Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Resident Seminarian: Br Cris Mendoza Mob: 0408 389 216
chris_mendoza2080@yahoo.com
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport
Parish Office:
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
Parish Magazine: mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au
Year of Mercy Blogspot: mlcpyom.blogspot.com.au
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for gathering us together
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, with the great mission
of evangelising and witnessing your love to the world.
Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will
for the spiritual renewal of our parish.
Give us strength, courage, and clear vision
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother,
and ask for her intercession and guidance
as we strive to bear witness
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am)
Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm – 5:45pm)
Penguin - Saturday (5:15pm - 5:45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is in need of assistance and has given permission to be contacted by Care and Concern, please phone the Parish Office.
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Weekday Masses 22nd - 25th November, 2016
Tuesday: 9:30am
Penguin … St Cecilia
Wednesday: 9:30am
Latrobe
7:00pm Devonport - Remembrance Mass
Thursday: 10:30am
Karingal
… Sts Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions
7:00pm Penguin – Healing Mass
Friday: 11:00am
Mt St Vincent
Mass Times Next Weekend 26th & 27th November
2016
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Every
Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Devonport: Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of
each month.
Legion of Mary: Sacred Heart Church Community Room,
Ulverstone, Wednesdays, 11am
Christian Meditation:
Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm.
Prayer Group:
Charismatic Renewal
Devonport, Emmaus House - Thursdays 7.00pm
Meetings, with Adoration and Benediction are held each
Second Thursday of the Month in OLOL Church, commencing at 7.00 pm
Ministry Rosters 26th & 27th November, 2016
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Gaffney, M Gerrand, H Lim
10:30am A Hughes, T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil
M
Heazlewood, B & J Suckling, G Lee-Archer,
M Kelly, P Shelverton
10.30am: M Sherriff, T & S Ryan, D & M Barrientos, M
O’Brien
Cleaners 25th Nov: M & L Tippett, A Berryman 2nd Dec: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 26th Nov: R Baker 27th Nov: K Hull
Ulverstone:
Readers: J & S
Willoughby
Ministers of Communion: M Byrne, D Griffin, K Foster, R
Locket
Cleaners: G & M
Seen, C Roberts Flowers: A Miller Hospitality: Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters: S Ewing, J Garnsey Commentator: E Nickols Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: S Ewing,
J Garnsey Liturgy: Pine Road Setting Up: A Landers Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Latrobe:
Reader: Ministers of
Communion: Music:
Port Sorell:
Readers: L Post, P Anderson Ministers of Communion: T Jeffries Clean/Flow/Prepare: C Howard
Readings This Week: Our Lord JESUS CHRIST, KING of the UNIVERSE – Year C
First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43
PREGO
REFLECTION:
I become still, consciously slowing my breathing.
As the church’s year draws to a close, I spend some time reflecting back over the last few days, weeks and months.
Where have I noticed God being active in my life?
Have there been times when I have felt distant from God?
I notice how I feel and place this at the foot of Jesus on the cross.
In the light of my reflections, I slowly read this Gospel story from the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Using my imagination I try to enter fully into the scene.
I look..., I listen.....and I feel the emotions expressed by those people gathered around and upon the cross.
What do I notice?
Why do some people fear and doubt the radical Kingdom Jesus calls everyone to be part of?
What are my own fears and doubts?
I see Jesus’ unconditional love for me, poured out upon the cross.
I hear Jesus speak to me of how he wants to take my hurt, pain and all the ways I punish myself and others upon himself; so that I might be free to live his Kingdom values.
What do I say to Jesus in response to this immense love for me as I look upon him on the cross?
I close my prayer with a slow sign of the cross and with the words “May your Kingdom come”
Readings Next Week: First Sunday of Advent – Year A
First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44
Greg Mansfield & ....
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Lloyd (Buster) Emery), James McLagan, Katrina Wilson, Doreen Traill, Damian Matthews, Nicole Fairbrother, Heath Hendricks, Aurora Barker, Tom Knight, Maurice Evans, Joanne Long.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 16th – 22nd November
Freda Morgan, Joe Stolp, Terry Matthews, Edith Collis, Marie Kristovskis, Maisie McLaren, Bert Carter, Frank & Marjorie Farruge, Joyce Doherty, Shirley Bellchambers, James & Janet Dunlop and Bernadette Ibell.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
I'm writing this on the flight back to the retreat after
being in Melbourne. Last night there were over 250 people from all over
Victoria, some from South Australia and 21 from Tasmania who gathered to hear
Fr James Mallon speak about his book Divine Renovation. There were 6
parishioners from the Huon Valley Parish, one from Kingston- Channel Parish, 5
from the Cathedral Parish and 7 from Mersey Leven as well as two seminarians -
Steven Smith and Paschal Okpon. Fr James was really on fire as he spoke and was
so dynamic that he set a fire in the hearts of everyone who was there. Today he
heads to Sydney for two days with clergy there and then two days in Brisbane.
I'm sure that you'll hear more about Fr James and his visit in the days and
weeks ahead as we process what happened and share some of the thoughts that
might have an impact on our Parish.
This weekend we are celebrating as one big Parish Community
the Feast of Christ the King. Thanks to all those who have worked to make this
celebration a success and who have gathered to help celebrate what being a
Parish means. As we begin the process of making our (my) vision statement part
of our DNA I would like to encourage everyone to discuss, question or challenge
me or members of the PPC on what the Vision means. It is, in a sense, what I
would like our Parish Purpose to be, should be as we move into the future.
Please continue to pray for the Parish and our needs so
that we can be the best Parish possible, a place where everyone is welcome and
we all work to grow as disciples of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
MACKILLOP HILL: SPIRITUALITY IN THE COFFEE SHOPPE - CHANGE OF
DATE!!
Please note. Due to unforeseen circumstances
the final Coffee Shoppe for 2016 will take place this Monday
21st November. Enjoy
morning tea, good company and lively discussion. See you there!
MASS FOR
DECEASED RELATIVES AND FRIENDS:
On Wednesday
23rd November at 7pm Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes
Church Devonport for parishioners, as well as other relatives and friends of
parishioners, who have died over the past 12 months. You and members of your
family are invited to join us at the Mass as we celebrate and give thanks for
the life of your loved one, and recognise the loss of that person in your life.
Following Mass coffee and tea will be served.
CATHOLIC
CHARISMATIC RENEWAL:
are sponsoring a
HEALING MASS at St Mary’s Church Penguin Thursday 24th November at 7pm. All
denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the liturgy. After Mass, teams
will be available for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for
supper and fellowship in the hall. Please note earlier start time 7pm.
If you wish to know more or require transport, please contact Celestine
Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447
018 068, Zoe Smith 6426:3073 or Tom
Knaap 6425:2442.
MT ST VINCENT NURSING HOME:
For rent – 1
Bedroom Unit. Please phone 6425:2166 for more information!
ULVERSTONE CHRISTMAS PARTY FOR SENIORS:
The 2016 Ulverstone Christmas Party for seniors will be
held on the afternoon of Thursday 8th December at 1.45pm
in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church. We hope that people who
have previously contributed with cooking, or other assistance, will continue
that in 2016. Maybe you would like to do floral table decorations? Or
delivering invitations to people unable to be handed theirs? Or wrapping little
gifts? There are loads of little jobs, both before, and on the day, and all
help will be very much appreciated. Most people who have attended before should
have their invitation by now. If you do not have yours, or you have not
attended the function before, but would like to this year, please approach
Joanne Rodgers or Debbie Rimmelzwaan. We particularly welcome new parish
members and hope you will come along for some entertainment, a cuppa and a
chat.
Eyes down
7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 24th November
Tony
Ryan & Terry Bird
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for
news, information and details of other Parishes.
CHURCH OF
THE APOSTLES, LAUNCESTON SESQUICENTENARY:
25th –
27th November 2016 the Launceston
Parish will be celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Opening and Blessing of
the Church of the Apostles. Sesquicentenary Dinner at the Tailrace Centre,
Riverside on Friday 25th November at 7.00pm. Tickets are $40 and must be pre-purchased
through the Parish Office. Open Day Saturday 26th November 11.00am –
5.00pm. A Historical Display (which
includes a Commemoration of the Archbishop Guilford Young Centenary) will be
held in the Pastoral Centre with refreshments available. In the Church a Promenade of Music will be
presented with performances each half hour commencing at 2.00pm. Between the items four treasures of the
Church of the Apostles will be highlighted for those present. On Sunday 27th
November at 10.30am Archbishop Julian Porteous will be the celebrant of the
Mass of Solemn Dedication of the Church.
This will be followed by a shared lunch in Presentation Hall at Sacred
Heart School. All parishioners, friends and families associated in any way with
this magnificent Church are warmly invited to join in any or all of these
celebrations. Please contact the
Launceston Parish Office (phone: 6331:4377 or email: apostles@bigpond.com)
for more information and to register your interest in these events.
FIRE RETREAT:
Set a FIRE down in my soul! For
all young adults aged between 14-30 years old, you are invited
to FIRE, a weekend retreat, at Saint Francis of Assisi,
Riverside. Speakers include: Archbishop Julian Porteous and the
Immaculata Mission Team 2016 Friday 25th November (6.30pm
Gathering for a 7pm start) to Sunday 27th November. Cost? $20
(includes Friday night, light supper; Saturday, main meals; and Sunday, morning
tea). For more information or to register: Phone 0406372608 or
email fireretreattas@gmail.com
THE
IMMACULATA MISSION SCHOOL:
This is an opportunity to go deeper in faith and to
encounter the love of God through prayer and the sacraments, to live in
community and make new friends, to learn about the faith from fantastic
speakers - and to start your year in the best way possible. When:
1-10th January, 2017 Where: Launceston Church Grammar School, Launceston
Tasmania Who is it for: 16-35 year olds How much: $360 early-bird, or
$410 after 16th November. To register: http://www.sistersoftheimmaculata.org.au/ims-2017
"The IMS gave me an insight into how being a Christian
gives life to people. Everyone at the school was kind, friendly and
compassionate and were filled with a sense of purpose, especially the Sisters.
Their actions have inspired me to pray more and to look into my faith
more." Max (Tasmania)
THE WAY TO
ST JAMES PILGRIMAGE – 6/7 JANUARY:
Following the highly successful inaugural pilgrimage,
registrations are open for the second pilgrimage, to coincide with the Cygnet
Folk Festival. The pilgrimage commences on Friday 6 January 2017 from Mountain River,
overnight Ranelagh, and finishes on Saturday 7 January at St James Church,
Cygnet, for a concluding ceremony.
Numbers are limited, so please register soon! (Registration
is essential.) Full details can be found at www.waytostjames.com.au
TRINITY
WEEKEND:
Young adults (18-35) are invited to gather with Fr Richard
Ross at Holy Trinity, Westbury for some time of prayer, reflection and
socialising in the light of the Trinity. Commencing at 12noon on Saturday
3rd December, concluding by 12noon on Sunday 4th December. Cost $10.
BYO tent or inflatable mattress/sleeping bag and find a space on the floor and
BYO lunch for Saturday. Dinner will be shared self-catering at our own expense
with several options available. Further info: www.facebook.com/trinitywestbury http://www.facebook.com/trinitywestbury
or email rpeross@gmail.com
WHY DARK NIGHTS OF THE SOUL?
The original of this article can be found at the website of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI by clicking here
Atheism is a parasite that feeds on bad religion. That’s why, in the end, atheistic critics are our friends. They hold our feet to the fire.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Karl Marx, for example, submit that all religious experience is ultimately psychological projection. For them, the God we believe in and who undergirds our churches is, at the end of the day, simply a fantasy we have created for ourselves to serve our own needs. We have created God as opium for comfort and to give ourselves divine permission to do what we want to do.
They’re largely correct, but partially wrong, and it’s in where they’re wrong that true religion takes it root. Admittedly, they’re right in that a lot of religious experience and church life is far from pure, as is evident in our lives. It’s hard to deny that we are forever getting our own ambitions and energies mixed up with what we call religious experience. That’s why, so often, we, you and I, sincere religious people, don’t look like Jesus at all: We’re arrogant where we should be humble, judgmental where we should be forgiving, hateful where we should be loving, self-concerned where we should be altruistic, and, not least, spiteful and vicious where we should be understanding and merciful. Our lives and our churches often don’t radiate Jesus. Atheism is a needed challenge because far too often we have our own life force confused with God and our own ideologies confused with the Gospel.
Fortunately, God doesn’t let us get away with it for long. Rather, as the mystics teach, God inflicts us with a confusing, painful grace called, a dark night of the soul. What happens in a dark night of the soul is that we run out of gas religiously in that the religious experiences that once sustained us and gave us fervor dry up or get crucified in a way that leaves us with no imaginative, affective, or emotional sense of either God love or of God’s existence. No effort on our part can again conjure up the feelings and images we once had about God and the security we once felt within ourselves about our faith and religious beliefs. The heavens empty and inside of ourselves we feel agnostic, as if God didn’t exist, and we are no longer able to create an image of God that feels real to us. We become helpless inside of ourselves to generate a sense of God.
But that’s precisely the beginning of real faith. In that darkness, when we have nothing left, when we feel there is no God, God can begin to flow into us a pure way. Because our interior religious faculties are paralyzed we can no longer manipulate our experience of God, fudge it, project ourselves into it, or use it to rationalize divine permission for our own actions. Real faith begins at the exact point where our atheistic critics think it ends, in darkness and emptiness, in religious impotence, in our powerlessness to influence how God flows into us.
We see this clearly in the life of Mother Teresa. As seen in her diaries, for the first twenty-seven years of her life she had a deep, felt, imaginative, affective sense of God in her life. She lived with a rock-like certainty about God’s existence and God’s love. But at age twenty-seven, praying on a train one day, it was as if someone turned off some switch that connected her to God. In her imagination and her feelings, the heavens emptied. God, as she had known him in her mind and feelings, disappeared.
But we know the rest of the story: She lived out the next sixty years of her life in a faith that truly was rock-solid and she lived out a dedicated, selfless commitment that would disempower even the strongest atheistic critic from making the accusation that her religious experience was selfish projection and that her practice of religion was not essentially pure. In her religious darkness, God was able to flow into her in essential purity; unlike for so many of us where a faith-life that’s clearly self-serving belies a belief that we are listening to God and not to ourselves.
Even Jesus, in his humanity, had to undergo this darkness, as is evident in Gethsemane and his cry of abandonment on the cross. After his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, we are told that an angel came and strengthened him. Why, we might ask, didn’t the angel come earlier when seemingly he most needed the help? God’s assistance couldn’t come until he was completely spent in terms of his own strength; his humanity wouldn’t have let the divine flow in purely but would have inserted itself into the experience. He had to be completely spent of his own strength before the divine could truly and purely flow in. So too for us.
Dark nights of faith are needed to wash us clean because only then can the angel come to help us.
THE MARTYRS OF OUR MODERN CHURCH
Next week, the 37th anniversary of the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero will be marked by people around the world to whom he remains an inspiration – in his life and death – as they strive for justice. His country of El Salvador saw many other lives lost as members of the Church were targeted by the authorities as a result of their protestations against an oppressive regime. Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ, who worked with many of these martyrs, tells their stories and gives an insight into the Church teaching that lay behind their deep commitment to justice.
In recent decades, Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular have rediscovered what should always have been an essential dimension of faith and practice: the social dimension. This is an understanding that Christianity is not a purely individual and personal matter, nor is it, as the writer, Ernest Renan put it somewhat sarcastically, ‘a religion made for the interior consolation of a few chosen souls.’ As the great French theologian, Henri de Lubac stated so clearly, ‘Catholicism is essentially social. It is social in the deepest sense of the word, not merely in its applications in the field of natural institutions but first and foremost in itself, in the heart of its mystery, in the essence of its dogma.’[1]
This rediscovery is expressed in what is usually called the Social Teaching of the Church or Catholic Social Teaching. It was initiated formally over one hundred years ago with the publication in 1891 of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum. Before this, the corporal works of mercy were and had always been the principal way for a Christian to express love of neighbour. They remain essential and constitute the chief criterion by which, according to the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Last Judgement, the Lord will call each one of us to account. Rerum Novarum, however, recognised that in the modern world we have the knowledge and capability to build the type of society we want. The encyclical therefore stated that love of neighbour ought to extend to action to remedy the wrongs of the new industrial society, tackling their causes and advocating changes in regimes themselves which would bring them to affirm among other things the dignity of human work, the right to a just wage and the right of the worker to form professional associations.
This was followed by nine social encyclicals from all but two of the succeeding popes. The latest of these is Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate (2009), which calls for ‘integral human development’ and the need for a new world order to direct globalisation. These encyclicals can be considered as blueprints for building a society based on the principles of the Gospel. There are also two extremely important general Church declarations supporting them. First, the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes,with its beautiful opening words: ‘The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.’[2] Secondly, the 1971 Synod of Bishops’ statement on Justice in the World, which proclaimed that: ‘Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel.’[3] Our religious faith must go hand in glove with our active promotion of justice.
Unfortunately this wealth of social teaching is either neglected by or even unknown to the majority of Catholics today. This is because, as a recent book puts it, ‘it remains outside the mainstream of ordinary parish life, is seldom referred to in the pulpit, almost never mentioned in the RCIA programmes for people becoming Catholics, and very unlikely ever to be taught as part of catechesis and formation programmes.’[4] In other words, it lives up to its description in a well-known collection: ‘our best kept secret’.
And this in spite of the fact that all of the documents mentioned above are not only deeply concerned with the Church’s Social Teaching but call on Catholics to study it and put it into practice as part of their faith. This charge was repeated by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales in their 1996 statement, The Common Good: ‘All members of the Catholic Church must accept their full share of responsibility for the welfare of society. We should regard the discharge of these responsibilities as no less important than fulfilling our religious duties and indeed as part of them.’[5]
One of the reasons for the urgency of this appeal is that there has never been so much injustice in the world as there is today. One UN Human Development Report after another stresses the fact that never has there been so much wealth in the world, yet never has it been so unequally divided. A 2002 report of the International Forum on Globalisation sums up the situation as follows: ‘In a world in which a few enjoy unimaginable wealth, two hundred million children under the age of five are under weight because of a lack of food. Some fourteen million children each year die from hunger related disease. A hundred million children are living or working on the streets… Eight hundred million people go to bed hungry each night.’[6]
Forty years ago in his great letter on ‘The Development of Peoples’, Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI described the ‘scandal of development’ as an ‘outrage against humanity’. Pope John Paul II spoke of pervading ‘structures of sin’, particularly characterised by ‘the all-consuming desire for profit and the thirst for power’ in all cultures. As the Antilles Bishops put it: ‘Any society in which a few control most of the wealth and the masses are left in want is a sinful society.’[7]
However, the call to Christians to express their faith by struggling for justice, when an increasing number of societies or regimes in the world are fundamentally unjust and oppressive, can seem like an invitation to persecution, if not martyrdom. Aware of this, John Paul II exhorted Catholics to acknowledge and pay special honour their modern martyrs of the 20th century. What perhaps characterises someone as a ‘modern’ martyr is the nature of the truth to which they are called to give witness. As Karl Rahner has argued, the classical concept of martyrdom, which is fundamentally conditioned by an odium fidei (hatred of the faith), needs to be widened to include those who have been killed by an odium iustitiae (hatred of justice). He cites Archbishop Oscar Romero as an obvious example of this.
It was Father Pedro Arrupe who led the Society of Jesus, in its 32nd General Congregation in 1975, to declare the promotion of justice to be an indispensible condition for the service of the faith and that this ‘should be a concern of our whole life and a dimension of all our apostolic endeavours’. At the same time he added:
It is necessary that our Congregation be truly conscious that the justice of the Gospel should be preached through the cross and from the cross. If we intend seriously to work for justice, the cross will immediately appear, frequently accompanied by bitter pain. For, although we be faithful to our priestly and religious charism and work prudently, we shall see those rise up against us who perpetuate injustice in today’s industrial society, who otherwise are sometimes considered very fine Christians and often are our benefactors or friends or even relatives, who accuse us of Marxism and subversion, eventually cease to be our friends, and consequently take away their former backing and financial assistance.
This prophetic remark has been amply fulfilled and is borne out by numerous examples. ‘This is a courageous decree: some Jesuits will have to die’, said João Burnier, a Brazilian Jesuit, speaking at the time about the Congregation’s Decree Four, which commits the Society to promote justice. Shortly afterwards he was punched and then shot in the presence of his bishop, Dom Pedro Casadaliga, as both men were interceding to release two women who had been arrested and tortured by the police. In anticipation of the anniversary of the death of Archbishop Romero, I would like to tell the stories of some other modern martyrs, people that have made a great impression on me.
Octavio Ortiz and four youths in El Despertar
At 6.00am on 20 January 1979, a heavy army vehicle crashed through the iron gates of the retreat centre, El Despertar in El Salvador, where Fr Octavio Ortiz and some 20 youths were asleep. They were attending a weekend leadership training course dedicated to Christian formation. When Fr Octavio went out to see what the noise was, the soldiers shot him and then ran their vehicle over his face. Some of the youths had escaped over a wall at the back of the centre, but the soldiers captured four, whom they also shot and ran over. Others were taken prisoner and questioned for 28 hours.
As this was happening, Archbishop Oscar Romero was preparing to leave for the meeting of Latin American bishops at Puebla in Mexico. Instead, he came immediately to El Despertar and was horrified by the condition of the corpses. The following day, a Sunday, he celebrated their funeral Mass in the Cathedral. He preached a powerful sermon in which, after expressing his condolences to the parents of Fr Ortiz and the four young men, he said: ‘I cannot omit the news about the event that brings us here today: the bloody and painful case of Octavio Ortiz Luna. Concerning this matter the Diocese states that the official statement published by the media is filled with lies from beginning to end… Thanks to God we are able to reconstruct the truth through the testimony of many survivors who were brought to the prison of the National Guard.’
Romero then presented this evidence in detail, making it quite clear that El Despertar was a centre dedicated to Christian formation and not to training guerrilleros;that 28 young men aged between 13 and 21 were attending a course of Christian Initiation for Young People and that the only arms they had were hymnals and guitars. He ended by drawing several conclusions:
First. Our Security Forces are incapable of recognising their errors but make things worse by falsifying the truth with slander…..Second. The purification of the corrupt system of our nation’s security is urgent… Third. Once again the evil and the danger of the Law of Public Order is proven… Fourth. Enough! We say this not with pessimism but with great optimism in the strength of our noble people…. Finally, I want to remind you that the material and intellectual authors of the assassination of Father Octavio Cruz have incurred canonical excommunication, which in this case means excommunication from the Church.
Six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter
Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Joaquín López y López, Juan Ramón Moreno and Amando López, all Jesuit priests, and their housekeeper, Elba Ramos with her 15-year-old daughter, Celina, were dragged out of their beds on the campus of the Universidad Centroamericana in El Salvador on the night of 16 November 1989. Soldiers from the crack Atlacatl Battalion, which had been trained in and was funded by the United States, made them lie on the ground and were then ordered to shoot them in cold blood by Lieutenant José Ricardo Espinosa, who had been a student of one of the priests at the Jesuit school, the Externado San José. They cut out the brains of Ignacio Ellacuría, Rector of the University, and spread them on the grass to demonstrate why they were killing him.
Why were they killing them? I tried to answer this in an article written at the time with the title, ‘My brave “subversive” friends’:
I knew each of them well and worked alongside them in El Salvador for three years. In the Catholic University, where they taught, they did their utmost to make students aware of their Christian duty to promote justice as part of their practice of the faith... But the peace they longed for was not peace at any price. They were one with Archbishop Oscar Romero who, shortly before his assassination in 1980, declared: ‘Let it be quite clear that if we are being asked to collaborate with a pseudo-peace, a false order, based on repression and fear, we must recall that the only order and the only peace that God wants is one based on truth and justice.’
The Jesuits made this choice once before in El Salvador when, in the late 1970s, they were told to leave the country within thirty days or be ready to face death at the hand of right-wing death squads. It was then that the slogan ‘Be a patriot, kill a priest’ was daubed on buildings all over the capital. The Jesuits decided to stay and, as a result, some were banished, others tortured and Rutilio Grande was assassinated as he was on his way to celebrate Mass. The six Jesuits who died on Thursday made the same choice, knowing full well the dangers they ran. Earlier this year the Catholic University was one of the principal partners in a national debate on peace which was sponsored by the Archbishop of San Salvador. After ten years of bitter civil war, which has cost the lives of more than 70,000 people, mostly civilians, women and children, the overwhelming conclusion was that the only hope for peace lay, not in military victory by either side, but in talks and negotiations. The UCA, and Father Ellacuría in particular, played a leading role in helping to promote these negotiations. Hopefully their deaths will now open the eyes of those who are supporting a brutal and corrupt regime and preventing serious negotiations from taking place... If the death of the six Jesuits achieves this goal, they will not have died in vain.
Shortly after the assassination, I was visited by three Scotland Yard detectives on their way to El Salvador to investigate the murder of the Jesuits at the request of El Salvador’s President Cristiani. They promised to get to the bottom of the crime and report back on their return. But it was the last I saw of them, and the colonel directly responsible for organising the assassination (Colonel Guillermo Benavides), though arrested and charged, was ‘confined’ in a luxury hotel near a beach and then released. The judge who tried him and found him guilty had to flee the country with his family after an assassination attempt in his own house. One of the better-known death squads threatened that they would ‘physically eliminate all persons, lay or religious, in or out of the government, who are involved in this case.’ The reason they gave was: ‘Never before in the history of El Salvador has a military man been brought to trial… No military man has been or should be subject to any law of the Republic.’
The assassinations of all these modern martyrs, my colleagues and friends, affected me deeply. I lived and worked in El Despertar for over 11 years. My room and office were next to the spot where the martyrs were shot and where we erected a small shrine in their memory. I passed it every time I entered or came out of my room and was deeply conscious I was treading on holy ground. Next week we will remember the most famous of modern martyrs, Archbishop Romero, but we remember too the lives of these priests, their companions, and all others who have given their lives in the pursuit of justice.
Fr Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ is former Provincial of the British Jesuits. He is now a member of the Jesuit community at Farm Street, Central London. He is the author Just Faith: A Jesuit Striving for Social Justice (Way Books, 2010).
[1] Henri De Lubac, Catholicisme (1938)
[3] World Synod of Catholic Bishops, Justice in the World (1971), 6
[4] Austen Ivereigh, Faithful Citizens: A Practical Guide to Catholic Social Teaching and Community Organising (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2010), p.17
[5] Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, The Common Good (1996), 15
[7] Roman Catholic Bishops of the Antilles, Justice and Peace in a New Caribbean (1975), 34
6 STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR STEWARDSHIP MESSAGE
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity. You can find the original blog here
This weekend at Nativity we’re delivering our annual Stewardship Sunday message. We put a lot of time and energy into crafting the right message that our congregation needs to hear. Jesus talked about money all the time, and if we are going to talk about Jesus, sooner or later we have to realize that money is a part of his message. Besides the obvious fact that the Church needs money for its mission.
Here are some principles we’ve learned over the years to make Stewardship not just another awkward ask, but a real gospel message that can grow the faith of your parishioners.
1. Teach giving as an act of worship: If the only time you talk about money is when you want a specific commitment, don’t be surprised people see it as a negative subject and put up resistance to your message. Your Stewardship Sunday will only really be successful if you consistently communicate God’s plan for giving in the life of a disciple. And God’s plan for giving is all about worship. We try to make it clear that giving is an act of worship when it happens in our place of worship.
2. Teach giving for your mission, not for your need: Money is actually a part of the church’s mission to make disciples. All too often church’s ask for money out of a sense of desperation or mere maintenance. Parishes present the congregation with laundry lists of needs and ailments, hoping to make people feel guilty for not giving.
What’s missing is a compelling, and frankly, biblical vision about why they should give. People are more willing to give money for you church’s mission than for your church’s maintenance. Of course, people can conveniently overlook that there are costs associated with the church’s operation, and need to be gently reminded from time to time. But what we strive to make clear is that the ultimate destination of their money is life change, not just keeping the lights on.
3. Teach giving by sharing stories: The best way to get the point across that stewardship is about mission and life change is by sharing actual stories from your parish about mission and life change. Show people where their money goes by relating it to the lives of the community and the people you serve. This is not a progress or business report. It’s a chance to inspire and encourage your congregation.
People come to church because they want to experience positive change in their lives and the lives of others. Point out where that is happening. And remember, if you’re going to use someone’s story, ask their permission, even if you don’t include their real name.
4. Teach the “P’s” of giving: Mission is about why people give. The trouble is, even when people are willing and excited, we forget to teach people how to give. Our preferred method is teaching what we call the “P’s” of giving. We ask everyone to give in a planned way, to give a percentage of their household income, and to be progressive in that percentage from year to year. The actual amount will look different for every unique family situation, but the “P’s” are principles that apply for everyone.
5. Teach that giving is for members: Our giving message is directed toward our current members, not visitors or those not yet a part of the parish. When we are making an ask about money, we will actually say, “If you’re not a regular at Nativity, feel free to tune out.” While they are of course free to give, this free-pass communicates a non-threatening message to visitors (it’s not their responsibility) while reinforcing that if you are a member, you are called to be a contributor.
6. Teach giving as good stewardship: If you expect members to be good stewards, it is critical that your church leaders are themselves good stewards. Would you give your money to an institution or person that lacked transparency, exhibited wastefulness, or even just lacked wise and effective money handling and investment skills? Not only does bad stewardship kill your credibility, it betrays your calling from God. That’s why we always offer our annual “business meeting” on Stewardship Sunday. That meeting is hosted by our Finance Director, Brandon Hollern, and our Financial Council, reviewing last year’s budget and providing an overview of this year.
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