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An Ostrich
Church?
Guns and faith in the HOLY LAND
Time to face reality, writes Anthony Paganoni - Page 17
Visit to Christianity’s birthplace was experience of a lifetime for Perth teacher - Pages 12-13
A nightmare for Dan Brown: Perth families mark Opus Dei milestone THERE WERE two reasons for Mass being celebrated at Holy Spirit church in City Beach on Friday June 21: one, to celebrate the feast day of the founder of Opus Dei, St Josemaria Escriva; the second, to celebrate the arrival of Opus Dei in Australia 50 years ago. Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown would be horrified. Together with friends and families, members and cooperators of Opus Dei came together with a choir formed specially for the occasion. Fr Anthony Bernal, a Melbourne-based parish priest of Opus Dei’s Prelature of the Holy Cross was the main celebrant, assisted by Perth Dominican, Fr Anthony van Dyke OP. Fr Anthony visits Perth monthly to hold evenings of recollection for men and women. After Mass, supper was served in the parish hall while large numbers of children scooted between the tables while families and older generations caught up with one another. While in Rome for the Second Vatican Council, Sydney Cardinal James Gilroy asked the-then Msgr Josemaria Escriva if members of Opus Dei would be able to staff a Catholic residential college planned for the University of New South Wales. Not long after, a small centre of Opus Dei opened in 1963 in Sydney. Warrane College, the residential college for nearly 200 men opened in 1970. A college for women, Creston College, also opened in 1970. Half a century after arriving in Australia Opus Deis’ main concentration of membership is still in Sydney, but the Prelature - the only one of its kind in the Church has spread around the country and across the Tasman. A number of other Opus Dei centres in Sydney offer educational and spiritual help for students and professional people of all ages and backgrounds, including Kenthurst Study Centre, a conference centre where Benedict XVI stayed during World Youth Day in 2008. There are also centres in Melbourne, Auckland and Hamilton in New Zealand, as well as spiritual activities in Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Newcastle, Canberra, and Wellington, New Zealand.
Friends of Opus Dei enjoy the evening on June 21. PHOTOS: JOE ALMEIDA
Fr Anthony Bernal, at right, celebrated Mass for the occasion.
Opus Dei numerary Joe Arevalo, at right, caught up with friends while children, below, scooted around everywhere.
Opus Dei founder St Josemaria Escriva. Around Australia members and supporters of the Prelature - the only one of its kind in the Church - have been celebrating half a century of its presence in this country. PHOTO: CNS
Francis warns against two mistakes in following Christ: neither
‘Boot camp’ nor ‘niceness’ Pope Francis greets the crowd at his general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on June 19. P HARING
CHRISTIANITY isn’t a school for teaching a superficial form of being nice to everyone, but it’s also not a boot camp where everything is rigidity, rules and long faces, Pope Francis said. “The Lord calls us to build our Christian life on him, the rock, the one who gives us freedom, the one who sends us the Spirit, who keeps us going with joy on his path, following his proposals,” the Pope said on June 27 during his morn-
ing Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Pope Francis warned in his homily that too many people today “masquerade as Christians,” rejecting either the challenging teachings of Christ and his Gospel or rejecting the joy and freedom the Holy Spirit brings. “In the history of the Church there have been two classes of Christians: Christians of words – those who say, ‘Lord, Lord, Lord’ –
and Christians of action, in truth,” the Pope said. The Christians who are all talk, he said, fall into two opposing categories: those he defined as “gnostics,” who “instead of loving the Rock, love pretty words” and follow a “liquid Christianity” without substance; and those he defined as “Pelagians,” who “believe that the Christian life must be taken so seriously that they end up confusing solidity and firmness with rigidity. They are rigid!
They think that being Christian means being in perpetual mourning.” Both groups, he said, are missing the key connection to Christ, “the only one who sustains us in difficult times.” “They do not know how to enjoy the life that Jesus gives us because they do not know how to talk to Jesus,” he said. Because they have no joy, they have no freedom either. They are “slaves of superficiality” or “the slaves of rigidity.” - CNS