News from around the Catholic world for the week ending 15 November.
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• The relics of St Peter to be displayed for the first time in history
• Pope Francis leads 60,000 in prayer for the Philippines
• Archbishop Hart responds to Victorian Inquiry’s report
• NSW Legislative Council votes against same-sex marriage bill
• Aussie adventurer launches a book on his journey across the world for Christian Unity.
TRANSCRIPT
BOBBIE: It has this week been announced that the relics of St Peter will be publicly displayed and venerated for the first time in history.
In a column published in L’Osservatore Romano, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation Archbishop Rino Fisichella announced the exposition of the relics would be part of the closing events of the Year of Faith.
Archbishop Fisichella said many people have travelled to the tomb of St Peter over the course of the year and exposing the relics would be a fitting way to conclude it.
The Archbishop said “Peter’s faith, therefore, will confirm once again that the door to meeting Christ is always open and waiting to be passed through with the same enthusiasm and conviction of the early believers”
“It is a journey that Christians today know they must follow tirelessly, strengthened and reassured by the contemplation of the face of Christ,” he said.
The relics were discovered in the Scavi under the main altar of St Peter’s Basilica in the 1940s. In 1968 after detailed testing Pope Paul VI stated that they had “identified in a way which we can hold to be convincing.”
Details have not yet been announced for the exposition of the relics, however they will be displayed before the conclusion of the Year of Faith on the Feast of Christ the King later this month.
Pope Francis has lead 60 000 people in prayer for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines and parts of South East Asia last week.
In a telegram to the people of the Philippines Vatican Secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin said “His Holiness Pope Francis expresses his heartfelt solidarity with all those affected by this storm and its aftermath”.
“He invokes divine blessings of strength and conciliation for the Nation” he said.
An initial donation of 160,000 Australian dollars was made by the Holy Father on Tuesday – along with a one million dollar donation from Caritas Internationalis – which will be use to support those displaced by the typhoon.
Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle tearfully expressed his gratitude for the response of the Holy Father and the Church in an interview with Vatican Radio earlier this week.
CARDINAL TAGLE: We see rubble, we see ruins everywhere – but we see also faith, love arising from the ruins and making us stronger people.
I want to thank everyone – the Holy Father, our brothers and sisters outside of the country, for remembering us and trying their best to reach out, in the name of the victims and the poor, we really thank you. We really thank you.
BOBBIE: Super Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on 7 November, leaving at least 2,500 people dead and over 9 million in need of emergency help. Among those who have died is Kevin Lee, former priest of the Diocese of Parramatta in Western Sydney.
Caritas Australia has launched an emergency aid appeal for the disaster. Those who are able to make a donation can do so by visiting caritas.org.au or calling 1800 024 413.
More details via Vatican Radio.
The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into institutional sexual abuse has this week released 15 recommendations including criminalisation of failure to report cases of child abuse.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Melbourne’s Archbishop Denis Hart welcomed the report and acknowledged ‘inexcusable’ failures in the Church’s response to abuse which occurred over a 25-year period from 1960 to 1985.
“It is the worst betrayal of trust in my lifetime in the Catholic Church.” Archbishop Hart said.
“As the Inquiry heard, we were far too slow to address the abuse, or even to accept that it was taking place. I fully acknowledge that leaders in the Church made terrible mistakes. These are indefensible,” he said.
Archbishop Hart also acknowledged the bravery of victims who came forward to give their accounts for the inquiry.
He said, “It is our hope that the Inquiry, and its recommendations, will assist the healing of those who have been abused.
“We also hope they will enhance the care of victims and their families, and strengthen the preventative measures now in place.
Anthony Foster, whose two daughters committed suicide after suffering abuse at the hands of a priest, said the twelve months of submissions was worth it. “I think we have the basis for everything we wanted,” Mr Foster said.
Archbishop Hart’s full statement and the recommendations of the Inquiry are available via the Melbourne Archdiocese and Parliament of Victoria website.
The New South Wales Upper House has this week rejected a bill to redefine marriage following its second debate on Thursday.
The bill was narrowly defeated 19 votes to 21, with Liberal MPs Catherine Cusack and Greg Pearce voting in favour, along with Nationals Sarah Mitchell and Trevor Kahn.
Reverend Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party praised the defeat as being “a great victory for marriage in NSW”. He also took to Twitter saying “children are the winners today.”
Reverend Nile said that he believed a decisive factor in the bill’s defeat was Premier Barry O’Farrell’s announcement that he would vote against the bill if it made it to the Lower House.
Mr O’Farrell, who declared his support for same-sex marriage after New Zealand introduced their laws in April, said he believed it to be an issue for the Federal Government.
The NSW Australian Christian Lobby Director David Hutt thanked marriage supporters for emailing, phoning and sending letters to MP’s expressing their opposition to the bill.
“The result was close, without your support we wouldn’t have won this vote,” he said.
The defeat of the NSW same-sex marriage bill comes less than a month after the ACT legislature passed a similar bill, which is now subject to a challenge by the High Court.
In other news, Tasmania-born adventurer and Harvest INROADS Managing Director Sam Clear has published a book retelling his journey around the world on foot promoting and praying for Christian Unity.
The book, entitled Walk 4 One, details his 15,600km walk through South America, Central America & North America, and across Europe, along with the trials, providence and grace he experienced along the way.
Sam visited the Cradio studio earlier this week and shared about what triggered his passion for the cause of Christian Unity.
SAM: The clinch moment was I read a book by Patrick Madrid called ‘Surprised by Truth Volume 2’, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.. reading some of those stories and seeing the hardships that some people went through when they made a conscious decision to become a Catholic- I think in that moment I caught a glimpse of the Body of Christ, being the Church, being broken again- only it wasn’t the Romans that crucified Him, it was us. And even if we were apathetic towards it we were allowing it to happen, and I just couldn’t let go of it…
BOBBIE: Sam’s book is being released by Garratt Publishing this month along with an accompanying educator’s guide.
Listen to the full interview with Sam Clear.
Music Credit: Waking Up Instrumental – Dexter Britain
