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HEALTHY, NATURAL and NORMAL Catholics who choose to remain faithful to the Church’s teachings on fertility are reaping the benefits in unexpected ways. SPECIAL LIFTOUT SUPPLEMENT - PAGES 7-14
‘Pray for politicians’ At a special Marriage Day Mass, Archbishop calls for prayer to save Christian founding principles of national life
St Padre Pio still penetrates hearts, 42 years after his death
BY PETER ROSENGREN ARCHBISHOP Barry Hickey has called for Catholics to pray that those who will make up the new federal Parliament will safeguard traditional marriage and not give in to fashionable pressure or agitation to effectively redefine it out of existence. His call, he said, was not a political act but it was also important that the Church speak out on key matters such as the status of marriage in Australia. He made his comments at a special Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral on 12 August on the eve of National Marriage Day. National Marriage Day was organised by the family and marriage lobby, the Australian Family Association, the Catholic men’s organisation, the Knights of the Southern Cross and a number of other organisations strongly supportive of the social importance of marriage. Similar gatherings across the country were held this week to underscore the vital importance of marriage to individuals and to society; the main event was a National Marriage Day breakfast in Canberra on the morning of 13 August.
Archbishop Hickey distributes his pastoral letter to worshippers attending the National Marriage Day Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral on 12 August. PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN
“This Mass is not a political act. Nevertheless, it has a lot to do with the social fabric of Australia, and our politicians and governments have much to do in preserving that fabric,” he told around 200 people who had braved a cold wet winter evening to attend. “This Mass is also to do with raising our voice so that Parliament preserves marriage in its traditional sense,” he said, noting that there are now more forces and groups than ever before seeking to actively change the definition of marriage to include almost any relationship. In fact, he pointed out, some are attempting to change things so far that they welcome the breakdown of marriage as an institution and argue that this frees people to engage in almost any kind of relationship as a substitute for traditional marriage, a relationship between a man and a woman based on fidelity to each other and open to the Please turn to Page 5
Fr Ermelindo Di Capua is swamped by worshippers at St Mary’s Cathedral on 10 August wanting to be blessed with relics of St Pio of Pietrelcina, affectionately known the world over as Padre Pio, who died in 1968. Similar scenes were repeated in various locations around Perth during the week-long visit of Fr Ermelindo, who knew and worked with Padre Pio in the late 1960s. PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN
BY PETER ROSENGREN
F
rom city corporate highflyers and business types to simple parishioners, hundreds surged forward after a special Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral last week to venerate first class relics of one of the greatest saints of the modern era. The picture was repeated at several venues throughout Perth over the last week. Visiting Franciscan Capuchin Fr Ermelindo Di Capua, OFM Cap had to repeatedly call for people to be patient as they crowded around the sanctuary steps to be blessed by the relics of St Pio of Pietrelcina, popularly known as Padre Pio. An estimated 700 people or thereabouts converged on St Mary’s on Tuesday, 10 August to participate in a special Mass followed by veneration of and blessing by the relics. The Rosary, Eucharistic adoration and Benediction led by Mt Lawley parish priest Fr Timothy Deeter commenced the evening. Padre Pio died in 1968 in his monastery in Pietrelcina, Italy, but global devotion to his holiness has continued to grow with every passing year; the saint’s life was filled with miracles that astonished even Vatican investigators and some clergy cynical of the reality of his supernatural experiences. Perth has been the first stop in a national tour of the relics brought to Australia by fellow Capuchin Fr Ermelindo, who worked beside Padre Pio as his English translator from 1965 to 1968. Three pieces of dried blood from Padre Pio’s Stigmata and a mitten he used to cover the wounds are the first and second class relics Fr Ermelindo brought for veneration. It was clear from the crowds flocking forward in St Mary’s that many were hoping for cures to illness or infirmity. Throughout his life Padre Pio accomplished many healings that flabbergasted contempoPlease turn to Page 4
The palliative care debate you won’t get to hear BY ANTHONY BARICH The Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2009 currently before WA Parliament will have dire consequences for clinical care, Notre Dame Medical Professor David
Watson told a 12 August forum at the university’s Fremantle campus. Barrister Peter Quinlan, who has acted for the Medical Board of WA, hospitals and health professionals, also said
the debate is too important to be emotion-driven. When one person from the audience of over 200 at the university’s Fremantle campus said the pro-euthanasia side was not represented at the debate, Mr
Quinlan said that, in the mediadriven debate, the pro-life side is rarely heard. LJ Goody Bioethics Centre director Fr Joe Parkinson also addressed the forum, which will be covered fully in next week’s The Record.