SOME thoughts and broader issues came to my mind after reading Fr Kevin Ryan’s Real Life column and Archbishop Bathersby’s letter (CL 9/12/01).
In a documentary made by BBC England and shown on ABC TV Brisbane at Christmas 2000, a Salvation Army officer said ’70 per cent of the people in the world have no clothes or only the clothes they are wearing’.
This I found very hard to believe. I seriously questioned it, but on second thoughts it certainly could be true.
The children in Papua New Guinea, where the terrible waves hit not so long ago, desperately need clothes. A special appeal was made at a Catholic school for these children.
There are more than 30 wars in the world at the moment, most of them civil, 21 million refugees. What is needed in the world is peace, but peace has to be in men’s hearts first.
The white Christian world is committing genocide by contraception, sterilisation and abortion. Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Canada, the USA and also Australia are very much concerned about how they are going to care for the aging population in the next two decades or more.
There are hundreds of thousands of orphans in Africa due to AIDS. This is expected to escalate to millions.
Billions and billions of dollars are spent by women and men in affluent countries on cosmetics, hair products and cosmetic surgery etc (while children are starving in the world) to give the appearance of perpetual youth. They want time to stop still, but it can’t be done.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, tiny, craggy and wrinkled with cheap crushed clothes, contrary to all Hollywood stands for and our culture lauds, could be an example for our times for justice, ecumenism and what is truly beautiful.
I have been teaching religious education for a quarter of a century to mostly Catholic children. I have never yet come upon a text that relates the Mass to a crucified man.
Is there a message in Blessed Padre Pio’s life for us? He was a living crucifix for 50 years. He actually lived the passion of Christ during his Mass and everyone present felt it and were awe-inspired.
DIANA WALKER Kelvin Grove, Qld
