Caption Competition...

As word filters back from those who braved Madrid with their young pilgrims, it seems the fond memories of Sydney were arrested fairly quickly by certain Spanish truths...

Upon the head of this Bishop and champion of Thine, O Lord,

we place the helmet of defense and salvation;

that, head thus adorned and crowned with the horns of both Testaments,

he may appear fiercesome to the enemies of truth.

Pontificale Romanum, 1962

Our thanks to the pilgrim who shared this pearl!

Christchurch Cathedral

Coo-ee pilgrims... Mother Mirabilis here again!

Japan based practice Shigeru Ban Architects has unveiled their proposal for a temporary 'cardboard cathedral' to replace the Christ Church Cathedral in New Zealand ravaged by this February's earthquake.

The design consists of an A-frame quickly erected with cardboard tubes and polycarbonate which will rest upon foundations fabricated from twenty foot long shipping containers. The monumental triangular entry facade will be composed of a series of smaller triangles filled with stained glass window panes sourced from local artists.

The cathedral will reach a height of around 80 feet, accommodating 700 people, and cost only $3.5 million to build. It could be ready to receive it's first worshippers by February 2012. Ban, who is working on the project pro bono says the structure is very simple and easy to build and believes to build the project should be about building a future Christchurch and not simply restoring the previous one.

While our beloved Warden, a fan of the Romanesque, Gothic or Neo Gothic disciplines, would ordinarily be very suspicious of an unconventional design for a sacred building (even an Anglican one) it seems the idea has captured his interest remarking it looks just like an upturned boat... as it should! I couldn't help overhearing him this morning just outside the laundry singing the virtues of the noble simplicity of Mr Ban's proposal and suggesting some Australian Catholic Bishops might learn from his example.

Apparantly too, volunteers may assist with the rebuilding process as the structural connections of the eight centimeter diameter tubes require minimal construction experience. The Warden feels this brings new meaning to the age old tradition of a community coming together to build their cathedral.

Was Toowoomba's Dismissal a Valid Matter!

A thanksgiving Mass was held last Sunday to farewell Bill Morris, former Bishop of Toowoomba at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

While the congregation was significant, reports are unclear whether those who attended were mostly fans, relieved Catholics or students of history - for at 67, Morris might have expected to give his notice at age 75 and rather received his notice quite a bit sooner than that!

The liturgy hit near enough to the mark in most areas, though some couldn't help but notice that 'Jumbo Jesus' looked more like a giant waffle than any sort of valid matter.

Still banging on about what he considered to be his unjust treatment, Morris thanked his supporters noting:

“...a small group have found my leadership and the direction of the diocese not to their liking"

While here in The Cloister we are indeed a small group, we understand that the group who found Bus Driver Bill's leadership wanting was far from small.

Let's not forget Morris publicly grieved over the fact that he couldn't ordain women priests and so in the majority opinion, weighing all his other innovations, was deserving of the grief he received. That said, and returning to last Sunday's liturgy, you could be forgiven for believing the departing Morris was eager to make a parting point...

Ode to the Franciscan Friars of Firenze... Its a Rap!

Coo-ee pilgrims... Mother Mirabilis here again!

I was in the laundry today turning my talents to something new and one of our visitors told me it was fully sick! Given the subject matter I admit to being a little confused whether it was a critique or a compliment so you be the judge...

Franciscan friars from Florence are flying to the First One for favours, following the fleecing of the fraternity’s bibles from the friary’s fold.

The friars aren't folding without a fight: their flights to the Father have them flinging the fiend to the facilities with an unfortunate feeling of “flow through” for him in the future.

Facing the facts, Firenze's friars must be familiar enough with “flow through” as soon as a few friars fell into fatuity.

Cosgrove Declares Coup as Craven Clutches to Power...

Regulars to these curious corridors will recall, that in May last year upon the appointment of General Peter Cosgrove as Australian Catholic University Chancellor, we posed the question of Coup d'état?

News has reached The Cloister that the ACU has extended the contract of its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Greg Craven, who will now remain at the University until March 2018.

Unable to distance himself from military analogy, the Chancellor reportedly labelled the move a "superb coup" saying that under Professor Craven’s guidance ACU had now "taken its place alongside the world's great Catholic universities".

A constitutional lawyer and regular contributor to public debate, Professor Craven has led the University through a period of tremendous growth and on his watch increased the number of faculties at the Catholic University to now include the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy - formed in 2009.

In November 2009 he wrote an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald that attracted some controversy in predictable circles but was well received here in The Cloister for its wit, humour and ideas. Here is just a taste:

From time immemorial, this world has been troubled by plagues. From bogong moths in Canberra to frogs in biblical Egypt, unwelcome and unlovely creatures have the awkward habit of turning up in bulk.

Just now, we are facing one of our largest and least appealing infestations. Somewhat in advance of summer's blowflies, we are beset by atheists. Worse, they are not traditional atheists.

So a dip of the lid to you Professor Craven! We wish you and the General well in your 'police action' to rid the ACU completely of its former infestations...

More evidence that Sir Humphrey Appleby coaches the Australian Bishops

We think the secretariat of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference have been watching re-runs of "Yes Minister" of late.

A statement about Bishop Morris lodged on the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference website last week says the bishops have received the petition by Toowoomba Catholics, but they have no jurisdiction. To help deal with the petitioners' questions, the bishops will ask the Vatican doctrine watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, about the infallibility of the church's teaching barring the ordination of women.

So reads a report in yesterday's edition of the Age .

Not a bad strategy, really. It should by now be obvious to all but the most deliberately persnicketty that the Church CANNOT ordain women to the priesthood, and the CDF is jolly well likely to answer accordingly. The folk at the ACBC surely know that you should never ask that sort of a question unless you already know the answer.

Perhaps the ageing hepcats behind the "petition" should heed the advice in this song - which seems to be in a style they might prefer for singing at Mass - be careful what you pray for!

If you make a petition, you may get an answer!

Come to think of it, doesn't that backdrop look like... the glitzy new illuminated backdrop in the Perth Cathedral?

Absence Fuels Rumours of WYD Style 'straliaDome' Opening...

Sydney's St Mary’s Cathedral Choir has been invited to sing as part of the celebrations in October at the formal opening of the ‘straliaDome' - that Rome away from home for travelling Victorians who want to learn more about the history of the Church in Ballarat.

Consisting these days of a now modest 25 boys and an arguably over remunerated 12 men, it will be the cathedral choir’s first overseas tour in 20 years or more.

Tour leader, Thomas Wilson, the fellow who replaced surplice to requirements David Russell as director of music says “It’s a huge honour and an experience of a lifetime in particular for the boys.” But if the ‘straliaDome' is flying in foreign support acts it beggars the question who is their 'headliner'?

Some in our curious corridors have been quick to rule out the titular President of the National Bishops Conference in favour of that large body of opinion who the secular press recognise as head of the Australian Church.

The good money however has been fueled by strong rumours surrounding that Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great, Danny Casey, who has until recently been in Rome for some months exerting his trademark influence which clergy all talk about.

You'll have to use your imagination as obviously we dont want to steal anyone's thunder (or lightening) but with less than a year to go before +Ballarat's 75th birthday, it could be a good thing for our rumoured 'headliner' to learn more about the history of the Church in Ballarat.

Costelloe Could Get Perth...

Perth's Archbishop has revealed he regrets not having been more outspoken on social issues. Archbishop Barry Hickey, who holds a master's degree in social work, says he is optimistic about the future of the Church in Perth, despite a claimed fall in regular Sunday Mass attendance to just 15 per cent. There are "lots of young people hanging in there" he told the West Australian.

Perhaps +Hickey's optismism has been buoyed by the now very strong rumour that Melbourne's Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Costelloe is being touted as the likely contender for the See. A member of the Salesian Order, he is widely respected for his role in Catholic education with what many might consider the 'right' credentials including the ability to combine pastoral as well as academic skills.

Though not a West Australian, +Costelloe, 57, spent some time as parish priest at Victoria Park, taught theology at Notre Dame University at Fremantle and is well regarded by the present incumbent and a number of the presbyterate.

Rumour is the announcement will come just post World Youth Day but where this leaves Auxiliary Bishop of Perth, Don Sproxton, a once odds-on favourite, and the other local contender, Bunbury the Builder, is anyone's guess.

Seeing Swans at Night... Way to Put Your Neck Out Father!

It's World Youth Week in Madrid and long time pilgrims to this curious place will recall our prior reflections on the young cleric charged with shepherding a small flock of the faithful, two heavily damaged lumps of wood comprising the World Youth Day Cross, a 'stick' and a rather valuable copy of a historic icon around the country in the lead up to World Youth Day Sydney.

At that time he was all of 18 years old but he has aged considerably and since published a book of the journey, called "In the Light of the Cross". The attempt received high praise as "Gospel writing" according to Sydney Archdiocese's Episcopal Vicar for Renewal and Evangelisation who is an authority on such things!

Now Fr Ryan is turning his hand to blogging which he sees as an opportunity to 'think aloud' about things he finds interesting, wondrous and strange. Exploring God, what it means to be a follower of Christ in the world today, and what it means to be truly human the blog he claims will be "kind of light and fluffy."

Seeing Swans at Night he calls it.

Lets hope his charismatic conceptions ruffle a few feathers in the aCatholic camp lest the venture prove an ugly duckling or worse... a swan song!

The Assumption of the Blessed Mother...

We give thanks...

The Circle of Love

"Accompanied by the sound of bells, they encircled her as she stood in the center of the stage. Then all 600 sisters in attendance extended their right hands as they chanted a blessing: "Receive strength and light; receive power,receive love."

At a recent Chapter here in the Cloister, we studied the above excerpt from a report * on the August meeting of the US Leadership Conference of Religious Women.

Some of our number thought it must be a joke.

Well, yes, it is a joke - but it also apparently happened. And people sometimes wonder if the recent Visitation of the American women Religious was needed!

*In Father Zuhlsdorf's favourite fishwrap.

Saints Preserve Us - The Jesuits Shame of Simony

The question begs what's more alarming... that the Jesuits sold a 7th century relic or that the British library acquired it because they felt it needed saving...

The historic St. Cuthbert Gospel - a late 7th-century Anglo-Saxon manuscript and relic of the Saint has passed into the possession of the British Library for a purse of more than $14.7 million to raise funds to further Jesuit projects in London and Glasgow, Scotland.

The book, a pocket-size Latin translation of the Gospel of St. John, was found inside the coffin of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, when the saint's grave was opened in 1104 - 400 years after his death during the dedication of a shrine in his honor at Durham Cathedral. His grave later became a pilgrimage site.

It is believed the relic manuscript was placed inside the casket within 10 years of the hermit's death in 687 but when King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries during the Protestant Reformation the Gospel passed into the hands of a private collector in 1540. By the 18th century, the book was in the possession of the 3rd Earl of Lichfield who gave it to Canon Thomas Phillips, who in turn presented it in 1769 to the Jesuits.

The Jesuits say it has been their privilege to possess the book for nearly 250 years but satisfy themselves that "People will be able to see the Gospel set among the library's other treasures of the Christian faith and of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art".

No matter how you look at it... It's no way to treat a relic!

Get with the Spirit Please!

Would Chant be so bad?

or even something like this by Parramatta's Kirkpatrick...

Must we recycle Haugen or Schutte... if not now we may never be free of them!

Mary of the Cross... Pray for Us!

On this the very first Solemnity of St Mary of the Cross (MacKillop) let us pause to remember...

Lost in (the new English) Translation...

Marty Haugen has said he could never become Catholic due to the Church's failure "to commission, ordain, and welcome all humans as Jesus did". Marty also claimed it has never been his intention to dominate so much of Catholic liturgical music.

Many pilgrims may have hoped the new translation might usher in a new era of liturgical music...

Au contraire!!!

If you can keep your head when all about you..

Coo-ee pilgrims... Mother Mirabilis here again!

Pilgrims would do well to remember the names of Reverends John Dobson OAM PP, John Dwyer, Stan Griffith and Seamus McMahon SM. You will likely be hearing them again. Priests of a 'type' of the Archdiocese of Brisbane or as regulars to this curious place will recall... more of +Bathersby's buffoons!

They are the appointed presbyteral presence to the Caloundra Parish which unfortunately embraces the once Catholic Communities of Beerwah, Bokarina, Caloundra, Currimundi, Golden Beach, Kawana, Kenilworth, Landsborough, Little Mountain, Maleny and Mooloolah. These clerical clowns share much in common with that other self proclaimed heretic and South Brisbane joke Peter Kennedy.

The Parish website speaks volumes...

In a recent propaganda editorial masquerading as the parish bulletin one of their number, Dwyer, employs a shallow and selective misuse of scripture to bolster a trademark tired and baseless assessment of what attracts young people to the liturgy in a shameless rejection of the Roman Missal.

Railing against the so-called 'institutional church' he ignores in his assessment that to "attract the younger generation to share in our liturgies, it would seem that we would have to use a language that is the day to day language that is used in education and ordinary conversation", that it was on his watch those very young people left in droves. He concludes that "the use of archaic grandiose outdated terms or bad translations from a dead language would be counter-productive."

While 'jokes' of his kind are MUBAR (Messed Up Beyond All Recognition) it's hard to know whether to LOL (Laugh Out Loud) or simply Compatior (pity) them.

Believes in Petitions but not Prayer...

Regular pilgrims will recall our remarks about meaningless and empty gestures of protest and in particular a certain petition to be sent to the Holy Father and our bishops. The petition requests each bishop to convene “a synod in his diocese” so that the faithful can “discuss” how the local Church can be, well, more of the same. They want “a real voice” for clergy and lay faithful alike in the selection of bishops, beginning with the next Bishop of Toowoomba (not to mention Armidale, Ballarat, Brisbane, Hobart, Perth and Sandhurst).

But if that wasn't enough, this from that community in self imposed exile St Mary's South Brisbane...

SECOND PETITION
This second petition to the Pope, which the Australian bishops are being asked to present to the Pope during their adlimina visit to Rome later this year, is attached for your support.  In spite of the deafening silence to our earlier petition, this new one developed by a Melbourne group of laity and clergy comes at a time when Rome is under enormous pressure from many sides, particularly the Irish Government.  I have signed it in hope!

The Australian Bishops travel to the Vatican every five years and present a report to the Pope on the pastoral situation of their local Church.  The next visit will be in October this year.  An Open Letter to Pope Benedict and the Australian Bishops has been prepared asking for a greater level of dialogue between the Leadership of the Church and the Body of the Church.  Many in your community may find this of interest and wish to sign the letter.  The letter can be found at - http://www.petitiononline.com/adlim11/petition.html

Coming from the man who doesn't believe in God, the Church, Prayer or much else those who are in the charge of the Holy Father do it begs the question why bother! Take heart though he does believe in petitions!

So there you have it gentle pilgrim... more empty vessels!

Liturgical Pragmatism, Rabid Ecuminsim or just Episcopal Egotism?

Be it the product of an early summer breeze or an ill wind, a number of pilgrims have now shared that at a recent workshop conducted for clergy in a particular Australian Archdiocese, on the matter of the new English Translation of the 3rd Typical Edition of the Roman Missal, two Ordinaries indicated concern over the translation of the Nicene Creed and in particular the words... man, men and consubstantial.

While the word 'man' has long been deemed contrary to the 'spirit' of Vatican II and needing to be exorcised from all ministry it was nonetheless surprising to learn that two Australian Bishops favoured promulgation of local decrees that the Nicene Creed not be used excepting certain Holy Days. Moreover, on those Holy Days when the Nicene Creed was to be permitted it would only be permitted in the Latin.

The news has left some in the Cloister wondering if the usual aCatholic suspects will be quite so quick to the barricades defending the full freedom usually enjoyed by the local pastor in such matters and embodied in general law. Afterall, is it even within the power of the local Ordinary to so restrict, by decree, the options of the Missal or would not such restriction require 'recognitio' from Rome?

It remains to be seen upon what canonical advice these bishops are relying to promulgate such bold decrees relegating the Nicene Creed to an extraordinary form while requiring and preferring as the ordinary form the Apostles Creed - previously reserved for Masses with children.

Should our information prove sound and our politically correct prelates subsequently succeed by bluff, it seems almost certain they will in their 'local' churches occasion a rupture in the liturgical tradition attracting the eye of Rome faster than anything our friend in Toowoomba might have done!

Caption Competition

Coo-ee pilgrims... Mother Mirabilis here again!

“So, Perth’s Bishop Brady is still waiting for the light.”

WYD Madrid - Days in the Dioceses

The DID began in 1997, when the WYD was held in Paris. As a consequence, all of France welcomed the pilgrims coming from countries from around the world, in order to inspire the French youth to attend the WYD. The Spanish dioceses will also open their doors to the pilgrims of WYD. The youth that want to participate will be able to learn about the richness of the Spanish culture as well as the rich Catholic tradition.

The objectives of the DID program emulate those of WYD but also include distinct types of activities that promote Prayer, Solidarity and Culture in the context of historical, sportive, musical, artistic and culinary activities as well.

So what to expect...

Prayer

Please God dont let me die!

Solidarity

In a food fight its everyone for themselves!

Culture

Just as in days of yore an afternoon spent crushing the Moors. Now that's culture!

Oh well.. what doesn't kill us makes us stronger but make sure Mum and Dad invested in top of the line travel insurance!