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INFORMATION BULLETIN No 73 MAY 2005
Holy Week and Easter Around Australia
How many times in recent weeks have you caught yourself saying “John Paul our Pope”, instead of “Benedict”? It’s hard to break a habit that has lasted over 26 years. For many of you, it’s the only name you have ever used in the Eucharistic Prayer. Only the senior clergy go back to “Paul”, “Johanne” and “Pio”. Not only in Rome, but in many places around our country, large crowds gathered to remember and pray for Pope John Paul II. A priest in an Aboriginal community told me that the people had mourned as they would for one of their tribal elders. Similarly, people gathered together, and prayed privately, in the days leading up to and during the conclave. John Paul II made the papacy more visible than ever in its history, so perhaps the prayer for his successor was more universal and intense than ever before. Catholics throughout the world were praying “Come, Holy Spirit”. Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Pastores Dabo Vobis is the Magna Carta of our National Commission. We look forward to the encouragement, support and inspiration to be received from Pope Benedict XVI. Peter Brock Executive Officer
As
bishops, priests and deacons, we have recently remembered Jesus’ last supper,
his suffering, death and resurrection. Around the country and beyond, we have
worshipped in our various parishes and communities.
Once again some of our number have agreed to tell us about their
celebrations of Holy Week and Easter.
The
Chrism Mass, Canberra, ACT I
have always looked forward to the Chrism Mass as a liturgical highlight of the
year and perhaps the most significant celebration of the local Church. As
usual in Canberra and Goulburn, the clergy rallied in great numbers. We shared
an hour’s prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and a dinner prior to the Mass.
St Christopher’s Cathedral was full of actively participating lay-people from
many parishes. Several
factors gave added meaning to this year’s celebration. The Mass was introduced
by a liturgical reception for our newly arrived Apostolic Nuncio. He had earlier
joined us for the prayer and the dinner. For me personally the realisation
struck home that this could well be the last time I would lead the celebration
of the Chrism Mass as Chief Pastor, after enjoying that privilege on thirty
eight occasions in Wagga Wagga and Canberra and Goulburn.
Archbishop Francis Carroll
Palm
Sunday is a wonderful time where the parish in suburban Newcastle celebrates
something out of the ordinary. Hymns are chosen, decorations are changed for the
day, volunteers are asked for, and it is the beginning of Holy Week. People enter the church and wait. Father Bill Burston PP then invites the people to move outside to begin the liturgy. There
is a bit of “and when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil.”
Imagine organisation of anything 2,000 years ago in the Middle East. This sense
we capture at Mayfield! Palms
are being waved, people are still talking, children running around, others are
still distributing the palms in baskets, with Father Bill beginning the liturgy.
Holy water is scattered around the ‘mob’. Then there is a coming together of
it all as we follow our priest in procession into the church and back into the
order and serenity of the Mass. A wonderful experience. Deacon Lawrence Caelli Holy Thursday at Humpty Doo, NT Darwin’s
‘rural area’ parish, the quaintly named Humpty Doo, welcomed three visiting
clergy and four friends from the nearby Uniting Church, to celebrate with them
the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Our host Fr Eugene Zurias arrived back just in
time from an earlier celebration at Batchelor. We made the short procession from
church door to altar –Bishop Emeritus of Alotau-Sideia in PNG, Des Moore MSC;
Fr Paul Webb from Darwin: Eugene and I. The community, all but filling the
church, seemed more than pleased to have a retired missionary bishop celebrating
this Eucharist with them. A
feast of words, images, gestures – Passover, memorial, service, faith
confirmed, feet washed – and then the Eucharist, at once solemn and intimate. There
are few churches in which the altar is at the physical centre of the church, but
such is the case at Humpty Doo, so that all assembled were truly gathered at the
Lord’s Table. His presence, real and
abiding, certainly in his Eucharistic body, but also in this community and their
gracious parish priest.
Fr Stephen Hackett MSC Good
Friday in Jerusalem "Come
for coffee - stay for dinner - stay overnight?" Palestinian hospitality -
love. Bethlehem
Christians - 30%, down from 80% (emigration). Tank tracks in streets - bullet
holes in walls, children psychologically wounded. David under Goliath's heel -
hometown occupied by Israeli military, families separated by 10m grey, tombstone
wall (the so-called "Security Fence"). Their
life, their future? See Israeli-issued ID card and permits! Their nation -
Palestine! Their congregation? St Joseph's Syrian Catholic Bethlehem, with St
Thomas's in Jerusalem. "Holy Friday" - 86 permits to enter Jerusalem granted till 10pm, 124 refused! 9am - A quiet Via Dolorosa. 5pm - St Thomas's decked in black - reciprocal chanting, bishop and people. Passion proclaimed - Muezzin's nearby call: "God is Great". Shabbat
starting - Corpus taken from Cross to coffin - procession - Corpus in tomb under
altar - all kiss the tomb, take a flower from tomb. Back to Bethlehem, through
checkpoint - behind tombstones - but with Faith, Hope. Fr Denis Scanlan Brisbane priest studying in Jerusalem. Easter
Vigil in Lockridge, WA Lockridge
Parish is a multicultural parish. We come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. (A
large majority are of Indian background but the chief happens to be Vietnamese!)
The clergy too are of various nationalities. Celebrating the Easter Vigil Mass with me was a retired Aussie priest, a newly ordained Italian priest and a Nigerian deacon on pastoral placement. This prompted
a cheeky young man to ask: “Nowadays, do you have to be a foreigner to be a
priest?” I was puzzled by this question and asked myself: what did he mean?
Was it a compliment? If it was not a compliment then how could we (foreigners)
go about proclaiming the Easter message to the “foreigners” of this vast
land, that Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again with our
broken and, at times, “smashed English”? Suddenly,
I remembered words of Be
Not Afraid that we just sang in church: “You shall cross the barren desert
– you shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand”.
God’s Word is about love and so as long as we preach and practise God’s love
that’s all that matters. Fr Vinh Dong P.P.
During the 1970s I was associated with Musica
Viva, a
national body that arranged concerts of chamber music. Our Newcastle committee
members would collect musicians from the airport, drive them to their motels
or concert venues, provide them with supper after the concert, then take them
back to their motel. The following morning we would deliver them to the
airport, from where they would fly on to their next ‘gig’. We often had touring groups from behind the Iron
Curtain. The national office would brief us (discreetly) about who was the
party member in the ensemble. Naturally, we were to avoid any political or
controversial discussion with that person, and be aware that he or she was
keeping an eye on the whole group. On Monday night 16 October 1978 the Warsaw
Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra gave a concert in Newcastle. Early the following morning I heard the news on the
radio that “Roman Catholic Cardinals have broken with a 350-year tradition,
and have elected a non-Italian Pope”. After Mass I went to the motel to collect my car-load
of players. As they were lolling around, checking out of their rooms and
assembling their instruments and their other luggage, it dawned on me that
they might not have heard the news. I said to the young woman nearest me: “Have you
heard that they have elected a Polish Pope?” Her eyes bulged, and she said:
“Wyszyński”? No, I knew that name, but that wasn’t the name I had
heard on the radio. “Wojtyla?”
she asked. Yes, that was the name. She burst into tears, then ran up and down the motel
corridor, banging on doors and shouting out the news in Polish. The musicians,
men and women, came out of their rooms, hugging, sobbing, dancing – all
except the politburo person, who looked very sour. It has often been said since that Pope John Paul II
was responsible for the end of communism (at least in Europe), and the fall of
the Berlin Wall. I believe I saw it happen in a small way in Newcastle, that first morning of his papacy. Peter Brock |