Help! My life is too busy. Having three boys under three is a challenge indeed. Gee I envy people with ‘family support’.

And now I have this dreaded ‘school run’ to contend with, as our eldest has started at the French preschool.

It’s the most draining part of my day as I attempt to park as close as I can to the school, remove a sleeping baby from the car (now that feels like child abuse, after having removed him from his bassinet at home), then remove his brother, before entering the school and trying to control the two bigger ones as they go manic in the corridor, while cradling bub in my arms and trying not to make too much of a spectacle of myself, even though I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs. All the while one tries to smile and pretend you have it all together and are relishing life!

To think the next 20 years of my life will be consumed by school runs, making lunches (no pretence there – vegemite sandwiches and cheese sticks everyday I say) and enduring silly school activities. We’ve already had the class mascot – a stuffed monkey – stay with us for a weekend, and been expected to entertain him, take photos and prove we’ve been model hosts. And next week is costume day so I have to send Arnaud to school as anyone but Arnaud. Please … why?

Despite all this, I’m extremely content. Really! Yes, I’m exhausted, and often feel I’m neglecting my family and precious newborn as I return to the office to edit this family newsletter (oh the delicious irony). But it’s all rich and wonderful.

Each new step I take along this parenting journey just convinces me anew of what heroes parents are, how much I have to learn and how much I need God’s guidance.

Yours in school runs, sleepless nights and vegemite sandwiches,

Felicity de Fombelle

A PrinciPAl’s PersPective

by Angus Tulley

in tHis eDitiOnOur Children. Gift or Burden? ....2

Coming out as a Christian ..........3

The greatest gift of all..................6

The gift of our bodies ...................6

Called To Play And Pray ...............7

Mass In The Carpark ....................8

The Bible and kids .........................8

Some parents and students are now involved in choosing schools for the 2013 school year.

The process was reasonably straightforward for me with my children. They went to the local parish primary school and the regional Catholic secondary school. In terms of the primary school there was no choice as such – we were active in the Parish and knew the priest, principal and numerous teachers. For the secondary school my children followed most of their friends – and anyway, dad worked there!

eDitOr’s nOte

Making it Meaningful

I don’t know that there was much ‘marketing’ associated with what different schools offered when my eldest first went to school over 20 years ago. But as a principal of a large regional Catholic College I am in a good position to see what happens with regards to enrolments and how schools use various strategies to highlight their strengths.

People ask for my views on other schools but I don’t know that I’ve ever been asked which schools will most support the faith development of my

Continued over...

Your Family, Your FaithIssue Three 2012

An Archbishop says farewell ... p 4/5

A DAD’s PersPective“OUr cHilDren. GiFt Or BUrDen?” by Shawn van der Linden

Are our children a gift or burden? Is this a strange question? Surely for most parents the answer would be “gift”. However, in our fast, individualistic society I don’t think we can assume this is always the case.

While we may start the parenting journey with a worldview that first and foremost sees our children as “gift”, there are many influences pulling in another direction. In a world where the dollar has cast its spell over every corner of life, the most insidious danger to children may be the economic lens through which we view them.

If we are honest with ourselves we know how easy it is to get sucked into a type of thinking that casts parenting as a “one way street”, where children are a burden rather than a gift. The reality is that most of us probably fall somewhere in between.

When we see children as a burden, parenting becomes all about the things that I have to do, the problems that I have to solve and the unexpected changed plans and extra work that I have to deal with on a daily basis. The focus can too often shift to the things that I want to

do and the things that I am missing out on. A ‘me first’ generation can find the demands of parenting and the sacrifices required overly burdensome.

A parenting worldview that does not have, as its starting point, a radical sense of children as “gift”, leads to a lose–lose outcome for both child and parent. Children lose because their lives become overly influenced by the immediacy of adult needs for “relief”. This can be a subtle reality, such as using the TV too often as a babysitter. Or it can be a more brutal reality, such as absent parents, or worse, abusive parents.

Parents can lose out on the “two way street” that is parenting. Despite the words we use to describe the process of educating children such as “parenting” and “child rearing” it seems that in reality we parents often learn as much from our children as they learn from us.

I am constantly amazed at my kids’ capacity to burst the balloons of my own theories and bring me down to earth when I have become idealistic. Furthermore, in constantly prodding me for answers to everything from “why is it bedtime?” to “what happens

when you die?” they give me plenty of questions to think about!

Children have a profound capacity to teach parents about what really matters in life. Their sense of wonder and awe can force us to slow down and notice the beautiful details of life; their dependency and littleness requires self-sacrifice that teaches us patience and other-centredness; their sense of truth and justice can stop us in our tracks. In the bible we see that although the disciples wanted to learn from Jesus, they were not ready to become like children: they quarrelled about who was the greatest among them, and who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God. In answer, Jesus called a little child and set him in their midst, and said to them, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:4).

It seems to me that a great challenge for us parents today is to keep our hearts open to the profound learning available through our children.

“If you seek God, look for a child. Children … have a spiritual cleanness about them that makes them seem like messengers from somewhere else.” (Jonathan Kozol)

children. I do know of families who have homeschooled and one of the reasons for this has been their desire, as the first educators of their children, to want to stay true to the faith they have passed on. I was happy to send my children to Catholic schools in the hope that their faith would be nourished and enriched.

So how do you judge a school? Some would say check out the NAPLAN scores or the Board of Studies (NSW) or Board of Secondary Studies (BSSS) Year 12 rankings. Others would say the quality of the principal and staff. Some would talk about the quality of the school website while others would be interested in the academic programs and leadership opportunities. Discerning parents would also focus on vocational education options.

In terms of choosing secondary schools, apart from checking out the website, I would strongly suggest talking to students and parents of children at the school. No one size fits all and it is a matter of meeting the needs of the child. If children are to learn they need to feel safe and comfortable, and that they belong. Your children will be different in terms of their ability to handle change, to cope with public transport etc. The hope would be that the school would provide opportunities for success for all.

In terms of what not to do? Don’t go by carpark or sideline gossip. Don’t make judgements on the basis of people’s experience in years gone by. And don’t judge a school on the basis of one teacher or one bad experience.

A PrinciPAl’s PersPective...continued from cover

2

A MUM’s PersPective“cOMinG OUt As A cHristiAn” by Annabelle O’Connell

A time to chuckleA little boy was listening to a long and excessively boring sermon in church. Suddenly the red sanctuary lamp caught his eye. Tugging his father’s sleeve, he said, “Daddy, when the light turns green can we go?”

After the baptism of his baby brother in church, little Johnny sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, “That priest said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, but I want to stay with you and Mummy”

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So I’ve outed myself. I am a Christian.

I pray; I attend Mass; sometimes I talk about God openly (oooh!). I have also worn socks and sandals in public (although, to be truthful, this was more about not being bothered to put other shoes on).

There is no way in this society I could be a Christian if I didn’t have the support of many people, but one special support I get is from some beautiful, faith-filled, intelligent, funny women of great integrity who also happen to be Catholic mums.

Our priest, Fr. Mick has said that ‘a Christian alone is not a Christian’. Well, with knowledge that comes from experience, that’s me. This is absolutely to say I am weak willed. I am a believer but, without a gathering of these women reasonably regularly, I would be a closet Christian. When part of Jesus’ call is to share the Gospel, I’d fail well and truly without the strength I draw from our meeting together.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve gathered together for Mother’s Prayers, which is an organised thing –

have a squiz at www.mothersprayers.org/ if you’re interested in having your own organised gathering (I strongly encourage you to do this if what I’m talking about interests you - it’s a good place to start). Our group has at times morphed into Lenten and Advent groups, and sometimes isn’t anything formal but these women are most definitely a faith support group for me.

When we meet, Jesus’ words, ‘Where two or more of you are gathered in my name, I will be with you’ are made very real. Patrick and Gracie know I’m a prayer-group groupie, and that whenever we’re running a weekly thing, it’s a priority for me. My Mum did this too – she called her gathering ‘Holy Ladies’. Now I understand what she was doing.

I want my children to be always comfortable in their Christianity. However, I was a teenager once and know that at that deeply intense time in your life, being a Christian is to be denied, or risk being shunned. Obviously, I want them to keep their faith, I don’t want them to be ridiculed and I hope they can be more self-assured than I ever was. Some

of the kids of the mums I meet with are good friends of my kids, and thus are also regular prayer-sayers and mass-goers, and as our kids approach teenager-hood I’m hopeful and confident they will continue these friendships and gain faith support from each other.

Whatever the theme of our ladies’ gathering, it is always Christ centred. There is always prayer, sharing and cuppas. Quite a few cups sometimes. We turn up in our trackies or with a bit of lippy if we need it that day. There are toddlers and bubs. We are ourselves. Given that today’s society is so geared towards the having of much nice stuff and looking fabulously gorgeous at all times because we deserve it and for goodness sake get rid of that grey hair, gathering with these women far, far away from all the flimflam (what a great word) is a breath of fresh air – which I’d say is actually the Holy Spirit.

I love that these women are so prepared to be openly Christian yet openly real about the whole shebang. I’ll continue wearing socks and sandals in public. Thanks ladies.

Feeling lost in the crowd?

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After six years as Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Mark Coleridge last month moved north to become the Archbishop of Brisbane. Before he left, he spoke about family life today, as well as his own upbringing.

Archbishop Mark has nothing but praise for families today, given the pressures they face. In a culture increasingly hostile to family life, he said families really have to swim against the tide to raise healthy and happy children.

“Parents do a great job and they deserve every accolade and support,” Archbishop Mark said. “There are so many wonderful families and dedicated parents and they are real signs of hope.

“It shows the resilience of the human spirit that, in often an unhelpful environment, there are still so many parents doing a great job and raising wonderful kids.

“I grew up in the 1950s and times were simpler then. There were a lot more kids and we all knocked around. Kids were allowed to do all sorts of things. It was a far less fretful time and childrearing was less anxious and complex.

“In the past there was the sense that the family was the basic cell of society but that’s been eroded. It’s much harder work for parents now. We have seen almost a total demise of the extended family and that can leave many families very isolated. To remove the family from a community of faith or extended family is to set the family in a context that is alien to it. The family has been removed from its natural setting. And parents are being asked to do more than they can reasonably be expected to do. Society is trying to pick up the tab for the demise of the extended family.

“Given the need for many families to

have two salaries coming in, what do you do? You have to rely on services provided by others. It’s one thing for people to say that’s not good, but what’s the alternative? It’s not easy to see a solution.

“There is also real pressure in our culture for women to work. I think some women these days even feel guilty or irresponsible if they stay at home with the children.”

Upbringing

Archbishop Mark was born in Melbourne and is the third of five children. His Dad Bernard died of cancer in 1989, when he was 75. His Mum Marjorie died in 2010, aged 93.

While his parents were practising Catholics, they were from mixed marriages. His father’s mother was not Catholic, nor was his Mum’s father. They married on St Patrick’s Day in 1943.

“My parents met at a guesthouse in Marysville in country Victoria,” Archbishop Mark said. “They would have been in their mid-20s. It was wartime. Mum used to say that she remembered looking across the room at this man and thinking what a funny nose he had; that he looked like a koala bear!

“Mum was doing office work when she met Dad. She had quite significant intellectual gifts but was born at a time when women did not have many opportunities.

Mothers

“We were all a bit closer to Mum, which is not uncommon. If there was one dominant factor underpinning the success of their marriage it would

have been her strength. There is no question that the strength of a woman in a family is absolutely fundamental.

“Part of her strength and her shrewdness was her ability to create spaces of her own as well as being total in her self-giving in her care of us.

“The garden was her spiritual place. And every night she retired to the bathroom and had a bath. You do need to find those refreshing spiritual places in a way that fits the rhythms and demands of your life.

“Mum hated the kitchen. She used to say ‘I hate slaving away for hours when

you all gobble it away in 30 seconds’.

“I remember her intelligence, her resilience and her faithfulness. And her love of us. Plus her elegance. She taught us about good taste. We were dead set middle class but Mum had a sense of refinement. If I have a trace of good taste or a sense of the finer things in life, in the best understanding of it, it has come from her.

“From Dad I think I acquired a sense of being more or less at ease in any company. He was the extrovert, always the life of the party. Mum used to joke that he was incapable of embarrassment; something for which she had a gift.

“They were good parents and gave us every opportunity educationally, but

4

“An ArcHBisHOP sAYs FAreWell” by Felicity de Fombelle

Archbishop Mark at a baptism in March

what a struggle it must have been.

“My upbringing wasn’t ideal. I don’t want to glamorise it. Dad was away a lot. He had worked in a menswear business but that didn’t work out so he joined HJ Heinz and became a salesman. He rose to quite a senior level in management and then moved to Tongala Milk, which was taken over by Nestle. But I have only happy memories of my upbringing.”

Marriage

As well as financial pressures on families, due to the rising costs of raising children, Archbishop Mark said marriage today was also under pressure.

“Calls for gay marriage are part of a trend in our culture to undermine the uniqueness of marriage,” he said. “But marriage is not just one among other relationships. There is also far less social expectation that marriage will be permanent which is all a bit puzzling. Lifelong marriage between a man and woman is far and away the best environment to produce and nurture children.”

Children

While not wanting to sound bleak, Archbishop Mark shared his concern that children were increasingly being

seen as a nuisance or burden.

“Too often in the culture fertility is regarded as a curse not a blessing, while children can be regarded as a burden and not our greatest resource and gift,” he said.

“The violence of abortion doesn’t stop in the womb. It can overflow in the way we look at those who are born. We can see children as a costly burden who will restrict my potential in life, will damage my career or even my looks. We also see that with celebrities hiring surrogate wombs.

“To reduce child-rearing to a question of cost reduces the child to a commodity. That’s not unrelated to the rising tide of pornography in our culture, which is essentially the commodification of the human being.”

Family life

There was a time, in his 40s, when Archbishop Mark regretted not having a family.

“I felt the loss of it,” he revealed. “I just thought it would have been very nice to have had a family and see them growing up, and all the support that a family provides.

“But you can tend to glamorise these things; I would have had the perfect wife and four perfect kids, but of course it’s not like that.

“On balance it would have been the same mix of joy and sorrow that the priesthood has brought, perhaps more sorrow. I’ve lived long enough as a priest to see the difficulties and

challenges that family life can bring. My life has been extraordinarily rich and fulfilling in other ways.

“There is a solitude in this role, not a loneliness, and you need to cultivate solitude and acquire a taste for it. I have never really missed anywhere. As a priest I’ve moved every five years, often overseas, so I’ve had to be adaptable.”

Religion

The Coleridge family “was never particularly pious”.

“There were occasional attempts at a family rosary which would degenerate into not farce but subtle comedy,” Archbishop Mark explained.

“Mum couldn’t stand churchy nonsense let alone false piety. Hers was very much a thinking faith. There were a lot of things in the church she was uneasy about but we always went to Mass.

“For some families who send their children to Catholic schools, I think there is a deeper sense of their own spirituality somehow caught up in it. There is a sense that the education of a child has to be as comprehensive as it can be, and that the spiritual dimension of a child is a crucial part of their education, which it is.”

5

UMBert tHe UnBOrn The feisty comic strip character who demands respect!

“Too often in the culture fertility is regarded as a curse not a blessing.”“The strength of a

woman in a family is absolutely fundamental.

”

FAMilY MAtters“tHe GreAtest GiFt OF All” by Cathy Drumore

Last October, our three eldest daughters went to Italy on a school excursion and had a fantastic time. “How do you do it!” people asked. “It must have cost a packet!”

Well, yes it did. It was expensive and they didn’t have excursions like that when I was at school either, but I have never had the opportunity to travel overseas and we want our children to have the skills and confidence to do so when they are adults.

Julian and I see our parenting role as providing our kids with the skills to ensure they are equipped to deal with life. They may never travel overseas in the future, but they will have to look after themselves. They will have to manage their money effectively, plan where they’re going and what they’ll do, and live and work co-operatively in close confines with people they may not know well.

Growing up on a farm, my siblings

and I were raised with a strong work ethic, whether we wanted it or not! We had to do chores (inside and out) and learned persistence and determination (when your motorbike runs out of fuel in a back paddock three kilometres from the house!) and about working as part of the family team to ensure we had something to live on. Julian, growing up in Canberra, worked part time at Woolworths from the age of 15 until he finished Uni.

Our children won’t have the farm experience but hopefully we will instil similar values. They all do chores and for their Italian trip, the girls had to earn their own pocket money, which they achieved by running their own babysitting business and mowing lawns.

We try to provide our kids with as many different experiences as we can. Between them, they play approximately seven sports (the

benefit of living in a country town!) and most learn an instrument. We do a lot of road trips, mostly with the tent (they’re learning to pack very light!).

We will never be able to ensure our kids have skills in all areas – adults don’t. And with technology moving so fast, the future is so uncertain that we can only try to build their confidence to have a go, take risks and seize opportunities. That is our goal.

But the most important gift of all, far more important than any other “skills”, is our Catholic faith. If we can pass to our children trust in God’s guidance, enhance their personal relationship with Him, and give them a sound understanding of Jesus’ teachings, then that is what will truly assist their ability to cope with what life throws at them. No skills or experiences give life a purpose by themselves. I just hope and pray that my children will use their skills and experiences to do God’s work.

FAMilY & FAitH“tHe GiFt OF GenDer AnD OUr BODies” by Archbishop Mark Coleridge

As I leave Canberra to head north, I’m conscious of how

things change. Not just in my own life in recent times, but in the culture as a whole we are living through times of change that were unimaginable not too many years ago.

Deep shifts in the culture mean that gender identity – and with it the nature of marriage – are changing. Often now the implication – and at times the overt claim – is that gender means nothing. Women can do whatever task has traditionally been assigned to men. Hence for instance the push to have women fighting on the front line. In the case of marriage, which cuts much deeper to the heart of society, the claim in some quarters is that marriage and the family have nothing to do with

gender: two males or two females can marry and raise a family just as effectively as a man and a woman bonded in matrimony.

To say that gender doesn’t matter is also to say that the body doesn’t matter. But Christianity has always claimed that the body matters a great deal – even to the point of saying that we believe in “the resurrection of the body”. The Risen Christ whom we contemplate and worship in these Easter days doesn’t rise from the dead as a spirit. He rises as a body, as the Gospel accounts make clear. He even eats a piece of grilled fish to show the disciples that he’s not a ghost. If and when we share in Christ’s resurrection, it will be with a body no less than it was for the Risen Lord. And gender will be part of that rising, given that every cell in my body is

male and, in the body of the other half of the human race, is female.

Christianity doesn’t say that biology is destiny, but it does say that a denial of the body is ultimately a denial of our humanity. That’s why what is happening around us in the culture matters and why it matters that Christians engage in the public debates and bring to light the deeper issues. To appeal to virtues such as justice and compassion while denying the truth of our humanity is a deep-seated contradiction. But it’s a contradiction not unlike what we see in those who speak passionately of human rights and then go on to deny the most basic right of all on which all others are predicated – the right to life.

The family is meant to be the prime school of humanity, the first place

6 Continued over...

A dad who coached a boys football team recently told me he should get to Mass more often. That was true. However, what he failed to see was that the way he nurtured his team was ‘living the Gospel’. He would go out of his way to pick up players of single parents who could not get them to the game or players whose parents had work commitments. He would ensure that all the boys got to play, which meant they lost some close games. This coach was about affirming the value of his boys. I suggested that what he was affirming in them is what God wanted to affirm for him at Mass. The Mass is the well of love we need to keep drinking from.

As parents, I wonder if you’ve ever considered the similarities between sport and religion?

Sport affirms your potential and challenges your limitations. Healthy religion does the same. The Church insists that parents are ‘the first teachers in the ways of faith’ (Rite of Baptism) and so too are they the first teachers of a balanced approach to sport. To paraphrase Sting, ‘Every move you make, every breath you take, someone (your child) is watching you’. What is your attitude towards sport? What values will your child pick up from the way you support them in their sporting endeavours?

A few years back ‘McDonalds’ had a great advertisement centred on a

boys soccer team. It showed a young overweight and frustrated goalie letting in a few goals. Afterwards, the coach took the team to Maccas and as he handed out quarter pounders he gave an affirming smile to the glum goalie who responded in kind. The young fellow was affirmed for who he was. The way I see it, the coach was imparting something of the love of God. ‘God comes to us disguised as our lives’. I am sure that if Jesus were walking the earth today he would draw on sport to affirm timeless truths, as that advert did.

Since 1986 I have been privileged to be Chaplain to the Canberra Raiders. I would maintain that those who have performed well both on and off the field have had someone who believed in them. They were affirmed for their sporting talent and more so for who they were. The fiancée of a high profile Raider shared with me that

her partner sometimes questioned whether people affirmed him for who he was or because he was a high profile player. For a child’s good, parents must avoid emphasising a sporting talent to the detriment of a balanced lifestyle. In preparation for Confirmation, children select a ‘saint’s name’, someone whose qualities attract them. Why not encourage them to do the same with their sporting role models, mindful that some of the best players are not the best role models.

What of the attitude of parents to their own physical activity? Sad to say, too many settle for the sideline or the couch. Parents of children in the same team or school often socialise together. How about organising some physical activities which both children and adults can enjoy: a bike ride, a walk in the bush, a picnic with games for all, backyard cricket? The fun and sense of community created might translate to shared attendance at Sunday Mass. We best learn by doing together. The Church is somewhat counter the current emphasis on the individual, believing that we find out who we truly are in community. And yet, it is a choice. As with exercise, so too with prayer and religious practice: the hardest thing is to start. Exercise is good for your heart and your head and personal and public prayer opens you to your true potential. We are called to play and to pray. We are called to ‘ave a go.

“cAlleD tO PlAY AnD PrAY” by Monsignor John Woods

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Monsignor John Woods

where the young learn what it means to be a human being, to have a heart of flesh, not a heart of stone. That means that the family is the place where the young learn to live gender creatively. It’s where they learn what it really means to be male or female, and to do so in a culture where that can be confusing. This does not mean that the family is meant to be a place where outmoded gender stereotypes are imposed. But it does mean that the family is meant to be a place where the young discover more and more of the gift of gender and to live the gift creatively.

This implies also that the family is a place – indeed the privileged place – where the young learn to love their body. One of the paradoxes of now is that a culture at times obsessed with sex – think of the flood of pornography that’s upon us – can end up denying the body, even hating it. It can end up denying the truth of the body as the Creator intended it to be; and that truth is ultimate nuptial, as Pope John Paul II showed splendidly in elaborating his theology of the body.

It may seem strange to speak of “the theology of the body”. Yet that is where real theology (and spirituality) must start, because that is where human experience starts. And a theology or spirituality that takes their leave of human experience – and hence of the body – will sooner or later turn dark and destructive. The family is the place to start teaching a liberating and joy-filled theology and spirituality – which is why the family needs to teach in many different ways the truth of both gender and the body as a gift from the hand of God.

FAMilY & FAitH...continued from page 6

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tHe BiBle AnD KiDs by Shane Dwyer

MAss in tHe cArPArK by Felicity de Fombelle

The Bible will feature heavily in your child’s religious education at your Catholic school. They will be read to from it, and there will be classes in which stories from it will be taken.

Why does the Bible remain relevant? We can’t fully answer that question in this article, but we can begin.

The other day I was talking to Max (not his real name), a precocious six year-old with a predisposition for kicking holes in the walls when things get too much for him. The doctors and psychologists are not quite sure what to do with him. What strategies should his parents be employing? Does the fact that he pulled a knife on one of his brothers indicate that he could do some real damage? How do you deal with a child who behaves this way in an age where a good sharp smack is considered to cause more problems than it solves? Is medicating him really a more humane solution?

Max knows that things are not going well. In his quiet moments he regrets how he behaves, and he doesn’t understand why he says and does the things that upset everybody. His parents are separated and he loves spending time with them both. He’s confused when his father asks him to help choose from a selection of women he’s found on one of the ubiquitous dating sites. Max knows he’s being put in a difficult position but he doesn’t know how to express that. So he kicks the wall and is made to feel that he is the problem.

The other day he was asked to describe how he feels after he’s been bad. The sophistication of his response was surprising. He said, “I feel like that boy in the Bible who, after he was rude to his father, spent all his money and then had to eat the pigs’ food”. Max feels like the Prodigal Son [see Luke 15:11-32]. Max feels shame and a longing to be loved in spite of how he’s behaved.

That Max should find words to express his feelings in the Scriptures is a source of considerable surprise to his mother: ‘why would anybody find this ancient, out of date, document relevant?’ And, much more importantly, ‘why does my little boy identify with it?’ These questions continue to perplex the contemporary age. How can it be that the Scriptures remain relevant and shed light on both universal and particular human experiences? There is no logical explanation except the one grounded in faith: the Scriptures are the Word of God and, as such, are as relevant today as they have always been. Just ask Max.

A Bishop recently shared a story about a woman who had had an abortion and didn’t feel she could attend church.

Speaking at a “Guinness and God” event last month at King O’Malley’s pub, Bishop of Darwin Eugene Hurley told the story in a bid to urge Catholics to spread the message of God’s love and compassion.

This is what Bishop Eugene said. “I knew this lady was a Catholic but she wasn’t attending church,” he began.

“I was delighted to see her one day in the car park, but she didn’t come in. I saw her another time in the car park, but again she didn’t come in.

“One day I jokingly told her that I was going to charge her parking fees. I asked why she wasn’t coming into the church and she said ‘I can’t come in. I tried but I can’t’.

“I said ‘what are you talking about?’ and she began to cry. It turns out that when she was a young woman touring the continent some boofhead got her pregnant and put enormous pressure on her to have an abortion. Twenty or 30 years later she is saying ‘I can’t go in there (the church) with all those good people.’

“So I said to her, “I can’t say mass and be in the church with all those sinful people, myself included, knowing you’re outside. I promise you the next time we see you in the carpark, we’re coming out. I’ll tell everyone ‘it’s a nice day, let’s have Mass in the carpark’.

“This woman is now probably the most fervent Mass attending Catholic I know. But she had it in her mind that she had offended God so badly that she could never attend church again.

“That’s just not true. As Catholics, we need to help people see that the church is about the love and compassion and forgiveness and justice of Jesus.”

* The next Guinness and God will be on Tuesday June 5 with Peter Holmes from Notre Dame University. Go to www.guinnessandgod.com

Your Family, Your Faith is proudly supported by the Australian Catholic University

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Bishop Eugene Hurley