Controversy and the Cathedral

This is something I've known about for sometime and I saw the plans when I visited Sydney last in September. But I refrained (I don't know why!) from posting anything on this to avoid conflict and possible controversy. But The New Liturgical Movement and then CathNews have let the cat out of the bag so I'll make a couple of comments.

But first some tracking. I saw the post on TNLM on Tuesday evening - Liturgical Thunder from Down Under - and made a simple comment. I refrained from posting that night fearing that someone might mention it on my trip to Sydney and I will be seeing the Cardinal there. Anyway, I got a great shock when I saw this story on CathNews of all places. Man that service has improved! It's reached a whole new level. I'm impressed that the editors read TNLM and possibly other great blogs. This was followed by a mass of comments at TMNL original posts and a second post.A venerable priest noted to me today that the ghastly Pelican Ambo (above) is a play on Pell's name. Below is the proposed new altar design.Maybe ACSA should launch a campaign to stop it...???

Cricket and WYD

I was asked today whether I was going to the cricket starting Friday – Is the Pope in Turkey?

Yes I’m going. Hopefully everyday except most of Monday which I have a University meeting after lunch at the National Wine Centre. What should I do – Day 4 of the Test Match or free lunch and drinks at the Wine Centre?

I went to a WYD thingy tonight. I didn’t really know what to expect when I arrived but it was a bit unusual. I probably thought it was a Q&A forum with suggestion but it turned into a kinda early stages of forming working committees for the events in Adelaide in the lead up.

Anyway, it was pretty bad except that I met LYL from Purcell’s Chicken Voluntary!!! And there were a couple of other worthwhile people. The problem was it was just disorganised and there were a couple of mad ladies on my table – ‘WYD should be about the Indigenous and social justice’ – What about Our Blessed Lord??!!!

Suggestions included a Mass by the River Torrens... I refrained form suggesting that it would be great only if it were ad orientem. Maybe I should have stacked the meeting and hence the committees!

Pro-cloning activists hide nasty truth

The cloning vote is expected in the House of Reps this week. How is this for a story from News Limited? Maybe some MPs may reconsider their vote. I hope so, but am not holding my breath.

Pro-cloning activists hide nasty truth

A FINAL vote about human cloning is looming as the debate begins in the House of Representatives this week.

Hidden among the promises of cures and hype about a biotech boom is the assumption that thousands of women will merrily undergo hazardous egg harvesting procedures to hand over their eggs to the cloners.

Foreshadowing an egg shortage, Loane Skene, the acting chairwoman of the Lockhart committee, has suggested that eggs could be removed from women after their death and used to produce cloned embryos for research. Dead women would be raw material for cloning research and become mothers to embryos, to be exploited in turn, in the name of research, scientific kudos and corporate profit.

If that doesn't already take the yuk factor to a new level, it's now emerging that senator Kay Patterson, the sponsor of the cloning bill, wants researchers to be able to help themselves to eggs from dead female fetuses as well.

During the Senate committee inquiry into cloning, Ms Patterson was asked what the public would think of her Bill's proposal to allow the harvesting of eggs from aborted female fetuses to make embryos for research. She wouldn't answer.

Likewise, when confronted with this question on ABC radio, the Australian Stem Cell Centre's Stephen Livesey was evasive: "That's sort of science fiction. I think we should stick to the facts." Mr Livesey was told the Bill's provision to create embryos using the immature eggs of aborted female fetuses had been confirmed by former members of the Lockhart committee. "Misrepresentation," he claimed.

It's time we faced the facts. Although Ms Patterson, Mr Livesey and other pro-cloning activists don't want to admit it, the Bill passed in the Senate by one vote would turn aborted female fetuses into the mothers of embryos that themselves would be destroyed in research. The Bill allows scientists to "create human embryos using precursor cells from a human embryo or a human fetus, and use such embryos". As defined in the existing legislation "precursor cell means a cell that has the potential to develop into a human egg (ovum) or human sperm".

More...

Personal Update

Miss Monification has been demanding to know why I have been so busy as to not have a proper post since Friday.

Well, I’m back working full-time for the summer. I’m working at ASC information about which you can find here. It’s busy and the working hours mean I tend to get up at 6am to leave by 6.40am and I tend to get hame after 5.15pm. (Pretty bad for little old Adelaide.)

Saturday I went on a wine tour of the MaClaren Vale with the Adelaide Young Liberals. I’ve actually never been on a wine tour before and it was loads of fun. A mate and I decided to treat the Liberals to a few hymns on the way home: Help of Christians – J .P. McAuley and Faith of Our Fathers along with a few Irish ballads

The whole family except for my 18yr old sister were also away for the past 7 days staying at Coffin Bay near Pt Lincoln. They got home today. I just helped with 3 loads of washing! Guess the house won’t be as quiet again for another year…

An up coming event is the Society Ball in Sydney. It’s hosted by the Sydney University Catholic Chaplaincy and I’m going top look into booking plane flights to come over. Cardinal George Pell & Bishop Julian Porteous will be in attendance and will launch the Universities World Youth Day Campaign during the night. I’m definitely not one for dancing but would be good for me to be there. Guess I can always hide with some beers in the corner with a few mates…

Only three sleeps now until the Adelaide Ashes Test Match!

Links

Fr. Tim has a piece about rumours that Cherie Blair is set to becom a Vatican advisor.

Fr. Nicholas has a pic of the Pope enjoying a few beers on the patio.

And Against the Grain anticipates the Pope's visit to Turkey.

Friday Funny

Scene: New York City, man is going to jump off the building. Up rushes good Irish cop. Cop yells up to the man "Don't jump! Think of your father"

Man replies "Haven't got a father; I'm going to jump."

The copy goes through a list of relatives, mother, brothers, sister, etc. Each time man says "haven't got one; going to jump."

Desperate the cop yells up "Don't jump! Think of the Blessed Virgin"

Man replies "Who is that?"

Cop yells "Jump, Protestant! You're blocking traffic!"

Pious, Devout, Religious, Reverent. What other words are there to describe you? According to my Sydney sources, 'Devout' is the 'in' word at the moment.

Religious Vilification gone mad!

Australian readers will recall the uproar over Victoria's Racial and Religious Vilification Act which was introduced in the recent Labor term in office. SA was all but about to introduce laws as strict as these but the goverment bailed to public and internal pressure and removed the more controversial clauses.

However, Victoria's legislation has prompted a new case, raised by the pro-life group, Endeavour Forum. The question arisies over whether telling Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott to keep his rosaries off a women's ovaries freedom of speech or religious vilification?

Mrs Babette Francis of Endeavour Forum claims T-shirts bearing the words "Mr Abbott, keep your rosaries off my ovaries" vilify Catholics and incite violence. The Greens Senator Kerry Nettle wore such a T-Shirt in Parliament at the time of the debate over RU486.

The YWCA, (yes, the one and same Christian organisation!) which makes the T-shirts, fought yesterday to have her legal action struck out, arguing it fails to meet the strict parameters of the Racial and Religious Vilification Act.

Read the full story from the Herald Sun here.

Birthday Meme

I was 'tagged' by Fr. Tim for this one...Instructions are:

1. Go to Wikipedia
2. In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3. List three events that happened on your birthday
4. List two important birthdays and one death
5. One holiday or observance (if any)

Three events

• 1328 - Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice. (Quite relevant considering Fr. Tim's antipope theme at the moment!)
• 1982 - During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, decided that the Pope must be killed for being an "agent of Moscow."
• 1881 - In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.

Two birthdays

• 1820 - Florence Nightingale, English nurse (d. 1910)
• 1907 - Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)

One death (Well, I've put two. Check out the small gap in years too!)

• 1003 - Pope Silvester II
• 1012 - Pope Sergius IV

One holiday or observance

• International Nurses Day

Okay, I tag Utter Muttering, The New Crusade and Joee Blogs.

In trouble... again?

Et Clamor Meus Ad Te Veniat has a bit of a scoop. Apparently Arch. Bathersby has be called to Rome... watch this space.

Two links

The first is a Joke about the Pope in Alaska.

And the second is not to be missed. It's another installment at Dappled Photos - photos of Canons in clerical dress.

Preview for the First Test

My preview for the Ashes First Test in Brisbane starting on Thursday has been published over at the Recusant Cricket Club.

Done deal

Seems Pro-Multis (for many) is a done deal. See CWN for more information.

Although "for many" is the literal translation of the Latin phrase, the translations currently in use render the phrase as "for all." Equivalent translations (für alle; por todos; per tutti) are in use in several other languages.

Cardinal Francis Arinze (bio - news), the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, has written to the heads of world's episcopal conferences, informing them of the Vatican decision. For the countries where a change in translation will be required, the cardinal's letter directs the bishops to prepare for the introduction of a new translation of the phrase in approved liturgical texts "in the next one or two years."

So we'll be seeing quite a bit more of this:

Anti-popes

Fr. Tim has an amusing post on anti-popes at The Hermeneutic of Continuity. He adds to the list two modern anti-popes elected in 1998 and 1990 respectively. There is even and Australian link.

Also, if you have a blog of your own and link to me (and you post on a regular basis) please let me know and I'll add you to my sidebar.

My books

People that know we well know already that I'm not the greatest of readers. I used to be. In primary school I would be reading constantly but all that changed. Now I rarely read fiction at all, in fact I probably haven't read a novel for years. That said, I do read a bit of history and politics. The first picture below shows my booksefh in my room. This is a shap-shot of my personal collection of books (plus some in a box in the shed) but I'm not as mad as my old man who has masses of shelves.

I do house my favourites elsewhere - just above my desk for easy access. Besides the Dictionary and Thesarus these include:

• The Constitution of Australia - signed by John Howard
• The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite - Fortescue and O'Connell
• Against the Tide - BA Santamaria (his autobiography)
• The Howard Factor
• The Cube and the Cathedral - George Weigel
• The Early Papacy - Adrian Fortescue
• Farewell to Cricket - Don Bradman
• The Prince - Machiavelli
• The Courage to be Catholic - George Weigel
• What were the Crusades - Jonathon Riley-Smith
• What We Can't Not Know - Budziszewski
• Latham and Abbott - Michael Duffy
• Ill-Starred Captains Flinders and Baudin - Anthony J. Brown.
• The Fall of Constantinople 1453
• The Great Disruption - Francis Fukuyama

Letters to a Young Catholic (George Weigel) and my Missale Romanorum are on my bedside table

An afternoon at the Adelaide Oval

Ah the joys of finishing exams. Rather than tidy my room of catch up on filing or bills I decided to head down to the Adelaide Oval for the second day of the 3-day game between South Australia and England (cricket). A full report will no doubt appear on the Recusant Cricket Club but I thought I'd share a couple of pics with you immediately.

The view from the members' pavillion looking across the oval. The players are coming off for tea.

Looking toward the famour scoreboard with St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral in the background.

Uni for the year is finally over. I'm really not sure how I went in my exams but it's the furthest thing on my mind right now!

I have a million-and-one things to do now too. I have to catch up on alot of ACSA business which includes beginning to start fundraising and hopefully meet our target of $20-25,000 before next July.

We are also struggling with a location. We would very much like to go to Canberra for the National Conference but can't find accomodation there. It seems none of the residential colleges 'kick-out' their students for the mid-year break as many others do. This has also put us in the awkward situation where we can't tell His Grace Archbishop Chaput where we will be hosting him. He has agreed to come and be our major guest speaker - I must contact him this week too.

The cloning bill before Parliament is also rumoured to be due to be debated in the House of Representatives from next Thursday.

Gay parishes

The Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish at Pride 2006... oh dear!From their website:

Most Holy Redeemer Parish, located at 100 Diamond Street (at 18th Street) has existed as the Roman Catholic religious center of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco since 1900. Located just 2 blocks from the heart of the historic Castro district, the parish reflects the diversity and excitement of the surrounding neighborhood.

MHR prides itself in being an inclusive Catholic community -- embracing all people of good faith -- Catholics as well as those people interested in learning about the Catholic experience -- regardless of their background, gender, race, social status or sexual orientation.

Mission Statement

Most Holy Redeemer Parish is a Christian Community in the Roman Catholic tradition. The parish draws people from isolation to community, from searching to awakening, from indifference to concern, from selfishness to meaningful service, from fear in the midst of adversity to faith and hope in God.

The community of Most Holy Redeemer shares God's compassionate love with all people. The parish offers a spiritual home to all: senior citizens and youth; single people and families; those who are straight, gay and lesbian; the healthy and the sick, particularly persons with HIV disease.

As a parish community, we celebrate God's loving presence in our lives. In worship and sacrament, especially the Eucharist, we are nurtured and challenged to extend God's kingdom of justice, truth, love and peace by growing in the spirit of Jesus, the Most Holy Redeemer.

Roman Catholic tradition...?

Why wasn't I in Victoria last night?

Beer spill blocks major highway

Dominicanus

Many readers are probably waiting on information about the health of Dominicanus. I exchanged a few SMS today and he is out of hospital following the operation. His toes are straight and he'll be walking on crutches or the like soon. He is also on far less pain killers than when we last spoke over the weekend.