Letters

Holy priest

M.A. Ross

Contents - Apr 2013 - Buy a copy now AD2000: the changing of the guard - Michael Gilchrist POPE FRANCIS: 'REBUILD MY CHURCH' - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Obituary: Vale Dr Lyn Billings AM, DCSG, MBBS (Melb), DCH (Lond) - Joan Clements Vocations: Australia's vocations springtime continues into 2013 - Br Barry Coldrey 'Jesus Abandoned' in Nigeria: Chiemera's new freedom - Madonna Brosnan Pilgrimage: A Holy Land pilgrimage with Scott and Kimberly Hahn - Wanda Skowronska Returning beauty and sacredness to churches - Art Lohsen Child sexual abuse: looking beyond the institutions - Anne Lastman Venerable Fulton J. Sheen's insights on the priesthood - Martin Tobin Letters: Anglican Ordinariate - Phillip Turnbull Letters: The Second Coming - Andrew Sholl Letters: Holy priest - M.A. Ross Letters: Child abuse - Arnold Jago Correction Solemn Abbatial Requiem Mass for deceased servicemen on Anzac Day Books: REDEEMING GRIEF: Abortion and Its Pain (2nd and Revised ed.), by Anne R. Lastman - Fr Paul Crotty (reviewer) Books: PERPETUA'S PASSIONS, ed. Jan N. Bremmer and Marco Formisano - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: FESTA PASCHALIA: A History of Holy Week Liturgy in the Roman Rite, Goddard - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: THE SEVEN BIG MYTHS ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, by Christopher Kaczor - Father John Flynn LC Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Easter: the centrality of faith in the risen Christ - Fr Dennis Byrnes

The Gospel during the second week of Lent (Luke 16:19-31) about Lazarus and the rich man will always remind me of a wise, loyal, holy, very prayerful and steadfast priest, Fr John Burns, whose voice we will never hear again. He went to God on 29 January 2013.

Of all the priests I have heard read and give a homily on that passage, none gave the logical explanation given by this priest who had served in a number of countries, including Pakistan, thereby gaining greater understandings from being in cultures very different from our own.

Every time the Gospel came up he would remind us that the story is an allegory. In spite of what other great minds have published, our priest simply said that if the rich man were in what we understand as Hell, he would not have been concerned for his brothers. There is no love or thought of charity from souls in Hell. In fact, the opposite, for souls in Hell are so full of hate that they want other souls to be condemned, too.

May this priest, who was strong enough against the prevailing thought to tell us what Hell is really like, have been welcomed into Paradise.

M.A. ROSS (MRS)
Rockhampton, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 26 No 3 (April 2013), p. 14