Letters

Short-changed (letter)

Mrs Carol V. Phillips

Contents - Jul 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Archbishop Pell: the '60 Minutes' beat-up - Michael Gilchrist Saints: Padre Pio canonised: "a model of the priesthood" (John Paul II) - Paul MacLeod News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 '60 Minutes': Archbishop George Pell puts the record straight - Archbishop George Pell Tablet article prompts critical response from Archbishop Pell - Michael Gilchrist Interview: George Weigel: the impact of John Paul II's pontificate - Zenit News Service Chavagnes International College for boys - Paul Russell Cardinal Avery Dulles: US Jesuits need 'wake-up call' - Michael Gilchrist Events: The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art 1500-1800 - Francis Young Vatican II, church architecture and "reform of the reform" - Sidney Rofe Letters: Zero tolerance (letter) - Alan A. Hoysted Letters: 60 Minutes attack (letter) - Sam Lynch Letters: Beat-up (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Short-changed (letter) - Mrs Carol V. Phillips Poetry: It Is (The Alternative to 'Star Wars') - Andrew Huntley Letters: Teaching the faith (letter) - Fr James Brasier Letters: Catholic chaplains (letter) - Charles G. Jarrells Letters: Women's Commission (letter) - Gillian Gonzalez Letters: Missal translation (letter) - Philip Robinson Letters: Accuracy (letter) - Fr Austin Kenny CP Letters: Vatican II (letter) - Peter D. Howard Letters: Abortion (letter) - George F. Simpson Letters: Obituary - Fr Patrick Cosgrove, South Africa (letter) - Fr E. Lumley-Holmes CSsR Letters: Fr Des Jenkins Golden Jubilee (letter) - Gordon R. Coomber Events: Cathedral painting - Hollywood Ball - Josie di Mauro Catholic Truth Society in Brisbane - B. Massey Books: A Pope and a Council on the Sacred Liturgy, by Aidan Nichols OP - Msgr Peter J. Elliott (reviewer) Books: The Greatest Marvel of All, by Pierre-Marie Emonet OP - Michael Casanova (reviewer) Books: The Modern Rite, by Mgr Klaus Gamber - Fr Peter Joseph (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: John Paul II clarifies Vatican II teaching on lay and priestly roles - Pope John Paul II

Mark Power's article in the June AD2000, "My Generation was shortchanged", struck a chord with me, because it remarkably coincided with a short article I recently sent to WA's Catholic weekly, The Record.

I wrote a short "conversion" story, being one of thousands of "Born Again Catholics" in the world. In it I wrote: "I was Baptised as a baby - a 'Cradle Catholic'. My family was fairly ordinary. My parents were good people who took us to Mass on Sundays and sent us all to Catholic schools. We received all the Sacraments at all the 'right' times.

"Unfortunately, it didn't really work. I was taught the basic doctrine of the Catholic Faith for the first five years of school, and then it stopped. In upper primary (late 1960s) religion lessons were fuzzy, feely 'Make a poster to show how much God loves you' stuff. High school religion (early 1970s) was a series of lessons questioning the Faith and deciding how to respond."

In his article, 1968 was highlighted by Mark as the year that it all started to go wrong. 1968 was the year that I was in Grade 5. What I find amazing is that dissent, and its attendant innovations, must simply have been "waiting in the wings" (at least in WA) for it to have begun to affect me so quickly.

Clearly, I am now a committed Catholic, but it took me a while to get back Home. My Catholic education was completed by me through the reading of orthodox Catholic books, after I began to mix with people who were pro-life.

I am now home-schooling my own children, and hoping and praying they will neither lack in knowledge nor commitment to the Catholic Faith.

Unfortunately for today's children entrusted to Catholic schools, those who were taught in the 1960s and 1970s are now themselves teaching, compounding the problem. You cannot teach what you do not know. Further exacerbating the problem is the fact that the parents of these children don't know any better. They can't see what their children aren't receiving, because they don't have it either.

It's going to take a long time to undo the damage of the past 30 years. But I do see some hope in the fact that a big proportion of the recently ordained priests in Perth are devout and orthodox.

Mrs Carol V. Phillips
Burswood, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 6 (July 2002), p. 14