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PERTH, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1980
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Dutch accord on major divisive issues in church V ATICAN CITY (NC): After 64 hours of meeting, over 500 statements by participants and over 100 pages of documentation the Dutch bishops' synod has ended with agreement on major divisive issues.
Project Compassion promotion committee members Peter GRAVESTOCK and Frances OTTS pictured handing appeal materials to Ken HOLYOAKE, of Belmont parish, and Vie CATLIN, of Mount Lawley parish.
Parish groups' interest in Project Compassion
The 1980 Project C ompassion campaign of Australian Catholic Relief has begun with increased interest by parish groups. T hirty five parish representatives attended meetings held on three nights last week at the Catholic Church Office to explain the motivation of Project Compassion and to share ideas on b etter promoting the campaign. Former local director of A .C.R., Father P.G.J. O'Reilly who has been s ucceeded by Miss M argaret CollopY. outlined the overall Philosophy of Australian C atholic Relief that aimed at full human o ment in its application of funds.
ACR monies are used for disaster emergency relief, for human development projects and for educating the Catholic public about development as an expression of true Christian charity. He said that the good results of Project Compassion had been due to priests motivating their congregations but that it was also necessary for the laity to share some of that responsibility with the priest. Father Michael Keating of Mirrabooka explained o the representatives
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some practical suggestions for promoting Project Compassion. In addition to the Lenten posters being prominently displayed in t he church, publicity material was actually distributed to the congregation while the priest spoke about the campaign in his homily. People using the weekly envelopes of Project Compassion were invited to hand them in as a gift during the Mass. Other parishes commissioned special lay people who would look after the distribution and later collection of Project Compassion of offerings. ings. Stress was laid on t hanking the people adequately when funds were handed in at the end of the campaign.
IMPRESSED Typical of awakened interest was the reaction of Mr. Dennis Vincent who attended the meeting on behalf of Hamersley parish. "Ihad not been involved in the organisation of Project Compassion before, but I was impressed with what came
through at the meeting," he said. He said that he was impressed with the suggestion of handing the material out during the sermon but this year the parish would not have sufficient material to go around in this way. (Parishes were expected to order their supplies for 1980 in a questionnaire that went out last June at the conclusion of the 1979 campaign.) But after becoming interested in Project Compassion he was now "giving his wife an earbashing".
RICH, POOR The important thing was to see why development was necessary, why there was an imbalance between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. Project Compassion p ublicity this year includes a 16-page newspaper style handout giving ideas for information and discussion by families during the weeks of Lent. Plenty of scope is given to explore whether aid is just a question of giving money, whether local unemployment is an important issue alongside overseas aid, and where justice and charity meet the highly complex area of trade and aid. Information on Project Compassion is available from the Catholic Church Office, 325 9557.
A 22-page document lists 46 points on which the bishops have come to an agreement, after a meeting that went four days over time. More important quotations from the document are on pages 10 and 11 of this issue. For Pope John Paul II, w ho summoned the synod, it was a joint consultative process resulting in an "accord on the content of Catholic faith according to the teaching of the magisterium -of the church." For Cardinal Willebrands, president of the Dutch Bishops' Conference, it was a reminder that "different currents everywhere oppose each other, but variety should always remain within unity."
FIRM HAND For the rest of the Dutch bishops it was a reaffirmation of their duty to guide people with a firm h and and to work together in overcoming idealogical differences. For Dutch Catholics, it was a call from the pope to "gather around your bishops in prayer and action" and a preview of pastoral changes to come in the Dutch church. For "critical groups" who dissent from church t eachings, it was an admonition to get in line. Observers predict that the impact of the synod's final document on the Dutch church would be long-term, not immediate.
CAUTIOUS They noted that the document was cautious and spoke more of principles than of concrete actions. For some of the Dutch church's most troubling c oncerns the synod entrusted final recommendations to commissions — which will take many months to study the issues and produce their reports. Nevertheless, some clearcut trends were evident. The role of Catholic la:, professionals working full-time in church pas-
toral work will be more restricted than before in the Dutch church, and possibly in other places such as Switzerland and West Germany, where the laity is also engaged in pastoral work.
OPPOSITION • The strong voice of the Dutch laity in determining church discipline will be muted. • Priests or priests organizations operating in opposition to their local bishop or the Dutch Bishops Conference have been alerted that such opposition will be met with less tolerance than before. • The bishops will taKe more direct control of the work of their bishops' conference staff, other national Catholic institutions and organizations, and the formation of their future priests.
NICE MEN But as one Vatican source with Dutch connections put it, many of the problems were unique to the Netherlands. Many feel that most of the Dutch bishops were "nice men who had lost control." They are described as not in favour of many influences affecting. Dutch Catholic life and
creating divisions, but "were not prepared, not strong enough," to cope with them. The synod marked the first time in church history that a national hierarchy formally met with the pope to solve the b ishops' local and national problems. If the "nice men" analysis is accepted, then the synod's most significant result was what it said about the pope's ministry to his fellow bishops, summed up in Christ's w ords to St. Peter: "Strengthen your brethren." One Press release early in the synod cited participants as saying that the basic problem is that of the exercise of authority and that "the pope is the only one who can and must strengthen his brother bishops." In short, the pope "strengthened his brethren through the synod, and they came out prepared to exercise their r esponsibilities as bishops. The wide-ranging 22page closing document, aimed at restoring order and discipline in the .Dutch church, showed that the participants had been able to reach agreement on nearly all of the
(See also page 10)
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