Letters

New Zealand visitor to Brisbane

Leo Leitch

Contents - Nov 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: A remarkable Catholic parish National Press Club: Cardinal George Pell on the dictatorship of relativism - Cardinal George Pell News: The Church Around the World Sister Miriam Duggan: the Church's response to AIDS - Anh Nguyen Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist: areas for remedial action identified - Peter Westmore Thomas More Centre: Fifty years from Shadowlands: Childhood memories of the world of C. S. Lewis - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Call to Holiness: Contemplating the Eucharistic Face of Christ - Christine McCarthy Letters: Myths exploded - Nola Viney Letters: Church Music - Chris Wilson Letters: New Zealand visitor to Brisbane - Leo Leitch Letters: Gnostic gospels and the Da Vinci Code - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Example needed - Betty Griffin Letters: Basic differences to overcome - Dr Arnold Jago Letters: SSPX response - Timothy Hungerford Letters: Vatican II and Benedict XVI - Jim Howe Books: The Incredible Da Vinci Code, by Frank Mobbs - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Philosophy 101 Meets Socrates, by Peter Kreeft - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Stem Cells, by Norman M. Ford and Michael Herbert - Kerrie Allen Books: More good reading from AD Books Reflection: The concrete character of Christianity - John Young

I have just come back from a brief visit to Brisbane which included a weekend there.

At the Mass I attended at a local parish, I was first struck by the open-plan style of the building. Then I saw that, rather than pews, there were rows of chairs in a semi-circle around the central altar. There were no kneelers and no-one knelt during the Mass. The tabernacle was marginalised to an area segregated off from one side of what looked more like a concert hall.

The parish priest celebrated Mass in a very "matey" fashion, while the scriptural readings contained feminist modifications. Further on, the priest adjusted the words of the consecration so that "Do this in memory of me" became "And then He said: Whenever you do this, remember me".

At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer, the congregation enthusiastically accepted the priest's encouragement to proclaim the Doxology along with him. That particular act of defiance fell in a hole in New Zealand more than a decade ago.

During his homily, the priest introduced us to Come, Holy Spirit, a program of prayer being promoted by Archbishop Bathersby for the renewal of the Church in South-East Queensland, especially in regard to Mass attendance and priestly vocations. This seemed quite promising.

After Mass, I encountered the priest in the "gathering space" at the back of the church. I suggested that the Archdiocese should look to places, such as in the US, Europe and Australia, where priestly vocations were flourishing. He asked me for an example of where in Australia this was the case. I nominated Wagga Wagga. He almost exploded. "Their theology is pre-Vatican II", he cried.

Archbishop Bathersby's program of prayer will be seriously frustrated if this priest and this parish are typical of South-East Queensland.

Mind you, I was not encouraged by my experience at the Catholic bookshop which is situated in the grounds of the Brisbane cathedral.

It is now some years since New Zealand Catholics realised the folly of the Enneagram. You are very unlikely to find references to it in New Zealand Catholic circles now. However, Enneagram books were prominently displayed in Brisbane's Catholic bookshop. Also, Enneagram "Retreats" presented by Living Springs Self Care Ministry, co-ordinated by Sr Lucy Tierney RSJ, were promoted in September's Around the Archdiocese published by Catholic Communications Brisbane.

LEO LEITCH
Napier, New Zealand

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 10 (November 2005), p. 14