REVOLUTION of the heart From Party member to underground priest - one man’s story may be an example of a much bigger picture of the new China
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‘I am ready to die’ Archbishop Ncube throws down the gauntlet to Mugabe Zimbabwean archbishop says he’s ready to die in defence of people
Daily TV Mass coming Catholic Mass will be broadcast on television every day from July 3 on Aurora Community Television, Channel 183 on the Foxtel Digital and Austar Subscription Services. “Putting Mass to air is a service Australian Catholic Television is delighted to provide for those Catholics who may not have ready access to the celebration of the Eucharist in their local Catholic parish,” said Fr Richard Leonard SJ, Director of Australian Catholic
■ By Simon Caldwell
LONDON (CNS) - Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo said he would rather die than stay silent in the face of widespread human rights abuses in his country. “I am ready to stand before a gun and be shot,” Archbishop Ncube told Britain’s Channel 4 News in an interview from Vatican City. The Archbishop, a longtime critic of President Robert Mugabe, said the president should be arrested and tried before an international court for destroying shantytowns and leaving some 275,000 poor Zimbabweans homeless in an attempt to force the residents to return to rural areas. Mugabe’s Operation Drive Out Trash has been widely condemned by Zimbabwean church leaders and the international community. Archbishop Ncube’s interview with the television station came Continued on page 00
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Pope sympathises with Bunbury for cathedral
Mothers Prayers - an informal movement of mainly women (men are welcome too) who pray for their children is now operating in at least five metropolitan parishes. For many parents mourning the loss of a child from the community of faith it is an important way to put their own faith and love into practice. This group met at the North Beach parish last week when journalist Jamie O’Brien was on hand. story on page 4
Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his sympathy for the people of Bunbury Diocese upon the loss of St Patrick’s Cathedral, following the tornado that ripped through Bunbury in May. The Pope’s Message was passed on to parishioners by Bishop Gerard Holohan during a farewell Liturgy in St Mary’s Church, South Bunbury last Sunday. Nearly 350 people turned up to hear the Pope’s message. The ceremony began with Continued on page 2
Church sponsors more than 25 per cent of global AIDS services Catholic Church said to be at forefront of AIDS treatment, prevention ■ By Tracy Early
UNITED NATIONS (CNS) - The Catholic Church is at the forefront of efforts for the prevention and treatment of AIDS, Vatican representatives said during a day the
United Nations devoted to reviewing the international community’s AIDS-related programs. Father Robert Meyer, a US priest on the staff of the Vatican’s UN mission, cited estimates of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers that more than a quarter of all AIDS services were sponsored by the Catholic Church. The Catholic AIDS Funding Network Group of donor organisations reports that it funds or sponsors AIDS programs in 102 countries, he said.
Father Meyer presented the Vatican statement to a session described as a “round table on treatment, care and support.” It was one of several plenary sessions, smaller group meetings and more informal conferences held by the UN General Assembly in early June to review progress toward goals set at a 2001 special session on AIDS. At a round table on prevention, Mgr Ruben Dimaculangan, another staff member of the Vatican mission, said the Church does not
accept condom use and called for changes in behaviour to prevent transmission of the disease. When people live out their sexuality in a responsible way, the prevention issue has been largely resolved, he said. Francisco Dionisio, a Portuguese intern at the Vatican mission, told a conference on the question of stigmatising people with AIDS that the inherent human dignity of every person means “we are called today to fight against the stigma and to continue to care generously
INDEX
PIONEERING WOMEN Four French Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition arrived in Fremantle 150 years ago, the first of a remarkable group of women who were to influence many.
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Letters I say, I say The World New values for sex ed. Classifieds
and without judgment” for those with AIDS. At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, he recalled, while “most government agencies, public and private entities, and even family members” abandoned those in need, Church agencies “embraced and cared for” people with AIDS. The call to speak the truth “challenges us to shout that HIV/AIDS is not a punishment, is not a crime, is not a horror, and is not a curse, but rather it is the face of suffering in our brothers and sisters,” Dionisio said.
THE PATH TO ROME - Page 6 - VISTA 4 - Pages 8-9 - VISTA 1
Pilgrims from St Thomas More Parish in Bateman travelled to Rome - and got close to Pope Benedict in St Peter’s Square. Monsignor Keating recounts their journey.
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VISTA 2-3