News from around the Catholic world for the week ending 16 May.
DOWNLOAD (Right click to save) (8:30 mins)
• Christian groups express disappointment with budget’s impact on families and foreign aid
• Pope Paul VI to be beatified
• Harvard Catholics respond to black Mass with Eucharistic procession and adoration
• Catholic priest murdered in PNG
• Bishops of Oceania gather in New Zealand.
TRANSCRIPT
BOBBIE: The Abbott Government has released this year’s Australian Federal budget to mixed reactions from Christian groups.
Under particular scrutiny has been the reduction of foreign assistance spending by 8 billion dollars, with aid capped at 5 billion dollars over the next two years.
Caritas Australia CEO Paul O’Callaghan has expressed disappointment, noting that while the governing Coalition parties have a historically proud record of foreign assistance, he is “disappointed to see this Coalition Government now back away from its leadership role amongst G20 countries and as a member of the UN Security Council.”
“The decision to once more place the burden of Australia’s budget savings on the world’s poor, is out of step with national values, and our Catholic community’s strong support for international aid and development,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
The Australian Christian Lobby has said that the foreign aid cut was a broken promise to the Christian constituency before last year’s Federal Election.
Managing Director Lyle Shelton said “While balancing the books is important, the government painted itself into an untenable position by saying it could reduce expenditure without raising taxes and without cutting key areas.
“It would have been better if these promises had not been made in the first place,” he said.
Questions have also been raised about the budget’s approach to the family, with a government-funded maternity leave package introduced while benefits for single-income families are wound back.
Family Tax Benefit B – a government payout to reduce tax-inequality for families with a stay-at-home parent – will have its income and age limits reduced, removing up to $3,000 of payments from single-parent families each year.
Roslyn Phillips of FamilyVoice has said that this budget is punishing stay-at-home mothers.
“A mother’s choice to remain in the paid workforce while sending the kids to childcare institutions will be supported by up to $67,500, paid by the taxpayer and big business…” Ms Phillips said.
“Mums who do this nation a service by providing optimal childcare at home receive almost nothing,” she said.
There were some positives in the budget for Christians, with the National School Chaplaincy Program, the NGO Cooperation Program and Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission maintaining funding in the year ahead.
—
Pope Francis has recently announced that Pope Paul VI will be beatified on 19 October this year. The announcement comes following the approval of the late pontiff’s first miracle, in which an unborn child was healed from severe brain damage and delivered safely through a caesarean section.
Paul VI was the successor to John XXIII who was canonised just three weeks ago along with St John Paul II. He was Pope from 1963 until his death in 1978.
Paul VI is honoured for expressing the Church’s position in protecting life and rejecting abortion and contraception in his Papal Letter Humane Vitae. St John Paul II reaffirmed this teaching in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) after some dissention within the Church.
The Cause for Canonisation of Paul VI was opened in 1993. In December 2012 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recognised the heroic virtue of Paul VI and gave him the title “Venerable”. From here, another miracle needs to be attributed to Paul VI that occurred after the date of his beatification. However, the Holy Father can waive this requirement, as he did with John XXIII.
—
Expressions of outrage flooded Catholic social media early this week as a black mass was scheduled to be celebrated at Harvard University on Monday evening. This was soon transformed into awe as petitions and prayer arose in response to the news, resulting in the cancellation of the event’s primary sponsorship.
42,000 emails were sent to the University’s President, school newspapers and others in Harvard’s leadership team. The Archdiocese of Boston responded by having Harvard’s senior Catholic chaplain, Fr Michael Drea hold a procession from a nearby Chapel to St Paul’s Catholic Church in Cambridge, the parish of Harvard’s Catholic community.
The procession was followed by a holy hour and benediction, on the night the black mass was supposed to have occurred. It was attended my more than 2000 people, with standing room only. Many from the Harvard Catholic student association were present, as well as Harvard president Drew Faust, who reportedly described the black mass as being ‘abhorrent’, while still allowing it to continue on the basis of free speech.
The black mass, initially to be sponsored by the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club, was to be held in the Satanic Temple of New York. It has been postponed indefinitely.
—
A Catholic priest has been murdered in what was reported to be part of a pay-back killing spree in the Goilala mountains of Papua New Guinea last week.
Fr Gerry Inao, who was ordained only 9 months ago, was shot through the heart at close range on Sunday 4 May. He was a native of the area and a member of the Kunimeipa tribe.
Missionary priest Fr Brian Cahill MSC issued a statement saying the cycle of payback killings in the area has been going on for more than four years.
“The police and government have been slow to address this law and order problem,” Fr Cahill said.
“However this last lot of killings prompted them to act, and a police contingent was mobilised to move to Kamulai by helicopter as soon as possible,” he said.
Fr Casey Kit, who had been a minor seminarian with Fr Inao said he was a very committed believer with a particular devotion to Our Lady.
“He never formally graduated in his studies as a priest, but he also never left his rosary beads, “ said Fr Kit.
“He believed that Mary his mother was on his side and in fact he adopted the name of Mary before his surname. The Bishop ordained him on that basis,” he said.
Fr Kit also said he hoped the impact of this killing would be a catalyst for peace in the area.
“Let us pray that we may be converted from our old ways and start to believe in the Gospel and allow it to transform our lives,” Fr Kit said.
—
The Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania met in New Zealand this week for their four-yearly meeting.
The Bishops were treated to a traditional Maori welcome before their opening Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Wellington.
They have been discussing a number of issues including refugees, pastoral planning and earthquakes, and have also had the opportunity to attend workshops on various aspects of pastoral life.
On his blog Parramatta’s Bishop Anthony Fisher said the bishops had engaged in a ‘moving discussion’ of Australian refugee policy.
“There was a strong sense that Australia’s present policy is cruel and that we could do much better,” Bishop Fisher said.
Bishop Fisher’s photos, videos and reflections on the Conference can be found at anthonyfisherop.wordpress.com.
