Last week, a Family Court judge (Justice Peter Murphy) stepped down from hearing a case, having been unable to get the parents to agree about anything. (Herald Sun, 4 February)

He described their disputing as “pathetic, stupid and relentless”.

The 12-year old daughter had had to call the police because the parents couldn’t agree on a drop-off point in a park.

* * *

In our culture, marriage has always been society’s attempt to provide the most stable environment for a child to be born into and reared in.

That’s why Matrimony is a Sacrament of the Church . . . .

Marriage is primarily about the welfare of children.

God’s children.

Parents join with God, cooperating in his role as creator — becoming co-creators with God.

Being a Sacrament, marriage brings with it real, objective, literal grace — the power to do God’s will in a way impossible without such grace . . . .

* * *

Not everything calling itself marriage is marriage.

Performances with no priest, but lay “celebrants” . . . .

Held at sites other than a church . . . .

The couple not having prepared themselves by going to Confession . . . .

Do we really expect any benefit from such happenings?

World Vision is believed by many to be a basically Christian organisation.

Unaware, no doubt, of an article appearing on WV’s website concerning “Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Papua New Guinea” (October 2011) — which says that, amongst other things, the provision of “safe abortion” is “very good” value for money.

The Salvation Army represents itself as a Christian group — but it’s a fence-sitter regarding the sanctity of human life.

It teaches that in cases of rape or incest “an abortion may be justified because . . . .”

Also that abortion “may also be justified where reliable diagnostic procedures determine that a foetal abnormality is present which is incompatible with life other than a brief post-natal survival . . . .”

And the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) in its recent policy platform recommends “protection and promotion of reproductive health, including . . . secure access to safe, affordable, Medicare-funded abortions . . . .”

Oxfam Australia, CARE Australia and Save the Children Australia jointly published a media statement praising President Obama’s 2009 decision to “abolish the rule that denies US taxpayer dollars to international family planning clinics that provide . . . abortion to women in developing countries.”

* * *

Some well-meaning donors to the above groups might feel they’ve been recruited under false pretences if they ever learn what their agency really stands for.

Lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, is known as a “human rights advocate”.

One of his themes is how “Australia doesn’t need to be protected from asylum seekers: asylum seekers need to be protected from their persecutors”.

And he seems to get away with it.

* * *

Mr Burnside must know that the ones needing protection are those in refugee camps in (or just over the border from) countries where terrorist militias are actively wiping out villages and towns.

He knows well that Australia’s “boat people” make their perilous journeys — not from Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan etc. where deadly persecution goes on 24/7 — but from Indonesia, where they are already relatively safe.

Politicians speak about “border protection”, confident that it’s something Australians will vote for.

Mr Burnside speaks about “asylum seekers”, knowing that will appeal to his likely audiences.

Genuine at-risk refugees awaiting migration away from active war-zones — they’re the ones most needing someone to speak for them.

Margaret Court is the women’s tennis equivalent of Don Bradman.

Perhaps the greatest female athlete Australia has produced.

Winner of all four Grand Slam tournament singles titles in the same calendar year (1970).

She won a record 62 Major titles overall.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame states, “For sheer strength of performance and accomplishment there has never been a tennis player to match her”.

* * *

Margaret Court still gets into the news.

Yesterday, for example.

She apparently said, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman . . . I believe it’s important for young people to know that . . . .”

And, “I say what God says, and that’s why I’ve spoken out.”

Mrs Court, a lapsed Catholic, is now an office bearer in a Pentecostal group.

She has said that homosexuality is often the result of sexual abuse.

This resulted in a “backlash” with people saying there is no scientific evidence of such a connection.

There is, of course, but that is hardly the point.

The point is that homosexual acts are contrary to natural law and young people should know that and should be protected from entrapment.

The occupants of Canberra’s Aboriginal “Tent Embassy” did their cause no good by terrorising our Prime Minister on Thursday.

That doesn’t mean that the Embassy should not exist.

Aboriginal culture includes the notion of their spirits belong to the land.

Not any land, but the land associated with one’s clan, totem or whatever.

Belonging to this particular land, you don’t feel the same about any other piece of land.

There’s little temptation to invade the land of the next-door tribe.

If Europeans felt that way, World War I and World War II may never have happened.

* * *

So January 26 (“Invasion Day”) is arguably a bad day.

How to make the invaders understand?

Give them a taste of their own medicine?

Invade/annexe a piece of land important to white Australian culture and see how they like it?

The choice of the “Embassy” site makes sense.

* * *

In fact both we and the land belong to God, Father of all races.

Saint Mary MacKillop said, “In the trials, annoyances and anxieties we daily experience, may we ever recognise that loving Fatherly Hand . . . .”

At present, neither Australia’s blacks nor whites seem to quite get it.

Let us pray that we soon will.

Something to think about.

Sing loudly.

Repeat the last line of each verse.

* * *

My dog is old now (fifteen years), his eyes are nearly blind.

Yet though his hips and joints are stiff, he doesn’t seem to mind.

He’s not in pain, he eats his food, he persecutes the cat;

So we’re still pleased to have him round, except for one sad fact . . . .

He drops bowel actions randomly, he does them anywhere,

In carport, rumpus room or lounge, no longer does he care.

The moment that the urge comes on, he does one on the spot;

He cares not, be the time or place appropriate or not . . . .

In this respect he’s something like young people and their ways;

Their habits with regard to sex and how it’s done today.

Like Dog, they don’t repress themselves, they do it anytime:

In couples, groups, same-sex or straight, without reason or rhyme . . . .

They spread embarrassing disease, it’s not mysterious.

The body fluids they love to share contain a lot of pus.

The germs they catch on Friday night from Fanny or from Dick,

They give to someone else next day — soon all their friends are sick . . . .

All kinds of sins God will forgive, including unwed sex.

He wants us to enjoy his love in this world and the next.

But first we must be penitent, abandoning our faults:

This is for all, both young and old, the only hope we’ve got . . . .