Catholica at its very best...
Monday, 4th December 2006

Dear friends,

In all of our lives there are days which are difficult and there are days which are shear joy. That also applies when trying to edit a journal like Catholica and make it "sing" each day for our readers. Today is a day of almost ecstatic joy. The second part of Wendy's reflection on Mixed Marriages is possibly the single best contribution I have read to either Catholica or to the CathNews discussion forum that I have come across in the last five years. This is life told at its most honest. As I say below you will want to laugh and cry, celebrate and despair at one and the same time as you read it.

I also think it is this sort of writing that will ultimately enable Catholica to achieve its stated goals. Stripping away all our muddled thoughts as we try and describe what Catholica is, and what it is trying to achieve, I think the single best expression is that Catholica is about "building a community". We're not trying to convert anyone. We're not trying to prove to anyone that we have all the answers. If we are really honest with ourselves I think what all people yearn for is a sense of community and friendship. Wendy's story is about community and friendship at a number of different levels. If it doesn't move you to your bootstraps I don't know what will.

It is also an extremely valuable testimony that might be read in the same context as the report published last Friday by the Australian Bishops seeking to understand why so many people have drifted away from the institutional church.

At the base of everything I think the single thing that drives me most in the establishment of Catholica was that for a short period back in about 2002 a group of us experienced a unique sense of community on the CathNews discussion board. Unfortunately that community was crushed basically by the bullying behaviour of one individual towards another. The community was in a sense driven underground — the members set up a private forum which endures to this day. It's a place where people can and do open themselves up to one another in deeply compassionate ways. The only regret I and a few others have had has been that the great joy experienced in that place cannot be shared publicly. I honestly do think this is a place of "real" church and "real presence". The type of sharing Wendy is engaging in today is up there with the very best of what I have come across in any of these forums, public or private. I think she is partly able to engage in it because she is writing semi-anonymously. I trust you appreciate and enjoy the great gift she gives to us in sharing both her pains and her joys.

Have a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world.

Mixed Blessings II – the next generation... The pleasure so many gained last week with Wendy's exploration of life in a mixed marriage continues this week. It's a bitter-sweet story that makes you want to laugh and cry, celebrate and despair at the same time. [more]

Putting things in perspective... Coincidentally with Tony Robertson's commentary yesterday seeking to put Christmas into perspective we received one of those circular emails talking about similar stuff. We've rendered it into a slide presentation. [more]

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia