Mission & Justice

Christopher Pearson; 15/3/08

The Latin, in Lonsdale Street, was a much-loved Melbourne restaurant. It closed in 2001 but there’d been an establishment trading under that name on the site, or thereabouts, since 1924, enjoying a consistently high reputation for Italian food. It attracted a motley clientele, including prosperous Italians, bon vivants, bohemians, several generations of the Catholic undergraduates’ club, the Newman Society and the inner circle of B.A. Santamaria’s National Civic Council. Many of the patrons ate there regularly for more than 50 years and the idiosyncrasies of some longstanding customers meant that only seasoned staff were allowed to wait on certain tables. On my first encounter with Peter Knowles, the subject of this brief memoir, I invited him to dinner at the Latin. Having heard about his connections with the Newman Society and the NCC, I wanted to see him on his home ground. It was a late winter evening in 1999 and he arrived wearing a suit and tie, wrapped in a once splendid but slightly seedy vicuna overcoat.

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Martin Wallace: 2/3/08
Please remember in your prayers Fr Michael Lomery (brother of Callistus Tavisibatu), who died in Sirovanga, Choiseul, yesterday. I have no further details at this stage. Fr Michael was a priest of Gizo diocese.

4/3/08
Henry Paroi -The following email from Fr Henry Paroi gives us a few details on the death of Fr Michael Lomeri, brother of Fr Callistus:
Dear Martin,
I got back yesterday by canoe from Sirovanga attending later Fr. Michael Lomiri’s funeral. It was a moving although a sad experience to have seen people from all over Sirovanga came to pay their last respect to their first priest of the area. Cally was able to see his brother before he was buried.
It was said that Michael died on infection that began from a sore on his toe. It suddenly got swollen up when eventually the poison got to his lungs and his heart that made it impossible for him to breathe. He could have been saved had they had access to antibiotics, but was too late when they eventually put him on that. Simon was also there.

Sr Rose Mary Kinne OP; Hassal Grove, NSW; Australia; 3/2/08; The Catholic Weekly

There have been a number of letters (Letters, CW Dec-Jan) trying to define ‘God’. Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in One God. Each faith affirms there is no other God. This belief is attested in each faith’s sacred books and in their traditions.
Christians differ from Jews and Muslims in the way they see Jesus Christ - Son of the Father, the one who promised the Holy Spirit, one who is truly man and truly God. Most Christians believe in a Trinitarian God but have struggled for 2000 years, trying to understand what ‘the Trinity’ means. The Apostles and the New Testament writers did not use this term.They lived the reality, as we try to do today.
St Thomas Aquinas reminds us that God is mystery - greater than, more than, beyond what our words can describe. Love of God and love of neighbour, including ‘the enemy’, is where we find God. We are united with Jews and Muslims in our beliefs in one God and. the experience of the love that God has for us and we for God. We differ in the concepts we have of God.

22/1/08; JB. VU
This year the Dominican Institute in H? Chí Minh City will welcome 60 new priests and sisters to train for work in various congregations. Vietnam has 26 diocese and these candidates to the religious life come from every corner, something which offers a good opportunity to learn and share from different experiences. “At present we organise classes in philosophy, theology and Bible studies for clergymen and women,” said Father Trung, director of the Institute. “Thanks to good professors, priests, sisters and lay people we offer good training. Many priests and nuns come from seminaries and congregations and from various dioceses. This allows that to share cultural traditions from each diocese. Some men religious and nuns are from ethnic minorities. At the end they go back to their villages and communities to help their people. Thanks to lay teachers priests and nuns understand social realities and family life and can apply what they learn to their mission in local parishes.”

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Re: Publication of the booklet by our Dutch Dominican Brothers (1); 04/09/07; - Press Release; Fr. Edward Ruane, OP; Vicar to the Master of the Order; 1. See articles published in The Tablet 8 and 15 September 2007

As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, the question of ministry in the Christian Community has been a challenge from biblical days when the early Church instituted the Order of Deacon. Still in our own day, the question of adequate ministry to God’s People continues to be a question to which the Church responds in diverse ways in different parts of the world.

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21/907

The head of the Philippine Dominicans and two top officials of the pontifical university they run have resigned amid controversy over the incorporation of the university’s hospital and a loan for its expansion. Father Isidro Abano, University of Santo Tomas (UST) secretary general announced in a Sept. 11 circular that his provincial, Father Edmund Nantes, UST rector Father Ernesto Arceo and vice rector Father Juan Ponce have resigned. Established in 1611, UST is the oldest university in Asia and the only pontifical university in the region. It has about 34,000 students including 5,000 enrolled in its medical school. They train in the 1,260-bed UST Hospital on campus.

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Tecie Lardner, OP; 21/9/07

God of hope and compassion,
Holy One of Abraham and Sarah,
who called our ancestors in faith to journey to a new future
Be with us as we pray.

We remember today the country of Iraq from which they were summoned,
ancient land of the Middle East, realm of two rivers
birthplace of great cities and civilization.

May we who name ourselves children of Abraham and Sarah
call to mind our sisters and brothers in the East and with them look to a new future.

God of reconciliation, God of painful sacrifice uniting humankind
we long for the day when you will provide for all nations on earth
your blessing of peace.

But now with strife and war at hand
help us to see in each other a family likeness
a common inheritance as children of God.

Keep hatred from the threshold of our hearts,
and preserve within us a generous spirit
which recognizes all peoples as children of God.

This we ask in the name of the One who came to offer us
the costly gift of abundant life.
Amen.

Rose Mary Kinne OP; 13-22/8/07

It looks as if the greatest reverse of Aboriginal and human rights in Australia since the 1930s is about to take place. The Senate Committee submissions are available on :http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/legcom_ctte/nt_emergency/submissions/sublist.htm
I could not find one submission that supported the legislation. Aboriginal groups, doctors, police, child protection workers - all agreed there were problems but this way of going about it could make things worse. The over-riding of the Racial Discrimination Act has serious implications. Amnesty International have written a rare in-country submission. The Government has not produced any evidence that taking away the permit system or the land leases will do anything to prevent abuse.

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14/6/07

In a wide ranging interview, Brazilian Dominican liberation theologian, Frei Betto, has slammed “vaticanisation” of the Church and held up Cuban strongman, Fidel Castro, as a model of the revolutionary “new man”. In the interview with the Fray Tito News Agency for Latin America, Dominican Alberto Libanio Christo, known as “Friar Betto”, expressed his admiration for Fidel Castro and for the “father” of urban terrorism, Carlos Marighella.

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3/5/07; Toni Harris OP Prakash Lohale OP; International Dominican Co-Promoters for Justice and Peace; mailto:jp@curia.op.org

Members of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) have been among the Christian minority in Iraq for more than 250 years. Currently, there are Iraqi Dominican Friars, Sisters, and Laity struggling to survive conditions in their homeland. As the International Dominican Co-Promoters for Justice and Peace at the Curia (headquarters) of the Order in Rome, Italy, we endorse the plea for protection of the Christian minority voiced recently by church leaders in Iraq.

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