Letters

East Timor contraception pressure

Imelda Aslett

Contents - Aug 2006 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Falling Mass attendances and liturgical reform - Michael Gilchrist Liturgy: The new Missal translation: Archbishop Hart's progress report - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Music: Benedict XVI seeks a greater sense of the sacred in church music Canberra-Goulburn: Archbishop Coleridge: Benedict's first Australian appointment - Anh Nguyen Priesthood: Promoting vocations in the Melbourne Archdiocese - Fr Anthony Denton Victoria-Tasmania: Continued growth in vocations at Melbourne's Corpus Christi seminary - Joan Clements Teen STAR: Sex education for young adults: a pro-life approach - Jacinta Cummins Does Wollongong's Catholic Education Office endorse dissent? - AD2000 Report What makes a Catholic university 'Catholic' - Father John Coughlin Scripture and Tradition: sources of divine revelation - Fr G.H. Duggan SM DIY Mass: Redemptionis Sacramentum revisited - Fr Martin Durham Letters: Tasmania - Justin Kearney Letters: East Timor contraception pressure - Imelda Aslett Letters: Pregnancy Support - Robert Bom Letters: What Is The Eucharist? - Rosanna Sherman Letters: Intelligent design? - Peter Barnes Letters: Funeral eulogies - Greg O'Regan Letters: Receive EWTN around Sydney by satellite for $495 - Ernesta Sculli Melbourne: Caroline Chisholm Catholic library - Barbara Shea Books: In This Vale of Tears (Winterbine Trilogy), by Gerard Charles Wilson - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Land of Carmel, by Elizabeth Ruth Obbard - Jacinta Cummins (reviewer) Books: SEEDS OF LIFE: Early Christian Martyrs - Julia Bakowski (reviewer) Books: SNOW ON THE HEDGES: A Life of Cuthbert Mayne, by Helen Whelan - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: Stimulating reading from Freedom Publishing Reflection: The importance of early baptism - John Young

Your July issue gave some insights into the sad situation in Timor L'Este and, on the same day as its arrival in our household on 27 June (when we remember our Mother of Perpetual Help), a revealing interview occurred on morning radio. Margaret Throsby's guest on ABC Classic FM was Kirsty Sword- Gusmao, Australian-born wife of Timor L'Este's President.

Sympathy for the East Timorese people over-balanced into patronising comments linking high fertility to extreme poverty. In hushed tones, the interviewer wondered why government health "services" were not adequately accessed, if they existed. Euphemisms abounded.

The First Lady explained that the average number of births per woman is eight, so, Throsby incisively asked, was that eight live births out of, say, twelve pregnancies? Kirsty could not answer the question but relied on "traditions" as being the cause (shock, horror).

In order to protect our near- neighbours from powerful secular forces we Catholics in Australia must support them with constant and fervent prayer for the spiritual welfare of their families.

IMELDA ASLETT (MRS)
Lower King, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 19 No 7 (August 2006), p. 15