The enormous expense of the Stella Mans extensions would have been unjustified if they were to be used only by seafarers, says Father Sean O'Shea. Father O'Shea pointed out the first class facilities were now available to any parish or Catholic group looking for a social centre. As Catholic groups used the hall, canteen, restaurant, snack bars or other facilities they would provide the seafarer with a warm environment into which to come and relax. Father O'Shea said "It's people that make the difference to an empty building." Father O'Shea is a compelling salesman when he points out Stella Mans now has facilities no individual parish can afford and which are not a vailable even in the tennis clubs and halls hired by Catholic bodies. Stella Mans not only has g ot a first class bar f acility, but the Licensing Court recommended the new expanded ballroom s hould have a l iquor licence rather than have p eople bringing their drinks in for for cabaret evenings. Father O'Shea says Stella Mans is the place where f amilies can now come a nd take part in the running of the centre. Fathers can help to keep an eye on things, wives can help at the reception d esk, canteen or the restaurant and children have the games and television rooms available to them as well as anything they want to buy from the snack bar. Stella Mans needed the e xpanded facilities to cope with the sudden rush of numbers now occuring. On the other hand the rapid turn-round of ships and biggest ships carrying smaller crews meant few seafarers would be on shore. But the centre had to have the full range of facilities with which to w elcome them when needed. For the rest of the time it will be a way of giving the seafarer a respectable entry into the local community without requiring him to go to the pubs or staying aboard, Father O'Shea said. "People don't understand shipping these days," he said, ''fbecause the port's empty at the weekends when people are driving past. "They also do not seethe vast increase in shipping in the outer harbour such as at the grain terminals or the tanker and alumina berths." Father O'Shea makes up to eight trips a day to bring these visiting seafarers from Kwinana to his Fremantle centre.
A long history The Stella Mans Centre was once the 1890 uncompleted house of the Fremantle pilot Captain William D. Jackson. The present resident Father Sean O'Shea, also parish priest of Rottnest Island, is proud of the fact that Captain Jackson was
Centre a home away from home Vatican's new charter of rights: PERTH, WA: DECEMBER 2— 8, 1983
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ROME — A new charter of the rights of a family has been called by the Vatican a "model and point of reference for the laws and policies of nations." The 12 -article charter parallels other international charters of human rights in declaring the priority of the family over "the State or any other community" as a natural society with inherent, inalienable rights. It declares marriage "the natural institution to which the mission of transmitting life is e xclusively entrusted." Any attempts "in any way t o limit the freedom of couples in deciding about their children constitute a grave offence against human dignity and justice" according to the charter. Rights of the family it outlines range from a right to privacy to "economic conditions which assure them a standard of living appropriate to their dignity and full development," to freedom of choice in religion and in the education of theirchildrento the rights to participate fully in political and social activity and to receive a free flow of information. The charter insists governments uphold "the institutional value of marriage"and repudiates any law placing "the situation of non-married couples. . . on the same level as marriage duly contracted. superintendent of Rottnest for eight years. Piloting ships gave Captain Jackson some benefits. He cadged the London-made bricks the w oolships brought to Australia as ballast. Many of them were uncovered in the renovations. • Cont page 2.
niCaptain Jackson's Fremantle house L—lof 1890 has now been completed to approximately its intended design but last Sunday it flew its flags as it was opened as the final stage of the Stella Mans Centre after it had been blessed by the Episcopalpromoter of the Apostleship o f the Sea, Bishop Healy, pictured addressing the crowd.
The charter originated as an idea presented to the 1980 World Synod of Bishops by Ukrainian-rite Archbishop Maxim Hermaniuk of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He proposed the concept and a general outline of its contents in a speech to the synod. • Cont page 6
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