Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney Mob: 0417 279 437
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 8383 Fax: 6423 5160
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
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)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is sick or in need of assistance in the Parish please visit them. Then, if they are willing and give permission, could you please pass on their names to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of the Care and Concern Group who are willing and able to provide some backup and support to them. Unfortunately, because of privacy issues, the Parish Office is not able to give out details unless prior permission has been given.
|
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Weekday Masses 30th May - 2nd June, 2017
Tuesday: 9.30am Penguin
Ministry Rosters 3rd & 4th June, 2017
Devonport:
Penguin:
Readings this week – The Ascension of the LORD
Prego Reflection:
How do I feel today as I settle to my prayer?
I ask the
Lord to be with me and to help me pray.
Conscious of his love for me, I receive
this Gospel knowing he is speaking to me.
I read the text with reverence and
allow it to be real for me.
Perhaps I can imagine myself present in the scene
as one of the disciples climbing the mountain.
How do I wait for Jesus? With
eagerness, doubt, fear, apprehension, joy …?
As Jesus appears, do I fall in
adoration before him or do I hesitate?
Without judgement I consider my
response.
What does it lead me to say to Jesus?
I consider my companions. How
is the group altered as we gather around Jesus?
Can I relate this to my life?
Where or how do I especially meet him with others?
Does this Gospel change my
attitude to them?
I listen deeply to his words.
Perhaps I am saddened and
unnerved that he is leaving us?
Or am I exhilarated by the commands he is
giving us, to make disciples, baptise and teach?
Have I experienced something
of his promise to be with us until the end of time?
I speak to the Lord from my
heart at length.
I finish my prayer with gratitude, asking the Lord to be
always with his Church.
Readings next week – PENTECOST
SUNDAY – Year A
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Robert Windebank, Mary Hutchinson, Fr Laurie Bissett MSC, Victoria
Webb, Victor Slavin & …,
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 24th – 30th
May
Weekly
Ramblings
As we prepare for the celebration of Pentecost you are
invited to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. There will be 24 Hours of
Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Lourdes Church commencing
with Mass on Friday 2nd at 9.30am and concluding with Mass at 10.00am on
Saturday 3rd. There are lists in the Foyer in each Mass Centre where you are
invited to place your name in one of the time slots – you are also encouraged
to pray in your home if it is not possible to be at the Church.
Two further steps in our Sacramental Preparation program
take place during this coming week. I will be meeting with the parents of
children who will begin their preparation in 2018 on Monday and Tuesday
evenings and then next weekend the children in this year’s program will be
presented with the Creed, our Profession of Faith, at Masses next weekend.
Please pray for both groups during this coming week – thank you.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate
Georgia Solomon, Daughter of Benjamin & Amy
on her Baptism this weekend.
KNIGHT OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: monthly meeting will be
held this
Sunday 28th May at the Community Room Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone, commencing
at 6pm with a shared meal. All men are welcome.
OLOL LITURGY GROUP MEETING:
The Liturgy Group will meet on Thursday 1st June
in the Presbytery at 4.15pm. If you have anything you would like discussed at
the meeting (it doesn't have to be liturgy) please let Felicity know: 0418 301
573 or fsly@internode.on.net
PENTECOST SUNDAY LUNCH
Felicity Sly is asking for support with the Pentecost Sunday Luncheon at Our
Lady of Lourdes with the following;
Help to set-up the Parish Hall on Saturday 3rd
June (time negotiable)
Getting food ready and served on Pentecost
Sunday morning from 10 am Cleaning up after the luncheon.
If you are
available to help with any or all of these please contact Felicity Sly on
6424:1933 (please leave a message), 0418 301 573 as a call or sms; or email fsly@internode.on.net.
HOSPITALITY
TEAM OLOL:
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 9 (19th May) footy
margin 23 – Winners; Agnes Bonis, Danny Simpson, Charlies Angels.
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 28 May
2017
WALK WITH CHRIST – Hobart City, Sunday 18th June 1:15pm to 3:00 pm.
CHARITABLE WORKS ANNUAL COLLECTION
The Charitable Works Annual Collection is an appeal that supports
CatholicCare Tasmania and the Apostleship of the Sea,
Australia.
This appeal will be held on weekend of 3rd & 4th June, 2017.
Envelopes will be available from
all Mass Centres.
CatholicCare Tasmania is the official social services
and welfare arm of the Archdiocese of Hobart. The agency has a strong
commitment to supporting and nurturing families in all their diversity as the
basic building blocks of caring, healthy and just communities.
The Apostleship of
the Sea, Australia
is an ecumenical mission designed to meet the needs of visiting seafarers who
are often away from family and friends for months at a time.
WHEN DOES FAITH DISAPPEAR?
The original article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI can be found here
When Friedrich Nietzsche declared that “God is dead” he added a question: What kind of a sponge does it take to wipe away a whole horizon?
I often ask that question because just in my own lifetime there has been an unprecedented decline in the number of people who go to church regularly and, more recently, an equally unprecedented spike in the number of people who claim to have lost their faith completely and are now classified under a religious category called, “None”.
This latter group (persons who when asked about their religious affiliation on a census form answer with the word, None) has essentially doubled in the last twenty years and today in Canada and the USA make up over 30% of the population. The numbers are much the same for Western Europe and other secularized parts of the world.
But have these individuals really lost their faith? When they use the word “None” to refer to their religious beliefs they generally explain that with phrases to this effect: I just no longer believe! It doesn’t make sense to me anymore! I’ve lost faith in religion and the church! I can’t pretend any longer! I’ve lost my faith in those beliefs! I’m not sure whether or not I believe in God!
What’s common among all these phrases is the concept of “believing” or “belief”: “I just don’t believe it anymore!” But is ceasing to believe in something the same thing as losing one’s faith? Not necessarily. It can be one thing to no longer believe in something, but it can be something quite different to lose one’s faith. To cease believing in a set of faith propositions doesn’t necessarily equate with losing one’s faith. Indeed, the loss of one’s belief system is often the condition for a purified faith.
How is belief different from faith? In normal, everyday parlance to say that we believe something to be true means that we are able to square that truth with our imagination, that is, we are able to somehow circumscribe it imaginatively so that it makes sense to us. Conversely, if we cannot picture how something might make sense then it is a short step to say that it isn’t true. Our beliefs are predicated on what we can square with our imagination and our thinking.
But many of the objects of our faith are, in essence and by definition, unimaginable, ineffable, and beyond conceptualization. Hence in the area of faith, to say that I can’t believe this or that is generally more an indication of the limitation of our imagination and our rational powers than it is indicative of the loss of faith. I believe that we are much more agnostic about our beliefs than we are agnostic about God, and this isn’t a loss of faith.
Faith is deeper than belief, and it is not always something we can picture imaginatively inside our minds. Take, for instance, a number of articles in the Apostles’ Creed: It is impossible to imagine them as true in terms of picturing them as real. They are real, but our images of them are only icons. That is true too of many articles within our Christian creed and many of our written doctrines of faith. As expressed, they are merely images and words that point us towards something which we cannot imagine because it is beyond imagination.
For example: The first thing, always, that needs to be said about God is that God is ineffable, that is, God is beyond all conceptualization, beyond all imaginings, beyond being pictured, and beyond being captured in any adequate way by language. This is also true for our understanding of Christ as the Second Person in the Trinity. Jesus was God’s son, but how can that to be imagined or pictured? It can’t be. How can God, who is one, be three? This isn’t mathematics; it’s mystery, something that cannot be imaginatively circumscribed. Yet, we believe it and millions and millions of people for two thousand years have risked their lives and their souls on its truth without being able to picture it imaginatively. Faith is a knowing of something which, because of its magnitude and infinity, cannot be adequately pictured in terms of an imaginative construct. Our words about it express our beliefs and those words point to the reality, but they are not the reality.
To reject a specific piece of art does not mean we reject beauty. So when someone says, I can no longer believe this, he is in effect rejecting a set of propositions, a set of particular icons and a theory of art (a theology), rather than actually rejecting belief in God, and he is rejecting it precisely because he cannot imaginatively picture something which in fact cannot be pictured.
It has been said that atheist is just another name for someone who cannot get metaphor. Perhaps that’s too simple, but it does suggest that rejecting a set of theological propositions is not the same thing as losing one’s faith.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: - first Friday of each month.
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – meetings will be held on Monday evenings in the Community Room, Ulverstone at 7pm.
Weekday Masses 30th May - 2nd June, 2017
Tuesday: 9.30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9.30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9.30am Ulverstone
9.30am Devonport - followed by 24 hours of Adoration
Next Weekend 3rd & 4th June, 2017
Saturday: 10.00am Devonport
Saturday Vigil: 6.00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 11.00am Devonport ONLY PARISH MASS FOR THE FEAST OF PENTECOST
Ministry Rosters 3rd & 4th June, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Kelly, B Paul, R Baker 10:30am
F Sly, J Tuxworth
Ministers of Communion: Vigil D Peters,
M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton, M Kenney
11.00am: F Sly, E
Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, S Samarakkody, R Batepola
Cleaners 2nd
June: M.W.C. 9th June: M & R Youd
Piety Shop 3rd
June: L Murfet 4th June: D French Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Commentator: Y Downes Readers: M & D Hiscutt
Ministers of
Communion: J
Garnsey, A Guest Liturgy: Sulphur Creek C
Setting Up: F Aichberger Care of Church: M Bowles, M Owen
Readings this week – The Ascension of the LORD
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel:Matthew 28:16-20
Prego Reflection:
How do I feel today as I settle to my prayer?
I ask the Lord to be with me and to help me pray.
Conscious of his love for me, I receive this Gospel knowing he is speaking to me.
I read the text with reverence and allow it to be real for me.
Perhaps I can imagine myself present in the scene as one of the disciples climbing the mountain.
How do I wait for Jesus? With eagerness, doubt, fear, apprehension, joy …?
As Jesus appears, do I fall in adoration before him or do I hesitate?
Without judgement I consider my response.
What does it lead me to say to Jesus?
I consider my companions. How is the group altered as we gather around Jesus?
Can I relate this to my life? Where or how do I especially meet him with others?
Does this Gospel change my attitude to them?
I listen deeply to his words.
Perhaps I am saddened and unnerved that he is leaving us?
Or am I exhilarated by the commands he is giving us, to make disciples, baptise and teach?
Have I experienced something of his promise to be with us until the end of time?
I speak to the Lord from my heart at length.
I finish my prayer with gratitude, asking the Lord to be always with his Church.
I ask the Lord to be with me and to help me pray.
Conscious of his love for me, I receive this Gospel knowing he is speaking to me.
I read the text with reverence and allow it to be real for me.
Perhaps I can imagine myself present in the scene as one of the disciples climbing the mountain.
How do I wait for Jesus? With eagerness, doubt, fear, apprehension, joy …?
As Jesus appears, do I fall in adoration before him or do I hesitate?
Without judgement I consider my response.
What does it lead me to say to Jesus?
I consider my companions. How is the group altered as we gather around Jesus?
Can I relate this to my life? Where or how do I especially meet him with others?
Does this Gospel change my attitude to them?
I listen deeply to his words.
Perhaps I am saddened and unnerved that he is leaving us?
Or am I exhilarated by the commands he is giving us, to make disciples, baptise and teach?
Have I experienced something of his promise to be with us until the end of time?
I speak to the Lord from my heart at length.
I finish my prayer with gratitude, asking the Lord to be always with his Church.
Readings next week – PENTECOST
SUNDAY – Year A
First Reading: Acts 2:1-11
Second Reading: Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Robert Windebank, Mary Hutchinson, Fr Laurie Bissett MSC, Victoria
Webb, Victor Slavin & …,
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Lourdes
Lupango, Jean Horton, Peter Hutchinson, Martin Healy, Fr Mark McGuinness,
Anne
Watson, Elaine Milic, Ivan Walsh, Beverley Cloney.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 24th – 30th
May
Jack Choveaux, Shirley Keenan, Dianne McMullen, Joseph
Mantuano, Ida Penraat, George Batten, Tracie Cox, Joseph Sallese, Lorraine
Keen, Dalton Smith, Robert & Frances Roberts, Mary Marlow, Graeme Garland,
Pamela Jack, Bernard Stubbs, Vera Tolson, Mary Hyland, Beryl Purton, Rita Beach, Miss
Barbara O’Rourke, Nanette O’Brien, Johanna Smink, Lois Dudfield, Bridget Stone and Noreen
Burton.
May they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Next weekend is an important occasion for us as a Parish
Community as we gather from our various parts of the Parish to celebrate the
birth of the Church at Pentecost. There will be one Parish Mass celebrated on
Sunday – 11am at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport. All Parishioners are
encouraged to make this a special occasion as we take this opportunity to
gather as one people and then joining together to continue the celebration
after Mass with a shared meal in the Parish Hall. NB: There will still be the
Vigil Mass at Penguin and Devonport on Saturday night.
As we prepare for the celebration of Pentecost you are
invited to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. There will be 24 Hours of
Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Lourdes Church commencing
with Mass on Friday 2nd at 9.30am and concluding with Mass at 10.00am on
Saturday 3rd. There are lists in the Foyer in each Mass Centre where you are
invited to place your name in one of the time slots – you are also encouraged
to pray in your home if it is not possible to be at the Church.
Two further steps in our Sacramental Preparation program
take place during this coming week. I will be meeting with the parents of
children who will begin their preparation in 2018 on Monday and Tuesday
evenings and then next weekend the children in this year’s program will be
presented with the Creed, our Profession of Faith, at Masses next weekend.
Please pray for both groups during this coming week – thank you.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome and congratulate
Georgia Solomon, Daughter of Benjamin & Amy
on her Baptism this weekend.
KNIGHT OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: monthly meeting will be
held this
Sunday 28th May at the Community Room Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone, commencing
at 6pm with a shared meal. All men are welcome.
OLOL LITURGY GROUP MEETING:
The Liturgy Group will meet on Thursday 1st June
in the Presbytery at 4.15pm. If you have anything you would like discussed at
the meeting (it doesn't have to be liturgy) please let Felicity know: 0418 301
573 or fsly@internode.on.net
PENTECOST SUNDAY LUNCH
Felicity Sly is asking for support with the Pentecost Sunday Luncheon at Our
Lady of Lourdes with the following;
Getting food ready and served on Pentecost Sunday morning from 10 am Cleaning up after the luncheon.
If you are
available to help with any or all of these please contact Felicity Sly on
6424:1933 (please leave a message), 0418 301 573 as a call or sms; or email fsly@internode.on.net.
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Will be holding a ‘Craft and Cake
Stall’ after 9am Mass in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church on 11th
June. Bring your spare change along and pick up some delicious home cooking and
home-made craft!
HOSPITALITY
TEAM OLOL:
In response to Fr Mike's and the
Parish Councils Vision for the Mersey Leven Parish, I am hoping to organise
hospitality teams to commit to hosting a ‘cuppa’ after each Mass at Our Lady of
Lourdes. If you are able to commit to one Mass per month, or even every second
month, I would like to hear from you. We can start with whichever Masses we can
cover, and build from there. We have the hospitality requirements already
stored in the foyer, so there's no heavy lifting or transporting of cups etc.
required.
To discuss this request please contact
Felicity Sly 6424:1933 (please leave a message), call or sms 0418 301 573 or email
fsly@internode.on.net.
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 9 (19th May) footy
margin 23 – Winners; Agnes Bonis, Danny Simpson, Charlies Angels.
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 1st
June – John Halley & Tony Ryan
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM – AIRS 28 May
2017
This week on the Journey, Fr Steven Varney
reflects on the gospel of Matthew. Sr Hilda shares her wisdom from the
Abbey that ‘All is a gift’. Frances Pirola reminds us of ‘Spiritual Intimacy’
in her section SMART Loving, and Pete Gilmore reminds us about our ‘Faith in
Action’ in Living the Gospel. We continue to share some fabulous
Christian music creating a show that is all about faith, hope, love and life.
Go to www.jcr.org.au or www.itunes.jcr.org.au where you
can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.
WALK WITH CHRIST – Hobart City, Sunday 18th June 1:15pm to 3:00 pm.
Celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ by
walking with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament through the city of Hobart. Be at
St Joseph's Church (Harrington St) by 1.15 pm, and walk with us to St Mary's
Cathedral for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction concluding at
3:00. There will be a 'cuppa' afterwards. If you can't do the walk
come to the Cathedral at 2:00 for prayer and Adoration. Experience our
rich Catholic heritage in solidarity with Catholics all over the world and
through the ages, by bearing public witness to our Lord and Saviour. Can't join
us in person? Prayer intentions written in the 'Book of Life' in your parish
will be taken in the procession and presented at the Cathedral.
CHARITABLE WORKS ANNUAL COLLECTION
The Charitable Works Annual Collection is an appeal that supports
CatholicCare Tasmania and the Apostleship of the Sea,
Australia.
This appeal will be held on weekend of 3rd & 4th June, 2017.
Envelopes will be available from
all Mass Centres.
CatholicCare Tasmania is the official social services
and welfare arm of the Archdiocese of Hobart. The agency has a strong
commitment to supporting and nurturing families in all their diversity as the
basic building blocks of caring, healthy and just communities.
The Apostleship of
the Sea, Australia
is an ecumenical mission designed to meet the needs of visiting seafarers who
are often away from family and friends for months at a time.
WHEN DOES FAITH DISAPPEAR?
The original article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI can be found here
When Friedrich Nietzsche declared that “God is dead” he added a question: What kind of a sponge does it take to wipe away a whole horizon?
I often ask that question because just in my own lifetime there has been an unprecedented decline in the number of people who go to church regularly and, more recently, an equally unprecedented spike in the number of people who claim to have lost their faith completely and are now classified under a religious category called, “None”.
This latter group (persons who when asked about their religious affiliation on a census form answer with the word, None) has essentially doubled in the last twenty years and today in Canada and the USA make up over 30% of the population. The numbers are much the same for Western Europe and other secularized parts of the world.
But have these individuals really lost their faith? When they use the word “None” to refer to their religious beliefs they generally explain that with phrases to this effect: I just no longer believe! It doesn’t make sense to me anymore! I’ve lost faith in religion and the church! I can’t pretend any longer! I’ve lost my faith in those beliefs! I’m not sure whether or not I believe in God!
What’s common among all these phrases is the concept of “believing” or “belief”: “I just don’t believe it anymore!” But is ceasing to believe in something the same thing as losing one’s faith? Not necessarily. It can be one thing to no longer believe in something, but it can be something quite different to lose one’s faith. To cease believing in a set of faith propositions doesn’t necessarily equate with losing one’s faith. Indeed, the loss of one’s belief system is often the condition for a purified faith.
How is belief different from faith? In normal, everyday parlance to say that we believe something to be true means that we are able to square that truth with our imagination, that is, we are able to somehow circumscribe it imaginatively so that it makes sense to us. Conversely, if we cannot picture how something might make sense then it is a short step to say that it isn’t true. Our beliefs are predicated on what we can square with our imagination and our thinking.
But many of the objects of our faith are, in essence and by definition, unimaginable, ineffable, and beyond conceptualization. Hence in the area of faith, to say that I can’t believe this or that is generally more an indication of the limitation of our imagination and our rational powers than it is indicative of the loss of faith. I believe that we are much more agnostic about our beliefs than we are agnostic about God, and this isn’t a loss of faith.
Faith is deeper than belief, and it is not always something we can picture imaginatively inside our minds. Take, for instance, a number of articles in the Apostles’ Creed: It is impossible to imagine them as true in terms of picturing them as real. They are real, but our images of them are only icons. That is true too of many articles within our Christian creed and many of our written doctrines of faith. As expressed, they are merely images and words that point us towards something which we cannot imagine because it is beyond imagination.
For example: The first thing, always, that needs to be said about God is that God is ineffable, that is, God is beyond all conceptualization, beyond all imaginings, beyond being pictured, and beyond being captured in any adequate way by language. This is also true for our understanding of Christ as the Second Person in the Trinity. Jesus was God’s son, but how can that to be imagined or pictured? It can’t be. How can God, who is one, be three? This isn’t mathematics; it’s mystery, something that cannot be imaginatively circumscribed. Yet, we believe it and millions and millions of people for two thousand years have risked their lives and their souls on its truth without being able to picture it imaginatively. Faith is a knowing of something which, because of its magnitude and infinity, cannot be adequately pictured in terms of an imaginative construct. Our words about it express our beliefs and those words point to the reality, but they are not the reality.
To reject a specific piece of art does not mean we reject beauty. So when someone says, I can no longer believe this, he is in effect rejecting a set of propositions, a set of particular icons and a theory of art (a theology), rather than actually rejecting belief in God, and he is rejecting it precisely because he cannot imaginatively picture something which in fact cannot be pictured.
It has been said that atheist is just another name for someone who cannot get metaphor. Perhaps that’s too simple, but it does suggest that rejecting a set of theological propositions is not the same thing as losing one’s faith.
Oscar Romero: the people’s saint
March 24th was the thirtieth seventh anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador. Bishop Maurice Taylor, who knows the country well, preached this homily at a memorial Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, to mark the 30th anniversary of his death in 2010. Who was Oscar Romero? How did he make such an impact on the Church in El Salvador? And why was he killed?
When Central America gained independence from Spain nearly 200 years ago, it soon split into five separate and different republics: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador.
Of the five, El Salvador is the smallest in area. It is also the only one whose name is a Christian name – a name that could not be more Christian: El Salvador, The Saviour – yet its people are probably the most argumentative and combative in all of Central America. Nonetheless, as if the name of the country were insufficient, its capital city is San Salvador (Holy Saviour) and many of the towns have saints’ names. For example, I spent some time as the temporary priest in charge in the town of Dulce Nobre de María (literally, Sweet Name of Mary).
El Salvador, like the other independent republics of Central America, inherited from Spain a legacy of autocracy. Power and wealth lay with a minority, even an oligarchy, whose members, generation after generation, succeeded in retaining their wealth and power. The great majority of the people were poor, ill-educated, kept marginalised and without prospects. Proper reform was not on the agenda – neither political nor judicial reform, nor land reform. The status quo had to be maintained and it was maintained principally because the few had most of the land and the best of the land, the most productive land. And why should they give up such a comfortable and privileged lifestyle by allowing a more equitable sharing of nature’s riches and life’s opportunities?
Of course, this unjust state of affairs began to be challenged. There were some attempts at armed rising earlier last century, but they were suppressed ruthlessly and without great difficulty. In the 1970s, unrest began to grow in a serious and widespread way and the army was used for what was called counter-insurgency. In addition to the uniformed forces of the republic, officered by men from the privileged classes, there also began to exist death squads, employed by powerful and brutal elements. The result was that the poor, whether the urban poor or the peasants, were living in fear as well as in poverty and in the midst of conflict.
Gradually, those brave enough actively to fight the structural injustice coalesced into an armed organisation called the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation and usually known as the FMLN (Farabundo Martí had led an unsuccessful revolt earlier in the century). Thus, around the year 1980, civil war began in El Salvador, a war that, from the army’s point of view, was waged on a ‘search and destroy’ basis while the FMLN fought a guerilla type of campaign.
Since Central America is in what is called the United States’ sphere of influence, the US government was, in various ways, active in El Salvador. It had much financial and commercial involvement in the country and that, along with an obsession about communism in the hemisphere, ensured that the United States provided financial, diplomatic and even military support to the regime and its policies of repression.
During this time what was the Catholic Church in El Salvador doing? Rather, let me phrase that differently: What was the Church leadership doing? On the whole, the bishops supported the status quo, either by giving active encouragement or by their silence and non-intervention. There are several possible reasons for this. Some bishops came from the wealthy sector of the population; some feared the opposition to right-wing governments was Marxist-inspired; others perhaps on the specious grounds that the Church should not interfere in politics (even when those politics are blatantly unjust).
Despite the very encouraging teachings coming from meetings of Latin American bishops in Medellín and Puebla, many bishops in that part of the world have either been hostile to those actively engaged in trying to change the unjust structures so widespread, or, at least, have shown little or no enthusiasm for such endeavours. And, since bishops are appointed by Rome and only after careful investigation into their backgrounds, opinions and suitability, one sometimes wonders. Similarly and personally, I have to say that the Holy See’s attitude to liberation theology and to Small Christian Communities has often been suspicious and negative; but to say more on that would take us down another path.
When the Archdiocese of San Salvador needed a new archbishop in 1977, there was satisfaction in government circles that the Vatican’s choice fell on the relatively little-known Oscar Arnulfo Romero. He was bishop of Santiago de Maria, a small rural diocese in the east of El Salvador. The general expectation was that he would have little to say about the injustice and violence rampant in the country. Perhaps Oscar Romero himself, when nominated to the capital, had little thought of getting deeply involved. But it is one thing to be bishop of a small diocese away from the centre of things and another to be archbishop in the capital city and very much in the public eye.
His tenure of office in San Salvador was very short – only three years, but what a heroic and inspirational leader he turned out to be. He probably knew that, as archbishop of the nation’s capital and the seat of the government, he could not ignore the prevalent and intolerable situation. God gave him the wisdom and the courage that he needed and he did not fail in his duty.
The new archbishop did not have long to wait before having the opportunity to declare where he stood. The Jesuits had been particularly courageous and outspoken on behalf of the victims of the oppression and in their criticism of injustice. Soon after Romero became archbishop, Father Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit and the parish priest of a village in the archdiocese, was assassinated by a death squad. The archbishop was swift, unequivocal and public in his condemnation of the crime.
Thereafter, his weekly homilies at Mass in his cathedral were broadcast nationwide by Radio Católica. As the violence increased, as the army became more and more ruthless against the peasants, as death squads operated with impunity, the archbishop’s homilies became increasingly critical and proved a much-needed solace for the oppressed and fearful people. He condemned the violence and declared that it was the consequence of the injustice in Salvadoran society. He called on the authorities in God’s name to halt their policy of cruel and unmerciful repression. Each Sunday, as well as the archbishop’s homily, a list of the names of the victims killed in the previous week was broadcast.
The government objected to the archbishop, denied his accusations and called on him to desist. Not for the first time nor for the last, a veritable reign of terror gripped the country. Archbishop Romero became so distressed about the situation that he even appealed to the ordinary ranks in the army not to obey orders to kill their innocent fellow-citizens. For the archbishop’s enemies, that was the last straw. He had to be silenced.
He spent Monday 24 March 1980 with a group of his priests, relaxing at the beach, an hour’s drive south of San Salvador. In the afternoon he returned to the city and to his own house, a little cottage in the grounds of a hospital. He then walked the short distance from his cottage to the hospital chapel. He had arranged to celebrate an evening Mass there. Having completed the Liturgy of the Word, he had just taken the bread in his hands to commence the Liturgy of the Eucharist when a shot was fired and he fell to the floor behind the altar, dying or already dead. A hired marksman had been driven into the hospital grounds and, from the vehicle and through the open door of the church, had fired the fatal shot.
Oscar Romero’s death shocked millions of people throughout the world, nowhere more so than in El Salvador. No doubt his assassination satisfied many powerful people in the military and the government. No one has ever been brought to trial for the crime. It is believed that the hired assassin and the car driver were themselves soon murdered to ensure their silence.
The archbishop’s funeral in San Salvador cathedral was attended by huge crowds, including bishops and others from abroad, which served to highlight the absence of all but one bishop from El Salvador itself. The absence of the local bishops has sometimes been attributed to disagreement with the archbishop’s very public views or to apathy and indifference. It is neither our right nor our duty to judge. But unfortunately also, the lack, so far, of official Church recognition of Romero’s murder as truly a martyrdom causes sadness and dismay to many. The lack of progress towards beatification and canonisation is hard to fathom, but perhaps it is unimportant. Millions of ordinary people who, after all, are the Church and provide a sensus fidelium do not doubt that he is a saint.
Oscar Romero had declared that, even if he were killed, he would live on in the hearts of his people. This he assuredly does – not only in the hearts of his fellow Salvadorans but also in the hearts of countless people throughout the world who venerate him. They – we – believe he is a martyr-saint and pray that we may be inspired by the faith and courage of a heroic disciple of Jesus Christ, Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador.
Rt Rev Maurice Taylor is Bishop Emeritus of Galloway and Vice-President of Progressio. He was Bishop of Galloway from 1981 to 2004.
Surrender into Love
Jesus’ life is exemplified in Kabir Helminski’s quote,
“Whoever makes all cares into a single care, the care for simply being present,
will be relieved of all care by that Presence, which is the creative power.”
[1]
With that realization, we penetrate right to the heart of
the kenotic mystery, tingling in every cell of our body. Self-emptying is not
about giving up things we want or rolling over and playing dead. It is about
connecting with an energy of sustenance so powerful and vibrant as it flows
through our being from the infinite that all else pales in comparison. It not
only flows through our being; it is our being.
The core secret we are coming to understand is that the act
of letting go, spiritually understood as a cosmic energy exchange, is the power
by which Jesus could live and remain true to his path. It is the power through
which he healed, the power through which he forgave, and the power through
which he meets us now. It is not only his power, uniquely bestowed on him, as
part of his prerogative as the only Son of God. That same power is hardwired
into our own hearts and souls, and in that moment of complete surrender an
explosion of presence goes off within us that is simultaneously an encounter
with the wisdom master himself.
Life provides plenty of opportunities for this practice; in
fact, sometimes it seems as if life is comprised of a “twenty-four/seven”
surrender immersion! The problem is, most of the time we’re not aware of it and
“fall asleep,” as it’s called in wisdom work: when we brace and tighten and get
thrown back into that smaller self. We go unconscious automatically.
But if you stay alert and grounded in sensation and are
willing to wake up as soon as you realized you’ve started bracing or clinging,
then you can use all the adventures and misadventures life throws at you to strengthen
and deepen your heart connection—and your Christ connection.
References:
March 24th was the thirtieth seventh anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador. Bishop Maurice Taylor, who knows the country well, preached this homily at a memorial Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, to mark the 30th anniversary of his death in 2010. Who was Oscar Romero? How did he make such an impact on the Church in El Salvador? And why was he killed?
When Central America gained independence from Spain nearly 200 years ago, it soon split into five separate and different republics: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador.
Of the five, El Salvador is the smallest in area. It is also the only one whose name is a Christian name – a name that could not be more Christian: El Salvador, The Saviour – yet its people are probably the most argumentative and combative in all of Central America. Nonetheless, as if the name of the country were insufficient, its capital city is San Salvador (Holy Saviour) and many of the towns have saints’ names. For example, I spent some time as the temporary priest in charge in the town of Dulce Nobre de María (literally, Sweet Name of Mary).
El Salvador, like the other independent republics of Central America, inherited from Spain a legacy of autocracy. Power and wealth lay with a minority, even an oligarchy, whose members, generation after generation, succeeded in retaining their wealth and power. The great majority of the people were poor, ill-educated, kept marginalised and without prospects. Proper reform was not on the agenda – neither political nor judicial reform, nor land reform. The status quo had to be maintained and it was maintained principally because the few had most of the land and the best of the land, the most productive land. And why should they give up such a comfortable and privileged lifestyle by allowing a more equitable sharing of nature’s riches and life’s opportunities?
Of course, this unjust state of affairs began to be challenged. There were some attempts at armed rising earlier last century, but they were suppressed ruthlessly and without great difficulty. In the 1970s, unrest began to grow in a serious and widespread way and the army was used for what was called counter-insurgency. In addition to the uniformed forces of the republic, officered by men from the privileged classes, there also began to exist death squads, employed by powerful and brutal elements. The result was that the poor, whether the urban poor or the peasants, were living in fear as well as in poverty and in the midst of conflict.
Gradually, those brave enough actively to fight the structural injustice coalesced into an armed organisation called the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation and usually known as the FMLN (Farabundo Martí had led an unsuccessful revolt earlier in the century). Thus, around the year 1980, civil war began in El Salvador, a war that, from the army’s point of view, was waged on a ‘search and destroy’ basis while the FMLN fought a guerilla type of campaign.
Since Central America is in what is called the United States’ sphere of influence, the US government was, in various ways, active in El Salvador. It had much financial and commercial involvement in the country and that, along with an obsession about communism in the hemisphere, ensured that the United States provided financial, diplomatic and even military support to the regime and its policies of repression.
During this time what was the Catholic Church in El Salvador doing? Rather, let me phrase that differently: What was the Church leadership doing? On the whole, the bishops supported the status quo, either by giving active encouragement or by their silence and non-intervention. There are several possible reasons for this. Some bishops came from the wealthy sector of the population; some feared the opposition to right-wing governments was Marxist-inspired; others perhaps on the specious grounds that the Church should not interfere in politics (even when those politics are blatantly unjust).
Despite the very encouraging teachings coming from meetings of Latin American bishops in Medellín and Puebla, many bishops in that part of the world have either been hostile to those actively engaged in trying to change the unjust structures so widespread, or, at least, have shown little or no enthusiasm for such endeavours. And, since bishops are appointed by Rome and only after careful investigation into their backgrounds, opinions and suitability, one sometimes wonders. Similarly and personally, I have to say that the Holy See’s attitude to liberation theology and to Small Christian Communities has often been suspicious and negative; but to say more on that would take us down another path.
When the Archdiocese of San Salvador needed a new archbishop in 1977, there was satisfaction in government circles that the Vatican’s choice fell on the relatively little-known Oscar Arnulfo Romero. He was bishop of Santiago de Maria, a small rural diocese in the east of El Salvador. The general expectation was that he would have little to say about the injustice and violence rampant in the country. Perhaps Oscar Romero himself, when nominated to the capital, had little thought of getting deeply involved. But it is one thing to be bishop of a small diocese away from the centre of things and another to be archbishop in the capital city and very much in the public eye.
His tenure of office in San Salvador was very short – only three years, but what a heroic and inspirational leader he turned out to be. He probably knew that, as archbishop of the nation’s capital and the seat of the government, he could not ignore the prevalent and intolerable situation. God gave him the wisdom and the courage that he needed and he did not fail in his duty.
The new archbishop did not have long to wait before having the opportunity to declare where he stood. The Jesuits had been particularly courageous and outspoken on behalf of the victims of the oppression and in their criticism of injustice. Soon after Romero became archbishop, Father Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit and the parish priest of a village in the archdiocese, was assassinated by a death squad. The archbishop was swift, unequivocal and public in his condemnation of the crime.
Thereafter, his weekly homilies at Mass in his cathedral were broadcast nationwide by Radio Católica. As the violence increased, as the army became more and more ruthless against the peasants, as death squads operated with impunity, the archbishop’s homilies became increasingly critical and proved a much-needed solace for the oppressed and fearful people. He condemned the violence and declared that it was the consequence of the injustice in Salvadoran society. He called on the authorities in God’s name to halt their policy of cruel and unmerciful repression. Each Sunday, as well as the archbishop’s homily, a list of the names of the victims killed in the previous week was broadcast.
The government objected to the archbishop, denied his accusations and called on him to desist. Not for the first time nor for the last, a veritable reign of terror gripped the country. Archbishop Romero became so distressed about the situation that he even appealed to the ordinary ranks in the army not to obey orders to kill their innocent fellow-citizens. For the archbishop’s enemies, that was the last straw. He had to be silenced.
He spent Monday 24 March 1980 with a group of his priests, relaxing at the beach, an hour’s drive south of San Salvador. In the afternoon he returned to the city and to his own house, a little cottage in the grounds of a hospital. He then walked the short distance from his cottage to the hospital chapel. He had arranged to celebrate an evening Mass there. Having completed the Liturgy of the Word, he had just taken the bread in his hands to commence the Liturgy of the Eucharist when a shot was fired and he fell to the floor behind the altar, dying or already dead. A hired marksman had been driven into the hospital grounds and, from the vehicle and through the open door of the church, had fired the fatal shot.
Oscar Romero’s death shocked millions of people throughout the world, nowhere more so than in El Salvador. No doubt his assassination satisfied many powerful people in the military and the government. No one has ever been brought to trial for the crime. It is believed that the hired assassin and the car driver were themselves soon murdered to ensure their silence.
The archbishop’s funeral in San Salvador cathedral was attended by huge crowds, including bishops and others from abroad, which served to highlight the absence of all but one bishop from El Salvador itself. The absence of the local bishops has sometimes been attributed to disagreement with the archbishop’s very public views or to apathy and indifference. It is neither our right nor our duty to judge. But unfortunately also, the lack, so far, of official Church recognition of Romero’s murder as truly a martyrdom causes sadness and dismay to many. The lack of progress towards beatification and canonisation is hard to fathom, but perhaps it is unimportant. Millions of ordinary people who, after all, are the Church and provide a sensus fidelium do not doubt that he is a saint.
Oscar Romero had declared that, even if he were killed, he would live on in the hearts of his people. This he assuredly does – not only in the hearts of his fellow Salvadorans but also in the hearts of countless people throughout the world who venerate him. They – we – believe he is a martyr-saint and pray that we may be inspired by the faith and courage of a heroic disciple of Jesus Christ, Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador.
Rt Rev Maurice Taylor is Bishop Emeritus of Galloway and Vice-President of Progressio. He was Bishop of Galloway from 1981 to 2004.
Surrender into Love
This week Cynthia Bourgeault, one of CAC’s core faculty members, reflects on the power of Jesus’ spiritual practice—which is our power, too! The original material comes from the Daily Email from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to receive these emails by clicking here
Jesus’ life is exemplified in Kabir Helminski’s quote,
“Whoever makes all cares into a single care, the care for simply being present,
will be relieved of all care by that Presence, which is the creative power.”
[1]
With that realization, we penetrate right to the heart of
the kenotic mystery, tingling in every cell of our body. Self-emptying is not
about giving up things we want or rolling over and playing dead. It is about
connecting with an energy of sustenance so powerful and vibrant as it flows
through our being from the infinite that all else pales in comparison. It not
only flows through our being; it is our being.
The core secret we are coming to understand is that the act
of letting go, spiritually understood as a cosmic energy exchange, is the power
by which Jesus could live and remain true to his path. It is the power through
which he healed, the power through which he forgave, and the power through
which he meets us now. It is not only his power, uniquely bestowed on him, as
part of his prerogative as the only Son of God. That same power is hardwired
into our own hearts and souls, and in that moment of complete surrender an
explosion of presence goes off within us that is simultaneously an encounter
with the wisdom master himself.
Life provides plenty of opportunities for this practice; in
fact, sometimes it seems as if life is comprised of a “twenty-four/seven”
surrender immersion! The problem is, most of the time we’re not aware of it and
“fall asleep,” as it’s called in wisdom work: when we brace and tighten and get
thrown back into that smaller self. We go unconscious automatically.
But if you stay alert and grounded in sensation and are
willing to wake up as soon as you realized you’ve started bracing or clinging,
then you can use all the adventures and misadventures life throws at you to strengthen
and deepen your heart connection—and your Christ connection.
References:
[1] Kabir Edmund Helminski, Living Presence: A Sufi Way to
Mindfulness and the Essential Self (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Perigee, 1992),
26.
Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus:
Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message
(Shambhala: 2008), 181-182.
No comments:
Post a Comment