

Is Earth having an identity crisis?

a response Zella Horrell

ne of the ideas in Fr Neil Vaney’s paper on as a physical one. As individuals we are defined by our O“Theology and the Environment” (TM December family, our heritage, our morality. We can define ourselves ’07) helped give form to a question: Is earth undergoing as much by what we are not as by what we are. As a child an identity crisis? Obviously I mean the people of the within a family, we first learn that we have a place and earth; ‘Earth’ seems to understand and accept her purpose from that place we are accepted and supported. in the cosmos, but do we, as societies and as individuals, understand and accept ours? As more and more pressure gets placed upon the family institution, more and more children experience their In philosophy, identity is distinguishing sameness first attack on the development of an identity. Yes, they from change or unity from diversity. Psychologist Erik are loved – but where do they belong? Children whose Erikson coined the term identity crisis, and believes that parents share custody after a divorce rarely say ‘home’. an identity crisis is the most important conflict human They say they are going to ‘Dad’s’ or that they left their beings encounter. It involves a struggle with time, success, togs at ‘Mum’s’; but the word home no longer has a sexuality, confidence, role, ideologies and leadership. If viable place in their existence, and without that word, a this is an important crisis for an individual, imagine the child has to work a lot harder to find a place where he or significance it can take on if is applied across an entire she can say, “I belong here.” global society. generation ago characters, whether fictional, Fr Vaney’s idea that modern people have become Ahistorical, or real, could manifest attributes that increasingly rootless and have ceased to be connected young people wanted to identify with. Heroism, made me wonder that perhaps we no longer know who gallantry, grace, strength, nobility, honour were played we are. Being rootless causes deep unhappiness – being out in literature, movies, the sporting arena and the Bible. rootless also hinders the development of an identity. Parents and wisdom were respected and even sought after. Too many children are now growing up in front To know who we are, we must know what we stand for of television sets where values are used as play things and where we come from. Our world is changing at a to toss around, fly in the air, squash and turn inside out. pace so rapid that our value systems haven’t been able This is entertainment. to fully adapt. Incessant change and the trend to measure success solely against an economic backdrop, have Where do the young find their identities? How are caused people to abandon traditionally held values in they to find their identities? Gang colours, patches, their desire to keep up. tattoos, piercings are used to create an immediate, if false, sense of identity. And on the other side of the hildren who are unable to establish an identity for economic scale, Generation Y identifies with material Cthemselves, or who are having an identity foisted objects: Oakley sunglasses, Lee Jeans, Rip Curl T- upon them, often become the disconnected ones of our shirts, Roxy school bags. schools and neighbourhoods. They are the ones who will dare to defy authority and more willingly inflict damage Identity is linked to tradition, but traditions are under onto property and people. a steady stream of attack. Schools teach with new modern methods. New mothers are not comforted with The students who cause the most work for a school, who a stay in the maternity home as they grapple with the have the largest files and require the additional support complexities of their role. These same new mothers are of outside agencies, are the students who do not have a bustled back into the workforce so that productivity is strong sense of themselves. They are described as having not decreased and their chances for advancement remain poor self-esteem. They appear lost. They continually viable. Employees are lured into believing that a series bang against the walls of conformity as if they fear of job changes throughout their lifetime will provide that fitting in will somehow cause them to disappear. stimulation; there’s no retirement package in such a They have not accepted that it is through belonging we scenario, and no chance of developing an identity around take our first step toward establishing an identity. your chosen profession. Turangawaewae – “the place where I stand. I belong The political struggle between the ideological Right here” – has as much a spiritual and emotional definition defending traditional values and the ideological Left

4 Tui Motu InterIslands letters

Monologue sermons – 1 A family wage The observation that struck me most letters to the editor - I recently read a booklet This is human about Barbara Grant’s very perceptive We welcome comment, discussion, work (a simplification of Pope John response to articles from last August’s argument, debate. But please keep letters Paul’s letter Laborem Exercens). It has under 200 words. edition (in December TM p 5) was her this quote: “A just wage for an adult The editor reserves the right to abridge, noting that sermons pre-Vatican II while not altering meaning. Response responsible for a family is one that were delivered facing the people and articles (up to a page) are also welcome, allows the establishment of a family, in English, and so it remains. Granted but need to be by negotiation its proper maintenance and provision that we have lay readers of the epistles for the security of its future”. and prayers of the faithful but the This can take the form of a family presidential character of the sermon of the Mass they find most inspiring. wage, or other measures such as family still prevails, however much some If no one – or very few – mention the allowances or grants to mothers who celebrants seek to share their thoughts sermon/homily, then don’t necessarily devote themselves exclusively to their rather than talk at the congregation. blame the celebrant. It’s more likely an families. The culture has really not changed. apparently inflexible tradition that is Experience confirms the need to re- The sermon or homily is delivered to stifling the potential of this part of the establish the role of mother in society, a silent assembly, many of whom are Mass. her toil and her children’s need for at least as well educated as the priest If I am wrong about this, please write care, love and affection. Having to while some are theologians themselves. and let readers know. abandon these tasks in order to take Not that capacity for comment is the Jack Fitzgerald, West Auckland up work is wrong for society and it prerogative of graduates; amongst the hinders the main goals of a mother’s congregation are many mature and Monologue sermons – 2 mission. reflective people who could add value I am grateful for Barbara Grant’s article Such common-sense was, I believe, to the theme of the day by drawing encouraging dialogue at homily time. I the basically Christian motivation upon their own experience, but no hear many, many homilies and lectures behind both Labour and National opportunity is given for response or which are immediately forgotten. governments until the time of comment. We learnt as student teachers that Rogernomics. It is still true that for a You can’t help wondering how this most influential ideas came from our large percentage of our population a formal, virtually inflexible setting individual hearts, boosted and shaped single just wage for each household is would compare with the experience by group sharing. unattainable. of the early church assemblies. My Engaged dialogue, with space for I would like to hear from any of the assumption would be that after a disagreement, respects our God-given political parties if the concept of reading from a letter from St Paul experience and search for meaning. the common good and a just wage there would have been an animated We cease to be mindless sheep when remains part of their philosophy and, discussion, co-ordinated but free we express our understandings and if so, what policies do they propose in flowing, dynamic not static. listen creatively. furtherance of these principles. Ask anybody in your parish what part M Prior, Whanganui Dan Maguire, Dunedin fighting for tolerance and acceptance is little more than is slow. Lichen and moss attach themselves to the rock, our governing instincts trying to distinguish sameness adding colour and a base for the nutrients to gather; they from change – unity from diversity. Global transportation are barely noticed, but without them the moss could not and international trade cause robust intermingling of grow and without the moss, the ferns could not grow. cultures. Medical and scientific research push further If earth is suffering an identity crisis, and our way of and further into the sacred aspects of life, forcing us to life is being swept away as if by a landslide, we can be find answers to questions that were inconceivable just the regenerative force. Humanity has as much an ability one generation back. to be divine as to be destructive. Plants cannot grow in What’s driving it all? Faust’s lust for happiness? Man’s space because there is no sense of direction for them to pursuit of knowledge? Our will to survive? Money? send their roots. We must provide direction whenever and wherever we can. In every small choice that we The earth is constantly changing. A landslide will wipe make, we are laying down a foundation, and with that away decades of growth in an instant, leaving the terrain foundation we welcome a mighty forest to grow. n looking broken and hostile. There is a brief pause when such an event occurs, but it doesn’t take long for the life We have received another response article – on Dairy Farming – force to ignite and regeneration to begin. The process which is held over to a later issue

Tui Motu InterIslands 5 faith and life

Freedom and belief

The real divide today, says Archbishop Bruno Forte, is not between those who believe in God and those who don’t. It is between those who seek for a purpose in life and those who have given up I will return to my father...

ast October, the bishops of Searching for the Yet this figure at the heart of all our LEngland and Wales invited, as father-mother longings – infinitely loving, infinitely keynote speaker for their annual n a famous phrase from his caring – is also the one whom we conference, an Italian, Archbishop Confessions St Augustine writes: humans instinctively reject. Bruno Forte. His topic was freedom, I “You have made us for yourself, O Rejection of father-mother stems from contemporary atheism – and how these God, and our heart is restless until it challenge our faith and life today. a basic need to find independence, to rests in you”. Every thinking person escape from being possessed, enslaved sooner or later is confronted with or dominated. “The ‘murder’ of the At the very beginning of the Gospel the fact of his or her own mortality. we read the Greek word ‘metanoéite’, father is a sort of ritual murder, an We are born to die. To struggle with act to affirm our independence, our which means change your heart and the inevitability of our dying means life (Mk 1:15). We fear to heed this autonomy.” Because we turn our backs facing questions which spring up in on the loving father-mother we spend message because it disturbs our the heart like piercing wounds: what is complacency. “Very often,” says Forte, much of our lives striving to be free my destiny? What is the meaning of life? like the prodigal son in the Gospel. “church mission fails because we Where am I going with all my worries, answer questions no one is asking, or consolations and joys? For Bishop Forte this theme of rejection we pose questions which interest no provides a key for understanding one. The challenge is to discern the Yet we, pilgrims on the way to death, the history of the 20th Century. true questions, the questions that God are in fact called to life. “Within us Since the time of the Enlightenment writes on the tablet of our heart and of there is an indestructible longing for humans have sought emancipation. It our times.” the face of Someone who will take is the dream of modernity. Karl Marx away our suffering and tears, who will wrote: “Emancipation means leading What is important for Christians redeem the infinite pain of death... everything in this world back to man, therefore is not so much to provide When we are most alone and sad to man alone” (The Jewish Question). answers as work out what are those we have a deep longing for someone But making humanity the centre of all crucial questions. Origen, an early Other who will welcome us and make things means rejecting God. church writer, said: “Every true us feel loved. This longing is the image question is like the lance which pierces of ‘Father’ – or, if you like, ‘Mother’ This dream of universal freedom the side of Christ causing blood and – because ‘father’ and ‘mother’ are was shipwrecked in events of water to flow forth”. in this sense only two metaphors unprecedented violence. The terrible to express the same need, to have carnage of two world wars, the Jewish As a way of exploring this, the bishop someone to trust without reserve, an Holocaust, the Gulag, are fruits of the presented his theme as “three arches of anchor, a haven in which to rest our fatherless society which has sought a bridge joining thought to life”: insecurity and pain.” an illusory freedom, but instead • the search for the Father-Mother, found totalitarianism, despotism and The bishop uses ‘father’ and ‘mother’ senseless slaughter. infinitely loving; freely to express the divine Other. He • religion and freedom in today’s says: “Father is at the same time Mother As the century drew to a close, modern world; – the womb, the homeland, the origin men and women found themselves • what is our agenda as church? in which we place all that we are.” increasingly victims of solitude and

6 Tui Motu InterIslands despair. “Who will set us free from • the conviction that without accepting B. Rebirth of Transcendence. the prison of our solitude? Thus there a transcendent truth there can be no So what has gone wrong? Martin arises a nostalgia for a hidden face, the true freedom. Heidegger, the philosopher, talks about need for a common homeland to give the ‘night of the world’. This passion horizons of meaning without violence. A. Emancipation The European for freedom eventually leads people Life appears either as a pilgrimage ‘Enlightenment’ of the 18th Century to lapse into indifference. Humans no towards a promised homeland or as inspired European society towards longer aspire to commit themselves a mere waiting for death. There is no processes of emancipation which have to a higher cause. We cease searching other choice.” gone on ever since. Abolition of slavery; for that ‘father-mother’ figure towards declarations of human rights; religious whom we hold out our arms. We come back again to the predicament toleration; parliamentary democracy; of the prodigal son. He has gorged anti-colonialism and feminism are all Forte says that by following this path himself on the delights of a fatherless- instances. Reason rather than tradition society disintegrates into a “crowd of motherless freedom and ended up in becomes the final court of appeal. solitudes, in which people seek their the pigpen. The crucial decision is for own self-interest, in an endless pursuit him to say: I will arise and return to my The most remarkable instance of of possessions and gratification. This father! (Lk.15,19). this great movement was the French explains the triumph of the most Revolution. The impetus towards shameless consumerism, of the rush Forte insists that as believers we eman­­cipation continues today in the towards hedonism and whatever must identify fully with the human liberation of the working classes and may be enjoyed immediately. Our predicament of our age. We must be of the oppressed races and peoples of societies degenerate into archipelagos, the first to ‘arise and return to the the ‘Third World’. collections of separate islands.” Father’. In the words of Vatican II, we belong to a pilgrim church. We are One common feature has been the part of the journey of discovery. ending of aristocratic and hierarchical societies. “A society without fathers our earth needs is constructed,” says Forte, “where to be a shared home, I will arise there are no vertical relationships, no and return to my father ‘dependence’ – only horizontal ones, which provides horizons of equality and reciprocity...”. and say to him... of meaning without However, “the abolition of a ‘father -lord’ figure led to a complete violence rejection of God. Just as on earth The bishop concludes this section: there must be no fatherhood creating “The most important thing for those dependence, so in heaven there must Yet at the same time there are clear who believe in God is not to harvest be no Father of all.” signs of a reaction against this tide but to sow – a sowing which will bear of nihilism. “There is born within us fruit in time when and how God wills. The bishop concedes that this historical a longing for the Totally Other... We We must say ‘no’ to frustration and movement is a mighty project, and need our earth to be a shared home, ‘yes’ to a passion for the truth. that we are all in some measure in which provides horizons of meaning debt to it. Who would want to live in without violence. Far from being “This leads us to search for the hidden a society that had not undergone this mere nostalgia, there is a rediscovery face, the face of the father-mother in process of emancipation? love. The core of the church’s mission of the other in the recognition that today is to proclaim this face to all Yet even apart from the loss of religion, my neighbour, by the mere fact of those who are in search of it.” these movements have often tended to existing, can give me a reason to live, become self-defeating. “Inexorably, because he or she challenges me to go Religion and Freedom this all-encompassing dream becomes out of myself, committing myself in e can identify two contrasting totalitarian. All modern ideologies, love to others.” streams of thought in recent of right or left, eventually issue in W The Archbishop sees great hope in centuries where human beings have totalitarian and violent expression. contemporary movements of com­ explored the relationship between Theleader , the party, the cause become passion for the weak and vulnerable, religion and freedom: the new masters.” especially for people fleeing from • the way of emancipation, which Freedom in a world without God has situations of deprivation and poverty. involves turning one’s back on the failed to make humankind more free, He quotes the Second Vatican father-mother figure; more equal, more fraternal. Council: “‘...the future of humanity is ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 7 faith and life ss in the hands of those who are capable vulnerability to pain and death, not as “O Lord, you have seduced me, and I have of providing the generations to come people who have already arrived but as let myself be seduced; you have overpowered with reasons for life and hope’” searchers for the distant homeland. me; you were the stronger!... I would say to (Gaudium et Spes 31). myself, ‘I will not think about him, I will Human beings who stop, who feel not speak in his name any more’, but then What is our agenda they have mastered the truth, for there seemed to be a fire burning in my as church today? whom the truth is no longer Someone heart... the effort to restrain it wearied me, hen we look out on a world of so who possesses you more and more I could not do it” (Jer 20, 7-9). Jeremiah Wmuch hedonism, violence and but rather something to be possessed wrestled mightily with God but there unbelief, are we to retire into an ivory – such persons have not only rejected came a moment when he knew he had tower and turn our backs? Not a bit God, but also their own dignity as to give in. of it, says Forte. “Christians, engaged human beings.” in living and working in this changing D. Some consequences. Believers The true believer, therefore, is a pilgrim world, are required more than ever are those who try every day to begin – someone on a journey in search of today to give an account of the hope to believe. Faith is to be lived as a the Father-Mother welcoming in love. that is in them, with gentleness and continuous conversion to God. Non- The temptation is to stop and imagine respect for all.” believers are perhaps people who try we have arrived. What Jesus showed anew everyday to believe, but fail; “who A. True belief. Nevertheless there is us was that this ‘exodus’ consists in struggle with an upright conscience, an interior journey each of us must helping him carry his cross. To follow who have sought but not found, and all undergo – and it may come as a Jesus along the path of self-denial is who feel all the pain of God’s absence: surprise and shock to us. We discover the only path to real freedom. will they not be true companions of that the atheist – the only atheist – that those who believe? Dialogue between B. Faith as struggle. True faith, can be taken seriously, may live within believers and non-believers can thus be therefore, is the meeting that happens our own hearts. “Only someone who understood as an exercise of reciprocal when we go out and God comes in: believes in God, and has experienced respect and a witness to religious it lies between exodus and advent. God as the Father-Mother welcoming freedom.” in love, can also ‘know’ what it would “Faith is what happened to Jacob at mean to deny Him, and what infinite the ford of Jabbok (Gen 32, 23-33.): The Bishop insists “we say ‘no’ to a suffering His absence would be. The God is the one who attacks under lazy, static, habit-worn faith made non-believer is not outside believers, cover of dark, who comes upon you of comfortable intolerance, which but within. and wrestles with you. If you do not defends itself by condemning others know God in this way, if for you God because it does not know how to live “To believe is to be taken prisoner is not a consuming fire, then your the suffering of love... There is also a by the Totally Other. Belief does God has stopped being the living ‘no’ to every superficial atheism, to not claim to have an explanation for God and is dead... every ideological denial of God and everything, but lives rather as if by of the holy mystery; as well as a ‘yes’ night... longing for the dawn. Belief is “That is why faith is always tempted to the unceasing search for the hidden not yet totally lit up by the day, which by doubt. Only those who do not Face... the Love which opens itself to belongs to another time and to another know are shocked by the Baptist’s embrace our searching hearts. homeland, but it still receives enough words when at the sunset of his life light to bear the burden of keeping the and restless with doubt, he sent to ask “Perhaps the real difference is not faith. True belief is humble: it hangs Jesus: Are you the one who is to come, or between believers and non-believers, on the Cross in the world’s darkness... are we to wait for another? (Mt 11,3). but between those who think and those This is the trial of faith: to struggle with who do not; between men and women “One who does not believe and who who have the courage to go on trying to lives this condition in a responsible way God, knowing that He is the Other, who escapes from our certainties, and believe, hope and love and those others is aware of the acute pain of absence, who have given up the struggle.” feeling himself/herself orphaned, does not allow Himself to be tamed by deeply abandoned. The thinking our presumption...” Bishop Forte concludes: “Our ability, as persons, as society and as church to non-believer, like the conscientious be­ C. “Finally, faith is submission. In the serve the quality of life and the dignity liever, wrestles with God. My religion combat there comes the moment when of every human being, depends on our is to wrestle with God: says Miguel de you understand that it is the loser who answers to these questions.” n Unamuno. The whole of religion lies really wins. Then faith becomes self- in this wrestling with God. abandonment and forgetfulness of self “Believers and non-believers alike and the joy of entrusting yourself into Archbishop Forte, bishop of Chieti-Vasto, ask the deepest questions about their the arms of the Beloved. is regarded as the leading theologian in Italy

8 Tui Motu InterIslands lent

It is what it is it is nonsense, says reason it is what it is, says love it is unhappiness, says reflection it is nothing but pain, says fear it is hopeless, says insight it is what it is, says love it is ridiculous, says pride it is frivolous, says caution it is impossible, says experience it is what it is, says love

Erich Fried

ith the words “…the greatest of these is love” St scared of the consequences will often think twice WPaul ends a poetic masterpiece in his Letter to before risking love, and the wordly wise will give the church in Corinth. He gets as close as words can to up on it, will retreat into a safer zone. Security in express the inexpressible, to put flesh on the mystery love? Impossible, they’ll say. of love. Launch into the deep, said Jesus. That’s trusting Erich Fried was a secular socialist Jew who, at love. Erich Fried’s life, as I knew him, was an the age of 16 had fled to London from Vienna. expression of that. He never cared what the world He had seen the Nazis kill his father but managed thought. He showed respect even for those who to rescue his mother. London became his home. hated him. German remained his language. By the 1960s he had become the cult poet of a young generation hen a German TV programme asked him to that had rejected the Germany of their fathers. Wdebate with a young neo-Fascist leader he readily accepted, but the management had second Erich had worked for the BBC’s German Service thoughts. This surely was too much to expect of and also translated the plays of Shakespeare into him. They called the young man off, leaving Fried contemporary German, but towards the end of his to put his views unopposed. Fried was not pleased. life, volume after volume of poems poured from When the programme was over he took a taxi to his angry but deeply caring pen. A slim volume the young home of the young man who hated that began with It is what it is outsold any previous Jews. He’d never met a real Jew. They talked until collection of German poetry. It works well in breakfast. translation, as do the words of St Paul. Loving enemies was, for Fried, much more than In this terse poem Fried expresses what Dietrich a philosophic idea. He lived it. No, he made no Bonhoeffer called “the cost of discipleship”. It claim to be religious. He was bitterly angry at is beyond reason, it is often painful, it is not a every form of injustice. His poems hit out hard. path to superficial happiness. Human insight will But he refused to be poisoned by hate. often suggest that the way of love is a hopeless undertaking, and our pride will says to us “forget Define love? He couldn’t, but he knew what it cost. it, you’ll just look foolish”. The cautious who are It was priceless. Paul Oestreicher

Tui Motu InterIslands 9 faith and life

Helping each other

In a world which becoming increasingly violent and individualistic, the basic ethic of simply helping one’s neighbour becomes more and more compelling Gerry McCarthy

hen the novelist Kurt Vonnegut to appeal to Christian conservatives, challenging structures of injustice Wdied aged 84 last April, I and about John McCain’s belief in a that exploit the poor is obviously mourned his passing. He was a fabulous ‘Christian nation.’” critical work, it’s important not to writer with a tremendous wit. automatically demonise those in But she notes that one point of view power. They’re people too. And part of In Vonnegut’s last book entitled A is taboo: “I’m thinking of the now transforming society comes when we Man Without a Country (published entirely muted issue of whether the recognise that governments sometimes in 2005), he wrote some compelling, basic ethical foundations of Romney, do the right thing. hilarious, and wise pieces. One of my Huckabee and others’ political views favourite parts of the book is when truly are ‘Christian’ – in the good- n A Man Without a Country, Kurt he explained that: “When you get to neighbourly sense of the word”. IVonnegut wrote about a letter he my age, if you get to my age, and if received from a 43-year-old woman you have reproduced you will find This is an important point, because as who was finally going to have a child, yourself asking your children, who are Werner asks: “Where is the public soul- but was wary of bringing a new life into themselves middle-aged, What is life searching about the absence of care, such a frightening world. She wanted all about?” com­passion, acceptance, and inclus­ion to know what Vonnegut thought. – the things many consider to be the Vonnegut said he put this question essence of Christianity – in the words He replied: “What made being alive about life to his son Dr. Vonnegut, who of our purported Christian leaders”. almost worthwhile for me, besides is a paediatrician. His son responded: music, was all the saints I met, who “Father, we are here to help each other iven the fallout from our selfish could be anywhere. By saints I meant get through this thing, whatever it is.” Gsociety, what can be done? Is people who behaved decently in a this selfishness a permanent feature strikingly indecent society,” he said. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about of post-modernity? In his new book I was never drawn to the word ‘decent’. Dr. Vonnegut’s reply. Especially when A Secular Age, Charles Taylor writes Other words seem to do the job I observe the society we live in today. about the need for re-enchanting better. But lately the word has greater Among other things, it’s a society society with the mysteries of spirit and meaning for me – especially when that relentlessly fosters a selfishness sensuality. Taylor’s argument is that we consider the many gut-wrenching that continually loosens the bonds our disenchanted society is driven by newspapers stories about how people of solidarity we have with each other. rules rather than thoughts. I couldn’t are routinely robbed, cheated and In different ways, our selfish society agree more. swindled in sordid ways. We definitely promotes a culture of suspicion need a major dose of decency in our towards our neighbour too. That But this re-enchantment must include society today. suspicion is heightened by a manic the “help each other” approach Dr. competitiveness that frequently ruins Vonnegut spoke about too. That But, yes, Mr. Vonnegut you’re relationships and further distances us approach is furthered when people right. Saints can be anywhere acting from each other. refuse to project human traits onto decently and “helping us get through people simply because of the clothes this thing.” I believe this can be our But we don’t hear much discussion they wear, the political party they path to salvation. It’s risky, because about this selfish society – especially support or the neighbourhood they our hearts can be broken. But it’s in from political leaders. Writer Judith live in. Allowing the mystery of spirit service to others that we experience Werner recently raised this point in to work in our lives means seeing life abundantly. n The New York Times. She wrote: “There the human being first, instead of the has been a lot of interesting discussion stereotypes and ‘racial profiling’. Gerry McCarthy is Editor of The Social of Mormonism and Evangelical Edge. Reproduced by kind favour. Protestantism, about Mitt Romney and Oddly enough there’s a lesson here The editorial is set in the context Mike Huckabee outdoing themselves for social justice activists. While of the American Primaries.

10 Tui Motu InterIslands lent

Lenten resolutions

ent comes upon us suddenly, with the haunting • how to gain (in)sight like the man born blind. What Lechoes of John the Baptist calling for repentance. is in the world and in our lives that blinds us or gives I watch TV news of global warming, famine, genocide sight to the life God offers us? and war with horror. Yet I am also one of the crowd • what the Lazarus story says about different kinds of who maintains a typically middle-class lifestyle, while death. How can we be part of moving ourselves and struggling to limit my car and air travel, consumer our world from despair, disillusionment and death to goods input and garbage output. hope and life? For many of us, childhood memories of Lent include • looking closer at Jesus’ passion. Jesus could have giving up lollies. But as our faith matures, it is deeper safely stayed a carpenter in Galilee, but was willing to reflection and active involvement that God’s reign leads undertake an arduous and power-challenging ministry us toward. Using the Lenten Sunday gospel readings to bring about God’s reign. If we are his followers, may help us reflect on the following: how much security and comfort are we called to leave • how similar our temptations are to those of Jesus. behind to bring God’s compassion to our world? Do we spend our time, money and energy to advance To change society’s values, judgments, interests, ourselves or to care for those in great need? inspirations and models: that is what Jesus and Catholic • what the Transfiguration has to teach us. Can we social teaching call us to do. The well-being of people identify moments of special grace and sustenance must be put before economics. The health of our society for the uncertainties and inevitable sufferings of our depends on how we care for our children, sick people journeys? and the poorest members of our society. • how to encounter Jesus with the woman at the well. The first steps are always individual and internal. That What do we really thirst for in life, and are we drinking is why Lent isn’t just about giving up lollies. from wells that are dry or full of living water? Mary Betz

Attention Once I climbed beside the country’s highest waterfall without a rope or any aid but foolhardiness and knew I was alive with each hold on rock or leatherwood. because life wagered turns attention on, its cold stream of water sluicing through the body which forty years removed, sits in a room in silent meditation and finds it more difficult to keep the mind still though the soul hangs from two trembling hands and clings, and clings or floats like mist over water. Peter Rawnsley

Tui Motu InterIslands 11 church in the world Paul VI The Pope of the revolution the ‘Hamlet Pope’

Years ending in 8 Paul VI has gone down in are fateful ones for Popes. history as ‘the Pope who In 1958 Pius XII died. banned the Pill’. John XXIII was elected. Humanae Vitae is the A Council was called most controversial Papal which changed the church. document of recent times. By 1968 the Council had But it would be a gross come and gone. But it was injustice to judge him on the year of Vietnam, of the one Encyclical. student unrest – and the It was Paul who steered Pope ‘banned the Pill’ the Vatican Council to its In 1978 Paul VI died; the successful conclusion. He is year of the three Popes the architect of the Catholic – and the election of Church of today. John Paul II. This article tries to give So what can we expect a balanced account of what in 2008? Paul VI achieved.

The Vatican Council e should look first at Pope Paul8 ’s church’s worship became much more Yet Paul often spoke out strongly in Wachievements. His predecessor, an act of the assembled community defence of the ancient ‘Petrine’ office. John XXIIII, had called the Second rather than the actions of a celebrant He saw himself as the chosen Father of Vatican Council. But he died in 1963 with the faithful as prayerful the church flock and he was loath to at the close of the first session. So it attendants. Concelebration was intro­ let that burden go. In this we may see fell to Paul to guide the Council to duced, com­munion was received in the long shadow of Pius XII, who in its successful conclusion two years the hand and under both kinds, and his exercise of papal authority wanted later – and then to implement its many other ancient practices of the “executors, not collaborators” and revolutionary decisions. What were church were restored. who for much of his pontificate was these? Here are some of them: his own Secretary of State. • Collegiality was established as a • First, the reform of the church’s balance to papal primacy, as defined • Ecumenism. Paul held out a hand liturgy. Paul fully endorsed the in 1870 at Vatican I. Pope Paul of friendship to the other Christian decisions of the Council to use the introduced regular Synods of bishops churches in a way Rome had never vernacular for celebrating Mass and and also gave status to national previously shown – first to the the sacraments. The liturgy of the hierarchies. It was hoped that by these Orthodox, then to the Lutherans and Word and the importance of the means the rigid centralisation and iron Anglicans, to whom he showed special homily at Mass were restored. The control of Rome would be relaxed. warmth. He initiated new bodies for

12 Tui Motu InterIslands theological investigation and was happy to join in prayerful exchange with the leaders of other churches. In this he was clearly fulfilling the spirit of the Vatican Council. In one public statement he In January 1964 called the Anglican church “our well- Pope Paul met the beloved Sister”. This is not language we Orthodox patriarch hear from Rome today. Athenagoras I in Jerusalem. Papal journeys A Pope had not met t was Paul who started the tradition an Orthodox patriarch Iof papal journeys outside Italy. The for 500 years most significant of these were three during the Council itself: to the Holy land and Jerusalem in January 1964; responsibility himself, he was creating So why did Paul decide to reject the to Bombay in India in December the heaviest of crosses for his own back. Commission’s findings? Primarily, it was fear of changing ‘the Tradition’, 1965; and to New York to address the During the Council itself a Commis­ UN in October 1966. of reversing the unyielding line on sion had been established to study contraception which Pius XI had taken Peter Hebblethwaite describes Paul’s marital matters and, specifically, birth in his Encyclical on married life. It may speech to the UN as “... a 30 minute control. This Commission included lay be he was influenced by a fear that a address for which 30 years of Vatican people from many parts of the world. vote for change would strengthen the diplomacy had prepared him. He was For the clerical ‘experts’ who attended, wave of permissiveness then sweeping cordial, discreet, human and radical in it was a steep learning curve, listening through the Western world. the sense of going to the deepest roots to the lay people with a firsthand of the institution... He found the experience of the inner workings of But mostly it was his own personal right balance between grandeur and marriage; it caused some of them to fear that if he did not make the simplicity, rhetoric and sincerity”(Paul change their minds completely on the decision himself, no matter how the VI: the first modern Pope pp 437-9). morality of contraception. Commission had advised him, he was betraying a sacred trust conferred on Before he became too old and sick, the majority view was him by God when he became Pope. Paul made other significant journeys So he made his decision – and the – notably in August 1968 to the that contraception is not floodgates opened. meeting of the South American Bishops at Medellin, in Columbia. intrinsically evil It was not simply that Humanae Here Paul gave his tacit blessing to the Vitae came to be largely disregarded. theology of liberation, a movement The Commission met for the last Paul himself was strongly criticised much in harmony with both the time in June 1966. It issued a report for keeping the decision to himself. Biblical teaching and sociology of which stated that contraception is not Cardinal Suenens, one of the leading Vatican II, but later censured by Pope intrinsically evil, and therefore advised lights of Vatican II, pointed out to John Paul. that the condemnation in Pius XI’s him that a Pope could hardly preach encyclical Casti Connubii should be collegiality on the the one hand and In his travels Paul was eager to embody revised. The church should change its then reserve crucial issues such as a new commitment by the Catholic stance of out-and-out condemnation. contraception and clerical celibacy Church to dialogue with and embrace This was the majority view of the to himself. Why were the bishops’ the great wide world outside Europe, Commission (a small minority wished conferences not consulted? outside the walls of Rome. to maintain the status quo). It is significant that even though Humanae Vitae. There is no doubt that Pope Paul many subsequent authorities have uring the Council Paul delib­ agonised over these reports. The attempted to give Humanae Vitae the Derately chose to remove two church waited for two years while stamp of infallibility, at the time that topics from the Council’s agenda: he made up his mind. The situation it was issued the cleric given the task contraception and clerical celibacy. It was made more fraught when the of announcing it to the world, moral may be that public discussion on such Commission’s majority report was theologian Archbishop Lambruschini, delicate topics at that time would have leaked to the press in April 1967. This stated that the Encyclical was “not been premature. Nevertheless, by his leak built up an expectation in church irreformable teaching”. Nevertheless determination to take the ultimate circles that change was imminent. the Pope had spoken. Many priests ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 13 church in the world ss and moral theologians left the church. document. So Humanae Vitae did Personal Impressions Most married Catholics simply bring one unexpected blessing! etty Friedan, author of The Feminine ignored the Encyclical. In the great BMystique speaks of an audience she debates on population growth and There are many striking similarities had in 1975 with Paul VI. “I see a man who world health the Vatican view was between Paul and the present Pope. is quite human and quite old , holding out condemned as obscurantist. On many Both Benedict and Paul spent most his hand to me in a sort of half-welcome, half-blessing, with eyes full of the guile and issues the church’s views came to be of their careers working in the Curia in Rome. Both have a public image authority one would expect in a man who disregarded. has risen to the pinnacle of such a powerful which is somewhat awesome; yet political world, staring at me, studying The sequel one-to-one, Ratzinger like Montini is me... lthough Paul did many admirable charming and courteous – and is also “He took my hand in both of his, as if he things during the final ten years a good listener. really meant his concern for women. He A seemed much more human, somehow, of his pontificate, Humanae Vitae Both were the trusted right-hand of than I had expected, with a warm and hung over him like a dark cloud. caring expression; he wasn’t going through long living predecessors. Montini stood Significantly, he never issued another perfunctory motions in meeting me; he alongside Pius XII from his election in encyclical letter. In 1972 a decision seemed strangely intent, curious, interested 1938 right through the Second World in this meeting which was going on much was needed to determine the topic War until eventually Pius made him longer than anyone had given me reason for the next Synod of Bishops, due in Archbishop of Milan. As Prefect of to expect... And he held out his arms, as if to 1974. Marriage and the Family was top bless me, I guess, and I was ushered out.” the CDF, Joseph Ratzinger was John of the list. When someone pointed out Paul’s trouble-shooter for most of his to Paul that such a topic would very eter Nichols, the London Times Rome long tenure of the chair of Peter. likely reopen the can of worms over Pcorrespondent, describes Paul VI like contraception, he quickly substituted this: “The Pope’s manner is gentle rather Theologically, however, they are poles than tense, but kindly, and the most striking Evangelisation as the topic. apart. Montini was always a forward details of his presence are the way he holds looking thinker: on social issues, his head to one side and the brightness of That 1974 Synod was somewhat ecumenism and as regards the liturgy. his eyes. His personality is striking at close indecisive, so it was given to the Pope Ratzinger by comparison is very much quarters but it is not easily projected, with to summarise its conclusions. In 1975 the result that the smaller the occasion, the traditionalist in the line of the he issued the letter by which he is the more natural and impressive he is. But Roman Curia. best celebrated, Evangelii Nuntiandi. he loves crowds and loves contact with throngs of enthusiastic faithful.” Since it was not an encyclical it Yet Paul will always be remembered as enabled him to write more freely, and the Pope of Humanae Vitae. it is a beautiful and highly influential M.H. n the eve of his ‘coronation’ in St Peter’s, OPope Paul celebrated an evening Mass for the Milanesi in the Milanese church, San Carlo al Corso. Since it was cared for by the Rosminians we were able to get in and watch proceedings from a loggia high above the main altar. At the end of the Mass Paul was mobbed by hundreds of enthusiastic Milanese, who had arrived from the north in their trainloads. I Caritas ad was taken aback by this behaviour, but Paul was quite unruffled by the fairly rough treatment he received. He almost appeared to enjoy it. Much the same thing happened a year later on his first journey out of Italy – to the Holy Land. He was mobbed in the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. And on a similar occasion later on in Manila, a deranged person in the crowd lunged at the Pope with a knife. Tragedy was only averted by one of the Pope’s retinue, a hefty English Monsignor, jumping on the man and pinning him to the ground. Paul appeared to be indifferent to his own personal safety. In the last year of his life he offered himself in exchange for some Lufthansa prisoners hijacked and held to ransom in Africa. (M.H.)

14 Tui Motu InterIslands lent

Simply Good

“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer” (Albert Camus)

t is profoundly good to open my eyes to see their appeal. It’s great to see kids progress from Ithe sleepy and dishevelled face of the woman cheddar, to Colby, to Tasty, to Stilton. I wish their who has borne my children, borne my moods, theology would too. Usually they try the cheddar extravagances and egocentrism, overlooked my equivalent then give up on cheese. ageing, balding, sagging body, and is still content to lie beside me and love me with all her heart. • With strong flavours, too, comes the realisation that a little is all that is needed. A dram of • There is a serenity to be found in some of the Glenfiddich can last a whole sunset. When you simplest of pleasures. I am sitting outside at 6.30 get stuffed on anything – food, drink, or religion am, looking at the trees, with a cup of coffee in one – you miss the beauty on the horizon. hand and the morning paper in the other. I hear the birds and some distant morning traffic. Closing • Enjoyment is not always assisted by money. Big my eyes I listen to my heart and it is peaceful. toys can lead to big stress, and big maintenance. Bigness is also part of the illusion that the grand is • Table-tennis in the garage is always a boisterous always preferable to the simple. affair, deliberately so. Here, young versus older can A car will give you the pleasure of arriving quickly. tease, laugh and compete. There are two lessons I A bicycle will give you the pleasure of feeling want to teach. Firstly, that fun is something you the wind. Walking will give you the pleasure of determine and then create. Secondly, the real noticing the flowers. All are pleasurable, but some triumph of any game is the mutual enjoyment. The cost more. Generally, the more it costs the worse desire to win always needs to be kept in check, off your heart is. lest its destructive force is unleashed. • Beauty is the artist’s gift to the city. These gifts • I try to laugh every day. I therefore need to put stimulate our eyes and imagination, and goddishly myself in the company of or communication with invite our souls to be transported beyond the people who are as seriously twisted as I am. That ordinary. Sculpture, in particular, offers us the takes discipline, but is manna to the soul. It helps vulnerability and intrigue of three dimensions, too to know authors that are similarly twisted. inviting touch and reflection. Sculpture is the foil Today it is Christopher Moore. to utilitarian design, suburban routine and soulless consumerism. • In the office it is the trickster who contributes more than she or he knows. The ability to release • Working downtown it is important to misplace laughter into the common atmosphere is a your diary and cell phone, walk out and get lost divine gift, sowing the possibilities of hope and at least once a week. In the world of noise and transformation. Churches in particular need lots demand we need a silence break, or we will of pranks – just to piss the pious off and remind us break. That’s why it’s important for churches, art what piety is. galleries and large bookstores to be open in the city – for the quiet. It is a prayer to walk from With age comes the ability to enjoy rich, • noise to silence. Our souls simply need it. strong flavours. Insipid food and beverages lose Glynn Cardy

Tui Motu InterIslands 15 Ahmed Zaoui – a cry for justice

Children and the sense of justice lessed Oliver Plunkett’s Catholic school, on the northern fringe of Melbourne, was in 1951 just three classrooms and a shelter shed. Folding wooden Bwalls divided the classrooms, in each of which – as in the shelter shed – a harassed Sister of Mercy tried to give a basic education to a double class of more than 60 children. Sister Agatha was the school principal. Like all nuns she received no wage; just the two shillings ‘school money’ that most of the working-class families paid to help feed her community and to run the school. We children made jokes about the Sisters, but knew they were heroic volunteers, educating a quarter of Australia’s children. We heard our parents complain how unjust it was that none of our taxes were allocated to schools like ours. I was in Grade Six. One advantage of having two classes in one room was that you could listen in to what Grade Seven pupils were learning. Sister Agatha taught them history. Ahmed reunited at last with his wife and children One day, during The French Revolution, I heard that in the corrupt ancien régime that came before it, anyone could The case of Ahmed Zaoui arrange to have their enemy locked away forever in the Bastille simply by posting an anonymous lettre de cachet . ifty-two years after listening-in to that Seventh At age 11, this horrible injustice shocked me deeply. Grade lesson, I heard about Ahmed Zaoui, the Algerian refugee who, when he arrived in Auckland Where do children get this strong sense of justice? Not from Fwas at once slammed into solitary confinement under ‘Catholic indoctrination’ by Sister Agatha, or even from the maximum security and left there for ten months. The British Empire of which we were an outpost. I believe I still Security Intelligence Service would not tell us why he was would have felt this had I been born Aboriginal, Chinese being tortured like this, because that “would endanger New or Maori. The Maori proverb asks “What is the most Zealand’s security”. Many people around the country saw important thing in the world?” and replies: “The people, that this kind of ‘justice’ threatens everyone’s security. If the people, the people.” a person can be locked away without the accusers being accountable to Parliament or the public, we have wiped Our sense of fairness does not come from adults two centuries of legal reform and are back with lettres de manipulating our minds. We feel it even more keenly when cachet. parents or teachers are themselves unjust to us. Some deep part of our spirit recognizes that justice means giving to A nation-wide network of ordinary people gladly supported each person what is their right: dignity, respect, freedom, Mr Zaoui’s lawyers’ in their two-year struggle to have him equality and a fair share of available goods. All the religious released on bail. We Dominican friars agreed to receive him traditions – and their liberal-humanist heirs – frame it in into our home. So slow was his case that after leaving prison similar words. As Catholics we heard that all human beings he was with us for almost three years. It was to be five years are “children of God”. before he saw his wife and four sons again.

16 Tui Motu InterIslands justice & peace

Ahmed Zaoui – a cry for justice

Peter Murnane

once the case was withdrawn it did act swiftly to improve his situation. His family soon came to join him and a house was arranged for them. But why was he treated as if we lived in the ancien regime? A key witness at the review of his case, a former member of Algerian Security, admitted to being part of a campaign to malign Ahmed Zaoui soon after the military had dissolved the parliament of which Ahmed was an elected member. From there, the international network of security services marked him as a ‘terrorist suspect’. Why would anyone believe such anonymous lies? This is the terrible power that an anonymous accuser can wield. Who can affirm or deny the statements they let trickle from their concealed hand? When we are afraid, we are easy to bluff. More so if our self-interest is at stake. If they tell us that all done is done “for our security”, recent history has shown that ordinary citizens in a democratic country will not even Ahmed reunited at last with his wife and children object to their government using torture. And what if it is “to protect our property” or our prosperity? Is it without significance that this country sells a large quantity of milk Not everyone could see that this was unfair. Without taking products to Algeria? the trouble to hear his story, some people were swayed by shallow – sometimes deceitful – journalism or the fear- Lessons to learn from the Zaoui case mongers who populate talk-back radio. Believing untruths, f the injustices suffered by Ahmed Zaoui remind us they readily projected their own phobias onto this ‘other’, of the ancien régime and make us determined never a Muslim, a stranger, a refugee. Ahmed Zaoui became a to return to the evil of lettres de cachet, his patient scape-goat for their prejudices. enduranceI will have done this country a great service. But is this happening? There are ominous signs that the use of Convicted of no crime and, while still in maximum security “secret evidence” is being expanded in acts now coming prison, declared a legitimate refugee fleeing the illegitimate and murderous Algerian regime, even some Members of before parliament. Why should our legislators extend the Parliament savaged his reputation. But at crucial moments, powers that only the SIS have at present, giving them neither the New Zealand Government nor their Security to Immigration personnel or other civil servants? If they Intelligence Service could bring forward any damning play enough on our fears, they could possibly trick us into evidence. After five long years, concluding with weeks of accepting this. But this outcome would be a disaster for review of the Security Risk Certificate attached to him, they our freedom. After the Zaoui experience, are we still unable were forced to withdraw it before any final summing up to grasp the simple lesson that Sister Agatha’s 12-year-olds and decision. There never had been any solid evidence could understand? n against him. Although the Government had refused to shorten his case Peter Murnane OP is a member of the Dominican or even to allow his family to visit him during the long wait, Preaching Team working out of Auckland

Tui Motu InterIslands 17 seven deadly sins

Seven deadly sins – a Gandhi series

Sandra Winton

True religion leads us never to violence, often to self-sacrifice, always to compassion: such was Gandhi’s teaching in word and action

Worship without Sacrifice

s I write this, news has just to achieve the abolition of slavery appear in versions of Gandhi’s sins) broken that a suicide bomber in Britain and its empire. William has enormous potential for good has destroyed himself after sacrificed standing, reputation, health and for evil. It can be a source of life Akilling the Pakistani politician Benazir when, year after year, he stood before – or death. This is the meaning of a Bhutto. As has become sadly familiar, parliament to be jeered at, ridiculed ‘deadly sin’ in the Christian tradition, this young man left his house that and mocked as he re-presented his a sin which is a root sin, one which day with the intention of murdering bill. Like the young man depicted leads on to other sins. someone, then blowing up himself above, he also was sustained and When Gandhi named worship and, indiscriminately, any number inspired by religion. without sacrifice as a deadly sin he of others. Motivated by political or was, I believe, acknowledging that From where we sit, it seems easy to see ideological beliefs, perhaps fired by religion by itself, no matter how one of these young men as tragically seeing poverty, suffering, repression devotedly adhered to, is not the final and powerlessness, a young man like misguided and the other as a hero and arbiter of human conduct. “As soon this is also likely to have been driven prophet. But it would be simplistic as we lose the moral basis,” he said, by religion. His religion tells him he to attribute the difference to Islam “we cease to be religious. There is is a martyr, a saint. He is sacrificing on the one hand and Christianity no such thing as religion overriding his life. on the other. There are Muslims morality. Man [sic] for instance who are devoted to peace, as there cannot be untruthful, cruel and By way of contrast, earlier this year were Christians who vehemently incontinent and claim to have God I saw the film Amazing Grace. It supported slavery as being part of the on his side.” His words sit well with depicted the struggle of another divine plan. Whatever its expression, the life of Jesus who healed on the young man, William Wilberforce, worship or religion (and I will use the Sabbath, forgave sinners and placed and his largely Quaker supporters two terms interchangeably as both compassion above law.

18 Tui Motu InterIslands For both Jesus and Gandhi the compassionate action for human a military installation to protest for regulations of religion and the rules beings. When we go beyond our peace and nuclear disarmament. of religious leaders are insufficient prejudices of age, race, language They sang religious songs, prayed for guides to human behaviour. After and religion, then the suffering of peace, and symbolically poured their all, the witch hunts of the Middle any human being will move us and own blood onto the metal cover of Ages, the Crusades, and the bombers impel us. The battered child in New an underground nuclear missile silo. flying over Dresden and Hiroshima Zealand no less than the starving “We wanted to shed our own blood were blessed by certain religious child in Africa; the victims of war, rather than see others’ blood poured authorities, as are the terrorists, Muslim, Christian Hindu or of any out for war,” said one of them, Sr suicide bombers and invading armies faith; those who suffer from injustice, Carol Gilbert. “If you follow Jesus, of today. Religion can be serving of poverty, fear and powerlessness will he gave his blood for all of us on the personal, political and ideological matter to us. We may not be able to cross. As Christians we are called to interests just as much as commerce attend to all these needs but those sacrifice ourselves for others.” and politics can be. Gandhi himself that touch our hearts will call us to said, “Millions have taken the name Gandhi and non-violence action. of God and in His [sic] name have As a root virtue of Christian life, committed nameless atrocities.” worship or giving one’s life over to On October 6, 2002, three American God can be the source of the highest Compassion, not self- Dominican Sisters aged in their 50s virtue, as I believe it was with these flagellation and 60s left their homes knowing that Sisters. It can also be a source of cruelty, To say that worship or religion that day they would be in prison. They murder and the deepest injustice. requires sacrifice to keep it honest had spent years of their lives studying What guides do we have? Gandhi is not the same thing as calling for the meaning and impact of the taught compassion for the least, the kind of self-denial that for a United States’ nuclear build-up and justice for the many, restraint with period of history governed much its policies of war. They were impelled regards to possessions, non-violence Christian living especially in the by the injustice of the staggering sums as a principle of action, means that are English speaking world, including spent on military weapons, in light as just as the ends they seek. New Zealand. When my Scottish of the desperate poverty within the These guides will not tell us at once Presbyterian ancestors built their United States and beyond it. They had if an action is right or not; nothing previous convictions because of their main church hall in Dunedin with frees us from the inevitable struggle a sloping floor to discourage any protest actions. to sift through shades of grey. They possible temptation to dance, they will not give us certainty; many were life-denying in a way that makes On an early autumn morning, circumstances of life do not allow little sense today. wearing white chemical suits labelled it. But they would have stopped the Citizens Weapons Inspection Team suicide bomber. And they inevitably ss When my Catholic forbears told young involve sacrifice. They cannot be people that they were committing a they broke through the fence around mortal sin to ‘entertain’ even a sexual thought or desire they were walking in the same territory. Young people of Possible questions for discussion: today will find it hard to believe that • What are some ways in which you see religion used to support this was ever seriously taught and self-interest, internationally and personally? practised. Modern spirituality seeks God in the joys and beauties of life as • How would you like to see religious leaders encouraging much as in its sorrows and sufferings. governments and people to pursue a more just and peaceful world? It is right to do so. The sacrifice that What might they risk in the process? Gandhi considered essential to ensure • Can you think of situations in everyday life where you might be the truth of worship, or “worship in truth” as Jesus put it, was not a called to act on principle and where this might involve some cost dour denial of human pleasure but a or sacrifice for you? pursuit of goals that required sacrifice • What do you imagine it would be like to be called up to fight in a for their attainment. war you did not believe was right? What do you think you would For Gandhi, no less than for Jesus, feel and do? true worship always involved

Tui Motu InterIslands 19 seven deadly sins ss practised without it. That is why small, including the tiniest atom, communities are invited to this Gandhi led a very ascetical life is pervaded by God”. If I were to highest way of life. This is a fully himself and taught his followers to become more fully aware of this religious calling. It involves outer do the same. truth I would care about my actions action and inner transformation. It in so far as they affect not only others requires both sacrifice and hope. I A school pupil who refuses to finish with Gandhi’s words: participate in bullying, physical in the world but the created world or verbal, knows he will sacrifice itself. A belief that human beings are popularity with some. A parent who at the centre of the universe, free to Let me explain what I mean holds in her anger and does not hit use it in any way they wish, for their by religion. It is not the Hindu her child must exercise self-control. own profit, pleasure and satisfaction, religion which I certainly prize The business person who asks how is a part of the deadliness of religious above all other religions, but his investment choices and business sin; it is the antithesis of worship. the religion which transcends decisions will affect workers and the Inspired by a false interpretation of Hinduism, which changes one’s ecology of the planet may sacrifice the Biblical creation story that sees very nature, which binds one some wealth. The politician who acts humans as masters of all, this belief indissoluble to the truths within with conscience may lose votes. The is leading us rapidly into destruction and which ever purifies. It is the scientist who asks how her research of the planet’s water, its potential to permanent element in human will affect human lives may not pursue feed its children and its very air. Were nature which counts no cost certain lines of investigation. There are it not for greed for oil, how much too great in order to find full people who make these choices. war and suffering might have been expression and which leaves A lesson in humility averted in recent years? the soul utterly restless until There was a particular verse of a True worship reminds humans that it has found itself, known its Hindu scripture, the Ishopanishad, we are not the ultimate gods of all. Maker and appreciated the true that held great meaning and comfort We are here to serve life, that of correspondence between the for Gandhi. It said to him that “all humanity and the whole created Maker and itself. there is in this universe, great or world. All of us and our church

Villa Maria College Joyce Rupp osm Joyce Rupp is well known for her gifted work as a writer, spiritual ‘midwife’, retreat Christchurch, New Zealand facilitator, and conference speaker. She has led retreats throughout North America, 90th Anniversary Celebrations Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Joyce will be in Aotearoa New 23rd & 24th February 2008 Zealand in March 2008 offering a One-Day Retreat in Auckland and in Dunedin. Kindling the Flame of Compassion An invitation to all “Suffering touches every life in some way. This retreat day is an opportunity to enliven and deepen a compassionate heart. This central quality of Christ includes awareness, attitude, past students and staff and action. It weds us to each part of the cosmos. Compassion teaches, challenges, and at the College site inspires us to accompany the hurting ones of our personal lives and our world. Compassion also includes entering into our own pain and urges us to give ourselves kindness.” • Saturday morning: champagne brunch DATE: Saturday 1 March, 2008 – 9.30am - 3.30pm followed by group VENUE: Saint Mary’s College Hall, New Street, Ponsonby, Auckland photos and tours of College FEE: $50 BYO Lunch To book: Phone (09) 638 6238 or Email: [email protected] • Saturday evening: Gala Te Ngakau Waiora, MERCY SPIRITUALITY CENTRE Epsom, Auckland dinner www.mercycentreauckland.org.nz

DATE: Saturday 8 March, 2008 – 9.30am - 3.30pm To register your interest in receiving VENUE: Holy Cross Conference Centre, 89 Church St, Mosgiel further information, please email FEE: $50 BYO Lunch [email protected]. To register: Contact Teresa Hanratty rsm Email: [email protected] Phone: (03) 474 5755

Books will be available for sale by Pleroma Christian Supplies at both meetings Joyce will sign books at the end of the day

20 Tui Motu InterIslands lent

Seismic Change

he people of Gisborne were startled into a new into patterns of being that need further adjusting. Just as Tconsciousness of the fragility of life on 20 the energy built up off the coast of Gisborne eventually December last year when a 6.8 earthquake struck about shifted the plates, so from time to time energy builds 8.55 pm. Suddenly, all the business of the frenetic silly up in the church and fundamental realignment occurs. season was brought to a sudden halt as the earth’s plates Another seismic shift happens. moved to release pressure built up. For a brief moment the world stood still for tens of thousands of people up The Second Vatican Council was one such shift. While and down the East Coast. its epicentre was Rome, its effects have been felt everywhere. The valleys and hills of church life world- Scientists tell us that an earthquake is caused by a wide have been changed forever. Vatican II’s flow-on seismic shift in the earth’s plates as they readjust to effects are still with us. While some things are settling the pressures building up around them. Inevitably down, the new valleys and hills it produced have not they create a certain degree of chaos and destruction. yet been consolidated. It is still early days. Eventually they settle and produce new life. All the hills, valleys and mountains of our planet have evolved owever, huge difficulties confront the church as out of such changes. Hit seeks to witness in the highly mobile world of global corporate capitalism, built as it is on greed and The birth of Jesus of Nazareth on that first Christmas materialist values. This all-pervasive culture either night created a seismic change in human consciousness. co-opts, sentimentalises or generally neutralises the Nothing like this had happened before in history. God Christian message. It ignores the seismic shift. The came among us as an infant and took on the frailty Western Church is being forced to downsize all over. of human nature. The birth produced a fundamental Ageing clergy get sick and die, and their numbers are shift in the relationships of humanity with God and not replaced. The Holy Spirit behind the seismic change humanity with itself. seems to be saying something very fundamental to us. Adapt or die. If only we realised it, the change effected is momentous. Now, in the new order each individual has become a Yet the prophets among us, though persecuted, are son or daughter of God, a brother or sister of Christ, speaking clearly. Find new ways to be church, to be brothers and sisters of one another. This was to be the People of God. Create new communal models. the new pattern for all humanity. We were to practise Develop fresh leadership. Go back to Scripture justice and mercy, forgiveness when offence was taken – and Tradition with a capital T, and build around the or crime committed; we were to tolerate differences in fundamentals – proclaim the Good News to the poor, origins, race and ethnicity, and show compassion to the create community, celebrate the sacraments especially weak and vulnerable. Love would be the power behind Baptism and the Eucharist, be inclusive, practise our actions gluing all together. justice, proclaim the Reign of God present in time and eternity; and pray – always pray. As Abraham Heschel he subsequent life of Jesus, his radical says, “to pray is to dream in league with God.” Do Tteachings and eventually his passion, death and what Jesus did – dream in league with God. resurrection, sit on a ‘fault line’, which stretched from Nazareth through Galilee to Jerusalem and Since Vatican II, the church has truly undergone a beyond. The effects of this seismic shift are still seismic shift. Things are never the same after a seismic with us and now stretch around the world. Those shift. Just as the land under Gisborne has changed who understood this reality would bind together in forever even if it is not obvious on the surface, so community. They would be called ‘church’. the church has changed forever. It is in a period of consolidation charting new hills and valleys. Take Back then, new ways of living and being were heart. Trust in God. There is no going back. Only the developed. New structures were formed to effect the future beckons. goals of the seismic shift. But in time, like the hills and the valleys of the landscape, the structures have settled Dream. Then act. Jim Consedine

Tui Motu InterIslands 21 ritual

The Gift

Mike Noonan

And he said to them, “Have you they spoke of how much Jim meant to had the bright idea of checking the never read what David did when them. I remembered also an incident cellar. The cellar was the place where he and his companions were hungry initiated by Jim that had changed his we celebrated the liturgies of the and in need of food? He entered the life, his family’s life and the life of community and where we gathered house of God, when Abiathar was some of us who, as assistants, shared for community meetings. Perhaps Jim our lives with Jim. was down there waiting for Mass to high priest, and ate the bread of the begin. Presence, which it is not lawful for It happened like this. Because we were any but the priests to eat, and he gave an ecumenical community, we invited Sure enough, when we went down, some to his companions.” Then he the local ministers of the parishes and there was Jim. He was not waiting said to them, “The sabbath was made congregations we were involved in to for Mass to begin. The doors of the for humankind, and not humankind come and celebrate services with us on cupboard where we kept the bread for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is alternate Tuesdays in the community. and wine were open and Jim was This particular Tuesday, it was to behind the table, drinking wine out lord even of the sabbath.” have been a Roman Catholic Mass. of the Chalice. There was also some However, the local curate rang to say clear tell-tale evidence that some he was ill and could not come. The of the communion bread had been busyness of the evening took over and consumed. Jim beamed at us, but then elcome to New Zealand, after letting everyone know the change anxiety quickly clouded his face as he Jim! How was your realized he may have done something flight?” In response, Jim’s that we were not happy with. Wexhausted eyes focused on my face and A few days later, in a light hearted gained in intensity. He made the sound way, we mentioned this incident to of an airplane’s engines, with his arms Jim’s mum, who had come to our outstretched like wings. Gracefully he Open Night of prayer with the Baptist mimed how the plane had gone up and minister of the family’s congregation. down, waved his arms in a huge circle Jim’s Mum became serious and we to show that he had been around the realized that we may have been world, then made the sign for sleep. insensitive to her and to her family’s A deep chortle followed as, beaming Baptist tradition. However, we were broadly, he hugged me. astounded when, a couple of weeks Jim is a man with intellectual dis­ later, she contacted us saying that abilities who has been my friend now after a number of deep and reflective for 30 years. He is a free spirit, a man conversations with their minister, he and the family were united in wanting who does not speak with words, but of plan, we got on with preparing the whose ability to express himself is us to prepare Jim for reception into evening meal. When the time came the Roman Catholic church. sometimes astonishing. As I’d stood to call everyone to the table, there at the airport awaiting his arrival I’d was no sign of Jim. We searched the Whether our dismay showed or not, cast my mind back to the years we house – but still no sign of him. We it was present. As a community we had spent in community together in were becoming seriously worried at had taken as our guiding light that l’Arche in Liverpool. this stage. Jim had never gone missing we would support each person to I remembered his 21st Birthday before and his survival skills were not grow within their own faith tradition. celebration where so many people had great if he had run off into the streets This often meant that assistants come and made speeches in which of inner city Liverpool. Someone accompanied people with intellectual

22 Tui Motu InterIslands disabilities to services in churches that From stained glass windows, which press that a conversion necessarily were not of the assistants’ tradition. told him the gospel stories, to the entails a repudiation of whatever Because we had a majority of processing, bowing and genuflecting belief was held before. I believe Jim’s Catholics in the community, we were that makes up part of the Catholic journey into Catholicism was one not particularly sensitive to ensure that a liturgy; all these wordlessly conveyed to of repudiation of his Baptist roots, perception did not arise whereby the a wordless man a sense of the sacred. but of a journey undertaken with a families of people with intellectual supportive community within which disabilities feared a Catholic ‘takeover’ I remember a pilgrimage to Lourdes there was mutual respect between the of people who were not of the Catholic in 1981. Maria and I found ourselves Churches. Even more important was tradition. irritated by the ‘tat’ of Lourdes – see- the recognition of Jim as an individual through Our Ladies with screw-off and of what would help him and what Regardless of our fears, what Jim’s heads for Holy Water; the ashtrays might provide food for his journey. Mum and the Baptist Minister had with religious scenes depicted on perceived was that where the Baptist them and the torchlight ‘shuffle’ The lack of a priest to celebrate tradition is strongly reliant on words, which, because of the crowds, could Eucharist that day was a gift. The the Catholic tradition communicates manage but a few feet! Jim meanwhile Sabbath was made for Jim, and just much through symbol. processed around Lourdes in an like David and his men, Jim ate of the Bread of the Presence in that Liverpool In Jim’s actions in the cellar that day, attitude of profound prayerfulness, cellar as he tried to recreate the mass they had understood something which seeing beyond all the commercialism that day. Because of the wisdom of we had missed: namely the power of to the sacred encounter that continues his mother and his Baptist Minister, symbol to nourish Jim’s heart in a way to bless that small French town. Jim has found his place of belonging. that words alone could not. Recently, when Tony Blair, converted Jim’s reverence for all that is sacred The rightness of their decision was from Anglicanism to Catholicism continues to touch the hearts of many confirmed by Jim’s ongoing response much play was made by some British people and identifies him as a great to the dramas of the Catholic Church. politicians and some sections of the communicator. n

The Cosmic Kete

he house is full TMany faces, many stories lived Like the motley crew who walked with Him, the twelve. In brokenness, open to the goodness of God The God of all people, alive in each one. “This is My Body, I give it to you.” We’re a motley crew “This is My Body, I give it to you.” Each different, none perfect We gather because of these powerful words Woven together as blades of harakeke To break bread, drink wine and give thanks The gift of communion, the gift of community Our liturgy is the cup we all share The kete, a whare, the people of God. Whether old and cracked or shiny new The contents renew and refresh us “This is My Body, I give it to you.” The whare is open “This is My Body, I give it to you.” We receive and we welcome We are called to communion, Linking arms, linking hearts and into community With the wider community Weekly, daily, together, alone Ours is the earth, ours are the heavens All of us suffer, not one is spared The cosmic kete, of which we are one strand. Child or adult, dark or fair Our suffering transforms to joy. Pat Neuwelt

Tui Motu InterIslands 23 Our ‘Irish’ Catholics

St Patrick’s Day sports, Invercargill 1902

...what happened to the ‘Irish’ bit?

hen Eamon de Valera symbiotic identity that they did 60 visited this country in by Seán Brosnahan years ago. 1948, during a brief period Wout of office as Irish Prime Minister, Irish immigration and the the podiums at all his major public church functions were thick with the clerical Yet an Irish strand is at the core of In stark contrast, when Ireland’s our New Zealand Catholic Church’s black of Catholic bishops and priests. current President, Mrs Mary McAleese, The New Zealand Tablet provided historical identity. Catholicism visited New Zealand in late October developed here virtually as an outpost extensive coverage of the visit, one 2007 there was no such association. correspondent hailing de Valera as “a of the Irish Church, focused on Irish- In her determinedly secular public born immigrants and their children. great Catholic and a great Irishman.” utterances there was just one reference There was no question but that the Irish Religious established the Catholic to “the squabbles of religion”, cited as school system to mould the coming two characteristics were inextricably a regrettable element of the cultural linked. Archbishop McKeefry, in his generations of New Zealand Catholics. baggage brough to New Zealand by The concept of the ‘Irish Catholic’ speech of welcome, declared that the Irish migrants of the past. Receiving an greatest gift New Zealand had had represented a mutually reinforcing honorary doctorate from the University pairing of identities that sustained from Ireland was ‘the faith’. De Valera of Otago, Mrs McAleese was hosted visited convents, presbyteries and a tribal loyalty to the church among and welcomed by Dunedin’s academic the immigrants and their descendants Catholic schools, winning acclaim and civic dignitaries. Bishop Colin from the school children by granting for several generations. Even after the Campbell was in attendance but simply flow of Irish immigrants slowed to half-holidays in Auckland and as one of many invited guests. No other Taihape. a trickle after the 19th century, the priests were present, no representatives ongoing contribution of Irish-born of the religious orders nor of the and trained priests and religious to Catholic schools. This, like all of her the New Zealand Church remained engagements, was an Irish occasion but profound well into the 20th century. definitely not a Catholic one. Tasked with inculturating itself in The disconnection seems to be mutual: New Zealand, however, the modern in contrast to the effusive coverage church has found it relatively easy to by the Catholic press in 1948, the jettison the husk of ‘Irish’ traditions national Catholic newspaper New and engage instead (haltingly) with Zealand Catholic did not even the indigenous culture of these consider the Irish President’s 2007 islands. At the same time, Ireland’s Patrick Moran, first Catholic Bishop visit worth reporting. Clearly, ‘Irish’ surplus of priests and religious dried of Dunedin and a staunch Irishman and ‘Catholic’ no longer represent the up, putting an end to the traditional

24 Tui Motu InterIslands NZ society regular infusion of new Irish clerical the New Zealand context, reflecting with a continuing Irish heritage blood. It was entirely appropriate, of perhaps the essentially fluid nature of expressed through language, music, course, that after more than a century cultural identity. dance or some other form of cultural in Oceania, New Zealand’s Catholics expression. Was there any successful should begin to see themselves as Today there is unprecedented interest transmission of these traditions people of the Pacific rather than exiles in the Irish dimension of our history – especially the language – beyond the of Erin. The subsequent evaporation and Irish culture seems to be newly migrant generation? of the old ‘tribal’ loyalty to the resurgent in New Zealand. church, however, may have played a There is, for example, significant part in the rapid decline a programme for Irish of participation in Catholic life by and Scottish Studies at descendants of the Irish ethnic group Victoria University’s over recent years. Stout Centre and a new Chair in Irish Studies at Irish culture in New Zealand the University of Otago. What then of their ‘Irishness’? ‘Irish’ bars are ubiquitous Separated from the religious culture and traditional Irish of Catholicism – essentially Roman music has a devoted New rather than Irish in any case – what Zealand following. Many residue remains of the Gaelic culture New Zealanders look back that Catholic New Zealanders might proudly to Irish roots, have expected to inherit from their including descendants of Irish forbears? Was it simply left the large number of Irish behind when they emigrated or did Protestants who came to The Craic in Dunedin, one of the many Irish-themed it gradually evaporate in the new this country. Pilgrimages bars springing up across New Zealand colonial environment? to the ancient homeland are becoming more and These questions are prompted by more common. What is noticeably Readers with an Irish whakapapa (I an exhibition at the Otago Settlers absent, however, is a strong Catholic am not thinking of recent immigrants) Museum in Dunedin. Titled Erin Go connection with modern New Zealand might consider the following Bragh: the Irish in Otago and Southland, Irishness. questions: the display presents a historical survey of the Irish in southern New Zealand, The writer would be pleased to hear • do you think of yourself as ‘Irish’ at with a core focus on its Catholic aspect. from readers with contrary views or all? If so, how does that express itself, What emerges is the great difficulty experiences of Irish cultural identity in and in what does it consist? of trying to pin down ‘Irishness’ in New Zealand. Likewise from families • Is there any tradition carrying a sense of Irish heritage in your family – apart from Catholicism? Any stories or memories of Ireland handed down? Any fragments of Gaelic, any Irish songs or superstitions... • In short is there anything, apart from your DNA, that could be classed as ‘Irish’ about you? n

Seán Brosnahan is Curator of the Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin. He can be contacted at the Otago Settlers Museum: seá[email protected]. Erin Go Bragh: the Irish in Otago This 1921 Catholic procession around the grounds of St Dominic’s drew hostile and Southland is on show until attention from the ‘loyal British’ citizens of Dunedin. The open display of an Irish 8 June 2008. Admission free. Republican flag (on the church upper left) was tantamount to treason in the eyes of many Protestants in the heightened sectarian atmosphere of the early 1020s.

Tui Motu InterIslands 25 spirituality Disappointment

Paul Andrews

aidin and I were burying Eoin, a them, and taught them to his children. sinned against heaven and disappointed Pdear mutual friend who had died He had carried out everything that my father. There are billions of people at the height of his powers. He was God, through his parents and teachers, who feel that life has somehow cheated a devout man of strong principles. had taught him. The children grew up them. At a certain point they say to Not only that, he lived by those interesting, loving and lively. Though themselves: Is this all there is? Is this principles. He was a high-powered they turned out very different from the as good as it gets? They look back on engineer, always stretching himself model that Eoin had in his mind, each a marriage that has broken or fallen in his professional life, but keeping of them in their diverse ways reflected short of expectations; or at a career in the best hours of the week free for his warmth and integrity. which they hit against a glass ceiling his wife and family, a spirited lot who and failed to win the promotion they made constant demands on him. The In Paidin there was more of the coveted; or at a religious vocation in tributes at the funeral were lavish, maverick mystic than the obedient which they often fell short of their but no more than Eoin deserved. student. He tried for the priesthood ideals. Or they feel they somehow let When a dangerous heart condition – the Jesuits in fact – but the early down their children. finally turned fatal, Eoin fought for death of his father forced him, the life every inch of the journey, panting eldest of a large family, to become a There is a moment of truth here. This breathlessly all the way through his last breadwinner as soon as he could. He is what Jesus meant when he urged us night, with his wife holding his hand, had four remarkable children, and to carry our cross. It was not a call to until in the end it was she who gave lived to enjoy grandchildren. But as his take up special penances. The biggest him permission to relax and breathe chosen epitaph hinted, he had a sense cross is our own selves. his last. of disappointment. It was not so much disappointment with his achievements As Paidin and I threw our handfuls of and circumstances – by any standards The biggest cross is our own earth on the coffin, he turned to me: he had been a successful family and selves. This is what Jesus Paul, you could say of Eoin: “May God professional man – as disappointment be as good to him as he was to God.” with himself. In a poignant poem he meant when he urged us to I’m different. I’m in the mercy queue. spoke of himself: Inconsolable that I Here’s what you can put on my grave: am I. carry our cross. ... it was “Dear God, I didn’t enjoy it as much not a call to take up as you meant me to.” Look at a cross-section of middle- aged and elderly people. How many special penances When Paidin died in his sleep a of them, like Paidin, might admit to year later, a relatively young man, I disappointment. Are there any who remembered his words, but they did do not carry some grief or wound in In that extraordinary parable, the not appear on his gravestone. He their heart? Last September it became Prodigal Son tries to make an apology and Eoin and I were all of an age, clear that even the smiling and heroic to his father, but he gets nowhere. His had worked together, and watched Mother Teresa lived a life of spiritual father will not listen to the self-blame the next generation – Eoin had six desolation and torment. The Jesuit of his son. He hugs him, dresses children, Paidin four – with absorbed poet Gerard Manley Hopkins put him in the best robe, and arranges a interest. I wept for them both and still it sharply in one of his sonnets of celebration. feel a pang as I recall the two deaths, desolation: 30 years ago. I feel survivor’s guilt. I am gall, I am heartburn. esus does not want us to waste Why should the Lord have taken two God’s most deep decree Jenergy blaming ourselves. He fathers, and let me live on? Bitter would have me taste: would rather we were as unsurprisable my taste was me. as he is, and that we would move Paidin, who was a poet as well as an away from the might-have-beens, and engineer, put his finger on it. Upright In St Luke’s Gospel, the Prodigal Son forgive ourselves our mistakes as God Eoin had learned the rules and kept reaches a low point and realises: I have forgives us.

26 Tui Motu InterIslands scripture Decision-making in the early church Acts 1:12-26

Susan Smith

fter Jesus returns to his Father, As I write this – early December – I Athe apostles go back to Jerusalem have just finished reading a press release where they gather in an upstairs about a senior Vatican official, Sri room. The New Jerusalem Bible tells Lankan Archbishop Malcom Ranjith, us that “with one heart all these joined Secretary of the Congregation for constantly in prayer, together with Divine Worship, berating bishops who some women, including Mary the are concerned about the potentially mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” divisive nature that the widespread use (1:14). The Greek expression, of the Tridentine Mass could mean. It omoqumadon (literally “united”), and is worth noting that those who most translated as “with one heart” points vigorously support the Tridentine to an important quality that Luke Greek expression is interesting here. Mass are often enough those most ascribes to the primitive Christian “Believers” is the New Revised Standard opposed to the reforms of Vatican II. community – the spiritual unity of translation of the Greek avdelfwn, a believers. The believing community gender-inclusive term. Were bishops, were lay women and consists of disciples who included men, were parish priests consulted Is it stretching the parameters of members of his biological family, and prior to the papal promulgation biblical interpretation to suggest that those whom he had first called to regarding the Tridentine Mass? Again one practical implication of spiritual follow him. the answer appears to have been a unity is shared decision-making in resounding “no!” What spiritual unity means is spelt the community? I think not. Here out in the verses that follow. The 11 in these verses that we usually read Consultation, participation, and need to replace Judas. Peter proclaims through quickly to get to the all- involvement in decision-making are to the community of approximately important Pentecost narrative, we have messy and often protracted processes 120 believers what the problem is a description of the early community yet in the long run, their alternatives and they nominate two potential coming together to make an important are worse for the spiritual unity of the disciples – Barsabbas and Matthias. decision that would bear significantly community. Sometimes it is difficult They then cast lots and “Matthias was on the mission of the church in the to see that we belong to a church that added to the 11 apostles”. Again the decades ahead. is ‘of one mind’. n Susan Smith is a Sister of Our Lady of the Missions and teaches in her congregation’s Asian provinces

You may think that was all very well time for him. Idealistic people like the must have felt at times that he could for Jesus – he was the Messiah. That rich young man turned away when have managed things better. But he is not how we see him in the Gospel, asked to give their money to the poor. carried his cross, which for him as for which recounts a series of rebuffs The Jews walked away in droves when most of us consisted of rebuffs, failures and disappointments in his life. His Jesus spoke of the Eucharist. He wept and disappointments. He did not own townsfolk rejected him when he over his dear Jerusalem, yearning for grow bitter, or bland, or disillusioned, revisited Nazareth. Of the 12 men he acceptance like a mother over her but kept love flowing in his heart. n children. But the holy city rejected chose as apostles, Judas was to betray him. him, Peter to deny him. James and John were still arguing over petty We look on the Sacred Heart as a Fr Paul Andrews is a Jesuit priest ambitions even after three years in symbol of love. It was also a heart of resident in Dublin – but at present, supplying in Otago and Southland and Jesus’ company. The Pharisees, the tough courage. Jesus was repeatedly catching fish in the Mataura river religious leaders of his people, had no disappointed, and like any human, he

Tui Motu InterIslands 27 books

Richard Dawkins and the assault on religious belief

Neil Darragh Richard Dawkins

ichard Dawkins’ recent book depicted in scientific theories. Nothing understanding that the argument for RThe God Delusion (London: else can be considered evidence in the atheism needs to engage us if it wants Transworld, 2006) comes amidst debate about God. He then finds that to claim our attention. a surge of books over the last few there is no evidence in favour of the years that argue aggressively for the God hypothesis and concludes that the Readers who are very serious about the elimination of religion. Among the existence of God or gods is extremely reasonable and logical argumentation most publicised of these are such improbable. for or against the existence of God books as The End of Faith: Religion, would be better to consult the recent Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam How people come to believe in Believing by Faith: An Essay in the Harris; Breaking the Spell: Religion God Epistemology and Ethics of Religious as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Most theists that I know do not Belief (Oxford: Oxford University Press, C. Dennett; and God Is Not Great: arrive at a belief in God in the very 2007) by Auckland philosopher John How Religion Poisons Everything by rationalistic way that is expected by Bishop. This book accepts that the Christopher Hitchens. The subtitles Dawkins. Belief in God is more likely ‘natural’ evidence for God’s existence of these books give a fair indication to be the result of a long period of is ambiguous and examines the moral of the intentions of the writers. Most practical testing of the foundations of justifiability of taking theistic beliefs notably they tend to see religion as not our life commitments. We test how our to be true in one’s practical reasoning. only irrational but also as the major lives can be integrated with practical The reader should be warned though cause of violence in the world. living in some nearly coherent way that some familiarity with philosophy that involves not only our reason but is a considerable advantage in Dawkins’ The God Delusion advocates also insights and confrontations with following the careful and intense atheism and attacks all forms of religion mystery. reasoning employed in presenting this or theism. He claims not to be attacking book’s arguments. any one particular form of religion Our belief in God in other words is but the overall view that there exists a as large and intricate as our whole The ‘immorality’ of religious superhuman, supernatural intelligence lives, including reason but not just a belief who deliberately designed and created result of scientific-style reasoning. We A second major line of attack in the universe and everything in it, do not then expect ‘God’ to explain Dawkins’ book is directed against the including us. Religion, says Dawkins, our existence for we are also familiar belief that religion provides us with a is not just a delusion but a pernicious with the ‘cloud of unknowing’ and basis for morality, i.e. moral instruction delusion. Dawkins hopes that his book the dark night that is interwoven with on how we ought to behave: if there will convince its readers to become religious belief. It is at these levels of is no God, why be good? Dawkins atheists and that all atheists will ‘come out’ so as to become a combined political influence in the world. On Christian Hope The book includes a wide range of anecdotes and dramatic examples of Spe Salvi the evils of religion. The two major lines This Second Encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI is of attack however are directed towards a rich and challenging document that offers religion as explanation of the nature comfort to those in need of hope. of our world and religion as a basis The Pope shows that faith in Christ leads to hope and helps sustain us through the trials of daily life. for morality. Religion, says Dawkins, has tried to explain our existence and 96pp. $12 p/pkg $2 the nature of the universe in which Freephone 0508-988-988: Freefax 0508-988-989 we find ourselves, but this role is now Freepost 609, PostShop, Waipukurau completely superseded by science. email: [email protected] Dawkins has a prior commitment to the view that the world is just as www.christiansupplies.co.nz

28 Tui Motu InterIslands maintains on the contrary we cannot to re-examine where our own religious ground our morality in holy books beliefs and the structures of religious which are themselves responsible organisation can promote, support or for wars, violence, and all kinds of be co-opted by violent agendas. discrimination. Atheism of course is • A second point concerns religious also strongly associated with large scale fundamentalism. Dawkins’ arguments violence particularly in the 20th century. are strongest where directed against And this condemnation by association Christian fundamentalism in the can also be applied to democracy, Teresa McCann – 1930-2008 form of the arguments for the freedom, national sovereignty and any existence and nature of God from eresa and Paddy McCann were well of the great ideas that can motivate ‘Intelligent Design’, ‘Creationism’ known figures in Dunedin Catholic peoples’ commitment but can take T (God intervenes to create new species) circles during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s different forms. and the interventionist ‘God of the especially in charismatic renewal and in social justice circles. Dawkins’ argument however is that gaps’ approach to knowledge (God religion is very often the cause of wars is claimed as explanation of events in Born in Falls Road, Belfast Teresa and violence. Therefore if religion the world whenever science can’t yet started her life’s real journey when she were eliminated, much of the violence explain something). It is still relatively met Patrick McCann. They married in the world would also be eliminated. easy for religious people to fall back in 1949 and began their married life in Belfast. They wanted a big family, Oddly, he does not similarly argue into the simplicity of religious fundamentalism. and five children were born in Ireland. that, independently of religion, They decided to make a new life for British imperial policy in its colonies • The most important point perhaps themselves in New Zealand in 1957. or Russian communist expansion or is that it matters a great deal who we They went to Dunedin where the family American oil interests in the Middle think God is. Whether God exists or grew to eight. East might have something to do with not depends upon what we think the wars and violence. Dawkins distorts Eventually they retired to Paraparaumu nature of God is. Many of our common for their last home. In 2005 Teresa was a serious analysis of the causes of images and metaphors of God are in struck down with polymyositis. Her violence in favour of his denunciation need of serious revision. Dawkins does years of intense suffering were marked of religion. not take us very far down this track by great courage and acceptance, yet she but a recent book that does do this was always concerned about others. . Dawkins himself puts his own basis is Australian theologian, Val Webb’s of morality in the broad liberal Many parishioners of St Patrick’s, Like Catching Water in a Net: Human consensus of ethical principles that he Paraparaumu and Our Lady of Fatima, Attempts to Describe the Divine (New sees emerging in the world today, i.e. Waikanae visited and prayed for her in York & London: Continuum, 2007). on ethical principles that the ‘ordinary her long illness of over two years. The This book examines in a readable way decent person today’ would come up family had rosters to spread the domestic the multitude of divine metaphors and with. We might consider this belief work, meals and shopping. At one time images that people over the centuries there was a daughter in residence for a both laudable and naïve, but in any and across different religions, but week each over five successive weeks. case the people that hope for and especially Christianity, have found work for such an ethical consensus are During her long illness the drop in her inviting and believable. likely to be at least as much religious quality of life was marked by bravery and as atheist and we can be grateful for A final point raised by several reviewers of unselfishness. She became an inspiration to many in St Patrick’s parish and to this cooperation. Dawkins’ book is the issue of intolerance. residents of the retirement village. The God Delusion comes across as an What Dawkins can teach us advocate of intolerance towards any Eventually Teresa died with her family If we do not decide to become atheists kind of belief that is not a relentless around her. Her wake on Sunday 11 as a result of Dawkins’ attack on rationalism. Dawkins denies this and November was attended by about 300 religion, are there still points to be says that he is merely passionate. But people. Her funeral held at St Patrick’s learnt from his critique? just as we thought we might overcome on 12 November drew 400 or so mourners. I will always remember the • One point we are reminded of religious intolerance and even move quality of care and the time given her by here is that religion (like atheism) is beyond simple tolerance of diversity, her eight children. undoubtedly dangerous. Religious as expressed, for example, in the 2008 people can often assume that their National Interfaith Forum’s theme Requiescat in pace. own religious beliefs, even if not those “Beyond tolerance: understanding and Nina O’Flynn of other religions, are always good for respect”, we are confronted by a new us. This is not the case, and we need intolerant atheism. n

Tui Motu InterIslands 29 comment

A peace initiative ‘late, piecemeal and phoney’. seed bed, not of faith, but of prejudice and discrimination. It is anti-semitic, in the true sense of that expression. t seems certain that 2008 will be area has spawned terrorists by the In a democracy, there should be no dominated by the final year of thousands who seek revenge for the I fixed truth, everyone has the right to George W. Bush’s disastrous eight violence and the chaos he has created. offer his view but a claim to absolute years in power and the political The countless new graves in the Middle truth negates that possibility. The battle for his replacement, be that East bear testimony to that. political arena is not the place to person a Republican or a Democrat. dramatise the quest for moral certainty. In a pathetic attempt to regain some The American presidential election credibility, his Middle East tour in Crosscurrents seems a long way removed from the January only highlighted his irrele­ John Honoré consequences of the French Revolution vance and exposed the true purpose of and indeed from John F. Kennedy’s the visit. It was to sell billions of dollars declaration in 1960, “I believe in of arms to Israel and Saudi Arabia in Church and state in US politics an America where the separation of order to maintain the pressure for war he American presidential church and state is absolute. I believe against Iran. Tcampaign will run on until the in a president whose views on religion Nothing has changed since the end of this year and will probably cost are his own private affair”. February column a year ago which the equivalent of New Zealand’s GNP pointed to the Israeli/Palestinian for 2008. However, what is interesting is the language of all the candidates ****! conflict as the root cause of the troubles his columnist is now a university in the Middle East. The human who seek election. It seems to run student (again) and is awaiting catastrophe inflicted on Gaza can be contrary to the First Amendment of T approval of a massive student loan. traced directly to Bush and his Middle the US Constitution which declares Having just read in the financial East policies over the past two years that the government should neither pages that “senior bond holders with and is one of the great crimes of this enforce nor intrude on religion. The collateralised debt obligations are decade. As The Guardian pointed out, separation of church and state was suffering defaults because income Bush’s engagement in the world’s most a cornerstone of the French Revolu­ streams have ceased”, I decided that intractable dispute is late, piecemeal tion that separated and reorganised it was time for more education. and phoney. relations between church and state. Such inscrutable language requires The influence of the Israel lobby on We know that Bush was told by God university training to interpret but I American foreign policy has not abated to invade Iraq and John McCain totally agree with the idea that “super- and as the presidential campaign thought the Constitution established senior holders can accelerate payments progresses, all the candidates express a ‘Christian nation’. That aside, to themselves”. That sounds like me. their allegiance to the state of Israel, religion – Christian religion – has implicitly supporting the $3 billion become synonymous with morality, I immediately called the editor of dollars in annual foreign aid to Israel, righteousness and true democracy. To this magazine seeking a massive with not the slightest criticism of speak of God now means connecting increase in payment for this column Olmert’s relentless persecution of the with a fundamentalist society. Mitt in order to meet my own forth­ Palestinians. As Israel continues to Romney says that “freedom requires coming debt obligations. The editor’s expand its settlements on the West religion”, Obama seeks the presidency charming assistant, skilled in the art of resuscitation as well as everything Bank the plight of the Palestinians by giving “all praise and honour to else, was able to get him back on his worsens, while the Gaza strip is now a God”, Hillary Clinton has a “Faith, feet and transmit his refusal with humanitarian disaster. Hillary Clinton, Family and Values” team and John expletives deleted. Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani see Edwards assures the nation that “the no political advantage in addressing hand of God is in every step of what I thought that this was a short- the Israel/Palestine issue but there are happens with me”. sighted approach and pointed out the campaign funds available by backing inevitable repercussions. Three or four Israel to the hilt. The implicit idea behind these public years hence, when I become entitled professions of Christian faith is that this to an embossed certificate, I will have Bush flitted from Israel to Saudi Arabia is the one true religion and therefore to join the brain-drain seeking more and other countries in the region qualifies the believer for the presidency. money overseas in order to pay off the seeking the legacy of a peacemaker They have a mandate from God to student loan. Thus will Tui Motu lose seemingly oblivious of the fact that, pursue the leadership. No other faith a valued columnist to the Uzbekistan because of his ‘war on terror’, the nor candidate will do. This attitude is the Monthly Chronicle. n

30 Tui Motu InterIslands the death penalty

Cast you memory back over the Catholic practice of past UN and the sanctity of human life years regarding the death penalty. What was the penalty often imposed by the Inquisition on those found guilty of he United Nations General Assembly recently passed heresy? The death penalty. There was of course the face- Ta resolution that had wider implications for the church saving device that after being found guilty the accused were than we might imagine. The resolution condemned the use of handed over to the royal authority. It was the state rather the death penalty and called for its universal abolition. than the Church that actually took the lives. But woe betide any ruler who failed to carry out the execution. This penalty The passing of this resolution was the culmination of a was being imposed, let us recall, not for child molestation lengthy campaign in which Catholic voices were prominent. or wilful murder, but simply for differing with the Church The principal NGO lobbying for the measure was the World regarding what belief in Christ and his teachings entailed. Coalition Against the Death Penalty. This was founded in Rome six years ago under the auspices of the Community Think back a few centuries earlier. What happened when in of Sant’ Egidio, one of the ‘new movements’ in the Catholic the First Crusade in 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem? church. In this campaign, Sant’ Egidio worked closely with Virtually every Jew and every Muslim in the city, man, Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for woman and child, was put to the sword. They were not Justice and Peace. Christians and had no right to live.

Ten nations co-sponsored the resolution. Eight of these were Patently the Church’s views on the sanctity of human life countries with a Catholic majority. Of the other two, we can have evolved over the centuries. Happily they have evolved be rightly proud that New Zealand was one. for the better. Let us rejoice in that.

The sponsoring nations fought off the addition to the But one is set wondering about other positions that seem resolution of a clause that would have widened it to include a unmoveably entrenched in Catholic life. Make your condemnation of abortion. This seemingly desirable addition own pick of the church positions that you wonder might was in reality a tactical move by those opposing the passing be changed. Is it true that no woman can be ordained a of the death penalty moratorium. Confusing the two issues priest? Must the Eucharist always be lead by an ordained of death penalty and of abortion would have brought those minister? Why cannot those in a second marriage readily not sharing our views on abortion to oppose the overall receive communion? Could Catholics legitimately receive resolution. The anti-abortion battle was one to be fought on Communion in churches of a different tradition to their own. another day. The list could go on and on.

Even if it does not have binding force on individual nations, I cannot tell you which, if any, of the above will ever be Catholics can rejoice in the passing of a resolution. It clearly changed. I just know that one position that was in its time embodies the Christian view on the sanctity of human life, firmly held and practiced by the Church has been done away with the world community moving in the right direction in with. It makes one wonder what other positions will in time the matter of capital punishment. be abandoned. n Humphrey O’Leary Why have I said that the resolution has wider implications for the Church than we might imagine? Fr Humphrey O’Leary is rector of the Redemptorist community in Glendowie, Auckland

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31 in memoriam

Maurice Francis McIntyre (1926-2007)

or most of his 81 years, Maurice McIntyre was one who F“hungered and thirsted” (Mt 5,6) for justice and for integrity. Apart from his professional career in Law, Maurice promoted high ideals by example and by a generous giving of time and talent to a wide range of organisations, institutions and activities, as well as maintaining a special devotion and care for his wife and family. Maurice graduated in Law at Victoria University where he met his future wife, Anne. They married in 1952 and soon moved to Hamilton to take up a legal career and to begin a family. Later they moved to Gisborne where they were to spend the next 25 years. At this time Maurice began a ‘parallel profession’ as columnist in the Catholic Press. It all started in 1953 when his offer of Maurice McIntyre (left), in Wellington, with the editor (1996) a weekly commentary on radio broadcasting for the Tablet the Ranui private hospital, for the Thomas More Society and newspaper was accepted by the then Editor, Fr O’Dea. The others. Maurice died in early December. column appeared regularly under the pseudonym MM. Shortly May he rest in peace. afterwards, another column was provided by Maurice, headed Bernie Hehir Spotlight on New Zealand but with a different pseudonym – Veritas (latin for ‘truth’). When television began, that too came A personal memoir. under “MM’s” scrutiny in his media column. I first met Maurice at his law office in 1993 shortly after taking over the Tablet editorship. He greeted me with some reserve So, for almost 50 years, ending in 2002, Maurice penned two since, as he confessed, he thought I was about to terminate his 800 word columns for the Tablet, and later, with that paper’s connection with the Tablet. The previous year he had fired a demise, for the newly established NZ Catholic. His comments healthy brickbat at me in his column. were always topical, dealing with issues and controversies that were in the public scrutiny. Inevitably, some feathers I assured him that, on the contrary, I regarded him as the Tablet’s were ruffled, but Maurice constantly provided a much-needed chief asset and had come to plead with him to continue. We stimulation to debate and some original thinking – which became firm friends from that moment. Each week I would must be good for the health of both church and state. In an phone him and discuss topics for his column. From those interview on retirement from his columns, Maurice admitted conversations I always received more than I gave. that, on occasion, he would deliberately put in a controversial Maurice never pulled any punches or suffered fools gladly. titbit “just to wake people out of their torpor and get them His wife Anne always supported him, even if she found she thinking!” sometimes had to avert her eyes when she met someone in Wellington whom Maurice had been having a ‘go’ at. In 1979, he and Anne moved to Wellington. As in Gisborne, Maurice continued to be involved in a number of activities in Over 50 years no one surpassed Maurice in his service and the Capital, including work for the Catholic Homes Trust, for devotion to the Catholic press in New Zealand. M.H.

Sir Edmund Hillary – a memoir

en years ago Dr John Heydon, his founded. He had been the initiator, and Twife Sue and their three children it was his energy that kept the various spent two years at Kunde, in Nepal, works going through difficult times as working at a clinic started by Sir well as good ones. He worked always Edmund Hillary (see TM March ’03). with the Sherpas as equals. They returned to Kunde several times, “It was not so much what he did as how All this brought the family into close he did it”, says Sue. He never presumed personal contact with Sir Ed. They found to ‘know best’ when dealing with the him a kindly person, very approachable, Sherpas. Hillary’s principle was “the down to earth and “fun to be with”. Sherpas are our friends. You don’t impose your opinions on your friends.” He was What impressed Sue about him was his consistently modest and unassuming. thoughtfulness and the wisdom of his decisions in the running of the Himalayan The Heydons grieve his passing; he was Trust, responsible for various projects he their warm and caring friend. n

32 Tui Motu InterIslands