FIRST ENCYCLICAL: Benedict XVI’s first encyclical is ready to go.Page 3
soon to be on the Web
Miracle spinal cure leads to sainthood The miraculous cure of a quadriplegic not expected by her doctors to live was the second miracle that led to the canonisation of Chilean Jesuit Fr Alberto Hurtado by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome last Sunday. Father Hurtado died in 1952 and was proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul in 1994. According to a 390-page long report sent by the Archdiocese of Santiago to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Cause of the Saints in 1998, an unnamed student suffered a severe spinal cord injury after a car accident. The young woman’s doctors said her spine was completely severed, paralysing her from the neck down. The family prayed to Blessed Alberto Hurtado and after 23 days in the hospital, she had totally recovered and went back to a normal life. “We are satisfied because this is a ‘zero chance of failure’ case,” said Jesuit Father Jaime Correa at the time, official Postulator of Father Hurtado’s cause. “The report is impeccable: it includes several MRI tests and a comparative study of 243 similar cases in the US, and they all show that only five per cent experience a partial recovery after several years of therapy,” Father Correa said.
MIRACLE TO AID NEWMAN CANONISATION? Page 2
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‘Breakthrough’ China, Vatican, reach possible quiet accord on bishops
From Cape students with love
Saint Alberto’s life: Vista 2-3 WA gift: Emma Ferguson, at front with Fr Hadi, and organiser Jack Robinson, at right, after presenting a donation for Fr Hadi’s Bali Church raised by fellow students of Our Lady of the Cape school in Dunsborough. Story: Page 6
Fatherhood books sellout Large numbers of books on fatherhood and parenting offered to readers by The Record have sold-out within days of reviews appearing in the paper. The books, by US educator and parenting specialist James Stenson have been so popular that all copies of one title were sold by the Monday Successful Fathers, after the review by James Stenson appeared on that weekend. All copies of the first book, Successful Fathers - powerful ways Continued on Page 4
■ By Carol Glatz
ROME (CNS) - The recent ordinations of Chinese bishops with the explicit approval of both the Vatican and Beijing were “a breakthrough” in relations between the two sides, said a Hong Kong bishop. Although officially China and the Vatican have no diplomatic ties, the recent ordinations of at least two Chinese bishops represent signs that things “are moving,” said Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun. Bishop Paul He Zeqing’s ordination as auxiliary bishop of Wanxian on October 18 was the most recent. According to AsiaNews, an Italian missionary news agency, Bishop He was the third bishop to have been consecrated with Vatican approval into the official or government-supported church in China. The Wanxian bishop told people attending the ceremony that the ordination was taking place with the approval of the Vatican, the agency said on October 19. Bishop Zen, in Rome attending the October 2-23 Synod on the Eucharist, told CNS on October 21 that the last two ordinations have been unique in that the government did not pressure the church leaders Continued on Page 2
10,000-plus hit Sydney streets A eucharistic procession to mark the end of the Year of the Eucharist in Sydney drew large crowds ■ By Marilyn Rodrigues of The Catholic Weekly
There were no special performances, celebrity guest speakers, or anything novel on offer, but Jesus Christ; which brought more than 10,000 people to the streets of Sydney to faithfully accompany the Blessed Sacrament in a public procession to mark the end of
the Year of the Eucharist. “Their response showed that in the hearts of Catholics there is this great love and devotion to the Blessed Eucharist, not only in turning up, but in the whole prayerful character of the procession,” said acting administrator of the archdiocese, Bishop Julian Porteous. “People were so prayerful the whole way along, they weren’t just walking along talking or looking around; so many people were deep in prayer throughout. “I think people were just so ecstatic with joy and it was a great witness to the love that people have towards the Blessed Eucharist.” An Ave Maria was taken up across Lang Park as the ever-swell-
INDEX
PREPARING FOR TEEN YEARS The way many describe it, the teen years are nothing short of anarchy. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says James Stenson. The key is in laying the foundations early.
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Local news I say, I say The World Currents Classifieds
ing crowd awaited the emergence of the Blessed Sacrament from St Patrick’s Church last Sunday afternoon – people had begun arriving up to an hour before the procession was due to commence. They knelt or applauded when the acting administrator of the archdiocese, Bishop Julian Porteous, finally emerged holding the gold monstrance aloft under a golden canopy in the bright October sunshine. Also leading the procession was Cardinal Edward Clancy, Bishop Anthony Fisher and Melkite priests with their bishop, Bishop Issam Darwish, priests of the archdiocese and seminarians. The archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell,
was in Rome attending the bishops’ synod. Also accompanying the procession were the relics of St Margaret Mary, who urged the Catholic world to revere the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and has traditionally inspired many to devotion to the Eucharist. The reverent pilgrims sang hymns and chanted litanies as the procession wound its way across the city to Macquarie St and on to St Mary’s Cathedral for adoration and solemn benediction. Such was its size that it took an hour for the rear of the procession to leave Lang Park, even with the streets closed off by police. People pushed prams and wheel Continued on Page 4
CHURCH KEEPS GROWING - Page 6 - Page 10 - Pages 8-9 - Page 7
The latest statistical snapshot of the Church throughout the world indicates that overall numbers of the faithful, and those of priests, have risen again.
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