Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 Price $5

Tui Motu InterIslands 1 October 2009 editorial

where is the church going? contents he default mode of secular diocese, in terms of Mass attendance, 2-3 editorial. Board statement journalism is unbelief”. Going tops the Aussie league table – and Katie O’Connor “T 4 letters to Sydney to attend the annual religious certainly outstrips Melbourne. His 5 spirituality and medical practice press jamboree, we heard many tongue may have been ‘in his cheek’; Anna Holmes memorable sound bytes – and that nevertheless he was projecting a was certainly one. Our secular world message of confidence and success. 6-8 “Over the ditch” – the Catholic has lost its belief system. That is how Church in Australia e determined, after that, to ask interviews it appears on the surface, and tsunamis – as we know only too well – happen Waround about the true state of 9-10 The day they unlocked the church the Australian church. The result is Peter Murnane on the surface. Going deeper, however, found on pages 6-8. There are many 11 The Catholic Church in NZ as many of our contributors attest, Aranui community we find a profound, often incoherent, good things to say, but there are worrying problems – and they find an 12-13 John Calvin longing for spirituality (See, for instance, Dr Anna Holmes, p 5). echo in a community of New Zealand Peter Matheson religious, whose opinions we also 14-15 It takes a long time to grow young So, for our principal October theme sought (p 11). Sandwiched between Pauline O’Regan 16-17 The politics of inclusion we determined to dig deeper. To take the two pieces, Peter Murnane (pp 9- Rosemary Neave the pulse of the church as we found 10) reflects on the heritage of Vatican 18-20 Hope for the homeless it in Australia; to put that in the II and whether church leaders are Brian Turner, Shirley-Joy context of history; and then to look at being faithful to it. Barrow, Sue Giddens ourselves in New Zealand. 21 The tale of a street kid The good news is the empowerment of Glynn Cardy The face Australia presents to the visitor the laity. Vatican II defined the church 22 Damien of Molokai is one of confidence and prosperity. as The People of ,God and lay people The leprosy mission Going to St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, are being formed in both countries to 23 Mother’s journal for the Catholic Press Association Mass assume leadership roles. At the same Kaaren Mathias confirmed this for the Australian time clergy numbers are drastically 24-25 Given for all church too. St Mary’s is magnificent, down – but the wrong solutions are Diane Pendola right in the centre of town, wrapped being pursued to meet this crisis. 26 in memoriam: Jean Honoré in the greenery of Hyde Park. Like Michael Hill The major concern that surfaces right 27 How to play your cards St Paul’s in London, it speaks to the whole city. through this study is leadership. The Paul Andrews governance of the Catholic Church 28-9 Books Gareth Jones, Elisabeth The Mass took place in the exquisite has become over-centralised, and Nicholson, Michael Hill, crypt chapel. The liturgy was simple this produces a climate of fear which Kate Moriarty but beautifully prepared – and centre strangles much initiative. We live in a 30 Crosscurrents stage was Cardinal Pell. The Cardinal world hungry for faith, in desperate Jim Elliston 31 A personal testimony was welcoming, but his homily was need of God. Yet how can we respond Humphrey O’Leary unusual. He laid strong emphasis on when our leadership is preoccupied the fact that his paper, unlike most with issues of control and shackled Cover: St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney Catholic papers, makes money. His by clericalism and patriarchy? Is the

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

2 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 comment

Hello Tui Motu Readers solution a new Pope or a new Council? he Tui Motu Board has much to an enterprise that continues to pay its We must go deeper. The answer is a Tshare with you over the next couple own way. Apart from its initial year revolution of the spirit. of months as we enter an exciting new of operation while the subscriber base chapter of the magazine’s history. was being built up, the magazine has always been able to balance its books. Peter Matheson (pp 12-13), writing Firstly, you will notice by the ad on this about the Reformation – a similar page that we are now in the process of In addition, and unlike in most other time of crisis for the church, compares seeking a new Editor, whom we hope magazines, subscribers’ forward pay­ John Calvin with St Ignatius. Both saw will be able to take up the position ments for magazines are kept intact “the necessity of discipline, especially early next year. While we owe a debt of and are not used for normal running self-discipline, in the context of a gratitude to our current Editor – and in costs. So we are very sound of heart! vaulting concern for the glory and fact the whole team who every month The TM Foundation has been set sovereignty of God. Both developed continue to put out an outstanding up as a means of supporting further magazine – it is important to stress that new forms of ministry and mission, developments within and alongside the the principle of continuing to have an and gave top priority to teaching and magazine, including the full payment independent Catholic voice out there pastoral care.” Self-discipline is not of a new Editor. It does not fund the in the media world is bigger than any control from top down. current operation. In next month’s Tui individual’s contribution. Motu we will be outlining more about Church leadership exists, not to Thanks to the tireless work of the TM the Foundation’s plans and how you smother, but to empower the faithful, Board members and our Foundation may be able to help guarantee our both lay and cleric, that they may Trust we now have a succession plan future. freely and joyously respond to the that enables us to guarantee Tui Motu’s Blessings gospel call: to hear the word of God, to existence for the foreseeable future. Katie O’Connor live it and to share it. It is important to emphasise that it is Chair, Tui Motu Board M.H.

The Governing Board of Independent Catholic Magazine is seeking the services of Editor for TUI MOTU INTERISLANDS commencing early 2010 (by negotiation)

: At the Final curtain Australasian Religious Press Applications with CV to: Association (ARPA) conference in Sydney last month, the editor is seen here receiving a bronze award for “best Chair, devotional article applying faith to life”. C/- Tui Motu, The winning piece was written by Jeph Matthias (husband PO Box 6404, of Kaaren, who writes the Mother’s Journal each month). Dunedin North 9059 The title of the article was “musings about justice aboard a jumbo jet” (TM June 2008). Congratulations to the author. Job Description available on request Closing date 30 October 2009

Tui Motu Board and editorial team offer our Tui Motu invites readers to question, deepest sympathy and prayers to all Samoan challenge and contribute to its discussion of spiritual and social issues in the light and Tongan readers, whose families have been of gospel values, and in the interests of affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami, a more just and peaceful society especially where there has been loss of life.

Tui Motu InterIslands 3 October 2009 letters

TM a curate’s egg Isn’t the General Confession at I am sorry to hear that John Honoré has letters to the editor - the beginning of Mass when one examines one’s conscience enough, died. I always went for his page first We welcome comment, and found myself in agreement with discussion, argument, debate. without having to go to God through him. He was probably instrumental in But please keep letters a middle man? Aquinas, and after swaying me to keep with Tui Motu at under 200 words. him Cardinal Newman, both extolled The editor reserves the right to the virtue of ‘conscience first, all else moments when I’ve wavered. abridge, while not altering the You asked for comment. My wife meaning. after’. and I have been with Tui Motu since Response articles (up to one page) D Moore, Christchurch its inception. Although we were are also welcome – but please, Cardinal Newman, on being primarily Zealandia readers, we had by negotiation received into the church, spent an ambivalent affection for the Tablet several hours on his confession to and admired Kennedy as editor. the Passionist Fr Barberi. One-to- I am glad Tui Motu decided to be a your magazine towards LeFebvrist one confession will always have its Catholic magazine ‘looking out’. Catholics. It was very much ‘us and place. However, the traditional form I have felt an ambivalence where a them’ stuff. Yes, they hold views of weekly devotional confession truly Catholic grasp of human life as that polarise... Yes , they sometimes appears to be dying by default. –ed seen by faith and innate understand­ judge others pretty harshly. They are ing has been lost by the unaquaintance also good people, trying to live their Censure from on high with it of non-Catholic writers – or faith and experience the highs and The quickening of the church a predilection in Catholic writers lows of family life. They are ‘us’, at grass roots is being stifled by for a fashion of thought which will not ‘them’. pronouncements from the Vatican pass with the age and a regaining of I apologise for focussing on what and the Curia. Not surprisingly experienced reality. I didn’t like about your magazine, perhaps, because visionaries have Good intention, even enlightenment, because there are good things going too often been shouted down. This is not faith. I think faith recognises for it as well, but perhaps you was the treatment meted out to Jesus the understanding in others which will find it useful to have a reader himself. it imports to oneself. What these articulate things which put me off. The late Cardinal Hume wrote in his writers have to say is thoughtful and S Barnard, Hamilton personal papers that he considered revealing in its own way and of some (abridged) himself a lone voice in the Curia. incidental value. Thanks to these two correspondents Copernicus, Galileo, Mary McKillop, The ‘curate’s egg’ is not uneatable for their ‘full and frank’ comments. Bernard Håaering and many others and parts of it are excellent. I am –ed were rebuked – many cruelly so. glad to attest to that excellence. I get As for women priests: in the time great satisfaction from most of Tui Reconciliation Rites of Jesus no women held judicial, Motu. I write in response to recent letters political or medical offices. Now, P Land, Whirinaki on the Rites One, Two and Three of where allowed, they hold high Reconciliation. I am 65 years old and offices in all professions. Something Curate’s egg part 2 have only recently heard of these. must have changed. I quite like Tui Motu, but I have a The confessional is an outdated, I doubt, if Jesus came among us limited interest in reading about man-made institution from the today, he would recognise the church social justice issues... the world Dark Ages, and from the numbers he founded. It is too exclusive. seems such a bottomless pit of need attending it it is obvious that it is past D Power, Rolleston that it seems as though no matter its ‘use by’ date. what efforts we make, it is never enough. Rather than motivate me, this triggers a ‘switch off’ response. If you really love your Tui Motu I prefer stories where people say: “This is what I am doing about such you might care to remember us and such a problem” rather than the in your will ones where the writer complains about the terrible state of the world Tui Motu Foundation or the church and tries to make the PO Box 6404, readers share that indignation. Dunedin North 9059 I disliked the attitude expressed in

4 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 spirituality

spirituality and medical practice

Dr Anna Holmes interviewed 22 General Practitioners of varying age, ethnicity and practice location for a PhD thesis. Her research question allowed her to enquire about the spiritual issues in practice and those of the individual doctor. Some of her findings were presented at a recent Ageing and Spirituality conference in Auckland.

rom the 2006 census, New Zealand appears to be a very sense of interconnection seems to touch all spirit­uality Fsecular society, 45 percent of the population having in New Zealand – a well-earthed spirituality affected stated they had no religion. The reasons for increasing many of the non-Maori New Zealand participants in secularity in the Western world are many. The philosopher, their passionate sense of connection to the natural Charles Taylor, identifies a process of disenchantment of world. society beginning in the late Middle Ages. There were many other ways of understanding spirituality. Disenchantment resulted in the loss of a sense of the “It’s about the core, the centre of you... It’s the best part sacred and the rise of the ‘buffered self’. The buffered of me, that wants to care for others. It’s also about using self believed that human endeavour alone is responsible your talents for the good of others.” And – “I am hugely for social order in the world. The combination of this and aware of how we all need some source of meaning in our the rise of science at the time of the lives and I think that whole notion is Enlightenment made belief in religion best captured by the term spirituality and spirituality more difficult. – seek­ing for meaning.” The current scientific world view ost respondents acknowledged is based on an understanding of the Mhaving spiritual experiences. universe which is evolving and has These included: both order and chaos co-existing. This is Transcendent presence very different from the religious world view Feeling sent to someone described in the book of Genesis. It is also very Unexpected healing different from the modernist view, still espoused Extraordinary human experiences by some scientific fundamentalists, that proposes Foresight science and rationality alone will solve all existential Out of body experience and practical earthly problems. Near death Experiencing spirits what is spirituality? Ineffable experience beyond words. pirituality is an underlying human aspect which Spirituality was found to be very much a part of general Sconnects people with themselves, each other, the practice. It is unique, embodied, a search, a journey, a natural world, and the transcendent. It seeks answers to paradox. It has stops and starts and may be lonely and the questions: Who am I? Where am I going? Where have painful as well as fulfilling and enlivening. It continues I come from? from first cry to last breath. For GPs it is a journey Spirituality is an embodied awareness and experience, enlivened and accompanied by their patients. with tendrils that reach every part and every level of This is well said in the words of one respondent: the human person. It makes connections, enters into “I think to some extent, in a secular world there is a dialogue, thereby empowering humans by enabling priestly function. Of confession. Of hearing people’s continuing growth and transformation. It may or may not secrets and truths and fears, and not – at least trying not be mediated by religious practice. – to judge those. And I think that’s a sacred task... The overriding theme of spirituality in the survey “There is an aspect of healing in the literal laying on of responses from practitioners is about connection. It was hands. And whether that is examining a chest, or taking very clearly put by some participants. a blood pressure or feeling a pulse, there is something According to Maori spirituality (cited by one respondent)­ that occurs in that interaction which is more than just in the world is still an enchanted, interconnected, sacred their physical action. A transfer of compassion as well in place as it was in pre-Enlightenment Christ­ianity. This crucial times.” n DIAGRAM: the three leaves of the diagram represent the self, the natural world and the human other. The gold background represents the transcendent within each aspect of spirituality and without.

Tui Motu InterIslands 5 October 2009 across the ditch

In early September the Tui Motu editorial team spent a week in Sydney at conferences. It was an opportunity to take a closer look at our near neighbours. We interviewed three people: Fr Joe, a parish priest; Bill, a married Catholic with grown up family, who works for the church full-time; and Br Steve, a religious with wide experience of the church right across Australia.

To a Kiwi the average Aussie presented both countries are facing horrendous “For one thing some rural dioceses as a person who ‘sits securely in his/her eco-crises. The headwaters of the are very poor and suffer greatly from own skin’. Did Steve agree – and did it Mississippi-Missouri are drying up a shortage of clergy. Parishes in other equally apply to the Australian Catholic – like the Murray Darling catchment places are being hugely changed by church? in Australia. In both cases the farmers immigration”. Joe described one have over-exploited a resource, and it parish where 80 percent are immigrant r Steve agreed with this description. is all about to come home to roost.” and many of the remaining 20 B“Australia as a country has the best percent are largely second generation of all things, in a way which makes it a The Kiwi visitor sees the Catholic Church Australians. The immigrants world leader. It has the best schooling, as very much more prominent and comprise Asians, especially Filipinos; good universities and cultural affairs, obvious than in New Zealand. In Sydney Africans including many white South social harmony by and large. Aussies and Melbourne the cathedrals occupy the Africans; and South Americans, are even trying to come to grips with best sites, the church owns much prime mostly Chilean. “Such a mix makes the race thing. They have huge natural real estate and has had a much broader for a lot of vitality,” he says. wealth, in minerals and agriculture. It’s influence, politically and socially. Fr Joe still very much ‘the lucky country’. notes: “Catholics make up about 25 the australian clergy percent of the population here, a figure “The clergy,” observes Fr Joe, “are “Australia, like the United States, which doesn’t differ much from census ageing – even to the point that some has grown out of a ‘frontier culture’. to census. Australia is a very urban dioceses employ a full-time nurse to Australians know how to create wealth society. About 87 percent live in the care for the ailing elderly priests. Few and they have created a successful big cities. While they vary considerably presbyteries now had a housekeeper – liberal culture. They are proud of what across the country, urban and rural life a factor which made for many elderly they have created. The down side is that could not be more different. priests suffering neglect.

6 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 the catholic church

“Another worrying problem in church leadership often been treated by the Holy See recent times has been the apparent Bill thought the Australian bishops like ‘altar boys’. “I think the church ‘apartness’ of the newly ordained. were in a better space than a few years has become far too centralised in the They are prayerful men but seemingly ago. Back then they had suffered a years since the Vatican Council. The reluctant to share in the lives of their succession of Apostolic Nuncios who collegiality of the Council has been people. The young priests nearly made trouble for them in Rome. “It progressively taken back by Rome, and always dress in clericals, whereas the tends to make the bishops look over the Australian bishops have passively older men only wore clericals when it their shoulder too much. The last two conformed. Local bishops should be was demanded – for celebrating Mass Nuncios, however, have been more able to ask themselves what are our or on special occasions.” human and supportive. problems? – and then set about finding solutions themselves instead of relying Joe reports that he sometimes has “My own bishop is a very good on a directive from on high. students or young priests sent to him teacher and a most welcoming person, to ‘train’. When challenged, they although traditional. He has been “The banning of the use of the Third would generally conform – but their particularly energetic in encouraging Rite of Reconciliation is a case in ‘apartness’ upset some laity and there vocations in the diocese, and this point. Local bishops should be able had been complaints. Once a young seems to be successful. to decide for themselves what is priest interrupted the flow of a funeral pastorally suited to the needs of the “My main criticism regarding church to tell the congregation who was people. Instead, they’ve been roundly leadership in Australia is that it tends allowed to come forward to receive ticked off by Rome – and the use of to turn a blind eye to serious problems: communion and who was forbidden. the Third Rite stopped.” It didn’t seem to occur to him that for example now, with the conservative funerals were great occasions for young priests – just as previously they Br Steve also spoke with feeling about welcoming people back to church. turned a blind eye, or played down, leadership issues In Australia: “A problems regarding paedophile priests. bishop chosen for the major dioceses Bill, speaking from the lay perspective, I sometimes think there is a culture of such as Sydney or Melbourne is noted the number of imported priests unbelief about such serious issues. usually a competent administrator, making up for the priest shortage. but also one seen to be a ‘good, Rome Some of these are exceptional men, “Perhaps it’s an Australian thing, but person’. Obedience to the magisterium and he spoke very warmly of a the church tends to dodge dealing with of the church is a prime concern in Nigerian who had come to his diocese serious internal problems in the same their choice. Whatever John Paul or and seemed to fit in well. However, way that most Aussies avoid the huge Benedict says will be the basis of next the clergy are wary of this as a solution problem of race – how to do justice week’s sermon. since it creates its own problems. Many to the Aboriginal population? The Catholic Church itself has certainly of the imports don’t settle in easily, “There is a warm rapport between done some successful advocacy and there is inadequate preparation to most of these major bishops and on behalf of the Aboriginals. Yet, help them fit into the culture of the Rome. This has produced a tension after 200 years, there are still no Australian church. within the Australian hierarchy Aboriginal priests. What does that which is not publicly shown, but the Bill also spoke of the problem of tell us about ourselves?” younger priests: “Many of the young stronger personalities such as Cardinal ones are alarmingly conservative. I Fr Joe agreed that the Australian Pell of Sydney and Archbishop Denis don’t think that the bishops challenge bishops by and large were afraid of Hart of Melbourne tend to pull the this sufficiently”. ‘big brother’ in Rome. They had others into line. It is interesting that ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 7 October 2009 the catholic church

ss neither of these has ever been elected • The Catholic education system church’s relation to poverty and wealth chairman of the Bishops’ Conference. could be called the ‘jewel in the distribution. Long before, they had set They are too dictatorial! crown’ of the Australian Church. It up the CCJDP (Catholic Commission “Churchgoing is going down rapidly is highly regarded. The transition for Justice, Development and Peace), everywhere, except where there are over many years from religious to lay which was lay run. It spoke on behalf immigrants. Many of those who came control has worked well, and there are of the church, but the bishops were a generation ago are still faithful but many dedicated Catholic lay teachers not always happy with what was being their children not necessarily so. In running the system. said, so they closed it down. That those places where there are new caused a lot of anger. migrants from India, from Latin • Perhaps there isn’t quite the emphasis on social justice that there once was. “The bishops then set up another body, America and the Philippines, the Bishops’ Commission for Justice Nevertheless, the Society of St Vincent the numbers keep up. Development and Peace de Paul remains active and (BCJDP) run “There is also the question of the rivalry clearly by themselves. It continues between Sydney and Melbourne, each to be viewed with some suspicion a metropolis with large population by more conservative factions in the and considerable wealth. Each has church. a splendid cathedral with real “The grassroots response estate in the best areas of the within the church is healthy city. When Archbishop Pell enough. The Jesuits in gloats over the increase in Sydney, led originally by churchgoing in Sydney Fr Frank Brennan, have compared with Melbourne, done marvellous things. he is reflecting this age-old They maintain a justice rivalry. orientation, which comes “In the great cathedrals from their international with their lavish liturgy and leadership. They are fine choirs you experience outstanding in prison and the triumphalistic church. related ministries, and in But the gospel of Jesus is being work with the Aboriginals. The lived and preached by the humble Missionaries of the Sacred Heart pastor perseveringly labouring in his and the Pallottines have maintained suburban or country parish. They fruitful missions to the Aboriginals may be quite depressed about their in the Kimberleys in Northern situation because they are not being relevant. The poor Australia. The Jesuits were likewise listened to from on high. on the streets continued to be helped deeply involved much earlier on, and fed by ‘soup kitchens’ run by St and maintain other links with the “One outstanding exception among Vincent de Paul. the bishops”, observed Steve, “is the indigenous peoples now”. Auxiliary of Canberra, Bishop Pat • “I note especially the generosity of the So it is a mixed picture, a church quite Power, who lives very modestly and people. There is always a phenomenal different from in New Zealand, yet with keeps in close touch with the needy of response to Caritas appeals. My one many similar features. A final quote: the diocese, but also is not afraid to concern is whether the faithful are “The challenge for the Australian speak out in a way that contrasts with adequately nourished by the preaching Church – as in other First World most of the other bishops. Archbishop of the clergy. You hear of mediocre countries – is to embrace this new Battersby of Brisbane is also a very homilies – but then that has probably secular world and evangelise it, not pastoral person and is known as one always been the case. Not all parish retreat into an enclave.” n who looks after his priests.” priests are Bossuets!” Tui Motu wishes to express the good news Br Steve also noted some fine Fr Joe listed some grounds for hope: thanks to members of the achievements in the field of social Australasian Catholic Press • Overall there is an increasing justice: “In 1993 the bishops produced Association (ACPA) – and involvement of laity in all aspects an excellent social justice statement specifically the three spokesmen of church. They now receive good Common Wealth for the Common – who were willing to be preparation for apostolic work and have Good, after extensive consultation interviewed for this review of the increased desire to do what is needed. with laity. They focussed on the Australian Catholic Church.

8 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 the day they unlocked the church

Shortly we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII calling together the Second Vatican Council. This event was a watershed in the history of the church. But, Dominican Fr Peter Murnane asks, has the church continued to be faithful to the Council’s mandate?

he American and French numbers and wealth and developed a and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). Like Jesus, TRevolutions of the 18th Century centralised bureaucracy. Its bishops, the church contains both transcendent – and the Russian, Irish and Chinese in clergy and Roman court (Curia) mystery and changeable human flesh. the 20th – were violent, frightening and became a clerical caste, superior to lay Many find it harder to believe that Jesus dangerous... but they brought liberation people. Had they forgotten that Jesus is fully human than that he is fully God. and life to oppressed peoples. By analogy had washed his friends’ feet and died But if he is divine only – as Monophysite the Second Vatican Council was a an outcast? or ‘one nature’ Christians believed, then revolution in the 20th Century Catholic God has not really joined us in our Church. By ‘analogy’ I mean that it Privileged and protected by law, this human struggles. If our flesh is not holy, was quite different from those political clerical caste often became corrupt, we will look for God only in ‘sacred’ revolutions, but resembled them in just and this led, not surprisingly, to places, rituals and language and through one respect – it freed people. anticlericalism and savage retaliation as a special caste of ‘holy’ people. But from in the French revolution and Spanish the beginning we have all belonged to When all 2,300 bishops met on Civil War. At such times, it is good to The People of God. October 11 1962, and intermittently ask: “Why do they hate us so much?” until December 1965, there were econd, our church needed to reform no muskets, prisons, guillotines or For centuries this clerical-based insti­ Sits public worship. The revolution bloodshed; but the studies, debates and tution had come to be seen as somehow began at our altars. When The People decisions unlocked for Catholics more unchanging. This was an absurd of God gather to pray, why not use of the freedom that Jesus had come to illusion, for the church has changed our own language? Latin is no holier bring us (Jn 8:32). This revolution profoundly through history. The than any other. Instead of a fenced-off grew from our roots in Scripture and first Christian community consisted ‘sanctuary’, why not face each other history. The bishops pondered God’s entirely of Jews. Later it absorbed around the holy table and share the Covenant with the Jewish people and Greek thought and integrated the cup too, as Jesus’ first followers did? If Jesus’ total gift of himself, then chose cultures and rituals of Celts, Germans God is in all cultures, why not let each a phrase to describe themselves and and other converted nations. culture shape the Mass? our church: The People of God. (Lumen hird, we needed to reform how Gentium 9) Early bishops were married; the church once accepted slavery and condemned Twe related to other Christians and why the council? usury, but now does neither. It rejected other religions. Rediscovering that we An ecumenical council consists of all the proposal that the earth moves are The People of God, we see all human the church’s bishops called together by around the sun. Worst of all, between beings as God’s children, even those the pope. Its declarations carry more 1233 and 1834 its Inquisitions who broke away or were expelled when weight in the church’s Magisterium tortured and burned alive thousands trying to reform our flawed church. (teaching authority) than any letter of people who were “obdurate in We began to resolve differences with or statement made by a pope alone. heresy”. The last person thus killed these ‘separated’ sisters and brothers, Pope John XXIII convoked this 21st was a schoolteacher, Cayetano Ripoll that had once seemed irreconcilable. Council in 1962 because he saw that in Valencia in 1826. In 1908, however, We stopped punishing those who the church urgently needed to be the Inquisition quietly evolved into chose to marry Catholics, and allowed reformed. Why? the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Catholics to attend services in other Holy Office. Christians churches. We began to irst, because the church had become dialogue with non-Christians too, and Fclericalised and institutionalised. To claim our church does not change in the Easter liturgy stopped praying When the early church was freed is to deny our central Christian truth, for the conversion to Christianity of from persecution (315 AD) it grew in the Incarnation – the Word became flesh, those “perfidious Jews”. ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 9 October 2009 the catholic church

ss ourth, the church needed to called the church to listen to “the many Those who see our church primarily Freform how it related to the voices of our times...”(GS 44). as a holy institution are in danger of secular world. There were many things defending it at the expense of The radically new in the 1960s: post-war vatican II today People of God. Cardinal Ratzinger, affluence and universal education; talk ut is the revolution of Vatican now Pope Benedict XVI, was top of a united Europe; colonised peoples BII now being reversed? From adviser to Pope John Paul II at the and minorities seeking freedom. We the day the Council ended, some 1985 Synod, which so mutilated had astounding new technology in frightened members of the Curia have our church’s teaching. As pope he the transistor, the Pill, jet travel and fought a rearguard action against it. has allowed changes that deny the satellites; and there was the nuclear At a Special Synod in 1985 Pope John principles of the Vatican Council’s bomb which threatened to destroy us. Paul II and his Curia shifted emphasis teaching on liturgy: normalising Mass away from The People of God, a phrase in Latin and even discouraging “full Many began to see the world in new used about 40 times in the Council’s and active participation of the faithful” ways and to challenge authority. document; but the Synod’s Report by again accepting the priest’s facing But the clerical ‘fortress’ church still (II.1.3) now implied that it was away from the congregation. looked mostly inwards. As it had merely a “new sociological conception once condemned Galileo, now it which is one-sided”. They replaced it Although now Pope, he is no more condemned Marx, Darwin and Freud. with the vaguer word Communion, personally infallible than any other Despite Jesus’ call to liberate oppressed implying union around the leader. In Christian. Those who doubt this need peoples (Lk 4:18), the church often 25 years since that Synod, the phrase only read the immoral life of Pope sided with oppressors. It had only People of God has appeared only rarely Alexander VI or remember that St recently permitted literary criticism of in Roman documents. Peter betrayed Jesus and later needing the Bible and still maintained an Index to be rebuked by Paul for acting of Forbidden Books. But the living water that Vatican II hypocritically (Gal. 4:11-14); or recall released will not disappear from our that St Catherine of Siena admonished When the Second Vatican Council church, for it is now part of our unders­ Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome opened, the Roman Curia tried to tanding of the Gospel. ‘Rome’ may try in 1377. This article has been written control it, but at the very first Session to reverse the revolution when it usurps because the church’s own Law calls it two old cardinals, Liénart and Frings, control over the details of prayer and our “right and duty... to manifest our resisted the Curia’s plan. On that day celebration in every parish on earth. opinion on matters which pertain to they unlocked the church by calling for a the good of the Church” (Canon 212). vote that let a wider range of bishops take The Curia may muddy the water when We need to pray urgently for our part in drafting the new documents. it stifles ecumenism with documents that insult other churches or religions; Pope, that he be faithful to the full This largest-ever gathering of bishops or pollute it when we are forbidden Magisterium of church councils recognised that they, not the Curia, are to discuss certain topics and asked – and previous popes, and have the the church. In their final document,The impossibly – to submit “in obedience courage to face squarely the task Church in The Modern World (Gaudium of mind and heart”! The church can of implementing the Dogmatic et Spes), they proclaimed that God command our hearts and actions, but Constitution on the Church (Lumen is found not only in our sanctuaries our minds are made to obey the truth Gentium), ratified by Pope Paul VI and liturgy, but in the workplace and as we best find it. Loading guilt onto after being approved by 2151 bishops marriage bed, because in Christ “all people for not ‘definitively holding’ a (with five only voting against it) in things hold together”(Col 1:17 & 20). judgment of an individual pope is a the Third Session of the Vatican Having studied the past, they now kind of ecclesiastical abuse. Council, 21 November 1964. n

Pooh’s Prayer the ideal gift for A3 Colour Poster your grandchildren, new entrants, Price: $2 each; first communicants, Package (cardboard cylinder) & postage: $5 within NZ. and those entering their Each cylinder holds up to 10 posters second childhood Send to: Tui Motu, PO Box 6404, Dunedin North 9059

10 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 the catholic church in new zealand

Tui Motu completed its survey by looking at the New Zealand church through the eyes of a community of Sisters, who collectively have worked in a whole array of ministries over many decades. The Aranui Mercy community was anxious to insist that this was their personal view, not necessarily representative of their wider congregation. Sr Pauline O’Regan was their spokesperson.

ne thing I rejoice about in the contemporary spiritual stamina many show in spite of drastically “Ochurch is the way lay people often fully embrace declining numbers. What is so sad is that there are some the ministries which are now open to them. They take 19 priests who have served in this Diocese, unable to responsibility for the church because they are the practise their ministry because they are married. At church. So many of them now are theologically literate the same time priests from overseas are being brought in a way that simply wasn’t true, years ago. in, most of whom have serious cultural and language difficulties in working here. “Nevertheless I deeply regret the increasing central­ isation of the contemporary church, which impacts “Among those of the faithful who remain loyal, I see an locally because it contributes towards a climate of fear, increasing number who have retreated into a devotional robbing us of sound leadership. The bishops, when they religion – something which belongs to the past. Some could be fully involved locally, are constantly watching leave, others lapse into an earlier form of Catholicism. Rome because Rome is watching them. This climate of I mean by that an individual and personalised practice fear is transmitted also to the local clergy, so that they too of their faith rather than a celebration of their belonging are denied their full leadership role in their parishes. to the People of God. The vitality that existed 30 to 40 years ago has fallen away. “An individual priest may be longing to act in a pastoral way, which his own conscience urges on him, but he is he official church today remains male-dominated: crippled by a church-made law. He may be inhibited by “Tit has a real fear of women. Otherwise, I do what his fellow priests may think, or what the bishop not see how it could maintain the weak arguments put may say, or even the threat of possible suspension. What forward for ignoring women in the ordained ministry is being forgotten is that Jesus constantly had to break and keeping women out of participating in policy- such man-made laws in order to do what was needed for making and decision-making processes. the people of his time. Jesus constantly speaks of the law of love which overcomes fear. “In this respect the church is running counter to developments in society. At the local level I measure “This attitude of fear makes our church appear increas­ it by the way so many priests continue to use exclusive ingly irrelevant to the contemporary world. It has led language in the liturgy: they are revealing a deep-rooted to a continuing haemorrhage of people. We have lost fear of change. I would call the church’s treatment of two generations of Catholics. Parents will constantly women scandalous. Once upon a time you could excuse tell you that none of their children go near church. Their it on the grounds of ignorance – but not now. children see the church as something which condemns rather than loves them. “The principal purpose of the church,” Sr Pauline concluded, “is to take the good news to everybody. “The message that the church is ‘loving, forgiving and Evangelisation is its prime function. Yet it has ceased healing’ is not coming through for them to hear. Yet to speak to this world, which is craving and longing for people are longing to receive those words – and they are belief. A needy society looks towards the church, but not hearing them. This is particularly true as regards the the church is abandoning it. official teachings of the church. “We are turning inwards and becoming an exclusive sort “Among the clergy, who are largely an ageing group”, of community. And that is alien to what Jesus called on Sr Pauline continued, “I really admire the fidelity and us to do. I fear that we are failing God.” n

Tui Motu InterIslands 11 October 2009 calvin anniversary John Calvin scholar and provocateur

Church historian Peter Matheson looks at the reputation and influence of the great religious leader, whose 500th anniversary of birth falls this year. Was he as intolerant and unyeilding as he is sometimes portrayed?

his year is the 500th “bloodthirsty bulldogs”, Calvin and either in exile or at odds with the anniversary of the birth of John Knox of Scotland, in response to authorities. Calvin attracted many of the Frenchman, John Calvin, the floods of Protestant abuse about the avant garde in the early modern Tnext to Luther probably the leading the Papacy and the Jesuits. period: professionals, scholars, lawyers, 16th century Protestant Reformer. doctors, publishers, lay people seeking His influence on Western Europe All the more interesting, therefore, a new way into the Bible and a fresh and America was moment­ous. Latin to note that it was a Catholic scholar, blueprint for a just society. So it is editions and translations of his Ernst Zeeden, one of whose seminars odd that since the Enlightenment Biblical commentaries and his sum­ I attended in the 1960s, who was Calvinism has tended to attract the mary of Christian doctrine, The Insti­ the first to point to the similarities more conservative circles within the tutes of the Christian Religion, poured between Calvinism and the Society Protestant Churches. into the Netherlands, England, of Jesus. Calvinists and Jesuits both Today, however, new perspectives on Scotland, the Rhineland and also into emphasised the necessity of discipline, Calvin are emerging, based on a much Hungary. He was a fine linguist and especially self-discipline, in the con­ wider range of primary sources. The humanist scholar, but he is probably text of a vaulting concern for the pastoral, exegetical and educational best known for his advocacy of moral glory and sovereignty of God. Both priorities in Calvin’s life and work are reform and lay participation in developed new forms of ministry being emphasised as never before, while church government. and mission, and gave top priority to teaching and pastoral care. Both traditional perceptions of his chilly In the popular mind, however, developed fascinating critiques of rationalism have been challenged. he remains the personification of political absolutism. intolerance and dogmatism, assoc­ Calvinism in 19th century iated with the iron-clad doctrine of a more modern view of Calvin New Zealand double predestination and with the Of late, a stream of books and articles, What of the impact of Calvinism’s burning at the stake of the Spanish much of it stemming from the United thought here in New Zealand? One doctor and anti-Trinitarian, Servetus. States, has prompted a sea change in difficulty we have is that there are He is probably even more unpopular our understanding of Calvin. Bruce virtually no scholarly studies at all among Anglicans than among Gordon’s fine new biography, for on New Zealand Calvinism – even Catholics, because of a widespread example, comprehensively dishes the of the most prominent advocates of amnesia in parts of the Anglican myth that Calvin was a cold fish, an Calvinism in this country, such as the Communion about his foundational “iron man for iron times”, as he was redoubtable James MacGregor (1829- influence before and after the sometimes called. Not before time, we 1894), a distinguished Presbyterian Elizabethan Settlement. are getting beyond both hagiography minister in Oamaru from 1882. Thus and crude condemnation. any conclusions at this stage about In the late 19th century, however, Calvinism’s impact on New Zealand when religious polemic between This change of perspective has more must be very tentative. Protestants and Catholics was at its than mere academic interest. Calvin height in New Zealand, the Tablet was a radical theologian of exile. Many We will also need to define our was forever taking pot-shots at these of his followers found themselves terms. What is meant by Calvinism?

12 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 We need to distinguish between the scientific discoveries and theories of On the other hand a genuine rebirth Biblical theology of Calvin and later Darwin and others, were discussed of Calvinist scholarship did emerge classical Calvinism, which moved in a with remarkable openness. in New Zealand in the Depression contractual and rationalist direction. years of the 1930s, flowing from a Probably it was ‘folk Calvinism’ which However, after Salmond had moved disenchantment with Liberalism. had the most direct impact on New from the church’s Theological There was talk of a ‘New Calvinism’. Zealand – Calvin decked out, so Hall to a chair of philosophy at Prominent Anglicans, Baptists and to speak, in kilt and sporran. In the the young University of Otago, he in particular a group of very able Otago settlement, Calvinism was launched in 1886 an electrifying young Presbyterian ministers, JM filtered through the experience of the attack on the ‘intellectual terrorism’ Bates, IW Fraser, JTV Steele and 17th century Scottish Covenanters of Calvinism. He was particularly James Baird, launched the New and the 1843 Disruption. critical of traditional understandings Zealand Journal of Theology in 1932. of predestination and atonement, and They hoped the 400th anniversary The Covenanters were regarded as clearly touched a sensitive nerve. of Calvin’s 1536 Institutes would traitors by the Stuarts and ruthlessly The theological tide was changing. not so much celebrate this “greatest suppressed. Under Thomas Chalmers, New Zealand newspapers suggested man in the history of the Reformed the Disruption led to the formation that Calvinism had definitely passed Catholic Church” as rediscover the of the Free Church of Scotland, and its use by date. The move towards a Bible as the Word of God. the “Crown Rights of the Redeemer” more liberal brand of Christianity – Christ as head of the church – were They reminded New Zealanders, too, parallels similar transformations in championed against the legal rights that in the desolate days of the Third Scotland and Australia, and Catholic of wealthy patrons to nominate the Reich the Reformed congregations Modernism as well. JM Bates talks minister for a congregation. were at the forefront of criticising of the emergence of a liberal witness totalitarianism. Worship was deepened characterised by “evangelical warmth, In the young colony of New Zealand, by a re-encounter with Calvin’s and religious seriousness and a respect for John Knox and Covenanters such as Knox’s Eucharistic thought. The vigour knowledge and truth”, which from the Samuel Rutherford tended to figure of the 1930s’ revival of Calvinism, late 19th Century accompanied the as prominently as Calvin, as stained though, was marred by hagiographical main current of orthodoxy. glass windows such as those of Knox tendencies, and seemed blind to the Church, Dunedin, testify. Bookshelves Formally, Presbyterianism remained challenge of understanding Calvin in of lay people as well as ministers and Calvinist, but there was a growing an Australasian context. countless little congregational libraries openness to Biblical criticism, to calvin and the future would often contain books with evolutionary ideas, even to the As the 20th century neared its end, dramatic illustrations of Covenanting Romantic poetry of Wordsworth and therefore, interest in Calvin tended to martyrs, male and female, or depicting Coleridge. ‘Liberty of opinion’ on be a minority concern, though it never the hardships of the Disruption, as many issues was encouraged, and there faded away completely. Perhaps the the parishioners trooped out of their was growing embarrassment at the emergent concern for public theology, beloved church into the snow. Far abusive language about the Papacy in contextual theology and for a theology from ‘home’, Presbyterians in New the traditional Westminster Confession. Zealand identified with this tradition of exile, reflective of the diaspora of hardship and exile. So, by the beginning of the 20th situation of all the churches in New century an adherence to Calvinism Zealand today, will lead to a renewed, the 20th century in nz was increasingly the preserve of those ecumenical interest in the exegetical, When the 400th anniversary of of a more fundamentalist persuasion. socio-political and ecclesio­ ­logical init­ Calvin’s birth was celebrated in The Australasian monthly, The iatives of Calvin and his immediate 1909, therefore, it was an exclusively Biblical Recorder, edited for decades followers. The new scholarship at Presbyterian affair. Yet even within by the fiery New Zealand Presbyterian our disposal may enable Calvin to be Presbyterianism Calvin had become minister, PB Fraser, is a rich source for investigated afresh, in critical freedom, a controversial figure. Professor such evangelical Calvinism. Fraser’s as the scholar and provocateur he was William Salmond was something of a Brief Statement of the Reformed Faith in his own time. n banner-carrier for Presbyterianism in itself sold thousands of copies. Yet in Dunedin, delivering public lectures its negativity towards contemporary Dr Peter Matheson, whose special interest is Reformation history, was a contributor to on the hot topics of the day in what thought and Biblical scholarship and the Knox College Symposium in August to was an intellectually lively little in its individualistic evangelicalism, commemorate the Calvin jubilee. community. The challenge of critical the Biblical Recorder represented a An article on Calvin and Ecology approaches to the Bible, as well as the bizarre form of Calvinism. will appear in the November issue.

Tui Motu InterIslands 13 October 2009 seniority

it takes a long time to grow young being old in the 21st century - the elder person’s perspective

Pauline O’Regan

wrote a book But the old, about old age I’ve discovered, when I was 80, can take quite a different attitude towards believingI that being 80 would give me this. As I’ve made me way credibility with my through my 80s, I’ve found readers. But I also secretly that no longer do I hear the thought that at 80 I knew patronising edge in the tone. everything there was to I hear rather the kindness be known about old age. behind it, the concern and I have had seriously the desire to help. And I’ve to revise that opinion, found it quite trans­forming to as I’ve made my way change in this way. further through the When I’m in the shop these days, decade. the woman at the counter often looks across the heads of all her What I’ve discovered other customers and says, “Are is that as you get further you all right over there, love?” into your 80s, old age, rather Once I would have bristled. like winter, tends to become But I’ve discovered now I’m more severe. But what I want actually quite grateful because, to share with you is that I have n i n e times out of ten, I’m not all right. discovered as I make my way over these past seven A n d I’m very glad of the implication in years that against all odds – and all expectations of myself, the tone of voice that help is on its way. given my temperament – I have changed in attitude and in behaviour, in quite a few things. I didn’t expect that to I test all these things out once a month at least, during my happen. cooking week, when I do my shopping at the local super­market for our community. There was a time when I used to take being helped my magnifying glass with me, and I would be peering at the prices and checking the various brand names, very inde­ The first has to do with the fact that when you get old, some pendent and not a little self-righteous, and getting more people tend to patronise you. I used to find this very hard irritable by the moment. Now I never dream of taking my to take. I noticed they used a rather different tone of voice. magnifying glass, because I’ve changed my behaviour in this They spoke more slowly and a little more loudly. Sometimes matter. I treat everybody in that supermarket as my sister and it was a tone of voice that was alarmingly like the way people brother who are ready to help me, and I have discovered that speak to children. that’s exactly what they are.

I used to take great exception to this, interiorly, and I think it I try to choose people who would feel they would be least showed in writing my book, where I gave lots of examples. I likely to be asked by an old woman to help her. I love tattoos, believe the disabled have been telling us about this for years or the 14-year-old boy who’s making his grumpy way round – this experience of feeling that they were being talked down the supermarket. And I say, “Would you mind reading for to. Some people do tend to think, as they see you declining me what’s on that notice up there? I have very bad sight.” physically and becoming more decrepit on the outside, that it The boy will gather himself together and he’ll read it for me, must be also affecting you up top. And that therefore they’ve and he’ll stand looking at me, as much as to say, “Is there got to be more careful. anything else I can do?”

14 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 So my discovery in this period since I wrote my book is that you can spend a lot of useless energy going over your there is out there in the community a wonderful reservoir of past, regretting things you did, things you said. But if I’m kindness directed towards us old people, if we’ll tap into it going to be like that child, I’m not going to do that. I’m and express our need. going to put those cares away. You have to work at this, I’ve discovered. This does not come all that easily. I have spiritual blossoming to deal with my anxiety about the future, as death and the I have found that as my physical life goes downhill and frailty preceding it become more imminent. If I’m going to becomes more derelict my spiritual life can, in inverse be like the little child that Jesus said I must be like, I will proportion, grow and blossom. I thought I would share live in the present, in the now. with you my particular form of nourishing my spiritual life, because it has become very much the spirituality of my old That’s what I strive to do – to live as fully as I can in the age. I take just two events from the gospel. present. I notice that with children, there is a complete absence of any kind of earnestness. I think that one of the big One is where Jesus told us to call God our “father”. I’m obstacles to the spiritual life is earnestness. I see people, as absolutely certain that if Jesus lived in our time, with our they get older, becoming more anxious, perhaps. They start cultural differences, he would tell us also to call God our saying more prayers, they start moralising about the world, mother. Because all he is telling us is that especially about the younger generation our relationship is one of a parent and a – as though the world, in their day, was child. So it’s a love relationship, and a this is my world any one wit better than it is today! We deeply intimate one. and I own it – I claim it! create that myth for ourselves. I think that children don’t know the meaning of The other moment I take from the gospel is earnestness. where Jesus placed a small child “in their midst”, as it says. He suspended his teaching for a moment to do this. He was embracing our world preaching about the realm of God, or as we used to say more The other thing that I try to do in this movement towards often, the kingdom of heaven, and how to get there. And he being childlike in my spiritual life is to embrace the world took this child, and said, “if you want to enter the kingdom of that I live in the way they do. I look at them and I say, “Right, heaven, you would do well to be like this little one.” Now I it’s your world, but it’s mine, too. I’m going to embrace it know that he wasn’t talking about childishness. God help us, as fully and as spontaneously as you do.” It’s very easy we use every bit of energy in our old age to ward off second to embrace the beauty of the world we live in, but it also childhood! So he was talking about being childlike. includes the excitement and awesomeness of technology, which seems to take a quantum leap every week, as a new Over these years since I turned 80, I have tried to make a very invention bursts on the scene. special study of children. I’ve tried to take this seriously; I actually go down to our local mall, and just watch children, I don’t know what iPods look like, but I think they sound to see what Jesus was looking for when he said that. fabulous. And goodness knows what can’t be done with the cell phone, over and above texting and twittering! Parents living in the moment tell me that they can speak to their son in London, their And amongst other things, what always strikes me most is daughter in Beijing, and see them on their computer, and that children seem to be absolutely carefree. They have no their children can see them in return. What that must do for regrets; they’ve completely forgotten that they were playing the beautiful relationship between parents and children! up with their mother or father ten minutes ago. They’re just Just yesterday, when I was coming up in the plane from right there, living in the moment. It also seems to me that Christchurch, I sat next to a woman who told me she was they fully embrace the world they are in. They’re almost coming to Auckland for a check-up with her surgeon, after a shouting at me, “This is my world, and I own it, I claim it!” cornea transplant in both eyes. She told me that she was blind, And they live with such spontaneity and naturalness. and now she can see. And I just watched her reading for most I feel that they can do all the things I see them doing, pushing of the trip. If I’m living in an era that has the resources to boundaries and testing their parents, with such freedom, make the blind see, I want to embrace it with all my heart. because they know that they are loved. They are certain of the So my spiritual life is centred on becoming as childlike as I love of that other person. They know that they’ll be accepted, possibly can, in answer to that direction of Jesus. There’s a no matter what they do, that the arms will always be wide paradox in old people learning to become childlike, but it’s open for them. In the very centre of their beings, they know the wisdom that lies at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. I read a that they are loved. So I say to myself, “Well, I know that I am quote quite recently from Pablo Picasso, in which he said: loved, too. I have a parent, a father-mother God. And if this is “It takes a long time to grow young”. I think I know what he what it’s about – total acceptance – there are no regrets.” was talking about. n In old age, you have lots of time. It’s one of the perks; This address was given to theAgeing and Spirituality conference, but it’s also one of the pitfalls. Because with that time, held in Auckland during August

Tui Motu InterIslands 15 October 2009 communities of hope

This article is part of the series, sponsored by the Dominicans: Communities of Hope in a Chaotic World. the politics of inclusion Here, Rosemary Neave seeks to go to the heart of the gospel message – a message of inclusion, based on the commandment of universal love

hen we marginalise others, we marginalise a has gone into differentiating ourselves from each other. part of our self. The Christian commandment Now we are Maori, Pakeha, Tutsi, Hutu, Gay, Disabled, to love others has often been qualified Muslim, Christian… In our efforts to define and claim Wthrough history as we have marginalised one group our own special identities, it has been too easy to make or another, dehumanising, demonising and ultimately the ‘other’, the one different from us, into our enemy. eliminating ‘the other’ , whether they be witches, Jews, Catholics, Protestants… As a liberal I take responsibility When the planes flew into the Twin Towers I wondered for the way I have often demonised and dehumanised if perhaps the challenge of the new Millennium fundamentalists, evangelicals and conservatives. I firmly was once again to embrace the ‘other’. Rather than believe that is not the way forward: to demonise the putting all our energy into differentiating ourselves ‘other’ is ultimately to demonise myself. and moving away into our interest groups, perhaps the future was about drawing closer again – but this time I was once told of a quote by Thomas Merton, which without sacrificing our identity or asking the ‘other’ to has held great meaning for me through the years. It went sacrifice theirs. something like: “we could never understand the horror of Auschwitz until we discovered the same potential To be honest, I am not sure how to do this, except to within ourselves.” embrace this challenge of love instead of fear and to notice the points at which in our history, and in our present introduction stories, we are perpetuating the kind of oppositional I begin with two sayings: There are only two things - thinking that creates an ‘other’ that we can demean, love or fear. (Michael Leunig); A new commandment I ostracise or scapegoat. give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. (Jesus of Nazareth) the cathars in southern france In mediaeval times, the South of France was its own little If you asked me what are the values that lie at the core world – with strong local alliances, its own language and of my faith and life, I am often drawn back to the Leunig an independent spirit. Too independent, it seemed for the quote. I have yet to be in a place where recalling it does Roman Catholic Church. The South largely welcomed not move me forward in some way. For me it is a modern Jews and Saracens and the Cathars whose Christian faith (and slightly more accessible) version of the Great diverged from that of Rome. Commandment of Jesus. The Cathars were regarded as heretics, and for the first Leunig’s phrase echoed within me as I travelled through time a crusade was declared by Rome against Christians Europe last year and touched the stories of Jews, in Europe. It was the beginning of what would become the Moors, gypsies, Cathars, communists and heretics who Great Inquisition when much opposition and independent have all in the past experienced the full force of fear in thinking was quashed. various communities. Evora, Portugal: the Crest of the Inquisition hangs over Likewise it echoed This Rome-sponsored crusade seems no different from the the door of the present offices of the Roman Catholic Church. within me as I watched current Islamic practice of Jihad. They look pretty similar the machinations of to me – opposition to all that is different and challenges the Anglican bishops mainstream thinking: opposition that is strong enough gathered at Lambeth to want to kill and destroy and marginalise the other for their eight-yearly and to destroy them. gathering, and their discussion of the issue the lambeth conference of gay bishops/priests/ These stories from the past resonated with me as I christians/humans. reflected on the battle waged last year at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops over the inclusion (or who is the ‘other’? not) of gay people. Unfortunately the bishops seemed In the past 30 years so inclined to offer gay people up on the altar of unity at much of our energy all costs.

16 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 the politics of inclusion

Rosemary Neave

However, in July 2009 the Episcopal Church of America voted overwhelmingly to affirm that “any ordained ministry” is open to gay men and lesbians. Rather than seeing this action as an overturning of the moratorium on ordaining gay bishops, it was seen by many as simply an honest assertion of ‘who we are’. They noted that the church has hundreds of openly gay laypeople, priests and deacons, and that its democratic decision-making structures are charged with deciding who merits ordination. I am dismayed by the attitude of so-called liberals in this debate, trying to ‘save’ the church by allowing a group (gay and lesbian members) to be marginalised. I am just as dismayed by self-righteous damning of those who hold a more conservative position. conclusion These days it seems a simple choice to me – there is only love or fear. We either accept, love and welcome – or we must crush, control and expel. It is not ultimately about theology or justice or Biblical interpretation. We can (and do) hold different positions on The Convent of Christ in Tomar, Portugal – seat of the Knights Templar: red crosses on these things. The question is whether we do the tunics, swords at their sides, the stamp of horses feet – you can feel what it might so with an open heart. There is only fear or have been like here at the height of their power. love. To marginalise the other is in the end to The Knights Templar are the stuff of fable – at times at the heart of the Church and marginalise myself. welcome protectors of pilgrims; in the end they were declared heretics and burned. Here are two quotes and a story which especially speak ... and a story: to me: • The flag on Amalienborg • “First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak King Christian X of Denmark (1912-47) was one of the up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for most popular Danish monarchs of modern times, partly the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. because of the role he was believed to have played under Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, Nazi rule. Here is a legend told about him. because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and The Germans wouldn’t let the king fly the Danish flag by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.” at his castle and told him that if it wasn’t taken down (Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1892-1944) the Germans would send a soldier to take it down. The • “One of the most disturbing facts that came out in the king replied that if that was the case he would send a Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him Danish soldier to raise it again. The Germans replied that and pronounced him perfectly sane. I do not doubt it at they would shoot that soldier and the King replied “That all, and that is precisely why I find it disturbing… We Danish soldier will be me”. And throughout the war the rely on the sane people of the world to preserve it from Danish flag flew at Amalienborg. n barbarism, madness, destruction. And now it begins to After many years working in the Anglican Church and in feminist and dawn on us that it is precisely the sane ones who are the post church networks, Rosemary Neave now lives in Waipu, Northland. most dangerous.” (Thomas Merton) www.womentravelblog.com

Tui Motu InterIslands 17 October 2009 Players in the NZ Street Football team, participants in the Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup, performing the haka. Photos courtesy of Street Football Aotearoa hope for the homeless

Continuing the theme of Communities of Hope in a Chaotic World, Brian Turner looks at a serious, contemporary problem – homeless young people

riday night Fish’n Chips are a “Just me”, said Joe, “but a couple of their children was escaping across the Ftradition for many New Zealand me mates do sleep in the toilet block - Tamaki Estuary to the more desirable families. My son and I were waiting wrapped in newspaper.” Hope for Joe suburbs of Pakuranga, Howick and for ours outside the chippie across the and his mates was a dry and secure Bucklands Beach. road from the church in Hamilton place to sleep, access to basic facilities, In between Glen Innes and Hamilton, where I was a minister. A few metres and crumbs from the table of a there were years of working across away was a large skip containing some comparatively well-heeled church. the Pacific and globally at justice good-looking timber, stripped from Out of that encounter my interest and development priorities including an office block being refurbished. in and commitment to the poor and homelessness. I can still smell the Not one to pass up a gift horse we homeless deepened and expanded. smoke and stench of the rotting soon had our hands on the timber Earlier, I had worked in Glen Innes, garbage mountains spilling into the but no trailer to get it home. So it Auckland, and listened as parishioners Tondo slums of metro-Manila; I can was over to the church, opening the told of their transition from the still see the street children pouring in storage door at the back and tossing overcrowding and squalid conditions and out of the squatter settlements of the first piece in. in Freeman’s Bay, to the once wartime Lae and Port Moresby. I only got one piece in – there was an barracks of Camp Bunn Panmure, and I can still hear the cries of women anguished cry, a torrent of abuse and finally to a newly-built state house. and children crowded into the refugee the proclamation: “You’re bloody dead Hope for them was walking the streets of camps of Thailand, Malaysia and mate – you’re bloody dead!” And out Glen Innes and Panmure of an evening, Zimbabwe; and I can still feel the staggered an enraged gentleman. There wondering what house they would be fear of the people of Soweto under ensued one of the more colourful allocated. It was many years later before draconian ghetto apartheid control. pastoral conversations one can have. the glow of that realised hope faded in Hope for all these people lay either in “How many more of you sleep under the bad odour that came to hang over escape from, or an overturning of the there?” I eventually enquired. many state-housing estates. Hope for powers that held them captive.

18 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 communities of hope

nd back in Aotearoa-New Zealand, As Auckland Methodists’ Lifewise do this and social service agencies may Awhat about those trapped in Pathways programme illustrates (p 20), fulfil these prescriptions. But if people another variation of systemic poverty the transition from street dwelling want to live and relate differently, is and powerlessness, the over 200,000 to house and home is a complex one that such an undesirable thing? children of beneficiary-dependent fam­i­ requiring a set of skills and competencies lies living in comparative poverty, many no one agency can easily provide. What everyone has a right to hope in substandard and overcrowded for is that communities of common housing? Hope for them lies in stable, So what makes the difference? What good may prevail: communities in affordable shelter and an adequate brings real hope, for a street dweller of which a mix of peoples and lifestyles income level to acquire good housing, a city or a rural squatter or a refugee is possible; places where there are heating and healthcare, let alone camp family? Everyone is entitled to a not extremes of wealth or poverty, nutritional food. place of choice rather than imposition; and no one is dispossessed of their a place where real relationships can fundamental human rights. Given Often it’s assumed these needs are occur rather than isolation or imposed that an estimated 30,000 children die confined to larger cities, but the togetherness. In short, everyone is of malnutrition across the world each work of Whanganui Christian entitled to a place of belonging, a place day, we still have a long way to go. Social Services illustrates that a high of security – places where people can proportion of those in need inhabit grow and develop and express their But, as the bailout of global financial our regional cities and towns as much God-given potential and capacity. institutions has shown, we have the as metropolitan cities. resources to prevent malnutrition The Judaeo-Christian Scriptures and to bring real hope to tomorrow’s Whanganui’s Project Jericho (see below) exhort us to welcome the stranger children and the day after and the day also illustrates that emergency assist­ (Deut 10:19), and feed the poor after that as well. But do we have the ance alone can’t guarantee long-term (Matt 25). They don’t say that we will to implement that hope? n stability any more than the provision should socially engineer people into of shelter and housing guarantees the prescribed communities or habitations Brian Turner is a Methodist Minister with a special focus on justice and development. establishment of a home. or habits. Cultural prescriptions may

project jericho

roject Jericho is an emergency housing service run Families endeavouring to get back on their feet because Pby Christian Social Services Whanganui. Christian of drug/alcohol abuse, violent or abusive relationships Social Services has always provided assistance for or financial hardship, will need to spend a longer time homeless people in the Whanganui District, but with us. Our guests often have few belongings although research indicated a greater number were requiring some bring lots of furniture. We accommodate both: accommodation while they found new direction and we can remove our basic furnishings and household hopefully permanent accommodation. goods, thus enabling families to have their familiar things around for the children. With the acquisition, in December 2007, of eight units to rent, Project Jericho began to offer up to 25 With the aid of several live-in staff, basic rules are beds per night. The criteria were that these people had encouraged, and often we find ourselves re-educating nowhere else to go, no family or friends who could people in how to live with others in community. We offer them a bed, and insufficient money to pay for work with other agencies in the city who make referrals other accommodation. During the first 12 months of to our service. Other agencies help in finding more operation we have accommodated an average of 12-15 permanent accommodation for our guests. people per night, single women, single men, couples and families with children. Their stay has been from Those who can, pay something for their accommo­ overnight stays to several months. dation. Those who genuinely have no money are helped by good samaritans in Whanganui who, as the Bible These people, many choosing to live without the story suggests, offer a payment of a bednight with care, encumbrance of a regular home, include also those in to us the ‘innkeepers’. If required, we let them know a transit from other centres, those who have been evicted, little of the situation which their donation helped. and those unable to stay where they have been living. Deacon Shirley-Joy Barrow (director)

Tui Motu InterIslands 19 October 2009 communities of hope

prison. Paul says that there are few young people on the streets instant miracles, but providing a ‘refuge’ may be a first step towards a change of lifestyle. It is a matter of justice. Society omeless youths on city streets is to be something we read about in the is letting these youngsters down. not just a New Zealand pheno­ Third World cities, has come home to H Another person working with young­ menon. At the present time there are roost with us in Australia (and New sters on the streets of Sydney in Fr Chris over 32,000 homeless youths roaming Zealand). The primary reason is they Riley. He has designed what he calls a the streets of Australian cities, according are unwanted. Street kids are usually the ‘service learning’ programme to help to Salvation Army officer Paul Moulds, products of fractured homes, sometimes them. What is needed is idealism: the speaking to the recent ARPA conference victims of violence or abuse. They do challenge of what can I do to make a in Sydney. not choose it: they have had no choice. difference to my world? His strategy is to Once, homelessness was largely con­ Paul Moulds, in Sydney, runs Oasis, set up youth centres in difficult suburbs, fined to older men who often preferred a centre for homeless youngsters in and then recruit and train committed a rootless, nomadic life. But the Sydney. He finds they are often on young people to go into these centres phenomenon of ‘street kids’ which used drugs. Sometimes the parents are in and serve their peers. n

lifewise Sue Giddens ifewise Auckland is a Methodist social services the team was Everitt Harry Johnson. Three years ago he Lagency caring for homeless people in the city. was living rough behind a building in Auckland’s CBD. Each year it provides 45,000 cooked meals, access to He writes: showers, clothing and primary support services. It has “At any given time there would be as many as seven also initiated programmes to assist homeless people or eight of us staying behind a CBD building. It was into housing and addresses the issues which keep an experience I’d rather forget as it made me feel at people locked into the cycle of homelessness. times rather hungry, very angry, sometimes lonely and always tired. One initiative has been through sport. ‘Touch’ has been added to the weekly sports programme at the Centre “I was introduced to drugs at the age of 13. My father with regular games between the Lifewise ‘streeties’ and was an alcohol abuser, and I picked up the drinking habit local police. A national homeless soccer tournament during my first year at High School. My drug of choice for will happen before the end of this year. the last 25 years has been mainly marijuana and/or LSD. Last year, collaboration with Street Football Aotearoa “The Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup not only led to five young people participating in the 2008 offered me the opportunity to represent my country in Homeless World Cup Soccer tournament in Melbourne sport, it also motivated me to get off the streets and (the first ever New Zealand team to take part). One of deal with my addictions. So when I came back from Melbourne I entered an eight-week residential alcohol and drug recovery programme. After successfully completing it I moved first to a boarding hostel for men, and I’m now living in my own flat in Auckland City. My goal is to get back to my studies and finish my university degree. “Going to Melbourne and representing my country at the Homeless World Cup gained my team mates and me a considerable amount of respect. I was really proud of what we achieved. We may not have won a lot of games (won 2 and lost 10), but we won over a lot of people from all over the world. My team mates and I now have friends in the United States, Finland, Poland, England Players from Lifewise Auckland, members of and Australia. the New Zealand Street Football team “Going to the Cup helped me change my life.”

20 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 anger and compassion ... the tale of a street kid

Glynn Cardy e had a number of teeth missing. raids by the ‘pigs’, sitting, and very I went back last year to visit his mother. HIt was that toothy grin which I occasionally talking. It also consisted Chronologically she wasn’t too much will always remember. I never asked of family. older than me. But her body and spirit him how he lost them, but I can had been battered by the turbulent imagine. He was the eldest of eight, or was it convergence of race, violence, and nine? There had been two different poverty. The grinning matriarch who He was first expelled from school fathers, but neither fathered him. There had once taught me how to play poker when he was ten years old for beating was a certain amount of responsibility was now laid low by multiple strokes. up a male teacher. “He started it,” laid on him. Usually it meant getting I was a reminder of the good old days, the toothy grin flashed. He spent his siblings out of tight spots. Bashing and that brought her joy. some time at other schools before he a few heads, occasionally theirs. was completely rejected, and then I’d had some contact with the family neglected. He was also compassionate towards in the last 23 years. I had been others. I remember when four teen­ involved with a tangi. I had baptised I heard that as a kid he once ‘went agers ran away from their homes a number of her mokopuna. Some and hid for a number of days. Police ape’ at the shopping centre. Nobody of her children were employed. One and worried parents searched for the knows what triggered it. The victim, had bought a house. Others struggled runaways. One morning at 5 a.m., thank God, was a rubbish bin. He with mental ill-health and the effects with a backpack laden with food, he pulverised it for over an hour. There of long-term incarceration. was so much anger in such a small, set off. Guided by an inner star he young body. quickly found them, lit a fire, and It was both good and sad to see her. cooked them breakfast. Then he just Her alcoholic partner of 30 years Yes, I haven’t mentioned that he was left. Some days later they turned cared for her as best as he could. Dogs small. He took after his mum in that themselves in. displaying various scabs wandered in regard. He took after her in two other and out. The mug that held the sugary regards as well. She was tough – “I I saw him get frustrated with the lack of skills he had in dealing with some tea was chipped and stained. don’t take shit from anyone” – and she situations, not least in controlling his was charming. Children and extended family popped anger. The anger was strong in him. by to see me, and to remember and I wonder what happened in his very I knew him over a period of about nine to laugh. The neighbourhood we’d all young years. His neighbourhood, years in the mid-’80s. Somewhere in once lived in had been demolished his race, his lack of money, and his the middle he became permanently and colonised by expensive housing. relationship to white society defined wedded to the weed, and after that The landscape had been redecorated, his teenage years. But then so it was I never saw him not looking like a and the colour changed. Together we with his siblings and they only had a zombie. But in the earlier years there remembered history. was more life and more danger. Mind fraction of his anger. you I never felt threatened by him. He He’d spent some time in police cells I asked after her eldest son. He was still accepted me as a white priest who lived but as he grew older he stayed away with his partner – they’d been together round the corner. I had been given the from ‘jobs’ that would attract their since teenage days. Their children had rare gift of acceptance. It’s a gift that attention. When the police visited, grown and multiplied. I asked after you only really appreciate when you usually looking for his brothers, he his eldest, who was doing well. I had are gone and can never go back. would put on that bland, impassive baptised that boy many years ago. He look reserved for authority figures. was christened ‘Freedom Hurricane’. Others though feared him. I nn It seemed to summarise both the remember feeling nauseous when In the end he controlled himself. He hope and the reality of their lives. n I met ‘Gwendolyn’. ‘Gwendolyn’ controlled that anger by taking regular was a baseball bat from whose end ‘medicine’, marijuana. Blown out, he protruded a jagged array of soiled nails was lethargic, ‘happy’, and compliant. Glynn Cardy is Vicar of St-Matthew-in-the- City and Archdeacon of the Anglican and knives. Life consisted of smoking, The police, and the rest of society, diocese of Auckland drinking, fights, walking, court, breathed easier.

Tui Motu InterIslands 21 October 2009 saints

Damien of Molokai

This month Damien the Leper will be canonised by the church. He remains an inspiration to all who work among lepers

n 11 October, Father Damien On his arrival in 1873, he found he had Mission New Zealand says, “Father Oof Molokai, Hawaii, is to be opened a door on horror. Speaking of Damien’s canonisation is a time to raised to sainthood in a ceremony in the few grass huts the government had remember the powerful impact that Rome. Father Damien is renowned provided, Father Damien reported: one life, dedicated to a just cause, for his work with people affected by “A heavy windstorm blew down most can have on people who are living leprosy – a disease which continues to of the rotten abodes, and many a with leprosy… and that people still persist in many of the world’s poorest weakened person lay in the wind and experience the stigma and rejection of communities to this day. rain with (for protection) only a thin leprosy today.” blanket and wet clothing.” Back in 1866, the first shipment of TheCure One programme has been set leprosy patients sailed to the small Over the following years, Father up to help fund the five steps of curing island of Molokai for “lifelong Damien worked hard to restore a leprosy in some of the world’s poorest enforced segregation”. Father Damien sense of worth and dignity in people communities. It is designed to raise was outraged to hear that not only had rejected by their community. He awareness of leprosy, to administer the the patients been forcibly removed encouraged and helped them to build medical cure and overcome the stigma from their families, they had been homes, hospitals and farms, and he which helps to perpetuate the disease. provided with very little on the island. offered medical care as well as spiritual Eleven-year-old Nalani, from Bangladesh, Oct09_Press_Final:Tuimoto 26/8/09 11:13 Page 1 There was inadequate shelter, severe guidance. He himself contracted knows how vitally important The Leprosy food and water shortages, and no leprosy in 1885, and he died four years Mission’s work is: medical care to speak of. The people later, probably of tuberculosis. His life “Every day for three years I tried to hide were simply left there to die. and death have marked him out as a the leprosy, because I have seen how spiritual patron of people affected by others have been treated. But then… Cure When the Bishop asked for priests leprosy. to take turns on the island, Father everything I had feared came true. My One Be part of the cure Damien volunteered to stay for life. During Father Damien’s time on friends turned their backs on me, and the Molokai, over 3,000 people were sent school door was locked against me. My to the island, and 2,300 of them father lost his job as a rickshaw driver. I To celebrate the legacy of Blessed Father Damien, and his died. But leprosy is not fatal. It have three brothers and two sisters. The incredible work with people affected by leprosy, will you was isolation, poor nutrition and youngest is four years old. I don’t know squalid conditions that killed what the future holds for us.” help to Cure One person of leprosy over the next year? them – an abject poverty which Thanks to supporters of The Leprosy To Cure One person costs just $432. For $36 a month, still claims the lives of those Mission NZ, Nalani is undergoing you can help The Leprosy Mission provide all the medical affected by leprosy in the 21st treatment to cure her of the disease, century. and she and her family will be helped treatment, care and community support a person needs to Father Damien is an inspiration to overcome the stigma. The charity is overcome leprosy for good. to organisations like The Leprosy now looking for 770 Tui Motu readers Mission, which is marking his to mark the canonisation of Father Call now on 0800 862 873 or log on to canonisation by promoting Damien and help cure 770 more n their life-changing Cure One people. www.leprosymission.org.nz programme. Brent Morgan, Call now: 0800 862 873; or log Registered Charity No CC37638 Nalani has been in hospital for 4 months Executive Director of The Leprosy on to www.leprosymission.org.nz Every two minutes, somewhere around the world, a person like Ademola is 22 Tui Motu InterIslands diagnosed with leprosy. Will you be part of the cure? October 2009 family life

and went for a long walk in the cool evening to let tempers A Mother’s Journal... settle. So that made dinner late. Shar’s turn for cooking but I sit at dawn with a cup of tea. Ruminate. A new morning. A it was obvious I could get things happening faster if I made new chance to make good. a dish or two. “Mum, I wanted to peel the potatoes and put Yesterday had streaks of good and bad mother in it. I think the chips in the oven.” back. Bad idea. I was not sticking to the plan. I had had the great idea of a ‘Home Holiday Programme’ Dinner was ready by 7.30pm. No time for our evening story. for this week of school holidays. We drew up a plan of all Sorry everyone. Dishes. Teeth. Toilet. Night time prayers the things we never seem to have enough time for – craft were the Readers Digest Abridged version – a teaspoon and dances, woodwork, a soccer clinic, board games, prayer each (TSP) Thank you. Sorry. Please. science experiments. I thought we’d do a 20-minute focus Sigh. That was yesterday. on a different ‘hero’ for each day too. Gandhi, Dorothy Day, So now it’s a new dawn. I feel annoyed with myself. Some of Archibald Baxter, Elsie Locke and Martin Luther King. Each yesterday’s tangles were forgivable. Much of it could have child would also be responsible for dinner one evening. I got flowed better if... If I would focus on one thing. If I took out garish felt pens and put the busy colour-coded programme time to be present. If I was patient. If I stopped believing up on the wall. multi-tasking is always more efficient. Day one unravelled fairly rapidly with a few patients turning Where do I go with this? up after breakfast although it wasn’t officially a clinic day. I sit and hold these thoughts as a batch of bread dough. The They’d come from several hours’ bus ride away. The children yeast has not worked through all the dough yet. I am a work fought and read books while they waited for me. Next I in progress. Becoming the bread I am meant to be will take decided we couldn’t start until we’d tidied up: “This room time. I need to forgive myself as God forgives me. As my is a total pigsty – we can’t do a holiday programme until we children also forgive me. can see the floor.” Then it was time for a late morning tea. The morning’s champagne sun splashes onto the hill top So we didn’t manage to start on the holiday programme outside my window. A hopeful dawn is here. A new chance. before noon. We started weaving some small baskets with Another day. Another whirl at being a mother and a pilgrim. wool and card before lunch – and read a chapter of Harry Another go at the colour-coded Holiday programme. Potter. Skipped Gandhi. Kaaren Mathias The afternoon chugged along. Children seemed happy reading and weaving so I quickly sneaked off to do a couple Kaaren and her husband Jeph and their four children are of emails. I came back to find the baby tangling balls of living in a remote valley in the Himalayas – setting up a new wool and older siblings annoyed. We gave up on woolcraft community health programme

Oct09_Press_Final:Tuimoto 26/8/09 11:13 Page 1

Cure One Be part of the cure

To celebrate the legacy of Blessed Father Damien, and his incredible work with people affected by leprosy, will you help to Cure One person of leprosy over the next year? To Cure One person costs just $432. For $36 a month, you can help The Leprosy Mission provide all the medical treatment, care and community support a person needs to overcome leprosy for good. Call now on 0800 862 873 or log on to www.leprosymission.org.nz

Registered Charity No CC37638

Every two minutes, somewhere around the world, a person like Ademola is diagnosed with leprosy. Will you be part of the cu re ?Tui Motu InterIslands 23 October 2009 given for all

Diane Pendola

n a great basin below the Sierra Buttes, I’m settled on a are considered the heart of the Catholic-Christian faith. I Iwide slab of granite that drops down at an angle towards draw on the thought of the thoroughly intercultural and Long Lake. A shelf protrudes from the rock, providing just pluralistic philosopher Raimon Panikkar to guide me. At enough bench for me to sit, my knees up, my arms clasped the core of Panikkar’s philosophy is the insight that the around them, looking out over clear, clean water toward whole of reality is deeply interconnected and trinitarian or a rugged mountain whose detailed reflection is captured triadic in structure. in the lake’s clarity. My skin senses the wind as I watch it breathing over the waters, raising small ripples of light as it He says of the Eucharist: “It is the revelation of the moves across the lake’s surface. cosmotheandric (trinitarian) nature of reality. The Eucharist reminds us of the whole and makes it real for us: This is the I think of Ken Hartman, doing life in prison without the body of Christ. The Mystical Body does not mean just a possibility of parole. I think of so many people (some just small group of humans. It extends to the entire universe kids) locked away from such beauty: from the freedom of in its proper status.” (The Cosmotheandric Experience by a hike on an alpine trail, from the joy of a picnic with a Raimon Panikkar, Orbis Books, 1993, p.69) beloved, from the happiness of playing fetch with a dog in the water’s shallows. Other traditions have their own unique symbology to speak about this communion nature of reality. For example, I breathe in and wonder how I can send this breath to Ken, pratitya samutpada – ‘Interdependent Co-arising’ – is at the this spirit, this wind. If in truth we are all connected, then heart of Buddhist teaching. As Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat this wind, too, is our common thread, this thought, this Hanh says: “According to the teaching of Interdependent prayer, this care that some day our human-made hells may Co-Arising, cause and effect co-arise (samutpada), and be transformed to heavens, not in another celestial realm everything is a result of multiple causes and conditions. but here among us and between us. The kingdom of God is Interdependent Co-Arising goes beyond our concepts of among you, Jesus said, between you and within you – just like space and time. The one contains the all.” the breath; just like the wind. (The Heart of the Buddha’s teaching, by Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, 1998, p. 206) was brought up on the Eucharist. At Catholic Mass II heard the words, Take and eat. This is my body. Take Which brings me back to the words of the Eucharist: Given and drink. This is my blood, given for all so that sins may be for all, so that sins may be forgiven. Do I believe these words, forgiven. Do this in memory of me. These words, this event, given for all? Do we believe them? Either all are included

24 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 spirituality

or none. I stake my faith on the all. And what is the ‘sin’ communion, and communion means we are ONE in the to be forgiven? Is it only our individual wrongs, our petty wind that unites us. offences, even our mortal transgressions against life? What if we are more than individuals? Sometimes I wonder why I feel so moved, “to proclaim release to the captive.” I think it goes to this: either the What if we are in fact community, the body of Christ, that liberating power of the Divine, which works through the we re-member, make present, throughout the web of our human and expresses itself in real embodied structures of shared humanity and beyond, our shared life with all the loving community, is transformative of the entire reality, or beings of this green-blue planet spinning in the immensity not! If this liberation is not for the most violent, the most of space? If we are more than individuals, if we are persons wounded, the most degraded, the most de-humanised constituted by the web of our relations, then we are indeed and de-humanising, then how can it be for any of us? The our sisters’ and our brothers’ keepers. We are our prisons as promises of Christ must reach into hell, because we are well as our universities. We are refugees as well as terrorists, largely its creators. It’s all of us or none of us. peacemakers as well as arms dealers. Gazing over the lake, I look deeply into the mountain We are the leaven in the bread rising. We are the salt in a reflected there. I’m reminded of a poem calledTilicho Lake tasteless desert. We are the light in the belly of the beast. by David Whyte: We are the only ones that can transform the world: we who know that it is all of us or none of us. In this high place it is as simple as this, All are included so that sins may be forgiven: so that leave everything you know behind. estrangements that run like chasms between us might be bridged; so that inequities bred into us like an ancient Step toward the cold surface, inheritance might be made right; so that war and violence, say the old prayer of rough love rape and cruelty might be undone at the knot of their and open both arms. beginnings by the threads of love and justice, equity and consciousness; so that kindness can be the warp and Those who come with empty hands forgiveness the woof of our shared life fabric. will stare into the lake astonished, there, in the cold light I think about this, looking out over the water. I think about reflecting pure snow how to send the peace of this place to my brother, locked the true shape of your own face. away for life, barred from what I take for granted. He (Where Many Rivers Meet, by David Whyte, Many Rivers brings me there, to the belly of the beast. I bring him here, Press, 1990, p. 23) to the heights of beauty. Both of us change because we do not stop at the limit of our bodies and our senses; because Staring into this lake I see a face much like Ken’s. I wonder this wind unites us across boundaries and flows in spaces at if, on the cold surface of his prison cell, enough light comes once too small and too immense to be imprisoned; because through to reflect the true shape of this mountain’s face. n the Kingdom of God is among, between and within us; ©Diane Pendola, fall 2009 www.ecocontemplative.org because that kingdom is community, and community is Printed with permission

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Tui Motu InterIslands 25 October 2009 in memoriam in

Jean Georges Honoré (1933-2009)

was at the church door to greet all the mourners personally. He delivered the first eulogy with characteristic wit and warmth. He stood in the roaring gale and pouring rain at her graveside. He then went home, collapsed and never walked again. It was total and heroic devotion to the love of his life.

ohn Honoré started writing for Tui Motu from 1999, and he When he knew that his own death was approaching he Jmade page 30 his own unique creation: a monthly column welcomed the visits of his priest and lay friends, with whom of social and political comment. Many readers have said it was he seemed to delight in having serious spiritual converse. The always the first page they turned to. He delighted most – and afternoon before his death he received a visit from one of his infuriated a few. But his column was never dull. oldest and closest Rosminian friends, and they spoke at length about the after life. It was his way of preparing himself for the In that respect his writings reflected the man. From the first most momentous of all journeys. time I came to know him shortly after I moved to Christchurch, I found him a loyal and engaging friend. He was the perfect The final words belong to his sister Thérèse: “John was always columnist: always punctual with his copy, clear and accurate, of strong opinion. A highly intelligent enquiring mind that was witty and carefully researched – and (to the editor’s delight) only it seems ‘let loose’ when he no longer had such family invariably the correct word length. and work commitments. A wicked sense of humour, quick wit that was experienced by all, and a firm conviction in all that He had his favourite themes. He constantly lamented that the he believed in. United States could have elected as leader a man as devoid of wisdom as George W Bush. He was outraged by the perennial “His family and his faith were of paramount importance, and I injustice inflicted by the Israelis on the Palestinian people. He must say too that he didn’t suffer fools easily. One other factor was the sternest critic of our own political leadership. For John, in John’s make up was his absolute charm and his ability to politics had to be more than pragmatic: it had to be ethical. engage people from all walks of life in great discussion.” May he and his beloved Mavora rest in peace. At his funeral his son Guy and sister Thérèse gave warm tributes and both are quoted in the following paragraphs. John, M.H. says Guy, “was proudly French... He modelled his family on the strong French family ethos learnt from his parents.” He and his delightful wife Mavora travelled extensively (business trips, in part, since he worked as a wool exporter) and this Work for a world free from broadened his knowledge and understanding of the world poverty and injustice… stage. “He was always consciously engaged with the world, its become a news and its issues. He had strong opinions and was not afraid to debate and publicise them. One World Partner “When he retired at 60, then began a new and equally satisfying chapter in his life, that of retirement. He shared with Mavora their love of languages, poetry and music. Also at 60 he began university and achieved a BA in French and English Literature, with Honours. He thrived on the vitality and youth of the university environment.”

John was still attending lectures until advancing sickness earlier this year prevented it. His intellectual spark continued until his last days on earth. During our final phone conversation he was busy rehearsing a project for an article, and he was anxious to receive my blessing on the chosen topic.

Another facet of his life which clearly flourished after his As a regular donor with our One World Partnership you will be retirement was his personal spirituality. He and Mavora were supporting whole communities – not just individuals – in their struggle founders and leading members of the Christchurch Rosminian against poverty and its causes. group. They once travelled to Rome to attend an international A regular monthly contribution of Rosminian gathering. They often used to pray together. twenty dollars or more is all it takes.

This personal spirituality undoubtedly strengthened him for the For more information contact long vigil of Mavora’s sickness, when he became her principal Caritas on 0800 22 10 22 nurse and comforter. He was able to give her quality of life or visit www.caritas.org.nz The Catholic Agency for Justice, Peace and Development right up to her final week. Four months ago, at her funeral, he

26 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 spirituality

how to play your cards

Not all of us makes the best of the hand of cards that fate has dealt us, but Paul Andrews met someone who definitely did – “one of the most remarkable people I have met”.

t is not easy to convey the flavour of rock ‘n roll years Though he did not talk much religion, IStephen. When I first met him, he was Would any of you remember a band his passion for God, and for justice, a thin, delicate-looking man who weighed called Strawberry Cross? No, I didn’t shone through all the time. He thought of barely seven stone and looked younger think you would. They won a prize as the priesthood, but his health would not than his 36 years. He smiled easily, and the best new band of 1994 – but that was have survived the long training. Instead seemed unsurprisable. The one thing that their only prize. They did gigs here and he trained to be an art therapist, and surprised him was that he was still alive. there, including a trip to Germany, but offered his services free in a psychiatric their biggest take on anyone night was €7. hospital. He had been born with a congenital heart As Stephen said with a smile, “You had and lung condition. He was not just a to pay to play”. Despite his sicknesses untouched by sin delicate baby; he barely survived. His he was the leader, the activator, as well One schizophrenic girl was referred to mother knew all about keeping children as playing mandolin and guitar. Stephen by the psychiatrist: “I cannot alive. She worked with the nuns to visit reach her; nobody can”. Stephen took her and help parents with handicapped He took all the grief. The rejection letters slowly and she started to draw and paint, children, in days when State help was were addressed to him. He had learned, and then to talk. What was his secret? minimal. Stephen often went with her, in a way that the healthy musicians had A vulnerability, totally unthreatening, in and learned a lot about caring. not learned, that you can take a lot of league with the weakest. I think of him grief and still survive. It took a good as pre-Adamite, somehow untouched by But he paid a price for the long periods deal of grief before they recognized that original sin. when he was too sick for school. He the world was not clamouring for them, was put into a slow learners’ class in his and moved to other occupations. But The last day I met him, he astonished primary school. He seemed to have been Stephen looked back on those wandering me by producing a painting: two bare- dealt a particularly poor hand of cards. years as the good times. footed African boys facing a brilliant It was only in his early teens that his sun, and looking at a hand of cards. He ailments had stabilised to some extent, distressing experiences wrote: “To Paul. Thank you for helping and he was able to stay at school for There were bad times too. What made me make sense of the cards in hand. longer periods. By 15 he was near the Stephen indignant was what he saw Stephen”. top of his class. as the unfairness of life to his mother. ready for the end independent living As well as Stephen she had cared heroically for her sick husband until A month later he was with a friend at He learned to cook, to play the guitar his Alzheimer’s wanderings defeated home, when he suddenly started to and mandolin, to paint, play pitch and her; then she found him a good nursing spit blood, and within an hour he was putt, and fish a bit in the canal – all home. When she should have been able dead. He had lived from day-to-day occupations that involve the hands; and to enjoy life for herself, she was struck in readiness for death: I never know Stephen’s hands were arthritic to the down by Parkinson’s and confined to a will I get as far as bedtime, and when point where the pain seriously sapped wheelchair. Stephen stayed close and I wake up, it is a surprise. It was not a his energy. He got by with a careful and longed to lift her spirits; but you could case of waiting for the end, but rather of minimal use of painkillers. More than see the pain when he spoke of her. living every day to its fullest. He could that, he got by with prayer, and a sense easily have pitied himself and become a that the bad days would give way to days By the time I met him, he had learned professional invalid. Instead he packed that were not as bad. computer graphics in Germany, and more into his years than our most travelled in Spain, Albania, Africa, and successful young tigers. You might think that he would grow up USA. What distressed him grievously in dependent, a mother’s boy. Not so. By his travels was not the poverty of Africa, To have known Stephen was a particular the time I knew him, he drove his own or the Mafia-style crooks who surrounded grace. This funny, self-mocking boy, car, and rented a place in west Dublin. Mother Teresa’s nuns in Albania, but who loved God and radiated goodness, “A place?” I asked him. He smiled. “In what he found on his return to Europe. was one of the most remarkable people my block the front rooms have a good He was fresh from tasting the destitution I have met. n view and they are called apartments. in Africa, and the thoughtless affluence Paul Andrews is a Jesuit priest/psychotherapist The back ones are called flats. I’m in a he experienced in the Netherlands was living in Dublin flat.” too much for him.

Tui Motu InterIslands 27 October 2009 books

how ritual can help the pain of infertility

Be Fertile with your Infertility Christine Bannan and God is love Winnie Duggan The Look of Love Bateson Publishing Limited, James B. Lyons Wellington, 2008 Review: Elisabeth Nicholson Price: $29.95 + $5.00 p&p within NZ Review: Gareth Jones ope Benedict’s encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est – God is Love – was a Psurprise and a revelation to many when it appeared in 2005. It inspired he market is inundated with Fr James Lyons, and this deceptively simple little book, containing a series Tbooks on the scientific, clinical, of reflections, poems and prayers, is the result. ethical and theological aspects of infertility, and so any new entrant The richness and insights of the encyclical are expressed in everyday into this crowded market place language. The secular and spiritual aspects of love in human experience, in has to fill a niche that has been living and in dying, the presence and love of God, whether acknowledged largely ignored up to now. And or not, in all our loving, are explored and celebrated. Each chapter of the this is precisely what Be Fertile with book contains a quotation from the encyclical, a reflection and suggestions your Infertility succeeds in doing. for personal prayer. Written from the perspective of This book would certainly be a valuable tool for anyone involved in marriage those who have been through the preparation. Engaged or married couples seeking a deeper understanding of infertility mill, it sets out to provide human and divine love would find it helpful, as indeed would individuals resources to help others cope or groups looking for a resource for prayer and discussion. with the demanding and at times overwhelming pressures of infertility The appendix The Testament of a Murdered Monk is profoundly moving, and n itself and even the technologies for me at least, the book would be worth it for that alone. aimed at overcoming it.

As one reads this book one is infertility. The aim is to assist people As I was reading this book I was brought face-to-face with the move forward and to deal with also going through the latest Vatican human dimensions of the many the depths of grief they encounter, pronouncement on the reproductive different experiences of infertility. a grief little appreciated by those technologies. While Be Fertile with The authors advocate the place of lacking first-hand knowledge of life your Infertility is hardly on the ceremonies and rituals to help those without children or grandchildren. same level, the responses of the involved come to terms with primary No punches are pulled as the people infertile whose stories grace these and secondary infertility, becoming we encounter in the book (both pages should be required reading parents after IVF treatment, the male and female) ask penetrating by theologians and policy makers dashing of hopes at the failure questions, to which few – if any – who seek to frame the public debate of an IVF cycle, miscarriage, the have satisfactory answers. on the place of IVF and its many disposal of embryos, the decision to ancillary procedures within society. discontinue further IVF treatment, This is a practical book, with and the ultimate acceptance of down-to-earth suggestions for the This is a book that can be confidently childlessness. Examples are given ceremonies that have been found recommended to all, but especially of how real people have responded helpful. The honesty that shines to those who deal with infertility, and the sort of ceremonies they have through these stories is penetrating, whether as patients, health profess­ found helpful. and the poetry is poignant and very ionals, counsellors, or clergy. n often beautiful. The questions raised, While these ceremonies may not be such as the meaning of embryos lost Gareth Jones is Professor of Anatomy and for everyone, what shines through so during IVF, would tax the foremost Structural Biology, University of Otago, clearly are the personal stories and bioethicists, and yet they emerge here bioethicist and member of Advisory the struggles they have endured as as an integral part of the response of Committee on Assisted Reproductive they have faced up to the emotional, those who have lost embryos in the Technology (ACART) spiritual and ethical dimensions of longing for children.

28 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 cardinal newman revisited My Final Arrangements Kate Moriarty Pleroma Press, 2009 Newman: an introduction to the life and the Christian soul wrestling with the philosophy of John Cardinal Newman personal, insistently seductive call of a Losing a loved one is an extremely difficult time. Just when important Roderick Strange loving God. Cor ad cor loquitur: heart arrangements and decisions need to Christian Classics; Notre Dame, speaks to heart. be made, families and friends are still Indiana, 174 pp. Newman believed that each one of us grieving and hurting at their loss. But Price:$34.90 when Kate Moriarty’s parents died, she is passionately desired by God, that our Review: Michael Hill IC found they had both written down their every step is guided by God’s providence, final wishes, making things so much that nothing ever happens to us purely easier for her and her family. ohn Henry Cardinal Newman is by chance. When some circumstance due to be declared ‘Blessed’ by the Kate wants others to have a similar J impacted on him powerfully, he would experience, so she has written My Catholic Church early in 2010. One burst forth into poetry, and verses Final Arrangements. It will help you might ask: Why Newman? and Why did such as Lead Kindly Light continue to record your final requests to help it take so long? inspire and delight. those organising your funeral and personal affairs. It provides for the Roderick Strange effectively answers I think the author keeps the best recording of contact information of the both these questions in this fine and wine until the last: the final chapter myriad people with whom you have easily readable book. Newman was a professional, social or other contacts. describing the writing of The Dream highly intelligent, often controversial The organisations you belong to, the of Gerontius. That poem follows figure both as an Anglican and as a people you want to be pallbearers are the death and journey to God of the Catholic. He would have been easy all included – what you want and don’t Christian soul, faith-filled yet anxious. want, all ready for the time it may be meat for any Devil’s Advocate. This needed. Each page displays beautiful book summarises his life and work, The Dream addresses our three most deeply rooted anxieties of spirit : “the scenic photography taken by Kate’s but also traces Newman’s path to husband and photographer, John. There God, its struggles and triumphs. In fear of perpetual extinction, the fear are also apt quotations from known and his writings Newman reveals a highly of judgment, and the fear of what that unknown writers. p 154 personal journey, and because of his judgment may entail”( ). The book is designed for people of reputation and prominence he has In this section, as throughout the any spiritual persuasion. To complete influenced countless Christians of all book, Roderick Strange summarises My Final Arrangements is the ultimate denominations, including Roderick gesture of love towards those who Newman’s arguments expertly and may be distressed or in shock at your Strange and this reviewer. Newman concisely. He pays due tribute to passing. Research has shown that it is is the sort of luminary who inspires his own mentor, Oratorian Stephen not only the elderly who are interested and assists the pilgrim along the Dessain, who nourished an earlier in this publication: also many in the 30 – way, especially anyone plagued by generation with Newman’s Spiritual 40-year-old age group, as well as some Maori. It is a most worthwhile initiative. intellectual doubts. Themes (Veritas 1977). The present Chapter by chapter, Roderick Strange volume is a worthy – and indeed more (Kate & John Moriarty live in Hawke’s Bay.) takes the reader through Newman’s career readable – successor. n as educator, as churchman, as ecumenist, as advocate for the lay faithful. But for me the high points are those pages which reveal Newman’s spirituality: his My Final Arrangements consciousness of God’s providence, his sermons which profoundly influenced a Kate Moriarty generation of Oxford scholars, and his wonderful poetry. An easy to complete record that will assist In the chapter “preaching a living faith” your family and friends to handle your the author imaginatively recreates personal affairs and organize your funeral. the atmosphere of St Mary’s Church, NZ publication with colour photography. Oxford, where Newman, still a young Practical and easy to use. $15.00 per book. man, preached Sunday after Sunday, Freight $2 single copy, $4 courier pack 2-5 copies. by candlelight. These sermons provide “a balanced exposition of the Christian Freephone 0508-988-988: Freefax 0508-988-989 Freepost 609, PostShop, Waipukurau gospel as revealed religion”. But they email: [email protected] do so much more. They express with www.christiansupplies.co.nz wonderful eloquence the adventure of

Tui Motu InterIslands 29 October 2009 comment

ted kennedy – flawed human, model politician One early development has been a combined meeting of senior cabinet ministers from Australia and NZ enator Edward Kennedy died exploring the formation of a base for Sin August. He was a man of Crosscurrents trading with the rest of the world. contradictions: often the object of Jim Elliston The initiative came from Kevin Rudd. scandal, yet widely respected for Australia now receives noteworthy his political integrity and effective profits from its investments here, so both work on behalf of the less fortunate. economically is valid. But New Zealand countries can benefit from a properly He appears to have had a clear-eyed needs a clear, politically sustainable managed alliance. The danger lies in the self-knowledge, and professed to be policy, just as we now have for National highly likely closer political links. Think sustained by his faith. Superannuation. There were initial signs of John Howard and Iraq. that the PM was open to Labour’s offer A key factor contributing to his evangelising versus proselytising effectiveness was his strong commit­ of compromise. The ensuing guarantee he second Synod of African ment to basic principles without being of political stability would have been Bishops is currently meeting in an ideologue; his ability to negotiate a a beneficial outcome for the country. T Rome. It is the culmination of four compromise engendered respect from However, by doing a deal with the years of prep­aration through extensive political opponents, with many of Maori Party he has opted for short term consultation. The 28-page discussion whom he also made deep friendships. political expediency over leadership document contains an analysis of At the same time he retained the trust (and lumbered future taxpayers with African social problems (the perspective of his party leadership. subsidising the heavy polluters). differs from Marx’s). Factors covered In a letter on healthcare reform The moral issues – living standards, are political (dictatorial, corrupt or posthumously delivered to President vested interests versus common good, incompetent governments); economic Obama he wrote: “What we face is above and so forth – are not as emotionally (exploitation of workers and land, all a moral issue; at stake are not just compelling as healthcare, but it rapaciousness – foreign or indigenous); the details of policy, but fundamental seems to me that Senator Kennedy’s and cultural (exploitation of women, principles of social justice and the comments and his willingness to superstition). character of our country.” compromise to advance the greater The document makes a candid assess­ Political commentator E.J. Dionne good have something to say to us. ment of successes and failures since the wrote: “He suffered profoundly, made closer ties with Oz 1994 Synod: large mistakes and was, to say the least, conomic globalisation is not a • a positive one: “Some Justice and imperfect. But the suffering and the recent phenomenon. In the 1848 Peace Commissions have been true failures fed a humane humility that led E instruments of evangelisation in Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels him to reach out to others who fell, to awakening the Christian conscience wrote: “The need of a constantly empathise with those burdened by pain, to and have contributed to the civic expanding market for its products chases understand human folly, and to appreciate formation of Christians and non- the (traders) over the whole surface of the quest for redemption… (he was) one Christians in fostering justice, peace the globe… They have through their of the greatest senators in history.” and reconciliation”. exploitation of the world-market • a negative one: the party-political climate change given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every partisanship of a few National Bishops’ ince the advent of MMP, Conferences. Spolitical realism has encouraged country.” Although their analysis of the cooperation between each major party resulting social upheavals had merit it It concludes with a theological and some minor ones. The idea of was skewed by their perspective, so the reflection in the light of Scripture on National and Labour compromising Communist remedy was disastrous. detailed areas for action. This underpins over some policies is another matter. a development, from the 1994 Synod’s Economic activity has a lot to do emphasis on being ‘the light of the John Key, as Leader of the Opposition, with the rise of the modern state and came to Labour’s rescue over the world’ through personal example, figures strongly in modern diplomatic towards a more pro-active one. It calls Bradford legislation, but that could be activities – hence our Ministry of interpreted as political opportunism. African Catholics to be the “salt of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). the earth” through active involvement National suspects that Labour’s offer John Allen, its new CEO, comes from of compromise on climate change in changing society for the better. a business background, rather than No mention is made of “getting new legislation falls into that category. the traditional diplomatic one. The members”. As Benedict XVI explains, The argument of business that there Government’s focus is on economic the church grows “not by proselytism, is no point in crippling the country growth. but by attraction.” n

30 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009 a personal testimony

ne contention regarding abortion with the pregnancy. But she was still does not stand up to examination. My Oput forward by pro-choice very fearful. She was one of the few life experience, my very existence as a advocates is that decisions regarding housewives of that era that had ready living breathing human being, proves a woman’s body are decisions for her access to a motor vehicle. Almost every that this is not so. Though as yet alone to take. She and she alone is day she crossed the city of Wellington unborn and as yet unable to raise my affected, and she and she alone should to a church that she found was for voice, I was a male human being very decide whether or not an abortion her prayerful and sustaining. This much affected in the decision. That should take place. continued throughout her pregnancy. is true of any pregnancy. Just over 50 percent of the foetuses will be male. Without approving of abortion, Tui The story ended happily. Her child I would like to think that they (and Motu readers would deeply sympathise was born, a healthy boy. She herself the female foetuses too of course) will with any woman faced with having to came through the confinement well. be given the consideration that I was make a yes or no decision regarding She lived another 30 years, through given and come through to a normal terminating a pregnancy. Does a story to what was then considered old age. span of life. that dates back many years shed any She saw her son establish himself in light on the matter? It concerns a his chosen mode of life Oh yes, what was the Wellington woman back in the 1920s living in a church in which my mother used to childless marriage. After some 12 years his kind of story has doubtless pray during her months of anxious of that marriage, at the age of almost Tbeen repeated many times in pregnancy? It was that of Gerard 40, she became pregnant. other lives. But for me it is a special Majella, the Redemptorist saint story. The woman in question was my who is in a special way the patron of Those were days when having a first mother. I am her only child. I have had mothers. I left home in my late teens child at that age in life was considered what is by now a long life, extending to join the Order knowing nothing of extremely risky. Her doctor advised her over more than 80 years. It has been the above story. I can now picture the of the dangers of carrying on with the a happy life, a life that I dare to say saint smiling benignly on my mother pregnancy. That was of course an era has been of some benefit to others as and saying to her: “You can have him when termination of pregnancy was well as myself. I am understandably for 18 years. After that he is mine”. n by law illegal. But she was in the care grateful to my mother who made it of a doctor who had close links with possible. Humphrey O’Leary a private hospital. She was assured, it seems, that matters could be arranged. The argument put forward by pro- choice advocates that the decision Humphrey O’Leary is a canon lawyer After much heart wrenching and yes-or-no to abort involves only the and a member of the Redemptorist prayer, she decided to go ahead rights of the woman, not of any man, community in Glendowie, Auckland.

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31 October 2009 Dreaming, or living the dream?

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School of Theology Ad Sept 09.indd 1 16/09/09 12:15 PM 32 Tui Motu InterIslands October 2009