easter 2009
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the Parish. the Nation. the World.
Western Australia’s award-winning Catholic newspaper - Wednesday April 8, 2009
www.therecord.com.au
Perth, Western Australia $2
Recovery ‘was a JPII miracle’ An astonishing recovery from “a non-survivable” gunshot injury has many believing it was a miracle - courtesy of JPII n By Catholic News Service
Pope John Paul II in 1999. His intercession is being credited as the cause of a seemingly miraculous healing. Photo: CNS/L’Osservatore Romano
CLEVELAND (CNS) - In a story that grabbed national headlines in the US some people in Cleveland were connecting a 26-year-old local man’s recovery from a gunshot wound to the head
that doctors said should have killed him to a Rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II that the man received from a hospital chaplain. Some labelled the recovery of Jory Aebly, who was shot execution-style during a mugging on February 21, a miracle and were speculating his case could help the sainthood cause of the late pope. Neither the Cleveland Diocese nor Vatican officials have commented on the case. Aebly and a co-worker, Jeremy Pechanec, 28, were both shot execution-style in
the head in an apparent robbery when they were heading home after an evening out with friends in downtown Cleveland. Pechanec did not survive his injuries. After the shooting Aebly was taken to MetroHealth Medical Centre, where doctors expected him to die. His family was told he had suffered “a nonsurvivable injury,” according to the hospital Web site. Father Arthur Snedeker, a Cleveland diocesan priest who is a chaplain at the hospital, gave Aebly the last rites of the Church. At a press conference on
March 30, the day Aebly was released from the hospital, the priest told reporters he had prayed to Pope John Paul “to pray for Jory and to protect him.” He said he gave the young man the last of a dozen Rosaries the Pope had blessed years before for the priest to give to patients. “I stand before you today and can say, to my mind, Jory is a miracle,” the priest told reporters. Aebly, appearing at the press conference with the priest, attributed his recovery to prayers from family, friends, co-workers and people he has never met.
His neurosurgeon, Dr Robert Geertman, has called his patient’s recovery “one in a million.” “I’d say it’s pretty miraculous,” he added. The hospital Web site said that although he suffered from severe headaches Aebly completed daily sessions in physical, speech and occupational therapy, and within his first week of recovery he could walk with the aid of a walker and supervision. At the press conference he stood to speak at the microphone. According to the hospital, Aebly will continue his
Now Perth has its very own Pieta New artwork will help unite all to Mary and the saints, says outgoing College Rector. n By Anthony Barich
An exact replica in bronze of one of the most famous artworks in the world, Michelangelo’s Pieta, was unveiled on Palm Sunday at St Thomas More College in Crawley to inspire devotion to Mary and prayer. The artwork was donated by an anonymous benefactor and procured in Rome. Michelangelo carved the original Pieta, housed in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, when he was 24. It depicts Mary holding Jesus’ lifeless body in her lap after his body had been taken down from the cross on Calvary. The Chapel of the Pieta’s documentation says of the statue: “It seems almost as if Jesus is about to reawaken from a tranquil sleep and that after so much suffering and thorns, the rose of resurrection is about to bloom. As we contemplate the Pieta which conveys peace and tranquility, we can feel that the great sufferings of life and its pain can be mitigated.” Monsignor Kevin Long, the former Rector of St Thomas More College unveiled the bronze image and said that the statue is an important meditation on the
Christian understanding of suffering. “Mary’s sorrow on the hill of Calvary, her cradling of the body of her dead son Jesus, has long been a powerful symbol for Christian people grappling with sorrows, disappointments and pains of daily life,” said Mgr Long, who will complete his commitments with the college by celebrating the Easter ceremonies. “Here in this sacred space we are able to ponder the mystery of human grief, we are encouraged to enter into and own our individual and communal experiences of loss, separation and the sheer fragility of human life.” Local Catholics’ ashes can also be scattered in the garden in front of the sculpture. “Here the ashes of our loved ones will be scattered with the Christian hope that, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, we too will come to share fully in Christ’s glorious resurrection,” Mgr Long said. He then blessed the statue, praying to God the Father: “May this statue help us to bring to mind your great love for us revealed in your beloved son Christ Jesus. May its presence amongst us strengthen our fellowship with our Blessed Lady and all the saints.” Christian Brother Robert Callen, 59, the new St Thomas More College Rector, told The Record he hopes it will become a sacred space that will come to lead people to prayer and meditation on the Passion of Christ.
rehabilitation at home and hoped to return soon to his job in the microbiology lab at Cleveland Clinic. Aebly’s case has fuelled speculation that it might be looked at by the Vatican as a possible miracle that could be credited to Pope John Paul’s intercession. But currently a presumed miracle through the intercession of the late Pope - involving a French nun said to have been cured of Parkinson’s disease - is being studied in a fivestep process in Rome that involves medical experts, a medical board, theological
n By Glynnis Grainger
A special Mass, a surprise blessing from the Pope, champagne and cake helped Ivy Cooper celebrate her 100th birthday at Tandara
Another miracle? - Page 5
Cathedral is looking real
St Mary’s Cathedral is beginning to look like a real cathedral as the major construction works near completion and the external appearance of the cathedral becomes clear. There are many months of interior work to be undertaken before an opening date can be considered. However, diocesan priests and representatives are being invited to attend inspection tours with Archbishop Barry Hickey on April 21, 22 and 23 so that they will be able to report to their parishes before the launch of the third and final year of the parishes’ appeal on May 23-24.
St Mary’s forges towards its completion. Parish priests will tour the site with Archbishop Hickey before the launch of the final parish appeal in late May.
The new sculpture of Michelangelo’s Pieta, donated by a benefactor of St Thomas More College in Crawley stands as a reminder of the Passion of Christ. The College’s former and current rectors hope it will inspire prayer and meditation on the Easter mysteries. It was unveiled before the Palm Sunday ceremony at the College chapel. photo: anthony barich
The building will not be open to the public until much later in the year, but the tall concrete columns dominating the front and side views of the cathedral can be clearly seen from Murray Street and Victoria Square. Most of the external construction works have been completed, including the car parks (grounds and undercroft), the new lift tower and spire, the southern overflow courtyard and external ramps to the courtyard area. In the undercroft, a large amount of “new space” has been created for the parish centre, the crypt, kitchens, choir practice rooms, meeting rooms, toilets, shop and storage areas. Most of the walls and ceilings of these areas
Champagne and Pope Benedict blessing mark Ivy’s 100th Possibly the oldest parishioner in Perth, Ivy Cooper has been joined for the celebration of a century by local priest representing parish.
consultors, the members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes and, finally, Pope Benedict XVI. The initial diocesan phase of Pope John Paul’s cause was completed in April 2007. Last November a team of theological consultors to the congregation began studying the 2,000-page “positio,” the document that makes the case for his life of heroic virtue, according to Archbishop Angelo Amato, head of the congregation. The sainthood process generally requires two miracles.
nursing home, Bentley, last Thursday, April 2. Santa Clara parish priest Fr Francisco Mascarenhas was asked by the Missionaries of Charity Sisters attached to the parish to celebrate the special Mass for Mrs Cooper, who was born on April 2, 1909, in Bunbury. She was the eldest of four children born to Margaret and Leslie Atkins, her mother being a member of the Irish Connole family, which built the Catholic church at Morphett Vale in South Australia in the 1850s. Her sister Lil Molinari, 94, still lives in her own home in Bunbury.
Ivy went to school at the Bunbury convent and upon leaving school worked at Connell’s large general store and music store Musgroves before moving to Perth in her 20s where she worked at Foy and Gibsons and Nicholsons stores. At one time, she was captain of the lifesaving team at the Bunbury Surf Club. But it was at the piano that she was most accomplished and achieved her A.Mus.A. diploma and medals sent from Trinity College, London. She had her own band and played jazz at various halls,
the Lido Club at Cottesloe and the Old Embassy Ballroom in Perth, “where the piano used to rock,” her niece and goddaughter, Margaret Wilson told The Record. “She didn’t have a piano, (but) Aunty was such a good pianist, as there were such a lot of furniture shops where she used to practice the piano,” Mrs Wilson said. Occasionally she was called upon as relief organist at the Bunbury Catholic Cathedral. She also spent many years teaching piano from home. Ivy married Stan Cooper on 15 August 1939, at Sacred Heart
Church, Highgate. They had no children but she has seven nieces and nephews, Mrs Wilson and her cousin Jim Molinari and his wife Marie attending the Mass and small celebration afterwards at Tandara. Stan worked for the Emu Brewery for many years and also served in the Army during World War II. The couple lived in Leederville – St Mary’s parish, Mt Yokine – where she went to St Denis’s Church and Swan Cottages, now called the SwanCare complex, Bentley Park, Bentley, where she has lived for 30 years. Ivy has been
widowed for about 25 years, after her husband Stan died of a heart attack. Ivy has been a devoted Catholic all her life, and in her early retirement years she did volunteer work for St Vincent de Paul in the city, Mrs Wilson said. Initially, she attended Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians Continued - Page 5
Fr. Francisco Mascarenhas presents Ivy Cooper with a copy of her blessing from Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of her 100th birthday. photo: courtesy Fr mascarenhas
opera man - the Aussie composer who embraced the Catholic Church Western Australian Opera Director Richard Mills was commissioned to write the music for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opening ceremony. He has also written an opera on the Batavia and has just composed a St Mark’s Passion as a public statement of his Catholic faith. He talks to The Record about his Passion. Page 3
Continued - Page 5