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Last updated: 01/02/2012 00:40:42 CARDINAL GEORGE PELL'S WEEKLY TELEGRAPH COLUMN
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Australia Day
While it might not be too much consolation to the increasing minority among us who are feeling the pinch financially, the size of Australian government debts and the rate of unemployment, especially among our young adults, compare very well with other Western countries and especially with Europe. Most EU countries, except Germany, have more than one quarter of their young adults unemployed. Neither is there much chance of a quick turn-around.
The riots last year in Britain showed that nasty pressures are building and just before Christmas the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, acknowledged that after these riots and the financial crisis Britain stood at a pivotal moment and he urged that the Anglican Church must play a central role in reshaping the country.
No Australian leader has been as outspoken as Cameron. For too long, he said, the Brits have been unwilling to distinguish right from wrong. Live and let live has too often become "do as you please". He warned that moral neutrality is not going to cut it anymore and that bad choices have too often been defended as "just different lifestyles".
People have to stand up for traditional values, he pointed out, if society was to confront the slow motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of the country these past few generations.
By Australian standards it was surprising that the Prime Minister stated the basic truths that Christian values such as responsibility, hard work, compassion and humility are central to British life and must be treasured.
Even more surprising was his recognition that standing up for Christian values did not oppose secular neutrality or do down other faiths. People needed a moral code and it was correct to pass judgement on others.
Cameron was better placed to make these obviously true but politically incorrect points because he is only "a vaguely practising Anglican".
We are not at the point of moral collapse, no big riots are imminent in Australia, but the erosion of our social capital is progressing steadily.
Most Australians are Christians and many of the best aspects of Australian life are of Christian inspiration.
Especially on Australia Day it makes no sense to ignore or deny these basic truths.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: World Leaders
This bleak claim covers up a lot of suffering and self damage. Therefore I regret that the efforts to help problem gamblers help themselves are collapsing.
The odds were always stacked against introducing effective deterrents for gambling addicts, while legislative programmes long deferred are not meant to be implemented.
Catholic teaching has no objections to reasonable gambling, but when gamblers bet excessively and chase their losses great hurt is regularly caused to themselves, their spouses and children. Many are tempted to steal.
One major impediment to action is the enormous gambling revenues which go to governments. The greater long-term costs to society are hidden from view.
Next to no-one wants a nanny state attempting to curb human weaknesses, but a few nudges in the right direction can help. The ban on smoking while people use the pokies is probably the most effective measure introduced so far, while removing ATM's from near the machines and introducing natural light, which helps bring people to their senses, are also helpful.
I grew up after World War II when our cricketers, tennis players, swimmers and athletes, especially the women, reigned supreme. Internal peace, good food and plenty of sport during the War gave us big advantages.
The rest of the world has caught up, many countries now enjoying similar prosperity, although Tomic and our cricketers are on the way to the top. Unfortunately we have surged to the front of the field in another area sharing, with New Zealand, the regional leadership in the world in the use of cannabis, amphetamines and cocaine.
Between 9.3 to 14.8 per cent of 15-64 year olds in our Pacific region have tried cannabis, slightly above North American levels and much above those across Europe. England's similar usage is balanced off by much lower use elsewhere. Our amphetamine use is twice as high as in North America and more than four times above Europe's.
While Australia has a lower rate of injecting drug users among HIV patients, the deaths from illicit drug usage are above those caused by alcohol but well below deaths caused by tobacco.
General health costs from illicit drugs, including the treatment of cannabis-induced schizophrenia, are at least as high as alcohol-related health costs.
Changes in public attitudes are needed to bring us down from the top of these charts.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: New Translation
For about fourteen hundred years the Mass had been celebrated in Latin in most countries. Other Catholic communities e.g. Melchites, Maronites, Ukrainians use other languages and somewhat different prayers, while remaining constituent churches under the Pope.
This was not the tradition of most Australian Catholics, so I grew up attending Latin masses. A knowledge of Latin was necessary for training as a Catholic priest and most of our seminary text books were in Latin.
Therefore the "old" translation that was replaced only dated from about 1970, but was still old enough for a couple of generations to know nothing else. Pope Benedict recommended that the changes be introduced "with due sensitivity" and across Australia careful preparation and explanation accompanied this gradual process.
Surveys show that most Catholic parents send their children to Catholic schools because of good academic outcomes and a strong moral framework, but these same surveys show that people come to Mass to pray, to join in an act of worship.
Not surprisingly therefore the new texts are more formal and less like the everyday speech used at a barbecue. They strive more effectively to evoke the mystery of God, while the translations from the Latin are accurate and precise, occasionally causing listeners to pause and think.
Some worried that migrant communities in Australia and e.g. African villagers would find the language too formal. Despite some difficult words (consubstantial), the texts have been well received there because they are closer to the liturgical language in their tongues. People can and will learn a new word or two.
Each tradition has developed a distinctive style and while the Roman rite evolved from Jewish worship it also incorporated elements from the best pagan Latin prayers: concise, elegant and rich in meaning and nuance.
Eighty per cent of these prayers are more than 1000 years old, indicative of a rich, slowly evolving tradition full of Biblical imagery and language.
Spanish-speakers use two or three versions of a Mass text, while many English versions of the Bible are in use.
A single English Mass text, approved by all the bishops' conferences including the North Americans, is an important achievement; appropriate too because English is the new Latin, the new universal language.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: 2011
We hope this is a good omen for the New Year, but the world wide economic scene has no equivalent to our new pace bowlers, as nearly everyone acknowledges that the economy across Europe will be worse in 2012. The situation there and in U.S.A. is worse than ours and it is unlikely that all the countries in the euro zone will be there in twelve months time. We can only hope that this Western sickness does not provoke a massive Chinese hiccup.
B.A. Santamaria was a Labor man from Melbourne, who split from that party in 1955. By the time of his death in 1998 he was to the left of both major parties on economics as he was strongly opposed to economic rationalism. While he might have been surprised by First World prosperity and the improved living standards everywhere except in some parts of Africa which the market produced, he was right on the damage caused by excessive debt.
Because of our minerals and wise economic management, Australia's situation is not too bad, but it is difficult to see the U.S.A. or Europe ever diminishing their debts significantly, while present levels of expenditure are maintained. The time of reckoning is near.
The ancient teachings against greed are also endorsed by Christians, and everyone suffers when these lessons are ignored.
On a broader moral and religious front, 2011 began with the terrible floods along the East coast and ended with a repeat of the Christmas Island boat people tragedy. Effective deterrents to the people smugglers are needed, and soon.
Iran continues to bluster and continues her nuclear preparations. A confrontation, unpredictable in its consequences, seems inevitable, perhaps before the U.S. presidential elections.
The noisy atheists of previous years were quieter and Christopher Hitchens died to meet his Maker, accompanied by the prayers of the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta whom he had attacked.
The Catholic bishops of Australia reported into Rome on their activities and were commended for their hard and consistent work in a climate that is hostile to regular worship.
A new translation of the English prayers of Mass was introduced around the world to little opposition, while attendances at the Christmas Masses were as high as ever.
The church scene was quieter than the world economy.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Naples
The days between Christmas and New Year are often quieter, giving time for rest and reflection, visiting family and friends, and a prayer.
Different countries celebrate Christmas in different ways. President Obama now has a holiday tree in the White House Grounds. Things are worse in Britain. Not so in Manila, where Mary and Jesus still have the central roles.
And not so in Naples which I visited before Christmas to purchase a Christmas crib for the new Australian centre in Rome. The narrow cobbled streets of the historic centre were packed tight with families, youths on the prowl, nuns and pickpockets inspecting the cribs.
Naples is strange and wonderful mixing grime and elegance, the bizarre and beautiful. It has magnificent old palaces, monasteries, churches, the opera house. The Bay and the Amalfi coast are among the most beautiful spots on earth. However mischief makers claim that Africa begins at Naples and a cynical Neapolitan priest once told me that Naples is the only African city without a European quarter!
Naples has its own volcano Mt. Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii in 79 A.D., erupting 30 times since then, most recently in 1944. Neapolitans acknowledge disaster is inevitable at some stage. God's judgement is recognized as explicitly as the sins of the flesh and one popular image features a cross planted in the fires of purgatory, surrounded by the faces of those being purified for heaven. A bishop or priest and a nun are always there.
The crib was invented by St. Francis of Assisi after visiting Bethlehem, Christ's birth place, in 1220. It impresses on the popular imagination the humanity and vulnerability of God's Son.
Neapolitan cribs depict the Holy Family in tatty ruins, often around a broken classical column. The three wise men are handsome and elegant in 17th century costumes, while the shepherds are ugly and old, caricatures of dismay or surprise, with their sheep and bagpipes. Often an old drunk is nearby sleeping it off.
Naples' cribs are regularly beautiful, like the one for Domus Australia, but they all demonstrate that salvation is offered to everyone, not just the staid and respectable.
That is a good Christmas message for the New Year.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: God's Will
These are serious personal questions and those who want to do God's will use some criteria which St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, called rules of discernment.
I must confess that when seminarians or priests confidently proclaim to me that they are "discerning", a mental alert is triggered. I am wary, because in some cases discernment means that you say a few prayers, wait a while, but not too long, and then do as you like.
We should never forget that God's will can sometimes go against the grain. It is not always easy to do your duty. More people died for the Christian faith last century than in any other century because they refused to act against God's will.
St. Cyprian was bishop of Carthage in North Africa martyred around 250 A.D. He explained succinctly that God's will was that "throughout the earth, that error may cease, truth be planted, malice be banished and virtue return!" We have the general terms in a nutshell.
We are the children of God and especially as adult believers we strive to do our best by keeping the commandments.
Christian living is based on faith, hope and following the two basic commandments of love for God and love for our neighbours. In the Christian sense our neighbour is not someone who lives next door, but all other people, especially those closest to us.
Just as it is the pure in heart who will see God, so we should pray that moral disturbance, spiritual blindness will not prevent us from doing our duty. We aim to be builders, not wreckers, in a moral and religious sense so adding to social capital rather than dissipating our inheritance.
As we are not praying that God might do the right thing by us, but that we will follow His will by doing good, we need to pray for strength and perseverance. A former Australian Prime Minister claimed that life was not meant to be easy. And this is true most of the time. Doing God's will requires more than good intentions and smiles.
It is God's will that more and more people know about his Son so that they too might have easier access to his Kingdom.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Sensible Decision
A good film can be a source of wonder, and not just because of the special effects. When a good director and team bring the technical marvels together with the essential elements of good acting and a good script, some very special films can result. The talents of many people are needed to bring this about, as ever-lengthening lists of credits show.
Not every film can be special and the relentless demand for "product" in our consumer society inevitably effects quality. All the same, it is sometimes a cause of regret when I think of the talent that is squandered in making a mediocre film, to say nothing of a really bad one, like The Human Centipede II.
The film was initially banned in Britain, a rare occurrence, but was subsequently released after cuts were made. These featured what the British Board of Film Classification described as "scenes of sexual and sexualised violence, sadistic violence and humiliation", as well as a scene of "a child presented in an abusive and violent context".
The description of the deleted scenes does not make easy reading. They included "graphic sight of a man's teeth being removed with a hammer; graphic sight of lips being stapled to naked buttocks; graphic sight of forced defecation into and around other people's mouths", a woman being raped with barbed wire; and a newborn baby being killed.
The plot, such as it is, focuses strongly on "the link between sexual arousal and sexual violence and a clear association between pain, perversity and sexual pleasure". Not the sort of film you'd hope your neighbour watches.
The review of its classification in Australia came after an application from the federal Minister for Justice, Brendan O'Connor. On 28 November the review board announced a unanimous decision to refuse the film classification, meaning it cannot be sold or shown in Australia.
Congratulations to the board and the minister on this outcome. Predictably, a few on the margins are bleating about "censorship". But most Australians will see the decision as a win for common decency and common sense.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Advent
Advent comes from the Latin "to come" and all Christians believe that Christ, God's only Son was born to Mary in Bethlehem, more than 2000 years ago. All Australians know this. Advent however celebrates two other comings; when Christ will return at the end of time as judge, to separate the good from the evil and when Christ comes in our daily lives through the people around us and especially the suffering.
Karl Marx was the philosopher who provided the theoretical base for Communism, a violent and oppressive form of government which collapsed in Europe and Russia late last century. He believed religion was the opium of the people, not as a hallucinatory drug but as an escape to dull the pain of existence. Christians were supposed to be inert and passive. Marx would have been surprised by the Polish Catholics who started the Communist collapse! Communism is gone, but Christianity is increasing.
In an interesting inversion a Polish poet believes that the opium of the people today, the escape route for persistently selfish sinners, is to believe that God will not judge them at life's end. They don't believe in Christ's final coming.
A less dramatic challenge, but a challenge nonetheless is to recognise how God is encountered in our daily lives. A small story by the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy is enlightening.
Martin the cobbler was a bitter, grumpy man, whose wife and child had died. He was also a drinker.
One day a Russian holy man brought in a bible for him to cover. He did so and the holy man promised that God would visit him the next day.
As a man of faith he was pleased and excited, so he rose early and often went outside his shop searching. Nothing extra happened as he was visited by a poor mother and child, and an old sick person, and he helped a young boy who was in trouble from an old lady because he had stolen an apple. Martin also pacified the elderly lady.
Nothing else happened and he went to bed disappointed. However, while he was asleep God appeared in a dream explaining that He had come three times during the day.
At Advent therefore we also remember that whatever we do to anyone in need we do to Christ.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Boom or Doom?
Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Remembering The Dead
Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Your Kingdom Come
Theologians have debated for nearly 2000 years what Jesus meant by his term "The Kingdom of God".
Today we have many views on the meaning of the cosmos and all history.
A few scientists believe that the cosmos is a vast, meaningless fluke, where humans too are simply like the froth on a wave.
Others see God as a great watchmaker, who creates and winds up a watch (the universe) and then leaves it to run itself. This God is distant, non-interfering and uncaring.
Many in ancient Greece and from the Eastern religions regard history as a series of events moving in circles. History simply repeats itself and the ancient dramas are re-enacted.
The Jewish and Christian approach to history is different again, because we believe history is like an arrow moving towards a target called "the day of the Lord" (Amos 5:18), or the Kingdom of God, mentioned in Jesus' prayer the "Our Father". This gives direction and meaning to history and has helped billions to find purpose in their lives.
However daily life and world history are a bewildering mixture of good and evil, blessing and misfortune, hope and despair. All is not well with the world and God does not seem to be in full control, even when we allow for human free will. Where do the many natural disasters fit into the divine scheme?
Therefore and not surprisingly we have different theories on the meaning of God's kingdom.
Two such theories can be set aside easily. The first sees some earthly kingdom, the exercise of political power, as God's Kingdom e.g. the Holy Roman Empire. The Communist workers' paradise was a secular version.
Others claim the Christian churches and especially the Catholic Church identify themselves too closely with the entirety of God's Kingdom.
A more accurate understanding sees the Kingdom of God as present in the hearts of believers and good people, but only imperfectly because Christ the Redeemer has not finally returned. His Kingdom will only be completed at the last judgement.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Domus Australia
Pope Benedict looked somewhat older and slimmer than he was in Sydney in 2008, but he walked strongly up the packed chapel after a crowd of locals had welcomed his arrival.
The congregation sang Charles Wesley's beautiful hymn "Love Divine" before the Holy Father knelt briefly in prayer.
St. Mary's Cathedral Choir, the oldest surviving choir in Australia (founded in 1818) made the long trip and sang at their best, which is very good indeed. Naturally they chose Italian composers for their hymns Gabrieli, Croce and Rossini to accompany the speech of welcome, Pope Benedict's reply, the recitation of the Our Father, taught us by Christ, the Salve Regina, a traditional hymn to Jesus' mother Mary and the blessing.
Paintings by the Sydney artist Paul Newton adorn the chapel, all of them representing figures important in the Australian Catholic story. An outstanding portrait of St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop is in pride of place on a side altar, with the first Australian bishop John Bede Polding and a painting donated by the Vietnamese community of the late Cardinal Van Thuan celebrating the Eucharist in his prison cell in Communist Vietnam.
A powerful bronze crucifix by Melbourne's Louis Laumen dominates the main altar flanked by images of Our Lady of the Southern Cross and of a group of Sydney Catholics praying at home during the first thirty years of New South Wales history, when priests were prevented from working and the public celebration of Mass was prohibited.
The Holy Father welcomed this new centre and the presence of a full-time Australian ambassador to the Vatican as bringing "a little corner of Australia to the ancient city of Rome".
He acknowledged the first anniversary of the canonization of St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop and pointed out the ancient practice of pilgrimages is a reminder that the destination of all of us lies beyond this world, in "the commonwealth of heaven".
The Holy Father concluded by quoting the German poet Johann Goethe explaining that the Church, like good parents, gives her children roots and wings. The roots are the faith of the Apostles nourished by the sacraments so that pilgrims can return home "borne aloft by the Holy Spirit" renewed and strengthened in their faith.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Rome
Catholics accept that the Pope has the power and authority to govern the world-wide Catholic community, which he has inherited from St. Peter through the succession of popes across nearly 2000 years.
The Catholic story is a long one. When Christians received their religious freedom in the Roman Empire after 300 years of hostility and persecution, the first St. Peter's Church was built around his burial place, near Nero's Circus where he had been martyred. The magnificent central altar surrounded by Bernini's bronze canopy is the third of the altars constructed above one another since then.
The 5000 Bishops are the successors of the apostles and the traditional Catholic patterns of organization reflect this theory and our duties to answer directly to the Pope. There is no general manager for Australia, or South East Asia or any other region. Metropolitan archbishops have limited powers in extreme situations, but bishops are required to travel to Rome to the tombs of the apostles every 5 years for their "ad limina" report.
The pressures from the growing Catholic population of more than one billion one hundred million people mean that it is 7 years since our last official visit.
Staff numbers in the Curia are surprisingly small in the departments called congregations or councils and the Church courts.
Most problems emerge in most generations but some are new and some situations surprising.
Until fifty years ago the liturgical language for most Catholics was Latin. Today the language of the sacraments has to be translated carefully into dozens of the world's 7000 languages. This is an immense task as it took nearly ten years to complete the English translation of the Missal.
It was a surprise for some to learn that our system of Catholic schools, supported by both sides of parliament, is the envy of many other countries.
Ecumenism remains an important activity and we bishops visited the Anglican Centre in Rome, where the Archbishop of Canterbury's delegate is from Melbourne, Canon David Richardson. While the prospect of reconciling the two Churches has receded, friendships and co-operation remain strong.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Prisons
In those days after Hun Sen had driven out Pol Pot (who had killed more than one million Cambodians), democracy had not yet been restored. Many were still in jail for political activities, but had no rights, strictly speaking.
It is often claimed that we judge the moral quality of a nation by the way it treats its poorest citizens.
The Catholic Bishops' excellent Social Justice Statement on prisons goes further, quoting the Russian writer Dostoevsky: "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons". This is true.
Prisoners do not have too many to lobby for them. Unfortunately there seem to be more votes in making the system tougher than for reducing jail numbers.
Prisons cannot be holiday homes but imprisonment should be as humane as possible, with just, clear rules, no cruelty, and as little capriciousness and internal violence as possible.
In Australia imprisonment rates increased from 88 per 100,000 adults in 1984, to 168 per 100,000 in 2008. Crimes rates, which have pointed in different directions in different areas over this period, do not explain this alone.
Mandatory non-parole periods, tougher bail conditions, and a slow criminal justice system have also contributed. 10 per 100,000 were on remand awaiting trial in 1984, but 39 per 100,000 in 2008.
Indigenous Australians are still jailed at higher rates than others, comprising 14 per cent of prisoners in 1991, but 25 per cent in 2008. The Aboriginal imprisonment rate is 17 times higher (2195 per 100,000) than the rate for other Australians.
The situation is even worse for young offenders. Juvenile detention rates fell for the non-Indigenous population between 1994 and 2008, but rose to 420 per 100,000 for Indigenous youth.
There are many factors behind these figures. Poverty plays a part, but more important is the breakdown of communities and the vortex of dysfunction this creates for individuals, especially the young. Personal disintegration into mental illness and addiction plays a significant part in crime and imprisonment rates.
Prison chaplains play a crucial and heroic role in bringing some light and hope into the midst of all this suffering. The situation in prisons would be immensely worse without them.
It is important to remember the suffering of those who are victims of crime as well.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Mental Health
First of all we can now talk about problems such as depression. The fact that senior politicians like John Brogden and Andrew Robb have written about their own difficulties has had a generally liberating effect. The recognition and public discussion of a problem always represent important progress.
Medicine has identified an immense spectrum of mental illness and twenty percent of Australians experience an anxiety disorder or depression at some time during their lives.
While we still don't discuss the illnesses of the brain, a better name for mental illness, as easily as we discuss many bodily illnesses, Australia is one of the world leaders in dealing with depression. Experts claim we are behind New Zealand, often described as the best in the world on this score, but ahead of the U.S.A. and many others.
150 years ago many patients were dismissed as lunatics and locked up in lunatic asylums, often grim and depressing buildings themselves.
This is no longer the case, but the radical deinstitutionalizing of patients, fifteen or twenty years ago, out of care centres or hospitals has not worked. A goodly percentage of them are now in jail, unable to cope with the outside world.
The theory that patients would do better in a local home situation, supported by on-the-ground help was not fully realised. Sufficient extra money never materialized and I always feared that economic rationalization, the desire to cut expenses, would be used to penalize those least able to survive society. This has proved to be the case.
Self help is always a good way to enhance mental equilibrium. Too much alcohol never helps physically or psychologically. We only have to think of the sad drunks and nasty drunks!
Good food, but not too much, regular exercise and sufficient sleep are always helpful. Quiet daily prayer, or even secular meditating, enhance peace of mind, as does the practice of avoiding stress producing people. Even a job paying very good money can destroy physical and mental health.
Some people do not recognize that they are depressed. While every person's moods go up and down, being down for weeks or unable to sleep or get up indicate deeper problems.
A visit to the local doctor is then in order.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Jerusalem
The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem contains the site of both the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. As such it is the most sacred Christian spot in the world, outstripping even Bethlehem, but also sad evidence of human imperfection. One section is under repair, but much of the ancient building needs to be renovated. This has been prevented for decades by disagreements among the different Christian communities.
An official delegation from our group was solemnly welcomed by the local Franciscan friars chanting the Te Deum, an ancient Latin hymn praising and thanking God, before we were allowed into the small shrine which encapsulates the place of the resurrection.
I relished the moments of quiet and peace because on an earlier visit my prayers were rudely disturbed by the rattling of a collection box under my nose. Good will vanished.
I followed the traditional way of the cross to Calvary with the Order of Malta group and the disabled. It was as distracting and chaotic as ever, moving through the narrow lanes of shops, surrounded by every sort of person from pick pockets to saints. On our return in the evening our descent was punctuated by loud explosions from fire crackers, which some Arab youths were letting off to disconcert or delight the pilgrims.
On another day I was with the youngest group and we galloped up and down every hill in Jerusalem at great speed before we went to the Church at Gethsemane for a quiet hour of prayer. Jesus had prayed there on the night before his Passion, sweating blood, while his apostles nodded off to sleep. I did no better, being very tired after the day's exercise. On a couple of occasions I was roused by scripturally literate young pilgrims, repeating Our Lord's rebuke to his apostles, "Can you not watch one hour with me".
Such is life.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: September 11
He began by pointing out that some saw the 2001 terrorist attack as marking the end of an epoch. The Cold War with Communism was over and the new war with radical violent Islam had begun.
Others believed that terrorist attacks don't change the bases of power, except perhaps by provoking an over-reaction.
Robert McNamara, USA Secretary of Defence to President J.F. Kennedy, claimed that the first rule in politics is to understand the psychology of your enemy. Why then did al-Qa'ida attack the West? Sacks claims that Bin Laden believed the U.S.A. was past its prime, overripe and ready to fall off its tree.
The collapse of the Communist world in 1989 was not due to free market economics or the superiority of liberal democracy, according to Bin Laden. He believed Russia collapsed because their humiliating retreat from Afghanistan set in motion a series of destructive internal crises.
For him, 1989 did not see the triumph of the West, but the end of an era dominated by the twin superpowers of U.S.A. and Russia. For him America too was radically weakened by internal cultural pressures and social disintegration.
Sacks loves our Western way of life, but believes the Islamist terrorists are correct in sensing weakness. Important Western thinkers also believe we have entered a period of cultural decline. The barbarians are not all outside.
He produces much evidence. No longer is there widespread agreement, especially in the media and universities, on theories of right and wrong, as the culture wars demonstrate.
The family is disintegrating, and some actively encourage this. Financial institutions have collapsed, personal debt has increased radically. The American economy is limping, burdened with a debt of trillions of dollars. Some European countries are worse.
More fundamentally, honour, loyalty and integrity are downgraded or rejected. "Me" takes precedence over "we" and pleasure over tomorrow's sustainability. According to Sacks, the most important enemy is not radical Islam but "unsustainable self-indulgence".
Our energy and courage should not be directed primarily to foreign wars, but to renewing our morality and institutions, strengthening families and communities, standards in public life, ethical codes.
Our enemies recognize this central weakness. Therefore the challenge for the Western world is to renew the moral disciplines of freedom.
Can it be done?
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: 10th Anniversary of September 11
Tragically, the horror was all too real. More than 3,000 people were killed at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, and in the hijacked planes, including UA 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought the hijackers.
Ten years later, where are we?
Firstly, it is clear that Islamist terrorism poses no significant threat to the pre-eminence of American power for the foreseeable future.
The attacks provoked a financially and morally debilitating over-reaction in the invasion of Iraq. Despite the democratic gains, this was one US war too many, its tragic consequences exacerbated by a scandalous lack of preparation for governing and transitioning to Iraqi rule after the war.
The Global Financial Crisis and the crisis of continuing indebtedness are more of a threat to the US today than terrorism.
There was nothing automatic about the limited number of successful terrorist attacks in the West since 9/11 - Bali in 2002, Madrid in 2004, London in 2005. This was a product of hard and successful counter terrorist work, here in Australia too.
Good relations with Muslim Australians is one of our best achievements. Dialogue between different faiths has increased since 2001 and continues. The overwhelming majority of Australian Muslims refuse to embrace Islamist violence. It is a good recipe to continue in the future.
Terrorist forces have been badly weakened, but this can produce dangerous random attacks. Vigilance remains indispensible.
There are many uncertainties. Western and Australian troops remain in Afghanistan ten years after overthrowing the Taliban. What will follow their departure is unclear.
The "Arab Spring" has overthrown dictators in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. They will not be lamented, least of all Libya's murderous Gaddafi.
The situation in the Middle East is delicately balanced, with Islamist parties confident and well-organised. Assad's brutality will probably ensure his survival in Syria.
Christians are under pressure and many are leaving. Iraqi Catholics and Egypt's Copts have suffered increased persecution.
Turkey's shift to Islamism is part of a deteriorating situation, which may see Israel surrounded by more hostility.
Against this, American vitality is unimpaired and the resolve of the West to confront terrorism is strong.
May the next ten years not be as hard as the last.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Father's Day
We had violence all around us in the Middle East. Ireland, Italy and Spain are dragged down by huge debts and England too is under pressure economically. Then along came the riots and more riots.
What were the causes? Are they at work in Australia? Could such chaos be repeated here? I don't think so.
A principal reason for the difference is that we have more dads (percentage wise) with their families and doing a decent job.
I know we have an under belly of Australian misery, which social workers, priests, police on the beat confront. Dr. Gordian Fulde's casualty department at St. Vincent's also gives us spectacular examples. But I don't believe the anger, alienation and family disintegration have run as far or as fast in Australian society.
One British commentator diagnosed the causes of the riots as divorce, disillusion and dadlessness. Others cited welfare dependency and family breakdown. A few more pointed to the flaws in every human heart, the need to learn duty and discipline, to curb the itch for aggression and even destruction.
We are not born angels and even when surrounded by love we rise from barbarism by following good models and learning to act within restraints.
Crucial to all this struggle for betterment is the role of the husband and father. A benign father, even heavily imperfect, is better than no father or a succession of uncles. And most fathers far exceed these low standards.
We are breeding trouble when social norms no longer discourage unmarried motherhood, or even producing children from different fathers who never mix with an adult male unless they are fortunate enough to have a good male teacher at primary school. One U.K. gang leader first mixed with adult males in jail. Another brutal fact is that 63 per cent of white working class 14 year old U.K. boys have a reading age of seven or below. We should thank Bob Carr for our literacy and numeracy tests in N.S.W.
Good fathers are vitally useful to encourage learning, the discipline and structure necessary for self esteem, and the successful transition from childhood to adult life for daughters as well as sons.
More strength to their arms. Happy Father's Day.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Madrid W.Y.D.
The storm had been building all day in the 40ºC heat, but the onslaught on the Saturday night Vigil congregation of 1.5 million pilgrims was sudden and violent. It was as though the Evil One was protesting.
People have asked me how Madrid compared with Sydney W.Y.D. First of all the Madrid numbers were immense. The Neo-Catechumenal Way had a follow-up rally last Monday in the main Plaza of Madrid and 250,000 youth attended. Forty thousand of them gathered in the Domain in Sydney.
Madrid's organizational style was different. Security was tight and effective, pilgrim food readily available and travel on the Metro worked well. The Sydney pilgrims had excellent accommodation, good beds and hot showers. The traditional celebrations were a huge success spiritually and humanly.
Pope Benedict has changed the tone of W.Y.D. and for the better. Naturally he appeared a little older and thinner, but as in Sydney the Vigil was centred on prayer and worship of the Blessed Sacrament, displayed in a magnificent monstrance (or setting) from Toledo Cathedral. The prayerful silence we achieved in Sydney with 400,000 was repeated with 1,500,000 in Madrid. The heavy rain had settled the dust, and sparked up the widely dispersed pilgrims. Tens and tens of thousands, including some Australians, were not able to enter because of overcrowding. Our police and insurance workers would have been beside themselves! Apart from the tight security, the Spaniards have a free-market approach to organization, which proceeded happily and successfully in a magnificent free-for-all.
The Spanish Catholics gave us a wonderful welcome, but some other Spaniards seemed dubious, somewhat different from the public reactions in Cologne and Sydney.
The wounds and divisions in Spain from the 1930's Civil War still run deep and Zapatero's Socialist government, unexpectedly elected after an Islamist attack on the Madrid Metro, has reopened those wounds, with a vigorously anti-Christian social agenda. "Mother" and "Father" are no longer official terms, replaced by "progenitor A" and "progenitor B."
The violence received more publicity than it deserved although some of our group were harassed and the riot police, all in black with helmets, shields and truncheons moved on the run around the C.B.D.
It was a great event spiritually and great fun with some typically Spanish colour and excitement.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Pilgrims in Galilee
A second blessing was that the Young Order of Malta brought 12 disabled persons with them cared for by a doctor, nurses and volunteers. The Malta bus was generally the liveliest with singing, dancing and good humour. While Saxon was the best altar server, Mike beat him for the title of best dancer.
We encountered no hostility but riots continued in Syria, protests recommenced in Egypt and up to 250,000 Israelis began protesting, many living in parks in tents, protesting against the high cost of housing.
The Arab spring might be followed by an Israeli summer. When the situation stabilises in the Islamic world, the governments are unlikely to be friendlier to the West and the Christians' situation, as in Iraq, is likely to be worse.
We travelled from the southern tip of Sinai to Galilee in northern Israel in one long day. The Sea of Galilee is a favourite spot for me and I am glad Jesus enjoyed the locale and came there to pray as well as to teach.
Our party of 230 celebrated Mass in the middle of the sea with three boats moored together. It was a perfect setting with total silence after Communion. I have never seen the lake turn nasty, as it can, but the breeze did blow up as we returned to shore without upsetting the singing and dancing, with the chair-bound Oscar carried aloft around the dance floor.
The Neo-Catechumenal Way community has its elegant House of Beatitudes on the northern shores of the lake, comprising a small seminary for trainee priests and a large pilgrim centre. We visited the library, the two chapels (one for the Eucharist, one for the Word of God) and crawled through the small narrow gate, a symbol for our striving for heaven.
The church of the Primatus Petri is also on the shore, built around the rock where Christ is reputed to have barbecued fish for his disciples and confirmed Peter's leadership of the community by asking him to feed his lambs and sheep.
Jesus gave these charges only after asking Peter three times did he love him. We acted out this encounter with a seminarian asking each pilgrim in Christ's name "Do you love me?"
An important question for pilgrims.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: God in Egypt
It was on this mountain that Moses communed with God for forty days and he received the Ten Commandments.
We were on this mountain, a group of Sydney pilgrims, travelling to World Youth Day in Madrid, following Moses' Exodus route. Starting from Cairo we visited the ancient Christian Coptic Centre, where Mary and Joseph are believed to have taken refuge when they fled the murderous King Herod.
Egypt is the world's oldest civilisation but Cairo today is a teeming city of 20 million people, never to be mistaken for London or Paris. As we left the metropolis traffic was allowed back for the first time into the main square since the recent revolution.
Sinai is a world away from all this. St Catherine's Greek Orthodox monastery at the foot of the mountain is the oldest in the world dating from the early sixth century. About a hundred years later when the Moslems conquered the territory it was the prophet Mahomet himself who guaranteed the monastery's safety and this has generally been respected by a succession of rulers since then. We were looked after by Fr. Theophilos, a monk from Canberra who trained in Sydney.
We left our hotel at 12.30am, travelling by bus to the foot of the mountain before mounting camels for the one and a half hour trip in the darkness up the rough, steep zigzagging nineteenth century route, which the camels negotiated faultlessly.
Far away from any city lights, the thousands and thousands of stars in the northern sky were revealed. It was like a cosmic cathedral, with the added bonus of shooting stars.
This was the sky Abraham, Moses and Elijah saw and the stars indicating Abraham's followers over the millennia, now looked down on a few more Southern pilgrims.
While we were praying as the dawn approached, news came through that Fr. Chris Sheehy, a Sydney priest, had died suddenly. All the group, including some Kenyans, prayed for the repose of his soul.
Why did the one true God choose to reveal himself to Moses through the burning bush on this ugly and remote mountain?
While Elijah also found God in the gentle breeze, not the earthquake or tumult, on this mountain, God's choice of locale is still a mystery.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Convicts and Famine
Opened in 1824, the gaol held a succession of political rebels, young Irelanders, Fenians and the Republicans after the 1916 Uprising, whose graffiti remain scratched on the cell walls.
The times were tough. At one stage best practice recommended that prisoners be prevented from talking, like Trappist monks. Some went mad. A few children already repeat offenders were gaoled and whipped regularly before being sent to a reformatory. Executions were carried out in public in front of the gaol. The first of these in 1828 tried a new system, which malfunctioned and the poor wretch died an excruciating death.
The main Australian connection arises from the 40,000 convicts gathered into the two Cork gaols before transportation to Australia. They should not be idealised and the crowded conditions in gaol and on the ships often made them more quarrelsome, violent and rebellious.
Many of these men and women were first offenders and their offences would not merit long sentences today.
Some, especially women, wanted to go to Australia as convicts, despite the long and difficult journey, because they already had relatives there, perhaps husbands or because they hoped for a fresh start. In NSW Governor Darling urged the British authorities to stop this practice. Most women convicts had to leave behind their children.
I was in Ireland for a conference and used the opportunity to follow up on an ancestor who was a doctor in Skibbereen. I was pleased to discover in a December 1845 copy of the Cork Examiner his presence at a meeting to deal with the start of the Famine. They discussed the best ways to preserve potato seed, to keep corn in the country, to build up food supplies, petition the Government for public works and lower the rents.
Their plans did not work. Catastrophe followed as the potato crops failed again and around 2¼ million people starved to death. It is incomprehensible to us today that help could not have been found somewhere.
Social unrest began, the poor flocked to the towns, the women protesting in "bread marches". Some chose to go to gaol for regular food.
As convicts or free settlers, tens of thousands emigrated to the "barren wastes" of Australia, where they and their descendants helped build our decent and prosperous society.
By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: General Financial Crisis
The instinctive reaction of many would be to exclaim that only a Catholic could come up with such a hare-brained idea. However, the reasons he gives bear examination. Australia passed through the GFC (general financial crisis) better than most other countries, but Italy and now Belarus risk joining the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) in a continuing debt crisis. Unemployment is always bad, but youth unemployment is the worst. In southern Italy youth employment is 40 per cent, with a national average of 29.6 per cent. It is awful to meet capable university-educated, church going young adults with no prospect of work. The birth rate in Italy is now 1.4 births per woman, much lower than Australia's which is just under the replacement rate of 2.1. Why is economic growth confined largely to emerging economies while Europe, U.S.A. and Japan are struggling to avoid going backwards? Tedeschi claims that production has declined in Western countries, while the demand for a better style of life has been financed by debt. He explains that family debt in USA equalled 68 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in 1998 and now equals 96 per cent. The lack of growth in the economy was compensated by an expansion of credit and the governments who allowed or encouraged these almost unmanageable debts are even more culpable than the banks who loaned money to people with little possibility of repaying. Countries become caught in a terrible bind with fewer young people to be fed and educated and then enter the work force and an increasing number of aged to be supported. A stagnant economy makes it harder for governments to raise revenue through taxes. Savings are run down. Western countries which do not have natural resources to export (like Australia) face years of austerity and hard work to increase productivity. Their economies and disintegrating families are caught in a vicious circle, where the many familial insecurities of young people are worsened by unemployment. Good commentators would argue that the so-called GFC resulted from human and corporate greed combined with a failure of regulation rather than changed birth dates. But Tedeschi has highlighted one important reason why European governments are struggling to escape from the crisis. By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Same-Sex Union
Overwhelmingly Australians use language that reflects the ancient conviction of the major religions and civilizations that marriage is between a man and a woman. Marriage needs a husband and wife, and we know the differences between a wife, a mistress and a concubine. To make marriage mean something else we have to add terms such as "same-sex marriage" or "gay marriage". The percentage of Australians who declare themselves homosexual has only increased from 2 to 3 per cent in the last ten years and Australians are increasingly tolerant of this minority. While not many of them would choose to marry if the law was changed, public opinion endorses the legal recognition of rights which arise from long-term same sex unions. This is good. But opinion is divided on same-sex marriages, with opposition strongest in working class suburbs such as outer Sydney and country areas and endorsement of homosexual activity strongest in wealthy and inner-city suburbs. Which comes first, the family or the State? Would a government have the right to abolish the marriage of a man and a woman as the natural building block in society or is the State merely recognizing the natural order of reality reflected in marriage, whether it is God-given or simply the best system for parents and children developed in the evolutionary process? Marriage and the family come first and the State protects this in law. What is the basis of a government's power to redefine marriage? Is it anything more than an appeal to a disputed public opinion and its own legislative capacity? One or two Muslim voices are already calling for Australian law to recognize polygamy, one man with many wives. Some feminists might approve this provided a woman could have more than one husband! If we reject the natural order of society and if we decide to manufacture reality through redefining marriage, why should we resist further changes such as polygamy? By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Praising God's Name
Years later, her beauty gone, Hosea finds Gomer on sale in the slave market. He buys her and takes her home despite the fact that the Law required that she be stoned to death for her sexual sins. Hosea told his story because he believed it revealed the basic truth of the relationship between a faithful God and an unfaithful people, that the fullness of God's love resolves the tension between the necessity for righteousness and the need for the forgiveness of human sin. We are attracted to God because He is loving but shrink away from God's perfect holiness remembering our sins and failures. Jesus understood our timidity and perplexity and launched us in the right direction with the first petition in his prayer the "Our Father" that God's name may be glorified or "hallowed". Obviously nothing we might do can make God holier or greater than He is, but believers pray that God will show his power so that outsiders start to consider godly questions and enemies of God are forced to reconsider. Jesus' preferred term for God as father shows God is personal, not Gaia, not Tim Flannery's life-force in the world. "Heavenly" Father also demonstrates that God is not a super creature, not earthly, not the best the cosmos has to offer. We now say that God is transcendent, spiritual, outside our created world and the Our Father begins with the request that these basic notions might be widely understood as true and hugely useful. Christians pray in this verse that God's name won't be brought into disrepute by their personal sins or by the crimes and failures of Christian communities. We believe that God is more loyal to us and more forgiving than even the ancient prophet Hosea with his prostitute wife. The "Our Father" is a communitarian prayer which reflects this mix of awe and familiarity. Today Muslims recite the traditional prayers in beautiful and classical seventh century Arabic and in Jesus' time the public reading of the Jewish bible and prayers was in Hebrew. Jesus taught his followers to pray in their daily language of Aramaic. The father God is near and dear. By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Believers and Non-Believers
Diaa Mohamed started all this with a large billboard in May announcing "Jesus: A prophet of Islam". This provoked considerable reaction, some hostile, and the Anglican minister Ian Powell responded with equally large billboards on the M4 "Hey Aussie Muslims, glad you want to talk about Jesus. Love to chat more" and then 'Dear Aussie Muslims: Jesus said, 'Before Abraham was, I AM'. Maybe he's more than a prophet?" The religious fault lines have changed in Australia. In the past the Protestant versus Catholic antagonisms were caught up in the English-Irish clash. When Dr. Evatt the A.L.P. leader expelled the Catholics from the Labor party in 1955, he hoped to gain two anti-Catholic votes for every Catholic vote he lost. It didn't work and the ALP spent a further 17 years in Opposition. Non-believers were then a negligible political force, with no Green Party. Today the basic tension runs between Judaeo-Christians and the noisy minority secularists. Muslims are still a small minority here, unlike the situation in some West European countries. Muslims and Christians now meet regularly for discussions, often avoiding any possibility of contention. This public meeting was a step forward because an atheist representative participated and the two religious spokesmen represented groups who believe in converting to their cause. Dick Gross was the atheist, honest and courteous, with nothing of the rudeness of a man like Dawkins. A deal of the discussion focused on the violence perpetrated by each group and whether this violence was fostered or hindered by official teachings. Gross was unusual because he conceded that "atheists put you lots to shame in the numbers they killed, especially through Pol Pot, Stalin and Mao", and that by evolution atheists are destined to remain a minority. Ian Powell claimed to find a fundamental difference between Jesus' central teaching on love and Muhammad's advocacy of violence. Diaa countered by pointing out that war is a constant in history, that Muhammad led his people from the front, offensively and defensively, to respond to injustice and persecution and did not condone violence against the innocent. All three, including the conciliatory atheist who acknowledged the contributions of various religions, finished firm in their different views, but confident of their ability to coexist in friendship. By + Cardinal George Pell
Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Beatification
Today, on what Catholics now call Mercy Sunday, Pope John Paul II will be
beatified in Rome, only six years after his death.
What might we claim to find that is common in these three celebrations? All
three commemorate suffering and indeed defeat from which emerged good and
un-expected consequences.
The Anzacs were forced to withdraw from Gallipoli by the victorious Ottoman
forces. In fact 6500 young Aussies died in the landing, an extraordinary number
for a small nation of six million people still in its teenage years.
Only a Christian country nourished by the annual celebration of Easter, would
place a defeat like Anzac at the head of its national mythology rather than
giving pride of place to Monash's break-through on the Western Front later in
the First World War or Australian victories in the Second World War in New
Guinea, like Milne Bay or the Kokoda Trail.
While the number of Catholics in Australia increases at each census, the
percentage and number of regular church-goers is declining; except at Christmas
and Easter. The number of "C and E" Catholics is steady and many Churches
reported increases this year. Atheists claim that natural disasters destroy
personal faith. This would be true in some cases and the faith of others would
be shaken, but more people are given pause for thought, time to thank God for
their blessings. I suspect the extra numbers at this Easter were connected with
the flooding and the New Zealand and Japanese earthquakes.
Pope John Paul's life is another example of where unusual suffering was turned
by faith and love into extraordinary achievement.
His mother died when he was young and his only brother, a doctor, died when he
was a teenager. He was at University in Poland when the Germans invaded, many of
his friends were killed and he had to perform forced labour in the mines and a
chemical factory. At the end of World War II Communist dictatorship replaced
Nazi dictatorship and continued to oppress the Church.
This unfortunate young man became archbishop of Cracow and then Pope, playing a
crucial role in the collapse of Communism and in steadying the Church in the
Western World as it threatened to self-destruct.
In all three cases victory was born in defeat.
By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Easter 2011
The symbol of the Easter sacrificial lamb points up the differences between
Christian understandings of Christmas and Easter.
When people are suffering themselves or well aware of the suffering of others,
it is not entirely helpful to claim simply that God loves them. We know the
human story involves more than this, just as it is misleading to claim all is
well. The Christian claim is that all will be well, eventually, but only as a
result of Christ's redemptive activity. The flaw in nature and the human heart
and the suffering and evil in society need to be acknowledged. A lot is wrong.
Christmas celebrates the beginning of a new stage in salvation history as God
sends the Eternal Word among us as a newly born son of a teenage Jewish girl.
Easter celebrates the high and centre point of religious history. The Easter
faith claims that through the life, suffering, death and unexpected resurrection
of this young religious teacher in Jerusalem, salvation and redemption are
available to all who choose to accept. Christians don't believe salvation is
forced on everyone or anyone! Human freedom is real, if limited.
More concretely we believe that through Christ's victory, achieved by his
suffering, Godly forgiveness of sins is available whenever we ask, life after
death is real, an eternal now of reward or punishment and the scales of justice
will be made to balance in eternity to redress the crimes, injustice and
misfortunes of human history. These are large claims.
Christ's teachings on Godly love for us and the ideal of forgiveness and
universal love spread steadily among the people despite nearly 300 years of
intermittent and increasing persecution. This provoked a revolution in public
opinion, upturned pagan moral sensibilities.
When the glory of God is revealed in a crucified tradesman, or a martyred slave,
the forsaken of the earth are eligible to become the children of heaven. This is the Easter message.
By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: The Our Father
Most don't stop to think why Christ addressed God as "father", nor do many
wonder why God sent His Son among us rather than a daughter.
Goddesses and women priests were common in every ancient pagan culture and
goddesses often merged into mother nature as symbols of life and fertility. The
Jewish tradition was different, because God was one and transcendent i.e.
spiritual and above nature.
Therefore the God all monotheists worship today, as always, is the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who the traditional Jewish synagogue prayers address
in 18 different ways.
The title "father" is used twice in these prayers, and a dozen times in the Old
Testament in connection with God, but only once as a direct address in the
Wisdom literature. The Old Testament uses "father" to describe God, but Jesus
used the Aramaic word "abba" as a title.
Aramaic was the everyday language of Jesus' first followers and "abba" is the
word a child uses to address his father or teacher. It is both intensely
personal, yet full of respect. Today in Arabic-speaking Lebanon, Syria,
Palestine and Jordan, "abba" is still the first word regularly taught to
children.
"Abba" can be translated as the father, my father or our father and the early
Christians continued to use Jesus' Aramaic word in their Greek Scriptures and
prayers. Greek was then the common language around the Eastern Mediterranean,
not Latin.
Christ knew as well as we do that many fathers are imperfect, especially to
their sons. A prison chaplain to death row in Florida once told me how the
condemned men hurled abuse at him for calling God "father", because they had
been so unloved by their fathers.
For Jesus, God was not like a human emperor or king, as he rejected the old
traditions of patriarchy and painted a new picture of God's fatherhood in the
parable of the Prodigal Son. The father's extravagant welcome of his fallen
younger son was a new model of God, even as it built on the beautiful passage in
the prophet Hosea (Chapter 11) where God cried out I am "the Holy one in your
midst and I will not come to destroy".
God here is a tender loving father to his rebel son. He goes further than the
Good Shepherd.
By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Lent
In Catholic countries the Mardi Gras celebrations always come immediately before
Ash Wednesday, celebrated by the irreligious and also by believers before they
start on the traditional penitential practices of prayer, self denial and
alms-giving for the battlers.
For many years Caritas Australia has run its Lenten collections "Project
Compassion" for overseas relief and development at this time. Last year parishes
and schools across Australia collected $9.3 million dollars and Sydney city
collected $2,539,000 million of this. We hope to do a bit better this year.
A strong vein of compassion for the underdog runs through the Christian churches
in Australia and indeed through most Australians. We understand this.
But even many Catholics are not quite so sure of the need to fast (eat less) and
abstain from meat or alcohol. Why would people make life more difficult for
themselves? On the Fridays of Lent my great-grandmother only took black tea with
bread and dripping. What human purpose did this serve?
A recent story I heard caused me to approach this from a new angle. When Pope
Benedict recently visited England he was greeted by groups of protesters. One
group were Satanists and a priest approached to ask them what they espoused.
Many do not believe in the existence of a somehow-supernatural spirit of evil;
Christians too can be sceptical. Certainly Satan can never be reduced to a
mischievous little animal with a long tail and a pitchfork. Evil is real and
sometimes terrifying.
The Satanists explained that they first urged their followers to speak regularly
to Satan, call on him, ask for help. So far, so predictable. The second
commandment was to do something every day to make yourself more comfortable.
As someone who likes to be comfortable this brought me up short. How does being
more comfortable help the Evil One?
Some believe everyone is born innocent and corrupted by society or the
structures of society. Christians believe that the flaw runs through each human
heart and that we are born self-centered and therefore selfish. It is a
life-long struggle to learn to put others first.
That is why Christians, and indeed followers of the great religions, do penance
and fast, so we can open our hearts for God and other people, taming and
subduing our unruly desires, especially hate and pride.
By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Protecting Diversity
Naturally, individuals and religious (or secular) organizations cannot practise
their beliefs regardless of harm caused to individuals, the rights of others, or
public safety.
Religious freedom is not simply a private matter. Everyone, including the
religious, has the right to act on their beliefs, to create services for others
which reflect their beliefs, and to work with people who share their beliefs
when it comes to membership or employment.
It also means that parents have the right to determine the religious and moral
education of their children, and to send their children to schools which uphold
their values.
Do communities have the right to operate according to their own values and to
prefer people who are committed to them?
Should The Greens have the right to prefer to employ people who believe in
climate change, or should they be forced to employ sceptics? This also involves
discrimination and limiting the freedoms of others, but without it this
organization could not maintain its identity or do its job effectively.
Church agencies and schools are not exempt from anti-discrimination law in New
South Wales, and the language of "exemptions" is misleading. Parliaments are
obliged by international human rights conventions to protect religious freedom.
Church agencies are bound by the provisions of the Anti-Discrimination Act and
must show that they have acted reasonably and in good faith. On the rare
occasions when issues do arise in a school or agency, the church works
collaboratively with the relevant parties to resolve matters both pastorally and
in accordance with established legal processes.
Christian churches do not impose their beliefs on anyone and no one is obliged
to work for a church agency. But the expectation that those working in a
Catholic or Christian agency will support its mission applies to everyone
without discrimination.
Partial government funding for religious schools and agencies does not change
anything, unless you believe that government should use funding to impose one
way of thinking and acting on everyone.
If religious freedom is not protected, freedom of thought and conscience are
threatened too. Protecting religious freedom protects diversity for everyone.
By + Cardinal George Pell Cardinal George Pell's Sunday Telegraph column: Australia Day
What is important is that we continue to develop our own stories from our own
history. This doesn't imply any disrespect for our ancestors or our neighbours.
Despite our alliance with the U.S.A. no country, except New Zealand, is closer
to Australia than Britain and the recent visit of William Hague the British
Foreign Minister is welcome, as it indicates a desire for closer official
relationships.
The relationship moves at many levels. The Queen is our head of state and if
William and Kate are successful, prospects of an Australian republic will recede
even further. At the other extreme the Barmy Army are now an indispensable
presence at the Ashes Tests. Australians of every national background usually
make London their base for a European holiday. Britain is still the biggest
foreign investor in Australia.
Family relationships can be difficult and fraught, even when they are close.
Whether the links between Australia and Britain are those of a parent and adult
child, or between a younger and older brother, adolescent rebellion or shallow
condescension periodically still disturb the calm. But all our major
institutions, except the Catholic Church, have British roots and these
institutions work well. We must be grateful, not least for the English language,
which is the new Latin, the new international language.
But we also need our own stories from our own history. I regret that we don't
make more out of the exploits of our soldiers in the Second World War, at Milne
Bay or in East Timor.
Some have criticized us for publicizing local acts of heroism in the floods,
claiming that many heroic deeds are done elsewhere. No one denies this. But we
need to be reassured that our fellow Aussies are capable of this too, to draw us
towards our ideals, deter us from sinking to the bottom. It is appropriate to
add young Jordan Rice's name to those of Simpson and his donkey, Caroline
Chisholm, St. Mary MacKillop, Weary Dunlop.
We find a goodly number of blots on our past and present story, but they are far
outweighed by the achievements. The best about Australians has been on display
during the floods: standing together, helping each other, struggling on with
good humour and without fuss.
We should be proud and thankful.
By + Cardinal George Pell
|
We
hope that the peace and quiet of this Australia Day weekend are not the calm
before another and worse financial storm, with all the personal and family
pressure this entails. 
Sydney
has the highest rate of gambling in the world, sharing this dubious distinction
with Las Vegas. 