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AUSTRALIAN BISHOPS' CALL NEW BELL BLESSED TO AID Mt 1 DESTITUTE IN OTHER LANDS The Bishops of Australia have requested a Lenten offering from every Catholic family throughout the Commonwealth to assist the destitute in other lands. This request was made in a National Pastoral Letter read from all pulpits lost Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent. The Australian Episcopal Committee for Overseas Relief, which was appointed a year ago as the national official Catholic agency for all overseas relief work, will distribute the. money received. The Bishops' committee has pointed out that each Christian must be involved personally in the problem of poverty in the world, and that each one of us must accept, in the words of Pope John, "that the . undernourished world's people" — almost one-half of the world's population— "are a collective responsibility of us all." The Bishops recalled "with what dramatic symbolism the Holy Father demonstrated his concern for the needy when, at the Vatican Council, before the assembled Bishops of the whole world, he placed his jewelled tiara on the altar .as a gift for the world's needy." The United 'States, country's that through Bishops' Catholic Relief Services, during the past year alone had contributed for relief overseas, in cash and kind, an amount exceeding £53 million. In Western Germany the Catholic Bishops' Fund there had raised for relief of poverty and for development, in the past five years, the sum of £25 million. The Bishops acknowledged that Australian Catholics assumed particular responsibilities for their children's education and towards their parishes. However, they added that so pressing for the need of others less favoured than Australians that no consideration of our interests have should •priority to that of world • poverty. More sacrifices were to be made to fulfil the obligations which are ours in justice and charity.
The Bishops said the season of Lent was an appropriate time to practise self-denial and make acts of sacrifice. The motives for these should be our love of God and our neighbour, because of God. The Bishops suggested that in each home, during Lent there could be a box or receptacle of some kind into which could be placed the cash equivalent of sacrifices made. Before the end of Lent these family offerings could be handed to the parish committee set up for the purpose. Ultimately the proceeds in the name of the parish could be forwarded to the Bishop, or to a special diocesan committee. In due course all proceeds would go to the Episcopal Committee for Overseas Relief. This committee has its headquarters at 355 Kent St., Sydney, where an executive committee deals with normal business.
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Pope Wants Children To Aid Needy
T his new bell of St. Columba was blessed on Wednesday by the parish priest of South Perth, Monsignor J. T. McMahon, a ssisted by Father B. Harris. The ceremony was w atched by children from t he parish school who sang a hymn to the tune of "The Bells of St. Mary's" after the blessing.
joice that your country and your parents, in particular, have been able to provide you with so many good things."
Like all the stained glass windows in St. Columba's Church, the bell was designed and made in Dublin. The new bell was made at the foundry of Matthew O'Byrne which has been making bells for over a century.
DOPE PAUL VI has appealed to the five million youngsters in U.S. Catholic schools to help him "in caring for the needy brothers and sisters of the whole human family." "Your little sacrifices during this Lenten season can accomplish much spiritual good for you, and at the same time they will assure bodily good to our needy children in other Therefore, make lands. these sacrifices generously," the Pope counselled the children. The occasion was the annual Ash Wednesday address by the Pope to the U.S. Catholic schoolchildren, touching off the youngsters' Lenten campaign for the Bishops' Relief Fund appeal. The address was carried by the major radio networks into classrooms and homes. In recent years the Lenten sacrifices of American schoolchildren have toRecommended talled one million dollars In his pastoral letter annually. Coupled with the last week Cardinal Gilroy, yearly five-million-dollar Archbishop of Sydney, Laetare Sunday collection recommended adoption of taken up in the parish the Bishops' suggestion. churches throughout the "We would be unworthy country, the proceeds conof our Christian heritage." stitute the major support wrote His Eminence, "if for Catholic Relief Serwe thought only of our vices - National Catholic own welfare. We are in- Welfare Conference, the deed our brothers' keepers. agency maintained by U.S. "The material prosperity Catholics for relief of the enjoyed by the majority of needy overseas. Australian citizens is not As a result of last year's general in the world. There are many people in many successful campaign, the parts of the world who are agency was enabled to aid destitute. We should not more than forty million be indifferent to their con- needy persons in 73 countries of the world. dition. Pope Paul reminded the "Realising that the gen- youngsters that "only a few erosity of their people short years ago" he visited would inspire them to re- America on two spond to an appeal on The Holy Father occasions. said: "We behalf of those in distress, saw .your great cities, the Bishops of Australia steaming decided to ask for a Len- f armlands,factories, fertile lovely homes, ten offering from every c omfortable schools and family." beautiful churches. We re-
In contrast. the Pontiff recalled his visit last December to India. He said: "We saw many children who had very few of the things which you possess. At one orphanage, we shared a very simple breakfast with the poor children, and even though they had very little and few comforts, they did
seem nappy because somc one was looking afte. them. -These are but a few of the thousands and millions of boys and girls who are cold, sick and hungry," the Holy Father continued. "Can you imagine how worried your mothers and fathers would be if you went to bed hungry every night, if you did not have warm clothing during the cold of winter, if you were seriously sick and there was no doctor or medicine to cure you?"
T he bell which weighs 1 2; cwt. and measures 3 ft. 4; ins, at its mouth w as lifted by crane to the t op of the tower.
PRIESTS SHOULD EXPLAIN NEW LITURGY CHANGES
V ATICAN CITY: Pope Paul VI has recommended to Lenten preachers and priests of Rome that they give special attention to explaining and carrying out the new liturgical norms. The Pope acknowledged that application of the new liturgical changes "is not easy." He said it requires their "personal, patient, loving and truly pastoral assistance." Noting that it is a matter of changing many old habits of prayers which are both respectable and dear to many of the faithful, he added that it means "disturbing pious and good faithful persons by proposing to them new forms of prayer which they will not understand immediately." But the Pope added it is a necessary matter, "a matter of duty, providen-
tial and a task of renewal which we also hope will be consoling for you." He said preachers will find their reward for this effort when they really experience the words of Psalm 132: "Behold, how good it is, and how pleasant, where brethren dwell as one."
Ideals At Stake At the same time the Pope made it clear that preachers themselves must "be persuaded that it is a question of a great event and that highest ideals are at stake and that divine
truth, even divine realities, come into play" in the new liturgical renewal. It will take us years, but it is necessary to begin, to re-begin and to persevere if we wish to succeed in giving again to the assembly of the people of God the liturgy's serious, unanimous, sweet and sublime voice, he said. The Pope also urged priests to be faithful to their priestly vocation and ministry. He encouraged them to be open to the spiritual renewal going on within the Church. but to be aware of the demands of obedience.