What, precisely are we trying to do here?
Saturday, 23rd September 2006

Dear friends,

Ian Elmer triggered an excellent discussion in the forum a couple of days ago by posing the question "Why have 85% of Catholics lapsed from their former practice?" Via a number of contributions by other members, the conversation seems to have moved through to a new point that, seems to me, is essentially posing the question: "what, precisely are we trying to do here?"

The question is posed in both the personal sense that each of us seem to be asking "what, precisely do I believe today (and what do I do about it)?", and in the more collective sense of, "what, precisely, do we believe as a Church community today (and what are we going to do about it)?"

CharlesK, writing from Canada, brings an interesting perspective into the picture from a recent column written by Fr Ron Rolheiser that could almost be described as a "show stopper" as it provides some good answers to those questions. I commend the whole string to you as a good read and great "food for the soul".

To me the individual and collective questions are interconnected at a number of levels. At the basest level we all like to be members of "the winning team". When we see many of our friends, even our own children, walking out the door we naturally tend to get a little worried. We are forced to make a choice. For many of us, as Angela observes in her contribution, our early faith and membership was driven more by a sense of fear than anything positive. Angela's own personal story, some of which she has shared with us in recent contributions is a moving personal testimony of a hesitant, nervous soul suddenly finding courage and the confidence to take ownership of their faith and beliefs for themselves. A couple of years ago some of us in one of the communities that contributed to the formation of Catholica held a retreat. Even though we'd known one another for a couple of years in a cyber sense it was the first time many of us had met one another face-to-face. We organised our own spiritual director (a priest) but essentially it was a lay-organised endeavour. Angela was one of the participants. She gave a very moving personal testimony where she described the worry and fear she had to shed in middle age as she moved from a submissive understanding of her faith in this sense of it being socially conformist and "fear-filled" to this more mature understanding of submissiveness where we're trying to work out what "the dude up there" wants and then have to work out how to do it. (By the way, I've run those words past Angela over the phone before publishing them here.)

At a higher level, and particularly for those of us who have parented children, there is some deep-down mothering and fathering instinct where we have a sense that "a set of values" is important in life. All of us want "the best" for our children. All of us do not want them to have to struggle though the mistakes and learning curves we had to go through, or our own parents had to go through. As well as providing simply life and nurture to our children and grandchildren we also endeavour to pass on a set of beliefs and values. In this sense we do seek to pass on our values not just as individual mums and dads but as mums and dads within some wider community. The sense we have of being able to point to others outside of ourselves who share the same outlook and values gives us confidence that we're not passing on "a lemon". Understandably then it does worry us when the institution that helps form our values is losing respect in the eyes of many.

I would pose that our sense of "church" is important. No woman, or man, is an island. We all hunger for a sense of community and belonging. There are increasingly many voices who have become thoroughly jack of the way in which our "church" sense of community seems to have been stolen from us. We have watched our friends and children depart and this does unnerve us. In Australia, and around the world, there are now many initiatives like Catholica that seem to be forming where people are coming together and reclaiming ownership of our deepest beliefs and values. In a sense I think there is a deep cry going up where people are singing "we want our church back!" Is there not a sense of that which one picks up from all the commentaries and posts one comes across that are written in this place?

Read, and listen quietly, and I think one can detect that as a deep subliminal theme that connects the two very different commentaries we have today written by the academic and the suburban parish sacristan...

Searching for the historical Jesus...

Who did Jesus think he was? This week our resident Biblical scholar, Ian Elmer, begins to focus in on the message and mission of Jesus. The commentary today explores Jesus' relation to John the Baptist and the common links, and differences, between the visions of John the Baptist and Jesus. [more]

Cindy's week of bits and pieces... In the news yesterday it was announced that the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, is going to start his own blog. We reckon our resident Sacristan, Cindy, has beaten him to it with today's wistful reflection on her week. [more]

024 :
22 Sep 2006

"Neither Oppressor Nor Oppressed Be" Cliff takes a candid look at the holy book, the Qu'ran, and urges that we strive for peace for all people. If we do not, he says, we are like the Gadarene Swine, heading to perdition. Moderate Islam must be encouraged at all costs and at the same time militant Christianity's merchants of death resisted. We need, he says, to look at the sort of religious texts that fuel religious fanaticism. [more]

003 :
21 Sep 2006

How do we handle the mortality of our lives? Taking as her starting point the deaths last week of three prominent Australians, Steve Irwin, Peter Brock and Colin Thiele, Rosemary is exploring the ways we Catholics "celebrate life" in the death and funeral rites of passage. [more]

016 :
20 Sep 2006



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001 :
19 Sep 2006

Spirituality — what does it mean in a Christ-centred context? Fr John O'Keefe is a Vincentian priest of 49 years standing. In his first commentary for Catholica Australia he is exploring the question of what me mean by the term "spirituality" — but particularly within a Christ-centred context. [more]

023 :
18 Sep 2006

026 :
17 Sep 2006

The communication challenge facing the institutional church... Tom explores several dimensions of the complex challenge the institutional church faces today in getting its message across in the Western world. [more]

001 :
22 Sep 2006

Some population facts... Today we introduce a new segment which we'll run from time to time simply publishing interesting facts that are of interest for general knowledge purposes. [more]

023 :
21 Sep 2006

This is a Church I can belong to... Ruth is impressed with Pope Benedict's further apology yesterday to the Islamic people. [more]

004 :
20 Sep 2006

Crikey! A croc's got me! Where can we find a Catholic cleric with the fire of an imam, the juice of a jihad, the ability to crush like a crusader, and create fear like a bin Laden? The gentle German in the Vatican does not seem up to it, but we discover the Man of the Moment in Rev Father Farzenheim of the Fathers of Divine Wrath, who not only makes the infidels quake, but also the backsliders and cafeteria Catholics. This week Father Farzenheim gives his small congregation a dose of old fashioned wisdom concerning Australian values, plus a theological education and a discourse on Australian wildlife, in particular the Australian Crocodile. Crikey! He brings an estuarine crocodile nearly nine metres long into the church as a demonstration of Divine Wrath. [more]

022 :
19 Sep 2006

On the Cardinal's gaff this morning... There is much slack-jawed consternation this morning at the way Cardinal Pell has expressed his views following Pope Benedict's apology. [more]

010 :
18 Sep 2006

On the controversy provoked by Pope Benedict's comment at Regensberg... The cloistered faithful have some questions about how we respond to irrational and terrorist behaviours. There's also a link to the Melanie McDonagh article in the English Telegraph that Enda refers to in our discussion forum this morning. [more]

021 :
17 Sep 2006

Dear God... Ruth's prayer today is almost turning into a lament. [more]

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia