the - clergy.asn.au · 2 – november 2011 the the journal of the australian confraternity of...

... journal of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy 1

the journal of the

Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy

Vol 26 No 2 – November 2011

ISSN 0818-9007

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia

Where Peter is, there is the Church

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2 – November 2011the

thejournal of the

Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy

contentsChairman’s Word ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

Faithfulness and Constancy - Most Rev. Denis J Hart ................................................................................................... 5

Apologetics and Evangelisation - Father Marcus Holden ............................................................................................ 6

Tribute to a Faithful Worker - Rev. Doctor Timothy Deeter ..................................................................................... 14

Monument of Faith - Father Nicholas Dillon ............................................................................................................. 16

Mother of Fairest Love - Father Ronan Kilganon ....................................................................................................... 18

To Thy Name Give the Glory - Father James Tierney ................................................................................................ 20

More than a Catholic Roadshow - Father Gregory Morgan ....................................................................................... 22

That ‘G’ Word - Most Rev. Peter J Elliott .................................................................................................................... 24

Three Great Apologists - Father Marcus Holden ....................................................................................................... 26

the secretariatACCC Secretariat - P O Box 8004, North Road LPO,

Brighton East VIC 3187 - Ph/ fax (03) 9596 4343

mob. 0409 148 917 - email [email protected]

www.clergy.asn.au

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesiaWhere Peter is, there is the Church

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editorial

In the time I have been associated with the ACCC I have always found the

Confraternity’s journal The Priest an invaluable source of scholarly material both useful and inspirational, firstly for a seminarian, and then a young priest. Although sometimes dense, it has always been well worth the read.

The consistent quality of The Priest has been in no small part due to the tireless and skillful work of its editor for the past ten years, Rev. Dr Paul-Anthony McGavin. I was surprised and understandably intimidated when asked at the 2011 Annual Conference to accept nomination as Dr McGavin’s successor. This nomination was reluctantly accepted only after long prayer and the encouragement offered by some brother priests.

This edition contains a tribute to Dr McGavin and his editorship by colleague and friend Rev. Dr Timothy Deeter. In this first editorial I wish to mirror Fr Deeter’s words and thank Fr McGavin for his faithful work and for his kind assistance in

facilitating a smooth change-over to the new editor.

At the request of the Executive this changeover has occasioned a redesign of the publication from the ground-up. A professional graphic designer was employed to assist in this process. It is hoped that this new layout will be both clear and visually appealing.

I am grateful to those who made contributions for this edition. Some articles are edited lectures or sermons delivered at the Annual Conference or retreat. Others were specially commissioned for print. All the contributions are original and are published only in The Priest.

The feature article for this edition is an edited form of Fr Marcus Holden’s lecture, delivered at the Annual Conference in June, entitled Apologetics and Evangelisation. Fr Holden’s words are a timely call for a renewed approach to catechesis that proposes to this generation the timeless truths of the Faith in a way that is clear and comprehensible to the contemporary mind.

Other pieces published in this issue are shorter and deal with a range of topics spiritual, pastoral, cultural and scholarly.

Along with a new-look journal, the ACCC recently launched a new-look website: www.clergy.asn.au Among other things, the site allows online listening to the major lectures delivered at the Annual Conference, or to download them for later listening.

For members wishing to apply or renew their annual membership the required form is printed in this edition on pages 29-30 rather than on a separate sheet. Please remove this sheet and post with payment to the address supplied.

Finally, if members have suggestions, comments or submissions they can be posted to the ACCC Secretariat marked to the attention of ‘The Editor’ or they can be emailed directly to [email protected]

Thank you for your continued support of The Priest and indeed of the Confraternity. May God bless you now and always.

Father Gregory Bel!a"y

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As I pen these words, the Church has just celebrated the

Commemoration of All Holy Souls. This commemoration centres our thoughts and prayers on the faithful who have gone before us.

We have the privilege of praying for our departed members, especially at the altar. All of us remember those near and dear to us who have died: our parents and family members, dear parishioners and friends.

As ACCC members we have bid farewell to many members in the course of the years and we are acutely aware of the priest members who have gone before us; men who have shaped the Church in our time, influenced our own priestly lives and who have given much to the growth and consolidation of the ACCC.

In the last months we have bid farewell to two giants of the priesthood: Monsignor Frank Lyons and Fr Rod Bray. Both of these priests served as Chairman of the ACCC and were influential and instrumental in the establishment of the Confraternity. The early days of the Confraternity ( or Association, as it was first called) were difficult days, as we needed to establish our credentials. The priestly example and experience of

men like Msgr Lyons and Fr Bray enabled the Confraternity to establish links with bishops, priests and other members of Christ’s faithful.

In this edition of The Priest, a special tribute is made to Fr Rod Bray. It outlines the rich and unique priestly life of this gentle man. In the next edition of our journal a special tribute will be made to Msgr Lyons.

Some members of the Confraternity participated recently in the retreat directed by Fr Ronan Kilgannon. The partcipants report an excellent time of prayer led by an insightful and experienced director.

Whilst on holidays I had the privilege of being present at the opening of the Domus Australia in Rome by Pope Benedict XVI. The Domus offers Australian pilgrims a very comfortable and welcoming base in Rome. The Rector, Fr Anthony Denton is a member of the ACCC and would welcome any members of the ACCC to Rome who choose to stay there.

The bishops of Australia have just completed their Ad Limina visit to Rome. Amongst the several matters the Holy Father bought up with our bishops, he gave the bishops a charge to encourage and enable catechesis at all levels. He said:

All the members of the Church need to be formed in their faith, from a sound catechesis for children, and religious education imparted in your Catholic schools, to much-needed catechetical programs for adults. Clergy and religious must also be assisted and encouraged by an ongoing formation of their own, with a deepened spiritual life in the rapidly secularising world around them.

This extends a challenge to members of the ACCC to redouble their efforts in guiding the catechesis of children and youth entrusted to our care, as well as providing attractive and solid catechesis of adults. We should be well equiped for this work by the excellent input we received from Fr Marcus Holden in our recent Annual Conference.

As I conclude these brief words, may I encourage all priests of the ACCC to embrace with fervor and intelligence the new english translation of the Mass, witnessed in the new Roman Missal that has been published. This affords us the opportunity to deepen our own reverent and faithful celebration of the Sacred Liturgy to the glory of God and for the sanctification of Christ’s faithful.

Yours in Christ the Priest,Rev John Walshe

the chairman’s word

Father John Walshe

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faithfulness & constancyHomily on the Feast of John Fisher and Thomas More

by Most Rev. Denis J. Hart

The feast of Sts John Fisher and Thomas More remind us in a telling manner

that being strongly tested as a witness to justice and truth is a prerequisite for true holiness and the kingdom of heaven. There is however another far more insidious challenge; that of secularism, which would drive religion to the realm of individual conscience and make it seemingly irrelevant for society.

Indeed, the challenge for each of us is the strong and confident living of our faith, the constant proposing of its proper place in public life and of the service which the Catholic and Christian vision renders as an essential component of bringing our society to fulfil its destiny and to work for the welfare of all.

John Fisher and Thomas More, each in their own way, propose for us ways of fulfilling this challenge, which are no less relevant for the twenty first century.

In the 65 years of his life Bishop John Fisher, later Cardinal and martyr, was an eminent pastor and theologian. While President of Queen’s College, Cambridge, he linked scholarship and pastoral commitment to his wide vision and tremendous energy. Although he was harsh with himself; humble and conscientious, he managed to carry with him the whole of Cambridge University, placing great weight upon pastoral commitment and preaching.

It is significant that he was appointed Bishop of Rochester, the poorest diocese in England, where he remained without seeking any other preferment. He was Chancellor of Cambridge, re-elected annually for ten years and then appointed for life, indulged in strong controversies against Luther, defended Catherine of Aragon, and in 1534 forfeited all his possessions, being imprisoned in the Tower because he refused to take the oath of succession.

Many of you will know that events escalated in May 1535 when Paul III created Fisher, Cardinal Priest of San Vitale. However, he was tried in June and executed on Tower Hill on this day in 1535, despite a public outcry from the populace who saw an irony in the parallels between his conviction and that of St John the Baptist.

Similarly, St Thomas More, a man of remarkable gifts, of dedicated family life, combined a significant legal career with a role as Speaker of the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Lord Chancellor of England until May 1532. Renowned for his scholarly and literary work he never lost sight of his service of God. Indeed, the steadfastness and courage with which he held on to his religious conviction in the face or ruin and death and the dignity with which he conducted himself during his imprisonment, trial and execution, show clearly the

esteem in which he has been held throughout the English-speaking world since then.

For us as priests the lessons are obvious. Two men, who saw their calling as a vocation from God, remained constant and faithful to it, despite the tests which were presented and who were nourished by a deep spiritual life. We as priests who admire them so much and thank God for their constancy, might well remember that in the face of those who would drive our faith to be considered irrelevant, must always witness by word and deed, as they did by martyrdom, to the most excellent love of Jesus Christ and to Him crucified because in suffering persecution and ridicule for justice sake we testify to the presence of God’s kingdom in our midst.

Fathers, I thank you for your faithfulness and constancy in living the love of Jesus Christ, the faith of the Church, in unity with the successor of Peter and in presenting that faith to the people whom we serve. May Jesus Christ live in our hearts forever.

Archbishop Denis J Hart is the eighth Archbishop of Melbourne and Vice-President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. This homily was delivered during the ACCC annual conference in the chapel of Corpus Christi College, the regional seminary for Victoria and Tasmania.

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One of the exciting de-

velopments within the

Church during the past

fifteen years is an explosion of new

apologetics. I want to share with

you the meaning of apologetics

and a little about how it functions

or can function today particularly

in our work of evangelisation.

What is Catholic Apologet-ics?Apologetics is the rational defence and explanation of the Catholic faith in the world and place in which we find ourselves. Apologet-ics comes from the Greek word Apologia. It can bear several meanings in its original form: to apologise, to explain, to defend or to account for. Whilst the task of Christian apologetics can bear several of these meanings, the first is certainly excluded.

Apologetics is going on all the time and in a multiplicity of ways, from the father answering the questions of his son about the origin of the universe, to the school girl defend-ing her faith in God in a history lesson, from the women at the party standing up for the Church’s moral positions to the man in the pub explaining why the Church is not against Jews.

An academic study of apologetics is simply a more technical analy-sis of and response to the same problems that are being discussed in the sports centres, the shopping malls and the tea shops around the country. As an academic discipline apologetics is that area of theology which seeks to respond to objec-tions, doubts and difficulties over the truth and rational coherence of the Catholic faith.

Why do Catholics have Apologetics?Catholics believe that their faith is not merely credible and non-contradicting of reason but rather that it even makes demands upon the mind and the heart. While the Mysteries of Faith can never be reduced to rational conclu-sions many of the teachings of the Catholic faith are in themselves

knowable by reason alone (i.e. the existence of God) and others are so much in harmony with reason that faith becomes the sensible person’s response. Catholic theol-ogy asserts that God has given us both the truths of faith and the truths of reason. Just as God can-not contradict Himself it should be possible to show why any seeming contradiction between faith and reason is mistaken.

It is not enough to relegate Christian faith to the level of mere opinion or even to one possibil-ity amongst others. The Catholic Creed has shaped past civilisa-tions and has the intrinsic power to shape future ones. It claims to give us the truth about the human condition. Catholics believe that is a faith convincing enough, in itself, to carry the hearts and minds of whole peoples – indeed of the whole world. If this were not so then would Christianity itself be credible? If God’s public Revela-tion were reducible to the private sphere of opinion, could it really be the manifestation of God for every human being as it claims to be? Apologetics begins from the conviction that divine truth is attainable and defensible. There-fore from the beginning it is not

apologetics + evangelisationWhy does the Church need Apologetics?

by Fr Marcus Holden

Fr Marcus Holden

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apologetics + evangelisation

surprising that the Church has practiced the art of apologetics. It is not about apologising for the truth but about giving ‘a reason (apologia) for the hope that is in you’ (Pt 3:15).

What makes Apologetics distinct from other areas of Theology? Apologetics is a unique discipline, always relevant, always engaging. If it fails in these areas then it isn’t apologetics. If the enterprise doesn’t meet the needs of faith under fire then it ceases to be apologetics. For this reason alone apologetics is quite distinct from other parts of the theological discipline.

Apologetics is not Dogmatic or Systematic theology which is rather the study of God’s Revelation in and of itself, already presuming its validity whilst investigating its precise meaning and implications. Apologetics does assume the truth of the dogmas of faith but its task is to show their credibility and why they are convincing and compel-ling to human reason, or at least compatible with it. It provides a steady platform for the study of Dogma.

Apologetics is not the study of the history of theology which is rather a more neutral survey of what has been taught through the centuries. The distinct genuine area of theol-ogy called Positive or Historical the-ology unearths the exact meaning and significance of great theologi-cal ideas and the contributions of major writers and theologians. Apologetics on the other hand re-lates to past controversies and the ideas of history to learn from them and to utilise them in the present.

Apologetics is not the study of why and how Christians believe, which is rather the specific work of Fundamental Theology. When considered broadly Fundamen-tal Theology could encompass apologetics as its practical arm, however, more often than not, its role is narrowed to analysing the rational foundations for Christian doctrines and the action of faith in a more speculative way. Apologetics is always practical in that it seeks to demonstrate the truth and ration-ale of Catholic doctrine and enable the act of faith.

Apologetics is not the presentation of different opinions about faith topics which is rather the work of Religious Studies and Sociology of Religion. Apologetics will always seek to show why certain opinions are true and others false. It sits therefore with a refreshing and attractive uneasiness in an academy which increasingly believes all views are of equal value and truth is not there to be found.

What is the correct rela-tionship between faith and reason?We have described apologetics as a rational defence of what we believe. It seems that without believing and without a rational defence there could be no apologetics. We need to investigate to see why this is held, as a matter of principle, to be the case.

Pope John Paul II in his great En-cyclical Fides et Ratio wrote about faith and reason being like two wings on which the human soul can soar. He wrote:

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has

placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about them-selves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2)

Good apologetics is based upon a correct balance or relationship between faith and reason. The neglect of the former leads to ra-tionalism, the rejection of the latter leads to fideism.

Apologetics requires faithApologetics requires faith because it exists to defend faith. The chal-lenges it meets are challenges felt by faith. Apologetics is not a purely speculative searching for truth in philosophy or theology, rather it is responsive and that response comes from faith under fire.

Apologetics cannot merely deal with detached philosophical or historical challenges. It is princi-pally an activity of defending re-vealed truth, or matters that affect claims of revelation, and as such it is an enterprise that requires faith. Theology is an action of reason applied to revelation, and apologetics is a rational defence of revelation. While apologetics does tackle philosophical and historical challenges it does so as a defence of theological revealed truth. The apologist has first to believe in revealed truth. Therefore faith is necessary to apologetics.

Apologetics also needs faith to give it conviction and drive. It is con-vinced that there is a right answer and that reason will not contradict faith. While a person without faith may give up, presume error or simply shrug their shoulders, the apologist, precisely as a person of

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faith, finds a rational response. The need for faith is not present simply because of the weaknesses of our intellect but rather because the object of belief is beyond our natural intellectual capability. Therefore faith is a virtue that the apologist needs if he or she is to be convinced and convincing in his or her apologetics.

Furthermore, there is the matter of the need for the human will (even the most blinding argument cannot force the will to accept or consent to the propositions of faith). The renowned apologist Pe-ter Kreeft puts it this way, ‘reason can bring us as far as the shore, right up to the water’s edge, but only faith can allow us to dive in’. An apologist needs to be someone who has taken that leap.

The apologist is also appealing to faith. The apologist knows that attacks on the faith can be rebutted or deflected but to really convince someone of the truth of Christian-ity requires faith.

Apologetics requires rea-sonAn apologetics which simply as-serted the truths of faith without any explanation or justification would serve only a limited purpose. While the coherence and beauty of the revealed truths may attract some souls with the aid of grace many others would be repelled fur-ther from the faith as it appeared to go against reason and the innate desire to ‘know’ the truth. The mind could be repulsed away from the apparent irrationality of faith presented in this way. Therefore apologetics must also appeal to reason.

Christianity teaches that God has

revealed himself in rational terms (The Word became flesh). The Word is the Logos of God, the very reason of God, who has communi-cated himself to us in flesh, that is, in ways rationally comprehensible to us. While the truths of faith may far surpass the grasp of the mind and be impossible to discover without special Revelation, our intellects are given the capacity to understand what God has taught. Reason is part of man’s nature created by God – apologetics works with the human person as he is, which includes the mind. The mind has a right to be satisfied, to have a good reason for making the generous act of trust involved in

faith. A purely emotive apologetics would be of limited use and would perhaps turn out to be counter-productive.

Reason cannot establish or gener-ate faith but it can destroy it. Our minds are made to understand and to know, and we need reasons for acting or at least allowing ourselves to act and to be led. Reason can-not give us faith but it does have a kind of ‘veto’ power over faith in practice. Intellectual errors can be a barrier to faith and such obstacles can and should be removed to aid faith. Full answers to many ques-tions are available and at least the removal of contradictions is always possible. Reason should therefore be at the heart of the apologetic appeal.

Faith seeking Understand-ing through ApologeticsThe dictum ‘faith seeking under-standing’ comes from the writings of St Anselm in the 11th century but it is the working principle of every authentic Catholic theolo-gian. It is also the driving force behind apologetics. The believer seeks to understand and to explain. In order to understand, the be-liever is not required first to doubt - to step outside his or her commit-ment of faith. Such doubt would render the initial motivation void.

Furthermore, contrary to popular assumption, there is no neutral philosophical world view, no purely objective vantage point from which we can view all things impartially without any bias, prejudice or presupposition. The believer can-not abandon his or her certainty of faith which is stronger than the doubt, without losing everything in the quest. In fact as St Augustine has said, ‘I do not seek to under-stand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand’. It is the conviction of the Chris-tian theologian or apologist that faith preserved and present in the rational enquiry allows an insight otherwise impossible. The apolo-gist can remain completely faithful and truly rational at the same time. Newman once remarked that ‘ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt’. In fact, faith in the midst of a lack of understanding may be highly meritorious for the Christian who believes those words, ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe’ (Jn 20:29).

Furthermore, the conviction that there must be an answer or a solu-tion to an apparent contradiction will drive the apologist to be more

Reason can bring us as far

as the shore, right up to the

water’s edge, but only faith

can allow us to dive in.

“

”

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searching and even groundbreak-ing. Christians know that faith cannot be reduced to reason but on the other hand they know that if faith is merely the conclusion of an argument or an assumption based on weighed probabilities of evidence then it is not faith.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the ‘certainty of faith’. This is based upon the gift of faith and is not called certain be-cause of the intellectual acumen of the believer or the strength of his or her arguments. The believer is certain quite simply because his or her intellect has been illuminated by ‘evidence of what is not seen’ (Hebrews 11:1) and his or her will has become wholly committed in trust to the One who reveals, like a bride who believes the vows of her spouse in marriage and responds in trust. The spouses’ mutual com-mitment is only known from within the relationship and cannot be tested externally. In a similar way one cannot break the relationship of faith or step outside of it just in order to evaluate its inner strength or reliability.

From this it can be seen why the Church teaches that dissent from even one revealed doctrine of the faith represents a loss of faith as a whole. It is impossible to believe in the One who reveals, that is in God, in Christ, through the Church, while doubting all the while what they are actually saying. If the Church is wrong on one point then she is not guaranteed by God and could be wrong on many or all points.

The act of faith is very simple and it bypasses the human understanding of the intricacy of every doctrine in its multiple dimensions and long

development and historical articu-lation. Faith for Catholics means accepting completely that God has spoken definitively in Christ and has established the Church as his ‘living voice in the world’ and then accepting what she defines in faith and morals. This simple but clear dynamic is captured in Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius: “And I hold in veneration for the love of Him alone, holy Church as His creation and her teachings as His own”.

What is the History of Apologetics?The Christian faith begins with the Word being made Flesh. The Word in the Greek is Logos, a principle of rationality. It is not surprising therefore that Chris-tianity has always believed in the rational credibility of faith and the intelligibility of the cosmos made through the Word. Christianity was communicated through rational means, scripture and tradition, the spoken word of preaching, it never neglected the mind or the desire of our rational nature to know. We see the earliest disciples explaining the faith, as is the case of Philip with the Ethiopian and Paul with the Greeks at the Areopagus.

In the early Church the fore-most Christian thinkers sought to elucidate the Christian faith before the Jewish and Pagan world alike. Their special devotion to the rational explication and explana-tion of the faith earned them the title of ‘apologists’ . They were not apologising for the faith as if they were embarrassed about it or felt guilty for it. No, they loved the faith and sought to defend it. Their method was not particularly formal but sometimes drew from the elo-quence of the classical philosophi-

cal tradition.

The only formal apologetics in the first few hundred years of the Church comes from Origen (c.185-254AD) (see for instance Origen’s response to Celsus). The general style of writing is less academic and more direct, exhortative and per-sonal than in later centuries. The majority of apologetic texts were letters written either to real per-sons or as a literary devise. By their nature these writings were non-systematic defences of the faith.

With the conversion of the Roman Empire the principal need for apologetics lessened. Nevertheless, apologetics was needed in response to new missionary territories, to controversies over the orthodox faith and for the sake of those who had fallen into schism. Apologetics here is less about defending one’s position for the sake of survival but challenging another with the rationality of the truth. Some examples here include the writings of St Athanasius (c293-373AD) on the Trinity and the anti-Donatist writings of St Augustine (c.354-430AD).

With the development of theology as a science from the beginning of the Scholastic period in the 12th century, we see the use of apolo-getics in formal academic theol-ogy. Many theologians choose a method of learning and of writing called Disputatio. This method is apologetic to its core. The prime example here is St Thomas Aqui-nas (1225-1274AD) who wrote his Summa Theologiae as a series of answers to questions. Objections to the true doctrine as revealed in Scripture and Tradition are first stated after which a response based upon reason and the removal of

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contradictions and erroneous no-tions takes place.

St Thomas’ method reflects the active verbal disputations which took place in the theology faculties of Europe throughout this period. Many believe that St Thomas wrote his Summa Contra Gentiles as an apologia for the unbelieving Mus-lim world that had emerged and had begun to engage in the study of Aristotle.

The trials of the ‘Reformation’ brought a new impetus and life to apologetics. Apologetics was no longer a useful method for disputa-tion nor a mechanism for argu-mentation when certain isolated difficulties emerged, but rather it became the great practical need of the day.

The new Protestant theology had vast practical implications for the lives of millions of people and whole states and societies. It claimed a novel relationship be-tween reason and Revelation, and expounded divergent views about the Saviour’s message and above all demanded a reduction in the im-portance of the visible Church and her hierarchy. Apologetics became the vital tool in the ‘Reformation’ debates. Its greatest practitioners were men who had learned to con-front the challenges of the time.

St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621AD) cut his apologetic tools in controversies at Louvain before becoming the great teacher of the art in Rome. He specialised in what came to be called ‘Contro-versial Theology’ which was, for all intents and purposes, apologetics. He taught the English missionary priests, like St Edmund Campion, the method of persuasion and

disputation to win souls back to the Church. Such practitioners as the English Martyrs and St Francis de Sales (1567-1622AD) (who converted 30,000 Calvinists with apologetic tracts in the Chablais region) learned to use apologetics once again in a very personal, chal-lenging, almost Patristic fashion. Their art required not merely formal correctness but necessary persuasiveness.

In the theology after Trent almost all expositions of the faith be-came ‘apologetic’ to some extent. This was not always beneficial to systematic, speculative theology or to traditional biblical commentary. Theology had already developed into a full science in the medieval period and now apologetics came to take on a very scientific form and structure. It was to be an essen-tial component in the Tridentine theological discipline. Sometimes it was called Controversial Theol-ogy but soon, more often than not, it was titled ‘Apologetics’. It was the doctrine of the Church put forth as an appeal to reason. Every priest and every person who studied theology, and even most school education programmes, taught apologetics in one form or another. Most educated Catholics would have been able to talk about why God and the soul were real, why Jesus is truly God revealed and why the Church is credible before all other religions in the world.

Why did Apologetics al-most disappear? There is no doubt that in the sec-ond half of the 20th century apolo-getics as such was virtually eclipsed. It was dropped by the theological academies and rarely taught at a popular level in educational establishments, parishes or schools.

The reasons why apologetics came under a cloud in the second part of the 20th century can be accounted for in the following ways (although these reasons do not claim to be exhaustive):

1. Rationalism This is the view that everything about the world and God can be known by reason alone. If some-thing is not fully comprehensible by reason then it should be exclud-ed from the arena of knowledge. Apologetics therefore was seen as a rational defence of something that was rationally unjustifiable, namely the mysteries of a revealed religion of faith. While rationalism may have tolerated arguments for the existence of God it had no sympa-thy with proofs for Christ’s divinity, or miracles, or the Church’s divine origin. From the time of Emma-nuel Kant (1724-1804AD) onwards a ‘new apologetics’, based within the narrow confines of reason, was put forth and because it did not satisfy it was easily disregarded. At its extreme level rationalism refused to discuss any metaphysical reality beyond the empirical world (for instance Logical Positivism). This brought closure of all rational discussion of true religion, the spiritual realm and God.

2. Relativism This is a rather hard concept to nail down because by its nature it denies that any truth can be really known. All truths are relative to circumstance and situation. Milder relativists accept the truths of math-ematics and science but would say all moral, religious and philosophi-cal truths are relative. They may have value at one time and not at another. Relativism is self-defeating as its own philosophical stance

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and claim to truth is relativised along with everything else. With relativism various contradictory positions can be held at the same time. Apologetics is excluded here because it believes we can defend and establish truths in philosophy, ethics and religion, or at least clear away all objections and contradic-tions from such claims for truth.

3. New FideismAs a reaction to rationalism a new fideism developed which claimed that we are not meant to know religious truths by reason. It pleases God not to act within the bounds of human reason. This motif stemmed from Protestantism which often viewed reason as so severely wounded by Original Sin as to be only capable of an inflated pride before God whose ways are un-knowable to us and contradict our natural notions and expectations. Martin Luther (1483-1546AD) had once called reason ‘the devil’s whore’. Kierkegaard (1813-1855AD) famously said, ‘I believe because it is absurd’ and Bultmann (1884-1976AD) saw no problem in destroying any rational credibility in New Testament claims by reason because he held that believing with-out evidence was more laudable. Karl Barth (1886-1968AD) took a milder view but argued against any rational prolegomena (foundations for the faith): it was in this way that God would confound the wise.

Many sought to locate religion purely within the power of the will or the emotions, as a movement of the spirit, as an affective drive mo-tivated by the Holy Spirit (see the Romantic thinker, Schliermacher and his later followers). Apologet-ics in this framework was rendered either ineffective or even irreverent and proud.

4. False Ecumenism and False Irenicism Closely linked to relativism, but motivated by a false compassion, these ideas seek to avoid a discus-sion and debate over the truth of one religious claim or another. What is prized here is unity or togetherness without the need for truth or rational agreement.

The Catholic holds that ecu-menism and the work of uniting Christians is good and vital. False ecumenism believes that holding Catholicism as the truth about Christ and the foundation of His Church will divide people and therefore must be avoided. The Catholic Church believes in estab-lishing peace between peoples and promoting non-violence between religious groups. False Irenicism, however, believes that to call anoth-er’s religion, however well meant, false or flawed, is an unacceptable act of aggression and therefore to be banished.

An apologetics which seeks to establish the rational truth or credibility for the Catholic religion as distinct from other religions is therefore closed and ironically begins to bear the brunt of the ex-cluding and often harsh treatment that false ecumenism and false irenicism preach against.

5. Lack of Confidence With the developments of modern science, the declining Church con-gregations in the West and the fail-ure of Christian civilisation in two world wars, there was a deep lack of confidence in the old assurances of faith. Modern systemic doubt about the past and a questioning of traditional beliefs was extremely popular in the second half of the

twentieth century. In this climate apologetics did not thrive and was distrusted.

6. The collapse of Thomism The method of St Thomas, known in various forms as Thomism, which in many ways is apologetic and deeply reliant upon reason, waned in the ecclesiastical facul-ties from the 1960s. There had been a growing dissatisfaction with the system, partly because of the spirit of the age and of novelty, partly because the manuals and the methods of late 19th and early 20th centuries Thomism were rather dry and failed to engage in their own proper dynamic of debate, disputation and new question-ing. Rival alternative methods and theological ideas, more often than not a hotchpotch of theories, became the norm rather than the exception in the universities and seminaries.

Without a firm theological founda-tion and method, and without ac-cepted philosophical and rational presuppositions, apologetics was left without roots and abandoned as a common project in the defence of faith against modern objections.

7. The growth of funda-mental theology as an alternativeFundamental theology is the study of the preambles of faith and the act of faith in Christian theology. While Fundamental theology was often another term for apologet-ics before the1950s, later it came to be seen as an alternative. While some Fundamental theologians saw apologetics as the practical arm of their science others chose to see their mandate as a speculative sci-ence of examining foundations of

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faith or observing Catholic belief as a sociological phenomenon.

Unfortunately apologetics came to be viewed by many as an unwar-ranted, over confident, aggressive and fundamentalist enterprise for proving what was beyond or unwor-thy of proof.

Why is Apologetics so im-portant today?Apologetics has become very popular during the past decade. Hundreds of books and magazines, tracts and news columns have been written on a whole host of apologetics areas. Here are some possible reasons of the revival of apologetics:

1. The growth of an aggressive new atheism which needs opposing

2. The problem of indifferentism which needs challenging

3. The rise of fundamentalist Islam which needs reasoning

4. The challenge of Evangelical Christianity which needs sacramen-talising

5. The growth of interest in ortho-dox Catholic theology which needs complementing and supporting

6. The phenomenon of a new fer-vent faith in the young which needs defending

There are many reasons for taking up a study of apologetics or simply for practicing apologetics. Below are some of the most common motivations:

Witness One of the greatest challenges for us as Christians is to explain why we are so transformed by the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. As Catholics we have the added challenge of explaining why the Church and her teachings are

so important to our lives today and forever.

Mission Our faith is a missionary faith and if it is to be propagated it needs to be explained and articulated. We have been instructed to teach all nations (Mt 28) but we cannot pass on a message if we do not know the message. Furthermore before the message can be palatable to a non-believer we have to show why the message is credible. As the message is extremely demanding we will all the more need to show why it is convincing.

Personal Difficulties We know faith is a gift from God and that to accept the teaching of Christ and the Church would be impossible without that gift. No amount of rational discourse and explanation can bring us to faith. Nevertheless, intellectual difficul-ties can be a bar to faith and they can close a mind to truth. The frag-ile light of faith can be snuffed out by error and by false argument. We therefore need to remove obstacles to the act of believing.

Intellectual Appetite The Lord has made us both body and soul. He has given us our reason and intellectual capabilities. Our intellectual nature desires to be satisfied with rational truth and

intellectual understanding. While we admit that the mysteries of faith go far beyond our minds they do not contradict nor leave the mind bereft of its natural fulfilment. We cannot love what we do not know and our minds will never be satis-fied with faith if contradictions or misconceptions prevail.

How is Apologetics con-ducted?The most common form of apolo-getic is found in the spoken word - in conversations, debates and discussions. Apologetics is never a solitary exercise, it always involves another person. Its most common written forms are the tract, the arti-cle and the essay but even here the writer of effective apologetics will always be aware of his or her audi-ence or reader and will always be engaged in an authentic dialogue with the other.

The work of apologetics is both offensive and defensive, it goes in search of others and wards off at-tacks. It is offensive in its attempt to show by convincing and converging arguments why the heart and mind should accept divine Revelation. It is defensive in that it must defend the credibility and coherence of Christian teaching against attacks in a fallen world of confusion, with many alternative voices and amongst people with weakened intellects and unsteady hearts.

What does Apologetics cover?Each age and place presents the Christian with new challenges and demands. Apologetics is an exercise conducted by rationally convinced Catholic Christians as part of an intellectual attempt to speak to the hearts and minds of contemporaries. It is the attempt to

The fragile light of faith

can be snuffed out

by error and by false

argument. We therefore

need to remove obstacles

to the act of believing.

“

”

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apply reason to matters of faith in areas of controversy and particular import.

Apologetics covers a vast range of subjects that have been challenged and disputed over the Church’s long history but it chooses as its subject matter particularly those areas that are of central relevance to the people of a particular time and place. In many cases the ques-tions arising are merely variations on what has already been discussed in previous times and therefore a good knowledge of past contro-versies is essential to the apologist. However, with the rapid devel-opment of science and technol-ogy during the last century new questions have come to light which require a serious response.

Although apologetic themes are many and varied they can be di-vided up in the following way:

Natural Apologetics – in which the idea of truth itself, the existence of God and the spir-ituality of the human person is established. In past ages much was presumed in this area, however, today these issues have become paramount. Debates with atheists or materialists, such as Richard Dawkins, or with those who refuse to believe in unchanging moral truths would be relevant here.

Christian Apologetics – in which the ideas of revealed religion, the Revelation of God in the Old Testament and above all the coming of Jesus Christ as God made man as recorded in docu-ments of the New Testament are confirmed and defended. Debates surrounding such works as the ‘Da Vinci Code’ or the works of the ‘Jesus Seminar’, which turns much

of the Gospel accounts in myths would be central to this area.

Catholic Apologetics – in which the idea of the one true Church of Christ is set forth as knowable by reason and his-tory through examination of the ancient texts, secular writers and historical developments. Debates in this area were particularly prominent following the Protestant Reformation and although less so today remain very relevant in the face of a growing Evangelical Chris-tianity which demotes or negates the importance of the Church, Sacraments and the saints.

Apologetics and evangeli-sationI personally believe that the mod-ern attacks on the faith, be they from the Da Vinci Code, Television commentators, newspaper column-ists or bloggers, are actually a call for a new apologetics. They repre-sent an opportunity to engage in debate and dialogue for the sake of evangelisation. These often rather shrill voices of opposition provide a providential piercing of the thick coating of apathy and indifference which usually surrounds the subject of religion.

For priests in particular, the com-mon objections to the faith which are floating around in the heads of the parishioners need to be addressed, challenged, and solved. The media has helped in making so many hidden doubts become transparent and ‘live’. With preach-ing on subjects of controversy, with classes and courses address-ing areas of doubt, with newsletter inserts on current debates and the availability of apologetics literature, with the training of parishioners in apologetics, catechetically or aca-

demically, a whole new movement of evangelisation can take place.

Here are some recommendations for priests and for parishes regard-ing apologetics:

1. Preach apologetic sermons

2. Make available apologetic litera-ture

3. Hold apologetic courses

4. Train apologists

5. Set up an apologetic response team

6. Use the newsletter for apologet-ics

7. Seize moments of controversy as apostolic opportunities

All these considerations make apologetics a most exciting disci-pline - highly relevant and wonder-fully engaging. It is hoped that the growth in apologetic writing, and now with the new MA course in apologetics from the Maryvale Institute, a new apologetics will arise, building on all that has already been achieved and learned through the ages but tackling head-on the latest challenges to the Faith that have emerged.

The Church desires that the people of our own age, as those who have preceded us, may be equipped to give a reason for the great hope that is within every Christian heart.

Fr Marcus Holden is parish priest of Ramsgate and Minster in the Archdiocese of Southwark. He is co-founder of the Evangelium pro-ject which produces resources for evangelisation and catechesis. He is a lecturer and course tutor for the Maryvale Masters Programme in Catholic Apologetics and a founder of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in Great Britain. Fr Holden was the keynote speaker at the ACCC 2011 Annual Conference.

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tribute to a faithful workerThe Editorship of Rev. Dr Paul-Anthony McGavin

During a ‘stretch

break’ at the Public

Lecture for the 2011

ACCC Annual Conference, the

National Chairman invited the

Editor to speak briefly on the

Confraternity’s journal and on

the recent book he had edited.

The packed lecture theatre,

without cue, broke into full

applause, and repeated that

applause after the Editor’s few

words.

No one in that large gathering knew that Dr McGavin had decided – after ten times being elected to his office – not to accept nomination at the forthcoming AGM, and so this was a spontaneous gesture from a large audience, mainly ACCC associates, for his tireless work. It signified the appreciation of these laity for the face of priests faithful to the Magisterium, and the face of a new generation of seminarians drawn to a priestly life faithful to the Holy Father, that was presented to them in The Priest. For them, The Priest and Inter Nos are the ‘flagship’ for this group of priests, strengthening their

hope for the future. That was the chief feature of The Priest under Dr McGavin’s editorship.

In the 25 years of the Confraternity, its journal for the first 10 years was under the editorship of a founding member, Fr John J Walter. For the last 11 years of the Confraternity, its journal was under the editorship of Fr Paul-Anthony McGavin. Thus 21 of the 25 years of the journal had just two outstanding editors.

Dr McGavin brought a unique background to this task, having had a distinguished academic past as a UNSW professor with wide publications in the social sciences. This side of his life was not much seen in The Priest, but it certainly showed when the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published two full-length articles by him on Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate, the second article being entitled Social Encyclicals and the Social Sciences. Indeed, Dr McGavin has published across a wide field of theological journals

in areas including pastoral, moral, liturgical and spiritual theology. This background was implicitly evident in the ACCC publications under his editorship.

For those of us who have sat through Annual Conference presentations that – for all their value – were sometimes too long and somewhat turgid, it was a surprise (and relief) to read their text form in The Priest. The addition of headings and brief introductions often gave shape and clarity to the papers that had been presented. Sometimes the introductions themselves may have been a tad long and a bit slanted, but the bigger picture was that the papers became good ‘re-reads’ for Conference attendees.

And for those who had not attended the Conferences, the papers as presented in The Priest provided a sense of participation in the Confraternity. This was especially helpful for both priests and lay Associate Members in far-flung parts, or where ACCC members are few.

by Rev. Dr Timothy Deeter

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Ever since Dr McGavin took over as editor in 2000, the journal and newsletter have been produced on glossy paper, with an increasing inclusion of black-and-white and colour photographs. These inclusions have generated a brighter and more accessible look. And a review of past issues shows that shorter and more accessible articles have also appeared, so that those who are not drawn to extended reading may nevertheless find interesting and useful content.

Having been an author and editor myself, I recognise how much layout skill is involved in getting material to fit the allotted page space. It is likewise no mean feat to convince colleagues to contribute articles, and then receive them in time for printing. So I can appreciate Dr McGavin’s labours, since he sometimes had as many as 12 contributing authors in a single issue, yet he ensured that every issue in his 11 years was actually posted out in the dated month of publication. This accomplishment was, of course, greatly aided by his good working relationships with Active Print of Wagga Wagga, and Carmel Negline of the ACCC Secretariat in Melbourne.

It should also be noted that Dr McGavin served as his own publicity director. During his editorship the first ACCC

website was launched and maintained; and until the Secretariat expanded its services, the brochures for Conferences and public events were usually prepared by Dr McGavin.

Perhaps his crowning achievement was the 50-page March 2010 issue of The Priest, featuring the proceedings of the joint Australian-American Conference in Rome. That issue was dominated by illustrious authors, mostly from the Vatican and Rome. Dr

McGavin assiduously obtained each speaker’s electronic copy, and then exercised great diplomatic skill in convincing each speaker to submit to his editorial hand. In this task, he was greatly assisted by Melbourne priest Fr Mark Withoos of the Ecclesia Dei Commission. But perhaps the greatest wonder of that special issue is the fact that Dr McGavin produced it while on a teaching sabbatical at the major seminary in Ethiopia, where his laptop

was subject to the frequent electrical ‘brown-outs’ in Addis Ababa.

Dr McGavin’s present ministry is with the Catholic chaplaincy to the University of Canberra, as well as offering Mass at St Joseph’s in O’Connor, a near inner-city parish. ACCC members appreciate his work as editor of Water for the Parched Earth, a collection of conferences for priests presented by the Emeritus Bishop of Christchurch NZ (Connor Court Publishing).

Having been published in The Priest several times during Dr McGavin’s editorship, I have a sense of the legacy that he has left the ACCC, and from my dealings with him I am certain that he will continue to make important contributions to educate and edify future readers. All of us in the ACCC extend hearty thanks to Dr McGavin for

his service to the Confraternity and we wish him every blessing in his ministry.

Rev. Dr Timothy Deeter is

parish priest of St Paul’s Parish,

Mount Lawely WA. Fr Deeter

has served as a member of the

Liturgical Commission of the

Archdiocese of Chicago, as

Director of Liturgy and Music at

St Mary’s Cathedral Perth and

as Director of the Liturgy Office

for the Archdiocese of Sydney.

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monument of faithThe Catholic Cathedral of Christchurch

by Fr Nicholas Dillon

Over the past year the words ‘Christchurch’ and ‘earthquake’ have

become synonymous. Mention one and the other springs to mind. The effects of three major earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks have changed the face of Christchurch. Just how much it has changed and will change is still being determined.

Christchurch is known as the ‘Garden City’ on account of the wonderful public and private parks and gardens around the city. It is also known as the ‘Cathedral City’, primarily on account of the Anglican cathedral at the heart of the city, but no doubt also because of the very grand Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

My own introduction to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was during the Papal visit of 1986 when, at primary school in Winton, we were all ushered into the library to watch the broadcast of Pope John Paul II leading an ecumenical ceremony in the cathedral. At that stage I didn’t know what the building was – I just knew it was like no other building I had seen in New Zealand. Over the years I came to know the building very well,

especially during my time there as the Assistant Organist. The first time I entered the great basilica I was struck by the sheer volume of it and the wonderful arrangement of columns, domes, arches and chandeliers – a marvellously light and spacious whole that also provoked a sense of mystery.

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is considered the masterpiece of pioneer New

Zealand architect Francis William Petre (1847-1918). The first Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, John Joseph Grimes SM (1842-1915), had in mind a grandiose gothic cathedral for the new diocese, but Petre convinced Grimes to go for the basilica style because it was cheaper to build and it was also much

more distinctively Roman – an important consideration in what was a Church of England settlement. Preaching at the opening of Oamaru’s impressive St Patrick’s Basilica on 18th November 1894, Grimes said: “I envy you this Basilica, which will be a monument of your faith. Preserve it and preserve your souls, which are the temples of the Lord, so that He may at the last day give you the reward which

He has promised to all those who love and serve Him.”

Petre had already proved his credentials in major commissions in the Dunedin Diocese – including the gothic St Joseph’s Cathedral and neighbouring Dominican Priory, as well as the Oamaru basilica. Petre championed the basilica-style design, with examples in Wellington (Sacred Heart Cathedral), Dunedin (St Patrick’s

Basilica), Invercargill (St Mary’s Basilica), Timaru (Sacred Heart Basilica) and his churches in Waimate and Oamaru dedicated to St Patrick. The fact that the ambitious design of St Joseph’s Cathedral in Dunedin was less than half realised no doubt contributed to Petre’s determination that any proposed

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cathedral for Christchurch would have to be feasible. It must have been a joy for him to see the completed cathedral opened by Archbishop Carr of Melbourne on 12th February 1905 – just four years after the foundation stone had been laid. The result is a testament to Petre’s design brilliance, the realisation of Grimes’ bold vision and a monument to the faith of the small and relatively poor Catholic community of the time.

For over a century the Cathedral has drawn admiration from locals and visitors alike – although it has always been the poor cousin in terms of its location, down near the gasworks. The playwright George Bernard Shaw visited Christchurch in 1934 and complimented the city on its beautiful cathedral. People presumed Shaw was referring to the cathedral in the Square. He clarified the matter by dismissing the Anglican cathedral as a mere copy and, lavishing praise on the Catholic cathedral, described its architect as the “New Zealand Brunelleschi” (designer of the dome of Florence Cathedral). Shaw lamented that Petre had probably spent his time in New Zealand designing houses when in a larger country he would have been designing major public buildings.

Over recent decades the Cathedral has developed a reputation as a centre of fine sacred music, boasting a musical programme that would be the envy of cathedrals anywhere in the world. A monthly rotation of orchestral, polyphonic, Gregorian and contemporary Masses as well as occasional sacred concerts help keep alive the musical tradition of the Church. The fine 1878 Halmshaw organ was first installed

in the pro-Cathedral. It has three manuals and 27 speaking stops and is mostly in original condition. While not a large organ by cathedral standards, it has always impressed by it’s ability to fill the Cathedral with its strong reeds, full diapasons and brilliant mixtures – all aided by the superb acoustics.

The Cathedral Choir and Orchestra under Musical Director of over 40 years, Don Whelan, have toured widely, including Europe, the Holy Land and the Americas as well as various trips to Australia. They have rightly been described as one of Christchurch’s treasures – all

the more so because of the link with such a wonderful building. Indeed, some of my own happiest musical memories involve the Cathedral – whether it was the thrill of Widor’s triumphant Mass for two choirs and organs, Gounod’s majestic St Cecilia Mass – performed in its entirety on the feast of Christ the King – or the concert performance of Elgar’s sublime setting of Cardinal Newman’s poem ‘The Dream of Gerontius’.

Images of the damaged Cathedral are heartbreaking. Visiting Christchurch in May this year I stood in front of the Cathedral in

disbelief – so difficult to imagine that such a solid symbol of the Faith could now be in such a state of seeming ruin. Video footage from inside shows piles of rubble in the sanctuary from collapsed columns under the main dome, major cracks in stonework, and organ pipes bent and hanging over the gallery balustrade, looking more like melted cheese. There is some hope that the nave may be saved. The main exterior dome and the inner dome have already been removed and the rear of the building is being deconstructed.

Despite the collapse of the two front bell towers and the whole

front of the south tower, the four large columns of the façade have remained standing. Above this, carved into the Oamaru limestone, is the phrase: “Ecce Tabernaculum Dei Cum Hominibus” (Behold the Tabernacle of God with Men). That these words have remained intact through so many earthquakes over the past year must give the Catholic people of Christchurch some hope amidst all the death and destruction.

The future of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament remains unclear. Given its unique design in this part of the world, it is to be hoped that every effort will be made to rebuild it. As it sits like a giant ship-wreck at the end of Barbadoes Street, I can almost hear the echo of the Angel’s farewell from the ‘Dream of Gerontius’: “Farewell, but not forever!”

Fr Nicholas Dillon is a priest of the Dunedin Diocese, New Zea-land, currently working on loan in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. He is parish priest of St Philip’s Parish, Blackburn North.


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mother of fairest loveSermon on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady

by Fr Ronan Kilganon

There is no mention in the

Gospels of the birth of

the Virgin of Nazareth,

chosen by God to be the mother

of His Incarnate Son. The text

used for this feast is an account

of the birth of Jesus. At first I

wondered about this. Then I

realised when a child is born a

mother is born. When a child is

born, its mother begins to be a

mother. Even if she is already

mother to other children this new

child makes her a new mother;

a new chapter in her mothering

begins.

In the birth of the Son of God, Mary begins to be the Mother of the Incarnate God. Mary’s motherhood was born at the birth of her Son. Mary was born again as our mother when her Son was hanging upon His gallows.

The title of motherhood awarded to St Mary that I appreciate most is a Medieval one. It has been applied to her since the 10th Century: ‘The Blessed virgin Mary, Mother of Fairest Love’. The

expression is found in the Vulgate text of the Book of Sirach, Ch 24, verse 24, where we read:

‘I am the mother of fairest love,of reverence, of knowledge, of

holy hope’.

Our Lady worshipped God throughout her life in all that she did with ‘fairest love’, because her soul was ever immaculate, her heart and intentions ever pure. There never was a time when sin marred the intimate communion she had with God ‘in the

beauty of her holiness’.

In the Gospels we discover her present at all the major events of her Son’s life. We observe in her the perfection of His Gospel. And so we revere her as His Mother, and seek to learn from her, as His first and most devoted disciple. I would like to suggest that on this feast day we think upon one expression of Our Lady’s ‘fairest love’ - that is, her exquisite courtesy.

Early last century, the author, poet and Catholic apologist Hilaire Belloc visited the Benedictine Abbey of Downside, near Storrington in southern England. It was Archbishop Polding’s Abbey and so has an

historic link with Australia. Having been shown into the Abbey parlour, Belloc stood and studied

three large murals hanging on three of its

walls. These depicted the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Nativity. He expressed his admiration for them, and declared to the monks present, ‘You have here three

november2011.indd 18 11/11/11 4:25 PM


paintings, and I see shining out from each one of them - the light of courtesy’. This prompted him to write a poem on the subject which begins with the two verses:

‘Of courtesy, it is much less, Than courage of heart and

holiness, Yet, in my walks it seems to me

That the grace of God is in courtesy’.

On monks I did in Storrington call,

They took me straight into their hall;

I saw three pictures on the wall, And Courtesy was in them all’.

The dictionary describes courtesy as politeness, good manners and civility. The thesaurus further suggests that it is akin to kindness, graciousness, affability, gallantry, elegance and urbanity. There is quaintness about many of these words, and few of them would find a place in our current vocabulary. I wonder, if the Benedictine monks welcomed us into that same parlour at their Abbey of Downside today, would we like Hilaire Belloc, immediately perceive the virtue of courtesy in the three murals? Probably not. And yet, when you think of it, the scenes and exchanges between Mary and the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation; between Mary and Elizabeth at the Visitation; and Mary with Joseph, the angels and shepherds at the Nativity, all manifest a lovely gentleness, reverence and courtesy. And these qualities are captured in the paintings of so many great Masters who took up these themes in their works. And we could add other Gospel scenes where Mary is present:

The Presentation of the Lord, The finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, standing at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, and gathered in prayer with the disciples in the Upper Room at Pentecost. Here too, we sense the presence of her peacefulness, graciousness, gratitude, reverence and courtesy.

The word courtesy may evoke for us the civility of another age, another culture, another society. Ours is marked more by selfish-ambition, immorality, coarseness, crudity, anger, aggression, and in terrorist activities and war - inhuman brutality. Perhaps we need to rediscover, prize and practice the virtue of courtesy today more than ever - in our diocese, parishes, presbyteries, organisations, in our neighbourhood, at the supermarket, etc. Western Society needs men and women - and the Church needs clergy - who speak the language of courtesy and who act toward others - all others and all created things -

with the gentleness, politeness and reverence of Christ and His mother. Is this not what the Lord would expect of His disciples and the Blessed Mother of her children?

In his poem on courtesy, in the verse describing her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth, Hilaire Belloc wrote:

Our Lady out of Nazareth rode, It was her month of heavy load, Yet was her face both great and

kind, For courtesy was on her mind.

May it be the same for us. Please God. Amen.

Fr Ronan Kilganon entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1963. He was ordained in 1971. He joined an OFM hermitage community in 1978, and began to live as a solitary in 1984. He tansferred to the Diocese of Wollongong as a Consecrated Hermit in perpetual eremitic vows in 2002. He has lived beside a station church in Kangaroo Valley for the last 18 years, caring for its small Catholic community where needed. He led the 2011 ACCC Annual Retreat.

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to thy namegive the gloryThe Life of Fr Rod Bray

by Fr James Tierney

Father Rod Bray was already a deacon and beginning his fourth and final year of

theology at St Patrick’s College, Manly, when I first met him early in 1961. He was making final preparations for his ordination to the priesthood on 15th July, while I was newly arrived to begin four years of theology.

Few of the deacons bothered themselves with those in “first theology”. However, Deacon Bray was very friendly to me and we recognized each other as kindred spirits in the Lord.

Mid-year, after Fr Bray had completed the usual round of first masses, and after the seminary holidays, I had the pleasure of his company again. In the second half of the year, the newly ordained priests completed their theological studies and from time to time helped in parishes with Saturday confessions and Sunday masses.

New Guinea to Mount DruittThen, instead of going into a parish in Sydney, he went on loan to a Franciscan diocese in New Guinea as a missionary. His first stint there left an indelible stamp on him. It enriched his experience as a pastor of souls and of the wider Church.

After six years Father Bray was back in Australia, 1968-1971, in various Sydney parishes. Permission was granted him for three more years

in New Guinea. He wanted to spend his life there! But Cardinal Freeman needed him in Sydney and appointed him to “the mission in Merrylands”. This included four years in the huge Mount Druitt parish.

Mount Druitt had two of the biggest government primary schools in the world with absurd numbers (nearly 2,000 children in a single school). With little family spirit it was akin to Huxley’s Brave New World of production-line human beings.

Father lived in that parish’s ‘no. 3 presbytery’ in a low-lying swampy area. The abominable conditions were bad for the health. The other priest with him had to be moved urgently to another parish just to survive. At least Father Bray was hardened from New Guinea.

One day when I called in Father Bray was sick in bed, but one could not get across the room to the bed without trampling on his ‘filing system’: papers were spread over every inch of the floor like a light fall of snow on a lawn. What’s more, no one could cross the backyard to the old-fashioned ‘loo’ without running the gauntlet of the man-eating guard dogs. These dogs were hired out to industrial sites by Brother Stan in order to help finance the presbytery.

A Priest of Jesus Christ What sort of priest was Fr Rod? Our learned professor of Church

History had assured us that St Athanatius of Alexandria was a bishop whose whole life was “Word-incarnate”. Exactly the same applies to Fr Rod.

First and last Fr Rod was and remains the priest of our Lord Jesus Christ. No higher tribute can be paid him than that. He lived and exercised that priesthood faithfully for fifty years. It is the only thing he is interested in and he is very good at it.

His devotion to our Lord is particularly in the Blessed Sacrament. He resisted pressure to remove the altar rails at Merrylands to the point of breaking obedience. Father Rod has faithfully ministered the Body of Christ to the sick both in his parish and beyond. He has promoted visits to the Blessed Sacrament in the teeth of trendy resistance and, when possible, perpetual adoration or at least an all-night vigil once a month.

He has worked tirelessly and successfully for vocations to the priesthood and the convent. He has prepared the way of the Lord by means of God’s 3 Cs: Catechetics, Confession and no Contraception.

Cardinal Newman Catechist Centre Fr Rod’s preaching has always been instructive. In zeal for restoring Catholic orthodoxy he invited into the parish the Cardinal

november2011.indd 20 11/11/11 4:25 PM


Newman Catechist Centre, which I had started in 1974, with the explicit support of Cardinal Freeman who had declared it “an approved private enterprise in the Archdiocese of Sydney”. But when “there arose a pharaoh who knew not Joseph” it was asked to leave its Parramatta parish premises.

From then till now Fr Rod befriended it in Merrylands, through various ‘dark nights of the soul’ and against forces bitterly opposed to it. More recently he sponsored its redevelopment to operate his Merrylands Parish Faith Resource Centre under its new title of Cardinal Newman Faith Resources.

The latest is that Bishop Fisher has graciously granted the latter the status of “an approved private enterprise in the Diocese of Parramatta”.

A Confessor and Spiritual GuideFr Rod is particularly noted as a confessor and as a spiritual guide. Penitents came from far and wide just as they did to St John Vianney. They even knelt at his bed of sickness when he was in a couple of hospitals over more stressful months.

Much further back, and more than once, intimidatory pressure was applied to him to resign the parish. On a more recent occasion his oppressors waited impatiently to interview him while he went on hearing confessions long after the scheduled hour had passed. They did not offer to help, but sat outside his confessional!

His priestly reading and study has concentrated on his ministry as a spiritual advisor. He has been much in demand for retreats and confessions at his beloved Mount Schöenstatt at Mulgoa. His favourite crucifix is from there: it is combined with Our Lady, the spiritual mother of souls provided

by our Lord. He shares her with us, just as he does everything else, and of her the Schöenstatts sing: “though mighty the world, yet mightier thou, victorious we shall be”.

Marriage and MissionFr Rod is renowned for upholding chaste marriages, so vital to the lay apostolate. He made himself an expert on the spirituality of procreation and education of godly offspring, and a champion of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae vitae. Indeed, without this ‘politically incorrect’ teaching there will be no Catholics for the future, nor priests or religious, and indeed no

future for any country whose citizens practice abortion and contraception. One of his spiritual gems has been: “we must not just accept but rather welcome the sovereignty of God over our lives.”

In the Diocese of Parramatta Fr Rod has been Director of Pontifical Missions. In the parish of Merrylands he provided a capacious parish hall for visiting speakers from home and abroad, which had been well attended by hungry souls from all over greater Sydney.

In the latter 1980s he hosted on the parish property a number of the monthly Sunday gathering of the family catechetics group, who came together for mutual support

and further instruction under the auspices of the Cardinal Newman Catechist Centre.

He has been the chairman of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy as a champion of the priesthood and to convert the muddled listeners of confused theologians whom the Devil got at and who have led many astray into doubt and even despair.

In recent years he has been very popular and in demand as a confessor at the Catholic homeschooling camps held at the Christian Convention Centre at Fitzroy Falls.

Like St Paul, Fr Rod has suffered from thorns in the flesh or, more specifically, in the teeth as well as hip and eyes. He has been bashed by thugs several times at the very doorsteps of his presbytery. His blood pressure of 240/180 should have got him into the Guinness Book of Records.

Fr Rod has worked long and faithfully at what St Gregory Nazianzen called the “art of arts, the care of souls”. Please pray for him and please take on board his

attitude from the Psalmist: “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Thy Name give the glory.”

Fr Rod Bray celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 23rd July 2011 (actual anniversary on 15th) and was called to his Father’s House on 27th August. Bishop Anthony Fisher celebrated his Requiem Mass at St Margaret Mary’s church on 2nd September. An estimated 3,000 mourners were in attendance.

Father James Tierney is the founder of the Cardinal Newman Catechist Centre, now Cardinal Newman Faith Resources Inc. He is the author of the Catholic Family Catechism. Father Tierney lives in retirement from parish work with a large homeschooling family on a rural property in the hinterland of Goulburn NSW.

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Is World Youth Day (WYD) really worth the effort? Is WYD anything more than a

glorified Catholic road show? Is it just a passing fad – a short-term pastoral bandaid - or does it really have an enduring role in the New Evangelisation of the Church?

Three years after hosting our very own WYD here in Sydney, and after witnessing the largest ever contingent of young Australians journey overseas to WYD in Madrid, it is worth reflecting on what exactly is the value of World Youth Day?

As a newly- ordained priest I had the privilege of acting as a chaplain to a pilgrimage group of forty year ten and eleven students from Catholic schools across the Archdiocese of Sydney. Whilst a distinct group we travelled in conjunction with another hundred or so post-school pilgrims, led by Bishop Porteous, which travelled to Madrid via the Holy Land. Given that a significant proportion of the school students came from families that had lapsed in the practice of the faith (two students belonged to other Christian denominations and three had

not even been baptised), the eight days we spent visiting some of the most sacred of sites proved to be of incalculable value and contributed immensely to the overall success of our pilgrimage.

What better way to challenge young people to move beyond a purely wistful comprehension of Sacred Scripture and Catholic teaching than to actually preach the Gospel and celebrate Holy

Mass at the very sites of Christ’s Incarnation, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, and Resurrection? “For the first time the Gospels came to life!” heralded one year ten girl.

Although there were many special moments of grace throughout our time in the Holy Land (not least of which was a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pell on a boat floating

on Lake Galilee), one memory stands out in particular; a memory that underscores the inestimable value of the ‘pilgrim experience’. Late on a Thursday afternoon, our pilgrim group gathered at the Church of All Nations (aptly known as ‘The Basilica of Agony’) in the Garden of the Gethsemane. Here in this darkened church we prayed silently in front of Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament, remembering Christ’s words to his disciples: “So could you not watch with me one hour?” (Matt 26:40).

At the same time, several priests –including myself- made themselves available to hear confessions. Again, for the majority of the school students, this represented the first time they had ever experienced Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and for many was the first time in a number of years that they had developed the confidence to approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

I walked away that night saying to myself, “you really do have the greatest job in the world.” After our return to the hotel from the Holy Hour I

more than a catholic roadshowWorld Youth Day through the eyes of a new priest

by Fr Gregory Morgan

After our return to the

hotel from the Holy Hour

I continued to hear

confessions in the lobby till

after two am!

“

”

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continued to hear confessions in the lobby till after two am! No words could describe what a grace it was to witness the tears of absolute joy shed by these young people who, for the first time in years, experienced the peace of Christ’s love and mercy through the words of absolution.

This night represented a major turning point for these young people in their journey of faith. For it was precisely by cultivating a love and knowledge of Christ’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament and by encouraging them to discover the wonder of sacramental confession that these fun-seeking teenagers were gradually being transformed into faith-filled pilgrims. We were now ready for WYD and everyone was excited!

Amidst the hustle and bustle of heat-wave Madrid, the plethora of events that form WYD week provided our group with a range of opportunities to solidify and build upon the immense blessings bestowed upon us in the Holy Land. However, the strength of WYD is not found in the events themselves. In fact, I would think of it as something of a false economy to dream that ‘event evangelism’ would ever be a suitable antidote to the problems of youth ministry.

Rather, the success of WYD hinges on encouraging young people to appropriate the catechesis imparted through the various mediums offered at WYD and apply it to their everyday lives. Personal apostolate, particularly as a

chaplain, forms a crucial part to facilitating this process.

Of course the most important catechetical medium at WYD is the personal preaching of the Pope and the opportunity to draw closer to the one who is the Vicar of Christ, His Holiness Benedict XVI. Unfortunately for us monolingual pilgrims, most of our group were not able to have direct access to much of what the Pope preached about in his beautiful homilies and reflections. Nevertheless, the Pope’s call to “swim against the tide” and be “apostles of the 21st century” became evident in other ways.

On a few brief occasions our group was confronted by some of the more hostile factions of secular Spanish society. Somewhat ironically, however, our fleeting encounters with these protesters made a very deep impression on the school students, forcing them to reflect and question, “Why is there such aggression towards the teachings of the Church?” Over the course of the week, our young pilgrims came to a greater realisation of what a counter-cultural thing it is to want to be holy.

Holiness is a sign of contradiction to the ‘world’ (i.e. secular society), a sign of a deeper, more enduring and transcendent reality which calls into question the shallowness and transience of secular society’s values and false idols. It is little wonder then that the presence of so many young, joyful and committed Catholics

makes the secular world feel uncomfortable - it challenges every single one of the wrong attitudes that many people just absorb from our society. By the time of our departure, two students came and told me that, by virtue of their WYD experience, they would like to become Catholics.

On returning from WYD Madrid, I am convinced that World Youth Day is worth every effort and deserves priestly support because it has the proven capacity to change and transform the lives of young people. By affording young people a genuine exposure to the beauty of Catholic culture; by providing young people with an opportunity to witness the palpable joy that comes in searching and discovering truth; by giving young people the opportunity to have close contact with happy priests and religious, the young people of Australia were able to truly discover the pride we should have in being “rooted and built up in Christ, firm in the faith.”

For many WYD sceptics, this opinion may sound elusively pious. Where is the proof that lives were changed? Well the proof to me as a priest is obvious, for a priest is afforded a privileged insight into the real significance of WYD in the life of the Church – but it’s hidden in the confessional.

Fr Gregory Morgan was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Sydney on 21st May 2011. He is assistant priest at All Saints Parish, Liverpool.

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In the Church of Sant’Ignazio

in Rome, the memorial of

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga is

celebrated each year as a feast.

Throughout this day youths

stand guard at his tomb in the

right transept. They are dressed

in black velvet Sixteenth Century

costume, emblazoned with the

arms of the Castiglione-Gonzaga

family. The noble altar tomb is

adorned with lights and vases of

white lilies, a symbol the saint

shares with Saint Joseph.

The short life of this young Jesuit reminds us that time is relative in God’s mysterious plan for a specific vocation. Unlike us, Saint Aloysius never received priestly ordination, yet, in a short life, by God’s grace he attained a distinctive holiness marked by chastity and a single-minded commitment that is a model for all clergy. In his life he exemplified the maxim of Soren Kierkegaard, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”

However the human will of itself cannot achieve that much. We are not voluntarists. It is the grace of God that matters. In his own short life Saint

Aloysius knew that so well. The fabric of his selfless Christian life depended on grace - his penitential austerities, his single-minded commitment, his powerful purity, a selfless devotion to others that led to his own death while caring for victims of the plague. It was all the work of grace.

Grace. The “g” word has fallen out of fashion, except for a popular old hymn which at least gets across the truth that grace is “amazing”. Yet grace is at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is of the essence of Christianity. I therefore bring to your serious consideration the project of the Australian Catholic Bishops for a Year of Grace, from Pentecost 2012 until Pentecost 2013. The year also coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.

We all need a deeper catechesis on grace. Do our people still think, pray and live in terms of the divine life of grace? To check on this, I invite you to do some discreet pastoral research, to find out what your people really

believe about how we “get to heaven”. I suspect that in these times many of them imagine that good works get us to heaven, that salvation is a matter of effort and still more effort. Pelagianism is rampant today, easily absorbed in the social environment of the free-market society, reinforced by the individualism of our society, whether drawn from post-modernism or perennial human selfishness.

Our mission is to minister God’s grace and to preach the good news of grace. We proclaim that the grace of God is at work in us, grace as the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. Through grace we are justified and sanctified, reborn in the water of Baptism, sealed in Confirmation, nourished in the Eucharist. Our priesthood depends on grace, on the created grace of the character received for ever in ordination, on the grace of state to be a priest, on the actual graces received in our ministry for others. Our life of grace is drawn above all from the Divine Sacrifice that passes through our unworthy hands. If the Year of Grace is to be Christ-centred as

that‘g’ wordHomily at ACCC Requiem Mass for past members on the Memorial of St Aloysius Gonzaga

by Most Rev. Peter J Elliott

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that‘g’ word

the Bishops envisage, it will be a Eucharistic year.

I suggested that you might find out what your people believe about grace. Some years ago, a survey taken in the United States revealed what Catholic really believe, or do not believe, about the Holy Eucharist. For not a few, it seems as if the Eucharist is “symbolic”, which places the Eucharist safely under our control because some people do not want God to get too close.

I had a taste of this lingering problem at a school Mass in a parish. During Communion I stopped the singing of a sugary children’s hymn which spoke of “eating bread and drinking wine”. One of the teachers was irritated with the bishop because “that is not important”. This is what we are up against. But we need to resist discouragement and press forward patiently and surely with good Eucharistic catechesis. The Year of Grace could make that possible, an ideal context to focus on Our Lord, offered and received in the sacrament of his self-giving love.

Grace through the sacraments also leads to our ministry of reconciliation as confessors. Perhaps the decline in the first rite is partly due to a problem that predates the arrival of the “Third Rite”. Perhaps our people were allowed to fixate on the most unpalatable part of Penance, confessing their sins, which also explains the rise and misuse of General Absolution. Even if contrition

was emphasized in times past, the gift of grace in absolution should have been, and should still be, the focus. I would have preferred the post-conciliar word for the renewed sacrament to have been “Absolution” rather than “Reconciliation”, rich as the latter term is in scriptural and patristic wisdom. When we think pastorally, if we focus on grace, the divine forgiveness mediated through absolution should be the heart of the Sacrament of Penance.

Returning to the Holy Eucharist, we can take up a pastoral project, to deepen faith in the Real Presence and to recover the sense of grace in the sacrament, which is more clearly evident in the new translations of the Mass. This would continue the project of the last years of the Petrine ministry of Blessed John Paul, a Eucharistic project – which is the sure basis for the current liturgical project of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

We are particularly challenged to correct a casual attitude to Holy Communion, especially among children. Receiving the Lord can easily become

mechanical, bereft of prayer, lacking much awareness of the great gift. I would propose a crusade of Eucharistic prayer focused around preparation and thanksgiving for Holy Communion, which would be complemented by the spread of Eucharistic adoration, to which we are all committed.

The saint we celebrate today had a deep devotion to the Blessed Eucharist. In his final illness, Saint Aloysius humbly received Holy Viaticum several times. He was made aware by an interior revelation that he would die on the Octave Day of Corpus Christi, 1591, which was this day, June 21st.

May this patron saint of youth pray for our young people, especially those who are preparing to go to Madrid for World Youth Day. In their pilgrimage to Spain may they discover the amazing grace of God, through Penance and the Eucharist, the grace that justifies and sanctifies, the grace which reconciles and heals, the pledge of what is to come. This is put well in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas: “Grace is nothing else than a kind of beginning of glory in us.”

Most Rev. Peter J Elliott STD is Titular Bishop of Manaccenser and Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne. He is the general editor of the Religious Education texts To Know, Worship and Love and he is Director of the Melbourne Session of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family.

For not a few, it seems as if

the Eucharist is “symbolic”,

which places the Eucharist

safely under our control

because some people do

not want God to get too

close.

“

”

november2011.indd 25 11/11/11 4:25 PM


Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801 – 1890AD) was born and brought

up an Anglican. He had some kind of conversion at the age of fifteen when he tells us that he received “impressions of dogma, which, through God’s mercy, have never been effaced or obscured”. From that time he lived a serious and devout life and went to Oxford University where eventually he was ordained as an Anglican Clergyman and gained great honours as a student then as a teacher and preacher.

Through the study of the Fathers of the Church, and another deep spiritual conversation whilst travelling around the Mediterranean, he drew closer and closer to Catholicism. He was one of the leading lights of the early Anglo-Catholic enterprise found especially in the Oxford movement. Eventually he realised, at great cost to himself, that the voice of history was pointing to the Catholic Church alone as ‘the one fold of the Redeemer’. He could no longer accept the Anglican middle way (via media) between Catholicism and Protestantism. He wrote:

For a mere sentence, the words of St Augustine, struck me with a power which I never had felt from any words before ..... they were like the ‘Tolle, lege, — Tolle, lege,’ of the child, which converted St Augustine himself. ‘Securus judicat orbis terrarum!’ (secure is the judgement of the whole world). By those great words of the ancient Father, interpreting and summing up

the long and varied course of ecclesiastical history, the theology of the Via Media was absolutely pulverised (Apologia Pro Vita Sua, part 5).

In 1845 at the hands of Blessed Dominic Barberi (1792-1849AD) he was received into the Church at Littlemore. He went on to become a Catholic priest, he founded the Oratory of St Philip Neri in England and wrote some of the most important theology ever to come out of this land. He was not always understood or appreciated in the Church as he wrote in a peculiarly non-scholastic fashion. Eventually his genius was recognised and he was made Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

Newman is not always classed as an apologist and yet so many of his great works are written to address particular controversies of his time. The stated intention, for instance, in writing An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine was to create ‘an hypothesis to account for a difficulty’. It was Newman who said that doctrine often develops because of heresy and in response to it. He could therefore have easily concluded that it was apologetics that was the major force behind the development of Christian doctrine.

His great University Sermons are principally apologetic works which teach us the true relationship between Faith and Reason. Newman’s Grammar of Assent gives us a deep understanding of the act of faith itself in response to accusations of loose reasoning in religion and emotionally driven

belief.

His own life became an apology for the truth of the Catholic faith. He titled his story of conversion Apologia Pro Vita Sua. It was indeed a defence of the integrity of his journey to the Catholic faith and of his good name after various calumnies against him. The work reveals how he followed the light of truth often at the greatest cost to himself.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936AD) is widely acclaimed as one of the

very greatest apologists. His contributions to journalism (especially in the Illustrated London News) and literature (most notably his Fr Brown detective stories and his poetry) are well acknowledged. However, his particular genius was in his defence of Christian faith and common sense philosophy and social teaching. When asked why he became a Catholic he responded, “To get rid of my sins”. He said, “The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.” And elsewhere, “To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think.”

When he died on 14th June 1936 he was an acknowledged national hero and literary giant. His natural human goodness won him even the admiration of his adversaries. George Bernard Shaw described him after his death as “a man of colossal genius”.

Chesterton is perhaps most renowned for his humour as

three great apologistsNewman, Chesterton and Knox

by Fr Marcus Holden

november2011.indd 26 11/11/11 4:25 PM


three great apologists

an apologist. He is a master of irony, sarcasm and indeed even slapstick presentations of human incongruities. He is called the ‘prince of paradox’. Here is one example that is often used from his The Man Who was Thursday:

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

Paradox in the relationship between the divine and the human was often brought to the fore and he allows us by these alternative visions to look at the world anew and marvel.

Another technique that Chesterton employed was exaggeration and hyperbole. He was capable of rousing emotions, just as Winston Churchill, one of his contemporaries, did in his political speeches of the time. His humanity also shines through and he was known after good-natured debates to have a pint with his adversaries (such as H. G. Wells and G. B. Shaw). This did not mean that he thought lightly of the subjects discussed but that human courtesy and charity had its own persuasive power and must never be sacrificed in the search for truth.

Here is a short quotation from Chesterton’s Orthodoxy (ch.6) which gives encouragement to every apologist:

This is the thrilling romance of Orthodoxy. People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. The Church... swerved to left and right, so exactly as to avoid enormous obstacles. She left on one hand the huge bulk of Arianism, buttressed by all the worldly powers to make Christianity too worldly. The next instant she was swerving to avoid an orientalism, which would have made it too unworldly.

The orthodox Church never took the tame course or accepted the conventions; the orthodox Church was never respectable. It would have been easier to have accepted the earthly power of the

Arians. It would have been easy, in the Calvinistic seventeenth century, to fall into the bottomless pit of predestination. It is easy to be a madman: it is easy to be a heretic. It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one’s own. It is always easy to be a modernist [or a postmodernist]; as it is easy to be a snob.

To have fallen into any of those open traps of error and exaggeration which fashion after fashion and sect after sect set along the historic path of Christendom—that would indeed have been simple. It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have fallen into any one of the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect.

Ronald Knox (1888 -1957) was born an Anglican, son of Bishop Edmund

Knox. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. He had a glittering career as a classicist winning several prizes and scholarships. He was made a fellow of Trinity College in 1910 and went on to become chaplain after Anglican ordination in 1912. In the midst of the First World War he was converted to Catholicism. Interestingly the account of his conversion is written in a book aptly called Apologia (1917). Another account is found in his A Spiritual Aeneid (1918).

After ordination as a Catholic priest in 1918 he became a seminary tutor at St Edmund’s Ware. His period of greatest reknown and literary output came between 1926-1939 when he was Catholic chaplain at Oxford. He was chosen to preach at the funeral of G. K. Chesterton. He established himself as a great preacher and writer. Some of Knox’s most famous works as an accomplished linguist are in fact translations. His editions of the Imitation of Christ and the Story

of a Soul are very popular even today. He translated Jerome’s entire Latin Vulgate into a modern, homely, earthy, English style.

His apologetic material is found scattered throughout his writings, not least in his wonderful sermons. The book, first written for university students, The Belief of Catholics (1927) contains a great detail of superb apologetic writing. Sadly, whilst he was working on a more extensive work of apologetics in the 1950s he fell seriously ill and died of cancer in August 1957. Such was his popularity that the great novelist Evelyn Waugh wrote a biography of his life in 1959.

Waugh thought that Knox’s satire as demonstrated in Enthusiasm represented one of the greatest literary masterpieces of the 20th century. It was this spirit of satire, being able to mock the ridiculous, and show the eccentric for what it is, that also characterises Knox’s apologetics. It is always extremely balanced and sensible, never fanatical or exaggerated.

Knox continued the great tradition of Chesterton (his mentor) in the 1940s and 50s but with a distinct style and method of his own. He was an expert in detective literature and a writer in this genre himself. His apologetics often reads as a detective story, the uncovering of the hidden truth and the working out of a seemingly unsolvable riddle.

Perhaps Knox’s greatest gift is that he allows us to approach great and terrifying mysteries in a confident, yet humble, matter of fact way. His writings on the Mass in Slow Motion and the Creed in Slow Motion became overnight best sellers because of their simple straightforward clarity.

Fr Holden’s survey of great apologiests originally formed part of his lecture Apologetics and Evangelisation but is published here separately. The original survey also included C.S. Lewis, Frank Sheed, Peter Kreeft, and Karl Keating. These four apologists will be featured in the next edition of The Priest.

november2011.indd 27 11/11/11 4:25 PM


The 25th annual Conference of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy was held in Carlton from 20th to 24th June 2011. On Monday

evening over 50 bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians and friends of the ACCC from all around Australia gathered for Solemn Vespers in the beautiful chapel of Corpus Christi College, the Regional Seminary for Victoria and Tasmania.

After Vespers the National Chairman Fr John Walshe welcomed everyone and thanked the rector of the seminary for his hospitality. He specifically acknowledged members of the Traditional Anglican Communion who are anticipating the establishment of an Anglican Ordinariate in Australia in the near future. Fr Walshe also welcomed the Conference’s keynote speaker Fr Marcus Holden, Parish Priest of Ramsgate and Minster in England and co-founder of the Evangelium project.

Fr Holden’s lectures during the week shone a light on the need for a renewed approach to apologetics, catechetics and evangelisation. In particular, Fr Holden spoke on the topics of Re-imagining Catechesis, Apologetics and Evangelisation, The Catholic Gift to Civilisation, and Beyond Mere Historical Criticism.

Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett also spoke on the topic of Liturgy and Evangelisation and Fr John Walter on The ACCC: Origins and Outcomes.

Conference participants were also blessed by the presence of Archbishop Denis Hart who was the main celebrant and homilist during one of the Conference Masses.

At the Conference dinner Fr John Walshe and Fr Gregory Pritchard shared many anecdotes concerning the growth of the ACCC and some of the colourful characters who have filled its ranks.

Finally, the original schedule of the week was joyfully interrupted by the episcopal ordination of Australia’s first Asian-born bishop Vincent Long van Nguyen OFM Conv. in St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The 2011 Conference was indeed a worthy way to mark the silver jubilee of the Confraternity.

25th annualconference Corpus Christi College Calrton 20th - 24th June 2011

november2011.indd 28 11/11/11 4:25 PM


Australian Confraternity of Catholic ClergyAnnual Membership Dues

Application/Renewal for Clergy Members & Lay Associates

This form may be used by readers wishing to apply for membership of the ACCC and by current members wishing to renew their membership. Renewing members may refer to the ‘postal sticker’ for their current dues payment status. Kindly send this form (see reverse) and payment to the ACCC Secretariat. Address printed below.

Bequests Have you considered remembering the ACCC in your will? A sample form of bequest is as follows: I bequeath the sum of $__________ to the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy ABN 30 270 616 942, the receipted acknowledgement of the Treasurer satisfying this provision. It is possible to make provision for anniversary Masses to be offered for some years after your death by incorporating a gift of stipends for this purpose in your bequest. You may also consider bequeathing church valuables such as sacred vessels, vestments, liturgical books, and scholarly books etc. for gifting to young priests. Please contribute to the renewal of the Church in Australia by supporting the ACCC. May God bless you!

About the ACCCThe Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy is a private, voluntary and fraternal association of Catholic clerics of the Dioceses of Australia constituted in conformity with the Code of Canon Law: “Secular clergy have the right of association with others for the achievement of purposes befitting the clerical state” (CIC 278.1).

Our fraternity helps us to build up one another in the grace of our vocation, increases the wider flourishment of authentic living and exercise of vocations among bishops, priests and deacons, and attracts younger men to consider a vocation to the Sacred Ministry.

Priest and deacon associate membership is open to clerics who are members of religious or secular institutes. Lay associate members support the clerical association in its objectives and receive Confraternity journal The Priest, published twice yearly. .

The ACCC has five objectives:

1. To give glory and honour to the Most Blessed Trinity. 2. To assist the eternal salvation and holiness of members. 3. To foster unity among Catholic priests and deacons with the bishops in loyalty to

the Supreme Magisterium. 4. To encourage faithfulness to priestly life and ministry. 5. To assist bishops, priests and deacons in the fulfilment of their ministry of

teaching, sanctifying and governing.

Postal AddressACCC Secretariat P O Box 8004 North Road LPOBrighton East VIC 3187Australia

Email [email protected]/fax (03) 9596 4343international +613 9596 4343web www.clergy.asn.au

Office Hours 10am-3pm Mon & Frior leave a message on other days and your call will be returned.

november2011.indd 29 11/11/11 4:25 PM


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ACCC EXECUTIVENational Chairman

Rev. John Walshe PP – 10 Rogers St, Mentone VIC 3194

National Vice-Chairman

Rev. Scot Armstrong – P O Box 13 Urana NSW 2645

Editor Rev. Gregory Bellamy - PO Box 14 Mudgee NSW 2850

TreasurerVery Rev. Andrew Wise – PO Box 183 Sale VIC 3850

SecretaryRev. Glen Tattersall – 21 Cromwell St Caufield VIC 3161

Publicity OfficerTBA

State CouncillorsNSW – Rev. Andrew Benton – (02) 8522 0300

VIC – Rev. Gregory Pritchard PP – (03) 9772 2211

SA – Rev. Paul Crotty PP – (08) 8632 3977

WA – Rev. Don Kettle PP – (08) 9341 3131

ACT – Rev. Kevin Brannelly PP – (02) 6288 1979

TAS – Rev. Gerald Quinn CP – (03) 6234 4866

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUESClergy ordained 5 years or more – $100

Clergy ordained less than 5 years – $50

Retired clergy – $50

Seminarians – no dues payable

Lay Associates – $25

Lay Pensioners/Retiree – $15

Overseas (non-NZ) jnl sub’n – A$50

Longer Term Membership

Clergy – 5 years – $450 or 10 years – $875

Retired Clergy – 5 years – $250 or 10 years – $500

Lay Associates – 5 years – $110 or 10 years – $230

Membership and dues to:ACCC Secretariat, PO Box 8004, Nth Road LPO,

Brighton East VIC 3187

Phone/fax (10am-3pm Tue-Thurs only) – (03) 9596 4343

e-mail: [email protected]

visit our website: www.clergy.asn.au

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia

Where Peter is, there is the Church

Daily Prayer for Priests

A lmighty and Eternal God, look with mercy on Your priests, sharing Your Fatherhood in the Holy Church.

Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has made them priests and victims with Himself: day by day, may they offer the worship of His Mystical Body in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, with their own homage of heart, mind and body.

By the Holy Spirit, make them zealous in their priestly ministry: keep them devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, obedient to the Pope and their own Bishop, and through them inspire young men to serve you in the priesthood.

To You, O Holy Trinity, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

new website launched

The ACCC has recently launched a redesigned confraternity website: www.clergy.asn.au

This new site presents major Confraternity events and current news which may be of interest to both clergy and associate members. The site now allows membership dues, conference and retreat fees, and donations to be paid on-line through a secure Pay-Pal facility.

The site contains an archive of past editions of this publication and occassionally hosts full-length papers not printed in The Priest. Current editions are digitised and made available online 12 months after publication.

The website will continue to be developed over time with the aim of it becoming a major means of communicating up-to-date news. Please take the time to discover it for yoursef.

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PO

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PAID

AU

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LIA

the

journa

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Austra

lian C

onfra

ternity o

f Ca

tholic C

lergy

AB

N 30 270 616 942

PP 243571/00004 – ISSN 0818-9007

Vol 26 No 2 – N

ovember 2011

If undelivered return to AC

CC

Secretariat

PO B

ox 8004, North R

oad LPO

Brighton East V

ictoria 3187

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the - clergy.asn.au · 2 – november 2011 the the journal of the australian confraternity of...

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